Undernews For August 25, 2009

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Tuesday Aug 25

GREAT MOMENTS IN YOUR NATION'S CAPITAL

REGULAR MARIJUANA USAGE ROBS MEN OF SEXUAL HIGHS

New Scientist - Stoners may be trading sexual highs for the chemical kind. Males who smoke marijuana daily are four times more likely to have trouble reaching orgasm than men who don't inhale, finds a new study of 8,656 Aussies. Other smokers had the opposite problem, experiencing premature ejaculation at nearly three times the rate of non-smokers, find a team led by Marian Pitts at La Trobe University in Melbourne.. . . Even though many male smokers experienced sexual problems, they reported more partners than non-smokers. Marijuana users were twice as likely to have had two or more sex partners in the previous year than men who didn't smoke pot. Pitts' team found an even stronger trend for increased sexual activity among female smokers, who were also seven times more likely to have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection in the last year than non-smokers. However, female smokers had no more problems in the bedroom than abstainers, Pitts' team found.

CHINA EYES BAN ON RARE METAL EXPORTS

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph, UK - A draft report by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has called for a total ban on foreign shipments of terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium, and lutetium. Other metals such as neodymium, europium, cerium, and lanthanum will be restricted to a combined export quota of 35,000 tons a year, far below global needs. China mines over 95% of the world's rare earth minerals, mostly in Inner Mongolia. The move to hoard reserves is the clearest sign to date that the global struggle for diminishing resources is shifting into a new phase. Countries may find it hard to obtain key materials at any price. Alistair Stephens, from Australia's rare metals group Arafura, said his contacts in China had been shown a copy of the draft, called Rare Earths Industry Devlopment Plan 2009-2015. Any decision will be made by China's State Council. "This isn't about the China holding the world to ransom. They are saying we need these resources to develop our own economy and achieve energy efficiency, so go find your own supplies", he said. Stephens said China had put global competitors out of business in the early 1990s by flooding the market, leading to the closure of the biggest US rare earth mine at Mountain Pass in California, now being revived by Molycorp Minerals.

MORE SLAVES TODAY THAN AT ANY TIME IN HISTORY

Terrence McNally, AlterNet - One hundred forty-three years after passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and 60 years after Article 4 of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned slavery and the slave trade worldwide, there are more slaves than at any time in human history -- 27 million. Today's slavery focuses on big profits and cheap lives. It is not about owning people like before, but about using them as completely disposable tools for making money. .

NEW LIST OF CIA TORTURE TECHNIQUES

Raw Story - A CIA inspector general report reveals that "prolonged diapering" was on the agency's list of approved "enhanced" interrogation techniques. The revelation is in Appendix F, included in the IG's report on page 149, as part of a set of guidelines for "medical and psychological support to detainee interrogations." The document is dated Sept. 4, 2003.

According to American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Jameel Jaffer, this is the first document released publicly which categorizes diapering as an enhanced interrogation technique. Another ACLU source told Raw Story that while they are familiar with the use of diapers on clients being transported, this is "news to us."

The document in Appendix F of the IG report reads: "Captured terrorists turned over to the CIA may be subjected to a wide range of legally sanctioned techniques, all of which are used on U.S. military personnel in SERE training programs. They are designed to psychologically 'dislocate' the detainee, maximizing his feelings of vulnerability and helplessness, and reduce or eliminate his will to resist our efforts to obtain critical intelligence."

The list, organized in "ascending degree of intensity," says the following were approved standard measures "without physical or substantial psychological pressure":

Shaving
Stripping
Diapering
Hooding
Isolation
White noise or loud music (at a decibel level that will not damage hearing) Continuous light or darkness
Uncomfortably cool environment
Restricted diet, including reduced caloric intake (sufficient to maintain general health)
Water dousing
Sleep deprivation (up to 72 hours)

A second list of "enhanced" measures "with physical or psychological pressure beyond the above" reads:

Attention grasp
Facial hold
Insult (facial) slap
Abdominal slap
Prolonged diapering
Sleep deprivation (over 72 hours)
Stress positions - On knees, body slanted forward or backward - Leaning with forehead on wall
Walling
Cramped confinement

MORE BAD NEWS ON UNEMPLOYMENT, DEFICIT, AND GDP

Blomberg - U.S. unemployment will surge to 10 percent this year and the budget deficit will widen to $1.5 trillion next year, reflecting a "deeper recession” than previously expected, White House budget chief Peter Orszag said. The Office of Management and Budget also forecasts that the U.S. economy will shrink 2.8 percent this year, worse than the 1.2 percent contraction the OMB projected in May. For next year, the budget office said the gross domestic product will grow 2.0 percent, less than the 3.2 percent expected in May. By 2011, the economy would be well on its way to recovery, growing at a 3.8 percent annual rate, according to the administration's mid-year economic review.

INSURANCE INDUSTRY HAS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS LOBBYING AGAINST REAL HEALTH REFORM

Raw Story - A spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's trade group, admitted in an article that as many as 50,000 industry employees are involved in an effort to fight back against aggressive healthcare reform. The admission, published in the last sentence of a Wall Street Journal article, highlights the stakes of potential healthcare reform for the private health insurance industry. Insurers and investors alike are terrified at the prospect of a so-called "public option," which would create a government-run health insurance program to compete with private insurers. Because the government plan wouldn't have to earn a profit, the plan would be able to undercut the premiums of private firms, pressuring profit margins. "The health-insurance industry is sending thousands of its employees to town-hall meetings and other forums during Congress's August recess to try to counter a tide of criticism directed at the insurers and remain a player - and not an outsider - in the debate over the future of the health-care system," the Journal's Vanessa Fuhrmans and Avery Johnson wrote. Employees of the health insurers have also been given talking points that encourage them to keep a low profile and avoid taking "the bait" when the industry is criticized in public, the reporters say. The industry's trade group drafted a "Town Hall Tips" memo that instructs employees to stay calm and not to yell at members of Congress.

JUDGE GIVES FED FIVE DAYS TO REVEAL EMERGENCY LENDING INFO

Bloomberg - The Federal Reserve must make records about emergency lending to financial institutions public within five days because it failed to convince a judge the documents should be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Manhattan Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska rejected the central bank's argument that the records aren't covered by the law because their disclosure would harm borrowers' competitive positions. The collateral lists "are central to understanding and assessing the government's response to the most cataclysmic financial crisis in America since the Great Depression," according to the lawsuit that led to the ruling.

OVER HALF OF BRITISH DOCTORS MAY REFUSE SWINE FLU JABS

Guardian, UK - A survey of GPs published on Healthcare Republic, the website of GP magazine, found that up to 60% of GPs may decline vaccination. Although the numbers who responded were small - 216 GPs - they are in line with a much bigger survey of nurses published a week ago by Nursing Times, which found that a third of 1,500 nurses would refuse vaccination. A Canadian study published in the journal Emerging Health Threats suggests the public, too, will have reservations that must be overcome if a vaccination campaign is to be successful in the autumn or winter. The study, which used focus groups to establish the likely response of different people to a vaccine, pointed to the need to win over people who believe that alternative therapies and a good diet are a better option than vaccines. But the biggest problem in persuading people and healthcare professionals to have the jab may be the relative shortage of evidence from trials about its safety and efficacy. Because of the urgent need for a vaccine, testing will be limited. Among the GPs who responded to the survey published by Healthcare Republic, 29% said they would not choose to have the vaccine and 29% said they were unsure whether or not they would. . .71.3% said they were "concerned that the vaccine has not yet been through sufficient trials to guarantee safety". Half said they "believe that swine flu is too mild to justify taking the vaccine". Only 8.7% said they did not believe they were at risk.

FACING THE THREAT OF UNREGULATED YOGA

Washington Post - Virginia recently mandated that studios offering yoga teacher training must be state-certified. . . . The tussle has pitted yoga enthusiasts against bureaucrats. At issue: Are yoga teacher training programs akin to vocational classes that should be regulated by the state? Or is Big Brother stretching too far into a centuries-old spiritual practice?
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia recently declared that studios offering yoga teacher instruction must be certified. That involves a $2,500 fee, audits, annual charges of at least $500 and a pile of paperwork. . . In June, New York's State Education Department sent a letter to yoga instructor training programs telling them that those that aren't licensed faced a $50,000 fine. The state backed off after yoga instructors complained and the media covered the controversy. Michigan also started regulating the programs this year. State Del. David E. Poisson (D-Loudoun), who said he aced a yoga course in college but hasn't stuck with it, said the effort is a "classic case of regulation run amuck." He said he's planning to introduce legislation to exempt yoga from the licensing requirement during the next session of the Virginia General Assembly in January.

THE ASSAULT ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS CONT'D

Danny Weil, Counterpunch - Since his election, Obama has pledged $100 billion dollars of federal money for a stimulus for public schools throughout the nation. But there's a hitch; in order to qualify for federal monies the states that apply for the stimulus money must remove any caps they have on the amount of charter schools that can be created in their states and those states that do not have charter school laws, of which there are currently ten, either will have to pass laws allowing the growth of charters or miss out on any stimulus funding. . .

What the Obama administration is doing. . . is part and parcel of typical neo-liberal policy making: wielding federal stimulus funds as a financial weapon to force all states to increase the amount of charter schools they host as well as force those states that do not have them to pass legislation authorizing them. Through financial arm-twisting at a time of disastrous economic crisis, the Obama administration plans to use the power of the federal government to create a much larger national market for charter school providers. . .

This is deeply troubling, for many states which do not want charter schools or have found the experiment to be less than adequate and in fact damaging to kids and funding, for traditional public schools will now be forced to choose stimulus money over policy, a form of economic extortion and increased federal and corporate control over decision making, especially at a time when many of these states are literally financial insolvent. . .

When the Wall Street Journal heard the news of Obama's educational plans to leverage federal money for greater charter school penetration into the market the newspaper could hardly contain its excitement and enthusiasm. The idea of using the federal government to force state governments to create financial opportunities and markets for the burgeoning souk in education by unleashing charter schools through state legislation was simply more than its editorial writers expected; and all this from a newspaper usually critical of any government intervention. . .

Using the government to create market opportunities for business interests is at the heart of neoliberal economic policies and why market adherents both need and relish government; the role of the government being one of legislating and unleashing favorable public policies that benefit businesses' ability to maximize private capital, while socializing private costs to the public. This is essential for markets to function. Duncan knows this, which is why he was chosen by the Obama administration to head the Department of Education. . .

But the real story and the prospects for the nation's future educational policy can be best revealed by Duncan's historical involvement as a technocrat with the neoliberal policies created in Chicago under the Renaissance 2010 project launched by Mayor Daley in 2004; here, Duncan was the darling of business elites and their public policy makers during his seven year tenure as CEO of Chicago Public Schools. Let's take a brief look at Renaissance 2010 and the role of the new Secretary of Education in this effort in Chicago to enhance our understanding of what the Obama administration's policies towards charter schools might look like.

Renaissance 2010 is a corporate project that was launched in 2004 to reform both the city and its public schools with the intent of creating schools and geographical spaces that would serve to attract the professionals believed to be needed in a 21st century 'global city'. It is basically a land use plan for housing and urban development aimed at increasing gentrification, with schools playing a predominant role in maintaining and assuring a healthy urban middle-class and attracting global visitors, tourists and Wall Street financial interests. The city wants to transform itself from a former industrial hub into a global corporate financial and tourism center and to do so the city needs government policies and legislation that are friendly to capital's goal of downtown land redevelopment and the gentrification of working class and low-income neighborhoods. As the educational authors Jitu Brown, Rico Gutstein and and Pauline Lipman write:

"Quality schools (and attractive housing) are essential to draw high-paid, creative workers for business and finance. Schools are also anchors in gentrifying communities and signals to investors of the market potential of new development sites."

Renaissance 2010 places public schooling under the control of corporate leaders who aim to convert public schools to charter and contract schools, breaking the power of unions and handing over the administration of the newly created charter schools to providers' beholden to corporations, philanthropists, and business interests. Duncan, as the former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, was an efficient technocrat or manager for the neo-liberal policies and legislative necessities dictated by the elite members of the Commercial Club and he helped to centralize decision-making power in the hands of corporations and their political representatives and then worked to carry out public policy favorable to the plans hatched by this same powerful Commercial Club.

Arne Duncan is part and parcel of an educational movement that we are increasingly witnessing in New York, Washington D.C., New Orleans and Chicago, Texas and elsewhere: a movement towards centralizing decision-making regarding public schools in the hands of an elite autocracy; this is often referred to as 'mayoral control'. Under this governance structure, a small group of policy makers are then tasked with the job of legitimizing corporate and financial actors to make crucial decisions about public education without the messy problem of public accountability, public transparency nor public input. This represents a neo-liberal turn that goes beyond issues regarding the private operation of individual charter schools and instead twists and turns its way right into the heart of privatizing the public urban sphere in entirety, while making the government simply a boardroom or 'secret parliament' for powerful corporate interests. . .

However, the controversy over Duncan's policies does not stop with his support for Renaissance 2010. Duncan has also been a strong proponent of school choice when it comes to military schools. . .

In fact, rapid increases in military programs in Chicago public schools actually did occur largely under Duncan's tenure as CEO of CPS. According to Lipman: Chicago Public Schools has five military high schools, more than any city in the nation, and 21 "middle school cadet corps" programs. The military high schools teach military history and have military-style discipline. Students wear military uniforms, do military drills, and participate in summer boot camps. The hierarchical authority structure mirrors the Army, Navy, and Marines, with new students ("cadets") under the command of senior students who work their way up and require obedience from those in "lower ranks." All but one of the military high schools are in African American communities, and all the middle school cadet programs are in overwhelmingly black or Latina/o schools., and CPS plans additional ones in the future. . .

Danny Weil is soon to publish "Charter Schools," dissecting neo-liberalism's plan for reforming education in America.

WHO'S BEHIND THE CHARTER SCHOOL HYPE?

GREAT MOMENTS IN CONTROL FREAK EDUCATION REFORM

DCist - District schools czar Michelle Rhee just released a detailed list of what it means to be a good teacher. Schools are quite different on whatever planet Rhee comes from. Here are a few of the qualities that Rhee says good teachers will exhibit every half hour, according to the Washington Post:

- No more than five instances of "off-task behavior" by students

- Teachers will pose three "probing" interrogatives in response to correct answers

- No more than three minutes of time lost to disorganization

- Students will advance grades every 15 minutes

- One-hundred percent class attendance rate

- Negative ten percent tardiness rate . . .

Rhee's 200-some-odd-page "DCPS Teaching and Learning Framework" sounds like the sort of thing that gets delivered on Mount Sinai: a document that doesn't merely clarify the aspects of the job that need clarifying but instead signals a shift in the company's direction. More than just a shift: a wholly new initiative. On the heels of a major restructuring that included massive school consolidation and personnel turnover -- which is to say nothing of the stalled negotiations with the teachers' unions -- Rhee announces an effort to quantify and mandate the experience inside the classroom. I believe the word is "micromanaging."

Incidentally, the DC schools are opening with 37,00 students, 17 percent below the system's end of last year enrollment. It is not clear whether Rhee will be penalized for this off-task behavior.

HOLDER NAMES SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO LOOK INTO CIA INTERROGATIONS

NY Times - Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has named a veteran federal prosecutor to examine nearly a dozen prisoner abuse cases in which detainees were held by the Central Intelligence Agency, government officials said on Monday. Mr. Holder has selected John Durham, a longtime federal prosecutor from Connecticut, to carry out what could lead to prosecutions of the C.I.A. employees in the most politically explosive inquiry since Mr. Holder took over the Justice Department. . . Mr. Durham will examine several cases which were referred to the Justice Department by the C.I.A.’s Inspector General and were subsequently investigated and dropped by the Justice Department under President Bush. The cases were detailed in a 2004 report by the C.I.A. inspector general that was released on Monday by the Justice Department. The report outline cases of abused allegedly committed by C.I.A. personnel and contract employees, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

MARTHA'S VINYARD POT GROWERS MAY BE HURT BY OBAMA VISIT

Washington Examiner - The residents of Martha's Vineyard are not unfamiliar with high-profile visitors. In fact, most residents of the small New England island are welcoming President Barack Obama and the economic boost his family's visit is expected to generate. But one cottage industry isn't so happy about it - the island's small cadre of marijuana farmers. "The word was that some of the island marijuana growers actually had to get their crops in early," said Mike Seccombe, a senior writer for the Vineyard Gazette, in an NPR interview Sunday morning. "They thought the helicopters scoping the place out for the president may have had something to do with drug enforcement." . . . As Seccombe explained, Saturday marked the arrival of "40 [sport utility vehicles] full of guys in dark suits," security preparations not seen in visits by previous power players like President Bill Clinton. But all the security may remain in hiding for most of the trip. "We don't expect to see quite as much [of Obama as we did of Clinton], who loved to get out and about."

BRITAIN: IT TAKES A THOUSAND SPYCAMS TO SOLVE ONE CRIME

BBC - Only one crime was solved by each 1,000 CCTV cameras in London last year, a report into the city's surveillance network has claimed. The internal police report found the million-plus cameras in London rarely help catch criminals. In one month CCTV helped capture just eight out of 269 suspected robbers. David Davis MP, the former shadow home secretary, said: "It should provoke a long overdue rethink on where the crime prevention budget is being spent. CCTV leads to massive expense and minimum effectiveness. It creates a huge intrusion on privacy, yet provides little or no improvement in security.". . .

SEVEN THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH LESS PENALTY THAN ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING

Based on Illinois criminal code. From Gapers Block via Prefix

1. Child abduction: the fine is [roughly] $25000.

2. Stealing the actual CD: the fine is $2,500

3. Rob your neighbor: the fine is $375,000

4. Burn a house down: The fine is just over $375,000

5. Stalk someone: The fine is $175,000

6. Start a dogfighting ring: the fine is $50,000

7. Murder someone: The maximum penalty is only $25,000 and 15 years in jail

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