18
Okt
2005

Miers' troubles with tax liens

Supreme Court pick has had 10 placed on overgrown property she controls in Dallas.

http://snipurl.com/iobc


From Information Clearing House

DeLay Will Likely Be Booked This Week

Rep. Tom DeLay will likely be booked in a Texas county jail this week despite attempts by his attorneys to bypass the fingerprinting and mug shot process.

http://snipurl.com/ioba


From Information Clearing House

Senior Democrats call for explanation of reporter's 'WMD clearance'

Two senior Democrats have called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to explain an apparent "top secret" clearance given to New York Times reporter Judith Miller while she was on the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

http://snipurl.com/inx9


From Information Clearing House

Senior White House Officials Face Prospect of Life in Prison for Outing of CIA Agent Plame

By going after Wilson and his wife, those officials apparently committed serious crimes which they then compounded by obstructing justice and committing and suborning perjury.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=55142


From Information Clearing House

'Bad omens' for the White House

On top of all President George W Bush's other political worries and woes is the looming prospect that two of his most trusted and powerful advisers might be forced to resign and face criminal charges.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4353070.stm


From Information Clearing House

Iran says arrested British agent for twin bombings

An individual arrested in connection with Saturday’s twin bombings in the south-western city of Ahwaz has confessed to have received British training in Iraq to carry out the attacks, the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) deputy for the oil-rich city announced on Monday.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10656.htm

Voting Tallies Provoke Investigation, fraud alleged

In six Shiite-majority provinces in the South, 95 percent or more of voters are reported as having cast votes favoring the constitution.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10652.htm



Iraq vote result announcement delayed, fraud alleged:

"The fraud was so well-executed it exceeded their wildest expectations," said Mishaan Jabouri.

http://tinyurl.com/7tbsm



Dahr Jamail : “Elections” and other Deceptions in Iraq:

The vote had many similarities to the farce which took place on January 30-aside from a repeat of the draconian measures to provide security and quite a large dose of propaganda; we once again have what already appears to be rampant election fraud.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10655.htm



The carve-up of Iraq will spawn a redivision of the Middle East:

The adoption of a weak Iraqi federal constitution is likely to unleash an ethnic and sectarian crisis across the region.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1594437,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Killing With Impunity

Nine-Second Coverage For Dozens of Dead Iraqi Women and Children.
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/


From Information Clearing House

The Mindless American: A Tragedy In The Making

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10653.htm

Are we going to war with Iran?

by Dan Plesch

The US army and marines are heavily committed in Iraq, but soldiers could be found if the Bush administration were intent on invasion. Donald Rumsfeld has been reorganising the army to increase front-line forces by a third. More importantly, naval and air force firepower has barely been used in Iraq. Just 120 B52 and stealth bombers could target 5,000 points in Iran with satellite-guided bombs in just one mission. It is for this reason that John Pike of globalsecurity.org thinks that a US attack could come with no warning at all.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10651.htm

051018 - R - Mobilfunk - Newsletter

http://www.omega-news.info/051018_r_mobilfunk_newsletter.rtf

051017 - R - Mobilfunk - Newsletter

http://www.omega-news.info/051017_r_mobilfunk_newsletter.rtf

Torture, the GOP, and the Religious Right

http://www.antiwar.com/utley/?articleid=7592


Informant: Andrea Ball

Who the industry turns to declare cca wood safe

MotherJones.com

Paging Dr. Ross

Bill Hogan
November/December 2005 Issue

When American corporations come up against inconvenient science, say, a study showing that mercury in fish can damage a developing fetus, or that a blockbuster drug has nasty side effects, they call in the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Industry-funded ACSH is the most aggressive debunker of pesky research reports emanating from government and academia. Its medical/executive director’s calm, soothing voice can be heard on television and radio, quelling public fears about the latest bad news about health and the environment. That man is Dr. Gilbert Ross. It was Ross who defended the Wood Preservative Science Council, saying that, contrary to reams of scientific evidence, the arsenic in pressure-treated wood poses “no risk to human health”; Ross who wrote on behalf of the farmed-salmon industry that the PCBs in fish “are not a cause of any health risk, including cancer”; and Ross whose organization once asserted that the jury’s still out on whether environmental cigarette smoke really is hazardous to your health. Much of his time is spent tarnishing noncorporate-sponsored work as junk science of questionable motive. But Ross may not be ACSH’s most prudent choice to question the credibility of other doctors, scientists, and researchers. Although the biography posted on the organization’s website doesn’t mention it, Ross actually had to abandon medicine on July 24, 1995, when his license to practice as a physician in New York was revoked by the unanimous vote of a state administrative review board for professional misconduct. Instead of tending to patients, Ross spent all of 1996 at a federal prison camp in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, having being sentenced to 46 months in prison for his participation in a scheme that ultimately defrauded New York’s Medicaid program of approximately $8 million. During a three-and-a-half-week jury trial, federal prosecutors laid bare Ross’ participation in an enterprise, headed by one Mohammed Sohail Khan, to operate four sham medical clinics in New York City. For his scam to work, Khan needed doctors who could qualify as Medicaid providers, and Ross responded to an ad in the New York Times promising “Very, very good $$.” The scheme was brazenly larcenous: The clinics, which were later described as “very dirty and unsanitary,” raked in indigent patients—most of them homeless, alcoholic, or drug-addicted men—by offering them prescriptions for expensive drugs that they could resell on the street for cash. Word spread fast, and in streamed patients who, in exchange for the valuable scrip, would provide their Medicaid recipient numbers, give blood samples, and undergo medically unnecessary examinations, procedures, and tests. All of this brought Ross and the other doctors in the scheme money from the state’s Medicaid system, a percentage of which was kicked back to Khan. Ross testified at his trial that he had no knowledge of the ongoing fraud at the clinic where he worked. This defense only added to his troubles when, following his conviction, the judge ruled that Ross had obstructed justice by committing perjury. In addition to his prison sentence, Ross was ordered to forfeit $40,000 and, for his role in the fraud, to pay restitution of $612,855—an amount that was later reduced to $85,137 on the grounds that he didn’t have the assets to pay more. In 1997 a judge sustained a decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to bar Ross for 10 years from participating in either the Medicare or Medicaid programs, holding that he was “a highly untrustworthy individual” who had, at Khan’s clinics, engaged in “medically indefensible” practices. After his release from prison, Ross answered another ad in the New York Times, this one for a “staff assistant” at ACSH. Ross told president Elizabeth Whelan that he’d been convicted of a crime, done time in prison, and no longer possessed a medical license. She hired him anyway, and in 1999 he was promoted to medical/executive director. In 2000, while admitting his “unethical and criminal activity,” which he said was motivated by “greed,” Ross asked a state review panel to reinstate his medical license. The panel ruled against him. Ross finally got his license back in 2004, though he faces three years of probation should he ever choose to practice medicine again. Last year, in filling out a form for nydoctorprofile.com, an official state website, Ross faced a field titled “Criminal Convictions.” He left it blank.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2005/11/dr_ross.html


posted by
Deborah Elaine Barrie
4 Catherine Street Smiths Falls,
On Canada K7A 3Z8
(613)284-8259
deborahbarrie@hotmail.com
http://www.noccawood.ca

Times Knew Miller Was "Wrong"

Critics inside and outside the paper said they were amazed that Miller would not answer questions about her dealings with editors or show her notes to colleagues investigating the matter. They were equally surprised that Keller and Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. left most legal decisions to Miller without pressing her about her conversations with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's top aide, or asking to see her notes during the battle that landed her in jail for nearly three months.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101805N.shtml

FEMA E-Mails Showed Gross Ineptitude

E-mail documents offer a glimpse of the disarray in preparations for and the response to Katrina, for which FEMA has been widely criticized. A misunderstanding of national disaster plan roles, communications failures, delayed decision-making and absent voices of leadership mark the documents, which came as a partial response by FEMA's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, to a request by a House select investigative committee.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101805M.shtml

DeLay Was Offered Deal before Indictment

Before indicting Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) on conspiracy and money-laundering charges, a Texas prosecutor offered the congressman a chance to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge that would have let DeLay keep his job as majority leader, the lawmaker's attorney said today.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101805K.shtml

US Airstrikes Kill At Least 39 Civilians

A US fighter jet bombed a crowd gathered around a burned Humvee on the edge of a western provincial capital, killing 25 people, including 18 children.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101805J.shtml

Continuing in His Defiance of the Law

Republicans and Democrats have finally found something they can agree on. Marjorie Cohn points out that they have bipartisan support to stop Bush's inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners in United States custody: It's bad for our image in the Arab and Muslim world. It breeds more resentment against the US, making us more vulnerable to terrorism. And it's just plain un-American.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101805I.shtml

ImportantJugement: Base stations and Co-ownership - Coproriété et antennes relais de téléphonie mobile: Jugement Important

http://www.next-up.org/main.php?param=proces

U.S. HAS WEATHER CONTROL

http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=1352


Informant: Karana777

Some Questions for Harriet Miers

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101805Y.shtml

Something Wicked This Way Comes

by Anthony Wade

http://www.opednews.com

October 15, 2005

Beware America, there is something brewing on the horizon. The storm clouds are gathering. For anyone who has closely followed this administration and the way that they try to cow the masses to avoid bad publicity, the upcoming weeks are fraught with danger. As the Plamegate case starts to wind up, rest assured the storm of grand distraction is heading straight for us.

For the unaware, those who rely on mainstream/corporate media for their "news", Plamegate is a two year investigation into the leaking of a covert CIA operative's identity to the press. The prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has been doggedly trying to unravel so much corruption that all the talking heads can do is wonder who is going to be indicted. The fact remains though that the indictments have to be coming within the next two weeks. The term for the special prosecutor expires at the end of this month and we can be sure that Bush will not renew this investigation.

The story goes like this. In the run-up to the Iraq War the Bush administration was trying desperately to scare the nation about the WMD capability of Iraq. We heard tales of nefarious chemical weapons, terrifying biological weapons and the potential for Iraq to possess nuclear weapons. It is the nuclear potential that saw the development of Plamegate. There was a report that Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from the Niger and at the behest of the Vice President's office, Joseph Wilson was sent to investigate. He came back and informed the government that the story was completely untrue and as it turned out, the documents involved were crude forgeries. Despite the truth, the president bravely marched on and stated the Niger story as fact in his next state of the union address. Eventually, Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times refuting the White House claims. Instead of owning up to their "error", the Bush attack machine went into overdrive and the identity of Wilson's wife as an undercover CIA operative was anonymously leaked to the press.

If that does not sound like a big deal, try and remember that it is treasonous and a felony. Considering this was the party that rammed the "rule of law" down our throats with the partisan Clinton impeachment, it would seem quite germane. Considering Bush himself promised to restore integrity to the White House, the implications are extremely significant. What is lurking beneath the surface however is far more potentially damaging to this entire administration. The elephant in the room that people are not talking about is why there were forged documents to begin with and the overall publicity campaign waged by the administration to push us into war. With the benefit of hindsight and the lack of any WMD, it becomes quite clear that the reason we were sold this war on were not accurate. When you factor in the Downing Street Memos it becomes clearer still that those "inaccuracies" were known in advance and that the administration willfully and purposefully lied this country into war. When you then factor in that one reporter, Judy Miller, was willing to rot in jail for 85 days for a story she never even wrote, the corruption trail ends up at the top of the food chain.

Make no mistake about it; this story can take down the most corrupt administration in modern history. The obvious names being thrown around for indictments are Karl Rove and Scooter Libby but the fact is this sordid business has no less than 21 administration officials tied up in it, including Bush and Cheney. That being said, it is when this administration faces its harshest criticism that inevitably something happens to distract the American people. Usually that something is in the form of a terrorist attack, chatter, or something to panic the American people into submission and bury the story they do not want covered. This is when you will hear about a high profile arrest, usually the number three guy in al Qaeda. Or maybe we will here about "credible" intelligence about impending attacks on the New York City subway system. Eventually the intelligence will be debunked as years old, or unreliable. Eventually it will be discovered that it was not really the number three guy in al Qaeda, but rather their clerk. Those corrections will come days later and be buried by the corporate media so most people will never connect the reason for the initial subterfuge. So do not be deceived, it is coming America. Five years ago we were lectured day in and out by the republican machine that the rule of law was too vital to our democracy to allow it to be sullied. I only seek consistency.

So be vigilant America. Within the next two weeks indictments will be handed down against some major players in this administration. These indictments will point to far more egregious occurrences than just the charges at hand. They will expose the big lie that has been festering in this country for years now. That is the fact that 2,000 American soldiers have died for willful and purposeful lies told by this president and his administration. Their blood still cries out from the desert sands of Iraq, waiting for the truth to vindicate their sacrifice.

Anthony Wade, a contributing writer to opednews.com, is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies and abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent writer from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple websites. A Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies and excess. Anthony Wade's

Archive: http://www.opednews.com/archiveswadeanthony.htm Email Anthony: takebacktheus@yahoo.com


Informant: Mofmars3

The Avian Flu Fright is Politically Timed

http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=1071

[The key thing to understand here is that in order to make vaccines to protect against H5N1 (if that is the intent) scientists must achieve something that hasn’t happened yet. They must make the disease easily transmissible between humans, the one thing they are ostensibly most afraid of. Good job Len Horowitz and to Michel Chossudovsky for publishing this important article. – MCR]


Informant: Martin Greenhut

The price of cheap beef

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1594818,00.html

The White House Iraq Group and the Case for War in Iraq

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21158/1.html

Afro-American Anger against Washington Mounts

"We accuse America of criminal negligence!" thundered Louis Farrakhan. Saturday, in a county fair atmosphere (hip-hop, prayers and beach umbrellas), tens of thousands of demonstrators came together for the day on the Mall, the immense esplanade at the heart of the American capital, to remind the nation of the daily problems of millions of Blacks.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101705H.shtml

Congress and Military Analysts Begin Stronger Iraq Critique

In refocusing the nation's attention on the war on terror in past weeks, both the president and his critics in Congress are increasingly turning to a fundamental yet frequently overlooked aspect of the Iraq conflict: whether the United States has a clear military strategy to defeat the insurgency.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101705F.shtml

Get It Together, Democrats

Bob Herbert: A word of caution: Democrats should think twice before getting all giddy about the problems caving in on the Republicans and the prospects of regaining control of Congress in next year's elections. It's not enough to tell voters how terrible the Republicans are.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101705C.shtml

Cheney May Be Entangled in CIA Leak Investigation

A special counsel is focusing on whether Vice President Dick Cheney played a role in leaking a covert CIA agent's name, according to people familiar with the probe that already threatens top White House aides Karl Rove and Lewis Libby.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101705A.shtml

23 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak

http://www.thinkprogress.org/leak-scandal


Informant: John Calvert

Leak Probe 'Widening to Include Use of Intelligence'

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101805Z.shtml

TAKING AWAY OUR CHILDREN’S CIVIL RIGHTS

http://tinyurl.com/9vju8


Informant: Mofmars3

Miller's Mess

David Corn asks all the questions The New York Times editors didn't about Judith Miller's reporting.

http://www.tompaine.com/uncommonsense/index.php#6468

Miers And Roberts: A CEO's Dream Team

by Lee Drutman, TomPaine.com

Why is the business community gushing over Bush's picks for the Supreme Court?

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051

The Mansion Subsidy

by Peter Dreier, TomPaine.com

Bush's tax panel wants to end tax breaks for all homeowners. It ought to focus on the $18 billion subsidy for the rich.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051018/the_mansion_subsidy.php

Conservatives in Washington are trying to offset the costs of Katrina on the backs of America's most vulnerable

Operation On-Your-Own

by Earl Hadley, TomPaine.com
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051018/operation_onyourown.php

The inevitability of private interests

LewRockwell.Com
by Anthony Gregory

10/18/05

Not all economic statists are blind to the obvious government failures. They do not all deny that many state interventions into the market don’t help the people at large. Some maintain a different misconception. Sophisticated leftists (and right-populists) will usually diagnose the problem to be those perennial culprits behind every inequity and social woe: the dreaded 'private interests.' 'Private interests' corrupt public servants and turn them against the people. They buy off the officials at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency, bending the laws for their own private gain. They disrupt the regulation of savings and loans and make it scandalous. They lobby for corporate welfare and sham privatizations. Greedy and ubiquitous, these 'interests' keep interrupting the state in its pursuit of the common good. If it weren't for 'private interests,' the central plan would work...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory95.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

And they call this victory?

Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

10/17/05

The situation in Iraq has so deteriorated that a civil war is now the most likely outcome. Ironically, a rejection of the constitution might possibly have diminished the chances of such an all-out internecine bloodbath. In sharp contrast to the president's 'happy talk to victory' strategy, a constitutional defeat could have compelled a start for genuine Iraqi self-determination. A conclave of representatives from all of Iraq's diverse tribes and ethnic and religious groups meeting on their own timetable would have allowed true consensus-building. In such a grand council, the Iraqis would have had a variety of possible governing structures to choose from, not just an imposed U.S.-style federation. More than likely, they would have eventually chosen some type of looser confederation or even a partition...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1587


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Are British troops at breaking point in Iraq?

Independent [UK]

10/18/05

Fears that British forces in Iraq are reaching 'breaking point' grew last night as the first hard evidence of a crisis in morale began to emerge. Army sources are warning that the mood among soldiers of all ranks is at its gloomiest since the invasion in March 2003. The outlook has become darker as the war proves increasingly intractable and much more dangerous than troops had expected. A string of incidents in the past week has contributed to the sense of crisis...

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article320343.ece


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Halliburton's New Low in Treachery

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1017-25.htm
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=94479;show_parent=1

D.C. Press Co-Opted By War Lies

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1017-27.htm

Bush Is in No Hurry on Katrina Recovery

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1017-03.htm

Torture flights: our role in US brutality shames Britain

IF and when the so-called war on terror ever ends, our grandchildren or our great-grandchildren may well look back in disbelief and wonder how it could have been that, at the turn of the 21st century, the two nations that waged a global conflict under the banner of democracy could have so blatantly flouted that principle.

http://www.sundayherald.com/52324



Torture Flights: The Inside Story:

THEY could be walking the streets of Sweden, Italy, Albania, Indonesia or Pakistan. They are kidnapped in broad daylight, hooded, drugged, shackled and placed on a jet operated by the CIA.

http://www.sundayherald.com/52303



Australia: Terror laws carry jail term for 'ill will':

SWEEPING new anti-terror laws include a plan to jail people for up to seven years for promoting feelings of "ill will" or hostility between different groups that would threaten the peace.

http://tinyurl.com/d3oh5



US opposes Guantanamo contacts:

The US government has told a judge that suspects on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should not be allowed to speak, in person or even by telephone, to relatives and friends because of the security risks such contacts would pose.

http://tinyurl.com/demjq


From Information Clearing House

--------

UK: Judges liken terror laws to Nazi Germany:

A powerful coalition of judges, senior lawyers and politicians has warned that the Government is undermining freedoms citizens have taken for granted for centuries and that Britain risks drifting towards a police state. One of the country's most eminent judges has said that undermining the independence of the courts has frightening parallels with Nazi Germany.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10632.htm

CIA leak probe 'widening to include use of intelligence'

by Caroline Daniel and Edward Alden in Washington Published: October 17 2005 21:39

Evidence is building that the probe conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald, special prosecutor, has extended beyond the leaking of a covert CIA agent's name to include questioning about the administration's handling of pre-Iraq war intelligence.

According to the Democratic National Committee, a majority of the nine members of the White House Iraq Group have been questioned by Mr Fitzgerald. The team, which included senior national security officials, was created in August 2002 to "educate the public" about the risk posed by weapons of mass destruction on Iraq.

Mr Fitzgerald, who has been applauded for conducting a leak-free inquiry, has said little publicly about his 22-month probe, other than that it is about the "potential retaliation against a whistleblower", Joseph Wilson. After Mr Wilson, a former ambassador, went public with doubts about the evidence that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons, the name of his wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA official, was leaked to reporters.

The prosecutor has given no indication whether he will charge anyone in the case. At the weekend Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter jailed for 85 days after refusing to testify, provided new details about the scope of Mr Fitzgerald's investigation. She was asked "repeatedly" how Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, "handled classified information".

Ms Miller said Mr Libby had made "a sharp critique of Mr Wilson", and referred several times to the fact his wife worked at the CIA. Ms Miller also expressed surprise at a letter sent by Mr Libby when she was in jail that, she said, could imply he was trying to influence her testimony. "I replied that this portion of the letter had surprised me because it might be perceived as an effort by Mr Libby to suggest that I too would say we had not discussed Ms Plame. Yet my notes suggested that we had discussed her job," she wrote.

According to Time magazine, both Mr Libby and Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's chief political adviser, who has appeared four times before the grand jury, would resign or take unpaid leave if indicted for their role in the case.

Mr Rove has been adopting a lower profile, backing out of two public speeches over the last week. However, Scott McClellan, White House spokesman, said yesterday: "Karl is here at the White House doing his duties, as he always does."

The US failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq resulted in two inquiries into the prewar intelligence, one led by the Senate intelligence committee and the other by a White House-appointed panel.

But both panels confined themselves to investigating the intelligence community, concluding that the White House was largely the innocent victim of faulty intelligence. Neither delved into the political use of the available intelligence by the administration.


Informant: Michael Novick

ANOTHER DOWNING STREET DOCUMENT

Bush to Blair: First Iraq, Then Saudi
By The Independent UK
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3730

ACTION IN EUROPE

British Mothers to Camp Out at Blair's House
By Stop The War Coalition
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3645

Danish Suit Against Prime Minister Over War Advances
By Bo Elkjær
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3663

A MESSAGE FROM JOHN BONIFAZ

Message from John Bonifaz
What if you could vote to end the war in Iraq? Soon Massachusetts voters will be able to do so.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3721

THE OUTING OF VALERIE PLAME

Conyers and Skelton Write to Rumsfeld Re. Miller's Clearance
By Congressman John Conyers
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3747

Peering Under the Plame Outing
By David Swanson
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3662

The Heart of the Matter
By William Rivers Pitt
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3738

"Run Amok" Judith Miller Goes Down in Plames
By Dave Lindorff
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3736

Miller, The Fourth Estate And The Warfare State
By Norman Solomon
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3734

Did Judy Meet Cheney?
By georgia10
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3678

Activists Introduce Karl Rove NeoCondoms Outside Rove Grand Jury Appearance
By CODE PINK
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3637

TAKE ACTION

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3355

THE ONGOING WAR

Gephardt and Kucinich on the War
By David Swanson
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3751

The Nexus of Politics and Terror
By Keith Olbermann
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3737

Partisan War Syndrome
By David Sirota, In These Times
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3731

Tomdispatch Interview: Juan Cole on George Bush's Iraq
By Tom Engelhardt
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3729

The Iraqi Constitution: A Referendum for Disaster
By Phyllis Bennis
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3724

They're Going to Try to Exempt CIA from Torture Prohibition
By People's Email Network
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3722

What Cindy Sheehan Said on Yom Kippur
By Rabbi Michael Lerner
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3718

Peaceful Day in Iraq
By Cindy Sheehan
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3717

TAKE ACTION

http://www.millionphonemarch.com/

AFTER DOWNING STREET VOLUNTEER HITS MEDIA IN VIRGINIA

Blacksburg Woman Connects With a National Debate
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3666



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

Cheney may be target of probe

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/356858p-304125c.html


Informant: mojo_j_2000

USA: nach dem Irak Saudi Arabien & Iran im Visier

(Independent) Nach einem geheimen Memo der englischen Regierung aus dem Jahr 2003 plant die US-Regierung nach dem Irakkrieg weitere Staaten anzugreifen mit der Begründung, dass sie Massenvernichtungswaffen entwickelten (die es im Irak nicht gab).

Nach einem Bericht der englischen Zeitung "Independent", der dies geheime Memo offensichtlich zugespielt wurde, war das Papier verfasst worden von Blairs Sekretär und Berater Rycroft mit dem Vermerk, es solte nur Personen zugänglich gemacht werden, wenn aus Sicht der Regierung eine unmittelbare Notwendigkeit hierfür bestünde.

Es handelte sich dabei um die Aufzeichnung eines Gesprächs zwischen US-Präsident Bush und Premierminister Blair.

Englische Parlamentarier zeigten sich schockiert über die Enthüllung der Absichten der US-Regierung. Außer Saudi-Arabien wurde auch Pakistan als Angriffsziel genannt. Beide Länder galten bisher als Verbündete im "Anti-Terrorkrieg".

http://www.hh-online.net?lid=22906
http://links.net-hh.de?lid=22906
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article319993.ece

With Friends Like This, Who Needs Enemies?

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1912.htm#001


Informant: Gomez

"Berliner Zeitung" setzt sich zur Wehr

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21166/1.html

Corporations have infiltrated health stores without you knowing it

http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2005-10-13/cover_story8.php


Informant: Gomez

A Deep Look at Corruption Culture

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stephen__051014_a_deep_look_at_corru.htm


Informant: Gomez

The pay's lousy, but the slop is free

Soliman wouldn't be making anything near the salaries - starting at US$80,000 per year and often topping US$100,000 - that Halliburton's engineering and construction unit Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) pays to the truck drivers, construction workers, office workers, and other laborers it recruits from the United States.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10625.htm

Rice enlists support for Syria, Iran showdowns

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mobilized support among major powers for diplomatic showdowns over the next few weeks with Syria and Iran on a trip that ended on Sunday.

http://tinyurl.com/beu43


From Information Clearing House

--------

Rice Fails to Win Russian Support on Iran:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice failed Saturday to persuade Russia to offer new support for a hard line on Iran's disputed nuclear program, despite making a hastily arranged trip to the Russian capital.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10629.htm

'Hidden Scandal' in Miller Story, Charges Former CBS Newsman

There is one enormous journalism scandal hidden in Judith Miller's Oct. 16th first person article about the (perhaps lesser) CIA leak scandal. And that is Ms. Miller's revelation that she was granted a DoD security clearance while embedded with the WMD search team in Iraq in 2003.

http://tinyurl.com/bdjyz


From Information Clearing House

Judith Miller: My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Grand Jury Room

My notes indicate that well before Mr. Wilson published his critique, Mr. Libby told me that Mr. Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the C.I.A.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10642.htm

Miller's Confession; the last gasp before the indictments

If you plan to read Judy Miller's long and circuitous apology in the New York Times Sunday edition, bring your hip-waders. The obfuscating manure is knee-deep and bound to stymie even the most curious reader.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10641.htm

White House sets up group to market war in Iraq in 2002

The White House set up, without announcement, a group to market a war in Iraq in August 2002, seven months before the March 2003 invasion, according to an article published by the New York Times on Sunday.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10640.htm

US troops 'starve Iraqi citizens'

A senior United Nations official has accused US-led coalition troops of depriving Iraqi civilians of food and water in breach of humanitarian law.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10627.htm

--------

Swiss urged to intervene over abuses in Iraq :

The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food has called on Switzerland to condemn "flagrant" human-rights violations by coalition forces in Iraq. Jean Ziegler says civilian populations are being denied access to food and water in clear breach of the Geneva Conventions.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10626.htm

One victim's story

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10633.htm

Good Americans - Democracy's Grave Diggers?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10635.htm


© Virginia Metze

Making the "Strong," "Tough," & "Macho" Case for Withdrawal

David Sirota
October 10, 2005
Huffington Post

The mainstream media and political pundit/activist class has, for the last few years, been focused on the need for politicians to appear "strong," especially on national security. That word has been distorted by both political parties into a euphemism for "essentially ignoring the people who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11, and instead supporting a war in Iraq - a country that had nothing to do with 9/11."

Despite all of this, we have seen a few courageous politicians step up and talk openly about how ridiculous this oxymoronic definition of "strength" really is. Back in 2004, Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) opposed the Iraq War on the grounds that it was taking the military's focus off the more pressing problem of al Qaeda. Earlier this year, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) made the case for a target timetable for withdrawal , noting that it would be in America's national security interests to get out of an ever-worsening and mismanaged situation.

Now, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) is making the case that unless we put withdrawal on the table, the Iraqis will never have a real incentive to take responsibility for their own country's security. Just look at an excerpt of his op-ed in today's Washington Post: [...] Read Levin's article at http://tinyurl.com/drqp3

Sirota's article is on Huffington Post: http://tinyurl.com/cu7ol


© Virginia Metze

GOP base losing faith in Bush

October 8, 2005
BY WILL LESTER
Chicago Sun-Times

WASHINGTON -- Evangelicals, Republican women, Southerners and other critical groups in President Bush's political coalition are worried about the direction the nation is headed and disappointed with his performance, an AP-Ipsos poll found.

The growing unease could be a troubling sign for a White House struggling to keep the Republican Party base from slipping over Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, Gulf Coast spending projects, immigration and other issues.

''Politically, this is very serious for the president,'' said James Thurber, a political scientist at American University.

Only 28 percent say the country is headed in the right direction, while 66 percent say it is on the wrong track, the poll found. Those most likely to have lost confidence include white evangelicals, down 30 percentage points since November, Republican women, down 28 points, Southerners, down 26 points, and suburban men, down 20 points. Read the article at http://tinyurl.com/7j78l


© Virginia Metze

The Case Against Tom DeLay: What Has Happened To Grand Jury Secrecy In Texas?

by JOHN W. DEAN
Friday, Oct. 07, 2005

What is one to make of the criminal charges against Tom DeLay?

Read the article at http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20051007.html or http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100805Y.shtml


© Virginia Metze

Miers to Face Tougher Time Than Roberts in Hearings

by Peter Baker and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 9, 2005; Page A01

In a room at the Justice Department this summer, Harriet Miers listened silently as young lawyers playing senators threw question after question at John G. Roberts Jr. at a secret practice hearing, or "murder board." She watched as he rattled off Supreme Court cases and, as one participant put it, "artfully dodged" inquiries he did not want to answer.

Now it's her turn. After an unexpectedly rocky first week, Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court appears likely to hinge on her performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee at hearings that probably will open early next month, according to strategists in both parties.

The question is how much she learned from Roberts's murder boards and how much constitutional law she can master in cramming sessions over the next several weeks.

Unlike Roberts, who made a career arguing before the high court and commands the nuances of obscure rulings, Miers never practiced that sort of law, nor did she, in her various behind-the-scenes roles at the Bush White House, demonstrate the sort of skill at public performance that Senate hearings demand. [...] Read it at the Washington Post web site: http://tinyurl.com/7qq7s


© Virginia Metze

Beat Back Science Abuse

The right-wing's contempt for science will lead to economic and ecological calamity -- unless we fight back.

By Chris Mooney, AlterNet.
Posted October 10, 2005

The politicization of science presents a severe challenge to modern democratic governments, which depend on a creative tension between elected representatives on the one hand, and unelected technocratic elites on the other. While we cannot allow scientific experts to rule us directly, we nevertheless need them desperately. Our leaders simply cannot do their jobs competently without considerable reliance on expertise that they themselves do not possess. But the politicization of science -- in essence, a corruption of the communication channels between credible experts and policymakers -- weakens and ultimately destroys this necessary relationship.

The advent of the modern conservative movement, its takeover of the Republican Party, and its ultimate triumph under the administration of George W. Bush have brought us to a point where a true divorce between democratic government and technocratic expertise seems conceivable. Indeed, it appears to be actually underway. To those who understand that such a split will lead to economic, ecological, and social calamity, it presents a terrifying prospect -- and leaves us with only two options. [...] The Bush "administration" has increased the speed of global warming immeasurably, as the calamities all over the world demonstrate. The modern "know-nothings" are out in force. To read this article, go to http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/26550/


© Virginia Metze

Öffentliche Petition: Eigentum verpflichtet, sein Gebrauch soll zugleich dem Wohle der Allgemeinheit dienen

http://itc.napier.ac.uk/e-Petition/bundestag/view_petition.asp?PetitionID=8

Man Will 'Wipe Out' Rare Creatures of the Deep

Deep sea trawling is turning into an unprecedented disaster for sea life. Held down by rows of steel rollers weighing up to 200kg each, trawling nets are clear-cutting the sea bed and remote coral reefs on sea mounts. Some corals, such as the seafan, can be 1,000 years old.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/101705EC.shtml

Heeding the Law of the Land

Ausubel, founder of the Bioneers Conference, explains that we must listen to what the Earth is telling us: the message is crystal clear. When we fight nature, we lose ... The first homeland security comes from environmental security. The law of the land must become the law of our land.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/101705EA.shtml

--------

DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE: A DECLARATION FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL http://omega.twoday.net/stories/990236/

VA Seeks to Punish Iraq War Veterans

Last year, the VA spent $4.3 billion on PTSD disability payments, a number which it hopes to reduce this year by revoking PTSD benefits for many veterans. According to Gene Gerard, this will be the final insult to soldiers who were asked to fight a war in Iraq on false premises.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101705R.shtml

Iraq Vote under Investigation

Iraqi election officials said today that they were investigating what they described as "unusually high" vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many as 99 percent of the voters were reported to have cast ballots in favor of Iraq's new constitution, raising the possibility that the results of Saturday's referendum could be called into question.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101705Q.shtml

PEDIATRICIANS URGE A PRECAUTIONARY APPROACH TO TOXIC LEAD

RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS #827 http://www.rachel.org
September 29, 2005

PEDIATRICIANS URGE A PRECAUTIONARY APPROACH TO TOXIC LEAD

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has just issued a new " policy statement " urging the U.S. to eliminate toxic lead from all housing, to stop poisoning the nation's children.[1]

The Academy says 25% of children in the U.S. still "live in housing with deteriorating lead-based paint and are at risk of lead exposure with resulting cognitive impairment and other sequelae [consequences]."

This means there are more children labeled "at risk" today than there were 20 years ago. During the 20 years, the median level of lead in children's blood has dropped nearly 8-fold (from 15 ug/dL to 1.9 mg/dL) because lead was banned from gasoline, from water pipes, and from food containers. However, during the same period, bad news about lead's harmful effects at low levels has accumulated year after year.

According to the latest estimate from the Academy, about 20 million children (ages 0-18) live in homes where lead-based paint is still a hazard, 5 million of them age 5 or younger. The youngest three million of these -- kids up to age 3 -- are in greatest danger because they are most likely to lick or chew window sills or other sources of lead- based paint, or to put their hands or household objects or toys in their mouths. Lead-based paint tastes like lemon drops.

This is the first time the Academy has urged the elimination of toxic lead-based paint at its source as the best way to stop the poisoning of children. In the past the Academy has relied on pediatricians to educate parents about ways to prevent their children from being poisoned.[2]

Notice the difference: The old approach assumed that attentive parents could manage to raise healthy children in a toxic environment. When they failed, a "case manager" from the health department stepped in locate the source of exposure and fix the problem. At least that was the theory. This cumbersome and expensive one-on-one approach did not protect the nation's children. In contrast, the Academy's new policy assumes that persistent toxicants like lead cannot be managed but must be eliminated -- signaling a clear shift to a precautionary approach. As the Academy's new policy says, "The focus in childhood lead-poisoning policy... should shift from case identification and management to primary prevention, with a goal of safe housing for all children." We salute the American Academy of Pediatrics for this important step forward.

The Academy's new policy statement contains considerable new information about the dangers of exposing young children to lead:

** The current " level of concern " for lead in a child's blood is still set by the federal government at 10 micrograms of lead in a deciliter (1/10th of a liter) of blood, expressed as ug/dL. The federal government recommends taking no action on lead below 10 ug/dL. From 10 to 15, monitoring is recommended but no action. Unless a child has 15 ug/dL lead in their blood for longer than 3 months, or if a child has 20 ug/dL in their blood at any time, then the government recommends investigating the child's environment to find the source of the lead exposure and reduce or eliminate it.

However the Academy's new policy statement confirms that no one any longer believes that 10 ug/dL protects lead-exposed children from harm, or that there is any "safe" level of lead exposure for children. The federal government itself came to this conclusion in 2002: "there is no apparent threshold below which adverse effects of lead do not occur," said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) . The Academy, too, acknowledges that, "Evidence continues to accrue that commonly encountered blood lead concentrations, even those less than 10 micrograms/deciliter, may impair cognition [brain function], and there is no threshold yet identified for this effect." In other words, any amount of lead in a child causes some brain damage -- there is no "safe" level of lead except zero. Yet the federal government continues to recommend that children poisoned by lead be ignored if their blood lead level is lower than 10 ug/dL.

The main effect of lead is to impair cognition, which is usually measured (after age 5) by an IQ test. Any amount of lead reduces a child's IQ to some degree.

The Academy's new policy statement says, "The best-studied effect is cognitive impairment, measured by IQ tests. The strength of this association [between increased lead and decreased IQ] and its time course have been observed to be similar in multiple studies in several countries. In most countries, including the United States, blood lead concentrations peak at approximately 2 years of age and then decrease without intervention." This decrease occurs because children older than 2 don't put hands and objects in their mouths as often as babies and toddlers do, plus the child is gaining weight, so lead is being diluted.

For children with more than 10 ug/dL of lead in their blood, each additional 10 ug/dL of lead reduces IQ another 2 to 3 points. However, two recent studies have shown that the first 10 ug/dL increase is the most damaging, reducing a child's IQ by "more than 7 points," the Academy reports. In other words, the "dose response curve" is steepest at the lowest doses; the greatest harm from lead begins to occur when a children has the least lead.

Obviously, this means it is important to prevent that first 10 ug/dL rise in a child's blood lead levels.

The Academy acknowledges these studies but says that its new policy statement does not reflect this new information. The Academy is waiting for additional confirmation before acting more aggressively to protect young children from that first 10 ug/dL "hit" to their systems.

** The new policy statement acknowledges that toxic lead is associated with aggressive behavior and delinquency in children. Past policy statements by the Academy have ignored the body of literature, going back to 1943 , linking lead exposure with aggressive and violent behavior and delinquency. The Academy now says:

"Other aspects of brain or nerve function [besides IQ], especially behavior, also may be affected. Teachers reported that students with elevated tooth lead concentrations were more inattentive, hyperactive, disorganized, and less able to follow directions. Additional follow-up of some of those children showed higher rates of failure to graduate from high school, reading disabilities, and greater absenteeism in the final year of high school. Elevated bone lead concentrations are associated with increased attentional dysfunction, aggression, and delinquency. In children followed from infancy with blood lead measurements, self-reported delinquent behavior at 15 to 17 years of age increased with both prenatal and postnatal lead exposure, and bone lead, thought to represent cumulative dose, is higher in adjudicated delinquents. These data imply that the effects of lead exposure are long lasting and perhaps permanent."

** Effects of lead are irreversible

This is another important point in the Academy's most recent policy statement: it reviews evidence showing that harm from lead is irreversible. Physicians used to think (or at least hope) that ending toxic exposure would allow a child to recover lost brain function. That possibility now seems very unlikely.

** Damage to hearing, impaired sense of balance

The Academy's policy statement says that, "Subclinical effects on both hearing and balance may occur at commonly encountered blood lead concentrations." In other words, at levels of toxic lead routinely found in many children today, we can expect hearing loss from lead. Does this contribute to poor performance in school, with reduced life- possibilities?

** Lastly, the Academy now recommends that all children should be tested for lead in the blood at least once during their first 2 years of life. In the past the Academy has said universal testing is not worth the money. Now that levels of lead as low at 1 or 2 ug/dL are known to cause some damage to a child's brain, the Academy has reversed its position on universal testing.

* * *

The Academy did not rush precipitously to adopt a precautionary approach to lead poisoning, urging removal of lead-based paint from all housing. The paint industry openly acknowledged in the 1890s that lead-based paint was dangerous; in 1897 at least one company was advertising that its paint " is NOT made with lead and is not poisonous." The poisoning of children by dust from lead-based paint was first reported in medical literature just over 100 years ago, in 1904. Lead-based paint was banned for interior uses in Australia and most of Europe during the 1920s.[3] The U.S. waited 50 more years before banning it in 1978.

The problem of children poisoned by lead-based paint was widely recognized by public health physicians in the U.S. in the 1930s. The City of Baltimore began routine surveillance of lead poisoning in children in 1931. Reports of large numbers of children poisoned by lead-based paint appeared in medical literature in the 1950s. (See Rachel's #294 .) Unfortunately, those early reports emphasized that lead was mainly a danger to poor, African-American children living in urban slums. Public health specialists subsequently recognized that even well-to-do children in the suburbs were being poisoned by lead, but the original understanding of lead as a problem of poor blacks proved hard to reverse. In a society oriented by 350 years of law and custom to white supremacy,[4] a silent epidemic of poisoning thought to affect only poor blacks had no political meaning.

Nevertheless, public-interest scientists (Barry Commoner, Rene Dubos and others) pressed for controls on lead-based paint[5] and, in 1971, Congress passed The Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act declaring lead-based paint a health hazard to children and ordering that it be stripped from the nation's stock of federally subsidized housing. However, President Nixon was then developing his "southern strategy" to woo voters away from George Wallace, the avowedly white supremacist candidate for president. In 1971, President Nixon "rejected a recommendation of Government health specialists for a national push this year against childhood lead poisoning."[6] That set the tone for the federal response to the dangers of lead-based paint. Twenty years later the New York Times would report that the federal lead-paint-removal program had "produced a legacy of frustration and failure." "The Government's record in dealing with this problem is one of absolute dereliction," said Dr. Herbert Needleman in 1990, according to the Times.[7]

Now, 100 years after the first medical reports of children poisoned by lead-based paint in their homes, lead-based paint flaking off the walls of homes is still the main cause of childhood lead poisoning.[1] The victims are still generally, though by no means exclusively, poor and they are still far more likely to be black or Latino than white.

Obviously the nation has dragged its feet on this problem. This seems odd because it is widely acknowledged that huge sums of money could be saved by cleaning up lead in housing. The new policy statement from the Academy of Pediatrics discusses several cost-benefit analyses showing that eliminating the lead hazard from housing would save billions of dollars each year because lead diminishes a child's IQ and IQ translates into earning power (which, in turn, translates into tax revenues).

Here are some numbers from the Academy's new policy statement.[1] There are 4 million homes in the U.S. needing lead removal. The cost would be a one-time investment of $28 billion. The savings each year thereafter would be $43 billion. So lead removal would pay for itself the first year and then save billions each year thereafter. An investment of $28 billion is less than the U.S. spends every six months in Iraq.

The Academy cites other studies that make the same point, but you get the idea -- there's a huge amount of money to be saved by ending the poisoning of our children.

To state it in the reverse: we are foregoing billions of dollars in income and taxes each year in order to keep our urban children poisoned. This is an astonishing use of scarce resources, to put it mildly. How can we possibly explain such a bizarre national policy?

All I can figure is that some things are more important than money.

Here is a hypothesis based on U.S. history: Perhaps both Republican and Democratic administrations of the past 35 years have found it advantageous to keep inner-city kids behind the 8-ball by diminishing their IQs early in life, making them less successful in school, plus making them more aggressive and violent. I know this is an outrageous hypothesis, but hear me out.

For forty years, 1940-1980, the nation was ruled by a "bottom up" New Deal coalition of liberal middle-class whites plus minorities plus the organized working class. During this period, inequalities of income and wealth were held in check chiefly by the power of labor unions, by tax policies, and to a lesser extent by welfare programs. Recall that the income tax rate on the top tax-bracket was 91% from 1949 to 1964 (including during the Eisenhower administration) -- compared to 35% today.[8]

But "conservative" politicians (of both parties) began to undermine the "bottom up" New Deal coalition in the early 1960s, using race as the wedge issue to split the coalition.

This historical reality -- using race to divide and conquer the New Deal coalition -- has been well-documented in four excellent books:

** Dan T. Carter, From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution, 1963-1994 (1996; ISBN 0-8071-2366-8);

** Thomas and Mary Edsall, Chain Reaction; The Impact of Race, Rights and Taxes on American Politics (1992; ISBN 0-393-30903-7);

** Sara Diamond, Roads to Dominion; Right Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States (N.Y.: The Guilford Press, 1995); ISBN
0-89862-864-4,

** Jean Hardisty, Mobilizing Resentment (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999); ISBN 0-8070-4316-8).

In 1964, Barry Goldwater ran for president on an anti-civil rights platform. He lost, and two more civil rights laws were enacted in 1965 and 1968. These laws -- plus the civil disorder of the period 1965-1968 ("Burn, baby, burn!") -- fueled a backlash. (Many people conveniently forget that this phase of 1960s civil disorder was a response to 5 years of white supremacist riots, bombings, murders, and assassinations, 1960-1965.)[9]

White supremacist "conservative" politicians fanned the backlash. George Wallace discovered that a white supremacy message resonated not only in the south but also in the mid-west. In 1963, Wallace had an epiphany: "They all hate black people, all of them. They're all afraid, all of them. Great God! That's it! They're all Southern. The whole United States is Southern!"[10] In the 1964 Democratic primary, Wallace took 34% of the vote in Wisconsin, 30% in Indiana, and 43% in Maryland. In the 1972 presidential campaign, Wallace won 51% of the vote in Michigan.

President Nixon went on to develop what is still today euphemistically called the "southern strategy," a polite phrase for "white supremacy." As we have seen, in 1971 Mr. Nixon rejected the advice of public health specialists and refused to tackle the problem of toxic lead poisoning among urban children. It wouldn't pay to be seen as investing tax dollars in the health of those inner city troublemakers. Ronald Reagan built on the Nixon legacy, openly hostile to civil rights and affirmative action (at least affirmative action for blacks; affirmative action for whites was OK with the Gipper[11]). Reagan even tried to reverse the federal policy of withholding subsidies to segregated schools, until the Supreme Court tripped him up. Despite this setback, Reagan's white supremacist policies attracted fundamentalist religious conservatives and thus helped cobble together the current conservative coalition that slowly took power starting about 1972.[12]

The genius of the white supremacist strategy (later to be combined with other diversionary "social" issues -- anti-intellectual, anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-school prayer) is that it provided a focus for the fears, hatreds and frustrations of lower middle-class and working class whites -- deflecting attention away from the real political action of those decades, which was to cut taxes for the rich and the super-rich and redesign the world order to make it easy to move money overseas (where it was easier to hide from the U.S. tax man) -- a byproduct of "globalization" which had the effect of making the super-rich richer.[13]

So that, in a nutshell, is the political usefulness of a permanent underclass of blacks and Latinos trapped in poisoned housing -- they provide endless targets for white supremacist frustrations and fantasies, while they deflect attention away from the real political action of the last 20 years, which is the funneling of hundreds of billions of dollars from the middle class and the working poor into the pockets of the super rich. During the Reagan-Bush years, 1980-1992, the super rich (the wealthiest 1%) saw their incomes rise by 78% while the median wage-earner saw his or her income decline 5%.[14] Those with declining incomes have been seething with frustration as the American dream has passed them by. They have tried to tread water by putting more family members to work, working longer hours, driving longer distances in worsening traffic to second and even third jobs, but for low- and middle-income groups, keeping up with the Jones gets harder each passing year. To deflect attention away from this massive upward redistribution of economic rewards, "conservative" politicians have developed a ready explanation, expressed in the shorthand of white supremacy: " welfare queens " and " Willie Hortons " have been stealing from hard-working, law-abiding Americans.

To this day, white supremacy remains the central issue -- almost never discussed openly -- that divides U.S. society.[15] The environmental movement tried for a time to overcome this history, but the "environmental justice" movement has, so far, been unable to claim its fair share of the available funds. Wealthy white groups, and many of their funders -- while adopting the rhetoric of environmental justice -- have not offered equal space at the table for non-whites,[16] and so the cycle of frustration and anger is perpetuated even among liberal environmentalists.

It seems safe to say that until liberals figure out how to rebuild a durable interracial political coalition (including a democratically-run, all-inclusive labor movement), the "conservatives" will retain political control of the U.S., wealth will continue to float upward, destroying the middle class, and democracy will continue to fade into empty rhetoric.

This then is the importance of the new policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics. By advocating a precautionary policy of removing lead from housing, it affirms that everyone has a basic right to a non-toxic environment and a decent start in life. Making such a policy real will not be easy -- the silent forces of white supremacy remain arrayed against it -- but it nevertheless does keep alive the hope that we may one day create a society "with liberty and justice for all."

==============

[1] Committee on Environmental Health, American Academy of Pediatrics, "Lead Exposure in Children: Prevention, Detection, and Management," Pediatrics (October 2005), pgs. 1036-1046. Available here .

[2] Committee on Environmental Health, American Academy of pediatrics, "Screening for Elevated Blood Lead Levels," Pediatrics Vil. 101, No. 6
(June 1998), pgs. 1072-1078. Available here .

[3] Sven Hernberg, "Lead Poisoning in Historical Perspective," American Journal of Industrial Medicine Vol. 38 (2000), pgs. 244-254. Available here .

[4] Francis D. Adams and Barry Sanders, Alienable Rights; The Exclusion of African Americans in a White Man's Land, 1619-2000 (New York: HarperCollins, 2003). Betita Martinez points out that the phrase "white supremacy" is more accurate than "racism" because it conveys the inherent power relationship in racism; Elizabeth (Betita) Martinez, "Racism: The U.S. Creation Myth and Its Premise Keepers," in David Solnit, editor, Globalize Liberation (San Francisco: City Lights, 2004; ISBN 0-87286-420-0).

[5] Sandra Blakeslee, "Experts Recommend Measures to Cut Lead Poisoning in Young," New York Times Mar. 27, 1969, pg. 25.

[6] "Funds for Victims of Lead Poisoning Asked of Senators," New York Times July 14, 1971, pg. 71.

[7] William E. Schmidt, "Lead Paint Poisons Children Despite 1971 Law on Removal," New York Times August 26, 1990, pg. 1.

[8] Gar Alperovitz, " Tax the Plutocrats ," The Nation Jan. 27, 2003.

[9] Hugh Davis Graham, " On Riots and Riot Commissions: Civil Disorders in the 1960s ," The Public Historian Vol. 2, No. 4 (Summer 1980), pgs. 7-27.

[10] Dan T. Carter, From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution, 1963-1994 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996; ISBN 0-8071-2366-8), pg. 6.

[11] Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America (N.Y.: W.W. Norton, 2005); ISBN 0-393-05213-3.

[12] On Reagan's white supremacist policies, see, for example, Francis D. Adams and Barry Sanders, Alienable Rights (NY: HarperCollins, 2003; ISBN 0-06-019975-X), pgs. 308-313; see also Thomas and Mary Edsall, Chain Reaction; The Impact of Race, Rights and Taxes on American Politics (1992; ISBN 0-393-30903-7), especially chapter 9.

[13] See these three books: Donald Barlett and James B. Steele, America: Who Really Pays the Taxes? New York: Touchstone, 1994. ISBN 0-671-87157-9; and Donald Barlett and James B. Steele, The Great American Tax Dodge; How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness, Destroying the Income Tax, and Costing You. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 2002. ISBN 0520236106; and Charles Lewis, Bill Allison, and the Center for Public Integrity. The Cheating of America; How Tax Avoidance and Evasion by the Super Rich are Costing the Country Billions -- and What You Can Do About It. New York: William Morrow, 2001. ISBN 0-380-97682-X.

[14] Dan T. Carter, From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution, 1963-1994 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1996; ISBN 0-8071-2366-8), pg. 6

[15] Robert Jensen, The Heart of Whiteness; Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (San Francisco: City Lights, 2005); ISBN
0-87286-449-9.

[16] In their report, Green of Another Color (Boston: Northeastern University, 2001) Daniel Faber and Deborah McCarthy show that, of all funds available for environmental work during the period 1996 to 1999, some 96% went to the lawyers and scientists of the traditional environmental movement, and only 4% went to all the thousands of groups working to build the "environmental justice" movement.


RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 160 New Brunswick, N.J.
08903 Fax (732) 791-4603; E-mail: erf@rachel.org

Flu Bug Worse This Year: Vaccines Limited

http://tinyurl.com/8hnsl

Senior White House official has flipped in leak case

http://www.livejournal.com/users/mparent7777/3719859.html


Informant: Karana777

CIA LEAK: JUDITH MILLER OPERATION MOCKINGBIRD ASSET

http://911review.org/Wiki/OperationMockingbird.shtml
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/cia-media.htm
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/mockingbird.htm
http://www.whale.to/b/mock.html
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/06-07-05/discussion.cgi.55.html
http://operation-mockingbird.blogspot.com/2006/08/operation-mockingbird.html
http://www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_louise_01_03_03_mockingbird.html



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Mockingbird

Another Tax Reform Fraud

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul280.html

Don't worry about bird flu or other manufactured hysteria

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese230.html

Tyrannies Big and Small in New Orleans

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/m.lora3.html

Why Congressional Democrats Support the War

http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger63.html

An Old Lie About a New War

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff34.html

God's White House: Using government employees to talk about faith

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05288/588934.stm


Informant: Gomez
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