What would America do with an honest to god politician? One that would admit in front of his or her voting public that they actually use speech writers and would take them up on the platform with them.
My fellow citizens of (fill in state here) I am here today to talk to you about the pressing problem of (fill in pressing problem here) that is crippling our state. Now these speech writers of mine and with some help from myself have come up with a speech I think you will find helpful. We’re going to present some ideas here today to try and open a dialogue. What does that mean? Well, we’re going to give the newspapers something to write about and the television news something to fill their airtime with. What does this mean to you? You’ll vote whichever way you were going to already, oh maybe we’ll change a few minds but really most of you have made your minds up already.
Now we’ve picked Roy here out of the speechwriters because Roy looks the best on camera. I didn’t write very much of this speech so I am not going to stand up here and take the credit for these ideas. But being an outside event Roy and I will take off our jackets, these expensive suit jackets here and roll up our sleeves because we want to look sympathetic to all of you hardworking voters out there.
Roy begins the speech but not one newspaper writes about the speech or television station includes a sound bite of the speech just the remarks of the candidate. Now, would this kind of candor make it in American politics, probably not? You can’t be completely honest in politics, not and get away with it.
- Chris Mansel
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Wal-Mart To Shrink Options For New Hires Health Care
By Ylan Q. Mui and Amy JoyceWashington Post Staff WritersWednesday, September 27, 2006; D03
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is scaling back the health-care plans available to new employees, sparking fresh criticism over whether the giant retailer is providing adequate coverage to its workers.
As of Jan. 1, the company will offer new hires only two health benefits packages in which the monthly premium can be as low as $11 but the deductible can reach $6,000, according to documents provided to The Washington Post by Wake-Up Wal-Mart, a union-backed group.
The company's two other benefit plans, which have lower deductibles, will no longer be offered to new employees. However, the plans will remain available to current employees who choose to renew their coverage.
Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman said yesterday that he expected the change to save most employees money. He said a review of the company's health-benefits plans showed most had opted for a package with a monthly premiums between $70 and $100, and a $350 deductible, but that more than half never paid that much.
That drove the decision to require new hires to sign up for Wal-Mart's new plans that have lower monthly payments but higher deductibles. The option known as the "value plan" starts at $11 per month for employee coverage in some markets and has a $1,000 deductible. The "freedom plan" starts at about $17 per month for employee coverage but has a deductible of $3,000 and the option to create a health savings account. The cheapest monthly cost for an employee and his or her spouse is $38 with a deductible of $6,000.
"We've done the math on this, and we have a pretty good understanding of what this is going to mean," Fogleman said. "Most associates are going to come out better on this."
Wake-Up Wal-Mart disagrees. It has accused the company of depressing wages and benefits, forcing many of its workers to seek public health care.
"Wal-Mart is cruelly hurting its employees, cutting health-care options and shifting costs on to the American taxpayer," said Paul Blank, campaign director for Wake-Up Wal-Mart.
Paul Fronstin, director of health research and education at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, said the new Wal-Mart changes look "pretty standard." But he noted that a biweekly increase in a surcharge from $50 to $75 for spouses who have access to other medical coverage seemed high.
"There is always shifting going on, and it tends to be modest at best. It might be that way here as well," he said.
Fogleman said that about 615,000 employees are covered by the company, about 47 percent of its workforce, and Wal-Mart is working to expand that number.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is scaling back the health-care plans available to new employees, sparking fresh criticism over whether the giant retailer is providing adequate coverage to its workers.
As of Jan. 1, the company will offer new hires only two health benefits packages in which the monthly premium can be as low as $11 but the deductible can reach $6,000, according to documents provided to The Washington Post by Wake-Up Wal-Mart, a union-backed group.
The company's two other benefit plans, which have lower deductibles, will no longer be offered to new employees. However, the plans will remain available to current employees who choose to renew their coverage.
Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman said yesterday that he expected the change to save most employees money. He said a review of the company's health-benefits plans showed most had opted for a package with a monthly premiums between $70 and $100, and a $350 deductible, but that more than half never paid that much.
That drove the decision to require new hires to sign up for Wal-Mart's new plans that have lower monthly payments but higher deductibles. The option known as the "value plan" starts at $11 per month for employee coverage in some markets and has a $1,000 deductible. The "freedom plan" starts at about $17 per month for employee coverage but has a deductible of $3,000 and the option to create a health savings account. The cheapest monthly cost for an employee and his or her spouse is $38 with a deductible of $6,000.
"We've done the math on this, and we have a pretty good understanding of what this is going to mean," Fogleman said. "Most associates are going to come out better on this."
Wake-Up Wal-Mart disagrees. It has accused the company of depressing wages and benefits, forcing many of its workers to seek public health care.
"Wal-Mart is cruelly hurting its employees, cutting health-care options and shifting costs on to the American taxpayer," said Paul Blank, campaign director for Wake-Up Wal-Mart.
Paul Fronstin, director of health research and education at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, said the new Wal-Mart changes look "pretty standard." But he noted that a biweekly increase in a surcharge from $50 to $75 for spouses who have access to other medical coverage seemed high.
"There is always shifting going on, and it tends to be modest at best. It might be that way here as well," he said.
Fogleman said that about 615,000 employees are covered by the company, about 47 percent of its workforce, and Wal-Mart is working to expand that number.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
White House Bars Hurricane Report
White House said to bar hurricane report
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
45 minutes ago
The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — part of the Commerce Department — in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes.
According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect.
In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported.
Leetmaa, head of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.
NOAA spokesman Jordan St. John said he had no details of the report.
NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher is currently out of the country, but Nature quoted him as saying the report was merely an internal document and could not be released because the agency could not take an official position on the issue.
However, the journal said in its online report that the study was merely a discussion of the current state of hurricane science and did not contain any policy or position statements.
A series of studies over the past year or so have shown an increase in the power of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a strengthening that many storm experts say is tied to rising sea-surface temperatures.
Just two weeks ago, researchers said that most of the increase in ocean temperature that feeds more intense hurricanes is a result of human-induced global warming, a study one researcher said "closes the loop" between climate change and powerful storms like Katrina.
Not all agree, however, with opponents arguing that many other factors affect storms, which can increase and decrease in cycles.
The possibility of global warming affecting hurricanes is politically sensitive because the administration has resisted proposals to restrict release of gases that can cause warming conditions.
In February, a NASA political appointee who worked in the space agency's public relations department resigned after reportedly trying to restrict access to Jim Hansen, a NASA climate scientist who has been active in global warming research.
___
On the Net
News@Nature.com: http://www.nature.com/news
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
45 minutes ago
The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — part of the Commerce Department — in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes.
According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect.
In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported.
Leetmaa, head of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.
NOAA spokesman Jordan St. John said he had no details of the report.
NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher is currently out of the country, but Nature quoted him as saying the report was merely an internal document and could not be released because the agency could not take an official position on the issue.
However, the journal said in its online report that the study was merely a discussion of the current state of hurricane science and did not contain any policy or position statements.
A series of studies over the past year or so have shown an increase in the power of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a strengthening that many storm experts say is tied to rising sea-surface temperatures.
Just two weeks ago, researchers said that most of the increase in ocean temperature that feeds more intense hurricanes is a result of human-induced global warming, a study one researcher said "closes the loop" between climate change and powerful storms like Katrina.
Not all agree, however, with opponents arguing that many other factors affect storms, which can increase and decrease in cycles.
The possibility of global warming affecting hurricanes is politically sensitive because the administration has resisted proposals to restrict release of gases that can cause warming conditions.
In February, a NASA political appointee who worked in the space agency's public relations department resigned after reportedly trying to restrict access to Jim Hansen, a NASA climate scientist who has been active in global warming research.
___
On the Net
News@Nature.com: http://www.nature.com/news
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Noam Chomsky Eager To Meet Venezuela's Chavez
Author Chomsky eager to meet Venezuela's Chavez
Fri Sep 22, 6:50 PM ET
Author Noam Chomsky, whose three-year-old book shot to the top of the Amazon.com bestseller list after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez touted it at the United Nations, reportedly said he would like to meet Chavez.
"I would be happy to meet him," said Chomsky according to the New York Times.
The American author told the Times he received "10,000 e-mails" after Chavez recommended his 2003 book "Hegemony or Survival" in remarks before the United Nations General Assembly.
Chavez made headlines this week for railing against US "imperialism" in the eyebrow-raising speech.
Chomsky, 77, told the newspaper he would not use the same words -- "alcoholic," "sick man" and "tyrant" -- that Chavez used to describe President George W. Bush.
But he said he understood where the Venezuelan president was coming from.
"The Bush administration backed a coup to overthrow his government," Chomsky said. "Suppose Venezuela supported a military coup that overthrew the government of the United States? Would we think it was a joke?"
The leftist author, a linguistics scholar and longtime critic of US foreign policy, told the Times he is "quite interested" in Chavez's policies and finds many of them "quite constructive."
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.
Fri Sep 22, 6:50 PM ET
Author Noam Chomsky, whose three-year-old book shot to the top of the Amazon.com bestseller list after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez touted it at the United Nations, reportedly said he would like to meet Chavez.
"I would be happy to meet him," said Chomsky according to the New York Times.
The American author told the Times he received "10,000 e-mails" after Chavez recommended his 2003 book "Hegemony or Survival" in remarks before the United Nations General Assembly.
Chavez made headlines this week for railing against US "imperialism" in the eyebrow-raising speech.
Chomsky, 77, told the newspaper he would not use the same words -- "alcoholic," "sick man" and "tyrant" -- that Chavez used to describe President George W. Bush.
But he said he understood where the Venezuelan president was coming from.
"The Bush administration backed a coup to overthrow his government," Chomsky said. "Suppose Venezuela supported a military coup that overthrew the government of the United States? Would we think it was a joke?"
The leftist author, a linguistics scholar and longtime critic of US foreign policy, told the Times he is "quite interested" in Chavez's policies and finds many of them "quite constructive."
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Mexico Is Haven For U.S. Pedophile Priests
Mexico is haven for U.S. pedophile priests: group
Wed Sep 20, 5:52 PM ET
Weak law enforcement and compliant Church authorities make Mexico a haven for U.S. pedophile priests fleeing justice, a victims' group said on Wednesday.
The Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, which helped bring a lawsuit this week against two of North America's top cardinals, said it knows of 46 mostly U.S. priests hiding out south of the border.
"Mexico has really become a secure place because here judicial authorities don't track them down and nothing happens," said group spokesman Eric Barragan.
The U.S. Catholic Church has been tarnished by a pedophile priest scandal that erupted in Boston in 2002 and spread to almost every diocese in the nation.
Several U.S. Catholic priests have been prosecuted, multimillion dollar payouts have been made to scores of pedophile victims and church files revealed that some bishops repeatedly transferred priests accused of abusing minors to other parishes rather than reporting them to police.
Barragan said Mexican pedophile priests, to a lesser degree, often flee to the United States.
His U.S.-based group helped filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Tuesday that accused Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Mexico City's Cardinal Norberto Rivera of allowing a priest wanted for multiple sex abuse to flee California for Mexico.
Rivera is Mexico's most senior Catholic clergyman and was mentioned as an outsider candidate last year to succeed Pope John Paul II.
The suit was brought by Mexican former altar boy Joaquin Aguilar, 25, who says he was raped by Catholic priest Nicolas Aguilar in Mexico in 1994.
It claims that Mahony facilitated Father Aguilar's flight to Mexico in 1988, when a U.S. warrant was issued for his arrest, without notifying law enforcement in Los Angeles.
Prosecutors were investigating allegations that he had abused more than 20 boys in the Los Angeles archdiocese.
Mahony's spokesman, Tod Tamberg, said the conspiracy charge was "preposterous and without foundation" and the Mexico City archdiocese said Rivera "feels at ease because there was no cover up."
SNAP said it had hired private investigators who tracked down Aguilar to rural southern Mexico where he has been saying Mass at a convent and three different parishes and living out of his car with no fixed address.
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Wed Sep 20, 5:52 PM ET
Weak law enforcement and compliant Church authorities make Mexico a haven for U.S. pedophile priests fleeing justice, a victims' group said on Wednesday.
The Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, which helped bring a lawsuit this week against two of North America's top cardinals, said it knows of 46 mostly U.S. priests hiding out south of the border.
"Mexico has really become a secure place because here judicial authorities don't track them down and nothing happens," said group spokesman Eric Barragan.
The U.S. Catholic Church has been tarnished by a pedophile priest scandal that erupted in Boston in 2002 and spread to almost every diocese in the nation.
Several U.S. Catholic priests have been prosecuted, multimillion dollar payouts have been made to scores of pedophile victims and church files revealed that some bishops repeatedly transferred priests accused of abusing minors to other parishes rather than reporting them to police.
Barragan said Mexican pedophile priests, to a lesser degree, often flee to the United States.
His U.S.-based group helped filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Tuesday that accused Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Mexico City's Cardinal Norberto Rivera of allowing a priest wanted for multiple sex abuse to flee California for Mexico.
Rivera is Mexico's most senior Catholic clergyman and was mentioned as an outsider candidate last year to succeed Pope John Paul II.
The suit was brought by Mexican former altar boy Joaquin Aguilar, 25, who says he was raped by Catholic priest Nicolas Aguilar in Mexico in 1994.
It claims that Mahony facilitated Father Aguilar's flight to Mexico in 1988, when a U.S. warrant was issued for his arrest, without notifying law enforcement in Los Angeles.
Prosecutors were investigating allegations that he had abused more than 20 boys in the Los Angeles archdiocese.
Mahony's spokesman, Tod Tamberg, said the conspiracy charge was "preposterous and without foundation" and the Mexico City archdiocese said Rivera "feels at ease because there was no cover up."
SNAP said it had hired private investigators who tracked down Aguilar to rural southern Mexico where he has been saying Mass at a convent and three different parishes and living out of his car with no fixed address.
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Supporting The Worker, Their Life Is Yours
I think this country is paying a desperate price to continually side with Israel in every decision in the Middle East. To do so seems to suggest that that the people of Palestine are second-class citizens, and we know something about bigotry in this country. We didn’t invent it but we have done our best to export it in un-search containers.
The fence built between Israel and Palestine mirrors the fence being demanded on the floor of the Congress between the U.S. and Mexico. Palestinians cross over into Israel to work everyday and without that work force Israel would be desperate for help. Without the help of illegal labor the U.S. would be crippled except the U.S. is too ignorant to realize this.
To side with labor does not make you a Socialist or a Communist. To side with labor makes you a realist and a realist more often than not understands the importance of a living wage. Union jobs in this country were torn from locked doors by blood and skin. Sweat is what makes the grass grow not blood as the old saying goes. If Jesus was a carpenter like the stories suggest I don’t imagine he would let his customers set the price. Jesus would have been a union carpenter, he would have walked a picket line and he would have prayed for those refusing to care for the worker.
Where is the union in the Holy land? A land so set upon its religious belief, a land so rigid in its procedure, a land so stiff in its process of retribution. Does a Palestinian receive the same pay of that of an Israeli worker? You’ll never hear any mention of that fact in the American media, ever. Can you imagine a Palestinian Tom Joad sleeping in the shadow of the fence separating these two lands as rockets crisscross over head, his small fire to keep warm drawing automatic fire, his companions using the fence as a wailing wall because they cannot cross over until daylight. Sticking their prayers into the barbed wire wondering if their scarred hands will become infected, wondering if their job will become obsolete with tonight’s bombing.
If you want to truly understand unemployment and what it is like to be homeless try to do it in a war zone. Refugee status is sometimes preferred to suddenly being awakened in your home and having to run off into the darkness as in the case of a writer I heard from once through a website I write for. The writer lived in Rwanda and one night during the genocide that took place there he was awakened by screams and he and his family got up and ran out of their house and ran off literally into the darkness. I don’t know if he survived or not. To the best of my knowledge we never heard from him again. This would have been different if he were in a refugee camp? No, not really? In Darfur the y are firing into refugee camps. There are no jobs, there are no unions, and there are barely any relief workers. Are refugees illegal aliens? Should we build a fence around them?
To be on the side of the workers of the world is to support life itself it is just that simple.
- Chris Mansel
The fence built between Israel and Palestine mirrors the fence being demanded on the floor of the Congress between the U.S. and Mexico. Palestinians cross over into Israel to work everyday and without that work force Israel would be desperate for help. Without the help of illegal labor the U.S. would be crippled except the U.S. is too ignorant to realize this.
To side with labor does not make you a Socialist or a Communist. To side with labor makes you a realist and a realist more often than not understands the importance of a living wage. Union jobs in this country were torn from locked doors by blood and skin. Sweat is what makes the grass grow not blood as the old saying goes. If Jesus was a carpenter like the stories suggest I don’t imagine he would let his customers set the price. Jesus would have been a union carpenter, he would have walked a picket line and he would have prayed for those refusing to care for the worker.
Where is the union in the Holy land? A land so set upon its religious belief, a land so rigid in its procedure, a land so stiff in its process of retribution. Does a Palestinian receive the same pay of that of an Israeli worker? You’ll never hear any mention of that fact in the American media, ever. Can you imagine a Palestinian Tom Joad sleeping in the shadow of the fence separating these two lands as rockets crisscross over head, his small fire to keep warm drawing automatic fire, his companions using the fence as a wailing wall because they cannot cross over until daylight. Sticking their prayers into the barbed wire wondering if their scarred hands will become infected, wondering if their job will become obsolete with tonight’s bombing.
If you want to truly understand unemployment and what it is like to be homeless try to do it in a war zone. Refugee status is sometimes preferred to suddenly being awakened in your home and having to run off into the darkness as in the case of a writer I heard from once through a website I write for. The writer lived in Rwanda and one night during the genocide that took place there he was awakened by screams and he and his family got up and ran out of their house and ran off literally into the darkness. I don’t know if he survived or not. To the best of my knowledge we never heard from him again. This would have been different if he were in a refugee camp? No, not really? In Darfur the y are firing into refugee camps. There are no jobs, there are no unions, and there are barely any relief workers. Are refugees illegal aliens? Should we build a fence around them?
To be on the side of the workers of the world is to support life itself it is just that simple.
- Chris Mansel
Friday, September 15, 2006
When Speculation Grows Hoarse
Screeching at the top of a hypodermic is where any decent writer should be, in a hospital bed overlooking a battlefield where swans have been de-flowered by Mexican mice. Where the august storms have blown dust into the military tribunal parking spaces that have just been crushed under the tracks of tanks. The body of three star generals nailed in full uniform to gurneys awaiting cross-examination.
- Chris Mansel
- Chris Mansel
Ann Richards Passes
Former Governor of Texas Ann Richards has passed. A vocal opponet of the Bush family she served her state well. In another time she would have been described as, “a broad” and it would have been a term of endearment. She was tough and she did not back down from a fight, ever. She will be missed.
- Chris Mansel
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Rwandan sentenced to 25 years for role in 1994 genocide
ARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) -- A U.N. tribunal Tuesday convicted a former Rwandan military commander of genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1994 genocide and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
Lt. Col. Tharcisse Muvunyi's troops were behind the "systematic killing" of at least 140 students and Red Cross workers, Judge Asoka de Silva told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
"We have no reason to doubt that Muvunyi had no knowledge of these killings," the judge said. He added that Muvunyi incited hatred and oversaw roadblocks set up by his troops where Tutsis were separated from Hutus before being executed.
Some 500,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the genocide.
Muvunyi, whose six years in detention while awaiting trial will be counted against his sentence, showed no emotion as the sentence was read. His lawyer, Taylor Williams, said he would appeal.
Muvunyi was chief of military operations in Butare province at the height of the genocide. Some 100,000 people were killed in Butare alone during the 100-day slaughter, chief prosecutor Hassan Jallow had told the court based in Arusha, Tanzania.
Earlier Tuesday, a former Rwandan mayor, Jean Mpambara, was acquitted by the court of having any role in the genocide.
Mpambara, who was arrested in 2001 living in a Tanzanian refugee camp, was accused of having led massacres in Rusumo, in southeastern Kibungo province, on the border with Tanzania, where more than 5,000 Tutsi civilians were killed.
Judge Jai Ram Redyy told the tribunal the prosecution had failed to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Mpambara was involved in the 1994 genocide.
Prosecutor Hassan Jallow said prosecutors would study the ruling before deciding to appeal.
Mpambara is the fourth person to be set free by the tribunal since its establishment 12 years ago by the U.N. Security Council.
The tribunal has so far rendered 29 judgments, and trials are on going for another 27 suspects. The U.N. has set a deadline of 2008 to complete all the cases before the tribunal.
Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Lt. Col. Tharcisse Muvunyi's troops were behind the "systematic killing" of at least 140 students and Red Cross workers, Judge Asoka de Silva told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
"We have no reason to doubt that Muvunyi had no knowledge of these killings," the judge said. He added that Muvunyi incited hatred and oversaw roadblocks set up by his troops where Tutsis were separated from Hutus before being executed.
Some 500,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the genocide.
Muvunyi, whose six years in detention while awaiting trial will be counted against his sentence, showed no emotion as the sentence was read. His lawyer, Taylor Williams, said he would appeal.
Muvunyi was chief of military operations in Butare province at the height of the genocide. Some 100,000 people were killed in Butare alone during the 100-day slaughter, chief prosecutor Hassan Jallow had told the court based in Arusha, Tanzania.
Earlier Tuesday, a former Rwandan mayor, Jean Mpambara, was acquitted by the court of having any role in the genocide.
Mpambara, who was arrested in 2001 living in a Tanzanian refugee camp, was accused of having led massacres in Rusumo, in southeastern Kibungo province, on the border with Tanzania, where more than 5,000 Tutsi civilians were killed.
Judge Jai Ram Redyy told the tribunal the prosecution had failed to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Mpambara was involved in the 1994 genocide.
Prosecutor Hassan Jallow said prosecutors would study the ruling before deciding to appeal.
Mpambara is the fourth person to be set free by the tribunal since its establishment 12 years ago by the U.N. Security Council.
The tribunal has so far rendered 29 judgments, and trials are on going for another 27 suspects. The U.N. has set a deadline of 2008 to complete all the cases before the tribunal.
Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Two New Rumors
Everybody is talking about impeaching the president, why don’t we cumquat him or give him the banana? Impeach sounds a little too nice.
Bush and Paris Hilton in a new poll were the only two people in the country who thought that a standing O stood for being entered from behind.
- Chris Mansel
Bush and Paris Hilton in a new poll were the only two people in the country who thought that a standing O stood for being entered from behind.
- Chris Mansel
Friday, September 08, 2006
Southwest Virginia family and A&G Coal settle in 3-year-old's death
A judge's notes indicate a $3 million settlement in the case of a boy killed below a strip mine.
By Tim Thornton
APPALACHIA -- The second anniversary of Jeremy Davidson's death passed without clamor last month. So did the conclusion of a lawsuit against the people Jeremy's family blames for the toddler's death.
Local activists didn't mark the anniversary because they didn't get the family's blessing. Judge Tammy McElyea ordered the lawsuit's settlement agreement sealed, but her handwritten notes in the case file say the Davidsons got $3 million to compensate for their son's death. They had asked for $26.5 million.
The 3-year-old died in an Aug. 20, 2004, incident that attracted international news coverage. He was asleep in his bedroom while Kelly Robinson and Jimmy Ray Vanover widened a haul road on A&G Coal's strip mine above his house. Vanover was operating a front-end loader. Robinson, who was running a bulldozer, told Virginia Division of Mines, Minerals and Energy investigators that no one told him there were houses below where he was working.
The road they were working on wasn't meant to be a haul road. It was built in 1983 as part of a mined land reclamation project. Robinson and Vanover were making the road wider, so it could accommodate the 18-wheeled trucks that haul loads of coal from the site.
When the original road was built, a rock rolled off the site and crashed through the back of the Freewill Baptist Church. Now it's called the Looney Creek Memorial Baptist Church. It sits next door to the Davidson place.
Two years ago, about 2:30 a.m. during Robinson and Vanover's shift, another rock rolled off the site and into the Davidson house 649 feet below.
The half-ton boulder crashed through the back wall of the Davidsons' double-wide, through two interior walls and came to rest at 7-year-old Zachary Davidson's bed.
But first it rolled though Jeremy's room. The toddler's parents and brother found him on the floor -- Arvil Cross, a neighbor, said he had been knocked through the floor -- with his head wedged in his bed frame. He had a broken arm, a broken leg and a broken neck. There was a wound on his head where it had slammed into the floor.
His parents tried to revive the boy until rescue workers arrived. It didn't do any good.
"They never spent another night there," Cross said. "I don't reckon they've ever been back up in this holler."
Cross, who fills his retirement by running a lawn-care business, was mowing his own yard Wednesday. He said people don't talk about the tragedy much anymore.
"It's died down a whole lot," he said.
The lot next to the Looney Creek Memorial Baptist Church is virtually empty now. Scraps of a foundation mark where the Davidsons' house used to stand. A work crew hauled it away about six weeks ago, Cross said. Weeds are already reclaiming the bare dirt that used to be under the house.
"We heard A&G Coal bought it out and was going to turn it into offices or something," Cross said. "But you hear anything."
Larry Bush, a former miner and mine inspector, is a member of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, the local anti-mountaintop removal mining group. On Wednesday evening, Bush met with representatives of Mountain Justice Summer, a group that's battling mountaintop removal across the southeastern coalfields.
They met at Mountain Links, a resource center Mountain Justice Summer is setting up on Appalachia's Main Street. The group is setting up a nonprofit organization that will rent three offices from United Mine Workers of America Local 1607, with permission to use the union's meeting room when they need to.
It's a dingy space with vintage office furniture and ceiling tiles stained varying yellowish, grayish shades of drab. But it gives the group a presence downtown.
Mountain Justice Summer came to the town of Appalachia shortly after Jeremy's death to march in protest. They marched again on the first anniversary.
The family didn't have anything to do with the first two marches. The would-be organizers of this year's aborted march couldn't find the Davidsons to ask them about it.
"Just out of respect for the family we didn't do anything," he said about plans to commemorate the anniversary.
Like Cross, Bush said talk about the Davidsons' tragedy has quieted.
"It's probably still on people's minds but they're not saying anything," said Bush, who was surprised to hear the lawsuit has been settled and disturbed that it took so long. "It was drawn out, I think, to let public sentiment die down."
It took nearly two years, three judges and two trial dates to resolve the case. It went through an unsuccessful mediation and competed for time with the General Assembly and the flood of gambling cases coming out of Appalachia. Terry Kilgore, one of the Davidsons' attorneys, represents the area in the House of Delegates. McElyea expects to hear at least some of the gambling cases.
The original list of defendants included A&G Coal, the company operating the mine; Matt Mining, which holds the permit to mine; Penn Virginia Operating Co. and Penn Virginia Resource Partners, which own the land and the mining rights; and eight A&G Coal employees. By the end, Matt Mining and the Penn Virginia companies had been dismissed.
The Davidsons' original aim for $26.5 million was reduced by the shrinking defendants' list and by Virginia law. Their attorneys had asked for $350,000 in punitive damages from each defendant. Virginia law limits punitive damages to $350,000 in total.
The prospect of criminal charges in the case disappeared long ago. The civil case has been settled.
But there's at least one hearing left. Virginia's Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy fined A&G Coal $15,000 for what the DMME called "gross negligence" related to the incident. That was the legal limit at the time, but the case moved the General Assembly to toughen the law. A similar event now could cost a company $210,000.
But A&G officials argued the $15,000 fine was too steep. They appealed the fine and now that the civil case is settled, the process of scheduling that hearing can begin.
Mike Abbott, spokesman for the mine department, said Thursday that he didn't know when that hearing will be scheduled.
The road that leads past the former Davidson home site, past A&G's mine and over Black Mountain into Kentucky is a Virginia Byway. According to the Virginia Department of Transportation Web site, those byways reveal "a side of the Commonwealth that is uncommon and enlightening. Each byway leads to scenes of natural beauty and places of historical and social significance."
From a switchback curve on Black Mountain Wednesday night, the A&G mine was marked by small groupings of lights, flickering like campfires as haze settled into the hollows and a full moon hung overhead.
The steady hum of machinery, punctuated by backup warning beepers, mingled with the night insects' sounds as crews continued to mine coal on the diminishing ridge above where Jeremy Davidson used to live.
By Tim Thornton
APPALACHIA -- The second anniversary of Jeremy Davidson's death passed without clamor last month. So did the conclusion of a lawsuit against the people Jeremy's family blames for the toddler's death.
Local activists didn't mark the anniversary because they didn't get the family's blessing. Judge Tammy McElyea ordered the lawsuit's settlement agreement sealed, but her handwritten notes in the case file say the Davidsons got $3 million to compensate for their son's death. They had asked for $26.5 million.
The 3-year-old died in an Aug. 20, 2004, incident that attracted international news coverage. He was asleep in his bedroom while Kelly Robinson and Jimmy Ray Vanover widened a haul road on A&G Coal's strip mine above his house. Vanover was operating a front-end loader. Robinson, who was running a bulldozer, told Virginia Division of Mines, Minerals and Energy investigators that no one told him there were houses below where he was working.
The road they were working on wasn't meant to be a haul road. It was built in 1983 as part of a mined land reclamation project. Robinson and Vanover were making the road wider, so it could accommodate the 18-wheeled trucks that haul loads of coal from the site.
When the original road was built, a rock rolled off the site and crashed through the back of the Freewill Baptist Church. Now it's called the Looney Creek Memorial Baptist Church. It sits next door to the Davidson place.
Two years ago, about 2:30 a.m. during Robinson and Vanover's shift, another rock rolled off the site and into the Davidson house 649 feet below.
The half-ton boulder crashed through the back wall of the Davidsons' double-wide, through two interior walls and came to rest at 7-year-old Zachary Davidson's bed.
But first it rolled though Jeremy's room. The toddler's parents and brother found him on the floor -- Arvil Cross, a neighbor, said he had been knocked through the floor -- with his head wedged in his bed frame. He had a broken arm, a broken leg and a broken neck. There was a wound on his head where it had slammed into the floor.
His parents tried to revive the boy until rescue workers arrived. It didn't do any good.
"They never spent another night there," Cross said. "I don't reckon they've ever been back up in this holler."
Cross, who fills his retirement by running a lawn-care business, was mowing his own yard Wednesday. He said people don't talk about the tragedy much anymore.
"It's died down a whole lot," he said.
The lot next to the Looney Creek Memorial Baptist Church is virtually empty now. Scraps of a foundation mark where the Davidsons' house used to stand. A work crew hauled it away about six weeks ago, Cross said. Weeds are already reclaiming the bare dirt that used to be under the house.
"We heard A&G Coal bought it out and was going to turn it into offices or something," Cross said. "But you hear anything."
Larry Bush, a former miner and mine inspector, is a member of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, the local anti-mountaintop removal mining group. On Wednesday evening, Bush met with representatives of Mountain Justice Summer, a group that's battling mountaintop removal across the southeastern coalfields.
They met at Mountain Links, a resource center Mountain Justice Summer is setting up on Appalachia's Main Street. The group is setting up a nonprofit organization that will rent three offices from United Mine Workers of America Local 1607, with permission to use the union's meeting room when they need to.
It's a dingy space with vintage office furniture and ceiling tiles stained varying yellowish, grayish shades of drab. But it gives the group a presence downtown.
Mountain Justice Summer came to the town of Appalachia shortly after Jeremy's death to march in protest. They marched again on the first anniversary.
The family didn't have anything to do with the first two marches. The would-be organizers of this year's aborted march couldn't find the Davidsons to ask them about it.
"Just out of respect for the family we didn't do anything," he said about plans to commemorate the anniversary.
Like Cross, Bush said talk about the Davidsons' tragedy has quieted.
"It's probably still on people's minds but they're not saying anything," said Bush, who was surprised to hear the lawsuit has been settled and disturbed that it took so long. "It was drawn out, I think, to let public sentiment die down."
It took nearly two years, three judges and two trial dates to resolve the case. It went through an unsuccessful mediation and competed for time with the General Assembly and the flood of gambling cases coming out of Appalachia. Terry Kilgore, one of the Davidsons' attorneys, represents the area in the House of Delegates. McElyea expects to hear at least some of the gambling cases.
The original list of defendants included A&G Coal, the company operating the mine; Matt Mining, which holds the permit to mine; Penn Virginia Operating Co. and Penn Virginia Resource Partners, which own the land and the mining rights; and eight A&G Coal employees. By the end, Matt Mining and the Penn Virginia companies had been dismissed.
The Davidsons' original aim for $26.5 million was reduced by the shrinking defendants' list and by Virginia law. Their attorneys had asked for $350,000 in punitive damages from each defendant. Virginia law limits punitive damages to $350,000 in total.
The prospect of criminal charges in the case disappeared long ago. The civil case has been settled.
But there's at least one hearing left. Virginia's Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy fined A&G Coal $15,000 for what the DMME called "gross negligence" related to the incident. That was the legal limit at the time, but the case moved the General Assembly to toughen the law. A similar event now could cost a company $210,000.
But A&G officials argued the $15,000 fine was too steep. They appealed the fine and now that the civil case is settled, the process of scheduling that hearing can begin.
Mike Abbott, spokesman for the mine department, said Thursday that he didn't know when that hearing will be scheduled.
The road that leads past the former Davidson home site, past A&G's mine and over Black Mountain into Kentucky is a Virginia Byway. According to the Virginia Department of Transportation Web site, those byways reveal "a side of the Commonwealth that is uncommon and enlightening. Each byway leads to scenes of natural beauty and places of historical and social significance."
From a switchback curve on Black Mountain Wednesday night, the A&G mine was marked by small groupings of lights, flickering like campfires as haze settled into the hollows and a full moon hung overhead.
The steady hum of machinery, punctuated by backup warning beepers, mingled with the night insects' sounds as crews continued to mine coal on the diminishing ridge above where Jeremy Davidson used to live.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Army Unleashes Military Offensive in Darfur UN
Integrated Regional Information Networks NEWS
September 1, 2006
El Fasher
Sudanese government forces have recaptured the rebel-held town of Um Sidir near El Fasher, capital of North Darfur State, raising fears that a major new offensive has started in the region, observers said on Friday.
The rebels, who have held the town for some months, have vowed to try to take back the town, an important stronghold, which the government forces overran on Thursday afternoon.
"Six days ago, a bombing campaign started in the area north of El Fasher that lasted a couple of days," a rebel source in Darfur said. "It seems to have been an attempt to soften up resistance in the area and to allow government troops to move in."
The offensive is unfolding despite Thursday's United Nations Security Council resolution authorising the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the western Sudanese region.
Large swathes of territory in North Darfur are under the control of the National Redemption Front (NRF), a new alliance of rebels who did not sign the 5 May Darfur Peace Agreement. In Darfur, local observers have confirmed that a string of villages, including Abu Sakin, Kulkul, Sayah and Turra, approximately 35 km northwest of El Fasher, had been attacked from the air on Monday.
On the same day, 30 vehicles of the Sudanese armed forces entered Abu Sakin and another 40 vehicles took Kulkul, pushing rebel forces out of the area. Government troops then moved further northwards, towards Um Sidir.
"The Sudanese army is creating a buffer zone north of El Fasher to prevent direct attacks on the capital," the observer said. "It seems that the Sudanese forces met relatively little rebel resistance; they simply moved away."
Unconfirmed reports indicated that the rebel NRF was moving southwards with as many as 50 vehicles into the area of Korma and Tawilla, west of El Fasher.
On Thursday this week, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution that calls for a gradual transition from the under-funded and under-equipped African Union (AU) mission in Darfur to a stronger UN protection force. The AU force has been unable to prevent widespread abuses against civilians.
But the deployment of a UN force of 17,500 troops and 3,300 civilian police depends on consent from the Sudanese government, which has rejected calls for a UN force in Darfur. It has instead proposed its own protection plan, which involves deploying another 10,500 Sudanese government troops to "consolidate the security situation". Military cargo planes have been arriving every night in El Fasher with troop reinforcements.
"This [UN] resolution will be meaningless unless member states get Sudan to agree to a UN force," Peter Takirambudde, Africa director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "While the Security Council was debating this resolution on Monday, the Sudanese military was dropping bombs on rebel-held villages, with predictable consequences for civilians."
Since the government and one of the three main rebel factions signed the 5 May agreement, fighting has escalated between signatories and the rebel groups that refused to sign. As many as 50,000 more people have been displaced across the region since May, while nine humanitarian aid workers were killed and 20 vehicles hijacked in July.
"Insecurity is at its highest level since 2004, access at its lowest levels since that date and we may well be on the brink of a return to all-out war," the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, warned the UN Security Council on Monday.
The World Health Organization has reported that 40 percent of the population in North Darfur State are not receiving health care, while vaccinations have dropped from 90 percent in 2005 to a mere 20 percent in 2006. According to the World Food Programme, 470,000 people across Darfur did not receive their monthly rations in July.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
September 1, 2006
El Fasher
Sudanese government forces have recaptured the rebel-held town of Um Sidir near El Fasher, capital of North Darfur State, raising fears that a major new offensive has started in the region, observers said on Friday.
The rebels, who have held the town for some months, have vowed to try to take back the town, an important stronghold, which the government forces overran on Thursday afternoon.
"Six days ago, a bombing campaign started in the area north of El Fasher that lasted a couple of days," a rebel source in Darfur said. "It seems to have been an attempt to soften up resistance in the area and to allow government troops to move in."
The offensive is unfolding despite Thursday's United Nations Security Council resolution authorising the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the western Sudanese region.
Large swathes of territory in North Darfur are under the control of the National Redemption Front (NRF), a new alliance of rebels who did not sign the 5 May Darfur Peace Agreement. In Darfur, local observers have confirmed that a string of villages, including Abu Sakin, Kulkul, Sayah and Turra, approximately 35 km northwest of El Fasher, had been attacked from the air on Monday.
On the same day, 30 vehicles of the Sudanese armed forces entered Abu Sakin and another 40 vehicles took Kulkul, pushing rebel forces out of the area. Government troops then moved further northwards, towards Um Sidir.
"The Sudanese army is creating a buffer zone north of El Fasher to prevent direct attacks on the capital," the observer said. "It seems that the Sudanese forces met relatively little rebel resistance; they simply moved away."
Unconfirmed reports indicated that the rebel NRF was moving southwards with as many as 50 vehicles into the area of Korma and Tawilla, west of El Fasher.
On Thursday this week, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution that calls for a gradual transition from the under-funded and under-equipped African Union (AU) mission in Darfur to a stronger UN protection force. The AU force has been unable to prevent widespread abuses against civilians.
But the deployment of a UN force of 17,500 troops and 3,300 civilian police depends on consent from the Sudanese government, which has rejected calls for a UN force in Darfur. It has instead proposed its own protection plan, which involves deploying another 10,500 Sudanese government troops to "consolidate the security situation". Military cargo planes have been arriving every night in El Fasher with troop reinforcements.
"This [UN] resolution will be meaningless unless member states get Sudan to agree to a UN force," Peter Takirambudde, Africa director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "While the Security Council was debating this resolution on Monday, the Sudanese military was dropping bombs on rebel-held villages, with predictable consequences for civilians."
Since the government and one of the three main rebel factions signed the 5 May agreement, fighting has escalated between signatories and the rebel groups that refused to sign. As many as 50,000 more people have been displaced across the region since May, while nine humanitarian aid workers were killed and 20 vehicles hijacked in July.
"Insecurity is at its highest level since 2004, access at its lowest levels since that date and we may well be on the brink of a return to all-out war," the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, warned the UN Security Council on Monday.
The World Health Organization has reported that 40 percent of the population in North Darfur State are not receiving health care, while vaccinations have dropped from 90 percent in 2005 to a mere 20 percent in 2006. According to the World Food Programme, 470,000 people across Darfur did not receive their monthly rations in July.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Saturday, September 02, 2006
How We Leave The Beaten In The Well
How We Leave The Beaten In The Well
A vengeful act born out of necessity, a scholar’s translation born of prejudice and ending in legislation. The vengeful act originating from the ancient text those that are parasitic and agitated who have enjoyed and profited from these acts can and will suffer the growth of this industry. No matter your belief system, the margin to discredit has been abscessed. If you have grown to accept death in front of you, on television, death by the hundreds, by the thousands, by the millions then you are as guilty as the text, as guilty as the translator? The act of killing was easy to learn and easy to teach and so history has been translated into every language known to man and woman. Now, every man and woman not only knows how to kill but accept it.
We leave the body in the well and wait for it to rain? We leave the body in the well because we want someone to find it? The body was already dead? Pre-destined? In terms of political reality it really doesn’t matter. How many wars have been started in your lifetime and what was the body count? But wait, you’re not dead yet. So while you await your death you’ll have to keep a steady count, concentrate now.
- Chris Mansel
A vengeful act born out of necessity, a scholar’s translation born of prejudice and ending in legislation. The vengeful act originating from the ancient text those that are parasitic and agitated who have enjoyed and profited from these acts can and will suffer the growth of this industry. No matter your belief system, the margin to discredit has been abscessed. If you have grown to accept death in front of you, on television, death by the hundreds, by the thousands, by the millions then you are as guilty as the text, as guilty as the translator? The act of killing was easy to learn and easy to teach and so history has been translated into every language known to man and woman. Now, every man and woman not only knows how to kill but accept it.
We leave the body in the well and wait for it to rain? We leave the body in the well because we want someone to find it? The body was already dead? Pre-destined? In terms of political reality it really doesn’t matter. How many wars have been started in your lifetime and what was the body count? But wait, you’re not dead yet. So while you await your death you’ll have to keep a steady count, concentrate now.
- Chris Mansel
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