Marc Cooper: "Dead in Their Tracks"

LA Weekly's Marc Cooper has a riveting story on the increasing death toll on the border, including a portrait of Samaritans who bring ill and dying Border-Crossers food and water...

With ever more Border Patrol agents and high-tech surveillance fortifying the international divide, Mexican migrants are walking longer and more perilous routes to get into the United States. Last year, a record 473 of them died trying to cross — more than half here in Arizona. The year before marked the previous record. And 2006 threatens to set yet another record.

This is why almost every weekend of the year, and every day during the triple-digit heat of the Sonoran Desert summer, Johnston and 50 or so others who are part of the humanitarian groups No More Deaths and Samaritan Patrol (also called Samaritans) comb the cactus and mesquite of southern Arizona looking for migrants in distress. They offer water, snacks and — if necessary — evacuation for those with medical emergencies. Last year, among the 3,500 migrants the Samaritans encountered, they took 68 of them to a doctor, or back to their base at Tucson’s Southside Presbyterian Church, where they were treated by medical volunteers.

Go read the rest.

Labor Camps and Halliburton in a post-democratic U.S.

This is follow up to yesterday's post on a recent government contract awarded to Halliburton to build containment centers/camps/prisons expressly for 1) an influx of immigrants, 2) a national disaster, or, as the contract ominously states, "new programs":

A curious development in January when the Army Corps of Engineers awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root a $385 million contract to construct detention centers somewhere in the United States, to deal with "an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs," KBR said.

According to Alternet.org, the contract funding and language referred to a program that allows civilian labor:

There also was another little-noticed item posted at the U.S. Army website, about the Pentagon's Civilian Inmate Labor Program. This program "provides Army policy and guidance for establishing civilian inmate labor programs and civilian prison camps on Army installations." The Army document, first drafted in 1997, underwent a "rapid action revision" on Jan. 14, 2005. The revision provides a "template for developing agreements" between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations. On its face, the Army's labor program refers to inmates housed in federal, state and local jails. The Army also cites various federal laws that govern the use of civilian labor and provide for the establishment of prison camps in the United States, including a federal statute that authorizes the attorney general to "establish, equip, and maintain camps upon sites selected by him" and "make available … the services of United States prisoners" to various government departments, including the Department of Defense. [Source: http://www.alternet.org/story/32647 ]

Of course, the U.S. has more people in prison than any industrialized nation, and these imprisonment rates reveal deeply embedded racism and the travails of poverty: "At yearend 2004 there were 3,218 black male sentenced prison inmates per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,220 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 463 white male inmates per 100,000 white males" (DOJ statistics). (There is an important discussion to be had here about the accumulation of risk factors that come along with poverty, but it is off topic, so I'll save it for later.)

More to the topic is the idea of repression today's related story at tompaine.com:

In these times of the Patriot Act and domestic surveillance, we might justifiably be concerned that our society is becoming post-democratic. So, while the government charging a citizen with the good, old-fashioned crime of sedition might not exactly be commonplace, it is in keeping with recent trends. In September, Laura Berg, a Veteran’s Administration nurse in Albuquerque wrote to a local paper, The Alibi, expressing outrage at the administration’s incompetent and inhumane handling of Katrina and Iraq. “Is this America the beautiful?” she asked. Evidently so, given that Berg’s letter prompted the VA to investigate her for sedition, a charge that would have sounded significantly less anachronistic back when “America the Beautiful” was written in 1893. Peter Simonson, Executive Director of the ACLU in New Mexico, was stunned: “Sedition? That’s like something out of the history books.” While there does still exist a federal law governing sedition, which can carry up to a $250,000 fine and a 20-year sentence, it refers exclusively to intentionally instigating violent revolt against the government. To read Berg’s call to “act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit” as a direct appeal for insurrection is certainly a colorful interpretation. Nonetheless, Berg’s work computer was seized within days of her letter’s publication. It took the VA's chief of human resources, Mel R. Hooker, almost two months to admit that no evidence of the letter having been written on the VA’s computer could be found. Rather than apologize, Hooker went on to reiterate the possibility that the letter constituted sedition. Moreover, according to Berg’s American Federation of Government Employees Union representative, the VA has turned the offending letter over to the FBI.

Anyone who thinks this (or anything ) is beyond the pale, even for this administration should reconsider. Forget what you've been taught in school and look at what is actually happening. We are prosecuting people for sedition now--and for anyone who has forgotten history, the Alien and Sedition Acts were some of the very first tools of the Federalists who did not take kindly to criticism in newspapers and pro-Jeffersonian meetings and clubs. The Alien and Sedition Acts worked directly against free speech and, in particular, against the Federalists political opponenents. Is it any surprise that Scalia, Alito, Ashcroft (and for all I know, Gonz
alez) are members? Just as in 1798 we find supporters of an imperial presidency that should not be questioned and that gathers its support from the upper classes, whose agenda it supports.

Several more prosecutions come to mind. Take for example the DOJ's rabid pursuit of "Eco-terrorists." An Oregon man was sentenced to 20 years for torching SUVs (no human was harmed). That is more than many murderers get, and is certainly way more than anyone at Enron will serve. And here is an excerpt from testimony by James Jarboe, Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, Counterterrorism Division, FBI, Before the House Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests

Domestic terrorism is the unlawful use, or threatened use, of violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States (or its territories) without foreign direction, committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. During the past decade we have witnessed dramatic changes in the nature of the terrorist threat. In the 1990s, right-wing extremism overtook left-wing terrorism as the most dangerous domestic terrorist threat to the country. During the past several years, special interest extremism, as characterized by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), has emerged as a serious terrorist threat. Generally, extremist groups engage in much activity that is protected by constitutional guarantees of free speech and assembly. Law enforcement becomes involved when the volatile talk of these groups transgresses into unlawful action. The FBI estimates that the ALF/ELF have committed more than 600 criminal acts in the United States since 1996, resulting in damages in excess of 43 million dollars.

While I DO NOT support these groups, it is a farce to think they are as dangerous as the Right Wing extremists in this country who have a proven track record of blowing up buildings, killing people and openly preaching hatred. It is disturbing that our government is focusing on tree huggers rather than on violent, racist terrorists à la McVeigh.

I leave it there for today, but go read David Dneiwert on "Rush, Facism and Newspeak" and on Bush, the Nazis and America.

Dneiwert is scholarly and brilliant. You will learn a lot. He also has much information on the Minutemen Project. (Hey, you can go read some of my posts on border issues too if you want. It is a project I'm just beginning, but, hey, it has pictures.)

So, connect the dots. KBR, FBI, Bush, Fascims, Internment Camps.... That's my post du jour. Gotta run.

Work Makes You Free

Alternet.org has a wonderful piece of investigative reporting out today on new detention centers under construction by Halliburton. One of the most disturbing lines is that they are for "new programs":

there was that curious development in January when the Army Corps of Engineers awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root a $385 million contract to construct detention centers somewhere in the United States, to deal with "an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs," KBR said.

Is this for "radical" Muslims? Radical Lefties? People withe the wrong "attitude"? Really, this is amazing. My brain has a hard time believing that the U.S. would arrest and intern large numbers of U.S. citizens because of political views. Well sort of. I guess nothing can surprise me anymore.

Obviously our detention rate climbs every year in this counrty and because of its unfair prejudices, it targets the poor and those with colored skin. Why not then target me or you. I mean, why not? Law and "freedom" do not seem to bind this administration, while Gonzalez, the appointed defender of our laws, is allowed to prevaricate in front of the nation, called to ask only by a handful of voices in congress.

Read the whole report and look at the plans for labor camps too. Yes, labor camps:

The Army document, first drafted in 1997, underwent a "rapid action revision" on Jan. 14, 2005. The revision provides a "template for developing agreements" between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations.

On its face, the Army's labor program refers to inmates housed in federal, state and local jails. The Army also cites various federal laws that govern the use of civilian labor and provide for the establishment of prison camps in the United States, including a federal statute that authorizes the attorney general to "establish, equip, and maintain camps upon sites selected by him" and "make available ... the services of United States prisoners" to various government departments, including the Department of Defense.

Arbeit macht... I do not want to say it, because it would belittle the Holocaust. However, the idea of forced labor would fit right in for this punishment society...

There are just so many problems with this idea of forced labor. Even prisoners should be paid a fair wage, otherwise it easily becomes slave-like labor. Also, one of the most hideous things our founding citizens fought against were galleys and debtors' prisons. America has to wake up. [I just re-edited these last two paragraphs for clarity.]

More info [update]

A little bit of research yielded this rather prescient article by a Dr. Niman. He states:

State and local governments nationwide are finding out that even with cuts to other programs, they cannot afford the costly price tags associated with their new jails. To meet these costs, states are turning to prison labor. American prison administrators are now "leasing" prison labor to private corporations in a system reminiscent of their Nazi predecessors, who "leased" concentration camp labor to corporations such as Ford and BASF. The difference is that while the Third Reich prisoners were virtual slaves, the current American prisoners are paid. Their wages, however, are often less than state minimum wages, and the prison systems take about 80% of that wage for "room and board."

The prisoners who stuff junk mail into envelopes for the likes of Bank of America, Chevron and Macy’s, take telephone reservations for hotels and airlines such as Eastern, pack golf balls for Spaulding, repair circuit boards supplied to Dell, Texas Instruments and IBM, etc. often earn about $1 an hour. During the 1990s creative managers leased prison labor for a variety of tasks ranging from the nocturnal restocking of shelves at Toys R Us to raising hogs and manufacturing Honda parts and El Salvadoran license plates.

Not surprsingly, some of this information is not easy to find on government servers. I didn't find it easily at the Census Bureau. The DOJ does however have some stats:

Summary findings

On December 31, 2004 --

-- 2,135,901 prisoners were held in Federal or State prisons or in local jails -- an increase of 2.6% from yearend 2003, less than the average annual growth of 3.4% since yearend 1995.

-- there were an estimated 486 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents -- up from 411 at yearend 1995.

-- the number of women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal prison authorities increased 4.0% from yearend 2003, reaching 104,848 and the number of men rose 1.8%, totaling 1,391,781.

At yearend 2004 there were 3,218 black male sentenced prison inmates per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,220 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 463 white male inmates per 100,000 white males.

I repeat: Scary.

I hear that Eric Schlosser is writing a book on this. I hope he has as much success as with Fast Food Nation.

Tijuana cont.

As promised, I'm still working on my Tijuana section. I've been entering data into Wayfaring, which is a really interesting website.

My earlier post and narrative is here:

“One can argue that crossing the border is illegal for some, but one cannot say that it is immoral.” When my colleague spoke those words, I felt some of my vague thoughts take a concrete form. I had been in Tijuana for three straight days and two nights, and my perspective on the trip was blurred by emotion, fatigue, and the energy that comes from observing inhumanity and obscene wealth when they back up against each other the way they do in Tijuana.

Loan Sharks

I'd heard about the obscene practices of check cashing operations. Now, thanks to a piece of paper I found behind our garage in the alley (where trash is collected), I've seen evidence of it firsthand. I've blurred out all personal information, but you can still get some of the important details. This person cashed a check for 300 dollars, paid a 45 dollar finance charge and received 255.00 dollars in return. S/he has two weeks about, then the agency cashes the check for 300 dollars. If it bounces, the person will be liable for interest at an annual rate of... well just look at the picture and see for yourself.



460%--Wow. Now we know how Advance America follows it's own advice:

Respect Your Customers
Treat them with dignity and courtesy at all times.
Respect Your Associates
Treat them as you would like to be treated.
Respect Yourself
Work hard and use good, ethical judgment in everything you do.
Respect the Law
It is there to protect us and our Customers.

Of course, I'm being sarcastic. Advance America obviously exploits hardworking people to the extent the law allows, and, unfortunately, the law allows too much. You can see who Advance America contributes to in my "home states" Georgia and California here
and here
.

If you click on the California section of follow the money, you'll note that Advance ("Fleece") America gives at least as much if not more to Dems as to Republicans. Those who say Sacramento is flawed are entirely correct. The unfortunate thing is that most of the voices we hear saying that are looking (à la Schwarzenneger) to exploit public sentiment about this in order to make the capital even more corrupt than it already is. This is why we need better candidates, progressive ones. MyDD and Plan get it right.