[Peace-discuss] News notes, for the AWARE meeting 2008-01-06

[Karen Medina]

Dr. Estabrook,

Hail and fare thee well oh fighter of the flu. Thanks to Eric for the news. 

-karen medina

---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:16:16 -0600
>From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>  
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] News notes, for the AWARE meeting 2008-01-06  
>To: Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>
>[Today is the Epiphany, the ancient Christian celebration of the visit 
>of the Wise Men; so, to avoid invidious comparison, I won't be coming to 
>the AWARE meeting tonight...  Actually, I'm not quite over the flu, so 
>in place of the usual news summary at the meeting, I'm passing along 
>some notes that our researcher, Eric Sizemore, took for the WEFT program 
>News from Neptune yesterday, hoping that they will be a substitute.  Ave 
>atque vale, CGE]
>
>
>ABC News: The Grinch That Stole $10 Billion
><http://abcnews.go.com/Business/HolidayTheme/story?id=4029379&page=1>
>     The subprime mortgage mess has turned into a grinch, sneaking around
>     Wall Street taking hefty bonus envelopes out of stockings and from
>     underneath Christmas trees. ... Braconi said that drop translates
>     into $10 billion less in Wall Street's pay envelopes this year
>     compared to last. That is a substantial reduction from the record
>     $33.6 billion bonus pool of 2006.
>
>The Daily Scare | Exposing Media and Government Propaganda, Obfuscation,
>Scare Tactics and Fearmongering
><http://www.dailyscare.com/comment/reply/2727>
>     The assassination of Benazir Bhutto was a calculated risk, intended
>     to derail democracy in Pakistan because Islamic extremists were
>     making the democratic transition from militias into political
>     parties. For this reason, it is unlikely that she was assassinated
>     by real Islamists, true Taliban. It is more likely that the hit on
>     Bhutto was connected to the Administration's getting the "green
>     light" (the day before the attack), to move large numbers of Special
>     Forces "trainers" into the tribal regions. [Arguable, but not
>     certain.  --CGE]
>
>Palestine Chronicle - Israel Kills 11 Gazans
><http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-01050863510.htm>
>     The new fatalities followed the killing of nine Palestinians,
>     including two women, in heavy Israeli ground and air strikes in the
>     village of Bani Suheila near the southern city of Khan Yunis.
>     [Israeli tanks fired on a family at breakfast.  --CGE]
>
>New Left Review - Perry Anderson: Jottings on the Conjuncture
><http://www.newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2695>
>     The long-standing corporate unity of the Pakistani Army, its grip on
>     the country immune to internal rifts or bouts of nominal civilian
>     rule, makes a disagreeable surprise unlikely. [One point, if a good
>     one, from a long and wide-ranging account of the present situation
>     -- the best I've seen, but not perfect.  --CGE]
>
>The bipartisan consensus on U.S. military spending - Glenn Greenwald -
>Salon
><http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/01/02/military_spending/index.html> 
>
>     Global Security has taken the Fiscal Year 2008 U.S. budget and
>     prepared a new chart illustrating the most significant and
>     under-discussed political fact in the United States, one that
>     substantially affects every other issue
>
>ZNet |Electoral Politics | Edwards Reconsidered
><http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=90&ItemID=14656>
>     Edwards was the most improved presidential candidate of 2007. He
>     sharpened his attacks on corporate power and honed his calls for
>     economic justice. He laid down a clear position against nuclear
>     power. He explicitly challenged the power of the insurance industry
>     and the pharmaceutical giants.
>
>Matt Stooks.com - CNN keeps blowing, and blowing, and blowing…
><http://mattstooks.com/?p=1219>
>     Ron Paul had 10 percent of the vote. Why isn't he listed when Bill
>     Richardson's two percent makes the Democratic pie?
>
>Oil trader wins fame with $100-a-barrel trade - Telegraph
><http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/01/04/bcnoil104.xml> 
>
>     Richard Arens, a local trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange,
>     has shot to fame after a lifetime of obscurity thanks to his
>     determination to print the golden $100-a-barrel trade ticket.
>
>Cockburn / St. Clair: A Good Night in Iowa
><http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn01042008.html>
>     The wisdom had been that a Republican candidate would ride to
>     victory by swearing to seal the southern border, cut taxes, and go
>     to war on Iran. Huckabee's substantive record is one of tolerance
>     toward immigrants, compassion toward convicted criminals, and
>     straightforward abolition of the most hated agency in the United
>     States--the IRS--with installation of a sales tax, whose regressive
>     features would be balanced by rebates to the poor.
>
>TheHill.com - Democrats say Bush can't pocket veto defense bill
><http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/democrats-say-bush-cant-pocket-veto-defense-bill-2008-01-02.html> 
>
>     The White House on Monday said it was pocket-vetoing the measure,
>     but a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the
>     president cannot use such a measure when Congress is in session. The
>     distinction over whether the president can pocket-veto the bill is
>     important because such a move would prevent Congress from voting on
>     an override.
>
>Patrick Cockburn: Is this the beginning of the end in Iraq? -
>Independent Online Edition > Commentators
><http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article3291556.ece>
>     The government in the Green Zone is a hothouse plant that would
>     wither and die without the American military presence.
>
>YouTube - McCain: "Make it 100!" <http://youtube.com/watch?v=vf7HYoh9YMM>
>     McCain tells a crowd in New Hampshire - a state where 66% of the
>     population is opposed to the war in Iraq - that it's "fine with me"
>     if we're in Iraq for 100 years
>
>Nation & World | Kucinich contests debate exclusion by ABC | Seattle
>Times Newspaper
><http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004108723_campdig05.html> 
>
>     Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich filed a complaint
>     with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday after ABC
>     News excluded him, fellow Democrat Mike Gravel and Republican Duncan
>     Hunter from today's debates. Kucinich said ABC is violating
>     equal-time provisions by keeping him out of the debate.
>
>Biden Takes Bush to Task Over Sale of F-16 Jet Fighters to Pakistan -
>Salem-News.Com
><http://www.salem-news.com/articles/january032008/jets_pakistan_1307.php>
>     Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Joseph R.
>     Biden, Jr. said that if any U.S. aid is involved, the sale is
>     illegal. "The recently passed Defense Appropriations bill bars any
>     assistance to Pakistan for weapons sales that are not for
>     counter-terrorism purposes. The primary purpose of F-16s is to
>     balance India, not to combat the Taliban or Al Qaeda. "
>
>------------
>
>In addition, it's important to note several things about this week's 
>Iowa caucuses:
>	(1) the real anti-war movement, in the form of Kathy Kelly's Voices of 
>Creative Nonviolence ("Seasons of Discontent: A Presidential Occupation 
>Project"), showed up the fake anti-war movement (Obama's campaign) by 
>getting arrested in the latter's offices;
>	(2) in spite of the media's assertion that the war was not an issue in 
>Iowa (and the candidates' fervent hope that that's right), Iowa voters 
>said the most important issues -- in order -- were the war, the economy, 
>and healthcare; and
>	(3) of the two winners, one is a severe critic of Wall Street -- and 
>it's not the Democrat, Obama, but the Republican, Huckabee.
>
>Vote for Change? Atrocity-Linked U.S. Officials Advising Democratic, GOP 
>Presidential Frontrunners.  On Democracy Now! Independent journalist 
>Allan Nairn and American Conservative correspondent Kelley Beaucar 
>Vlahos discuss a little-addressed facet of the 2008 campaign: many of 
>the top advisers to leading presidential candidates are ex-U.S. 
>officials involved in atrocities around the world.
>
>2007 was the bloodiest year of the war so far, for both civilians and US 
>troops in Iraq. And in Afghanistan, U.S. military deaths, suicide 
>bombings and opium production hit record highs in 2007.
>
>Jobs growth much weaker than expected as unemployment climbs - Jan. 4, 
>2008.  The nation's labor market worsened in December to the weakest 
>level since the shock that followed Hurricane Katrina, as the problems 
>in housing and mortgages took a bite out of job opportunities. Employers 
>added far fewer jobs in the month than had been forecast, while the 
>unemployment rate shot up to 5 percent, which was a two-year high, 
>according to a government report Friday.
>
>Saudis Confirm Detention of Blogger - New York Times.  Fouad al-Farhan, 
>an outspoken Saudi blogger, is being held for "purposes of 
>interrogation." Mr. Farhan's blog, which discusses social issues, had 
>become one of the most widely read in Saudi Arabia. [Meanwhile. 
>Qatar-based Al-Jazeera is being prevented by the government from 
>broadcasting any negative coverage of the Saudi regime.  --CGE]
>
>Dropping Out of Electoral College -- In These Times. Maryland is the 
>first state to pass the National Popular Vote (NPV) into law, and 
>several others are right behind
>
>Archivist Challenges Cheney | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 | 
>Newsweek.com. A National Archives official reveals what the veep wanted 
>to keep classified -- and how he tried to challenge the rules
>
>Home prices in 11 large metro areas posted record declines in October, 
>according to data released Wednesday, more evidence that 2007 was one of 
>the worst real estate markets since the year the United States entered 
>World War II...
>
>World Food Prices Reach All Time High -- and the US cynically uses food 
>as a geostrategic weapon.
>	--The disorders in Kenya after a presidential election are linked to 
>the US support for that government as part of its region-wide control of 
>ME energy resources -- cf. Ethiopia in Somalia, now a worse human rights 
>disaster than Darfur, according to the UN -- and a direct result of US 
>intervention.
>	--The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says that Western corporations 
>are looting the Congo, where millions have died.
>	--NAFTA has devastated Mexican farmers by forcing them to compete with 
>government-subsidized American and Canadian goods; protests along the 
>US/Mexico border have been little covered in the US.
>
>In Venezuela, President Chavez decreed amnesty for people imprisoned for 
>civil disturbances directed against the state, including a US-backed 
>2002 coup that briefly overthrew him.  Another matter not reported in 
>the US, because it doesn't fit the US "Chavez=dictator" propaganda.  Can 
>you imagine Bush amnestying plotters who captured and threatened to kill 
>him?
>
>	###
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