by Paul Kellogg
It is not difficult to see that the events of September 30, in the Latin American country of Ecuador, amounted to an attempted right-wing coup d’état. Mass mobilizations in the streets and plazas of Quito (the capital) and other cities – in conjunction with action by sections of the armed forces which stayed loyal to the government – stopped the coup before the day was out. But those few hours highlighted, again, the deep dangers facing those fighting for progressive change in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa wearing a gas mask during the state of emergency.
Remarkably, the first task is to re-assert that in fact a coup attempt took place. In the wake of the failure of the coup, commentator after commentator was trying to minimize what happened. Peruvian “libertarian” Álvaro Vargas Llosa – darling of the World Economic Forum and outspoken critic of Che Guevara and the current governments of Bolivia and Venezuela – insists that it was not a coup just an “ill-advised, violent protest by the police against a law that cut their benefits.”[1]
Let us examine the facts. Rafael Correa is the democratically elected president of the country, re-elected in 2009 winning 51.99 per cent of votes cast, on a turnout of almost 75 per cent (in an electorate of more than 10 million people). His nearest rival – ex-president and oil company friend Lucio Gutierrez – received just 28.24 per cent of the vote.[2]
Trouble Begins
September 30 – thousands of police rebelled, taking control of several cities, shutting down roads and airports.[3] In the capital city, Quito, they took over their barracks. When President Correa, went to the main barracks to confront the policemen, he was attacked with tear gas and injured. He was allowed to go for treatment in a police hospital, but confined there for 12 hours until rescued – after a “fierce gun battle” (according to Atilio A. Boron)[4] which resulted in the death of two policemen (including the police sergeant protecting Correa), a soldier and a student.[5]
During these tense hours, there was a rebellion in sections of the armed forces (members of the Ecuadoran air force took over and shut down Quito's international airport)[6] and anti-Correa political figures – including the lawyer for defeated presidential candidate Gutierrez – tried to force their way into the buildings of Ecuador National Television.[7]
When the democratically-elected president of a country is attacked, injured and confined against his will: when police take over towns and sections of the air force take over and close the country's major airport: when pro-business political figures try to storm the national television statement – that is called an attempted coup d'état. If it were to happen in Ottawa, Washington or London, there would be no dispute.
A photograph accompanying an important article by Mark Weisbrot (co-writer of Oliver Stone'sSouth of the Border) showed masses of people taking to the streets of Quito to defend Correa. In the article, Weisbrot persuasively argued that “to anyone who watched the prolonged, pitched gun-battle on TV last night, when the armed forces finally rescued President Correa from the hospital where he was trapped by the police” this could only be seen as an attempted coup, “an attempt to overthrow the government.”[8]
The reason there is a bizarre attempt to pretend that this coup attempt never happened, is to hope that people won’t ask who might have benefited from such an action. A quick examination of the actions of President Correa sheds considerable light on that.
In 2006, working with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Correa moved to increase state control over oil production in the country.[9]
In 2008, he announced that Ecuador would not pay several billions of its more than $10-billion foreign debt, calling it “illegitimate.”[10]
In 2009, he refused to renew the lease of the U.S. military airbase in Manta, saying that “the only way the U.S. could keep their military base in Ecuador, is if Ecuador were allowed to have one of its own in Florida.”[11]
In 2009, he officially brought Ecuador into ALBA – the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America led by Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia.When a country increases state control, challenges illegitimate foreign debt, pushes the U.S. military out of the country and joins a regional alliance with Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba – it is clear that the forces that would benefit from a coup would be: a) corporate interests inside Ecuador; b) international financial institutions; and c) the United States and its allies.
There is another reason why the right-wing, corporate elite and the imperialist countries might have an incentive to minimize what happened September 30. There is now a shamefully long list of recent coup attempts in Latin America and the Caribbean – four of them against members of ALBA.
April 2002, President Chávez of Venezuela was briefly taken into exile in a coup d'état which was stopped when one million of his supporters surrounded the presidential palace.
February 2004, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti was forcibly overthrown in a coup backed by the military forces of Canada, the United States and France. [Ed.: more information on Haiti.]
September 2008, in the Santa Cruz area of Bolivia, right-wing forces used armed fascist gangs to try and break the hold of President Evo Morales.[12]They were stopped through a combination of mass mobilizations, and the intervention by loyal sections of the armed forces.
June 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown by the military. [Ed.: see BulletNo. 290 for more information.] All but Haiti were members of ALBA – and one of the main acts of the coup regime in Honduras was to withdraw from ALBA.
It is not, therefore, an exaggeration, to say that the coup attempt in Ecuador is the latest in a series of violent attempts to roll back the anti-neoliberal movement, whose main institutional shape is represented by the ALBA countries.
The Situation in Venezuela
The dangers facing the anti-neoliberal movement, and the region, were also highlighted by the results of National Assembly elections in Venezuela. At one level, they represent a remarkable achievement – the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) topping the polls and winning 98 seats out of 165. But within that victory, there were troubling signs.
First while the PSUV won more than five million votes in both the nationwide vote for the Latin American parliament and the state-wide party lists, its right-wing rival, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) also topped five million in both votes, trailing the PSUV by around 200,000.
Second – key states along the border of Colombia (the principle base for the U.S. military in the region) fell to the MUD.
Finally – while 98 seats is a majority, it is short of the two-thirds majority necessary for key constitutional changes. Important advances – such as creating a favourable legislative framework for workers’ control of industry – will be much more difficult.[13]
There is disillusionment in sections of the base of the PSUV. The recession hit Venezuela harder than many other countries in Latin America. The old state bureaucracy is still largely intact (and quite reluctant to support Chávez’s reforms), and the bulk of the media remains in the hands of the right-wing. In addition – while the PSUV has been a remarkable school in politics for millions of people – it has also been a source of career advancement for a few thousand. Nepotism and bureaucratic tendencies have become a drag on many of the reform projects launched by the regime.
In each of the ALBA countries, internal difficulties are immense, and in each there is an array of positions which are often difficult for Global North observers properly to understand. In Ecuador, for instance, it wasn’t just darlings of the right-wing like Álvaro Vargas Llosa who denied that the September 30 events were a coup. Unfortunately, Ecuador’s important coalition of social movements, the Federation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) took the same position. “We energetically announce that there never was any attempted coup d’état, much less a kidnapping, but an event that responded to the uncertain political management of the government that causes popular discontent through permanent aggression, discrimination and violations of human rights consecrated in the Constitution.”[14]
CONAIE’s importance in the social movements in Ecuador is not to be doubted. Its mobilization of the Indigenous community has been a key factor in the social advances made in Ecuador this century. And Correa has not always been an easy president to defend. In 2009, CONAIE was involved in a “week of marches and road blockades” in protest against certain of Correa's policies. At issue were “the autonomy of the indigenous bilingual education system,” the new water law and the new mining law passed in January 2009 which CONAIE has “appealed before the Constitutional Court.”[15] But even with legitimate grievances against Correa, it is clearly a mistake for CONAIE to minimize the dangers represented by the September 30 events.
Contradictions in ALBA
Global North solidarity activists need to be aware of internal conflicts in the ALBA countries, take them very seriously, and try to sort out our attitude toward them. But from a distance, that is not such an easy task. In very general terms, we can say that the way forward in all the ALBA countries will be found in popular mobilizations at the base. Political tendencies which base themselves on the developing organs of popular control, in the neighbourhoods and workplaces, are the only long-term alternative in all the ALBA countries.It is also very clear that no break from imperialism will be possible which is not deeply rooted in Indigenous sovereignty.
But we need to be absolutely clear, for us in the Global North, these are not the key issues. We won't be the ones addressing and solving them. That task will of course fall to the workers and campesinos inside the ALBA countries themselves.
Our job is to know the importance of the push-back to imperialism represented by the ALBA countries and the grim seriousness of our states in their determination to reverse this process. Our job is to build solidarity with the ALBA countries against attacks from the United States and Canada. To the extent we can do that, we can modestly increase the space for the struggles against neoliberalism, unfolding in Latin America and the Caribbean.
This task is not easy. In Canada and the U.S., there is a virtual blanket of silence around the enormous movements against imperialism which have broken through in Latin America and the Caribbean. We need education to demonstrate the importance of the struggles in Latin America and the Caribbean. We need to encourage worker-to-worker and student-to-student exchange programs, so that we can see for ourselves the challenges and possibilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. All of this, done properly, will lay the basis for a bigger solidarity movement should there be a sixth coup d’état attempt in the months to come.
This is not an act of charity. It was the poor of Cochabamba in Bolivia who, ten years ago, rose up and defeated the privatization of water in their region – the first big victory against privatization in all the Americas. It was the masses of Latin America and the Caribbean who defeated the Free Trade Area of the Americas in 2005. It was the new government of Bolivia which convened the alternative conference on climate justice – again in Cochabamba – after the Global North failed miserably in Copenhagen.
In every sense of the word, their struggle is our struggle. •
Paul Kellogg maintains a blog at PolEconAnalys.org where this article was originally published.
Notes
1. Álvaro Vargas Llosa. “Ecuador police protest was no attempted coup.” The Australian. 7 October 2010.
2. European Union Election Observation Mission. “Ecuador Final Report: Presidential and Parliamentary Elections – 26 April 2009.” 8 June 2009.
3. Max Fisher. “Fallout of Failed Coup in Ecuador.” The AtlanticWire. 1 October 2010.
4. Atilio A. Boron. “A Note About the Failed Coup in Ecuador.” Translation: David Brookbank. 3 October 2010.
5. Alexander Martinez. “Correa declares victory over rebel forces in Ecuador.” AFP, 2 October 2010.
6. Wayne Madsen. “Obama administration fingerprints on Ecuador coup attempt.” voltairenet.org. 3 October 2010.
7. Boron 2010.
8. Mark Weisbrot. “Ecuador: Coup attempt encouraged by Washington.” Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal. 1 October, 2010.
9. “Venezuela to Build New Refinery in Ecuador.” voltairenet.org. 5 June 2006.
10. “Ecuador defaults on foreign debt.” BBC News. 13 December 2008.
11. Mankh (Walter E. Harris III). “‘South of the Border’ Documentary Film Review.” Axis of Logic. 6 October 2010.
12. Federico Fuentes and Stuart Munckton. “Bolivia: Fascist right launches ‘civic coup.’” GreenLeft. 13 September 2008.
13. Federico Fuentes. “Venezuela: Left wins, but right makes gains.” Green Left. 2 October. Much of this analysis is based on discussions which took place at a seminar in Toronto. Raul Burbano, Nicolas Lopez. “VenezuelaVotes: Eyewitness to a People in Struggle.” Venezuela We Are With You Coalition (CVEC), Barrio Nuevo and Centre for Social Justice. Toronto. 3 October.
14. Marlon Santi. “The Alleged Coup d’Etat, Democracy, and the Indigenous Organizations.” In Al Giordano. “Statement by Ecuador's Most Important Social Movements.” The Field. 6 October, 2010.
15. Jennifer Moore. “Ecuador: CONAIE and Correa Begin Dialogue.” Upside Down World, 6 October, 2009. In an earlier version of this article, this read as follows: “And Correa has not always been an easy president to defend. In June, in response to CONAIE protesters, he was quoted as saying: 'These people are gringos who are coming here with NGOs. Take it somewhere else. These people's stomachs are full enough'.” (Telesur TV, source:www.telesurtv.net, 25 June 2010. Cited in Raúl Zibechi. “Bolivia and Ecuador: The State against the Indigenous People,” Amazon Watch, 19 July, 2010. Thanks to Martin Huber who pointed out that Zibechi's quotation is distorted and taken out of context. For those who want to check, the original can be found at Telesur: “Correa insta a sacar de la pobreza a pueblos ancestrales de América Latina,” Telesurtv, 25 June, 2010. The main point of the paragraph remains, however. There have been tense relations between CONAIE and Correa, and CONAIE does have legitimate grievances.
Global Research Articles by Paul Kellogg
Let us examine the facts. Rafael Correa is the democratically elected president of the country, re-elected in 2009 winning 51.99 per cent of votes cast, on a turnout of almost 75 per cent (in an electorate of more than 10 million people). His nearest rival – ex-president and oil company friend Lucio Gutierrez – received just 28.24 per cent of the vote.[2]
Trouble Begins
September 30 – thousands of police rebelled, taking control of several cities, shutting down roads and airports.[3] In the capital city, Quito, they took over their barracks. When President Correa, went to the main barracks to confront the policemen, he was attacked with tear gas and injured. He was allowed to go for treatment in a police hospital, but confined there for 12 hours until rescued – after a “fierce gun battle” (according to Atilio A. Boron)[4] which resulted in the death of two policemen (including the police sergeant protecting Correa), a soldier and a student.[5]
During these tense hours, there was a rebellion in sections of the armed forces (members of the Ecuadoran air force took over and shut down Quito's international airport)[6] and anti-Correa political figures – including the lawyer for defeated presidential candidate Gutierrez – tried to force their way into the buildings of Ecuador National Television.[7]
When the democratically-elected president of a country is attacked, injured and confined against his will: when police take over towns and sections of the air force take over and close the country's major airport: when pro-business political figures try to storm the national television statement – that is called an attempted coup d'état. If it were to happen in Ottawa, Washington or London, there would be no dispute.
A photograph accompanying an important article by Mark Weisbrot (co-writer of Oliver Stone'sSouth of the Border) showed masses of people taking to the streets of Quito to defend Correa. In the article, Weisbrot persuasively argued that “to anyone who watched the prolonged, pitched gun-battle on TV last night, when the armed forces finally rescued President Correa from the hospital where he was trapped by the police” this could only be seen as an attempted coup, “an attempt to overthrow the government.”[8]
The reason there is a bizarre attempt to pretend that this coup attempt never happened, is to hope that people won’t ask who might have benefited from such an action. A quick examination of the actions of President Correa sheds considerable light on that.
In 2006, working with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Correa moved to increase state control over oil production in the country.[9]
In 2008, he announced that Ecuador would not pay several billions of its more than $10-billion foreign debt, calling it “illegitimate.”[10]
In 2009, he refused to renew the lease of the U.S. military airbase in Manta, saying that “the only way the U.S. could keep their military base in Ecuador, is if Ecuador were allowed to have one of its own in Florida.”[11]
In 2009, he officially brought Ecuador into ALBA – the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America led by Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia.When a country increases state control, challenges illegitimate foreign debt, pushes the U.S. military out of the country and joins a regional alliance with Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba – it is clear that the forces that would benefit from a coup would be: a) corporate interests inside Ecuador; b) international financial institutions; and c) the United States and its allies.
There is another reason why the right-wing, corporate elite and the imperialist countries might have an incentive to minimize what happened September 30. There is now a shamefully long list of recent coup attempts in Latin America and the Caribbean – four of them against members of ALBA.
April 2002, President Chávez of Venezuela was briefly taken into exile in a coup d'état which was stopped when one million of his supporters surrounded the presidential palace.
February 2004, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti was forcibly overthrown in a coup backed by the military forces of Canada, the United States and France. [Ed.: more information on Haiti.]
September 2008, in the Santa Cruz area of Bolivia, right-wing forces used armed fascist gangs to try and break the hold of President Evo Morales.[12]They were stopped through a combination of mass mobilizations, and the intervention by loyal sections of the armed forces.
June 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown by the military. [Ed.: see BulletNo. 290 for more information.] All but Haiti were members of ALBA – and one of the main acts of the coup regime in Honduras was to withdraw from ALBA.
It is not, therefore, an exaggeration, to say that the coup attempt in Ecuador is the latest in a series of violent attempts to roll back the anti-neoliberal movement, whose main institutional shape is represented by the ALBA countries.
The Situation in Venezuela
The dangers facing the anti-neoliberal movement, and the region, were also highlighted by the results of National Assembly elections in Venezuela. At one level, they represent a remarkable achievement – the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) topping the polls and winning 98 seats out of 165. But within that victory, there were troubling signs.
First while the PSUV won more than five million votes in both the nationwide vote for the Latin American parliament and the state-wide party lists, its right-wing rival, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) also topped five million in both votes, trailing the PSUV by around 200,000.
Second – key states along the border of Colombia (the principle base for the U.S. military in the region) fell to the MUD.
Finally – while 98 seats is a majority, it is short of the two-thirds majority necessary for key constitutional changes. Important advances – such as creating a favourable legislative framework for workers’ control of industry – will be much more difficult.[13]
There is disillusionment in sections of the base of the PSUV. The recession hit Venezuela harder than many other countries in Latin America. The old state bureaucracy is still largely intact (and quite reluctant to support Chávez’s reforms), and the bulk of the media remains in the hands of the right-wing. In addition – while the PSUV has been a remarkable school in politics for millions of people – it has also been a source of career advancement for a few thousand. Nepotism and bureaucratic tendencies have become a drag on many of the reform projects launched by the regime.
In each of the ALBA countries, internal difficulties are immense, and in each there is an array of positions which are often difficult for Global North observers properly to understand. In Ecuador, for instance, it wasn’t just darlings of the right-wing like Álvaro Vargas Llosa who denied that the September 30 events were a coup. Unfortunately, Ecuador’s important coalition of social movements, the Federation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) took the same position. “We energetically announce that there never was any attempted coup d’état, much less a kidnapping, but an event that responded to the uncertain political management of the government that causes popular discontent through permanent aggression, discrimination and violations of human rights consecrated in the Constitution.”[14]
CONAIE’s importance in the social movements in Ecuador is not to be doubted. Its mobilization of the Indigenous community has been a key factor in the social advances made in Ecuador this century. And Correa has not always been an easy president to defend. In 2009, CONAIE was involved in a “week of marches and road blockades” in protest against certain of Correa's policies. At issue were “the autonomy of the indigenous bilingual education system,” the new water law and the new mining law passed in January 2009 which CONAIE has “appealed before the Constitutional Court.”[15] But even with legitimate grievances against Correa, it is clearly a mistake for CONAIE to minimize the dangers represented by the September 30 events.
Contradictions in ALBA
Global North solidarity activists need to be aware of internal conflicts in the ALBA countries, take them very seriously, and try to sort out our attitude toward them. But from a distance, that is not such an easy task. In very general terms, we can say that the way forward in all the ALBA countries will be found in popular mobilizations at the base. Political tendencies which base themselves on the developing organs of popular control, in the neighbourhoods and workplaces, are the only long-term alternative in all the ALBA countries.It is also very clear that no break from imperialism will be possible which is not deeply rooted in Indigenous sovereignty.
But we need to be absolutely clear, for us in the Global North, these are not the key issues. We won't be the ones addressing and solving them. That task will of course fall to the workers and campesinos inside the ALBA countries themselves.
Our job is to know the importance of the push-back to imperialism represented by the ALBA countries and the grim seriousness of our states in their determination to reverse this process. Our job is to build solidarity with the ALBA countries against attacks from the United States and Canada. To the extent we can do that, we can modestly increase the space for the struggles against neoliberalism, unfolding in Latin America and the Caribbean.
This task is not easy. In Canada and the U.S., there is a virtual blanket of silence around the enormous movements against imperialism which have broken through in Latin America and the Caribbean. We need education to demonstrate the importance of the struggles in Latin America and the Caribbean. We need to encourage worker-to-worker and student-to-student exchange programs, so that we can see for ourselves the challenges and possibilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. All of this, done properly, will lay the basis for a bigger solidarity movement should there be a sixth coup d’état attempt in the months to come.
This is not an act of charity. It was the poor of Cochabamba in Bolivia who, ten years ago, rose up and defeated the privatization of water in their region – the first big victory against privatization in all the Americas. It was the masses of Latin America and the Caribbean who defeated the Free Trade Area of the Americas in 2005. It was the new government of Bolivia which convened the alternative conference on climate justice – again in Cochabamba – after the Global North failed miserably in Copenhagen.
In every sense of the word, their struggle is our struggle. •
Paul Kellogg maintains a blog at PolEconAnalys.org where this article was originally published.
Notes
1. Álvaro Vargas Llosa. “Ecuador police protest was no attempted coup.” The Australian. 7 October 2010.
2. European Union Election Observation Mission. “Ecuador Final Report: Presidential and Parliamentary Elections – 26 April 2009.” 8 June 2009.
3. Max Fisher. “Fallout of Failed Coup in Ecuador.” The AtlanticWire. 1 October 2010.
4. Atilio A. Boron. “A Note About the Failed Coup in Ecuador.” Translation: David Brookbank. 3 October 2010.
5. Alexander Martinez. “Correa declares victory over rebel forces in Ecuador.” AFP, 2 October 2010.
6. Wayne Madsen. “Obama administration fingerprints on Ecuador coup attempt.” voltairenet.org. 3 October 2010.
7. Boron 2010.
8. Mark Weisbrot. “Ecuador: Coup attempt encouraged by Washington.” Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal. 1 October, 2010.
9. “Venezuela to Build New Refinery in Ecuador.” voltairenet.org. 5 June 2006.
10. “Ecuador defaults on foreign debt.” BBC News. 13 December 2008.
11. Mankh (Walter E. Harris III). “‘South of the Border’ Documentary Film Review.” Axis of Logic. 6 October 2010.
12. Federico Fuentes and Stuart Munckton. “Bolivia: Fascist right launches ‘civic coup.’” GreenLeft. 13 September 2008.
13. Federico Fuentes. “Venezuela: Left wins, but right makes gains.” Green Left. 2 October. Much of this analysis is based on discussions which took place at a seminar in Toronto. Raul Burbano, Nicolas Lopez. “VenezuelaVotes: Eyewitness to a People in Struggle.” Venezuela We Are With You Coalition (CVEC), Barrio Nuevo and Centre for Social Justice. Toronto. 3 October.
14. Marlon Santi. “The Alleged Coup d’Etat, Democracy, and the Indigenous Organizations.” In Al Giordano. “Statement by Ecuador's Most Important Social Movements.” The Field. 6 October, 2010.
15. Jennifer Moore. “Ecuador: CONAIE and Correa Begin Dialogue.” Upside Down World, 6 October, 2009. In an earlier version of this article, this read as follows: “And Correa has not always been an easy president to defend. In June, in response to CONAIE protesters, he was quoted as saying: 'These people are gringos who are coming here with NGOs. Take it somewhere else. These people's stomachs are full enough'.” (Telesur TV, source:www.telesurtv.net, 25 June 2010. Cited in Raúl Zibechi. “Bolivia and Ecuador: The State against the Indigenous People,” Amazon Watch, 19 July, 2010. Thanks to Martin Huber who pointed out that Zibechi's quotation is distorted and taken out of context. For those who want to check, the original can be found at Telesur: “Correa insta a sacar de la pobreza a pueblos ancestrales de América Latina,” Telesurtv, 25 June, 2010. The main point of the paragraph remains, however. There have been tense relations between CONAIE and Correa, and CONAIE does have legitimate grievances.
Global Research Articles by Paul Kellogg
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America Is Now Officially for Sale
It's the Tea Party spirit distilled: pose as the champion of Joe America, while actually ripping him off
by Johann Hari
The laws and policies of the legislature of the United States of America are now effectively on e-Bay, for sale to the highest bidder. Are you a Wall Street boss who wants to party like it's 2007? Are you a Big Coal baron who wants to burn, baby, burn? Are you an insurance company that wants to be able to kick sick people off your rolls? Meet John Boehner, the most powerful Republican and soon-to-be Speaker of the House. But - of course! - you already have.
Here's an example of how you have worked together. In 1995, the House was going to finally repeal subsidies for growing tobacco, because an addictive cancer-causing drug didn't seem like the most deserving recipient of tax-payers' cash - until Boehner walked the floor of the House handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists to his fellow elected representatives. They changed their minds. The subsidy stayed. Explaining his check-dispensing, Boehner says: "It's gone on here for a long time." So get your bids in: the House is open for business.
To understand what has happened in the mid-term elections, the best guide lies in an unexpected place - the dusty vaults of Hollywood. In 1957, Elia Kazan directed a film called ‘A Face In The Crowd' that read the tea-leaves of the Tea Party back when Sarah Palin was merely a frosty zygote. One morning a poor wandering Arkansas chancer named Larry ‘Lonesome' Rhodes is lying passed out on a jail cell where the local sheriff has detained him overnight. A pretty young radio producer arrives and asks if he'd like to tell her a story to be played on her show where ordinary folks speak to ordinary folks. He sings and rambles and offers corn-poke homilies. The clip is a huge hit - and he is soon given his own show, filled with country music and country wisdom which then shoots off into the stratosphere.
When Lonesome Rhodes becomes one of the biggest stars on US television, he starts receiving offers. Advertisers say that if he endorses their lousy products, they'll shower him with millions. He knows how to sell to ordinary people - and he is pushed to go further. They ask him to sell the political causes that will make them richer too. He starts railing against social security and the old age pension and anything that taxes the rich to help the rest. He uses the tunes and slanguage of working class Americans to get them to emotionally identify with the people who are screwing them over. He's brilliant at it - a gurning hyperactive huckster, saying that support and security for ordinary Americans is a betrayal of America. He makes himself rich by lying to the people he came from.
Fast-forward to 2010. John Boehner came from a poor family of twelve children, and heroically worked three jobs (including as a janitor) to put himself through business school. But when he got to elected office, it turned out that there was alot more money to be reaped from serving the interests of rich people than serving the people he came from. He took money from the insurance companies, and voted to deny healthcare coverage to sick children and to the people who hurried to the World Trade Centre on 9/11 to try to dig people from the wreckage, exposing them to deadly toxins. He took money from defense contractors, and supported every war going. He tirelessly champions the overdog, while hoovering up their cash and flying on their private jets to some of the most luxury resorts in the world.
In the campaign, Boehner said his priority was to "stand up for ordinary Americans" against "the elite", and to "cut the deficit as a matter of urgency." So what has been his first priority as Speaker? To fight furiously to keep the gigantic Bush tax cuts for the elite richest two percent of Americans, even though this alone will add two trillion dollars to the deficit over the next decade. It's very revealing. He immediately dumps on his propaganda causes - ordinary Americans, and the deficit - while slavishly serving his one true cause: serving the interests of rich people like the ones who happen to pay for his campaigns and his jaunts.
This is the story of the modern Republican Party. They use the cultural signifiers of the good people of Middle America to get their emotional identification, meanwhile they pillage Middle America and redistribute its wealth to the rich. Sarah Palin is the queen of this cause. She presents herself as a warrior for hockey moms and Momma Grizzlies, while spreading fictions to stop those very people supporting social programs that could save their lives: remember her claim that Obama's healthcare plan involved setting up "death panels" to execute the old and disabled? Her true slogan is Shill, Baby, Shill.
This is all made easy for Republicans by the fact that most of the Democratic Party slithers in the same trough of corruption, begging from the same billionaires and corporations, and so can deliver only a tiny notch more for ordinary Americans. This makes left-liberal ideas look discredited, when in truth they are largely discarded. To name just one: the very high unemployment in the US has been presented by Republicans as proof that economic stimulus doesn't work. But in reality, Obama's stimulus was appallingly small, and was counter-balanced by the fact that the individual states were slashing spending and laying people off. Once you add the two together, there has been no net stimulus in the US economy at all.
The essence of the Tea Party - and the relevance of ‘A Face In The Crowd' - can be seen most plainly in Glenn Beck. Just over a decade ago, he was a drug-taking, pro-abortion, perpetually drunk DJ on morning radio. One of his famous "pranks" was to ring up the wife of a radio-show rival a few days after she had a miscarriage and taunt her about her loss. But then he stumbled into political commentary. After 9/11, Beck began to articulate a blubbery, blubbering hysteria, calling for the shooting of Michael Moore and the poisoning of Nancy Pelosi. He announced that any government program helping ordinary Americans was a step towards "communism", and prophesied: "The country may not survive Barack Obama? If he does fundamentally transform America, we're done. You don't have to worry about a 2012." He shot up to be the second highest rated show in cable news, and assembled hundreds of thousands to a rally on the Mall. At times seems quite conscious of the manipulation: "They're getting so tired of me saying there's a Marxist in the White House, I gotta take it up a notch," he reportedly said to one private audience.
But a few years ago, he began to do something stranger still. He announced that the US was going to experience hyperinflation and savings would be rendered worthless - so his viewers should transfer their cash into gold. But not just any gold. No: Obama was probably going to seize gold bullion and nationalize it, he warned, so they should buy gold coins. "I think people are running out of options on what, you know, could be worth something at all. You have to think like a German Jew, 1934," he said.
Meanwhile, Beck's program on Fox News is sponsored by a company called Goldline that sells gold coins. As it turned out there is no hyperinflation and no Obama plan to seize bullion. Yet Beck's claims - and constant praise for Goldline - have made him and the company considerably richer. The only people who are worse off are Beck's viewers: the investigative journalist Dana Milbank looked at 2008 and calculated that they would have seen a higher return if they had kept their money in cash than in golden coins. A court in Missouri ruled a few years ago that Goldline pressured a woman in her eighties to invest $230,000 in gold coins actually worth half that sum. The Securities and Exchanges Commission are investigating the company, and Senator Anthony Weiner says Beck and other on-air promoters "are either the worst financial advisors around or knowingly lying to their loyal viewers." It's the Tea Party spirit distilled: pose as the champion of Joe America, while ripping him off.
There is, however, one significant difference from ‘A Face In The Crowd'. At the end of the film - spoiler alert - Lonesome Rhodes is finishing a show and, as the end credits roll and the music swells, he rants against his viewers, believing they can't hear him. But in the control box, a producer deliberately flips a switch. Suddenly millions hear him say: "Those morons out there. I'd give ‘em dog food and make ‘em think it's steak. Good night you stupid idiots. Good night you miserable slobs. They're like a bunch of trained seals - I toss ‘em a fish and they lap it up." John Boehner and Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are ridiculing their followers just as crudely. Can't somebody at Fox flip the switch?
© 2010 The Independent
Johann Hari is a columnist for the London Independent. He has reported from Iraq, Israel/Palestine, the Congo, the Central African Republic, Venezuela, Peru and the US, and his journalism has appeared in publications all over the world.
It's the Tea Party spirit distilled: pose as the champion of Joe America, while actually ripping him off
by Johann Hari
The laws and policies of the legislature of the United States of America are now effectively on e-Bay, for sale to the highest bidder. Are you a Wall Street boss who wants to party like it's 2007? Are you a Big Coal baron who wants to burn, baby, burn? Are you an insurance company that wants to be able to kick sick people off your rolls? Meet John Boehner, the most powerful Republican and soon-to-be Speaker of the House. But - of course! - you already have.
Here's an example of how you have worked together. In 1995, the House was going to finally repeal subsidies for growing tobacco, because an addictive cancer-causing drug didn't seem like the most deserving recipient of tax-payers' cash - until Boehner walked the floor of the House handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists to his fellow elected representatives. They changed their minds. The subsidy stayed. Explaining his check-dispensing, Boehner says: "It's gone on here for a long time." So get your bids in: the House is open for business.
To understand what has happened in the mid-term elections, the best guide lies in an unexpected place - the dusty vaults of Hollywood. In 1957, Elia Kazan directed a film called ‘A Face In The Crowd' that read the tea-leaves of the Tea Party back when Sarah Palin was merely a frosty zygote. One morning a poor wandering Arkansas chancer named Larry ‘Lonesome' Rhodes is lying passed out on a jail cell where the local sheriff has detained him overnight. A pretty young radio producer arrives and asks if he'd like to tell her a story to be played on her show where ordinary folks speak to ordinary folks. He sings and rambles and offers corn-poke homilies. The clip is a huge hit - and he is soon given his own show, filled with country music and country wisdom which then shoots off into the stratosphere.
When Lonesome Rhodes becomes one of the biggest stars on US television, he starts receiving offers. Advertisers say that if he endorses their lousy products, they'll shower him with millions. He knows how to sell to ordinary people - and he is pushed to go further. They ask him to sell the political causes that will make them richer too. He starts railing against social security and the old age pension and anything that taxes the rich to help the rest. He uses the tunes and slanguage of working class Americans to get them to emotionally identify with the people who are screwing them over. He's brilliant at it - a gurning hyperactive huckster, saying that support and security for ordinary Americans is a betrayal of America. He makes himself rich by lying to the people he came from.
Fast-forward to 2010. John Boehner came from a poor family of twelve children, and heroically worked three jobs (including as a janitor) to put himself through business school. But when he got to elected office, it turned out that there was alot more money to be reaped from serving the interests of rich people than serving the people he came from. He took money from the insurance companies, and voted to deny healthcare coverage to sick children and to the people who hurried to the World Trade Centre on 9/11 to try to dig people from the wreckage, exposing them to deadly toxins. He took money from defense contractors, and supported every war going. He tirelessly champions the overdog, while hoovering up their cash and flying on their private jets to some of the most luxury resorts in the world.
In the campaign, Boehner said his priority was to "stand up for ordinary Americans" against "the elite", and to "cut the deficit as a matter of urgency." So what has been his first priority as Speaker? To fight furiously to keep the gigantic Bush tax cuts for the elite richest two percent of Americans, even though this alone will add two trillion dollars to the deficit over the next decade. It's very revealing. He immediately dumps on his propaganda causes - ordinary Americans, and the deficit - while slavishly serving his one true cause: serving the interests of rich people like the ones who happen to pay for his campaigns and his jaunts.
This is the story of the modern Republican Party. They use the cultural signifiers of the good people of Middle America to get their emotional identification, meanwhile they pillage Middle America and redistribute its wealth to the rich. Sarah Palin is the queen of this cause. She presents herself as a warrior for hockey moms and Momma Grizzlies, while spreading fictions to stop those very people supporting social programs that could save their lives: remember her claim that Obama's healthcare plan involved setting up "death panels" to execute the old and disabled? Her true slogan is Shill, Baby, Shill.
This is all made easy for Republicans by the fact that most of the Democratic Party slithers in the same trough of corruption, begging from the same billionaires and corporations, and so can deliver only a tiny notch more for ordinary Americans. This makes left-liberal ideas look discredited, when in truth they are largely discarded. To name just one: the very high unemployment in the US has been presented by Republicans as proof that economic stimulus doesn't work. But in reality, Obama's stimulus was appallingly small, and was counter-balanced by the fact that the individual states were slashing spending and laying people off. Once you add the two together, there has been no net stimulus in the US economy at all.
The essence of the Tea Party - and the relevance of ‘A Face In The Crowd' - can be seen most plainly in Glenn Beck. Just over a decade ago, he was a drug-taking, pro-abortion, perpetually drunk DJ on morning radio. One of his famous "pranks" was to ring up the wife of a radio-show rival a few days after she had a miscarriage and taunt her about her loss. But then he stumbled into political commentary. After 9/11, Beck began to articulate a blubbery, blubbering hysteria, calling for the shooting of Michael Moore and the poisoning of Nancy Pelosi. He announced that any government program helping ordinary Americans was a step towards "communism", and prophesied: "The country may not survive Barack Obama? If he does fundamentally transform America, we're done. You don't have to worry about a 2012." He shot up to be the second highest rated show in cable news, and assembled hundreds of thousands to a rally on the Mall. At times seems quite conscious of the manipulation: "They're getting so tired of me saying there's a Marxist in the White House, I gotta take it up a notch," he reportedly said to one private audience.
But a few years ago, he began to do something stranger still. He announced that the US was going to experience hyperinflation and savings would be rendered worthless - so his viewers should transfer their cash into gold. But not just any gold. No: Obama was probably going to seize gold bullion and nationalize it, he warned, so they should buy gold coins. "I think people are running out of options on what, you know, could be worth something at all. You have to think like a German Jew, 1934," he said.
Meanwhile, Beck's program on Fox News is sponsored by a company called Goldline that sells gold coins. As it turned out there is no hyperinflation and no Obama plan to seize bullion. Yet Beck's claims - and constant praise for Goldline - have made him and the company considerably richer. The only people who are worse off are Beck's viewers: the investigative journalist Dana Milbank looked at 2008 and calculated that they would have seen a higher return if they had kept their money in cash than in golden coins. A court in Missouri ruled a few years ago that Goldline pressured a woman in her eighties to invest $230,000 in gold coins actually worth half that sum. The Securities and Exchanges Commission are investigating the company, and Senator Anthony Weiner says Beck and other on-air promoters "are either the worst financial advisors around or knowingly lying to their loyal viewers." It's the Tea Party spirit distilled: pose as the champion of Joe America, while ripping him off.
There is, however, one significant difference from ‘A Face In The Crowd'. At the end of the film - spoiler alert - Lonesome Rhodes is finishing a show and, as the end credits roll and the music swells, he rants against his viewers, believing they can't hear him. But in the control box, a producer deliberately flips a switch. Suddenly millions hear him say: "Those morons out there. I'd give ‘em dog food and make ‘em think it's steak. Good night you stupid idiots. Good night you miserable slobs. They're like a bunch of trained seals - I toss ‘em a fish and they lap it up." John Boehner and Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are ridiculing their followers just as crudely. Can't somebody at Fox flip the switch?
© 2010 The Independent
Johann Hari is a columnist for the London Independent. He has reported from Iraq, Israel/Palestine, the Congo, the Central African Republic, Venezuela, Peru and the US, and his journalism has appeared in publications all over the world.
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Bill, Kevin, I just sent this to The PM of Canada,
Mr. Prime Minister Harper,
As an informed member of the Native American Community in the USA,I am writing to you regarding the removal of Kevin Annett's books from the libraries and universaties in your efforts of so called damage control to keep Canada' s people uninformed about the attrocities your churches, government and law enforcement committed against Native Children. What you have done is to close the barn door after the horse has escaped so to speak. Do you honestly think by removing those books you are going to prevent citizens from learning the truth? Hardly. The words are all over the Internet, radio,book stores here carry the books,They can be ordered on line and the whole world now knows thanks to Kevin's persistance to expose the truth. You can remove the books, destroy the records but those records have been copied and printed in the books. You can run but you can no longer hide as truth will win out. It always does in the end no matter what gag efforts are made to stop it.Your wimpy half baked apology to Native Citizens and your truth and reconsiliation Commission is a joke since the survivors weren't allowed to say anything . When are you going to do the right thing and put some real meat behind your apology? When will you actually do something meaningful and bring to justice to those who were involved in committing these atrocities? Only then can the Native survivors truly begin to heal by seeing the sex offenders and murderers be prosecuted for their crimes. And what about the dead children and their unmarked graves? You and the Churches involved have the records of where these little innocents are buried. Their relatives deserve closure and the choice to have them exhumed and brought home for proper tribal burial or at the very least ,Grave markers put up at your expence in their honor.To expect desperately poor,half starving indigenous people to travel half way across the country to attend your reconciliation farce at their own expence is another atrocity and just proves even further that your efforts are not sincere by any means. It is like putting a bandaid to cover up a major wound that requires surgery and months or years of recovery.Your past efforts at genocide of a whole race of people failed. We are still here, we won't forget what was done and we won't let you, the churches and the RCMP forget either.If you do not begin the process of true justice in this issue, I sure would not want to be you when the Creator gets His hands on you when your passing time comes. Because one way or another justice will be done . It was ok to expose the war criminals involved in the genocide and atrocities committed against the Jewish people during WWII and prosecute those still living so why is it not ok for you to order the same justice for the genocide your country committed in the name of assimilation to the indigenous peoples of your country.
As an informed member of the Native American Community in the USA,I am writing to you regarding the removal of Kevin Annett's books from the libraries and universaties in your efforts of so called damage control to keep Canada' s people uninformed about the attrocities your churches, government and law enforcement committed against Native Children. What you have done is to close the barn door after the horse has escaped so to speak. Do you honestly think by removing those books you are going to prevent citizens from learning the truth? Hardly. The words are all over the Internet, radio,book stores here carry the books,They can be ordered on line and the whole world now knows thanks to Kevin's persistance to expose the truth. You can remove the books, destroy the records but those records have been copied and printed in the books. You can run but you can no longer hide as truth will win out. It always does in the end no matter what gag efforts are made to stop it.Your wimpy half baked apology to Native Citizens and your truth and reconsiliation Commission is a joke since the survivors weren't allowed to say anything . When are you going to do the right thing and put some real meat behind your apology? When will you actually do something meaningful and bring to justice to those who were involved in committing these atrocities? Only then can the Native survivors truly begin to heal by seeing the sex offenders and murderers be prosecuted for their crimes. And what about the dead children and their unmarked graves? You and the Churches involved have the records of where these little innocents are buried. Their relatives deserve closure and the choice to have them exhumed and brought home for proper tribal burial or at the very least ,Grave markers put up at your expence in their honor.To expect desperately poor,half starving indigenous people to travel half way across the country to attend your reconciliation farce at their own expence is another atrocity and just proves even further that your efforts are not sincere by any means. It is like putting a bandaid to cover up a major wound that requires surgery and months or years of recovery.Your past efforts at genocide of a whole race of people failed. We are still here, we won't forget what was done and we won't let you, the churches and the RCMP forget either.If you do not begin the process of true justice in this issue, I sure would not want to be you when the Creator gets His hands on you when your passing time comes. Because one way or another justice will be done . It was ok to expose the war criminals involved in the genocide and atrocities committed against the Jewish people during WWII and prosecute those still living so why is it not ok for you to order the same justice for the genocide your country committed in the name of assimilation to the indigenous peoples of your country.
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RED INK currently has a Call for Submissions for the Spring issue out nextyear. If you're interested in submitting we'd love to hear from you. If youknow others, or have students, relatives, or can post or send to other Natives(on or off the rez, any age) we'd appreciate any help you cangive in getting the word out. There will also be a flier being distributed forthe 20th anniversary Premiere Party andCelebration taking place Friday December 3rd from 630 - 9p at the Arizona StateMuseum here on the University of Arizonacampus in Tucson.All are invited and welcome to attend as we premiere the newest issue focusedon "Renewal" and celebrate the 20 years of success of one of theonly Native Student Run Publications in the country.
Thank you for your help and support.
www.redinkmagazine.com
redink@email.arizona.edu
Please also Follow us on Facebook, Myspace & Twitter
--
Joseph A, Quintana Ramirez
RED INK MAGAZINE, Mng Edtr
Thank you for your help and support.
www.redinkmagazine.com
redink@email.arizona.edu
Please also Follow us on Facebook, Myspace & Twitter
--
Joseph A, Quintana Ramirez
RED INK MAGAZINE, Mng Edtr
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CherokeeLink Newsletter
**************************
For The HTML Format of the Newsletter:
(Having Problems With The Links? Try this version instead.)http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=newsletter&Date=11/8/2010
<BR>AOL - <A HREF="http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=newsletter&Date=11/8/2010 ">11/8/2010 Newsletter</A>
------------------------------------------------------------
Osiyo,
November is American Diabetes Month and the Cherokee Nation is sponsoring several events throughout the month of November including a health fair, community walks, traditional Native games and more. Read the entire story at:http://www.cherokee.org/NewsRoom/FullStory/3393/Page/Default.aspx
Area veterans and their families and friends are invited to Cherokee Nation’s annual Veterans Day ceremony this Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010 at the Warrior’s Memorial east of the main tribal complex building in Tahlequah. You can get the details here: http://www.cherokee.org/NewsRoom/FullStory/3390/Page/Default.aspx
The Cherokee Nation is inviting young Cherokee students to participate in the tribe’s recently developed Cherokee District Children’s Choir program. Choir members must be citizens of the Cherokee Nation to participate. For all the details and a downloadable rehearsal schedule, take a look at the story:http://www.cherokee.org/NewsRoom/FullStory/3383/Page/Default.aspx
Wado! (Thank you)
Cherokee Nation
P.O.Box 948
Tahlequah, OK 74465
918 453-5000
communications@cherokee.org
------------------------------------------------------------
**************************
***Cherokee Nation News***
**************************
Cherokee Nation Sponsoring Community Events for Diabetes Month: 11/3/2010 2:53:00 PM
(C) Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is joining with the American Diabetes Association in sponsoring several events throughout the month of November in recognition of American Diabetes Month, including a health fair, community walks, traditional Native games and more.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.aspx?id=3393
Cherokee Nation College Resource Center Grand Opening: 11/2/2010 10:23:00 AM
(C) Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is launching a new information center for college students with the advent of its new College Resource Center, located in the tribal complex at 17675 S. Muskogee Ave. The public is invited to join Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith and other tribal officials for the College Resource Center’s grand opening at 1 p.m., Wednesday, Nov.10.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.aspx?id=3392
Cherokee Nation Businesses purchases Muskogee-based Mobility Plus: 11/2/2010 8:37:00 AM
(C) Cherokee Nation
Cherokee Nation Businesses has purchased Mobility Plus, a Muskogee, Okla., based supplier of health care equipment and supplies. Mobility Plus employs 70 people in five counties, with offices in Muskogee, Tahlequah, Claremore, Tulsa and McAlester.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.aspx?id=3391
Cherokee Nation Offers New On-the-Job Training Program: 11/1/2010 1:39:00 PM
(C) Cherokee Nation
In response to recession-related layoffs and a high number of dislocated workers, the Cherokee Nation is announcing the start of a new on-the-job training program. The program potentially will benefit both those who are unemployed as well as employers located within the tribe’s 14-county jurisdictional area.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.aspx?id=3388
-----------------------------------------------------------
*********************************
**** Other Links of Interest ****
*********************************
Games - http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=culture&culture=games
Community Calendar - http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=calendar
RSS Feed - http://rss.cherokee.org
Podcasts - http://podcasts.cherokee.org
E-Cards - http://ecards.cherokee.org
------------------------------------------------------------
**************************
**** Cultural Tidbits ****
**************************
1828: Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper and the first bilingual newspaper (Cherokee and English) in the Americas is published in English and Cherokee; Andrew Jackson elected president; gold discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia; Old Settlers are forced to move into Indian Territory.
**************************
For The HTML Format of the Newsletter:
(Having Problems With The Links? Try this version instead.)http://www.cherokee.
<BR>AOL - <A HREF="http://www.cherokee.org/
------------------------------
Osiyo,
November is American Diabetes Month and the Cherokee Nation is sponsoring several events throughout the month of November including a health fair, community walks, traditional Native games and more. Read the entire story at:http://www.cherokee.org/
Area veterans and their families and friends are invited to Cherokee Nation’s annual Veterans Day ceremony this Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010 at the Warrior’s Memorial east of the main tribal complex building in Tahlequah. You can get the details here: http://www.cherokee.org/
The Cherokee Nation is inviting young Cherokee students to participate in the tribe’s recently developed Cherokee District Children’s Choir program. Choir members must be citizens of the Cherokee Nation to participate. For all the details and a downloadable rehearsal schedule, take a look at the story:http://www.cherokee.org/
Wado! (Thank you)
Cherokee Nation
P.O.Box 948
Tahlequah, OK 74465
918 453-5000
communications@cherokee.org
------------------------------
**************************
***Cherokee Nation News***
**************************
Cherokee Nation Sponsoring Community Events for Diabetes Month: 11/3/2010 2:53:00 PM
(C) Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is joining with the American Diabetes Association in sponsoring several events throughout the month of November in recognition of American Diabetes Month, including a health fair, community walks, traditional Native games and more.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.
Cherokee Nation College Resource Center Grand Opening: 11/2/2010 10:23:00 AM
(C) Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is launching a new information center for college students with the advent of its new College Resource Center, located in the tribal complex at 17675 S. Muskogee Ave. The public is invited to join Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith and other tribal officials for the College Resource Center’s grand opening at 1 p.m., Wednesday, Nov.10.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.
Cherokee Nation Businesses purchases Muskogee-based Mobility Plus: 11/2/2010 8:37:00 AM
(C) Cherokee Nation
Cherokee Nation Businesses has purchased Mobility Plus, a Muskogee, Okla., based supplier of health care equipment and supplies. Mobility Plus employs 70 people in five counties, with offices in Muskogee, Tahlequah, Claremore, Tulsa and McAlester.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.
Cherokee Nation Offers New On-the-Job Training Program: 11/1/2010 1:39:00 PM
(C) Cherokee Nation
In response to recession-related layoffs and a high number of dislocated workers, the Cherokee Nation is announcing the start of a new on-the-job training program. The program potentially will benefit both those who are unemployed as well as employers located within the tribe’s 14-county jurisdictional area.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.
------------------------------
******************************
**** Other Links of Interest ****
******************************
Games - http://www.cherokee.org/
Community Calendar - http://www.cherokee.org/
RSS Feed - http://rss.cherokee.org
Podcasts - http://podcasts.cherokee.org
E-Cards - http://ecards.cherokee.org
------------------------------
**************************
**** Cultural Tidbits ****
**************************
1828: Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper and the first bilingual newspaper (Cherokee and English) in the Americas is published in English and Cherokee; Andrew Jackson elected president; gold discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia; Old Settlers are forced to move into Indian Territory.
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Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs downplays despair on reserves
OTTAWA—Great Depression-style unemployment rates, undrinkable water, rotting houses, teen suicides, and varying degrees of despair.
The living standards on Canada’s Indian reserves are plunging further behind the rest of the country.
But John Duncan, minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada doesn’t see it that way.
Leaning forward across a conference table in his sixth floor Ottawa office overlooking Parliament Hill, he says: “I actually think there has been much progress and I am not a pessimist. I think things are moving in a very good direction. I’m quite optimistic.”
Others don’t share Duncan’s optimism.
The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says the situation on many reserves is dire and is renewing his call on Stephen Harper to help come up with a strategy to “move beyond the Indian Act.”
“I’m hopeful that the Prime Minister will respond,” said Shawn Atleo.
“We need to work together. We can’t repeat the mistakes of the past.”
The minister and the national chief’s comments come in the wake of “Broken Peoples, Broken Policy” — a Toronto Star investigation into Canada’s broken Indian Act system. That investigation found a quarter of all First Nations were in financial trouble and that the economic crisis on many Indian reserves has become a meal ticket for the “Indian industry” — an army of consultants, lawyers and accountants who are sucking hundreds of millions of dollars out of First Nations and from federal government coffers.
The Star also found that Indian Affairs’ own staff had ballooned from 3,300 employees in 1995 to more than 5,100 today. This, while Indian Affairs’ own statistics showed the gap in the quality of life between those living on reserves and the rest of Canada is getting worse.
In a telephone interview last week, Atleo said he hoped the expose would reinvigorate his push for a new relationship between Ottawa and the 616 First Nations recognized under the Indian Act.
At the heart of the systemic flaws with the current system is the Indian Act itself, a piece of colonial legislation passed by Parliament in October 1876 as a means to protect, civilize and assimilate the Indian population.
Harry Swain, deputy minister of Indian Affairs during the 1990 Oka crisis, has called the act “a Victorian horror insufficiently updated and now in urgent need of replacement.”
Atleo says the time to move beyond the act is here and now. Though he says he believes the Prime Minister is on board for a major rethinking of the issue, the minister of Indian Affairs has yet to display the kind of vision that Atleo is calling out for.
Duncan, the sixth minister of Indian Affairs in the past decade, sat down with a Star reporter in his Ottawa office Wednesday.
“I’m not a great defender of the Indian Act,” Duncan, who has been minister for three months, said. “No Indian Affairs minister could have a greater legacy than to be the one to say, ‘I got rid of the Indian Act.’
“There’s no consensus (on a) way to get there right now.”
He would not commit to trying to scrap or replace the Indian Act, but said the Harper government is committed to an agenda of reconciliation with the country’s aboriginal population.
“We have bought into the need for reconciliation,” Duncan said. “We know we can’t move forward without doing that.”
That, he says, is in keeping with the report of the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples which concluded that “The main policy direction, pursued for more than 150 years, first by colonial then by Canadian governments, has been wrong.”
In reality, the vast majority of the 400 recommendations put forward by that commission remain unfulfilled.
According to data coming out of Duncan’s ministry, the gap in the community wellbeing between people living on Indian reserves and the rest of Canada is growing.
Asked to comment on the data, the minster said the gap is misleading because not all reserves are being left behind.
Atleo though says focusing on the modest successes of certain Indian Act bands and neglecting the entrenched shortcomings of the Indian Act system detracts from a much needed debate on this country’s Indian policies which have left many bands in third world conditions.
“We can do better than this,” Atleo says.
Nearly $1 billion worth of Indian Affairs $7 billion budget is being used to cover the bureaucracy’s own operating expenses while a further $125 million a year is going to extensions of the Indian industry, something Swain describes as “a well-funded national disgrace.”
Asked to comment on the growing size of his ministry and of the Indian industry, Duncan would not even acknowledge that such an industry exists.
“We have due diligence in a way that has tended to grow our personnel because it takes personnel to do all of those jobs.
“We have to hire specific expertise in order to deal with very special circumstances . . . it costs money.”
In March, the Canadian government said it would take steps to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
That declaration passed in the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, with 144 countries voting in its favour. Partly because of land disputes, Canada voted against the declaration, which sets out human rights standards for indigenous populations around the world.
Duncan would not say when the government expected to actually make the endorsement.
“I think in all seriousness, the UN resolution will be endorsed in the way I describe ‘soon.’ ”
The living standards on Canada’s Indian reserves are plunging further behind the rest of the country.
But John Duncan, minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada doesn’t see it that way.
Leaning forward across a conference table in his sixth floor Ottawa office overlooking Parliament Hill, he says: “I actually think there has been much progress and I am not a pessimist. I think things are moving in a very good direction. I’m quite optimistic.”
Others don’t share Duncan’s optimism.
The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says the situation on many reserves is dire and is renewing his call on Stephen Harper to help come up with a strategy to “move beyond the Indian Act.”
“I’m hopeful that the Prime Minister will respond,” said Shawn Atleo.
“We need to work together. We can’t repeat the mistakes of the past.”
The minister and the national chief’s comments come in the wake of “Broken Peoples, Broken Policy” — a Toronto Star investigation into Canada’s broken Indian Act system. That investigation found a quarter of all First Nations were in financial trouble and that the economic crisis on many Indian reserves has become a meal ticket for the “Indian industry” — an army of consultants, lawyers and accountants who are sucking hundreds of millions of dollars out of First Nations and from federal government coffers.
The Star also found that Indian Affairs’ own staff had ballooned from 3,300 employees in 1995 to more than 5,100 today. This, while Indian Affairs’ own statistics showed the gap in the quality of life between those living on reserves and the rest of Canada is getting worse.
In a telephone interview last week, Atleo said he hoped the expose would reinvigorate his push for a new relationship between Ottawa and the 616 First Nations recognized under the Indian Act.
At the heart of the systemic flaws with the current system is the Indian Act itself, a piece of colonial legislation passed by Parliament in October 1876 as a means to protect, civilize and assimilate the Indian population.
Harry Swain, deputy minister of Indian Affairs during the 1990 Oka crisis, has called the act “a Victorian horror insufficiently updated and now in urgent need of replacement.”
Atleo says the time to move beyond the act is here and now. Though he says he believes the Prime Minister is on board for a major rethinking of the issue, the minister of Indian Affairs has yet to display the kind of vision that Atleo is calling out for.
Duncan, the sixth minister of Indian Affairs in the past decade, sat down with a Star reporter in his Ottawa office Wednesday.
“I’m not a great defender of the Indian Act,” Duncan, who has been minister for three months, said. “No Indian Affairs minister could have a greater legacy than to be the one to say, ‘I got rid of the Indian Act.’
“There’s no consensus (on a) way to get there right now.”
He would not commit to trying to scrap or replace the Indian Act, but said the Harper government is committed to an agenda of reconciliation with the country’s aboriginal population.
“We have bought into the need for reconciliation,” Duncan said. “We know we can’t move forward without doing that.”
That, he says, is in keeping with the report of the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples which concluded that “The main policy direction, pursued for more than 150 years, first by colonial then by Canadian governments, has been wrong.”
In reality, the vast majority of the 400 recommendations put forward by that commission remain unfulfilled.
According to data coming out of Duncan’s ministry, the gap in the community wellbeing between people living on Indian reserves and the rest of Canada is growing.
Asked to comment on the data, the minster said the gap is misleading because not all reserves are being left behind.
Atleo though says focusing on the modest successes of certain Indian Act bands and neglecting the entrenched shortcomings of the Indian Act system detracts from a much needed debate on this country’s Indian policies which have left many bands in third world conditions.
“We can do better than this,” Atleo says.
Nearly $1 billion worth of Indian Affairs $7 billion budget is being used to cover the bureaucracy’s own operating expenses while a further $125 million a year is going to extensions of the Indian industry, something Swain describes as “a well-funded national disgrace.”
Asked to comment on the growing size of his ministry and of the Indian industry, Duncan would not even acknowledge that such an industry exists.
“We have due diligence in a way that has tended to grow our personnel because it takes personnel to do all of those jobs.
“We have to hire specific expertise in order to deal with very special circumstances . . . it costs money.”
In March, the Canadian government said it would take steps to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
That declaration passed in the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, with 144 countries voting in its favour. Partly because of land disputes, Canada voted against the declaration, which sets out human rights standards for indigenous populations around the world.
Duncan would not say when the government expected to actually make the endorsement.
“I think in all seriousness, the UN resolution will be endorsed in the way I describe ‘soon.’ ”
Posted By: TjMaxx Henhawk
To: Members in First Nations & Aboriginal Rights
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Citi: Central Banks Are Going To Start Dumping Dollars In The Coming Weeks
http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-central-bank-reserve-selling-2010-11
Tags:
ECONOMY
QE2 is likely to serve as a reminder to central bank reserve managers that they still have way too many dollars, and that they need to diversify away.
http://www.businessinsider.
Tags:
ECONOMY
QE2 is likely to serve as a reminder to central bank reserve managers that they still have way too many dollars, and that they need to diversify away.
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from the Eagle Watch #87
While an international meeting on biological diversity was taking place in Japan, (see article below),
CNSC sent one of their VP's to Japan to throw in their 2 cents worth of disinformation.
go to this page to pick up the link for the document. some aren't working for me..
http://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/eng/mediacentre/presentations/index.cfm
October 26, 2010
Presentation by Terry Jamieson, Vice-President, Technical Support Branch at the International Conference on Challenges Faced by Technical and Scientific Support Organizations (TSOs) in Enhancing Nuclear Safety and Security (PDF)
During a conference organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Tokyo, Japan, Mr. Jamieson presented the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's (CNSC) perspective on rules of conduct for technical support organizations (TSOs ). The objective of this conference was to develop a common understanding of the responsibilities, needs and opportunities of TSOs, to further promote international cooperation and networking between them to enhance nuclear and radiation safety regulation.
While an international meeting on biological diversity was taking place in Japan, (see article below),
CNSC sent one of their VP's to Japan to throw in their 2 cents worth of disinformation.
go to this page to pick up the link for the document. some aren't working for me..
http://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/
Presentation by Terry Jamieson, Vice-President, Technical Support Branch at the International Conference on Challenges Faced by Technical and Scientific Support Organizations (TSOs) in Enhancing Nuclear Safety and Security (PDF)
During a conference organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Tokyo, Japan, Mr. Jamieson presented the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's (CNSC) perspective on rules of conduct for technical support organizations (TSOs ). The objective of this conference was to develop a common understanding of the responsibilities, needs and opportunities of TSOs, to further promote international cooperation and networking between them to enhance nuclear and radiation safety regulation.
Canada Seeks to Drop Native Peoples from New Biodiversity Pact
By Stephen Leahy
NAGOYA, Japan, Oct 21, 2010 (IPS) - Blame Canada if countries fail to agree to a new binding treaty to curb the rapid loss of plant, animal and species that form the intricate web of life that sustains humanity. That is the view of indigenous representatives from Canada in response to a late night move by the Canadian delegation to strike a reference to indigenous peoples' rights at the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) members' conference here.
"Canada is stalling progress here, weakening our rights and fighting against a legally-binding protocol on access and benefit sharing," said Armand MacKenzie, executive director of the Innu Council of Nitassinan, the indigenous inhabitants in northeastern Canada.
"Their opposition threatens global biodiversity... people need to speak out," MacKenzie told IPS.
A protocol on access and benefit sharing (ABS) without a guarantee of the rights of indigenous people and local communities "would be totally void", said Paulino Franco de Carvalho, head of the Brazilian delegation.
"Brazil will not accept any agreement on biodiversity without a fair ABS protocol.... We are not bluffing on that, I must be very clear," Franco de Carvalho said in a press conference.
An ABS protocol is one of the three legs of the CBD "stool" - a new international agreement to halt the loss of biodiversity. The second leg is a strategic plan with 20 specific targets to be achieved by 2020, such as no net deforestation and the elimination of harmful subsidies. The third is the mobilisation of sufficient financial and other resources to support the other two.
ABS refers to way in which the genetic material in plants, animals and microbes can be used for food, medicines, industrial products, cosmetics and other goods. The use of such materials owes a great deal to the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples. Access refers to how such genetic material is obtained, and benefit sharing means how the benefits, financial and otherwise, of their use are distributed.
Indigenous peoples say they are holders or caretakers of much of the world's biodiversity and traditional knowledge, and omitting references to that reality is a non-starter for them and most countries.
"The Canadian government has been undermining the human rights of the world's indigenous peoples since 2006, at home and internationally," said Paul Joffe representing the Grand Council of the Crees, a large indigenous nation in central Canada.
Canadian indigenous representatives have expressed their views to the Canadian delegation but the Canadian government position is that there can be no reference to the rights of indigenous people in the final ABS protocol, Joffe told IPS.
"The government never consulted with us. It came as a complete surprise," he said.
Few indigenous representatives are in attendance because Canada and many other governments do not provide financial assistance so that they can attend the conference as observers. Indigenous peoples have no official role here and can only offer their views when requested.
"We are at the mercy of state governments," said Ellen Gabriel, president of the Quebec Native Women Association. "Indigenous people are utterly dependent on biodiversity for their livelihoods."
Gabriel calls what Canada is doing a "new form of colonialism".
"We are the peoples with the rights to the genetic resources of biodiversity," she said.
Canada's position reflects an ideology and is a political decision made by the current government in the capital of Ottawa, says Joffe. At previous international meetings, Canada has been widely if quietly called "obstructionist". At the Copenhagen climate talks last December, international civil society gave Canada the "Colossal Fossil Award" for worst behaviour at those negotiations.
Not surprisingly, many United Nations member states declined to support Canada in its bid to get a highly prized seat at the Security Council earlier this month.
Joffe maintains this negotiation is simply politics for Canada's government and it will take political and public pressure on the Stephen Harper government. However, at this point there are no Canadian media in Nagoya nor are any registered, according to organisers.
For his part, Brazil's Franco de Carvalho is optimistic an ABS agreement can be reached by the end of next week at the conference conclusion when more than 120 ministers of the environment are expected to be in Nagoya to sign a new international agreement.
"I think we could find a good result," he said.
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Redbird Toy Drive featuring Blue Star
December 4, 2010 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Simi Valley Library Community Room
2969 Tapo Canyon Road, Simi Valley, CA 93062
Special Presentations!!!
12 p.m. Blue Star - The Origin Story
Blue star will share their songs, and the unique and touching story of their own origins and history with the Lakota people
2 p.m. The Forest Recovery Project
A chronology of the regeneration of the Angeles National Forest in the wake of the Station fire
Two announcements are attached - one specific to Blue Star and one general flier suitable for the public. Your help in distributing these is appreciated - as Blue Star is a humble drum, they'll need their fan club to help promote them. We hope you will help us spread the word even if you don't plan on coming.
Hoping to see you there!
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Subject: Ponemah Veteran's Powwow POSTPONED until 11/19/2010
Due to a death in the community, the Ponemah Veteran's Powwow scheduled this weekend will be re-scheduled for the following weekend, Friday evening @7pm, Nov. 19, and continuing Sturday and Sunday, the 20,21. Miigwetch.
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Breaking News:
The Censorship Continues:
Hidden from History Books Systematically Destroyed across Canada
Montreal, November 3, 2010:
Copies of the historic book Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust have disappeared this week from the libraries at McGill and Concordia Universities, and from local aboriginal resource centers, following on a similar disappearance of the book from the Vancouver Public Library and the University of B.C. Library system during October.
Librarians have not provided any clear reason how the books vanished so easily and quickly.
Hidden from History is the primary resource book that documents the evidence of the deliberate genocide of native people in church-run Indian residential schools across Canada. Published in 2005, its 500 pages contain documents, death records, official correspondence and eyewitness testimonies that prove a fifty percent death rate in the schools, and a clear intent by church and state to wipe out indigenous populaces under the guide of education and religion.
The disappearance of the books coincides with the sudden and unilateral banning without cause of Kevin Annett, the book's author, from his decade-long public affairs program on Vancouver Co-op radio, after apparent RCMP intervention.
"This is hardly a coincidence" commented Kevin today in Vancouver.
"In 2008, the government admitted they employed document destruction teams during the 1970's and '80's to systematically destroy residential school records. I believe those teams are still in existence, and are continuing to wipe the truth of our crimes from our collective memory. My information indicates that the RCMP and CSIS operatives are behind this action.
"This makes it all the more necessary for our efforts to expand. This next week, I will therefore be posting the new and updated version of Hidden from History on a special website, and will publish it in 'e book' form on the internet, to allow its dissemination to millions of people.
"This new edition is entitled 'Hidden No Longer: Genocide in Canada, Past and Present'. Among other things, it contains new evidence that Anglican church missionaries spread smallpox disease through inoculations among west coast Indians in 1864, to allow the Church, Crown and Hudson's Bay Company to grab land of the Chilcotin and other Indian nations.
"It also documents evidence of RCMP involvement in the murder of aboriginal women today on the west coast of Canada.
"It also documents evidence of RCMP involvement in the murder of aboriginal women today on the west coast of Canada.
"This is some of the evidence we will be presenting in April, 2011 at the opening session of The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State in london, England."
Copies of the new book can be ordered from Kevin Annett through his new email address:hiddenfromhistory1@gmail.com . For more information see:
"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."--Thomas Paine, "The Age Of Reason"
Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada, past and present, at this website: www.
UNREPENTANT: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide
- Winner, Best Foreign Documentary Film, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, March 2007, Best Director of a Foreign Documentary, New York Independent Film Festival, October 2006
- Winner, Best Canadian Film, Creation Aboriginal Film Festival, Edmonton, 2009
"As a long time front line worker with the Elders' Council at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, I stand behind what Kevin Annett is trying to do for our people. The genocide that continues today and which stemmed from the residential schools needs to be exposed. Kevin Annett helps break the silence, and brings the voice of our people all over the world."
Carol Muree Martin - Spirit Tree Woman
Nisgaa Nation
"I gave Kevin Annett his Indian name, Eagle Strong Voice, in 2004 when I adopted him into our Anishinabe Nation. He carries that name proudly because he is doing the job he was sent to do, to tell his people of their wrongs. He speaks strongly and with truth. He speaks for our stolen and murdered children. I ask everyone to listen to him and welcome him."
Chief Louis Daniels - Whispers Wind
Elder, Turtle Clan, Anishinabe Nation
Winnipeg, Manitoba
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Looming Medicare cuts "catastrophic" for seniors
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/08/looming-medicare-cuts-catastrophic-seniors/
Tags:
SCIENCE/HEALTH/CLIMATE/NATURE
Looming cuts in Medicare payments to doctors could cause a “catastrophic” drop in health care services to seniors unless Congress approves a 13-month, $15.4 billion temporary fix this month, the president of the American Medical Association said Monday in San Diego.
The pay cut scheduled to take effect Dec. 1 would reduce Medicare physician payments by 23 percent for the rest of the year and an additional 1.9 percent beginning in January.
If the cuts are implemented, some doctors may be forced to limit the number of Medicare patients they see or face going out of business, said AMA President Dr. Cecil Wilson.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Any society, on a moral level, is ultimately judged by how they treat the most vulnerable members of that society; the elderly, the physically infirm, and infants.
Time and time again, the US government throws these people under the bus of bad policy decisions, and people - literally - die as the result.
In Switzerland, everyone is required to buy a very basic health insurance: insurance companies make their money by selling more elaborate policies, and no one in Switzerland is uninsured, and everyone gets health care. Care is matched completely to the need of the patient. This makes sense, the government isn't strapped to pay for the care, and the insurance companies make money.
Why couldn't this well be the model for American health care, because the Swiss system actually works! ?!?
http://www.signonsandiego.com/
Tags:
SCIENCE/HEALTH/CLIMATE/NATURE
Looming cuts in Medicare payments to doctors could cause a “catastrophic” drop in health care services to seniors unless Congress approves a 13-month, $15.4 billion temporary fix this month, the president of the American Medical Association said Monday in San Diego.
The pay cut scheduled to take effect Dec. 1 would reduce Medicare physician payments by 23 percent for the rest of the year and an additional 1.9 percent beginning in January.
If the cuts are implemented, some doctors may be forced to limit the number of Medicare patients they see or face going out of business, said AMA President Dr. Cecil Wilson.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Any society, on a moral level, is ultimately judged by how they treat the most vulnerable members of that society; the elderly, the physically infirm, and infants.
Time and time again, the US government throws these people under the bus of bad policy decisions, and people - literally - die as the result.
In Switzerland, everyone is required to buy a very basic health insurance: insurance companies make their money by selling more elaborate policies, and no one in Switzerland is uninsured, and everyone gets health care. Care is matched completely to the need of the patient. This makes sense, the government isn't strapped to pay for the care, and the insurance companies make money.
Why couldn't this well be the model for American health care, because the Swiss system actually works! ?!?
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Cheyenne River folks still wondering where the money went after severe winter storm
EAGLE BUTTE, S.D. – The severe winter happened in January this year and people are still wondering where the donated money went.
During the week of Jan. 20-26 the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was hit with a winter ice storm that caused a reservation wide blackout. Then during the week of June 16-24 the reservation was hit again suffering one of the worst storms, devastating tornadoes, and flooding the area had seen in years. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stepped in and the reservation was designated as disaster area and became eligible for disaster relief monies.
During the first disaster, when ice covered most of Northwestern South Dakota and downed thousands of power lines, countless members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe were left stranded without water, power, food and heat.
The Tribal Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty declared a state of emergency and immediately began relief efforts and set up the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Storm Relief Emergency Assistance Organization.
“The Tribe has depleted its emergency budget with the two blizzards that already hit the reservation since December. It needs funds to help buy food and supplies for the community and volunteers, to pay for gas and overtime for the workers, to replace the motor at the water pump station that was destroyed, etc. Any financial donations are much appreciated. The Tribe is also trying to set up on-line donations but that may take some time,” Brings Plenty said in a press release.
Internet sites calling for disaster relief were set up including one on Facebook at: http://www.causes.com/crst2010disasterrelief .
Stories went out on Huffington Post, Char-Koosta News a publication of the Flathead Indian Nation, OregonLive.com, MSNBC, Native Sun News, The Cherokee One Feather, Native American Times and countless other news sources asking for disaster relief and assistance to meet the needs of the isolated communities.
Native Americans in Philanthropy set up a $25,000 match from the Archibald Bush Foundation, and accepted donations on behalf of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. You could visit their page on the GiveMN.org website and give online donations athttp://givemn.razoo.com/story/Cheyenne-River-Tribe-Storm-Relief-Emergency-Assistance . More information was available atwww.sioux.org/English/CRST_2010_Disaster_Relief.php .
“Countdown” viewers raised $185,000 in 24 hours after host Keith Olbermann appealed on behalf of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Storm Relief Emergency Assistance, an organization meant to help what Olbermann described as a “humanitarian crisis at home.”
“Two weeks ago, the reservations of the Dakotas were hit by blizzards and ice storms. Twenty five hundred utility poles fell. Electricity and water, and, thus, heat and light, were cut off. And dozens are still cut off,” he said. And the government has done next to nothing for the Native Americans, who, on a nice sunny spring day there, still face unemployment of 85 percent. Doing nothing for these people is an American tradition since at least 1776. I mentioned this in worst’s last night, and many viewers advised us they were horrified. It’s not Haiti. It’s not three million people affected. It’s more like 50,000. And it’s 450 miles away from St. Paul, Minnesota.”
The next day Olbermann reported to his viewers, “You overwhelm me, as usual. Last night, continuing our coverage of the humanitarian crisis on the ice storm and blizzard-ravaged reservations of South Dakota, I mentioned the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Storm Relief Emergency Assistance Fund and we linked to it. They were hoping by the end of the month to have raised $35,000. In 24 hours, you donated approximately $185,000. They thank you and I thank you. Every time I feel the futility of not knowing what to do about one of these crises, I forget to ask the most reliable people I know: you guys.”
However on May 25 during a District 5 council meeting CRST member E.J. Bruguier asked for accountability of the donated money. He complained that he had heard that much of the donated money had been divvied up between volunteers many of whom had been on administrative leave. He called for a resolution from District 5 to make public a list who had received money and how much.
“I heard some of the volunteers received $7,000 and that even some of the council members got money,” Bruguier said. “I helped haul wood for people and I didn’t get anything.”
District 5 Councilman Derek Bartlett spoke up and said that although he volunteered during the storm he refused to accept any of the donated money. He also demanded the list be made public.
A resolution was called for and passed by District 5 to have the list made public.
However, according to CRST District 5 member Robert Chasing Hawk, it was never taken before the CRST council.
“They have not discussed any district resolutions, they are all collecting dust and that district resolution has never been on the floor yet,” Chasing Hawk said. “There is no accountability of $950,000.”
Then during the week of June 16-24 more than 14 tornadoes tore through the area nearly wiping out the town of Dupree, destroying numerous farms and trailer homes and Chasing Hawk said the donated money was gone.
FEMA stepped in and is currently in the process of replacing many of the homes that were destroyed with trailer homes and is paying for the set up costs.
However according to Bartlett who is vying with Kevin Keckler for the chairmanship of the tribe there has not yet been accountability for the money collected during the first disaster.
According to Chasing Hawk members of the tribe still want to know where the money went.
Bartlett agrees, “We are still trying to get this report but administration won’t release it. They are not telling us anything.
There are still sites up on the internet asking for donations.
(Contact Ernestine Chasing Hawk at:staffwriter@nsweekly.com)
During the week of Jan. 20-26 the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was hit with a winter ice storm that caused a reservation wide blackout. Then during the week of June 16-24 the reservation was hit again suffering one of the worst storms, devastating tornadoes, and flooding the area had seen in years. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stepped in and the reservation was designated as disaster area and became eligible for disaster relief monies.
During the first disaster, when ice covered most of Northwestern South Dakota and downed thousands of power lines, countless members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe were left stranded without water, power, food and heat.
The Tribal Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty declared a state of emergency and immediately began relief efforts and set up the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Storm Relief Emergency Assistance Organization.
“The Tribe has depleted its emergency budget with the two blizzards that already hit the reservation since December. It needs funds to help buy food and supplies for the community and volunteers, to pay for gas and overtime for the workers, to replace the motor at the water pump station that was destroyed, etc. Any financial donations are much appreciated. The Tribe is also trying to set up on-line donations but that may take some time,” Brings Plenty said in a press release.
Internet sites calling for disaster relief were set up including one on Facebook at: http://www.causes.com/
Stories went out on Huffington Post, Char-Koosta News a publication of the Flathead Indian Nation, OregonLive.com, MSNBC, Native Sun News, The Cherokee One Feather, Native American Times and countless other news sources asking for disaster relief and assistance to meet the needs of the isolated communities.
Native Americans in Philanthropy set up a $25,000 match from the Archibald Bush Foundation, and accepted donations on behalf of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. You could visit their page on the GiveMN.org website and give online donations athttp://givemn.razoo.com/
“Countdown” viewers raised $185,000 in 24 hours after host Keith Olbermann appealed on behalf of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Storm Relief Emergency Assistance, an organization meant to help what Olbermann described as a “humanitarian crisis at home.”
“Two weeks ago, the reservations of the Dakotas were hit by blizzards and ice storms. Twenty five hundred utility poles fell. Electricity and water, and, thus, heat and light, were cut off. And dozens are still cut off,” he said. And the government has done next to nothing for the Native Americans, who, on a nice sunny spring day there, still face unemployment of 85 percent. Doing nothing for these people is an American tradition since at least 1776. I mentioned this in worst’s last night, and many viewers advised us they were horrified. It’s not Haiti. It’s not three million people affected. It’s more like 50,000. And it’s 450 miles away from St. Paul, Minnesota.”
The next day Olbermann reported to his viewers, “You overwhelm me, as usual. Last night, continuing our coverage of the humanitarian crisis on the ice storm and blizzard-ravaged reservations of South Dakota, I mentioned the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Storm Relief Emergency Assistance Fund and we linked to it. They were hoping by the end of the month to have raised $35,000. In 24 hours, you donated approximately $185,000. They thank you and I thank you. Every time I feel the futility of not knowing what to do about one of these crises, I forget to ask the most reliable people I know: you guys.”
However on May 25 during a District 5 council meeting CRST member E.J. Bruguier asked for accountability of the donated money. He complained that he had heard that much of the donated money had been divvied up between volunteers many of whom had been on administrative leave. He called for a resolution from District 5 to make public a list who had received money and how much.
“I heard some of the volunteers received $7,000 and that even some of the council members got money,” Bruguier said. “I helped haul wood for people and I didn’t get anything.”
District 5 Councilman Derek Bartlett spoke up and said that although he volunteered during the storm he refused to accept any of the donated money. He also demanded the list be made public.
A resolution was called for and passed by District 5 to have the list made public.
However, according to CRST District 5 member Robert Chasing Hawk, it was never taken before the CRST council.
“They have not discussed any district resolutions, they are all collecting dust and that district resolution has never been on the floor yet,” Chasing Hawk said. “There is no accountability of $950,000.”
Then during the week of June 16-24 more than 14 tornadoes tore through the area nearly wiping out the town of Dupree, destroying numerous farms and trailer homes and Chasing Hawk said the donated money was gone.
FEMA stepped in and is currently in the process of replacing many of the homes that were destroyed with trailer homes and is paying for the set up costs.
However according to Bartlett who is vying with Kevin Keckler for the chairmanship of the tribe there has not yet been accountability for the money collected during the first disaster.
According to Chasing Hawk members of the tribe still want to know where the money went.
Bartlett agrees, “We are still trying to get this report but administration won’t release it. They are not telling us anything.
There are still sites up on the internet asking for donations.
(Contact Ernestine Chasing Hawk at:staffwriter@nsweekly.com)
Firefly (Lilia Adecer Cajilog)
Tawo Seed Carrier
POB 1456
South Pasadena, CA 91031
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POLICE 'personal' drones can stalk anyone from Brangelina to your own child
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:13 PM on 8th November 2010
Last updated at 1:13 PM on 8th November 2010
They could put your mind at ease - or do very much the opposite.
A new arms race is on and it could change everything from the way we parent to how we get our celebrity gossip.
For the technology currently being used by the CIA to ferret out terrorist leaders in the hills of Pakistan is set to arrive in a neighbourhood near you - and there's nowhere to hide.
Coming to a sky near you? A remote CCTV camera drone circles in the sky during a political rally in Britain last year. Drones are set to play a large part in the future of policing - but could they affect our personal lives also?
Personal drones - smaller, private versions of the infamous Predator - are the next hot technology for people looking to track celebrities, cheating lovers, or even wildlife.
And it could be a dream tool for the paparazzi, named after the Italian for buzzing mosquitoes.
Now the metaphor is coming to life. Several personal drones are scheduled for completion next year.
A police constable in Liverpool tries out the force's new remote-controlled UAV. Liverpool police have already used such drones to make at least one arrest
The officer can see from the drone's perspective using a special pair of goggles
Already in the UK police are using drones to track thieves. In February, the Air Robot was deployed by Merseyside police after officers lost an alleged car thief who had escaped on foot in thick fog.
Similar concepts are already being developed in the U.S.
'If the Israelis can use them to find terrorists, certainly a husband is going to be able to track a wife who goes out at 11 o'clock at night and follow her,' New York divorce lawyer Raoul Felder told the Journal.
The technology is swiftly moving beyond military and even police circles - already unmanned aircraft that can fly predetermined routes cost just a few hundred dollars and can be operated by an iPhone.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and former Navy fighter pilot Missy Cummings is working to develop a 'Personal Sentry' drone about the size of a pizza box that warns soldiers if danger is approaching from behind.
But, she said, 'that military stuff is kind of passe'.
'It doesn't take a rocket scientist from MIT to tell you if we can do it for a soldier in the field, we can do it for anybody.'
She told the Wall Street Journal that she could use such technology to follow her young child on the way to school by planting an electronic bug in her lunch box or backpack.
'It would bring a whole new meaning to the term hover parent,' she said.
The FAA has not approved the use of personal drones just yet. But a spokesman said the agency is working with private industry on standards that could allow the broader use of drones.
Grey areas already exist, however - particularly with the recreational use of drones.
There are no regulations governing recreational drone use. Instead the FAA recommends - emphasis on 'recommends' - such drones be flown away from populated areas, from aeroplanes, below a certain altitude and so on.
And if people claim their drones are for personal use, that could theoretically get around many FAA regulations.
So while the military has to follow rules of engagement regarding drone use, there is - as yet - no similar set of rules regarding privacy for domestic use of drones.
'If everybody had enough money to buy one of these things, we could all be wandering around with little networks of vehicles flying over our heads spying on us,' Ms Cummings said.
'It really opens up a whole new Pandora's Box of: What does it mean to have privacy?'
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BP Successfully Disposed of the Oil ... In the Gulf Food Chain
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/11/bp-successfully-disposed-of-oil-in-gulf.html
Tags:
GULF OIL DISASTER
HIDDEN HISTORY
SCIENCE/HEALTH/CLIMATE/NATURE
Recently declassified government documents have shed new light on the decades-old debate over the fluoridation of drinking water, and have added to a growing body of scientific evidence concerning the health effects of fluoride. Much of the original evidence about fluoride, which suggested it was safe for human consumption in low doses, was actually generated by “Manhattan Project” scientists in the 1940s. As it turns out, these officials were ordered by government powers to provide information that would be “useful in litigation” and that would obfuscate its improper handling and disposal. The once top-secret documents, say the authors, reveal that vast quantities of fluoride, one of the most toxic substances known, were required for the production of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium.
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The Video NOAA and The FDA Are Afraid You’ll Watch. Lab Finds 193 ppm Oil in Gulf Shrimp
http://dprogram.net/2010/11/08/the-video-noaa-and-the-fda-are-afraid-you%e2%80%99ll-watch-lab-finds-193-ppm-oil-in-gulf-shrimp/
Posted by sakerfa on November 8th, 2010(ProjectGulfImpact) – Seafood Testing Reveals 193 parts per million of “Oil & Grease” in Shrimp from Venice LA. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov 08 17:52
Testing the Waters reports a Siesta Key GOM sample with 173 ppm of BP’s Oil (Macondo Prospect)
http://phoenixrisingfromthegulf.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/testing-the-waters-reports-a-siesta-key-gom-sample-with-173-ppm-of-bps-oil-macondo-prospect/
Tags:
GULF OIL DISASTER
What makes this finding so extraordinary is that it came from a citizens’ initiative -TESTING THE WATERS – which was formed by Gulf Coast residents who simply want to know if their beaches are oil free, the water is clean enough to swim in, and the seafood is safe to eat.
Isn’t this what government is supposed to do? Test the water! They test it for everything else, and yet getting regular testing like this done seems to take an act of GOD.
http://www.washingtonsblog.
Tags:
GULF OIL DISASTER
HIDDEN HISTORY
SCIENCE/HEALTH/CLIMATE/NATURE
Recently declassified government documents have shed new light on the decades-old debate over the fluoridation of drinking water, and have added to a growing body of scientific evidence concerning the health effects of fluoride. Much of the original evidence about fluoride, which suggested it was safe for human consumption in low doses, was actually generated by “Manhattan Project” scientists in the 1940s. As it turns out, these officials were ordered by government powers to provide information that would be “useful in litigation” and that would obfuscate its improper handling and disposal. The once top-secret documents, say the authors, reveal that vast quantities of fluoride, one of the most toxic substances known, were required for the production of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium.
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The Video NOAA and The FDA Are Afraid You’ll Watch. Lab Finds 193 ppm Oil in Gulf Shrimp
http://dprogram.net/2010/11/
Posted by sakerfa on November 8th, 2010(ProjectGulfImpact) – Seafood Testing Reveals 193 parts per million of “Oil & Grease” in Shrimp from Venice LA. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov 08 17:52
Testing the Waters reports a Siesta Key GOM sample with 173 ppm of BP’s Oil (Macondo Prospect)
http://
Tags:
GULF OIL DISASTER
What makes this finding so extraordinary is that it came from a citizens’ initiative -TESTING THE WATERS – which was formed by Gulf Coast residents who simply want to know if their beaches are oil free, the water is clean enough to swim in, and the seafood is safe to eat.
Isn’t this what government is supposed to do? Test the water! They test it for everything else, and yet getting regular testing like this done seems to take an act of GOD.
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State lines up witnesses in sweat lodge hearing
Nov. 9, 2010
Defense attorney Luis Li, left, hands a document to Amayra Hamilton during an evidentiary hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010 in Camp Verde, Ariz. The hearing was held in the case of motivational speaker James Arthur Ray, who faces manslaughter charges stemming from a 2009 sweat lodge ceremony he led.
CAMP VERDE, Ariz. — A man who tended to a fire for sweat lodge ceremonies led by motivational speaker James Arthur Ray said Tuesday that Ray and his staff pressured participants to remain inside the structure more so last year than in the previous two years.
But in questioning from a defense attorney, Ted Mercer agreed that Ray and his team weren't abusive in their encouragement of the dozens of people who attended, nor did Ray physically force anyone to be in the sweat lodge.
Prosecutors are relying on the testimony of Mercer and five other witnesses to show that Ray acted recklessly in conducting sweat lodge ceremonies for several years at a retreat he rented near Sedona.
Ray has pleaded not guilty to three counts of manslaughter stemming from the October 2009 event that resulted in the deaths of three people.
Three of six witnesses for the prosecution testified Tuesday in a hearing that will determine whether evidence from ceremonies Ray led between 2003 and 2008 will be admissible at his trial that's scheduled to begin in February.
"I believe we can prove this state of recklessness only by the jury considering what happened before," said Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk.
Defense attorney Tom Kelly compared Ray's case to someone who is facing manslaughter charges in a reckless driving incident, and questioned whether prosecutors could call witnesses to testify about the driving history.
"Clearly the answer is no, because it is incumbent on the state of Arizona to prove Mr. Ray's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt which existed in October 2009 and not simply that he's a bad person because these people got sick," Kelly said.
Ray's attorneys have said the deaths are tragic accidents, not criminal acts.
The hearing continues Wednesday with testimony from Mercer's wife, two sweat lodge participants and a sheriff's detective.
The Mercers were stationed outside sweat lodges that Ray led from 2007-2009, tending to heated rocks and sending them through a flap and into the center of the sweat lodge. Ray then would pour water of the rocks, sending steam rushing through the structure in a ceremony typically used by American Indians to cleanse the body.
Ted Mercer said he saw more and more people in distress over the years, including a man who thought he was having a heart attack, people whose eyes were rolled back, a woman who went into convulsions and others who couldn't say who or where they were after exiting the sweat lodge.
"It always concerned me when people were coming out landing in the dirt face first and you would have to drag them away from the door," he said.
Defense attorney Luis Li repeatedly flashed pictures on an overhead projector of participants smiling, being hosed off with water and flashing their biceps, asking if those were some of the same people that Mercer said were distressed.
"When they were in distress, we weren't taking pictures, we were helping them," Mercer said. "A lot of these people come around."
Amayra Hamilton, the co-owner of the retreat where Ray held the sweat lodge ceremonies, testified that Ray wanted the lodges increasingly bigger and hotter over the years and shot down suggestions that separate ceremonies be conducted for larger groups.
Hamilton called 911 in 2005 in response to a man she said was spiritually disconnected from his body but physically was able to move, and later said he enjoyed the experience. Hamilton said a woman in 2009 exhibited the same type of behavior.
Li said Ray responded to the 2005 incident by limiting the number of rounds, holding the ceremony in daylight and setting up a recovery station for participants. He suggested any problems with the sweat lodge were the fault of those who built them and provided the materials for them.
"I'm not telling you it's anybody's fault," Hamilton responded. "That's up to the judge and the jury."
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Firefly (Lilia Adecer Cajilog) Tawo Seed Carrier POB 1456 South Pasadena, CA 91031 |
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"When crazy people call you crazy, you know you're sane.
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