Friday, September 03, 2010

The Economy Is the Number on Your Paycheck, Not the Stockmarket’s Ups and Downs

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich’s Blog
Posted on September 2, 2010, Printed on September 3, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/148060/

What passes for business reporting in the United States is too often a series of breathless reports about the stock market. When the Dow rises precipitously, as it did today (Wednesday), the business press predicts an end to the Great Recession. When the stock market plummets, as it did last week, the Great Recession is said to be worsening.

Pay no attention. The stock market has as much to do with the real economy as the weather has to do with geology. Day by day there’s no relationship at all. Over time, weather and geology interact but the results aren’t evident for many years. The biggest impact of the weather is on peoples’ moods, as are the daily ups and downs of the market.

The real economy is jobs and paychecks, what people buy and what they sell. And the real economy—even viewed from a worldwide perspective—is as precarious as ever, perhaps more so.

Today’s rally was triggered by news that one of China’s official measures of its growth—its Purchasing Managers Index—rose. The index had been in decline for three straight months.

Why should an obscure measurement on the other side of the world cause stock markets in New York, London, and Frankfurt to rally? Because China is so large and its needs seemingly limitless that its growth has been about the only reliable source of global demand.

Many big American companies have been showing profits because they’re doing ever more business in China while cutting payrolls at home. American consumers aren’t buying much of anything because they’ve lost their jobs or are worried about losing them, and are still trying to get out from under a huge debt load (the latest figures show more consumer debt delinquent now than last year and a surge in personal bankruptcies). The U.S. housing market is growing worse, auto and retail sales are dropping, and the ranks of the jobless continue to swell.

Europe is in almost as much a mess. The problem there isn’t just or even mainly that Greece and other nations on the “periphery” have too much public debt. A bigger problem is European consumers aren’t buying nearly enough to generate more jobs. Unemployment remains high, and the trend is bad. Manufacturing growth there has slowed to its weakest pace in six months. Yet bizarrely, Europe’s large economies—Britain, Germany, and France—are paring back their public budgets. It’s exactly the wrong time, and a recipe for disaster.

Germany’s so-called “job miracle” (as Chancellor Angela Merkel calls it) is more mirage than miracle. Most of the gains in employment there have come from part-time jobs, often at low pay. Average annual net income per German employee continues to drop. This explains why domestic demand there is so sluggish and why Germany is desperately dependent on its exports of machinery and manufacturing components to Asia, especially China.

Meanwhile, Japan, now the world’s third-largest economy, is a basket case. Japanese consumers aren’t buying much of anything, and why would they? The country is still in the grip of a deflationary cycle that shows no end. Japanese consumers reason if they can buy it cheaper next week there’s no reason to buy now. Basically the only thing keeping Japan’s economy going are its exports of cars and electronic components to China.

Australia is booming, but look closely and you see the same buyer. Australia is making a boatload of money selling its minerals and raw materials to China (Australia is fast becoming one big Chinese mine shaft). The Brazilian economy is soaring. Why? Exports of wheat and cattle to China. Middle East oil producers are getting richer. Why? China’s insatiable thirst for oil.

Elsewhere around the globe the picture is as uncertain. Much of Pakistan is under water. Much of the rest of the Middle East is under tyrannical or corrupt regimes. Russia has suffered such a dry spell it’s hoarding wheat. Despite its wealthy few, India’s masses are still terribly poor.

The stock market could plunge tomorrow or the next day because the world’s economic fundamentals are so precarious.

The global economy cannot be sustained by one big, voracious nation—especially one that’s suffering bouts of civil unrest, actively repressing dissent, suffocating under a blanket of pollution and coping with other environmental hazards, and whose biggest companies are run by the state.

Robert B. Reich has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He also served on President Obama’s transition advisory board. His latest book is Supercapitalism.

© 2010 Robert Reich’s Blog All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/148060/

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Israel set to build wings for some 800 F-35s

The tea baggers like it if their jobs are being exported further!

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JERUSALEM: Israel is in talks to build the wings for about a quarter of the US’s new F-35 stealth fighter aircraft, an Israeli official said on Monday. Lockheed Martin currently plans to build some 3,200 F-35s costing about $96 million each. An Israeli official said state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries would build the wings. “We are in advanced talks for the IAI to produce around 800 sets of wings,” he told Reuters. Lockheed Martin declined to comment on the details of a possible deal involving the aircraft, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Earlier this month Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak approved in principle the purchase of 20 of the radar-evading fighters, in a deal worth $2.75 billion. Israeli and US officials expect final approval of that deal by the end of September. The planes would be delivered in 2015-2017. The cost of the purchase would be covered by an annual US defence grant of $3 billion. Israel would be the first foreign country to sign an agreement to buy the F-35 outside the eight international partners that have helped to develop the plane. Israeli and US officials with knowledge of the deal said Israel has an option to buy a further 55 aircraft. “Israel possibly will end up building a significant portion of the F-35,” said one US official familiar with the deal. An Israeli official said reciprocal purchase deals worth $4 billion had been secured for Israeli companies for their participation in the plane’s manufacture and might be increased to $5 billion although it would be conditional on Israel exercising its option to buy the additional 55 planes. reuters

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\31\story_31-8-2010_pg4_9

Friday, August 27, 2010

Facing prison for filming US police

When police arrested Anthony Graber for speeding on his motorbike, the 25-year-old probably did not see himself as an advocate for police accountability in the age of new media.

But Graber, a sergeant with the Maryland Air National Guard, is now facing 16 years in prison, not for dangerous driving, but for a Youtube video he posted after receiving a speeding ticket.

The video, filmed with a camera mounted on Graber’s motorcycle helmet designed to record biking stunts rather than police abuse, shows a plain clothes officer jumping out of an unmarked car and pointing a pistol at the motorcyclist.

It does not portray the policeman in a positive light.

After he posted the video on Youtube, police raided Graber’s home, seized computers and put him in jail.

“The case is critical to the protection of democracy because I don’t think you can have a free country in which public officials are able to criminally prosecute people who film what they are doing,” David Rocah, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland who is representing Graber, said.

Wiretapping

Even though he had never been arrested before, Graber is being charged with illegal wiretapping and could face 16 years in jail.

“This is about shielding the policeman, a public servant, from journalistic scrutiny,” Steve Rendall, a media analyst with Freedom and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), told Al Jazeera.

The arrest happened in April and the trial is expected to begin later this year.

Rocah said his client “was charged under the wiretapping statute which prohibits taping oral communications without consent”.

The statute, which does not mention video recording, is not supposed to apply to “conversations in a colloquial context, but in a private context” Rocah told Al Jazeera. 

The encounter happened on a public street and, according to Rocah, police officers - public officials tasked with protecting the public interest - should not be able to hide behind such rules to avoid scrutiny.

“The value of documenting what is happening cannot be over-stated,” he said.

Threat to privacy?

Supporters of the crack-down on filming police argue that citizen journalists pose a threat to privacy.

That is the logic Joseph Cassily, the prosecutor handling Graber’s case, is likely to make at the trial.

In media interviews, Cassily presented a scenario where police stopped someone on suspicion of drinking and driving, asking for a breath test, and a random passerby filmed the encounter, putting it on the internet without consent from the driver or the officer.

“Is there some interest in protecting private individuals who may be having a conversation with the police? Yes,” Rendall said.

“But in the end, I think that is out-weighed by the public’s right to know.”

“[Furthermore] you can’t walk through Washington Square [a public space in New York] without being in the view of dozens of video cameras run by the police.”

Recording ban

The wiretapping statute which bans “secret” recording of private conversations is legislated by the state of Maryland, not the US federal government.

Other US states, including Florida, Illinois and Massachusetts, have used similar laws against citizen journalists.

In 2007, police in Florida arrested Carlos Miller, after the journalist photographed the arrest of a woman.

Security forces around the world use video evidence [Reuters]
“They [police] told me to leave the area, saying it was a ‘private matter’ and I said ‘this is a public road’. They escorted me across the street and told me to keep moving. I had the right to be there and kept taking photos. They arrested me,” Miller said.

He was charged with a series of misdemeanors and like many Americans arrested for filming police, Miller was eventually acquitted in court.

The arrest prompted the reporter to start the blog Photography is Not a Crimewhere he has documented more than eight similar incidents.

But the idea of winning court battles against journalists may not be the reason security forces prosecute journalists with wiretapping laws and other methods.

Intimidating journalists

“The whole reason for these laws is to intimidate people from filming,” Rendall said.

And attempts to intimidate journalists into putting down their cameras reach far beyond the US.

In February the UK’s Guardian newspaper ran the headline “Photographer films his own ‘anti-terror’ arrest"for a story and video about a man who was held by police for eight hours after taking pictures of Christmas celebrations in the small town of Accrington.

Rocah points to the example of the post-election protests in Iran. “The regime completely shut down the traditional media,” he said.

“It was citizens’ video posted on the web that allowed the world to see what was happening.”

Barack Obama, the US president, went so far as to ask Twitter to hold-off on a maintenance operation because the social networking site was playing an important role in the protests.

Police assault

The most prominent US example of a citizen journalist filming police was arguably the case of Rodney King, a black man in Los Angeles who was assaulted by several police officers. His beating was filmed by a citizen standing at a nearby gas station.

Without video evidence, King, a convicted felon, may have stood little chance testifying against police officers in court.

The Rodney King case compounded anger at police who were perceived as racist [AFP]
But the video of King’s beating flashed across news screens and helped spark the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which left more than 50 people dead and caused about $1bn in property damage.

The dynamics of video-tapping have fundamentally changed since then.

“I think that technology is making the issue [of arrests] arise with increasing frequency because the ability to record is more widely distributed than it ever has been,” Rocah said.

The civil liberties lawyer, who believes the wiretapping law is unconstitutional and will eventually be struck down, says he is confident his client will be found not guilty.

Broader trends

But even if he is, this case is indicative of broader trends in media, and consequently, the exercise of power.

As technology outpaces the abilities of states to control the flow of information, governments in the US and beyond are cracking down on independent journalists.

“In the past, freedom of the press only really belonged to those who owned newspapers, TV stations or other major outlets,” Miller said.

Now information is more diffuse; history easier to record and technology easier to afford.

Direct evidence, including video of police abuses, is the easiest way to hold the powerful to account. And that may be exactly why security forces do not want to be caught on tape. 

US Advisor Says Israel Can Destroy Lebanon Army Within 4 Hours

An example of American insane peace talk! American charity in Pakistan while people are suffer from the flood they get US drones/bombs.

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A senior advisor to US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell has threatened Lebanese army commander, Jean Qahwaji that should his army initiate additional fire exchanges with Israel, the Israeli occupation army would annihilate his military within four hours, Lebanese newspaper al-Liwa’a reported Friday.
According to the report, Frederick Hof spoke to Qahwaji on August 9, following the deadly border skirmish between Israel and Lebanon and informed him of the Israeli army contingency plan.
The report further quotes Mitchell’s aide as telling the Lebanese commander that Israel had decided to carry out a plan “which would completely destroy the Lebanese army’s bases, centers and offices within four hours.”
Three Lebanese were martyred during the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian-Lebanese borders, two Lebanese soldiers and one journalist. An Israeli Lieutenant-Colonel was killed and another officer was seriously injured. Firing began when occupation army forces entered a border enclave in order to uproot a tree. Lebanon later blamed Israel for violating UN Resolution 1701.
Hof advised the Lebanese army chief to show restraint in any future border conflict with the Zionist entity.
UNIFIL’s report on investigations into the border clash, which was issued on Wednesday, reconfirmed previous conclusions reached by them.
The report reiterated that trees cut by the Israeli Army were located south of the Blue Line on the Israeli side.
It said UNIFIL sent the investigation report with findings, conclusions and recommendations to the UN Headquarters and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations on Tuesday and to other concerned parties on Wednesday.
The report also said that both the Lebanese Army and the Israeli Army “fully cooperated with the UNIFIL team during the investigation.”

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

US Drone Strike Destroys House Full of Children in Pakistan

America is just such a giving and loving country!

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The Obama Administration’s policy of escalating drone strikes took another hit today, after the explosion from a drone attack against the house of “suspected militants” in North Waziristan also destroyed a neighboring house full of women and children.

The combined toll from the blast was 20 people killed, with at least four women and three children among the slain. At least 13 other civilians were also reported wounded, including a number of other children.

Pakistani intelligence officials say most of the “suspects” killed in the attacks were Afghans, but it is unclear how much evidence they had of wrongdoing. Large numbers of Afghan civilians have been living as refugees in the tribal areas since the 2001 US invasion.

The large numbers of civilians (700 in 2009 alone) killed in the US drone strikes has fueled considerable anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. When pressed during a previous visit Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shrugged off concerns about the civilians, saying only “there’s a war going on.”

Friday, August 20, 2010

Anti-Israel sentiment grows in US

A new opinion poll shows the Israeli regime is losing support among the American public as more US citizens question Tel Aviv’s commitment to peace.

The survey presented to Israeli leaders last week was conducted by pollster and strategist Stanley Greenberg and sponsored by America’s pro-Israeli organization, the Israel Project, Ha’aretz reported on Thursday.

The opinion poll revealed the number of Americans who think the US needs to support Israel dropped to 51 percent in July from 58 percent in June and 63 percent in August 2009.

On Tel Aviv’s commitment to peace, only 45 percent of Americans surveyed in July said they felt Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was committed to the Middle East peace process.

Meanwhile, 39 percent responded that Netanyahu and his administration are not committed to seeking peace with the Palestinians.

The finding is a serious challenge for the rightist Netanyahu as a late 2007 poll indicated that 66 percent of American respondents believed the Israeli administration, then led by his predecessor Ehud Olmert, was committed to peace.

Conducting similar surveys in European countries, Greenberg said the data reflects the worst time for Israel with regard to German public opinion since 2008.

In Germany, 50 percent of the respondents said they had “very cold” or unfavorable feelings toward Israel, compared with 39 percent who said they experienced “cold” or “very cold” feelings toward Palestinians.

In Sweden, the situation was similar to that in Germany, with 49 percent saying their feelings toward Israel were “cold” or “very cold.”

In France, those sympathizing with Israel did not go beyond 24 percent and the number, though narrowly, was outweighed by 31 percent who said that felt “cold” or “very cold” feelings toward it.

MRS/MRS

http://www.presstv.com/detail/139300.html

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Israel in fact can’t be a nation it is the largest US military base in the Middle East which grants the survival of all oppressive Arab regimes in the region. 

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

40 Statistics which Confirm the Collapse of the U.S. Economy - American dream?

40 Statistics which Confirm the Collapse of the U.S. Economy… BABOONISTAN is finito, done, kaput

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20591

Global Research, August 12, 2010
The Truth - 2010-07-20

Most Americans still appear to be operating under the delusion that the “recession” will soon pass and that things will get back to “normal” very soon. Unfortunately, that is not anywhere close to the truth. What we are now witnessing are the early stages of the complete and total breakdown of the U.S. economic system. The U.S. government, state governments, local governments, businesses and American consumers have collectively piled up debt that is equivalent to approximately 360 percent of GDP. At no point during the Great Depression (or at any other time during our history) did we ever come close to such a figure. We have piled up the biggest mountain of debt that the world has ever seen, and now that gigantic debt bubble is beginning to pop. As this house of cards comes crashing down, the economic pain is going to become almost unimaginable.

Unemployment is at shockingly high levels. Foreclosures and personal bankruptcies continue to set new all-time records. Businesses are being shut down at a staggering rate, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. government continues to pile up debt at blinding speed.

The following are 40 statistics that reveal the truth about the collapse of the U.S. economy....

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1 - According to one shocking new survey, 28% of U.S. households have at least one member that is looking for a full-time job.

2 - A recent Pew Research survey found that 55 percent of the U.S. labor force has experienced either unemployment, a pay decrease, a reduction in hours or an involuntary move to part-time work since the recession began.

3 - There are 9.2 million Americans that are unemployed who are not receiving an unemployment insurance check.

4 - In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.

5 - According to one analysis, the United States has lost 10.5 million jobs since 2007.

6 - China’s trade surplus (much of it with the United States) climbed 140 percent in June compared to a year earlier.

7 - This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.

8 - According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck. That was up significantly from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

9 - According to a recent poll conducted by Bloomberg, 71% of Americans say that it still feels like the economy is in a recession.

10 - Banks repossessed 269,962 U.S. homes during the second quarter of 2010, which was a new all-time record.

11 - Banks repossessed an average of 4,000 South Florida properties a month in the first half of 2010, up 83 percent from the first half of 2009.

12 - According to RealtyTrac, a total of 1.65 million U.S. properties received foreclosure filings during the first half of 2010.

13 - The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that demand for loans to purchase U.S. homes has sunk to a 13-year low.

14 - Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

15 - 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 - a 32 percent increase over 2008.

16 - Back in 1950 each retiree’s Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers. Today, each retiree’s Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers. By 2025 it is projectedthat there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.

17 - According to a new poll, six of 10 non-retirees believe that Social Security won’t be able to pay them benefits when they stop working.

18 - 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

19 - According to one survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don’t contribute anything to retirement savings.

20 - According to one recent survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

21 - The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index declined sharply to 52.9 in June. Most economists had expected that the figure for June would be somewhere around 62.

22 - Retail sales in the U.S. fell in June for a second month in a row.

23 - Vacancies and lease rates at U.S. shopping centers continued to get worse during the second quarter of 2010.

24 - Consumer credit in the United States has contracted during 15 of the past 16 months.

25 - During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.

26 - Things are now so bad in California that in the region around the state capital, Sacramento, there is now one closed business for every six that are still open.

27 - The state of Illinois now ranks eighth in the world in possible bond-holder default. The state of California is ninth.

28 - More than 25 percent of Americans now have a credit score below 599, which means that they are a very bad credit risk.

29 - On Friday, U.S. regulators closed down three banks in Florida, two in South Carolina and one in Michigan, bringing to 96 the number of U.S. banks to be shut down so far in 2010.

30 - The FDIC’s deposit insurance fund now has negative 20.7 billion dollars in it, which represents a slight improvement from the end of 2009.

31 - The U.S. federal budget deficit has topped $1 trillion with three months still to go in the current budget year.

32 - According to a U.S. Treasury Department report to Congress, the U.S. national debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.

33 - The M3 money supply plunged at a 9.6 percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2010.

34 - According to a new poll of Americans between the ages of 44 and 75, 61% said that running out money was their biggest fear. The remaining 39% thought death was scarier.

35 - One study found that as of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.

36 - The bottom 40 percent of all income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

37 - The number of Americans with incomes below the official poverty line rose by about 15%between 2000 and 2006, and by 2008 over 30 million U.S. workers were earning less than $10 per hour.

38 - According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.

39 - For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.

40 - A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey has found that just 23% of American voters nationwide believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

No room for Arab students at Israeli universities

The US military base Israel a democratic entity?

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Measures designed to benefit Jewish school-leavers applying for places in Israeli higher education at the cost of their Arab counterparts have been criticised by lawyers and human rights groups.

The new initiatives are viewed as part of an ongoing drive by right-wing politicians in Israel to demand “loyalty” from the country’s large minority population of Arab citizens.

Critics have termed the measures, including a programme to provide financial aid exclusively to students who have served in the Israeli army, a form of “covert discrimination”.

While most Jews are conscripted into the military, Israel’s Arab citizens are generally barred from serving.

The issue came to a head last week over reports that Tel Aviv University had reserved a large number of dormitory places for discharged soldiers, leaving Arab students facing a severe shortage of university accommodation in the coming academic year.

In addition, only former soldiers will be eligible in future for large subsidies on tuition fees under an amended law passed last month.

Arab students already face many obstacles to pursuing higher education, according to the Dirasat policy research centre in Nazareth. These include psychometric exams—a combined aptitude and personality test that has been criticised as culturally biased—and minimum age restrictions for courses, typically at age 21, when soldiers finish their three-year service.

But Tel Aviv university’s decision has come under fire because it will put further pressure on Arab students to forgo higher education.

Most Arab families live far from Tel Aviv, with limited public transport connections. High poverty rates also mean few are able to afford private rooms for their children, and Arab students already complain that private landlords refuse to rent to them.

Although comprising only five per cent of the student body at Tel Aviv university, Arabs won about 40 per cent of dorm places last year, when rooms were awarded using social and economic criteria, said Mohammed Awadi, a Tel Aviv student leader.

“Now the university management has told us that most Arab students will be rejected because preference will be given to military service,” he said. “The message is that they would rather have a university without any Arabs at all.”

Yousef Jabareen, Dirasat’s director, said the university’s decision represented an increasingly hardline attitude from its officials. “What is so worrying is that a supposedly liberal academic institution—not the right-wing government—is promoting discrimination,” he said.

Yesterday, Joseph Klafter, the university’s president, was reported to be inspecting course reading lists for signs of what officials called “post-Zionist bias”, or criticism of Israel’s founding ideology.

Sawsan Zaher, a lawyer with Adalah, a legal centre in Haifa, said the new rules on subsidised tuition and student housing were part of the government’s “loyalty drive”, a programme of reforms that has been decried for creating an overtly hostile political climate towards the Arab minority.

The campaign has been spearheaded by the Yisrael Beitenu party of the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, whose election slogan was “No loyalty, no citizenship”.

The use of military service as a criterion for awarding student housing was ruled discriminatory two years ago by Haifa district court. The government, however, quickly amended the law, allowing universities to change their rules, as Tel Aviv University has now done.

Haifa University, which has the largest Arab student population, also reserves dorm rooms for former soldiers.

Far-right leaders have suggested in the past that the Arab minority can be encouraged to emigrate by restricting access to higher education. Benny Elon, a former cabinet minister, notoriously summed up the policy as: “I will close the universities to you, I will make your lives difficult, until you want to leave.”

Last month the parliament approved a package of additional financial benefits to encourage former soldiers to study in “peripheral areas”, including three colleges in West Bank settlements.

Gush Shalom, an Israeli peace group, warned that the law would push Israel’s academic system “deeper into complicity with the occupation” and bolster the movement for an academic boycott of Israel.

Ms Zaher said the government appeared determined to push farther along the same path. Last month a ministerial committee approved a draft bill that would allow private businesses to award extra benefits to former soldiers.

Although Arabs are a quarter of the college-age population, they comprise only eight per cent of the students attending Israeli universities.

A Dirasat survey last year showed that half of Arab students—about 5,400—chose to study abroad, mainly in neighbouring Jordan, because of the difficulties they faced in Israel.

Ms Zaher said that introducing discriminatory measures at universities would exacerbate already stark socio-economic disparities in Israel. Poverty rates among Arab families are three times those of the Jewish population.

“Rather than trying to remedy the discrimination by investing extra budgets to help the Arab community, public and private institutions are being encouraged to widen the gaps,” she said.

Ms Zaher was due this week to send a letter to the Yehuda Weinstein, the attorney-general, calling for the government to stop tying basic rights to military service.

At Tel Aviv University, Arab students expressed concern about the new rules.

Rula Abu Hussein, a film studies student from Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, said she had been told to vacate her dorm by October, when her second year begins.

“It’s really hard to find affordable private rooms in Tel Aviv for anyone but if you’re an Arab it’s especially difficult,” she said. “A lot of the landlords are racist and don’t want an Arab in their properties.”

Tel Aviv university was unavailable for comment.

Monday, August 16, 2010

25,000 Jews live in Iran

Tells us that the real barbarians are the Wall Street led war US and its military base Israel.

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25,000 Jews live in Iran. It’s the largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of Israel. Iranian Jews are not persecuted or abused by the state, in fact, they are protected under Iran’s constitution. They are free to practice their religion and to vote in elections. They are not stopped and searched at checkpoints, they are not brutalized by an occupying army, and they are not herded into a densely-populated penal colony (Gaza) where they are deprived of the basic means of survival. Iranian Jews live in dignity and enjoy the benefits of citizenship.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is demonized in the western media. He is called an anti-Semite and the “new Hitler”. But if those claims are true, then why did the majority of Iran’s Jews vote for Ahmadinejad in recent presidential elections? Could it be that most of what we know about Ahmadinejad is just baseless rumor and propaganda? This excerpt appeared in an article by the BBC:

“(Ahmadinejad’s) office recently donated money for Tehran’s Jewish hospital. It is one of only four Jewish charity hospitals worldwide and is funded with money from the Jewish diaspora - something remarkable in Iran where even local aid organizations have difficulty receiving funds from abroad for fear of being accused of being foreign agents.”

When did Hitler ever donate money to Jewish hospitals? The Hitler analogy is a desperate attempt to brainwash Americans. It tells us nothing about what Ahmadinejad is really like.

The lies about Ahmadinejad are no different than the lies about Saddam Hussein or Hugo Chavez. The US and Israel are trying to create the justification for another war. That’s why the media credits Ahmadinejad with saying things that he never really said. He never said that he wanted to “wipe Israel off the map”. That’s another fiction. Author Jonathan Cook explains what the Iranian president really said:

“This myth has been endlessly recycled since a translating error was made of a speech Ahmadinejad delivered nearly two years ago. Farsi experts have verified that the Iranian president, far from threatening to destroy Israel, was quoting from an earlier speech by the late Ayatollah Khomeini in which he reassured supporters of the Palestinians that “the Zionist regime in Jerusalem” would “vanish from the page of time.”

He was not threatening to exterminate Jews or even Israel. He was comparing Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians with other illegitimate systems of rule whose time had passed, including the Shahs who once ruled Iran, apartheid South Africa and the Soviet empire. Nonetheless, this erroneous translation has survived and prospered because Israel and its supporters have exploited it for their own crude propaganda purposes.” ("Israel’s Jewish problem in Tehran”, Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada)

Ahmadinejad poses no threat to Israel or the United States. Like everyone else in the Middle East, he just wants a breather from US and Israeli aggression.

This is from Wikipedia:

“The U.S. State Department has made claims of discrimination in Iran against Jews. According to its study, Jews may not occupy senior positions in government and are prevented from serving in the judiciary and security services and from becoming public school heads. The study says that Jewish citizens are permitted to obtain passports and to travel outside the country, but they often are denied the multiple-exit permits normally issued to other citizens. Allegations made by the U.S. State Department have been condemned by Iranian Jews. The Association of Tehrani Jews said in a statement, “We Iranian Jews condemn claims of the US State Department on Iranian religious minorities, announced that we are fully free to perform our religious duties and we feel no restriction on performing our religious rituals.”

Who should we believe; the Jews who actually live Iran or the troublemaking US State Department?

There are 6 kosher butcher shops, 11 synagogues and numerous Hebrew schools in Tehran. Neither Ahmadinejad nor any other Iranian government official has made any attempt to close any these facilities down. Never. Iranian Jews are free to travel (or move) to Israel if they chose. They are not imprisoned by an occupying army. They are not deprived of food and medicine. Their children do not grow up with mental disorders brought on by the trauma of sporadic violence. Their families are not blown up by gunships lobbing rounds on the beaches. Their supporters are not crushed by bulldozers or shot in the head with rubber bullets. They are not gassed and beaten when they peacefully demonstrate for their civil liberties. Their leaders are not hunted down and killed in targeted assassinations.

Roger Cohen wrote a very thoughtful essay on the topic for the New York Times. He said:

“Perhaps I have a bias toward facts over words, but I say the reality of Iranian civility toward Jews tells us more about Iran — its sophistication and culture — than all the inflammatory rhetoric. That may be because I’m a Jew and have seldom been treated with such consistent warmth as in Iran. Or perhaps I was impressed that the fury over Gaza, trumpeted on posters and Iranian TV, never spilled over into insults or violence toward Jews. Or perhaps it’s because I’m convinced the “Mad Mullah” caricature of Iran and likening of any compromise with it to Munich 1938 — a position popular in some American Jewish circles — is misleading and dangerous.” ("What Iran’s Jews Say”, Roger Cohen, New York Times)

Things aren’t perfect for Jews living in Iran, but they’re better than they are for Palestinians living in Gaza. Much better.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

GOOD BLESS!… China Opens Missile Plant In Iran…

China inaugurated a missile plan in Iran last month, even as the United States and its allies were pressing Beijing to support a new round of tough economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, Jane’s Defense Weekly reports.

It’s a military relationship that goes back two decades and, in light of Russia’s reluctance to provide the Iranians with advanced air-defense missile system to counter possible U.S. or Israeli airstrikes, is set to expand.

Robert Hewson, editor of Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, reported that the factory for assembling and producing Iran’s Nasr-1 — Victory 1 — anti-ship missile was opened March 7.

The Nasr is identical to China’s C-704 anti-ship missile, Hewson says. Iran’s burgeoning defense industry, much of it controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has been producing Chinese-designed anti-ship missiles such as the C-801 since the early 1990s.

The C-704, developed by China Aerospace Group, targets ships of 1,000-4,000 tons displacement and is the equivalent of the U.S. AGM-119 anti-ship missile. With a range of 106 miles and a 240-pound warhead, the C-704 has a kill probability of 95.7 percent.

The Iranians, possibly with Chinese assistance, have even developed improved versions such as the Noor, an upgraded version of China’s C-802, with a longer range than the original and over-the-horizon capabilities.

Indeed, Hewson observed that “Iran has gone further than China in fielding the C-802, taking what was previously a land- and ship-launched weapon and producing an air-launched version that can be carried by Mi-17 helicopters and fast-jet types.”

Over the years Iran has developed a range of anti-ship missile systems from the Chinese weapons that gives the Islamic Republic’s regular navy and the IRGC’s naval arm the capability to exert a considerable degree of control over waters in the Gulf and the Arabian Sea.

This is the area from which U.S. naval forces would strike if hostilities erupt.

On Saturday, the IRGC concluded its annual three-day Great Prophet exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, the choke point gateway to the Gulf and a key energy artery, in a show of defiance against the United States.

The Nasr is a medium-range weapon that can be launched from warships or shore batteries and its development and planned mass production has been trumpeted by Tehran at a time when Iran’s military forces are making preparations to counter possible attacks.

“In a methodical and deceptively modest manner China has helped Iran take charge of all its surrounding waters and this work between the two nations continues,” Hewson reported.

“Follow-on versions of the Nasr are being developed to include an air-launched variant.

“There are other cooperative tactical missile programs under way and China’s design bureaus have displayed several ‘export only’ weapons (such as the C-705 lightweight cruise missile) that would seem set to follow the established route into Iran,” Hewson added.

“With such a solid relationship established between the two countries it is not difficult to see why China has been reluctant to commit to the Western push for sanctions against Iran.”

China, ever hungry for energy sources to fuel its expanding economy, imports around 12 percent of its oil from Iran and seeks to secure Iranian natural gas through overland pipelines — another reason it has shown little enthusiasm for new U.N. sanctions on Iran.

Hewson said no Chinese envoys were seen at the opening of the Nasr factory conducted by Iran’s hard-line defense minister, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, but the event marked “another milestone in the continuing military/industrial bond between the two countries.”

Hewson observed that unlike Russia, China “has been very successful in offering Iran technology and capabilities that are actually wanted, as opposed to those that might be ‘nice to have.’

“A path has been found through the factions within Iranian officialdom (and its armed forces) to deliver products that build trust in Beijing. In return, China gains influence with Tehran that can be parlayed into access to Iran’s natural resources.”

While these Chinese-origin systems have provided Iran with invaluable missile technology, this has had little or no impact on the development of its ballistic missile capabilities.

“Iran’s strategic weapons can only (ultimately) involve it in a losing battle with the United States,’ Hewson concluded, “but its tactical weapons have already altered the regional balance of power in a much more practical way.”

http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=134573

Saturday, August 07, 2010

US-Vietnam nuke deal will likely allow enrichment

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has told U.S. lawmakers that a nuclear cooperation deal with Vietnam is unlikely to include a coveted promise by the Hanoi government not to enrich uranium, congressional aides say.
The United States had sought a no-enrichment pledge, which the State Department promotes as the “gold standard” for civilian nuclear cooperation accords.

It would have been modeled on a deal last year in which the United Arab Emirates pledged, in return for U.S. nuclear equipment and reactors, not to enrich uranium or extract plutonium from used reactor fuel—procedures that would provide material that could be used in a nuclear weapon.

The Obama administration has been eager to send a strong nonproliferation message, especially to Iran, which the United States and others accuse of covertly seeking nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, but it has resisted international pressure to stop enriching uranium.

A UAE-style deal with Vietnam could have been used by the United States to push other countries for similar commitments not to enrich uranium or reprocess spent fuel. Many countries, however, balk at what they consider an infringement on sovereignty. Countries that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty have the right to enrich uranium for civilian use on their own soil under safeguards.

Two congressional aides familiar with the discussions said the Obama administration has concluded that it is unlikely to persuade Vietnam to agree to a UAE-style no-enrichment pledge. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. Another congressional aide, briefed by the administration, said the talks with Vietnam are in their final stages.

The Vietnam development was reported first by The Wall Street Journal.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley would not talk about specifics of the deal with Vietnam. He called the UAE nuclear accord the “gold standard” and noted that the UAE had decided “that it would forgo the right of enrichment that every country in the world has.”

“We certainly want to see other countries make that same kind of decision,” Crowley said.

Asked if the United States would agree to a deal that would allow Hanoi to keep its right to enrich, Crowley said: “If a country decides to pursue nuclear energy, and a country decides that it chooses to enrich on its own soil, then we would prospectively work with that country” to make sure its program would meet all international safeguards and work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Vuong Huu Tan, director of Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute, said that “Vietnam does not plan to enrich uranium, which is a very sensitive issue.”

The United States and Vietnam signed an agreement in March meant to pave the way for U.S. companies to help build nuclear power plants. The countries are now negotiating a broader deal that would allow U.S. companies to enter Vietnam’s nuclear power sector.

Vietnamese officials say they also have signed nuclear energy cooperation agreements with Russia, China, France, South Korea, India and Argentina.

Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center think tank and a former Pentagon official, urged the White House to “step back and ask, ‘Does it make sense to be peddling nuclear cooperation as a way to make and influence friends there?’”

“This deal gives double standards a bad name. They need to slow down,” he said. “If you’re going to do it, then don’t lower your standards. What does that buy you? Nothing but trouble.”

___

Ann Wright: Clinton Refuses to Answer My Questions About Gaza Flotilla

How can you write a letter to a mental institution?

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June 14, 2010

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Department of State
Washington, DC 20001

Dear Secretary Clinton,

I am a retired US Army reserve colonel and a former US diplomat (deputy chief of mission at U.S. Embassies in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia) who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq.

I was one of twelve US citizens that were on the Gaza Flotilla. I have just returned to the United States from having been kidnapped and imprisoned by the Israeli government.

I appeal to you to institute a US investigation into the murder by Israeli military forces of American citizen Furkan Dogan, a 19-year-old high school student on the Mavi Marmara ship.

I also ask that the United States demand the return of one US-flagged vessels that were seized in international waters in an act of international piracy by the Israeli military.

I ask that the State Department assist in the location of the personal possessions that were stolen from American citizens in international waters by the Israeli military including computers, cameras, cell phones, identification, credit cards (one credit card has been used in Israel for over $20,000 in purchases), clothing, miscellaneous items such as notebooks, diaries and other personal papers.

I also ask that the United States demand that the Israeli government cooperate with the offer of the European Union to inspect ships and cargo destined for Gaza, which would allow the siege to end and commerce to begin.

I ask that an investigation into whether US made military equipment or equipment purchased with/through US funding was used in the attacks on the six civilian, unarmed vessels, and if so, that sanctions against Israel available through the U.S. Arms and Export Control Act be implemented.

I am attaching a list of 80 questions that an inquiry should answer. The list of questions comes from Uri Averny, who heads the Israeli human rights organization Gush Shalom.

I also ask that US funding for the reconstruction of Gaza be disbursed immediately. There are many non-governmental organizations in Gaza that can assist in the reconstruction activities if they have funding.

Sincerely,

Ann Wright

Honolulu, Hawaii 96826

Friday, August 06, 2010

American VIP humiliated at airport

Prof. Donna Shalala, Clinton’s secretary of health, arrives in Israel in order to fight academic boycott against Israel, claims she was held at Ben-Gurion Airport just because she has Arab last name.

This is not how she imagined her visit to Israel. Prof. Donna Shalala, who served as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services for eight years under Clinton and is currently the president of the University of Miami, was held for two-and-a-half hours at Ben Gurion Airport during which she underwent a humiliating security debriefing because of her Arab last name – all this despite the fact that her hosts notified the airport ahead of time that she is a VIP.

The fact that Shalala arrived in Israel as part of an official delegation of the heads of universities fighting against the academic boycott against the Jewish State also seemed not to help her.

Shalala, 69, was born in the US to Lebanese immigrant parents. She is considered a true friend of Israel and has visited the country many times in the past.

She recently arrived in Israel as a guest of the American Jewish Congress with the objective of increasing collaboration among universities in Israel, the US, and the Palestinian Authority. During their visit, members of the delegation met with President Shimon Peres, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

The official visit ended on July 12, but Shalala stayed on for another two days for a private visit.

The AJC claims that it notified the Israel Airports Authority of Shalala’s VIP status as is customary prior to her departure. However, the IAA claims that it has no record on file for Shalala prior to her arrival.

When Shalala arrived at the airport, she was not recognized as a VIP and was even afforded what she claims to be “special” treatment because of her Arab last name. She claims she was held for two-and-a-half hours during which she was asked invasive and humiliating personal questions. Despite the delay, she managed to board the flight to the US. Officials who spoke with her said she was deeply offended by the treatment she received.

An IAA spokesperson reported in response: “This incident is unknown to us. We performed a thorough check. There was no contact made with us or any other body. No unusual events were registered at Ben Gurion Airport, and we have no idea about this incident, which, from our perspective, never happened.”

IAA officials said that root of the problem is that the host organizations don’t bother accompanying their guests to the airport.

The incident was raised Wednesday during a discussion convened by Deputy Foreign Ministry Ayalon to discuss treatment of VIPs at Ben Gurion Airport. During the discussion, it was agreed that a new protocol will be drafted that will keep incidents to a minimum.

Shalala preferred not to comment on the article.

Anti-Hunger Bill Cuts $14 Billion From Food Stamps

We need more money for wars and for our military base: Israel.

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(Aug. 6)—In a rare show of bipartisanship in Washington, the Senate voted unanimously to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Among other things, the bill reauthorizes federal child nutrition programs, sets nutritional standards for food sold in schools and boosts reimbursement rates for school lunch programs.

All to the good, as far as food security efforts go. But in part to help pay for the program, the Senate also approved $14 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly referred to as food stamps.

“This is essentially robbing Peter to feed Peter’s kids,” J.C. Dwyer, state policy director for the Texas Food Bank Network, told AOL News. “These are the same families that rely on food stamps and child nutrition programs.”

Senate Agriculture Committee chairwoman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said those SNAP dollars had already been threatened, and shifting them into child nutrition ensures that they will still be going to help feed hungry families.

“We were going to lose those dollars anyway. ... At least these dollars are going to feed children just like SNAP dollars would,” Lincoln told Politico. “I certainly think it’s much more practical, if we’re going to rededicate those dollars, rededicate them to what they were intended to do.”

Lincoln also argued that the funding that was cut wouldn’t come into effect until 2013, giving the program “time to recoup.”

Nevertheless, more than 1,400 nonprofit groups have signed a letter asking senators to reconsider the cuts, arguing that this rollback could be a devastating blow to families already reeling from the economic crisis.

Cutting the SNAP funds, the letter reads, “would return millions of families to the situation where their SNAP benefits typically run out in the third or early in the fourth week of the month. It would increase hunger.”

If the cuts stand, by April 2014 the average food stamp allotment for an average family of three will drop $47 a month. For families who are counting every dollar, that money will have to come out of other expenses like rent, utilities and medicine.

Hunger in the U.S and abroad could also be exacerbated this year by environmental factors. Withering droughts, wildfires and floods in Eastern Europe have impacted wheat harvests to the point that Americans could see price increases for basic foods like bread and pasta.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama set a goal of eliminating childhood hunger in America by 2015. And SNAP received significant aid from the stimulus bill, intended as both a way to assist struggling families and to reinvigorate the economy.

According to the federal estimates, every dollar paid by the stimulus bill in food stamps generated $1.84 in economic activity. In the wake of the economic crisis, a record 40.8 million people, or approximately 13 out of 100 Americans, rely on food stamps.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2010 Congressional Candidates

http://www.wrmea.com/component/content/article/351-2010-may-june/9045-pro-israel-pac-contributions-to-2010-congressional-candidates.html