This is what democracy looks like...

Well I went to the January 27th Anti-War March on Washington DC on a bus from Ann Arbor. Coming into it I didn't really know what to expect (especially since I had never been to one of these) but I was hoping it was going to be big. In Ann Arbor, we had filled up 3 coach buses with both college students and adults and teenagers from the surrounding community. This had exceeded previous expectations for such a trip and seemed like a good sign of things to come at the actual march. Also, I had read a Washington Post article beforehand that said it was expected be one of the biggest anti-war marches since the beginning of the Iraq War.

We left Ann Arbor around 7:30 pm on Friday night for a 8-9 hour drive to Washington DC. After a ride in which I didn't get very much sleep, we arrived at Shady Grove Metro Station at 7 am. I rode in with some other people on the trip to Washington Mall to do some sightseeing before the actual rally and march that started at 11 am. Being from the DC metro area, I had seen many of these sites before but it still was nice to be back, even for a little bit. The weather that morning was below freezing which made it hard to walk around.

We got to the march around 11 am to a large crowd of people right near the Capital. The weather helped out as it became sunny, cloudless day with a high of 50 degrees. Diversity, along with its sheer size, marked the character of this crowd. People of various political groups, the young (even little kids) as well as the old, those of different races and ethnicities, and even war veterans were present. It wasn't just "aging hippies" or "college radicals" supporting this anti-war cause. There were people at the march who didn't look like the typical "activist" which was heartening to see. It made me realize that there really is a broad base of support moving against this War in Iraq. Its one thing to see the poll numbers but to actually see such a variety of people in the streets protesting made me happy. I just hope that Congress responds and does the right thing (though I remain skeptical of most Democrats taking a tough stance against the Iraq War). Apparently there were over 500,000 people present at the march.

Also notable was the small counterdemonstration near where people were marching in support of the Iraq War. One woman was on a megaphone stating that "if you don't support the mission, you don't support the troops." That statement really bothered me and I started chanting "bullshit" which others joined in with me. Someone else was holding up a poster that said "hippies smell." Though I definitely respect their right to free speech and assembly, such an ignorant embrace of this War in Iraq really annoys me.

The actual march began around 1 pm, which was suppose to be a loop around the Capital, and I followed the college student contingency which included people from the newly revamped Students for a Democratic Society as well as the Campus Anti-War Network. The chanting and energy from the people in the group got me real excited. Even though I enjoyed being in that crowd, the group was moving real slow and I was starting to lose my voice. Then, I bumped into a friend from back home who I knew was gonna be there but I didn't actually think I would see him in the large crowd. We ended up walking ahead of the college student group and quickly finished the loop (by that time it was around 4 pm and I was starving and my feet were killing me). After that we got something to eat, talked some politics, and then he had to leave to go back to his school.

When he left, I didn't know where the rest of my group was. I only had one other person's phone number who was on the trip and she was very far from where I was. So I went back to the site of the rally and it was getting darker at the time. Then I noticed a group of you people marching in the actual street on Pennsylvania avenue right in front of the Capital. They had stopped traffic and police were driving behind them. Apparently earlier that day, 300 college students rushed the Capital building, only to be rebuffed by police. I don't think anyone was arrested. I hung out with some other girls that I knew on the trip after that. Then we went back to the bus and left around 8 pm. Luckily I was able to actually pass out and sleep most of the way home. We finally got back into Ann Arbor at 5 am. All in all, it was a great experience and I would definitely want to go to more of them.

Injustice in 2006

A nice little review of economic injustice in this country brought to you by the Drum Major Institute:

Wages that an average CEO earns before lunchtime: more than a full-time minimum wage worker makes in a year

Ratio of the average U.S. CEO’s annual pay to a minimum wage worker’s: 821:1

Year when this ratio reached its highest so far: 2006

Total compensation in 2005 of Barry Diller of IAC/Interactive, the highest paid CEO in the US today: $469 million

Additional amount that Mr. Diller received in new stock options “to motivate Mr. Diller for future performance”: $7.6 million

Percentage of Americans who feel chronically overworked: 30

Years of unused vacation time that American workers collectively give back to their employers each year: 1.6 million

Percentage of women earning less than $40,000 per year who receive no paid vacation time at all: 37

Payment per episode that Donald Trump receives to host The Apprentice:

$3,000,000

Average amount that companies spend to recruit a new CEO from outside the company: $2,000,000

Probability that the newly hired CEO will either quit or be fired within the first eighteen months: 1 in 2

Estimated number of people lined up outside the new M&M store set to open in Times Square responding to ads for “on-the-spot” hiring for 200 jobs, 65 of which were fulltime: between 5,000 and 6,000

Starting salary that drew them there: $10.75 per hour

Fee Paris Hilton is seeking to host a New Year’s Eve party in NYC, Miami, or L.A.: $100,000 plus a private jet

Amount that Ms. Hilton is set to inherit from the Hilton Hotel fortune: $350 million

Number of times that Congress has reduced the estate tax since it last raised the federal minimum wage: 9

Longest period in which the federal minimum wage has not been increased: 1997–2006

Number of workers who would directly benefit from an increase in the minimum wage: 5.6 million

Number of very large estates that would directly benefit from a reduction in the estate tax: 8,200

Highest price per custom-fitted, handmade power suit in Armani’s new line, which hopes to respond to what ex-Gucci head designer Tom Ford calls “a lot of pent-up demand for true luxury [from men who] are getting rich first, and they want to deck themselves out before they deck out their wives”: $20,000

Number of households using credit to cover basic living expenses: 7 in 10

Amount in tax breaks and subsidies that last year’s energy bill paid out to the gas and oil industry during a period of record profits and higher prices at the pump: $6 billion

Campaign donations that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who voted for the energy bill, received from the oil and gas industry: $500,000, making her the top recipient of oil contributions in the 2006 election cycle

Percentage of U.S. workers who are confident they will be able to live comfortably after retirement: 68

Percentage who have saved less than $25,000 toward their retirement: 53

Percent of African-American and Latino families that have zero or negative net worth, respectively: 31 and 38

Date on which USA Today reported that Dr. Anthony Griffin of the Beverly Hills Cosmetic Surgery Institute, who appears on the ABC program Extreme Makeover, predicted that CEOs will lead a surge in male cosmetic surgery because, he says, “for instance, executives on trial for corporate scandals would improve their chances for acquittal with a makeover just before trial”: November 4, 2006

Date on which the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its all-time high:

October 26, 2006

Decrease in percentage of Americans who own stocks from 2004 to 2006, the first such decline on record: 51.9% to 48.6%

Total Wal-Mart received in government subsidies, sometimes called “corporate welfare” by activists, in 2005: $3.75 billion

Percent of the decline in welfare caseloads that is due to TANF programs failing to serve families that are poor enough to qualify, rather than due to a reduction in the number of families poor enough to qualify for aid, in the ten years since “welfare reform”: 57

Percentage of the GDP that went to wages and salaries in the first half of 2006: 51.8

Time when the percentage of GDP belonging to wages and salaries was lower than in 2006, out of the 77 previous years for which these data are available: never

Projected total in Christmas bonuses that the five largest investment banks in New York City will pay out in 2006: $36 billion

Estimated additional amount U.S. workers would receive annually if all employers obeyed workplace laws: $19 billion

Ratio of compensation of CEOs of publicly traded defense companies to privates before September 11th, 2001: 190 to 1

Ratio in 2006: 308 to 1

Percentage increase in out-of-pocket medical expenses for the average American in the past 5 years: 93

Estimated amount the U.S. would save each year on paperwork if it adopted single-payer health care: $161,000,000,000

Date on which incoming Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson announced “Amid this country’s strong economic expansion, many Americans simply aren’t feeling the benefits. Many aren’t seeing significant increases in their take-home pay. Their increases in wages are being eaten up by high energy prices and rising health care costs, among others”: August 2, 2006

An update will come soon enough...

College this semester has managed to overwhelm me so much that I have been unable to write that many entries.

Soon enough, I will be writing about the new Congress and the reasons in which I am pessimistic about it even if the Democrats have a majority now. Though I am very glad that the Republicans are no longer in charger (which will create a little more sanity in Congress) but the Dems don't have the guts to do anything too "progressive" with moderates at the helm. More to discuss very soon!

American hypocrisy towards torture

I've been pretty busy as of late but I really wanted to write abt the issue of US torture.

I guess the US is the only one who has the right to commit torture and brutal policing tactics. Recently, an article in the New York Times reported that "American officials have warned Iraqi leaders that they might have to curtail aid to the Interior Ministry police because of a United States law that prohibits the financing of foreign security forces that commit 'gross violations of human rights' and are not brought to justice" because of their complicity in torture and killings of Iraqi civillians.

This comes at a time when the Bush Administration pushed through a detainee bill that would loosen the right of habeas corpus, the tenets of the Geneva Convention, and restrictions on torture. Specifically, as the New York time points out, the bill paves the way for more use of America torture by doing the following:

"The Geneva Conventions: The bill would repudiate a half-century of international precedent by allowing Mr. Bush to decide on his own what abusive interrogation methods he considered permissible. And his decision could stay secret — there’s no requirement that this list be published.

Coerced Evidence: Coerced evidence would be permissible if a judge considered it reliable — already a contradiction in terms — and relevant. Coercion is defined in a way that exempts anything done before the passage of the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act, and anything else Mr. Bush chooses.

Offenses: The definition of torture is unacceptably narrow, a virtual reprise of the deeply cynical memos the administration produced after 9/11. Rape and sexual assault are defined in a retrograde way that covers only forced or coerced activity, and not other forms of nonconsensual sex. The bill would effectively eliminate the idea of rape as torture."

Also, the "Constitution in Crisis," a report by the House Judiciary Committee Minority Staff describes in detail the systematic use of brutal torture tactics in Iraq by the US Military and CIA. Yet the Department of Justice has done little to prosecute those perpetrating these acts. Accord to the report, there are "numerous instances of torture that are capable of being punished within the jurisdiction of the Justice Department" under the Military Jursidiction Act but only one such case has resulted in an official indictment and no one has been convicted. Even at the infamous Abu Ghraib, where "numerous" detainee deaths have occurred "as a result of torture and other legal violations" no member of the military has received a sentence of more than 3 years in prison.

These US torture techniques in Iraq had tacit approval from Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He approved, in the "Haynes action memo," methods including "removal of detainee clothing, use of hoods and dogs"; Category III tactics like the "use of scenarios designed to convince the detainee that death or severely painful consequences for him and/or his family are imminent," and the "use of a wet towel and dripping water to induce the misperception of suffocation." All these are violations of the Geneva Convention by inflicting mental harm.

Yet as Naomi Klein writes, embracing torture techniques is nothing new for America. The US- run School of America, first located in Panama but now in Fort Benning, Georgia, instructed Latin American military and police officers in torture techniques akin to those that have been publicized in Guantanamo Bay: and Abu Ghraib including "early morning capture to maximize shock, immediate hooding and blindfolding, forced nudity, sensory deprivation, sensory overload, sleep and food "manipulation," humiliation, extreme temperatures, isolation, stress positions." Even Clinton's Intelligence Oversight Board in 1996 "admitted that US-produced training materials condoned 'execution of guerrillas, extortion, physical abuse, coercion and false imprisonment.' " Thus the difference between then and now in terms of American torture, is the Bush administration relative openness about it.

Thus how can we expect the Iraqi interior ministry to stop torture and kill Iraqi civilians when we are just as complicit?

Affirmative Action for the Privileged

For those who bash affirmative action for disadvantaged minority groups in the university admissions process as against our American meritocracy should reconsider that notion. Because, as an article in "the Economist" points out, the elite in this country have their own system to get their children into the best schools.

According to the article (which profiles some of the major findings of a new book called “The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges—and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates” by Daniel Golden) "No less than 60% of the places in elite universities are given to candidates who have some sort of extra 'hook', from rich or alumni parents to 'sporting prowess.' " which benefits whites way more than blacks. The power of legacy in these elite universities are staggering. Harvard admits 40% of legacy applicants while accepting 11 % of applicants and Amherst accepts %50 of legacy applicants. Also there are plenty of sports scholarships outside of football and basketball for preppy white kid in sports like fencing, squash, sailing, riding, golf and lacrosse.

This privileged affirmative action is taking its toll on elite universities as they become more socially exclusive:
"Between 1980 and 1992, for example, the proportion of disadvantaged children in four-year colleges fell slightly (from 29% to 28%) while the proportion of well-to-do children rose substantially (from 55% to 66%)." In a time when in the US when social inequality is rising while socially mobility is at a low, the social stratification of college admissions is quite disturbing. The two groups of people that are burdened the most by these admission policies are poor whites and Asian americans.

Efforts to get rid of Affirmative Action across the country may make these trends even worse.

Here in the State of Michigan, there is a ballot initiative called the MCRI (Michigan Civil Rights Initiative) which will end affirmative action not only in state schools but also in the workplace. The campaign behind this initiative, led by Ward Connerly who has pushed this legislation through California and Washington, receives all its funding from donors outside of Michigan. In face of this elite affirmative action, trying to get rid of this program that help disadvantage groups into schools and jobs just seems unjust.

IRS attacks a liberal church's right to free speech

It looks like free speech in this country, especially the kind that doesn't sit well with the current Bush administration, is under attack. The liberal All Saints Episcopal Church is being investigated by the IRS for "alleged improper campaigning" after the Rev. George F. Regas gave an anti-war sermon two days before the 2004 Elections.

The IRS used the excuse that "the tax code bars nonprofits, including churches, from endorsing or campaigning against candidates in an election" even though the reverend made did not do so in his speech. Now the church's non-profit status could be threatened.

But under the guise of a new enforcement tool called the Political Activity Compliance Initiative, the IRS is trying to stifle freedom of speech in this country. It threatens non-profit and religious groups ability to engage in non-partisan issue advocacy and criticize our elected officials. Churches have always been a source of political activity especially during the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Martin Luther King, was himself a preacher, and mobilized people politically through his church in Atlanta. Even in recent history, figures like Falwell and Dobson created the Religious Right through political activities in evangelical churches. I guess all that matters to the IRS is that you are advocating the wrong political ideology. Even the NAACP was under investigation after the chairman Julian Bond criticized Bush's civil rights policies until the charges were recently dropped..

Legal questions have been raised over this new IRS arm. A report of the program by OMB Watch states PACI's problems:

• the vagueness of the "facts and circumstances" test
• secrecy regarding enforcement action
• IRS statements regarding its intent to prevent repeat violations before an election
• the threat that an organization's tax-exempt status will be revoked
• lack of deadlines for closing cases

Thus this enforcement tool is ripe for abuse and partisan attacks against certain groups. As of now, Commissioner Everson, who runs the IRS and a Bush crony already has a bad track record. According to News Corpse:
"Commissioner Everson came right from the Bush White House, where he was deputy director for management for the Office of Management and Budget. His wife, Nanette, was a White House counsel. One of his first projects at IRS was a plan to cross-check applications for tax-exempt status against terrorist watch lists. These lists were notoriously inaccurate. He also considered sharing IRS data with other agencies in spite of the fact that it was illegal to do so. He was said to believe that 9/11 legislation gave him the authority to act without the laws being changed."

American Prisoner Exploitation

Not only do we have the largest percentage of the American population incarcerated but there is also a booming manufacturing industry that is growing around this prison industrial complex. This prison industry employs nearly 3/4 of a million people out of the a prisoner population of 2 million people which is "more than any Fortune 500 corporation, other than General Motors."

Prisoners manufacture goods "everything from blue jeans, to auto parts, to electronics and furniture" at dirt cheap wages since they are produced for exports (domestic goods produced by prisoners have to be paid "prevailing wages"). One such blatant example of how prisoners are being exploited for cheap labor is when Honda paid prisoner inmates $2 an hour to do the same job an autoworker would get paid $20-$30 to do.

Many of these prisoners involved in this work are serving non-violent crimes. In America in general, among our prisoner population, 76% of those incarcerated are in for non-violent crimes.

Unfortunately this industry will be expanding becoming "one of America's most important growth industries." It will help support the prisoner system which is expected to "double in the next 10 years" because of our war on drugs and tough mandatory sentencing. At the same time, our prisons have become overcrowded and neglected . Thus the industry is being used to pay for our reckless, racially biased criminal justice policies and our high-levels of incarceration which in themselves don't reduce crime rates in this country.

Interestingly enough though, many prisoners enjoy the work. Tony Matos an inmate says "When we step through the gates and into the shop, it's another world. This is a company. This isn't prison. Guards still keep watch, the capitalists still profit -- the critics and supporters still debate. But in the end, I get a skill, a few coins and a ray of hope and dignity." Though its important to keep prisoners busy, corporations should pay them atleast minimum wage if not a living wage considering they get alot out of this form of labor. This is just another way corporations undermine working people in this country by turning to dirt cheap prison labor. Not only does this undermine working people in this country but it also seems like more of an incentive for companies to push various levels of government for "tougher" criminal sentencing laws to expand that pool.

Youth and the US anti-war movement

People may be wondering where the American anti-war movement is especially when over 60% of the US public disapprove of the way the Iraqi War is being handled, 72% of American troops think the military should leave Iraq in the next year and sectarian violence continues to spiral out of control.

Well it happens to be poking up beneath the surface in local counter-recruitment campaigns: "Mass national protests didn't sway the Bush administration, so young organizers have focused on local counter-recruitment campaigns."

The US Military has become increasingly desperate for new recruits since "the Air National Guard missed its recruiting target by 14 percent last year, and the Army missed its goal by 8 percent, its largest recruitment failure since 1979." As a result, they have eased restrictions on military recruits by "allowing young men and women with criminal records to enlist, recruiting members of hate groups, easing restrictions on recruiting high school dropouts and raising the maximum recruitment age from 35 to 42." The US Military enlistment push has shot their recruitment costs up to $3 billion.

Organizations like Not Your Soldier and STORY Collaborative are trying to counter US military enlistment initiatives targeted at economically disadvantaged youths through education training camps about the brutal reality of military life. They bring youths together with Iraqi veterans to discuss The aims of these groups can be summed up in this poignant quote from Ruckus Society founder John Sellers:
" 'During Vietnam, we had the draft. Now we have the poverty draft. But we think that, by making all of the military recruiters miss their quotas, that's going to impact how Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney are going to view this war -- if they have less cannon fodder at their disposal.' "

Yet the weakness in these counter-recruitment education campaigns is exactly what makes the military recruiter's message so powerful to many individuals: economic opportunity. So an organization called smartMeme is trying to make an alternative for those who would be forced into military service as a result of economic necessity. They are building a network of organizations -- nonprofits, for-profits, institutions, businesses, farms and more -- that are willing to provide another option to young people who feel that they have no choice but to enlist.

If our politicians continue to waver on the military involvement in the Iraqi War, ordinary people will work to resist the military-industrial complex.

Even Iraqi veterans and military servicepeople are turning on the war. Lt. Ehren Watada refused to be deployed in Iraq and as a result is now the first officer in the war to face court martial charges. He calls on other soldiers to resist fighting in this war:
"The idea is this: that to stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it. They must remember duty to the Constitution and the people supersede the ideologies of their leadership. The soldier must be willing to face ostracism by their peers, worry over the survival of their families, and of course the loss of personal freedom. They must know that resisting an authoritarian government at home is equally important to fighting a foreign aggressor on the battlefield."

Only when the American public actively protest the Iraqi war will we achieve full troop withdrawal. This is already a good sign of things to come.

Dissidents in Iran shunning the US

I think this really shows how low the USA's credibility has gone down when Iranian dissidents who want to create a better democracy in their country don't want America's help :

"they all agree that the chaos and violence that have come with US-imported democracy in neighboring Iraq and a US Middle East policy that Iranians view as uncritically supportive of Israel -- especially during the war in Lebanon -- have darkened Iranians' view of the United States."

I wouldn't blame them either for feeling that way. They want democracy on their own terms. Iranians know that the US deposed a democratically elected government through CIA activities in 1953 and installed the Shah. These events led to the theocracy we see in Iran today.

The US has done nothing in the Middle East but create chaos through both direct inteference and also lack there of in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. That is the true failure of the "Bush doctrine." The fact that we are viewed as aggressors, especially in Iraq, and again I wouldn't disagree. Iran has even benefited, as a recent British think tank reported, from our "War on Terror" which solidified the country's position as a regional power.

What is hopeful in Iran is the internal social reforms that are taking place:
"Over the years, the carapace of government restrictions imposed in the name of Islamic purity has loosened, under popular pressure that Vatanparast compares to a chick bursting from an eggshell: 'People are pushing from inside. [The shell] is getting thinner and thinner.' " It is slight but hopefully there will more to come in Iran. It would certainly reduce tensions in the Middle East and calm the neocons who keep calling for war in Iran.

Scary enough though, Israel may be taking military action against Iran. This is despite the fact that the US intelligence on Iran's nuclear capabilities have "significant gaps". Many experts and politicians agree that a military attack on Iran is not an option and couldn't be utilized without harmful drawbacks.

"Waging a Living"

I found out that tonight there is a documentary on PBS called "Waging a Living"

An excerpt from the synopsis:
"If you work hard, you get ahead. That's the American Dream in a nutshell — no matter what your race, color, creed or economic starting point, hard work will improve your life and increase your children's opportunities. Yet, this widely held dream is out of reach for an increasing number of working Americans.

Roger Weisberg's alarming and heart-wrenching new documentary, 'Waging a Living,' puts a human face on the growing economic squeeze that is forcing millions of workers into the ranks of the poor. Shot in the Northeast and California, the film profiles four very different Americans who work full-time but still can't make ends meet. Despite their hard work and determination, these four find themselves, as one of them observes, 'hustling backwards.'"

This looks like a very good, very important documentary that all Americans should see because as I've pointed out before, people are struggling in this economy. I urge everyone to watch this documentary!

Labor Unions on the defensive in upcoming NLRB "Kentucky River" rulings

As the NewStandard (a great independent, non profit newspaper) reports, 8 million workers could lose their union-protected collective-bargaining rights as a result of several impending National Labor Relations Board rulings in what is collectively known as the "Kentucky River" cases.

The NLRB, which is stacked with pro-business Bush appointees, could shift the definition of a "supervisor" in the workplace which, as a result of the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, would bar those with that designation from being a part of a union. Barring supervisors from unions has worked to splinter solidarity in the workplace against employers. Historically though the definition of a "supervisor" under US Labor Law has been defined as the power to hire or fire other employees. But employers are trying to change that and broaden the definition of a "supervisor" into someone who delegates responsibilities to other employees.

This is just part of a larger trend of employers in this country actively and systematically working to undermine workers' rights in tandem with weak labor laws. In 2000, Human Rights Watch published a critical report of the state of labor rights, especially the right to join and form a labor union:
"Many workers who try to form and join trade unions to bargain with their employers are spied on, harassed, pressured, threatened, suspended, fired, deported or otherwise victimized in reprisal for their exercise of the right to freedom of association."

Furthermore:
"Millions of workers are expressly barred from the law's protection of the right to organize. U.S. legal doctrine allowing employers to permanently replace workers who exercise the right to strike effectively nullifies the right."

These NLRB rulings, if they occur as expected will deprive even more workers in this country of their basic human right under the UN to take part in a labor union. Labor unions are the only institution in this country that actively fights for workers' rights. They provide workers with leverage against employers not only for better pay and benefits but also arbritary decisions such as firings. An EPI report comparing unionized and non-unionized workers in terms of salaries and benefits illustrate the importance of labor unions. It concludes that "unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree."

This comes at a time when real wages are on the decline in the US. Only those at the top of the income spectrum are receiving raises that are outpacing wages. This quote from the New York Times article sums it up best:
" wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s."

Its no surprise that this is happening at a time where trade unions power has been increasingly diminished. The article even mentions that but doesn't point out the forces in the federal government (the Bush administration) that are making things worse for trade unions like these "Kentucky Rivers" cases or, as the Human Rights Watch report points out, "Labor laws [that] have failed to keep pace with changes in the economy and new forms of employment relationships," and weak enforcement of current labor laws.

The Disgusting State of New Orleans a year after Hurrican Katrina

I found a blog entry through a live journal community of some of the horrible things that have happened in New Orleans since the disaster:
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Hurricane Katrina seems to have provided a perfect opportunity to privatize the entire city of New Orleans, starting with it's schools and housing

Schools
After Katrina, the Louisiana State government took over the New Orleans school district and fired 7,500 school employees including about 4,000 teachers. The rest were bus drivers, lunch workers, janitors, ect. According to Joe DeRose, Communications Director for the United Teachers of New Orleans:


"(These were) solid middle class employees, career professionals who had dedicated their careers to helping try to educate the children in one of the neediest cities in the country, a city with one of the highest poverty rates, as everybody saw in the days immediately following Katrina. They were treated with utter disrespect. There was no notification that they would be fired until one day in October, when the school board called a press conference, notified us about an hour before that they were going to have such a conference. Therefore, most people found out that they were being terminated on the 5:00 news. Those who didn't have TVs or weren't still living in the city found out in the newspaper the next morning or by phone calls from friends and relatives who were in touch with the media."


And now that the entire infrastructure of the school system has been anhilated, the privitization can begin. Just last week it was announced that $24 million of federal aid will be given for the development of private charter schools. None of this money is being given to public schools. Before the Hurricane there were 128 schools in New Orleans, now there are 25, and only four of them are public schools.


on a side note I thought it was interesting that Barbara Bush promised the Katrina victims that she would give to a charity to help the situation, but according to the Houston Chronicle

“Katrina funds earmarked to pay for Neil Bush’s software program. Former First Lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina fund with specific instructions that the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil. Since then, the Ignite learning program has been given to eight area schools that took in substantial numbers of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.”




Housing
In August 2005, the US Department of Housing and Urban Devlopment (HUD) reported they had 7,381 public apartments in New Orleans. Now HUD has announced it's plans to demolish the 5,000 remaining public housing units. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said: "Any New Orleans voucher recipient or public housing resident will be welcomed home." But he didn't say how they would be welcomed; apparently with bulldozers and wrecking balls.

Much of the bulldozing comes through a federal program called Hope IV, a program that destroys low income housing in the name of creating "mixed income housing". It sounds good; like something everyone can benefit from, but such is not the case. According to Bill Quigley, law professor at Loyola University, and director of the Law Clinic and the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola:


New Orleans has already experienced the tragic effects of HOPE VI. The St. Thomas Housing Development in the Irish Channel area of New Orleans was home to 1600 apartments of public housing. After St. Thomas was demolished under Hope VI, the area was called River Gardens. River Gardens is a mixed income community - home now to 60 low income families, some middle income apartments, a planned high income tower, and a tax-subsidized Wal-Mart! Our tax dollars at work – destroying not only low-income housing but neighborhood small businesses as well. Worse yet, after Katrina, the 60 low-income families in River Gardens were not even allowed back into their apartments. They were told their apartments were needed for employees of the housing authority. It took the filing of a federal complaint by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Center to get the families back into their apartments."


There has been some resistance. Last weekend there was a march in an upper-income area with the argument "If you want to mix, let's do mixed income. Let’s mix income in your community!" The group held a large banner in front of a $2 million house saying "If we're going to start mixed income, let's start here.”

I will end my rant with a quote from ten-term Republican Congressmember from Baton Rouge, Richard Baker.

“We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it. But God did.”
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these developments really bothered me because instead of helping rebuilding New Orleans and helping those who need it the, the federal and state government is exploiting the city and pushing aside low-income people (those who suffered the most because the natural disaster).

Yet unfortunately, this isn't the end of the exploitation of New Orleans and the general gulf coast area. According to a recent report by CorpWatch:

"Disaster profiteers [are] mak[ing] millions while local companies and laborers in New Orleans and the rest of the Katrina-devastated Gulf Coast region are systematically getting the short end of the stick"because of no bid contracts to companies outside of the three most effected areas (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama) and " 'contracting charge pyramids' where the companies doing the actual reconstruction work often get only a tiny (and insufficient) fraction of the taxpayer money awarded for projects and widespread non-payment of local companies and laborers, including what has been alleged to be the deliberate and systematic exploitation of immigrant workers, including undocumented individuals."

Local businesses get shunned and cheap labor is exploited. The Bush Administration at its best!

The Possible Future Democratic Congressional Majority

I found an interesting article on TomPaine.com written by Robert Reich, former secretary of Labor under Clinton. He talks about what the Democrats should avoid doing in Congress if they do succeed in becoming the majority party again following the November elections. The type of "partisan wrangling" that would bring about a host of Bush-bashing committee investigations in Congress. I agree it would back-fire on the Democrats as it did on the Republicans when they went after Clinton so incessantly.

It would not do good for the Democrats to just bash Bush if they took back Congress. Rather, as Reich writes, they should "use the two years instead to lay the groundwork for a new Democratic agenda...[in order to] put new ideas on the table... [and] frame the central issues boldly." This means taking Bush out of the equation and inserting real alternatives. I hope the Democrats can be competent enough to put forth such a coherent plan. Senator Biden's recent editorial in the Washington Post laying out an alternate plan for Iraq is an important step in the right direction for the Democrats. It is a coherent and well structured plan to come to grips with the increasing sectarian divide in Iraq.

But, as always, I do remain pessimistic about the Democratic Party. As this article from AlterNet attests, there are those inside the Democratic Party who too advance a corporate agenda akin to the Republican Party. These are Democratic consultants who switch between politicians and lobbying firms similar to that of the K Street Gang.

The report for which the article is based off of says this trend began under the Clinton Administration. It comes under the guise of "centrism" that Lieberman and Bill Clinton embraced along with the DLC; to promote narrow corporate interests over public ones. It is narrowing the gap between Republicans and Democrats into what the article called "the Beltway Party" of big money and big business.

Though I hope the Democratic Party does take the House since it will provide atleast a few degrees of change in Congress, these trends of seeping corporate interests are alarming. I think its important for people to understand this increasing corporate influence in the Democratic Party. If it continues, I think it may alienate many voters.

Bush and the Health Care Executive Order

As the Washington Post reports, Bush signed an executive order which "requires four federal agencies that oversee large health-care programs to gather information about the quality and price of care, and to share that information with one another and with program beneficiaries."

The article claims that "the initiative underscores Bush's belief that the nation's health-care system would be more efficient if consumers could shop for the best care at the best price, administration officials say."

Bush is quoted saying "The fact is, if you have excellent information about quality, about service and about price, people make good decisions"

Yet this philosophy isn't going to make health care affordable to the over 40 million American citizens who are uninsured. Furthermore, the the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens. We end up paying more partly because our large number of uninsure citizens; $41 billion a year .

In the same article, Bush touts his health savings account "would go a long way to making consumers more interested in the cost of their health care." Yet a recent study published in "Health Affairs" rebukes that claim as one of the authors says:
“It’s hard to shop on price because the information currently available isn’t set up that way. You can know the cost of a doctor’s visit but if something is wrong and you must be treated, the costs for a course of future events is hard to assess ahead of time. It’s not like buying a car or a house.”

Furthermore, the study found that:
"HSAs and the high-deductible health-insurance plans they’re paired with can reduce the cost sharing for enrollees who spend the most and the least on healthcare, but increase it for the majority of people who fall in the middle."

Thus these health savings accounts aren't the "change agent" to reduce total medical costs in this country.

Pattern of Iraqi sectarian violence entering a "new phase"

According to an article on opendemocracy.net:

"The available evidence suggests that the war in Iraq has indeed recently entered a new phase, which will prove to be even bloodier than anything that the country has seen before. Over the past few months, guerrillas have been flowing into Baghdad from the north, west and south and have started engaging each other with a view to eliminating each other from the streets of the capital. The groups that are engaged in this struggle are working to eliminate their rivals altogether, one neighbourhood at a time."

Even scarier is the fact that Baghdad has "deliberately been transformed into a battlefield in which each party is attempting to ethnically cleanse the city of all its armed and civilian rivals."

The article goes on to discuss the evolution of the sectarian violence since the beginning of the US occupation in Iraq with the initial Sunni insurgency, to the rise of Shiite fundamentalist parties to power through parliamentary elections and the Shiite death squads that accompanied them, and the failures of the Iraqi political process to stem the sectarian violence.

Even worse is, as the article points out, is the "relative inability" of the American military to stem this current wave of violence in Iraq:
"There are simply too many fighters in the city, and their desire to control Baghdad is too great to subdue."


Just as Iraq is entering a "new phase" in sectarian violence, the US needs to enter in a new phase in its Iraq policy. We need to start thinking about an exit strategy rather then the "staying the course" mentality which obviously is leading down a path of chaos and destruction in Iraq. The presence of the American military clearly isn't a deterrent to the militias fighting in Iraq so setting a timetable for removing troops in Iraq wouldn't be, as many Republicans claim , playing into the hands of the terrorists. Rather there is growing resentment in Iraq over an "open-ended occupation." Most Iraq leaders have already asked the US to draw up a time table for military withdrawal. The sooner the US government comes to grips with this reality the better even though Bush says we will be in Iraq as long as he is president. I hope a change in Congress in November says otherwise along with the American people's ability to express their discontent through protests and demonstrations.

An article in "Time" further illustrates the difficulties in curbing violence in Iraq.

Welfare Reform and the "Shift in Policy and Perception"

When reading the NY Times article about the impact of welfare reform, its important to understand several things:

Yes "the number of people on welfare has plunged to 4.4 million, down 60 percent. Employment of single mothers is up. Child support collections have nearly doubled."

But as the article also states the booming economy in which welfare reform coincided with this which " created more jobs for single mothers surging into the work force." Thus as our economy has slowed down after 2001 "many of the most positive trends slowed" down as well.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a great report that highlight the weaknesses of TANF especially in a time when our economy is on the downturn. Employment rate is on the decline for single-mothers. At the same time, child poverty especially deep poverty (income below half the poverty line) increased by 774,000 while assistance from TANF declined. Thus the TANF has failed to serve "as a bulwark against deep poverty for many children."

The scariest development under TANF is that it is helping a smaller slice of eligible impoverished families. Participation has fallen from 80 percent in the early 90s (under the old welfare system) to 48 percent in 2002 under state eligibilitiy rules. This drop in participation accounts for 57 percent of the decline in welfare caseloads in the first decade of the TANF which in turn reflects "a decline in the extent to which TANF programs serve families that are poor enough to qualify, rather than to a reduction in the number of families who are poor enough to qualify for aid."
Thus the central aim of welfare-to-work in TANF isn't bringing people out of poverty rather stingier state requirements are preventing impoverished families from gaining help.

The Squeezing of the Middle Class

While our foreign policy suffers in Iraq and Lebanon, prosperity at home in the US is on the decline. An article from Newsweek begins with this staggering statement:

"For the first time ever recorded, Americans owe more money than they make. Household debt levels have now surpassed household income by more than eight percent, reaching 108.4 percent in 2005, according to a May 2006 study by the Center for American Progress. Consumer debt is now at a record $2.17 trillion, reports the Federal Reserve Board and consumers cashed out a whopping $431 billion in home equity last year. "

This is because "wages have been stagnant and they're losing the battle to keep up with the cost of living" as "prices have risen in the face of a very weak labor market."

Thus the good shape that our economy is deceptive since "it's really a corporate decision where the money is going, and right now it's really going more toward corporations and CEO pay than toward increasing wages and benefits."

Other corporations, as an article in Slate reports, including high-end places like Starbucks, Whole Foods, and William-Sonoma are feeling the squeeze since even well-off consumers are "reining in spending."

At the same time, a "nationwide debt collection industry... has exploded in size and profits." The Boston Globe profiled this industry in a 4 part article series illustrating its unscrupulous, predatory practices that exacerbate those in debt along with a system (especially in Massachussetts) that is stacked up against those in debt:
"the Federal Trade Commission, which is charged with enforcing a federal law that regulates the behavior of debt collectors, has done little in the face of an explosion of consumer outrage. From 1998 to 2005, the number of consumer complaints about debt collectors soared tenfold, from 6,678 to 66,627. Yet, in the last six years, the FTC has taken enforcement action against just 10 companies."

While "this year, an estimated 20 million Americans are three months or more past due on credit card accounts alone."

This looks like a sure fire path towards recession

Those reckless Bush tax-cut haven't done anything for middle-class Americans, instead The Republican- dominated Congress made it more difficult for individuals to declare bankruptcy from lenders with the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005

This country really does need a new direction in Congress because the majority of people are suffering under the status quo.

Shiites push partition of Iraq

The LA Times reports a scary development in Iraq:
"Leaders of Iraq's powerful Shiite Muslim political bloc have begun aggressively promoting a radical plan to partition the country as a way of separating the warring sects. Some Iraqis are even talking about dividing the capital, with the Tigris River as a kind of Berlin Wall."

I've thought that the country would be better off partitioned along secretarian line since it was arbritrarily put together by western Europeans powers but the disproportional placement of valuable resources in the north and the south like oil and gas would leave the Sunni central area at a severe disadvantage.

I think it just illustrates the growing civil war in Iraq. If things aren't settled soon, I think Shiites will start to demand partition with military force: "rival Shiite militias with ties to political parties in government appear to be responsible for as much of Iraq's violence as Sunni insurgents are, and have been known to turn their guns on one another."

At this point, I think we can start withdrawing troops out of Iraq. I don't think that our high-level of military presence in Iraq is really having an impact where it matters and where the violence is at its worst- Baghdad. The best way we can have an impact in Iraq at this point is diplomatically rather than militarily. The US military can't settle the political and secretarian issues that trouble Iraq. I just hope Congress doesn't drag its heels on this issue and the victory of the anti-war Democratic Senate candidate Ned Lamont over Joe Lieberman yesterday is the beginning of a change in our foreign policy in Iraq. The public has increasingly turned on the War in Iraq as a recent poll shows that 60% of Americans are opposed to it. Furthermore "a majority of poll respondents said they would support the withdrawal of at least some U.S. troops by the end of the year." I hope Congress will be respondent to this change in public opinion and start withdrawing our troops.

There already are some signs of this. Recently, House and Senate Democratic leaders came together to sign a letter calling for Bush to begin withdrawing troops. This is a big step for Democrats who are constantly disconjointed when it comes to these issues. As Robert Dreyfuss writes:
"the Democratic leadership has drawn a line in the sand. On one side are the Republicans, arguing: Stay the course. On the other side, there are the Democrats, saying: Get out. That is a difference that even the most obtuse voter can get a handle on. It sets the stage for a bitter, take-no-prisoners battle over Iraq over the next three months. It is going to get ugly."

This is a step in the right direction for the Democratic Party. It needs , as ironically former Senator Barry Goldwater said, to "offer a choice, not an echo" for America to win back this country. Iraq is a good jumping point for that path.

FAIR gives historical context for the Israeli-Lebanon Conflict

I found this interesting article on FAIR's (fairness and accuracy in reporting) website which gives a better context for this conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. It illustrates how Israel wasn't completely innocent leading up to this conflict. One of the most interesting parts is this:

"A major incident fueling the latest cycle of violence was a May 26, 2006 car bombing in Sidon, Lebanon, that killed a senior official of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group allied with Hezbollah. Lebanon later arrested a suspect, Mahmoud Rafeh, whom Lebanese authorities claimed had confessed to carrying out the assassination on behalf of Mossad (London Times, 6/17/06)." So Israel did in an indirect manner provoke Hezbollah. As a result of this event "on May 28, Lebanese militants in Hezbollah-controlled territory fired Katyusha rockets at a military vehicle and a military base inside Israel. Israel responded with airstrikes against Palestinian camps deep inside Lebanon, which in turn were met by Hezbollah rocket and mortar attacks on more Israeli military bases, which prompted further Israeli airstrikes and "a steady artillery barrage at suspected Hezbollah positions" (New York Times, 5/29/06).

Yet unfortunately, these events between Israel and Lebanon which were obviously written about in the media, were not a part of the discussion a when Hezbollah attacked Israeli soldiers. The current conflict has been "portrayed in U.S. media as beginning with an attack out of the blue by Hezbollah."

Not only that but " 'Of all of Israel’s wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared,' Gerald Steinberg, a political science professor at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, told the San Francisco Chronicle (7/21/05). 'By 2004, the military campaign scheduled to last about three weeks that we’re seeing now had already been blocked out and, in the last year or two, it’s been simulated and rehearsed across the board.' " Thus the Hezbollah attack was just an excuse for Israel to go into Lebanon.

I've always felt that many times events portrayed in the media lack that important context in which to understand them. This time it is detrimental to the American public and its understanding of the current situation in the Middle East.

States struggling under Welfare Changes

This article in the Washington Post, is just another example of this Congress screwing over those in poverty. This Republican-dominated Congress and administration is again passing the buck to states and showing their brand of neglected federalism:

"By Oct. 1, state and local welfare offices must figure out how to steer hundreds of thousands of low-income adults into jobs or longer work hours. They also must adjust to limits on the length of time people on welfare can devote to trying to shed drug addictions, recover from mental illnesses or get an education" because of "new rules, written by Congress and the Bush administration [that] require states to focus intensely on making more poor people work, while discouraging other activities that might help untangle their lives."

Republicans look at those in poverty in such a narrow manner by thinking that the only thing they can do is get crappy low-wage jobs. These new regulations that they set in phase out other ways that those living in poverty can improve their lives. Furthermore, you can't force people to get jobs when they are unable to. According to the EPI, "a large number of TANF [the US Welfare system] recipients experience 'barriers to employment'—circumstances that make it more difficult (or impossible) to find and maintain a job" including "physical or mental health problems, a low level of skills, domestic violence, limited English proficiency, lack of reliable transportation, unaffordable child care, and inadequate housing." Thus poverty doesn't just entail whether you are working or not, it encompasses a variety of aspects that make an individual more economically vulnerable to poverty. These "barriers to employment" can be improved by providing "work supports in order to secure and maintain jobs that pay an adequate wage. For example, women who receive child care subsidies are twice as likely to remain employed after two years than those who do not. And those who receive employer-provided health insurance are 2.6 times more likely to remain employed after two years."

Furthermore, I think its hypocritical of these Republicans who preach the conservative message of "states rights" and less federal mandates to use the federal government including the Department of Health and Human Services which "issued [in late June] strict new rules defining what counts as work -- and who must be counted" and the Republican-controlled Congress which in a recent bill signed into law "compel states to find jobs for fully half their adult clients, and they increase the required work hours from 20 hours per week to 30."

If you are interested in poverty issues, I read over the summer a great book about poverty in America called One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All by Professor Mark Robert Rank. It will truly change your perspective of how poverty works in America and why we need to address the issue in this country. Some of the most startling stats from the author's research is that 3/4 of all Americans between the ages of 20 and 75 will spend a year of their lives in poverty and 2/3 willl use a welfare program such as food stamps.