hakblog

This Landau article was so good to read after the rigid but usual anti-Castro speech by Scott Simon on NPR this morning.

2008-02-25T06:44:00.000-08:00

ZNet Commentary http://www.zmag.org
Fidel: father of modern Cuba February 23, 2008
By Saul Landau

Cubans, even in Miami, will admit that Fidel Castro changed their lives. Their departure to the US is testimony to some of the failings of the Cuban revolution, but while Castro remains alive, he will use his agile mind to improve the Caribbean isle's experiment in socialism.

Fidel decided to retire from almost half a century of leadership this week. I saw him last in April 1961. "The worst is over," he told the person next to me in the hallway. "The issue is developing socialism." Poking his finger into my chest, he asked about the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, and the state of poverty in the areas -- far worse than anything Cubans went through.

His worldly concerns stand in stark contrast to Cubans who daily headed north for more prosperity.

Last May in Havana, some whose fathers served in Angola, asked me about life in the United States. Those in their 20s and 30s felt frustrated. Some had the PhDs and Masters degrees and worked at jobs beneath their education and skill levels. The biggest complaint was how they spent parts of their day "resolviendo" problems of material existence.

Last year, a veterinarian who drove a taxi in Havana asked me if the United States was indeed the paradise that she and her friends imagined, that wonderful place seen in movies. Letters from friends and family who had migrated indicated that most of them liked it better. I told her that in Miami I saw Cubans cleaning toilets and mopping floors at the airport while others drove Cadillacs.

"Which one will you be?"

She shook her head. She didn't know. She would think more about leaving.

In Miami, I asked a waitress in a Cuban restaurant. You want to return to Cuba?

"Some days," she replied. "I felt less tense there, although I got anxious trying to get food, soap, shampoo. Who knows?

Cubans arrive each week in Florida, but not all the new arrivals enter Paradise. Indeed, rapid social mobility for people without U.S. college degrees -- the vast majority of immigrants -- has slowed to a crawl. According to a Brookings Institution study, in 2004 "only 15 percent of Miami's households are in that income bracket ($34,000 and $51,000)," compared to 20% nationally.

For African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians median household income in Dade County was at least $20,000 less than "white median household income." Cubans fare somewhat better. The original anti-Castristas, Batista supporters, moneyed and professional classes, came with material assets and education. Their children and grandchildren benefited from their original and accumulated wealth -- some of it stolen from the Cuban Treasury. Batista military officials hijacked planes and ships to haul stolen loot to Florida shortly before the revolutionaries seized power. Rather than charge them with theft and airplane and ship hijacking, the U.S. government welcomed them and never returned the stolen money.

Subsequent migrations brought the less affluent many of whom have joined Miami's immense underpaid class in underpaid service and retail trades. The Brookings study revealed that "wages, regardless of industry sector or occupation type, are lower in Miami-Dade than elsewhere."

A native New Yorker, driving through Miami slums, doesn't get it. The monster-sized airport, the flashy hotels and modern office buildings, the art deco Miami Beach area speak to affluence. In almost all black Liberty City and Little Haiti one doesn't see rotting tenements, the trademark of northeast cities. Nor do homeless people huddle over subway grates in mid winter ice. Yet, in 2004, Miami ranked as the city with the lowest median household income: $24,031. Newark, NJ ranked second poorest with $26,309. The national median income is $42,000.

Some 10 million people drop in and out of the Miami area during the year. Millions of others know it from the Miami Vice series, where cops and drug dealers dress in super mod outfits, or from CSI Miami in which expensive technology dominates the set. Miami tourism promoters sell beaches and weather. The celebrity-rich own homes and yachts there. The hotels thrive on conventions and cruise ships await the eager vacationers who might spend one night at a five star hotel before boring themselves into a stupor at sea.

The rich adore the place. At DeVito's restaurant in South Beach (yes, Danny's place) the entrees range from $40-60 -- not counting drinks or salads or deserts. On Valentine's Day the tables began filling early. Those who peel the onions and potatoes and dump the restaurant's garbage don't earn the price of a meal for an eight hour shift. Miami's media median household income ranks lowest in the country: $23,483.

Some of the low income earners came from Cuba. Some of the homeless are also Cubans. One Cuban woman, a "Peter Pan" kid -- a CIA-Catholic Church operation that removed thousands of Cuban kids from their parents to the United States in the early 1960s -- said she "rediscovered my Cuba." Her first return visit in 1994, during very difficult economic times, "showed me that the values on the island were better, more caring. In the United States if you're poor you have few resources. In Cuba you have some safety net and you always have family."

"Poverty in every childhood poisons the brain," Paul Krugman opened his February 18 New York Times column, quoting a report from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In the United States poor kids feel like outcasts and therefore suffer "unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impact their neural development."

One understands poverty in most third world countries. Even though income disparity is wildly askew, the total wealth remains insufficient to provide each citizen with basic needs. In the United States, Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty did reduce the rate of poverty from 23 to 14%. "But progress stalled thereafter," wrote Krugman.

I think of the smug criticisms of Cuba's inability to provide sufficiently for all of its citizens while Washington poured untold hundreds of billions into wars in Vietnam and Iraq. I think of the hundreds of billions poured into ridiculous weapons systems that defended no one against anything and never will and the little uniformed kids singing the anthem outside of a Cuban school in Havana and little Cuban-American kids in Miami whose parents ort parent has yet to rise above the poverty line.

The anti-Castroites won't have Fidel to kick around any more, but the "post Castro" era features Raul Castro still in charge and few basic institutional changes in the forecast.

In Miami, I'd seen the same desperate Edward Munch Silent Scream look on Cuban faces that I'd witnessed in Havana. A woman waiting for the bus stared vacantly into space as if her lover had left her, her kids had died, and she just didn't know if she could continue. In Miami I saw a similar expression on a tired middle-aged woman serving the Cuban coffee through a window. She complained her feet hurt, she couldn't subsist on $9 an hour, and her husband only made $12 an hour as a security guard. "How can we live like this?" she asked me or herself.

"Do you think about going back?

She shrugged. A non-starter! She, like 1.5 other million Cubans had made a decision to leave and they have to live with it. Some love it, some accept it, and some regret it. All will admit that Fidel Castro changed their lives.

How will Cubans assess him now that he can't carry out the duties of office because of health? In nearly half a century Castro led Cuba from U.S. informal economic colony into nationhood -- sovereignty. Cubans defeated a 1961 U.S.-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs, followed by thousands of CIA-led terrorist attacks and survived the 1962 Missile Crisis. By the 1970s, Cubans began to enjoy good health and high levels of education -- unique for most third world countries.

When Castro went to the hospital in July 2006, nothing changed in Cuban daily life. The revolution exacted a price: divided families, absence of procedural freedoms and a struggle against harsh reality since the Soviet collapse.

Castro has become an interesting literary figure in his recuperation. Castro's will, vision, and perseverance helped put Cuba on the stage of history -- despite great efforts from Washington to keep it down. For this, Castro stands as David against Goliath.

That Cubans risk their lives to leave the island for better opportunities in Florida show that Cuban socialism is struggling, but far from dead. While Castro remains alive, even bed-ridden, he will use his agile mind to improve the world's last experiment in socialism.

His successors will be chosen from a pool of capable men and women. Raul in his late 70s will not endure much longer. Look for Carlos Lage and people from his generation to assume leadership; government will become more committee-style.

Fidel was the father of modern Cuba. Think of the thousands of Cuban names etched in honor-rolls throughout the world in science, medicine, sports, art, film, literature and music. Cuban doctors saved lives in Pakistan, Vietnam, throughout Africa the Middle East and Latin America.

Under Castro, a nation without strategic resources changed history in southern Africa. In 1987-8, Cuban troops in Angola defeated the apartheid South Africa forces and thus forced the opening that allowed Nelson Mandela to become President. A Cuban tank unit fought in the 1973 Middle East war. Castro's ideological sons now serve as elected presidents of several Latin American countries America; more distant relative govern other countries -- ones the U.S. used to control.

The U.S. isolated Cuba in the 1960s. Now, Cuba relates to the rest of the hemisphere -- save for the United States. Castro also changed the United States by exporting his enemies -- to his larger enemy. In turn, Cuban-Americans in Florida, especially in the 2000 elections, changed U.S. destiny.

Saul Landau is a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and a senior fellow of the Transnational Institute. His latest book is A Bush and Botox World. His latest film is We don't play golf here! And other stories of globalisation (winner of best activist video award at S.F. Video Fest).

Progreso Weekly, 21 February 2008

Desert Rats Leave The Sinking Ship

2006-04-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

Well, here they come: the wannabe Rommels, the gaggle of generals, safely retired, to lay siege to Donald Rumsfeld. This week, six of them have called for the Secretary of Defense's resignation.

Well, according to my watch, they're about four years too late -- and they still don't get it.

I know that most of my readers will be tickled pink that the bemedalled boys in crew cuts are finally ready to kick Rummy in the rump, in public. But to me, it just shows me that these boys still can't shoot straight.

It wasn't Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who stood up in front of the UN and identified two mobile latrines as biological weapons labs, was it, General Powell?

It wasn't Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who told us our next warning from Saddam could be a mushroom cloud, was it Condoleezza?

It wasn't Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who declared that Al Qaeda and Saddam were going steady, was it, Mr. Cheney?

Yes, Rumsfeld is a swaggering bag of mendacious arrogance, a duplicitous chicken-hawk, yellow-bellied bully-boy and Tinker-Toy Napoleon -- but he didn't appoint himself Secretary of Defense.

Let me tell you a story about the Secretary of Defense you didn't read in the New York Times, related to me by General Jay Garner, the man our president placed in Baghdad as the US' first post-invasion viceroy.

Garner arrived in Kuwait City in March 2003 working under the mistaken notion that when George Bush called for democracy in Iraq, the President meant the Iraqis could choose their own government. Misunderstanding the President's true mission, General Garner called for Iraqis to hold elections within 90 days and for the U.S. to quickly pull troops out of the cities to a desert base. "It's their country," the General told me of the Iraqis. "And," he added, most ominously, "their oil."

Let's not forget: it's all about the oil. I showed Garner a 101-page plan for Iraq's economy drafted secretly by neo-cons at the State Department, Treasury and the Pentagon, calling for "privatization" (i.e. the sale) of "all state assets ... especially in the oil and oil-supporting industries." The General knew of the plans and he intended to shove it where the Iraqi sun don't shine. Garner planned what he called a "Big Tent" meeting of Iraqi tribal leaders to plan elections. By helping Iraqis establish their own multi-ethnic government -- and this was back when Sunnis, Shias and Kurds were on talking terms -- knew he could get the nation on its feet peacefully before a welcomed "liberation" turned into a hated "occupation."

But, Garner knew, a freely chosen coalition government would mean the death-knell for the neo-con oil-and-assets privatization grab.

On April 21, 2003, three years ago this month, the very night General Garner arrived in Baghdad, he got a call from Washington. It was Rumsfeld on the line. He told Garner, in so many words, "Don't unpack, Jack, you're fired."

Rummy replaced Garner, a man with years of on-the-ground experience in Iraq, with green-boots Paul Bremer, the Managing Director of Kissinger Associates. Bremer cancelled the Big Tent meeting of Iraqis and postponed elections for a year; then he issued 100 orders, like some tin-pot pasha, selling off Iraq's economy to U.S. and foreign operators, just as Rumsfeld's neo-con clique had desired.

Reading this, it sounds like I should applaud the six generals' call for Rumfeld's ouster. Forget it.

For a bunch of military hotshots, they sure can't shoot straight. They're wasting all their bullets on the decoy. They've gunned down the puppet instead of the puppeteers.

There's no way that Rumsfeld could have yanked General Garner from Baghdad without the word from The Bunker. Nothing moves or breathes or spits in the Bush Administration without Darth Cheney's growl of approval. And ultimately, it's the Commander-in-Chief who's chiefly in command.

Even the generals' complaint -- that Rumsfeld didn't give them enough troops -- was ultimately a decision of the cowboy from Crawford. (And by the way, the problem was not that we lacked troops -- the problem was that we lacked moral authority to occupy this nation. A million troops would not be enough -- the insurgents would just have more targets.)

President Bush is one lucky fella. I can imagine him today on the intercom with Cheney: "Well, pardner, looks like the game's up." And Cheney replies, "Hey, just hang the Rumsfeld dummy out the window until he's taken all their ammo."

When Bush and Cheney read about the call for Rumsfeld's resignation today, I can just hear George saying to Dick, "Mission Accomplished."

Generals, let me give you a bit of advice about choosing a target: It's the President, stupid.

**********
Read more about the untold story of General Garner and the secret war plans in ARMED MADHOUSE, by Greg Palast, to be released June 6 (US) and July 6 (UK). View Palast's interview with Garner for BBC Television at www.GregPalast.com

Former Head Of Star Wars Program Says Cheney Main 9/11 Suspect

2006-04-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

Former Head Of Star Wars Program Says Cheney Main 9/11 Suspect
Official version of events a conspiracy theory, says drills were cover for attacks

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones/Prison Planet.com | April 4 2006

The former head of the Star Wars missile defense program under Presidents Ford and Carter has gone public to say that the official version of 9/11 is a conspiracy theory and his main suspect for the architect of the attack is Vice President Dick Cheney.

Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret. flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam. He is the recipient of the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President's Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Society of Military Engineers Gold Medal (twice), six Air Medals, and dozens of other awards and honors. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. He chaired 8 major international conferences, and is one of the country's foremost experts on National Security.

Bowman worked secretly for the US government on the Star Wars project and was the first to coin the very term in a 1977 secret memo. After Bowman realized that the program was only ever intended to be used as an aggressive and not defensive tool, as part of a plan to initiate a nuclear war with the Soviets, he left the program and campaigned against it.

In an interview with The Alex Jones Show aired nationally on the GCN Radio Network, Bowman (pictured below) stated that at the bare minimum if Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were involved in 9/11 then the government stood down and allowed the attacks to happen. He said it is plausible that the entire chain of military command were unaware of what was taking place and were used as tools by the people pulling the strings behind the attack.

Bowman outlined how the drills on the morning of 9/11 that simulated planes crashing into buildings on the east coast were used as a cover to dupe unwitting air defense personnel into not responding quickly enough to stop the attack.

"The exercises that went on that morning simulating the exact kind of thing that was happening so confused the people in the FAA and NORAD....that they didn't they didn't know what was real and what was part of the exercise," said Bowman

"I think the people who planned and carried out those exercises, they're the ones that should be the object of investigation."

Asked if he could name a prime suspect who was the likely architect behind the attacks, Bowman stated, "If I had to narrow it down to one person....I think my prime suspect would be Dick Cheney."

Bowman said that privately his military fighter pilot peers and colleagues did not disagree with his sentiments about the real story behind 9/11.

Bowman agreed that the US was in danger of slipping into a dictatorship and stated, "I think there's been nothing closer to fascism than what we've seen lately from this government."

Bowman slammed the Patriot Act as having, "Done more to destroy the rights of Americans than all of our enemies combined."

Bowman trashed the 9/11 Commission as a politically motivated cover-up with abounding conflicts of interest, charging, "The 9/11 Commission omitted anything that might be the least bit suspicious or embarrassing or in any way detract from the official conspiracy so it was a total whitewash."

"There needs to be a true investigation, not the kind of sham investigations we have had with the 9/11 omission and all the rest of that junk," said Bowman.

Asked if the perpetrators of 9/11 were preparing to stage another false-flag attack to reinvigorate their agenda Bowman agreed that, "I can see that and I hope they can't pull it off, I hope they are prevented from pulling it off but I know darn good and well they'd like to have another one."

A mainstay of the attack pieces against Charlie Sheen have been that he is not credible enough to speak on the topic of 9/11. These charges are ridiculed by the fact that Sheen is an expert on 9/11 who spends hours a day meticulously researching the topic, something that the attack dogs have failed to do, aiming their comments solely at Sheen's personal life and ignoring his invitation to challenge him on the facts.

In addition, from the very start we have put forth eminently credible individuals only for them to be ignored by the establishment media. Physics Professors, former White House advisors and CIA analysts, the father of Reaganomics, German Defense Ministers and Bush's former Secretary of the Treasury, have all gone public on 9/11 but have been uniformly ignored by the majority of the establishment press.

Will Robert Bowman also be blackballed as the mainstream continue to misrepresent the 9/11 truth movement as an occupation of the fringe minority?

letter to Pinelands Commission

2006-03-29T10:45:00.000-08:00

To: Betty Wilson, Chair of the NJ Pinelands Commission
March 24,2006

Dear Betty,

My husband and I attended the informational meeting held in Stafford (3/21) by the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, Save Barnegat Bay and OC Sierra Club.

In 1965 my husband and I moved to this area after reading about the Pinebarrens and the small towns of Southern New Jersey. Two years later we moved into a log cabin (c.1934) in a wooded area off Pancoast Rd., Warren Grove and were able to buy the cabin and surrounding 13 acres in the 1980's. We have naturally been very concerned with the rampant development in Ocean County, which has speeded up exponentially in the last twenty years. This all seems so far from the original Pinelands Act and work of the Pinelands Commission in agreement with the Townships. The development in Stafford has been especially and most crudely commercial, without any feeling or regard for the natural integrity of the area. Here in Warren Grove we experience the continuing degradation of the wildlife - flora and fauna - that as a Pinelands Village it was meant to protect. The wildflowers and native plants that existed in profusion along roadsides, fields and our streams have vanished from most of the area. The snakes, and many small mammals that were common, are now rare. The bird population has also shifted.

Development in this whole area west of the Parkway, already out of control, should be capped. The proposed development in the Stafford landfill area would not only eliminate the wildlife in that area, it would be the death of Warren Grove. One house in there and there will be no stopping.

I urge you and the Pinelands Commission not to allow any housing in the Stafford landfill and business park area.

Sincerely,

Jean Vogrin

save Stafford

2006-03-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

STOP RAMPANT
OVERDEVELOPMENT
in Stafford Township !!!

You are invited to attend a
Citizens’ Rally & Information Session

Tuesday, MARCH 21, 2006
@ 7:00 PM

At the new
Holiday Inn
151 Rt. 72 East

Come exchange your views and learn about:

_ The Huge Development planned for the Stafford Landfill, just west of GSP and just south of Route 72. Learn about the proposed 500 + homes and 680,000 sq. ft. of commercial/retail/office space; how it will diminish your quality of life; and what you can do.

_Rampant Overdevelopment throughout Stafford. Learn what further overdevelopment is proposed and how you can reduce it. Today’s population = 24,000. Projected 2025 population = 30,000. Learn about Stafford’s proposed town “center”, and the “hamlet” and golf course proposed for Mayetta. And more.

LEARN WHAT YOU CAN DO - MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

Event sponsored by Save Barnegat Bay, Pinelands Preservation Alliance, and the Sierra Club.
Need a babysitter? We’ll have one there, in the same room.

MUCH MORE at www.savebarnegatbay.org
Questions: email or phone 732-830-3600

Please distribute copies of this flyer. It can also be downloaded from www.savebarnegatbay.org

Stacy

2006-03-02T07:31:00.000-08:00

Don't forget Stacy's pic. She was a real hero. If she hadn't stood up at the first meeting, it would have appeared that no one supported Lily and the second meeting might never have been held.

2006-03-02T07:28:00.000-08:00

teacher- Lily McBeth (see below)

2006-03-01T05:57:00.000-08:00

Lily McBeth, teacher now rehired by Eagleswood Board

2006-03-01T05:41:00.000-08:00

Last night Louise (below) and I went to an Eagleswood Bd. of Ed meeting to support our tai chi teacher who has two small children in the school and was the only one to speak out at a previous meeting in support of their decision to rehire a substitute teacher who is now transgendered. There were ads in the local papers to alert parents to come out and defend their children against this atrocity. It turned out that the ad backfired -- more came who supported the teacher including several past students and parents of students. Everyone who got up to speak spoke with real feeling but emotionally in control. The board had given strict limitations as to religious content and insulting speech besides there were three very impressive looking state troopers posted at the exits. They also had another speaker first, a teacher who gave a report on the schools just completed anti bullying campaign. Really set the tone. The place was full of TV cameras and reporters. It was amazing and fascinating. I heard on the radio this morning that the Board stood by it's original decision!

It seemed as if the main group of objecting parents were from a specific church. The all expressed a fear that their children would be "confused" if they heard about it or recognized the teacher from the past and this might have some damaging effect on their lives. I spoke to one father who claimed his constitutional rights were being denied and his wife who said she would keep her child out of school if the teacher were teaching his class. I suggested that young children are open and usually adapt if their parents are calm about the issue. Learning tolerance is like learning a language -- much more effective if the student is young. By high school, it's often too late.

J

2006-02-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

Hak and Jean

shriveling into a useless dust

2006-02-25T09:52:00.000-08:00

This is really where the Democrats are at. They keep shriveling into a useless dust - or maybe useful to the far right. J

ZNet Commentary - sysop@zmag.org
Pogo Was Right February 21, 2006
By Lucinda Marshall

Paul Hackett and Senator Russ Feingold did the unthinkable this last week, they dared to say what is true, something that is horribly unfashionable these days. In doing so, they laid bare some ugly truths about the Democratic Party.

In his announcement that he was dropping out of the Ohio Senatorial race, Hackett minced no words in explaining the pressure that was brought to bear by the party powerful, who somehow felt that it was theirs to decide who could run and whose voices should be heard. Their omnipotent power play wasn't about who could win in November, it was about the powers that be pooping in their pants at the prospect of new blood that might not kiss their asses. After all, if newcomers are allowed to step up and speak the truth, there is a serious danger that the party faithful might finally figure out that a bunch of butt-naked old donkeys are running the show.

The Dems really are a sorry lot. During the Alito hearings Senator Diane Feinstein mumbled on about how she didn't feel that a difference of opinion was sufficient reason to vote against Alito. Earth to Senator Feinstein: Concerns about separation of powers, civil rights and upholding the Constitution are more than ample reasons. And this last week, Senator Russ Feingold's stood alone in his eloquent opposition to the renewal of the Patriot Act.

The list of nominations for the "If I Only Had A Spine Award" are endless. How many chest beatings have we heard from those who claim they were misled by faulty intelligence about the Iraq war? With all due respect, how is it that myself and millions of people all over the world could grasp that it was a crock of brown stuff and we didn't even have access to any 'intelligence' besides the brains that we were born with. And then there are the House Dems, including Nancy Pelosi, who knew about the domestic spying program several years ago and chose not to blow the whistle. Like I said, it really is a long list.

The party faithful are fond of telling me that you have to be practical, pick your battles, compromise, yada yada. But there is no excuse for not standing up for truth and doing what is right. As Audre Lorde pointed out many years ago, silence does not protect you. Or us. Or Democracy.

The bottom line is that the Dems voted for this conceptual war without end and they keep voting to fund it. Earlier this year in a bizarre act of pretzel logic, a delegation of Congressional Democrats, including media darling Barack Obama, solemnly warned Iraqi leaders that the U.S. commitment to Iraq is dependent on Iraqis getting their act together. That would be the same act our elected officials have consistently voted to destroy. They didn't filibuster the nomination of John Roberts or Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court and it is all but assured they will vote to extend the Patriot Act. And not once but twice, they just shrugged when our elections were stolen. Since when is selling out a substitute for patriotism, democracy or moral character?

We should all be very grateful to Mr. Hackett for being straight about just how the deal went down. Perversely it is his understandable decision to get out of the race that makes him precisely the sort of person we desperately need in politics, a point that is clearly lost on the Democratic Party. We need to quit clinging to the notion that if we could just get the Dems back in power
If we want to reclaim our country, if we truly believe in democracy, it is time to take a good hard look at our own complicity and take a stand outside the two party system. If we don't, we have only ourselves to blame.

#####

Lucinda Marshall is a feminist artist, writer and activist. She is the Founder of the Feminist Peace Network, www.feministpeacenetwork.org. Her work has been published in numerous publications in the U.S. and abroad including, Awakened Woman, Alternet, Dissident Voice, Off Our Backs, The Progressive, Rain and Thunder, Z Magazine , Common Dreams and Information Clearinghouse.

letter to the media

2006-02-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

You can’t fool me Mr. President –

You can’t fool me Mr. President, you can’t fool this baby boomer! I’ve seen
too much in this lifetime and heard these promises before. I listened to
your state of the union speech last night and it was pathetic. Time and
time again you have the audacity to face the American people and tell more
lies.

Just as Richard Nixon was caught in his web of lies so will you. There are
too many of us who remember then and see history repeating itself now. We
won’t let it happen again, not to our loved ones.

I learned this morning Cindy Sheehan, who was given a ticket by Lynn Woolsey
(5th gallery, front row, fourth seat), was forcibly removed from the room
last night when she took her jacket off to reveal a t-shirt which read “2245
Dead. How many more?” Four hours and 2 jails later she was released. Her
lawyers are looking into suing for violation of her first amendment rights.
Don’t mess with an angry mom who lost her beloved son in this insane illegal
war for oil.

Your rhetoric last night was pure Nationalism, words meant to move the
hearts and souls of the American people. We’re good people and we love our
country. Most of us would fight to the last breath for our families and all
that we hold most dear. But you are a disgrace to all that’s good. You
take advantage of trusting souls.

Since you have taken office you have turned this nation on it’s heels. You
have stolen elections and have turned the world against us. You have made
more people poor, have taken away more much needed programs and destroyed
our environment more than any President before you. Yet you say you are a
man of God. What God does this to his people?

You want to protect us from weapons of mass destruction? How can this be
done when we are the greatest creators of WMDs AND torture devices? Who
will lay down their arms knowing others are armed? It makes no sense.
China won’t, Russia won’t, Iran won’t, Israel won’t. Are we going to attack
all them? Not with my child you won’t. I say to you, we have no children
to spare, not this generation or next. As Martin Luther King said many
years ago, “all roads must lead to peace”. Peace is the only answer. Why
aren’t you taking us down that road?

You have brought us into a quagmire of untold horror and suffering to not
only our troops now and for years to come, but to innocent people in a far
off land because they sit on vast deposits of oil. Are they any better off
now than they were with Saddam? They don’t think so. They were no threat
before 9/11, but you made the whole region a threat now. You’ve created
insurgents who will fight to the last to get us out of their country. When
we escalate, they escalate. You kidnapped their wives and now they kidnap
ours. You say we take the battle to their land, and now they say they will
bring it to ours. You brought this on us.

A President can commit no greater crime against our democracy than to lie to
Congress and the American people to get them to support an illegal war, when
there was no reason to believe there was imminent danger of an attack, and
yet you continue to promote this lie. We did not live in fear before 9/11
and now by your actions you have angered and infuriated the entire world,
not to mention the vast sums of money which have been diverted from this
nation to the war effort. The Downing Street memo has made irrefutably
clear the deliberateness of this deception and we must hold you accountable.

On December 17, you admitted you repeatedly authorized wiretaps without
legal warrant, of Americans engaged in international calls. This is in
violation of FISA which requires court approval for national security
wiretaps, and is a felony. This President thinks he has the constitutional
right to break any US law he wishes in the name of national security. How
would you like your call to a relative in another country to be tapped and
misconstrued to whatever meets his needs? Yes, you could be disappeared for
expressing your disgust of his policies. FISA was enacted in 1978 as a
result of Watergate to prevent widespread abuses in domestic surveillance.
It was Congress’s explicit intent through FISA to balance the legitimate
requirements of national security and safeguard personal privacy.

This President took an oath of office in which he swore to take care that
the laws of the land would be faithfully executed. Over and over this
President has violated this oath and the laws of the land. He must be held
accountable.

Just as people had the power to reverse Lt. Laurel Hester’s fate, so will
the people prevail in bringing justice to this arrogant president who thinks
he is above the law. In some countries it is called facism, or
dictatorship. What do we call it? Democracy? If so, we’re in big trouble.

Submitted by Liz Arnone – Brick, NJ

about money

2006-01-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

ALVINNHADAD@cs.com wrote:
Bush, Cheney, and Rove are flying on Air Force One to a fund-raiser in Chicago, when Bush turns to
Cheney and says, chuckling,
"You know, I could throw a $1000 bill out the window right now and make someone very happy."

Cheney shrugs and replies, "Well, I could throw ten $100 bills out the window and make ten people
happy."

Not to be outdone, Rove says, "Well I could throw a hundred $10 bills out the window and make a
hundred people happy."

A couple of reporters overhear them. One of them rolls his eyes and says to the other, "Such
arrogant asses back there.
Hell, I could throw all three of them out the window and make at least a 100 million people
happy."

Saint Bush?

2006-01-18T12:17:00.000-08:00

President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit the Methodist Church outside Washington as part of
his last campaign.
Karl Rove paid a visit to the Bishop and said to him, "We've been getting a lot of bad publicity
among Methodists because of Bush's position on stem cell research, the War, and such. I'll gladly
make a contribution to the church of $100,000 if during your sermon, you'd say the President is a
saint."
The Bishop thinks it over for a few moments and says, "The Church is in desperate need of funds. I
will do it."
Bush pompously shows up that following Sunday, looking especially smug, sneering for his photo
ops, while strutting his way, cowboy-style, into the church.
As the sermon starts, the Bishop begins his homily:
"George Bush is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite as well as a nitwit. He is a liar, a cheat,
probably still a drunk, and a low-intelligence sneaky weasel. He has lied about his military
record, and then had the gall to put himself in uniform on a military jet, landing on a carrier,
and then posing before a banner stating 'Mission Accomplished.' He invaded a country for oil and
money, all the while, lying to the American people about the war, with nary a care for the
thousands of lives it has taken and continues to take. He is the worst example of a Methodist I've
ever personally known or known of. But compared to Dick Cheney, George Bush is a saint."

Laura X, founder/director of the former Women's History Library, Berkeley, Ca.

more murder

2006-01-14T05:33:00.000-08:00

Zawahiri 'not hit by US missile' is the headline but 16 people were killed- more woman and children. What if it was your child murdered by US planes? We make radical America haters everyday. What has happened to us that this is now acceptable? No outrage was expressed on any news channels. It is business as usual. -JK Loesch

hakblog: Alito?

2006-01-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

hakblog: Alito?http://www.alitosamerica.org/

Alito?

2006-01-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

President Bush has nominated Samuel Alito, a judge with a long record of judicial extremism, to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been the crucial moderate voice and swing vote on the Supreme Court. If Judge Alito is confirmed, his extreme right-wing ideology would endanger our basic freedoms. Alito's record shows that he'll side with big business and polluters against workers and our environment. He'll undermine protections of our privacy, civil rights and public safety. Our future is at stake - we could feel the consequences of an Alito Supreme Court for fifty, sixty years or more.

http://www.alitosamerica.org/

hate getting a machine--cheat sheet

2006-01-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

My Friends,

In the spirit of a less frustrating New Year, here is information on how to bypass phone menus of some common companies.........

IVR Cheat Sheet to Find a Human
Here are the secret numbers and tips to bypass IVR phone menus to get to a human.

finance phone steps to find a human
American Express 800-528-4800 0
ATT Universal 800-950-5114 ###
Bank of America 800-900-9000 1 loan; 2 account; 3 investing; 4 info; or 00 to human
Bank One 877-226-5663 0,0
Capital One Visa 800-867-0904 ignore prompts and invalid entry warnings; press #0 four times
Charles Schwab 800-435-9050 3 then 0
Chase 800-CHASE24 5 pause 1 4
CitiBank 800-374-9700 1 online support; 2 billpay; 3 non-online; 4 credit card; or 0 to human
Discover 800-347-2683 ****
E-Trade 800-387-2331 ####
Fidelity 800-544-6666 ignore prompt for social security number, just enter ###
MasterCard 800-MC-ASSIST 000 on each menu
MBNA 800-421-2110 00# when menu starts
Paypal 650 864-8000 cf http://paypalsucks.com/PayPalPhoneNumbers.shtml
Sovereign Bank 800-SOV-BANK 1 english; 1 personal; 3 then social#; passcode, #; then 0 (1-3x)
Sun Trust Banks 404-588-7815 Yes
US Bank 800-US BANKS 0000
Visa 800-847-2911 000 (ignore prompts saying that it's an invalid entry)
Wachovia 800-922-4684 accounts personal banking
Washington Mutual 800-756-8000 At any time after the announcement(s) press 0,0.
Wells Fargo 800-869-3557 0,0,0
Western Union 800-325-6000 * then ##
government phone steps to find a human
INS 800-375-5283 After selecting English, (with a 2 second delay between) 2 6 2 4
Social Security 800-772-1213 00 will confuse computer and send you to an agent
Veterans Affairs 800-827-1000 1,0
insurance phone steps to find a human
Aetna 800-537-9384 "2, then say ""operator"" (check this)"
Aetna 800-680-3566 * then 0 anytime
AFLAC 800-99-AFLAC ***
Ameritas 800-745-1112 0,0,0
CIGNA 800-516-2898 REGARDING A BILL
Cigna 800-849-9000 ##
GEICO 800-841-3000 Wait for prompt then 6, 1, 5
Humana 800-4-HUMANA After entering insurance number and details, 0.
Medicare 800-633-4227 "After the opening prompt say ""agent""."
Principal Life 800-247-4695 1 for english, 2, then 0 several times until it redirects you to an operator.
pharmacy phone steps to find a human
CVS local listing dial local store, after promt. press 6 will connect to store manager
Eckerd 800-eckerds 0 for pharmacy, 8* for manager
Rite Aid Local Store Press 3 to speak to the pharmacy
Walgreens local store 0 for a pharmacy employee
products phone steps to find a human
Bose 800-444-2673 Direct to human!
Sonos 800-680-2345 1 sales; 2 support
Sony 800-222-7669 "When prompted by the automated voice system to answer ANY questions, just say ""Agent"""
retail phone steps to find a human
Advance Auto 800-314-4243 0 when the automated message begins
Amazon.com 800-201-7575 Direct to human!
Best Buy 800-365-0292 00*
Best Buy local store wait for extension prompt (sometimes must 4), then ext. 2021
Circuit City local store 0 for customer service or 218 for store manager
eBay 800-322-9266 0,0
Home Depot 800 677-0232 "When asked for account number, keep hitting ""#"". After 5 or 6 times, a human appears!"
Home Shopping Net 800-284-3100 0
Ikea 800 434-IKEA "0000000 (hit ""0"" many times fast, if you do it once, or too slow, it will merely repeat the menu)"
K-Mart local store 0
Kohl's 800 5645740 After providing account info, press 0 three times
Lowes local store 0 for customer service or #450 for commercial sales
Old Navy 800-OLD-NAVY 0
Overstock.com 800-843-2446 At the main menu, 0 three to four times to bypass the menu
QVC 800-367-9444 0
Safeway local store As soon as voice prompt starts type 1200 to get human
Sears 800-4-MY-HOME Silence don't push numbers just sit there and you will be placed at front of queue.
Target local store 0 during greeting.
"Toys ""R"" Us" local store 0
Wal-Mart 800-925-6278 1 for directory
shipping phone steps to find a human
DHL 800-225-5345 press 1, press 5, press 0, enter your phone number.
FedEx 888-GO-FEDEX "At message say ""Representative"""
UPS 800-pick-ups 0,0
USPS 800-275-8777 7-3-2-0-0 or send them some junk mail
technology phone steps to find a human
AOL 800-827-6364 0
Apple 800-275-2273 "000; if virtual rep answers, say ""operator"""
Compaq 800-652-6672 No easy escape
Dell 888-560-8324 2 order; 3 support; 4 purchase help; or 00 to human
Dell Service 800-624-9897 option 1, xt 7266966, option 1, option 4, option 4
Earthlink 888-earthlink 1 find a dialin number; 2 billing; 3 sales; 4 support
Epson 800-922-8911 yes
Gateway 800-846-2301 00#
HP 800-474-6836 "Say ""agent""."
HP 888-560-8324 00
IBM 800-IBM-4YOU You go into a hold queue immediately
Microsoft 800-936-5700 Always 0. This is true for just about any MS number.
QuickBooks 888-729-1996 1 purchase; 2 billing; 3 registration; 4 tech support or 0 to human
Symantec 800-441-7234 00
telco phone steps to find a human
AT&T 800-222-0300 #### then 1 if for current phone, else 2 to enter other, else 3
AT&T Wireless 800-888-7600 No easy escape
BellSouth 877-678-2355 *0
Cellular One 888-910-9191 "4, say ""agent"", then #"
Cingular 800-331-0500 For faster service, the option that you are looking to close your account, You get the same ppl but an immediate answer
Nextel 800-639-6111 0 five times
SBC 800-585-7928 Again, an (intelligent, this time) IVR wants YOUR phone number first.
Sprint PCS 888-788-5001 "If live person does not answer, 00, then say ""agent"""
T-Mobile 800-TMOBILE "Say ""representative"" at any time."
Verizon DSL 800 567 6789 "Say ""I don't know it"" then ""technician"""
Verizon Wireless 800-922-0204 #00 or enter phone # then 0 then 4
travel phone steps to find a human
American Airlines 800-433-7300 "00, then say ""agent"""
Amtrak 800-872-7245 "0 or say ""agent"""
Delta 800-221-1212 "say ""agent"" four times - every time it asks for a response from you"
jetBlue 800 JET-BLUE 1 flight status; 2 reservations; 3 vacation packages
Kayak.com 203 899-3120 0
Northwest 800-225-2525 Star, 0,0 after initial greeting
Southwest 800-435-9792 Calls answered by operator; during busy times you might have to hold
United 800-864-8331 Do nothing, wait for human.
US Airways 800-428-4322 4, wait, 1
Walt Disney World 407-824-4521 Direct line to Magic Kingdom Guest Relations
tv/satellite phone steps to find a human
Comcast 800-266-2278 Customer service, but an IVR wants your number first.
Direct TV 800-347-3288 0 repeatedly
Dish Network 800-333-3474 0 during menu
Sirius 888 537-SIRIUS 0
TiVo 877-367-8486 "Say ""Live Agent"""
Xm Radio 800-998-7900 Direct to human!

http://paulenglish.com/ivr/info.html

I created the IVR Cheat Sheet to help you quickly get to a human when you are trying to call a company for service. (The term "IVR" stands for Interactive Voice Response, the fancy name for those annoying computers who answer most phones these days.)

Frustrated? How about when you call your phone company and they ask for your phone number? Or when your bank asks you to type in your credit card or ATM number, and then when you finally get a human on the phone, they ask you to tell them again. Hello, don't I pay *you* guys money?

The problem with most big (dinosaur) companies (vs. young growing or big dynamic companies) is they hire non-strategic bean counters to try to save money. Guess what? If you don't talk to your customers, they won't be loyal to you, they won't come back, they won't recommend you to a friend, they won't buy more products from you. Some companies have figured this out, and they have created wonderful products and services that customers love, and which allow those companies to make money. For example, Southwest Airlines and Nordstrom's both have actual humans to answer their phones.

I have received a few emails from IVR companies, saying "the problems are companies who don't deploy our systems correctly or who use our competitors products which are not as cool as our IVR products". That is mostly a bunch of crap. The problem is the bean counters who don't realize it is a good idea to actually speak with their customers. I realize it is sometimes faster to use an IVR but please give me the choice.

I wish all companies allowed me to always type "0" to get to a human immediately. Maybe it would tell me how many minutes it would take to wait, so I can then decide whether to go back to IVR or wait, or maybe hang up and try a competitor.

Increasingly, consumers are making phone calls while driving their cars. And you want to make that consumer keep typing into your IVR system? These IVR systems are particularly frustrating for senior citizens.
Common Techniques to Bypass IVR Systems

a.. Press 0 or 0# repeatedly, sometimes quickly, ignoring any "invalid entry" messages.
b.. Say "agent" or "representative" (or sometimes your favorite four letter word).
c.. Just hold, pretending you have only a rotary phone.
d.. Connect to sales; they always seem to answer quickly, then have them transfer you to the department you need. (Thanks Mike. :)
e.. When you find a human, ask them how to connect directly the next time (and be sure to tell us :-).
If one of the above techniques does not work, see the Cheat Sheet. (Note that throwing your phone against the wall generally does not work.)

Common Techniques to Bypass IVR Systems

a.. Press 0 or 0# repeatedly, sometimes quickly, ignoring any "invalid entry" messages.
b.. Say "agent" or "representative" (or sometimes your favorite four letter word).
c.. Just hold, pretending you have only a rotary phone.
d.. Connect to sales; they always seem to answer quickly, then have them transfer you to the department you need. (Thanks Mike. :)
e.. When you find a human, ask them how to connect directly the next time (and be sure to tell us

reverse Robin Hood

2006-01-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

--The Team

Here's a sample message to send to your friends:

Subject: Fight back against the reverse Robin Hood budget

Hi!

I'm writing to ask you to join me in writing a short note to your Senators, asking them to oppose Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court.

Judge Alito has a record of extreme views on issues like privacy and civil rights and a pattern of deception to hide them from congress and the public. He's the wrong choice for the highest court in the land.

You can write a short letter to your Senators and deliver it online just by going here:

http://www.political.moveon.org/alitoletters

Thanks!

hakblog: peace now links

2006-01-02T16:18:00.000-08:00

hakblog: peace now linkshttp://www.bigpicturesmallworld.com/movies/winningpeace.html

open letter to Bin Laden from S.A. Rehman

2006-01-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

An Open Letter To
Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
(Wherever You Are)

Aslam-o-Alaikum!

Do you know what degree of shame, abomination, misery and wretchedness
is being heaped on the innocent and peace-following Muslims all over
the world because of this so-called and self styled Jihad of yours?

Do you know how many innocent, unsullied people are being daily
butchered as result of this professed Jihad of yours? How many
children are being orphaned and women being widowed precisely for the
same reason.

And do you know, killing one faultless human being is like killing the
entire humanity. You must definitely be knowing that you will surely
be held accountable for this all bloodshed. Will you, then, be able to
face your God? I challenge, no!

Then, why have you become an agent of some hidden hand. Why are you
taking the responsibility of the murder of entire humanity to yourself
on his behest. Why are you dragging the Muslims down? Why are you
demeaning Islam by presenting it as a terrorist religion? Acting like
this, which religion are you rendering a great service to? Are you
raising the standard of Islam high or you (if you reflect on it) are
causing the heads of the followers of the path of the righteous bow
down with shame in-front of the entire humanity.

Today most of the Muslims believe that you are not a true Muslim but
planted by the enemies to destroy the image of Islam.

For God’s sake, take recourse to sense, and announce a CEASEFIRE
at once so the inhabitants of world may be introduced to that divine
aspect of the Muslims at whose hands no soul suffer, whose words and
actions bear no tinge of dichotomy, whose speech, when uttered, conveys
to others the message of love and protection, whose thoughts, when
thought, are devoted to the well being of others. Herein lies the true
success, and herein lies the victory of the true religion of Allah.

S.A.Rehman
(Peace Activist)
PAKISTAN

Copies being sent to Muslim Brothers and Sisters for information and
with a request to pray for an earliest end to the war.

hakblog: one nation under Wal-Mart

2005-12-31T05:52:00.000-08:00

hakblog: one nation under Wal-Mart

2005-12-31T05:51:00.001-08:00

Sachs

2005-12-31T05:27:00.000-08:00

Hak and I listened too. Dr. Sachs is quite wonderful - I'm looking forward to his book on music and memory. The discussion that followed on science education reminded me of my own discouraging experiences in 8th grade and high school. At Rutgers Newark I had an incredibly creative instructor in Physics 101, Professor Pine. I took it as an required course and it was my first falling in love with science. Later, I found I enjoyed chemistry too. When Hak and I moved to the Pine Barrens, we became interested in all of nature around us from bugs and birds to the universe(s.)

Listening to the SciFri discussion today, I thought (and, in part, this is what the Columbia program sounds like) people might learn science appreciation, just as one learns art or music appreciation. Everyone can't be a scientist but to keep learning about it is truly life enriching for anyone. And our knowing more and thinking more clearly and appreciatively about life the universe and everything might just do some good for our country and the rest of the planet.

In addition to Science Friday, we try to catch Star Date on WRTI daily at 9:40 am & 3:40 pm.
Unfortunately WRTI has become commercial to an extreme and there are now ads along with the 2 or 3 minutes of skytalk.

Jean

from OV Michaelsen

2005-12-30T13:46:00.000-08:00

I just listened to NPR's "Science Friday," featuring Dr. Oliver Sachs, discussing Music and the
Brain. I was disappointed in such a short interview.

If you heard it, you probably caught the program that followed where a professor mentioned that
students are losing interest in science. This was the first year that a New York museum of evolution
couldn't find a sponsor. Politics.

We're paying the price for this and will soon have to relocate from our high status Presidential
Suites of tall buldings to grass huts.