FROM THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
EDITED BY SAM SMITH
Since 1964, Washington's most unofficial source
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WORD
A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty - Albert Einstein
HOW MUCH DO WE LEARN FROM EVIL?
SAM SMITH - The 60th anniversary observance of Auschwitz brings back a question that periodically lurks in the corner: how much do we really learn from evil?
It is widely assumed in this country that humanity is significantly improved by such things as Holocaust studies, international war crimes, and showing teens scary films about driving. There is, however, far more faith than evidence about all this.
This is not to say that such matters should not be an part of the human curriculum, only that in American culture they are approached with a zeal that borders on moral pornography and, in the process, overwhelms the far more important matter of learning and practicing alternatives to that which we are meant to avoid. It is almost as though we were constantly being given directions by naming all the streets we shouldn't use without ever being told the ones we should.
I learned about Auschwitz in 1956, on the eleventh anniversary of its liberation. It was at the tail end of Soc Sci 2, taught by intense, red-headed liberal Samuel Beer, who covered six revolutions -- including the French, industrial and Nazi -- with enthusiasm for real people and events. Each revolution required a two thousand word paper. The climax of the course led us from Nietzsche to Hitler to an evening of Nazi propaganda films and footage of concentration camps liberated just a decade earlier. The concentration camps were gruesome, but the movies the Nazis had made to celebrate themselves were in some ways even more horrific, depicting as they did millions of Germans voluntarily surrendering their souls as millions of others were involuntarily losing their lives. In one of the films, the frame was almost entirely filled with an overhead shot of Nazi soldiers. One thin corridor cut through the dark mass and down it walked three tiny figures -- Adolph Hitler and two aides.
What we saw had been placed in history's context; we had been taught not just brutal endings but far more instructive beginnings, and we got to see not just evil's horror but its accompanying banality. What I didn't realize, however, was that college students all over America weren't learning the same thing and that when they did, it would have acquired a name, and a politics, and a semiotics, and it would have become multiple worlds inhabited by victims, philosophers, journalists, politicians, leaches, symbol snatchers, propagandists, self-servers and deniers. And that people like Sharon and Bush would do new evil in the name of exorcising the old. I had learned about the Holocaust before it became whatever anyone wanted it to be.
By the time I graduated, I had read William Shirer's new book, The Rise and the Fall of the Third Reich, and found myself absorbed not so much in what the Nazis had become but how they had begun - how normal, how ordinary so much of it had been, with that frighteningly familiar mix of opportunism, lust, incompetence, and failure of courage at a time when something still could be done. If they had let me build the Holocaust museum that would have been its prime exhibit: not what had happened, but how.
Years later I read Martin Mayer's book, They Thought They Were Free, based on interviews with ordinary Nazis before and after the war. In it, this Chicago Jewish reporter summed up:
"Now I see a little better how Nazism overcame Germany. . . It was what most Germans wanted -- or, under pressure of combined reality and illusion, came to want. They wanted it; they got it; and they liked it. I came back home a little afraid for my country, afraid of what it might want, and get, and like, under pressure of combined reality and illusions. I felt -- and feel -- that it was not German Man that I had met, but Man. He happened to be in Germany under certain conditions. He might be here, under certain conditions. He might, under certain conditions, be I."
Here is the part of the Holocaust that is most frequently denied. Not that millions were slaughtered but that those who did the deed might under certain conditions be either you or I. And we would do it, as Adolph Eichmann had suggested, simply by finding the right words for it, what he called 'office talk.'
It is this unrecognized, undiscussed denial, especially at moments of solemn observance, that most frightens me. And our recovery does not lie in still more talk, ceremonies, and professions of horror. It lies instead in the study, honor, and practice of the good and the decent. If you watch good people closely, their good comes as naturally as evil came to Eichmann. It does not have to be propped up with memories of great wrongs; it is just the everyday unconscious behavior of those graced with honor: the banality of decency.
We need perhaps a museum of the good, curricula in decency studies, and practice in their skills and rhythms. We need peace experts instead of military experts talking about Iraq on Fox TV. We need mediators instead of just lawyers on Court TV. We need movies, and heroes, and moving stories that win Academy Awards and models for our children that lead them to the contentment of cooperation and fairness rather than to brutal examples drawn from the play-by-play of violence and wrong that appears with every other click of the zapper.
Even our memories and mourning of the wrong can be directed toward the better. Do we only regret or do we reconstitute ourselves and our community, creating a soul and a place where we don't even have to imagine something like that happening again? Too often, confronted with past great horror, we not only mourn the victims, we join them in unconscious capitulation to the presumed inevitability of the evil.
The frightening thing about Auschwitz is not that some would deny it but how real it still seems. The frightening thing about Auschwitz is that our leaders go to honor it while still denying Guantanamo and Al Graib and Palestine. We will know that we have finally learned the Holocaust's lessons when we no longer hear new echoes of it.
IRAQ
DRAWING OIL FROM TROUBLED QUARTERS
http://www.alternet.org/story/21100/
ANTONIA JUHASZ, ALTERNET - Remember when we used to talk about how the war in Iraq was about oil? Remember the banners that read "No blood for oil?" Oil has fallen out of the discussion lately, but it's time to bring it back in light of the Iraqi elections scheduled for this Sunday.
To refresh our collective memory, President Bush himself declared just before the invasion of Iraq that, "Our jobs, our way of life, our own freedom and the freedom of friendly countries around the world would all suffer if control of the world's great oil reserves fell into the hands of Saddam Hussein." This was Bush Sr., speaking in August 1990, on the eve of the first Persian Gulf War.
More precise are the words of Chevron CEO Kenneth T. Derr speaking in San Francisco in 1988: "Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas - reserves I'd love Chevron to have access to." After two wars and one occupation, Derr may finally get his wish.
On Dec. 22, 2004, Iraqi Finance Minister Abdel Mahdi told a handful of reporters and industry insiders at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. that Iraq wants to issue a new oil law that would open Iraq's national oil company to private foreign investment. As Mahdi explained: "So I think this is very promising to the American investors and to American enterprise, certainly to oil companies."
In other words, Mahdi is proposing to privatize Iraq's oil and put it into American corporate hands.
CITIES
DENUDING PUBLIC STREETS FOR CALM AND SAFETY
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0127/p01s03-woeu.html?s=hns
MARK RICE-OXLEY, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - Annoyed at how their upscale neighborhood has been ruined by incessant traffic, local authorities [in London's Museumland neighborhood] are planning to unveil a radical solution Monday: remove the conventional insignia of the road - traffic lights, white lines, guardrails, sidewalks - and create a single "shared space" for everyone, motorized or not.At first glance, the idea seems a little reckless. After all, it is only the presence of the crossing signals on Exhibition Road that seems to keep the bewildered, stray tourists from a nasty accident. And governments the world over have long since concluded that the safest way to avoid catastrophe on the roads is to segregate vehicles from pedestrians.
But the experience from Europe would suggest otherwise. The Netherlands in particular, has pioneered a completely new approach to traffic and public space. . . The idea of "shared space" is to denude a street of most of its conventional markings and features and create a different urban landscape in which motorists and pedestrians are put on an equal footing, so to speak. Drivers start to behave in a very different way amid the new uncertainty, moving slowly, making eye contact with pedestrians, and becoming aware of much more than whether the lights have gone red. Or so the theory goes.
Evidence from Dutch towns is impressive. Safety records have improved, local officials report, and accidents, when they do happen are far less serious, because of the slow speeds. Yet overall cross-town speeds are no slower than before, because intersections are far more fluid and snarl-ups are rare.
SCHOOLS
SPELLING BEE VICTIM OF CHILD BEHIND ACT
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13834334&BRD=1712&PAG=461&dept_id=478996&rfi=6
RONALD R. BLAIS, WOONSOOCKET CALL, RI - Karen Adams always enjoyed receiving her invitation. The WPRI-TV news anchorwoman and Lincoln resident looked forward to penciling in the school district's spelling bee in her appointment calendar. But there's no note in her calendar this year. The Lincoln district has decided to eliminate this year's spelling bee -- a competition involving pupils in grades 4 through 8, with each school district winner advancing to the state competition and a chance to proceed to the national spelling bee in Washington, D.C. . . Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Newman said the decision to scuttle the event was reached shortly after the January 2004 bee in a unanimous decision by herself and the district's elementary school principals. The administrators decided to eliminate the spelling bee, because they feel it runs afoul of the mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. "No Child Left Behind says all kids must reach high standards," Newman said. "It's our responsibility to find as many ways as possible to accomplish this."
The administrators agreed, Newman said, that a spelling bee doesn't meet the criteria of all children reaching high standards -- because there can only be one winner, leaving all other students behind. "It's about one kid winning, several making it to the top and leaving all others behind. That's contrary to No Child Left Behind," Newman said.
ANOTHER REASON TO MOVE TO CANADA
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Law/2005/01/27/912104-cp.html
WENDY COX, CP - The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that masturbating at home is not an offence, even if the activity can be seen by peeking neighbors. The case centered on whether a private space - Daryl Clark's living room - became public because others could view it. The high court said no in a unanimous ruling Thursday. "The living room of his private home was not a place 'to which the public (had) access as of right or by invitation, express or implied,' " Justice Morris Fish wrote, quoting the Criminal Code.
"I do not believe it (access) contemplates the ability of those who are neither entitled nor invited to enter a place to see or hear from the outside, through uncovered windows or open doors, what is transpiring within."
The woman had been watching television with her two young daughters in their family room, a room lit only by a television screen and light from the adjoining kitchen. The woman moved to another room for a better view, then called her husband. The pair watched Clark for up to 15 minutes from the privacy of their darkened bedroom. The court found they took care to avoid being seen by Clark, peering out from underneath their partially lowered blinds. Later, the woman's husband fetched a pair of binoculars and a telescope. He also tried, unsuccessfully, to videotape Clark in action, says the judgment.
BOOKSHELF
A GUIDE TO WHAT'S WRONG WITH ECONOMICS
Edited by Edward Fullbrook
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1843311488/progressiverevieA/
"From the 1960s onward, neoclassical economists have increasingly managed to block the employment of non-neoclassical economists, narrow the economics curriculum offered by universities to students, and made their theory increasingly irrelevant to understanding economic reality. Now, they are even banishing economic history and the history of economic thought from the curriculum. Why has this tragedy happened? At this time of accelerating momentum for radical change in the study of economics, "A Guide to What's Wrong with Economics" comprehensively examines the shortcomings of neoclassical economics and considers a number of alternative formulations. In it, a distinguished list of non-neoclassical economists provide an examination of some of the many worldly and logical gaps in neoclassical economics, its hidden ideological agendas, disregard for the environment, habitual misuse of mathematics and statistics, inability to address the major issues of economic globalization, its ethical cynicism concerning poverty, racism and sexism, and its misrepresentation of economic history. In clear and engaging prose, "A Guide to What's Wrong with Economics" shows how interesting, relevant and exciting economics can be when it is pursued, not as the defense of an antiquated and close-minded system of belief, but as a no-holds barred inquiry looking for real-world truths."
HEALTH & SCIENCE
ANIMAL-HUMAN HYBRIDS IN YOUR FUTURE
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0125_050125_chimeras.html
MARYANN MOTT
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS - Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras-a hybrid creature that's part human, part animal. Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells.
In Minnesota last year researchers at the Mayo Clinic created pigs with human blood flowing through their bodies. And at Stanford University in California an experiment might be done later this year to create mice with human brains.
Scientists feel that, the more humanlike the animal, the better research model it makes for testing drugs or possibly growing "spare parts," such as livers, to transplant into humans. . .
But creating human-animal chimeras-named after a monster in Greek mythology that had a lion's head, goat's body, and serpent's tail-has raised troubling questions: What new subhuman combination should be produced and for what purpose? At what point would it be considered human? And what rights, if any, should it have? There are currently no U.S. federal laws that address these issues.
RECOVERED HISTORY
THE HOLOCAUST AND WORLD WAR II
http://gowans.blogspot.com
STEPHEN GOWANS - The Jews, contrary to a growing view, were not the only victims of the Nazis, and it does not diminish the flagitious crime perpetrated against them to acknowledge the Nazi's other victims, and to point out the Final Solution was not, as is now commonly supposed, the only significant event of WWII.
Indeed, it can be argued that the significance of any event is relative. For Jews, the Holocaust is central. For Russians, it is the mass devastation of their country, and the loss of 20 million lives. For Americans, who accounted for less than one percent of lives lost in WWII, it's the arrogant and mistaken belief that they were the principal cause of the Nazi's defeat. . .
Forgotten is that the first targets of the Nazis, as recalled in Martin Niemoller's famed invocation of the need for solidarity against a common oppressor, were the Reds.
"First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews."
Reds, hunted down, rounded up, imprisoned and exterminated by the Nazis as cruelly and coldly as any other group that transgressed the Nazi ideal - or actively resisted and fought back - are history's exiles. And yet Communists are central - as victims, as early, implacable and clear-eyed opponents of Fascism, and as the principal reason European Fascism was defeated.
Nevertheless, nothing is said about them, except in out of the way journals and books. . .
Popular history, that constructed by those who have turned anti-Communism into an official religion, has, moreover, turned Nazism into exclusively a movement against the Jews, and stripped it of its anti-Communist, anti-Socialist, and anti-trade union content. Today, it's widely believed that anti-Fascism amounts to anti-anti-Semitism alone. . .
And yet it was the most vilified of the Reds, the Communists, who rushed to the aid of the Spanish Republic before it was fashionable to be anti-Fascist, who led the fight at home against Mussolini and Hitler, free from delusions about the true nature of Fascism, and who successfully organized partisans to topple Fascist puppets in Yugoslavia and Albania. And it was the Soviet Union that more than any other country, defeated - and suffered from - German imperialism.
BUSHWHACKS
BUSH REGIME DISMANTLING CIVIL SERVICE
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39934-2005Jan26.html
CHRISTOPHER LEE, WASHINGTON POST - The Bush administration unveiled a new personnel system for the Department of Homeland Security yesterday that will dramatically change the way workers are paid, promoted, deployed and disciplined -- and soon the White House will ask Congress to grant all federal agencies similar authority to rewrite civil service rules governing their employees. The new system will replace the half-century-old General Schedule, with its familiar 15 pay grades and raises based on time in a job, and install a system that more directly bases pay on occupation and annual performance evaluations, officials said. The new system has taken two years to develop and will require at least four more to implement, they said. . .
The White House will propose legislation within a month to allow all agencies to restructure their personnel systems in a similar way, said Clay Johnson III, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget. . .
Leaders of federal employee unions, however, immediately denounced the new DHS system and any plans to expand it government-wide. They said the system would undermine the morale of homeland security employees and make it harder to attract and keep talented workers. They said they would file a lawsuit to block its new restrictions on collective bargaining and employee appeals. They conceded that such a move would do nothing to curtail the new pay system, however, which by 2009 will cover at least 110,000 of the department's 180,000 employees.
IRAQ
WE MAY NOT BRING DEMOCRACY TO IRAQ BUT WE'LL HAVE A VALUES-BASED, PEOPLE-FOCUSED TEAM
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21052/
JOE STRUPP, EDITOR & PUBLISHER - As the U.S. military approaches nearly two years in the Iraq conflict, media training for soldiers going into the war zone has been stepped up, becoming mandatory for Army troops since October, E&P has learned. "Talking point" cards for military personnel, meanwhile, are being updated regularly as the war progresses – often as much as once a week – to keep up with the conflict's changing issues and the proximity of embedded reporters. Among the current talking points: "We are a values-based, people-focused team that strives to uphold the dignity and respect of all.". . .
POLITICS
13 SENATE DEMOCRATS DO THE RIGHT THING
[Here's a list of the senators who voted against Condoleezza Rice's confirmation]
Akaka,
Hawaii
Bayh,Ind.
Boxer, Calif.
Byrd, W.Va.
Dayton, Minn.
Durbin, Ill.
Harkin, Iowa
Kennedy, Mass.
Kerry, Mass.
Lautenberg, N.J.
Levin, Mich.
Reed, R.I.
PROGRESSIVE DEMS, GREENS COME TOGETHER AT CONFERENCE
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2005/1123
TED GLICK, FREE PRESS - Progressive Democrats of America, an outgrowth of the Kucinich for President campaign, just concluded a large, successful national conference in Washington, D.C. Over 500 spirited, determined activists from all over the country came to the University of the District of Columbia for 48 hours of speeches, panels, workshops and informal person-to-person networking. . .
There were non-Democrats present, including among the speakers: David Cobb, who got a clearly heartfelt, standing ovation for his campaign's recount challenge in Ohio, Pat LaMarche, the Green Party VP candidate, Diane Shamis, National Coordinator of IPPN, Medea Benjamin, Green Party activist, and Mark Dudzic, National Director of the Labor Party.
From what I observed, none of the third partyites present were seduced away into the Democratic Party. If anything, judging by the ovation given to Cobb and the discussions I heard and participated in, the Green Party could well gain some new recruits over time as a result of this conference. . .
I was particularly struck by the vocal support for instant runoff voting not just from David Cobb but from others. Indeed, Howard Dean himself has publicly come out in support of it. . .
WHAT DEMOCRATS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON
TWO MONTHS after commencing the Whitewater scam, Hillary Clinton invests $1,000 in cattle futures. Within a few days she has a $5,000 profit. Before bailing out she earns nearly $100,000 on her investment. Many years later, several economists will calculate that the chances of earning such returns legally were one in 250 million.
SPECIAL PEOPLE
Special people
JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/news/jhf_speech_0105.html
DUKE NEWS - John Hope Franklin's 90th birthday celebration began on Thursday with stories and reminisces about his work, his influence, his mentoring and his friendship. But if many participants spoke about the past, Franklin himself was very much focused on the present.
The eminent historian and activist lambasted President Bush - who was inaugurated the same day - and delivered a talk in which he described the indignities he and other African Americans have suffered.
"When I was eight years old, people used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up," he said to a crowd of about 250 in the East Duke Building. "I said, 'The first Negro president of the United States.' The following is my inaugural speech, the one I would have delivered had I been elected."
In his talk, he addressed a letter to a fictional white man he called "Jonathan Doe." He recounted some of the historical inequalities in the United States and recalled some of his own experiences with racism. He said, for example, that the evening before he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton, a woman at his club in Washington, D.C., asked him to get her coat. Around the same time, a man at a hotel handed Franklin his car keys and told him to get his car.
"I patiently explained to him that I was a guest in the hotel, as I presumed he was, and I had no idea where his automobile was. And, in any case, I was retired," Franklin said. Both of these incidents occurred when he was in his 80s.
"What these experiences will do to me in the long run, I do not know. My cardiologist says that they are not good," he said, continuing with the letter.
"I very much doubt, Mr. Doe, that you have had such experiences. Your race and your consequent position of power and privilege have doubtless immunized you from the experiences that a black person confronts daily, regardless of his age, education, position or station in life."
Franklin, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History, is considered a leading figure in the field of African-American history, American race relations and Southern regional history. He is author of the classic book "From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans," which is still used in college courses more than 50 years after its publication. . .
POLITICS
ALL IN THE FAMILY
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29415-2005Jan22.html
DANA MILBANK, WASHINGTON POST - With at least 18 senators, dozens of House members and several administration officials boosted by family legacies, modern-day Washington sometimes resembles the court of Louis XIV without the powdered wigs. . . At least seven of the 41 new House members are relatives of prominent politicians. These legacies take office along with the newly reelected president, who is the grandson of a senator, son of a president and brother of a governor. . . According to the Center for American Women and Politics, 45 women have been elected to Congress to fill vacancies created by their husbands' death
SCHOOLS
CHILD BEHIND ACT ALLOWS MILITARY TO HARASS STUDENTS
http://www.villagevoice.com/generic/show_print.php?id=60395&page=kamenetz&issue=0504&printcde=MzMxOTgyMjIzMw==&refpage=L25ld3MvaW5kZXgucGhwP2lzc3VlPTA1MDQmcGFnZT1rYW1lbmV0eiZpZD02MDM5NQ==
ANYA KAMENETZ, VILLAGE VOICE - The No Child Left Behind Act, passed in 2002, included a little-seen provision stipulating that all public high schools provide a list of students' names, addresses, and other personal information to military recruiters. Douglas Smith, a spokesperson for the Army Reserve Command, says this provision is simply a matter of convenience. "It saves the recruiters a lot of research time figuring out how to get in contact with the students."
But by the accounts of teachers, students, and parents, the officers in the pressed uniforms and shiny shoes are using those data to get more aggressive, particularly at poor and largely minority schools. At schools like Bronx Community College, they set up tables three or four days a week; at many high schools, they far outnumber college or other job recruiters. They call kids at home, show up at their front doors, and even threaten them, anything to get the kids to boot camp.
Activists report that one kid who signed up for delayed entry was told that backing out, which is legally allowed, would be desertion in a time of war, meaning he could be hunted down and shot. . .
With the pressure of Iraq, Afghanistan, and who knows what other looming commitments, the army is adding 1,000 recruiters to its staff this year, and the National Guard, which missed its fiscal year 2004 goal of 56,000 new enlistees by nearly 10 percent, is adding 700 more. The question on everyone's mind is what will happen when shiny Hummers, free T-shirts, cajoling, and bullying aren't enough. A Quaker woman at the workshop offered a how-to on conscientious objection—no church affiliation required.
THE CORPORADOS
MONSANTO EXTENDS TYRANNY OVER FOOD SUPPLY
REUTERS - Agriculture products company Monsanto Co. said it will buy Seminis Inc., the world's largest commercial fruit and vegetable seed company, for at least $1 billion from a private equity firm to capitalize on the trend toward healthier eating. . . Monsanto, a leading developer of genetic modifications for crops like soybeans and corn, said biotechnology modifications to Seminis' fruit and vegetable lines were an option, but the initial focus would be on leveraging Seminis' conventional breeding programs with Monsanto's advanced research and development to develop improved product options. . . Seminis supplies more than 3,500 seed varieties to commercial fruit and vegetable growers, dealers, distributors and wholesalers around the world.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=LU4TXHXUOS04ECRBAELCFFA?type=businessNews&storyID=7413847
URUKNET - As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save their seeds, which include seeds the Iraqis themselves have developed over hundreds of years. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations. That is because in recent years, transnational corporations have patented and now own many seed varieties originated or developed by indigenous peoples. . .
The American Administrator of the Iraqi CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) government, Paul Bremer, updated Iraq's intellectual property law to 'meet current internationally-recognized standards of protection.' The updated law makes saving seeds for next year's harvest, practiced by 97% of Iraqi farmers in 2002, and is the standard farming practice for thousands of years across human civilizations, to be now illegal. . . Instead, farmers will have to obtain a yearly license for genetically modified seeds from American corporations.). These GM seeds have typically been modified from seeds developed over thousands of generations by indigenous farmers like the Iraqis, and shared freely like agricultural 'open source.'"
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=9114
GRAIN - When former Coalition Provisional Authority administrator L. Paul Bremer III left Baghdad after the so-called "transfer of sovereignty" in June 2004, he left behind the 100 orders he enacted as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. Among them is Order 81 on "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety." This order amends Iraq's original patent law of 1970 and unless and until it is revised or repealed by a new Iraqi government, it now has the status and force of a binding law. With important implications for farmers and the future of agriculture in Iraq, this order is yet another important component in the United States' attempts to radically transform Iraq's economy.
For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This has been made illegal under the new law. The seeds farmers are now allowed to plant - "protected" crop varieties brought into Iraq by transnational corporations in the name of agricultural reconstruction - will be the property of the corporations. While historically the Iraqi constitution prohibited private ownership of biological resources, the new US-imposed patent law introduces a system of monopoly rights over seeds. . .
The rights granted to plant breeders in this scheme include the exclusive right to produce, reproduce, sell, export, import and store the protected varieties. . . The term of the monopoly is 20 years for crop varieties and 25 for trees and vines. During this time the protected variety de facto becomes the property of the breeder, and nobody can plant or otherwise use this variety without compensating the breeder. This new law means that Iraqi farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save for re-planting seeds of any plant variety registered under the plant variety provisions of the new patent law. This deprives farmers what they and many others worldwide claim as their inherent right to save and replant seeds. . .
Iraq is one more arena in a global drive for the adoption of seed patent laws protecting the monopoly rights of multinational corporations at the expense of local farmers. Over the past decade, many countries of the South have been compelled to adopt seed patent laws through bilateral treaties. . .
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6
The list
TEN WORST CORPORATIONS OF 2004
Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Abbott Laboratories
AIG
Coca-Cola
Dow Chemical
Glaxo
SmithKlineHardee's
Merck
McWane
Riggs Bank
Wal-Mart
TO FIND OUT WHY
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2005/000193.html
WHAT THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT FORGETS ABOUT THE BIBLE
[This appeared in the Progressive Review during the Reagan administration. Not much has changed.]
SAM SMITH - Our text for today is found in the eighth chapter of 1 Samuel. When Samuel got old he appointed his sons as judges over Israel. As so often occurs with nepotism this didn't work out: the offspring taking dishonest gain and bribes and perverting justice. So the elders of Israel paid a call on old man Samuel and suggested that he appoint a real king like other nations had. This didn't sit too well with Samuel so he took the matter to the Lord and the latter said in effect, "If you feel bad, think how I feel. Look, I brought these bums out of Egypt and what do I get for thanks? They go and serve other gods. Now they want to ditch you too.
"So Sam, here's what's going to come down. We're going to give them a real king and see how they like it." Continuing in the more literal translation, the Lord said: "However^ you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them."
Here were the ground rules the Lord laid down through Samuel: "This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.
"He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves, and give them to his servants.
"And he will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and our donkeys and use them for his work. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants.
"Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer your in that day."
I submit this as further evidence that the Lord is not a conservative but probably a libertarian - if not an anarchist. It is one of the tragedies of modern political debate that the Bible has been surrendered to the right, even when it is clear, as in this case, that the Almighty approves of neither authoritarian regimes, military build-ups nor the concentration of land-holdings. Consider as well the little noted fact that the Bible is far clearer on the evils of usury than of abortion and that it not only is far less prudish about human sexuality than some in office, it even suggests an alternative approach to pornography, urging that if one's eye offends thee, one eye and not the vision should be removed. Further, as some deep ecologists have noted, the Bible suggests that the earth is the Lord's and not the property of multinational corporations.
The ultimate irony of the conservatives it that they pretend to be a bastion of Christian politics when, in fact, they are comprised in no small part of despoilers, usurers, war-mongers, hypocrites, idolaters and groupies of false prophets - all of whom are frowned upon by the book it pretends to follow. And its opponents, who are more faithful to the words the conservatives only quote, are often such good Christians that they never say a mumblin' word about it all.
BOOKSHELF
NO PLACE TO HIDERobert Harrow Jr.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0060560525/progressiverevieA/
MICHIKO KAKUTANI, NY TIMES - One company has come up with a digital identity system that has tagged every adult American with a unique code. Another company is intent on gaining control of all records - including state and local files, financial information, employee dossiers, DNA data and criminal background checks - that define our identity. In addition to iris scanners, voice analyzers and fingerprint readers, there now exist face recognition machines and cameras that can identify an individual by how he or she walks. One government group is working on infrared detectors that could register heat signals around people's eyes, indicating an autonomic "fight or flight" response; another federal agency has floated a proposal to assess risk by examining airline passengers' brain waves with "noninvasive neuro-electric sensors."
This surveillance state is not a futuristic place conjured in a Philip K. Dick novel or "Matrix"-esque sci-fi thriller. It is post-9/11 America, as described in Robert O'Harrow Jr.'s unnerving new book, "No Place to Hide" - an America where citizens' "right to be let alone," as Justice Louis Brandeis of the Supreme Court once put it, is increasingly imperiled, where more and more components of our daily lives are routinely monitored, recorded and analyzed.
COLD FUSION AND THE FUTURE
Jed Rothwell
This book makes the argument for cold fusion and is downloadable for free
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/RothwellJcoldfusiona.pdf
FURTHERMORE. . .
POWELL TIPS OFF CORPORADOS TO RESIGNATION FIRST
AP - Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell plans to step down, an agency official said Friday. . . Powell privately informed some industry officials earlier this week that he planned to make the announcement, according to one industry source who met with Powell. This person also spoke on condition of anonymity out of respect for the timing of Powell's announcement
NEW WALMART FACT SITE
http://walmart.purpleocean.org/
POLITICS
RIGHTWING DEMS SEEK WAYS TO SINK DEAN
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6857146/site/newsweek/
HOWARD FINEMAN NEWSWEEK - Within hours of George Bush's Inauguration, everyone was playing his assigned role. Republicans, happily united, were dancing the night away at glittering balls in downtown Washington. Democrats, meanwhile, divided into familiar warring camps: for and against Howard Dean. In Burlington, Vt., Dean and hundreds of fans gathered for an "un-Inauguration"—and in support of the former governor's quest to become the new chairman of the Democratic Party. In Georgetown that same evening, hordes of insiders partied at the stately home of Mark Penn, the Clinton family pollster, where they gripped and grinned with Bill and Hill, cheered each other up—and fretted about Dean's assault on party headquarters. "There was a ton of positive energy at the house," a guest said later, "except for the fear and loathing of Dean.". . .
But the 477 DNC members who choose the party chair haven't settled on a leader of the 2005 version of the Anybody But Dean movement. For now, the front-running alternative is former congressman Martin Frost of Texas, a pro-labor moderate with a lifetime of traditional organizing who survived 13 terms in Dallas before the GOP redistricted him into oblivion. He's followed by Simon Rosenberg, a young Washington-based fund-raiser and strategist who claims to be as digitized and Net-friendly as Dean - and yet more popular than Dean among the bloggers, who are emerging as new grass-roots powers in the party. Pro-lifer Tim Roemer is also running.
In the meantime, with the DNC meeting approaching on Feb. 12, party insiders have been conducting an urgent, so far fruitless, search for a consensus Dean-stopper. The Clintons don't like Dean on substance or style, seeing him as too left and too loose-lipped. But they're being careful. Hillary, already eying a presidential run in 2008, doesn't want to alienate the possible winner; she's leaving DNC maneuvers to Bill, whose answer last month was to sound out current chairman Terry McAuliffe about remaining in the job. (He declined.) The Clintons are said to have encouraged a good friend, veteran organizer Harold Ickes, to enter the chairman's race, but he begged off, too. Party leaders approached former senator Bob Kerrey, but he told them he would rather keep his job as president of the New School University.
DISSEMBLY LINE
WASHINGTON POST - "Semantics are very important," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.)said last week when a reporter asked about "private" accounts. "They're personal accounts, not private accounts. No one is advocating privatizing Social Security."
REPORT: CLINTON LOOKING FOR THIRD TERM
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/1/22/203903.shtml
NEWSMAX - Political strategists are reportedly pondering a deal that would allow Bill Clinton to run for president again by getting Republicans to agree to a change in the constitutional ban on third terms. Calling it "a long shot," U.S. News & World Report says the deal would work like this:
"Congressional Democrats will OK a constitutional amendment allowing naturalized citizens like California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for president if Republicans help kill the 22nd Amendment."
"Right now it's the talk among political strategists," says the magazine's Washington Whispers section. "But look for it to spread on Capitol Hill when Sen. Orrin Hatch reintroduces his plan to let naturalized citizens run for president after 20 years."
Clinton himself has boasted that he "could be re-elected" one more time. After an impromptu interview with the Las Vegas Weekly four years ago, the paper observed, "Clinton had obviously researched the subject." He spoke "for five minutes about constitutional law and academic studies about the prospect" of changing the 22nd Amendment.
BILL TO MAKE NYC 51ST STATE INTRODUCED
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/38867.htm
NY POST - A bill that would create a commission to study whether the city should secede from New York state will get another hearing soon — after sitting in the City Council for nearly two years. . . "Ten years of long political speeches and empty promising while New York City residents pay for his mistakes, Gov. Pataki is slapping us on the back with one hand while lifting our wallets with the other," [bill sponsor Peter Vallone] said. "We cannot raise taxes any more, nor can we make any further cuts. This may be our only viable option."
[For more than 30 years your editor has been an advocate of urban statehood and was one of the founders of the DC Statehood Party in 1970]
THE CASE FOR URBAN STATEHOOD
http://prorev.com/sthdurban.htm
DC STATEHOOD ARTICLES
http://prorev.com/dcsthdintro.htm
COLD FUSION
COLD FUSION ACCEPTABLE FOR SCIENTISTS TO DISCUSS, BUT NOT MEDIA
AT THE MARCH MEETING of the American Physical Society there will be 14 papers delivered in a session on cold fusion. This isn't the first time there has been such a session, and cold fusion has also been considered a respectable subject at the American Chemical Society. Reports cold fusion advocate Ed Wall, "They have been presenting at APS for a number of years, as well as the American Chemical Society. They generally do not generate much of a turnout, but because the scientists doing the CF research are in good standing in such organizations, and the methods employed are standard stuff and quality of the work they do appears to be good, they were able to argue (Scott Chubb, most persuasively) that they should be allowed to present their work."
There is one place, however, where cold fusion is not permitted to be discussed or debated: the American press. Says Wall: "Once CF started getting treated as a serious science, not just by a strong-willed minority of appropriately credentialed scientists, but by scientific and engineering establishments around the world (Japan), it appeared as more than bizarre that it was still considered heresy in the US."
Cold fusion is far from the first new scientific idea to get the cold shoulder both from scientists, the establishment and the media. Gallileo's problems are well known but in a Nobel Laureates talk last June titled "Pathological Disbelief," Brian D. Josephson, a physicist from the University of Cambridge Lecture, gave some other examples:
METEORITES: The issue: do meteorites have an extra-terrestrial origin? Argument in favor: visual sightings, stones found at site of apparent landing, often warm Incorrect argument against: ‘objects falling from space contradicts laws of mechanics’ Alternative explanation offered: optical illusion, stone struck by lightning. Cause of capitulation: massive meteorite falls near Paris
CONTINENTAL DRIFT: Arguments in favor (Wegener, from 1912): Fit of S. American and African coastlines (Bacon 1620),.matching fossils, rocks, coal found in the Antarctic Argument against: claimed phenomenon is impossible. Cause of eventual capitulation: other geological observations led to theory of plate tectonics
Josephson's third example: cold fusion.
In his talk he quoted Charles D. Beaudette as offering the following characteristics of scientific skeptics:
1. They do not express their criticisms in those venues where it will be subject to peer review.
2. They do not go into the laboratory and practise the experiment along with the practitioner.
3. Assertions are offered as though they were scientifically based when in fact they are mere guesses.
4. Satire, dismissal and slander are freely employed.
5. When explanations are advanced ... ad hoc reasons are constantly advanced for their rejection. These reasons often assert offhand that the explanation violates some conservation law.
6. Evidence is rejected outright if it does not answer every possible question at the outset.
The problem with the media is even greater since it goes to the established scientific profession rather than the ground-breakers for confirmation.
Most of what your editor know about science he learned in high school. I was attracted to the cold fusion issue because of political, rather than scientific, factors. After the initial Pons-Fleischmann experiments had proven faulty, a number of anomalies developed. Some of the media seemed to go out of its way to beat a presumed dead horse and a couple of anti-cold fusion books even appeared. The Department of Energy made it publicly clear it wanted nothing to do with the matter. The Patent Office refused to consider it.
I was similarly attracted to the cold fusion issue because of political, rather than scientific, factors. After the initial Pons-Fleischmann experiments had proven faulty, a number of anomalies developed. Some of the media seemed to go out of its way to beat a presumed dead horse and a couple of anti-cold fusion books even appeared. The Department of Energy initially made it publicly clear it wanted nothing to do with the matter (although it has now backtracked a bit) The Patent Office refused to consider it.Meanwhile, in other countries research continued, sometimes - as in Japan - with public monies, and some hardy American scientists kept plugging away, all gathering at international conferences notable for media absence. Even Toyota put money into the research, although the Japanese have since slashed their funding.Also in foreign lands was little suggestion that those interested in the subject belonged at Waco rather than in the lab. As one investigator put it, "In the U.S. there is a degree of envy among cold fusion researchers for their Japanese colleagues. In Japan, the debate over cold fusion is polite and scientific. Researchers are not rashly judged or branded incompetent for suggesting cold fusion could be real. Their American counterparts would like to conduct research in a similar atmosphere, without accusations and emotionalism."The potential import of cold fusion, should it prove valid, along with the economic interests involved - including those involved in conventional energy or getting government money for other alternatives - raised the suspicion that some of the opposition might not be scientific at all. The hostility seemed to go beyond skepticism and veered towards political or public relations campaigning.So the Review - in its role as an underground railroad for the new, the imaginative, and the abused - has remained hospitable to the cold fusionists without offering the slightest guarantee that they are right. They simply deserve to have been treated a lot better than they have been.
OUR COLD FUSION ARCHIVES
http://prorev.com/coldfusion.htm
PATHOLOGICAL DISBELIEF: BRIAN D. JOSEPHSON
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/JosephsonBpathologic.pdf
COLD FUSION SITE
www.lenr-canr.org
LABOR
HOFFA AND STEIN UNITE AGAINST SWEENEY
http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak20.html
ROBERT NOVAK, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES - The barons of the American labor movement gathered Jan. 10 at the AFL-CIO fortress across Lafayette Park from the White House, with doors closed to the public as usual. The AFL-CIO Executive Committee's agenda prepared by President John Sweeney allotted 30 minutes for reform of the labor federation. But James P. Hoffa of the Teamsters insisted much more time was needed to debate badly needed changes.
As Hoffa desired, more than two hours were spent on proposals by him and Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union. They would diminish the influence of the AFL-CIO, returning power to individual unions. Hoffa would cut in half money the unions give to Sweeney, suggesting that his presidency has failed in the basic task of signing up new workers.
No final decisions were made, but Sweeney cannot stand up to the Teamsters and the SEIU -- the federation's two largest unions. Preferring to operate by consensus, Sweeney is unlikely to resist. Decentralization of power would mark labor's most important organizational change since the AFL and the CIO merged in 1955. Whether it ends the movement's long decline, it means Jim Hoffa and Andy Stern will eclipse Sweeney or whoever succeeds him.
POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA .
AMERICAN AIRLINES MAKES THINGS WORSE AS IT TRIES TO DIG OUT
http://www.secondaryscreening.net/static/archives/2005/01/cory_doctorow_a.html
RYAN, SECONDARY SCREENING - Cory Doctorow [of the website Boing Boing] was recently questioned by an American Airlines security agent in London and asked to write down the names and addresses of the people he planned to stay with in the states. According to Doctorow's account, the agent said this was due to a TSA regulation. . .
Yesterday, I gave American Airlines a call to ask them about the incident and spokesman Tim Wagner promised to get back to me after he looked into the matter. To his credit, Wagner did just that today, sending me the following email:
"After reviewing our documentation on Mr. Doctorow's experience in London, it is evident that both our contracted security screener and Mr. Doctorow contributed to what is not a representative example of our security screening process. Mr. Doctorow exhibited specific behaviors and cues before and during our initial security screening that caused our screener to initiate a secondary screening process. We will not publicize those behaviors because to do so might hamper the effectiveness of the screening process in the future.
"That said, our contracted screener veered from standard procedure when she asked for Mr. Doctorow to write the addresses of his destinations in the United States. She did clearly state that once the interview was completed, the address list would be destroyed in front of Mr. Doctorow or that he could have the list to keep. American Airlines absolutely does not register or record that type of personal data.
"Although the agent concerned is very promising, this incident clearly showed a lack of experience in the questioning process. The agent will go through additional training and supervision. Through daily briefings, the remainder of the station will benefit from the experience gained from this incident..
"American Airlines is entirely serious about the security procedures we undertake to help ensure the safety of our passengers and crews. We expect that our passengers apply the same serious consideration when they encounter our procedures. The vast majority of airline travelers appreciate the increased security and have adapted to a new reality in air travel. That is not, however, an excuse for security measures to be applied unevenly, and to reiterate, we do not keep personal information gathered during screening processes.
"We appreciate that Mr. Doctorow called our attention to the mistakes that were made because it helps us rectify the situation going forward. He will also receive a personal response to the letter he sent to our Customer Relations department.". . .
It'd be nice to know more about exactly how this went down, or whether there is some TSA regulation out there instructing security agents to interrogate passengers -- mini El Al-style -- about who they are staying with and whether you have the right to refuse to answer such questions without being kept off the plane. But it's late on a Friday, the screener already got sent to re-education, I'm unlikely to find that out from Mr. Wagner. . . To which reader Jack Schitt responded:
"Did you notice that the suits and ties at American Airlines immediately shifted the blame to the low-paid and expendable security screener? Here in Albany, NY (actually a suburb called Guilderland) an interesting incident happened that made world headlines. A security guard at a giant indoor shopping mall detained a certain unassuming fellow for wearing a t-shirt that was thought to be expressing opposition to the then impending War Against Iraq. It read, "Give Peace A Chance." I kid you not.
"This happened in early March 2002. . . The mall owners had instituted a strict policy of suppressing politically incorrect t-shirts and there had already been a number of instances of mall security ejecting American citizens from the premises under threat of arrest.
What the mall owners didn't know was that this unassuming fellow, who looked like an easy target, was a lawyer who headed a NY State Commission. . . The fellow was indeed arrested by the bozo Guilderland police, and an uproar ensued. Eventually, after a lot of Stalinist posturing that backfired for them badly, the mall owners frantically backpedaled and dropped the charges. So who got the blame? The mall owners for instituting an invasive policy? The police for making a false arrest? Of course not. The low paid security guard was fired from his job.
The moral of this story, and the Cory Doctorow AA story, is that if you are a low paid security guard, or, for that matter, a torturer at Abu Ghraib, you won't be able to protect yourself by saying, "But I was just following orders!"
ALBANY STORY
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03
OTHER NEWS
GERMAN DOG POO PROTEST
ttp://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1248811.html
ANANOVA - Police in Germany are hunting pranksters who have been sticking miniature US flags into piles of dog poo in public parks. Josef Oettl, parks administrator for Bayreuth, said: "This has been going on for about a year now, and there must be 2,000 to 3,000 piles of excrement that have been claimed during that time." The series of incidents was originally thought to be some sort of protest against the US-led invasion of Iraq. And then when it continued it was thought to be a protest against President George W. Bush's campaign for re-election. . . Legal experts say there is no law against using faeces as a flag stand and the federal constitution is vague on the issue.
BOOKSHELF
FUTURE: TENSE
THE COMING WORLD ORDER
Gwynne Dyer
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0771029780/progressiverevieA/
"American defeat in Iraq is only a matter of time, but how long it takes matters a lot. The fate of Iraq is a sideshow, the terrorist threat is a red herring, and the radical Islamists' dream of a worldwide jihad against the West is a fantasy, but the attempt to revive Pax Americana is real. . .
"American military power is not limitless, and the other big powers will not stand for US military domination of the world. They don't buy the cover story about the 'terrorist threat,' but they don't want a fight either. They are all on hold for the moment, hoping that America will remember its commitment to the United Nations, the rule of law and multilateralism. If it does not, then the drift back into alliances, balance-of-power politics and military confrontations will begin. Ten years from now, an American-led alliance that includes India and occupies much of the Middle East could be facing a European alliance led by France, Germany and Russia AND a hostile, heavily armed China.
"Gwynne Dyer analyzes how the world made its way to the brink of disaster, and describes how we may all slide over the edge. It was fringe groups of extremists - Islamist fanatics and American neo-conservatives - who set the process in motion, but it has gone well beyond that now. It is not too late, but the clock is running."
THE DEBT THREAT
How Debt is Destroying the Developing World
Noreena Hertz
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0771029780/progressiverevieA/
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY - The debt of poor countries causes terrorism, argues economist Hertz in this follow-up to The Silent Takeover. The first nine chapters give considerable anecdotal evidence of poverty, injustice and disease but fail to link them to indebtedness. Assuming that money borrowed by poor governments is stolen by elites, and that repayment comes from cutting social services to the poor, Hertz compares health-care budgets of countries to their debt service payments. The chapters fail to distinguish among types of debt: direct and indirect, internal and external, infrastructure and export financing, for example. Horror stories from the 1940s to the 1990s are mixed indiscriminately. . . Her blueprint for development has little to do with debt, and nothing to do with terrorism, but it's the reason to buy this book.
WORDS
HEADLINE OF THE DAY
FARK - FCC Chairman Michael Powell To Step Down. Says Now That Fox Is Pixellating Cartoon Butts, His Mission Is Complete
FURTHERMORE. . .
GORE VIDAL ON LINCOLN'S BISEXUALITY
http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/articles/050103roco02
