Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 03.10.06

[David Shove (shove001]

              P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     03.10.06

1. Health bill      3.10 8:15am
2. Counter recruit  3.10 12noon
3. Palestine vigil  3.10 4:15pm
4. Alt/violence     3.10 6pm
5. CrimJustice/film 3.10

6. Immigrant rights 3.11 9am
7. Permaculture     3.11 9am
8. Cuba/LatAm       3.11 10am
9. Solidarity       3.11 10am
10. CAMS/military   3.11 10:30am
11. Holman dike     3.11 12noon
12. AWC volunteer   3.11 1pm
13. Mortenson/House 3.11 2:30pm
14. Northtown vigil 3.11 5pm
15. PeaceJam        3.11

16. Cam Gordon   - Station 19
17. John Pilger  - Secret war against the defenceless people of West Papua
18. Bill Bonner  - America's glorious empire of debt
19. Bernie Dwyer - Noam Chomsky on Latin American integration
20. ed           - Creationists (poem)

--------1 of 20--------

Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 08:55:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Rebekah Smith From smithrebekah [at] yahoo.com
Subject: Health bill 3.10 8:15am

Rep. Neva Walker's bill for single-payer universal health care (HF 3097)
will be heard in the Health Policy and Finance Committee on Friday, March
10 at 8:15 in Room 10 of the State Office Bldg, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr Blvd, St. Paul, MN 55155.

In addition other DFL bills will be heard including, HF2573 (Mullery)
otherwise known as the "Wal-Mart" Bill. Fair Share Health Care Act
adopted, fund established, employer payments required, and criminal
penalties imposed.

It would be great to pack the hearing room with lots of supporters, so
please help get the word out.

For more info, see:
Rep. Walker
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/members.asp?district=61B
and click on "Bills Chief Authored".

Health Care Committee Schedule
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/schedule.asp?comm=13


--------2 of 20--------

From: sarah standefer <scsrn [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Counter recruit 3.10 12noon

Counter Recruitment Demonstration
Our Children Are Not Cannon Fodder
Fridays   NOON-1
Recruiting Office at the U of M
At Washington and Oak St.  next to Chipolte
for info call Barb Mishler 612-871-7871


--------3 of 20--------

From: peace 2u <tkanous [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Palestine vigil 3.10 4:15pmk

Every Friday
Vigil to End the Occupation of Palestine

4:15-5:15pm
Summit & Snelling, St. Paul

There are now millions of Palestinians who are refugees due to Israel's
refusal to recognize their right under international law to return to
their own homes since 1948.


--------4 of 20--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Alt/violence 3.10 6pm

3/10 (starts 6 pm) to 3/12 (ends 6 pm), basic level Alternatives to Violence
Workshop, which has been used to reduce violence in Rwanda, Bosnia, Kenya
and the U.S., Friends for a Nonviolent World, 1050 Selby Ave, St. Paul.
avp [at] fnvw.org


--------5 of 20--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: CrimJustice/film 3.10

(FILM)AFTER INNOCENCE, opens EDINA THEATRE Friday, MAR.10th ONE WEEK ONLY

Highlighting a Tragic Chink in the Criminal Justice System
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: October 21, 2005, NY Times review

Calm, deliberate and devastating, Jessica Sanders's documentary "After
Innocence" confirms many of the worst fears about weaknesses in the
American criminal-justice system. In examining the cases of seven men
wrongly convicted of murder and rape and exonerated years later by DNA
evidence, the film reinforces the queasy feelings you have while following
high-profile criminal trials

The pursuit of justice in those cases often seems secondary to the drama
of competing lawyers and to the ferocious desire of prosecutors to win at
all costs and protect their reputations. Like many of us, judges, lawyers
and prosecutors may often go out of their way to avoid admitting mistakes.

Watching the interviews with those fortunate enough to have been
exonerated, it is impossible not to imagine yourself in their shoes and
wonder how you would feel if the best years, or decades, of your life had
been lost to a wrongful conviction. Overwhelming rage, bitterness and
despair would seem natural human responses. But although tears of
frustration well up in the eyes of more than one subject, no one in the
film seems completely crushed by his misfortune. Bitterness is tempered by
gratitude and a personal sense of the miraculous; all seven want to get on
with the rest of their lives as best they can.

Reflecting on his time spent in jail, Scott Hornoff, a Rhode Island police
officer who served 6 and a half years of a life sentence for first-degree
murder, declares that the goal of prison authorities is to break
prisoners' spirits; his, thankfully, survived intact, After his release,
he went to court to win back his job and his back pay, and he won, but the
police department has appealed the decision. Like many in the film, he is
now a staunch advocate for the innocent.

Three men in the film - Calvin Willis of Louisiana, Wilton Dedge of
Florida and Nicholas Yarris of Pennsylvania - were imprisoned for more
than two decades; Mr. Yarris spent most of that time in solitary
confinement. The movie observes the three-year struggle that finally led
to Mr. Dedge's release in August 2004; the state had opposed his release
because his DNA tests were taken five years before the law provided for
such testing. Mr. Dedge's case is the film's most flagrant example of
embarrassed justice officials throwing up roadblocks.

The film cites research, based on 70 DNA exonerations, that points to
mistaken identity as the most common factor leading to a wrongful
conviction. It offers a graphic example in the case of Ronald Cotton of
North Carolina, who served 11 years for rape and burglary based on the
eyewitness testimony of Jennifer Thompson-Canino identifying him in a
police lineup as her rapist. When another man confessed to the crime 11
years later, DNA evidence bore out the confession. Mr. Cotton was
released, and he and Ms. Thompson-Canino have become friends. Her story,
sorrowfully told on camera, illustrates the chilling fact that even the
most positive eyewitness identification can be wrong.

The film, written by Ms. Sanders and Marc Simon, was made in collaboration
with the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic founded in 1992 by
the lawyers Barry C. Sheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo
School of Law in Manhattan. The clinic handles only cases in which
post-conviction DNA testing can yield conclusive proof of innocence. Its
work has helped exonerate more than 160 people, and it estimates that DNA
testing could free thousands more.

The movie addresses the question of compensation after wrongful
imprisonment. Unlike paroled prisoners, who have a network of social
services to help them re-enter society, the exonerated have little
guidance or support. What does society owe these people for what they
lost, not only in wages and career opportunities but as compensation for
their suffering and humiliation? In most states compensation legislation
has not been enacted.

The pain of these stories is mitigated by the movie's choice of
interviewees, many of whom seem both humbled and ennobled by their
ordeals. The film is careful about what it addresses: racism and the
preponderance of African-Americans in prison are left for another film.
And the actual prison experiences are not described.

The issue of capital punishment is also largely skirted. But late in the
film there is a brief appearance by the former Illinois governor George
Ryan, who put a moratorium on the death penalty after 13 death-row inmates
were cleared of murder charges, some through DNA testing.

The Innocence Project has expanded into the Innocence Network, a growing
nationwide group of law schools, journalism schools and public defender's
offices. There is talk of it a new civil rights movement coalescing around
it. "After Innocence" leaves you feeling that one is urgently needed.

After Innocence Directed by Jessica Sanders; written and produced by Ms.
Sanders and Marc Simon; directors of photography, Shana Hagan, Buddy
Squires, Bestor Cram and Bob Richmond; edited by Brian Johnson; music by
Charles Bernstein; released by New Yorker Films. At the Quad Cinema, 34
West 13th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 95 minutes. This film
is not rated.


--------6 of 20--------

From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Immigrant rights 3.11 9am

March for Immigrant Rights

Saturday, March 11, 9am. Waite Park Community Center, 25th Street and 13th
Avenue, Minneapolis. Join a caravan to Owatona, Minnesota to participate
in a march for immigrant rights. People are also needed to donate water
and snacks for marchers. FFI: Email <winkl002 [at] umn.edu>.


--------7 of 20--------

From: "brsadler [at] mninter.net" <brsadler [at] mninter.net>
From: info [at] permaculturecollaborative.org
Subject: Permaculture 3.11 9am

The Permaculture Collaborative warmly welcomes you to the movement! It was
great seeing a number of you at our February Film Festival. In fact,
we've heard from so many interested in furthering sustainability in our
region that we are initiating a Monthly Sustainability Discussion, an
opportunity to connect with others to explore and share sustainability and
Permaculture experiences. We are also offering a second film festival in
conjunction with our March Introduction to Permaculture Workshop, teaching
the science and the systems that will help you put Permaculture into
practice. So mark your calendars for the following dates!

March 11 Sustainability Discussion:
Coffee House Kick-off!
@Dunn Brothers in Minneapolis
4648 East Lake Street
(612) 724-8647

Join us from 9 to 11 a.m. for the first in a four-part series exploring
the ideas in David Holmgren's Permaculture Principles and Pathways Beyond
Sustainability. Reservations not necessary; you need not have the book to
engage in the conversation. The March Sustainability Discussion will focus
on three key Permaculture Principles:

1. Observe. Know your site and its elements in all seasons. Design for
your specific location and climate.

2. Connect. Situate elements to create more useful and time-saving
relationships.  Increase connections to create a healthier, more diverse
ecosystem.

3. Catch and Store. By identifying, saving, and re-investing resources, we
maintain the system and capture still more resources.

(For a more detailed description of the Principles, go to
http://www.holmgren.com.au/html/Writings/essence.htm.)

[Daily Duhfinition: Permaculture - the art of hair-dressing. -ed]


--------8 of 20--------

From: Mary Turck <mturck [at] americas.org>
Subject: Cuba/LatAm 3.11 10am

Saturday, March 11 - Cuba in the Context of Latin America's Changing
Political Climate We hope to have a speaker from Cuba, Dr. Felipe Perez
Cruz, but if his visa is not granted by the U.S. government, Gary Prevost
will speak.  [Part of weekly coffee hour series, with a talk by a featured
speaker and discussion. Saturdays, 10-11:30 a.m. $4 includes first cup of
coffee. Resource Center of the Americas, 3019 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis
55406 FFI: 612-276-0788] not yet scheduled?


--------9 of 20--------

From: Solidarity Committee <nwasolidaritymsp [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Solidarity 3.11 10am

Hello all: The Solidarity Committee is still meeting--the next meeting is
Saturday, March 11 10 am at Wings Financial Credit Union on the 3rd floor.

We are working on a Labor Forum at Macalester College in St. Paul along
with the IWW to be held April 1. We will focus on lessons learned with the
strike.

--------10 of 20--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: CAMS/military 3.11 10:30am

Saturday, 3/11 (and 2nd Saturday of each month), 10:30 am, Coalition for
Alternatives to Military Service (or CAMS, a counter-recruitment group)
meets at Twin Cities Friends Meeting, 1725 Grand, St. Paul.  Contact Mary at
wamm [at] mtn.org


--------11 of 20--------

From: Elizabeth Dickinson <eadickinson [at] mindspring.com>
Subject: Holman dike rally 3.11 12noon

Rally for the River & Neighborhoods
St. Paul needs a healthy economy
AND healthy neighborhoods
This Saturday, March 11, NOON
near the Holman Field Airport (directions below)

Care about our river?  Woken by low-flying planes at all hours?  Mayor
Coleman and your City Council will soon decide whether to allow a proposed
floodwall built on the river near the Holman Field downtown airport, which
will increase air traffic.

Witness a 24x9ft-high replica of the proposed  floodwall against the river.

Enjoy the view of the Mississippi River & its East Bank.
Hear why this is truly a bad idea for the neighborhoods, our tax dollars &
the River
Find out what YOU can do to preserve the river, promote healthy communities
AND economies.
Cookies provided!

downtown); Plato becomes Bayfield Street.  Enter on Bayfield Street on the
North side of the airport. Take Bayfield past the old terminal and continue
past the hangers to the end of Bayfield on the East side of the airport.
Lots of parking.


--------12 of 20--------

From: Jess Sundin <jess [at] antiwarcommittee.org>
Subject: AWC volunteer 3.11 1pm

AWC Volunteer Day

Saturday 3/11 @ 1pm @ AWC Office, 1313 5th St SE, Room 213, Mpls.
Help paint signs and get other materials together for the March 18th protest. Everyone is
needed!


--------13 of 20--------

From: Jesse Mortenson <teknoj [at] gmail.com>
Subject: Mortenson/House 3.11 2:30pm

Thanks to everybody who attended a Green caucus this week! If you missed
my visit (I was at three of the 4th CD caucuses), you can catch an audio
recording of my speech online:
http://www.jessemortenson.com/caucusnight/speech

I also want to quickly share our campaign's scheudle of volunteer
opportunities with you. March is the perfect time to get in the groove
with our grassroots, door-to-door campaigning. As the first ever Green
Party candidate in a race dominated by other parties for decades, I need
your help to talk to neighbors early to build trust and spread the
message.

We'll be doorknocking the following times in the next week:
This Saturday, March 11, at 2:30pm
Monday, March 13, at 5:30pm
Wednesday, March 15, at 5:30pm

Each time we're meeting at my house, 1709 Selby Avenue, and depart about a
half an hour later. Every Saturday we order pizza, and there's always
refreshments.

As always I encourage you to give me a ring if you'll be joining us. My
cell number is 651-442-5734.

http://www.jessemortenson.com
Candidate for Minnesota House of Representatives
Seeking the Green Party endorsement
District 64A


--------14 of 20--------

From: Helen or Lennie <major18 [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Northtown vigil 3.11 5pm

Our North Metro Peace Vigil group has changed its weekly vigil time but not
the location.  Instead of every Sat. from 1 to 2 pm, we're holding the vigil
every Saturday from 5 to 6 pm. Also, we have a new FFI person to contact,
Evangelos Kalamboki.

Northtown Mall Peace Vigil Time Change - We'll vigil for peace EVERY
SATURDAY, 5 to 6 pm, at the intersection of Co. Hwy 10 and University Ave NE
(SE corner across from Denny's), in Blaine.

Communities situated near the Northtown Mall include: Blaine, Mounds View,
New Brighton, Roseville, Shoreview, Arden Hills, Spring Lake Park, Fridley,
and Coon Rapids.  We'll have extra signs.

For further information, email Evangelos Kalamboki at EKalamboki [at] aol.com


--------15 of 20---------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: PeaceJam 3.11

[Peace always falls Jam side down - ed]

March 11 - PeaceJam Conference: Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai
to Meet High School Youth. Time: varies. Cost: Limited capacity:
first-come basis. See registration information below..

Dr. Wangari Maathai, the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize winner from Kenya, will be
coming to meet with high school-aged students and youth for the 2006
PEACEJAM. Conflicts with her demanding schedule required that we change
the dates of this year's PeaceJam Conference to SATURDAY, MARCH 11 &
SUNDAY, MARCH 12, at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. Her theme
will be "Protecting the Environment and Sowing the Seeds of Change". The
PEACEJAM conference is open to all high school youth in MN and surrounding
states through either their high schools or their community-based
organizations. The event is sponsored by Compass Institute, youthrive and
the University of St. Thomas.

We realized this is a short timeline and will address any concerns you
have. Please let us know if you are planning to come and how many young
people will be attending with you (teams are usually one adult with 4 to 6
youth ages 14-19). Please RSVP to HeatherE [at] ourtownusa.net. If you need
lodging information let us know right away. We have a group rate with a
local hotel. As soon as we receive your notification of attendance, we
will send out the PeaceJam Curriculum on Wangari Maathai for you to share
with the young people. Limited capacity: first-come basis.

The registration fee is $75 for each participant and advisor, including
five meals, a T-shirt, and all materials for the two-day conference. Make
checks to "Compass Institute," and send to the address below. After March
3, 2006, a $25 late fee applies. Please contact Donna Gillen
(donnag [at] mninter.net) or Heather Erickson (HeatherE [at] ourtownusa.net) if you
require special arrangements or scholarship assistance for some youth.

More about Wangari Maathai:
http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2004/press.html

Official Nobel Prize Press Release about Wangari Maathai:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3726084.stm, BBC Profile


--------16 of 20--------

From: Cam Gordon <CamGordon333 [at] msn.com>
Subject: Station 19

Council Member Cam Gordon's statement on Station 19

I join the Prospect Park / East River Road Improvement Association and
many, many neighbors in strongly opposing the University of Minnesota's
use of eminent domain to acquire historic Fire Station 19, now owned by
Darrell LeBarron.

I believe that the University can make the planned Gophers football
stadium site work without taking possession of Station 19.  If the
University cannot convince Mr. LeBarron to sell the property, it is my
opinion that the matter should be dropped.  This is not an appropriate
use of eminent domain, and lends credence to those who oppose eminent
domain generally.  I would oppose a similar use of eminent domain by any
unit of government, including the City of Minneapolis.

Mr. LeBarron and his firm, Station 19 Architects, has been a model
building owner, maintaining this important historic building and putting
it to good use.  His firm provides living wage jobs, always in demand in
Minneapolis.

In the interests of protecting our local history, keeping good jobs in
our community, building positive ties between the University and
surrounding neighborhoods, and following legitimate process, I call on
the University to respect Mr. LeBarron's lack of desire to sell Station
19 and take eminent domain off the table.

Cam Gordon Council Member, Second Ward


--------17 of 20--------

The Secret War Against The Defenceless People Of West Papua
By John Pilger
ZNet Commentary
March 10, 2006
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-03/10pilger.cfm

In 1993, I and four others travelled clandestinely across East Timor to
gather evidence of the genocide committed by the Indonesian dictatorship.
Such was the depth of silence about this tiny country that the only map I
could find before I set out was one with blank spaces stamped "Relief Data
Incomplete". Yet few places had been as defiled and abused by murderous
forces. Not even Pol Pot had succeeded in despatching, proportionally, as
many people as the Indonesian tyrant Suharto had done in collusion with
the "international community".

In East Timor, I found a country littered with graves, their black crosses
crowding the eye: crosses on peaks, crosses in tiers on the hillsides,
crosses beside the road. They announced the murder of entire communities,
from babies to the elderly. In 2000, when the East Timorese, displaying a
collective act of courage with few historical parallels, finally won their
freedom, the United Nations set up a truth commission; on 24 January, its
2,500 pages were published.

I have never read anything like it. Using mostly official documents, it
recounts in painful detail the entire disgrace of East Timor's blood
sacrifice. It says that 180,000 East Timorese were killed by Indonesian
troops or died from enforced starvation. It describes the "primary roles"
in this carnage of the governments of the United States, Britain and
Australia. America's "political and military support were fundamental" in
crimes that ranged from "mass executions to forced resettlements, sexual
and other horrific forms of torture as well as abse against children".
Britain, a co-conspirator in the invasion, was the main arms supplier. If
you want to see through the smokescreen currently around Iraq, and
understand true terrorism, read this document.

As I read it, my mind went back to the letters Foreign Office officials
wrote to concerned members of the public and MPs following the showing of
my film Death of a Nation. Knowing the truth, they denied that
British-supplied Hawk jets were blowing straw-roofed villages to bits and
that British-supplied Heckler and Koch machine-guns were finishing off the
occupants. They even lied about the scale of suffering.

And it is all happening again, wrapped in the same silence and with the
"international community" playing the same part as backer and beneficiary
of the crushing of a defenceless people. Indonesia's brutal occupation of
West Papua, a vast, resource-rich province - stolen from its people, like
East Timor - is one of the great secrets of our time. Recently, the
Australian minister of "communications", Senator Helen Coonan, failed to
place it on the map of her own region, as if it did not exist.

An estimated 100,000 Papuans, or 10 per cent of the population, have been
killed by the Indonesian military. This is a fraction of the true figure,
according to refugees. In January, 43 West Papuans reached Australia's
north coast after a hazardous six-week journey in a dugout. They had no
food, and had dribbled their last fresh water into their children's
mouths. "We knew," said Herman Wainggai, the leader, "that if the
Indonesian military had caught us, most of us would have died. They treat
West Papuans like animals. They kill us like animals. They have created
militias and jihadis to do just that. It is the same as East Timor."

For over a year, an estimated 6,000 people have been hiding in dense
jungle after their villages and crops were destroyed by Indonesian special
forces. Raising the West Papuan flag is "treason". Two men are serving 15
and ten-year sentences for merely trying. Following an attack on one
village, a man was presented as an "example" and petrol poured over him
and his hair set alight.

When the Netherlands gave Indonesia its independence in 1949, it argued
that West Papua was a separate geographic and ethnic entity with a
distinctive national character. A report published last November by the
Institute of Netherlands History in The Hague revealed that the Dutch had
secretly recognised the "unmistakable beginning of the formation of a
Papuan state", but were bullied by the administration of John F Kennedy to
accept "temporary" Indonesian control over what a White House adviser
called "a few thousand miles of cannibal land".

The West Papuans were conned. The Dutch, Americans, British and
Australians backed an "Act of Free Choice" ostensibly run by the UN. The
movements of a UN monitoring team of 25 were restricted by the Indonesian
military and they were denied interpreters. In 1969, out of a population
of 800,000, some 1,000 West Papuans "voted". All were selected by the
Indonesians. At gunpoint, they "agreed" to remain under the rule of
General Suharto - who had seized power in 1965 in what the CIA later
described as "one of the worst mass murders of the late 20th century". In
1981, the Tribunal on Human Rights in West Papua, held in exile, heard
from Eliezer Bonay, Indonesia's first governor of the province, that
approximately 30,000 West Papuans had been murdered during 1963-69. Little
of this was reported in the west.

The silence of the "international community" is explained by the fabulous
wealth of West Papua. In November 1967, soon after Suharto had
consolidated his seizure of power, the Time-Life Corporation sponsored an
extraordinary conference in Geneva. The participants included the most
powerful capitalists in the world, led by the banker David Rockefeller.
Sitting opposite them were Suharto's men, known as the "Berkeley mafia",
as several had enjoyed US government scholarships to the University of
California at Berkeley.  Over three days, the Indonesian economy was
carved up, sector by sector. An American and European consortium was
handed West Papua's nickel; American, Japanese and French companies got
its forests. However, the prize - the world's largest gold reserve and
third-largest copper deposit, literally a mountain of copper and gold -
went to the US mining giant Freeport-McMoran. On the board is Henry
Kissinger, who, as US secretary of state, gave the "green light" to
Suharto to invade East Timor, says theDutch report.

Freeport is today probably the biggest single source of revenue for the
Indonesian regime: the company is said to have handed Jakarta 33 billion
dollars between 1992 and 2004. Little of this has reached the people of
West Papua. Last December, 55 people reportedly starved to death in the
district of Yahukimo. The Jakarta Post noted the "horrible irony" of
hunger in such an "immensely rich" province. According to the World Bank,
"38 per cent of Papua's population is living in poverty, more than double
the national average".

The Freeport mines are guarded by Indonesia's special forces, who are
among the world's most seasoned terrorists, as their documented crimes in
East Timor demonstrate. Known as Kopassus, they have been armed by the
British and trained by the Australians. Last December, the Howard
government in Canberra announced that it would resume "co-operation" with
Kopassus at the Australian SAS base near Perth. In an inversion of the
truth, the then Australian defence minister, Senator Robert Hill,
described Kopassus as having "the most effective capability to respond to
a counter-hijack or hostage recovery threat". The files of human-rights
organisations overflow with evidence of Kopassus's terrorism. On 6 July
1998, on the West Papuan island of Biak, just north of Australia, special
forces massacred more than 100 people, most of them women.

However, the Indonesian military has not been able to crush the popular
Free Papua Movement (OPM). Since 1965, almost alone, the OPM has reminded
the Indonesians, often audaciously, that they are invaders. In the past
two months, the resistance has caused the Indonesians to rush more troops
to West Papua. Two British-supplied Tactica armoured personnel carriers
fitted with water cannon have arrived from Jakarta. These were first
delivered during the late Robin Cook's "ethical dimension" in foreign
policy. Hawk fighter-bombers, made by BAE Systems, have been used against
West Papuan villages.

The fate of the 43 asylum-seekers in Australia is precarious. In
contravention of international law, the Howard government has moved them
from the mainland to Christmas Island, which is part of an Australian
"exclusion zone" for refugees. We should watch carefully what happens to
these people. If the history of human rights is not the history of great
power's impunity, the UN must return to West Papua, as it did finally to
East Timor.

Or do we always have to wait for the crosses to multiply?

For information on how help visit www.freewestpapua.org
First published in the New Statesman - www.newstatesman.co.uk

[More crimes committed by the US and allied ruling classes. Every time
"government" commits mass unspeakable acts, it really is the ruling class
ordering killing, lying, stealing, degrading, all for more yachts and
mansions and servants. Throughout history, small ruling classes have
ordered 99% of the major human evils - wars, thefts, genocides. The body
has learned to defend against invading diseases - it identifies and kills
them. The human race has unfortunatly not yet learned how to identify and
dispose of the lethal disease of ruling classes; but if it does not, we
are all done for. -ed]


--------18 of 20--------

America's Glorious Empire of Debt
by Bill Bonner
The Daily Recning - Mar 6, 2006
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/bonner/bonner030606.html

Let us take a moment to stand back and gaze at America's great Empire of
Debt. It is the largest edifice of debt ever put up. It sustains the most
magnificent world economy ever assembled. It brings more wealth to more
people than any system ever before devised.

Not only is it incomparably effective, it is also immeasurably entertaining.
For it has its burnished helmets and flying banners; its intellectuals and
its gladiators; its Caesars, Antonys, Neros, and Caligulas. It has its
temples, its forum, its Capitol, its senators; its praetorian guards; its
via Appia; its proconsuls, centurions, and legions all over the world as
well as its bread and its circuses in the homeland and its costly wars in
periphery areas.

The Roman Empire rested on a classical model of imperial finance. Beneath a
complex and nuanced pyramid of relationships was a foundation of tribute
formed with the hard rock of brute force. America's empire of debt, on the
other hand, stands not as a solid pyramid of trust, authority, and power
relationships, but as a rickety slum of delusion, fraud, and
misapprehension.

"My tax guy has been bugging me...You know, real estate is where it is at."
In June 2005, NBC quoted a young woman who had bought a second home at a
Colorado resort. According to the report, more than a third of the houses
sold in the previous 12 months were not primary residences, but second homes
or investments.

Down at the bottom of the pyramid are petty agents spreading deceit and
misinformation - such as the aforementioned "tax guy." You would think a
young woman could trust her certified tax advisor to give her sound counsel.
Instead, he urges her to get into the most bubbly property market in
American history. Naturally, she went for it, aided no doubt by a whole
industry of professional dissemblers. Press reports tell us that appraisers
routinely stretch valuations to help close a deal. Mortgage lenders know
perfectly well the appraisals are lies, but they wink at them with one eye
while winking at the borrower's phony income declaration with the other.
Again, according to the press reports, lenders no longer verify income
claims. They have gone blind!

In California, house prices have raced so far ahead of incomes that barely
one in ten buyers can afford the median house. Yet thanks to "creative
finance," more houses are being sold than ever before. Thus the foundation
of the debt pyramid is laid down in a bed of mutual deceit and cupidity, and
covered with another level of fabrications.  Lenders do not stick around to
see how the loans work out. Instead, they pretend the credits are good, and
package the mortgages into convenient units so that investors can buy them.
The financiers know damned well that many buyers can't really afford to pay
for the houses they buy, but they see no point in mentioning it. Nor do the
investors want to know.

They're in on the scam, too. The smartest of them even have figured out how
it works: The Fed holds down short-term rates below the inflation rate so
that investors in long-term mortgage financing and buyers of U.S. Treasury
obligations can make an easy profit.

Further up the steps of imperial debt are whole legions of analysts,
economists, and full-time obfuscators whose role is to make us all believe
six impossible things before breakfast and a dozen more before dinner. Quack
economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics do to numbers what guards at
Guantanamo did to prisoners. They rough them up so badly, they are ready to
say anything. This abuse of statistics is what allows Americans to deceive
themselves about their own economy. It is healthy, they say. It is growing.
It is stable. All these so-called facts are little more than elaborate
prevarications.

Economists, commentators, and policymakers take up these distortions and add
their own twists. It is obvious to anyone who bothers to think about it that
an economy that spends more than it earns is in decline. But try to find an
economist willing to say so! They've all become like rich notables in the
time of Trajan, doing the emperor's work whether they are on his payroll or
not. They will tell you the economy is expanding, but it is an expansion
similar to what happens when a compulsive eater escapes from a fat farm. The
longer he is on the loose, the worse off he becomes.

On the issue of the trade deficit, they will say what the senators and
consuls want to hear, as Levey and Brown did in Foreign Affairs magazine:
"The United States' current account deficit and foreign debt are not dire
threats to its global position, as would-be Cassandras warn. U.S. power is
firmly grounded on economic superiority and financial stability that will
not end soon." In fact, the story of international trade, circa 2005, is the
most preposterous tale economists have ever heard. One nation buys things
that it cannot afford and doesn't need with money it doesn't have. Another
sells on credit to people who already cannot pay and builds more factories
to increase output.

Every level colludes with every other level to keep the flimflam going. On
the banks of the Potomac, people of all classes, rank, and station are
pleased to believe that all is well. And there, at the Federal Reserve
headquarters, is another caste of loyal liars. Alan Greenspan and his fellow
connivers not only urge citizens to mortgage their houses, buy SUVs, and
commit other acts of wanton recklessness, they also control the nation's
money and make sure that it plays along with the fraud. They do not even
have to clip the precious metal out of the imperial coins; there is none in
it.

>From the center to the furthest garrisons on the periphery, from the lowest
rank to the highest - everyone, everywhere willingly, happily, and proudly
participates in one of the greatest deceits of all time. At the bottom of
the empire are wage slaves squandering borrowed money on imported doodads.
The plebes gamble on adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). The patricians gamble
on hedge funds that speculate on huge swaths of mortgage debt. Near the top
are Fed economists urging them to do it! And at the very pinnacle is a chief
executive, modeled after Augustus, who cuts taxes while increasing spending
on bread, circuses, and peripheral wars. (It might be added that some of the
biggest lies in the history of warfare were told to the American lumpen
public to stir up support for the war against Iraq, but it hardly seems
worth mentioning it.)

The spectacle is breathtaking. And endlessly entertaining. We are humbled by
the majesty of it. Everywhere we look, we see an exquisite but precarious
balance between things that are equally and oppositely absurd. On the one
side of the globe - in the Anglo-Saxon countries in general, but the United
States in particular - are the consumers. On the other side - principally in
Asia - are the producers. One side makes, the other takes. One saves, the
other borrows. One produces, the other consumes. This is not the way it was
meant to be. When America first stooped to Empire, she was a rising, robust,
energetic, innovative young economy. And for the first six decades of her
imperium - roughly from 1913 until 1977 - she profited from her competitive
position. Every country to which she was able to extend her pax dollarum
became a customer. Her businesses made a profit.

But gradually, her commercial advantage faded and her industries aged. The
very process of spreading the soft, warmth of her protection over the earth
seemed to make it more fertile. Tough, weedy competitors sprouted all over
the periphery of the empire - first in Europe, then in Japan, and later,
throughout Asia, even as she had never been able to dominate.

By the early 21st century, the costs of maintaining her role as the world's
only superpower, and its only imperial power, had risen in excess of five
percent of her GDP, or $558 billion per year. Not only had she never figured
out a good way to charge for providing the world with order, now order was
working against her. The periphery economies grew faster. They had newer and
better industries. They had higher savings levels and much lower labor
rates. They had few of the costs of bread or circuses and none of the costs
of policing the empire. They were freer, lighter, faster. Every day, the
competitors took more of America's business, assets, and money. If the
empire were an operating business, accountants would say it was losing
money.

The empire no longer pays because the entire Western world - including Japan
- has lost its competitive edge. Globalization of the pax dollarum era
served the United States well after World War II. The global economic system
in the pax dollarium era was perfectly balanced.  For every credit in Asia,
there was an equal and opposite debit in the United States. And for every
dollar's worth of demand from the United States, there was a dollar's worth
of supply already waiting in a container in Hong Kong. But while the
imperial finance system was flawless, its perfections were devastating.

For the moment, Americans salute their imperial standards. They gratefully
paste the flag to their car windows, their jackets, their hats, their beer
mugs, their shirts and even their underwear. Americans are proud of their
empire - and should be. Without it, they could never have gotten so far in
debt. What central banker would fill his vault with Argentine pesos or
Zimbabwe dollars? What drug dealer or arms seller would want Polish zlotys
in payment? What insurance company would want to buy Bolivian or Kyrgzstan
bonds to cover its long-dated liabilities? The dollar has not been
convertible into gold for 34 years.

Yet, people still take it as though it were as good as the yellow metal -
only better. Ultimately, lending money to a foreign government is a bet that
the government will put the squeeze on its own citizens to make sure you get
paid. The United States doesn't even have to squeeze.  When one foreign loan
comes due, other foreigners practically line up to refinance it; it is as if
they were bringing pastries to an extremely fat man, just to gawk and wonder
when he might explode.

[Bill Bonner is the founder and editor of The Daily Reckoning. He is also
the author, with Addison Wiggin, of " Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the
Soft Depression of the 21st Century" (John Wiley & Sons). In Bonner and
Wiggin's follow-up book, "Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial
Crisis," they wield their sardonic brand of humor to expose the nation for
what it really is - an empire built on delusions.]

Copyright =A9 2000-2006 Agora Financial LLC.


--------19 of 20--------

Noam Chomsky on Latin American integration
Bernie Dwyer

Bernie Dwyer: I am reminded of a great Irish song called "The West's
Awake" written by Thomas Davis in remembrance of the Fenian Uprising of
1798. It is about the west of Ireland asleep under British rule for
hundreds of years and how it awoke from its slumbers and rose up against
the oppressor. Could we begin to hope now that the South is awake?

Noam Chomsky: What's happening is something completely new in the history
of the hemisphere. Since the Spanish conquest the countries of Latin
America have been pretty much separated from one another and oriented
toward the imperial power. There are also very sharp splits between the
tiny wealthy elite and the huge suffering population. The elites sent
their capital; took their trips; had their second homes; sent their
children to study in whatever European country their country was closely
connected with. I mean, even their transportation systems were oriented
toward the outside for export of resources and so on.

For the first time, they are beginning to integrate and in quite a few
different ways. Venezuela and Cuba is one case. MERCOSUR, which is still
not functioning very much, is another case. Venezuela, of course, just
joined MERCOSUR, which is a big step forward for it and it was greatly
welcomed by the presidents of Argentina, Brazil.

For the first time the Indian population is becoming politically quite
active. They just won an election in Bolivia which is pretty remarkable.
There is a huge Indian population in Ecuador, even in Peru, and some of
them are calling for an Indian nation. Now they want to control their own
resources. In fact, many don't even want their resources developed. Many
don't see any particular point in having their culture and lifestyle
destroyed so that people can sit in traffic jams in New York.

Furthermore, they are beginning to throw out the IMF. In the past, the US
could prevent unwelcome developments such as independence in Latin
America, by violence; supporting military coups, subversion, invasion and
so on. That doesn't work so well any more. The last time they tried in
2002 in Venezuela, the US had to back down because of enormous protests
from Latin America, and of course the coup was overthrown from within.
That's very new.

If the United States loses the economic weapons of control, it is very
much weakened. Argentina is just essentially ridding itself of the IMF, as
they say.  They are paying off the debts to the IMF. The IMF rules that
they followed had totally disastrous effects. They are being helped in
that by Venezuela, which is buying up part of the Argentine debt.

Bolivia will probably do the same. Bolivia's had 25 years of rigorous
adherence to IMF rules. Per capita income now is less than it was 25 years
ago. They want to get rid of it. The other countries are doing the same.
The IMF is essentially the US Treasury Department.  It is the economic
weapon that's alongside the military weapon for maintaining control.
That's being dismantled.

All of this is happening against the background of very substantial
popular movements, which, to the extent that they existed in the past,
were crushed by violence, state terror, Operation Condor, one monstrosity
after another. That weapon is no longer available.

Furthermore, there is South-South integration going on, so Brazil, and
South Africa and India are establishing relations.

And again, the forces below the surface in pressing all of this are
international popular organizations of a kind that never existed before;
the ones that meet annually in the world social forums. By now several
world social forums have spawned lots of regional ones; there's one right
here in Boston and many other places. These are very powerful mass
movements of a kind without any precedent in history: the first real
internationals. Everyone's always talked about internationals on the left
but there's never been one. This is the beginning of one.

These developments are extremely significant. For US planners, they are a
nightmare. I mean, the Monroe Doctrine is about 180 years old now, and the
US wasn't powerful enough to implement it until after the 2nd World War,
except for the nearby region. After the 2nd World War it was able to kick
out the British and the French and implement it, but now it is collapsing.
These countries are also diversifying their international relations
including commercial relations. So there's a lot of export to China, and
accepting of investment from China. That's particularly true of Venezuela,
but also the other big exporters like Brazil and Chile. And China is eager
to gain access to other resources of Latin America.

Unlike Europe, China can't be intimidated. Europe backs down if the United
States looks at it the wrong way. But China, they've been there for 3,000
years and are paying no attention to the barbarians and don't see any need
to. The United States is afraid of China; it is not a military threat to
anyone; and is the least aggressive of all the major military powers. But
it's not easy to intimidate it. In fact, you can't intimidate it at all.
So China's interactions with Latin America are frightening the United
States. Latin America is also improving economic interactions with Europe.
China and Europe now are each other largest trading partners, or pretty
close to it.

These developments are eroding the means of domination of the US world
system. And the US is pretty naturally playing its strong card which is
military and in military force the US is supreme. Military expenditures in
the US are about half of the total world expenditures, technologically
much more advanced. In Latin America, just keeping to that, the number of
the US military personnel is probably higher than it ever was during the
Cold War. They're sharply increasing training of Latin American officers.

The training of military officers has been shifted from the State
Department to the Pentagon, which is not insignificant. The State
department is under some weak congressional supervision. I mean there is
legislation requiring human rights conditionalities and so on. They are
not very much enforced, but they are at least there. And the Pentagon is
free to do anything they want. Furthermore, the training is shifting to
local control. So one of the main targets is what's called radical
populism, we know what that means, and the US is establishing military
bases throughout the region.

Bernie Dwyer: It appears, from what you are saying, that the US is losing
the ideological war and compensating by upping their military presence in
the region. Would you see Cuba as being a key player in encouraging and
perhaps influencing what's coming out Latin America right now?

Noam Chomsky: Fidel Castro, whatever people may think of him, is a hero in
Latin America, primarily because he stood up to the United States. It's
the first time in the history of the hemisphere that anybody stood up to
the United States. Nobody likes to be under the jackboot but they may not
be able to do anything about it. So for that reason alone, he's a Latin
American hero. Chavez: the same.

The ideological issue that you rightly bring up is the impact of
neoliberalism. It's pretty striking over the last twenty-five years,
overwhelmingly it's true, that the countries that have adhered to the
neo-liberal rules have had an economic catastrophe and the countries that
didn't pay any intention to the rules grew and developed. East Asia
developed rapidly pretty much by totally ignoring the rules. Chile is
claimed as being a market economy but that's highly misleading: its main
export is a very efficient state owned copper company nationalized under
Allende. You don't get correlations like this in economics very often.
Adherence to the neoliberal rules has been associated with economic
failure and violation of them with economic success: it's very hard to
miss that. Maybe some economists can miss it but people don't: they live
it. Yes, there is an uprising against it. Cuba is a symbol. Venezuela is
another, Argentina, where they recovered from the IMF catastrophe by
violating the rules and sharply violating them, and then throwing out the
IMF. Well, this is the ideological issue. The IMF is just a name for the
economic weapon of domination, which is eroding

Bernie Dwyer: Why do you think that this present movement is different
from the struggle that went before, in Chile for instance when they
succeeded in overthrowing the military dictatorship? What gives us more
hope about this particular stage of liberation for Latin America?

Noam Chomsky: First of all, there was hope in Latin America in the 1960s
but it was crushed by violence. Chile was moving on a path towards some
form of democratic socialism but we know what happened. That's the first
9/11 in 1973, which was an utter catastrophe. The dictatorship in Chile,
which is a horror story also led to an economic disaster in Chile bringing
about its worst recession in its history. The military then turned over
power to civilians. Its still there so Chile didn't yet completely
liberate itself. It has partially liberated itself from the military
dictatorship; and in the other countries even more so.

So for example, I remember traveling in Argentina and Chile a couple of
years ago and the standard joke in both countries was that people said
that they wish the Chilean military had been stupid enough to get into a
war with France or some major power so they could have been crushed and
discredited and then people would be free the way they were in Argentina,
where the military was discredited by its military defeat.

But there has been a slow process in every one of the countries,
Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, all the way through, there's been a process of
overthrowing the dominant dictatorships - the military dictatorships -
almost always supported, and sometimes instituted, by the United States

Now they are supporting one another and the US cannot resort to the same
policies.

Take Brazil, if Lula had been running in 1963, the US would have done just
what it did when Goulart was president in 1963. The Kennedy administration
just planned a military dictatorship. A military coup took place and that
got rid of that. And that was happening right through the hemisphere.

Now, there's much more hope because that cannot be done and there is also
cooperation. There is also a move towards a degree of independence:
political, economic and social policies, access to their own resources,
instituting social changes of the kind that could overcome the tremendous
internal problems of Latin America, which are awful. And a large part of
the problems in Latin America are simply internal. In Latin America, the
wealthy have never had any responsibilities. They do what they want.


--------20 of 20--------

 Creationists are
 living proof of the failure
 of evolution


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   - David Shove             shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
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