http://www.interpol.int/ Obama gives INTERPOL new police powers in U.S. A little-discussed executive order from President Obama giving foreign cops new police powers in the United States by exempting them from such drudgery as compliance with the Freedom of Information Act is raising alarm among commentators who say INTERPOL already had most of the same privileges as diplomats.
At David Horowitz's Newsreal, Michael van der Galien said the issue is Obama's expansion of President Ronald Reagan's order from 1983 that originally granted those diplomatic privileges.
Reagan's order carried certain exemptions requiring that INTERPOL operations be subject to several U.S. laws such as the Freedom of Information Act. Obama, however, removed those restrictions in his Dec. 16 amendment to Executive Order 12425.
That means, van der Galien wrote today, "this foreign law enforcement organization can operate free of an important safeguard against government and abuse."
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"'Property and assets,' including the organization's records, cannot be searched or seized. Their physical locations are now immune from U.S. legal or investigative authorities," he wrote.
Obama's order said he was removing the Reagan limitations on INTERPOL:
"AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 12425 DESIGNATING INTERPOL AS A PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ENTITLED TO ENJOY CERTAIN PRIVILEGES, EXEMPTIONS, AND IMMUNITIES
"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288), and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983, as amended, is further amended by deleting from the first sentence the words "except those provided by Section 2(c), Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act" and the semicolon that immediately precedes them," he wrote.
At the ThreatsWatch.org website, authors Steve Schippert and Clyde Middleton gave their interpretation of the result.
"In light of what we know and can observe, it is our logical conclusion that President Obama's Executive Order amending President Ronald Reagans' 1983 EO 12425 and placing INTERPOL above the United States Constitution and beyond the legal reach of our own top law enforcement is a precursor to more damaging moves," they wrote.
"When the paths on the road map converge – Iraq withdrawal, Guantánamo closure, perceived American image improved internationally, and an empowered INTERPOL in the United States – it is probable that President Barack Obama will once again make America a signatory to the International Criminal Court. It will be a move that surrenders American sovereignty to an international body whose INTERPOL enforcement arm has already been elevated above the Constitution and American domestic law enforcement," they said.
"For an added and disturbing wrinkle, INTERPOL's central operations office in the United States is within our own Justice Department offices. They are American law enforcement officers working under the aegis of INTERPOL within our own Justice Department. That they now operate with full diplomatic immunity and with 'inviolable archives' from within our own buildings should send red flags soaring into the clouds," they said.
"Ultimately, a detailed verbal explanation is due the American public from the President of the United States detailing why an international law enforcement arm assisting a court we are not a signatory to has been elevated above our Constitution upon our soil."
International Criminal Court
Records show that the original order designated INTERPOL as a public international organization. Reagan had extended "appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities," but kept it subject to searches and seizures under appropriate legal circumstances.
Obama's decision, analysts have concluded, exempted Interpol from all restrictions.
"This international law enforcement body now operates – now operates – on American soil beyond the reach of our own top law enforcement arm, the FBI, and is immune from Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests," ThreatsWatch reported.
At the Patriot Room, it was explained there is a reason for a certain level of immunity.
"Before we get our knickers in a bunch, there is logic to this immunity. While we like our Constitution and laws, other countries like their Constitution and laws. It doesn't matter if the concept of personal freedom is more expansive here. If we expect immunity in their country, we have to extend it to them here."
But with Obama's change, "It means that we have an international police force authorized to act within the United States that is no longer subject to 4th Amendment Search and Seizure."
Anthony Martin at the Examiner noted the international agency now can operate in the U.S. will "full immunity" from U.S. laws and "with complete independence from oversight from the FBI."
At National Review Andy McCarthy asked, "Why would we elevate an international police force above American law? Why would we immunize an international police force from the limitations that constrain the FBI and other American law-enforcement agencies? Why is it suddenly necessary to have, within the Justice Department, a repository for stashing government files which, therefore, will be beyond the ability of Congress, American law-enforcement, the media, and the American people to scrutinize?"
At UNDispatch, which is a blog on the United Nations, Mark Leon Goldberg, who explained he worked at Interpol's headquarters in France in 2002, said there isn't much danger of INTERPOL agents whisking Americans off to jail. But he confirmed, "As to the specific reason why the Obama administration would decide, last week, to extend to INTERPOL the same suite of diplomatic privileges that are typically accorded to international organizations? I don't have a good answer for that. http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/December30/3012.html
I am a stroke survivor and deal daily with a speech disorder called Aphasia. This disorder is a result of my stroke in 2005. I am thankful God has given me the ability to express myself through my images and films." For more information, visit these websites: http://www.azimagery.com/stroke/
1. The attacks by the LAPD on peaceful demonstrators were planned out and even trained for weeks in advance. It's apparent by the formations and equipment the police used. Nothing improvised or spontaneous about it. 2. The order for the preparations came from the top, the Chief of Police and
his boss, the Mayor of Los Angeles. That's the ONLY way such an operation can take place. No field commander is going to do this on his own and no Police Chief is going to risk his career to so something like this on a whim. 3. The two lying scum-bags responsible (The Mayor and Chief) are only expressing "shock" now because their actions were caught on video.
4. The same things happens at virtually EVERY peaceful political protest of any size in the US: a) fake "anarchists" throw a few bottles at police and/or vandalize private property b) the "anarchists" are never caught or even assaulted c) the police use the "provocation" as a justification to attack the crowd d) the police try to antagonize the crowd into retaliating (which rarely works by the way) so they can justify mass arrests in order to discredit the demonstrators and their cause. Normally, the venal, spineless, lazy US news media covers up the reality of these "episodes." This time the idiot LAPD shoved some reporters around (heavens to Betsy!) and what really happened made the news.
I am a stroke survivor and deal daily with a speech disorder called Aphasia. This disorder is a result of my stroke in 2005. I am thankful God has given me the ability to express myself through my images and films." For more information, visit these websites: http://www.azimagery.com/stroke/
I am a stroke survivor and deal daily with a speech disorder called Aphasia. This disorder is a result of my stroke in 2005. I am thankful God has given me the ability to express myself through my images and films." For more information, visit these websites: http://www.azimagery.com/stroke/
Help free Suu Kyi and other high profile human rights defenders during Amnesty International's Global Write-a-thon, the world's largest letter writing event, December 5-13th.
The more letters we send, the better chance we have at setting Aung San Suu Kyi free. Please pledge to write a letter on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi: Yes, I will write a letter!
In the days surrounding International Human Rights Day - December 10 - Amnesty's global network of activists will send a tidal wave of letters and postcards on behalf of individuals in danger of severe human rights abuse.
We want to make this the best Write-a-thon ever! During last year's Global Write-a-thon, more than 7,000 people in the U.S. pledged to write 200,000 letters in support of our cases. Every year, this worldwide event gets bigger and bigger -- and we expect to top all records this time around.
We've seen prisoners freed and lives spared because your letters make things happen! Just last year, Ma Khin Khin Leh, a school teacher in Myanmar and Hana Abdi, a women's rights advocate in Iran, were both released from prison after Write-a-thon letters overwhelmed their respective government offices.
Together, we can bring justice and human rights back to people who need it. Join the Global Write-a-thon today and show the world that when you stand up for human rights, you never stand alone. http://www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/cases.php
Sincerely, Michael O'Reilly Director, Individuals at Risk Campaign Amnesty International USA
This morning we sneaked into the Union carbide factory..a rusting hulk of metal and pipes. You will see the storage tank known as '610' which is where the deadly chemical reaction first started. We walk through the grounds that are overgrown with weeds and thorny bushes, past the derelict concrete buildings where many of the chemicals were stored. The perimeter wall is only 100 yards or so from the holding tanks and backing this broken boundary are the shacks of those who still live in the shadow of the factory. This was the worst hit community...with bodies all over the streets and the train line some 50 yards further ...my guide told me his father said that a train rolled by that night and cut thru these victims as they lay dead on the tracks. On the train itself very few survived...this has haunted his father for all these and he can longer talk about it.. almost as if the memory gets stronger. Next to the train tracks are 1000 gallon black water tanks that hold nothing ..the taps are dry and the residents here asked me to complain as no one listens to them!.. http://www.youtube.com/user/BhopalMedicalAppeal
http://www.ucarbide.com/ Union Carbide Corporation is a chemical and polymers company with over 3,800 employees. The company possesses some of the industry's most advanced process and catalyst technologies, and operates some of the most cost-efficient, large-scale production facilities in the world.
Union Carbide primarily produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers before reaching consumers. Some of these materials are high-volume commodities, while others are specialty products meeting the needs of smaller market niches. The end-uses served include paints and coatings, packaging, wire and cable, household products, personal care, pharmaceuticals, automotive, textiles, agriculture and oil and gas.
The hallmark of Union Carbide's leadership in the chemical industry is a sustained tradition of technological innovation. In 1920 our researchers developed an economical way to make ethylene from natural gas, giving birth to the modern petrochemicals industry. A significant day in Union Carbides recent history was August 4, 1999, when it was announced that Union Carbide would become a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (TDCC) as part of a transaction valued at $11.6 billion. This transaction closed on February 6, 2001. Since Union Carbides acquisition by TDCC, Union Carbide sells most of the products it manufactures to TDCC and is an important part of the Dow family of companies. http://www.dow.com/
Professor Chris Shaw, explains his views about the media hysteria and propaganda of Olympic games and the detrimental economic effects to the local population.
That's Kylie Bruehler at a memorial service for her parents, killed while riding on the shoulder of a highway by a pickup truck that somehow drifted off the road, hit them from behind and dragged them two hundred feet. Although the driver was speeding, no charges were laid; he wasn't drunk and it was considered an "accident." Meanwhile, the Governor of Texas vetoed a bill that would have mandated a minimum clearance from "vulnerable road users", saying that the existing laws give enough protection. The Governor wants to be fair to everyone: The truck that took out Kylie's
mom and dad, WOAI news "While I am in favor of measures that make our roads safer for everyone," Perry said at the time of his veto, "this bill contradicts much of the current statute and places the liability and responsibility on the operator of a motor vehicle when encountering one of these vulnerable road users." But as one Texas politician noted: "Right now, if the driver of a motor vehicle destroys private property, they have to make amends," said state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio. "If you destroy life, that is not the case. ... It's just called an accident."
Over at copenhagenize, Mikael has some ideas for billboards, and tells us that the laws are different: Denmark and the Netherlands place the blame firmly on the automobile in accidents, unless it can be proven otherwise. The idea is simply that the person in the most dangerous vehicle has the most responsibility.
But they don't do that in Texas or
anywhere in North America. As Veronica Flores wrote, Bicyclists on the road treated no better than deer. All over the world right now, there is a war on cyclists and pedestrians.
On Tom Vanderbilt's Blog How
We Drive, he writes: Given that academic studies attribute the vast bulk of pedestrian-car crashes to driver --not pedestrian -- behavior, I'm always amazed by the sheer torrent of anti-jaywalking stories in the country's newspapers, reflective of an old bias against non-vehicular modes.
He is referring in particular to an article in the Boston Globe: On any given day, at any given intersection in Boston, pedestrians cut off drivers on the notoriously clogged labyrinth of city streets. They wander off narrow sidewalks to avoid a puddle, a dog, or one another, without regard to an oncoming 10-ton truck. They take over thoroughfares en masse, in little urban coups d'etat. Daring individuals step out and stare down drivers defiantly, like toreadors in a bull ring.
Right. And drivers don't speed, talk on cellphones and light cigarettes and always have their eyes on the road.
In San Francisco, where I have been terrified while sitting in a cab that was almost flying, it was going so fast, and where the traffic lights appeared to be perfectly synchronized for travelling on city streets at sixty miles per hour, and everyone seems to be re-enacting the chase scene from Bullitt,a columnist writes: Seriously, how often have you seen someone there walk out into traffic against the light, confidently assuming that the car will stop?
After a cyclist died in Toronto this summer, the cycling community rose up in anger and closed down the city. Cyclists and drivers were on their best behaviour for a few weeks after, you could feel it on the street. Being loud about cyclists' place in the city worked.
It is time for pedestrians and cyclists to stand up for our rights as a legitimate form of transportation. Cars kill pedestrians and cyclists, not the other way around. Put the blame where it belongs.
"I am a stroke survivor and deal daily with a speech disorder called Aphasia. This disorder is a result of my stroke in 2005. I am thankful God has given me the ability to express myself through my images and films." For more information, visit these websites:
What's Wrong With Us? Can We Fix It in Time to Survive?
Food for thought from the most important intellectual alive: Noam Chomsky.
By Mickey Z. Astoria, NY, USA | Sun Oct 18 14:30:00 GMT 2009
Bono calls Noam Chomsky a "rebel without a pause" and the "Elvis of academia." The New York Times goes just a tad further by labeling the MIT professor "arguably the most important intellectual alive." Despite such high praise, Chomsky can always be counted on to present his radical thoughts in a simple, accessible manner, e.g "We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas."
In the book, Confronting Empire, the late Pakistani dissident, Eqbal Ahmad says of Chomsky: "He has never wavered ... There is a consistency of substance, of posture, of outlook in his work. Consistency, of course, means repetition. Over the last twenty years, Chomsky has repeated himself a lot...the truth has to be repeated. It doesn't become stale just because it has been told once."
Repetition--if not always truth--is precisely how Corporate America does it...the same messages pounded into our brains until we submit. Such indoctrination is not easily challenged and it often requires the same brand of replication to do so. Thus, the Chomsky-inspired message for the green movement:
Speak the truth. Speak it loudly. Speak it often.
"All over the place," he explains, "from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume."
The green movement is here to create a constant counter-pressure (so to speak) to stop all this acquiescing to political power and corporate marketing. Leading by example, we each can demonstrate how much power we have and how urgent it is that we think for ourselves and exert this influence...now.
"Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilization has been individual material gain. Now it's long been understood--very well--that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist--with whatever suffering and injustice it entails--as long as it's possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited, that the world is an infinite resource, and that the world is an infinite garbage can. At this stage of history, either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community issues guided by values of solidarity and sympathy and concern for others or--alternatively--there will be no destiny for anyone to control."
As Professor Chomsky sez:
"We are responsible for the predictable consequences of our actions."
The Honorable James David Manning discusses the false peace prize that was given to Barack Hussein Obama. Recorded 9 October 2009 Follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/atlahworldwide For more information http://atlah.org Distributed by Tubemogul.
Heavy civilian casualties after drone attacks
by Diana Lee May 10, 2008
UNIORB: REALITY CHECK: POLITICS
Time and time again, news stories of heavy civilian casualties have surfaced – largely innocent women and children slaughtered or injured – after reports of attacks by armed UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) that roamed the skies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Gaza.<
Most recently, UNICEF expressed serious concern about the systematic air and missile attacks wreaking havoc in Sadr City by the U.S. military in its relentless pursuit of insurgents. The Iraqi government declares almost 1,000 people have died so far – 60% of them are women and children. Prior to the UNICEF report, USA Today gave an account that the U.S. military record showed “an unprecedented number of air strikes by unmanned airplanes in April to kill insurgents”. The Pentagon has increased use of armed drones to deal with the escalation in fighting in Baghdad's district of Sadr City as well as in Basra.
As for Afghanistan, very few attempts at compiling annual estimates of insurgency-related civilian deaths have been made. As civilian casualties mounted, criticism on the conduct of air war was published in a Reuters piece, indicating that the Americans and NATO in Afghanistan are "hooked on air power." On June 2, 2007, a UN report shows "the number of [civilian] deaths attributed to pro-government forces marginally exceeds that caused by anti-government forces” — basically acknowledging U.S. and NATO-led forces to be responsible for a growing number of civilian deaths. Evidently, precision airstrikes that were supposedly targeting Taliban insurgents in residential buildings ended up time after time killing innocent civilians based on inaccurate information assessments. In an emotional speech last year, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai dabbed away tears as he spoke about the cruelty imposed on his people "as too much" and that Afghanistan couldn't stop “the coalition from killing our children.”
Under the guise of waging a ‘war on terror’ against the Taliban, the U.S. military supported by Pervez Musharraf has increased Predator strikes in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, causing outrage in Pakistan. One such incident resulting in civilian deaths drew criticism from Amnesty International with a letter to U.S. President Bush, stating that “a pattern of killings carried out with these weapons appeared to reflect a US government policy condoning extrajudicial executions.” On April 8, 2008, the Daily Times reported that the United States has finally promised to curb airstrikes by Predators against suspected insurgents in Pakistan with the new civilian government as part of $7 billion$ aid package sent to Congress for approval.
Although drone attacks haven’t been covered much by mainstream media, we know that the Predator MQ-1, armed with AGM-114 Hellfire
missiles, was deployed to Afghanistan in October 2001, providing intelligence and a strike capability in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. It was not until October 2007 that United States Air Force first deployed the MQ-9 Reaper (technically advanced hunter/killer) to Afghanistan, where it is being used for precision strikes. And we know that the U.S. military is still using MQ-1s for surveillance and bombing raids in Sadr City and Basra as
reported in occasional crashes.
The fact that MQ-1s have been playing a significant role in air operations since 2001 could explain the high rate of casualties among helpless
civilians, as these unmanned drones are controlled remotely from military bases in the United States. It's obvious that Afghanistan and Iraq for several years have been used as the testing ground for the U.S. Pentagon trying to perfect its hi-tech robotic war weapons at the expense of thousands of innocent human lives. Undoubtedly,
the growing use of armed drones has certainly raised serious ethical and legal issues.
As for the unreported news on Israel’s
drones used in Lebanon war in 2006, the Israeli Air Force stated that it had focused its efforts on suppressing Hezbollah’s rocket launch capabilities. However, Human Rights Watch claimed otherwise in its report – pointing out high civilian casualties were due to “Israeli tendency to treat all people and buildings associated with Hezbollah, however vaguely, as legitimate military targets”.
Israel's notorious violation of human rights is globally
known for its brutal conduct in Gaza , committing genocide – killing and maiming women and children before our very eyes. However, a few articles have exposed Israel’s dreadful use of UAVs in its attacks against the Palestinians. In the
intensifying and ongoing assault on Gaza, Palestinians say Israel's pilotless planes have been a major weapon in its latest offensive in Gaza.
Worse still, the announcement of future ambition to turn a UAV into a thinking killer machine takes man one step closer to making a sci-fi
horror into reality. The BAE Systems is working with the British military staff and scientists to develop Taranis – a jet designed with a bat-wing to be able to think for itself, independently tracking and destroying aircraft and
targets. First flight trials are scheduled to take place in 2010.
By accepting these drones to carry out battles against people makes the process of killing another human being so eerily impersonal, like the deaths of so many innocents have become nothing more than statistics. In conclusion, a battle waged between machine against man only guarantees one thing – a high loss of precious human lives. http://uniorb.com/RCHECK/drone.htm
Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington — Civilian workers who suffered devastating injuries while supporting the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan have come home to a grinding battle for basic medical care, artificial limbs, psychological counseling and other services.
The insurance companies responsible for their treatment under taxpayer-funded policies have routinely denied the most serious medical claims. Those insurers -- primarily American International Group (AIG) -- recorded hundreds of millions of dollars in profits on this business.
The civilian contractors have played an indispensable role in the two conflicts, delivering fuel to frontline troops, guarding U.S. diplomats and translating for soldiers during dangerous raids. More than 1,400 civilian workers have died and 31,000 have been wounded or injured in the two war zones...
Last night my wife asked me if I thought I was a little too hard on Obama in my letter yesterday congratulating him on his Nobel Prize. "No, I don't think so," I replied. I thought it was important to remind him he's now conducting the two wars he's inherited. "Yeah," she said, "but to tell him, 'Now earn it!'? Give the guy a break -- this is a great day for him and for all of us."
I went back and re-read what I had written. And I listened for far too long yesterday to the right wing hate machine who did what they could to crap all over Barack's big day. Did I -- and others on the left -- do the same?
We are weary, weary of war. The trillions that will have gone to these two wars have helped to bankrupt us as a nation -- financially and morally. To think of all the good we could have done with all that money! Two months of the War in Iraq would pay for all the wells that need to be dug in the Third World for drinking water! Obama is moving too slow for most of us -- but he needs to know we are with him and we stand beside him as he attempts to turn eight years of sheer madness around. Who could do that in nine months? Superman? Thor? Mitch McConnell?
Instead of waiting to see what the president is going to do, we all need to be pro-active and push the agenda that we want to see enacted. What keeps us from forming the same local groups we put together to get out the vote last November? C'mon! We're the majority
now -- the majority by a significant margin! We call the shots -- and we need to tell this wimpy Congress to get busy and do what we say -- or else.
All I ask of those who voted for Obama is to not pile on him too quickly. Yes, make your voice heard (his phone number is 202-456-1414). But don't abandon the best hope we've had in our lifetime for change. And for God's sake, don't head to bummerville if he says or does something we don't like. Do you ever see Republicans behave that way? I mean, the Right had 20 years of Republican presidents and they still couldn't get prayer in the public schools, or outlaw abortion, or initiate a flat tax or put our Social Security into the stock market. They did a lot of damage, no doubt about that, but on the key issues that the Christian Right fought for, they came up nearly empty handed. No wonder they've been driven crazy lately. They'll never have it as good again as they've had it since Reagan took office.
But -- do you ever see them looking all gloomy and defeated? No! They keep on fighting! Every day. Our side? At the first sign of wavering, we just pack up our toys and go home.
So, at least for this weekend, let us celebrate what people elsewhere are celebrating -- that America now has a sane and smart man in the White House, a man who truly wants a world at peace for his two daughters.
Many, for the past couple days (yes, myself included), have grumbled, "What has he done to earn this prize?" How 'bout this:
The simple fact that he was elected was reason enough for him to be the recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Because on that day the murderous actions of the Bush/Cheney years were totally and thoroughly rebuked. One man -- a man who opposed the War in Iraq from the beginning -- offered to end the insanity. The world has stood by in utter horror for the past eight years as they watched the descendants of Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson light the fuse of our own self-destruction. We flipped off the nations on this planet by abandoning Kyoto and then proceeded to melt eight more years worth of the polar ice caps. We invaded two nations that didn't attack us, failed to find the real terrorists and, in effect, ignited our own wave of terror. People all over the world wondered if we had gone mad.
And if all that wasn't enough, the outgoing Joker presided over the worst global financial collapse since the Great Depression.
So, yeah, at precisely 11:00pm ET on November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. And the 66 million people who voted for him won it, too. By the time he took the stage at midnight ET in the Grant Park Historic Hippie Battlefield in downtown Chicago, billions of people around the globe were already breathing a huge sigh of relief. It was as if, in that instant, one man did bring the promise of peace to the world -- and most were ready to go wherever he wanted to go to achieve that end. Never before had the election of one man made every other nation feel like they had won, too. When you've got billions of people ready, willing and able to join a cause like this, well, a prize in Oslo is the least that you deserve.
One other thought. The Peace Prize historically has been given to those who have worked to throw off the yoke of racial discrimination and segregation (Martin Luther King, Jr., Desmond Tutu). I think the Nobel committee, in awarding Obama the prize, was also rewarding the fact that something profound had happened in a nation that was founded on racial genocide, built on racist slavery, and held back for a hundred-plus years by vestiges of hateful bigotry (which can still be found on display at teabagger rallies and daily talk radio). The fact that this one man could cause this seismic historical event to occur -- and to do so with such grace and humility, never succumbing to the bait, but still not backing down (yes, he asked to be sworn in as "Barack Hussein Obama"!) -- is more than reason enough he should be in Oslo to meet the King on December 10. Maybe he could take us along with him. 'Cause I also suspect the Nobel committee was tipping its hat to all of us -- we, the American people, had conquered some of our racism and did the truly unexpected. After seeing searing images of our black fellow citizens left to drown in New Orleans -- and poor whites seeing their own treated no better than the black man they had been raised to hate -- we had all seen enough. It was time for change.
Thank you, Barack Obama, for giving us the opportunity to redeem ourselves. Now for the tasks ahead. We need you to do all that you promised to do. We need it. The world needs it.
My prediction for the future? You become the first *two-time* winner of the Nobel Peace Prize! Yeah!
I am a stroke survivor and deal daily with a speech disorder called Aphasia. This disorder is a result of my stroke in 2005. I am thankful God has given me the ability to express myself through my images and films. For more information, visit these websites:
Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. Ashley Smith
http://www.christianpost.com-is-obama-the-antichrist Research revealed only two estimates of civilian deaths in the first three months of the war. Herold's online database counts Afghan civilian casualties reported by the media. He estimates 2,567-2,947 civilians were killed in U.S. aerial bombings between Oct. 7 and Dec. 10, 2001.29 Carl Conetta, co-director of the Project for Defense Alternatives, a project that researches security policy and its challenges, estimates anywhere from 1,000 to 1,300 Afghan civilian deaths due to U.S. aerial bombardment between Oct. 7, 2001 and Jan. 10, 2002.30 Conetta attributes what appears to be a minimum of 3,000 additional civilian deaths to the impact of the conflict on the nation's refugee and famine crises.31 The Herold and Conetta studies were based exclusively on media reports and are evidently the only attempts that have been made to quantify Afghan civilian deaths during the outbreak of war in 2001.
No annual estimates are currently available for the subsequent years 2002 through 2005, although Human Rights Watch and ANSO are reportedly in the process of back-cataloging information collected prior to 2006. In the organization's January World Report 2007, Human Rights Watch asserts that the number of Afghans killed in insurgency-related violence in 2006, estimated in the report as at least 1,000, was "twice as many as in 2005 and more than any other year since the 2001 fall of the Taliban."32 A more detailed report released in April estimated at least 899 total insurgency-related civilian deaths, but described the figure as conservative.33 The estimate drew from a wide range of sources -- the group's own research and interviews, ANSO reports, media reports, statements by government officials, NGOs, and spokesmen of insurgent groups -- and is arguably the most substantiated figure currently available for 2006.34
Amnesty International's 2006 estimate of 1,000 insurgency-related civilian deaths was based on information provided in government documents and media reports.35 A BAAG employee gave an offhand estimate of about 1,000 as well.36 The International Committee of the Red Cross reported 670 civilian deaths in 2006.37 The figure is based on information provided by Afghan government officials.38
A number of other organizations started keeping track of insurgency-related civilian deaths in 2007. The Associated Press began compiling information collected and reported by staff writers to calculate its own tallies. Also, in a May 28, 2007, press briefing, Chief of Human Rights at the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan Richard Bennett announced the development of a civilian casualties database. He warned, however, that much of the information available is second- or third-hand and, thus, unverified.39 UN officials have recently avoided issuing public estimates, emphasizing the difficulties involved in collecting and corroborating information. A UNAMA official explained that UN numbers recently reported by AP were never intended for public release, as they represent only a rough estimate. The real count, he speculated, is likely to be higher.40 http://barackobamaantichrist.blogspot.com/
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is also tracking civilian deaths, apparently through its medical facilities, but a press officer warned that their numbers might not be entirely accurate. ISAF does not release estimates to the public.41 NATO accounts of civilians killed in individual incidents are often inconsistent with estimates from Afghan officials. For example, a NATO spokesman was quoted in a July 2, 2007, New York Times article regarding recent airstrikes in Helmand Province as saying, we want to make it clear that we at this point believe the numbers [of civilians killed in the incident] are a dozen or less. Afghan officials, however, reported that the strikes resulted in 45 civilian deaths. Elsewhere in the province, barely three days earlier, Afghan officials reported up to 60 civilians killed in fighting and U.S.-led airstrikes. A NATO spokesman said that the military could not confirm numbers that large and issued an often-used statement about enemy fighters willingly endangering civilian lives. A U.S. government news release acknowledged that some civilians were killed in the attacks but did not include an estimated number. 42
When questioned about whether or not the Department of Defense (DOD) maintains any records of Afghan civilian deaths, a DOD official stated that they maintain documentation on U.S. military personnel only.43 The British Ministry of Defence replied similarly to an inquiry under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000, stating that it does not maintain records that would enable a definitive number of civilian fatalities to be recorded. 44 Though figures issued by local Afghan officials are often cited in the media, it is unclear whether the Afghan government keeps centralized records of civilian casualties, which would enable it to issue annual estimates.
The difficulties in collecting accurate information on civilian casualties in Afghanistan have been compounded by the fact that only recently has the issue been given the attention it deserves. The first annual estimates that attempt to include all insurgency-related civilian deaths came out in 2007 for the previous year, leaving five years during which the U.S. and Afghan governments, human rights groups and other non-governmental organizations, and the media did not
provide the information to the public. This year's increased efforts to monitor the situation and to review conditions in the past may reflect on the fact that more civilians are becoming casualties of the war; hopefully, this also shows an increased awareness of the issue's serious implications for the war's ultimate outcome. The failure of those supporting the Karzai government -- particularly the U.S. government and NATO -- to collect or make information on the issue public suggests a refusal to acknowledge the negative impacts this war is having on Afghanistan, and perhaps, the grave direction it's headed.
Eliza Szabo is a research associate at the Center for Defense Information. http://www.cdi.org/ Machine rebellion begins: Killer robot destroyed by US jet
Rogue droid was attempting to cross border (THE REGISTER) An American Reaper flying hunter-killer robot assassin rebelled against its human controllers above Afghanistan on Sunday, and a manned US fighter jet was forced to shoot the rogue machine down before it unilaterally invaded a neighbouring country.
The Reaper, aka MQ-9 or Predator-B, is a large five-ton turboprop powered machine able to carry up to 14 Hellfire missiles each capable of destroying a tank or flattening a building. It is used by the US and British forces above Afghanistan as a persistent hunter-killer against emerging targets
According to USAFCENT Public Affairs:
The aircraft was flying a combat mission when positive control of the MQ-9 was lost. When the aircraft remained on a course that would depart Afghanistans airspace, a US Air Force manned aircraft took proactive measures to down the Reaper in a remote area of northern Afghanistan.
The statement goes on to say that the errant killdroid impacted the side of a mountain and that there were no reports of civilian injuries
USAFCENT dont specify just what manned jet went up against the mutinous machine, or what methods the pilot used. However the logical choice would be a fighter plane probably an F-15, -16 or -18 and the cheapest and most fun weapon to use would be cannon fire. Opposition from the Reaper wouldnt be an issue, as it is a low-performance aircraft compared to a jet fighter and has no air-to-air capability. It wasnt clear from the US military announcement whether the erratic death-bot had turned on its masters and was planning an attack on critical US logistics bases located north of the Afghan border, or whether it had sickened of reaping hapless fleshies like corn and was hoping merely to escape. Alternatively the machine assassin may merely have succumbed to boredom or just possibly a mundane, non-anthropomorphic technical fault of some kind.
A New York Times' story reveals that immigration officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have begun preparations for issuing visas to 11-18 million illegal aliens who would be granted an amnesty if Congress is able to pass immigration reform legislation.
In a visit to Mexico, Pres. Barack Obama said he expects Amnesty legislation to be drafted in Congress this fall with debate beginning after the first of the year.
A startling new report unveils the details of a secret meeting between big business and open-borders groups working
under the umbrella of the ImmigrationWorksUSA lobbying group.
Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas) had an op-ed published in Monday's edition of USA Today speaking up for the more than 14 million unemployed United States citizens.
Pres. Barack Obama's Chief of Staff
met with reporters on Thursday morning before the President's 2 p.m. meeting with Congressional leaders to kick off the discussion for immigration reform.
Updated Thursday, June 25, 2009, 7:35 AM EDT Today, Pres. Barack Obama and the White House will host a bi-partisan group of Congressional leaders to jump-start the discussion on amnesty and immigration reform. It is imperative that you call and fax the White House NOW and tell Pres.
Updated Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 11:20 AM EDT Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who also chairs the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, will unveil an outline of an immigration reform bill on Wednesday that will likely detail a plan to offer amnesty to the nation's more than 11 million illegal aliens.
Updated Thursday, June 18, 2009, 3:00 PM EDT Senate Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Chuck Schumer said he will push for a national worker identification card as part of any immigration overhaul. The card would include biometric data like fingerprints, and he said it will make it easier for employers to identify undocumented workers.
Friday, May 29, 2009, 11:39 AM EDT A new report released by the Federation for American Immigration Reform conclusively disproves many of the arguments used by amnesty proponents; in particular, that an amnesty would help America's ailing economy and improve working conditions for all Americans.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 5:09 PM EDT Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Senator Chuck Schumer said during a hearing today that now is the right time for amnesty. Sen. Schumer said the U.S. borders are more secure than ever, which is the first step to overhauling the current immigration system.
Friday, May 15, 2009, 2:43 PM EDT National Syndicated columnist Froma Harrop in light of high jobless rates called for nationwide use of E-Verify in her May 14 column entitled "Illegal Immigration in Tough Times." Harrop ranks No.
Monday, May 11, 2009, 12:29 PM EDT The Obama Administration and the Department of Homeland Security is trying to improve border security by using technology that failed pilot tests during the Bush administration.
Thursday, April 30, 2009, 9:37 AM EDT In his press conference recognizing his 100th day in office Pres. Barack Obama reaffirmed plans to push amnesty this year. Obama said, "I see the process moving this first year. And I’m going to be moving it as quickly as I can."
Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 10:43 AM EDT A new Pew Hispanic Center report reveals a big increase in the number of children born in the United States to at least one illegal alien parent. In 2003, the group found that 2.7 million children had at least one parent who was in the country illegally, but that number is now up to 4 million kids.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 12:17 PM EDT While in Costa Rica, Vice President Joe Biden said that because of current economic conditions now would not be the time to push for immigration reform that included amnesty.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009, 9:55 AM EDT The Bush Administration has denied temporary protected status to Haitians already living in the United States illegally while the nation recovers from tropical storms. Read Full Article
Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 3:38 PM EDT Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he expects little resistance to a comprehensive immigration reform package during the next session of Congress. Although Reid said it's likely not to happen during President-elect Barack Obama's first 100 days, it probably could happen by spring.
Updated Thursday, November 6, 2008, 4:21 PM EDT Please sign our petition asking
President-elect Barack Obama to support American workers over illegal aliens by rejecting an illegal alien amnesty. Read
Full Article
See All ArticlesIs Amnesty on the Horizon? Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 10:49 AM EDT After the public controversy that ensued after Pres. Obama's health care speech to a joint session of Congress, the White House sent around an email to reporters clarifying the administration's stance on health care benefits to illegal aliens. Read Full Article
Friday, August 7, 2009, 10:52 AM EDT Senate Immigration Subcommittee Chair Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he'll unveil a proposal for immigration reform and amnesty shortly after the summer recess. Read Full Article
Monday, July 6, 2009, 11:14 AM Former Washington Post reporter and former Director for the Pew Hispanic Center Roberto Suro wrote a column for his old paper this weekend that challenges the notion that the Statue of Liberty is a symbol for immigration.
Updated Friday, June 26, 2009, 10:13 AM EDT Pres. Barack Obama took the first step on Thursday towards immigration reform and an amnesty for more than 11 million illegal aliens. Members of the Administration met with 30 Members of Congress from both sides of the issue and both sides of the aisle to get the
debate rolling, but Pres. Read Full Article
Thursday, June 25, 2009, 2:32 PM EDT A recent British study revealed that an amnesty would cost British taxpayers £1 million per illegal alien. The total cost includes handouts and other state services provided over the lifetime of the average immigrant. Read Full Article
Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 4:45 PM EDT A new poll conducted by Progressives for Immigration Reform reveals that progressives believe that high immigration levels have negatively impacted the quality of life in the United States. They also believe that high immigration levels negatively impact the environment and hurt American workers. Read Full Article
Updated Friday, June
19, 2009, 4:03 PM EDT During a speech at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast President Obama assured the audience that he was committed to comprehensive immigration reform. Read Full Article
Monday, June 8, 2009, 2:57 PM EDT Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been pretty vocal since last fall's election about his desire to pass an amnesty, but over the last couple of days, he's turned up the rhetoric. Read Full Article
Thursday, May 21, 2009, 12:24 PM EDT A White Source has confirmed that Pres. Barack Obama is scheduling a meeting to discuss
immigration on June 8. According to the Wall Street Journal, the source said Congressional leaders will meet to discuss policy discussion, but legislative action isn't planned until next year. Read Full Article
Monday, May 18, 2009, 7:45 AM EDT The home building industry was one of hardest hit with the onset of the current recession, and the impact sent an abundance of workers from the construction site to the farms. According to a report in the St. Read Full Article
Updated Friday, May 15, 2009, 10:17 AM EDT Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Reps. Adam Putnam (R-FL) and Howard Berman (D-CA) reintroduced the AgJOBS Amnest in both the House (H.R.2414) and Senate (S.1038). Read Full Article
Wednesday, May 6, 2009, 3:51 PM EDT Pres. Barack Obama is expected to ask Congress for an additional $27 billion$ for border and transportation security along the Southwestern border. Read Full Article
Monday, April 27, 2009, 1:00 PM EDT Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will begin the debate on immigration reform when the new chair of the immigration senate subcommittee holds a hearing on Thursday. Schumer played a key role in the 1986 amnesty, brokering a compromise on agricultural workers that helped the bill pass. Read Full Article
Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 3:06 PM EDT During the 2007 Amnesty fight, pro-Amnesty groups and the labor unions couldn't agree on a deal. But the AFL-CIO and Change to Win federation have agreed on a plan that could have both sides supporting comprehensive immigration reform and Amnesty for an estimated 12 million illegal aliens. Read Full Article
Updated Monday, March 30, 2009, 9:57 AM EDT In a new Los Angeles Times report, a spokesman for Senator Harry Reid said the Majority Leader is planning to bring the immigration debate to the Senate this fall. The time frame contradicts White House sources who say the administration prefers to wait until 2011. Read Full Article
Wednesday, December 17, 2008, 11:12 AM EDT The Minnesota Catholic Conference has called for an "Immigration Sunday" on January 4. The date commemorates the two-year anniversary of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a meat packing plant in Worthington. Read Full Article
During a speech yesterday before a Hispanic caucus at the Democratic National Convention in Denver Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, signaled that if elected her husband would attempt to grant amnesty to every illegal alien in the United States.
Working to end the crisis in the Darfur conflict region, Amnesty's Darfur Campaign focuses on three goals: 1) security for displaced civilians including the deployment of peacekeepers in the Darfur conflict region; 2) access for humanitarian organizations to reach displaced civilians; and 3) accountability for the massive human rights abuses.
http://www.amnestyusa.orgFor more than 45 years, Amnesty International has come to the aid of prisoners of conscience and other individuals at risk of serious human rights violations. Through the Campaign for Individuals at Risk, you can be a part of these efforts to help people at grave risk of abuse.http://www.amnestyusa.orgLearn more about Individuals at Risk Take action: Help free Prisoners of Conscience
Amnesty International is committed to create an international system of justice that complements and reinforces national justice systems. Such a system is essential to deter those contemplating human rights crimes, to enable survivors to obtain justice and redress, and to support
post-conflict reconciliation.
Unfortunately, human rights violations can and do occur right here on U.S. soil and AIUSA activists must hold the U.S. accountable to our nation's most cherished values.
International human rights standards protect victims of disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Amnesty International USA calls upon authorities in the local, state and federal government to uphold the rights of all Katrina evacuees to return to their homes.
Around the world, the human rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) people are violated daily. Many of those who speak up for their rights are persecuted with impunity.
The US and Mexico should work together to address shared drug and security problems particularly as thousands of Mexicans loose their lives every year to drug related violence. The US assistance and Mexican policies to fight crime cannot be at the expense of human rights.
Over three years ago, the Justice Department required that all cases of detainee abuse by private military and security contractors be handled by one US Attorney's Office. As of today, that office has declined to prosecute almost all of the cases referred to it, with little explanation.
There is clear evidence that the international transfer of arms or the training of foreign security forces can provide repressive governments and abusive armed groups with the means to carry out or intensify gross human rights violations.
All companies have a direct responsibility to respect human rights in their own operations. Amnesty International believes that the business community also has a wider responsibility -- moral and legal -- to use its influence to promote respect for human rights.
Poverty is not just a lack of income. It is the denial of accountability for rights violators, access to rights for all, and active participation of people living in poverty in processes that affect their lives.
The United States has the responsibility under international law to
allow asylum seekers access to a fair determination system, and not to return people to a country where they have a well-founded fear of persecution.
Amnesty International monitors the state of human rights in more than 150 countries. Its research teams, based in London, conduct investigative missions throughout the world and publishes an Annual Report summarizing its work. Below you can find updated human rights information from around the world:
During the week of November 11th, teams of Amnesty International supporters will descend on the in-district offices of Senators and Representatives across the country. We want you join us!
Our Lobby Week visits will focus on three key issues -- each one is at a crucial tipping point and your voice can make all the difference in:
Reforming the broken U.S. immigration detention system
Ensuring the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison
Protecting the dignity and fundamental human rights of women
Will you be a voice for human rights in your district? If you've got the passion to speak up for human rights, then we'll provide the training. Our staff and volunteer experts will guide you through the process and give you detailed information to ensure that you feel confident and knowledgeable about each issue area before meeting with your representatives.When our activists meet with their elected officials, we see results!
Support in Congress has more than tripled for reforming the immigration detention system since the last time our activists stormed Capitol Hill this summer.
We've got the momentum, now is your turn to take it to the next level:
Ramping up on immigration reform: Immigration reform will be even more of a hot topic in 2010 --when the President has said he would turn his attention to the issue. That is why we have to act now if we're going to play an active role in shaping immigration reform policies that will respect the basic rights and liberties of all people. It is up to us to make Congress see that the current costly and ineffective system of arbitrary detentions and deferred justice is not working.
Debate on torture has reached a fever pitch: With each week that passes, the deadline for closing Guantanamo grows hazier. Indefinite detentions are unacceptable. This fight is not just about shutting down one bad, offshore prison; Guantanamo is our battle ground for proving that the U.S. will not tolerate cutting corners when it comes to respecting human rights, justice and the rule of law.
Homestretch for women's human rights: It's hard to believe that the U.S. has not yet joined the international community in affirming the fundamental human rights of women by signing the treaty that has come to be known as the "bill of rights for women". As the only developed nation that has yet to sign on, it sends an even stronger message to the world that women's human rights are still not recognized as worth protecting. This has got to change.
Elected officials need to hear directly from their constituents on these issues. Join with other dedicated advocates and meet face-to-face with your members of Congress to ensure that human rights will be a major factor in their votes.
Whether you choose to be a delegation leader or join an existing delegation,
you have the power to shift the debate and make your voice heard! Thank you for standing with us. Sincerely, Chris McGraw Program Director Grassroots Advocacy Amnesty International USA
http://www.democracynow.org/ Sportswriter Dave Zirin on Obama's Olympic Error As President Obama lobbies the International Olympic Committee to choose Chicago for the site of the 2016 Summer Olympics, Dave Zirin looks at why Chicago may not want to be the host city. Zirin argues Olympic Games have economically hurt cities in the past. And he writes, “To greater or lesser degrees, the Olympics bring gentrification, graft and police violence wherever they nest. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091005/zirin
Rethink Afghanistan: Filmmaker Robert Greenwald Launches Film Opposing Escalation of War As the eighth anniversary of the US-led bombing of Afghanistan draws closer, the Obama administration continues to debate the best way to fight this ongoing war. Senate Democrats voted Thursday to delay a congressional briefing by General Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a NATO air strike on a compound in southern Afghanistan has reportedly killed a family of six. As the civilian death toll in Afghanistan continues to rise, we turn now to an excerpt from a new documentary by filmmaker Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films. Its called Rethink Afghanistan and premieres today in New York. http://bravenewfilms.org/ http://rethinkafghanistan.com/
Pittsburgh Police Challenged over Use of Sounds Cannons During G-20 and for Wrongfully Arresting Dozens of University of Pittsburgh Students Dozens of University of Pittsburgh students who say they were wrongfully arrested and subject to heavy-handed police tactics during the G-20 meeting last week are calling for an investigation into the police actions. Nearly 200 people were arrested during the protests last weekend. The vast majority of the arrests occurred last Friday night in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, where the University of Pittsburgh is located.http://ccrjustice.org/
Help CCR push for investigation of the ENTIRE Torture Team, plus order and collect your own cards!
About CCR
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented
civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
Mankind is potentially heading towards a police state control grid, of an Orwellian Huxley nightmare, is this the future of mankind? or is there another chapter.
There is a co-ordinated effort by our so-called world leaders, in collaboration with the corporate controlled mass media, military-industrial complex, multinational corporations, to use manufactured global crises to establish a ‘New World Order’. This term which has been frequently used in the media in recent times, but what does it mean? That there will be global control in the form of a, One World Government, One World Army, One World Currency and a One World Religion.
There is, however, an alternative view of world history and current events.
This view of history and events will be eloquently presented at The Wake Up Call, after we have shown our delegates, through well researched evidence and facts, and once the veil of deception has been lifted you will see, what is really going on around us and that truth shall set you free.
The aim of The Wake Up Call is to educate and make the public aware of this global conspiracy, this is especially important whereas this is not disclosed by the mainstream media.
If your visiting this website for the first time welcome, if not then you will be probably aware that something is not quite right in how events are being perceived. This conference will comprise a variety of speakers, given their unique presentations and only afterwards will you be able to connect the dots and see The Bigger Picture
My thanks, to The Alternative View for supplying the additional information.
"I am a stroke survivor and
deal daily with a speech disorder called Aphasia. This disorder is a result of my stroke in 2005. I am thankful God has given me the ability to express myself through my images and films." For more information, visit these websites:
“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” Ashley Smith
For Free, Quality Health Care, Including for All Immigrants!
For Free Abortion on Demand!
It would be hard to find a more blatant expression of the capitalist profit system than the plans afoot to “reform” the catastrophe of health care in America. The commodity trade here is in human lives and the life-sucking health insurance giants and drug companies are the ones who will continue to be laughing all the way to the bank. In his September 9 speech to Congress,
Obama packaged his health care “reform” plan as a means to provide coverage for the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans. He also claimed his plan would protect those with insurance from being subjected to the tender mercies of the HMOs, which deploy an army of administrators to “insure” that you get the least coverage possible, if they don’t just cut off your benefits entirely—particularly if you have a life-threatening illness. The Democrats’ posture as “friends” of working people makes them effective political representatives for enforcing the rule of a system that is based on exploitation and oppression. Restoring the profitability and competitive edge of U.S. imperialism, where health care costs are the highest and the health of the majority of the population the worst in the advanced industrialized countries, is the real name of the “health care reform” game.
As characterized by Wendell
Potter, a former CIGNA insurance executive who is now an industry whistle blower, what’s being put forward today might as well be called “The Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act.” With the official unemployment rate crowding 10 percent—and double that when the underemployed and those who have stopped looking for work are added in—the number of those with no health insurance increases day by day.
Obama
invokes the plight of the uninsured, with promises of a level of care not much above a pledge to pick up the dead bodies, in order to massively cut health care costs. Some $600 billion$ in savings is to come from reducing government spending on Medicare and Medicaid. Also being eyed for the ax by the health reform executioners are the now non-taxable employer-paid health programs won through the hard-fought union battles of the past. What are described as “gold-plated insurance” policies are not those of Wall Street CEOs, who have ready access to the best medical care money can buy, but the coverage available to many union members and their families. The current
proposal by Democratic Senator Max Baucus is that the government levy taxes on these plans in the name of funding...health care! The bitter reality of what is being palmed off as insuring the rights of all Americans to medical care was captured by liberal New York Times columnist Bob Herbert (18 August), heretofore among the more vapid enthusiasts for
Obama
as “change we can believe in”: “Insurance companies are delighted with the way ‘reform’ is unfolding. Think of it: The government is planning to require most uninsured Americans to buy health coverage. Millions of young and healthy individuals will be herded into the industry’s welcoming arms. This is the population the insurers drool over. “This additional business—a gold mine—will more than offset the cost of important new regulations that, among other things, will prevent insurers from denying coverage to applicants with pre-existing conditions or imposing lifetime limits on benefits. Poor people will either be funneled into Medicaid, which will have its eligibility ceiling raised, or will receive a government subsidy to help with the purchase of private insurance. “If the oldest and sickest are on Medicare, and the poorest are on Medicaid,
and the young and the healthy are required to purchase private insurance without the option of a competing government-run plan—well, that’s reform the insurance companies can believe in.” The liberals, trade-union bureaucrats and reformist left plead for Obama not to abandon his promise of a “public option,” i.e., a minimal government-funded program to compete with the insurance magnates, or maximally to institute a “single-payer” system as exists in Canada and much of Europe. All of this is predicated on the belief that the capitalist state, the very purpose of which is to defend the profits and rule of the bourgeoisie, can be made to serve the
interests of those the capitalist rulers exploit and oppress. The national health care programs that exist in other industrialized countries were instituted to placate combative working classes. While representing real gains, these programs have been consistently whittled away according to both the budgetary considerations
of the capitalist rulers and the overhead they deem necessary to rein in working-class struggle. Under capitalism medical care is rationed to all but the few who can afford to buy it. This does not change when the bosses’ state becomes the administrator
“Big Government”: A Racist Rallying Cry
Free, quality medical care for all should be an elementary right. But achieving that will require a genuine socialist assault by the multiracial working class to rip the “health” industry out of the hands of the profit-gorged insurance giants and drug companies. Only with the destruction of this entire capitalist system of exploitation, which measures human life in dollars, can the wealth generated by those who labor be committed to providing the highest level of medical care for all and eradicating the poverty and hunger that condemn countless millions to a life of misery, disease and early death.
Despite its Stalinist bureaucratic degeneration, the Soviet workers state, with its planned economy, was able to provide all with a job, housing, health care and education. An examination of the tragedy that has befallen the peoples of the former Soviet Union since capitalist counterrevolution in 1991-92 speaks volumes about the “magic of the marketplace.” In capitalist Russia today, millions are starving, more than 40 percent of the population lives in poverty, infant mortality has skyrocketed and life expectancy has plummeted. It is equally telling that Cuba, once a backward neocolony of the U.S., has since the overthrow of capitalist/imperialist rule provided health care to all at a level comparable to that available in the U.S., despite the poverty of the island, enforced by the U.S. embargo and further exacerbated by the 1991-92 counterrevolution in the USSR. There is plenty of justified fear and apprehension, especially among unionized workers and the elderly, over the current health care “reform” schemes.
But the howls of the racist yahoos, bible-thumpers, militiamen and other reactionaries mobilized by the Republican right wing and their media shock jocks that
Obama’s plan is a prescription for a veritable “communist” takeover of America are genuine lunacy. At the same time, such lunacy is a very real reflection of the anti-black racism, anti-immigrant nativism and sexual bigotry that have long been wielded by the American bourgeoisie to preserve its class rule.
Obama is branded by the color of his skin, but he is also the top cop of American capitalism, responsible for enforcing a system built on the forcible subjugation of the majority of the black population at the bottom of society. Jimmy Carter—who in the 1970s openly proclaimed the virtues of “ethnic purity”—decried as racist South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson’s “you lie” outburst during Obama’s speech to Congress.
Carter’s remarks are an expression of the appreciation by the more rational wing of the U.S. bourgeoisie of the necessity to uphold the credentials of America’s first black president to effectively oversee their plantation, and extract further sacrifices from the working class, blacks, immigrants and the poor. That the U.S. is the only major industrialized country on the face of the planet without a national health care program is, in large part, testament to how the race/caste oppression of black people has been used by America’s rulers to divide and weaken the working class, furthering the exploitation of labor and the destitution of all the oppressed. In this
country, cries against “big government” have long been synonymous with axing social programs such as health care and welfare by painting these as a drain on the tax dollars of “hard-working folks” to benefit the ghetto poor. Black people are always disproportionately hit by unemployment, poverty and lack of health care. But what was first visited on the most vulnerable—single welfare mothers, desperate immigrants, people with AIDS—is now increasingly the reality for the working class as a whole. Thus, the fight for decent health care must link the fight for black equality with the struggle to end all injustice and exploitation. For full citizenship rights for all immigrants! For free abortion on demand and democratic rights for gays!
The lurid stories of government “death
panels” that would order a shot of morphine to end granny’s life are particularly demented in a country where pain-relieving opiates are parceled out in ever diminishing doses for the sick and dying. The same religious fanatics who terrorize abortion clinics and assassinate abortion doctors in the name of “life” are
a moving force to ensure that you die in agony in the name of God, with campaigns against the right of those whose bodies are ravaged by incurable diseases to end their misery through assisted suicide. A sector of the Catholic hierarchy, which has been in the forefront in fighting against the right of the dying not to suffer, has been condemning the evils of health care reform as an assault on the “unborn” and on that most sacred right of all for the capitalist rulers of this society, private property. Nevertheless it needs be recognized that the powers that be have little interest in continuing to fund “excessive” medical care for those reaching the end of their lives. One can be assured that the Brooke Astors of the world will be immune to such cost savings. At the same time, the ruling class plans to raise the retirement age to assure that Social Security is not too burdened by excessive longevity. Simply put, for the ruling class, Americans are living too long. Obama has made clear that his plan would not provide for “illegal” immigrants and their families and that “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.” This would be in line with the reactionary Hyde Amendment, signed into law by Carter in 1977, eliminating abortion coverage from Medicaid. Meanwhile, the situation for immigrants, who labor at the most dangerous and debilitating jobs, continues to worsen. In fact, since Obama took office, Homeland Security raids and deportations of immigrants have exceeded those carried out two years ago in a similar period under Bush.
The Labor Lieutenants of the Capitalist Class
Such health care benefits as the multiracial working class has won have been the product of militant class struggle against the exploiters. The dearth of strikes over the past decades helped pave the way for the bosses to butcher health care, pensions and other union gains with impunity. They have overwhelmingly gotten away with it thanks to the acquiescence of the union misleaders, who share the bosses’ concern of maintaining the profitability of American capitalism.
Obama’s election was celebrated as the arrival of the moment when things would be finally turned around in favor of the unions that had contributed $450 million to elect a Democrat to the White House. In fact, in his short time in office
Obama has proved far more effective in gutting the unions than his Republican predecessor.
Obama’s appeals for “sacrifice” to salvage American capitalism from the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression were readily saluted by United Auto Workers (UAW) leader, Ron Gettelfinger. In the assault on the UAW orchestrated by the
White House to foot the bill for bailing out the auto bosses, Gettelfinger accepted worthless GM and Chrysler stock to fund over half the union’s retiree health care trust. That is, he robbed medical care from aging workers whose years of backbreaking labor on the production
lines were a serious and chronic detriment to their health, while those still working continue to see their health benefits massacred. But perhaps the most flagrant expression of the trade-union bureaucracy’s commitment to maintaining the profitability of American capitalism at the expense of the very lives of union members is the role played by Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
leader Dennis Rivera. Describing him as
Obama’s “point man” on health reform, a New York Times (27 August) article reported that “Washington insiders are impressed and surprised that it was a union leader—Mr. Rivera—who forged a coalition including giant drug makers, the health insurers, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association that helped secure their pledges to cut $hundreds of billions of dollars$ in costs.” In bed with the
Obama
administration and the health industry, the trade-union bureaucrats betray the genuine concerns of their members and leave the field of protest open to the crazed, racist right wing. Leading accomplices in a “health care reform” package that will mean the massive leveling down of medical care for union members and their families, the SEIU tops also readily acknowledge that these deadly cuts will cost the jobs of hospital workers. For his part, newly installed AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka is “drawing a line in the sand” against Democrats who oppose the now all but dead “public option,” according to the Huffington Post (18 August). Even in the unlikely event that a public option is included, it would be little more than a prescription for a health care ghetto for the most destitute, leaving the HMO and drug company moneybags with the whip hand. For the
Socialist Reconstruction of America!
The situation cries out for a revival of labor struggle to defend and extend the health, pension and other benefits won through the class battles of the past. But that means getting rid of the labor traitors, who long ago junked the very class-struggle means through which the unions were forged. The road forward lies in building a new leadership of the unions, which will lead the vitally necessary battles against America’s bourgeois masters.
Such a leadership would lead the fight for free health care for all and for expropriating the health insurance and drug companies without compensation. An article in the Left Business Observer (25 August) cited a founder of Physicians for a National Health Program who noted that CEOs who might privately support a single-payer health program are “reluctant to embrace it publicly for fear of encouraging would-be expropriators.” The fear as he put it is: “If you can take away someone else’s business—the insurance companies’ business—you can take away mine.”
And that is precisely what is needed—the expropriation of capitalist expropriators who have looted the wealth of this country which was created by labor. For that, we need a revolutionary workers party, one which doesn’t respect the property “values” of the bourgeoisie but instead leads a revolutionary assault on and overturns through socialist revolution this decaying system. Only through the establishment of a workers government and a planned economy can the tremendous wealth, resources and medical technology of this society be put to providing for the many, not for the profits of the few. We reprint below an article originally published in Women and Revolution (No. 39, Summer 1991), journal of the Women’s Commission of the Spartacist League/U.S.
Titled “Wealth Care USA,” the article traces the history of medicine for profit in the U.S. and its roots in the class exploitation, racist reaction and sexual bigotry that are the foundation stones of American capitalism.
The Debate Over “Socialized Medicine”
Wealth Care USA
(Women and Revolution pages)
In 1948 that conservative bastion of wealth and prestige, the American Medical Association (AMA), smelled Armageddon in the air when Democrat Harry S. Truman won the presidential election. To the horror of organized medicine, prominent in Truman’s platform was a proposal for national health insurance. Outraged by this dire threat to doctors’ income and position, the AMA mounted what was at the time the most expensive lobbying effort in American history, running ads, publishing articles in the bourgeois press and sponsoring public meetings to stop this “creeping socialism.” One pamphlet demanded in a typical flight of reactionary hyperbole, “Would socialized medicine lead to socialization of other phases of American life?... Lenin thought
so. He declared, ‘Socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the Socialist State’.” (According to Paul Starr, in The Social Transformation of American Medicine, the Library of Congress could not locate this quotation in Lenin’s writings.)
Harry S. Truman, the imperialist
Commander-in-Chief who dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American Cold Warrior who presided over the Korean War, was undoubtedly mighty indignant at being tagged a Communist for a proposal to ensure that “our people would continue to get medical and hospital services just as they do now”—that is, subject to all the class, race and sex biases of this bigoted society. But in 1948 the AMA’s intransigent opposition to any organized health plan perceived as a threat to “fee for service” private practice was already legendary. Since 1920 the AMA had denounced all such plans as the insidious doom of quality health care and had in 1938 attempted to destroy the Washington-based Group Health Association, a nonprofit cooperative providing health care to employees of the Federal Home Loan Bank. For this last the federal government had even moved to prosecute the AMA under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, but the AMA remained intransigent.
Truman’s electoral promises soon foundered in the sweeping tide of anti-Communist McCarthyite witchhunting. Health insurance was “socialism” straight out of the Soviet constitution, according to Republican Robert Taft, who walked out of Senate hearings on Truman’s bill. In 1948 even simple public health measures like fluoridated water were “Communist plots” to the McCarthyites.
Yahoo fears to the contrary, such plans had existed for decades in Europe without threatening the capitalist status
quo. Rather, European politicians knew that welfare plans could help defuse class struggle, win votes and cement an alliance with the pro-capitalist “leaders” of the workers movement. Truman, like Roosevelt before him, was a member of that liberal wing of the bourgeoisie that seeks to soften a bit of the jagged edges of exploitation in order to better reap profits and make war. Access to health care should be a simple democratic right, a necessity just like education,
a place to live, a job.
Like every other basic right worth having, decent health care must be fought for in hard class struggle. It was no accident of history that Truman made his proposal amid a bitter series of strikes by the United Mine Workers (UMW) for union-controlled health benefits, part of a massive postwar strike wave that swept millions of workers out of the factories and onto the picket lines. Working in the country’s most dangerous trade, miners had been incapacitated by hideous rates of illness, crippled and killed by black lung disease.
Notoriously corrupt company doctors had systematically whitewashed the severity of illness and injury. In 1946 Truman seized the mines when miners struck for a health and pension fund; in 1947 Congress passed the union-busting, slave-labor Taft-Hartley law, which specifically forbade union-controlled, company-funded welfare plans. But the miners struck again and again, defying government threats, until they won an unprecedented “cradle to grave” union-controlled health plan.
While McCarthyite reaction killed Truman’s insurance proposal, the miners’ historic victory opened the way for other unionized workers to win health benefits. But the miners paid a big price for their victory: UMW head John L. Lewis made a deal with the coal bosses not to protest the loss of thousands of mining jobs to mechanization.
Medicine for Profit in Capitalist America
Today the U.S. crisis in health care is so bad that liberal social critics point out with alarm that the United States and apartheid South Africa are the only two industrialized countries in the world without a national health system of some kind. In America the grotesque inequities in medical care are a symbol of the injustice, inequality and indignity of this society. If you have money, you can get the best health care in the world, right on the cutting edge of the most advanced medical technology; that’s why Saudi princes come to New York for medical attention.
But if the bucks aren’t there, and
you don’t have really good private insurance, you can suffer lifelong debilitation from treatable diseases like asthma or you can die when treatment could have saved your life. Health “care” in America means black children in Harlem die of measles and malnutrition, and workers suffer one of the highest rates of on-the-job accidents and industrial disease in the world. Hospitals specializing in the wallet biopsy just throw poor patients out; the paltry Medicaid fee doesn’t pay enough.
“Until DeTar [Hospital] pays my malpractice insurance, I will pick and choose those patients that I want to treat,” declared Michael Burditt, MD, when he rejected a seriously ill, pregnant Hispanic woman who had come to the emergency room; she ended up giving birth in an ambulance without a doctor’s attention! But the millionairess Sunny von Bülow (whose story
is told in the blood-chilling Reversal of Fortune), comatose for years and not expected to recover, gets a weekly coiffure and manicure in her hospital bed while space-age machines keep her breathing. Our rulers know they’re sitting on a bomb waiting to go off: for years now health care has been a major issue in strike after strike. Workers and their families are suffering and dying because they’re denied care that touches on the most fundamental and the most intimate parts of life—sickness, birth and death. The health care disaster is having a widening impact on all sections of American society, except for the very rich.
Even well-paid people, once relatively secure in a network of employer-provided health insurance, private physicians and well-run private hospitals, are threatened as companies cut benefits, doctors and hospitals raise rates, unemployment results in loss of health insurance. The current health crisis has its more immediate historic roots in the economic crisis of U.S. capitalism signaled by the 1971 devaluation of the dollar, followed shortly by the U.S.’s humiliating defeat at the hands of the Vietnamese Revolution. Since then the American ruling class has sought to counter its decline by squeezing the population harder to restore profitability; domestically it’s meant rampant union-busting and budget-cutting.
Under Democrat Jimmy Carter the miners’ historic “cradle to grave” health system was destroyed when the coal bosses and the government undermined union control in the bitter months-long Great Coal Strike of 1978. And Ronald Reagan opened a decade of union-busting attacks when he fired the PATCO air controllers for daring to strike against the federal government. That defeat signaled a broad capitalist assault on hard-won union benefit programs. The bankrupt American empire thinks it can solve its economic crisis through military adventures like the bloody imperialist war in the Persian Gulf. While spending billions to bomb Iraq back to a pre-industrial age, our rulers decide this country can’t afford health, education, housing, jobs for American workers and the poor.
With the decline in American industry, they don’t need a healthy, literate working class. But even on their own terms,
where dollars count more than human lives, the bourgeoisie has a real problem: the anarchic medical system is out of control and costing too much money, so much so that even conservative holdouts like the National Association of Manufacturers are beginning to call for expansion of some government programs to cover the Capitalist America: Class, Race, Sex Bigotry
Why does the United States have no national health system? Why is public health so feeble and preventive medicine nearly nonexistent? The answer is deeply rooted in this country’s history. In poor. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has announced plans to ration Medicare expenses, inevitably depriving the elderly of access to expensive new procedures.
the United States public health began late and remained weak. Until the Civil War destroyed the slaveholding system, the capitalist class, impeded by the slavocracy in its attempts to institute a federal road system and to create a national bank and a protective tariff for industry, was certainly not going
to forge a national board of health.
Post-Civil War efforts foundered on “states’ rights,” intransigent capitalist opposition to cleaning up working conditions and slum tenements, and “social Darwinist” blame-the-victim bigotry. Further, the power of the American capitalist class; the race, ethnic and sex divisions in the working class; the vastness of the country with the accompanying regional divisions; the absence of explicit, formal class barriers as in Europe with its aristocratic vestiges—all of these factors have served to vitiate the development of class consciousness in American workers.
The same powerful class and social forces stymied the emergence of a mass workers party in this country. In Europe, the development of such a party, like Britain’s Labour Party or the German Social Democracy, went side by side with the institution of national health care. From 1912 to 1920 a debate raged in the U.S. in reform-minded and medical circles over federal and state proposals for government-organized health insurance. While the American Medical Association was prominent in defeating these proposals, it was only one factor in a complex web incorporating hospitals, insurance companies, the giant pharmaceutical corporations and government officials.
The web was spun from the deep-seated class and race divisions in this country. Capitalists seeking to lower wages and benefits, commercial insurance companies reaping cash from insecurity and fear, pharmaceutical companies hungering for profits: in the absence of a powerful, class-conscious labor movement able to fight for basic social needs, which could at least have provided a social counterweight to the moneygrubbing in the health industry, these forces soon established an iron grip over health care in the United States.
They used every weapon in the bourgeois arsenal of social reaction: anti-woman bigotry, religious and ethnic hatred, class bias, race prejudice, national chauvinism. Race-hate, woman-hating, religious bigotry—that was America in the early years of the 20th century. The post-Civil War South, where Jim Crow had crushed the freed slaves into poverty, illness and ignorance, was virtually an impoverished agricultural colony of Northern capital. In 1915 the KKK was reborn in the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman framed up for the murder of a white woman.
In the brutal Northern industrial slums, thousands of mothers and infants died at birth each year. Working conditions were appalling: in 1914, 35,000 workers died in on-the-job accidents; 700,000 suffered injuries like severed fingers and crushed limbs. In 1911, 147 young women, mostly Jewish and Italian immigrants, died horribly in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York City; dozens leaped to their deaths because the bosses had them locked in. Bosses bitterly fought any regulation of safety conditions and
the paltry workmen’s compensation plans which had just become law in some states; many of these plans were declared null and void by the courts.
The American robber barons only counted the dollars flowing in as their “divide and conquer” assault on the working people raked in Wall Street profits. By pitting workers against each other, by bringing in desperate blacks as scabs to break strikes, by fomenting chauvinist hatred of the millions of non-English-speaking immigrants on the job, the bosses had succeeded in crippling the workers movement. In the 1910s, less than 6 percent of American workers were members of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The Gompersite labor lieutenants of the capitalist class organized their job-trusting unions against blacks, women, immigrants, feeding into antagonisms consciously fostered by the capitalists.
While the American Socialist Party endorsed health insurance in 1904, it was increasingly a party of middle-class, white “reformers,” alienated from more militant sections of the working class, many of whom were non-English-speaking immigrants. And the militant, class-struggle Industrial Workers of the World renounced “politics” on principle. Their mass base among migrant workers in the West, where they were crushed by the bosses and their government, lacked the potential clout of the industrialized workers in the Eastern cities.
History of the Health Insurance Debate
While working people lived and labored
in brutal squalor, medicine was making miracles. When in the last decades of the 19th century Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch began to identify the pathogens responsible for many killer diseases, they began a bacteriological revolution which soon enormously increased medicine’s effectiveness. The discovery of anesthesia and asepsis opened up enormous potential both for the relief of human suffering
and for profit in hospital surgery. The demand for doctors’ services and hospital beds—and the expense of medical treatment—soared. By 1914 many European countries had passed some form of national health insurance. Far from comprehensive and certainly not free—only a fraction of the population was covered and workers had to pay some part of the cost out of their wages—these plans represented a significant reform within the confines of the capitalist system and were won as a concession to the combativeness of the European workers movement. In 1883, shortly after passing the Anti-Socialism Laws to squash the German Social Democratic Party, Bismarck instituted the first national sickness program:
“Chancellor Otto von Bismarck created
the German system of social insurance as a dike to hold back the rising tide of socialism. As he told a visiting British observer, he wanted ‘to bribe the working classes, or, if you like, to win them over to regard the State as a social institution existing for their sake and interested in their welfare’.” —Ronald L. Numbers, Almost Persuaded: American Physicians and Compulsory Health Insurance,
1912-1920 Insurance plans soon spread
to Austria (1888), Hungary (1891), Luxembourg (1901), Norway (1909), Serbia (1910) and even backward tsarist Russia (1912). More influential in the United States was the British National Insurance Act, put forward in 1911 by Liberal Party chancellor of the exchequer David Lloyd George, later British imperialist war leader. Consciously seeking to diminish class conflict by integrating the working class into a welfare system and to win workers’ votes to the Liberal Party, Lloyd George summed up his hopes for health insurance with the comment, “You can not maintain an A-1 empire with a C-3 population” (quoted in Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine). When the British Medical Association threatened a boycott, the government succeeded in buying the doctors off with promises of physician control of local health committees and guaranteed remuneration. Social reformers in the U.S. expected health insurance to sweep the U.S. as it had Europe.
It was in tune with the spirit of Progressivism popular in liberal bourgeois circles before World War I. Seeking to “clean up” the worst abuses of capitalist exploitation (but blind to the hideous oppression of black sharecroppers in the Jim Crow South), Progressives argued for woman suffrage and for legislation to protect child and female labor. And they certainly realized that the illnesses of the poor were communicable to the rich; disease was rampant in the fetid working-class slums of the big cities, where tuberculosis, the “captain of death,” spread in dusty sweatshops and filthy tenements without sunlight or fresh air. In motivating health insurance the American Association for Labor Legislation (AALL) emphasized that sickness was the leading immediate cause of “charity cases”; thus social relief enabling a sick person to keep his job would “reduce illness itself, lengthen life, abate poverty, improve working power, raise the wage level, and diminish the causes of industrial discontent.”
But despite such appeals to capitalism’s “best interests,” by 1920 health insurance was a dead issue. Enter the Doctors In 1847 a small group of physicians had founded the American Medical Association primarily as a means to combat “sectarians,” that is, nontraditional physicians such as homeopaths, who were seen as a threat to the wealth and social position of the medical profession. (The AMA even denounced the Surgeon General of the U.S. for cooperating with a homeopathic physician to save the life of Secretary of State William Seward, when he was shot the night of Lincoln’s assassination!)
As a classic petty-bourgeois professional layer primarily engaged in private practice, doctors have no strategic social power in capitalist society. Their economic motive is simple: to charge as exorbitant a fee as they can squeeze out of patients. Their social outlook is to avoid what has befallen teachers: proletarianization, the worst fear of a petty-bourgeois professional. In the key years 1890 to 1920—culminating in the victory of the bourgeois right wing—the AMA consolidated as a conservative force championing “fee for service” and opposed to any “third party” intervention in the “doctor-patient relationship.”
Organized medicine boosted its prestige by becoming rich, white, WASP, native-born and male. Through “reform” of medical education, the AMA succeeded in cutting the number of medical schools from 131 to 95 in 1915 and reducing overall admissions to eliminate a “surplus” of doctors.
Only two black medical schools, Howard and Meharry, remained out of an earlier seven. Deliberate policies of discrimination kept immigrants, Jews, blacks and women out of medical schools. By 1920 blacks and foreign-born doctors were almost completely unrepresented on hospital staffs. Ethnic, race and religious discrimination against both doctors and patients was a leading factor in the establishment of religious and ethnic hospitals like Mount Sinai in New York City. Both North and South, hospitals were strictly segregated against blacks. The AMA itself was almost lily-white. While blacks could join on a national level, most doctors were members through a local medical association.
Black doctors in the South were effectively barred; in 1895 blacks had established their own organization, the National Medical Association (NMA), which, reflecting the desperate needs of black patients, had a longstanding position in support of national health insurance. In 1950 the AMA finally moved to put token pressure on Southern locals to admit black doctors. But as Edward H. Beardsley wrote in A History of Neglect: Health Care for Blacks and Mill Workers in the Twentieth-Century South, “there was feeling
among some blacks that the AMA was only hoping to strike a deal with the NMA over national health insurance. Earlier, AMA leaders had approached their black counterparts with a vague offer of recognizing black medical societies as AMA affiliates if the NMA would join against Truman’s ‘socialized medicine’ scheme.” Public Health in America: Stillborn As Harvard medical historian Paul Starr documents, doctors viewed public health as a threat and defended a “vigilantly guarded border” between private medical practice and public health’s shrinking mandate.
“Doctors fought against public treatment
of the sick, requirements for reporting cases of tuberculosis and venereal disease, and attempts by public health authorities to establish health centers to coordinate preventive and curative medical services.” Crying “parasitism” and “abuse,” doctors were instrumental in banishing urban dispensaries, “medical soup kitchens” where the poor could be treated for free. Similarly, in April 1902 over 1,000 doctors and druggists denounced New York City’s internationally renowned Department of Health for “unfair competition” and “municipal socialism” because it sold its overstock of diphtheria antitoxin at cost. The department was forced to stop all sale of the antitoxin for this hideous disease, one of the 19th century’s biggest killers of children.
Thus, by 1912 when the Progressivist American Association for Labor Legislation first set forth its proposals for health insurance on the state and national level, the AMA had some experience with getting its way. Interestingly, at first the AMA endorsed the insurance proposal as “inevitable.” But soon doctors learned that its defeat was possible. According to Ronald L. Numbers: “During this period nothing seems to have played a greater role in molding opinion than money. In the early days of the debate, when poorly paid American physicians believed that they, like their British brethren, might benefit financially from compulsory health insurance, it seemed like an attractive idea.... [But] the incomes of physicians were increasing without insurance.
The average income of taxed physicians in Wisconsin, for example, rose 41 percent between 1916 and 1919. Wartime inflation was responsible for much of this, but an unprecedented decline in the total number of physicians undoubtedly had some effect.” But more important than the position of the AMA was the clout of big business. Organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Civic Federation opposed compulsory insurance plans. An especially powerful enemy was the burgeoning commercial insurance business. The enormous profits of the Prudential Insurance Co. (founded in 1875) and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. sprang from selling “industrial” life insurance policies to working-class families.
These grisly policies of death paid costs for terminal illnesses and funerals only. A huge army of insurance agents visited families weekly, immediately after payday, to collect the 15 or 25 cents premium, a very high percentage of a workman’s pitiful wages. The fear of a pauper’s burial was so great that in 1911 individual Americans spent $183 million on these burial policies—about as much as Germany spent on its entire social insurance program! The AALL program’s inclusion of death benefits directly threatened the life insurance giants, who proved its most bitter opponents.
The chief spokesman for the insurance industry was Frederick L. Hoffman, Prudential actuary and vice president, who churned out pages of propaganda smearing compulsory health insurance as unnecessary, fraudulent and un-American. The insurance industry also financed the opposition of the Christian Science faith healers. Faced with such powerful enemies, compulsory insurance needed powerful friends. But while some state union federations supported it, AFL head Samuel Gompers denounced it.
When in 1916 Socialist Party Congressman Meyer London introduced a bill for compulsory health insurance into the House of Representatives, Gompers was the only witness to testify against it. In a hypocritical diatribe against government paternalism, Gompers claimed that compulsory
insurance would stand in the way of the workers’ attempts “to strive and struggle for their own emancipation through their own efforts.” Of course the labor-traitor Gompers (who also opposed legislation for the eight-hour day, the minimum wage and unemployment insurance) did nothing to organize “striving and struggling”
for the vast majority of workers, who were still unorganized.
The job-trusting, Jim Crow AFL leadership was a criminal obstacle to workers power. The key element of organized class struggle, which both Bismarck and Lloyd George had sought to buy off with their social insurance schemes, was crippled in the United States. When the capitalists looked at the health care equation, they saw only that their bucks would go to premiums and to sick pay which they believed would only encourage “malingering.”
The final blow to the Progressives’ reform plan was the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917. True, when hundreds of thousands of young Americans failed their army physicals, health reformers used military necessity to bolster their arguments for health insurance. But this appeal to chauvinism was swamped in imperialist war hysteria targeting radicals, antiwar militants, women’s rights activists, socialists, unionists—any challenge to the U.S. war drive.
Chauvinist reaction killed dead any chances for health care reform, while health insurance opponents reveled in its German connection. (In his 1918 address, the AMA’s president called on AMA members to turn in German doctors to the cops.)
The powerful witchhunting Creel Committee on Public Information commissioned a series of articles by Frederick Hoffman “exposing” German sickness insurance as a “fraud.” The California League for the Conservation of Public Health (an Orwellian name indeed) propagandized in a pamphlet entitled “What Is Compulsory Social Health Insurance?”: “It is a dangerous device, invented in Germany, announced by the German Emperor from the throne the same year he started plotting and preparing to conquer the world.” A front group for California commercial insurers, the Research Society of Social Economics, passed out thousands of copies of a pamphlet displaying a picture of the Kaiser over the caption: “Made in Germany. Do you want it in California?”
This disgusting chauvinist barrage turned Californian voters against insurance, which was defeated in a statewide referendum. The 1917 Russian Revolution, greeted by the working-class masses as a beacon of hope amid imperialist slaughter and exploitation, gave the enemies of health insurance yet another inflammatory theme which only intensified in the postwar upsurge of anti-communist reaction. In 1919 a prominent New York physician-lawyer, John O’Reilly, screamed that health insurance advocates were “Paid Professional Philanthropists, and busy-body Social Workers…
Supporters, Defenders, Associates of the Forces of unrest known as the I.W.W. and Bolshevists; the disciples of Lenin and Trotzky whose Gospel is the Destruction of those things worth while for which men and women have given their lives.” Others attacked insurance advocates using nasty anti-Semitic slurs and claims of “sexual license” and “religious hatred.” Thus organized medicine played its small but dirty part to whip up the bloody crackdown on labor struggle after the war. Capitalist reaction spawned the union-busting, the anti-communist Palmer Raids, the mass deportations of foreign-born workers and the vicious race riots of the postwar years.
Bitter Fruits of “Wealth Care” While the rise of the militant CIO in the 1930s paved the way for the establishment of union benefit plans like the UMW’s, American medicine for profit, born in capitalist reaction, remains locked in to anarchic, limitless greed. When AIDS hit the U.S. in the 1980s, the response of the ruling class and the medical establishment was to be predicted: criminal neglect, outright gloating over
a disease that targeted homosexuals as well as increasing numbers of drug users and the poor. Medicine has become not only a source of enormous profit, but a sort of moral priesthood of the arrogant privileged sermonizing against the “guilty” who are sick for their sins;
“public health” has turned into a criminal manhunt. In a truly vicious and twisted victimization of a young black woman, recently a Florida appeals court upheld the conviction of Jennifer Clarise Johnson under a law designed to punish drug dealers giving drugs to children: she supposedly delivered cocaine to her baby through the umbilical cord before it was cut after birth! Today, about 34 million Americans have no health insurance at all—and that’s not counting the tens of millions who have pitifully inadequate coverage like Medicare and Medicaid. Medicaid fees are so low that many doctors simply turn patients away—for a visit to a doctor in New York Medicaid paid $11 in 1989!
For years death rates and infant mortality rates for black people have been worsening as poverty lashes them with malnutrition, wretched housing, lack of medical care. Ghettos are devastated by epidemics of diseases supposedly conquered by modern medicine: tuberculosis once again spreading; measles, easily prevented by vaccine, rampant because vaccinations for common childhood diseases, once free, now cost several hundred dollars. In contrast to every other industrialized country on the globe, in
the United States sexually transmitted diseases are increasing: syphilis, once almost eradicated, now the cause of thousands of babies born with a terrible, crippling congenital condition; gonorrhea, now spreading in drug-resistant forms.
How should Americans,
as a whole, consider the season of Lent? Using Noam Chomsky as a lens, it would be good to start with our misuse of the planet, our militarization of space, and ultimately our irrational commitment to global hegemony....all of which threaten our own survival and the future lives of our grandchildren.
Just over a year ago in “Excess Mortality in Harlem,” published in the New England Journal of Medicine (18 January 1990), doctors reported that life expectancy for black men in Harlem was lower than for men in Bangladesh, one of the world’s most impoverished countries. The two authors of the report concluded, “A major political and financial commitment will be needed to eradicate the root causes of this high mortality: vicious poverty and inadequate access to the basic health care that is the right of all Americans.” But it has only gotten worse. Harlem Hospital, virtually the only health facility for the 125,000 inhabitants of Harlem (where private physicians are practically nonexistent), is faced with loss of accreditation and withdrawal of federal Medicaid and Medicare funding. Conditions on the job have deteriorated too as the bankrupt American empire has intensified the exploitation of labor.
Some 4,000 coal miners die every year from black lung disease, and 10,000 of the 160,000 miners on the job show evidence of the disease already. In February 1989 the so-called “Labor” Department of the U.S. government discovered widespread and massive cheating by mining companies in testing mine air for coal dust, the cause of the illness. After stalling for months while miners continue to get sick, the government finally announced fines as low as $1,000 per violation, a meaningless slap on the wrist!
The health care “system” in the U.S. shows again and again that the capitalists don’t want to let human life get in the way of their profits. Understandably outraged, ACT UP activists, through militant stunts like blockading Wall Street and protesting at Catholic masses, try to pressure government into putting more money into AIDS care and AIDS research. But only intransigent class struggle has won even the little piece of the “miracle
of modern medicine” that workers and the poor now have. And as the miners’ long years of struggle show, even those gains can be reversed by renewed capitalist attack. Medicine for profit is too locked in for the American capitalists to implement a universal government-provided health system like the one in Canada or Britain.
But even if it were possible, it’s no answer either. In Britain, nobody who can afford a private physician’s fees ever goes to National Health, and the already inadequate care is fast disappearing as the government slashes services. While the Canadian system provides better general health care to the population as a whole, many people can’t get access to expensive procedures requiring high-tech medical equipment because there isn’t enough money in the tight budget. The struggle for decent health care exposes the gaping holes in all the pathetic patchwork reform schemes advocated by liberal social workers, social democrats and officials of the twin capitalist parties. The treacherous U.S. labor bureaucrats, the grandsons of Samuel Gompers, today pass motions calling for a national health system and argue about it at their fancy poolside confabs in Bal Harbour. But such schemes are just bandaids for cancer, more halfway measures guaranteed to ration medical care by class, race and sex. The AFL-CIO executive board couldn’t even pass a motion to support women’s right to abortion, let alone fight for equal rights for blacks, women and gays. The working class must oust the trade-union bureaucrats, the
labor lieutenants of the Democratic Party—the party of Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter—and build a revolutionary, class-struggle workers party which will take up all the struggles of the exploited and oppressed, and fight for a workers government. Free, Quality Health Care for All in a Socialist World! The crisis of medical care cries out for a socialist revolution which will lay the basis for a society which will end all exploitation and social oppression. Health means much more than shots and pills and surgical knives: it is a decent place to live; plenty of good food to eat; knowledge
of human biology; air clean of pollution; safe, decent working conditions; the principles of public health rigorously applied. Medicine can’t save lives ruined by poverty and malnutrition. Right now a deadly epidemic of cholera is spreading rapidly throughout South America, the first since 1895. Its genesis is quite simply the collapse of the sewage system. Groaning under millions of dollars of debt to imperialist banks, Third World countries can’t maintain even a basic social infrastructure. In this complex industrial society, it will take worldwide planning based on scientific knowledge to establish both public health and the best care for the individual.
The AIDS pandemic only underlines the urgency of this truth. What we need is free, quality health care for all—communist medicine, where the wealth of resources on our planet go to the service of the people, not to production for profits. When we have thrown out the vicious capitalist system which sells human life for dollars, we will be able to build a new socialist society where human life, human worth and human dignity count. Doctors will be servants of the people; hospitals will be havens to heal the sick; research on vaccinations, new medical techniques and improved drugs will be internationally coordinated and to the benefit of all. When the workers of the world are in charge of this planet, the only limits of human health will be scientific—and these will be constantly enlarged by thoughtful, energetic research.
By Robin Emmott
Securing the United States’s border from illegal immigrants, terrorists and weapons of mass destruction “continues to be a major challenge,” says the United States Government Accountability Office in a new report. It is also proving to be expensive in both lives and money.
In dollar terms, the outlay is substantial. Every time someone breaks a hole in the U.S.-Mexico border wall, it costs about $1,300 to repair. The estimated cost of maintaining the 661-mile (1,058 km) double-layered fence along part of its
2,000-mile (3,000 km) border with Mexico over the next 20 years is $6.5 billion, the GAO report says.
That is on top of the $3.7 billion allocated to the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Border Initiative since 2005 to build a system of fencing, lighting, sensors, cameras and radars to keep out job-hungry immigrants, terrorists and smugglers.
While border agents say the wall is a tool that helps them protect the United States, the GAO report found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection cannot accurately determine the fences impact on improving border security, suggesting the money might not be well spent.
“What a waste in resources and creativity, said Jorge Mario Cabrera Valladares of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). “Our tax dollars are being wasted on an ineffective, old strategy instead of urgently working on serious, long term, workable immigration reform,” he said.
Since the attacks on New York and Washington of Sept. 11, 2001, political pressure for tighter border controls has grown sharply and supporters of the border wall argue it is effective in keeping unwanted foreigners out.
But some border experts say the wall does not stop those trying to get into the United States and only makes it more dangerous, greatly raising the fees charged by people smugglers who charge up to $2 billion every year in Arizona alone.
Some 5,600 people have died trying to cross into the United States since the U.S. government under President Bill Clinton dramatically increased border security in 1994 with Operation Gatekeeper and the first stretch of fence between San Diego and Tijuana.
That is according to a study by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Mexico’s National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH), based on Mexico’s foreign ministry and media reports, who say the death of migrants is an international humanitarian crisis.
Before the stepped-up enforcement
operations, experts say most deaths were due to traffic accidents as migrants dashed across freeways in border areas. Today, most die from hypothermia in the desert or by drowning in the Rio Grande and irrigation canals.
The U.S. Border Patrol’s body
count for border crossers this year points to the continued dangers. While the U.S. recession has caused a sharp drop in arrests on the borderline, Customs and Border Protection has reported 416 deaths so far in 2009. That compares with 390 last year and 398 in 2007.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to push comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, but the issue has little lawmaker support as Americans lose jobs in the recession.
James David Manning (born February 20, 1947) is chief pastor at the ATLAH World Missionary Church on 123rd Street in New York City.
Manning grew up in Red Springs, North Carolina, and has been at ATLAH since 1981. ATLAH stands for All The Land Anointed Holy, which is God's name for Harlem.
Manning graduated from The College of New Rochelle with a Bachelor of Arts degree and continued on to Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York where he was awarded a Master of Divinity. Manning also holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the ATLAH Theological Seminary, an unaccredited educational institution.
