Tom Toles

Tom Toles

Common Sense in Maryland

by The New York Times

(March 23, 2006) "Diebold, the electronic voting machine maker, suffered another sharp setback recently, when Maryland's House of Delegates voted 137-to-0 to drop its machines and switch to paper ballots. The vote came in the same week that Texas held elections marred by electronic voting troubles."

Copyright © 2006 The New York Times Company.

Hard Times for Soft Drinks

By Michael Blanding
AlterNet

Carbon Cloud Over a Green Fuel

By Mark Clayton
The Christian Science Monitor

"Late last year in Goldfield, Iowa, a refinery began pumping out a stream of ethanol, which supporters call the clean, renewable fuel of the future.

There's just one twist: The plant is burning 300 tons of coal a day to turn corn into ethanol - the first US plant of its kind to use coal instead of cleaner natural gas."

Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science Monitor.

Wage War on Poverty, Not Immigrants

By Jesse Jackson
Common Dreams News Center
This piece was published on March 28, 2006, by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Little Time to Avoid Big Thaw, Scientists Warn

By Peter N. Spotts
The Christian Science Monitor

This is a follow-up to the post of February 25, 2006, entitled Climate Change: On the Edge.

Enforcement-only Approach Won't Fix Immigration Woes

By Mike Honda
The San Jose Mercury News

America's immigration system is broken. Comprehensive immigration reform is the only solution. Democrats and Republicans, business interests, labor and immigrant-rights advocates must all work together if we are to truly arrive at an acceptable solution. Historically, immigrants have made America stronger. That is true today as well. History has taught us it is in our national interest to make our immigration laws rational, consistent and humane.

Today, however, immigrants face unnecessary legal obstacles and hardships. There are 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country who live in constant fear of deportation. The vast majority of these individuals are hardworking taxpayers who contribute greatly to our economy.

Those who are undocumented must be brought out from the shadows, if for no other reason than for our post-Sept. 11 national security's sake. We need a program to compel undocumented workers currently living here to come forward and participate legally in our workforce.

To encourage people to come out from the shadows, some form of earned legalization is critical. Immigrants who are working hard and paying taxes need a chance to adjust their status. Earned legalization would require thorough background checks and payment of appropriate fines and taxes before work eligibility. Finally, a fair, efficient and sensible guest-worker program is necessary to meet the labor supply demands of American employers.

In repairing our immigration system, we must also uphold American values by reuniting families. Reuniting families is of particular concern for the Asian and Pacific Islander-American community. The current family-preference immigration system has not been updated in more than a decade, and an increasing number of families face long periods of separation -- some of up to 20 years or more.

Family reunification is impeded by immigration backlogs and by outdated quota systems. The backlog for processing children of permanent residents to come to the United States is unconscionable for a nation that espouses family values.

Rather than take up comprehensive immigration reform, the U.S. House of Representatives debated and passed HR 4437, the ``Border and Immigration Enforcement Act'' this past December. Of course, border security is a critical component of our nation's security, but we cannot have true security without addressing comprehensive immigration reform.

As U.S. Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff pointed out: ``The problem of immigration is one that's been with this country for 20 years. So we are digging ourselves out of a hole which it took 20 years to dig ourselves into.''

During that time, however, Congress has taken a primarily enforcement-only approach that has put us in the hole that Secretary Chertoff referenced. If you want to get out of a hole, the first step is to stop digging.

The House-passed measure will only worsen an already broken immigration system by, for the first time, making it a crime to be undocumented. Furthermore, actions of people helping undocumented immigrants would be considered criminal activity. The House bill would also impose the federal responsibility and unfunded mandate of the enforcement of immigration laws on our already overworked and underfunded state and local police. These are just a few of the onerous provisions in the House bill.

While the Senate's immigration bill appears to be taking a slightly more moderate approach by considering a guest-worker plan, we are still weeks away from seeing the final product, which will then have to be reconciled with the House's enforcement-only measure.

The real solution requires a comprehensive approach, not a border enforcement-only measure. An enforcement-only approach ignores the reality of our current immigration challenges and will not be an effective way to address the security of our nation and the well-being of our people.

The time has come for Congress to make comprehensive immigration reform a priority.

Mike Honda represents California's 15th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He wrote this article for the Mercury News.

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This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

More Than 500,000 Rally in L.A. for Immigrants' Rights

by Teresa Watanabe and Anna Gorman
Common Dreams News Center
This piece was published on March 25, 2006, by the Los Angeles Times.

Immigrants Are People Too

"Compassion is the basis of all morality."
-Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)

Immigrants are people too. They came for many reasons, especially reasons that are found in our Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." There are those in places of power in this nation who would like to deny personhood to many millions of people, while each corporation, clearly not a person, is legally considered a person. My post of March 22, 2006, entitled "The Real Threat of Fascism" includes as defining characteristics of fascism "Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights", "Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause", "Obsession with National Security", "Corporate Power is Protected", "Labor Power is Suppressed", and "Obsession with Crime and Punishment". All of these are currently at play in our federal government.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to make a felon out of anyone found to be in violation of an immigration law and also to make a felon out of anyone assisting someone who is considered to be an "illegal immigrant" (felons are legally denied rights in this country). It would also build a wall for several hundred miles between the U.S. and Mexico. Since George W. Bush came to power, many people have already been deported for minor infractions or for no known reason at all. What happened to compassion in our government? Do most of our elected officials have no morality left?

Also from the Declaration of Independence, referring to the King George of the time: "He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners...".

~Kurt

Ten U.S. Cities Best Prepared for an Oil Crisis

by SustainLane

109th Congress Environmental Scorecard

by The League of Conservation Voters

The nonprofit League of Conservation Voters (LCV) has published a National Environmental Scorecard every Congress since 1970, the year it was founded by leaders of the environmental movement following the first Earth Day. LCV is the political voice for more than nine million members of environmental and conservation organizations and the only organization working full-time to educate citizens about the environmental voting records of Members of Congress.

This edition of the National Environmental Scorecard provides objective, factual information about the environmental voting records of all Members of the first session of the 109th Congress. This Scorecard represents the consensus of experts from 20 respected environmental and conservation organizations who selected the key votes on which Members of Congress should be graded. LCV scores votes on the most important issues of the year, including energy, environmental health and safety protections, resource conservation, and spending for environmental programs. The votes included in this Scorecard presented Members of Congress with a real choice on protecting the environment and help distinguish which legislators are working for environmental protection. Except in rare circumstances, the Scorecard excludes consensus action on the environment and issues on which no recorded votes occurred.

The League of Conservation Voters 2005 National Environmental Scorecard reflects a session of the United States Congress steeped in controversial anti-environment legislation. Many of our core environmental and public health laws were under attack, and much of what we worked to protect for decades was at stake. As the sheer number of priority votes illustrates, it was no-holds-barred when it came to the environment and public health during the first session of the 109th Congress. The good news is that pro-conservation Members of Congress worked with environmental organizations and Americans across the country to stop some of the most egregious attacks.

2005 Senate Average Scores

2005 House Average Scores

© The League of Conservation Voters, Inc.

Fair Use Notice (Taken from Common Dreams News Center)
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

25x'25

by Amanda Griscom Little
Grist Magazine


25x'25 Vision: By 2025 America's working lands will provide 25 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States, while continuing to produce safe, abundant and affordable food, feed and fiber.

Chile 1st, Argentina 2nd; Washington?

By Justin Vogler
The Santiago Times

Analysis: 30 Years Later, Argentina Finds No Excuse For State Terrorism

(March 24, 2006) Thirty years ago today the Argentine military launched a coup that toppled the presidency of Isabel Perón and brought to power the most bloody and incompetent of all the South American dictatorships.

For the first time the “national day of memory, truth and justice” will be observed (commemorated is an inappropriate word) throughout Argentina. President Kirchner is expected to lead an official ceremony to mark the coup’s anniversary and remember the victims of the ensuing horror.

The Argentine defense minister, Nilda Garré, has announced that all the armed forces’ secret files relating to human rights abuses are to be made public. The move is expected to help thousands of relatives of disappeared political prisoners find out what happened to their loved ones.

In the last few weeks the heads of the Argentine armed services have accepted that members of their institutions were complicit in the seven years of repression that left an estimated 30,000 dead, and saw tens of thousands tortured or forced into exile. They have all said that no justification can exist for these crimes.

This is the first time that the Argentine air force has officially referred to human rights abuses committed during the dictatorship. Brigadier Eduardo Schiaffino said last week that today’s military must “understand that there can be no collusion with crimes, torture or cowardice.”

In a similar vein, Admiral Jorge Godoy declared: “There are no valid arguments that can deny or excuse the perpetration of these violent and tragic actions.”

The commander of the army, General Roberto Bendini, went further by apparently accepting institutional responsibility for the creation of a vicious “repressive state apparatus”.

These statements echo the now famous declaration made be the ex Chilean army commander in chief, General Juan Emilio Cheyre, in 2004. Cheyre accepted “institutional responsibility” for the abuses committed by the Pinochet regime and pledged that the armed forces would “never again” be involved in human rights violations.

The Uruguayan and Brazilian military now appear to be edging towards similar admissions of guilt and repentance.

All these countries were involved in Operation Condor, the joint intelligence and counterinsurgency initiative that sought to track down and eliminate leftwing activists and subversives across the Southern Cone in the 1970s. The logic was simple. The threat poised by the “terrorists” was so great that the use of extra judicial means –torture and murder – was justified.

Ex Chilean intelligence chief, Manuel Contreras, had this to say in a 2002 interview:
“We were ordered to repress subversion and terrorism, and that is what we did (…)We eliminated the terrorists from Chile, throwing them out of the country, detaining them in Chile, putting them on trail, with the result that we produced very few dead compared with other countries that still have terrorism.”

Crucially, the recent declarations made by the Argentine and Chilean top brass involve forthright rejections of this doctrine that the ends justify the means in the fight against terrorism. Bitter experience has taught the South American military that terrorism and subversion can only be fought using the law. Once security forces step outside the law, the distinction between terrorist and state agent becomes dangerously blurred.

This conclusion stands in stark contrast to current US policy. The Bush administration has repeatedly stated that it will not be constrained by legal considerations in the war on terror. The most forthright articulation of this position came from Bush himself on September 12, 2001.

“I don’t care what the international lawyers say,” said the President, “we are going to kick some ass.” (Quoted in Richard Clark’s Against All Enemies p. 24).

Subsequent revelations about the torture of prisoners held by the US at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, and the use of “extraordinary rendition” – the clandestine deportation of suspects to countries that use torture – illustrate what the president meant by “kicking ass”.

But is it really fair to compare the tactics used by the notorious Argentinean and Chilean dictatorships with the approach taken by Washington in the war on terror? I put this question to Philippe Sands QC, the renowned international lawyer and author of Lawless Worlds.

“One has to be careful,” Sands cautioned. “In relation to extraordinary rendition we don’t yet have a clear sense of the numbers and it doesn’t yet look like the sort of figures which were involved in Operation Condor.

“That said, the principle seems to be the same. You are right to note the claim made in the 70s in South America that terrorism and related threats can in certain circumstances justify the trampling of human rights law. That is precisely the argument being made today by the Bush administration.”

Fair Use Notice (Taken from Common Dreams News Center)
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Another World Is Possible

by Gar Alperovitz
Mother Jones

Enough of the D.C. Dems

by Molly Ivins
The Progressive

The Progressives

This post is for those of you who become irritated with the post that will come next, Enough of the D.C. Dems by Molly Ivins. When I first read it a couple weeks ago I was immediately struck by the importance of Molly's article. It expresses from the heart what so many people are feeling. They are exactly the kind of words that I've been hoping to use to create a dialogue on the future of this nation and the world.

After listening to a moving speech by Gar Alperovitz here in Ithaca a few months back, I was determined to take his advice and start a discussion group on where we go from here... as it says on the cover of his book America Beyond Capitalism, to reclaim our wealth, our liberty, and our democracy. With our busy lives it is exceedingly difficult these days to get a group of people together at the same time every week for a discussion. This blog is becoming the substitute for that discussion group.

Gar suggests that we are at a turning point in history. Throughout history major change has occurred seemingly out of nowhere, when in actuality it was always a slow progression under the surface that finally exploded. We now have the basis for fundamental change with worsening economic inequality, the erosion of civil liberties, governments that are unresponsive to the people, and, at the same time, people with vision and determination to realize equality, liberty, and democracy.

This is what it means to be a "progressive". The dictionary definitions are: a person who actively favors or strives for progress toward better conditions, as in society or government; a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties. Being a progressive is about peace and against militarism, about social and economic justice, about returning the power over government to the people, and about basic human rights, including environmental protection. This is also what it means to be green. We are the progressives and this is what we stand for.

In The Progressive, Molly Ivins writes for the progressive cause in the Democratic Party because a two-party system is what we're stuck with in this country. And the two parties that we're stuck with have attracted people with diametrically opposite views, the progressive view on the side of the Democrats. Unfortunately the vast majority of politicians do not well represent those on their side. Until this nation abandons its black-and-white party system in favor of a multi-party system, we are forced to fight for our cause within the Democratic Party.

We need every person with progressive ideals to be as enraged as Molly is. Now is the time to realize the fundamental change that is necessary to save our nation. This isn't about Democrats vs. Republicans... it's about all who value peace, justice, liberty, and democracy coming together to determine where we go from here.

~Kurt

"Why We Fight"

by Walter Cronkite
Common Dreams News Center
This piece was published on March 23, 2006, by the Miami Herald.

Movie trailer:
Why We Fight - A Film by Eugene Jarecki

The Joy of Being Blameless

by the New York Times
Common Dreams News Center

Corporate Ownership of Organic Food

by Phil Howard, PhD

Cyber-Help for Organic Farmers

A Tax (Attacks?) On Life

By Rick Karlin
Albany Times Union

Blogger's note:
When will governments run out of things to tax? Will there be taxes on clean air, clean water, and scenic views next? If there are ever more taxes on the best things in life, will that mean that those who can not afford to live well will be forced to sell off their slice of Eden just to survive? Will those with forests be forced to clearcut and pave in order to afford the taxes? Life itself is now being taxed by a government that was elected on promises of reducing the tax burden. Those who call themselves conservatives have turned the federal budget surplus from just several years ago into a deficit so huge that it's inconceivable, forcing taxes and fees of all kinds to be raised by local governments. And forcing future taxpayers to bear the burden of today's misdeeds. These are unseen taxes on our children and grandchildren. Yes, life has great value. But its worth is priceless and not a commodity, it's a right.
~Kurt

Voter Group Sues California

by John Wildermuth
Common Dreams News Center
This piece was published on March 22, 2006, by the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Terminate the Terminator"

by Haider Rizvi
Common Dreams News Center
This piece was published on March 22, 2006, by Inter Press Service.

Rambled Eggs (Free Range Chickens)

by Umbra Fisk
Grist Magazine

Amos 5:11-13

"You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts. Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil."

The Real Threat of Fascism

by Paul Bigioni
Common Dreams News Center

Blogger's addendum:
Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism (attributed to Dr. Lawrence Britt)
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespersons and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Movie trailer:
America: From Freedom to Fascism

A New York School Teaches Teamwork by Camping

By David M. Herszenhorn
The New York Times

After four days and nights camping in the Rockland County woods, Donnell Tribble, a baby-faced 15-year-old from Brooklyn with tight cornrow braids, learned to trust and depend on his classmates and his teacher.

Along with 13 other boys and girls from James Baldwin High School in Manhattan, he struggled through moments of misery. The students pitched tarps for shelter, shuddered and whined in the cold and rain, ate strange foods like muesli, griped about the lack of comforts, and worried about meeting a bear outside the safety of the Bronx Zoo.

But Donnell said he looked back on the trip in November as the "best highlight" of what is shaping up to be his best year in school for simple reasons: The classes are interesting and the people around him care.

"I've gotten so close with the people in my crew that we're almost like a family," Donnell said. "It gets you more involved in school. It makes you want to come to school. It makes school more fun."

Baldwin, a small Manhattan public school that opened in September in partnership with Outward Bound, embraces the group's Expeditionary Learning model, which treats school as a hands-on, even grueling, adventure. Like campers on Outward Bound wilderness trials, teachers and students at Baldwin are taught to regard each other as crew mates, who are only as strong as their weakest member, who move forward only if they do so together.

"Everything you do has a consequence, good or bad, for you and the group and the environment," said Baldwin's principal, Elijah Hawkes. "That principle that is so stark and naked in the wilderness setting, to apply the same principle, is what we're trying to do in the classroom."

Baldwin is part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's aggressive push to downsize high schools, which has made New York the leader in a national effort to create small schools. The hope is that a more intimate setting and strong partnerships with community groups can reverse generations of failure.

Baldwin, in a second-floor wing of the Bayard Rustin High School for the Humanities building on West 18th Street, is a spinoff of Humanities Prep, an older small school that has also adopted the Expeditionary Learning approach.

Two other Outward Bound Schools are in the Bronx — Bronx Expeditionary Learning and Validus Preparatory Academy — and last month, the mayor announced that another such school, Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning, serving grades 6 to 12, would open in September.

Still, the long-term effectiveness of the approach remains to be seen. The School for the Physical City, which opened in Manhattan in 1993 as one of the 10 original Expeditionary Learning schools, has since dropped its relationship with Outward Bound.

And measuring success is difficult. Like Humanities Prep, Baldwin hopes to be exempt from most of New York State's Regents examination requirements and instead have students judged on their class work and an end-term project or paper in each class.

Typically, the most immediate benefit of small schools has been better attendance. Baldwin's average attendance so far this year is 87.7 percent, ahead of the city average of 82.4 percent for high schools. But the other Outward Bound schools trail the citywide average and officials are not sure why.

While some of the new small schools have struggled in their relationships with community partners, Outward Bound's core mission of building character seems to fit into the workings of modern urban high schools. (Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, is chairman of the New York City Outward Bound Center, which works with the public school system to help create and operate schools.)

Donnell Tribble, for one, said the close-knit environment had helped him. Last year, as a ninth grader at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, a traditional large neighborhood school, he was assigned a truncated schedule called "mixed academy." His four classes were over before lunchtime, and his grade point average for the year was a failing 55.

But this year, after his aunt, who is his guardian, arranged for him to transfer to Baldwin, Donnell is taking a full load of courses, including "Revolution in Latin America" — the mere mention of which can launch him into a monologue comparing Che Guevara with Malcolm X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

His grade average is 88.4. And he is a leader among his peers, who voted last semester to give him the Respect for Humanity Award, essentially singling him out as the most admired boy in school.

The students, emblematic of New York City, are super-wired, hip-hop-inspired, liberally pierced teenagers. They typically wear jeans and assorted headgear. They call their teachers by their first names. They question authority. They value respect. And slowly, they are adopting the culture of Expeditionary Learning as their own.

Homeroom is called crew, in Donnell's case, led by an English teacher named Marie LeBlanc. Some classes are called academic expeditions, which involve in-depth study of a particular work of literature — Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man," for example — or a given period in history. Other courses are called urban expeditions and involve extensive field trips and research outside school. The school staff includes a social worker and an adventure coordinator.

The school also favors a multidisciplinary approach. This fall, for instance, the course "Crime and Punishment" was offered for both social studies and science credit. It focused on a central question — does the United States need so many prisons? — and sought to examine criminality from historic, social and biological perspectives.

When Baldwin opened this year, it had freshmen, sophomores and juniors. Applicants do not need to meet any physical fitness requirement; school administrators instead look for motivated students likely to benefit from the school's approach. And while students can apply for the ninth grade through the regular admissions process, Baldwin is also a transfer option for students, like Donnell, who were struggling in more traditional schools.

All 82 students attend a weekly town meeting to discuss issues of schoolwide or worldwide import. Students from various grades are mixed in class, which requires teachers to emphasize the individual attention that, philosophically, is the rage among experts on teaching but that often does not actually take place in classrooms.

Copyright 2006The New York Times Company

Fair Use Notice (Taken from Common Dreams News Center)
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

The Annual Canadian Seal Slaughter

by Geoffrey Lean, Jonathan Owen and Marie Woolf
Common Dreams News Center
This piece was published on March 19, 2006, by The Independent.

Court Rejects Bush Power Plant Pollution Rule

by Tom Doggett
Common Dreams News Center
This piece was published on March 18, 2006, by Reuters.

rBGH Revisited

by Kurt Seitz

This piece is from the April 2000 issue of GreenLeaf, the newsletter of the GreenStar Cooperative Market in Ithaca, New York.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are very much in the news and on the minds of people concerned about our food and our environment. National chain stores and food companies are beginning to recognize the public concern over the use of genetic engineering to produce the food we eat and some are providing foods that they certify to be free of GMOs.

But before we knew what GMO stood for, rBGH was in the spotlight as a genetically engineered substance that was affecting the food we eat and had the potential to affect our environment as well. Although rBGH is no longer in the spotlight and although many farmers have decided not to use rBGH, either because it didn’t do what was promised or because they were concerned about its effects or public reaction, rBGH is still being used and is still a problem.

What is rBGH? Short for recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, it is also known as recombinant Bovine Somatotropin hormone (rBST) and manufactured and marketed by Monsanto under the names Posilac or Nutrilac. It is a genetically engineered copy of a naturally occurring hormone produced by cows. When injected into dairy cows, their milk production increases by up to 15%. It was approved for use in dairy cows in the United States and has been in use since 1994. It has not been approved for use in any other country.

To understand how the use of rBGH affects human health and the environment, we first need to understand how it affects cows. It unnaturally causes cows to produce more milk and at the same time stresses the cows and can cause a wide range of health problems, including as much as a 79% increase in incidence of mastitis (udder infection). This results in a greater need to use antibiotics to treat the mastitis. All of this can lead to decreased resistance to disease, healing difficulty, and other disorders, as well as an increase in pus and bacteria in milk.

This brings us to the changes in milk and the potential risks to human health. As unhealthy cows produce milk, in addition to more pus and bacteria, there can also be more saturated fat, less protein, and a greater risk of antibiotic and chemical contamination of milk. (More bacteria leads to quicker souring of milk.) But the greatest risk to humans is the presence of significantly higher levels of the “Insulin-like Growth Factor” hormone (IGF-1) in milk from cows injected with rBGH.

IGF-1 is naturally produced in humans but levels decrease significantly after puberty. Cows produce more IGF-1 as their levels of rBGH increase. Although rBGH is denatured by pasteurization, IGF-1 is not. Increased blood levels of IGF-1 in humans have been linked to an increased incidence of breast, prostate, and colon cancers, as well as other cancers. IGF-1 concentrations have been found to be a greater risk factor for prostate cancer than any other risk factor.

Finally, the use of rBGH can also be both environmentally and economically detrimental. It leads to increased production of an already overabundance of milk, threatening the survival of small family farms. As the abundance of factory farms increases, the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and destructive farming techniques increases as well. And increased overproduction can result in more price supports increasing the cost to taxpayers.

What can you do to avoid consuming products that were produced using rBGH? The only guaranteed way is to eat either organic products, or dairy products that come from goats or sheep, or from outside the U.S. Although some companies have pledged that some or all of their products are produced without the use of rBGH, there is no independent confirmation of this, as there is with organic food.

March 15, 2006, update:
You can access a list of organic dairy products, as well as brands that are certified by the company and/or farmers to be rBGH-free, on the internet from the Organic Consumers Association and from Rural Vermont.

March 20, 2006, update:
Strong Demand for Monsanto's Posilac (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

~Kurt

Lessons of Iraq War Start With US History

by Howard Zinn
The Progressive

Rhymes and Reasons

by John Denver

So you speak to me of sadness
And the coming of the winter
Fear that is within you now
It seems to never end
And the dreams that have escaped you
And the hope that you've forgotten
You tell me that you need me now
You want to be my friend

And you wonder where we're going
Where's the rhyme and where's the reason
And it's you cannot accept
It is here we must begin
To seek the wisdom of the children
And the graceful way of flowers in the wind

For the children and the flowers
Are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness
Could clear a cloudy day

Like the music of the mountains
And the colours of the rainbow
They're a promise of the future
And a blessing for today
Though the cities start to crumble
And the towers fall around us
The sun is slowly fading
And it's colder than the sea

It is written from the desert
To the mountains they shall lead us
By the hand and by the heart
They will comfort you and me
In their innocence and trusting
They will teach us to be free

For the children and the flowers
Are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness
Could clear a cloudy day

And the song that I am singing
Is a prayer to non believers
Come and stand beside us
We can find a better way

Human Rights School Has Unusual Mission

by Robert Verkaik
Common Dreams News Center
This piece was published on March 13, 2006, by the Associated Press.

Blogger's note:
Sometimes it seems like the state of the world keeps getting worse. But a sense of hopelessness is a sure way of allowing the worst to happen. "Democracy is not a spectator sport" and "children are our future". We must teach our kids to think and not allow others to teach them what to think. Children have a natural sense of right and wrong, of justice and violence. Perhaps we should all become children again.
~Kurt

Old Big Brother Had a Farm

By Amanda Griscom Little
Grist Magazine
This is an update to the post of February 23, 2006, entitled USDA Poised to Push Us Off Our Farms.

Worst Outcome for Milosevic Tribunal?

"Worst Outcome for Milosevic Tribunal" read the BBC headline yesterday. That begs the question of what justice is and whether what is commonly perceived as justice today is actually just vengeance, or worse, if it just people trying to make up for their own shortcomings.

The western world's intervention in the Balkan Wars of the 1990's came too late to save tens of thousands of victims. Commonly, military intervention takes place out of aggression and greed and hunger for power. The former Yugoslavia is one case where military intervention could have brought peace to the former nation that had just gloriously hosted the Winter Olympic Games at Sarajevo.

So it seems that the loss of Slobodan Milosevic is indeed the worst outcome for the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, as it no longer has a focus for the vengeance that the western nations would have liked to use to make up for their lack of will years ago when it was so needed. Milosevic is now at peace with his countless victims of genocide and the western political leaders of that time have little left to take out their aggression on. Serbia was bombed long ago (creating more victims) and its leader is dead. It is long past time to stop taking an eye for an eye and to start building a lasting peace.

~Kurt

They Came For the Chicken Farmer

by the New York Times
Common Dreams News Center
This piece was published on March 8, 2006, by the New York Times.

Blogger's note:
We have endured years of a federal government that considers itself above the law. The Bush administration has used its power for personal gain, to punish people it considers enemies, to pay back its corporate sponsors, to blatantly show the world that it can do as it pleases, and to gradually increase its power over all facets of personal life. To many of us, there is little surprise as details emerge of Bush's continual reckless disregard of both domestic and international laws and of citizen's rights under the constitution. As the New York Times says, America is becoming the thing that the founding fathers sought to end. They came for countless foreigners like the chicken farmer, locked them up indefinitely, and tortured unknown numbers of them, in places far from the reach of justice. When will it end and who will it end with? Will they come for you next?
~Kurt

New Studies Back Benefits of Organic Diet

by Stephen Leahy
Tierramerica
This piece was published on March 4, 2006, by Inter Press Service.