Undernews For May 20, 2009

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May 20, 2009
PAGE ONE MUST

MIT STUDY: 90% PROBABILITY OF 6-13F DEGREE RISE IN TEMPERATURES BY 2100
Tree Hugger - New analysis from MIT on how much global average temperatures could rise if we continue burning fossil fuels and emitting carbon like there's no tomorrow indicates that things could be twice as bad as we thought.

If we do not radically cut emissions, the new projections indicate a median probability of surface warming of 5.2C (9.4F) by 2100, with a 90% probability of 3.5-7.4C (6.3-13.3F) This compares to estimates from 2003 of 2.4C (4.3F) temperature rise.

The only good news in the study is that if we act to cut emissions by significant amounts, the risk of temperature rise is similar to previous projections.

Just so everyone's clear, 5.2C temperature rise (or even 3.5C) is pretty much game over for life as we've grown to know it.

Science Daily - The study uses the MIT Integrated Global Systems Model, a detailed computer simulation of global economic activity and climate processes that has been developed and refined by the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change since the early 1990s. . Other research groups have estimated the probabilities of various outcomes, based on variations in the physical response of the climate system itself. But the MIT model is the only one that interactively includes detailed treatment of possible changes in human activities as well - such as the degree of economic growth, with its associated energy use, in different countries.. . .

The difference is caused by several factors rather than any single big change. Among these are improved economic modeling and newer economic data showing less chance of low emissions than had been projected in the earlier scenarios. Other changes include accounting for the past masking of underlying warming by the cooling induced by 20th century volcanoes, and for emissions of soot, which can add to the warming effect. In addition, measurements of deep ocean temperature rises, which enable estimates of how fast heat and carbon dioxide are removed from the atmosphere and transferred to the ocean depths, imply lower transfer rates than previously estimated.
WHY WE MAY NOT GET OUT OF IRAQ AS SOON AS YOU THOUGHT
Christian Science Monitor- On a map of Baghdad, the US Army's Forward Operating Base Falcon is clearly within city limits. Except that Iraqi and American military officials have decided it's not. As the June 30 deadline for US soldiers to be out of Iraqi cities approaches, there are no plans to relocate the roughly 3,000 American troops who help maintain security in south Baghdad along what were the fault lines in the sectarian war.

"We and the Iraqis decided it wasn't in the city," says a US military official. The base on the southern outskirts of Baghdad's Rasheed district is an example of the fluidity of the Status of Forces Agreement agreed to late last year, which orders all US combat forces out of Iraqi cities, towns, and villages by June 30. "We consider the security agreement a living document," says a senior US commander. .
U.S. TO GIVE $55 TO EACH PAKISTANI IT'S CHASED OUT OF SWAT VALLEY
Christian Science Monitor - With Pakistan facing its worst refugee crisis since partition from India 60 years ago, the US is providing $110 million in emergency assistance for as many as 2 million refugees who have fled fighting in the Swat Valley.

The United States often provides emergency aid in such circumstances, but the sizable assistance announced Tuesday by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has a particular objective: to ease the hardship of Pakistanis who have been routed from their homes by fighting that the Pakistani military has pursued, at US insistence, against the Taliban
GREAT MOMENTS IN DISCRETIONARY PROSECUTION
DC Madam Jeane Palfrey committed suicide after she faced going to jail for 55 years, despite offering to cooperate with the Department of Justice, which wasn't interested in what she had to say about her powerful Washington clients. Here's how it works when the Feds aren't protecting the customers. . .

Palm Beach Post - Federal agents descended on a white stucco home a block from Boca's Old Floresta historic district in October 2007, and seized a computer belonging to Michelle Braun. Prosecutors say the 31-year-old mother of two ran an international escort service that matched porn stars and centerfolds with men who could afford to pay up to $50,000 a night. Braun was charged in March with money laundering and transporting a woman from Orange County, Calif., to New York City for the purposes of prostitution. In the weeks ahead, she is expected to accept a plea deal that requires her to cooperate with the IRS and FBI. The deal includes five years of probation -- including six months of house arrest -- and a $30,000 fine.
BILLIONS FOR BANKERS, NOT ONE DIME FOR SUNSHINE DODGE
Letter from a Dodge dealer - My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.

We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.

I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.

On Thursday, May 14, I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.

Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank. . .

This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.

I beseech your help.

NEWS STORY
THE NEW MILITARY PERVERSION: REMOTE WARFARE
Kimberly Chase, Common Dreams - In ancient times, warriors could look one another in the eye on the battlefield. War was fought with minimal weaponry, a person-to-person test of bravery and strength. Battlefields were clearly demarcated, extending only as far as an arrow could be shot or a stone could be slung.

But as the centuries advanced, so did the strategies and equipment used in human conflicts. Since then, humans have developed greater firepower, bomber planes, chemical weapons and the A-bomb, each making war at once more destructive and more distant.

Current techniques are taking these developments to the extreme, leaving the work of war to robots that soldiers control from another hemisphere. Often with thousands of miles between them, some will never see their opponents or set foot in enemy territory, much less come into direct physical combat. Like video games played over the Internet between people who know each other only in cyberspace, humans are now killing one another from opposite ends of the planet.

Proponents of remote military technologies say that lives on our side will be saved: soldiers will not have to enter extremely dangerous situations where they risk life and limb. Fewer young men will leave the armed forces with disabilities, scarred faces and battered psyches, they assert.

But critics of hyper-mechanized, remote warfare say that the distance is exactly what could also desensitize us to the harm that we are doing to others and eventually come back to bite us. They worry that remote technology could ultimately prove far more destructive, fueled by the fact that the conflict doesn't feel real at all. . .

"The general concern about many new and emerging technologies is that they create severe inequalities among those who have access to them and those who don't," says Andrew Light, Director of the Center for Global Ethics at George Mason University. He adds that this puts an added responsibility on richer countries. "The burden of proof is on those who are proponents of the technologies in question to demonstrate that those inequalities between people who have the technology and don't have the technology will not lead to excessively harmful consequences."

P.W. Singer, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the recently released book Wired for War, compares the increasing use of military robots to the invention of the atomic bomb in terms of the revolutionary impact it will have on how we conduct conflict in the future. With young soldiers fighting from Nevada instead of on the ground or from the air in Pakistan and Afghanistan, he says the field of war is changing dramatically. And while the United States is ahead now in robotic warfare, he warns there is no guarantee that this lead will last.

"We know that in technology there is no such thing as a permanent first-mover advantage," he says, adding that 43 other countries, including Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran are now working on military robots. Singer worries that the America's lag in manufacturing, science and math education puts us at a disadvantage.
CRASH TALK
Shamus Cooke, Global Research - Regardless of what the media says, the reasons for calling this crisis the "worst since the Great Depression," still exist. Not only this, but new problems are being created that are compounding the old. One of the original, major concerns of the economy was the fact that the banks were bankrupt. This problem still persists, even after trillions of dollars of taxpayer money was given away, not to mention a "stress test" where the banks in fact "negotiated" the terms of the test. By pretending this problem doesn't exist, the Obama administration is continuing the Bush-era approach to the banks: don't ask, don't tell. Banks will thus continue to be bailed out when their problems are too explosive to be ignored; credit will continue to be restricted, and a general level of instability will taint the system itself.

Another major problem of the economy is that consumers are bankrupt. Unemployment continues to skyrocket, ensuring that every month hundreds of thousands of less people will be able to consume, driving more establishments out of business. The people who lose their jobs thus fail to pay their mortgages, credit cards, student loans, etc., all furthering the losses of the banks. . .

Households are rapidly getting rid of expenses they can no longer afford, due to either joblessness, low wages or lack of credit. They are thus saving more than they are spending. For an economy that depends on 70 percent consumer spending, this is a huge problem, not only for the U.S., but for the world as well, since many countries constructed their economies as export machines directed towards U.S. consumers.

Is this problem likely to go away anytime soon? Probably not. The recession is creating such dramatic effects on so many people that the consuming culture is being changed, much like what happened after the Great Depression. . .

If the U.S. consumer can no longer be the driving force of the economy, what will replace it? The elitist Economist magazine offered a cure: because consumer spending will be debilitated, "something else will have to grow more quickly. Ideally that would be exports and investment."

There is in fact little else that can be done if one is playing by the strict rules of the market economy. Obama again gave his allegiance to this broken system by agreeing with the Economist, when he stated, "We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity, where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad." . . .

In order for US corporations to sell products on the world marketplace, they must have competitive prices. Labor is a key ingredient in determining the price of a commodity, since the other ingredients have relatively stable prices. The price of labor in the U.S. was, in part, the result of a strong labor movement, which achieved a living wage. This not only drove down profits for corporations, but made them less competitive on the world market - they consequently defected to countries that pay slave wages.

How, then, does Obama plan to "send more exports abroad?" The answer is simple: by insuring that Americans are able to "consume less." For example, Obama's Auto Task Force told Chrysler and GM workers that their incomes were too high, that they needed to make less so that their companies could "remain viable" (compete) on the global market. They were thus threatened with bankruptcy if they did not offer "significant concessions." The workers conceded, and bankruptcy happened anyway - a phenomenon bound to happen again soon at GM - unless workers fight back. . .

But falling wages have a negative side effect, aside from disgruntled workers. As Nobel Prize- winner Paul Krugman points out:

"Families are trying to work that debt down by saving more than they have in a decade - but as wages fall, they're chasing a moving target. And the rising burden of debt will put downward pressure on consumer spending, keeping the economy depressed." His conclusion is sobering: "The risk that America will turn into Japan - that we'll face years of deflation and stagnation - seems, if anything, to be rising." . . .

This debt is of course unsustainable. There are numerous signs that overseas' buyers are likely to reduce their investment, worried as they are about the U.S. money printing bonanza. In an effort to bolster confidence, Obama has plans to balance the budget by the end of his presidency. Again, a massive de-leveraging of debt will need to happen. Obama has made no secret of where this restructuring will come from: he has made repeated references to "reforming entitlement programs" (Social Security, Medicare, etc.).

It should be noted that the only other way Obama could balance the budget is if he taxed the super rich at a high rate while slashing military spending, neither of which is going to happen on its own. Nevertheless, these items must be central demands for the American worker, who is already under immense economic pressure, with more to come. . .

The fight for jobs, a living wage, progressive taxation, social security, and single payer healthcare are all topics capable of uniting the vast majority of U.S. citizens. If properly organized, and with the labor movement playing a leading role, such a coalition would have no problem overcoming the objections of those who oppose it - the tiny group of super rich benefiting from how things are currently.
OBAMA TEAM ACCUSED OF DECEIVING CONGRESS MEMBERS ON AUTO PLANT CLOSINGS
The Nation - A federal government that can bail out Wall Street should be helping auto dealerships on Main Street make it through a dramatic downturn in he economy that is devastating the global auto industry -- as well as just about every other industry.

But "help" that pays Chrysler to shutter factories in Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Michigan and move work to Mexico, that pays General Motors to shutter factories in locations across the country in order to move the work to China, that pays Chrysler and GM to drop roughly 1,900 dealerships, is not going to get the American middle class through this downturn.

The dealership closings will be especially tough on minority owners and, according to the dealer's association, could cost as many as 100,000 jobs nationwide.

The factory closings will displace tens of thousands of workers and rip primary employers out of communities across the Great Lakes states.

What is especially unsettling is the mounting evidence that the Obama administration and the car companies are peddling spin -- and, critics argue, outright deception -- in order to promote the fantasy that what's playing out will, as the Treasury Department suggests, be "a restructuring that results in stronger car companies -- supported by efficient and effective dealer networks - (that) will not only provide more stability and certainty for current employees but the prospect for future employment growth."

In fact, the plant closings and dealership closings -- coupled with the ramping up of Chrysler and GM production outside the U.S. and the radical consolidation of car sales and service -- eliminates stability and certainty for tens of thousands of current employees and reduces the prospect for future employment growth in this country. . .

Ohio Congressman Steve LaTourette says he and other members of Congress were briefed by top administration officials prior to the president's national address about the future of Chrysler. "Members of Congress on the call were assured that there would be no permanent plant closings... We were also assured that no jobs would be lost," says LaTourette, a Republican.

Democrat Dennis Kucinich, another Ohio congressman who was briefed, told the Plain Dealer he "is struggling even to understand why the administration would tell him and others something that wasn't true." Says Kucinich: "To me, it really becomes a question of credibility."
BRITJUNGEN SPY ON NEIGHBORS
Daily Mail - Children as young as seven are being recruited by councils to act as 'citizen snoopers', the Daily Mail can reveal. The 'environment volunteers' will report on litter louts, noisy neighbors - and even families putting their rubbish out on the wrong day.

There are currently almost 9,000 people signed up to the schemes. More are likely to be recruited in the coming months.

After basic training, volunteers are expected to be the 'eyes and the ears' of the town hall.

They are given information packs about how to collect evidence, including tips about writing down number plates, which could later be used in criminal prosecutions.

Luton Borough Council's Street Seen scheme encourages its 650 volunteers to report 'environmental concerns'. It is also recruiting 'Junior Street Champions', aged between seven and 11.

Primary schools could also be involved within two years.

Similarly, Islington Council in north London has recruited 1,200 'Islington Eyes' to report crime hotspots, fly-tipping [illegally dumping waste] and excess noise.

Volunteers are given a list of things to do when confronted with fly-tippers, including taking photos 'without being seen'.

Last year the council undertook a recruitment drive for youngsters aged nine and above, called Junior Eyes.

Children are given special books to write down reports on littering or graffiti in their schools, which they then send to the council.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Community spirit is one thing, spying on your neighbours is quite another.
WHAT RAILS AND ROADS TELL US ABOUT CLASS & POWER
Sam Smith, Progressive Review - One of the least examined indicators of how power is distributed in our society is its transportation system. In America, transportation policy - like other things - is heavily weighted towards the elite and powerful. But we hardly ever discuss or debate it.

For one thing, travel habits vary by class and status. A federal study in 1995 found that people earning more than $50,000 a year traveled seven miles more a day than people earning less. People over 65 traveled 23 miles less a day. Non-drivers traveled 26 miles less a day.

And transportation spending reflects such differences, most strikingly in the amounts spent to subsidize the travel of wealthier suburban commuters compared with inner city non drivers, such as a third of DC's population. Consider the 2003 chart below:

Or this one:

And the trend is not changing. Obama's stimulus package included four times as much for high speed rail for first class passengers than for all other types of rail and bus travel was barely mentioned.

One of the reasons it's hard to understand this is because nobody talks about it. I learned this early in the planning for a subway in Washington as a lonely critic of the proposal. Some of my concerns had nothing to do with class or ethnicity such as the fact that subways didn't compete for space with cars (unlike light rail) and that only a small percentage of those working in new development inspired by Metro would actually ride the rails to get there, so street traffic - as has proved to be the case - would increase.

But a surprising number of factors involved class and power. For example, the subway was approved the same year as the 1968 riots and begun the year after. It would allow white DC residents to escape the troubled city yet still use - and travel safely to and from - it for work and entertainment. Interestingly, the first route went from the suburbs through an almost all white section of a two-thirds black town to the center of the city. I called it the Great White Way and dubbed the much later route to heavily black Anacostia the Underground Railroad. But you would hear not a word about this on the TV news or in the Washington Post.

The subway, while not competing with the automobile, did compete with bus lines replacing them with more expensive underground travel. In one or two cases these bus lines were actually making a profit. As time went on, and the Metro did not do as well as predicted, more and more bus routes were adjusted to force people onto the subway. And, as transit service for white commuters improved, that for inner city residents deteriorated.

Besides, it was clearly a one way system. If you lived the suburbs it would take you within walking distance of your downtown job. If you lived in the city and worked in the suburbs, you could take the new system out to the burbs and find yourself miles from work. I suggested a subsidized jitney service to help city workers reach suburban employment but nobody in power was interested in anything like that.

Now, more than 30 years after the Metro began, we finally have a study that confirms many of these concerns and it's not just about one system. It's about how we plan transportation policy all over America and how some get favored and some get screwed, and why we're about to have high speed rail for some and still have lousy bus and train service for many more.

Kytja Weir, DC Examiner - Metrorail riders are more likely to have a college degree and earn higher wages, while those who ride the transit system's bus service are more likely to be minorities and not own a car.

The demographic breakdown of Metro riders, published last week by the transit agency, paints a picture of the divide between who uses what is intended to be an interlocking system. The statistics date from . . .

Education levels vary, with 80 percent of rail riders having at least a college degree compared with 59 percent of Metrobus riders. Similarly, the median income of Metrorail riders is $102,110, while Metrobus riders earn a median $69,620 annually.

One of every five Metrobus riders does not have a car in his household. Meanwhile, only one in every 50 Metrorail riders reported being carless, with the typical rail rider reporting two vehicles per household.

More than half of Metrobus riders are black, Latino or Asian/Pacific Islander. But only a quarter of Metrorail riders are such racial or ethnic minorities.
GETTING THE POOR INTO COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE
City Limits - Thanks in part to a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson foundation, the Flatbush Farm Share is the third [project] in a pilot program aimed at establishing [community supported agriculture projects] with a greater number of lower-income participants. . .

The Flatbush farm share will be one of only eight new CSAs in the city that includes a flexible pricing model of some kind, where lower-income members can elect to participate in the farm share without an advance payment and pay for their shares through a combination of food stamps and increased volunteer hours. . .

In a CSA, also called a "farm share," a group buys "shares" in a local farm ahead of a grower's harvest season from June until November. The organically grown produce is then distributed over the course of the season in either full or partial share allotments. An upfront payment to a farmer can range from $300 to $600 depending on the size of your share – which may seem prohibitive to many lower- and middle-income prospects without the disposable income needed to pay a farmer for his goods ahead of time.

Several core group members involved with setting up the Flatbush farm share acknowledge that making the case for lower-income participation where members are expected to commit food stamp payments for a share of exotic vegetables they've never seen before can be somewhat daunting.

The Flatbush provider, The Farm at Miller's Crossing in Hudson, NY, plans to deliver everything from tomatoes, beets and lettuce to tatsoi (a green also known as spinach mustard), arugula (a peppery green also called "rocket") and bok choy (Chinese cabbage).

In this effort, the farm share is also getting support in its outreach efforts from the Brooklyn-based nonprofit organization CAMBA, which is partnered with the CSA to provide scholarships to low-income participants who meet the poverty threshold.

CAMBA food programs director Janet Miller says that so far, 20 applications for scholarships to participate in the CSA through CAMBA have been received.

But Miller notes that the biggest challenge in getting people to participate in the Flatbush CSA has less to do with navigating issues of income eligibility and immigration status as it does with explaining how the program works – an obstacle she says applies to staffers in addition to clients.

But, she says, once she has someone's ear, they tend to get excited. "Once they come to a meeting and I start talking about a CSA, they are really engaged and interested ... if you can get to people and actually talk to them about what the program is, they get very enthusiastic about it."
MINNESOTA REJECTS REAL ID CARD
ACLU - Minnesota Governor Timothy Pawlenty signed legislation that prohibits his administration from turning the state driver's license into a national identity card and from imposing new burdens on taxpayers, citizens, immigrants and state government.

The state legislature overwhelmingly endorsed the bill with a unanimous House vote and a 64-1 vote in the Senate. Minnesota becomes the 23rd state to reject the Real ID Act of 2005. . .

"23 states have now sent a clear message to Washington that they will not submit to wrongheaded federal mandates that waste state tax dollars and put privacy at risk," said Christopher Calabrese, Counsel of the ACLU Technology & Liberty Program. "Congress should take notice and repeal the Real ID Act so that effective driver's license security policy can be developed."

As part of creating a national identification card, the Real ID Act of 2005 also mandates that states hold Americans' private information in a single database that is accessible to federal and state officials - the cost and security of which is unknown. Consequently, the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures have expressed strong opposition to the Real ID Act.

During her January confirmation hearing, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called for a review of Real ID, saying the states were not consulted enough in its creation and that the initiative is a fiscal burden on the states.

Before heading up DHS, Napolitano was Governor of Arizona, where she enacted legislation prohibiting her state from complying with the requirements of Real ID.
WALL STREET FINDS NEW WAYS TO RIP OFF CREDIT CARD USERS
NY Times - Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.

Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.

"It will be a different business," said Edward L. Yingling, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, which has been lobbying Congress for more lenient legislation on behalf of the nation's biggest banks. "Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems."

As they thin their ranks of risky cardholders to deal with an economic downturn, major banks including American Express, Citigroup, Bank of America and a long list of others have already begun to raise interest rates, and some have set their sights on consumers who pay their bills on time. The legislation does not cap interest rates, so banks can continue to lift them, albeit at a slower pace and with greater disclosure.
GPS SATELLITES COULD START TO FAIL NEXT YEAR
Guardian, UK - US government officials are concerned that the quality of the Global Positioning System could begin to deteriorate as early as next year, resulting in regular blackouts and failures – or even dishing out inaccurate directions to millions of people worldwide.

The warning centers on the network of GPS satellites that constantly orbit the planet and beam signals back to the ground that help pinpoint your position on the Earth's surface.

The satellites are overseen by the US Air Force, which has maintained the GPS network since the early 1990s. According to a study by the US government accountability office, mismanagement and a lack of investment means that some of the crucial GPS satellites could begin to fail as early as next year.

"It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without interruption," said the report, presented to Congress. "If not, some military operations and some civilian users could be adversely affected.". . .

The impact on ordinary users could be significant, with millions of satnav users potential victims of bad directions or failed services. There would also be similar side effects on the military, which uses GPS for mapping, reconnaissance and for tracking hostile targets.

Some suggest that it could also have an impact on the proliferation of so-called location applications on mobile handsets – just as applications on the iPhone and other GPS-enabled smartphones are starting to get more popular. . .
THE DISEASE OF PERMANENT WAR
Chris Hedges, Truthdig - The embrace by any society of permanent war is a parasite that devours the heart and soul of a nation. Permanent war extinguishes liberal, democratic movements. It turns culture into nationalist cant. It degrades and corrupts education and the media, and wrecks the economy. The liberal, democratic forces, tasked with maintaining an open society, become impotent. The collapse of liberalism, whether in imperial Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Weimar Germany, ushers in an age of moral nihilism. This moral nihilism comes is many colors and hues. It rants and thunders in a variety of slogans, languages and ideologies. It can manifest itself in fascist salutes, communist show trials or Christian crusades. It is, at its core, all the same. It is the crude, terrifying tirade of mediocrities who find their identities and power in the perpetuation of permanent war.

It was a decline into permanent war, not Islam, which killed the liberal, democratic movements in the Arab world, ones that held great promise in the early part of the 20th century in countries such as Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iran. It is a state of permanent war that is finishing off the liberal traditions in Israel and the United States. The moral and intellectual trolls--the Dick Cheneys, the Avigdor Liebermans, the Mahmoud Ahmadinejads--personify the moral nihilism of perpetual war. They manipulate fear and paranoia. They abolish civil liberties in the name of national security. They crush legitimate dissent. They bilk state treasuries. They stoke racism.

In "Pentagon Capitalism" Seymour Melman described the defense industry as viral. Defense and military industries in permanent war, he wrote, trash economies. They are able to upend priorities. They redirect government expenditures toward their huge military projects and starve domestic investment in the name of national security. We produce sophisticated fighter jets, while Boeing is unable to finish its new commercial plane on schedule. Our automotive industry goes bankrupt. We sink money into research and development of weapons systems and neglect renewable energy technologies to fight global warming. Universities are flooded with defense-related cash and grants, and struggle to find money for environmental studies. This is the disease of permanent war.

Massive military spending in this country, climbing to nearly $1 trillion a year and consuming half of all discretionary spending, has a profound social cost. Bridges and levees collapse. Schools decay. Domestic manufacturing declines. Trillions in debts threaten the viability of the currency and the economy. The poor, the mentally ill, the sick and the unemployed are abandoned. Human suffering, including our own, is the price for victory.

Citizens in a state of permanent war are bombarded with the insidious militarized language of power, fear and strength that mask an increasingly brittle reality. The corporations behind the doctrine of permanent war--who have corrupted Leon Trotsky's doctrine of permanent revolution--must keep us afraid. Fear stops us from objecting to government spending on a bloated military. Fear means we will not ask unpleasant questions of those in power. Fear means that we will be willing to give up our rights and liberties for security. Fear keeps us penned in like domesticated animals.

CRASH TALK

Dirt Digger's Digest - Bailouts are supposed to be situations in which companies come to Washington with a tin cup and plead with lawmakers to save them from obliteration. Lawmakers have to be persuaded to devote public money to rescue those suffering failure in the private market.

Somehow that has gotten completely turned on its head. We now face a situation in which the federal government is in effect pleading with large corporations to take its money, and those companies find it distasteful to do so. Getting bailed out is viewed as burden rather than deliverance. Financial policy has gone from being wrong-headed to being downright bizarre.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner does not seem to be aware of the absurdity of his position. It is unclear why he continues to push his bailout medicine on financial institutions that claim they don't need it-claims that on the surface have more validity following the completion of the stress tests that were dubious to begin with and lost all validity after it came to light that many banks successfully negotiated for more favorable findings.

To make things worse, Treasury is, according to the New York Times, allowing those banks buying back the feds' holdings to do so on extremely favorable terms. "Treasury accepted a lowball offer," one analyst told the Times.

The time has come for Geithner and his boss President Obama to admit that the bailout program has become a farce. There is little evidence that it ever accomplished the stated aim of freeing up lending. Whether or not the banks really needed the assistance in the first place is something that analysts will be debating for many years to come. The auto industry portion may have provided some breathing room for General Motors and Chrysler, but now it's become clear that the real plan is to increase imports from low-wage countries such as China.

Let's wrap up this botched flirtation with state capitalism and focus on rebuilding an effective system of financial regulation. Some investigations and prosecutions of those who caused the mess in the first place would also be welcome.

Al Jazeera - The Japanese economy has contracted at its fastest pace in more than 50 years amid slumping exports and consumer spending at home. The world's second-largest economy contracted by four per cent in the three months to March this year compared with the previous quarter, resulting in an annual GDP drop of 15.2 per cent, the government said. The drop was the steepest since the country began recording gross domestic product statistics in 1955 and it is the first time on record that the economy has contracted for four straight quarters.

BREVITAS

MID EAST

Jordan Times - "If Israel continues not to accept solving the Palestinian issue on the basis of a two-state solution, then the other option before us is one democratic state in which Muslims, Christians and Jews live side by side enjoying the same rights," Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa said.

Jonathan Cook, Z Mag - The United Nation's watchdog on torture has criticized Israel for refusing to allow inspections at a secret prison, dubbed by critics as "Israel's Guantanamo Bay", and demanded to know if more such clandestine detention camps are operating. . . Findings from Israeli human rights groups show that the prison has in the past been used to hold Arab and Muslim prisoners, including Palestinians, and that routine torture and physical abuse were carried out by interrogators.

OBAMALAND

Chuck Todd, MSNBC - Obama gave shout-outs to three governors who attended today's Rose Garden announcement on the new national car emission standards. He called Governors Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.), Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) some of the "finest governors" in the country. Interestingly, majorities of residents in all three states don't seem to agree with the president on this issue. . . The three governors have a collective job rating of 34%.

FLUNKING SCHOOL REFORMERS AT PLAY

Joseph Young, Washington Times - D.C. Public Schools has a shortage of well-trained and qualified teachers, according to a report released this month by DC Voice, a group of activists concerned with the quality of education. . . The report also found that Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee had not filled 225 teaching positions before the first day of school last fall, up nearly 50 percent from the previous year. The most common reasons for the vacancies given by the principals interviewed were the lack of applications for such positions as math and special-education teachers, the report states. . .

NO SCHOOL TESTING FIRM LEFT BEHIND

Clay Burell, Education Change - Recent research published by the Hoover Institution by UC-Davis economics professor Scott Carrell and University of Pittsburgh economics professor Mark Hoekstra found that one disruptive student in a classroom significantly "reduces peer student math and reading test scores." They continue, "The results of our analysis provide evidence that, in many cases, a single disruptive student can indeed influence the academic progress made by an entire classroom of student."

TODAY IN HISTORY

1926 -- Thomas Edison says Americans prefer silent movies over talkies.

ECO CLIPS

Although the media emphasized the fact that the new emissions standards might raise car prices by $1300, most neglected this key point reorted by the Portland Press Herald: "Obama said drivers would make up the higher cost of cleaner vehicles by buying less gas at the pump. It would take three years to pay off the investment and would, over the life of a vehicle, save about $2,800 through better gas mileage.

Politicus USA - Rep. Joe Barton defended his anti-global warming position on C-SPAN by arguing CO2, carbon dioxide should not be regulated because it is not a pollutant. He said that since CO2 is in Coca-Cola it is safe for people and should not be regulated. "I would also point out that CO2, carbon dioxide, is not a pollutant in any normal definition of the term. . . I am creating it as I talk to you. It's in your Coca-Cola, you're Dr. Pepper, your Perrier water. It is necessary for human life. It is odorless, colorless, tasteless, does not cause cancer, does not cause asthma. There is nobody who has ever been admitted to the hospital for CO2 poisoning, so it is not a pollutant. "

INDICATORS

Reuters - One statistic that stands out in America's recession-stung economy is the unemployment rate for adult men: in April for the second month in a row it surged ahead of the national average to 9.4 percent versus 8.9 percent for all workers. The jobless rate for adult women was 7.1 percent. "In the 2001 recession, 51 percent of all job losses were for men. It was evenly split. But in this recession 80 percent of the jobs that have been lost have been men's," said Andrew Sum, a labor economics professor at Northeastern University who has studied this issue in detail.
Men also incurred about 80 percent of the job losses in the 1990-91 recession, but Sum said by his calculations the numbers this time were dramatically different. In the 1990-91 recession, men lost 1.037 million jobs. They have lost 4.5 million to date in this one.

Lots of coverage of the Gallup poll indicating a slight lead for pro-lifers for the first time, but more important is a poll from CNN that says 69% of Americans do not want the Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade.

CYBER NOTES

Speaking at the University of Pennsylvania commencement, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt asked the inevitable question: what is the meaning of life? In order to answer that questions, he said, firsf turn off your computer.

WAR DEPARTMENT

ANTHROPOLOGISTS EMBEDDED IN THE MILITARY

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE LAW

Telegraph UK - An Australian surfer who took part in a competition when he was on sick leave from work has had an appeal against his sacking upheld. The baggage handling company he worked for found out about his exploits and promptly fired him. The Industrial Relations Commission initially upheld his sacking, but on appeal ruled that terminating his employment was too harsh and ordered the company to pay compensation. Mr Bevan injured his back while working for Oceania Aviation Services. He saw an osteopath who issued him with a medical certificate that recommended he remain off work until September 16. While he was on leave, his grandfather died and Mr Bevan decided to compete in the surfing tournament, which he had won the previous year, in his memory. His back had improved and the osteopath was happy with his progress. The day he entered the water Mr Bevan was on a scheduled day off from work which fell within the period of sick leave. However, when he returned to work and told bosses he had been for "a bit of a paddle", he was fired. The commission found Mr Bevan had gone surfing "in his own private time" and noted that the osteopath said he had not put his injury at risk by surfing.

Boing Boing - The new US credit-card bill specifies a minimum type-size and a list of approved fonts for the terms and conditions, to replace the mind-clouding teeny-weeny eye-strain-o-rama font that normally fills a Bible-sized tome that accompanies your standard credit card. Section 122 of the Truth in Lending Act is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: "(d) Minimum type-size and font requirement for credit card applications and disclosures. -All written information, provisions, and terms in or on any application, solicitation, contract, or agreement for any credit card account under an open end consumer credit plan, and all written information included in or on any disclosure required under this chapter with respect to any such account, shall appear- "(1) in not less than 12-point type; and "(2) in any font other than a font which the Board has designated, in regulations under this section, as a font that inhibits readability.".

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