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



Good Anti-War Calendars:

    • Next BAUAW Meeting:

    Recent BAUAW Newsletter Posts:
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2007
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2007
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2007
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2007
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2007
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2007
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2007
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2007
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2007
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2007

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

    		• BAUAW NEWSLETTER
    Subscribe/Unsubscribe

    Tuesday, June 06, 2006
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2006

    "I LIVE HERE, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME" Justice 4 Asa Sullivan
    by Idriss Stelley Foundation
    Sunday Jun 11th, 2006 12:16 AM
    http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/06/11/18280096.php

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

    Sign the petition to save Bayview Hunters Point: No more Fillmore!
    Editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
    http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/signthepetition060706.shtml

    As urban Black displacement grows, Bayview kicks off referendum
    drive to stop Redevelopment by Randy Shaw,
    http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/displacement060706.shtml

    Hands off Bayview Hunters Point!
    An open letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
    http://www.sfbayview.com/050306/handsoff050306.shtml

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

    "The Democrats always promise to help workers, and the don't!
    The Republicans always promise to help business, and the do!"
    - Mort Sahl

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    "It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
    - Emilano Zapata
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    Palestine, Sudan & the Myth of a "Humanitarian" U.S. Foreign Policy
    Tues. June 13, 7pm
    S.F. Women's Building 3543 18th St. (btwn Valencia and Guerrero)
    near 16th St. BART, San Francisco
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Educational Forum

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

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

    People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
    Rally Monday, June 19, 2006, 5:00 P.M.
    Palou Avenue and Third Street, S.F.

    No matter what the decisions the lawmakers make to "reform" the
    immigration laws, we know that they will make some immigrant
    workers "legal" and others "illegal."

    We will hold a rally June 19, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. at Palou Avenue
    and Third Street in San Francisco to demand General and
    Unconditional Amnesty for All Immigrants. We hold this rally
    in celebration of the date of June 19th, 141 years ago when
    it was declared the end of slavery by Black people in this country.

    Our Black brothers and sisters continue to be a slave of racism
    and injustice just as we immigrants. And the government
    continues to put on Death Row the great leaders of the Black
    movement such as Mumia Abu-Jamal.

    We make a call for unity at this rally in the Bayview so we can
    honor June 19th by making a commitment to sow the first
    seeds together in order to make a reality the emancipation
    of the Black people and the immigrants and to demand the
    immediate freedom of the great leader of the Black people,
    Mumia Abu-Jamal, innocent on Death Row.

    For More Information:

    People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
    Barrio Unido Por una Amnistia General e Incondicional
    474 Valencia Street
    San Francisco, CA 94110
    Contact Persons:
    Cristina Gutierrez: 415-431-9925
    Kati Sanchez: 415-368-2576

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

    ABOLISHING JROTC in SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOLS
    There will be a special meeting in July when
    the School Board will vote on this resolution.
    The meeting date is to be announced.
    School District Office
    555 Franklin St
    San Francisco
    415/241-6427

    Report and Open letter to the Board of Education regarding JROTC:

    At the first reading of the resolution to rid the schools
    of JROTC on the basis of the policy of "Don't ask, don't
    tell" that discriminates against gay's in the military, which
    was presented to the Board of Education meeting on May 23, the
    JROTC teachers (all retired military officers) mobilized students
    to speak on behalf of JROTC. Carole Seligman and I spoke to many
    students in the lobby before the meeting began. Repeatedly they
    expressed that they loved the program. It gives them confidence
    in themselves, provides a supportive environment, encourages good
    scholarship in school, and encourages comradeship among the members.

    So much so, that a young girl had a silver-colored chain with a tiny
    silver-colored and diamond studded bullet. I really couldn't believe
    it was a bullet so I asked her if it was. She said, "oh! this? Yes,
    it's a bullet. You know, it's between me and my friend, you know,
    like, 'I'll take a bullet for you!'"

    Need I say more about the virtues of JROTC?

    Unfortunately, the resolution that follows says nothing of this
    aspect of JROTC. Nothing about the war. Nothing about young people
    being taught to "take a bullet for each other". Nothing about the
    realities of war. Nothing about asking students, gay or not, to
    risk their lives and take the lives of Iraqis for this inhuman
    and illegal war brought about by an inhuman and illegal
    government.

    It was announced by gay supporters of JROTC at the meeting
    that they expected the military to lift the prohibition on gays
    in the military this year. If this is true this will make this
    resolution obsolete before it can ever take effect. Are we to cheer
    that our gay brothers and sisters will be able to fight in this war?
    What is our plan to convince young gay and straight students that they can't
    "be all they can be" if they are dead; or legless and armless; or with the
    blood of too many dead in their hearts and head; or permanently
    brain-damaged; burnt or blinded by exploding eyeballs and deafened by
    exploding eardrums? Who will tell them of depleted uranium illness?
    Who will tell them that although there is a very high survival rate for
    our injured soldiers there is also a very high rate of survival with such
    catastrophic injury and illness? Who will tell them that they are more
    likely to be homeless after serving than in college? Who will tell
    them about the logic of "following orders" and a "chain of command"
    Instead of thinking and reasoning and making decisions for themselves
    leads to disaster?

    If you haven't seen it, I suggest you watch the HBO special,
    "Baghdad ER". In fact it should be shown to all of our students
    in middle and high school. (It's far too explicit for very young children.)

    We and the majority of the voters in San Francisco want
    the military out of our schools immediately!

    Here are my comments for the meeting. I was cut off midway
    through my timed one-minute delivery. The resolution
    follows my comments. Please look at it again and see that a
    vital antiwar message is missing from it and correct and
    amend the resolution immediately to reflect opposition
    to the militarization of our schools and the offering up of our
    students as cannon fodder for this bloodthirsty and greedy
    government and it's military might.

    We want a world without war! How can we teach children
    that violence is not the answer when the most powerful
    and influential adults in the world--our government--
    uses it as their ultimate tool to gain wealth and power
    for themselves.

    You must take a stronger antiwar stand! I don't care how many
    antiwar resolutions you have passed. The proof of the pudding
    is in the military presence in our schools!

    Sincerely,
    Bonnie Weinstein

    Addressed to the President, Vice President and the
    Commissioners of the San Francisco Board of Education:

    I commend the board members who are bringing the motion
    to rid our schools of JROTC forward. This is in line with the
    wishes of the majority of the voters in San Francisco who
    voted to get the military out of our schools this past November.
    The military’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” is unacceptable.
    Our obligation is to educate our children against prejudice
    of all kinds—not turn a blind eye—and turn a bigoted military
    loose on them. But that is not the only reason we want the
    military and JROTC out.

    We want our children to engage in physical education, in fact,
    to find joy in it; and to study history—to learn how to avoid
    the mistakes of the past; to gain satisfaction and experience
    joy in learning so they can contribute to human knowledge
    themselves as well as help fashion a better world!

    We want our children to feel responsible to her or his
    community. We want students to gain a sense of
    responsibility and pride in a job well done by
    contributing to the life and well being of their school,
    their home and their community.

    We don’t want to teach our children to blindly obey
    a chain of command or to glorify war. In fact, it is our
    duty to teach our children that blind obedience, violence,
    greed, bigotry, prejudice, human inequality, torture, pre-
    emptive war, profiting off of war and injustice, inequality
    in the application of the law, and poverty in the face of
    fantastic wealth is wrong, inhuman and intolerable and
    we can do better!

    We must rid our schools of the military and JROTC, hire
    enough Physical Education teachers immediately, and
    re-dedicate our schools to education and human
    development—and reject the road to war and militarism.

    Just one more thing, I want to correct the notion that the
    new school policy regarding military recruiters has resulted
    in less military presence in our schools. In fact, it has resulted
    in more. Many schools did not invite the military on Career Day
    and now they must, and that is a shame, because we want the
    military out! We don’t want our children to study war or bigotry
    any more! Not for one more second!

    Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War,
    www.bauaw.org, 415-824-8730

    The resolution:

    Introduction of Replacement Program for JROTC
    --Commissioners Mark Sanchez and Dan Kelly

    WHEREAS: It is the official policy of the San Francisco Unified School
    District to oppose discrimination of any kind against any group
    of people; and

    WHEREAS: The District’s opposition to discrimination is articulated
    in Board Policy 5163, which provides that the San Francisco Unified
    School District shall not discriminate on the basis of race, religion,
    creed, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, or handicapping
    condition in the provision of educational programs, services, and
    activities, in the admission of students to school programs and
    activities; and in the recruitment and employment of personnel; and

    WHEREAS: The San Francisco Unified School District deplores the
    "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" policy of the U.S. Department of Defense,
    which requires the discharge of any member of the armed forces
    if such service member has engaged in "homosexual acts," has
    revealed that s/he is a homosexual or bisexual, or the member
    has married or attempted to marry a person known to be of the
    same biological sex; and

    WHEREAS: The District believes that the "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell"
    policy is an unjust, indefensible, unintelligent, state-sanctioned
    act of homophobia; and

    WHEREAS: The San Francisco Unified School District cannot justify
    committing any funding to a JROTC program because its connection
    to the U.S. Department of Defense suggests that discrimination
    against some groups is tolerable.

    THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the Board of Education of the
    San Francisco Unified School District calls for the phasing –out
    of the JROTC program of the United States Department of Defense
    on San Francisco Unified School District campuses; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Board of Education instructs
    District staff to provide all JROTC units at SFUSD campuses with
    one year notice that the programs will be terminated at all SFUSD
    campuses after the 2006-2007 school year; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Board of Education calls for the
    creation of a special task force to develop alternative, creative,
    career-driven programs which provide students with a greater
    sense of purpose and respect for self and humankind.

    Board has plan to oust ROTC from S.F. schools
    Members want to cut program over 'Don't ask, Don't tell'
    The students engage in physical training such as running, push-ups
    and jumping jacks; and discipline training such as marching,
    drill-practice and using a mock chain of command. They also
    study military history and perform community service.
    - Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
    Tuesday, May 23, 2006
    http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/23/MNGIOJ0G7P1.DTL

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

    Great Counter-Recruitment Website
    http://notyoursoldier.org/article.php?list=type&type=14

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

    SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
    EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
    GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
    ARTICLES IN FULL
    LINKS ONLY

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

    People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
    Rally Monday, June 19, 2006, 5:00 P.M.
    Palou Avenue and Third Street, S.F.

    No matter what the decisions the lawmakers make to "reform" the
    immigration laws, we know that they will make some immigrant
    workers "legal" and others "illegal."

    We will hold a rally June 19, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. at Palou Avenue
    and Third Street in San Francisco to demand General and
    Unconditional Amnesty for All Immigrants. We hold this rally
    in celebration of the date of June 19th, 141 years ago when
    it was declared the end of slavery by Black people in this country.

    Our Black brothers and sisters continue to be a slave of racism
    and injustice just as we immigrants. And the government
    continues to put on Death Row the great leaders of the Black
    movement such as Mumia Abu-Jamal.

    We make a call for unity at this rally in the Bayview so we can
    honor June 19th by making a commitment to sow the first
    seeds together in order to make a reality the emancipation
    of the Black people and the immigrants and to demand the
    immediate freedom of the great leader of the Black people,
    Mumia Abu-Jamal, innocent on Death Row.

    For More Information:

    People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
    Barrio Unido Por una Amnistia General e Incondicional
    474 Valencia Street
    San Francisco, CA 94110
    Contact Persons:
    Cristina Gutierrez: 415-431-9925
    Kati Sanchez: 415-368-2576

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

    DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND
    CIVIL RIGHTS!

    Last summer the U.S. Border Patrol arrested Shanti Sellz and
    Daniel Strauss, both 23-year-old volunteers assisting immigrants
    on the border, for medically evacuating 3 people in critical
    condition from the Arizona desert.

    Criminalization for aiding undocumented immigrants already
    exists on the books in the state of Arizona. Daniel and Shanti
    are targeted to be its first victims. Their arrest and subsequent
    prosecution for providing humanitarian aid could result in
    a 15-year prison sentence. Any Congressional compromise
    with the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) may include these
    harmful criminalization provisions. Fight back NOW!

    Help stop the criminalization of undocumented immigrants
    and those who support them!

    Bay Area Tour of Daniel and Shanti
    Saturday, June 17th, 1 p.m.
    Unitarian Universalist Church
    1187 Franklin Street at Geary
    San Francisco

    For more information on the event call 415-821- 9683.
    For information on the Daniel and Shanti Defense Campaign,
    visit www.nomoredeaths.org.

    Co-sponsored by: La Raza Centro Legal, SF Living Wage
    Coalition, No More Deaths, Socialist Organizer, San Francisco
    Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Ministry and Bay Area
    Labor Committee for Peace & Justice, East Bay Jobs
    With Justice, San Francisco Labor Council.

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

    Saving The Idriss Stelley Foundation
    Host: Idriss Stelley Foundation, Rap4Rights
    Location: Studio Z
    314 11th Street, San Francisco, CA View Map
    When: Sunday, June 25, 1:00pm
    Phone: 415.252.7100

    KEEP IDRISS STELLEY FOUNDATION OPEN!

    ISF is a nonprofit organization created through the settlement
    of Idriss Stelley's vs. City & County and SFPD case and its
    allocation to his mother Mesha Monge-Irizarry.

    Her only child, a 23 year old African American honor student
    was killed by SFPD at the SF Sony Metreon on June 13, 2001.
    48 shots! 9 officers! He stood alone in an empty theater.

    Mesha now operates the Idriss Stelley Foundation, a 24 HR
    bilingual crisis line (415) 595-8251 that has broadened
    its services to all people negatively impacted by law
    enforcement.

    Idriss Stelley's case is at the root of the 40-HR mandatory
    SFPD Mental Health Training. ISF provides free, confidential
    services to victims, biological and extended families who are
    negatively impacted by law enforcement

    ISF office is located at 4921 3rd St., in the heart of Bayview District,
    between Palou and Quesada in San Francisco and is open Sunday,
    Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 8 pm.

    Please come out Sunday June 25, 2006 at 1pm to enjoy food,
    drinks and live entertainment in support of ISF. (21+ Please)

    $5-500 DONATION ACCEPTED AT THE DOOR. NO PERSON
    TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS BUT PLEASE COME
    AND SUPPORT!

    ***IF YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO ATTEND BUT WOULD STILL LIKE
    TO DONATE TO THE IDRISS STELLEY FOUNDATION PLEASE
    CONTACT US VIA EMAIL AT RAP4RIGHTS@AOL.COM***

    ISF IS DEPENDING ON THE COMMUNITY TO KEEP ITS DOORS OPEN!

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

    LaborFest 2006 Schedule
    July 1 (Saturday) 12-4:00 PM ($15-50)
    (sliding scale donation to CounterPULSE requested. Bring a bag lunch!)
    Labor Bike Tour with Chris Carlson of San Francisco©ˆs labor history
    For more info: call Chris Carlsson carlsson.chris@gmail.com
    Meet at 1310 Mission (at 9th), San Francisco
    http://www.laborfest.net/2006schedule.htm

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

    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

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

    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) Dollars and Dreams: Immigrants as Prey
    By GARY RIVLIN
    SAN FRANCISCO
    June 11, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/business/yourmoney/11migrate.html?hp&ex=1149998400&en=07d13272e04c2ce3&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    2) Parts Supplier Reaches Buyout Deal With U.A.W.
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD and NICK BUNKLEY
    June 10, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/10/business/10delphi.html

    3) Three Prisoners Commit Suicide at Guantánamo
    By JAMES RISEN and TIM GOLDEN
    "They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," Admiral
    Harris said. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own.
    I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical
    warfare waged against us."
    June 11, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/us/11gitmo.html?hp&ex=1150084800&en=4e0a572a10c327d6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    4) How Hispanics Became the New Gays
    By FRANK RICH
    June 11, 2006
    http://select.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/opinion/11rich.html?hp

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

    1) Dollars and Dreams: Immigrants as Prey
    By GARY RIVLIN
    SAN FRANCISCO
    June 11, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/business/yourmoney/11migrate.html?hp&ex=1149998400&en=07d13272e04c2ce3&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    IT was when his immigration attorney asked him for $3,000
    several years ago that Celso Lima Mejia started to wonder
    whether his lawyer was taking him for a very costly ride.
    Mr. Mejia, a Guatemalan immigrant who was residing illegally
    in the United States, said he had already paid Miguel Gadda
    $3,600 to help him apply for asylum. Mr. Mejia recalled in
    a recent interview that Mr. Gadda promised him that the
    legal fees — a large chunk of his annual pay of about $20,000
    as a handyman — would land him a coveted prize: a green
    card allowing him to come out from the shadows and live
    in the United States as a permanent resident.

    But immigration authorities rejected the application, and
    Mr. Mejia said Mr. Gadda pressed him for the extra $3,000
    to appeal the decision. Until that point, Mr. Mejia said, Mr. Gadda
    had done virtually no work on the case — "He hadn't even done
    any prep work with me before my hearing" — but his asylum
    application had revealed him to immigration authorities.
    Mr. Mejia, who is now 29, felt that he had to keep fighting,
    so he scrounged up the money. And that was the last time
    he saw Mr. Gadda.

    When Mr. Mejia found a deportation order in his mail in 2001,
    he rushed in panic to his lawyer's office. "But the office wasn't
    there anymore, and there was nowhere to find him," said Mr. Mejia,
    who gained permanent resident status — his green card — after
    turning to a second lawyer he described as "my angel."

    Mr. Mejia wasn't Mr. Gadda's only victim. When the State Bar
    of California disbarred Mr. Gadda in 2002, it cited him for
    professional misconduct and legal incompetence involving
    eight illegal immigrants he had advised. (Mr. Mejia's case
    was not among them.)

    Mr. Gadda is hardly alone. As the number of illegal immigrants
    in the country has swollen to what the Department of Homeland
    Security conservatively estimates at nine million, so have the ranks
    of those who inhabit the immigration business's underbelly, posing
    as well-meaning advisers to those in search of a new job, a new
    home and a green card if not full citizenship. Immigrants, strangers
    in a foreign land for whom a green card means a ticket to a fuller
    life, are ideal prey for con artists and would-be consultants
    out for a quick buck.

    ANALYSTS, lawyers and immigration specialists say that the
    current debate over immigration reform is also providing
    a perfect business environment for those who prey on the
    undocumented in the Chinatowns, barrios and other immigrant
    enclaves around the country.

    "Every time there's talk of a new law passing, these scammers
    basically pop up" and aim at immigrants, said Victor D. Nieblas,
    an immigration lawyer based in Los Angeles who teaches
    at Loyola Law School there. "It's big business."

    The worst offenders, Mr. Nieblas and others said, tend to be
    immigration consultants, or "notarios" — nonlawyers who,
    whether or not they are qualified to do so, are in the business
    of helping aliens negotiate the immigration system. Even the
    name "notarios" rankles immigrant advocates: in many Latin
    American countries, a "notario público" is a professional
    licensed to represent people in legal matters.

    "For unscrupulous attorneys and other practitioners, a change
    in the law represents a kind of open season on aliens," said
    Jennifer J. Barnes, the general counsel for the Executive Office
    for Immigration Review, a unit of the Justice Department. "That's
    what's happened in the past when we've enacted changes in
    immigration law, and I'm sure if a new law passes this time,
    we'll see people out there trying to take advantage of the
    situation."

    Yet that seems to be happening already. People who closely
    monitor the national immigration debate may know that the
    House of Representatives and the Senate are so far apart on
    their immigration bills that no new amnesty laws may be enacted
    — but that information reaches illegal immigrants only in
    fractured pieces. Even then, immigrant advocates say, some
    notarios and others milking the process for financial gain warp
    and bend the true parameters of asylum opportunities to take
    advantage of legions of hopefuls.

    Mr. Nieblas, who is a host of a weekly immigration advice
    program on a Spanish-language radio station in Southern
    California, said he was already hearing from callers who
    contended that local notarios were "asking them for money
    so they can start processing people under the new law,
    though there is no new law."

    Lori A. Nessel, an associate professor at the Seton Hall
    University School of Law who runs its Immigration and
    Human Rights Clinic, has picked up on the same chatter
    on the East Coast.

    "The concern is that you have these notarios out there saying,
    'Pay now and get your applications in now for the amnesty,' when
    there's no reason to be taking people's money until there's a law,"
    Professor Nessel said.

    Nelly Reyes is a well-regarded immigration consultant in San
    Francisco who has spent the last 15 years helping her Spanish-
    speaking clients fill out forms, translate documents and navigate
    the federal bureaucracy. She earns roughly $60,000 a year, and
    says that she could make several times that amount if she emulated
    the practices of some of her more nefarious competitors. "I've
    gotten two or three calls over the last month from people saying,
    'Let's go into business together, this is the time to start making
    a lot of money,' " Ms. Reyes said.

    By her estimation, more than half her counterparts should be put
    out of business, because they are either scam artists or incompetents
    selling skills they do not possess.

    "What's scary right now," Ms. Reyes said, "is that people are saying,
    'Whatever it takes, whatever I must pay to become legal.' "

    "It's that attitude that people can take advantage of," she added.

    Over the past three years, Greg Abbott, the Texas attorney general,
    has secured judicial orders to shut down a dozen notarios around
    the state. That includes the Aplicación de Oro, a large immigration
    consulting firm in West Texas that a judge ordered closed in January
    after Mr. Abbott said that its two owners had "scammed" hundreds
    of immigrants out of thousands of dollars each, according to
    a press release. In California, the state attorney general, Bill
    Lockyer, has obtained civil judgments against roughly two dozen
    immigration consultants since 2000, a department spokesman said.

    But advocates for immigrants say that California and Texas
    are the exception to the rule, and that most local district
    attorneys, who are also charged with monitoring consumer
    fraud, contend that their resources are too thinly stretched
    to devote much — if any — time to investigating immigration
    consultants. Moreover, advocates say, the problem is so widespread
    in California, Texas, New York and other states where illegal
    immigrants tend to live that even the most well-meaning efforts
    seem futile.

    "The authorities will close down one of these shops, and
    a couple of weeks later they'll open up someplace else," said
    Mr. Nieblas, who is also an officer in the American Immigration
    Lawyers Association. "There are literally hundreds of these
    businesses in the Los Angeles area alone that are targeting
    the community."

    At the moment, the most common fraud perpetuated on illegal
    immigrants — and certainly the most lucrative — is the kind
    that Mr. Mejia and his new lawyer believe almost had him sent
    back to Guatemala. "There are any number of immigration scams,
    but the asylum scam is by far and away the most popular right now,"
    said Nora Privitera, a lawyer for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center
    in San Francisco. The brilliance of asylum fraud, at least from the
    perspective of the perpetrator, is that the federal government ends
    up sending most of the casualties back to their lands of origin.

    "Their victims are typically deported and can't rat on them,"
    Ms. Privitera said.

    There are two general versions of the asylum scheme. The more
    simple of the two has a lawyer or notario convincing an illegal
    immigrant to pay the going rate of about $5,000 — more if
    a client is willing to pay for appeals — to apply for asylum.
    The payment changes hands, even though the illegal immigrant
    is unlikely to secure asylum status, which is meant for those who
    would face persecution back in their home country if they were
    deported.

    That is among the accusations that the State Bar of California
    was leveling at Walter Pineda, an immigration lawyer, in a San
    Francisco hearing room last week. According to immigration
    experts, people typically emigrate from Mexico to search for
    better economic opportunities, not because they fear for their
    safety. Even so, Mr. Pineda routinely encouraged his Mexican
    clients to file "meritless" asylum applications, according to the
    state bar, which has accused him of more than two dozen
    counts of incompetence and five counts of moral turpitude
    for what it called "repeatedly and knowingly" lying to his clients.

    The bar association contends that Mr. Pineda would routinely
    "take client money to file frivolous applications, spend no time
    actually trying to develop a viable position for the clients to stay
    legally in the United States, lose the applications for asylum and
    take more money to file frivolous appeals."

    Doron Weinberg, Mr. Pineda's lawyer, said, "We admit to the
    general facts, but as you can imagine, we deny every judgment
    that has my client doing something reprehensible."

    An immigration lawyer typically works hard for a $5,000 fee —
    assembling evidence, prepping witnesses, drawing up arguments
    to convince a skeptical immigration hearing officer that a client
    deserves asylum. Then there are cases like those of Mr. Mejia,
    the Guatemalan handyman who lost $6,600 pursuing his asylum
    case.

    Guatemalan rebels kidnapped Mr. Mejia, the son of a government
    employee, when he was 7 years old and the country was in the midst
    of a prolonged civil war; two years after securing his release, his
    family fled Guatemala for the United States. Like so many illegal
    immigrants, Mr. Mejia and his parents did their best to live their
    lives out of the view of the authorities — until a family friend
    referred Mr. Gadda to them a half-dozen years ago.

    Another lawyer might have been able to make a credible case
    that Mr. Mejia deserved asylum. But Mr. Gadda apparently was
    unwilling or unable to do so. Mr. Mejia says he believes his own
    experience reflects the accusations that the California bar made
    against Mr. Gadda: that he proved willing to collect fees but not
    to do the work for which he was paid.

    "This was a lawyer who took money from his clients and repeatedly
    failed to perform legal services," said Sherrie B. McLetchie, the lead
    lawyer for the California bar in the disbarment proceedings against
    Mr. Gadda. And the undocumented "are among the most vulnerable
    clients any lawyer can represent," she said.

    Despite his travails, Mr. Mejia stayed the course. It would
    eventually cost him over $10,000 more in legal fees beyond what
    he paid Mr. Gadda, but Ilyce Shugall, a local immigration lawyer,
    was able to secure him a green card in April. "I worked after work,
    and I worked on weekends," to pay the added fees, Mr. Mejia said.

    Ms. Shugall said that Mr. Gadda "had made such a mess out of
    the asylum claim that we decided to drop it." Instead, Ms. Shugall,
    who works for the law firm of Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale
    in San Francisco, pursued an alternative claim known as a "cancellation
    -of-removal" order. Such orders grant green cards to anyone who has
    lived in the United States for at least 10 years and can demonstrate that
    a parent or a child in the country legally would suffer "exceptional and
    unusual hardship" if the applicant was deported. Mr. Mejia, who arrived
    here in the late 1980's and later became the primary care provider for
    his ailing parents, met that criteria and won his green card.

    MR. MEJIA was fortunate to have an advocate like Ms. Shugall,
    because cancellation-of-removal orders are often central to the
    other type of fraud involving an asylum claim. In it, a deceitful
    notario or lawyer tells potential clients that they qualify for
    a cancellation order, but does not disclose a crucial prerequisite:
    that even if they are care providers for a legal but ailing resident
    who is a parent or child, they must still prove that a loved one
    would suffer extreme hardship if the authorities deported the
    caregiver.

    "That's a very difficult standard to meet, but people are not told
    that part of it," said Ms. Privitera of the Immigrant Legal Resource
    Center. The most insidious aspect of this unfortunate legal strategy,
    Ms. Privitera said, is that first the lawyer or immigration consultant
    must get someone into the system, because only if there is a removal
    order in place can someone petition to have the order rescinded, which
    would lead to a green card. The simplest way to do this is to request
    asylum, so the client will typically pay thousands of dollars for a futile
    asylum claim and, after the loss, will spend thousands of dollars more
    to pursue a legalization strategy that is far more likely to snare
    a deportation order than a green card.

    "Once you're in immigration court, there's only two ways out,"
    Ms. Privitera said. "You get granted something, or you get told to
    leave. There's no prosecutorial discretion for people who come into
    court because they've been defrauded."

    Illegal immigrants who escape this trap are those who find a capable
    lawyer willing to take on their botched cases before they are deported
    — immigrants like Silvia Castillo of San Jose, Calif. Ms. Castillo, along
    with four other plaintiffs, has filed a suit accusing Rose Ann Martinez,
    an immigration consultant, and several San Francisco Bay Area lawyers
    of conspiring "on a fraudulent immigration scheme." Ms. Castillo,
    a housekeeper and single mother of two, said the process cost her
    about $10,000.

    "My mother basically spent her entire life's savings," said Glancy Robles,
    her 16-year-old daughter.

    According to the complaint, filed earlier this year in California, Ms.
    Martinez persuaded Ms. Castillo and her fellow plaintiffs, all of them
    illegal immigrants from Mexico, to pursue the cancellation-of-removal
    strategy. But, court papers say, Ms. Martinez never informed her clients
    that they also had to file an asylum application, which would put them
    in peril of deportation. The victims also contend that Ms. Martinez
    failed to tell them that a cancellation-of-removal order was rare and
    that they would be successful only if they also proved that their
    deportation would cause extreme hardship for a parent or child.
    Ms. Martinez declined to comment.

    Because both of Ms. Castillo's children were born in the United States,
    they are citizens. But both are healthy. Ms. Castillo lost her case
    — and her family would have been forced to move back to Mexico
    if not for the intervention of Vaughan de Kirby, a San Francisco lawyer.

    Mr. de Kirby was able to convince a judge that sending Ms. Castillo
    back to Mexico also meant deporting her two children, both of whom
    were in school at the time. He also was able to prove that her two
    daughters would experience extreme hardship if they were forced
    to leave the country, thereby clearing up the mess that he said Ms.
    Martinez — and the outside law firm she commissioned — had
    made of Ms. Castillo's case.

    "Immigration consultants serve a valuable function, because they
    can operate at a cost factor for people who can't afford an attorney,"
    Mr. de Kirby said. "But unfortunately they're not well regulated,
    and there are abuses."

    Mr. Nieblas, the Los Angeles immigration lawyer, is not nearly so
    generous in his comments about notarios. He estimates that he
    meets with as many as 20 people a month who have shown up
    in his office after an immigration consultant has botched a case
    through incompetence or malfeasance. If it were up to him, he said,
    he would outlaw immigration consultants altogether.

    Another Los Angeles immigration lawyer, Alan R. Diamante, says
    that "70 to 80 percent of my clients have either been victims of
    a notario, or a lawyer working together with a notario." He, too,
    says he does not believe that notarios play a legitimate role in
    handling the legal mechanics of immigration.

    LIKE other lawyers interviewed for this article, both Mr. Nieblas and
    Mr. Diamante said that they would never advise clients to reveal
    their residency status to authorities on the chance that they might
    secure a cancellation-of-removal order. He said that the stakes
    were very high, and the chances of winning low.

    "I've had clients come to me and say, 'I've got a son who is
    suffering from this disease or that disease, let me turn myself in,' "
    Mr. Nieblas said. "I always tell them no. But some then just find
    someone else to handle the case. They've heard from people on
    the streets that this is the perfect opportunity to get a green card,
    and they don't want to believe me — and they can always find
    a notario who'll take their case."

    The undocumented are not always on the losing end of immigration
    schemes. In Chinatown in San Francisco, for instance, an immigrant
    can spend $20,000 to $40,000 over six to seven years fighting to
    secure a green card, said Steve W. Baughman, a local immigration
    lawyer. Alternatively, he said, the same person can find an unscrupulous
    consultant who, for roughly $5,000, "will teach you how to lie and
    cheat your way into a bogus asylum claim."

    For example, the granting of asylum is nearly automatic for a Chinese
    expatriate who claims religious and political persecution because
    he or she is a member of the Falun Gong spiritual sect. So some
    immigration consultants, Mr. Baughman said, maintain libraries
    of materials and videos about the group so that illegal immigrants
    can fake membership in Falun Gong when an asylum officer
    quizzes them.

    "I can hardly blame people for doing it," he said. "It's the supply
    side that needs to be dealt with."

    The federal government's Bureau of Immigration and Customs
    Enforcement, said Chris Bentley, a spokesman, does what it can
    to spread the word that illegal immigrants must be careful about
    whom they turn to when seeking legal assistance. "If people snuck
    in the country illegally, we still don't want them to be taken by
    someone hanging out a shingle on a street corner, claiming they're
    an immigration expert when they're not," Mr. Bentley said.

    Yet the abuses of immigration consultants are hardly a top priority,
    Mr. Bentley acknowledged, for an agency now tucked inside the
    Department of Homeland Security.

    The San Francisco district attorney's office will "vigorously
    prosecute any complaints we receive" about immigration
    consultants, said an assistant district attorney, June Cravett.
    Her office, she said, is trying to spread the word that it offers
    a haven for illegal immigrants who feel that they have been
    fleeced by a scam artist.

    BUT limited resources mean that her office does not set up sting
    operations or the like, Ms. Cravett said. "Unfortunately, we haven't
    received that many complaints," she said.

    The local authorities in Los Angeles have adopted a similar approach,
    said Mr. Diamante, a former president of the local Mexican American
    Bar Association. "They do one major token case every five years, it gets
    a lot of attention, and then that's it," he said.

    Immigrant advocates and law enforcement officials in California point
    to the district attorney's office in Santa Clara County, in the heart
    of Silicon Valley, as a model enforcement program. But they say that
    while county officials have taken impressive steps to crack down
    on unscrupulous notarios, the office's experiences and limited
    resources still underscore how hard it is to rein in the problem.

    "There are so many of them it's really hard to go after every single
    one," said Martha J. Donohoe, a deputy district attorney in the county
    who oversees her office's efforts to monitor immigration consultants.
    "Basically our focus has had to have been going after the really bad
    actors."

    When she has a law clerk, Ms. Donohoe says, her office can monitor
    the immigration consultant industry more proactively. Otherwise, her
    office must wait until it receives complaints from local advocacy groups
    that represent illegal immigrants, she said.

    "I hate to say it, but by the time we go after someone, they've typically
    hurt so many people," Ms. Donohoe said. "Typically it takes years
    to bring one of these cases, and the word has to really spread that
    someone is a bad, bad actor before we get people who are here
    illegally to bring a complaint."

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

    2) Parts Supplier Reaches Buyout Deal With U.A.W.
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD and NICK BUNKLEY
    June 10, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/10/business/10delphi.html

    DETROIT, June 9 — The Delphi Corporation, the auto parts supplier,
    reached an agreement on Friday with the United Automobile
    Workers union and General Motors that offered buyouts to all
    of its 24,000 workers and reduced the possibility of a crippling
    strike.

    The plan, which G.M. will finance, expands a plan announced
    in March that covered 13,000 Delphi workers, and comes on
    the eve of the union's leadership convention, which begins
    Monday in Las Vegas.

    Agreement on the buyouts allows the two companies and the
    union to focus negotiations on other crucial issues like the
    level of wage and benefit cuts at Delphi, the amount G.M.
    is willing to pay for buyouts and to subsidize workers' wages,
    and the number of workers who will be left at Delphi, once
    the cuts are made.

    The situation also needs to be settled, analysts say, for G.M.
    to proceed with its own restructuring.

    The broadened buyout offer will "really alleviate a lot of the
    uncertainty and take away a lot of the militant impetus in
    the union for a strike," said David L. Gregory, professor
    of labor relations at St. John's University Law School in
    New York.

    Delphi, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October,
    is the country's biggest parts supplier. It was part of G.M.
    until it was spun off in 1999. G.M. remains liable for pension
    and retirement health care benefits for Delphi workers who
    were at the automaker before the spinoff.

    On March 22, G.M. offered buyouts ranging from $35,000
    to $140,000 to all 113,000 of its hourly workers and 13,000
    of the 24,000 U.A.W. members at Delphi. In addition,
    it agreed to take back 5,000 Delphi workers.

    After announcing that deal, Delphi asked a federal bankruptcy
    judge for permission to set aside its labor contracts and
    impose sharply lower wage rates and less-generous benefits.
    Delphi also said it would close or sell 21 of its 29 plants
    in the United States, and cut 20,000 hourly jobs, many
    held by U.A.W. members.

    In return, the U.A.W. threatened to strike Delphi if that
    happened, a move that could cripple G.M. Last month,
    workers voted to give leaders the authority to call a strike.

    Since then, the issue has played out at the negotiating table
    and in court. Hearings on Delphi's request to set aside
    its contracts began last month, and the union had been
    set to present its case this week.

    But on Friday, a federal judge postponed the hearings until
    Aug. 11, easing the likelihood of a strike before then, since
    the U.A.W. contract remains in effect. And, the additional
    time increases the prospects that the two companies and
    the union will come to terms.

    In a statement, Delphi said it was "committed" to reaching
    a deal outside of court. The U.A.W., for its part, said the
    additional time would allow it, Delphi and G.M. to focus
    on negotiations without the "distraction" of the court
    hearings.

    A spokeswoman for G.M., which has not said how much
    it expects the buyouts to cost, said the broadened plan
    was a "win-win all the way around."

    Analysts said the development was promising.

    "It's a very encouraging sign, because it greatly reduces
    the risk of a long strike," said one automotive analyst, John
    Casesa, managing partner of Casesa Strategic Advisers in
    New York. A lengthy walkout "is mutually assured destruction
    for G.M. and the U.A.W.," Mr. Casesa added.

    But getting to a deal will require intense discussions that
    will ultimately reveal just how much G.M. is willing to pay
    to help overhaul its former parts supplier.

    Delphi has proposed cutting Delphi workers' wages from
    about $28 an hour to $22 an hour, then to $16.50 an hour,
    assuming a subsidy of $50,000 a worker paid by G.M., which
    has not committed itself to the plan.

    Without the subsidy, Delphi would cut wages next year to $12.50
    an hour, or less than half what workers earn on their current
    contract, which is essentially the same as the contract at G.M.

    The longer time for negotiations increases the chance that the
    U.A.W. will agree to some concessions, a move that experts say
    is generally inevitable once a company asks for its labor
    contracts to be set aside.

    Still, "it's always superior if you can reach an agreement outside
    of court," Mr. Gregory of St. John's University Law School said.

    Under the buyout plan, workers with at least 30 years experience,
    making them eligible to retire, would receive $35,000 and their
    complete retirement benefits including a pension and health care.

    Workers with 10 to 26 years would receive $140,000 to leave,
    while workers with one to 10 years experience would receive
    $70,000. Both groups would receive a pension once they
    reached retirement age, but no health care benefits.

    A small group of workers who joined Delphi in the last year,
    and received different benefits, would receive $40,000 to give
    up their jobs.

    Another program would pay workers with 26 to 29 years of
    service a monthly stipend of $2,750 until they are eligible
    for retirement, if they will leave now. The plan originally
    applied to workers with 27 to 29 years experience, but was
    lowered by a year under the new program.

    Claudia Piccinin, a Delphi spokeswoman, said the plan "allows
    us to more rapidly transform our U.S. manufacturing operations
    and also softens the economic impact on our hourly work force."

    The deadline for accepting the buyouts at G.M. and Delphi
    is June 23; workers have a week after that to change their
    minds. Discussions continue with Delphi's five other unions
    on a similar buyout program.

    G.M. lost $10.6 billion in 2005, and continues to lose money
    on its automotive operations despite posting a profit in the
    first quarter. G.M. wants to eliminate 30,000 jobs and close
    all or parts of a dozen plants through 2008, and it hopes
    to get that many workers to agree to its buyout plans.

    Earlier this year, Delphi asked a federal judge to cancel
    hundreds of its parts contracts with G.M., an action that would
    allow it to raise the prices G.M. pays it for parts. The move
    ignited an angry reaction from G.M., which agreed last fall
    to give up discounts it had negotiated with Delphi so the
    company would have more cash at the beginning of its
    bankruptcy.

    On Friday, the judge postponed a hearing on that request
    by Delphi until Aug. 11, allowing the two sides time to reach
    a deal in that dispute.

    Expanding the buyouts at Delphi came as the U.A.W.'s lead
    negotiator, Richard Shoemaker, is set to retire next week.
    He also oversees talks with G.M., and is considered to be
    the union official closest to the U.A.W. president, Ron
    Gettelfinger.

    Mr. Gettelfinger will choose a successor for Mr. Shoemaker
    at the U.A.W. convention next week. Whoever succeeds
    Mr. Shoemaker will immediately join Mr. Gettelfinger in
    the three-way discussions, which have been among the
    most difficult that the union has faced since the 1979
    talks that resulted in concessions to Chrysler.

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

    3) Three Prisoners Commit Suicide at Guantánamo
    By JAMES RISEN and TIM GOLDEN
    "They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," Admiral
    Harris said. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own.
    I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical
    warfare waged against us."
    June 11, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/us/11gitmo.html?hp&ex=1150084800&en=4e0a572a10c327d6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    WASHINGTON, June 10 — Three detainees being held at the United
    States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, committed suicide
    early on Saturday, the first deaths of detainees to be reported at the
    military prison since it opened in early 2002, United States military
    officials said.

    The deaths come at a time of mounting international criticism
    of the Bush administration's handling of terrorism suspects at
    Guantánamo and other prisons around the world. President Bush,
    who was at Camp David on Saturday, expressed "serious concern"
    about the deaths, said Tony Snow, the White House spokesman.

    The three detainees were not identified, but United States officials
    said two were from Saudi Arabia and the third was from Yemen.
    Military officials said that the three hanged themselves in their
    cells with nooses made of sheets and clothing and died before
    they could be revived by medical personnel.

    Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., the commander of the detention
    camp at Guantánamo, told reporters in a news conference that
    the deaths were discovered early on Saturday when a guard noticed
    something out of the ordinary in a cell and found that a prisoner
    had hanged himself. Admiral Harris said guards and a medical
    team rushed in to try to save the inmate's life but were
    unsuccessful. Then, guards found two other detainees
    in nearby cells had hanged themselves as well; all were
    pronounced dead by a physician.

    Military officials on Saturday suggested that the three suicides
    were a form of a coordinated protest.

    "They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," Admiral
    Harris said. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own.
    I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical
    warfare waged against us."

    The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has opened an investigation
    into the deaths, and the State Department has notified the
    governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, according to a
    statement issued on Saturday by the United States Southern
    Command, the military organization that oversees Guantánamo.

    All three men left suicide notes in Arabic, officials said. One
    of the detainees was a mid- or high-level Qaeda operative,
    another had been captured in Afghanistan and the third was
    a member of a splinter group, Admiral Harris said, in an account
    by The Associated Press. He said all three had participated
    in hunger strikes at the detention center.

    He said the acts were tied to a "mystical" belief at Guantánamo
    that three detainees must die at the camp for all the detainees
    to be released. There have been 41 suicide attempts by 25
    detainees since the facility opened, officials said.

    Lawyers for the detainees, human rights groups and legal
    associations have increasingly questioned whether many of the
    prisoners can even rightfully be called terrorists. They note that
    only 10 of the roughly 465 men held at Guantánamo have been
    charged before military tribunals, and that recently released
    documents indicate that many have never been accused even
    in administrative proceedings of belonging to Al Qaeda or
    attacking the United States.

    Advocates for the detainees said they believed the suicides resulted
    from the deep despair felt by inmates who are being held indefinitely.

    "The total, intractable unwillingness of the Bush administration
    to provide any meaningful justice for these men is what is at the
    heart of these tragedies," said Bill Goodman, the legal director of the
    Center for Constitutional Rights, the New York advocacy group that
    oversees lawyers representing many of the detainees. "We all had the
    sense that these men were getting more and more hopeless. There's
    been a general sense of desperation that's been growing."

    Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a lawyer at Dorsey & Whitney in New York
    who represents one detainee who has repeatedly attempted suicide,
    said, "These men have been told they will be held at Guantánamo
    forever. They've been told that while they're held there they do
    not have a single right."

    Foreign governments and international organizations have stepped
    up their criticism of detainee treatment at Guantánamo. Just last
    month, a United Nations treaty panel reviewing the United States'
    compliance with the international prohibition on torture argued
    that Guantánamo should be shut down. Last week, the Council
    of Europe issued a separate investigative report that said the
    United States had created a "reprehensible network" of dealing
    with terror suspects, highlighted by secret prisons believed to
    be in Eastern Europe and other nations around the world.

    Responding to the growing furor over the issue in Europe, Mr. Bush
    said in an interview with German television in May that he would like
    to close the Guantánamo prison, but that his administration had
    to await the outcome of a Supreme Court ruling on whether the
    detainees should be tried by civilian courts or military commissions.

    Meanwhile, the situation inside the detention center has grown
    more volatile in recent months, with reports that prisoners have
    engaged in hunger strikes, suicide attempts and violent attacks
    on guards.

    Lawyers for the detainees have predicted for months that some
    would kill themselves. They have complained repeatedly about
    their access to the detainees, and have litigated in federal courts
    to try to get more information about the prisoners' medical and
    psychological health.

    The lawyers have also strenuously protested the administration's
    efforts to have all litigation over the treatment of the detainees
    dismissed under the Detainee Treatment Act, a law signed by
    Mr. Bush on Dec. 30 that would strip the courts of jurisdiction
    to hear habeas corpus petitions from detainees.

    Action on nearly all of those petitions has been suspended in
    recent months, pending a ruling by the Supreme Court this month
    on the case of a former driver for Osama bin Laden.

    In public statements, Defense Department officials have often
    dismissed the detainees' suicide attempts as less than serious
    and as the actions of trained Qaeda terrorists to manipulate public
    opinion. The first hunger strikes by detainees at Guantánamo began
    soon after the camp opened in January 2002, and two of those
    prisoners were forcibly fed through tubes that year. Dozens of
    other suicide attempts followed.

    Over one eight-day period in August 2003, 23 detainees tried to
    hang or strangle themselves, including 10 on a single day. But the
    Pentagon did not disclose the episode until January 2005, and lawyers
    for the detainees have complained about what they say has been
    a pattern in which the government has withheld information about
    suicide attempts or minimized their importance.

    In late 2003, military officials at Guantánamo began to re-classify
    many of the suicide attempts as "manipulative, self-injurious behavior"
    that was intended to bring pressure for better conditions or for release.
    Officials at Guantánamo acknowledged that those designations were
    not necessarily made after any formal psychological evaluation.

    But early last summer, as a new wave of protests broke out, officials
    at Guantánamo and at the Pentagon grew increasingly concerned,
    Defense Department officials said.

    Doctors overseeing the treatment of detainees at Guantánamo sought
    new guidance from the Pentagon about the circumstances under
    which they could force-feed hunger strikers by tubes inserted through
    their noses and into their stomachs. While Defense Department
    officials took new measures to try to break a wave of hunger strikes
    that began last summer, they also undertook a review of procedures
    they would follow for the possible burial of detainees or the transfer
    of their remains in the event that any of them succeeded in committing
    suicide, military officials said.

    Military officials began trying to discourage the detainees from
    killing themselves in part by having military and medical personnel
    cite passages in the Koran that condemn suicide. The detainees
    were systematically told that annual reviews of their status as
    "enemy combatants" had been completed, that they would remain
    at Guantánamo for at least another year, and that they should
    reconcile themselves to the situation, Defense Department
    officials said.

    The military's review of the hunger-strike issue, which included
    senior Pentagon officials and officers of the United States Southern
    Command, which oversees Guantánamo, eventually led to a decision
    to begin strapping those detainees who refused to eat into metal
    "restraint chairs" while they were force-fed.

    After the use of the chairs was disclosed by The New York Times
    in February, military officials insisted that they were acting only
    to save the lives of hunger-striking detainees who were
    precariously close to serious harm or death.

    Interviews with military officials indicated that only a handful
    of the detainees who were then being force-fed had lost so much
    weight that they were classified by doctors there as "severely
    malnourished." The restraint chair was used on all of those
    who refused to eat, military officials said, regardless of their
    medical condition.

    For months after the use of the restraint chairs became public,
    lawyers for the detainees and other critics of United States detention
    policy predicted that the tougher measures would push the
    prisoners to take more radical steps to end their lives.

    What may have been the most serious such incident before
    Saturday's suicides came on May 18, when two detainees were
    found unconscious in their cells after ingesting a large quantity
    of anti-anxiety medication that various prisoners had apparently
    hoarded for the purpose. Another detainee said he had also
    tried to commit suicide but did not have enough medication;
    military officials said they did not believe his attempt had
    been serious.

    Military officials said other detainees violently attacked guards
    in subsequent searches of their cells. A few of the detainees have
    since told their lawyers that the upheaval was provoked by guards
    who mistreated the prisoners' Korans as they tore through their cells.

    Another brief hunger strike began barely two weeks later, the
    military authorities said, and eventually involved some 75 detainees.
    The chief spokesman for the military task force charged with guarding
    and interrogating the detainees, Cmdr. Robert Durand of the Navy,
    described that episode, like others before it, as an "attention getting"
    effort intended to increase public pressure for their release.

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

    4) How Hispanics Became the New Gays
    By FRANK RICH
    June 11, 2006
    http://select.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/opinion/11rich.html?hp

    HE never promised them the Rose Garden. But that's where America's
    self-appointed defenders of family values had expected President
    Bush to take his latest stand against same-sex marriage last week.
    In the end, without explanation, the event was shunted off to
    a nondescript auditorium in the Executive Office Building, where
    the president spoke for a scant 10 minutes at the non-prime-time
    hour of 1:45 p.m. The subtext was clear: he was embarrassed
    to be there, a constitutional amendment "protecting" marriage
    was a loser, and he feared being branded a bigot. "As this debate
    goes forward, every American deserves to be treated with tolerance
    and respect and dignity," Mr. Bush said.

    That debate died on the floor of the Senate less than 48 hours
    later, when the amendment went down to an even worse defeat
    than expected. Washington instantly codified the moral: a desperate
    president at rock bottom in the polls went through the motions
    of a cynical and transparent charade to rally his base in an election
    year. Nothing was gained — even the president of the Family
    Policy Network branded Mr. Bush's pandering a ruse —
    and no harm was done.

    Except to gay people. That's why the president went out of his
    way to talk about "tolerance" at this rally, bizarrely held on the
    widely marked 25th anniversary of the first mention of an AIDS
    diagnosis in a federal report. Mr. Bush knew very well that his
    participation in this tired political stunt, while certain to have
    no effect on the Constitution, could harm innocent Americans.

    When young people hear repeatedly that gay couples aspiring
    to marital commitment are "undermining the moral fabric of the
    country, that stuff doesn't wash off," says Matt Foreman of the
    National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Most concretely, the
    Washington ruckus trickles down into sweeping assaults on
    gay partners' employee benefits and parental rights at the
    state level, as exemplified by a broadly worded referendum
    on the Virginia ballot this fall outlawing any kind of civil union.
    Had Mr. Bush really believed that his words had no consequences,
    he would have spoken in broad daylight at the White House and
    without any defensive touchy-feely bromides about "tolerance."

    Mr. Bush prides himself on being tolerant — and has hundreds
    of photos of himself posing with black schoolkids to prove it.
    But his latest marriage maneuver is yet another example of how
    his presidency has been an enabler of bigots, and not just those
    of the "pro-family" breed.

    The stars are in alignment for a new national orgy of rancor
    because Americans are angry. The government has failed to alleviate
    gas prices, the economic anxieties of globalization or turmoil in Iraq.
    Two-thirds of Americans believe their country is on the wrong track.
    The historical response to that plight is a witch hunt for scapegoats
    on whom we can project our rage and impotence. Gay people,
    though traditionally handy for that role, aren't the surefire
    scapegoats they once were; support for a constitutional marriage
    amendment, ABC News found, fell to 42 percent just before the
    Senate vote. Hence the rise of a juicier target: Hispanics. They
    are the new gays, the foremost political piñata in the election
    year of 2006.

    As has not been the case with gay civil rights, Mr. Bush has
    taken a humane view of immigration reform throughout his
    political career. Some of this is self-interest; he wants to cater
    to his business backers' hunger for cheap labor and Karl Rove's
    hunger for Hispanic voters. But Mr. Bush has always celebrated
    and promoted immigrants and never demonized them —
    at least in Texas. In the White House, he sidelined immigration
    after 9/11, then backed away from a "guest worker" proposal
    when his party balked in 2004. After bragging about his
    political capital upon re-election, he squandered it on Iraq
    and a quixotic campaign to privatize Social Security. Now
    Congress has acted without him, turning immigration reform
    into a deadlocked culture war not unlike the marriage amendment.
    A draconian federal law is unlikely, but the damage has been
    done: the ugly debate has in itself generated a backlash against
    a vulnerable minority.

    Most Americans who are in favor of stricter border enforcement
    are not bigots. Far from it. But some politicians and other public
    figures see an opportunity to foment hate and hysteria for their
    own profit. They are embracing a nativism and xenophobia that
    recall the 1920's, when a State Department warning about an
    influx of "filthy" and "unassimilable" Jews from Eastern Europe
    led to the first immigration quotas, or the 1950's heyday of
    Operation Wetback, when illegal Mexican workers were hunted
    down and deported.

    "What a repellent spectacle," the Fox News anchor Brit Hume
    said when surveying masses of immigrant demonstrators, some
    of them waving Mexican flags, in April. Hearing of a Spanish
    version of "The Star-Spangled Banner," Lamar Alexander,
    a Republican from Tennessee, introduced a Senate resolution
    calling for the national anthem to be sung only in English.
    There was no more point to that gratuitous bit of grandstanding
    than there was to the D.O.A. marriage amendment. Or more
    accurately, both had the same point: stirring up animosity
    against a group that can be branded an enemy of civilization
    as we know it.

    The most pernicious demagogues on immigration often invoke
    national security as their rationale, but no terrorist has been
    known to enter the United States from Mexico. Even the
    arguments about immigrants' economic impact are sometimes
    a smokescreen for a baser animus. As John B. Judis of The
    New Republic documented in his account of Arizona's
    combustible immigration politics, the dominant fear in that
    border state has less to do with immigrants stealing jobs
    (which are going begging in construction and agriculture)
    than with their contaminating the culture through "Mexicanization."
    It's the same complaint that's been leveled against every
    immigrant group when the country's in this foul a mood.

    That mood was ratcheted up last week by the success of
    Brian Bilbray's strategy in winning the suburban San Diego
    House seat vacated by the jailed Duke Cunningham. Mr. Bilbray,
    a card-carrying lobbyist, was thought to be potentially vulnerable
    even in a normally safe Republican district. But by his own account,
    his campaign took off once he started hitting the single issue
    of immigration, taking a hard line far to the right of the president
    who endorsed him. Mr. Bilbray goes so far as to call for the refusal
    of automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants
    — a repudiation of the 14th Amendment, enacted after the
    Civil War to ensure citizenship to everyone born in the United
    States.

    His victorious campaign set a tone likely to be embraced by
    other Republicans fearful of a rout in 2006. The election year
    is still young, and we haven't seen the half of this vitriol yet.
    Some politicians, like Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, are
    equal-opportunity bigots: when he isn't calling for the Senate
    to declare English the national language and demanding that
    immigrants be quizzed on the Federalist Papers (could he pass?),
    he is defending marriage by proclaiming that in his family's
    "recorded history" there has never been "any kind of homosexual
    relationship." (Any bets on how long before someone unearths
    the Inhofes' unrecorded history?) Vernon Robinson, a Republican
    Congressional candidate challenging the Democratic incumbent
    Brad Miller in North Carolina, has run an ad warning that "if
    Miller had his way, America would be nothing but one big
    fiesta for illegal aliens and homosexuals."

    The practitioners of such scare politics know what they're up
    to. That's why they so often share the strange psychological
    tic of framing their arguments in civil-rights speak. The
    Minuteman Project, the vigilante brigade stoking fears of
    an immigration Armageddon, quotes Gandhi on its Web site;
    its founder, Jim Gilchrist, has referred to his group as
    "predominantly white Martin Luther Kings." On a Focus on
    the Family radio show, James Dobson and the White House
    press secretary, Tony Snow, positioned the campaign to deny
    gay civil rights as the moral equivalent of L.B.J.'s campaign to
    extend civil rights. James Sensenbrenner, the leading House
    Republican voice on immigration policy, likened those who
    employ illegal immigrants to "the 19th-century slave masters"
    that "we had to fight a civil war to get rid of." For that historical
    analogy to add up, you'd have to believe that Africans voluntarily
    sought to immigrate to America to be slaves. Whether
    Mr. Sensenbrenner is out to insult African-Americans or
    is merely a fool is a distinction without a difference in this
    volatile political climate.

    Mr. Bush is a lame duck, but he still has a bully pulpit. Here
    is a cause he has professed to believe in since he first ran for
    office in Texas, and it's threatening to boil over in an election
    year. Imagine if he exercised leadership and called out those
    who trash immigrants rather than merely mouthing homilies
    about tolerance and dignity.

    Tolerance and dignity are already on life-support in this debate.
    If the president doesn't lead, he will have helped relegate
    Hispanics to the same second-class status he has encouraged
    for gay Americans. Compassionate conservatism, R.I.P.

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

    Ten civilians, including children, killed in Israeli strike at Gaza Beach
    Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies - Friday, 09 June 2006, 20:46
    http://www.imemc.org/content/view/19244/1/

    Polar bear apocalypse
    Climate change is forcing this giant predator into extinction.
    Can zoos save the species?
    By Paul Rodgers
    Published: 11 June 2006
    http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article756023.ece

    House Shoots Down Amendment Protecting Net Neutrality
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0609-06.htm

    Blind Man's Bluff
    New York Times Editorial
    June 11, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/opinion/11sun1.html?hp

    The Range Gets Crowded for Natural Beef
    By SUSAN MORAN
    June 10, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/10/business/10beef.html

    Online Remark Can Now Sink Job Candidate
    By ALAN FINDER
    June 11, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/us/11recruit.html?hp&ex=1149998400&en=781ea88cb29e91cb&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Dahr Jamail and Jeff Pflueger | Propaganda and Haditha
    "Propaganda is when the Western corporate media tries
    to influence public opinion in favor of the Iraq War by
    consistently tampering with truth and distorting reality,"
    write Jamail and Pflueger. "It is to be expected. And it is
    to be recognized for what it is."
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060906J.shtml

    Zarqawi Is Dead, but Weary Iraqis Fear the Violence Won't Subside
    As news of Mr. Zarqawi's death settled into homes across the
    country, Iraqis at lunch tables and in living rooms found themselves
    wondering what, if anything, would be different. A relentless stream
    of killings and kidnappings has choked the routines of life to a trickle,
    and the death of Mr. Zarqawi, while welcome, did not seem likely
    to stop the violence.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060906K.shtml

    A.K. Gupta | Why Zarqawi's Death May
    Strengthen the Iraqi Resistance
    "Bombing Zarqawi into oblivion will not end the resistance
    in Iraq. In fact, it may do the opposite," writes A.K. Gupta.
    "Zarqawi was a polarizing figure, a non-Iraqi promoting
    sectarian warfare. While the sectarianism in Iraq has become
    too entrenched to undo easily, his death creates space for Sunni
    resistance groups that were opposed to attacking Shiites."
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060906L.shtml

    Soldiers Quit Army in Protest After Acquittal on Boy's Death
    Two soldiers cleared this week of the manslaughter of
    a 15-year-old Iraqi in Basra in May 2003 are to leave the
    army in protest at their treatment.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060906N.shtml

    US Prison Study Faults System and the Public
    Not only are America's prisons and jails largely failing the 13.5
    million adults who pass through them each year, but the American
    public is also failing the prisons and jails, a bipartisan study group
    concluded in a report released Wednesday.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060906O.shtml

    Sarah Olson | Military Officer Gains National Support for Resisting
    Deployment
    When 27-year-old US Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada announced
    his refusal to deploy to Iraq yesterday, he did so surrounded
    by veterans, military family members, and members of the
    religious and anti-war communities. News of Watada's intent
    to refuse his orders to deploy to Iraq has galvanized anti-war
    communities around the country.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060806R.shtml

    King Archives Will Be Sold at Auction
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    June 9, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/09/us/09king.html?hp&ex=1149912000&en=c7c04f11c747eb7d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    COMMISSIONED U.S. ARMY OFFICER ANNOUNCES
    IRAQ WAR RESISTANCE
    By Mark Jensen
    Lt. Ehren Watada, barred from attending, announces
    his decision via video
    United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
    June 7, 2006
    http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/4618/

    'U.S. Military Hides Many More Hadithas
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0607-02.htm

    The police are "dropping bags"
    2006-06-06
    June 6, 2006 10:23 PM
    According to the Toronto Star, the three tons of ammonium nitrate
    found with the Toronto terrorism suspects was planted by the
    police in an elaborate sting operation.
    http://www.innworldreport.net/#

    Bankruptcy Law in Shambles
    By:Brian J. Rogal on:Jun 06 2006 [11:35 am] (72 reads)
    http://coanews.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=975

    The Last Taboo
    By John Pilger
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13529.htm

    British Antarctic Survey
    Rapid temperature increases above the Antarctic
    30 year weather balloon record
    Public release date: 30-Mar-2006
    Contact: Linda Capper
    L.capper@bas.ac.uk
    44-122-322-1448
    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-03/bas-rti032806.php

    FOCUS | Freedom Not Extended to Women in New Iraq
    Across Iraq, a bloody and relentless oppression of women has
    taken hold. Many women have had their heads shaved for refusing
    to wear a scarf or have been stoned in the street for wearing
    make-up. Others have been kidnapped and murdered for crimes
    that are being labelled simply as "inappropriate behavior." The
    insurrection against the fragile and barely functioning state has
    left the country prey to extremists whose notion of freedom
    does not extend to women.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060806Z.shtml

    U.S. Strike Hits Insurgent at Safehouse
    By JOHN F. BURNS
    BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 8 — Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab
    al-Zarqawi, was killed in an American airstrike on an isolated safe
    house north of Baghdad at 6:15 p.m. local time on Wednesday,
    top American and Iraqi officials said today. Islamic militant Web
    sites linked to Al Qaeda quickly confirmed the death, saying
    Mr. Zarqawi had been rewarded with "martyrdom" for his role
    in the war here.
    June 8, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/08/world/middleeast/08cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1149825600&en=d6d9b3b68ae5cc4a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    The White House
    After Welcome Piece of News, a Decision to Stay Silent
    By JIM RUTENBERG
    June 8, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/08/world/middleeast/08cnd-bush.html?hp&ex=1149825600&en=fa49503470efb9f0&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Senate Emphasis on Ideology Has Some in G.O.P. Anxious
    By CARL HULSE
    June 7, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/washington/07cong.html

    Military Alters the Makeup of Interrogation Advisers
    By NEIL A. LEWIS
    WASHINGTON, June 6 — Pentagon officials said Tuesday that
    they would try to use only psychologists, and not psychiatrists,
    to help interrogators devise strategies to get information from
    detainees at places like Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
    The new policy follows by little more than two weeks an
    overwhelming vote by the American Psychiatric Association
    discouraging its members from participating in those efforts.
    June 7, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/washington/07detain.html

    C.I.A. Knew Where Eichmann Was Hiding, Documents Show
    By SCOTT SHANE
    June 7, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/world/americas/07nazi.html

    Bush Turns to House in Immigration Debate
    By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
    June 7, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/washington/07bush.html

    Louisiana Governor Plans to Sign Anti-Abortion Law
    By JEREMY ALFORD
    June 7, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/us/07abort.html

    Newton Journal
    With Loss of Maytag, Town Faces the Loss of Its Identity
    By MONICA DAVEY
    June 7, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/us/07newton.html

    Reports Reveal Katrina's Impact on Population
    By RICK LYMAN
    June 7, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/us/nationalspecial/07census.html

    Size of Identity Theft Grows to Affect Millions
    By THE NEW YORK TIMES
    WASHINGTON, June 6 — Personal information stolen from the home
    of a Veterans Affairs employee included data on 2.2 million active-
    duty members of the military, the government said on Tuesday.
    June 7, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/washington/07identity.html?hp&ex=1149739200&en=e93e0577e119de12&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Gay Marriage Ban Fails in Senate Vote
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Filed at 11:16 a.m. ET
    June 7, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Gay-Marriage.html?hp&ex=1149739200&en=136ac3d6b439b193&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Army Manual to Skip Geneva Detainee Rule
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0605-01.htm

    Marine's Wife Paints Portrait of US Troops Out of Control in Haditha
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0605-02.htm

    US Won't Compensate Vietnam's Agent Orange Victims: Official
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0605-03.htm

    AIDS at 25 :A War of Attrition With a Virus
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0605-04.htm

    Wen Ho Lee Settles Privacy Lawsuit
    By MARK SHERMAN
    The Associated Press
    Saturday, June 3, 2006; 12:23 AM
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201701.html

    Israel's "Right to Exist"
    The insistence on Arabic acceptance of Israel's "right to exist" is
    racist without a similar insistence for Israel to accept Palestine's
    "right to exist."
    http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2006/06/1728889.php

    FOCUS: Eric Schaeffer | Junketing Judges: A Case of Bad Science
    Last fall, after two judges attended a six-day seminar at Yellowstone
    National Park sponsored by a lobbying group, the US Court
    of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the
    Clean Air Act does not require regulating carbon dioxide emissions
    that are heating up the planet at an unprecedented rate. Eric
    Schaeffer wonders, "Just how far will corporate lobbyists go
    to tilt governmental decisions in their favor?"
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060406X.shtml

    BAGHDAD MORGUE REPORTS RECORD FIGURES FOR MAY
    By Louise Roug
    Nearly 1,400 bodies were brought to the facility,
    the highest number since the war began.
    Los Angeles Times
    June 4, 2006
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq4jun04,0,4394686.story?coll=la-home-headlines

    Israel Targets Palestinian Americans, U.S. Does Nothing
    Israel Separates American Mother, Wife from Her Family
    04/06/2006
    Palestine Media Center – PMC
    http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1151

    FOCUS | Army Manual to Skip Geneva Convention Detainee Rule
    The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies
    a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans "humiliating
    and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials,
    a step that would mark a further, potentially permanent, shift away
    from strict adherence to international human rights standards.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060506Z.shtml

    VIDEO | Largest Urban Farm in the Country on the Verge of Eviction
    A Report by Chris Hume
    The South Central Farm is like an oasis. Situated in one of the
    roughest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, it is a haven for the poor
    working people of the area, where they can grow and sell their own
    food locally. But they face eviction. Truthout correspondent Chris
    Hume interviews Daryl Hannah, Julia Butterfly Hill, and the local
    farmers about their struggle to stay on the land they've been
    farming for 14 years.
    http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm

    Medicaid Rules Toughened on Proof of Citizenship
    By ROBERT PEAR
    June 5, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/washington/05medicaid.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=printThe

    Assassinations and Cover-up #4
    "M.L. King Murder A Government Plot,"
    Says Former CIA Participant. "I was part of it."
    "Raoul" Identified as FBI Agent
    by Pat Shannan
    New evidence has surfaced in the 1968 Martin Luther King murder
    case. It is supplied by an "insider" who claims to have been part
    of a "hit team" that had come out of the "Missouri Mafia" headquartered
    in the town of Caruthersville, a small town in the bootheel section
    of that state. In a yet-to-be-published book, former County Deputy
    Jim Green reveals his assigned role in the conspiracy, the name
    of the actual trigger man, and the long-suspected involvement
    of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Green also believes that he possesses
    the actual murder weapon, which he personally secreted away
    only hours after the murder.
    http://www.patshannan.bizland.com/mlkgreen.html

    Chilean Promised a New Deal; Now Striking Youth Demand It
    By LARRY ROHTER
    June 5, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/world/americas/05chile.html

    Senate to Tackle Gay Marriage Ban
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Filed at 10:09 a.m. ET
    June 5, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Congress-Gay-Marriage.html?hp&ex=1149566400&en=bb338d8d6237d903&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Justices to Rule on Race and Education
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Filed at 10:22 a.m. ET
    June 5, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Scotus-Schools-Race.html?hp&ex=1149566400&en=083acb67eba063a1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    David Carr
    Show Me the Bodies
    June 5, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/business/media/05carr.html?8dpc

    Guest workers sue ranchers
    By Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News
    June 2, 2006
    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4744988,00.html

    Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight
    By LISA CHEDEKEL And MATTHEW KAUFFMAN
    The Hartford Courant
    May 14 2006
    http://www.courant.com/news/specials/hc-mental1a.artmay14,0,6150281.story

    Invoking Secrets Privilege Becomes
    a More Popular Legal Tactic by U.S.
    By SCOTT SHANE
    June 4, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/washington/04secrets.html

    Bush Calls for an Amendment Banning Same-Sex Nuptials
    By JIM RUTENBERG
    June 4, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/washington/04radio.html

    Cubans Jailed in U.S. as Spies Are Hailed at Home as Heroes
    By Manuel Roig-Franzia
    Washington Post Foreign Service
    Saturday, June 3, 2006; Page A01
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201780.html

    Killings
    Initial Response to Marine Raid Draws Scrutiny
    By DAVID S. CLOUD and ERIC SCHMITT
    June 3, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/03/world/middleeast/03haditha.html

    Surge in Racist Mood Raises Concerns on Eve of World Cup
    By JERE LONGMAN
    June 4, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/sports/soccer/04racism.html?hp&ex=1149393600&en=446ea6c36a4bbad2&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    17 Terror Suspects Arrested in Toronto
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Filed at 12:04 p.m. ET
    June 3, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Canada-Terrorism-Arrests.html?hp&ex=1149393600&en=a66d0c77da2de53c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Another Hunters Point Shipyard cover-up
    by Ebony Colbert
    http://www.sfbayview.com/053106/shipyardcoverup053106.shtml

    Danny Schechter | Media Crimes Sanitize War Crimes in Iraq
    Danny Schechter writes, "As events in Iraq continue to slip from bad
    to worse, the good news brigade is scrambling for new stories
    ('anything, give me anything') to shore up what's left of public
    support for a bloody war without end."
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060206A.shtml

    Union: Scrapping pacts not needed
    By LARRY RINGLER Tribune Chronicle
    NEW YORK — Union attorneys spent Friday afternoon in Delphi
    Corp.’s bankruptcy hearing building a case that the company
    doesn’t need to scrap its labor pacts to cut labor costs because
    the unions have agreed to cut jobs.
    June 2, 2006
    http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=4353

    FOCUS | New "Iraq Massacre" Tape Emerges
    The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may
    have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent
    Iraqi civilians. The video appears to challenge the US military's
    account of events that took place in the town of Ishaqi in March.
    The US said at the time four people died during a military
    operation, but Iraqi police claimed that US troops had deliberately
    shot the 11 people.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060206Z.shtml

    Dog Handler Convicted in Abu Ghraib Abuse
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    June 2, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/us/02verdict.html

    Judging Whether a Killer Is Sane Enough to Die
    By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and ADAM LIPTAK
    June 2, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/us/02execute.html

    As Economy Slows, Mixed Data on Inflation
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    June 2, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/business/02econ.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    British Police Shoot Man in Counterterrorism Raid
    By ALAN COWELL
    June 2, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/world/europe/01cnd-london.html?hp&ex=1149307200&en=e5e1a6eb00a1e50e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Jobs Report Signals Cooling Economy
    By JEREMY W. PETERS
    June 2, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/business/02cnd-jobs.html?hp&ex=1149307200&en=e6846974a241a5f6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Afghans Call for Trial of U.S. Troops
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0531-11.htm

    Chavez's 'citizen militias' on the march
    By Mike Ceaser
    In Caracas, Venezuela
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/4635187.stm

    Highest Court in New York Confronts Gay Marriage
    By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
    June 1, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/nyregion/01marriage.html

    Black and Hispanic Home Buyers Pay Higher Interest
    on Mortgages, Study Finds
    By ERIK ECKHOLM
    June 1, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/us/01minorities.html

    Bush Urges Congress to Find Compromise on Immigration
    By JOHN O'NEIL
    June 1, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/washington/01cnd-bush.html?hp&ex=1149220800&en=8908c9b5448ad46c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    The List: The World's Water Crises
    If oil was the resource of the 20th century, then the 21st century belongs
    to water. The lack of clean water and basic sanitation already curbs world
    economic growth by $556 billion a year, according the World Health
    Organization. FP looks at four countries struggling to quench their thirst.
    http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3473

    US probe finds Haditha victims were shot:NYT
    Wed May 31, 2006 09:34 AM ET
    http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=12381467&src=eDialog/GetContent

    Well-Intentioned Food Police May Create Havoc With Children's Diets
    By HARRIET BROWN
    May 30, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/health/nutrition/30essa.html

    Chief Named for Troubled G.M. Unit
    By NICK BUNKLEY
    May 31, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/automobiles/31auto.html

    Is It Tableware or a Leading Indicator?
    By DAVID LEONHARDT
    May 31, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/business/31leonhardt.html

    Treasury Nominee Faces a Change in Pay and Control
    By ERIC DASH
    May 31, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/business/31pay.html?hp&ex=1149134400&en=10dc956562f947be&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Files Contradict Account of Raid in Iraq
    By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID S. CLOUD
    May 31, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/world/middleeast/31haditha.html?hp&ex=1149134400&en=ba9330564ff54260&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    FUTUREOFTHEUNION.COM LINKS:
    The Flies Will Lay Their Eggs
    http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2729

    Basic Economics
    http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2762

    Delphi Workers Prepare Their Delegates
    http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2726

    Soldiers Of Solidarity Message Put To Music
    http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2765

    The Legacy Of The Soldiers of Solidarity
    http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2747

    Jobs Bank Update
    http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2746

    A Dictator, Not A Visionary
    http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2740

    Workers Will Rule When They Work To Rule
    http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2709

    Men Are Born To Labor And The Bird To Fly
    http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2687

    posted 9:15 PM  0 comments

    Monday, June 05, 2006
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2006

    An Iraqi Child's Fears
    http://www.islamonline.net/English/In_Depth/Iraq_Aftermath/2003/05/article_22.shtml

    An Iraqi child... here I stand
    A broken heart in a threatened land.
    Hold your sword and fight for me
    I'm a kid... with no glee.
    Crying alone, can you dry my tears?
    I 'm afraid, can you kill these fears?

    "Help!" I scream, can anyone hear?
    "Help!" I scream, is anyone here?
    Protection is what I am looking for,
    Stop the strike, protect me from war.
    They accuse and accuse but cannot prove
    And we can't stop them though we don't approve!

    Filled with depression, filled with pain,
    Filled with sadness... but all in vain.
    Filled with anger, but what's the use?
    My feelings can not stop the abuse!
    Justice and Peace have got no word,
    Humanity is living in a bleeding world.


    Dad says things that I can't understand:
    "Inspection, sanctions and controlling our land",
    "Taking our oil" and a "regime change",
    "Absence of International legitimacy and law"
    And many other things that are above my age
    Fear of war is all what I can comprehend and know.

    I just wonder, "What have I done?"
    And why do they want to set my sun?
    My young heart is filled with fears,
    My innocent face is wet by tears,
    My tongue is for help screaming.
    My mind is of peace dreaming.

    I'm waiting for future that's mysterious and unknown,
    In a world that's headed by one single throne;
    One superpower that no one fights
    And no one can defend my human rights.
    Lost and confused, have nothing but to wait
    For anything to be done before it's too late!

    An Iraqi child... here I stand
    A broken heart in a threatened land
    Hold your sword and fight for me
    I'm a kid...with no glee
    Crying alone, can you dry my tears?
    I'm afraid, can you kill these fears?

    By Mai Hamdy Ali Desouki

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

    Urgent Call to Support U.S. Military Officer
    to Refuse Illegal IraqWar
    June 2, 2006: First U.S. military officer poised to publicly refuse
    orders in support of the illegal Iraq War requires immediate support
    and assistance. Join this unprecedented political and legal support
    campaign today! Information updated daily!
    Sign the petition!
    Thank you LT for standing up for international, US and military
    law by refusing to deploy to Iraq in support of the ongoing
    illegal war and occupation.
    http://www.thankyoult.org/

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    "It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
    - Emilano Zapata
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

    People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
    Rally Monday, June 19, 2006, 5:00 P.M.
    Palou Avenue and Third Street, S.F.

    No matter what the decisions the lawmakers make to "reform" the
    immigration laws, we know that they will make some immigrant
    workers "legal" and others "illegal."

    We will hold a rally June 19, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. at Palou Avenue
    and Third Street in San Francisco to demand General and
    Unconditional Amnesty for All Immigrants. We hold this rally
    in celebration of the date of June 19th, 141 years ago when
    it was declared the end of slavery by Black people in this country.

    Our Black brothers and sisters continue to be a slave of racism
    and injustice just as we immigrants. And the government
    continues to put on Death Row the great leaders of the Black
    movement such as Mumia Abu-Jamal.

    We make a call for unity at this rally in the Bayview so we can
    honor June 19th by making a commitment to sow the first
    seeds together in order to make a reality the emancipation
    of the Black people and the immigrants and to demand the
    immediate freedom of the great leader of the Black people,
    Mumia Abu-Jamal, innocent on Death Row.

    For More Information:

    People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
    Barrio Unido Por una Amnistia General e Incondicional
    474 Valencia Street
    San Francisco, CA 94110
    Contact Persons:
    Cristina Gutierrez: 415-431-9925
    Kati Sanchez: 415-368-2576

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

    ABOLISHING JROTC in SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOLS
    There will be a special meeting in July when
    the School Board will vote on this resolution.
    The meeting date is to be announced.
    School District Office
    555 Franklin St
    San Francisco
    415/241-6427

    Report and Open letter to the Board of Education regarding JROTC:

    At the first reading of the resolution to rid the schools
    of JROTC on the basis of the policy of "Don't ask, don't
    tell" that discriminates against gay's in the military, which
    was presented to the Board of Education meeting on May 23, the
    JROTC teachers (all retired military officers) mobilized students
    to speak on behalf of JROTC. Carole Seligman and I spoke to many
    students in the lobby before the meeting began. Repeatedly they
    expressed that they loved the program. It gives them confidence
    in themselves, provides a supportive environment, encourages good
    scholarship in school, and encourages comradeship among the members.

    So much so, that a young girl had a silver-colored chain with a tiny
    silver-colored and diamond studded bullet. I really couldn't believe
    it was a bullet so I asked her if it was. She said, "oh! this? Yes,
    it's a bullet. You know, it's between me and my friend, you know,
    like, 'I'll take a bullet for you!'"

    Need I say more about the virtues of JROTC?

    Unfortunately, the resolution that follows says nothing of this
    aspect of JROTC. Nothing about the war. Nothing about young people
    being taught to "take a bullet for each other". Nothing about the
    realities of war. Nothing about asking students, gay or not, to
    risk their lives and take the lives of Iraqis for this inhuman
    and illegal war brought about by an inhuman and illegal
    government.

    It was announced by gay supporters of JROTC at the meeting
    that they expected the military to lift the prohibition on gays
    in the military this year. If this is true this will make this
    resolution obsolete before it can ever take effect. Are we to cheer
    that our gay brothers and sisters will be able to fight in this war?
    What is our plan to convince young gay and straight students that they can't
    "be all they can be" if they are dead; or legless and armless; or with the
    blood of too many dead in their hearts and head; or permanently
    brain-damaged; burnt or blinded by exploding eyeballs and deafened by
    exploding eardrums? Who will tell them of depleted uranium illness?
    Who will tell them that although there is a very high survival rate for
    our injured soldiers there is also a very high rate of survival with such
    catastrophic injury and illness? Who will tell them that they are more
    likely to be homeless after serving than in college? Who will tell
    them about the logic of "following orders" and a "chain of command"
    Instead of thinking and reasoning and making decisions for themselves
    leads to disaster?

    If you haven't seen it, I suggest you watch the HBO special,
    "Baghdad ER". In fact it should be shown to all of our students
    in middle and high school. (It's far too explicit for very young children.)

    We and the majority of the voters in San Francisco want
    the military out of our schools immediately!

    Here are my comments for the meeting. I was cut off midway
    through my timed one-minute delivery. The resolution
    follows my comments. Please look at it again and see that a
    vital antiwar message is missing from it and correct and
    amend the resolution immediately to reflect opposition
    to the militarization of our schools and the offering up of our
    students as cannon fodder for this bloodthirsty and greedy
    government and it's military might.

    We want a world without war! How can we teach children
    that violence is not the answer when the most powerful
    and influential adults in the world--our government--
    uses it as their ultimate tool to gain wealth and power
    for themselves.

    You must take a stronger antiwar stand! I don't care how many
    antiwar resolutions you have passed. The proof of the pudding
    is in the military presence in our schools!

    Sincerely,
    Bonnie Weinstein

    Addressed to the President, Vice President and the
    Commissioners of the San Francisco Board of Education:

    I commend the board members