CBS News
“…I would like to see the bazaar. I’d like to see the alcoholic-musical-political payoff bazaar of accounts receivable,” Nader said. “I would like to be there at the convention to watch. I will try to get credentials… I may try as a syndicated columnist, which I’ve been for 35 years. Let’s see if they are against reporters…” full article
New York Times Editorial
In 1999, African-American farmers won a major civil rights settlement against the United States Department of Agriculture. They had argued that the loans and subsidies they received were substantially lower than those for comparable white farmers. What made matters worse was the fact that Reagan-era budget cuts closed the U.S.D.A.’s civil rights office for 13 years, so most of the complaints filed during that time were never heard. To its credit, the department conducted an internal investigation and discovered that racial discrimination had not only occurred but had also been structurally and historically embedded in its operations.
What looked like a good settlement, promising prompt payment to black farmers, now looks like a failure, according to a new investigation by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group. Again and again, these farmers have run up against procedural hurdles that have effectively blocked most of them from receiving payments that were supposed to be automatic. Because of poor record-keeping, the U.S.D.A. seriously underestimated the number of farmers who had been discriminated against. It also did a terrible job of seeking out farmers who might qualify for payments. And it did nothing to help them get the documents needed to demonstrate the loan and subsidy support that neighboring white farmers had received.
This is discrimination by a different name – a continuation, in effect, of the racism historically entrenched in the U.S.D.A. The department’s resistance and the inherent inadequacies in the original settlement have caused a staggering rate of farm failures among small-scale black farmers: three times the rate for white farmers. That has sped up the loss of farmland to development. In the past few decades, the U.S.D.A. has paid only lip service to the survival of small farms. It apparently pays only lip service to civil rights as well. The remedy for this inequity will not be found at the department. Carrying out the settlement with fairness and accountability will require the intervention of Congress.
by Scott Ritter zmag.org
…Iyad Allawi’s government was recently installed by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to counter a Baathist nationalism that ceased to exist nearly a decade ago.
In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein’s regime shifted toward an amalgam of Islamic fundamentalism, tribalism and nationalism that more accurately reflected the political reality of Iraq.
Thanks to his meticulous planning and foresight, Saddam’s lieutenants are now running the Iraqi resistance, including the Islamist groups.
…We will suffer a decade-long nightmare that will lead to the deaths of thousands more Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis. We will witness the creation of a viable and dangerous anti-American movement in Iraq that will one day watch as American troops unilaterally withdraw from Iraq every bit as ignominiously as Israel did from Lebanon.
The calculus is quite simple: the sooner we bring our forces home, the weaker this movement will be. And, of course, the obverse is true: the longer we stay, the stronger and more enduring this byproduct of Bush’s elective war on Iraq will be.
by Gary Younge Guardian UK
By the Banks of Lake Tunk
The fog rolls in so quickly off the Atlantic that it can smother the town of Lubec, in the state of Maine, in seconds. One moment brilliant sunshine glistens off the shore; the next you can barely see to the end of the road. But directions to the easternmost town in the US are simple – head north on route 189 and if you hit the ocean or Canada, you’ve gone too far. In this close-knit community (population 1,652) everybody fits in to one of three categories: locals, whose families have often been here for generations; “summer people” with holiday homes; and those “from away”, meaning from anywhere else.
In his stump speech, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, John Edwards, says there are two Americas: “One America – middle-class America – whose needs Washington has long forgotten; another America – narrow-interest America – whose every wish is Washington’s command.” Lubec’s locals do not fit into either. Living in Washington County, one of the poorest in the US, they are certainly doing the work, but they are not middle class. Take Daniel Fitzsimmons. He used to employ around 50 people in a business making Christmas wreaths. When the North American Free Trade Agreement came in he went out of business, undercut by cheaper wreaths from Canada. “It’s free trade to some people, but it ain’t free to us because we’re losing everything we had,” he says.
Fitzsimmons, 41, turned to digging for clams, scallops and urchins until he found himself short of breath one day and fell to the ground. With no health insurance, he had to make himself bankrupt before he could get financial assistance for the bypass surgery he needed. “The bills were enough to give you a heart attack if you didn’t have one before,” he says. Now he’s back, digging in the bay early every morning to catch whatever the season washes in. “If you’re making a life fishing then you eat chicken one day and chicken feathers the next,” he says. “You take the good with the bad.”
As the convention season kicks off this week, there will be little mention of people like Fitzsimmons. The Republicans would rather forget he exists; the Democrats might talk about him, but they won’t be talking talk to him. Both will certainly discuss the issues that matter most to him – jobs and health – but they won’t address them in a way that will make a substantive difference to his daily life. Still, Fitzsimmons is backing Democratic hopeful John Kerry, enthusiastically but with no illusions. He doesn’t believe the Democrats will propose a socialised healthcare system that would cater adequately for him and his family, a fair-trade policy that would protect his livelihood from cheaper labour or an economic policy that would offer him more stable employment.
…But on a national level the issues facing those who live here are by no means marginal. One in eight Americans lives below the poverty line and one in 10 has no health insurance. Add to that the one in eight black men in their 20s in prison, and you have a nation where being impoverished, incarcerated or in need of medical coverage is a mainstream way of life to which mainstream politics has no adequate response.
by Mark Jewell Associated Press
BOSTON – As thousands of delegates, journalists and dignitaries stream into the FleetCenter, protesters for the next few days will be enclosed in a shadowy, closed-off piece of urban streetscape just over a block away.
The maze of overhead netting, chain link fencing and razor wire couldn’t be further in comfort from the high-tech confines of the arena stage where John Kerry (news – web sites) is to accept the Democratic nomination for president during the four-day convention that kicks off Monday.
Abandoned, elevated rail lines and green girders loom over most of the official demonstration zone that slopes down to a subway station closed for the duration. To avoid hitting girders, tall protesters will have to duck at one end of the 28,000-square-foot zone. Train tracks obscure the line of sight to much of the FleetCenter. Concrete blocks were set around streets in the area, a transportation hub on the north side of downtown.
Protesters likened the site Saturday to a concentration camp as they complained it is too far from the FleetCenter to get their messages across, even though the site is next to a parking lot where many delegates will pass on foot en route to the arena.
Authorities say — and a judge agreed — the discomforts are needed for security in the post-Sept. 11 era.
…U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock this past week called the conditions “an affront to free expression” and a “festering boil.” He refused to order changes, but is letting protesters march past the site Sunday. A coalition of protesters appealed to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news – web sites).
Authorities said they were lowering the maximum number of protesters to 1,000, from a previous 4,000, because of concerns of overcrowding. full article
Because the Democrats cave to the Republican’s post 9-11 strategies, there is NO ONE in government to defend our most basic rights. This is one of those stories you read and if you think too much about the implications…well civil war, basically.
by Rootsie
“Right now, Pdvsa is not a mercantile entity,” said Antonio Szabó, a former executive at Pdvsa who left long before Mr. Chávez came to power and who is now chief executive of Stone Bond Technologies, a Houston software and energy consulting firm. “Right now, it’s an instrument of the Venezuelan government.”
Pdvsa is Petroleo de Venezuela, that country’s state-run oil company. The article run by the NY Times linked below marks a sudden about-face in the media coverage of Venezuela.
It is easy to read between the lines and see why President Hugo Chavez represents the worst nightmare of the United States and the global corporate imperialists. A ‘developing nation’ taking control of its own resources? Ending sweetheart deals with multinational giants? Plowing profits back into infrastructure and ‘social revolution,’ in effect using American and European oil investment dollars to bring prosperity to Venezuelans? Soliciting cooperation from multinationals on its own terms?? A majority partner in deals with Chevron and such? No more bowing and scraping before anybody who knocks at the door?
What is so funny about this article is the incredulous tone of corporate onlookers:
“Even at companies like Total that are moving toward a deal, executives describe tough negotiations that leave them wondering how committed Pdvsa really is to expanding the role of private companies.
“We are proposing to invest in a $4 billion project immediately, and we agree to work in terms of the new law,” said Jean-Marie Guillermou of Total’s Venezuela operations. “Normally, a country would want to jump on this. They don’t do it. Why?”
No more winks and briefcases of cash exchanged among ‘good friends’? No more license to wreck the environment in exchange for a few well-placed dollars? Say it ain’t so.
“The company that has emerged from the ashes of the strike that ended in February 2003 is nothing like the button-down, corporate-style company that in the 1990’s was often the No. 1 provider of foreign oil to the United States.
Gone is the by-the-book giant, which had $42 billion in sales, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission last October. Gone is the multinational whose managers once proudly compared Pdvsa to Exxon Mobil. Gone, too, are 18,000 experienced executives and managers who were fired for their role in the strike.
So is the autonomy the company once wielded, replaced by a highly centralized management controlled by the Ministry of Energy and Mines…”
So this is what nationalization looks like? Turns out it’s not a communist plot. Nope, Pdvsa is playing ball with capitalist big boys, on their terms yes, but more importantly, on their own. Using corporate profits for what corporations for the most part falsely claim they are used for: to improve people’s lives. Venezuela plans to use $36 billion worth of carefully-chosen foreign investment to double Venezuela’s oil production by 2009.
“But while Pdvsa’s talk of foreign investment and ramped-up production is welcome in the boardrooms of the world’s biggest oil companies, in recent months much of the new earnings have been siphoned from exploration and production projects that some energy analysts say Pdvsa needs to recover fully from the strike. Instead, the windfall is financing a social revolution long promised by President Hugo Chávez’s 5-year-old government to extricate the country from its malaise and ease life for the poor, an effort that had been hobbled by the strike and a 2002 coup that temporarily ousted the firebrand leader.”
It is amusing that the corporate boardrooms are fretting about the fact that Pvdsa and Venezuela are more concerned with the health of their country than with ever-increasing bottom-lines. It is not seemly, apparently, for an oil giant not to grow and grow and grow as fast as possible. It is simply not done, you know. The tone of paternal concern is unmistakable. ‘Consternation’ and ‘raised eyebrows.’ To say the least I am sure.
“The government recently announced that $2 billion in Pdvsa revenue would bypass the central bank and form a special development fund to pay for public projects like a hydroelectric plant and a new state airline. Another $1.7 billion – taken from Pdvsa’s $5 billion capitalization budget – is going to social programs, Rafael Ramírez, the minister of energy and mines, announced.
And with the Aug. 15 recall referendum that could end Mr. Chávez’s presidency drawing ever nearer, the spending spree – on everything from housing to railroads, health clinics and literacy programs – is an increasingly important, and successful, tool for solidifying support for Mr. Chávez. Recent polls show he could squeak to victory.”
Ah, now here is the reason for this sudden change in tone from the Times. Despite the best efforts and the limitless resources of the most powerful country in the world to cause maximum mischief, Chavez is the man who just will not die, literally or figuratively. The media has condemned Venezuela for its anti-democratic attempts to deal with the ‘opposition,’ a US-backed movement of disgruntled rich people who are furious that their gravy-train has derailed. This is a glaring example of how the US uses the terms ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’ as a bludgeon. Chavez is expected to stand by and grant unlimited license to what amounts to a US invasion force. We really have to redefine what we mean by foreign incursions. Why shouldn’t sovereign governments have the right to resist by any means necessary bald-faced attempts to overthrow their elected governments? The 2002 coup and the US-orchestrated ‘general strike’ were not enough? This ‘kinder gentler’ face of US interventionism isn’t fooling anybody in South America.
Now that it looks like Chavez is going to survive this attempt too, and considering Venezuela is sitting on an oil field bigger than Saudi Arabia’s, people have apparently resigned themselves to making nice until they figure out another way to get rid of him. It was so much easier back in the Allende days to just kill the trouble-maker. The fact that they haven’t been able to do anything this simple up to now indicates the broad base of support for Hugo Chavez.
I trust the nations of West Africa, with the world’s largest untapped oil reserve, are looking carefully at Venezuela as a reasonable model for breaking the back of Western corporate hegemony. With a smile and a shake. The key is leaders who will resist the call of corruption.
by Oliver Poole UK Telegraph
Princess Michael of Kent has countered allegations that she is a racist by revealing that she once pretended to be a “half-caste African” to try to understand what it was like to be black.
Giving her first interview about the incident when she allegedly told a group of black diners at a smart New York restaurant to “go back to the colonies”, she said the accusation was like a “knife in my heart”.
Princess Michael: ‘I’m foreign, which is never quite accepted’
The wife of the Queen’s cousin described a bus ride she took in her youth through southern Africa disguised as a “half-caste” – a phrase now considered by some to be a racial slur.
“I didn’t get away with it,” she admitted, “but I dyed my hair black and I travelled on an African bus. I wanted to be a writer, I wanted to have an experience. [I travelled] from Cape Town right up to northern Mozambique.
“I had adventures with these absolutely adorable, special people and to call me a racist is a knife in my heart because I really love these people and have done so much, I think probably more than most people I know, for Africans.”
Princess Michael was questioned by John Stapleton, who interviewed her for ITV’s My Favourite Hymns, as to how the incident occurred at the Da Silvano restaurant in May.
She said that on an adjacent table were “African American revellers who were having a really good time”.
She added: “I turned around and said: ‘Excuse me please, excuse me, would you mind terribly for a moment just being a little bit quieter so that we could just hear the menu.’
“They thought it was hilarious. I suppose they never heard pleases and do you minds and English accents and they went wild with joy and hilarity.”full article
I’m surprised they didn’t break into one of their quaint tribal dances or a minstrel shuffle.
by Juan Forero New York Times/Reuters
In recent months a large part of the earnings from the Venezuelan oil company have been channeled to pay for a social revolution, including adult education classes, long promised by President Hugo Chávez.
CARACAS, Venezuela – Seventeen months after an antigovernment strike crippled production, Venezuela’s state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, has made what analysts call a Herculean return.
Though energy experts say production remains below prestrike levels, the oil-and-gas monolith is, once again, one of the world’s great producers of crude. Its giant refining arm is talking of adding two refineries to the three already operating in the United States. The company says it is embarking on a strategy, heavily dependent on foreign oil companies, to nearly double production by 2009.
All this is part of a grand design made possible largely by sky-high oil prices, which have nearly doubled the expected revenue of Pdvsa (pronounced peh-deh-VEH-sah), as the company is known.
But while Pdvsa’s talk of foreign investment and ramped-up production is welcome in the boardrooms of the world’s biggest oil companies, in recent months much of the new earnings have been siphoned from exploration and production projects that some energy analysts say Pdvsa needs to recover fully from the strike. Instead, the windfall is financing a social revolution long promised by President Hugo Chávez’s 5˝-year-old government to extricate the country from its malaise and ease life for the poor, an effort that had been hobbled by the strike and a 2002 coup that temporarily ousted the firebrand leader.
And with the Aug. 15 recall referendum that could end Mr. Chávez’s presidency drawing ever nearer, the spending spree – on everything from housing to railroads, health clinics and literacy programs – is an increasingly important, and successful, tool for solidifying support for Mr. Chávez. Recent polls show he could squeak to victory.
Pdvsa’s new role has raised eyebrows among oil executives and in Washington, which has long counted on Venezuela as one of the four big exporters of oil to the United States and which has been hoping Pdvsa will help curtail the reliance on Middle Eastern crude.
The company that has emerged from the ashes of the strike that ended in February 2003 is nothing like the button-down, corporate-style company that in the 1990’s was often the No. 1 provider of foreign oil to the United States.
Gone is the by-the-book giant, which had $42 billion in sales, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission last October. Gone is the multinational whose managers once proudly compared Pdvsa to Exxon Mobil. Gone, too, are 18,000 experienced executives and managers who were fired for their role in the strike.
So is the autonomy the company once wielded, replaced by a highly centralized management controlled by the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The new Pdvsa seems to be in no rush to pump more oil to ease the supply squeeze that helped contribute to a price of $42 a barrel in early June and caused so much consternation for American energy officials.
Nor is it moving fast toward deals with foreign oil companies, though Pdvsa officials insist they want private investment as long as the terms are beneficial to Venezuela.
“We do not need them at any price,” said Bernard Mommer, an executive at Pdvsa who has advised the company and the Ministry of Energy and Mines on how to realign the company. “Some of them believe they can carry on as they did in the past. No way.”
This change of tune is interesting, after all the months and years of demonizing Chavez: imagine, an oil company that doesn’t behave like a money shark. Here is the nationalizing of industries of which the West is so afraid. Profits funneled into the infrastructure?? If they keep doing things like this, what is the World Bank to do?? It sounds like they have realized that Chavez will win this referendum if the election isn’t fixed, and that they will have to make nice to make deals, since Venezuela is being picky about who gets in.
New York Times/Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush on Friday froze the assets of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, his family and top aides and accused them of undermining the country’s transition to democracy.
The sanctions target the property of 28 people close to Taylor, including his wife, ex-wives and children.
Washington accused Taylor and his associates of unlawfully depleting Liberia’s resources and removing funds and property from the country.
In an executive order, Bush said these actions have “undermined Liberia’s transition to democracy and the orderly development of its political, administrative, and economic institutions.”full article
Yeah right. Like they ever cared about the ‘orderly development’ when they were Taylor’s best friend while he was visiting untold horrors on the Liberian people. I am sure there is some very craven reason why they care now, after the damage has been done.
New York Times/Reuters
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A human rights group on Friday beat back a campaign by Vietnam to bar it from taking part in the work of United Nations bodies for three years on grounds it had links to terrorism.
The 54-member U.N. Economic and Social Council rejected 20-22, with 11 abstentions, a resolution that would have suspended the Rome-based Transnational Radical Party from consultative status with the world body for three years.
The vote was a setback for a growing number of U.N. members — such as China, Cuba, Libya and Zimbabwe, themselves targets of human rights groups — that have banded together to exclude Western human rights groups from accreditation.
Some 2,000 grass roots or advocacy groups, known as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), have consultative status with the Economic and Social Council that enables them to give expert advice to various United Nations bodies and international conferences.
In recent years, the NGOs have been increasingly active in fields as diverse as international law, the environment, arms control and women’s rights.
But the council and its committee charged with monitoring NGO participation are known for using politics to decide memberships. A recent report by a special U.N. panel, led by former Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, recommended an accreditation process that depended less on politics than on skills and expertise. full article
I am sure there is more to this story than meets the eye. NGO’s, with their special access to ‘hot spots’ and their growing political influence, are a natural magnet for covert trouble-makers and partisan pirates of all types. George Soros’ Human Rights Watch, quoted everywhere in high-minded condemnations over this and that, exhibit a most selective outrage. They are the favorites when it comes to a quote about Cuba or Venezuela or Darfur, and curiously silent about Haiti. If I see HRW complaining about anything, I am certain that there are far more complex forces at work than liberal humanitarianism. Darfur is a good target because the perpetrators are Arabs. Otherwise, the West would not be giving a rip about the suffering of dark-skinned black people there.