Sunday, May 18, 2003

In town for protest, cyclists are arrested : "Police told the cyclists that anyone older than 12 needed a license to ride a bicycle in St. Louis, the cyclists said. The eight men and one woman in the group were handcuffed, taken to a St. Louis police station and processed. Eventually, they were given tickets for impeding the flow of traffic and released after about six hours in police custody. City Counselor Patricia Hageman said a rarely enforced law requiring bicycle licenses was on the books until about two years ago. She called the incident Friday a "misunderstanding." But members of the group said it was part of what they called a pre-emptive strike on World Agriculture Forum protesters. "

Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Chicks against the machine: Offered the chance to take it all back and make nice, the Dixie Chicks instead chose to turn the interview around. Sawyer wanted answers; the Chicks offered questions, hard questions. Sawyer wanted to talk about the damage they may have done to their career; the Chicks talked about the damage being done to America in an era where Vice President Dick Cheney has proclaimed "You're either with us or against us." The band may have gotten more attention posing nude for the cover of the current Entertainment Weekly, with phrases like "Dixie Sluts," "Saddam's Angels" and "Traitors" stamped on their bodies. But it was the stubborn refusal they showed Sawyer that cut deepest.

Saturday, April 26, 2003

Golden State Museum Sacramento "The Whole World's Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s" Exhibit April 22 through June 15, 2003 Bush Shows 'Pattern of Hostility' Toward Civil Rights: The administration of President George W. Bush is steadily and systematically working to reverse longstanding civil rights policies and impede the enforcement of U.S. civil rights laws, according to a new report released Thursday by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF).    ... "the combination of below-the-radar regulations, little-noticed litigation, and severe budget cuts illustrates a pattern of hostility toward core civil rights values and signals a diminished commitment to the idea of non-discrimination"

Friday, April 25, 2003

I.R.S. to Ask Working Poor for Proof on Tax Credits: Internal Revenue Service is planning to ask more than four million of the working poor who now claim a special tax credit to provide the most exhaustive proof of eligibility ever demanded of any class of taxpayers.    ... But some tax experts criticize the higher burden of proof as unfair and a wasteful allocation of scarce I.R.S. enforcement dollars. They say that corporations, business owners, investors and partnerships deprive the government of many times what the working poor ever could — through both illegal means and legal shelters — yet these taxpayers face no demands to prove the validity of their claims in advance with certified records and sworn affidavits.    Others warn that the proposed I.R.S. rules will set a standard of proof so high that it will be difficult, and in some cases impossible, for honest taxpayers to meet it. As a result, some people entitled to the tax credit will no longer receive it. And those who do manage to file successful claims will almost certainly have to pay commercial tax preparers more for helping them with the extra paperwork.

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

Tim Robbins: Speech to National Press Club: "A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications. Every day, the air waves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and hatred directed at any voice of dissent. And the public, like so many relatives and friends that I saw this weekend, sit in mute opposition and fear. "

Monday, April 21, 2003

Nina Simone, 70, Soulful Diva and Voice of Civil Rights, Dies    Although she was most often characterized as a jazz singer, Ms. Simone, who usually performed with a rhythm section and always accompanied herself on piano, was almost impossible to classify.    "If I had to be called something," she wrote in 1991 in her autobiography, "I Put a Spell on You," "it should have been a folk singer because there was more folk and blues than jazz in my playing."    But her piano playing also revealed her classical training more clearly than most jazz pianists', and her singing — at times rough and raw, at other times sweet and pure — owed an unmistakable debt to black gospel music.    ... Ms. Simone was as famous for her social consciousness as she was for her music. In the 1960's no musical performer was more closely identified with the civil rights movement. Though she was best known as an interpreter of other people's music, she eloquently expressed her feelings about racism and black pride in those years in a number of memorable songs she wrote herself.    "Mississippi Goddam" was an angry response to the killing of the civil rights advocate Medgar Evers. "Young, Gifted and Black," written with the keyboardist Weldon Irvine Jr., became something of an anthem, recorded by Aretha Franklin and many others. "Four Women" painted a subtle but stinging picture of the suffering and the strength of African-American women. Today Show Goes Dark on Tim Robbins: A conversation about free speech. An anchor asking reasonable questions. A guest responding in equally reasonable tones. No attempt to close out the discussion - to say "Well thank you Tim". This was not a filibuster. Robbins was not hogging the spotlight. Someone in the control room simply decided that it was time to pull the plug. And without grace or ceremony, or even the face saving of letting Lauer say "We're out of time" as morning shows do on so many occasions. A conversation about free speech and free expression was cut off mid sentence as the network went to black. The New York Review of Books: Anti-Americans Abroad - Tony Judt: "Europeans want a more interventionist state at home than Americans do, and they expect to pay for it. Even in post-Thatcher Britain, 62 percent of adults polled in December 2002 would favor higher taxes in return for improved public services. The figure for the US was under 1 percent. This is less surprising when one considers that in America (where the disparities between rich and poor are greater than anywhere else in the developed world) fully 19 percent of the adult population claims to be in the richest 1 percent of the nation--and a further 20 percent believe they will enter that 1 percent in their lifetime!" [first half of this review is not very interesting.]

Sunday, April 20, 2003

4/3/2003 -- Mugging the Needy - Bob Herbert: "The House plan offers the well-to-do $1.4 trillion in tax cuts, while demanding billions of dollars in cuts from programs that provide food stamps, school lunches, health care for the poor and the disabled, temporary assistance to needy families -- even veterans' benefits and student loans. An analysis of the House budget by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that its proposed cuts in child nutrition programs threaten to eliminate school lunches for 2.4 million low-income children. " THE ABRIDGED 9/11 TIMELINE - the king of the 9/11 conspiracy web sites. Lots of interesting stuff... The Press and the Myths of War: "War itself is venal, dirty, confusing and perhaps the most potent narcotic invented by humankind. Modern industrial warfare means that most of those who are killed never see their attackers. There is nothing glorious or gallant about it. If we saw what wounds did to bodies, how killing is far more like butchering an animal than the clean and neat Hollywood deaths on the screen, it would turn our stomachs.    ... War as myth begins with blind patriotism, which is always thinly veiled self-glorification. We exalt ourselves, our goodness, our decency, our humanity, and in that self-exaltation we denigrate the other. The flip side of nationalism is racism--look at the jokes we tell about the French. "All our lives we have blamed our parents and our parents' generation for allowing Hitler to gain control. Now we're beginning to see how powerless they must have felt to stop what was happening all around them." ---An elderly Jewish couple, quoted by Richard L. Clinton in the Oregonian, 8 April 2003

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

What About Private Lori?: "Lori Piestewa, 23, was killed, with the gruesome distinction of being the first native American in the US army to be killed in combat and the only American servicewoman to die in this war. " AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch 30-year tax resister will refuse to pay again, protesting war in Iraq By JIM GETZ Post-Dispatch   Thirty years ago, St. Louis peace activist Bill Ramsey withheld his federal income taxes to protest the Christmas 1972 bombing of Haiphong in the war in Vietnam.   Nothing has changed for him, 30 years later, except the bombing has shifted to Iraq.    Today, with about 30 others in the St. Louis area, Ramsey will again refuse to pay the taxes and instead will direct the amount to local humanitarian causes.    "I believe all the resources that come to me come as a trust," he said, "and I can't turn them over to somebody who uses them to kill people, and that's what the Pentagon does."    This infuriates some people who believe Americans should be willing to pay the tax bill that enables the benefits of living in the United States.   They also are annoyed that the federal government seems to be more willing to prosecute tax resisters such as anti-government radical groups Posse Comitatus and the Freemen than protesters such as the anti-war St. Louis Covenant Community of War Tax Resisters.    Janine Meriweather investigated such cases for nine years for the Internal Revenue Service before becoming a spokeswoman for the agency last August. She has heard most of the claims, and many are found within the Department of Justice Tax Division's 56 pages of legal guidelines on tax resisters.    "They're basically the type of people who say, 'I'm not going to pay taxes because the Constitution doesn't say I have to pay taxes,'" she recalled. "Sometimes they put a religious angle on it or say that the type of income they receive isn't taxable."    Ramsey served 30 days in prison in 1993 for failing to pay taxes. Since then, though, Meriweather has not heard of any cases referred to the U.S. attorney in St. Louis, Ray Gruender.    "I would just say that we don't set criteria on the type of people we investigate," she added. "Each case is looked at evenly. There's no different standards for different types of people."    But Meriweather and Gruender say they can't comment on whether Ramsey or any other protester is being investigated - or why they haven't been in the past.    Gruender's office prosecutes based on evidence received from the IRS. Meriweather said the criminal division, when made aware of a case, tries to determine how much money is involved and how much "willfulness" there is to not pay.    The IRS investigation can take up to two years and another year after that before a charge is filed.    Nationwide, from October 2001 through March 2003, 346 people were convicted for failing to pay their income taxes. About 80 percent of them went to prison.

Sunday, April 13, 2003

War, Politics, Culture  Intervention Magazine / Mission Statement: In response to this vastly changed world, Intervention Magazine online has expanded its forum. Beyond military affairs and foreign policy, the magazine will present insightful and clear discussion on the domestic and international political environment, the media, which is increasingly concentrated, global and local environmental issues, as well as the literature of witness. The major themes of the new Intervention, then, are war and its aftermath, politics and democracy, as well as culture and literature.

Friday, April 11, 2003

Muslim Groups Protest Bush Peace Nominee: "Muslim groups were stunned last week when President Bush nominated Daniel Pipes to the board of the United States Institute of Peace, a federal think tank. For years, the outspoken director of the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia has called for a war on Islamic extremism, declaring in one post-Sept. 11 interview: "What we need to do is inspire fear, not affection." The Harvard-trained scholar has declared Islamic extremists are conspiring to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Koran, that one in 10 American Muslims are militants and suggested the government needs to monitor Muslims and mosques across the country. "

Thursday, April 10, 2003

On Getting Along By Howard Zinn: You ask how I manage to stay involved and remain seemingly happy and adjusted to this awful world where the efforts of caring people pale in comparison to those who have power? When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History: February 27, 2003, was the 70th anniversary of Dutch terrorist Marinus van der Lubbe's successful firebombing of the German Parliament (Reichstag) building, the terrorist act that catapulted Hitler to legitimacy and reshaped the German constitution. By the time of his successful and brief action to seize Austria, in which almost no German blood was shed, Hitler was the most beloved and popular leader in the history of his nation.    ... Through the 1930s, however, Hitler and Roosevelt chose very different courses to bring their nations back to power and prosperity. Germany's response was to use government to empower corporations and reward the society's richest individuals, privatize much of the commons, stifle dissent, strip people of constitutional rights, and create an illusion of prosperity through continual and ever-expanding war. America passed minimum wage laws to raise the middle class, enforced anti-trust laws to diminish the power of corporations, increased taxes on corporations and the wealthiest individuals, created Social Security, and became the employer of last resort through programs to build national infrastructure, promote the arts, and replant forests.  To the extent that our Constitution is still intact, the choice is again ours.

Monday, April 07, 2003

Mossback: Conservative Crybabies by Knute Berger not only have so-called conservatives taken the country and consolidated their power, they are also wowing—or at least (shall we be generous?) snowing—the public. This won’t be good news to your typical Seattle peacenik, but here’s a disturbing message: Polls don’t lie. Yes, I wish we could ignore them, too, but the messenger, while not perfect, is close enough when it comes to measuring attitude trends. What do the polls say?   They say 70 percent of the American public supports the war—and that support has been growing. They say 70 percent of the public approves of the way Bush is doing his job. And more broadly, they say that more than half (53 percent) of the country thinks America is on the right track.

Sunday, April 06, 2003

Five Guidelines for Our Organizing by Cynthia Peters The Rural Opposition: Protesting Where Everybody Knows Your Name: It is one thing to speak up in a large crowd in a big city and quite another to do it amid the farm fields. The antiwar movement here has already learned that politics are intensely personal in communities where people do not pass each other without waving and the woman at Harmony's Village Square restaurant recognizes the voice of the caller ordering a pizza.    The anonymity of chanting among several hundred thousand in New York or San Francisco is unavailable on Lanesboro's Parkway Avenue, where Lydia O'Connor, whose son-in-law is in the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, stood silently writing down names as the protesters passed. Some small-business people who say they oppose the war have not joined the marches, they say, for fear of alienating customers; others who have protested report receiving nasty looks and letters.   ... In New York and San Francisco, rallies supporting and opposing the war compete for crowds and scream at each other across police cordons. Not in Lanesboro. Mr. Redalen, carrying his flag, and Mr Wright, with a "Wage Peace" sign, walked arm in arm at the head of the line, down Parkway Avenue and to the Lutheran church, where Mr. Redalen led those gathered for the potluck in a prayer. Support the Warrior Not the War: Give Them Their Benefits!: "The House of Representatives have recently voted on the 2004 budget which will cut funding for veteran's health care and benefit programs by nearly $25 billion over the next ten years. It narrowly passed by a vote of 215 to 212, and came just a day after Congress passed a resolution to "Support Our Troops." How exactly does this vote support our troops? Does leaving our current and future veterans veterans without access to health care and compensation qualify as supporting them? The Veteran's Administration, plagued by recent budget cuts, has had to resort to charging new veterans entering into its system a yearly fee of $250 in order for them to receive treatment. It is a sad irony that the very people being sent to fight the war are going to have to pay to treat the effects of it. "

Saturday, April 05, 2003

Professors Protest as Students Debate   It is not easy being an old lefty on campus in this war.   At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, awash in antiwar protests in the Vietnam era, a columnist for a student newspaper took a professor to task for canceling classes to protest the war in Iraq, saying the university should reprimand her and refund tuition for the missed periods.    Irvine Valley College in Southern California sent faculty members a memo that warned them not to discuss the war unless it was specifically related to the course material. When professors cried censorship, the administration explained that the request had come from students.   Here at Amherst College, many students were vocally annoyed this semester when 40 professors paraded into the dining hall with antiwar signs. One student confronted a protesting professor and shoved him.    Some students here accuse professors of behaving inappropriately, of not knowing their place.   ... The students' attitudes have many possible explanations. There is no draft this time. Students on small liberal arts campuses like this one are more diverse than those of the 60's and 70's. More receive financial aid, and many are more concerned about their careers than about protesting. But the students have also been pulled toward a more conservative mainstream than their parents.   ....A nationwide survey of freshmen by the University of California at Los Angeles over the last 37 years reflected other shifts from Sept. 11. This year, more students called themselves conservative than in other recent surveys, and 45 percent supported an increase in military spending, more than double the percentage in 1993.   ... My job is not to get my students to agree with me," Professor O'Connell insisted.   Still, he conceded, `There is a second when I hear them, and my heart just falls."

Friday, April 04, 2003

Sober Replies to Speculative Questions: "His father, Leo Brooks Sr., is a former Army major general, who after his retirement in 1984 was named Philadelphia's managing director, the city's top appointed position. He held that job during the confrontation with the radical group Move in May 1985, which ended when the police dropped a bomb on a rowhouse, causing a fire that killed 11 people. Mr. Brooks announced his resignation 10 days after the incident, and he was cleared of all criminal liability by a Philadelphia grand jury three years later. General Brooks's brother Leo Brooks Jr. is also a brigadier general and commandant of cadets at West Point, the academy's No. 2 position. At West Point, Vince Brooks stood out among a group of standouts. In his senior year in 1979-80, he was elected first captain, the leader of the 4,338-member corps of cadets, a title held before him by John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur and William Westmoreland, among others. He was the first black cadet in the academy's 177-year history to hold the position. Twenty-two years later he was the first member of his class to be nominated for flag rank. He was confirmed by the Senate last year as a brigadier general, the third member of his family to wear a star on his shoulders."

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

THIS WAR IS NOT WORKING  by Peter Arnett. "I am still in shock and awe at being fired. There is enormous sensitivity within the US government to reports coming out from Baghdad. They don't want credible news organisations reporting from here because it presents them with enormous problems." St. Louis Police riot: Louis Indymedia - part 1: part 2 part 3 part 4 "First-hand accounts from people who were attacked during a march following the peace rally at Forest Park March 30"

Saturday, March 29, 2003

Military Mirrors Working-Class America - long article: military demographics and anecdotes

Friday, March 28, 2003

We Work for Peace and Justice Building a movement powerful enough to stop the war in Iraq or to successfully curb a next war in Syria or Iran or Venezuela, involves many factors. Among these, and perhaps the most fundamental, is sufficient numbers. Statement signed by Roy, Martinez, Zinn, Chomsky, etc.." Antiwar Movement Morphs From Wild-Eyed to Civil: "With the war against Iraq in its second week, the most influential antiwar coalitions have shifted away from large-scale disruptive tactics and stepped up efforts to appeal to mainstream Americans" [long article]

Monday, March 24, 2003

sunspot.net - maryland's online community: "Michelle Waters, the oldest of the dead Marine's four sisters, criticized the U.S. government for starting the hostilities. "It's all for nothing, that war could have been prevented," she said last night in the living room of the family home, tears running down her cheeks. "Now, we're out of a brother. [President] Bush is not out of a brother. We are.""

Saturday, March 22, 2003

American Politics Journal -- Big Babies: "God Damn You by Alan Bisbort Mar. 20, 2003 -- HARTFORD (apj.us) -- ...and I mean that sincerely, George W. Bush. Far be it for me, a sinful man who has backslid more times than Robert Downey Jr., to personally single you and your murderous cohorts out. I gladly defer to Bishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama and Jimmy Carter and the Pope, more conversant in things scriptural or theological than I, or any of your unenlightened inner circle, will ever be. I will let them speak the truth, as far as any of us can know it here on this earth. To a person, they condemn your most unholy and unjust of wars in Iraq." Innocents in Uniform: "Should not the proper minimum in any war be loss of human life, period -- which in this case includes Iraqi soldiers, too?" Marching Forward: "It may be, however, that the greater significance of the protests lies in what they portend for politics here at home. While antiwar movements are rarely successful in their immediate goal, they are often prescient indicators of the national mood. Historically, antiwar movements have nearly always put forth larger critiques of how American society is organized, and have often been entwined with powerful social movements focused on domestic problems. "

Thursday, March 20, 2003

Red alert? Stay home, await word: "If the nation escalates to "red alert," which is the highest in the color-coded readiness against terror, you will be assumed by authorities to be the enemy if you so much as venture outside your home, the state [New Jersey]'s anti-terror czar says."

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Media giant's [pro-war] rally sponsorship raises questions: Some of the biggest rallies this month have endorsed President Bush's strategy against Saddam Hussein, and the common thread linking most of them is Clear Channel Worldwide Inc., the nation's largest owner of radio stations.    In a move that has raised eyebrows in some legal and journalistic circles, Clear Channel radio stations in Atlanta, Cleveland, San Antonio, Cincinnati and other cities have sponsored rallies attended by up to 20,000 people. The events have served as a loud rebuttal to the more numerous but generally smaller anti-war rallies....    ...In 1987 the FCC repealed the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to cover controversial issues in their community and to do so by offering balancing views. With that obligation gone, Morris said, "radio can behave more like newspapers, with opinion pages and editorials." "They've just begun stretching their legs, being more politically active," Morris said. "

Saturday, March 15, 2003

A Chorus Against War | Howard Zinn: "The anti-war movement will not likely surrender to the martial atmosphere. The hundreds of thousands who marched in Washington and San Francisco and New York and Boston--and in villages, towns, and cities all over the country from Georgia to Montana--will not meekly withdraw. Unlike the shallow support for the war, the opposition to the war is deep and cannot be easily dislodged or frightened into silence. Indeed, the anti-war feelings are bound to become more intense"

Friday, March 14, 2003

'Bush Wins': The Left's Nightmare Scenario: the antiwar movement would be well advised to plan for a third scenario: "Bush Wins." In this third scenario, the war is over quickly with relatively low U.S. casualties, some sort of mechanism for transitional rule is put in place, and President Bush and his policies gain unprecedented power and prestige. From my recent conversations with organizers and their latest pronouncements, it is clear that this possibility has yet to be addressed. Waiting much longer could spell disaster for the antiwar movement....    .... Interestingly, while the organizers of the antiwar movement are not paying enough attention to the ramifications of a war that follows President Bush's script, their constituents, the thousands of students whose energy and devotion are driving the movement, are full of ideas on how to proceed in such an eventuality.

Thursday, March 13, 2003

Bill Moyers on Patriotism and the American Flag : "I put it on to take it back. The flag's been hijacked and turned into a logo -- the trademark of a monopoly on patriotism. On those Sunday morning talk shows, official chests appear adorned with the flag as if it is the good housekeeping seal of approval. During the State of the Union, did you notice Bush and Cheney wearing the flag? How come? No administration's patriotism is ever in doubt, only its policies. And the flag bestows no immunity from error. When I see flags sprouting on official lapels, I think of the time in China when I saw Mao's little red book on every official's desk, omnipresent and unread. But more galling than anything are all those moralistic ideologues in Washington sporting the flag in their lapels while writing books and running Web sites and publishing magazines attacking dissenters as un-American." The Lie Of The U.S. Military -- Tough gritty American soldiers protect freedom of liberal S.F. columnist? Or the other way around?   More than ever before in recent history, the otherwise worthy U.S. military is right now in service not of the people, not of the national security, but of the current government regime and its corporate interests. Has it always been this way? Of course. But this time, with our smirky Enron president and cash-hungry CEO administration, it's never been so flagrant, or insulting, or invidious.     Our soldiers are not protecting our freedoms. They are not preventing more terrorism. They are not guaranteeing continued free speech. Because the only true threat to such freedoms is coming from within.   There is every indication that our own government, more than any other in the Western world, is the one that would like our free speech quelled, dissenting voices silenced, proofs of wrongdoing or proofs of corporate greedmongering that are used as a cheap excuse to massacre an estimated half-million Iraqis, eliminated....   What is keeping America free is not the military -- it is independent thought. It is the progressive provocative evil "hippie vibe" that refuses to let Bush completely molest the nation.   Because BushCo would love nothing more than for everyone to shut the hell up so it can bomb in peace. And they are trying. E-mail snooping, Homeland Security, the draconian Patriot Act, new wiretap..." The United States of America has gone mad - John le Carré  "America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War. The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded...    How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America’s anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history. But they swung it. A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear. The carefully orchestrated neurosis should carry Bush and his fellow conspirators nicely into the next election."

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Behind the Great Divide: "much speculation why Europe and the U.S. are suddenly at such odds. Is it about culture? About history? But I haven't seen much discussion of an obvious point: We have different views partly because we see different news....   some U.S. media outlets — operating in an environment in which anyone who questions the administration's foreign policy is accused of being unpatriotic — have taken it as their assignment to sell the war, not to present a mix of information that might call the justification for war into question."

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Clinton on media bias': "there are five people in America with more than two hours on radio. Who are they? Howard Stern. Near as I can tell, old Howard's not political. If he is, he's done a great job of hiding it. Don Imus, who's more Republican than Democrat. And the other three are Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity. Who are very outspoken, and -- on the right wing of the Republican Party " [but not a very interesting interview overall]

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

David Corn - the banning of Rabbi Lerner: "He has been a leading Jewish voice against the hawks of Israel and a supporter of Palestinian rights, while calling himself a Zionist. So it was natural that his name was floated as a speaker for the protest. Not In Our Name and United for Peace & Justice were two of the four coalitions behind the event. ... But International ANSWER, another of the organizers, said no. Lerner's crime: he had dared to criticize ANSWER, an outfit run by members of the Workers World Party, for using antiwar demonstrations to put forward what he considers to be anti-Israel propaganda. " Students, faculty express opinions on war: "The 4th floor of Lucas Hall displays a bulletin board of anti-war sentiments. Patriots for Peace, as this montage of anti-war cartoons, information on patriotism, and upcoming events is titled, is maintained by Gerda Ray, associate professor of UMSL's History Department."

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

Nachman' for Jan. 29: SPENCER: Oh they can protest whatever they want. And what's upsetting to me is that the United States, our people, the reason we're such a great country is because we hold dear the right to protest, to question our government. And I really feel like a lot of this movement has hijacked that right to advance their own political agenda.   When you strip away the communists and the socialists, the environmentalists, the anarchists, and those who are just there for the beer and the babes, the skeleton of actual antiwar protesters really isn't that big. So I think we have to take it with a grain of salt what this movement actually is.

Tuesday, February 04, 2003

Signs at anti-war marches: Drunken frat boy drives country into ditch. Bush/Cheney: Malice in Blunderland Who would Jesus bomb? War begins with 'Dubya'. Bush is proof that empty warheads can be dangerous. Let's bomb Texas, they have oil too. How did our oil get under their sand? Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity. If you can't pronounce it, don't bomb it. Daddy, can I start the war now? 1000 points of light and one dim bulb. Sacrifice our SUV's, not our children. Preemptive impeachment. No George, I said Mac Attack. Frodo has failed, Bush has the ring. Look, I'll pay more for gas! He is a moron and a bully. It's the stupid economy. Draft Richard Perle. Draft dodgers shouldn't start wars. War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it (Erasmus). Pillow fights only. Our grief [over 9/11] is not a cry for war. Different Bush, same shit. Stop the Bushit. "Just war"/just oil. You don't have to like Bush to love America. Bushes are for pissing on. Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld: the asses of evil. $1 billion a day to kill people -- what a bargain. Consume -- Consume -- Bomb -- Bomb -- Consume -- Consume What's the difference between me & God? He might forgive Bush, but I won't. Smush Bush. America, get out of the Bushes. It's time to trim the Bush. Pro-lifers: Wake from Bush's propaganda spell -- war kills innocent children. Don't make me come back here [to a peace rally] again. Disarm Bush too. Big brother isn't coming -- he's already here. Empires fall. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind (Gandhi). Impeach the squatters.Mainstream white guys for peace. (Sign held by three mainstream-looking white guys) Hans Blix -- look over here. Let Exxon send its own troops. Curious, George? -- get a clue. Destroy Florida. [It could happen again] There's a terrorist behind every Bush. How many bodies per mile? SUV owners roll over for terrorism. We can't afford to rule the world. War is so 20th century! 9-11-01: 15 Saudis, 0 Iraqis. While you were watching the war, Bush was raping America. Don't waive your rights while waving your flag. Leave Desert Storm to the desert. Drop Bush not bombs. Bush is to Christianity as Osama is to Islam. I asked for universal health care and all I got was this lousy stealth bomber. America's problems won't be solved in Iraq. War is not a family value. [2 sided poster] one side has a picture of a chubby feline, with the words: GOOD FAT CAT other side has a picture of Cheney, with the words: BAD FAT CAT Colorfully dressed drag queen carrying a sign that says: I am the bomb. [Picture of the peace symbol:] back by popular demand. A picture of Bush with a red-stained upper lip: Got blood? A picture of Bush saying "Why should I care what the American people think? They didn't vote for me." A picture of Bush saying "Ask me about my lobotomy." Beneath a picture of Osama bin Laden dressed as Uncle Sam: I want YOU to bomb Iraq. Beneath a picture of a menacing soldier pointing his rifle/bayonet toward the viewer: "Say it! One Nation under God. Say it!"

Saturday, February 01, 2003

Free speech struggle in Antarctica: "On Jan. 18, workers at McMurdo Station in Antarctica joined with millions of others around the world in protesting the war drive on Iraq. In red jackets, they formed a giant human peace sign on the ice against the backdrop of the towering Trans-Antarctic Range. WW3 REPORT sources at McMurdo report that moves to censure anti-war activities at the research base have precipitated a free speech struggle. " See photo: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0119-02.htm

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Anti-War Ads Rejected During Bush Speech: "The Comcast cable television company rejected ads that an anti-war group wanted to air during President Bush's State of the Union speech, saying they included unsubstantiated claims. Peace Action Education Fund had spent $5,000 to have six 30-second ads aired on CNN by Philadelphia-based Comcast beginning Tuesday night. "

Thursday, January 16, 2003

Chicago Passes Anti-War Resolution 46-1 - Vote Follows Extensive and Personal Debate (Chicago, Jan. 16, 2003) (from yahoogroups portside group)   After one of the most mesmerizing, impassioned and personal debates ever to occur in Chicago's City Council Chamber, Chicago has become the largest and most prominent city in the nation to formally oppose a unilateral pre-emptive strike on Iraq.   One by one, black and white, Latino and Jewish, men and women, the Aldermen stood to draw attention to their own particular concerns with the current path of the Bush Administration. Many pointed out that the real dangers this nation faces today are the rising rates of unemployment and economic stagnation. Others were concerned about the double standard the administration is showing with respect to North Korea. And some drew attention to the prospect of young sons and daughters coming home in body bags from an ill-conceived war.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

The National Youth & Student Peace Coalition "BOOKS NOT BOMBS! National One-Day Student Strike -  March 5th. The Bush administration is intent on plunging America into an illegitimate and pre-emptive war in Iraq that will only increase danger for Americans and the world.  At the same time education, healthcare, and the economy are being neglected.  Its time for youth and students to take a stand for America’s future! " Old Words on War Stirring a New Dispute at Berkeley: "In an unusual showdown over freedom of expression, university officials have refused to allow a fund-raising appeal for the Emma Goldman Papers Project to be mailed because it quoted Goldman on the subjects of suppression of free speech and her opposition to war. The university deemed the topics too political as the country prepares for possible military action against Iraq. In one of the quotations, from 1915, Goldman called on people "not yet overcome by war madness to raise their voice of protest, to call the attention of the people to the crime and outrage which are about to be perpetrated on them." In the other, from 1902, she warned that free-speech advocates "shall soon be obliged to meet in cellars, or in darkened rooms with closed doors, and speak in whispers lest our next-door neighbors should hear that free-born citizens dare not speak in the open." Berkeley officials said the quotations could be construed as a political statement by the university in opposition to United States policy toward Iraq. Candace S. Falk, the director of the project and author of the appeal, acknowledged that the excerpts were selected because of their present-day resonance. But Dr. Falk said they reflected Goldman's views, not the university's policies."

Saturday, December 28, 2002

More Schools Rely on Tests, but Study Raises Doubts: "Rigorous testing that decides whether students graduate, teachers win bonuses and schools are shuttered, an approach already in place in more than half the nation, does little to improve achievement and may actually worsen academic performance and dropout rates, according to the largest study ever on the issue."

Saturday, December 21, 2002

U.S. Jury Cites Unpaid Work at Wal-Mart: "federal jury in Portland, Ore., found Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, guilty yesterday of forcing its employees to work unpaid overtime in the first of 40 such lawsuits to go to trial. In the four-week trial, dozens of Wal-Mart workers testified that under pressure from their managers they frequently clocked out after 40 hours and continued working." Gene Study Identifies 5 Main Human Populations: "Scientists studying the DNA of 52 human groups from around the world have concluded that people belong to five principal groups corresponding to the major geographical regions of the world: Africa, Europe, Asia, Melanesia and the Americas. The study, based on scans of the whole human genome, is the most thorough to look for patterns corresponding to major geographical regions. These regions broadly correspond with popular notions of race, the researchers said in interviews." Ex-Soldier, Now a Bishop, Deals With Blood on His Hands: "When he was in his 20's, before he went to seminary and became ordained, Bishop Packard was an Army lieutenant who led a platoon in Vietnam that set up ambushes. He and his men killed in each encounter anywhere from 12 to 15 North Vietnamese, Vietcong and perhaps Chinese mercenaries. They did it clinically and efficiently and then stacked up the bodies... He received the Silver Star and two Bronze Stars for valor. But he returned home disillusioned, "hating the war." He said he joined the seminary in 1971, not so sure that he wanted to be a priest, but "to study the ethical and moral issues that confronted me in Vietnam." It was in seminary that he found the solace and reassurance that he needed. "I violated the commandment, `Thou Shalt Not Kill,' " he said. "Nothing will be gained by intellectualizing this. I killed other people." The Politics of Selling Tax Breaks for the Wealthiest: "Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal research institute, found that the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers -- those with annual incomes over $356,000 -- would receive about half the revenue the government would lose next year if dividends went untaxed and 45 percent of all the money from accelerating the rate cuts. The 80 percent of households with incomes below $73,000 a year would get less than 10 percent of the new tax breaks. These findings are not surprising. After all, the richest 1 percent has 18 percent of all the pretax income and pays 36 percent of all personal income taxes. But studies like this reinforce the public perception that the Bush administration favors the rich."

Friday, December 20, 2002

Ashcroft's tough Sell: "Jan. 16, 2001 | [John Ashcroft's] ultraconservative record on such issues as abortion, affirmative action and civil rights has already stimulated intense controversy. And opponents of his nomination have sharply questioned the Missouri Republican's racial attitudes because of his opposition to a Federal judgeship for African-American jurist Ronnie White and his endorsement of the Southern Partisan, a racist, pro-Confederate magazine which has praised the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Now Ashcroft has been asked to explain why he met last fall with Thomas Bugel, the president of the militantly racist Council of Conservative Citizens and a veteran leader of segregationist groups in the St. Louis area. " Ali Moayedian: Creating a Secure America or Another History of Shame?: "Most of the arrested people have been living in the U.S. for many years now. They have families, jobs (with work authorizations), and are hard-working and peaceful people. Their only "crimes" are being born in the "wrong" countries and being out of status, that is not having a current visa. But this is nothing new. This has been a tolerated and accepted practice by INS to allow people who have applied for permanent residency to stay in the U.S. until they receive an interview date from INS and receive their permanent residency (green card). And these people have naturally been in regular contact with INS and have been here with the full knowledge of INS. These people in a way were given a virtual amnesty until their case is processed by INS."

Thursday, December 19, 2002

Untypically, a Rockefeller Tells the Story of His Life: "David Rockefelle, at age 87, has become the first in three generations of Rockefellers to publish an autobiography, breaking a century-long habit of fierce privacy instilled in his clan by his grandfather. "Memoirs," a candid account of Mr. Rockefeller's life at the busy intersection of global banking, family business and unofficial diplomacy, made its debut from Random House yesterday." Mass arrests of Muslims in LA: "US immigration officials in Southern California have detained hundreds of Iranians and other Muslim men who turned up to register under residence laws brought in as part of the anti-terror drive. Reports say between 500 and 700 men were arrested in and around Los Angeles after they complied with an order to register by 16 December. "

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Gotta Have Faith: Krugman - "years from now, when it becomes clear that much public policy has been driven by a hard-line fundamentalist agenda, people will say "But nobody told us." " Personal Truths and Legal Fictions: "There are two legal versions of what happened in the courtroom last week. The first is that what Justice Thomas did is unforgivable; by hijacking the argument into the murk of personal experience, he did violence to the disinterested, lucid distance necessary for justice to be achieved. The second version is that he recognized, and his colleagues chose to respect, that some questions cannot be answered dispassionately, especially ones as fraught as, "Can symbols constitute threats?" In this version, personal narrative in appellate decision-making is ignored only at the peril of true justice. The latter conclusion is troubling. It suggests that the Supreme Court will never do "true justice" until there's a Holocaust survivor, a gay abortionist and a blind monk on the bench. " Black Republicans Speak of Their Outrage at Lott: "a fury has been building among black Republicans who believe that Mr. Lott has significantly damaged their standing within the party and among their fellow African-Americans, many of whom already view them with suspicion. Within the Bush administration and around the country, many black Republicans are privately urging the party to dump Mr. Lott from the leadership for its own good. "They've been fighting the good fight for the party, often enduring tremendous abuse that they are Uncle Toms or traitors," Robert A. George, a conservative black columnist, said of black Republicans. "Lott's statement seems to confirm what Democrats and many blacks have believed about Republicans all along.""

Monday, December 16, 2002

Chess Offers Young Students Life Lessons at a City School: "chess master and teacher at Mott Hall School, Jerald Times, has a thousand-watt gaze and skin the color of bitter chocolate. He radiates energy as he patrols the classroom, urging fourth and fifth graders to fight through chess problems that he has given them. Mr. Times is looking for potential prodigies who could join the Mott Hall Dark Knights, a mainly black and Latino chess team from a poor community that has won six national championships over the last decade. In addition to seeking out potential champions, Mr. Times wants to connect even average players to the history of the game and encourage them to view the world through its lens." Sacco and Vanzetti Memorial: "On August 23rd, 1927, the State of Massachusetts executed immigrant anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, after an international campaign to stop their execution. This page is a tribute to their memory. " The Never-Ending Wrong June 1977 - Katherine Anne Porter - "For several years in the early 1920s when I was living part of the time in Mexico, on each return to New York, I would follow again the strange history of the Italian emigrants Nicola Sacco a shoemaker, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti a fishmonger, who were accused of a most brutal holdup of a payroll truck, with murder, in South Braintree, Massachusetts, in the early afternoon of April 15, 1920. They were tried before a Boston court and condemned to death about eighteen months later." US historian stripped of gun book prize: "A US historian whose book on the origins of gun culture caused a furore has been stripped of a prestigious prize after being accused of "unprofessional and misleading work". Columbia University announced that its trustees had voted to rescind the Bancroft prize awarded last year to Michael A Bellesiles for his book, Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. "

Saturday, December 14, 2002

What kind of antiwar movement is this? | csmonitor.com: ""Not In My Name" is fast becoming the most popular refrain of today's antiwar movement. At the demonstrations I attended in London, thousands of placards declare that an attack on Iraq is "Not In My Name." In March, a huge variety of American antiwar groups set up an umbrella organization in New York called the Not In Our Name Project. One protester I talked to recently said: "Whatever Bush does or doesn't do in Iraq, it won't be in my name." This slogan sums up the current antiwar sentiment. Rather than trying to stop America's and Europe's warmongers in their tracks, antiwar protesters instead wash their own hands of war. Saying "not in my name" seems to be a way of declaring that, if and when war breaks out, we personally want nothing to do with it. This is as passive as it gets. It's almost like saying, "Do what you like, we know we can't stop you - just count us out."" Lott Often Opposed Measures Identified With Civil Rights: "In his 30 years in Congress, 16 in the House and the last 14 in the Senate, Trent Lott has voted consistently against measures that could be identified as civil rights legislation, and often he was one of a small number of lawmakers to vote that way.   A review of his voting record shows, for example, that Mr. Lott, a Mississippi Republican, opposed extension of the Voting Rights Act, expansion of fair-housing laws, establishment of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and payment of lawyers' fees to people who bring successful civil rights suits.   Last year, Mr. Lott was the only senator to vote against President Bush's nomination of Roger L. Gregory to be the first black judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va.   Over the years, he favored measures to outlaw busing for school desegregation, to extend a design patent owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and to eliminate affirmative action in federal contracts."

Friday, December 13, 2002

Republican Party's 40 Years of Juggling on Race: "Ever since the Republican Party in the South was reborn by hostility to the civil rights legislation of the 1960's, the national party has increasingly depended on Southern votes while insisting to Northern moderates that it is still the party of Lincoln." The Other Face: Krugman: "while Mr. Bush has finally denounced Mr. Lott's remarks, he and his party benefit from the strategy that allows the likes of Mr. Lott to hold so much power. Let's not forget, in particular, the blatant attempts to discourage minority voting in South Dakota, Louisiana, Maryland and elsewhere. It's about time for those of us in the press to pay attention, and let this great, tolerant nation know what's really going on. "

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

A Terrifying Video Becomes a Best Seller: "ANSON W. SCHLOAT, the president of Human Relations Media, has an unexpected hit on his hands, a 26-minute video called "Dying High: Teens in the ER," which has become the hot teaching tool in Westchester County."

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

Watching Your Back as You Watch the Back Pocket: "Some pickpockets are known as cutters, old-school thieves who love the thrill of razoring women's wallets from their pocketbooks, leaving them clutching their bags, completely unaware. Others are creepers, who do not like to work crowds or jostle their victims but follow them out of the subway and are so talented they can steal a wallet, take a credit card from it and then replace it." Rural America's new problem: handling sprawl | csmonitor.com: "Missouri... represents trends taking place around the country. Joplin and the state's three other smaller metro areas grew faster during the 1990s than the state's two largest metro areas - Kansas City and St. Louis - according to a new report on Missouri growth patterns released Sunday by the Brookings Institution in Washington. More telling, unincorporated, "open country" areas of the state saw population rise an average 12.3 percent. That's 50 percent faster than the population growth in Missouri's cities and towns... The result is a thinning and spreading of population that looks all too familiar to smart-growth advocates:" Administration Proposes Rules That Can Alter Pension Plans: " Bush administration has proposed sweeping new pension rules that will encourage companies to adopt a type of retirement plan that has been under attack for three years for what critics call a tendency to strip benefits from older employees. The proposed rules, which are to be released by the Treasury Department on Tuesday, describe the steps for companies to avoid age-discrimination challenges when they convert their traditional pension plans into what are called cash-balance pension plans. Cash-balance plans tend to benefit younger workers, often at the expense of older workers, and are less costly for companies."

Monday, December 09, 2002

Philip Berrigan, Peace Advocate in the Vietnam War Era, Dies at 79: "The life of black sharecroppers in Georgia, where he had basic training, and the treatment of black soldiers on his troop ship to Europe made an indelible impression on his conscience. So did his own role in infantry and artillery battles that earned him a battlefield commission as second lieutenant. In so many words, he came to consider himself as guilty of murder as the Germans and Japanese. Along with this came the conviction that he had grown up on a diet of nationalistic propaganda in which the good -- "white Europeans" -- always triumphed over evil -- "anyone else."" Pastoral Poverty: The Seeds of Decline: "Around the country, rural ghettos are unravelling in the same way that inner cities did in the 1960's and 70's, according to the officials and experts who have tried to make sense of a generations-old downward spiral in the countryside. In this view, decades of economic decline have produced a culture of dependency, with empty counties hooked on farm subsidies just as welfare mothers were said to be tied to their monthly checks. And just as in the cities, the hollowed-out economy has led to a frightening rise in crime and drug abuse...   Supporters of subsidies say they keep entire counties from going under and ensure a cheap and abundant food supply.   But opponents say that the biggest checks go to large corporate farms and do little to stem rural decline. The farm bill signed in May by President Bush — and backed by both parties — will, over the next 10 years, distribute two-thirds of $125 billion in payments to the top 10 percent of farms, according to an analysis done by the Environmental Working Group, a conservation group." From Radical Background, a Rhodes Scholar Emerges: "Chesa Boudin was unable to celebrate with his parents on Saturday afternoon when he was named a Rhodes scholar. He could not even share the good news. As maximum-security inmates in the New York State prison system, Katherine Boudin and David Gilbert are barred from receiving telephone calls or e-mail messages. " The Liberal Quandary Over Iraq: "This Bosnian generation of liberal hawks is a minority within a minority, but they hold an important place in American public life, having worked out a new idea about America's role in the post-cold war world long before Sept. 11 woke the rest of the country up. An antiwar movement that seeks a broad appeal and an intelligent critique needs them. Oddly enough, President Bush needs them, too. The one level on which he hasn't even tried to make a case is the level of ideas. These liberal hawks could give a voice to his war aims, which he has largely kept to himself." Hundreds opposed to war let their feelings be known at rally By JODI GENSHAFT Post-Dispatch 12/08/2002 10:28 PM"   The "Instead of War" rally to display opposition to U.S. military action in Iraq drew an estimated 1,500 people of all ages Sunday afternoon in downtown St. Louis.   Protesters marched to Soldiers Memorial, at 14th and Chestnut streets, carrying hand-drawn signs and chanting, "Down with war, up with peace." Cheering them on was a group of young adults - many with dyed hair and painted faces - calling themselves the "radical cheerleaders." The young people chanted anti-war and anti-globalization cheers as the march set out.   "We don't want to see innocent lives destroyed, Iraqi and American," said Lubna Alam, academic vice president of St. Louis University's Student Government Association.   Alam said many college students felt an acute responsibility to speak out about the "pre-packaged" war with Iraq, "complete with theme music, colorful graphics and catchy sound bites."    "Why should we punish an entire nation for the heinous actions of one man?" Alam asked the audience at Centenary United Methodist Church in St. Louis, during the anti-war rally held before the march. Participants spilled into the aisles and hallways of the church, which seats about 1,200. An organizer of the rally estimated the crowd at 1,500.    Jason Murphy, 31, of St. Louis, said the turnout "proves there's not a national consensus in favor of violence in the Middle East."    A Gallup poll, conducted Nov. 22-24, showed that Americans support 58 percent to 37 percent a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Polling has continually illustrated that Americans want U.N. and allied support before U.S. officials launch military action.   "We should be working through the United Nations to apply pressure," said Elizabeth Case, 70, of Clayton.     Iraq submitted a declaration of its weapons programs Saturday to the U.N. weapons inspectors in Baghdad.    U.S. officials say Iraq is violating U.N. resolutions requiring it to give up all biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, but Iraq claims it no longer possesses any banned weapons.   "I don't think they have weapons we should be concerned about," said Carolyn Griffeth, 30, of St. Louis. "This isn't about democracy. Now we're fabricating a threat. Saddam isn't a threat, but the sanctions are a breeding ground for terrorism. Our only defense to terrorism is to invest in peace relationships in the Middle East."    The poll showed that about 80 percent of Americans think Saddam would use weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States.    Ron Strawbridge, 31, of Webster Groves, sees the threat differently. "I think he's a threat if he's attacked," Strawbridge said.    Anthony Fotenos, 26, of St. Louis, said mainstream opposition to war could have a big impact on U.S. military involvement. He said the success of the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War set a good example for future protests.    "I'm sure we would win a war in Iraq, but it will invariably come back to haunt us," said Fotenos, as his 2-month-old daughter, Naomi, slept next to a poster that read "Babies for peace."    The Rev. Emery Washington, president of Congregations Allied for Community Improvement, said he feared the legacy being left for future generations. He said, "There has to be another way" to resolve the U.S.-Iraqi conflict.    Still, some protesters were skeptical that the anti-war sentiment would have staying power.    "I don't think support will last as long as it did in Vietnam," Murphy said.

Thursday, December 05, 2002

Into the Breach: Borosage: "Contrary to the DLC, the Democratic Party is not a dirigible that can be repositioned to fit the passing winds. It is a party of working people against the Republican Party of corporations and wealth. It is a party of diversity against the whites-only Republican Party. It is a party of prochoice women against the party of the radical right. It is a party of unions and of environmentalists against the party of Ken Lay and Dick Cheney. It won't ever be more muscular than Republicans on war abroad or guns at home. " Buyers looking for safety are driving in the wrong lane | csmonitor.com: "Sport utility vehicles are a menace. As these off-road behemoths that never go off road replace cars, the result on American highways will be "mayhem," according to an exposé titled "High and Mighty," by Keith Bradsher. "

Wednesday, December 04, 2002

Advocates for Animals Turn Attention to Chickens: " rows of hens crammed 10 to a cage the size of a file-drawer cabinet. They get close-ups of swollen eyes, infected skin and shattered wings entangled in cage wire." Bush to End Rule Allowing Jobless Money for New Parents: "Bush administration will repeal a Clinton-era rule that allows states to use unemployment insurance money to help people who take a leave from work to have babies or adopt children, officials said today. The executive action will effectively shut down legislative efforts in as many as 16 states to make unemployment compensation money available to working parents who have taken time off to care for a newborn or adopted child."

Tuesday, December 03, 2002

Union Head Cites Secret Report in Quitting Insurer: "A.F.L.-C.I.O. president John J. Sweeney resigned yesterday from the board of Ullico, an embattled union-owned insurer, because of concerns that an outside counsel's report into accusations of insider trading at the insurer might never be made public. Mr. Sweeney resigned on the day that Ullico's board met in Washington to consider an investigative report.. into highly profitable stock trades by members of Ullico's board, which is made up primarily of former and current union presidents... with Mr. Sweeney demanding that the Thompson report be made public and Mr. Georgine seeking to limit its disclosure. Mr. Sweeney, who did not participate in the stock trades, has criticized them and was one of the first to urge that an outside counsel be named. "

Monday, December 02, 2002

Gay History Is Still in the Closet: "most gay people know little about Harry Hay. Even fewer know that his comrades, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, who founded the first American lesbian organization, Daughters of Bilitis, are still alive... Gay and lesbian leaders have yet to find a place in the civil rights pantheon. Why are the gay movement's roots so obscured? The reason is the invisibility of gay history. With rare exceptions, schools fail to acknowledge that there even is such a thing. "

Sunday, December 01, 2002

Reliving World War II With a Captain America of a Different Color: "The Negro press attacked military segregation so mercilessly that Franklin Roosevelt considered shutting down the papers. This version of the war has been marginalized in books and largely omitted from movies. Contemporary ignorance about this period has been painfully evident in the last two weeks, since the Marvel company released the first in a series of comic books that deal head-on with the hard-core segregation that dominated World War II. The series, entitled "Truth: Red, White and Black," has been derisively described as "politically correct" and attacked by people who do not believe that the country ever experienced an era like the one depicted in the comics."

Saturday, November 30, 2002

Union Chief to Return $200,000 From Stock Deal Under Inquiry: (11/1/02) "The president of the carpenters' union, Douglas J. McCarron, President Bush's closest friend in organized labor, has agreed to return more than $200,000 in profits he made in a stock deal that is under federal investigation. On Tuesday, Mr. McCarron informed the Union Labor Life Insurance Company, a labor-owned carrier known as Ullico, that he would pay back the money, which he earned when he sold Ullico shares in what is being investigated for the possibility of insider trading." In Harvard Papers, a Dark Corner of the College's Past: 1920: "A group of students were brought before the Court for interrogation about their sex lives. So were some local men who were not students, despite the Court's lack of jurisdiction. Most of the students found "guilty," one a congressman's son, were told to leave not only the college but also the city of Cambridge. Two students convinced the Court that they were heterosexual but were forced to leave anyway because they had associated with some of those identified as gay. The dean also ordered that a letter be added to the student files of all those ousted, which dissuaded the college's Alumni Placement Service from "making any statement that would indicate confidence in these men." Two of those men later committed suicide." Debate on War With Iraq Is Entering the Classroom: "Not since the Vietnam War, it seems, have young people been so engaged in America's foreign policy. "

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

Critics Say Government Deleted Web Site Material to Push Abstinence: " Information on condom use, the relation between abortion and breast cancer and ways to reduce sex among teenagers has been removed from government Web sites, prompting critics to accuse the Department of Health and Human Services of censoring medical information in order to promote a philosophy of sexual abstinence."

Monday, November 25, 2002

Small investors for social justice? | csmonitor.com

Sunday, November 24, 2002

A new charity watchdog rises | csmonitor.com: Givers may be familiar with two of the groups: the American Institute of Philanthropy (www.charitywatch.org) and the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance (www.give.org). Both have provided information on hundreds of charities for years. Now joining the ratings game: Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org), a free, Web-based service that went online April 15 and has rated more than 1,700 charities.

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Nuns Bring Hope to Mississippi Delta Towns: "In the 1980's, a half dozen orders of Catholic nuns looked around the country to see where they could be most helpful, and they began sending members into the Delta, with the support of the Diocese of Jackson, Miss. Since then, several hundred nuns have settled in communities like Tutwiler, Tunica, Marks, Rosedale and Jonestown -- places that whites had deserted with the desegregation of schools. With little fanfare and no government help to speak of, these sisters help reinforce the town's crowded and underfinanced public schools. They are also nurses, doctors, counselors and community organizers. They build medical clinics, nonsectarian preschools for the youngest children and houses with Habitat for Humanity volunteers. They provide the towns' only refuges for many children to do homework or make decorations for Halloween. They organize programs for teenage girls as alternatives to becoming pregnant. "

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Victors and Spoils: Krugman - "The federal civil service, with its careful protection of workers from political pressure, was created specifically to bring the spoils system to an end; but now the administration has found a way around those constraints. We don't have to speculate about what will follow, because Jeb Bush has already blazed the trail. Florida's governor has been an aggressive privatizer, and as The Miami Herald put it after a careful study of state records, "his bold experiment has been a success -- at least for him and the Republican Party, records show. The policy has spawned a network of contractors who have given him, other Republican politicians and the Florida G.O.P. millions of dollars in campaign donations." What's interesting about this network of contractors isn't just the way that big contributions are linked to big contracts; it's the end of the traditional practice in which businesses hedge their bets by giving to both parties. The big winners in Mr. Bush's Florida are companies that give little or nothing to Democrats... It's as if firms seeking business with the state of Florida are subject to a loyalty test. "

Monday, November 18, 2002

Gay Army Linguists: "Editor: In "Gay Army Linguists Say They Were Ousted", you report that "nine Army linguists, including six trained in Arabic, have been dismissed from the military because they are gay, even as the military faces a critical shortage of translators and interpreters for the war on terrorism." While we down under debate Australian support for any United States-led war on terror, I would be ever so grateful if an American politician would explain why the Taliban's persecution of women is considered barbaric, yet persecution of gay military personnel by your government is deemed quite acceptable. MIKE LECLERC Sydney, Australia, "

Thursday, November 14, 2002

Guardian - Interview with Michael Moore he says, the money is about more than status. He leans close. "Back home we call it fuck-you money. OK? What that means is, the distributor of the film can't ever say to me, 'Don't you dare say this in the interview or you better change that in the movie because if you don't, you're not going to get another movie deal.' Because I already have my home and my family taken care of, and enough money from this film and book to make the next film, I'm able to say, 'Fuck you.' No one in authority can hold money over me to get me to conform." Update on 'Arming America' - The Nation: "Michael Bellesiles, the historian accused of research falsification in his book Arming America, a study of gun culture, announced on October 25 that he was resigning from Emory University, citing a "hostile environment" [see Jon Wiener, "Fire at Will," November 4]. His resignation, effective at the end of the year, came the very afternoon that Emory released the report of a three-person external board that had been asked to review some of the charges.... if Bellesiles is right in his reply, then those distinguished historians are guilty of some of the same sins they accuse him of committing: suppressing inconvenient evidence, spinning the data their way, refusing to follow leads that didn't serve their thesis.  "

Monday, November 11, 2002

The Murder of Emmett Louis Till, Revisited: "A new documentary by 31-year-old Keith Beauchamp could well cause this case to be reopened. There will be a private screening of the film, "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till," on Nov. 16 at the New York University Cantor Film Center"

Saturday, November 09, 2002

Salon.com Politics | Letters: Readers respond to Michelle Goldberg's "Peace Kooks."  "While I too disagree with the more radical positions ascribed to Not In Our Name and the International Action Center, I have questions for Gitlin. Where is your more moderate protest organization? What are you doing to lead the hordes of people who want to work through the U.N. to stop both the more dangerous weapons development of Saddam Hussein and the war with Iraq under Bush's plan? Salon | The respectable cult: "The respectable cult A new book asks why Christian Science has gotten away with the kind of paranoid, secretive practices that usually push religions into the kook bin. " IndyMedia Center Behind the Placards The Odd and Troubling Origins of Today's Anti-War Movement by David Corn. If public-opinion polls are correct, 33 percent to 40 percent of the public opposes an Iraq war; even more are against a unilateral action. This means the burgeoning anti-war movement has a large recruiting pool, yet the demo was not intended to persuade doubters. Nor did it speak to Americans who oppose the war but who don’t consider the United States a force of unequaled imperialist evil and who don’t yearn to smash global capitalism. This was no accident, for the demonstration was essentially organized by the Workers World Party,

Friday, November 08, 2002

Labor Opens a Drive to Organize Wal-Mart: "labor is escalating its efforts, and in an all-out assault on the discount retailer that has grown to nearly 100 stores in 20 states, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union has hired disaffected managers as organizers and created a radio show and Web site that lambaste Wal-Mart's working conditions."

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

The New York Review of Books: The Religious Success Story: Jared Diamond "But once a state invokes religion to require peaceful behavior toward fellow citizens with whom one has no relationship, how can a state convince its citizens not to apply those same precepts during wartime? States permit, indeed they command, their citizens to steal from and kill citizens of other states against which war has been declared. After a state has spent eighteen years teaching a boy "Thou shalt not kill," how can the state turn around and say "Thou must kill, under the following circumstances," without getting its soldiers hopelessly confused and prone to kill the wrong people (e.g., fellow citizens)? Again, in recent as in ancient history, religion comes to the rescue.... Wilson explains that fanatical religious sects, such as expansionist Islam and Christianity, spread as a result of group selection operating at the level of human societies: those early state societies whose religions were especially effective at motivating their citizens to sacrifice themselves succeeded in defeating societies with less motivating religions. Fictitious beliefs —such as the belief that a heaven populated by beautiful virgins awaits those who die for the cause—can contribute powerfully to effective motivation. Michael Moore.com : Mike's Message: "Yesterday, Larry Bennett, a 16-year old, was shot in the head after he was involved in a minor traffic accident. You probably didn't hear about it because, well, how could he be dead if he wasn't shot by The Sniper? Yesterday, an unidentified woman was shot to death in her car in Fenton, MI. You probably didn't hear about it because she had the misfortune of not being shot by The Sniper. Two nights ago, Charles D. Bennett, 48, an apartment security guard, was shot to death after confronting two teenagers in his parking lot in Memphis, TN. You probably didn't hear about it because the sniper was too busy sleeping in his car that night, and thus, poor Charles was not shot by The Sniper. Yes, The Sniper has apparently been caught, so we can go back now to NOT reporting the DOZENS of gun deaths that occur every day, the ones that just aren't newsworthy because they happen in all those old boring ways -- unlike the ways of The Sniper, who was interesting and creative and exciting and scary! He played so much better on the news. ... Thank you, Mr. Heston for this unnecessary carnage. Thank you, Mr. Bush, for supporting Mr. Heston and his group's agenda -- which protects only the criminals. And thank you, Bushmaster Firearms, Inc., for providing the gun used to shoot the 13 people in the DC area. Bushmaster's president, Richard E. Dyke, was the Maine finance chairman of George W. Bush's 2000 Presidential campaign. According to Business Week, Dyke had to step down as Bush's finance chair "after reporters began quizzing him about his business dealings. Bushmaster Firearms Inc., is notorious for using loopholes to sidestep a 1994 federal ban on assault rifles." Bush and Bushmaster. Too tragically perfect. Rally in Washington Is Said to Invigorate the Antiwar Movement: "Emboldened by a weekend antiwar protest in Washington that organizers called the biggest since the days of the Vietnam War, groups opposed to military action in Iraq said they were preparing a wave of new demonstrations across the country in the next few weeks. The demonstration on Saturday in Washington drew 100,000 by police estimates and 200,000 by organizers', forming a two-mile wall of marchers around the White House. "

Friday, October 11, 2002

The high-tech angle on an old-fashioned dock strike: "THE CURRENT DISPUTE between dockworkers and port owners is a repetition of the age-old union struggle, but with a technological twist: One of the primary stumbling blocks is over the possible adoption of new technology that could eliminate up to 800 union jobs. But what most media reports have failed to mention thus far is that the technology at the center of that dispute was invented by a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). He is, in fact, among those in danger of losing his job if the technology is adopted. Bob Carson, the "chief visionary officer" of three-year-old tech start-up ContainerTrac, is also the chief clerk for Pier 80 in San Francisco. Adding to the irony, ContainerTrac chief operating officer Red Smith says the Berkeley, Calif., company's technology is actually endorsed by the union. " [This is a great story. It's not coincidental that this ingenious use of life-saving, cost-saving technology comes from a leading member of a strong, independent labor union, giving the lie to the classic canard that unions hold back progress. What democratic unions fight is not technology, but the use of technology to deprive workers of a fair return on labor, and of what little control they still have over labor conditions. What possible reason could the shipping industry have for insisting that the new jobs be non-union, other than as part of a long-term strategy to push labor costs toward third world levels, as industry after industry has done so successfully? This is the same morality that produced bloated paychecks for CEOs and collapsed pension funds for everyone else.]

Monday, September 02, 2002

Bernard Weiner | The Charnel House Future: Why Bush&Co. Must Be Stopped Now: " by behaving in such an arrogant, bullyboy fashion around the globe, Bush&Co. is building up anti-U.S. resentment and anger, creating conditions in which terrorism grows, ignoring and insulting our traditional allies (especially in Europe), risking our long-term economic and social health, and so on. In the long run, the world is a shakier, more violent place, U.S. interests are damaged, the international economic and civil situation is more chaotic (and we all know what kind of leaders rise in chaotic times), the domestic political situation in the U.S. grows more fascist-like, with a concomitant rebellion amongst key elements in the citizenry. "

Friday, July 26, 2002

Back to the Drawing Board: WTC replacement designs: " The Lower Manhattan and Port Authority planners understood their obligation in the narrow sense: to serve their clients, forgetting their larger obligation to the people of New York. While they made much of designing for the millions who are expected to visit the memorial, they neglected the men, women and children who live and work and go to school and play in the area now and will do so in the future. Most significantly, the planners left out residential buildings from the site. "

Sunday, July 21, 2002

Citizen Snoops Wanted: "Early last week, the program's Web site indicated that Operation TIPS, which stands for Terrorism Information and Prevention System, would begin in selected American cities next month. It would be fundamentally different from tip systems already set up in many cities, since it would take advantage of the access these workers have to people's lives, rather than simply solicit tips from anyone with something to report. Not surprisingly, the American Civil Liberties Union fumed that the plan amounted to the creation of an unlicensed security force conducting warrantless searches of people's homes."

Friday, July 12, 2002

'Collegiality' as a Tenure Battleground: "For generations, professors seeking tenure at colleges and universities have been evaluated on three factors: teaching, research and service to the institution. But a number of young professors, especially women, have recently contended that their bids for lifetime academic appointments were derailed by a more slippery fourth factor: collegiality." Freed From Jail Despite His Pleas, 92-Year-Old Is Found Dead in a River: "At 92 years old, Mr. Russell, stoop-shouldered, blind in one eye and suffering from prostate cancer, had finally been rescued from a life of utter loneliness. For the year and two months -- 426 days -- that he spent at the Butte County Jail for stabbing his 70-year-old landlord, he was Pops. He was given dibs on the television, allowed to be first in the food line, reserved a place in Monopoly game marathons. He rarely had visitors. But he did not need any. Here, among the transient population of men awaiting sentencing or trial, he had found community."

Thursday, July 11, 2002

Suffer the Children: "while the wealthiest Americans "have already received a hefty down payment on their Bush tax cuts -- averaging just under $12,000 each this year -- 80 percent of their windfall is scheduled to come from tax changes that won't take effect until after this year, mostly from items that phase in after 2005." For the vast majority of Americans, three-quarters of the Bush tax cuts -- averaging about $350 this year -- are already in place, the study said. From 2001 through 2010, "the richest Americans -- the best-off 1 percent -- are slated to receive tax cuts totaling almost half a trillion dollars. The $477 billion in tax breaks the Bush administration has targeted to this elite group will average $342,000 each over the decade." The clincher: "By 2010, when (and if) the Bush tax reductions are fully in place, an astonishing 52 percent of the total tax cuts will go to the richest 1 percent, whose average 2010 income will be $1.5 million.""

Wednesday, July 03, 2002

Sex as a Cosmic Joke, as Demons Are Routed: "[Margaret Cho's] writing is exceptionally lean and accompanied by body language as honed as her verbal delivery. ... She is also a formidable character comic who brings a refined sense of caricature to voices that range from a macho man to an insufferably chirpy colonic hydrotherapist. But her greatest creation is her mother, a proper, devoted know-it-all who refers to herself as Mommy and who delivers her unlikely pronouncements in a half-choked broken English with an oracular pomposity. Ms. Cho's most damning humor is reserved for racism and the insidious stereotyping of Asian-Americans as passive, agreeable servants. "

Monday, May 27, 2002

An Academic Ready to Take the Plunge Into Novelistic Success: "Stephen L. Carter, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University, tall, slender, elegantly dressed in his beautifully cut sports jacket and silk tie, is so good he could be boring were he not the author of one of the season's biggest novels, "The Emperor of Ocean Park," a legal thriller about black upper class America, to be published next month.... [In his first book] "Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby"... he criticized affirmative action in college admissions for mainly benefiting middle class blacks and being "racial justice on the cheap," enabling whites not to confront poverty and racism directly. He criticized the idea that it promotes diversity, saying that one black cannot represent all. But he supports affirmative action as a device for combating inequality. "

Saturday, May 25, 2002

A Big Wedding With a Smaller Bill: "guidelines adopted by Orthodox rabbinical authorities to curtail extravagant spending on weddings. At what is known as a "guidelines wedding," Rabbi Hirth will use a one-man band, and the music will be spiritual. The cost of decorations -- including flowers, centerpieces, fruit baskets and the bridal canopy -- may not exceed $1,800.... Under the guidelines, the wedding dinner may not exceed 400 guests, plus children, although additional guests may attend the nondinner portion. For very large families, up to 500 dinner guests are allowed. "

Thursday, May 23, 2002

Some U.S. Backers of Israel Boycott Dailies Over Mideast Coverage: "Intense public reaction to coverage of the violence of the Middle East conflict has prompted unusually harsh attacks on several news media outlets and has led to boycotts of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. Broadcast news operations, including CNN and National Public Radio, have also been criticized. "

Wednesday, May 22, 2002

A New Imprint Is Dedicated to Black Readers: "Harlem Moon will be different in that all its books will be stylishly designed trade paperbacks rather than hardcovers. This will make them economically accessible to more readers, book publishers having awakened only relatively recently to the fact that there's a growing black population ravenous for reading material relevant to them. The new imprint will also publish a line of black classics that are now out of print, many in the public domain."

Tuesday, May 21, 2002

The Welfare Washington Doesn't Know: "Most welfare recipients who left or were knocked off the welfare rolls are still struggling to survive. Within the Republican Party, I find myself in a tiny minority as a white male who grew up on welfare and was homeless on a number of occasions... I say with no doubt in my mind that the majority of those on welfare are desperate to work, provide for their families and exist with dignity. Very few are looking for a free ride. "

Thursday, May 09, 2002

Florida Footsteps of a Harlem Great: "Hurston was born in Alabama in 1891 but grew up in the central Florida town of Eatonville. It was an extraordinary place, incorporated and populated entirely by blacks, and her father served for a time as its mayor. The Hurston family lived on five acres dotted with orange, tangerine, grapefruit and guava trees. She later described the town as having "five lakes, three croquet courts, three hundred brown skins, three hundred good swimmers, plenty guavas, two schools, and no jailhouse." Eatonville was remarkably prosperous and free of racism. Living there as a child gave Hurston an experience that was close to unique among African-American writers, and it led her to focus on black achievement rather than oppression." Men's Teams Benched as Colleges Level the Field: "Since the passage 30 years ago of the law commonly known as Title IX, more than 170 wrestling programs, 80 men's tennis teams, 70 men's gymnastics teams and 45 men's track teams have been eliminated, according to the General Accounting Office. The effort to achieve athletic equality for women is often perceived as a survival struggle between low-profile men's sports and their women's counterparts. Supporters of Title IX contend, however, that the real struggle is not between men's and women's teams, but between men's sports like wrestling and track and the real powerhouse of collegiate sports, football."

Wednesday, May 08, 2002

U.S., in a Shift, Tells Justices Citizens Have a Right to Guns: "The position, expressed in a footnote in each of two briefs filed by Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson, incorporated the view that Attorney General John Ashcroft expressed a year ago in a letter to the National Rifle Association. Mr. Ashcroft said that in contrast to the view that the amendment protected only a collective right of the states to organize and maintain militias, he "unequivocally" believed that "the text and the original intent of the Second Amendment clearly protect the right of individuals to keep and bear firearms.""

Monday, May 06, 2002

New Details Emerge From the Einstein Files: "The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Most Famous Scientist," by Fred Jerome, who sued the government with the help of the Public Citizen Litigation Group to obtain a less censored version of the file.... The new material spells out how the bureau spied on Einstein and his associates and identifies some of the informants who said he was a spy." Letter from a Methodist minister to President Bush: "I am baffled and confused by your behavior. You claim Christ but act like Caesar. There is blood all over your hands, with the promise of even more blood to come. You sit atop the nations like the biblical Whore of Babylon, openly fornicating with the military men of might, their corporate sponsors, their nuclear madness, and their insatiable hunger for global armament. Is this how you learned Christ?"

Saturday, May 04, 2002

Tikkun- Strategy for Ending the Occupation:  "the U.S. political system, particularly the Congress, which is responsive to the political and economic clout of groups like the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), as well as to the new found pro-Sharonism of some fundamentalist Christians, and the right wing of the Republican party, is not capable of playing the role of honest broker, but is increasingly pulled to give a blank check to the most hawkish programs of the Israeli government. " Israel's Jewish Critics Aren't 'Self-Hating': Rabbi Michael Lerner - "Many American Jews understand the need in today's world to abandon chauvinism and insistence on Jewish "specialness." We need instead to affirm those parts of Jewish tradition that lead us to be able to recognize the spirit of God in every human being on the planet, and to recognize that our security will come not from more armaments for Israel, but from more love and connection between the Jewish people and all other peoples. There is no special path to Jewish safety and security that does not also lead us to global safety and security for all peoples."

Wednesday, May 01, 2002

Opposing rallies find common ground for peace: "Stanford University was the location for a demonstration ... in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. ... counter-demonstrators in solidarity with Israel. ... as the event came to a close, someone spoke on the microphone asking the demonstrators on both sides not to replicate the conflict, but to join and sing together for peace. The two demonstrations then merged. And Israeli and Palestinian flags flew side by side."

Tuesday, April 30, 2002

Vote in House Strongly Backs an End to I.N.S.: "The House voted overwhelmingly today to abolish the Immigration and Naturalization Service and divide its functions between two new bureaus, one for immigration services like the handling of citizenship applications, the other for enforcement. The lopsided vote, 405 to 9, reflected lawmakers' frustration over the agency's missteps before and after Sept. 11." Odds Are Stacked When Science Tries to Debate Pseudoscience: "In Ohio, a debate is raging over whether to teach "intelligent design" alongside evolution in high school biology classes. Intelligent design is based on the belief that life is too complicated to explain by natural causes alone and that some intelligence, ultimately some divine intelligence, must have created the original life forms on earth or guided their development. Proponents of that idea suggest that including it in the curriculum is simply a question of fairness. If a significant number of people do not believe that evolution provides an adequate explanation of the origin of species, they argue, then it is only fair to present both sides of the argument in a high school science class. But at least half of Americans polled in a recent survey by the National Science Foundation did not know that Earth orbits the Sun, and that it takes a year to do so. Does this mean we should teach that Earth is the center of the universe?" Scholar's Pedophilia Essay Stirs Outrage and Revenge: "[UMKC political scientist Dr. Harris Mirkin] ... questioned whether some people accusing priests these days were making up stories in search of a payday, and he said he believed that much of what was called molestation was really harmless touching. He said he resented that teachers were leery of hugging children for fear they might be accused of abuse. He imagines, he said, most adolescent males have fantasies similar to his, as a 12-year-old delivery boy, of being seduced by a female customer, and he wondered whether it would have been so bad had it come true." From Tree-Hugger to Terrorist: " Almost two years ago, he and an accomplice were caught after they firebombed a Chevrolet dealership in Eugene, Ore. He says he did it to punish carmakers and consumers for their love affair with the gas-hogging S.U.V. Although the pair never claimed the bombing on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front (E.L.F.) -- the eco-terror group that has inflicted, along with its ally the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.), more than $43 million in damage on farmers, scientists, foresters, universities, housing developers and business owners -- their crime fit the profile of a classic E.L.F. action. " - long piece in NYT Magazine Renegade View on Child Sex Causes a Storm: "Ms. Levine [argues]... that the fear of pedophilia is overblown and that the age of consent should be lowered in certain circumstances. Ms. Levine tries to separate what she sees as real risks-- H.I.V. infection, unwanted pregnancies and sexual violence -- from risks she calls exaggerated or even invented. She argues forcefully against abstinence-only education and what she sees as a pervasive tendency to view all manifestations of childhood sexuality as dangerous or disturbing." Civil Rights Group to Sue Over U.S. Handling of Muslim Men: "A class-action lawsuit prepared by the group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, accused the government of arbitrarily holding Muslim detainees in prison for months on minor immigration violations, with no hearings to determine whether the government had probable cause to hold them."

Monday, April 29, 2002

At Least 20,000 March in San Francisco Protest Independent Argument: "Robert Fisk: Fear and learning in America As an outspoken critic of US policy in the Middle East, Fisk expected a hostile reception when he paid his first visit to the American Midwest since 11 September. He couldn't have been more mistaken"

Wednesday, April 24, 2002

Disparities: Cancer's Added Toll on the Poor. Research suggests breast cancer is diagnosed later in blacks than in whites as a result of class, not race.

Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Jewish Voice For Peace: "As Jews and Americans, taxpayers and voters, we are outraged by Israel's recent invasion of Palestinian territory." Report and photos of sit-in and demo at Israeli consulate in San Francisco. Israeli Offensive May Transform US Judaism : Palestine Indymedia: " After this week's horrors in Jenin and other West Bank towns, Israel can no longer count on automatic support from U.S. Jews. Many who had once supported Israeli policies, or at least remained silent, are saying for the first time: "Not in my name." That could mark a major turning point, not only in the Middle East conflict, but in American Judaism. "

Thursday, April 11, 2002

AFL-CIO: Executive PayWatch: "Two big trends distinguished CEO pay in 2001: first, a dangerous and ongoing disconnect between performance and pay, and second, stark double standards on retirement security and job security for CEOs compared with workers. "

Monday, April 08, 2002

Affluent Avoid Scrutiny on Taxes Even as I.R.S. Warns of Cheating: "That the I.R.S. audits the working poor more frequently than wealthy people is well known. What has not been discussed is that the agency does not track nonwage income as closely as wage income -- and in some cases does not verify it at all, even as the I.R.S. says that cheating on nonwage income is rising." Campus Tensions Growing With Support for Palestinians: "pro-Palestinian groups on campuses across the country have asserted themselves with new vigor, organizing demonstrations and national campaigns to try to counteract what they see as a better-financed, better-established effort by pro-Israel student groups. To the alarm of Jewish students who read the campaigns as anti-Semitism, the pro-Palestinian groups have become something of a cause célèbre on university campuses. " St. Louis - GOP questions role union, nonprofit group play in Carnahan race: "Republicans are suggesting that the Service Employees International Union and Pro Vote are engaging in partisan campaign activities and questionable fund raising for Sen. Jean Carnahan. Democrats say the accusations are meant to take away attention from controversy over Jim Talent's work as a lobbyist. Every time President George W. Bush shows up in Missouri, several groups plan to greet him with pickets and protests. Their signs so far have singled out Bush, but Republican leaders say that the groups' real target is Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Talent. As evidence, the Missouri GOP points to the protest last month by the Service Employees International Union and Pro Vote, a nonprofit coalition, outside the America's Center. Inside, Bush was helping Talent raise money."

Thursday, April 04, 2002

Hidden Plague of Alcohol Abuse by the Elderly: "Hidden because its symptoms often mimic or are masked by common physical and mental infirmities of aging. Hidden because doctors rarely ask about when and how much their older patients drink or what effect alcohol may have on their lives. Hidden because older people and their relatives are often in denial about the extent and effects of their drinking habits. Hidden because the amount of alcohol now causing trouble had no untoward social or physical effects in middle age. Hidden because many of the hallmarks of excessive drinking â014 like missing work or being noticeably intoxicated â014 may not be noticed among retirees who live alone." Death Threats in Brooklyn: "forced an innocent couple, Doreen and Stuart Shapiro, to flee their home. They became a target after their son Adam delivered humanitarian medical aid to Yasir Arafat's besieged compound in Ramallah, on the West Bank. " House members urge UMKC to fire professor for writings about pedophilia - "send a message: Pedophilia is not something that should be discussed. Not even in academic journals. And especially not by an employee of a Missouri land-grant university." American Pilots Allege Harassment Over Safety: "Three pilots have been subjected to disciplinary hearings in recent months for wearing uniforms during media appearances in which they expressed concerns about safety practices"

Monday, April 01, 2002

Chavez rose symbolizes blossoming of labor accord: "Supervisors in the rose fields once waved white flags urging "no union," while the United Farm Workers brandished red-and-black banners advocating dignity, respect and better benefits. These days, rose grower Bear Creek Corp. and its 1,000 laborers are working together - to the point that they have joined forces to develop a rose dedicated to the memory of Cesar Chavez" Words From The Wise: "[Scott] Nearing's criticisms and conclusions about war, profit-making, pollution and politics led him to become the practical conservationist who was associated with the "back to the land" movement. As the war on terrorism is expands, it's worth returning to Nearing's writing and his model of living in harmony with nature. The words of this great teacher still ring strong in my ears, as does the image of an old man continuing to chop his own wood to heat his house. Rereading Nearing inspires and reminds me: the struggle against American war-making that he began 80 years ago endures -- one which I remain committed to continue during this new century. "

Saturday, March 30, 2002

Bush Names Affirmative Action Critic to Civil Rights Post: "President Bush used his power to make appointments during Congressional recesses today to name a young black lawyer who is a vocal critic of preferences for minorities to be head of the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education." Foreign Policy In Focus - The War on Dissent Widens "Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT, online at www.avot.org)... has compiled a sample list of statements by professors, legislators, authors, and columnists that it finds objectionable. .... include Congresswoman Maxine Waters, President Jimmy Carter, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner, Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper's Magazine".

Tuesday, March 26, 2002

Raids, Detentions and Lists Lead Muslims to Cry Persecution: "Several hundred Muslims held an open meeting on Monday night in Sterling, Va., near Washington, to listen to complaints of people whose homes or businesses were among those raided. Many said they intended to press for Congressional hearings into police tactics and to organize rallies to call attention to abuses against Muslims since Sept. 11." Cockpit Tape Offers Few Answers but Points to Heroic Efforts: "United Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed outside Shanksville, Pa., on Sept. 11" Web sites told to delete data: "White House yesterday ordered all federal agencies to scrub their Web sites of sensitive information on weapons of mass destruction and other data that might be useful to terrorists" Bleak future looms if you don't take a stand Dan Gillmor - "1. Do you care if a few giant companies control virtually all entertainment and information? 2. Do you care if they decide what kinds of technological innovations will reach the marketplace? 3. Would you be concerned if they used their power to compile detailed dossiers on everything you read, listen to, view and buy? 4. Would you find it acceptable if they could decide whether what you write and say could be seen and heard by others?" Weapons Labs Offer Changes to End Boycott. The nation's premier weapons laboratories have offered to change their hiring practices in exchange for the ending of a boycott by two Asian-American organizations. By James Glanz. Supreme Court Approves Public Housing Drug Ban: "The Supreme Court today upheld public housing agencies' "zero tolerance" policy on illegal drug use, ruling that a tenant can be evicted if a family member or guest uses drugs -- even if the tenant did not know about it. The court ruled, 8 to 0, that the housing authority in Oakland, Calif., was within its rights in moving to evict four longtime tenants whose relatives had used drugs, even if the tenants themselves could be called "innocent."" We failed Andrea Yates: Danielle Steel "The verdict in the case against Andrea Yates, and the outrage of the prosecutors (and apparently the jury), is beyond shocking. Every description of Yates' behavior, long before her devastating crime, shouts of deeply psychotic behavior. " World War 3 Report: "CIA LINK TO ANTHRAX ATTACKS? A BBC Newsnight investigation has raised the possibility that the fall anthrax attacks were part of a secret CIA project to simulate bio-terror attacks which went "madly out of control." "

Saturday, March 23, 2002

Why Republicans Are in Love With the Voting Rights Act: "a challenge to Georgia's new Congressional districts. The redistricting plan has the support of every major black elected official in the state. But Georgia's Republican Party, which has no black elected officials to speak of, has gone to federal court to claim that the plan discriminates against blacks." 'The Black Hearts of Men': Abolitionist Absolutists: "account of the relationship of four radical abolitionists ... a story of politics, religion, sin, guilt, passion, murder and expiation. It begins in innocence and good intentions and ends in bloodshed and madness. Frederick Douglass and James McCune Smith, two blacks, and John Brown and Gerrit Smith, two whites"

Friday, March 22, 2002

Out of Jail and Out of Food: "1996 welfare law that denies food stamps and welfare ... for life to anyone convicted of a drug felony. It is doubtful that the members of Congress realized a large part of this burden would fall on struggling women and their young children. A study by the Sentencing Project... estimates that since the ban went into effect in 1996, 92,000 women have been convicted of drug offenses in the states enforcing it. Of these, about two-thirds are mothers, with 135,000 children among them. Obviously, the only people hurt by this denial of benefits are the poor, which usually means a minor offender who is an addict and out of jail trying to make it." In Los Angeles, a Traveler's Best Friend: "With little fanfare, bomb-sniffing dogs have become among the most effective, and important, security tools at airports, federal and local airport officials say. They work quickly and have an almost perfect record in separating real explosives from merely suspicious items ... dogs offer reassurance and are far less intimidating than some of the new measures."

Tuesday, March 19, 2002

Women's History Month archive of Nation articles Deciding Who Will Live: Bob Herbert oped "The death penalty can never be administered consistently with any reasonable degree of fairness and equity. Too many prejudices and preconceived notions are held by the inherently fallible humans who operate the system. And there are too many unknowns when complex issues of culpability arise: Who's insane, or not insane? Who's mentally retarded? Who's lying and who's not? Was it self-defense? Was it an accident?"

Monday, March 18, 2002

Muslims Demand Apology from National Review: "National Review editor Rich Lowry wrote on March 7: "Lots of sentiment for nuking Mecca. Moderates opt for something more along these lines: "Baghdad and Tehran would be the likeliest sites for a first strike. If we have clean enough bombs to assure a pinpoint damage area, Gaza City and Ramallah would also be on list. Damascus, Cairo, Algiers, Tripoli and Riyadh should be put on alert that any signs of support for the attacks in their cities will bring immediate annihilation...""

Sunday, March 17, 2002

Mystery swirls around just how deeply angry preacher influenced Andrea Yates: " told Andrea Yates that she was evil, that her children were damned, and that only death could save her. In dozens of letters and personal meetings, he built a foundation of delusions in her mind. Although a jury has decided that Yates should spend life in prison for drowning her five children in the bathtub, little attention is being paid to preacher Michael Peter Woroniecki. Nonetheless, he had a profound influence on her beliefs, words and actions." Farmers Market Program Wins Support but Loses Subsidy: " federal program that gives 2.6 million low- income people coupons worth an average of $40 for the summer redeemable only at farmers markets."

Friday, March 15, 2002

ANWR and Peas: "the Senate voted down a proposal by John Kerry and John McCain to raise mileage standards on automobiles. ... What prevailed was an alliance between conservatives who hate the very idea of conservation, on one side, and union leaders trying to demonstrate their influence by making politicians jump. It's the same alliance that, last summer, led the House to support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) by a surprisingly large margin....The surprise is that this dishonest anti-conservationism got crucial support from the United Auto Workers. There's no good reason to think that higher efficiency standards would actually cost any automobile worker jobs" Stop the War! March on Washington DC April 20th: The "War on Terrorism" Breeds More Terror BuzzFlash.com Interviews Michael Moore: "after September 11th, your publisher was going to deep-six the book unless you took out critical comments on Bush. You held firm. Is it true that the librarians of America came to your defense and saved the day? MICHAEL MOORE: That's what it looks like.... They are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn't mess with them. You know, they've had their budgets cut. They're paid nothing. Books are falling apart. The libraries are just like the ass end of everything, right?"

Thursday, March 14, 2002

Going Down the Road: "New Orlean Campaign for a Living Wage's volunteers had made thousands of calls and gone door to door in a spirited shoe-leather campaign, ... winning by a sweeping 63-37 margin. The next day the corporate lawyers went running back to the courts, and a decision is due in the next few weeks on whether a trumped-up state law can overturn the voters' voice. " Press Release: "A pathbreaking national study finds that although living wage laws reduce employment, they also decrease poverty among urban families. A report released today by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shows that the substantial pay increases generated by such laws can outweigh job losses among low-income workers - and the net effect is a modest decrease in family poverty." Military Discharges of Gays Rise, and So Do Bias Incidents: "The number of military discharges of gays has risen to its highest level in 14 years, and reported incidents of anti-gay harassment have climbed by 23 percent in a year, a legal aid group said today."

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

Color-Coded System Created to Rate Threat of Terrorism: ""This is a good, simplistic method to get the message through,""

Monday, March 11, 2002

Team Leaves White League in Silence Instead of Cheers: "parents and coaches at St. Sabina, fed up with what they said was a season's worth of racially tinged resentment and hostility, overwhelmingly agreed to quit the nearly all-white Southside Catholic Conference, the athletic league they had fought so hard to join. The fight began last May, when St. Sabina, a mostly black Catholic elementary school on [Chicago's] South Side, tried to join the Southside conference, and league officials voted 11 to 9 to reject the school. "

Friday, March 08, 2002

North Carolina Under Friendly Fire: "the accident raises questions about the size and scale, invisibility, and day-to-day home-front impact of America's military â014 the largest armed force the world has ever seen." Colin Powell's List : "The list in question, or rather the lists, concern groups that the government labels foreign terrorist organizations, or FTOs, along with funders, supporters and business entities that aid them. ... Taken together, the lists have emerged as a handy tool to suppress dissent, dissuade Americans from backing insurrectionary movements overseas, and deport immigrants tied to the groups. "

Thursday, March 07, 2002

Malcolm X Family Fights Auction of Papers: "a vast trove of letters, photographs, diaries, handwritten drafts of speeches and Malcolm X's personal Koran. Altogether, the materials amount to hundreds of pages and cover two decades of Malcolm X's life, until shortly before his assassination at the Audubon Ballroom in New York on Feb. 21, 1965"

Wednesday, March 06, 2002

Hello Potted History, Good-bye National Front Lawn: "In the name of national security, Washington masterbuilders are scooping out the Capitol with a multi-million dollar boondoggle. A massive excavation for a visitors' center will destroy the cherished environment for an underground Disney-esque display for tourists coming to see the real thing. ... today's fears for national security have expanded its scope -- and its $265 million budget -- far beyond their origins. ... architects downed the likes of the "Abigail Adams" memorial tree. Down will go another 68 trees. Wa-y-y-y-y down will go a stairway, erasing the sculpted grounds of America's premier landscape architect and plunging visitors three stories below the Capitol to greet this Congressional concoction -- a waiting/playing space the size of ten football fields. "

Tuesday, March 05, 2002

Billy Graham Apologizes to Jews for His Remarks on Nixon Tapes: "when Nixon raised the subject of Jewish influence in Hollywood and the news media, Mr. Graham said, "A lot of Jews are great friends of mine." "They swarm around me and are friendly to me," Mr. Graham said, "because they know that I am friendly to Israel and so forth. But they don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country, and I have no power and no way to handle them." Nixon replied, "You must not let them know."" 3 Senators Seek Data on Plan to Help Safety in Workplace: "Bush administration has not put forth a new plan, even though Congress and President Bush repealed the nation's ergonomics rules a year ago."

Friday, March 01, 2002

Putting Us to the Test: "Officials at the University of South Florida, where Mr. Al-Arian is a tenured professor of computer science, have started proceedings to fire him â014 essentially for being a fiery Palestinian activist who embarrasses them."

Thursday, February 28, 2002

Out of Jail, Into Temptation: A Day in a Life - moving portrait of Nando's first day out of Riker's Island.

Wednesday, February 27, 2002

For Democrats, a Continental Divide on Guns: "Jim Posewitz, a retired biologist for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks who is a respected writer of books on the ethics and legacy of hunting, said labeling Democrats as antigun "has taken away from a more important issue," the growing threats to close off access to public lands for hunting and the need to conserve wildlife. "There is irony in this," said Mr. Posewitz, who has no political affiliation. The Democrats, he said, are stronger supporters of keeping access to public lands and preserving wildlife, while leading Republicans in Montana, he said, have abandoned the tradition of Theodore Roosevelt and pushed to close access to public lands and turn hunting into a rich man's sport on private game farms. "A lot of people who hunt only hear the charges that the Democrats will take away their guns," Mr. Posewitz said. "And so they overlook the bigger question."" Supreme Court Eliminates a Barrier to Job Discrimination Plaintiffs: "ruling unanimously that an initial complaint offering a bare-bones statement of the case is sufficient to withstand an employer's motion to have the case thrown out for lack of specific facts. Although technical, the decision had considerable practical importance, enabling employees to proceed to the discovery stage of the lawsuit and acquire the information like personnel records that is usually necessary to win an employment discrimination case." Justices Hear 2 Arguments on the Right to Privacy: "whether a city can constitutionally require Jehovah's Witnesses or other door-to-door advocates for religious or political causes to identify themselves to the authorities and obtain a permit." Bush's Plan on Welfare Law Increases Work Requirement: "At least 50 percent of a state's welfare families must now participate in work and other activities aimed at self-sufficiency; Mr. Bush proposes to raise that requirement so that 70 percent must be working by 2007. ... The administration plans to require welfare recipients to work 40 hours a week "at a job or in programs designed to help them achieve independence." Adults are now generally required to work 30 hours a week, of which no more 10 could be in job training or education programs."

Sunday, February 24, 2002

Advisers' Union Drive Is Gaining on Campus: "The resident advisers, or R.A.'s, at the University of Massachusetts ... will vote next month on whether to unionize in a drive that labor leaders hope will serve as a model for thousands of resident advisers nationwide." The Care They Need: "As one of his final acts in office, Surgeon General David Satcher called attention to one of the most alarming public-health issues in America: the medical neglect, abuse and disenfranchisement of 7 million Americans with mental retardation." All of New York on the Same Page: "The idea of having a New York City-read isn't dead yet. But perhaps it should be.... Reading -- passionate reading -- is secretive, profoundly private. The experience tramples you and exalts you at the same time. It makes you insurrectionary, if only in imagination, and it leads you quickly into worlds that never pretend to represent the representative views of ad hoc citywide reading-week committees. " Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail by Ruben Martinez: "reflects a warmth and humanity, to those he depicts without putting them on a pedestal of alternative heroism, on the contrary their humanity is precisely imbedded in their contradictions. Ruben follows the exodus of one extended family, the Chavez clan from Cherán, Michoacan to California and Missouri and Wisconsin. The family are Purépecha, the very word meaning people who travelled. While many American's still remain wedded to the fantasy notion of the melting pot, Martinez argues a very different position, that these migrants far from fitting in, are engaged in changing two worlds, that of Mexico and the United States simultaneously, creating new complex highbred cultures which affect all aspects of life both north and south of the border. " Interview: Crossing Over With Ruben Martinez (10/05/01)

Saturday, February 23, 2002

The Progressive Response - Stephen Zunes- CHALLENGES OF BUILDING PEACE MOVEMENT IN TIME OF WAR : "Progressives must acknowledge the reality of the terrorist threat and the necessity of a strong and effective response from our government, while at the same time exposing the perfidy of the Bush administration in cynically manipulating our genuine need for security for the sake of its rigid ideological constructs and its wealthy financial supporters."

Wednesday, February 20, 2002

Judge's Ouster Sought After Antigay Remarks: "... Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court, who wrote in a child- custody opinion issued on Friday that homosexuality was considered "abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature's God." Chief Justice Moore, who was championed by the religious right as a lower court judge after he hung a copy of the Ten Commandments on his courtroom wall, argued in a concurring opinion that homosexuality was an "inherent evil against which children must be protected." He said homosexuals were "presumptively unfit to have custody of minor children under the established laws of this state." " Across the Great Divide: Amtrak subsidies: " the federal government subsidizes airports to the tune of $13 billion a year and spends more than $30 billion on highways annually. In this context, $1.2 billion hardly seems excessive." War on Terrorism Stirs Hatred of U.S., Farrakhan Says: "Saddam Hussein, "is no more terrible" than Mr. Bush or previous presidents, he added" Video games raise concerns over racism: ""Ethnic Cleansing," a computer game sold by Resistance Records, a small underground label that specializes in bands spouting racist and Nazi messages. The game requires players to wander through urban streets and subway tunnels and to attack African-American, Hispanic and Jewish characters."

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Buying in to the Company School: Flint, MI "An elementary school on a block of boarded-up houses here offers a glimpse of how Edison Schools Inc. would remake many of America's classrooms... Philadelphia.. is expected soon to surrender dozens of its worst schools as part of the nation's largest experiment in educational privatization." With Aryans Gone, Town Seeks New Life: "in what many Idahoans hope will be a powerful symbol that their state is a much more tolerant place, the former Aryan compound is about to become a "peace park" run by a local college, with exhibits on tolerance, monuments, concerts and other events." "When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too. Otherwise they will turn out to be outright traitors."  -- Ann Coulter, nationally syndicated columnist, in her address at the 2002 Christian Political Action Conference (CPAC) [Quote of the Week, from SojoNet Publisher of Sojourners magazine http://www.Sojo.net Promoting faith, reason, compassion, and justice in days of violence and fear]