Undernews For May 19 2009

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19 May 2009
WORD
Technology: The knack of so arranging a world that we need not experience it - Max Frisch

SWAMPOODLE REPORT

The 2008 election was a hat trick of infidelity. One candidate's husband had cheated on her. Another candidate was found to be cheating on his wife. And the winner began cheating on his strongest supporters as soon as he was in office. - Josiah Swampoodle
PAGE ONE MUST

A DIFFERENT VIEW OF PAKISTAN
From a Bill Moyers interview with historian Juan Cole, author of "Engagin the Muslim World" and Shahan Mufti, back from a six month of tour of covering Pakistan for Global Post.

BILL MOYERS: What's missing from the reporting and the analysis we're getting from Pakistan?

SHAHAN MUFTI: One thing that's missing, obviously, that's hard to get into reporting is context. But also hard information. Hard fact. So we're hearing about this military operation going on in the north of Pakistan right now. Yet there are no reporters, no reporters on the ground. .

There's very little room to independently confirm a lot of the information. Especially in this most recent offensive. That is a huge thing that reporters in Pakistan I know are dealing with. They're referring to "alleged" military operations.

So they're in a position where they can't even independently confirm that an entire military operation took place. Let alone the figures of the Taliban militants dead, or how many civilian casualties there are, or how many armed forces-- people in the armed forces have died. So that is one thing that's very troubling, as a reporter.

BILL MOYERS: Who are the Taliban and what do they want? What are their goals?

JUAN COLE: There are, like, five different groups that we're swooping up and calling the Taliban. The Taliban, properly speaking, are seminary students. They were those refugee boys, many of them orphans, who went through the seminaries or Madrassas in northern Pakistan back in the nineties. And then who emerged as a fighting force. Then you have the old war lords who had fought with the Soviet Union, and were allied with the United States. . . They have formed insurgent groups to fight the Americans now. Because they had fought the Soviet occupation, they now see an American occupation, so they've turned on the United States. They were former allies. So we're calling them Taliban.

And then you have a lot of probably disorganized villagers whose poppy crops, for instance, were burned. And they're angry. So they'll hit a NATO or American checkpoint. . . And then the groups in northern Pakistan who are yet another group. And we're calling it all Taliban.

BILL MOYERS: How many of them?

JUAN COLE:Well, how many of them is impossible to know. But in Pakistan the estimates for fighters are small. 15 thousand. And the current military operation in the Swat Valley is pitting 15 thousand Pakistani troops against 4 thousand Taliban fighters.

That's what's being said. This is small. And the idea [is] that these 4 thousand Taliban in Swat Valley, you know, can take over the capital of the country, or that they're going to spread into the other provinces, which are ethnic provinces, like the Punjab and Sindh, where they're very, very unpopular.

We have a Gallup Poll now, 60 percent of the Punjabis, who are the majority group in Pakistan, say that it's very negative that there should be Taliban operating in Pakistan. And only ten percent say that it's a positive. So in Pakistan, as a whole, this is a small group. It's not a mainstream, big, mass movement.

BILL MOYERS: But how do you explain this mass exodus of. . . maybe a million people on the move out of that northwest region where the fighting is going on?

SHAHAN MUFTI: Well, it's very clear that why that happened is because the Pakistan army asked, or wanted the people, the civilian population, to move out of there because it . . . is being fought as a guerilla war. So the militants are embedding themselves into the civilian population, which is their strength. . .

JUAN COLE: The Pakistani military is a . . . traditional, almost central European kind of military. It was formed to fight India and most of the tanks and the troops are down on the border between India and Pakistan. And they're not trained to do counterinsurgency or counterterrorism.

So their idea of putting down the Taliban is to invade the Swat Valley. And if you've got 15,000 troops with artillery, helicopter gunships, fighter jets, operating a military operation in a valley with a million people in it, [it] is going to produce massive displacement. . .

JUAN COLE: Well I have to be careful here. Because, on the one hand, I don't want to be interpreted as saying this is not a problem. I mean, you've got several thousand militants operating in the North-West Frontier Province. This is a problem. And it wasn't like that, you know, even ten years ago. The idea of Pakistani Taliban is a new idea. The Taliban were always an Afghan phenomenon. So it is a problem. And it needs to be dealt with. But what I'm saying is that let's just have a sense of proportion here.

The North-West Frontier Province is 10 percent of the Pakistan population. That's where this stuff is happening. And most of it is actually happening not in the province itself, but in the federally administrated tribal regions. Which are kind of like our Indian reservations. Only 3.5 million people live there. It's the size of, like, New Hampshire. Pakistan is a country as big as California, Oregon and Washington rolled up in one, with a population of 165 million. So to take this threat, which is a threat locally, to the federally administrated tribal areas, to parts of the North-West Frontier Province, and to magnify it and to say, "Whoa, the Pakistani government is six months from falling, the Taliban is going to get their hands on nuclear weapons." The kinds of things that are being said in Washington, are just fantastical and some kind of science fiction film. How would these guys, with the Kalashnikov machine guns, take over a country that has an army of 550 thousand? [And] which has tanks and artillery and fighter jets? How would they even know here the nuclear weapons are? . .

BILL MOYERS: We just talked two days ago, to a Pakistan journalist in Lahore, who told us that public tolerance for the Taliban, as you have said, has diminished as the militants have broken their commitments, moved into other regions, and become ever more oppressive, looting and kidnapping. And they don't want them there. They don't want that, right?. .

JUAN COLE: You should remember that Pakistan has a large middle class. And it's grown enormously in the last ten years. These are urban white-collar people, well educated, hooked in with international media, and half of them are women.

They're lawyers. They're in the judicial system. They're politicians. And they are very threatened by what they call the Talibanization. And they're coming out and speaking against it, and they are extremely influential. You should remember, Pakistan actually has had a woman prime minister. And that social class of middle class and upper class women are very powerful.

BILL MOYERS: Threatened by the Shariah law about the hard-line Islamic attitude toward women? Is that what you mean?

JUAN COLE: That's right. That's right. They don't like the Taliban repression of women at all.

BILL MOYERS: The message coming loud and clear, from both Obama in Washington, and Zardari in Pakistan, is that the Taliban are on the rise. And that they represent, as others have said, an existential threat to Pakistan. You're not denying that this is a problem. But you're not seeing it as this life-and-death matter for the state of Pakistan?

SHAHAN MUFTI: You don't feel it on the ground there. Because, if you're in a city, like Lahore, or if you're in a city of like 16 million, like Karachi, or if you're in a city that looks like southern California, in Islamabad, even if you're in the tribal areas, or in Peshawar, a huge city of its own, which is right in the North-West Frontier, which is Pashtun there is not this sense that the Taliban are coming tomorrow morning, or next week, or the week after. . .

Pakistanis, a lot of them, still see the Taliban as a fringe movement, which they are. The numbers say that. And a fringe movement with is able to wreak a lot of havoc. Especially through its suicide bombings. This tool of suicide bombings is very hard to control. And so people are obviously concerned with how their lives are changing. But this threat of the state falling, I think, nobody in that country takes that too seriously.

BILL MOYERS: In whose interest is it that we're getting the story from Washington and the Pakistani government that it's at the brink of chaos that is coming the Taliban are on the rise?

JUAN COLE: I think it's cynical. And I think that it's a way for Washington to put pressure on the Pakistani civilian and military elites to do what Washington wants them to do. . .

BILL MOYERS: Which is?

JUAN COLE: Well, they wanted this big military campaign against the Taliban in the Swat Valley. Washington is alarmed at the spread of the Taliban in the North-West Frontier Province because it has implications for the security of southern Afghanistan, and therefore for US troops and NATO troops in Afghanistan. And so, from their point of view, this is a big crisis.

They don't want more safe havens for the Taliban in Afghanistan who are killing US troops. And they were upset with the Pakistani elite for not taking this problem more seriously. . . . Sort of saying that Pakistan is unstable, or it's about to fall, or the nukes are in danger, all of this sort of thing, is a signal to Islamabad that you had better get serious about this, because it matters to us. So this is Washington strong-arming Pakistan.

SHAHAN MUFTI: I think you're right on. And I think it's problematic because this really harks back to the period right before the Iraq War. . where there was this hype that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. .

And it's unfortunate that the press did play its part in that problem. And the press is, once again I think, playing its unfortunate part where it is relaying all of these opinions that are coming from intelligence sources or whatever, and ruling this as information. And all of a sudden we're seeing the same sort of almost hysteria.

BILL MOYERS: Do you agree with Shahan, that you're seeing a repeat of the-

JUAN COLE: Yes. Yes.

BILL MOYERS: Official propaganda being disseminated as news?

JUAN COLE: Yes. I think that's exactly what's going on. I mean, especially with regard to the nuclear issue. There is no way on God's green earth that these scruffy tribal fundamentalists, in the North-West Frontier Province, are having anything to do with Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Which, by the way, are stored in secret places, and they're not assembled. And assembling them is a complicated process which requires various high-level military and civilian authorizations. And to put that nuclear issue front and forward is just a way of scaring the American public and putting pressure on Pakistan to do something they didn't want to do.

BILL MOYERS: Why isn't Pakistan doing more to control the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and up in that northwest region? Why isn't it more effective?

JUAN COLE: You know, I get very nervous when I hear people talking about controlling that region. It's not controllable. And nobody has ever controlled it. Winston Churchill was down there when he was a young man trying to control it. . .

I've also heard President Obama talking about, you know, Pakistan needs to control this area, and so forth. I don't think they understand the scale of what you're talking about here. This is just a very vast, rugged, arid region which--thinly populated. Local people know the ground much better. The best you can do is, I think, make deals with the tribal chieftains to calm things down. . .

BILL MOYERS: Is our presence there giving the Taliban a unity they wouldn't have had without presence?

SHAHAN MUFTI: On the Pakistani side, for sure. I mean, that is their rallying call now. That as well as their religious call. But definitely American presence in the region is what is really giving them a rallying call among youth of the tribal areas who are caught in poverty and cycles of poverty. And it is their rallying call of the foreign invader. .

BILL MOYERS: So what does the United States do?

JUAN COLE: Well, the important thing to underline is [that] the Pakistani public doesn't like some US policies, like the war in Afghanistan. But opinion polling shows. . . that they like the United States. And if you ask them, "Well, what would you, what would make better relations with the United States?" They say, "Well, give us civilian development aid. We don't need any more weapons from you." If we can do things for the Pakistan public that they need done for them, they say in opinion polls that that's going to really raise their view of the United States. . .

BILL MOYERS: Both of you seem much more optimistic about Pakistan than I've heard many people talk about it in a long time.

JUAN COLE: That's because we lived there. It doesn't look like what it looks like on the outside. Americans think that Pakistanis are fundamentalists. And almost none of them are. You know, there are religious people [but] they're like Mexican Catholics. They go to shrines and pray for things. And the Taliban hate that. . . And then there's this big urban middle class which is just growing like crazy. And they're all watching Indian movies, and dreaming about being in Bollywood. And . . . the economy has been doing good the last few years. You know, five, six, seven percent growth. I think it was the second largest growth in Asia. . I can't understand why there isn't more appreciation for the good news that's come out.

You know, in the past two years, the Pakistani public has demanded an end to a military dictatorship. On the grounds that it was violating the rule of law. They demanded free and fair parliamentary elections. They accomplished them. . . The largest party they put in is the left of center or centrist secular party. They then went to the streets to demand the reinstatement of the secular civil Supreme Court. And you've had, really, hundreds of thousands of people involved in this movement for the restoration of democracy and the restoration of the rule of law. If this had happened any other place in the world, it would be reported in Washington as a good news story. Here, we've been told that it's a crisis. That it's a sign of instability and nuclear armed nation. I don't understand that.

SHAHAN MUFTI: For decades the problem with Pakistan is that the army keeps disrupting the power balance and here the Pakistani people deliver a moment, the night that the Chief Justice got reinstated it was around 3:00 AM. And there were people gathered out, thousands of people gathered outside his house. And, in one corner, there were young students playing the guitar and singing nationalist songs.

And then the Islamists came with their flags and they were chanting, "Allah is great." And then the Justice Party people came and they were singing-- they were doing a cappella versions of nationalist songs.

And to see that all of these people had somehow come around, the absolutely secular to the very staunch Islamists, had come around [to] this movement because they somehow, to them, it meant a step towards a stronger democracy. . .
WORKER TAKEOVERS INCREASE
Avi Lewis & Naomi Klein Huffington Post - Here's a quick roundup of recent developments in the world of worker control:

In Argentina, the direct inspiration for many current worker actions, there have been more takeovers in the past four months than in the previous four years. One example: Arrufat, a chocolate maker with a fifty-year history, was abruptly closed late last year. Thirty employees occupied the plant and, despite a huge utility debt left by the former owners, have been producing chocolates by the light of day, using generators. With a loan of less than $5,000 from The Working World, a capital fund/NGO started by a fan of The Take, they were able to produce 17,000 Easter eggs for their biggest weekend of the year. They made a profit of $75,000, taking home $1,000 each and saving the rest for future production.

The United Kingdom: Visteon is an auto-parts manufacturer that was spun off from Ford in 2000. Hundreds of workers were given six minutes' notice that their workplaces were closing. Two hundred workers in Belfast staged a sit-in on the roof of their factory; another 200 in Enfield followed suit the next day. In the next few weeks, Visteon increased the severance package to as much as ten times its initial offer. But the company is refusing to put the money in the workers' bank accounts until they leave the plants; and the workers are refusing to leave until they see the money.

A factory where workers make legendary Waterford Crystal was occupied for seven weeks this year when parent company Waterford Wedgewood went into receivership after being taken over by a US private equity firm.
The US company has now put 10 million euros in a severance fund, and negotiations are ongoing to keep some of the jobs.

Canada: As the Big Three automakers collapse, there have been four occupations by Canadian Auto Workers so far this year. . . The workers occupied the factories to stop the machines from being removed, using that as leverage to force the companies back to the table--the same dynamic that worker takeovers in Argentina have followed.

France: In France there's been a wave of "boss-nappings" this year, in which angry employees have detained their bosses in factories that are facing closure. Companies targeted so far include Caterpillar, 3M, Sony and Hewlett-Packard. . . And this week 1,000 steelworkers disrupted the annual shareholders' meeting of Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steel company. They stormed the company's headquarters in Luxembourg, smashing gates, breaking windows and fighting with police.

The United States: And then there's the famous Republic Windows & Doors story: 260 workers occupied their plant for six world- shaking days in Chicago this past December. With a savvy campaign against the company's biggest creditor, Bank of America ("You got bailed out; we got sold out!") and massive international solidarity, they won the severance they were owed. And more--the plant is reopening under new ownership, making energy-efficient windows with all the workers hired back at their old wages.
TSA SHOWING PUBLIC DUMBED DOWN VERSION OF VIRTUAL SEARCH MACHINE
CNN - Privacy advocates plan to call on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to suspend use of "whole-body imaging," the airport security technology that critics say performs "a virtual strip search" and produces "naked" pictures of passengers, CNN has learned. . .

The national campaign, which will gather signatures from organizations and relevant professionals, is set to launch this week with the hope that it will go "viral," said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which plans to lead the charge.

"People need to know what's happening, with no sugar-coating and no spinning," said Coney, who is also coordinator of the Privacy Coalition, a conglomerate of 42 member organizations. She expects other groups to sign on in the push for the technology's suspension until privacy safeguards are in place. . .

TSA officials say privacy concerns are addressed in a number of ways.

The system uses a pair of security officers. The one working the machine never sees the image, which appears on a computer screen behind closed doors elsewhere; and the remotely located officer who sees the image never sees the passenger.

As further protection, a passenger's face is blurred and the image as a whole "resembles a fuzzy negative," said TSA's Lee. The officers monitoring images aren't allowed to bring cameras, cell phones or any recording device into the room, and the computers have been programmed so they have "zero storage capability" and images are "automatically deleted," she added.

But this is of little comfort to Coney, the privacy advocate with EPIC, a public interest research group in Washington. She said she's seen whole-body images captured by similar technology dating back to 2004 that were much clearer than what's represented by the airport machines.

"What they're showing you now is a dumbed-down version of what this technology is capable of doing," she said. "Having blurry images shouldn't blur the issue."

Lee of TSA emphasized that the images Coney refers to do not represent millimeter wave technology but rather "backscatter" technology, which she said TSA is not using at this time.

Coney said she and other privacy advocates want more oversight, full disclosure for air travelers, and legal language to protect passengers and keep TSA from changing policy down the road.

For example, she wants to know what's to stop TSA from using clearer images or different technology later. The computers can't store images now, but what if that changes?. . .

Coney knows only about what's out there now, and she worries that as the equipment gets cheaper, it will become more pervasive and harder to regulate. Already it is used in a handful of U.S. courthouses and in airports in the United Kingdom, Spain, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Thailand and the Netherlands. She wonders whether the machines will someday show up in malls.

The option of walking through a whole-body scanner or taking a pat-down shouldn't be the final answer, said Chris Calabrese, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"A choice between being groped and being stripped, I don't think we should pretend those are the only choices," he said. "People shouldn't be humiliated by their government" in the name of security, nor should they trust that the images will always be kept private.

"Screeners at LAX [Los Angeles International Airport]," he speculated, "could make a fortune off naked virtual images of celebrities."
VOLKSWAGEN WORKING ON 235 MPG CAR
Green Car - Volkswagen's CEO, Martin Winterkorn recently confirmed the company is working on a car that will get 235 mpg fuel economy. In 2002, VW showed its 1-Liter concept car that achieved 264 mpg (0.89L/100km). The project was cancelled in 2005 but VW has now revived it. How real is this? VW now says a limited production car could be offered by 2010.

Minimum weight is crucial to extreme fuel efficiency. The VW 1-liter is made entirely of carbon fiber composites with the outer carbon fiber-reinforced skin tensioned over a space frame made of magnesium, which is lighter than aluminum. The car's running gear makes extensive use of lightweight alloys. Low rolling resistance tires are mounted on 16-inch wheels made of extremely lightweight composite materials. The magnesium seat frames feature fabric covers rather than conventional upholstery. . .

The 639 pound car incorporates advanced safety features including a deformable front end, an impact tolerant space frame, and racing car-like roll-over protection. It also has anti-lock braking, electronic stability program , and a driver's airbag.

posted by TPR | 4:57 PM | 0 Comments
UNDERSTANDING WASHINGTON TALK

MIKE FLUGENNOCK
STUDY: INSURED FIND MEDICARE BETTER THAN PRIVATE PLANS
Health Affairs abstract - One key issue in health reform concerns the relative roles of coverage offered through private insurance and public programs. This paper compares the experiences of aged Medicare beneficiaries with those of people under age sixty-five who have private employer coverage. Compared with the employer-coverage group, people in the Medicare group report fewer problems obtaining medical care, less financial hardship due to medical bills, and higher overall satisfaction with their coverage. Although access and bill payment problems increased across the board from 2001 to 2007, the gap between Medicare and private employer coverage widened.

Physicians for a National Healthcare Policy - Very few individuals, especially those already covered by Medicare, will be surprised by this study. . .
In contrast, policy makers and legislators in Washington are claiming that the employer-sponsored segment of the private insurance market is working quite well for us, and reform should include policies to expand this market. But this study isolated the employer-sponsored segment and compared it specifically with Medicare. No contest. Medicare is clearly superior to employer-sponsored plans. . .

An employer-sponsored plan is no longer affordable for average-income workers, and already is subsidized through the tax system. It is absolutely inevitable that additional taxpayer subsidies would be required to pay for private plans, whether through tax credits, tax deductions or vouchers. It is morally wrong to require taxpayers to subsidize inferior private health plans when they could be replaced with a superior, more efficient public insurance program - an expanded and improved Medicare for all.
BILDERBERG UPDATE
The story of a secret meeting by some of the world's most powerful people has been completely blacked out by the American mainstream media. This is from a Greek journal.

GR Reporter, Greece - Demonstrations against the secret meeting of the world leaders, calling their elite club Bilderberg, took place in front of Aster Palace hotel in Athens. For the past few days the hotel has been guarded by divers, agents, and paratroops- just like in a Hollywood movie, because this has been the location of the meeting of some of the most powerful people on the planet, including kings and ministers, diplomats and businessmen, journalists and scientists.

The discussions of the economical brains of the planet started with analysis of the results from the G20 meeting in Washington, and how they can be implemented. The conversations emphasized on the issue of banks' public subsidizing and the best ways it can be used for revitalizing the market. A lot of theories were developed, and the speakers showed off knowledge and decisiveness on particular topics but a specific decision, however, was not reached, said the participants at the meeting to Vima newspaper.

It is a surprising fact that one-third of the participants invited did not show up, justifying themselves with concerns about their security, despite the efforts of the hosts to make the area completely inaccessible for intruders.

The topics discussed by the closed company were related to the crisis in Afghanistan and Iraq, and what would be the consequences if American troops withdrew from Iraq. Other issues of interest for the world political leaders are the power industry, China's strengthening and the relationships between USA and Europe, i.e. what is their condition during the current economic crisis.

According to the club rules, the members talk on one specific subject for 7 minutes, and comments, additions or questions may be introduced by the rest within 1 minute. Their only obligation is not to publish or disclose anything discussed.
STUPID DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS TRICKS
DC Examiner -No jeans? No justice! That's the cry coming from attorney Stephen Mercer, after he showed up at the D.C. jail on the morning of Sunday, May 2, in a pair of jeans.

"They warned me (and every other attorney showing up that morning – nearly all of whom were wearing jeans) of the 'new' policy banning attorneys wearing jeans that would be effective as of the next Sunday," Mercer tells us.

So, like any denim-loving American, Mercer filed a FOIA request three days later. He requested "all documents, memoranda, letters, e-mails, that purport to establish the legal authority and justification for any regulation, rule or policy that bars attorneys from wearing blue jeans while conducting legal visits with clients at the D.C. jail."

A Corrections spokesman referred him to an official Program Statement, dated February 2008, that establishes procedures for attorney visits to inmates at the Central Detention Facility on D Street, SE.

Indeed, that statement does address counsel's attire, specifically prohibiting sheer clothing, form-fitting clothing, "multi-layer" garments, "shorts and hot pants," dresses or skirts more than three inches above the knee, military camouflage and "any other items that may compromise the safety and security of the facility."

But nowhere does it mention denim. Says Mercer, "it doesn’t appear to contain any prohibition on lawyers wearing blue jeans. So I have asked for clarification."
HUMAN RIGHTS SUPPORTERS ATTACK MILITARY COMMISSIONS
William Fisher, Inter Press Service - Human rights advocates are furious at President Barack Obama’s decision to prosecute some Guantanamo detainees through the same military commissions he criticized during his campaign as a "flawed" system that "has failed to convict anyone of a terrorist act since the 9/11 attacks.". . .

The military commission system, rebuked several times by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional, was a centerpiece of the George W. Bush administration's strategy for fighting "the global war on terror.". . .

Professor David Cole of Georgetown University law school told IPS, "You have to wonder why the Obama administration would want to saddle itself with a process that is deeply tainted by the way the Bush administration sought to use it. Surely it would be better in terms of the acceptability of the verdicts around the world, to make a clean break and use the regular courts or the military court-martial system."

Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois law school characterized the military commissions as "kangaroo courts" that are too deeply flawed to be "fixed."

He told IPS, "The laws of war would permit [Guantanamo detainees] to be prosecuted in either a U.S. Federal District Court organized under Article III of the United States Constitution or in a military court-martial proceeding organized under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. To do otherwise would be a war crime."

"What is the Obama administration afraid of? An acquittal? There were acquittals at Nuremberg," he added.

Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild, told IPS, "Military commissions deny the accused basic due process and are not necessary to try terrorism-related offenses. The U.S. civil and military courts, which provide due process protections that comply with the Constitution, can effectively protect classified information through the Classified Information Procedures Act.". . .

Human rights organizations were equally adamant in their condemnation of the Obama decision.

Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, called the military commission system a "failed experiment that must be ended, not revived, if American justice and the rule of law is to be restored."

He told IPS, "There is no legitimate reason for continuing to circumvent the established method of trying terrorism suspects in our ordinary federal courts. No proposed improvements to the military commission system will cure their endemic flaws or their lack of legitimacy in the eyes of the world."

"After years of working with these bizarre commissions, it is clear to us that they simply do not work," said Zachary Katznelson, legal director of Reprieve, a British-based legal charity that represents a number of Guantánamo detainees.

He told IPS, "As a constitutional lawyer, Obama must know that he can put lipstick on this pig – but it will always be a pig."

Amnesty International USA researcher Rob Freer said the military commission system was "conceived and developed as part of an unlawful detention regime, to facilitate convictions while minimizing judicial scrutiny of the executive’s treatment of detainees."

"No amount of tinkering with their rules can fix this discredited system," he said.
BORN IN MOZAMBIQUE, WHITE MEDICAL STUDENT HARASSED FOR CALLING HIMSELF AFRICAN-AMERICAN
ABC News - Can a white guy be African-American? Paulo Serodio says he is. Born and raised in Mozambique and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, Serodio, 45, has filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey medical school, claiming he was harassed and ultimately suspended for identifying himself during a class cultural exercise as a "white African-American."

"I wouldn't wish this to my worst enemy," he said. "I'm not exaggerating. This has destroyed my life, my career.". . .

Filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the lawsuit traces a series of events that Serodio maintains led to his 2007 suspension, starting with a March 2006 cultural exercise in a clinical skills course taught by Dr. Kathy Ann Duncan, where each student was asked to define themselves for a discussion on culture and medicine.

After Serodio labeled himself as a white African-American, another student said she was offended by his comments and that, because of his white skin, was not an African-American.

According to the lawsuit, Serodio was summoned to Duncan's office where he was instructed "never to define himself as an African-American because it was offensive to others and to people of color for him to do so."

"It's crazy," Serodio's attorney Gregg Zeff told ABCNews.com. "Because that's what he is."

Serodio, who lives in Newark, said he never meant to offend anyone and calling himself African-American doesn't detract from another person's heritage.

Serodio said he is a third-generation African of Portuguese ethnicity whose great-grandfather emigrated to Mozambique. He came to the U.S. in 1984 after being accepted at New York University. . .

His plan, he said, was to become a doctor and join Doctors Without Borders where he could travel back to Africa to do charity work like his parents, either as an internist or possibly a neurologist. . .

His own children, he said, are of mixed ethnicity - European and Chinese.
GALLERY

CLARK LITTLE'S
INCREDIBLE WAVE PHOTOGRAPHY
RECESSIONS: THE PAY LOSS YOU CAN HAVE FOREVER
James McCusker, Everett Herald, WA - 19th century scientist Louis Pasteur, whose work in immunization and disease control continues to enrich our lives today,e said, "Chance favors the prepared mind.". . .

The role of chance, and Pasteur's words, come to mind when reading a research report by Lisa B. Kahn, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Management. The paper, "The Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy," begs for a more supermarket-friendly title, but it tells an interesting story and is a very worthwhile read. . .

It is easy to see why graduates see lower salaries when they start their careers. That is the nature of recessions, where there are simply more people (supply) trying to obtain fewer jobs (demand). What is difficult to explain is why, on average, they never catch up. Seventeen years -- the scope of the study -- is a long time. Our recessions tend to be short, and we would expect that college graduates would be able to dust themselves off and get back in the game.

We may find the answer in a facet of human behavior that is well known, but not really a part of economic theory - at least not yet. Actors have a saying that summarizes it: "If you want to be a leading man or leading lady, play leads." The idea is that if you play supporting roles, or character parts, casting directors will never see you as leading man material. . .

In the same way, many employers see a salary history and use it to define the person. The result is an inefficient allocation of resources in our economy.
TOP CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS SEND OUT AIPAC PROPAGANDA AS THEIR OWN WORK
Al Kaiman, Washington Post - House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) sent out a "Dear Colleague" e-mail asking for signatures "to the attached letter to President Obama regarding the Middle East peace process." The letter says the usual stuff, emphasizing that Washington "must be both a trusted mediator and a devoted friend to Israel" and noting: "Israel will be taking the greatest risks in any peace agreement." Curiously, when we opened the attachment, we noticed it was named "AIPAC Letter Hoyer Cantor May 2009.pdf." Seems as though someone forgot to change the name or something.
OBAMA PLANS TO NAME LAWYER FOR POLLUTERS TO ENFORCE ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS
Think Progress - Obama "announced his intent to nominate" Ignacia S. Moreno to be Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division in the Department of Justice. Moreno, general counsel for that department during the Clinton administration, is now the corporate environmental counsel for General Electric, "America's #1 Superfund Polluter":

Number five in the Fortune 500 with revenues of $89.3 billion and earnings of $8.2 billion in 1997, General Electric has been a leader in the effort to roll back the Superfund law and stave off any requirements for full cleanup and restoration of sites they helped create.

This February, General Electric lost an eight-year battle to "prove that parts of the Superfund law are unconstitutional." One of the 600-person DOJ environmental division's "primary responsibilities is to enforce federal civil and criminal environmental laws such as" the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Superfund.

Before General Electric, Moreno worked as a corporate attorney at Spriggs and Hollingsworth. Moreno's name is found in the Westlaw database as an attorney defending General Motors in another Superfund case, the GM Powertrain facility in Bedford, Indiana:

Historical uses and management of PCB containing hydraulic oils and PCB impacted materials has contaminated on-site areas as well as the sediment and floodplain soil within Bailey's Branch and the Pleasant Run Creek watershed.

Although General Motors entered into an agreement in 2001 with the EPA to clean up the site, a number of local residents whose land has been contaminated by polychorinated biphenyls have sued for damages in Allgood v. GM (now Barlow v. GM), in a contentious and caustic dispute over cleanup, monitoring, and lost property values.

During the Clinton administration, Moreno was involved in another controversial case, unsuccessfully defending the Secretary of Commerce's decision to weaken the dolphin-safe tuna standard. In Brower v. Daley, Earth Island Institute, The Humane Society of the United States, and other individuals and organizations brought suit against the United States government for actions that were "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law," winning their case in 2000.
WE HAVE THE SAME RAIL MILEAGE AS IN 1881 AND TRAINS ARE SLOWER THAN THEY WERE 60 YEARS AGO
Tom Vanderbilt, Slate - There is at least one technology in America, that is worse now than it was in the early 20th century: the train.

I have recently been poring over a number of prewar train timetables. . . They are fascinating, filled with evocations of that fabled "golden era" of train travel. . .

The most striking aspect of these antiquated documents is found in the tiny agate columns of arrivals and destinations. It is here that one sees the wheels of progress actually running backward. The Montreal Limited, for example, circa 1942, would pull out of New York's Grand Central Station at 11:15 p.m., arriving at Montreal's (now defunct) Windsor Station at 8:25 a.m., a little more than nine hours later. To make that journey today, from New York's Penn Station on the Adirondack, requires a nearly 12-hour ride. The trip from Chicago to Minneapolis via the Olympian Hiawatha in the 1950s took about four and a half hours; today, via Amtrak's Empire Builder, the journey is more than eight hours. Going from Brattleboro, Vt., to New York City on the Boston and Maine Railroad's Washingtonian took less than five hours in 1938; today, Amtrak's Vermonter (the only option) takes six hours-if it's on time, which it isn't, nearly 75 percent of the time. . .

But Obama's bold [railroad] vision obscures a simple fact: 220 mph would be phenomenal, but we would also do well to simply get trains back up to the speeds they traveled at during the Harding administration. Consider, for example, the Burlington Zephyr. . . which barreled from Chicago to Denver in 1934 in a little more than 13 hours. . . It was not uncommon for the Zephyr or other trains to hit speeds of more than 100 mph in the 1930s. Today's "high-speed" Acela service on Amtrak has an average speed of 87 mph and a rarely hit peak speed of 150 mph. . .

What happened? I put the question to James McCommons, author of the forthcoming book Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service. As with most historical declines, there is no single culprit but rather a complex set of conditions. One reason is rail capacity. From the Civil War to World War I, the number of rail miles exploded from 35,000 to 216,000, hitting a zenith of 260,000 in 1930 and falling by 2000 to less than 100,000-the same level as in 1881

MUCH MORE
THE EMBEDDED MEDIA: WHO CARES ABOUT PROMISES AS LONG AS YOU ARE 'PRAGMATIC?'
Note that politicans who keep their promises are lumped with George W Bush.

LA Times - Unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, who styled himself as "the Decider" and took pride in sticking with decisions come what might, Obama is emerging as a leader so committed to pragmatism that he will move to a new position with barely a shrug.

Whether it's a long-standing campaign promise or a recent Oval Office decision, Obama has shown a willingness to reverse himself and even anger his most liberal supporters if he can advance a higher-priority goal or avoid what he sees as a distracting controversy. . .

In quick succession last week, for example, Obama announced two major shifts on sensitive national security issues and drew cries of concern from the American Civil Liberties Union and open-government organizations.

He said he would oppose making the detainee pictures public -- a switch that could put him at odds with a federal judge who ordered them released. And he declared that the administration would stick with a modified version of the Bush administration's military tribunals for trying terrorism suspects; during the campaign he had promised to rely on federal courts and the traditional military justice system.

Similarly, on domestic policy, Obama aides last week suggested that much of the fees for exceeding carbon emissions caps might be given to factory owners and power companies if that's what it takes to gain their support for the proposal. During the campaign, Obama called for the fees to be used for alternative energy technology and middle-class tax cuts.
The recent shifts appear to be part of a pattern of starting in a liberal position and then rerouting toward the center.

For example, Obama staked out an unequivocal position against torture during the campaign, and after taking office made it his first order of business to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and ban the use of interrogation techniques beyond those allowed by the U.S. Army Field Manual. Those techniques prohibit physical contact or force. .

"Changing one's mind is a strength, not a weakness," [Senator Lindsey] Graham said. "He's realized the difference between being a candidate and being commander in chief."
BREVITAS
POLITICS

Green Parties across the U.S. are running a record number of candidates in local and state elections. Fewer elections are scheduled in odd-numbered years, but over 100 Greens from running for office in 2009 elections. In 2005, 69 candidates had declared their run by the middle of May. In 2007, that number was 74. So far in 2009, 119 candidates have declared their runs.

Fair Vote - The California Assembly got the ball rolling on a solution to the potential disenfranchisement of overseas voters when runoffs ensue, as they voted unanimously to send ranked voting ballots along with standard single-choice ballots to voters on foreign soil. If the bill becomes law, California's overseas voters will be able to rank their preferences on the ranked choice voting ballot in case the first round of voting leads to a runoff election. This way, their preferences will be taken into account when their stateside fellow Californians go to the polls a second time.

BUSH WATCH

Democracy Now - GQ Magazine has revealed former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly placed Biblical quotes on President Bush's top-secret briefings during the early days of the invasion of Iraq. One briefing paper showed an image of a US soldier in Baghdad below the Biblical quote: "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Another briefing paper included a photograph of a US tank next to the quote "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." A third briefing paper showed US tanks entering an Iraqi city alongside the quote "Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith." Some Pentagon officials were concerned that, if Rumsfeld's top secret briefings were ever leaked, they could be interpreted as a suggestion that the war was a battle against Islam. One Pentagon official warned the fallout "would be as bad as Abu Ghraib."

MONEY & WORK

Labor Radio - UAW workers and their supporters are hitting the picket lines at the Chrysler engine plant in Kenosha Wisconsin to protest the use of U.S. tax dollars to close the plant and ship its jobs to Mexico. Glenn Stark,, President of UAW Local 72: "They're gonna shut six U.S. plants down and not any of the four Mexico plants. In fact, three years later now they're gonna open a plant in Mexico doing the work that we were promised. It almost coincides with the date we're gonna close on."

TORTURE

Voters for Peace has filed complaints with the District of Columbia Bar and with four other states seeking the disbarment of 12 Bush-Cheney torture lawyers. Complaints have been filed against: John Yoo, Judge Jay Bybee, and Stephen Bradbury who authored the torture memoranda. As well as attorneys who advised, counseled, consulted and supported those memoranda including Alberto Gonzales, John Ashcroft, Michael Chertoff, Alice Fisher, William Haynes II, Douglas Feith, Michael Mukasey, Timothy Flanigan, and David Addington. These detailed complaints, with over 500 pages of supporting exhibits, have been filed with the state bars in the District of Columbia, New York, California, Texas and Pennsylvania, and they seek disciplinary action and disbarment.

MEDIA

Bloomberg - The Harvard Crimson has produced 12 Pulitzer Prize winners and prepared generations of journalists for newspaper careers during its 136 years. That wellspring of talent is drying up as the paper's editors now shun the field. With the industry in turmoil from plunging circulation, just three of the 16 graduating seniors who were on the Crimson executive board in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are seeking positions in journalism, said Paras Bhayani, 22, the departing managing editor, who is joining Teach for America. In the 1960s and 70s, more than half of the Crimson's board members found jobs at newspapers, alumni say. . Of the Crimson's last 10 managing editors, only two are working at newspapers. . . Newsroom employment in the U.S. plummeted 11 percent last year to 46,700, a level last seen in 1979, according to the American Society of News Editors.

DRUG BUSTS

Web MD - The active chemical in marijuana promotes the death of brain cancer cells by essentially helping them feed upon themselves, researchers in Spain report. Guillermo Velasco and colleagues at Complutense University in Spain have found that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, causes brain cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy. Autophagy is the breakdown of a cell that occurs when the cell essentially self-digests. . . The findings appear in the April 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

SHOP TALK

What with all the fuss about the new search engine Wolfram Alpha, we thought we would test it out, so we punched in "Progressive Review." Here's what we got: "Wolfram Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. . . Related inputs to try: Finance: financial information PROGRESSIVE. . . Periodicals: information about a periodical REVIEW." So we think we'll stick with Google for awhile where our "Progressive Review" shows up at the top of 218,000 pages in English with that phrase.

THE MIX

A study by the UCLA School of Law finds that the average same sex couple spends about $7400 on their wedding, which means gay marriages have produced more thant $111 million for the Massachusetts economy since the 2004 when they became legal.

CUBA

Washington Post - Oil, up to 20 billion barrels of it, sits off Cuba's northwest coast in territorial waters, according to the Cuban government -- enough to turn the island into the Qatar of the Caribbean. At a minimum, estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey place Cuba's potential deep-water reserves at 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, stores that would rank the island among the region's top producers. . . Cuba has said it welcomes U.S. investment, but American companies remain largely silent on the issue, at least in public, bound by trade sanctions that were established under the Kennedy administration

READER COMMENTS
Excerpts from reader comments

THE MEETING THE AMERICAN MEDIA WON'T REPORT

My mother used to say that democracy was invented by the aristocracy so that they could enjoy all the benefits of being such without any of the responsibilities. So much for democracy as it currently practiced.

EXPLORER SCOUTS BEING TAUGHT HOW TO KILL

The scouting movement has been fascist from the get go. For example, in France, where I live, the scouts are a Catholic operation that have been launched against working-class youth organizations for ages. There is a long history of street brawls between fascist scouts and working class youths, with the former invading working-class neighborhoods from their privileged middle-class enclaves. - John Schoonover

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