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BAUAW NEWSLETTER Subscribe/Unsubscribe
Thursday, May 11, 2006
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-SUNDAY, MAY 21, 2006
Guantánamo Poets May 21, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/weekinreview/21read1.html Prisons make poets of many, no less so the detainees of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. A few of their poems have been declassifed by the Pentagon and are published in this week's issue of Bookforum. Marc D. Falkoff, a lawyer who has worked with the prisoners, arranged for the translations from Arabic and Pashto. The first one reprinted here is by an ethnic Uighar, a Chinese Muslim. The second is an excerpt from a longer work by a Yemeni detainee. "Even if the Pain" By Saddiq Turkestani Even if the pain of the wound increases There must be a remedy to treat it. Even if the days in prison endure There must be a day when we will get out. From "The Truth" By Imad Abdullah Hassan O History, reflect. I will now Disclose the secret of secrets. My song will expose the damned oppression, And bring the system to collapse. The tyrants, full-equipped and numbered, Stand unmoved in the face of the Light. They proceed in the Dark, led by The Devil, in pride and arrogance. They have turned their land of peace Into a home for hypocrites. They have exchanged piety For cheap commodity. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- More Abu Ghraib Photos Posted Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches May 21, 2006 http://dahrjamailiraq.com We have posted a new collection of Abu Ghraib images from a variety of sources. Afterdowningstreet.org http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/ supplied the images. We have decided to post these in our continuing effort to show the true face of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Click here http://209.97.202.24/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=abu_ghraib_torture_pictures_images_iraq_war to view these images. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- ABOLISHING JROTC in SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOLS Tues, May 23 6:00 P.M. (space is limited, please arrive on time) School District Office 555 Franklin St San Francisco 415/241-6427 School board to hear resolution to phase out jrotc by the end of the 2006-2007 school year!!! ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- TWO VERY IMPORTANT ARTICLES ON IMMIGRATION: ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- The Border War Comes Home Our Lives are on the Line By JUAN SANTOS May 18, 2006 http://www.counterpunch.org/santos05182006.html He looked squarely into my eyes. "So, you see what's coming," he said. I was speaking with one of the core leaders of the movement for migrant's rights, and had laid before him a sketch of a plan of resistance for the nation's barrios, for the protection of people from the mass raids and mass deportations that will result from new anti-migrant legislation being birthed in Washington. "This is the calm before the storm; they're going to make it tough," Professor Armando Navarro had told LA's La Opinion. "They're talking about raids, deportations. In every barrio we have to organize migrant defense committees, and get ready for civil disobedience." The meeting we had just attended unanimously called for the rejection of the so-called Hagel-Martinez "compromise" in the US Senate, under which as many as 7 million migrants could face deportation. Such a compromise would then have to be "reconciled" with House bill 4437, an even more extreme measure inspired by supporters of the ultra-Right and the racist shock troops called the Minutemen. The House bill calls for the universal deportation of every woman, child and man in the country without papers, for an utterly devastating depopulation -an ethnic cleansing - of the barrio, and the destruction of much of its cultural and economic life. The difference between the bills under consideration is the difference between partial and virtually complete ethnic cleansing, and any "compromise" between such measures will not change the racist and quasi-genocidal nature of the result. A "compromise" can only mean the deportation of millions and the legal stigmatization and terrorization of millions more. Under international law, ethnic cleansing means the expulsion from a territory of one ethnic group by another, and pertains to official policies aimed at the forcible removal of a targeted group. The crime is considered a form of forced emigration, deportation and genocide. International law recognizes ethnic cleansing as a crime against humanity when carried out in a time of literal warfare. The US war on migrants is the moral equivalent of ethnic cleansing. It is a crime against humanity. Fittingly, the Bush administration has flatly stated its intent to make "enforcement" the cutting edge of its new approach to migrants, and to prove the point it recently initiated the largest single mass arrest of migrants in US history, and put a severe new focus on penalizing employers, as well. Bush has already deported more people than any other president in U.S. history. Since he took office ICE has deported some 150,000 migrants a year and had deported 881,478 people through 2005, figures that do not include, for example, the 1.2 million people who were arrested at the U.S.-Mexican border itself last year. Now, in his Monday night speech, Bush has promised to fulfill one of the Minutemen's most draconian hopes turning the border into a green zone, a quasi-military zone occupied by forces of the National Guard, backed by a super high tech "virtual" wall a wall more deadly, and more effective, than a mere fence. And, in apparent defiance of the Posse Comitatus Act which forbids the use of military troops within US borders - the House recently passed legislation that, according to the Pentagon, "gives authority to the Defense Department to assign military members to assist Homeland Security organizations in preventing the entry of terrorists, drug traffickers and illegal aliens into the United States" Migrant deaths at the border are expected to skyrocket, and the State is already building mass detention centers for migrants. Bush claims he's not "militarizing" the border. His claim will mean nothing to the dead and the incarcerated. Every version of the so-called "immigration reform laws" now under renewed consideration in Washington also authorizes and pays local police to act as immigration agents and to oversee the deportation of those they arrest, effectively adding a permanent quasi-military force of 650,000 for "internal enforcement" of immigration laws. This is an example of the "middle ground" on migrants trumpeted by the US's white colonial ruling elite: the state will combine mass raids with the slow process of day by day racial profiling to eliminate the migrant population. According to an ICE plan called Operation Engame, they mean to deport every "deportable" migrant by the year 2012. In his Monday speech Bush said migrants are "beyond the reach and protection of American law." Indeed, he means to get them in his grasp, but their "protection" is nowhere on the agenda. The plan is to control and terrorize the migrants who will remain in the US, and to incarcerate and deport the rest. When that much is achieved, the ruling elites will find themselves in a comfortable position to continuously exploit the labor of a subjugated, highly controlled and vulnerable ethnic under-caste, and they will have provided themselves with the kind of ethnic scapegoat essential to the development of a new US-style fascism. False Hopes The hopes of millions of migrants have been ignited by the recent wave of protests, and by the hope that white America will find them with their white t-shirts and American flags -acceptable, tolerable, even welcome. The shock will be immense. Migrants will learn in a brutal fashion that the concern of America's elite has never had anything to do with surrender, white shirts, white dreams, or any other indication of who, as people, migrants might be or wish to be. The only concern of the ruling elites is their own need for migrants as exploitable workers like the slave master of the Old South they need their workers. There is another motive as well: today's elites also fear the very people they need - just like any slave master. The fear is compounded by the knowledge that today's master is not only an exploiter, he is also a usurper: the land he thrives on was stolen from the very people he degrades and dehumanizes with the epithet "illegal." And it's not just Republicans and open white racists who are afraid. It's many "liberals," too. Ed Schultz, the liberal talk show host, recently offered two factors as a bottom line on why migrants should stay: "the economy needs them" and "they can make trouble." The fear is so intense that, because of our mass protests, the worst elements of the Sensenbrenner bill HR4437 were momentarily derailed as different elements of the ruling class scrambled and bickered among themselves to determine who will have the final say - to determine who among them can assure the needs of their economy while averting the threat that migrants represent to them all. With every passing day, with every demonstration, with each child who prays each night that her parents can come out from the shadow of the stigma of being hunted and despised, with each heartbeat of rising hope, the noose around the neck of the ruling class gets just a little tighter; the options contract. With each day, each hour, the danger for the ruling elites of crushing the life and death expectations of migrants grows exponentially. Politically correct or not, every American flag carried in the recent mass demonstrations represents a rising, fluttering expectation, a sea of expectations whose depths promise shipwreck for the State, when, as it must, it betrays the promise of "freedom" and racial "equality." The crushing of those expectations could lead directly to rebellion in the streets, following the example of the recent rebellion of migrants in France, and of the African American rebellions of the 1960s. When Martin Luther King was overcome, when he lay dead of an assassin's bullet in Memphis, a hundred cities burned across the nation. They burned because it had become clear to the African American people that after more than a decade of struggle nothing fundamental in the structure of oppression had changed, that the changes that occurred had been mere surface changes, compromises, like the Hagel-Martinez bill today, aimed at silencing them, not at transforming the conditions of their lives or the oppression that afflicted them. The ruling elites have not forgotten for a moment the mass rebellion in Los Angeles of 1992. Migrant neighborhoods were a focal point of intense uprisings; the unity between Black and Brown was as palpably intense as the flames that engulfed the city and utterly terrifying to all of those whose daily task is to keep us down. As if to underscore the point, police were all but invisible in the recent pro-migrant marches in downtown LA although over a million of us were in the streets. But in Pico Union, where another million marched, riot squads were visible everywhere, even until past midnight. Pico Union was a storm center of the LA rebellion. Half of those arrested in that period were Brown. Is it any wonder, then, that the rulers have taken pause for thought about just how far they dare to go in the war on immigrants? Sensenbrenner went too far with HR4437 he awakened the threat. Now they must gauge a thing all but impossible to gauge: just how far is too far? No one on either side of the equation knows the answer to that question. One thing at least is clear no one in the white mainstream is going to come to the support of migrants unless migrants themselves stop wrapping themselves in the flag of the oppressor, and dare to stand up to oppression and unless they are willing to polarize the nation against their persecutors and defiantly challenge their racism. At the same time our demands must be made clear and millions must be challenged to re-think their prejudices. That's exactly how the Black movement for freedom did it, and nothing less will do. The "problem," as one writer recently put it, isn't at the border; the problem isn't with immigration it's that migrants are being persecuted. And voting won't change that, no matter what the "We Are America" coalition claims. A vote in November and face it, most migrants simply aren't eligible to vote will change nothing for the child whose mother or father is deported today. Even if the Democrats win in November, there is absolutely no guarantee that they will take up the question of immigration anew. No. The harsh reality is that the Democrats have supported extremely draconian anti-migrant measures in their willingness to "compromise" with the overtly fascistic elements of the Republican Party. The "compromise" already accepted by the Democrats includes mass deportations of up to several million people, the indefinite detention of migrants without due process, the treatment of minor offenses as "aggravated felonies" which would trigger harsh mandatory detention and deportation, and of course, unleashing the police as migrant hunters in a program of daily terror against our communities. When the matter goes to the House/ Senate reconciliation committee, it can only get worse. The Democrats are no more likely to repeal the war on migrants than they have been willing to reverse their criminal support for the unjust colonial war of occupation against Iraq. They will not relent unless we leave them no choice, unless, like the forces of resistance in other places and other times, we make the political price of continuing the war on migrants too high. The Ultimate Showdown The National Immigrant Solidarity Network says it clearly. "This is a critical moment for the immigrant struggle." "We should brace ourselves," they say, "for the ultimate showdown of the immigrant struggle soon, and we should mobilize ourselves quickly to respond to the racist anti- immigrant xenophobia that will go down." The group is calling for emergency community meetings to strategize rapid response to a possible nationwide crackdown or attack on immigrants. No matter what the rulers do, short of a general legalization, they will present our people with unbearable choices, with an unimaginable grief of separation; with the mass destruction of what is most sacred to us; our families and communities. Will we allow the rulers of America to deport our children, 2/3 of whom are citizens of their nation? Will we allow them to force us to leave our children behind? Will we let our children live in fear that their parents may not come home from work? That they will disappear? At what point will the grief, fear and rage become unbearable, and uncontainable? At what point must we say "¡Ya Basta!" ? Flying the American flag has disarmed us. It is not our willingness to live by the rules that impresses the slave master his entire regime is designed to ensure our compliance. What impresses him is our potential to awaken, to shatter the framework, to throw away the "rules". Flying the US flag means we don't understand the ruthless nature of our enemies; it means a basic and unconscious allegiance to the idea of getting ahead and doing so on the backs of others, an unconscious allegiance to and imitation of the very foundations of the oppressor's outlook and his control of us, and an implicit acceptance of his colonial rule over stolen land and subjugated peoples. Our enemies want to split our allegiances, they want us to grasp at individual chances for "acceptance" and "freedom," and to ignore the well being of our people as a whole. That, after all, is the real "American Dream" private wealth and well being on the backs of other, subjugated peoples. But we can no longer leave the fate of our children in their hands. We cannot allow our families to be shattered and our dreams to be crushed. We must refuse to live any longer in the shadows, refuse to live under slavery in any form. It is time to take matters into our own hands, to do once more what every migrant has already done just by crossing the border make the decision to live, to survive together, no matter what they throw at us. Let them deal with the ramifications of attempting mass repression against a people in resistance here, while they face a similar problem overseas. Let them worry about alienating Latin America and their European partners in war and conquest. Let them worry about permanently alienating the millions Black and White - who already support us, and who understand that the powers that be are taking the nation toward fascism. Let them worry what will happen when they invade our barrios and workplaces in mass raids. Let them worry while we organize; while we create mass networks of direct action and resistance. Let us truly follow the example of the Black Civil Rights Movement and of the Black Power Movement that followed it. The Black movement of the 1950s and 60s was a resistance movement, one that both obeyed the law, and which, through civil disobedience and other strategies, broke the law, as necessary, in obedience to a Higher Law. Black people of that era laid their lives on the line for their freedom. We can do no less. Let us put the slogan to the test: ¡Un Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido! Si, se puede. Juan Santos is an editor and writer in Los Angeles. He can be reached at JuanSantos@Mexica.net ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- From the Soldiers of Solidarity's Gregg Shotwell - On Immigration Date: Thurs, May 18 2006 1:10am From: GreggShotwell@aol.com mailto:GreggShotwell@aol.com What distrubs me about this immigrant issue is that it is not fundamentally about immigration. It is cloaked in nationalism and racism but it is really anti worker. If we allow one set of workers to be treated like criminals, where will it end? First they came for (fill in the blank) and I didn't say anything because I wasn't one. Well, the way I see it, I am one. First, foremost, and always, I am a worker. The bossing class wants me to make other workers my enemies but workers don't cut wages, steal pensions, deprive us of health care, monoplize natural resources, and destroy our communities, the bosses do. The real criminals are the bastards that gave us NAFTA, which exploited Mexican workers and US workers. NAFTA displaced Mexican farmers by dumping US corn grown by Corporate farms onto the Mexican market. Even the small tortilla makers lost jobs because of NAFTA. How is that capital can cross borders at will to exploit workers but we can't cross borders to buy drugs in Canada, and workers who have been deprived of jobs through no fault of their own are treated like criminals because they want to work for a living? NO WORKER IS MY ENEMY. I volunteered for many years at a half way house for federal prisoners. They all told me about the Prison Industrial Complex. Well, PIC wants more prison labor. Who benefits when workers are turned into criminals? It won't stop them from crossing the borders. Criminalization will just make it easier for bosses to exploit them. Encouraging workers to hate the latest set of immigrants is a traditonal tool of bosses in America. Sure, they were legal when they came through Ellis Island, but then the bosses found out that legal workers could get organized, so they encouraged illegal immigration. It's the rich bastards that are depriving us of national health care, and stealing our pensions, and profiting from war, and driving our wages down while they rake in the profits. I will not be tricked into believing poor underpaid workers are my enemies. I know who the enemy is. There's no dirt under his fingernails, no sorrow in his eyes, and he wouldn't risk his life and sacrifice his own comfort in order to send money home to his family. Let us not lose our focus. Workers are our allies. The bosses are trying to whipsaw us against immigrant workers. Criminalization plays into the bosses hands. They want illegal workers. They want all workers to be treated like outlaws. They aren't going to stop with Mexicans. Ask anybody who's ever been on a picket line. Workers are outlaws in America. It's no wonder they don't want us to own guns. sos, Gregg Shotwell ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- SCROLL DOWN TO READ: EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS ARTICLES IN FULL LINKS ONLY ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." --George Orwell ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- Great Counter-Recruitment Website http://notyoursoldier.org/article.php?list=type&type=14 ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- [Please read, respond and forward] Action Alert: Release Sameeh Hammoudeh! For Immediate Release May 9, 2006 Talking Points: * On 6 December 2005 a jury found Sameeh Hammoudeh not guilty of all charges brought against him. Hence, there is no legal basis for keeping him imprisoned by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service. He should be released forthwith. * Sameeh Hammoudeh wishes to return to his home in Ramallah, Palestine. By holding him prisoner, the ICE is preventing him from exercising his inalienable, natural and legal right to return to his home. E-MAIL, CALL and WRITE: * Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales E-MAIL: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov PHONE: 202-514-2001 and 202-353-1555 MAIL: U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 * Florida Governor Jeb Bush Email: jeb.bush@myflorida.com * Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist The Capitol PL-01 Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050 Main office telephone numbers Switchboard: 850-414-3300 Citizens Services: 850-414-3990 Florida Relay/TDD: 800-955-8771 Florida Toll Free: 1-866-966-7226 Fax: 850-410-1630 To obtain contact information for media outlets, go to: http://newslink.org/ Please cc your correspondence to alerts@al-awda.org Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition PO Box 131352 Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA Tel: 760-685-3243 Fax: 360-933-3568 E-mail: info@al-awda.org WWW: http://al-awda.org Memo to: All those who have the power to free Sameeh Hammoudeh AskDOJ@usdoj.gov jeb.bush@myflorida.com ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- GREAT FLASH FILM BY PINK (I didn't know who she was. Now I do...BW) http://thinkwebworks.com/redraidernation/TAPES/dear-mr.html ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- R A I L W A Y W O M E N Exploitation, Betrayal & Triumph in the Workplace by Helena Wojtczak http://www.railwaywomen.co.uk/book.html ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- GENERAL AND UNCONDITIONAL AMNESTY FOR ALL! ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- "Baghdad ER," new HBO documentary to air Sunday, May 21 The documentary, titled "Baghdad ER," chronicles two months at the 86th Combat Support Hospital, where filmmakers were given broad access to follow doctors, nurses, medics and others as they treated soldiers wounded by roadside bombs and in combat. As one nurse, Specialist Saidet Lanier, says in the film: "This is hard-core, raw, uncut trauma. Day after day, every day." The film, directed by Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill, will be shown Sunday, May 21 on HBO. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- National Day of Out(r)age Against the Telcos! Heads Up! on an upcoming rally - Let me know if you or your organization would like to participate. Peace, Nancy/CODEPINK National Day of Out(r)age Against the Telcos! Wednesday May 24, 2006 4:00-6:00pm AT&T Building 600 Folsom Street (Btwn 2nd & 3rd Sts.) San Francisco, CA Join Media Alliance, Access-SF Center, CODEPINK and others for a lively rally outside of the AT&T building where the National Security Agency (NSA) set up a secret spy room to collect phone calls. Recent news also has exposed the privacy violation of millions of telephone users by AT&T and Verizon who willingly handed over call records to the National Security Agency without proper legal warrants. AT&T has also been in the news about it's collusion with the NSA to install computers to track the internet traffic on their Worldnet backbone. Now these same corporation want even more access to homes throughout the country with their fiber networks. We demand accountability and better protections! If you'd like to participate in a fun & creative action outside of AT&T Ballpark on Weds. May 24th at 11:30am-12:30pm contact Jeff jeffp123@gmail.com For more info. contact Nancy codepinkbayarea at riseup.net ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- Please circulate! Break the Silence Mural Project and Members of the JIP Culture Committee Invite you to attend: CLOSING PARTY for HOPE UNDER SIEGE a collaborative photo exhibition depicting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and people. Friday, MAY 26, 6-9 PM Michelle O'Connor Gallery 2111 Mission Street @ 17th St. in San Francisco Admission is FREE (Donations welcome). Refreshments, Spoken Word, Music, Break the Silence Presentation Documentary photographers Aisha Mershani and Lisa Nessan capture resistance to Israeli occupation and current life in Palestine. The images in this diverse collection of photographs taken between 2002 and 2006 go beyond the headlines of the mainstream media toward a deeper understanding of reality on-the-ground in West Bank, Palestine. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- Please join CODEPINK Women for Peace and Ti Couz Restaurant for A Celebration of Resistance Friday May 26, 2006 7:00-11:00pm Ti Couz Too 3108 16th Street (@ Valencia Street) San Francisco, CA 94103 Vive Le Resistance! Join us for an evening of food, drinks, music and dancing as we honor those Bay Area residents who have led the way of resistance on different fronts. with Medea Benjamin, Co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK Women for Peace Music by Los Nadies along with traditional Mexican dancers. Evening Recognitions Hunger Strikers' for Immigrant Rights, a broad Bay Area Coalition launched a seven-day hunger strike at the U.S. Federal Building in San Francisco to protest the Anti-Immigrant Specter Bill pending in Congress. They are calling for fair and just immigration reform, and denouncing Senator Arlen Specter's bill that designates all undocumented immigrants as aggravated felons. San Francisco State University 10, Ten SFSU students protested military recruitment at the university's career fair. Campus police interrupted their protest and physically took the students from the school's gymnasium where they were protesting. The police then notified the students that they were banned from campus. They were protesting the military's recruiting of university students into careers that would foster death, destruction and injustice. Clarence Thomas, is a long-time labor activist who has worked consistently on a number of international issues. He travelled to Iraq with a delegation from U.S. Labor Against the War. He is the national co-chair of the Million Worker March Movement and a member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 10. Elizabeth "Betita" Martinez, A long-time activist, author and educator, Martinez has published six books and many articles on social justice movements in the Americas. Best known is her bilingual volume 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, which became the basis for a video she co-directed. In 1997 she co-founded and currently directs the Institute for MultiRacial Justice in San Francisco, and was one of a 1000 women nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Additional honorees TBA Space is limited so please RSVP now to Nancy Mancias at codepinkbayarea@riseup.net A request for donations of $10.00-100.00 sliding scale will be made to Esteklal! Independence for Iraq! ad campaign. With your help, we are sending a message of sorrow, friendship and peace directly to the women of Iraq and their families by challenging the free press in Iraq to print an advertisement calling on people of both nations to work together to end the occupation. www. esteklal.org Special thanks to Sylvie Le Mer and Ti Couz staff. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 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= ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- Fourth Annual International Al-Awda Convention San Francisco - July 14-16, 2006 To register: http://al-awda.org/sf-conv_reserve.html To flyer, the writing is on the wall: http://al-awda.org/pdf/flyer.pdf For all other info: http://al-awda.org ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- REMINDER TO ALL GROUPS: BE SURE AND POST ALL ACTIONS AND EVENTS TO WWW.INDYBAY.ORG TO REACH THE MOST PEOPLE AGAINST THE WAR IN THE BAY AREA! http://www.indybay.org ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- FYI According to "Minimum Wage History" at http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth484/minwage.html " "Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the highest at $9.12. "The 8 dollar per hour Whole Foods employees are being paid $1.12 less than the 1968 minimum wage. "A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows both nominal (red) and real (blue) minimum wage values. Nominal values range from 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $5.15/hr. The greatest percentage jump in the minimum wage was in 1950, when it nearly doubled. The graph adjusts these wages to 2005 dollars (blue line) to show the real value of the minimum wage. Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the highest at $9.12. Note how the real dollar minimum wage rises and falls. This is because it gets periodically adjusted by Congress. The period 1997-2006, is the longest period during which the minimum wage has not been adjusted. States have departed from the federal minimum wage. Washington has the highest minimum wage in the country at $7.63 as of January 1, 2006. Oregon is next at $7.50. Cities, too, have set minimum wages. Santa Fe, New Mexico has a minimum wage of $9.50, which is more than double the state minimum wage at $4.35." ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- PRESERVE INTERNET NETWORK NEUTRALITY Hi, I can't imagine that you haven't seen this, but if you haven't, please sign the petition to keep our access. Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law next week that gives giant corporations more control over what we do and see on the Internet. Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality--the Internet's First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Right now, Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. BarnesandNoble.com doesn't have to outbid Amazon for the right to work properly on your computer. If Net Neutrality is gutted, many sites--including Google, eBay, and iTunes--must either pay protection money to companies like AT&T or risk having their websites process slowly. That why these high-tech pioneers, plus diverse groups ranging from MoveOn to Gun Owners of America, are opposing Congress' effort to gut Internet freedom. So please! sign this petition telling your member of Congress to preserve Internet freedom? Click here: http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet?track_referer=706%7C1152463-5QFocRE05wmGUuh8yAMSzg ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- Flash Film: Ides of March http://isahaqi.chris-floyd.com/ ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- NO BORDERS! NO WALLS! NO FENCES! GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL! OUR HOMELAND IS WHERE WE LIVE! ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- REPEAL THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN 2007! Check out: 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY http://www.10reasonsbook.com/ Public Law print of PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 [1.8 MB] http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html Also, the law is up before Congress again in 2007. See this article from USA Today: Bipartisan panel to study No Child Left Behind By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY February 13, 2006 http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-02-13-education-panel_x.htm ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 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/ ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 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) Waking A Sleeping Giant From : Airline Workers New Service Date : Tue, May 16, 2006 09:05 AM awns@bubbles.com 2) A City's Changing Face Wealth, Race Guiding Which New Orleanians Stay, and Which Never Return By Blaine Harden Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, May 17, 2006; A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601595.html?sub=AR 3) Cruel and unusual punishment Homelessness was recently put on trial in California. It was found not guilty. Bay Guardian OpEd by Tommi Avicolli Mecca 4) Latinos enlisting in record numbers Despite opposition to the Iraq war, pride motivates many to sign up for military duty "Mayorga enlisted to take advantage of President Bush's decision after Sept. 11 to speed the citizenship process for green card holders who enlist. "The first reason is for citizenship," Mayorga said flatly. "I don't have a second or third reason," he said." - Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, May 15, 2006 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/15/MNGE4IRVTN1.DTL 5) Celebration of GI Resistance Shuts Oakland Military Recruiting Station by Jeff Paterson, Not in Our Name Tuesday, May. 16, 2006 at 1:12 PM jeff@paterson.net Oakland, California (May 15, 2006) -- 100 people shut down Oakland military recruiting station to celebrate GI resistance to immoral war and occupation. http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/05/1823560.php 6) U.S. reserves nearly 'broken,' says chief Iraq, Afghan conflicts sap military resources Reuters Updated: 8:28 a.m. ET Jan. 6, 2005 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6790738/ 7) Standing Up to Repression and Fear: The Real "War on Terror" 10 SFSU students face discipline for counter- recruitment protest By Karen Knoller May 14th, 2006 8) Senate Continues to Work on Immigration Bill By CARL HULSE and JIM RUTENBERG May 18, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/washington/18cnd-immig.html?hp&ex=1148011200&en=a1054fb2fa46ad96&ei=5094&partner=homepage 9) Coming Down to Earth By PAUL KRUGMAN May 19, 2006 http://select.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/opinion/19krugman.html?hp 10) Ground Workers Reach Deal With Northwest By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 10:43 a.m. ET May 19, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Northwest-Labor.html 11) Mexico to Protest U.S. Border Plan By REUTERS May 19, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/world/americas/19mexico.html 12) Ecuador Cancels an Oil Deal With Occidental Petroleum By REUTERS May 17, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/business/worldbusiness/17oil.html 13) Japanese Cars, American Retirees Japanese companies face little of this burden in Japan, where the government covers retirees' health care and pays a bigger share of workers' pensions. By EDUARDO PORTER May 19, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/automobiles/19auto.html 14) Autopsy Finds That Soldier Under Army Medical Care Died From Painkiller Overdose (Fort Sill...bw) By RALPH BLUMENTHAL May 19, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/us/19training.html 15) Gambling on a Weaker Dollar New York Times Editorial May 20, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/20/opinion/20sat1.html?hp 16) At Unforgiving Arizona-Mexico Border, Tide of Desperation Is Overwhelming By GINGER THOMPSON May 21, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/us/21border.html?hp&ex=1148184000&en=a319e1a5cf6dae63&ei=5094&partner=homepage ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 1) Waking A Sleeping Giant From : Airline Workers New Service Date : Tue, May 16, 2006 09:05 AM awns@bubbles.com Members of the International Association of Machinists have exploded onto the scene as a result of Northwest Airlines' unwillingness to bargain in good faith after union baggage handlers and stock clerks rejected a proposed contract. On Sunday, May 14, at NWA's Minneapolis hub, eyewitnesses said approximately 400 union members gathered at gate C-11 for a ramp rally. Negotiators for the Company were on board an aircraft at that gate, bound for New York. They were going to present arguments in bankruptcy court to abrogate baggage handlers and stock clerks union contracts. Workers used the sides of baggage carts to write messages in chalk to the negotiators, who were seen looking out aircraft windows. Among the messages were- "We have given enough." "We are united." "190 million? No way!" Workers had driven their equipment to the gate, creating a sea of vehicles. As the aircraft pushed back from the gate workers walked with it, gathering nearby as it reached the taxi way. Some workers turned their pockets inside out, indicating to the negotiators they had no more to give. One baggage handler explained that he had not seen this kind of unity in years. " People around here have not had much to smile about lately, but realizing you do have power made me smile for the rest of the day. I think we are onto something.", he said. One hour earlier a group of about 100 workers had escorted out another flight with company representatives on it. At both events managers had sought unsuccessfully to send workers away. The following day, Monday, Northwest attempted to discipline several workers who they say had been at the ramp rally. When ground crews learned of this, over 100 of them gathered outside the site of the Company investigation to protest management's action. After several minutes the investigation was canceled. Also on Monday, Northwest union stock clerks gathered at a "prayer meeting" to show unity. They later joined several dozen baggage handlers at Northwest Company Headquarters in Eagan, Minnesota to show their dissatisfaction with company contract demands. Many workers reported they will not accept any contract which does not contain substantial improvements over the Company's last offer. " We will be looking to hook up with our fellow union members throughout the system and with the flight attendants so we can strengthen our fight." said one long time baggage handler. Airline Workers News Service is maintained by a group of airline industry workers. Our aim is to seek out and report on information about the state of our industry and what workers are doing to fight back against some of the biggest attacks by the airlines in decades. Please share this with your coworkers. If you know of others who would like to receive these mailings, please forward their email addresses to awns@bubbles.com. Thank you. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 2) A City's Changing Face Wealth, Race Guiding Which New Orleanians Stay, and Which Never Return By Blaine Harden Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, May 17, 2006; A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601595.html?sub=AR NEW ORLEANS -- Block by block, this city is springing back to life. Block by block, it is receding into the past tense. With Hurricane Katrina nearly nine months gone and about 60 percent of New Orleans's pre-storm population still somewhere else, the rebirth and the wasting away are closely tracking neighborhood patterns of race and poverty. Disparities in wealth and in the distance of evacuees from their ruined houses are dictating, in many cases, which neighborhoods will be part of the city's future and which will be consigned to its history. For a city that was two- thirds black and nearly one-third poor before the storm, the uneven pilgrimage back to New Orleans has already changed voter turnout and seems certain to transform the culture and character of the city, making it substantially whiter, richer and less populous than before. This article, part of an occasional series about two severely flooded streets in the city, examines an affluent white and a poor black neighborhood that appear to have reached their tipping points. That point has clearly arrived for the 6500 block of Memphis Street in Lakeview, a white neighborhood hit hard by Katrina. It is roaring back to middle-class life, and most owners on the block have committed to coming home. Landscapers are rolling out sod for new lawns. Granite countertops and commercial-grade stainless-steel stoves are being installed in rebuilt kitchens. There is electricity, water, gas, mail service, newspaper delivery and garbage pickup. Two neighborhood banks are up and lending. A post-Katrina restaurant, Touché, serves breakfast and lunch. Two blocks away, St. Dominic Catholic church has been refurbished and is open each morning for Mass. "Every day and every week is better, and people need to know that," said Bea Quaintance. With the help of a trailer from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that is parked in her front yard, she and her husband, Gary, and their son, Steven, were the first family back on Memphis Street. "I think this country has done a wonderful job of providing for us." Across town, in a 98-percent-black, mostly working-class neighborhood that was also wrecked by the storm, the 2500 block of Delery Street has tipped the other way. Like much of the Lower Ninth Ward, the block is empty and silent, with no electricity, no drinkable water, no gas, no FEMA trailers and no signs of rebuilding on a street where many families owned their homes for generations. No nearby churches, banks or restaurants are open, and no one, not even organizers from groups demanding the reconstruction of the Lower Ninth, seems to have a list of residents with firm plans to come home. Throughout the spring, bodies were found in neighborhood houses. A sign in the window of Daphne Jones's brick house at 2531 Delery declares: "No Bulldozing. We Are Coming Home." But Jones concedes that the sign is more wish than pledge. College students on spring break gutted her house free of charge in April, but she says she does not have enough money to rebuild. She has been trying for months to contact and mobilize her neighbors, dropping "Rebuilding Our Own Neighborhood" fliers in their abandoned houses. But such fervent, low-tech efforts have not worked. "A lot of them are far away, and they don't know what is going on," said Jones, 55, whose two grown daughters and entire extended family have fled the Lower Ninth, mostly for Georgia. She evacuated to a shelter in Hammond, La., filtered back to New Orleans at the beginning of the year, and lives now with a disabled friend in a FEMA trailer across town. The lack of progress in re-creating her old neighborhood leaves her baffled and sad. "If the levees are being rebuilt stronger than before, why can't we rebuild here?" she said. "It feels strange to me." To Return or Not? After fleeing the storm, black residents, especially poor ones from the Lower Ninth Ward and the city's public housing projects, were much more likely than whites to end up living far out of town, according to city, state and federal studies. After long bus rides, many ended up in cities such as Houston and Atlanta. For these African Americans, generations-old networks of kinfolk, church folk and friends have been obliterated or transplanted to another state where distance and the cost of travel undermine their ability to come home, even for short visits. Middle-class whites fled in their own cars and tended not to go so far, according to the studies. Many of them rented apartments, bought houses, or moved in with friends or relatives in the mostly white suburbs that developed as whites fled school integration. These New Orleanians have remained close enough to get building permits, deal with insurance agents, hire contractors and bird-dog the reconstruction of their houses. "The people from Lakeview are not poor," said the Rev. Donald Dvorak, pastor at St. Dominic, the largest church in Lakeview, which is 94 percent white. "They all had the means to leave on their own terms and a place to go -- and the means to come back. That is the difference between us and the Lower Ninth Ward." Out of 23 houses on the 6500 block of Memphis Street, three have been refurbished and are occupied. Owners of 10 others have firm plans to demolish and rebuild. Architects are finishing drawings for new and -- in some cases -- larger houses. The block is a work in progress. Three houses are for sale, and seven owners have yet to decide whether they are coming home. The neighborhood's storm-drainage system is damaged and clogs up after heavy rain -- a worrisome reminder of what could happen when the hurricane season starts next month. Still, the momentum of return now seems unstoppable. "It's not a wager, it's a sure thing," said John Pippenger, an accountant and deacon at St. Dominic. He and his wife, Linda, bought a house on Memphis Street early this year to replace one that Katrina destroyed a few blocks away. There is a large bulletin board in the back of St. Dominic church with a computer-generated map of Lakeview. It shows that more than 1,400 families have pledged to come home. Every Sunday after Mass, worshipers wander back to the map and the pledge list grows longer. A Toll on the Polls The post-storm difference between the Lower Ninth and Lakeview was starkly quantified by voter turnout in the first election since Katrina, a mayoral primary held April 22. Despite months of national publicity and an intensive effort to encourage out-of-town voting, turnout in the Lower Ninth fell 40 percent compared with the 2002 mayoral election. In the precinct that includes the 2500 block of Delery, turnout was down 50 percent. The falloff was mirrored in other black districts across the city. In Lakeview, where most houses are also still empty, turnout dipped by only 6 percent. On the day of the primary, the neighborhood's polling center at St. Dominic became the site of a joyous homecoming party -- as cars rolled in all day long from the suburbs. In the precinct that includes the 6500 block of Memphis, turnout increased as it did in undamaged, mostly white neighborhoods such as the French Quarter and the Garden District. Election results -- and the results of a mayoral runoff on Saturday -- will "have a big effect on what neighborhood voices are heard by city politicians," predicted John R. Logan, a sociology professor at Brown University who has begun a long-term study of demographic change in post-Katrina New Orleans. "Lakeview is going to be an increasingly important political constituency in the future," he said. "And the Lower Ninth is almost certainly going to have less clout in coming years, and that really puts its future on the line." The prospect of increased political power is an enticement drawing homeowners back to Lakeview, said Dvorak of St. Dominic. There is a growing certainty among returnees to the neighborhood, he said, that they will shape the future of New Orleans. Waiting in the Suburbs "When people don't vote, you lose your right to complain about services," said Ron Martinez, an architect who expects to move back with his family to Memphis Street by the end of the summer. Ever since the storm, Martinez has been saying that race relations are as great a problem for New Orleans as hurricanes. But he says he can do little to redress the imbalances that have been worsened by Katrina. He and his wife, Cathy, have been preoccupied with the cost and complexities of finding a way to bring their own family back to New Orleans. After the storm, they agonized about the financial sense and physical risks of returning to Memphis Street. It is below sea level (lower by five feet, in fact, than the Lower Ninth Ward) and just half a mile from where a levee breached along the 17th Street Canal, flooding Lakeview. They opted last October for a holding pattern in the suburbs, buying a house in Destrehan, a 40-minute drive west of New Orleans. Since then, Ron has been commuting to his office in the Garden District. Their children, Evan, 12, and Marcelle, 11, commute to St. Dominic's School, in its temporary location about two miles from Lakeview. Ron usually takes the children in and Cathy drives them home. On the first day of spring, they decided enough was enough. They took a financial leap that will soon take them back to Lakeview. They bought another house on Memphis Street and will use it as a base while fixing up their larger house on that street. They have not yet sold their house in the suburbs. "We weren't risk-takers before, but after Katrina, what the hell," Cathy Martinez said. The Martinezes said they are taking the risk because their block, their church and their neighbors are all up and running. They want to be part of it without driving in from the suburbs every day. And St. Dominic School is scheduled to reopen in August in Lakeview. The kids will need to walk only two blocks to get there. 'Look and Leave' Until last week, the city had designated the entire Lower Ninth Ward as a "look and leave" area because city water tested unsafe for drinking. That order has now been lifted, but only for about half of the neighborhood. There is another post-storm fact of life that is even more maddening to former neighborhood residents. Just two blocks to the east of Delery Street -- where New Orleans Parish ends and St. Bernard Parish starts -- homeowners have been back for months. Their houses and their neighborhoods were ravaged by floodwaters to the same terrible degree as the Lower Ninth, but they have electricity, drinkable water and FEMA trailers. Most of the residents across the parish line are white and, like many white residents of New Orleans, they tended not to have fled far from the metropolitan area. Many stayed with friends or relatives, and have exerted political pressure on officials in St. Bernard Parish to restore services to their ruined neighborhoods. "I am not a conspiracy person," said William Quigley, a professor at Loyola University Law School in New Orleans and director of its Gillis Long Poverty Law Center, "but it is pretty hard to argue with the facts on the ground. If you are black in the Lower Ninth and you don't have electricity, water or a FEMA trailer and nobody is giving you a timeline when you will, that is a hell of a lot of conspiracy dots to connect." City, state and federal officials have repeatedly said that they do indeed want residents of the Lower Ninth to come home and rebuild -- when the neighborhood is safe and when appropriate services are available. But nearly nine months of delays in making the Lower Ninth safe and appropriate -- as similarly flood-damaged white neighborhoods are provided with a full complement of city services -- strikes Quigley as unfair. "People in Lakeview have had the chance to decide whether to come home," he said. "People in the Lower Ninth have not yet had the choice. With every week that passes, it means they are less likely to come home. These delays are remaking the city." Anna Valdery and her husband, David Stirgus, would like to go home to Delery Street. They finally own their house, thanks to an $84,000 flood insurance payment that allowed them to pay off their mortgage and have $27,000 left over. The brick house, part of what had been a highly successful project for low-income, first-time home buyers, is seven years old and, unlike most houses in the Lower Ninth, appears structurally sound. But Stirgus, a retired truck driver, and his wife, a nursing-home aide, agree that returning is all but impossible. For one thing, their house on Delery is in the part of the Lower Ninth that remains closed to reconstruction. For another, they have only about $16,000 left in savings from the Katrina flood insurance settlement -- not nearly enough to rebuild their gutted house. They live now in a FEMA trailer parked in a row of 52 identical white trailers lined up along a gravel road in Gonzales, La., a small town about 50 miles west of New Orleans. They arrived there after a seven-month multi-state post-Katrina evacuation that took them by helicopter, bus and airplane to Texas, Arizona and California. In the past month, they have been back to New Orleans for a couple of short, depressing looks at their house and the moldering, abandoned neighborhood that surrounds it. "The feeling I got when I went back to Delery Street was: Leave it alone, forget about it, go someplace else," Stirgus said. Database editor Sarah Cohen in Washington contributed to this report. © 2006 The Washington Post Company ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 3) Cruel and unusual punishment Homelessness was recently put on trial in California. It was found not guilty. Bay Guardian OpEd by Tommi Avicolli Mecca Homelessness was recently put on trial in California. It was found not guilty. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declared April 14 that the city of Los Angeles can't arrest those who have no choice but to sleep on its streets. It's a victory for those of us who believe that homelessness is not a crime, but a symptom of an unjust economic system. At issue in the LA case was a 37-year-old law prohibiting sitting, lying, and sleeping on the sidewalks. Six homeless folks brought the complaint in 2003 with the aid of the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild. In her ruling against the statute, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote: "Because there is substantial and undisputed evidence that the number of homeless persons in Los Angeles far exceeds the number of available shelter beds at all times," the city is guilty of criminalizing people who engage in "the unavoidable act of sitting, lying, or sleeping at night while being involuntarily homeless." She termed this criminalization "cruel and unusual" punishment, a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution. Her enlightened opinion should guide public policy everywhere, especially here in San Francisco. In our "progressive" city, we have gay weddings at City Hall and an annual S-M street fair, yet our views on the homeless are as 19th century as the rest of the country's opinions on gay marriage and kinky sex. The majority of voting people here still favor the old-fashioned method of punishing the poor and the homeless. That's how Care Not Cash and our current antipanhandling measure managed to become law. According to Religious Witness with the Homeless, in the first 22 months of Mayor Gavin Newsom's administration, San Francisco police issued 1,860 citations for panhandling and sleeping on the sidewalks, as well as 11,000 "quality of life" tickets. That's more than were issued under former mayor Willie Brown in a similar time period. How many officers did it take to issue those citations? How much money did it cost the city? What better things could San Francisco have done with the money to actually help those who were cited? How many of the people cited are now in permanent affordable housing with access to services they need to put their lives back together? Homelessness can't be eradicated with punitive measures. Addressing homelessness in America doesn't mean sweeping the poor out of sight of tourists or upscale neighbors. It doesn't mean taking away the possessions of homeless folks or fining people for sleeping in their cars. It means addressing the basic social inequities that create homelessness, among them low-paying jobs, the immorally high cost of housing, and the prohibitive price of health care. It means having drug and mental health treatment for those who need it when they need it. That's the real message behind Wardlaw's ruling. Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a radical, working-class, queer, southern Italian activist, performer, and writer. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 4) Latinos enlisting in record numbers Despite opposition to the Iraq war, pride motivates many to sign up for military duty "Mayorga enlisted to take advantage of President Bush's decision after Sept. 11 to speed the citizenship process for green card holders who enlist. "The first reason is for citizenship," Mayorga said flatly. "I don't have a second or third reason," he said." - Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, May 15, 2006 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/15/MNGE4IRVTN1.DTL Amalia Avila never supported the war. But after her first son, Victor Gonzalez, told her he wanted to join the Marines, she felt a mixture of fear, concern and, finally, pride. "This war makes no sense to me," Avila said last week in her Watsonville home. "I'd ask him why he wanted to go, and he'd just say his brothers needed his help. ... But when Victor did get into the Marines, when that day came, I was so proud of him." Avila paused to allow her tears. "It was a beautiful day." It was also one of the last days Avila saw her son. Gonzalez, 19, who was born in Salinas shortly after Avila arrived in the United States from Mexico, served a little more than a month in Anbar province before he was killed by a roadside mortar explosion in October 2003. The discord between Avila's unsettled feelings toward the war and her son's sacrifice reflects a growing paradox within the Latino community. A majority of Latinos believe the troops should come home as soon as possible, according to Pew Hispanic Center surveys, yet enlistment of Latinos has steadily risen in the past decade. According to the Department of Defense, in 2004, the most recent year of confirmed data, Latinos made up 13 percent of new recruits. This is an all-time high, nearly twice the percentage of 10 years earlier. Latinos' presence in the military still does not match their 17 percent share of the overall population ages 18 to 24. And African Americans continue to be overrepresented in the military, making up about 18 percent of active duty personnel but only 13 percent of the U.S. population. Nonetheless, the absolute number of Latinos entering the armed forces continues to grow. "The dichotomy is this," said Steven Ybarra, a member of the nonprofit political advocacy group Latinos for America, "on the one hand, our children view serving in the military as showing they are part of this community; while on the other, their grandparents and parents have seen this all before. "But within the Latino family unit," Ybarra added, "maybe more than others, there's a value system where the parents will look at their son and say, 'Hijo, you're a man now. You're going to do what you're going to do, and I will respect that' -- even if it means going to war." Historically, Latinos have been underrepresented in the military, said Beth Asch, a senior economist at the Rand National Defense Research Institute who has studied Latino recruitment trends. An informal theory held that the rising number of Latino enlistments during the 1990s and early part of this decade simply mirrored a rise in the group's overall population. "Their growth in population was fast," Asch said. "Their growth in the military was faster." Latinos accounted for about 17.5 percent of Americans ages 18 to 24 in 2000, while 13.7 percent were African American, 61.6 percent were non-Hispanic white and 4.1 percent were Asian American. The reasons Latinos are drawn to the military vary, Asch said. Carlos Montes, an organizer with Latinos Against the War in Los Angeles, cites a variety of reasons: aggressive recruiters who prey on youth; the enticement of skipping the usual five years that legal permanent residents must wait before applying for citizenship; the immigrant's desire to assimilate. "When you're young and naive you see a guy show up on campus, all dressed up, promising things you don't have," Montes said. "That kind of influence, especially in the barrio, can be greater than even a parent's words." Curtis Gilroy, director of accession policy for the office of the secretary of defense, said that in a national youth poll conducted last year, Latinos ages 18-24 simply showed a "higher propensity to serve" than other ethnic groups. Gilroy said a full 25 percent of Latino respondents answered the question, "How likely is it that you'll be serving in the military in the next few years?" by marking the box "definitely" or "probably likely." Meanwhile, only 16 percent of African Americans and just 11 percent of whites showed the same interest. "We just don't know why that is," Gilroy said. "We don't try and get behind the numbers too much." On the ground in San Jose, Army recruiter Sgt. Brian Ditzler recently fashioned a theory behind the numbers. Ditzler, who was raised by his mother in Corozal, Puerto Rico, and speaks fluent Spanish, staffed a booth during the city's Cinco de Mayo festival. He said of the 22 recruits he enlisted last year, 15 were Latino. "The remarkable thing that is consistent with Latinos is the sense of pride," Ditzler said. "More than any other group, they have a deep sense of pride about serving for this country." By comparison, Ditzler observed that his Asian American enlistees were more interested in job-training skills, while African Americans spoke of college tuition as the trade-off. Whites, the recruiter observed, were most intrigued by the "sense of adventure" the Army provided. "So, knowing that Latinos were focused more on pride," Ditzler added, "that's the thing I'm going to show them: how they can make themselves and their families proud." For more empirical evidence, researchers such as Asch are just now beginning to examine the results from field studies. Already consistent with Ditzler's observations, Asch said recent post-enlistment surveys indicate Latinos noted "patriotism" and "service to country" as the top two reasons for joining, as well as "duty" and "honor." Still, according to a Department of Defense poll conducted last year that was aimed at tracking the influences that lead a civilian to enlist, Latino parents were more likely than their African American counterparts to recommend military service to their children as a way to fight the war on terrorism. "It's a conundrum, for sure," Asch said of the results. When Orlando Mayorga, a 24-year-old in Antioch, told his mother he wanted to join the Army, he said she was happy for him. Mayorga, who is still awaiting a call for active duty, makes his living cleaning buildings in the East Bay. Born in Nicaragua, he migrated to the United States and obtained an alien resident card as a teenager, he said. Mayorga enlisted to take advantage of President Bush's decision after Sept. 11 to speed the citizenship process for green card holders who enlist. "The first reason is for citizenship," Mayorga said flatly. "I don't have a second or third reason," he said. Mayorga's father and three brothers still live in their native Nicaragua, and a sister lives in Costa Rica, he said. After his four-year service, Mayorga will be awarded full citizenship. If he dies while in the Army, citizenship is awarded posthumously. Despite the risk, Mayorga said family discussions about his enlistment have focused only on what he stands to gain. Even though he signed up to obtain citizenship, his family is proud of his choice. "My grandfather is proud that I'll be serving," Mayorga said. "My mother is, my father is. My whole family is." Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez, was killed in Iraq in 2003, said he felt a reluctance to discuss the casualty risk with his son, who had been a citizen since he was 15. Suarez said Jesus enlisted only after a recruiter told him a year's commitment in the Marines would lead to a job as a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. Since his son's death, Suarez has become a counter-recruitment activist and recently participated in the immigration protests in Los Angeles. The combination of the rising Latino death toll, Suarez said, and the recent proposed immigration legislation has only stirred more contentious feelings within him. "I feel it twice," Suarez said. "First it's: 'My son served this country in the military and died,' and now: 'They're attacking the parents with this legislation.' On one end of the school campus, they want our sons to enlist. On the other, they want us out of the country. "When my son told me he wanted to join, I said, 'No, no, no!' " Suarez added. "I never believed in this war, but I believed in him." Of the more than 2,400 U.S. casualties in Iraq since 2003, 270 have been Latino, according to the Department of Defense. Jesse Martinez, 19, was killed after his vehicle crashed in Tal Afar, Iraq, in 2004. Jan Martinez described her son as a couch potato before he joined, the kind of teenager who, "didn't have a smile on his face most of the time." As they watched the events of Sept. 11 on television from their Tracy home, mother and son had different responses. Martinez said she sensed a war was coming. She did not favor it, she said, nor could she disagree with the action, either. Her son, meanwhile, felt compelled to join the Marines. "I asked him to wait a little while," she recalled. "I asked him to let things blow over, because I knew things could get worse. "But once he signed up, he started smiling. He felt good about himself. It gave him a sense of purpose." After her son's death, Martinez said she still felt ambivalent about the war. "There are good things and bad things that have come from this," she said. "One of the bad things is that kids die. ... But you still got to be proud of them." E-mail Justin Berton at jberton@sfchronicle.com. Page A - 1 URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/15/MNGE4IRVTN1.DTL ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 5) Celebration of GI Resistance Shuts Oakland Military Recruiting Station by Jeff Paterson, Not in Our Name Tuesday, May. 16, 2006 at 1:12 PM jeff@paterson.net Oakland, California (May 15, 2006) -- 100 people shut down Oakland military recruiting station to celebrate GI resistance to immoral war and occupation. http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/05/1823560.php Oakland, California (May 15, 2006) -- 100 people marched this afternoon from Oakland City Center to the nearby military recruiting station to celebrate GI resistance to immoral war and occupation. Behind a colorful banner for “International Conscientious Objector Day”, and under a giant peace dove, drummers led the procession of high school students, senior citizens, musicians, artists, and community members north on Broadway. At the recruiting station, large posters were unrolled and pasted over the station’s windows to better inform potential recruits of the realities of military service. Earlier in the day a delegation of Bay Area community members met with a representative of the Canadian consulate to press the case for safe haven for the scores of US military service members now in Canada resisting the ongoing Iraq War. The initial march and rally was organized by Courage to Resist and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, with the help of Not in Our Name, Grandmothers Against the War, CodePink, International Capoeira Angola Foundation Oakland, Not Your Soldier, Act Against Torture, and the Heads Up Collective. www.couragetoresist.org ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 6) U.S. reserves nearly 'broken,' says chief Iraq, Afghan conflicts sap military resources Reuters Updated: 8:28 a.m. ET Jan. 6, 2005 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6790738/ WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army Reserve, tapped heavily to provide soldiers for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is “degenerating into a ‘broken’ force” due to dysfunctional military policies, the Army Reserve’s chief said in a memo made public Wednesday. “I do not wish to sound alarmist. I do wish to send a clear, distinctive signal of deepening concern,” Lt. Gen. James Helmly said in a Dec. 20 memo to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker. The Army Reserve is a force of 200,000 part-time soldiers who opted not to sign up for the active-duty Army but can be mobilized from their civilian lives in times of national need. About 52,000 Army Reserve soldiers are on active duty, with 17,000 in Iraq and 2,000 in Afghanistan, the Army said. The Army Reserve has provided many military police, civil affairs soldiers, medics and truck drivers for the wars. “While ability to meet the current demands associated with OIF (Operational Iraqi Freedom) and OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan) is of great importance, the Army Reserve is additionally in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements including those in named OPLANS (operational plans) and CONUS (continental United States) emergencies, and is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken’ force,” Helmly wrote. Helmly said military leaders had rebuffed his proposals for change. The memo’s purpose was to inform Schoomaker of the Army Reserve’s “inability — under current policies, procedures and practices governing mobilization, training and reserve component manpower management — to meet mission requirements” for the two wars, Helmly wrote. 'Dysfunctional practices’ In his eight-page memo, first disclosed by the Baltimore Sun, Helmly titled one section “US Army Reserve Readiness Discussion, Past Dysfunctional Practices/Policies.” The Pentagon, maintaining higher-than-expected troop levels after failing to anticipate that a bloody guerrilla war would follow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003, has relied heavily on Army Reserve and Army National Guard soldiers. These part- time troops comprise about 40 percent of the U.S. force in Iraq. Some reservists and families have complained about frequent and lengthy tours in war zones, inferior equipment and scant notice before being pressed into service. Helmly’s remarks gave fuel to critics of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who argue that his policies and his resistance to a large increase in the active-duty Army are harming the all-volunteer military. Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island called the memo ”deeply disturbing,” adding: “By consistently underestimating the number of troops necessary for the successful occupation of Iraq, the administration has placed a tremendous burden on the Army Reserve and created this crisis.” Volunteer versus mercenary Helmly referred to “potential ‘sociological’ damage” to the all-volunteer military by paying inducements of $1,000 extra per month to reservists who volunteer to remobilize. “We must consider the point at which we confuse ’volunteer to become an American Soldier’ with ' mercenary,”’ Helmly said. Helmly said Pentagon reluctance to issue orders calling reservists to active duty “in a timely manner” resulted in more than 10,000 reserve soldiers getting as little as three to five days notice before being compelled back into uniform. A senior Army official said Schoomaker and Army Secretary Francis Harvey were reviewing the memo. “Changes are expected over time, and the Army is already working these issues. The memo just brings it to the forefront,” the official said. Copyright 2006 Reuters © 2006 MSNBC.com URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6790738/ ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 7) Standing Up to Repression and Fear: The Real "War on Terror" 10 SFSU students face discipline for counter- recruitment protest By Karen Knoller May 14th, 2006 The San Francisco State University administration is stepping up its attack on student anti-war activists. The university‚s office of judicial affairs has targeted 10 individuals in an attempt to intimidate, divide, and stifle student protests on campus. The 10 students have each received letters requesting confidential meetings to discuss and „investigate‰ a complaint filed by the Chief of Public Safety regarding a counter-recruitment protest the students participated in on April 14th. That day, students gathered at the school‚s career fair to protest the presence of military recruiters and the war in the Iraq that has viciously claimed the lives of over 2,400 U.S. soldiers and over 100,000 Iraqis. Their activities included questioning recruiters and talking to potential recruits, distributing anti-war literature, and chanting while holding up signs. The students were loud but peaceful. Soon after the chanting begun, ten protestors were suddenly, and without warning confronted by a wall of policemen who forcibly removed the students from the fair and cited them for „disrupting university activity.‰ The citation, sanctioned by university president Robert Corrigan, barred them from campus for two weeks and threatened the activists with immediate arrest and a fine if they returned within that period. Three of the students live on campus and were in effect made homeless as a result of the citation It is important to note exactly what these students were protesting. SFSU allowed the military on campus, a discriminatory apparatus of war and exploitation that attempts to recruit students with false promises of job training, education, and benefits. They coerce young people to go senselessly kill and be killed in an imperialistic war for profit and the domination of resources. By allowing military recruiters on campus, the SFSU administration is complicit, and an active participant in the war machine. As the war rages on, students on campuses all around the country are standing up and then getting smacked down by their university administrations who want to maintain business as usual as the U.S. military destroys and ravages Iraq while threatening to spread the war to Iran. Bodies are piling up as the military grows more and more desperate to fill its‚ ranks with able college and high school students. The SFSU administration has made it a priority to help them in this sick endeavor. Their loyalties lie not with the students, but with the exploiters and war profiteers. The protestors, who were subjected to outrageous repression by the campus police and administration, stood up and fought back. On April 17th, the students held a press conference in order to defend their actions and condemn the „liberal‰ frauds that clearly stand on the side of war and exploitation. The response from the community and the country, which flooded the president‚s office with phone calls and e-mails in support of the activists, forced the administration to momentarily back down. Later that day all 10 of the students received word that they were allowed back on campus. But the fear of future disciplinary action still loomed. A petition and open letter of support and solidarity has been signed by over 1,000 people, including many prominent members of the anti-war movement like Cindy Sheehan and Dahr Jamail. The signatories also include Denis Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary General who resigned in protest from his position as the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq. Chief of Public Safety Kim Wible released a response to the open letter of solidarity that includes a litany of blatant lies, in an attempt to discredit the students and quell the anger that came after the public was made aware of the university‚s actions. She asserts that the students were asked by the director of the career fair as well as the commander of DPS to leave before they were confronted and accosted by the police. This is a lie. She plainly refutes any instances of police aggression. There are photographs of the event that depict otherwise. And finally, she has the audacity to claim that „the University remains committed to the ideals of free speech.‰ Chief Wible must be referring to the „free speech‰ students are allowed only in designated zones from the hours of 12-2pm. The hypocrisy of this university, that commemorates and celebrates the efforts of people like Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and Cesar Chavez, is nothing short of astounding. Now the administration is trying to discipline the students further, just when they think no one is paying attention. They are most certainly wrong in this assumption. We are all paying attention and will not stand idly by as these hypocrites and war-facilitators, who claim to foster an educational environment of free-speech and respect for student activism, tries to punish and divide these students in the bureaucratic shadows of a „conference.‰ These thugs will attempt to marginalize and isolate these protestors, who are in fact representative and a part of the anti-war majority in this country and around the world. The students will not be intimidated, as they acted in unity and will fight back in unity. They will not sit down and apologize for protesting the sexist, racist, and homophobic military that attempts to funnel people into a brutal and ceaseless war for economic and political hegemony. In this current crisis, it is imperative that students be allowed to protest and voice their concern and outrage without fear of reprisal from police or school officials. The struggle for a better world, one not plagued by the horrors of war and ruthless competition for profit must continue. Sign the petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/sfsu10/petition.html Call, Email and Fax support to Donna Cunningham Judicial Affairs Officer Telephone: (415) 338-2032 E-mail: drcunn@sfsu.edu Robert Corrigan President Telephone: (415) 338-1381 E-mail: corrigan@sfsu.edu Penny Saffold Vice President / Dean of Students Telephone: (415) 338-2032 E-mail: psaffold@sfsu.edu Fax: (415) 338.6327 Open letter to the above by Bonnie Weinstein Bay Area United Against War, www.bauaw.org (415) 824-8730 Dear All: I understand that although you let the students back onto campus you are now "investigating" them--treating them as if they are criminals, threatening their education and acting, yourself, like you are the CIA. Come to your senses. Young people have every right to protest the war and to demand that the military stay away from them. There is no honor in killing innocent people on the basis of proven lies! Too many have already died! The students are right in their protest! Bless and cherish and help these students to achieve their goals. It is in the interests of education, democracy and a truly free world. You--all of you--are supposed to be dedicated to education-- to searching for the truth so that solutions to problems can be found. This, an educator must be dedicated to. You are all supposed to uphold the U.S. Constitution as well. The right to protest doesn't mean the right to protest as long as you get permission from the authorities! That is not the sense of our right to free speech and freedom of assembly. The purpose of having those rights in the first place are so that if the government or the authorities are acting consistently against the wishes of the majority of its people, then the people have a right to protest this and voice their opposition to this freely and try to change it. It is called, "democracy." Certainly, the majority of students have no intentions of signing up to fight this horrific, unjust, immoral and inhuman war. They, clearly, are not willing to loose their lives, limbs and humanly functions so the blood-thirsty war mongers can continue to rack up a fortune at their expense. They have educated themselves about the lies the military tells potential recruits. The military, with their two-billion-dollar advertising budget, like most slick salesmen, offer to students and youth whatever it is they don't have yet always wanted. The problem is--and the students have found out, by the way, without your help--that these promises are all lies. The statistics point to the exact opposite. Less than ten percent of all who serve ever finish college or become U.S. Citizens. They are far more likely to become homeless and that's a fact! And the stories recently in the New York Times as well as many other newspapers about the lack of treatment and care and downright cruelty toward wounded soldiers and enlistees and their families, right here at home as well as on the battlefield, is astoundingly shameful. (Could this be the reason the wealthy don't let their children serve in the military or let the military in their children's schools?) This is a filthy disgusting war carried out by a corrupt, filthy and disgusting government whose only concern is to increase the rate of profit for themselves--the super rich--and damned the world! LEAVE THESE STUDENTS ALONE! THEY ARE THE ONES WHO CAN HELP PUT AN END TO THIS MADNESS! Sincerely, Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War, www.bauaw.org ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 8) Senate Continues to Work on Immigration Bill By CARL HULSE and JIM RUTENBERG May 18, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/washington/18cnd-immig.html?hp&ex=1148011200&en=a1054fb2fa46ad96&ei=5094&partner=homepage WASHINGTON, May 18 — The Senate continued its work on an immigration bill today, approving an amendment that would allow immigrant workers to apply for permanent residence without the sponsorship of their employers. The amendment, offered by Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John McCain, was intended to prevent "abuse of employees," according to Senator Kennedy. It was adopted by a vote of 56 to 43. . President Bush also today wrote to the House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, today, formally asking for an emergency appropriation of $1.9 billion to pay for the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to assist the Border Patrol, a plan he outlined in a speech on Monday. Mr. Bush said he would cut a similar amount from an emergency request for funds for the Department of Defense. Since the speech, administration officials have focused on border security. But Mr. Bush is facing a revolt among conservatives over a proposal that would allow some illegal immigrants to qualify for residency, and the White House on Wednesday dispatched Karl Rove, the president's political adviser, to a meeting of House Republicans to make the case for the president's call for comprehensive changes in immigration laws. House members said that Mr. Rove had made little headway and that most Republicans remained adamantly opposed to any plan that leads to citizenship for those unlawfully in the United States. One House Republican also warned Mr. Rove that it was dangerous to work too closely with Senator Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is one of the authors of the Senate legislation. The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to bar illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors from having a chance at citizenship and to add hundreds of miles of fencing along the Mexican border. The actions bolstered the law enforcement provisions of the Senate bill, which the White House has signaled it supports. Another House Republican, J. D. Hayworth of Arizona, said of the divide between House Republicans and the White House over citizenship and temporary foreign workers, "This is a polite but profound disagreement." At a demonstration near the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, scores of immigrants chanted "Work, yes! Deportation, no!" as they protested provisions in the Senate legislation. They said the measure would impose new hardships on asylum seekers, expand the deportation and detention of illegal immigrants and deny a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who had been here for less than two years. By a vote of 83 to 16, the Senate approved a proposal by Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, to construct about 370 miles of "triple layer" fencing on the Southwest border along with 500 miles of vehicle barriers. Mr. Sessions said that type of fencing would cost about $3.2 million a mile, but he said the cost would be offset by reductions in the expense of detaining and processing people illegally crossing the border. The House has approved 700 miles of fencing. "It is important for the country to make clear to our own citizens and to the world that a lawful system is going to be created, that there is no longer an open border," he said. The Senate also agreed 99 to 0 to a proposal by two Republican senators, Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas, that would deny potential citizenship to convicted criminals and those who ignored deportation orders. "I think it reflects the will of the American people that however we treat people who are here illegally, there are some limits," Mr. Kyl said. He said about 500,000 illegal aliens out of more than 11 million could come under the plan, most for failing to comply with deportation demands. The provision, initially seen as a proposal that could sink the Senate bill, was narrowed to allow for family hardships and other exceptions. It was endorsed by Democrats. "We want to keep those who can harm us, the criminal element, out," Mr. Kennedy said. The Senate, on a 66-to-33 vote, defeated an effort by Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, to kill a provision that would allow illegal immigrants who meet certain qualifications and pay a fine and back taxes to seek citizenship. Mr. Vitter said the provision would result in illegal immigrants' "being treated better than the folks who have lived by the rules from the word go." He said that amounted to amnesty. Advocates of the Senate bill said critics were distorting it to stir opposition. "The American people deserve an honest debate," said Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska. "Let's stop this nonsense." As the debate unfolded, the White House asserted that the president's speech on Monday and efforts on Capitol Hill were paying dividends, if only small ones. Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, pointed to remarks by Mr. Hagel supporting the president's plan to send as many as 6,000 National Guard troops to the border with Mexico. Mr. Hagel had been critical of the Guard proposal but said he had warmed to it after hearing its particulars. Pressed to name one Republican House member who had moved from the position that the president's call for possible citizenship for some illegal immigrants — namely, those here for many years who pay fines and back taxes — amounted to amnesty, Mr. Snow did not. He said it would take time to define the meaning of "amnesty." "It's not amnesty," Mr. Snow said. "Amnesty means 'sorry, no harm, no foul, no crime, go about your business.' " An indication of the difficulty facing the proposals came from Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin. Mr. Sensenbrenner, the Judiciary Committee chairman, would take the lead for the House in efforts to draft compromise legislation. "Regardless of what the president says, what he is proposing is amnesty," Mr. Sensenbrenner said. On Wednesday night, President Bush took his case to an influential group of party faithful during a speech at the Republican National Committee's annual gala dinner in Washington. "The Republican Party needs to lead on this issue of immigration," Mr. Bush said. "The immigration system is not working, and we need to do something about it now. America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society." Mr. Hayworth, an outspoken critic of the president's approach, planned to travel to Arizona on Air Force One with Mr. Bush on Thursday for an immigration event. Mr. Hayworth, who attended the signing of the tax bill on Wednesday, said the president had offered a playful warning about the trip and Mr. Hayworth's opposition. "He said, 'Hey, be careful over by the emergency exit at 30,000 feet,' " Mr. Hayworth recounted. Rachel L. Swarns contributed reporting from Washington for this article, and John Holusha and John O'Neil from New York.. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 9) Coming Down to Earth By PAUL KRUGMAN May 19, 2006 http://select.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/opinion/19krugman.html?hp Um, wasn't the stock market supposed to bounce back after Wednesday's big drop? We shouldn't read too much into a couple of days' movements in stock prices. But it seems that investors are suddenly feeling uneasy about the state of the economy. They should be; the puzzle is why they haven't been uneasy all along. The rise in stock prices that began last fall was essentially based on the belief that the U.S. economy can defy gravity — that both individuals and the nation as a whole can spend more than their income, not on a temporary basis, but more or less indefinitely. To be fair, for a while the data seemed to confirm that belief. In 2005, the trade deficit passed $700 billion, yet the dollar actually rose against the euro and the yen. Housing prices soared, yet houses kept selling. The price of gasoline neared $3 a gallon, yet consumers kept buying both gas and other items, even though they had to borrow to keep spending (the personal savings rate went negative for the first time since the 1930's). Over the last few weeks, however, gravity seems to have started reasserting itself. The dollar began falling about a month ago. So far it's down less than 10 percent against the euro and the yen, but there's a definite sense that foreign governments, in particular, are becoming less willing to keep the dollar strong by buying lots of U.S. debt. The housing market seems to be weakening rapidly. As late as last October, the National Association of Home Builders/ Wells Fargo housing market index, a measure of builders' confidence, was still close to the high point it reached last summer. But on Monday the association announced that the index had fallen to its lowest level since 1995. Finally, there are preliminary indications that consumers, hard-pressed by high gasoline prices, may be reaching their limit. The National Retail Federation, reporting on a new survey, warns that "while consumers have seemed resilient in the face of higher energy costs, a tipping point may soon be in sight." I can't resist pointing out that the Bush administration's response to the squeeze on working families has been, you guessed it, to accuse the news media of biased reporting. On May 10 the White House issued a press release titled "Setting the Record Straight: The New York Times Continues to Ignore America's Economic Progress." The release attacked The Times for asserting that paychecks weren't keeping up with fixed costs like medical care and gasoline. The White House declared, "But average hourly earnings have risen 3.8 percent over the past 12 months, their largest increase in nearly five years." On Wednesday Treasury Secretary John Snow repeated that boast before a House committee. However, Representative Barney Frank was ready. He asked whether the number was adjusted for inflation; after flailing about, Mr. Snow admitted, sheepishly, that it wasn't. In fact, nearly all of the wage increase was negated by higher prices. Meanwhile, the return of economic gravity poses a definite threat to U.S. economic growth. After all, growth over the past three years was driven mainly by a housing boom and rapid growth in consumer spending. People were able to buy houses, even though housing prices rose much faster than incomes, because foreign purchases of U.S. debt kept interest rates low. People were able to keep spending, even though wages didn't keep up with inflation, because mortgage refinancing let them turn the rising value of their houses into ready cash. As I summarized it awhile back, we became a nation in which people make a living by selling one another houses, and they pay for the houses with money borrowed from China. Now that game seems to be coming to an end. We're going to have to find other ways to make a living — in particular, we're going to have to start selling goods and services, not just I.O.U.'s, to the rest of the world, and/or replace imports with domestic production. And adjusting to that new way of making a living will take time. Will we have that time? Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, contends that what's happening in the housing market is "a very orderly and moderate kind of cooling." Maybe he's right. But if he isn't, the stock market drop of the last two days will be remembered as the start of a serious economic slowdown. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*-------- 10) Ground Workers Reach Deal With Northwest By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 10:43 a.m. ET May 19, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Northwest-Labor.html MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Northwest Airlines Corp. and its baggage handlers and ramp workers reached a tentative agreement early Friday aimed at slashing the bankrupt airline's labor expenses, union and airline officials said. Terms of the tentative agreement and the schedule for a ratification vote were being prepared for distribution to members of the union representing about 5,600 ground workers. ''The negotiating committee unanimously recommends ratification of the agreement to avoid the elimination of our contract,'' said Bobby DePace, president of District 143 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. ''We are not recommending ratification because the terms are favorable, but because the alternative is worse,'' DePace said in a statement. The union will also hold a simultaneous strike authorization vote in case the tentative agreement is rejected and the union contract is nullified by the court, DePace said. Northwest Airlines said it was pleased the sides reached an agreement. ''We hope that our equipment service employees and stock clerks will ratify the agreement,'' the airline said in a statement. The agreement came hours before a bankruptcy court hearing in New York, where Judge Allan Gropper was to consider whether to allow Northwest to throw out the union contract and impose its own terms. Bankruptcy law allows companies to reject their union contracts with a judge's permission, a threat that prompted pilots and flight attendants to also make deals. | |