--- Begin Message ---
UNDERNEWS
Apr 26, 2002
THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
Inside the Beltway, Out of the Loop, Ahead of the Curve
Edited by Sam Smith
Since 1964, Washington's most unofficial source
1312 18th St. NW #502, Washington DC 20036
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WORD
More and more people subconsciously know that they are sick and tired of
their jobs and of their leisure passivities, but they want to hear the lie
that physical illness relieves them of social and political
responsibilities. They want their doctor to act as lawyer and priest. As a
lawyer, the doctor exempts the patient from his normal duties and enables
him to cash in on the insurance fund he was forced to build. As a priest, he
becomes the patient's accomplice in creating the myth that he is an innocent
victim of biological mechanisms rather than lazy, greedy, or envious
deserter of a social struggle over the tools of production. Social life
becomes a giving and receiving of therapy: medical, psychiatric, pedagogic,
or geriatric. Claiming access to treatment becomes a political duty, and
medical certification a powerful device for social control." - Ivan Illich
on a subject of which more below
COLIN POWELL, INVESTIGATOR
||| ASSOCIATED PRESS - While trying to clear the way for U.N. fact-finders,
Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress he has no evidence of an
Israeli massacre of Palestinians at the Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank.
"Clearly, innocent lives may well have been lost," Powell testified. But, he
said, "I have no evidence of mass graves. I see no evidence that would
support a massacre took place." Powell said he based his assessment on a
3-hour inspection of the refugee camp Friday by Assistant Secretary of State
William Burns.
||| DISINFORMATION - On March 16, 1968, US soldiers from the Americal
Division slaughtered 347 civilians -- primarily old men, women, children,
and babies -- in the Vietnamese village of My Lai 4. The grunts also engaged
in torture and rape of the villagers. Around six months later, a soldier in
the 11th Light Infantry Brigade --known among the men as "the Butcher's
Brigade"-- wrote a letter telling of widespread killing and torturing of
Vietnamese civilians by entire units of the US military (he did not
specifically refer to My Lai). The letter was sent to the general in charge
of 'Nam and trickled down the chain of command to Major Colin Powell, a
deputy assistant chief of staff at the Americal Division, who was charged
with investigating the matter and formulating a response.
After a desultory check -- which consisted mainly of investigating the
soldier who wrote the letter, rather than his allegations -- Powell reported
that everything was hunkey-dory. There may be some "isolated incidents" by
individual bad seeds, but there were no widespread atrocities. He wrote: "In
direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between
Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." The matter was
closed.
To this day, we might not know about the carnage at My Lai if it hadn't been
for another solider who later wisely sent a letter to his Congressman.
(Twenty-five years later Powell gave an interview in which he not only
failed to condemn the massacre but seemed to excuse it.)
http://www.disinfo.com/pages/dossier/id803/pg1/
||| CONSORTIUM - "There may be isolated cases of mistreatment of civilians
and POWs," Powell wrote in 1968. But "this by no means reflects the general
attitude throughout the Division." . . . Powell's findings, of course, were
false. But it would take another Americal hero, an infantryman named Ron
Ridenhour, to piece together the truth about the atrocity at My Lai. After
returning to the United States, Ridenhour interviewed Americal comrades who
had participated in the massacre . . . Powell's peripheral role in the My
Lai cover-up did not slow his climb up the Army's ladder. Powell pleaded
ignorance about the actual My Lai massacre, which pre-dated his arrival at
the Americal . . .
[In his memoirs] Powell did include, however, a troubling recollection . .
. "I recall a phrase we used in the field, MAM, for military-age male,"
Powell wrote. "If a helo spotted a peasant in black pajamas who looked
remotely suspicious, a possible MAM, the pilot would circle and fire in
front of him. If he moved, his movement was judged evidence of hostile
intent, and the next burst was not in front, but at him. Brutal? Maybe so.
But an able battalion commander with whom I had served at Gelnhausen (West
Germany), Lt. Col. Walter Pritchard, was killed by enemy sniper fire while
observing MAMs from a helicopter. And Pritchard was only one of many. The
kill-or-be-killed nature of combat tends to dull fine perceptions of right
and wrong."
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin3.html
COMING TO A THEATER
OF OPERATIONS IN YOUR TOWN
[A conference announcement from the Rand Corporation]
Ready for Armageddon:
Urban Operations Conference Focuses
on Developing Solutions to Current Problems
Last year, over 100 participants from the four U.S. military services, the
Department of Defense, the armies of New Zealand, Great Britain, Korea,
Germany, Canada, Italy and Russia, and delegates from Israel joined RAND
staff to listen to high-ranking military officials from around the world
discuss their experiences at the RAND Arroyo Military Urban Operations
Conference. The objective of this annual gathering is to provide a forum for
information exchange and debate regarding the complete range of possible
urban challenges likely to confront the military over the next generation.
Plans for the next conference, entitled "Ready for Armageddon," are
currently under way. This year's conference, to be held April 18-19, 2001 at
the Four Points Sheraton in Santa Monica, California, features a different
focus than the previous event: the goal is not just to simply inform the
audience of the challenges inherent during urban contingencies but to
actually find solutions to selected problems of notable current relevancy.
Speakers will be given problems to which solutions are sought rather than
topics on which to speak, and the format will provide significantly more
time for audience discussion of issues with speakers.
Several outstanding issues of importance to the U.S. urban operations
community will be addressed: [Speakers are noted; those pending final
confirmation are noted as "TBC."]
How can a force conduct support and attack helicopter operations during
urban military operations?
Speaker (TBC): MG Shlomo Mashiah, Head of Air Division for Helicopters,
Israeli Air Force
How should the operational level commander conduct operations in regions
with extraordinary levels of urbanization (e.g., Israel, Western Europe)?
Speaker: BG (IDF, ret.) Gideon Avidor. General Avidor is working on a Ph.D.
involving analysis of the effects of urbanization on Israeli military
strategy and national defense policy . . .
What are the civil and military challenges confronting a coalition during
urban stability operations and how can they best be addressed?
Speaker: Ambassador Robert W. Farrand, Supervisor of Brcko and Deputy High
Representative for Bosnia
How should the operational level commander coordinate special operations,
intelligence, police, and ground force operations during urban internal
security operations?
Speaker: MG Al-Aitan Mohammad Majid, Commanding General, Jordanian Special
Operations Command
Applying critical point and density analyses during urban operations
Speaker: Dr. Russell W. Glenn, RAND Arroyo Center
What steps can the tactical commander take now to reduce friendly force and
noncombatant casualties on the urban battlefield?
Speaker from Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities
The strategic corporal's war - How can a force train to the requirements?
Speaker: Major Douglas Chalmers, British Army, The Irish Brigade
If you are interested in attending the conference, please note that space
tends to be limited.
For more information, contact:
Ms. Terri Perkins TEL: 310/393-0411, Ext. 6661 FAX: 310/451-7067
For highlights from last year's conference, see "Tomorrow's Warfare: Urban
Operations in the 21st Century."
POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA
DAN MORAIN, LA TIMES - The California Department of Corrections has
overspent its budget by $277 million, adding to Gov. Gray Davis' deficit
woes and prompting a state Senate subcommittee to vote down the governor's
proposal for a new $500 million-plus prison . . . Analysts attributed much
of the overrun to personnel costs. If that is the case, the problem may only
get worse in light of the new labor pact negotiated by the Davis
administration and the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., one of
the governor's biggest campaign contributors . . . The Department of
Corrections, which is supposed to operate on a $4.8-billion annual budget,
has had deficits before: $52 million in the 2000-01 fiscal year and $106
million in 1998-99. But the $277-million overrun is by far the largest
within the department and comes as Davis and legislators grapple with a
2002-03 budget shortfall now projected at about $20 billion. "They've never
been challenged," state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) said of
corrections officials. "They don't care whether we appropriate $4 billion,"
he said. "They know they're going to come to the trough and get an automatic
approval for whatever dollar amount they need. It's like automatic pilot. It
is horrible."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000029418apr25.story?coll=la% 2Dheadlines%
||| JOHN WISELY & STEPHEN W. HUBER, OAKLAND PRESS, MI - The state
Legislature has given police power to search your home without telling you
why. Two new laws, which took effect as part of anti-terror efforts, also
shield from public scrutiny the reasons for police searches. Defense lawyers
and civil libertarians are outraged at the laws, which make search warrants
and supporting documents such as affidavits non-public records. "If you
think the police did secretive work before, just wait," defense attorney
William Cataldo said. "It gives more power to the ignorant and more power to
those who would take your rights." Defense lawyer Walter Piszczatowski said:
"This is nuts, this is beyond nuts. What happened to the Fourth Amendment?
We're living in a police state."
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=3936063&BRD=982&PAG=461&dept_id=46
7992&rfi=6
||| ASSOCIATED PRESS - The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that police can hide
electronic monitoring devices on peoples' cars without a warrant for as long
as they want. The 5-2 majority opinion, written by Justice Deborah Agosti,
said attaching the device to the bumper of a Las Vegas man's car to track
his movements did not constitute unreasonable search or seizure under
Nevada's Constitution
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAQRYEHH0D.html TAMPA TRIBUNE
||| Frank J. Murra, WASHINGTON TIMES - A U.S. District Court judge who says
innocent people are convicted of murder gave the Justice Department "one
last opportunity" to persuade him not to declare the federal death penalty
unconstitutional. Judge Jed S. Rakoff, a 1995 Clinton appointee, said he
took that drastic step because he believes innocent prisoners were executed
and more face death without a full opportunity to prove their innocence, if
only by technology not yet discovered. That violates the Fifth Amendment
right to "due process," he said, since some will die before completion of a
process the judge seemed to say must be endless. Advances in science and
criminology can help "only if such persons are still alive to be released,"
Judge Rakoff said. He gave government lawyers until May 15 to reply in an
order based largely on a much-criticized Columbia University study that
found a 68 percent "prejudicial error" rate in capital trials, and review of
Web site reports of prisoner releases.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020426-94429260.htm
DYNCORP
||| Stewart Payne, telegraph, London - A human rights investigator who
claims she was sacked for exposing the sexual abuse of Bosnian women by her
United Nations colleagues, told a tribunal that girls as young as 15 were
offered for sex. Kathryn Bolkovac, 41, said women were forced to dance naked
in Bosnian bars frequented by UN police officers. Mrs Bolkovac is using a
British employment tribunal to bring her case of unfair dismissal from an
American recruitment agency which has an office in the UK . . .
The tribunal has heard that her employer, the US-based agency DynCorp, which
is registered with the State Department to provide American police officers
to work on humanitarian and peacekeeping duties, admits that there was a
problem with officers using prostitutes and that one was sacked for paying
for a woman to live with him to provide sexual services. But the company,
which has an office in Salisbury, Wilts, denies that it sacked Mrs Bolkovac
for exposing the abuse and said that she was dismissed for time-sheet
irregularities.
In [an] email, Mrs Bolkovac said that women and girls were handed over to
bar owners and told to perform sex acts to pay for their costumes. "The
women who refused were locked in rooms and withheld food and outside contact
for days or weeks. After this time they are told to dance naked on table
tops and sit with clients. "If the women still refuse to perform sex acts
with the customers they are beaten and raped in the rooms by the bar owners
and their associates. They are told if they go to the police they will be
arrested for prostitution and being an illegal immigrant."
. . . Giving evidence to the tribunal, Mrs Bolkovac said she had discovered
"extensive use of brothels" by UN police and other peacekeepers. She said
she also found that international staff were helping local police to sell
women for the sex trade and she feared this was being "covered up".
. . . Spencer Wickham, the head of DynCorp, has told the tribunal he sacked
three police officers for using prostitutes. The tribunal is taking place in
Britain because DynCorp contracts state they are governed by UK employment
law. DynCorp's Bosnia site manager, Pascal Budge, said that after Mrs
Bolkovac's email was sent, he circulated a memo warning officers they would
be sent home if caught using prostitutes. But Mrs Bolkovac called an
investigation by DynCorp into her allegations "inadequate".
http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$NTQ1EQYAABUM3QFIQ
MGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2002/04/25/wbos25.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/04/25/ixwo
rld.html
MIDDLE EAST
||| John Lancaster Washington Post - It was the second day of the battle for
the Jenin refugee camp, and things were going badly for the Israelis.
Palestinian gunmen, firing from sandbags hidden behind curtained windows,
had pinned down advancing Israeli troops on the camp's western edge. Two
Israelis had already died. To a young Israeli army sergeant watching from a
nearby rise known as Antennae Hill, perhaps 400 yards above the camp, it was
clear that his commanders had been wrong when they had confidently predicted
a few days earlier that the Palestinians would surrender at the first sight
of approaching tanks. That's when he heard the orders to open fire. "The
orders were to shoot at each house," recalled the sergeant, a member of a
heavy weapons company in the Yoav regiment of the army's Fifth Brigade, a
reserve unit that did the bulk of the fighting in Jenin. "The words on the
radio were to 'Put a bullet in each window.' "
The sergeant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was troubled by
the orders, which did not require soldiers to actually see the gunmen they
were trying to kill. But he said the Israeli soldiers didn't hesitate. They
pounded a group of cinder-block homes -- the apparent source of Palestinian
sniper fire -- with .50-caliber machine guns, M-24 sniper rifles, Barrett
sniper rifles and Mod3 grenade launchers. "It's not true there was a
massacre, because guys did not shoot at civilians just like this," the
sergeant recalled. "However -- and this is terrible -- it is true that we
shot at houses, and God knows how many innocent people got killed."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50986-2002Apr25.html
FEEDBACK
||| CARDINALS
TED - Why, oh why, has no one (no politician, no attorney general, no
official, no one in the entire US media) even mentioned the fact that the
evidence they have on these cardinals (in terms of legal settlements, memos,
etc.) seems sufficient for a federal grand jury investigation into this
being a criminal conspiracy by a number of cardinals to cover up endemic,
interstate pedophilia by a large number of priests. They are clearly
"accessories after the fact" and by reassigning serial pedophiles, they are
"accessories before the fact." Even the Pope said that such child
molestations are "criminal." If you are aware of anyone bringing this up,
besides the families of the traumatized kids, please let me know. It'll be
a relief.
[Cardinals apparently fall under the same section of the US Code as large
accounting firms and perjurious presidents]
||| SKATEBOARDERS
ANDRE, CA - I grew up in Orange County, CA, home of Disneyland, and also
where the skateboarding boom of the last ten or so years started. Adjoining
my junior high school, there is a park, Brookhurst Park, which up to the
late 80s was popular with the skateboard community due to it's 'moonscape'
theme. Some of the first pro skaters (Christian Hasoi, Tony Hawk) would be
there every day after school. many kids would go there to 'Skate with the
pros', or just watch. It was a very safe place, no gangs, no drugs, no fights.
For some unknown reason, the city of Anaheim did not like this setting, and
altered the park in a way that it would not be possible to skate there. No
skaters went there anymore. Within a few months, the gangs took over the
park. Graffiti everywhere. In less than 1/2 a year, that place that kept
'latch-key' kids out of trouble, with little or no cost to local government,
became a scary place to be. Surrounding property values dropped.
Now, a decade or so later, skateboarding is big business; And, Anaheim is
planning to build a skate park there. I'm sure it will cost millions.
||| STATUES
RICHARD L. FRANKLIN - A couple of questions prompted by your interest in
Lenin statues. In which county courthouse would one find a huge ebony bust
of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy looming dramatically over the vestibule of
the courthouse? Which county in America plans to build a new courthouse that
reportedly will be called the "Joseph McCarthy Justice Center?"
MARTIN - I used to live right around the corner from [the NYC Lenin statue]
and it always kind of cracked me up. I've read in a number of places that
the statue was found disused in the backyard of a dacha near Moscow by the
building's owner around the time it was being built. The thing I've read
most about it was that the statue was specifically installed so that Lenin's
gaze is fixed on Wall Street and the financial district.
||| COLD FUSION
[When Jed Rothwell, who heads Cold fusion Research Advocates, asked the
editor of Scientific American why his journal had not covered the cold
fusion story, he described it as "pathological science" with no merit
whatsoever]
MM, SEATTLE - Scientific American treated the flight of the Wright Brothers
the same way.
||| ROBERT SAMUELSON AND SOCIAL SECURITY
Paul Knopp - Calling Social Security and Medicare "welfare" is all fine and
good. What I would rather have it called would be "insurance." It's really
an insurance policy to keep the poor and ailing from coming over Mr.
Samuelson's fence at night and robbing him blind. Rich people never want to
pay for social programs unless they are for police to protect their loot.
Exploiting the masses is all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
THE MEDIACRACY
||| LLOYD GROVE, WASHINGTON POST - When we heard that C-SPAN had been barred
from taping next Tuesday's First Amendment Breakfast, sponsored by the
Columbia University School of Journalism and featuring New York Times
Executive Editor Howell Raines and famed media lawyer Floyd Abrams, we took
it as a challenge. So we made a few phone calls to Raines and Abrams --
subject: delicious irony -- and now C-SPAN's cameras will be welcomed
eagerly into New York's Columbia Club.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51002-2002Apr25.html
||| BBC - Almost half of all television viewers cannot remember anything
interesting from the previous night's programs, a survey suggests. But 59%
single out TV as their best source in the media for trustworthy information
and "curiosity satisfaction", the survey by researchers at the Henley Centre
found. Four-fifths of those questioned said TV had opened their minds to new
ideas. Laurie Taylor Sociologist But the survey - commissioned by the
Discovery Channel - found a third admitted they watched TV to kill time
rather than to be informed . . .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/tv_and_radio/newsid_1950000/1
950828.stm
DEPARTMENT OF SILLY TALK
||| WE NOTED recently the efforts of US News & World Report to promote the
presidential candidacies of John Edwards and John Kerry despite the pair
lagging well behind other party candidates in the polls. It turns out it's
even worse than we thought: in a recent poll Edwards - darling of the
Washington media - got one percent, running behind Al Sharpton. Freshman
Senator Edwards is a rich trial lawyer with a nice hairdo, but no other
known qualifications for the White House.
||| MEANWHILE, those two journals of the archaic center - the Washington
Monthly and New Republic - ran articles boosting the idea of John McCain
switching to the Democratic Party and running for president. McCain is to
the Washington press corps what Justin Timberlake is to 14 year old girls
and if he would only become a Democrat then the scribes could really ignore
the fact that he is also quite conservative. Says McCain campaign advisor
Marshall Wittmann, "It is wishful thinking from some Democrats to think that
McCain is in the mainstream of the Democratic Party when he disagrees with
them on some very significant issues, ranging from missile defense to
pro-life issues to school choice to Social Security privatization."
THE NATION
||| A REPORT BY THE House Small Business Committee Democrats details abuses
small businesses suffer when pursuing contracts from federal agencies,
including "mega-contracting" and prohibitive conditions that effectively
excludes them from a fair share of procurement dollars. The report names 10
representative contracts once small enough to be handled by small
businesses. But federal agencies now wrap many small contracts into one
large bid that only big corporations can handle. The agencies have failed to
demonstrate any cost savings to taxpayers for these "mega-contracts" despite
repeated requests by Committee Democrats for such evidence.
http://www.house.gov/smbiz/democrats/welcome.htm
||| Greg Sukiennik ASSOCIATED PRESS - A new study suggests whites and blacks
hold similar perceptions of black people based on their skin tone.
Light-skinned blacks were more likely to be described as intelligent,
attractive or wealthy, while dark-skinned blacks were more apt to be
described as poor, criminal or tough and aggressive, according to the study
led by Tufts University psychology professor Keith Maddox
http://www.washtimes.com/culture/20020426-485625.htm
ECOLOGY
Charles Clover - THE first three months of this year were the warmest
globally since records began in 1860 and probably for 1,000 years,
scientists said. Dr Geoff Jenkins, director of the Meteorological Office's
Hadley Centre, said the record on land and sea was consistent with computer
predictions of the effects of man-made global warming. The three months were
about 0.71C warmer than the average for 1961 to 1990, itself the warmest
period for 1,000 years according to ice-core analysis, he added. The record
warm period was the more remarkable because there was no sign of the
cyclical El Nino in the tropics, which has attended the succession of record
warmest years in the past decade.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/04/26/nhot26.xml&s
Sheet=/news/2002/04/26/ixhome.html
THE LIST
20 Top Non-Diseases
[As voted by the British Medical Journal's readers]
1Aging
2Work
3Boredom
4Bags under eyes
5Ignorance
6Baldness
7Freckles
8Big ears
9Grey or white hair
10Ugliness
11Childbirth
12 Allergy to the 21st century
13Jet lag
14Unhappiness
15Cellulite
16Hangover
17Anxiety about penis size/penis envy
18Pregnancy
19Road rage
20Loneliness
WHAT'S A DISEASE?
||| Richard Smith, BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL - The BMJ recently ran a vote on
bmj.com to identify the "top 10 non-diseases." Some critics thought it an
absurd exercise, but our primary aim was to illustrate the slipperiness of
the notion of disease. We wanted to prompt a debate on what is and what is
not a disease and draw attention to the increasing tendency to classify
people's problems as diseases. In 1979 the BMJ published a study that did
something similar. Non-medical academics, medical academics, general
practitioners, and secondary school students were invited to say whether 38
terms did or did not refer to a disease. Almost 100% thought that malaria
and tuberculosis were diseases, but less than 20% thought the following to
be diseases: lead poisoning, carbon monoxide poisoning, senility, hangover,
fractured skull, heatstroke, tennis elbow, color blindness, malnutrition,
barbiturate overdose, drowning, or starvation. People were split 50:50 over
whether hypertension, acne vulgaris, or gall stones were diseases. The
doctors were more likely to view the terms as referring to diseases. The
authors of this study included Guy Scadding, who spent much of his life
spelling out to doctors that no general agreement exists on how to define a
disease . . .
Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689) thought that diseases could be classified just
like plant and animal species. In other words, diseases have an existence
independent of the observer and exist in nature, ready to be "discovered."
In complete contrast, others see the notion of disease as essentially a
means of social control. Doctors define a patient's condition as a "disease"
and are then licensed to take various actions, including perhaps
incarceration. "Each civilization," wrote Ivan Illich, "defines its own
diseases. What is sickness in one might be chromosomal abnormality, crime,
holiness, or sin in another."
. . . Disease is often defined as a departure from "normal." . . . One
common definition is that you lie more than two standard deviations from the
mean on whatever measure is used . . . By definition, 5% of people are
thus "abnormal" (and we might say diseased) on each test. Run enough tests
and we are all abnormal (diseased). Or, on a definition of increased risk,
we might define almost the entire population of Britain as diseased if we
consider all those with a blood cholesterol concentration that carries an
extra risk of mortality compared with the cholesterol concentration of those
living in less developed communities.
. . . References To have your condition labeled as a disease may bring
considerable benefit. Immediately you are likely to enjoy sympathy rather
than blame. You may be exempted from many commitments, including work.
Children learn very young that saying you have a headache will bring
sympathy and a hug, whereas saying, "I can't be bothered to go to school"
will bring anger and punishment. Having a disease may also entitle you to
benefits such as sick pay, free prescriptions, insurance payments, and
access to facilities denied to healthy people. You may also feel that you
have an explanation for your suffering.
. . . But the diagnosis of a disease may also create many problems. It may
allow the authorities to lock you up or invade your body. You may be denied
insurance, a mortgage, and employment. You are forever labeled. You are a
victim. You are not just a person but an asthmatic, a schizophrenic, a
leper, an epileptic. Some diseases carry an inescapable stigma, which may
create many more problems than the condition itself. Worst of all, the
diagnosis of a disease may lead you to regard yourself as forever flawed and
incapable of "rising above" your problem.
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7342/883
THE WAR AGAINST WHATEVER
||| Rowan Scarborough, WASHINGTON TIMES - The commander of U.S. forces in
the Persian Gulf has told senior Pentagon officers that a new war against
Iraq would likely take five divisions and 200,000 troops. Gen. Tommy Franks
"wants to do a Desert Storm II," said one official, referring to the 550,000
troops deployed to the region in 1990-91 to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
Two defense sources said the briefings by Gen. Franks, who heads the U.S.
Central Command that oversees U.S. forces in Central Asia and the Persian
Gulf, came as the Bush administration is moving closer to deciding on a
general military campaign to topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020426-41274916.htm
ON CAMPUS
||| STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE, BERKELEY - As a consequence of
organizing [a] demonstration and sit-in, the University of California at
Berkeley has decided to suspend Students for Justice in Palestine as an
organization on campus pending an investigation. This means, that as long as
the investigation continues, SJP is functionally barred from holding events
on campus, tabling, distributing literature, and organizing. It could also
potentially mean that SJP may be banned as a student organization at
Berkeley . . . These actions against SJP are unique and unjustified. No
other student group that has participated in non-violent civil disobedience
has been suspended and no students have faced charges of this severity in
the past several years at UC Berkeley. We believe that this is a systematic
attempt to silence pro-Palestinian voices on campus and to intimidate
students from being activists.
Chancellor Robert Berdahl MAIL: 200 California Hall #1500 Berkeley, CA
94720-1500 TEL: (510) 642-7464 FAX: (510) 643-5499
||| THOMAS FRIEDMAN, NY TIMES - The New York Times' Education Life
supplement just reported that the best-selling book in China for the past 16
months is one, in Chinese, about how to get your teen-ager into Harvard,
titled Harvard Girl Yiting Liu. In this book a Chinese mother shares her
"scientifically proven methods" for getting her daughter into Harvard. It
has sold more than 1.1 million copies and triggered 15 copycats for how to
get into Columbia, Oxford or Cambridge.
THE CITY
[This month marks the 10th anniversary of the LA riots]
PROGRESSIVE REVIEW, June 1992 - Sometimes it's the question that's wrong.
In the thousands of words pouring out about the LA uprising you can easily
search in vain for one sentence implying that anyone -- victim, participant
or would-be reconstructionist -- has any real hope for our inner cities
other than partial salvation through moral conversion or partial recovery
through endless subsidy. To be sure, there are extraordinary claims made for
the potential of various proposals. Some of these programs are worthy,
others not, but most merely probe the edges of real urban change . . .
The truth is that, despite the words, there is a broad, tacit acceptance of
failure. The reaction to South Central LA brings to mind Gertrude Stein:
"There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has
been an answer. That's the answer. "
But what, if just for a moment, we put aside our fatalism and asked
ourselves a different sort of question: How can we turn South Central LA
into a good place to live?
Simply mouthing the words reframes the issue. It is a revolutionary
question because, by asking it, we bring the people of South Central LA out
of the shadows of stereotypes, statistics and sob stories. We begin to view
their problems as we might that of a neighbor rather than that of an
abstract crisis to whose amelioration we must dutifully but futilely tithe
in the name of doing something.
If we seriously seek to answer this question, the irrelevancy of most of
what has been said of late becomes quickly apparent. And we begin to find
not only hope, but the way opening towards new ideas and solutions long
buried under tons of paper promoting endless replication of past follies . .
.
L.D. Pratt, a DC activist of the 60s, used to say that there was plenty of
money in the central city. The problem was it didn't stop there. It just
flowed through as in a sewer
Like other inner cities, South Central LA has faced major disparities in
the distribution of private and public services. For example, there are at
least 75% more people for each supermarket and bank in the area of the
uprising than for LA County as a whole, and one-third more people for each
manufacturing job . . .
The people living in a community like South Central LA are mostly normal
people in abnormal circumstances. To be sure, such communities have an
excess of social deviants, but they are deviants of their own community's
norms as well as those of America in general. It is one of the most venal
libels of our times to assert that the failure of their community is a
failure of morality or of courage. Walk down any inner city street and
America and you'll find more people with more courage, resilience and
integrity than you'll find in your average bank, college administration or
office of the Vice President of the United States. These are not folks
living on the hidden welfare of old boy networks, sinecures granted by
virtue of college degrees, or tenure achieved by election to public office,
but people who every day have to face the most extraordinary strains on
their dignity and self-respect . . .
While politicians bleat about the need for education in order to get a
decent job, our big city school systems continue to deteriorate, because
their education can only be as good as the jobs waiting to use it. We have,
with considerable consciousness, developed an economic system that can get
along quite well without the services of the graduates of our inner city
high schools. In fact, 78% of those receiving unemployment compensation in
DC in 1990 had at least a high school education; 35% had more . . .
With such thoughts in mind, let us turn back to LA. What follows is no
"blueprint for survival," no "Marshall Plan," no grandiose scheme concocted
so everyone thinks we're doing something. Rather it is a collection of
ideas -- of varying import -- of the sort that could help make South
Central LA -- or any inner city community -- a pleasant place to live.
Stop using the language of failure: The first, easiest and cheapest step
anyone thinking about the inner cities can take is to eradicate all words
like ghetto, pathology, at-risk, culture of poverty, and permanent
underclass from their vocabulary. These words are powerfully self-fulfilling
rhetoric and alibis for indifference, as the past decade has shown. Until we
see these communities as real places with real people entitled to the same
pursuit of life, liberty and happiness as any other American, we will
continue to regard them as targets of triage rather than as an integral
part of our society.
Do something now. Fly in some of those prefab buildings the military
stockpiles for use in places like Saudi Arabia and start using them as
temporary centers for organizing, education, health and commerce. Every day
without progress compounds the problem.
Clear the burned-out land and plant it with grass, bushes, and trees. Paint
everything that needs it. Lest this sound gratuitously cosmetic, consider this:
In the Bloods/Crips $3.6 billion plan for rebuilding the city. amidst
grander proposals, the two gangs wrote: "All pavements/sidewalks in Los
Angeles are in dire need of resurfacing . . . We want a well-lit
neighborhood. All alleys shall be painted white or yellow... All trees will
be properly trimmed and maintained. We want all weeded/shrubbed areas to be
cleaned up and properly nurtured. New trees will be planted to increase the
beauty of our neighborhoods. All schools shall have new landscaping and more
plants and trees around the schools; completely upgrade the bathrooms,
making them more modern, provide a bathroom monitor to each bathroom which
will provide freshen-up toiletries at a minimum cost to the students...
Give the community power. We try to have it both ways. We deny our inner
cities power and then blame them for anarchy. What happened in LA reflects
not a poverty of values, but a poverty of power . . . Just as it is
inconceivable to imagine our country rising above social chaos without some
form of government, it is equally absurd to think that the problems of the
inner city can be ameliorated without some form of government . . .
Neighborhood governments should be given spending authority over their share
of a percentage of the city budget, not only so the neighborhood's
priorities are reflected in the city's spending but so, in aggregate, we can
begin to see what neighborhoods, as opposed to big city machines, want and
need.
Real neighborhood government would have a law enforcement role. These might
include a unarmed constabulary to deal with lesser offenses and keeping the
peace, and community judicial councils that could deal with lesser
transgressions in ways other than imprisonment.
Real neighborhood government should have some of the functions of planning
and zoning now so rigorously hoarded by city hall. With neighborhood
government, for example, the right to veto building permits and zoning
variances could provide leverage to encourage fair employment practices by
non-resident business owners. Further, with the right of incorporation,
these governments could begin to design and manage their own economic
development programs.
Recirculate the money: Inner city communities suffer severe economic
exploitation. Not only does money earned by their residents flow out
rapidly, there is little opportunity for capital accumulation. The best way
to change this dynamic is to change who controls the economy of the
community . . . One of the best alternatives is the cooperative. This middle
way between capitalism and socialism has proved good enough for Harvard
students and professors as they shop at the Harvard Coop, good enough for
the residents of Green Bay who would have long ago lost their football team
were it not community owned, good enough for hundreds of farm communities
who depend on their cooperative for vital goods and services, good enough
for millions of federal and state workers who bank through cooperative
credit unions, and good enough for present and former military officers who
enjoy the cheap rates and excellent service of an insurance cooperative that
serves them. . . . Places like South Central LA need more community credit
unions. They need consumer co-ops modeled on the ones that function so well
in rural areas. And they need trade cooperatives. Imagine if just a small
portion of the sum slated to be blown on the great LA recovery were diverted
to creating a construction cooperative, with publicly funded skill training
developing the base for a co-op that would play a major role in rebuilding
the whole community.
End the discrimination against the inner city. We now have civil rights
commissions that deal with cases of discrimination against individuals, but
we have yet to develop similar protections for whole neighborhoods. The
creation of a neighborhood equalization board, with powers similar to that
of a human relations commission, could start to change this. Just as we have
environmental impact statements for major public and private actions, we
need neighborhood impact statements to determine how building a new stadium,
or proposed changes in transportation policy affects the various
neighborhoods of a city. Where discrimination is found, we then need some
neighborhood affirmative action. Past disparities in public spending should
be corrected. Transportation systems that favor some neighborhoods over
others need to be redesigned. And differentials in sales and other taxes can
be established to lessen inequities and encourage economic development.
Think small business: The emphasis on major development projects and
monumental symbols of progress has been a significant contributor to the
demise of many cities. In the process, small business -- the real job
producer in America, the real glue between commerce and community -- has
been badly short-changed. Any sound economic plan for South Central LA will
have a major emphasis on small business and small manufacturing.
Change the rules: All the laws and regulations of LA need to be examined to
see how they affect communities such as those in South Central LA. The
typical city law book is jammed with regulations that, in the name of
preventing evil, prevent the good from happening as well. Zoning laws are a
typical example, making it hard to provide accessory apartments, take in
borders or run a business out of one's house. But small business regulations
need to be examined as well, along with rules that work against developing a
successful community transportation system (such as classic prohibitions
against jitney service).
Create money: The easiest cure for a lack of money is to create it. Such
ideas as time dollars, in which people exchange hours instead of cash, have
proven successful as has community currency, earnable and spendable in the
same neighborhood.
Hold on to the land: One of the biggest mistakes cities made following the
riots of the 60s was not to hold on to the land they acquired in the
aftermath. Beholden to major real estate interests and anxious to show
progress, no matter how unmeaningful, cities sold off land they had gotten
at fire sale prices to developers who proceeded to become exceedingly
wealthy. This error can be corrected if any land the city buys is either
turned over to a community cooperative or is leased to developers, just as
an owner of a shopping mall would do. Rents bring in more money than taxes,
which is one reason why developers are rich and cities go broke.
Grow things: Beyond improving the ambiance of the place, there is in South
Central LA the opportunity to create a more self-sustainable community and a
more ecologically sound one. For a city as import-dependent as LA, this is
an opportunity that should not be missed. Any plan for South Central LA
should include an analysis of what can be grown there as well as what can be
built there. In addition, the LA revolt has opened up land that could be
used either temporarily or permanently for farmers' markets of the sort that
every city needs in abundance.
Use new ideas. There has been an explosion of new thinking about cities in
recent years. To take just one example, the co-housing movement -- with its
price-lowering and community-building homes with common facilities -- has
considerable potential for South Central LA. There are urban ecologists, new
thinkers, new books, architects and anthropologists who have much to offer.
Such thinking should be central to the reconstruction of LA rather than
pushed to the periphery by the very conventional thinking and outmoded urban
design that helped to create the LA revolt in the first place.
In the end, it is the community itself, and not the politicians, not
journalists throwing out a few ideas, and not Peter Ueberroth, who will
rebuild South Central LA . . . Communities come from within. We can share
thoughts, dollars and time but unless South Central LA itself is allowed to
reconstruct itself it won't happen. One already senses that forces far
larger than that community are circling it with promises and policies that
seem to do more for their own interests than for the people supposedly being
helped. The second great LA riot is already on. - Sam Smith
GREAT MOMENTS IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
||| Ray Hagar RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL - Nevada motorists soon will be able to
buy license plates emblazoned with a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion
designed by a Douglas County man. Richard Bibbero, a real estate agent at
Minden's Reality Executives, recently won a design contest sponsored by the
Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation. The design will be among custom
license plates that can be purchased in about three months. The 2001
Legislature authorized a license design that would honor the history of the
test site in the desert north of Las Vegas from 1952 to 1992 and its role in
the Cold War. Atmospheric nuclear tests took place at the site from 1952 to
1963, officials said . . . Linda Smith, secretary-treasurer of the test site
foundation, said she hopes the design will be viewed as a reflection of
Nevada history. She and Bibbero said they hoped the plate would not be
viewed as linked to the controversy surrounding a nuclear waste dump at
Yucca Mountain, 95 miles northwest of Las Vegas . . . "When I was a kid, I
remember advertisements for atomic cocktails and atomic hair-dos," Smith said.
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2002/04/23/12805.php
RAMPANT SELF-PROMOTION
Before the current corporate unpleasantness only the Review, the Economist
and a few other publications expressed concern over the practice of
corporations using stock options as a means of making their operating
figures look better. Now even Alan Greenspan has come out in favor of
treating these options as an expense.
WORDS
We were delighted to read that the current court case over whether HP used
bribes to win support for its merger with Compaq is based in part on whether
a mention of an "ongoing relationship" was actionable - as in HP chief
Carly Fiorina telling the folks at Deutsche Bank, "It is of great importance
to our ongoing relationship. We would very much like to have your support
here." It's about time that people who use phrases like "ongoing
relationship" ended up in court.
AMERICAN INDICATORS
Percentage of devout U.S. Catholics who believe priests should be allowed to
marry 71%
[WSJ-NBC]
WEBSITE OF THE DAY
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FIELD NOTES
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TODAY IN HISTORY
1858 California legislature passes a bill prohibiting Chinese or "other
Mongolians" from landing at any port in the state unless the boat on which
they were passengers is driven ashore by storm or unavoidable accident.
1908 Emma Goldman ends her San Francisco lecture series with a speech on
patriotism. In attendance, out of boredom and curiosity, is US soldier
William Buwalda, stationed at the Presidio, who is witnessed shaking hands
with Goldman following her speech. Buwalda is subsequently court-martialed
for this dastardly action.
1931 Lou Gehrig hits a home run but is called out for passing a runner; the
mistake costs him the American League home run crown he & Babe Ruth end up
tied for the season.
DAILY BLEED
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