From orakwa at paulcomm.ca Fri Aug 1 06:47:26 2008 From: orakwa at paulcomm.ca (MohawkNationNews) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 08:47:26 -0400 Subject: [A-List] "Canada First Defence Strategy" under Mohawk Microscope Message-ID: <01287f29$39661$14e9366272662@your-6904db8205> "CANADA FIRST DEFENCE STRATEGY" UNDER MOHAWK MICROSCOPE by Iako?ha?kowa and MNN Staff MNN. July 16, 2008. Canada?s military build-up is meant to try to attack ?people of color? world wide, steal our resources and eliminate our population. There is a big recruitment campaign for Indigenous youth going on. They want 20% of the armed forces to be native. That way it will look like we approve their actions. No money to heal or educate or pay the debt to Indigenous people. But plenty of money to kill! The U.S. inspired "Canada First Defence Strategy" (CFDS) is basically a capitalist economic plan. No thought has been given to sustainable development. The "Strategy" is an aggressive profit-driven scheme designed to benefit career soldiers and industry. It was posted online on June 19 2008 with color photos of ?Generalissimo" Stephen Harper and Peter ?Fancies-himself-to-be-Idi Amin? MacKay. US military sites like ?DefenseIndustryDaily? expresses skepticism about Canada's stability and its ability to follow through. "A Military in Partnership with Canadian Industry". Harper says the military will be "Supported by predictable, long-term funding...? [i.e. tax and resource exploitation] so there will be unprecedented opportunities for international industry. It will be a bigger ?cash cow? than World War II. They are trying to impress their foreign investors and the subsidized corporations who will build war hardware instead of what we really need, housing, schools, hospitals and environmental detoxification programs. Pete lists the 3 roles of the military, ?.. at home... in the defence of North America, and to project leadership abroad", which means "attack anyone anywhere if they get in the way?. Their six core missions are: 1."Conduct daily domestic and continental operations, especially the Arctic? [are we under attack from endangered species like the polar bears and beluga whales?]; 2.Support the 2010 Olympics; 3.Respond to a major terrorist attack; 4.Support civilian authorities in Canada; 5.Lead international operations; and 6.respond to crises". The ?whole-of-government approach? is to meet domestic and international security requirements. This could mean totalitarianism. Resources will be extracted without interference from the Indigenous owners. Since commodity manufacturing is saturated and the capitalists have created scarcity, plenty of money will be made in war materials and reconstruction by the military and industrial sectors using cheap labor. CANADA IS BUDGETING $490 BILLION ON DEFENSE FOR THE NEXT 20 YEARS. That?s a rise of 2 percent starting in 2011, from approximately $18 billion in 2008 to over $30 billion in 2027. The Government plans to "Increase the number of military personnel to 70,000 Regular Forces and 30,000 Reserve Forces". Programs like ?Bold Eagle? are targeting Native youth, especially in the North to exploit the Indigenous knowledge of the land and destroy Indigenous sovereignty at the same time. Canada is concerned about controlling sovereignty in the Indigenous owned Arctic. ?Changing weather patterns are destroying the environment making sea traffic through the Northwest Passage accessible to shipping, tourism and resource exploration?. They aren't too worried about the extinction of the polar bears or the displacement of the Indigenous people. Their domestic security is based on ?fear? of ?foreign encroachments? on ?Canada?s? [Indigenous] natural resources. "The Forces must assist other government departments in addressing such security concerns as over-fishing, organized crime, drug- and people-smuggling and environmental degradation." This sounds like militarized policing that is targeting ordinary people and particularly Indigenous. The military will be at the 2010 Olympics where Indigenous are opposed to development which is raping and contaminating our land in British Columbia. Trenton near the Mohawk community of Tyendinaga is Canada?s largest air force base where a NATO Forward Operating Base FOB is planned. Globemasters will be able to fly soldiers and equipment to war zones anywhere in the world. Canada wants credibility with the U.S. Pentagon by working under them. Canada will go to war alongside "like minded" allies with or without UN approval, just like the US went to war on Iraq. Canada and the US have worked together since 1958 when they formed NORAD, not long after the St. Lawrence Seaway blasted away our riverside for the benefit of industries that polluted the environment. Wild animals are now registered as toxic waste. Since then they work together on ?Canada Command? and the ?US Northern Command?. "Contributing to International Peace and Security and ?stability abroad" means free, unfettered access to other people's territory and resources. The compliant media tell us that Canadian soldiers are building schools and hospitals in Afghanistan. In fact they are guarding the hundreds of mining developments like Aynak Copper Mine just a few kilometres from Kabul. This mine was bought by the Chinese Metallurgical Corporation MCC for more than $3 billion U.S. Afghanistan has gold, iron, uranium, and copper, hydrocarbons like coal and the rare element, tantalum. Kahensatake has a huge deposit of niobium, often found with tantalum. Where will the ?increased, predictable? "New Long-Term Funding? come from? Presumably, it will be the loot from Afghanistan and elsewhere. ?Failed and failing states, civil wars and global terrorism" are being created so the military planners can describe the world as ?volatile and unpredictable?. "Nuclear-capable adversarial states headed by unpredictable regimes are particularly worrisome" [especially the U.S.] "The pernicious influence of Islamist militants in key regions" is the scapegoat for their military buildup and to give Israelis an excuse to go into Iran. "Full range of challenges" sounds like putting down possible Indigenous and grassroots resistance to their insanity. Taxpayers contribute 10% of their income tax to the military. The Canada Pension Plan CPP and Ontario Secondary School Teachers Pension are invested in the military industry through the Carlyle Group, which just bought Bell. With this money the government is buying four C-17 Globemaster strategic lift aircraft,17 new C-130J Hercules tactical lift aircraft, 16 CH-47F Chinook helicopters, three replenishment ships, 2,300 trucks, up to 100 Leopard 2 tanks and 6?8 Arctic/offshore patrol ships." The US has dozens of the Globemasters to carry all their war people and equipment to the war zone. They can be stuffed with piles of bombs. 12% or $60 billion will buy other big toys like 65 new Fighter planes, search & rescue planes, UAV's, weapons, bombs, communications equipment, radar and satellites. 'Advantage Canada', will establish an elite military society based in the northern part of Turtle Island. $250 billion will go to 100,000 personnel by 2028. They want highly skilled needy individuals like the laid off factory workers from the car plants and those coming in from induced famines. They want to fast track immigration too. "National Defence is the largest property holder in the federal government which is all on unsurrendered Indigenous territory. 21,000 buildings over 50 years old and crumbling, 13,500 works including 5,500 kilometres of roads, jetties, training areas, etc. and 800 parcels of land covering 2.25 million hectares will be replaced or replenished over the next 10 to 20 years. housing. $140 billion for "readiness" training. That's $7 billion per year! This does NOT include any costs for a new major war. That requires NEW spending. The "Strategic Investment Plan" will coordinate all the military spending. Military industries like Boeing, Northrop Grumman and GM are lined up at DRDC for big research and development checks to spruce up Canada?s "global excellence". [See CADSI web site]. The Canadian war makers are bringing corporate giants into the War Department to help them impose their plans. They will get big tax breaks and corporate welfare. Universities can grab funding too to work on military projects. Might is not right! Land and resource ownership is Indigenous and will always be. Canada is turning into a war economy when there?s no war. Are they making one on Indigenous nations to continue stealing our possessions? Iakoha'ko:wa Sharbot Lake, Haudenosaunee Territory Your donation to the legal defence fund for Kahentinetha and Katenies would be greatly appreciated. Donate through PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or to: ?MNN Mohawk Nation News?, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen/thank you. Notes and Sources http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/focus/first/defstra_e.asp http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Canada-Lays-Out-Future-Defense-Plans-04894/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080619.wdefence0619/BNStory/National/home DRDC (Defence Research and Development Canada) http://www.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/ MERCHANTS OF DEATH AT CADSI https://www.defenceandsecurity.ca/public/index.asp?action=profiles RECRUITING NATIVE YOUTH http://www.army.gc.ca/lfwa/feature_boldEagle2006.htm http://www.army.gc.ca/boldeagle/contents.htm ttp://www.forces.ca/v3/engraph/resources/subsidizededucation_en.aspx?bhcp=1#36 http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/4wing/news/releases_e.asp?cat=92&id=6504 NEW SEARCH TERMS Policy on Investment Planning, Advantage Canada, Strategic Investment Plan See Category: ? CANADA ? New MNN Books Available Now! The books below, email us: Mohawk Warriors Three - The Trial of Lasagna, Noriega, 20/20 $20.00 usd The On-Going Confusion between The Great Law and The Handsome Lake Code $20.00 usd - The Agonizing Death of "Colonialism" and "Federal Indian Law" in Kaianere'ko:wa/Great Law Territory $20.00 usd Who's Sorry Now? The good, the bad and the unapologetic Mohawks of Kanehsatake $20.00 usd Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy Karoniaktajeh $10 usd Warriors Hand Book Karoniaktajeh $10 usd Mail checks and money orders to... MNN P.O. 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From shimogamo at attglobal.net Fri Aug 1 06:31:25 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:31:25 +0900 Subject: [A-List] US faces global funding crisis, warns Merrill Lynch Message-ID: <4893021D.7090501@attglobal.net> The US Treasury is running out of time before foreign patience snaps by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard www.telegraph.co.uk (July 17 2008) Merrill Lynch has warned that the United States could face a foreign "financing crisis" within months as the full consequences of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage debacle spread through the world. The country depends on Asian, Russian and Middle Eastern investors to fund much of its $700 billion (GBP 350 billion) current account deficit, leaving it far more vulnerable to a collapse of confidence than Japan in the early 1990s after the Nikkei bubble burst. Britain and other Anglo-Saxon deficit states could face a similar retreat by foreign investors. "Japan was able to cut its interest rates to zero", said Alex Patelis, Merrill's head of international economics. "It would be very difficult for the US to do this. Foreigners will not be willing to supply the capital. Nobody knows where the limit lies." Brian Bethune, chief financial economist at Global Insight, said the US Treasury had two or three days to put real money behind its rescue plan for Fannie and Freddie or face a dangerous crisis that could spiral out of control. "This is not the time for policy-makers to underestimate, once again, the systemic risks to the financial system and the huge damage this would impose on the economy. Bold, aggressive action is needed, and needed now", he said. Mr Bethune said the Treasury would have to inject up $20 billion in fresh capital. This in turn might draw in a further $20 billion in private money. Funds on this scale would be enough to see the two agencies through any scenario short of a meltdown in the US prime property market. He said concerns about "moral hazard" - stoked by hard-line free-marketeers at the White House and vocal parts of the US media - were holding up a solution. "We can't dither. The markets can be brutal. We have to break the chain of contagion before confidence is destroyed." Fannie and Freddie - the world's two biggest financial institutions - make up almost half the $12 trillion US mortgage industry. But that understates their vital importance at this juncture. They are now serving as lender of last resort to the housing market, providing eighty percent of all new home loans. Roughly $1.5 trillion of Fannie and Freddie AAA-rated debt - as well as other US "government-sponsored enterprises" - is now in foreign hands. The great unknown is whether foreign patience will snap as losses mount and the dollar slides. Hiroshi Watanabe, Japan's chief regulator, rattled the markets yesterday when he urged Japanese banks and life insurance companies to treat US agency debt with caution. The two sets of institutions hold an estimated $56 billion of these bonds. Mitsubishi UFJ holds $3 billion. Nippon Life has $2.5 billion. But the lion's share is held by the central banks of China, Russia and petro-powers. These countries could all too easily precipitate a run on the dollar in the current climate and bring the United States to its knees, should they decide that it is in their strategic interest to do so. Mr Patelis said it was unlikely that any would want to trigger a fire-sale by dumping their holdings on the market. Instead, they will probably accumulate US and Anglo-Saxon debt at a slower rate. That alone will be enough to leave deficit countries struggling to plug the capital gap. "I don't see how the current situation can continue beyond six months", he said. Merrill Lynch said foreign governments had added $241 billion of US agency debt over the past year alone as their foreign reserves exploded, accounting for a third of total financing for the US current account deficit. (They now own $985 billion in all.) By most estimates, China holds around $400 billion, Russia $150 billion and Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states at least $200 billion. Global inflation is now intruding with a vengeance as well. Much of Asia is having to raise rates aggressively, drawing capital away from North America. This may push up yields on US Treasuries and bonds, tightening the credit screw at a time when the US is already mired in slump. Russia's deputy finance minister, Dmitry Pankin, said the collapse in the share prices of Fannie and Freddie over the past week was irrelevant because their debt has been effectively guaranteed by the US government under the rescue package. "We don't see a reason to change anything because the rating of the debt of those agencies hasn't changed", he said. Foreign policy experts doubt that the picture is so simple. Russia is likely to use its $530 billion reserves as an implicit bargaining chip in high-stakes diplomacy, perhaps to discourage the US from extending Nato membership to the Ukraine and Georgia. Vladimir Putin, now Russia's premier, has stated repeatedly that his country is engaged in a new Cold War with the United States. It is clear that Moscow would relish any chance to humiliate the United States, provided the costs of doing so were not too high for Russia itself. China is regarded as a more reliable partner, with a greater desire for global stability. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has intimate relations with the Chinese elite, dating from his days at Goldman Sachs when he visited the country over seventy times. Brad Setser, from the US Council on Foreign Relations, said the Chinese have a stake in upholding Fannie and Freddie, not least to ensure that their loans are "honoured on time and in full". David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC, said fears that regional banks could start toppling after the Fed takeover of IndyMac last week were now the biggest threat to the dollar. "We have a pure dollar sell-off", he said. "It's a hating competition: at the moment the markets hate the dollar more than they hate the euro, even though German's ZEW confidence indicator was absolutely atrocious". _____ (c) Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2008 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/16/ccusdebt116.xml http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 1 07:33:55 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:33:55 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Moscow to Seize Grain Export Controls Message-ID: On the front page of the Financial Times! Moscow to seize grain export controls By Javier Blas in London Published: July 31 2008 23:31 | Last updated: July 31 2008 23:31 Russia plans to form a state grain trading company to control up to half of the country's cereal exports, intensifying fears that Moscow wants to use food exports as a diplomatic weapon in the same way as Gazprom has manipulated natural gas sales. The move by Moscow, the world's fifth-biggest exporter of cereals, has been sharply criticised by US agriculture diplomats as a "giant step back" to the Soviet era. The decision to control food exports is the latest sign of how soaring food prices are reshaping the agriculture industry. The recreation of Soviet-style state trading will aggravate anxieties of food-importing countries about their dependence on the international market, which has been severely disrupted this year after exporters, including Russia, imposed prohibitive foreign sales duties or export bans. Western diplomats and agriculture industry officials said Russia intended to transform its Agency for the Regulation of Food Markets into a state trader, controlling between 40 and 50 per cent of Russia's cereal exports within the next three years. The company would take over government interests in 28 important storage depots and export terminals, including the country's biggest at the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. The plan, pending governmental approval, could be implemented before the year's end, diplomats said. An internal report of the US agriculture department said that if the new entity had a dominant hold over the export market, it would jeopardise "a vibrant private grain trading sector". "Essentially, [it will be] the latest in a series of industry renationalisations, and a reversal of what till now has been one of Russia's privatisation success stories," the report said. Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president, emphasised at the last G8 summit the need for government involvement in foodstuffs trading, calling for a "grain summit" next year in Moscow to discuss "pricing policies and stabilisation measures". Russia's former state-owned grain trading system was dismantled after the Soviet Union fell in the 1990s. Roskhleboprodukt, successor to the Soviet-era Ministry of Grain Products, has declined in importance. Exportkhleb, the foreign grain trading arm, was privatised. The plans resemble action by Russia to form national champions in energy, aircraft, weapons and metals. It is unclear what role will remain for the commercial traders that dominate the grain export market. "This is not a second Yukos," said Andrei Sizov, a managing director at Sovecon, a leading Russian consultancy analysing agriculture. "I believe the shares [of the state company] will be managed jointly with private owners or they will be bought on market-based conditions." Another expert, on condition of anonymity, said to form the company ? combined with its ownership of the export terminals ? "would be bad for the entire development of the market". The value of Russia's grain exports last season hit $3.5bn, and analysts forecast it would double in the next five years as Moscow aims to increase its grain exports to at least 25m tonnes from last season's 13m tonnes. Moscow's move to create a state grain trading comes as Australia deregulates its grain export market, which has been controlled by the 70-year-old wheat export monopoly operated by AWB. Additional reporting by Catherine Belton in Moscow From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 1 07:52:51 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:52:51 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Pakistan Not Eligible for Similar N-deal: Burns Message-ID: The Bush administration has failed to achieve many of its foreign policy objectives, but it has enjoyed some successes as well, and the most significant success may be to trade Pakistan up for India. -- Yoshie Pakistan not eligible for similar n-deal: Burns Washington: The former Under Secretary of State of Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, one of the architects of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, feels Pakistan cannot expect a similar pact, a day after its Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani demanded such a deal from the U.S. Mr. Burns also pressed for the speedy approval of the deal ahead of the IAEA taking up the India-specific safeguards pact for approval, saying it was "good" for both the countries besides helping strengthen the non-proliferation regime. "India's trust, its credibility, the fact that it has promised to create a state-of-the-art facility, monitored by the IAEA, to begin a new export control regime in place, because it has not proliferated the nuclear technology, we can't say that about Pakistan." said Mr. Burns when asked whether the U.S. would offer a nuclear deal with Pakistan on the lines of the Indo-U.S. deal during a debate on the nuclear agreement at the Brookings Institution. After meeting U.S. President George W. Bush, Mr. Gilani demanded a nuclear deal similar to the one Washington has forged with New Delhi, assuring the nuclear proliferation network of its scientist, A. Q. Khan, was broken and would not be repeated. "There should be no preferential [treatment], there should be no discrimination. And if they want to give civilian nuclear status to India, we would also expect the same for Pakistan too," said Mr. Gilani at a gathering under the aegis of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Middle East Institute. On the Indo-U.S. pact, Mr. Burns, who was the U.S. pointsman for the deal, said: "My conviction is that this deal strengthens the non-proliferation regime... it makes India a stakeholder. I am for this agreement because it is good for both countries.... The civilian nuclear deal is a symbolic centre piece of the bilateral relations." He also gave a Teheran link to the nuclear deal when he said a swift approval by the IAEA, NSG and the U.S. Congress would send a strong message to countries like Iran "to play by the rules" and for strengthening the non-proliferation regime. "If you play by the rules.... there will be benefits," he reminded Tehran. Mr. Burns, who stepped down in March and was appointed as a special envoy to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the deal, also stressed the U.S. has in place "the right measures to protect" its interests by retaining the right to terminate the agreement. He asserted the 123 Agreement is "absolutely' consistent with the Hyde Act. ? PTI From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 1 10:52:10 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 12:52:10 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Why the Energy-rich Gulf Faces a Gas Shortage (and What Russia Can Do with It) Message-ID: Russia -- which has the eighth largest oil reserves and is the second largest oil producer and exporter in the world () -- will be more powerful in the future: it has the largest gas reserves in the world ("nearly twice the reserves in the next largest country, Iran," ) and is the largest gas producer and exporter, to which the Gulf states, short on gas, will want to turn; and it has nuclear weapons and a still powerful military (cf. ) and can thus guarantee not only its own security but also regional security of the Middle East (i.e., protecting Arabs and Iranians from Israel and vice versa). Russia also has ideological resources: it has succeeded where America has failed, winning the "war on terror" (in Chechnya, essentially coopting its adversary) and winning the good will of the Islamic world at the same time. Russia's relation with China is better than ever: . A strategic alliance of Russia, China, and Iran -- the only nation in the Middle East that is really rich in not only oil but also gas (and has more water resources than most MENA countries: "Three-quarters of MENA's available fresh water is located in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey" ) -- makes sense. A United States of Latin America in the making has rolled out the red carpet for Russian arms and investments. Key African states, from North to South, look to Russia for support. If France and Germany manage to prioritize the interests of European capitalists over the American geopolitical wishful thinking, the resulting new political geography of energy, combined with the US debt burden, really makes for a new world order, a post-American world. -- Yoshie Overlooked resource: why the energy-rich Gulf faces a gas shortage By Andrew England Published: May 25 2008 19:27 | Last updated: May 25 2008 19:27 To one senior oil industry official, "it's a fascinating and somewhat bizarre phenomenon". To another it simply "looks a bit weird". But for Middle East states, the dynamic the two are describing is deadly serious ? the globe's most hydrocarbon-rich region is facing the prospect of critical shortages of gas. Some analysts estimate that the cumulative supply shortfall for the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council up to 2015 will reach at least 7,000bn cubic feet. To put the number into perspective, according to BP the UK's entire remaining proven gas reserves total just under 17,000bn cu ft. "There is a Middle East regional gas crisis brewing," says Rajnish Goswami at Wood Mackenzie, the Edinburgh-based energy consultancy. Gas shortages in the Middle East could also have big implications globally, impacting future regional projects aiming to meet demand elsewhere. Countries increasing the amount of oil fuels they use for power generation could also affect future exports. Of the GCC states ? Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates ? only Qatar, which has the world's third largest gas reserves, can avoid a problem that will hamper the development of their economies and their ability to create jobs, experts say. Gas is the main feedstock for petrochemicals and energy-intensive industries such as aluminium and fertilisers as well as its use in power generation ? not least for the desalination plants that provide water in the desert. The GCC countries have some of the world's fastest growth rates for electricity demand, estimated at 6-12 per cent annually, compared with demand increases in developed countries of only around 2-4 per cent a year. With the region's focus historically centred on oil production, gas has been seen there as financially less attractive. But today ? driven by record oil prices ? their economies are expanding rapidly and governments are seeking to use their petrodollars to upgrade infrastructure and boost industry. With gas a key ingredient in achieving those aims, countries are faced with trying to reverse decades of underinvestment in the sector. Difficulties they have to overcome include extracting the various types of gas found in the region ? some of it "sour" gas, which is both lethal and corrosive ? and deciding which downstream industries get priority in how it is used. Gulf gas chart Saudi Arabia, home to the world's largest proven oil reserves, is estimated to have about $30bn (?15bn, ?19bn) of investment planned to develop energy- and gas-intensive industries over the next five years. But the Saudi petroleum ministry is adopting a policy of approving gas supplies to new petrochemical projects aimed at ensuring they either produce a product not already being manufactured in Saudi Arabia or increase added value by going further downstream than others. It is examining planned energy-intensive projects "within the context of national and international economies taking into account the value-added they bring for Saudi Arabia," says a Gulf official. "The reason is, of course, they want to take advantage. Everybody wants to come ? and we told them, 'no gas unless you give Saudi Arabia a really good product'." "There is enough gas but the problem is it's cheap and everybody wants to use it. The petrochemicals people, the desalination people, everybody ? and Saudi Arabia has to expand." Experts say Saudi Arabia already has a queue of projects that have been unable to secure gas resources, including aluminium and petrochemicals developments. This is in spite of what one Saudi economist estimates has been a doubling in volume production of Saudi gas since 1990. The government has been encouraged by discoveries in the Karan field ? its first offshore gas discovery ? but the size of the reserves is not yet known. In an effort to get more gas on tap, the kingdom awarded international companies exploration blocs to explore for gas not associated with oil in the Empty Quarter in 2003 and 2004, outside the area reserved for Saudi Aramco, the national oil company. But, so far, no discoveries have been made and this year Total of France pulled out of the project, selling its stake to Royal Dutch Shell and Aramco. Total had drilled three exploration wells but the results were disappointing, causing it to conclude the potential for commercial discoveries was low. The Saudi economist says the kingdom may even have to think the unthinkable and consider importing gas in the future, even though it has the world's fourth largest proven gas reserves. "In the long run we have to find more gas," the economist says. "Unless the gas ventures in the Empty Quarter get some gas, then maybe supply might not come to satisfy growth in demand." The issue worries Mohamed al-Mady, chief executive officer of Sabic, the Saudi group that is one of the world's largest petrochemicals companies. He says Sabic has gas for its current projects but "our concern is really the future". When asked how far away that future is, he says: "Well, it's now." "The Middle East has been relying too much on oil, and gas discovery has been ignored for a long time", Mr Mady adds. "In my opinion, there is no balanced utilisation of gas. The gas can go either to smelting, to iron ore, to power, to water, to petrochemicals ? and how do you allocate the gas to these various things? It can be very, very important down the road." Elsewhere in the region, Oman is "talking very seriously about building a coal-fired power plant", one analyst says in illustrating the acute nature of the problem. The UAE already uses liquids for power generation at peak load times. Kuwait, meanwhile, is burning about 160,000 barrels of liquids ? crude or diesel ? a day for power generation, according to an international oil executive, and is looking to import from Qatar. The impact of using fuel oils ranges from environmental consequences to an additional financial burden, largely due to the opportunity cost of not exporting oil products. Significant sources of gas could be available in both Qatar and Iran. But Qatar has put a moratorium on future projects for its North Field, the world's largest reservoir of pure gas, until 2010 and observers expect any new projects to be delayed until at least 2012. Sanctions-bound Iran is an unlikely supplier in the immediate future because of global and regional politics. "That's why the situation in the rest of the region is pretty dire ? ensuring adequate energy supplies for domestic growth is a top priority," says Mr Goswami at Wood Mackenzie. "However, country-level challenges differ. For Kuwait, a near-term shortfall in power generation capacity could be likely. In Oman, proposed gas-based industrial expansion is likely to suffer. In the UAE, the gas supply situation is very serious; rapid growth in power demand means nuclear power is being looked at as an option." UAE authorities have concluded that national peak electricity demand will rise to more than 40,000MW by 2020. But they estimate that known volumes of natural gas that could be made available for electricity would provide adequate fuel for only 20,000-25,000MW by 2020. The government announced this year that it would embark on a civilian nuclear programme. Gulf countries are exploring for more gas ? particularly non-associated gas ? but that is no easy process given current worldwide shortages of exploration equipment and engineers. They have the money to overcome this but, even so, the lead time from discovering a deposit to gas coming on line is at least five years, experts say. Much of the region's gas is also regarded as difficult to extract ? either sour or "tight" gas with geological complications. This increases costs and ties up equipment. It is a factor that Abu Dhabi, which produces nearly all the UAE's hydrocarbons, discovered as it sought to develop two sour gas fields in a project the federation hoped would allow large-scale investment in energy-intensive industries. Officials had put the development of the Bab and Shah fields out to a joint tender but the technical challenges meant the authorities later decided to re-tender just for Shah, which is less complex and has higher liquid yields, analysts say. Abu Dhabi's reserves include some of the sourest gas in the world, which requires the latest technology to handle. In spite of having the world's fifth largest proven gas reserves, the UAE is already importing from Qatar through the so-called Dolphin project, which went online last year. But the emirates' government has still to reach an agreement with Qatar to boost supply by 60 per cent to reach the pipeline's capacity. With the moratorium in place on its North Field, it is uncertain whether Qatar will agree to the increase. In Kuwait, after the state oil company made its first discovery of non-associated gas, production will begin, says Jamal Alnouri, managing director of planning at Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. KPC intends output to reach 1bn cu ft a day by 2015. But as gas production is new to Kuwait, officials acknowledge that it will be difficult for KPC to reach its targets without help from international companies. Kuwait's parliament has consistently opposed awarding foreign groups anything other than service contracts. Initial output is to be barely one-sixth of the 2015 target. "For the scale that so far we are considering, we are not disturbing the reserves too much," says Mr Alnouri. "It will help us plan our way forward ? our current knowledge takes us this far." He adds: "When you really get to large exploitation of the reserve, you have to be careful ... and of course if you do it alone you will take a longer time." KPC is hoping to bring international groups into the gas projects even though the political environment will restrict their level of involvement. Steve Peacock, president of BP Middle East and South Asia, says the entire region will require technical support of international oil companies if nations are to take advantage of potential resources. "There's plenty of resources ? that's not the issue. The issue is technology challenges, cost challenges and geopolitical challenges," Mr Peacock says. BP looked at the Empty Quarter venture in Saudi Arabia and decided there was too much geological risk attached to that project. But it won a bid last year to develop tight gas in Oman and Mr Peacock says BP would be interested in opportunities in Saudi Arabia. But governments in the region would have to offer decent terms to convince majors to invest. The key to a successful partnership between the government, its national oil company and international energy groups "is making sure that the relationship is tuned correctly", Mr Peacock says. If the foreign partner is to "bring large amounts of capital, proprietary technology and expertise from other parts of world to address something like extremely sour gas, with long-lasting mutual benefits, then the reward should recognise the role [it] plays." Can Iran-GCC Economic Ties Survive U.S. Pressures? NADER HABIBI Published: July 23, 2008 While growing economic and financial sanctions have led to a reduction of trade between Iran and Europe in recent years, the volume of trade between Iran and GCC countries has steadily increased. Bilateral Iran-GCC trade has increased by five-fold from $1.71 billion in 2000 to $8.71 billion in 2007. The GCC enjoys a considerable trade surplus in its trade relation with Iran. The GCC goods exports to Iran have increased from $1.26 billion in 2000 to a record $7.33 billion in 2007 which amounted to 12 percent of Iran's total imports. As a result the GCC registered a $5.7 billion trade surplus with Iran in 2007. Two factors have encouraged Iran to expand its trade relations with GCC countries. First, the growing economic and financial sanctions by European governments and European banks in the past two years have forced Iran to shift its trade away from Europe and look to other regions for its import needs. This has lead to an increase in trade with Asia and GCC, which have so far been more reluctant to go along with these sanctions. Iran's second motive for expanding its trade with GCC countries is political. Iran is actively trying to discourage the GCC countries from joining the U.S. sponsored economic and financial sanctions or cooperating with any potential U.S. military operation against Iran. In pursuit of this goal Iran has tried hard to expand its diplomatic and economic ties with GCC countries in recent years. Iran's largest trade partner in the GCC is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which accounted for 72 percent of GCC's exports to Iran in 2007. Aside from this large volume of exports, the UAE receives a large flow of private investment capital from Iran which has contributed to the strength of the real estate prices in Dubai in recent years. However, this rapid increase in Iran-GCC economic relations has recently caught the attention of the United States. Realizing that trade with the GCC has enabled Iran to partially neutralize the impact of European financial sanctions, the United States has tried to persuade GCC banking institutions to sever their ties with Iranian banks and deny service to Iranian firms and businessmen. While so far the GCC governments have refused to impose formal economic sanctions on Iran, some financial institutions in Bahrain and the UAE have voluntarily complied with the U.S. demands. Recent interviews with a number of Iranian businessmen have revealed that these steps have made it more difficult for them to trade with GCC countries. If the new round of negotiations between Iran and Western nations in Geneva proves fruitless, it is likely that the U.S. pressure on GCC-based banks will intensify in the coming months and can result in a reduction in Iran-GCC trade. This development will have an adverse impact on the Iranian economy, which imports a variety of electronic equipment and spare parts for heavy machinery from the UAE. It will also reduce Iran's growing exports of agricultural and handcraft products to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In order to further strengthen its economic ties with the GCC, Iran is also trying to export natural gas to these countries. Iran has recently announced a natural gas export agreement with Oman. After several years of negotiations and delays, it is also expected to start natural gas exports to the UAE in 2008. Negotiations are also underway for a Kuwait-Iran natural gas export deal. If these planned exports materialize they will make it more difficult for GCC countries to cooperate with the U.S. sanctions. In recent years demand for natural gas has outpaced its supply in several GCC countries. Qatar, which is the largest natural gas exporter in the region, has been unable to fill this gap completely. Consequently they have turned their attention to Iran. These Iran-GCC natural gas agreements, however, remain vulnerable to U.S. pressure on Gulf countries which also maintain close economic and security ties with the United States. At the same time, Iran's ability to export natural gas to GCC countries has also been adversely affected by American sanctions. U.S. pressure on international oil firms that operate in Iran has limited Iran's ability to attract investment to its energy sector and boost natural gas output in the past three decades. -- Nader Habibi is Henry J. Leir professor of Middle East economies at Brandeis University. From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Fri Aug 1 10:55:00 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:55:00 -0400 Subject: [A-List] AUGUST IS NUCLEAR-FREE FUTURE MONTH! Message-ID: <489307A5.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> CALL TO ACTION! AUGUST IS NUCLEAR-FREE FUTURE MONTH! STOP NUCLEAR MADNESS! United for Peace and Justice has declared August "Nuclear-Free Future Month". The specter of nuclear weapons in the hands of "rogue" states has become one of the top US excuses for waging war, yet the United States continues to rely on the threatened first use of nuclear weapons as the cornerstone of its national security policy. Now is the time to take action and raise awareness about the ever-increasing threat from nuclear weapons and the environmental and proliferation dangers posed by the global nuclear power "renaissance". August 6th and 9th mark the 63rd anniversaries of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Through popular education, video screenings, art exhibitions, protests, vigils and more, we are working to build stronger ties between the nuclear abolition, antiwar, and climate justice movements. We are working in solidarity with these fundamentally connected movements to create a safe, just future. We encourage you to organize and participate in a variety of anti-nuclear activities this month, including efforts to encourage the Presidential and Congressional candidates to make both the abolition of nuclear weapons, and immediate steps to achieve that goal a central campaign priority, as we demand clean, sustainable, non-nuclear energy alternatives. Visit http://www.nuclearfreefuture.org to find information and analysis about nuclear issues, action plans, ideas and tools to organize your own events during Nuclear-Free Future Month! Learn more about Nuclear-Free Future Month and download our two page background information here: http://www.nuclearfreefuture.org/sites/nuclearfreefuture.org/files/nff_backgrounder.pdf Find or Post Events: http://www.nuclearfreefuture.org/event Endorse the Campaign: http://www.nuclearfreefuture.org/endorse Find or Post Resources: http://www.nuclearfreefuture.org/resources Seek peace, be part of the solution! No nukes! No war! Make a Donation or Volunteer Your Time Please consider making a donation of $25, $50, or $100 to support the www.nuclearfreefuture.org website and related resources. Or volunteer your time. Make your check payable to United for Peace and Justice and mail it to PO Box 607, Times Square Station, New York, NY 10017. Be sure to note the memo line: "Nuclear-Free Future Month". This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Fri Aug 1 12:36:23 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:36:23 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Solar Revolution ? Message-ID: <48931F68.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution Thursday 31 July 2008 by: Anne Trafton, MIT News <_http://www.truthout.org/article/major-discovery-from-mit-primed-unleash-sola r-revolution_ (http://www.truthout.org/article/major-discovery-from-mit-primed-unleash-solar-revolution) > Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system. In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine. Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy. Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon." Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night. The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity - whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source - runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced. Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis. The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said. "Giant Leap" for Clean Energy Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year. James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale. "This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem." "Just the Beginning" Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates. More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality. "This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this." Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past. The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems. MITEI Director Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, noted that "this discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science." The success of the Nocera lab shows the impact of a mixture of funding sources - governments, philanthropy, and industry. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years. This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 1 12:52:02 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 14:52:02 -0400 Subject: [A-List] BAE Linked to Zimbabwean Arms Dealer + Harare Tycoon Rides Political Upheaval Message-ID: BAE linked to Zimbabwean arms dealer By Christopher Thompson and Michael Peel in London Published: July 31 2008 23:31 | Last updated: July 31 2008 23:31 BAE Systems, the British arms manufacturer under investigation in several countries for alleged bribery, paid at least ?20m to a company linked to a Zimbabwean arms trader allied to President Robert Mugabe, documents seen by the Financial Times show. John Bredenkamp, who has indefinite leave to remain in Britain, has had a controversial career ranging from supplying military equipment to the Zimbabwean military to mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo. British properties owned by Mr Bredenkamp were raided by the Serious Fraud Office more than 18 months ago as part of a long-running investigation into BAE aircraft sales to South Africa. The payment of at least ?20m is the first detailed evidence of a financial relationship between Mr Bredenkamp and the group. The payments raise fresh questions about BAE's dealings with outside agents, intermediaries who sometimes act as brokers in arms deals. Agents have featured in investigations into whether BAE channelled bribes to foreign officials to win contracts. BAE refuses to provide details of its relationships with agents, although it has pledged to introduce reforms as part of an effort to improve its image after the corruption investigation into its multibillion-pound al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The payments linked to Mr Bredenkamp were made between 2003 and 2005 by Red Diamond Trading, a BAE subsidiary registered in the British Virgin Islands, from a London-based Lloyds TSB account, according to documents seen by the FT. The money was transferred to Kayswell Services, also registered in the British Virgin Islands, a company in which the documents list Mr Bredenkamp as a beneficiary. British Virgin Island company records show Red Diamond was liquidated on May 30 last year, just two weeks before BAE announced that Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice, would investigate its ethical conduct and compliance with anti-corruption rules. BAE, Mr Bredenkamp and Kayswell all declined to confirm the payments or comment on what the money was for. Less than two weeks ago, BAE unveiled a plan to achieve "benchmark standards of governance" as part of its response to Lord Woolf's recommendations. Mr Bredenkamp has been involved in tobacco trading, oil procurement and ? according to the United Nations ? the supply of equipment to the Zimbabwe air force. Mr Bredenkamp says he has always complied with European Union arms sanctions, in force against Zimbabwe since 2002, which ban "the provision of financing related to military activities". Mr Bredenkamp, who prospered under Ian Smith's white Rhodesian regime, is now a close associate of Zimbabwe's rural housing minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, head of the Mugabe government's Joint Operational Command, a body widely identified as leading the campaign of violence against the government's political opponents. The Serious Fraud Office raids on Mr Bredenkamp's UK properties were part of an ongoing investigation into BAE's 1999 ?1.6bn jet fighter sale to South Africa, when several ruling African National Congress officials allegedly received bribes. A spokesman for Mr Bredenkamp denied he had any involvement in the South African sale and said it was "wholly inappropriate" for him to make any comment while the SFO inquiry continued. BAE said: "It is our policy not to comment on payments to individual parties or organisations, or on the individuals, parties or organisations themselves." Harare tycoon rides political upheaval By FT reporters Published: July 31 2008 23:31 | Last updated: July 31 2008 23:31 John Bredenkamp, the Zimbabwean tycoon linked to ?20m of payments made by BAE Systems, has ridden political upheaval to become one of his country's richest international businessmen. Over a four-decade career that has taken him from Harare's tobacco auction floors to Downing Street, he has shown himself an opportunist whose business dealings have come under attack from the United Nations and non-governmental groups. After flourishing under the white minority regime of Ian Smith, he later allied himself to President Robert Mugabe's post-independence government and built up substantial British assets, including residences in Berkshire and London's Mayfair. Patrick Smith, editor of Africa Confidential, the London-based newsletter, said: "On a continent where businessmen progress through a combination of hard-nosed pragmatism and personal networks, Bredenkamp is in the premier league." Mr Bredenkamp's history has come under the spotlight again following the emergence of documents showing he is a beneficiary of Kayswell Services, an offshore company paid at least ?20m ($40m, ?25m) by BAE between 2003 and 2005. Mr Bredenkamp, who was born in 1940, began his career when he took a tobacco auction house job found for him by one of his teachers at Prince Edward, a top Harare state school. By the late 1960s, he was captaining the Rhodesian rugby team and busting tobacco export sanctions imposed by the United Nations after the Smith government's unilateral declaration of independence from Britain in 1965. Mr Bredenkamp later expanded into oil procurement and dabbled in sports management. His spokesman said his clients included Nick Price, the Zimbabwean golfer, and Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion. Mr Bredenkamp's new line of business took him to a Downing Street reception in the mid-1990s with John Major, the cricket-loving UK prime minister at the time. One of Mr Bredenkamp's most controversial business ventures was mining in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. UN investigators concluded in 2002 that some of his business interests had illegally exploited mineral resources, although he denied the allegation. Mr Bredenkamp's main business venture today is Breco, an international private equity group set up after he sold his Casalee tobacco company for $100m in 1993. He also has longstanding ? if opaque ? links with the arms industry in southern Africa, although he says he has always complied with arms sanctions imposed against Zimbabwe by the European Union in 2002. He was a business partner of Billy Rautenbach, a fellow white Zimbabwean wanted by South African police, before the two fell out over a mining deal in the DRC. Mr Bredenkamp was detained for several days last year in Harare's notorious central prison over alleged passport irregularities, a case his spokesperson said was later dismissed. It was another exotic twist in a career governed by a pragmatism exemplified by the aphorism on the Breco website that "in Africa, it is essential to work with change, not against it". It is a mantra that has helped Mr Bredenkamp make money, at the expense of inviting criticism about the ever-shifting business and political relationships he has exploited to do so. Reporting by Michael Peel, William Wallis and Christopher Thompson in London Payments form part of opaque dealings By Michael Peeland Christopher Thompson Published: July 31 2008 23:31 | Last updated: July 31 2008 23:31 BAE Systems' ?20m of payments to a company linked to John Bredenkamp, a Zimbabwean arms dealer, are part of a web of opaque international dealings that the company has proved reluctant to explain despite launching a high-profile inquiry into its business ethics. The latest payments highlight the contentious role of Red Diamond Trading, a secretive BAE offshore subsidiary that was dissolved last year at a time when the company was making a big effort to improve its damaged reputation. Red Diamond was part of a worldwide network of BAE companies and agents that have helped win the company tens of billions of dollars of business but have attracted high-profile attention from corruption investigators at the Serious Fraud Office and elsewhere. The latest disclosures relate to payments made by Red Diamond to Kayswell Services, a British Virgin Islands company in which Mr Bredenkamp was a beneficiary, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. Mr Bredenkamp and BAE decline to comment on the payments. The payments cast fresh light on BAE's use of Red Diamond, whose name has cropped up in the SFO investigation into a giant 1999 South African arms deal in which BAE sold ?1.6bn of fighter aircraft. According to reports last year in South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper, a 2006 letter from the SFO to the South African government said that between 2000 and 2005, South African agents "received over ?70m through Red Diamond". Like many other companies based in the British Virgin Islands, Red Diamond is a secretive venture that carries no details of the company's directors, shareholders or ultimate owners on its public file. Although BAE told the Financial Times that Red Diamond's status as a subsidiary was a "matter of public record", it declined to identify any company documents where this fact was ever revealed. Annual reports did not refer to Red Diamond because the company was not a "principal subsidiary", BAE said. The one substantive piece of information available from Red Diamond's public file is that it was liquidated in May last year by a Mr S.C. Wood, whose address is given as BAE's Warwick House office at Farnborough Aerospace Centre, in the UK. Two weeks after the liquidation was completed, BAE held a much-publicised press conference in London to announce the appointment of Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice, to investigate the company's ethical conduct and compliance with anti-corruption rules. The British Virgin Islands' notice of liquidation says Red Diamond was dissolved because it was "considered to serve no useful purpose". BAE declines to comment on what the company's purpose was, or on why it was wound up. Less than three weeks after the liquidation was completed, Mike Turner, BAE's chief executive, said the company would more than halve the 240 agents it used worldwide, in part because it did not want to take any risks with its reputation in the key US arms market. BAE ? which has denied wrongdoing ? is under investigation for alleged bribery by the US Department of Justice, as well as in Switzerland and Britain. BAE's latest initiative to build confidence is a three-year programme announced earlier this month to implement Lord Woolf's 23 recommendations for reform, including developing a uniform contract for the appointment and oversight of external advisers, such as agents. Mr Turner said BAE wanted to be a "leader in standards of ethical business conduct among global companies". Those words are as good an indicator as any of the company's desire to escape ? if not account for ? a past that is still throwing up big unanswered questions such as those surrounding Red Diamond. From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 1 13:01:20 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 15:01:20 -0400 Subject: [A-List] China to Extend Africa Acquisitions Message-ID: China to extend Africa acquisitions By Tom Burgis in Lubumbashi Published: July 30 2008 19:17 | Last updated: July 30 2008 19:17 China is readying to move into Africa on a scale that far outstrips its acquisitions on the continent to date, according to the South African bank that is laying the groundwork. High-level groups of bankers from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Standard Bank, respectively China and Africa's biggest banks, are examining potential targets in Africa's oil and gas, telecoms, base metals and power sectors, executives at the Johannesburg-based lender have told the Financial Times. Clive Tasker, chief executive of Standard Bank's business in Africa excluding South Africa, said the resultant deals were likely to be at least as large as ICBC's $5.5bn (?2.7bn, ?3.5bn) purchase last year of a 20 per cent stake in Standard ? itself the largest foreign direct investment in post-apartheid South Africa. But Standard bankers admitted that building a relationship with their Chinese colleagues is proving more difficult than they had anticipated. Billed as a "combination of giants" by ICBC chairman Jiang Jianqing, the union was finalised on February 14, months after the initial overtures. Beijing expects trade with Africa to hit $100bn by 2010, which makes the rationale for ICBC to gain access to Africa's biggest pan-African banking network clear. For Standard, apart from the capital injection to bolster its reserves, reward shareholders and fund expansion, the most tempting fruits of the deal depend on using the connection with ICBC to open doors to Chinese investors and guiding them into Africa. "The honeymoon is over," said Tim Thackwray, Standard Bank's head of investment banking for Africa. "Now the hard work starts." Beyond the tribulations of marrying Chinese and South African corporate cultures, negotiating the upper echelons of ICBC ? including establishing links with their counterparts ? is taking time, Standard executives said. ICBC is majority-owned by the communist-run state. All the same, Mr Thackwray added: "I would be disappointed if I couldn't point to a big juicy deal by Christmas." Standard is establishing a 20-strong team in Beijing. Standard and ICBC "can build a superhighway that connects China and Africa," said David Munro, Standard's chief executive for corporate and investment banking across Africa. The first child of the banks' "strategic partnership" is a global resources fund they are finalising and which they hope will grow to $1bn once third-party investors come on board. Standard has 1,000 branches in 18 sub-Saharan African countries and a presence in a further 21 nations worldwide. In the past year it has made acquisitions in Nigeria, Kenya, Turkey and Argentina. This week it expanded its operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Beijing last year signed an infrastructure-for-commodities deal worth up to $8bn. It expects to finalise a licence next month to operate in Angola, one of the world's fastest growing economies whose burgeoning oil wealth has already attracted significant Chinese interest. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, and Ghana, a bastion of political stability, were also ripe for Chinese deals, Mr Thackwray said, with Mozambique and Congo close behind as they emerge from conflict. Several executives said that corporate China was looking at targets beyond the mining sector, which has dominated the Asian giant's African investments as it seeks to satiate its thirst for commodities. From nmgoro at gmail.com Fri Aug 1 14:15:56 2008 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?N=C3=A9stor_Gorojovsky?=) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:15:56 -0300 Subject: [A-List] [Spa] Progressive, popular mailing list censored by Hotmail on slippery "technical" grounds Message-ID: <2fa158550808011315k5c3306a0p72928cf19048f63e@mail.gmail.com> [Comparto total, absoluta y completamente la defensa de los medios populares, democr?ticos y nacionales de los pueblos oprimidos contra la dictadura que ahora pretende implementarse a trav?s de Hotmail. Este correo se env?a a listas en la Argentina y en el extranjero. Pido a los amigos y compa?eros del exterior que sumen su voz a esta campa?a] HOTMAIL CENSURA A LA NAC&POP DECLARANDOLO SPAM. La empresa, ahora de Microsoft, sospechada de pertenecer a los servicios de inteligencia norteamericanos, ejerce su poder "ilegal" sobre un peri?dico digital pol?tico del peronismo. Por Gabriel Fernandez La Se?al Medios No es la primera vez que le pasa este tipo de censura a la red nacional y popular de noticias, mas conocida como la NAC&POP o familiarmente llamada por sus suscriptores "la Naky" Ya tuvo su primer gran problema con el grupo Clar?n en el 2005 cuando la empresa Prima del Grupo Clar?n, a trav?s del servidor de Internet Ciudad, clausur?, desde las 15 horas del mi?rcoles 23 de marzo de 2005, todas las emisiones de la Red Nacional y Popular de Noticias (Nac & Pop), argumentando que los mismos se encuadran en la categor?a de Spam. En ese momento representantes del servidor de Internet Ciudad se comunicaron con el director de la Nac & Pop, Mart?n Garc?a, para informarle que hab?an resuelto impedirle continuar enviando los despachos habituales de su agencia. Ahora Hotmail. se comunic? con la empresa Velocom para notificarle que no dejara entrar a Hotmail ningun mensaje proveniente de Velocom a raiz de los envios del Newsletter de la NAC&POP y las invitaciones a las comidas de los lunes de la Mesa de los Sue?os de los Compa?eros de Utop?as de la Agrupaci?n Oesterheld. Esta Agrupaci?n nombra, lunes a lunes, a diversos patriotas como Juan Domingo Per?n, Eva Per?n, Jos? Mart?, Felipe Varela, Chacho Pe?aloza, Jose Sabino Navarro, Envar El Kadri, Carlos Mugica; Bernardo Alberte, Jose de San Mart?n, Juan Manuel de Rosas, Gerardo Vallejo, entre otros. La empresa Velocom, solidaria, ha ofrecido estudiar una soluci?n tecnica para la NAC&POP y le ha solicitado NO enviar m?s mails de la Carta de Noticias de la Naky y las invitaciones de la Oesterheld a sus suscriptores de Hotmail, lo que fue aceptado por la NAC&POP a pesar de que deja afuera al 20% de sus suscriptores que tienen correo en Hotmail, para no perjudicar a la empresa y sus clientes que deseen comunicarse con sus amigos de Hotmail. Sin dudas Hotmail, quiz?s involucrada con la CIA (como Google o Yahoo) ejerce "de facto" una dictadura feroz en sus decisiones sin que sea advertido por los usuarios. Ahora NAC&POP comenzar? una Campa?a con sus suscriptores de Hotmail para que estos le soliciten a Hotmail.com que les permita ingresar los correos de la Nac&Pop y la Agrupaci?n Oesterheld. Un poco de historia Esto sucedi? tambi?n hace 3 o 4 a?os con Argentina.com, Fibertel, y Yahoo, aunque luego fueron re clasificados. Tambi?n Uol Sinectis ( Los socios argentinos son Am?rica 2 -De Narvaez- y Editorial Perfil -Fontevecchia-) dio de baja en el 2005 una cuenta de la NAC&OP en perfecta consonancia con Ciudad.com de Prima del Grupo Clar?n. Los envios de la NAC&POP llevan una frase que dice "Spam es libertad de expresi?n. AntiSpam es control y censura despiadados". Declar? Mart?n Garc?a, director de la Red Nacional y Popular a La Se?al en Radio Gr?fica: "Quieren convencer a la gente que no reciba correo no solicitado porque es "basura"". "Los 10 minutos diarios que lleva "limpiar" la Bandeja de Entrada es el precio que pagamos por nuestra libertad de elegir. Si no padecemos y disfrutamos esa libertad, le estamos dejando a las grandes corporaciones decidir lo que debemos ver y recibir", a?adi?. Hace un par de a?os el Grupo Clarin monitore? un Proyecto Anti Spam en la C?mara de Diputados donde los "servidores", es decir las empresas prestadoras del servicio (un servicio que es p?blico) pod?an determinar qu? peri?dico digital pod?a circular y cu?l no, erigi?ndose por encima de la libertad de expresi?n y la libre circulaci?n de las ideas protegidas por la Declaraci?n de los Derechos Humanos Costa Rica de 1945. La NAC&POP tiene una posici?n pol?tica Anti Imperialista y a favor de la Uni?n Suramericana y el Mercosur,e inclusive Pro ALBA defendiendo fundamentadamente los gobiernos de Evo Morales en Bolivia, Hugo Chavez en Venezuela, Rafael Correa en Ecuador, Daniel Ortega en Nicaragua, Raul Castro en Cuba, Lula Da Silva en Brasil, Fernando Lugo en Paraguay, y los gobiernos peronistas en Argentina. Tambi?n se manifest? a favor de la vieja "Yugoeslavia" y se neg? a demonizar a Iran tal y como pretenden los integrantes de la Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP), y efectu? una n?tida campa?a en contra de la guerra de Irak. Durante el golpe de Carmona contra Chavez, en Venezuela, la NAC&POP (que est? cumpliendo ya ocho a?os en la web) tuvo una destacada actuaci?n en la madrugada cuando hab?a que transmitir a todos lados que Chavez no hab?a renunciado a la Presidencia de la Naci?n y que se encontraba secuestrado con peligro de muerte. Hace poco se "recibi?" de medio de comunicaci?n (dej? de ser considerado un medio "alternativo") cuando public? la carta de renuncia a Clar?n del periodista Claudio Diaz: a los dos dias el periodista era consagrado "h?roe civil" por el secretario General de la CGT, Hugo Moyano en un acto donde se ofrec?a una muestra en la central obrera del periodismo argentino durante la Dictadura. Al d?a siguiente Claudio fue recibido por el Secretario General de la Presidencia, por entonces Alberto Fern?ndez, y por el Secretario de Medios, el publicista Pepe Albistur, en clara muestra de la relevancia que hab?a generado la noticia publicada solamente en la "Naky" y reproducida luego por decenas de peri?dicos y cartas de noticias de Internet. En los ?ltimos tiempos la NAC&POP difundi? masivamente el proyecto "El Umbral" surgido de los sindicatos SADOP y SUTERH en base a escritos de Gustavo Cirigliano que desarrolla los siete proyectos de Argentina, contando a partir del de los pueblos originarios con 14 siglos de historia hasta llegar a la definici?n del "Anti Proyecto" encarnado en los poderes financieros, propagandisticos y militares del Norte imperial que impone la sumisi?n de nuestras naciones. Las Corporaciones digitales consideran que la NAC&POP env?a 'demasiados' correos, por lo que la Red fu? caracterizada como Spam. Curiosamente no le plantean esto mismo a los miles y miles de correos que env?an diariamente los diarios La Naci?n y Clar?n a sus suscriptores. Rosana Salas, coordinadora general de la NAC&POP replic? que, en el caso del grupo Clar?n, hab?a contratado un servicio en el cual no se especifica la cantidad de mails que pod?a enviar, por lo cual manifestaba su derecho a remitirlos sin que nadie se lo impidiera. Es sabido que, cuando uno saca una cuenta en Hotmail, los primeros 10 mails que recibe est?n referidos al "Pennis enlarge" y a la venta de Viagra, o Valium, por lo que resulta curioso que decidan vetar ahora al periodismo anti imperialista. Es probable inferir las preocupaciones personales de los ejecutivos de Hotmail. Por insistentes que sean las campa?as, no lograr?n hacernos considerar "basura" a los peri?dicos digitales pol?ticos que publican articulos de grandes pensadores e intelectuales del campo nacional y popular latinoamericano. Salas indic? adem?s que 'la metodolog?a de las corporaciones consiste en vetar los env?os masivos de las agencias informativas independientes, con el objetivo de encuadrar el env?o de e-mails al ?mbito s?lo personal, de la oficina y el hogar'. Esto sucede porque para los militantes populares y 'una nueva dirigencia en ciernes' estos medios tienen una credibilidad 'superior a la de los medios tradicionales'. Estar o no de acuerdo con la l?nea period?stica-ideol?gica de un medio, rebatir o apoyar sus mensajes, es el ejercicio sano de la democracia. Y, mal que le pese a la SIP -"esos hampones" al decir de Arturo Jauretche-, de la libertad de expresi?n. Censurar un medio de comunicaci?n al punto de cerrarlo, como hizo el Grupo Clar?n en su momento con la Nac&Pop, nos retrotrae al periodo m?s oscuro de nuestra historia y esto amerita una posici?n clara y contundente de todos los que nos sentimos civilmente responsables. Estas corporaciones como el grupo Clar?n o Hotmail, son masificadoras de tendencias y de conductas funcionales a todos los gobiernos que en las ?ltimas d?cadas, terminaron poni?ndonos de rodillas. Como ha dicho Enrique Juan Box "Permitir este atropello, es hipotecar nuestro futuro pol?tico, social y por ende econ?mico". A decir verdad, cada vez que empezamos a construir un pa?s, vienen ellos y lo rompen. Pruebas al canto. Usted, a esta altura, me entiende. Gabriel Fernandez es director period?stico de la Revista Question Latinoam?rica y director de La Se?al Medios -- N?stor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autor?a -- N?stor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autor?a From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 1 14:54:18 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 16:54:18 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Shame and Sexual Harassment in Egypt Message-ID: Lonely Planet's guide to the Middle East claims: "Although women travellers have the hassle of staying covered up -- see the boxed text 'The Big Cover Up' -- most women find that the sexual harassment and constant come-ons from the local males that are common in other Middle Eastern countries are largely absent in Iran. By comparison, women enjoy considerably more independence in Iran than elsewhere in the Middle East. One welcome consequence of this is that female visitors will find it quite easy to meet and chat with Iranian women, particularly in large cities such as Esfahan, Shiraz and Tehran where educational standards are higher" (Lonely Planet Publications, 4th ed., 2003 [first published in 1994], p. 216). I suppose that, in Iran, if men didn't behave, the authorities would put the fear of God into them. -- Yoshie Shame and Sexual Harassment in Egypt by Mona Eltahawy Released: 29 Jul 2008 NEW YORK ? When I was only 4 years-old, and still living in Cairo, a man exposed himself to me as I stood on a balcony at my family's home, and gestured for me to come down. At 15, I was groped as I was performing the rites of the Haj pilgrimage at Mecca, the holiest site for Muslims. Every part of my body was covered except for my face and hands. I'd never been groped before and burst into tears, but I was too ashamed to explain to my family what had happened. During my 20s, when I had returned to Cairo and wore the hijab, a way of dressing which again covers everything but the face and the hands, I was groped so many times that whenever I passed a group of men I'd place my bag between me and them. Headphones helped block out the disgusting things men -- and even boys barely in their teens -- hissed at me. I learned to push and punch those whose hands thought my body was fair game, but I never found anything to soothe the burning violation. So imagine how much sharper that violation stung when I tried to complain to the police only to be shooed away -- or when it was their hands which groped me. Once, a riot policeman fondled my breast while he was pushing back a group of us journalists at the trial of an opposition politician. I yelled at him, and I complained to his supervising officer, who moved him to the back row of riot police and told me "Nevermind." So it was no surprise to learn that 98 percent of foreign women visiting Egypt and 83 percent of native Egyptian women who were recently surveyed said that they, too, had been sexually harassed, and they have recounted a catalog of horrors similar to mine. What an awful time to be woman in Egypt. When the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights reported that 62 percent of Egyptian men admitted to harassing women, I could only shudder at what sexist bullies so many of my countrymen are. Even worse, when I read that the majority of the more than 2,000 Egyptian men and women that ECWR surveyed blamed women for bringing on the harassment because of the way they dressed, I honestly thought my countrymen and women had lost their minds. In Egypt today, up to 80 percent of women wear one form of veil or another -- be it a headscarf or a full-body veil that covers the face too -- so you would think it was obvious that sexual harassment had nothing to do with the way a woman dresses. So what is it that drives such a stubborn wish to fault women? The answer lies in perhaps the saddest of all the Centre's findings. Unlike foreign women, most Egyptian women said women should keep their harassment to themselves because they were ashamed or feared it could ruin their reputation. That's when I was taken back full circle to the time I was groped on the Haj. Shame. This shame is fueled by religious and political messages that bombard Egyptian public life, turning women into sexual objects and giving men free reign to their bodies. In 2006, It was the well-publicized episode of the mufti of Australia comparing women who didn't wear the hijab to uncovered meat left out for wild cats. He was educated at al-Azhar, the religious institution in Egypt that trains clerics from all over the Sunni Muslim world. He was suspended, but his reprehensible views are very much at work among many other clerics. Today, as two bloggers in Egypt reported recently, there are email and poster campaigns with a message that uses candy to tell women that if they cover they will be safe from harassment, as covered candy is safe from flies. When did Egyptian women become candy and when did Egyptian men turn into flies? There is no law criminalizing sexual harassment in Egypt, and police often refuse to report women's complaints. And when it is the police themselves who are harassing women, then clearly women's safety is far from a priority in Egypt. The State itself taught Egyptians a most spectacular lesson in institutionalized patriarchy when security forces and government-hired thugs sexually assaulted demonstrators, especially women, during an anti-regime protest in 2005, giving a green light to harassers. So there was little surprise that during a religious festival in 2006, a mob of men went on a rampage in downtown Cairo, sexually assaulting any woman they came across as police watched and did nothing. It was only when bloggers broke the news that the media reported the assaults. Still, the Egyptian regime has never acknowledged it happened. At a demonstration against sexual harassment that I attended in Cairo a few days later, there were nearly more riot police than protestors. My sister Nora was 20 at the time, and she, with several of her friends, joined the protest. She had never been to a demonstration before but was incensed when she heard the State was denying something that had happened to her many times. We swapped our sexual harassment stories like veterans comparing war wounds, and we unraveled a taboo which shelters the real criminals of sexual harassment and has kept us hiding in shame. And that is why I began here with my own stories -- to free myself of the tentacles of that shame. Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning New York-based journalist and commentator, and an international lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues. Copyright (c)2008 Mona Eltahawy ? distributed by Agence Global ---------------- Released: 29 July 2008 Word Count: 906 ---------------- For rights and permissions, contact: rights at agenceglobal.com, 1.336.686.9002 or 1.212.731.0757 From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 1 15:01:49 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:01:49 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Demand from Conflicts Lifts BAE's Earnings Message-ID: Demand from conflicts lifts BAE's earnings Reuters Friday, August 1, 2008 LONDON: BAE Systems, the largest European defense contractor, said Friday that its first-half profit rose 14 percent, chiefly because of demand for armored vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Net profit for the six months ending in June rose to ?586 million, or $1.16 billion, from ?515 million a year ago. Revenue rose to ?7.09 billion from ?6.35 billion. "The group is benefiting from customers prioritizing the provision of equipment and capability to their armed forces engaged in overseas operations," the company's chairman, Dick Olver, said. Profit exceeded forecasts, but the rise in sales was below some analysts' estimates, held back by a 19 percent drop in sales at the programs and support unit. Olver said Saudi Arabia remained a crucial market, and predicted that BAE would add to its 4,600 employees there. The company is focused on modernizing the Saudi armed forces, including the replacement of Tornado fighter jets with new Typhoon aircraft next year. But the company's dealings with Saudi Arabia have been under intense scrutiny and are being investigated by regulators in the United States and Switzerland. A controversial decision by the British anti-fraud agency to halt an inquiry in 2006 into whether BAE offered bribes in exchange for lucrative contracts in Saudi Arabia was upheld Wednesday by Britain's highest court. The House of Lords decided that the Serious Fraud Office had acted lawfully when it decided to end the inquiry. The Serious Fraud Office is investigating possible BAE bribes to Tanzania, Romania, Chile and the Czech Republic in other arms contracts. Olver said the company's outlook for 2008 was positive, with more orders for armored and mine protected vehicles likely - particularly to protect North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan. "Notwithstanding budget pressures in many defense markets, BAE Systems' large order book, together with realistic planning assumptions, provide confidence in the outlook for the group," he said. BAE said its order book stood at a record ?41.1 billion, up from ?31.7 billion a year earlier. BAE's finance director, George Rose, said he expected analysts to lift their 2008 profit forecasts. The company's chief executive, Mike Turner, who will be succeeded by the chief operating officer, Ian King, next month, said demand was driven by a 29.5 percent rise in sales, excluding acquisitions, of armored cars - particularly mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles. BAE shares closed up 2.2 percent at ?4.60 in London. From the.buffalo.in.the.midst at gmail.com Fri Aug 1 18:25:49 2008 From: the.buffalo.in.the.midst at gmail.com (Leighm) Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:25:49 -0700 Subject: [A-List] [Spa] Progressive, popular mailing list censored by Hotmail on slippery "technical" grounds In-Reply-To: <2fa158550808011315k5c3306a0p72928cf19048f63e@mail.gmail.com> References: <2fa158550808011315k5c3306a0p72928cf19048f63e@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4893A98D.30400@gmail.com> My Spanish works better in a taxi than interpreting documents... so I let google do it's bad job. One of the simple things that could cause a spam designation to occur... assuming that it isn't unm... simply pressure and squatmail has some 'legitimate' reason... is many of the smaller lists use Cc:ing to do their mailings. Sometimes mail from THIS list ends up in my spam folder because millions of cc'd addresses from squatmail (Yahoo and google have a limit) triggers most spam filters. ListServ and mailman software is cheap to free. The part about the 'first 10 emails that you get with your new squatmail account are spam' is quite the astute observation,and funny... but sophisticated means like IP spoofing are used to get them to your inbox and EVEN SQUATMAIL has people in their full time employee figuring out how to at least slow down spammers But sometimes... http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2008/07/spam_king_escapes_from_prison.php Leigh N?stor Gorojovsky wrote: > [Comparto total, absoluta y completamente la defensa de los medios > populares, democr?ticos y nacionales de los pueblos oprimidos contra > la dictadura que ahora pretende implementarse a trav?s de Hotmail. > Este correo se env?a a listas en la Argentina y en el extranjero. Pido > a los amigos y compa?eros del exterior que sumen su voz a esta > campa?a] > > > HOTMAIL CENSURA A LA NAC&POP DECLARANDOLO SPAM. > > La empresa, ahora de Microsoft, sospechada de pertenecer a los > servicios de inteligencia norteamericanos, ejerce su poder "ilegal" > sobre un peri?dico digital pol?tico del peronismo. > > Por Gabriel Fernandez > > La Se?al Medios > > No es la primera vez que le pasa este tipo de censura a la red > nacional y popular de noticias, mas conocida como la NAC&POP o > familiarmente llamada por sus suscriptores "la Naky" > > Ya tuvo su primer gran problema con el grupo Clar?n en el 2005 > cuando la empresa Prima del Grupo Clar?n, a trav?s del servidor de > Internet Ciudad, clausur?, desde las 15 horas del mi?rcoles 23 de > marzo de 2005, todas las emisiones de la Red Nacional y Popular de > Noticias (Nac & Pop), argumentando que los mismos se encuadran en > la categor?a de Spam. > > En ese momento representantes del servidor de Internet Ciudad se > comunicaron con el director de la Nac & Pop, Mart?n Garc?a, para > informarle que hab?an resuelto impedirle continuar enviando los > despachos habituales de su agencia. > > Ahora Hotmail. se comunic? con la empresa Velocom para notificarle > que no dejara entrar a Hotmail ningun mensaje proveniente de > Velocom a raiz de los envios del Newsletter de la NAC&POP y las > invitaciones a las comidas de los lunes de la Mesa de los Sue?os > de los Compa?eros de Utop?as de la Agrupaci?n Oesterheld. > > Esta Agrupaci?n nombra, lunes a lunes, a diversos patriotas como > Juan Domingo Per?n, Eva Per?n, Jos? Mart?, Felipe Varela, Chacho > Pe?aloza, Jose Sabino Navarro, Envar El Kadri, Carlos Mugica; Bernardo > Alberte, Jose de San Mart?n, Juan Manuel de Rosas, Gerardo Vallejo, > entre otros. > > La empresa Velocom, solidaria, ha ofrecido estudiar una soluci?n > tecnica para la NAC&POP y le ha solicitado NO enviar m?s mails de > la Carta de Noticias de la Naky y las invitaciones de la > Oesterheld a sus suscriptores de Hotmail, lo que fue aceptado por > la NAC&POP a pesar de que deja afuera al 20% de sus suscriptores > que tienen correo en Hotmail, para no perjudicar a la empresa y sus > clientes que deseen comunicarse con sus amigos de Hotmail. > > > Sin dudas Hotmail, quiz?s involucrada con la CIA (como Google o > Yahoo) ejerce "de facto" una dictadura feroz en sus decisiones sin > que sea advertido por los usuarios. > > > Ahora NAC&POP comenzar? una Campa?a con sus suscriptores de Hotmail > para que estos le soliciten a Hotmail.com que les permita ingresar > los correos de la Nac&Pop y la Agrupaci?n Oesterheld. > > > > Un poco de historia > > Esto sucedi? tambi?n hace 3 o 4 a?os con Argentina.com, Fibertel, y > Yahoo, aunque luego fueron re clasificados. Tambi?n Uol Sinectis ( > Los socios argentinos son Am?rica 2 -De Narvaez- y Editorial Perfil > -Fontevecchia-) dio de baja en el 2005 una cuenta de la NAC&OP > en perfecta consonancia con Ciudad.com de Prima del Grupo Clar?n. > > Los envios de la NAC&POP llevan una frase que dice "Spam es > libertad de expresi?n. AntiSpam es control y censura despiadados". > > Declar? Mart?n Garc?a, director de la Red Nacional y Popular a La > Se?al en Radio Gr?fica: "Quieren convencer a la gente que no > reciba correo no solicitado porque es "basura"". > > "Los 10 minutos diarios que lleva "limpiar" la Bandeja de Entrada > es el precio que pagamos por nuestra libertad de elegir. Si no > padecemos y disfrutamos esa libertad, le estamos dejando a las > grandes corporaciones decidir lo que debemos ver y recibir", > a?adi?. > > Hace un par de a?os el Grupo Clarin monitore? un Proyecto Anti Spam > en la C?mara de Diputados donde los "servidores", es decir las > empresas prestadoras del servicio (un servicio que es p?blico) pod?an > determinar qu? peri?dico digital pod?a circular y cu?l no, > erigi?ndose por encima de la libertad de expresi?n y la libre > circulaci?n de las ideas protegidas por la Declaraci?n de los > Derechos Humanos Costa Rica de 1945. > > La NAC&POP tiene una posici?n pol?tica Anti Imperialista y a favor > de la Uni?n Suramericana y el Mercosur,e inclusive Pro ALBA > defendiendo fundamentadamente los gobiernos de Evo Morales en Bolivia, > Hugo Chavez en Venezuela, Rafael Correa en Ecuador, Daniel Ortega > en Nicaragua, Raul Castro en Cuba, Lula Da Silva en Brasil, > Fernando Lugo en Paraguay, y los gobiernos peronistas en Argentina. > > Tambi?n se manifest? a favor de la vieja "Yugoeslavia" y se neg? a > demonizar a Iran tal y como pretenden los integrantes de la > Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP), y efectu? una n?tida > campa?a en contra de la guerra de Irak. > > Durante el golpe de Carmona contra Chavez, en Venezuela, la NAC&POP > (que est? cumpliendo ya ocho a?os en la web) tuvo una destacada > actuaci?n en la madrugada cuando hab?a que transmitir a todos lados > que Chavez no hab?a renunciado a la Presidencia de la Naci?n y > que se encontraba secuestrado con peligro de muerte. > > Hace poco se "recibi?" de medio de comunicaci?n (dej? de ser > considerado un medio "alternativo") cuando public? la carta de > renuncia a Clar?n del periodista Claudio Diaz: a los dos dias el > periodista era consagrado "h?roe civil" por el secretario General de > la CGT, Hugo Moyano en un acto donde se ofrec?a una muestra en la > central obrera del periodismo argentino durante la Dictadura. > > Al d?a siguiente Claudio fue recibido por el Secretario General de > la Presidencia, por entonces Alberto Fern?ndez, y por el Secretario > de Medios, el publicista Pepe Albistur, en clara muestra de la > relevancia que hab?a generado la noticia publicada solamente en la > "Naky" y reproducida luego por decenas de peri?dicos y cartas de > noticias de Internet. > > En los ?ltimos tiempos la NAC&POP difundi? masivamente el > proyecto "El Umbral" surgido de los sindicatos SADOP y SUTERH en > base a escritos de Gustavo Cirigliano que desarrolla los siete > proyectos de Argentina, contando a partir del de los pueblos > originarios con 14 siglos de historia hasta llegar a la definici?n > del "Anti Proyecto" encarnado en los poderes financieros, > propagandisticos y militares del Norte imperial que impone la > sumisi?n de nuestras naciones. > > Las Corporaciones digitales consideran que la NAC&POP env?a > 'demasiados' correos, por lo que la Red fu? caracterizada como > Spam. > > Curiosamente no le plantean esto mismo a los miles y miles de > correos que env?an diariamente los diarios La Naci?n y Clar?n a > sus suscriptores. > > Rosana Salas, coordinadora general de la NAC&POP replic? que, en el > caso del grupo Clar?n, hab?a contratado un servicio en el cual no > se especifica la cantidad de mails que pod?a enviar, por lo cual > manifestaba su derecho a remitirlos sin que nadie se lo impidiera. > > Es sabido que, cuando uno saca una cuenta en Hotmail, los primeros > 10 mails que recibe est?n referidos al "Pennis enlarge" y a la > venta de Viagra, o Valium, por lo que resulta curioso que decidan > vetar ahora al periodismo anti imperialista. Es probable inferir > las preocupaciones personales de los ejecutivos de Hotmail. > > Por insistentes que sean las campa?as, no lograr?n hacernos > considerar "basura" a los peri?dicos digitales pol?ticos que > publican articulos de grandes pensadores e intelectuales del campo > nacional y popular latinoamericano. > > Salas indic? adem?s que 'la metodolog?a de las corporaciones > consiste en vetar los env?os masivos de las agencias informativas > independientes, con el objetivo de encuadrar el env?o de e-mails al > ?mbito s?lo personal, de la oficina y el hogar'. > > Esto sucede porque para los militantes populares y 'una nueva > dirigencia en ciernes' estos medios tienen una credibilidad > 'superior a la de los medios tradicionales'. > > Estar o no de acuerdo con la l?nea period?stica-ideol?gica de un > medio, rebatir o apoyar sus mensajes, es el ejercicio sano de la > democracia. Y, mal que le pese a la SIP -"esos hampones" al decir > de Arturo Jauretche-, de la libertad de expresi?n. > > Censurar un medio de comunicaci?n al punto de cerrarlo, como hizo > el Grupo Clar?n en su momento con la Nac&Pop, nos retrotrae al > periodo m?s oscuro de nuestra historia y esto amerita una posici?n > clara y contundente de todos los que nos sentimos civilmente > responsables. > > Estas corporaciones como el grupo Clar?n o Hotmail, son > masificadoras de tendencias y de conductas funcionales a todos los > gobiernos que en las ?ltimas d?cadas, terminaron poni?ndonos de > rodillas. > > Como ha dicho Enrique Juan Box "Permitir este atropello, es > hipotecar nuestro futuro pol?tico, social y por ende econ?mico". > > A decir verdad, cada vez que empezamos a construir un pa?s, vienen > ellos y lo rompen. Pruebas al canto. Usted, a esta altura, me > entiende. > > > Gabriel Fernandez es director period?stico de la > > Revista Question Latinoam?rica y director de La Se?al Medios > > > From shimogamo at attglobal.net Fri Aug 1 19:52:22 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:52:22 +0900 Subject: [A-List] How Good Was the Good War? Message-ID: <4893BDD6.8050102@attglobal.net> by Andrew J Bacevich The American Conservative (July 14 2008 Issue) For historians, World War II revisionism is likely to remain a tough sell. The process of enshrining the conflict of 1939-45 as the "Good War" has now advanced to the point of being all but irreversible. The war's canonical lessons, especially those relating to the perils of appeasement, have permanently etched themselves in our collective consciousness. The problem with this orthodox interpretation is not that it's wrong but that it is inadequate. The reflexive tendency to see every antagonist as another Hitler (or Stalin) and every sensitive diplomatic encounter as a potential Munich (or Yalta) has produced an approach to statecraft that is excessively militarized, needlessly inflexible, and insufficiently imaginative. The remedy is not to engage in a vain effort to change the way Americans remember World War II, however, but to restore that conflict to its proper context. Ripped out of context, the war, especially the struggle against Nazi Germany, has become a parable. Whatever their value as a source of moral instruction, parables offer less help when it comes to understanding international politics. Parables simplify - and to simplify the past is necessarily to distort it. The neoconservative writer Norman Podhoretz illustrates how this penchant for treating World War II as a parable yields distorted and even mischievous results. Since 9/11, he has insistently argued that the correct name for the conflict commonly known as the global war on terror is actually "World War IV". Podhoretz's logic runs like this: the Cold War was really "World War III", essentially a replay of World War II, the threat posed by communism serving as a variant of the old threat posed by fascism. For Podhoretz, the horrific events of September 2001 thrust the West back to the days of September 1939. The imperative of the moment was to launch yet another crusade on behalf of freedom and democracy, this time against a third totalitarian ideology that Podhoretz labeled "Islamofascism". All that was needed was a new Winston Churchill to lead this crusade, and Podhoretz found his man, however improbably, in George W Bush. Strangely absent from Podhoretz's narrative is the event that actually touched off this sequence of global conflicts and without which World Wars II and III - not to mention IV - would never have occurred. I refer here, of course, to the epic bloodletting of 1914-18, for a time known as "the Great War". Podhoretz gets away with ignoring World War I because the vast majority of his fellow citizens are similarly predisposed. For present-day Americans, the enterprise once fervently, then derisively, referred to as "the war to end all wars" possesses about as much political and cultural salience as Shays' Rebellion. This marginalization of World War I is unfortunate. In fact, that conflagration and the peacemaking process that followed offer a mother lode of instruction for American policymakers today. World War I does not easily reduce to a parable. Even a polemicist as talented as Podhoretz would be hard pressed to render it as a story pitting good against evil or freedom against totalitarianism. It was instead a vast, complex, and utterly avoidable tragedy, a war of empires on behalf of empire. A handful of na?ve and stupid statesmen, who fancied that in war lay the solution to all manner of problems, inflicted incalculable moral and material damage upon Western civilization, while accelerating the decline of European power and leaving a poisonous legacy. Doing his part to spread those poisons was none other than Winston Churchill, celebrated by Norman Podhoretz as the central figure in the reduction of World War II to a parable. As a member of the war cabinet, Churchill made contributions to British policy in World War I that are at least as worthy of study today as his contributions to World War II. For example, as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1915, Churchill conceived of the Gallipoli campaign. To appropriate a term from our own day, this amphibious invasion of Turkey was expected to be a "cakewalk" opening up any number of additional opportunities. It turned out to be a disaster that consumed the lives of tens of thousands of British, French, and Anzac soldiers while accomplishing nothing. Gallipoli still stands as a warning to those who fancy that military power offers the means to transform the Islamic world. After the armistice of 1918, as secretary of state for the colonies, Churchill played an important role in redrawing the map of the Middle East. The purpose of this exercise was not to advance the cause of freedom and democracy but to extend British hegemony and control of Persian Gulf oil. One result of this effort was to invent the nation-state of Iraq, which soon became and remains a source of instability and disorder, although these days the United States rather than Great Britain foots most of the bills. So let us by all means venerate the Winston Churchill who warned of the threat posed by Hitler and who inspired Britons to make their lonely stand against Nazi Germany in 1940, thereby stirring so many American hearts as well. Yet let us also remember the Churchill who did so much to bollix up the Middle East and to create the conditions that gave rise to the utterly avoidable tragedy that is Podhoretz's World War IV. We can learn much not only from the Good Winston but from the Bad Winston as well. _____ Andrew J Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University. His new book is The Limits of Power, published by Metropolitan Books. Copyright (c) 2008 The American Conservative http://amconmag.com/2008/2008_07_14/cover3.html http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From noreply at coha.org Fri Aug 1 12:27:46 2008 From: noreply at coha.org (Council on Hemispheric Affairs) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 14:27:46 -0400 Subject: [A-List] No Parting Consolation for Trivelli Message-ID: <20080801182748.9D41F3E47B0@mx-out2.daemonmail.net> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 8805 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080801/b13f2bc9/attachment.txt From nscchicago at igc.org Fri Aug 1 12:32:28 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 13:32:28 -0500 Subject: [A-List] NEWS FROM SOA WATCH AND CISPES Message-ID: <00fe01c8f404$fbed7970$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> Tom Baker here with News from Outside the Corporate Dummy Down Mainstream CISPES on El Salvadoran Political Violence. What Peace Accords? Whenever does the Oligarchy respect its treaties. For whom is all this violence good? CISPES asks you to show a little courage, take a little stand and forward on a letter to the Oligarchy. SOAW has news from Ecuador where the US loses an air base So, the US puts it in Colombia Also, several delegations of good level meetings with leaders and players in the Movements Guatemala (What Peace Accords) and Bolivia. See Right Margin (PS Nicaragua Solidarity Fair Trade Resource also has a delegation planned - over this Thanksgiving to coops and artesanos, people doing something about it - also attached) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 2204 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080801/a2e016cd/attachment.txt -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 4008 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080801/a2e016cd/attachment-0001.jpeg -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: SOA Watch Subject: Change at WHINSEC, U.S. Base Out of Manta, Delegations to Bolivia and Guatemala Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:06:48 -0400 (EDT) Size: 7109 Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080801/a2e016cd/attachment-0002.eml From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Sat Aug 2 00:08:38 2008 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:08:38 +1000 Subject: [A-List] Download now! Links Dossier #3: Michael Lebowitz on Socialism for the 21st Century | Links Message-ID: <4893F9E6.3080402@greenleft.org.au> A selection of thought-provoking articles by Michael A. Lebowitz from /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/. Lebowitz professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and author of /Beyond Capital: Marx?s Political Economy of the Working Class/ and /Build it Now: Socialism for the 21st Century. /He is a program coordinator with the Centro International Miranda, Caracas, Venezuela. /Links/ dossiers are in easy-to-print PDF format and readers are encouraged to print and distribute them. Contents *Socialism is the future: Build it now! The spectre of socialism for the 21st century** Discussion on ?The spectre of socialism for the 21st century?** The capitalist workday, the socialist workday** Without workers? management, there is no socialism* Download the dossier at http://links.org.au/node/551 Subscribe free to /Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 08:47:47 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 10:47:47 -0400 Subject: [A-List] In Major Change, Obama Says He'll Support Offshore Drilling Message-ID: If there is one word that defines Barack Obama's campaign, it's not the noun "change" but the adjective "careful," which he adds to essentially the same policy as John McCain's: "As I've said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in"; and "we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage." -- Yoshie Posted on Friday, August 1, 2008 In major change, Obama says he'll support offshore drilling By David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON ? Barack Obama Friday dropped his opposition to offshore oil drilling, saying he could go along with the idea if it was part of a broader energy package. Obama made his comments in St. Petersburg during an interview with the Palm Beach Post. "My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices," he said. "If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done," the paper quoted Obama as saying. The change is dramatic because Obama often pointed to his opposition to drilling as a key difference between himself and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain. "I will keep the moratorium in place and prevent oil companies from drilling off Florida's coasts," Obama said in Florida in June. Friday, he said he was still not a fan of drilling, telling the Palm Beach paper, "I think it's important for the American people to understand we're not going to drill our way out of this problem." Obama also said, in a separate statement issued by his campaign, that he supported the bipartisan energy plan offered by 10 senators Friday. "Like all compromises, it also includes steps that I haven't always supported," he said. "I remain skeptical that new offshore drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term or significantly reduce our oil dependence in the long-term, though I do welcome the establishment of a process that will allow us to make future drilling decisions based on science and fact." The proposal would end most of the ban on drilling. It would allow a 50-mile buffer on the east coast, as well as Florida's west coast. Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina would be permitted to start oil and natural gas exploration outside the buffer. Any oil, the senators said, would have to stay in this country. McCain reacted quickly to Obama's switch in positions, telling the Associated Press, "We need oil drilling and we need it now offshore. He has consistently opposed it. He has opposed nuclear power. He has opposed reprocessing. He has opposed storage." Experts estimate that even if drilling proves to sharply increase oil supplies, its effects will not be felt for at least seven and probably 10 years. But the concept has proven popular, and McCain has made it a centerpiece of his stump speeches and some of his television ads. Political momentum has been moving in favor of opening up U.S. coastlines. There were two bars to offshore drilling, one first imposed by Congress in 1981 and another signed by President Bush's father in 1990 and renewed in 1998 by President Clinton. Bush lifted the executive ban last month; Congress, which left Friday for a five-week recess, has not acted. The government bans exploration and drilling on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and most of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, to protect U.S. beaches and fisheries from pollution. From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 09:47:49 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 11:47:49 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Biggest Dive for Commodity Prices in 28 Years Message-ID: Biggest dive for commodity prices in 28 years By Javier Blas, Commodities Correspondent Published: August 1 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 1 2008 03:00 Commodities prices suffered their largest monthly drop in 28 years in July as crude prices nose-dived more than $20 from an all-time high of $147.27 a barrel. The Jefferies-Reuters CRB index, a global commodities benchmark, lost 10 per cent, its largest monthly decline since it fell 10.5 per cent in March 1980, amid worries about lower economic growth damping demand for raw materials. Natural gas, corn, wheat and freight costs plunged last month between 10 and 30 per cent, although from record levels. However, lead, used in car batteries, surged almost 25 per cent on tight supplies. The fall in energy and agriculture prices will be welcomed, if persisted, by central banks facing rising inflation. But commodities have provided false price signals this year, with the CRB index falling 6.3 per cent in March only to rebound strongly. In spite of last month's fall, analysts are split on whether the commodities prices have set a peak for the year. But the general bullish outlook is, nevertheless, cracking, with Deutsche Bank's strategists warning today that oil prices would fall below $100 a barrel by the start of next year. West Texas Intermediate fell $2.69 to $124.08 a barrel in New York. "We expect the short-term cyclical factors that drove the price of oil from $60 to $145 over the past year to reverse in the coming 12 months," said Marcel Cassard, of Deutsche Bank. "The impact of the decline in commodity prices on global inflation will be significant." Lehman Brothers is also forecasting lower oil prices, while Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital continue to be, in different degrees, bullish. Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Lehman Brothers, said: "Fundamentals are weakening, particularly in the oil market." Investors have been worried about a deteriorating economic outlook and signs of fresh crude oil supplies arriving from Saudi Arabia. The International Monetary Fund has warned that although the global economy weathered the crisis during the first half of the year, "global growth is expected to decelerate significantly in the second half of 2008". Traders warned the key commodity indices and energy markets closed the month below the previous month's opening, resulting in a strong technical bearish signal, which could trigger further sales in August. Commodities, Page 36 The Financial Market Crisis and Risks for Latin America Presentation by Anoop Singh Director, Western Hemisphere Department, IMF At the Conference on "The Euro: Global Implications and Relevance for Latin America" Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 17, 2008 From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 10:22:32 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 12:22:32 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Nicolas Magud on Inflation in Argentina Message-ID: Nicolas Magud's is a neoliberal economist's perspective, and his comments on wage increases, price controls, etc. can't be accepted and a coherent left-wing perspective on them must be presented to counter views like his, but his criticisms of the sources of tax revenues and "consumption-driven," as opposed to "investment-driven," economy are worth taking seriously (not just in Argentina, but everywhere in Latin America with a possible partial exception of Brazil), especially since it looks as if commodity booms that have improved Latin American governments' fiscal conditions and allowed for populist economic growth are already ending. -- Yoshie Is (the Kirchners' self-inflicted) Potential Hyperinflation Possible (Again) in Argentina? Nicolas Magud | Aug 1, 2008 This is a valid question to ask ourselves, as the Kirchners' administration has consistently pursued populist economic policies that usually end in a hyperinflation episode. This becomes more relevant if we review the economic history of the country. Once and again we have seen a sequence of events, many of which we have been observing during the past years, that ended badly. A short list follows. - Wage increases not only increase in frequency, but also in magnitude: during the last agreement (late July) minimum wage increase was in order of 27%?after having been raised closed to 20% in H1. - Tax revenue is mainly driven by the inflation tax (e.g. VAT) and the external boom (export taxes); the latter not being permanent. - Government expenditures increase at very high rates (in the 40% area). The government so far has been unable or unwilling to rein it in. - Given the already high inflation that has been partially and regressively repressed by subsidies, the government is now starting to let some of the "freezed" prices to partially accommodate. This is welcome; but too late. Notice that so far it only intends not to increase subsidies, but not reduce them. - The so-called fiscal surplus is under big dispute. Its present stance is probably worse than officially argued (as many private sector reports show). The future balance looks much worse. - Consumption-driven economy?as opposed to investment-driven. This is not trivial. Increases in present aggregate demand derived from investment create the ability to increase future aggregate supply in line with higher aggregate demand. Consumption-driven impulses do not necessarily create an investment stimulus; especially under weak property right?where every profit looks like "extraordinary profits" and thus "taxable to redistribute income". Of course this ignores the regressive income distribution?present and future?that high inflation causes. - Tardy (i.e. now that the current stance and especially the future outlook start to look gloomy) increases in retirement benefits. The main motive for this being increase aggregate demand while gaining some political support after the failure in the (export-tax) confrontation with the agricultural sector?as retired people tend to have a relatively high marginal propensity to spend. It is worth mentioning that the conflict with the agricultural sector is far from over, as the government still has plans to re-instate this export taxes, albeit in a different way?the administration needs the cash. - Price controls to (supposedly and ineffectively) control the inflation rate. This distorts relative prices and potentially triggers repressed inflation. If the latter holds, the relative price correction is rarely swift? And I can't call this an anti-inflationary plan. - Annual inflation expectations close to 35%. This seems to be in line with the private sector inflation estimates for the moths to come. The more so if with the price realignment mentioned above is considered. - Families are highly indebted and the delinquency rate is increasing. - The real exchange rate has been continuously appreciating as the inflation rate is on the rise while the central bank, in a way, targets the nominal exchange rate. - Political unrest: not only the President-Vice President recent controversy, but the social unrest in the interior (e.g. Cordoba, Santa Fe, etc.), and, consequently, a politically weakened government?its own alliances melting down due to the policies applied by the presidential couple during the last years. - History tell us that too frequently in the past Argentina raised wages, utilities, etc., and let some of the relative prices to re-accommodate as a pre-stage to a devaluation (with lots creativity such as splitting the foreign exchange market, fixing the exchange rate, interest rate caps, etc., and an infinite list). - Luckily the economy has not demonetized (yet?) and the central bank has not depreciated the domestic currency (yet?); as this will probably make the system to explode. But, as a signal, the "founding fathers (both ideologists and implementers)" of this so-called "productive model" are already fleeing away, trying to decouple themselves from it So, hyperinflation is not a problem in Argentina for the moment. However, I could change this to may be not yet, since unfortunately we cannot disregard it in the future. Unless I assume that the government is intentionally stimulating inflation to reduce (i.e. inflate away) its real expenditures instead of reducing its expenses. If so, somebody would need to remind the authorities of the Olivera-Tanzi effect?and that this basically does not work. This would be totally erroneous since?although worsening as a consequence of its own external tax policy?the surplus in the trade balance is still positive. Things can get really nasty is this surplus disappears? There is still (little) time to correct this. But among the features that should be included is a strong fiscal correction, freer markets (including relative prices!), better property rights, an independent central bank, a long-term growth strategy (that includes investment incentives along with lower inflation?the latter resulting from a serious anti-inflationary program). However, and against my wishful thinking, next year is an election year. The government has already lost a lot political support, so it could easily be tempted into reinforce the (already failed) populist policies. The more so since the policies that would help recover long-term and stable growth usually take time so enact?probably not enough time until the next election. From nmgoro at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 10:59:14 2008 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?N=C3=A9stor_Gorojovsky?=) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 13:59:14 -0300 Subject: [A-List] Nicolas Magud on Inflation in Argentina In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <2fa158550808020959q7482492dn763e00082c3a4245@mail.gmail.com> There's no potential hyperinflation here. As to investment, yes, the criticisms are valid. But without consumption by the local population, what will that investment be good for? This is the whole problem. Neoliberals don't worry, in the end, about the "health" of economy. Their "Wolf!" cries ASK FOR hyperinflations, not AGAINST them. The problem lies with the fact that enormous income reaped by the capitalists does not go to investment. And this has little if anything to do with wage levels. Our bourgeoisie (I would add the Brazilians too) don't act "as expected by the books". Of course, it depends on the books you trust... BTW and to Magud's horror, the Arg government has begun to tax financial transactions, AT LAST! 35% tax, not bad. This would help easing the burden on popular goods by VAT. More pressure from domestic consumers, then. More pressure on the local bourgeoisie for investment and increased production. Be sure they won't invest. So, then, who will? The State? This is what Magud's warning against. 2008/8/2, Yoshie Furuhashi : > Nicolas Magud's is a neoliberal economist's perspective, and his > comments on wage increases, price controls, etc. can't be accepted and > a coherent left-wing perspective on them must be presented to counter > views like his, but his criticisms of the sources of tax revenues and > "consumption-driven," as opposed to "investment-driven," economy are > worth taking seriously (not just in Argentina, but everywhere in Latin > America with a possible partial exception of Brazil), especially since > it looks as if commodity booms that have improved Latin American > governments' fiscal conditions and allowed for populist economic > growth are already ending. -- Yoshie > > > Is (the Kirchners' self-inflicted) Potential Hyperinflation Possible > (Again) in Argentina? > Nicolas Magud | Aug 1, 2008 > > This is a valid question to ask ourselves, as the Kirchners' > administration has consistently pursued populist economic policies > that usually end in a hyperinflation episode. This becomes more > relevant if we review the economic history of the country. Once and > again we have seen a sequence of events, many of which we have been > observing during the past years, that ended badly. A short list > follows. > > - Wage increases not only increase in frequency, but also in > magnitude: during the last agreement (late July) minimum wage increase > was in order of 27%?after having been raised closed to 20% in H1. > > - Tax revenue is mainly driven by the inflation tax (e.g. VAT) and the > external boom (export taxes); the latter not being permanent. > > - Government expenditures increase at very high rates (in the 40% > area). The government so far has been unable or unwilling to rein it > in. > > - Given the already high inflation that has been partially and > regressively repressed by subsidies, the government is now starting to > let some of the "freezed" prices to partially accommodate. This is > welcome; but too late. Notice that so far it only intends not to > increase subsidies, but not reduce them. > > - The so-called fiscal surplus is under big dispute. Its present > stance is probably worse than officially argued (as many private > sector reports show). The future balance looks much worse. > > - Consumption-driven economy?as opposed to investment-driven. This is > not trivial. Increases in present aggregate demand derived from > investment create the ability to increase future aggregate supply in > line with higher aggregate demand. Consumption-driven impulses do not > necessarily create an investment stimulus; especially under weak > property right?where every profit looks like "extraordinary profits" > and thus "taxable to redistribute income". Of course this ignores the > regressive income distribution?present and future?that high inflation > causes. > > - Tardy (i.e. now that the current stance and especially the future > outlook start to look gloomy) increases in retirement benefits. The > main motive for this being increase aggregate demand while gaining > some political support after the failure in the (export-tax) > confrontation with the agricultural sector?as retired people tend to > have a relatively high marginal propensity to spend. It is worth > mentioning that the conflict with the agricultural sector is far from > over, as the government still has plans to re-instate this export > taxes, albeit in a different way?the administration needs the cash. > > - Price controls to (supposedly and ineffectively) control the > inflation rate. This distorts relative prices and potentially triggers > repressed inflation. If the latter holds, the relative price > correction is rarely swift? And I can't call this an anti-inflationary > plan. > > - Annual inflation expectations close to 35%. This seems to be in line > with the private sector inflation estimates for the moths to come. The > more so if with the price realignment mentioned above is considered. > > - Families are highly indebted and the delinquency rate is increasing. > > - The real exchange rate has been continuously appreciating as the > inflation rate is on the rise while the central bank, in a way, > targets the nominal exchange rate. > > - Political unrest: not only the President-Vice President recent > controversy, but the social unrest in the interior (e.g. Cordoba, > Santa Fe, etc.), and, consequently, a politically weakened > government?its own alliances melting down due to the policies applied > by the presidential couple during the last years. > > - History tell us that too frequently in the past Argentina raised > wages, utilities, etc., and let some of the relative prices to > re-accommodate as a pre-stage to a devaluation (with lots creativity > such as splitting the foreign exchange market, fixing the exchange > rate, interest rate caps, etc., and an infinite list). > > - Luckily the economy has not demonetized (yet?) and the central bank > has not depreciated the domestic currency (yet?); as this will > probably make the system to explode. But, as a signal, the "founding > fathers (both ideologists and implementers)" of this so-called > "productive model" are already fleeing away, trying to decouple > themselves from it > > So, hyperinflation is not a problem in Argentina for the moment. > However, I could change this to may be not yet, since unfortunately we > cannot disregard it in the future. Unless I assume that the government > is intentionally stimulating inflation to reduce (i.e. inflate away) > its real expenditures instead of reducing its expenses. If so, > somebody would need to remind the authorities of the Olivera-Tanzi > effect?and that this basically does not work. This would be totally > erroneous since?although worsening as a consequence of its own > external tax policy?the surplus in the trade balance is still > positive. Things can get really nasty is this surplus disappears? > > There is still (little) time to correct this. But among the features > that should be included is a strong fiscal correction, freer markets > (including relative prices!), better property rights, an independent > central bank, a long-term growth strategy (that includes investment > incentives along with lower inflation?the latter resulting from a > serious anti-inflationary program). However, and against my wishful > thinking, next year is an election year. The government has already > lost a lot political support, so it could easily be tempted into > reinforce the (already failed) populist policies. The more so since > the policies that would help recover long-term and stable growth > usually take time so enact?probably not enough time until the next > election. > > -- N?stor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autor?a From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 11:00:46 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 13:00:46 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Fiscal Positions in Latin America: Have They Really Improved? Message-ID: Fiscal Positions in Latin America:Have They Really Improved? Ivanna Vladkova-Hollar and Jeromin Zettelmeyer | Jul 23, 2008 The improvement of fiscal balances has been a cornerstone of Latin America's macroeconomic stabilization and recovery following the crises of 1994?2002. After hovering around 5 percent in the last decade, the average fiscal deficit in Latin America declined steadily beginning in 2003, and reached a surplus in 2006. Initially, this reflected a reduction in government spending as a share of GDP, which reached a low around 2004. Beginning in 2005, spending picked up again, but was outpaced by an even larger increase in revenue growth. As a result, fiscal balances continued to strengthen (Table 1). Are these improvements sustainable? Or do they merely reflect exceptionally favorable external economic conditions?including an unprecedented boom in commodity prices?and the strong cyclical recovery that Latin America has enjoyed in the last few years? The fact that Latin America's recent fiscal improvements have come exclusively from the revenue side is a cause for concern (IMF, 2006, 2007; IADB, 2008; Izquierdo, Ottonello, and Talvi, forthcoming). In light of continued high debt levels, a return to the deficits of the 1990s could jeopardize the region's newfound stability. The key question is hence how much of the recent revenue growth can be expected to be "permanent"?i.e. to survive a return to normal cyclical conditions?and how strong fiscal balances would be in these circumstances. This is the subject addressed in this paper. We proceed in three steps. First, we analyze the sources of recent increases in the revenue to GDP ratio, distinguishing between revenues from commodity and noncommodity sources, and decomposing increases in the latter into three components: changes due to tax policy or tax administration; changes due to the economic cycle; and a residual. Based on this analysis as well as medium-term commodity price projections from two different sources, we compute "structural" revenue to GDP ratios separately for noncommodity and commodity revenues. Finally, we combine these with estimated structural expenditure ratios, under the assumption that expenditures in Latin America are not (automatically) linked to the economic cycle, to compute structural balance estimates for a number of countries in the region. The approach used in this paper [LINK: ] differs from standard structural balance methodology (Hagemann, 1999) in two ways. First, following Marcel et al. (2001), we distinguish between noncommodity and commodity revenues, and separately estimate the "structural" level for each. Second, when estimating noncommodity structural revenue, we consider the history of tax regime changes in each country in addition to the standard cyclical adjustment of observed revenues using the output gap. Conventional structural balance methodology implicitly assumes that all changes in the revenue ratio that are not identifiably cyclical? that is, cannot be statistically linked to the output fluctuations?are "structural," whether or not they can be attributed to changes in the tax system. This approach might give too rosy a picture of the fiscal balance if revenue ratios are buoyant for temporary, but not identifiably cyclical reasons. To address this problem, we adjust the observed tax revenue series, for each country, using the estimated revenue impact of all changes in the tax system that we are aware of, before regressing the adjusted series on changes GDP.2 The residual from this regression reflects the portion of revenue that is unexpected, given the state of both the tax system and the tax base (GDP). Structural revenue and balance estimates are computed both under the (conventional) assumption that this residual is structural, and under the alternative view that it is not. We also take a position on which view is closer to the truth by examining the statistical properties of the residual. We are aware of four related recent studies of fiscal performance in Latin America. Alberola and Montero (2006) examine the relationship between the fiscal stance and the economic cycle in a paper that is primarily interested in debt sustainability. As an intermediate step, they estimate structural fiscal balances in nine Latin American up to 2004 using the standard assumption that all non-cyclical revenue changes are structural, and disregarding changes in tax structure in their regressions.3 Lozano and Toro (2007) compute structural balances for Colombia, based on the standard approach, and a revenue series that is adjusted for changes in the tax structure. Cubero and Sowerbutts (forthcoming) analyze structural revenue in Costa Rica using a very similar methodology as this paper, with consistent results. Finally Izquierdo, Ottonello, and Talvi (forthcoming; see also IADB, 2008, which is based on their analysis) calculate structural balances for a group of Latin American countries using a different methodology, which relies on statistical filtering of the observed fiscal data. The flavor of their results is different from those of this paper, in that they attribute a much larger portion of the recent revenue increase to cyclical factors.4 Our study [LINK: ] has three main findings. First, not surprisingly, commodity related revenues play an important role in the recent revenue boom of commodity producing countries. Whether or not these revenue increases should be viewed as permanent or not depends on the commodity. For fuel commodities, medium term projections by the IMF and World Bank envisage largely flat prices in the medium run. For non-fuel commodities, declines are envisaged, particularly for some metals. Furthermore, the assessment of whether non-fuel commodity price increases should be viewed as permanent or not turns out to depend on the forecast source. Model-based forecasts by the World Bank envisage greater declines over the medium term than IMF projections, which are largely based on futures markets data. Second, revenue increases that are identifiably due to the business cycle play virtually no role in explaining the rise of the revenue-to-GDP ratio. The main reason is that estimated income elasticities of revenue are close to unity in most cases (they range between 0.8 and 1.35, with most elasticities clustered between 0.95 and 1.11). Hence, while noncommodity revenue levels are highly cyclical, revenue ratios should be quite insensitive to the cycle. Moreover, the estimated cyclical position of most Latin American countries is currently not very far from neutrality, namely in the order of 0?4 percent above "potential output." Hence, a return to a cyclically neutral position would not have a big impact on revenue ratios. Third, residual revenue changes that can be attributed neither to cyclical factors not to identifiable changes in the tax regime are quite large in a handful of countries, in the order of 1?3 percent of GDP. In these countries, structural balance estimates are sensitive to whether these residuals are interpreted as reflecting unobserved structural changes, or as temporary. Statistical tests indicate that for the most part they ought to be interpreted as temporary, but there are some exceptions. In sum, there is little doubt that fiscal positions in Latin America have "really" improved in recent years. The business cycle cannot have played a significant direct role in raising revenue ratios. Improved fiscal positions seem to mostly reflect persistently higher commodity prices, as well as changes in taxation and tax administration. This said, structural balances in Latin America are weaker than reported balances, particularly in the case of nonfuel commodity exporters, which are projected to suffer significant price declines in the medium term. Furthermore, they are subject to a large margin of uncertainty, both because of uncertain commodity price projections, and because some of the recent changes in noncommodity revenues as a share of GDP are hard to attribute either to cyclical conditions or to changes in the tax system. --------------------- Footnotes: (2) This approach follows Swiston, M?hleisen and Mathay (2007). (3) Alberola and Montero (2006) do not take account of changes in revenue regimes when estimating elasiticies of revenue with respect to income and commodity prices. This may explain the fact that their estimated income elasticities of revenue are generally much higher than ours (see section II below). (4) Their methodology consists in applying a Hodrick-Prescott filter with a smoothing parameter calibrated to reproduce the degree of smoothing that is implicit in the structural fiscal balance estimates of the Chilean authorities. Because the commodity prices that drive the Chilean balance exhibit much less persistence than those of other commodities produced in Latin America (see appendix 3), this leads to a far larger adjustment than if structural balances are based on country-by-country properties of commodity prices, as in this study. Paper published by the IMF [LINK: ] and introduction reproduced here with the author's permission. From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 11:21:29 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 13:21:29 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Nicolas Magud on Inflation in Argentina In-Reply-To: <2fa158550808020959q7482492dn763e00082c3a4245@mail.gmail.com> References: <2fa158550808020959q7482492dn763e00082c3a4245@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 12:59 PM, N?stor Gorojovsky wrote: > There's no potential hyperinflation here. > > As to investment, yes, the criticisms are valid. > > But without consumption by the local population, what will that > investment be good for? The question is how consumption is financed and what is being consumed. If consumption-driven growth is mainly financed by temporarily raised revenues due to commodity booms, and what's being consumed is more imported goods than locally produced ones (especially if imports are increased in an effort to contain short-term inflation), the growth is vulnerable to commodity price volatility. This is much more a problem for countries like Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, and Bolivia than Argentina (whose revenue sources are far more diverse than Venezuela, etc.) or Brazil (which didn't pursue a populist growth strategy to begin with), though. > BTW and to Magud's horror, the Arg government has begun to tax > financial transactions, AT LAST! > > 35% tax, not bad. That is good news! Yoshie From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 14:13:34 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 16:13:34 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Why Pakistan Is Unlikely to Crack Down on Islamic Militants Message-ID: Posted on Fri, Aug. 01, 2008 Why Pakistan is unlikely to crack down on Islamic militants Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers last updated: August 01, 2008 10:05:22 PM WASHINGTON ? The Bush administration and its allies are pressing Pakistan to end its support for Afghan insurgents linked to al Qaida, but Pakistani generals are unlikely to be swayed because they increasingly see their interests diverging from those of the United States, U.S. and foreign experts said. The administration sought to ratchet up the pressure last month by sending top U.S. military and intelligence officials to Pakistan to confront officials there with intelligence linking Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence to the Taliban and other militant Islamist groups. When that failed to produce the desired response, U.S. officials told news organizations about the visit, and then revealed that the intelligence included an intercepted communication between ISI officers and a pro-Taliban network that carried out a July 7 bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The United States and Britain privately have demanded that Pakistan move against the Taliban's top leadership, which they contend is based near Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan Province, said a State Department official and a senior NATO defense official, who both requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. Pakistan has been given "a pretty unequivocal message" to end ISI support for the militants and shake up the top ranks of the intelligence agency, the senior NATO defense official said. On Friday, however, Pakistan vehemently rejected the allegations of ISI involvement in the Indian Embassy blast, which killed 41 and injured 141. U.S. officials and experts said there's little chance that Pakistan will take any of the actions it's been asked to take. "There is a limit to what we can do in Pakistan," said the State Department official. "The fact that we're reduced to trying to send messages to the Pakistanis by putting stories in (newspapers) tells you we don't have any good options," said a former senior intelligence official knowledgeable about South Asia. "It also suggests that the high-level, face-to-face contacts haven't worked so far. The trouble is, these kinds of public threats are likely to backfire." For one thing, the Taliban and other groups allied with al Qaida could respond to any Pakistani crackdown by stepping up attacks inside Pakistan, which is battling Islamic extremist violence, U.S. officials and experts said. Furthermore, they said, Pakistan's nearly dysfunctional, feud-riddled civilian government has little power over the Army and the ISI. The latest evidence was a botched attempt under U.S. pressure to put the agency under the Interior Ministry before Prime Minister Yousaf Gilani's three-day visit to Washington this week. Pakistani generals and other leaders are also infuriated by President Bush's pursuit of a strategic relationship with India, their foe in three wars, as embodied by a U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear cooperation pact that won United Nations approval Friday, the U.S. officials and experts said. "One thing we never understood is that India has always been the major threat for Pakistan," said former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlain, now the president of the Middle East Institute. Pakistan is alarmed by India's close ties to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and its growing influence in Afghanistan, where a $750 million Indian aid program includes the construction of a strategic highway that will open the landlocked country to Indian goods shipped through ports in Iran. Pakistan, which refuses to allow Indian products through its port of Karachi, has long coveted Afghanistan as a market, a trade route to central Asia and a rear area for its army in any new conflict with India. "Pakistan over the last several years has increasingly come to believe that it is being encircled by India and a U.S.-India-Afghan axis," said Seth Jones, an expert with the RAND Corp., a policy institute. For these reasons, Pakistan's military leaders may have decided to scale back their cooperation with the Bush administration's war against terrorism and boost support for the Taliban and other militant groups. "We have created a set of perverse incentives for the Pakistanis to continue their support for the Taliban," said a U.S. defense official, who requested anonymity to speak frankly. "Pakistan does not view the United States as a long-term player in the region and certainly doesn't view Pakistan's strategic interests as congruent with ours, and that divergence is getting larger, not smaller." Without a strategy to allay Pakistan's fears, U.S. officials and experts warned, there's little point in sending more U.S. and NATO troops to Afghanistan as Bush, Democratic candidate Barak Obama and his GOP rival, John McCain, all advocate. Pakistan vehemently denies backing the Taliban and other insurgents, pointing out that it's lost hundreds of troops in U.S.-funded counter-insurgency offensives. But many Afghan and U.S. officials scoff at Pakistan's denials, charging that the Taliban leadership operates undisturbed in Quetta and nearby tribal areas with ISI support, guidance, money and weapons. Bush, anxious to maintain Pakistani support in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al Qaida leaders, apparently believed that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, the former Army chief, would rein in the ISI. But that hope has proved to be misplaced. Truces forged by the ISI and the Pakistani army freed Taliban and other fighters to fight in Afghanistan, where the worst violence since the 2001 U.S. intervention is claiming higher U.S. casualties than in Iraq for the first time. On Friday, five more NATO troops were reported killed in eastern Afghanistan, a sector where U.S. troops are stationed. Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and CIA Deputy Director Stephen R. Kappes went to Pakistan to confront Prime Minister Gilani, Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Kayani and ISI Director Lt. Gen. Naveed Taj with the intelligence linking ISI officers to the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan. The Americans also documented other support that ISI officers have been giving the Taliban and other militant groups, including advance warnings of U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal region, said the State Department official and senior NATO defense official. "There is good evidence that elements of the ISI have re-engaged with the Taliban," said the senior NATO defense official. Gilani and his delegation heard similar complaints in Washington, according to American and Pakistani officials. Pakistan Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told a television interviewer that Bush asked during a White House meeting, "Who is in control of ISI?" More from McClatchy: Pakistan's intelligence agency 'is like a woman with multiple lovers' Pakistani leader reproaches Bush for missile strike From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 14:47:00 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 16:47:00 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Why Choose Now to Complain about Pakistan's ISI? Message-ID: The timing must be in large part due to the fact that the Congress Party of India has just succeeded in outmaneuvering the CPI(M) and moving the Indo-US nuclear pact forward. -- Yoshie August 1st, 2008 Why choose now to complain about Pakistan's ISI? Posted by: Myra MacDonald Why now? Until this week, the ISI was an acronym for Pakistan's powerful spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, that was little known outside of South Asia. Now it's all over the American media as the organisation accused of secretly helping Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while the country it works for is a crucial ally in the U.S. battle against al Qaeda and the Taliban. The New York Times led the charge by reporting that the CIA had confronted Pakistan [LINK: ] over what it called deepening ties between members of the ISI and militant groups responsible for a surge in violence in Afghanistan. It followed it up with a story [LINK: ] quoting U.S. government officials blaming the ISI for an attack last month on the Indian embassy in Kabul. The Washington Post [LINK: ] and TIME [LINK: ], amongst others, ran similar stories. File photo of Indian parliamentWhenever you see a deluge of stories in the media quoting government or intelligence officials, it's always worth asking why those unnamed officials have chosen this particular moment to speak out. The accusations against the ISI ? denied by Pakistan [LINK: ] ? are not new. India has complained for years about the role of the ISI in supporting the insurgency in Kashmir. It threatened to go to war in 2001/2002 over a December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that it blamed on militants backed by the ISI, a charge denied by Pakistan. The debate within India at the time was very similar to the one you can find today in the U.S. media ? how much do the ruling authorities in Pakistan control the ISI, and to what extent is it a monolithic disciplined organisation, and to what extent does it have renegade members who might follow their own agenda? More importantly, perhaps, in the current context, is how the Americans viewed the ISI. The U.S. diplomats I knew in India had no illusions about the ISI, although publicly they refused to take sides as they tried ? successfully as it turned out ? to persuade Islamabad and Delhi to stand down from a conflict that threatened to undermine America's post 9/11 efforts to tame Afghanistan. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, the CIA worked closely with the ISI to arm, train and fund the mujahideen. Between them they drove the Russians out of Afghanistan and helped bring down the Soviet Union. There can be no closer relationship between two countries' spy agencies than that. The CIA knows, and has long known, the ISI ? perhaps better than any other country's intelligence services. So I come back to my original question. Why turn on them now? There are, of course, obvious answers. Pakistan's new government, elected in February, just made a botched attempt to bring the ISI under civilian control. Its subsequent retraction served only to highlight the power of the ISI [LINK: ]. The Americans and their allies are suffering heavy losses in Afghanistan, while going into a presidential election where the war in Iraq, and the U.S. failure to hunt down al Qaeda and the Taliban, have become a major issue. But I can't help but wonder whether those unnamed officials now so keen to talk to the media are spinning a line. There have long been arguments within the CIA about how to handle the ISI, with agents based in Kabul generally arguing in favour of confrontation and those in Islamabad backing cooperation. So is what we are seeing in the U.S. media a reflection of a battle within the CIA over rival views on how to handle Pakistan and the ISI? Maybe. Or is it a reflection of actual events, including the increase in violence in Afghanistan, the renewed focus on Iraq/al Qaeda created by the U.S. presidential election, the speculation about whether the United States will send its troops into Pakistan to hunt down leaders of al Qaeda and the Taliban, and heightened tensions between India and Pakistan over the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul? Maybe. I am not asking these questions in the kind of rhetorical way that suggests that I already know the answer. I'm asking because I don't know. April photo of a support holding a poster of Saddam Hussain/Saba al BazeeBut I am just a little bit suspicious when I see the media all heading in the same direction. It feels uncannily similar to the way the media quoted unnamed officials about WMD to justify the invasion of Iraq. Many countries had been suspicious of Saddam Hussein since the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. But having ignored that for years, there was suddenly a groundswell of opinion to remove him. Are we now seeing a similar groundswell against Pakistan? Once again, I don't know the answer, but suggest only that there is a need to ask why people have chosen this moment to talk. Otherwise we prove the old cliche true, that "we learn from history that we don't learn from history." (A word on comments. I write this blog because I want to hear what people have to say. Many people have posted excellent comments that have moved the debate forward. But please don't swear and don't abuse others. And stick to the subject. We're in the 21st century here so let's not go back to 1947.) From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 15:00:16 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 17:00:16 -0400 Subject: [A-List] The Crisis in Pakistan Message-ID: The Crisis in Pakistan posted by Robert Dreyfuss on 08/01/2008 @ 02:51am Here's a choice for would be foreign policy makers: is the solution to the current crisis in Pakistan (a) a comprehensive Pakistan-India accord, with full Iranian and Russian support, to strengthen Pakistan's civilian government and assert civilian control over Pakistan's rogue ISI intelligence agency, or (b) stepped-up US military intervention in Afghanistan, unilateral US strikes into Pakistan's lawless border areas in the northwest, and thuggish American threats aimed at Pakistan's fledging regime? If you picked (a), good for you. If you picked (b), well, the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain might offer you a job. Recent revelations in the New York Times about Pakistan's ISI and its ties to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, including reports that the ISI was indeed responsible [LINK: ] for the deadly bombing at India's embassy in Afghanistan, have pushed the Afghan-Pakistan-India nexus to the very front of the news. But greater US attacks and more US troops in Afghanistan aren't the answer. The answer lies in talks between India and Pakistan. India's Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's Yousuf Raza Gilani, the two leaders, held the first meeting between leaders of the two countries in fifteen months this week, and Pakistan's foreign minister was optimistic [LINK: ], saying that the talks had helped "clear the air" between the two nuclear-armed rivals which have fought three wars, two over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. "A lot of steam had been let out of the pressure cooker. The dish we're going to cook is going to be for the betterment of the region," he said. Trudy Rubin, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer [cf. ], described the comments of Pakistan's foreign minister on the importance of improving India-Pakistan ties: Better relations with India "are a top priority," Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi told guests, emphatically, at a recent private dinner in Villanova, organized by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. Speaking the elegant English of a Cambridge University graduate, he insisted: "There is a large constituency on both sides that wants normalization. There may be hiccups, but we will forge ahead." This policy--if Pakistan's new civilian government really pursues it--is of crucial importance to the United States and the wider world. Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Quereshi said here on Thursday that Islamabad's response to a blast outside the Pakistan consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, was "measured" and it adopted the same attitude towards the blast outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul. "We believe charges and counter-charges would not help. It is easy to indulge in blame game. What we need is solutions to resolve issues," he told journalists. Of course, the problems between India and Pakistan aren't just hiccups. The United States, Afghanistan, and India have all accused Pakistan's ISI of supporting the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other anti-Indian terrorist groups in a campaign of violence against India. And Pakistan, not without some justification, has accused India and Afghanistan of supporting terrorists [LINK: ] against Pakistan in that country's Baluchistan province and elsewhere: Ruling Pakistan People's Party leader Rehman Malik, who functions as the interior minister and is a confidant of party chief Asif Ali Zardari, appealed to Pakistan's western allies, including the US, to stop India and Afghanistan's alleged activities. "India wants to destabilise FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas). What India and (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai are doing must stop. They must stop this," he told reporters in Washington yesterday. ? Though Pakistan has always blamed foreign hands for stirring trouble in Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province, this is the first time since the February 18 election that a senior government official has blamed India for fomenting unrest in the country. Pakistan has seen the Islamists are critical to securing Islamabad's control of Afghanistan since the 1970s, and it sees controlling Afghanistan as a way of countering Indian influence in the region. India, for its part, has worked closely with Iran and Russia over the years against Pakistan and the Taliban, and India used its ties to the non-Islamist, non-Pashtun Northern Alliance in Afghanistan as a way of weakening Pakistani influence in Iran and central Asia. (For most of the years after the 1970s, the United States supported Pakistan, the Islamists, and even the Taliban.) It ain't beanbag when two nuclear powers start accusing each other of close-to-war actions. Is this the kind of situation in which the United States wants to go into, guns blazing? I hope not. The remote chance that some nutball Islamists in Al Qaeda might do something nasty to the United States pales in significance against the real-world threats to the people of Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan posed by Islamic fundamentalists and other extremists, including Hindu fanatics. In fact, the United States is singularly ill-equipped to go bungling into that part of the world like some drunken sheriff. Last time we did, post-1979, when we supported the Afghan warlords and Islamist crazies against the USSR, we helped create the very problem we're trying to solve now. Many of the extremists holed up in Quetta, the Northwest Frontier Province, and the tribal agencies are people America armed and trained a generation ago. So let's let India and the new government of Pakistan handle their own problems. They'll need immense diplomatic support from the rest of the world, including the UN and the US, but also including Iran, Russia, China, and others. Pakistan is fragile. It's new government, having already lost one major coalition partner, is trying to bring ISI under civilian control at the same time they are trying to force General Pervez Musharraf out of office and reorganize the corrupt, pro-Islamist army command. For my part, I believe they'll do better without heavy-handed US threats, which only aid extremists and ultranationalists. From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 15:42:25 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 17:42:25 -0400 Subject: [A-List] IMF and WB Pressure Africa Finance Chiefs on China Funds Message-ID: Africa finance chiefs eye consensus on China funds Fri Aug 1, 2008 6:39am EDT By Daniel Magnowski and Vincent Fertey NOUAKCHOTT, Aug 1 (Reuters) - African finance ministers and central bankers met IMF and World Bank counterparts on Friday hoping to hammer out guidelines on handling a tide of new investment into the continent, much from resource-hungry China. China, Brazil and India have been tying up infrastructure and loan deals in Africa, often in return for oil, metals and other resources they need to fuel their fast-growing economies. Traditional lenders like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank worry African states now benefiting from debt relief may run up new debt mountains they may find hard to sustain, especially if a commodities boom runs out of steam. "We decided to set aside a day to talk about non-traditional financing sources, that is, China, India, Brazil and sovereign wealth funds, in order to clarify the way the IMF and World Bank appreciate the interests of these new sources of financing in Africa," said Ousmane Kane, Mauritanian central bank governor and president of the African Caucus of the IMF and World Bank. The Caucus meeting in Mauritania, bringing together central bankers and finance ministers from the poorest continent, will hold a session to agree a common position on new investors, increasingly used as alternatives to traditional lenders. Besides loans, deals with China often involve Chinese workers building roads and other infrastructure projects, while natural resources move the other way, and the sums are awesome. IMF officials say they must examine the debt implications of a $9 billion mining and infrastructure deal between China and Democratic Republic of Congo before deciding if Congo will qualify for an IMF programme and subsequent debt relief package. Opposition politicians and anti-graft groups in Niger have criticised the lack of transparency surrounding a deal between the government and China's state oil company CNCP which could be worth $5 billion to one of the poorest countries on earth. RESPONDING TO AFRICA'S NEEDS "The advantage of the new financiers is that they respond to a need that Africa has, which is infrastructure, whereas traditional donors focus on things like education," said a finance official at the meeting who declined to be named. "An issue to be discussed is the way these loans are backed by mines and oilfields, which in the long-term is a big concern," he said. Despite rising prices for many of Africa's commodity exports in recent years, many economists worry countries which have benefited from huge debt forgiveness packages risk plunging into a new round of unsustainable borrowing from new lenders eager to secure access to oil and minerals. "A big concern is debt. Lots of debt has just been wiped out, and now with China coming, are we going to see a new cycle? Prices of oil and other resources are high at the moment, but if prices drop, African countries will still have to pay interest on loans from China," the delegate said. African countries, rather than lenders, must be responsible for fully assessing the future obligations to which they commit by accepting loans from new sources, Mauritania's Kane said. "We are for transparency ... The meeting aims to clarify the position between traditional and non-traditional financing sources, but most important is that Africa has to give its position to these non-traditional sources, to tell them what they have to do for us," he said. The Chinese Developent Bank's presence at the IMF-World Bank meeting demonstrated the sea change in African finance in recent years. "Like it or not, China is a big part of Africa now," another delegate said. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com) (Editing by Alistair Thomson and Stephen Nisbet) From james.irldaly at ntlworld.com Sat Aug 2 16:28:41 2008 From: james.irldaly at ntlworld.com (james daly) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 23:28:41 +0100 Subject: [A-List] Brian Keenan's dilemma -- the class and the national question, war and "peace" Message-ID: <62D6A5918A5E4F9BB270175B440A2805@home9sg93n9r5y> I was forwarded the following material which Jack Conrad published in the CPGB Weekly Worker. I pass it on as information to the list, as one view of Sinn Fein's trajectory, and of its political relevance for someone who started out trying to keep the class and the national struggle in Ireland united, but ended up helping to frustrate both. I have divided the material into several postings. -- J. D. Prisoner B26380's dilemma Brian Keenan died on May 21 2008. For many he was a revolutionary hero. Some compare him to James Connolly, Vo Nguyen Giap, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, and Joe Slovo. Not just because of his role in the Irish Republican Army's armed struggle, but his lifelong commitment to the working class. Jack Conrad writes an appreciation Speaking shortly after his death, a grateful Sinn F?in president, Gerry Adams, paid a glowing tribute to Brian Keenan, his energy and unswerving loyalty to the republican movement. After all, Keenan had been vital to him in securing acceptance within the IRA for the peace process (see www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/29159). But comrade Keenan considered himself a Marxist, a communist and an internationalist. So an equivocal or conditional ally of Adams. Never an unalloyed enthusiast for the peace process, let alone a constitutional nationalist. Keenan discovered communism through the 'official' CPGB. To begin with at least, his communism was therefore an anti-Stalin Stalinism. Basically, he accepted what passed for the Soviet state's global strategy: ie, a grand alliance between the so-called socialist countries, the workers' movement in the west and the forces of national liberation. As a young man Keenan lived and worked in Luton and then Northampton. This was during the early 1960s. He became an active trade unionist and met industrial cadre from the 'official' CPGB's South East Midlands district. Of lasting importance was the fact that he was introduced to the writings of C Desmond Greaves, author of the influential The life and times of James Connolly (1961). Throughout the rest of Keenan's life Connolly served as something of a role model. Without the struggle for national freedom, socialism was impossible. Without socialism, national freedom was worthless. In other words, for Connolly - and Keenan - the two struggles had to be combined. In a farewell interview with An Phoblacht in April 2008 a dying Keenan told how it was the civil rights movement in 1968 that served as his political apprenticeship. Keenan's reason for getting "involved in violent confrontation with the state was not the IRA, not republican politics, not republican ideology. The trigger was the civil rights movement" (www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/27259). A wide spectrum of opinion co-existed within its ranks: communist trade unionists, social democratic nationalists, republicans, liberal protestants, radical students, etc. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association demanded 'one person, one vote' and 'equal housing allocation'. For a year or so it enjoyed leaping success. That said, in the name of preserving 'tremendous diversity', Nicra studiously avoided confronting the national question in Ireland and therefore quickly met its political limits and sank into irrelevance. By 1969 Northern Ireland was gripped by what can only be described as a revolutionary situation. Catholic areas in Belfast and Derry came under sustained attack from unionist mobs and 'B specials' (a sectarian police force). The battle for Bogside erupted. 'Ethnic cleansing' occurred on a large scale. Hundreds of catholic families were driven from their homes. The struggle entered a new, violent stage. Barricades ringed catholic-Irish areas and ad hoc self-administration followed. The Dublin government vaguely muttered about military intervention. A panicked Harold Wilson rushed in the British army to rescue the crisis-ridden Unionist regime. However, not least with the help of ?100,000 secretly channelled in from Fianna F?il bigwigs in the south, the IRA re-emerged as a serious force. The long war in Northern Ireland had begun. Perhaps surprisingly, given his political background, Keenan sided with the Provisionals, not the Officials, when the republican movement split in December 1969. (Official Sinn F?in, later the Workers Party, was heavily influenced by 'official communism'.) Being on the ground, Keenan saw in no uncertain terms that the 'stickies' had treacherously deserted the beleaguered catholic masses in the Six Counties. Inevitably, though, Keenan found himself ideologically far removed from the Se?n Mac St?of?in leadership of the Provisionals: i.e. the traditional physical-force nationalists. He emphatically stated: "I was against nationalism and I was critical of republicans in the movement in the late 1960s-early 70s who limited their politics to nationalism" (www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/27259). Initially Keenan found himself regarded rather coolly. Rumour amongst the Provisionals was that he was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. Mistrust soon became its opposite, however. Keenan earned a reputation as a brave fighter and a strategic thinker. Living the life of the professional revolutionary, constantly on the move, single-mindedly working for the cause, he steadily rose up the ranks of the IRA to the highest levels. He played a leading role in ensuring that IRA volunteers were equipped with modern weaponry. Armalites replaced Lee Enfields. Valuable contacts were made in Libya, Syria, US, Palestine, and eastern Europe by Keenan. Along with Martin McGuinness, he was responsible for winning the IRA to reorganise into tightly knit cells (a plan originated by Gerry Adams, then languishing in Long Kesh). Keenan also oversaw the IRA campaign to take the war to Britain - i.e. bombings and assassinations. He became something approaching public enemy No1. However, in 1979 the RUC arrested Keenan. Extradited to England, he was sentenced at the Old Bailey to 18 years. The IRA dispatched an active service unit, including Bobby Sands, to rescue him. It failed, sad to say. From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sat Aug 2 20:09:24 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:09:24 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Nuking the Treaty Message-ID: <48951354.60102@attglobal.net> Iran is the least of the world's offenders against non-proliferation. by George Monbiot Published in the Guardian (July 28 2008) What is the Iranian government up to? For once the imperial coalition, overstretched in Iraq and unpopular at home, is proposing jaw, not war. The UN Security Council's offer was a good one: if Iran suspended its uranium enrichment programme, it would be entitled to legally guaranteed supplies of fuel for nuclear power, assistance in building a light water reactor, foreign aid, technology transfer and the beginning of the end of economic sanctions {1}. The United States seems prepared, for the first time since the revolution, to open a diplomatic office in Tehran {2}. But in Geneva ten days ago, the Iranians filibustered until the negotiations ended {3}. On Saturday President Ahmadinejad announced that Iran has now doubled the number of centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium {4}. A fourth round of sanctions looks inevitable. The unequivocal statements Barack Obama and Gordon Brown made in Israel last week about Iran's nuclear weapons programme cannot yet be justified {5, 6}. Nor can the unequivocal statements by some anti-war campaigners that Iran does not intend to build the bomb. Why would a country with such reserves of natural gas and so great a potential for solar power suffer sanctions and the threat of bombing to make fuel it could buy from other states, if it accepted the UN's terms? Those who maintain that Iran's purposes are peaceful clutch at the National Intelligence Estimate published by the US government in November {7}. While it judged that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, it saw the country's civilian uranium programme as a means of developing "technical capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so". The latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency notes that no fissile material has been diverted from Iran's stocks, but raises grave questions about some of the documents it has found, which suggest research into bomb-making {Iran says the papers are forgeries) {8}. Those of us who oppose an attack on Iran are under no obligation to accept Ahmadinejad's claims of peaceful intent. Nor do we have to accept the fictions of our own representatives. The Security Council's offer to Iran claimed that resolving this enrichment issue would help to bring about a "Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction" {9}. But like every other such document, it made no mention of the principal owner of these weapons in the region: Israel. According to a leaked briefing by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Israel possesses between sixty and eighty nuclear bombs {10}. But none of the countries demanding that Iran scraps the weapons it doesn't yet possess are demanding that Israel destroys the weapons it does possess. This subject is the great political taboo. Neither Brown nor Obama mentioned it last week. The US intelligence agencies provide a biannual report to Congress on the weapons of mass destruction developed by foreign states, which covers Iran, North Korea, India, Pakistan and others, but not Israel {11}. During a parliamentary debate in March the British defence minister Bob Ainsworth was asked whether he thought that Israel's nuclear weapons are "a destabilising factor" in the Middle East. "My understanding", he replied, "is that Israel does not acknowledge that it has nuclear weapons" {12}. Does Mr Ainsworth really buy this nonsense? If so, can we have a new minister? If Iran builds a bomb, it will do so for one reason: that there is already a nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, by which it feels threatened. But we make the rules and we break them. The non-proliferation treaty (NPT) obliges the five official nuclear states, of which the United Kingdom is one, to work towards "general and complete disarmament" {13}. On Friday the Guardian published the notes for a speech made last year by a senior civil servant, which suggested that the decision to replace the UK's nuclear missiles had already been made, in secret and without parliamentary scrutiny {14, 15}. Since then defence ministers have told the Commons on five occasions that the decision has not yet been made {16, 17, 18, 19, 20}. They appear to have misled the House. At the Geneva conference on disarmament in February, one delegate pointed out that the "chances of eliminating nuclear weapons will be enhanced immeasurably" if non-nuclear states can see "planning, commitment and action toward multilateral nuclear disarmament by nuclear weapon states" like the UK. If the nuclear states "are failing to fulfil their disarmament obligations", other nations would use this as an excuse for maintaining their weapons {21}. Who was this firebrand? Des Browne, the Secretary of State for Defence. A man of the same name is failing to fulfil our disarmament obligations. Browne claims that Britain must maintain its arsenal because of proliferation elsewhere, just as those proliferating elsewhere say that they must develop their arsenals because the official nuclear nations aren't disarming. With the exception of France, none of the other European states feels the need to deploy nukes. But the UK keeps preparing for the last war. Of course, no one is refusing to disarm; it's just that the task keeps getting pushed into the indefinite future. Opponents of British nuclear weapons maintain that a new generation of warheads would survive until 2055 {22}. The permanent members of the UN Security Council draw a distinction between their "responsible" ownership of nuclear weapons and that of the aspirant powers. But over the past six years, the UK, US, France and Russia have all announced that they are prepared to use their nukes pre-emptively against a presumed threat, even from states that do not possess nuclear weapons {23, 24, 25, 26}. In some ways the current nuclear stand-off is more dangerous than the tetchy d?tente of the Cold War. The danger has been heightened by the US government's current offensive. Condoleeza Rice, the secretary of state, is demanding that other countries accept her plans to destroy the last remaining incentive for states to abide by the NPT {27, 28}. The treaty grants countries which conform to it materials for nuclear power on favourable terms. It's a flawed incentive - as the spread of civil nuclear programmes makes the proliferation of military material more likely {29} - but an incentive nonetheless. Now Rice insists that India should have special access to US nuclear materials despite the fact that it has not signed the NPT and has illegally developed nuclear weapons. If she is successful, this effort - and the concomitant US demand that India is recognised as an official nuclear power - will blow the NPT to kingdom come. The treaty which survived the Cold War, and which remains the most important of the wilting guarantees against global annihilation, is being nuked for the sake of a few billion dollars of export orders. Here's where it gets really depressing. The Bush administration's proposal has been supported by both John McCain and Barack Obama {30}. The contrast between Obama's position on India and his statements on Iran could not be greater, or more destructive of the inflated hopes now vested in him. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's insistence that Iran enriches its own fissile material, and the guessing game he is playing with Israel, the atomic energy agency and the UN Security Council is irresponsible and staggeringly dangerous. But if I were in his position I might be tempted to do the same. www.monbiot.com References: 1. UN Security Council, 12th June 2008. Letter to the Islamic Republic of Iran. http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/2008/infcirc730.pdf 2. Ewen MacAskill, 18th July 2008. Iran: US will seek green light to open base in Tehran. The Guardian. 3. Julian Borger, 20th July 2008. Iran given two-week deadline to end the nuclear impasse. The Observer. 4. No author given, 27th July 2008. Iran: Nuclear centrifuge total has doubled. The Observer. 5. Barack Obama, 23rd July 2008. Speech in Sderot. http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hqblog#top 6. Gordon Brown, 21st July 2008. Speech to the Knesset. http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page16003.asp 7. National Intelligence Council, November 2007. National Intelligence Estimate. http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20071203_release.pdf 8. IAEA, 26th May 2008. Implementation of the NPT SafeguardsAgreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007) and 1803 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran. http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Board/2008/gov2008-15.pdf 9. UN Security Council, ibid. 10. US DIA, July 1999. The Decades Ahead, 1999-202. Extracted at: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/index.html 11. Joseph Cirincione, 11th March 2005. Iran and Israel's Nuclear Weapons. http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=3217 12. Bob Ainsworth, 26th March 2008. http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080326/halltext/80326h0009.htm 13. Article VI. http://www.un.org/events/npt2005/npttreaty.html 14. Matthew Taylor, 25th July 2008. Britain plans to spend GBP 3 billion on new nuclear warheads. The Guardian. 15. You can see the document here: http://www.cnduk.org/index.php/press-releases/trident/secret-plan-to-replace-nuclear-warheads-parliament-misled.html 16. Bob Ainsworth, 26th March 2008. 17. Des Browne, 7th January 2008. 18. Des Browne, 28th November 2007. 19. Des Browne, 19th November 2007. 20. Des Browne, 12 September 2007. 21. Des Browne, 5th February 2008. 'Laying the Foundations for Multilateral Disarmament'. Geneva Conference on Disarmament. http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/People/Speeches/SofS/20080205layingTheFoundationsForMultilateralDisarmament.htm 22. Matthew Taylor, ibid. 23. This was first mentioned by Geoff Hoon, 24th March 2002 on The Jonathan Dimbleby Show, ITV 1, and has been reiterated several times since. 24. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/pdfs/migrated/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/US-joint-nuclear-operations.pdf 25. No author given, 19th January 2008. Pre-Emptive Nuclear Threat Issued By Russian General Yuri Baluyevsky. Sky News. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20082851301432 26. Jacques Chirac, quoted by John Thornhill and Peter Spiegel, 20th January 2006. The Financial Times. 27. No author give, 26th July 2008. Condoleezza Rice Paks a proliferation punch. The Economic Times. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Condoleezza_Rice_Paks_a_proliferation_punch/articleshow/3281756.cms 28. Sue Pleming, 24th July 2008. Rice says will push Congress hard on India deal. Reuters. 29. http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/09/21/proliferation-treaty/ 30. Elana Schor, 22nd July 2008. Q&A: India's stalled nuclear deal with the US. The Guardian. http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/07/29/nuking-the-treaty/ http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 22:29:02 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 00:29:02 -0400 Subject: [A-List] CHILE: Copper Boom - Cui Bono? Message-ID: CHILE: Copper Boom - Cui Bono? By Daniela Estrada SANTIAGO, Jan 11 (IPS) - According to global forecasts, the price of copper, Chile's main export, will remain high in 2008 thanks to strong demand from China. But just who will benefit from this bonanza is up for debate. Chile is the world's largest producer and exporter of copper, with a 35 percent market share, and the biggest global reserves. According to the state Chilean Copper Commission (COCHILCO), the country produced 5,361 tons of copper concentrate in 2006, nearly five times as much as its closest competitor, the United States, which produced 1,226 tons. Peru followed, with 1,049 tons. The Chilean state controls just 30 percent of the total output, through the National Copper Corporation (CODELCO). The remaining 70 percent is in private hands. In 1966, the government of Christian Democrat President Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964-1970) "Chileanised" copper by purchasing 51 percent of the shares in mines worked by foreign companies. Then in 1971, Socialist President Salvador Allende (1970-1973) expropriated the private mining companies and nationalised the copper industry before he was overthrown by a military coup. But under the dictatorship of the late General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), laws were passed to promote the reopening of the industry to private companies, even though the Chilean constitution says that "the state has absolute, exclusive, inalienable and imprescriptible domain over all mines." This was done by granting concessions, which in practice allow private firms to treat mines as their private property. The system has attracted a large number of foreign investors, mainly since the return to democracy in 1990. But for critics, the new legislation is unconstitutional and signifies the denationalisation of copper. Debate on these issues has heated up because of the high international prices for copper seen since 2003. According to a COCHILCO report, the average price of copper for 2007 was 323 cents of a dollar per pound on the London Metal Exchange. That is 5.9 percent higher than the average for 2006, and is the highest nominal value in history and the third highest in real terms, after 1966 and 1969 (361 and 325 cents per pound, respectively), the December report says. "Some of the world's most respected companies and institutions in copper futures are saying that copper prices will fluctuate between 280 and 360 cents per pound in 2008, with an average of approximately 325 cents, similar to that of 2007," Gustavo Lagos, head of the Catholic University's Mining Centre, told IPS. "In 2009, the average price is predicted to be under 300 cents per pound, and in 2010 it is expected to be around 270," said Lagos. Despite the falling trend, these prospects are excellent, given that in 2003 the price per pound was 70 cents of a dollar. "There was no such extended copper boom in the 20th century. These very high prices, of over three dollars a pound, are likely to last for at least three years, 2006, 2007 and 2008, which is unprecedented," said the engineer. In Lagos' view, the run of high copper prices can be explained by two simultaneous global phenomena. These are, on one hand, "the unexpected rise in Chinese demand for commodities," including copper which is used in building infrastructure, and on the other hand, "the inability of the mining industry, in the short term, to supply the quantities it had promised, because of underinvestment" since 1998, he said. "The long-term price of copper will remain high, above 130 cents, unless there is world over-production, such as the transnational mining companies in Chile created between 1995 and 2000," economist Orlando Caputo, head of the Centre for Studies on Transnationalisation, Economics and Society (CETES), told IPS. Caputo's career has been in academia, except for the period when he was named general manager of CODELCO by Allende, from 1970 to 1973. Along with some lawmakers belonging to the centre-left coalition that has governed Chile since 1990, and subcontracted CODELCO workers who organised a major strike in mid-2007, Caputo holds the view that copper should be renationalised in order to finance wage increases, greater social spending and economic diversification. But in September, the lower chamber of congress rejected a draft statement calling on President Michelle Bachelet to move towards renationalisation. Gustavo Lagos, by contrast, says that "the future of copper in Chile can be splendid, significant, or plain irrelevant or negative, depending on how we handle it as a nation. Our development does not depend on foreign companies, nor imperialism, nor ghosts from our past; it depends on whether we do things properly." This, he says, means maintaining the present tax rates to ensure private investment over the coming years, drawing greater talent into the industry, removing barriers so that transnational mining companies can bring in technological innovation, and improving the management of CODELCO to increase its competitiveness, "because there are signs that it may not be competitive in the future." Due to the high prices, the industry's contribution to gross domestic product (GDP), measured at current prices, rose from 8.3 percent in 2003 to 23 percent in 2006. In 2006, CODELCO contributed 9.2 billion dollars to the state coffers -- over 20 percent of total revenue. And in 2007, the state received some 16 billion dollars from CODELCO profits and taxes on private mining companies. But the state mining company faced a series of labour conflicts in 2007, led by subcontracted workers who want equal wages and benefits to those of company employees doing the same jobs. The latest tension broke out late last year, when the Labour Ministry, which had completed a review of subcontracting practices in the mining industry, ordered CODELCO to directly hire 5,000 workers who are subcontracted in contravention of the recent Subcontracting Law. CODELCO refused, and has appealed in court. On Jan. 3, subcontracted mineworkers held protests demanding that the Labour Ministry's ruling be implemented. Two hundred protestors were arrested. Lagos says that subcontracting workers is one of the reasons for CODELCO's loss of productivity. Caputo, in turn, says that the subcontracted workers' demands are fair, because of their low pay and the physically demanding nature of work in the mining industry. Caputo also says that "there is a scramble for plunder going on within CODELCO. Former CODELCO employees are now owners of contracting firms, and some politicians are also involved in outsourcing." The Mining Ministry's public report for 2007 says that mining development has brought about considerable poverty reduction. "The mining regions of Tarapac?, Antofagasta and Atacama have poverty levels that are below the national poverty rate" of 13.7 percent, it says. Mining has generated more and better jobs, development of physical infrastructure, opportunities for companies to supply goods and services and the incorporation of new technology, among other benefits, it says. Among the proposals made by political and social sectors on how to make the most of the boom are improvements in education, investing in public capital goods (mainly in the health sector), supporting small and medium-sized businesses and spending more on the regions. In May, Bachelet announced that an additional 600 million dollars from copper earnings would be spent on education in 2008, but the government's economic policy is mainly based on investing savings abroad. Caputo complained that private mining companies made profits of nearly 20 billion dollars in 2006, which according to his calculations were equivalent to 17 percent of the country's GDP, 75 percent of the national budget, and twice the combined budgets of the Health and Education Ministries. In his view, the specific tax on mining approved in 2005 is too low. For 2007, it brought in revenues of approximately 670 million dollars, which are to be spent on technological innovation and development. "The Chilean state has no national development plan. That word (plan) is prohibited. Everything is left up to the market. Everyone talks about improving productivity factors, such as human capital, and generating conditions for higher productivity. But that isn't enough," said Caputo. According to Lagos, labour strife as well as international turbulence caused by the U.S. mortgage crisis may affect copper prices in 2008. (END/2008) From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 23:06:30 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 01:06:30 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Yet Another Celebration of Slow Growth in Brazil + A Booming Brazil? Just Another Myth Created by the Press Message-ID: Yet Another Celebration of Slow Growth in Brazil Brazil is a large country with a population of more than 190 million people. For this reason it is a position to command attention in world politics. It does not have an especially robust economy, in spite of efforts by the media to tell us otherwise. The NYT gives us another story today touting the success of Brazil's economy. While its economy has been performing better under the current administration than it did in the 80s or 90s, its economy has still not been growing rapidly in comparison with successful developing countries. Countries like China, India, and Russia, with whom Brazil is often compared, have enjoyed per capita GDP growth of more than 7 percent over the last 6 years. By comparison, Brazil's per capita GDP growth has averaged just 2.5 percent over this period. This rate of growth is weak for a developing country and makes Brazil one of the slower growing countries in Latin America over this period. While its growth rate exceeded that of Mexico (2.0 percent), it is well behind the growth rate of Argentina (7.5 percent), Chile and Columbia (both 3.6 percent), and Peru (4.9 percent). It would be helpful if the media would do a better job of putting Brazil's growth rate in perspective. --Dean Baker A Booming Brazil? Just Another Myth Created by the Press Written by Daniel Torres Thursday, 24 July 2008 04:43 The international media is infatuated with the Brazilian economy. Almost every week there is a new article adulating the Brazilian economic 'miracle.' Although these newspapers make accurate claims they also tend to frequently embellish the truth. A good example is in a recent online article published by The Guardian South American correspondent Rory Carrol, on Brazil, stating that, "Fiscal prudence and market-friendly policies have delivered economic stability and solid, if unspectacular growth (1)." The assertion that Brazil's economy, under Lula, experienced "solid, if unspectacular growth" lacks merit with no statistical evidence to support such claims but such statements are frequently touted by most mainstream newspapers. Many articles are correct to note the improvements to the economy. A growing number of Brazilians are purchasing goods on credit stimulating economic activity in various sectors. The minimum wage is growing and prices are relatively stable. Most of the economic improvements have been relegated to the external economic sector. Unfortunately, this sector is distant from the reality of average Brazilians. The stock market and financial market have undergone spectacular growth led by the rapid infusion of foreign investment. The growth in the financial sector does not in correlate to the increase experienced by the Brazilian economy. Since 2003, the export-led economy produced very strong results. For the first time in its history, Brazil holds slightly less than 200 billion dollars in its foreign reserves far surpassing its total external debt (2). Brazil is a net creditor (3). The Lula government made early repayments to both the IMF and to the Paris Club. In 2007, Brazil had 64 Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) raising US$ 42.8 billion with much of inflow originating from abroad. Since 2002, the S?o Paulo stock exchange, Bovespa, grew by 1,250 percentage points (4). Recently, Bovespa surpassed the 70,000 benchmark for the first time ever. Even CNN's news ticker mentioned this historic feat. For the past five years the trade surplus has comfortably exceeded US$ 35 billion helping to push the current account from deficit to surplus. The risk of default on Brazil's external debt has dropped to historically low levels (5). Last year, international investors sent Brazil over US$ 35 billion in foreign investment. The international debt agencies, of Fitch and Standard & Poor's, raised Brazil to the safest "investment grade" level securing it a new reputation as a low risk place for international investors (6). Petrobras, Vale do Rio Doce, and Embraer are just three Brazilian multinationals active in the global economy of today. These achievements did not go unrecognized by the likes of the Los Angeles Times. Like the Guardian article, it extols that, "After several boom-and-bust cycles in recent decades, Brazil is in the midst of its best sustained economic growth since the 1970s." Brazil's economic growth rate in the 1970s averaged 7 to 8% per year, a number almost three times the current economic growth rate. More importantly, Brazil is not experiencing a sustained economic growth worth noting. The author goes on to write that, "Economic growth will come in at 5.3 % this year, lower than the hemisphere's 5.7%, but quite a feat for a country that over the previous 10 years averaged only 2.5% annual expansion" (7). Although the figures cited are accurate, it provides a distorted impression that an economic boom is taking place by using the economic growth figure for only one year. The article then recites how the financial-stock sector boom is developing rapidly, which is true and positive, but it only furthers the perception that a new Brazilian miracle is occurring. Surprisingly absent is what percentage of Brazilians own stocks or how many purchased IPOs last year? I wonder why these figures are missing? By noting these improvements many journalists logically conclude that Brazil's economy is entering a period of unprecedented growth. For the financial sector, it is undeniable that there is growth bringing about relative economic stability but there is another economy, arguably more important, that is at best stagnant. A closer assessment of Brazil's internal, or domestic, economy is seriously lacking. The belief that economic growth is expanding rapidly is mistakenly absent. The economic truth is more somber. Since 1996, economic growth has been mired in a cycle of one year boom followed by years of stagnation. The external accounts, frequently touted as success by Western journalists, are beginning to show signs of fragility. Also, the lack of serious investment in the future deters economic development. The economy stagnated throughout President Lula's first term in office (2003-2006). Lula's first-term average growth rate is equal to Fernando Henrique Cardoso's, his predecessor; a lethargic 2.6% (8). During Lula' first term in office, the economy only grew more than 4%, in 2004, reaching 4.9% (revised to 5.7%). A more accurate growth measure is the per capita growth rate, which factors in the growth of population. Under Lula's tenure per capita grew by 1.2%, a slight improvement from Cardoso's overall average of 0.8% (9). In fact, over the past 10 years, per capita growth has averaged 0.7% (10). In contrast, in the 1960s and 70s, average per capita went up by 4.5% (11). Last year, the economic statistics were revised under a new methodology. Average economic growth for Lula's first term was revised upward to 3.35% (12). Lula's overall average growth rate from 2003 to 2007 is 3.76%. Although this average economic rate is faster than Cardoso's average growth rate of 2.3% over his 8 years in office (13). Since 2003, growth in Brazil can only be described as lackluster when compared globally. Since 2003, Brazil's average 3.8% economic growth is dwarfed by the global average of 39 developing nations who recorded a 5.6% growth rate during the same period according to Austing Rating (14). In fact, since 1996, Brazil's growth rate has consistently remained below the world's average until last year when Brazil finally surpassed the world average (15). Most experts agree that Brazil needs economic growth of at least 5 or 6% to create just enough jobs for those entering the labor market. The consistent failure of inducing economic growth likely caused Lula's administration to launch the PAC (the Program to Accelerate [Economic] Growth) a major public works program to improve the country's infrastructure and hopefully accelerate economic growth. If the real economy was in fact booming the Brazilian people would not be voicing their overwhelming discontent. A recent PEW poll indicated that 59% of Brazilians said the economy was going badly for them. This is an improvement from last year when 70% of Brazilians indicated such feelings (16). The strong growth, achieved in 2007, must have improved the economic outlook for a few Brazilians but the benefits of this economic boom has not trickled-down to the majority of the population. The once strong external economic sector is starting to show signs of distress. As of April 2008, the trade balance dropped by 79% in relation to last year (17). In the same month, the current account registered a deficit of US$ 14 billion, larger than the US$ 12 billion that the Central Bank predicted for all of 2008 (18). Although foreign investment is covering the current account deficit Brazil's economy for now, making Brazil more dependent on global inflows as the current account deficit grows. A prolonged global economic recession would likely be detrimental to Brazil. International investors tend to punish third-world nations that consistently run large current account deficits. The current account deficit was a significant component of Brazil's economic vulnerability, and instability, from 1997 to 2002 (19). A few years ago Turkey experienced economy difficulties under the weight of its current account deficits. The external conditions are likely to deteriorate further. Brazil's currency, the real, will continue to gain, in the short-term, against the dollar pushed upwards by higher domestic interest rates that attract massive speculative inflows. This 'strong real' policy cheapens imports, lowering inflation, while limiting Brazilian exports and economic growth. Also the costs of producing is growing rapidly causing industry to depart from Brazilian shores. The Financial Times (FT) explored the growing possibility of 'de-industrialization' taking hold in Brazil. The chief executive of Marcopolo, an international bus company, told the FT 'that it's too expensive to produce [in Brazil] that is why industry is leaving' (20). Domestic and international industry finds it profitable to relocate production operations, thus potential jobs and income, to countries with a more competitive exchange rate policy like Argentina. Former Communication Minister, Luis Carlos Mendon?a de Barros, under Cardoso's administration (1995-2002), also warns of the increased risk of de-industrialization especially as the ethanol industry increases export earnings. More exports will bring in more dollars to Brazil causing the currency to become even stronger than it is current high levels (21). China, on the other hand, is a competitive place to produce goods, in part, because it artificially keeps its currency devaluated at roughly 8.23 yuan per dollar making its exports artificially cheap and its imports expensive. Higher interest rates will cause growth to fall to about 4% for this year and growth for 2009, and probably for 2010, is already condemned to its usual stagnant rate. Growth is vitally important for any nation. Lula's administration comes with many excuses for the lack of growth yet one likely culprit is its own ultraconservative political economy. The Brazilian Central Bank consistently implements abusive interest rates, which remains the highest real interest rates in the world. There is no doubt that higher interest rates were needed to halt inflation but it has become a dangerous obsession within the government. What journalists consistently overlook is that Lula's government, led by the president himself, has sacrificed economic growth for lowest possible rate of inflation. Lula even said that he would make "any sacrifice" against the return of inflation (22). Somebody should tell him that there is a difference between hyperinflation, which Brazil suffered from in the past, and inflation. Most international commentators assumed that it was Lula's former finance minister, Antonio Palocci, who convinced President Lula of the importance of keeping inflation very low. International investors shuttered when Palocci resigned from his position under intense scrutiny. In actuality, it was Lula who taught Palocci that lower inflation was needed. According to Palocci's latest book, Lula argued for an inflation target of 4% while Palocci advocated a more manageable 5%. They eventually settled on a compromise figure of 4.5%. Although this figure kept inflation low it also inhibited economic expansion. Palocci warned Lula that keeping the inflation target this low would stunt economic growth. Lula understood this argument, but believed that inflation was clearly the greatest evil, a lesson he learned from his days as a union leader (23). A few government officials opposed these interest rates. The Institute of Research and Applied Economics (IPEA) economist, Marcio Pochmann, said that "we want to step on the accelerator [of economic growth], but the problem is the Central Bank" (24). The vice-president, Jos? Alencar, is one of the leading critics calling the interest rate policy as 'fiscally irresponsible' because it drives up interest payments costs thus Brazil runs a higher budget deficit (25). Also the current governor of S?o Paulo, Jos? Serra, has been another vocal critic of the interest rate policy. The ex-Secretary of the Political Economy of the Finance Ministry, Gomes de Almeida, left his government position, when he criticized the hyper-valuation of the currency, which he noted, was prejudicial to the country and a result of the high interest rate policy (26). The economic tools used to contain inflation, and keep interest rates low, have largely failed. In 2004, the Brazilian economy finally rebounded at a brisk 5.7% pace but the central bank wanted to reach its targeted inflation rate (27). So interest rates began to rise in September of 2004. Lula correctly worried that future growth would be compromised. In response, Lula raised the primary budget surplus (budget surplus that excludes interest payments on the debt) from 4.25% to 4.5% (28). Lula was told by government officials that a higher primary budget surplus would keep inflation low thus keeping interest rates lower. In theory, further cuts to the budget, raises the primary surplus, increasing the domestic savings rate by soaking up the excess money within the economy, lowering inflation. Unfortunately, he underestimated the central bank's commitment to low inflation at-all-cost. In fact in 2004, the government's official primary budget surplus ended at 4.6% but the domestic interest rates did not stop rising until later into the following year (29). They went from 16% in September 2004 to 19.75 a year later when the central bank ceased hiking interest rates. The effect of this policy stymied economic growth. In 2005, growth fell to 2.3 (revised to 2.9%), the second lowest rate among Latin American economies, beating only war-torn Haiti (30). Government officials, like ex-finance minister Palocci, blamed the political scandals that erupted that year for the anemic growth rates. In 2006, the official rate of economic growth was marginally better, at 2.9% (revised to 3.7) once again only surpassing Haiti (31). It is obvious that Brazil's economic growth is shackled. Although 2007 was another boom year, like 2004, the economy of 2008 and 2009 are likely to disappoint many foreign observers. Once again in April 2008, domestic interest rates are on the rise. They will continue to increase as Brazil experiences higher bouts of inflation. The government, once again, repeated its previous act by swiftly boosting the primary budget surplus from 3.8 to 4.3% of the GDP (32). Lula once again believes that this will somehow stop the central bank from raising interest rates. Clearly, he did not learn his lesson from 2004. Back then, even the central bank president openly declared that the hike in the primary surplus would not stop interest rates from going up (33). Inflation is growing in Brazil, above the excessively low official target of 4.5%, but this inflationary burst is arising from outside global forces not an overheating Brazilian economy. Brazil's growth alone never caused inflation to grow uncontrollably. Oil, commodity and energy prices are escalating everywhere. Interest rates will now be going up to contain the current global spike in inflation. Inflation will stay above its target for the foreseeable but it is not raging out of control as in the past. The Central Bank's ultraconservative policy is used against increasing inflation. It is what PhD economics programs all around the world teach their pupils: "the only role of the central bank is to keep inflation as low as possible". Any other intervention in the economy breeds horrendous inefficiencies and, is at worst, "Marxism". If it proven in the classical theoretical world of economics, then you know it must be true in the real world! The central bank's policy is also hypocritical. It easily moves up interest rates when inflation grows but refuses to lower it when inflation is very low. For example, in 2006, Brazil's yearly inflation rate (IPCA) accumulated to a mere 3.14%, below its 4.5% target, and was the 3rd lowest in all of Latin America (34). Although an important achievement, interest rates trickled down in an excessively cautious manner. Brazil still had the highest interest rates in the world. Why did not the Central Bank drastically slash interest rates in 2006 for inflation to reach 4.5%? Growth could have been faster than pathetic 2.9% and thousands of new jobs could have been created. In 2007, interest rates could have been even lower than they were because inflation ended at 4.14% once again below the 4.5% target. Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, has repeatedly reiterated that Brazil's economy could grow by lowering interest rates without fear of inflation (35). Obviously, his frank advice is ignored in the halls of Bras?lia. Not to mention that many mainstream economists now accept that an inflation rate below 10% has no negative impact on economic growth. Two World Bank economists even found that there is no consistent correlation between a country's inflation rate and growth rate when inflation stays below 40% (36). Conditions for many workers remain difficult. Average real income has been static throughout the past six years although unemployment has been slowly falling. According to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) as of April 2008, real average income was 1,208.10 reais, its highest point since October 2002, when it stood at 1,224.48 reais. This demonstrates that the average worker is, in real terms, still earning less than it did back in 2002 (37)! So who are the biggest beneficiaries of the Brazilian economy? The clear winner is the financial-agriculture complex. Each year, the Brazilian government pays billions in interest on its internal debt. Each year, well over 100 billion reais, is transferred to public, domestic and international banks who own a majority of government debt. Yet, interest payments only display a part of the picture. Billions are paid on the principal of the country's debt. In 2002, the last year of the Cardoso administration, the government dispensed 349.6 billion on the amortization of its debt. This was equal to 46% of the budget. On the other hand, in 2003, Lula spent over 412.9 billion reais, 54.61% of the total budget. The consequence of this increased spending on the debt is a collapse in public investment in an infrastructure or public education. Cardoso, in 2002, made 11.6 billion reais in public investment, or 1.5% of the budget, while Lula, in 2003, invested 1.8 billion reais, a mere pitiful .24% of the budget for the year (38). Brazil's internal debt is approaching 1.3 trillion reais with 30% of it due in less than one year (39). The need to extend the maturity of the internal debt and limit its growth is real, all of which requires lower interest rates. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) chief economist Heiner Flassbeck warns Brazil that it is a victim of "international casino". The financial markets are making billions in the short-term by taking loans in Japan, with almost no interest, and placing it in Brazil's financial markets. They are making billions of this process as Brazil rewards them with the highest interest rates in the world (40). So it is not surprising that Brazil's financial market has grown astronomically. But when US interest rates begin to tick-up again foreign investors will return their short-term fortunes to safer US securities. Brazil continues to be a place where investors make immediate profits and then flee towards safer investments. Unfortunately, there continues to be minimal investment in actual long-term production in the Brazilian economy that could generate new employment, transfer technology and usher internal development. Industrial organizations, led by the powerful S?o Paulo Industrial Federation (FIESP), rightfully lashes out against the current interest rate policy of the central bank which frequently unites government allies and the opposition camp in the Brazilian Congress. In fact, most industry-led organizations, that produces millions of jobs, consistently plea with the government to be more flexible in enacting interest rate policy. In many respects, Brazil's economy is as a rent-seeking economy, one where the rich see their money grow at astronomical rates without lifting a finger. Little is actually invested in a productive manner that could spur innovative industries that could improve the lives of Brazilians. Loans to small businesses and average Brazilians can range from 30 to 100%. How can any business invest in the future and generate jobs in such an environment? Most interest rates are charged on a monthly basis. It is not surprising then that credit remains a small component of the economy although a growing one. Lula's administration has also regularly pursued direct support of big agriculture. In May 2008, President Lula held a meeting with his ministers defining future plans to consolidate its unique role as a world leader in agriculture production (41). Back in 2006, the government destined 50 billion reais for commercial agriculture while only giving 10 billion for family agriculture (42). In the growing season of 2007-2008 the government released 58 billion reais in aid and reduced interest rates for agriculture loans from 8.75% to 6.75% per year (43). Once again, in May of this year, Lula signed a provisional measure (MP) renegotiating 75 billion reais of debt accumulated by large-scale rural producers (44). With this type of government intervention, it is not surprising that big agriculture has performed so well in the past five years. Agriculture is thriving in part because the special interest rates are significantly lower than those in the rest of the economy. Lula's administration actively pursues trade negotiations with developed nations. The goal of the administration is to force rich countries to end agriculture subsidies. Many experts predict that Brazil would widely benefit from this move. Except that, in exchange reducing agriculture subsidies, first-world nations would demand that Brazil, and others, drop their stiff tariffs on industrialized goods. This would likely decimate domestic industry and small businesses. According to one study the net impact of a WTO deal would be a loss of 160 million dollars for Brazil (45). Specializing in ethanol, oranges, beef, poultry and soy beans will not be conducive in developing a dynamic economy that serves the need of nearly 200 million people. Large-scale agriculture depends on heavily mechanized equipment generating little employment. Numerous countries around the world produce similar agriculture goods causing agriculture exports, which is roughly half of exports, to fall. Brazil is repeating its historic failures of being the world's efficient supplier of sugarcane, soy beans, coffee, rubber and raw materials. These agriculture interests promote the knocking down of the Amazon Rainforest as a model of economic development which the former environment minister, Marina Silva, labeled "an archaic development model" which will obviously not expedite industrialization (46). The mere fact the US and Europe obliterated their forests hundreds years ago did not induce industrialization. Industrialization requires a set of cohesive policies that are absent from the current political agenda. Some journalists will reiterate that there is no alternative to the current economic model. Why I will not purport to decide what kind of economy Brazilians need or want, there are alternatives to the current economic policy. History is not over. Lower interests and faster growth is a requisite to inducing any sustainable development strategy. Economic growth is necessary but insufficient to transform Brazil. Arguably economic justice is more, or as, important as economic growth. Several countries, like Peru and Kenya, have experienced economic growth above 6% in the past few years but remain mired in poverty, joblessness and trapped within perverse inequality. Thus collective action by social movements and civil society must exert pressure on their democratically elected officials to enact measures that encourage job creation, promote a decent livable wage, affordable housing, public education and even a substantial land reform that offers credit and technical assistance to millions of landless peasants. Only by pursuing economic justice can Brazilian society be more inclusive, reduce poverty and tackle the perverse inequality that scars the basic fabric of society. Real positive change of any economic or social policy must come from the bottom-up not from the top-down. Year GDP growth (old methodology) GDP growth (new methodology) 1996 2.7 2.2 1997 3.3 3.4 1998 0.1 0 1999 0.8 0.3 2000 4.4 4.3 2001 1.3 1.3 2002 1.9 2.7 2003 0.5 1.1 2004 4.9 5.7 2005 2.3 2.9 2006* 2.9 3.7 Source: "Revis?o do PIB melhora posi??o do Brasil em ranking mundial, diz consultoria, Folha Online, 21.03.2007, accessed 3/25/2007 http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u115388.shtml *-figures for this year were found in another article (1) Carrol, Rory. "The accidental hero?," Guardian.co.uk March 14, 2008. accessed 3/15/2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2008/mar/14/rorycarroll.insidebrazil... (2) Cucolo, Eduardo. "Reservas internacionais sobem para US$ 195,8 bilh?es at? abril," Folha Online 26.05.2008. accessed 6/13/2008. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u405469.shtml (3) Carrol, Rory. "Land of contrasts," Guardian.co.uk March 14, 2008. accessed 3/15/2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2008/mar/14 /rorycarroll.insidebrail/.... (4) "Open for business", Guardian.co.uk March 14, 2008. accessed 3/15/2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2008/mar/14/davidteather.feature/print (5) "Risco-pa?s cai para menor n?vel hist?rico; d?lar recua e Bovespa tem queda," Folha Online 09.08.2006. accessed 6/9/2008. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u110067.shtml (6) Philips, Tom. "The country of the future finally arrives", Guardian.co.uk May 10, 2008. accessed 5/11/2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/10/brazil.oil/print (7) Kraul, Chris. "Brazil's now a hot commodity", Los Angeles Times December 31, 2007. accessed 12/31/2007. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-brazilecon31dec31,1,907266.story?.... (8) Spitz, Clarice. "PIB tem mesmo crescimento nos primeiros mandatos de Lula e FHC", Folha Online 28.02.2007. accessed 2/28/2007. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u114800.shtml (9) IBID (10) Spitz, Clarice. "Economia cresceu ? m?dia de 2,6% durante primeiro mandato de Lula," Folha Online 28.02.208. accessed 3/5/2008. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u114805.shtml (11)Chang, Ha-Joon. "Bad Samaritans" Bloomsbury Press: New-York, 2008. pg. 149 (12)"Revis?o do PIB melhora posi??o do Brasil em ranking mundial, diz consultoria," Folha Online 21.03.2007. accessed 3/25/2007. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u115388.shtml, I calculated average using data in article, (13) Spitz, Clarice. "PIB tem mesmo crescimento nos primeiros mandatos de Lula e FHC," Folha Online 28/02/2007. accessed 2/28/2007. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u114800.shtml (14) "PIB do Brasil fica entre os ?ltimos dos pa?ses emergentes," G1 Globo, 13.03.2008, accessed 3/15/2008, http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Economia_Negocios/0,,MUL348961-9356,00.html (15) Bacoccina, Denize. "Brasil cresce abaixo da m?dia mundial desde 96," BBC Brasil.com 25.3.2007. accessed 3/25/2007. http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/reportbbc/sotry/2007/02/printable/070228_pibbd.shtml (16) "Economia do pa?s 'vai mal para 59% dos brasileiros'," BBC 12.06.2008. accessed 6/13/2008. http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Economia_Nogocios/0,,MUL599278-9356,00.html (17) Casia, Rosana de. "Importa??o cresce e super?vit commercial dasaba quase 80%", Ag?ncia Estado 22.04.2008. accessed 5/19/2008. http://int.estadao.com.br/Multimidia/ShowImpresS?o.action?xmlPath... (18) "D?ficit em conta corrente j? supera proje??o do BC para 2008," Agencia Estado e Reuters 26.05.2008. accessed 6/1/2008. http://int.estadao.com.br/Multimidia/ShowImpresS?o.action?xmlPath... (19) Cucolo, Eduardo. "D?ficit pode amea?ar seguro do Brasil contra crise internacional," G1 Globo 5.2.2008. accessed 2/8/2008. http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/0,,PIO282178-9356,00.html (20) Albuquerque, Vinicius. "Real forte gera temor de 'des-industrializa??o'," diz "Financial Times," Folha Online 16.12.2005. accessed 2/8/2008. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u103478.shtml (21) Bacoccina, Deniza. "Ethanol vai prejudicar ind?stria brasileira, diz economista, BBC Brasil.com 29 Janeiro 2007. accessed 3/25/2007. http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/reporterbbc/story/2007/01/070126_ethanlmendoncab.sh... (22) "Lula diz que far? "qualquer sacrif?cio" contra infla??o," Folha Online com Ag?ncia Brasil 30.05.2008. accessed 6/4/2008. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u407206.shtml (23) Palocci, Antonio. Sobre formigas e cigarras. Rio de Janeiro: Objectiva, 2007, pg 112-114. (24) Aiko Lu Otta, "'Queremos pisar no acelerador, o problema ? o BC,'" O Estado de S. Paulo, http://int.estadao.com.br/Multimidia/ShowImpresS?o.action?xmlPath... (25) Portes, Ivone. "Alencar critica juros e diz que o pa?s pratica "irresponsbilidade fiscal" Folha Online 29.03.2004. accessed 10/30/2004. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u82537.shtml (26) "Secret?rio da Fazenda deixa cargo ap?s criticar BC," Estadao.com.br 04.04.2007. accessed 04/04/2007. http://www.estadao.com.br/ext/inc/print/print.htm (27) Junior, Cirilo. "Economia brasileira cresce 5,4% em 2007, maior taxa desde 2004, diz IBGE," Folha Online 12.03.2008. accessed 3/15/2008. http://brazzil.com/www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u381048.shtml (28) Rose, Ane Silveira. "Palocci anuncia aumento da meta do super?vit prim?rio," Folha Online 22/09/2004. accessed 6/4/2008. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult92u89220.shtml (29) Lage,Janaina. "Ipea recomenda aumento do super?vit prim?rio," Folha Online 08/03/2005. accessed 6/4/2008. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u94149.shtml (30) Lage, Janiana. "Brasil cresce so 2,3 % em 2005 e supera apenas o Haiti na America Latina", Folha Online 24/02/2006. accessed 2/24/2006. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u105546.shtml (31) Sandrini, Jo?o. "Pelo 2? ano seguido, Brasil s? deve crescer mais que Haiti na Am?rica Latina," Folha Online 20/10/2006. accessed 4/4/2008. http://www1.folha.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u111820.shtml (32) Froufe, Celia and Carolina Ruhman. "Para segurar infla??o, governo vai economizar 0,5% do PIB," Ag?ncia Estado 30 Maio 2008. accessed 6/1/2008. http://int.estadao.com.br/Multimidia/ShowImpresS?o.action?xmlPath... (33) Portes, Ivone. "Meirelles indica que juro pode subir mesmo com ajuste fiscal maior," Folha Online 27/09/2008. accessed 6/4/2008. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u89351.shtml (34) Spitz, Clarice. "Brasil tem infla??o pelo IPCA de 3,14% a 3ra menor da Am?rica Latina." Folha Online 12/01/2007. accessed 3/25/2007. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u113668.shtml (35) Garcez, Bruno. "Brasil pode crescer sem medo da infla??o, diz Stiglitz", BBC Brasil.com 26 Setembro, 2006. accessed 9/26/2006, http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/reporterbbc.story/2006/09/printable/060926_stiglitzbrasilbg.shtml (36) Chang, Ha-Joon. Bad Samaritans. London: Bloomsbury, 2008. pg. 150 (37) IBGE: renda salarial ? a maior desde outubro de 2002, Ag?ncia Estado 21 Maio 2008. accessed 6/4/2008. http://br.noticias.yahoo.com/s/21052008/25/economia-ibge-renda-salar.. (38) Athias, Gebriela and Otavio Cabral. "Lula fez menos investimentos e pagou mais d?vida que FHC," Folha de S. Paulo 01/03/2004. accessed 3/5/2008. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u58672.shtml (39)Riberiro, Ana Paula. "Governo paga mais de R$100 bi em juros sobre t?tulos p?blicos," Folha Online 24.01.2008. accessed 2/8/2008. http://www1.folha/uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u366611.shtml (40) Chade, Jamil. "Brasil est? sendo v?tima de cassino internacional," Estadao.com.br, 21.03.2008. accessed 4/2/2008. http://www.estadao.com.br/estadaodehoje/20080321/not_imp143723,..... (41) Nunes Leal Luciana. "Reuni?o define que Brasil estar? focado em ampliar agricultura," Ag?ncia Estado 21 Maio, 2008. accessed 6/4/2008. http://int.estadao.com.br/Multimidia/ShowImpresS?o.action?xmlPath... (42) Salvador Fabiola and Fabio Graner. "Governo anuncia MP para renegociar R$ 75 bi em d?vidas rurais," Ag?ncia Estado 27 Maio, 2008. accessed 6/13/2008. http://int.estadao.com.br/Multimidia/ShowImpresS?o.action?xmlPath... (43) Graner Fabio. "Governo anuncia libera??o de R$60 bilh?es para a agricultura," Estadao.com.br 25 Maio, 2006. accessed 5/25/2006. http://www.estadao.com.br/ext/inc/print/print/htm (44) Governo libera R$ 58 bi e reduz juros para safra 2007/2008, Folha Online 28/06/2007. accessed 6/13/2008. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u307883.shtml (45) Gallagher, Kevin P. "For All Its WTO Haggling Brazil Will Get US$ 160 Million - in Loss," Brazzil.com December 13, 2005. accessed 5/14/2006, http://www.brazzil.com/content/view/9483/79/ (46) "Pa?s tem modelo de desenvolvimento ultrapassado, diz Marina," Estadao.com.br 19.05.2008. accessed 6/13/2008. http://int.estadao.com.br/Multimidia/ShowImpresS?o.action?xmlPath... Daniel Torres is a political science and economics major at the University of Massachusetts. Comments welcome at dftorres at gmail.com. UPDATE 2-Brazil posts June current acct gap on remittances Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:15am EDT (Adds central bank forecasts for July) BRASILIA, July 28 (Reuters) - Brazil posted a wider-than-expected current account deficit in June as companies nearly doubled profit remittances abroad because of a strong domestic currency, central bank data showed on Monday. The deficit reached $2.6 billion in June, compared with a $539 million surplus in the same month of 2007. The country had been expected to post a deficit of $1.1 billion, according to the median forecast of 13 analysts surveyed by Reuters. The forecasts for the deficit ranged from $2.1 billion to $850 million. In May, Brazil posted a current account deficit of $649 million, according to previously reported central bank data. The deficit should widen to $2.8 billion in July, said Altamir Lopes, head of the central bank's economics department. Multinational companies in the country sent $3.4 billion in profit and dividends abroad, compared with $1.75 billion in June 2007, as gains in Brazil's currency made it cheaper to buy dollars. Brazil's currency, the real BRBY, has gained nearly 13 percent against the dollar so far this year after surging more than 20 percent last year. The strong real has fueled a surge in imports, cutting the country's trade surplus and affecting Brazil's external accounts. In the 12 months through June, the deficit was equal to 1.32 percent of gross domestic product compared with a deficit of 1.1 percent of GDP in the 12 months through May. Foreign direct investment in Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, fell to $2.72 billion in June from $10.3 billion in the same month in 2007, when the figures were unusually high because of ArcelorMittal's buyout of minority shareholders in its local unit. FDI is forecast to reach $3.2 billion in July, Lopes said. The current account balance tracks a country's net flow of external transactions, including foreign trade, interest payments and services such as tourism. It is used to gauge a country's dependence on foreign capital. (For central bank details on Brazil's current account figures, see: www.bcb.gov.br/?ECOIMPEXT) (Reporting by Isabel Versiani; Writing by Elzio Barreto; Editing by James Dalgleish) From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 23:20:36 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 01:20:36 -0400 Subject: [A-List] The Tragedy of Current Latin American Monetary Policy Message-ID: The Tragedy of Current Latin American Monetary Policy Jose Antonio Ocampo | May 1, 2008 On March 18 the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC (www.cepal.org), made public an estimate of the effects food inflation is having on Latin America. Despite rapid economic growth, extreme poverty will increase by ten million people this year! This is a dramatic figure and represents more than half of the reduction in extreme poverty that had taken place during the recent economic boom, from 2004 to 2007. Food inflation is also making the task of managing of monetary policy extremely difficult. Indeed, the mix of two entirely exogenous shocks ?food price inflation and a financial crisis in the US?has created a situation in which monetary authorities are the main actors of an unprecedented tragedy. It is true that the theory of inflation targeting says that temporary shocks, such as those associated with a spike in food inflation, should not lead to a reaction by monetary authorities. But there is a clear risk that higher food inflation will get transmitted to wages and other prices, so monetary authorities cannot simply ignore it. And, of course, some Latin American economies are generating their domestic inflationary pressures after several years of rapid growth. However, given the external origin of food price inflation, a contractionary monetary policy would do little to moderate such inflation. In the second act of the tragedy, the US Federal Reserve enters the scene. Given the sharp reduction in US policy intervention rates, to manage its own financial crisis and the threat (or, I think along with many others, the reality) of recession, interest rate margins between Latin America and the US have widened significantly. This is, therefore, an open invitation to capital inflows and exchange rate appreciation. Central banks can absorb part of the surplus capital inflows through the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves, as most countries in the region have done, but this seems to have been insufficient, and may have invited further capital inflows. Some measure of prudential capital account regulations (reserve requirements or taxes on capital inflows, following the model used successfully by Chile and Colombia in the 1990s) could help, and Argentina, Colombia and, more recently Brazil, have taken some moderate measures in this regard, but none would be willing to use them to the extent that would be necessary to make a significant indent on capital flows. So, the major outcome has been exchange rate appreciation. This is shown in Figure 1, in which exchange rates are shown in domestic currency per dollar, so down means an appreciation. Four of the six largest Latin American economies have had significant appreciation in recent months (Venezuela is excluded, as it has a fixed exchange rate). Brazil and Colombia had experienced substantial appreciation earlier on, and the currencies of the two countries now look overvalued. The appreciation of Chile and Peru are in line with that of the euro vis-?-vis the US dollar, but Brazil and Colombia have appreciated even in relation to the euro. Argentina and Venezuela are also experiencing real appreciation, through domestic inflation. So, Mexico seems the only large Latin American economy immune to the current malaise, but it is also the one that would be worst hit by US recession. In recent years, one of the most trumpeted aspects of Latin American performance was that the region was running a current account surplus (not all of countries, of course). The mix of rapid growth with current account surpluses has been common in Asia, but it has been unusual in Latin America, at least since the 1970s. It could be said that it was due to high commodity prices, but then in the past Latin America managed to run current account deficits even when commodity markets were booming, such as during the 1970s. Colombia is already running a sizable deficit, and Brazil joined the deficit club in the last quarter of 2007. Furthermore, excluding Venezuela, Latin America will be running a deficit in 2008. And, if we take out the terms of trade shock, the current account deficit had already gone back in 2007 to the levels of the crisis of the late 1990s and the early part of this decade (see Figure 2). Source: Author's estimates based on the database of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Will there be, therefore, a third act of the tragedy in which Latin America returns to its traditional current account deficits and the vulnerability that is associated with them? Certainly the region looks more vulnerable now to the reversal of the favorable terms of trade shock (which, of course, appears solid for the time being). But, furthermore, is nominal appreciation the best that inflation targeting can achieve? If so, it needs a serious revision. Indeed, ignoring the effects of monetary policy on exchange rates is one of the major flaws of inflation targeting in emerging economies. The elegance of just having one objective looks nice at first, but it ignores the fact that the fundamental challenge of macroeconomic policy is how to manage difficult trade-offs. Multiple objectives and trade-offs also imply the need to use more instruments and to coordinate monetary policy more carefully with fiscal and other policies, which are the responsibility of governments. And, of course, in an orthodox interpretation, a current account deficit is as much a case of excess demand as domestic inflation. Furthermore, and perhaps even more importantly, current account deficits have been an even more important predictor of crises and of the inflationary shocks that accompany large exchange rate depreciations during crises. So, we are back to the basic question: why should inflation be the only objective of monetary policy? From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 23:39:03 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 01:39:03 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization Message-ID: August 3, 2008 Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization By LARRY ROHTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the United States has risen to $8,000, compared with $3,000 early in the decade, according to a recent study of transportation costs. Big container ships, the pack mules of the 21st-century economy, have shaved their top speed by nearly 20 percent to save on fuel costs, substantially slowing shipping times. The study, published in May by the Canadian investment bank CIBC World Markets, calculates that the recent surge in shipping costs is on average the equivalent of a 9 percent tariff on trade. "The cost of moving goods, not the cost of tariffs, is the largest barrier to global trade today," the report concluded, and as a result "has effectively offset all the trade liberalization efforts of the last three decades." From james.irldaly at ntlworld.com Sun Aug 3 03:26:34 2008 From: james.irldaly at ntlworld.com (james daly) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 10:26:34 +0100 Subject: [A-List] Brian Keenan's CPGB correspondence Message-ID: <5BE89FDBC2734867B841DC885D5474C6@home9sg93n9r5y> September 30 1987 Dear comrade Rhys .. I would appreciate some personal contact with a comrade connected directly to the paper if that is at all possible. My intention, at this stage, would not, however, be to engage in overt debate in the columns of the paper. I'm sure you will appreciate that, as a political POW, I do not have ready access to all types of written material which would be of specific interest to me. In this respect, fraternal contact with someone like Jack Conrad would be most welcome .. In the interim I wish every success to all comrades at The Leninist. With fraternal greetings Brian P Keenan October 21 1987 Dear comrade Brian Thank you for your recent letter, which we were very pleased to receive .. You say that you do not normally correspond with non-republican movement journals. If this is a general practice I think it is a mistake. I'm not just referring to The Leninist, but the entire spectrum of opinion in Britain and for that matter internationally. I presume most groups send you their publications. The voice of Irish freedom fighters should ring out through these publications at least. It should be heard as widely as possible .. In solidarity and friendship Jack Conrad October 26 1987 Dear comrade Jack I was pleased to receive your letter of October 21 1987 .. You make some precise observations on my reluctance to correspond with journals other than republican movement publications. In the main, that is a personal decision which I wish you to respect. You are, however, entitled to an explanation. I will be brief for now, but will expand or debate any point on your request. I have been in prison for eight and a half years. In that time I have received journals from almost all of the organisations in the left spectrum. With the notable exception of The Leninist I was propositioned by each for 'moral authority' endorsement of their own particular brand of support for the 'freedom fighters'. You may gather I reject the terms in parenthesis, anathema to me in fact: they smack of the chauvinism you rightly object to .. Comrade, it is late at night, my eyes aren't as good as before, my mind has gone a bit dull. Please forgive my atrocious writing and rambling thought - I do, however, get much pleasure in writing to you. I await with anticipation. With respect Yours Brian Keenan November 9 1987 Dear comrade Brian .. On your not engaging in public debate, this is as you say your decision. And I will, of course, not pester you. We can always come back to this question in the future. I just feel that republican prisoners have enormous moral authority, which should be used to maximum effect .. .. I certainly accept that the republican movement has shifted to the left. But, no, I do not agree that AP/RW can be considered Ireland's Iskra. Why? Simply because of the class nature of the republican movement. AP/RN is a good left nationalist mass paper, it has much to teach us in terms of mass impact and propaganda. . Yours with communist greetings Jack Conrad November 19 1987 Dear comrade Jack I received your welcome letter and also the back issues of the paper. Many thanks, I was delighted with them. Sorry about my writing: do your best .. A small point: if you re-check my last letter you will see that I refer to AP/RN as an "embryonic" Iskra. I believe that, and anyway, I'm sure you will agree that because of Lenin's pragmatism, in relation to his necessary association with Plekhanov in the initial production of Iskra, the first issues were not the brightest sparks .. .. I'm all for glasnost and perestroika, but reform must begin deep within the CPSU. When Lenin asked that "the cloth be measured several times before it was cut" he didn't mean that it shouldn't be measured at all. Possibly glasnost could create conditions within the soviets where political revolution in the interests of the proletariat is a possibility. The manifestations of glasnost, however, outside the soviets, seems to me to be openness in compromise with imperialism. .. I hope to hear from you soon. Comrade, I have just re-read this with the same difficulty you had. Sorry, I can't seem to write properly when in full flow. Fraternally yours Brian November 26 1987 Dear comrade Brian Your letter, November 19, was very interesting (and you will be pleased to know that I am having less trouble with your handwriting - either because I'm getting used to it or because you are making an effort to write clearer for me - or most likely a combination of both). You have raised many points and made many comments, Let me first say that on the bulk of what you say I am in complete agreement. Most of my disagreements are minor, though there are, of course, some areas where we take very different positions - this is a good basis for us both to go forward. .. On medium development. Your answer precisely confirms that Ireland is medium developed. There is finance capital - but because Ireland is a weak power it cannot expand imperialistically. Finance capital can only operate as a junior partner with imperialism in the exploitation of its own people. Your assertion that Ireland is an underdeveloped - ie, a backward capitalist country - just does not fit the facts .. Fraternal greetings, your friend and comrade Jack Conrad December 9 1987 Dear comrade Jack I'm pleased to know you find it easier to decode my writing. I was very pleased also with the literature. I have asked my comrades here to study What is to be done? with a view to discussing it with them later. Comrade, you must realise by now that on certain things I walk on a tightrope - and I don't feel comfortable in defending the indefensible. I have serious problems with certain aspects of republicanism and if we had personal contact, things could be sorted out. We do walk different roads, only because of my present circumstances. Some day we will walk together in a united party of these islands - that has to come .. On the USSR, and your reference to the plurality of parties on the road to social democracy. I have great difficulty in believing that the democratic institutionalisation of "parties" can ever lead to communism. I know what you are saying, but consider this: the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in a way manifests centralised corruption (sic) - but would not a pluralist society decentralise corruption, with a consequently much more difficult solution? .. Take care, comrade. Don't get too inebriated over the holidays. Your comrade and friend Brian Keenan December 29 1988 Dear comrade Brian .. I'm glad that you were pleased with the lit - I know you and your comrades will make good use of it. It's not for nothing that revolutionaries have dubbed prison their university. Organised, disciplined study is vital, though. As you know nothing can be achieved through browsing. That is why I would suggest that you set yourself specific tasks, a specific project, to be capped at the end of the day by a publication - as it were your prison PhD. What do you think about something along the lines of Marxism and the national question? .. Yours in friendship and comradeship Jack Conrad January 16 1988 Dear comrade Jack .. I do have a programme of study and certainly Marxism and the national question is of particular interest to me. My problems in that respect are that a lot of Marxist theory, including Marx himself, tend be Eurocentric. While Stalin contributed some limited exposition on Marxism and the national question, he was primarily concerned with the Russians, and may even have been guilty of Greater Russian nationalism. .. Your argument on 'plurality' is very convincing. Must I, however, give up all hope on CPSU? Can the legacy of Stalin-Brezhnev not be eschewed? Recent Gorbachev moves against corruption - for example, in the Uzbek republic - are surely encouraging .. .. Jack, I will keep you well informed of my progress vis-?-vis the republican movement. Please keep in touch with me if possible. I hope your holiday was good. I was ill for a few weeks! Oh well - only another six to do! Take care, comrade Brian January [?] 1988 Dear Brian Let me start by saying sorry for not being more prompt in replying to you. This is in part the old, old problem of time, but it is also that I feel that it is important to mull over your letters and give them the attention they deserve, .. I also thought I would send you a photocopy of a recent Economist survey of the Twenty-six Counties. While not for one moment being a follower of its typical English subjective political line, I think the description of the south, "the poorest of the rich", is spot on: ie, it is a medium developed capitalist country. .. Do not place one iota of faith in G[orbachev]. He is an utter revisionist. The bourgeoisie love him for good reason. He is not fighting corruption in any real sense. Corruption is endemic amongst the bureaucratic parasites that leach off the socialist state. Including the G family. The entire stratum is guilty. None of them have clean hands. G's fight against corruption is a sham, it is a sop, a political device against bureaucratic opponents. It is not a genuine anti-corruption drive ... Best communist wishes, comrade Brian The future is ours Jack C January 29 1988 Dear Jack Delighted to hear from you! I got all the books - great! I already had that Economist survey, Jack - it is useful in many ways. I must now concur (almost) with the "medium development" formulation .. Anyway, dear comrade, I have been, until now, undecided about my next moves. Harsh words have been said (by me). As you know, I told you about Iris Bheag - I was quite excited about its potential. The first edition was in September 1987, monthly. In No3 (November 1987) a member of the SF leadership wrote a fairly nasty letter against what he called the over-use of "jargon" (sic) in the first two editions. He then nominated the "jargon" as "Marxist-Esperanto" .. Much respect Brian February 19 1988 My dear friend and comrade Brian Glad to hear things are okay in the nick - in a way no news is good news. Also glad to see you've moved on medium development. Not because you have been won to my argument, but because this is the objective position Ireland occupies in the world pecking order .. And this brings me to your developing polemic. I will not mince words, I will speak frankly, as comrades should. I would not be in so much of a rush as you appear to be in. So someone slags off "Marxist-Esperanto"? So what! What a prat! .. You have standing. You are a proven fighter and republican partisan. You also have time - not much in a certain sense, but enough. When you are released the basic questions that confront the movement will still confront it and you will not be an old man .. Best wishes Comradely greetings Jack Conrad February 28 1988 Dear comrade Jack I got all your mail - great - you are the best of comrades, not just for your literature but for your most valued advice. Firstly - my decision to attack the "Marxist Esperanto" prat would, in normal circumstances (in the scenario you envisaged) probably have been rash - however, I believed I had no choice. I'll give you a brief history .. Jack, you have my mind in turmoil - oh how I want so much to follow the programme you suggest. Do I have the mental capabilities? I don't know! I have a very simple-minded will, it is my concentration powers which may let me down. Good information is also vital - I tend to exhaust every source available to me. Even bourgeois economic reports are difficult to accumulate and collate - normally when I do get one it is badly out of date. I have hopefully five years, Jack - I do intend to use them well .. Much respect Brian Jack, my writing is in relapse again! March 21 1988 Dear comrade Brian Glad you got the lit okay - here's some more, including Marx and Engels on India, as promised and an old (yes, I'm sorry, but still) copy of Stalin On the national question. Even though Marx and Engels' writings are early, I think you'll agree that they show no 'Eurocentrism' - they show Marx and Engels always sought to approach questions in the concrete, not with a ready-made European or any other geographical or cultural doctrinaire formula. Brian, on your polemic in Iris Bheag. Let me be quite frank: far be it for me to tell you what or what not to do, but, yes, I do think you have been rather hasty. You need to crystallise your ideas. Make them granite-hard - then strike. Your ideas are still in the process of becoming thorough, let alone really hard .. Your friend and comrade Jack Conrad June 26 1988 Dear comrade Jack, .. I am very upset at recent trends and Phil Flynn's acceptance of a role in a Haughey committee is very worrying [a former leading member of the IRA, former vice-president of Sinn F?in and at the time a top trade union official]. Before I get on to our project, I'll let you know what I have been doing. I believe I told you that I had written to a protestant union leader (a spirited communist) on the Six Counties. He has not replied! .. Comrade - have I lost my way a bit? Or am I just a victim of my own isolation? It is difficult for me to take certain steps, Jack, because of my ?glaigh [IRA] roots - do you understand that? Your friend and comrade Brian June 28 1988 Dear comrade Brian .. Did you hear about John Mitchell's problems with the IDATU [union's] executive, by the way? They don't seem to mind him solidarising with faraway Turkey or South Africa. But when it comes to the struggle at home, it is a different matter. Let's hope that he can mobilise support against the executive. If he doesn't, he's in an impossible situation. Do you have any information on what happened? If you do, please fill me in .. Write quickly - even if it is only a short note. It will be good to hear from you again. Warm communist greetings Your friend Jack Conrad July 18 1988 Dear comrade Brian It was with great pleasure I received your letter (June 26). We've obviously got our wires crossed. So let's get back into a regular correspondence, as we both suggested to each other. Sorry to hear about your health problems. Recently so many I feel close to - including now yourself - have gone down with illnesses of one sort or another .. It is excellent that you are in contact with him [John Mitchell]; he could prove more than just a useful ally in the future. By the way, have you any information on his troubles with IDATU's executive (it would be of great interest if you did)? .. Now on to your pamphlet. I think you are right and wrong in saying that you would have to come out and call for 'a revolutionary CP'. You are certainly wrong though to suggest that you are in a Catch 22 situation. Let me explain myself. Above all there is the question of form and content. (This is a theme that will run throughout this letter). I've looked back at the plan I suggested for the pamphlet and as you will see it emphasises content, not form, and quite rightly. The republican movement claims to stand on the tradition of Connolly. You can do the same, only with the 'advantage of hindsight': ie, Lenin and the Russian Revolution, etc. The content of your argument should be Marxist-Leninist, but there is nothing wrong at this stage in putting this over in an Irish (republican) form. Mao certainly put over his Marxist ideas in a Chinese form. Without going in for his simplifications, there is a lesson to be learnt here .. I salute your courage and wish you well. Your comrade and friend Jack Conrad July 21 1988 Dear comrade Jack, I received your welcome letter .. My health problem, and my general well-being are much better now, Jack - my only problem is a certain lack of confidence. You must be patient - I am over-conscious of the tightrope I walk. Give me some time - I need a lot more feedback from Ireland, in more ways than one. It isn't too easy to get certain information. Anyway, comrade, be assured that I won't lose heart - as I said before, I have four and a half years now to get my mind, etc, in order. I intend to do just that. About Mitchell - he is going through the home office vetting procedures at present, to become a registered visitor to me. In his last letter to me he claimed to have survived an internal witch-hunt. I agree with you that if he is outflanked here then he will be in a hopeless position. He does offer, though, to have a cadre with him, so I think we can achieve something, whatever happens. You know, I presume, that some of his own executive attempted to [get] IDATU [to] withdraw organisation from the Six Counties. Anyway, I'll keep you informed of any relevant developments there .. Take care, comrade - keep in touch - I'll do my best! Your friend Brian August 5 1988 Dear comrade Brian, .. Glad to hear your health has improved. Health problems are so draining, not only physically, but spiritually. And that brings me to the pamphlet. Brian, in my view, the best thing is to start work. Then you will find out exactly what material you need, what fresh reading you need to do, what adjustments need to be made .. Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you soon, Brian. All the best, your friend and comrade Jack Conrad August 20 1988 Dear comrade Jack This will just be a short letter to let you know that I am still alive .. Mitchell has forwarded an application to be an approved (sic) visitor to me. The home office takes time over these things. I hope it works out and I will keep you informed. While you are correct about IDATU calling for a halt in its Six Counties' recruiting programme - John seems very confident that he can reverse that decision. I do know for sure that he still has very active people in the Six Counties. Maybe he is overestimating his friends within IDATU - if so then he will very quickly be marginalised, and that would be a disaster. I'm just not sure, Jack, how strong he is. I will be very careful for a time, in any case [in fact, the IDATU executive sacked Mitchell - the union is now called Mandate]. .... Jack, you said once that you wouldn't give me longer than the prison time I had left to produce something tangible. Well, I think I might need all of that - I definitely suffer from a lack of confidence. Putting all my thoughts on paper will take some learning. Be patient - I intend to get there - but this is very new to me .. I believe - as I have always believed - that ?glaigh Na h?ireann [IRA volunteers] will neither be dictated to, at present, nor diverted from their struggle by any vacillating talk about 'contradictions' .. Take care, comrade. Write soon. Much respect Brian September 6 1988 Dear comrade Brian .. Now onto our project. You say you suffer from a lack of confidence .. The only way forward, Brian, is to do. You can wait for your confidence to build up, but such an approach will produce nothing. Ireland cries out for communism. But this will not happen without people, specifically without leaders who are able to act as theoreticians of the movement. It does not take geniuses to do this - though we would hardly turn such people away. It takes people of determination and talent - both of which you undoubtedly possess .. Best communist greetings, comrade Jack Conrad September 28 1988 Dear comrade Jack, .. On to the project. Believe me, Jack, I want very much to write. I want it to be good. I'm not ready yet. I do practise writing articles to our own publications, letters to activists, etc. I am learning all the time. And, yes, I have determination, and I know where I want to go. I also know how far and how fast I can go. I must find out very carefully - and precisely - who I can rely on - where I can direct my agitation. Stillbirth will be of no consequence whatsoever - regardless of how perfect the foetus is. Bear with me, Jack - I understand and welcome your pressure and encouragement, but at the end of the day I must carry the can if premature moves destroy potential .. Take care, old comrade. Write soon - your letters are a breath of fresh air. Your comrade Brian November 1 1988 Dear Brian Thanks for your letter. Christ, you wrote almost a month ago and I'm only replying now. I'll do my best to be less tardy in the future .. I understand your reluctance to go into print - it is a daunting prospect. But I'll keep urging you to begin writing. This does not mean rushing out something half-baked, but producing drafts, which can be revised, amended, or if need be scrapped. Only in this way will what you are studying crystallise, only in this way will you find out what new reading and thinking you need to do .. Trust you are well, Brian. Yours with best communist greetings Jack Conrad December 15 1988 Hi comrade .. Just a few quickies - I am sure you are right about Congress '86 people. I have had no issues of Starry Plough and in fact I haven't heard much about them at all. John Mitchell invited me - just prior to his demise. He has since been in touch, but I am afraid it looks bleak. His experiences adequately expose the present trends in union bureaucracy in Ireland - it also shows the very real dangers of premature action. John forgot to cover his back. I can't afford that to happen to me, Jack. I must move slowly at present. I must combat the trend towards all-class alliances, but it won't be easy. .. Take care, comrade. Give my fraternal regards and also my very deep gratitude to all our Leninist comrades. I'll write in the new year. In solidarity Brian January 23 1989 Dear Brian Thanks for your two letters and Christmas card. I've been up to my eye balls in this and that, so I've put off writing to you at least till now. Glad John visited you. I don't think his problem arose because of "premature action", but more, as you say, the political stance of the trade union bureaucracy. Moving slowly is all very well, but the key thing is to begin an open ideological struggle for communism .. Sinn F?in is not a proletarian party (determined not only by social composition, but crucially political programme). It is a petty bourgeois revolutionary movement. As we see from its history and attitude towards the state in the south, it has typical petty bourgeois politics. Today its practice in the north is revolutionary. But in the south it is reformist. Because of its inconsistent revolutionary politics there is always a tendency towards compromise with imperialism: ie, de Valera, MacGiolla, etc. But, having said this, I would not say it was "lost in terms of revolutionary alliance". I look forward to your reply, Brian. Yours with best communist greetings Jack Conrad http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/732/prisonerB26380.html From james.irldaly at ntlworld.com Sun Aug 3 03:38:30 2008 From: james.irldaly at ntlworld.com (james daly) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 10:38:30 +0100 Subject: [A-List] Brian Keenan interview with An Phoblacht/ Republican News -- biographical introduction Message-ID: <22F13774E73649368DA6AA4E3DCDEE96@home9sg93n9r5y> THE BRIAN KEENAN INTERVIEW APRN 27 MARCH 2008 BRIAN KEENAN joined the IRA in 1968. In the intervening 40 years he became one of the IRA's foremost strategists and a thorn in the side of British imperialism. Shortly after joining the IRA, Brian went on the run and spent the next 25 years living apart from his wife, Chrissie, his children and his grandchildren. He served 16 years in various jails across England in Special Secure Units (SSUs). His pivotal role in the struggle was recognised last month when he was among the honourees at this year's Le Ch?ile celebration. Ahead of that honour, Brian spoke to JIM GIBNEY for the first time publicly about his life as a husband and father of six children, as an IRA activist, his years in jails in England and the influences that shaped his early life. This is the first instalment of a three-part feature where Brian Keenan tells us, in his own words, what has driven one of the most formidable foes the might of the British state has ever faced.BRIAN KEENAN was born on Belfast's New Lodge Road in 1941 into a family of six children. His family home was hit by a Luftwaffe bomb during the blitz on Belfast during the Second World War and the family was evacuated to South Derry, where the young Brian started primary school before returning to Belfast when the Second World War was over. For the entire Second World War his father, Harry, joined the fight against Hitler as a member of the British Royal Air Force. He was based in England at Packlington RAF Bomber Command Base aerodrome, from where the RAF ran regular bombing raids on Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe. During the war his mother Jean raised the family on her own. His father rarely spoke about his years in the RAF or the war despite being awarded a commendation for bravery when he saved the crew of a bomb-laden airplane which had crash landed on take-off. The King of England also acknowledged his bravery in a quotation in the London Gazette. Brian's father and a comrade waded knee-deep through thousands of gallons of aviation fuel, pulled the stunned crew from the stricken aircraft and dragged them from a potential inferno and almost certain death. It took Brian many years to understand his father's motivation in joining the RAF. His father had joined the boys' RAF service at 15 in 1924. It was a way out of poverty for the teenager like thousands of other Irish men before him. In time, and after many heated rows, Brian came to realise that his father was "a man of integrity, a courageous man, a man of his times, who did things according to his lights. He was a clever man, educated at Harding Street School." One of life's interesting twists of fate is that Packlington aerodrome became the site on which Full Sutton Prison was built. Brian's father would have walked the base on duty. Brian himself walked the same terrain as a political prisoner. He was a prisoner in Full Sutton. Both their feet traversed the same piece of ground separated by nearly 40 years of time and two different types of war entirely. When the Second World War was over, Brian's father returned to Belfast and the Keenan family set up home on Belfast's West Circular Road. Belfast in the 1940s was a tough place for people rearing a family. Work and money were scarce and service in the British forces was of little benefit to those coming home to poverty. From james.irldaly at ntlworld.com Sun Aug 3 03:48:53 2008 From: james.irldaly at ntlworld.com (james daly) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 10:48:53 +0100 Subject: [A-List] Brian Keenan interview with APRN -- 2 Message-ID: The Brian Keenan interview: From civil rights to armed struggle APRN 3 April 2008 http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/26946 This is the second instalment of a three-part feature in which Brian Keenan tells us, in his own words, about how resistance developed from agitation for civil rights to armed struggle. BRIAN'S first taste of RUC violence and prison life happened the same day the RUC attacked Sinn F?in's election office on the Falls Road to remove the Irish Tricolour from the office window at the behest of a young firebrand preacher by the name of Ian Paisley. It was 1964. Brian and a friend were returning home from a night out close to the Falls Road when a car-load of RUC men descended on them and beat them to the ground. They were taken to Hastings Street Barracks, where they were again beaten. "The RUC refused to give me water or allow me to wash myself. I was left lying in a cell on a leather mattress." They were charged with assaulting an RUC patrol and sentenced to three months in jail or an ?85 fine. It was the first time Brian met PJ McGrory, then a young solicitor at an early stage of his practice but who was to become a renowned legal advocate in the turbulent North of Ireland. He represented Brian and, characteristically of PJ, he demolished the RUC witnesses' claims that Brian and his friend attacked them. But the judge ignored PJ's obvious conclusion and convicted Brian nevertheless. Unable to pay the fine, Brian spent two weeks in Crumlin Road Jail until the money was raised. This was Brian Keenan's violent introduction to the sectarian nature of the Six-County state, its police and judiciary. The experience taught him a lesson about the RUC he never forgot. Shortly after the 1964 riots, students in Belfast began to organise under the banner of civil rights. This was a period of huge change which significantly impacted on the IRA, most notably in the Republican Movement split of 1969. "In the late 1960s, the IRA was ineffective. They spent their time having arguments that were totally irrelevant to the unfolding and dangerous situation. "The split was personality driven. It wasn't solely ideological. It was also ego-driven. The split damaged the struggle big time. "The IRA had no sense of what was coming at the people in terms of state violence. However, as an organisation it had a collective memory and knowledge of armed struggle which proved invaluable. "Some senior Army people saw the Civil Rights movement in opposition to them; others saw the potential of it. They ended up going with the Sticks [who were dubbed by the media the 'Official IRA' and 'Official Sinn F?in', who later changed their name to the Workers' Party]. "So why did I go with the Provisionals? I considered what the Dublin leadership of the Sticks did was a betrayal. "I went with the IRA because of what happened to the Catholic people of Belfast. The pre-split IRA betrayed them. They believed that a bloodbath in Belfast among the Catholic people was good for the IRA. This was nonsense politics and left the people defenceless in the face of a very violent situation unfolding in the city. "I was disgusted at the split. The Movement and the struggle were weakened. The split seriously damaged the struggle for a united Ireland. "Certain IRA leaders wouldn't talk to me for a long time after the split because they believed I was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. In their eyes I was not to be trusted. They believed I was aligned with Tony Coughlan, who was with the Sticks." But it was the spectacular growth of the Civil Rights movement in the late 1960s which held out the prospect of "something big happening in the Six Counties". "The trigger for my generation to get involved in violent confrontation with the state was not the IRA, not republican politics, nor republican ideology. The trigger was the Civil Rights movement. "The Civil Rights movement was not controlled by republicans. In fact it was out of republicans' control. It was students led by people like Michael Farrell, People's Democracy and trade unionists. It struck a chord among the educated. Education was important and the Catholics had education as never before. They asserted their rights. "There was a lot of excitement about. You felt something big was happening. There were demonstrations and riots." Across the Six Counties, thousands of students were on the march for civil rights. It was a students' revolt against inequality. The students were influenced by what was happening in cities in Europe, especially Paris and the United States against the US war in Vietnam. "The two big demands of the marchers were 'one man one vote' and decent houses. The housing conditions were appaling. People were living in squalor. I was angry. Why should anyone have more than one vote because they had money and property? Why could I, who had nothing, not have a vote?" "People were always aware that, no matter how well educated you were, your expectations were never reached because of the society we lived in. People's self-respect and self-esteem was low." Brian got involved in the Civil Rights movement and his latent republican politics came to the fore. "It was a good thing that I had republican politics and that other republicans were involved in the Civil Rights movement because such movements have a short lifespan and, as we know from other experiences around the world, they fizzle out. "If it hadn't been for republicans, the Civil Rights movement here would have died also and the status quo would have remained cemented forever and a day." The Civil Rights movement struck an emotional chord with the Catholic population of the North because they were highlighting those issues which were deeply personal to Catholics - issues of injustice. Catholics were seething with anger about how they had been treated by the unionist government for decades. They demonstrated in their tens of thousands for reforms to improve their personal and living conditions. It was into this uprising that the IRA stepped in. "I joined the IRA in 1968 and shortly after I had to go on the run. From that point onwards, normal family life ended. I never lived at home with my wife, Chrissie, and children for 27 years. I went home to my family in 1995 for the first time since 1968. Chrissie raised the kids. "From 1968, I gave all my attention to the Army. The IRA was light on the ground when I joined. "The IRA was a body of armed men. They were not trained ideologically. They were schooled in history but they were also a movement waiting to be revitalised, rearmed and reorganised into a fighting force. They needed leadership." Brian Keenan was an emerging leader of an organisation which had never experienced anything like what was happening to the nationalist and Catholic population of the Six Counties. The mood of the Catholic population and the conditions in nationalist areas were akin to what had happened in the rest of Ireland during the period between 1916 and the end of the Civil War in 1923. The conditions were ripe for the IRA to once again prepare itself and the nationalist people for war. 1969 was a pivotal year for the IRA. The organisation was disorganised and disjointed, with few weapons. After the pogroms on the Falls Road, a slogan was seen daubed on the walls: 'IRA - I Ran Away.' "At the time the people were leading the IRA by their actions in places like Derry, Ardoyne and Short Strand. The strength of resistance lay with the people's actions. It was afterwards the IRA provided the much-needed armed leadership. "Anger and frustration about injustice brought me into the IRA. It was easy for me to move into an armed organisation. I'd no faith in any democratic confrontation with the state. It was quite easy for me to join the ranks of ?glaigh na h?ireann and translate that militancy into a military response." The IRA started to mobilise in a way it had always been done in secret organisations. At the time, with the threat from the RUC, 'B' Specials and loyalists, the most important issue was defence, particularly for Belfast Catholics. This was the strongest and most popular dynamic. "Defence is only possible with armaments. The country was scoured for weapons. I travelled myself from Derry to Cork, picking up old bits and pieces. I remember in West Cork I got a dump from an old man and that dump had been there from the Civil War! "They were incredible days. All of a sudden, the IRA was in your street; your next door neighbour was in the IRA; your mate's son was in the IRA. They were the IRA. "Of course, the IRA was in its infancy. Few knew how to deal with the situation. We drew on the experience of older republicans - the people who were in the jails, in the Army since partition. Their advice in those very early days was invaluable. "In one sense we were shaped and moulded by the levels of continuous repression from the British Army and the RUC. "British military repression also deepened the crisis on the streets. They behaved as if they were in one of their colonies, thousands of miles away, instead of where they actually were - in a west European country a few miles away from London. "British repression actually created the conditions which allowed the IRA to intensify its armed struggle. The British Army was really stupid. They provoked mass revolt by their repressive actions. "The IRA organised behind the barricades for national liberation, not social revolution. It could have been different if the IRA had been more than an organisation seeking a united Ireland. In the context of national liberation it was inevitable that the focus would be around independence. "It was unfinished business from the period of partition. "We did what needed to be done and we were right to do it." It was a popular uprising. The revolt was propelled by anger borne out of decades of discrimination and injustice; an uprising which focused on issues like jobs, housing, votes, quality of life issues - a reform agenda. The IRA was trying to manage all of this popular upheaval, trying to find its place in the midst of chaos. Understandably, the growth of the IRA was unmanageable. It was the first time in modern Irish history that republicans were dealing with this type of situation, where war in an urban setting was underway. "It was really only after internment that people and the Army began to focus on the nature of the Six-County state." By this time, the IRA was improving its efficiency. "The IRA offensive just developed. There was no point at which someone said, 'Right, that's it - we are at war.' "Sympathisers in the US were getting in various weapons: Korean War weaponry: M1s, some old M14s, BARs. We were glad of them but they were not very good weapons against what the Brits had. "There was a concerted effort with friendly people in the States to re-equip the Army so that it could effectively fight the Brits. "We had friends in different parts of the world procuring weapons for us. But it was the republican supporters in the US who made the difference. "Parallel with that, our own Engineering Department was developing weaponry of a home-made nature. "You have to remember, there was no IRA as we know it today. The IRA was badly organised and badly armed. The strength of the resistance was in the people responding spontaneously to the violence of the RUC, 'B' Specials and loyalists. For many it was a case of, 'Get the guns and shoot the British Army.' "The IRA followed the people's response on the streets. The IRA saw the potential in the situation. The people forced the IRA to organise itself. It did so and it did a good job under difficult circumstances. "The IRA then went on a mass recruiting campaign. It opened its ranks to anyone and everyone. This had its strengths and weaknesses from the point of view of a secret, clandestine army which needed security to survive and grow. "The IRA's security was compromised during these years. People were recruited who did not have the basic tenets of republicanism or nationalism. But this is one of the contradictions armed revolutionary organisations have to manage. "You had a popular uprising which the IRA had to take advantage of because its primary project was the freedom of the country. "Because of the immediacy of the situation on the ground, it took the IRA a number of years to put a military strategy together. Like I said earlier, the leadership saw its job as completing the unfinished business of 1921: ending partition. "The growth of the IRA was unmanageable. It was unplanned because of what was happening on the ground. The IRA's strength in many instances was down to individual Volunteers and their initiative in taking on the crown forces. "When you consider it, the IRA Volunteers were self-taught, trained on the streets and highly motivated. They took on one of the best conventional armies in the world. We paid a heavy price in terms of loss of life and the attrition rate to jails was also very high but people kept volunteering to join the IRA. "Then the Belfast Brigade of the IRA was a driving force. They were very brave; an engine driving the situation forward. They lost a lot of Volunteers in the early years in confrontations with the British military. The IRA was light on the ground in places like South Armagh until after internment, in fact until after Harry Thornton was shot dead. [Harry Thornton, a building worker, was driving his car past Springfield Road Barracks in Belfast on Sunday, 7 August 1971, when it backfired. Soldiers opened fire on the car and killed him.] "Belfast Volunteers played a huge part at all levels in the Army structure and in all areas of its operations. Belfast Volunteers took up positions in various commands and in a short time they made a difference, especially on the Northern Command. "Northern Command was responsible for prosecuting the war. It was very effective. It was an important development in the overall war effort. It meant that Volunteers on the ground were fighting the war. The people fighting the war were the best people to run the war. They were making the decisions." From james.irldaly at ntlworld.com Sun Aug 3 03:57:05 2008 From: james.irldaly at ntlworld.com (james daly) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 10:57:05 +0100 Subject: [A-List] The Brian Keenan interview [3]: Revolutionaries have to be pragmatic - wish lists are for Christmas Message-ID: <1E2483405B2744C2A55CB5F362A58958@home9sg93n9r5y> The Brian Keenan interview [3]: Revolutionaries have to be pragmatic - wish lists are for Christmas http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/27259 10 APRIL 2008 This is the third and final instalment of a feature in which Brian Keenan tells us, in his own words, about how the IRA sustained a heroic guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful nations in the world for decades until a viable alternative for political progress was presented. And this leading exponent of the most successful IRA campaign since the 1920s has a message for those who cling to armed struggle as a principle rather than a tactic. THE MILITARY situation on the ground was changing rapidly between 1969 and 1972. The British escalated their military offensive against the IRA through curfews and widespread house raids. Gun battles between the IRA and the crown forces were common as the British military tried to occupy territory in the hands of the IRA. "The military contest between the IRA and the British forces was largely determined by weaponry. "It was very difficult to get the best weapons for the job at hand. The AR18, the Armalite, was ideal for urban warfare but the leadership, which was Dublin-based, wasn't in touch with the war needs on the ground. It was difficult to get the right weaponry to ensure the IRA held on to its advantageous position. "I remember having a stand-up row with the Chief of Staff about their failure to supply the Armalite in sufficient quantities." Internment was a turning point in the war for the IRA and the British Army. "We weren't hurt at a national level. We did lose some Brigade staff personnel. Over a protracted period of time, internment became a recruiting agent. Experience lost was regained in a short time. "Internment showed republicans how vicious the Brits were. We were forced to organise and train the IRA to a higher standard to deal with the British Army, to overhaul its structures from the ground level upwards. "We cleared out a lot of deadwood and put the IRA on a permanent war footing. "The war was fought on a day-to-day basis. A lot of it was trial and error and we paid a high price for this inexperience. We had the energy of the novice, of the amateur. "The IRA leadership knew we could not defeat the British Army militarily but we could bring them to a point where they knew they could not defeat the IRA. "We aimed to exhaust their patience through war in the Six Counties and subsequently the campaign in England. "By creating these conditions we believed the pressure would grow inside the British Establishment for them to withdraw from Ireland. "We were on the march forward and no one could stop us. That is the only way to fight a war. There cannot be self-doubt, half-measures or holding back. The Army's attitude was we could win the war. "The Army leadership began to think more strategically and politically. It was out of this thinking that, by 1973, the 'Long War Strategy' took shape. "I was very concerned at that time that the vast amount of effort being put into training IRA Volunteers was not delivering on the ground in terms of casualties among the British forces. "There was constant competition between those on the IRA side and those on the British side who were trying to protect their personnel on the ground. The IRA's bombing campaign was an important development. "We believed commercial bombing had a two-fold effect: it forced British troops out of nationalist areas when there was a very high level of repression, and when London was bombed it hit big business, the financial institutions. Those affected by these bombs would pressurise the British Government to disengage from Ireland. "There was a lot of merit in that strategic outlook. It is arguable that had we been able to sustain a bombing campaign in London a lot earlier by using Canary Wharf-type bombs then we might have changed the course of the war decisively in the IRA's favour. "Until the IRA developed nitro-benzine we didn't have explosives of a high enough velocity to justify car bomb operations. "Benzine could be produced in massive quantities. The potential for a big bomb had arrived and became an important part of the IRA's arsenal. "The development of the car bomb in terms of the material that went into it was also very helpful in developing culvert bombs. The culvert bomb cost the British Army a lot of personnel. It was one of the IRA's most effective weapons. "Other weapons that made a difference were the RPG7 rocket launcher and the GPM, as did mortars and certain types of shoulder weapons. "There was constant competition between the IRA and British Army for tactical superiority. "The IRA's Engineering Department was dynamic and an indispensable part of the war effort. Their contribution opened up the IRA's war front. "Some of their devices were ingenious. A lot of thought and resources were put into developing self-made armaments like mortars and shoulder-fired weapons. "These were used to good effect against the Brits' armoured vehicles. We also advanced well with remote control and electronic bombing devices. The IRA leadership was constantly reviewing its war strategy, looking for ways of extending and expanding its campaign. Out of this outlook emerged the IRA's campaign in England. England was a very important theatre of war for both the IRA and the British. All modern states rely on transport, communications and power. These were the targets of the England campaign. "The England campaign was also a very difficult area for the IRA. To operate in England was very demanding on IRA Volunteers and, of course, it was also a huge drain on the IRA's finances and other resources but the dividend was worth the effort. "It soon became clear due to the number of arrests in England that the IRA had to take a different approach. Sleepers had to be put in on a long-term basis and they had to be carefully selected. "It was a very difficult mission. Those IRA Volunteers who took the fight to Britain were particularly brave and had special qualities. To survive in such hostile territory required a high degree of dedication, self-discipline and selflessness. "An indication of the IRA's very cautious approach to recruiting Volunteers for this mission can be seen in the fact that there was a trawl for a specific campaign and, of 82 Volunteers interviewed to go, the IRA selected only four. "The Balcombe Street lads were a classic example of the high calibre that was required. They were hand-picked." The concentration of British forces in the Six Counties made it increasingly difficult for the IRA to operate there, especially in the late 1970s. England was wide open to a carefully planned campaign by the IRA. Opening up this front put huge pressure on the British Government and on their policy makers. 'In any military analysis it is extremely important to hit the enemy where they live. "You have to be able to bring the struggle to their front door. "The England campaign was a necessary appendage to the armed struggle in the Six Counties. It sent a powerful message to the British Establishment, political and military. "In those days the Army dominated. Their needs came first and while I can understand it because we were fighting a war, it was also a mistake not to pay attention to building a political party. "Everything was subservient to the Army. There was a lot of elitism in the Army. Politics were frowned upon. A lot of senior Army people were suspicious of politics. They thought it would corrupt the struggle - but the struggle was all about politics. "The Army was probably too strong for its and the struggle's good. A lot of leadership people thought republicans did not need a party, that the Army could do it all. "This was a historical legacy. It was long and difficult to get away from this outlook. This attitude has nothing to do with republicanism or revolutionary politics. "In urban areas they led the way and other armed organisations around the world learned from them. But it was very tight because of the concentration of British forces with their patrols and bases in nationalist areas. "In rural areas - places like South Armagh, South Derry - IRA Volunteers were exceptional. The Volunteers knew every inch of their own land. Their fieldcraft was brilliant. They often shocked the British Army. "It was a dynamic, unstoppable, frantic situation. Volunteers were on four operations a day. "It was events on the ground which made the IRA into the fighting force it became. "The biggest recruiting agent was oppression "The British Army had infinite resources. There are nine or ten people behind every one of their armed personnel, providing back-up. In the IRA, everyone was on the gun and practically everyone wanted to be on the gun. This was not sustainable over a long period of time." In the late 1970s, Brian was arrested, taken to England and charged. He was convicted and sentenced. He spent 16 years in jail, most of the time in a Special Secure Unit. "There was never more than four other IRA Volunteers with you in these special units. "As in all situations, there were good and bad times. You had to be disciplined about your life, try to escape if the opportunity presented itself, and occasionally use violence when necessary against the prison regime to keep them in check. "I was a spokesperson for years in jail for prisoners. I remember Willie Whitelaw came to visit the special units. He refused to speak to IRA prisoners. "I keenly watched the efforts being made to build Sinn F?in as a party. "The split in 1986 was inevitable, necessary as far as building Sinn F?in was concerned in the 26 Counties. To make headway with the political project it was necessary to recognise the institutions of the 26-County state. "I wrote a letter to the Sinn F?in Ard Fheis that year because I was angry that some people were using IRA martyrs as a reason for not trying to open up a new front in developing Sinn F?in. No living person can say how Pearse, Connolly or Bobby Sands would have reacted to different events. "Looking back from this position at the overall performance of the IRA, I would say they were a remarkable fighting force. "Against the backdrop of all the personnel, weaponry, technology, surveillance equipment, fortifications and other resources the British state deployed against us, the IRA and its Volunteers fought a remarkable war. On many occasions they successfully outwitted the British Army and secured a number of significant military strikes against them. "My overall assessment, especially in the first decade of the campaign, is that the IRA was an outstanding fighting force. You just have to admire their capabilities. Under the most unrelenting pressure from the crown forces, they were able to sustain themselves. "Operationally they fought in two theatres: urban and rural. The IRA changed urban warfare on a world basis. Other armed revolutionary organisations have borrowed the IRA's tactics. "In terms of where we are now, with the Peace Process and other huge shifts in strategy, the IRA was morally obliged to look at alternative options to continuing the war, especially if there was a viable alternative. "I was sceptical and supportive in equal measure. "There was no principle involved in my assessment. It was purely tactical. I had thought about alternatives in prison. "As far as I was concerned, the IRA had to think about the best way forward, including an escalation of its operations in a more ruthless way. "I've heard it argued that the IRA was too cautious in its operations against the British Establishment and the enemy exploited this caution. "It would be wrong to assume that the IRA's cessation in August 1994 was inevitable. It wasn't. It came out of a particular, chosen path going back several years. It was the product of that chosen path. "The IRA's decision was undoubtedly difficult but it was fairly logical. It was well-debated at Army leadership level. All the alternatives were looked at: military and political. We had all the information that was needed to carry out the required assessment. "The Army leadership was well aware of the Army's capabilities in terms of its arms, structures and capacity to sustain its war. All of that was judged against the broad political mood, as you would expect. "The questions were simple - the answers were more difficult. "I can understand younger IRA Volunteers being unhappy with the twists and turns in the IRA's strategy. If I was 40 years younger myself I might share their views. Thirty years ago I would not have considered the various changes. "I would prefer we were somewhere else but we are not and that is it as far as I am concerned. "Revolutionaries have to be pragmatic - wish lists are for Christmas. "I can understand the widespread concerns by republicans about the manner in which the IRA handled its weaponry. But revolution is not about guns it is about intent. "At a time of great change we need to constantly lay out the republican vision. We need to constantly remind people we are for 'equality, liberty, fraternity'. We are against exploitation and inequality. "Those who continue to use armed struggle need to hear that message. They also need to be faced with the consequences of their campaign. There is no revolutionary logic to their activities. "But I'm not a prophet when it comes to the future use of armed struggle in this or any other country. "Historians in 50 years' time will tell us whether the right path was chosen or not. "Of course mistakes have been made along the way, but we have to look to the opportunities that are there to move the struggle forward to reunification and independence." From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sun Aug 3 06:07:08 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:07:08 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Mugabe's Biggest Sin Message-ID: <48959F6C.2030708@attglobal.net> Anglo-American and Chinese interests clash over Zimbabwe's strategic mineral wealth by F William Engdahl Global Research (July 30 2008) Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, presides over one of the world's richest minerals treasures, the Great Dyke region, which cuts a geological swath across the entire land from northeast to southwest. The real background to the pious concerns of the Bush Administration for human rights in Zimbabwe in the past several years is not Mugabe's possible election fraud or his expropriation of white settler farms. It is the fact that Mr Mugabe has been quietly doing business, a lot of it, with the one country which has virtually unlimited need of strategic raw materials Zimbabwe can provide - China. Mugabe's Zimbabwe is, along with Sudan, on the central stage of the new war over control of strategic minerals of Africa between Washington and Beijing, with Moscow playing a supporting role in the drama. The stakes are huge. Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe is a very very bad man. This we all know from reading the newspapers or hearing the pronouncements of George W Bush, earlier Britain's Tony Blair and more recently Gordon Brown. In their eyes he has sinned badly. They charge that he is a dictator; that he has expropriated, often with violence, the farms of whites as part of land reform; they claim he rigged his re-election by vote fraud and violence; that he has ruined the economy of Zimbabwe. Whether Robert Mugabe deserves to be in Washington's honor roll of villains alongside Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, Ahmadinejad, and Adolf Hitler, however, it is not the reason Washington and London have made Zimbabwe regime change priority number one for their Africa policy. What his sin is seems to have more to do with his attempts to get out from under Anglo-American neo-colonial serfdom dependency and to pursue a national economic development independent of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. His real sin seems to be the fact that he has turned to the one nation that offers his government credits and soft loans for economic development with no strings attached - The Peoples' Republic of China. Western media accounts conveniently tend to omit the second major party to what is a huge tug of war between Anglo-American interests and China to get control of Zimbabwe's vast mineral wealth. We should keep in mind that for Washington there are always "good dictators" and "bad dictators". The difference is whether the given dictator serves US national interests or not. Mugabe clearly is in the latter category. Cecil Rhodes' legacy Zimbabwe is the name of what under the era of British Imperialism a century ago was named Rhodesia. The name Rhodesia came from the British imperial strategist and miner, Cecil Rhodes, founder of the Rhodes scholarships to Oxford, and author of a plan for a vast private African zone, to be chartered from the Queen of England, from Egypt to South Africa. Cecil Rhodes created the British South Africa Company, modeled on the East India Company, along with his partner, L Starr Jameson of Jameson Raid notoriety, to exploit the mineral riches of Rhodesia. It controlled what was later named Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia - Nyasaland. The model was that the British Government would assume all risks to militarily defend Rhodes' looting while Rhodes and his London bankers, above all Lord Rothschild, who was a close associate, would assume all the gains of the business. Rhodes, a seasoned geologist, knew well that there was a remarkable geological fault running from the mouth of the Nile at the Gulf of Suez south through Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, down through today's Zimbabwe on to South Africa. Rhodes had already instigated several wars to gain control of the diamonds of Kimberly and the gold of Witwatersrand in South Africa. This geological phenomenon he, as well as enterprising German explorers, had discovered in the 1880's. They named it the Great Rift Valley. Rhodesia, like South Africa after the bloody Boer wars, was settled by white settlers to secure future minerals gains for allied interests of the City of London, mainly those of the powerful Oppenheimer family and their gold and diamond enterprises in the region. In 1962 when Africa was undergoing the wave of national liberation from colonial rule, a wave calculatedly supported by "non-colonial power" Washington, Rhodesia was one of the last bastions, along with former British colony South Africa, of white Apartheid rule. Whites in Rhodesia constituted only one to two percent of the total population so their methods of holding on to power were rather ruthless. White supremacist Prime Minister, Ian Smith, declared Rhodesian independence from Britain in 1965 rather than agree to the slightest compromise on race or power sharing with black nationalists. Britain got UN trade sanctions imposed to force Smith to buckle under. Despite sanctions, there was considerable support from conservative business interests in London. Britain's Tiny Rowland, head of the Lonrho mining conglomerate, secured the bulk of his African profits from Rhodesian copper mining and related ventures under the Smith regime. The City of London knew very well what riches lay in Rhodesia. The question was how to secure enduring control. Smith's Rhodesian backers had little interest in giving it all to London. Following a long and bloody struggle, in 1980 the leader of the black African Popular Front coalition, Robert Mugabe, overwhelmingly won election as the first Prime Minister of a new Zimbabwe. Twenty eight years later, the same Robert Mugabe is under escalating attack from the West, especially Zimbabwe's former colonial master, England, including strong economic sanctions designed to bring the country to the brink of collapse, to force him to open the economy to foreign (read Anglo-American and allied) investment. Ironically, the issue seems not all that different from the Ian Smith era: London and US control of the resources of the rich land, and Zimbabwean efforts to resist that control. The Great Dyke Within Zimbabwe, a portion of the rich Great Rift is called the Great Dyke, an intrusive geological treasure zone running over 530 kilometers from the northeast to the southwest of the country, in places up to twelve kilometers wide. A river runs along the fault and the region is volcanically active. Here also lie vast deposits of chromium, of copper, platinum and other metals. The US State Department, as well as London, is aware of the vast minerals and other riches of Zimbabwe. It states in a recent report on Zimbabwe, "Zimbabwe is endowed with rich mineral resources. Exports of gold, asbestos, chrome, coal, platinum, nickel, and copper could lead to an economic recovery one day ... The country is richly endowed with coal-bed methane gas that has yet to be exploited. "With international attractions such as Victoria Falls, the Great Zimbabwe stone ruins, Lake Kariba, and extensive wildlife, tourism historically has been a significant segment of the economy and contributor of foreign exchange. The sector has contracted sharply since 1999, however, due to the country's declining international image. (sic) "Energy Resources "With considerable hydroelectric power potential and plentiful coal deposits for thermal power station, Zimbabwe is less dependent on oil as an energy source than most other comparably industrialized countries, but it still imports forty percent of its electric power needs from surrounding countries - primarily Mozambique. Only about fifteen percent of Zimbabwe's total energy consumption is accounted for by oil, all of which is imported. Zimbabwe imports about 1.2 billion liters of oil per year. Zimbabwe also has substantial coal reserves that are utilized for power generation, and coal-bed methane deposits recently discovered in Matabeleland province are greater than any known natural gas field in Southern or Eastern Africa. In recent years, poor economic management and low foreign currency reserves have led to serious fuel shortages." In short, chrome, copper, gold, platinum, huge hydroelectric power potential and vast coal reserves are what is at stake for Washington and London in Zimbabwe. The country also has unverified reserves of uranium, something in big demand today for nuclear power generation. It is clear of late that so long as the tenacious Mugabe is running things, not the Anglo-Americans, but rather the Chinese, are Zimbabwe's preferred business partners. This seems to be Mugabe's greatest sin. He's not reading from the right program as George W Bush's friends see it. His real sin seems to be turning East not West for economic and investment help. The Chinese connection During the Cold War China recognized and supported Robert Mugabe. In recent years as China's search for secure raw materials escalated its foreign diplomacy, relations have become stronger. According to the Chinese media, China has invested more in Zimbabwe than any other nation. Already back in July 2005 as Tony Blair turned the sanctions screws tighter on Zimbabwe, Mugabe flew to Beijing to meet with the top Chinese leadership, where he reportedly sought an emergency loan of US$1 billion and asked increased Chinese involvement in the economy. It began to bear fruit. In June 2006 state- owned Zimbabwean businesses signed a number of energy, mining and farming deals worth billions of dollars with Chinese companies. The largest was with China Machine-Building International Corporation, for a $1.3 billion contract to mine coal and build thermal-power generators in Zimbabwe, to reduce Zimbabwe's electricity shortage. The Chinese company had already built thermal-power stations in Nigeria and Sudan, and had been involved in mining projects in Gabon. In 2007 the Chinese government donated farm machinery worth $25 million to Zimbabwe, including 424 tractors and fifty trucks, as part of a $58 million loan to the Zimbabwean government. The Mugabe administration had previously seized white-owned farms and gave them to blacks, damaging machinery in the process. In return for the equipment and the loan the Zimbabwean government will ship thirty million kilograms of tobacco to the People's Republic of China. Other Zimbabwe-China agreements included a deal between the Zimbabwe Mining Development and China's Star Communications, forming a joint venture to mine chrome, with funding from the China Development Bank. Zimbabwe also agreed to import road-building, irrigation and farming equipment from the China National Construction and Agricultural Machinery Import and Export Corporation and China Poly Group. Zimbabwe also relies on China for imports of telecommunications equipment, military hardware and many other critical items it can no longer import from the west because of the British-led sanctions. Relations have become so important that Zimbabwe's police have a dedicated "China desk" to protect Chinese interests in the country. In April 2007 the chairman of China's top political advisory body, Jia Qinglin, head of the National Committee of the Chinese Peoples' Political Consultative Conference, flew to Harare to meet with Mugabe. It was a follow-up to the 2006 Beijing China-Africa Cooperation Summit where the Chinese government invited the heads of more than forty African states to discuss relations. Africa has become a diplomatic and economic priority for China and its economy. At that time, Beijing got an open invitation to help develop dormant mines in the country. The deputy speaker of Zimbabwe's parliament called for more Chinese investment in the country's mining sector, according to China's Xinhua news agency. Zimbabwe's mining laws were changed to allow the government to reallocate mining claims that were not being exploited. Mining generates half of Zimbabwe's export revenue. It is the only sector in the country that still has foreign investors after the collapse of the main agricultural sector. Western companies with mining claims in Zimbabwe were not exploiting them. "We would appeal to the Chinese government to come in full force to exploit these minerals", Zimbabwean Deputy Parliamentary Speaker, Kumbirai Kangai said to the official Xinhua. Kangai assured potential Chinese investors that they would not expose themselves to legal action if they took over claims held by Western companies. A few months after, in December 2007, Chinese company, Sinosteel Corporation, acquired 67 percent stake in Zimbabwe's leading ferrochrome producer and exporter Zimasco Holdings. Zimasco Holdings is the fifth largest high carbonated ferrochrome producer in the world. It used to produce 210,000 tons of high-carbon ferrochrome per year, nearly all of it along the mineral-rich Great Dyke, accounting for four percent of global ferrochrome production. Zimasco has also the world's second largest reserves of chrome, after South Africa. It was formerly owned by Union Carbide Corporation, now part of Dow Chemicals Corp. Oh, oh! Alarm bells went ringing in London and in Washington at that news. China clearly views Africa as a central part of its strategic plan, most notably for its oil reserves and vital raw materials such as copper, chrome, nickel. The continent is also at the same time becoming an important region for Chinese manufactured exports. But the raw materials battle is at the heart, and the real reason by all accounts, why Washington recently decided to form a separate Africa Command in the Pentagon. Controlling China's economic emergence is an un-stated strategic priority of United States foreign and military policy and has been since before September 11 2001. The only delicate point in the business is the fact that China, with well over $1.7 trillions of foreign exchange reserves, most believed in form of US Treasury securities, could trigger a complete dollar panic and further collapse of the US economy should she decide for political reasons it were too risky to continue holding its hundreds of billions of US dollar debt. In effect, by buying US Government debt with its trade surpluses, China has been indirectly financing US policies counter to Chinese national interest such as the Iraq war, or even the $100 million or so annually that Condi Rice's State Department spends on Tibet. China is refusing to play by the rules of the Anglo-American neo-colonial game. It does not seek IMF or World Bank approval before dealing with African countries. It makes soft loans, regardless who might be running the country. In this it does nothing different from Washington or London. The Chinese see American influence in Africa less entrenched than in the rest of the world, thus offering unique opportunities for China to pursue its economic interests. It may or may not be cynical. It may be Realpolitik. If it results in the ability of certain African countries to use China as a political counterweight to the one-sided Anglo-American domination of the Continent, that itself could be a major benefit to Africans depending on how they use it. Clearly, it has been extremely positive for Chinese access to vital economic minerals for its economy as well as oil from places such as Darfur and southern Sudan, or Nigeria. Mineral wealth has once more put Africa on center stage of a battle for mineral riches between East and West. This time, unlike during the Cold War era, however, Beijing is playing with far more assets, and Washington with far less. _____ F William Engdahl is a leading analyst of the New World Order, author of the best-selling book on oil and geopolitics, A Century of War: Anglo-American Politics and the New World Order (Pluto Press), and Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation (www.globalresearch.ca). His writings have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He may be contacted through his website, www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net . Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Research on Globalization. The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article. www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner. (c) Copyright F William Engdahl, Global Research, 2008 (c) Copyright 2005-2007 GlobalResearch.ca007 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9707 http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From james.irldaly at ntlworld.com Sun Aug 3 06:07:37 2008 From: james.irldaly at ntlworld.com (james daly) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 13:07:37 +0100 Subject: [A-List] From One Bereaved Palestinian Father to Another Message-ID: A letter from Bassam Aramin and two other relevant items at end: Journalist Mohammed Omer writing in the Nation about his ordeal at Israeli fascist hands and notes on why oil prices got so high. " Assay the powers within you.. our doubts make traitors of us all" Shakespear -------------------------- From tal1 at cogeco.ca Sun Aug 3 13:49:13 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 15:49:13 -0400 Subject: [A-List] How Good Was the Good War? In-Reply-To: <4893BDD6.8050102@attglobal.net> References: <4893BDD6.8050102@attglobal.net> Message-ID: <447F6EC7DA3D47EB8A136093676C3A3C@TonyPC> ...But, of course, a read of Jacques Pauwels' "The Myth of the Good War" is (amongst others) the real answer to the question of 'how good was the good war?'. T. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Totten" To: "a-list" ; "World City" Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 9:52 PM Subject: [A-List] How Good Was the Good War? > > by Andrew J Bacevich > > The American Conservative (July 14 2008 Issue) > > > For historians, World War II revisionism is likely to remain a tough > sell. The process of enshrining the conflict of 1939-45 as the "Good > War" has now advanced to the point of being all but irreversible. The > war's canonical lessons, especially those relating to the perils of > appeasement, have permanently etched themselves in our collective > consciousness. > > The problem with this orthodox interpretation is not that it's wrong but > that it is inadequate. The reflexive tendency to see every antagonist as > another Hitler (or Stalin) and every sensitive diplomatic encounter as a > potential Munich (or Yalta) has produced an approach to statecraft that > is excessively militarized, needlessly inflexible, and insufficiently > imaginative. The remedy is not to engage in a vain effort to change the > way Americans remember World War II, however, but to restore that > conflict to its proper context. > > Ripped out of context, the war, especially the struggle against Nazi > Germany, has become a parable. Whatever their value as a source of moral > instruction, parables offer less help when it comes to understanding > international politics. Parables simplify - and to simplify the past is > necessarily to distort it. > > The neoconservative writer Norman Podhoretz illustrates how this > penchant for treating World War II as a parable yields distorted and > even mischievous results. Since 9/11, he has insistently argued that the > correct name for the conflict commonly known as the global war on terror > is actually "World War IV". Podhoretz's logic runs like this: the Cold > War was really "World War III", essentially a replay of World War II, > the threat posed by communism serving as a variant of the old threat > posed by fascism. For Podhoretz, the horrific events of September 2001 > thrust the West back to the days of September 1939. The imperative of > the moment was to launch yet another crusade on behalf of freedom and > democracy, this time against a third totalitarian ideology that > Podhoretz labeled "Islamofascism". All that was needed was a new Winston > Churchill to lead this crusade, and Podhoretz found his man, however > improbably, in George W Bush. > > Strangely absent from Podhoretz's narrative is the event that actually > touched off this sequence of global conflicts and without which World > Wars II and III - not to mention IV - would never have occurred. I refer > here, of course, to the epic bloodletting of 1914-18, for a time known > as "the Great War". > > Podhoretz gets away with ignoring World War I because the vast majority > of his fellow citizens are similarly predisposed. For present-day > Americans, the enterprise once fervently, then derisively, referred to > as "the war to end all wars" possesses about as much political and > cultural salience as Shays' Rebellion. > > This marginalization of World War I is unfortunate. In fact, that > conflagration and the peacemaking process that followed offer a mother > lode of instruction for American policymakers today. > > World War I does not easily reduce to a parable. Even a polemicist as > talented as Podhoretz would be hard pressed to render it as a story > pitting good against evil or freedom against totalitarianism. It was > instead a vast, complex, and utterly avoidable tragedy, a war of empires > on behalf of empire. A handful of na?ve and stupid statesmen, who > fancied that in war lay the solution to all manner of problems, > inflicted incalculable moral and material damage upon Western > civilization, while accelerating the decline of European power and > leaving a poisonous legacy. > > Doing his part to spread those poisons was none other than Winston > Churchill, celebrated by Norman Podhoretz as the central figure in the > reduction of World War II to a parable. As a member of the war cabinet, > Churchill made contributions to British policy in World War I that are > at least as worthy of study today as his contributions to World War II. > > For example, as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1915, Churchill conceived > of the Gallipoli campaign. To appropriate a term from our own day, this > amphibious invasion of Turkey was expected to be a "cakewalk" opening up > any number of additional opportunities. It turned out to be a disaster > that consumed the lives of tens of thousands of British, French, and > Anzac soldiers while accomplishing nothing. Gallipoli still stands as a > warning to those who fancy that military power offers the means to > transform the Islamic world. > > After the armistice of 1918, as secretary of state for the colonies, > Churchill played an important role in redrawing the map of the Middle > East. The purpose of this exercise was not to advance the cause of > freedom and democracy but to extend British hegemony and control of > Persian Gulf oil. One result of this effort was to invent the > nation-state of Iraq, which soon became and remains a source of > instability and disorder, although these days the United States rather > than Great Britain foots most of the bills. > > So let us by all means venerate the Winston Churchill who warned of the > threat posed by Hitler and who inspired Britons to make their lonely > stand against Nazi Germany in 1940, thereby stirring so many American > hearts as well. Yet let us also remember the Churchill who did so much > to bollix up the Middle East and to create the conditions that gave rise > to the utterly avoidable tragedy that is Podhoretz's World War IV. > > We can learn much not only from the Good Winston but from the Bad > Winston as well. > _____ > > Andrew J Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at > Boston University. His new book is The Limits of Power, published by > Metropolitan Books. > > Copyright (c) 2008 The American Conservative > > http://amconmag.com/2008/2008_07_14/cover3.html > > > http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com > http://www.ashisuto.co.jp > > > From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sun Aug 3 16:25:58 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:25:58 +0900 Subject: [A-List] The Next Big Bail Out Message-ID: <48963076.9040806@attglobal.net> State, Local and Private Pensions by Michael Hudson www.counterpunch.com (July 31 2008) The great economic fight of our epoch is being waged by the FIRE sector - Finance, Insurance and Real Estate - against the industrial economy and consumers. Its objective is to maximize property prices and the volume of debt relative to what labor and industry are able to earn. Rising debts and real estate prices go together, because asset prices depend on how much banks will lend. For creditors, the dream is to obtain an ultimate backup at public expense: government insurance that they will not lose when debtors are unable to pay. The political problem is how to get the government to insure and protect bankers rather than debtors, given that debtors are much more numerous when it comes to the voting booth. In such cases campaign contributions are the balancing factor. Governments are "privatized" and "financialized", that is, turned from democracies into oligarchies. The banking system aims to make sure that the only losers are the customers it is supposed to serve: debtors, homeowners and employees of companies being "financialized" as the economy is de-industrialized. Indeed, financialization and de-industrialization are becoming almost synonymous. The trick is to get voters to think they are getting rich while actually they are being painted into a debt corner, along with their employers, local government and the federal government too. For a while the bad-debt overhead can be bailed out by creating yet more debt, backed by public guarantees in what even the Wall Street Journal acknowledges is "socialism for the rich", that is, privatizing the profit and socializing the losses. But when has government been anything else, for thousands of years before anyone coined the term "socialism"? The so-called July 30 "housing bill" supports the price of mortgages that are the major asset base of most banks and other financial institutions today. What ultimately supports the price of these mortgage packages is the price of the real estate pledged as collateral. And despite Mr Greenspan's celebration of soaring housing prices as "wealth creation", it really was debt creation. As housing prices plunge, the debts remain in place. The question is, whose balance sheets are to plunge into negative equity territory - those of indebted homeowners, or those of banks that have made the bad loans and the financial institutions (largely pension funds, I'm sorry to say) that have bought "toxic mortgages"? Financial bubbles in their early phase inflate asset prices more rapidly than debts rise. This helps the financial sector encourage a belief that debt pollution is a quick way to make the economy rich - as long as one looks at financial balance sheets rather than tracing growth in the actual means of production and living standards. Living in the short run, most people do not see the financial war going on, and imagine that finance and industry, labor and capital are fighting for the same kind of economic growth and wealth. The reality is a conflict between financial and industrial growth objectives, subject to the adage that the solution to every problem tends to create yet new, unforeseen problems - ones often are larger in scale, requiring yet new solutions that cause yet larger and even more unforeseen. This is how societies transform themselves for better or for worse, crisis by crisis. Usually each side fights for its economic interests. But it is best not to crow too loudly over victory. The financial bailout is depicted as a housing bill, not as a giveaway to financial interests. And it is best not to acknowledge that the financial system's victory now threatens to push the economy further down the road to insolvency, headed by a squeeze on state and local finances, and pension funding public and private. Problems threaten to arise when creditors win too one-sided a victory. Here's what has happened so far. Early on the morning of July 30, President Bush signed the law that the Senate had passed at a special session the previous Saturday. Its aim was to restore US housing prices to unaffordably high levels, requiring new buyers to run even deeper into debts to obtain housing. Rather than rolling debts back to more affordable levels, the government now will use its own credit to guarantee payment on whatever portion of the unpayable exponential growth in debt cannot be sustained by the economy at large. The new "housing law" (a more honest title would have been the "financial bailout and giveaway act of 2008") authorizes the Treasury and Federal Reserve Board to provide unlimited credit to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and infuse new lending power to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and localities to support the "real estate market". This is a euphemism for saving mortgage lenders from the traditional response to falling property prices - defaults and walk-aways. The idea is for government loans to replace the bad loans that existing mortgage holders are stuck with, and to do so before property prices sink by another 25 percent. The cover story highlighted in the first line of the press release was that the new act was "intended to provide mortgage relief for 400,000 struggling US homeowners and to stabilize financial markets". The real aim is to help struggling banks and institutional investors, with little likely aid for homeowners. Mortgage defaults and foreclosures were threatening to wipe out the collateral valuations for the loans packaged and sold to US pension funds, other institutional investors and foreign banks - including the $1 trillion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities to foreign central banks and sovereign wealth funds. Piercing the cloud of public relations rhetoric, the actual impact on strapped mortgage debtors is that the increased funding for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA are part of a $1.4 trillion emergency supply of government credit intended to keep housing prices from falling back to more affordable levels. An alternative use of this funding would have been to save individual debtors from foreclosure and re-set their mortgages at more realistic levels. But the constituency of the Treasury and Federal Reserve is Wall Street, not homeowners. This is not a constituency whose interests reflect those of the economy as a whole over the long run. Finance and real estate extract interest and rents from the rest of the economy, shrinking rather than expanding it. This causes property prices to fall. Speculators (who have made up about fifteen percent of the housing market in recent years - one out of every six buyers) stop buying, while an over-supply of foreclosed or abandoned properties come onto the market. Falling prices push debt-leveraged homeowners into negative equity, followed by banks and the hapless buyers of the mortgages they have sold off. During the real estate bubble homeowners, commercial speculators and corporate raiders were able to borrow the interest charges by refinancing their properties at higher and higher appraisals. But banks now are pulling back from mortgage lending, largely because buyers of packaged mortgages find themselves stuck with paper that is a far cry from the security its AAA bond ratings implied. Companies that have insured these mortgages are far undercapitalized to sustain the risks, and themselves are threatened with bankruptcy. So the mortgage packagers and insurers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are being kept in business to "save the real estate market", by which is meant the exponential growth of debt. The parties being bailed out are the large institutions that hold the bad mortgages extended and packaged in recent years, and companies on the hook for having insured the face value of these mortgages. The growth of real estate debt has been achieved by the semi-public Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac providing "liquidity" not just by buying up and packaging mortgages in bulk, but by insuring their income streams. As William Poole, head of the Saint Louis Federal Reserve Bank from 1998 to 2008, points out: "Fannie and Freddie exist to provide guarantees for mortgage-backed securities trading in the market. The business is simply insurance." This insurance against mortgagees defaulting (and ultimately against banks and mortgage brokers making bad loans beyond the home buyer's ability to pay) is what has made their sale so irresponsibly liquid. And matters have reached the point where between two and three million US homeowners are still expected to default this year, leading to foreclosures. Mr Poole adds that the government's assumption of the mortgages underwritten and guaranteed by these two public agencies technically doubles the federal debt, from five to ten trillion dollars. The asset side of the government balance sheet also rises, but there may be a substantial shortfall. Private bondholders and stockholders of Fannie and Freddie also have claims on these assets, so any attempt at real-world accounting becomes thoroughly tangled. A deeper problem is that Fannie and Freddie underwrote and insured a debt increase whose continued exponential growth is unsustainable, because it causes domestic debt deflation. What Mr Greenspan called "wealth creation" - pumping up housing and stock market prices on credit - was actually debt creation. Asset prices are a function of how much banks will lend. If they lend more money on easier and easier terms, property prices will continue to soar. This is why the economy is facing debt deflation. More and more money will be diverted from being spent on consumption and paying taxes, in order to pay creditors. This will shrink the domestic market, squeezing profits, and also will squeeze state and local finances. The government will not solve this problem by providing yet more loans for stronger parties to buy the existing supply of homes otherwise in foreclosure. The dream is to keep housing high-priced to support the mortgage lenders, not for prices to fall so that new buyers do not need to run so heavily into debt to afford housing. Supporting real estate prices thus entails keeping the existing volume of debt on the books, and indeed running up even more debt. This levies an enormous charge on the economy to pay interest and amortization. These payments leave less available to be spent on goods and services or paid in taxes. The economy shrinks, leaving it even less able to carry its debt burden. Many individuals no doubt will default on their credit card debt, auto debt and other debts, but the largest remaining debt consists of pension and health care obligations to the private and public sector work force. This problem has been growing beneath the view of most public media. Private-sector pensions are insured by the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), which is substantially undercapitalized. A much larger problem is state and local pension programs. not only are underfunded; they have no insurance at all. The expectation was that public-sector pensions would be paid out of rising property tax revenues and capital gains. But taxing property now threatens to cause defaults on mortgage payments. This is the corner into which the economy has painted itself by trying to preserve the exponential growth of mortgage debt. To cap matters, this threatens to push state and local budgets into deficit at a time when their pension and medical insurance payments are soaring. On the expense side of their balance sheet, localities must spend more money to cope with the consequences of empty houses being stripped of building materials, occupied by squatters, burned down and generally becoming a source of blight. On the fiscal income side, states and localities are facing populist political pressure crafted by large real estate interests and promoted with the usual flow of crocodile tears on behalf of retirees and other homeowners whose debt squeeze prompts them to support politicians promising to reduce property taxes. At first glance the connection between bailing out Fannie Mae and, behind it, the real estate market to keep prices high for American homeowners might not seem closely linked to corporate, state and local pension plans. So let us trace the linkage. Bailing out mortgage lenders ultimately must be achieved at the expense of state and local property tax revenues. Revenue that is used to pay interest is not available to pay taxes. If debts are to continue to grow exponentially and extract more carrying charges, this forces a tax shift onto labor and industry. For the past century the financial sector has made steady incursions to take over what used to be the role of government. Today's libertarian anti-tax "free market" rhetoric is simply a cover for the financial sector's replacement of elected democratic government. Forward planning is being distorted to serve the financial sector, not aiming to promote long-term growth and raise living standards, and certainly not to protect the public sector's fiscal position. One of the lesser-known features of this week's real estate bailout is the endorsement of "negative mortgages". These debt agreements add the accrual of interest onto the principal. The cover story is that this enables low-income homeowners to keep their houses with a lower carrying charge, borrowing the interest rather than paying it. But this means that what used to accrue to homeowners or their heirs as a "capital" (land-price) gain henceforth will accrue to the mortgage lender. For over a century, the main way that most American families have become rich has been by the free lunch of exponentially rising land prices. What is to rise exponentially in years to come is now their debt overhead. It is the financial sector that will get the free lunch of land-price gains. Adding the interest charge onto the principal is how Ponzi schemes work. They cannot work for long, because no real economy can keep up with "the magic of compound interest". The Bush-Paulson bailout plan calls for mortgages to become larger and larger, regardless of whether property prices keep pace. The interest is to accrue to the federal government as mortgagee at first, but this innovation is really a test run. It is the path of least resistance for private banks to start making mortgage loans that give them a return in the form of "capital" gains as well as interest. These gains consist of the inflation of land prices in cases where state, local and federal government fails to capture this gain for the economy at large. So the scheme obliged the public sector to turn elsewhere than property for its revenues - namely, to consumers and industry. Who is not going to get paid: bankers and bondholders, or pensioners? From shimogamo at attglobal.net Mon Aug 4 06:25:53 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:25:53 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Reviving the Household Economy Message-ID: <4896F551.8030406@attglobal.net> by John Michael Greer The Archdruid Report (July 30 2008) Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society Part One: The World Outside the Market As the current pullback in oil prices continues - one of the benchmark grades dropped to a little over $120 a barrel yesterday, though it jumped back up $4 in early trading today - peak oil skeptics have seized the opportunity to insist that there's nothing wrong with the petroleum market that a few more trillion-dollar giveaways to the oil industry wouldn't fix. One interesting lesson worth drawing from the current barrage of punditry is that most of people who reject the concept of peak oil don't actually seem to know what the phrase means. A case in point is a recent opinion piece that denounced peak oil as "sheer nonsense", on the grounds that the world still has some forty years of oil left at today's rate of production. The author of this piece somehow managed not to notice that the peak oil theory focuses on precisely the point he took for granted, the sustainability of today's rate of production. The world may well have the equivalent of forty years' worth of current annual petroleum production left in its reserves, but if the amount it can produce each year plateaus and then begins to shrink due to geological limits, a global economy founded on ever-expanding energy supplies is in trouble. That's the essence of the peak oil position, and waving around claims about the absolute size of global reserves doesn't address it at all. Still, it's not surprising that so many people are finding such ingenious ways just now to avoid understanding the implications of peak oil. As worldwide oil production remains stuck in its current plateau - a plateau that increasingly has had to be propped up by massive production of high-cost biofuels and tar-sand products - some of the most basic presuppositions of the modern world are turning out to be well past their pull dates. Once production begins to slip down the far side of the world's Hubbert curve, that process is likely to accelerate, and much of what counts as conventional wisdom today will end up sitting in history's dumpster next to phlogiston and the divine right of kings. One example with sweeping implications unfolds from a particular mismatch between current economic theories and the practical realities of the age of peak oil. Perhaps the best way to introduce this example is to invite my readers to put on their walking shoes, pick up their canvas shopping bags, and join me in one of yesterday's errands. In the southern Oregon town where I live, Tuesday is the day of the weekly grower's market, and so yesterday, as we do nearly every Tuesday between March and November, my wife Sara and I walked the 3/4 of a mile or so to the National Guard armory parking lot where local growers and ranchers sell their produce. Among our purchases was a flat of fresh raspberries, and this afternoon we'll be turning those into home-canned raspberry jam for the year to come. Now it's unquestionably true that we could just buy an equivalent volume of commercially manufactured raspberry jam and eat that instead. Still, these two ways of putting by a supply of raspberry jam are by no means equal. Set aside for a moment the higher quality of homemade jam, which (in this case, at least) is made of fresher ingredients and prepared in small batches; one of the most important differences between the two processes is that the homemade jam represents a much more efficient use of fossil fuels. The grower who produced the raspberries used organic methods, which saved the petroleum and natural gas that would otherwise have had to go into pesticides and fertilizers. While she used a pickup to bring her crop to the market, the ten miles or so she drove compares favorably to the thousands of miles agricultural products are routinely shipped in their journey from farm to factory, warehouse, and supermarket, and even if we owned a car and drove to and from the market, the extra mile and a half of gas wouldn't shift the balance much. Turning berries into jam and canning the result probably takes about an equal amount of energy per pint of jam whether it's done in a home kitchen or a huge factory, though it's a lot easier to provide the energy via a solar cooker or other renewable source on a small scale. Even without that, though, the homemade jam takes a small fraction of the energy to go from raspberry canes to our pantry than commercial jam requires. One measure of these energy economies is that, including all expenses, our homemade jam costs us only about two-thirds as much as the same volume of commercial jam. Compare the homemade jam with its commercial equivalent from the viewpoint of conventional economic measures, though, and the balance swings the other way. In terms of its impact on the gross domestic product - generally considered the broadest measure of national prosperity - our homemade jam is practically an economic disaster. The very modest price of raspberries, sugar, pectin, and new lids for our much-recycled canning jars is the only contribution it makes to the economy. By contrast, making, shipping, storing, and selling the commercial jam requires, directly and indirectly, the expenditure of a very large amount of money, all of which counts mightily toward a higher gross domestic product. Consider the economics from the perspective of the participants in the creation of the homemade jam, though, and things take on a very different shape. Even aside from the other reasons Sara and I might want homemade jam, we have a potent economic motive; by making the jam ourselves we get a superior product at a lower price. The raspberry grower, in turn, benefits handsomely from the same decision; the price she gets for her berries when sold directly to the consumer is several times the price she can get from wholesalers. According to conventional economics, the end result of individuals freely pursuing their own interest in a market should be the maximization of prosperity - and yet if prosperity is measured by the gross domestic product, our free pursuit of our own interest decreases our contribution to national prosperity. What is happening here, of course, reflects one of the largest of the blind spots of contemporary economics: the assumption that market transactions mediated by money are the only significant form of economic activity. Our household jam-making activities drop off the economic radar screen the moment we finish paying for the raw materials. Value is being produced - the same jam offered for sale at next week's market would bring substantially more than the cost of the raw materials - but it's being produced outside the market economy, and therefore has no official existence in an economy measured entirely by market metrics. What makes this particularly relevant in the twilight of the age of cheap oil is that the world's industrial nations, and above all the United States, have spent most of the last century transferring as much as possible of the household economy into the market sphere. In making our own jam, among other things, Sara and I belong to a minority of American households. Glance back a hundred years, by contrast, and nearly every family in the country outside the very rich and the very poor had an active household economy that produced a large fraction of the total goods and services they consumed. Many factors contributed to this dramatic shift, but one of the most significant is the availability of cheap abundant energy. Most of the economies of scale that make mass production of processed foods economically viable, after all, are economies only because the cost of transportation is low enough to permit them. As recently as the first half of the 20th century, most consumer products in the US were produced locally for regional markets, in large part because transportation costs were still high enough to make national distribution a costly proposition. (Those brands that did find a nationwide niche, such as Coca-Cola (tm), did it by franchising out manufacturing and bottling to local firms.) It took the birth of a new transportation network of diesel-powered trucks using a massive new interstate highway network to create today's national distribution chains, and cheap petroleum provided the foundation on which the whole system arose. The twilight of cheap oil, in turn, bids fair to throw this process of economic centralization into reverse. As transportation costs rise to become a major part of the cost of consumer products, the economies to be gained by local production will sooner or later outweigh the economies of scale that shape the current system, opening economic niches for small and midsized firms nimble enough to move with the currents of economic change. Equally, though, the financial advantages of the household economy will become overwhelming. In a world of scarce oil, anything that can decrease the amount of fossil fuel energy that has to go into an product will pay off handsomely, and if the transition to scarcity involves widespread impoverishment - as seems most likely just now - the choice faced by many households throughout the industrial world may well come down to doing things themselves or doing without. At the same time, it's crucial to recognize that the forces holding the current economic order in place reach beyond the realm of simple economic calculations into murkier areas of culture and collective psychology. For those who have access to fruit growers - and with the growth of farmers markets across the US and elsewhere, this has become a tolerably large fraction of the population - making one's own jam, and a great many other food products, is already a paying proposition; so are many other activities that once formed part of the household economy, and very likely will do so again; yet these activities remain the hobbies of a minority of today's Americans, and most of their neighbors turn to the market economy to get inferior products at higher prices instead. The forces motivating this sort of economic irrationality will be the focus of next week's post. _____ ?John Michael Greer has been active in the alternative spirituality movement for more than 25 years, and is the author of a dozen books, including The Druidry Handbook (Weiser, 2006). He lives in Ashland, Oregon. http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2008/07/reviving-household-economy.html#links http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From nmgoro at gmail.com Mon Aug 4 10:38:32 2008 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?N=C3=A9stor_Gorojovsky?=) Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 13:38:32 -0300 Subject: [A-List] Nicolas Magud on Inflation in Argentina In-Reply-To: References: <2fa158550808020959q7482492dn763e00082c3a4245@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2fa158550808040938x217cdf09s213451cef72d2379@mail.gmail.com> In the end, and for the time being (that is without a thorough policy of "national economy", to put it in the old German verbiage) which IMPLIES AND REQUESTS socialists in government, consumption in Argentina, just like the whole movement of the economic structure, depends on the "wages" Argentina gets from foreign trade. The semicolonial structure does not allow for Argentina to generate within its own frontiers the bulk of the mass of capital that the reproduction of the economic cycle requires (see Lenin, on Marx's division in Sections I and II of the economy, to understand the centrality of this issue to the semicolonial world); the bourgeois leadership does NOT take the BOURGEOIS measures required for surplus to be captured within the frontiers of the country (but let us not blame Arg bourgeoisie for that: did we forget Engels dictum, in the Introduction to the 1890 edition of the Peasant Wars in Germany, that even that fully imperialist bourgeoisie did not WANT to rule? what can we expect from these "bourgeoisies" we have here and now). So that the question is, in a sense, theoretical and in another sense, abstract. The vulnerability of such a kind of growth has come to the fore during the rebellion of the "ruralizing" sectors. This is less of a problem for Argentina, of course, but even the growth of the domestic market, left as it is still left to the "forces of the market" and not with thorough State intervention in the whole dynamic sectors of economy, is still in jeopardy. Yoshie has pointed to the main weakness of the whole Kirchnerist building. But this is the main weakness of what probably is the single bourgeois building available in the concrete conditions of the day. What should we do, then? Create a socialist alternative, of course. But how will we create it if not by immersing ourselves in the concrete struggles of the moment, the first of which is still the struggle for even such a midget and counterfeited model to exist? The weight of the old Argentina is still exceedingly heavy. We are struggling against it, but the baby, even this poor wreck of a baby, cannot be thrown away together with the dirty soapsuds. Don't know if this is an answer. This is the concrete situation now. 2008/8/2, Yoshie Furuhashi : > On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 12:59 PM, N?stor Gorojovsky wrote: > > There's no potential hyperinflation here. > > > > As to investment, yes, the criticisms are valid. > > > > But without consumption by the local population, what will that > > investment be good for? > > > The question is how consumption is financed and what is being > consumed. If consumption-driven growth is mainly financed by > temporarily raised revenues due to commodity booms, and what's being > consumed is more imported goods than locally produced ones (especially > if imports are increased in an effort to contain short-term > inflation), the growth is vulnerable to commodity price volatility. > This is much more a problem for countries like Venezuela, Mexico, > Ecuador, Chile, and Bolivia than Argentina (whose revenue sources are > far more diverse than Venezuela, etc.) or Brazil (which didn't pursue > a populist growth strategy to begin with), though. > > > > BTW and to Magud's horror, the Arg government has begun to tax > > financial transactions, AT LAST! > > > > 35% tax, not bad. > > > That is good news! > > > Yoshie > > -- N?stor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autor?a From shimogamo at attglobal.net Mon Aug 4 18:01:17 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:01:17 +0900 Subject: [A-List] The critical eye ... Message-ID: <4897984D.30203@attglobal.net> ... for the nightmare and the dream by Jan Lundberg Culture Change Letter #187 (June 15 2008) Oil/food crisis and government dissolution Recent rises in oil prices help more of us perceive that something's very wrong with what we've built and paved and sprayed. Anyone taking a look around can feel overwhelmed by the sprawling petroleum infrastructure, especially if the observer has any sense for its fragility or impermanence. Becoming worried or sickened is a sane response. Some also realize how we have been suffocated and brainwashed to see little else than the mass illusion and the spoon-fed image of a similar green-consuming future. Then there are those who are hungry right now around the world, protesting unprecedented fuel and food costs. These protesters will not back down. Regimes will not only topple, as government rule will dissolve for better or worse. This is eventually coming to the USA too, and to all nations, because when masses of people anywhere experience instability, and business-as-usual comes to a halt, the global economy affects all - rapidly and painfully as it fails. Somehow this vulnerability has been sold as "wealth" and "progress". While it dawns on some of us that the materialist world is stripped naked before us, die-hards still believe "prosperity" can be had widely - although it never came for anyone but the few who gluttonize non-renewable resources. The end result of the growing conflict will be, after the likely bloodletting, a return to local economics and real community. Meanwhile, the mess is right outside our window and has me thinking: It takes an unpopular critical eye to see the ubiquitous, utter waste and be hit by the folly. The motor-vehicle oriented landscape and all the businesses and properties depend on dwindling, ever-more costly petroleum for their usually needless products and services. These unsustainable establishments are in our face and keep us hemmed in our mental prison. Like a giant bloodsucker it is something we ignore as if it were a necessary appendage of civilized evolution. Human relations can be conscious Humanity is only now about to wake up to the dead-end of petroleum-fueled exuberance (as William Catton called our lifestyle in his 1980 book Overshoot). In so doing, people will not be able to help but realize also that their social relations have also been an embarrassing sham - neither enlightened nor just. Can there be another way? It is more than a dream. When love is relegated to romantic fantasy (of the honeymoon, say) or familial duty (mainly feeding one's children and packing them off to be educated by strangers), we miss most of life's opportunity for loving and for sharing positive experiences with unlimited numbers of people we can meet. We are deprived of this not by "human nature" but by the narrow, controlled and repressive society we know to be all about private property and individual gain. We are expected to find a semblance of love only behind our own walls. Within our worship halls' walls it's hardly worth calling love when authority judges us. It does so illegitimately. Creativity is the norm underneath Poets and other artists and revolutionaries should not be the only ones to see through the barren, ordered construct of the market economy and what it has done to our natural surroundings and souls. The full potential of beautiful creating that every person is capable of every day can be realized only if we somehow all abandon or remove the technological (=artificial) system that has already failed us. Through it we have not only let down one another, but also our fellow creatures. They are, we sometimes find when we are open enough, lovely and pure of spirit - life itself. Their wildness is their enviable simplicity and superiority, and is the source of undying admiration for those of us who know there are chains around us that choke off clear thought and feeling. Most of us moderns vainly imagine ourselves created above all other species - above life itself! But each of the countless species occupies successfully an essential niche in our common ecosystem. Yes, we can destroy them - but we only destroy ourselves, as we are just barely beginning to find out. Our aim, to a critical eye, seems only to gain short-term, mindless comfort. Even as we achieve a mass extinction for the future fossil record, we prove our "superiority". To write this makes me feel something more real and permanent than what's possible when being overwhelmed by the outrageously ugly corporate eateries and stores here along Interstate 5 in Washington State. I'm on a large shuttle bus en route to transfer to a car and a train. Though I am as separate from "The System" as one can be and still be connected to the "mainstream" I wish I were escaping like a native American once could, less than 150 years ago - to lands beyond the white invaders. The critical eye that some of us utilize is curiously rare in this age of denial as the American Dream bursts with it's unintended toxic excrement. I'm past imagining any acceleration of terminating the "global warming machine" (that is, industrial society), because I face that people are still far from seeing the need to change their way of life. They are not ready to storm city hall or the television stations; instead they will storm the supermarkets and palaces of the rich. Why that's inevitable: people remain either unexposed to alternatives to ecocide and their own oppression, or, even when they have been introduced, they stubbornly reject seriously participating in conserving energy and non-renewable materials. Imagine that! Instead, they hand over some more dollars to corporations for discretionary items. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one to almost vomit from the harsh reality of our impotence, evil, apathy, and needless self-destruction. Offering "a solution" to our ills and predicament is impossible, and it has been so for probably centuries - although stamping out the emerging dominant culture of greed and exploitation would have been easier long ago. Perhaps it would even have been a trivial task if the first mutation of neolithic culture, changing into what would soon become Western Civilization, were nipped in the bud. Instead, the mistake (or crime) was allowed to proliferate into mass selfishness enshrined especially for the most aggressive and cruel among us. Curtains How did we keep allowing a vicious yet self-gratifying system to rule over us generation after generation, even when we rebelled? One way was to appeal to our superiority as young things, swollen with fancy knowledge and technology. We pitied the older generations who didn't have our technical abilities. We laughed that ancestors had no telephones - how quaint and pathetic of them! If only they had been able to enjoy what we know and do. Except, instead, each new modern generation is in reality more ignorant and weaker than the previous. More information does not a great human make, nor does it serve to nurture and protect one's family. To the contrary, we find. As we have run up against the end of the automobile age - no more running around in sleek comfort - we are starting to feel anxious about even being able to have any transportation at all, or a livable environment in which to do it. As we see desperate industries trying to hang on in their gargantuan and overstretched states, trying to become more energy-efficient to survive, the realization hits: At this point in our abuse of Mother Earth and waste of nonrenewable energy, if we persist in manufacturing any kind of car or airplane on a mass scale, we flush our ecosystem and climate down the toilet. As my father used to say, be of good cheer. Change is coming soon, and it's far deeper and mind-blowing than Barack Obama is hinting at. _____ Reflections from Le Bon After discussion the above essay with Bill Le Bon, consultant for Culture Change, we had a discussion that resulted in this statement (mostly by him and partly by me, JL): People are busy working for the man because they get the house, wife, car and food. They give their day to the man but get to come back to the wife and kids. They resent and yet appreciate what the man provides. But they don't question why they want the house, wife and car. If they did they might not want it. If people kept in mind that food and water and shelter should be free, their politics would be different. But much of what's out in the world is scary, such as homelessness, and keeps people from learning about alternatives. To embrace the margin requires believing in a better way based on much information and visible examples of would be viable options. If they were obvious, people would drop out from working for the man. They're out there, but the media don't cover it and keeps bombarding people with messages to consume. It takes profit-generation to get media. Money and power are goals in themselves and have their adherents. The people with values don't have power or money. _____ Jan Lundberg, founder of Culture Change, was a well-known oil-industry analyst when he changed over to nonprofit environmental activism in 1988. His work has since been profiled in The Washington Post, Sun Magazine, Associated Press, and he has broadcast his ideas on CBS Radio Network, NPR, and elsewhere. http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=178&Itemid=1 http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From tal1 at cogeco.ca Tue Aug 5 01:29:13 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 03:29:13 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Abkhazia Boycotts UN Group Meeting Over Georgian Aggression Message-ID: <77A3496A5F1B4698BA5441E58BE975E8@TonyPC> ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff To: stopnato at yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 11:23 PM Subject: [stopnato] Abkhazia Boycotts UN Group Meeting Over Georgian Aggression http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12920369&PageNum=0 Itar-Tass August 3, 2008 Abkhazia says will not attend meeting of UN Group SUKHUMI - Abkhazia, an independence-seeking northwest region of Georgia, will not take part in a meeting of the so-called Group of Friends of the UN Secretary General for Georgia, due August 15 in Berlin, the president of the unrecognized republic, Sergei Bagapsh said at a meeting of the national Security Council Sunday. He said the decision to stay away from the Group's meeting had been taken in the wake of the current situation in another independence-seeking region, South Ossetia, and "the continuing aggressive policy on the part of Georgia." Officials in South Ossetia have made statements about the intensifying activity of Georgian army units along the entire perimeter of the region's administrative border and are evacuating children from the regional capital Tskhinvali, but the Georgian government denies these statements. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read ============================== __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Visit Your Group Biz Resources Y! Small Business Articles, tools, forms, and more. Yahoo! Groups Join a program to help you find balance in your life. Find helpful tips for Moderators on the Yahoo! Groups team blog.. __,_._,___ From tal1 at cogeco.ca Tue Aug 5 01:34:40 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 03:34:40 -0400 Subject: [A-List] South Ossetia: Georgia Covering Up Heavy Military Losses Message-ID: <0F26DEE765CF433D9060116408CAB9A2@TonyPC> ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff To: stopnato at yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 2:49 PM Subject: [stopnato] South Ossetia: Georgia Covering Up Heavy Military Losses http://en.rian.ru/world/20080804/115688127.html Russian Information Agency Novosti August 4, 2008 S.Ossetia says Georgia covering up military losses TSKHINVALI - Georgian authorities are concealing the deaths of 29 servicemen during recent clashes, a source in the South Ossetian defense ministry said on Monday. The conflict between Georgia and its breakaway republic of South Ossetia intensified on August 1-2 as South Ossetian authorities accused Georgian forces of shelling its capital, Tskhinvali, while Georgia blamed the separatists for provoking armed clashes along the de facto border. "The Georgian side is concealing its casualties," the source said. "According to data provided by Georgian residents... a total of 29 people from the Georgian side were killed [in clashes on August 1-2]. There were no civilians among them - they were all servicemen." Tbilisi has said that at least nine Georgian citizens and one policeman were wounded in a series of border gunfights. South Ossetia says six people were killed and 15 injured in mortar and sniper attacks by Georgian forces on Tskhinvali. Georgia has denied using snipers, and says it only retaliated against South Ossetian rocket propelled grenade attacks. South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Hundreds died in the bloody conflict that followed. Russia has stepped up its support for South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian republic, in recent months, angering Georgia's pro-Western leadership, which has pledged to bring the regions back under central control. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read ============================== __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity 1New Members Visit Your Group Biz Resources Y! Small Business Articles, tools, forms, and more. Y! Groups blog the best source for the latest scoop on Groups. Yahoo! Groups Come check out featured healthy living groups on Yahoo!. __,_._,___ From tal1 at cogeco.ca Tue Aug 5 01:38:03 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 03:38:03 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Croatia: Ethnic Cleansing Of Serbs Permanent, Soon Complete Message-ID: <3F4594C40FAA45DEABDB7707A79C40C0@TonyPC> ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff To: stopnato at yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 8:59 AM Subject: [stopnato] Croatia: Ethnic Cleansing Of Serbs Permanent, Soon Complete http://www.b92.net/eng/news/crimes-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=08&dd=04&nav_id=52425 B92 August 4, 2008 "Situation ever harder for Serb returnees" -According to statistics, 1,400 Serbs returned to Croatia last year, with 3,800 Serbs going the other way. Strbac says that at that rate, there would be no Serbs left in Croatia soon. -[W]hen the next census is due to take place, Tu?man's projections that "the Serb issue, as a destabilizing factor, would be solved only when they constituted less than three percent of the population," could be achieved. BELGRADE - 72,000 of the 200,000 Serbs driven out of Croatia 13 years ago during Operation Storm have since returned. Director of the Veritas Center for Information and Documentation Savo Strbac says that two major problems are preventing Serbs from returning to Croatia: secret war crimes indictments, and the loss of their residential rights. Serbs who return to Croatia face harsh living conditions, a lack of electricity, and drinking water. Strbac says that returnees have virtually no chance of finding employment. The Croatian authorities have submitted around 4,000 secret war crimes indictments, of which only 62 refer to members of the Croatian armed forces. So far, 3,660 indictments have been processed. Strbac says that Serbs feared returning, because of the possibility that their names might be on the indictment lists. "Time and again, new criminal charges are being pressed, returnees are being arrested, Serbs are being arrested who are only passing through Croatia. This year we have had six or seven arrests. Each arrest has a negative impact on potential returnees," he explains. Serbs who once owned flats in Croatia cannot return to them, because they have lost their residential rights. Most of the flats were either sold or privatized in 1992, or returned to state ownership as a final resort. The Croatian authorities have solved this problem by according so-called temporary accommodation to those who used to have residential rights. Strbac says that returnees who register for this scheme never get their old flats back, but something completely different. "The flats cannot be left as inheritance, and cannot be bought. So, these 4,000 Serbs, who earlier submitted applications for accommodation for themselves and their families, are giving up," he says. According to statistics, 1,400 Serbs returned to Croatia last year, with 3,800 Serbs going the other way. Strbac says that at that rate, there would be no Serbs left in Croatia soon. The Veritas director says that by 2011, when the next census is due to take place, Tu?man's projections that "the Serb issue, as a destabilizing factor, would be solved only when they constituted less than three percent of the population," could be achieved. He says that the return of residential rights and revisions of indictments would boost the number of returnees, adding however, that the Croatian authorities are reluctant to assist Serbs in facilitating their returns. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read ============================== __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Visit Your Group John McEnroe on Yahoo! Groups Join him for the 10 Day Challenge. Cat Zone on Yahoo! Groups Join a Group all about cats. Yahoo! Groups Familyographer Zone Join a group and share your pictures.. __,_._,___ From orakwa at paulcomm.ca Tue Aug 5 08:49:15 2008 From: orakwa at paulcomm.ca (MohawkNationNews) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 10:49:15 -0400 Subject: [A-List] MNN Mohawk Women file 'Demand" that Canada respect "rule of law" Message-ID: <00c4fa43$39665$01934508743056@your-6904db8205> MOHAWK WOMEN FILE ?DEMAND?. CANADA MUST RESPECT THE ?RULE OF LAW?. MNN. Aug. 4, 2008. The following ?Letter of Demand? was sent to the Attorney General of Canada. We are reminding them to fulfill their obligation to us as our historic allies to protect our rights. Canada Border Services Agents has illegally erected facilities in the midst of our community of Akwesasne and is illegally interfering with our right to live peacefully among our people. In particular, criminal assaults have been conducted against members of our community, including the assault against Kahentinetha and Katenies on June 14th 2008 at the ?Cornwall Ontario? check point. According to the Canadian Constitution Canada is governed by the rule of law and everyone is equal before the law. This means that Canadian officials must obey the law, just like everyone else. When they commit an assault they should be charged with an assault under the Criminal Code just like anyone else who commits an assault. According to Federal Court of Canada rules, the Attorney General must answer this letter by August 22, 2008. LETTER OF DEMAND Date: July 23, 2008 WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO: Hon. Robert Douglas Nicholson Minister of Justice & Attorney General of Canada 284 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8 613-941-6900 nicholson.r at parl.gc.ca TAKE NOTICE THAT ON JUNE 14, 2008, KAHENTINETHA AND KATENIES, MEMBERS OF THE KANION?KE:HAKA/MOHAWK NATION, WERE ASSAULTED, BRUTALIZED, ARRESTED AND DETAINED ILLEGALLY AT THE CORNWALL BORDER. The following are the facts giving rise to this incident. 1.On June 14, 2008 Sakowaiaks and Kahentinetha went to Akwesasne to pick up Katenies. Kahentinetha is a 68 year old grandmother. Katenies is 43 years old and also a grandmother. 2.At approximately 2:00 pm they were passing through the Canadian border control on the Cornwall portion. Akwesasne is a small community. The Canada-U.S. border has been placed in the middle of the Mohawk community. The people have to cross the border many times a day for groceries or to visit relatives. 3.Katenies, Kahentinetha and Sakowaiaks went through the border and were told to wait under the canopy. They sat there peacefully for an hour surrounded by guards. Some Mohawk elders showed up to witness. Several other vehicles were searched and released. Only Indigenous people were stopped. Eventually a platoon of about a dozen guards marched towards the car, all wearing leather gloves, flack jackets and all kinds of equipment hanging about their waist. One officer, Maurice Saucier [Badge #16121], was on the cell phone throughout directing operations during the attack on Kahentinetha and Katenies. 4.At approximately 3:00 pm Katenies was dragged violently from the back seat of the car by a gang of hefty young men and women. They knocked her down, pinned her to the ground, and forced their knees into her head and back. They handcuffed her and smashed and rubbed her face into the pavement. Sakowaiaks still remembers the sound of flesh hitting the pavement. She received bleeding scrapes and bruises on her face, shoulders, arms and legs. Katenies? was taken into the customs building and later to Ottawa. She was not given any medical attention. She was not allowed to call her mother and her mother was not permitted to see her or speak to her. Katenies was held incommunicado for three days until she appeared in Cornwall court on June 17, 2008. 5.There were no warrants or charges out for Kahentinetha. Her ID and car keys had already been taken. Katenies? has not been returned. Also missing are documents that were in the trunk and the shoes taken from Kahentinetha?s feet. 6.It was only after the assault on Katenies began that Kahentinetha was ordered to get out of the car. She saw what they were planning to do to her. Kahentinetha heard Maurice Saucier tell the other agents to ?Take her out?. On June 14th 2008 she was afraid for her life if she got out of the car. She was right and continues to be afraid. 7.She was handcuffed, assaulted and imprisoned. Once in the cell, the attack continued. Some of the officers deliberately tightened the handcuffs she was wearing several times. This cut the circulation to her hands. The pain shot up her arms and she experienced flashes of light and pains in the middle of her chest and back. She cried for help. The guards ignored her and tightened the handcuffs more. They yelled threats at her and kept ordering her to bend down. A man stood behind her and had his hands on her pants. She received scrapes and bruises on her arms and legs. 8.Frank Horn, a Cornwall lawyer, and his son Kanatase, happened to be waiting in the line at the border. [613-935-8882]. They wouldn?t let him see his sister, Kahentinetha, until they took off the cuffs and gave her a chair to sit on. When he saw her, he immediately insisted on calling an ambulance. The Akwesasne Police stood and watched in silence. The ambulance took her to Cornwall Community Hospital and the Ottawa Ontario Heart Institute. She remained in hospital for 5 days in the trauma unit and intensive care unit. Since that time she had a relapse and was hospitalized at the Anna Laberge Hospital in Chateauguay Quebec. 9.The medical record confirms that despite excellent physical condition Kahentinetha had a trauma induced heart attack. Her recovery will take a long time. Part of her heart was killed. Her health will never be the same. Both women are now recuperating in the company of their children and grandchildren. 10.None of these women is associated with any kind of criminal activity. 11.The video footage of the assaults on Kahentinetha and Katenies on June 14th 2008 have been confiscated by Canada?s Department of ?National Defense?. We are informed the only way to obtain these videos is to ?waive our rights?. . 12.Some of the CBSA officers had the following badge numbers: 17012; 16320; 16511; 16121; and 16275; Some of those involved and responsible for border issues are Alain Jolicoeur, President of CBSA 613-952-3200; Lance Markel, District Director CBSA 613-930-3234; Hon. Stockwell Day, Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness 613-995-1703 day.s at parl.gc.ca; Dave MacKenzie, Parliamentary Secretary, Public Safety, 613-995-4432 mackenzie.d at parl.gc.ca; Akwesasne Mohawk Police 613-575-2250 ext. 2400; and Louis Mitchell, Mohawk Security 613-932-5183, 613-575-2340; 13.We have reason to believe that the Canadian ?state? conspired to kill us. These assaults appear to have been carried out by the Canada Border Security Agency, Canada Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, Akwesasne Mohawk Police Services and Mohawk Security Officers, all agencies of the Canadian government. The courts of ?Canada? are presently issuing false charges and attempting to serve warrants on Kahentinetha and Katenies. Demand for Relief: 14. The individuals who assaulted the three women must be charged, tried and punished. 15.Full and complete undoctored copies of the video footage of this event. 16.Full disclosure of all files and official communications concerning the cases of Kahentinetha and Katenies. 17.$10 million for physical, psychological and punitive damages and such other relief as this court may deem fit. Deadline for settlement: 18.An order that all Canadian government agencies will respect the time delays set out in the rules of court. From: Kahentinetha, Bear Clan __________________ kahentinetha2 at yahoo.comj Katenies, Bear Clan ______________________ katenies20 at yahoo.com % Box 991, Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada J0L 1B0, 450-635-9345 Address for service: for the purposes of this proceeding only, service to be made % Julio Peris, 625 Rene-Levesque West, Suite 900, Montreal Quebec H3B 1R2 ? 514-933-4656 Fax 514-933-9587. PLEASE NOTE : As can be seen, it?s becoming critical for legal actions to be taken to protect our rights. We have no funds. Canada is hiring costly law firms to suppress our rights. If you can donate anything to our cause, it will be greatly appreciated. Donate to: PayPal, www.mohawknationnews.com, or ?MNN Mohawk Nation News?, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:en/Thank you very much. See MNN Category: ?Border? New MNN Books Available Now! The books below, email us: Mohawk Warriors Three - The Trial of Lasagna, Noriega, 20/20$20.00 usd The On-Going Confusion between The Great Law and The Handsome Lake Code$ 20.00 usd The Agonizing Death of "Colonialism" and "Federal Indian Law" in Kaianere'ko:wa/Great Law Territory $20.00 usd Who's Sorry Now? The good, the bad and the unapologetic Mohawks of Kanehsatake $20.00 usd Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy Karoniaktajeh $10 usd Warriors Hand Book Karoniaktajeh $10 usd Mail checks and money orders to... MNN P.O. Box 991 Kahnawake, QC J0L 1B0 Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePress Store http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://www.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois Link to MNN Get the code and banners to link to Mohawk Nation News. http://www.mohawknationnews.com/pg.php?pag e=promote.html Your Support - Make a contribution to our newsgroup. Secure your online transaction with PayPal?. http://www.mohawknationnews.com/pg.php?page=donate.html Nia:wen, Kahentinetha Horn Kahentinetha2 at yahoo.com Speaking & Contemporary Native Issues Workshops Katenies katenies20 at yahoo.com Manager Stay tuned! www.mohawknationnews.com Please forward this email to a friend! From noreply at coha.org Mon Aug 4 14:12:38 2008 From: noreply at coha.org (Council on Hemispheric Affairs) Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 16:12:38 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Haiti's Ex-Military Rears its Unrepentant Head Message-ID: <20080804201237.B43763E4768@mx-out2.daemonmail.net> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 8400 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080804/33d7f722/attachment.txt From michael.hudson at earthlink.net Mon Aug 4 17:15:59 2008 From: michael.hudson at earthlink.net (Michael Hudson) Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:15:59 -0400 Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil In-Reply-To: Message-ID: This note is from a new Google employee to whom I look for answers about what we?ve been discussing. Michael ------ Forwarded Message From: Matt Kelley Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 13:29:02 -0500 To: Michael Hudson Cc: david kelley , Arno Mong Daastoel , Dave Yost , lynn yost Subject: Re: FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil Hey Michael! I have looked at the messages listed there on cuil and it looks like they were all also sent to another mailing list that is publicly accessible on a website. The reason they probably don't show up in google is because google obeys the 'robots.txt' while cuil does not. The 'robots.txt' is a file that says that you place into your website if you do not want your site searchable by search engines. Responsible seach engines follow the convention. So it looks like only messages that were also sent to another mailing list are viewable. The problem with that though is that when you reply to a message it contains all the previous emails in that thread so then the entire thread is now visible and not just the reply that was sent to the other mailing list. On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 11:49 AM, Michael Hudson wrote: > Dear Matt, et al. > Members of a small e-mail discussion list I'm on ? about 25 members ? are > bewildered to find their discussion accessed by people googling us or using > the new Irish site Cuil. They worry that this is intrusive. > Is it normal for such lists to be picked up by Google or other sites? How > do they do it? Suppose people don't WANT to have other people read what > they've said? > A broad question, but many people on many lists are asking this. > Michael Hudson > > ------ Forwarded Message > From: malcolm gear > Reply-To: malcolm gear > Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:56:32 -0400 > To: > Subject: Re: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil > > I have seen the A-list, listed on the Ugly's email group. Maybe it would be a > good idea to remove A-list from the blog if still receiving our emails. >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> >> From: Samuel Noumoff, Prof. >> >> To: UGLYNEWWORLD at LISTS.MCGILL.CA >> >> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 9:33 PM >> >> Subject: Re: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil >> >> >> >> >> >> A question which may not elicit a response. Has anyone on the UGLY list been >> sending on our exchanges to a Mr. James Daly? >> >> >> >> Sam >> >> >> >> >> >> >> From: UglyNewWorld [mailto:UGLYNEWWORLD at LISTS.MCGILL.CA] >> On Behalf Of Michael Hudson >> Sent: July 28, 2008 8:14 PM >> To: UGLYNEWWORLD at LISTS.MCGILL.CA >> Subject: Re: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil >> >> >> >> Dear Leo, >> This site is GOOFY. I searched for my name ? they have completely >> different peoples' photos under my website name, as if they're me. Very >> strange selection. Doesn't go forward. It seems anarchic and just plain >> wrong. >> Michael Hudson >> >> >> On 7/28/08 5:50 PM, "Leo Kolivakis" wrote: >> >> It just came out today. It's at: http://www.cuil.com >> >> >> >> Welcome to Cuil?the world's biggest search engine. The Internet has grown. >> We think it's time search did too. >> The Internet has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years but search >> engines have not kept up?until now. Cuil searches more pages on the Web than >> anyone else?three times as many as Google and ten times as many as >> Microsoft. >> >> Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and >> ranks pages based on their content and relevance. When we find a page with >> your keywords, we stay on that page and analyze the rest of its content, its >> concepts, their inter-relationships and the page's coherency. >> >> Then we offer you helpful choices and suggestions until you find the page >> you want and that you know is out there. We believe that analyzing the Web >> rather than our users is a more useful approach, so we don't collect data >> about you and your habits, lest we are tempted to peek. With Cuil, your >> search history is always private. >> >> Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge. For knowledge, ask Cuil. >> >> > > > ------ End of Forwarded Message ------ End of Forwarded Message -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 6942 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080804/7041c393/attachment.txt From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon Aug 4 18:47:28 2008 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:47:28 +1000 Subject: [A-List] What's new at Links: Karadzic; Venezuela; Lebowitz; Socialism; Scotland; SAlt; Sudan; Anglicans and class war Message-ID: <4897A320.4090801@greenleft.org.au> Subscribe free to /Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links at dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links./* * * * Serbia: The war criminal Karadzic and Western hypocrisy By Michael Karadjis August 2, 2008 -- The Serbian government last month cornered Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of the Bosnian Serb Republic during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Since being indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague for war crimes including genocide, Karadzic had been hiding until his July 21 arrest. His arrest has been followed by a wave of hypocrisy throughout the West, which rushed to congratulate Serbia on the arrest. Yet in Afghanistan and Iraq, upwards of a million people have been killed as a result of the US invasions of these countries, which are being obliterated. Such naked hypocrisy can never lead to true justice, or even a feeling of justice among the world's oppressed. However, it is a mistake to jump from this observation to any defence of Karadzic. * Read more For a limited time only! Full screening of `Now the People Have Awoken: Exploring Venezuela's Revolution' Venezuela's new assertiveness has brought it to the centre of international controversy: to some it has been stolen by populist dictator, while for others, it is the centre of a continent-wide democratic revolution. There is much at stake. Venezuela sits atop huge oil reserves, which are being used to foment a new order. President Hugo Ch?vez, who survived a military coup in 2002, has supported a number of controversial social programs that have pushed Venezuela onto the United States government's and media's radar screens. What makes Venezuela tick? Who is behind the movement and what does it seek? Filmed through the 2006 presidential elections, this is a documentary about the people building a new Venezuela. Watch at http://links.org.au/node/554 Download now! Links Dossier #3: Michael Lebowitz on Socialism for the 21st Century A selection of thought-provoking articles by Michael A. Lebowitz from Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal. Lebowitz is professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and author of Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class and Build it Now: Socialism for the 21st Century. He is a program coordinator with the Centro International Miranda, Caracas, Venezuela. Links Dossiers are in easy-to-print PDF format and readers are encouraged to print and distribute them. Contents Socialism is the future: Build it now! The spectre of socialism for the 21st century Discussion on 'The spectre of socialism for the 21st century' The capitalist workday, the socialist workday Without workers' management, there is no socialism * Read more If socialism fails: the spectre of 21st century barbarism By Ian Angus July 27, 2008 -- From the first day it appeared online, Climate and Capitalism 's masthead has carried the slogan "Ecosocialism or Barbarism: there is no third way." We've been quite clear that ecosocialism is not a new theory or brand of socialism -- it is socialism with Marx's important insights on ecology restored, socialism committed to the fight against ecological destruction. But why do we say that the alternative to ecosocialism is barbarism? Marxists have used the word "barbarism" in various ways, but most often to describe actions or social conditions that are grossly inhumane, brutal, and violent. It is not a word we use lightly, because it implies not just bad behaviour but violations of the most important norms of human solidarity and civilised life. * Read more Venezuela's young militants: An antidote to the weaknesses of the revolution By Tamara Pearson July 30, 2008 -- We stayed up until 2 am two nights in a row -- students from a range of faculties, and young people from various movements and revolutionary organisations. In the campsite of La Mucuy in the Andean city of Merida, we discussed and debated the role of youth in Venezuelan's revolution and the construction of a youth wing of the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), while around us clouds hugged the buildings and mountain slopes, horses slept in the foreground and mosquitos made meals of our legs and faces. * Read more The Scottish Socialist Party: the biggest small party By Richie Venton July 26, 2008 -- What a phenomenal result in the July 24 Glasgow East by-election on two parallel levels: the earth-shattering defeat of the Labour Party in Red Clydesider John Wheatley's seat, Labour's third-safest seat in Scotland, held by them since 1922; and the tremendous achievement for the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) in winning fifth place, the highest position for any of the smaller parties, despite all the apparently insurmountable obstacles we faced. * Read more Socialist Alternative gets the balance wrong on propaganda and action Reviewed by Ben Courtice From Little Things Big Things Grow: strategies for building revolutionary socialist organisations, by Mick Armstrong, Socialist Alternative, 2007. * Read more Sudanese Communist Party on ICC's request to indict Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Statement of the Sudanese Communist Party Khartoum, July 20, 2008 -- The inclusion of the name of the President of the Republic of the Sudan among those wanted for justice by the International Criminal Court increases the complications engulfing the crisis prevailing in the Sudan. Despite the fact that such procedures were already in place and expected since the establishment of the Court, and this last step of naming the President of the Sudan was preceded by a similar step indicting two prominent figures in the government in February 2007, the Government of the Sudan was ill-prepared both legally and politically to react to either attempts. * Read more Class war and the Anglican schism By Barry Healy July 29, 2008 -- Dramatic events within the worldwide Anglican Communion (the international association of national Anglican churches) have revealed a "cold split" with the potential for a complete collapse of the Episcopal formation. Superficially, the debates have centred on the right of women and homosexuals to be priests and bishops, and on gay marriage. However, while theological arguments dating back centuries are being mouthed, behind them are class-war elements of more recent vintage, including some connected with the era of US President Ronald Reagan's backing of Central American death squads in the 1980s. * Read more * * * /Links/ seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. * ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 12977 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080805/01f843d2/attachment.txt From tboyle at rosehill.net Mon Aug 4 21:02:51 2008 From: tboyle at rosehill.net (Todd Boyle) Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:02:51 -0700 Subject: [A-List] The critical eye ... In-Reply-To: <4897984D.30203@attglobal.net> References: <4897984D.30203@attglobal.net> Message-ID: Jan Lundberg wrote, > if we persist in manufacturing any kind of car or airplane on a >mass scale, we flush our ecosystem and climate down the toilet. Say.... there ought to be a Kaczinsky list somewhere where we can read more stuff like that! :-) Serously, I agree, I bought my last gallon of gas in March 2003 when this country lost its sanity and invaded Iraq. If I were governor, I would install steel goal posts on one lane of every multi-lane street and highway, dividing it into two small lanes 5 feet wide and 5 feet high. If a vehicle would fit in the 5x5 channel it could use the right of way. Our rights of way have been blocked for too long by giantism and waste, to the point we can't even maintain mobility thru the congestion.. 5x5 cars woudl use less gas, less material to manufacture, would use half as much space to park, could be automated because of standardization of the form factor. Overpasses/Underpasses would cost about as much as a drainage culvert, instead of 10s of$millions. And they would be quieter, safer, etc. ps. freight and hummers could still use the remaining lane. And a 4x4 foot pallet would still fit on cars thru the new, modern roadways. Todd -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 1408 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080804/fdc40ee0/attachment.txt From tal1 at cogeco.ca Tue Aug 5 01:36:01 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 03:36:01 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Analyst: Russia May React To US-NATO Moves With Cuban Bases Message-ID: <3E6429A633D5456B8E7D7A9987EB28FB@TonyPC> ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff To: stopnato at yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 9:16 AM Subject: [stopnato] Analyst: Russia May React To US-NATO Moves With Cuban Bases http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080804/115667177.html Russian Information Agency Novosti August 4, 2008 Russia may answer Western pressure with bases in Cuba - analyst -"It is not a secret that the West is creating a 'buffer zone' around Russia, involving in the process countries in central Europe, the Caucasus, the Baltic states and Ukraine," said Leonid Ivashov.... MOSCOW - Russia may resume a military presence in Cuba in response to growing military-political pressure from the West, a Russian political analyst said on Monday. Moscow has strongly opposed the possible deployment by the U.S. of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and an accompanying tracking radar in the Czech Republic as a threat to its national security. Washington says the defenses are needed to deter a possible strike from Iran, or other "rogue" states. Moscow has also expressed concern over NATO's expansion to Russia's borders and pledged to take "appropriate measures." "It is not a secret that the West is creating a 'buffer zone' around Russia, involving in the process countries in central Europe, the Caucasus, the Baltic states and Ukraine," said Leonid Ivashov, the former head of the Russian Defense Ministry's department for international cooperation, and currently president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems. "In response, we may expand our military presence abroad, including in Cuba," Ivashov said, commenting on the recent visit of Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to Cuba on July 30-31. He said during the visit Patrushev had most likely discussed the possibility of a renewed Russian military presence in Cuba with the Cuban defense and interior ministers. "Cuba has convenient harbors which may host Russian reconnaissance and combat ships, and a network of forward landing airfields. With the Cuban leadership's consent and our own political will we may also consider resuming the work of an electronic listening post in Lourdes," the general said. However, a high-ranking Cuban diplomat said on Saturday that the Cuban leadership had no intention of resuming military cooperation with Russia, especially after the surprise closure of the Lourde's listening post. The electronic monitoring and surveillance facility near Havana at Torrens, also known as the Lourdes facility, the largest Russian SIGINT site abroad, was shut down in October 2001 by then- president Vladimir Putin. "We were not even notified about the decision [by the Russian leadership]," the diplomat said. The Lourdes facility reportedly covered a 28 square-mile area, with 1,000-1,500 Russian engineers, technicians, and military personnel working at the base. The complex was capable of monitoring a wide array of commercial and government communications throughout the southeastern United States, and between the United States and Europe. Lourdes intercepted transmissions from microwave towers in the United States, communication satellite downlinks, and a wide range of shortwave and high-frequency radio transmissions. Russia reportedly paid a yearly rent of $200-million for the facility. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read ============================== __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups Wellness Spot A resource for Curves and weight loss. Get in Shape on Yahoo! Groups Find a buddy and lose weight. Biz Resources Y! Small Business Articles, tools, forms, and more.. __,_._,___ From tal1 at cogeco.ca Tue Aug 5 01:59:26 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 03:59:26 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Phillipines: New People's Army wages war against canadian & australian mining interests Message-ID: > > [Here's a link to the grassroots struggle in the Philippines > against anglo-imperialist mining interests. And please note > that these people are struggling *independently* of the > communists: . > Of course, that doesn't stop the police or military from > murdering them. Remember who's paying them to do that too, > eh?] > > Grok > > > > - ----- Forwarded message > > > > 6 soldiers killed, 9 wounded in Duldulao, Malibcong, Abra > Ka Diego Wadagan > Spokesperson > Agustin Begnalen Command > August 02, 2008 > > NPA guerillas of the Agustin Begnalen Command (NPA-Abra) > staged an ambush against a platoon of operating troops of > the Bravo Coy, 41st IB on August 1, 2008 at Barangay > Duldulao, Malibcong, Abra. The firefight started at 1:15 PM > and lasted only for five minutes. Six soldiers were killed, > nine were wounded (two later died at the hospital) and an > M16 rifle, ammunitions and backpack were retrieved by the > NPA guerillas after the brief firefight. The Red Guerillas > used a command-detonated claymore mine and safely withdrew. > A company-sized composite contingent of the Bravo and > Charlie Coys is currently terrorizing the people of > Malibcong Poblacion, Duldulao, and Bayabas, and is forcing > the people to allow the establishment of detachments in the > municipality. The overwhelming majority of the people, > however, are opposed to the 41st IB's plan. > > After suffering heavy casualties from a series of attacks by > the NPA in 2007, the 41st IB was pulled out for retraining > in March, 2008, when the 503rd Brigade shifted its > Headquarters to Barbarit, Lagangilang, Abra. Since January > 2008, the 503rd Brigade prioritized Abra in their > counter-insurgency operations because of the more than 36 > mining applications in the province awaiting approval. The > 50th IB and the 53rd DRC concentrated combat operations in > the tri-boundary of Abra, Mountain Province, and Ilocos Sur > particularly in Dilong Valley, while the rest of the 503rd > Brigade's forces were deployed in Baay-Licuan. The latest > mining interest in Dilong Valley is the Philippine Metals > Corporation owned by an Australian mining firm, with Mailed > Molina acting as their local negotiator. Despite the > overwhelming rejection by the people of Baay-Licuan of the > Olympus-Pacific exploration, mining interests are hell-bent > in extracting the gold and copper mineral deposits in the > province, with forces of the 503rd Brigade deployed as > security forces of the mining companies. The 41st IB was > redeployed in Baay-Licuan and the surrounding municipalities > of Malibcong and Lacub in July, 2008, along with RSOT units > and other forces of the 503rd Brigade. > > The 503rd Brigade denies its role in securing big mining > interests in Abra, and asserts that it is only the NPA that > rejects these mining interests, because the revolutionary > movement protects and operates the alleged "illegal > small-scale mining" activities in the upland towns of Abra, > specifically in Lacub, Tineg, Malibcong, Baay-Licuan, > Daguioman, Boliney, and Tubo. But clearly, the truth is that > the 503rd Brigade acts in behalf of big foreign mining > interests and the rotten Arroyo Regime. The 503rd Brigade > should know that long before the NPA established its deep > ties with the people of Abra, small-scale mining was already > a way of life of the Tinggians. The people of Abra, > Tinggians and Ilocanos alike, will fight and defend their > land, life and resources. Such was the case in their > struggle against the logging operations of the Cellophil > Resources Corporation; and without doubt, the people will > again rise and unite against big mining interests in the > province. > > The Agustin Begnalen Command launched the August 1, 2008 > ambush against operating troops of the Bravo Coy of the 41st > IB as a punitive action, and in defense of revolutionary > gains paid in sweat, blood and lives of martyrs. Impositions > of the Arroyo regime and the big mining companies will only > fuel protests and unrests, and militarization will only > intensify the people's armed resistance. The Agustin > Begnalen Command and the entire revolutionary movement in > the province supports the people's opposition to large scale > mining and all its disguised forms, and vows to frustrate > all military and PNP operations to impose alleged > "development projects", and in accordance with Oplan Bantay > Laya 2. # > > > - ----- End forwarded message ----- > > > > > - -- > ** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! **************************************** > * BOYCOTT BOURGEOIS * Get your news & analysis * > * MASS-MEDIA: * from the Best on the Web * > **** Critical endorsement only **** Most sites need donations **** > * http://gnn.tv Guerrilla News Network * > * http://www.mediachannel.org MediaChannel.org * > * http://www.workingtv.com Working TV (BC Canada) * > * http://www.globalproject.info Global Project * > * http://www.globalradio.it/live/live.m3u Global Radio * > * http://consortiumnews.com Consortiumnews.com * > * http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/ecassel Civil Liberties Watch* > *** An employee isn't an "associate" - An employee is a WORKER *** > GPG fingerprint = 2E7F 2D69 4B0B C8D5 07E3 09C3 5E8D C4B4 461B B771 > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) > > iD8DBQFIl4FlXo3EtEYbt3ERArnlAKDg7Z0U+Z8dwXw58SjBj31Dwww+hACff+iE > exC4HX96PL9EEvo6HlhivvM= > =dPmv > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > From james.irldaly at ntlworld.com Tue Aug 5 02:40:43 2008 From: james.irldaly at ntlworld.com (james daly) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 09:40:43 +0100 Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil References: Message-ID: <0CE2476A62BB471B859480005C546E89@home9sg93n9r5y> Response: I received this as a member of A-list, and I'm as mystified as anyone else. -- a Mr James Daly. >> A question which may not elicit a response. Has anyone on the UGLY list >> been >> sending on our exchanges to a Mr. James Daly? >> Sam ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Hudson" To: "A-List" ; "Ugly" Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 12:15 AM Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil This note is from a new Google employee to whom I look for answers about what we?ve been discussing. Michael ------ Forwarded Message From: Matt Kelley Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 13:29:02 -0500 To: Michael Hudson Cc: david kelley , Arno Mong Daastoel , Dave Yost , lynn yost Subject: Re: FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil Hey Michael! I have looked at the messages listed there on cuil and it looks like they were all also sent to another mailing list that is publicly accessible on a website. The reason they probably don't show up in google is because google obeys the 'robots.txt' while cuil does not. The 'robots.txt' is a file that says that you place into your website if you do not want your site searchable by search engines. Responsible seach engines follow the convention. So it looks like only messages that were also sent to another mailing list are viewable. The problem with that though is that when you reply to a message it contains all the previous emails in that thread so then the entire thread is now visible and not just the reply that was sent to the other mailing list. On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 11:49 AM, Michael Hudson wrote: > Dear Matt, et al. > Members of a small e-mail discussion list I'm on < about 25 members < > are > bewildered to find their discussion accessed by people googling us or > using > the new Irish site Cuil. They worry that this is intrusive. > Is it normal for such lists to be picked up by Google or other sites? > How > do they do it? Suppose people don't WANT to have other people read what > they've said? > A broad question, but many people on many lists are asking this. > Michael Hudson > > ------ Forwarded Message > From: malcolm gear > Reply-To: malcolm gear > Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:56:32 -0400 > To: > Subject: Re: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil > > I have seen the A-list, listed on the Ugly's email group. Maybe it would > be a > good idea to remove A-list from the blog if still receiving our emails. >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> >> From: Samuel Noumoff, Prof. >> >> To: UGLYNEWWORLD at LISTS.MCGILL.CA >> >> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 9:33 PM >> >> Subject: Re: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil >> >> >> >> >> >> A question which may not elicit a response. Has anyone on the UGLY list >> been >> sending on our exchanges to a Mr. James Daly? >> >> >> >> Sam >> >> >> >> >> >> >> From: UglyNewWorld [mailto:UGLYNEWWORLD at LISTS.MCGILL.CA] >> On Behalf Of Michael Hudson >> Sent: July 28, 2008 8:14 PM >> To: UGLYNEWWORLD at LISTS.MCGILL.CA >> Subject: Re: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil >> >> >> >> Dear Leo, >> This site is GOOFY. I searched for my name < they have completely >> different peoples' photos under my website name, as if they're me. Very >> strange selection. Doesn't go forward. It seems anarchic and just plain >> wrong. >> Michael Hudson >> >> >> On 7/28/08 5:50 PM, "Leo Kolivakis" wrote: >> >> It just came out today. It's at: http://www.cuil.com >> >> >> >> Welcome to Cuil >> We think it's time search did too. >> The Internet has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years but >> search >> engines have not kept up >> anyone else >> Microsoft. >> >> Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for >> and >> ranks pages based on their content and relevance. When we find a page >> with >> your keywords, we stay on that page and analyze the rest of its content, >> its >> concepts, their inter-relationships and the page's coherency. >> >> Then we offer you helpful choices and suggestions until you find the >> page >> you want and that you know is out there. We believe that analyzing the >> Web >> rather than our users is a more useful approach, so we don't collect >> data >> about you and your habits, lest we are tempted to peek. With Cuil, your >> search history is always private. >> >> Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge. For knowledge, ask Cuil. >> >> > > > ------ End of Forwarded Message ------ End of Forwarded Message From shimogamo at attglobal.net Tue Aug 5 08:15:24 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:15:24 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Oil and peak misunderstood as we guzzle petroleum Message-ID: <4898607C.5010508@attglobal.net> by Jan Lundberg Culture Change Letter #191 (August 01 2008) Some of us wonder why some people we know worry little about the trend of sharply rising prices for food and petroleum. They may even acknowledge we have a huge population size and that the environment has been ravaged, but still the situation seems to them normal and stable. Theirs is a laid-back mindset common to those content to pay their bills, or perhaps they have given up on seeing fundamental societal change. They may be well-educated, liberal people. They are not usually the ones striving to change our culture toward respect for nature, although they are inclined to save the planet a bit and support social justice. Their lack of alarm ought to become better understood if it cannot be remedied. For us to just wait for economic or climatic collapse doesn't help. But warning of it (to deaf ears, usually) can do more than allow us to eventually say, "I told you so". I pass along this analysis stemming from conversations with friends who have not taken seriously enough the consequences of oil dependence: Many don't imagine themselves to be pro-capitalist or in favor of economic growth that's destructive to the environment. But they nevertheless have a form of faith in the market: that we will simply transition through the oil supply crisis. They say, "Higher prices bring down demand and there will be major conservation, and people will switch to other forms of energy. The economy will make more of the right products, and jobs will change." This scenario is based on (1) economics that deny indicators of resource depletion and ignore our world's losing its stable climate, and (2) a lack of understanding of energy and the role of our petroleum-based infrastructure. The laid-back way of discounting oil's monster role allows one to reject collapse as the most likely possibility. The implications of having to rapidly adjust to a fraction of the world's daily oil habit of 85 million barrels are more than formidable, but many of us just hope for the best. When reminded that all past empires collapse, and that civilizations collapse, the person rejecting likely modern day collapse responds that the process could take a long, long time. Jared Diamond in Collapse has fed the idea that we will see a long decline instead of a crisis on the level of a house-of-cards collapse. People don't seem to suspect they have a dire need to understand crucial aspects of energy, although we all can't be technical experts. Truths are staring us in the face regarding the function of the oil market and the hard realities of supply and demand. Both the economist and many a peak oilist seem to make up their own rules - something I've tried to address in publications, media interviews and speeches. Peak oilists do understand that the feasibility of alternative fuels for powering industrial society is in question. The inability to produce petrochemicals from solar panels and other "renewables" is a key point. Sadly, yet to be explored and hashed out with the public is the role of petroleum in our modern industrial culture. Growing social vulnerabilities demand organizational as well as culture-change solutions. However, there is no solution or simple answer; there is just a resolution awaiting us when we must face the "overshoot" society has accomplished with our natural bounty we're spending. At the same time, there do exist options for survival, even if we cannot just solve our problem with some fix. It helps to keep in mind that the real alternative to our fossil-fuel hell, and the energy crisis known as peak oil and petrocollapse, is the local-community approach to living that respects the fragile Earth and its shrinking biological and cultural diversity. But we are not on our way to sustainability as long as we're not dealing with our serious oil addiction. Ideally, dealing with it will involve increased understanding of oil and the oil industry. A basic understanding of the workings of the oil industry is lacking among experts and novices alike in peak oil, to be expected when non-industry types are the ones inclined to question the lucrative business of the fraternity of oil. The role of the oil market as it interplays with geological-based shortage is critical, but neglected. In ignoring or forgetting the supreme importance of the distribution system for all oil products readily available, and how it is controlled by buyers and sellers rather than how much crude oil may be left in the ground, many peak oilists assume there will be a gradual decline of oil extraction. They also assume the oil industry is set up for orderly contraction. I discussed why this isn't the case at the Ecocity World Summit last April in San Francisco: "I disagree with Dr Colin Campbell, peak oil geologist, that we are entering with peak the 'Second Half of the Age of Oil'. My view involves my donning my oil-industry analyst hat and discussing the oil market. I formerly ran Lundberg Survey which predicted the Second Oil Shock in 1979." Assumptions about oil's mirror-image demise (patterned after its graphic ascendancy) come largely from the "Hubbert Curve" and its arbitrary bell shape that implies extraction of oil gradually dwindling. As these thinkers and analysts with their non-industry background tout a milder effect of peak oil than collapse, a "doom and gloom" label tends to be put on anyone who does not see how substitute energy and materials (for our huge, growing population) can "save us". Socioeconomic collapse will come when global trade is hamstrung by the end of abundant oil - possibly suddenly, in the form of a fatal interruption of supply due to world events. However, as bad as the disruption will be, a positive outcome from the loss of global corporate products will result, probably unevenly and with delay. In the main, the chain of events will mean the inevitable abandonment of unsustainable practices, institutions, and obsolete cultural values. Perhaps this view could belong to every incurable optimist of the human spirit faced with today's compounding errors and failures of Western Civilization. Fortunately there are models already functioning that provide for reliable operation and increased self-reliance in the post-petroleum age. Energy's role in our post-petroleum future and the full potential of technology will have to hew to Earth's limits, a thought that disturbs and meets objection. Still, decentralized and diverse techniques and resources will assist local economies in their cultural development. Peak oilists are of many stripes, and most are unknown to the public. It could well be that few peak oilists today - with or without thorough oil industry understanding - see a positive outcome from full petrocollapse. Granted, goodness and survival are not guaranteed; they will have to arise out of the ashes - figuratively, one would hope - of petroleum civilization that happens to be already rusting, literally, much faster than it can be maintained. ______ This essay is from the forthcoming book Petrocollapse and Culture Change, by Jan Lundberg. http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=189&Itemid=1#cont ____________________ Matt Simmons: Rust happens by Leslie Haines blogs.oilandgasinvestor.com (May 05 2008) The offshore oil industry is seven years old this year, and industry analyst Matt Simmons says rust is becoming a bigger threat than oilfield depletion. The CEO and founder of investment bank Simmons & Company International spoke at OTC 2008 this week in Houston. "If the world wants to keep using energy from oil and gas, it will have to rebuild the infrastructure and the cost of doing this could rival the combined cost of the World War II war machine, the post-war Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe, and the post-war buildout of the US interstate highway system". Simmons said the costs could be enormous - in the $50 to $100 trillion range. Triage needs to happen immediately to prioritize which links in the system are the weakest and need to be repaired or replaced first. Pipelines are old, some dating to World War II. The average age of the drilling rig fleets onshore and offshore is 24 years. Refineries are even older. "No single US state has drawn up a blueprint of how to replace its aging energy infrastructure". Simmons cited infrastructure construction on the drawing board for the Middle East alone is as much as $1.5 trillion. Simmons also said that if and when we start to build back what the energy industry needs, there will be a severe blue-collar personnel shortage that will hamper progress and cause huge cost overruns. "We face a twin challenge", he said. "We need to end our addiction to oil at the same time that we need to rebuild our entire energy infrastructure". _____ Leslie Haines is Editor in chief, Oil and Gas Investor, lhaines at hartenergy.com http://blogs.oilandgasinvestor.com/leslie/2008/05/05/matt-simmons-rust-happens/ http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From tal1 at cogeco.ca Tue Aug 5 10:30:30 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 12:30:30 -0400 Subject: [A-List] US warns Israel - No 'USS Liberty pt 2' Message-ID: <94BADE69D4834A5F88857BBB87605F44@TonyPC> Reference URL: http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/us-warns-israel-there-will-be-no-'uss-liberty-pt-ii'/ US Warns Israel -There Will Be No 'USS Liberty Pt II' July 28, 2008 - crescentandcross For the last 41 years, Israel's attack on the USS Liberty has been a taboo topic about which neither the Jewish state nor the US has allowed free and open discussion. Like a paid-off judge in the service of organized crime interests who pounds his gavel on the bench, for the last 4 decades Israel and her supporters in the US government have bellowed 'case closed' and have raked over the coals anyone-including the survivors of the attack themselves-from arguing otherwise. Realizing the tidal wave of outrage that would occur if the American people were to come of age and lose their innocence in realizing what Israel did in murdering 34 American servicemen 4 decades ago in a premeditated attack, (to say nothing of the cover-up perpetrated by the US government) it has been on the list of forbidden topics..until recently. Cutting short his trip in Europe the first week of July, recently-appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen flew to Tel Aviv along with an entourage of high-ranking US military personnel and, upon his arrival, rushed to meet with the highest-ranking members of Israel's military establishment. While this is not unusual (as many such meetings have been taking place as of late) what was unusual was the topic discussed-Israel's attack on the USS Liberty 41 years ago during the 6 day war and how 'important' it was 'not to allow history to repeat itself,' given the present tensions existing between Israel and Iran. Considering the subject of that meeting and the well-known cover-up that has taken place these last 41 years, the meeting should have made headline news all over America. Sadly, however, it did not, just another testimony to the fact that America is now officially 'occupied territory' every bit as much as Arab Palestine. The fact that the meeting took place at all is news enough, but what is of even more importance is what can be inferred from the meeting. Given the fact that this brazen 2 hour attack upon the United States has been hushed up these last 41 years, there can be little else to conclude by Mullen's meeting other than the obvious-That someone from within the intelligence or military apparatus of the United States has looked towards the horizon and concluded that Israel is planning a 'USS Liberty Pt II,' meaning an attack on a US ship, most likely in the Persian Gulf, leading to a massive loss of life to be then blamed on Iran. As was intended in 1967 when Israel attacked the Liberty, Americans would be incensed into such a war frenzy that they would demand the 'obliteration' (a la Hillary Clinton) of the guilty party, the false identity of which the Jewish media establishment in America would be all too glad to provide. And while all players involved have been tight-lipped about the particulars of this story, what can be concluded nevertheless is that Mullen's impromptu trip to Israel and subsequent discussion was in effect a stern warning to Israel of 'Don't even think about it bubba'. Those who suspect that Mullen (a company man not cut from the same cloth as the recently 'retired' Adm. William Fallon) has been afflicted with a sudden case of patriotic fever should consider this recent news against the more likely backdrop of sheer pragmatism. The sad fact is, patriotism more than likely had little to do with it. The US is having its rear end handed to it in Iraq and Afghanistan and now some in Washington are beginning to realize that they've just put their foot into something nasty with regards to Israel's dirty wars in the Middle East that will never be finished as long as she exists. With oil and virtually all consumer products skyrocketing in price simultaneous to the US economy going down the drain, some now understand that by signing on as Israel's pit bull in the Muslim world that America will wind up paying the ultimate price for her devotion to the Jewish state, meaning the complete destruction of her economy and her position as a world power. It is no secret Mullen is very friendly when it comes to the great experiment in Jewish self rule in the Middle East as well as his willingness to tow the line with regards to the sworn enemies of that great experiment. Immediately after the release of the National Intelligence Estimate in early December of 2007 stating that Iran had no nuclear weapons program America's highest ranking military officer high-tailed it to Israel (the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to do so in a decade) to reassure her of America's support that would 'last 1,000 years'. As of late however, America's top general officer seems to be singing a different tune with regards to widening the present debacle to include war with Iran that stands the very real chance of bringing into the fray nuclear-armed nations such as Russia and China. Out of necessity therefore he has now joined with saner voices both within and outside the Bush administration who are trying to an apocalyptic end to America. In discussing an attack on Iran Mullen recently stated that opening a third front would be 'extremely stressful' on the US military and added that it would lead to consequences 'difficult to predict', adding that "There is need for better clarity, even dialogue at some level." And this, added to all the other things taking place these days (not excluding of course the talk of withdrawing US troops from Iraq) is what is making Israel jittery to the point she would contemplate pulling off another 'USS Liberty'. For the sake of her own survival she simply cannot afford to have her 'fixer' in the Middle East walk away from a 'hit' to which he has been assigned, and it is for this reason that forward-thinking people in the US are beginning to sense Israel may soon pull a few surprises out of her infamous black bag of dirty tricks. Once the stomping grounds solely of 'anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists' that the Jewish state might pull a fast one in order to get the US involved in a war for her own interests, now 'respectable' people have begun to voice such thoughts openly as well. In a recent piece appearing in an issue of American Conservative Magazine entitled 'If Iran is Attacking, It Might Really Be Israel', ex-CIA officer Phillip Giraldi writes as follows- 'Some intel types are beginning to express concerns that the Israelis might do something completely crazy to get the US involved. There are a number of possible "false flag" scenarios in which the Israelis could stage an incident that they will make to look Iranian, either by employing Iranian weapons or by leaving a communications footprint that points to Tehran's involvement. Those who argue Israel would never do such a thing should think again. Israel is willing to behave with complete ruthlessness towards the US if they feel that the stakes are high enough. Witness the attack on the USS Liberty and the bombing of the US Consulate in Alexandria in the 1950s. If they now believe that Iran is a threat that must be eliminated it is not implausible to assume they will stop at nothing to get the United States to do it for them, particularly as their air force is only able to damage the Iranian nuclear program, not destroy it.' Joined alongside Giraldi is long-time former CIA analyst Ray McGovern who in his most recent piece 'Israel Planning a September/October Surprise?' writes the following with regards to the US pulling out of the Middle East and what Israel might do as a result- 'My guess is the Israeli leaders are apoplectic.This dramatic change - or even just the specter of it - greatly increases Israel's incentive to ensure US involvement in the area that would endure for several years. The Israelis need to create "facts on the ground" - something to guarantee Washington will stand by "our ally." The legislation drafted by AIPAC calls for a blockade of Iran. That would be one way to entangle; there are many others. The point is that the growing danger the Israelis perceive will probably prompt them to find a way to get the US involved in hostilities with Iran. All Israel has to do is to arrange to be attacked. Not a problem. There are endless possibilities among which Israel can choose to catalyze such a confrontation. Viewed from Tel Aviv it appears an increasingly threatening situation, with more urgent need to "embed" (so to speak) the United States even more deeply in the region - in a confrontation involving both countries with Iran. A perfect storm is brewing.In sum, Israel is likely to be preparing a September/October surprise designed to keep the US bogged down in Iraq and in the wider region by provoking hostilities with Iran. And don't be surprised if it starts as early as August. Readers will recall that American Free Press newspaper predicted in the aftermath of the National Intelligence Estimate being released that the prospect of war with Iran being cancelled would likely result in Israel resorting to desperate measures in getting her way. AFP further speculated that the timing of the release of the NIE was suspicious, coming just a few days before Dec 7, the day Americans remember the attack on Pearl Harbor and that possibly the release of the report was timed to prevent a sneak attack by an Israeli sub on a US ship stationed in the Persian Gulf. For her part, Israel is attempting to play the role of the innocent, cooperative and concerned ally in the wake of Mullen's meeting by summoning Judge Jay Cristol, a federal bankruptcy judge in Miami who wrote a book in 2002 exculpating Israel of any wrongdoing in the Liberty attack. He is lecturing at military academies in Haifa and Ashdod on how to avoid the 'mistakes' that led to the attack on the Liberty. One thing is for certain. Out of all the topics to be discussed with his Israeli counterparts, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mullen picked the topic of the USS Liberty, and not because he felt nostalgic or guilty over the way the survivors have been treated these last 41 years. He, like many within the military and intelligence establishment, no doubt realizes that America sits at the precipice of destruction and is no doubt trying to pull her back before that proverbial 'point of no return' is reached, if in fact it has not been reached already. And as sobering a theme as all this may be, the fact is that it may turn out to be much worse. What Israel wants, Israel gets, and the fact that an attack on a US ship has been thwarted does not mean that the fat lady has sung, as now the likelihood of a false flag attack on the American mainland has been made all the more likely. This time however, just for good measure and for spite, it might not be a city building coming down after being struck by an airliner, but rather an entire city being consumed in a mushroom cloud, courtesy of a place called Dimona and a criminal organization known as Mossad. 2008 by Mark Glenn Correspondent, American Free Press Newspaper From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Tue Aug 5 10:37:19 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:37:19 -0400 Subject: [A-List] =?utf-8?q?Obama_vows_to_be_=E2=80=98champion_of_working_?= =?utf-8?b?cGVvcGxl4oCZ?= Message-ID: <48984983.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> http://www.uft.org/news/champion_working_people/ Obama vows to be ?champion of working people? Aug 4, 2008 4:05 PM Speaking to hundreds of union leaders and activists on a July 31 conference call, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama vowed to be ?a champion of working people.? Specifically, Obama said, that means signing the Employee Free Choice Act, making sure the U.S. Department of Labor actually looks out for working people, and returning the National Labor Relations Board to a body that?s not stacked against workers trying to organize unions. ?We need a strong labor movement in this country,? he said. In introducing Obama, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the Illinois senator ?has a deep understanding of the problems faced by working families in our country.? Sweeney was part of an economic roundtable discussion ? featuring a diverse collection of economists and other experts ? that Obama recently held. Obama outlined a number of issues where his approach to the economy will be ?fundamentally different? from that of President Bush and Republican candidate John McCain. These include negotiating trade agreements that are fair to workers, ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, creating 5 million new ?green? jobs that can?t be outsourced as well as 2 million additional jobs focused on rebuilding the country?s infrastructure, and improving healthcare coverage and retirement security. His days as a community organizer in Chicago, Obama said, showed him the importance of working with unions to get things done in the community. And in the current presidential campaign, he continued, unions will play a central role in communicating to their members about issues and candidates. ?When the labor movement decides to endorse a candidate and really work it, I know what a difference it can make,? he said, adding that he knows the home visits, phone calls and literature workers receive from the unions are the most important communications they receive during a campaign. ?If I have your help, we?re going to win in November.? This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From michael.hudson at earthlink.net Tue Aug 5 11:01:51 2008 From: michael.hudson at earthlink.net (Michael Hudson) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:01:51 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Debt deflation article Message-ID: Fisher's Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions and a possible revision Roubini, London Banker | Aug 1, 2008 ?Panics do not destroy capital; they merely reveal the extent to which it has been previously destroyed by its betrayal into hopelessly unproductive works?. - John Stuart Mill I have been both a central banker and a market regulator. I now find myself questioning whether my early career, largely devoted to liberalising and deregulating banking and financial markets, was misguided. In short, I wonder whether I contributed - along with a countless others in regulation, banking, academia and politics - to a great misallocation of capital, distortion of markets and the impairment of the real economy. We permitted the banks to betray capital into ?hopelessly unproductive works?, promoting their efforts with monetary laxity, regulatory forbearance and government tax incentives that marginalised investment in ?productive works?. We permitted markets to become so fragmented by off-exchange trading and derivatives that they no longer perform the economically critical functions of capital/resource allocation and price discovery efficiently or transparently. The results have been serial bubbles - debt-financed speculative frenzy in real estate, investments and commodities. Since August of 2007 we have been seeing a steady constriction of credit markets, starting with subprime mortgage back securities, spreading to commercial paper and then to interbank credit and then to bond markets and then to securities generally. While the problem is usually expressed as one of confidence, a more honest conclusion is that credit extended in the past has been employed unproductively and so will not be repaid according to the original terms. In other words, capital has been betrayed into unproductive works. The credit crunch today is not destroying capital but recognising that capital was destroyed by misallocation in the years of irrational exuberance. If that is so, then we are entering a spiral of debt deflation that will play out slowly for years to come. To understand how that works, we turn to Professor Irving Fisher of Yale. Like me, Professor Fisher lived to question his earlier convictions and pursuits, learning by dear experience the lessons of financial instability. Professor Fisher was an early mathematical economist, specialising in monetary and financial economics. Fisher?s contributions to the field of economics included the equation of exchange, the distinction between real and nominal interest rates, and an early analysis of intertemporal allocation.. As his status grew, he became an icon for popularising 1920s fads for investment, healthy living and social engineering, including Prohibition and eugenics. He is less famous for all of this today than for his one statement in September 1929 that ?stock prices had reached a permanently high plateau?. He subsequently lost a personal fortune of between $6 and $10 million in the crash. As J.K. Galbraith remarked, ?This was a sizable sum, even for an economics professor.? Fisher?s investment bank failed in the bear market, losing the fortunes of investors and his public reputation. Professor Fisher made his ?permanently high plateau? remark in an environment very similar to that prevailing in the summer of 2007. Currencies had been competitively devalued in all the major nations as each sought to gain or defend export market share. The devaluation stoked asset bubbles as easy credit led to more and more speculative investments, including a boom in globalisation as investors bought bonds from abroad to gain higher yields. Then, as now, many speculators on Wall Street had unshakeable faith in the Federal Reserve?s ability to keep the party going. After the crash and financial ruin, Professor Fisher turned his considerable talents to determining the underlying mechanisms of the crash. His Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions (1933) was powerful and resonant, although largely neglected by officialdom, Wall Street and academia alike. Fisher?s theory raised too many uncomfortable questions about the roles played by the Federal Reserve, Wall Street and Washington in propagating the conditions for credit excess and the debt deflation that followed. The whole paper is worth reading carefully, but I?ll extract here some choice quotes which give a flavour of the whole. Prefacing his theory, Fisher first discusses instability around equilibrium and the influence of 'forced' cycles (like seasons) and 'free' cycles (self-generating like waves). Unlike the Chicago School, Fisher says bluntly that "exact equilibrium thus sought is seldom reached and never long maintained. New disturbances are, humanly speaking, sure to occur, so that, in actual fact, any variable is almost always above or below ideal equilibrium." He bluntly asserts: "Theoretically there may be -- in fact, at most times there must be -- over- or under-production, over- or under-consumption, over- or under-spending, over- or under-saving, over- or under-investment, and over or under everything else. It is as absurd to assume that, for any long period of time, the variables in the economic organization, or any part of them, will "stay put," in perfect equilibrium, as to assume that the Atlantic Ocean can ever be without a wave." While disturbances will cause oscillations which lead to recessions, he suggests: "[I]n the great booms and depressions, each of the above-named factors has played a subordinate role as compared with two dominant factors, namely over-indebtedness to start with and deflation following soon after; also that where any of the other factors do become conspicuous, they are often merely effects or symptions of these two." This is the critical argument of the paper. Viewed from this perspective we may see USA and UK decades of under-production, over-consumption, over-spending and under-investment as all tending to a greater imbalance in debt which may, if combined with oscillations induced by disturbances, take the US and UK economies beyond the point where they could right themselves into a deflationary spiral. Fisher outlines how just 9 factors interacting with one another under conditions of debt and deflation create the mechanics of boom to bust for a Great Depression: Assuming, accordingly, that, at some point of time, a state of over-indebtedness exists, this will tend to lead to liquidation, through the alarm either of debtors or creditors or both. Then we may deduce the following chain of consequences in nine links: (1) Debt liquidation leads to distress selling and to (2) Contraction of deposit currency, as bank loans are paid off, and to a slowing down of velocity of circulation. This contraction of deposits and of their velocity, precipitated by distress selling, causes (3) A fall in the level of prices, in other words, a swelling of the dollar. Assuming, as above stated, that this fall of prices is not interfered with by reflation or otherwise, there must be (4) A still greater fall in the net worths of business, precipitating bankruptcies and (5) A like fall in profits, which in a ?capitalistic,? that is, a private-profit society, leads the concerns which are running at a loss to make (6) A reduction in output, in trade and in employment of labor. These losses, bankruptcies and unemployment, lead to (7) Hoarding and slowing down still more the velocity of circulation. The above eight changes cause (9) Complicated disturbances in the rates of interest, in particular, a fall in the nominal, or money, rates and a rise in the real, or commodity, rates of interest. Evidently debt and deflation go far toward explaining a great mass of phenomena in a very simple logical way. Hyman Minsky and James Tobin credited Fisher?s Debt-Deflation Theory as a crucial precursor of their theories of macroeconomic financial instability. Fisher explicitly ties loose money to over-indebtedness, fuelling speculation and asset bubbles: Easy money is the great cause of over-borrowing. When an investor thinks he can make over 100 per cent per annum by borrowing at 6 per cent, he will be tempted to borrow, and to invest or speculate with the borrowed money. This was a prime cause leading to the over-indebtedness of 1929. Inventions and technological improvements created wonderful investment opportunities, and so caused big debts. * * * The public psychology of going into debt for gain passes through several more or less distinct phases: (a) the lure of big prospective dividends or gains in income in the remote future; (b) the hope of selling at a profit, and realising a capital gain in the immediate future; (c) the vogue of reckless promotions, taking advantage of the habituation of the public to great expectations; (d) the development of downright fraud, imposing on a public which had grown credulous and gullible. Fisher then sums up his theory of debt, deflation and instability in one paragraph: In summary, we find that: (1) economic changes include steady trends and unsteady occasional disturbances which act as starters for cyclical oscillations of innumerable kinds; (2) among the many occasional disturbances, are new opportunities to invest, especially because of new inventions; (3) these, with other causes, sometimes conspire to lead to a great volume of over-indebtedness; (4) this in turn, leads to attempts to liquidate; (5) these, in turn, lead (unless counteracted by reflation) to falling prices or a swelling dollar; (6) the dollar may swell faster than the number of dollars owed shrinks; (7) in that case, liquidation does not really liquidate but actually aggravates the debts, and the depression grows worse instead of better, as indicated by all nine factors; (8) the ways out are either laissez faire (bankruptcy) or scientific medication (reflation), and reflation might just as well have been applied in the first place. The lender of last resort function of central banks and government support of the financial system through GSEs and fiscal measures are the modern mechanisms of reflation. Like Keynes, I suspect that Fisher saw reflation as a limited and temporary intervention rather than a long term sustained policy of credit expansion a la Greenspan/Bernanke. I?m seriously worried that reflationary practice by Washington and the Fed in response to every market hiccup in recent decades was storing up a bigger debt deflation problem for the future. This very scary chart (click through to view) gives a measure of the threat in comparing Depression era total debt to GDP to today?s much higher debt to GDP. Certainly Washington and the Fed have been very enthusiastic and innovative in ?reflating? the debt-sensitive financial, real estate, automotive and consumer sectors for the past many years. I?m tempted to coin a new noun for reflation enthusiasm: refllatio? Had Fisher observed the Greenspan/Bernanke Fed in action, he might have updated his theory with a revision. At some point, capital betrayed into unproductive works has to either be repaid or written off. If either is inhibited by reflation or regulatory forbearance, then a cost is imposed on productive works, whether through inflation, higher interest, diversion of consumption, or taxation to socialise losses. Over time that cost ultimately hollows out the real productive economy leaving only bubble assets standing. Without a productive foundation, as reflation and forbearance reach their limits, those bubble assets must deflate. Fisher?s debt deflation theory was little recognised in his lifetime, probably because he was right in drawing attention to the systemic failures that precipitated the crash. Speaking truth to power isn?t a ticket to popularity today either. From tal1 at cogeco.ca Tue Aug 5 11:07:16 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 13:07:16 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Mediterranean Union Return To Colonization: Libya Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff To: stopnato at yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 10:42 PM Subject: [stopnato] Mediterranean Union Return To Colonization: Libya http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/04/africa/AF-Tunisia-Libya-EU.php Associated Press August 4, 2008 Gadhafi: Mediterranean Union still a bad idea TUNIS, Tunisia - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says he still disagrees with the idea for a Union for the Mediterranean. Gadhafi says the creation of the bloc of countries around the Mediterranean Sea marks a "return to colonization." He says that if European countries want to show they are sincerely reaching out to southern neighbors they can pay damages to their former colonies. The idea for the union joining 43 nations including Arab countries and Israel was dreamed up by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It was launched at a Paris summit last month but Gadhafi refused to come. Gadhafi spoke Monday during a visit to neighboring Tunisia. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read ============================== __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity 1New Members Visit Your Group Drive Traffic Sponsored Search can help increase your site traffic. Real Food Group Share recipes, restaurant ratings and favorite meals. Yahoo! Groups Join people over 40 who are finding ways to stay in shape.. __,_._,___ From tully2 at gmail.com Tue Aug 5 11:28:56 2008 From: tully2 at gmail.com (tully) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 13:28:56 -0400 Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil In-Reply-To: <0CE2476A62BB471B859480005C546E89@home9sg93n9r5y> References: <0CE2476A62BB471B859480005C546E89@home9sg93n9r5y> Message-ID: <200808051328.56876.tully2@gmail.com> On Tuesday 05 August 2008, james daly wrote: >Response: I received this as a member of A-list, and I'm as > mystified as anyone else. What is happening is that messages are being crossposted to more than one mail list at a time. Crossposting is a very bad practice and if crossposting must be done, the sender of the message should place all recipient email addresses in the BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) box, and never put them in the TO: box or the CC: box of their emailer. If BCC is used, none of the recipients will see the address of any of the other recipients of the message and any "Reply-All" (which replies to all recipients) made in response will not go to all recipients, only to the one that sent you the message. BCC should always be used when sending to multiple recipients to protect recipients from spammers and search engines, especially crooked search engines, like cuil obviously is if it won't obey robots.txt instructions. We must protect each other from the abuse crossposting causes. Never put email addresses in a TO: or CC: box when sending a single message to multiple email lists and/or to your friends. If you do, you leave those recipients wide open to the abuse of having their addresses collected by spammers (or worse), private messages posted on public lists like is happening here between A-list (public) and Ugly (private), people (or computer programs) having access to messages they shouldn't have, and generally making a real nuisance of yourself. Please feel free to post any questions about this here on the list (better so others can learn too) or to me privately and I will try to explain better. Everyone needs to know and understand this stuff to protect themselves and their friends. --tully From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Tue Aug 5 12:24:40 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:24:40 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Discussion of recent solar storage discovery Message-ID: <489862AB.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> [Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution II Les Schaffer schaffer at optonline.net Fri Aug 1 13:56:44 MDT 2008 Previous message: [Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution II Next message: [Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution II Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Walters, et al.: for what its worth, i am currently consulting on a concentrating solar power system (CSP) design ... but CSP simply delivers high temperature steam to run a turbine to produce electricity to do XXXX. How CSP would relate to this new electrolysis is unclear, no? you claim the breakthrough is in storage. but storage is only needed if you want to make some fraction of electric users fully dependent on solar. otherwise its simply another source of power. and if you store, you have to reconvert and transmit later, and we know our transmission infrastructure is creaky. now a global transmission system, powering the shadow while while the other side sunbathes, that would be something, eh? but lets grant this breakthrough storage scheme and see what kind of area is needed so that solar could fill the tank, so to speak. how many square meters of sunny area would be needed, in the US for example, to power itself, assuming you *could store* and re-transmit through the remaining say 16 hours of dawn, dusk, and night? well, whats our latest power usage, averaged over 24 hours? from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_use_in_the_United_States i get about 1,000,000 MW for the electric production rate in 2006. (nameplate capacity) so, lets say we can collect solar energy at 100% efficiency over a third of the day and store for the other two thirds of the day. then we need 3,000,000 MW of instantaneous production. 3,000,000 MW / (1.4 kW / m^2) = 3,000,000 / .0014 (m^2) = 2,142,857,143 (m^2) = 825 sq miles (= 530,000 acres) this sets the *scale* for solar-electric production without revolution in the way we live. that is 825 square miles of the earth's brightest surface blanketed with solar collectors, connected to electrolysis or energy storage of your choice and re-transmitted now or later. interesting number. not quite as fearsome as i first guessed, but plenty big... everything 100% efficient, nothing but the best for us .... ;-) you can play with the numbers. you want to promise us some clean/safe nuclear, take some fraction of 824. want to keep burning coal but at a reduced rate? reduce it some more. and so forth. want to reduce electric consumption by half? want to leave the others forms of production and just eliminate coal-fired, thats 400 sq miles then. you think we can collect for 12 hours of the day in New Mexico?: 500 sq miles. etc etc etc ... for the quibblers amongst us: when i say that 825 sq miles sets the scale for solar-electric production, it means its an order of magnitude estimate. if the wikipedia #s are wrong or misleading, the point is to set the gross scale at which one would need area for solar power collection at the 1.4 kW/m^2 intensity. if you come up with 325 sq miles or 1600 sq miles, its only incidental. andy pollack: did this answer your question, or do we need more details on collectors and efficiencies and all that? can someone like the railroad man make an estimate of the cost (materials, labor, environmental) to produce say 100 square miles of x% efficient collectors? by the ways: 1. someone pointed out on a blog that the water usage for this new conversion scheme would be large. 2. the wikipedia #s give us (potential) electric production as of two years ago, not total energy use. 3. that wikipedia article above states there is about 400 MW of solar electric generation in the US in 2006. i don't know if that is daily average or what. but that requires about 0.1 sq miles of existing collector surface area. so we have at least three orders of magnitude to go. 4. Rhode Island has 1545 sq miles. so half of Rhode Island. to sum up, storage of solar energy is a piece of the puzzle, but only a piece, and not the most important piece. to keep things as they are (consumption-wise), supply must equal demand. in power this is true. storage is a detail. so the MIT claim is hype, though the prof has come up with an interesting and potentially useful technology. Les This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From orakwa at paulcomm.ca Wed Aug 6 12:24:24 2008 From: orakwa at paulcomm.ca (MohawkNationNews) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 14:24:24 -0400 Subject: [A-List] MNN WHO'S PUSHING DRUGS ON INDIGENOUS YOUTH? Message-ID: <0214dc00$39666$01406002767361@your-6904db8205> WHO?S PUSHING DRUGS TO DESTROY INDIGENOUS YOUTH? WHO?S GAINING? By Karakwine and MNN Staff MNN. Aug. 4, 2008. Drug abuse in Indigenous communities is not random. Someone wants us to be pacified and for us to have a total social breakdown. They want our brains, morals and ambition destroyed. They want our Indigenous youth to be criminalized and minimized. Drug abuse creates misfits and society dropouts who are supposed to be discarded and discredited. It stops us from campaigning for our social and political rights. The colonists want us to shut up. They don?t want to acknowledge their obligation to us. They don?t want to admit they are on stolen land. It?s an old strategy. Going back to the 1830s Britain was the world?s major drug trafficker. The Europeans were jealous of the Chinese. They had so many beautiful items like silk, porcelain, spices, etc. Britain only had wool to trade, which the Chinese did not need. The Europeans had to get silver to trade with China. They also had tobacco from Turtle Island. To increase demand for tobacco they cut it with opium from India. Before long, huge numbers around the trading ports in Canton [the modern city of Guangzhou] were addicted. Silver began draining out of China and ruining the economy. The Chinese emperor passed a law forbidding the import of opium. The Chinese wrote to Queen Victoria asking her to control her nationals and stop the illegal trade. The Chinese announced all opium would be seized and burned. U.S. traders ignored the ban and brought in a shipment to Canton. It was confiscated and burned in public. The Americans got the British to declare war on China. The ?Opium War? was to defend the ?right? of drug dealers. The Chinese were not warlike. They did not have a big army to defeat the British. The British won the war and forced the Chinese to give them a lot of land around Hong Kong. This has since been returned to them. China was forced to make opium legal along with unrestricted propagation of Christianity. The affect was devastating. A lot of research was done on how a few were able to defeat a population of millions through drugs. In the end the Chinese regained their independence. We Indigenous People of Turtle Island are in the midst of this same kind of struggle. Why is the U.S. in Afghanistan? It is the source of over 90% of the world?s opium! Somebody wants the whole world to be stoned! In the 1940?s, British writer Aldous Huxley, who wrote ?Brave New World?, went to the U.S. He recruited Allen Watts who became the guru of a nationwide Zen Buddhist cult in California in the 1950s and 1960s. He founded the ?Pacifica Foundation? which sponsored two radio stations that pushed the ?Liverpool sound?. This was the British imported ?hard? rock twang of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and the Animals. They also pioneered ?acid rock? and eventually ?psychotic punk rock?. In 1943 LSD was developed by Albert Hoffman, a chemist at Sandoz A.B. ? a Swiss pharmaceutical owned by banker, S.G. Warburg. [He?s a Federal Reserve shareholder]. British and U.S. intelligence were directly involved. The book ?Aquarian Conspiracy? described how new age philosophy was blended with the promotion of the drug culture, ?the introduction of major psychedelics in the 1960s was largely attributable by the Central Intelligence Agency CIA?s investigation for possible military use?. It was codenamed ?MK Ultra?. In the 1960s kids in the U.S. were protesting against the Vietnam War. The U.S. establishment did not know what to do. On May 4, 1970, the National Guard shot four kids at Kent State University in Ohio. They were protesting against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia ordered by President Nixon. The shooting was meant to quell the demonstrations against the war. It didn?t work. To divert the youth, a humongous drug movement was started. The 1968 mega concert at Woodstock in Sullivan County New York was part of the drug and ?free love? movement sponsored by companies like Capitol Records. In New York City the ?Ed Sullivan Show? displayed these groups nationwide to promote the drug culture. For the U.S. to continue its warmongering it had to corrupt and destroy its opposition, the youth. According to recently released CIA documents, Allen Dulles, the then head of the CIA, purchased over 100 million doses of LSD ? most of which flooded the streets of the USA during the late 1960s. [Illuminaticonspiracyarchives.com]. The plan is for every instinct for survival to be controlled by drugs. The drugs produced naturally by the body are being replaced by drugs being manufactured by the multi-national corporations. Today, as a result of 911, the climate of fear has been promoted over the U.S. and Canada. The kids are told that fear can be shut out by going into this false artificial world created by drugs, pills and music. The kids lose touch with reality and are not able to understand or cope with social abuse. Today multi-national corporations and pharmaceuticals have control of recording companies, music, radio stations, television programming, films, mainstream news [msn] and advertising [almost total mind control]. A common theme is U.S. based ?ghetto rap?. They are producing these themes for the vulnerable minds of the young people to confuse and control them. The kids learn to switch into rap and drug culture talk. Computers, games and cell phones are programmed to take them into this world. It is normal for people to react when there?s a problem. Often they blame people improperly like their fathers, mothers, girlfriends, boyfriends or people around them. The drugs divert them so their critical thinking doesn?t develop to a level where they can understand complex issues. Drugs create a rift between older generations and young people and to break up families. When people are emotionally hurt by broken families, they can?t think straight. This leaves them insecure, paranoid and open to be manipulated by big business. Drugs have replaced the residential school program as a means of committing genocide. What?s different here is that they?ve persuaded our youth to commit the crimes on themselves. Anyone who wants to get out of it can if they are determined. Elders are there to counsel them. While they are off the drugs they start talking to them and get them back into reality and with their families. After treatment they need help and support and to occupy themselves. It?s an uphill battle for these counselors. Drugs are being flooded into Indigenous communities to try to pacify and destroy our youth and to stop people from thinking or asking questions. The colonists want to be able to easily talk us into giving up everything we have. In the majority of cases the youth experiment with drugs and then reject it. They get on with their lives. The oldest and the youngest are not involved. Those escaping it are able to stay in school. They are taught to deal with enticement from other kids and dealers. In any society the youth in between are vulnerable. Many of our elders know there?s hope for this generation. Marijuana is many times more powerful than it was in the 1960s. Other drugs are even more dangerous. Some, like chystal meth, cause brain damage after one shot. The children of drug users are so worried they can?t sit still in school. The teachers and medical personnel get them on Ritalin and other drugs. Some parents use it to shoot up. It?s vicious! Those Indigenous people who are bringing drugs into our communities have been colonized into wanting power and control over us. Thus, the push for ever more powerful drugs onto our people! For this plan to be effective, they need to keep us idle and spaced out. Drug dealers set themselves up among our people. Some government or police agents or medical professionals who say they are fighting drugs are actually promoting drugs. The whole dirty business keeps a lot of people employed. In some cases they co-opt our people to become ?snitches? in exchange for protection to deal drugs. They purportedly supply information on us and are free to provide drugs to the community to weaken and destroy us. They?re never busted when there?s a ?crack down? or a raid! Why? They are known. There are people in every Indigenous community who are fighting it. The battle will be won. We have the power to say ?no? when somebody offers us drugs. We have to finish school and get a job. We all have to help our communities. Our young indigenous people are smart, dignified, respectful of elders and not prone to act without thinking. We are not ?terrorists?. We are builders. Our young people are relearning our languages, ceremonies and carrying them on. We are defenders of Turtle Island. That?s who we are! Karakwine and MNN Staff Contact katenies20 at yahoo.com Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com http://www.wsu.edu/dee/china/opium.htm http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/aquarian.htm http://www.woodstock69.com/wsprnt1.htm PLEASE NOTE : As can be seen, it?s becoming critical for legal actions to be taken to protect our rights. We have no funds. Canada is hiring costly law firms to defend their illegal actions and suppress our rights. If you can donate anything to our cause, it will be greatly appreciated. Donate to: PayPal, www.mohawknationnews.com, or ?MNN Mohawk Nation News?, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:en/Thank you very much. See MNN Category: ?Canada? New MNN Books Available Now! The books below, email us: Mohawk Warriors Three - The Trial of Lasagna, Noriega, 20/20$20.00 usd The On-Going Confusion between The Great Law and The Handsome Lake Code$ 20.00 usd The Agonizing Death of "Colonialism" and "Federal Indian Law" in Kaianere'ko:wa/Great Law Territory $20.00 usd Who's Sorry Now? The good, the bad and the unapologetic Mohawks of Kanehsatake $20.00 usd Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy Karoniaktajeh $10 usd Warriors Hand Book Karoniaktajeh $10 usd Mail checks and money orders to... MNN P.O. Box 991 Kahnawake, QC J0L 1B0 Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePress Store http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://www.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois Link to MNN Get the code and banners to link to Mohawk Nation News. http://www.mohawknationnews.com/pg.php?pag e=promote.html Your Support - Make a contribution to our newsgroup. Secure your online transaction with PayPal??. http://www.mohawknationnews.com/pg.php?page=donate.html Nia:wen, Kahentinetha Horn Kahentinetha2 at yahoo.com Speaking & Contemporary Native Issues Workshops Katenies katenies20 at yahoo.com Manager Stay tuned! www.mohawknationnews.com Please forward this email to a friend! From noreply at coha.org Tue Aug 5 12:39:12 2008 From: noreply at coha.org (Council on Hemispheric Affairs) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 14:39:12 -0400 Subject: [A-List] The "Bridge" in the Coup: The IRI in Venezuela Message-ID: <20080805183912.C512B3E4EDB@mx-out.daemonmail.net> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 8884 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080805/7777179a/attachment.txt From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Tue Aug 5 13:29:22 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:29:22 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Solar discovery (more) Message-ID: <489871D6.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution II Paddy Apling e.c.apling at btinternet.com Fri Aug 1 16:30:18 MDT 2008 Previous message: [Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution II Next message: [Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution II Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Walters" To: Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 4:42 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution II > Les, the issue of 'storage' is *as important* as production of power. > Literally 50% of the issues...the problems we have today. David is absolutely right there Les - electricity is the main power usage for everything apart from transport. which for the immediate future is necessarily oil-based. But electricity is required on demand 24/7. It is the problem of electricity storage which really stymies all the ideas of "renewable" or "alternative" energy sources. Wind power - only available when the wind is blowing within a range of sttrenths. Solar power - only available during daylight hours Tidal energy - not available for periods at high and low tide. etc etc Consequently ALL these alternative sources are of necessity backed up by traditional power sources (based on either coal, gas, oil, or nuclear) - and because demand is to a certin extent unpredictable the backup has to be sufficient to cope with demand when the "alternative" sources are unavailable, which to all intents and purposes means that the alternative sources in practice replace very little of the necessary available power supply. If only a reliable (and efficient) source of electricity store was available then power based on "renewable" energy would be a really viable alternative - as it is we cannot do without coal, oil or nuclear.... Paddy http://apling.freeservers.com This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Tue Aug 5 13:38:15 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:38:15 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Solar energy discussion Message-ID: <489873EA.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> > demand 24/7. It is > the problem of electricity storage which really stymies all > the ideas of > "renewable" or "alternative" energy > sources. > > Wind power - only available when the wind is blowing within > a range of > sttrenths. > Solar power - only available during daylight hours > Tidal energy - not available for periods at high and low > tide. etc etc > I think there are some obvious flaws to this argument. For example, solar concentrators are a simple way to accumulate heat. Scale it up enough, and you can have a heat store in the form of molten salt, for example, that can power steam turbines for producing electricity day or night. Electricity produced by photovoltaics or wind turbines can be used to run compressors to store energy in compressed air, e.g. in abandoned mines. Again, you have 24/7 electricity on demand. There are some losses, but this is hardly impractical. There's even the possibility of excess heat from solar thermal being used for thermal depolymerization, in which garbage, farm waste, sewage, etc. is transformed into water, hydrogen, methane and oil. This is less immediately practical than simple storage through heat or air compression, but has obvious long-term potential. This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Tue Aug 5 13:42:59 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:42:59 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News Message-ID: <48987507.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News Glenn Greenwald - salon.com - August 1 - clip - The FBI's lead suspect in the September, 2001 anthrax attacks -- Bruce E. Ivins -- _died Tuesday night_ (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-anthrax1-2008aug01,0,2864223.story) , apparently by suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the attacks. For the last 18 years, Ivins was a top anthrax researcher at the U.S. Government's biological weapons research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, where he was one of the most elite government anthrax scientists on the research team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID). The 2001 anthrax attacks remain one of the great mysteries of the post-9/11 era. After 9/11 itself, the anthrax attacks were probably the most consequential event of the Bush presidency. One could make a persuasive case that they were actually more consequential. The 9/11 attacks were obviously traumatic for the country, but in the absence of the anthrax attacks, 9/11 could easily have been perceived as a single, isolated event. It was really the anthrax letters -- with the first one sent on September 18, just one week after 9/11 -- that severely ratcheted up the fear levels and created the climate that would dominate in this country for the next several years after. It was anthrax -- sent directly into the heart of the country's elite political and media institutions, to then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt), NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, and other leading media outlets -- that created the impression that social order itself was genuinely threatened by Islamic radicalism. If the now-deceased Ivins really was the culprit behind the attacks, then that means that the anthrax came from a U.S. Government lab, sent by a top U.S. Army scientist at Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation or inferences at all, it is hard to overstate the significance of that fact. From the beginning, there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker to create a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and the 9/11 attacks. By design, those attacks put the American population into a state of intense fear of Islamic terrorism, far more than the 9/11 attacks alone could have accomplished. ........................................... Much more important than the general attempt to link the anthrax to Islamic terrorists, there was a specific intent -- indispensably aided by ABC News -- to link the anthrax attacks to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. In my view, and I've written about this _several times_ (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/09/abc_anthrax/) and _in great detail_ (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/11/abc_response/) to no avail, the role played by ABC News in this episode is the single greatest, unresolved media scandal of this decade. News of Ivins' suicide, which means (presumably) that the anthrax attacks originated from Ft. Detrick, adds critical new facts and heightens how scandalous ABC News' conduct continues to be in this matter. full --- <_http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html_ (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html) > This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Tue Aug 5 13:45:04 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:45:04 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Solar discussion Message-ID: <48987584.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> I tried to find more info on the web about this, and the best I could come across was the video at . Cutting through the enormous amount of hype, it seems that what these MIT scientists may have done is come up with a better, more efficient way to use electrolysis to produce hydrogen from water.* They have not, apparently, come up with any improvement in the generation of electricity for this process and they certainly haven't found a way to imitate photosynthesis, which would make it possible to produce carbohydrates, and thus fuels like ethanol, directly from sunlight without having to generate electricity. What they have actually done, despite the hype, may be a step in making solar power and hydrogen fuel cells more practical, but it's not, apparently, a leap. - Aaron * (The inevitable production of oxygen at the same time is of little significance, since the hydrogen can be re-combined with the oxygen in the atmosphere to produce almost as much energy as is produced by combining it with pure oxygen. Unless the hydrogen is going to be used at the same location where it is generated, the oxygen produced by the process will be released into the atmosphere and certainly not shipped along with the hydrogen!) >Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:10:41 -0400 >From: Les Schaffer >Subject: Re: [Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar > Revolution > >Dbachmozart at aol.com wrote: >> "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution >> > >god, i love MIT ... > >the galaxy-shaking discovery is related to *storage* of energy. you >still have to collect that energy at the energy densities available here >on our earth... > >makes nice newsprint though... > >Les This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From the.buffalo.in.the.midst at gmail.com Tue Aug 5 13:56:31 2008 From: the.buffalo.in.the.midst at gmail.com (Leighm) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:56:31 -0700 Subject: [A-List] Vital unresolved anthrax questions and Travus T. Hipp In-Reply-To: <48987507.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> References: <48987507.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> Message-ID: <4898B06F.70307@gmail.com> [August 01 2008] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: The FBI Has Some Of The Bad Habits Of My Ex-Wife - When She Was Getting Ready To ?Get Out Of ?Dodge'? She Always ?Tidied Up? http://www.archive.org/details/tth_080801 [August 04 2008] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: How Could THIS Happen? It Starts In School When You Dismember Your First Frog? Bruce Ivins? Shrink Speaks - The Recent Anthrax Reasearcher, FBI Collaborator, FBI Suspect, Suicide, Was A Total Sociopath? And He Worked For YOU! http://www.archive.org/details/tth_080804 ..and in Sunny Santa Cruz California, the FEDS are in town: Two firebombings target UCSC researchers http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_10084756 Firebombed UCSC researcher speaks out http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_10091279 Authorities tracking leads in weekend firebombings http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_10101525 Animal rights extremists have long evaded police http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_10101608 In depth reporting far superior to anything seen in the SC Sentinel regarding the issue. "I asked Mike (Rotkin)his feelings on who may have done the bombing and if he thought it could possibly have been done by the government, for example. He did not think it was the government and that he has spoken with people who think that violence is acceptable. He has never spoken with anyone about firebombing a house with people in it, but has spoken with animal rights activists who defend property destruction..." "I then asked Guy (Lasnier, UCSC's Executive Communications Coordinator) if UCSC was going to do anything to prevent FBI infiltration into student groups. I also asked if FBI infiltration into student groups was a concern of UCSC. Guy said, "I don't know." Guy clarified that there is no policy at UCSC that he knows of regarding infiltration into student groups, "but that is not the issue." Right... Indymedia: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/08/05/18522981.php Charles Brown wrote: > Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News > > > Glenn Greenwald - salon.com - August 1 - > > clip - > The FBI's lead suspect in the September, 2001 anthrax attacks -- Bruce > E. > Ivins -- _died Tuesday night_ > (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-anthrax1-2008aug01,0,2864223.story) > , apparently by suicide, just as the > Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the > > attacks. For the last 18 years, Ivins was a top anthrax researcher at > the U.S. > Government's biological weapons research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, > Maryland, > where he was one of the most elite government anthrax scientists on > the > research team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of > Infectious Disease > (USAMRIID). > The 2001 anthrax attacks remain one of the great mysteries of the > post-9/11 > era. After 9/11 itself, the anthrax attacks were probably the most > consequential event of the Bush presidency. One could make a > persuasive case that they > were actually more consequential. The 9/11 attacks were obviously > traumatic > for the country, but in the absence of the anthrax attacks, 9/11 could > easily > have been perceived as a single, isolated event. It was really the > anthrax > letters -- with the first one sent on September 18, just one week > after 9/11 -- > that severely ratcheted up the fear levels and created the climate > that would > dominate in this country for the next several years after. It was > anthrax -- > sent directly into the heart of the country's elite political and > media > institutions, to then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), Sen. > Pat Leahy > (D-Vt), NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, and other leading media outlets -- > that > created the impression that social order itself was genuinely > threatened by > Islamic radicalism. > If the now-deceased Ivins really was the culprit behind the attacks, > then > that means that the anthrax came from a U.S. Government lab, sent by a > top U.S. > Army scientist at Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation or > inferences at all, it is hard to overstate the significance of that > fact. From the > beginning, there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker > to > create a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and > the 9/11 > attacks. By design, those attacks put the American population into a > state of > intense fear of Islamic terrorism, far more than the 9/11 attacks alone > could > have accomplished. > ........................................... > Much more important than the general attempt to link the anthrax to > Islamic > terrorists, there was a specific intent -- indispensably aided by ABC > News -- > to link the anthrax attacks to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. In my view, > and I've > written about this _several times_ > (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/09/abc_anthrax/) and > _in great detail_ > (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/11/abc_response/) to > no avail, the role played by ABC News > in this episode is the single greatest, unresolved media scandal of > this > decade. News of Ivins' suicide, which means (presumably) that the > anthrax attacks > originated from Ft. Detrick, adds critical new facts and heightens how > > scandalous ABC News' conduct continues to be in this matter. > full --- > <_http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html_ > (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html) > > > > > > > > This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com > > > From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Tue Aug 5 14:00:19 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:00:19 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Yes, That's $2 Trillion of Debt-Related Losses Message-ID: <48987916.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> Yes, That's $2 Trillion of Debt-Related Losses Maybe now somebody will listen By ROBIN GOLDWYN BLUMENTHAL AN INTERVIEW WITH NOURIEL ROUBINI Barron's August 4, 2008 LIKE THE EXHORTATIONS OF JEREMIAH TO THE NATION OF Israel before the first temple's destruction, the warnings of economist Nouriel Roubini fell on deaf ears. For the past two years Roubini, a professor at New York University, has cautioned about a huge housing bubble whose bursting would lead to a 20% drop in home prices; a collapse in subprime mortgages; a severe banking crisis and credit crunch; the near-failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , and a U.S. recession of a magnitude not seen since the Great Depression. So far, this latter-day prophet of doom has been on the mark, though time will tell about the recession part. A Turkish native who grew up in Italy, Roubini trained at Harvard and later advised the Clinton White House, after his blog on the Asian financial crisis attracted the attention of Washington's economic and political elite. Roubini still publishes the blog -- the RGE Monitor -- and teaches economics at NYU's Stern School of Business. We caught up with him recently at his offices in lower Manhattan, and continued the conversation at Barron's. For his latest predictions, please read on. Barron's: Unfortunately for the rest of us, you have a pretty good track record. How much more misery lies ahead? Roubini: We are in the second inning of a severe, protracted recession, which started in the first quarter of this year and is going to last at least 18 months, through the middle of next year. A systemic banking crisis will go on for awhile, with hundreds of banks going belly up. B:Which banks, specifically, will fail? R:I don't want to name names, but many, given the housing bust, will become insolvent. Their losses are mounting because they have written down only their subprime loans so far. They haven't started writing down most of their consumer-credit losses, and reserves for losses are much less than they should have been. The banks are playing all sorts of accounting gimmicks not to recognize them. There are hundreds of millions of dollars outstanding in home-equity loans that eventually could be worth zero, too. B:So far, we have seen no recession in the technical sense: two consecutive quarters of negative growth in real GDP. Why not? R:The definition of a recession isn't only two consecutive quarters of negative growth. The NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) puts a lot of emphasis on things like employment, and employment has already fallen for seven months in a row. It also emphasizes income and retail and wholesale sales. Many of these things are declining. Maybe the recession started in January; if you look at the data on gross domestic product on a monthly basis between February and April, GDP was falling. Saying this is not a recession is just a joke. Maybe instead of a 'U' recession and recovery, it will be a 'W,' with a rebound in the second quarter. But by the third quarter, the effect of the government's tax rebates is totally gone, because other forces on the consumer are more persistent and negative. B:Which forces, for instance? R:The U.S. consumer is shopped out and saving less. Debt to disposable income has risen to 140% from 100% in 2000. Hit by falling home prices, the consumer no longer can use his house as an ATM machine. The stock market is falling and (issuance of) home-equity loans (has) collapsed. We have a credit crunch in mortgages, and gas is around $4 a gallon. Everyone says, 'yeah, that's true, but as long as there is job generation there is going to be income generation and people are going to spend.' But for seven months in a row, employment in the private sector has fallen. The most worrisome thing is that in spite of the rebates, retail sales in June were up only 0.1%. In real terms, they were down. If people were not spending their rebate checks in June, what will happen when there are no more checks? B:Good question. How do you think Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has handled the crisis so far? R:The Fed's performance has been poor. More than a year ago the Fed said the housing slump would end, but it hasn't. They kept repeating this was a subprime-debt problem only, whereas the problems of excessive credit involve subprime, near-prime, prime, commercial real estate, credit cards, auto loans, student loans, home-equity loans, leveraged loans, muni bonds, corporate loans -- you name it. The Fed's other mistake was to believe the collapse of the housing market would have no effect on the rest of the economy, when housing accounted for a third of all job creation in the past few years. When the proverbial stuff started to hit the fan last summer, the Fed went into aggressive-easing mode. But it has always been kind of catching up. B:What should Bernanke have done a year ago, or even prior to that? R:The damage was done earlier, beginning when the Greenspan Fed lowered interest rates in 2001 after the bust of the technology bubble, and kept them too low for too long. They kept cutting the federal funds rate all the way to 1% through 2004, and then raised it gradually instead of quickly. This fed the credit and housing bubble. Also, the Fed and other regulators took a reckless approach to regulating the financial sector. It was the laissez-faire approach of the Bush administration, and (tantamount to) self-regulation, which really means no regulation and a lack of market discipline. The banks' and brokers' risk-management models didn't make sense because no one listens to the risk managers in good times. As Chuck Prince (the deposed CEO of Citigroup) said, 'when the music plays you have to dance.' B:Now the regulators are attempting to make up for lost time. What do you think of their efforts? R:The paradox is they're going to the opposite pole. They are overregulating, bailing out troubled participants and intervening in every market. The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused others of trying to manipulate stocks, but the government itself is now the manipulator. The regulators should investigate themselves for bailing out Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), the creditors of Bear Stearns and the financial system with new lending facilities. They have swapped U.S. Treasury bonds for toxic securities. It is privatizing the gains and profits, and socializing the losses, as usual. This is socialism for Wall Street and the rich. B:So the government should have let Bear Stearns fail, not to mention Fannie and Freddie? R:If you let Bear Stearns fail you can have a run on the entire banking system. But there are ways to manage Bear or Fannie and Freddie in a fairer way. If public money is to be put at stake, first all the shareholders of these companies have to be wiped out. Management has to be wiped out, and the creditors of Bear should have taken a hit. Why did the Fed buy $29 billion of the most toxic securities, and essentially bail out JPMorgan Chase (JPM), which bought Bear Stearns? B:Because JPMorgan was a counter-party? R:Exactly. The government bailed out everyone. Even the unsecured creditors of Fannie and Freddie should have taken a hit. Sometimes it is necessary to use public money to rescue institutions, but you do it in a way in which you're not bailing out those who made the mistakes. In each one of these episodes the government bailed out the shareholders, the bondholders and to some degree, management. B:At what point does the government run out of money to lend to troubled banks? R:Many public institutions are themselves going bankrupt. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) has only $53 billion of funds, and has already committed almost 15% of it to bail out depositors of IndyMac. The FDIC's deposit-insurance premiums weren't high enough, and now it is asking Congress to raise them. Plus, the agency claims only nine institutions are on its watch list. IndyMac wasn't on the watch list until June, the month before it collapsed. Studies done by experts in banking suggest that at least 8% of U.S. banks are in big trouble. Eight percent of the roughly 8,500 that the FDIC essentially is insuring equals about 700 banks. Another 8% to 16% also are shaky, so some 700 potentially are going bust and another 700 eventually could join them. Yet the FDIC is watching only nine institutions. It's a joke. B:What recourse will the taxpayer have? R:The taxpayer's bill is going to be huge. I estimate this financial crisis will lead to credit losses of at least $1 trillion and most likely closer to $2 trillion. When I made this analysis in February everybody thought I was a lunatic. But a few weeks later the International Monetary Fund came out with an estimate of $945 billion, Goldman Sachs (GS) estimated $1.1 trillion and UBS (UBS) $1 trillion. Hedge-fund manager John Paulson recently estimated the losses would be $1.3 trillion, and late last month Bridgewater Associates came up with an estimate of $1.6 trillion. So, at this point $1 trillion isn't a ceiling, it's a floor. And the banks, as I've said, have written down only about $300 billion of subprime debt. B:How long will it take for the collapse in the banking sector to play out? R:It is happening in real time. Many smaller banks are going bust already. More than 200 subprime-mortgage lenders have gone bust in the past year alone. And many community banks will go bankrupt. Community banks usually finance everything: the homes, the stores, the downtown, the commercial real estate, the shopping center. If you are in a town or a municipality where there is a housing bust, the bank is gone. Of three dozen or so medium-sized regional banks, a good third are in distress. That includes the Wachovias and Washington Mutuals of the world. Half of this group might go bankrupt. Even some of the majors could end up technically insolvent, though they might be deemed too big to fail. Take Citigroup. In 1991 there was a small real-estate bust, though the quarterly fall in home prices was only 4%, based on the S&P/Case-Shiller indices. Citi was effectively bankrupt and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Fed that allowed the government to give the bank regulatory forbearance. Citi was allowed to ride it out and try to recapitalize in a few years, and thereby avoid bankruptcy protection. This time around the S&P/Case-Shiller indices indicate home prices already have fallen 18%. The decline could be as much as 30%, because the excess supply is huge. B:Nouriel, have you always been so negative about everything? R:No. I'm actually a pretty mainstream economist. I was trained first in Italy and then in the U.S. and earned my Ph.D. at Harvard. My interests are in international market economics and international finance, and I'm not a 'perma-bear' on the stock market nor an eternal pessimist. Leaving aside the fact that we are going to have a pretty nasty recession and international crisis, the global economy is going to grow at a sustained rate once this downturn is over. There are significant financial and economic problems in the U.S., and that's why I'm bearish about the U.S. But the emergence of China and India and other powers is going to shift global economics and politics radically, and the world is going to be more balanced in the future, rather than relying on one engine, which has been the U.S. There are big issues ahead: How do you integrate the 2.2 billion Chinese and Indians into the global economy? There will be transitional costs and the displacement of workers, both blue-collar and white, in the advanced economies. But I'm quite bullish about the state of the global economy, and I'm positive about the medium and long term. B:That's a relief. Thank you. This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From michael.hudson at earthlink.net Tue Aug 5 14:57:53 2008 From: michael.hudson at earthlink.net (Michael Hudson) Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:57:53 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Doctors for socialized medicine Message-ID: Doctors oppose US health plan By Rebecca Knight in Boston Published: August 5 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 5 2008 03:00 The Massachusetts healthcare programme widely seen as a test case for universal health coverage in the US faces mounting opposition from doctors who say the reform is failing. More than 250 physicians in the state have signed an open letter warning that the healthcare plan, which was signed into law in April 2006 by Mitt Romney, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, is "already proving fiscally unsustainable". The landmark programme, designed to provide uni-versal health insurance, requires all uninsured people to purchase private insurance or face a fine or tax penalty. The doctors' discontent with the plan, and their support for a single-payer system - whereby payments to healthcare providers would all be made by one administrative body like Britain's National Health Service, rather than individual insurers - could send a strong signal to other states considering similar reform measures. Healthcare is also one of the main issues on the presidential campaign trail. Both candidates have called for radical reform of the $2,300bn (?1,477bn, ?1,172bn ) healthcare system, although neither supports mandatory insurance payments. In the letter, the Massachusetts doctors say the state-subsidised insurance offered to low-income families is too expensive and that "few can afford premiums for even the skimpiest coverage". The doctors also warn that funding the plan in future will be hard because it deepened the state's "dependence on private insurance, [so] can only add coverage by adding costs". The Massachusetts plan is an example of "the same reform being tried over and over", according to Dr Rachel Nardin, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, who wrote the letter. "This kind of incremental reform is very popular because it's politically feasible: it allows the current stakeholders to stay in play," she said. "But there are a lot reasons why it can't work." A growing number of US doctors favour switching to a national healthcare plan. According to an earlier survey in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, 59 per cent of doctors said they backed legislation to establish a national health insurance programme, a rise of 10 per cent from 2002. From shimogamo at attglobal.net Tue Aug 5 19:36:25 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:36:25 +0900 Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil In-Reply-To: <200808051328.56876.tully2@gmail.com> References: <0CE2476A62BB471B859480005C546E89@home9sg93n9r5y> <200808051328.56876.tully2@gmail.com> Message-ID: <48990019.2030608@attglobal.net> If this is true, I am guilty and will follow this procedure from today. Bill tully wrote: > On Tuesday 05 August 2008, james daly wrote: >> Response: I received this as a member of A-list, and I'm as >> mystified as anyone else. > > What is happening is that messages are being crossposted to more > than one mail list at a time. Crossposting is a very bad > practice and if crossposting must be done, the sender of the > message should place all recipient email addresses in the BCC: > (Blind Carbon Copy) box, and never put them in the TO: box or > the CC: box of their emailer. If BCC is used, none of the > recipients will see the address of any of the other recipients > of the message and any "Reply-All" (which replies to all > recipients) made in response will not go to all recipients, only > to the one that sent you the message. BCC should always be used > when sending to multiple recipients to protect recipients from > spammers and search engines, especially crooked search engines, > like cuil obviously is if it won't obey robots.txt instructions. > > We must protect each other from the abuse crossposting causes. > Never put email addresses in a TO: or CC: box when sending a > single message to multiple email lists and/or to your friends. > If you do, you leave those recipients wide open to the abuse of > having their addresses collected by spammers (or worse), private > messages posted on public lists like is happening here between > A-list (public) and Ugly (private), people (or computer > programs) having access to messages they shouldn't have, and > generally making a real nuisance of yourself. > > Please feel free to post any questions about this here on the > list (better so others can learn too) or to me privately and I > will try to explain better. Everyone needs to know and > understand this stuff to protect themselves and their friends. > > --tully > > From tully2 at gmail.com Tue Aug 5 19:54:52 2008 From: tully2 at gmail.com (tully) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 21:54:52 -0400 Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil In-Reply-To: <48990019.2030608@attglobal.net> References: <200808051328.56876.tully2@gmail.com> <48990019.2030608@attglobal.net> Message-ID: <200808052154.52672.tully2@gmail.com> Thank you Bill for reading this and for being willing to fix it. If your emailer doesn't let you put all recipients into BCC and insists on having something in the To: box, put your own email address there. Better yet, use an emailer like Eudora (windows) or Kmail (linux) that will let you leave the To: box blank. You'll see something like "Recipient list suppressed" in the To: headers from emailers that can do that. Let me take this chance to say how much I enjoy all your posts, Bill. Especially that Druid! Good luck with getting BCC figured out and don't hesitate to let me know if you have problems because I'd be happy to help you or anyone get this working for all our sakes. --tully On Tuesday 05 August 2008, Bill Totten wrote: >If this is true, I am guilty and will follow this procedure > from today. Bill > >tully wrote: >> On Tuesday 05 August 2008, james daly wrote: >>> Response: I received this as a member of A-list, and I'm as >>> mystified as anyone else. >> >> What is happening is that messages are being crossposted to >> more than one mail list at a time. Crossposting is a very >> bad practice and if crossposting must be done, the sender of >> the message should place all recipient email addresses in the >> BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) box, and never put them in the TO: >> box or the CC: box of their emailer. If BCC is used, none of >> the recipients will see the address of any of the other >> recipients of the message and any "Reply-All" (which replies >> to all recipients) made in response will not go to all >> recipients, only to the one that sent you the message. BCC >> should always be used when sending to multiple recipients to >> protect recipients from spammers and search engines, >> especially crooked search engines, like cuil obviously is if >> it won't obey robots.txt instructions. >> >> We must protect each other from the abuse crossposting >> causes. Never put email addresses in a TO: or CC: box when >> sending a single message to multiple email lists and/or to >> your friends. If you do, you leave those recipients wide open >> to the abuse of having their addresses collected by spammers >> (or worse), private messages posted on public lists like is >> happening here between A-list (public) and Ugly (private), >> people (or computer programs) having access to messages they >> shouldn't have, and generally making a real nuisance of >> yourself. >> >> Please feel free to post any questions about this here on the >> list (better so others can learn too) or to me privately and >> I will try to explain better. Everyone needs to know and >> understand this stuff to protect themselves and their >> friends. >> >> --tully From tal1 at cogeco.ca Tue Aug 5 20:19:32 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 22:19:32 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Re solar energy discovery Message-ID: <8690004C2B6A4092A9872CA6FC68284B@TonyPC> ....I suspect I may have missed the original article initiating the discussion. In any case, I'd come across the piece below a few days ago but had neglected to forward it on. It may or may not add some relevant info. Tony > http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/31/energyefficiency.energy > Cheap way to 'split water' could lead to abundant clean fuel > > ?????? Alok Jha, green technology correspondent > ?????? guardian.co.uk, Thursday July 31 2008 > > Splitting a few litres of water would be enough to power a home for a day, > scientists claim > > Scientists have found an inexpensive way to produce hydrogen from water, a > discovery that could lead to a plentiful source of environmentally > friendly fuel > to power homes and cars. > > The technique, which mimics the way photosynthesis works in plants, also > provides a highly efficient way to store energy, potentially paving the > way to > making solar power more economically viable. > > Hydrogen is a clean, energy-rich fuel that many experts believe could > become > important as nations attempt to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The > gas > can be produced by splitting water but current techniques are expensive, > use > harsh chemicals and need carefully controlled environments in which to > operate. > > Daniel Nocera, a chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has > developed a catalyst made from cobalt and phosphorus that can split water > at > room temperature, a technique he describes in the journal Science. "I'm > using > cheap, Earth-abundant materials that you can mass-manufacture. As long as > you can > charge the surface, you can create the catalyst and it doesn't get any > cheaper than that." > > He said the discovery could have major implications for the uptake of > solar > photovoltaic technology. One of the reasons, he said, why solar panels > have not > penetrated the consumer market properly is that no one has found a way to > store energy in a way that, when the Sun is not shining, people still have > electricity. "You can't think about an energy economy or a global energy > system only > when the sun is out." > > Batteries could do the job but they cannot store anywhere near as much > energy > per unit mass as chemical fuels. Nocera's technique would allow the > storage > of excess energy from sunlight during the daytime. "You could imagine, > during > the day you have a photovoltaic cell, you take some of that electricity > and use > it in your house, then take the other part of that electricity for my > catalyst, feed the catalyst water and you get hydrogen and oxygen." > > At night, the hydrogen and oxygen could be recombined in a fuel cell to > produce an electrical current to power a home or recharge an electric car. > "So I've > made your house a gas station and a power station. It's all enabled > because > we can use light plus water to make a chemical fuel, which is hydrogen and > oxygen." > > Converting an Olympic swimming pool of water into hydrogen and oxygen per > second would create 43 terawatts of power. "In the next 50 years, the > world needs > 16 terawatts. By the end of the century, we'll need around 30," said > Nocera. > "There's a heck of lot of energy stored in chemical bonds." > > For a home, Nocera said that it would be enough to split a few litres of > water per day into hydrogen and oxygen. The water would be reformed when > the gases > were put through the fuel cell. > > There is much work to be done in converting Nocera's idea into a > commercial > product. At the moment, his catalyst can only accept small amounts of > electrical current at once, meaning that it would be an inefficient way to > quickly > store large amounts of energy. But Nocera is certain that engineers will > iron out > the issues and produce commercial-scale products within a decade. > > James Barber, a leading researcher in artificial photosynthesis at > Imperial > College London, said Nocera's work was a "giant leap" toward generating > clean, > carbon-free energy. "This is a major discovery with enormous implications > for > the future prosperity of humankind. The importance of their discovery > cannot > be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies > for > energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and > addressing > the global climate change problem." > > > > **************************************************** > Access LABOR-L archives and manage your subscription > at https://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/labor-l.html > > - ----- End forwarded message ----- > > - -- > *** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! *************************************** > * BOYCOTT BOURGEOIS MASS-MEDIA * RSS/XML newsfeeds from around * > * Use these links in RSS readers * the planet: Who needs CNN/Fox? * > **** Critical endorsement only **** Most sites need donations **** > * http://www.greenleft.org.au/rss/glw.xml Green Left Weekly * > * http://www.radio4all.net/ainfos_rp.rdf A-Infos Radio Project * > * http://demandmedia.net/xml/rss2.xml Collaborative Video Blog * > * http://cop-watch.blogspot.com/atom.xml Cop Watch * > ******** PRIVATE PROPERTY IS THE ANTITHESIS OF DEMOCRACY ******** > GPG fingerprint = 2E7F 2D69 4B0B C8D5 07E3 09C3 5E8D C4B4 461B B771 > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) > > iD8DBQFIkrICXo3EtEYbt3ERAgBnAJoCv2IGfYsDQfle0y7ws13caoQezACfdYGR > GUIM3jrVL4Zn6yHmhVOx2g8= > =sSsi > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > From shimogamo at attglobal.net Tue Aug 5 20:41:30 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:41:30 +0900 Subject: [A-List] The Peak Oil Crisis: The Blackouts Spread Message-ID: <48990F5A.2030805@attglobal.net> by Tom Whipple Falls Church News-Press (July 16 2008) Of the 266 distinct nations or entities on the world today, nearly 100 are now reporting continuing energy shortages, mostly in the form of inadequate electricity supply, but in a growing number of cases, shortages of liquid fuels and natural gas. The actual number of countries affected is probably well over 100 but there are dozens of isolated island-states scattered around the world that are rarely heard from and are almost certainly suffering in silence while waiting for the next oil tanker to come in. The majority of these energy-short states are small, poor and play only a minor role in world trade. While we should feel sorry for the plight of their inhabitants who are, or shortly will be, enduring severe hardships from greatly reduced supplies of electricity, water, food and use of motor transport, the impact of their problems on the better-off OECD world is likely to be minimal for a while. Shortages, however, are not confined to small, poor states, but, in an increasing number of cases, are appearing in large, relatively well-off and active states on which the OECD world of North America, Europe and parts of Asia are very dependent. Several of the countries having energy problems are actually oil exporting states that, for one reason or another, are not able to turn their increasing oil wealth into smoothly functioning shortage-free economies. Unfortunately, several major countries appear to be on the path to an energy shortage-induced economic and perhaps political collapse within the foreseeable future which obviously will have serious consequences for us all. Currently, the most serious situations appear to be in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Both are nations with populations in excess of 150 million people that are ensnared in devastating power shortages that have destroyed their export industries. Both are facing water and agricultural problems that threaten their food supplies. Liquid fuels are running short and reductions in exports threaten their ability to import oil and natural gas. It was recently revealed that the Saudis already are forgiving $6 billion of Pakistan's $12 billion annual oil import bill. On top of this, Pakistan has nuclear weapons and its strategic location is vital to the course of the insurgency in Afghanistan. Worsening blackouts, the liquid fuels shortage and probably the food situation are likely to lead to serious political instability before the year is out. The next important pair of countries in terms of their impact on western economies is China and India, and although their situations are nowhere near as serious as the problems in Pakistan and Bangladesh, both are beginning to suffer from electricity shortages which will impact economic growth. China, which now has a shortfall of around four percent of its normal electricity production, is compensating by cutting back on production of aluminum and zinc which consume prodigious quantities of electric power. The recent earthquake has given Beijing pause in its ambitious plans to expand hydro and nuclear power production. If China cannot increase coal production rapidly enough to keep up electricity generation for its rapidly expanding economy, it is likely to increase imports of coal and oil keeping pressure on world prices. So far there is no indication of an unusually large increase in Chinese oil imports as there was during the power shortage four years ago. The world price of diesel is simply too expensive to be used to generate electricity for industrial production these days. India's energy shortages are more serious than China's. Its nuclear power plants are failing, hydro-power from the Himalayas is drying up due to global warming, and the costs of imported fuels are soaring. Over 85 percent of India's oil must be imported and coupled with the subsidies of oil prices the increasing costs are taking a heavy toll on the state budget. Although the situation in India is not yet as bad as in Pakistan, blackouts and liquid fuel shortages are being reported almost every day somewhere in the country. There is no end in sight to this situation and likelihood of an economic slowdown, coupled with water and food shortages, is increasing. Several members of OPEC are having electricity and/or liquid shortages. In Nigeria, and Iraq where there are active insurgencies that have damaged the infrastructure, the shortages are endemic. Indonesia, which is just about out of OPEC due to lack of exportable oil, is beginning to face frequent power blackouts and fuel shortages. Even Venezuela and Iran have occasional electricity and fuel supply problems as they are trying to do without substantial foreign technical assistance. In Mexico, demand for gasoline has outrun refining capacity and the country is forced to rely on imports. There are now daily diesel shortages along the border as Americans cross over to fill-up on subsidized half-priced Mexican fuel. Aside from the major oil-producing states, most countries in Africa, Latin America and Central Asia are enduring some form of energy shortages. In a number of important mineral producing countries such as South Africa, Chile and Zambia, they have already reduced production due to shortages of electricity and diesel fuel. The global wave of blackouts and shortages is almost certain to get worse. Although most governments have announced optimistic plans to increase electricity production and bring oil to market within the next few months or years, these are almost certain to fail. The cost of building electrical generation capacity is soaring and finding affordable fuel unlikely. In the OECD world, the effects of these shortages is likely to be felt in the form of much higher prices for declining exports from the energy-poor. For the citizens of the energy-poor world, life is going to become much harder very soon as electric lights, computers, motor transport, refrigeration, fresh water and imported anything become scarcer and scarcer. http://www.fcnp.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3301:the-peak-oil-crisis-the-blackouts-spread&catid=17:national-commentary&Itemid=79 http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From shimogamo at attglobal.net Tue Aug 5 21:23:02 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:23:02 +0900 Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil In-Reply-To: <200808052154.52672.tully2@gmail.com> References: <200808051328.56876.tully2@gmail.com> <48990019.2030608@attglobal.net> <200808052154.52672.tully2@gmail.com> Message-ID: <48991916.2080403@attglobal.net> Thanks, Tully. I use Firefox and, to me, preparing and sending a post to one list, then changing the "To:" entry to send it to the next list is easy and simple. And thanks for your kind comments on my posts. Bill tully wrote: > Thank you Bill for reading this and for being willing to fix it. > > If your emailer doesn't let you put all recipients into BCC and > insists on having something in the To: box, put your own email > address there. Better yet, use an emailer like Eudora (windows) > or Kmail (linux) that will let you leave the To: box blank. > You'll see something like "Recipient list suppressed" in the To: > headers from emailers that can do that. > > Let me take this chance to say how much I enjoy all your posts, > Bill. Especially that Druid! > > Good luck with getting BCC figured out and don't hesitate to let > me know if you have problems because I'd be happy to help you or > anyone get this working for all our sakes. > > --tully > > On Tuesday 05 August 2008, Bill Totten wrote: >> If this is true, I am guilty and will follow this procedure >> from today. Bill >> >> tully wrote: >>> On Tuesday 05 August 2008, james daly wrote: >>>> Response: I received this as a member of A-list, and I'm as >>>> mystified as anyone else. >>> What is happening is that messages are being crossposted to >>> more than one mail list at a time. Crossposting is a very >>> bad practice and if crossposting must be done, the sender of >>> the message should place all recipient email addresses in the >>> BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) box, and never put them in the TO: >>> box or the CC: box of their emailer. If BCC is used, none of >>> the recipients will see the address of any of the other >>> recipients of the message and any "Reply-All" (which replies >>> to all recipients) made in response will not go to all >>> recipients, only to the one that sent you the message. BCC >>> should always be used when sending to multiple recipients to >>> protect recipients from spammers and search engines, >>> especially crooked search engines, like cuil obviously is if >>> it won't obey robots.txt instructions. >>> >>> We must protect each other from the abuse crossposting >>> causes. Never put email addresses in a TO: or CC: box when >>> sending a single message to multiple email lists and/or to >>> your friends. If you do, you leave those recipients wide open >>> to the abuse of having their addresses collected by spammers >>> (or worse), private messages posted on public lists like is >>> happening here between A-list (public) and Ugly (private), >>> people (or computer programs) having access to messages they >>> shouldn't have, and generally making a real nuisance of >>> yourself. >>> >>> Please feel free to post any questions about this here on the >>> list (better so others can learn too) or to me privately and >>> I will try to explain better. Everyone needs to know and >>> understand this stuff to protect themselves and their >>> friends. >>> >>> --tully > > > > From james.irldaly at ntlworld.com Wed Aug 6 01:42:11 2008 From: james.irldaly at ntlworld.com (james daly) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 08:42:11 +0100 Subject: [A-List] British Army warned government ministers not to criticise UDA Message-ID: British Army warned ministers not to criticise UDA By Barry McCaffrey IRISH NEWS (Belfast) 05/08/08 BRITISH government ministers were warned in 1972 not to publicly criticise the UDA [a legal six county organisation of Protestant murder gangs, rapists and sexual mutilators, thousands of whose members marched legally in UDA uniform through the centre of Belfast -- J. D.] as it would be "very damaging politically" despite the organisation having already killed 28 people, The Irish News can reveal. In 1972 the UDA was responsible for some of the worst sectarian murders of the Troubles, killing 19 Catholics including six-year-old and four-year-old school girls. In the same year the loyalist organisation was responsible for shooting dead 10 Protestants, including one policeman. Nationalists were concerned that many UDA men were also joining the UDR [Ulster Defence Regiment , a local sectarian British regiment formed from the B-Specials, which was a local militia from the 20s disbanded in disgrace in 1972, but instantaneously resurrected in the form of the UDR, a concession to loyalism. When that was later also disbanded in disgrace as sectarian murderers, it was again instantaneously resurrected as the Royal Irish Regiment -- J. D.] In a 1972 memo to government ministers a senior British army officer confirmed nationalists' worst fears. In a Ministry of Defence memo outlining the number of UDR members who were also in the UDA, Lieutenant Colonel JL Pownall wrote: "It is inevitable that a part of the Protestant element of a part-time regiment in Ulster will sympathise with the aims of the UDA; and it is suspected that there are cases where this sympathy is carried to the extent of active membership. "There are, however, no proven facts as yet on which to base an estimate of the scale of the problem." By the end of 1972 a House of Commons statement would reveal that almost 200 UDR weapons had either been lost or stolen. Despite the UDA's involvement in a series of brutal murders, Col Pownall warned that it would be "very damaging politically" if ministers publicly criticised the UDA. "The UDR has to draw a line somewhere between hardline Protestants who can be safely contained in the UDR, and those who cannot," his memo said. "The UDA is not an illegal organisation and membership of the UDA is not an offence under the military laws; it is also a large organisation, not all of whose members can be regarded as dangerous extremists. "One important (but unspoken) function of the UDR is to channel into a constructive and disciplined direction Protestant energies which might otherwise become disruptive. "For these reasons it is felt that it would be counterproductive to discharge a UDR member solely on the grounds that he was a member of the UDA." Advising government ministers against publicly criticising either the UDR or UDA, Col. Pownall said: "I recognise the reasons why ministers might wish to be able to say unequivocally, in reply to parliamentary questions, that membership of the UDA is not compatible with membership of the UDR and that we have no evidence that any UDR member is actively associated with the UDA. "But I fear it would be wrong to offer categorical assurances on either point and indeed it might be very damaging politically if ministers were to make a public statement which implied that the UDA was an outlawed organisation." From orakwa at paulcomm.ca Wed Aug 6 15:33:01 2008 From: orakwa at paulcomm.ca (MohawkNationNews) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 17:33:01 -0400 Subject: [A-List] MNN Who's Pushing Dope to Destroy Indigenous Youth? Message-ID: <01253eb0$39666$01407312509028@your-6904db8205> WHO?S PUSHING DOPE TO DESTROY INDIGENOUS YOUTH? By Karakwine and MNN Staff MNN. Aug. 4, 2008. Drug abuse in Indigenous communities is not random. Someone wants us to be pacified and to push us to have a total social breakdown. They want our brains, morals and ambition destroyed. They want our Indigenous youth to be criminalized and minimized. Drug abuse creates misfits and society dropouts who are supposed to be discarded and discredited. It stops us from campaigning for our social and political rights. The colonists want us to shut up. They don?t want to acknowledge their obligation to us. They don?t want to admit they are on stolen land. It?s an old strategy. Going back to the 1830s Britain was the world?s major drug trafficker. The Europeans were jealous of the Chinese. They had so many beautiful items like silk, porcelain, spices, etc. Britain only had wool to trade, which the Chinese did not need. The Europeans had to get silver to trade with China. They also had tobacco from Turtle Island. To increase demand for tobacco they cut it with opium from India. Before long, huge numbers around the trading ports in Canton [the modern city of Guangzhou] were addicted. Silver began draining out of China and ruining the economy. The Chinese emperor passed a law forbidding the import of opium. They wrote to Queen Victoria asking her to control her nationals and stop the illegal trade. The Chinese announced all opium would be seized and burned. U.S. traders ignored the ban and brought in a shipment to Canton. It was confiscated and burned in public. The Americans got the British to declare war on China. The ?Opium War? was to defend the ?right? of drug dealers. The Chinese were not warlike. They did not have a big army to defend themselves from the British. The British won the war and forced the Chinese to give them a lot of land around Hong Kong. This has since been returned to them. China was forced to make opium legal along with unrestricted propagation of Christianity. The affect was devastating. A lot of research was done on how a few were able to defeat a population of millions through drugs. In the end the Chinese regained their independence. We Indigenous People of Turtle Island are in the midst of this same kind of struggle. Shouldn?t we ask why is the U.S. in Afghanistan? It is the source of over 90% of the world?s opium! Does somebody want the whole world to be stoned! In the 1940?s, British writer Aldous Huxley, who wrote ?Brave New World?, went to the U.S. He recruited Allen Watts who became the guru of a nationwide Zen Buddhist cult in California in the 1950s and 1960s. He founded the ?Pacifica Foundation? which sponsored two radio stations that pushed the ?Liverpool sound?. This was the British imported ?hard? rock twang of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and the Animals. They also pioneered ?acid rock? and eventually ?psychotic punk rock?. In 1943 LSD was developed by Albert Hoffman, a chemist at Sandoz A.B. ? a Swiss pharmaceutical owned by banker, S.G. Warburg. [He?s a Federal Reserve shareholder]. British and U.S. intelligence were directly involved. The book ?Aquarian Conspiracy? described how new age philosophy was blended with the promotion of the drug culture. ?The introduction of major psychedelics in the 1960s was largely attributable by the Central Intelligence Agency CIA?s investigation for possible military use?. It was codenamed ?MK Ultra?. In the 1960s kids in the U.S. were protesting against the Vietnam War. The U.S. establishment did not know what to do. On May 4, 1970, the National Guard shot four kids at Kent State University in Ohio. They were protesting against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia ordered by President Nixon. The shooting was meant to quell the demonstrations against the war. It didn?t work. To divert the youth, a humongous drug movement was started. The 1968 mega concert at Woodstock in Sullivan County New York was part of the drug and ?free love? movement sponsored by companies like Capitol Records. In New York City the ?Ed Sullivan Show? displayed these groups nationwide to promote the drug culture. For the U.S. to continue its warmongering it had to corrupt and destroy its opposition, the youth. According to recently released CIA documents, Allen Dulles, the then head of the CIA, purchased over 100 million doses of LSD ? most of which flooded the streets of the USA during the late 1960s. [Illuminaticonspiracyarchives.com]. The plan is for every instinct for survival to be controlled by drugs. The drugs produced naturally by the body are being replaced by drugs being manufactured by the multi-national corporations. Today, as a result of 911, the climate of fear has been promoted over the U.S. and Canada. The kids are told that fear can be shut out by going into this false artificial world created by drugs, pills and music. The kids lose touch with reality and are not able to understand or cope with social abuse. Today multi-national corporations and pharmaceuticals have control of recording companies, music, radio stations, television programming, films, mainstream news [msn] and advertising [almost total mind control]. A common theme is U.S. based ?ghetto rap?. They are producing these themes for the vulnerable minds of the young people to confuse and control them. The kids learn to switch into rap and drug culture talk. Computers, games and cell phones are programmed to take them into this world. It is normal for people to react when there?s a problem. Often they blame people improperly like their fathers, mothers, girlfriends, boyfriends or people around them. The drugs divert them so their critical thinking doesn?t develop to a level where they can understand complex issues. Drugs create a rift between older generations and young people and to break up families. When people are emotionally hurt by broken families, they can?t think straight. This leaves them insecure, paranoid and open to manipulation by big business. Drugs have replaced the residential school program as a means of committing genocide. The difference is that they?ve persuaded our youth to commit the crimes on themselves. Anyone who wants to get out of it can if they are determined. Elders are there to counsel them. While they are off the drugs they start talking to them and get them back into reality and with their families. After treatment they need help and support and to occupy themselves. It?s an uphill battle for these counselors. Drugs are being flooded into Indigenous communities to stop people from thinking or asking questions. The colonists want to be able to lure us into giving up everything we have. In the majority of cases the youth experiment with drugs and then reject it. They get on with their lives. The oldest and the youngest are not involved. Those escaping it are able to stay in school. They are taught to deal with enticement from other kids and dealers. In any society the youth in between are vulnerable. Many of our elders know there?s hope for this generation. Marijuana is many times more powerful than it was in the 1960s. Other drugs are even more dangerous. Some, like chrystal meth, cause brain damage after one shot. The teachers and medical personnel get children on Ritalin and other drugs. Some parents use it to shoot up. It?s vicious! Those Indigenous people who are bringing drugs into our communities have been colonized into wanting power and control over us. Thus, the push for more powerful drugs onto our people! For this plan to be effective, they need to keep us idle and spaced out. Some government or police agents or medical personnel who say they are fighting drugs are actually promoting drugs. The whole dirty business keeps a few people rich. In some cases the dealers are co-opt to become ?snitches? in exchange for protection. They purportedly supply information on us and are free to provide drugs to the community to weaken and destroy us. They?re never busted when there?s a ?crack down? or a raid! Why? There are people in every Indigenous community who are fighting it. The battle will be won. We have the power to say ?no? when somebody offers us drugs. We have to finish school and get a job. We all have to help our communities. Our indigenous youth are smart, dignified, respectful of elders and not prone to act without thinking. We are not ?terrorists?. We are builders. Our young people are relearning our languages, ceremonies and carrying them on. We are defenders of Turtle Island. That?s who we are! Karakwine and MNN Staff Contact katenies20 at yahoo.com Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com http://www.wsu.edu/dee/china/opium.htm http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/aquarian.htm http://www.woodstock69.com/wsprnt1.htm PLEASE NOTE : As can be seen, it?s becoming critical for legal actions to be taken to protect our rights. We have no funds. Canada is hiring costly law firms to defend their illegal actions and suppress our rights. If you can donate anything to our cause, it will be greatly appreciated. Donate to: PayPal, www.mohawknationnews.com, or ?MNN Mohawk Nation News?, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:en/Thank you very much. See MNN Category: ?Canada? New MNN Books Available Now! The books below, email us: Mohawk Warriors Three - The Trial of Lasagna, Noriega, 20/20$20.00 usd The On-Going Confusion between The Great Law and The Handsome Lake Code$ 20.00 usd The Agonizing Death of "Colonialism" and "Federal Indian Law" in Kaianere'ko:wa/Great Law Territory $20.00 usd Who's Sorry Now? The good, the bad and the unapologetic Mohawks of Kanehsatake $20.00 usd Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy Karoniaktajeh $10 usd Warriors Hand Book Karoniaktajeh $10 usd Mail checks and money orders to... MNN P.O. Box 991 Kahnawake, QC J0L 1B0 Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePress Store http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://www.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois Link to MNN Get the code and banners to link to Mohawk Nation News. http://www.mohawknationnews.com/pg.php?pag e=promote.html Your Support - Make a contribution to our newsgroup. Secure your online transaction with PayPal?. http://www.mohawknationnews.com/pg.php?page=donate.html Nia:wen, Kahentinetha Horn Kahentinetha2 at yahoo.com Speaking & Contemporary Native Issues Workshops Katenies katenies20 at yahoo.com Manager Stay tuned! www.mohawknationnews.com Please forward this email to a friend! From nscchicago at igc.org Tue Aug 5 21:01:28 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 22:01:28 -0500 Subject: [A-List] NICARAGUA REVOLUTION 29 YEARS - INTERCONNECT Briefs Message-ID: <002801c8f770$c28d5820$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> ----- Original Message ----- From: Peter and Gail Mott To: nscchicago at igc.org Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 9:50 AM Subject: INTERCONNECT Briefs 05 August 2008 For Grassroots Movement-Building and Sharing of Resources Within the US-Latin America Solidarity Community In This Issue Anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution Dear Tom, Please find our latest News Alert - a speech by Dr. Arnold Matlin, a pediatrician in upstate New York and the only US citizen to receive the Nicaraguan Medal of the Revolution and to be named Hero of the Revolution by the Frente Sandinista (FSLN). In solidarity, Peter and Gail Mott, Co-Editors www.interconn.org July 19th--29th Anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution Speech given by Arnie Matlin at the El Sauce Liberation Celebration July 11, 2008 Mayor Evertz, distinguished colleagues, compa?eras y compa?eros. It seems strange giving this speech today because I am not a Sauce?o. However, in 2005, the city of El Sauce was gracious enough to declare me a Hijo Delecto, so I think that it's appropriate for me to speak to you at this revolutionary event. Today is the day in which Sauce?os celebrate the triumph of a revolution in their city, and, on July 19th, everyone will celebrate the triumph of the Nicaraguan revolution. We in the United States had a revolution, but it began over 200 years ago, and we North Americans have forgotten it. Not only do we no longer remember our revolution, but our government actively tries to suppress revolutions all over the world. However, as the U.S. has learned, the Nicaraguan revolution is not so easy to suppress! In many ways, life in Nicaragua is more difficult than life in the United States. However, in one important way, life here is much better. In the United States, we cannot find a true revolutionary party. We have to vote for the party that is less bad, but we cannot vote for a party that really cares about working people and poor people. Nicaraguans have a revolutionary party for which they can vote in every election. If you want to find a progressive, revolutionary party in Nicaragua, all you have to do is follow the Red and Black flag! Recently, my wife, who is a professor, received a union magazine called American Educator. [Summer 2008] In the magazine there was an article entitled, "Freedom in Retreat." According to this article, democracy was strong in the U.S., but other countries were only partly free, and getting worse. It will not surprise you that the countries said to be "partly free" included Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua! My wife wrote a letter to the editor of the magazine. She told the editor that the article left out one important country where freedom is truly in retreat. In the United States, we live under a President who leads an illegitimate government that gained and retained power only through fraudulent elections. We have a President who wages illegal war, ignores world law, tortures prisoners, and violates the U.S. Constitution. Freedom is really in retreat in the United States! Many people come to El Sauce to work in solidarity with Sauce?os. You all know about the Rochester Ciudad Hermana, the students from Geneseo College, the Peace Corps volunteers, and the medical students from the University of Rochester. I think you can trust these people to help you and to work shoulder-to-shoulder with you. However, I hope you will not trust anyone who comes here to teach you about democracy. When the United States talks about exporting democracy, what they really mean is exporting "The American Way of Life." And what that means is government by the rich and for the rich. That attitude has no place in a revolutionary country like Nicaragua! I will give you a good example of what it means to have a revolutionary president and a revolutionary government. As you know, the World Bank demanded that the former Nicaraguan government spend less money on education, and the former government agreed. That program, the so-called "School Autonomy," was a sickening example of human greed and government weakness. What that program meant is that Nicaraguan parents had to pay money in order for their children to go to school. Naturally, some poor people were unable to pay the fees, and their children stayed home and did not receive an education. On the day of his inauguration, President Ortega told the nation that school was free for every child. In the same situation, the new President of the United States might have called for a committee to study the issue. Maybe fees would be gradually reduced over a period of five years, or maybe they would be cut in half, but not eliminated. That is not what President Ortega said. President Ortega said that school was free in Nicaragua starting the next day. That is real democracy in action! In closing, I bring you revolutionary greetings in the name of the 100,000 U.S. citizens who traveled to Nicaragua in solidarity in the 1980's, in the name of Benjamin Linder, the U.S. engineer who was killed while helping to bring electricity to rural Nicaragua, and in the name of all people in the United States who cherish democracy and freedom! Thank you. Peter and Gail Mott INTERCONNECT Forward email This email was sent to nscchicago at igc.org by interconnect_mott at frontiernet.net. Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribeT | Privacy Policy. Email Marketing by INTERCONNECT | 57 South Main Street | Pittsford | NY | 14534 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 20317 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080805/471c3bcd/attachment.txt -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: DELEGACION 2008 BACK.my15 08.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 630230 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080805/471c3bcd/attachment-0002.pdf -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: DELEGATION NOVIEMBRE 2008.jy25 08.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 471586 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080805/471c3bcd/attachment-0003.pdf From nscchicago at igc.org Tue Aug 5 21:14:30 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 22:14:30 -0500 Subject: [A-List] Colombia: Mercenaries freed, FARC carries forward fight for liberation Message-ID: <003501c8f772$938d42e0$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> Colombia: Mercenaries freed, FARC carries forward fight for liberation Analysis by Tom Burke The Bush Pentagon and State Department are crowing after a raid in which 15 prisoners of war, including three American mercenaries, were freed. What they are not telling you is that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were preparing to unilaterally release the prisoners in early July 2008. The FARC moved the prisoners of war from three separate jungle camps to one location, planning to transfer them by helicopter and release them to French and Swiss government envoys. It was a simple plan that would have given the FARC a platform to demand freedom for 500 FARC fighters in Colombian prisons. For FARC negotiator Ricardo Palmera and rebel Sonia (Anayibe Rojas Valderrama), held as hostages in U.S. jails, the raid and the refusal of the U.S. and Colombian governments to negotiate is bad news. During its 44 years of fighting a guerrilla war in the countryside of Colombia, the FARC has unilaterally released prisoners a number of times, including seven months ago. These prisoner releases provide a rare opportunity for the FARC to present their political views and talk about pathways to social justice and peace in Colombia. At the prisoner release ceremonies, the FARC message sharply contrasts with the typical media distortions and censorship about them. In recent times, the U.S. strategy is to criminalize the FARC, to make it impossible for the FARC to negotiate with the Colombian government (or anyone else) and to deny the legitimate struggle of the peasants and workers. The U.S. wants war without end. Bush wants victory, not prisoner exchanges and negotiations. The U.S. is frustrating all attempts at talks, while intensifying the war in Colombia. During his testimony in U.S. court, FARC negotiator Ricardo Palmera explained he was kidnapped by U.S. intelligence in Ecuador on his way to speak with a U.N. envoy three years ago. In January 2008, the FARC successfully released prisoners to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but only after the U.S. and Colombian military spoiled the first attempt. In March this year, the U.S. was behind a high tech missile and bomb attack killing FARC Commander Raul Reyes and 24 others inside Ecuador. Raul Reyes was planning the next high profile prisoner release with ranking government officials from Ecuador, Venezuela and France. The U.S. tries to kill every effort. The U.S. behavior is cold, hard and calculated. The U.S. is at war, no negotiations. The U.S. cannot stand for anyone to recognize the legitimacy of the FARC. The Bush officials were shaking with rage when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the FARC should be granted international legitimacy known as 'belligerency status.' For the same reasons, the U.S. government was flabbergasted when U.S. prosecutors were forced to repeat Ricardo Palmera's trials. Most of the American jurors believed Palmera over the U.S. government, leading to mistrials. In the recent prisoner handover, the FARC were willing to release Colombian soldiers, the wealthy reactionary politician and French citizen named Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. mercenaries. The three American military contractors were paid by Northrop Grumman to help kill Colombians. In the Washington D.C. trials of FARC leader Ricardo Palmera, it was revealed that Marc Gonzalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes provided 'real time' information from their high-tech airplane to the Colombian military in its war against the peasant fighters of the FARC. This direct involvement by U.S. soldiers of fortune in Colombia's civil war is risky business. It shows the calm restraint of the FARC that the three returned to the U.S. in such good shape. However, soldier of fortune Marc Gonsalves spoke strong words against the Colombian revolutionaries who are fighting to free their country from U.S. domination and war. Like the patriot-for-pay that he is, Gonsalves defensively repeated again and again the big lie of the Bush administration, "the FARC are not revolutionaries." Poor Marc Gonsalves - his big story of abuse involves his captors making him carry a heavy backpack in the jungle while marching tied together with other prisoners and under armed guard. Compared to the treatment the U.S. military gives prisoners of war at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, one would think Marc Gonsalves and the others might appreciate their good health and fair treatment in someone else's country. The effect of the prisoner raid is that the U.S. seized the media spotlight away from the FARC. The fact the FARC was already releasing the prisoners is swept clean from U.S. news stories. This pleases the Bush White House to no end. Bush has just boosted Colombian President Uribe out of a sticky situation where the Colombian Supreme Court was questioning the legitimacy of Uribe's last election. Despite Bush's support, President Uribe's regime is shaky due to his personal and political ties to narco-traffickers and corruption. An old U.S. intelligence report ties Uribe to the infamous cocaine trafficker Pablo Escobar. So does Escobar's surviving girlfriend. No matter to the White House, Uribe is their man. Uribe's rule consists of death squad terror for peasants, trade unionists, student activists and human rights defenders. In the countryside deadly chemical poison is sprayed on countless acres of land where FARC support is strongest, driving peasants off the land. Only Iraq has a bigger refugee crisis. Poor Colombians are forced into shantytowns around the big cities. Police and right-wing paramilitaries patrol the shantytowns in tandem. Repression is all around for working and low-income people. For sections of the middle classes and the rich oligarchy in Colombia, the situation is one of combativeness as they mobilize to support Uribe and the violence of the Colombian state. The wealthy elite who rule Colombia and sell off its natural resources to U.S. corporations are perfectly willing to ignore the repression and the terror in the countryside. They are happy to have U.S. Southern Command conducting the war in their country, but they are careful not to speak too loudly about it. There are 800 U.S. military advisors, 600 military contractors, and scores of U.S. Special Forces on Colombian soil to direct the dirty war. The rich people who rule Colombia are bathed in the blood of tens of thousands of peasants, workers and leftists. U.S. taxpayers foot the bill to the tune of $5 billion. The Bush administration fully backs the corrupt, narco-trafficking, death squad government of President Uribe. Without this, the wealthy few who rule Colombia with a bloody hand would be chased from power, never to return. The Uribe regime would collapse in months. Death squad democracy would be history, revolution a certainty. Nevertheless, due to the recent blows against the FARC leadership, American imperialists, Colombian reactionaries and fools of all stripes want to claim the FARC are collapsing or are 'finished.' Others who should know better, because they know how it feels to be hunted by assassins, are suggesting that the FARC should one-sidedly ignore the history of Colombia and surrender their weapons. This is wishful thinking. In Colombia, laying down arms is akin to suicide. For those who want social change in Colombia, the electoral road ends in the cemetery. The Colombian state murdered more than 4000 members, candidates and elected officials of the left-wing party, the Patriotic Union, in the late 1980s. In 1987, Patriotic Union political leader Ricardo Palmera went and joined the FARC, dedicating his own life to continuing the struggle. In his U.S. trials, Professor Palmera said, "My choices were death, exile, or joining the fight in the countryside." In Colombia, those on the freedom road must carry arms if they are going to defend the people and reach their destination. For sure, the FARC are reassessing their tactics in terms of releasing the small numbers of prisoners of war they still hold - mostly military officers. However, this is only one part of the FARC strategy. Mainly the FARC organize the masses of Colombian people to take control of their land, labor and lives to make revolution. It is slow, difficult, unglamorous work, but the FARC is a political organization and its strategy relies on the people. After 45 years of building the largest revolutionary army in the hemisphere, with tremendous growth during a period when much of the left was in retreat or capitulating to imperialism, the FARC is more political in its approach to making revolution than ever. Millions of supporters of the FARC understand the long-term nature of the struggle for national liberation. The FARC is on a long march and expects to face both setbacks and advances. The goal is to wear down the Colombian state and its imperialist backers in the U.S. until conditions exist for the people to seize power. To the north, the American people do not like wars where Americans get killed, so the White House and Pentagon are limited in what they can do. Plan Colombia is a U.S. war plan that brings poverty, misery and death to Colombians. In practice, Plan Colombia means more war, more repression and more drugs. Plan Colombia is the enemy of all people who want peace and justice. Like Bush and Uribe, the days of Plan Colombia are numbered. Plan Colombia cannot continue and the U.S. will soon need a new strategy or possibly go to war in Latin America. The growing aggressiveness of the U.S. across Latin America is a sign of weakness, not strength. Bush and the U.S. empire are losing their grip. In Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, the people are rising and attempting to build new societies. The U.S. wants to put a stop to the people's movements and reverse their gains. If the FARC leads a successful revolution in Colombia, it is game over for the U.S. empire in that region. Like Iraq in the Middle East, Colombia is key to the U.S. strategy for dominating Latin America. We should do everything in our power to expose the Bush administration and its war in Colombia. That is our responsibility. The four trials of FARC leader Ricardo Palmera in Washington D.C. went a long way to exposing the phoniness of the War On Terror and the War On Drugs. The U.S. empire, with millions of dollars, could not defeat a lone revolutionary held in solitary confinement and denied many of the constitutional rights Bush claims to defend. Palmera beat the slick U.S. prosecutors on nine out of ten charges and the U.S. was forced to drop all the false drug charges. Professor Palmera is a good and decent man. He chose to do what hundreds of thousands of other Colombians have done before him, to pick up a gun and defend what is right, what is good and what is just. Palmera stands for the poor, against the rich, despite his own background. We too should stand with Palmera, Sonia and the 500 FARC prisoners held by the proto-fascist Uribe. We should stand with all the Colombian workers and peasants yearning to be free from U.S. corporate dominance and U.S. military death and destruction. The U.S. is on the wrong side of the civil war in Colombia. We need to demand that the U.S. government and military pull out and bring all the troops home now! Stop Plan Colombia! _____________________________________________________ Fight Back News Service | www.fightbacknews.org If you received this from somebody else, you can subscribe to Fight Back News Service at http://www.fightbacknews.org/fbns/?p=subscribe&id=1 -- If you do not want to receive any more emails from Fight Back News Service visit this link To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit this link -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 13459 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080805/849f2204/attachment.txt -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 2408 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080805/849f2204/attachment.png From shimogamo at attglobal.net Wed Aug 6 03:41:40 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:41:40 +0900 Subject: [A-List] The lies of Hiroshima live on ... Message-ID: <489971D4.5060402@attglobal.net> ... props in the war crimes of the 20th century The 1945 attack was murder on an epic scale. In its victims' names, we must not allow a nuclear repeat in the Middle East by Jon Pilger The Guardian (August 06 2008) When I first went to Hiroshima in 1967, the shadow on the steps was still there. It was an almost perfect impression of a human being at ease: legs splayed, back bent, one hand by her side as she sat waiting for a bank to open. At a quarter past eight on the morning of August 6 1945, she and her silhouette were burned into the granite. I stared at the shadow for an hour or more, then walked down to the river and met a man called Yukio, whose chest was still etched with the pattern of the shirt he was wearing when the atomic bomb was dropped. He and his family still lived in a shack thrown up in the dust of an atomic desert. He described a huge flash over the city, "a bluish light, something like an electrical short", after which wind blew like a tornado and black rain fell. "I was thrown on the ground and noticed only the stalks of my flowers were left. Everything was still and quiet, and when I got up, there were people naked, not saying anything. Some of them had no skin or hair. I was certain I was dead." Nine years later, when I returned to look for him, he was dead from leukaemia. In the immediate aftermath of the bomb, the allied occupation authorities banned all mention of radiation poisoning and insisted that people had been killed or injured only by the bomb's blast. It was the first big lie. "No radioactivity in Hiroshima ruin" said the front page of the New York Times, a classic of disinformation and journalistic abdication, which the Australian reporter Wilfred Burchett put right with his scoop of the century. "I write this as a warning to the world", reported Burchett in the Daily Express, having reached Hiroshima after a perilous journey, the first correspondent to dare. He described hospital wards filled with people with no visible injuries but who were dying from what he called "an atomic plague". For telling this truth, his press accreditation was withdrawn, he was pilloried and smeared - and vindicated. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a criminal act on an epic scale. It was premeditated mass murder that unleashed a weapon of intrinsic criminality. For this reason its apologists have sought refuge in the mythology of the ultimate "good war", whose "ethical bath", as Richard Drayton called it, has allowed the west not only to expiate its bloody imperial past but to promote sixty years of rapacious war, always beneath the shadow of The Bomb. The most enduring lie is that the atomic bomb was dropped to end the war in the Pacific and save lives. "Even without the atomic bombing attacks", concluded the United States Strategic Bombing Survey of 1946, "air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion. Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that ... Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated." The National Archives in Washington contain US government documents that chart Japanese peace overtures as early as 1943. None was pursued. A cable sent on May 5 1945 by the German ambassador in Tokyo and intercepted by the US dispels any doubt that the Japanese were desperate to sue for peace, including "capitulation even if the terms were hard". Instead, the US secretary of war, Henry Stimson, told President Truman he was "fearful" that the US air force would have Japan so "bombed out" that the new weapon would not be able "to show its strength". He later admitted that "no effort was made, and none was seriously considered, to achieve surrender merely in order not to have to use the bomb". His foreign policy colleagues were eager "to browbeat the Russians with the bomb held rather ostentatiously on our hip". General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project that made the bomb, testified: "There was never any illusion on my part that Russia was our enemy, and that the project was conducted on that basis". The day after Hiroshima was obliterated, President Truman voiced his satisfaction with the "overwhelming success" of "the experiment". Since 1945, the United States is believed to have been on the brink of using nuclear weapons at least three times. In waging their bogus "war on terror", the present governments in Washington and London have declared they are prepared to make "pre-emptive" nuclear strikes against non-nuclear states. With each stroke toward the midnight of a nuclear Armageddon, the lies of justification grow more outrageous. Iran is the current "threat". But Iran has no nuclear weapons and the disinformation that it is planning a nuclear arsenal comes largely from a discredited CIA-sponsored Iranian opposition group, the MEK - just as the lies about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction originated with the Iraqi National Congress, set up by Washington. The role of western journalism in erecting this straw man is critical. That America's Defence Intelligence Estimate says "with high confidence" that Iran gave up its nuclear weapons programme in 2003 has been consigned to the memory hole. That Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never threatened to "wipe Israel off the map" is of no interest. But such has been the mantra of this media "fact" that in his recent, obsequious performance before the Israeli parliament, Gordon Brown alluded to it as he threatened Iran, yet again. This progression of lies has brought us to one of the most dangerous nuclear crises since 1945, because the real threat remains almost unmentionable in western establishment circles and therefore in the media. There is only one rampant nuclear power in the Middle East and that is Israel. The heroic Mordechai Vanunu tried to warn the world in 1986 when he smuggled out evidence that Israel was building as many as 200 nuclear warheads. In defiance of UN resolutions, Israel is today clearly itching to attack Iran, fearful that a new American administration might, just might, conduct genuine negotiations with a nation the west has defiled since Britain and America overthrew Iranian democracy in 1953. In the New York Times on July 18, the Israeli historian Benny Morris, once considered a liberal and now a consultant to his country's political and military establishment, threatened "an Iran turned into a nuclear wasteland". This would be mass murder. For a Jew, the irony cries out. The question begs: are the rest of us to be mere bystanders, claiming, as good Germans did, that "we did not know"? Do we hide ever more behind what Richard Falk has called "a self-righteous, one-way, legal/moral screen [with] positive images of western values and innocence portrayed as threatened, validating a campaign of unrestricted violence"? Catching war criminals is fashionable again. Radovan Karadzic stands in the dock, but Sharon and Olmert, Bush and Blair do not. Why not? The memory of Hiroshima requires an answer. johnpilger.com http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/06/secondworldwar.warcrimes http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From shimogamo at attglobal.net Wed Aug 6 05:35:15 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:35:15 +0900 Subject: [A-List] The bush president ... Message-ID: <48998C73.1040700@attglobal.net> ... of the United States is in Asia today. Why didn't he visit Hiroshima? From mjlima at uol.com.br Wed Aug 6 06:59:37 2008 From: mjlima at uol.com.br (Mario Jose de Lima) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 09:59:37 -0300 Subject: [A-List] The bush president ... References: <48998C73.1040700@attglobal.net> Message-ID: <003301c8f7c4$48bb1510$0201010a@mario> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Totten" To: "a-list" Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 8:35 AM Subject: [A-List] The bush president ... > ... of the United States is in Asia today. > > Why didn't he visit Hiroshima? > > may be... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/06/secondworldwar.warcrimes From tal1 at cogeco.ca Wed Aug 6 11:51:23 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 13:51:23 -0400 Subject: [A-List] The Great Anthrax Caper Message-ID: <26A3900234F94649A5F3F6D3CA34EB42@TonyPC> Glenn Greenwald Friday Aug. 1, 2008 05:36 EDT Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News (Updated below - Update II - Update III - Update IV - Update V - Update VI - Update VII - Update VIII) The FBI's lead suspect in the September, 2001 anthrax attacks -- Bruce E. Ivins -- died Tuesday night, apparently by suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the attacks. For the last 18 years, Ivins was a top anthrax researcher at the U.S. Government's biological weapons research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, where he was one of the most elite government anthrax scientists on the research team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID). The 2001 anthrax attacks remain one of the great mysteries of the post-9/11 era. After 9/11 itself, the anthrax attacks were probably the most consequential event of the Bush presidency. One could make a persuasive case that they were actually more consequential. The 9/11 attacks were obviously traumatic for the country, but in the absence of the anthrax attacks, 9/11 could easily have been perceived as a single, isolated event. It was really the anthrax letters -- with the first one sent on September 18, just one week after 9/11 -- that severely ratcheted up the fear levels and created the climate that would dominate in this country for the next several years after. It was anthrax -- sent directly into the heart of the country's elite political and media institutions, to then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt), NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, and other leading media outlets -- that created the impression that social order itself was genuinely threatened by Islamic radicalism. If the now-deceased Ivins really was the culprit behind the attacks, then that means that the anthrax came from a U.S. Government lab, sent by a top U.S. Army scientist at Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation or inferences at all, it is hard to overstate the significance of that fact. From tal1 at cogeco.ca Wed Aug 6 12:19:18 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 14:19:18 -0400 Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil In-Reply-To: <200808051328.56876.tully2@gmail.com> References: <0CE2476A62BB471B859480005C546E89@home9sg93n9r5y> <200808051328.56876.tully2@gmail.com> Message-ID: <3E89EDD6360F4CCEACCCBBA0A17BE9AF@TonyPC> Tully, I've long used BCC for re-forwarding or crossposting messages to friends etc....but just a clarification: Is there any contradindication in using the 'To' box for simply sending in a message to the A-List..or should we be using BCC for that too? Tony ----- Original Message ----- From: "tully" To: " a-list" Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 1:28 PM Subject: Re: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil > On Tuesday 05 August 2008, james daly wrote: >>Response: I received this as a member of A-list, and I'm as >> mystified as anyone else. > > What is happening is that messages are being crossposted to more > than one mail list at a time. Crossposting is a very bad > practice and if crossposting must be done, the sender of the > message should place all recipient email addresses in the BCC: > (Blind Carbon Copy) box, and never put them in the TO: box or > the CC: box of their emailer. If BCC is used, none of the > recipients will see the address of any of the other recipients > of the message and any "Reply-All" (which replies to all > recipients) made in response will not go to all recipients, only > to the one that sent you the message. BCC should always be used > when sending to multiple recipients to protect recipients from > spammers and search engines, especially crooked search engines, > like cuil obviously is if it won't obey robots.txt instructions. > > We must protect each other from the abuse crossposting causes. > Never put email addresses in a TO: or CC: box when sending a > single message to multiple email lists and/or to your friends. > If you do, you leave those recipients wide open to the abuse of > having their addresses collected by spammers (or worse), private > messages posted on public lists like is happening here between > A-list (public) and Ugly (private), people (or computer > programs) having access to messages they shouldn't have, and > generally making a real nuisance of yourself. > > Please feel free to post any questions about this here on the > list (better so others can learn too) or to me privately and I > will try to explain better. Everyone needs to know and > understand this stuff to protect themselves and their friends. > > --tully > > From tully2 at gmail.com Wed Aug 6 13:17:44 2008 From: tully2 at gmail.com (tully) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 15:17:44 -0400 Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil In-Reply-To: <3E89EDD6360F4CCEACCCBBA0A17BE9AF@TonyPC> References: <200808051328.56876.tully2@gmail.com> <3E89EDD6360F4CCEACCCBBA0A17BE9AF@TonyPC> Message-ID: <200808061517.45062.tully2@gmail.com> On Wednesday 06 August 2008, Tony B. wrote: >I've long used BCC for re-forwarding or crossposting messages > to friends etc....but just a clarification: Is there any > contradindication in using the 'To' box for simply sending in > a message to the A-List..or should we be using BCC for that > too? I can think of one major benefit of sending to a single recipient using BCC. Using BCC would keep the original recipient of the message from being automatically displayed in any forward made of that message, though the sender would be automatically seen the way most emailers work. For instance, if you sent a message to A-List using BCC, when someone who received that message forwarded it elsewhere, your email address would probably show up in their message, but A-List's address would not get displayed. I'd consider that good protection for the list against spammers. In most emailers, BCC: is just as easy to use as TO: and really has so many benefits going for it for lists and personal use. BTW, all previous email addresses including any original sender should be edited out of forwarded messages. It is a courtesy to ask someone for permission before ever showing their email address (or anything personal they wrote) to anyone else, and thus all previous addresses and names should always be edited out. Yet how many of us have had to scroll thru 20 screens worth of email addresses (ripe for spammer pickings or resale to spammers) to get to the single line joke at the end. I wonder how many monitor screens have been bashed to smithereens because of it... ;) Using BCC to send jokes or other posts to friends who might forward them protects the addresses of all the friends you originally sent to, since any forward made will not show them. You, the sender (FROM:), are still at risk though, and I make it a point to tell my friends they are not to send my address to anyone or I will quit forwarding to them. I don't forward much any more... ;( --tully From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Wed Aug 6 14:27:57 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:27:57 -0400 Subject: [A-List] From Feral Scholar Message-ID: <4899D10D.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2008/07/31/switching-the-formulae-hiding-stagflation/#comments Lisa: Shifting China?s Export towards the Domestic Market By Henry C. K. Liu Part I: Breaking Free from Dollar Hegemony This article appeared in AToL on July 29, 2008 The vast expansion of US-led globalized trade since the Cold War ended in 1991 had been fueled by unsustainable serial debt bubbles built on dollar hegemony, which came into existence on a global scale with the emergence of deregulated global financial markets that made cross-border flow of funds routine since the 1990s. Dollar hegemony is a geopolitically-constructed peculiarity through which critical commodities, the most notable being oil, are denominated in fiat dollars, not backed by gold or other species since President Nixon took the dollar off gold in 1971. The recycling of petro-dollars into other dollar assets is the price the US has extracted from oil-producing countries for US tolerance for the oil-exporting cartel since 1973. After that, everyone accepts dollars because dollars can buy oil, and every economy needs oil. Dollar hegemony separates the trade value of every currency from direct connection to the productivity of the issuing economy to link it directly to the size of dollar reserves held by the issuing central bank. Dollar hegemony enables the US to own indirectly but essentially the entire global economy by requiring its wealth to be denominated in fiat dollars that the US can print at will with little monetary penalties. World trade is now a game in which the US produces fiat dollars of uncertain exchange value and zero intrinsic value, and the rest of the world produces goods and services that fiat dollars can buy at ?market prices? quoted in dollars. Such market prices are no longer based on mark-ups over production costs set by socio-economic conditions in the producing countries. They are kept artificially low to compensate for the effect of overcapacity in the global economy created by a combination of overinvestment and weak demand due to low wages in every economy. Such low market prices in turn push further down already low wages to further cut cost in an unending race to the bottom. The higher the production volume above market demand, the lower the unit market price of a product must go in order to increase sales volume to keep revenue from falling. Lower market prices require lower production costs which in turn push wages lower. Lower wages in turn further reduces demand. To prevent loss of revenue from falling prices, producers must produce at still higher volume, thus lowering still market prices and wages in a downward spiral. Export economies are forced to compete for market share in the global market by lowering both domestic wages and the exchange rate of their currencies. Lower exchange rates push up the market price of commodities which must be compensated by even lower wages. The adverse effects of dollar hegemony on wages apply not only to the emerging export economies, but also to the importing US economy. Workers all over the world are oppressed victims of dollar hegemony which turns the labor theory of value up-side-down.. Full article: http://henryckliu.com/page165.html 2 August 2008, 4:34 pm Franklin: Lisa, I printed W. F. Engdahl?s article yesterday and made copies, distributing them to friends without computers. Highlighting the various stores and companies closing and or going bankrupt is, I think, an effective way of showing how bad the situation really is. But getting back to Michael Hudson, he is one smart economics professor who explains things clearly and without pompous terminology. It seems like the ruling class has a grand plan to turn the world back into a feudal state. More and more are joining the military for a steady paycheck with benefits and will justify carrying out the orders of the Bush Crime Family. And todays headlines read, The US blames China and India for the failed WTO meeting. We have no real leadership in Congress, and it is overdue for an overhaul. Professor Hudson was Dennis Kucinich?s economic adviser, but was marginalized by the corporate MSM. His own party hasn?t been nice to him either. Everything Michael Hudson writes or speaks about is worth reading and hearing. 3 August 2008, 5:32 pm Lisa: Inflation and the New World Order by Richard C. Cook ?So again, who exactly are these ?wealthy people, or funds, or other entities? that may be manipulating the market of the world?s most important substance? Surely government regulators must know. Aren?t they able to trace market activity to the players involved? The answer, Johnson said, is no, they can?t: ?The situation now is that the CFTC is sitting there looking at one screen, one piece of the picture, which is whatever is happening on the exchanges. Meanwhile, an increasing volume in dollars is taking place in the form of over-the-counter activity where no one can see it? there is still a blind spot with respect to the true over-the-counter activity that is going on, which represents billions and billions of dollars.? This trading in what the industry calls ?dark pools? amounts to a third of all commodities activity, easily enough for the manipulators to remain hidden. It takes place outside the regular commodities exchanges, where trading activity is relatively transparent. And it applies not only to trading in petroleum futures but also food crops and other vital commodities. And who is it that has allowed this secret trading to take place? Johnson: ?In 2000 Congress decided that there were certain kinds of high-end investors that were big enough and smart enough that they shouldn?t be constrained to do all their business on the exchanges.? Full article: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/inflation-and-the-new-world-order-by-richard-c-cook/ 3 August 2008, 8:36 pm Lisa: MORTGAGE MARKET MUSINGS: BUYING THE COUNTRY FOR NO MONEY DOWN, Catherine Austin Fitts Friday, 25 July 2008 Tracking the mortgage mafia? ORIGINAL BLOGPOST Sometimes, it helps to step back and see the big picture. Let?s say that I serve as the depository for a large government and I also own the central bank. I get my partners appointed to run the government?s treasury and key funds on a regular basis so I can also control financial system policies and regulation that help me finance what I want to do and mess up my competitors. Even that is getting cumbersome so I am arranging to move most of the regulatory control over to my central bank because I can control all of it privately. Frustrated with having to deal with democratic processes, I decide to move a significant amount of money out of the government between 1997 and 2001 for reinvestment abroad. I and my partners and our syndicates engineer a serious of steps to bubble the economy so that when I move the money out the currency is high and because everyone was making money they did not notice that lots of capital was leaving. To ensure no one notices, I suppress the gold price which turns off the financial burglar alarm and shifts gold out of the government into my private control at below market prices. Full article: http://www.solari.com/blog/?p=1232 3 August 2008, 9:03 pm Lisa: Banking: Going Local How to Find and Evaluate a Local Bank http://www.solari.com/archive/bank_locally/find_local_banks/ 3 August 2008, 9:14 pm Lisa: US Blackmailed By China? Bloomberg is reporting Fannie?s Mudd Soothed Asian Investors as Bonds Rose. Concerns about the financial health of the biggest U.S. mortgage finance company had driven Fannie Mae?s borrowing costs to the highest since March the previous week and its shares had tumbled 45 percent on the New York Stock Exchange. Investors in Asia, the biggest foreign owners of Fannie Mae?s $3 trillion of bonds, were asking the Treasury to bolster the government- sponsored company and its smaller competitor, Freddie Mac, said three people with knowledge of the talks? The next afternoon, before financial markets opened Monday in Asia, Paulson announced the rescue plan, saying he would seek authority to buy unlimited equity stakes in the companies and their bonds if needed, while the Federal Reserve would lend directly to Fannie and Freddie? Asian investors were among the most important groups to soothe because central banks, financial institutions and funds in the region own $800 billion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?s $5.2 trillion in debt, according to data compiled by the Treasury? Karl Denninger wrote a scathing attack of Paulson?s maneuver in Now We Know - There WAS A Threat. My thoughts on the so-called ?confidence building measures? of this scheme follow? Fannie Mae Chief Executive Officer Daniel Mudd called Paulson?s move a ?confidence building measure?. Mudd cannot possibly be further from the truth. Full article: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/ 5 August 2008, 12:25 pm This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Wed Aug 6 14:31:49 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:31:49 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Column by Grace Lee Boggs Message-ID: <4899D1F5.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> The Worst and Best of Times By Grace Lee Boggs Special to The Michigan Citizen https://www.michigancitizen.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=77&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=6343&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1070&hn=michigancitizen&he=.com My first column with this title appeared in the December 31-January 6, 2007 issue of the Citizen. We were living in the worst of times, I wrote, because of the Iraq war, the planetary emergency, the growing gulf between rich and poor, corporate takeover of the media, and a president who was acting like a king and losing all connection with reality. But it was also the best of times, I said, because Americans were beginning to create new forms of community-based economic institutions that are less vulnerable to globalization, like coops and ESOPs (employee stock ownership enterprises). Local and state governments were assuming the responsibility, abdicated by the federal government, to reduce global warming. The urban gardening movement was growing by leaps and bounds. Also, in the 1999 ?Battle of Seattle,? tens of thousands of individuals and groups, representing very diverse sections of society, had closed down the WTO. Since then hundreds of thousands of individuals and groups from around the world had gathered at World Social Forums to proclaim that ?Another World is possible.? In the process of convening these global demonstrations and gatherings and in these local initiatives, I said, a new form of Democracy was being created which was much more participatory, cooperative, consensual, more rooted in community and more horizontal than the representative democracies that were struggled for and achieved within 19th and 20th century nation-states. What I wrote then was all very general and seemed remote, except for the urban gardening movement, that was 19 months ago. Now, the worst has gotten much worse and like high gas prices, this much worse is very close to home. Now, it is floods in Midwest states like Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin. Now, it is the U.S. economy melting down. Car sales are plummeting. Factories are closing, layoffs are increasing. Chrysler has stopped leasing. GM has unilaterally eliminated health insurance for its salaried retirees. On Wall Street there?s talk of GM, the symbol of this country?s industrial might, going bankrupt. The value of the U.S. dollar has sunk so low that foreign companies are buying up American ones (like Anheuser-Busch) at bargain prices. Every time we spend our hard-earned pay or dwindling savings to buy something, we?re using money we borrowed from China to buy goods that we should be producing here at home. All across the country, on block after block, homes sit empty, boarded up, stripped bare. Modest neighborhoods like Ohio?s Slivac Village , where low-income Americans took pride in their little detached houses, now resemble Detroit after decades of de-industrialization. Their former owners, if they?re lucky, are being put up by relatives. But millions have ended up in homeless shelters, fathers in one, mothers in another and the children going to school only episodically. What should we be doing? Should we rely upon the government to rescue us when we know very well that it is mainly concerned about lenders like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who are so big that they cannot be allowed to fail. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the new housing bill will help only 260,000 renegotiate mortgages and hang on to their homes. That is only five percent of the 2.5 million to 3 million expecting foreclosure in 2008 and 2009. The other 95% are out of luck. Or can we begin to rely more on ourselves and on one another? Why can?t more of us grow our own food? Why can?t we come together in community centers (e.g. schools or churches) to create ways and means, like skill banks, to exchange goods and services? Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. When will we begin considering basic, fundamental changes? Maybe the time has come for us to stop pursuing the old American Dream of each family achieving home ownership and a higher standard of living on its own and start creating a new American Dream of communities in which we depend more on each other. That could turn the worst of times into the best of times. This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From nscchicago at igc.org Wed Aug 6 13:10:41 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 14:10:41 -0500 Subject: [A-List] THE EMPIRE IS ATTACKING PEOPLE - THE MOHAWK CANADA US MILITARY BASES SOUTH AMERICA Message-ID: <007001c8f7f8$26a4be20$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> Tom Baker here and the Indian Killer Nation(s) are not slowing down. These Imperialist states are not moving toward peace and harmony, but toward the chaos of the New Feudalism. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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From: "MohawkNationNews" Subject: MNN Mohawk Women file 'Demand" that Canada respect "rule of law" Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 11:00:44 -0400 Size: 11632 Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080806/bf0d9afa/attachment-0004.eml -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: laborexchange at aol.com Subject: [Vensteering] US Military Bases in Latin America: A Real Problem Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:10:23 -0400 Size: 26486 Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080806/bf0d9afa/attachment-0005.eml From tully2 at gmail.com Wed Aug 6 13:43:19 2008 From: tully2 at gmail.com (tully) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 15:43:19 -0400 Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil In-Reply-To: <3E89EDD6360F4CCEACCCBBA0A17BE9AF@TonyPC> References: <200808051328.56876.tully2@gmail.com> <3E89EDD6360F4CCEACCCBBA0A17BE9AF@TonyPC> Message-ID: <200808061543.19256.tully2@gmail.com> I just realized that I wrote something very poorly: >It is a courtesy to >ask someone for permission before ever showing their email >address (or anything personal they wrote) to anyone else, and >thus all previous addresses and names should always be edited >out. Instead of saying "or anything personal they wrote" I should have said "or anything they wrote personally." I didn't mean to imply that only personal messages need permission, but any words that a list member wrote themselves as an intro or as a response of any sort. Hope that clarifies what I was trying to say. I'll send this message as single recipient BCC to A-list. The "Reply-to" in the headers should allow any replies to be made to A-list with no trouble, but I think you will find that any forward you'd make of this message would not show A-list's address in the body of your message. --tully From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Wed Aug 6 15:42:25 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:42:25 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Dual Crisis Message-ID: <4899E282.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> Dual Crisis by Istv?n M?sz?ros "When we talk about a financial crisis, it's really only a symptom. . . . Financial adventurism is essentially what we have been witnessing for the last thirty or forty years, exploding from time to time in the form of financial crisis. It's really adventurist, speculative capital which has to find in some way a solution to itself. And why is that? That is the question. It is basically because of overproduced productive capital. Productive capital investment is in profound crisis. That's why so much is diverted into the channels of the speculative, and adventurist-speculative, type of transactions. Now, the other crisis . . . is a political crisis." "It is roughly around '68 when we can begin to mark what is really the structural crisis, not of capitalism but of the capital system in its entirety. The capital system is much more fundamental than capitalism. . . . What we are therefore concerned with is a crisis which can only deepen. Now, don't misunderstand me when I say we don't have a usual capitalist crisis, because capitalism and crisis are synonymous. Marx said that many times. But he was talking about a very different crisis. He was talking about conjunctural, cyclic crises. Capitalism regularly has crises. Marx even used the expression: these crises discharge themselves in a thunderstorm. Then you are back to normal, so to speak. A lot of surplus capital is destroyed, and you can start the game all over again, until again you reach a point of overaccumulation, then, a new discharge becomes necessary. That's what we have been living through. Now, our great privilege, if you like, is that we have both. We have both the cyclic, conjunctural crisis and this profound and ever-deepening structural crisis of the whole system, the whole capital system, because the Soviet Union was part of the capital system." full: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAxa82-ZQQY This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From tully2 at gmail.com Wed Aug 6 16:23:07 2008 From: tully2 at gmail.com (tully) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 18:23:07 -0400 Subject: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil Message-ID: I sent the message below using BCC to A-List, but later received a bounce message saying: --begin bounce quote Your mail to 'A-List' with the subject Re: [A-List] FW: [UGLY] A new search engine: Cuil Is being held until the list moderator can review it for approval. The reason it is being held: Message has implicit destination --end bounce quote Apparently A-list's listserver doesn't like BCC. So it looks like we're stuck with TO: unless the list moderator changes the settings. Anyway, below is what I wrote that bounced: --begin quote I just realized that I wrote something very poorly: >It is a courtesy to >ask someone for permission before ever showing their email >address (or anything personal they wrote) to anyone else, and >thus all previous addresses and names should always be edited >out. Instead of saying "or anything personal they wrote" I should have said "or anything they wrote personally." I didn't mean to imply that only personal messages need permission, but any words that a list member wrote themselves as an intro or as a response of any sort. Hope that clarifies what I was trying to say. I'll send this message as single recipient BCC to A-list. The "Reply-to" in the headers should allow any replies to be made to A-list with no trouble, but I think you will find that any forward you'd make of this message would not show A-list's address in the body of your message. --end quote --tully From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Aug 6 16:27:36 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 18:27:36 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Muslim Holiday at Tyson Plant Creates Furor Message-ID: August 6, 2008 Muslim Holiday at Tyson Plant Creates Furor By STEVEN GREENHOUSE The union that represents workers at a Tyson Foods poultry plant in Tennessee has negotiated a contract that substitutes a Muslim holiday for Labor Day as one of the eight paid holidays at the plant. The provision, which was proposed by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, has delighted the plant's Somali workers, who account for hundreds of its 1,200 employees. But it has infuriated many outsiders, leading some to denounce Tyson and the union alike. "You are a union that is proud of achieving a Muslim holiday and prayer room?" one person wrote the union. "A union in the U.S.A., a country based on Christianity. You call yourselves Americans? Have you forgotten 9/11?" Another wrote: "You had no right to drop Labor Day. Muslim employees must integrate Labor Day into THEIR lives if they are going to live in America." Stung by the criticism, Stuart Appelbaum, the union's president, said the decision was fully consistent with the spirit of Labor Day. "We in the labor movement have always understood that unions are only strong when we work to protect the dignity of all faiths, and that includes Muslims," said Mr. Appelbaum, who also serves as president of the Jewish Labor Committee. "What we negotiated was the will of the workers," said Mr. Appelbaum, who added that his was the first union to negotiate a paid day off for a Muslim holiday and that he was sure Tyson would not be the last employer to agree. The plant affected is in the town of Shelbyville, some 40 miles south of Nashville. Under a five-year contract there, Id al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, is now one of the plant's eight paid holidays. Union officials said the two Somali immigrants on the union's eight-member bargaining committee had been eager to make Id al-Fitr (pronounced eed-al-FIT-tr) a paid holiday. The union agreed to do so at the expense of Labor Day in part because it did not want to trade Christmas, the Fourth of July, Memorial Day or other existing paid holidays, and in part because Tyson has usually required the plant's employees to work on Labor Day anyway. (Employees received a holiday premium for working that day.) "We had worked 23 Labor Days in a row; it wasn't like it was a day to spend with our family," said Randy Hadley, a union representative who helped negotiate the contract. Mr. Hadley said both management and union were surprised when nearly all the Somali workers ? Tyson puts their number at 250, the union at nearly 400 ? did not work on Id al-Fitr last year. They were not paid, but the plant almost had to close that day, said Mr. Hadley, adding that management was "elated" by the proposal to make Id al-Fitr a holiday. The contract was negotiated last year and approved by workers in November. But the holiday provision largely escaped public notice until a local newspaper published an article about it last week. Many anti-immigrant bloggers and conservative commentators have since berated Tyson, urging a boycott. Thrown on the defensive, the company issued a statement Monday saying: "Contrary to recent reports, Labor Day is still a holiday at Tyson Foods. The issue concerns only the plant at Shelbyville." "This is not a religious accommodation," the statement added. "Rather, it is a union-initiated contract demand." Libby Lawson, a Tyson spokeswoman, noted that the plant had three Christian chaplains, and prayer rooms for Muslims and Christians alike. From shimogamo at attglobal.net Wed Aug 6 18:18:43 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:18:43 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Dark (K)night Message-ID: <489A3F63.3020309@attglobal.net> Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler Comment on current events by the author of The Long Emergency (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005) www.kunstler.com (August 01 2008) The most striking thing about the new Batman movie, now smashing the all-time box office records, is its emphasis on sado-masochism as the animating element in American culture these days. It must appeal to the many angry people in our land who want to hurt others, even while they themselves feel deserving of the grossest punishments. In other words, the picture reflects the extreme depravity of the current American sensibility. Seeing it all laid out there must be very validating to the emotionally confused audience, and hence pleasurable, in all its painfulness. The rich symbolism in this spectacle represents the tenor of contemporary America as something a few notches worse than whatever the Nazis were heading toward around 1933. We like nothing better than to see people suffer and watch things get broken. The more slowly people are tortured (including the movie audience) the more exquisite the pleasure derived from the act. Civilization offers no consolation. In fact, its a mug's game. Thus, civilization is composed only of torturers and their mug victims. Gotham City, the setting for all these sadomasochistic vignettes, is a place devoid of comfort. (The suburbs are missing completely.) Even the personal haunts of "the Batman", aka zillionaire Bruce Wayne, are hard-edged non-spaces. His workplace (cleverly accessed via a dumpster) is an underground bunker the size of about three football fields with a claustrophobic drop ceiling and a single furnishing: the megalomaniacal computer console that is supposed to afford him "control" of the city, but which appears to be, in fact, a completely impotent sham piece of techno-junk, since it can't even outperform a $300 GPS unit in locating things. By the way, Hitler had a brighter sense of decor in the final days of the bunker. Bruce Wayne's personal apartment is one of those horrid glass-walled tower condos beloved of the starchitects, which, in its florid exposure to everything external practically screams "no shelter here"! At the center of all this is the character called "The Joker". Judging by the reams of reviews and reportage about this movie elsewhere in the media, the death of actor Heath Ledger, who played the role, adds another layer of juicy sadomasochistic deliciousness to the proceedings - we get to reflect that the monster on screen may have gotten away, but the anxiety-ridden young actor who played him was carted off to the bone orchard before the film even officially wrapped (and therefore deserves extra special consideration for America's greatest honor, the Oscar award, while the audience deserves its own award for recognizing the lovely ironies embroidered in this cultural phenomenon.) The Joker is not so much as person as a force of nature, a "black swan" in clown white. He has no fingerprints, no ID, no labels in his clothing. All he has is the memory of an evil father who performed a symbolic sadomasochistic oral rape on him, and so he is now programmed to go about similarly mutilating folks, blowing things up, and wrecking everyone's hopes and dreams because he has nothing better to do. He represents himself simply as an agent of "chaos". Taken at face value, he would seem to symbolize the deadly forces of entropy that now threatens to unravel real American life in the real world - a combination of our foolish over- investments in complexity and the frightening capriciousness of both nature and history, which do not reveal their motivations to us. By the way, forget about God here or anything that even remotely smacks of an oppositional notion to evil. All that's back on the cutting room floor somewhere (if it even got that far). And I say this as a non-religious person. But the absence of any possible idea of redemption for the human spirit is impressive. In the world of "the Batman", humanity at its very best is capable only of being confused about itself. This is perhaps an interesting new form of dramaturgy - instead of 'good versus evil' you only get 'befuddlement versus evil'. Goodness has lost its way in the dark night of the American psyche, as might be understandable considering the nation of louts, liars, grifters, bullies, meth freaks, harpies, and tattooed creeps we have become. The best we can bring to this predicament is the low-grade pop therapy that passes for thinking nowadays in educated circles. Any consideration of the heroic is off the menu here. We can't ask that much of ourselves. It's too difficult to imagine. Meanwhile, The People - that is, the citizens of Gotham City - literally banish even the possibility of heroism from town at the end of the movie - they take an axe to it! - perhaps indicating that they deserve whatever befalls them or, shall I say, "us". A few other striking elements of this spectacle deserve attention. One is the grandiosity that saturates the story elements, and the remarkable impotence of it all. The Batman possesses every high-tech weapon and survival implement ever dreamed up, yet they avail him nothing - except a lot off sickening leaps off skyscrapers and futile hard landings on car roofs, shipping containers, sidewalks, and other human carcasses. I doubt the writers/director Chris and Jonathan Nolan consciously aimed to depict good old American ingenuity as utterly valueless in the face of chaos, but that's the effect. Otherwise, everything in the Batman's world is overscaled and out-of-whack from the size of Bruce Wayne's fortune (what an executive package his Daddy must have made off with, and from which investment bank?!), to the energy expended in so many car chases and explosions, to the super-sized doom-worthy towers of the gigantic, soulless city. Finally there is the derivation of all this sadomasochistic nihilism out of a comic book. How appropriate, since we have become a cartoon of a society living on a cartoon of a North American landscape, that the deepest source of our mythos comes from cartoons. We're so far gone that real human emotion is beyond us. We're too far gone - and even without shame - to care how this odious movie portrays us to the rest of the world. It is already making a fortune out there. ____________________________________ My new novel of the post-oil future, World Made By Hand, is available at all booksellers. http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2008/08/dark-knight.html http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Aug 6 22:32:53 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 00:32:53 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Russia Asks That Iran Be Given More Time: No Deadline on Incentives, Envoy Says Message-ID: Russia Asks That Iran Be Given More Time No Deadline on Incentives, Envoy Says By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 7, 2008; A04 UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 6 -- Russia said Wednesday that Iran should be granted more time to respond to a package of incentives that the United States and five other powerful nations have offered Tehran to freeze its uranium enrichment efforts, a stance that may slow U.S. and European efforts to impose U.N. sanctions on Tehran. Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, said the six nations should continue negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program. He dismissed assertions by the United States, Britain and France that Tehran had missed a deadline this week to respond to the offer, which would make a push for U.N. sanctions inevitable. "We haven't set any deadlines for their response," he said. "We have some negotiating opportunities, and rather than focus almost entirely on sanctions we should focus on what those opportunities should be." Churkin's remarks raised the prospect of renewed strains between Washington and Moscow over Iran policy during the final months of President Bush's tenure. Administration officials say Iran is buying time to advance its capacity to enrich uranium, an effort they suspect is intended to fuel a nuclear weapon. They have made it clear they hope to secure a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran before Bush leaves office in January, according to U.N. diplomats. Iran denies that it is seeking nuclear weapons, and says that the council has no right to prevent it from developing a civilian energy program. The United States, France and Britain pressed ahead with efforts to punish Tehran after a conference call Wednesday between representative of the six nations. Britain's top Middle East expert, Kim Howells, indicated that the allies secured agreement with Russia and China to pursue a "dual track strategy" on Iran -- including discussion of possible U.N. sanctions and further contacts between Iran's nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, and Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief. The latest standoff comes nearly two months after the five permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- as well as Germany offered to sweeten a package of economic, political and security incentives to Iran. Solana, the group's representative, gave Iran until last Saturday to accept the package or face further U.N. sanctions. Iran said in a letter to Solana Tuesday that it is ready to respond to the offer as long as the six big powers "simultaneously" provide Tehran with a more detailed explanation of the incentives. The United States, France and Britain accused Iran of stonewalling, and said they would begin talks on a new U.N. sanctions resolution. Churkin, the Russian representative, conceded that "we would have preferred a more straightforward and positive answer from our Iranian colleagues." "The letter that we received yesterday appears to be a stalling tactic," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said. He said the big powers are "beginning to consider the possible outlines of another resolution." Council diplomats and analysts said Russia's initiative would lend support to what they think is an Iranian effort to buy time. "The Iranians seems determine to run out the clock," said Justin Logan of the Cato Institute. "The Iran problem appears likely to be handed to the next president." From tal1 at cogeco.ca Thu Aug 7 00:26:56 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 02:26:56 -0400 Subject: [A-List] comment on: solar energy discovery Message-ID: <90F7D1612FEB443587512244243EC00E@TonyPC> ....This just forwarded to me by a friend. Part of a discussion from a 'Torontopeakoil' list. Tony >> 'Major discovery' from MIT unpractical, and ignores present advances in >> solar baseload Posted by Joseph Romm (Guest Contributor) at 9:26 PM on 04 Aug 2008 Read more about: energy | climate | climate change mitigation | solar thermal power | hydrogen Tools: print | email | + digg | + del.icio.us | + reddit | + stumbleupon I have gotten bombarded by too many people asking me if the story headlined above is true. It isn't. Not even close. > > Science magazine, which published the supposedly "major discovery" by > MIT's Daniel Nocera, headlined their story, "New Catalyst Marks Major Step > in the March Toward Hydrogen Fuel" ($ub. req'd). Doh! But who needs a > major step towards hydrogen? > > And Science seems to be having problems with the laws of physics, as we'll > see. I thought I had explained this to Scientific American, but given > their puff piece -- the findings "help pave the way for a future hydrogen > economy" -- I obviously failed. Let me try again. > > MIT had the sexier headline on unleashing the solar revolution. Too bad > that headline isn't accurate for two mains reasons: The solar revolution > already has been unleashed, and if it hadn't been, this technology > wouldn't do the trick even if were near commercial, which it isn't. MIT > reports: > In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, > boutique alternative [!] into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers > have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy > for use when the sun doesn't shine. > > Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because > storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and > grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit > upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar > energy. > As we'll see, they have not developed an efficient storage process -- and > we have no idea if it's cheap because they don't have anything near a > commercial prototype (indeed, they have not even solved all of the > scientific challenges). But in any case, we already have an inexpensive, > highly efficient process for storing solar energy -- it's called solar > baseload. > > Yes, solar PV would benefit from cheap storage, but PV's biggest problem > is simply its high price, which is expected to drop rapidly in the coming > years. And, in any case, for industrialized countries, you can't get too > excited about storing daytime PV electricity -- which avoids expensive > peak power -- and shifting it to the nighttime, where extra power is > almost worthless. > > But I digress. It is the details of this "major discovery" that render it > quite unexciting and unmajor: > Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this > discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: > the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," > said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and > senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of > Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we > can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon." > Note to Nocera: "Nirvana"? That takes the hype about hydrogen to a new > level. In any case, solar power is already unlimited and soon. Solar > baseload and solar PV are seeing explosive growth now and by 2015, they > will probably both be cheaper than new nuclear -- and cheaper than new > coal and new natural gas if we have a price for emitting carbon dioxide > that comes anywhere near close the damage those emissions due to the > climate. > Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew > Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an > unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split > water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may > be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to > power your house or your electric car, day or night. > [In the voice of Jon Stewart] Oh press release from my beloved alma mater, > why do you mock me? Who exactly is going to buy this electrolyzer, plus a > home hydrogen storage system, plus an expensive fuel cell -- for the sole > purpose of taking valuable zero-carbon peak electricity and throwing more > than half of it away in the round trip, all for the luxury of having > nighttime power which we can buy for virtually nothing on the grid. Why > not just run your friggin' electric car on cheap wind power that blows > mainly at night? > > And the coverage gets better -- if by better I mean worse -- courtesy of > Science: > The catalyst isn't perfect. It still requires excess electricity to start > the water-splitting reaction, energy that isn't recovered and stored in > the fuel. > Oh related story from a beloved science journal that published "A Road Map > for U.S. Carbon Reductions," why do you mock me? Did Science really think > that even an illustrious MIT scientist could violate the laws of physics > and split water into hydrogen and oxygen using less energy than is > recoverd and stored in the fuel (i. e. emitted when the oxygen and > hydrogen are recombined)? If you could do that, why bother with solar > energy -- just split the damn water and recombine it, extract the excess > energy, and repeat over and over and over again. You'd have a terrific > free-energy-generating perpetual motion machine and a Nobel prize and > probably never grow old and get to date Uma Thurman. > And for now, the catalyst can accept only low levels of electrical > current. Nocera says he's hopeful that both problems can be solved, and > because the catalysts are so easy to make, he expects progress will be > swift. > No. I'm sure Nocera does not believe the first problem can be solved as it > would require violating laws of thermodynamics, and he is a "Professor or > Energy" at MIT. > > Why are so many serious people confused on this point? Even Scientific > American ran this absurd caption: > Water Refinery?: A new catalyst and polymer might prove key in delivering > cost-effective -- and plentiful -- hydrogen from water. > Water refinery? Oh magazine that once published an article I wrote with > Andy Frank on plug-in hybrids [PDF], why do you mock me? You can't > "refine" water like you can refine petroleum. You can't extract energy > when you split water. You extract energy when you make water. Water is the > end state of generating energy by combining hydrogen and oxygen. Water is > a waste product, like carbon dioxide, though an especially useful waste > product. > > Back to Science magazine: > Further work is also needed to reduce the cost of cathodes and to link the > electrodes to solar cells to provide clean electricity. A final big push > will be to see if the catalyst or others like it can operate in seawater. > If so, future societies could use sunlight to generate hydrogen from > seawater and then pipe it to large banks of fuel cells on shore that could > convert it into electricity and fresh water, thereby using the sun and > oceans to fill two of the world's greatest needs. > So we would place large solar-energy-gathering systems on the turbulent > ocean and build large hydrogen pipelines and large banks of fuel cells? > No, no, and no. Honestly, people, baseload solar can do all of that for > far less cost. Nobody is going to spend a gazillion dollars for a process > that throws away more than half the original solar electricity, even if it > were practical, which I doubt. And solar baseload can also desalinate > water, as can ocean thermal energy. > > Back to the MIT release: > Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their > homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar > energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel > cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the > past. > Why does professor of energy Nocera hope for something so unlikely and > unuseful and expensive and inefficient? Most homes probably couldn't put > enough PV panels on their house to generate excess solar energy anyway, > even if anybody ever developed unaffordable household fuel cell. > > I'll keep my PV panels for peak power and in a few years buy a plug-in > (and lease the battery) and run it on nighttime wind and not have to waste > money on a household fuel cell -- which are currently wildly expensive -- > while trying to convince my neighbors and my local zoning board that > generating and storing hydrogen in my home is not an unsafe, industrial > activity that should require massive ventilation, blow-out walls, and a > 50-foot clearance between my house and any neighboring buildings. > > Final note to science journalist and scientists: Please stop using words > like "major discovery" or "nirvana" or "revolutionary" or "breakthrough" > or even "cost-effective" in the same sentence as "hydrogen." > > This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for > American Progress Action Fund. > > > > And a comment on the above from the engineer on our project - Jack > > Good back to reality article > Bizarre how such common sense knowledge does not prevail in institution > like MIT ,they are not doing a favour to their credibility > Hydrogen is very much like Biofuels production at the moment ,consequences > do not fit reality. > May be we should only use energy when the source (sun) provides and we > will be more in tune with the only energy cycle on the planet ,all other > life forms abide by it ,our thirst for capturing it and storing it for > later use blurs this cycle and encourages the production and consumption > of ressources ,we already do enough damage with the energy we are handed > during sun hours. > Cheers > Gil > > -----Original Message----- > From: Tony B. [mailto:tal1 at cogeco.ca] > Sent: Wednesday, 6 August 2008 2:23 p.m. > To: Undisclosed-Recipient:; > Subject: solar energy discovery > > >>> http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/31/energyefficiency.energy >>> Cheap way to 'split water' could lead to abundant clean fuel >>> >>> ?????? Alok Jha, green technology correspondent >>> ?????? guardian.co.uk, Thursday July 31 2008 >>> >>> Splitting a few litres of water would be enough to power a home for a >>> day, >>> scientists claim >>> >>> Scientists have found an inexpensive way to produce hydrogen from water, >>> a >>> discovery that could lead to a plentiful source of environmentally >>> friendly fuel >>> to power homes and cars. >>> >>> The technique, which mimics the way photosynthesis works in plants, also >>> provides a highly efficient way to store energy, potentially paving the >>> way to >>> making solar power more economically viable. >>> >>> Hydrogen is a clean, energy-rich fuel that many experts believe could >>> become >>> important as nations attempt to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. >>> The gas >>> can be produced by splitting water but current techniques are expensive, >>> use >>> harsh chemicals and need carefully controlled environments in which to >>> operate. >>> >>> Daniel Nocera, a chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, >>> has >>> developed a catalyst made from cobalt and phosphorus that can split >>> water >>> at >>> room temperature, a technique he describes in the journal Science. "I'm >>> using >>> cheap, Earth-abundant materials that you can mass-manufacture. As long >>> as >>> you can >>> charge the surface, you can create the catalyst and it doesn't get any >>> cheaper than that." >>> >>> He said the discovery could have major implications for the uptake of >>> solar >>> photovoltaic technology. One of the reasons, he said, why solar panels >>> have not >>> penetrated the consumer market properly is that no one has found a way >>> to >>> store energy in a way that, when the Sun is not shining, people still >>> have >>> electricity. "You can't think about an energy economy or a global energy >>> system only >>> when the sun is out." >>> >>> Batteries could do the job but they cannot store anywhere near as much >>> energy >>> per unit mass as chemical fuels. Nocera's technique would allow the >>> storage >>> of excess energy from sunlight during the daytime. "You could imagine, >>> during >>> the day you have a photovoltaic cell, you take some of that electricity >>> and use >>> it in your house, then take the other part of that electricity for my >>> catalyst, feed the catalyst water and you get hydrogen and oxygen." >>> >>> At night, the hydrogen and oxygen could be recombined in a fuel cell to >>> produce an electrical current to power a home or recharge an electric >>> car. "So I've >>> made your house a gas station and a power station. It's all enabled >>> because >>> we can use light plus water to make a chemical fuel, which is hydrogen >>> and >>> oxygen." >>> >>> Converting an Olympic swimming pool of water into hydrogen and oxygen >>> per >>> second would create 43 terawatts of power. "In the next 50 years, the >>> world needs >>> 16 terawatts. By the end of the century, we'll need around 30," said >>> Nocera. >>> "There's a heck of lot of energy stored in chemical bonds." >>> >>> For a home, Nocera said that it would be enough to split a few litres of >>> water per day into hydrogen and oxygen. The water would be reformed when >>> the gases >>> were put through the fuel cell. >>> >>> There is much work to be done in converting Nocera's idea into a >>> commercial >>> product. At the moment, his catalyst can only accept small amounts of >>> electrical current at once, meaning that it would be an inefficient way >>> to quickly >>> store large amounts of energy. But Nocera is certain that engineers will >>> iron out >>> the issues and produce commercial-scale products within a decade. >>> >>> James Barber, a leading researcher in artificial photosynthesis at >>> Imperial >>> College London, said Nocera's work was a "giant leap" toward generating >>> clean, >>> carbon-free energy. "This is a major discovery with enormous >>> implications >>> for >>> the future prosperity of humankind. The importance of their discovery >>> cannot >>> be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies >>> for >>> energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and >>> addressing >>> the global climate change problem." >>> >>> >>> >>> **************************************************** >>> Access LABOR-L archives and manage your subscription >>> at https://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/labor-l.html >>> >>> - ----- End forwarded message ----- >>> >>> - -- >>> *** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! *************************************** >>> * BOYCOTT BOURGEOIS MASS-MEDIA * RSS/XML newsfeeds from around * >>> * Use these links in RSS readers * the planet: Who needs CNN/Fox? * >>> **** Critical endorsement only **** Most sites need donations **** >>> * http://www.greenleft.org.au/rss/glw.xml Green Left Weekly * >>> * http://www.radio4all.net/ainfos_rp.rdf A-Infos Radio Project * >>> * http://demandmedia.net/xml/rss2.xml Collaborative Video Blog * >>> * http://cop-watch.blogspot.com/atom.xml Cop Watch * >>> ******** PRIVATE PROPERTY IS THE ANTITHESIS OF DEMOCRACY ******** >>> GPG fingerprint = 2E7F 2D69 4B0B C8D5 07E3 09C3 5E8D C4B4 461B B771 >>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >>> Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) >>> >>> iD8DBQFIkrICXo3EtEYbt3ERAgBnAJoCv2IGfYsDQfle0y7ws13caoQezACfdYGR >>> GUIM3jrVL4Zn6yHmhVOx2g8= >>> =sSsi >>> -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- >>> >> > > From shimogamo at attglobal.net Thu Aug 7 07:37:11 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:37:11 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Coal Scuttled Message-ID: <489AFA87.70703@attglobal.net> The climate camp outside the Kingsnorth power station is contesting the biggest issue of them all. by George Monbiot Published in the Guardian 5th August 05 2008 As soon as I have finished this column I will jump on the train to Kent. Last year Al Gore remarked "I can't understand why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants" {1}. Like hundreds of honorary young people, I am casting my Zimmer frame aside to answer the call. Everything now hinges on stopping coal. Whether we prevent runaway climate change largely depends on whether we keep using the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel. Unless we either leave it in the ground or leave the carbon dioxide it produces in the ground, human development will start spiralling backwards. The more coal is burnt, the smaller are our chances of future comfort and prosperity. The industrial revolution has gone into reverse. It is not because of polar bears that I will be joining the climate camp outside the coal plant at Kingsnorth. It is not because of butterflies or frogs or penguins or rainforests, much as I love them all. It is because everything I have fought for and that all campaigners for social justice have ever fought for - food, clean water, shelter, security - is jeopardised by climate change. Those who claim to identify a conflict between environmentalism and humanitarianism have either failed to read the science or have refused to understand it. Our government could lead the world in one of two directions. Roughly one third of our power stations will come to the end of their lives by 2020. It could replace them with low-carbon plants or it could repeat - this time in full knowledge of the consequences - the disastrous decisions of the past. E.on's application to build a new coal-burning power station at Kingsnorth is the first for many years. At least five other such proposals hang on the outcome {2}. Between them they would account for 54 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year {3}: as much as the entire economy would produce if the UK, in line with current science, were to cut its emissions by ninety per cent {4}. The government seems determined to make the wrong decision. It has inherited the party's traditional love for coal, but, being New Labour, now supports the bosses not the workers, and has colluded with them to make the case for a new generation of power stations. It has one justification for this policy: that one day dirty coal will be transformed into clean coal by means of carbon capture and storage (CCS). All that is needed to effect this transformation is a sprinkling of alchemical dust, in the form of the future price of carbon. The market, it claims, will automatically ensure that coal plants bury their carbon dioxide, as this will be cheaper than buying pollution permits. Last month the House of Commons environmental audit committee examined this proposition and found that it was nonsense {5}. It cited studies by the UK Energy Research Centre and Climate Change Capital which estimate that capturing carbon emissions from existing coal plants will cost seventy to one-hundred or ninety to 155 euros per tonne of carbon dioxide. Yet the government predicts that the likely price of carbon between 2013 to 2020 will be around 39 euros per tonne. Even E.on believes that it won't rise above fifty euros. "The gap between the carbon price and the cost of CCS", the committee finds, "is enormous". The energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, confessed to the MPs "I hope that the strengthening of carbon markets ... will bring forward a sufficiently good price for carbon that it will provide some of the financial incentive for CCS. Will it be enough? I do not know." This is the sum of government policy: to cross its fingers and hope the market delivers. If it approves a new coal plant at Kingsnorth, it will do so on the grounds that the power station will be "CCS-ready". CCS-ready seems to mean nothing more than this: that there's enough space on the site for a carbon capture plant, should the developer deign one day to build it. The committee warns that this meaningless promise could be used "as a fig leaf to give unabated coal-fired power stations an appearance of environmental acceptability" {6}. The government has already shown us what it wants to do. In January, Gary Mohammed, a civil servant at the business department, emailed E.on to ask whether he should include CCS as a condition for approving its new coal plant. (This gives a fascinating insight into how government works: companies are asked to write their own rules). E.on replied that the government "has no right to withhold approval for conventional plant". Six minutes later Mr Mohammed answered thus: "Thanks. I won't include. Hope to get the set of draft conditions out today or tomorrow". {7} There is a simple means by which the government could ensure that our future electricity supplies would not commit the UK to stoking runaway climate change. It would do as California has done, and set, by a certain date, a maximum level for carbon pollution per megawatt-hour of electricity production. This would have to be a low one: perhaps eighty kilograms of carbon dioxide. Then, in line with the government's precious principles (or absence thereof), it could leave the rest to the market. I have now reached the point at which I no longer care whether or not the answer is nuclear. Let it happen, as long as its total emissions are taken into account, we know exactly how and where the waste is to be buried, how much this will cost and who will pay, and there is a legal guarantee that no civil nuclear materials will be used by the military. We can no longer afford any rigid principle but one: that the harm done to people living now and in the future must be minimised by the most effective means, whatever they might be. But I believe the likely response would be more interesting than this. Several recent studies have shown how, through maximising the diversity of renewable generators and by spreading them as far apart as possible, by using new techniques for balancing demand with supply and clever schemes for storing energy, between eighty and one-hundred per cent of our electricity could be produced by renewables, without any loss in the reliability of power supplies {8, 9, 10}. Unlike CCS, wind, wave, tidal, solar, hydro and geothermal power are proven technologies. Unlike nuclear power, they can be safely decommissioned as soon as they become redundant. A policy like this requires both courage and vision. So look at the current cabinet - Brown, Straw, Darling, Hutton, Blears, Kelly, Hoon - and weep. Every man and woman with backbone was purged from this government years ago, leaving those who know how to appease the interests that might threaten them. These people won't stand up to business, even when the future prospects of mankind are at stake. If fear is the only thing that moves them, we must present them with a greater threat than the companies planning new coal plants. We must show that this issue has become a political flashpoint; that the public revulsion towards new coal could help to eject them from office. You could do no better than joining us at Kingsnorth this week. www.monbiot.com References: 1. Quoted by Nicholas Kristof, 16th August 2007. The Big Melt. New York Times. 2. Longannet & Cockenzie (Scottish Power); Ferrybridge (Scottish and Southern Energy); Fiddler's Ferry (Scottish and Southern Energy); Tilbury (RWE npower); Blyth (RWE npower). 3. Greenpeace makes this calculation as follows: "10.6 GW (the generation capacity of the six plants) x 7884 hours of generation per year, assuming 90% operational = 83.57 TWH/y. 83.57 TWH/y x 0.65 = 54 mt/CO2/y". See footnote 23: http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmenvaud/654/654we13.htm 4. The provisional government estimate for the UK's CO2 emissions in 2007 is 543.7 million tonnes. Defra, July 2008. UK Climate Change Programme. Annual Report to Parliament, July 2008, p9. http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/ukccp/pdf/ukccp-ann-report-july08.pdf 5. House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, 22nd July 2008 . Carbon capture and storage. Ninth Report of Session 2007?08. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmenvaud/654/654.pdf 6. ibid. 7. You can open the emails on this page: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/government-climate-policy-dictated-by-german-utility-giant-20080131 8. German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Technical Thermodynamics Section Systems Analysis and Technology Assessment, June 2006. Trans-Mediterranean Interconnection for Concentrating Solar Power. Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany. http://www.dlr.de/tt/Portaldata/41/Resources/dokumente/institut/system/projects/TRANS-CSP_Full_Report_Final.pdf 9. Mark Barrett, April 2006. A Renewable Electricity System for the UK: A Response to the 2006 Energy Review. UCL Bartlett School Of Graduate Studies - Complex Built Environment Systems Group. http://www.cbes.ucl.ac.uk/projects/energyreview/Bartlett%20Response%20to%20Energy%20Review%20-%20electricity.pdf 10. Centre for Alternative Technology, 10th July 2007. ZeroCarbonBritain: an alternative energy strategy. This will be made available at www.zerocarbonbritain.com. Copyright (c) 2006 Monbiot.com http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/08/05/coal-scuttled/ http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From shimogamo at attglobal.net Thu Aug 7 08:03:10 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:03:10 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Coal Scuttled Message-ID: <489B009E.9010706@attglobal.net> The climate camp outside the Kingsnorth power station is contesting the biggest issue of them all. by George Monbiot Published in the Guardian 5th August 05 2008 As soon as I have finished this column I will jump on the train to Kent. Last year Al Gore remarked "I can't understand why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants" {1}. Like hundreds of honorary young people, I am casting my Zimmer frame aside to answer the call. Everything now hinges on stopping coal. Whether we prevent runaway climate change largely depends on whether we keep using the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel. Unless we either leave it in the ground or leave the carbon dioxide it produces in the ground, human development will start spiralling backwards. The more coal is burnt, the smaller are our chances of future comfort and prosperity. The industrial revolution has gone into reverse. It is not because of polar bears that I will be joining the climate camp outside the coal plant at Kingsnorth. It is not because of butterflies or frogs or penguins or rainforests, much as I love them all. It is because everything I have fought for and that all campaigners for social justice have ever fought for - food, clean water, shelter, security - is jeopardised by climate change. Those who claim to identify a conflict between environmentalism and humanitarianism have either failed to read the science or have refused to understand it. Our government could lead the world in one of two directions. Roughly one third of our power stations will come to the end of their lives by 2020. It could replace them with low-carbon plants or it could repeat - this time in full knowledge of the consequences - the disastrous decisions of the past. E.on's application to build a new coal-burning power station at Kingsnorth is the first for many years. At least five other such proposals hang on the outcome {2}. Between them they would account for 54 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year {3}: as much as the entire economy would produce if the UK, in line with current science, were to cut its emissions by ninety per cent {4}. The government seems determined to make the wrong decision. It has inherited the party's traditional love for coal, but, being New Labour, now supports the bosses not the workers, and has colluded with them to make the case for a new generation of power stations. It has one justification for this policy: that one day dirty coal will be transformed into clean coal by means of carbon capture and storage (CCS). All that is needed to effect this transformation is a sprinkling of alchemical dust, in the form of the future price of carbon. The market, it claims, will automatically ensure that coal plants bury their carbon dioxide, as this will be cheaper than buying pollution permits. Last month the House of Commons environmental audit committee examined this proposition and found that it was nonsense {5}. It cited studies by the UK Energy Research Centre and Climate Change Capital which estimate that capturing carbon emissions from existing coal plants will cost seventy to one-hundred or ninety to 155 euros per tonne of carbon dioxide. Yet the government predicts that the likely price of carbon between 2013 to 2020 will be around 39 euros per tonne. Even E.on believes that it won't rise above fifty euros. "The gap between the carbon price and the cost of CCS", the committee finds, "is enormous". The energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, confessed to the MPs "I hope that the strengthening of carbon markets ... will bring forward a sufficiently good price for carbon that it will provide some of the financial incentive for CCS. Will it be enough? I do not know." This is the sum of government policy: to cross its fingers and hope the market delivers. If it approves a new coal plant at Kingsnorth, it will do so on the grounds that the power station will be "CCS-ready". CCS-ready seems to mean nothing more than this: that there's enough space on the site for a carbon capture plant, should the developer deign one day to build it. The committee warns that this meaningless promise could be used "as a fig leaf to give unabated coal-fired power stations an appearance of environmental acceptability" {6}. The government has already shown us what it wants to do. In January, Gary Mohammed, a civil servant at the business department, emailed E.on to ask whether he should include CCS as a condition for approving its new coal plant. (This gives a fascinating insight into how government works: companies are asked to write their own rules). E.on replied that the government "has no right to withhold approval for conventional plant". Six minutes later Mr Mohammed answered thus: "Thanks. I won't include. Hope to get the set of draft conditions out today or tomorrow". {7} There is a simple means by which the government could ensure that our future electricity supplies would not commit the UK to stoking runaway climate change. It would do as California has done, and set, by a certain date, a maximum level for carbon pollution per megawatt-hour of electricity production. This would have to be a low one: perhaps eighty kilograms of carbon dioxide. Then, in line with the government's precious principles (or absence thereof), it could leave the rest to the market. I have now reached the point at which I no longer care whether or not the answer is nuclear. Let it happen, as long as its total emissions are taken into account, we know exactly how and where the waste is to be buried, how much this will cost and who will pay, and there is a legal guarantee that no civil nuclear materials will be used by the military. We can no longer afford any rigid principle but one: that the harm done to people living now and in the future must be minimised by the most effective means, whatever they might be. But I believe the likely response would be more interesting than this. Several recent studies have shown how, through maximising the diversity of renewable generators and by spreading them as far apart as possible, by using new techniques for balancing demand with supply and clever schemes for storing energy, between eighty and one-hundred per cent of our electricity could be produced by renewables, without any loss in the reliability of power supplies {8, 9, 10}. Unlike CCS, wind, wave, tidal, solar, hydro and geothermal power are proven technologies. Unlike nuclear power, they can be safely decommissioned as soon as they become redundant. A policy like this requires both courage and vision. So look at the current cabinet - Brown, Straw, Darling, Hutton, Blears, Kelly, Hoon - and weep. Every man and woman with backbone was purged from this government years ago, leaving those who know how to appease the interests that might threaten them. These people won't stand up to business, even when the future prospects of mankind are at stake. If fear is the only thing that moves them, we must present them with a greater threat than the companies planning new coal plants. We must show that this issue has become a political flashpoint; that the public revulsion towards new coal could help to eject them from office. You could do no better than joining us at Kingsnorth this week. www.monbiot.com References: 1. Quoted by Nicholas Kristof, 16th August 2007. The Big Melt. New York Times. 2. Longannet & Cockenzie (Scottish Power); Ferrybridge (Scottish and Southern Energy); Fiddler's Ferry (Scottish and Southern Energy); Tilbury (RWE npower); Blyth (RWE npower). 3. Greenpeace makes this calculation as follows: "10.6 GW (the generation capacity of the six plants) x 7884 hours of generation per year, assuming 90% operational = 83.57 TWH/y. 83.57 TWH/y x 0.65 = 54 mt/CO2/y". See footnote 23: http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmenvaud/654/654we13.htm 4. The provisional government estimate for the UK's CO2 emissions in 2007 is 543.7 million tonnes. Defra, July 2008. UK Climate Change Programme. Annual Report to Parliament, July 2008, p9. http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/ukccp/pdf/ukccp-ann-report-july08.pdf 5. House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, 22nd July 2008 . Carbon capture and storage. Ninth Report of Session 2007?08. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmenvaud/654/654.pdf 6. ibid. 7. You can open the emails on this page: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/government-climate-policy-dictated-by-german-utility-giant-20080131 8. German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Technical Thermodynamics Section Systems Analysis and Technology Assessment, June 2006. Trans-Mediterranean Interconnection for Concentrating Solar Power. Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany. http://www.dlr.de/tt/Portaldata/41/Resources/dokumente/institut/system/projects/TRANS-CSP_Full_Report_Final.pdf 9. Mark Barrett, April 2006. A Renewable Electricity System for the UK: A Response to the 2006 Energy Review. UCL Bartlett School Of Graduate Studies - Complex Built Environment Systems Group. http://www.cbes.ucl.ac.uk/projects/energyreview/Bartlett%20Response%20to%20Energy%20Review%20-%20electricity.pdf 10. Centre for Alternative Technology, 10th July 2007. ZeroCarbonBritain: an alternative energy strategy. This will be made available at www.zerocarbonbritain.com. Copyright (c) 2006 Monbiot.com http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/08/05/coal-scuttled/ http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From nscchicago at igc.org Thu Aug 7 10:03:22 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 11:03:22 -0500 Subject: [A-List] PEOPLE'S RIGHTS, IMMIGRANT AND NOT, IN A SICK SOCIETY Message-ID: <009701c8f8a7$279237e0$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> Where is anti-democracy support for democracy? Where is weakness championed as strength? In ancient times there were two dragons, one in China and one in Europe. One was fanciful with magic, the other was to be slain. I think there is but one theory or legend on Creation which imposes guilt from birth. For which is Earth to be plundered? For which are differences among people to be sneered at and attacked? Thanks to those who posted this news. Seems the Road to a Police State is coming right along. 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From: abeltranjurisdr at aol.com Subject: [Border01] Immigration: The 'Please Deport Me' Plan Falls Flat on First Day Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:31:43 -0400 Size: 19772 Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080807/c130a7e6/attachment-0004.eml -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Al Soto Subject: [Border01] Chertoff threatens governor, governor threatens Chertoff* Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 13:39:28 -0700 (PDT) Size: 11557 Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080807/c130a7e6/attachment-0005.eml From nscchicago at igc.org Thu Aug 7 10:31:43 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 11:31:43 -0500 Subject: [A-List] Join Poor People's Economic and Human Rights Campaign! Message-ID: <010501c8f8ab$1e4fee30$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> Join Poor People's Economic and Human Rights Campaign! You are receiving this email from Nicaragua Network because you are subscribed to the Hotline list. To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, add nicanet at afgj.org to your address book today. Nicaragua Network www.nicanet.org Join Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign! [The Nicaragua Network has received this important announcement from the Poor People's Economic Rights Campaign.] POOR PEOPLE'S ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN **** 2008 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION **** AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2008: MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, USA AUG 1ST -23RD MINNESOTA POVERTY BUS TOUR We will make stops in communities throughout Minnesota to expose violations of the human right to health care, housing, food, education, communication and living wage jobs, to share experiences, exchange ideas, collect human rights documentation, and join local actions in the fight for economic human rights. Throughout The journey, we will be hosting teach-ins, panels, workshops and performances to help further mobilize and grow the movement to end poverty in the United States. AUG 24TH -28TH POVERTY REALITY TOURS OF MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL We will be taking members of the national and international media, the human rights community, religious leaders and many others on Poverty Reality Tours of Minneapolis/St. Paul and surrounding areas, exposing the plight of people denied economic human rights in the Twin Cities. AUG 29TH WORLD COURT OF WOMEN PPEHRC will host a World Court of Women to expose poverty and war in The US and around the world caused by the Bush Administration, before a jury of human rights defenders and movement leaders from around the world. AUG 30TH MINNESOTA TRUTH COMMISSION Individuals from throughout Minnesota will present testimony detailing their experiences of economic human rights violations. AUG 31ST BASKETBALL GAME: PPEHRC VS. THE BILLIONAIRES FOR BUSH ARTS & CULTURE PERFORMANCES WITH PPEHRC HUMAN RIGHTS CHOIR The PPERHC basketball team will face off against The Billionaires for Bush - a grassroots network of corporate lobbyists, decadent heirs, Halliburton CEOs and other winners under George W. Bush's economic policies. Later, experience the power of resistance art, music and poetry as we as we celebrate the critical role art and culture play as a voice for this growing movement for economic human rights. SEPT 1ST MARCH TO STOP THE WAR! On the first day of the convention, PPEHRC will join the "March to Stop the War!" tying the issues of poverty, homelessness and the health care crisis, under which millions of people in our rich country are suffering and dying, with the spending of trillions of dollars on an immoral war in Iraq. We will march to stop the wars - at home and abroad! SEPT 1ST NATIONAL TRUTH COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE US After the march, we will gather to hear stories of resistance and struggle told by people from communities across the country who have suffered economic human rights violations here in the richest country in the world. SEPT 2ND MARCH FOR OUR LIVES: MONEY FOR HEALTH CARE AND HOUSING NOT FOR WAR! Health care and housing should never be luxuries - not in the United States, not anywhere. Toward this end, the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign calls for you to join us as we fill the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota in a powerful, peaceful demonstration for the right to health care, housing and all economic human rights. We will march because as poverty, hunger, unemployment and homelessness grow throughout this country, political leaders from both major parties have abandoned us. We cannot afford to be silent. We cannot afford to be disappeared from the public eye and the political debates as our families suffer. This September we will bring together poor and homeless people of every race, background and age, students, social workers, union members, lawyers, religious leaders, artists and everyone who stands for social and economic justice. We will make our voices heard as we "March for Our Lives to demand "Money for Health Care and Housing, Not for War!" March for Our Lives September 2, 2008- 4 PM Mears Park, St. Paul, Minnesota Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign http://www.economichumanrights.org Ph: 612-821-2364 Forward email This email was sent to nscchicago at igc.org by nicanet at afgj.org. Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribeT | Privacy Policy. Email Marketing by Nicaragua Network | 1247 E St. SE | Washington | DC | 20003 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 16172 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080807/f7758e4f/attachment.txt From nscchicago at igc.org Thu Aug 7 10:44:25 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 11:44:25 -0500 Subject: [A-List] SOLIDARITY WITH COLOMBIA NICARAGUA: LABOR DELEGATION GOING CULTURAL TOUR COMING Message-ID: <012201c8f8ac$e2841730$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> Tom Baker here and Colombia Solidarity alerts us to coy ploy by Bush Uribe: bust them for drugs but say nothing else Nicaragua - LABOR DELEGATION International in Managua Nov 23-30 CULTURAL TOUR Coming March April 2009 - and it should be quite a show. We, NSC, needs others to plug in with us. Thank you -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 19:10:14 -0400 (EDT) Size: 16495 Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080807/8245b827/attachment-0004.eml -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Subject: Cultural Tour 2009! Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 14:45:24 -0700 Size: 129498 Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080807/8245b827/attachment-0005.eml From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Thu Aug 7 12:31:40 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:31:40 -0400 Subject: [A-List] "Top 1000 World Banks 2008 Message-ID: <489B074C.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> Edited by Marvin G. CB ^^^^ >From "Top 1000 World Banks 2008", The Banker, July 1, 2008: ...The traditional banking landscape, dominated by the US and Europe, is shifting. [...] ...the US banks have taken a battering as a result of the financial crisis and profits in the 2008 Top 1000 listing were down more than 40% on the previous year to $112.8bn. The critical aspect is that the role of US banks, which was once dominant, is in serious decline. [...] US banks? profits in the 2008 listing were just 14% of the Top 1000 World Banks aggregate profits, compared with 24% last year and a huge 49% five years ago in The Banker?s 2003 listing. The role of US banks is also slipping in other areas - in the 2008 listing aggregate, Tier 1 capital slipped to 16% from 19% the previous year and aggregate assets fell to 11% from 13% in the 2007 listing. And in aggregate terms on profitability US banks usually lead the world, but this year have fallen to a 17.9% average return on capital, below the reduced global average return on capital of 20%. Are US banks losing their grip? Some will argue that they will bounce back, and Citigroup?s profits of just $1.7bn will not be repeated. Perhaps so, but the trend suggests that banks outside the traditional developed world are growing, and the dominance by US banks and also the Europeans is diminishing. For example, the number of US banks in this year?s listing fell to 169 from 185 last year and from 210 banks five years ago in the 2003 listing. [...] While some of the impact of the US subprime crisis and the credit crunch can be seen in the 2008 listings, it is not the whole picture, as a lot more financial damage has emerged in recent months that will only be seen fully in our 2009 rankings. In analysing the bank write-downs/credit losses and capital raised since the beginning of 2007 until end-May 2008, the Washington-based Institute of International Finance (IIF) calculates that the total worldwide bank losses during this period amounted to $386.7bn, with the total capital replenishments reaching $276.4bn (see page 142 for bank breakdowns). The total losses here, only partially reflected in 2007 bank results ($235.6bn applying to calendar 2007), show that the Americas and Europe took the biggest hits with $165.7bn and $199.6bn respectively, followed by Asian institutions with a modest $21.4bn. The capital replenishments follow a similar pattern with the Americas and Europe raising $141.3bn and $125.5bn respectively, followed by Asia with $9.6bn. How high the write-downs and losses will go remains to be seen but, according to recent Bloomberg and Accenture research, estimates of such losses could go well beyond the $380bn at end-May 2008 and could reach a total of $1200bn. Interpretation, however, is key to understanding the impact of the credit crunch on banks? results, and in particular what goes to reserves and what hits the income statement. [...] ...Despite significant write-downs and losses in the financial crisis by European banks, the 266 EU(27) banks in this year?s listing, compared with 279 last year, managed to maintain their share of the Top 1000 World Banks in all areas. The EU(27) banks held on to 42% of aggregate Tier 1 capital, 53% of aggregate assets and 41% of aggregate profits despite the crisis. In terms of profitability, EU(27) banks, at 19.7% return on capital, were down but close to the global 20.0% average. The 184 Asian banks, up from 174 last year, now account for 19% of Top 1000 profits, up from 12% last year, with Tier 1 capital up to 15% from 14% and assets steady at 12% of the Top 1000 aggregate. One cannot ignore that there are three Chinese banks in the world?s top 13 banks whereas five years ago there were none, and Asian banks (excluding Japan) accounted then for just 10% of profits. While the role of the 98 Japanese banks in the Top 1000 remains flat or in decline, accounting for 10% of capital, 9% of assets and 6% of profits, other regions, such as the 97 Middle East and 47 Latin American banks are expanding but from very low bases. Middle East profits have risen from 3% to 4% of the Top 1000 and Latin profits have doubled to 4%. ...This year UK-based HSBC Holdings took the crown as the world?s largest bank after nine years of US domination...HSBC roared into first place with a 19.5% expansion of Tier 1 capital to $104,967m, well ahead of Citigroup which remained second but whose capital slipped by 1.8% to $89,226m. From eighth place last year, Royal Bank of Scot?land rocketed into third this year with capital jumping a huge 47.7% to $88,888m as a result of the ABN AMRO acquisition. RBS now becomes one of the six titans, pushing out France?s Credit Agricole Group while Bank of America drops from leadership to fifth place with a sizeable 8.4% decline in capital. [...] In this Top 1000 analysis, The Banker also provides a Top 25 listing based on market capitalisation data as at June 12, 2008 (below). This year?s market capitalisation listing looks very different to last year?s and also differs significantly from the Tier 1 ranking. This year, China?s three largest banks, led by ICBC, take three of the top four places, asserting China?s increasing role on the world stage, and last year?s market leader Citigroup drops to ninth following its massive share price fall. As US banks slip down the table, banks such as the Chinese and Spain?s Banco Santander (seventh) are taking the leading positions. HSBC, the leading bank by Tier 1 capital, maintained its third-place ranking in this table. [...] Looking closely at the Top 1000, the 2008 ranking includes 83 new entrants, 45 last year, with China Everbright Bank heading the newcomers at 195th place (page 166) and in terms of the fastest movers (page 165) 79 banks moved up more than 100 places in the listing led by Nigeria?s Oceanic Bank, which leapt a staggering 565 places to 310th place. Looking to the future, the four-year onward march of expanding bank profits and profitability has been halted, and the 2008 ranking reflects the impact of the financial crisis that began last August and has yet to be fully played out. Given the reduced global economic outlook for 2008, with growth estimated by Fitch Ratings at 2.6%, and major concerns about growth in the US and UK, 2008 bank results look flat at best in developed markets, with emerging economies likely to pick up the slack. [...] http://www.thebanker.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/5878/TOP_1OOO_World_Banks_2008.html This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Aug 7 14:23:27 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 16:23:27 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Juan Cole on Obama's Muslim Outreach Coordinator Mazen Asbahi's Resignation and Islamophobia Message-ID: Thursday, August 07, 2008 Asbahi Resignation and Islamophobia Kudos to Jake Tapper for pointing out that Mazen Asbahi, the coordinator for Muslim affairs of the Obama campaign until he stepped down after 10 days, did nothing that Karen Hughes did not do. This resignation is in some ways a fallout of the witch hunt against American Muslims conducted by the Department of Justice under Ashcroft and Gonzales (those paragons of probity). Especially egregious was the naming of the Islamic Association of North America and the Muslim Brotherhood, among other perfectly peaceful organizations as 'unindicted co-conspirators' in the case against the charity, Holy Land Foundation-- a case the government did not win and which was always a waste of time. So a trumped up and failed case against Muslims generates unsubstantiated allegations that in turn can be cited by Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal to smear Muslims. You wonder if in Rupert's mind, Muslim = a kind of Aborigine. Basically the Right has it set up so that Muslims who have connections to *gasp* Muslim organizations can be smeared at will. In the meantime, rightwing Jewish-Americans with connections to settler extremists on the West Bank are supported by the GOP. Steve Clemons said it best. Truth in advertising: Mazen studied with me. Help Wanted: Muslim Outreach Adviser For Obama Campaign August 06, 2008 3:55 PM Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, has been taking some heat for not doing enough to reach out to the Muslim community. (At the very least!) In an attempt to rectify that, a new volunteer national coordinator for Muslim American affairs for the Obama campaign -- Chicago attorney Mazen Asbahi -- was appointed on July 25. Asbahi lasted all of ten days. The problem, reports today's Wall Street Journal, started last Friday when the "Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report" -- an internet newsletter that monitors the fundamentalist Islamic group the Muslim Brotherhood -- noted that: "Democratic Presidential candidate Barrack Obama has named Mazen Asbahi, a Chicago lawyer with ties to a financial organization close to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, as National Coordinator for Muslim American Affairs for his campaign." The newsletter noted that Asbahi was listed as one of six trustees of Allied Asset Advisors Funds in a May 4, 2000 SEC filing. And according to Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, that group was a "subsidiary of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) and adviser to the Dow Jones Islamic Fund, both affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)," referring to its own February 2007 report "EXTREMISM AND THE ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA (ISNA)." Part of that report details the role NAIT played in an ideological struggle in a Bridgeview, Illinois, mosque, and the fundamentalist imam, Jamal Said, who ultimately won that battle. Said served along with Asbahi as a trustee of Allied Asset Advisors Funds. In 2004, the Chicago Tribune had an interesting story on Said's internal struggle to control this mosque. Read it HERE. Said was also one of the many listed as an "unindicted co-conspirator or joint venturer" named in the US government's ultimately unsuccessful racketeering trial The United States of America vs. the Holy Land Foundation, formerly the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., which the US government accused of being a front-group to fundraise for Hamas. Note that Obama had no apparent ties to Said -- the charge is that Obama named Asbahi to do Muslim outreach for his campaign, and Asbahi had ties to Said -- and to the Islamic Society of North America, which was also named as an "unindicted co-conspirator or joint venturer" in the Holy Land Foundation case. That case, it should be noted, ended in a mistrial. The newsletter also asserted that Asbahi has been listed as a speaker for ISNA and has spoken at ISNA conferences. (As long as we're playing the guilt by association game, we should note that Karen Hughes, back when she worked for the State Department, spoke before an ISNA conference and was honored with an ISNA dinner, and both former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have met with ISNA leadership.) By Monday Asbahi had tendered his resignation letter to the Obama campaign, saying: "I served on that board for only a few weeks before resigning as soon as I became aware of public allegations against another member of the board. Since concerns have been raised about that brief time, I am stepping down...to avoid distracting from Barack Obama's message of change." Indeed! From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Aug 7 14:32:11 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 16:32:11 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Iran Invites Egypt Sunni University into Shiite Heartland Message-ID: Iran invites Egypt Sunni university into Shiite heartland 12 hours ago CAIRO (AFP) ? Despite Egypt-Iran tensions, the Shiite-dominated Islamic republic has made an unprecedented request for Cairo's Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, to open a branch in Tehran. The overture has, however, sparked speculation in Egypt that Iran, increasingly embattled over its controversial nuclear programme, is merely seeking Arab support in its standoff with the West. "We have asked officially, but so far we have had no response," said Karim Azizi, spokesman at the Iranian interests section in Cairo where there has been no Iranian embassy since diplomatic relations were cut almost 30 years ago. Azizi told AFP the request to Al-Azhar -- founded in 975 AD -- was aimed at "reinforcing Iranian-Egyptian relations and bringing closer together the different Islamic confessions, especially Sunnis and Shiites." The surprise move comes amid anger in Sunni-majority Egypt after Iranian television screened a film reportedly calling assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat a traitor and hailing his executed killer as a martyr. After "Assassination of a Pharaoh" was shown, Egypt in July cancelled a football match, summoned Iran's envoy in Cairo and closed an Iranian satellite TV channel's office. Officially Iran has sought to distance itself from the broadcast, saying it does not represent Tehran's position and instead hailing relations between the two Middle East heavyweights as "based on friendship and brotherhood." In a region increasingly riven with Sunni-Shiite tensions and amid fears of a so-called Shiite crescent running from Beirut to Tehran, Egypt's soured relations with Iran have little to do with sectarianism, however. Diplomatic ties were severed in 1980 a year after Iran's Islamic revolution in protest at Egypt recognising Israel, hosting the deposed shah and supporting Baghdad during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Relations warmed recently, with both states signalling a willingness to restore ties. In January, President Hosni Mubarak met Iran's parliament speaker Gholam Ali Hada Adel, the first such high-level talks in almost three decades. Sheikh Ali Abdel Baqi, the head of Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Centre, said the Iranian request for a university or faculty was unofficial and came from Iran's five-million-strong Sunni minority, most of whom are members of ethnic minority groups living in the country's borderlands. He said Iranian Sunnis want to "teach their children the Sunnism that's taught at Al-Azhar because it is moderate and open, and this is Al-Azhar's message all over the world." In the wake of the Sadat film, the Egyptian press has increasingly reported what it calls a covert Shiite invasion. "We won't allow the existence of a Shiite tide in Egyptian mosques," Minister of Waqf (religious endowments) Mahmud Hamdi Zaqzuq told the independent Al-Masri al-Youm last month. Former Al-Azhar professor Adbel Moneim al-Berri said that Egyptian Shiite experts, including himself, have been asked to educate state security officers about "Shiite ideology and plans to break through the Sunni countries." But Abdel Baqi insists: "We are not afraid of Shiites... There is no tension between Al-Azhar and other sects." While Iran's Azizi suggested that an Al-Azhar presence in Iran could lead to an exchange of religious teachers, Abdel Baqi says Egypt would be unlikely to reciprocate. "We don't need to open Shiite institutions in Egypt because all Egyptians are Sunnis," he said, adding that no Shiites study at Al-Azhar and there are "between 50,000 and 60,000 Shiites in Egypt, Iraqis who have come to seek a life in security." However, Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights says that many Shiites in Egypt are converts from Sunni Islam whom the state tries to coerce into converting back, using arrest, interrogation and torture. Security forces "have even summoned scholars from Al-Azhar to meet defendants to talk them out of their conversion," Bahgat charged. "It is not in the interest of Muslims in Egypt that the Shiite sect spreads among them because I think it is somewhat harsh and differs from the virtues and manners that we believe in," said Abdel Baqi, who has never been to Iran and has no wish to go. Mohammed Sayed Said, editor of the independent Al-Badil newspaper, described the Iranian initiative as "a very smart move. Iran keeps reaching out to Egypt and Mubarak's Egypt is not responsive and has not been for the past 10 years. "It's political. It's not even diplomatic because I don't think it will be approved by the state," he said. "The general feeling at the moment is that we (Muslims) are the target of destruction, so we should do whatever is necessary to restore unity." Middle East commentator Reza Zia-Ebrahimi called the request "very odd." "Not only do Iranian theologians boast about (the Iranian religious city of) Qom's greater open-mindedness, but Al-Azhar and Qom are attended by two very different breeds of Muslim theologian," he told AFP. Abdel Baqi refuses to be drawn on whether the Iranian request is a genuine religious outreach or ultimately aimed at improving its image among Arab leaders, many of whom -- Mubarak included -- are staunch US allies. "If there is a political background to this request we are not aware of it," Abdel Baqi said. "We do not read what is in the heart -- we listen to what the tongue says." From shimogamo at attglobal.net Thu Aug 7 20:48:54 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:48:54 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Seeds of Destruction Message-ID: <489BB416.40001@attglobal.net> The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation Review of F William Engdahl's book published by Global Research by Arun Shrivastava Global Research (June 19 2008) Last three or four years have seen a number of books, documentaries and articles on the dangers of Genetically Modified (GM) seeds. Majority has focused on adverse health and environmental impact; almost none on the geo-politics of GM seeds, and particularly seeds as a weapon of mass destruction. Engdahl has addressed this issue but the crop seed is one of the many "Seeds of Destruction" in this book. Engdahl carefully documents how the intellectual foundations of 'eugenics,' mass culling of the sick, coloured, and otherwise disposable races, were actually first established, and even legally approved, in the United States. Eugenics research was financially supported by the Rockefeller and other elite families and first tested on Jews under Nazi Germany. It is purely by chance that world's poorest nations also happen to be best endowed with natural resources. These regions are also the ones with growing population. The fear among European ruling families, increasingly, integrating with economic and military might of the United States, was that if the poor nations became developed, the abundant natural resources, especially oil, gas, and strategic minerals and metals, may become scarcer for the white population. That situation was unacceptable to the white ruling elite. The central question that dominated the minds of the ruling clique was population reduction in resource rich countries but the question was how to engineer mass culling all over the world without generating powerful backlash as it was bound to happen. When the US oil reserves peaked in 1972 and it became a net oil importer, the situation became alarming and the agenda took the centre stage. Kissinger, one of the key strategists of Nixon, nurtured by the Rockefellers, prepared what is known as National Security Study Memo (NSSM#200), in which he elaborated his plan for population reduction. In this Memo he specifically targets thirteen countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Thailand, and The Phillipines. The weapon to be used was food; even if there was a famine food would be used to leverage population reduction. Kissinger is on record for stating, "Control oil, you control nations; control food and you control the people". How a small group of key people transformed the elitist philosophy, of controlling food to control people, into realistic operational possibility within a short time is the backdrop of Engdahl's book, the central theme running from the beginning till the end with the Rockefellers and Kissinger, among others, as the key dramatis personae. He describes how the Rockefellers guided the US agriculture policy, used their powerful tax-free foundations worldwide to train an army of bright young scientists in hitherto unknown field of microbiology. He traces how the field of Eugenics was renamed "genetics" to make it more acceptable and also to hide the real purpose. Through incremental strategic adjustments within a handful of chemical, food and seed corporations, ably supported by the key persons in key departments of the US Government, behemoths were created that could re-write the regulatory framework in nearly every country. And these seeds of destruction of carefully constructed regulatory framework - to protect the environment and human health - were sown back in the 1920s. Pause to think: a normal healthy person can at the most go without food for perhaps seven days but it takes a full season, say around four months, for a seed to grow into food crop. Just five agri-biz corporations, all US based (Cargill, Bunge, Archer Daniels, et al), control global grain trade, and just five control global trade in seeds. Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, DuPont, and Dow Chemicals control genetically engineered seeds. While these powerful oligopolies were being knocked into place, anti-trust laws were diluted to exempt these firms. Engdahl writes, "It was not surprising that the Pentagon's National Defense University, on the eve of the 2003 Iraq War, issued a paper declaring: 'Agribiz is to the United States what oil is to the Middle East'. Agribusiness had become a strategic weapon in the arsenal of the world's only superpower." (page 143) The "Green Revolution" was part of the Rockefeller agenda to destroy seed diversity and push oil and gas based agriculture inputs in which Rockefeller's had main interest. Destruction of seed diversity and dependence on proprietary hybrids was the first step in food control. (See my notes, Box 1) It is true that initially Green Revolution technologies led to spurt in farm productivity but at a huge cost of destruction of farmlands, bio-diversity, poisoned aquifers and progressively poor health of the people and was the true agenda of 'the proponents of Green Revolution'. The real impetus came with the technological possibility of gene splicing and insertion of specific traits into unrelated species. Life forms could be altered. But until 1979, the US Government had steadfastly refused to grant patent on life form. That was changed [my comment: helped much by a favorable judgment in the US Supreme Court granting patent protection to oil eating bacteria developed by Dr Ananda Chakraborty]. Life forms could now be patented. To ensure that the world surrendered to the patent regime of the seeds corporations, the World Trade Organization was knocked into shape. How it conducted business was nobody's business, but it forced the world to accept intellectual property right of these corporations. There is opposition but these firms are too determined as Engdahl describes. "The clear strategy of Monsanto, Dow, DuPont and the Washington Government backing them was to introduce the GMO seeds in every corner of the globe, with priority on defenceless ... African and developing countries", write Engdahl (page 270). However, Engdahl also describes how US and Canadian farmlands came under GMOs. It was suspected that GMO could pose serious threat to human and animal health and the environment, yet efforts at independent biosafety assessment were discontinued. Scientists carrying out honest studies were vilified. Reputed scientific establishments were silenced or made to toe the line that was supportive of the Rockefeller's food control and mass culling agenda. The destruction of the credibility of scientific institution is yet another seed of destruction in Engdahl's book. Engdahl cites the example of a German farmer Gottfried Glockner's experience with GM corn. Glockner planted Bt176 event of Syngenta essentially as feed for his cows. Being a scientist, he started with ten percent GM feed and gradually increased the proportion, carefully noting milk yield and any side effects. Nothing much happened in the first three years but when he increased the feed to 100% GM feed, his animals "were having gluey-white feaces and violent diarrhea" and "milk contained blood". Eventually all his seventy cows died. Prof Angelika Hilbeck of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology found from Glockner's Bt 176 corn samples Bt toxins were present "in active form and extremely stable". The cows died of high dose of toxins. Not if, but when human food is 100% contaminated should be a sobering thought. In the US unlabelled GM foods were introduced in 1993 and that seventy percent of the supermarket foods contain GMOs in varying proportions in what should rightly be called world's largest biological experiment on humans. While Engdahl has clearly stated that the thrust of US Government and the agi-biz is control over food especially in the third world, he has left it to the readers to deduce that American and European citizens are also target of that grand agenda. And there are more lethal weapons in the arsenal: Terminator seeds, Traitor seeds, and the ability to destroy small independent farmers at will in any part of the world, and these are powerfully presented in the book. Engdahl provides hard evidences for these seeds of final destruction and utter decimation of world civilizations as we have known. It is a complex but highly readable book. It is divided into five parts, each containing two to four short chapters. The first part deals with the political maneuverings to ensure support to Seed and Agri-biz firms, the second deals with what should be widely known as 'The Rockefeller Plan', the third deals with how vertically integrated giants were readied for Washington's silent wars on planet earth, the fourth part deals with how GM seeds were unleashed on unsuspecting farmers, and the final part deals with how the elites is going on destroying food, farmers that would eventually cause mass culling of population. He does not offer any solution; he can't because it is up to the rest of the world, including Europeans and Americans, to wake up and take on these criminals head on. An essential read for anyone who eats and thinks. Seeds of Destruction The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation by F William Engdahl Global Research, 2007 ISBN 978-0-937147-2-2 SPECIAL ONLINE AND MAIL ORDER PRICE US$17.00 (list price $24.95) This skillfully researched book focuses on how a small socio-political American elite seeks to establish control over the very basis of human survival: the provision of our daily bread. "Control the food and you control the people". This is no ordinary book about the perils of GMO. Engdahl takes the reader inside the corridors of power, into the backrooms of the science labs, behind closed doors in the corporate boardrooms. The author cogently reveals a diabolical World of profit-driven political intrigue, government corruption and coercion, where genetic manipulation and the patenting of life forms are used to gain worldwide control over food production. If the book often reads as a crime story, that should come as no surprise. For that is what it is. Engdahl's carefully argued critique goes far beyond the familiar controversies surrounding the practice of genetic modification as a scientific technique. The book is an eye-opener, a must-read for all those committed to the causes of social justice and World peace. _____ F William Engdahl is a leading analyst of the New World Order, author of the best-selling book on oil and geopolitics, A Century of War: Anglo-American Politics and the New World Order,' His writings have been translated into more than a dozen languages. _____ What is so frightening about Engdahl's vision of the world is that it is so real. Although our civilization has been built on humanistic ideals, in this new age of "free markets", everything - science, commerce, agriculture and even seeds - have become weapons in the hands of a few global corporation barons and their political fellow travelers. To achieve world domination, they no longer rely on bayonet-wielding soldiers. All they need is to control food production. (Dr Arpad Pusztai, biochemist, formerly of the Rowett Research Institute Institute, Scotland) If you want to learn about the socio-political agenda - why biotech corporations insist on spreading GMO seeds around the World - you should read this carefully researched book. You will learn how these corporations want to achieve control over all mankind, and why we must resis ... (Marijan Jost, Professor of Genetics, Krizevci, Croatia) The book reads like a murder mystery of an incredible dimension, in which four giant Anglo-American agribusiness conglomerates have no hesitation to use GMO to gain control over our very means of subsistence ... (Anton Moser, Professor of Biotechnology, Graz, Austria). Order Now: Online or Mail Order List Price US$24.95 plus taxes. US$17.00 plus s and h (incl. taxes where applicable) _____ Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Research on Globalization. The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article. To become a Member of Global Research The CRG grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The source and the author's copyright must be displayed. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: crgeditor at yahoo.com www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner. (c) Copyright Arun Shrivastava, Global Research, 2008 (c) Copyright 2005-2007 GlobalResearch.ca http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9379 http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From shimogamo at attglobal.net Thu Aug 7 20:53:06 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:53:06 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Seeds of Destruction Message-ID: <489BB512.3040201@attglobal.net> The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation Review of F William Engdahl's book published by Global Research by Arun Shrivastava Global Research (June 19 2008) Last three or four years have seen a number of books, documentaries and articles on the dangers of Genetically Modified (GM) seeds. Majority has focused on adverse health and environmental impact; almost none on the geo-politics of GM seeds, and particularly seeds as a weapon of mass destruction. Engdahl has addressed this issue but the crop seed is one of the many "Seeds of Destruction" in this book. Engdahl carefully documents how the intellectual foundations of 'eugenics,' mass culling of the sick, coloured, and otherwise disposable races, were actually first established, and even legally approved, in the United States. Eugenics research was financially supported by the Rockefeller and other elite families and first tested on Jews under Nazi Germany. It is purely by chance that world's poorest nations also happen to be best endowed with natural resources. These regions are also the ones with growing population. The fear among European ruling families, increasingly, integrating with economic and military might of the United States, was that if the poor nations became developed, the abundant natural resources, especially oil, gas, and strategic minerals and metals, may become scarcer for the white population. That situation was unacceptable to the white ruling elite. The central question that dominated the minds of the ruling clique was population reduction in resource rich countries but the question was how to engineer mass culling all over the world without generating powerful backlash as it was bound to happen. When the US oil reserves peaked in 1972 and it became a net oil importer, the situation became alarming and the agenda took the centre stage. Kissinger, one of the key strategists of Nixon, nurtured by the Rockefellers, prepared what is known as National Security Study Memo (NSSM#200), in which he elaborated his plan for population reduction. In this Memo he specifically targets thirteen countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Thailand, and The Phillipines. The weapon to be used was food; even if there was a famine food would be used to leverage population reduction. Kissinger is on record for stating, "Control oil, you control nations; control food and you control the people". How a small group of key people transformed the elitist philosophy, of controlling food to control people, into realistic operational possibility within a short time is the backdrop of Engdahl's book, the central theme running from the beginning till the end with the Rockefellers and Kissinger, among others, as the key dramatis personae. He describes how the Rockefellers guided the US agriculture policy, used their powerful tax-free foundations worldwide to train an army of bright young scientists in hitherto unknown field of microbiology. He traces how the field of Eugenics was renamed "genetics" to make it more acceptable and also to hide the real purpose. Through incremental strategic adjustments within a handful of chemical, food and seed corporations, ably supported by the key persons in key departments of the US Government, behemoths were created that could re-write the regulatory framework in nearly every country. And these seeds of destruction of carefully constructed regulatory framework - to protect the environment and human health - were sown back in the 1920s. Pause to think: a normal healthy person can at the most go without food for perhaps seven days but it takes a full season, say around four months, for a seed to grow into food crop. Just five agri-biz corporations, all US based (Cargill, Bunge, Archer Daniels, et al), control global grain trade, and just five control global trade in seeds. Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, DuPont, and Dow Chemicals control genetically engineered seeds. While these powerful oligopolies were being knocked into place, anti-trust laws were diluted to exempt these firms. Engdahl writes, "It was not surprising that the Pentagon's National Defense University, on the eve of the 2003 Iraq War, issued a paper declaring: 'Agribiz is to the United States what oil is to the Middle East'. Agribusiness had become a strategic weapon in the arsenal of the world's only superpower." (page 143) The "Green Revolution" was part of the Rockefeller agenda to destroy seed diversity and push oil and gas based agriculture inputs in which Rockefeller's had main interest. Destruction of seed diversity and dependence on proprietary hybrids was the first step in food control. (See my notes, Box 1) It is true that initially Green Revolution technologies led to spurt in farm productivity but at a huge cost of destruction of farmlands, bio-diversity, poisoned aquifers and progressively poor health of the people and was the true agenda of 'the proponents of Green Revolution'. The real impetus came with the technological possibility of gene splicing and insertion of specific traits into unrelated species. Life forms could be altered. But until 1979, the US Government had steadfastly refused to grant patent on life form. That was changed [my comment: helped much by a favorable judgment in the US Supreme Court granting patent protection to oil eating bacteria developed by Dr Ananda Chakraborty]. Life forms could now be patented. To ensure that the world surrendered to the patent regime of the seeds corporations, the World Trade Organization was knocked into shape. How it conducted business was nobody's business, but it forced the world to accept intellectual property right of these corporations. There is opposition but these firms are too determined as Engdahl describes. "The clear strategy of Monsanto, Dow, DuPont and the Washington Government backing them was to introduce the GMO seeds in every corner of the globe, with priority on defenceless ... African and developing countries", write Engdahl (page 270). However, Engdahl also describes how US and Canadian farmlands came under GMOs. It was suspected that GMO could pose serious threat to human and animal health and the environment, yet efforts at independent biosafety assessment were discontinued. Scientists carrying out honest studies were vilified. Reputed scientific establishments were silenced or made to toe the line that was supportive of the Rockefeller's food control and mass culling agenda. The destruction of the credibility of scientific institution is yet another seed of destruction in Engdahl's book. Engdahl cites the example of a German farmer Gottfried Glockner's experience with GM corn. Glockner planted Bt176 event of Syngenta essentially as feed for his cows. Being a scientist, he started with ten percent GM feed and gradually increased the proportion, carefully noting milk yield and any side effects. Nothing much happened in the first three years but when he increased the feed to 100% GM feed, his animals "were having gluey-white feaces and violent diarrhea" and "milk contained blood". Eventually all his seventy cows died. Prof Angelika Hilbeck of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology found from Glockner's Bt 176 corn samples Bt toxins were present "in active form and extremely stable". The cows died of high dose of toxins. Not if, but when human food is 100% contaminated should be a sobering thought. In the US unlabelled GM foods were introduced in 1993 and that seventy percent of the supermarket foods contain GMOs in varying proportions in what should rightly be called world's largest biological experiment on humans. While Engdahl has clearly stated that the thrust of US Government and the agi-biz is control over food especially in the third world, he has left it to the readers to deduce that American and European citizens are also target of that grand agenda. And there are more lethal weapons in the arsenal: Terminator seeds, Traitor seeds, and the ability to destroy small independent farmers at will in any part of the world, and these are powerfully presented in the book. Engdahl provides hard evidences for these seeds of final destruction and utter decimation of world civilizations as we have known. It is a complex but highly readable book. It is divided into five parts, each containing two to four short chapters. The first part deals with the political maneuverings to ensure support to Seed and Agri-biz firms, the second deals with what should be widely known as 'The Rockefeller Plan', the third deals with how vertically integrated giants were readied for Washington's silent wars on planet earth, the fourth part deals with how GM seeds were unleashed on unsuspecting farmers, and the final part deals with how the elites is going on destroying food, farmers that would eventually cause mass culling of population. He does not offer any solution; he can't because it is up to the rest of the world, including Europeans and Americans, to wake up and take on these criminals head on. An essential read for anyone who eats and thinks. Seeds of Destruction The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation by F William Engdahl Global Research, 2007 ISBN 978-0-937147-2-2 SPECIAL ONLINE AND MAIL ORDER PRICE US$17.00 (list price $24.95) This skillfully researched book focuses on how a small socio-political American elite seeks to establish control over the very basis of human survival: the provision of our daily bread. "Control the food and you control the people". This is no ordinary book about the perils of GMO. Engdahl takes the reader inside the corridors of power, into the backrooms of the science labs, behind closed doors in the corporate boardrooms. The author cogently reveals a diabolical World of profit-driven political intrigue, government corruption and coercion, where genetic manipulation and the patenting of life forms are used to gain worldwide control over food production. If the book often reads as a crime story, that should come as no surprise. For that is what it is. Engdahl's carefully argued critique goes far beyond the familiar controversies surrounding the practice of genetic modification as a scientific technique. The book is an eye-opener, a must-read for all those committed to the causes of social justice and World peace. _____ F William Engdahl is a leading analyst of the New World Order, author of the best-selling book on oil and geopolitics, A Century of War: Anglo-American Politics and the New World Order,' His writings have been translated into more than a dozen languages. _____ What is so frightening about Engdahl's vision of the world is that it is so real. Although our civilization has been built on humanistic ideals, in this new age of "free markets", everything - science, commerce, agriculture and even seeds - have become weapons in the hands of a few global corporation barons and their political fellow travelers. To achieve world domination, they no longer rely on bayonet-wielding soldiers. All they need is to control food production. (Dr Arpad Pusztai, biochemist, formerly of the Rowett Research Institute Institute, Scotland) If you want to learn about the socio-political agenda - why biotech corporations insist on spreading GMO seeds around the World - you should read this carefully researched book. You will learn how these corporations want to achieve control over all mankind, and why we must resis ... (Marijan Jost, Professor of Genetics, Krizevci, Croatia) The book reads like a murder mystery of an incredible dimension, in which four giant Anglo-American agribusiness conglomerates have no hesitation to use GMO to gain control over our very means of subsistence ... (Anton Moser, Professor of Biotechnology, Graz, Austria). Order Now: Online or Mail Order List Price US$24.95 plus taxes. US$17.00 plus s and h (incl. taxes where applicable) _____ Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Research on Globalization. The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article. To become a Member of Global Research The CRG grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The source and the author's copyright must be displayed. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: crgeditor at yahoo.com www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner. (c) Copyright Arun Shrivastava, Global Research, 2008 (c) Copyright 2005-2007 GlobalResearch.ca http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9379 http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 8 04:21:16 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 06:21:16 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Saul Landau and Nelson Valdes on Cuba's Reforms Message-ID: Aug 7 - 13, 2008 Cuba's Reforms By Saul Landau and Nelson Valdes Read Spanish Version Cuban leaders have begun a reform process -- combining certain ministries, opening up more farming possibilities and decentralizing certain functions. They have not given clear signals as to what model will emerge. The government appears determined to following the familiar path of pragmatic and cautious approaches to problems that have arisen over five decades, especially those aggravated because of the 1991 Soviet collapse. As the October 2009 Communist Party Congress grows nearer, the results of discussions throughout the country, the Party may add new wrinkles in Cuba's half century quest to build a just system. Do not expect Cuba to abandon meaningful socialism. Beginning with their 1959 revolutionary triumph, Cuban leaders have weaved a unique approach to social change. Western media has ignored that Cuba's government has operated through consensus. Indeed, western reporters refer to Castro's dictatorship as if such a concept was axiomatic. Rather, under Fidel -- a master of consensus politics -- a collective leadership had to remove the old order and replace it with a just society, a Herculean task that one man could not do alone! To make their own system, Cubans faced the wrath of their former elites and the fury of a northern neighbor. Fifty years later, U.S. officials still froth at the mouth at Cuba's audacious disobedience, Raul Castro and partners, including significant numbers of younger people, address a new formidable adventure: building sensible socialism on one island. Raul acknowledged this on July 26, as he commemorated past successes and referred to needs for more reforms. Perpetual U.S. aggression placed Cuba into a national security mentality, but Cuban leaders can blame U.S. hostility for only some of their problems. Moncada, Sierra and Underground veterans can indeed boast of accomplishing their historic goals. In 1959, after waging numerous wars and uprisings since the 1860s, Cubans won independence. Cuba then defended its revolution against U.S. belligerence while simultaneously establishing an egalitarian system based on rights -- to eat, have housing, medical care, education, etc? As gravy over their meat of success, Cubans danced -- and still do -- on the world stage: liberators of parts of Africa, slayers of the Monroe Doctrine, purveyors of emergency medical teams providing vital services to Pakistanis, Hondurans and others who suffered from natural disasters. Cuban eye specialists have saved the vision of countless third world people. Cuban artists, athletes and scientists have etched their names on the honor roles of talent throughout the world. And Fidel ranks as one of the 20th Century's great leaders. When he would enter international public spaces, even some of his ideological opponents applauded -- because of the respect he gained by courageously challenging U.S. dictates. The U.S. media does not report on Cuba. It provides silly coverage of peripheral issues such as posing the Cuba issue as Fidel v. Raul. The story typifies rumor-based U.S. journalism on Cuba. Ironically, the "superior" U.S. press dismisses Cuban media as non-objective. In a July 31, 2008, New York Times story, reporter Marc Lacey assumed the posture of cosmic knowledge. Lacy sneers at Fidel for having "left the country in economic disarray." Funny, when did the NY Times refer to U.S. economic disarray as millions suffer pains of unemployment, or devastating sub-prime mortgage madness; 50 million Americans lack access to health care or safety nets! Nor does one find references to "disarray" in rare stories about Honduras, sub Saharan Africa and other third world nations where majorities lack food, education and health care. Instead of expressing amazement over Cuba's role in shaping history, and affording millions of its citizens a chance to participate in events, despite their daily hardships, Lacey focuses on "the odd dynamic" between Raul and Fidel. Ahem! The two brothers have been partners in key decisions since they attacked Moncada in July 1953. Moreover, in 2005, Fidel reminded the Party to change all that needed change. The Party has not changed enough, however, to satisfy disaffected Cubans, those unimpressed by past accomplishments. "What do past glories have with to do with the uncertainty of daily life?" they ask. Possessing quality education, high skill levels and good health, they feel they deserve good jobs. Indeed, their entire school experience from day care through doctorates has taught them self esteem and stimulated them to expect the best. But quality jobs are scarce on the island -- and in most third world countries. Several Cubans in their 20s and 30s offered glazed looks to references of the revolution's accomplishments and replied: "I don't see much future for myself here." Yes, a qualified Engineer can feel frustrated making pizzas eight hours a day. Frustration can also lead some to become oblivious to the outside conditions that affect their lives. Cuba exists within the larger globalized corporate economy, possesses limited resources, and remains victim of a seemingly eternal U.S. super embargo. So thousands leave. The U.S. government, bound by Treaty to authorize 20,000 residence visas annually, delivers many fewer. Yet, neither the Clinton nor Bush Administration tried to get it repealed. Thus smugglers -- not from the island -- drool over their profits (about $15,000 per person) and some Cubans die at sea. These human traffickers took some 6,000 persons to Mexico between October 2007 and April 2008. Three thousand more landed in South Florida between last October 2007 and July 2008. The Coast Guard intercepted 1,700 others before they reached the U.S. Such migration occurs because of the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, allowing Cubans -- and no one else -- to enter the United States. This law undercuts the formal visa process, in which consular officials vet the applicants. After Washington imposed an embargo in 1962, Cuba issued libretas, ration books in an attempt to assure equality of distribution and a safety net, similar to British policy during World War II. During the "Special Period," the State lacked sufficient goods to meet its obligations and the U.S. tightened the embargo to further squeeze Cuba's economy. People began hustling to obtain food. To do so, they broke the law by buying and selling illegally and stealing from the state. Such a situation logically dampened morale. Cuba's problems go beyond sagging commitment. This year, the government announced a dramatic shortage of teachers -- 8,000 officially partly due to insufficient salary incentives. Fidel, writing from his convalescence, appealed to Cubans to understand such news in a proper context. "We don't become discouraged by the news of enemies, who twist the meaning of our words and present our self-criticism as tragedies," he wrote in Granma, Cuba's official newspaper. Compare Cuba's education to systems in the United States "and other rich countries," he urged readers. "They have, yes, many more automobiles, use more gasoline, consume many more drugs, buy more costume jewelry and benefit from the looting of our people, as they have for centuries." Teacher shortages paled in comparison, however, to the performance of Cuban agriculture. Last year the government had to import more than 70% of the food offered through the libreta. Cuba now "exports" highly educated graduates, a judicious means to offer educational and technical assistance to needy countries and at times generate income as well. Over the past two years, Cuba has begun to restructure its energy sector, refurbishing its electrical grid and introducing energy saving programs from light bulb replacement to obtain efficiency to producing solar energy and increasing public awareness on the issue. Imaginative urban agriculture and organic farming experiments have spread in an attempt to become more self sufficient. Changes in land usage also respond to discouraging levels of food production. The shift includes offering existing and perspective farmers clear material incentives, while eliminating cumbersome bureaucratic procedures. Labor productivity, which should rank high given Cuba's levels of education and skill, had sunk to disappointing levels. Inside the Cuban labor movement, healthy dialogue has begun to bring unions more into coincidence with current grievances. This process began earlier when Fidel, in 1987, referred to the prevailing "chapuceria" in the work place, sloppy and unfinished work, which sapped economic and moral strength. Fidel taught Cubans to understand their entitlements, which meant they had the right to expect the state to meet these rights. Younger generations, however, don't seem to recognize the State's severe material limitations, nor are they impressed by Cuba's egalitarian distribution of its less than sufficient wealth. They complain because the government doesn't meet their childhood expectations. Cuban television rebroadcasts shows like Desperate Housewives, so Cubans see Americans with plasma TVs; not daily scenes of road rage and Americans going postal. TV and visiting Americans throw extravagant consumerism in the face of some Cubans, Raul has talked about educating people to Cuba's real possibilities and about decentralizing to increase efficiency and accountability. Raul -- meaning the majority inside the Party apparatus -- also called for diverse opinions inside the Party to address what many perceived as a paucity of dialogue. Communist Party leaders understand the need to build a sensible socialism. The United States remains a constant security threat, which places limits on their imaginations. Indeed, Bush's aggressive, impulsive shadow will loom until January 2009. Cuban leaders will move slowly, prudently and with grass roots participation. They don't want to provide any excuse for a Bush "surprise." Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow. Nelson Valdes is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico. From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Thu Aug 7 16:28:10 2008 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:28:10 +1000 Subject: [A-List] The dissidents' guide to the Olympics: `War minus the shooting' Message-ID: <489B76FA.8060104@greenleft.org.au> As the world corporate media goes Olympics mad, /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ has assembled a range of alternative viewpoints on what modern Olympic Games really represent. While -- when it suits their interests -- establishment media commentators and capitalist governments loudly proclaim that ``sport and politics don't mix'', it soon becomes apparent that the Olympics spectacle is drenched in politics and the promotion of the worst aspects of dog-eat-dog capitalism. But sometimes it is also a site of struggle, as this selection of articles, drawn from the /Links/ and /Green Left Weekly/ archives, as well as other progressive sources, reveals. http://links.org.au/node/566 Subscribe free to /Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 From shimogamo at attglobal.net Fri Aug 8 08:36:48 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:36:48 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Compassionate capitalism Message-ID: <489C5A00.60508@attglobal.net> Ecocide with a smiley face by Lorna Salzman Culture Change (July 20 2008) "We all agree that development that pollutes and destroys in order to enrich the already-rich is morally wrong. But development that pollutes and destroys in order to help the poor is just fine. We owe it to the poor. This is Compassionate Capitalism. And it is as ruthless, unforgiving and unjust as the old kind." _______________ Imagine a crew of poor and minority construction workers. After years of poverty, lack of opportunity and discrimination they finally have secure, well-paying jobs with good benefits. They are building a new village that will house low and moderate income families, including themselves. This village is located downstream from a high dam that provides hydropower for the region. The dam is old and recent inspections have revealed serious flaws that could result in dam failure that could wipe out the village and cause severe loss of life. The exact date of such failure is unknown but the risk is large and real and engineers and geologists recommend that the village be evacuated and rebuilt elsewhere as a precautionary measure, until the dam is repaired. Repairs sufficient to guarantee dam integrity will be expensive and will take up to three or four years to complete. The costs are unknown as are the sources of funding. State revenues are scarce and the federal government has cut back on infrastructure repair. It is not known whether funds will be made available, how much and when. The villagers, which include the construction workers, do not welcome the cost and inconvenience of relocation so they decide to remain where they are, figuring that dam repair as well as village development will provide lots of jobs. Some of them distrust the engineers and geologists and their predictions. Some of them believe that the repairs can be completed in a shorter period of time. Some believe the dam is fundamentally sound and doesn't need much repair, if any. The village, county, state and federal officials meet, confer, haggle, argue, hiring consultants, holding public hearings, debating costs and benefits and wasting over two years on the problem due to conflicting opinions. While dam repair contracts are put out for bidding, the construction workers continue their work on building housing developments, schools, shopping centers, churches and light industrial structures. Investment is attracted to the area. The village expands and becomes a small city, with a larger economy and local industry, and residents prosper. Lots of cars and RVs are sold, large air conditioned homes on large lots with swimming pools are built as is an airport, and the interstate is extended to the city. Shopping malls appear on the outskirts. Several banks open new branches. Sewage systems are extended to the new developments and a large water supply system to deliver water from the river is also expanded. The increase in energy demand results in construction of two new coal powered plants and plans are laid for a nuclear plant at a "safe" distance, to accommodate growth. Three years later, the dam breaks, destroying the entire city, killing most of its residents. This story is fictitious but the situation it describes is not. It is what we face now with global warming. Those who staked their own lives on the integrity of the dam were mainly low income minority workers, who had faith in "the system" and in technology. There are millions more of these among us today who doubt there is a global warming crisis and who believe that new jobs and technology to help the unemployed and the minorities should come first. To rationalize this, they denigrate the seriousness of the climate change situation and, like the village construction workers, look to technology and renewable energy development as their salvation. Meanwhile, growth continues, energy consumption expands, the consumer sector continues to spend as before, floods, droughts and wildfires run rampant, water supplies are drying up, food prices rise due to higher energy and import costs, garbage and wastes accumulate, wildlife habitat, open space and recreational lands are sacrificed for roads, malls and development, energy prices skyrocket for numerous and uncontrollable reasons, the oceans die, and the quality of life rapidly deteriorates. And what do these workers and minorities demand? More of the same things that caused the crisis in the first place: cheap energy. Why do they call for this? In order to consume more. Under all of this is an unswerving religious faith in the need for continued economic growth: for unabated production of goods and consumption, in the name of equity and social justice, to benefit those who had been left out of the country's prosperity. This is the message just delivered by Niger Ennis, a Republican strategist and head of CORE (Congress on Racial Equality), a beneficiary of Exxon ($275,000 since 1998), who is pushing for cheap energy, more fossil fuel plants and offshore oil drilling. Ennis gave an infamous Capitol Hill briefing, along with climate skeptics, titled "Eco-Imperialism: Reflections on Earth Day". He also said: "We support any candidate that is not cowed by the powerful environmental lobby". The prosperity approach is also the message delivered by the Apollo Alliance, a front for the Democratic Party and possibly for the auto industry which supports "clean coal". The affiliated 1Sky movement has fairly strong positions on reducing energy consumption (25% reduction from 1990 levels by 2020, eighty percent by 2050), but they have bought into the carbon trading scam instead of supporting carbon taxes, and promote that now-familiar cliche of "smart growth", without defining it. Though the term "economic growth" is not the explicit message of Green for All, headed by Van Jones, formerly head of the Ella Baker Center and its "green growth" campaign, its overall thrust of creating "five million jobs conserving twenty percent of our energy by 2015" (the 1Sky objective as well), not basing its objectives on science, fails to acknowledge the need to sharply reduce energy consumption in the next three or four years (the time period remaining before we exceed several climate tipping points, according to James Hansen). In so doing it leapfrogs over the global climate crisis to that golden land of opportunity, not comprehending that no amount of renewable energy technology can ever meet our present demand, much less the future demand of the five million new workers in renewable energy who will, if past experience is a guide, use their newfound wealth to emulate the life style of profligate Americans. A twenty percent reduction in energy use by 2015 is barely an improvement over the ineffectual Kyoto Protocol proposal. Green for All supported the Lieberman-Boxer energy bill, with some reservations, while most environmental groups declared the bill to be woefully inadequate. Essentially Green for All is an anti-poverty effort with a green tinge, not an anti-global warming effort. And the strongest pro-growth shout emanates from the Break Through Institute, headed by neo-liberal growth and globalization fanatics Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, whose prescription for survival is one word: Prosperity. It is no accident that most of those pushing for Business as Usual are either members of a minority group or use economic justice as their justification. This is a clever move since it guarantees funding from liberal donors like the Pew Charitable Trust and the Nathan Cummings Foundation as well as the Rockefeller Foundation. It also guarantees credibility in the media and with liberal leaders and organizations, who would rather retire to a desert island than be considered racist. The subliminal theme here is this: we all agree that development that pollutes and destroys in order to enrich the already-rich is morally wrong. But development that pollutes and destroys in order to help the poor is just fine. We owe it to the poor. This is Compassionate Capitalism. And it is as ruthless, unforgiving and unjust as the old kind. It is striking that spokesmen for minority groups have for so long found little to criticize about corporate greed, profits and pollution, or capitalism in general, but had little trouble attacking their friends - the environmental community - for what they believed was racism and deliberate ignoring of urban minorities. So the push for millions of new minority jobs also raises the following question: since corporations have shown little or no interest in the needs of minorities or the poor in the past, how much faith can we have that in the hoped-for future renewable energy economy they will make an effort to include them? The main objective here is to distract the liberals' attention away from the breaking dam and onto the jobs being created in the city beneath the dam as it expands ... to distract attention away from the global warming tipping points that we face in the next few years, away from the bad news, away from anything that instills doubt in economic growth and in capitalist society itself. To express doubt of traditional growth patterns smacks of hardship and sacrifice, especially for the poor. Thus, doubt must be completely abolished by drawing attention to the purported benefits of growth to the poor, by pointing to the jobs ... not to the dam. Where are the jobs? We know where they are: in renewable energy, energy efficiency, public transportation, rehabilitation of buildings and infrastructure, local and regional food supplies, weatherization, and elsewhere. These are already cliches. Nothing new there. But the Good News Bears who want you to ignore the breaking dam don't tell you the truth about these jobs, particularly about how long it will take to bring them to the needy. How long will it take to replace fossil fuel and nuclear plants with wind energy systems? How long to rebuild and expand Amtrak and build new regional and local public transportation systems to replace air travel and private cars? How long to replace high-energy, processed, prepackaged and imported food with local food supplies? How long before the federal government and the private investors turn away from fossil fuels and nuclear reactors definitively and put their faith and funds into these things? If you guessed more than five years, you guessed correctly. Try twenty. Or fifty. The problem is that the dam is crumbling in the meantime. That minority leaders like Ennis and Jones are not aligning themselves with those demanding real solutions to slow down and mitigate global warming through dramatically reduced consumption of energy and goods is truly tragic. That their followers are being duped into supporting the American Dream of increasing consumption of energy and goods - Compassionate Capitalism - including a demand for cheaper oil, is testimony to the tragic gullibility that characterizes all Americans, not just the poor and the minorities. In a nutshell, we don't have a tough uncompromising movement or leadership with curbing global warming as its focus. We have anti-poverty and social justice groups and campaigns posing as green but with a "plentiful lack" of serious proposals to overhaul the entire capitalist/consumer society. It is quite clear that marginal and incremental economic reforms will not slow down the economic growth beast much less threaten its existence. It appears that even those members of society who have lived at the bottom are not ready or willing to admit that this society is neither sustainable nor reformable. Perhaps they are whistling in the dark. But it is more likely that these reformist groups are being encouraged in their schemes by funders and forces cemented to the concept of economic growth and to capitalism at all costs who welcome the emphasis on jobs and renewable energy as a distraction from the daily reports of accelerating climate change. The revolutionaries, however, are nowhere to be seen. I've got news for them. Nature doesn't distinguish between rich and poor. _____ Lorna Salzman, formerly with Friends of the Earth during David Brower's leadership, writes on politics, energy and the environment. Her website is lornasalzman.com "We are already fighting World War III and I am sorry to say we are winning. It is the war against the earth". - author Raymond Dasmann _____ Further reading: "Neo-liberals in green clothing: Nordhaus, Shellenberger and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors", by Lorna Salzman: culturechange.org Questioning the social-justice-first approach: article, "What is the grassroots' and environmental establishment's main failure?" by Jan Lundberg, Culture Change Letter #179: culturechange.org "Smart Growth: Smart or not? Debunking the myths of sustainable growth" Culture Change magazine, issue 20, 2002: culturechange.org 1Sky: 1sky.org http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=188&Itemid=1#cont http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 8 10:05:29 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 12:05:29 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Economists' Letter on Offshore Drilling and Talking to Iran Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Robert Naiman Date: Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 10:57 AM Subject: [ufpj-iran] Economists' Letter on Offshore Drilling and Talking to Iran Just Foreign Policy is circulating the following letter. If you know any economists who might like to sign it, please pass it along to them. ---- please send signatures to naiman at justforeignpolicy.org, with subject line: sign economists letter. please include some affiliation broadly consistent with the notion of "economists' letter." deadline: end of day Friday August 15. Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org ------ [date] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi House Minority Leader John Boehner Dear Senators Reid and McConnell and Representatives Pelosi and Boehner, As economists, we write out of concern that you are being pressured to lift the Congressional ban on most oil drilling off our coasts, despite the fact that this would do nothing in the short term and almost nothing in the long term to reduce gas prices. Simpler measures that don't threaten our environment would do much more. The federal government's Energy Information Administration projects that this would have no impact on gas prices in the near-term since it will be close to a decade before the first oil could be extracted. The EIA projects production would reach 200,000 barrels a day at peak production. It describes this amount as too small to have any significant effect on oil prices, even when production is at its peak. [1] If the US had raised auto fuel efficiency standards between 1985-2005 by a quarter of the amount it raised them annually from 1980-1985, instead of leaving them virtually unchanged, the result would roughly have been the equivalent of 3.3 million barrels of oil per day in new production,16 times the projected impact of offshore drilling. [2] It is reasonable to assume that modest increases in fuel efficiency in the future would have a similar effect. If we negotiated an agreement with Iran that led to the lifting of US sanctions, oil production in Iran could increase 1-2 million barrels a day. That would be 5-10 times the projected impact of drilling off our coasts. U.S. oil companies are not doing all they can do boost production. In May, the Washington Post reported that Exxon had spent $8 billion buying back shares in the first quarter as a way to boost the value of the stock for shareholders. That far exceeded the company's $5.5 billion capital spending budget.[3] In 2006, Exxon spent $25 billion buying back its stock, again more than its capital spending budget. [4] The industry spent $52.4 billion on stock buybacks in 2006, nearly double the amount in 2005. [5] It would be far better to pursue modest conservation and negotiations with Iran, having the effect of bringing 20-25 times as much oil on the market, rather than endanger tourism, fishing, and beaches on our coasts for a long-term effect on gas prices that we won't even notice. Thank you for your consideration of our concerns. Michael Perelman, Economics Dept., California State University, Chico Jim Devine, Economics Dept., Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles Hadi Esfahani, Economics Dept. University of Illinois, Urbana Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington Rudy Fichtenbaum, Economics Dept., Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio Michael Brun, Economics Dept., Illinois State University, Bloomington-Normal Hank Leland, Research Analyst, SEIU, Washington References: [1] "Annual Energy Outlook 2007 with Projections to 2030," Energy Information Administration, February 2007, http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/archive/aeo07/issues.html [2] " Offshore Drilling and Energy Conservation: The Relative Impact on Gas Prices," Dean Baker and Nichole Szembrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research, June 2008, http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/offshore_drilling_2008_06.pdf [3] "Up $10.9 Billion, Exxon Worries About New Tax," Steven Mufson, Washington Post, May 2 2008. [4] "Higher Oil Prices Help Exxon Again Set Record Profit, " Steven Mufson, Washington Post, February 2, 2007. [5] "Big Companies Put Record Sums Into Buybacks," Ian McDonald,. Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2006. From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 8 12:29:07 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 14:29:07 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Russia, Georgia, Iraq, and Turkey Message-ID: Putin Says `War Has Started,' Georgia Claims Invasion (Update4) By Torrey Clark and Greg Walters Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said ``war has started'' over the breakaway region of South Ossetia as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili accused its neighbor of a ``well-planned invasion.'' Saakashvili said in a Bloomberg Television interview that his nation of 4.6 million people is ``fighting to secure its borders'' amid a ``full-blown military aggression'' involving thousands of Russian troops. Aerial bombings and wide-spread fighting in and around the region killed an unknown number of civilians and wounded ``scores'' more, Saakashvili said. Putin earlier today told U.S. President George W. Bush in Beijing that ``volunteers'' were pouring over the border to help defend South Ossetia from Georgian forces, according to Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. ``War started today in South Ossetia'' when Georgia attacked Russian peacekeepers in the disputed region, Putin said. The Defense Ministry later said it deployed ``reinforcements'' in the region. The ruble dropped the most against the dollar in 8 1/2 years and Russian stocks tumbled today on concern the conflict will worsen. The U.K., European Union and NATO, which Georgia is seeking to join, all called on both sides to end hostilities. The U.S. called for an immediate cease-fire. Bush supports the ``territorial integrity'' of Georgia, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. ``We urge all parties, Georgians, South Ossetians and Russians, to de-escalate the tension and avoid conflict,'' Perino said in a statement from Beijing, where Bush and Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. ``We are working on mediation efforts to secure a cease fire and we are urging the parties to restart their dialogue.'' `NATO Hopes' ``Georgia's immediate NATO hopes have all but evaporated,'' Dominic Fean, a researcher at IFRI, the French Institute of International Affairs, said by telephone. ``Countries like Germany and France were already resistant to the idea of giving a NATO security guarantee to a country with an open dispute with Russia. I can't see how they can get the consensus of 26 states anytime soon.'' South Ossetia, which has a population of about 70,000 and is less than half the size of Kosovo, broke away from U.S.-backed Georgia in the early 1990s and now is a de facto independent state with Russian peacekeepers and economic support. The peacekeepers are deployed under a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate. ``We will not allow the deaths of our compatriots to go unpunished,'' Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, 42, said on state television after the Interfax news service said Russian troops were killed in Georgian shelling of a barracks and checkpoint. ``The guilty will get the punishment they deserve.'' Iraq Pullout Georgia called today for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on South Ossetia. ``We've been encouraging everyone involved and every international party to engage in talks for years, months, days, hours,'' Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said by telephone. ``What we get is another column of Russian tanks.'' Georgia, the third-largest member of the allied coalition in Iraq after the U.S. and U.K., will bring home half of its 2,000 soldiers from the Middle East country in the next few days, Kakha Lomaia, head of Georgia's Security Council, said by telephone. The Georgian contingent is stationed in Al-Khut, 185 kilometers (114 miles) southeast of Baghdad. Fighting escalated throughout the day, with Russian planes dropping four bombs on the Vaziani military base, which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization uses for training, Lomaia said. The base is about 15 kilometers from the Georgian capital. Russian Tanks Georgian forces have shot down three Russian planes since the fighting began, Lomaia said. Russia earlier bombed two Georgian towns, Gori and Kareli, he said. Russia's Foreign Ministry denied the bombing claim. The Defense Ministry denied losing aircraft. Russian troops occupied parts of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said by telephone. Russian television showed tanks heading over the border to South Ossetia from the Russian region of North Ossetia at about 3:30 p.m. Moscow time. ``We find ourselves in a situation similar to where the Czechs were in 1968, to where the Hungarians found themselves in 1956,'' Lomaia said. ``All we can do is defend our freedom.'' Georgia last month increased the size of its military to 37,000 soldiers and today Saakashvili called up reservists and urged the nation to defend ``every meter'' of land. Russia has a standing army of about 1.1 million. `Energy Corridor' ``Fighting continues,'' Russian Major General Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of Russia's peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia, said by mobile phone. The peacekeepers have suffered casualties, although it's too early to say how many, he said. Georgia is a key link in a U.S.-backed ``southern energy corridor'' that links the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia, the world's biggest energy producer. Two pipelines pass through the country linking Azerbaijan and Turkey. The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which has been closed since Aug. 5 due to an explosion in Turkey, runs about 100 kilometers south of the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. The most recent violence in the region erupted on Aug. 1, when South Ossetia said Georgian shelling of the regional capital Tskhinvali claimed six lives. Georgia said South Ossetian forces sparked the fighting. ``The conflict might be short and hot, but my sense is that neither party wants a prolonged conflict,'' said Michael Denison, associate fellow at London-based research group Chatham House and a professor of international security at the University of Leeds. The EU, in a statement today expressed ``grave concern'' about the fighting and said it is ``working toward a cease fire.'' To contact the reporters on this story: Greg Walters in Moscow gwalters1 at bloomberg.net; Torrey Clark in Moscow at tclark8 at bloomberg.net Last Updated: August 8, 2008 13:02 EDT Georgia and Russia are careening towards war. And the U.S. isn't exactly a detached observer in the fight. The American military has been training and equipping Georgian troops for years. The news thus far: Georgia, which has been locked in a drone war over the separatist enclave of Abkhazia, has launched an offensive to reclaim another breakaway territory, South Ossetia. Latest reports indicate that Georgian forces are laying siege to Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. And Russia, which has backed the separatists, is sending in the tanks. So why should we care? Oh, just the prospect of a larger regional war that could drag in Russia ? and involve the United States as well. Since early 2002, the U.S. government has given a healthy amount of military aid to Georgia. When I last visited Tskhinvali, Georgian troops patrolled the streets -- decked out in surplus U.S. Army uniforms and new body armor. The first U.S. aid came under the rubric of the Georgia Train and Equip Program (ostensibly to counter alleged Al Qaeda influence in the Pankisi Gorge); then, under the Sustainment and Stability Operations Program. Georgia returned the favor, committing thousands of troops to the multi-national coalition in Iraq. Last fall, the Georgians doubled their contingent, making them the third-largest contributor to the coalition. Not bad for a nation of 4.6 million people. Leaving aside the question of Russian interference (see below), the larger concern has been that Georgia might be tempted to use its newfound military prowess to resolve domestic conflicts by force. As Sergei Shamba, the foreign affairs minister of Abkhazia, told me in 2006: "The Georgians are euphoric because they have been equipped, trained, that they have gained military experience in Iraq. It feeds this revanchist mood. ? How can South Ossetia be demilitarized, when all of Georgia is bristling with weaponry, and it's only an hour's ride by tank from Tbilisi to Tskhinvali?" One of the U.S. military trainers put it to me a bit more bluntly. "We're giving them the knife," he said. "Will they use it?" Security Council fails to agree on statement on hostilities in South Ossetia 08/08/2008 The UN Security Council on Friday expressed concern about the worsening fighting in Georgia's breakaway enclave of South Ossetia, but could not agree on a statement urging the warring sides to renounce the use of force. Russia called an emergency session of the 15-nation council that began at 11.00 pm, Thursday, in New York with closed talks for two hours. The session continued with an open meeting and public speeches by Russia, Georgia and other council members for another hour. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin (photo), says the key sticking point was "the reluctance" of some council members to accept a reference to the need for the warring parties "to renounce the use of force": "Some members of the Security Council were somehow reluctant to call on the parties including Georgia of course, to refrain from the use of force and we think that this is a very serious blunder of judgment, error of judgment and political blunder." The UN Security Council has scheduled consultations for Friday afternoon to discuss the situation in Georgia. It's the second time in the past 24 hours that the Council is meeting on that topic. This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio. (duration: 1'03") From charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Fri Aug 8 15:13:20 2008 From: charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us (Charles Brown) Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:13:20 -0400 Subject: [A-List] 888 Message-ID: <489C7EB0.84C9.00BF.0@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> Infinite, infinite, infinite This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 8 16:23:38 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 18:23:38 -0400 Subject: [A-List] IRAQ: Sadr "Will Maintain Elite Fighting Units to Resist the Americans if a Timetable for the Withdrawal of U.S. Troops Is Not Established" Message-ID: Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr reorganizes militia By BUSHRA JUHI ? 3 hours ago BAGHDAD (AP) ? Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered most of his militiamen to disarm but said Friday he will maintain elite fighting units to resist the Americans if a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops is not established. Fighters in the Sunni-led insurgency, meanwhile, set off a car bomb at a market in the northern city of Tal Afar, killing 21 people and wounding dozens, Iraqi police said. It was the latest in a series of deadly attacks seeking to chip away at recent security gains. Al-Sadr's statement ? read to worshippers during Friday prayers in Baghdad's former militia stronghold of Sadr City ? was in line with details revealed earlier this week and appeared to be an extension of plans he announced in June aimed at asserting more control over the militia. "Weapons are to be exclusively in the hands of one group, the resistance group," while another group called Momahidoun is to focus on social, religious and community work, Sadrist cleric Mudhafar al-Moussawi said. He said the announcement was particularly aimed at members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which has been blamed for some of the worst violence against American troops and rival Sunni Arabs. Thousands of worshippers streamed out into the streets after the Islamic service, burning an American flag and shouting: "No, no to America. No, no to occupation." The cleric has linked the reorganization of the Mahdi Army to U.S.-Iraqi negotiations over a long-term agreement that would extend the American presence in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year. Al-Sadr and his followers want the deal to include a timeframe for an American withdrawal and have warned they may not suspend operations without such a clause. Several cease-fires by al-Sadr have been key to a sharp decline in violence over the past year, along with a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a U.S. troop buildup. But American officials still consider his militiamen a threat and have backed the Iraqi military in operations to try to oust them from their power bases in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. The fighting cells will be "small and limited" and will only launch attacks under direct orders from al-Sadr in case of "dire necessity," the cleric's spokesman, Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, told The Associated Press in the holy city of Najaf. He also ruled out attacks on Iraqis. "Now our stance is to watch the political developments and the security agreement. We will see if there will be a withdrawal timetable or not. We will wait for the results. These cells have not yet conducted any operations," he added. Two Iraqi officials close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have said government and U.S. negotiators are near an agreement on all American combat troops leaving Iraq by October 2010, with the last soldiers out three years after that. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were still under way. U.S. officials, however, insisted no dates had been agreed. "It's premature to say what the aspiration goals and time horizons are going to be," and a date for troop withdrawals will not be "plucked out of thin air," White House press secretary Dana Perino said, speaking to reporters in Beijing on Friday where President Bush is attending the Olympics. Throughout the conflict, Bush steadfastly refused to accept any timetable for bringing U.S. troops home. Last month, however, Bush and al-Maliki agreed to set a "general time horizon" for ending the U.S. mission. The car bomb in Tal Afar exploded by a food market about 6:30 p.m., when the area was crowded with shoppers, police said. One official said Iraqi soldiers had searched the car at a checkpoint leading to the market but failed to notice the explosives. Two local officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information, gave the casualty toll as 21 dead and 72 wounded. The U.S. military confirmed the attack but said initial reports indicated 15 people were killed and 50 wounded. "I was standing near my cart when I heard a big explosion and I felt as if hell was in front of me," said Hussein Ali, a 15-year-old food vendor wounded in the head and legs. "The next thing I knew I was in the hospital receiving treatment," he said from his bed. Tal Afar, a predominantly Shiite Turkomen city 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, also was hit by a car bombing July 16 that killed at least 18 people, including seven children. U.S.-Iraqi military operations are currently under way pursuing al-Qaida in Iraq fighters and other insurgents in Mosul and elsewhere in the north. Ethnic tensions also have been rising between Turkomen, Arabs and Kurds in that region over the status of the oil city of Kirkuk. Kurdish leader Massoud al-Barzani visited Kirkuk on Friday and called for the rival factions "to have an open dialogue" to resolve their disagreement over sharing control of the city. His appeal came two days after the dispute blocked passage of a provincial elections law, casting doubt on whether U.S.-backed balloting can be held this year in Iraq's 18 provinces. The bill failed because the sides were unable to come to agree on a power-sharing deal for the region around Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oil fields. Kurds consider Kirkuk their ancestral capital and want to incorporate it into their self-ruled region in the north. Most Arabs and Turkomen want Kirkuk to remain under central government control. In Washington, the State Department expressed irritation that the parliament had gone into summer recess without having reached a compromise on the matter. "The status of Kirkuk is indeed a sensitive issue that needs to be addressed in a serious fashion, but it is an issue that cannot be solved through the legislative mechanism of the election law," spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said. "The election law should not be held hostage to that problem." Associated Press writer Saad Abdul-Kadir contributed to this report. From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 8 16:33:35 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 18:33:35 -0400 Subject: [A-List] UN council split on South Ossetia, Russia angry Message-ID: UN council split on South Ossetia, Russia angry Fri Aug 8, 2008 2:49am EDT (Adds Russian, Georgian, U.S., French envoys) By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council failed on Friday to reach an agreement on a Russian-drafted statement that would have called on Georgia and separatists in its South Ossetia region to immediately halt all bloodshed. The 15 Security Council members began meeting late on Thursday and remained behind closed doors for two hours until early Friday morning to discuss the three-sentence statement. But council diplomats said one phrase in it was unacceptable to the Georgians, backed by the United States and Europeans. That wording called on all sides in the conflict "to renounce the use of force," according to a draft of the text. After failing to agree, the council decided not to take any action on the issue, the diplomats said. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who had asked for the 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT) meeting to be held, did not hide his disappointment at the council's inability to agree. He said it "unfortunately represents the absence of any political will amongst the members of the Security Council." Georgian troops, backed by warplanes, pounded separatist forces near the South Ossetian capital on Friday hours after launching an assault on the breakaway region following a short-lived truce. The crisis fueled fears of full-blown war in the region, which is emerging as a vital energy transit route and where Russia and the West are vying for influence. Russia backs the separatists who have controlled the region since a war in the early 1990s. Churkin also chided the council for failing to heed his earlier warnings that the situation in South Ossetia was about to escalate. U.S. URGES RUSSIAN RESTRAINT U.S. envoy Rosemary DiCarlo called for an end to hostilities and urged respect for Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty. She condemned the separatists' refusal to attend a Thursday meeting with Georgian officials. DiCarlo also had some suggestions for Moscow. "We also call on Russia to pull its troops back and not inflame the situation by sending its forces to Georgia," she said. "Russia must cease the transport of troops and equipment ... from Russia into South Ossetia." Churkin expressed surprise that the U.S. envoy had condemned the separatists but not Georgia. Georgian Ambassador Irakli Alasania reiterated Tbilisi's position to the council, accusing the separatists of starting the crisis and describing his country's reaction as restrained. Speaking to reporters later, he said the separatists seemed to want to "ethnically cleanse" Georgians from the region. "Georgia as a responsible state has the responsibility to protect our peaceful population," Alasania said. He called on the separatists to halt attacks and said Moscow was interfering in South Ossetia in support of the separatists. He said that Russian officials, military personnel and security agents were active in the region. French, British and other Western envoys also called for all sides to stop fighting and resume negotiations. French Deputy Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters the council would probably come back to the issue. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Vicki Allen) From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 8 16:57:54 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 18:57:54 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Georgia's Importance as an Energy Transit State Message-ID: FACTBOX - Georgia's importance as an energy transit state Fri Aug 8, 2008 11:21am BST (Reuters) - Georgia, where government forces fought pro-Russian separatists on Friday, is an energy highway to the West with two major pipelines routed via the capital Tbilisi. Georgia and other transit states have an obligation to ensure the security of the pipelines, which follow similar routes and carry oil and gas from the Azeri section of the Caspian Sea. From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 8 18:57:02 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 20:57:02 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Ossetians: Their Language and Identity Message-ID: Ambrose Bierce said that war is God's way of teaching Americans geography. It can also teach ethnolinguistics. As Georgia, backed by the United States and Europe (cf. ), attacked South Ossetia, I looked for background information and found out that the Ossetians speak an Iranian language, divided into two dialects Iron and Digor: . Here's a short excerpt from a paper that includes a fascinating section on the history of construction of Ossetian identity (the full text is available at the link below): Acta Slavica Iaponica, Tomus 23, pp. 37-73 The Politics of a Name: Between Consolidation and Separation in the Northern Caucasus* Victor Shnirelman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ossetia and the Ossetians received their name from the Russians, who used the Georgian term Oseti for the Iranian-speaking inhabitants of the central part of the Caucasus. The term became popular and was accepted by the Ossetians themselves already before they were integrated into the Russian empire. At the same time the Ossetians retained their internal division into a few sub-groups with their own names in Ossetian. In Northern Ossetia they are the Irons in the East and the Digors in the West. Yet, the Ossetians lacked any single inclusive name for themselves in their own language, and for a long time they felt comfortable with the name given to them by the Georgians and Russians. This practice was put into question by the new Ossetian nationalism. From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Aug 8 19:50:15 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 21:50:15 -0400 Subject: [A-List] The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline: Oil Window to the West Message-ID: Look, a free book! The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline: Oil Window to the West Edited by S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell 150 pages, $15. Free, downloadable PDF files are available below. For ordering information, please see bottom of page. To download the entire book in PDF format, [2,5MB file] click here Contents 0. Contents and Contributor pages pp. 1-6 1. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline: School of Modernity S. Frederick Starr pp. 7-16 2. Geostrategic Implications of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Svante E. Cornell, Mamuka Tsereteli and Vladimir Socor pp. 17-38 3. Economic Implications of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Jonathan Elkind pp. 39-60 4. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline: Implications for Azerbaijan Svante E. Cornell and Fariz Ismailzade pp. 61-84 5. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline: Implications for Georgia Vladimer Papava pp. 85-102 6. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline: Implications for Turkey Zeyno Baran pp. 103-118 7. Environmental and Social Aspects of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline David Blatchford pp. 119-150 This book is published by the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center. All rights reserved. To order hard copies, please send a check or money order of $15 payable to The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute as well as mailing information to one of the following addresses: (If unable to send a check or money order please contact one of the Centers offices or use the electronic version) For the U.S., Canada and Latin America: Att: BTC book c/o Andriy Proshschenko Central Asia-Caucasus Institute Johns Hopkins University-SAIS 1619 Massachusetts Ave. NW Washington, DC 20036 USA For Europe and Asia: Att: BTC book c/o Emin Poljarevic Silk Road Studies Program Uppsala University Box 514, SE-75120 Uppsala University Sweden From shimogamo at attglobal.net Fri Aug 8 20:56:00 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:56:00 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Cash and the class system Message-ID: <489D0740.8040103@attglobal.net> The old social markers are all redundant. British society is now a money nation shaped exclusively by wealth - airs and graces no longer matter by Danny Dorling New Statesman (July 24 2008) There was once an age when class came with breeding. One's parents gave one one's position. One might stray a little above or below - a perfect marital match is never possible - but one knew one's place. Then, for much of the past century, class was about occupation. You had only to ask someone his or her job and you felt you knew almost everything about them. In 2008 that is no longer true. The fifty per cent of the British people who can just about pay the bills, but who cannot even imagine paying inheritance tax, have a huge range of occupations. Just as those above and below them do. These families, which we still call middle-class, usually have two jobs (the British norm), two or more cars (the norm), a small semi-detached or large terraced house, and a combined income that pays for the mortgage, food, fuel and a couple of holidays a year (one of them somewhere warm). Nowadays, class is all about money. In the late 19th century, accent, clothing, title and behaviour reflected our origins. There were schools for all classes: the Great Schools for those destined for greatness, and a multitude of not-so-great schools, mostly created or expanded under Victoria's reign, catering for the children of different strata of the new middle classes. You could tell whether a family was upper-middle, middle-middle, or lower-middle-class from the school its children attended. The working classes had their day schools, Sunday schools, church schools and elementary schools, or didn't go to school. You could also tell their class from the street they inhabited. Charles Booth, the philanthropist and social researcher, had maps of London beautifully coloured, street by street. You could see the subtle differentiation between the areas not shaded yellow, the colour of the servant-keeping classes. You could also see those areas shaded black and labelled "vicious, semi-criminal, poor". Mrs Beeton wrote a book on household management that sold well in those days. It turns out she had only one servant, but she did a good job of pretending to have more. Her book was so successful because of a popular demand for information on how to act up to the class you wished to be. Just like Nigella Lawson today, she provided the fantasy that you, too, could appear to come from a stable above, be of better stock and be more respectable. We used to have many popular guides to the British class system that told you how to appear just a slight cut above. But in 2008 those at the top have to try to appear like the rest: chummy and normal. This year women had to be told to wear knickers to the Royal Enclosure at Ascot. How did we get here from there? The change happened slowly throughout the 20th century. The decimation of the sons of the Great Schools in the 1914-18 war, the "gifting" of stately homes to what is now the National Trust, the collapse of the financial might of the upper class through the 1920s and 1930s, and a progressive tax regime that lasted from the end of the Second World War until the beginning of Thatcherism - all these things changed what class meant. Whereas under Queen Victoria secondary schools had been designed to segregate the middle class, the Education Act 1944 split up the working class. It had the side effect of creating a one-off generation, selected at eleven by what was called an ability test, a few of whom later got good jobs in universities and mused about class. Boys were in the majority, as the eleven-plus tests had been made easier for them. (They had to be made easier as there were far more grammar school places for boys than for girls, yet boys did worse in the tests.) Not surprisingly, these grammar school boys, with occupations their fathers had often not heard of, came to think of occupation and job title as very important. As civil servants, university dons and market researchers, they designed class classification systems based on men's occupations. Occupation was seen as a proxy for behaviour, for leisure pursuits, for taste, for class. Under this system, the university lecturer from humble origins was equal to the don who did not need to draw his salary. Women fitted awkwardly into such schema. Unfortunately, classification based on occupation came to predict certain behaviour less well over time. Almost from the moment when the occupations were grouped, people started voting less and less reliably by occupational class. They took longer to stop behaving so predictably in lifestyle, partly because health outcomes have long antecedents, but premature mortality, too, has become a little less predictable by class. So, are we a more classless society? It doesn't feel quite like that. What I think has shifted is how we know what class we are in. Give someone a fancy job title today and it may not mean quite as much as it did a few decades ago. You know what "general manager for the horizontal arrangement of goods" means, and what is being stacked where. Yet it is also possible for two jobs to have the same title but be completely different. Different members of parliament, for instance, have very different lifestyles and differing levels of income and wealth. In the past they did, too - but you could predict their class from knowing their political party label. That is much less the case today. Now there are better ways to gauge class. Tell me where you went to school, what your father's job was then, and your home postcode, and I'll quite happily put you in a pigeonhole. It still helps to know your job title, but I'm not that bothered about it. I'd be much more interested in your financial situation and that of your wider family. Your class is your wealth - and your family wealth. The new definitions In Britain in 2008, if you cannot save ten GBP a month and pay for an annual holiday, you are most probably Poor. This month, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published a survey, A Minimum Income Standard for Britain: What People Think, which suggested that GBP 13,400 a year was the minimum for a single adult, and GBP 26,800 for a couple with two children. Roughly a quarter of households live on less than the equivalent amounts in Britain today. Most are in debt. A holiday would be taking the kids to their grandparents over the summer. If they are pensioners, they spend over a tenth of their income to stay warm. The Poor are the new "lower class". The Poor are now so numerous that sociologists subclassify them. The poorest of the poor - the Very Poor - have an income of GBP 8,600 or less, and have no savings or wider family network to call on (so no annual visits to Grandma's). If you are in the poorest tenth of households in Britain, and your child asks for three GBP for the coach fare for a school trip, you have to go without something else to pay for it. When asked, the Very Poor describe themselves as living in poverty. Above the quarter who are poor is a group that has been squeezed in number in recent years: those who are neither wealthy nor poor. They are Normal. If you are Normal you can pay for school trips, and a holiday (but not in Mauritius). You are getting by, but not comfortably. You are in a shrinking middle group. A single adult living in the middle will have an annual income of between GBP 13,400 and about GBP 29,600. Being at the top of that band entails working for fiftee GBP an hour for a 38-hour week. Live on your own and earn more than that, and you are not Normal - you are in the best-off quarter. Have two kids and a joint income of GBP 60,000-plus, and you are not Normal. Those in the middle (single income: GBP 13,400 to GBP 29,600) are not the old middle class, but what was the old lower middle class and upper working class. Those who once tottered on that crucial boundary now find they are all jumbled up in a new middle where acquired airs, or evidence of a more humble background, count for much less. Today, the middle makes up almost exactly fifty per cent of UK households. Across Britain, outside of London, most people are still Normal, but that normality ranges from living a whisker above poverty to living a whisker below the wealthy. The Wealthy are the 25 per cent of the population who are living on an income of more than GBP 60,000 for a couple with kids, or on GBP 30,000 or over for a single adult. (Having high savings and low outgoings can also make you wealthy at annual incomes below this level.) You are in the Wealthy group if, should you and your spouse simultaneously drop dead today, your estate would be liable for inheritance tax (the single-person inheritance tax threshold is now GBP 312,000). But don't worry: most people like you will manage to spend your wealth in old age long before you have a chance to pass much of it on. If you are wealthy, you are partaking in most of the norms of society. Most people in this group, however, choose not to use private health and education provision. If they did, other luxuries would have to be forgone. Above the Wealthy is a group that does exclude itself from the norms of society, and for which the choices are less problematic: we'll call it the Exclusively Wealthy. They make up about five per cent of us. For them, the question is not where to go on holiday, but where is best to go in each season. What sets the Exclusively Wealthy apart from the rest is not their reliance on private provision, which they use routinely, but their large properties, multiple foreign holidays, and outright purchase of new luxury cars. You need to be doing about two out of three of those things, while preferably having a six-figure household income, to be up with these Joneses. There is a national fixation with this group, and enough written on them to sell a month of Sunday newspapers. Suffice to say here that they are fractal in nature. Within the best-off five per cent, the top half are so much better off than the rest that they make the other half feel poor. Within that better-off half, half are so much better off that ... and so on. It's a recursive definition. It ends with the 0.01 per cent at the very top who worry about being kidnapped, and know that their children and lovers lie to them for their wealth. This is our wealth-based British class system today. It is a 25-50-25 division, the edges of which can be shaved off to almost infinite layers of abstraction. It may sound crude, but money is. Airs and graces no longer matter. In fact, it is crucial to try to avoid them regardless of which end of the scale you are from. Dress down if you might otherwise look like a "toff": take off that tie, unclip that accent. Dress up if you come from more dour stock: sensible suits, a neat haircut, and hold your knife and fork correctly. Most of the old markers of class fade as, for men, a ubiquitous "bloke" is created and women look "smart". Where the signs remain - those brown leather shoes that only men from certain schools still wear, that fake handbag that only women not quite au fait would carry - they matter less and less. Knowing the shape we're in The comedian Roseanne Barr once said that Americans were all middle-class until the man came to turn the electricity off. In the United States, those from the worst-off fifth of families work for eight days or more to earn what those in the best-off fifth are paid in a day. In Britain, that ratio is seven days' work for one day's pay, in Ireland six days, in France just over five days, in Sweden four days and in Iceland three and a half days. Class systems within the rich countries of the world increasingly reflect their income-inequality ratios. The very least we should do, if we ever want to understand our changed social world, is to learn about its basic shape. In Britain, as in many other countries, we best know our place through a mechanism even older than the Victorian class system: we take a census. In the past, British censuses have responded to the way society was changing. When people started to get hot running water, the census asked if they had it. When almost everyone did have it, the census stopped asking (similarly over inside toilets, over cars and over occupations). It took a riot or two before the census asked about ethnicity. It took parliament to insist that in 2001 we ask about religion. Yet a campaign in the same year to insert a question about household income failed. In the US, the census asks about income. In Scandinavia, it is recorded on national population registers. The next UK census in 2011, however, will still not ask about citizens' income or wealth. (Not, at least in England and Wales; Scotland may be the exception.) It will mean, in effect, that we will not be asking about class. Perhaps we are afraid of what we would be told, and what kind of a segregated country we would see. _____ This article is published in the summer edition of the Fabian Review as part of the Fabian Society's work on class and inequality, and on the Fabian website (www.fabians.org.uk). Danny Dorling works with the Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group in the department of geography, University of Sheffield. With Bethan Thomas, he is the author of Identity in Britain: a Cradle-to-Grave Atlas (Policy Press). He is also an author, with colleagues, of The Atlas of the Real World (Thames & Hudson) and The Grim Reaper's Road Map (Policy Press), both to be published in October. "When I was growing up, class was clearly defined. You knew where you were in the pecking order. You knew your place. Mine was lowly. Now we have a disparity between people, and no social movement. Footballers and pop stars have got rich through talent and energy and bravado, but haven't taken the working class with them. People do feel they are at the bottom of the pile." -- Joan Bakewell, Broadcaster "It's always been the same - those who do the work versus those who own the wealth. The slave owners had their land, and the slaves tilled it. In the end, I think Marx had it right." -- Tony Benn "Does money now mean more than class? Ask yourself what is the first thing new money does. It puts its sons down for Eton and buys a stately home. Money has not killed off the old class system: it is fuelling its survival into a new century." -- Meredith Etherington-Smith, Author and etiquette expert "Class has always been about money. Breeding has now been exposed; it is now just a commodity itself. Where I live, even 'the middle class' is a redundant term. Whether you can afford access to leisure activities or pay your bills defines your class." -- Soweto Kinch, Jazz musician and rapper "It's rather discouraging that people give a degree of respect for grand fortunes and not grand titles. People like Roman Abramovich get enormous amounts of respect and dukes don't." -- Max Hastings, Former editor http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2008/07/middle-class-british-income http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From billyoc at gmail.com Fri Aug 8 21:03:29 2008 From: billyoc at gmail.com (Billy O'Connor) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 23:03:29 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Cash and the class system In-Reply-To: <489D0740.8040103@attglobal.net> References: <489D0740.8040103@attglobal.net> Message-ID: <20080809030327.GO17445@t22.Belkin> On Sat, Aug 09, 2008 at 11:56:00AM +0900, Bill Totten wrote: > > The old social markers are all redundant. British society is now a money > nation shaped exclusively by wealth - airs and graces no longer matter Does this mean that England is having a French Revolution? From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sat Aug 9 03:54:51 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:54:51 +0900 Subject: [A-List] The Lunar Conspiracy Message-ID: <489D696B.6060806@attglobal.net> A Proposal to Hamish Mykura, Head of Documentaries, Channel 4 From noreply at coha.org Fri Aug 8 12:24:53 2008 From: noreply at coha.org (Council on Hemispheric Affairs) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 14:24:53 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Morales Prepares to Win Bolivia's Sunday Referendum Message-ID: <20080808182455.3299F3E4FC8@mx-out2.daemonmail.net> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 7215 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080808/5b106494/attachment.txt From nscchicago at igc.org Fri Aug 8 16:43:29 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 17:43:29 -0500 Subject: [A-List] [Vensteering] Danny Glover's slavery film lacked "white heroes"producers said. References: <8CAC7B4753ABB6A-690-2071@FWM-M30.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: <001a01c8f9a8$348fa430$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> Here's Haiti Looking at You Tom Baker here and tell me, friends, did you catch all the stuff going by in this article. LaborExchange, were there other reviews or was this the good one for all its buzz points. First, how this belittles Danny Glover as an actor and as a person - speaks to other on-going points people have been trying to raise, but I don't want to do it one by one, up down this and go into nowhere, no moving on. This article was released July 25 but is just coming by today, Aug 08, two weeks. No problem, just tell me how that is. Film's not been made yet. HAITI is so invisible I'd say almost zero EuroCentrics have it integrated into their thinking - if they did, the situation would not be what it is. Not up downing anyone, just saying HAITI is invisible to EuroCentric. WHERE ARE THE WHITE HEROES. Friend, there are none. White is not a Skin Color, it is the Color of a Culture which Can See No Other ----- Original Message ----- From: laborexchange at aol.com Subject: [Vensteering] Danny Glover's slavery film lacked "white heroes"producers said. (Granma ran a somewhat shorter version of this article: http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2008/08/08/cultura/artic02.html ======================================================================= Friday, July 25, 2008 - 08:30 AFP News Briefs List Danny Glover's slavery film lacked "white heroes", producers said by Rebecca Frasquet http://www.france24.com/en/20080725-danny-glovers- slavery-film-lacked-white-heroes-producers-said US actor Danny Glover, who plans an epic next year on Haitian independence hero Toussaint-Louverture, said he slaved to raise funds for the movie because financiers complained there were no white heroes. "Producers said 'It's a nice project, a great project... where are the white heroes?'" he told AFP during a stay in Paris this month for a seminar on film. "I couldn't get the money here, I couldn't get the money in Britain. I went to everybody. You wouldn't believe the number of producers based in Europe, and in the States, that I went to," he said. "The first question you get, is 'Is it a black film?' All of them agree, it's not going to do good in Europe, it's not going to do good in Japan. "Somebody has to prove that to be a lie!", he said. "Maybe I'll have the chance to prove it." "Toussaint," Glover's first project as film director, is about Francois Dominique Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), a former slave and one of the fathers of Haiti's independence from France in 1804, making it the first black nation to throw off imperial rule and become a republic. The uprising he led was bloodily put down in 1802 by 20,000 soldiers dispatched to the Caribbean by Napoleon Bonaparte, who then re-established slavery after its ban by the leaders of the French Revolution. Due to be shot in Venezuela early next year, the film will star Don Cheadle, Mos Def, Wesley Snipes and Angela Bassett. "I wasn't the first one who had this idea," he said. "Sergey Eisenstein had the same idea, Anthony Quinn had this idea, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, and this goes on." The "Lethal Weapon" co-star, just turned 62, finally raised 18 of the 30 million dollars needed from a Venezuelan cultural body set up in 2006 by his friend President Hugo Chavez to counter what he termed "the Hollywood film dictatorship. Glover, a longtime activist, has supported Chavez's political revolution since he was first elected in 1998. After making his debut with a bit role in 1979 movie starring Clint Eastwood, "Escape From Alcatraz", Glover played in films such as "Silverado" and "Witness" but grabbed wide attention after Steven Spielberg's 1985 movie "The Color Purple". He is probably most widely known as "Lethal Weapon" co-star with Mel Gibson. Born in San Francisco, he enrolled at the Black Actors Workshop there and is known for his stand against discrimination as well as for his activism against the Iraqi war and anti-personnel mines. An admirer of the Senegalese writer-filmmaker known as the father of African cinema, Ousmane Sembene, Glover has helped produce African films, including the recently-acclaimed arthouse movie "Bamako" by Abderrahmane Sissako. "The first African films that I saw were films that portrayed Africans as savages, ignorant and uncivilized, and I wanted to know something else," he said. "I was very fortunate, I had the chance to read writers like Mariama Ba, Aime Cesaire ... and Leopold Sedar Senghor. I read him when I was 20." "When I saw Sidney Poitier on screen, I was probably 10 or 11," he added. "That was a different image, an image I had never seen before, on screen. "The African-Americans I saw, they danced, they were buffoons, that was the image. So Sidney brought another image." History, Glover said, had enabled him to play a wide range of roles because of the changes taking place in society. "I think cinema has played a great role in our re-imagining ourselves," he said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's time to go back to school! Get the latest trends and gadgets that make the grade on AOL Shopping. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ You are subscribed to the Vensteering mailing list http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/vensteering To Unsubscribe from this or any mutualaid.org hosted mailing list, visit: http://lists.mutualaid.org/unsub.php -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 8889 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080808/096c3126/attachment.txt -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 3815 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080808/096c3126/attachment-0001.jpeg From nscchicago at igc.org Fri Aug 8 17:02:35 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 18:02:35 -0500 Subject: [A-List] Fw: Guard campaign heating up! And much more . . . ~ LT News 4.14 Message-ID: <002101c8f9aa$e1ca7ec0$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> Guard LT News AugustFrom: Liberty Tree Subject: Guard campaign heating up! And much more . . . ~ LT News 4.14 Freedom is a strong seed, planted in great need. ~ Langston Hughes DONATE:: LIBERTY TREE Foundation for the Democratic Revolution -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Liberty Tree News 4.14 ACTION: Rally tomorrow at DNC Platform meeting to bring Guard home! ....... Get your mayor to speak out against attacking Iran! EVENT: Pro-Democracy events outside the Dem Convention in Denver NEWS: Vermont Guard campaign in Montpellier press ....... Advance coverage of Guard rally in Pittsburgh ....... Greens condemn voting rights violations in Ohio, Pennsylvania ........ Ecuador protects rights of nature ........ Will states topple the Electoral College? ........ Voter Protection by Bill Fletcher ....... Obama wrong on Afghanistan, Pakistan by Tom Hayden August 8, 2008 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION - DEMOCRATIZING DEFENSE 8/9/8, 4pm, Pittsburgh - Rally to Bring the PA Guard Home Pennsylvania this week becomes the main front in a major national effort to end deployments of the National Guard to Iraq. Led by military families, and veterans, citizens from across Pennsylvania will rally this Saturday, August 9th, at 4pm at Pittsburgh's David Lawrence Convention Center to show the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that state support is growing for bringing the Guard home. Click here to read more about it ... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION - LOCAL DEMOCRACY/DEMOCRATIZING DEFENSE "No War on Iran" resolution for U.S. Mayors "In these times when the Iraq war has sapped so many of our financial resources and cost the lives of our brave soldiers, I hope you will join me in voicing the determination of mayors across this country to stop a war with Iran before it begins." ~ Bob Kiss, Mayor, Burlington, VT Click here to find out whether your mayor has taken a stand... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- EVENT - DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT Real Democracy at the DNC in Denver While the politicians, newsmedia, and lobbyists rub elbows inside the Democratic National Convention, join Liberty Tree outside the convention at two weeklong events organized by the Alliance for Real Democracy and by Progressive Democrats of America. Click here to find out what's going on in Denver... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS - DEMOCRATIZING DEFENSE Vermont: Guard's Overseas Deployment Challenged "A bill barring the Vermont National Guard from being sent to Iraq may not have gotten far in the Legislature, but it seems to have spawned a national movement. More than a half-dozen state legislatures will consider similar bills over the coming months, said Ben Manski, a Wisconsin man who was in Montpelier on Monday as part of his work supporting such initiatives." Click here to read the full Times-Argus article... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS - DEMOCRATIZING DEFENSE Pennsylvania: Advance media coverage of Pittsburgh Guard rally "The Democratic Party's Platform Committee meets at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center this Saturday to approve the traditional statement of party principles that will be voted on at the presidential nominating convention in Denver. . . . . . . . activists unaffiliated with the DNC panel hope to use its meeting to focus attention on one controversial issue -- an effort to halt deployments of National Guard members to Iraq. State Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, will join the anti-war protesters and discuss his support for legislation that would weaken federal control of the state's Guard detachments. The legislation, similar to measures proposed in a variety of other states, would limit the use of the Guard to service within Pennsylvania unless there is federal legislative action such as a declaration of war." Click here to read several Pittsburgh newspaper articles... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS - DEMOCRATIZING ELECTIONS Greens condemn voting rights violations in OH, PA "Green Party leaders urged swift and aggressive court action to ensure fair elections and enforcement of legal campaign practices in the wake of election scandals in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Green Party, which nominated Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente for President and Vice President during the 2008 Green National Convention in Chicago on July 12, has a special interest in the integrity of the U.S. election system. Greens are currently working to get the nominees on as many state ballots as possible, an effort rendered difficult by grossly biased and unfair ballot access rules designed by Democrats and Republicans to hinder other parties' candidates and independents in many states." Click here to read the release... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS - LAW OF DEMOCRACY CELDF: Ecuador protects the rights of nature "On July 7, 2008, the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly - composed of one hundred and thirty (130) delegates elected countrywide to rewrite the country's Constitution - voted to approve articles for the new constitution recognizing rights for nature and ecosystems. "If adopted in the final constitution by the people, Ecuador would become the first country in the world to codify a new system of environmental protection based on rights," stated Thomas Linzey, Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund." Click here to read CELDF's review of the constitutional changes... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS - DEMOCRATIZING ELECTIONS Will states topple the Electoral College? "First it was the presidential primary calendar that state legislatures across the country upended to give their voters a greater say this year in choosing candidates. Now a few states are orchestrating an overhaul of the way voters select the U.S. president. Voters this fall will still use the Electoral College to determine the next occupant of the White House, but a movement is bubbling at the state level to bypass the process and instead ensure future presidents are the candidates who get the most votes nationwide - an outcome not always guaranteed under the current system." Click here to read more... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS - DEMOCRATIZING ELECTIONS Voter Protection ~ by Bill Fletcher, Jr. "I asked a good friend what I should write about for BlackCommentator.com this week. Without missing a beat she said: "Write about what I am working on!" I looked at her and asked what that was. Her response: "Voter protection." Elections in the USA have rarely been clean. Electoral theft is not new. Infamous big city machines were known for throwing elections one way or the other. The 1960 Presidential election has always been shrouded in some degree of mystery, particularly with regard to the voting results from Illinois. African Americans, Chicanos and Asians have had plenty of experience with electoral fraud, having been effectively denied the right to vote for most of the period since the end of Reconstruction (1877)." Click here to read the full article... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS - DEMOCRATIZING DEFENSE Obama wrong on Afghanistan, Pakistan ~ by Tom Hayden "Barack Obama has restated his phased withdrawal plan for Iraq in response to public questioning, but committed himself to expanding the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Any proposal to transfer American troops from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan is sure to cause debate and questions among peace activists and rank-and-file Democrats. The proposal potentially represents a wider quagmire for the US government and military." Click here to read the full article... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTRIBUTE TODAY LIBERTY TREE Foundation for the Democratic Revolution -------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT - If someone forwarded this message to you, you likely are not subscribed to the Liberty Tree News service. To receive the Liberty Tree News, you must subscribe yourself at: http://libertytreefdr.org/mailSubscribe.php -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are subscribed to the Liberty Tree News service as nscchicago at igc.org. Click here to unsubscribe, or send email to unsubscribe.283033.226122827.2113846427989200114-nscchicago_igc.org at en.groundspring.org. Our postal address is P.O. Box 260217 Madison, Wisconsin 53726-0217 United States -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 18018 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080808/59c2713b/attachment.txt From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 9 08:43:01 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 10:43:01 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Battle Lines Move from Kashmir to Kabul Message-ID: Shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Tehran and Moscow thought along the same line as New Delhi's that M K Bhadrakumar explains below. You hate the Taliban? Why, me too. Why can't we all get along? But Washington came to adopt this line only with regard to India, decisively tilting toward India especially after Musharraf lost the elections this year. Putin changed his mind in response to Washington's cold shoulder, and pro-Americans in Tehran lost power to Third-Worldists who want Russia, China, the Latin Left, and the NAM as Iran's strategic allies. -- Yoshie Aug 9, 2008 Battle lines move from Kashmir to Kabul By M K Bhadrakumar There is wide acclaim today among Indian strategic analysts and diplomatic editors that New Delhi has scored a major diplomatic victory in Afghanistan and that its "influence" in Kabul has "peaked". This victory has come on the back of Washington's strategic pro-India tilt and, in the period since end-2001 to date, India's earmarking of a staggering US$1.2 billion as assistance for Afghan "reconstruction". Some Indian cheerleaders expound the thesis that it is the hallmark of an aspiring great power to "first learn to become a net provider of regional security" - and Delhi must therefore step in and lend a hand in fixing the Afghan problem. Others visualize Afghanistan providing a "unique opportunity" to be of help to the United States, and that Delhi will eventually benefit from the payback by a grateful superpower that is sure to come. Yet another Indian viewpoint is that it simply pays to rattle Islamabad by creating space for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. An invidious Indian argument is that Delhi should use Afghan soil to retaliate against Islamabad's support of Kashmiri militants. In diplomacy, maybe, it pays to sidestep historical memory. Archives may contain only chronicles of wasted time. Very few Indian strategic analysts who at present hold forth on Afghanistan seem to be even remotely aware of how, like Karzai, the then head of state in Kabul, Dr Mohammad Najibullah, was a frequent visitor to Delhi in the late 1980s. That, too, was a twilight zone in the 30-year-old Afghan war when the conflict, like today's, uneasily lingered in the shade. Fortunately for Delhi, though, the slow-rolling coup that worked its way through the Afghan labyrinth for months before culminating in the morning of April 16, 1992, with Najib's ouster, didn't come entirely as surprise. Indian diplomats soon began diligently seeking out the Afghan mujahideen in the dangerous Hindu Kush mountains, to explain to those new masters the cold rationale of India's exceedingly warm friendship with Najib. They explained patiently that it was after all a strictly state-to-state, government-to-government relationship with Najib, shorn of ideology or religion or commitments. The Northern Alliance's Ahmad Shah Massoud still looked away as elements in his militia systematically ransacked the Indian Embassy, forcing its diplomats to flee Kabul. Yet, within no time, by the mid-1990s, Massoud had become India's key Afghan ally - or, as much as he could be anyone's ally. Certainly, it remains a tantalizing proposition whether with all the Indian help Taliban rule could have been overthrown but for al-Qaeda's historic decision to attack New York and Washington in September 2001. Historically, there has never been a dearth of justification for Indian involvement in Afghanistan. At the time of the Afghan jihad in the 1980s against the Soviets, Indian policy maintained that secular India had everything to lose with the advent of Islamism in the region - encouraged as a factor of Cold War geopolitics by the US - and that Najib provided a bulwark against the Islamist mujahideen based in Peshawar in Pakistan. But Delhi swiftly switched tack after the mujahideen takeover in 1992. It found itself networking instead with a mujahideen group that was famously rooted in political Islam - the Jamiat-i-Islami, belonging to the Afghan-based Akhwan-ul-Muslimeen, which had strong links with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Following the appearance of the Taliban in the mid-1990s, India confidently took the side of the Northern Alliance. In political terms, this phase signified a wholesale embrace of Islamists, as the Northern Alliance comprised a variety of radical Islamist groups (including die-hard mujahideen groups like the Ittihad-i-Islami, which followed the Wahhabi ideology and enjoyed generous funding during the Afghan jihad from wealthy Saudi benefactors, including from Osama bin Laden). The changed rationale was that the Taliban represented the dark forces of "obscurantism" and "extremism", which posed a threat to regional security and stability. However, since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, Delhi incrementally distanced itself from the Northern Alliance. Instead, Delhi began supporting the US-backed power setup in Kabul. The pro-US policy was rationalized in terms of the upcoming struggle against "terrorism" proclaimed by US President George W Bush. No one knows how much of its surplus capital Delhi ended up spending on various Afghan groups through the three decades - and, more important, what durable dividend it brought for India. Unfortunately, the Indian political system doesn't insist on stocktaking. The 59-year-old Indian parliament is yet to evolve a system of in-camera hearings, which is a redeeming feature of most serious democracies in the world, including neighboring Iran. All through the painful twists and turns, Indian policy towards Afghanistan was steeped in pragmatism and remained largely Pakistan-centric. But things seem to be changing. The horizons appear to have vastly expanded. According to Pakistani writer Ahmed Rashid, Kabul is "replacing Kashmir as the main area of antagonism" between India and Pakistan. The Pakistani security establishment has convinced itself that Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies are engaged in undermining Pakistan's security. American analysts say Afghanistan has explicitly become a theater of Pakistan-India adversarial relations. But there is a much larger dimension. The Pakistani establishment is also sizing up the new geopolitical reality - the unprecedented pro-India tilt in the US's regional policy. It is having a hard time coping with the trilateral consensus between Kabul, Delhi and Washington, which pillories Islamabad as the "primary and near-exclusive trouble maker" in the region. The Pakistani establishment cannot accept that while Islamabad remains a key partner for Washington in the "war on terror", it is Delhi that is on the way to becoming a stakeholder in US global strategies. Indeed, the National Defense Strategy document released by the Pentagon in Washington on July 31 confirms the worst Pakistani suspicions. It underscores, "We [the US] look to India to assume greater responsibility as a stakeholder in the international system, commensurate with its growing economic, military and soft power." India is the only country hailed in this fashion in the entire 29-page document. The Pentagon seems to have overlooked how such a vehement US national defense strategy pronouncement citing India as a pivotal country would go down with the Pakistani generals. To be sure, Delhi finds the US doctrine to be immensely attractive. This is how the Indian elite always wanted the US to view India. But the Pakistani perspective sees the emerging regional equations as a dangerous slide toward Indian military superiority and regional "hegemony". How does the Pakistani military, weaned on adversarial feelings towards India, countenance such a challenge? First, Pakistan will assert its legitimate interests in Afghanistan, no matter what it takes. Make no mistake about it. The Pakistani generals know what transpired when American and British top brass met in Britain last month to exchange notes on Afghanistan. The conclave assessed there were huge problems with the Karzai regime's performance and the war might last for another 30 years, which is a hopeless scenario, as "war fatigue" is setting in among North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and the tide of public opinion is turning against the war. But that isn't all. From the.buffalo.in.the.midst at gmail.com Sat Aug 9 09:46:39 2008 From: the.buffalo.in.the.midst at gmail.com (Leighm) Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2008 08:46:39 -0700 Subject: [A-List] Ossetians: Their Language and Identity In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <489DBBDF.5080309@gmail.com> Juan Cole this morning: > All this is not to mention that a US airlift of 2000 Georgian troops > to fight Russian ones at this juncture does not look friendly to Moscow. http://www.juancole.com/2008/08/2000-georgian-troops-leaving-huge-blast.html Proxy war for geo-military-econo-political influence over Iran. Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > Ambrose Bierce said that war is God's way of teaching Americans > geography. It can also teach ethnolinguistics. As Georgia, backed by > the United States and Europe (cf. > ), attacked > South Ossetia, I looked for background information and found out that > the Ossetians speak an Iranian language, divided into two dialects > Iron and Digor: > . > > Here's a short excerpt from a paper that includes a fascinating > section on the history of construction of Ossetian identity (the full > text is available at the link below): > > > Acta Slavica Iaponica, Tomus 23, pp. 37-73 > The Politics of a Name: Between Consolidation and Separation in the > Northern Caucasus* > Victor Shnirelman > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > > Ossetia and the Ossetians received their name from the Russians, who > used the Georgian term Oseti for the Iranian-speaking inhabitants of > the central part of the Caucasus. The term became popular and was > accepted by the Ossetians themselves already before they were > integrated into the Russian empire. At the same time the Ossetians > retained their internal division into a few sub-groups with their own > names in Ossetian. In Northern Ossetia they are the Irons in the East > and the Digors in the West. Yet, the Ossetians lacked any single > inclusive name for themselves in their own language, and for a long > time they felt comfortable with the name given to them by the > Georgians and Russians. This practice was put into question by the new > Ossetian nationalism. > > > From the.buffalo.in.the.midst at gmail.com Sat Aug 9 14:01:19 2008 From: the.buffalo.in.the.midst at gmail.com (Leighm) Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:01:19 -0700 Subject: [A-List] Diop Olugbala Speaks Out: "Why We Challenged Barack Obama" Message-ID: <489DF78F.2090506@gmail.com> Diop Olugbala Speaks Out: "Why We Challenged Barack Obama" by Diop Olugbala Saturday Aug 9th, 2008 10:54 AM Source: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/08/09/18524442.php On Friday, August 1st I led a contingent of the Uhuru Movement into Barack Obama?s town hall meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida to raise the question, ?what about the black community, Obama?? Without the benefit of a big media budget, our organization attempted to bring the serious issues experienced by African working class people across this country into the national political debate. These issues include the targeting of African and Latino communities with predatory ?sub-prime? mortgages ? a scheme that has made millions for people like Obama?s chief financial advisor Penny Pritzker, while stripping black families of billions of dollars, the greatest loss of wealth our community has suffered since being brought in chains to this country. We also challenged Obama to take a stand against the police shootings of unarmed African people, and explain why he has publicly defended the judge?s acquittal of the NYC police who murdered Sean Bell. He has said that he cannot speak out on behalf of those who have been historically oppressed for fear of offending other people. Yet in Miami, he promised the Jewish community, which considers itself a historically oppressed community, that he supports turning all of Jerusalem over to Israeli control, despite the internationally enforced sharing of that city with the Palestinians. When Obama speaks to black audiences, he attacks us, attributing our community?s poverty, not to systemic oppression, but to bad culture and lack of work ethic. Barack Obama has criticized African fathers for abandoning our children, although a recent study showed that black fathers stay more involved with their children after a split from the mother than white fathers. And Obama says nothing of the unjust imprisonment of 1 in 9 black men of child-bearing age, the overwhelming majority of whom are locked up on minor drug or other non-violent economic violations stemming from conditions of desperate poverty. He has failed to achieve any meaningful program of economic development for the African community. In speaking to a group of black legislators, Obama said ?a good economic development plan for our community would be if we make sure folks weren?t throwing their garbage out of their cars.? Barack Obama wants to increase military spending and praised Clinton for abolishing AFDC and welfare. He has reversed his position opposing the death penalty and speaks out against reparations. He wants to escalate the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and has threatened Venezuela and Iran with military aggression. He has upheld the FISA, supporting wire-tapping and government spying on citizens. He receives unprecedented financial backing from Wall Street. His close advisors and potential cabinet members include war criminal Richard Clarke, Tri-lateral commission founder Zbigniev Brzezinski, Madeleine ?it?s worth the price of 1 million dead Iraqi children? Albright, and Free Trade advocates Jason Furman and Austan Goolsbee. Some argue that we must support Obama or else we are supporting McCain. We in the Uhuru Movement don?t believe our community should restrict our political options to a choice between one white ruling class party or another. In fact, the black community?s most recent experiences in the U.S. electoral arena have resulted not only in the Republican Party?s theft of our votes, but prior to that we suffered some of the worst attacks on our community at the hands of the Democratic Party administration of William Jefferson Clinton, who put 100,000 more police on our streets to murder our people, privatized the prisons to exploit our unpaid labor, and discontinued the public subsidies for impoverished children and families that had been won by African people as a concession to our movement of the 1960s. African people?s experiences with these last several elections and the desperate conditions facing our community have created a willingness by our people to seek independent political alternatives. In response to this crisis, the white rulers put forward Barack Obama ? a pied piper taking African people back into clutches of the Democratic Party. If anyone looks seriously at the positions, programs and advisors of Barack Obama, they will see that he does not stand for any kind of real change, but for the defense of the same old status quo, with a new face. America is in an economic crisis and the white ruling class hopes to save itself by deepening the exploitation of African people in the U.S. and on the continent of Africa, where the world?s biggest reserves of oil and precious minerals lie. How better to do it than with an African face at the head of state? Our success as a people requires that we achieve our own independent political agenda. African people?s votes should be contingent on the willingness of a candidate to support and fight for that agenda. The International People?s Democratic Uhuru Movement has invited Barack Obama, John McCain and Cynthia McKinney to attend our annual convention on September 27-28 in St. Petersburg, Florida to clarify their position on the question, ?what about the black community?? Based on their response, we will consider endorsement of a U.S. presidential candidate. Diop Olugbala is the International Organizer for the International People?s Democratic Uhuru Movement http://www.inpdum.org ========================= New Video - Uhuru Mov't Responds to Barack Obama - watch it on http://www.UhuruNews.com) http://www.uhurunews.com From tal1 at cogeco.ca Sat Aug 9 14:47:46 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 16:47:46 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Russia: 1, 500 Killed In South Ossetia, 30, 000 Flee To Russia Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: Tony B. Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2008 4:47 PM Subject: Russia: 1,500 Killed In South Ossetia, 30,000 Flee To Russia So it's okay if Kosovo secedes (with US backing) from Serbia....but South Ossetia (with Russian backing) is verboten, according to NATO and the Western media, from seceding from Georgia (a Western enclave). Read what's happening in Georgia / South Ossetia as essentially an attack by the US on Russia. [Is this where future historians will declare WW3 started?] Tony ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff To: stopnato at yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2008 8:25 AM Subject: [stopnato] Russia: 1,500 Killed In South Ossetia, 30,000 Flee To Russia http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080809/115917652.html Russian Information Agency Novosti August 9, 2008 Russia says 1,500 killed in S. Ossetia MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that 1,500 people have been killed in South Ossetia since the start of Georgia's attack on the breakaway republic. Georgia launched a large-scale offensive to seize control over the province early on Friday using tanks, combat aircraft, heavy artillery and infantry. South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali, has been devastated in the onslaught, and Russia earlier said at least 15 of its peacekeepers had lost their lives Lavrov said in a conference call for journalists that the death toll in the separatist province was continuing to rise, and warned that Georgia should not feel safe from Russian retaliation. More than 30,000 residents of South Ossetia have fled to neighboring Russia since the Georgian attack, the Russian government said earlier. "Over the past one and a half days, more than 30,000 people have crossed the border," Chief of Government Staff Sergei Sobyanin told President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting to discuss humanitarian aid to the province. Most residents of the breakaway province have Russian citizenship. Medvedev said earlier in the day that the country's troops have begun a military operation in South Ossetia to force Georgian troops to cease violence. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read ============================== __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity 1New Members Visit Your Group Share Photos Put your favorite photos and more online. Best of Y! Groups Check out the best of what Yahoo! Groups has to offer. John McEnroe on Yahoo! Groups Join him for the 10 Day Challenge.. __,_._,___ From tal1 at cogeco.ca Sat Aug 9 15:34:30 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 17:34:30 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Abkhazia Fears Georgian Invasion Message-ID: <4BFDB982578140E790996E1694414ADF@TonyPC> ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff To: stopnato at yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2008 9:34 AM Subject: [stopnato] Abkhazia Fears Georgian Invasion http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSL9291655 Reuters August 9, 2008 Abkhazia fears attack from Georgia-media MOSCOW - Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, which fears Tbilisi could invade it after striking another separatist province of South Ossetia, said on Saturday Georgia was building up forces on its borders. "Over the past few days, the Georgian side has continued to increase the number of troops on the border with Abkhazia on the Inguri river," Interfax quoted Ruslan Kishmaria, an aide to separatist leader Sergei Bagapsh, as saying. He said the number of Georgian troops on the border had grown by up to four times since the crisis began. Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away in early 1990s after bloody wars. The regions, backed by Russia, want their self-proclaimed independence to be internationally recognised and reject Georgian offers of wide autonomy. Georgia's large-scale military operation to retake [sic] South Ossetia prompted a military response from Russia. Russian and Georgian troops are now battling in South Ossetia. After the start of the South Ossetian operation, Abkhazia pulled its troops to the border with Georgia. It has also sent more than 1,000 volunteers to fight in South Ossetia. (Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman) =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read ============================== __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity 1New Members Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups Wellness Spot A resource for living the Curves lifestyle. Yahoo! Groups Special K Challenge Join others who are losing pounds. Sitebuilder Build a web site quickly & easily with Sitebuilder.. __,_._,___ From tal1 at cogeco.ca Sat Aug 9 15:39:18 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 17:39:18 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Analysis: US, NATO Set Date For Georgian Invasion Message-ID: <551F68DA0C85436694AFC10D177323B5@TonyPC> "Mikhail Saakashvili had telephone conversations with the NATO Secretary-General and the US Secretary of State on the day he launched the major offensive against South Ossetia. " http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30758&cid=193&p=09.08.2008 Voice of Russia August 9, 2008 GEORGIA UNLEASHES AN AGGRESSION IN RESPONSE TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY'S APPEALS FOR TRUCE One of the key topics at the Beijing Olympic Games is the military conflict stirred up by Georgia against its breakaway region of South Ossetia. The reason is that the Georgian authorities unleashed a war against South Ossetia on the day the Olympic opening ceremony was held. Here are more details from Konstantin Garibov. Unleashing military conflicts contradicts Olympic principles, said the spokeswoman to the International Olympic Committee, Gazelle Davis, in response to a question about the situation in South Ossetia. She emphasized that there should be no conflicts any where in the world. In response to the international community's call to adhere to the Olympic truce during the Games in Beijing Georgia launched a massive attack on South Ossetia and destroyed completely the centre of Tskhinvali and wiped off the face of the earth many villages. In fact, the Georgian authorities not only violated the tradition of casing guns. The Georgian President forgot about his promise to observe a ceasefire and start negotiations. As a result reports about an offensive launched by the Georgian regular army against civilians in South Ossetia edged out reports about the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which hundreds of millions were waiting for across the world. The move by Georgia is blasphemy. It is now quite clear why the Georgian President refused to sign a document of non-use of force as urged by Russia, said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Sergei Lavrov says that Georgian President Saakashvili had said it is nonsense to sign such a document before launching the offensive against South Ossetia because Georgia would not use force against itsown people. All this calls in question competency of Georgia as a responsible member of the international community, said Sergei Lavrov. The Georgian President behaves like a leader who has no real authority or has strong sponsors. In fact, the two reasons do not contradict each other. Reportedly, NATO has sponsored Georgia in purchasing military warfare. Mikhail Saakashvili had telephone conversations with the NATO Secretary-General and the US Secretary of State on the day he launched the major offensive against South Ossetia. He needed the US support for his move. Most likely, the date of aggression was determined in the US. In fact, this is an occasion to spoil the holiday of China as the host of the Olympic by some other's hands. The previous attempts by the US and several Western countries to jeopardize the Olympic by politicizing the Games ended in failure. This is confirmed by the refusal by the US and its western partners to support Russia's appeal to Georgia at the UN Security Council meeting for ending fighting immediately. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read ============================== __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity 1New Members Visit Your Group Curves on Yahoo! A group for women to share & discuss food & weight loss. Special K Group on Yahoo! Groups Learn how others are losing pounds. Y! Groups blog the best source for the latest scoop on Groups.. __,_._,___ From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sat Aug 9 17:44:37 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:44:37 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Debt capitalism self-destructs Message-ID: <489E2BE5.6070308@attglobal.net> by Henry C K Liu Asia Times Online ?(July 22 2008) In a period of less than a year, what had been described by US authorities as a temporary financial problem related to the bursting the housing bubble has turned into a fully fledged crisis at the very core of free-market capitalism. A handful of analysts have been warning for years that the wholesale deregulation of financial markets and the wrong-headed privatization of the public sector during the past two decades would threaten the viability of free-market capitalism. Yet ideological neoliberal fixation remain firmly imbedded in US ruling circles, fertilized by irresistible campaign contributions from profiteers on Wall Street, methodically purging regulatory agencies of all who tried to maintain a sense of financial reality. This ideology of "market knows best" has allowed the nation to slip into an unsustainable joyride on massive debt giddily assumed by all market participants, ranging from supposedly conservative banks, investment banks and other non-bank financial institutions, to industrial corporations, government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and individuals. The once-dynamic US economy has turned itself into a system in which it is difficult to find any institution, company or individual not over their head in speculative debt. Undercapitalized capitalism, also known as debt capitalism, has been the engine of growth for the US debt bubble in the last two decades. This debt capitalism cancer is caused by a failure of central banking. In the face of a broad systemic collapse of debt capitalism, where capital has become dangerously inadequate and new capital hazardously and prohibitively scarce, having been crowded out by massive debt collateralized by overblown assets of declining value and with a credit crisis that clearly requires systemic restructuring and comprehensive intensive care, those in the US responsible for the financial well-being of the nation seem to have been reacting tactically from crisis to crisis with a script of adamant denial of obvious facts, symptoms and trends, with no signs of any coherent grand strategy or plan to save the cancerous system from structural self-destruction. This band-aid short-term approach to artificially pop up share prices in the collapsing equity market and to maintain insolvent financial institutions with technical life-support will lead only to long-term disaster for the whole economy. Yet this approach is preferred by those in authority, trapped in self deception about unregulated market capitalism being still fundamentally sound. They try to calm markets by asserting that the current turmoil is merely a minor liquidity bottleneck that can be handled by the central bank releasing more liquidity against the full face value of collaterals of declining worth. The message is that somehow, if easy money in the form of debt is made endlessly available, the economy will recover from this credit crunch, notwithstanding that excessive debt has been the cause of the problem; or bad loans can be made good by Congress giving the US Treasury authority to buy up bad loans with unlimited amounts of taxpayer money. Yet these incremental measures taken so far by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve make the two government units with direct responsibility on the nation's long-term financial health look like panicky rogue traders trading for the national account in desperate hope to score a win in the next quarter by upping the ante, to contain allegedly isolated crisis hot points. The aggregate effect adds up to a broad stealth nationalization of the insolvent financial sector. Their prescription for stabilizing a debt-destabilized market is more public debt to support corporation socialism. For years, anyone warning that the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), namely Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, should be held to normal capitalization requirements was ridiculed as a fear monger by the powerful lobbying machines these GSEs employed. Capital is considered as superfluous in the new game of debt capitalism held up by complex circular hedging. As a result, the GSEs have become the monstrous tail that wags the dog of housing finance. The current talk about the need to curb speculation in the commodities and financial markets to stabilize prices is off target, especially for believers of market capitalism. All market transactions are speculative in nature. Speculation can stabilize prices as well as to destabilize them, but only in the short term. Long-term price levels (inflation or deflation), as Milton Friedman aptly observed, are always monetary phenomena. The current turmoil in the financial system, the subprime mortgage implosion, the credit crisis from the seizure in the asset-backed commercial papers market, the undercapitalization of commercial and investment bank, the rating agency dysfunction, the insolvency of monocline (bond) insurers, the massive financial losses by the GSEs and a host of other financial problems percolating under the media radar, are the outcome, and not the cause, of this market turbulence. (See Perils of the debt-propelled economy, Asia Times Online, September 14 2002.) Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, GSEs that have provided mortgage funds for the housing market since 1938, were created as part of the New Deal to help low-income families. They were privatized in 1968 on terms that would alter their social mandate and would inevitably lead them into financial trouble on a big scale. Finally but suddenly, these GSEs find themselves in danger of defaulting on their massive debts, upwards of US$5 trillion, in the course of a single week. Deeply rooted in US political culture is the view that credit is a financial public utility, much like air and water, and should be equally accessible to all, not just to the rich. Economic democracy has been the core strength of US political democracy. Government loan guarantees for students and home mortgages for low- and moderate-income groups and loans to small business are based on this principle. Yet from time to time, this principle of economic democracy is overshadowed by free-market extremism to push the nation's economy into extended depressions. The US National Housing Act was enacted on June 27 1934, as one of several economic recovery measures of the New Deal to get the nation out of the Great Depression. It provided for the establishment of a Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Title II of the Act provided for the insurance of home-mortgage loans made by private lenders, taking the disaggregated risk in lending to low-income borrowers off private lenders and managing the risk on a national scale with a government agency to take advantage of the law of large numbers, a theorem in probability that describes the long-term stability of a random variable. Title III of the Act provided for the chartering of national mortgage associations by the FHA administrator. These associations were to be independent corporations regulated by the administrator, and their chief purpose was to buy and sell the mortgages insured by the FHA under Title II. Only one association was ever formed under this authority. On February 10 1938, this association, the National Mortgage Association of Washington, became a subsidiary of the Reconstruction Finance Corp, a government corporation. Its name was changed that same year to Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae). By amendments made in 1948, Title III of the US National Housing Act became a statutory charter for Fannie Mae. Balloon payment barrier Before the Great Depression, affording a home was difficult for most people in the US. At that time, a prospective homeowner had to make a down payment of forty percent and pay the mortgage off in three to five years. Until the last payment, borrowers paid only interest on the loan. The entire principal was paid in one lump sum as the final "balloon" payment. Lenders could demand full payment of the outstanding loan at any time of the lender's choosing, often at time least advantageous to borrowers. This allowed lenders to use foreclosures as a means to take over desirable properties. During the 1920s boom time in real estate, a rudimentary secondary mortgage market had come into being. The stock-market crash of 1929 ended the real-estate boom and forced many private guarantee companies into insolvency as home prices collapsed. As economic conditions worsened, more and more borrowers defaulted on mortgages because they couldn't come up with the money for the final balloon payment or to roll over their mortgage because of low market value of their homes. To help lift the country out of the Great Depression, Congress created the FHA through the National Housing Act of 1934. The FHA's insurance program protected mortgage lenders from the risk of default on long-term, fixed-rate mortgages. Because this type of mortgage was unpopular with private lenders and investors, Congress in 1938 created Fannie Mae to refinance FHA-insured mortgages. As soldiers came home from World War II, Congress passed the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944, which gave the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) authority to guarantee veterans' loans with no down payment or insurance premium requirements. Many financial institutions considered this arrangement a more attractive investment than war bonds. By revision of Title III in 1954, Fannie Mae was converted into a mixed-ownership corporation, its preferred stock to be held by the government and its common stock to be privately held. It was at this time that Section 312 was first enacted, giving Title III the short title of Federal National Mortgage Association Charter Act. By amendments made in 1968, the Federal National Mortgage Association was partitioned into two separate entities, one to be known as the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), the other to retain the name Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae). Ginnie Mae remained in the government, and Fannie Mae became privately owned by retiring the government-held stock. Ginnie Mae has operated as a wholly owned government association since the 1968 amendments. Fannie Mae, as a private company operating with private capital on a self-sustaining basis, expanded to buy mortgages beyond traditional government loan limits, reaching out to a broader income cross-section. By the early 1970s, inflation and interest rates rose drastically. Many investors drifted away from mortgages. Ginnie Mae eased economic tension by issuing its first mortgage-backed security (MBS) guarantee in 1970. Investors found these guaranteed MBSs highly attractive. Also in 1970, under the Emergency Home Finance Act, Congress chartered the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (Freddie Mac) to buy conventional mortgages from federally insured financial institutions. The legislation also authorized Fannie Mae to purchase conventional mortgages. Freddie Mac introduced its own MBS program in 1971. Fannie and Freddie charters give these GSEs exemptions from state and local taxes, allow them relatively meager capital requirements, and provide them with an ability to borrow money at lowest possible rates to lend at near market rates. Over the years, this advantage has served not to lower home prices and mortgage payments to help low-income buyers but to enrich debt securitizers and brokers. Aging credit line Each agency now has a $2.25 billion credit line with the Treasury, set nearly forty years ago by Congress at a time when Fannie had only about $15 billion in outstanding debt. It now has total debt of about $800 billion, while Freddie has about $740 billion. Today the two companies also hold or guarantee loans with face value of more than $5 trillion, about half the nation's mortgages. Market analysts estimate that the market value of this liability may be less than fifty percent unless the housing market recovers. In other words, the GSEs face a $3.5 trillion exposure to default if they cannot raise new funds in the credit market. In the early 1980s, the US economy spiraled into deep recession. Interest rates were high while house prices while falling, remaining beyond the reach of many low- and moderate-income buyers because income growth stayed stagnant. The US economy faced a dual problem of income deficiency and money devaluation. In this poor housing market environment, Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac all created programs to handle adjustable-rate mortgages. The Ginnie Mae guaranty is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. Today, Ginnie Mae guaranteed securities are one of the most widely held and traded MBSs in the world. Ginnie Mae has guaranteed more than $1.7 trillion in MBSs. Historically, 95% of all FHA and VA mortgages have been securitized through Ginnie Mae. Ginnie Mae is a guarantor, a surety. Ginnie Mae does not issue, sell, or buy MBSs, or purchase mortgage loans. Ginnie Mae is not in financial distress. Fannie Mae is another story. Many of the innovative mortgage options introduced during the early 1980s to revive the weak housing market in a recession were exploited to fuel a housing bubble with excessive liquidity provided by the Federal Reserve, helping low- and middle-income buyer to buy homes their stagnant income could not afford. Fannie continues to operate under a congressional charter that directs it to channel its efforts into increasing the availability and affordability of home ownership for low-, moderate- and middle-income Americans. Yet Fannie Mae receives no government funding or backing, and it is one of the nation's largest taxpayers as well as one of the most consistently profitable corporations until now. The company has evolved to become a shareholder-owned, privately managed corporation supporting the secondary market for conventional loans. Its congressional mandate of keeping homes affordable has since been largely forgotten in favor of an unprecedented boom in the housing market. Yet it continues to operate under a congressional charter that provides it with low-cost funds with only perfunctory oversight from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the US Treasury. Fannie Mae has two primary lines of business: Portfolio investment, in which the company buys mortgages and mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) as investments, funding those purchases with debt, and credit guaranty, which involves guaranteeing for a fee the credit performance of single-family and multi-family loans. Overseas debt holders During the housing bubble which it essentially helped create with the Fed easy money, Fannie was highly profitable, with high returns for happy shareholders and lucrative compensation for its executives. Above all, it provided a continuous stream of income and profit for Wall Street and central banks around the world while US homeowners were led down a treachery path of eventual foreclosure. According to data from the Council on Foreign Relations, foreign central banks own $925 billion of debt in the two GSEs. China tops the list with $420 billion in Freddie and Fannie debt; Russia and Japan come in second with a combined $407 billion in GSE debt. Others countries that hold the debt include Singapore, Taiwan, and several cash-rich countries in the Persian Gulf. Fannie's portfolio investment business includes mortgage loans purchased throughout the US from approved mortgage lending institutions. It also purchases MBSs, structured mortgage products and other assets in the open market. The corporation derives income from the difference between the yield on these investments and the low subsidized costs to fund the purchase of these investments, usually from issuing debt in the domestic and international markets. Fannie Mae has $3.46 trillion in MBSs outstanding today, held by a dispersed network of investors, including foreign central banks, topped by China's. The GSEs now only pay lip service to accomplishing its mission to provide products and services that increase the availability and the affordability of housing for low-, moderate- and middle-income buyers by operating in the secondary rather than the primary mortgage market. Fannie Mae purchases mortgage loans from mortgage lenders such as mortgage companies, savings institutions, credit unions and commercial banks, thereby replenishing those institutions' supply of mortgage funds. It either packages these loans into MBSs, which it guarantees for full and timely payment of principal and interest, or purchases these loans for cash and retains the mortgages in its own portfolio. Yet Fannie's role in recent years has been to supply the housing bubble with excess liquidity released by a wayward central bank, by buying at a profit economically unsound mortgages that depended on a continuing spiral of rising home prices way beyond reasonable projection of home buyer income growth. It has turned the US from a nation of homeowners into a nation of foreclosed homes. Fannie Mae is now one of the world's largest issuers of debt securities, the leader in the $14 trillion US home-mortgage market. Fannie Mae's debt obligations are treated as US agency securities in the marketplace, which is just below US Treasuries and above AAA corporate debt. This agency status is due in part to the creation and existence of the corporation pursuant to a federal law, the public mission that it allegedly serves, and the corporation's continuing ties to the US government through a weak oversight link. It benefits from an appearance, though not the essence, of being backed by sovereign credit that borders on outright fraud and protected by the doctrine of too big to fail. Fannie Mae debt obligations receive favorable treatment from a regulatory perspective. Fannie Mae securities are "exempted securities" under laws administered by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to the same extent as US government obligations. Also, Fannie Mae debt qualifies for more liberal treatment than corporate debt under US federal statutes and regulations and, to a limited extent, foreign overseas statutes and regulations. Fund managers who buy GSE debt are protected from fiduciary challenges. Some of these statutes and regulations make it possible for deposit-taking institutions to invest in Fannie Mae debt more liberally than in corporate debt and other mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. Others enable certain institutions to invest in Fannie Mae debt on par with obligations of the United States and in unlimited amounts. Fannie Mae uses a variety of funding vehicles to provide investors with debt securities that meet their investment, trading, hedging, and financing objectives, not all of which serves the public interest. Fannie Mae is able to issue different debt structures at various points on the yield curve because of its large and consistent funding needs. As the Treasury retired thirty-year bonds, these GSE agencies stepped in to fill the void in long term finance. Ideology triumphant The privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was an ideological move. It was financially unnecessary as sovereign credit could have funded the entire low-, moderate- and middle-income housing-mortgage needs with no profit siphoned off to private investors and brokers. These agency debt instruments played a crucial role in developing and sustaining the credit bubble in the US that is now coming home to roost. In fact, the funding risk of both agencies was questioned, among many others, by the voice of free-market capitalism, the Wall Street Journal, on February 20 2002 in an editorial about Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's safety, soundness and financial management, characterizing both agencies as risky, fast-growing companies that "look like poorly run hedge funds" ... "unduly exposed to credit risk with large derivative positions", and that they "use all manner of derivatives" and "are exposed to unquantified counterparty risk on these positions". Such concerns would have been avoided if both agencies had been funded directly with government credit, and the cost of housing to low-, moderate- and middle-income Americans would have been lower. As it happens, the government is now faced with the prospect of having to bail out these GSEs with public funds. The term "undercapitalization" for financial institutions is merely a sanitized euphemism for insolvency. The real source of the present market turbulence is more than just the waywardness of runaway GSEs sidetracked from their public purpose. It is another symptom of the failure of central banking. The world is now witnessing the slow but steady collapse of the central banking regime that came into being in the US in 1913, which has since failed to fulfill its mandate of managing the monetary system to maintain price stability and full employment. Dysfunctional monetary policies adopted by all central banks, led by the US Federal Reserve, have allowed the market to take capital out of free market capitalism to turn it into a gigantic Ponzi scheme. In the 1990s, the original congressional intent for the GSEs was distorted from making homeownership affordable to low- and moderate-income families to a new role of supporting a housing bubble that enables families to buy homes at prices with mortgages their incomes cannot service. The profit from housing price appreciation went mostly to mortgage originators and banks that bought and sold MBSs to investors who also profited from buying debt with debt collateralized with the debt they bought. Capital suddenly became only a notional value in the market of debt derivatives. Homebuyers bought mortgages with no down payment, banks and mortgage brokers sold the debt to securitizers who sold it to institutional investors who borrowed using the securities as collateral. The GSEs also became very profitable, leaving homeowners to default on their mortgages as the market turned on them. The whole transaction cycle did not require any capital. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ranked Aaa by the world's leading credit-rating companies, are now being treated by derivatives traders as if they were rated five levels lower because the issuers are pitifully undercapitalized for the size of the debt they issue. Credit-default swaps tied to $1.45 trillion of debt sold by these two biggest allegedly US-backed mortgage finance companies are trading at levels that imply the bonds should be rated A2 by Moody's Investors Service. The price of contracts used to speculate on the creditworthiness of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to protect against a default has doubled in the past two months. Debt guarantee disregarded Traders are disregarding the government's implied guarantee of GSE debt as credit losses grow and concern rises about the GSEs not having enough capital to weather the biggest housing slump since the Great Depression. Fannie Mae has lost eighty percent of market capitalization value in the first half of 2008 on the New York Stock Exchange; and Freddie Mac lost seventy percent. The two GSEs reported combined operating losses of more than $11 billion, and have raised more than $20 billion new capital since December 2007. After Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc released a report on June 7 2008, saying a new accounting rule may require the GSEs to raise another $75 billion in new capital, Freddie Mac shares dropped another eighteen percent and Fannie Mae fell sixteen percent. Still, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the regulator of these GSEs, declared them as adequately capitalized in regulatory terms. The companies' existing congressional charters give the Treasury the authority to buy as much as $2.25 billion in each of their securities in the event of possible default, against a total liability of over $5 trillion. The works out as an equity injection of less than half-a-cent on each dollar of liability. Credit-default swaps tied to the senior debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have climbed 35 basis points to seventy basis points since May 1 2008. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. The cost to protect the companies' subordinated debt from default rose at a faster rate. That debt is rated Aa2 by Moody's. Credit-default swaps on Fannie Mae's subordinated notes jumped 103 basis points to 190 basis points since May 1, while contracts on Freddie Mac's subordinated notes rose 102 basis points to 190 basis points. The median credit-default swap on debt rated Aaa by Moody's was 26 basis points as of July 8. It was 76 basis points for debt rated A2, and 180 basis points for debt rated Baa3, the lowest investment-grade ranking. The costs likely reflect counterparty risk, or the risk that the bank or securities firm on the other end of the contract fails. For most companies, the counterparty risk embedded in credit-default swap costs would not be as pronounced because the risk of a default on the underlying debt would be greater than that of the bank backing the protection. In the case of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other companies with Aaa ratings, the default risk for lower-rated banks is greater. Credit-default swaps are financial instruments based on bonds and loans that are used to speculate on a company's ability to repay debt. They pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a borrower fail to adhere to its debt agreements. A rise indicates deterioration in the perception of credit quality; a decline, the opposite. A basis point on a contract protecting $10 million of debt for five years is equivalent to $1,000 a year. On January 11 2006, in Asia Times Online I wrote in Of debt, deflation and rotten apples: "In the US, where loan securitization is widespread, banks are tempted to push risky loans by passing on the long-term risk to non-bank investors through debt securitization. Credit-default swaps, a relatively novel form of derivative contract, allow investors to hedge against securitized mortgage pools. This type of contract, known as asset-back securities, has been limited to the corporate bond market, conventional home mortgages, and auto and credit-card loans. Last June [2005], a new standard contract began trading by hedge funds that bets on home-equity securities backed by adjustable-rate loans to sub-prime borrowers, not as a hedge strategy but as a profit center. When bearish trades are profitable, their bets can easily become self-fulfilling prophesies by kick-starting a downward vicious cycle." The US charter and the GSEs' role in guaranteeing about 46% of the $12 trillion US mortgages outstanding led to expectations that the government would stand behind the agencies' debt. Standard & Poor's assigned the debt top ratings, citing the agencies' "explicit and implicit support" from the government. Moral hazard effect The bailout of Bear Stearns Cos arranged by the Federal Reserve in March signaled to the market that the government would not allow the GSEs to fail or default on their debts. It is clear evidence of the moral hazard effect on the financial market from bailing out one institution. With all the exposure that all banks and non-bank institutions and central banks have to Fannie and Freddie debt default, the ripple effect through the whole financial system would be unbelievable if they were allowed to fail. It was also clear evidence of the "too big to fail" doctrine. The risk surrounding Fannie Mae was reflected in the GSE's latest sale of $3 billion of two-year benchmark notes at higher yields over benchmark rates than in previous offerings. The 3.25% notes, which mature August 12 2010, priced to yield 3.27%, or 74 basis points more than comparable US Treasuries. The company in June 2008 sold $4 billion of three-percent notes maturing July 12 2010, that priced to yield 3.036%, or 65 basis points more than Treasuries. The government has been leaning on the GSEs to help revive the home mortgage market. Congress lifted growth restrictions on the companies, eased their capital requirements and allowed them to buy bigger, so-called jumbo mortgages, to spur demand for home loans as private lenders fled the market. The decision to use Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of a $300 billion housing stimulus plan strengthened perceptions of the government's support of the GSEs. Their share of new conforming mortgages, or loans of $417,000 or less, almost doubled to 81% in the first quarter of 2008, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the regulator. It appears that the fire engines caught on fire on its way to the scene of the fire. Merrill Lynch analyst Kenneth Bruce said in a report that the "highly levered financial institutions" would have pretax credit-related losses of $45 billion, suggesting that Fannie and Freddie are going to have to raise more capital, but the market does not think they are going to be able to raise capital when they need to at a cost they can live with. The New York Times reported on the night of July 13 2008 (Sunday) that discussions among senior US government officials had heated up with respect to the US taking over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae before markets opened in Asia. The structure being contemplated is a "conservatorship", which is permitted under a 1992 law and is one that would essentially wipe out the two GSEs' respective equity while allowing their loans to be managed. Conservatorship is another fancy term of nationalization. The scheme allows the government to pretend the GSEs' liabilities are not its own even after it assumes them. A finding from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the enterprises' regulator, that the GSEs are "critically undercapitalized" would be needed for conservatorship application. Up to now, the OFHEO has sent out the opposite message to the public. It will have to announce a 180-degree "correction" to shift quickly from "adequately capitalized" to "critically undercapitalized" for the government's proposal to work. But unlike 1933 in the days of the New Deal when deficit financing was an operative option to revive the economy because the government was relatively free of debt, the US in 2008 is already deeply in debt, having operated with deficit financing in a boom time for more than two decades. Estimates suggest that for each ten percent decline in Freddie/Fannie assets value, a loss of $150 billion would result, equivalent to the cost of the Iraq War to date. And Fannie has lost eighty percent of market capitalization and Freddie has lost seventy percent to date. Soaring government obligations By assuming the GSEs' combined $5 trillion in liabilities, the US government's total obligations would soar from $9.5 trillion to $14.5 trillion. This will raise the per capita national debt from $31,250 to $47,650. The added debt is one and a half times the Bush Administration proposed 2008 fiscal budget of $3.1 trillion. While the agencies own housing-related assets that roughly match their liabilities, the still-collapsing housing market makes their value uncertain. This will unavoidably force the dollar to fall and dollar interest rates to rise. Meanwhile, the turmoil is impeding or even paralyzing the GSEs in their crucial life-support role for the housing market. An analyst's early July report from Lehman Brothers, an investment bank itself on the brink of collapse, provoked the market panic over the GSEs. Lehman, a major player in the mortgage-backed securities market, lost as much as tweny percent in intraday trading on talk that PIMCO, the world's largest bond trader, no longer was conducting business with the Wall Street firm. Then William Poole, a respected former chief of the St Louis Federal Reserve, now a private investment advisor since July 1 2008, observed that Fannie and Freddie were technically insolvent in the first quarter this year on a mark-to-market basis. Such information was not news - in a 2006 speech, Emil Henry, then a Treasury assistant secretary, likened a failure of one of the GSE companies to a "single gunshot setting off an avalanche" - and had no bearing on the GSEs' solvency in regulatory terms. Yet the new unsettling attention on two market leaders of overwhelming scale in an uncertain climate threw financial markets into a downward spin. Fannie and Freddie were the original inventors of mortgage-backed security, a key cause of the housing bubble and its subsequent deflation. These GSEs received credit and recognition for ingenuity in unbundling risk and reselling mortgage-backed securities to buyers of varying risk appetite in the global market. It was the secret behind the US housing boom and the enabling idea behind the structured finance market. Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, praised it ceaselessly as an ingenious breakthrough that did much to widen home ownership. But the development weakened the mortgage originators' oversight of loan quality. Greenspan accepted the risk as part of the natural phenomenon of "bad loans are made in good times". The backing of the GSEs enabled securitization of "ninja" mortgages (no income, no job or assets), loans that no one would buy if they were not guaranteed by the government. Thus the fault did not lie with mortgage originators, for they would not be able to issue shaky mortgages unless there was a market for them. GSEs' abuse of their alleged government guarantee had rendered market discipline inoperative, allowing the system to go on a wide joyride that was bound to crash of a cliff. Because of their complexity and broad distribution, when securitized debts default, restructuring is almost impossible. There is no effective fire break once the fire begins and quickly engulfs the whole market. The sooner the need for a systemic restructure is acknowledged and acted upon, the better it would be for the long-term health of the economy, or the future of regulated market capitalism itself. However, hybrid solutions of quick fixes to paper over seismic financial faults are being proposed to enable the evasion of responsibility and for political advantage in an election year. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday, July 6 this year that the government would support the GSEs "in their current form as they carry out their important mission". On Sunday, the Treasury issued a statement indicating that "... its main focus was still on supporting Fannie and Freddie in their current form. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a central role in our housing finance system and must continue to do so in their current form as shareholder-owned companies. Their support for the housing market is particularly important as we work through the current housing correction. GSE debt is held by financial institutions around the world. Its continued strength is important to maintaining confidence and stability in our financial system and our financial markets. Therefore we must take steps to address the current situation as we move to a stronger regulatory structure." Regulatory reform while necessary cannot be backdated. There are $5 trillion of outstanding debt instruments written under problematic regulatory oversight that need to be dealt with. Expressions of support for the "current form" that has proved wanting by a wide margin, a new line of credit to support bad loans and a proposed unlimited injection of capital by government that would surely face congressional opposition is a prescription to muddle through a major structural rupture. Government support The ability of the GSEs to raise new capital and credit from private sources is totally dependent on government support. Thus the plan to support these GSEs in distress will be much more costly if it must be done through private profit incentives. The outcome is likely to be a new contraction in the supply, and increase in the cost, of mortgage finance - further lessening the chances of an early recovery in the housing market and the wider economy. Private profit incentive overwhelming public interest got the GSEs in trouble. How can more private profit incentives be expected to get them out of trouble? The Fed has announced that it will allow Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to borrow from its discount widow, normal open only to commercial banks and since March 2008 open also to investment banks as part of the bail out of Bear Stearns. Under a three-part proposal by the Treasury, the Fed will also be given a consultative role in setting capital requirements and other regulatory standards for Fannie and Freddie, as part of an evolution to be the top regulator and overseer of the nation's financial system. Former Fed chairman Paul Volcker expressed concern that by expanding its role of lender of last resort to institutions beside commercial banks that previously were not allowed to hold positions in equities, the Fed may have opened itself up to moral hazard dangers if large institutions believe their adventurous behavior will be bailed out by the Fed. With the Fed, whose perspective tends to align with those of its member banks, taking over many of the regulatory powers of the Security Exchange Commission, whose mandate was originally to protect the interest of small investors, the public interest may face further diminished protection. Yet the financial market has irreversibly changed with the emergence of structured finance in which loan securitization has taken loans that once had to stay in the balance sheets of issuing banks but are now securitized and sold by brokers to institutional investors worldwide. Default of a major broker default, such as Fannie and Freddie, will be as damaging as failure of a major money-center bank and cause catastrophic collapse of the credit market. In 1968, then president Lyndon Johnson, as part of his Great Society program, turned Fannie into a shareholder-owned company as part of a national housing policy to make finance capitalism finance the nationalization of housing. It was the beginning of corporate market socialism in the name of populist economic democracy. The public could only benefit if corporate and financial institutional interests could profit first. And the public must pay if market capitalism fails systemically, absolving the losses of wayward corporations and financial institutions. In 1970, the savings and loan industry, envying the huge profit made by commercial and investment banks from Fannie Mae, called for and received congressional approval for a GSE of their own and Congress created Freddie Mac. Like the Urban Renewal program of the 1950s, the GSEs served a coalition of interest that included liberals who wanted to help low-income households, real state developers that wanted guaranteed demand, home builders that wanted a guaranteed market, local politicians who wanted tax revenue from redevelopment, banks that wanted lucrative risk-free loan proceeds and congressmen who wanted campaign contributions from mortgage lenders. Too good to be true Low-income voters were first dazzled by the new homes they were able to acquire with no money down and with monthly payments financed with home equity loans as house prices rose. They acted like Pinocchio in a Pleasure Island - that would soon turn them into jackasses to be sold to work in salt mines. The financial institutions were comforting their pangs of conscience over taking loans off their balance sheets as soon as they made them by excusing themselves with the idea that they were making low-cost mortgage available to millions of homebuyers. Neoliberal economists were celebrating the US miracle of mass capitalism that does not need capital. The program of passing unsustainable loans to faceless investors benefited also land speculators, home builders, real estate agents, investment bankers, structured financiers and household furnishers. Since the main thrust of the GSE program was to help low- and moderate- income homebuyers, opposition was considered undemocratic. Yet everyone knows that the GSEs face an interest-rate risk in their long-term mortgages if interest rates should rise over the loan period. To protect itself from interest rate risks, the GSEs use derivatives to hedge against interest-rate risk. The OFHEO was created by the House Banking Committee chaired by Texas populist Henry Gonzalez in 1992 with minimal power to regulate the two giant GSEs on the ground that GSEs were institutions intended to support the national policy of a nation of homeowners by making housing loans affordable and should be exempt from regulation regulating commercial institutions. The problem of this good policy intention was that during the era of neoliberal ascendancy, the light regulatory environment was used to negate a more fundamental economic law: the need to increase worker income to match mortgage payments, subsidized or not. The GSEs have been financially successful because they combine private sector appetite for profit with access to government-backed credit at below market rates. It was a way to nationalize housing through the free market capitalism. The problem was that financial manipulation cannot replace the need for adequate income growth. The mismatch of income with asset price is the definition of a financial bubble. People were buying homes with cheap credit at prices that their income could not afford. The more home prices rose due to cheap credit, the more homeowners fell into the debt trap. Yet in all the current talk about finding ways to deal with the crisis, not one single voice is heard from official circles about the need to increase worker income. Instead, false hopes on one-time stimulant tax rebates are hailed as the magic bullet. Suddenly this summer, Fannie and Freddie's relatively anemic capital supply is a serious concern for the market. In one week in July, Fannie's stock plummeted to $10.25, down 74% in 2008. Freddie's shares also dived, closing at $7.75, a loss of 77% this year. Even as investors stampede out of these battered stocks, the sycophants of free market capitalism in Washington, led by Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, rushed to reassure the market, pointing out that the mortgage giants' regulators had confirmed that the companies were "adequately capitalized", trying to give the impression that regulators had the problem firmly in hand and that no new capital was needed by the GSEs. But these two leaders had lost much credibility since in August 2007 when they voiced a similar mantra that problems in the mortgage market were "contained" to subprime loans and would not spread beyond. SEC chairman Christopher Cox tried to calm investors by telling them that Bear Stearns passed financial muster only days before it required a Fed-engineered bail out by JP Morgan Chase with Fed loans. More than capital adequacy is at risk. The credibility of the team with responsibility for the nation's monetary system and its financial market is heading for a meltdown. Unfortunately, credibility is much easier to lose than to regain. (See America's Untested Management Team Asia Times Online, June 17 2006.) Recurring anxiety Anxiety about Fannie and Freddie's liabilities of more than $5 trillion getting too big for the funding authority of the Federal Reserve of a measly $2.5 billion credit line has been a recurring concern in many quarters in recent years. Even after both GSEs were found to be infested with accounting irregularities (Freddie Mac in 2003 and Fannie Mae in 2004), Congress failed to act, except to make the regulator require the GSEs to hold thirty percent more capital than the minimum previously required, in effect capping their ability to purchase mortgages when the housing bubble was approach its peak. Still, Fannie and Freddie were allowed to pose as high-growth companies whose shares were safe enough for widows and orphans. GSE market share fell to 45% at the peak of the housing bubble. After the bubble burst, it rose to 68% in the first quarter of 2008. After empty official assurances failed to convince the market because it was plain for all to see that the two GSEs' direct and guaranteed liabilities were almost 65 times their regulatory capital at the end of the first quarter of 2008, the near-term priority was to restore the rapidly fading confidence of buyers of Fannie's and Freddie's debt, many of whom are foreigners. By increasing the GSEs' credit line and pushing for authority to inject fresh equity if necessary, the Treasury's proposed plan appears to be aimed at allaying fears of widespread counterparty default and market failure. Freddie seemed to have no serious problem offloading $3 billion of new paper on Monday, July 14, although arm-twisting was rumored to have been needed to persuade banks to buy it. The bigger problem for Washington is that merely stabilizing Fannie and Freddie is not enough. With US banks seriously distressed by the credit crisis, the GSEs, which hold or guarantee 22% of the $24.3 trillion outstanding debts borrowed by US households and the non-financial sector, are a major source of credit. Yet the market is clearly uncomfortable with the inability of the GSEs to maintain its over-bloated balance sheet. The options are either to shrink the balance sheet drastically, thus exacerbating the credit crisis, or to seek a massive injection of new capital, both requiring government action at an unprecedented scale. Despite these ad hoc measures, which may or may not receive congressional approval, the whole world knows that credit capacity is shrinking drastically in the market. There are rumors that the US is pressing foreign central banks to acquire more GSE debt, but the market is inundated with fear of new crises before the housing market recovers. And the housing market is lying in a coma in intensive care with an oxygen tank of new credit running near empty. As the housing market collapses, both GSE companies are reporting steep losses. But the subprime mortgage meltdown has also made the GSEs more important than ever in holding up the housing finance sector. Since the credit markets seized up, Fannie and Freddie have regained their central role in mortgage finance after losing significant market share to investment banks during the housing boom. They have issued the vast majority of mortgage securities sold in the last six months because investors have lost confidence in deals put together by big investment banks. In February 2008, prodded by the Treasury, federal regulators announced they were easing some restrictions on lending by Fannie and Freddie. Then on March 19 the federal government announced that it was easing those restrictions in an effort to calm the turmoil afflicting the mortgage markets. Officials said the change could allow the two GSEs to invest $200 billion more in mortgages. Alarmed by the sharply eroding market confidence in the nation's two GSEs, the largest mortgage finance companies, the Bush administration announced plans on Sunday, July 13 to ask Congress to approve a sweeping rescue package that would give officials the power to inject unlimited funds into the beleaguered companies through investments and loans. In a separate announcement, the Federal Reserve said that at the request of the Treasury it would make one of its temporary short-term lending programs at the discount window available to the two GSEs, "to promote the availability of home mortgage credit during a period of stress in financial markets". The program for the GSEs would end when Congress approves the Treasury's proposed plan. Treasury Secretary Paulson announced dramatically Sunday on the steps of the Treasury building: "The president has asked me to work with Congress to act on this plan immediately. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a central role in our housing finance system and must continue to do so in their current form as shareholder-owned companies. Their support for the housing market is particularly important as we work through the current housing correction." Paulson paradox While officials in successive administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have for many years repeatedly denied that the trillions of dollars of debt Fannie and Freddie issued is guaranteed by the government, the Paulson package, if adopted, would bring the Treasury closer than ever to exposing taxpayers to potentially huge new liabilities. The two GSEs are expected to face significant new losses this year as the wave of housing foreclosures continues and rises. Paulson seemed to suggest that there is no choice but for the government to intervene. The proposed plan, requiring the Treasury to be giving authority by Congress to command unlimited funds to stabilize the GSEs, is predicated on the hope that the very availability of unlimited funds would make it unnecessary to use them. The investment and lending elements of the proposed plan are to last two years. Over the weekend, Treasury officials sought assurances from Wall Street firms that the $3 billion auction on Monday by Freddie Mac of short-term debt would go off without a hitch. While $3 billion is a relatively small sum for an institution of Freddie's size, officials said they did not want to risk even a small misstep that could set off a new round of problems. Despite repeated assurances by top officials that the companies had adequate cash to weather the current financial storm, Fannie and Freddie had suffered a withering blow of confidence the week before. As a result, Freddie was faced with an uncertain debt offering on Monday. Should Fannie and Freddie fail, $5.3 trillion in mortgage debt would go unpaid. As it happened, the offering went smoothly but everyone knew it was not a normal market. Freddie Mac continued to try to raise capital from private investors even after a government rescue plan it and its sister company Fannie Mae was announced the weekend before, indicating concern that the government plan may be delayed in Congress. On Friday, July 18, Freddie Mac cleared one of the last obstacles to raising new capital through a planned $5.5 billion stock offering when it received approval to register with US securities regulators. However, Freddie Mac's ability to attract much-needed capital from new and existing shareholders has been potentially lessened by the possibility of a future government stake that might place restrictions on the business. There is also little clarity with regard to where in the capital structure the government might invest, and how dilutive such a move would be to existing shareholders. The government's rescue plan, which would allow the Treasury unlimited powers until the end of 2009 to increase its credit line to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and invest in their equity, met some strong vocal resistance in Congressional hearings during the week before July 18. While many expect Congress to have no option except to approve the Paulson plan, a few skeptics were voicing their opposition in public hearings. Senator Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, described Paulson as "asking for a blank check ... for this unprecedented intervention in our free markets". He also vowed to try his best to stop a proposal that would give the Federal Reserve sweeping new powers aimed at protecting the nation's shaky financial system. Bunning said the Federal Reserve "can't be trusted with the power it already has". He says the Fed's policies in recent years have contributed to economic woes, including surging inflation, a declining dollar and the housing bust. "When I picked up my newspaper yesterday, I thought I woke up in France. But no, it turns out socialism is alive and well in America. The Treasury Secretary is asking for a blank check to buy as much Fannie and Freddie debt or equity as he wants. The Fed's purchase of Bear Stearns' assets was amateur socialism compared to this", thundered the Republican Senator against his own party's Treasury secretary. In US political discourse, socialism is a dirty word, albeit what Paulson proposes is not anywhere near what socialism is commonly understood to be in the rest of the world, but a scheme to use public funds to save debt capitalism by frustrating the right to fail in market capitalism. Predatory lending Ron Paul, Republican congressman from Texas, told Bernanke that the Federal Reserve is a "predatory lender". But he did not mention that by law, predatory lenders forfeit any right of collection. Lender liability is embodied in common and statutory law covering a broad spectrum of claims surrounding predatory lending. It is a key concept in environmental-cleanup litigation. If a lender knowingly lends to a borrower who is obviously unable to make reasonable beneficial gain from the use of the funds, or causes the borrower to assume responsibilities that are obviously beyond the borrower's capacity, the lender not only risks losing the loan without recourse but is also liable for the financial damage to the borrower caused by such loans. For example, if a bank lends to a trust client who is a minor, or someone who had no business experience, to start a risky business that resulted in the loss not only of the loan but of the client trust account, the bank may well be required by the court to make whole the client. In the United States, although predatory lending is not defined by federal law, and various states define abusive lending differently, it usually involves practices that strip equity away from a homeowner, or equity from a company, or condemn the debtor into perpetual indenture. Predatory or abusive lending practices can include making a loan to a borrower without regard to the borrower's ability to repay, repeatedly refinancing a loan within a short period of time and charging high points and fees with each refinance, charging excessive rates and fees to a borrower who qualifies for lower rates and/or fees offered by the lender, or imposing new unjustifiably harsh terms for rolling over existing debt. Predation breaks the links between an economy's aggregate resource endowment and aggregate consumption and between the interpersonal distribution of endowments and the interpersonal distribution of consumption. The choice by some to be predators decreases aggregate consumption, both because the predators' resources are wasted and because producers sacrifice production by allocating resources to guarding against predators. Much of welfare economics is based on the concept of pareto optimum, which asserts that resources are optimally distributed when an individual cannot move into a better position without putting someone else into a worse position. In an unjust global society, the pareto optimum will perpetuate injustice. Now, there is a close parallel in most Third World debts and International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue packages to the above predation examples, where sophisticated international bankers knowingly lend to dubious schemes in developing economies merely to get their fees and high interest, knowing that "countries don't go bankrupt", as Walter Wriston, former chairman of Citibank, once famously proclaimed. The argument for Third World debt forgiveness contains large measures of lender liability and predatory lending. Debt securitization allows predatory bankers to pass the risk to global credit markets, socializing the potential damage after skimming off the privatized profits. The housing bubble has been created largely by predatory lending without any lender liability. The argument for forgiving Third World debt is applicable to low- and moderate-income home mortgage borrowers in the US as well. Let's hear some proactive commitments from the presumptive candidates of both political parties instead of empty populist campaign rhetoric. _____ Henry C K Liu is chairman of a New York-based private investment group. His website is at http://www.henryckliu.com. Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JG22Dj06.html http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 9 17:45:39 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 19:45:39 -0400 Subject: [A-List] In Georgia Clash, a Lesson on U.S. Need for Russia Message-ID: August 10, 2008 News Analysis In Georgia Clash, a Lesson on U.S. Need for Russia By HELENE COOPER WASHINGTON ? The image of President Bush smiling and chatting with Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia from the stands of the Beijing Olympics even as Russian aircraft were shelling Georgia outlines the reality of America's Russia policy. While America considers Georgia its strongest ally in the bloc of former Soviet countries, Washington needs Russia too much on big issues like Iran to risk it all to defend Georgia. And State Department officials made it clear on Saturday that there was no chance the United States would intervene militarily. Mr. Bush did use tough language, demanding that Russia stop bombing. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanded that Russia "respect Georgia's territorial integrity." What did Mr. Putin do? First, he repudiated President Nicolas Sarkozy of France in Beijing, refusing to budge when Mr. Sarkozy tried to dissuade Russia from its military operation. "It was a very, very tough meeting," a senior Western official said afterward. "Putin was saying, 'We are going to make them pay. We are going to make justice.' " Then, Mr. Putin flew from Beijing to a region that borders South Ossetia, arriving after an announcement that Georgia was pulling its troops out of the capital of the breakaway region. He appeared ostensibly to coordinate assistance to refugees who had fled South Ossetia into Russia, but the Russian message was clear: This is our sphere of influence; others stay out. "What the Russians just did is, for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, they have taken a decisive military action and imposed a military reality," said George Friedman, chief executive of Stratfor, a geopolitical analysis and intelligence company. "They've done it unilaterally, and all of the countries that have been looking to the West to intimidate the Russians are now forced into a position to consider what just happened." And Bush administration officials acknowledged that the outside world, and the United States in particular, had little leverage over Russian actions. "There is no possibility of drawing NATO or the international community into this," said a senior State Department official in a conference call with reporters. The unfolding conflict in Georgia set off a flurry of diplomacy. Ms. Rice and other officials at the State Department and the Pentagon have been on the telephone with Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and other Russian counterparts, as well as with officials in Georgia, urging both sides to return to peace talks. The European Union ? and Germany, in particular, with its strong ties to Russia ? called on both sides to stand down and scheduled meetings to press their concerns. At the United Nations, members of the Security Council met informally to discuss a possible response, but one Security Council diplomat said it remained uncertain whether much could be done. "Strategically, the Russians have been sending signals that they really wanted to flex their muscles, and they're upset about Kosovo," the diplomat said. He was alluding to Russia's anger at the West for recognizing Kosovo's independence from Serbia. Indeed, the decision by the United States and Europe to recognize Kosovo may well have paved the way for Russia's lightning-fast decision to send troops to back the separatists in South Ossetia. During one meeting on Kosovo in Brussels this year, Mr. Lavrov, the foreign minister, warned Ms. Rice and European diplomats that if they recognized Kosovo, they would be setting a precedent for South Ossetia and other breakaway provinces. For the Bush administration, the choice now becomes whether backing Georgia ? which, more than any other former Soviet republic has allied with the United States ? on the South Ossetia issue is worth alienating Russia at a time when getting Russia's help to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions is at the top of the United States' foreign policy agenda. One United Nations diplomat joked on Saturday that "if someone went to the Russians and said, 'OK, Kosovo for Iran,' we'd have a deal." That might be hyperbole, but there is a growing feeling among some officials in the Bush administration that perhaps the United States cannot have it all, and may have to choose its priorities, particularly when it comes to Russia. The Bush administration's strong support for Georgia ? including the training of Georgia's military and arms support ? came, in part, as a reward for its support of the United States in Iraq. The United States has held Georgia up as a beacon of democracy in the former Soviet Union; it was supposed to be an example to other former Soviet republics of the benefits of tilting to the West. But that, along with America and Europe's actions on Kosovo, left Russia feeling threatened, encircled and more convinced that it had to take aggressive measures to restore its power, dignity and influence in a region it considers its strategic back yard, foreign policy experts said. Russia's emerging aggressiveness is now also timed with America's preoccupation with Iraq and Afghanistan, and the looming confrontation with Iran. These counterbalancing considerations mean that Moscow is in the driver's seat, administration officials acknowledged. "We've placed ourselves in a position that globally we don't have the wherewithal to do anything," Mr. Friedman of Stratfor said. "One would think under those circumstances, we'd shut up." One senior administration official, when told of that quote, laughed. "Well, maybe we're learning to shut up now," he said. He asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. C. J. Chivers contributed reporting. From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 9 17:49:52 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 19:49:52 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Mourning for Mahmoud Darwish Message-ID: Arabeyes: Mourning for Mahmoud Darwish Saturday, August 9th, 2008 @ 23:11 UTC by Amira Al Hussaini Bloggers around the Arab world mourned the death of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish today. Scores of posts appeared online in Arabic and English even before news of his death was officially confirmed. The award-winning poet, whose work has been translated to more than 22 languages, is best known for his poems which depict the suffering of Palestinian people, their longing for their homeland and infighting between various Palestinian factions. Born in historical Palestine, in what is now Israel, Darwish leaves behind over 30 volumes of poetry and eight books of prose, and millions of fans. From Jerusalem, the UN-Truth's Marian Houk says news of Darwish's death is: .. the top news story here. Never mind the Olympics, or John Edward's affair?. She also describes what makes Darwish's poetry special: It's probably true that you need to understand the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in order to really appreciate the poignant and intense economy with which Mahmoud Darwish described how Palestinians see the situation. The blogger, who has also met Darwish several times, says the world will never be the same without the poet: I saw Mahmoud Darwish over more than two decades in Beirut, in Damascus, in Washington, in New York, in London, in Paris, in Geneva ? and last month in Ramallah. He was part of my life, and part of the lives of every Palestinian in Jerusalem and Ramallah and everywhere. And now, he is gone, and the world is not the same. She shares her favourite poem with us - a biblical story of Yousef: Oh my father, I am Yusuf Oh father, my brothers neither love me nor want me in their midst They assault me and cast stones and words at me They want me to die so they can eulogize me They closed the door of your house and left me outside They expelled me from the field Oh my father, they poisoned my grapes They destroyed my toys When the gentle wind played with my hair, they were jealous They flamed up with rage against me and you What did I deprive them of, Oh my father? The butterflies stopped on my shoulder The bird hovered over my hand What have I done, Oh my father? Why me? You named me Yusuf and they threw me into the well They accused the wolf The wolf is more merciful than my brothers Oh, my father Did I wrong anyone when I said that I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon Saw them kneeling before me? Jordanian Samer Marzouq, writing at Jazarah, says Darwish's death is a big loss for the Arab world. Bad news, the greatest Arab poet, the Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish has died today in a hospital in Huston in the USA, this is a big loss for the Arab cultural scene, rest in peace Mahmoud Darwish, rest in peace. Tunisian blog Khil We Lil [Ar] marks Darwish's death saying: ????? ??? ???? Another giant passes away. Radwa Osama, from Egypt, is shocked at the news and awaits a message from Darwish - via another poet: ?????? ???? ??? ???? ????? ????? - ????? ????? ??? -???? ???? ???? ?? ??? ?? ?? ?????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? - ????? ????? ???? ??? ????? ????? ??? ????????? - ????? ???? ???? - ?? ??? ????? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ???? - ???? ?? ?? ????? - ????? ??? - ??? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ?????? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ? ??????? ?? ??????? ???????? ? ??? ???? ???? ???? ?????? - ??????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ???? ????? - ???? ???? ???? ? ?????? ??? ???? ? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ????-?????? ???? "?????? ????? ????? ????? ??? ??????"-???? ??????? ????? ???? ????? ????? ????? ???? -???? ????? ??????? ???? ? ????? ????? ????? ??????? ????? ??? ????????? ???? ??? ???? ?????? - ??? ???? ????? ???? ????? -????? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ???????! -????? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ??? ???? ???? - ???????? ?? ?????? In a sad tone, Amr told me that Mahmoud Darwish passed away. I have repeatedly asked him not to break such stories to me in one go. A little while later, we listened to Mahmood Darwish's voice on the computer. I can hear his clear sadness. I don't find a lot of words to add but I am extremely sad. I was thinking that next time his visited Cairo, it would be at the American University. I was preparing myself for that event. It has really been a long time since I last heard Darwish. I used to listen to him every time I felt annoyed. He was able to calm me down. Amr asks me: "What do you think Mahmoud Darwish is doing now?" I think logically and say: "Mahmoud Darwish is now contemplating on the experience (of death), in order to write a poem, and send it to us, the people who are eager for the truth. Very soon, I will stop enjoying poetry. Mahmoud Darwish, do you still think that death mistakes us?! I am looking forward for a poem from you, with the first person who contacts you. Poets never die. From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 9 18:23:44 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 20:23:44 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Georgia and Russia Nearing All-Out War Message-ID: August 10, 2008 Georgia and Russia Nearing All-Out War By ANNE BARNARD This article was reported by Anne Barnard, Andrew E. Kramer, and C. J. Chivers and written by Ms. Barnard. GORI, Georgia ? The conflict between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia moved toward full-scale war on Saturday, as Russia sent warships to land ground troops in the disputed territory of Abkhazia and broadened its bombing campaign across Georgia. The fighting, which sharply escalated when Georgian forces tried to retake the capital of South Ossetia, a pro-Russian region that won de facto autonomy from Georgia in the early 1990s, appeared to be developing into the worst clashes between Russia and a foreign military since the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. As Russia moved more forces into the region and continued aerial bombing, it appeared determined to occupy both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, both Moscow-backed breakaway regions where Russia had issued passports to most residents and declared them Russian citizens. Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, said Russia's ambitions were even more extensive. He declared that Georgia was in a state of war, and said in an interview that Russia was planning to seize sea ports and an oil pipeline and to overthrow his government. Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia left the Olympics in China and arrived Saturday evening in Vladikavkaz, a city in southern Russia just over the border. State-controlled news broadcasts showed Mr. Putin meeting generals, suggesting that he was directly in charge of military operations, eclipsing the authority of President Dmitri A. Medvedev. Mr. Putin said that dozens of people had been killed in South Ossetia and hundreds wounded, and tens of thousands were reported to be fleeing. Georgia's health minister said that more than 80 people had been killed, including 40 civilians who died in airstrikes in Gori, a city north of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Another Georgian official said at least 800 people, almost all of them civilians, had been injured. Each side's figures were impossible to confirm independently. The fighting, and the Kremlin's confidence in the face of Western outcry, had wide international implications, as both Russian and Georgian officials placed it squarely in the context of renewed cold war-style tensions and an East-West struggle for regional influence.. Western influence over Russia appeared minimal. The East and West were stuck in diplomatic impasse, even as reports of heavy civilian casualties indicated that the humanitarian toll was climbing. The United Nations Security Council was meeting Saturday to discuss the crisis, but with no resolution. Georgian officials said their only way out of the conflict was for the United States to step in, but with American military intervention unlikely, they were hoping for the West to exert diplomatic pressure to stop the Russian attacks. "Georgia is a sovereign nation, and its territorial integrity must be respected," President Bush said at the Olympics in Beijing. "We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops. We call for the end of the Russian bombings." Senior European Union officials were adamant on Saturday that both Russia and Georgia were to blame for the recent escalation of the conflict, and that finger-pointing was counterproductive. Cristina Gallack, a spokeswoman Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said that the Union's immediate objective was to reach a cease-fire, and European envoys were reported to be en route to the region. Other Western officials monitored the movements with alarm. "The record is crystal clear," said a Western official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Russia has launched a full-scale military operation, on air, land and sea. We have entered a totally new realm ? politically, legally and diplomatically." Russia appeared to be opening a second front in Abkhazia, to the west of South Ossetia, and to be aiming to drive Georgian troops from the Kodori Gorge, a small mountainous area in Abkhazia that Georgia reclaimed by force in 2006. Georgian officials said 12 Russian jets were bombing the area, shortly after a Western official said United Nations peacekeepers had withdrawn from the area at the request of Abkhazia's de facto government. Russia also notified Western governments that it was moving ships of its Black Sea fleet to Ochamchire, a port on the Abkhaz coast. Georgian officials said they expected Russian troops to land there. Mr. Putin made clear that Russia now viewed Georgian claims over the breakaway regions to be invalid, and that Russia had no intention of withdrawing. "There is almost no way we can imagine a return to the status quo," he said in remarks on Russian state television. Mr. Saakashivili, the Georgian president, said Russia's oil riches and desire to assert economic leverage over Europe and the West had emboldened Kremlin country to attack. Georgia is a transit country for oil and natural gas exports from the former Soviet Union that threatens Russia's near monopoly. "They need control of energy routes," Mr. Saakashvili said. "They need sea ports. They need transportation infrastructure. And primarily, they want to get rid of us. " In turn, Russian officials said that ties to the United States had emboldened Mr. Saakashvili, who wants to make Georgia part of NATO, into sparking the conflict. But there were signs that Mr. Saakashvili was feeling the limits of how much American help he could expect. Pentagon officials said late on Friday that Georgia had requested assistance in airlifting home the approximately 2,000 Georgian troops now in Iraq. The request was under review, and standard procedures would indicate that the United States government would honor the request, officials said. Alexander Lomaya, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, said conflict arose because Russia sought to "thwart its neighbors' movement toward Western society and Western values" and framed the stakes in expansive terms that were reminiscent of the cold war. "If the world is not able to stop Russia here, then Russian tanks and Russian paratroopers can appear in every European capital," he said. Russian officials, however, blamed outside meddling for stoking the conflict, and said their goals were narrow. President Medvedev said Russia was acting to restore peace and protect its citizens and peacekeeping troops who had come under Georgian attack. In a news conference, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia said Georgian attacks on what he called "Russian citizens" in South Ossetia "amounted to ethnic cleansing." He reserved some of his harshest language for Georgia's allies, referring at one point to "Mr. Saakashvili and his Western friends" ? an apparent reference to the United States, which has provided Georgia with extensive military aid since Mr. Saakashvili took office in 2004. With Russia's Black Sea fleet, warplanes and tanks bearing down on the small, mountainous country, Georgian officials acknowledged they were taken by surprise by the intensity of the Russian response. But Russia, too, found itself facing resistance. Russia acknowledged that Georgian forces had shot down two Russian warplanes, while Mr. Lomaya said the Georgians had destroyed 10 Russian jets. In Gori, people cheered as a Russian pilot ejected from an airplane that was shot down. Georgian television later showed a pilot's bloody helmet and said a pilot had been captured. Russian strategic bombers were seen over Georgia for the first time in the three-day conflict. Georgian tanks attacked the lone road linking South Ossetia to Russia, trying to cut off Russian supply routes. But Russia continued to flow forces into Georgia, and appeared on track to at least double the number of troops there. Georgian officials said at least 2,500 Russian troops were already in South Ossetia. Along a military highway entering Georgia from Russia, military transports and armored vehicles were backed up for several miles. They were flying both Russian flags and plain red flags. The mood was buoyant. "I am going to help our people," said Zelimkhan Gagiev, 27, an irregular fighter in a maroon four-wheel drive who said he had family trapped in Tskhinvali. "If I can, I'll fight to the death." The columns were headed to the Roki Tunnel, which gives access to South Ossetia. Asked whether Georgia and Russia were headed for war, a soldier from Rostov, who gave his name as Alexei, grinned. "If there is, it won't last long." Civilians came under fire on both sides. Georgian troops shelled the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, with artillery. Russian television footage showed damaged houses and apartment buildings. Russian warplanes struck at least five Georgian cities. Witnesses said they struck a train station in Tsenakhi, five apartment buildings in Gori, and the Black Sea port of Poti. Georgian officials said that Russian warplanes had attacked the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, operated by British Petroleum, that carries oil to the West from Asia, but that the pipeline had not been struck. The Russian authorities said their forces had retaken the South Ossetian capital from Georgian control during the morning hours, while Georgian officials said they had withdrawn from the area voluntarily. But heavy fighting resumed there later Saturday, with Georgian tanks and heavy artillery attacking from the south, Russian television reported. Twelve Russian troops were killed, according to Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a colonel general in the Ministry of Defense. When asked whether Russia was in a state of war with Georgia, General Nogovitsyn said it was not. Roads were clogged with refugees, as South Ossetians fled north into Russia and Georgians from Gori fled southeast to Tblisi. Russia said 30,000 people had fled South Ossetia. Along the single road connecting Tskhinvali to Vladikavkaz, in southern Russia, Zema Vazhenina, 26, described three days spent stuck in her home while the walls and ceiling shook from shelling. When she finally emerged, she said, "it looked like the end of the world." Andrew E. Kramer reported from Gori and Tbilisi, Georgia, and Anne Barnard from Moscow. Reporting was contributed by Michael Schwirtz from Gori; Ellen Barry from Moscow; Matt Siegel from Vladikavkaz, Russia; Steven Lee Myers from Beijing; and Katrin Bennhold from Paris. From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Aug 9 19:05:02 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 21:05:02 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Russia Prepares for Naval Blockade of Georgia + Azerbaijan Halts Oil Exports via Georgia Ports + Oil Falls as Dollar Rises, Ignores Georgia Conflict Message-ID: Aug. 10, 2008 Russia Prepares for Naval Blockade of Georgia Ships are grouping in the Black Sea near the Georgian aquatic border. A unnamed naval source has said that the move is necessary to prevent arms deliveries to Georgia by sea. He added that the naval blockade of Georgia will help avoid escalation of military actions in Abkhazia. Radio station Echo of Moscow reports that several Georgian Internet publications have confirmed that the Russian Black Sea fleet is regrouping. Witnesses say that several Georgian military vessels attempted to approach the coast of Abkhazia. The Interfax correspondent in Sukhumi reports that the Georgian attempt was countered by the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which opened preventative fire. The Interfax information was confirmed by enforcement bodies in Abkhazia. Apparently, after Georgian forces were repulsed from Tskhinvali, air connections with Georgian were broken and Georgian military activity was suppressed and Russia began economic suppression. Georgia in the meantime is accusing Russia of attempting to blow up the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Georgian Minister of Economic Development Ekaterina Sharashidze stated that Russian Air Force planes attacked the pipeline, but missed their target. "That makes it clear that the targets of the Russian military were not only Georgian economic objects, but international objects on Georgian territory," she said. Reports were received throughout the day that Russian military planes struck targets in Georgia, however, they were military, not economic. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline runs a total of 1768 km., of which 443 km. stretches through Azerbaijan, 249 km. through Georgia and 1076 km. through Turkey. Construction of the pipeline began in 2003 and it began to pump oil on May 18, 2005. About 1 million barrels of oil per year are pumped through the pipeline. Construction of the pipeline cost $4 billion, not counting the filling of the pipeline, financial servicing or interest costs. The shareholders in the pipeline are BP (30,1%), AzBTC (25%), Chevron (8,9%), StatoilHydro (8,71%), ???? (6,53%), ENI (5%), Total (5%), Itochu (3,4%), Inpex (2,5%), ConocoPhillips (2,5%) and Hess (2,36%). www.kommersant.com Azerbaijan halts oil exports via Georgia ports: state oil firm 8 hours ago BAKU (AFP) ? Azerbaijan has halted oil exports via the Georgian ports of Batumi and Kulevi due to clashes between Russia and Georgia, the head of the state oil company said Saturday. "Since last night the import and export of oil through the Georgian ports of Kulevi and Batumi have been halted," said Rovnag Abdullayev, the head of the Azeri state oil company SOCAR, in televised comments. "This is due to armed actions in the area of the Georgia-Ossetia conflict." He added that SOCAR was "looking into the possibility of exporting oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, but the capacity of this pipeline is quite low," in a reference to a route that links the Azerbaijani capital to the Russian Black Sea Coast. Earlier Saturday Russian planes staged a raid near the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, a major international oil route that runs through Georgia, but did not damage it, Georgia's prime minister said. In recent years Georgia has become an important transport route for oil from Azerbaijan and other Caspian Sea oil producers, allowing Western oil firms to bypass Russia's oil pipelines. Oil falls to $115 on economic worries, dollar gains Fri Aug 8, 2008 7:01pm EDT By Matthew Robinson NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil dropped $5 to a three-month low on Friday as the dollar surged and concerns about global economic growth weighed on demand expectations. The fall came even as Russia sent forces into Georgia, a key energy transit region, to repel a Georgian assault on the breakaway South Ossetia region. U.S. light crude settled down $4.82 to $115.20 a barrel, before falling to $114.90 in post-settlement trade, the lowest level since early May. Prices have slid since hitting a record high over $147 a barrel on July 11. London Brent crude settled at $113.33, down $4.53. "It seems that we've got a lot of selling based on the stronger dollar," said Peter Beutel, president of trading consultants Cameron Hanover. "Energy demand destruction and the dollar return have formed a quiet alliance to bring the oil market down, and today the louder of the two is the dollar." Strong demand from emerging economies like China sent oil on a six-year rally, with prices up sevenfold at their peak. More support came from investors rushing into commodities as a hedge against inflation and the weak dollar. But mounting global economic problems and high fuel prices have begun to hurt demand. The dollar surged against the euro and was on track for its biggest one-day gain in four years as concerns mounted that the U.S. economic slowdown was spreading around the world. USD/] "The market has been ignoring the Tbilisi pipeline situation, and now the problems with Russia -- the move lower really now has a momentum of its own with the financial players coming out," said Olivier Jakob at Petromatrix. Georgia's pro-Western president said on Friday the two countries were at war as Georgian troops backed by warplanes pounded separatist forces in South Ossetia and Russia sent forces to repel the assault. Analysts were concerned fighting could disrupt energy exports from the Caspian region that travel through Georgia. Oil had risen on Thursday due to the disruption of supplies through the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline following a blast this week in Turkey. The pipeline was still burning, halting loadings of Azeri Light crude shipped to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, but the fire could be extinguished on Friday or Saturday. Once the blaze is out, the pipeline could be reopened within 10 days. BP has cut output by at least 400,000 barrels a day at the Azeri-Chirag Gunashli oilfields, traders said. (Reporting by Matthew Robinson, Robert Gibbons, Gene Ramos and Richard Valdmanis in New York; Margaret Orgill, Barbara Lewis and Ikuko Kao in London; and Felicia Loo in Singapore; Editing by David Gregorio) From tal1 at cogeco.ca Sun Aug 10 00:25:07 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:25:07 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Fruit Of West's Caucasus War: US, NATO, EU Move Into Region Message-ID: <30DBC210B81A4854864436D461A2C4D8@TonyPC> ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff To: stopnato at yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2008 2:11 AM Subject: [stopnato] Fruit Of West's Caucasus War: US, NATO, EU Move Into Region http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=95977 Sofia News Agency August 9, 2008 UN, EU, USA, OSCE, NATO Move to Mediate Georgia-South Ossetia Crisis -The mission has been coordinated in talks between the UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband and the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. -NATO representatives have called for direct negotiations between the sides in the conflict...but on the condition that Georgia's territorial integrity would remain unquestionable. [That is, 'negotiations' between the US's, NATO's and the EU's Georgian military client state and the shattered, depopulated remnant of South Ossetia - no doubt with the participation of the Tbilisi puppet 'government in exile' of Dmitry Sanakoev's "Alternative Government Of South Ossetia" - without the participation of the other two members of the Joint Control Commission, Russia and North Ossetia. In short, South Ossetia and the entire South Caucasus are to be ceded to the Pentagon and NATO, where new military bases and 'missile shield' installations will be stationed.] A joint mission of the European Union, the United States, NATO, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is going to arrive in Georgia Saturday night in order to try to help achieve a ceasefire agreement in the armed conflict between Georgia and South Ossetian and Russian forces. The news was announced by the UK Defense Secretary Des Browne. The delegation includes in the British emissary for the southern Caucasus Bryan Fall. The mission has been coordinated in talks between the UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband and the US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vladimir Ogrizko is also going to arrive in Georgia on a ceasefire mission. The fifteen members of the UN Security Council are also going to tackle the topic about the violence in Georgia during an unofficial meeting. NATO representatives have called for direct negotiations between the sides in the conflict in order to achieve a ceasefire but on the condition that Georgia's territorial integrity would remain unquestionable. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read ============================== __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity 3New Members Visit Your Group Drive Traffic Sponsored Search can help increase your site traffic. Yahoo! Groups Join people over 40 who are finding ways to stay in shape. Discover photos and scrapbooking groups in the Familyographer Zone. __,_._,___ From tal1 at cogeco.ca Sun Aug 10 01:24:48 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 03:24:48 -0400 Subject: [A-List] VIDEO: India's Maoist Revolution Message-ID: <97133E1F5CB94DCE993D657576E75FB1@TonyPC> > Great footage of the Naxalite (Maoist) armed struggle > growing in rural India. Includes interview with Arundhati > Roy (radical India writer and political activists) and > exposure of the government's system of village level death > squads. The main footage is from prison-like "government > relocation camps" -- the standard counterinsurgency tactice > of "catch the fish by drying up the sea." > > (It is unfortunately not possible to embed) > > Available through Journeyman Pictures, described as > "London's leading independent distributor of topical news > features, documentaries and footage." > > We suggest we actively help circulate this video. > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O2WwESwJhw > > [more documentation on http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/] > > > > > > - ----- End forwarded message ----- > > > > > > - -- > *** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! *************************************** > * BOYCOTT BOURGEOIS MASS-MEDIA * RSS/XML newsfeeds from around * > * Use these links in RSS readers * the planet: Who needs CNN/Fox? * > **** Critical endorsement only **** Most sites need donations **** > * http://rss.newstandardnews.net/liberty_1.xml Civil Lib & Security* > * http://www.plenglish.com/rss/north/ Prensa North America * > * http://www.plenglish.com/rss/europe/ Latina Europa * > * http://www.plenglish.com/rss/asia/ (Cuba) Asia * > * http://www.plenglish.com/rss/africa/ Afrika & Middle East * > * http://www.plenglish.com/rss/arts/ Arts * > * http://www.plenglish.com/rss/health/ Health & Science * > ** A properly-chosen slogan cuts thru bullsh!t like a sharp knife ** > GPG fingerprint = 2E7F 2D69 4B0B C8D5 07E3 09C3 5E8D C4B4 461B B771 > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) > > iD8DBQFInJ45Xo3EtEYbt3ERAre+AKCvEZDoTc8oHzt0flH9AgItnz7MVgCfe5qV > 4vGHG01u7skMjx7kraHoI7g= > =4j+P > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > From nscchicago at igc.org Sat Aug 9 19:18:20 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 20:18:20 -0500 Subject: [A-List] ECO TURISMO ARTESANO DELEGATION TO NICARAGUA OVER THANKSGIVING Message-ID: <000b01c8fa87$034a9e90$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> Tom Baker here, Nicaragua Solidarity and air fares during this delegation time of year are what you call affordable. Coffee harvesting is in full swing. People there also celebrate this time of year People here wanting more information about Nicaragua please Reply, contact me. If youi're not saying, Quick, sign me up, You aren't knowing what you're missing. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 1417 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080809/9095b678/attachment.txt -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 5392 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080809/9095b678/attachment-0001.jpeg -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: DELEGATION NOVIEMBRE 2008.jy25 08.wpd Type: application/wordperfect Size: 447846 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080809/9095b678/attachment-0001.wpd -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: DELEGATION NOVIEMBRE 2008.jy25 08.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 471586 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080809/9095b678/attachment-0001.pdf From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Sun Aug 10 06:47:07 2008 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:47:07 +1000 Subject: [A-List] The elephant in the room: Obama, the left and the race question | Links Message-ID: <489EE34B.3050107@greenleft.org.au> By Malik Miah I'm of two mind sets. As a socialist I will either vote for Nader or McKinney to advance the need for class intendance. But as a supporter of nationalism of the oppressed, I'm inclined to vote against the /de facto/ race-bating campaign of McCain and elect the first Black president. A shorter version of the this article first appeared in /Green Left Weekly/ .] http://links.org.au/node/570 Subscribe free to /Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sun Aug 10 06:50:46 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:50:46 +0900 Subject: [A-List] How the Left Saved Capitalism Message-ID: <489EE426.1030703@attglobal.net> by Gregory W Esteven Monthly Review (July 20 2008) There is an entire genre of theory explaining why the Western capitalist democracies did not undergo socialist revolution in the 20th Century, as Classical Marxism had predicted. Not surprisingly, most of this material comes from the Left itself {1}. We can include Antonio Gramsci's work on hegemony in this genre, as well as the entire output of the Frankfurt School and other psychoanalytically-inclined Marxist theorists (Althusser comes to mind). Taken together, this work contributes greatly to our understanding of the complex dynamics of political and social change, reminding us to avoid over-simplifications and belief in quick fixes of all varieties. I do not want to diminish these contributions in any way and am not challenging them here. But at the same time I am suspicious of placing too much emphasis on the Left's failures in order to account for the ongoing state of affairs. To supplement the theories I've already mentioned, I would like to propose a subversive reading of the conventional narrative. Couldn't we also say that the successes of the organized Left (modest though they were) actually helped to preserve capitalism, saving it from runaway contradictions, and therefore temporarily reducing the need for revolution? At first this may seem counterintuitive, but not when we take into account a key feature of capitalism that distinguishes it from previous modes of production - namely its need for instability. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels assert that: "The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones." I think that old saying, "Sometimes your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness", applies here. Capitalism sustains itself through its contradictions (e.g. the preponderance of the small owning class over the vast working class, the social nature of wealth generation contrasted with the private nature of accumulation), but these same contradictions always threaten the integrity of the system itself. We know that the capitalist class benefits, for instance, from maintaining high profits and low wages, as well as from divisions in society, such as those of gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. But if workers become too impoverished, or sexism, racism, and homophobia become too pronounced, the system becomes destabilized to a dangerous degree; explosion, or rather implosion, is a real possibility. If wages drop so low that workers give up shopping, this starts to cut into profits. And although it is in the interests of the capitalist class to keep workers divided on the basis of race, they don't want crazy racist militias roving the streets murdering minorities. We have a delicate balancing act here. Capitalism can't afford for the pendulum to swing too far in either direction (towards stability or instability). Marx and Engels were writing when capitalist relations of production were at their most inhuman. Workers in most industrialized and industrializing countries weren't even afforded the bare minimum of workers' rights which at least some of us enjoy today, such as the right to organize, limits on the length of the work day, and bans on child labor. Observing these conditions, along with growing concentrations of wealth, it's no wonder that Marxism's early proponents believed that revolution was inevitable. Something strange happened, however. The rise of labor unions and radical political organizing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, though they faced intense, and often violent, opposition from the ruling classes, resulted in increasing positive gains for workers. The grossest contradictions of capitalist relations were reduced, precisely because the working class was winning important battles. In many countries workers won better wages, a shortened work day, and safety regulations at the workplace. And with the birth of the welfare state in Western Europe and the New Deal in the United States, a new "capitalism with a human face" seemed to be on the horizon. Let's be clear. The level of prosperity and freedom which existed in the West, from roughly the early 1950s to the beginning of deep reaction in the 1980s, was unprecedented in world history. There were a number of reasons for this, and one of them was that the past and continuing successes of the Left were ensuring that workers were getting a fairer share of the pie, thus providing economic stability and less intense contradictions. More of the wealth was going to more of the people than ever before. (Not to mention the fact that the Left and progressive movements were working hard to reduce other contradictions, such as sexism and racism.) It's probably hard for young people nowadays to imagine, but my grandfather - after fighting in Japan in World War Two - worked for one company from the early 1950's to the early 1990's: United Gas. Until the 1970s, he and his family lived in houses provided by the company, which paid the utility bills and offered many opportunities for job advancement and higher pay. With the money they saved over the years they were able to move up to the middle class, buy land and their own home, without going into debt to do it. They had a great health plan at low cost. And when my grandfather retired, his pension was more than enough to cover living expenses. He often remarked that although he never belonged to a union, he knew that he only enjoyed these kinds of wages and benefits because other workers did belong to unions. Now, his company was perhaps more kindly and paternalistic than most, but it does illustrate the more humane capitalism which existed in that period. {2} Capitalism is an incredibly dynamic and adaptable system, since, as we have seen, it was able to adopt "socialistic" reforms in order to ameliorate the conditions of workers and avoid crisis and revolutionary upsurges in the core nations. But the question for us today is whether this (broadly-defined) Keynesian logic of amelioration has run its course, reaching its limits with the advent of the global economy, which is qualitatively distinct from the international trade of yesteryear. In other words, was the great wave of reaction, the end of capitalism with a human face, simply brought about by the initiative of certain interests represented by Thatcher in Britain and Reagan in the United States, or has a more fundamental, structural change taken place in the world system? The possibility I hint at is that the more humane version of capitalism is irreconcilable with globalization, as the former was associated with more autonomous national economies which could offer greater protections to workers, shielding them from blows from foreign markets. We all know what the picture looks like today. A global division of labor has emerged, with manufacturing jobs moving to the peripheral and semi-peripheral nations, and the core nations transitioning to "postindustrial" economies, dominated by information and service industries. Whatever is left of the welfare state is being dismantled. Workers are watching the hard-won gains of the past disappear. Multinational corporations set the policy agenda and workers in one part of the world are pitted against workers in other parts of the world (e.g. the euphemistically called "outsourcing"). In the year 2000, the richest one percent of the world's adults owned forty percent of global assets. While some say that Marx is irrelevant today, I maintain that the time of Marxism has just arrived. Isn't it in today's global economy that Marx has been vindicated? The concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, and the concomitant immiseration of the vast majority of the world's population, have occurred on a scale that makes Marx's predictions seem utterly conservative. A more intense contradiction of profit-driven environmental degradation than he could have foreseen further supports the core of his theories. And isn't it really in today's era of globalization that the old Leftist dream of internationalism becomes conceivable, practically, and necessary, strategically? I've long thought that the Industrial Workers of the World's objective of organizing skilled and unskilled labor together, across national boundaries, was ahead of its time. Far from being relics of a bygone era, the work they are doing now is cutting edge. They have a better understanding of the present conjuncture than many mainstream unions, which have been slow to adapt to the realities of the postindustrial economy. The IWW has worked to organize such service industry employees as Starbucks coffee shop workers; there are more of these kinds of jobs in the US than traditional manufacturing jobs today. My perverse Leftist imagination can't help but envision workers at both ends of the chain (the people who pick the beans and the people who serve the coffee) organized into the same transnational union. But that may be a ways down the road. Whatever the case with the IWW, Marx is definitely having his revenge, and it is not at all clear whether capitalism can continue to be reformed, in any significant way, as it was in the past. What comes next we cannot be sure, but it seems that the time to revive the socialist project has arrived, and it must be one adapted to the needs of the 21st century. Notes: 1 This has led Slavoj ?i?ek to suspect - perhaps with some justification - that the Left has long settled into a comfortable, moralistic posture, relishing defeat with the masochistic rapture that we project onto Christian martyrs of old. 2 Of course, this increased sharing of the wealth with workers in the Western democracies was predicated upon the fact that those countries had largely built their fortunes through colonialism in the past and from the ongoing super-exploitation of workers in the world's periphery and semi-periphery. We can't forget this aspect of the picture. The kinder, gentler capitalism wasn't being experienced by all the world's peoples. _____ Gregory W Esteven is a sociologist working as a research assistant at the Southeastern Social Science Research Center at Southeastern Louisiana University. He also serves on the advisory board of the Land Trust for Southeast Louisiana and is a frequent contributor to Political Affairs Magazine, a publication of the CPUSA. http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/esteven200708.html http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From nmgoro at gmail.com Sun Aug 10 09:55:01 2008 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?N=C3=A9stor_Gorojovsky?=) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:55:01 -0300 Subject: [A-List] Mourning for Mahmoud Darwish In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <2fa158550808100855v3a9a64baybddf952bb70a42d1@mail.gmail.com> Well, this is sad news 2008/8/9, Yoshie Furuhashi : > > Arabeyes: Mourning for Mahmoud Darwish > Saturday, August 9th, 2008 @ 23:11 UTC > by Amira Al Hussaini > > Bloggers around the Arab world mourned the death of Palestinian poet > Mahmoud Darwish today. Scores of posts appeared online in Arabic and > English even before news of his death was officially confirmed. > > The award-winning poet, whose work has been translated to more than 22 > languages, is best known for his poems which depict the suffering of > Palestinian people, their longing for their homeland and infighting > between various Palestinian factions. Born in historical Palestine, in > what is now Israel, Darwish leaves behind over 30 volumes of poetry > and eight books of prose, and millions of fans. > > From Jerusalem, the UN-Truth's Marian Houk says news of Darwish's death is: > > .. the top news story here. Never mind the Olympics, or John > Edward's affair?. > > She also describes what makes Darwish's poetry special: > > It's probably true that you need to understand the history of the > Palestinian-Israeli conflict in order to really appreciate the > poignant and intense economy with which Mahmoud Darwish described how > Palestinians see the situation. > > The blogger, who has also met Darwish several times, says the world > will never be the same without the poet: > > I saw Mahmoud Darwish over more than two decades in Beirut, in > Damascus, in Washington, in New York, in London, in Paris, in Geneva ? > and last month in Ramallah. He was part of my life, and part of the > lives of every Palestinian in Jerusalem and Ramallah and everywhere. > And now, he is gone, and the world is not the same. > > She shares her favourite poem with us - a biblical story of Yousef: > > Oh my father, I am Yusuf > Oh father, my brothers neither love me nor want me in their midst > They assault me and cast stones and words at me > They want me to die so they can eulogize me > They closed the door of your house and left me outside > They expelled me from the field > Oh my father, they poisoned my grapes > They destroyed my toys > When the gentle wind played with my hair, they were jealous > They flamed up with rage against me and you > What did I deprive them of, Oh my father? > The butterflies stopped on my shoulder > The bird hovered over my hand > What have I done, Oh my father? > Why me? > You named me Yusuf and they threw me into the well > They accused the wolf > The wolf is more merciful than my brothers > Oh, my father > Did I wrong anyone when I said that > I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon > Saw them kneeling before me? > > Jordanian Samer Marzouq, writing at Jazarah, says Darwish's death is a > big loss for the Arab world. > > Bad news, the greatest Arab poet, the Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish > has died today in a hospital in Huston in the USA, this is a big loss > for the Arab cultural scene, rest in peace Mahmoud Darwish, rest in > peace. > > Tunisian blog Khil We Lil [Ar] marks Darwish's death saying: > > ????? ??? ???? > > Another giant passes away. > > Radwa Osama, from Egypt, is shocked at the news and awaits a message > from Darwish - via another poet: > > ?????? ???? ??? ???? ????? ????? - ????? ????? ??? -???? ???? ???? ?? > ??? ?? ?? ?????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? - ????? ????? ???? ??? ????? > ????? ??? ????????? - ????? ???? ???? - ?? ??? ????? ????? ?????? ?? > ????? ??? ???? - ???? ?? ?? ????? - ????? ??? - ??? ???? ?? ????? > ??????? ?????? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ? ??????? ?? ??????? ???????? ? > ??? ???? ???? ???? ?????? - ??????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ???? ????? - ???? > ???? ???? ? ?????? ??? ???? ? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ????-?????? ???? > "?????? ????? ????? ????? ??? ??????"-???? ??????? ????? ???? ????? > ????? ????? ???? -???? ????? ??????? ???? ? ????? ????? ????? ??????? > ????? ??? ????????? ???? ??? ???? ?????? - ??? ???? ????? ???? ????? > -????? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ???????! -????? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ?? > ??? ???? ???? - ???????? ?? ?????? > > In a sad tone, Amr told me that Mahmoud Darwish passed away. I have > repeatedly asked him not to break such stories to me in one go. A > little while later, we listened to Mahmood Darwish's voice on the > computer. I can hear his clear sadness. I don't find a lot of words to > add but I am extremely sad. I was thinking that next time his visited > Cairo, it would be at the American University. I was preparing myself > for that event. It has really been a long time since I last heard > Darwish. I used to listen to him every time I felt annoyed. He was > able to calm me down. Amr asks me: "What do you think Mahmoud Darwish > is doing now?" I think logically and say: "Mahmoud Darwish is now > contemplating on the experience (of death), in order to write a poem, > and send it to us, the people who are eager for the truth. Very soon, > I will stop enjoying poetry. Mahmoud Darwish, do you still think that > death mistakes us?! I am looking forward for a poem from you, with the > first person who contacts you. Poets never die. > -- N?stor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autor?a From nmgoro at gmail.com Sun Aug 10 09:58:26 2008 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?N=C3=A9stor_Gorojovsky?=) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:58:26 -0300 Subject: [A-List] How the Left Saved Capitalism In-Reply-To: <489EE426.1030703@attglobal.net> References: <489EE426.1030703@attglobal.net> Message-ID: <2fa158550808100858y2b0a8e35ndac7b1bda793d58a@mail.gmail.com> Whatever we can say about Gregory W Esteven?s opinons on other issues, I can?t but strongly protest against his contention that > > Marx and Engels were writing when capitalist relations of production > were at their most inhuman. Workers in most industrialized and > industrializing countries weren't even afforded the bare minimum of > workers' rights which at least some of us enjoy today, such as the right > to organize, limits on the length of the work day, and bans on child > labor. This view misses what is happenning IN OUR OWN DAYS outside the imperialist countries. -- N?stor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autor?a From critical.montages at gmail.com Sun Aug 10 10:27:18 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:27:18 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Mourning for Mahmoud Darwish In-Reply-To: <2fa158550808100855v3a9a64baybddf952bb70a42d1@mail.gmail.com> References: <2fa158550808100855v3a9a64baybddf952bb70a42d1@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: The Arab world recently lost the famed Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine, too. 2008/8/10 N?stor Gorojovsky : > Well, this is sad news > > 2008/8/9, Yoshie Furuhashi : >> >> Arabeyes: Mourning for Mahmoud Darwish >> Saturday, August 9th, 2008 @ 23:11 UTC >> by Amira Al Hussaini >> >> Bloggers around the Arab world mourned the death of Palestinian poet >> Mahmoud Darwish today. Scores of posts appeared online in Arabic and >> English even before news of his death was officially confirmed. >> >> The award-winning poet, whose work has been translated to more than 22 >> languages, is best known for his poems which depict the suffering of >> Palestinian people, their longing for their homeland and infighting >> between various Palestinian factions. Born in historical Palestine, in >> what is now Israel, Darwish leaves behind over 30 volumes of poetry >> and eight books of prose, and millions of fans. >> >> From Jerusalem, the UN-Truth's Marian Houk says news of Darwish's death is: >> >> .. the top news story here. Never mind the Olympics, or John >> Edward's affair?. >> >> She also describes what makes Darwish's poetry special: >> >> It's probably true that you need to understand the history of the >> Palestinian-Israeli conflict in order to really appreciate the >> poignant and intense economy with which Mahmoud Darwish described how >> Palestinians see the situation. >> >> The blogger, who has also met Darwish several times, says the world >> will never be the same without the poet: >> >> I saw Mahmoud Darwish over more than two decades in Beirut, in >> Damascus, in Washington, in New York, in London, in Paris, in Geneva ? >> and last month in Ramallah. He was part of my life, and part of the >> lives of every Palestinian in Jerusalem and Ramallah and everywhere. >> And now, he is gone, and the world is not the same. >> >> She shares her favourite poem with us - a biblical story of Yousef: >> >> Oh my father, I am Yusuf >> Oh father, my brothers neither love me nor want me in their midst >> They assault me and cast stones and words at me >> They want me to die so they can eulogize me >> They closed the door of your house and left me outside >> They expelled me from the field >> Oh my father, they poisoned my grapes >> They destroyed my toys >> When the gentle wind played with my hair, they were jealous >> They flamed up with rage against me and you >> What did I deprive them of, Oh my father? >> The butterflies stopped on my shoulder >> The bird hovered over my hand >> What have I done, Oh my father? >> Why me? >> You named me Yusuf and they threw me into the well >> They accused the wolf >> The wolf is more merciful than my brothers >> Oh, my father >> Did I wrong anyone when I said that >> I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon >> Saw them kneeling before me? >> >> Jordanian Samer Marzouq, writing at Jazarah, says Darwish's death is a >> big loss for the Arab world. >> >> Bad news, the greatest Arab poet, the Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish >> has died today in a hospital in Huston in the USA, this is a big loss >> for the Arab cultural scene, rest in peace Mahmoud Darwish, rest in >> peace. >> >> Tunisian blog Khil We Lil [Ar] marks Darwish's death saying: >> >> ????? ??? ???? >> >> Another giant passes away. >> >> Radwa Osama, from Egypt, is shocked at the news and awaits a message >> from Darwish - via another poet: >> >> ?????? ???? ??? ???? ????? ????? - ????? ????? ??? -???? ???? ???? ?? >> ??? ?? ?? ?????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? - ????? ????? ???? ??? ????? >> ????? ??? ????????? - ????? ???? ???? - ?? ??? ????? ????? ?????? ?? >> ????? ??? ???? - ???? ?? ?? ????? - ????? ??? - ??? ???? ?? ????? >> ??????? ?????? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ? ??????? ?? ??????? ???????? ? >> ??? ???? ???? ???? ?????? - ??????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ???? ????? - ???? >> ???? ???? ? ?????? ??? ???? ? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ????-?????? ???? >> "?????? ????? ????? ????? ??? ??????"-???? ??????? ????? ???? ????? >> ????? ????? ???? -???? ????? ??????? ???? ? ????? ????? ????? ??????? >> ????? ??? ????????? ???? ??? ???? ?????? - ??? ???? ????? ???? ????? >> -????? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ???????! -????? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ?? >> ??? ???? ???? - ???????? ?? ?????? >> >> In a sad tone, Amr told me that Mahmoud Darwish passed away. I have >> repeatedly asked him not to break such stories to me in one go. A >> little while later, we listened to Mahmood Darwish's voice on the >> computer. I can hear his clear sadness. I don't find a lot of words to >> add but I am extremely sad. I was thinking that next time his visited >> Cairo, it would be at the American University. I was preparing myself >> for that event. It has really been a long time since I last heard >> Darwish. I used to listen to him every time I felt annoyed. He was >> able to calm me down. Amr asks me: "What do you think Mahmoud Darwish >> is doing now?" I think logically and say: "Mahmoud Darwish is now >> contemplating on the experience (of death), in order to write a poem, >> and send it to us, the people who are eager for the truth. Very soon, >> I will stop enjoying poetry. Mahmoud Darwish, do you still think that >> death mistakes us?! I am looking forward for a poem from you, with the >> first person who contacts you. Poets never die. >> > > > -- > > N?stor Gorojovsky > El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autor?a > From seanfischer at earthlink.net Sun Aug 10 11:48:13 2008 From: seanfischer at earthlink.net (Sean Fischer) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:48:13 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [A-List] 080808 Markets tumble on war fears Message-ID: <32064181.1218390493921.JavaMail.root@mswamui-andean.atl.sa.earthlink.net> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 6907 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080810/4aeb5cdb/attachment.txt -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: clip_image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 4996 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080810/ea13e2b0/attachment-0001.jpg From seanfischer at earthlink.net Sun Aug 10 11:54:00 2008 From: seanfischer at earthlink.net (Sean Fischer) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:54:00 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [A-List] Pipes-Solzhenitsyn's troubled prophetic mission Message-ID: <17020035.1218390840343.JavaMail.root@mswamui-andean.atl.sa.earthlink.net> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 8287 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080810/431ecdb8/attachment.txt -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: clip_image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 22968 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080810/431ecdb8/attachment.jpg -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: clip_image003.gif Type: image/gif Size: 73 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080810/431ecdb8/attachment.gif From tal1 at cogeco.ca Sun Aug 10 12:11:00 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:11:00 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Report: Russia Ships Preempt Georgian Naval Attack On Abkhazia Message-ID: <5CC55372CA10457CA571DA6DDCA12F5B@TonyPC> ...Listening to some of the Russian bloggers, it seems that Abkhazia (larger, stronger, politically and economically more stable) may be the real target of Georgia's Saakashvili. South Ossetia was, then, a test case to judge the Russian reaction (military action not expected) and to use Russsian quiescence to pressure Abkhazia to accept Georgian hegemony...A friend of mine informed me that a major pipeline of some sort runs right through S. Ossetia, though I've yet to confirm that. T. ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff To: stopnato at yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2008 10:36 AM Subject: [stopnato] Report: Russia Ships Preempt Georgian Naval Attack On Abkhazia http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=86489 Azeri Press Agency August 11, 2008 Russian naval vessels arrive at Abkhazia's Ochamchira port, Abkhazians launch operation in the direction of Kodori Gorge Tbilisi - Russian naval vessels arrived at the port of Ochamchira of Abkhazia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council Alexander Lomaia told AFP, APA reports. The representatives of the separatist Abkhazian regime also confirmed the fact. They noted that Russian naval vessels prevented Georgian vessels' intention to arrive at the port of Abkhazia. Meanwhile, the armed forces of Abkhazia began to gather in the direction of the Galsk [Gali] region on the Georgian border. The Defense Ministry of the separatist regime told Interfax that diversions had not ceased on Georgia's border with Abkhazia, that Georgia increased the number of servicemen in the territory and fired in several directions. "That's why additional forces are sent to this territory". The Defense Ministry of separatist Abkhazia also said that Abkhazian servicemen had been firing at the upper part of Kodori gorge since morning. On August 9, Abkhazian separatists said they had launched operations to force out Georgian forces from the eastern part of Kodori gorge. Abkhazian artillery has been firing at the positions of Georgia since morning. The Abkhazian government reportedly asked the head of the UN mission in Georgia to recall the observers in the Kodori Gorge. .... =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read ============================== __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity 3New Members Visit Your Group Special K Group on Yahoo! Groups Learn how others are losing pounds. Discover Tips on healthy living and healthy eating on Yahoo! Groups. Yahoo! Groups Join a program to help you find balance in your life.. __,_._,___ From jfgf.consult at mail.telepac.pt Sun Aug 10 14:29:58 2008 From: jfgf.consult at mail.telepac.pt (jfgf.consult at mail.telepac.pt) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:29:58 +0100 Subject: [A-List] Report: Russia Ships Preempt Georgian Naval Attack On Abkhazia In-Reply-To: <5CC55372CA10457CA571DA6DDCA12F5B@TonyPC> References: <5CC55372CA10457CA571DA6DDCA12F5B@TonyPC> Message-ID: <1218400198.2gh7a3laxmtc@w3.webmail.telepac.pt> The map of pipeline Baku-Tbilissi-Ceyhan is at http://resistir.info/russia/btc.html There are 55 km of pipeline in Ossetia territory. JF Citando "Tony B." : > ...Listening to some of the Russian bloggers, it seems that Abkhazia > (larger, stronger, politically and economically more stable) may be the real > target of Georgia's Saakashvili. South Ossetia was, then, a test case to > judge the Russian reaction (military action not expected) and to use > Russsian quiescence to pressure Abkhazia to accept Georgian hegemony...A > friend of mine informed me that a major pipeline of some sort runs right > through S. Ossetia, though I've yet to confirm that. > > T. > From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sun Aug 10 17:50:21 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:50:21 +0900 Subject: [A-List] Reviving the Household Economy Message-ID: <489F7EBD.3010202@attglobal.net> by John Michael Greer The Archdruid Report (August 06 2008) Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society Part Two: The Decline and Fall of Home Economics Raspberry jam, the ostensible subject of last week's Archdruid Report post, is only one of hundreds of goods and services that until recently were produced almost entirely in the household economy, outside the reach of the market. Nowadays, by contrast, nearly all those goods and services are either produced commercially or are not available at all. This represents an economic transformation on a massive scale, and yet it's one that has seen remarkably little discussion by economists. It also represents a social transformation of equally massive scope. Visit the library of an American public university that has not yet taken up the currently fashionable habit of purging its collection of "outdated" materials, wander through the stacks until you find the dingiest and most neglected shelves in the building, and odds are that you'll be looking at the mummified remains of a field of study, a profession, and a university department as dead as the dinosaurs, and a good deal less popular nowadays: home economics. Not all that many decades ago, an impressive network of home economists working for universities, county extension services, and private industry provided an extensive support system for the household economy. Backing that network, and the by no means negligible expenditures that supported it, was an almost universal consensus that recognized the social and economic importance of the household economy. The experience of two world wars, in which government-promoted home economics measures had played a major role in softening the impact of food rationing and enabling the United States to feed armies and allies alike, gave support to that consensus. At the same time, the household economy had long faced steady pressure from the expansionistic habits of the market economy. Beginning around the end of the 19th century, and accelerating over the decades that followed, the market seeped into the domestic sphere with a steady stream of "convenience" products and "labor-saving" devices. Many of these were neither convenient nor labor-saving, but the massive marketing programs that backed them up made them highly fashionable, especially in the newly prosperous middle classes that emerged as the 20th century wore on and America entered on its age of empire. These two major social forces - the broad consensus surrounding the domestic economy and the expanding pressure of a metastatic market economy - finally collided head on in the decades following the Second World War. A third force, however, played what may well have been the decisive role in the collision. Bringing up that third force at all may be problematic, for it's remained a hot-button issue in American culture right down to the present, and very few people seem to be able to discuss it dispassionately just now. Still, what happened to the household economy is impossible to understand without taking it into account. That force, of course, is the role played by the economics of gender in launching and shaping the second wave of American feminism in the 1960s and 1970s. Many currents of social change flowed together to launch the women's movement of the 1960s, but one factor that has not always been given its due is the impact of the abrupt changeover from the war economy of the 1940s to the consumer economy that followed it. As the troops came home, government and industry alike did everything in their very considerable power to get Rosie the Riveter off the factory floor and turn her into Suzy Homemaker as fast as possible, in order to free up jobs for millions of demobilized soldiers. At the same time, the quest for markets to fuel the consumer economy's expansion and employ those same millions threw the market assault on the household economy into overdrive. Postwar propaganda - "advertising" is too mild a word for the saturation campaigns that flooded the popular media in the late 1940s and early 1950s - presented middle class families with a glittering image of affluence in which convenient, up-to-date consumer products provided by the market would replace the dowdy routine of the domestic economy with a life of elegance and leisure. The reality behind the facade turned out to be much less palatable. Denied both the place in the market economy they had occupied during the war years, and the role in the household economy their mothers had held before that, millions of middle class women across America found themselves expected to lead a purely decorative and essentially purposeless existence. As a motor for rebellion, deprivation of meaning is even more potent than deprivation of food, and so an explosion was inevitable. Many of the forms that explosion took were altogether admirable. A great many injustices were set to rights, or at least challenged, and social roles that had become hopelessly restrictive for women and men alike came in for a much needed reassessment. Still, as the feminism of the Sixties and Seventies percolated outward into popular culture, it suffered in some measure the common fate of progressive social movements in the modern West: instead of challenging the system of male privilege, and the presuppositions that underlay it, a great many women who considered themselves feminists simply set out to seize their share of the positions of privilege within the existing system. In the process, no small number of them embraced the manners, mores, and attitudes of those they hoped to supplant. Compare a Playboy from the 1960s with a Cosmopolitan from the 1980s, for example, and it's impossible to miss the parallels, all the way from the shared obsession with sexual conquest, conspicuous consumption, and personal appearance, to the mutually interchangeable cover girls meant to allure potential readers. The astonishing thing is that the "Playboy man" and the "Cosmo girl", those airbrushed icons of consumer culture, were both considered to be liberated, and liberating, in their day. The household economy, or what was left of it, was one of the casualties of the process that made these dubious figures popular. The feminist movement might have posed hard questions about the relative social value assigned to the household and market economies, and indeed some of the subtler minds within the movement made forays in this direction, but their ideas found few listeners. Instead, many feminists - and ultimately a great many American women - simply accepted the relative values their culture assigned to the two economies, and aspired to the one that they were taught to consider more valuable. The ensuing shift in attitudes cut the ground out from under the consensus that once made home economics relevant; by the 1980s most universities had closed their home economics departments, and county extension agencies and private firms followed suit. Still, the old social roles assigned to women carried so much emotional force in the collective imagination for so long that they had to go somewhere. To a remarkable extent, they came to be applied to the institution that supplanted the economic roles once held by women: the market itself. Look at the rhetoric applied to the market over the last few decades and you'll find every clich? applied to women in 1950s men's magazines present and accounted for. The market, in effect, has become American society's coquettish and curvaceous sex kitten, its June Cleaver mom complete with patriotic flags and apple pie, its nubile innocent waiting to be rescued from the lustful grasp of government regulations and tax collectors. Placed on a rhetorical pedestal as absurdly florid as anything Coventry Patmore ever said about Victorian womanhood, and abused and exploited as ruthlessly as Victorian women so often were, the market is America's pinup girl, the focus of overheated notions every bit as detached from real life as the fantasies that filled the pages of Playboy or Cosmo in their prime. Any attempt to rebuild the household economy in the wake of peak oil will inevitably have to contend with these issues. It's not at all uncommon today, for example, to find couples for whom the cost of professional childcare, an extra car and commuting expenses, and the other costs of a two-salary lifestyle add up to more money than the second salary brings in. In many cases these families would come out substantially ahead if one of the adults were to stay home and provide the same services within the household economy, but in the present social climate, this option is very nearly unthinkable for many people. As a longtime househusband, I can speak to this from a certain degree of experience. During slightly more than half of 24 years of married life, it made a great deal more economic sense for my spouse, a bookkeeper, to work in the market economy, while I tended the garden, cooked the meals, did most of the cleaning, and worked my way through the long learning curve of a career as a writer in my off hours. I came in for a fair amount of criticism for making this choice, though I have to say it was a great deal less savage than the treatment meted out, mostly by other women, to women I knew who made the same choice. Despite the pressure, though, it was unquestionably the right choice for us; it enabled us to maintain a very comfortable lifestyle on a modest income. That choice is likely to be at least as valuable an option for a great many more people as the market economy contracts in the wake of peak oil. The abandonment of the household economy, after all, was only viable in the first place because of the temporary conjunction of American imperial expansion with the rapidly expanding fossil fuel production of the postwar years. As America's empire frays and global energy production falters, the costs of the energy-intensive economic structure we have built over the last sixty years will fairly rapidly begin to outweigh its benefits. In that context a renewal of the household economy offers one valuable set of tools for taking up the slack and providing needed goods and services, and those dusty books in the home economics section of your local college library may turn out to be valuable once again. Such a renewal, though, will require a reassessment of social roles and values as ambitious as anything the pioneering feminists of the 1960s envisaged. Measures of value evolved within the market, and shaped to a large degree by market-centered ideologies, fall flat when applied to nonmarket economies in which custom, reciprocity, and collective benefit govern exchanges, rather than the quest for individual profit. Money itself, that abstract fiction that has very nearly smothered the real economy of goods and services it originally evolved to support, may be a good deal less relevant as alternative forms of value become ascendant. The form that will be taken by those alternatives in the ecotechnic world of the future is probably impossible to guess at this point, but an openness to options and a willingness to look beyond the market are likely to be valuable steps just now - and a renewed household economy may just turn out to be the seed from which the economics of the future can take root and grow. _____ ?John Michael Greer has been active in the alternative spirituality movement for more than 25 years, and is the author of a dozen books, including The Druidry Handbook (Weiser, 2006). He lives in Ashland, Oregon. http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2008/08/reviving-household-economy.html#links http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com http://www.ashisuto.co.jp From critical.montages at gmail.com Sun Aug 10 18:30:48 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:30:48 -0400 Subject: [A-List] =?iso-8859-1?q?19=3A35_Proyecci=F3n_de_medios=3A_Evo_sub?= =?iso-8859-1?q?e_al_60=25_y_revocan_a_Manfred=2C_Paredes_y_Aguilar?= Message-ID: 19:35 Proyecci?n de medios: Evo sube al 60% y revocan a Manfred, Paredes y Aguilar El presidente Evo Morales logr? el 60 por ciento de apoyo del electorado en el referendo de este domingo y los prefectos de La Paz, Cochabamba y Oruro fueron revocados de sus cargos con una votaci?n mayor al 50 por ciento, seg?n un c?mputo preliminar divulgado por las cadenas de televisi?n. El Jefe de Estado subi? seis puntos m?s en relaci?n a la elecci?n del 18 de diciembre del 2005, cuando obtuvo 53.74 por ciento de los votos v?lidos a nivel nacional. Con esta victoria el Jefe de Estado ve fortalecida su gesti?n gubernamental. Tras conocer los datos preliminares, un grupo de militantes y simpatizantes del Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) se dieron cita en la plaza Murillo de la ciudad de La Paz para saludar el triunfo de Morales en las urnas, quien ayer anticip? que se producir?a una redefinici?n del escenario pol?tico boliviano. En la pr?ximas horas est? previsto que el Presidente de la Rep?blica brinde un mensaje a la naci?n, en el que posiblemente convoque a los prefectos que hayan sido ratificados para retomar el di?logo a fin de superar la crisis pol?tica que atraviesa el pa?s. En cuanto a los prefectos, los datos proporcionados por cadenas de televisi?n reflejan que Manfred Reyes Villa de Cochabamba, Jos? Luis Paredes de La Paz y Luis Alberto Aguilar de Oruro, est?n revocados de su mandato obtenido en diciembre del 2005. Erbol, La Paz BOLIVIA: El S? a Morales lleva ventaja Por Franz Ch?vez LA PAZ, 10 ago (IPS) - Normalidad dentro de la tensi?n. As? calific? Miguel Bofill, observador de la OEA, al referendo de este domingo en Bolivia, donde el presidente Evo Morales acumul? un considerable respaldo que le permite ratificar su mandato, seg?n la tendencia de los primeros c?mputos. Los resultados extraoficiales difundidos por medios locales indican que Morales y el vicepresidente ?lvaro Garc?a Linera recogen 60 por ciento de los votos, sobre el 80 por ciento contado. Lejos de las previsiones m?s pesimistas y tras una semana intensa por la violencia que rode? el tramo final de la campa?a pol?tica, la tranquilidad domin? en todo el pa?s en la concurrencia a las urnas, al punto de que Morales, el l?der ind?gena del izquierdista Movimiento al Socialismo, dijo sentirse admirado por el comportamiento sereno de la ciudadan?a. Unos cuatro millones de electores estaban convocados para decidir por la continuidad o revocatoria del mandato constitucional de Morales, de Garc?a Linera y de ocho de los nueve prefectos (gobernadores) departamentales. Una resoluci?n de la Corte Nacional Electoral aclar? que para revocar el mandato del presidente y del vicepresidente la f?rmula del No deb?a ganar con un porcentaje mayor al 53,740 por ciento de los votos v?lidos, es decir por encima de lo obtenido por Morales y Garc?a Lineras en las elecciones de diciembre de 2005 cuando alcanzaron el gobierno. A diferencia del c?lculo anterior, para los prefectos rige una modalidad diferente y se?ala que esa autoridad departamental podr? ser revocada cuando los votos por el No sean mayores al 50 por ciento de los votos v?lidos. Una cifra igual a dicho porcentaje o inferior no determinar? el cambio de las autoridades departamentales. "Al margen de los peque?os problemas, destaco la participaci?n del pueblo boliviano. Estoy sorprendido por la participaci?n de la gente y esperamos que esta asistencia profundice la democracia", afirm? la tarde de este domingo en la regi?n central del Chapare, conocida por su importante producci?n de coca, en el departamento de Cochabamba donde sufrag?. "Estamos para contribuir a la transparencia del proceso", dijo el espa?ol Bofill a IPS mientras visitaba los recintos electorales de la ciudad de El Alto, contigua a La Paz, un escenario electoral donde Morales tiene mayores adherentes. Incidentes espor?dicos como el asalto y secuestro de material electoral en la poblaci?n de Yucumo, 250 kil?metros al este de Trinidad, la capital del norte?o departamento de Beni, han sido las notas marginales que fueron superadas por las autoridades de la Corte Departamental con la reposici?n de papeletas y ?nforas en r?pidos env?os mediante una avioneta. Al atardecer de este domingo, el ministro de Gobierno (interior), Alfredo Rada, expres? el temor de asaltos a las ?nforas para evitar la conclusi?n del proceso de consulta ciudadana y llam? a la polic?a y al ej?rcito para cooperar en el traslado y vigilancia de las planillas de recuento hasta las cortes electorales departamentales. Los adherentes del prefecto de La Paz, Jos? Luis Paredes, denunciaron que una persona desconocida intent? atacar a la autoridad departamental con un arma de fuego. Los prefectos de las regiones que impulsan la autonom?a, Rub?n Costas, de Santa Cruz, Leopoldo Fern?ndez, de Pando, Ernesto Su?rez, de Beni, y Mario Coss?o, de Tarija, abandonaron por unos minutos los recintos donde cumplen una huelga de hambre en demanda de recursos fiscales recortados por el gobierno nacional, votaron y luego continuaron con su protesta. Esos cuatro prefectos, de sector de oposici?n al gobierno de Morales, recogen apoyo en el referendo con tendencias de voto diferentes, que seg?n observadores pol?ticos podr?an debilitar al movimiento autonomista en caso de que a la postre se revoque el mandato de una o m?s de esas autoridades departamentales. Como una "jornada ordenada y de total tranquilidad", calific? por su parte el observador uruguayo Luis Rosadilla, diputado del izquierdista y gobernante Frente Amplio, ante la consulta de IPS. Rosadilla record? los momentos de tensi?n de la semana pasada y los enfrentamientos registrados entre mineros y la polic?a, pero observ? que la calma se instal? en este pa?s de 10 millones de habitantes para dar lugar a un d?a "sin incidentes que pudieran distorsionar el ambiente electoral y donde se dirimieron las diferencias mediante el voto". El recuento de votos, tras ocho horas de votaci?n, se?aladas por las normas electorales, ha comenzado a se?alar las tendencias de la opini?n ciudadana que se inclinan por el respaldo a Morales y a Garc?a Linera, pero opinan de manera diversa sobre la continuidad o revocatoria de los prefectos departamentales. Morales acumula mayor apoyo en el occidente del pa?s, que comprende a los departamentos de La Paz, Oruro y Potos?, adem?s de la regi?n central de Cochabamba, pero el caudal de votaci?n es menor en los departamentos donde la oposici?n se asent? con mucha fortaleza, como es la llamada media luna oriental conformada por Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando y Tarija. El caso m?s complejo es en Chuquisaca, el departamento localizado al sur de La Paz, donde la lucha es dram?tica y obligar? a recuentos minuciosos para determinar el resultado final. La consulta revocatoria no incluy? esta vez a la prefecta de ese departamento, Savina Cuellar, pues fue elegida el pasado 29 de junio, con el apoyo del voto urbano y la oposici?n de los electores rurales.(FIN/2008) Sondeos a boca de urna ratifican a Morales con m?s votos de los que obtuvo en 2005 Los resultados a boca de urna ratificaron al Presidente Morales y su Vicepresidente Morales en su cargo, y revocaron a tres de los ocho prefectos que fueron sometidos a la votaci?n del referendo. Los primeros resultados a boca de urna del referendo revocatorio que se celebr? este domingo en Bolivia, dan como resultado la ratificaci?n en sus puestos del presidente Evo Morales y de su vicepresidente ?lvaro Garc?a Linera, con 61 por ciento de votos a favor y 39 por ciento en contra, seg?n c?lculos que public? TV Bolivia en un bolet?n informativo. Otra encuesta del grupo Captura Consulting, le otorga la victoria a Morales y Linera pero con 60 por ciento contra 40, con un margen de error de 5 por ciento. De mantenerse esta tendencia el d?o Morales - Linera habr?a obtenido m?s de siete puntos porcentuales de los 53,7 que necesitaban que fue su votaci?n en la elecci?n presidencial de diciembre de 2005.. La cadena privada ATB, se?al? que el presidente tuvo a su favor un 56,7 por ciento de los votos. En los resultados a boca de urna de la revocatoria de los prefectos, Jos? Luis Paredes, prefecto opositor de La Paz (oeste), fue revocado por un 60 por ciento de los votos por el No, contra un 40 por ciento de los sufragios por el S?. Manfred Reyes, prefecto opositor de Cochabamba (centro), fue revocado de su cargo, por una votaci?n del 40 por ciento por el S? contra un 60 por ciento por el No. Mario Cossio, prefecto de Tarija (sur) obtuvo un 65 por ciento de votos por el S?, contra un 35 por ciento de votos por el No en la consulta popular, que lo ratifican en su cargo. Mario Virreira, prefecto de Potos? (sur), obtuvo 77 por ciento por el S?, y 33 por ciento por el No, lo cual lo ratifica en su mandato como gobernante de este departamento. Ernesto Su?rez, prefecto de Beni (norte), obtuvo 72 por ciento por el S?, y 28 por ciento por el No, lo cual lo ratifica en su mandato como gobernante de este departamento. Leopoldo Fern?ndez, prefecto de Pando (norte), obtuvo un 59 por ciento de los votos por el S? contra un 41por ciento por el No, tambi?n ratificado en su cargo. Rub?n Costas, prefecto de Santa Cruz (este), fue ratificado en su cargo, por una votaci?n del 79 por ciento por el S?, contra un 21 por ciento por el No. Alberto Aguilar, prefecto de Oruro (suroeste), del oficialista partido Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), obtuvo un 42 por ciento de los votos por el S? contra un 58 por ciento por el No, lo cual lo revoca en su mandato. La enviada especial de teleSUR a La Paz, Patricia Villegas adelant? que se espera que el primer bolet?n oficial de la Corte Nacional Electoral (CNE) se d? a las 20H00 locales (00H00 UTC). From hliu at mindspring.com Sun Aug 10 14:51:47 2008 From: hliu at mindspring.com (Henry C.K. Liu) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:51:47 -0400 Subject: [A-List] How the Left Saved Capitalism In-Reply-To: <2fa158550808100858y2b0a8e35ndac7b1bda793d58a@mail.gmail.com> References: <489EE426.1030703@attglobal.net> <2fa158550808100858y2b0a8e35ndac7b1bda793d58a@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <489F54E3.1050101@mindspring.com> Dickens was writing about the inhumaneness of capitalism. Marx and Englels were writing about the structural contradiction of capitalism that even if workers were treated more humanely by capital as an utilitarian response, capitalism will not escape collapse from internal contradiction. The introduction of meta-wage benefits via pension funds turn classical capitalism into mass capitalism, making workers into their own oppressors through a system that allow capital to continue to oppress labor. The search for high return on worker pension funds is pushing wages down and losing jobs to low wage economies. The neoliberal name for capitalism is market economy. Below is an excerpt of an article that will appear in AToL next: The defining characteristic of a socialist system is the public ownership of the means of production. Karl Marx observed that the historical-cultural pattern of the ownership of the means of production gave rise to the social phenomenon of class and the politics of class struggle. Membership in either class, bourgeoisie of proletariat, is defined by the individual?s relationship to the means of production. When workers, through their pension funds, participate indirectly in ownership of means of production (OMP) as shareholders, they become members of the petty bourgeoisie. Self-employed professionals are also members of the petite bourgeoisie, even as they are increasingly corporatized. For a system to remain socialist, the public sector needs to be dominant. Two important points need to be borne in mind in understanding the concept of OMP. The first point is that private ownership of the means of production is more than owning physical and intellectual property, or owning the money capital behind it. The second point is that OMP in a capitalist system refers to a socio-cultural practice in which a small number of individuals within a larger corporation, namely shareholders represented by the board of directors, operating under the capitalist law of private property rights and the sanctity of contracts as if it were one single individual, control and decide what is done with all the profit created by the entire corporation composing largely of workers who are legally disfranchised of their economic rights. As represented by management under the supervision of the board of directors, these absentee owners of the means of production do not have anything to do with the operation of the corporation besides ownership of its capital. When corporations make high profits, only their management and shareholders benefit. Workers generally do not receive bonuses based on profit earned by the corporation that employ them. This may appear fair under the doctrine of private ownership rights, but it is the fundamental injustice of capitalism. <> While share owners of a corporation, members of the bourgeoisie class by definition, only contribute financial capital that enhances the productivity of workers, members of the proletariat class who produce the profit, shareholders command complete control over that profit and how it is used and distributed. The owning bourgeoisie have complete control over both how the working proletariat are paid in wages and complete control over how the profit from worker production is used, thus giving rise to a class division. In Chinese, the term bourgeoisie stands for the ?propertied class? and the term proletariat stands for the ?property-less class?. Under central banking, non-inflationary monetary policy requires the maintenance of ?structural unemployment?, thus systemically weakening the bargaining power of labor against capital, unionism or no unionism. Capitalist views not withstanding, labor is not a factor of production. It is the core component in the economy around which factors of production, such as capital, land, technology, organization, etc., are applied to increase its productivity. Marx considered it a reification to treat labor as just another factor of production. People should not be used as things, with benefit they create extracted to benefit solely others who own things that people use to be more productive.<><> Privatization of the public sector is an abdication of government responsibility to the general public. It is economically unsound, financially inefficient and socially unjust when national public infrastructure, either physical or social, are privatized. The public sector is not merely another component of the national economy. It is the critical component that defines the limits of the globalized market in a functioning sovereign state. Economist Hyman Minsky pointed out that a sizable and strong government sector is indispensable for a capitalist market economy to maintain macroeconomic stability and avoid deep recessions. Privatization of the public sector exposes the capitalist market economy to cyclical disasters that require nationalization measures to bail out, as the recent collapse of the finance sector of the US economy aptly illustrates. Even in the boom phase of the business cycle, privatization of the pubic sector drives socio-economic resources and development to where there is highest profit rather than where the nation's most critical needs are located. The nature of private finance is such that privatized public enterprises are forced by market pressure to focus on the short term, often leading them toward long-term insolvency. Privatization of the public sector provides public services only to those who can afford them rather than to all who need them as a matter of rights of citizenship. The dilemma over universal health care and insurance is an obvious example. The market by its very nature rewards the financially strong and punishes the financially weak, in opposition to the function of government to protect the weak from the strong. The market is the venue of choice for the owners of capital, notwithstanding that the market value of capital is basically defined by state actions, such as monetary policy, interstate trade and antitrust regulations, and tax policies, and above all by the productivity of labor. <><> Fundamentally, capital is merely idle asset when deprived of the opportunity to invest in enhancing the productivity of labor. Capital is merely an auxiliary factor of production. Without capital labor can still produce, albeit at a lower productivity rate, but without labor, capital cannot exits. This is why capital, when allowed to move freely, tends to go to where workers are and where worker productivity is underdeveloped. This fundamental truth is often distorted by the supporters of capitalism who promote the flawed concept that capital is the driving force in a capitalist economy and therefore must be given preferred advantage or it will move to another economy that does. Dollar hegemony operating on a globalized trade regime pushes capital to where wages are lowest without any intention of developing worker productivity. The sole aim is to enhance return on capital. For centuries, capitalism prospered because it enhance labor productivity with rising wages. For the last decade, free market capitalism has worked to drive wage down, a trend that will spell self destruction.<> Further, just as the rich can enjoy a life of riches only if they control money, but not when money controls them, an economy can only prosper when its workers control the capital needed to enhance their productivity. It is a very American idea that workers should be able to become rich by their labor, an idea deeply rooted in the founding of the new nation. The founding fathers of the United States considered the concept of financial capital unnatural and an unholy obstacle to the inalienable right of the pursuit of happiness.<> In my February 12, 2005 article in AToL: The Privatization Wave I wrote: The US Declaration of Independence issued on July 4, 1776, states that to secure ?inalienable rights?, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, ?governments are instituted among men?. It goes on to accuse King George III of England of having ?abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection?. The declaration characterizes England as a failed state and justifies the separation of the American colonies from it to institute a new government. Yet privatization, a movement to abdicate government by declaring the people out of the government's protection and placing them at the mercy of the market, has since gathered much ideological support in the name of liberty. Operationally, the public sector performs a stabilizing effect on volatile business cycles inherent in the private sector market. Private sector market participants can then be allowed to fail from their own business misjudgments without the risk of bring the entire economy down because the public sector can keep the economy going while orderly market correction takes place in the private sector. The ?too big to fail? syndrome would be less likely to surface amongst private enterprises. If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had remained government entities, and not privatized, with the original mandate to provide government subsidies to low- and moderate-income families not overridden by profit incentives and the income ceiling for qualifying for government guaranteed mortgages not amended beyond low- and moderate-income levels, the housing bubble crisis of 2007 would have been less systemic. Henry C.K. Liu N?stor Gorojovsky wrote: >Whatever we can say about Gregory W Esteven?s opinons on other issues, >I can?t but strongly protest against his contention that > > > >>Marx and Engels were writing when capitalist relations of production >>were at their most inhuman. Workers in most industrialized and >>industrializing countries weren't even afforded the bare minimum of >>workers' rights which at least some of us enjoy today, such as the right >>to organize, limits on the length of the work day, and bans on child >>labor. >> >> > >This view misses what is happenning IN OUR OWN DAYS outside the >imperialist countries. > > > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 11452 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080810/58235df4/attachment.txt From seanfischer at earthlink.net Sun Aug 10 11:56:22 2008 From: seanfischer at earthlink.net (Sean Fischer) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:56:22 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [A-List] Rich get richer as poor get poorer Message-ID: <8284898.1218390982084.JavaMail.root@mswamui-andean.atl.sa.earthlink.net> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 21348 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080810/8abf5c1a/attachment.txt -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: clip_image008.gif Type: image/gif Size: 54 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080810/8abf5c1a/attachment-0007.gif From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon Aug 11 00:48:16 2008 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:48:16 +1000 Subject: [A-List] What's new at Links: Olympics; Venezuela; Obama; South Africa; Oceans; Hiroshima; Paraguay; Malaysia Message-ID: <489FE0B0.8070008@greenleft.org.au> Subscribe free to /Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links at dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links./* * * * The dissidents' guide to the Olympics: `War minus the shooting' As the world corporate media goes Olympics mad, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal has assembled a range of alternative viewpoints on what the modern Olympic Games really represent. While -- when it suits their interests -- establishment media commentators and capitalist governments loudly proclaim that ``sport and politics don't mix'', it soon becomes apparent that the Olympics spectacle is drenched in politics and the promotion of the worst aspects of dog-eat-dog capitalism. But sometimes it is also a site of struggle, as this selection of articles, drawn from the Links and Green Left Weekly archives, as well as other progressive sources, reveals. * Read more Olympics 1968: Black Power Salute At the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games the enduring image was Tommie Smith and John Carlos, African-American athletes, raising their gloved clenched fists in support of the Black Power movement during the ``Star Spangled Banner''. They were subsequently banned from the games for life. Black Power Salute looks at what inspired them to make their protest, and what happened to them after the Games. Featuring Tommie Smith, Lee Evans, Bob Beamon and Delroy Lindo. * Read more For a limited time only! Full screening of `Now the People Have Awoken: Exploring Venezuela's Revolution' Venezuela's new assertiveness has brought it to the centre of international controversy: to some it has been stolen by populist dictator, while for others, it is the centre of a continent-wide democratic revolution. There is much at stake. Venezuela sits atop huge oil reserves, which are being used to foment a new order. President Hugo Ch?vez, who survived a military coup in 2002, has supported a number of controversial social programs that have pushed Venezuela onto the United States government's and media's radar screens. What makes Venezuela tick? Who is behind the movement and what does it seek? Filmed through the 2006 presidential elections, this is a documentary about the people building a new Venezuela. Watch at http://links.org.au/node/554 The elephant in the room: Obama, the left and the race question By Malik Miah August 10, 2008 -- Much of the world is fascinated by the current US presidential election. The main reason is because the United States is ready to do something that most developed countries would never consider doing: electing a representative from an oppressed minority as head of state. * Read more South Africa's activist social justice research centre under attack By Dennis Brutus and Patrick Bond August 6, 2008 -- Durban's University of KwaZulu-Natal vice-chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba is expected to deliver an edict that the Centre for Civil Society will close on December 31. The reason given by dean Donal McCracken to a sceptical School of Development Studies (where the centre is housed) is that staff do not have "permanent" funding. But neither do most of the university's research units, and there is money in centre reserves for at least a couple of years, plus ongoing donor support for many of our projects. Hence this "execution" will be doggedly resisted because UKZN still has many staff and students who remember the struggle for non-racial democracy and don't mind speaking out to challenge misguided decisions. * Read more Capitalism and the oceanic crisis: Turning the seas into a watery grave By Brett Clark and Rebecca Clausen The world ocean covers approximately 70 per cent of the Earth. It has been an integral part of human history, providing food and ecological services. Yet conservation efforts and concerns with environmental degradation have mostly focused on terrestrial issues. Marine scientists and oceanographers have recently made remarkable discoveries in regard to the intricacies of marine food webs and the richness of oceanic biodiversity. However, the excitement over these discoveries is dampened due to an awareness of the rapidly accelerating threat to the biological integrity of marine ecosystems.[1] * Read more Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Worst terror attacks in history By Norm Dixon August 6 and August 9 2008 mark the 63rd anniversaries of the US atomic-bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Hiroshima, an estimated 80,000 people were killed in a split second. Some 13 square kilometres of the city were obliterated. By December, at least another 70,000 people had died from radiation and injuries. Three days after Hiroshima's destruction, the US dropped an A-bomb on Nagasaki, resulting in the deaths of at least 70,000 people before the year was out. A tiny group of US rulers met secretly in Washington and callously ordered this indiscriminate annihilation of civilian populations. They gave no explicit warnings. They rejected all alternatives, preferring to inflict the most extreme human carnage possible. They ordered and had carried out the two worst terror acts in human history. * Read more Paraguay: Fernando Lugo's victory and the new space for left struggle By Hugo Richer August 5, 2008 -- The defeat of the Colorado Party in the 2008 presidential election meant much more than a change of government in Paraguay. This defeat meant the fall of the last political party in Latin America that had been formed both politically and ideologically within the framework of the Cold War. * Read more Malaysia: Socialist assemblyperson for system overhaul; praises example of Venezuelan revolution From ASAP, August 1, 2008 -- Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim, Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) president and state assemblyperson for Kota Damansara in Selangor, expressed his hopes to the Uncensored talk show host Francis Paul Siah on Malaysiakini.tv last week. "There's so much work to be done'', he exclaims, reiterating his common theme of ``working for the people'' in the 30-minute show. First on his to-do list: "Damage control" and assuaging the economic plight of the poor. However, while he's ``glad to meet with the ordinary people", Nasir also wants the people to know that he expects them to "jointly work on solutions" with him. "I don't want dependency on me or politics for every want", he said. "Maybe 50% with me, 50% somewhere else." * Read more Venezuela: Prospects and challenges facing the PSUV August 2, 2008 -- Federico Fuentes, Links and Green Left Weekly commentator based in Venezuela, is back in Caracas after a quick speaking tour of Australia. He talks with community radio about the lead up to the regional elections this November, and discusses the prospects of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which is the core party of President Hugo Chavez' government. The Chavista project of building grassroots democracy in Venezuela from the bottom up continues, but there are challenges ahead. * Read more * * * /Links/ seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. * ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 13697 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/attachments/20080811/1504fd65/attachment.txt From michael.hudson at earthlink.net Mon Aug 11 09:42:17 2008 From: michael.hudson at earthlink.net (Michael Hudson) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:42:17 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Re Georgia Message-ID: This from my friend John Helmer. John Helmer, ?Russia bids to rid Georgia of its folly,? Asia Times, August 11, 2008 MOSCOW - One word explains why the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union have obliged themselves to sit on their hands, while Russia's defends its citizens, and national interests, in the Caucasus, and liberates Georgians from the folly of their unpopular president, Mikheil Saakashvili. That word is Kosovo. Russia sent troops into the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia to take on Georgian troops that had advanced into the territory. Four days of heavy fighting have seen thousands of casualties and the Georgian forces withdrawing. Russian troops were reported on Monday to be continuing fighting in parts of Georgia, including around the capital Tbilisi. Eight hundred years of Caucasian history explain why Saakashvili has brought such destruction and ignominy on his countrymen over the past few days. Queen Tamar, the greatest of the Georgian sovereigns (1184-1213), is responsible for the habit Georgian rulers have displayed for the past millennium of treating neighboring Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ossetia and the Black Sea coast of Turkey as protectorates. But as Tamar also taught her countrymen, Georgian ambition always runs out of gas when the neighbors prove to be just as ambitious, richer or tougher. The number 300 explains what tougher means - that's the count of Russian artillery pieces that have been deployed to South Ossetia alone, once Saakashvili dispatched his United States and Israel-trained troops into action at Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. That push, according to Russian military thinking, was not intended to hold Tskhinvali for Georgia, but to destroy it, and withdraw swiftly back into Georgia - ending the South Ossetian secession by liquidating its people. Just how tough Russia's war aims are now - as distinct from the methods - remains to be seen. According to Georgian sources, there is no safe haven for the attackers in Georgia itself, as Russian artillery pounds Georgian military units within range; the Russian air force bombs every military unit and depot on Georgian territory; and the Russian Black Sea fleet counter-fires against Georgian naval vessels off Ochamchire, the Abkhazian regional port. For all Russians, not only those with relatives in Ossetia, the near-total destruction by Georgian guns of Tskhinvali is a war crime. The deaths of about 2,000 civilians in the Georgian attack, and the forced flight of about 35,000 survivors from the town - the last census of Tskhinvali's population reported 30,000 - has been described by Russian leaders, and is understood by Russian public opinion, as a form of genocide. Ninety percent of the town's population are Russian citizens. To Russians, the Georgian attack of August 8 looks like the very same "ethnic cleansing", which the US and European powers have treated as a crime against humanity, when committed on the former territory of federal Yugoslavia. But Russians view the international war that broke up Yugoslavia as a practice run for breaking up the Russian Caucasus, first by arming the Chechen secessionist Dzhokar Dudayev; then by financing anti-Russian terrorism in the Russian provinces of Chechnya and Ingushetia; and now by the Georgian military thrust against South Ossetia. Since the US and the European Union have so recently compelled Serbia to accept the Albanian takeover of Serbia's Kosovo province, the overwhelming Russian view is that this will not be allowed to happen again. "Ossetia is not Kosovo" is a widespread refrain in Moscow today. "If [former Yugoslav president] Slobodan Milosevic should be put on trial, the opinion here is - so too should Saakashvili," says a leading Moscow analyst. But is it now a Russian war aim to drive Saakashvili from power? Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the weekend that Saakashvili "must go". Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, on a mediation mission on Monday between the Georgian and Russian capitals, will hear the same view in Moscow. The Russian argument is that, since coming to power in 2003, Saakashvili has militarized his country with US, NATO and Israeli arms, military training and money, for no purpose except to threaten Russia, and the minority nationalities of the region, who seek the protection of Moscow - the Abkhazians and the Ossetians. Saakashvili, the Russian argument runs, has initiated military escalation over the past year because his political base has cracked and his domestic support is dwindling. The Georgian political opposition at home, and in exile abroad, agrees. They charge the president and his family, including the powerful Timur Alasaniya, Saakashvili's uncle, of growing corruptly rich off the arms trade and of seizing the country's resource, port and trading concessions for themselves and their supporters. Alasaniya, brother to Saakashvili's mother, holds the official position of Georgian representative to a United Nations Commission on Disarmament in New York (no relation to Irakly Alasaniya, Georgia's ambassador to the United Nations). The leaders of the Georgian opposition nearly succeeded in toppling Saakashvili last autumn. The president was forced to impose military rule in Tbilisi, while his former defense minister, Irakly Okruashvili, publicly accused him of murder and corruption. Okruashvili is currently in Paris, where he has been granted political asylum by the French government. In June, a French court rejected Saakashvili's warrant for the arrest and extradition of his former friend and now bitterest critic. Okruashvili is uncompromised by early career links to Moscow, unlike a number of political party leaders in Tbilisi. Okruashvili is a likely candidate to replace Saakashvili, if and when Georgian public opinion turns against the president. But this cannot happen while Russian military operations continue against Georgian targets. Leading opposition figures inside the country, like Shalva Natelashvili, head of the Georgian Labor Party, believe they must remain silent for the time being. According to Irakly Kakabadze, an independent opposition organizer based in New York, "Once the bombing stops, I believe Saakashvili will not survive." In the spring, Kakabadze was arrested and imprisoned in Tbilisi by Saakashvili security men trying to disrupt a street protest against the president's regime. Public opinion in Georgia already pins the blame on Saakashvili for the folly and loss of the Ossetian adventure. Even before it began last week, opposition leaders were calling for an end to the militarization of the country. However, as one opposition leader said on Monday, the bombing has to stop, "Otherwise, the Russians are making Saakashvili the victim." The problem for Russians is that halting the military campaign doesn't put a stop to Saakashvili's menaces. Nor is there any confidence in Moscow, on either side of the Kremlin wall, that Rice and Kouchner can be trusted to control Saakashvili, even if they promise to do so. If a ceasefire is agreed this week, Georgians and Russians might then be able to agree that Saakashvili bears personal responsibility for the war that began on August 8. However, neither Saakashvili's domestic critics, nor the Russian government, expect the Americans to abandon their man now - let alone escort him to the war crimes tribunal at The Hague. With the Georgian presidential alternative Okruashvili under their wing in Paris, what the French do next may bridge the gap which Saakashvili's artillery tore apart last Friday. John Helmer has been a Moscow-based correspondent since 1989, specializing in the coverage of Russian business. From tal1 at cogeco.ca Mon Aug 11 12:22:27 2008 From: tal1 at cogeco.ca (Tony B.) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:22:27 -0400 Subject: [A-List] Blow to hopes of oil pipeline security Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: Tony B. To: Tony B. Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2008 5:37 PM Subject: Blow to hopes of oil pipeline security Blow to hopes of oil pipeline security By Isabel Gorst in Moscow Published: August 10 2008 17:14 | Last updated: August 10 2008 17:14 The force of Russia's attack against Georgia this weekend sends a strong signal that Moscow is determined not to relinquish control over the oil-rich Caspian region. Georgia has scant energy resources of its own, but hosts pipelines built by international oil majors to carry Caspian oil and gas to western markets. Its railways also transport substantial volumes of oil from the region to Black Sea ports. EDITOR'S CHOICE In depth: South Ossetia crisis - Aug-10 Georgia ceasefire fails to halt Russian attack - Aug-10 Georgia pulls out of South Ossetia - Aug-10 Volatile asset prices in line of fire - Aug-10 Loathing mounts as Russia reveals iron fist - Aug-10 Battle to take moral heights - Aug-10 \The so-called east-west energy corridor across Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey established with strong political backing from the US, has eroded Russia's stranglehold over energy exports from one of the world's few remaining untapped oil provinces. Dubbed the "pipeline for peace" by its western promoters in the 1990s, the 1m-barrels-a-day Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline commissioned in 2006 has brought a new source of high-quality oil into the Mediterranean to compete with Russian supplies. Meanwhile, the parallel South Caucasus gas pipeline to Turkey has freed Azerbaijan and Georgia of dependence on Russian gas and opened the possibility of a new source of supply route to European markets. However, the conflict in Georgia will rock confidence in the security of the pipelines already dented last week when Kurdish separatists claimed responsibility for an explosion on the Turkish section of the BTC pipeline that halted deliveries, depriving world oil markets of about 1 per cent of supplies. Kaan Nazli, the director of emerging markets at Medley Global Advisors, said prolongation of military hostilities would "deal a devastating blow to prospects of maintaining a safe non-Russian route [across the Caucasus] for Caspian and central Asian oil and gas". In particular, the conflict could mark a setback for European Union-backed plans to build the Nabucco pipeline across the Caucasus to bring Caspian and central Asian gas into Europe to ease dependence on Russian supplies. Nabucco's backers have so far failed to secure enough Caspian gas to fill the pipeline amid strong competition from Gazprom for supplies from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. But the Nabucco plan has spurred Russian efforts to build an additional gas pipeline into southern Europe across the Black Sea and to lock in additional supplies from Turkmenistan. Analysts said Russia would hesitate to risk upsetting relations with its oil-rich Caspian neighbours by attacking Georgian energy export facilities. Kazakhstan, the Caspian country with the biggest oil reserves, already controls Batumi oil port on the Black Sea and is seeking to invest in Georgian railways serving the terminal. Azerbaijan has built an oil terminal at Kulevi further north on the Georgian coast and is financing the construction of a railway from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, to Kars on the Turkish border to provide a new export route for Caspian oil. Russian military aircraft bombed Poti, a container port on the Black Sea on Saturday, but avoided striking coastal oil terminals. A claim by Ekaterina Sharashidze, the Georgian economic development minister, that Russian jets had targeted the BTC pipeline on Saturday was not independently verified. A Russian foreign ministry official denied reports that Russia was preparing to blockade Georgian ports, but admitted that military checks on shipping could delay tanker loadings in the Black Sea. Analysts said the conflict could deter Caspian oil and gas producers from committing oil and gas exports to routes across Georgia. Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, president of Turkmenistan, offered on Friday to increase the volume of gas it had contracted to supply China through a new pipeline east out of central Asia. Azerbaijan is considering an offer from Gazprom to import gas from its Caspian fields, a move that could sink the Nabucco pipeline's prospects altogether. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 From shimogamo at attglobal.net Mon Aug 11 18:55:18 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:55:18 +0900 Subject: [A-List] The Peak Oil Crisis: America's Electricity Message-ID: <48A0DF76.70703@attglobal.net> by Tom Whipple Falls Church Press-News (July 24 2008) Earlier this week, the National Conference of State Legislators held an energy policy forum entitled "The Future of State Electricity Policy" for the benefit of legislators from all over the US who were attending the annual conference. At the outset, the organizers announced they had been considering a transportation fuels forum, but had finally deemed the subject too confusing and too politicized to grapple with at this time. The first speaker, a senior Energy Information Administration (EIA) official, felt impelled, however, to tell the gathering that before talking about electricity, he should warn them that his agency is very concerned about the cost of home heating which is set to at least double this coming winter. For the next eight hours, twelve speakers and hundreds of PowerPoints covered nearly every conceivable aspect of America's electric power situation - past, present and future. The good news is that, for the present, there is enough power to go around, so that unlike much of world, we should not have pervasive, continuing power shortages. It seems that twenty or thirty years ago, America's power industry overbuilt its generating capacity on the theory that America's homes, commercial spaces and industry would continue to grow robustly. They got the part about the residential and commercial space right, but failed to foresee that much of America's manufacturing capacity would depart for foreign lands. The result was that despite building larger houses, air-conditioning them to the hilt and stocking them with a myriad of power-guzzling electronic gizmos, we are still above water. If nothing else, our sagging economy and home sales should help out with somewhat lower demand for electricity in the immediate future. From nscchicago at igc.org Mon Aug 11 22:20:21 2008 From: nscchicago at igc.org (NSC WORKERS COOP) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:20:21 -0500 Subject: [A-List] INB 8/10/08: Union Protests Arrests in Pennsylvania Message-ID: <002401c8fc32$c3ab31c0$0a0110ac@NSCCHICAGO> Tom Baker here and does everyone know this is day to day, New Gestapo USA. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Weekly News Update" Subject: INB 8/10/08: Union Protests Arrests in Pennsylvania > http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/08/inb-81008-union-protests-arrests-in.html > > Immigration News Briefs > Vol. 11, No. 18 - August 10, 2008 > > 1. Pennsylvania: Union Protests Arrests > 2. March Protests Postville Raid > 3. Farmworkers Arrested in Hawaii > 4. Ohio Restaurants Raided > 5. Raid at Arkansas Boat Manufacturer > > *1. PENNSYLVANIA: UNION PROTESTS ARRESTS > > On July 31, ABM Janitorial Services Inc. lured 42 of its employees to > its office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, in the suburbs just > northwest of Philadelphia, where US Immigration and Customs > Enforcement (ICE) agents were waiting to arrest them for immigration > violations. The company had sent the workers a memo telling them to > attend a 4:30pm meeting at the offices for training and discussion on > new policy procedure, according to Kate Ferranti, a spokesperson for > Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which > represented most of the workers. The employees that attended the > meeting were promised one hour of overtime, and were told that they > could pick up their weekly paychecks at the beginning of the training; > they were warned that if they did not attend, their paychecks would be > withheld and they could face disciplinary actions, including > termination. > > According to union shop steward Rob Houston, once all the workers had > gathered in a large room, ABM personnel left the room and ICE officers > walked in. Houston, who is white, and several others were allowed to > leave. Outside the room, Houston said, he heard an ICE agent telling > someone that Houston and others who were allowed to leave were "not > it." > > ICE agents released 22 of the 42 workers the same day for > 'humanitarian' reasons, such as health conditions and child care, ICE > spokesperson Mike Gilhooly said. Those 22 workers, mostly mothers with > young children, were strapped with tracking devices and placed under > house arrest. At least five other female workers were taken to a > detention facility in Clinton, Pennsylvania, while at least 13 male > workers were taken to York County Prison. All 42 workers face > deportation proceedings. ICE reportedly confiscated workers' documents > issued by the Mexican government, including passports. A woman who had > her Mexican passport confiscated said she wants to process her > children's documents for her family's imminent departure from this > country and now has no legal documentation to prove her identity. > > According to Gilhooly, the arrests were planned after federal agents > audited ABM's records and found that the workers had gained employment > through fraudulent documents. Gilhooly said ABM was not at fault and > has fully cooperated. Sources claim ICE gave ABM two options: gather > the employees at one location or agents would arrest them at their > work sites. > > Nine of the detained worked as janitors in the county courthouse and > at One Montgomery Plaza, a building of office suites acquired by the > county in 2006, said County Communications Director John Corcoran. The > county accepted ABM Janitorial Services's low bid of $242,016 for > cleaning services in March 2007, and extended its contract for one > year in February. Corcoran said that if the county commissioners' > office "were to find out later that" ABM wasn't cooperating with > authorities in the investigation, "then we would terminate the > contract." > > Local 32BJ organized a rally on Aug. 5 in front of St. Patrick's > Church on DeKalb Street in Norristown to protest the arrests and show > solidarity with the workers. On Aug. 7 a crowd of 150 people, > including members of Local 32BJ and United Food and Commercial Workers > Local 1776, attended a second rally on the Montgomery County > courthouse steps in Norristown. "We find that ABM's decision to lead > their workers to that room under false pretenses to be deplorable," > Wayne MacManiman, Mid-Atlantic director of Local 32BJ, said at the > Aug. 7 rally. [Philadelphia Inquirer 8/8/08; Norristown Times Herald > 8/6/08, 8/8/08] > > *2. MARCH PROTESTS POSTVILLE RAID > > More than 1,000 people, including Latin American immigrants, Catholic > clergy members, rabbis and activists, marched through Postville, Iowa > on July 27 and rallied at the entrance to the Agriprocessors kosher > meatpacking plant, where ICE arrested 389 workers on May 12 [see INB > 6/2/08]. The march was called to protest working conditions in the > plant and to call on Congress to pass legislation granting legal > status to unauthorized immigrants. Hundreds of demonstrators came by > bus from Chicago and Minneapolis. Four rabbis from Minnesota and > Wisconsin attended the march to publicize proposals to revise kosher > food certification to include standards of corporate ethics and > treatment of workers. The march drew an anti-immigrant counterprotest > by about 100 people, organized by the Federation for American > Immigration Reform. Police reported no incidents. [New York Times > 7/28/08; Des Moines Register 7/28/08] > > On July 24, the House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on > Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International > Law held a hearing in Washington to consider whether the 389 workers > prosecuted on criminal charges during the Agriprocessors raid had been > denied due process. Committee members grilled representatives of ICE > and the Department of Justice and heard from experts including Erik > Camayd-Freixas, who worked as a certified translator during the legal > proceedings that followed the Agriprocessors raid, and David Leopold, > national vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers > Association, who called the way the workers were forced into plea > bargains "a national disgrace." A standing room-only crowd was on hand > when the hearing opened. It was followed by a news conference that > included Postville priest Paul Ouderkirk and United Food and > Commercial Workers (UFCW) president Joe Hansen. [Jewish Telegraphic > Agency 7/25/08; Committee on the Judiciary Press Release 7/23/08] > > On July 26, three members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus visited > Postville and heard three hours of testimony from dozens of workers > and community members affected by the raid. Reps. Luis Gutierrez > (D-IL), Albio Sires (D-NJ), and Joe Baca (D-CA) listened as > 17-year-old Gilda Yolanda Ordonez Lopez described being forced to work > 12-hour shifts at Agriprocessors with no overtime pay, and as Adolpho > Wilson explained how his hand was crushed in an accident involving a > meat grinding machine at the plant. [AP 7/26/08] > > On July 31, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that > Justice Department officials had assembled a manual in advance of the > Agriprocessors raid which appeared designed to speed up the process of > obtaining guilty pleas from the arrested Agriprocessors workers on > identity theft and related charges. The manual lays out the suggested > pleas for the workers, specifies how they should waive their legal > rights, and includes detailed scripts for judges and lawyers. Of the > 306 workers who were criminally charged, 297 took the plea bargains in > order to avoid more serious aggravated identity theft charges which > carry a minimum two-year sentence. Refusing the guilty plea would have > meant more time in jail awaiting trial. "The government's tactics > really undermined the constitutional protections of due process and > presumption of innocence," ACLU staff attorney Monica Ramirez noted. > [Los Angeles Times 8/1/08] In a widely circulated essay, > Camayd-Freixas, the court translator, wrote: "'Knowingly' and 'intent' > are necessary elements of the charges, but most of the clients we > interviewed did not even know what a Social Security number was or > what purpose it served." [New America Media 7/11/08] > > *3. FARMWORKERS ARRESTED IN HAWAII > > On July 20, ICE agents entered an apartment building in Waipahu, > Hawaii, with nine federal search warrants. The agents arrested 43 men > from Mexico who were allegedly working in Hawaii without legal status. > The workers were employed by an agricultural business in Kunia called > "The Farms." ICE agents were assisted in the operation by the US > Marshals Service, Sheriff's Department-State of Hawaii and the US > Coast Guard Investigative Service. Fifteen of the 43 arrested men were > subsequently charged with federal felonies for having used fraudulent > documents to gain employment. Assistant US Attorney Tracy Hino said > the investigation was continuing to determine if any of the other 28 > workers might be charged. All are being held at the Federal Detention > Center in Honolulu. [KHON 2 News (Honolulu) 7/22/08; AP 7/22/08; > Honolulu Star Bulletin 8/4/08] > > Gary Singh, an attorney for one of the arrested men, said his client > was recruited in California to work in Hawaii. Singh said the employer > paid the airfare and arranged for housing at the Waipahu apartment > complex, where eight men shared a two-bedroom apartment. Singh said > his client worked 45 to 50 hours a week with no overtime, earning $9 > an hour, with $98 deducted for rent from each two-week paycheck. > > According to Hino, the investigation was triggered by the arrest of > Miguel Gonzalez, another employee of The Farms, at Honolulu Airport on > Mar. 3 as he sought to board a Hawaiian Airlines flight to San Jose, > California. A Transportation Security Administration agent noticed > that his boarding pass had a different name from his green card, > according to court documents. Investigators also found two pay stubs > from The Farms Inc., court papers said. Gonzalez later pleaded guilty > to using false documents to obtain work and was sentenced to time > served. In April, agents asked The Farms to provide the I-9 forms for > its employees, according to court papers. The company provided the > documents in May. [HSB 8/4/08] > > Dean Okimoto of the Hawaii Farm Bureau said many local farmers have > trouble finding workers to do hard farm labor at a price they can > afford. [KHON 2 News 7/22/08] > > *4. OHIO RESTAURANTS RAIDED > > On July 23, ICE agents arrested 58 Mexican workers on administrative > immigration violations after executing federal search warrants at > eight Casa Fiesta restaurants in Ashland, Fremont, Norwalk, Oberlin, > Oregon, Sandusky, Vermillion, and Youngstown, Ohio. The operation > culminated a yearlong investigation. Those arrested included four > women, three of whom were released on humanitarian grounds to await > deportation hearings. [ICE News Release 7/23/08] > > By Aug. 6, 23 of the arrested immigrants had been deported, according > to ICE spokesperson Greg Palmore. Palmore gave the total number of > immigrants arrested in the operation as 54. [Fremont News Messenger > 8/6/08] > > Students and community members in Oberlin planned to march on July 31 > to the closed Casa Fiesta restaurant and hold a vigil there to protest > the raids and express solidarity with the detained workers. Organizers > of the protest included the Catholic Action Committee of Lorain > County. [Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 7/31/08] > > *5. RAID AT ARKANSAS BOAT MANUFACTURER > > On July 23, ICE agents arrested 13 men from Guatemala and Mexico in a > raid at Waco Manufacturing, a company in North Little Rock, Arkansas > that makes pontoon boats for Aloha Pontoons. US Attorney Jane Duke > said the investigation was sparked when ICE agents received a tip that > the business employed unauthorized workers. Duke said Aloha Pontoons > cooperated with the investigation. Duke said if the men pleaded guilty > to criminal charges, they would likely be sentenced to time served and > deported. [AP 7/25/08] > > In a news release dated July 28, ICE reported that on July 25, all 13 > of the arrested workers "were convicted for document fraud and misuse > of Social Security cards" and handed over to the custody of the US > Marshals Service. On July 28, the workers were to be transferred to > the ICE Office of Detention and Removal and placed in removal > proceedings. The raid was conducted with the assistance of special > agents from the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector > General. [ICE News Release 7/28/08] > > ----------------------------------------------------- > END > > Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update > on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 > Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; > weeklynewsupdate at gmail.com. INB is also distributed free via email; > contact immigrationnewsbriefs at gmail.com to subscribe or unsubscribe. > You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and > tell people how to subscribe. > > Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they > should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 > Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 > or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and > earmarked for "NSN".) > > ************************************************************************** > ORDER "The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers," (2007, > Monthly Review Press) by the editors of Immigration News Briefs and > Weekly News Update on the Americas--for details see publisher website: > http://monthlyreview.org/politicsofimmigration.htm > book website: http://thepoliticsofimmigration.org > authors' blog: http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com > or email the authors at thepoliticsofimmigration at gmail.com > > > -- > To subscribe or unsubscribe, send us an email at > weeklynewsupdate at gmail.com with the words > "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the subject header. > ================================= > Weekly News Update on the Americas > 339 Lafayette Street > New York, NY 10012 > 212-674-9499, weeklynewsupdate at gmail.com > http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com > ================================= From nmgoro at gmail.com Tue Aug 12 07:20:50 2008 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?N=C3=A9stor_Gorojovsky?=) Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:20:50 -0300 Subject: [A-List] Georgia redux Message-ID: <2fa158550808120620t450e4a92mf640d713c38d5eac@mail.gmail.com> I have received what follows. Too busy, couldn't read the list carefully, so there may be some duplications with former mails to the A-list. However, the whole picture is quite eloquent. The "war of the West" is on full gas. Or, should we say, since it smacks so Kiplingish, in full steam? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: postmaster at neurobiol.cyt.edu.ar Date: 11-ago-2008 23:04 Subject: (Fwd) Russia may use Cuban air bases in response to US missile To: anif at arnet.com.ar, duartelrd at aol.com, jose_micele at yahoo.com.ar, leo Rambaut G , Antoine Courban , mszirko at sion.com, segundarepublica at fibertel.com.ar, condornacional at yahoo.com.ar, insticte at yahoo.com.ar, Vasquita23 at hotmail.com, juanmusica at fibertel.com.ar Cc: borenholtzbernardo at fibertel.com.ar, ecodemocracia at gmail.com, marcelogullo2003 at yahoo.com.ar, aocarreras at fibertel.com.ar, nmgoro at gmail.com, nmgoro at gmail.com ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:30:37 +1000 From: Peter Myers To: Howard Miller Subject: Russia may use Cuban air bases in response to US missile defense plans in Europe Send reply to: peter.myers at mailstar.net (1) The War in Georgia Is a War for the West, by MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI (2) Georgia intervention is Moscow's payback for US-NATO detaching Kosovo from Serbia - Debka File (3) South Ossetia and Georgia argued that if Kosovo could be independent, so could they (4) Georgian bombardment of South Ossetia preceded Russian response (5) Georgia an outpost of US & NATO, "aided by Israeli military advisers" - Chossudovsky (6) "Russia looks like a crocodile to Georgia , but Georgia looks to Russia like the cats' paw of the West" (7) The Endowment for Democracy purchased Georgia as a US colony - Paul Craig Roberts (8) Russia may use Cuban air bases in response to US missile defense plans in Europe (1) The War in Georgia Is a War for the West, by MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI From: Paul de Burgh-Day Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:29:26 +1000 The War in Georgia Is a War for the West By MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI President of Georgia http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20490.htm The War in Georgia Is a War for the West By MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI President of Georgia 11/08/08 "WSJ" -- - As I write, Russia is waging war on my country. On Friday, hundreds of Russian tanks crossed into Georgian territory, and Russian air force jets bombed Georgian airports, bases, ports and public markets. Many are dead, many more wounded. This invasion, which echoes Afghanistan in 1979 and the Prague Spring of 1968, threatens to undermine the stability of the international security system. Why this war? This is the question my people are asking. This war is not of Georgia's making, nor is it Georgia's choice. The Kremlin designed this war. Earlier this year, Russia tried to provoke Georgia by effectively annexing another of our separatist territories, Abkhazia. When we responded with restraint, Moscow brought the fight to South Ossetia. Ostensibly, this war is about an unresolved separatist conflict. Yet in reality, it is a war about the independence and the future of Georgia. And above all, it is a war over the kind of Europe our children will live in. Let us be frank: This conflict is about the future of freedom in Europe. No country of the former Soviet Union has made more progress toward consolidating democracy, eradicating corruption and building an independent foreign policy than Georgia. This is precisely what Russia seeks to crush. This conflict is therefore about our common trans-Atlantic values of liberty and democracy. It is about the right of small nations to live freely and determine their own future. It is about the great power struggles for influence of the 20th century, versus the path of integration and unity defined by the European Union of the 21st. Georgia has made its choice. When my government was swept into power by a peaceful revolution in 2004, we inherited a dysfunctional state plagued by two unresolved conflicts dating to the early 1990s. I pledged to reunify my country -- not by the force of arms, but by making Georgia a pole of attraction. I wanted the people living in the conflict zones to share in the prosperous, democratic country that Georgia could -- and has -- become. In a similar spirit, we sought friendly relations with Russia, which is and always will be Georgia's neighbor. We sought deep ties built on mutual respect for each other's independence and interests. While we heeded Russia's interests, we also made it clear that our independence and sovereignty were not negotiable. As such, we felt we could freely pursue the sovereign choice of the Georgian nation -- to seek deeper integration into European economic and security institutions. We have worked hard to peacefully bring Abkhazia and South Ossetia back into the Georgian fold, on terms that would fully protect the rights and interests of the residents of these territories. For years, we have offered direct talks with the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, so that we could discuss our plan to grant them the broadest possible autonomy within the internationally recognized borders of Georgia. But Russia, which effectively controls the separatists, responded to our efforts with a policy of outright annexation. While we appealed to residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia with our vision of a common future, Moscow increasingly took control of the separatist regimes. The Kremlin even appointed Russian security officers to arm and administer the self-styled separatist governments. Under any circumstances, Russia's meddling in our domestic affairs would have constituted a gross violation of international norms. But its actions were made more egregious by the fact that Russia, since the 1990s, has been entrusted with the responsibility of peacekeeping and mediating in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Rather than serve as honest broker, Russia became a direct party to the conflicts, and now an open aggressor. As Europe expanded its security institutions to the Black Sea, my government appealed to the Western community of nations -- particularly European governments and institutions -- to play a leading role in resolving our separatist conflicts. The key to any resolution was to replace the outdated peacekeeping and negotiating structures created almost two decades ago, and dominated by Russia, with a genuine international effort. But Europe kept its distance and, predictably, Russia escalated its provocations. Our friends in Europe counseled restraint, arguing that diplomacy would take its course. We followed their advice and took it one step further, by constantly proposing new ideas to resolve the conflicts. Just this past spring, we offered the separatist leaders sweeping autonomy, international guarantees and broad representation in our government. Our offers of peace were rejected. Moscow sought war. In April, Russia began treating the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as Russian provinces. Again, our friends in the West asked us to show restraint, and we did. But under the guise of peacekeeping, Russia sent paratroopers and heavy artillery into Abkhazia. Repeated provocations were designed to bring Georgia to the brink of war. ... (2) Georgia intervention is Moscow's payback for US-NATO detaching Kosovo from Serbia - Debka File From: Paul de Burgh-Day Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:29:26 +1000 Debka File - an Israeli source which is generally viewed as a propaganda medium http://debka.com/article.php?aid=1359 ... DEBKAfile's military analysts reported Saturday, Aug. 9: Tiny Georgia with an army of less than 18,000, having been roundly defeated in South Ossetia, cannot hope to withstand the mighty Russian army in Abkhazia. Therefore, President Saakashvili, whose bid to join NATO and the European Union infuriated Moscow, will have to write off both breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as lost to Russia. This is Moscow's payback for the US-NATO action to detach Kosovo from Serbia and launch it on the way to independence. It is also a warning to former Soviet bloc nations, Ukraine, the Caucasian and Central Asian peoples against opting to join up with the United States and the NATO bloc in areas which Moscow deems part of its strategic sphere of influence After severing South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, four follow-up Russian steps may be postulated: 1. The two separatist provinces will proclaim their independence, just like Kosovo. 2. Russia will continue to exercise its overwhelming military and air might to reduce the pro-American Saakashvili to capitulation. 3. The Georgian president will not be able to face his own nation after losing two regions of his country and causing its humiliation. Moscow will then make Washington swallow a pro-Russian successor. 4. Moscow's trampling of Georgia will serve as an object lesson for Russia's own secessionist provinces, such as Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, and a warning not to risk defying Russian armed might. 4. Western plans to develop more oil and gas pipelines to bypass the Russian network to the West, in addition to the Caspian line which carries one million barrels a day from Baku through Georgia to Turkey and out to the West, will be held in abeyance pending an accommodation with the rulers of the Kremlin. (3) South Ossetia and Georgia argued that if Kosovo could be independent, so could they From: Paul de Burgh-Day Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:55:56 +1000 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/08/georgia.russia4 Q&A: South Ossetia dispute History behind the breakaway region's push for independence * Helen Womack in Moscow * guardian.co.uk, * Friday August 08 2008 10:51 BST Why has fighting broken out in South Ossetia? The South Ossetians and Georgians have been sniping at each other, both with words and guns, for several weeks now, and patience on both sides has finally snapped. South Ossetia and Georgia's other breakaway region, Abkhazia, have had de facto independence since the early 1990s, but Tbilisi has never recognised the loss of its territory. The dispute between Georgia and the two regions was called "the frozen conflict" because the issues remained unresolved but there was no fighting. The ice began to melt, and the heat to rise, earlier this year when the west recognised Kosovo, against Russia's advice. The South Ossetians and Abkhazians argued that if Kosovo could be independent, then so could they, and renewed their struggle for freedom. What is the basis of the regions' claim to independence? The Ossetians are descendants of a tribe called the Alans. Like the Georgians, the Ossetians are orthodox Christians, but they have their own language. In Soviet times the Ossetians had an autonomous region within Georgia. The Georgians say the Ossetians cooperated with the Bolsheviks and tended to be more pro-Soviet. Their ethnic kin live across the border in the Russian region of North Ossetia, so they feel more drawn to Russia than to Georgia - and many have Russian passports. Abkhazia on the Black Sea coast also had autonomy within Georgia during Soviet times. Because of its sub-tropical climate, it was the playground of Soviet leaders and is popular with Russian tourists today. It has a mixed population of Abkhazis, Mingrelians, Greeks, Armenians, Russians and Georgians, and a small but significant Muslim minority. Thousands of ethnic Georgians fled their homes in Abkhazia during the civil war at the beginning of the 1990s and now live as refugees in Tbilisi and Moscow. Why has Russia become involved? Russia says it cannot stand aside because many of the people in the breakaway regions are now its citizens. Georgia says Russia is meddling in its internal affairs and supporting the separatists, although Russia's peacekeepers are supposed to be neutral. Georgia accuses Russia of double standards in suppressing its own separatist rebellion in Chechnya while encouraging separatists in Georgia. Russia has become more engaged in the region since Georgia expressed an interest in joining Nato, an idea that Russia staunchly opposes. What might happen next? So far, this has been a proxy war, with Russia encouraging the separatists, but Moscow and Tblisi could find themselves in direct conflict. Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, today accused Georgia of aggression and warned that a response was inevitable. Georgia said Russian jets had started bombing its territory. What are the wider implications? The conflict could widen to bring in other Soviet republics, the US and Europe. The root of the problem is that the international community cannot agree on rules for the independence of small regions. Russia said that granting independence to Kosovo would set a dangerous precedent. Moscow now seems determined to prove it was right all along. (4) Georgian bombardment of South Ossetia preceded Russian response From: Paul de Burgh-Day Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:55:56 +1000 Marching Through Georgia: Cold War II Proxy Conflict Turns Hot by Chris Floyd http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1579/135/ Friday, 08 August 2008 ... Yesterday, Georgia's American-educated, pro-NATO president, Mikhail Saakashvili sent a heavy force into the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has enjoyed de facto independence since the early 1990s. Georgian forces shelled the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, and sent thousands of refugees fleeing north into Russia. Several Russian peacekeepers, which have been stationed in South Ossetia for years as part of earlier ceasefire agreements, were killed in the attack. Saakashvili announced that his invasion had "liberated" much of the region. Today, in retaliation, Russian troops and tanks began moving into South Ossetia (where up to 90 percent of the population hold Russian passports) and reportedly bombed some installations in Georgia proper. Saakashvili immediately appealed to his chief patron, George W. Bush, to step in and save him from the Russian bear: "It's not about Georgia any more," he told CNN. "It's about America, its values. We are a freedom-loving nation that is right now under attack." Saakashvili had earlier broken a ceasefire agreement following the initial incursion. After promising to stop the attack, Georgian forces suddenly unleashed a fierce bombardment of Tskhinvali, then reportedly bombed a convoy of relief vehicles coming from Russia. Ossetian officials claimed that hundreds of civilians had been killed in the shelling of Tskhinvali, but that report -- like most of the others -- could not be confirmed in the swirling confusion of the moment. Georgia claims its initial invasion of South Ossetia was in response to continued attacks from South Ossetian militias, and there is some truth in that. After years of relative peace, the tension between Georgia and the Ossetians accelerated after Washington and the Western nations unilaterally recognized the "independence" of Kosovo. (You know, that very independent, completely sovereign new nation whose affairs are entirely controlled by foreign viceroys, who exercise veto power over almost every function of Kosovo's government). South Ossetia -- and Georgia's other breakaway region, Abkhazia -- immediately asserted their right to similar recognition of their own independence. ... (5) Georgia an outpost of US & NATO, "aided by Israeli military advisers" - Chossudovsky Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:37:56 -0500 From: "Jacob G. Stansbury, Jr." War in the Caucasus: Towards a Broader Russia-US Military Confrontation? By Michel Chossudovsky URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9788 Global Research, August 10, 2008 During the night of August 7, coinciding with the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, Georgia's president Saakashvili ordered an all-out military attack on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. The aerial bombardments and ground attacks were largely directed against civilian targets including residential areas, hospitals and the university. The provincial capital Tskhinvali was destroyed. The attacks resulted in some 1500 civilian deaths, according to both Russian and Western sources. "The air and artillery bombardment left the provincial capital without water, food, electricity and gas. Horrified civilians crawled out of the basements into the streets as fighting eased, looking for supplies." (AP, August 9, 2008). According to reports, some 34,000 people from South Ossetia have fled to Russia. (Deseret Morning News, Salt Lake City, August 10, 2008) The importance and timing of this military operation must be carefully analyzed. It has far-reaching implications. Georgia is an outpost of US and NATO forces, on the immediate border of the Russian Federation and within proximity of the Middle East Central Asian war theater. South Ossetia is also at the crossroads of strategic oil and gas pipeline routes. Georgia does not act militarily without the assent of Washington. The Georgian head of State is a US proxy and Georgia is a de facto US protectorate. Who is behind this military agenda? What interests are being served? What is the purpose of the military operation. There is evidence that the attacks were carefully coordinated by the US military and NATO. Moscow has accused NATO of "encouraging Georgia". Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underscored the destabilizing impacts of "foreign" military aid to Georgia: . "It all confirms our numerous warnings addressed to the international community that it is necessary to pay attention to massive arms purchasing by Georgia during several years. Now we see how these arms and Georgian special troops who had been trained by foreign specialists are used," he said.( Moscow accuses NATO of having "encouraged Georgia" to attack South Ossetia, Russia Today, August 9, 2008) ... If the objective were to restore Georgian political control over the provincial government, the operation would have been undertaken in a very different fashion, with Special Forces occupying key public buildings, communications networks and provincial institutions, rather than waging an all out bombing raid on residential areas, hospitals, not to mention Tskhinvali's University. The Russian response was entirely predictable. Georgia was "encouraged" by NATO and the US. Both Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels were acutely aware of what would happen in the case of a Russian counterattack. The question is: was this a deliberate provocation intended to trigger a Russian military response and suck the Russians into a broader military confrontation with Georgia (and allied forces) which could potentially escalate into an all out war? Georgia has the third largest contingent of coalition forces in Iraq after the US and the UK, with some 2000 troops. According to reports, Georgian troops in Iraq are now being repatriated in US military planes, to fight Russian forces. (See Debka.com, August 10, 2008) This US decision to repatriate Georgian servicemen suggests that Washington is intent upon an escalation of the conflict, where Georgian troops are to be used as cannon fodder against a massive deployment of Russian forces. US-NATO and Israel Involved in the Planning of the Attacks In mid-July, Georgian and U.S. troops held a joint military exercise entitled "Immediate Response" involving respectively 1,200 US and 800 Georgian troops. The announcement by the Georgian Ministry of Defense on July 12 stated that they US and Georgian troops were to "train for three weeks at the Vaziani military base" near the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. ( AP, July 15, 2008). These exercises, which were completed barely a week before the August 7 attacks, were an obvious dress rehearsal of a military operation, which, in all likelihood, had been planned in close cooperation with the Pentagon. The war on Southern Ossetia was not meant to be won, leading to the restoration of Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia. It was intended to destabilize the region while also triggering a US-NATO confrontation with Russia. On July 12, coinciding with the outset of the Georgia-US war games, the Russian Defense Ministry started its own military maneuvers in the North Caucasus region. The usual disclaimer by both Tblisi and Moscow: the military exercises have "nothing to do" with the situation in South Ossetia. (Ibid) Let us be under no illusions. This is not a civil war. The attacks are an integral part of the broader Middle East Central Asian war, including US-NATO-Israeli war preparations in relation to Iran. The Role of Israeli Military Advisers While NATO and US military advisers did not partake in the military operation per se, they were actively involved in the planning and logistics of the attacks. According to Israeli sources ( Debka.com, August 8, 2008), the ground assault on August 7-8, using tanks and artillery was "aided by Israeli military advisers". Israel also supplied Georgia with Hermes-450 and Skylark unmanned aerial vehicles, which were used in the weeks leading up to the August 7 attacks. Georgia has also acquired, according to a report in Rezonansi (August 6, in Georgian, BBC translation) "some powerful weapons through the upgrade of Su-25 planes and artillery systems in Israel". According to Haaretz (August 10, 2008), Israelis are active in military manufacturing and security consulting in Georgia. Russian forces are now directly fighting a NATO-US trained Georgian army integrated by US and Israeli advisers. And Russian warplanes have attacked the military jet factory on the outskirts of Tbilisi, which produces the upgraded Su-25 fighter jet, with technical support from Israel. (CTV.ca, August 10, 2008) ... off with a green and pleasant land across Australia? (6) "Russia looks like a crocodile to Georgia , but Georgia looks to Russia like the cats' paw of the West" From: Paul de Burgh-Day Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:29:26 +1000 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20489.htm Russia Georgia War Washington Risks Nuclear War by Miscalculation By F William Engdahl 11/08/08 "Market Oracle" --- - The dramatic military attack by the military of the Republic of Georgia on South Ossetia in the last days has brought the world one major step closer to the ultimate horror of the Cold War era?a thermonuclear war between Russia and the United States?by miscalculation. What is playing out in the Caucasus is being reported in US media in an alarmingly misleading light, making Moscow appear the lone aggressor. The question is whether George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are encouraging the unstable Georgian President, Mikhail Saakashvili in order to force the next US President to back the NATO military agenda of the Bush Doctrine. This time Washington may have badly misjudged the possibilities, as it did in Iraq , but this time with possible nuclear consequences. The underlying issue, as I stressed in my July 11 piece in this space, Georgien, Washington, Moskau: Atomarer geopolitischer Machtpoker , is the fact that since the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991 one after another former member as well as former states of the USSR have been coaxed and in many cases bribed with false promises by Washington into joining the counter organization, NATO. Rather than initiate discussions after the 1991 dissolution of the Warsaw Pact about a systematic dissolution of NATO, Washington has systematically converted NATO into what can only be called the military vehicle of an American global imperial rule, linked by a network of military bases from Kosovo to Poland to Turkey to Iraq and Afghanistan . In 1999, former Warsaw Pact members Hungary , Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO. Bulgaria , Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Romania , and Slovakia followed suit in March 2004. Now Washington is putting immense pressure on the EU members of NATO, especially Germany and France , that they vote in December to admit Georgia and Ukraine . The roots of the conflict The specific conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia and Abkhazia has its roots in the following. First, the Southern Ossetes , who until 1990 formed an autonomous region of the Georgian Soviet republic, seek to unite in one state with their co-ethnics in North Ossetia , an autonomous republic of the Russian Soviet republic and now the Russian Federation . There is an historically grounded Ossete fear of violent Georgian nationalism and the experience of Georgian hatred of ethnic minorities under then Georgian leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia, which the Ossetes see again under Georgian President, Mikhel Saakashvili. Saakashvili was brought to power with US financing and US covert regime change activities in December 2003 in what was called the Rose Revolution. Now the thorns of that rose are causing blood to spill. Abkhazia and South Ossetia?the first a traditional Black Sea resort area, the second an impoverished, sparsely populated region that borders Russia to the north?each has its own language, culture, history. When the Soviet Union collapsed, both regions sought to separate themselves from Georgia in bloody conflicts - South Ossetia in 1990-1, Abkhazia in 1992-4. In December 1990 Georgia under Gamsakhurdia sent troops into South Ossetia after the region declared its own sovereignty. This Georgian move was defeated by Soviet Interior Ministry troops. Then Georgia declared abolition of the South Ossete autonomous region and its incorporation into Georgia proper. Both wars ended with cease-fires that were negotiated by Russia and policed by peacekeeping forces under the aegis of the recently established Commonwealth of Independent States. The situation hardened into "frozen conflicts," like that over Cyprus . By late 2005, Georgia signed an agreement that it would not use force, and the Abkhaz would allow the gradual return of 200,000-plus ethnic Georgians who had fled the violence. But the agreement collapsed in early 2006, when Saakashvili sent troops to retake the Kodori Valley in Abkhazia. Since then Saakashvili has been escalating preparations for military action. Critical is Russia 's support for the Southern Ossetes . Russia is unwilling to see Georgia join NATO. In addition, the Ossetes are the oldest Russian allies in the Caucasus who have provided troops to the Russian army in many wars. Russia does not wish to abandon them and the Abkhaz, and fuel yet more ethnic unrest among their compatriots in the Russian North Caucasus . In a November 2006 referendum, 99 percent of South Ossetians voted for independence from Georgia , at a time when most of them had long held Russian passports. This enabled Russian President Medvedev to justify his military's counter-attack of Georgia on Friday as an effort to "protect the lives and dignity of Russian citizens, wherever they may be." For Russia , Ossetia has been an important strategic base near the Turkish and Iranian frontiers since the days of the czars. Georgia is also an important transit country for oil being pumped from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish port of Ceyhan and a potential base for Washington efforts to encircle Tehran . As far as the Georgians are concerned, South Ossetia and Abkhazia are simply part of their national territory, to be recovered at all costs. Promises by NATO leaders to bring Georgia into the alliance, and ostentatious declarations of support from Washington , have emboldened Saakashvili to launch his military offensive against the two provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Saakashvili and likely, Dick Cheney's office in Washington appear to have miscalculated very badly. Russia has made it clear that it has no intention of ceding its support for South Ossetia or Abkhazia. Proxy War In March this year as Washington went ahead to recognize the independence of Kosovo in former Yugoslavia, making Kosovo a de facto NATO-run territory against the will of the UN Security Council and especially against Russian protest, Putin responded with Russian Duma hearings on recognition of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, a pro-Russian breakaway republic in Moldova. Moscow argued that the West's logic on Kosovo should apply as well to these ethnic communities seeking to free themselves from the control of a hostile state. In mid-April, Mr. Putin held out the possibility of recognition for the breakaway republics. It was a geopolitical chess game in the strategic Caucasus for the highest stakes?the future of Russia itself. Saakashvili called then-President Putin to demand he reverse the decision. He reminded Putin that the West had taken Georgia 's side. This past April at the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, US President Bush proposed accepting Georgia into NATO's "Action Plan for Membership," a precursor to NATO membership. To Washington 's surprise, ten NATO member states refused to support his plan, including Germany , France and Italy . They argued that accepting the Georgians was problematic, because of the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia . They were in reality saying that they would not be willing to back Georgia as, under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which mandates that an armed attack against any NATO member country must be considered an attack against them all and consequently requires use of collective armed force of all NATO members, it would mean that Europe could be faced with war against Russia over the tiny Caucasus Republic of Georgia, with its incalculable dictator, Saakashvili. That would mean the troubled Caucasus would be on a hair-trigger to detonate World War III. Russia threatens Georgia , but Georgia threatens Abkhazia and South Ossetia . Russia looks like a crocodile to Georgia , but Georgia looks to Russia like the cats' paw of the West. Since Saakashvili took power in late 2003 the Pentagon has been in Georgia giving military aid and training. Not only are US military personnel active in Georgia today. According to an Israeli-intelligence source, DEBKA file, in 2007, the Georgian President Saakashvili "commissioned from private Israeli security firms several hundred military advisers, estimated at up to 1,000, to train the Georgian armed forces in commando, air, sea, armored and artillery combat tactics. They also have been giving instruction on military intelligence and security for the central regime. Tbilisi also purchased weapons, intelligence and electronic warfare systems from Israel . These advisers were undoubtedly deeply involved in the Georgian army's preparations to conquer the South Ossetian capital Friday." Debkafile reported further, " Moscow has repeatedly demanded that Jerusalem halt its military assistance to Georgia , finally threatening a crisis in bilateral relations. Israel responded by saying that the only assistance rendered Tbilisi was 'defensive.'" The Israeli news source added that Israel 's interest in Georgia has to do as well with Caspian oil pipeline geopolitics. " Jerusalem has a strong interest in having Caspian oil and gas pipelines reach the Turkish terminal port of Ceyhan , rather than the Russian network. Intense negotiations are afoot between Israel Turkey, Georgia , Turkmenistan and Azarbaijan for pipelines to reach Turkey and thence to Israel 's oil terminal at Ashkelon and on to its Red Sea port of Eilat . From there, supertankers can carry the gas and oil to the Far East through the Indian Ocean ." This means that the attack on South Ossetia is the first battle in a new proxy warfare between Anglo-American-Israeli led interests and Russia . The only question is whether Washington miscalculated the swiftness and intensity of the Russian response to the Georgian attacks of 8.8.08. So far, each step in the Caucasus drama has put the conflict on a yet higher plane of danger. The next step will no longer be just about the Caucasus , or even Europe . In 1914 it was the "Guns of August" that initiated the Great War. This time the Guns of August 2008 could be the detonator of World War III and a nuclear holocaust of unspeakable horror. Nuclear Primacy: the larger strategic danger Most in the West are unaware how dangerous the conflict over two tiny provinces in a remote part of Eurasia has become. What is left out of most all media coverage is the strategic military security context of the Caucasus dispute. In my book, Century of War , I describe the developments by NATO and most directly by Washington since the end of the Cold War to systematically pursue what military strategists call Nuclear Primacy. Put simply, if one of two opposing nuclear powers is able to first develop an operational anti-missile defense, even primitive, that can dramatically weaken a potential counter-strike by the opposing side's nuclear arsenal, the side with missile defense has "won" the nuclear war. As mad as this sounds, it has been explicit Pentagon policy through the last three Presidents from father Bush in 1990, to Clinton and most aggressively, George W. Bush. This is the issue where Russia has drawn a deep line in the sand, understandably so. The forceful US effort to push Georgia as well as Ukraine into NATO would present Russia with the spectre of NATO literally coming to its doorstep, a military threat that is aggressive in the extreme, and untenable for Russian national security. This is what gives the seemingly obscure fight over two provinces the size of Luxemburg the potential to become the 1914 Sarajevo trigger to a new nuclear war by miscalculation. The trigger for such a war is not Georgia 's right to annex South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Rather, it is US insistence on pushing NATO and its missile defense right up to Russia 's door. By F. William Engdahl www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net COPYRIGHT (c) 2008 F. William Engdahl. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (7) The Endowment for Democracy purchased Georgia as a US colony - Paul Craig Roberts From: Paul de Burgh-Day Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:29:26 +1000 From Stupid to Moronic to Evil By Paul Craig Roberts http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20483.htm ... Georgia was part of Old Russia and the Soviet Union for two centuries. After Soviet communism collapsed