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  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER
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    Tuesday, February 21, 2006
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2006

    ALL OUT SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 11:00 A.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.
    STOP THE WAR!
    BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW
    END COLONIAL OCCUPATION FROM IRAQ TO PALESTINE TO HAITI...
    U.S. OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST!
    FROM IRAQ TO NEW ORLEANS, FUND PEOPLE'S NEEDS,
    NOT THE WAR MACHINE!
    VOLUNTEER NOW: 415-821-6545
    Endorse March 18 Global Day of Action
    Volunteer Now! To get involved, call 415-821-6545
    or email answer@actionsf.org

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    BREAKING NEWS:
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    Breast Cancer Delays Sentencing
    of Lawyer [Lynne Stewart] Convicted in Terrorism Case
    By JULIA PRESTON
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/04/nyregion/04stewart.html

    To learn more about Lynne Stewart's case go to:
    http://www.lynnestewart.org/

    More than a year has passed since Lynne F. Stewart, a defense lawyer
    who proudly calls herself a radical, was convicted of aiding terrorists
    in a high-profile federal trial in New York. But she still has not been
    sentenced.

    Debate has percolated about the Feb. 10, 2005, verdict against
    Ms. Stewart, with civil libertarians saying it violated her rights
    to represent a terrorist client and justice officials promoting
    it as a blow against terrorism. But the court became strangely
    quiet about the case, with Judge John G. Koeltl repeatedly
    postponing the sentencing without explanation.

    Yesterday, Ms. Stewart, who remains free on bail, clarified
    the mystery when her lawyers filed a letter revealing that
    she is recovering from surgery on Jan. 9 for breast cancer
    and is about to start a program of radiation therapy.
    She requested a new delay of her sentencing until after July 31.

    Ms. Stewart said that she had alerted Judge Koeltl about
    her cancer soon after her doctors saw signs of it in November,
    but the judge agreed to keep any discussion of her illness
    confidential until now.

    "Talk about getting hit over the head with a sledgehammer,
    oh me," said Ms. Stewart, recalling the day in early December
    when her doctor, reading the results of a biopsy, confirmed
    the tumor.

    Ms. Stewart, 66, faces a maximum of 30 years in prison,
    in effect a life sentence, after her conviction on five counts
    of providing material aid to terrorism and lying to the
    government. She was found guilty of conspiring with an
    imprisoned terrorist client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman,
    to defy special federal rules that barred him from
    communicating with his militant Islamic followers in Egypt.

    In May 2000 Ms. Stewart carried a message from the sheik
    out of federal prison and later read it by telephone to
    a Reuters reporter in Cairo. The sheik was convicted in
    1995 and is serving a life sentence for conspiring in 1993
    to bomb the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels and other
    New York City landmarks.

    Ms. Stewart said she had no illusion about much chance
    of avoiding prison. Judge Koeltl, of Federal District Court
    in Manhattan, denied her motions for a new trial in
    a sternly worded Oct. 25 ruling.

    In a telephone interview from a country home upstate where
    she is recuperating, Ms. Stewart said, "The ultimate reality
    is this sentencing is going to happen." She said she hoped
    the judge would agree that she should recover from the
    cancer before going to prison. Her message, she said,
    is, "You may send me to jail for the rest of my life, but
    at least I'll go in strong and resistant to whatever happens."

    After a Feb. 24 sentencing date was postponed, she
    was scheduled to be sentenced on March 10.

    A letter from Ms. Stewart's oncologist, Dr. Michael L.
    Grossbard, filed with the court yesterday, reported that
    surgeons had removed a 2.4-centimeter "invasive ductal
    carcinoma" from her left breast. Dr. Grossbard, the chief
    of hematology and oncology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt
    Hospital Center in Manhattan, said that Ms. Stewart would
    require radiation treatments every weekday for about
    six weeks, starting at the end of this month.

    "Fatigue can be a severe side effect for some patients
    and can limit their participation in usual daily activities,"
    Dr. Grossbard wrote.

    Ms. Stewart, who appeared sturdy and resolute throughout
    the trial, said that dealing with illness in the wake of her
    conviction had been difficult. "I have been totally consumed
    by this," she said. "I'm fragile enough that I can't just sit
    down and talk about this sentencing in the abstract."

    Prosecutors in the case had no comment yesterday, noting
    that most of the court record about Ms. Stewart's health
    was still under seal.

    For months after the trial Ms. Stewart, a cause célèbre in
    leftist and civil liberties circles, traveled around the country,
    speaking to groups of supporters. She stopped when the
    cancer was diagnosed, she said. She also learned last year
    that she had high blood pressure.

    Ms. Stewart and her lawyers denied that she was seeking
    any special dispensation from the court. "We're not asking
    for anything out of the ordinary, beyond what is reasonable
    for the therapy she is undergoing," said Jill R. Shellow-Lavine,
    one of Ms. Stewart's lawyers. They are seeking a filing date
    of July 31 for their sentencing motions, which could lead
    to a sentencing date as late as September.

    Two other defendants in the case are also awaiting sentencing.
    They are Mohamed Yousry, 49, Ms. Stewart's Arabic translator,
    and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, 46, a postal worker from Staten Island
    who was a paralegal in the sheik's case. Mr. Yousry remains
    free on bail, but Mr. Sattar, who was convicted of conspiring
    to kidnap and kill in a foreign country, the most serious charge
    in the trial, is now in maximum security solitary confinement
    in the federal jail in Manhattan.

    A lawyer for Mr. Sattar, Kenneth A. Paul, said his client had
    been abruptly transferred recently to the most severe isolation
    unit in the Metropolitan Correctional Center and placed under
    the same type of restrictions, known as special administrative
    measures, that were imposed on Mr. Abdel Rahman. Mr. Sattar
    is confined to his cell 24 hours a day. The one-hour daily
    recreation time that he had had since he was first incarcerated
    four years ago has been canceled.

    "He's in a complete shutdown right now," Mr. Paul said, "with
    no phone calls and no visitation, and we don't know why."

    Prosecutors declined to comment on Mr. Sattar's situation.

    -30-

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

    OPEN LETTER TO:
    Dr. Monte Moses, Superintendent
    Cherry Creek Schools

    RE:

    Teach vs. speech
    How should public schools handle hot controversy in class?
    A teacher's Comments on Bush stoke an ever-simmering debate
    By Karen Rouse and Robert Sanchez
    Denver Post Staff Writers
    DenverPost.com
    Article Launched: 3/03/2006 01:00 AM
    http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_3564246

    and:

    Right-Wing Attack Dogs Go after a Colorado High School Teacher
    by Michael D. Yates
    March 3, 2006
    http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/yates030306.html

    And some of the "criminal" comments made by Jay Bennish:

    "Among other things, Mr. Bennish asked his class which country
    has the most weapons of mass destruction and answered the
    United States.  He suggested that capitalism was inimical
    to human rights and that the U.S. wants to create by military
    force if necessary a world in its own image.  He suggested that
    there were chilling similarities between Bush's words and those
    of Hitler.  Right on the mark if you ask me!  Meanwhile, the
    moronic Gunny Bob said that Bennish criticized capitalism
    but was a capitalist himself (because he gets paid a wage?).
    Finally, on March 3, the Denver Post noted that, near the end
    of the recording, Mr. Bennish told his students, "You have
    to figure this stuff out for yourselves. . . . I'm not in any way
    implying that you should agree with me. . . . What I'm trying
    to get you to do is think about these issues more in depth
    and not just to take things from the surface."  And, "I'm glad
    you [those students who challenged him] asked all of your
    questions because they're all very good, legitimate questions." 
    Sounds like a real brain washer to me!"

    Dr. Monte Moses, Superintendent
    Cherry Creek Schools
    Phone: 720-554-4213
    Email:
    4700 South Yosemite Street
    Greenwood Village, Colorado 80111
    Phone: 303-773-1184
    Fax: 303-773-9884

    Dear Dr. Moses,

    I am appalled to read these articles and learn that geography
    teacher, Jay Bennish, who teaches at Overland High School
    in Aurora, Colorado is in trouble and out of work for things
    he said in an honors geography class. What happened to
    freedom of speech and for the right of students and teachers
    to discuss freely the current events of the day. How can this
    be avoided in a subject like geography?

    Are our teachers to be given a script to read in the classroom
    and the admonition to prohibit any discussion that deviates
    from that script?

    And, even more outrageous, is the School District going to
    dance to the tune of right-wing radio announcers? Is this
    what our educational system is going to come to? Is congress
    ready to appoint Bill O'Reiley and Fox's Hannity and Colmes
    to head the Department of Education?

    This is an outrageous travesty of justice that won't be
    tolerated and has already attracted the attention of
    people throughout our country.

    Put Jay Bennish back to work with all of his back pay
    (if he has lost any) and keep right-wing radio out
    of the classroom!

    Teachers like Jay are beacons of light and should be
    cherished! His comments as reprinted above show
    that he is the voice of reason.

    Sincerely,

    Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War
    Www.bauaw.org


    VOTE ON LINE FOR JAY BENNISH AND FREE SPEECH:
    http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/rockytalklive/

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    SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
    EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
    GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
    ARTICLES IN FULL
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    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    COME TO THE NEXT BOARD MEETINGS TO
    DEMAND THAT THE S.F. BOARD OF EDUCATION
    CUT ALL SCHOOL TIES TO THE MILITARY!
    Note: The meeting last evening, Tuesday, Feb. 28
    did not take up the "Equal Access Resolution."

    THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 7:00 P.M. (tentative)
    CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
    This committee will hear the "Equal Access
    for Recruiters" Board of Ed. Policy (62-14Sp1)

    TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 7:00 P.M.
    REGULAR BOARD MEETING
    "Equal Access for Recruiters" (62-14Sp1)
    could come before the board at this meeting
    for final approval.

    Meetings to take place at:

    Irving G. Breyer Board Meeting Room
    555 Franklin Street, First Floor
    San Francisco, CA 94102

    If you wish to speak at the Regular Board meeting
    Call: 241-6427 to get on the speakers list.
    Monday between 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
    Tuesday, between 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
    (You do not need to get on the list ahead
    of time for the Curriculum Committee meeting
    to speak.)

    REPORT ON S.F. SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
    OF THURSDAY, FEB. 23 RE: EQUAL ACCESS
    FOR RECRUITERS

    The following resolution was introduced to the S.F.
    Unified School District Board of Education meeting,
    Thursday, Feb.23.

    -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

    Text of Resolution No. 62-14Sp1 – Authorization to Approve Board
    Policy Regarding Equal Access for Recruiters

    [DRAFT] BOARD OF EDUCATION POLICY (62-14Sp1)

    Equal Access for Recruiters

    Recruiters of all types (including but not limited to employment,
    education, service opportunities, military or military alternatives)
    shall be given equal access to San Francisco Unified School District
    high schools. The principal at each school shall determine the
    frequency with which recruiters may visit, but in order to be in
    compliance with the equal access rule, each recruiter shall be
    granted the opportunity to visit any single campus at least as
    frequently as any other recruiter. For purposes of this policy,
    each branch of the military is considered to be a separate
    recruiting organization.

    This recruitment policy must be posted throughout the year.
    At a minimum, these rules shall be posted in the school’s
    main office, counseling center, career center, and on the
    District’s website.

    All recruiters must comply with the following guidelines:

    • Recruiters must obtain the written permission of the principal
    or designee to be on campus. Such permission may be granted
    for the full year;
    • Recruiters must contact the principal or designee prior to
    their visit to schedule specific times to be on campus, and
    the monthly schedule for such visits must be posted at a
    minimum in the school’s main office, counseling center,
    and career center;
    • All recruiters must sign in and sign out in the school’s
    main office each time they visit the campus;
    • Recruiters shall limit all recruiting activities to the specific
    area designated by the principal or designee. This designated
    area must be within a specific confined space on the campus
    (such as a classroom or office); recruiters may not roam the
    campus or grounds. Recruiters may not pursue or approach
    students; recruiting activities may only be directed at students
    who affirmatively approach the recruiter for information.
    • The principal or designee may permit recruiters to leave
    information in a designated area. Such information must be
    dated and clearly identify a contact name and number that
    students, staff or others may call if there are questions
    about the information;
    • If the principal or designee designates such an area for
    recruiter information, the area must include a clearly visible
    sign that states that SFUSD and the school do not endorse
    or sponsor the materials;
    • All recruiters must clearly identify the organization that
    they are recruiting for: military recruiters must be in uniform,
    and all other recruiters must wear identification that similarly
    indicates the organization that they are recruiting for;
    • Recruiters may not take students out of the designated
    recruitment area or off campus;
    • No more than two recruiters from each organization
    may recruit on campus at one time.

    Recruiters of all types are cautioned to remember that the
    primary goal of the SFUSD high schools is to educate students.
    Recruiting activities that are disruptive or that interfere with the
    traditional activities of a given school day are not permitted.

    Recruiters who harass students or staff, provide misleading
    or untrue information, or who do not comply with applicable
    state and federal laws or SFUSD rules or policies may have their
    organization’s permission to recruit on campus revoked for the
    remainder of the semester, or the semester following the infraction
    if the infraction occurs after the fifteenth week of the semester.
    The principal or designee, in his or her discretion, may provide
    students with access to information to correct any misleading
    or untrue information provided by such recruiter(s), if available.

    The principal shall retain copies of the recruitment calendars and
    sign-in sheets and provide such copies to the Assistant
    Superintendent for High Schools by June 30th of each year.

    SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
    San Francisco, California

    Superintendent’s Proposal

    No. 62-14Sp1 AUTHORIZATION TO APPROVE BOARD POLICY
    REGARDING EQUAL ACCESS FOR RECRUITERS

    REQUESTED ACTION:

    That the Board of Education approves a new Board Policy regarding
    Equal Access for Recruiters. This policy provides for equal access
    to SFUSD high schools for all types of recruiters, including but not
    limited to employment, education, service opportunities, military
    or military alternatives. The policy also outlines the guidelines and
    restrictions related to recruiting activities and access.

    -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

    The claim was that since "No Child Left Behind" funds
    (about $40 million for San Francisco Schools) requires that
    the military have equal access to students whenever other
    recruiters--Colleges and Universities--come to the schools
    to talk to children about their future opportunities, the board
    felt it was necessary to lay out guidelines for military visits to
    ensure equality of access to the kids.

    As the situation stands in S.F., students and their parents
    have signed the "Opt In-Out" forms by over 98 percent and
    very few of those "Opted In" to military contact and recruitment.
    So, since the "opt out" forms have thwarted the military ghouls,
    they are seeking yet another way to get to our kids. I guess
    their $3 billion dollar recruitment advertising budget is not
    producing the results they would like.

    And, as it stood before this resolution, not all schools
    invited the military to their "career days" even though
    the colleges were represented. It was voluntary on the part
    of the career counselors whether or not to invite them.
    This resolution will make it mandatory for schools to have
    the military present at all such events--even when new
    scholarships are offered by particular schools of higher
    learning. Yet it does not require that counter-recruiters
    be present at the same time as the military. Instead, it leaves
    it open whether to have counter-recruiters come at all or
    perhaps, allow counter-recruiters on another day or to
    just put up with us handing out counter-recruitment
    material outside of school doors. (The distinction was
    made that "counter recruiters" are not "recruiters" and
    do not offer alternative career opportunities.)

    The resolution will also spell out the terms of announcing
    the military visits before hand which will require real
    coordination on the part of the antiwar movement to
    counter the military when they do invade our schools.
    The wording in the resolution reads that any "recruiter"
    can visit the school as often as "any other recruiter". And
    each Military branch is to be considered separate from the
    other. I.E. if SFSU comes to the school then someone from
    the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and National Guard can
    also come! A suggestion was made that this be amended
    to allow only one military recruiter for all branches at
    any one time.

    With the passage of Prop. I, to stop military recruitment
    in the schools, the Board of Education is mandated
    to at least try to keep the military out of our schools.
    What is disturbing is that even though it is clear that
    the voters and residents of San Francisco are opposed
    to the war and to military recruitment in the schools,
    the board is not mounting a vigorous fight against
    the No Child Left Behind Act which comes up for
    renewal this year. They should be writing to other
    Boards of Education throughout the country to oppose
    the military holding our kids hostage in order to fund
    the schools. What is most disgusting about the whole
    thing is that the overwhelming majority of funds from
    No Child Left Behind goes to K-8th grade and not to the
    High Schools where the ghouls want to hunt! So the older
    kids must sacrifice their lives for the education of their
    younger siblings or schoolmates.

    This is another issue that the antiwar movement must
    address and fight and why it is so important for us to
    unite our efforts.

    (See announcement for Saturday, February 25 BROAD
    ANTIWAR GROUP meeting notice below.)

    For instance, with the world headquarters of Bechtel right here
    in San Francisco, the Board, in cooperation with the antiwar
    movement, could mount a campaign to get the $40 million
    from them and other such multi-billion dollar corporations
    headquartered or stationed in San Francisco so we can say
    NO! to No Child Left Behind and fulfill the wishes of the
    majority of San Francisco voters to get the military out
    of our schools including JROTC.

    The antiwar movement could mount a campaign to pull
    any "breaks" offered to such corporations in our city until
    they come up with the money our schools need to keep the
    military out of our schools. The people of San
    Francisco must demand that the money for our schools
    take priority over military spending. And that those
    corporations based in San Francisco who have profited
    off the war should foot the bill for our schools. With a
    budget the size of Bechtell's profits our schools could
    bring back art, music, dance, swimming, new laboratories,
    computers, nurses, etc. and, higher pay for teachers.

    This resolution No. 62-14Sp1 will first be brought
    to the Curriculum Committee tentatively scheduled for
    March 9 then to the whole Board for a vote on March 28.
    (These dates are tentative and will be posted to
    the Board of Ed website for confirmation at:
    http://portal.sfusd.edu/template/default.cfm?page=board
    We will announce the confirmed dates as well.)

    We urge everyone to come to the meetings
    and speak against this resolution at every
    opportunity.

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

    PROTEST OAKLAND PORT
    POLICE BRUTALITY APRIL 7, 2003
    TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 4:00 P.M.
    OAKLAND CITY HALL
    FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
    jackheyman@comcast.net

    There will be a protest rally at Oakland City Hall on
    Tuesday March 7th at 4PM. The rally, initiated by the
    Transport Workers Solidarity Committee and endorsed
    by ILWU Local 10, the longshore union, will take place
    while the City Council is meeting to take a final vote on
    the settlements in the case of the bloody police attack
    on April 7, 2003 against anti-war demonstrators and
    longshore workers at terminal gates in the port. This
    planned police deployment shortly after the start of the
    war in Iraq used so-called "non-lethal" weapons to stop
    peaceful anti-war demonstrators from protesting, war
    profiteers, the maritime companies, American President
    Lines and Stevedore Services of America. The attack was
    condemned by the UN Human Rights Commission as one
    of the most violent acts of government repression. Mayor
    Jerry Brown and City Council President Ignacio de la Fuente,
    who have backed the police attack, received protest
    messages from the late Ossie Davis, Alice Walker, and trade
    union organizations representing millions of workers
    around the world.

    It's necessary for all organizations that are concerned
    about civil liberties, civil rights, trade union rights, police
    brutality to mobilize your members to protest this police
    attack and the government cover-up. Speakers at the rally
    will include some of the victims of the police attack and
    messages of solidarity. Paying financial settlements to
    victims of police brutality does not solve the problem of
    the continuous violation of our democratic rights. Only
    by mobilizing in masses of working people can we defend
    those rights for all.

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

    BROAD ANTIWAR GROUP
    STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING
    TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 2006, 7:00 P.M.
    255 9th St., S.F.

    1. End the War in Iraq! Bring the Troops Home Now!
    2. No War at Home! Money for Human Needs, Jobs, Education,
    Healthcare and Hurricane Disaster Relief, Not War!
    3. No U.S. Wars and Occupations from Palestine to Haiti, from
    Afghanistan to Cuba, from Iran to Venezuela!

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

    International Women's Day
    Wednesday, March 8th 2006 6:30-9pm
    First Unitarian Church
    685 14th Street
    Oakland, California 94612
    Breaking Rank: Women of Color Soldiers Speak Out
    To celebrate International Women's Day, the Women of
    Color Resource Center will host the premier screening
    of "Fashion Resistance to Militarism," a fresh and
    provocative documentary looking at the militarization
    of U.S. society and culture and resistance to war by
    communities in the U.S.
    Following the screening will be a panel discussion
    with Aimee Allison and Tina Garnanez, two leading
    women of color veterans from the Gulf War and Iraq War
    who now actively speak out against the war and
    militarism.
    International Women's Day is an occasion marked by
    women's groups around the world and commemorated by
    the United Nations. It is a day for women on all
    continents, often divided by national boundaries and
    by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and
    political differences, to come together to celebrate
    their struggle for equality, justice, peace and
    development. International Women's Day is the story of
    ordinary women making herstory, and WCRC will
    commemorate our day with this important documentary
    and stories of resistance by leading peace activists.
    For more information, visit our website at
    www.coloredgirls.org.
    -----code pink:

    We will gather at the military recruiting station,
    2116 Broadway @21st St, Oakland - 2 blocks north
    of the 19th St BART, at 5:00 PM. From there, we will
    march down Broadway (on the sidewalk, not the street)
    to 14th Street, turning right on 14th street. We will stop
    at the Frank Ogawa Plaza on 14th Street, long enough
    to meet up with more folks, eat some snacks, (bring
    your own and some to share) and possibly enjoy some
    spontaneous singing, drumming, sharing of stories.
    We will then proceed on to the First Unitarian Church,
    665 14th St. for the event: "Breaking Silence: Women
    of Color Soldiers Speak Out." The whole march route
    is about 3/4 of a mile. If you are not able to walk that
    distance, or cannot be at the recruiting station by 5:00 PM,
    please meet us at the Frank Ogawa Plaza, adjacent
    to City Hall, on the 14th street side. Wear pink, bring
    a sign, and think of chants for the march.

    Janet Rosen
    http://www.zanshinart.com
    "Work like you don't need the money.
    Love like you've never been hurt.
    Dance like nobody's watching."
    --Satchel Paige

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

    Planning Meeting for the Luis Primo
    Speaking Event on March 25, 2006
    7:00 PM, Thursday, March 9, 2006
    Socialist Action Bookstore
    298 Valencia Street
    (corner of 14th Street), San Francisco

    Primo has his passport in hand and his tickets have been
    secured; the UNT is eager for him to visit the US and tell the
    Venezuelan story! Let’s roll up our sleeves and make this happen!
    Everyone is urged to attend this planning meeting. We will go
    over all the many tasks and assignments in preparation for this
    most important event.

    If you have suggestions for where we can distribute fliers at
    upcoming events, please make a suggestion.
    There is one special task we need help on now:
    Who can translate the flier into Spanish?
    If you need leaflets to distribute, we will have them at the meeting!

    Call Hands Off Venezuela 415-786-1680
    for more information or email: sfbay@ushov.org

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

    March for Peace: Latino Voices of Opposition to Iraq War!
    http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/03/march-for-peace-latino-voices-of.html

    On March 12, 2006 Fernando Suarez del Solar, Pablo Paredes,
    Camilo Mejia and Aidan Delgado will lead a coalition of the
    willing across a 241 mile quest for peace that aims at raising
    Latino voice of opposition to the War in Iraq. The
    March will run from Tijuana, Mexico all the way to
    The Mission district of San Francisco making strategic, symbolic
    and ceremonial stops along the way.

    The 241 mile march is inspired by Gandhi’s 1930 Salt March
    protesting British imperialism and will serve as a loud cry for
    an end to the bloodshed in Iraq.

    more info see

    http://www.swiftsmartveterans.com/

    War resisters and conscientious objectors Pablo Paredes
    and Aidan Delgado are coming to the Bay Area to speak
    at about 20 events! including at least 9 public events,
    from Sacramento to Watsonville, as well as Oakland,
    San Francisco, Berkeley, Davis and San Rafael. 
    Additional speaking events are scheduled at schools. 
     
    The schedule for the public events of the speaking
    tour and a high resolution flyer are now available at
    http://www.veteransforpeace.org/paredes/paredes.htm.

    Pablo Paredes will be in the Bay Area from Feb 27 – Mar 5,
    and Aidan Delgado from Mar 2 – Mar 5. 
     
    Please circulate widely, and we hope to see you
    at least at one event!
     
    Steve
    Check out the online January '06 Objector -
    http://www.objector.org/magazine.html
     
    Steve Morse
    GI Rights Program Coordinator
    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO)
    405 14th St., Suite #205, Oakland, CA 94612
    (510) 465-1617 or (888) 231-2226,
    Fax: 510-465-2459 www.objector.org

    For discharge information, visit: www.girights.org
    GI Rights Hotline:  (800) 394-9544
     
    General, your tank is a mighty vehicle. It shatters the
    forest and crushes a hundred men. But it has one
    defect: it needs drivers.

    General, your bomber is awesome. It flies faster
    than a hurricane and bears more than an elephant. 
    But it has one defect: it needs a mechanic.

    General, a man is quite expendable.  He can fly
    and can kill.  But he has one defect: he can think.                  

    Bertolt Brecht

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

    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.

    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.

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

    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

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

    WALKIN TO NEW ORLEANS
    MARCH 14 THROUGH MARCH 19, 2006
    http://vetgulfmarch.org/

    Veterans For Peace (VFP), Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW),
    Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), Military Families
    Speak Out (MFSO), and Gold Star Families for Peace (GSFP),
    at the call of the Mobile Veterans For Peace Chapter #130,
    will conduct a march between Mobile, AL, and New Orleans,
    LA, from March 14-19, 2006 -- the third anniversary of the
    invasion and occupation of Iraq.

    This historical event highlights the connections between the
    economic and human cost of war in the Middle East and the
    failure of our government to respond to human needs at
    home, especially the needs of poor people and people of color.

    The government's negligent and often hostile response to
    hurricane survivors is mirrored by that same government's
    continued commitment to an illegal, immoral war fought
    at a staggering cost.

    These are twin disasters, and the veterans of wars abroad
    along with the survivors of Katrina and Rita are joining
    together for this march and caravan to establish ties of
    material solidarity between those who oppose the war abroad
    and the social and economic costs for working people at home.

    ADVISORY: Spring Break corresponds to the march.
    If you plan to get plane tickets to Mobile and from
    New Orleans, book them early.
    ...............................................................

    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/

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

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    New play by local writer Tommi Avicolli Mecca

    Following on the heels of his critically acclaimed
    one-man show last year, local author and activist
    Tommi Avicolli Mecca is debuting his new work, "the
    aching in god's heart," March 16-18, 8pm and March 19
    at 5pm at Theatre St. Boniface, 175 Golden
    Gate/Leavenworth.

    The play takes a hard look at the meaning of love and
    family. Sofia, a dutiful daughter who has given up
    everything to take care of la famiglia, is suddenly
    forced to face the truth about her life of devotion.
    "The play really looks at the conflict that develops
    between 'la via vecchia' (the old ways) of the
    immigrant generation and those of the first generation
    born here in America. It's the Italian/American story
    we don't see on TV or in the movies," says author
    Avicolli Mecca.

    The cast includes Renee Saucedo, Diana Hartman,
    Giancarlo Campagna and Avicolli Mecca.

    The four performances of "aching" will benefit four
    local nonprofits: Housing Rights Committee, Day
    Laborers Program, St. Boniface Neighborhood Center and
    the Family Link. Admission is $10 but no one will be
    turned away for lack of funds. Bring a check for your
    favorite nonprofit. To reserve tickets, call (415)
    861-5848.

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

    SATURDAY, MARCH 18 AND 25
    VENEZUELA AT THE CROSSROADS
    Workers on the Move

    Luis Primo, Venezuelan Labor Leader to Speak in San Francisco

    The U.S. Hands Off Venezuela Campaign invites you to hear
    Luis Primo, a central leader of the Venezuelan National Union
    of Workers (UNT), the new labor federation in Venezuela
    which has replaced its corrupt predecessor which supported
    the U.S.-backed attempted coup against President Chavez.
    Luis Primo will address the antiwar rally on Saturday, March 18
    and will speak at a public meeting on Saturday, March 25.

    Currently, Primo is a Regional Coordinator for the UNT
    (Caracas-Miranda), he heads the Union/Political Education
    for the UNT on the national level, and works with the Ministry
    of Labor on the Committee on the Recovered Factories.
    Primo will be running for the National Leadership of the
    UNT at its upcoming congress this spring.

    Hands Off Venezuela has been organized around the
    principle that the people of Venezuela should be able
    to determine their own destiny, without the interference
    of foreign governments, particularly the U.S. government.
    We have organized numerous educational events to inform
    people in this country about the important events unfolding
    in Venezuela so that people here can have an informed position.
    Without the truth, people are in no position to act.

    We hope that Luis Primo's visit to California will be one
    of many exchanges between Venezuelan and American
    trade unionists. In addition to speaking in San Francisco, he will
    be touring the West Coast where he will speak in a half-dozen
    cities. To make this possible, Hands Off Venezuela Campaign
    has launched a fund raising drive to cover the many expenses
    of the tour. Volunteers are needed to help organize the event,
    and donations of any amount are greatly appreciated.
    Donations can be sent to: HOV, 4579 18th St., San Francisco,
    CA 94114. Letters of support or endorsements of the tour are
    also appreciated and can be sent to sfbay@ushov.org.

    When and Where:
    7 pm, Saturday, March 25, 2006
    ILWU Local 34 Hall, 4 Berry St., San Francisco
    (Located next door to SBC Park.
    Take MUNI N line toward SBC Park.)

    Partial List of Endorsers

    Dolores Huerta
    San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
    South Bay Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
    Contra Costa Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
    Vanguard Public Foundation
    San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper
    Alan Benjamin, Executive Board, SF Labor Council, Co-coordinator Open
    World Conference
    Fred Hirsch, Vice President of Plumbers and Fitters Local 393, San Jose
    California
    Gloria LaRiva, President, Local 39521 Media Workers Sector/CWA*
    Louie Rocha, President CWA Local 9423*
    Global Exchange
    Chris Gilbert and Karen Bennett, MATRIX Program*, UC Berkeley Art
    Museum*
    Dorinda Moreno, Hitec Aztec Communications, Santa Maria, CA.
    Cesar Chavez Lifetime Achievement Legacy Award, 2003
    National Network on Cuba
    Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives
    Todd Chretien, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, California
    Peace and Freedom Party

    * for identification purposes only

    Admission: $5, $3 seniors, unemployed, and students

    For more information, call 415-786-1680 or email sfbay@ushov.org

    labor donated

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

    Power in Eden:
    Emergence of Gender Hierarchies
    in the Ancient World

    With Bruce Lerro

    4 Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 March 19th, 26th, April 2nd, April 9th
    Marxist Library 6501 Telegraph (cross-street Alcatraz)

    -How Relevant is Engels’ Origin of the Family,
    Private Property and the State in the light of over one-hundred
    years of anthropology and archeology?

    -To what extent was “primitive communism” egalitarian
    in terms of gender relations?

    -When in history does individualism start? Is it a product
    of capitalism or does it go back further?

    -Agricultural State Civilizations (The Asiatic Mode
    of Production) were the most oppressive to women in history.
    Why was there no women’s movement in the ancient world?

    Bruce Lerro has been teaching and writing about the origins
    of class and gender inequalities for the past fifteen years.
    He has lectured at New College of California and teaches
    regularly at Golden Gate University, Dominican University,
    John F. Kennedy University and Diablo Valley College.
    He is the author of Power in Eden: Emergence of Gender
    Hierarchies in the Ancient World, Trafford Press, 2005.

    Format
    Initial Talk—broadly discussing all four questions

    Part I—In Depth Reading and Discussion of each of the
    Four Questions

    Part II –Optional—In Depth Reading and Discussion of Other
    Chapters in the text.

    This will be determined by Bruce and the class participants

    Pedagogy

    The initial talk will be a lecture with brief discussion
    at the end of each question

    For all four classes in part one there will be assigned
    readings during the week and each class will be
    a discussion of the readings. We will discuss clarification
    as well as substantive questions each week.
    There will be no lecture.

    Required Reading: Power in Eden: Emergence
    of Gender Hierarchies in the Ancient World

    My Approach
    I consider myself a Marxist-materialist and I believe
    that the Marxian tradition must be informed and
    enriched by over one hundred years of research.
    I consider Marxism a method rather than a scholastic dogma.
    What You May Learn
    -The process of female subordination was a very gradual
    and had super-structural and psychological components
    as well as economic
    -Engels was right about some things and wrong about others
    -A provocative stage theory about how male dominance originated
    -There are well-researched conditions under which women
    will or will not be likely to rebel

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

    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.

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

    PUSH FOR PEACE
    MEMORIAL DAY KICKOFF
    MONDAY, MAY 29, 2006
    GOLDEN GATE PARK, S.F.
    (Exact location to be announced.)

    Welcome to the Official Push for Peace Site!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q

    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 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

    Just in case we don't get to modify the map before the weekend,
    I'll just name our proposed stops. We start, of course with Golden
    Gate Park, from there we head south to Los Angeles. Turning
    east we move to Phoenix, then on to Albuquerque. Now it's
    north to Denver, and east to St Louis. North again to Chicago,
    and east to Detroit. Continue east to Cleveland, and then NYC
    if all goes well Central Park (Imagine), culminating at the gates
    of the White House on July 4, 2006

    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=

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    FACTSHEET
    The Right To Return, a Basic Right Still Denied
    http://al-awda.org/facts.html
    ...........................................................

    Protests Planned Against Media War Coverage
    By Danny Schechter
    Source: MediaChannel.org
    http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/3378

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

    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/

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

    March 2006 National Immigrant
    Solidarity Network Monthly Digest
    National Immigrant Solidarity Network
    URL: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org
    e-mail: Info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org
    No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights!

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

    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/

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

    The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
    http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html
    http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/decind.html
    http://www.usconstitution.net/declar.html
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805195.php

    Bill of Rights
    http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805182.php

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

    1) ) TIME OF MADNESS: TIME OF WHORES
    [Col. Writ. 2/17/06] Copyright '06 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    2) U.S. Is Reducing Safety Penalties for Mine Flaws
    By IAN URBINA and ANDREW W. LEHREN
    March 2, 2006
    Before the January disaster at the Sago Mine near here, where
    12 miners died, the operator had been cited 273 times since 2004.
    None of the fines exceeded $460, roughly one-thousandth of
    1 percent of the $110 million net profit reported last year by
    the current owner of the mine, the International Coal Group.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02mine.html?hp&ex=1141362000&en=16f66ee262e5d96b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    3) An Open Letter to the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) at:
    http://www.umwa.org/email.shtml
    By Bonnie Weinstein, Socialist Viewpoint
    www.socialistviewpoint.org
    RE: U.S. Is Reducing Safety Penalties for Mine Flaws
    By IAN URBINA and ANDREW W. LEHREN
    March 2, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02mine.html?hp&ex=1141362000&en=16f66ee262e5d96b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    4) FREE LEONARD PELTIER!
    [Col. Writ. 2/5/06] Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    5) Prisons Often Shackle Pregnant Inmates in Labor
    By ADAM LIPTAK
    March 2, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02shackles.html

    6) The Gospel vs. H.R. 4437
    New York Times Editorial
    March 3, 2006
    If current efforts in Congress make it
    a felony to shield or offer support to illegal immigrants, Cardinal
    Mahony said, he will instruct his priests — and faithful lay
    Catholics — to defy the law.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/opinion/03fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    7) Sikorsky and Striking Workers Say They Are Dug In
    By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
    March 3, 2006
    "...pickets displayed fury when they learned of
    recent shareholder filings showing how much Mr. David made
    at a time that hourly workers were being asked to sacrifice for
    the sake of global competitiveness.
    In addition to $1.7 million in salary and $3.8 million in bonus
    pay, Mr. David received $20.8 million in new stock option grants
    last year and had $26.3 million in pretax gains from exercising
    old options, the filings showed. He also has $167 million in
    options he has yet to exercise. Mr. Finger's pay was not
    included in the disclosures since he is not among United
    Technologies' five highest-paid executives."
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/nyregion/03sikorsky.html?pagewanted=all

    8) Being a Patient
    Recourse Grows Slim for Immigrants Who Fall Ill
    By NINA BERNSTEIN
    March 3, 2006
    Mr. Zhao, 50, had been successfully treated for nasal
    cancer in 2000 at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, which
    has served the immigrant poor since its founding in 1736.
    But the rules there had changed, and knowing that he would
    be asked for payment and that security guards would demand
    an ID, he had concluded that he could not go back.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/health/03patient.html

    9) It's official: class matters
    A major new study shows that social background determines pupils'
    success. Does it mean that the government is heading in the wrong
    direction? Matthew Taylor reports
    Tuesday February 28, 2006
    The Guardian
    http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1719123,00.html

    10) Negroponte's 'Serious Setback'
    By Dahr Jamail
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Friday 03 March 2006
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    11) On the Contrary
    Why Rules Can't Stop Executive Greed
    By DANIEL AKST
    March 5, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/business/yourmoney/05cont.html?pagewanted=all

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

    1) TIME OF MADNESS: TIME OF WHORES
    [Col. Writ. 2/17/06] Copyright '06 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    There comes a time in the life of a nation when lines are crossed, and,
    once crossed, may never be re-crossed again.

    In that root of all things Western that was Rome, it was Caesar crossing
    the river Rubicon. In this New Rome, it is the path to war on a whim; on
    a lark; on a lie.

    It is a kind of imperial fever -- the fatal petulance of kings, for war
    is the sport of kings.

    It matters not why. The "reasons" announced to the world have faded like
    old photographs in the summer sun; and we learn, years later, that
    reasons *weren‚t* reasons. They weren‚t even good justifications, yet
    they sufficed. They stoked emotions, fueled our ignorance, and ignited
    the war machine -- the US *Wehrmacht* -- and unleashed the dogs of war.

    Regimes have been changed; countries bombed; civilians slaughtered for
    naught; and things are worse than ever; hatreds are deeper than ever. Oh
    sure; puppets have been installed; even an occasional constitution has
    been ghost-written. But if you think this is a portent of peace, just
    remember the so-called 'president' of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, who is
    protected today by a palace guard of armed Americans, so fearful is he
    of his own countrymen.

    While it‚s true that this mad war was forced upon the nation by a narrow
    neoconservative cabal, it‚s also true that it couldn‚t have happened
    without the connivance and subservience of the press.

    They performed like cheerleaders and water boys of a big game, rather
    than tribunes or truth-tellers.

    And few have been as condemnatory as Robert Fisk, the intrepid
    journalist writing for *The Independent* (London), who, in his recent
    book, *The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East*
    (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), acidly noted:

    "And all the while, the American media continued their servile support
    for the Bush Administration. As I reported in my own paper on 26
    January, we were now being deluged with yet more threats from Washington
    about 'states that sponsor terror.'

    "Take Eric Schmitt in *The New York Times* a week ago. He wrote a story
    about America's decision to 'confront countries that sponsor terrorism.'
    And his sources? 'Senior defence officials,' 'administration officials,'
    'some American intelligence officials,' 'the officials,' 'officials,'
    'military officials,' 'terrorist experts' and 'defence officials.' Why
    not, I asked, 'just let the Pentagon write its own reports in *The New
    York Times?'" [ p. 927, fn]

    Fisk's tone, throughout the book, is a vast and deep rage, at despots,
    tyrannies, unbridled power, and ignorance. He writes scathingly of the
    dictatorships both installed by the West, and those imperial powers that
    predated them. *The Great War for Civilisation* is, above all, an
    intense work of history, which uses the expensive lessons of the past,
    to illustrate the follies of the present. He quotes from the
    Proclamation posted by the military commander of the Spring 1917
    invasion of Iraq. Lieutenant General Stanley Maude's words to Baghdad
    have a cynical and hollow echo in our present ears:

    "...Our military operations have as their object the defeat of the enemy
    and the driving of him from these territories. In order to complete this
    task I am charged with absolute and supreme control of all regions in
    which British troops operate; *but our armies do not come into your
    cities as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators....*" [pp. 140-1]

    Sound familiar?

    And now, war, like a hungry leech, eats the nation's wealth, consumes a
    constitution, and deadens the soul. It militarizes millions, appealing
    to the blind, dumb instinct of obedience.

    But also, as people learn of the lies that leads to war, it deepens
    cynicism, and spreads the seeds of distrust far and wide.

    War awakens us, and awakening can be the seedlings of a new social
    movement that says no to war, and yes to reason, and Life.

    Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

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

    2) U.S. Is Reducing Safety Penalties for Mine Flaws
    By IAN URBINA and ANDREW W. LEHREN
    March 2, 2006
    Before the January disaster at the Sago Mine near here, where
    12 miners died, the operator had been cited 273 times since 2004.
    None of the fines exceeded $460, roughly one-thousandth of
    1 percent of the $110 million net profit reported last year by
    the current owner of the mine, the International Coal Group.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02mine.html?hp&ex=1141362000&en=16f66ee262e5d96b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    CRAIGSVILLE, W.Va. — In its drive to foster a more cooperative
    relationship with mining companies, the Bush administration has
    decreased major fines for safety violations since 2001, and in
    nearly half the cases, it has not collected the fines, according
    to a data analysis by The New York Times.

    Federal records also show that in the last two years the federal
    mine safety agency has failed to hand over any delinquent cases
    to the Treasury Department for further collection efforts,
    as is supposed to occur after 180 days.

    With the deaths of 24 miners in accidents in 2006, the enforcement
    record of the Mine Safety and Health Administration has come
    under sharp scrutiny, and the agency is likely to face tough
    questions about its performance at a Senate oversight hearing
    on Thursday.

    "The Bush administration ushered in this desire to develop
    cooperative ties between regulators and the mining industry,"
    said Tony Oppegard, a top official at the agency in the Clinton
    administration. "Safety has certainly suffered as a result."

    A spokesman for the agency, Dirk Fillpot, defended its record,
    pointing out that last year the coal industry had 22 fatalities,
    the lowest number in its history.

    "Safety is definitely improving," Mr. Fillpot said.

    A spokeswoman for the National Mining Association,
    Carol Raulston, agreed.

    "The agency realized in recent years that you can't browbeat
    operators into improved safety, and this general approach has
    worked," Ms. Raulston said. "The tragic events of this year
    have given everyone pause. But I don't think it means
    we want to abandon what we have found works."

    Federal records show that fatalities across all types of mining
    have stayed relatively stable. In each of the last three years,
    55 to 57 miners have died in all areas of mining. Experts say
    a long-term decline in coal mine fatalities is in part a result
    of growing mechanization.

    Mr. Fillpot also said delinquent cases had not moved to the
    Treasury Department since 2003 because of computer problems.
    He could not say when the problems would be corrected. "Referrals
    from M.S.H.A. to the Treasury Department have been impacted
    by technical issues on both ends, which we are working to resolve
    while maintaining an aggressive record on enforcement and
    collections," he said.

    Although the agency has recently trumpeted Congressional
    plans to raise the maximum penalties, federal records indicate
    that few major fines are issued at the maximum level. In 2004,
    the number of major fines issued at maximum level was one in
    10, down from one in 5 in 2003.

    Since 2001, the median for penalties that exceed $10,000,
    described as "major fines," has dropped 13 percent, to $21,800
    from $25,000.

    Also troubling, critics say, is that fines are regularly reduced in
    negotiations between mine operators and the agency. From 2001
    to 2003, more than two-thirds of all major fines were cut from
    the original amount that the agency proposed. Most of the more
    recent cases are enmeshed in appeals, so it is impossible to know
    whether that trend has continued.

    "The agency keeps talking about issuing more fines, but it doesn't
    matter much," said Bruce Dial, a former inspector for the mine
    safety agency. "The number of citations means nothing when the
    citations are small, negotiable and most often uncollected."

    Before the January disaster at the Sago Mine near here, where
    12 miners died, the operator had been cited 273 times since 2004.
    None of the fines exceeded $460, roughly one-thousandth of
    1 percent of the $110 million net profit reported last year by
    the current owner of the mine, the International Coal Group.

    [At a House oversight hearing on Wednesday, agency officials
    repeatedly cited the frequency of fines against Sago in the year
    before the accident as proof of aggressive enforcement.
    Exasperated, Representative Lynn Woolsey, Democrat of
    California, replied that maybe those fines had little effect
    because many were for $60. That point set off applause
    from audience members.]

    "Most fines are so small that they are seen not as deterrents
    but as the cost of doing business," said Wes Addington,
    a lawyer with the Appalachian Citizens Law Center in
    Prestonsburg, Ky., which handles mine safety cases.
    Using federal records, Mr. Addington released a study
    in January indicating that since 1995 nearly a third of
    the active underground mines in Kentucky had failed
    to pay their fines.

    "Operators know that it's cheaper to pay the fine than to
    fix the problem," Mr. Addington said. "But they also know
    the cheapest of all routes is to not pay at all. It's pretty galling."

    Larry Williams, who now lives in Craigsville, 50 miles east
    of Charleston, knows this frustration well. In 2002, he was
    working with a fellow miner, Gary Martin, in a deep mine
    near Rupert, 25 miles south of here, when the roof collapsed
    on them. Mr. Martin died instantly, and Mr. Williams was
    trapped for more than four hours under several thousand
    pounds of rock that crushed his pelvis and both legs.

    The men had been pillaring, or second mining, which involves
    extracting the last remaining coal in tunnels by scraping
    it from the coal pillars used to hold up the roof. This method
    is considered extremely dangerous. Federal regulations aim
    to reduce the risk.

    In this case, federal investigators found that the regulations
    were not followed. The operators were fined $165,000. Those
    fines have not been paid, even though the mine owner, Midland
    Trail Resources, which did not reply to requests for comment,
    remains in business, according to state records.

    "It makes me mad," said Mr. Williams, 50, who is paralyzed
    through much of his right side. "One dead and another man's
    life ruined, and they pay nothing? It just doesn't make sense."

    On Feb. 14, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania,
    introduced a measure to raise the maximum penalty that the mine
    safety agency can assess for failing to eliminate violations that
    cause death or serious injury, to $500,000, from the current
    $60,000.

    The law would also prohibit administrative law judges from
    reducing fines for violations deemed flagrant or habitual.

    Ellen Smith, editor of Mine Safety and Health News, an
    independent newsletter that covers the industry, said that
    although the law was a positive step, one regulation that
    continued to need attention allowed fines to be lowered for
    smaller or financially troubled mines.

    "The result of that provision is that it helps keep some habitual
    offenders in business," Ms. Smith said.

    Cecil E. Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America,
    said changes in the law were vital but so were changes in the agency.
    "If you don't have enforcement along with a strong law, then you
    don't have a law," Mr. Roberts said. "The current agency mentality
    is to cooperate with mine operators rather than watchdog them,
    and safety suffers as a result."

    Even when Congress passes strong safety laws, the agency can
    write regulations that work around them. In 2004, for example,
    after years of pressure from mine operators, regulators wrote
    a rule that let mines use conveyor belts not just for moving coal
    but also to draw in fresh air from outside. A law already existed
    preventing such safety regulations because of concerns that
    in the event of a fire, the belts would carry flames and deadly
    gases directly to the work area or vital evacuation routes.

    Though the investigation is not complete, many experts say this
    is probably what occurred at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine
    in Logan County, W.Va., where a fire left two miners dead on Jan 21.

    Mr. Fillpot said his agency was revising the regulations on
    imposing penalties. He also pointed to civil suits filed by the
    agency in what he said was an increasing effort to force operators
    to pay millions of dollars in unpaid penalties.

    "You can expect to see more of these types of efforts from
    us in the coming months," Mr. Fillpot said.

    Mr. Williams, the miner who is partly paralyzed, remains skeptical.

    "All I know is the roof collapsed only days after a federal inspector
    looked right at those pillars and saw that the operator was having
    us do illegal things," he said. "In these mines, laws don't matter."

    Ian Urbina reported from Craigsville, W.Va.,
    and Andrew W. Lehren from New York.

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

    3) An Open Letter to the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) at:
    http://www.umwa.org/email.shtml
    By Bonnie Weinstein, Socialist Viewpoint
    www.socialistviewpoint.org
    March 2, 2006
    RE: U.S. Is Reducing Safety Penalties for Mine Flaws
    By IAN URBINA and ANDREW W. LEHREN
    March 2, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02mine.html?hp&ex=1141362000&en=16f66ee262e5d96b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Dear UMWA,

    I felt compelled to write this letter to you when I read
    the front-page article in the New York Times listed above.

    My mother was born and raised in Kentucky and I grew up
    hearing about the courage of mine workers all my life. So,
    I have been following the news stories about mine disasters.

    I wrote an article for Socialist Viewpoint (I am on the Editorial
    Board of the magazine) on the 2002 Quecreek mine disaster that,
    fortunately, turned out much more positively than the recent
    terrible outcomes. Here is a link to that article.

    Down in the Quecreek Mines
    By Bonnie Weinstein
    http://socialistviewpoint.org/sept_02/sept_02_14.html

    In my opinion, in light of the NYTs article that exposes the lack
    of enforcement against mine owners for their blatant disregard
    for the safety of mine workers, the American labor movement
    should look at these recent deaths as murder in the first degree
    --and, along with mine owners, the entire U.S. government
    should be charged with the crime for allowing this situation
    to continue.

    I am 61 years-old. I remember when San Francisco was
    a "union town" and proud of it when I came here in 1966.
    And, before that I was born and raised in Brooklyn,
    New York--another "union town."

    That meant that the pay was decent--even in non-union jobs!
    See, when union workers get paid well, that forces the non-union
    employers to have to compete a little more. It also has other
    effects on the lives of workers. A town with a high percentage
    of union workers tends to have lower rents or at least some
    rent-control laws and more affordable housing. Such labor
    communities also tend to have better schools, etc. because
    bosses and landlords know that there is a force out there
    that can unite and fight and be very effective!

    That's the kind of competition we want to have occur
    in the labor movement. Not a race to the bottom through
    concession after concession! But to turn the tides and
    begin a race to the top for all workers, victory after victory!

    The NYT article shows that this government is in cooperation
    only with the bosses and are waging a new offensive in their war
    against workers.

    It's time for the labor leaders of this country to stand up
    in unison and say "enough is enough!" The refusal of the
    mine owners to comply with the safety rules and the
    Federal Government's blatant refusal to force the owners
    to comply with these rules, or even to collect the fines against
    the violation of these rules, will not be tolerated! We will
    not send the children who want to follow in their father's
    footsteps back down into the mines, to risk the same
    danger their father's faced, for minimum wage and a deadly
    work environment, while the mine owners and the government
    that represents only them, gets away with murder, and as the
    industry rakes in record profits off those very lives of the fallen?

    Are we going to stand by and watch with sorry expressions
    on our faces as more die in preventable disasters in all
    workplaces; are we going to stand by while
    tens of thousands of auto workers get thrown
    to the wolves after years of dedication and hard work?
    They are going to loose their lives as they knew it!

    Are we going to force the top tiers to continue to devour
    both their children just joining the work force and their retired
    parents in order for "some" to keep their own jobs and
    meager, if any, benefits?

    We need to go back to the tactics that worked for workers
    in the '30s. Some of the Auto Workers are talking about this
    need quite eloquently. Here is a link to their sites:

    http://futureoftheunion.com/

    http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com/

    Work to Rule

    They have a concept of "Work to Rule" that could be very
    effective in the mines. Simply, workers follow all
    the safety rules, which builds confidence in the worker's
    ability to have control, not only over their own safety on
    the job, but, in their ability to act effectively in their
    own defense on all fronts, throughout all industry,
    through unity of purpose and solidarity in action.

    I know that I'm nobody or worse, a socialist. But I was raised
    to respect all those who toil to provide all the things that we
    have--our cars, houses, the factories themselves--and to
    respect workers--not the bosses, who contribute nothing
    to production, except figuring out different ways to rob
    workers and to increase profits.

    Workers have both the knowledge and the knowhow to carry
    out production all on their own--more safely and more
    efficiently--if left to their own devices and for their
    mutual benefit.

    Something's got to give. It can't and won't stay as it is. Union
    representation is a third of what it was in the 1950s in the
    American work force.

    We are going back to the dark ages!
    It's time for the American labor movement
    to see the light! Unite and Fight!

    In solidarity,

    Bonnie Weinstein
    www.socialistviewpoint.org

    P.S. There is more information about "Work to Rule"
    in our latest issue at: www.socialistviewpoint.org

    We will continue our coverage of all worker's issues.
    Contact us for a free sample of our magazine at:
    socialistviewpoint@pacbell.net

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

    4) FREE LEONARD PELTIER!
    [Col. Writ. 2/5/06] Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    It is mind-boggling for us to be here, now, at this late hour, with
    Leonard Peltier still in chains.

    Books have been written; documentaries have been produced;
    congresspeople have joined his freedom campaign -- all for naught. For
    Leonard Peltier, a former leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM),
    is still not free!

    That, to anyone with a soul, is a damned shame.

    Many Peltier supporters put their trust in a politician named Bill
    Clinton, who told them that when he got elected he "wouldn‚t forget"
    about the popular Native American leader.

    Their trust (like that of so many others) was betrayed once Clinton
    gained his office, and the FBI protested. In the waning days of his
    presidency, he issued pardons to folks like Mark Rich, and other wealthy
    campaign contributors. Leonard Peltier was left in his chains!

    I won‚t re-state the obvious: Leonard‚s innocence; the blatantly unfair
    trial; the crooked tricks that led to his extradition -- others may do
    that.

    What is needed is more *support*, not from two-faced politicians; but
    from the People -- the many, who, like you and I, know injustice when we
    see it!

    For those folks who know little about Leonard Peltier, check the
    library. Or check out his recent book, *Prison Writings: My Life is My
    Sun Dance: U.S.P. #89637-132* [Harvey Arden, ed.] (New York: St.
    Martin's Press, 1999).

    What the Movement needs isn't more books, but more Movement!

    Join the movement to free Leonard "Gwarth-ee-lass" (or "He Who Leads the
    People")!

    In his book, Peltier tells us of the U.S. government's war against AIM,
    and other radical groups. His writings, which predated the events of
    9/11, shows us that repressive tactics didn't begin then:

    "They hid behind their usual cloak of 'national security' to do their
    dirty work. Their first tactic: forget the law, the law's for suckers,
    subvert the law at will to get your man, however innocent he may be;
    suborn the whole legal and judicial systems; lie whenever and wherever
    you have to to keep the focus of inquiry on your victims, not on your
    own crimes.

    I have to admit, they succeeded brilliantly. In the name of Law, they
    violated every law on the books, and, in their deliberate strategy of
    putting me -- and how man other innocents? -- away in a cell or a grave,
    they turned the Constitution of the United States into pulp fiction."
    [pp. 95-6]

    What Leonard needs is a renewed, revitalized, powerful people's movement
    fighting for his freedom.

    Build the Movement to Free Leonard Peltier!

    Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

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

    5) Prisons Often Shackle Pregnant Inmates in Labor
    By ADAM LIPTAK
    March 2, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02shackles.html

    Shawanna Nelson, a prisoner at the McPherson Unit in Newport, Ark.,
    had been in labor for more than 12 hours when she arrived at Newport
    Hospital on Sept. 20, 2003. Ms. Nelson, whose legs were shackled
    together and who had been given nothing stronger than Tylenol
    all day, begged, according to court papers, to have the shackles
    removed.

    Though her doctor and two nurses joined in the request, her
    lawsuit says, the guard in charge of her refused.

    "She was shackled all through labor," said Ms. Nelson's lawyer,
    Cathleen V. Compton. "The doctor who was delivering the baby
    made them remove the shackles for the actual delivery
    at the very end."

    Despite sporadic complaints and occasional lawsuits, the
    practice of shackling prisoners in labor continues to be
    relatively common, state legislators and a human rights
    group said. Only two states, California and Illinois, have
    laws forbidding the practice.

    The New York Legislature is considering a similar bill.
    Ms. Nelson's suit, which seeks to ban the use of restraints
    on Arkansas prisoners during labor and delivery, is to be
    tried in Little Rock this spring.

    The California law, which came into force in January, was
    prompted by widespread problems, said Sally J. Lieber,
    a Democratic assemblywoman from Mountain View.

    "We found this was going on in some institutions in California
    and all over the United States," Ms. Lieber said. "It presents
    risks not only for the inmate giving birth, but also for the infant."

    Corrections officials say they must strike a balance between
    security and the well-being of the pregnant woman and
    her child.

    "Though these are pregnant women," said Dina Tyler, a
    spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections,
    "they are still convicted felons, and sometimes violent in
    nature. There have been instances when we've had a female
    inmate try to hurt hospital staff during delivery."

    Dee Ann Newell, who has taught classes in prenatal care and
    parenting for female prisoners in Arkansas for 15 years, said
    she found the practice of shackling women in labor appalling.

    "If you have ever seen a woman have a baby," Ms. Newell said,
    "you know we squirm. We move around."

    Twenty-three state corrections departments, along with the
    federal Bureau of Prisons, have policies that expressly allow
    restraints during labor, according to a report by Amnesty
    International U.S.A. on Wednesday.

    The corrections departments of five states, including Connecticut,
    and the District of Columbia, the report found, prohibit the
    practice. The remaining states do not have laws or formal
    policies, although some corrections departments told the
    group that they did not use restraints as a matter of informal
    practice.

    Many states justify restraints because the prisoners remain
    escape risks, though there have apparently been no instances
    of escape attempts by women in labor.

    "You can't convince me that it's ever really happened,"
    Ms. Newell said. "You certainly wouldn't get far."

    About 5 percent of female prisoners arrive pregnant, according
    to a 1999 report by the Justice Department. The Sentencing Project,
    a research and advocacy group, estimates that 40,000 women are
    admitted to the nation's prisons each year, suggesting that 2,000
    babies are born to American prisoners annually.

    Illinois enacted the first law forbidding some restraints during
    labor, in 2000. "Under no circumstances," it says, "may leg irons
    or shackles or waist shackles be used on any pregnant female
    prisoner who is in labor."

    Before that, said Gail T. Smith, the executive director of Chicago
    Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers, the standard practice was
    to chain the prisoner to a hospital bed. "What was common,"
    Ms. Smith said, "was one wrist and one ankle."

    The California law prohibits shackling prisoners by the wrists
    or ankles during labor, delivery and recovery. Until recently,
    prisoners from the Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, Calif., were
    routinely shackled to their beds after giving birth at the nearby
    Madera Community Hospital.

    "These women are mostly in for minor crimes and don't pose
    a flight risk," said Ms. Lieber, who met with 120 pregnant women
    at the prison in August. "Madera Community Hospital is in one
    of the most remote parts of California. It's hard to walk to
    a filling station, much less a bus stop."

    Washington State has also forbidden the use of shackles during
    labor, though as a matter of corrections department policy rather
    than law. Pamela Simpson, a California nurse, described in an
    e-mail message to Ms. Lieber the practice in Washington before
    the policy was changed.

    "Here this young woman was in active labor," Ms. Simpson wrote,
    "handcuffed to the armed guard, wearing shackles, in her orange
    outfit that was dripping wet with amniotic fluid. Her age: 15!"

    Arkansas has resisted an outright ban on restraints, though
    Ms. Nelson's case may change that.

    Ms. Nelson was serving time for identity fraud and writing bad
    checks when she gave birth at age 30. She weighed a little more
    than 100 pounds, and her baby, it turned out, weighed nine and
    a half pounds.

    The experience of giving birth without anesthesia while largely
    immobilized has left her with lasting back pain and damage to
    her sciatic nerve, according to her lawsuit against prison officials
    and a private company, Correctional Medical Services.

    Ms. Nelson, now known as Shawanna Lumsey, and lawyers for the
    defendants did not respond to requests for comment. In court
    papers, the defendants denied that they had caused any harm
    to Ms. Nelson.

    Partly as a consequence of Ms. Nelson's suit, Arkansas has started
    using softer, more flexible nylon restraints for prisoners deemed
    to be security risks. They are removed, Ms. Tyler said, during the
    actual delivery.

    Ms. Newell considers that slight progress for the approximately
    50 women in Arkansas prisons and jails who give birth each year.

    "Childbirth should be a sacred event," said Ms. Newell, a senior
    justice fellow at the Soros Foundation. "Just because they're
    prisoners doesn't mean they shouldn't get the usual care."

    Dawn H., an Arkansas prisoner who delivered a baby in custody
    in 2002, said her guard wanted to shackle her to the bed.

    "Fortunately," she said, "I had a very wonderful nurse who told the
    guard I was in her care. I was her patient. And no one was going
    to shackle me." (She asked that her full name not be used because
    her employer did not know about her imprisonment for passing
    bad checks.)

    The Wisconsin Corrections Department has also recently changed
    its approach, after a state newspaper, The Post-Crescent of Appleton,
    reported on the issue in January. The department said it would
    end the use of restraints during labor, delivery and recovery.

    Merica Erato, serving time for negligent homicide after a car
    accident, went through labor with chains around her ankles in
    Fond du Lac, Wis., in May, her husband, Steve, said in an interview.

    "It is unbelievable that in this day and age a child is born to
    a woman in shackles," Mr. Erato said. "It sounds like something
    from slavery 200 years ago."

    In most cases, people who have studied the issue said, women
    are shackled because prison rules are unthinkingly exported
    to a hospital setting.

    "This is the perfect example of rule-following at the expense
    of common sense," said William F. Schulz, the executive director
    of Amnesty International U.S.A. "It's almost as stupid as shackling
    someone in a coma."

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

    6) The Gospel vs. H.R. 4437
    New York Times Editorial
    If current efforts in Congress make it
    a felony to shield or offer support to illegal immigrants, Cardinal
    Mahony said, he will instruct his priests — and faithful lay
    Catholics — to defy the law.
    March 3, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/opinion/03fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    It has been a long time since this country heard a call to organized
    lawbreaking on this big a scale. Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Roman
    Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, urged
    parishioners on Ash Wednesday to devote the 40 days of Lent
    to fasting, prayer and reflection on the need for humane reform
    of immigration laws. If current efforts in Congress make it
    a felony to shield or offer support to illegal immigrants, Cardinal
    Mahony said, he will instruct his priests — and faithful lay
    Catholics — to defy the law.

    The cardinal's focus of concern is H.R. 4437, a bill sponsored
    by James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin and Peter King of New
    York. This grab bag legislation, which was recently passed by
    the House, would expand the definition of "alien smuggling"
    in a way that could theoretically include working in a soup
    kitchen, driving a friend to a bus stop or caring for a neighbor's
    baby. Similar language appears in legislation being considered
    by the Senate this week.

    The enormous influx of illegal immigrants and the lack of
    a coherent federal policy to handle it have prompted a jumble
    of responses by state and local governments, stirred the
    passions of the nativist fringe, and reinforced anxieties since
    9/11. Cardinal Mahony's defiance adds a moral dimension
    to what has largely been a debate about politics and economics.
    "As his disciples, we are called to attend to the last, littlest,
    lowest and least in society and in the church," he said.

    The cardinal is right to argue that the government has no
    place criminalizing the charitable impulses of private institutions
    like his, whose mission is to help people with no questions asked.
    The Los Angeles Archdiocese, like other religious organizations
    across the country, runs a vast network of social service programs
    offering food and emergency shelter, child care, aid to immigrants
    and refugees, counseling services, and computer and job training.
    Through Catholic Charities and local parishes, the church is
    frequently the help of last resort for illegal immigrants in need.
    It should not be made an arm of the immigration police as well.

    Cardinal Mahony's declaration of solidarity with illegal immigrants,
    for whom Lent is every day, is a startling call to civil disobedience,
    as courageous as it is timely. We hope it forestalls the day when
    works of mercy become a federal crime.

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

    7) Sikorsky and Striking Workers Say They Are Dug In
    By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
    March 3, 2006
    "...pickets displayed fury when they learned of
    recent shareholder filings showing how much Mr. David made
    at a time that hourly workers were being asked to sacrifice for
    the sake of global competitiveness.
    In addition to $1.7 million in salary and $3.8 million in bonus
    pay, Mr. David received $20.8 million in new stock option grants
    last year and had $26.3 million in pretax gains from exercising
    old options, the filings showed. He also has $167 million in
    options he has yet to exercise. Mr. Finger's pay was not
    included in the disclosures since he is not among United
    Technologies' five highest-paid executives."
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/nyregion/03sikorsky.html?pagewanted=all

    STRATFORD, Conn., March 2 — With a heavy snow pelting them,
    a ring of pickets stood outside Sikorsky Aircraft's main plant here
    today, as they have since a week ago Monday, and made it clear
    that the company's managers were not the only ones digging
    in for a long fight.

    Roughly 3,600 teamsters from Local 1150, many of whom build
    helicopters and other critical parts for the company's military and
    commercial clients, walked off the job on Feb. 20 in a dispute
    over the company's plan to charge them more for their health
    care benefits.

    Since then, both sides have warned that the fight could drag on.
    On Tuesday, at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, George David,
    the chief executive of Sikorsky's corporate parent, United
    Technologies Corporation, told Wall Street analysts that the
    company had "stood firm" in previous showdowns with employees
    over escalating health-care costs and "we will stand firm on this one."

    Company spokesmen have also expressed confidence that the
    company can meet its commitments to clients by shifting work
    away from the headquarters and four other plants hit with walkouts
    — in West Haven, Bridgeport and Shelton, and in West Palm Beach, Fla.
    — and using salaried personnel, which it is doing.

    Meanwhile, a union Web site is already advertising a March 11
    party at a nearby club in Ansonia called Snooker's to lift the
    morale of those walking the line.

    Pickets said they would rather be working the line than walking
    it but felt they had little choice.

    "This isn't only about us," said Bruce Peters, a flight technician
    who works with his son, Brett, at the plant. Today, they were one
    of several father-son teams sharing picket duty and umbrellas.
    "This is a nationwide problem with medical care," said the elder
    Mr. Peters.

    Mr. Peters acknowledged that the timing could be better, given
    the military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. "They do depend
    on our aircraft," he said, "but it's not our fault that we're out here."

    He said the company's management "was trying to pass all the
    burden for health care on to the workers so people like George
    David and the president of Sikorsky, Steve Finger, can reap
    all the benefits."

    He and his fellow pickets displayed fury when they learned of
    recent shareholder filings showing how much Mr. David made
    at a time that hourly workers were being asked to sacrifice for
    the sake of global competitiveness.

    In addition to $1.7 million in salary and $3.8 million in bonus
    pay, Mr. David received $20.8 million in new stock option grants
    last year and had $26.3 million in pretax gains from exercising
    old options, the filings showed. He also has $167 million in
    options he has yet to exercise. Mr. Finger's pay was not
    included in the disclosures since he is not among United
    Technologies' five highest-paid executives.

    On Wednesday, Bud Grebey, a Sikorsky spokesman, said that
    the company had made the teamsters "a very competitive offer
    in totality," especially considering salary increases and other
    incentives the company put on the table.

    Under the company's plan, workers, who now make $18.59 to
    $32.50 an hour, would receive annual raises of 3.5 percent.
    That works out to be 11 percent with compound interest by
    the end of the three-year contract, on top of a one-time
    $2,000 ratification bonus.

    But several workers said that that was not enough to compensate
    them for having to accept higher weekly premiums, higher
    co-payments and, for the first time, as much as 20 percent on
    many doctor's bills that the union says are now covered by the
    company. "All increases we get will be eaten up by the medical
    costs," said the elder Mr. Peters.

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

    8) Being a Patient
    Recourse Grows Slim for Immigrants Who Fall Ill
    By NINA BERNSTEIN
    March 3, 2006
    Mr. Zhao, 50, had been successfully treated for nasal
    cancer in 2000 at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, which
    has served the immigrant poor since its founding in 1736.
    But the rules there had changed, and knowing that he would
    be asked for payment and that security guards would demand
    an ID, he had concluded that he could not go back...Special
    concerns arise among different ethnic groups. Korean
    parents in Staten Island mistakenly fear that their children will
    forfeit future chances for a college loan, said Jinny J. Park,
    a health specialist at Korean Community Services. And mothers
    at the Latin American Integration Center in Queens worry
    unnecessarily that free medical care will later mean their
    children's military conscription. As one, Melosa, put it,
    "Everything we receive from the government is like giving
    my children away little by little" to the Army.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/health/03patient.html

    When Ming Qiang Zhao felt ill last summer, he lay awake nights
    in the room he shared with other Chinese restaurant workers
    in Brooklyn. Though he had worked in New York for years,
    he had no doctor to call, no English to describe his growing
    uneasiness.

    Mr. Zhao, 50, had been successfully treated for nasal cancer
    in 2000 at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, which has served
    the immigrant poor since its founding in 1736. But the rules
    there had changed, and knowing that he would be asked for
    payment and that security guards would demand an ID, he
    had concluded that he could not go back.

    So Mr. Zhao went to an unlicensed healer in Manhattan's
    Chinatown and came away with three bags of unlabeled
    white pills.

    A week later, his roommates, fellow illegal immigrants from
    Fujian Province in China, heard him running to and from the
    toilet all night. In the street the next day, July 6, he collapsed.

    Immigrants have long been on the fringes of medical care.
    But in the last decade, and especially since the terrorist attacks
    of Sept. 11, 2001, steps to include them have faltered in
    a political climate increasingly hostile to those who face
    barriers of language, cost and fear of penalties like deportation,
    say immigrant health experts, providers and patients. More
    and more immigrants are delaying care or retreating into
    a parallel universe of bootleg remedies and unlicensed
    practitioners.

    Last year, about 80 bills in 20 states sought to cut noncitizens'
    access to health care or other services, or to require benefit
    agencies to tell the authorities about applicants with
    immigration violations. Arizona voters approved such
    a requirement in 2004 with Proposition 200. Virginia has
    barred adults without proof of citizenship or lawful presence
    from state and local benefits. Maryland's governor excluded
    lawful immigrant children and pregnant women from
    a state medical program for which they had been eligible.

    Most proposed measures were not adopted, but new versions
    are expected. Ballot initiatives modeled on Arizona's
    Proposition 200 are circulating in California and Colorado.
    And in December, the United States House of Representatives
    passed a sweeping bill that would make "unlawful presence"
    in this country a felony and redefine "criminal alien smuggling"
    to include helping any immigrant without legal status.

    "We've seen a real rise in anti-immigration measures across
    the country," said Tanya Broder, a public benefits lawyer in
    Oakland, Calif., for the National Immigration Law Center,
    "and it's engendered confusion and fear that prevent
    immigrant families from getting the care they need."

    Some who had been drawn into medical treatment by outreach
    efforts have retreated, like Mr. Zhao, fearing the harder line toward
    immigrants, especially those without money or proper papers.
    Even legal immigrants and parents of children with legal status
    are more skittish about their health care, scared that medical
    bills and public medical insurance can hurt their chances for
    citizenship, bar relatives from coming to the United States
    or break up their families.

    "I heard that if you go to the emergency room or go to the
    doctor, they were going to deport you," said Alejandra,
    a mother from Colombia living in Queens, referring to
    a rule proposed in 2004 by the Centers for Medicare and
    Medicaid Services that would have made hospitals report
    the immigration status of emergency-room patients in
    exchange for more federal money. "So then my four children
    are going to be without me because I don't have documents here."

    The proposal did not pass, but like many of the proposed
    rules immigrants hear about on television or from neighbors,
    its chilling effects lasted.

    Restrictive bills are part of what supporters describe as
    a movement to end tolerance for the country's estimated
    11 million illegal residents.

    "It's certainly an effort to make them go back," said Dan Stein,
    president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform,
    a group calling for fewer immigrants and stricter enforcement
    of immigration laws. "It will never be acceptable for people
    to break our laws and then expect taxpayers to provide
    health care."

    Almost by definition, the most fearful immigrants are the
    least likely to talk. The Colombian mother in Queens, however,
    was among 75 immigrant parents, both legal and illegal, who
    were interviewed in depth by researchers from the New York
    Academy of Medicine for a study to be released later this year,
    with the guarantee that their real names would be withheld.

    What emerges from the transcripts, and from dozens of other
    interviews conducted by The New York Times with patients,
    health-care providers and experts on immigration, is a picture
    not only of heightened anxiety but also of immigrants who
    are primed to flee rather than fight for help from a system
    that even the native-born often find baffling and rude.

    For Nadege, pregnant and in pain when she sought treatment
    at Queens Hospital Center, a public hospital, the defining
    moment was a snub by a fellow Haitian who had been
    summoned to interpret. "She said to me, 'Don't come here
    saying that you have a bellyache: no one is going to stay
    with you the entire day,' " Nadege recalled.

    "I cried," she said. "I picked up my belongings and left.
    Even if I was dying that day, I wouldn't go back."

    Lard and Vodka, Not Doctors

    No one is suggesting that hospitals and clinics are seeing
    a decline in immigrant patients. On the contrary, as a decade
    of record immigration continues at an estimated annual clip
    of 1.2 million newcomers, the number of patients who speak
    little or no English is growing everywhere. And some hospitals
    and clinics are trying harder than ever to at least meet
    language needs.

    But even in New York, a gateway of immigration, a national
    climate that makes immigrant patients more timid also
    emboldens some front-line workers to bar the way.

    "If you have one renegade public-benefits worker who
    thinks they should be discouraging access because they
    believe it's a drain on taxes, the word on the street is it's
    too much of a hassle to apply," said Adam Gurvitch, director
    of health advocacy for the New York Immigration Coalition,
    an umbrella group for more than 150 immigrant organizations.

    Problems getting insurance sometimes lead to risky decisions
    about children's health care. A legal immigrant from Russia,
    Oksana, confessed to academy researchers that she had delayed
    her daughter's vaccinations for months, keeping her out of school
    until she could borrow $300 to pay for them. Melosa, of Mexico,
    had so many problems with state-subsidized insurance that when
    her severely asthmatic son ran a high fever she resorted to rubs
    of pig lard and carbonate, instead of taking him to a doctor.

    Vera, a Brooklyn mother from Belarus, used vodka rubs and
    borrowed medications when her daughter was delirious with
    fever from the flu. "We couldn't go to the doctor without
    medical insurance," she said.

    In the end, immigrants often return to mainstream care in
    dire need, only to have their chaotic medical histories
    compounded by a beleaguered system whose costliest
    medical technology is no substitute for timely treatment.
    In Mr. Zhao's case, an ambulance took him, unconscious,
    to a bankrupt hospital system where his life hung in the
    balance for weeks, and where one of his roommates,
    a 19-year-old waiter with uneven English, served as the
    interpreter.

    "No money, no ID, no good English," said the waiter, Hong
    Chung. "What you going to do? Nobody pay attention to us."

    Mr. Zhao was in a coma when his brother, Ming Tong, 49,
    and Fujianese friends came to the hospital, clutching the
    unlabeled pills, which had been described as herb-based
    remedies for high blood sugar, high blood pressure
    and insomnia.

    Mr. Chung remembers pleading, "If you find out the name
    of the ingredients, maybe he won't have to die." But he said
    doctors told him that the hospital was unable to do such
    an analysis. The hospital, St. Mary's in Brooklyn, was scheduled
    to close after more than a century serving the immigrant poor.
    St. John's in Queens, where Mr. Zhao was transferred for more
    tests 12 days later, was up for sale. Their parent organization,
    St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers, the largest Roman Catholic
    hospital system in New York State, had just filed for bankruptcy
    protection.

    At struggling hospitals, interpretation can seem like a luxury,
    despite longstanding federal and state laws requiring equal
    language access and studies showing that it cuts cost by
    improving quality. Few hospitals have laboratories capable
    of analyzing underground remedies.

    "With regular drugs, we know what the side effects and
    interactions are," said Dr. Sarvesh Parikh, a resident at St. John's,
    who wrote a note in Mr. Zhao's chart about his roommates'
    account of the pills. "About these kinds of pills, we don't
    know anything."

    The larger mystery was why Mr. Zhao, a thin, quiet, frugal
    man, had gone without medical care instead of returning to
    Bellevue. In 2000, seven years after he and his brother arrived
    on American shores, jammed into the fetid hold of a smuggling
    ship, Bellevue doctors had diagnosed and eradicated his nasal
    cancer.

    But even when treatment is a medical triumph, without sick
    pay or a safety net it can be personally devastating. In
    Mr. Zhao's case, the effects of surgery, radiation and
    chemotherapy left him unable to work. His wife and son
    in China had counted on his income, and without it, she
    divorced him to marry another man. Then staggering
    medical bills arrived at the apartment that he and his
    brother shared with six roommates.

    Medicaid reimburses hospitals for emergency care of the
    poor, regardless of immigration status. Outside of emergency
    care, however, illegal immigrants like Mr. Zhao are ineligible
    for Medicaid; in two-thirds of states, so are most legal
    noncitizens, no matter how indigent.

    James Saunders, a spokesman for Bellevue, like Debby Cohen,
    a spokeswoman for St. John's, said confidentiality laws
    barred discussion of Mr. Zhao's case. But Mr. Saunders
    emphasized that Bellevue has a mandate not to turn anyone
    away because of immigration status or lack of money, "and
    an obligation to the federal government to collect what we can."

    After the Sept. 11 attacks, about the same time Bellevue security
    guards began demanding ID cards, clerks started collecting
    sliding-scale fees from the uninsured. Mr. Zhao was charged
    $20 per visit, then $150 for a CAT scan. Destitute, intimidated,
    unable to keep borrowing such sums, and unaware that the
    fees could be waived, his brother said, Mr. Zhao gave up on
    Bellevue in 2002.

    "The doctor said that he was supposed to come back every
    two months, every three months, every six months, until the
    end of his life," Ming Tong Zhao recalled through an interpreter.
    "But he couldn't go back, because he couldn't pay."

    By the time Mr. Zhao again ended up in a hospital, he was
    in a coma; just his intensive care bed, at St. Mary's and then
    at St. John's, cost Medicaid $5,400 a day. For more than
    a month, a parade of doctors did spinal taps, EKG's, CAT
    scans and an M.R.I.; infused him with antibiotics,
    anticonvulsants and blood thinners; and placed him
    on a ventilator. Tests showed diabetes and high blood
    pressure, though their role in his collapse was uncertain.

    Ming Tong, visiting between his work renovating kitchens
    in Manhattan, could not get a clear answer about what was
    wrong with his brother and was afraid to press. "You understand,"
    he said, "people in the United States without legal status don't
    want to cause too much trouble."

    Afraid to Seek Help

    Whether legal or illegal — and many immigrant families include
    members in both categories — noncitizens are fearful of asking
    for too much. Many echo Catalina, a Queens woman from Colombia
    who hesitated to sign her toddler up for the free speech therapy
    urged by his pediatrician because she and her husband had
    a pending application for a green card. "It scared us," the
    woman said, "because if you are asking for residency, you have
    to show you are capable of living here without any help."

    Noncitizens are two to three times more likely to lack health
    insurance than citizens, studies show, and the gap has widened,
    even for children. Even legal immigrants qualified for government
    medical coverage often think twice about accepting it.

    Special concerns arise among different ethnic groups. Korean
    parents in Staten Island mistakenly fear that their children will
    forfeit future chances for a college loan, said Jinny J. Park,
    a health specialist at Korean Community Services. And mothers
    at the Latin American Integration Center in Queens worry
    unnecessarily that free medical care will later mean their
    children's military conscription. As one, Melosa, put it,
    "Everything we receive from the government is like giving
    my children away little by little" to the Army.

    The changing political climate makes it hard to separate myth
    from reality. Laws codify disapproval of government aid for
    noncitizens. An immigrant deemed "likely to become a public
    charge," for example, is to be denied a green card as undesirable.
    The 1996 welfare overhaul barred most legal immigrants who
    arrived after August of that year from receiving federal Medicaid
    until they become citizens, and the state-by-state patchwork
    of exceptions is confusing.

    Even New York, which extends Medicaid to lawful immigrants
    and to low-income children regardless of status, reserves the
    right to sue their sponsoring relatives for reimbursement,
    though it is not doing so.

    Those who do apply for public insurance discover a stark gap
    between the enthusiastic multilingual marketing of H.M.O.'s
    and the Kafkaesque task of getting and keeping an insurance
    card that works. They tell of learning only in the doctor's office
    that a sick child's card is not valid and then being turned away
    for lack of money.

    The public health implications alarm James R. Tallon, president
    of the United Hospital Fund, a nonprofit policy group in New York.
    "Anything that keeps anyone away from the health system makes
    no sense at all," Mr. Tallon said, noting that early detection
    is crucial in case of Avian flu or bioterrorism. "It takes one
    epidemic to change everyone's attitudes about this."

    In some cases, the change in attitude comes instead from
    immigrants who arrived with high expectations of American
    medicine and now yearn for the kind they left back home.
    Yelena Deykin, a legal refugee who came from Ukraine in
    2000, said that if she had the money, she would take her
    son back there for treatment of his thyroid ailment.
    "Our doctor not like your doctor," she said. "Altruism —
    not business."

    In Mr. Zhao's hospital room, visitors began to hope for his
    recovery. After three weeks, he seemed responsive when
    they called his name. So it came as a shock when Mr. Chung,
    the waiter acting as a translator, relayed a new request from
    a doctor: Would they agree to let Mr. Zhao die?

    Mr. Chung, who would soon return to work at an Asian
    restaurant in South Charleston, W.Va., translated the request
    for a "do not resuscitate" order as best he could, and drew his
    own conclusions. "Maybe some people don't like Chinese," he said.

    Ming Tong refused to sign the order, then telephoned his
    brother's son, in China, and asked him to decide. The son
    wept. Now 23, he had been a child of 9 when he last saw his
    father. As they discussed it again on Aug. 9, Mr. Zhao grew
    agitated. He tried to pull free of his tubes and his oxygen mask,
    as though he wanted to speak. Instead, despite resuscitation
    efforts, he died without a word.

    In the End, No Answers

    "The one thing that he wanted the most in his life was to see
    his son again, and he didn't even get that chance," Ming Tong
    said. "Why did he die? I asked the doctors. They didn't know.
    They didn't answer me."

    For immigrants, the divide of language and culture often deepens
    after death. In this case, doctors requested an autopsy. Ming Tong
    refused, in keeping with Chinese tradition. Doctors certified the
    death as natural, not mentioning the pills. The official cause of
    death was lobar pneumonia and sepsis, secondary to diabetes
    and hypertension — acute lung and blood infections, that can
    attack patients on ventilators, but whose origins in this case are
    unknown, and chronic conditions that weaken the system.

    On Aug. 13, The World Journal, a Chinese-language newspaper
    circulating to 300,000 in North America, described Mr. Zhao's
    death as part of a pattern of fatal misdiagnoses and wrong
    medications given by unlicensed practitioners on East Broadway,
    the thoroughfare of Fujianese Chinatown.

    But at the Medical Examiner's Office, where an inquiry could
    have been ordered, no one reads Chinese and no one was
    aware of questions about the case. Permission for cremation
    was granted the next day.

    Most of Mr. Zhao's possessions fit into his coffin. The rest,
    including the pills, were discarded. But a woman going to
    his funeral called The New York Times and accused an
    unlicensed practitioner on East Broadway of mishandling
    Mr. Zhao's case.

    A decade ago, the Chinese American Medical Society helped
    spur a short-lived state crackdown on a Chinatown subculture
    of fake doctors. But "there are more illegal doctors than ever
    now," said Dr. Peter Fong, an ophthalmologist and a former
    vice president of the society. They are not just offering herbal
    supplements, for which no license is required, he said, but
    practicing medicine without a license — a crime.

    To John C. Liu, the first Asian-American elected to the New
    York City Council, the reason is obvious: "What empowers the
    quacks is lack of access to health care."

    Chinese workers scattered in jobs throughout New York and
    across the country periodically return to East Broadway, the
    hub of Fujianese life in the United States, to find health care
    — of a sort.

    No. 52, where Mr. Chung says he accompanied Mr. Zhao last
    summer and saw the dispensing of the pills, is stacked with
    self-styled clinics. One thrives at the back of a basement
    computer store; another features $30 pregnancy sonograms
    and a crookedly lettered sign for "precise dental art."

    The establishment of Yu Yuan Zhang, 50, where Mr. Chung
    said he and Mr. Zhao went, has operated for 11 years. Near
    drawers of Chinese herbs hangs a New York State medical
    license — in someone else's name. Visibly nervous, Mr. Zhang
    denied that any pills he dispensed could cause harm. "They're
    made in China," he said, "available all over, in the street."

    By then, the only evidence left of Mr. Zhao's 12 years in the
    United States were bills, ashes and a death certificate that
    his brother could not read. Pressed about the case, the
    practitioner did not hesitate.

    "There is no such person," he said. "There is no Ming Qiang Zhao."

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

    9) It's official: class matters
    A major new study shows that social background determines pupils'
    success. Does it mean that the government is heading in the wrong
    direction? Matthew Taylor reports
    Tuesday February 28, 2006
    The Guardian
    http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1719123,00.html

    It is a familiar scene: mum and dad hunched at the kitchen table,
    poring over Ofsted reports and brochures, trying to fathom which
    is the best school for their child. But a new report, obtained by
    Education Guardian, suggests that these well-meaning parents,
    and thousands like them, are looking in the wrong place. Instead
    of trying to decode inspectors' reports or work out whether
    academies are better than voluntary-aided schools or trusts
    superior to community comprehensives, they need look no
    further than the average earnings among parents.

    A study by academics at University College London (UCL) and
    Kings College London has given statistical backbone to the view
    that the overwhelming factor in how well children do is not what
    type of school they attend- but social class. It appears to show
    what has often been said but never proved: that the current
    league tables measure not the best, but the most middle-class
    schools; and that even the government's "value-added" tables
    fail to take account of the most crucial factor in educational
    outcomes - a pupil's address.

    The report, which uses previously unreleased information
    from the Department for Education and Skills, matches
    almost 1 million pupils with their individual postcode
    and exam scores at 11 and 15.

    This unprecedented project has revealed that a child's social
    background is the crucial factor in academic performance,
    and that a school's success is based not on its teachers,
    the way it is run, or what type of school it is, but,
    overwhelmingly, on the class background of its pupils.

    "These are very important findings, which should change
    the way parents, pupils and politicians think about schools,"
    says Richard Webber, professor at UCL. "This is the first time
    we have been able to measure the precise impact of a child's
    social background on their educational performance, as
    well as the importance of a school's intake on its standing
    in the league tables."

    The findings come at a pivotal time in education with the
    government determined to push through its education reforms
    in a new schools bill, expected to be published today. If it is
    successful, all primary and secondary schools will be
    encouraged to become independent trusts with control
    over their own admissions. But many critics have argued
    that the government should be introducing more rigorous
    controls over admissions - to ensure as many schools as
    possible have a balanced intake of middle- and working-
    class children.

    The study found that, whatever their background, children
    do better the more "middle-class" the school they attend,
    and also that more than 50% of a school's performance is
    accounted for by the social make-up of its pupils.

    In affluent areas, such as Dukes Avenue, Muswell Hill, in
    north London, and Lammas Park Road, Ealing, west London,
    the study would expect 67% of 11-year-olds to achieve level 5
    in the national English tests and 94% of 15-yearolds to get
    five or more passes at GCSE at grade C and above.

    Meanwhile, of the children growing up in more deprived areas,
    such as Hillside Road, Dudley, or Laurel Road, Tipton (both
    in the West Midlands), just 13% are likely to get the top level 5
    in the national English tests for 11-year-olds, while only 24%
    of 15-year-olds will be reckoned to achieve the benchmark
    do. The more middle-class children there are at the school,
    the better it does. It is proof that class still rules the classroom.

    "The results show that the position of a school in published
    league tables, the criterion typically used by parents to select
    successful schools, depends more on the social profile of its
    pupils than the quality of the teachers," says Webber, who,
    along with Professor Tim Butler from Kings, has devised
    new school league tables from the data that take the social
    background of each pupil into account. "

    As it stands, parents who want to do the best for their children
    should choose a school according to how middle-class its intake
    is, rather than on the type of school or the quality of the teaching.

    "For schools the message is clear. Selecting children whose homes
    are in high-status neighbourhoods is one of the most effective
    ways of retaining a high position in the league table. For statisticians,
    meanwhile, it proves that the existing tables, which ignore the
    types of home from which a school draws its pupils, are necessarily
    an unfair and imprecise means of judging a school's achievements."

    The study looked at 476,000 11-year olds and 482,000 15-year-olds.
    The data was analysed through Mosaic, a programme devised by the
    information company Experian, which divides the UK population by
    postcode into 11 main groups and 61 types, providing detailed insight
    into the socio-demographics, lifestyles, culture and behaviour of
    UK citizens. It is being used in key policy areas, such as health and
    crime, but this is the first time it has been used to assess the link
    between education performance and social class.

    The study revealed how pupils from each of the 61 socio-economic
    groups performed given their background, allowing statisticians to
    set a benchmark score and measure each school's performance
    against that, in light of its intake. For this research Mosaic was linked
    to the Pupil Level Annual Statistics Data (National Pupil Database),
    provided by the DfES, to enable more accurate and context-based
    benchmarking of educational attainment.

    The full report, which has yet to be given a title, will be published
    later this year and will be available from UCL.

    Moving to a segregated system

    Webber and Butler warn that introducing further freedoms for
    schools, as the government is, may allow middle-class parents
    and schools to choose each other, leaving those from poorer
    backgrounds stranded in an increasingly segregated system.

    "Given the chance, a school will do as well as it can, and, as this
    research shows, that means attracting as many middleclass pupils
    as possible. Parentscan see that their children will do better in the
    most middle-class schools, so they will strive to work the system
    to get in. So, by giving schools more independence and creating
    a market in education, you run the serious risk of polarising pupils
    along class lines," says Webber.

    He insists the government's attempts to introduce a market in
    education are also economically flawed: "The beneficial peer
    group effects caused by the children of highly educated parents
    means a market will not operate in the usual way. The best
    educational achievement for the largest number of pupils will
    be achieved by having a broad social mix of pupils in as many
    schools as possible. Some schools that currently draw their pupils
    from privileged social strata would lose out, but education standards
    would increase overall."

    Ministers who have gone cold on the idea of banding school
    admissions by ability in last year's white paper are unlikely
    to take much heed of the authors' concerns, but the new school
    league tables created by Webber and Butler are likely to raise further
    questions about the validity of the existing criteria for measuring
    success.

    The tables, which work out how well schools should do in light
    of the social background of their intake, throw up differences with
    the scores produced by the DfES. In the primary school table, many
    previously middling schools come near the top of the pile. For
    secondary schools, the differences between the DfES's value-added
    figures and the alternative table are less pronounced. "For the first
    time, we can see exactly how well schools are doing, taking into
    account the really crucial factor - the social background of their pupils,"
    said Webber. "Previously even the value-added tables have failed to
    recognise the success of schools that serve very deprived communities.
    Conversely, some of the schools that are usually near the top
    in traditional tables are shown to be not quite as successful when
    you realise just how privileged their intake is."

    This is a view echoed - unsurprisingly - by Christine Haddock,
    headteacher at Larkspur community school in Gateshead -the most
    successful primary in the country according to the new league table.

    "This is fantastic news," Haddock told Education Guardian. "We have
    always known that we are doing a good job for the children here,
    but the usual league tables rarely reflect that feeling.

    "We serve a deprived area. In the last three years 46%-59% of our
    children have been eligible for free school meals [the standard
    indicator of deprivation]. But these findings reflect what we have
    always known: that this is a good school that looks after its pupils
    as well as it possibly can. Many of them are at quite a low level
    when they arrive, but they make massive strides before they leave.

    "In the end, it's not about where you come in tables, it's about the
    difference that we can make to children's lives round here, but this
    will be a real boost to all the people who work so hard at the school."

    Another primary headteacher who welcomed the new league tables
    was Simon O'Keefe, headteacher of The Powell School in Dover,
    Kent, which came second in the country after not making the top
    250 schools in the value-added rankings produced by the
    Guardian from the DfES performance tables.

    "It is only in recent years that we are starting to feel we are
    getting recognition, but nothing like this," says O'Keefe. "It is
    obviously nice to feel we are successful in what we are trying to
    do here, but there is always room for improvement and, in the
    end, league tables are nice, but it is about teaching children to
    the best of our abilities so that they can reach their potential."

    The school has around 33% of pupils eligible for free school meals
    and a similar proportion with special educational needs. "All our
    children, with perhaps one or two exceptions, come from the local
    council estate and from a fairly deprived background, but we have
    high expectations for them. We have high expectations of what they
    can achieve and of their behaviour. That, along with excellent teaching,
    is our fairly obvious secret."

    Questions for parents and schools

    Among secondary schools, although many community schools with
    more socially deprived intakes make it into the top 200, some of the
    more traditional table-toppers still do well, particularly those from
    the grammar school sector.

    Webber says this is because there is more selection at secondary schools,
    so they often cream off the more able pupils from disadvantaged areas
    while maintaining high results.

    He adds that the research, including the new league tables, should be
    seen as the start rather than the end of an ongoing discussion.

    "There are endless questions that this research throws up for parents
    and schools and, perhaps most crucially of all, for those making the
    decisions on where we go from here. Hopefully, this will begin a debate
    that will lead to a greater understanding of what is actually working in
    our schools and how best we can help children from all backgrounds
    achieve their potential."

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

    10) Negroponte's 'Serious Setback'
    By Dahr Jamail
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Friday 03 March 2006
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    John Negroponte, the US National Intelligence Director, provided
    testimony on Tuesday at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on
    "global threats."

    Negroponte, who was the US ambassador to Iraq from June 2004 to April
    2005, was immediately promoted to his current position after his
    presence in Iraq. Ironically, he warned the committee on Tuesday, "If
    chaos were to descend upon Iraq or the forces of democracy were to be
    defeated in that country ... this would have implications for the rest
    of the Middle East region and, indeed, the world."

    Warning of the outcome of a possible civil war in Iraq, Negroponte said
    sectarian civil war in Iraq would be a "serious setback" to the global
    war on terror. Note - he did not say it would be a "serious setback" to
    the Iraqi people, over 1,400 of whom have been slaughtered in sectarian
    violence touched off by the bombing of the Golden Mosque last week in
    Samarra.

    No, the violence and instability in Iraq would be a "serious setback" to
    the global "war on terror."

    But it's interesting for him to continue, "The consequences for the
    people of Iraq would be catastrophic," whilst feigning his concern.
    Because generating catastrophic consequences for civilian populations
    just happens to be his specialty.

    If we briefly review the political history of John Negroponte, we find a
    man who has had a career bent toward generating civilian death and
    widespread human rights abuses, and promoting sectarian and ethnic violence.

    Remember when Negroponte was the US ambassador to Honduras, from 1981 to
    1985? While there he earned the distinction of being accused of
    widespread human rights violations by the Honduras Commission on Human
    Rights while he worked as "a tough cold warrior who enthusiastically
    carried out President Ronald Reagan's strategy," according to cables
    sent between Negroponte and Washington during his tenure there.

    The human rights violations carried out by Negroponte were described as
    "systematic."

    These violations Negroponte oversaw in Honduras were carried out by
    operatives trained by the CIA. Records document his "special
    intelligence units," better known as "death squads," comprised of
    CIA-trained Honduran armed units which kidnapped, tortured and killed
    hundreds of people. Victims also included US missionaries (similar to
    Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq) who happened to witness many of the
    atrocities.

    Negroponte had full knowledge of these activities, while he made sure US
    military aid to Honduras increased from $4 million to $77.4 million a
    year during his tenure, and the tiny country became so jammed with US
    soldiers it was dubbed the "USS Honduras."

    It is also important to remember that Negroponte oversaw construction of
    the air base where Nicaraguan Contras were trained by the US. This air
    base, El Aguacate, was also used as a secret detention and torture
    center during his time in Honduras.

    While Negroponte was the US ambassador to Honduras, civilian deaths
    sky-rocketed into the tens of thousands. During his first full year, the
    local newspapers carried no less than 318 stories of extra-judicial
    attacks by the military.

    He has been described as an "old fashioned imperialist" and got his
    start during the Vietnam War in the CIA's Phoenix program, which
    assassinated some 40,000 Vietnamese "subversives."

    Negroponte's death squads used electric shock and suffocation devices in
    interrogations, kept their prisoners naked, and when a prisoner was no
    longer useful he was brutally executed.

    Outraged at the human rights abuses by the Reagan-Bush administration,
    in 1984 Nicaragua took its case to the World Court in The Hague. The
    decision of the court was for the Reagan-Bush administration to
    terminate its "unlawful use of force" in international terrorism and pay
    substantial reparations to the victims. The White House responded by
    brushing off the court's findings and vetoed two UN Security Council
    resolutions that affirmed the judgment that all states must observe
    international law.

    In the middle of Negroponte's tenure in Iraq, the Pentagon (read Donald
    Rumsfeld) openly considered using assassination and kidnapping teams
    there, led by the Special Forces.

    Referred to not-so-subtly as "the Salvador option," the January 2005
    rhetoric from the Pentagon publicized a proposal that would send Special
    Forces teams to "advise, support and possibly train" Iraqi "squads."
    Members of these squads would be hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga militia
    and Shia Badr militiamen used to target Sunni resistance fighters and
    their sympathizers.

    What better man to make this happen than John Negroponte? His experience
    made him the perfect guy for the job. What a nice coincidence that he
    just happened to be in Baghdad when the Pentagon/Rumsfeld were
    discussing "the Salvador option."

    Fast forward to present day Iraq, which is a situation described by the
    Washington Post in this way: "Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the
    morgue at midday Monday - blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed,
    garroted or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their
    heads. Many of the bodies were sprawled with their hands still bound."

    The Independent newspaper from London recently reports that hundreds of
    Iraqis each month are tortured to death or executed by death squads
    working out of the Shia-run Ministry of Interior.

    During the aforementioned committee hearing, Negroponte said that the US
    is concerned about the purchasing of arms by Venezuelan President Hugo
    Chavez. Negroponte accused Chavez of using funds generated from the sale
    of oil to purchase weaponry, saying, "It's clear that he is spending
    hundreds of millions, if not more, for his very extravagant foreign
    policy at the expense of the impoverished Venezuelan population."

    Coincidentally, on the exact same day he said this, the US State
    Department announced that the only new rebuilding money in its latest
    budget request for Iraq is for prisons.

    With no other big building projects scheduled for Iraq in the next year,
    the State Department coordinator for Iraq is asking Congress for $100
    million for prisons, while the Iraqi people languish with 3.2 hours of
    electricity daily in the average home, staggering unemployment and
    horrendous security, with most still dependent upon a monthly food ration.

    Meanwhile John Pace, the Human Rights Chief for the UN Assistance
    Mission in Iraq until last month, recently stated that he believes the
    US has violated the Geneva Conventions in Iraq and is fueling the
    violence via raiding Iraqi homes and detaining thousands of innocent
    Iraqis. Pace estimates that between 80-90% of Iraqi detainees are innocent.

    During an interview on Democracy Now!, when asked to described the role
    of the militias in Iraq, Pace said "they first started as a kind of
    militia, sort of organized armed groups, which were the military wing of
    various factions. And they have - they had a considerable role to play
    in the [security] vacuum that was created by the invasion."

    He went on to describe their actions: "So you have these militias now
    with police gear and under police insignia basically carrying out an
    agenda which really is not in the interest of the country as a whole.
    They have roadblocks in Baghdad and other areas, they would kidnap other
    people. They have been very closely linked with numerous mass executions
    ..."

    Pace, when asked if there were death squads in Iraq, replied, "I would
    say yes, there are death squads," and "my observations would confirm
    that at least at a certain point last year and in 2005, we saw numerous
    instances where the behavior of death squads was very similar, uncannily
    similar to that we had observed in other countries, including El Salvador."

    What we're witnessing in Iraq now with these death squads and escalating
    sectarian violence is the product of policies implemented by Negroponte
    when he was the US Ambassador in Iraq.

    But let us remove the covert operations factor for a moment.

    For over a year now, Shia death squads have been killing Sunni en masse.

    Thus, at first glance, the bombing of the Golden Mosque last week as
    Sunni retaliation makes sense.

    However, what doesn't make sense is the immediate showing of solidarity
    between Shia and Sunni clerics following the bombing.

    Let us now reinsert the covert operations factor into this equation.

    Along with the showing of religious solidarity, there is widespread
    belief by Shiite religious clerics both in and outside Iraq, as well as
    belief in the Arab media, that US covert operations were behind the bombing:

    * Shiite Cleric Muqtada Al Sadr blamed the United States occupation for
    the current violence. He recently stated, "My message to the Iraqi
    people is to stand united and bonded, and not to fall into the Western
    trap. The West is trying to divide the Iraqi people. As God is my
    witness, I hereby demand an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of
    the occupation forces from Iraq."

    * In another interview, Sadr stated, "We say that the occupiers are
    responsible for such crisis [Golden Mosque bombing] ... there is only
    one enemy. The occupier."

    * Adel Abdul Mehdi, the Iraqi Vice President, held the American
    Ambassador [Zalmay Khalilzad] responsible for the bombing of the Golden
    Mosque, "especially since occupation forces did not comply with curfew
    orders imposed by the Iraqi government."

    He added, "Evidence indicates that the occupation may be trying to
    undermine and weaken the Iraqi government."
    * At a major demonstration in Beirut, prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric
    and Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said America and
    Israel are to blame for the sectarian divisions in Iraq, claiming that
    the violence will offer further justifications for maintaining the
    occupation of Iraq.

    * According to the Saudi-based Arab News editorial, a civil-war scenario
    may serve the interests of the Bush administration: "This may in the end
    be what Washington wants, because if Iraq plunges into chaos, it could
    be the Bush ticket out of the Iraq debacle, albeit paid for in rivers of
    Iraqi blood as well the utter humiliation of the president's
    administration and its neo-con agenda."

    * Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, urged Iraqi Shia
    not to seek revenge against Sunni Muslims, saying there were definite
    plots "to force the Shia to attack the mosques and other properties
    respected by the Sunni," and blamed the intelligence services of the US
    and Israel for being responsible for the bombing of the Golden Mosque.

    * Hoseyn Shari'atmadarit wrote in the Keyhan newspaper of Iran on
    February 25 of several instances of documented covert operations carried
    out by occupation forces in Iraq, including: "In Shahrivar two British
    intelligence officers were arrested [in September 2005] at an inspection
    post while carrying a considerable amount of explosives, detonators and
    other equipment necessary to build a bomb. This event certainly shows
    the direct involvement of the English intelligence service in the
    bombings in Iraq ... The commander of the English military deployed in
    Basra [then] issued an order to attack the police centre and release two
    English saboteurs."

    In the recent committee meeting, Negroponte told US senators he was
    seeing progress in Iraq. He said, "And if we continue to make that kind
    of progress, yes, we can win in Iraq."

    Evidently the kind of progress John Negroponte sees in Iraq is not the
    kind that benefits the Iraqi people. Because the only progress in Iraq,
    apart from building prisons, is for the situation to continue growing
    progressively worse by deepening sectarian divides, despite the best
    efforts of religious leaders to create peace and unity.

    Would civil war in Iraq be a "serious setback" for John Negroponte?
    Because the sectarian violence happening in Iraq right now is already a
    "serious setback" for the Iraqi people.

    Thus, does Negroponte really care if there is civil war? Does he really
    concern himself with the wellbeing of the Iraqi people? Or is his main
    concern creating the catastrophe which keeps them divided?

    www.truthout.org

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

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

    11) On the Contrary
    Why Rules Can't Stop Executive Greed
    By DANIEL AKST
    March 5, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/business/yourmoney/05cont.html?pagewanted=all

    IN the arena of executive compensation, two recent developments
    stand out against the backdrop of continuing looting. First, the
    Securities and Exchange Commission announced plans to make
    corporations more fully disclose executive pay. Second, a study
    by Mercer Human Resource Consulting found that more companies
    were imposing performance targets on the stock and options they
    granted to C.E.O.'s.

    To the uninitiated, these events may suggest that some moderation
    is in the offing, but ultimately neither will help much. Any benefit
    from shining the cleansing light of day on executive greed will
    probably be outweighed by the inflationary effect of additional
    disclosure, which will provide more ammunition for executives
    and consultants seeking to justify additional increases. They
    have to keep up with the Joneses, they'll say.

    Tying pay more firmly to performance won't help, either. Boards
    will find ways around the requirements if performance isn't up
    to snuff, and they will continue to bid irrationally for unduly
    coveted executives.

    As Rakesh Khurana showed in his insightful book, "Searching
    for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic
    C.E.O.'s" (Princeton University Press, 2002), there is a much
    wider pool of potential chief executives than soaring pay levels
    would seem to imply. But companies insist on bidding for
    a savior, not a capable leader who knows the business at hand,
    which may be why typical C.E.O. tenures are now so short.
    Even in the boardroom, charisma carries you only so far.

    Indeed, linking pay to stock prices is liable to do more harm
    than good. A stock price isn't much of a measure of executive
    performance, anyway. A huge part of that price reflects industry
    conditions; energy companies soared not because they were
    run by paragons of diligence or insight, but because of world
    events beyond any executive's control. In hard times, moreover,
    a company's stock may take a hit, but those are precisely the
    times when good leadership is most difficult — and valuable.

    Other performance metrics can be equally troublesome,
    encouraging executives to massage earnings, sacrifice long-
    term strength for higher short-term sales and profits and
    otherwise act in ways detrimental to everyone but the C.E.O.,
    his family and a few lucky divorce lawyers.

    Perverse incentives notwithstanding, this focus on metrics
    is a sad acknowledgment by corporate directors that they
    cannot control themselves or the pay they hand over to their
    top five executives. In one study, two professors, Lucian A.
    Bebchuk of Harvard and Yaniv Grinstein of Cornell, found
    that from 2001 to 2003, such pay totaled roughly 10 percent
    of corporate profits at public companies. It's a bizarre twist
    on the tradition of tithing, one that benefits the rich instead
    of the needy and conscripts America's shareholders as
    involuntary donors.

    Although more disclosure and pay-for-performance requirements
    won't dampen runaway C.E.O. compensation, both are useful for
    illustrating a larger lesson: that it's naïve to place too much faith
    in the power of rules to limit human behavior. Indeed, the
    problem of C.E.O. compensation suggests that, as in many
    aspects of modern life, few mechanisms of constraint are as
    effective as one on which we relied so often in the past.
    That mechanism was shame.

    You'd think that more disclosure would produce more shame,
    and thus less pay, for C.E.O.'s and other top executives.
    Unfortunately, disclosure of a few more million here and there
    won't fundamentally change a hiring system that actively recruits
    the most grasping and hubristic candidates. Consider the
    incentives: by offering lavish pay and perks that would make
    royalty blush, corporate directors today are perhaps unwittingly
    selecting C.E.O.'s for shamelessness and egotism rather than
    leadership.

    HISTORY teaches that there is no ultimate solution to the so-
    called agency problem, or the tendency of those who merely
    work in an enterprise to act in their own interest rather than
    that of the owners. Rules and incentives can help, of course,
    but they cannot take the place of an honest sense of obligation,
    duty and loyalty — values that ought to run in all directions in
    any decent corporate culture.

    This web of mutual obligation is an invisible social safety net —
    a form of corporate social capital — which we've unfortunately
    allowed to fray. Rapidly rising income inequality is a sign of the
    resulting imbalance.

    Corporate chieftains may continue to enjoy unearned bounty,
    but they should not be surprised if someday they — and the
    hapless investors who employ them — reap the same brand
    of cynicism they are sowing. If that happens, we'll all be poorer
    for it.

    Daniel Akst is a journalist and novelist who writes often about
    business. E-mail: culmoney@nytimes.com.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    LINKS ONLY
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    The Search for Illegal Immigrants Stops at the Workplace
    By EDUARDO PORTER
    March 5, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/business/yourmoney/05view.html?pagewanted=all

    Army Ordered to Look Again at Battle Death
    By MONICA DAVEY and ERIC SCHMITT
    March 5, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/politics/05tillman.html?hp&ex=1141621200&en=2463e361b62d1cf2&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Venezuela aims for biggest military reserve in Americas
    Greg Morsbach in Caracas
    Saturday March 4, 2006
    Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,1723274,00.html

    Midwest Oil fined for selling gas too cheaply
    The state imposed a $140,000 penalty for what it called "willful,
    continuing, and egregious" violations of the price law.
    Minneapolis Star Tribune
    By Tom Ford
    February 24, 2006
    http://www.rickross.com/reference/rama_behera/rama_behera57.html

    The Mansion the War Bought
    The Palazzo Feinstein
    By JOSHUA FRANK
    February 28, 2006
    http://www.counterpunch.org/frank02282006.html

    Pilots Agree to Pay Cut at Northwest
    By JEFF BAILEY
    March 4, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/04/business/04air.html?pagewanted=all

    Looks like Toussaint won't be jailbird
    By PETE DONOHUE
    DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
    New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
    Thursday, March 2nd, 2006
    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/396075p-335742c.html

    FinalCall.com News Announces Exclusive Preview
    of Upcoming Hurricane Katrina Documentary
    http://www.finalcall.com/media/katrina-preview/

    NEW U.S. FOCUS ON PROMOTING DEMOCRACY IN IRAN
    By Guy Dinmore
    Financial Times (UK)
    March 2, 2006
    http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f6526ad0-aa45-11da-96ea-0000779e2340.html

    From the Los Angeles Times
    Antarctica Cannot Replace Ice Loss
    Study finds continent is shrinking faster than it can grow.
    Experts say changes to the global water cycle could hasten
    the pace of sea-level rise.
    By Robert Lee Hotz
    Times Staff Writer
    March 3, 2006
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-sci-warming3mar03,1,4008400.story?coll=la-headlines-world

    Pentagon Intelligence Agency Reviewed for Corruption
    Federal investigators are looking into contracts awarded by the
    Pentagon's newest and fastest-growing intelligence agency, the
    Counterintelligence Field Activity, which has spent more than
    $1 billion, mostly for outsourced services, since its establishment
    in late 2002, according to administration and congressional sources.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030306J.shtml

    Medicare Says It Will Pay, but Patients Say 'No Thanks'
    By GINA KOLATA
    March 3, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/business/03lung.html

    F.B.I., in Bid-Rigging Inquiry, Raids Offices of Labor Leader
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
    March 3, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/nyregion/03labor.html

    Senate Passes Legislation to Renew Patriot Act
    By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
    WASHINGTON, March 2 — The Senate overwhelmingly passed
    legislation renewing the sweeping antiterror law known as the
    USA Patriot Act on Thursday, ending a months-long impasse
    on Capitol Hill and virtually guaranteeing that the measure
    will go to President Bush to be signed.
    The vote of 89 to 10, followed an agreement last month by
    the White House to add more protections for individual
    privacy. That deal mollified four Senate Republicans, who
    had joined with Democrats last year in blocking the bill,
    an extension of a law enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
    March 3, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/politics/03patriot.html

    Suit Accuses a Police Chief of Blocking CPR
    By ADAM LIPTAK
    Billy Snead was furiously trying to save the life of a friend having
    a heart attack on a West Virginia roadside in June when the police
    chief arrived. The chief, Mr. Snead recalled yesterday, ordered
    him to stop.
    The chief, Robert K. Bowman of the small town of Welch, told
    Mr. Snead that his friend, red-faced and gasping for breath, had
    the virus that causes AIDS, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday.
    Chief Bowman grabbed Mr. Snead's shoulder, the suit says, pulling
    him away from his friend, Claude Green Jr.
    March 3, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/national/03cpr.html

    For Thirsty Farmers, Old Friends at Interior Dept.
    By TIMOTHY EGAN
    FRESNO, Calif. — For more than 10 years, Jason Peltier was a paid
    advocate for the irrigation-dependent farmers here in the Central
    Valley of California, several hundred landowners who each year
    consume more water than the city of Los Angeles does.
    Now Mr. Peltier works for the Bush administration, and he helps
    oversee the awarding of new water contracts for the people
    he used to represent as head of the Central Valley Project
    Water Users Association.
    March 3, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/national/03water.html?hp&ex=1141448400&en=49e5944dc5ecbad0&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Archivist Urges U.S. to Reopen Classified Files
    By SCOTT SHANE
    WASHINGTON, March 2 — After complaints from historians, the
    National Archives directed intelligence agencies on Thursday to
    stop removing previously declassified historical documents from
    public access and urged them to return to the shelves as quickly
    as possible many of the records they had already pulled.
    March 3, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/politics/03archives.html?ei=5094&en=b9932bb452d6188e&hp=&ex=1141448400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1141406596-jeSY0R99Qlu9YSPg7ggdJQ

    BUSH IN INDIA: JUST NOT WELCOME
    By Arundhati Roy
    Nation
    March 13, 2006 (posted Mar. 1)
    http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060313/roy

    Road to Nowhere
    The FBI probes links between state Senator Don Perata and
    a $40 million roadway project designed to enrich Alameda
    developer Ron Cowan.
    By Robert Gammon and Will Harper
    http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2006-03-01/news/feature.html

    Let 'em vote, says MTA official
    BY PETE DONOHUE
    DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/395758p-335476c.html

    New Civil Rights pictures published--for first time!
    http://www.al.com/unseen/

    Dear Mr Blair, why are you afraid to meet us?
    As two more British soldiers die in Iraq, The Independent publishes
    an open letter from bereaved relatives to the Prime Minister
    Published: 01 March 2006
    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article348412.ece

    Veterans Report Mental Distress
    About a Third Returning From Iraq Seek Help
    By Shankar Vedantam
    Washington Post Staff Writer
    Wednesday, March 1, 2006; Page A01
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801712.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

    Mississippi Bill to Ban Most Abortions Advances
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Filed at 12:49 p.m. ET
    March 1, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Mississippi-Abortion.html

    Legalities of Corporate Tax Incentives Before Court
    By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
    The Supreme Court takes up a major case today about the legality
    of tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks that states and local
    governments award businesses each year to build new factories
    or offices, or just to stay put.
    March 1, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/business/01chrysler.html?pagewanted=all

    Senate Approves Curbs on Some Patriot Act Powers
    By DAVID STOUT
    March 1, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/politics/01cnd-patriot.html?hp&ex=1141275600&en=2bd50dcbba1c7ad6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Storm's Missing: Lives Not Lost but Disconnected
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    March 1, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/national/nationalspecial/01missing.html?ei=5094&en=67049a0ad8696455&hp=&ex=1141275600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1141235275-YqD+eWAOakQp0wH6DfAb9Q

    Zogby Poll: 72% of US Troops in Iraq Say End War in 2006
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0228-09.htm

    Armed Forces Are Put on Standby to Tackle Threat of Wars over Water
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0228-05htm

    Seven Arrested at White House Protest against Iraq War
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0228-08.htm

    Incomes Fall, Hunger Worsens as Bush Says 'We're Doing Fine'
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0228-06.htm

    Byrd Says He Regrets Voting For Patriot Act
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0228-07.htm

    Worldwide Poll Shows 60% Fear Terror Threat is Worse after War
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0228-04.htm
    Report on Mexican 'Dirty War' Details Abuse by Military
    By GINGER THOMPSON
    MEXICO CITY, Feb. 26 — A secret report prepared by a special
    prosecutor's office says the Mexican military carried out a "genocide
    plan" of kidnapping, torturing and killing hundreds of suspected
    subversives in the southern state of Guerrero during the so-called
    dirty war, from the late 1960's to the early 1980's.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/international/americas/27mexico.html?ex=1141707600&en=929bc9aaef753ecc&ei=5070&emc=eta1

    DELPHI NEGOTIATIONS Workers rally for support
    Youngstown Vindicator - Youngstown,OH,USA
    ... Steve Miller, Delphi chairman and chief executive, first proposed cutting
    production workers' hourly wages from $27 to $9.50 and later revised that
    offer to $12 ...


    DELPHI Workers at Ohio Plant OK Strike
    Local 755 represents 1050 workers at a Delphi suspension parts plant in
    Kettering,  Ohio. ... The United Steelworkers, which represents 1000 Delphi
    workers, ...


    AL.COM: NewsFlash - Delphi workers at Ohio plant authorize strike
    Local 755 represents 1050 workers at a Delphi suspension parts plant in
    Kettering,  Ohio. "It's the first time the membership as a whole was heard,
    ...


    DELPHI workers OK potential strike - 2006-02-24
    American City Business Journals Inc. is the nation's largest publisher
    of  metropolitan business newspapers, serving 41 of the country's most
    vibrant ...


    UNION officials work on a future for the GM Moraine Assembly plant
    Dayton Daily News (subscription) - Dayton,OH,USA
    ... not guaranteed work beyond that span and must compete with other plants
    to win the company's approval for future work. GM has asked Moraine's
    union to consider ...

    To e-mail Community Labor News: clnews@lists.clnews.org

    Cat in Germany Has Bird Flu
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Filed at 12:35 p.m. ET
    February 28, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Germany-Bird-Flu.html?hp&ex=1141189200&en=0de050ca89e848e7&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Supreme Court Backs Abortion Protesters in Unanimous Ruling
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Filed at 12:00 p.m. ET
    February 28, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Abortion-Protests.html?hp&ex=1141189200&en=aba17cd1237ad83f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Army to Pay Halliburton Unit Most Costs Disputed by Audit
    By JAMES GLANZ
    The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary for
    nearly all of its disputed costs on a $2.41 billion no-bid contract
    to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the
    Pentagon's own auditors had identified more than $250 million in
    charges as potentially excessive or unjustified.
    The Army said in response to questions on Friday that questionable
    business practices by the subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, had
    in some cases driven up the company's costs. But in the haste and
    peril of war, it had largely done as well as could be expected, the
    Army said, and aside from a few penalties, the government was
    compelled to reimburse the company for its costs.
    February 27, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/international/middleeast/27contract.html?hp&ex=1141102800&en=8930bc6384bc57a9&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Commentary: The Old Cliche’s True – The Rich are Getting Richer,
    The Poor Getting Poorer
    Date: Thursday, February 23, 2006
    By: Judge Greg Mathis, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com
    http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/sayitloud/mathis224

    FOCUS | Paul Krugman: Graduates versus Oligarchs
    According to Paul Krugman, it may take some time before we muster the
    political will to counter inequality. But the first step toward doing
    something about inequality is to abandon the 80-20 fallacy. It's time to
    face up to the fact that rising inequality is driven by the giant
    income gains of a tiny elite, not the modest gains of college graduates.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022706Z.shtml

    Two Tiers, Slipping Into One
    By LOUIS UCHITELLE
    PEORIA, Ill.
    [This is an important article for those who want to understand
    what's happening to working people here in the USA...bw]
    February 26, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/business/yourmoney/26wages.html?ex=1141621200&en=9cb1a9505c1b30af&ei=5070&emc=eta1

    Rumsfeld Zeros in on the Internet
    By Mike Whitney
    http://informationclearinghouse.info/

    What Civil War Could Look Like
    By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
    WASHINGTON
    February 26, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/weekinreview/26weis.html?hp&ex=1140930000&en=2a65044182e129ea&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Abortion Returns to Center Stage
    By PETER STEINFELS
    February 25, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/25/national/25beliefs.html?pagewanted=all

    Amid Revelry, Evidence of City's Cruel Transformation
    By ADAM NOSSITER
    February 25, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/25/national/nationalspecial/25mardi.html?pagewanted=all

    I.R.S. Finds Sharp Increase in Illegal Political Activity
    By STEPHANIE STROM
    February 25, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/25/national/25charity.html?pagewanted=all

    Schools Where the Only Real Test Is Basketball
    By PETE THAMEL
    February 25, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/25/sports/ncaabasketball/25preps.html?hp&ex=1140930000&en=c338c52b380c9d61&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Taking Spying to Higher Level, Agencies Look
    for More Ways to Mine Data
    By JOHN MARKOFF
    But by fundamentally changing the nature of surveillance,
    high-tech data mining raises privacy concerns that are only
    beginning to be debated widely. That is because to find illicit
    activities it is necessary to turn loose software sentinels
    to examine all digital behavior whether it is innocent or not.
    February 25, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/25/technology/25data.html?pagewanted=all

    Swami Beyondananda's 2006 State of the Universe Address
    Swami Calls for an Up-Wising
    Wise Up, Everybody ...
    The Evolution Has Begun!
    By Swami Beyondananda
    http://www.wakeuplaughing.com/news.html

    FOCUS | Paul Krugman: Osama, Saddam and the Ports
    Paul Krugman writes that Mr. Bush assures us that "people don't
    need to worry about security." But after all those declarations that
    we're engaged in a global war on terrorism, after all the terror alerts
    declared whenever the national political debate seemed to be
    shifting to questions of cronyism, corruption and incompetence,
    the administration can't suddenly change its theme song to
    "Don't Worry, Be Happy."
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022406Z.shtml

    Bill Outlawing Nearly All Abortions Passes in South Dakota
    South Dakota lawmakers yesterday approved the nation's most
    far-reaching ban on abortion, setting the stage for new legal
    challenges that its supporters say they hope lead to an overturning
    of Roe v. Wade. The bill makes no exceptions for rape, incest
    or the health of the woman.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022306J.shtml

    Bill Quigley | Six Months after Katrina: Who Was Left Behind
    The people left behind in the evacuation of New Orleans after Katrina
    are the same people left behind in rebuilding of New Orleans -
    the poor, the sick, the elderly, the disabled and children -
    mostly African-American.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022206R.shtml

    From the Gulf Coast to the Persian Gulf
    Military families and veterans of Iraq, Vietnam and other military
    ventures, together with hurricane survivors, intend to make the
    connection between the war and the response to Katrina crystal clear
    on an epic march down Gulf Coast Highway 90, heading into the heart
    of New Orleans on the third anniversary of the war.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022206S.shtml

    The revolution is at hand
    Stay in the streets: the Black masses are on the march for jobs and freedom
    http://www.sfbayview.com/021506/therevolution021605.shtml

    FOCUS | Pablo Paredes: The Spirit of Gandhi
    On March 12, the seventy-sixth anniversary of "The Salt March,"
    Fernando Suarez Del Solar will begin a 241 mile march that will trace the life
    and passion of his son Jesus from Tijuana to Camp Pendleton. From there
    Fernando will continue where his son left off and walk in the footsteps
    of sections of the great Cesar Chavez-led march from Delano to
    Sacramento. The march will end on the anniversary of the death of Jesus, March
    27, in San Francisco, where Fernando plans to lead a large scale blood
    drive for those in need in Iraq by being the first to give his blood.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022306Z.shtml

    US Prison Can't Find Doctor Willing to Execute Convict
    Agence France-Presse
    Wednesday 22 February 2006
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022206C.shtml

    Nearly 100 Dead in US Custody in Iraq, Afghanistan: Rights Group
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0222-05.htm

    Dubai Company Set to Run U.S. Ports Has Ties to Administration
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0222-10.htm

    Watchdogs Urge Full Probe of Bush Propaganda Spending
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0222-02.htm

    Shi'ite Shrine Attack Fans Sectarian Flames in Iraq
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0222-09.htm

    U.S. Concedes to Force-Feeding Detainees
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0222-08.htm

    How Neo-Cons Sabotaged Iran's Help on al Qaeda
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0222-07.htm

    For Minorities, Signs of Trouble in Foreclosures
    By VIKAS BAJAJ and RON NIXON
    February 22, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/22/business/22home.html

    Questions Over Method Lead to Delay of Execution
    By JOHN M. BRODER
    February 22, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/22/national/22execute.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    Vote Due on South Dakota Bill Banning Nearly All Abortions
    By MONICA DAVEY
    February 22, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/22/national/22dakota.html?ei=5094&en=5d2fac6cc68a6727&hp=&ex=1140670800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1140630782-3gN1sebL3OLa+sMmaG93Pg

    Union: Comair will file to void contract today
    BY JAMES PILCHER | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
    February 21, 2006
    http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060221/BIZ01/302210011/1076/rss01

    States Curbing Right to Seize Private Homes
    By JOHN M. BRODER
    February 21, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/national/21domain.html?pagewanted=all

    U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review
    By SCOTT SHANE
    February 21, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21reclassify.html?hp&ex=1140584400&en=aefb4d8fc1e315bc&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Supreme Court Reopens Abortion Issue on Alito's First Day
    By JOHN O'NEIL
    February 21, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21cnd-abortion.html?hp&ex=1140584400&en=242e3e34dd69e98d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2006

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

    Execution postponed until tonight, Tuesday,
    February 21 (see article in full below):

    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:
    End the War in Iraq! Bring the Troops Home Now!
    No War at Home! Money for Human Needs, Jobs, Education,
    Healthcare and Hurricane Disaster Relief, Not War!
    No U.S. Wars and Occupations from Palestine to Haiti, from
    Afghanistan to Cuba, from Iran to Venezuela!
    SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006, 10:30 A.M.
    Local, 34, the ILWU Shipclerk's Hall
    4 Berry Street (behind the ballpark)

    Statement of Purpose
    Broad Antiwar Group

    On February 5, 2006 more than 90 people representing more
    than 50 peace and justice, labor, civil and human rights, civil
    liberties, veterans, military families, environmentalist, faith-based
    organizations, youth, and political organizations assembled
    and voted to approve the political and organizational perspectives
    below.

    They voted to establish a broad and inclusive Interim Steering
    Committee to help lead this work.

    In the U.S. today there is a major gap between the rapidly growing
    antiwar consciousness of the U.S. population and the dramatic
    decline of support for the U.S. war in Iraq on the one hand and
    the organizational framework to mobilize ever-widening and
    broad sectors of society against this war on the other. This is
    particularly glaring on the West Coast.

    The growing opposition to the war is evidenced by the massive
    response to the courageous actions of Cindy Sheehan, the
    growth of groups like Gold Star Mothers Against the War and
    Military Families Speak Out, Iraq veteran's organizations, the formation
    of U.S. Labor Against the War and the associated involvement of
    unprecedented sectors of labor in the fight against the war, the
    massive demonstration of 300,000 in Washington, D.C. September
    24, the open debate in Congress, the increasing number of
    soldiers who lose their lives for corporate profit and empire,
    the exposure of the lies that were employed to justify the war
    and the subordination of many social programs (like the
    immediate and critical relief necessitated by Hurricane Katrina)
    to ever increasing military spending. All of the above takes
    place against the backdrop of increasing attacks on basic civil
    liberties and civil rights, union busting and broadside attacks
    on social gains that were won decades ago, including pensions
    and healthcare.

    The above gives us great confidence that a far wider social and
    political spectrum of society are opposed to the Iraq War and can
    be engaged in ongoing educational activities as well as massive
    mobilizations against it. What is needed most of all is a broad
    independent united front perspective and an open and
    democratic organizational form that is capable of filling the
    present void.

    We propose to help fill this void by working together to build
    a broad team of organizations and activists based on the
    following three political demands, the first of which would
    be centrally emphasized in our work.

    1. End the War in Iraq! Bring the Troops Home Now!
    2. No War at Home! Money for Human Needs, Jobs, Education,
    Healthcare and Hurricane Disaster Relief, Not War!
    3. No U.S. Wars and Occupations from Palestine to Haiti, from
    Afghanistan to Cuba, from Iran to Venezuela!

    PROPOSAL FOR MASS ANTIWAR CONFERENCE and RALLY

    Our first project to test the viability of the broad coalition
    that we seek to bring into being is to organize a major
    West Coast Spring Antiwar Conference and Mass Rally
    that would include:

    a. Opening keynote speeches
    b. A large assortment of workshops designed to include
    the broad range of groups and constituencies working
    against the war
    c. A plenary opportunity to hear reports from constituent
    workshops
    d. A plenary session(s) where major decisions about the
    future of the coalition-in-formation and proposals for
    future activities would be democratically presented, debated
    and decided. These would include a proposed mass
    mobilization against the war.
    e. A mass concluding rally with major speakers and popular
    antiwar political entertainment and music.

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

    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=

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    ARTICLES IN FULL:
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    1) Anesthesiologists Delay Calif. Execution
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Filed at 11:23 a.m. ET
    February 21, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-California-Execution.html?hp&ex=1140584400&en=1b8942a7a3b19879&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    2) In Wireless World, Cingular Bucks the Antiunion Trend
    By MATT RICHTEL
    February 21, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/business/21union.html?pagewanted=all

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

    1) Anesthesiologists Delay Calif. Execution
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Filed at 11:23 a.m. ET
    February 21, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-California-Execution.html?hp&ex=1140584400&en=1b8942a7a3b19879&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) -- The planned execution of a man
    convicted of raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl was
    delayed until Tuesday night after two anesthesiologists refused
    to participate because of ethical concerns.

    With the execution scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, defense
    lawyers requested a stay from the federal judge who last week
    ordered San Quentin State Prison to have an anesthesiologist
    on hand to minimize Michael Angelo Morales' pain as he was
    put to death by lethal injection. A second anesthesiologist
    was retained as a backup.

    Although U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel denied the motion,
    both anesthesiologists withdrew, citing ethical concerns
    raised by his ruling.

    The exact wording of the judge's order was not immediately
    available, but the anesthesiologists issued a statement
    through the prison saying they were concerned about
    a requirement that they intervene in the event that Morales
    woke up or appeared to be in pain.

    ''Any such intervention would clearly be medically unethical,''
    said the doctors, who have not been identified. ''As a result,
    we have withdrawn from participation in this current process.''

    The American Medical Association, the American Society
    of Anesthesiologists and the California Medical Association
    all opposed the anesthesiologists' participation as unethical
    and unprofessional.

    Prison officials rescheduled the execution for 7:30 p.m.
    Tuesday and said they would employ a different technique:
    administering a fatal overdose of barbiturate in lieu of the
    three-drug cocktail typically used in lethal injections.

    Morales' attorneys had argued that the three-part lethal
    injection cocktail used in California and 35 other states
    violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and
    unusual punishment. They said a prisoner would feel
    excruciating pain from the last two chemicals if he were
    not fully sedated.

    Fogel refused to derail the execution, but he gave prison
    officials two options: retain the doctors to ensure Morales
    would be properly anesthetized, or forgo the paralyzing
    and heart-stopping drugs and overdose him on a sedative.
    With the anesthesiologists withdrawing, prison officials
    said they would use the second option.

    Prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon said the prison has
    until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday to execute Morales. After that,
    the ''death warrant'' expires and officials would have to
    go back to the trial judge who imposed the death
    sentence in 1983 for another warrant.

    Seeking another warrant could prove difficult for the state,
    however, since the original sentencing judge, Charles McGrath,
    joined Morales this month in asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
    for clemency in the case.

    McGrath said he no longer believed the credibility of
    a jailhouse informant whose testimony helped land Morales
    on death row.

    Morales has admitted to the crime that put him on death row.
    In a petition for clemency that Schwarzenegger first turned
    down on Friday, Morales claimed that he killed Terri Winchell
    25 years ago because he was high on PCP and alcohol.

    Morales was told of the delay and was ''nonchalant,'' Crittendon
    said. But Winchell's relatives were visibly upset, he said.

    ''There was a great deal of concern on their faces under the
    circumstances of some people that Michael Morales would
    not suffer,'' Crittendon said. ''They find that to be very disturbing.''

    Earlier Monday, Morales appeared to have exhausted his
    options for a reprieve after the U.S. Supreme Court refused
    to consider his claim and the governor for the second time
    denied a request for clemency.

    Associated Press Writers David Kravets and Michelle
    Locke contributed to this story.

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

    2) In Wireless World, Cingular Bucks the Antiunion Trend
    By MATT RICHTEL
    February 21, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/business/21union.html?pagewanted=all

    Cingular Wireless and Vodafone engaged in a furious bidding war
    two years ago to acquire AT&T Wireless. Rooting for Cingular was
    an unexpected fan, Kelvin Banks, a single father working at an AT&T
    customer service center in Jackson, Miss.

    Mr. Banks was moved by a little-publicized fact about Cingular:
    it has had relatively warm relations with unions.

    The day after the company won a $41 billion auction for AT&T
    Wireless, Mr. Banks contacted labor officials and helped to pull
    off a rare but significant union organizing success story
    in the digital age.

    Since July 2005, the Communications Workers of America has
    unionized 16,500 former AT&T Wireless workers at Cingular
    Wireless retail stores and call centers nationwide — a move
    that runs counter to the longstanding trend in the
    telecommunications industry and American workplaces
    in general. And many of those Cingular shops are in the
    South, where unionizing efforts have been difficult historically.

    Cingular's wireless competitors have fought, at times fiercely,
    against unionization, arguing that an organized labor force
    would hobble their ability to move workers, cut costs and
    make changes necessary to compete in a high-tech industry.
    They often assert that unions ultimately hurt the workers
    they claim to protect.

    But the growth of Cingular into the nation's largest wireless
    carrier — with a nearly fully unionized labor force — has
    challenged those assumptions and given a new spark
    to organized labor, said Harry C. Katz, dean of the School
    of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.

    "The fact Cingular does well even in the face of unionization
    helps rebut the argument that unions aren't viable in
    a technologically sophisticated and dynamic industry,"
    Mr. Katz said.

    That said, he noted that the union's success remained
    particular to Cingular. "It has not contributed to
    a noticeable rebirth more broadly," Mr. Katz said.
    "Whether there will be a larger resurgence —
    that remains to be seen."

    From the union's perspective, the success at Cingular
    shows what it can accomplish when it tries to organize
    at a company that is not averse to organized labor.

    At communications and public utility companies, the
    percentage of unionized workers dropped to 21.8 percent
    in 2002, from 42.4 percent in 1983 (using the most recent
    available data organized by those categories), according
    to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. To a large extent, the
    decline reflects the industry's deregulation and the shrinking
    work force at the heavily unionized Baby Bells.

    By comparison, the percentage of unionized workers in
    service industries over all fell to 5.7 percent in 2002,
    from 7.7 percent in 1983, according to the bureau.

    On Wall Street, telecommunications industry analysts said
    the financial impact of Cingular's union contracts was not
    yet clear. But "there's not a perception on Wall Street that
    it's a problem," said Jeffrey Halpern, an analyst at Sanford
    C. Bernstein & Company.

    He noted that a unionized work force did not appear to
    have hindered Cingular's ability to cut costs or streamline
    its staffing, though the company lagged its competitors
    in some areas, like retention of new subscribers.

    About 225,000 people, including managers, work in the
    wireless industry, and around 39,000 of them belong to
    a union. Nearly all of these workers are at Cingular. (The
    cable operators, with a work force of around 176,000,
    including managers and union-eligible workers, had
    about 7,000 union workers as of last year.)

    The C.W.A. has been successful in organizing stores and
    centers around the country, a few hundred workers at
    a time. Last month, it organized 1,288 Cingular customer
    service workers in Orlando, Fla. In December, the union
    added 158 Cingular workers in Hawaii, 400 in Pennsylvania,
    121 in Colorado, 51 in Iowa, and 36 in Illinois.

    Mr. Banks said the idea of organizing the call center in
    Jackson was unthinkable when it was still part of AT&T
    Wireless because workers considered that company
    "very antiunion."

    So "it was a real big deal" when the union was certified
    last March, after winning the support of roughly 60 percent
    of some 500 workers, said Mr. Banks, the union's shop
    steward in Jackson.

    Union officials said that what set Cingular apart from other
    wireless carriers and cable companies was, quite simply,
    that it was not actively antiunion. To be sure, the company
    and the union have clashed in numerous contract negotiations.
    But Cingular has not tried to dissuade employees from joining
    the union. At places like Jackson, for instance, the company
    did not lobby employees to reject a union or argue that doing
    so would hurt them and the company.

    Instead, Cingular has sent the message that labor can be an ally.

    The partnership with the union "provides us a competitive
    advantage," said Lew Walker, Cingular's vice president for
    human resources, operations and labor relations. "We do
    believe it has a positive bottom line impact on the company."

    Mr. Walker said the company had benefited by getting the
    union's support with politicians and regulators, including its
    endorsement for the acquisition of AT&T Wireless. He also
    said Cingular had benefited in being the wireless carrier
    of choice among other unions and organizations that want
    to patronize a union-friendly company, though he declined
    to specify how much revenue came from those entities.

    Cingular's acceptance of unions may also be attributable
    to tradition at SBC Communications, which merged with
    AT&T last year and adopted the AT&T name. It owns 60
    percent of Cingular, with the remainder owned by the
    BellSouth Corporation.

    Critical to the union's success is its strategy of fighting
    for "neutrality agreements" — accords under which
    companies promise not to try to dissuade nonunion
    employees from organizing, said Rosemary Batt, an
    associate professor of human resource studies at the
    School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell.
    Such agreements were in place at SBC and Cingular.

    Of course, neutrality alone does not guarantee success,
    said Edward Sabol, organizing director for the
    communications workers. The union, he said, still
    has had to win majority support in each bargaining
    unit, within 60 days of officially beginning organizing
    campaigns. But he said that effort is much easier
    without challenges from the company.

    And the union has not always been successful, even
    with a neutrality agreement. Despite such an agreement
    with Verizon Wireless, which expired in 2004, the C.W.A.
    failed to organize workers at that company.

    The union asserts that, despite the agreement, Verizon
    Wireless continued to discourage workers from joining.

    Indeed, in December a federal administrative law judge
    in Washington issued a ruling that Verizon Wireless broke
    federal labor law in 2003 and 2004 by discouraging union
    organizing at a call center in Orangeburg, N.Y. The judge
    ordered Verizon to post a notice at a call center in
    Wilmington, N.C., where the work from Orangeburg had
    been moved, saying the company would cease activities
    like prohibiting workers from discussing unions on their
    break time.

    Verizon said it was appealing the decision, which it claims
    to have lost on technical grounds. More generally, the
    company argues that its workers rejected a union because
    they were treated better and were paid more than unionized
    Cingular workers.

    Last April, Verizon Wireless published a comparison showing
    that its average salaries were 33 percent to 44 percent higher
    than several thousand Cingular employees in some bargaining
    units. But the union disputes these figures, arguing they are
    not representative of the overall picture.

    As for the former AT&T Wireless workers, they say joining the
    union offers some job protection. Last September, about
    70 percent of the roughly 950 workers at a Cingular customer
    service center in Oklahoma City pledged support for the union,
    in part, said Michael Ahern, the chief union steward at the call
    center, because the workers were concerned about job security
    under the new management.

    Mr. Ahern said that Cingular had been very strict about imposing
    quality standards on call center employees. He said that employees
    were regularly dismissed for failing to answer phone calls quickly
    enough to fill their quota, while trying to solve customer problems
    and be empathic.

    Mr. Ahern said neither the union nor the management was happy
    with the rate of job turnover, and that both sides were negotiating
    on ways to retain workers, who might be able to meet the
    requirements with more training. Mr. Ahern said the union
    succeeded in getting workers a guarantee of a twice-a-year
    salary increase, compared with once-a-year performance-
    based raises at AT&T Wireless.

    As a result, he said, more workers are beginning to trust the
    idea of a union, something that many would not have considered
    under a previous employer.

    "It's changing," he said. But "it's been slow."

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    LINKS ONLY
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    States Curbing Right to Seize Private Homes
    By JOHN M. BRODER
    February 21, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/national/21domain.html?pagewanted=all

    U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review
    By SCOTT SHANE
    February 21, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21reclassify.html?hp&ex=1140584400&en=aefb4d8fc1e315bc&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Supreme Court Reopens Abortion Issue on Alito's First Day
    By JOHN O'NEIL
    February 21, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21cnd-abortion.html?hp&ex=1140584400&en=242e3e34dd69e98d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Sunday, February 19, 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

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