[LAAMN] Re: WE ARE UNARMED AND WE ARE SAILING
The passenger list has some real stars: Medea Benjamin, Kathy Kelly, Hedy Epstein, and Ann Wright (is this THE Ann Wright? I would guess so) !!! May God protest and bless them all, and give them a successful journey! --- On Tue, 5/31/11, U.S. BOAT TO GAZA ustog...@gmail.com wrote: From: U.S. BOAT TO GAZA ustog...@gmail.com Subject: WE ARE UNARMED AND WE ARE SAILING To: bluesapphir...@yahoo.com Date: Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 5:16 PM WE ARE UNARMED AND WE ARE SAILING On Anniversary of Mavi Marmara Killings, U.S. Boat to Gaza Announces Passenger List New York, NY-May 31, 2011. Organizers of the U.S. Boat to Gaza announced today that they expect some 50 people will be aboard The Audacity of Hope when it joins the second freedom flotilla in late June to break the siege of Gaza. The announcement came on the year's anniversary of the 2010 Israeli attack on unarmed passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara, killing nine, including an 18-year old U.S. citizen of Turkish descent. Leslie Cagan, coordinator of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, said, We are sailing-despite threats by the Israeli armed forces to use attack dogs and snipers against us-and despite frantic diplomatic pressure by the Israeli government to prevent other countries from allowing the flotilla to sail. She commented that while Egypt has just opened the Rafah border to Gaza, the maritime blockade and the Israeli siege of Gaza still exist. So far, 34 passengers and four crewmembers have confirmed that they will be sailing on The Audacity of Hope. They range in age from 22 to 87 years old and live in 14 states in every region of the U.S. All are committed to non-violence. Members of the press will also be on the boat. Varied occupations are represented by the passengers, including retired film producer, construction worker, retired teacher and engineer, student, author, nurse, EMT, firefighter, activist, jazz musician, retired military personnel, professor social worker and lawyer. More than half the participants are women. Passengers and crew will gather in Athens on June 21, 2011 in advance of the anticipated sailing date, which will depend on weather conditions and logistics. The Audacity of Hope will carry as its cargo thousands of letters of friendship and solidarity with the people of Gaza from people throughout our country. Cagan said that inspections of the boat and its passengers prior to departure will prove the non-violent nature of the mission. Richard Levy, attorney and passenger on The Audacity of Hope, explained that Because Israel occupies Gaza, and accordingly has obligations under the Geneva Conventions, it cannot legally blockade Gaza. Therefore, he continued, attempts by the Israeli government to prevent ships from going to Gaza are equally illegal. A list of confirmed passengers and crew is attached. Short biographical statements from each of them can be found at http://ustogaza.org/ passengers-on-the-audacity-of- hope/ PASSENGERS ON THE AUDACITY OF HOPE Nic Abramson - Woodstock, NY Johnny Barber - Gallatin Gateway, MT Medea Benjamin - Washington, DC Greta Berlin - Los Angeles, CA Hagit Borer - Los Angeles, CA Regina Carey - San Rafael, CA Gale Courey Toensing -Canaan, CT Erin DeRamus - Portland, OR Linda Durham - Sante Fe, NM Debra Ellis - Santa Cruz, CA Hedy Epstein - St. Louis, MO Steve Fake - New Orleans, LA Ridgely Fuller - Waltham, MA Megan Horan - West Seattle, WA Kathy Kelly - Chicago, IL Kit Kittredge - Quilcene, WA Libor Koznar - New Britain, CT G. Kaleo Larson - Northern CA Richard Levy - New York, NY Richard Lopez - Tumwater, WA Ken Mayers - Sante Fe, NM Ray McGovern - Arlington, VA Gail Miller - New York, NY Robert Naiman - Urbana, IL Henry Norr - Berkeley, CA Ann Petter - New York, NY Gabe Schivone- Tucson, AZ Kathy Sheetz - Richmond, CA Max Suchan - Chicago, IL Brad Taylor - New York, NY Len Tsou - New City, NY Alice Walker - Northern CA Paki Wieland - Northampton, MA Ann Wright - Honolulu, HI CREW OF THE AUDACITY OF HOPE John Klusmire, captain David Smith, engineer Yonatan Shapira, mate David Schermerhorn, mate Together we can reach the shores of Gaza. Click Here To Watch A Newly Released Video TO GAZA WITH LOVE Featuring Ali Abunimah, Kathleen Chalfant, Kathy Kelly, and Alice Walkerfor the U.S. BOAT TO GAZA GET ON BOARD THE U.S. TO
[LAAMN] Roger Noriega - What's In The Kool-Aid?
http://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00updated-max=2012-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00max-results=50 Tuesday, May 31, 2011 What's In The Kool-Aid?http://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/2011/05/whats-in-kool-aid.html Roger Noriega has a good conservative pedigree. He was ambassador to the OAS from 2001-2003, and then worked as an Asssistant Seccretary of State in the State Department from 2003-2005. Now he's a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and managing director of Vision America LLC, a lobbying firm. As a lobbyist, he has to place press op-ed opinion pieces for clients from time to time. I have to assume his latest on Fox Newshttp://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/05/31/honduran-leaders-secret-pact-hugo-chavez/is placement for a client, because if he believes it, he should have his beverage of choice analyzed for hallucinogens. Noriega's piece posits a secret meeting in mid-May between Porfirio Lobo Sosa and Ariel Vargas, representing Hugo Chavez, at Lobo Sosa's suburban home in Tegucigalpa. The purpose of the meeting? Noriega claims that sources within the Venezuelan government told him Lobo Sosa did his best to convince Chavez's representative that he was still a fervent revolutionary, and sought to enlist Chavez's patience and help with neutralizing the National Party and the Catholic Church so that he could bring in sweeping constitutional changes that will allow the people to sweep out the old order. Kind of reminds me of the whisper campaign against Lobo Sosa in the fall 2009 elections, reminding us he went to college in the former Soviet Union. Ariel Vargas was the chargé d'affaires for the Venezuelan embassy in Honduras during the 2009 coup and defied Micheletti's expulsion order remaining locked in the embassy. Noriega goes on to say that Chavez is now pouring millions of dollars into the FNRP to help it become a political party, bypassing Lobo Sosa and the Honduran military, which he would have us believe is the only institution in Honduras backing Lobo Sosa. So why is Chavez doing this? Noriega claims that Chavez is using Honduras to place drugs into Mexico and the US, as part of a plan to destabilize the US and Mexico. There are serious studies of drug circulation from South America through Honduras: this is not a contribution to that research. And what conspiracy would be complete without an allegation that terrorists in Venezuela-- specifically, Hezbollah-- have been seeking information about sneaking across the US border undetected, a goal that somehow will be advanced if Honduras goes all 21st century socialist again under Lobo Sosa. Noriega's article would be ludicrous, if it didn't echo the tone-- if not the specifics-- of right wing elements in Honduras displeased that Lobo Sosa negotiated with Manuel Zelaya at all. But only in a right wing fantasy-- that is, nightmare-- can Porfirio Lobo Sosa be recast as avid revolutionary. Posted by RNS at 12:51 PMhttp://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/2011/05/whats-in-kool-aid.html 0 commentshttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1338612245455097792postID=8353321893211174518 http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1338612245455097792postID=8353321893211174518Links to this posthttp://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/2011/05/whats-in-kool-aid.html#links Labels: Ariel Vargashttp://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/search/label/Ariel%20Vargas, Hugo Chávezhttp://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/search/label/Hugo%20Ch%C3%A1vez, Porfirio Lobo Sosahttp://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/search/label/Porfirio%20Lobo%20Sosa, Roger Noriegahttp://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/search/label/Roger%20Noriega [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ *
[LAAMN] South Africa: The more things change the more they remain the same - Polokwane and beyond
http://www.marxist.com/south-africa-more-things-change-more-they-remain-the-same.htm South Africa: The more things change the more they remain the same - Polokwane and beyondhttp://www.marxist.com/south-africa-more-things-change-more-they-remain-the-same.htm Written by Vusumuzi Martin Bhengu Wednesday, 01 June 2011 [image: Print]http://www.marxist.com/south-africa-more-things-change-more-they-remain-the-same/print.htm# *We publish here an article written by a comrade of the Young Communist League in South Africa. The article, which was first published on the website of SASCO (The South African Students Congress) was a reply to another comment on the same website called **A revolution foresaked or advanced: 2007 Polokwane aftermath*http://www.sasco.org.za/show.php?include=pubs/moithuti/2011/issue9.html * (at the bottom of the page). Although we are not in complete agreement with all the content of the article we think that it is an important contribution to the debate that is going on within the South African worker movement.* Firstly I must say that the paper written by comrade Maneli raises key questions that revolutionaries should be asking themselves in this stage of the Revolution (or lack thereof). Chief among these questions are the following questions: 1. Did Polokwane really bring change? 2. Who is the ANC? 3. Is the SACP the real vanguard of the working class? Comrade Maneli kicks of his paper with a very sensitive exposition that has a potential to have one labelled a counter-revolutionary by the real revolutionaries in our midst. These seeds where left to grow in our ranks and the leadership of Jacob Zuma assisted in the process by watering them by deploying them in key strategic areas of governance; they are root causes of the current anarchy destabilized nature of the ANC. In essence the task of removing all that is about working-class exploitation and crass materialism, commoditisation of public enterprise and later entrepreneurism was left untouched. Then BOOM We have a problem yet again. The emergence of our pop-star Jacob Zuma has meant nothing to the progression of the revolution.[1] Truth must be told that Jacob Zuma was a result of an effort of antagonist classes that had highly contradictory expectations from this man... Zuma's camp was a somehow amusing bunch of Leftist, disgrungeld pursuers of tenders and people afraid of going to jail. The emerging black bourgeoisie that was marginalised by the Mbeki elite, pumped funds for country wide campaigns to have Zuma elected president of the ANC and ultimately president of the republic. Zuma was seen a popular figure after he was humiliated by the Mbeki elite when he was expelled from parliament after reports that he allegedly engaged in corrupt activities with his former financial adviser, Shabir Shaik. He was then a rallying point for all those who were excluded in the ailing tendering system by the Mbeki elite. Zuma's appeal to rural and township folk, presented him as the victim of state capitalism, therefore the working class under the leadership of COSATU and the SACP supported his quest to assume to the highest office in the republic. They supported him despite of his lack of involvement in the working class struggles and hailed him as the voice of the working class that he had hitherto despised when he was MEC for economic development and tourism in KwaZulu-Natal and also Deputy President of the republic. Rather, he was part of the leadership collective that adopted GEAR and abandoned RDP, but when all hell broke loose, Zuma came out as an angel with a halo who was somehow not in favour of GEAR. The SACP and COSATU had to adopt the hope and pray strategy when they supported Zuma. They hoped and prayed that he would not despise them once he is elected, like past leaders of the ANC. THE CHARECTER OF THE ANC The ANC views itself as the disciplined force of the left organised to conduct consistent struggle in pursuit of a caring society in which the well being of the poor receives focused and consistent attention. It seeks to put in place the best elements of a developmental state and social democracy. [2] The NDR as outlined by the strategy and tactics of the ANC seeks to achieve this developmental state and social democracy. It views the black African working class and the black middle strata as the motive force of the NDR. The achievement of democracy in 1994 saw the dramatic emergence of the black capitalist group. This group was the direct product of democratic change and direct creation of the NDR. The question that arises is somehow difficult to answer, lest we be labelled anti-NDR. Nonetheless, if the ANC seeks to create an equal and caring society, how does it simultaneously create a black capitalist group that shall exploit the very same working class it views as the motive force of the revolution? The rise of this black capitalist group is dependent in part on co-operation with elements of
[LAAMN] the rebirth of solidarity on the border
The Rebirth of Solidarity on the Border by David Bacon Published by the Americas Program on May 31, 2011 http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4697 Editor's Note: This is the third article of a series on border solidarity by journalist and immigration activist David Bacon. This article and subsequent stories were originally published in the Institute for Transnational Social Change's report Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity. To download a PDF of the entire report, visit the Americas Program website. The growth of cross-border solidarity today is taking place at a time when U.S. penetration of Mexico is growing - economically, politically, and even militarily. While the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico has it's own special characteristics, it is also part of a global system of production, distribution and consumption. It is not just a bilateral relationship. Jobs go from the U.S. and Canada to Mexico in order to cut labor costs. But from Mexico those same jobs go China or Bangladesh or dozens of other countries, where labor costs are even lower. As important, the threat to move those jobs, experienced by workers in the U.S. from the 1970s onwards, are now common in Mexico. Those threats force concessions on wages. In Sony's huge Nuevo Laredo factory, for instance, that threat was used to make workers agree to an indefinite temporary employment status, even though Mexican law prohibited it. Multiple production locations undermine unions' bargaining leverage, since action by workers in a single workplace can't shut down production for the entire corporation. The UAW, for instance, was beaten during a strike at Caterpillar in large part because even though the union could stop production in the U.S., production in Mexico continued. Grupo Mexico can use profits gained in mining operations in Peru to subsidize the costs of a strike in Cananea. The privatization of electricity in Mexico will not just affect Mexicans. Already plants built by Sempra Energy and Enron in Mexico are like maquiladoras, selling electricity into the grid across the border. If privatization grows, that will have an impact on US unions and jobs, giving utility unions in the U.S. a reason to help Mexican workers resist it. This requires more than solidarity between unions facing the same employer. It requires solidarity in resisting the imposition of neoliberal reforms like privatization and labor law reform as well. At the same time, the concentration of wealth has created a new political situation in both countries. In Mexico, the PRI functioned as a mediator between organized workers and business. PRI governments used repression to stop the growth of social movements outside the system it controlled. But the government also used negotiations in the interest of long-term stability. The interests of the wealthy were protected, but some sections of the population also received social benefits, and unions had recognized rights. In 1994, for instance, the government put leaders of Mexico City's bus union SUTAUR in prison. But then it proceeded to negotiate with them while they were in jail. The victory of Vicente Fox and the PAN in 2000 created a new situation, in which the corporate class, grown rich and powerful because of earlier reforms, no longer desired the same kind of social pact or its political intermediaries. The old corporatist system, in which unions had a role, was no longer necessary. Meanwhile employers and the government have been more willing to use force. Unions like the Mexican Electricians Union (SME) and miners face not just repression, but destruction. In the U.S. a similar process took place during the years after the Vietnam War, when corporations made similar decisions. After the Federal government broke the air traffic controller's (PATCO) strike, the use of strikebreakers became widespread. Corporations increasingly saw even business unions as unnecessary for maintaining social peace and continued profits. Union organizing became a kind of labor warfare. A whole industry of union busters appeared, making the process set up by U.S. labor law in the 1930s much less usable by workers seeking to organize. Labor law reform, national healthcare, and other basic pro-worker reforms became politically impossible in the post-Vietnam era, even under Democratic presidents whom unions helped elect. Public workers did succeed in organizing during this period, however, and eventually U.S. union strength became more and more concentrated in that sector. But much as the public sector in Mexico came under attack, the U.S. public sector became the target for the U.S. right, for similar reasons. This too changed the landscape for solidarity, giving the most politically powerful section of the U.S. labor movement, at least potentially, a greater interest in solidarity with Mexican labor. In both countries, the main
[LAAMN] Fisk: Who cares in the Middle East what Obama says?
Just this one email today. Theres a lot to digest, here. -Ed http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/who-cares-in-the-midd le-east-what-obama-says-2290761.html Who cares in the Middle East what Obama says? President Obama has shown himself to be weak in his dealings with the Middle East, says Robert Fisk, and the Arab world is turning its back with contempt. Its future will be shaped without American influence. Rober Fisk The Independent/UK: May 30, 2011 This month, in the Middle East, has seen the unmaking of the President of the United States. More than that, it has witnessed the lowest prestige of America in the region since Roosevelt met King Abdul Aziz on the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake in 1945. While Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu played out their farce in Washington Obama grovelling as usual the Arabs got on with the serious business of changing their world, demonstrating and fighting and dying for freedoms they have never possessed. Obama waffled on about change in the Middle East and about America's new role in the region. It was pathetic. What is this 'role' thing? an Egyptian friend asked me at the weekend. Do they still believe we care about what they think? And it is true. Obama's failure to support the Arab revolutions, until they were all, but over lost the US most of its surviving credit in the region. Obama was silent on the overthrow of Ben Ali, only joined in the chorus of contempt for Mubarak two days before his flight, condemned the Syrian regime which has killed more of its people than any other dynasty in this Arab spring, save for the frightful Gaddafi but makes it clear that he would be happy to see Assad survive, waves his puny fist at puny Bahrain's cruelty and remains absolutely, stunningly silent over Saudi Arabia. And he goes on his knees before Israel. Is it any wonder, then, that Arabs are turning their backs on America, not out of fury or anger, nor with threats or violence, but with contempt? It is the Arabs and their fellow Muslims of the Middle East who are themselves now making the decisions. Turkey is furious with Assad because he twice promised to speak of reform and democratic elections and then failed to honour his word. The Turkish government has twice flown delegations to Damascus and, according to the Turks, Assad lied to the foreign minister on the second visit, baldly insisting that he would recall his brother Maher's legions from the streets of Syrian cities. He failed to do so. The torturers continue their work. Watching the hundreds of refugees pouring from Syria across the northern border of Lebanon, the Turkish government is now so fearful of a repeat of the great mass Iraqi Kurdish refugee tide that overwhelmed their border in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf war that it has drawn up its own secret plans to prevent the Kurds of Syria moving in their thousands into the Kurdish areas of south-eastern Turkey. Turkish generals have thus prepared an operation that would send several battalions of Turkish troops into Syria itself to carve out a safe area for Syrian refugees inside Assad's caliphate. The Turks are prepared to advance well beyond the Syrian border town of Al Qamishli perhaps half way to Deir el-Zour (the old desert killing fields of the 1915 Armenian Holocaust, though speak it not) to provide a safe haven for those fleeing the slaughter in Syria's cities. The Qataris are meanwhile trying to prevent Algeria from resupplying Gaddafi with tanks and armoured vehicles this was one of the reasons why the Emir of Qatar, the wisest bird in the Arabian Gulf, visited the Algerian president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, last week. Qatar is committed to the Libyan rebels in Benghazi; its planes are flying over Libya from Crete and undisclosed until now it has Qatari officers advising the rebels inside the city of Misrata in western Libya; but if Algerian armour is indeed being handed over to Gaddafi to replace the material that has been destroyed in air strikes, it would account for the ridiculously slow progress which the Nato campaign is making against Gaddafi. Of course, it all depends on whether Bouteflika really controls his army or whether the Algerian pouvoir, which includes plenty of secretive and corrupt generals, are doing the deals. Algerian equipment is superior to Gaddafi's and thus for every tank he loses, Ghaddafi might be getting an improved model to replace it. Below Tunisia, Algeria and Libya share a 750-mile desert frontier, an easy access route for weapons to pass across the border. But the Qataris are also attracting Assad's venom. Al Jazeera's concentration on the Syrian uprising its graphic images of the dead and wounded far more devastating than anything our soft western television news shows would dare broadcast has Syrian state television nightly spitting at the Emir and at the state of Qatar. The Syrian government has now suspended up to £4 billion of
[LAAMN] Videos/articles - Honduras:Massive Turnout for Zelaya Launches New Chapter of Honduran Struggle
http://quotha.net/node/1803 Jesse Freeston: Massive Turnout for Zelaya Launches New Chapter of Honduran Struggle Wed, 06/01/2011 - 10:03 AP 'Largest gathering in Honduran history' receives deposed leader's return, but where to now for Honduran resistance movement? Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAM2lf5FQJUfeature=player_embedded http://quotha.net/node/1804 Democracy Now! Does Honduras Wed, 06/01/2011 - 10:14 AP DN! has had some great coverage over recent daysand I'm not just saying that because I was interviewed on the show todayhttp://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/1/zelayas_return_neither_reconciliation_nor_democracy : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD-IrWXh5PAfeature=player_embedded Andrés Tomás Conteris and Amy Goodman accompanied Zelaya on his historic return, and have dedicated two whole days (so far) to Honduras coverage. Former Minister of Culture (most recently under Zelaya) and renowned historian Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle is also interviewed at length for today's program http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2011/5/30, along with Mel Zelaya and Xiomara Castro de Zelaya. Yesterday's program, which details the return and interviews Zelaya and members of his family, is available herehttp://www.democracynow.org/shows/2011/5/31 . In addition, Amy Goodman has written a column titled Hope and Resistance in Hondurashttp://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/6/1/hope_and_resistance_in_honduras, and DN! maintained a live bloghttp://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/5/30/live_blog_democracy_now_reports_on_manuel_zelayas_historic_return_to_honduraswhile accompanying Zelaya. See those links (and the links they link to) for even more DN! Honduras coverage. -- http://quotha.net/node/1802 Belén Fernández: 1.5 million Honduran thugs give heros welcome to Copa Airlines Wed, 06/01/2011 - 09:31 AP Utterly brilliant. Click title to see original in Pulse Media with image: 1.5 million Honduran thugs give heros welcome to Copa Airlineshttp://pulsemedia.org/2011/05/29/1-5-million-honduran-thugs-give-hero%E2%80%99s-welcome-to-copa-airlines/ A few days prior to the return to Honduras of former president Mel Zelayahttp://pulsemedia.org/2011/05/29/zelayas-return-neither-reconciliation-nor-democracy-in-honduras/#more-32554, overthrown in a June 2009 coup détat and subsequently exiled to distinguished guest-hood in the Dominican Republic, I met with the director of the state-owned Radio Honduras, Gustavo Blanco. Previously a top employee with anti-coup Radio Globo, Blancos ideological incompatibility with Globos political orientation was once again underscored when he informed me that the anti-coup National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) was composed largely of violent troublemakers and uneducated poor people who didnt even understand why they were resisting the coup. Our ensuing debate resulted in a number of additional claims on Blancos part, such as that 59-year-old Honduran teacher Ilse Velasquezhttp://quotha.net/node/1626who this past March was struck in the face by a police-fired tear gas canister and then promptly run over and killed by a press vehiclewas actually to blame for her own demise given that she should have understood that her body type was not compatible with street protesting: ME: People of a certain body type do not have rights? BLANCO: She was fat. According to Blanco, the close-range firing of tear gas in crowded areas was meanwhile sanctioned by international law in situations in which said crowds were obstructing the flow of traffic. As anyone who has spent time in Tegucigalpa knows, obstructions to traffic flow occur fairly constantly, with or without the presence of teachers peacefully protesting the privatization of public education and post-coup government confiscation of their pension fundshttp://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_contenttask=viewid=31Itemid=74jumival=6635 . Honduran media logic was also deployed against the teaching profession in July 2009 when professor Roger Vallejos elimination, apparently by police bullet http://quotha.net/node/786, was justified in the daily *El Heraldo*http://pulsemedia.org/2009/07/31/live-from-honduras-honduran-neighbors-dupe-hondurans-into-thinking-there-is-coup/as being an effect of his choice to abandon his classroom in order to demonstrate against the illegal overthrow of the elected president. As for the convenience of the notion of FNRP dependence upon violent troublemakers when it comes to excusing violent repression by the security organs of the state, this was confirmed when, shortly after the obliteration of Ilse Velasquez, Human Rights and Labor Attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa Jeremy D. Spector characterized the teachers movement as involving thugs http://alainet.org/active/45842lang=es. He did, however, refrain from employing Blancos characterization of the Honduran police forces as *angelitos*. Other prior victims of the little angels and their friends include Honduran
[LAAMN] US Senator' speech opposing US invasion of Mexico, 1847
U.S. Senator Calls For Military Defeat Of Invading U.S. Army: (from G.I. Resistance) Supporting Resistance, Corwin Says If I Were A Mexican I Would Tell You, Have You Not Room In Your Own Country To Bury Your Dead Men? If You Come Into Mine We Will Greet You With Bloody Hands, And Welcome You To Hospitable Graves [Corwin, along with many others, understood the war on Mexico was initiated by slaveholders controlling the U.S. government to grab more territory for slavery. Therefore, he, along with many others, made very clear which side he was on, as in this speech. The biographical information below is based on data from Wikipedia. He and this speech deserve to be well remembered. [Thanks to Fabian Bouthillette, Iraq Veterans Against The War Military Resistance Organization, for copying from a very old book. T] *** By THOMAS CORWIN, of Ohio. Speech opposing the U.S. war on Mexico delivered February 11, 1847. (Corwin served in the U.S. Senate from March 4, 1845 to July 20, 1850. He was again elected to the House of Representatives in 1858, and returned to that body as a Republican and served from March 4, 1859 to March 12, 1861. He resigned only a few days into the 37th Congress after being appointed by the newly inaugurated President Abraham Lincoln to become Minister to Mexico, where he served until 1864. Corwin, well-regarded among the Mexican public for his opposition to the Mexican War while in the Senate, helped keep relations with the Mexicans friendly throughout the course of the Civil War, despite Confederate efforts to sway their allegiances. Born 1794. Died 1865.) * What is the territory, Mr. President, which you propose to wrest from Mexico? It is consecrated to the heart of the Mexican by many a well-fought battle, with his old Castilian master. His Bunker Hills, and Saratogas, and Yorktowns are there. The Mexican can say, There I bled for liberty! and shall I surrender that consecrated home of my affections to the Anglo-Saxon invaders? What do they want with it? They have Texas already. They have possessed themselves of the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. What else do they want? To what shall I point my children as memorials, of that independence which I bequeath to them, when those battlefields shall have passed from my possession? Sir, had one come and demanded Bunker Hill of the people of Massachusetts, had Englands lion ever showed himself there, is there a man over thirteen, and under ninety, who would not have been ready to meet him is there a river on this continent that would not have run red with blood is there a field but would have been piled high with the unburied bones of slaughtered Americans before these consecrated battlefields of liberty should have been wrested from us? But this same American goes into a sister republic, and says to poor, weak Mexico, Give up your territory you are unworthy to possess it I have got one-half already all I ask you is to give up the other! England might as well, in the circumstances I have described, have come and demanded of us Give up the Atlantic slope give up this trifling territory from the Allegheny mountains to the sea; it is only from Maine to St. Marys only about one- third of your Republic, and the least interesting portion of it. What would be the response? They would say, We must give this up to John Bull. Why? He wants room. The Senator from Michigan says he must have this. Why, my worthy Christian brother, on what principle of justice? I want room! Sir, look at this pretense of want of room. With twenty millions of people, you have about one thousand millions of acres of land, inviting settlement by every conceivable argument bringing them down to a quarter of a dollar an acre, and allowing every man to squat where he pleases. But the Senator from Michigan says we will be two hundred millions in a few years, and we want room. If I were a Mexican I would tell you, Have you not room in your own country to bury your dead men? If you come into mine we will greet you with bloody hands, and welcome you to hospitable graves. Why, says the chairman of this Committee of Foreign Relations, it is the most reasonable thing in the world! We ought to have the Bay of San Francisco. Why? Because it is the best harbor on the Pacific! It has been my fortune, Mr. President, to have practiced a good deal in criminal courts in the course of my life, but I never yet heard a thief, arraigned for stealing a horse, plead that it was the best horse that he could find in the country! We want California. What for? Why, says the Senator from Michigan, we will have it; and the Senator from South Carolina, with a very mistaken view, I think, of policy, says, You cant keep our people from going there. I dont desire to
[LAAMN] How Washington and Big Oil Fought PetroCaribe in Haiti
http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume4-46/How%20Washington%20and%20Big%20Oil%20Fought%20PetroCaribe%20in%20Haiti.asp *New WikiLeaked Cables Reveal: How Washington and Big Oil Fought PetroCaribe in Haiti* [image: ...]René Préval, who passed Haitis presidential sash to Joseph Michel Martelly on May 14, was described by U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Janet Sanderson as Haitis indispensable man in a Jun. 1, 2009 Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks last December. Sanderson judged him still moderately popular, and likely the only politician capable of imposing his will on Haiti - if so inclined.* At the same time, dealing with Préval is a challenge, occasionally frustrating and sometimes rewarding,* she continued. *He is wary of change and suspicious of outsiders, even those who seek his success.* Prévals suspicions about outsiders seeking his success turned out to be justified. In two rounds of presidential and legislative elections held in November and March, Washington aggressively intervened, pushing out of the presidential run-off Jude Célestin, the candidate of Prévals party Inite (Unity), to replace him with Martelly, a neo-Duvalierist konpa singer who vocally supported the 1991 and 2004 coups détat against former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Now the U.S. has even challenged the legislative races which would have given Inite virtual control of the Parliament, and hence approval of the President-designated Prime Minister, Haitis most powerful executive post. With U.S. support, challenges were brought against Inite victories in 17 Deputy and two Senate races. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) ruled in favor of only 15 challenges, leaving four seats with the original Inite winners. The U.S. is not even letting this mild, partial impertinence go, yanking the U.S. travel visas of six of the CEPs eight members. How did Haitis indispensable man become so dispensable? Why has Washington so brazenly intervened in Haitis elections to limit the power of Prévals party and oust Inites presidential candidate from the run-off? Clues to the answer lie in secret U.S. Embassy cables which the transparency- advocacy group WikiLeaks has provided to Haïti Liberté. The cables reveal that the U.S. was primarily irked by Prévals dealings with Cuba and Venezuela, where the former Haitian president was unable to resist displaying some show of independence or contrariness in dealing with [Venezuelan president Hugo] Chavez, as Sanderson griped in a 2007 cable. U.S. dismay began when Préval signed the very day of his inauguration a deal to join Venezuelas PetroCaribe alliance, under which Haiti would buy oil paying only 60% to Venezuela up front with the remainder payable over 25 years at 1% interest. The leaked U.S. Embassy cables provide a fascinating look at how Washington sought to discourage, scuttle and sabotage the PetroCaribe deal despite its unquestionable benefits, under which the Haitian government would save USD 100 million per year from the delayed payments, as the Embassy itself recognized in a 2006 cable. A review of PetroCaribes genesis and the Embassys response to it provides a window into understanding why the U.S. has been so forceful in backing the U.S.-centric Martelly team over Prévals two-timing sector. [image: ...]*Venezuelan Trial Balloon Shot Down* Venezuela first offered a Petro- Caribe deal to Haiti under the de facto government of Prime Minister Gérard Latortue, whom Washington installed in March 2004 after the Feb. 29 coup against Aristide. *The government of Venezuela planned to send a negotiating team to Haiti (exact time undetermined) to negotiate a deal to sell oil at a preferential rate via PetroCaribe, Embassy Chargé daffaires Timothy Carney (the Charge) reported in an Oct. 19, 2005 cable. Upon returning from a recent trip to Venezuela, Minister of Culture and Communication, Magali Comeau Denis told the Charge she was bringing Venezuelan oil back to Haiti with her.* Prior to that trip, Carney and Econ Counselor [his economic counselor] had spoken to acting Prime Minister Henri Bazin who said that the Interim Government of Haiti [IGOH] was looking for concessional terms for oil purchases from Mexico and Nigeria --but not Venezuela, he was quick to emphasize, Carney continued. In a follow-up conversation, Charge reiterated the negatives of such a deal with Venezuela. Bazin listened and understood the message, that Washington would be unhappy about any oil deal with Venezuela. To drive the point home, Econ Counselor met with a contact at the Finance Ministry October 13 who confirmed that the IGOH has no plans to participate in any PetroCaribe deal, Carney explained. He added that our message to Bazin had an impact: Bazin had seen a draft of comments to be made by Haitis representative to the IMF [International Monetary Fund] that included a vague reference to someday purchasing oil at concessional prices from Venezuela,
[LAAMN] Re: How Washington and Big Oil Fought PetroCaribe in Haiti
*Continue in page(12) (please go to our electronic edition and navigate to page 12)* http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/electronic_edition.asp On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 11:01 AM, Cort Greene cort.gre...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume4-46/How%20Washington%20and%20Big%20Oil%20Fought%20PetroCaribe%20in%20Haiti.asp *New WikiLeaked Cables Reveal: How Washington and Big Oil Fought PetroCaribe in Haiti* [image: ...]René Préval, who passed Haitis presidential sash to Joseph Michel Martelly on May 14, was described by U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Janet Sanderson as Haitis indispensable man in a Jun. 1, 2009 Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks last December. Sanderson judged him still moderately popular, and likely the only politician capable of imposing his will on Haiti - if so inclined.* At the same time, dealing with Préval is a challenge, occasionally frustrating and sometimes rewarding,* she continued. *He is wary of change and suspicious of outsiders, even those who seek his success.* Prévals suspicions about outsiders seeking his success turned out to be justified. In two rounds of presidential and legislative elections held in November and March, Washington aggressively intervened, pushing out of the presidential run-off Jude Célestin, the candidate of Prévals party Inite (Unity), to replace him with Martelly, a neo-Duvalierist konpa singer who vocally supported the 1991 and 2004 coups détat against former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Now the U.S. has even challenged the legislative races which would have given Inite virtual control of the Parliament, and hence approval of the President-designated Prime Minister, Haitis most powerful executive post. With U.S. support, challenges were brought against Inite victories in 17 Deputy and two Senate races. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) ruled in favor of only 15 challenges, leaving four seats with the original Inite winners. The U.S. is not even letting this mild, partial impertinence go, yanking the U.S. travel visas of six of the CEPs eight members. How did Haitis indispensable man become so dispensable? Why has Washington so brazenly intervened in Haitis elections to limit the power of Prévals party and oust Inites presidential candidate from the run-off? Clues to the answer lie in secret U.S. Embassy cables which the transparency- advocacy group WikiLeaks has provided to Haïti Liberté. The cables reveal that the U.S. was primarily irked by Prévals dealings with Cuba and Venezuela, where the former Haitian president was unable to resist displaying some show of independence or contrariness in dealing with [Venezuelan president Hugo] Chavez, as Sanderson griped in a 2007 cable. U.S. dismay began when Préval signed the very day of his inauguration a deal to join Venezuelas PetroCaribe alliance, under which Haiti would buy oil paying only 60% to Venezuela up front with the remainder payable over 25 years at 1% interest. The leaked U.S. Embassy cables provide a fascinating look at how Washington sought to discourage, scuttle and sabotage the PetroCaribe deal despite its unquestionable benefits, under which the Haitian government would save USD 100 million per year from the delayed payments, as the Embassy itself recognized in a 2006 cable. A review of PetroCaribes genesis and the Embassys response to it provides a window into understanding why the U.S. has been so forceful in backing the U.S.-centric Martelly team over Prévals two-timing sector. [image: ...]*Venezuelan Trial Balloon Shot Down* Venezuela first offered a Petro- Caribe deal to Haiti under the de facto government of Prime Minister Gérard Latortue, whom Washington installed in March 2004 after the Feb. 29 coup against Aristide. *The government of Venezuela planned to send a negotiating team to Haiti (exact time undetermined) to negotiate a deal to sell oil at a preferential rate via PetroCaribe, Embassy Chargé daffaires Timothy Carney (the Charge) reported in an Oct. 19, 2005 cable. Upon returning from a recent trip to Venezuela, Minister of Culture and Communication, Magali Comeau Denis told the Charge she was bringing Venezuelan oil back to Haiti with her.* Prior to that trip, Carney and Econ Counselor [his economic counselor] had spoken to acting Prime Minister Henri Bazin who said that the Interim Government of Haiti [IGOH] was looking for concessional terms for oil purchases from Mexico and Nigeria --but not Venezuela, he was quick to emphasize, Carney continued. In a follow-up conversation, Charge reiterated the negatives of such a deal with Venezuela. Bazin listened and understood the message, that Washington would be unhappy about any oil deal with Venezuela. To drive the point home, Econ Counselor met with a contact at the Finance Ministry October 13 who confirmed that the IGOH has no plans to participate in any
[LAAMN] Fwd: Sheriffs Refuse to Let Inmates With Disabilities Use Their Wheelchairs in LA County Jails and Punish Them by Denying Accessible Cells
Note from MN: Disability rights are human rights! The class of disabled prisoners is probably a large one. Between military veterans and youth injured in street organization clashes, (not to mention accidents and illnesses), there are many disabled young people in the jails.--MN http://www.aclu-sc.org/releases/view/103070 Sheriffs Refuse to Let Inmates With Disabilities Use Their Wheelchairs in LA County Jails and Punish Them by Denying Accessible Cells Thursday, May 5, 2011 (LOS ANGELES)- ACLU of Southern California, Disability Rights California, Disability Rights Legal Center, and Winston Strawn filed an application for a temporary restraining order against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on behalf of an inmate with a mobility impairment, who needs a wheelchair, but is being punished by the Sheriff's Department for refusing an order from the Sheriff's Department to give it up. Terry Alexander is a class member in the class action lawsuit, Johnson v. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which was filed in 2008 against the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles County and Sheriff Baca on behalf of inmates with mobility impairments. The plaintiffs argue that the jails are not wheelchair accessible, and that inmates are denied mobility devices such as wheelchairs, crutches, walkers or canes, even though they need them. Inmates with mobility impairments also suffer discrimination because they are denied access to jail programs and services, including those that may reduce time served. The inmates are also placed in cells that are not wheelchair accessible, which means that men have fallen because there are no grab bars to help transfer them to the toilet, and some of them are denied equal access to shower facilities. This is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, California and federal statutes, and the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. We need the court to step in immediately to protect Mr. Alexander, who is in 'the hole' for refusing to give up the wheelchair that is absolutely essential to his basic functioning, said Jessica Price, staff attorney for the ACLU/SC. Doctors in the jail have decided that Mr. Alexander needs a wheelchair, and now the deputies are punishing him for failing to get out of his wheelchair. This is among the worst disability discrimination we've seen in a long time, says Shawna Parks, Legal Director for the Disability Rights Legal Center. To not only deny a necessary accommodation, but also discipline someone for disputing that denial, flies in the face of every disability nondiscrimination statute on the books. Mr. Alexander has a history of paraplegia. He has needed a wheelchair since 2003 after a number of his spinal discs were crushed by a forklift at his job. In 2010 he was arrested. He has had multiple doctors determine that he needs a wheelchair. Deputies put him in the hole solitary confinement in disciplinary housing that is physically inaccessible with no accommodations for persons with disabilities -- on April 14, 2011 for failing to get out of the wheelchair. While in the hole, Mr. Alexander has fallen because there are no grab bars and he has difficulty transferring to the toilet. He is also barred from using the telephone and therefore is unable to call his mother who had a stroke last year. The plaintiffs are asking the court to order the defendants not to punish Alexander until he can have an independent medical exam to determine the medical necessity of his wheelchair. --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings
[LAAMN] Fwd: Citizen Invokes Right to an Attorney, FBI Retaliates by Revoking Wife's Visa
http://www.aclu-sc.org/releases/view/103076 Citizen Invokes Right to an Attorney, FBI Retaliates by Revoking Wifeâs Visa Wednesday, May 25, 2011 (LOS ANGELES)-The ACLU of Southern California announced that it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of American citizen Samy Ali, to challenge the federal governmentâs revocation of his wife's visa in retaliation for his exercising the right to counsel during FBI questioning. The case was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Ali fully cooperated with the FBI as it questioned him about his brother-in-law, who had gone missing overseas. Ali, concerned for his brother-in-law as well as for the well-being of his sister, niece and nephew, maintained close contact with the FBI for several months. However, despite his cooperation, the FBI agents later turned hostile, threatening Ali with the baseless accusation that he had engaged in illegal activity by accumulating credit card debt. Shaken and disturbed by the FBIâs threats, Ali sought the advice of an attorney, who informed the FBI that she would represent Ali at any further FBI questioning. In response, the FBI stated that they were no longer interested in speaking with Ali if he was represented. Several weeks later, Ali flew to Egypt to pick up his wife and young child, and return to the United States to begin a new life together. Aliâs wife had been granted a visa and green card by United Citizenship and Immigration Services earlier that year. However, shortly after Ali arrived, the U.S. Embassy informed him that his wifeâs visa had been revoked and failed to provide any valid basis for the revocation. Ali was forced to return home alone. The FBI later made clear that Ali could fix his wifeâs visa problems if he would cooperate further without his attorney. âThe government flagrantly misused its immigration authority to retaliate against Mr. Ali, who had been fully cooperating with the FBI,â said Michael Kaufman, an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California. âUnfortunately, Mr. Ali's case is part of a larger pattern of abusive FBI tactics that have driven a wedge between Muslim communities and law enforcement, making us all less safe.â Ali's case presents the latest example of a pattern of abuse whereby the FBI misuses the immigration laws to coerce members of the Muslim community to provide information, a phenomenon documented in a recently issued report by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice entitled Under the Radar. http://chrgj.org/projects/docs/undertheradar.pdf The FBI's tactics have caused distrust between the Muslim community and the FBI throughout the country. âI have always considered myself a proud American, but I am now afraid and distrustful of the FBI,â said Ali. âI tried my best to help the FBI and they repaid me with threats and separation from my wife and daughter.â âThe government's retaliatory revocation of his wife's visa constitutes a clear violation of Mr. Ali's constitutional rights,â said Geoffrey Forgione, pro bono counsel from the law firm Jones Day. âThe government should make right this egregious wrong by apologizing to Mr. Ali and his family and immediately re-issuing the visa so that the family can be reunited.â The law suit asks a federal court to order the government to re-issue Marwa's visa according to law. No monetary relief is sought. --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group,
[LAAMN] Ecuador votes NO - Honduras readmitted to OAS after coup 32-1
Honduras readmitted to OAS after coup By Deborah Charleshttp://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=usn=deborah.charles; http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-honduras-oas-idUSTRE75063P20110601 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Honduras was readmitted to the Organization of American states on Wednesday, repairing ties with the hemispheric group two years after President Manuel Zelaya was toppled in a widely condemned coup. The OAS voted 32 to one to readmit Honduras at a special meeting called to consider the case, with Ecuador the only country to oppose the move. The Honduran delegation, led by Vice President Maria Guillen, got a standing ovation when they returned to the room after the vote. Honduras' army, with backing from the congress and the courts, whisked leftist Zelaya out of the country in his pajamas in June 2009 after he was accused of trying to extend his presidential term limits with a popular referendum. Governments around the world criticized the predawn coup and the OAS, which groups Latin American democratic countries, Canada and the United States, expelled Honduras with many members cutting off aid to the impoverished nation. Whether to readmit Honduras to the group, even after it held regularly scheduled elections to vote in a new president, sparked deep divisions in the region. The United States initially condemned the coup but restored relations with the new government of President Porfirio Lobo. Two ideological foes, conservative President Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia and Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, helped pave the way for Honduras' acceptance back into the OAS. RIGHTS CONCERNS Human rights groups are worried abuses by security forces during the coup and attacks on journalists were left unpunished and continue under the new government. Ecuador's ambassador to the OAS, Maria Isabel Salvador, said her country could not support the readmission because of the ongoing violations. Democracy, the rule of law, due process of law, human rights and saying no to impunity -- that's why we cannot agree with the other members of the organization, she said. But the United States said the country's reintegration into the OAS would put Honduras on a firmer footing to combat abuses since the organization helps promote accountability. This is an important milestone for Honduras, for this organization and for our hemisphere, Arturo Valenzuela, a U.S. assistant secretary of state told the meeting. Zelaya, a colorful character known for his bushy mustache and trademark cowboy hat, returned to cheers from supporters on Saturday after living in exile mostly in the Dominican Republic since the coup. Zelaya's return home was a key condition for Honduras' return to the OAS as well as assurances from the government that his political allies will be allowed to participate in politics. (Additional reporting by Alex Leff in San Jose and Mica Rosenberghttp://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=usn=mica.rosenberg;in Mexico City; Editing by Cynthia Ostermanhttp://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=usn=cynthia.osterman; ) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] California Senate Approves Walmart-inspired limits on Superstores
6/1/11 Senate approves Walmart-inspired limits on superstores http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/may/31/senate-approves-walmart-inspired-limits-superstore/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] Press Release: OAS Voting on Honduras, But There's Neither Reconciliation nor Democracy
http://quotha.net/node/1807 Press Release: OAS Voting on Honduras, But There's Neither Reconciliation nor Democracy Wed, 06/01/2011 - 11:52 AP Wednesday, June 1, 2011 OAS Voting on Honduras, But There's Neither Reconciliation nor Democracy *Interviews Available* The Los Angeles Times editorializes today: Nearly two years after former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup, he returned home Saturday. His arrival clears the way for the Organization of American States to reinstate Honduras, which had been expelled from the group, during a special session Wednesday. SUYAPA PORTILLO, (323) 637-7812, lavidag...@gmail.com Portillo is assistant professor at the Central American Studies Program at California State University, Northridge. ADRIENNE PINE, p...@american.edu [email for Skype interview] Pine recently wrote the piece Zelaya's Return: Neither Reconciliation nor Democracy in Honduras.https://nacla.org/news/zelayas-return-neither-reconciliation-nor-democracy-honduras She is assistant professor of anthropology at American University specializing in Latin America. She is the author of Working Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras and has been writing about Honduras and other issues at: http://quotha.net . Pine was featured on Democracy Now http://www.democracynow.org/tags/honduras this morning, which has been interviewing Zelaya and others in Honduras. JOHN LINDSAY-POLAND, 510-282-8983, joh...@forusa.org Lindsay-Poland is research and advocacy director for the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which recently released a statement titled Construction Companies Urged Not to Bid on 'Violent Outcomes' in Honduras.http://forusa.org/blogs/john-lindsay-poland/construction-companies-urged-not-bid-violent-outcomes-honduras/8752 JESSE FREESTON, [in Houduras] 011-504-8914-4580, je...@therealnews.com, http://therealnews.com Freeston is a reporter for The Real News who has produced several segments on Honduras since the June 2009 coup. His latest is Massive Turnout for Zelaya Launches New Chapter of Honduran Struggle.http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_contenttask=viewid=33Itemid=74jumival=408 ALEXANDER MAIN, (202) 293-5380 ext 123, cell: (202) 531-7585, m...@cepr.net, http://www.cepr.net Senior associate for international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Main said today: Following the June 2009 coup detat that forcibly removed President Zelaya from power, Honduras participation in the OAS was suspended by unanimous decision of the 33 member states. Today, nearly two years later, there appears to be nearly unanimous support for Honduras readmission, with only Ecuador indicating that it is still opposed. Though the U.S. administration lobbied intensely for Honduras return to the OAS ever since the coup regime held flawed elections in late 2009, todays vote is the direct outcome of an agreement mediated by the presidents of Colombia and Venezuela. The agreement allowed, among other things, for Zelaya and other deposed officials to return from exile without immediate fear of prosecution, a key demand for the majority of South American countries that were opposed to lifting Honduras suspension. However, Honduran human rights organizations and social movements argue that it is too early to normalize Honduras relations with the hemisphere, as politically motivated killings and attacks continue with complete impunity and many of the key actors in the coup still occupy key positions in the government. The deplorable state of human rights and democracy in Honduras has been further highlighted by a letter sent yesterday to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by 87 members of Congress. Citing the 'threats and violence reportedly directed against human rights defenders, activists, opposition leaders, members of the LGBT community and journalists' the letter calls on the U.S. administration to suspend all police and military assistance to Honduras. Congressional letter available herehttp://www.rightsaction.org/articles/Honduras_US_congress_letter_052011.html . For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn
[LAAMN] GOOD READ: Blaming the Israel Lobby: It's US Policy That Inflames the Arab World
It's US Policy That Inflames the Arab World Blaming the Israel Lobby By JOSEPH MASSAD In the last 25 years, many Palestinians and other Arabs, in the United States and in the Arab world, have been so awed by the power of the US pro-Israel lobby that any study, book, or journalistic article that exposes the inner workings, the substantial influence, and the financial and political power of this lobby have been greeted with ecstatic sighs of relief that Americans finally can see the truth and the error of their ways. The underlying argument has been simple and has been told time and again by Washington's regime allies in the Arab world, pro-US liberal and Arab intellectuals, conservative and liberal US intellectuals and former politicians, and even leftist Arab and American activists who support Palestinian rights, namely, that absent the pro- Israel lobby, America would at worst no longer contribute to the oppression of Arabs and Palestinians and at best it would be the Arabs' and the Palestinians' best ally and friend. What makes this argument persuasive and effective to Arabs? Indeed, why are its claims constantly brandished by Washington's Arab friends to Arab and American audiences as a persuasive argument? I contend that the attraction of this argument is that it exonerates the United States' government from all the responsibility and guilt that it deserves for its policies in the Arab world and gives false hope to many Arabs and Palestinians who wish America would be on their side instead of on the side of their enemies. Let me start with the premise of the argument, namely its effect of shifting the blame for US policies from the United States onto Israel and its US lobby. According to this logic, it is not the United States that should be held directly responsible for all its imperial policies in the Arab world and the Middle East at large since World War II, rather it is Israel and its lobby who have pushed it to launch policies that are detrimental to its own national interest and are only beneficial to Israel. Establishing and supporting Arab and other Middle East dictatorships, arming and training their militaries, setting up their secret police apparatuses and training them in effective torture methods and counter-insurgency to be used against their own citizens should be blamed, according to the logic of these studies, on Israel and its US lobby. Blocking all international and UN support for Palestinian rights, arming and financing Israel in its war against a civilian population, protecting Israel from the wrath of the international community should also be blamed not on the United States, the studies insist, but on Israel and its lobby. Additionally, and in line with this logic, controlling Arab economies and finances, dominating key investments in the Middle East, and imposing structural adjustment policies by the IMF and the World Bank which impoverish the Arab peoples should also be blamed on Israel, and not the United States. Finally, starving and then invading Iraq, threatening to invade Syria, raiding and then sanctioning Libya and Iran, besieging the Palestinians and their leaders must also be blamed on the Israeli lobby and not the US government. Indeed, over the years, many pro-US Arab dictators let it leak officially and unofficially that their US diplomat friends have told them time and again how muc! h they and America support the Arab world and the Palestinians were it not for the influence of the pro- Israel lobby (sometimes identified by the American diplomats in more explicit ethnic terms). While many of the studies of the pro-Israel lobby are sound and full of awe-inspiring well- documented details about the formidable power commanded by groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its allies, the problem with most of them is what remains unarticulated. For example, when and in what context has the United States government ever supported national liberation in the Third World? The record of the United States is one of being the implacable enemy of all Third World national liberation groups, including European ones, from Greece to Latin America to Africa and Asia, except in the celebrated cases of the Afghan fundamentalists' war against the USSR and supporting apartheid South Africa's main terrorist allies in Angola and Mozambique (UNITA and RENAMO) against their respective anti-colonial national governments. Why then would the US support national
Re: [LAAMN] California Senate Approves Walmart-inspired limits on Superstores
Yeah, it does discriminate against one type of retailer over the others. It discriminates against ones like Wal-Mart/Target and the other MEGA box stores who increase the burden on the rest of the tax payers due to the store paying wages so low the employees often need government assistance even though they have a full 28 hour a week job (so no benefits or a living wage has to be paid). It has no effect on the Super Mega Stores, that pay living wages as the employees do not need public assistance and local business are not decimated by this kind of business. Besides the Super stores that give living wages, also pay taxes unlike Wal Mart and target that pay little to no taxes, while getting government assistance to bring and keep their stores in areas they destroy the lively hood of the residents, off shore stashing of their cash, and not spending every dollar possible that was brought into that store, in the local community (see, stashing their cash in off shore accounts, which also helps them not pay taxes on that income). Vote with your dollars. If you love the economy as it is now, please shop at Wal Mart and target, Home Depot and OSH and their ilk. Of course if you like the economy the way it is, only your staff are shopping at those places, you wouldn't be caught dead seen in a place like that. On 6/1/2011 4:20 PM, bigraccoon wrote: 6/1/11 Senate approves Walmart-inspired limits on superstores http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/may/31/senate-approves-walmart-inspired-limits-superstore/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
