People Before Profit blog

LETTERS

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 07:51:00 +0000

Negroponte’s history a horror

It is difficult to express the degree of revulsion, contempt, and moral horror that I experience with the nomination of John Negroponte to be director of national intelligence. But I feel that I must try.

Negroponte was responsible for overseeing the death squads in Honduras between 1981 and 1985 while pretending to be a diplomat.

As his only qualification for this job is as a master violator of human rights, one can only take this as yet another sign that the Bush administration does not actual have any concerns about national security, but only with the repression of dissent.

His appointment to this position demonstrates yet again that George W. Bush is the moral equivalent of Adolph Hitler. Having Negroponte in charge of national intelligence operations is like having the head of the KKK in charge of the NAACP, or the head of the Aryan Nations running the ADL. It is morally reprehensible, an insult to the nation, and a terrible sign of what our current descent into fascism will bring.

I feel this matter more personally than most because Negroponte was responsible for the execution of one of my heroes, a priest named James Carney, who died giving spiritual comfort to the brave men who were struggling to overthrow the U.S.-sponsored dictatorship in Honduras during the Negroponte years. Carney was a bright shining star who devoted his life to helping people. His execution was ordered by an evil, murderous psychopath who has devoted his life to oppressing people.

Richard CurtisVia e-mail

Environmental disaster

In December of 2004 a plan to open an 800-acre peat moss mining operation was approved in the Big Falls, Minn., area. On completion, the peat plant will employ about 40 people at poverty wages. The jobs will be seasonal, as peat cannot be harvested from frozen ground.

This project is going to drain the bog, then shred and vacuum the moss out of the bog. Ditches will be dug to drain off the bog. These ditches will carry mercury-laden water and will be channeled into the Big Fork River. Bogs in our environment here act as a filter to trap many things. Mercury is one of them.

This project has been studied since the late 1980s. For years there were many environmental reasons why it did not go through. Now, all of a sudden, all the issues for stopping this potentially disastrous environmental nightmare have been dropped and the project given a green light.

There are many rivers that flow out of this bog into other waterways in that area. What impact will this operation have on those waterways, the sport of fishing there, and the people living there?

I feel that this is a very major concern to the people of Minnesota. We have many concerns lately, yes, but the land that we love could be adversely changed for a very long time because of this.

Just because we can’t see what is going on doesn’t mean that it won’t affect our lives.

Jan JohnsonEveleth MN

Missed opportunity

I felt that your Feb. 19-25 issue missed a marvelous opportunity. The story by Denise Winebrenner Edwards, “China defends Wal-Mart workers,” was new, different, and exciting. It stated that the Chinese government and its powerful All China Federation of Trade Unions announced that laws protecting workers’ rights to organize would be enforced at Wal-Mart operations, and threatened to sue if Wal-Mart continued to harass workers for organizing, or if they continued to violate wage and overtime laws. Wal-Mart caved!

This should have been the front-page story. It certainly hasn’t been shown anywhere else in the media. It gives food for thought to labor and anti-sweatshop activists who always put China in the same category as other Third World countries that accept capitalist industries to help their economies.

The front-page story you ran about cuts in the Children’s Defense Fund budget, while important, is like so many other stories the paper runs. We always need to keep an eye out for what’s new and different and will catch people’s attention.

Rose ShawRio Rancho NM

Golden years film

My name is Brian Murphy I am a documentary filmmaker. I’m embarking on a project with the working title “The Golden Years Gone Bad.” I’m interested in looking at the wave of older people who now occupy the retail jobs that used to be held by teenagers. I’m trying to contact someone who can speak to this migration in the work place. Possibly there’s an organization that keeps an eye on the treatment of older workers in these giant retail operations. You know what retailers I’m talking about. Some older people love this work. Most of them need the work to get by. Many were forced out of their careers because of ageism, outsourcing, etc. This is not how this generation pictured their golden years. Some people I talked to are wondering how the hell they wound up here. Can you help me? My e-mail address is mcguirefilms@yahoo.com.

Brian MurphyVia e-mail

Baseball’s bottom line

Don Santina is right on when he writes that there should be a permanent asterisk for all baseball stats based on their being pre- and post-1947 when the Jim Crow color line was finally officially broken (PWW 2/12-19). So many of our legends never pitched or batted against the whole of the USA. They are all actually wearing a false mantle. Santina made that point nicely.

But he partly missed the big picture. Racism aside, the business of U.S. organized baseball is business, and steroids fit right in. We would never have been made so aware, or been aware at all, if the imbibers had all excelled in the game.

It came to light in baseball when Jason Giambi, for just one example, played below all expectations. Had Giambi done what Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield and some others had, it would never have surfaced. Why? Because professional baseball has a bottom line. The economics of capitalism is the guiding force.

We must as well realize that in 1947, the owners did not allow all comers out of their rejection of racism. They did it because it meant big money, and as long as Black Americans did not aspire to become owners or managers but just performers, they were finally allowed in the door, and not always the front door. If you hit, run, throw with skill and fill the seats, the owners will open a corner drug store for you.

Don Sloan New York NY

Poisons at Cintas laundry

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 07:10:00 +0000

Commentary

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Workers at the Cintas plant in Branford, Conn., and across the country are taking their lead from co-workers in Long Island, N.Y., who are standing up for their health and safety rights.

Last month, Long Island Cintas workers marched into the front office of the industrial laundry with a written request for copies of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS).

“We demanded three times that management give us the information on the chemicals because we launder the dirty uniforms of Terminix and TruGreen,” said one of the leaders. In a message to workers at other Cintas plants, the Long Island workers urged, “We challenged the company because our co-workers have rashes, irritated skin, peeling hands. Now we have the MSDS and we encourage you to do the same.”

Three major customers of the uniform company, ChemLawn, TruGreen and Terminix, use strong chemicals to kill rats, termites, bugs and weeds. Handling thousands of these dirty uniforms each day has created skin irritations, headaches, nosebleeds, eye irritation, vomiting and even cancer.

An active union organizing drive at the 300 Cintas plants in the United States and Canada, spearheaded by UNITE! in conjunction with the Teamsters, has been underway for several years.

The organizing drive at the Cintas plant in Branford has drawn local support from state and federal politicians. Workers are fighting to gain better wages, health benefits, a safe working environment and respect, justice and dignity. Last year the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection fined the Branford facility $290,000 for dumping chemicals into the river after workers brought these problems to light.

Cintas’ profits spread wide and far. It’s time they put health and safety on their top list for immediate correction. People come to work and give their best to the company. They don’t come to work to get sick and maybe even worse wind up with permanent health problems. The workers deserve and have the legal right to know what chemicals they work with. It’s time for Cintas to do the right thing.

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 06:29:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS: Coalition forms to rescue health care

Over 200 residents joined members of the clergy and elected officials Feb. 20 to kick off a campaign to salvage health care for 89,000 people set to be slashed from Missouri’s Medicaid rolls.

Freshman Republican Gov. Matt Blunt plans to balance the state budget by denying health care to working parents who earn over $391 a month, closing drug treatment centers, and eliminating health care to disabled persons who work.

“What’s happening in this state as far as the proposed budget cuts is nothing short of sinful,” said the Rev. Ken McKoy, president of St. Louis ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), a core group in the coalition.

Daphne Walker, acting executive director of Committed Caring Faith Communities, said the cuts would slam the door on 11,000 people currently receiving treatment for substance abuse. “When people can’t get treatment, they die, end up in the hospital or end up in jail or prison,” she said.

The coalition launched a petition drive to reverse the cuts.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.: Officials protest block grant, housing cuts

Mayor Bernard Kincaid fired off hot letters Feb. 21 to the state’s congressional delegation protesting the Bush administration’s proposal to cut the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program from $4.6 billion to $3.7 billion, and its plan to transfer management of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Commerce Department.

Birmingham’s City Council is drafting a resolution to keep the program in its present form so as to preserve housing for 800 residents and money for an additional 300 residents to fix up their homes. Birmingham also uses CDBG funding for shelter for homeless residents and staffing for senior day care facilities. The Girl Scouts, the Urban League and Childcare Resources also depend on CDBG to operate.

The director of the city’s Department of Community Development, Jim Fenstermaker, said, “All of those [programs] are in the block grant and if it gets zeroed out they face zero funding.”

TOMBSTONE, Ariz.: Vigilantes threaten undocumented workers

“There are more and more of these anti-immigrant, paramilitary groups, but we had never before seen any with as many volunteers as Minuteman claims to have,” said Jennifer Allen, director of Tucson-based Border Action Network, an organization which defends immigrant workers’ rights and lives.

Allen responded to published reports that the Minuteman Project, a virulently racist group based in California, had recruited over 500 “volunteers” who plan to descend on Tombstone April 1 for a month of armed “patrolling” of a 40-mile sector along the U.S.-Mexican border with the supposed aim of blocking the flow of undocumented workers from Mexico.

Mayor Ray Borane of Douglas, Ariz., said his town is closed to the Minuteman group because it is made up of “white supremacists, racists and very dangerous people.”

The Mexican government said it is monitoring the planned Minuteman armed invasion and the U.S. Border Patrol has issued a statement calling on Minuteman to “stay home.”

SAN FRANCISCO: Environmental groups sue Bush to save forests

A coalition of conservation groups, including the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, filed a complaint Feb. 1 in federal court to halt Bush administration efforts to destroy the national forest system. The complaint adds to a lawsuit filed by the same coalition in November 2004.

Magnificent forests, property of the U.S. people, comprise about 8 percent of the total U.S. land mass and have been protected under federal law since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. The Bush administration wants to open them up to energy and logging corporations with no regulation.

“The new Bush forest rules aren’t rules at all,” said Trent Orr, an attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental group. “They are more like suggestions. They turn forest management to mush, mocking the intent of Congress and undermining public participation in the process. Agencies need leadership and clear guidance, not this wink and nod that encourages the exploitation of the public’s resources.”

Mike Anderson, spokesman for the Wilderness Society, charged that Bush “…went on search and destroy mission for any environmental safeguard that might stand between the administration’s donors and the public’s trees.”

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com).

John Negropontes bloody baggage

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 06:12:00 +0000

John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, has been nominated by President Bush to head the new super-spy agency set up by last year’s intelligence reform legislation. Negroponte’s baggage contains a shocking amount of dirt and blood.

Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, during a time when the Reagan administration was secretly arming right-wing “Contra” forces with the aim of ousting the progressive, Sandinista-led government in Nicaragua next door. Since Congress had expressly forbidden the administration from using taxpayer dollars for this purpose, funding was obtained from an arrangement that involved the secret sale of U.S. arms to Iran (illegal at the time) and drug sales (illegal at any time).

The Contras were ruthless killers. Their methods included terrorist attacks on unarmed, rural Nicaraguan schoolteachers and health care workers. The U.S. used facilities in Honduras, including the Aguacate airfield, to mount and support the Contra attacks in Nicaragua, and thus the U.S. ambassador — Negroponte — must have known about many of these crimes.

Though Nicaragua was the main target, the Honduran people did not remain unscathed. To carry out the Contra support mission, Negroponte associated himself with some of the most brutal elements in the Honduran military, especially Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, who set up a death squad operation (“Battalion 3-16”) within the country.

Honduran human rights groups say that Negroponte was complicit in numerous atrocities committed by Martinez and others, including massacres of Honduran and Salvadoran leftists and the disappearance of 184 Honduran oppositionists. These charges were supported by a detailed investigative series in the Baltimore Sun in 1995. That same year, a Honduran court charged 14 officers with human rights violations. The Honduran Commissioner for Human Rights asked the U.S. government to make information it possessed available to him about Negroponte and others in connection with Battalion 3-16, but Washington refused to cooperate.

These actions, and the part Negroponte played in them, were denounced in the United States at the time, even by some of his colleagues in government. His predecessor as ambassador to Honduras, John Binns, has called on the Senate not to confirm him, as have growing numbers of people both in the U.S. and in Central America.

In 2001, Negroponte was appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations by George W. Bush, and thus played a key role in organizing the barrage of lies laid down to justify the Iraq war. When the Mexican and Chilean ambassadors to the U.N. would not be swayed by the lies, Negroponte organized a campaign to get them fired by their home governments.

Then, last summer, Negroponte was made U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Questions should be raised about his role vis-à-vis atrocities there, including his handling of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal and the brutal bombardment of Fallujah last year.

Some have wondered aloud why a person whose whole experience has been in the diplomatic corps is being put in charge of an agency that will have no diplomatic role, but instead will supervise the CIA and 14 other spy agencies. But Negroponte was never really a “diplomat”: he was always the instigator and fixer of covert operations and dirty tricks directed against other countries, and his ambassadorial positions were, you might say, only his diplomatic cover.

We can be sure that he will not interpret his role as keeping these spy agencies, some of which, especially the CIA, have histories of wantonly violent and illegal behavior, “honest.” On the contrary, he will consider himself to be in charge of minimizing accountability to Congress and the public, and using whatever lies and dirty tricks serve that purpose.

The establishment press has only touched on some of the problems associated with Bush’s would-be director of national intelligence. It is to be hoped that when Negroponte comes up for Senate confirmation hearings, at least some of the senators will demand a full accounting, and the majority will have the courage to do what they did not do with Attorney General Gonzales and Secretary of State Rice, namely, to block the appointment.

LETTERS

Fri, 18 Feb 2005 07:25:00 +0000

Take heed of Pauling

Linus Pauling, Nobel Peace Prize winner and peace activist, wrote in his book “No More War”:

“Man has developed admirable principles of morality, which in large part govern the actions of individual human beings. And yet, we are murderers, mass murderers.

“Does the Commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ mean nothing to us? Are we to interpret it as meaning ‘Thou shalt not kill except on the grand scale,’ or ‘Thou shalt not kill except when the national leaders say to do so’?

“I am an American, deeply interested in the welfare of my fellow Americans, of our great Nation. But I am first of all a human being. I believe in morality.

“I believe that there is a greater power in the world than the evil power of military force, of nuclear bombs — there is the power of good, of morality, of humanitarianism.

“I believe in the power of the human spirit. I should like to see our great Nation, the United States of America, take the lead in the fight for good, for peace, against the evil of war. I should like to see in our cabinet a Secretary for Peace, with a budget of billions of dollars per year, perhaps as much as 10 percent of the amount now expended for military purposes. I should like to see set up a great international research program involving thousands of scientists, economists, geographers, and other experts working steadily year after year in the search for possible solutions to world problems, ways to prevent war and to preserve peace.”

Pauling speaks from both the head and the heart. I say let’s take heed.

Stan PennerManitoba, Canada

Capitalist bureaucracy

Regarding Greg Godwin’s “The myth of capitalist efficiency” (PWW 2/12-18), the word “bureaucracy” in the capitalist world has been turned into a pejorative word especially relative to socialism. It has been made to mean endless waits, miscommunication, frustration and resentment that are alleged to be typical of socialist governments. The corporate organizations of the capitalist world have a bureaucracy, in that sense, of their own.

If you don’t believe this try to get instructions for the return, repair or a refund on a defective product. Or try to get correction of an incorrect or unfounded bill. You will get the mechanical answer to your phone calls listing many possibilities except the one you are calling about; the cut off of your line when you are being transferred to another phone; being shunted from person to person or bureau to bureau; the threat to wreck your more than pristine credit record of 50 years.

Finally, if you are lucky and persistent, you will find a small dealer who will acknowledge the obligation assumed by taking your money.

The corporate world contains its bureaucracy too.

Fred DiDomenicoHoney Brook PA

‘Jim Crow’ and taxes, too

James Bradford’s article about Alabama’s Amendment 2 (PWW 2/12-18), which would have stricken racist “Jim Crow” language out of the state constitution last fall, would have been more complete had it also mentioned many people’s purported reason for voting against it: fear of higher taxes.

Granted, some voters probably voted for racist reasons. But probably what really killed its chances was the fear of taxes that was stoked by the latest state demagogue, former chief justice Roy Moore.

I am not claiming that the fear of taxes was a good reason for voting it down. Or even a rational reason. But that seems to be the consensus of what happened.

I do agree with Bradford that with everything else going on that Election Day, this one did seem to slip by most of the national media.

A readerTuscaloosa AL

Raise the cap

The description of protests against Social Security privatization in the “red states” in the Feb. 12-18 PWW was encouraging, but it was disturbing to see that some opponents of Bush’s plan still accept the claim that long-term reforms are required to maintain Social Security. The projections of a shortfall in 2042 or 2052 are doubtful, at best. They are based on assumptions about changes in population, economic growth, wages, and price fluctuations. These assumptions are highly subjective because economic factors are not predictable so far into the future. As a former head of the American Economic Association, the late Robert Eisner, said, “Making projections three decades and more ahead is, to use a gentle word, dubious. Even relatively short-term forecasts can be notoriously inaccurate.” Thus, there is no reason to think that Social Security needs to be “fixed,” but it can be improved. One way to improve it, and increase benefits, is to tax income over $90,000 a year, which is currently untaxed.

Kevin LindemannWinfield IL

Wal-Mart and NPR

As an occasional listener to National Public Radio, I noticed that Wal-Mart was a corporate sponsor. Given Wal-Mart’s questionable practices that strain the social system and may harm the good of the public, I found this relationship curious. I wondered if Wal-Mart consciousness might be trying to influence my opinions on public radio.

The following correspondence to NPR’s Ombudsman resulted after I heard Wal-Mart mentioned positively in an NPR commentary:

“I might be wrong on this, but it sounded like you ended a story yesterday evening on All Things Considered with the comment that ‘if you can’t buy it at Wal-Mart, you didn’t need it anyway.’ Following that, one of the NPR sponsors mentioned was Wal-Mart. My reaction is that your taking payola from Wal-Mart to support honest reporting is like a story covering the Iraq war sponsored by the Republican Party. While I can appreciate the current ‘news for sale’ climate, I never would have expected this from a news source I’d really like to trust. Either you were asleep on that Wal-Mart goof or else you need to re-examine your moral values.”

Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR Ombudsman, replied: “Thanks for your note. What you heard was a commentary — on the humorous side — about what is really important in life according to the writer. It was unfortunate that it was followed by an underwriting message for Wal-Mart. I’ll remind the producers to be a little stricter with the editing.”

Scott WebbNashville TN

Florida minimum wage under attack

Fri, 18 Feb 2005 06:13:00 +0000

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Backers of Florida’s new higher minimum wage have criticized a bill that deals with the increase, saying it would water down the measure by creating loopholes for employers.

Seven out of 10 voters in November approved a constitutional amendment creating a minimum wage of $6.15 a dollar above the federal minimum wage. Under the constitutional provision, the wage takes effect six months “after enactment” and must keep pace with inflation each year. The provision also says its requirements do not need state lawmakers to pass a statute to take effect.

“The language in the amendment could not have been clearer. The will of the voter could not have been clearer,” said Rich Templin, a spokesman for the Florida AFL-CIO, Feb. 9.

The state chair of ACORN, the advocacy group behind the minimum wage petition drive last year, said supporters are worried the legislation would weaken the provision. Tamecka Pierce said the proposed bill would undercut the constitutional right of employees to join in class-action lawsuits. She said it would also give employers a 15-day window to pay disputed wages before being penalized. They would be protected from damages if they can prove they acted in “good faith” when they violated the constitution. “We want to be able to live and not just work to survive but actually work to live so that we can take care of our children,” Pierce said. “We don’t want corporations to be able to put in their words.”

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 18 Feb 2005 05:25:00 +0000

ST. PAUL, Minn.: Young workers say ‘Hands off Social Security’

Young workers from this university community jammed to overflowing the 150-seat room at the Episcopal Homes for a Feb. 12 forum on Social Security.

With Congress poised to consider several bills to privatize Social Security and President Bush barnstorming to create “private retirement accounts” at the expense of retirement security, Meghan Mohs, 33, told the crowd that her generation is cynical and frustrated.

“Keep the promise [of Social Security]. Don’t let our cynicism be fulfilled,” Mohs said. “The number one crisis is not Social Security, it’s access to affordable health care.”

Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) hosted the meeting, which featured panelists from the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the Minnesota State Retirees Council and the American Association of Retired Persons.

RICHMOND, Va.: State strengthens strip mining rules

Just two weeks after the state Legislature convened here, lawmakers have passed a bill strengthening strip mine regulation, Feb. 10. Unfortunately, it comes too late for the family of Jeremy Davidson.

In August 2004, 3-year-old Jeremy was crushed when a 1,000-pound boulder crashed into his bedroom. The A&G Coal Company was widening a road in the middle of the night and accidentally launched the boulder over a 650-foot cliff and into the Davidson home.

Virginia legislators only acted following demonstrations by hundreds of people in the rural communities of this state’s coal mining region.

While residents are pleased with the new bill, they say more needs to be done to protect the families who live and work in the mountains.

WASHINGTON: Clergy protest attack on environment

More than 1,000 members of the clergy from 35 states have signed onto and are circulating a statement condemning the Bush administration’s environmental policies on global warming, toxic emissions from coal-fired plants generating electricity and the destruction of over 100 years of conservation.

The religious leaders’ Feb. 14 statement, “God’s Mandate: Care for Creation,” stated, “There was no mandate, no majority, or no values ‘message’ in this past election for the president or the Congress to roll back and oppose programs that care for [the earth].”

An additional 250,000 religious leaders are discussing the statement. Father Chris Bender, an Orthodox priest and contributing author of the statement, countered those who believe that the end of the world is at hand.

“Some people say that the environment doesn’t matter because the second coming of Christ will usher in the end of the world as we know it,” he said. “To make such a statement is the height of arrogance. We don’t know when the Lord is coming back but we do know that one day we will have to give an account for making the environment unlivable for those who come after us.”

NEW YORK: Civil rights lawyer convicted

The right of attorney-client privilege was delivered a stunning blow Feb. 10 when an anonymous jury, after 13 days of secret deliberations, convicted veteran human rights defense lawyer, Lynne Stewart, 65, of conveying messages between her client and his supporters.

Stewart was the lawyer for Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind sheik sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for conspiring to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and to destroy several New York landmarks, including the UN building and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels.

Prosecutors said Stewart carried messages between the sheik and senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization, helping spread Abdel-Rahman’s call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law.

During Stewart’s trial prosecutors played a tape of Osama bin Laden urging support for her client.

“When you put Osama bin Laden in a courtroom and ask the jury to ignore it, you’re asking a lot,” said Stewart. “I know I committed no crime. I know what I did was right.”

Stewart will appeal. She remains free on bond until her sentencing hearing, scheduled for July.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Julia Lutsky contributed to this week’s clips.

LETTERS

Fri, 11 Feb 2005 07:50:00 +0000

CO denied discharge

I wrote to you a few months ago about our son, Trent Helmkamp, and his hopes of getting a conscientious objector discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps due to his beliefs and convictions that crystallized during boot camp.

I write with great disappointment that, 32 days after his interview with the investigating officer, Trent finally got the report back and the officer is denying his claim and will not recommend a discharge. We all had an idea that is what he would say since from the very start it was quite obvious the way they felt. Their decision was made long before Trent had his interview.

They are treating him more like a criminal then a conscientious objector and the investigating officer is playing the part of prosecuting attorney. We were hoping he would be treated fairly, but that has not happened. The officer’s report contained so many inconsistencies, mistakes and lies. Trent and his lawyer are working on a rebuttal now. Trent will not kill nor will he fight in any war. He would like to get out and help others in his situation.

Kathie HelmkampFredericksburg VA

Another side to story

I am writing this to Carolyn Rummel in response to her People’s Culture article in the 1/15-21 PWW titled “Compelling film spotlights rape injustice.” I appreciate the People’s Culture section of the PWW very much and think you’re doing a great job. My heart went out to Florence Holway for the ordeal that she experienced. At the same time, though, the article raised some troubling political questions in my mind.

You describe as “even more disturbing” than the vicious attack itself the fact that Ms. Holway was “denied her day in court” due to a plea bargain done without her knowledge or consent. As a result of Ms. Holway’s organizing and publicizing her experience, her local state Legislature strengthened their anti-rape laws.

An important point in the film is evidently where Ms. Holway “challenges the parole board to keep him [her attacker] locked up.” The lessons being drawn from this story seem to me to go against the concept of a humane and rehabilitative criminal justice system as I imagine it existing under socialism. Society should not become a proxy for victim revenge. That logic leads to draconian sentences designed to meet victim’s emotional needs justified by references to prevention. There is a lot of evidence that the threat of punishment does not deter many violent crimes, including murder.

In a racist society where the legal system is relentless in incarcerating millions of people of color and putting us to work as slave labor, I stand completely against that system.

You end your article: “By spearheading a tireless crusade to change rape laws, she [Ms. Holway] has helped other victims, as well as herself, obtain a measure of justice.” I have to disagree.

It is not possible to win justice as long as the legal system is unjust at its core, a mechanism to support exploitation. In the United States under capitalism the justice system cannot provide justice for anyone, let alone justice for all.

Eric Brooks Via e-mail

Carolyn Rummel responds:

Your thoughts are absolutely valid. That was a dilemma I had: dealing with the injustice to Holway without condoning excessively harsh punishment. I believe Holway was treated unfairly but this case shouldn’t be used to bolster arguments for throwing away the key. I appreciate your thoughtful comments and agree I should have at least raised some of these issues, regardless of space constraints.

Same old tactic

Regarding Bush’s ongoing Social Security scare tactics, I wonder how many people noticed, during the tributes to Johnny Carson after his passing, the film clip of his 1980s character Carnac the Magnificent that clarifies the whole situation via humor. [Carnac would predict the answer and then open an envelope to reveal the question.]

Carnac’s given answer was “105.” The question was — not verbatim, but close — “How old will you have to be under Reagan’s plan to apply for Social Security benefits?”

The Republicans wanted to “fix” the unbroken, most successful social program then and they’re not going to give up!

A readerVia e-mail

A sweet treat

I am happy to finally renew my subscription. My late uncle, Roy Webb, said reading your paper was “like eating candy.” I couldn’t agree more — “candy” for the mind, spirit and soul. We need you more than ever! Hasta La Victoria!

Brian VerdinVia e-mail

Price is too high

The price tag for a soldier’s life is now being debated in Washington. $12,000? $50,000? $100,000. Some advocate the larger number, pointing to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy. Many families of victims received $1 million-plus.

While the compensation was in deliberation for those killed, I kept thinking: Had my daughter not left her job two months prior to September 11, she would have taken her normal route to work, which would have taken her through the trade center at the time the first jetliner struck the north tower. She could have been among the 3,000 dead or injured.

Would the compensation have brought her back to her family? Can the compensation love and comfort them? What price? As the price tag is debated, the men and women continue to die in Iraq, hundreds coming home maimed for life. Yes, money will help the families defray the costs of daily life, but what will have changed?

We ordinary people who make this country prosper pay the price and the price is too high. Imagine our government fully funding education from grade school to university. Educating our children to be full participating citizens, able to pursue productive lives. Filling jobs in science, the arts and humanities. People taking on the tasks of solving the myriad of problems we face here and around the world. We have the resources to accomplish this. We need the will to make it happen.

Gabe FalsettaNew York NY

Shirley Chisholm

I had the pleasure of participating in Shirley Chisholm’s campaign for the presidency (PWW 2/5-11) while I was a law student at Philadelphia’s Temple University. The memory of her true patriotism still stirs me.

George W. has made himself an empire builder. That is not what our forefathers had in mind. We are turning into the kind of government we revolted against in the first place. Greed may do us in yet. I choose to be optimistic but acknowledge that we must get busy taking our government back from the bluebloods.

Cletis BeegleTucson AZ

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 11 Feb 2005 06:22:00 +0000

MIAMI: Protests in the land of Jeb Bush

Around the country, Americans used the Bush inaugural to demand peace in Iraq, beginning with the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Large protests occurred in the South, with New Orleans drawing 1,500 people on Jan. 20. In the heart of Bush country, Miami, over 400 lent their voices to the national protests of Bush’s Iraq war and inauguration.

“It might seem small by New York City standards,” said Linda Cleveland, a local activist. “And we had a small group of counter-demonstrators from ProtestWarrior.com. They were vicious redbaiters. The cops let them demonstrate right next to us, separated only by police tape.”

But the antiwar demonstrators weren’t intimidated. “Our 400 chanting, ‘Bring them home now!’ drowned out the counter-demonstrators and their bullhorn. As darkness fell, we shined flashlights skyward to commemorate fallen Americans and Iraqi civilians, especially children. Pay attention — progressive voices in Miami are growing, getting louder.”

APPALACHIA, Va.: Miners, neighbors demand justice for child’s death

In the wee hours of the morning of Aug. 20, 2004, 3-year-old Jeremy Davidson was peacefully sleeping in his bed when a 1,000 pound boulder crashed through the walls of his home and into his bedroom, crushing him.

Jeremy’s family lives below a strip mine operation. That night, A&G Mining, a subcontractor for Matt Mining, was widening a road to Black Mountain in Wise County to accommodate 18-wheel trucks to haul out the coal. The bulldozer operator inadvertently dislodged the boulder and launched it down a 649-foot hill and into the Davidson home, killing the child.

“Since the child got killed, it’s sort of like when the towers got bombed [referring to 9/11] and the country came together,” said Carl “Pete” Ramey, a coal miner turned anti-strip-mine activist. “The death of an innocent child that had nothing to do with what’s going on has brought us together. I think a lot of people feel guilty they didn’t do something before.”

Since August, Ramey and his neighbors have demonstrated and demanded action to strengthen state laws and the enforcement of regulations on strip mining. They forced a public hearing before their state legislators, drawing over 250 residents in a town of 1,800.

Coal is king again in southwest Virginia with the demand for electricity skyrocketing, the cost of natural gas forcing people to take out a second mortgage, and the instability of oil prices. Coal keeps the lights on in over half of U.S. businesses and homes and is a major export to China.

When the Virginia State Assembly convened in late January, a bill to strengthen strip mine regulations was introduced with the backing of Gov. Mark Warner. Legislators from southwest Virginia are confident that bill will pass.

The Davidson family is suing Matt Mining for $26.5 million.

Pete Ramey and his fellow miners and friends went to Richmond, Feb. 7, to see that the State Assembly does the right thing. They plan to stay there until the Assembly does.

WASHINGTON: Torture architect Gonzales confirmed as U.S. attorney general

It should have been a shoo-in, a slam-dunk, but Alberto Gonzales, a Bush confidante from the president’s days as governor of Texas, ran into a buzz saw in the U.S. Senate. Led by Barbara Boxer of California, senators grilled Bush’s nominee for the country’s top cop over his authorship of memos justifying torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. It was reflected in the vote — 60 yeas, 36 nays and 4 senators not voting. Outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft, best known for his championing of the anti-democratic USA Patriot Act, didn’t experience such a fight or final vote.

The vote broke along party lines with the exception of six Democrats. Landrieu of Louisiana, Nelson of Florida, Nelson of Nebraska, Pryor of Arkansas, Salazar of Colorado and Lieberman of Connecticut crossed the aisle and voted with Republicans to approve Gonzales, Feb. 3. Democrats Baucus of Montana, Conrad of North Dakota and Inouye of Hawaii did not vote. No Republicans crossed.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Linda Cleveland and Julia Lutsky contributed to this week’s clips.

Pablo Neruda: One poet, many lessons

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 10:28:00 +0000

OPINION

“As the first bullets ripped into the guitars of Spain, when blood instead of music gushed out of them, my poetry stopped dead like a ghost in the streets of human anguish and a rush of roots and blood surged up through it. From then on, my road meets everyman’s road. And suddenly I see that from the south of solitude I have moved north, which is the people, the people whose sword, whose handkerchief my humble poetry wants to be, to dry the sweat of its vast sorrows and give it a weapon in its struggle.”

— Pablo Neruda, “Memoirs”

As we contemplate Bush’s second term, there are those who bemoan the difficult and complex character of the day. Does this mean most past times were much simpler and, therefore, easier to organize?

Sometimes a look back into another period and other countries can be instructive. Let’s go to Chile, France and Spain and turn the calendar back more than 60 years. And let’s do this through the eyes of one of the Americas’ great poets, Pablo Neruda of Chile.

While Neruda is in Spain during the 1930s, his friend, the poet Garcia Lorca, is murdered by fascists. Neruda sees the treachery of the ultra-left played out. He sees the legitimate Spanish Popular Front government confronting not only Franco’s military uprising but also the resources of German and Italian fascism. The Popular Front is defeated.

Neruda returns to Chile in October 1937. In a short time, he sees the government of Arturo Alessandri Palma take a pro-Nazi turn. The old feudal oligarchies are taking up the anticommunist call.

Neruda writes of walking through village streets in the south of Chile under a “forest” of swastika-bearing flags. In September 1938, there is an aborted Nazi coup. Neruda gets death threats because of his support of the Chilean Popular Front candidate, Aquirre Cerda, and for his own antifascist writings.

In the midst of the celebrations of Cerda’s victory in late 1938, Neruda learns that 500,000 Spanish refugees, many wounded or ill from enduring the perilous climb over the Pyrenees, have fled to France. The French Socialist government of Leon Blum, under pressure from the right wing, does not give them a cordial welcome. Their living conditions are dire in concentration camps in the south of France and also in Morocco. Their situation is made more daunting and complex as the storm clouds of World War II are gathering.

Neruda, with his cumulative political experience on two continents, recognizes the moment as a race against time and death. He manages to be appointed Special Consul for Spanish Immigration to Chile, and heads off to Paris. There he works with the Spanish government in exile, which has procured a ship, the Winnipeg. He sets out to fill that ship with as many refugees as possible.

With people in the camps dying daily from epidemics, Neruda works at a feverish pace. He immediately runs into political roadblocks. Some working at the Paris Chilean embassy belong to the old regime. They place his office on the fourth floor of the building with no working elevator, thus making wounded and sick refugees struggle up the stairs to be interviewed by him.

Worse still is a new embassy appointee who is bad-mouthing Neruda’s work. This leads to a telegram from Chile in which the new president rescinds the offer to accept the refugees. Heated debates take place in Chile’s Parliament, in which opponents state the mission would “fill the country with vagrants.”

After much travail, including the Chilean Communist Party’s intervention, Cerda reinstates acceptance of the refugees. The Winnipeg arrives in Valparaiso, Chile, on Sept. 3, 1939, the very day World War II begins.

Articles and reviews last year lamented the vacuous centenary celebrations of Neruda’s life but never seemed to find the space to tell the above story. Neruda’s many years in the Communist Party of Chile were treated like an aberration instead of a logical outgrowth of his life experiences.

The hundredth anniversary of Pablo Neruda’s beginning has many lessons, especially in light of President Bush’s re-election. One of those lessons is that in defeat, there can still be victories that lay the groundwork for even bigger future victories. The hope of a country and a world without war springs from everyday struggles.

Pablo Neruda always said that the Winnipeg was his best poem. It’s time to reach deep within ourselves to write ours.

Nick Bart is an environmental activist in Connecticut.

Dont take away Social Security

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 10:12:00 +0000

OPINION

After reading a column in her local paper, the Albuquerque Journal, calling Bush’s Social Security privatization plan “a step in the right direction,” PWW reader Rose Shaw didn’t just get mad – she wrote a response! It was published on the Journal’s op ed page Jan. 5. Her piece is reprinted below. We hope other readers will follow her lead.

Ruben Navarette Jr.’s column — “Boomers in Social Security Denial” — is just another example of the barrage of assaults on every worker-friendly measure enacted since the New Deal, including the right to organize, overtime pay, Medicare, and especially Social Security, the most successful program of all. Since its creation in 1935, the first prediction of a Social Security crisis was published in 1936!

How long will the system really last?

The President’s Commission to “Strengthen” Social Security was established in 2001, stacked with people who favor privatization, including its co-chair, Richard Parsons, who is chief executive of Time Warner. Yet according to the numbers used even by them, Social Security is capable of paying full benefits for another 38 years without any changes. And the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office just upped that estimate to 48 years. By either measure, Social Security is in better financial shape than it has been for most of its 69-year history.

Navarette does have a point that the trust fund has been raided and the system works on a “pay as you go” basis. (Incidentally, $600 billion of this raiding occurred under George W. Bush’s first term, to help cover an accumulated general budget deficit of more than $1 trillion through fiscal year 2004).

Even using this system, the Social Security trust fund will generate a $1.1 trillion surplus between now and 2018, according to “Stealing Social Security Past, Present & Future,” by Jack Rasmus, Z Magazine, December 2004. This is the money that Wall Street has its eye on and hopes to grab through hefty commissions generated through individual social security retirement accounts.

What’s really in it for young workers?

First, they would be paying a commission fee for the privatized account established from a portion of their Social Security taxes. If they don’t pay that fee, it will fall on taxpayers to cover it. Secondly, according to the commission’s Reform Plan 2, which Bush seems to favor, they would lose benefits under their remaining portion of the traditional trust fund. Because of the tremendous drain of funds taken out of the trust to build individual accounts, benefits under the traditional fund would have to be cut. A 20-year-old just entering the labor force would lose 34 percent of his or her expected benefits under this plan. This would amount to almost $134,000 over a lifetime of retirement, according to Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic & Policy Research.

Can we really trust private investment bankers?

Of course, the theory is that they would gain this money back and make more through their individual accounts. But how likely is that? Think of not only Enron, but all of the companies who have stolen pension money from their workers over the years, and the workers are now stranded without retirement money. The stock market is unpredictable at best. Stocks go down and companies go bankrupt. The whole idea of Social Security is in the word “security.” In all its 69 years, the system has never failed to deliver payments to its beneficiaries.

Many questions remain. It is said it will cost $2 trillion to implement the changeover. This would create an immediate crisis. Where will this money come from? Bush and the commission do not tell us.

What happens to the benefits of the 7.8 million disabled and the 6.8 million survivors of retirees who also receive Social Security payments? With the trust fund drained as it will be, will their benefits also be cut? These people are not even mentioned or considered by the planners of these “reforms.”

One solution: Raise the cap!

To cover an expected shortfall after 38 years, why can’t we raise the cap for those who make over $90,000? Why shouldn’t everyone pay Social Security taxes on his full income — Bill Gates as well as the guy who makes $20,000? Wouldn’t this be fairer? After all, Bill Gates can afford the taxes better.

In an editorial Sunday, Dec. 19, the Albuquerque Journal argued against a crisis mentality, and raised many of the above questions

I couldn’t agree more, and hope that you will create a level field for this important debate.

Rose Shaw, a retired teacher in Albuquerque, N.M., is on the executive boards of the Gray Panthers of Greater Albuquerque and the New Mexico Alliance of Retired Americans, and is on the executive committee of New Mexico Educators Retirees (AFT-AFL-CIO), the retiree arm of the American Federation of Teachers.

LETTERS

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 09:35:00 +0000

Boxer rebellion

Hats off to California Sen. Barbara Boxer for being the only senator to join with several representatives of the House, standing up for thousands of Ohio disenfranchised voters. More kudos to Boxer for raising important objections to Secretary of State designee Condoleeza Rice. Boxer’s fellow Californian, Sen. Feinstein, obliged herself to support and introduce Ms. Rice.

Most Democratic leaders, starting with Kerry and the Democratic National Committee, appear to be hiding under their desks, ignoring the disenfranchised voters and the 750,000 voices for peace demonstrating with students, unions and human rights groups at the Republican Convention in New York in 2004, and in the Democrats’ Boston “dog pens.”

Rohn WebbMelba ID

Likes new look

The first two issues of the re-designed PWW have arrived at our co-op bookstore and I want to congratulate you and the three staff members who performed the task on a job well done. It is very attractive to look at and easier to read. The sidebar on the front page is very helpful and is pleasing to look at in part, at least, because of the variety of colors. I am no typographer, but the print seems clearer and easier to read than before. Just as an aesthetic object, the whole thing is nicely done and makes one eager to get to reading it.

Everyone I know who gets the paper here agrees with me in these sentiments. I hope that these changes will go a long way towards increasing your readership. Thank you all very much.

On a slightly critical but friendly note, I wish you guys would change the name of the paper, even if only slightly. In English syntax “People’s Weekly World” is a bit of a mouthful, a little harder to say than, say, “Weekly People’s World.” Actually, I do not like the “People’s” part at all as it seems to me that it smacks too much of nostalgia for the ’30s and early ’40s. It feels outdated to me. Several others here agree with me on this.

Donald Todd Via e-mail

Academy ignores best

The Oscar nominations have been announced in Hollywood. Once again, we who have been angry at the Motion Picture Academy since they snubbed “Reds” in 1983 are again overtaken with furious indignation. Neither “Hotel Rwanda,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “Kinsey,” nor “A Very Long Engagement” are up for best picture! “Long Engagement,” probably the best anti-war film made since the Vietnam period, didn’t even get a shot at best foreign film!

Just look at the actual nominees: there’s a long tribute to one of America’s craziest and most capitalistic entrepreneurs, another young contender boxing movie, another coming-of-age story about middle-aged white men, a sweetly told story about reserved friendship among the English gentility, and the triumph of a rock ’n roll idol. This is not to say they weren’t good movies and very well done, but, with the exception of the fight against racism in “Ray,” what did they mean?

Every good artistic experience interacts with us and makes us different. Movies are the ultimate viewing experience, and all good movies have that artistic effect. But great movies make us better. They nudge us along on the path toward the sensitive and caring people that we can become. Why can’t that count in the “best picture” category?

Jim LaneDallas TX

Drug law reform

On Dec. 14 New York Gov. George Pataki signed the new reformed drug law. Nobody has any word on when this law would be implemented. My son is at Lyon Mountain Correctional Facility (upstate N.Y.) and is a candidate for release. Although the provisions clearly state that he should be allowed additional “merit time,” he hasn’t had his new time adjustment nor has anyone spoken to him about it.

Was this drug reform signing by Pataki just a political trick of some sort? I can’t get a handle on it. Would you please look into this for all these sorry inmates waiting to come home to their families?

Carol AnnVia e-mail

Still doesn’t like George W.

Our service families are paying a very high price for our president’s occupation of Iraq. It would help the survivors deal with the stuff of life if they were given realistic death benefits. There is no amount of money that can replace a dead mate, but $250,000 would help raise and educate children. It is a good idea and I hope it is implemented.

Cletis BeegleTucson AZ

Who or whom?

Whether or not I fully support the political position of the PWW, I certainly am opposed to lousy grammar! “For” is, of course, a preposition. Therefore, the object of the preposition is “whom.” It would be of interest to know how many (if any) readers winced when they read this headline (PWW 1/29-2/4).

Irv Jacobs San Diego CA

Rehabilitation needed in prisons

What are the objectives of our nation’s prisons? Is it to reform and rehab the offenders who one day will be released to society? Or is it simply to warehouse offenders in an environment where they may learn a new set of values, or better ways to commit crime?

If we choose to believe it or not, we must admit, our prison system is a failure. We are not rehabilitating offenders at all. What we are doing is breeding stronger, smarter criminals. I am for longer sentences. We must show offenders the fruit of their actions will be a prison sentence. However, out of sight, out of mind does not work where prisons are concerned.

The majority of offenders upon release do not hold even the most basic life skills. Prisons can, and should, assist in efforts to re-enfranchise former felons. Develop collaborative partnerships to assist in providing services such as skill-set training, tutoring, pre-release counseling, as well as educational services that go beyond a GED. As well as identify and assess appropriate offender re-entry programs, and lend support when necessary. We must work to help educate those who are at risk in our society before they embark upon a life of crime.

We must also educate and rehabilitate those already in our nations prison systems. Then, and only then, will we start to see significant changes in the mindset of our nation’s inmate populations, as well as an overall reduction in crime.

Steven CottinghamEl Paso County Detention Facility El Paso TX

D.C. hotel employees OK pact

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 07:29:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) — Using the presidential inauguration as leverage, workers at Washington, D.C.’s top hotels reached a new three-year contract with major downtown chain-owned hotels. Local 25 set its strike deadline after learning the hotels planned to overwork the employees through George W. Bush’s inauguration — and then lock them out. The strike threat forestalled that scheme.

The pact between Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 25 and the hotels keeps fully company-paid health insurance for all workers and their families, saving each worker $7,500 in premium payments yearly, Local 25 Executive Secretary-Treasurer John Boardman told Press Associates Union News Service.

The contract gives the 3,500 workers at 14 downtown hotels a host of other benefits, he said. They include a boost in pension benefits, advance management notification of immigration service raids, quicker arbitration, a ban on supervisors’ interrupting workers’ lunch half-hours with demands for more work, and a ban on penalizing workers who are unable to do their jobs — such as change bed sheets — due to lack of materials.

“There are also monetary penalties for employers who are caught mis-paying someone,” Boardman said.

The pact expires in 2007, not 2006, as the union originally demanded. UNITE HERE, wanted contracts in three major convention/hotel cities — Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco — to expire simultaneously with pacts in two other major hotel cities, New York and Chicago, all in 2006. That would have given the union large leverage in future talks with the three big U.S. hotel chains.

Nevertheless, Boardman counted the struggle’s outcome a win for the union. “None of these things happen in a vacuum, so the national effort was a complete success,” Boardman told PAI. “It increased our power because we talked to each other and kept each other going forward,” he said of the HERE locals in D.C., L.A., and San Francisco. “The national campaign accomplished its goal to build our strength for members throughout the country,” Amanda Cooper, national spokesperson for UNITE HERE added.

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 06:12:00 +0000

NASHVILLE: Baptists call for Iraq war end, no-vote on Gonzalez

More than 10,000 delegates representing 15 million African American Baptists in four denominations met here, Jan. 24 – 27, and issued a joint unity statement calling for political action opposing the war in Iraq, supporting the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, government reinvestment in public education and the elimination of mandatory sentencing. Citing the “double standard concerning decent treatment for captured persons in the war on terror” the gathering approved a motion opposing the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales for U.S. Attorney General.

A special collection was taken to address the global AIDS crisis, assist tsunami victims in East Africa and support two historically Black colleges.

WASHINGTON: Victory for Guantanamo prisoners

It was a victory for civil rights and a defeat for the Bush administration when federal Judge Joyce Hens Green decided Jan. 31 that men from 42 countries rounded up during the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan are entitled to their day in court. The U.S. has held an estimated 550 men, who it calls ‘enemy combatants’ or detainees, in prison for over two years at the naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba.

“Her opinion sends a message to the rest of the world that democracy is still here,” said Barbara Olshansky, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented the 50 imprisoned men who petitioned Green.

Declaring the U.S. military tribunals to determine that the men on Guantanamo are “enemy combatants” unconstitutional, Green said some of the information against them was obtained through torture or coercion.

The decision directly contradicts Judge Richard Leon’s decision two weeks ago supporting the Bush administration.

The administration is appealing a November 2004 decision by Judge James Robertson, which found that the military “hearings” are defective, denying basic legal rights to the imprisoned men.

COLUMBUS, Ga.: Freedom fighters sentenced

Fourteen freedom fighters arrested for trespassing at Fort Benning were found guilty and sentenced on Jan. 26. On Nov. 21, 2004 16,000 people demonstrated there demanding the closure of the notorious School of the Americas (SOA). The fourteen committed civil disobedience to call attention to the torture training that takes place at the school. Twelve were sentenced to 90 days in federal prison and a $500 fine. Two high school students received community service. (See related story on page 13)

For decades Latin American military and police officers have been trained in torture tactics at SOA with U.S. taxpayers’ dollars.

Tens of thousands have demonstrated to close SOA, over the last few years, and 170 people have been arrested serving a total of 78 years in federal prison.

BALTIMORE: NAACP defies IRS Probe

Charging that an IRS investigation is politically motivated, the nation’s most prestigious civil rights organization has refused to turn over documents to the agency. The IRS audit is aimed at the NAACP’s status as a non-profit organization, exempting the group from taxation.

“It appears that political pressure, rather than any sound legal authority, motivated the Service to open the audit,” wrote NAACP lawyers Marcus Owens and Lloyd Mayer in their Jan. 21 letter to the IRS refusing to submit documents. Attorney Owens is the former head of the IRS office that oversees tax-exempt groups.

MONTGOMERY, Ala.: State sues drug companies

At stake is millions of dollars that the state could have used for health care, but instead had to pay drug companies for what the Alabama Attorney General says were “overcharges.” State Attorney General Troy King is charging Eli Lilly, Merck, Pfizer and other corporations with intentionally inflating the average price of prescription drugs.

“This practice has unfairly and artificially raised the cost of drugs to Alabama Medicaid, thereby diverting scarce resources and limiting access to life-saving medicines and other services for some of the neediest in our state,” said King.

Etoposide, a chemotherapy drug, costs $34.30, but Bristol-Myers charged Alabama $136.49. Hundreds of drugs were cited in the suit. Alabama joins 17 other states suing drug companies for fraud.

WASHINGTON: Americans support legal status for immigrants

As the nation’s capitol braced for the president’s inaugural, an ABC/Washington Post poll indicated that Americans support jobs and legal status for undocumented workers and reject deportation.

The poll asked, “Do you think illegal immigrants who are living and working in the U.S. now should be offered a chance to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status or do you think they should be deported back to their native country?” Sixty-one percent said undocumented workers should keep their jobs and be able to apply for legal status and only 36 percent felt that workers should be deported.

Even Republicans supported undocumented workers with 55 percent supporting jobs and application for legal status and 43 percent calling for deportation. Midwesterners were almost dead even responding to the question with 50 percent supporting jobs and legal status and 43 percent saying undocumented workers should be deported.

National clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Douglas Rivlin contributed to this week’s clips.