A Tale of Two Men

Down in Texass the repuglican spin meisters are working overtime to proclaim that the alleged (remember, innocent until proven guilty?) shooter at Ft. Hood, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a loser and miscreant who just didn't feel like going to Iraq to shoot other Muslims. Born in America, Maj. Hasan was a Palestinian Muslim whose family fled for a better life. To be a dutiful American son, he volunteered for military service years before 9/11. Maj. Hasan considered the military his family. But he was just a soldier in a "volunteer" army, and that meant he had to take whatever shit they threw at him, including refusing requests to resign rather than be deployed to Afghanistan.

"He's disgruntled because he had a poor performance evaluation, he doesn't believe in the mission, he's looking at getting transferred to Afghanistan or Iraq," [Representative Michael] McCaul said. "He's not happy about all that."

Rep Michael McCaul and wife Linda at
POPE BENEDICT XVIS BIRTHDAY
The Italian Embassy on May 2008

Rep. McCaul, who bought his seat by using a couple millions from his wife's treasure chest (she's the daughter of Clear Channel's Chairman of the Board) can afford to look on the bright side of things. No chance is he going to face deployment to a hostile nation. No way was he not gonna git his way. Nope. Wealth and experience as a counterterror expert under W's presidency permits McCaul to say and do pretty much whatever he wants.

USA Today: 22 candidates dig deep into fortunes; only one wins

[...] In Texas, McCaul, a former counterterrorism specialist in the Justice Department, had the experience — and the cash. His wife, Linda, is the daughter of Lowry Mays, chairman of the board of Clear Channel Communications Inc.

McCaul spent $4 million to defeat millionaire Ben Streusand, a Houston-area mortgage banker, in a Republican runoff primary election. Since there was no Democratic candidate, McCaul won election to the House.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/2004-11-05-millionaires_x.htm

Please review the ideology of Mr. McCaul, courtesy of the internet tubes:
http://www.ontheissues.org/TX/Michael_McCaul.htm

This man McCaul will never receive an award for compassion or for even trying to walk in another man's shoes. Shit, second-hand was not part of the profile for this 4th generation prosecution attorney who wound up as a terrorISM expert.

Major Hasan was a psychiatrist who spent his days listening to soldiers relay the worst experiences and (probably) trying to patch them up enough so they could go back to the field and do more horrific damage to innocent people. If he survives his injuries it will be nearly miraculous if a Jack Ruby type doesn't assassinate him before any more facts come out.

I wonder how long Rep McCaul could last on a military base, with a case load of seriously damaged people filing in on the hour and out 10 minutes before, with precious little time to process, clear his head and write up the required progess notes before the next client walked in and then the next until his work day was over.

In the current atmosphere of financial desperation and dog eat dog under which most Americans must function, I doubt Michael McCaul could last a single day. But maybe he's got friends in Opus Dei with a special key to heaven. That might help, if you're a believer. I believe Jesus said a whole lot of good stuff about compassion. Too bad Michael McCaul didn't read those parts, or take them to heart. Maybe he will change. Maybe. Mostly, I just wish he'd keep his mouth shut until the facts are out. If he continues spewing out of his asshole, he might as well just pull the plug on Maj. Hasan's life support right now.

Here's more background about Maj. Hasan from sources I'd trust before CNN:
irishtimes.com
Texas Shooting leaves 13 dead

[...] Retired Colonel Terry Lee, who worked with Hasan, claimed the major was anti-war and argued with comrades who supported operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Hasan, a 39-year-old from Virginia, was also due to be sent to Afghanistan, something family members said would have been his “worst nightmare”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1106/breaking1.htm

BBC News: Profile: Major Nidal Malik Hasan

[...] His cousin told US media that Maj Hasan had been opposed to an imminent deployment overseas, describing it as his "worst nightmare".

He also said that Maj Hasan had been battling racial harassment because of his "Middle Eastern ethnicity".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8345944.stm

Wal-Mart Caused Black Friday Tragedy

The NY Times report below attempts to place an ethical question onto this tragedy, but misses the point.
Americans have been brainwashed into believing they are only as good, successful, and worthy as the things they own.
Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales present the facts with clarity as well as compassion. Their interview with Patrick Purcell of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 and Savriti D, Director of Rev. Billy's Church of Stop Shopping, discusses the conditions which were created by a corporate giant. Wal-Mart saved money and murdered a man who went to his job one morning but will never go home again.
Wal-Mart Worker Crushed to Death in Early Morning Stampede of Shoppers on Black Friday
A Wal-Mart employee in Long Island, New York died after being trampled to death by a mob of shoppers on Friday, the traditional first day of the holiday shopping season. The 34-year-old worker Jdimytai Damour was killed after a crowd of 2,000 broke down store doors and ran over him shortly before the store"s schedule 5 a.m. opening. Four shoppers were injured in the stampede. Nassau County police were trying to determine what happened during the stampede, but said it was unclear if there would be any criminal charges.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/1/wal_mart_worker_crushed_to_death
A Shopping Guernica Captures the Moment
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: November 29, 2008
From the Great Depression, we remember the bread lines. From the oil shocks of the 1970s, we recall lines of cars snaking from gas stations. And from our current moment, we may come to remember scenes like the one at a Long Island Wal-Mart in the dawn after Thanksgiving, when 2,000 frantic shoppers trampled to death an employee who stood between them and the bargains within.
It was a tragedy, yet it did not feel like an accident. All those people were there, lined up in the cold and darkness, because of sophisticated marketing forces that have produced this day now called Black Friday. They were engaging in early-morning shopping as contact sport. American business has long excelled at creating a sense of shortage amid abundance, an anxiety that one must act now or miss out.
Americans demonstrate acceptable behavior learned during the Reagan-BushCo. years
[…] After 9/11, President Bush dispatched Americans to the malls as a patriotic act. When the economy faltered early this year, the government gave out tax rebate checks and told people to spend. In a sense, those Chinese-made flat-screen televisions sitting inside Wal-Mart have become American comfort food.
And yet the ability to spend is cnstricting rapidly. Credit card limits are getting cut. Millions of Americans now owe the bank more than the value of their homes, making further borrowing impossible. The banks themselves are hunkered down, just hoping to survive.
[…] Wages for most Americans have fallen in real terms over the last eight years. Pensions have been turned into 401(k) plans that have just relinquished half their value to an angry market. Health benefits have been downgraded or eliminated altogether. Working hours are being slashed, and full-time workers are having to settle for jobs through temp agencies.
Indeed, this was the situation for the unfortunate man who found himself working at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart at 5 a.m. Friday, a temp at a company emblematic of low wages and weak benefits, earning his dollars by trying to police an unruly crowd worried about missing out. […]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/weekinreview/30goodman.html?_r=2&hp

Repent With The Church of Stop Shopping

Arise From Black Friday!

Reverend Billy and

The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir

Nyack - Washington D.C. - New York City

In respectful memory of

Jdimytai "Jimbo" Damour,

killed by shoppers at the

Valley Stream Wal-Mart

on November 28, 2008

Nyack, NY: Riverspace Arts

Thursday, December 4th at 8pm

119 Main Street Nyack, New York 10960 http://www.riverspace.org/

Reverend Billy and the Choir deliver songs and sermons, great gospel and hot preaching!

Tickets are $12.00, click here to order now or call 845.348.1880

Washington D.C: Busboys and Poets

Saturday, December 6th at 4pm

2021 14th St NW Washington, DC 20009 http://www.busboysandpoets.com/

Join the Rev and Choir for a Capitol City Revival!

This event is FREE and open to the public

New York, NY: Stop Shopping Christmas Revival at Dixon Place

Sunday December 7th, 14th and 21st at 3pm http://www.dixonplace.com/

Our annual Christmas performance. This year you have three chances to be with us! How will you survive the holiday onslaught of Starbucks gingerbread lattes and last-minute-big-box-bargain stampedes?!?? Back away, children! You don't have to buy a gift to give a gift! What Would JESUS Buy?

Tickets are $12.00, click here to order now or call 1-866-811-4111Check http://www.revbilly.com/ for video, sermons, discussions more events(Image by Chris Ryan of Team Spider TV)

Right to Life for ALL Humans

It would be wonderful to espouse the right to life not just for pregnant American teenagers but demand it for the lives within the wombs of women in war, and the women themselves! How can one pick and choose who gets the right to life? I have been completely bewildered by the mental gymnastics some folks must perform to justify bombing Iraq, or permitting economic blockades for Palestinians, even Cuba. What was it Jesus said about blessed be the poor ....?
The Rights of Women as Casualties of War
Written by Ramzy Baroud
Sunday, 30 November 2008
-Bibi and Nahil Abu-Rada are two women, one Afghan and the other Palestinian, who made news with similar tragedies. But their losses also helped further delineate the plight of millions of women in war zones and poor countries.
The United Nations news service reported on the troubles of Qurban-Bibi, a pregnant woman who simply needed to reach a hospital. Doctors had instructed that she must deliver in an equipped medical facility, considering her previous Caesarean delivery. The desperately poor husband and her brothers opted for a delivery at home, citing the unaffordable taxi ride. The woman almost bled to death. When the delivery turned for the worst, the family rushed her to Faizabad hospital in a nearby province. Her life was saved, but, evidently not that of her baby.
Nahil’s story also fails to deviate from the ever-predictable norm. The pregnant Palestinian woman was joined by her family on their way to a hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus. The hospital was so close, yet so far. Between their ambulance and salvation was an Israeli army checkpoint, Hawara. “Nothing helped. Not the pleas, not the cries of the woman in labor, not the father's explanations in excellent Hebrew, nor the blood that flowed in the car. The commander of the checkpoint, a fine Israeli who had completed an officers' course, heard the cries, saw the woman writhing in pain in the back seat of the car, listened to the father's heartrending pleas and was unmoved,” reported Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in Haaretz. He added, “Nahil Abu-Rada is not the first woman to lose her baby this way because of the occupation, and she won't be the last.”
The bearings of the painful losses of Qurban-Bibi and Nahil bring to mind two recently published reports pertaining to the rights of women and gender equality around the world: The State of the World Population 2008 report, produced by the United Nations Population Fund and The Global Gender Gap Report, published by the World Economic Forum.
The State of the World Population aims at development strategies that are sensitive to the uniqueness of particular cultures, for it found that culture is central to people’s lives as are ‘health, economics and politics’.
As for the Global Gender Gap report, it was a largely statistical study co-authored by researchers from Harvard and University of California-Berkeley, and published by the World Economic Forum. Researchers examined definite factors, such as jobs, education, politics, health, etc, to determine how improvements, or lack thereof in these areas have affected, or failed to affect, the equality between the sexes in 130 countries, that represent 90 percent of the world population. The outcome was predicable for the most part, but with notable deviations. “Out of 130 countries, Canada ranked 31 while the United States came in at 27. Canada also ranked behind Namibia, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Lithuania and the Philippines, among other countries,” reported Canada’s Globe and Mail.

The reports raise many questions, present many challenges, but on their own fail to address the struggles and tragedies of women like Qurban-Bibi and Nahil Abu-Rada.
The Global Gender Report ignited media frenzy more appropriate for a beauty contest – winners and losers - not a pressing issue that continues to victimize millions of women worldwide. This was hardly the intent of the report, one would fairly assume. Expectedly, it was later turned into an opportunity to settle political scores, stereotype religion and, at times, disparage entire cultures.
The State of the World Population was largely sensible in its view of culture: non-Western cultures were not simply chastised as the problem, but cultural sensitivity was recommended as part of the solution.
But addressing women’s rights and cultural patterns (as if these issues are not unique in time and space) without examining the underpinnings of the inequality is also a mistake.
Culture is hardly the summation of rational choices made by individuals in a specific time and easily demarcated space. It’s an innate collective response to internal and external factors, changes and events - political, economic or social. Chances are Palestinian women in villages surrounded by Israeli checkpoints tend to deliver their babies at home or in an unfit local clinic, a natural response to risking losing one’s baby altogether. Such a practice could eventually develop into a cultural pattern.
Many Afghan women are caught between the lethal occupation of foreigners and the extremism and vengeance of the Taliban. Early marriages are often the only available opportunity for women in some parts of the country, once they reach a certain age, sometimes as young as 9-years-old.
The same can be said about Iraq, where women, who comparatively achieved high status in pre-war years; have since endured untold humiliation. Thanks to the US ‘liberation’ of their country, they now constitute a large percentage of regional prostitution, a phenomenon alien to Iraqi society of yesteryear.
This hardly means that the suffering of women is always the outcome of foreign military interventions – masked as ‘humanitarian’ in some instances – nor does it render blameless local cultures, outdated customs and interpretation of religion. But what is missing from the reports, and subsequent analyses is how conflict, war and military intervention often jeopardize, more than anything else, the rights and welfare of women.
The issue of women’s rights is a pressing one, not just because of the horrifying statistics. (Women and girls are the poorest, least educated and most victimized the world over.) But also because no real progress, development or sound governance can ever take place when half of the society is marginalized and mistreated. Equality between the genders is not an act of virtue, but also a sound strategy for a brighter future for any nation, rich or poor. To address the issue correctly, studies and reports must delve into the roots of women’s suffering, and not be satisfied with numerical indicators that tell half of the story.
Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers and journals worldwide. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London).
http://www.ramzybaroud.net/articles.php?id=f4fd73a3f36da633c3f561154f5de622#f4fd73a3f36da633c3f561154f5de622

No Blood Rubies from Burma

Guide to your “Secret Shopping”for Human Rights in Burma
The U.S. Campaign for Burma is calling for action!

During this holiday season, ask jewelry retailers about the origin of the rubies they are selling.
Step by Step: How To Approach Jewelry Retailers, and politely get the information we need.
1. Find a jewelry store in your area. All this takes is a simple Google search or thumbing through the yellow pages. Large nation wide jewelry stores are best, as changing in their policies will have the biggest impact.
2. Enter the jewelry store and express that you are interested in looking at rubies (always be honest — if you are not interested in buying a ruby, then do not say that.) While we are using the term “secret shopping”, there is actually nothing secret about this we want to be straight forward and honest.
3. When asked by the retail clerks what you are interested in, tell them that you want to look at a ruby (this could be a ring or a necklace). It is best to have a specific item in mind, like a ruby ring, necklace, bracelet, or set of earrings.
4. After you are shown the specific piece, find out as much as you can about the ruby, including the colors, the shapes that the rubies are cut in, and ask whether it is a “good” or a “bad ruby” in terms of quality. You might want to learn a bit too, asking how you tell the difference between a good ruby and a bad ruby. Also ask about the entire piece and not just the stone.
5. Ask the retailers about the origin (specifically, where was it mined) of that particular ruby. You might say “Do you know which country this ruby came from?” If they say “No” (which is very possible since most chain store clerks may not know), then ask them politely, “can you please find out for me?”
6. If the rubies are from Burma, please let them know that you do not support the purchase of items from Burma: “I’m sorry, but I don’t support rubies from Burma because of the human right abuses of the military regime.” [my bold] It is not often that someone tells a retail jeweler that they do not support some items for a human rights reason, so your comment is likely to be passed along to management.
7. Please remember not to confront or challenge the retail clerk directly about the fact that the future import of rubies from Burma is illegal. At this time, we are only trying to compile a list of retailers that sell Burmese gems. It is not often that someone tells a retail jeweler that they do not support some items for a human and may be trying to circumvent complying with the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act. While not especially likely, it is also possible that some jewelers are doing this inadvertently. Once we have the list we will write to the retailers who have not complied and give them a chance to change their practices before we take action. Individual actions are more likely to produce change when they are conducted as part of an organized campaign.
8. Please report your findings to us. Email U.S. Campaign for Burma’s Campaigns Coordinator, Mike Haack at mike@uscamapaignforburma.org. Report all your findings. We want to know both which retailers are stocking Burmese rubies and which are not.
9. We will keep everyone updated on what our next actions will be to make sure that all jewelers respect the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act.
http://uscampaignforburma.org/guide-to-your-secret-shoppingfor-human-rights-in-burma
Take Action!

Tim Robbins & NYC's Katherine Harris, a/k/a Marcus Cederqvist

Tim Robbins was put through the paces on election day, and here is his follow up letter to the Board of Elections in our "liberal" NYC. In spite of anticipating problems and being prepared, he STILL suffered the indignity of having to prove just how determined he was to place his vote, no matter what obstacles were placed in his way. How many others gave up? Here's Tim's letter via OpEd News:
Mr. Gregory C. Soumas
Board of Elections, City of New York
Executive Office
32 Broadway
New York, NY 10004-1609
November 17, 2008
Dear Mr. Soumas:
I would like to publicly apologize for being such a dim-witted dilettante on Election Day. I was under the naïve assumption that I could vote where I voted in the last two elections. Your thoughtful letter pointed out that if I had voted in the recent primary election in September I would have discovered that I was no longer registered in the polling place I have voted in since 2004. Considering your position at the Board of Elections and your deep respect for the democratic process I must assume that my local 14th St. poll worker, Betty J. Williamson's assertion that my name was on the active voter rolls for the primary in September of this year was erroneous and that she must be as confused and wrongheaded as I am. If Ms. Williamson saw my name in the book in September that would mean that you are lying. Certainly you wouldn't lie about a thing like that. That is unbecoming of a man of your bureaucratic stature. And why would anyone in the Board of Elections be eliminating legitimate voters from the rolls in late September and October of 2008? That's just crazy and un-democratic.
I should also apologize for the misguided actions of Justice Paul G. Feinman in issuing a court order on Election Day allowing me to vote on 14th St. He apparently thought that a printed out record from your own Board of Elections computer verifying my polling place as 14th St was justification for issuing the court order. If he had only thought to contact you, you could have helped him understand the logic and wisdom of eliminating my name from the book on 14th St. where I have always voted and leaving my name registered at a place I have never voted.
I must also thank you for sending your letter not to me but to all the major newspapers in the New York area and across the internet. [my bold] I understand it was your way of clearing up this matter and for that I am grateful. I am particularly appreciative of your sending a copy of my voter registration card with my home address and driver's license number to all the newspapers and, by extension, to millions across the internet. [my bold] What celebrity dilettante wouldn't want his private information made public? What kind of snob gets angry that his family's safety might be compromised? It comes with the territory, right?
I was thinking of returning that favor by publishing your home address in this letter but then I thought that maybe one of the thousands of New Yorkers that were taken off the voter rolls in the last two months might not understand what a patriotic upstanding man you are and might show up at your doorstep with the misguided assumption that you are a petty vindictive corrupt scumbag.
Tim Robbins
New Yorker since 1961
Voter since 1976
P.S. If anyone reading this letter had a similar experience on Election Day it can and should be reported at 866ourvote.org.
cc: Commissioners of Elections
Marcus Cederqvist, Executive Director
George Gonzalez, Deputy Executive Director
Pamela Perkins, Administrative Manager
Beth Fossella, Coordinator, Voter Registration
Steven H. Richman, General Counsel
Troy Johnson, Chief Clerk
Timothy Gay, Deputy Chief Clerk
After more searching it's starting to look like there was another hand behind Tim's problems. Last year the NY Times reported about the next darling of NYC's repuglican party, also the executive director of the Board of Elections:

Gearing Up for the Big Countdown

By ROBIN FINN
Published: February 1, 2008
Marcus Cederqvist: The man in the shadows

A DEFINITE contender for the title of Most Precocious Republican in New York City, Marcus Cederqvist, at 37 the baby-faced new executive director of the Board of Elections, is gearing up for his debut as the city’s chief vote counter for Tuesday’s New York presidential primary.

[...] Cederqvist is currently executive director of the Manhattan Republican Committee. He will succeed fellow Manhattan Republican John Ravitz, who left in October. The election board's commissioners are appointed by their respective county political bosses.

[…] Mr. Cederqvist is responsible for monitoring the city’s 1,363 polling stations on Tuesday and supplying them with some 6,300 voting machines — yes, the clunky but dependable Shoup lever machines that must all be replaced by modern, voter-friendly machines in time for the 2009 mayoral election.
But public service is old hat. He got his start while a student at the University of Rochester by volunteering for Charles Millard’s 1991 campaign for the New York City Council. He then had a summer internship with State Senator Roy M. Goodman in 1992, after which he coordinated the successful City Council campaign of Andrew S. Eristoff in 1993. By age 25, he was elected Republican leader of the 65th District on the East Side, and he went on to serve as Mr. Eristoff’s chief of staff until 1999.
“Granted, this is a partisan agency,” he says about the board of 10 commissioners: a Democrat and a Republican from each borough, a recipe that he is convinced ensures checks and balances. He is a true-blue Republican — “Better make that true red,” he corrects, with a rare giggle — whose fascination with the party began as a Manhattan teenager improbably attuned to the oratory of Ronald Reagan. But the board’s deputy director and its administrative manager are both Democrats. Hurrah for partisan parity.
“What everyone here is interested in, and what everyone truly wants, is a fair election,” he insists, waving a yellow pencil like a baton. “There isn’t really a Republican or a Democratic way to run an election; there’s just a right way. No, really! [Really? Are you protesting too much?] Here in this role, my job is very specifically to count votes, not influence them. That’s the only game I’m involved in now. The Board of Elections is kind of like the boiler in your house: It’s something you don’t think about much, but as long as it chugs along and keeps you warm, it’s doing its job.” He frets that the analogy sounds dumb.
[…] “I’VE been unbelievably busy,” [my bold, & you betcha!] he reiterates. He has even, because protocol demanded it, already voted (he won’t say for whom, but his palpable disappointment, and fleeting pout, at the news of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s withdrawal is a telltale sign). Mr. Cederqvist, before being named to this post, spent six years as executive director of the New York Republican County Committee. Making it a computer-savvy and candidate-rich organization was his mission. [...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/nyregion/01lives.html

BTW: Mr. Robbins, I'm very happy to give these civil servants more than one Google entry!

Vote on Prosecution of BushCo.

This poll comes via OpEdNews. I hope you will weigh in.

Should the Obama Administration Prosecute Bush-Cheney Crimes?

10 Worst Corporations of 2008

Alternet [http://www.alternet.org/] is covering this story from a watchdog group which is "new" to me, Multinational Monitor. To read the full story click on the link at the end:
The System Implodes:

The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008
by Robert Weissman
2008 marks the 20th anniversary of Multinational Monitor’s annual list of the 10 Worst Corporations of the year.
In the 20 years that we’ve published our annual list, we’ve covered corporate villains, scoundrels, criminals and miscreants. We’ve reported on some really bad stuff — from Exxon’s Valdez spill to Union Carbide and Dow’s effort to avoid responsibility for the Bhopal disaster; from oil companies coddling dictators (including Chevron and CNPC, both profiled this year) to a bank (Riggs) providing financial services for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet; from oil and auto companies threatening the future of the planet by blocking efforts to address climate change to duplicitous tobacco companies marketing cigarettes around the world by associating their product with images of freedom, sports, youthful energy and good health.
But we’ve never had a year like 2008.
The financial crisis first gripping Wall Street and now spreading rapidly throughout the world is, in many ways, emblematic of the worst of the corporate-dominated political and economic system that we aim to expose with our annual 10 Worst list. Here is how.
Improper political influence: Corporations dominate the policy-making process, from city councils to global institutions like the World Trade Organization. Over the last 30 years, and especially in the last decade, Wall Street interests leveraged their political power to remove many of the regulations that had restricted their activities. There are at least a dozen separate and significant examples of this, including the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, which permitted the merger of banks and investment banks. In a form of corporate civil disobedience, Citibank and Travelers Group merged in 1998 — a move that was illegal at the time, but for which they were given a two-year forbearance — on the assumption that they would be able to force a change in the relevant law. They did, with the help of just-retired (at the time) Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who went on to an executive position at the newly created Citigroup.
Deregulation and non-enforcement: Non-enforcement of rules against predatory lending helped the housing bubble balloon. While some regulators had sought to exert authority over financial derivatives, they were stopped by finance-friendly figures in the Clinton administration and Congress — enabling the creation of the credit default swap market. Even Alan Greenspan concedes that that market — worth $55 trillion in what is called notional value — is imploding in significant part because it was not regulated.
Short-term thinking: It was obvious to anyone who cared to look at historical trends that the United States was experiencing a housing bubble. Many in the financial sector seemed to have convinced themselves that there was no bubble. But others must have been more clear-eyed. In any case, all the Wall Street players had an incentive not to pay attention to the bubble. They were making stratospheric annual bonuses based on annual results. Even if they were certain the bubble would pop sometime in the future, they had every incentive to keep making money on the upside.
Financialization: Profits in the financial sector were more than 35 percent of overall U.S. corporate profits in each year from 2005 to 2007, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Instead of serving the real economy, the financial sector was taking over the real economy.
Profit over social use: Relatedly, the corporate-driven economy was being driven by what could make a profit, rather than what would serve a social purpose. Although Wall Street hucksters offered elaborate rationalizations for why exotic financial derivatives, private equity takeovers of firms, securitization and other so-called financial innovations helped improve economic efficiency, by and large these financial schemes served no socially useful purpose.
Externalized costs: Worse, the financial schemes didn’t just create money for Wall Street movers and shakers and their investors. They made money at the expense of others. The costs of these schemes were foisted onto workers who lost jobs at firms gutted by private equity operators, unpayable loans acquired by homeowners who bought into a bubble market (often made worse by unconscionable lending terms), and now the public.
What is most revealing about the financial meltdown and economic crisis, however, is that it illustrates that corporations — if left to their own worst instincts — will destroy themselves and the system that nurtures them. It is rare that this lesson is so graphically illustrated. It is one the world must quickly learn, if we are to avoid the most serious existential threat we have yet faced: climate change.
Of course, the rest of the corporate sector was not on good behavior during 2008 either, and we do not want them to escape justified scrutiny. In keeping with our tradition of highlighting diverse forms of corporate wrongdoing, we include only one financial company on the 10 Worst list. Here, presented in alphabetical order, are the 10 Worst Corporations of 2008. [...]
AIG
Cargill
Chevron
CNPC
Constellation Energy
Dole
General Electric
Imperial Sugar
Philip Morris Int’l.
Roche

http://multinationalmonitor.org/

It's Still the Occupation,Stupid!

Ironic or just karma? You decide!
Bush effigy burned in anti-US protest in Baghdad
Thousands of Shiite Muslims gather in central Baghdad to protest proposed US-Iraqi pact
HAMZA HENDAWI
AP News
Nov 21, 2008 08:08 EST
Followers of a Shiite cleric on Friday stomped on and burned an effigy of President George W. Bush in the same central Baghdad square where Iraqis beat a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein with their sandals five years earlier.
Chanting and waving flags, thousands of Muqtada al-Sadr's followers filled Firdous Square to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact that would allow American troops to stay for three more years. The Bush effigy was placed on the same pedestal where U.S. Marines toppled the ousted dictator's statue in one of the iconic images of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
After a mass prayer, demonstrators pelted the effigy with plastic water bottles and sandals. One man hit it in the face with his sandal. The effigy fell head first into the crowd and protesters jumped on it before setting it ablaze.
Before it fell, the effigy held a sign that said: "The security agreement ... shame and humiliation." [my bold]
Iraq's parliament is expected to vote next week on the plan to keep U.S. forces in Iraq for another three years. But the noisy opposition by the Sadrists indicates that even if it is approved, the deal could remain divisive in a country struggling for reconciliation.
Opponents view the security deal as a surrender to U.S. interests despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, saying the pact would eventually lead to full sovereignty.
Al-Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, was not at the protest, though he wrote a sermon read by his representative, Sheik Abdul Hadi al-Mohammadawi, calling the U.S. "the enemy of Islam."
"The government must know that it is the people who help it in the good and the bad times. If it throws the occupier out all the Iraqi people will stand by it," the sermon read, using common rhetoric for the United States.
Al-Sadr reiterated in the sermon that his followers in both the armed and the peaceful factions of his movement will continue to work for the removal of U.S. forces.
Security was tight for the demonstration, with the area closed to traffic and heavily guarded by Iraqi soldiers in Humvees. Army snipers took positions on top of buildings [just like protests here is the FREE USA!] overlooking the square. The Sadrists also provided their own security, searching worshippers as they approached the square.
The protesters included two Sunni clerics. [my bold] Many arrived at the square on foot or by bus and carried prayer rugs, pieces of cardboard or newspapers for the mass prayer.
They waved Iraqi flags and green Shiite banners, chanting, "No, no to the American agreement!" and, "No, no to the agreement of humiliation!"
The Cabinet has approved the agreement, meaning it stands a good chance of passage in the 275-seat parliament where the government's parties dominate. But for al-Maliki's Dawa party and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, its senior government partner, the margin of support is almost as important as the victory itself. A narrow vote for approval will cast doubt on the legitimacy of the new terms governing the U.S. troop presence.
Al-Sadr's followers and other legislators opposed to the pact also try to could use the narrow vote to turn their anti-American message into a defining issue in provincial elections on Jan. 31 and general elections late in 2009.
If the agreement passes the legislature, it will go to the president and his two deputies for ratification. Each one has veto power.
Source: AP News
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=461925

Tibet Special Assembly Affirms His Holiness, the Dalai Lama's Middle Way

Let's keep our thoughts focused on clarity and truth for the Tibetan cause. The future will support an honest assessment of the issues, and rangzen will prevail!

Tibet Government-in-Exile Breaks Off Talks With China (Update2)

By James Rupert

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Tibetan government-in-exile, headed by the Dalai Lama, decided to break off stalled negotiations with China over Tibet’s future, leaders of the exile parliament said today.

Dolma Gyari

The exile government, based in northern India, “will not send envoys for further contacts” with China after eight rounds of talks failed to produce results, said Dolma Gyari, the deputy speaker of the legislature.

Future policy in the Tibetan campaign for greater autonomy from China will be determined by the Dalai Lama and will always be nonviolent, she and other parliament leaders said in the town of Dharamsala.

The Tibetan exiles’ declaration of no confidence in China as a negotiating partner “probably reflects an increasing erosion of faith among Tibetans inside China as well,” said Robbie Barnett, a professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University in New York. “That will represent a major political challenge for the Chinese government,” he said.

The decision to end talks was made by a “special general meeting” of more than 500 delegates summoned by the Dalai Lama, 73, after China rejected his proposal for “genuine autonomy” in the latest set of talks this month in Beijing.

The meeting endorsed the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way” policy toward China, which specifies a nonviolent campaign to win autonomy under the Chinese constitution for Tibet, rather than independence.

Karma Choephel

Self-Determination, Autonomy

Gyari and parliament speaker Karma Choephel summarized the decisions for journalists after the close of the week-long meeting, and declined to answer questions.

The meeting reflected growing frustration among Tibetans with their inability to loosen China’s 47-year-long rule of their Central Asian mountain homeland.

“Quite a number” of delegates said Tibetans should sharpen their demand to include self-determination, rather than autonomy, if China does not respond to their aspirations “in the near future,” Choephel said.

A call for self-determination would effectively demand full independence, say Tibetan activists such as Tenzin Tsundue, 33, a delegate to the meeting. “The demand for autonomy is a policy, but eventually, Tibet must become independent.”

[...] The exile Tibetan authorities say more than 200 people died in the [March 2008] protests and the subsequent crackdown by Chinese soldiers and police. The crackdown continues eight months later, with more than 100 people having been sentenced to prison, said Tashi Choephel, a researcher with the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

“I have to accept failure, things are not improving in Tibet,” the Dalai Lama told journalists on Nov. 3. Since last year, that sense of failure has spread in the Tibetan exile community, spawning a Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement that calls for “direct action to end China’s illegal and brutal occupation of our country.”

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in Islamabad at jrupert3@bloomberg.net.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aoyBNv5NLCVk&refer=india

Chinese "Hard Liner" Fired, Computer Seized Over Tibet

China Tibet policymaker probed for state secret leak

Sat Nov 22, 2008

By Ben Blanchard and Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING, Nov 22 (Reuters) - A key Chinese Communist Party policymaker for Tibet is being investigated after her computer was hacked and classified documents stolen related to Beijing's talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys, sources said on Saturday.

Bi Hua, [my bold] 53 and a Han Chinese, was asked to step down recently as director of the No. 7 bureau of the Party's United Front Work Department, two independent sources with knowledge of the case said, requesting anonymity for fear of repercussions.

"She is under investigation," one source told Reuters. "But she insists she has done nothing wrong."

Her computer was hacked by unknown individuals, and classified documents stolen, the sources said.

It enabled the Dalai Lama's representatives to have a heads-up as to Beijing's bottom line towards talks.

"It was a major leak," a second source said.

Zhu Weiqun, the vice minister of
United Front Work Department of CPC Central Committee

The embarrassing security lapse came as Tibetan exiles gathered for a special meeting to discuss their future, a gathering that could possibly challenge the Dalai Lama's moderate line towards Beijing.

"People are very surprised. She was very hardline," the second source added, referring to her dismissal. "Even the old Communist Tibetan cadres could not stand what she was saying."

China's Communist Party and Tibet's government-in-exile could not immediately be reached for comment.

Separately, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a statement that dissident Chen Daojun had been sentenced to three years in jail after posting articles on the Internet supporting protesters during unrest in Tibet in March.

The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Communist rule, wants genuine autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.

But China reviles him as a separatist, and officials often accuse him of secretly harbouring pro-independence sentiments that he has publicly rejected.

China's official Xinhua news agency on Friday unleashed a new attack on the Dalai Lama, taking aim at a memorandum his envoys gave their Chinese hosts at talks earlier in the year. That visit yielded no progress and Chinese officials have recently shown little taste for flexibility.

The Dalai Lama's proposals for genuine autonomy would never be acceptable to China, as they were really a demand for independence, Xinhua said in a commentary.

"Its attempt is to set up a 'half independent' or 'covertly independent' political entity controlled by the Dalai clique on soil that occupies one quarter of Chinese territory, and when conditions are ripe, they will seek to realise 'total Tibet independence'."

The piece was a reiteration of the tough line taken by Zhu Weiqun, a vice minister who handles relations with ethnic minorities and religious leaders, at a news conference two weeks ago.

Beijing's hard line has created increasing frustration among some in the Tibetan diaspora who fear the 73-year-old Dalai Lama has not been aggressive enough.

http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINPEK30901220081122?sp=true

Burmese Tyrants Can't Laugh, Dance or Sing!

And you can be sure they can't dance! The great Emma Goldman reportedly advised: "If I can't dance, I won't be part of your revolution,"

Let's not forget that Burma suffers from the same oppressive control over their every thought that holds the Tibetans down, and the Uyghurs and ANYONE who challenges the politburo. Some "People's" Republic!

Myanmar court hands comedian 45-year prison term

From Associated Press

21/11/08

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's courts continued a crackdown on activists, handing out a 45-year prison sentence to a comedian who went to the delta to help cyclone victims and criticized the junta's slow relief response.

Comedian and activist Zarganar, whose birth name is Maung Thura, on Friday joined the at least 100 people to receive sentences of two to 65 years since early November. Many of the trials were held in closed sessions, sometimes without defense lawyers or family present.

[...] The government holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 in June 2007 - before last year's pro-democracy demonstrations, according to international human rights groups.

[...] Among those sentenced Friday was Buddhist monk Ashin Gambira, who helped organize the protests, said a lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of antagonizing the government. The monk's 12-year sentence and prison terms for earlier charges brought his total to 68 years in jail.

[...] Zarganar, whose name means "tweezers" and whose comedy routines are banned for their jokes about the junta, and several other activists delivered donations of relief supplies to the Cyclone Nargis-shattered Irrawaddy delta. The May cyclone killed more than 84,000 people.

Zarganar was arrested in June after he gave interviews to foreign news outlets in which he criticized the junta's slow response.

Zarganar was sentenced for violating the Electronics Act, which regulates all forms of electronic communication, said his lawyer, Khin Htay Kywe. The comedian still faces other charges, she said.

Zarganar has been imprisoned several times before, including a three-week stint for providing aid to Buddhist monks during last year's demonstrations.

Three associates were tried with him. Sportswriter Zaw Thet Htwe and video journalist Thant Zin Aung were given 15 years each and face further charges, while Tin Maung Aye got 29 years, Zarganar's lawyer said.

Those sentenced recently included some 70 members of the opposition National League for Democracy party of detained Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Some of the most severe sentences were handed to 23 members of the 88 Generation Students group, veteran activists who have been spearheading nonviolent protests for the past several years.

On Thursday, well-known hip-hop singer Zeyar Thaw, a member of the band "Acid," was jailed for six years, and 14 members of Suu Kyi's party got 2 1/2 years each for calling for her release on her birthday in June, party spokesman Nyan Win said.

Zeyar Thaw is thought to be a leader of Generation Wave, an illegal student group formed in the wake of last year's pro-democracy protests.

http://my.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20081121/49264050_3426_13350200811211771208311

Airbridge Denial Program: Murder in the Andean Skys

Report says CIA withheld info from White House
Fri Nov 21
The CIA withheld information from the White House, Justice Department and Congress about the 2001 shooting down of a plane over Peru carrying an American missionary family, part of a years long cover-up of lethal violations in U.S. drug-interdiction procedures, according to a classified internal CIA report.
Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, [my bold] the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, called for a criminal investigation and said Congress would hold hearings on the matter in the new year.
[...] The CIA inspector general’s report dated Aug. 25, excerpts of which were released Thursday, said the agency hid from Congress, the National Security Council and Justice Department the results of multiple internal investigations that documented “sustained and significant” violations of White House-sanctioned aircraft intercept procedures. The procedures were created to prevent the shooting down of innocent aircraft over the Amazon jungle like the April 2001 downing of the missionaries’ aircraft.
“The plane, following the Amazon River in its westward journey in daylight, was tracked by a CIA aircraft as a suspected narcotrafficker and was fired on by the Peruvian Air Force. A Michigan woman and her infant daughter were killed and the American pilot was seriously wounded. The woman’s husband and son survived.
“Within hours, CIA officers began to characterize the shootdown as a one-time mistake in an otherwise well-run program. In fact, this was not the case,” the report says.
Missionary Veronica "Ronnie" Bowers, 35, and her seven-month-old adopted daughter, Charity, were both killed when their single-engine plane was riddled with bullets before ditching into the Amazon River. [They were working for the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism]

A report released by the State Department in 2001 said the CIA aircraft initially identified the plane but then grew concerned that it was an innocent flight. But it was too late — given language problems and established procedures — to prevent the Peruvian fighter from firing.
According to the report, many aircraft [my bold] were shot down by Peruvian fighter aircraft within two to three minutes of being spotted “without being properly identified, without being given the required warnings to land and without being given time to respond to such warnings as were given to land.”
The Peruvian fighter jets often did not give targeted aircraft any visible signals they had been intercepted before they were shot down. [my bold] [This means “suspects” are tried, convicted and murdered in cold blood thout benefit of a hearing, in a New York minute] Nevertheless, between 1995 and 2001 the CIA "incorrectly reported that the program complied with the laws and policies governing it."
The IG report said Peruvians and Americans participating in the counternarcotics program explained that they violated the procedures because they thought them too time-consuming and worried they "might have resulted in the escape of the target aircraft."
"Violations of required procedures occurred in every shoot-down the CIA took part in" [my bold] for the six years of the CIA's Airbridge Denial Program with Peru, Hoekstra said.
The number of shoot-downs was not made public.
The report says the CIA specifically withheld information from then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Rice asked the CIA on several occasions who had approved the change in procedures.
The investigation "found no evidence that any Agency officer ever responded to her request for information, despite the fact that certain senior agency managers were aware of the agency's own findings that the (program) had not fully complied with presidential requirements," the report states.
It also suggests the cover-up was sanctioned by the agency's top attorney. [my bold]
The CIA's Office of General Counsel advised agency managers to avoid producing written reports [my bold] about the incident "to avoid both criminal charges against agency officers and civil liability," the report says.
The classified version of the report identified personnel by name who, Hoekstra said, misled Congress and obstructed the Justice Department investigation into whether criminal charges should have been filed in the case. Justice ultimately decided against filing charges.
[...] CIA Director Michael Hayden has made no decisions regarding the IG's recommendations, but has asked a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, to advise him, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal CIA matters. Myers, a former fighter pilot, is an expert in air interdiction operations.
CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield pledged the agency's full cooperation. He said the CIA will consider all of the facts to determine the way forward.
"This situation obviously calls for careful deliberations that will result in sound, fair decisions," Mansfield said.
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20081121/US.Missionaries.Shootdown/

The Transnational Institute has studied and reported on this issue and I strongly urge interested readers to click on the link below to read the full report. Following is the final paragraph of their conclusion:

[...] Government repression, increasingly militarized, thus finds itself before an "enemy" ever more disperse, far flung, and socially variegated. In sum, they find themselves criminalizing poverty and in confrontation with ever larger sectors of society, a recipe for social disaster and greater, more generalized violence. In countries with weak democracies and/or increasing levels of social violence and repression, these "side effects" of the US's drug war "remedy" may prove more detrimental than the narco-trafficking disease.
http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?page=reports_drugs_drugwar

Chinese Power Monsters Go Ballistic--55 More Tibetans Go To Jail

China sentenced 55 Tibetans as the 8th round of talks began
The Tibet Post International
6/11/08
China sentenced fifty-five Tibetans who took part in the March protests against Chinese rule in Lhasa, Tibet on 5 November 2008 as representatives of the estranged Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama took part in the eighth round of talks with China in Beijing.
Pema Tsewang, Chinese-appointed vice chairman of the regional government for Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), announced the sentencing during a meeting with Michael Andrew Johnson, visiting member of the Australian House of Representatives.
"Following the violence, police detained 1,317 people, of whom 1,115 were subsequently released. The rest stood trial,” said Tsewang, according to the official Xinhua news agency reported 5 November 2008.
This is the overall number given since the government began sentencing people for their roles in the peaceful demonstrations in Lhasa Tibetan capital, on March 14.
The Chinese government ruthlessly cracked down on peaceful Tibetan demonstrators across Tibet leaving 218 Tibetans dead, 1290 injured and 6705 arrested or detained since 10 March 2008.
According to state-controlled Chinese media, "rioters torched 120 houses and 84 vehicles and looted 1,367 shops, causing a direct economic loss of about USD 47 million. 18 civilians and one police officer died and 382 civilians and 241 police were injured."
Previous reports from the Chinese government said 30 people had been convicted of arson, robbery, disrupting public order and attacking government offices, among other crimes, as of April 29. Their sentences ranged from three years to life. [my bold] [This reminds me that not so long ago some America citizens were so frustrated and outraged by the murder of Rev. Martin Luther King that they took it out on their own communities.]
Chinese official news agency "Xinhua" did not elaborate on the length of prison terms awarded to the fifty-five or on what charges their convictions took place. It is unknown if they had legal representation. The sentences of the other 147 people who stood trial are also unknown.
Civil rights groups and international communities condemned the arbitrary detention of Tibetans for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and opinion to voice their grievances with China.
http://www.tibetpost.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=840&Itemid=26

More Arrests of Peaceful Tibetans

It hurts my fingers to type the words "People's Republic of China" because there is no such thing. The greedy power-crazed dictators have infected too many Chinese, (as well as many European/Americans) with their twisted version of the truth, and if the leaders of countries which have some semblance of free speech don't do something, I shudder to think of the consequences.
Imagine being imprisoned for ONE YEAR for simply asking, over a cell phone, about Tibetan independence.
New cases of arbitrary conviction to Tibetans in Tibet
The Tibet Post International
15/11/08
Ever since peaceful protests erupted in Tibet, starting from 10th March 2008, the Chinese government used the state's full force on the peaceful demonstrators through varies means and ways such as: arbitrary arrests, detentions, brutal tortures and conviction of many to imprisonment without due process of law.
According to a reliable Tibetan from inside Tibet, who broke out and explained emphasized that only above a mere fifty percent of news reach out to the Free world. New cases of arbitrary convictions are as follows:
1) On 11th November, Three monks from Thangkor Sogtsang Monastery namely: Tsultrim Gyatso aged 35, Tsultrim Jungney aged 29 and Thubten alias Lobsang Thubten aged 25 were sentenced 2 years of imprisonment for taking part in the Peaceful Demonstration in March this year by Dzod-ge District People's Court of Ngaba Autonomous Region were decided to shift to Men-Young in Sichuan Province.
2) On 5th November, a group of security personals of Dzod-ge district came to Thangkor Sogtsang Monastery and interrogated the recently released group of 16 monks. They also took a picture with them. Indication of surveillance and restrictions on the monks still continues as quarters for the district police and some of its related employees are being built in the monastery premises.
3) In our press release dated11th November, we have stated that on 6th November Dartsedo People's Court sentenced a nun whose name is still unknown from Karze region and Pema Choetso from Badhe Gang Drongpa of Karze Region were given 4 years each of imprisonment and an announcement to pass similar judgment were circulated and put on the walls for public notice. Their detailed names are nun Lhatruk alias Lhakpa Choetso aged 24 from Drak-kar Nunnery of Karze District and Richen Dorjee's daughter Pema Choetso alias Paepae who was previously a nun of the same nunnery were sentenced 2 years of imprisonment on 7th April for taking part in the recent Peaceful Demonstration.
4) Around 5th November, monk Tsewang Drakpa from Jangdha of Drag-go district was sentenced 5 years, monk Thubten Gyatso from Tawu was sentenced 4 years and monk Jangsem Nyima alias Karma Choephel from Zatoe district of Yulshul region,Tso-Ngon province was sentenced 3 years by the court of Dartsedo for taking part in Peaceful Demonstration on 6th June this in Drag-go District. They have distributed a number of documents on the paper with national emblem snow lion picture.
5) On 14th May, Bumgha from Kham Ghojo of Serta district was sentenced 6 years of imprisonment from Dhartsedo court for taking part in the peaceful demonstration recently.
6) Tashi Woeser from Chamdo was sentenced 1 year for allegedly asking when Tibet is getting Independence to his relative in Lhasa through phone. [my bold] The call was heard by the security personal.
http://www.tibetpost.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=852&Itemid=1