Today's Missing News

A LITTLE RACE-TO-NOVEMBER HONESTY

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:15:09 GMT

From writer/director David Himmelstein & Sidney Lumet

In the final stretch of a long campaign exposing the underbelly of a corrupt system of influence peddling, multimillion-dollar political consultants and man handlers, “media wizards” and skullduggery (foreign and domestic)—POWER pushing the public out and putting contenders in public office—independent candidate Phillip Aarons wins the toss and leads off the first debate with a little honesty heading into the November election.

“I feel uncomfortable trying to fit what I believe into a hundred and eighty seconds.

“But more than that, I feel uncomfortable with the job of being a candidate—with trying to convince you that by electing me to the United States Senate you’re going to get a better job, you’re going to make more money, that your lives are going to somehow magically improve. That’s not going to happen.

“It’s not going to happen if you elect me or Mr. Cade or Mr. Westbrook [the other candidates]. Therefore, I am not going to ask you now for your vote. I am going to ask that you listen to me for the next few minutes and during the rest of the debate, and then just think about what I’ve said.

“I think that, above all else, our real problems—chronic poverty, shrinking resources—are long term. But the solutions that we’re being given are designed to get the politicians elected in November. Not to solve problems!

“Right now, right, right here in Ohio, why can’t we be the first to forget about the election? And think past November and past next year and maybe even beyond our own lifetimes; and begin to really think—for the first time—about the real answers.”

Source

Independent Ohio Senatorial Candidate Phillip Aarons’ (played by Matt Salinger) speech in the Sidney Lumet directed 1986 film “Power” with Richard Gere, Julie Christie, Gene Hackman, Kate Capshaw, Denzel Washington, and others: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091786/

Tags: POWER in fiction and nonfiction, who's calling elections, power behind candidates and office holders, who puts politicians in office, who pushes the public out of politics, honesty and straight talk in campaigns, thoughts, ideas, words matter, feelings matter, honesty matters, political consultants, influence peddlers, skullduggery

STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES—EULOGY HER OWN LEGISLATIVE LEGACY

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:10:15 GMT

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

One of America’s most courageous has died and left America a legacy. U.S. Representative (lawyer and former judge) Stephanie Tubbs Jones (1949 - 2008) died on August 20. Before winning a seat in the U.S. Congress, she had been a Cleveland municipal judge (1981), a Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas judge (1983-91) then prosecutor (1991-98). Her tenure in the U.S. Congress extended from January 3, 1999 through August 20, 2008. Some of her legislative actions, words and voting legacy are these:

NO on authorizing military force in Iraq.

NO to bigotry against Muslims in the name of “anti-terrorism”: co-sponsorship of a Resolution “Condemning bigotry and violence against Sikh Americans in the wake of terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001” : Declaring that in the quest to identify, locate, and bring to justice the perpetrators and sponsors of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the civil rights and liberties of all Americans, including Sikh-Americans, should be protected.

YES on investigating Bush impeachment for lying about Iraq.

YES on redeploying U.S. troops out of Iraq starting in 90 days.

NO on declaring Iraq part of the “War on Terror” with no exit date.

YES to revising enforcement of prohibitions against sex discrimination in the payment of wages: HR 1338 amending the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex, and for other purposes.

NO to authorizing the United States to monitor foreign electronic communications routed through the country: S 1927 amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to provide additional procedures for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence information and for other purposes.

Political Courage Test’s “Legislative priorities” section (administered by Project Vote Smart) to which Stephanie Tubbs Jones answered:

Access to healthcare
Financial Literacy and Wealth Creation
Improve educational and training opportunities for economically displaced persons

Jones on Global AIDS

“… I have read that there are grandparents across sub-Saharan Africa that are raising 35 and 40 grandchildren… as a result of the fact that AIDS has wiped out generations across sub-Saharan Africa. We should not continue to let that happen.

“It would be different if we could not make an impact. It would be different if we had to say to the world, “World, we cannot help you,” we can let this AIDS pandemic continue to spread. But we can make a difference—the big United States of America, the one that comes to the plate for everybody else.

“Step up, America. Step up, United States, and fund this AIDS pandemic program at its maximum.”

Jones on time, place and progress

“Twenty-eight years ago, on a night not unlike tonight, history was made when Barbara Jordan [1936-1996], the first African-American woman to represent Texas in the United States Congress, gave the keynote address at our party’s Convention.

“It is because of the courage and hard work of people like Barbara Jordan [elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-third, Ninety-fourth and Ninety-fifth Congresses (January 3, 1973-January 3, 1979)] and of so many in this hall tonight, that I, too, have had the opportunity to make history as the first African-American woman to serve on the Ways and Means Committee of the United States Congress. ...”

America is better because of these Americans and their legacies.

Source

Poet W.H. Auden’s IX of Twelve Songs April 1936

Matthew’s (John Hannah) eulogy to his lover Gareth (Simon Callow) in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=J000284

Stephanie Tubbs Jones on War and Peace (Democratic Representative, Ohnio-11) On the issues http://www.ontheissues.org/OH/Stephanie_Tubbs_Jones_War_+_Peace.htm

http://www.votesmart.org/

http://www.votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_detail

Representative (Ohio) Stephanie Tubbs Jones speaking July 22, 2001 in support of the Lee-Leach Global AIDS amendment 2001 Center for International Policy: http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/072410.htm, Noted also As of October 5, 2001, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r107:@FIELD(FLD003+h)+@FIELD(DDATE+20010724)

“The Honorable Stephanie Tubbs Jones U.S. House of Representatives, Ohio Monday, July 26, 2004” PR Newswire: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-537258/The-Honorable-Stephanie-Tubbs-Jones.html.

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=j000266

http://journals.aol.com/cwriter85/todaysmissingnews/. Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett, Writer, Independent journalist, Educator. Author of Women's Work and Words Altering World Order published 2008 by iUniverse. Hardback: ISBN 978-0-595-70449-1; paperback ISBN 978-0-595-46712-9. To order: call 1-800-authors or go to http://www.iuniverse.com.

MORE THAN A MILLION DEAD; MORE THAN FOUR MILLION DISPLACED. Updated August 22, 2008: U.S. Deaths in U.S.-led Invasion and Occupation (accurate figures unknown): Just Foreign Policy: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html: Iraqi deaths due to U.S. Invasion: 1,252,595. Iraq/Afghanistan Casualties http://www.icasualties.org/oef/: U. S. deaths in Iraq 4,146 (all 4,460). U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan: 580 (all coalition fatalities: 943). [http://www.antiwar.com/casualties figures since March 19, 2003, Iraq: U.S. wounded 30,561 (estimated 100,000)]. Iraq BodyCount Civilian deaths, reported from news wires, resulting from the U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/: 86,661-94,558.

Tags: women in US Congress, legacies of congressional women, eulogy of congressional women, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Barbara Jordan, women against war, out of Iraq women, pioneering women, WH Auden's Twelve Songs number 9, legislative legacy of American women

WHO'S "BULLYING" WHOM?

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:53:30 GMT

The U.S. President is right about one thing: Bullying. The conflict in the Caucasus or Caspian Region is another example of Washington’s continued deadly bullying for ends contrary to world and national good.

Bulling drives and defines U.S. policy and practice that arms Israel against Palestine; Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, in earlier years Iran against themselves; and Georgia, Poland and the Czech Republic against countries to the east.

This weekend U.S.-armed Georgia is in a muddle not only over conflict but conflicting agreements: one by the French, another by the Germans and EU, a third by the U.S. President and his Secretary of State; and Georgians and Russians are signing or not signing agreements at variance with one another. In character with U.S. foreign policy and practice—as in the Middle East and South/West Asia—American officials and their envoys (even William Jefferson Clinton’s Radovan Karadzic-accused Richard Holbrooke is reported on the ground in Georgia) are confusing issues, baffling and dazzling, prancing and posturing, all the while causing great suffering to a great many people—including, consequentially, the people of the United States of America.

Far from the line of fire, corporate-funded government in Washington over the past 30 years intensified in the past decade has meddled with raw power, appropriated sovereign resources, militarized aid, and courted mutual annihilation—all the while lying about protecting a “homeland” it was endangering.

“‘By declaring the Caucasus, a region that is thousands of miles from the American continent, a sphere of its ‘national interest’, the United States made a serious blunder,’” writes former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in a piece slated for publication.

United States (New York) to

Czech Republic (Prague) 5,087.47 statute miles; 4,417.96 nautical miles

Poland (Warsaw) 5,254.05 statute miles; 4,562.62 nautical miles

Russian Federation (Moscow) 5,630.66 statute miles; 4,889.67 nautical miles

Iran, Islamic Republic (Tehran) 7,113.93 statute miles; 6,177.74 nautical miles

Poland (Warsaw) to

Russian Federation (Moscow) 714.68 statute miles; 620.64 nautical miles

Iran, Islamic Republic (Tehran) 1,873.63 statute miles; 1,627.06 nautical miles

United States (Washington) 5,311.41 statute miles; 4,612.43 nautical miles

Czech Republic (Prague) to

Russian Federation (Moscow) 1,034.69 statute miles; 898.52 nautical miles

Iran, Islamic Republic (Tehran) 2,088.67 statute miles; 1,813.80 nautical miles

United States (Washington) 5,175.96 statute miles; 4,494.80 nautical miles

Georgia (Tbilisi) to

Iran, Islamic Republic (Tehran) 549.29 statute miles; 477.00 nautical miles

Russian Federation (Moscow) 1,021.48 statute miles; 887.05 nautical miles

Poland (Warsaw) 1,326.87 statute miles; 1,152.26 nautical miles

Czech Republic (Prague) 1,554.78 statute miles; 1,350.17 nautical miles

United States (New York) 6,565.11 statute miles; 5,701.14 nautical miles

United States (Washington) 6,592.59 statute miles; 5,725.00 nautical miles

Iran, Islamic Republic (Tehran) to

Russia (Moscow) 1,533.24 statute miles; 1,331.47 nautical miles

Poland (Warsaw) 1,873.63 statute miles; 1,627.06 nautical miles

Czech Republic (Prague) 2,088.67 statute miles; 1,813.80 nautical miles

United States (Washington) 7,135.63 statute miles; 6,196.58 nautical miles

Resistance to U.S. action is not only expected, it is understandable. The current situation in the Caucasus or Caspian Sea Region, remember, was provoked by the August 7 U.S.-armed and trained Georgia offensive against South Ossetia sitting on Russia’s border. South Ossetia had claimed independence from Georgia in the 1990s after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republic Georgia has been for some time armed and military trained by the United States. The Russian Federation is allied South Ossetia. Georgia’s attack prompted Russia’s reaction.

In setting up the Georgia-Russia conflict, the United States government not only attempts to take Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Palestine off front pages (the least of its deeds) but succeeds in freeing Washington to continue executing a strategy of provocation right across Central and Eastern Europe. The latest notch in the United States’ strategic gun belt has been brow beating Poland and the Czech Republic—using Iran as pretext or straw man —into deploying offensive missiles and satellites pointing east.

The U.S. government says the missile shield is intended “to prevent potential missile attacks by ‘rogue states’, including… Iran, and is not directed against Russia, Al Jazeera reported on Friday. But Russia disagrees and counters that the missile shield is a threat to its security prompting promised retaliation against Poland and the Czech Republic.

Just as Europe and North America’s leaders have destabilized and destroyed Middle Eastern nations instead of curbing the appetites of their own people, conserving their resources and bargaining fairly, nonviolently and peacefully with other nations—these leaders also have envied, even felt “entitled” to encroach on the Caspian region’s (the Caucasus’) natural geography (meddle in its politics) and to appropriate its natural resources.

Poland (capital Warsaw) sits on 120,728 square miles (312,685 square kilometers) and borders the Baltic Sea to the north, Russia and Lithuania to the northeast, and Belarus and Ukraine to the east. Its natural resources include small amounts of petroleum and moderately large deposits of natural gas.

The Czech Republic (capital Prague) sits on 30,450 square miles (78,864 square kilometers) and borders Poland to the north and northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest. Among its natural resources are uranium and gold, small quantities of petroleum and natural gas.

Iran: The Islamic Republic (capital Tehran) is one-third seacoast and controls a dozen islands in the Persian Gulf. It borders Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, and the Caspian Sea to the north, Pakistan and Afghanistan to the east, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the south, and Turkey and Iraq to the west.

Iran’s single most important and most lucrative economic activity is extracting and processing petroleum. Petroleum produced by the government-operated National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) moves by pipeline in the Persian Gulf and is then shipped by tanker throughout the world (exported and used in-country).

Natural gas production is also important. Iran’s reserves constitute more than one-tenth of the world’s total. Fields have been discovered and exploitation begun in the Persian Gulf, offshore in the Caspian region, and offshore and onshore in areas of southern Iran where exists one of the richest sources in the world.

Two state-owned Iranian Gas Trunk lines are the largest gas pipelines in the Middle East, and Iran is under contract to supply natural gas to Russia, Eastern Europe, Pakistan, Turkey, and India through pipelines, under construction in neighboring countries, that are intended to connect Iran’s trunk lines with those of its customers.

The Russian Federation, bordering Arctic and Pacific oceans on its north and east with small northwest frontages on the Baltic Sea, spans Eastern Europe and Northern Asia: the world’s largest country, covering almost twice the territory of either the United States or China. Russia is number six in world populations.

Russia borders North Korea, China, Mongolia, and the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia on its south; the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, and Estonia (as well as Finland and Norway) on its southwest and west; and the far western Russian province, Kaliningrad, sits beside Lithuania and Poland.

The Russian Federation is one of the world’s leading producers of oil and natural gas. The great bulk of the supply comes from the huge fields that underlie the northern part of the West Siberia region. Extensive pipeline systems link the producing districts to all regions of the federation, the neighboring former Soviet republics and, across the western frontier, numerous European countries.

The struggle in the Caucasus is not so much about land or security

but instead is a “struggle over energy,”

Professor Michael Klare writes in an August 13, 2008, Foreign Policy in Focus article.

Most American analysts tend to see the conflict “as a throwback to the past… a continuation of a centuries-old blood feud between Russians and Georgians [or] part of the unfinished business of the Cold War ….

“But the conflict … stems from an intense geopolitical contest over the flow of

Caspian Sea energy to markets in the West.”

Sources

Britannica Encyclopedia articles on the Czech Republic, Iran Islamic Republic, Russian Federation, and Poland.

“U.S. blamed over South Ossetia crisis” August 13, 2008; “U.S. and Poland ‘agree shield deal’” ; “Russia angry over U.S. missile shield” August 15, 2008; “Russia signs ceasefire pact” August 16, 2008 : Aljazeera English: http://aljazeera.net/news/

“Russia says extra security needed for withdrawal” August 16, 2008: http://www.reuters.com/article/news/

GeoDataSource: Distance Calculator: http://www.geodatasource.com/distancecalculator.aspx

“Russia and Georgia: All about Oil” August 13, 2008: http://www.fpif.org

Tags: Czech Republic, Poland, Georgia, former Soviet Republics, Russian Federation, Iran, Caucasus, Caspian Sea Region, United States foreign policy, Richard Holbrooke, violence in foreign policy, Middle East-Caspian link

Tags:

U.S. OGLING BLACK SEA OIL, CASPIAN GATEWAY CAUSING PAIN

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:05:16 GMT

deadly meddling conflicts Georgia, Russia

Again this nation under this man’s god heightens mindless militarist might across great waters, by proxy or hands-on, massacring human beings, creating and proliferating refugees and migrants, poverty and enemies down the ages.

As in the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and South/West Asian regions, the U.S.-armed former Soviet State of Georgia now wars with itself—threatens the Great Caucasus extending from the gateways and resources of the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea.

Founded in the fifth century Georgia’s capital at Tbilisi has been an ancient passage of Persians, Arabs, Turks, and Russians. A BBC News profile describes Georgia as a nation situated strategically at an important crossroads where Europe meets Asia, a country of unique and ancient cultural heritage; and, before Russia’s annexation in the nineteenth century, "the object of rivalry between Persia, Turkey and Russia." When the Soviet Union (USSR) collapsed Georgia became an independent state (1991) and again "the arena of conflicting interests"—this time between the United States or America "and a revived Russia."

Georgia is rich. Its interior is said to have coal deposits, petroleum, and a variety of other resources ranging from peat to marble. Oil deposits have been located near Bat’umi and Pot’i under the Black Sea. Georgia borders Russia on the North, Turkey on the South, and the Black Sea on the whole of its Eastern border; on the West Georgia sits one country (Azerbaijan) away from the Caspian Sea. Ossetia is a piece of Georgia’s North border with Russia. The Russian Federation is one of the world’s leading producers of oil and natural gas.

Over many years Georgia has faced challenges with separatist regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia whose ties with Moscow were close. But in May 2005 Georgian and Russian governments agreed to a 2008 deadline for closing Russia’s two remaining military bases in Georgia; the military hardware was withdrawn on schedule during the summer. Still tensions resurfaced between the Georgian government andOssetia in early June 2005 when four Georgian residents of the "unrecognized Republic of South Ossetia" were abducted. In September of that year mortar attacks on South Ossetia’s capital at Tskhinvali injured ten people. Ossetians accused Georgia; Georgia accused Russia.

In recent years—because of its heavy investment in an oil pipeline from Azerbaijan via Georgia to Turkey—the United States of America (Russia’s rival) has had a major interest in Georgia’s security and stability. The United States has trained and supported Georgia’s armed forces and increased economic and political influence in the country—to the consternation of Russia.

Between Russia and U.S.-armed Georgia the heat flamed hotter by 2008: In April: Russia announced plans to increase ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia; Georgia accused Moscow of planning re-annexation. In May Georgia’s ruling party won a landslide in parliamentary elections to which the opposition claimed election fraud and threatened to boycott the new parliament; Russia sent 300 unarmed troops to Abkhazia for "railway repairs" and Georgia accused Russia of planning military intervention. In June Abkhazia accused Georgia of supporting a series of blasts in the breakaway republic and cut all contact with Georgia’s government; Georgia denied the accusations. In August heavy fighting broke out between Georgian forces and South Ossetian separatists and people feared "a full-blown war in the Caucasus"—the gateway and resources rich Russian Kavkaz mountain system and region lying between the Black Sea (west) and the Caspian Sea (east) and occupied by Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.

Reporting for the UK Independent on August 11, 2008, journalists heard cries from South Ossetian soldiers and refugees following what might be called Georgia’s Western-backed attack on itself: South Ossetia geographically is part of Georgia sitting on its Northern border with Russia.

"‘Georgians fired the ammunition’" a South Ossetian soldier told reporters but it was provided by the British and the Americans…They are the hidden people behind the Georgians.’"

Pointing to bombed out offices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, one Ossetian soldier said: "‘The UN and the Americans … sat there while we got bombed; it was the Russians who saved us. One more day and this whole place would no longer exist, and nor would any of us.’"

Under South Ossetian military escort, the Independent’s journalists, first on the ground from the West, described what they saw:

Homes with bombed-blasted windows, families gathered with belongings they had salvaged but with no clear idea of where they could find sanctuary.

Among the casualties were an estimated 2,000 dead, 30,000 homeless, 1,165 wounded.

Though a population of 10,000 comprised Tskhinvali, South Ossetia’s capital, it "seemed almost deserted [with] … little sign of the thousands of Russian troops who were supposed to have ‘liberated’ the town; South Ossetian troops and militias operating without any apparent chain of command [appeared to have been] in control."

"All around was the detritus of fierce combat.…

"The radio crackled into life: ‘kill all the young people’…."

end

Sources: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1102575.stm. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/some-weep-some-rage-as-bombs-pulverise-capital-890285.html. The Refugees: Civilians pour over border into Russia to escape conflict By Matt Siegel at the Roki Tunnel, North Ossetia
Monday, 11 August 2008: http[://www.independent.co.uk/news. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/georgia-bows-to-might-of-russia-890283.html. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1102477.stm. Britannica Encyclopedia articles on Georgia

MORE THAN A MILLION DEAD; MORE THAN FOUR MILLION DISPLACED. Updated August 9, 2008: U.S. Deaths in U.S.-led Invasion and Occupation (accurate figures unknown): Just Foreign Policy: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html: Iraqi deaths due to U.S. Invasion: 1,252,595. Iraq/Afghanistan Casualties http://www.icasualties.org/oef/: U. S. deaths in Iraq 4,136 (all 4,450). U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan: 569 (all coalition fatalities: 910). [http://www.antiwar.com/casualties figures since March 19, 2003, Iraq: U.S. wounded total 30,490 (estimated in combat: 100,000); fatalities 4,136]. Iraq BodyCount Civilian deaths, reported from news wires, resulting from the U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/: 86,522-94,403.

http://journals.aol.com/cwriter85/todaysmissingnews/. Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett, Writer, Independent journalist, Educator. Author of Women's Work and Words Altering World Order published 2008 by iUniverse. Hardback ISBN 978-0-595-70449-1; paperback ISBN 978-0-595-46712-9. To order call 1-800-authors or go to http://www.iuniverse.com.

Tags: Great Caucasus, Russian Federation, breakaway republics, Georgia, South Ossetia, war for oil, Caspian Region, Black Region, Black Sea oil, Caspian Sea oil, ancient conflicts worsened, U.S. foreign interference, migration, refugees, homeless, global conflicts, U.S. foreign policy, U.S. foreign relations, U.S.- armed countries and civilian casualties

ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE: NADER/GONZALEZ, PEACE & FREEDOM et.al.

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:13:46 GMT

Presidential candidate Ralph Nader and his vice presidential running mate Matt Gonzalez have won the California Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) nomination, thus claiming a slot on California’s ballot in November.

The political Left’s repeated charges of spoiler (the Right and Left’s embrace of one or another "spoiler" working to either’s advantage) I agree are ridiculous charges, claims and wishes.

It is far better to support a truly democratic system, a truly progressive participatory democracy, and equal justice under law. Such a system must have activists engaged, with equal access to air time; multiple, diverse, dissenting, different voices, parties, perspectives, points of view writing and affecting policy and politics, government and mass media, and every agency and institution of global and domestic society. Therefore, together with Cynthia McKinney’s and other independent and dissenting voices, thoughts, and proposals…

Nader and Gonzalez’s issues "on the table" deserve consideration:

Comprehensive, negotiated military and corporate withdrawal date from Iraq

Single-payer, Canadian-style, private delivery, free-choice public health insurance system for all

Living wage and repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act

No-nuke, solar-based energy policy supported by renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient sources

Carbon tax to deter global warming

End to the corporate welfare and corporate crime that has resulted in millions losing pensions, savings and jobs and squandered tax dollars

More direct democracy reflecting the preamble to our constitution which starts with ‘we the people,’ and not ‘we the corporations’.

Nader on criminal justice, war on drugs:

The criminal justice system is so badly broken one hardly knows where to begin describing the breakdown…

Almost endless resources—roughly $50 billion every year—pour into catching, trying, and incarcerating people who primarily harm themselves.

The approach to drug addicts, as with alcoholics and nicotine addicts, should be rehabilitation—not incarceration.

Resources could be better used to combat serious street and corporate crime that directly violates the public’s liberty, health, safety, trust, and financial well-being.

Nader and Gonzalez’s 12-point crack down on corporate crime and violence deserve consideration:

Increase Corporate Crime Prosecution Budgets:

The Department of Justice’s corporate crime division and the Securities and Exchange Commission have been chronically and pitifully underfunded and therefore do not have sufficient resources to combat the massive often reported corporate crime wave in the United States. This results in inadequate investigation, settlement of cases for weak fines and ignoring many corporate crime violators completely. There needs to be a strong corporate law-and-order will in the White House.

Ban Corporate Criminals from Government Contracts:

The U.S. should enact a tough, serious debarment statute that would deny federal business to serious and/or repeat corporate lawbreakers. The federal government spends $265 billion annually on goods and services. These contracts should not support corporate criminals. These standards should also apply to procurement contracts in Iraq.

Crack Down on Corporate Tax Avoidance:

The U.S. should punish corporate tax escapees by closing the offshore reincorporation loophole and banning government contracts and subsidies for companies that relocate their headquarters to an offshore tax haven. The IRS should be given more power and more budgetary resources to go after corporate tax avoiders. Publicly-traded corporations should be required to make their tax returns public.

Democratize Corporate Governance:

Shareholders should be granted the right to democratically nominate and elect the corporate board of directors by opening up proxy access to minority shareholders and introducing cumulative voting and competitive elections. Shareholders should be given the power to approve all major business decisions, including top executive compensation. Shareholders should be treated as the owners of the corporation—since, in fact, that is what they are.

Expand Corporate Disclosure:

Corporate sunshine laws should be enacted that require corporations to provide better information about their records on the environment, human rights, worker safety, and taxes, as well as their criminal and civil litigation records.

Rein in Excessive Executive Pay:

Shareholder authorization should be required for top executive compensation packages at each annual shareholder meeting. Stock options—now accounting for about half of the executive compensation—should be counted on financial statements as an expense (which they are). Tax deductions for compensation 25 times above the compensation received by the lowest paid worker in a corporation should be eliminated, as recommended by the famous business guru Peter Drucker. Insiders like Warren Buffett say excessive corporate executive pay is associated with inflated profits and other accounting deceptions.

Fix the Pension System:

Corporations must be held more responsible for the retirement security of their employees. At a minimum we need to give workers a voice on the pension board; not require workers to stuff their 401(k) plans with company stock; and give workers the right to control their 401(k) plans. In addition, an Office of Participant Advocacy should be created in the Department of Labor to monitor pension plans.

Restore the Rights of Defrauded Investors:

Repeal the self-styled securities reform laws that block defrauded investors from seeking private restitution, such as the private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which allowed the aiders and abettors of massive corporate crime (e.g., accountants, lawyers, and bankers) to escape civil liability.

Regulate Derivatives Trading:

All over-the-counter financial instruments, including derivatives, should be subjected to the same or equivalent audit and reporting requirements as other financial instruments traded on stock exchanges. Rules should be enacted regarding collateral-margin, reporting and dealer licensing in order to maintain regulatory parity and ensure that markets are transparent and problems can be detected before they become a crisis.

End Conflicts of Interest on Wall Street:

Enact structural reforms that separate commercial and investment banking services and prevent other costly, documented conflicts of interest among financial entities, such as those that have dominated big banks and security firms in recent years.

Track the Extent andCost of Corporate Crime:

The Department of Justice should establish an online corporate crime database. Also, just as the FBI issues an annual street crime report, ‘Crime in the United States,’ it should also publish an annual report on corporate and white collar crime with recommendations.

Foster a National Discussion on Corporate Power:

Establish a Congressional Commission on Corporate Power to explore various legal and economic proposals which would rein in unaccountable giant corporations. The Commission should seek ways to improve upon the current state corporate chartering system in a world of global corporations and propose ways to correct the inequitable legal status of corporations as ‘persons.’ The Commission would be led by congressionally-appointed experts on corporate and constitutional law, and should hold citizen hearings in at least ten cities followed by a public report and recommendations.

Government controlled by private economic power is fascism

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in a 1938 message to Congress calling for a similar inquiry—The Temporary National Economic Commission.

Peace and Freedom Party on the Peace and Freedom Party

The Peace and Freedom Party, according to its website, was established in the Vietnam War era, June 23, 1967, "by people who wanted to vote for something they could support.

The Democrats were leading the nation in the war against Vietnam. As the military drained the domestic economy, Republicans and Democrats called for ‘law and order’ to repress Americans who wished to improve their own lives. Black militants were rising up angrily in the cities, while Filipino and Latino farm workers were organizing labor unions in the fields. Women were agitating for full equality with men. These forces of discontent united to create an electoral arm of ‘The Movement.’

A massive voter registration drive placed the Peace and Freedom Party on the California ballot in January 1968. On both the state and national levels, we have shown a willingness to work with other like-minded groups, trying to build a mass based socialist party throughout the country…

"The Peace and Freedom Party is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial equality. We represent the working class, those without capital in a capitalist society. We organize toward a world where cooperation replaces competition, a world where all people are well fed, clothed and housed; where all women and men have equal status; where all individuals may freely endeavor to fulfill their own talents and desires; a world of freedom and peace where every community retains its cultural integrity and lives with all others in harmony."

Sources: "Nader Calls For Crackdown on Corporate Crime, Reversal of So-Called War on Drugs" August 8, 2008: http://www.votenader.org/media/2008/08/08/CorpCrimeWarOnDrugs/ http://www.votenader.org/media/2008/08/02/PFPnomination/ http://peaceandfreedom.org http://www.votenader.org/media/2008/07/15/McKinney/ "Nader/Gonzales 2008" August 6, 2008, GunsandButter.net: Guns & Butter investigates the relationships among capitalism, militarism and politics."

Tags: Peace and Freedom Party, Ralph Nader, Matt Gonzalez, dissenting voices and democracy, policy differences, Cynthia McKinney, equal justice under law, corporate crime, unjustice justice system, broken government, Democratic and Republican parties undifferentiated, distinction without difference, Democratic and Republican wars and corruption, complicity in bad governance, need for real change from Washington down

MAHMOUD DARWISH - "Pulse of Palestine"

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:50:13 GMT

1941-2008

“I long for my mother's bread,
And my mother’s coffee,
And her touch.
Childhood memories grow up in me
Day after day.

I must be worthy of my life
At the hour of my death,
Worthy of the tears of my mother.…

And if I return one day:
Take me as a veil for your eyelashes;
Cover my bones with the grass
Blessed by your footsteps;
Bind us together
With a lock of your hair,
With a thread trailing
From the hem of your dress.
I might become immortal,
Become a god
If I touch the depths of your heart….

I long for my mother's bread
And my mother's coffee,
And her touch.…"

Words by Mahmoud Darwish
Music by Ahmad Qaboor

From Symbols of Palestine Monday, June 25, 2007 ‘'Ummi’ by Ahmad Qaboor “Many different gifted musicians have set the words of Mahmoud Darwish's poem,… my favorite always will be this song by Ahmad Qaboor. Excerpted

http://symbolsofpalestine.blogspot.com/

Palestinian poet and journalist Mahmoud Darwish died today in a hospital in the U.S. state of Texas. Sixty-seven years ago he was born in Galilee, the village of Barweh, “razed during the establishment of Israel in 1948.” Twenty volumes of his poetry—among the best known describing the Palestinian struggle for independence—reached publication, beginning when he was 22 years old. Mahmoud Darwish was a staunch “critic of Israeli policy and occupation of Palestinian lands.”

Sources

http://symbolsofpalestine.blogspot.com/

http://eglish.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/08/

http://i-cias.com/e.o/darwish_m.htm

Tags: Palestinian poet, Palestinian journalist, Mahmoud Darwish, pulse of Palestinians in poetry, Palestinian struggle for independence

911 WARS DIDN’T STOP FOR BEIJING OLYMPICS

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:25:45 GMT

AFGHANISTAN

“U.S.-led troops have ‘inadvertently’ killed four women and a child in an exchange of fire in Afghanistan…

There has been a series of incidents in the past weeks in which civilians have been killed in international military action against the Taliban and other fighters trying to bring down the Western-backed government in Kabul.

On July 27, Canadian soldiers in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) killed two children after opening fire on a car that did not slow down near a military patrol in the southern province of Kandahar.

The day before, ISAF troops killed four civilians in similar circumstances in neighboring Helmand.

[In June] the coalition admitted killing eight civilians in an air attack in the southwestern province of Farah.

The mounting civilian casualties in international military operations seven years after the U.S. sent troops to Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban government has angered Afghans.

The UN said in June that nearly 700 civilians had lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, about two-thirdsin attacks by fighters and about 255 in military operations.”

“Civilian deaths in Afghan battle” August 8, 2008: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2008/08/20088810343945308.html

IRAQ

A car bomb in an Iraqi market has killed at least 18 people and wounded at least 25 others. The explosion in Tal Afar in the north of the country on Friday took place at about 6.30 p.m. (1530GMT).…

The bombing is the deadliest since Shia pilgrims were attacked in Baghdad last month.…

Elsewhere, the U.S. military says two U.S. marines have died in a non-combat incident west of Baghdad…

The [marine] deaths raise the number of U.S. military deaths to at least 4,136 … in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

It shows at least nine American troop deaths so far this month—seven of which are non-combat-related.

“Car bomb strikes Iraqi city” August 8, 2008: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/08/200888171216482347.html

Tags: 911 war casualties, United States in Afghanistan, United States in Iraq, 911 war dead, civilian dead, U.S. military dead

CAN YOU TRUST WHAT YOU WATCH?

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:15:46 GMT

Reasons to unplug tube, cut cable

News Corporate Can Use

A July 2008 PRWeek/Manning Selvage & Lee (MS&L) Marketing Management survey of 279 U.S. chief marketing officers, directors and managers (focused on consumer generated media, integrated marketing and industry ethics) found:

Advertising was bought in return for a news story—17 percent of senior marketers said.

Favorable coverage of their company or products was expected in exchange for advertising, by terms of an implicit/non-verbal agreement with a reporter or editor—7 percent of marketers said.

Payment or a gift of value was provided to an editor or producer in exchange for a news story about their company or its products—5 percent of marketers said.

Manning Selvage & Lee’s global chief executive officer, Mark Hass, concluded that some marketing executives continue to disrespect “the proper role of news media” and payment “in return for a news story creates an ethical issue that the marketing industry needs to address.”

Editorial treachery breaches journalism ethics and the public trust. An unethical press is injurious to a democracy and useless to the public: the public cannot depend upon, believe or reasonably expect messages generated by and emanating from such news media to be untainted, unscripted by outside sources (government or private), unbiased and impartial—or anywhere near the truth.

A doubly troublesome treachery in news media is the silencing of majority voices.

Of and by the Few

A July 2008 Media Matters study finds that three major cable news outlets’ prime-time viewing slots are dominated by minority voices, that is, white male voices. And majority voices, those of women and non-whites, are “dramatically underrepresented.”

Media Matters’ month long (May 2008) study examining gender and ethnicity of featured guests on four prime-time programs on CNN, MSNBC, FOX, nearly 1,700 guest appearances, found:

Men constituted 67 percent of the guests on all cable programs studied, 84 percent were white.

MSNBC featured 70 percent male; CNN and Fox News featured 65 percent male guests.

Fox News featured 88 percent white guests. CNN and MSNBC featured 83 percent white guests.

White men, though comprising 32 percent of the U.S. population, made up 57 percent of the guests on prime-time cable.

All prime-time cable news hosts are white; all but two—Greta Van Susteren (Fox News) and Campbell Brown (CNN)—are men.

Latinos, though comprising 15 percent of the U.S. population, made up only 2.7 percent of cable news guests. MSNBC featured only six Latino guests out of 460 prime-time appearances during the entire month.

Fox News and MSNBC in May each featured one Asian-American guest.

Across the three cable networks (Fox, CNN MSNBC) there were four appearances by guests of Middle Eastern descent: two on Fox, two on CNN.

There were no appearances by Native Americans.

The study concludes: “No one could argue that there is a shortage of highly qualified women, African-Americans, or Latinos who would be ready, willing, and able to appear on cable television news programs.If the networks wanted, they could offer their viewers a lineup of guests that reflects the diversity of the country—not just when there is an issue having to do with race or gender at hand, but also when the topic is the presidential campaign, foreign policy, economics, or any of the other issues that are regularly discussed on these programs."

Sources:

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/17-of-senior-marketers-have-bought-ads-in-return-for-news-story-1037/prweek-survey-marketing-ethicsjpg/

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070718005923&newsLang=en

www.mediamatters.org

“…Eric Boehlert on TV diversity study” Counterspin (8/8/08-8/14/08) http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3590

Tags: paid news, ads for news, untrustworthy news, corporate-favored news, biased news, on-air club of a few, news you cannot use, coloreds don't apply, cable news, Counterspin, PR Week survey, Media Matters study, journalism ethics, unethical press