Harlem/Bangladesh

[Michael Perelman]

Regarding Paul's suggestion about infant mortality recall the recent study comparing
infant mortality in Harlem and Bangladesh.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu

HDI\PPP Michael,Ulhas and Michael

[Paul]

[See what happens with some encouragement - soon I'll be
overposting!  I'll try to make this the last.]

1)  Uhlas writes:
Paul was trying to show how PPP numbers
overstate the
economic growth in the developing countries. I am not
sure I understand how he has reached that conclusion.
For India, from 1992 to 2001, the GNI increased by 64% when calculated by
the World Bank "Atlas" method (non-PPP).  But for the same
period GNI increased by 91% using PPP!  For all low and middle
income countries taken together the difference is even more extreme (22%
growth vs. 44%!).  It is not just that India is made to look less
poor via developed countries (which would be a one time
distortion).  It is also that India (and poor countries as a whole)
are made to look like they are also closing the remaining gap (a
statistical "bias" because High Income countries are not
affected).  [All stats from the WB's WDI.]

Furthermore, the discrepancy between the two methods grows - by as much
as 4 or 5 times - during the neo-liberal period (tell me off-line if you
want the chart for India, the change is dramatic).  So, there is a
"bias in the bias" which shows neo-liberalism as a great
success.  As I explained previous posts, this is
"built-in" since the PPP model recalculates the numbers drawing
from a neo-classical General Equilibrium model where market prices are
assumed powerful and beneficial.  But in fact the GNI/PPP are just
numbers from a model driven by assumptions...although they are presented
as if they are statistics.  Then the statistics are used to prove
correct the assumptions from the free market model.  [BTW there are
various flavors of PPP-type models.  The Bank has chosen the most
extreme version that has the most free-market assumptions.  The
other versions of PPP, logically, produce lower numbers.  See below
for examples.] 

2) Michael Perelman writes:
If we were go[ing] to try to make some sort of
quantitative measure of a human
development index, I think I [would] try to get a handle on how people at
the bottom
fared rather than looking at averages.
I couldn't agree more.  One catch is that - in another little
noticed development - the World Bank has withdrawn its support for
calculating income distribution figures.  A quick look at the World
Development Indicators shows that in most cases the last calculation is a
decade old (and not capturing the radical changes of our era).  One
imagines that they will soon not be published at all.  Income
distribution is being replaced with the Banks own "poverty"
measure.  Their poverty measure combines the (flawed) PPP with a
(flawed) measure of poverty.  The two flaws combine to show great
reductions in the number of the poor - a great theme of the World Bank
publications recently (see comments about the Wade article below).

This is why I often suggest people use numbers like the infant mortality
rate so that the plight of the poor isn't erased by progress at the top
(also these numbers are more accurate than most and respond quickly to
changes).

3) Michael Lebowitz writes:
In relation to questions raised by Paul on
HDI, etc, a friend has directed me to a recent piece by Robert Wade in
New Political Economy. I assume it's in the following issue: 

Volume 9, Number 2, June 2004 


Looks interesting. (It will take me a long while to read it, people
interested in an electronic copy should contact me off-line). 
Robert Wade (now at LSE) is often an insightful open minded liberal who
is well informed (including several years working for the World
Bank).  The article is mostly about the World Bank's claims that
world inequality and world poverty are diminishing.  Although Wade
does not spend much time on the statistics question he does make the
point that the conclusions depend almost entirely on the particular
choice of measurement.

I am not truly familiar with the literature on the statistical issue
(anyone out there who is?).  Among the beleaguered non-mainstream
economists who do write on these issues in a technical manner, I don't
know anyone who has translated these issues into an applied
context.  But here are some links:

a)  For a
non-neoclassical critique: Columbia University economist and philosopher
team "How Not to Count the Poor":
http://www.columbia.edu/~sr793/count.pdf

b)  Other authors
agree with neo-classical models but point out that PPP version used by
the Bank (and hence internationally) has extreme free market assumptions
(e.g. assuming no substitution bias in General Equilibrium models). 
One such author is Steve Dowrick of Australia Nat. Univ. and has written
on such issues with Brad deLong (familiar on the internet as no great
critic of the World Bank).  Dowrick shows that relaxing just one of
the extreme neoclassical assumptions produces a different PPP index that
reverses the Banks conclusions about poverty and distribution. See 
http://ecocomm.anu.edu.au/people/info/dowrick/world-inequ.pdf
and
http://acsr.anu.edu.au/staff/ackland/

A good NY Times article on the World Bank

[michael perelman]

Dugger, Celia. 2004. "World Bank Challenged: Are the Poor Really
Helped?" New York Times (28 July).
"Wealthy nations and international organizations, including the World
Bank, spend more than $55 billion annually to better the lot of the
world's 2.7 billion poor people.  Yet they have scant evidence that the
myriad projects they finance have made any real difference, many
economists say."
"You must also measure whether those investments actually help poor
people live longer, more prosperous lives."
"A small band of development economists, who a year ago founded the
Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have
become influential advocates for randomized evaluations as the best way
to answer that question.  Such trials, generally regarded as the gold
standard in social policy research, involve randomly assigning people
eligible for an antipoverty program to get the help or not, then
comparing outcomes to see whether those who got the help fared better
than those who did not."
"The Poverty Action Lab scholars have made startling discoveries in
their own randomized evaluations.  Adding an extra teacher to classrooms
in rural India did not improve children's test scores.  But hiring
high-school graduates who were paid only $10 to $15 a month to give
remedial tutoring to groups of lagging students in a Bombay slum
markedly improved reading and math skills."
"A series of education experiments in Kenya found that providing poor
students with free uniforms or a simple porridge breakfast substantially
increased attendance.  But giving them drugs to treat the intestinal
worms that infect more than a quarter of the world's population was more
cost effective, with a price tag of only $3.50 for each extra year of
schooling achieved.  Healthier children are more likely to go to
school.  "You can't answer the general question:  Does aid work?" said
Esther Duflo, an economist and co-founder of the Poverty Action Lab.
"You have to go project by project and accumulate the evidence."
"The World Bank, a lumbering giant that employs more than 1,200 Ph.D.'s,
is beginning to listen to critics like her."
"A recent in-house review of bank projects during the past four to five
years found that only 2 percent had been properly evaluated for whether
they made a difference, according to Mr. Bourguignon." [Fran‡ois
Bourguignon, the bank's chief economist]
"A critical review of the bank's $7 billion portfolio of programs that
involve local communities in their design and management concluded
recently that "there are, unfortunately, a dearth of well-designed
evaluations of such projects"." "Another review of a $1.3 billion
initiative in India found similar problems.  Bank economists in New
Delhi examined more than 200 studies of projects in India that ranged
from teacher training to school construction, enrollment drives to
textbook revision.  They concluded that none of the studies were
rigorous enough to measure whether the initiatives made a difference,
except for one that found it increased enrollment by a disappointing 1.3
percent.  "The World Bank spent more than a billion dollars without
knowing why they were doing what they were doing -- that's the tragedy,"
said Abhijit Banerjee, an M.I.T. economics professor and co-founder of
the Poverty Action Lab." "But even as aid agencies lagged in conducting
stringent evaluations, Professors Banerjee and Duflo at M.I.T., Michael
Kremer at Harvard and other economists associated with the lab have been
conducting randomized trials of antipoverty programs in India, Kenya,
South Africa, Peru and the Philippines." "This rigorous testing has made
a huge difference in medicine and has improved human welfare due to
better drugs," said Professor [Michael] Kremer. "If we could use
randomized evaluations to really find out what works, foreign aid donors
could implement better health and education policies and so could
developing countries." "Mr. Pritchett, a veteran bank economist, tried
to explain why rigorous evaluations were such a rarity in the culture of
the bank.  Its highly trained, well-meaning professionals too often
think they know the solutions.  "They have too little doubt," he said."
"They also worry that modest, proven gains for the poor will lose out to
inflated, unproven claims for, say, tax cuts to the rich or a new
weapons system -- a concern he shares.  "You want to know what works and
what doesn't, but until you subject the full range of government
spending to the same discipline, why are you disadvantaging things for
poor people?" he asked." "But Professor Banerjee is optimistic that
reliable evaluations will give advocates ammunition to lobby for
increased foreign aid.  He pointed to the success of a rigorously
studied Mexican program that paid poor mothers a small sum if they kept
their children in school and got them immunized.  The model has spread
across Latin America in large measure because a large randomized trial,
published in 2001, showed that th

Adnan Abbas's "Call to Humanity"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

"Adnan Abbas's 'Call to Humanity'" (about a young Iraqi artist):

--
Yoshie
* Critical Montages: 
* Greens for Nader: 
* Bring Them Home Now! 
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
,
, & 
* Student International Forum: 
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: 
* Al-Awda-Ohio: 
* Solidarity: 

leading indicators

[Michael Perelman]

If consumer confidence is increasing and purchases are flattening, which is the
leading indicator?
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu

Farmers' suicides in the US

[michael]

I recall reading a book, Wisconsin Death Trip, that discussed 19th C. farm wives 
depression.  I think that farm suicides here might be relatively high, athough some 
farmers take their frustration out in voiolence of one kind or another.
POULTRY GROWERS AT MERCY
OF INDUSTRIALIZED AGRICULTURE
AND SHORT, TENUOUS CONTRACTS
DRAWN UP BY FOOD GIANTS
MONTE MITCHELL, WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL: Lee Mounce loved tending his
chickens.
It was relaxing, collecting their eggs and listening to them cluck. When
he got off his third-shift job at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., he would
drink a cup of coffee, eat a bowl of cereal and tend his chickens. He
retired early to spend more time with them and saw chicken farming as a
way to keep making money. He knew many other folks in Yadkin County who
raised chickens under contracts with big poultry companies.
Jimmy Johnson loved his chickens, too. He grew up on a dairy farm in
Chatham County and got a degree in beef and dairy management from North
Carolina State University. It didn't seem like much of a stretch to
start up a chicken operation on his own 59-acre farm off U.S. 64.
Chicken farming seemed like a sure-fire source of income.
It didn't turn out that way, though. Both men found themselves buried
under a mountain of debt, caused in part by a series of company-mandated
upgrades to their chicken houses. They also stared into the uncertainty
of the industry's contract system. Perdue Farms cut Mounce's 12-month
contract in 2001. Johnson was convinced that his short-term contract
with Mountaire Farms of North Carolina would soon be cut.
Both men had accumulated about $300,000 in past-due loans with no
guarantee of income.
When the bank foreclosed on his chicken-house loans, Mounce, 60, paid
with his farm and the house he had already paid off. Johnson paid with
his life. Despondent over his situation, he turned a shotgun on himself
inside one of his chicken houses in October 2002. He was 48.
"We thought the world of Jimmy," said Jim Shepard, the live-operations
manager for the local Mountaire complex. "No one was pulling for him
more than this company."
Family members say that both men fell victim to a system of
industrialized agriculture that leaves farmers with short, tenuous
contracts hammered out with one of a handful of large, highly
competitive corporations.
When chicken farming went to a company-owned contract system in the
1950s, there were more than 1,000 companies competing to offer contracts
to chicken farmers. Today there are fewer than 50, with just a few
carrying the most clout.
A 1999 survey of 1,000 chicken farmers by Purdue University showed that
half of them had a total farm debt of more than $100,000. The 1999 study
also showed that while 75% of the farmers thought that they had made a
good decision to go into the business, 95% said that costs had risen
faster than expected and just 35% would recommend chicken farming to
others.
Still, some farmers swear by chicken farming. They say that raising
broilers - the chickens that end up in the freezer at your grocery ---
or raising chickens for eggs are an excellent supplement to other farm
income derived through row crops, dairy cattle or beef cattle.
Lee Mounce learned a lesson about contract farming that he won't soon
forget.
"Anybody that will go into the chicken business, spend $200,000 per
house, and most people will build two houses and knowing before you
start you only get 12-month contracts, they're crazy," Mounce said. "But
you don't think about it. I mean, it's something you don't think about,
but it's foolish."
Wilkes County is the state's biggest producer of broilers and the
county's largest employer is Tyson Foods Inc., which has three
chicken-processing plants at its Wilkesboro complex.
Tyson does not own the more than 990 chicken houses in the area. The
farmers do. At an average cost of $150,000 per broiler house -- not
including land --- farmers have invested about $148.5 million, mostly in
Wilkes County.
Companies benefit from the capital outlay by farmers and from having
farmers dispose of manure, but they say that the arrangement also
benefits farmers because they are guaranteed a payment regardless of
what happens to the market. The company absorbs the risk, allowing the
farmers a steady income and the ability to stay on the farm.
Lee Mounce was a chicken farmer for 22 years and hoped to pass the farm
on to his son, Craig.
Craig Mounce, 36, thought he was getting the opportunity of a lifetime
in 1987 when he built a 400-foot chicken house beside his father's two
houses. He dreamed of independence and a chance to own his own business.
But he found out what chicken farmers in North Carolina and across the
country have learned.
There is little protection for the chicken farmer. The companies own the
chickens, control what kind of birds the farmers get, control the feed,
control the pay system and can cancel a contract at almost any time.
The farmers take out the loans to build the houses they own, but t

Proposal to Up Minimum Wage Makes Florida Fall Ballot

[Michael Hoover]

Proposal To Up The Minimum Wage Makes Florida Fall Ballot

POSTED: 6:14 pm EDT July 27, 2004
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A proposed constitutional amendment to create a
state
minimum wage that starts at $6.15 and is tied to inflation made the
November ballot Tuesday when it cleared the signature threshold.

The federal minimum wage, which hasn't changed in seven years, is $5.15.

The minimum wage citizen's initiative has more than 531,000 verified
signatures, according to the state Division of Elections. That's more
than
the 488,722 required of petition drives to make the ballot.

The measure is backed by the national group ACORN, which has pushed for
higher wages in cities across the country. Sponsors collected more than
900,000 signatures in their campaign.

The state Supreme Court had already given the measure the go-ahead for
the
ballot, finding it was clearly explained in its ballot title and summary
and dealt with only one subject.

Four other proposed constitutional amendments are already on the ballot.

One would open the door to a future parental notice law dealing with
teen
abortions and one would allow South Florida voters to decide if they
want
to permit slots at race tracks and jai-alai frontons.


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Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from 
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Russia plays energy card

[Ulhas Joglekar]

The Hindu

Tuesday, Jul 06, 2004

Russia plays energy card

By Vladimir Radyuhin

As global energy demand soars, President Vladimir
Putin wants to use oil and
gas exports as instruments to speed up Russia's
economic revival and enhance
its geopolitical weight.

RUSSIA HAS embarked on a new geopolitical game,
playing its energy card to
reclaim global clout. Its vast energy reserves and
control over the markets
in the former Soviet Union are to be leveraged to turn
Russia into a
superpower.

As global energy demand soars, the Russian President,
Vladimir Putin, wants
to position Russia as a key broker in the
international market and use oil
and gas exports as instruments to speed up the
country's economic revival
and enhance its geopolitical weight.

After dropping nearly 50 per cent from the Soviet era
peak, Russia's oil
output has soared again to exceed 450 million tonnes
(together with gas
condensates) by the end of the current year making it
the world's second
largest producer, behind only Saudi Arabia.

Total oil reserves are a state secret in Russia, but
the former Energy
Minister, Yuri Shafranik, estimates that Russia may
have 44 billion tonnes
of oil, more than Saudi Arabia does. Russia currently
exports over 6.5
million barrels a day, taking crude oil and product
together, and plans to
boost exports to about 9 million barrels a day by the
end of the decade -
roughly equal to Saudi Arabia's current exports.

Russia is also the number one producer of natural gas
in the world and has
the biggest share - 32 per cent - of global reserves.
Taken together, oil
and gas make Russia the biggest energy producer in the
world, and moreover,
one of the few countries whose reserves are not
shrinking yet. With the
situation in West Asia destabilised in the wake of the
Iraq war, the United
States and other top oil-consuming nations have turned
their eyes to Russia
and energy-rich ex-Soviet republics.

The U.S. made big inroads into what Moscow considers
its legitimate backyard
during the chaotic rule of Russia's first post-Soviet
President, Boris
Yeltsin. Mounting an aggressive drive for control over
Central Asia and
Caspian oil and gas flows, Washington has pushed
through the construction of
a $3.6 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline
from Azerbaijan's
coast on the Caspian Sea via neighbouring Georgia to
Turkey's Mediterranean
port of Ceyhan and is canvassing for building a gas
pipeline to run
parallel. These pipes should bring oil and gas from
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan
and other Central Asian states to Western markets
bypassing Russia. American
and other Western energy giants control 60 per cent of
oil extraction in
Azerbaijan and 40 per cent in Kazakhstan.

Washington also came close to gaining a foothold in
Russia's energy sector,
privatised during the biggest selloff in world history
in the 1990s.
Following the purchase by British Petroleum of a 50
per cent stake in the
Russian oil major, TNK, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco
came vying for a
controlling 44 per cent share in Russia's biggest
private oil company,
Yukos.

If the deal had come through, the West would have won
control over
one-third of Russia's total oil output and could have
gained access to
Russian export pipelines, which are currently
controlled by the state. The
idea was to mould Russia into an alternative supplier
of oil free from
OPEC-like state controls.

Mr. Putin wrecked these plans. The arrest of the Yukos
head, Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, last October on charges of fraud and tax
evasion disrupted the
company's sale to the U.S. oil majors and sent a clear
message to
Washington: the Kremlin is reasserting control over
the strategic heights of
the Russian economy. In a further display of new tough
rules, Moscow in
January annulled the results of a 1993 tender for a
Sakhalin-3 oil field in
the Far East won by the U.S. giants, ExxonMobil and
ChevronTexaco, citing
the companies' failure to develop the field.

Mr. Putin's proactive policy in ex-Soviet Central Asia
helped Moscow
consolidate its hold over oil and gas flows from the
energy-rich region.
Last year, Russia's natural gas monopoly, Gazprom,
sealed a mega deal with
Turkmenistan to buy up to 50 billion cubic metres -
practically all of
Turkmenistan's gas exports - in the next 25 years.
Earlier this month,
Russia's LUKOil major signed a $930-million contract
to develop a
250-billion-cubic-metre gas field in Bukhara,
Uzbekistan, while the Gazprom
natural gas giant is finalising a $1.5-billion 45-year
deal to exploit
fields on the Ustyurt plateau, western Uzbekistan.

A fierce struggle is unfolding for oil and gas exports
from Kazakhstan, a
land-locked Central Asian nation, which sits on the
second biggest
hydrocarbon reserves among the former Soviet states.
Despite U.S. pressure,
Kazakhstan may not give enough oil to the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to
make it commercially viable, as BTC transit tariffs
are going to be twice as
high as Russia's. Earlier this year, Kazakhstan's
President, Nursu

North Korea: Open For Business -- A Bit

[Ulhas Joglekar]

BusinessWeek Online

JULY 26, 2004   .

ASIAN BUSINESS

North Korea: Open For Business -- A Bit

North Korea remains poor, but Kim's reforms are
bringing growth
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_30/b3893074.htm




Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online
Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony

Re: How Mass is Mass Media?

[Dan Scanlan]

Kenneth Burke repeats a conversation in which one party says, "I'm a
Christian," and the other party replies, "Yes, but who are you a
Christian AGAINST?"
according to one observer, the following sign was seen at the DP convention.
"Which Way Would Jesus Vote?"
Only evidence available is who he threw out of the temple. He
wouldn't attend either one of the corporate orgies.
Dan Scanlan
--
---
IMPEACHMENT: BRING IT ON NOW!
NOVEMBER COULD BE TOO LATE.
--
END OF THE TRAIL SALOON
Alternate Sundays
6-8am GMT (10pm-midnight PDT)
http://www.kvmr.org

"I uke, therefore I am." -- Cool Hand Uke
"I log on, therefore I seem to be." -- Rodd Gnawkin
"I claim, therefore you believe." -- Dan Ratherthan
Visit Cool Hand Uke's Lava Tube:
 http://www.coolhanduke.com

Facing South/July 27, 2004

[Michael Hoover]

F A C I N G   S O U T H
July 27, 2004 * Issue 85


INSTITUTE INDEX * Elections at Risk
Number of "felons" purged from Florida's voter lists in the 2000 elections: 173,000
Number that weren't felons and were wrongfully barred from voting: 50,000
Number of "felons" Florida had planned to remove from voter rolls in 2004: 47,000
Number on list that are African-American: 22,000
Number on list that have been granted clemency and shouldn't be on the list: 2,100
Percent of Florida's African-American population that live in counties with the most 
unreliable voting machines: 53
Number of presidential votes lost due to election system failures in 2000, in 
millions: 4 to 6
Sources on file at the Institute for Southern Studies.
 _  

DATELINE: THE SOUTH * Top Stories Around the Region

ALL EYES ON FLORIDA ELECTIONS
Just weeks after defending both the quality and secrecy of a list of 47,000 suspected 
felons to be purged from Florida voting lists, the state's elections office is now 
scrambling to explain why the list was so flawed that it had to be scrapped. Among 
other findings, reporters discovered that the list only contained the names of 61 
Hispanics, who tend to vote Republican, despite the fact that Hispanics make up 11% of 
the prison population. (Palm Beach Post, 7/24)
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_1410ed51d432d15200dc.html
*** RELATED: New law adds hurdle to ex-felon voting in Florida
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/072404Z.shtml

40 YEARS LATER, FREEDOM MOVEMENT VETERANS GET RESPECT
Forty years ago this summer, the Democratic Party convention was rocked by the 
spectacle of the party clashing over whether to seat white segregationists or 
integrated freedom fighters from Mississippi. This year in Boston, a delegation of 
Misssissippi movement veterans be honored at the Democratic National Convention. (New 
York Times, 7/25/04)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/072604E.shtml

OIL REFINERIES USE CLOUT TO HOLD OFF REGULATION
Petroleum is not just the nation's No. 1 source of energy. Refineries are often the 
lifeblood of many communities. With battalions of top-gun lawyers and lobbyists, they 
have influenced the nation's energy policy and fought regulatory crackdowns on 
pollution. And their political action committees pump millions of dollars into the 
coffers of powerful elected leaders in Washington. (Star-Telegram, 7/19)
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/9189098.htm?1c

LEADER OF GOP SENATE EFFORT OUTED
The man heading up the effort by Republicans to keep control of the United States 
Senate is the latest gay politico to be outed by local activists, who claim they are 
pointing to the hypocrisy of a party that opposes gay rights but has many gay leaders. 
The director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee who works for Virginia 
Sen. George Allen declined tocomment on efforts to publicize his sexual orientation. 
(Washington Blade, 7/23)
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2004/7-23/news/national/leaderout.cfm

THE LEGACY OF THE RAINBOW
20 years ago, progressives were electrified by the candidacy of Jesse Jackson, whose 
campaign registered millions of new voters and created a multi-racial coalition in a 
bid for the Democratic Party nomination in 1984 and 1988. What's the legacy of the 
Rainbow Coalition? (The Nation, 7/15)
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040802&s=wypijewski

CRUNK DOMINATES THE AIRWAVES
Hip-hop from Dixie has been ascendant for years, but a glance at the Billboard charts 
reveals that the lurching beats and bellowed choruses of Southern crunk have become 
2004's defining pop sound. But what is it? (Slate, 7/20)
http://slate.msn.com/id/2103955/

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Please Note: 
Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from 
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regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon 
request. 
Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.

Re: quote du jour

[Devine, James]

Just to get your blood boiling, here's another quote from Ann Coulter:
>Conservatives believe man was created in God's image, while liberals believe they are 
>gods. All of the behavioral tics of the liberals proceed from their godless belief 
>that they can murder the unborn because they, the liberals, are themselves gods. They 
>try to forcibly create 'equality' through affirmative action and wealth 
>redistribution because they are gods. They flat-out lie, with no higher power to 
>constrain them, because they are gods. They adore pornography and the mechanization 
>of sex because man is just an animal, and they are gods. They revere the UN and not 
>the U.S. because they aren't Americans -- they are gods.<

When I didn't know who she was and so Googled her, I discovered a large list of  
list-serv posts commenting on the fact that she has an Adam's apple. 


Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine




> -Original Message-
> From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Robert
> Naiman
> Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 2:58 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [PEN-L] quote du jour
> 
> 
> Let's start a campaign to demand that Republican women 
> officials denounce
> Ann Coulter.
> If this could be classified as an ethnic slur, wouldn't there 
> be a firestorm?
> Why is this tolerated?
> Why is this person on TV?
> 
> 
> At 11:55 AM 7/28/2004 -0700, Devine, James wrote:
> >saith right-wing nut-job Ann Coulter:>"My pretty-girl allies 
> stick out
> >like a sore thumb amongst the corn-fed, no make-up, natural 
> fiber, no-bra
> >needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie
> >wagons they call 'women' at the Democratic National 
> Convention."< (quoted
> >in MS SLATE's Today's Papers, yesterday.)
> >--
> >Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >&  
> http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
> 
> --
> Robert Naiman
> 

Re: quote du jour

[Robert Naiman]

Let's start a campaign to demand that Republican women officials denounce
Ann Coulter.
If this could be classified as an ethnic slur, wouldn't there be a firestorm?
Why is this tolerated?
Why is this person on TV?
At 11:55 AM 7/28/2004 -0700, Devine, James wrote:
saith right-wing nut-job Ann Coulter:>"My pretty-girl allies stick out
like a sore thumb amongst the corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra
needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie
wagons they call 'women' at the Democratic National Convention."< (quoted
in MS SLATE's Today's Papers, yesterday.)
--
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
&  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
--
Robert Naiman

Re: The Blind Swordsman Zatoichi

[Michael Hoover]

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/28/04 5:38 PM >>>
finally: blind swordsman films inspired 71 entitled 'deaf mute heroine'
directed by wu ma, one of number of hk martial arts films featuring
women...   michael hoover

neglected to mention that helen ma had lead role in above...  mh



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Re: The Blind Swordsman Zatoichi

[Michael Hoover]

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/28/04 11:42 AM >>>
In Hollywood, the blind are represented in film either as pitiful
victims, such as in "Wait Until Dark," or as comic figures like Mr.
Muckle, who tears apart W. C. Fields's shop in "It's a Gift." Leave it
to the Japanese to come up with somebody like Zatoichi, the blind master
swordsman who was played by the beloved Shintaro Katsu in 26 films
between 1962 and 1989, as well as 100 television episodes based on the
character.
>>>.

check out 'zatoichi meets the one armed swordsman' (71 or 72) directed
by kimiyoshi yasuda who directed several zatoichi films...

the one armed swordsman of film is jimmy wang yu from chang cheh's 67
film of same name, here's what lisa odham stokes and i write about
chang's film in _city on fire_:

Chang Cheh's One Armed Swordsman (1967) is generally acknowledged as the
movie
that launched the 1970s' martial arts phenomenon [in hong kong].  While
the film's title announces that this is a swordplay movie - nothing new
in itself - the hero's disability (his sifu's jealous daughter has
chopped off his right arm) produces a different type of character.
Forced to undergo a strict and tough rehabilitative training program,
the protagonist (Jimmy Wang Yu) becomes a 'lean mean fighting machine'
with a blade.  Notably brutal for its time, Chang's picture ushered in
an era of the self-reliant individualist that according to [noted hk
film critic] Sek Kei, simultaneously destroyed the image of the weak
Chinese male by featuring 'beefcake heroes in adventure and violence.'
(p. 91)

in 'zatoichi meets the one armed swordsman, wang yu's character travels
to japan where he intervenes to prevent a young boy's execution and has
a bounty placed upoin him, meanwhile, the young boy's dying father's
last wish is for shintaro katsu's blind swordsman to care for his son,
communication difficulties between the two swordsmen lead to them
fighting one another...

trivia: tsui hark's 'the blade (95) is a remake of chang's 'one armed
swordsman' by way of a detour through wong kar-wai's 'ashes of time (94)
in which tony leung ka-fai plays a blind swordsman...

finally: blind swordsman films inspired 71 entitled 'deaf mute heroine'
directed by wu ma, one of number of hk martial arts films featuring
women...   michael hoover



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Outfoxed?

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

"Outfoxed?" (If conservatives exaggerate liberalism of the corporate
media beyond recognition, liberals, too, are hyping the power of the
Fox News Channel far more than its actual total viewership warrants):
.

FW: Iraq's Labor Upsurge Supported by U.S. Unions

[Devine, James]

the article 
below seems of interest. 
 
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine 
 
 Iraq's Labor Upsurge Wins Support From U.S. 
UnionsBy David BaconOnce the U.S. occupation of Iraq 
began over a year ago, Iraqi workers lost no time in reorganizing their 
country's labor movement.  Labor activity spread from Baghdad to the 
Kurdish north, with the center of the storm in the south, in the oil and 
electrical installations around Basra, and the port of Um Qasr.Workers 
quickly discovered that the occupation authorities had little respect for labor 
rights, however.  Once the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) 
took power in Baghdad in March of 20003, it began enforcing a 1987 law banning 
unions in public enterprises, where most Iraqis are employed.  On top of 
this CPA head Paul Bremer added Public Order #1, banning pronouncements that 
"incite civil disorder, rioting or damage to property."  The phrase civil 
disorder can easily apply to organizing strikes, and leaders of both the Iraqi 
Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and Iraq's Union of the Unemployed have been 
detained a number of times.David Bacon is a reporter and photographer 
specializing in labor issue and a regular contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus 
(www.fpif.org) (Ewa Jasciewicz, in Basra for 
Occupation Watch earlier this year, contributed to this report.)See new FPIF commentary online at:http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2004/0407upsurge.htmlWith printer friendly PDF version at:http://www.fpif.org/pdf/gac/0407upsurge.pdf

Re: Diminishing Expectations

[Michael Hoover]

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/28/04 8:37 AM >>>
Michael Hoover wrote:
>
> but
> conversations here indicate that we sure do live in the age of
> diminishing expectations, which in itself gives people fewer reasons
> to spend time on political activism.

above was yoshie...

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John Kerry and Hubert Humphrey

[Louis Proyect]

(The Atlantic Monthly is a centrist magazine.)
Atlantic Unbound | July 27, 2004
Convention Dispatch | by Jack Beatty
Humphrey Redux?
Like Humphrey in '68, Kerry is out of step with voters on an upopular war
.
"Unity" is the regnant cliché about this convention and this party. The 
Democrats are "united" as rarely before. But in fact, there is dramatic 
division here—between the delegates and the candidate.

According to a Boston Globe poll, ninety-five percent of the delegates 
think the Iraq war was—is—"a mistake." John Kerry disagrees: he believes 
the war was not a mistake, nor was his vote to authorize it.  If he had 
been president, some of his statements imply, he would have gone to war 
too—just not "the way Bush did." In other words, candidate Kerry won't 
challenge what Bush did, but how he did it.

Kerry and the delegates also disagree about how long the U.S. should 
stay in Iraq. Forty-one percent of them want the troops out by the end 
of the year, or within eighteen months. Only two percent think the U.S. 
should stay from three to five years. Kerry appears to agree with that 
sliver of his party; the Democratic platform talks about staying until 
the job is done.

Kerry is not only out of step with his delegates; sixty percent of 
voters also view the war as a mistake. And a plurality want the U.S. out 
now, or within eighteen months.

A candidate out of step with his party and the country on the wisdom and 
course of an unpopular war? Who does that put you in mind of? Last 
night, on the NPR public affairs program On Point, Walter Shapiro, a 
political columnist for USA Today, compared Kerry to Hubert Humphrey, 
the Democratic nominee in 1968. But with this invidious difference: 
until the closing hours of the campaign (when it was too late), Vice 
President Humphrey backed the war policy of his own president, Lyndon 
Johnson. Kerry is backing the policy of the man he is running against.

Politically, this is unilateral disarmament. With the economy 
recovering, Iraq should be the Democrats' best issue. But not with Kerry 
as their nominee. Kerry is trying to appeal to voters who still support 
Bush's policy in Iraq; at the same time, dispensing the moonshine that 
the Europeans, at the magic words "President Kerry," will send their 
troops to Iraq so they can be blown up by car bombs just like ours, he 
is also trying to appeal to the plurality who want out soon. This is 
called having it both ways, as the Republicans will go broke explaining 
to undecided voters.

If the Republicans are smart—and they are, politically—they will make 
Kerry's Iraq record (for the war and against the $87 billion to pay for 
it; against the president on the tactics of the occupation, with the 
President on staying the course) a character issue.

And they will be right. John Kerry betrayed his reason for being in 
public life when he backed Bush's war. History had shaped him to stand 
up on the Senate floor and speak for the American dead in Vietnam—to 
say, "In their name, never again. Never again send young Americans to 
die in an unnecessary war. Never again, use lives as political cannon 
fodder. Never, again." Instead, having voted against Gulf War One and 
been burned politically, he cast the most political vote of his 
career—and the most shameful. "Send me, "Bill Clinton has Kerry, who 
could have avoided service, saying when it came time to go to Vietnam. 
But on Iraq, Kerry said, "Send them." And soon one thousand will have died.

"How do you ask a soldier to be the last man to die for a mistake?" 
asked John Kerry, the conscience of the Vietnam generation, speaking 
over thirty years ago before the Senate Foreign Relations committee. 
"There are some things worth losing the presidency for," Hubert Humphrey 
declared in his acceptance speech in bloody Chicago. Humphrey meant he 
would not compromise on civil rights to exploit the white backlash that 
Richard Nixon stoked to victory that November. Perhaps the 
Humphrey-Kerry parallel is inexact after all.

--
The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org

Re: How Mass is Mass Media?

[Devine, James]

Kenneth Burke repeats a conversation in which one party says, "I'm a
Christian," and the other party replies, "Yes, but who are you a
Christian AGAINST?"

according to one observer, the following sign was seen at the DP convention.

"Which Way Would Jesus Vote?"

[sigh]

jd 

How Mass is Mass Media?

[Carrol Cox]

What percentage of the adult population watches Fox News?

What percentage of the adult population watches ABC and/or CBS and/or
NBC but _not_ Fox?

What percentage of the adult population watches Local News but no
network news?

What percentage of the adult population watches watches local news _and_
network news?

What percentage of the adult population watches no or little news?

What percentage of the adult population reads a local newspaper but no
metropolitan newspaper?

What percentage of the adult population reads a metropolitan newspaper?

What percentage of the adult population listens to radio news? (How
distributed among different sources of radio news?)

What percentage of the adult population has watched and/or listened to
more than one presidential address?

What percentage of newspaper readers read the news section.

What percentage of newspaper readers read the letters to the editor?

What percentage of the adult population gets their news from
conversation with friends, coworkers, or relatives?

What percentage of the adult population do _not_ watch any of the top 10
tv programs?

What percentage of the adult population reads political columns in the
daily or sunday paper?

What percentage of the adult population knows who O'Reilly is?

What percentage of the adult population knows who Edwards is?

What percentage of the adult population knows that H.Clinton ever had
anything to do with health issues?

What percentage of the DP voters know where Kosovo is?

What percentage of the adult population watch 4 or more hours a week of
tv programs _not_ in the top 50 programs?

What percentage of the adult population watches Nick at Night?

What percentage of the adult population have cable tv?

Is there _any_ one "event" (program, speech, movie, headline)
experienced by 70% or more of the population in a given six month
period?

Under what conditions would large numbers of non-voters vote?

Would conditions that would (might) cause non-voters to vote leave their
opinions the same as they are now?

Is patriotism (in the u.s.) a positive attitude or an attitude towards
those who ae (are thought to be) non-patriotic?*

Carrol

*Kenneth Burke repeats a conversation in which one party says, "I'm a
Christian," and the other party replies, "Yes, but who are you a
Christian AGAINST?"

P.S. This post was originally written in response to certain threads on
lbo-talk, but then it occurred to me that some of the questions could
best be answered by professional social-scientists. (Should I put a :-)
after "professional social scientists"?)

"Security Fences": Palestine and Kashmir

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

"'Security Fences': Palestine and Kashmir":

American know how

[Dan Scanlan]

Title: American know how


200 Female U.S. Soldiers RAPED in Iraq by U.S. Troops
Miles Moffeit / Denver Post, 2004-07-15

Rape kits call attention to assaults

By Miles Moffeit
Denver Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - Sexual-assault organizations across the
country are shipping rape-evidence collection kits to each member of
Congress in hopes that more of the investigative tools will end up in
the war zone to help troops who are victimized.


That move is in response to growing concerns among victim-rights
leaders and several lawmakers that not enough kits are available to
help soldiers. Nearly 200 U.S. women soldiers have sought assistance
from civilian rape-crisis agencies since the war started, saying they
were assaulted by fellow troops. Many have reported their cases were
mishandled, in part because of inadequate forensic and medical
treatment.

"We've got to get more attention on this issue," said Rita
Smith, director of the Denver-based National Coalition Against
Domestic Violence. "If we send people into an unsafe
environment, they need to be protected."

Pentagon leaders have declined to discuss whether a shortage of the
collection kits exists, with a spokesman saying only that "there
are rape kits available in theater" at three combat-support
hospitals.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and other women lawmakers say Defense
Department officials need to be more candid about whether supplies
are adequate to serve victims.

But all members of Congress, which oversees the military, must
understand how crucial the kits are in investigating cases and
preserving evidence, according to leaders of state sex- assault
coalitions.

"Part of the thought process is that most people have never seen
them or understand why they should be used," said Kristen
Houser, vice president of the National Alliance to End Sexual
Violence. "When you say 'rape kit,' it doesn't mean a lot to
some people. The presence of these kits in their offices, we hope,
will help wake some people up."

A rape kit generally consists of testing supplies for blood and other
bodily fluids - swabs and combs to collect DNA evidence left on the
victim's body following a rape. If evidence is collected from a
victim rapidly enough, it can bolster the chances for prosecution.

The word from Capitol Hill, so far, is that the mailing effort is
bound to make a statement.

"It's an effective tool in establishing whether a sexual assault
happened," said Angela de Rocha, spokesman for Sen. Wayne
Allard, R-Colo., who has worked on behalf of Air Force Academy cadets
to ensure their cases are properly investigated.

Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., who has led a legislative effort to
draft uniform policies for the handling of sexual assault cases in
the military, said a massive effort to educate the military is needed
over the short term and long haul.

"If we don't create a climate where women feel comfortable
reporting their crimes to the military, they'll never come forward to
get the rape kit," Slaughter said. "That needs to
happen."

-- 
---
IMPEACHMENT: BRING IT ON NOW!
NOVEMBER COULD BE TOO LATE.
--

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Ratherthan

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Re: quote du jour

[Kenneth Campbell]

Ann Coulter is channeling Dick Cheney again... ?

Ken.

quote du jour

[Devine, James]

Title: Today's Papers



saith 
right-wing nut-job Ann Coulter:>"My pretty-girl allies stick out like a sore thumb amongst the 
corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, 
somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons they call 'women' at the Democratic 
National Convention."< (quoted in MS SLATE's Today's Papers, 
yesterday.)
--
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine 

Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?

[Devine, James]

Diane writes; 
> >That being said and I agree again with you, the
> >Kurds are an oppressed nationality. Period.

Ulhas responds:
> Does it mean that the Left should support the breakup
> of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey?

there are other options besides secession: Ken mentions federalism, while simply 
increased democracy (including civil liberties and affirmative action) may do the 
trick in other situations. What's necessary depends on _concrete conditions_, not 
general rules. What to do with the four Kurdistans, for example, is not something that 
can be solved without serious discussion, debate, and struggle, including the Kurds 
and non-Kurds affected. 

My feeling is that in general, we don't need any new mini-states except under 
extraordinary conditions. Partitions are bloody, and it's often very hard to draw the 
line between "national states" (cf. the Balkans). Inter-ethnic marriages make 
partitioning really hard. I also think that _ethnic nationalism_ is the wrong basis 
for any country's unity, encouraging ethnic cleansing and the like. (How about 
_working class_ solidarity instead?) Further, new, small, states are particularly 
vulnerable to the predations of the IMF and multinational capital. 

Of course, it is self-evident that the unity of the 6 counties of Northern Ireland and 
the 26 counties of the Irish Republic should be pushed for. ;-)  

Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?

[Chris Doss]

--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
How does this self determination formula apply to the
American Union in 2004. There are more African
Americans in and around metropolitan Detroit than
there are Chechens and the Nation of Islam was birthed
in Detroit. Do you gentlemen support and advocate for
the right of self determination of these real people .
. . up to and including the formation of an
independent state?

Just curious.

---
Of course! We should be calling for the mass
Balkanization of the United States. Every Indian
reservation should be a separate country.
Afro-Americans can get Mississippi and Detroit. The
Southwest can go to the Hispanics. We can form a White
Nation in the Northwest (wait, I've heard that idea
before). No, that's too general: Italian-Americans can
take Nevada, Polish-Americans Utah, German-Americans
Nebraska. We can find a land without a people for the
Jews. All of these litle statelets will be
economically prosperous, politically flourishing, and
at peace with their neighbors. A brilliant idea.



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Re: The Blind Swordsman Zatoichi

[Louis Proyect]

Daniel Davies wrote:
didn't straight-to-video fave Rutger Hauer star in a film about a blind
swordsman once?

http://www.pulpmovies.com/Reviews/Action/blindfury.html
Blind Fury
Master of the sword. Avenger of the Truth. ... and blind as a bat!
Rutger Hauer is a great actor. But he has appeared in some truly 
terrible films. Blind Fury - an Americanised version of the Japanese 
Zatoichi series of movies - is one such film.

The premise is that Nick Parker (Hauer) is blinded while fighting in 
Vietnam. As so often happens in this situation, he is taken in by a 
Vietnamese village who teach him, not only to rely on his hearing alone, 
but also the art of blind swordfighting - evidently a common skill in 
Vietnam.

We then jump forward twenty years to find Frank Devereaux in trouble 
with crooked casino owner and wannabe drug dealer, MacCready. MacCready 
wants Devereaux to run his new designer drugs operation and forces 
Devereaux to comply by threatening his ex-wife and son.

By sheer coincidence, as this is happening, Parker is knocking on Lynn 
Devereaux's door. Parker explains that he is an old friend of Devereaux 
and Lynn lets him in and gives him a cup of tea while she explains that 
she and Frank are no longer together. This also gives us a chance to 
meet Deveraux's annoying kid, Billy (Brandon Call), and means that 
Parker is around when a pair of crooked cops, along with a character 
going by the name of Slag, turn up to try to kidnap Lynn and Billy.

So Parker and his amazing swordstick save the day and send the cops to 
the great precinct in the sky. Slag, being a Major Villain escapes so he 
can harass Parker until the Climactic Battle at the end of the film.

Unfortunately, Parker doesn't entirely save the day and Lynn Devereaux 
gets shot and fatally wounded during the battle. In her dying breath she 
makes Parker promise to take Billy to his father…

So Parker and Billy set off to Reno, Nevada to find Devereaux. There is 
an attempt to build an uncle/nephew relationship during this journey, 
but it doesn't really gel and instead we have a series of comic 
set-pieces interspersed with action sequences as Slag and his various 
unsavoury cohorts attempt to intercept Parker and the kid and take them 
to McCready in Reno… the direction they're already headed in.

At the start of this review, I called Blind Fury a truly terrible film. 
This isn't entirely fair. For a start, it has Ruger Hauer in it - and he 
does pretty much carry the entire film, bringing and enjoyable wry 
humour to the character of Parker. The fight scenes are well 
choreographed and the stunts are impressive - especially the all too 
well telegraphed Jacuzzi of Death scene (trust me, you have to see this!)

On the downside, I found the premise a little too far fetched for me to 
be able to buy into it. The plot was entirely predictable - with the 
next stunt or action sequence being telegraphed well in advance. As for 
kids in films… they have to be damn good to avoid just being annoying. 
Billy is annoying - so much so that even with all that he is going 
through in this film, I still had no sympathy for him.

--
The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org

Networking in Boston

[Louis Proyect]

NY Times, July 28, 2004
An Aspiring Money Man Gets to Taste the High Life
By GLEN JUSTICE
BOSTON, July 27 - Owen Byrd had been on the ground less than two hours
on Sunday when he made his way to the sumptuous Four Seasons Hotel here
to pick up an envelope. Inside was a large gold ticket with a silver
star in the corner and some magic words: finance honored guest.
That pass to Democratic National Convention events was worth $50,000, at
least to Mr. Byrd, a California lawyer. In return for raising that much
money for Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign, he was given the
opportunity to eat lobster claws with the Democratic National Committee
chairman, Terry McAuliffe, at a private waterfront reception, lob
questions at former President Bill Clinton at a downtown theater and
meet the actor Ben Affleck for billiards and bowling in a local nightclub.
Perhaps more important for someone who aspires to be an A-list
fund-raiser, the pass put him in the same room - and sometimes at the
same table - with some of the country's richest and best-connected
political money people. Not bad for someone who made his first
presidential donation and raised his first check less than two years ago.
"This is Owen's excellent adventure through the Democratic Party
presidential process," Mr. Byrd said with a grin. So it goes for
hundreds of people who have worked to raise more than $200 million for
Mr. Kerry, making him the best-financed challenger in presidential
history. More than 560 people brought in at least $50,000 each, and
many, like Mr. Byrd, 41, are first timers, drawn in by a desire to oust
the Bush administration and welcomed by a hungry Democratic fund-raising
machine.
At the convention this week, Mr. Byrd and others are getting their first
taste of the rewards. "People are coming here who have never come to a
convention before, and they have raised really serious money, so they
are keeping company with some of the party's biggest fund-raisers," said
Kevin Metz, the Kerry campaign's deputy finance director for the
Northwest and one of several people whom Mr. Byrd helped recruit into
fund-raising.
There are perks reserved for those above Mr. Byrd's level, people who
raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are lavished with
attention and invited to the most exclusive events, including a clam
bake at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis on Sunday and a restaurant
reception on Wednesday with Teresa Heinz Kerry.
Mr. Byrd earned the title of "co-chair," a mid-level money soldier. But
still, he has been offered so many tickets to parties and receptions
that his days are packed.
Armed with a new suit and a spreadsheet of events, Mr. Byrd, a real
estate lawyer and developer from Palo Alto, Calif., set out daily to
sample the convention. After leaving the Beacon Hill house owned by his
girlfriend's parents - and located about a block from Mr. Kerry's house
- each morning, he made his first stop at the Four Seasons to pick up
tickets for events honoring fund-raisers. Because Mr. Byrd is also a
convention delegate from California, a second trip, to the Westin, was
required to get tickets to a separate slate of parties.
As a delegate, Mr. Byrd was treated to plenty of events, many of them
fairly low key. California's delegates gathered at the Franklin Park Zoo
on Sunday, for example, where they ate skewered chicken and sandwiches
under a tent. A D.J. played music, spawning a conga line at one point.
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/28/politics/campaign/28donor.html
--
The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org

Nader to Kucinich

[Dan Scanlan]

Title: Nader to Kucinich


Dennis, We Thought We
Knew You!

By Ralph
Nader
http://www.votenader.com

Dennis Kucinich has decided to endorse the Kerry-Edwards Campaign. Of
course, since Dennis is a committed, life-long Democrat this is not a
big surprise. But, in doing so he also urged Nader supporters to join
Kerry-Edwards saying: "There is a place within the Democratic
Party for everyone, including those who may be thinking of supporting
Ralph Nader." Sorry Dennis, but most Nader supporters would find
it very difficult to support the Kerry-Edwards ticket.

Here are ten reasons why there is no place in the Democratic Party
for people who hold to their principles and progressive
programs:

   1.
Kerry-Edwards supports the war in Iraq. The only promise that
John Kerry makes regarding Iraq is that he will "manage"
the war better than Bush. He voted for the war and will send more
troops to Iraq if needed. He recently told The Wall Street Journal
that he would keep the troops in Iraq longer than George
Bush.

   2. Unlike Senator Feingold, Kerry-Edwards undermines
the Constitution and civil liberties in the U.S. They voted for
the Patriot Act - an overly aggressive assault on our Constitution.
John Kerry, a former federal prosecutor, has not often distinguished
himself as a strong friend of civil liberties. Kerry supported the
Clinton crime bills, including the expansion of the federal death
penalty in 1996 legislation.

   3. John Kerry represents corporations and the
wealthy, not the working majority. When John Kerry met with major
donors he promised them he was not a redistributionist Democrat -
despite massive corporate welfare programs, and the vast rich-poor
divide that exists in the U.S. today. The Washington Post reports
that has received more money from corporations and their lobbyists
than any other senator. For example, the Center for Responsive
Politics reports that during this election cycle, Kerry took in
$3,321,382 from the health care industry. Also, Kerry has received
$7,568,630 from the finance, insurance and real estate industries.
His anemic plan for the working poor is to raise the minimum wage to
a mere $7 per hour by 2007 - when over $8 would bring the purchasing
power up to that of 1968! He's called for even more corporate tax
cuts as a prime part of his jobs program, despite record corporate
profits and shrinking corporate responsibility for carrying their
fair share of the tax burden.

   4. Kerry-Edwards does not promise health care for
all. Forty-five million Americans don't have health insurance and
more and more can't afford to keep it. The U.S. spends more on health
care per capita than any other country - 25% of our expenditures go
to duplicative overhead caused by health insurance-based health care.
John Kerry does not replace this system with a universal health care
program; he builds on this faulty system by paying the catastrophic
care health insurance costs of businesses - but tens of millions will
remain without health care under his plan.

   5. Kerry-Edwards supports the drug war. John
Kerry was the lead sponsor of Plan Colombia, the devastating
militaristic approach to addiction. The plan sprays herbicides in the
rain forests of Colombia, poisons the land of peasants, uses the
military against peasant farmers and spreads coca cultivation in the
region. Domestically, Kerry has supported crime bills that have
resulted in the United States becoming the leader in incarceration in
the world.

   6. John Kerry continues to support WTO and NAFTA.
These trade agreements that are spurring the sending of jobs overseas
to Communist China, India and other poor countries undermine the
sovereignty of nations by putting profit of corporations before laws
enacted by nations. As a result, environmental, labor, and consumer
protection laws are undermined by trade agreements. But Kerry is not
calling for withdrawal from and renegotiation of these
agreements.

   7. John Kerry supports testing instead of
teaching and does nothing to make college more affordable. Kerry
supported George Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law, that
emphasizes high stakes, high frequency, multiple choice standardized
formal tests and, through their narrow domination, undermines
teaching. He initially supported subsidizing college education but
has now backed away from that promise.

   8. The Democratic Party is undermining U.S. Democracy
with John Kerry's quiet blessing. The Nader/Camejo Campaign is
facing an unprecedented attack to obstruct its ballot access in
numerous states with dirty tricks. Through harassment of petitioners,
efforts to spoil ballot access conventions, use of state workers to
challenge our signatures and employing corporate law firms to
challenge our ballot access the Democratic Party is weakening the
vibrancy of our democracy and trying to limit the choices of
voters--with the full approval of the Democratic National Committee.
The Democrats are doing nothing to energize our democracy by maki

Re: The Blind Swordsman Zatoichi

[Waistline2]

In a message dated 7/28/2004 12:16:54 PM Central Standard 
Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: 
 
>didn't straight-to-video fave Rutger Hauer star in a film 
about a blind swordsman once? 
 
dd<
Comment 
 
Not sure but every since Rutger Hauer's incredible performance 
in Blade Runner  . . . I have been in awe. 
 
"Its not often one gets a chance to meet his maker . . . If 
you could see what I have seen with your eyes . . . Po . . .lice. . .Man? . . . 
Time to Die!." 
 
Ouch. 
 
This guy set a new bar for the "European archetype" that left 
me breathless two decades ago. His eyes . . . his face . . . the contours of his 
mouth and passion was  . . . incredible. 
 
Then we have the Mexican Factor asserting itself at the end of 
the movie . . . 
 
"Its to bad she won't live . . . but then again who does?" 

 
Damn. 
 
Twenty-one years ago Hollywood's stupidity was still in full 
force and Pam Greir would have been perfect in Blade Runner . . . balancing 
Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer. 
 
What would Rutger Hauer's dialogue been to Pam . . . and the 
chemistry would have been electric. 
 
Our vision of 2017 is very different today . . . but Ridley 
Scott hit one out of the ballpark back then. 
 
 
 
Melvin P.
 

Re: The Blind Swordsman Zatoichi

[Daniel Davies]

didn't straight-to-video fave Rutger Hauer star in a film about a blind
swordsman once?

dd

-Original Message-
From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Louis
Proyect
Sent: 28 July 2004 16:43
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: The Blind Swordsman Zatoichi


In Hollywood, the blind are represented in film either as pitiful
victims, such as in "Wait Until Dark," or as comic figures like Mr.
Muckle, who tears apart W. C. Fields's shop in "It's a Gift." Leave it
to the Japanese to come up with somebody like Zatoichi, the blind master
swordsman who was played by the beloved Shintaro Katsu in 26 films
between 1962 and 1989, as well as 100 television episodes based on the
character.

Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?

[Waistline2]

In a message dated 7/28/2004 11:41:00 AM Central Standard 
Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: 
 
>Look, mister alienatethepublicwiththenameofmywebsite.com, 
I actually know Chechens. Real-live Chechens. They live in Moscow. I get drunk 
with them. They do not support the jihadis. 
 
I am not going to argue this with you.<
 
Comment 
 
What is called the national factor and oppressed peoples 
(without quotes) and national movements and the right to self determination 
within a multinational state system is apparently a source of considerable 
disagreement. I personally do not consider the various modern nationalists 
movements to be the meaning of "national movement" or anti-colonial revolts . . 
. especially within the former Soviet Union. 
 
There are roughly 40 million African Americans and perhaps 30 
million Mexicans (incorporating Mexican national minorities and Chicano's)  
. . . various Indian nations or what I would personally called advanced national 
groups of Indians . . . Puerto Ricans outside of Puerto Rico but within the 
multinational state structure and federal system of the American Union . . . the 
Alaskan Eskimo's . . . the Aleutian and Hawaiian peoples and then the 
Appalachians and Southern whites who define their heritage very different from 
Yankee whites and all these peoples are to varying degrees oppressed. 

 
The various ideologists of self determination are asked if 
they support a seperate state for blacks as more than less advocated as a form 
of self determination by groups like the Nation of Islam? I mention the Natin of 
Islam because it is one of the oldest and most influential organizations amongst 
blacks and its paramount leader . . . Minister Louis . . . called for a Million 
Man march and brought together one of the largest mass meetings and protest to 
Washington in the history of America. 
 
This singular action led by Minister Louis set the bar for 
mobilization and became a radically new form of protest  . . . with trade 
union leaders now calling for a Million Workers March . . . and other segments 
of the population doing likewise. 
 
Time to get real and compare ones attitude towards their own 
country men with that of the world. 
 
I am simply interested in the proponents of self determination 
. . . Lou P . . . and Mr. Green and whether they have any material on their 
support of Regional autonomy for the Southwest in respects to Mexico and the 
Chicano. 
 
The sincerity of ones view is made manifest by their attitude 
toward the brethren in their own country. 
 
How does this self determination formula apply to the American 
Union in 2004. There are more African Americans in and around metropolitan 
Detroit than there are Chechens and the Nation of Islam was birthed in Detroit. 
Do you gentlemen support and advocate for the right of self determination of 
these real people . . . up to and including the formation of an independent 
state? 
 
Just curious. 
 
Personally . . . I do not support such a demand and recognize 
it as no more than the voice of the reactionary and conservative black 
bourgeoisie and an attempt to further subjugate the African American people and 
keep the under the heel of capital. 
 
Is self determination for the Indians up to the formation of 
an independent state supported by the self determination advocates and can they 
point to any writing on this subject advocating such? 
 
Is self determination for the Mexican, the Alaskan 
Eskimo's . . . the Aleutian and Hawaiian peoples and then the Appalachians as 
somewhat distinct from the Southern whites who define their heritage very 
different from Yankee whites . . .  up to the formation of an independent 
state supported by the self determination advocates and can they point to any 
writing on this subject advocating such? 
 
Melvin P.
 

Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?

[Chris Doss]

Whoops, my mistake. I was confusing the Chechen-Ingush
republic with the republic of Chechnya.

--- Chris Doss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> No, that's history according to history. Supporting
> Dudayev in 1991 is not the same as opposing the
> national movement in 1991.
>
> Look, mister
> alienatethepublicwiththenameofmywebsite.com, I
> actually know Chechens. Real-live Chechens. They
> live
> in Moscow. I get drunk with them. They do not
> support
> the jihadis.
>
> I am not going to argue this you.
>
> > In July  2004, we are now informed that
> the
> > majority of Chechens --
> > indeed, the overwhelming majority of Chechens --
> > opposed the national movement
> > in 1991. Well, that's history a la Yeltsin &
> > Putin... That's occupier's history,
> > history written with a bloody bayonet. The Duma
> > denounced Chechen elections on
> > November 2, so they never really occurred.
> >
> > Joseph Green
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > Chris Doss wrote:
> >
> > > I don't know enough about the issue to answer
> > whether
> > > it was popular or not. But you do not need to
> have
> > a
> > > majority of the population on your side in order
> > to
> > > have an indigenous uprising. The Chechen
> > population,
> > > for instance, voted overwhelmingly to remain
> part
> > of
> > > the Russian Federation (then, the Soviet Union)
> in
> > > 1991. That did not prevent extremists in the
> > Chechen
> > > population from doing their thing, and the
> > moderates
> > > were either forced out or fled. I don't know if
> > the
> > > Kashmiri case is parallel or not.
> >
> >
> >
> > __
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!
> > http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> __
> Do you Yahoo!?
> New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage!
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Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?

[Kenneth Campbell]

Diane wrote:

>>That being said and I agree again with you, the
>>Kurds are an oppressed nationality. Period.

Ulhas wrote

>Does it mean that the Left should support the breakup
>of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey?
>
>Ulhas

Of course not.

But I think your point is more along the lines of the foreign
intellectual bases (both wings of the US intelligentsia) being almost
always wrong about the components of local nationalism? Maybe?

Being a Canadian, I have seen a steady stream of incorrect American
reporting about Quebec, for instance. I think that sort of thing is what
sets Canada apart from the U.S. Here, federalism actually exists... in
that limited application of federalism versus local nationalism. I do
not think ill of federalism, of itself.

Ken.

--
You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank.
You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet.
You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap
of the world.
  -- Tyler Durden

Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?

[Ulhas Joglekar]

Diane Monaco wrote:

>That being said and I agree again with you, the
>Kurds are an oppressed nationality. Period.

Does it mean that the Left should support the breakup
of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey?

Ulhas


Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online
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Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?

[Chris Doss]

No, that's history according to history. Supporting
Dudayev in 1991 is not the same as opposing the
national movement in 1991.

Look, mister
alienatethepublicwiththenameofmywebsite.com, I
actually know Chechens. Real-live Chechens. They live
in Moscow. I get drunk with them. They do not support
the jihadis.

I am not going to argue this you.

> In July  2004, we are now informed that the
> majority of Chechens --
> indeed, the overwhelming majority of Chechens --
> opposed the national movement
> in 1991. Well, that's history a la Yeltsin &
> Putin... That's occupier's history,
> history written with a bloody bayonet. The Duma
> denounced Chechen elections on
> November 2, so they never really occurred.
>
> Joseph Green
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Chris Doss wrote:
>
> > I don't know enough about the issue to answer
> whether
> > it was popular or not. But you do not need to have
> a
> > majority of the population on your side in order
> to
> > have an indigenous uprising. The Chechen
> population,
> > for instance, voted overwhelmingly to remain part
> of
> > the Russian Federation (then, the Soviet Union) in
> > 1991. That did not prevent extremists in the
> Chechen
> > population from doing their thing, and the
> moderates
> > were either forced out or fled. I don't know if
> the
> > Kashmiri case is parallel or not.
>
>
>
> __
> Do you Yahoo!?
> New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!
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>





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Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?

[Joseph Green]

On 27 October 1991 the leader of the national movement, former Soviet General
Dudayev, won the presidential elections in Chechnya. On November 2, the Russian
Duma denounced the elections in Chechnya. On November 7, Yeltsin declared a
state of emergency in Chechnya and ordered the arrest of Chechen president
Dudayev. On November 9, 1991, Russian troops from the Interior Ministry flew
into Khankala Airport outside the Chechen capital of Grozny. They were
immediately blocked by the new Chechen national guard, while a huge mass meeting
in Freedom Square in Grozny rallied around the Dudayev government. By evening,
the Russian troops surrendered their weapons to the Chechens and were bused out
of the airport and back to Russian positions. Thus ended the first Russian
attempt to retake Grozny, a city they would later bomb the hell out of. Thus
began a covert Russian war to recover Chechnya, leading to full-scale war in
1994, and on and on to the present.

In July  2004, we are now informed that the majority of Chechens --
indeed, the overwhelming majority of Chechens -- opposed the national movement
in 1991. Well, that's history a la Yeltsin & Putin... That's occupier's history,
history written with a bloody bayonet. The Duma denounced Chechen elections on
November 2, so they never really occurred.

Joseph Green
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Chris Doss wrote:

> I don't know enough about the issue to answer whether
> it was popular or not. But you do not need to have a
> majority of the population on your side in order to
> have an indigenous uprising. The Chechen population,
> for instance, voted overwhelmingly to remain part of
> the Russian Federation (then, the Soviet Union) in
> 1991. That did not prevent extremists in the Chechen
> population from doing their thing, and the moderates
> were either forced out or fled. I don't know if the
> Kashmiri case is parallel or not.



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The Blind Swordsman Zatoichi

[Louis Proyect]

In Hollywood, the blind are represented in film either as pitiful
victims, such as in "Wait Until Dark," or as comic figures like Mr.
Muckle, who tears apart W. C. Fields's shop in "It's a Gift." Leave it
to the Japanese to come up with somebody like Zatoichi, the blind master
swordsman who was played by the beloved Shintaro Katsu in 26 films
between 1962 and 1989, as well as 100 television episodes based on the
character.
The name Zatoichi is a conflation of "Zato-No-Ichi," which translates
literally into "Ichi the Masseur." In feudal Japan, the blind were often
enlisted as masseurs, but Zatoichi's fighting skills allowed him to
transcend the rigid class restraints of Japanese society.
After Katsu died in 1967, Chieko Saito, an elderly female strip-club
owner who had acquired the rights to the character as collateral to a
loan to the actor, proposed to Takeshi "Beat" Kitano that he write,
direct and star in a new film based on Zatoichi. "Beat" Takeshi is one
of Japan's most innovative directors, who specializes in ultra-violent
films set in Japan's criminal underworld. Before launching a film
career, he was one of Japan's most popular TV comedians and host of his
own long-running show. Takeshi's "The Blind Swordsman," which is playing
now in New York City, can best be described as a happy marriage between
the original product and his own uniquely off-kilter style.
In keeping with the earlier films, Takeshi's Zatoichi is an itinerant
masseur who happens on a town brimming over with villains in need of
vanquishing. As is the case with classics such as "Yojimbo" or "Seven
Samurai," the powerful villains are busily exploiting the local
peasantry. In contrast to these films, Zatoichi is not a samurai himself
but a kind of feudal version of a lumpen element who supplements his
income by gambling. With his super-sensitive hearing, he can detect
whether thrown dice come up odd or even. Like nearly everything else in
this narrative, this must be taken with a grain of salt. When Zatoichi
cuts apart a small army of sighted assassins with his cane-sword, you
have to accept his prowess as an article of faith. That being said, in
the final moments of Takeshi's film, you are left with the impression
that he might be sighted after all.
Whether or not you are persuaded by the spectacle of a blind man carving
up his foes, Takeshi's film is impressive solely on esthetic terms. As
one of his most visually ambitious film, it includes an almost surreal
tap dance production number at the conclusion. As postmodernist
pastiche, it rivals the interjection of Janis Joplin's "Freedom's Just
Another Word" into the conclusion to Fassbinder's "Berlin Alexanderplatz."
For comparison's sake, I also watched "Zatoichi the Outlaw," a 1967
film--the first one directed by Shintaro Katsu himself. You can find
this film and others in the series at your better video stores or on the
Internet. They are also shown with some frequency on the IFC cable
station on Saturdays, which are devoted to classic Japanese samurai
films. Jazz musician and Zatoichi-enthusiast Tatsu Aoki writes in the
notes to one of the DVD's, "He is a blind wanderer who refuses to walk
on the sunny side of the street, an outlaw-Yakuza who respects others
regardless of rank within the feudal system."
In this film, the blind swordsman once again finds himself in a familiar
situation. The owners of a gambling den and corrupt officials are
cheating innocent peasants out of their savings and throwing them off
their land. While taking up their cause, Zatoichi joins forces with
Shusai Ohara, a sword-less samurai based on a real-life, 18th-century
peasant leader named Yagaku Ohara. Ohara persuaded his followers to give
up gambling and follow efficient farming practices. The film is filled
with exciting action scenes and droll humor.
For example, a drunken overlord begins throwing gold coins at Zatoichi,
who is focused on playing a shamisen (a stringed instrument used in
Kabuki, etc.), in order to bribe him into crawling around like a dog.
Without missing a beat, Zatoichi deftly swaps his pick for the coins in
midair and keeps playing.
--
The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org

Re: Cuba: Dealing with the dollar

[Louis Proyect]

Ulhas Joglekar wrote:
Cuba invites and accepts foreign investment,
encourages tourism and receives remittances from
Cubans settled abroad. Cuba also trades with other
countries. (I don't know what is Cuba's external
indebtedness.) These things would erode Cuba's
autonomy. Is Cuba's relationship with the World
Economy any different from that of other developing
countries?
To start with, Cuba has no ties to the IMF. Furthermore, the Heritage
Foundation, the key think tank of the ultraright, understands clearly
why Cuba should not be confused with China, for example--let alone
completely dependent entities such as Jamaica or The Dominican Republic.
---
Those who favor lifting the embargo often point to the examples of
Vietnam and China to justify their position, claiming that eliminating
the embargo will encourage the growth of a free-market economy which
will undermine the communist regime. Such comparisons are not valid.
Capitalism is destroying communism in China, but the driving force is
not international trade. It is a strong domestic market economy
tolerated by the communist government. China's market economy is
dominated by many millions of small entrepreneurs who are devouring the
communist command economy. Moreover, China's market economy has been
growing in depth and diversity since the mid-1980s. Free trade is
promoting faster market growth and expanding the personal freedom of
millions of Chinese, encouraged by entrepreneurs and investors from
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and elsewhere who are providing the capital,
entrepreneurial skills, and international trade contacts which are
compelling China to transform its economy. In the process, a vast and
prosperous middle class is being created.
In Cuba, however, the Castro regime is not willing to liberalize the
economy and create a free market. Cuban exile communities in the United
States, Latin America, and Europe are not willing to work with Castro,
and market initiatives by the Castro regime to encourage them to do so
are very recent, dating from 1993 for the most part. The basic
orientation of the hard-liners surrounding Castro is to contain and
restrict all initiatives that unleash individual entrepreneurship and
creativity. For example, the government has arrested people for earning
"too much" money in the dollarized informal economy, the variety of
legally permitted "family businesses" has been restricted, and tax rates
on the income of self-employed Cubans have been increased. Moreover,
Cuba's constitution and legislation specifically prohibit all private
initiative, notwithstanding recent reforms allowing self-employment by
Cubans in approximately 140 categories of economic activity from which
all professionals (the core of any middle class) are expressly barred.
For over three decades, the regime has operated on the basis of divide
and rule. Castro's bitter enmity toward the Cuban exile community
precludes the possibility of replicating in the Caribbean what China's
exile community has accomplished in China.
None of the alleged "market reforms" undertaken to date in Cuba are true
free-market initiatives. Free enterprise remains highly restricted.
Foreign investors doing business in Cuba today deal mainly with Castro's
regime. Cuban partners in joint ventures and mixed companies are
approved by Castro as "safe." Moreover, unlike China, Cuba has barely
started to open up its economy, and what little has been done to date
has been permitted with great official reluctance and with the objective
of assuring the communist government's political survival. China's
economic transformation has been under way since 1978, when important
agricultural reforms were introduced, including the right of peasant
farmers to grow the crops they wished and retain some of their profit.
Moreover, the government of China has encouraged the marketization of
the country's coastal provinces, and since 1992 the Chinese constitution
has incorporated the concept of the "socialist market economy." Although
China remains a communist nation where political freedoms are sharply
restricted, the ruling regime has permitted vigorous development of the
private sector, thus laying the seeds for its eventual demise and
potential replacement by a politically pluralist, more open society.
(From "Backgrounder #1010" titled "WHY THE CUBAN TRADE EMBARGO SHOULD BE
MAINTAINED", By John P. Sweeney, November 10, 1994. This is not the
trade union bureaucrat, btw.)

--
The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org

Re: Cuba: Dealing with the dollar

[Ulhas Joglekar]

Diane Monaco wrote:

> >How far Cuba can be regarded as an independent and
> >socialist nation-state, if there is extensive
> >dollarisation of Cuban economy?

> I'm not sure what "independent" really means,

True, the Left no longer seems know what
"independence" really means ! :)

> Cuba is
> communist/socialist in the mechanisms it uses to
> attempt to ensure that the
> means of producing goods and services are owned by
> the community as a
> whole, and that all citizens enjoy social/economic
> equality.

Cuba invites and accepts foreign investment,
encourages tourism and receives remittances from
Cubans settled abroad. Cuba also trades with other
countries. (I don't know what is Cuba's external
indebtedness.) These things would erode Cuba's
autonomy. Is Cuba's relationship with the World
Economy any different from that of other developing
countries?

> Dollarization
> is a mechanism that Cuba is forced to use to
> circumvent the US embargo
> against Cuba on all trade

Cuba was forced to do it, but wouldn't that imply loss
of control over monetary policy?

>including basic
> necessities to facilitate the
> acquisition the goods and services in sufficient
> amounts for all its citizens.

It's my impression that Cuba wasn't able to reduce
it's dependence on sugar between 1960-1990. I wonder
why.

Ulhas








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Re: Diminishing Expectations

[Doug Henwood]

Carrol Cox wrote:
the strongest argument against Chomsky's claim
that the u.s. is "incomparably more civilized" today than 40 years ago.
It just *can't* be true, can it? Everything is just awful, and
getting worse by the day. Never acknowledge any progress, which can
only come with The Revolution, which we can do little to promote now,
but which can only come with some mysterious dispensation. And, by
god, don't cite the full context of Chomsky's remark.
Doug

The closing of my interview with Noam Chomsky, broadcast February
10, 2002. I think he's wrong about intellectuals - take a look at
the books and presses that thrive now that didn't in the early
1960s. But I don't want to quibble...
[starts at 1:14:22]
NC: There's plenty of dissent and opposition and concern. Plenty of
grounds for optimism for people who are trying to organize and work.
It's certainly far easier now than 40 years ago when Kennedy was
launched his attack on South Vietnam. Then you couldn't do a thing.
In the 1980s, the situation was better; you could organize for the
wars against Nicaragua, the wars against El Salvador and Guatemala.
But it wasn't that easy. Now there's considerably more opportunity,
though the war drums are beating and people are scared.
DH: You've said the country is more civilized than it was 40 years
ago. What do you mean by that?
NC: Incomparably more civilized. Things we take for granted now
didn't exist 40 years ago. So for example, take say aggression. When
Kennedy announced publicly that the U.S. was bombing South Vietnam
in 1962, began using chemical weapons to destroy food crops, began
programs to drive millions people into what were essentially
concentration camps, there was no protest. We didn't talk about it.
In the 1960s, there was barely a feminist movement. No environmental
movement. In the 1960s, there wasn't yet, after hundreds of years,
even the beginning of recognition of the original sin, what happened
to the millions of people used to live here. That's all changed. It
changed not so much in the 60s, but in the 70s, 80s, and since.
That's when the major popular movements developed. They haven't
carried out institutional change, but they've changed the culture
and the moral level of the society very significantly. Those are
real achievements. They make things very different than they were in
the past. Among the intellectuals, I don't think anything's changed,
but it rarely does. But among the general population, it's correct
to say that the level of civilization is much higher  things that
would have seemed perfectly appropriate then are outlandish now.
DH: That's a good note to end on. Thank you, Noam Chomsky.
---
Download it yourself and listen:
higher-fidelity (48kbps):

low-fi (16kbps):
http://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/RadioArchive/2002/02_10_17_16.mp3
Stream (but you'll have to wait an hour and a quarter):
hi: http://shout.lbo-talk.org:8000/content/lbo/RadioArchive/2002/02_10_17.pls
low:

Re: Ukraine drops bid to join E.U., NATO

[Chris Doss]

I wrote:

--- Chris Doss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Yes. Ukraine is part of the Union of Four (Russia,
> Uraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus). The post-Soviet space
> is
> consolidating itself politically and economically.
> Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan and Tajikistan are
> also
> tilting toward Moscow. Even Georgia, in its own
> strange way.
>

This is a few years old, but I think this article from
a Kyrgyz newspaper sheds some light on this process.

Kyrgyz paper outlines Russia's interests in
Uzbekistan, Central Asia


Vladimir Putin's visit to Uzbekistan, his first
foreign visit as president
of Russia, is recognition by Russia that Uzbekistan is
its strategic
partner in Central Asia, `Slovo Kyrgyzstana' newspaper
wrote on 19th May.
The newspaper said that Uzbekistan was the only
Central Asian state "which
is really able to counter the possible advancement of
the Taleban army to
north". It also said that Uzbekistan could fit "most
organically" into the
military and political axis between Belgrade, Minsk,
Moscow, Delhi and
Beijing which had arisen following NATO's actions in
the Balkans. The
following is the text of the newspaper article:


[newspaper headline] "A battle" for Asia. Some
thoughts about Russian
President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin's visit to
Uzbekistan


Today [19th May], Putin is in Tashkent. This is his
first visit abroad as
the head of the Russian state. It is symbolic that
just a few days after
the inauguration and his advent to the post
officially, the second Russian
president headed for the republics of Central Asia
(more likely, Putin will
visit Dushanbe after Tashkent).


Why namely Tashkent rather than Astana and Bishkek?


It is needless to copy the Russian Foreign Ministry's
protocols. The visit
has been prepared in good time and carefully. Even as
prime minister, Putin
met the Uzbek leader, Islam Karimov, in Tashkent, and
the sides outlined
strategic ways of rapprochement back then, perhaps,
for the first time
after so many years of "separation". The Russian
president's visit to the
Uzbek capital today is the logical conclusion to the
first and, a priori,
recognition of Uzbekistan by Russia as its strategic
partner in Central
Asia. It is namely Uzbekistan and not Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan.


Everything is clear with the latter. Tajikistan cannot
survive without
Russia. Tajikistan, which still suffers from the
consequences of the civil
war , is being torn by conflicts with the opposition
and which feels a
constant threat from its southern neighbour - warring
Afghanistan, looks at
the mouth of Moscow as at its beloved mother. Russia
is increasing its
economic and, what is the main thing, its military
presence in Tajikistan
and it is well aware that otherwise the external
threat from Afghanistan
will be more noticeable. Yet the "unpredictable"
Taleban, should they
suddently take it into their head, will go across the
Pamirs like a knife
through butter, and it is just the presence of Russian
servicemen in
Tajikistan that in the past few years has been the
most powerful deterrent
to the commanders and spiritual leaders of the Taleban
movement.


More or less everything is clear for Putin with
Kyrgyzstan as well. "Yes,
you, too, are our strategic partner," Moscow has
agreed in response to
Bishkek's recognition of Russia as its strategic
partner, but, all this is,
very likely, as far as global politics is concerned.
Russia is courteous
and considerate to Kyrgyzstan and is helping with
everything in its power,
but there is a feeling that everything has been put
off until a later time.
The membership of the Customs Union of four [Belarus,
Russia, Kazakhstan
and Kyrgyzstan], in spite of the abundance of
multilateral and bilateral
documents which were signed within the framework of
this union, has not
opened for Kyrgyzstan the long-awaited "safety valve".
A window onto Europe
did not pan out. Kyrgyzstan, which, with its destroyed
economy, is hovering
on the edge of an economic precipice, is of no
interest at all for Russia
in this respect. Moreover, official Bishkek must
tackle the moot problem of
its so-called "Russian-speaking people" on its own and
as soon as possible.
They may be given help to survive and remain in the
republic or be squeezed
out completely (this also is possible), but in this
case, Russia will turn
its back on Kyrgyzstan completely and take back the
word "strategic"


Russia has special relations with Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan, which has common
borders with Russia, a comparatively stable economy
and a powerful Slavonic
"stratum" in its north, has really become a strategic
partner for Russia.
Relations between the two countries are close and they
must and will
develop coherently and dynamically, at least, for two
to three decades to
come.


There remains Uzbekistan with its president who has
been "mysterious" until
recently. It appears that it is Islam Karimov whom,
thanks to Putin's
present visit [to Uzbekistan], Russia sees in the role
of regional leader.
What

Re: Ukraine drops bid to join E.U., NATO

[Chris Doss]

Yes. Ukraine is part of the Union of Four (Russia,
Uraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus). The post-Soviet space is
consolidating itself politically and economically.
Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan and Tajikistan are also
tilting toward Moscow. Even Georgia, in its own
strange way.

--- Ulhas Joglekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The Hindu
>
> Wednesday, Jul 28, 2004
>
> Ukraine drops bid to join E.U., NATO
>
> By Vladimir Radyuhin
>
> MOSCOW, JULY 27. Ukraine has formally abandoned its
> goal of joining NATO in
> a sign of its growing tilt towards Russia.




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Ukraine drops bid to join E.U., NATO

[Ulhas Joglekar]

The Hindu

Wednesday, Jul 28, 2004

Ukraine drops bid to join E.U., NATO

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, JULY 27. Ukraine has formally abandoned its
goal of joining NATO in
a sign of its growing tilt towards Russia.

The Ukrainian President, Leonid Kuchma, signed a
decree ordering changes in
the country's defence doctrine to remove reference to
membership in the
European Union and NATO as the ultimate goal of
Ukraine's foreign policy.
Henceforth, Ukraine will only strive to "deepen
relations" with the two
organisations.

Victory for Putin

The decree, made public a day before the Russian
President, Vladimir Putin,
flew to Ukraine for an informal bilateral summit with
Mr. Kuchma, is seen as
a victory for Moscow in its tug-of-war with the West
for influence in
Ukraine.

New doctrine

The Ukrainian leader had just signed the new defence
doctrine in June that
stated the aim of joining NATO and the E.U. However,
Mr. Kuchma badly needs
Russia's crucial support for his bid to have his
chosen heir, the Prime
Minister, Viktor Yanukovich, win a presidential
election in October against
the more popular pro-Western Opposition candidate,
Viktor Yushchenko.

Mr. Putin has taken full advantage of his position as
a king-maker to
encourage a U-turn in Ukraine's foreign policy towards
closer integration
with Russia. Last September, Ukraine after repeated
refusals, finally signed
up to a Single Economic Zone pact with Russia,
Kazakhstan and Belarus. The
accord provides for a customs union, free movement of
goods, capital and
labour, and a common tax, monetary and foreign trade
policy.

After his meeting with the Ukrainian leader on Monday,
Mr. Putin issued a
stern warning to the West not to get in the way of
Russia and Ukraine
forging closer ties.

"Their (Western nations') agents, both inside our
countries and outside, are
trying everything possible to compromise the
integration between Russia and
Ukraine," Mr. Putin said, speaking to businessmen from
both countries.

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.



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Diminishing Expectations

[Carrol Cox]

Michael Hoover wrote:
>
> but
> conversations here indicate that we sure do live in the age of
> diminishing expectations, which in itself gives people fewer reasons
> to spend time on political activism.

That's interesting (as well as depressing).

A speculation: Assuming the truth of this, the driving force behind that
trend is a longer work day (not only at work but getting to and from
work). It leaves people short of breath.

There is one sentence in _Capital_ that has always haunted me: "As soon
as the working-class, stunned at first by the noise and turmoil of the
new system of production, recovered, in some measure, its sense. . . ."

Stunned at first. . . .I think the the reduction in free time (by which
I mean time in which one is neither burdened with the tasks of
reproducing oneself nor with simple fatigue and tension) over the last
30 some years is perhaps the strongest argument against Chomsky's claim
that the u.s. is "incomparably more civilized" today than 40 years ago.
"Civlization" (in any of its positive sense) can only mean more spare
time for sheer loafing.

Carrol

Re: India's HDI Improves, Ranking Doesn't

[Chris Doss]

--- ravi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
nothing unites like hate. and for that there is
pakistan and/or
muslims.
the common language i share with my indian spouse is
english. but not
to
worry with respect to commonality... advice from some
relatives/acquaintances on both sides struck a common
chord: marry
someone soon, but just don't marry a muslim! even one
of the those
american boys/girls is ok...

--

There must be more of a unifying Indian identity than
just shared hatred of Muslims and Pakistan. Wasn't
there a kind of pan-Indian nationalism that manifested
itself during the struggle for independence?

How do non-Kashmiri Indian Muslims view the Kashmir
issue? Is it seen in religious terms? Russian Muslims
(20% of the population) do not see Chechnya in
religious terms (except insofar as they view Wahabbis
as being false Muslims).



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Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?

[Chris Doss]

that may be true, but would you then agree with BBC's
assessment that
it
started as an essentially indigenous and popular
uprising? if so, that
is all the more reason to ask the people.
counterinsurgency warfare
might be a dirty business (and i doubt you condone
it), but it is all
the more dirty when the actions are partially aimed at
silencing the
people or denying them a voice.

--ravi
---

I don't know enough about the issue to answer whether
it was popular or not. But you do not need to have a
majority of the population on your side in order to
have an indigenous uprising. The Chechen population,
for instance, voted overwhelmingly to remain part of
the Russian Federation (then, the Soviet Union) in
1991. That did not prevent extremists in the Chechen
population from doing their thing, and the moderates
were either forced out or fled. I don't know if the
Kashmiri case is parallel or not.



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