Two days after Big Bob Chicken Day and three days before Christmas 2003, the U.S. Department of Defense sent Axion Corp. owner Alex Latifi a frantic request. U.S. troops in Iraq were rolling into battle in underequipped Humvees. Huntsville, Ala.-based Axion had a contract to build Humvee machine-gun mounts. The deadline was weeks away, but Defense needed them now.
Axion’s 61 workers met some grueling deadlines that December. Latifi treated them to juicy chicken and fluffy lemon pie from Big Bob Gibson’s joint. He offered overtime, a $100 bonus and a turkey to anyone willing to work Christmas.
“Our fighting men and women are in danger,” Latifi, a naturalized American citizen born in Iran, told workers. “Do it for your country.”
Everyone volunteered.
“He’s the best boss any of us ever had,” former Axion employee Connie Kidd says. “We’d work on Christmas, even without poultry.”
Just five months later, federal investigators raided Axion and Latifi was caught in a four-year investigation involving the Army Criminal Investigation Command, FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, NASA, a hazmat team, IRS, Alabama Bureau of Investigation and U.S. postal inspectors. The U.S. Department of Justice sent lawyers from its National Security Division to help U.S. Attorney Alice Martin prosecute Latifi on charges that a report he filed was falsified and a drawing of a Black Hawk helicopter part he sent to China was classified.
Latifi, 61, faced up to 40 years in prison if convicted on all charges. His assets were frozen; records, computers and cell phones seized.
Preparing for trial, Latifi’s lawyers were stunned by the first entry in the lead investigator’s official notebook. “It said Latifi was a Democrat and gave $30,000 to a Democratic politician’s charity for abused children,” says Jim Barger, an associate at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.
The trial was potholed with crazy. The government’s key informant was a fired company secretary convicted of stealing from Axion and forging Latifi’s signature. She said on the witness stand she sabotaged Axion records. The judge excluded a top government fraud attorney from court for bizarre conduct. The drawing at issue was marked both “unclassified” and “uncontrolled.” China owns Black Hawk helicopters and can examine the part anytime it wants.
After a seven-day October 2007 trial, Latifi was acquitted of all charges. But his business is gone.
The strange case seems to bring up some crucial questions about how DOJ pursues arms export prosecutions, though DOJ spokesman Dean Boyd disagrees. (“You should not be writing about this case! It’s weird! It’s an anomaly. It’s a weird anomaly!” he fumes.) But the U.S. Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating defense attorneys’ charges that Martin launched a political and baseless prosecution of Latifi. And arms control lawyers—a scant but growing breed—are following the case avidly.
Martin was appointed U.S. attorney for northern Alabama by President George W. Bush and took office 18 days after 9/11. In 2007 an Alabama GOP operative testified before a House Judiciary Committee that Martin and another Alabama U.S. attorney wrongly prosecuted former Democratic Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman at the behest of Bush’s deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove.
Martin denies all charges of political bias. Before she could indict Latifi on arms export control charges, she says, the National Security Division reviewed the evidence and gave its required approval.
Latifi is the only defendant to prevail in the 100 arms export cases Justice pursued last year, and he questions the department’s priorities.
“I never failed a quality inspection,” Latifi says, still distraught. “I produce better parts than the Pentagon specs require. While they were investigating me, huge contractors were electrocuting soldiers in Iraq with bad wiring and making them sick with contaminated water. How many would be alive if the U.S. spent the resources thrown at me on investigating those contractors?”
Martin told the ABA Journal, “If KBR or Halliburton committed an illegal act in my jurisdiction in Alabama, I would have prosecuted them. I prosecuted the case that was brought before me.”
BROKEN LIVES
Former Axion workers sit in their empty factory, telling a reporter about their former jobs.
Sean Bailey, 36, was an outstanding Axion employee. “I had appreciation stars for good work all over my shirt,” Bailey says, his smile as sweet as Alabama’s Red Mountain honey. “I never had a dad, so Mr. Latifi was like my father. I helped make this” —Bailey grabs a helicopter seat—“for our soldiers. If a copter crashed, maybe the man could survive.”
Bailey runs his hand across the seat, smile fading. “When Axion closed, I had to sell my vehicle and my home. My wife walked out. The end came so fast.”
Former line manager Wayne Smart is also struggling in a harsh economy. As Smart discusses Axion, his foot begins bleeding. He cut it hooking an abandoned car to his pickup.
“I earn money trading scrap metal for cash,” Smart says. “It’s hard. I almost lost my house. So many people are picking up scrap metal now, there’s not much left.”
The workers’ unlikely mentor was Alex Latifi. Latifi grew up in Iran, the son of an Arab sheik who hunted wild boar with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf’s father. He came to America in 1971 to study engineering at the University of Alabama. He married his classmate Beth and became a citizen in 1982. His company eventually earned $4 million in annual revenues focusing on small parts.
Latifi’s strength was deconstructing parts to find ways to make them quicker and better. All defense contractors are scrutinized by Defense Department quality assurance representatives who make scheduled and surprise inspections of parts and shipments. They pore over all paperwork, especially test reports.
Latifi’s QAR was Henry Stickrod, a tough ex-Navy chief petty officer who slapped 50 cents on the table whenever Latifi offered him coffee.
“Alex got so involved in improving a part, required paperwork would pile up—common for small contractors,” Stickrod says. “The contracting system favors giant contractors with teams of secretaries.”
Three times, Stickrod killed Latifi’s contracts when he thought Latifi would miss paperwork deadlines. “But Alex fulfilled hundreds of other contracts making a much improved, cheaper part,” Stickrod says.
Ironically, the Black Hawk part—a bifilar weight assembly used to help stabilize copter blades—that put Latifi in Martin’s crosshairs was a success for the U.S. Army. The assembly is made from tungsten.
Contractors typically buy tungsten in 185-pound blocks, whittle it into shape and charge about $4,500 per part. Leftover shavings are molded to create another part. The Army basically pays twice for the same tungsten. Latifi found a Chinese supplier selling 22-pound chunks. Whittling smaller blocks halves production time; Latifi could charge just $2,860 per part.
Latifi asked if the supplier could machine the tungsten before shipping. The Chinese asked for a drawing of the part.
Black Hawk parts are on a U.S. Army CD labeled “for official government business only.” The Defense Department requires each drawing too sensitive to be shown to foreigners be stamped with a “classified” warning. The assembly drawing was unstamped. Latifi hired a mechanical engineer to create a dumbed-down drawing to send to China.
But Axion secretary Elizabeth Lemay was giving federal agents a different story. In October 2003, while embezzling from Axion, Lemay contacted the FBI. She was fired in February 2004 for stealing $12,730 from Axion. At her arrest, Lemay told police, “Before you put on the handcuffs, you better call the FBI. This is bigger than you.”
Lemay’s three-year jail sentence was suspended. She and her probation officer did not respond to requests for an interview.
This summer, the team that won the Latifi case dines al fresco at the trendy Hot and Hot Fish Club, ignoring thunder, rain pelting patio umbrellas and heat lightning shimmering in the twilight. The attorneys are too happy to notice.
“Here’s to love of justice crossing political boundaries,” Henry Frohsin toasts. “Our team includes a Yellow Dog Democrat [Frohsin], two young independents [Barger and Elliott Walthall] and a devout Republican who’s a former Miss Alabama beauty queen [Catherine Long]. When pretrial stress built too much, Catherine put on a swimsuit and sash and played piano. Deeply disturbing. She wore her tiara to celebrate the acquittal.”
Long rolls her eyes and says, “My role in this law firm family is younger sister with obnoxious big brothers.”
They were all working in Baker Donelson’s Birmingham office in 2004 when Latifi contacted Frohsin, a shareholder at the firm and a former U.S. attorney. Long and Walthall had not yet graduated from law school. They missed day two of the 2007 trial to be inducted into the bar.
PROBE BEGINS
The year martin launched a full-blown investigation of Latifi, the DOJ ramped up regional task forces and working groups to help U.S. attorneys prosecute arms export cases. Wendy Wysong, a partner at the Washington, D.C., office of Clifford Chance, prosecuted arms export cases while at the U.S. Commerce Department. She says in 2004 the obscure field of law became the hot, starmaking field for U.S. attorneys.
When Lemay contacted the FBI in 2003, agents passed her to the Army Criminal Investigation Command, still known by its old acronym CID, in Alabama. CID became the lead agency in the investigation.
That’s highly unusual, says Larry Mackey, a partner at the Indianapolis office of Barnes & Thornburg and former federal prosecutor who convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Normally, the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement lead such an investigation. “CID serves the role of police detective, investigating rapes, murders, armory robberies on military bases, payroll fraud,” Mackey says.
CID public affairs chief Christopher Grey declined to comment on Latifi’s case but said, “Our major procurement fraud unit helps to recover about $130 million annually from individuals and companies involved in contract fraud—all this with less than 100 special agents.”
During discovery, Frohsin and Barger asked for the notebooks of all investigating agents. Barger says Assistant U.S. Attorney David Estes refused to let them photocopy the material.
“He said we would have to stay inside the evidence room and take notes,” Barger says. “When we got there, hundreds of files and investigators’ notebooks from other cases covered our work table and overflowed out of open boxes. Not exactly a tight ship.”
The Defense Department continued buying Axion parts as the investigation trudged into 2005. Estes is an Army National Guard lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq from November 2004 to November 2005. While he was gone, Martin had another assistant U.S. attorney bring Latifi’s case to a grand jury.
There was no indictment. Investigators kept foraging.
June 7, 2006, was the day Latifi says killed Axion. Agents from 10 federal entities executed a second search warrant. This time, agents didn’t simply copy Axion computer hard drives. They seized all Axion computers, files and disks. They seized Axion cell phones as well as those belonging to every Latifi family member and carted all the computers out of Latifi’s home. Martin froze $2.5 million in assets belonging to Axion and Latifi.
Yet Defense still continued buying parts from Axion. Latifi cashed in retirement savings to pay his workers and vendors. But without his computers and records, fulfilling contracts became impossible. In December 2006, he finally had to let his workers go. He paid them for Christmas.
The investigation continued into 2007.
“Can you imagine if the feds seized Lockheed Martin’s or ITT’s assets and computer system—without any charges—while the government investigated?” Frohsin asks. “Every lobbyist in D.C. would howl until the feds backed down. We asked Martin to put up or shut up.”
ILL-TIMED PHILANTHROPY
Latifi’s generosity also brought trouble with the prosecutors. Back when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in Iran in 1979, some of Latifi’s relatives were murdered for being pro-American. Latifi kept in touch with family and friends and tried to help in any way he legally could. After a nephew died because he could not be evacuated to a hospital, Latifi pledged $250,000 to an Iranian charity for medical evacuation helicopters.
His business attorney and friend, Jerome Gabig, says the gesture was “generous and really stupid.”
The 2005 donation was legal, but Gabig reminded Latifi he was under a microscope and begged him to wait. Latifi felt the investigation would drag on forever.
“I’m a West Point graduate; I bleed red, white and blue,” Gabig says. “Alex kept saying he trusted justice in America to protect his rights. But we’re in a war. That check rang warning bells with Dave Estes at exactly the wrong moment,” Gabig says.
Elliott Walthall, Jim Barger, Henry Frohsin,
Catherine Long
Photo by J. Hanshaw, Photography Inc.
Estes agrees. “We thought he might be moving assets to Iran,” says Estes. “I called in the IRS to investigate him as well.” The IRS found no evidence of criminal conduct.
On March 30, 2007, Martin announced an indictment of Latifi and Axion on six counts of export control violations and filing false test reports.
Barger did a computer search on the Black Hawk part’s serial number to show Estes the drawing was sold online by reputable publishers and thus in the public domain. The men discussed Axion, rather than Latifi, pleading guilty to a count that would take prison off the table.
“Estes called me back and said Alice would not accept any plea that didn’t include Latifi,” Barger says.
Frohsin wanted a forgery expert to examine the fraudulent test report Latifi allegedly signed. Latifi said Lemay forged his signature. Opposing counsel gathered for a conference call.
“Alice Martin said something at this meeting that forced me to file a complaint against her with [the Office of Professional Responsibility]; my sworn duty as an officer of the court left me no choice,” Frohsin says.
Frohsin asked whether prosecutors would drop a related charge if handwriting experts declared the signature a forgery. According to the Baker Donelson lawyers, Martin replied, “We don’t care if Latifi is innocent. Our goal is to put him out of business.”
When asked later by telephone whether she made that statement, there is utter silence for a long moment.
“If you know someone is a bank robber,” Martin said carefully, “then you want to put him out of the business of robbing banks, no matter what.”
Martin says she remembers her sentiment, not her exact wording.
After their conference call, Frohsin called his troops to his office and said, “Tape your ankles. We’re hittin’ the field for the big game.”
TRIAL TIME
Trial began on a glum, rain-soaked day. Long wrestled exhibits up the stairs (the elevator was broken) to the tiny Florence, Ala., courtroom where U.S. District Judge Inge Johnson heard Latifi’s case.
Frohsin decided against a jury, fearing escalating casualties in Iraq might spark bias against a defendant from the Middle East. He was further convinced by several courtroom spectators: They often wore matching polo shirts; they muttered “ass- hole” and “bastard” whenever Barger or Frohsin stood up. A courthouse staffer who approached an unruly group member says the man growled and yipped like a rabies-riddled Yorkie.
Frohsin called them “nutjobs.”
They were not nutjobs. They were government employees who worked for the Defense Contract Management Agency, the federal agency charged with supervising defense contractors, from titans like KBR and Halliburton to mom-and-pops.
In 2004, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that DCMA was too ill-equipped to tackle critical problems with defense contractor fraud and abuse in Iraq. More recently, DCMA was cited in a New York Times article about faulty electrical wiring installed by KBR that killed U.S. soldiers in Iraq in 2006 and 2007. The Times reported a DCMA official said DCMA and KBR had been “fully aware” of the electrical problems before they resulted in soldiers’ deaths in 2007.
Those same years, DCMA was helping Estes search for evidence of fraud in Latifi’s paperwork. DCMA fraud attorney Gill Bass sat behind Estes in the courtroom.
INAUSPICIOUS START
On the trial’s first day, the court received letters for a would-be witness who had worked with Latifi and conveyed some of Lemay’s tips against Axion to investigators. The letters, delivered by the witness’s husband and from her doctor and a psychologist, said she was too mentally unstable to testify.
On day three of the trial, Beth Latifi claimed Bass told her daughters their dad would die in prison. They sobbed. A court deputy demanded Bass’s business card and deemed her behavior “obnoxious.”
The judge, Frohsin and Estes met in chambers.
“I think the best thing to do is put [Bass] out of the courtroom,” Johnson said, according to case transcripts. “I have no doubt she is doing what Mr. Frohsin is saying.”
Estes said when he turned to look at the spectators, he saw Bass talking to one of Latifi’s daughters.
Frohsin added, helpfully: “She has been acting bizarre all week long. She blurts out in that courtroom and she calls me a son of a bitch. She calls me an asshole.” During the trial, the Latifis and their attorneys said Bass often punched the air with her fist and said, “Yesssssss!”
DCMA public affairs chief Richard Cole, in an e-mail response to ABA Journal questions, said, “Ms. Bass denies screaming at any time during the trial or calling anyone names. She was not present in chambers when the transcript pages you refer to were transcribed, but takes issue with what was stated. As to court personnel stating she was rude when she was approached, Ms. Bass said the individual never identified herself before asking questions.”
Cole added, “She also denies having any conversation with the defendant’s family even though she sat in the same row as the Latifi family in the courtroom.” Bass was not made available for comment for this story.
After the morning brouhaha, Lemay testified. Barger says she was smug and cocky. She threw Estes, too, when he asked whether Latifi submitted a fraudulent test report. She testified she didn’t know whether that was true.
Frohsin asked her about the tips she gave CID and the FBI; she repeatedly replied, “I don’t recall.”
Frohsin asked whether she recalled anything she said to the lead CID investigator.
“No, I don’t,” Lemay said.
“Do you have a memory problem, ma’am?” Frohsin asked, exasperated.
“As a matter of fact, I do.” Lemay replied.
Lemay did admit to altering and sabotaging Axion files and computer records. This proved useful to another prosecution target, Kary Warren, a small Huntsville defense contractor who sometimes tested Axion parts.
During the April 2004 raid on Axion, the doorbell rang at Warren’s home. His wife thought it was the Avon lady. She found 10 government agents lugging a battering ram onto her porch.
“The prosecutors said they knew Alex must be guilty of fraud,” Warren says. “How else could he afford to make Cadillac parts for Kia prices?”
Some DCMA investigators were convinced Warren was a member of a mosque because he was a Shriner. An Alabama law enforcement officer persuaded the DCMA agents that Shriners were a nationwide charitable group that has funded U.S. children’s hospitals and burn units since 1922.
Lemay had told investigators Warren turned in a test report without doing the test. Warren did the test, but days earlier Latifi had badgered him for an in-house progress report. Warren was swamped. To get his colleague off his back, he wrote Latifi a note saying the test was done.
Warren thought he could go to prison for that note.
“I couldn’t afford a lawyer; I was facing five years in prison and a $100,000 fine,” says Warren, a strapping man who played football for the University of Alabama. Tears spill down his cheeks. “The prosecutors said if I pled guilty to falsifying a report, I’d just pay a $300 fine.”
On the stand, Warren couldn’t remember the dates he performed the tests, only that it was before deer season and after dove season. Judge Johnson, a hunter, was familiar with the seasons.
Between them, the hunters in court established that Warren had completed the tests at the proper time.
Warren later was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea by U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon, who said an innocent man deserves no punishment. However, Warren was forced to sell his business and lay off half his workers to pay legal fees.
UNCLASSIFIED DRAWING
On day five came the “gotcha” moment. The State Department determines what military parts are prohibited for export. Restrictions vary year to year according to who is in the White House and which countries have warming or chilling relationships with the United States.
Estes called State Department trade expert Mal Zerden. Prosecutors made an enormous blow-up copy of the Black Hawk part drawing for Zerden to discuss.
Kary Warren
Photo by J. Hanshaw Photography Inc.
Barger had not had time to study it, so he went through the drill, asking Zerden to confirm it was not stamped as classified.
“Just as a wrap-up I asked if he noticed any noteworthy stampings,” Barger says. Barger expected to get a no and sit down.
But Zerden scrutinized the drawing and offered this: “On the bottom left, it does say ‘unclassified’ and has a long number, ‘uncontrolled when printed,’ then has some more numbers.”
The courtroom became dead silent. The DCMA workers were living statues. Lawyers had not spotted the phrase mired in fine print and jargon.
The judge climbed down from the bench to look at the telltale phrase.
Estes objected that they were all misinterpreting uncontrolled and unclassified. But even if Estes were correct, Barger scored a decisive point. The State Department’s own expert thought the drawing was unclassified, so why shouldn’t an Alabama defense contractor share the same conclusion?
When she acquitted Latifi of all charges, Johnson called the U.S. attorney’s case “sloppy.” Martin’s office posted notice of the acquittal two months later. Johnson awarded Latifi almost $364,000 in legal fees under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act.
PROSECUTORS TALK
National security division attorney Mariclaire Rourke, who assisted Estes on the case, did not respond to interview requests. OPR e-mailed a statement about its investigation of Martin for the Siegelman case when asked about Latifi.
In a phone interview in July, Martin deferred to Estes as the case’s point man on most questions. Estes is distressed that his honor has been impugned.
“My reputation has been spotless!” he says. “Mr. Latifi is a criminal. I don’t regret anything I’ve done.”
Estes has 23 years of military experience. He notes that lives depend on the military to be able to pinpoint every vendor and contractor involved in producing a part in case something malfunctions. He insists the only way Latifi could afford to offer budget prices to Defense was to use repurposed parts or inadequate testing.
“I had a witness, Levi Weir, who said he quit Axion because Latifi wanted him to lie,” Estes says. “But Weir died before the trial.”
Weir died after an extended illness. Stickrod knew him. Stickrod thinks Estes misunderstands the way defense contracting works and misinterpreted Weir’s frustration with Latifi’s absent-minded-professor habits. Stickrod says Weir quit Axion’s staff but worked with Axion as a consultant until he was too sick to get out of bed.
“The dirty, nasty secret of the system is gigantic contractors rip off the U.S. government,” Stickrod says. “They hate little genius engineers like Alex. Once a part is modified, they can lose money from patents. They hire lobbyists and former Defense employees to keep the system in place that keeps prices high.”
Former prosecutor Wysong estimates that 99 percent of arms control cases are settled out of court. Martin casts her decision to go to trial as a class issue: Small-business owner Warren pleads guilty, so why should CEO Latifi be allowed a special plea?
Both Martin and Estes still think Latifi’s drawing enables the Chinese to make a Black Hawk part.
“Here’s a woman’s analogy: If you gave someone a picture of a dress but not the pattern, they couldn’t duplicate the dress,” Martin says.
There are skilled designers who can do that.
“Then it would be like giving someone a picture of a cake but not the recipe,” Martin says. “The part on the helicopter is the cake. The drawing is the recipe.”
Martin is a graduate of Vanderbilt University who worked her way through the University of Mississippi law school as a nurse. She made headlines when Alabama GOP operative Jill Simpson swore that Martin and U.S. Attorney Laura Canary prosecuted former Democratic Gov. Siegelman at the direction of Rove and GOP consultant Bill Canary, Laura’s husband.
“This is actually more painful than a root canal because at least the dentist gives you Novocain,” Martin says, in a second, solo interview. “I don’t know Jill Simpson. I have never met Karl Rove or been in the same building with him, to my knowledge. When I ran for elective office, I got some names of consultants from Bill Canary. I couldn’t afford Bill.”
She starts to name an attorney she considers a mentor, then groans. “Oh, no! I just realized his connection with Kenneth Starr probably won’t clear me with conspiracy theorists,” she says ruefully.
Her second interview coincidentally falls on a day when former DOJ official Monica Goodling’s political vetting is in headlines.
“In my heart, I see myself as a career prosecutor,” Martin says. “It’s disappointing to see that people in the department politicized hirings.”
She lists regrets she has about the Latifi trial, but they do not include going to trial.
“Well, you read the transcripts; witnesses said something completely different on the stand from what they told investigators,” Martin laments. “I wish evidentiary problems were spotted earlier. And I hope this case prompts Defense to clarify how restricted materials should be marked.”
Martin says her office is not considering any further actions against Latifi.
OPR is investigating charges that the Latifi case was an improper and abusive prosecution.
Latifi has sued to obtain Martin’s e-mails, memos and phone records regarding his case. He is suing via the rarely used Hyde Amendment, a legal mechanism that allows exonerated defendants to seek compensation from federal officials if the prosecution was “vexatious, frivolous or in bad faith.”
Meanwhile, Latifi says, he has applied for 40 defense contracts since the trial and gotten none of them.
But Latifi’s soft spot for hard-luck stories has led him to a visionary project. He once hired a downsized and unemployed engineer to do some technical drawings. The engineer now supervises a NASA project. He wants Latifi to help him test soil retrieved from Mars for traces of ancient water.
It’s not very lucrative, but Latifi glows when he talks about the work over a heap of catfish at a lakeside joint in the pine-covered hills outside Huntsville. A giant, blue neon fish winks outside.
The same engineer’s impulse to refine what he sees—what drove Latifi to hire workers like Bailey, Smart and Kidd, and to manufacture tiny parts on mammoth weaponry—draws him to the middle-aged waiter cutting through the crowd carrying trays piled with fried fish and cornbread. The waiter tells Latifi he owned his own restaurant until associates tricked him out of it. The last diners trickle out as Latifi listens to the man’s troubles and dreams.
Latifi writes his cell phone number on one of his defunct business cards and says, “Let’s talk again. Maybe I can help you.”
Monday, August 16, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Write For Lynne Stewart
"Dear Friends,
There will be much to do in support of Lynne Stewart in these next months. For the moment, the priority is to see that Lynne is sent to the Federal Corrections Institution for Women in Danbury rather than somewhere in Texas or even further from her family and friends. WRITE TO THE BUREAU OF PRISONS IMMEDIATELY! TURN YOUR PAIN AT LYNNE'S HORRIFIC SENTENCE INTO FIGHTING BACK. THIS IS STEP 1.
We urge you to write to the Bureau of Prisons (see address below) immediately and ask for Lynne to be transferred to the Federal Correctional Institute for female prisoners. Time is of the essence as the Bureau of Prisons is not bound to accept Judge Koeltl's recommendation that Lynne be kept at MCI for 60 days and then be transferred to Danbury. Lynne could be sent elsewhere at any point.
WHAT THE LETTER SHOULD SAY:
You can explain that Lynne is 70 years old, in remission from breast cancer which could reoccur at any time, and suffering from other serious medical challenges, including high blood pressure and diabetes. It is well-known that health challenges are profoundly affected by the kind of emotional support that only family and close friends can provide. Lynne would surely do much better were she to have access to that kind of support. Given Lynne's serious health problems and her age, there is certainly considerable risk of death in these coming years and moving her away from her family and friends would exacerbate that risk. You can end with "We urge you to offer this minimal humanitarian gesture for this remarkable woman who has served the poor and unrepresented her whole professional life as a lawyer." or something like that. Feel free to write your own letter. Just do it as soon as possible so that these letters reach the Bureau of Prisons before they make a move in another direction.
Letters should be addressed to:
Harley Lappin, Director
Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First Street NW
Washington, DC 20534-0002
Folks can also call the Bureau of Prisons, 202 307-3198. Of the possible offices to call, the Office of General Counsel (press #3) seems the most appropriate. Leave a message asking for Lynne to be sent to Danbury and explain why. The most important thing is for the Bureau to know we're watching them, that there is great interest in Lynne's case and assignment. Gerardo Hernandez of the Cuban 5 just got out of the "hole" through such pressure.
In the struggle for justice! Free Lynne Stewart and All Political Prisoners!
Ralph Poynter and Friends of Lynne Stewart"
There will be much to do in support of Lynne Stewart in these next months. For the moment, the priority is to see that Lynne is sent to the Federal Corrections Institution for Women in Danbury rather than somewhere in Texas or even further from her family and friends. WRITE TO THE BUREAU OF PRISONS IMMEDIATELY! TURN YOUR PAIN AT LYNNE'S HORRIFIC SENTENCE INTO FIGHTING BACK. THIS IS STEP 1.
We urge you to write to the Bureau of Prisons (see address below) immediately and ask for Lynne to be transferred to the Federal Correctional Institute for female prisoners. Time is of the essence as the Bureau of Prisons is not bound to accept Judge Koeltl's recommendation that Lynne be kept at MCI for 60 days and then be transferred to Danbury. Lynne could be sent elsewhere at any point.
WHAT THE LETTER SHOULD SAY:
You can explain that Lynne is 70 years old, in remission from breast cancer which could reoccur at any time, and suffering from other serious medical challenges, including high blood pressure and diabetes. It is well-known that health challenges are profoundly affected by the kind of emotional support that only family and close friends can provide. Lynne would surely do much better were she to have access to that kind of support. Given Lynne's serious health problems and her age, there is certainly considerable risk of death in these coming years and moving her away from her family and friends would exacerbate that risk. You can end with "We urge you to offer this minimal humanitarian gesture for this remarkable woman who has served the poor and unrepresented her whole professional life as a lawyer." or something like that. Feel free to write your own letter. Just do it as soon as possible so that these letters reach the Bureau of Prisons before they make a move in another direction.
Letters should be addressed to:
Harley Lappin, Director
Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First Street NW
Washington, DC 20534-0002
Folks can also call the Bureau of Prisons, 202 307-3198. Of the possible offices to call, the Office of General Counsel (press #3) seems the most appropriate. Leave a message asking for Lynne to be sent to Danbury and explain why. The most important thing is for the Bureau to know we're watching them, that there is great interest in Lynne's case and assignment. Gerardo Hernandez of the Cuban 5 just got out of the "hole" through such pressure.
In the struggle for justice! Free Lynne Stewart and All Political Prisoners!
Ralph Poynter and Friends of Lynne Stewart"
Kucinich Bill Against Extrajudicial Killing
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6010
To prohibit the extrajudicial killing of United States citizens, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 30, 2010
Mr. KUCINICH (for himself, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. FILNER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. STARK, Mr. ELLISON, and Mr. JACKSON of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Select Committee on Intelligence (Permanent Select), and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary and Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
----------------------------------------------------------
A BILL
To prohibit the extrajudicial killing of United States citizens, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) On January 27, 2010, The Washington Post revealed that United States citizens have been included on lists maintained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) to be assassinated.
(2) The January 27 Washington Post article reported that the JSOC and CIA maintain lists of individuals deemed `High Value Targets' and `High Value Individuals', whom they seek to kill or capture, that the lists currently include United States citizens, and that the President has authorized military operations with the express understanding that a United States citizen may be killed.
(3) Admiral Dennis C. Blair, then the Director of National Intelligence, in testimony before the House Select Committee on Intelligence on February 3, 2010, confirmed the policy of including United States citizens on such lists, stating that `a decision to use lethal force against a U.S. citizen must get special permission' before the targeting of a United States citizen can be granted and that `being a U.S. citizen will not spare an American from getting assassinated by military or intelligence operatives overseas if the individual is working with terrorists and planning to attack fellow Americans.'
(4) The Obama administration has publicly authorized the extrajudicial killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki, a United States citizen born in New Mexico who is accused of involvement in terrorist organizations abroad, the first confirmed United States citizen to be added to a CIA list of targets for capture or killing.
(5) According to an article published in The Nation in November 2009, the private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide, now Xe Services, is intimately involved with the targeted assassination programs run by the CIA and JSOC in Pakistan.
(6) Department of Defense Instruction 1100.22, issued on April 12, 2010, states that `security is inherently governmental' and that the `U.S. Government has exclusive responsibility for discretionary decisions concerning the appropriate, measured use of combat power, including the offensive use of destructive or deadly force on behalf of the United States', particularly in operations that have virtually no transparency, accountability, or oversight.
(7) United States Attorney General Eric J. Holder recognized that the Department of Justice has successfully prosecuted many terrorism defendants in Federal courts, stating on Friday, November 13, 2009, that `for over two hundred years, our nation has relied on a faithful adherence to the rule of law to bring criminals to justice . . . Once again we will ask our legal system to rise to that challenge, and I am confident it will answer the call with fairness and justice'.
(8) Executive Order 12333 (46 Fed. Reg. 59941; relating to United States intelligence activities), issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, stated, `No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination'.
(9) Executive Order 11905 (41 Fed. Reg. 7703; relating to United States foreign intelligence activities), issued by President Gerald Ford in 1976, stated, `No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination'.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) due process of law is a fundamental principle in the United States Constitution, the United States has a commitment to the principles included in the Bill of Rights, and no United States citizen, regardless of location, can be `deprived of life, liberty, property, without due process of law', as stated in Article XIV of the Constitution;
(2) the participation in, or planning of activities, by the United States Government that result in the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen undermines the rule of law and the moral standing of the United States in the world;
(3) the United States and other responsible nations have a vital interest in upholding the rule of law;
(4) the authority granted to the President in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (50 U.S.C. 1541 note), following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, is not limitless;
(5) this authority has been used by the Executive Branch to circumvent the role of Congress as a co-equal branch of Government, to justify holding prisoners indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, for mass domestic spying on United States citizens in violation of their most basic constitutional rights, and to use lethal force against United States citizens abroad who are believed to participate in terrorist activities absent judicial review;
(6) the notion that the constitutional rights of one citizen can be revoked to protect the constitutional rights of other citizens should be rejected;
(7) the use of extrajudicial force against a citizen of the United States that is outside of the internationally recognized battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan constitutes a violation of the law of armed conflict; and
(8) it is in the best interest of the United States to respect the rule of law and set the example for upholding the principles of international and domestic law.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON THE EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING OF UNITED STATES CITIZENS.
(a) Prohibition- No one, including the President, may instruct a person acting within the scope of employment with the United States Government or an agent acting on behalf of the United States Government to engage in, or conspire to engage in, the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen.
(b) Report on United States Citizens on Targeted Assassination Lists- Not later than 7 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the congressional intelligence committees a report on the identity of each United States citizen that is on the list of the Joint Special Operations Command or the Central Intelligence Agency as `high value individuals' or `high value targets'.
(c) Assurances to Congress- Not later than 7 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the congressional intelligence committees a written assurance that no United States citizens are being added to the list of the Joint Special Operations Command or the Central Intelligence Agency as `high value individuals' or `high value targets'.
(d) Definitions- In this section:
(1) CONGRESSIONAL INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEES- The term `congressional intelligence committees' means--
(A) the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives; and
(B) the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.
(2) EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING- The term `extrajudicial killing'--
(A) means a premeditated and intentional use of lethal force against a United States citizen; and
(B) does not include--
(i) the use of lethal force against a United States citizen after a trial and finding of guilt for such citizen by an appropriate tribunal consistent with due process of law;
(ii) the use of lethal force against a United States citizen who is directly participating in hostilities in a zone of active armed conflict and the United States is a party to such conflict; and
(iii) the use of lethal force against a United States citizen that is authorized for law enforcement personnel under certain circumstances, including self-defense, defense of others, and enabling the release of hostages.
END
2d Session
H. R. 6010
To prohibit the extrajudicial killing of United States citizens, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 30, 2010
Mr. KUCINICH (for himself, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. FILNER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. STARK, Mr. ELLISON, and Mr. JACKSON of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Select Committee on Intelligence (Permanent Select), and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary and Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
----------------------------------------------------------
A BILL
To prohibit the extrajudicial killing of United States citizens, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) On January 27, 2010, The Washington Post revealed that United States citizens have been included on lists maintained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) to be assassinated.
(2) The January 27 Washington Post article reported that the JSOC and CIA maintain lists of individuals deemed `High Value Targets' and `High Value Individuals', whom they seek to kill or capture, that the lists currently include United States citizens, and that the President has authorized military operations with the express understanding that a United States citizen may be killed.
(3) Admiral Dennis C. Blair, then the Director of National Intelligence, in testimony before the House Select Committee on Intelligence on February 3, 2010, confirmed the policy of including United States citizens on such lists, stating that `a decision to use lethal force against a U.S. citizen must get special permission' before the targeting of a United States citizen can be granted and that `being a U.S. citizen will not spare an American from getting assassinated by military or intelligence operatives overseas if the individual is working with terrorists and planning to attack fellow Americans.'
(4) The Obama administration has publicly authorized the extrajudicial killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki, a United States citizen born in New Mexico who is accused of involvement in terrorist organizations abroad, the first confirmed United States citizen to be added to a CIA list of targets for capture or killing.
(5) According to an article published in The Nation in November 2009, the private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide, now Xe Services, is intimately involved with the targeted assassination programs run by the CIA and JSOC in Pakistan.
(6) Department of Defense Instruction 1100.22, issued on April 12, 2010, states that `security is inherently governmental' and that the `U.S. Government has exclusive responsibility for discretionary decisions concerning the appropriate, measured use of combat power, including the offensive use of destructive or deadly force on behalf of the United States', particularly in operations that have virtually no transparency, accountability, or oversight.
(7) United States Attorney General Eric J. Holder recognized that the Department of Justice has successfully prosecuted many terrorism defendants in Federal courts, stating on Friday, November 13, 2009, that `for over two hundred years, our nation has relied on a faithful adherence to the rule of law to bring criminals to justice . . . Once again we will ask our legal system to rise to that challenge, and I am confident it will answer the call with fairness and justice'.
(8) Executive Order 12333 (46 Fed. Reg. 59941; relating to United States intelligence activities), issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, stated, `No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination'.
(9) Executive Order 11905 (41 Fed. Reg. 7703; relating to United States foreign intelligence activities), issued by President Gerald Ford in 1976, stated, `No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination'.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) due process of law is a fundamental principle in the United States Constitution, the United States has a commitment to the principles included in the Bill of Rights, and no United States citizen, regardless of location, can be `deprived of life, liberty, property, without due process of law', as stated in Article XIV of the Constitution;
(2) the participation in, or planning of activities, by the United States Government that result in the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen undermines the rule of law and the moral standing of the United States in the world;
(3) the United States and other responsible nations have a vital interest in upholding the rule of law;
(4) the authority granted to the President in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (50 U.S.C. 1541 note), following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, is not limitless;
(5) this authority has been used by the Executive Branch to circumvent the role of Congress as a co-equal branch of Government, to justify holding prisoners indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, for mass domestic spying on United States citizens in violation of their most basic constitutional rights, and to use lethal force against United States citizens abroad who are believed to participate in terrorist activities absent judicial review;
(6) the notion that the constitutional rights of one citizen can be revoked to protect the constitutional rights of other citizens should be rejected;
(7) the use of extrajudicial force against a citizen of the United States that is outside of the internationally recognized battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan constitutes a violation of the law of armed conflict; and
(8) it is in the best interest of the United States to respect the rule of law and set the example for upholding the principles of international and domestic law.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON THE EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING OF UNITED STATES CITIZENS.
(a) Prohibition- No one, including the President, may instruct a person acting within the scope of employment with the United States Government or an agent acting on behalf of the United States Government to engage in, or conspire to engage in, the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen.
(b) Report on United States Citizens on Targeted Assassination Lists- Not later than 7 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the congressional intelligence committees a report on the identity of each United States citizen that is on the list of the Joint Special Operations Command or the Central Intelligence Agency as `high value individuals' or `high value targets'.
(c) Assurances to Congress- Not later than 7 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the congressional intelligence committees a written assurance that no United States citizens are being added to the list of the Joint Special Operations Command or the Central Intelligence Agency as `high value individuals' or `high value targets'.
(d) Definitions- In this section:
(1) CONGRESSIONAL INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEES- The term `congressional intelligence committees' means--
(A) the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives; and
(B) the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.
(2) EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING- The term `extrajudicial killing'--
(A) means a premeditated and intentional use of lethal force against a United States citizen; and
(B) does not include--
(i) the use of lethal force against a United States citizen after a trial and finding of guilt for such citizen by an appropriate tribunal consistent with due process of law;
(ii) the use of lethal force against a United States citizen who is directly participating in hostilities in a zone of active armed conflict and the United States is a party to such conflict; and
(iii) the use of lethal force against a United States citizen that is authorized for law enforcement personnel under certain circumstances, including self-defense, defense of others, and enabling the release of hostages.
END
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Monday, August 02, 2010
RIP Lolita Lebron
Lolita Lebron dies at 90; Puerto Rican nationalist was
imprisoned after gun attack on U.S. Congress In 1954,
Lebron and three others opened fire from a spectators
gallery onto the crowded floor of the House, firing
nearly 30 shots. Five lawmakers were wounded. She spent
25 years in prison. Independence activist
imprisoned after gun attack on U.S. Congress In 1954,
Lebron and three others opened fire from a spectators
gallery onto the crowded floor of the House, firing
nearly 30 shots. Five lawmakers were wounded. She spent
25 years in prison. Independence activist
Friday, July 30, 2010
Alabama's SB 1070
Representative Greg Wren of the Alabama State House is planning to introduce a bill similar to Arizona's SB 1070 into the State House. Flood him with phone calls and emails. Here is his contact information
State House: Room 517-B
11 South Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7764 Home:
District: 7700 Wynlakes Blvd.
Montgomery, AL 36117
4213 Carmichael Rd.
Montgomery, AL 36106
Home Phone:
District Phone:
Fax: (334) 279-0959
(334) 395-0123
(334) 396-4787
Email:
Website:
repgregwren@yahoo.com
www.gregwren.com
State House: Room 517-B
11 South Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7764 Home:
District: 7700 Wynlakes Blvd.
Montgomery, AL 36117
4213 Carmichael Rd.
Montgomery, AL 36106
Home Phone:
District Phone:
Fax: (334) 279-0959
(334) 395-0123
(334) 396-4787
Email:
Website:
repgregwren@yahoo.com
www.gregwren.com
Monday, July 26, 2010
Congress Can Defund the War
On the House calendar as early as Monday is a vote on a $33 billion supplemental bill to escalate the war in Afghanistan.
The Senate did not accept the House version. The House will now likely vote on the Senate version or something close to it.
(That means a pig with no lipstick, no poison pill with no sugar coating - no funds for teachers or Haiti relief - nothing but pure and simple funding for more war, more killing, more corruption, more war lords and drug peddlers - which equals fewer teachers, less healthcare, no aid to cities and state budgets, no new jobs programs, no infrastructure repair!)
This will likely mean something quite unusual: a straightforward vote in which "yes" means yes (a bigger war), and "no" means NO.
We will now be able to identify clearly and unambiguously the war supporters and war opponents.
Those who vote to fund the escalation will need to be punished and those who vote to stop the funding should be rewarded while they're home for the August recess and again at the polls in November.
And the closer we come to defeating the bill, the more we will have to build on as the peace movement joins with the labor and civil rights movements this fall for a giant march on Washington for jobs, peace and justice on October 2nd (with satellite demonstrations in San Francisco, Phoenix and New Orleans).
Our message is simple:
Vote "NO"
on funding this escalation of war.
Insist on a recorded roll call vote so the public can see who really wants to end the waste of lives and treasure.
Call (866) 261-4755 (toll-free)
or directly to the Congressinal switchboard at
202-224-3121
Pull U.S. Troops Out of Pakistan
The House is expected to debate and vote on Tuesday on a privileged resolution (HCR 301) introduced by Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul to remove U.S. forces from Pakistan. The resolution directs the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Pakistan. On this one we want to ask for Yes votes.
More info.
This is an important moment to keep calling members of the House of Representatives and to encourage friends, family and your organizations to do so as well.
Call (866) 261-4755 (toll-free) or
directly to the Congressinal switchboard
at 202-224-3121.
Urge your representative
to take the following steps:
* Vote NO on the $33.5 billion Supplemental for war spending.
* Support and vote for HCR 301 to remove all US troops from Pakistan.
*
Join the newly created Out of Afghanistan Congressional Caucus by contacting Mike Darner in Congressman Conyers' office. Michael.Darner@mail.house.gov
Stop $33 Billion
for War Escalation
BRING ALL THE TROOPS
AND WAR $$$ HOME NOW!
The Senate did not accept the House version. The House will now likely vote on the Senate version or something close to it.
(That means a pig with no lipstick, no poison pill with no sugar coating - no funds for teachers or Haiti relief - nothing but pure and simple funding for more war, more killing, more corruption, more war lords and drug peddlers - which equals fewer teachers, less healthcare, no aid to cities and state budgets, no new jobs programs, no infrastructure repair!)
This will likely mean something quite unusual: a straightforward vote in which "yes" means yes (a bigger war), and "no" means NO.
We will now be able to identify clearly and unambiguously the war supporters and war opponents.
Those who vote to fund the escalation will need to be punished and those who vote to stop the funding should be rewarded while they're home for the August recess and again at the polls in November.
And the closer we come to defeating the bill, the more we will have to build on as the peace movement joins with the labor and civil rights movements this fall for a giant march on Washington for jobs, peace and justice on October 2nd (with satellite demonstrations in San Francisco, Phoenix and New Orleans).
Our message is simple:
Vote "NO"
on funding this escalation of war.
Insist on a recorded roll call vote so the public can see who really wants to end the waste of lives and treasure.
Call (866) 261-4755 (toll-free)
or directly to the Congressinal switchboard at
202-224-3121
Pull U.S. Troops Out of Pakistan
The House is expected to debate and vote on Tuesday on a privileged resolution (HCR 301) introduced by Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul to remove U.S. forces from Pakistan. The resolution directs the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Pakistan. On this one we want to ask for Yes votes.
More info.
This is an important moment to keep calling members of the House of Representatives and to encourage friends, family and your organizations to do so as well.
Call (866) 261-4755 (toll-free) or
directly to the Congressinal switchboard
at 202-224-3121.
Urge your representative
to take the following steps:
* Vote NO on the $33.5 billion Supplemental for war spending.
* Support and vote for HCR 301 to remove all US troops from Pakistan.
*
Join the newly created Out of Afghanistan Congressional Caucus by contacting Mike Darner in Congressman Conyers' office. Michael.Darner@mail.house.gov
Stop $33 Billion
for War Escalation
BRING ALL THE TROOPS
AND WAR $$$ HOME NOW!
Labor & Money Clash in 15 Cities
By Carl Finamore
Submitted to Portside by the author
July 23, 2010
Contracts expire in 2010 for 45,000 hotel workers in ten
cities and, on July 22, several thousand supporters
demonstrated across the U.S. and Canada. This time Hyatt
Hotels were targeted because "Hyatt wants to take more
away and lock workers into recession contracts even as
the economy rebounds," according to the union, UNITE-
HERE, AFL-CIO.
Simultaneous protests occurred in Chicago, Honolulu, San
Francisco, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Boston, Vancouver,
Toronto, Miami, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Rosemont, San
Antonio, Santa Clara and San Diego with nearly 1000
activists arrested after engaging in peaceful civil
disobedience blocking hotel entrances.
Apparently, there will be more to come of these
coordinated national actions involving thousands of
members and community allies. They are designed to keep
pace with the expiration of contracts in a growing
number of cities as it becomes clear hotel owners are
stalling negotiations everywhere.
This will allow more hotel union locals to link up with
close to 23,000 workers in San Francisco, Chicago and
Los Angeles whose contracts lapsed almost one year ago.
The union gave a full explanation for this important
escalation of tactics and strategy: "Nationwide, the
hotel industry is rebounding faster and stronger than
expected, with a hearty rebound projected in 2011 and
2012. [Yet], hotels are still squeezing workers and
cutting staff. More than 115,000 jobs in the hotel
industry have been cut since the recession began in
2008-46,000 of which have come just in the first quarter
of 2010 as the industry has projected recovery. While
this marks a trend involving several major hotel
companies, Hyatt is the starkest example."
How to Make Money
"I made my money the old fashioned way. I was very nice
to a wealthy relative right before he died," was
famously said by the colorful Malcolm Forbes after he
inherited from his father the equally famous magazine
carrying the family name.
But don't expect owners of the Hyatt Hotels, the
Chicago-based Pritzker family, where inherited wealth
has been passed along over four generations, to be as
brutally honest as the late Mr. Forbes. They
consistently rank among the top ten richest American
families but they may very well be justified claiming
their money was made in another equally reliable old-
fashioned way - by selling high and paying low.
This is certainly the mantra of one of their largest
family assets, the Hyatt Hotels Corporation. It boasts a
portfolio of 434 properties in 45 countries and, with
$1.3 billion, had the most cash on hand of all it
competitors at the end of 2009. The Pritzkers have
always been good, very good, at making money.
They are definitely practiced at selling high. A
minority stake in the Hyatt sold in November 2009 and
earned the family just under one billion dollars. And,
they indeed know how to pay low. Only several months
earlier, minimum-wage replacements were hired to replace
the entire housekeeping staff at their three Boston
hotels.
"I gave my body-everything I have-to that hotel, and
Hyatt disposed of us like we were trash," said Lucine
Williams, who worked at the Hyatt Regency Boston for 21
years, before being abruptly fired and summarily
replaced on August 31, 2009. UNITE-HERE reports that
Lucine's hotel made a profit of almost $5 million that
year.
In fact, Hyatt management continually cuts staff and
increases workloads at all their hotels. As a result,
the chain had the highest injury rate for housekeepers
last year in an academic study of 50 major hotels
published by the American Journal of Industrial Medicine
in February 2010.
Actually, since the late 1980s, the hotel industry as a
whole has steadily reduced employees. The union reports
that in 1988, nearly 71 workers were employed to service
100 occupied guestrooms. Last year, that number was down
to 53 - a 25% reduction.
This is why the industry is poised to make big profits.
Occupancy rates are increasing while the workforce is
not. "Expense reductions have been so dramatic at both
the property and corporate level that even a modest
pick-up in.growth should lead to outsized profit gains."
(Goldman Sachs, 8/9/2009)
How to Win Decent Contracts
The union is sending a clear message, stall negotiations
and there will be increased national coordination of
demonstrations, civil disobedience actions, and
boycotts. This is in addition to the strike weapon which
San Francisco Local 2, whose contracts expired in August
2009, has used both judiciously and effectively.
That local, with 9000 members, has a long history of
mobilizing both its members and community allies. It has
already successfully employed several three-day strikes
of targeted hotels, numerous lobby protests by workers
on lunch breaks and frequent "all-day, all- night
picketing" of eight boycotted venues.
Yet, at the same time, the union is conscious that
victory is more difficult fighting alone in one city, no
matter how bold or militant. Members are also very clear
about this from their experiences dealing with these
giant investment conglomerates who have continuously
rebuffed local efforts to achieve a decent contract.
"These are multi-national corporations, so, standing
together with workers in other cities is key to
defending our livelihoods," said Local 2 Press
Coordinator, Riddhi Mehta.
Thus, the stage is set for more national clashes between
the hotels and labor, in the most old-fashioned of ways,
with each mobilizing its own precious resources; one
measured in cash, the other in people. Only this time,
hotel workers have turned their adversaries' chief
weapon against them - more management stalling of
negotiations locally means more union allies coming
onboard nationally.
____________
Carl Finamore was among 152 arrested in front of the San
Francisco Grand Hyatt as another 1200 marched around the
hotel. He is a delegate to the San Francisco Labor
Council, AFL-CIO, from Air Transport Employees, Local
Lodge 1781, IAMAW. He can be reached at
local1781@yahoo.com
By Carl Finamore
Submitted to Portside by the author
July 23, 2010
Contracts expire in 2010 for 45,000 hotel workers in ten
cities and, on July 22, several thousand supporters
demonstrated across the U.S. and Canada. This time Hyatt
Hotels were targeted because "Hyatt wants to take more
away and lock workers into recession contracts even as
the economy rebounds," according to the union, UNITE-
HERE, AFL-CIO.
Simultaneous protests occurred in Chicago, Honolulu, San
Francisco, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Boston, Vancouver,
Toronto, Miami, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Rosemont, San
Antonio, Santa Clara and San Diego with nearly 1000
activists arrested after engaging in peaceful civil
disobedience blocking hotel entrances.
Apparently, there will be more to come of these
coordinated national actions involving thousands of
members and community allies. They are designed to keep
pace with the expiration of contracts in a growing
number of cities as it becomes clear hotel owners are
stalling negotiations everywhere.
This will allow more hotel union locals to link up with
close to 23,000 workers in San Francisco, Chicago and
Los Angeles whose contracts lapsed almost one year ago.
The union gave a full explanation for this important
escalation of tactics and strategy: "Nationwide, the
hotel industry is rebounding faster and stronger than
expected, with a hearty rebound projected in 2011 and
2012. [Yet], hotels are still squeezing workers and
cutting staff. More than 115,000 jobs in the hotel
industry have been cut since the recession began in
2008-46,000 of which have come just in the first quarter
of 2010 as the industry has projected recovery. While
this marks a trend involving several major hotel
companies, Hyatt is the starkest example."
How to Make Money
"I made my money the old fashioned way. I was very nice
to a wealthy relative right before he died," was
famously said by the colorful Malcolm Forbes after he
inherited from his father the equally famous magazine
carrying the family name.
But don't expect owners of the Hyatt Hotels, the
Chicago-based Pritzker family, where inherited wealth
has been passed along over four generations, to be as
brutally honest as the late Mr. Forbes. They
consistently rank among the top ten richest American
families but they may very well be justified claiming
their money was made in another equally reliable old-
fashioned way - by selling high and paying low.
This is certainly the mantra of one of their largest
family assets, the Hyatt Hotels Corporation. It boasts a
portfolio of 434 properties in 45 countries and, with
$1.3 billion, had the most cash on hand of all it
competitors at the end of 2009. The Pritzkers have
always been good, very good, at making money.
They are definitely practiced at selling high. A
minority stake in the Hyatt sold in November 2009 and
earned the family just under one billion dollars. And,
they indeed know how to pay low. Only several months
earlier, minimum-wage replacements were hired to replace
the entire housekeeping staff at their three Boston
hotels.
"I gave my body-everything I have-to that hotel, and
Hyatt disposed of us like we were trash," said Lucine
Williams, who worked at the Hyatt Regency Boston for 21
years, before being abruptly fired and summarily
replaced on August 31, 2009. UNITE-HERE reports that
Lucine's hotel made a profit of almost $5 million that
year.
In fact, Hyatt management continually cuts staff and
increases workloads at all their hotels. As a result,
the chain had the highest injury rate for housekeepers
last year in an academic study of 50 major hotels
published by the American Journal of Industrial Medicine
in February 2010.
Actually, since the late 1980s, the hotel industry as a
whole has steadily reduced employees. The union reports
that in 1988, nearly 71 workers were employed to service
100 occupied guestrooms. Last year, that number was down
to 53 - a 25% reduction.
This is why the industry is poised to make big profits.
Occupancy rates are increasing while the workforce is
not. "Expense reductions have been so dramatic at both
the property and corporate level that even a modest
pick-up in.growth should lead to outsized profit gains."
(Goldman Sachs, 8/9/2009)
How to Win Decent Contracts
The union is sending a clear message, stall negotiations
and there will be increased national coordination of
demonstrations, civil disobedience actions, and
boycotts. This is in addition to the strike weapon which
San Francisco Local 2, whose contracts expired in August
2009, has used both judiciously and effectively.
That local, with 9000 members, has a long history of
mobilizing both its members and community allies. It has
already successfully employed several three-day strikes
of targeted hotels, numerous lobby protests by workers
on lunch breaks and frequent "all-day, all- night
picketing" of eight boycotted venues.
Yet, at the same time, the union is conscious that
victory is more difficult fighting alone in one city, no
matter how bold or militant. Members are also very clear
about this from their experiences dealing with these
giant investment conglomerates who have continuously
rebuffed local efforts to achieve a decent contract.
"These are multi-national corporations, so, standing
together with workers in other cities is key to
defending our livelihoods," said Local 2 Press
Coordinator, Riddhi Mehta.
Thus, the stage is set for more national clashes between
the hotels and labor, in the most old-fashioned of ways,
with each mobilizing its own precious resources; one
measured in cash, the other in people. Only this time,
hotel workers have turned their adversaries' chief
weapon against them - more management stalling of
negotiations locally means more union allies coming
onboard nationally.
____________
Carl Finamore was among 152 arrested in front of the San
Francisco Grand Hyatt as another 1200 marched around the
hotel. He is a delegate to the San Francisco Labor
Council, AFL-CIO, from Air Transport Employees, Local
Lodge 1781, IAMAW. He can be reached at
local1781@yahoo.com
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Shirley Sherrod
What the case of Shirley Sherrod exposes is the high level of corruption and cynicism that is present in the Right Wing and in the US media. And when the two of them get together in order to fell a person of color or another "other" they have a power that they do not need to have....
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
An Interesting Article in the NYT About The USSF
This is a very interesting and favorable analysis of the US Social Forum that was held in Detroit at the end of June. It quotes Carl Davidson and makes a very adept contrast/comparison of the USSF and the Tea Party movement.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Tea Party Racism Exposed
I thought there were no racists in the tea party? Who is this being expelled?
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Sign This Petition to Have Elizabeth Warren Named As Head of the New Consumer Protection Agency
Click the link in the title.
Donate to Gaza Effort
Hi Everybody,
Hope you can help us to launch this boat. I've been working on this campaign to help end the suffering of the Palestinian at the hands of the US, Israeli and Egyptian governments ( with many other governments and rulers complicit). Please give as much as you can. We have to buy a boat because no one will rent to us a boat that will probably be expropriated by the Israeli government.
Shalom, Salaam
Naomi Brussel
July 14, 2010
Dear Friends,
This is an important moment in history. In the aftermath of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla massacre and increased world-wide scrutiny of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Israeli government has mounted a hugepublic relations campaign spreading the lie that by letting a few more items into Gaza the blockade has been lifted. This is not the reality. Gaza is still under siege, vital building materials and other supplies are banned, exportsof goods from Gaza are denied and neither ships nor people can travel without permission from Israel, permission which Israel will not give. Gaza is essentially an open-air prison under a U.S.-backed Israeli blockade.
We are planning to launch a U.S. boat to Gaza, joining a flotilla of ships from Europe, Canada, India, South Africa and parts of the Middle East due to set sail in September/ October of this year. In order to succeed in this essential but costlyhuman rights project, we need significant financial support.
Citizens around the world have responded to the plight of the Palestinian people and are taking action to help break the blockade which is suffocating the lives of the people of Gaza and denying them their liberty. The U.S. government is complicit throughestablished policies that uncritically support Israel in its brutal attack on the Palestinian people and on those who attempt to intervene on their behalf. We in the United States must continue to step up and do our part. We must join with others from acrossthe world to support an end to the collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.
We turn to you to help make the U.S. boat, The Audacity of Hope, a reality. We must raise at least $370,000 in the next month. These funds will be used to purchase a boat large enough for 40-60 people, secure a crew, and cover thelicensing and registering of the boat. In addition, the funds will subsidize some other costs of sending a U.S. delegation. We can make this happen together. For example, with 370 people giving $1,000, or with 3,700 people giving $100, we will haveraised our full amount.
We have already received donations ranging from $10 to $10,000. So, give what you can and give generously. From the deck of The Audacity of Hope, we will be in a powerful and unique position to challengeU.S. foreign policy and affirm the universal obligation to uphold human rights and international law. Let us act now because every moment counts and every dollar counts. Together we will contribute to the great effort to end the blockade of Gazaand the illegal occupation of Palestine.
Please spread this appeal letter far and wide, so that others will contribute as well.
Thank you for your generosity.
On behalf of the U.S. BOAT TO GAZA,
Nic Abramson, Middle East Crisis Response
Elliott Adams, Past President, Veterans For Peace
Laurie Arbeiter, Activist Response Team
Russell Banks, Writer
Medea Benjamin, Co-founder CODEPINK
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
Naomi Brussel, Activist Response Team
Allan Buchman, Founder and Artistic Director, The Culture Project
Leslie Cagan, Co-Founder United for Peace and Justice
Kathleen Chalfant, New York
Ellen Davidson, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA
Noor Elashi, Writer
Basem Emara, Gaza Freedom March
Hedy Epstein, Palestine Solidarity Committee, St. Louis, Missouri
Mike Ferner, National President, Veterans For Peace
Felice Gelman, Gaza Freedom March
Jane Hirschmann, Jews Say No!
Jennifer Hobbs, New York City Attorney/Gaza Freedom March
Abdeen Jabara, Past President, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee,
Civil Rights Attorney
Tarak Kauff, Veterans for Peace
Kathy Kelly, Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Eleanore Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies,
Department of History, Columbia University
Ramzi Kysia, Free Gaza Movement
Iara Lee, Cultures of Resistance/Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Helaine Meisler, Hudson Valley BDS
Gail Miller, Women of a Certain Age
Fatima Mohammadi, Attorney at Law/Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Donna Nevel, Jews Say No!
Michael Ratner, President, Center for Constitutional Rights
Mariam Said, New York
Najla Said, Actor/Writer
Hannah Schwarzschild, American Jews for a Just Peace
Kathy Sheetz, Free Gaza – USA/Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Ann Shirazi, Granny Peace Brigade
Eleanor Stein, Albany Law School
Michael Steven Smith, New York City Attorney/Author
Sarah Wellington, Activist Response Team
Ret. Col. Ann Wright, Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Dorothy M. Zellner, Veteran Civil Rights Activist
Donate online at:
www.ustogaza.org
Please make out tax deductible contributions of $150 or more to:
Please make out contributions under $150 to:
INSTITUTE FOR MEDIA ANALYSIS
Write Stand for Justice in the memo line.
Institute for Media Analysis
143 West 4th Street #2F
New York, NY 10012
Attn: Stand for Justice
STAND FOR JUSTICEStand for Justice
PO Box 373
Bearsville, NY 12409
Hope you can help us to launch this boat. I've been working on this campaign to help end the suffering of the Palestinian at the hands of the US, Israeli and Egyptian governments ( with many other governments and rulers complicit). Please give as much as you can. We have to buy a boat because no one will rent to us a boat that will probably be expropriated by the Israeli government.
Shalom, Salaam
Naomi Brussel
July 14, 2010
Dear Friends,
This is an important moment in history. In the aftermath of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla massacre and increased world-wide scrutiny of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Israeli government has mounted a hugepublic relations campaign spreading the lie that by letting a few more items into Gaza the blockade has been lifted. This is not the reality. Gaza is still under siege, vital building materials and other supplies are banned, exportsof goods from Gaza are denied and neither ships nor people can travel without permission from Israel, permission which Israel will not give. Gaza is essentially an open-air prison under a U.S.-backed Israeli blockade.
We are planning to launch a U.S. boat to Gaza, joining a flotilla of ships from Europe, Canada, India, South Africa and parts of the Middle East due to set sail in September/ October of this year. In order to succeed in this essential but costlyhuman rights project, we need significant financial support.
Citizens around the world have responded to the plight of the Palestinian people and are taking action to help break the blockade which is suffocating the lives of the people of Gaza and denying them their liberty. The U.S. government is complicit throughestablished policies that uncritically support Israel in its brutal attack on the Palestinian people and on those who attempt to intervene on their behalf. We in the United States must continue to step up and do our part. We must join with others from acrossthe world to support an end to the collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.
We turn to you to help make the U.S. boat, The Audacity of Hope, a reality. We must raise at least $370,000 in the next month. These funds will be used to purchase a boat large enough for 40-60 people, secure a crew, and cover thelicensing and registering of the boat. In addition, the funds will subsidize some other costs of sending a U.S. delegation. We can make this happen together. For example, with 370 people giving $1,000, or with 3,700 people giving $100, we will haveraised our full amount.
We have already received donations ranging from $10 to $10,000. So, give what you can and give generously. From the deck of The Audacity of Hope, we will be in a powerful and unique position to challengeU.S. foreign policy and affirm the universal obligation to uphold human rights and international law. Let us act now because every moment counts and every dollar counts. Together we will contribute to the great effort to end the blockade of Gazaand the illegal occupation of Palestine.
Please spread this appeal letter far and wide, so that others will contribute as well.
Thank you for your generosity.
On behalf of the U.S. BOAT TO GAZA,
Nic Abramson, Middle East Crisis Response
Elliott Adams, Past President, Veterans For Peace
Laurie Arbeiter, Activist Response Team
Russell Banks, Writer
Medea Benjamin, Co-founder CODEPINK
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
Naomi Brussel, Activist Response Team
Allan Buchman, Founder and Artistic Director, The Culture Project
Leslie Cagan, Co-Founder United for Peace and Justice
Kathleen Chalfant, New York
Ellen Davidson, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA
Noor Elashi, Writer
Basem Emara, Gaza Freedom March
Hedy Epstein, Palestine Solidarity Committee, St. Louis, Missouri
Mike Ferner, National President, Veterans For Peace
Felice Gelman, Gaza Freedom March
Jane Hirschmann, Jews Say No!
Jennifer Hobbs, New York City Attorney/Gaza Freedom March
Abdeen Jabara, Past President, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee,
Civil Rights Attorney
Tarak Kauff, Veterans for Peace
Kathy Kelly, Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Eleanore Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies,
Department of History, Columbia University
Ramzi Kysia, Free Gaza Movement
Iara Lee, Cultures of Resistance/Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Helaine Meisler, Hudson Valley BDS
Gail Miller, Women of a Certain Age
Fatima Mohammadi, Attorney at Law/Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Donna Nevel, Jews Say No!
Michael Ratner, President, Center for Constitutional Rights
Mariam Said, New York
Najla Said, Actor/Writer
Hannah Schwarzschild, American Jews for a Just Peace
Kathy Sheetz, Free Gaza – USA/Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Ann Shirazi, Granny Peace Brigade
Eleanor Stein, Albany Law School
Michael Steven Smith, New York City Attorney/Author
Sarah Wellington, Activist Response Team
Ret. Col. Ann Wright, Freedom Flotilla Survivor
Dorothy M. Zellner, Veteran Civil Rights Activist
Donate online at:
www.ustogaza.org
Please make out tax deductible contributions of $150 or more to:
Please make out contributions under $150 to:
INSTITUTE FOR MEDIA ANALYSIS
Write Stand for Justice in the memo line.
Institute for Media Analysis
143 West 4th Street #2F
New York, NY 10012
Attn: Stand for Justice
STAND FOR JUSTICEStand for Justice
PO Box 373
Bearsville, NY 12409
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Reflections of Fidel: The Origin of Wars
Reflections of Fidel
The origin of wars
(Taken from CubaDebate)
I affirmed on July 4 that neither the United States nor Iran would give in; "one, due to the pride of the powerful, and the other, out of resistance to the yoke and the capacity to fight, as has occurred so many times in the history of humanity…"
In almost all wars, one of the parties wishes to avoid them, and sometimes, both. On this occasion, it would come about even though one of the parties does not wish it, as happened in the two World Wars in 1914 and 1939, with only 25 years of distance before the first outbreak and the second.
The slaughters were horrific, they would not have been unleashed without prior errors of calculation. The two parties were defending imperialist interests and they believed that they would obtain their objectives without the terrible cost that that implied.
In the case that concerns us: one of them is defending national, absolutely just interests. The other is pursuing illegitimate intentions and crude material interests.
If we analyze all the wars that have taken place, starting from the known history of our species, one of the parties has sought those objectives.
Any illusion that, on this occasion, such objectives will be reached without the most terrible of all wars is absolutely vain.
In one of the best articles published by the Global Research website on Thursday, July 1, signed by Rick Rozoff, he provides abundant indisputable arguments on the United States’ intentions, of which any well-informed person must be aware.
"...Victory can be attained when an adversary knows it is vulnerable to an instantaneous and undetectable, overwhelming and devastating attack without the ability to defend itself or retaliate," is what the United States thinks, according to the author.
"…A country which aspires to remain the only state in history to wield full spectrum military dominance on land, in the air, on the seas and in space."
"…To maintain and extend military bases and troops, aircraft carrier
battle groups and strategic bombers on and to most every latitude
and longitude. To do so with a post-World War II record war budget of $708 billion for next year."
It was "…the first country to develop and use nuclear weapons…"
"… the U.S. retains 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 2,200
(by some counts 3,500) more in storage and a triad of land, air and
submarine delivery vehicles."
"The non-nuclear arsenal used for disabling and destroying the air
defenses and strategic, potentially all major, military forces of other nations will consist of intercontinental ballistic missiles, adapted submarine-launched ballistic missiles, hypersonic cruise missiles and bombers, and super stealthy strategic bombers able to avoid detection by radar and thus evade ground- and air-based defenses."
Rozoff lists the many press conferences, meetings and statements of Joint Chiefs of Staff and high-ranking members of the government of the United States in the last few months.
He explains the commitments to NATO and the reinforced cooperation with Near East allies, primarily, read Israel. He says, "The U.S. is also intensifying space and cyber warfare programs with the potential to completely shut down other nations' military surveillance and command, control, communications, computer and intelligence systems, rendering them defenseless on any but the
most basic tactical level."
He speaks of the signing in Prague, on April 8 of this year, of the new START Treaty between Russia and the United States, which "does not contain any constraints on current or planned U.S. conventional prompt global strike capability."
He refers to countless news items on the subject and illustrates the intentions of the United States with one overwhelming example.
He notes that "…’The Department of Defense is currently exploring the full range of technologies and systems for a Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) capability that could provide the President more credible and technically suitable options for dealing with new and evolving threats.’"
I maintain the opinion that any president whosoever, not even the most expert military chief, would not have one minute to know what should be done if it was not already programmed on computers.
Imperturbably, Rozoff relates what the Global Security Network affirms in an analysis titled: "’Cost to test U.S. global-strike missile could reach $500 million,’" by Elaine Grossman.
"’The Obama administration has requested $239.9 million for prompt global strike research and development across the military services in fiscal 2011… If funding levels remain as anticipated into the coming years, the Pentagon will have spent some $2 billion on prompt global strike by the end of fiscal 2015, according to budget documents submitted last month to Capitol Hill.’"
"A terrifying scenario comparable to the effects of a PGS attack, in this case the sea-based version, appeared three years ago in Popular Mechanics:
"’In the Pacific, a nuclear-powered Ohio class submarine surfaces, ready for the president's command to launch. When the order comes, the sub shoots a 65-ton Trident II ballistic missile into the sky. Within 2 minutes, the missile is traveling at more than 20,000 ft. per second. Up and over the oceans and out of the atmosphere it soars for thousands of miles.
"’At the top of its parabola, hanging in space, the Trident's four warheads separate and begin their screaming descent down toward the planet.
"’Traveling as fast as 13,000 mph, the warheads are filled with scored tungsten rods with twice the strength of steel.
"’Just above the target, the warheads detonate, showering the area with thousands of rods-each one up to 12 times as destructive as a .50-caliber bullet. Anything within 3000 sq. ft. of this whirling, metallic storm is obliterated.’"
Rozoff immediately explains the April 7 statement of General Leonid Ivashov, joint chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, made in a column entitled "Obama’s nuclear surprise."
In that same column Ivashov, refers to the speech by the U.S. president in Prague last year: "The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War" – and his signing of the START II agreement in that same city on April 8, Rozoff quotes the author, who stated:
"’No examples of sacrificial service of the U.S. elites to mankind or peoples of other countries can be discovered in the U.S. history over the past century. Would it be realistic to expect the advent of an African-American president to the White House to change the country's political philosophy traditionally aimed at achieving global dominance? Those believing that something like that is possible should try to realize why the U.S. – the country with a military budget already greater than those of all other countries of the world combined – continues spending enormous sums of money on preparations for war.’"
"… ‘The Prompt Global Strike concept envisages a concentrated strike using several thousand precision conventional weapons in 2-4 hours that would completely destroy the critical infrastructures of the target country and thus force it to capitulate.’"
"’The Prompt Global Strike concept is meant to sustain the U.S. monopoly in the military sphere and to widen the gap between it and the rest of the world. Combined with the deployment of the missile defense supposed to keep the U.S. immune to retaliatory strikes from Russia and China, the Prompt Global Strike initiative is going to turn Washington into a modern era global dictator.’"
"’In essence, the new U.S. nuclear doctrine is an element of the novel U.S. security strategy that would be more adequately described as the strategy of total impunity. The U.S. is boosting its military budget, unleashing NATO as the global gendarme, and planning real-life exercise in Iran to test the efficiency of the Prompt Global Strike initiative in practice. At the same time, Washington is talking about the completely nuclear-free world.’"
In essence, Obama is trying to deceive the world by talking of a humanity free of nuclear weapons, which would be replaced by other extremely destructive ones, ideal for terrorizing state leaders and achieving the new strategy of total impunity.
The yankis believe that Iran’s rendition is already close. The European Union is expected to announce a sanctions package of its own to be signed on July 26.
The last meeting of the 5+1 took place on July 2, after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad affirmed that "his country would return to talks at the end of August with the participation of Brazil and Turkey."
A high-ranking EU official "stated that neither Brazil nor Turkey will be invited to take part in talks, at least not at this level."
"Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stated that he was in favor of defying international sanctions and continuing with the enriched uranium program."
From Tuesday, July 5, in the face of the European reiteration that they are to promote additional measures against Iran, this country has responded that it will not negotiate until September.
Every day the possibilities of overcoming the insurmountable obstacle are reducing further.
What is going to happen is so evident that it can be foreseen in an almost exact form.
For my part, I must make a self-criticism; I committed an error in affirming in the June 27 Reflection that the conflict would break out on the Thursday, Friday or at the latest Saturday. It was already known that Israeli warships were navigating toward that objective together with the yanki naval forces. The order to search Iranian merchant ships was already given.
However, I did not realize that there was a prior step: confirmation of the negation of permission for the inspection of its mercantile fleet on the part of Iran. In analyzing the torturous language of the Security Council imposing sanctions on that country, I did not notice that detail to give the inspection order full effect. It was the only thing missing.
The 60-day period given by the Security Council on June 9 to receive information on compliance with the Resolution expires on August 8.
But something really most lamentable happened. I was working on the latest material on the delicate issue drafted by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the said document did not contain two key paragraphs – the last two of the abovementioned resolution – which textually state:
"Requests within 90 days a report from the Director General of the IAEA on whether Iran has established full and sustained suspension of all activities mentioned in resolution 1737 (2006), as well as on the process of Iranian compliance with all the steps required by the IAEA Board of Governors and with other provisions of resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and of this resolution, to the IAEA Board of Governors and in parallel to the Security Council for its consideration;
"Affirms that it shall review Iran’s actions in light of the report referred to in paragraph 36 above, to be submitted within 90 days, and: (a) that it shall suspend the implementation of measures if and for so long as Iran suspends all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, as verified by the IAEA, to allow for negotiations in good faith in order to reach an early and mutually acceptable outcome;
(b) that it shall terminate the measures specified in paragraphs 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 12 of resolution 1737 (2006), as well as in paragraphs 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of resolution 1747 (2007), paragraphs 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of resolution 1803 (2008), and in paragraphs 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 and 24 above, as soon as it determines, following receipt of the report referred to in the paragraph above, that Iran has fully complied with its obligations under the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and met the requirements of the IAEA Board of Governors, as confirmed by the IAEA Board of Governors; (c) that it shall, in the event that the report shows that Iran has not complied with resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and this resolution, adopt further appropriate measures under Article 41 of Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to persuade Iran to comply with these resolutions and the requirements of the IAEA, and underlines that further decisions will be required should such additional measures be necessary…"
A compañero from the Ministry, after the exhausting work of many hours at the machine making photocopies of all the documents, fell asleep. My eagerness in seeking out information and exchanging points of view on these delicate issues, made it possible for me to discover this omission.
From my point of view, the United States and its NATO allies have said their last word. Two powerful states with authority and prestige did not exercise their right to veto the perfidious UN resolution.
It was the only possibility of gaining time to seek some formula for saving the peace, an objective that would have afforded them greater authority to continue fighting for it.
Today, everything is hanging from a tenuous thread.
My principal intention was to advise international public opinion of what was occurring.
I have in part achieved that by observing what was taking place, as a political leader who, for many years, has been confronting the empire, its blockades and its indescribable crimes. But I am not doing it out of revenge.
I am not hesitating to run the risks of compromising my modest moral authority.
I shall continue writing Reflections on the subject. There will be a number more after this one in order to continue going more profoundly into it in July and August, unless some incident occurs to trigger the deadly weapons currently pointed at each other.
I have very much enjoyed the final games of the World Cup and the volleyball games, in which our valiant team is marching at the head of its group in the World League of that sport.
Fidel Castro Ruz
July 11, 2010
8:14 p.m.
Translated by Granma International
The origin of wars
(Taken from CubaDebate)
I affirmed on July 4 that neither the United States nor Iran would give in; "one, due to the pride of the powerful, and the other, out of resistance to the yoke and the capacity to fight, as has occurred so many times in the history of humanity…"
In almost all wars, one of the parties wishes to avoid them, and sometimes, both. On this occasion, it would come about even though one of the parties does not wish it, as happened in the two World Wars in 1914 and 1939, with only 25 years of distance before the first outbreak and the second.
The slaughters were horrific, they would not have been unleashed without prior errors of calculation. The two parties were defending imperialist interests and they believed that they would obtain their objectives without the terrible cost that that implied.
In the case that concerns us: one of them is defending national, absolutely just interests. The other is pursuing illegitimate intentions and crude material interests.
If we analyze all the wars that have taken place, starting from the known history of our species, one of the parties has sought those objectives.
Any illusion that, on this occasion, such objectives will be reached without the most terrible of all wars is absolutely vain.
In one of the best articles published by the Global Research website on Thursday, July 1, signed by Rick Rozoff, he provides abundant indisputable arguments on the United States’ intentions, of which any well-informed person must be aware.
"...Victory can be attained when an adversary knows it is vulnerable to an instantaneous and undetectable, overwhelming and devastating attack without the ability to defend itself or retaliate," is what the United States thinks, according to the author.
"…A country which aspires to remain the only state in history to wield full spectrum military dominance on land, in the air, on the seas and in space."
"…To maintain and extend military bases and troops, aircraft carrier
battle groups and strategic bombers on and to most every latitude
and longitude. To do so with a post-World War II record war budget of $708 billion for next year."
It was "…the first country to develop and use nuclear weapons…"
"… the U.S. retains 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 2,200
(by some counts 3,500) more in storage and a triad of land, air and
submarine delivery vehicles."
"The non-nuclear arsenal used for disabling and destroying the air
defenses and strategic, potentially all major, military forces of other nations will consist of intercontinental ballistic missiles, adapted submarine-launched ballistic missiles, hypersonic cruise missiles and bombers, and super stealthy strategic bombers able to avoid detection by radar and thus evade ground- and air-based defenses."
Rozoff lists the many press conferences, meetings and statements of Joint Chiefs of Staff and high-ranking members of the government of the United States in the last few months.
He explains the commitments to NATO and the reinforced cooperation with Near East allies, primarily, read Israel. He says, "The U.S. is also intensifying space and cyber warfare programs with the potential to completely shut down other nations' military surveillance and command, control, communications, computer and intelligence systems, rendering them defenseless on any but the
most basic tactical level."
He speaks of the signing in Prague, on April 8 of this year, of the new START Treaty between Russia and the United States, which "does not contain any constraints on current or planned U.S. conventional prompt global strike capability."
He refers to countless news items on the subject and illustrates the intentions of the United States with one overwhelming example.
He notes that "…’The Department of Defense is currently exploring the full range of technologies and systems for a Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) capability that could provide the President more credible and technically suitable options for dealing with new and evolving threats.’"
I maintain the opinion that any president whosoever, not even the most expert military chief, would not have one minute to know what should be done if it was not already programmed on computers.
Imperturbably, Rozoff relates what the Global Security Network affirms in an analysis titled: "’Cost to test U.S. global-strike missile could reach $500 million,’" by Elaine Grossman.
"’The Obama administration has requested $239.9 million for prompt global strike research and development across the military services in fiscal 2011… If funding levels remain as anticipated into the coming years, the Pentagon will have spent some $2 billion on prompt global strike by the end of fiscal 2015, according to budget documents submitted last month to Capitol Hill.’"
"A terrifying scenario comparable to the effects of a PGS attack, in this case the sea-based version, appeared three years ago in Popular Mechanics:
"’In the Pacific, a nuclear-powered Ohio class submarine surfaces, ready for the president's command to launch. When the order comes, the sub shoots a 65-ton Trident II ballistic missile into the sky. Within 2 minutes, the missile is traveling at more than 20,000 ft. per second. Up and over the oceans and out of the atmosphere it soars for thousands of miles.
"’At the top of its parabola, hanging in space, the Trident's four warheads separate and begin their screaming descent down toward the planet.
"’Traveling as fast as 13,000 mph, the warheads are filled with scored tungsten rods with twice the strength of steel.
"’Just above the target, the warheads detonate, showering the area with thousands of rods-each one up to 12 times as destructive as a .50-caliber bullet. Anything within 3000 sq. ft. of this whirling, metallic storm is obliterated.’"
Rozoff immediately explains the April 7 statement of General Leonid Ivashov, joint chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, made in a column entitled "Obama’s nuclear surprise."
In that same column Ivashov, refers to the speech by the U.S. president in Prague last year: "The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War" – and his signing of the START II agreement in that same city on April 8, Rozoff quotes the author, who stated:
"’No examples of sacrificial service of the U.S. elites to mankind or peoples of other countries can be discovered in the U.S. history over the past century. Would it be realistic to expect the advent of an African-American president to the White House to change the country's political philosophy traditionally aimed at achieving global dominance? Those believing that something like that is possible should try to realize why the U.S. – the country with a military budget already greater than those of all other countries of the world combined – continues spending enormous sums of money on preparations for war.’"
"… ‘The Prompt Global Strike concept envisages a concentrated strike using several thousand precision conventional weapons in 2-4 hours that would completely destroy the critical infrastructures of the target country and thus force it to capitulate.’"
"’The Prompt Global Strike concept is meant to sustain the U.S. monopoly in the military sphere and to widen the gap between it and the rest of the world. Combined with the deployment of the missile defense supposed to keep the U.S. immune to retaliatory strikes from Russia and China, the Prompt Global Strike initiative is going to turn Washington into a modern era global dictator.’"
"’In essence, the new U.S. nuclear doctrine is an element of the novel U.S. security strategy that would be more adequately described as the strategy of total impunity. The U.S. is boosting its military budget, unleashing NATO as the global gendarme, and planning real-life exercise in Iran to test the efficiency of the Prompt Global Strike initiative in practice. At the same time, Washington is talking about the completely nuclear-free world.’"
In essence, Obama is trying to deceive the world by talking of a humanity free of nuclear weapons, which would be replaced by other extremely destructive ones, ideal for terrorizing state leaders and achieving the new strategy of total impunity.
The yankis believe that Iran’s rendition is already close. The European Union is expected to announce a sanctions package of its own to be signed on July 26.
The last meeting of the 5+1 took place on July 2, after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad affirmed that "his country would return to talks at the end of August with the participation of Brazil and Turkey."
A high-ranking EU official "stated that neither Brazil nor Turkey will be invited to take part in talks, at least not at this level."
"Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stated that he was in favor of defying international sanctions and continuing with the enriched uranium program."
From Tuesday, July 5, in the face of the European reiteration that they are to promote additional measures against Iran, this country has responded that it will not negotiate until September.
Every day the possibilities of overcoming the insurmountable obstacle are reducing further.
What is going to happen is so evident that it can be foreseen in an almost exact form.
For my part, I must make a self-criticism; I committed an error in affirming in the June 27 Reflection that the conflict would break out on the Thursday, Friday or at the latest Saturday. It was already known that Israeli warships were navigating toward that objective together with the yanki naval forces. The order to search Iranian merchant ships was already given.
However, I did not realize that there was a prior step: confirmation of the negation of permission for the inspection of its mercantile fleet on the part of Iran. In analyzing the torturous language of the Security Council imposing sanctions on that country, I did not notice that detail to give the inspection order full effect. It was the only thing missing.
The 60-day period given by the Security Council on June 9 to receive information on compliance with the Resolution expires on August 8.
But something really most lamentable happened. I was working on the latest material on the delicate issue drafted by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the said document did not contain two key paragraphs – the last two of the abovementioned resolution – which textually state:
"Requests within 90 days a report from the Director General of the IAEA on whether Iran has established full and sustained suspension of all activities mentioned in resolution 1737 (2006), as well as on the process of Iranian compliance with all the steps required by the IAEA Board of Governors and with other provisions of resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and of this resolution, to the IAEA Board of Governors and in parallel to the Security Council for its consideration;
"Affirms that it shall review Iran’s actions in light of the report referred to in paragraph 36 above, to be submitted within 90 days, and: (a) that it shall suspend the implementation of measures if and for so long as Iran suspends all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, as verified by the IAEA, to allow for negotiations in good faith in order to reach an early and mutually acceptable outcome;
(b) that it shall terminate the measures specified in paragraphs 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 12 of resolution 1737 (2006), as well as in paragraphs 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of resolution 1747 (2007), paragraphs 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of resolution 1803 (2008), and in paragraphs 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 and 24 above, as soon as it determines, following receipt of the report referred to in the paragraph above, that Iran has fully complied with its obligations under the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and met the requirements of the IAEA Board of Governors, as confirmed by the IAEA Board of Governors; (c) that it shall, in the event that the report shows that Iran has not complied with resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and this resolution, adopt further appropriate measures under Article 41 of Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to persuade Iran to comply with these resolutions and the requirements of the IAEA, and underlines that further decisions will be required should such additional measures be necessary…"
A compañero from the Ministry, after the exhausting work of many hours at the machine making photocopies of all the documents, fell asleep. My eagerness in seeking out information and exchanging points of view on these delicate issues, made it possible for me to discover this omission.
From my point of view, the United States and its NATO allies have said their last word. Two powerful states with authority and prestige did not exercise their right to veto the perfidious UN resolution.
It was the only possibility of gaining time to seek some formula for saving the peace, an objective that would have afforded them greater authority to continue fighting for it.
Today, everything is hanging from a tenuous thread.
My principal intention was to advise international public opinion of what was occurring.
I have in part achieved that by observing what was taking place, as a political leader who, for many years, has been confronting the empire, its blockades and its indescribable crimes. But I am not doing it out of revenge.
I am not hesitating to run the risks of compromising my modest moral authority.
I shall continue writing Reflections on the subject. There will be a number more after this one in order to continue going more profoundly into it in July and August, unless some incident occurs to trigger the deadly weapons currently pointed at each other.
I have very much enjoyed the final games of the World Cup and the volleyball games, in which our valiant team is marching at the head of its group in the World League of that sport.
Fidel Castro Ruz
July 11, 2010
8:14 p.m.
Translated by Granma International
Monday, July 12, 2010
Yesterday I listened to a talk by former President Michele Bachelet of Chile and I wanted to record some things that I took from it. In terms of looking at a country and its sociopolitical landscape-there is the economic and then there is the political, but Bachelet put emphasis on a third which is rarely stressed here, which is the Social....one must take care of the social...I am excited about all that is taking place in Latin America!
Friday, July 09, 2010
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Monday, July 05, 2010
Report on the USSF
I got back from Detroit this past Tuesday. Had a wonderful time. Stopped over in Chicago for pride. The Second Annual US Social Forum was impressive in the many diverse workshops and plenaries that were hosted. I sat in on some very interesting ones as well as delivered my talk at the Southern CCDS workshop. Detroit is a great town and the media does it no justice. The very first workshop I sat in on was on the urban garden movement in detroit--a great bunch of dedicated activists working towards revitalizing the city-and connected to a national and international movement. I saw Rosa Clemente...met Medea Benjamin...reconnected with Colonel Ann Wright..and went to Grace Lee Boggs' birthday party.Had lunch with my cousin Betty and dinner with my cousin Nikki...and had a great time with Myron, Myron Jr., Al, and Wanda. Thanks Detroit! pictures and video to come.
Friday, July 02, 2010
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Burying Big Mama
Sadie Mae was enlaid in a glass coffin like Eva Peron
so the many who adored her could flock past one last time
take in the face, the beauty, and the wisdom that had kept them for so long, finally free from suffering.
Mama Sissy, Aunt Sadie, Sissy, Mama.
Careful, concerned fingers of her prying daughters lifted the glass case to retrieve her one last time
propped her up in the middle of the living room before the viewing, just beyond the grand piano; the smaller piano set up in the music room,
it would make due for Betty to play.
The mortician's work was shoddy.
Johnnie and Sadie to redo her makeup and nails,
Thelma to press and curl to make her look presentable.
All of her dutiful daughters lifting her once more back into the midst of life and then once again into the belly of the grave, laid afresh in her glass coffin,
visible and ready to be seen,
her daughters
the pallbearers to carry the awful burden.
so the many who adored her could flock past one last time
take in the face, the beauty, and the wisdom that had kept them for so long, finally free from suffering.
Mama Sissy, Aunt Sadie, Sissy, Mama.
Careful, concerned fingers of her prying daughters lifted the glass case to retrieve her one last time
propped her up in the middle of the living room before the viewing, just beyond the grand piano; the smaller piano set up in the music room,
it would make due for Betty to play.
The mortician's work was shoddy.
Johnnie and Sadie to redo her makeup and nails,
Thelma to press and curl to make her look presentable.
All of her dutiful daughters lifting her once more back into the midst of life and then once again into the belly of the grave, laid afresh in her glass coffin,
visible and ready to be seen,
her daughters
the pallbearers to carry the awful burden.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Personal Blogging-Detroit, USSF, Chicago Pride
I just got back home yesterday from Detroit and Chicago...still tired. Will rest soon. Detroit was a very welcoming and enjoyable city, I felt incredibly comfortable there. I will blog more about the USSF later. There are pics and video to be seen and shown....
Friday, June 18, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Letter from James Carville on the Tea Party Movement
Let Uncle James translate what Tea Party Republicans really mean when they say they want to "take our government back."
Kentucky's Rand Paul opposes the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Nevada's Sharron Angle is itching to dismantle Social Security. And California's Carly Fiorina dismisses climate change concerns as fretting about "the weather."
Look, we've all snickered at some of the kooky ideas these Tea Partiers espouse. But there's nothing funny about the challenge we face. And it certainly doesn't help that corporations now can spend an unlimited amount in support of candidates they like.
We have the power to keep these extremists out of Washington. We only have to seize this moment.
Kentucky's Rand Paul opposes the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Nevada's Sharron Angle is itching to dismantle Social Security. And California's Carly Fiorina dismisses climate change concerns as fretting about "the weather."
Look, we've all snickered at some of the kooky ideas these Tea Partiers espouse. But there's nothing funny about the challenge we face. And it certainly doesn't help that corporations now can spend an unlimited amount in support of candidates they like.
We have the power to keep these extremists out of Washington. We only have to seize this moment.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
An Open Letter to the State of Israel
To the State of Israel,
and to the people of Israel who must work to change their country, I write today to fully condemn the actions of Israel and their handling of protestors attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Let me stop and begin again here with some reasoning for my total condemnation of Israel’s actions as indeed their entire chosen method of interacting with the Palestinian people. Dear Israel, you have become a monster. I feel I completely understand the way Israel behaves and I want to be frank, firm, and direct in addressing what I see that is shameful, wrong and condemnable in Israel and the way it has conducted itself in the world. Dear Israel, for too long, you have modeled your behavior in the mold of your white western benefactors and it is a shameful and disgraceful legacy that casts a gall on the entirety of the state of Israel. You are no John Wayne. For too long you have treated the Palestinians like Hollywood and the rest of America treated the Native Americans. In the words of Nikki Giovanni, you are not the big bad cowboy, you are the Indian you so disdain….
I feel sad because I feel that Israel has fallen from its exalted state. I feel that you are no longer chosen….God’s people would not act in this way. God is neither an imperialist or a colonizer. You must awaken from this terrible malaise of patriarchy and militarism that you have fallen into and start to live in harmony with the rest of the world, especially the Palestinians. You must also stop trying to remake yourself in the mold of white men…or else you will suffer and learn the same lesson which they have learned and will learn. Live in peace and dignity, not in death and the ruin of all around you.
With Great Sincerity,
Brandon Wallace
and to the people of Israel who must work to change their country, I write today to fully condemn the actions of Israel and their handling of protestors attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Let me stop and begin again here with some reasoning for my total condemnation of Israel’s actions as indeed their entire chosen method of interacting with the Palestinian people. Dear Israel, you have become a monster. I feel I completely understand the way Israel behaves and I want to be frank, firm, and direct in addressing what I see that is shameful, wrong and condemnable in Israel and the way it has conducted itself in the world. Dear Israel, for too long, you have modeled your behavior in the mold of your white western benefactors and it is a shameful and disgraceful legacy that casts a gall on the entirety of the state of Israel. You are no John Wayne. For too long you have treated the Palestinians like Hollywood and the rest of America treated the Native Americans. In the words of Nikki Giovanni, you are not the big bad cowboy, you are the Indian you so disdain….
I feel sad because I feel that Israel has fallen from its exalted state. I feel that you are no longer chosen….God’s people would not act in this way. God is neither an imperialist or a colonizer. You must awaken from this terrible malaise of patriarchy and militarism that you have fallen into and start to live in harmony with the rest of the world, especially the Palestinians. You must also stop trying to remake yourself in the mold of white men…or else you will suffer and learn the same lesson which they have learned and will learn. Live in peace and dignity, not in death and the ruin of all around you.
With Great Sincerity,
Brandon Wallace
Monday, June 07, 2010
Interview with David Saucedo of the Tea Party Movement
David Saucedo is a leader in the Tea Party movement hailing from Waco, Texas. He is a performer and is currently on a national tour with the Tea Party Express, taking the message of their party across the country. In an effort to understand the Tea Party movement and gain some clarity about their beliefs, I approached Mr. Saucedo and asked to interview him. Having agreed, I submitted several questions to Mr. Saucedo concerning the economic and political philosophies of the Tea Party movement. This is what transpired.
1. What is the basic platform of the Tea Party Movement?
The TEA party movement is based on limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market. I would say the goal is restoring America back to a Republic based on law.
2. How did the Tea Party come about? When and where was the party established?
As far as I know the TEA Party movement started when the majority of Americans connected with the message of Taxed Enough Already. Sometime in early 2009.
3. How would you have the general public distinguish the Tea Party movement from the birthers and other right wing extremist groups?
It’s unfortunate, but just like in any other movements, there are people that carry the name without the principles. The TEA Party movement is about fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government. If you would like a great example of a TEA Party, visit www.wacoteaparty.com. Here in Waco, we are focused on monitoring our elected officals, promoting free market solutions and vetting candidates in a real way. Feel free to point out any differences on your own.
4. What is your response to the charge that racism and xenophobia serve as the underpinnings of the Tea Party movement?
I’ve been to TEA Parties across the nations and I have not meet a racist yet. I believe that racism and other non relevant arguments are the only ammo TEA Party opposition have. How can you argue against a movement that brings a majority of Americans together in support of limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market? As for being xenophobic, I would say that TEA Partiers, for the most part, are dedicated to what works rather than afraid of what’s different.
5. How would you explain incidents between Tea Party activists and Black members of Congress-particularly charges that someone from the Tea Party spat on Representative Andre Carson of Indiana and in a separate incident Representative John Lewis of Georgia was called a Nigger?
These allegations have long been proven untrue. One of the two congressmen came out and said it never happened. The day Congressman Carson was allegedly spat upon, 90% of the media present were hostile to the TEA party. Why hasn’t any video evidence been presented, even with a $100,000.00 reward for any such evidence? I seen “say it don’t spray it” but no assault took place.
6. Why didn't the Tea Party movement make a presence during the Bush administration? Where were the protests against the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan or to Bush's response to the economic collapse in 2008?
During the Bush administration people were just opening their eyes to the fact that American Leadership is two parties of stupid! Obama came with his promises of no more business as usual campaign. The only problem is that his administration is nothing but politics as usual. Obama’s administration is pushing America toward collectivism more than any President in our history. He’s just the straw that broke the activist back. The same people that voted for Obama’s hope and change are the people that are standing against his agenda. Look at any poll you want, people do not want his high tax, high spend change. If officials would look to their constituents for solutions, they would find solutions that make common sense. That’s what the TEA Parties are doing, becoming the solutions.
7. What are your assessments of the changes in the American economy in the past thirty years? Where do you ascribe either blame or credit for these changes?
When we talk about the changes in the American economy, I would rather understand the first 200 years rather than the last 34. Fractional banking and central banking are the biggest reasons for our economic problems. Any American official that does not speak out against the federal reserve is to blame, that includes democrats and republicans! If we do not have a solid monetary system, financial reform is just a distraction from the real problem. This is a great question my friend, but the answer to it can be better explained at www.educatorsofliberty.org. If your willing to spend the time, you can learn a great deal about our current monetary system and how un-American it is.
8. Do you feel that Reagan or at least Reaganomics bear any responsibility for the collapse of "the American Way of Life" as we have known it socially and economically?
I don’t know enough about Reaganomics to speak about it. I do feel however that my previous answer addresses the issue of the collapse of “the American way of life."
9. It used to be fifty years ago that in the United States, it was people of color who went to school, got degrees, and then found themselves working as domestics and in other menial employment. This was due to discriminatory practices. Now, almost everyone, regardless of color, face prospects of finishing college with few prospects in terms of anything approaching substantial gainful employment. Do you recognize a natural progression between these two social phenomena? What do you think is the onus for these developments in the American economy?
I’ve met people with more degrees than a thermometer that just don’t have any common sense. I’m a believer in striving to work for yourself rather than working for someone else. If you have the intelligence to run a corporation or organization, why would you strive to work for someone else? I know why, because our education system teaches us our whole lives to make good grades, do good in school so you can get a good job and work for somebody. I support the Dare To Dream approach to teaching our children to succeed, because it teaches them to spend most of their time working for them selves. We always have students that choose to work toward a career with an existing business or corporation, but many choose self employment when given the choice. If we want to see more professionals we have to work on a system that caters to the individual and teaches the power of an individual with the liberty to strive. I blame inaction on the community level for the low number of professionals coming out of low income areas.
10. Does the Tea Party blame undocumented workers or immigrants as a whole for the troubles in the American economy?
No one blames undocumented workers or immigrants for our economic problems. As a TEA Partier I do not deal with immigration because I haven’t seen yet, how it would fall under limited government, free market or fiscal responsibility. I do however have thoughts on the issue as an individual activist. Our borders are real and it is a crime to illegally cross them. As an ex-convict I know first hand what happens to Americans when they break the law. It is unfair to let certain people break law without punishment, yet prosecute others. I will go back to my feelings that we MUST take our country back to it’s law based origins. We can not continue disregarding the laws of our land.
11. What are your thoughts on the immigration debacle now happening in Arizona?
It is not Arizona’s job to secure Americas borders! If the federal government were doing their job, Arizona would not be forced to take such measures for the safety of it’s people. That being said, I have read the Arizona law and it does nothing more than mirror federal law. I support the Governor’s actions because she specifically prohibits racial profiling.
12. What do you make of Alabama gubernatorial candidate Tim James' television ads calling for an "English Only" policy in the state of Alabama? Many people describe these ads as racist and offensive.
I can’t really make anything of it. If it is purely for the purpose of saving the state money then it isn’t racist, it makes sense in these tough times. Only Mr. James can know his true motives. I’m eager to see how his campaign plays out.
13. Would you describe the Tea Party movement as anti-immigrant?
The TEA Party is limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market. I would not support the TEA Party getting involved in the immigration issue unless someone can clearly show how it falls under one or all of the above mentioned issues. The TEA Party movement is not about social issues, even though supporters of the TEA Party movement can’t help but express their individual feelings on social issues. I would suggest that you look into the leadership of any TEA Party, if you see that they are picking up social issues outside of limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market, you can call them on not properly representing the TEA Party movement. But always remember, no one TEA Party represents the whole movement.
14. The Tea Party is very vocal about the unfairness of the tax system in the United States. Does the Tea Party Movement call upon corporations to pay their fair share of the tax burden?
I’ve been looking into the Fair Tax movement, I can’t speak for the whole TEA Party movement, but I like the Fair Tax approach. I’ve been politically involved for less than a year so I am learning as I go. When it comes to unfair taxes, The Fair Tax movement looks like the best solution to me at this point.
15. Where does the Tea Party fit into the context of previous populist movements in the U.S., particularly the populist movements of the 19th and early 20th Centuries?
The TEA Party movement is all about fiscal responsibility, free market and limited government, what were the others about? Once you put them side by side you can determine their similarities and differences.
16. What impact do you hope the Tea Party movement will have on American society?
I will work within the TEA Party movement to revolutionize the way we engage our elected officials. I believe the TEA Party movement will be the biggest factor in replacing non-conservative officials throughout the nation. I see the framework in the TEA Party that will carry messages of solutions to every state without the help of government. Look at any poll, the TEA Parties are clearly Americas choice when it comes to understanding the issues.
Thanks for agreeing to this interview.
1. What is the basic platform of the Tea Party Movement?
The TEA party movement is based on limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market. I would say the goal is restoring America back to a Republic based on law.
2. How did the Tea Party come about? When and where was the party established?
As far as I know the TEA Party movement started when the majority of Americans connected with the message of Taxed Enough Already. Sometime in early 2009.
3. How would you have the general public distinguish the Tea Party movement from the birthers and other right wing extremist groups?
It’s unfortunate, but just like in any other movements, there are people that carry the name without the principles. The TEA Party movement is about fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government. If you would like a great example of a TEA Party, visit www.wacoteaparty.com. Here in Waco, we are focused on monitoring our elected officals, promoting free market solutions and vetting candidates in a real way. Feel free to point out any differences on your own.
4. What is your response to the charge that racism and xenophobia serve as the underpinnings of the Tea Party movement?
I’ve been to TEA Parties across the nations and I have not meet a racist yet. I believe that racism and other non relevant arguments are the only ammo TEA Party opposition have. How can you argue against a movement that brings a majority of Americans together in support of limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market? As for being xenophobic, I would say that TEA Partiers, for the most part, are dedicated to what works rather than afraid of what’s different.
5. How would you explain incidents between Tea Party activists and Black members of Congress-particularly charges that someone from the Tea Party spat on Representative Andre Carson of Indiana and in a separate incident Representative John Lewis of Georgia was called a Nigger?
These allegations have long been proven untrue. One of the two congressmen came out and said it never happened. The day Congressman Carson was allegedly spat upon, 90% of the media present were hostile to the TEA party. Why hasn’t any video evidence been presented, even with a $100,000.00 reward for any such evidence? I seen “say it don’t spray it” but no assault took place.
6. Why didn't the Tea Party movement make a presence during the Bush administration? Where were the protests against the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan or to Bush's response to the economic collapse in 2008?
During the Bush administration people were just opening their eyes to the fact that American Leadership is two parties of stupid! Obama came with his promises of no more business as usual campaign. The only problem is that his administration is nothing but politics as usual. Obama’s administration is pushing America toward collectivism more than any President in our history. He’s just the straw that broke the activist back. The same people that voted for Obama’s hope and change are the people that are standing against his agenda. Look at any poll you want, people do not want his high tax, high spend change. If officials would look to their constituents for solutions, they would find solutions that make common sense. That’s what the TEA Parties are doing, becoming the solutions.
7. What are your assessments of the changes in the American economy in the past thirty years? Where do you ascribe either blame or credit for these changes?
When we talk about the changes in the American economy, I would rather understand the first 200 years rather than the last 34. Fractional banking and central banking are the biggest reasons for our economic problems. Any American official that does not speak out against the federal reserve is to blame, that includes democrats and republicans! If we do not have a solid monetary system, financial reform is just a distraction from the real problem. This is a great question my friend, but the answer to it can be better explained at www.educatorsofliberty.org. If your willing to spend the time, you can learn a great deal about our current monetary system and how un-American it is.
8. Do you feel that Reagan or at least Reaganomics bear any responsibility for the collapse of "the American Way of Life" as we have known it socially and economically?
I don’t know enough about Reaganomics to speak about it. I do feel however that my previous answer addresses the issue of the collapse of “the American way of life."
9. It used to be fifty years ago that in the United States, it was people of color who went to school, got degrees, and then found themselves working as domestics and in other menial employment. This was due to discriminatory practices. Now, almost everyone, regardless of color, face prospects of finishing college with few prospects in terms of anything approaching substantial gainful employment. Do you recognize a natural progression between these two social phenomena? What do you think is the onus for these developments in the American economy?
I’ve met people with more degrees than a thermometer that just don’t have any common sense. I’m a believer in striving to work for yourself rather than working for someone else. If you have the intelligence to run a corporation or organization, why would you strive to work for someone else? I know why, because our education system teaches us our whole lives to make good grades, do good in school so you can get a good job and work for somebody. I support the Dare To Dream approach to teaching our children to succeed, because it teaches them to spend most of their time working for them selves. We always have students that choose to work toward a career with an existing business or corporation, but many choose self employment when given the choice. If we want to see more professionals we have to work on a system that caters to the individual and teaches the power of an individual with the liberty to strive. I blame inaction on the community level for the low number of professionals coming out of low income areas.
10. Does the Tea Party blame undocumented workers or immigrants as a whole for the troubles in the American economy?
No one blames undocumented workers or immigrants for our economic problems. As a TEA Partier I do not deal with immigration because I haven’t seen yet, how it would fall under limited government, free market or fiscal responsibility. I do however have thoughts on the issue as an individual activist. Our borders are real and it is a crime to illegally cross them. As an ex-convict I know first hand what happens to Americans when they break the law. It is unfair to let certain people break law without punishment, yet prosecute others. I will go back to my feelings that we MUST take our country back to it’s law based origins. We can not continue disregarding the laws of our land.
11. What are your thoughts on the immigration debacle now happening in Arizona?
It is not Arizona’s job to secure Americas borders! If the federal government were doing their job, Arizona would not be forced to take such measures for the safety of it’s people. That being said, I have read the Arizona law and it does nothing more than mirror federal law. I support the Governor’s actions because she specifically prohibits racial profiling.
12. What do you make of Alabama gubernatorial candidate Tim James' television ads calling for an "English Only" policy in the state of Alabama? Many people describe these ads as racist and offensive.
I can’t really make anything of it. If it is purely for the purpose of saving the state money then it isn’t racist, it makes sense in these tough times. Only Mr. James can know his true motives. I’m eager to see how his campaign plays out.
13. Would you describe the Tea Party movement as anti-immigrant?
The TEA Party is limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market. I would not support the TEA Party getting involved in the immigration issue unless someone can clearly show how it falls under one or all of the above mentioned issues. The TEA Party movement is not about social issues, even though supporters of the TEA Party movement can’t help but express their individual feelings on social issues. I would suggest that you look into the leadership of any TEA Party, if you see that they are picking up social issues outside of limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market, you can call them on not properly representing the TEA Party movement. But always remember, no one TEA Party represents the whole movement.
14. The Tea Party is very vocal about the unfairness of the tax system in the United States. Does the Tea Party Movement call upon corporations to pay their fair share of the tax burden?
I’ve been looking into the Fair Tax movement, I can’t speak for the whole TEA Party movement, but I like the Fair Tax approach. I’ve been politically involved for less than a year so I am learning as I go. When it comes to unfair taxes, The Fair Tax movement looks like the best solution to me at this point.
15. Where does the Tea Party fit into the context of previous populist movements in the U.S., particularly the populist movements of the 19th and early 20th Centuries?
The TEA Party movement is all about fiscal responsibility, free market and limited government, what were the others about? Once you put them side by side you can determine their similarities and differences.
16. What impact do you hope the Tea Party movement will have on American society?
I will work within the TEA Party movement to revolutionize the way we engage our elected officials. I believe the TEA Party movement will be the biggest factor in replacing non-conservative officials throughout the nation. I see the framework in the TEA Party that will carry messages of solutions to every state without the help of government. Look at any poll, the TEA Parties are clearly Americas choice when it comes to understanding the issues.
Thanks for agreeing to this interview.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Jamaica Kincaid on Israel's Latest Deplorable Behaviour
From Haaretz
In America, we don’t know how to talk about Israel but it is especially so on television. If you could bring yourself to watch the Fox television channel (and I did bring myself to do this but could only do it five minutes) you would think that Israel is a tiny, tiny, so tiny country, all alone in the world surrounded by some very big and very powerful enemies who at every moment were capable of reducing this tiny, so tiny powerless country to extinction and so this tiny country had to absolutely inflict some minor inconveniences, not on its very, very big and powerful enemies but on some people who live nearby.
From the television, Israel appears to us to be more important than Hawaii or Alaska, or for that matter, Nebraska or Oklahoma. I, an American, have never been to any of those places. I have been to Israel three times. So naturally when the flotilla incident occurred, it was only a matter of time, like the next hour, before it was a constant part of the news. American President Barack Obama’s life is finished if he doesn’t do something about the British Petroleum ruining the Gulf of Mexico and at the same time do something about the Flotilla incident.
Jamaica Kincaid frame
Jamaica Kincaid
On television, CNN or MSNBC, the Israeli Prime Minister gives him hints, so does the Israeli ambassador to the United States, so does someone who used to give advice to the President of the Palestinian people, so do some senators, and people who used to advise other presidents of the United States about going to war against countries that are not too far from Israel, and people who say they love Israel - and these are the sort of people who make you think that love is strange.
To go from channel to channel is to hear from the same people the same words and phrases: we were set up; they had weapons; they had sling shots and metal pipes and marbles; they used our guns against us; we were defending ourselves; international waters; a provocation; the fight against terror is not an easy choice; a hard choice; we had no choice; Israel should; Israel should not; Gaza, Egypt and Hamas; these people are not peace loving; we are a peace loving people.
It’s the Israeli Ambassador to the United States who is really fascinating. He does not falter in his defense of his country’s right to do anything. Right after the “incident” ( a word that I think goes well with that other word “situation”), when I first saw him on the air, he looked shaken, his voice even unsteady, or so he seemed to me. But then later, he was in full throated form. He seemed to me to be saying, that in a world full of bad actors, why wasn’t Israel allowed to be one of them. I wanted to ring him up and tell him that it was okay to be a bad actor, you just don’t want to look like it. Ask my country, the United States. More than anything, that’s the thing we do best.
In America, we don’t know how to talk about Israel but it is especially so on television. If you could bring yourself to watch the Fox television channel (and I did bring myself to do this but could only do it five minutes) you would think that Israel is a tiny, tiny, so tiny country, all alone in the world surrounded by some very big and very powerful enemies who at every moment were capable of reducing this tiny, so tiny powerless country to extinction and so this tiny country had to absolutely inflict some minor inconveniences, not on its very, very big and powerful enemies but on some people who live nearby.
From the television, Israel appears to us to be more important than Hawaii or Alaska, or for that matter, Nebraska or Oklahoma. I, an American, have never been to any of those places. I have been to Israel three times. So naturally when the flotilla incident occurred, it was only a matter of time, like the next hour, before it was a constant part of the news. American President Barack Obama’s life is finished if he doesn’t do something about the British Petroleum ruining the Gulf of Mexico and at the same time do something about the Flotilla incident.
Jamaica Kincaid frame
Jamaica Kincaid
On television, CNN or MSNBC, the Israeli Prime Minister gives him hints, so does the Israeli ambassador to the United States, so does someone who used to give advice to the President of the Palestinian people, so do some senators, and people who used to advise other presidents of the United States about going to war against countries that are not too far from Israel, and people who say they love Israel - and these are the sort of people who make you think that love is strange.
To go from channel to channel is to hear from the same people the same words and phrases: we were set up; they had weapons; they had sling shots and metal pipes and marbles; they used our guns against us; we were defending ourselves; international waters; a provocation; the fight against terror is not an easy choice; a hard choice; we had no choice; Israel should; Israel should not; Gaza, Egypt and Hamas; these people are not peace loving; we are a peace loving people.
It’s the Israeli Ambassador to the United States who is really fascinating. He does not falter in his defense of his country’s right to do anything. Right after the “incident” ( a word that I think goes well with that other word “situation”), when I first saw him on the air, he looked shaken, his voice even unsteady, or so he seemed to me. But then later, he was in full throated form. He seemed to me to be saying, that in a world full of bad actors, why wasn’t Israel allowed to be one of them. I wanted to ring him up and tell him that it was okay to be a bad actor, you just don’t want to look like it. Ask my country, the United States. More than anything, that’s the thing we do best.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Who Joins the Military?: In Honor of Memorial Day
This is a very telling piece concerning the current makeup of the U.S. Army and the reasons why people enlist.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
This is a White House with Some Backbone
Kudos to the Obama administration for admonishing Israel's actions in this latest round of bloodshed and terror. The White House has signed on to the U.N's condemnation of the deaths that occurred as a result of Israel's version of rough wooing. Although, it definitely does not bite quite as deep into Israel as it could, it is a step and should be applauded.
Interview With Grace Wells
Grace Wells is an acclaimed author of children's books. Her children's novel, Gyrlfalcon, won the Eilis Dillon Award in 2003 and was selected as an International White Raven's Choice. Wells also enjoyed a successful career as a television and music video producer based in London. Now living in Ireland, she has recently published her first collection of poetry, When God Has Been Called Away to Greater Things. Her poetic voice in this collection recalls the works of such poets as Adrienne Rich and Dorothy Allison as she addresses such issues as home life, domestic violence, and the ties that bind in families and relationships. Wells recently agreed to do an interview with JuliusSpeaks. This is what transpired.
1.Tell us about your background and where you are from.
I’m from London, England, a mostly Anglo-Saxon background, with some Russian Jews from the 1890’s thrown in to spark thing up.
For some years in the late 1980’s I produced TV commercials and pop videos, but I’d always wanted to write, so once I’d come to Ireland in 1991, had children, and got those children into school, I was able to take up writing in a more full way. I also work in arts administration and facilitate creative-writing workshops.
2.Discuss the title of your book, When God Has Been Called Away to Greater Things. What in particular is the significance of the title in light of the corresponding poem within the book?
The whole voyage of the book is to do with a sense of God being absent, and the terrible things that people do to one another while that sense of spiritual presence is far away. In fact, I could add, even while that presence is up close, because many truly terrible things have been done, and are being done, in the name of God.
But mostly the book is about a sense of isolation and the lack of a vivid Spiritual presence. There are poems about childhood and growing up, and poems about people living within difficult relationships or whose lives are challenged in other ways. The title poem is, I think, the first time that we see the narrator(me) acknowledge, and realize, that within all this craziness, there is an imprint of God’s presence.
I think the whole tension of the book is that the phrase means two things: one, that we are alone and isolated while God seems to be off doing great things elsewhere, and also, on the other hand, that right there, in our pain and our isolation, that’s where we really can see God manifest. Hafiz has written “No one can resist a Divine invitation/That narrows down all our choices /To just two:/We can come to God /Dressed for Dancing,/Or/Be carried on a stretcher/ To God's Ward.” These are pretty much poems about the stretcher ride.
3.Your poetry is filled with metaphor. Throughout your poems you reference animals, using them in metaphor-the fox, the horse, the wolf. What is the significance of these metaphors in your work?
I think we’ve been relating to our humanity via the animal world for a long time. A lot of our sayings, like ‘keeping the wolf from the door’, you can’t teach an old dog, new tricks’, show that humanity has never felt itself too far away from the animal world. Now the majority of us live in cities and the action that plays out on the screen of our lives, is not full of nature. But I haven’t lived in a city for more than twenty years. My life is informed by the countryside, it’s understandable that it should have come into my poems in a strong way. Neruda said “The sea, fish and birds have a material existence for me, I depend on them just as I depend on daylight”. I feel the same way. When I wrote in my poem ‘Pioneer’, “she is sung with fox bark and pheasant call./Creatures roost in her thoughts, her days/ are measured by the slink, the leap, the pounce,/ the pitched balance of wings breaking into flight”, I’m writing of the things that are crucial to me. The natural world is so jeopardized by human beings, that it’s vital people become more conscious of its central role in our lives—and very quickly. If I write a lot about nature, it’s because part of me is shouting about our need to protect all this, for our own survival. In the poetry the call for protection emerges in a more subtle way, but inside, I’m screaming.
4.Your poems speak to issues of domestic violence and the everyday strife of domesticity. Tell us of your personal experiences with these issues. How do your experiences inform this collection of poetry?
I didn’t exactly chose to write about domestic abuse. It came at me and that was the primary material I had beneath my hands, so that’s why those poems are there. I feel I’ve said enough in the poems about those issues without having to say more in a public forum. When I’m speaking directly with victims of abuse I’m more open about my own experiences. But in a way I don’t think it matters that the poems are about abuse, in essence they’re about struggle and overcoming that. Every life has struggle. I think it’s always good to read about people who have come through.
Traditionally women’s poetry was marginalized and derided because it often dealt with the domestic, and rather than veer away from the domestic because of that, I think I have an obtuse desire to really look at it. I feel it’s not what you write about, it’s how you write about it. I think these are good domestic poems. Besides, if we get the domestic right, then we’re in a position to write about the big stuff. As my collection progresses, and the domestic world becomes more sane and livable, the poetry moves its focus and expands to include things like poverty in Africa, and global warming.
5. Am I correct in identifying an abusive father and an abusive husband in the poems?
Well these two people don’t even belong in the same sentence. My father had been involved in the Second World War, he’d taught young men in the RAF, and seen hundreds of them go to their deaths. He was marked by the war, and like so many men of his generation, he couldn’t contain his grief and rage.
6. I find your poetic voice to be an interesting mix of Adrienne Rich and Dorothy Allison. In your collection, you also pay homage to Sylvia Plath. Can you draw connections between yourself, Rich, Allison, and Plath?
When I first read that question I was very flattered. I thought, well that’s amazing that someone is linking my name with Rich and Plath. I don’t know Allison’s work, and I haven’t been able to source any, so, sadly, I can’t comment on that. But actually, after the initial sense of compliment, I started to get concerned. I’ve never been drawn to Plath’s work, her love affair with death just doesn’t draw me in. I haven’t consciously paid homage to her, if I have, that’s accidental. I know I’ve paid homage to Raymond Carver. His work was very important to my own. His work is vital and life-saving. Plath’s is a downward spiral. That isn’t what I feel poetry should be about. For me poetry is the life-affirming guide-rope that leads us from trouble. Carver knew that, it was his legacy and his gift to us. Besides there have been so many wonderful women writers since Plath, before Plath even, that it distresses me greatly that she’s dominated the scene.
As for Rich, I’ve never felt comfortable with her work either. She’s on the dense, incomprehensible side. I believe poetry should be generous and open, certainly it should be language-driven and provocative, but not distressing to our own sense of ability to understand. Right now Rich’s work is on the secondary school syllabus here in Ireland. And though a number of students will love her, and be invited, through her, into the world of poetry, she’s actually going to make thousands more run from poetry and never pick up another book of poems. That’s not what I’d hope for my own work.
7. In reading your work, I immediately thought of Adrienne Rich and her commentary, through poetry and prose, on domestic life, particularly where issues of gender and gender equality are concerned. How do your observations and philosophy delivered in this collection mirror Rich’s commentary on domestic life? I specifically identify “ The Dress,” “The Only Medicine,” and “The Lone Parent Does Not Write” as speaking to Rich’s work.
Well, as I said before, I don’t feel my work and Rich’s resonate off one another—at least not directly. I like her line, “A thinking woman sleeps with monsters”, it was used as the title of a brilliant book by Rebecca Wilson, an anthology of work and conversations with Scottish and Irish women Poets published in 1990. That book was very important to me, and many of the writers in it were undoubtedly influenced by Rich, so I can see she’s been relevant to my work, in the way a grandmother might be, but women writers have come so far since then, that I feel it’s time we stopped gyring around those rather outdated forces.
8. Does the poem “Rescue” reference the 1970s film, Deep Throat? Alice Walker, bell hooks, and several other feminist writers have addressed this film in their work. What were your impressions of this film? If this poem is not about that film, could you speak to this tradition of misogyny in cinema and offer your perspective on it?
The reference is to a much later film, and it was just a fairly ordinary main-stream movie, one of many where human sensuality is miserably misrepresented. I’ve never seen Deep Throat and wouldn’t think to. Somewhere in the 60’s and 70’s the floodgates burst on sex in cinema. I’ve read it began in Europe, where attitudes were quite open compared to American cinema of the time. The result has been that some decades later we live in a pornographic culture.
Pornography has spilled into the everyday and we’re awash with it. So much so, that I don’t think there’s even an intelligent discussion about its presence in our midst. The bar keeps getting lower, nothing is protecting young people and children, especially girls, from the rampant sexualisation of their culture and thinking. While many women are able to move forward into more independent, fulfilling lives, the exact opposite is also true, we’re seeing the development of a vast sex-slave culture, where millions of women are trafficked into the West to lose their basic freedoms. At another level it is now normal for women to keep their thumbs in their beer bottles when they got out at night, so their drinks aren’t spiked. That this kind of behaviour as a normality shows us how deeply disturbed the culture is.
The World Health Organisation tells us that one in five women in the West live in abusive relationships, one in three in the Developing world. For me these issues are central; those figures are not marginal. Anyone who thinks feminism is redundant is wrong. The tensions and personal dramas women have faced for centuries are still with us, only they’ve mutated form. We haven’t moved as far as we think we have, we’re still fighting for our lives.
9. You write about moving from England to Ireland in your work. What impact has this transition had on your life? What are some of the changes you have found in your life as a result of the move?
I have a certain sense of displacement I suppose, I’m not an Irish poet, yet my whole working life has been here, so I’m not really an English poet either. Ireland has had a deeply formative influence on who I am as a person. Mostly for the good, but not in easy ways. Like anywhere, there are good and bad things about Ireland. As an English person, it can be difficult living here because of Ireland’s history. The terrible things that the British did down the centuries are alive and unforgiven. The Irish are still in a process of recovery. Though our islands are very close, we have entirely different pasts. Many elements make for a subtle but ever-present tension against the English, which can be hard to live with.
Mostly what I love about Ireland are the people. I have some really great friends here. They’re very earthed, very focused toward real concerns: our shared humanity, concern for the planet. I feel it’s because we have more space here, more of a sense of what needs to be saved. Ireland has provided me with a sense of nurture and Spirituality that I simply might not have found in England. The land here is very alive with resonance. People here talk about the veil between the worlds being thin. I always feel it’s because Ireland only has a small population, and you can still get away from them to hear the land speaking. The sense of place is very alive in Ireland, very vibrant.
Then there’s the language, Hiberno-English is a much richer form of language than London-English. I know it has found its way into my writing. I’m also immersed in the Irish poetry scene. It’s a small enough world, so you can really remain aware of who is writing what. I like that. If I were in England there’d be so many names and characters, and a kind of resultant chaos.
10. Looking at your life experiences and the issues that you address in this book, what is your personal philosophy on juggling issues of marriage, children, personal identity, and all of the inherent in those connections?
It’s a day by day thing. Even an hour by hour thing. Often I’ve been in a great space, I’ve worked at my desk for hours, I’ll emerge from my study a wise and profound being and, within minutes, have one of my children reduce me to a neurotic wreck. I don’t have a big philosophy, one is constantly juggling and seeking balance. The minute you have equanimity, it passes and you’re right in the middle of the next drama.
Beneath the glass-top on my desk there are a couple of messages I like to keep with me. One simply says “Faith & Courage”. Another says: “Our single purpose is to magnify that Light we share between us”. And the last is e.e cummings: “I thank you God, for most this amazing/day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees/and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything/which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.” I muddle along somewhere in that midst.
11. The last poem in the book, “Work,” speaks of catharsis. How has this collection served as your catharsis?
The process of poetry has been very important for many years as a form of catharsis. My work has been enmeshed in a process of transforming dark material into something worthwhile, something meaningful, and almost darkly beautiful. I haven’t wanted that destiny, but that’s what came towards me. So ultimately I have huge belief in the power of art to transform and heal. Art, darkness, sexuality and spirituality have been the big themes of my life. The great thing about this book is that it puts a lot of things to rest. It clears the air, empties the shelf space and allows for new work. C.S Lewis wrote, “we read to know we are not alone”. For me writing has always been about that, a sharing of our humanity. All along I doubted the sanity of publishing these poems, but I kept on because I knew there were women who needed to read them, women who needed to see a way out of abuse, or women who couldn’t recover from it. I kept saying to myself I was doing it for them, to help them heal. Now those women are coming forward and thanking me in person, I see that actually the whole process is also about my healing at a yet deeper level. They’re the ones who remind me how relevant my work is, how despite everything, I belong.
12. Thanks for this interview.
1.Tell us about your background and where you are from.
I’m from London, England, a mostly Anglo-Saxon background, with some Russian Jews from the 1890’s thrown in to spark thing up.
For some years in the late 1980’s I produced TV commercials and pop videos, but I’d always wanted to write, so once I’d come to Ireland in 1991, had children, and got those children into school, I was able to take up writing in a more full way. I also work in arts administration and facilitate creative-writing workshops.
2.Discuss the title of your book, When God Has Been Called Away to Greater Things. What in particular is the significance of the title in light of the corresponding poem within the book?
The whole voyage of the book is to do with a sense of God being absent, and the terrible things that people do to one another while that sense of spiritual presence is far away. In fact, I could add, even while that presence is up close, because many truly terrible things have been done, and are being done, in the name of God.
But mostly the book is about a sense of isolation and the lack of a vivid Spiritual presence. There are poems about childhood and growing up, and poems about people living within difficult relationships or whose lives are challenged in other ways. The title poem is, I think, the first time that we see the narrator(me) acknowledge, and realize, that within all this craziness, there is an imprint of God’s presence.
I think the whole tension of the book is that the phrase means two things: one, that we are alone and isolated while God seems to be off doing great things elsewhere, and also, on the other hand, that right there, in our pain and our isolation, that’s where we really can see God manifest. Hafiz has written “No one can resist a Divine invitation/That narrows down all our choices /To just two:/We can come to God /Dressed for Dancing,/Or/Be carried on a stretcher/ To God's Ward.” These are pretty much poems about the stretcher ride.
3.Your poetry is filled with metaphor. Throughout your poems you reference animals, using them in metaphor-the fox, the horse, the wolf. What is the significance of these metaphors in your work?
I think we’ve been relating to our humanity via the animal world for a long time. A lot of our sayings, like ‘keeping the wolf from the door’, you can’t teach an old dog, new tricks’, show that humanity has never felt itself too far away from the animal world. Now the majority of us live in cities and the action that plays out on the screen of our lives, is not full of nature. But I haven’t lived in a city for more than twenty years. My life is informed by the countryside, it’s understandable that it should have come into my poems in a strong way. Neruda said “The sea, fish and birds have a material existence for me, I depend on them just as I depend on daylight”. I feel the same way. When I wrote in my poem ‘Pioneer’, “she is sung with fox bark and pheasant call./Creatures roost in her thoughts, her days/ are measured by the slink, the leap, the pounce,/ the pitched balance of wings breaking into flight”, I’m writing of the things that are crucial to me. The natural world is so jeopardized by human beings, that it’s vital people become more conscious of its central role in our lives—and very quickly. If I write a lot about nature, it’s because part of me is shouting about our need to protect all this, for our own survival. In the poetry the call for protection emerges in a more subtle way, but inside, I’m screaming.
4.Your poems speak to issues of domestic violence and the everyday strife of domesticity. Tell us of your personal experiences with these issues. How do your experiences inform this collection of poetry?
I didn’t exactly chose to write about domestic abuse. It came at me and that was the primary material I had beneath my hands, so that’s why those poems are there. I feel I’ve said enough in the poems about those issues without having to say more in a public forum. When I’m speaking directly with victims of abuse I’m more open about my own experiences. But in a way I don’t think it matters that the poems are about abuse, in essence they’re about struggle and overcoming that. Every life has struggle. I think it’s always good to read about people who have come through.
Traditionally women’s poetry was marginalized and derided because it often dealt with the domestic, and rather than veer away from the domestic because of that, I think I have an obtuse desire to really look at it. I feel it’s not what you write about, it’s how you write about it. I think these are good domestic poems. Besides, if we get the domestic right, then we’re in a position to write about the big stuff. As my collection progresses, and the domestic world becomes more sane and livable, the poetry moves its focus and expands to include things like poverty in Africa, and global warming.
5. Am I correct in identifying an abusive father and an abusive husband in the poems?
Well these two people don’t even belong in the same sentence. My father had been involved in the Second World War, he’d taught young men in the RAF, and seen hundreds of them go to their deaths. He was marked by the war, and like so many men of his generation, he couldn’t contain his grief and rage.
6. I find your poetic voice to be an interesting mix of Adrienne Rich and Dorothy Allison. In your collection, you also pay homage to Sylvia Plath. Can you draw connections between yourself, Rich, Allison, and Plath?
When I first read that question I was very flattered. I thought, well that’s amazing that someone is linking my name with Rich and Plath. I don’t know Allison’s work, and I haven’t been able to source any, so, sadly, I can’t comment on that. But actually, after the initial sense of compliment, I started to get concerned. I’ve never been drawn to Plath’s work, her love affair with death just doesn’t draw me in. I haven’t consciously paid homage to her, if I have, that’s accidental. I know I’ve paid homage to Raymond Carver. His work was very important to my own. His work is vital and life-saving. Plath’s is a downward spiral. That isn’t what I feel poetry should be about. For me poetry is the life-affirming guide-rope that leads us from trouble. Carver knew that, it was his legacy and his gift to us. Besides there have been so many wonderful women writers since Plath, before Plath even, that it distresses me greatly that she’s dominated the scene.
As for Rich, I’ve never felt comfortable with her work either. She’s on the dense, incomprehensible side. I believe poetry should be generous and open, certainly it should be language-driven and provocative, but not distressing to our own sense of ability to understand. Right now Rich’s work is on the secondary school syllabus here in Ireland. And though a number of students will love her, and be invited, through her, into the world of poetry, she’s actually going to make thousands more run from poetry and never pick up another book of poems. That’s not what I’d hope for my own work.
7. In reading your work, I immediately thought of Adrienne Rich and her commentary, through poetry and prose, on domestic life, particularly where issues of gender and gender equality are concerned. How do your observations and philosophy delivered in this collection mirror Rich’s commentary on domestic life? I specifically identify “ The Dress,” “The Only Medicine,” and “The Lone Parent Does Not Write” as speaking to Rich’s work.
Well, as I said before, I don’t feel my work and Rich’s resonate off one another—at least not directly. I like her line, “A thinking woman sleeps with monsters”, it was used as the title of a brilliant book by Rebecca Wilson, an anthology of work and conversations with Scottish and Irish women Poets published in 1990. That book was very important to me, and many of the writers in it were undoubtedly influenced by Rich, so I can see she’s been relevant to my work, in the way a grandmother might be, but women writers have come so far since then, that I feel it’s time we stopped gyring around those rather outdated forces.
8. Does the poem “Rescue” reference the 1970s film, Deep Throat? Alice Walker, bell hooks, and several other feminist writers have addressed this film in their work. What were your impressions of this film? If this poem is not about that film, could you speak to this tradition of misogyny in cinema and offer your perspective on it?
The reference is to a much later film, and it was just a fairly ordinary main-stream movie, one of many where human sensuality is miserably misrepresented. I’ve never seen Deep Throat and wouldn’t think to. Somewhere in the 60’s and 70’s the floodgates burst on sex in cinema. I’ve read it began in Europe, where attitudes were quite open compared to American cinema of the time. The result has been that some decades later we live in a pornographic culture.
Pornography has spilled into the everyday and we’re awash with it. So much so, that I don’t think there’s even an intelligent discussion about its presence in our midst. The bar keeps getting lower, nothing is protecting young people and children, especially girls, from the rampant sexualisation of their culture and thinking. While many women are able to move forward into more independent, fulfilling lives, the exact opposite is also true, we’re seeing the development of a vast sex-slave culture, where millions of women are trafficked into the West to lose their basic freedoms. At another level it is now normal for women to keep their thumbs in their beer bottles when they got out at night, so their drinks aren’t spiked. That this kind of behaviour as a normality shows us how deeply disturbed the culture is.
The World Health Organisation tells us that one in five women in the West live in abusive relationships, one in three in the Developing world. For me these issues are central; those figures are not marginal. Anyone who thinks feminism is redundant is wrong. The tensions and personal dramas women have faced for centuries are still with us, only they’ve mutated form. We haven’t moved as far as we think we have, we’re still fighting for our lives.
9. You write about moving from England to Ireland in your work. What impact has this transition had on your life? What are some of the changes you have found in your life as a result of the move?
I have a certain sense of displacement I suppose, I’m not an Irish poet, yet my whole working life has been here, so I’m not really an English poet either. Ireland has had a deeply formative influence on who I am as a person. Mostly for the good, but not in easy ways. Like anywhere, there are good and bad things about Ireland. As an English person, it can be difficult living here because of Ireland’s history. The terrible things that the British did down the centuries are alive and unforgiven. The Irish are still in a process of recovery. Though our islands are very close, we have entirely different pasts. Many elements make for a subtle but ever-present tension against the English, which can be hard to live with.
Mostly what I love about Ireland are the people. I have some really great friends here. They’re very earthed, very focused toward real concerns: our shared humanity, concern for the planet. I feel it’s because we have more space here, more of a sense of what needs to be saved. Ireland has provided me with a sense of nurture and Spirituality that I simply might not have found in England. The land here is very alive with resonance. People here talk about the veil between the worlds being thin. I always feel it’s because Ireland only has a small population, and you can still get away from them to hear the land speaking. The sense of place is very alive in Ireland, very vibrant.
Then there’s the language, Hiberno-English is a much richer form of language than London-English. I know it has found its way into my writing. I’m also immersed in the Irish poetry scene. It’s a small enough world, so you can really remain aware of who is writing what. I like that. If I were in England there’d be so many names and characters, and a kind of resultant chaos.
10. Looking at your life experiences and the issues that you address in this book, what is your personal philosophy on juggling issues of marriage, children, personal identity, and all of the inherent in those connections?
It’s a day by day thing. Even an hour by hour thing. Often I’ve been in a great space, I’ve worked at my desk for hours, I’ll emerge from my study a wise and profound being and, within minutes, have one of my children reduce me to a neurotic wreck. I don’t have a big philosophy, one is constantly juggling and seeking balance. The minute you have equanimity, it passes and you’re right in the middle of the next drama.
Beneath the glass-top on my desk there are a couple of messages I like to keep with me. One simply says “Faith & Courage”. Another says: “Our single purpose is to magnify that Light we share between us”. And the last is e.e cummings: “I thank you God, for most this amazing/day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees/and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything/which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.” I muddle along somewhere in that midst.
11. The last poem in the book, “Work,” speaks of catharsis. How has this collection served as your catharsis?
The process of poetry has been very important for many years as a form of catharsis. My work has been enmeshed in a process of transforming dark material into something worthwhile, something meaningful, and almost darkly beautiful. I haven’t wanted that destiny, but that’s what came towards me. So ultimately I have huge belief in the power of art to transform and heal. Art, darkness, sexuality and spirituality have been the big themes of my life. The great thing about this book is that it puts a lot of things to rest. It clears the air, empties the shelf space and allows for new work. C.S Lewis wrote, “we read to know we are not alone”. For me writing has always been about that, a sharing of our humanity. All along I doubted the sanity of publishing these poems, but I kept on because I knew there were women who needed to read them, women who needed to see a way out of abuse, or women who couldn’t recover from it. I kept saying to myself I was doing it for them, to help them heal. Now those women are coming forward and thanking me in person, I see that actually the whole process is also about my healing at a yet deeper level. They’re the ones who remind me how relevant my work is, how despite everything, I belong.
12. Thanks for this interview.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
An Activist Died this Week, Native of Prattville, Alabama
Dan Houser of Prattville died this week in a Chicago nursing home. In 1967, Houser was associated with Stokeley Carmichael and brought him to Prattville, Alabama. I blogged about this previously. Here is the link.
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