Paris awakens, will America? (What are you buying this Sunday?)

"Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille." (Jaques Dutronc)

What's happening?
About a million French youth took to the streets yesterday. As usual, the American Press as well as the right-leaning French Press portrayed this as an example of conduct by disorderly, spoiled children who don't know the "real world." (You know the media drill: anyone fighting for their rights is considered a loser or a dreamer.*)

French workers, French students, French unemployed, France in general has been suffering from the modèle americain, which is now in the middle to late stages of spreading throughout the French economy. Indeed, the current French administration has been passing law after law against workers and immigrants, and ministers such as Sarkozy have been spreading fear without due cause to bolster their own agendas. Sound familiar?

The latest law, called the CPE, allows business to fire young workers much more easily during a two-year probationary period. The fear, probably real, is that there will be a large portion of young workers who are cycled through jobs during the two-year probation imposed by the CPE. It is assumed, probably correctly, that this will also allow for more exploitation of those in the probationary period since people beleive that businesses will only keep those who are the most subservient and self-sacrificing.

Why does this matter to Americans?
I'm sure "reasonable" Americans will say: "French workers live cushy lives already!"; "What are they complaining about, I earn 5 bucks and hour and have three kids!"; or "France needs to be more competitive."

Let's start with that last point. Forget the propaganda: the French are actually among the most productive workers in the world--in spite of 5 weeks of guaranteed vacation to those with full-time employment. The French work very hard, but they have an identity outside of their work. The fact that they French people can (or used to be able to) relax, enjoy a meal, and spend time with family is due to social protections and, importantly, to an attitude that values such activities that encourage and reinforce a social fabric.

For example, French people often spend Sundays having a picnic, visiting with family, going to a concert, or, yes, even watching sports. In general, though, they do not go shopping except for food on Sundays and most stores are not even open. (Alas, this is changing thanks to neo-liberalization). Sunday is still a day of rest and most people treat it that way, and if you don't believe me look at Paris traffic at 6 pm on Sunday evening and ask yourself what the people have been doing all day. I can promise you it was probably not work. (Hint: Sunday in the Country.)

On Sundays, when not watching sports, we Americans often shop. We shop "for fun." We shop because we "don't have time during the rest of the week." We shop because "we need stuff." Why is this important? In America, shopping is often more a symptom of a disease, a culture looking outside of itself (to commodities, to wasted time), for fulfillment. Many Americans have forgotten how to spend time with each other and to spend it away from TV and a purchase opportunity. More importantly, even those moments of distraction, of community events such as sports, or visits to a National Park, find Americans face to face with a corporate sponsorship.** This is profoundly disturbing. It is attributable to affluenza mixed with and compounded by economic ideas that are an insult to a humane way of life. Ideas such as "work is more important than family" or "work is more important than anything" or "I am where I work and what I own"--ideas that only function in a society that does not take care of the basics such as healthcare and education first and foremost.

Getting back to France and their cushy lives: well, the fact is that life is not cushy at all if you are poor in France, and let's not even talk about being a Beur***. But France has one of the largest middle-class populations (percentage-wise) in the world, and for many decades this middle class has fought for government programs that serve them and their community. Luckily, important parts of this have trickled down to the poor as well. There is not a single un-insured child in France. Every mother gets free natal care. Beginning with the birth of the second child, every family, regardless of income, gets a check to help support that child. Every person in France has a right to health care (though this is getting tougher and more exclusive).

In a word, life is less stressful in France because any number of risk factors are accounted for by a network of social support. Though American-style "modernity" is already there, what the French understand is that there are many, many areas of life in which people, elected representatives and governments can make a choice. America is great (yes, I'm a loyal American), but our economics are cruel and unhealthy--not only for the un-insured, but for all of us. Moreover, there is nothing inevitable about our economic system.

There are economic theories and there are economic laws. Politicians have been tricked or suckered into thinking that they are responding to economic laws when they have actually been enacting laws in the name of "economics," and then only one form of economics. If Milton Friedman defines something, that does not make it an economic Truth. So, no matter how many times economists, politicians and pundits state "that's just the way it is" or "that's how it is going to be", well, don't listen. But what about the inexorable global trade juggernaut?

Sure, global trade matters. I want to buy coffee and Hawaii just doesn't produce enough for me alone, not to mention all of you. However, I want to pay a fair price, and that is where we have a choice and where economic theories can be shaped into better economic laws. World trade, as Friedman states, seems inevitable, our version of it does not. But that is awfully hard to see from within our bubble, our little trickle-down exploit the poor and the hungry bubble.

So France matters because they are fighting. They are taking to the streets and they know first hand that things can be even better. They know that France is far from perfect, but they sleep knowing that at least from conception to l'école maternelle no child is left behind. Wouldn't that be nice?

Allez, encore un petit effort...


____________________________________

*Unless, that is, they are fighting against an official "enemy" of the U.S; then they are "freedom fighters."
**The Bush Administration is passing laws to encourage corporate sponsorship of national lands.
***Comes from the word "Arabe" (Arab).

Morro Bay

Morro Bay is one of my favorite places. Unlike Santa Barbara, which is great but also snobby and expensice, Morro has character and beauty to spare (Ok, ignore the PGE plant), and you can do it on a budget. Cheap imports are killing it, however:

MORRO BAY, Calif. — Just about everyone on the docks knows the Gianninis.

For 46 years, the family has run a marine supply house a couple of blocks from the wharf. When times were good, they would outfit whole fleets from aisles crammed with such items as tiny brass grommets and huge spools that could spin out miles of line and countless acres of net. When times weren't so good, they would carry debt-ridden fishermen on their books season after season — until the next big haul, or maybe the one after that.

But that was before competition from cheap imported fish, before diesel fuel that runs upward of $3 a gallon and before environmental rules that severely limit the amount of fish a fisherman can catch, and when and where and how.

Now the fishing fleet at Morro Bay is down from several hundred boats to perhaps 50. And, amid coils of anchor chain and crates of engine parts, Giannini's is hung with hand-painted signs that say, in big red letters: "ALL SALES FINAL."

A sad day. When I think that we could make oceans safer and provide local businesses with cheap fuel through locall produces biodiesel. When will out outsourcing, self-serving politicians sstart helping small local business?

Friday Cat Blogging

Here's a picture of my cat

Did I fool you? That's not actually a cat, it's the big horn sheep we saw while in Joshua Tree last weekend. Cool, huh? For the cat lovers, here's Biscuit hunting down a Republican:

Food, Labels, Democracy and Life: A Note to Congress

Congress passed a new label law for food today. It is a travesty of state rights and it is dangerous for our physical and mental health. As always, what these people do is a threat to us and to our democracy...

Our “Representatives” have blessed us with The National Uniformity for Food Act, H.R. 4167. Unfortunately,

H.R. 4167 would shift the balance of power between the states and federal
government, critics say. They object that the bill would undermine states'
ability to prepare for and respond to terrorist threats to the food supply;
prevent states from requiring consumer notifications about health risks
associated with certain foods; and create a new federal bureaucracy to
review and, potentially disapprove, new state food safety laws.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer says the bill specifically targets
California's voter-approved Proposition 65, a 1986 law requiring businesses
to provide "clear and reasonable" warnings when they expose consumers to
known reproductive toxins, such as mercury.

Note to U.S. Congress: Food is not supposed to be uniform, and neither are the laws that govern it. Every fruit, vegetable, leaf, stalk, seed and pit should be a work unto itself, not the cold, tasteless, uniform, factory products that they have become and that you may be used to.

Your law will certainly ensure profits for Wal-Mart, Kroger, Ralph’s, Von’s and Safeway, but, in the long run, it will undermine the health of millions of individuals, not only because these laws will allow companies to bring even more contaminant-laden food to market, but also because such food and such a food system is detrimental to our local and national economy.

I probably do not need to make an argument here about the importance of safety in our food (I know how seriously you take “security”). I would like you to know a few things, though: mercury in fish is rising and it is dangerous to our health; we have so depleted the soil that it now takes perhaps as much as 10 calories of fertilizer to produce 1 calorie of food; got milk? well, then you probably have very toxic rocket fuel too; many softdrinks and juice-drinks contain chemicals that can combine to form benzene, a well known carcinogen...I haven’t even gotten to mad cows or hormonally doped poultry, but I hope you are getting the idea that the ability to accurately and fairly label food is a necessity. Consumers should have rights too.

Perhaps the pervasive nature of contaminants listed above shocks you. I hope so, for all of the problems are related. It is impossible to talk about any of the above without talking about government policies (ones you seem so eager to continue), and government subsidies, about corporate misdeeds. Government subsidies pay for the seeds that are planted by the corporate farms that in turn sell cheap corn syrup to soft-drink companies. These same corporations use subsidies and thus use more fertilizer, fertilizer that is made from oil that is subsidized by our military actions. And the rocket fuel in our milk and our lettuce, well, that comes from a long history of defense subsidies.


But let’s get back to labels and why they are important. I live in L.A. and have travelled all over the place. To some I may seem cosmopolitan, though I’m not sure I want to run with the Travel and Leisure crowd. (Ah yes, poor folks are lazy; rich folks have leisure. Story for another day.) What I’m saying is that you folks need to start treating the U.S. with some respect, you need to be more like farmers, like my grandparents and my mom, who, if they did not respect the laws of nature and treat their animals well, didn’t make it through the winter. If abusive farming does not work on a small scale, what makes you think that it will work on a large one, even with all the technological prowess we put into vaccines and hormones and fertilizer and irrigation and genetic modification. Labels will help us ensure that our food is safer and that it uses techniques that mean there will be good food here next year too. Your solutions to corporate marketing “problems,” will only mean more problems in the long run. Your labels will not create an informed, knowledgeable consumer, but an ignorant one. Wendell Berry writes:

“Between these two programs--the industrial and the agrarian, the global and the local, the most critical difference is that of knowledge. The global economy institutionalizes a global ignorance, in which producers and consumers cannot know or care about one anothers, and in which the histories of all products will be lost. In such a circumstance, the degradation of products and places, producers and consumers is inevitable.” (Citizenship Papers 121, my emphasis)

Knowledge is vital for our physical health, because what we eat can make us sick. It is also vital for our more general health, because this knowledge relates us to other people upstream and downstream from us (literally and figuratively). Why then do you choose to make us more ignorant and sicker? I can think of only one reason, and, again, Wendell Berry explains it very well:

“

The idea of people working at home, as family members, as neighbors, as natives and citizens of their places, is as repugnant to the industrial mind as the idea of self employment. The industrial mind is an organizational mind, and I think this mind is deeply disturbed and threatened by the existence of people who have no boss. This may be why people with such minds, when the approach the top of the political hierarchy so readily sell themselves to ‘special interests.’ They cannot bear to be unbossed. They cannot stand the lonely work of making up their own minds.
The industrial contempt for anything small, rural, or natural translates into contempt for uncentralized economic systems, and sort of self-sufficiency in food or other necessities. The industrial ‘solution’ for such systems is to increase the scale of work and trade. It is to bring Big Ideas, Big Money, and Big Technology into small rural communities, economies, and ecosystems--the brought-in industry and the experts bein invariable alien to and contemptuous of the places to which they are brought in. There is never any question of propriety, of adapting the thought or the purpose or the technology to the place.
The result is that problems correctable on the a small scale are replaced by large-scale problems for which there are no large-scale solutions.” (Citizenship Papers 145).

I read those words and I look at the actions you took in writing and passing your food labeling law and I see contempt for America and Americans. You worship money, and you are subservient to those who have it. You lead us into wars to get the oil to make the food. You lead us into ignorance and contempt for ourselves. Uniformity of food, of people, of ideas, of places. What will be the next uniformity you ask for?

Sphincter of Light© Contest!

We all know that Thomas Kinkade is the Painter of Light©, and before I go on, you need to know that I judge an artist by his works, not where he pisses, whom he gropes, or whether "God is his agent." In fact, if he urinated on a Walt Disney icon, well, that actually makes me kind of happy, since I've always seen Disney as an exploiter hidden under the guise of innocence.

Anyway, Painter of Light© is such a great phrase (why didn't Manet think if that?), it got me to thinking. We already have Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light©, what we need is the "Sphincter of Light©"

The question is: Who?

Now some of you are thinking Rover. Others are thinking King George, or maybe Cheney, or Mehlman, or Gonzales... The list could get very, very long, so, readers, you see the challenge. Who deserves this winning phrase? Who, in the world of Republican skulduggery, can equal Thomas Kinkade's feats of the brush? Who stands above the rest of the pack, not as the Artist of Evil©, Prevaricator Without Peer© or just a plain arsehole, who, who is the Sphincter of Light©?

Remember, we are branding someone, giving that person a title that s/he can use an market himself/herself with for the rest of his or her life. Like Kinkade, they can make millions, even thought they may have to serve some jail time first. So think, be original, and, as always, vote with your heart and forget about Diebold.

P.S. I've left off George Bush. It's just too easy. Also the list of possibilities is so long that it may not include someone you feel should be the S

Voting is on over at Dailykos. I'll post results later.


Update: And the Winner is...

Bill O'Reilly

Congratulations! Out of the Thousand Sphincters of Light© that comprise the Republican leadership and its cronies, you are the winner. [Yes, the results actually placed McCain at the top, but polling was not scientific because, I liste McCain under "John (I'll stab you in the back) McCain," while other Sphincter's of light© just had the names. Conclusion, push-polling works, but it's not solid scientific method, and around here, only the most solid of methods are allowed. We do science! Science, Man, science!]

NPR airs Voice of America: Spreading Propaganda. Think Nice Polite Republicans

I have a soft spot for the idea of public programming, for the idea of NPR, but the reality of their programming, and their worn-out on-air personality are making them increasingly irrelevant, and, as far as the news programming is concerned, well, as the saying goes, "you reap what you sow," and currently they are sowing a lot of half-truths and BS.

The latest edition of this downward spiral can be seen in the recent reporting on Haiti, which I overheard. Now, Haiti Action Alerts, via Pacifica Radio, brings some substance to my suspicions:

In another dramatic infiltration of the mainstream press, Flashpoints has learned that Amelia Shaw, National Public Radio's current correspondent from Haiti, is also a reporter with the US government propaganda organization, Voice of America (VOA). By law, VOA is not allowed to broadcast on US frequencies. Shaw's reports have appeared both on Voice of America and National Public Radio in the same 48 hour period. Her reports - very much in line with the US State Department - have tried to suggest that René Preval is a troublemaker, a spoil-sport who was trying to undermine the mostly free and fair electoral process in Haiti. [Source]

Of course, it is illegal for VOA to report in the U.S.. And for NPR, it is disengenuous--if not biased and devious--to bring a VOA reporter's work to a U.S. audience. While Amelia Shaw may have two jobs, her voice and her message are one and the same: not reportage, but propaganda. The same applies to the AP, where a "freelancer for the Associated Press, who is also a stringer for the New York Times in Haiti, is moonlighting as a consultant for the US Government funded National Endowment for Democracy, according to an official at the NED, and several of the agency's grantees." (Important side note: The NED was probably highly involved in the coup against Hugo Chavez. The NED is of the same ilk as the International Republican Institute and other right-wing organizations that supposedly promote democracy but actually promote corporatocracy and militarism. These groups have influence in State and and USAID...)

Anyone who follows NPR closely has probably remarked that they frequently have guests from the Cato Institute, the American Enterprie Institute and other similar groups, and that these groups outnumber "center" and "center-left" thinkers, not to mention actual old-style left wing spokespeople. Numerous studies have proved this statistically (see FAIR and Media Matters).

All this reminds of an episode not so far, far away. In fact it was last summer and I was listening to Day to Day. I had to write them a letter:

Dear Day to Day: I have no problem that Jonathan Last did not like Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. In fact, I agree. The wooden acting, the hackneyed dialogue and the silly plot are, at best, irritating. However, his review made me, well, uncomfortable. I understand that Mr. Last found the transformation of Darth Vader more interesting than the a light-saber-weilding-pseudo-philosophizing Yoda. However, we should separate falling in love with the character from falling in love with what that character means. Mr. Last's review, which lauds the Empire's order, strength and ability to effectively suppress those that disagree with it is, quite simply, praise for fascism and despotism--yes, the same fascism and despostism that can be associated with Hitler and Mussolini. While I hesitiate to convict by association, Mr. Last's employment at the Weekly Standard only reinforces the idea that his review of Star Wars III was a thinly-veiled piece of propaganda that could have emerged from his magazine. Take for example "The Case for American Empire" in which the Weekly Standard's Max Boot argues that "The most realistic response to terrorism is for America to embrace its imperial role" (10/15/2001, Volume 007, Issue 05). Mr. Last's review was not about the politics in George Lucas' movie, but rather those of today and his own vision of political utopia--one where "messy" civil liberties are less important than order, one where the inherent disorder of any democratic republic (read filibuster [this was when all the discussion about how impolite it would be for Dems to filibuster]) make it somehow less desirable than goose-stepping our way to a well-organized, smoothly operating and, ultimately, despotic empire.

Well, I was lucky and they called me up and I read this on the air. But not everyone will be as lucky. So, are we going to let NPR lead us, with its melifluous yet boring propaganda, towards a post-democratic America? This brings me to my next point. Since we all know that NPR is actually an acronym for Nice Polite Republicans, what do we do? Well, I've pretty much quite listening to them and I've quit giving them money. Perhaps you should too. However, this will lead to a further abasement of NPR by the Right. They will seize on this weakness to make NPR even more of a voice for this administration and for right-wing thinktanks.

Perhaps the better course of action is to write NPR news more often. They do read what you write. More importantly, when you call in to give your yearly contribution, call in during Car Talk or one of your other programs and explain that you want to support the station but NOT the national news division. If this happens in large numbers, the Nice Polite Republicans will notice, for they do care about money.

There are tons of examples like the ones for Haiti, I chose Haiti because it is a blatant example of propagandizing and the U.S. is consitently bashing Haiti for a situation that the U.S. is actually creating by undermining legitimate authorities. You can also look to M. Liasson or Juan Williams for blatant examples of right-wingers posing as centrists.

Anyway, my thoughts du jour.

What's the difference between...

Communism and Capitalism? Less than most people think.

Sure, North Korea is by anybody's economic and civil definition a complete and total failure. Starvation, quasi-slave labor, totalitarianism, repression... The picture is ugly. However, they are obviously catching on. The "management" elite of North Korea are beginning to understand that they can have their cake and eat it too--i.e., they can still be a managing elite and unfairly exploit labor under capitalism too!!! (How exciting for them!):

If the leaders of the two Koreas have their way, Hwang's factory, with its 326 North Korean workers and seven South Korean managers, will represent the economic future of the peninsula.

"Kaesong Industrial Park [in North Korea], a place where the South's capital and technology and the North's land and labor are being combined to a make a new prosperity," an American-accented voice announced on a peppy information video shown to the first group of foreign reporters to tour the site, only several hundred meters north of the demilitarized zone.

Almost four years after the initial agreement for the park, the legal and infrastructure building blocks finally seem to be in place for explosive growth. Over the next year, the number of South Korean factories and North Korean workers is to nearly quadruple, to 39 factories and 15,000 employees.

By 2012, the industrial park is to spread over 67 square kilometers, or 26 square miles, and to employ 730,000 North Koreans, almost 8 percent of the work force in this impoverished nation, which has a total population of 23 million." [Source: IHT, "For Managers, a Korean Paradise"]

Some people will praise this as an ouverture to the global economy. To me it signals yet another fall towards the bottom. We have heard for decades how bad it is for North Korea to exploit its workers under Communism, yet, when financiers for Seoul fund the factories, the "maquiladoras," the exploitation, we have no issues whatsoever.

Tell me, what is the difference between these two photos? (The first is from the IHT article on Korea, the second one I took in Mexico)
courtesy AP Photos

Now here's mine:
Photos by me.

So now South Korea wants to create its own maquiladoras and the usual caveats appear:

In the United States, American labor and human rights activists may object to employment conditions here.

At Kaesong, the minimum wage for the 48-hour week is $57.50. But $7.50 is deducted for "social charges" paid to the North Korean government. The remaining $50 is paid to a North Korean government labor broker. None of the South Korean factory managers interviewed would guess how much of the $50 salary ends up in the pockets of workers.

"The exact amount is determined by North Korean authorities," said Kim Dong Keun, a South Korean who chairs the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee.

Under labor contracting arrangements in Russia and Eastern Europe, North Korea's government often withholds half of their workers' salaries.

Attempts to interview seamstresses at the Shinwon, factory elicited evasive responses and intervention by South Korean guides.

Yes, human rights organizations should be very concerned. Fortunately, the article normalizes the situation and says, essentially, "hey--don't worry, it's all going to be ok": "In our view, the agreement applies to goods produced only in South Korea and the United States," an U.S. Embassy official in Seoul told reporters. "We hope that the Kaesong issue won't be a major hurdle in reaching the comprehensive goal of signing the free-trade agreement."

Exploitation is great!!! Let's get started.

So tell me again what's the difference between Communism and Capitalism. For me the answer is that Communists haven't realized that they can continue to exploit populations under the "freer" system of Capitalism. And if you think that the U.S. economy is getting better, well, you must be very, very rich already and not reading this. Go read this over at the Left Coaster, and you'll see what I mean.

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.

There was Rimbaud and Verlaine, now there's me.

Dick Cheney's .28 Gauge Swan (Quail) Song

'Neath the brambles and the waning Texas sun
Lies a corporate lawyer whose blood does run
Red state of affairs, beer, affairs of the heart,
Caged coveys of Truth sing Bunker Boy's depart.

Moral Crossings

[This is part one of a series of posts on Tijuana. I hope to finish it up in a week or so.]

“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.

What else could he say, what could anyone say who had been there? The poverty is as crushing and unavoidable as the flow of people through the city. One young woman we met was waiting to cross the border. It wasn’t her first attempt. The first time she was traveling north from Honduras. She tried to jump a train but no one would help her, she fumbled and fell by the moving train, hurting her leg badly. Some people threw her into the bushes and left her to bleed and die. Luck was on her side, though. Someone came along and found her, after she had crawled some distance. Meanwhile, she had applied a tourniquet to her broken and bleeding leg. Though that didn’t save it and it was amputated at about six inches above her knee in a Mexican hospital, the Mexican health system did pay the bill without much complaint. Now she has a second-rate prosthesis that she hopes will carry her across the border and to her friend in Boston. She is fiesty, determined and even a bit delusional about her chances. I wish her luck and don’t count her out; she has already made it back to Tijuana from Honduras.

It doesn’t surpise me that this crippled woman (who could no longer get a job in her home country because she was “fucked up”) seems delusional. It takes a lot of hope to think you’re going to make it in a place where no one wants you except for a few members of the National Restaurant Association and a handful of meat-packing corporations--and they will only want you for a while. It strikes me, though, that this delusional hope beyond hope that life must somehow be better on the other side is eerily similar to our own delusional myths about our country. You know the ones: that the West was built by tough cowboys and entrepreneurs, even though it mostly flourished from government subsidies (think Hoover Dam) and government-subsidized industry (think aerospace); that our country has good intentions for all its citizens and the world (think about how congress uses unnecessary war to gut healthcare and education in the U.S.); that with hard work everyone should succeed. It strikes me that many poor immigrants thought the same thing before they got here, and they still do, even though they are fifth-generation, hard-working miners whose safety and economic livelihoods are increasingly threatened by U.S. corporations and their government cronies. I mean no disrespect, but that is delusional.

The border would be a funny thing if were not for all the harm it engenders.

The border with the U.S. is a rather selective strainer. Housemaids and some day-workers, as well as middle and upper-middle class Mexicans working in the U.S. pass through with little friction. U.S. citizens, The Rich and their money, and of course goods find no hindrances. Unskilled labor, however, stares at the wall, with anger and envy, and also with some disdain for it, for it is a symbol of the U.S. and its cruel and, yes, ignorant policies. How is it that money and goods move back and forth without impediment while they cannot? Do things have more of a right than people? Those questions were on my mind, and no doubt on other’s as well.
A maquiladora is a factory. The concept is simple: bring unfinished goods from the U.S., finish their production in Mexico at the going rate (about 1.80 an hour average including taxes, social security, etc.), and ship those goods back to the U.S. for sale. The concept of a maquiladora, as two members of the Tijuana Economic Development Council (TEDC) pointed out, is for U.S. companies to save money on labor. (I will also assume, since these men were wearing suits and working out of an office in the Tijuana City Hall, though not technically government officials, that certain Mexicans make a good deal more than the laborers through this arrangement. More on this later.)

The TEDC noted that there were some 180 thousand workers employed in maquiladoras. Many of them, they said, were not actually from Tijuana, but people moving from the poorest regions of Mexico and Central America. They mostly live in, well, “unconventional housing.” These are the hillsides where shantytowns overflow with squatters. Though some in the U.S. wouldn’t believe it (since Tijuana for them only contains the Great Unwashed), there are some other hills, covered in mansions that cost millions. Tijuana is a mine for those that can extract its riches.

The human ore of Tijuana has increased in market value as its human value has declined. I’m not speaking here of workers who lose limbs because safety equipment is removed from machines in order to increase the pace of production; nor am I speaking of workers sickened from toxic fumes in the workplace. I am referring only to the value of the worker as a production unit. As Tito, a sociologist pointed out, Tijuana’s growth is inversely related to growth elsewhere in Mexico. In other words, as other regions of Mexico get poorer, Tijuana grows, making a few rich, bringing a few others to the middle class, and spawning the giant population of displaced workers earning, if they are lucky, the minimum wage. But all this is threatened by China. “China is of great concern,” said one member of the TEDC.

Indeed, labor is much cheaper in China and (fear of) this country is on the lips of the Businesspeople and the pro-business Academics that have codified Tijuana’s status as a legal production site. The race to the lowest wage and therefore most exploitative working conditions is a never-ending one. The question is thus: how will Tijuana continue to benefit from a World economy in which all foreign countries are allowed “maquiladora” status? Why send work to Tijuana, Guadelajara or the Marianas (a U.S. territory) if labor can be had so much more cheaply in China?


A textile maquiladora I visited was suffering precisely from the problem of U.S.-China trade.. The owner, a friendly middle-aged woman with a stopwatch hanging from her neck, said that in just the last year, her workers have gone from producing high-end garments to sewing cheap nurse’s uniforms. When I asked her how her workers could be competitive and make more money, she said: “Sew faster.” At this point I remind myself that she is part of a system.

Luckily for these workers, Tijuana has one things going for it: proximity. It is cheaper to ship a flat screen TV from Tijuana to the U.S. than from China.

End of part I.
Andy W.

Cat Blogging...

Ok. I never cat blog. We have four cats and it would take a full-time business to post the pictures of them doing interesting things. But, it's Friday and I'm just sitting around waiting for another Bush scandal and, well, I feel like cat blogging. So here goes: this is a picture of Mara*** (*** to protect the innocent) taken early one morning. Mara*** spends a lot of time on the roof.

Orange County Fires

I took these photos of the fires as I was flying back to L.A. Though the OC is a Republican stronghold, I feel terrible they have to deal with these fires. Besides, there are a lot good Liberals down there too.

Finally Back

Well, I'm back from several trips, including an amazing visit to Tijuana. The only thing I can say is that NAFTA, the WTO and the Mexican-U.S. elite are without souls. We visited several slums, but also met with labor leaders, as well as the U.S.-Friendly Tijuana Economic Development Council (not sure if that's the exact title. That last meeting was incredible. They were giving us a lecture on how great the average salary of 15 dollars per day was for mexican workers and U.S. industrialists looking for cheap labor. When confronted with the question of abuse in the factories (Maquiladoras), the business group (independent but housed in the city hall) stated: "Unfortunately, Mexican workers have too many rights." It got pretty tense after that.

Anyway, posted above is a picture of two girls living in squatter community on a dump. I'll write more about this later, but the amazing thing here is that, though the living conditions are litterally deadly (toxic smoke from underground fires, risk of electrocution from rigged electrical hookups, etc.), there is a real sense of safety and freedom because there is community. People know each other. Anyway, I'll blog more on this later now that I'm back. Here are a few more pictures.

Back for a little blogging and then off again...

Hi, I'm back to a computer for a while before I leave again. I was checking out one of my usual favorite reads, davidsirota.com, and noticed the just how pertinent his comments were. He was talking about shareholder activism and unions. He quotes a shareholder vote to limit CEO severance pay at Coke and then goes on to say:

This is a big win - and highlights the power of shareholder activism in helping to put a leash on out of control corporate power. Shareholders are, after all, the owners of the company. But don't think for a second greedy corporate executives aren't going to fight back against their companies' owners - as I noted a few weeks ago, executives are actually using company money to begin surveillance operations against shareholders they think might cause them trouble. Stay tuned - the battle between shareholders and executivs is quietly getting underway. (davidsirota.com)

. What's ironic is that the Google ads at the top of the page were simultaneously advertising union busting. This would be hilarious if it were not so tragic.

Here's the screenshot:




Actually, it is pretty funny. The link advertises "Union-Free Consultant 99% Win Rate; Stop Union Organizing NLRB..." Wow. It just goes to show how very important it is to fight for workers' rights, higher-minimum wages and for shareholder rights to block egregious management practices such as exorbitant severance packages.

Ministry and Mammon

[O]ur look into the Robertson empire, including interviews with his former and current business associates, reveals a history of mixing God, gain and Republican campaign...The combination of ministry and Mammon has provided Robertson with a net worth estimated at between $200m and $1 billion. (Greg Palast)

I just woke up today thinking about how Operation Blessing used donations to fly Pat Robertson's mining equipment from Rwanda. Go read Palast's work on this, it's a nice reminder of who our fearless leader associates with.


A C-130.

Neil Bush, cont.

Big thanks to Moonboots over at dailykos for the tips about Neil and the Moonies. Here are a couple of choice quotes from his post:

Moon outspent Scaife moving our nation right and theocratic. He and his operatives make it clear his job as "messiah" is to raise up the Christian "right" and bring them into control of our nation. Christianity had to be revived so they will accept him and his "work."

Let me tell you something, Moon has more to do with our nations current political climate than anyone. Anyone. Yet again, thanks to an ineffective media, our nation is unaware of his efforts.

Two things remain at the top of my wonderlist. One is why, given the historical fact that Moon easily outspent Scaife propping up hard right politics in the USA with BILLIONS of dollars over the last 30 years, given that Moon provided front groups and guidance to the new right, and has funded the "religious" right and literally played a huge role in creating, molding, designing the new conservative movement we see around us today - given all that, why, when blowhard uniformed hypocrites like Oreily squawk about UNITED STATES CITIZEN Soros donating to a liberal causes, why don't liberals stuff Moon down their throats? O'Reily, Coulter, Rush, Hannity, Savage, Hume, all of them should go on FOX and bow to Moon, he brought them to power. No Moon No one like Bush is president, that is for sure.

Biblical sized blindness in its depth and scope.

I couldn't agree more. I suppose one of the reasons we never hear about is that so many of the wingers work at or find their way into the pages of publications like the Washington Times. What interest do they have in showing who and what pays their rent? Their only interest is self-interest, of course. Moonboots also hits the nail on the head here:

Next time someone posts about Soros and his drop in the bucket money compared to Moon's spent on the right, please post this chart.

So, what does the Washington Times have on it's frontpage today, the Sunday where an entire nation is outraged by George Bush's illegal wiretapping? Well, look at the screen shot.

Interesting, huh? Not a word about the wiretaps. That, in fact, says a lot.

For more, check out Gorenfeld at http://www.iapprovethismessiah.com/
and Moonboots at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/2/224046/295

Thanks a lot for the tips, Moonboots.