UNDERNEWS
UNDERNEWS
January 7, 2005
FROM THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
EDITED BY SAM SMITH
Since 1964, Washington's most unofficial source
E-MAIL: mailto:news@prorev.com
POLITICS
HOTEL WORKERS IN DC COULD STRIKE FOR INAUGURATION
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0105/198601.html
[If the labor movement still acted like one, this would be a great way to kick off the second bush administration. But don't count on it. Besides, the Bush regime would probably fly troops back from Iraq to staff the hotels]
AP, WASHINGTON - Both sides reported making some progress Thursday in the contract talks involving 3,500 city hotel workers. . . Union and management officials said they moved forward on what the union calls respect and dignity issues. But they remain far apart on other issues including pensions, health care and wages. The union wants a 65 cent hourly raise while the hotels are offering 30 cents. Employees have been working without a contract since Sept. 15. Amanda Cooper, spokeswoman for Unite Here, said the union was in "strike preparation mode.""We've set a date of (January) 15th as the time by which we want to have a contract in hand that meets our needs. And if that doesn't happen, then we have to escalate, we have no choice," Cooper said.Washington hotels are expected to be packed for President Bush's second inaugural on Jan. 20. Two of the hotels involved in the talks, the Washington Hilton and the Marriott Wardman Park, both host inaugural balls. But the association said all of its members are prepared to operate in the event of a walkout
DRUG BUSTS
BLACK LEGISLATORS COME OUT AGAINST WAR ON DRUGS
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/369/nbcsl.shtml
[This is significant. The lack of black political opposition to the war on drugs - plus the myopic support of the likes of Charles Rangel - have been one of the key reasons for the its continued existence]
DRUG WAR CHRONICLE - The nation's largest organization representing African-American state legislators has condemned the war on drugs and is demanding alternative policies less harmful to black communities. The move marks the second time in recent months that black leadership organizations have belatedly recognized the disproportionate impact of drug prohibition on their communities and called for a new direction. In October, an amalgamation of black professional associations, the National African-American Drug Policy Coalition, came together to seek similar changes in state and federal drug policy At its annual meeting in Philadelphia in December, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators passed a resolution condemning the drug war and committing its members to repeal mandatory minimum sentences and support diverting nonviolent drug offenders into treatment. Introduced by delegate Salima Marriott of Maryland, the resolution puts the NBCSL on record as calling the drug war a failure. "The war on drugs has failed, and while states have continually increased their expenditures to wage the war on drugs, policies which rely heavily on arrest and incarceration have proven costly and ineffective at addressing these issues," the resolution read in part. Not only do blacks go to jail for drug offenses at a rate 13 times that of whites despite having similar drug use rates, as Human Rights Watch, among others, has pointed out, and not only do blacks make up 59% of those convicted of drug crimes in the US despite being only 12.2% of the population, but black urban communities suffer the brunt of both drug law enforcement and the community disruption caused by prohibition.
RECOVERED HISTORY
IS SUB-COMANDANTE MARCOS GAY?In an attempt to discredit the Zapatista leader, Sub-Comandante Marcos, government officials spread the word in macho Mexico that he was gay. Marcos replied in 1997 with a poem:
Yes, Marcos is gay.
Marcos is gay in San Francisco
Black in South Africa
An Asian in Europe,
A Chicano in San Ysidro,
An anarchist in Spain,
A Palestinian in Israel,
A Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal,
A Jew in Germany,
A Gypsy in Poland,
A pacifist in Bosnia,
A single woman on the Metro at 10 pm
A peasant without land,
A gang member in the slums,
An unemployed worker,
An unhappy student,
And, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.
POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA .
TEACHING KIDS TO GET USED TO THE GESTAPO
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/369/drugscanner.shtml
DRUG WAR CHRONICLE - Trace scanners, devices which pick up microscopic traces of substances, are typically found in airports, where they search for explosives, and in prisons, where they are used to detect traces of illegal drugs on visitors (who are then banned from visiting), but they have also found a home in the Dallas Independent School District, which has become the nation's first to use them to find drugs and drug users in its classrooms and hallways. After testing the device last year, the school district has now contracted with Trace Detection Services, a Louisiana firm, to have all 47 of its middle and high schools tested this year, the Dallas Morning News reported. . . The testing already done has aroused concerns among teachers at at least one district high school, suburban Red Oak. There, Trace Detection Services examined the IDs and lockers of all 1,500 students, a move teachers called disruptive and intrusive. And the district didn't come up with much for its efforts, conceded district police force head Scott Lindsay.
BUSHWHACKS
BUSH REGIME FOISTED ILLEGAL, FAKE VIDEO ON TV STATIONS
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/07/national/07drug.html?oref=login
JOHN FILES, NY TIMES - The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said on Thursday that the Bush administration violated federal law by producing and distributing television news segments about the effects of drug use among young people. The accountability office said the videos "constitute covert propaganda" because the government was not identified as the source of the materials, which were distributed by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They were broadcast by nearly 300 television stations and reached 22 million households, the office said. The accountability office does not have law enforcement powers, but its decisions on federal spending are usually considered authoritative.
HISTORIANS AT PLAY: DAY ONE
http://hnn.us/articles/9466.html
[Once again we bring you coverage direct from the annual conference of the American Historical Association, thanks to Rick Shenkman, editor the History News Network. The historians seem to be off to a bit of a slow start this year, but they tend to liven up as they go along]
RICK SHENKMAN - The convention hotels are all within a few short blocks. But finding the AHA registration desk, which is located at the Sheraton, could be tricky. In what must have been a prank played on visitors, the Washington Convention Center where many of the meetings are being held featured a sign in the lobby directing people up the escalators to the Sheraton. The Sheraton is actually located around the corner.
The main event on the first day--aside from picking up free books offered by publishers at the book exhibits--was the presentation of the AHA's Second Annual Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Public Service Award. Last year the award went to Senator Robert Byrd. This year the award was given to C-Span's Brian Lamb. Byrd's award ceremony and speech drew a crowd of about 1,000 and was covered by C-Span. Lamb's drew a crowd of about 200 and was not covered by C-Span. Some people had objected to Byrd's award given his long ago membership in the KKK. No one objected to Lamb's award. . .
Lamb, who comes across as a down-to-earth midwesterner, thanked historians for appearing on "Booknotes," which ended in December after fifteen years and 800 interviews. He recalled that he liked to ask short questions so as not to reveal his ignorance, but he also wished his guests gave short answers, and sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't. The person who gave the longest answer was Dick Gregory. It lasted 32 minutes. . .
Lamb was followed by a presidential plenary session on a topic of interest mainly to specialists in Chinese history (which may have accounted for the evening's low turn out): "Storing China's Past: Archives, Artifacts, and Art." Jonathan Spence explained that when he was told he had the authority to pick the topic and speakers "I decided to be shameless" and picked three old friends.
Mimi Gates, an art historian who runs the Seattle Art Museum, spoke about the Buddhist caves of China (the Mogoa Grottoes), which are located in the Gobi desert. Pictures projected on a large screen showed the rich variety of images that can be found on the deteriorating walls of the caves, which are now being renovated in a model project funded in part by the Getty foundation. In all there are 484,000 square feet of wall paintings at the site, which was a major trading post along the Silk Road until the fourteenth century, when it was bypassed in favor of sea routes.
Princeton's Susan Naquin spoke about the insights historians can gain by studying the material culture of China's past. She noted material culture is particularly important in studying the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Ching (1644-1911) dynasties, which have largely been ignored in China because scholars there view the history of the last 700 years as too new. She got a good hearty laugh when she said this.By material culture she meant the material objects that can be seen depicted in Chinese art--or the art itself (in the case of carved stones, which are tactile and were often rubbed for pleasure). Enlivening the arcane lecture were several pictures of Chinese couples copulating. One might qualify as pornography, she admitted. She joked that she included it just to keep the audience awake. This drew great laughter.
The final speaker of the night was the former AHA president from 1992, Frederick E. Wakeman, Jr. (UC Berkeley). He described the mystique of archival research, part of which he attributed to the degree of discomfort in which it must often be conducted, recalling his work at a London archive where the bitter cold came up through the Tudor floorboards. He admitted that archival research is not essential to the work of all historians, noting that Richard Hofstadter probably never set foot in an archive. But he made it sound almost romantic. Comparing himself to a war veteran who speaks of his old battles, he told stories about the scoops in archival research. . .
He remembered that on one occasion he and a group of scholars were given access to some secret papers by Chou En-lai. But when there was a mix up suddenly soldiers with AK-47s materialized. (Eventually the scholars gained the access they had been promised.) He said that one of the great difficulties of archival research is that sometimes one cannot use the documents one has been given without compromising the identity of the source. "I should probably be very careful because of the television," he quickly and nervously added. There were two TV cameras in the ballroom. One was filming the event for Washington state TV, the other for New Tang Dynasty Television. . .
At the end of the evening I asked Jonathan Spence about the banner hanging prominently at the front of the room: American Historical Association, read the top line. Below it was a slogan, Protecting the future for those who study the past! " It looked like one of those banners you see hanging behind the president at photo ops. And now to sleep.
WACKY LABELS OF THE YEAR
http://www.mlaw.org/wwl/
MICHIGAN LAW ABUSE WATCH - A flushable toilet brush that warns users, “Do not use for personal hygiene” has been identified as the nation’s wackiest warning label in an annual contest sponsored by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch.. The second place award went to Matt Johnson of Naperville, Illinois for a label on a popular scooter for children that warns: “This product moves when used.” Third place went to Ann Marie Taylor of Camden, South Carolina who found the following warning on a digital thermometer that can be used to take a person’s temperature several different ways: “Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally.” Fourth place was a label on an electric hand blender promoted for use in “blending, whipping, chopping and dicing,” that warns: “Never remove food or other items from the blades while the product is operating.”
SEE WHAT GAY MARRIAGE CAN LEAD TO?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=753&e=1&u=/nm/20050106/sc_nm/kenya_hippo_dc
REUTERS - A 120-year-old giant tortoise living in a Kenyan sanctuary has become inseparable from a baby hippo rescued by game wardens, officials said on Thursday. The year-old hippo calf christened Owen was rescued last month, suffering from dehydration after being separated from his herd in a river that drains into the Indian Ocean. "When we released Owen into the enclosure, he lumbered to the tortoise which has a dark gray color similar to grown up hippos," Sabine Baer, rehabilitation and ecosystems manager at the park, told Reuters.
FIELD NOTES
WHO RECEIVES FAITH-BASED GRANTS: STATE BY STATE
http://www.thememoryhole.org/pol/faith_based_2003.htm
January 7, 2005
FROM THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
EDITED BY SAM SMITH
Since 1964, Washington's most unofficial source
E-MAIL: mailto:news@prorev.com
POLITICS
HOTEL WORKERS IN DC COULD STRIKE FOR INAUGURATION
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0105/198601.html
[If the labor movement still acted like one, this would be a great way to kick off the second bush administration. But don't count on it. Besides, the Bush regime would probably fly troops back from Iraq to staff the hotels]
AP, WASHINGTON - Both sides reported making some progress Thursday in the contract talks involving 3,500 city hotel workers. . . Union and management officials said they moved forward on what the union calls respect and dignity issues. But they remain far apart on other issues including pensions, health care and wages. The union wants a 65 cent hourly raise while the hotels are offering 30 cents. Employees have been working without a contract since Sept. 15. Amanda Cooper, spokeswoman for Unite Here, said the union was in "strike preparation mode.""We've set a date of (January) 15th as the time by which we want to have a contract in hand that meets our needs. And if that doesn't happen, then we have to escalate, we have no choice," Cooper said.Washington hotels are expected to be packed for President Bush's second inaugural on Jan. 20. Two of the hotels involved in the talks, the Washington Hilton and the Marriott Wardman Park, both host inaugural balls. But the association said all of its members are prepared to operate in the event of a walkout
DRUG BUSTS
BLACK LEGISLATORS COME OUT AGAINST WAR ON DRUGS
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/369/nbcsl.shtml
[This is significant. The lack of black political opposition to the war on drugs - plus the myopic support of the likes of Charles Rangel - have been one of the key reasons for the its continued existence]
DRUG WAR CHRONICLE - The nation's largest organization representing African-American state legislators has condemned the war on drugs and is demanding alternative policies less harmful to black communities. The move marks the second time in recent months that black leadership organizations have belatedly recognized the disproportionate impact of drug prohibition on their communities and called for a new direction. In October, an amalgamation of black professional associations, the National African-American Drug Policy Coalition, came together to seek similar changes in state and federal drug policy At its annual meeting in Philadelphia in December, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators passed a resolution condemning the drug war and committing its members to repeal mandatory minimum sentences and support diverting nonviolent drug offenders into treatment. Introduced by delegate Salima Marriott of Maryland, the resolution puts the NBCSL on record as calling the drug war a failure. "The war on drugs has failed, and while states have continually increased their expenditures to wage the war on drugs, policies which rely heavily on arrest and incarceration have proven costly and ineffective at addressing these issues," the resolution read in part. Not only do blacks go to jail for drug offenses at a rate 13 times that of whites despite having similar drug use rates, as Human Rights Watch, among others, has pointed out, and not only do blacks make up 59% of those convicted of drug crimes in the US despite being only 12.2% of the population, but black urban communities suffer the brunt of both drug law enforcement and the community disruption caused by prohibition.
RECOVERED HISTORY
IS SUB-COMANDANTE MARCOS GAY?In an attempt to discredit the Zapatista leader, Sub-Comandante Marcos, government officials spread the word in macho Mexico that he was gay. Marcos replied in 1997 with a poem:
Yes, Marcos is gay.
Marcos is gay in San Francisco
Black in South Africa
An Asian in Europe,
A Chicano in San Ysidro,
An anarchist in Spain,
A Palestinian in Israel,
A Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal,
A Jew in Germany,
A Gypsy in Poland,
A pacifist in Bosnia,
A single woman on the Metro at 10 pm
A peasant without land,
A gang member in the slums,
An unemployed worker,
An unhappy student,
And, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.
POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA .
TEACHING KIDS TO GET USED TO THE GESTAPO
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/369/drugscanner.shtml
DRUG WAR CHRONICLE - Trace scanners, devices which pick up microscopic traces of substances, are typically found in airports, where they search for explosives, and in prisons, where they are used to detect traces of illegal drugs on visitors (who are then banned from visiting), but they have also found a home in the Dallas Independent School District, which has become the nation's first to use them to find drugs and drug users in its classrooms and hallways. After testing the device last year, the school district has now contracted with Trace Detection Services, a Louisiana firm, to have all 47 of its middle and high schools tested this year, the Dallas Morning News reported. . . The testing already done has aroused concerns among teachers at at least one district high school, suburban Red Oak. There, Trace Detection Services examined the IDs and lockers of all 1,500 students, a move teachers called disruptive and intrusive. And the district didn't come up with much for its efforts, conceded district police force head Scott Lindsay.
BUSHWHACKS
BUSH REGIME FOISTED ILLEGAL, FAKE VIDEO ON TV STATIONS
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/07/national/07drug.html?oref=login
JOHN FILES, NY TIMES - The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said on Thursday that the Bush administration violated federal law by producing and distributing television news segments about the effects of drug use among young people. The accountability office said the videos "constitute covert propaganda" because the government was not identified as the source of the materials, which were distributed by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They were broadcast by nearly 300 television stations and reached 22 million households, the office said. The accountability office does not have law enforcement powers, but its decisions on federal spending are usually considered authoritative.
HISTORIANS AT PLAY: DAY ONE
http://hnn.us/articles/9466.html
[Once again we bring you coverage direct from the annual conference of the American Historical Association, thanks to Rick Shenkman, editor the History News Network. The historians seem to be off to a bit of a slow start this year, but they tend to liven up as they go along]
RICK SHENKMAN - The convention hotels are all within a few short blocks. But finding the AHA registration desk, which is located at the Sheraton, could be tricky. In what must have been a prank played on visitors, the Washington Convention Center where many of the meetings are being held featured a sign in the lobby directing people up the escalators to the Sheraton. The Sheraton is actually located around the corner.
The main event on the first day--aside from picking up free books offered by publishers at the book exhibits--was the presentation of the AHA's Second Annual Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Public Service Award. Last year the award went to Senator Robert Byrd. This year the award was given to C-Span's Brian Lamb. Byrd's award ceremony and speech drew a crowd of about 1,000 and was covered by C-Span. Lamb's drew a crowd of about 200 and was not covered by C-Span. Some people had objected to Byrd's award given his long ago membership in the KKK. No one objected to Lamb's award. . .
Lamb, who comes across as a down-to-earth midwesterner, thanked historians for appearing on "Booknotes," which ended in December after fifteen years and 800 interviews. He recalled that he liked to ask short questions so as not to reveal his ignorance, but he also wished his guests gave short answers, and sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't. The person who gave the longest answer was Dick Gregory. It lasted 32 minutes. . .
Lamb was followed by a presidential plenary session on a topic of interest mainly to specialists in Chinese history (which may have accounted for the evening's low turn out): "Storing China's Past: Archives, Artifacts, and Art." Jonathan Spence explained that when he was told he had the authority to pick the topic and speakers "I decided to be shameless" and picked three old friends.
Mimi Gates, an art historian who runs the Seattle Art Museum, spoke about the Buddhist caves of China (the Mogoa Grottoes), which are located in the Gobi desert. Pictures projected on a large screen showed the rich variety of images that can be found on the deteriorating walls of the caves, which are now being renovated in a model project funded in part by the Getty foundation. In all there are 484,000 square feet of wall paintings at the site, which was a major trading post along the Silk Road until the fourteenth century, when it was bypassed in favor of sea routes.
Princeton's Susan Naquin spoke about the insights historians can gain by studying the material culture of China's past. She noted material culture is particularly important in studying the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Ching (1644-1911) dynasties, which have largely been ignored in China because scholars there view the history of the last 700 years as too new. She got a good hearty laugh when she said this.By material culture she meant the material objects that can be seen depicted in Chinese art--or the art itself (in the case of carved stones, which are tactile and were often rubbed for pleasure). Enlivening the arcane lecture were several pictures of Chinese couples copulating. One might qualify as pornography, she admitted. She joked that she included it just to keep the audience awake. This drew great laughter.
The final speaker of the night was the former AHA president from 1992, Frederick E. Wakeman, Jr. (UC Berkeley). He described the mystique of archival research, part of which he attributed to the degree of discomfort in which it must often be conducted, recalling his work at a London archive where the bitter cold came up through the Tudor floorboards. He admitted that archival research is not essential to the work of all historians, noting that Richard Hofstadter probably never set foot in an archive. But he made it sound almost romantic. Comparing himself to a war veteran who speaks of his old battles, he told stories about the scoops in archival research. . .
He remembered that on one occasion he and a group of scholars were given access to some secret papers by Chou En-lai. But when there was a mix up suddenly soldiers with AK-47s materialized. (Eventually the scholars gained the access they had been promised.) He said that one of the great difficulties of archival research is that sometimes one cannot use the documents one has been given without compromising the identity of the source. "I should probably be very careful because of the television," he quickly and nervously added. There were two TV cameras in the ballroom. One was filming the event for Washington state TV, the other for New Tang Dynasty Television. . .
At the end of the evening I asked Jonathan Spence about the banner hanging prominently at the front of the room: American Historical Association, read the top line. Below it was a slogan, Protecting the future for those who study the past! " It looked like one of those banners you see hanging behind the president at photo ops. And now to sleep.
WACKY LABELS OF THE YEAR
http://www.mlaw.org/wwl/
MICHIGAN LAW ABUSE WATCH - A flushable toilet brush that warns users, “Do not use for personal hygiene” has been identified as the nation’s wackiest warning label in an annual contest sponsored by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch.. The second place award went to Matt Johnson of Naperville, Illinois for a label on a popular scooter for children that warns: “This product moves when used.” Third place went to Ann Marie Taylor of Camden, South Carolina who found the following warning on a digital thermometer that can be used to take a person’s temperature several different ways: “Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally.” Fourth place was a label on an electric hand blender promoted for use in “blending, whipping, chopping and dicing,” that warns: “Never remove food or other items from the blades while the product is operating.”
SEE WHAT GAY MARRIAGE CAN LEAD TO?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=753&e=1&u=/nm/20050106/sc_nm/kenya_hippo_dc
REUTERS - A 120-year-old giant tortoise living in a Kenyan sanctuary has become inseparable from a baby hippo rescued by game wardens, officials said on Thursday. The year-old hippo calf christened Owen was rescued last month, suffering from dehydration after being separated from his herd in a river that drains into the Indian Ocean. "When we released Owen into the enclosure, he lumbered to the tortoise which has a dark gray color similar to grown up hippos," Sabine Baer, rehabilitation and ecosystems manager at the park, told Reuters.
FIELD NOTES
WHO RECEIVES FAITH-BASED GRANTS: STATE BY STATE
http://www.thememoryhole.org/pol/faith_based_2003.htm
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 11:08 AM
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