The Environment

This year's Annual Illinois Recycling Conference is June 9-11 at the Sheraton Hotel in Arlington Heights. (more)

In The News...

2008-06-09 - Caribbean Monk Seal Extinct After a five year review, NOAA’s Fisheries Service has determined that the Caribbean monk seal, which has not been seen for more than 50 years, has gone extinct — the first type of seal to go extinct from human causes.

2008-05-12 - It Isn't Morning in America Anymore -- It's Dusk on Planet Earth We're the ones who kicked the warming off; now, the planet is starting to take over the job. Melt all that Arctic ice, for instance, and suddenly the nice white shield that reflected 80% of incoming solar radiation back into space has turned to blue water that absorbs 80% of the sun's heat.

2008-05-01 - Ocean Dead Zones Growing; May Be Linked to Warming The world's hypoxic zones—swaths of ocean too oxygen-deprived to support fish and other marine organisms—are rapidly expanding as sea temperatures rise...

2008-04-24 - Arctic ice melting 'faster than predicted' In September 2007, the sea ice shrank to 39 per cent below its 1979-2000 mean level, the lowest since satellite monitoring began in 1979 and also the lowest for the entire 20th century based on monitoring from ships and aircraft.

2008-04-21 - Sudden Oak Death Pathogen Up to 100 percent of adult tanoaks have been killed by the Sudden Oak Death pathogen in many sites around the Big Sur region (Monterey County).

2008-03-17 - Chinook Salmon Vanish Without a Trace The Chinook salmon that swim upstream to spawn in the fall, the most robust run in the Sacramento River, have disappeared. The almost complete collapse of the richest and most dependable source of Chinook salmon south of Alaska left gloomy fisheries experts struggling for reliable explanations — and coming up dry.

Earth's vanishing multitudes

Human beings are currently causing the greatest mass extinction of species since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. If present trends continue one half of all species of life on earth will be extinct in less than 100 years, as a result of habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. - David Ulansey

U.S Sees Biggest Unemployment Jump in 22 Years - June 6, 2008. The latest snapshot of business conditions showed a deeply troubled economy, with dwindling job opportunities in a time of continuing hardship in the housing, credit and financial sectors.

Americans unload prized belongings to make ends meet - April 29, 2008. The for-sale listings on the online hub Craigslist come with plaintive notices, like the one from the teenager in Georgia who said her mother lost her job and pleaded, "Please buy anything you can to help out."

Many states appear to be in recession - April 24, 2008. ...President Bush said Tuesday that the economy was not in a recession but a period of slower growth...Twelve states, including Georgia, Idaho and Illinois, reported that personal income tax collections were failing to meet estimates.

 

Australia Bolts Iraq Over Bush's Lies

Rudd told Parliament he was most concerned by "the manner in which the decision to go to war was made; the abuse of intelligence information, a failure to disclose to the Australian people the qualified nature of that intelligence"; and the government’s silence on "the pre-war warning that an attack on Iraq would increase the terrorist threat, not decrease it."

The Sacrificer: Bush Quit Golf Over Iraq War

George W. Bush said in an interview out Tuesday that he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of US soldiers killed in the conflict in Iraq, now in its sixth year. (Keith Olbermann's scorching commentary: transcript; video.)

US planes unleash 40,000 pounds of bombs in 10 minutes near Baghdad

[This is from January '08 but the story bears review. What would people here think about this approach to controlling unrest in, say, Chicago?]

In Iraq 70 Percent of People Lack Clean Water

Less than half of Iraq's population of 29 million people have access to clean, drinkable water. And, according to a recent report by Oxfam, the number of civilians in Iraq without water has risen from 50 percent to 70 percent during 2003 to 2007 (the continued US occupation).

VA confirms 18 vets commit suicide every day

In a stunning admission, top officials at the Veterans Health
Administration confirmed that the agencys own statistics show that an average of 126 veterans per week -- 6,552 veterans per year -- commit suicide, according to an internal email distributed to several VA officials.

Iraq 5 Years After the Invasion

4/2/08 - General William Odom to Senate foreign relations committee: Rapid Withdrawal the Only Solution In Iraq

"The only sensible strategy is to withdraw rapidly but in good order. Only that step can break the paralysis now gripping US strategy in the region. The next step is to choose a new aim, regional stability, not a meaningless victory in Iraq. And progress toward that goal requires revising our policy toward Iran."

935 Lies

Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war

January 24, 2008 - A new study from the Center for Public Integrity has revealed President Bush and top administration officials made a total of 935 false public statements about Iraq’s alleged national security threat in the two years following the 9/11 attacks. President Bush made the most false statements—260. Colin Powell, his then-secretary of state, made 254 false statements.

4,000 U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

Roadside Bomb Takes American Death Toll in Iraq To 4,000

Leading to War
New documentary (viewable online) explores the misleading mythic reality created by the Bush administration to persuade the public to support a war against Iraq.

More than 1 million Iraqi deaths according to some estimates. Sources: Just Foreign Policy, Opinion Research Business.

Every war exacts a terrible civilian toll. Women and children account for almost 80% of the casualties of conflict and war.

One death is one death too many - Rev. Graylan Haglar
We Will Not Be Silenced (video)

Winter Soldier 2008

4/8/08 - New York Times Explains (?) Winter Soldier Blackout

DemocracyNow Reports: 3/17 3/18 3/19

A search on the Lexis database found that no major television network or cable news network even mentioned Winter Soldier over the weekend, neither did the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times or most other major newspapers in the country.

Action alert from FAIR.org:
Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News?

Despite being noted in the New York Times' Paris-based International Herald Tribune (3/13/08), Winter Soldier has yet to be mentioned in the New York Times itself. No major U.S. newspaper has covered the hearings except as a story of local interest...

Winter Soldier: The War Comes Home
Archived Testimonial Audio from the Winter Soldier Event

Noam Chomsky:
Why is Iraq Missing from 2008 Presidential Race?

War Costing $720 Million Each Day. The war is costing $720 million a day or $500,000 a minute, according to the group's analysis of the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard public finance lecturer Linda J. Bilmes.

2008-05-14 - Reagan, strike group preparing to deploy. More than 7,000 sailors will leave home next week when the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group deploys from San Diego for a scheduled deployment to the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf regions.

2008-05-12 - Bush calls Iran 'single biggest threat' to Mideast peace [Where have we heard this before?]

2008-05-10 - US confession: Weapons were not made in Iran after all. In a sharp reversal of its longstanding accusations against Iran arming militants in Iraq , the US military has made an unprecedented albeit quiet confession: the weapons they had recently found in Iraq were not made in Iran at all.

2008-04-15 - Bush and Iran, Again [Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal op-ed team wonders if Bush will "slink" out of office, leaving Iran's evildoers in place.]

Health Care

Dr. Paul Farmer Challenges Profit-Driven Medical System While Bringing Healthcare to Poor Communities Worldwide. So we’re in a presidential year. Healthcare is a critical issue, as long as you’re not watching the media, where you hardly see it discussed. - Amy Goodman

Cash Before Chemo: Hospitals Get Tough
By Barbara Martinez, The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2008

When Lisa Kelly learned she had leukemia in late 2006, her doctor advised her to seek urgent care at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But the nonprofit hospital refused to accept Mrs. Kelly's limited insurance. It asked for $105,000 in cash before it would admit her.

... One day, Mrs. Kelly says, nurses wouldn't change the chemotherapy bag in her pump until her husband made a new payment. She says she sat for an hour hooked up to a pump that beeped that it was out of medicine, until he returned with proof of payment.

Pushing the Single-Payer Solution
by Amy Goodman, April 24, 2008

"You know, this industry [insurance] is a $2-trillion industry, and the profits in the for-profit insurance industry are so huge and it’s so deeply entrenched into Wall Street ... but until we move to a single-payer system and get rid of the profit motive in financing of health care, we will not be able to fix the problems that we have." - Rocky White, M.D.

Wal-Mart Drops $400,000 Healthcare Claim Against Former Employee

Teenager Dies After Insurance Company Balks at Transplant
(video)

Resources on the web

(Follow-up to Sicko screening held Nov 14 at the PTDO office.)

• PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program)
• Health08 (presidential candidates' plans)
• Health Care for All Illinois

Why Not Universal National Health Insurance? Harvard professor and PNHP cofounder David Himmelstein presented his remarks following a roundtable discussion by the health policy representatives of the leading Republican and Democratic candidates for president, also included in the video at the link above. For Dr. Himmelstein's 35 minute presentation, fast forward the video to 1 hour and 45 minutes.

If you ask Americans what they want, 64 percent of us say we want national health insurance. If you ask Canadians... would they like a U.S. system, 3 percent would prefer it, which is their illiteracy rate.

Achieving a High-Performance Health Care System with Universal Access: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries. On December 4, 2007, the prestigious American College of Physicians (ACP), the nation's second largest medical association (124,000 members), endorsed single payer national health insurance as "one pathway" to universal coverage. This is the first time the group has endorsed single payer and represents a huge step forward in the movement for fundamental health care reform.

Financing single-payer. Here is a document from the website of Congressman John Conyers in support of H.R. 676, showing how we can finance universal coverage for every man, woman, and child in the United States. [As a nation, we are already paying enough out of pocket to cover everyone, if only the resources went to actual medical care instead of insurer profits and corporate bureaucracy.]

Sicko 2: The Destruction Of Britain's Health Service. This commentary by John Pilger describes the current attempt to undermine Britain's National Health Service by private-sector interests, including United Health and Humana (remember the Medicare Advantage scams). Social programs around the world are constantly under attack.

Practices in Health Care and Disability Insurance (pdf) · By Peter Phillips and Bridget Thornton (Note: Prof. Phillips spoke on impeachment last summer in Arlington Heights.) This study looks at strategies insurers use to delay, diminish, and deny payment.

2008-04-30 - Telecoms and the Bush administration talked about how to keep their surveillance program under wraps. The Bush administration is refusing to disclose internal e-mails, letters and notes showing contacts with major telecommunications companies over how to persuade Congress to back a controversial surveillance bill, according to recently disclosed court documents.

Bush admits he approved torture. By Helen Thomas. Is there no lawmaker who is appalled about the tarnishing of our image in world opinion? And where are the voices of the other presidential candidates who will inherit the Bush legacy of torture? Why the silence? I count on the American people to refuse to be shamed any more.

Due Process?

Goodyear worker in Kansas dies after tasering by police

Justice Interrogation Memo: Constitution Not in Play

The End of America
by Naomi Wolf

(Follow-up to book discussion held Nov 10 at the PTDO office.)

Why I Believe Bush Must Go. Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse. By George McGovern.

The Militarization of Our Police - YouTube video shows what has happened to the neighborhood police department in the past 20 years. Example: Lawrenceburg Indiana Police Department SWAT Team.

A "Paper Coup," and Blackwater Eyes Midtown Manhattan · November 4, 2007 · Bush regime now adding 20,000 names per month to Watch List and No-Fly List.

Fascist America, in Ten Easy Steps · introductory article in The Guardian, April 2007

For Your Protection

Woman says TSA forced piercings removal

Woman dies at airport while handcuffed, shackled to table

McCain?

In the News

Fire the Lobbyists. John McCain's Lobbyist Connections to Dictators, etc.

Straight Talk? Not on Health Care. By Steve Benen, May 4, 2008. McCain’s habit of wildly misrepresenting the Dems on healthcare policy...

Dr. McCain's snake oil. Boston Globe, May 5, 2008. John McCain pretended last week to treat health insurance, an essential of modern life, as something that could be relegated to the marketplace and individual choice. A robust government role, however, is a precondition to extend coverage to the 47 million Americans who are without it.

Continuing the Bush tradition of corporate cronyism and tax breaks for the rich, McCain is promoting HSA's (health savings accounts) to address the health care crisis. Malcom Gladwell explains why this is not a good idea for most of us: The Moral Hazard Myth:

At the center of the Bush Administration's plan to address the health-insurance mess are Health Savings Accounts...The logic behind them was laid out in the 2004 Economic Report of the President. Americans, the report argues, have too much health insurance...

Fact Check

We present some fact checking, because the media seem to want us to forget some things.

10 things to know about John McCain. - moveon.org

Free Ride: John McCain and the Media

BuzzFlash review of the book by David Brock and Paul Waldman
Perhaps no word has been used to describe John McCain more often than "maverick." In January and February of 2008 alone, McCain was called a "maverick" more than 1,300 times in newspapers and on television. And those who use the label to describe McCain rarely explain just what he has done to earn it. But a closer examination of his record shows that McCain isn't quite the maverick that he is made out to be.

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Free Trade and Globalization

Bush administration pushing dubious Columbia free trade agreement

April 8, 2008 - President Bush Urges Congress to Approve Colombian Trade Deal, more "free trade".

If I Could Show Congress the Real Colombia
- Gerardo Cajamarca Alarcón

"This agreement will advance America’s national security interests in a critical region. It will strengthen a courageous ally in our hemisphere. It will help America’s economy and America’s workers at a vital time. It deserves bipartisan support from the United States Congress." - George Bush

Labor unions and human rights organizations have been pushing Congress to reject the treaty, in part because Colombia has the highest rate of killings of trade unionists in the world. According to Human Rights Watch, seventeen trade unionists have been killed in Colombia in the first three months of this year.

[Here's a simple rule-of-thumb for Congress about legislation under consideration: if George W. Bush wants it, it's probably good for his cronies in big business and bad for the rest of the human race. So just say no, ok?]

The Specious "National Security" Argument
March 25, 2008 - In the past week the Bush administration has unearthed a "national security" justification for passage of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement that can't be allowed to stand...As has happened in Mexico since NAFTA, family farms, cooperatives, and communities producing foodstuffs for local markets could find it impossible to compete with a flood of cheaper products coming from the United States.

The Free Market: A False Idol After All? New York Times editorial asks the question.

Online Petition Calls for Moratorium on Free Trade Agreements

U.S. trade policy is not working for the majority of Americans.

Free trade agreements forged in the NAFTA mold have not brought about a general increase in standards of living at home or within partner countries, and have contributed to the loss of U.S. jobs, eroding labor standards, a burgeoning trade deficit, and worsened inequality...

The moratorium should apply to the four FTAs that the administration rushed into the current session: South Korea, Panama, Colombia, and Peru.

(click here to read full petition)

Background:

• Environmental Impacts of CAFTA
• CAFTA Second Year Report (pdf)

Grassroots Organizing

Jim Hightower on grassroots organizing

Coming this summer - another Saturday morning book discussion at the township office. Topic: Jim Hightower's latest book, Swim Against the Current (Even a Dead Fish can Go With the Flow), a fast-moving, upbeat report on American initiative and idealism in action. This promises to be a high-energy tonic for the summer doldrums.

Date: Saturday, August 16
Time: 9:30 a.m. social, 10:00 discussion starts
Place: PTDO office, 1310 W Northwest Hwy, Arlington Heights
Discussion leaders: all the local organizers, instigators, and agitators we can pull off the streets on a Saturday morning.

A Day for Peace, Justice, and Sustainability.

A Better Day 2008 (formerly Progressive Fest) - will be in Palatine this year on Saturday, September 20. This is a non-partisan event where progressives can swap ideas and strategies, network, and just kick back and enjoy some friendly company.

Make Yourself Heard

Letters to the Editor May Be Sent to:

• Pioneer Press at glenview@pioneerlocal.com
• The Daily Herald at fencepost@dailyherald.com
• Lake County News-Sun at nsforum@scn1.com
• Chicago Tribune at ctc-tribletter@tribune.com
• Chicago Sun-Times at letter@suntimes.com