Well, Richard Gilmore will not be so happy about this and neither am I since we’re both Formula 1 fans.
Actually me not so much, since I’ve really always been partial to American open wheel road track racing, especially during the glory years of CART when their turbocharged 8s kicked the ass of the effete normally aspirated 10 and 12 cylinder sewing machines that powered the effeminate aerodynamic computerized robo-cars of Formula 1.
Those days are gone and all that remains is turning left bumper cars to amuse the tailgating brain dead beer drinking NASCAR bozos who think professional wrestling is a real sport.
Well goodbye dinosaurs and your petroleum polluting global warming antics.
Gone the way of polar bears and penguins you no longer amuse me.
special thanks to everyone sending me so very many loving happy thoughts….i’m ver ver sure they were instrumental in getting me over the hump…& keeping me on this side….
i felt your warm wishes & heard the bits of healing songs you all sent me….
thank you ever so much
i’m really very, very weak & will prolly not stay up to answer….i just wanted to let you know i’m okay….. & thank you all for being such excellent friends
This isn’t about America’s so-called pastime, major league baseball, which begins tonight with the Braves playing the Nats and Commander Codpiece McFlyboy throwing out the ceremonial first ball. No. This is about something smaller, more intimate, and in many ways, much more a game of the People. It’s about futbol, soccer, and how anti-immigrant local legislation in Northern Virginia has destroyed the local leagues.
It’s an infuriating story. I’m angered not just because I love to play this game, but because of the important role it plays in the community. I doubt you’ve heard about this before.
Please join me in the goal box.
This essay begins in July, 2007. The Christian Science Monitor reported then that local communities, including Prince William County, Virginia, which has about 40,000 undocumented residents, had decided to enforce immigration laws, something formerly thought to be a federal function, because Congress couldn’t pass an immigration bill:
In the past, cities that welcomed diversity and new immigrants made a point of refusing to let their police officers help federal agents identify people who might be in the US illegally. Others worried that their departments would be slapped with harassment or racial-profiling lawsuits if they became involved in enforcing US immigration laws.
But when political leaders in Prince William County saw national reform legislation falter last month in the Senate, they approved their own immigration-reform resolution that, among other things, would give local police a shot at enforcement.
To that end, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on July 10 to allow county police officers the authority to check the citizenship status of anyone they’ve stopped or arrested whom they have “probable cause” to believe is in the US illegally. The county board has yet to define “probable cause,” but board chairman Corey Stewart says it may be based on whether a person has a driver’s license.
The county “has reached a boiling point,” says Mr. Stewart. An influx of illegal immigrants over the past four years has led to overcrowded houses and schools, overstretched public services, and a rising problem with gangs, he says.
Board Chairman Corey A. Stewart, at-large Republican, commended his colleagues for “stepping up to the plate” and taking action on immigration enforcement when the federal government has failed to do so.
“We’re going to do what we can,” he said prior to the vote, which came after nearly four hours of impassioned testimony from people for and against the tough policies. “We know this is a federal issue, but I think the citizens have a right to expect that their local government and the state government are going to do whatever they can to address the problem.”
The resolution, introduced last month by Supervisor John T. Stirrup Jr., Gainesville Republican, was amended before the meeting yesterday to clarify the circumstances under which county staff – including police – should ask about immigration status.
The resolution calls for the police department to establish standards of probable cause and methods by which officers can determine lawful presence, then report back to the board within 60 days.
There don’t appear to be any recent news reports about the standards for probable cause.
And now, let’s pick up the story in March, 2008. The law is still on the books. The law is still being enforced. There has been no reported litigation to end local enforcement of this law. And the WaPO reports that the “crackdown on illegal immigration [has] quieted” Prince William County’s soccer fields:
As Prince William proceeds with its crackdown on illegal immigrants, one result is a shake-up and shrinking of the area’s entrenched Hispanic soccer leagues. The reason is simple, organizers say: Players and fans, among them many illegal immigrants, are so worried about being detained by authorities en route to or at games that they are avoiding local fields. Legal immigrants are also wary, for themselves or their illegal relatives, organizers say.
“I have never felt as good as I felt in Manassas,” said Hector Bardales, 26, a Sterling mechanic who plays in four of the region’s leagues but most loved the crowds who cheered him on when he donned his Honduras de Manassas uniform. But he is in the country illegally, so Manassas is now no man’s land, he said. “I would play in any county except Prince William.”
Officials have said the policy is not meant to intimidate but to remove illegal immigrants, particularly those who commit crimes. The imperiled leagues draw little sympathy from backers of the county’s enforcement program.
“I would hope that the soccer leagues didn’t depend on illegal aliens to make them viable,” said Greg Letiecq, president of Help Save Manassas, an anti-illegal-immigration group. “It just doesn’t seem like a valid reason for overturning the rule-of-law resolution: because without the illegal aliens, the soccer clubs will all fall apart.”
And so ends an important feature of community life in Northern Virginia. Some teams are moving to other, safer counties, and some are not playing. The four main Latino leagues in Prince William County had 80 teams last season; there are fewer than 50 this year. The biggest and oldest league, the Liga de Manassas, is skipping the season entirely because it has fewer than half its teams playing. In other words, the legislation has destroyed the league, and it’s destroyed the games.
Games used to be played on weekends from April through October at various fields and they used to attract crowds who could hear bands play, eat ethnic food (pupusas, if you’re Honduran), and let their kids play. Security guards curbed rowdiness and crews cleaned the fields after the games. Matches could be heard on Spanish-language radio. You can wave good by to all of that now. Adios.
To try to allay fears, league owners have hosted team meetings at which police have explained the county’s policy, which took effect [at the start of March] and requires officers to check the immigration status of crime suspects who they think might be in the country illegally. There are to be no immigration checkpoints, racial profiling or sidelines raids, the teams were told. The meetings have had little impact, league owners said.
That’s no surprise that the talks haven’t changed anything. With such obvious and outspoken animus against immigrants, only a fool can take the assurances at face value that there will be no raids. You have to be crazy to drive to the game. You have to be nuts to sit in the stands. “This is what they have nicknamed this county: the Devil’s County. They call it Condado del Diablo.” Because here, a game, in particular a lovely and fun game, futbol, can get you harassed, land you in jail, get you deported, and split up your family. It’s just not worth the risk.
Would we see this kind of fear, this kind of jackbooted enforcement if our congresspersons would do their jobs and tend to the immigration issue? Would we see this kind of erosion in the community? Would we see this kind of pervading fear? Would this kind of “enforcement” be permitted? I doubt it. I’d like to think that our congresspersons were busy with other things, so they couldn’t quite reach this issue, but to be frank, this is just another example of their fecklessness, their cowardice, and their inability to come to grips with important issues, their being neglectful and their letting our communities rot.
I’m too old to play effective defense any more. I get tired and winded. My agility has faded. I find myself more and more grabbing onto the shirts of offensive players, slowing them down however I can, evading the referees’ eyes, pushing them away from the goal. This in itself is beautiful. It makes me feel ageless. If I didn’t love the game, would I still be trying to do this?
I just cannot believe that our politics has found a way to destroy even these leagues, even this game. I shed a tear for the beautiful game that won’t be played. And I’m so very sorry and sad that my companeros in Prince William County, to whom these games are so important and so much a passion, are having to stay home this Spring.
though to the best of my knowledge he doesn’t know it.
I just recently discussed Tiny Houses as one extreme end of a range of a more sustainable approach to housing. And, because they strike me as really cool, the examples I focused on where the kind of Tiny Houses that can be picked up, put on a trailer, and hauled around, like an old fashioned Shepherd’s Wagon, except with inside plumbing, excellent insulation, and 11 foot ceilings in the main living space.
Mind you, I always thought that the old-fashioned Shepherd’s Wagon was kind of cool, so add all those “except for’s”, and its no surprise I thought these were cool.
However, just as cool in their own way are the Tiny Houses intended to be built from modular parts on a foundation on site. And as a one-time Mother Earth News reader (back when it was more of a back to the land for dirty stinking hippies magazine), I was interested when the Tiny House Blog mentioned that the post-80’s yuppified “Mother Earth News” has been recently focusing heavily on SIP’s, or Structural Insulated Panels.
Little Green Buildings is a company in Washington (Washington State for those wandering in from the more inside-the-beltway atmosphere of the Big Orange) … from tiny pumphouses, small buildings suitable for a shed or adding a detached office to … well, to proper shacks.
Now, buying the modular SIP panels, you have to provide foundation (concrete or pilings) paint, and of course it does not come furnished … but the price per square foot also comes down compared to the “ready to roll” Tiny Houses.
Take the River Shack … 12×16 (192 sq. ft plus loft), with the complete shell coming in at around $20,000. Add labor, of course … and SIP’s are designed to be put together by people who are not skilled carpenters … paint, a foundation, and its still going to come in at an appealing cost for someone at this extreme end of the spectrum. And, just like the trailer-ready Tiny Houses, a small, well-insulated space is going to cost much less to heat and cool than a larger space will.
Well, OK, so its easier to heat and cool. But that’s not the end of the connections with Sustainable Energy Independence … its only the beginning.
For one thing, when someone reduces the real cost of their housing, by not requiring as much housing, and at the same time reduces their regular utility bills, that leaves more disposable income from the same wage or salary. And that helps that individual overcome the countless traps built into our disposable consumer society — a point that A Siegel has often written about in detail — where the cost to buy a more sustainable option is higher, even though the full cost to own the sustainable option is lower.
When you reduce the footprint of housing costs in your budget — both cost to build and cost to operate — that provides more means to finance other sustainable choices that have higher up-front costs but lower total costs to own. And then down the track, the reduction in operating costs from those choices frees up more room in the budget. A clear example are Pluggable Hybrid Electric vehicles (PHEV), which for the typical car trip in the US will be running on stored electric power … which can be produced sustainably by resources within our borders.
And as the price of gasoline and diesel hits $5/gallon, then $10/gallon, then $20/gallon, the cost-to-own advantage of the PHEV will only get stronger … but unless there is a dramatic price breakthrough in battery or other energy storage technology, it will necessarily have a higher up-front cost to purchase.
Living Within Our Means as a Nation
The core of a Progressive Economic Nationalism is living within our means. Sustainable Energy Independence is only part of that. Material self-sufficiency is another part. Food self-sufficiency is another part.
I have to stress that self-sufficiency does not mean isolationism. It does not mean “no trade, an iron curtain at the border”. Two self-sufficient nations can quite happily trade, to substantial mutual benefit. Indeed, they can trade in more confidence that it is to mutual benefit, because they have the option of not trading if they wish.
So food self-sufficiency does not mean that Buckeyes are “not allowed to eat bananas”. Especially if shipped from the Eastern Caribbean to Miami in sustainably fueled ships, and carried up by high speed electric container freight from Miami, there is nothing “wrong” with swapping Ohio apples for Caribbean bananas.
What self-sufficiency means is the option to say “No” to any given trade. And the option to say “No” is the essence of Economic Independence.
And the greater the energy and material efficiency of providing a comfortable standard of living, the closer we are to arriving at energy and material self-sufficiency.
Creating Livable Local Communities In the Midst of Crisis
There is also another dimension to this that bears thinking about.
Suppose that things start to go to hell in a hand basket.
The most direct action that we can take as individuals is to pitch in to help organize our local communities to cope. And since one of the things likely to happen if things start to go to hell in a hand basket is turmoil and uncertainty in the financial sector, one strong capability for a local community is the ability to supplement liquidity in the national currency with additional liquidity in a local currency.
A local community with the power to tax can create a foundation of demand for a local currency by accepting some portion of a tax assessment that is owed in the local currency. That is, after all, one of the two foundations for the acceptability of the national currency … the ability to meet national tax obligations if you hold the national currency.
How much benefit can a local community hope to gain from this strategy? Well, to work that out, you have to start thinking of the local community as if it was a tiny island nation with its own currency. What limits the ability of that kind of tiny island nation to expand its money supply to meet a liquidity crunch?
Clearly, the limit is how much can be produced with local resources and local labor, and how much has to be imported. And it is easy to see that this is the limit, by considering the two extreme cases.
An island nation that produces its entire national product in products for export, that it did not consume, and consumed its entire national income in imports, has no opportunity whatsoever to provide any effective additional purchasing power by making a local currency available. No matter how much local currency exists, the only question of interest is how much the local currency is worth in terms of the foreign currency used to buy imports.
Now, on the other hand, consider an island nation that produces its entire national product in the products for domestic consumption, with neither imports nor exports. Then if there is a core reason to accept the local currency … like the ability to use it to meet tax obligations … and there are unemployed resources, more resources can be put to use by creating the currency to pay for them.
There is of course a limit to this process. This is, after all, not a magic system for creating products by printing money. The products come from putting the unemployed resources and the unemployed labor to use, and its the value of the products the provides the actual backing for the purchasing power that led groups of people to work together making the stuff.
But that’s OK, because if things are going to hell in a hand basket, so badly that it seriously disrupts the financial system, there will be unemployed resources and unemployed labor, and what will be missing is the incentive to put that combination to work.
Of course, our local community will be closer to the first island nation that sells everything “abroad” to “import” everything … but the more local resources can be put to use in serving local needs, the greater the leeway it has to supplement liquidity in national currency with a local currency. And the greater the material and energy efficiency of the goods produced to meet basic needs … including shelter … the better positioned that community is to ride out the “hell in a hand basket” period.
Come to think of it, the better positioned the more communities are to ride out the storm, the less serious the storm is likely to be.
We’ve become embarrassed to speak of it, but love is what it’s all about: love of country, justice, peace, humanity…and love of one’s fellow Americans – one’s fellow protesters. In contemplating my most recent experience demonstrating against the war in Washington DC, that’s what comes to me, the overwhelming love I feel for those who care enough to stand up and be counted.
My son Daniel and I flew out of Atlanta late on Tuesday, the 18th so I could get in a full day of work. As we approached our hotel in DC my phone rang. It was Victory Coffee. She explained that she had brought a friend and that they’d be in McPherson Square at 7:30 in the morning. Daniel and I settled in to try and get a good night’s rest but could hardly sleep for the anticipation.
The alarm went off at 6:00 AM. I got up, showered, and jumped into my best protest Levis with my gen-u-ine Ben Masel ‘Impeach Cheney First’ button and my ‘No Blood for Oil’ button and then fiddled with cameras and batteries and whatnot while Daniel got himself ready. I carefully laid out the IGTNT flyers and bags that snackdoodle had mailed me the previous week. I had promised to find people to hand these out at the protest as a way of honoring America’s dead in the Iraq war. I got the flyers divided into roughly equal stacks, placed them in the bags, stacked them neatly on top of the TeeVee and promptly went off without them. We were in McPherson Square by the time I realized my mistake.
I am so sorry snackdoodle. After you went to all that trouble too. All I can say is I will bring all that stuff to Austin and we can hand them out there – and you can beat me with a stick if you are so inclined (and who could blame you?).
We grabbed a quick breakfast of cantaloupe and melon then headed for McPherson Square. It was still pretty dark when we got there a little after 7:00 AM but people were already gathered wearing Shut Down the IRS T-shirts and sporting banners and signs bearing sweet words of protest and resistance.
Victory Coffee and her friend Ann called and said they were on the subway headed our way and would be there soon. As I wandered through the gathering crowd snapping photos and shooting video, I was approached by a beautiful brunette with a huge grin on her face. “OPOL!” she said. “I’m pfiore8.” We shared a massive hug and talked excitedly about the plans for the day. Eventually Victory Coffee and Ann showed up and we moved out with the crowd to march to the IRS building. Our Docudharma/DailyKos contingent was small but so very worthy that I felt distinctly privileged to be in their company. There is something very special about those who care enough to demonstrate, to make the effort to express their opposition to the madness that has gripped our nation. It isn’t easy but it is the stuff of real patriotism and shows a genuine love of country.
It was clear from early on that our numbers would not be what I had hoped for, but then it was Wednesday. Not everyone could take off from work in the middle of the week for this. I guess the surprising thing is that so many people did. What we lacked in sheer numbers we made up for in spirit and determination. There were probably a thousand of us or so.
Throughout the demonstration, the crowd chanted things like:
“Tell me what Democracy looks like!”
“This is what Democracy looks like!”
“Arrest George Bush, Arrest George Bush!”
“The people united will never be defeated!” (it rhymes in Spanish I’m told) and so on. It was great fun.
We marched several blocks to the IRS building where we acted up in all sorts of creative ways. There were giant banners, signs, guerilla theater, and believe it or not, a marching band called the Rude Mechanical Orchestra. I had some issues with my camera and lost some photos including shots of the Rude Mechanical Orchestra and those I took of bikemom – so sorry bikemom. I’ll make it up to you. I know I have the orchestra on video and probably bikemom too, but I haven’t had a chance to process the video sequences yet.
I was thrilled to meet and give a great warm hug to Liz Berrigan (Phillip’s widow).
For those who don’t remember, the Berrigan brothers were radical Catholic priests who became notorious in the 60s for being arrested dozens of times protesting the Vietnam War. They were heroes to me in the same vein as Dr. Martin Luther King. They were peace lovers and peacemakers.
I asked Liz how Daniel was doing. She said he is very frail. So sad.
I also met and gave a mighty bear hug to Desiree Fairooz (the Code Pink woman who put bloody hands in Condi Rice’s face).
After a while the demonstration at the IRS began to wind down as people peeled off to catch up with other protests and actions going on throughout the city. Our group headed out to find the Veterans’ Peace March.
We caught up with them at the American Indian Museum. There I met one of my heroes from the 60s, Buffy Sainte-Marie, singer, composer, and activist. I thanked her for all she has done through the years in support of progressive causes. She was warm, kind and gracious. She sang her brilliant song, Universal Soldier for us. Donovan also recorded it, but Buffy wrote it.
Buffy Sainte-Marie, Universal Soldier
We marched to the Capitol reflecting pool, then to the Veterans Administration Building, then to the White House, and then to the National Archives where a gang of renegade Iraq War veterans scaled a 10 foot fence to rally the crowd from a high ledge on the National Archives building. This was a bold action that captured the crowd’s imagination and mesmerized us all for well over an hour.
The numbers were disappointing to me…but that reflects poorly on the apathetic and the complicit – NOT those brave stalwarts who bother to get out in the streets and do the right thing. We should ALL be protesting our asses off and the fact that so many are apathetic does not detract from the importance or righteousness of our cause. The disturbing thing is that we aren’t all out there in the streets raising hell about what’s going on. What do these guys have to do to outrage the population? And what about those who are outraged but nevertheless sit at home?
Oh people, look around you
The signs are everywhere
You’ve left it for somebody other than you
To be the one to care
You’re lost inside your houses
There’s no time to find you now
Your walls are burning and your towers are turning
I’m going to leave you here and try to get down to the sea somehow
The road is filled with homeless souls
Every woman, child and man
Who have no idea where they will go
But they’ll help you if they can
Now everyone must have some thought
That’s going to pull them through somehow
Well the fires are raging hotter and hotter
But the sisters of the sun are going to rock me on the water now
Rock me on the water
Sister will you soothe my fevered brow
Rock me on the water
I’ll get down to the sea somehow
from Jackson Browne’s Rock Me On the Water
We eventually marched back to the reflecting pool to witness a portion of the March of the Dead.
From there we marched up Capitol Hill and blocked a huge intersection and chanted for Bush’s arrest while Homeland Security arrested scores more of our brethren and sistren.
It was there I had a chance to shake hands and chat with Col. Ann Wright.
The hostility on the streets was high. We were all subjected to a massive police presence and the snide ridicule of the McCain supporters, and there are a lot of those crazy puppies crawling the streets of DC these days. As Victory Coffee, pifiore8, bikemom, Ann, Daniel and I walked toward the IRS building, a guy in a suit and trench coat passed us and said “US Army!”
We all started shouting, “Yeah, let’s keep ’em alive!” The suit apparently had no opinion on their aliveness.
The MICMC, and their personal attack dogs the republicans are serious about maintaining their death grip on our government. They mean to run this country by hook or by crook. Trounced in the election they will try to steal it. That’s what they do. It’s what they did to Don Siegelman in Alabama, it’s what they did to Al Gore in 2000, and it’s what they did to John Kerry in 2004. Electronic voting machines are the Achilles heel of our democracy.
The warmongers are backing McCain. Watch them. They will try to steal it. Those on the streets in Washington already act like they own it. We have to stop them.
As long as Cheney can dismiss the concerns of the American people with “So?” we will all be screwed. We need to put Cheney, Bush and Rove (at a minimum) on trial and ultimately, in prison.
If we don’t hold those individuals accountable our democracy will be dead and those loathsome evil neo-criminals will continue to feast on our flesh and bones.
It’s high time we end all persecution and oppression in this so-called ‘land of the free and home of the brave’. There should not be political prisoners in this country. No one should be subject to the whim of corrupt and criminal ‘leaders’. No one. Not Don Siegelman, not Leonard Peltier, not you nor I. No one.
Enough!
All of our rights are imperiled from every direction. It is time for us all to stand up and stop this madness.
Let there finally and truthfully be justice for all in America. And let us atone for the injustices of our past.
Deliver Me – Sarah Brightman
P.S. Don Siegelman is free! His appeal bond was granted and he has been released from that hell hole in Loiuisiana this past Friday. The fight is far from over but this is a great victory. Get the latest news on the Siegelman case here.
WASHINGTON – The situation in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan where al-Qaida has established a safe haven presents a “clear and present danger” to the West, the CIA director said Sunday.
Michael Hayden cited the belief by intelligence agencies that Osama bin Laden is hiding there in arguing that the U.S. has an interest in targeting the border region. If there were another terrorist attack against Americans, Hayden said, it would most certainly originate from that region.
“It’s very clear to us that al-Qaida has been able for the past 18 months or so to establish a safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border area that they have not enjoyed before, and that they’re bringing in operatives into the region for training,” he said.
WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain have diagnosed the swooning U.S. economy and have come up with rival plans to revive it. If the downturn lasts as long as some economists predict, one of the three will get a chance to try to sell his or her proposal to Congress as president.
Or if the economy hits bottom before Inauguration Day and then turns up, the victor may be handed a rare gift: the chance to begin a presidency presiding over the early stages of a rebound.
Take your pick. Who knows where the economy will be in nine and a half months?
As economic clouds darkened last week, all three candidates delivered major speeches on the economy while the Bush administration prepared a plan to give the Federal Reserve new regulatory powers over the financial system.
BAGHDAD – Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Sunday that he was pulling his fighters off the streets nationwide and called on the government to stop raids against his followers and free them from prison.
The Iraqi government quickly welcomed al-Sadr’s apparent move to resolve a widening conflict with his movement, sparked Tuesday by operations against his backers in the oil-rich southern city of Basra.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a statement calling it “a step in the right direction.”
Al-Sadr’s nine-point statement was issued by his headquarters in the holy city of Najaf and broadcast through loudspeakers on Shiite mosques. It said the first point was: “taking gunmen off the streets in Basra and elsewhere.”
HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s opposition said on Sunday it had won the most crucial election since independence, but President Robert Mugabe’s government warned it that premature victory claims would be seen as an attempted coup.
Tendai Biti, secretary general of the main MDC opposition party, told diplomats and observers that early results showed it was victorious. “We have won this election,” he said.
Projections from 12 percent of the vote showed MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai winning 67 percent nationally, Biti said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Al Qaeda is training fighters that “look western” and could easily cross U.S. borders without attracting attention, CIA Director Michael Hayden said on Sunday.
The militant Islamist group has turned Pakistan’s remote tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan into a safe haven, and is using it to plot further attacks against the United States, Hayden said.
“They are bringing operatives into that region for training — operatives that wouldn’t attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles (airport outside Washington) with you when you were coming back from overseas,” Hayden said during an interview on NBC’s television show Meet the Press.
BEIJING (Reuters) – Tibet’s capital Lhasa was calm on Sunday following a brief burst of unrest weeks after a bloody uprising against Chinese rule, but in Greece and Nepal flurries of pro-Tibet protest continued.
A small group of activists tried to stop the Olympic flame reaching the Athens stadium where Greece handed it to China, but they were quickly removed by police.
Details of an incident on the streets of Lhasa on Saturday remained unclear. A mobile text message to residents from police said security checks carried out earlier in the day had “frightened citizens” and caused panic in the city centre.
SOLLENTUNA, Sweden – The fear of being sent back to Baghdad has taken its toll on Mustafa Aziz Alwi.
He says he cannot sleep and has lost about 20 pounds since his claim for asylum in Sweden was rejected in January.
“They told me it’s because it’s calmer in Iraq now, that I can go back and be happy. But they don’t know that it’s death there,” said Aziz Alwi, 25, wiping away tears in an interview at his cousin’s apartment in the Stockholm suburb of Sollentuna.
Had his case been decided a year earlier, he would probably already hold a residence permit. Sweden has given shelter to about 100,000 Iraqis, 40,000 of them since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. That’s far more than any other Western country including the U.S., which admitted just over 1,600 Iraqi refugees in the 2007 fiscal year, nearly 400 short of the annual goal of 2,000, and a big reduction from an initial target of 7,000.
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago
BAGHDAD – The Iraqi capital locked down by curfew. U.S. diplomats holed up their workplaces, fearing rocket attacks. Nearly every major southern city racked by turmoil. Hundreds killed in less than a week.
A declaration Sunday by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to pull his Mahdi Army fighters off the streets may help bring an end to the wave of violence that swept Baghdad and Shiite areas after the government launched a crackdown against militias in Basra.
That will ease the violence which has claimed more than 300 lives. But it won’t bring an end to the power struggle between Shiite parties that triggered the confrontation.
Nor will it ensure government control of Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city and headquarters of the vital oil industry.
In Afghanistan, it is battling al-Qaida and Taliban. In newly independent Kosovo, it’s up against Serbian protesters armed with firebombs and grenades. And behind the scenes, it is helping to quell the violence in Iraq and to track down suspected war criminals in Bosnia.
NATO, its chief insists, has no ambitions to become a “global policeman.” But the military alliance born of the Cold War continues to grow and face new challenges.
At a summit Wednesday through Friday in Romania, President Bush and the leaders of NATO’s other 25 countries will discuss how to mobilize more troops to turn the tide in Afghanistan, and whether to get bigger and tougher at the risk of alienating Russia.
It’s a simple question with no simple answer: Why do polling places across America keep running out of ballots when it’s no secret that this contentious primary season keeps breaking voter turnout records?
For one, even the best-made plans have gone awry; officials in state after state have ordered more ballots, only to see turnouts exceed their most ambitious estimates.
Some states – California, for example – extended registration deadlines, in part to give would-be voters more time to sign up for the first Democratic presidential nomination race between a black man and a woman.
But some election officials say those extensions have necessitated a form of fortune telling when it comes to deciding how many ballots to order.
DETROIT (Reuters) – Henry Ford, who created the automotive industry’s first mass-market hit with the Model T a century ago, was a proponent of radical simplicity.
In fact, Ford became famous for saying his customers could have the $825 Model T in any color — so long as it was black.
In the century since the first Model T in 1908, Ford’s vision of top-down efficiency has been swamped by thousands of feature and color combinations on new cars, trucks and SUVs.
The result, executives say, has been higher production and inventory costs and headaches for customers and dealers in sorting through a complex matrix of choices.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The home mortgage crisis that has Wall Street and consumers worried about an economic meltdown is prompting many in the U.S. Congress to come to the rescue of hard-hit states that just happen to be crucial to their own election-year success.
Florida, Ohio, Michigan and California have some of the highest concentrations of home foreclosures. They also are vote-rich states that congressional and presidential candidates need to win in November’s elections.
“We’re waiting to see what kind of an impact this latest news is having on members (of Congress) from Ohio to Pennsylvania to Florida and elsewhere around the country,” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. His state’s largest city, Las Vegas, claims the highest rate of home foreclosures in the country.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Republican Party and the religious right have been brothers-in-arms for nearly three decades, but values voters are fragmenting and Democrats are now refusing to cede the spiritual vote.
The alliance between the evangelical movement’s muscular Christianity and the God-fearing tub-thumping of the Republican right reached its apogee in President George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004.
But in this year’s history-making presidential election, the powerful coalition that propelled president Ronald Reagan and the “Moral Majority” to Washington in 1981 could be breaking up.
BERLIN (AFP) – US President George W. Bush will not demand Germany boost its NATO troop numbers in Afghanistan with deployments in the south, he said in a German newspaper interview partly released Saturday.
The interview with Die Welt comes ahead of a NATO summit in Bucharest next week where Germany is expected to come under pressure from other NATO allies to increase its commitments in Afghanistan.
In it Bush is asked if Washington expects Berlin to boost its presence in Afghanistan by deploying troops to the south, which has seen more fighting than the more peaceful north.
ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan’s new premier has vowed to tackle Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but the United States will remain nervous about the commitment of this frontline state in the “war on terror”, analysts say.
With the power of stalwart US ally President Pervez Musharraf eroding fast, Washington sent two special envoys to Islamabad last week in a bid to woo new Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his government.
Gilani, who is from the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, set out his policies to parliament on Saturday and said that rising Islamic militancy was the biggest threat to the nuclear-armed nation.
WASHINGTON – In proposing the broadest overhaul of financial oversight since the Great Depression, the Bush administration has kicked off a fierce debate. It pits those eager to revamp an antiquated system against an industry opposed to excessive regulation.
The administration is aware of the hardening lines. The 200-page plan set for release Monday comes with the financial system in the midst of the most severe credit crisis in two generations.
That crunch has meant billions of dollars of losses for big banks and investment houses. It has caused the near-collapse of the country’s fifth largest investment bank, made it harder for consumers and businesses to get loans and pushed the country to the brink of a recession.
NEW YORK – Stocks may already be pricing in a recession, but they haven’t priced in a very deep one. If this week’s data on the job market and manufacturing are worse than Wall Street is anticipating, investors should not be surprised to see another tumble.
To be sure, the stock market is usually pretty adept at sizing up the economy. And many market experts are saying stocks may have already hit bottom. But considering how much mystery still surrounds the mortgage crisis – not to mention the fact that many analysts are starting to pare back their estimates for 2008 corporate profits – calling the stock market’s decline over is a bit premature.
Last week began with a rally and ended with a sell-off after a batch of economic readings gave investors little to cheer about. The Dow Jones industrial average finished the week down 1.17 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended up 0.14 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index ended down 1.07 percent.
NEW YORK/TOKYO (Reuters) – Lehman Brothers (LEH.N) was fleeced out of more than $355 million in a fraud the U.S. investment bank believes was perpetrated by two employees at Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp. (8002.T), according to a person briefed on the matter.
The fraud may have hit other financial institutions as well, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
If Lehman’s arguments are true, the scamsters perpetrated one of the more sophisticated corporate con jobs since Enron set up a fake trading floor to impress analysts. Lehman believes the scam included forged documents and an imposter.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Stocks may struggle to make headway this week, with jobs data expected to provide more evidence of recession and more companies likely to revise their guidance as the earnings reporting season approaches.
Investors will also keep a close eye on the credit markets to determine if the Federal Reserve’s actions to provide liquidity are taking effect, said John Praveen, chief investment strategist at Prudential International Investments Advisers LLC in Newark, New Jersey.
But, he said, after the near collapse of Bear Stearns Cos Inc (BSC.N), any evidence of similar issues at another bank could lead to a sharp sell-off.
LONDON (AFP) – Nationalised British bank Northern Rock, which will post its annual results on Monday, was widely forecast to swing into the red because of the global credit crunch, the Sunday Times reported.
A spokesman for Northern Rock confirmed that the 2007 results would be published on Monday morning, months later than originally planned.
Northern Rock, which is based in the northeastern English city of Newcastle, faced the first run on a bank in living memory last September after the global credit squeeze forced it to request emergency loans from the Bank of England.
TOKYO (AFP) – A key survey of corporate Japan is expected to show that business confidence has plunged to a four-year low on worries about high oil prices, a stronger yen and a weak US economy, analysts predict.
The Bank of Japan’s closely watched “Tankan” report, due out Tuesday, is likely to show companies are scaling back their profit forecasts and investment plans as a result of the tougher operating environment, they said.
“The deterioration of the profit environment, stemming from a slowdown in overseas economies and surging crude oil prices, as well as the appreciation of the yen, have dealt a huge blow to corporate sentiment,” Mitsubishi UFJ Securities senior economist Tatsushi Shikano said.
DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) – A month-long strike at a key General Motors’ supplier is hurting the automaker’s bottom line and may erode its US market share at the same time an economic slowdown is putting the skids on its restructuring program.
GM has been forced to close seven truck and sport utility assembly plants and 21 other facilities have been affected by the strike at former subsidiary American Axle and Manufacturing Holding Inc. which began February 26.
Hundreds of other workers employed by suppliers such as Lear Corp, Canada’s Magna International and Delphi Corp. also have been idled by the strike, which economists at Merrill Lynch have estimated could cut US economic growth by as much 0.2 percentage points.
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Humane Society of the United States wants a federal judge to prevent the capturing or killing of sea lions feasting on salmon a Columbia River dam.
The group said in a motion filed in U.S. District Court on Friday that agents could begin taking the sea lions as soon as next weekend, and asked for a permanent injunction. If the request is denied, the group said it would likely would seek a temporary restraining order to be effective before Friday.
In January, the National Marine Fisheries Service authorized the taking of up to 85 sea lions a year for five years from the Bonneville Dam, although it recommended a lower number.
CHIOMONTE, Italy (AFP) – A multi-billion-euro project to bore a tunnel through the Italian Alps to create a high-speed rail link between Turin, Italy, and Lyon, France, will face a new protest on Sunday.
In Chiomonte, in northwestern Italy’s Susa Valley, diehard opponents of the project will line up to buy a symbolic square metre of land each along the route of the planned rail line.
More than 1,250 activists including ecologists, artists and intellectuals are involved in the initiative to oppose the tunnel, which has an estimated pricetag of 7.6 billion euros (12 billion dollars).
BANGKOK (AFP) – Negotiators from up to 180 countries began gathering here on Sunday for talks aimed at reaching the most ambitious treaty yet for sparing the Earth from the worst ravages of global warming.
The five-day talks, starting Monday, follow marathon negotiations in December on the Indonesian island of Bali where the world set a 2009 deadline for thrashing out a landmark pact to battle climate change.
The Bangkok meeting is the first step toward reaching that new agreement, which should take effect when commitments on cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions under the existing Kyoto Protocol expire in 2012.
KHUN SAMUT CHIN, Thailand (AFP) – Crabs scuttle across the wet floor of the near-deserted Khun Samut temple, the only building left in a Thai village that has disappeared beneath the rising and advancing sea.
Waging a battle against an encroaching tide that has sent all the villagers fleeing inland, a monk in orange robes and faded tattoos meant to ward off evil spirits stalks the newly-built sea wall, planting mangrove shoots.
Somnuek Atipanya points 20 metres (65 feet) out to sea, where electricity pylons poke out of the water, now useful only for resting marine birds.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Unions representing film and television actors will negotiate separately with producers in upcoming contract talks after board members of the TV actors union voted Saturday to sever a long-standing agreement between the two guilds.
The vote by the board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists came hours before a meeting with the Screen Actors Guild and just three months before the expiration of the contract covering movies and prime-time shows.
Despite a sometimes rocky 27-year relationship the unions had shown recent signs of peace as they prepared for the upcoming talks.
Some Loose Stuff From Yahoo News
Here are a couple of items that turned up after I completed my initial search-
CHICAGO – Full results of a failed trial on Vytorin, a medicine taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol, left doctors stunned that the drug did not improve heart disease even though it worked as intended to lower three key risk factors.
Use of Vytorin and a related drug, Zetia, seemed sure to continue to fall after the findings reported Sunday and fresh questions about why drugmakers took nearly two years after the study ended to give results.
“A lot of us thought that there would be some glimmer of benefit,” said Dr. Roger Blumenthal, a Johns Hopkins University cardiologist and spokesman for the American Heart Association.
Many doctors were prescribing Vytorin without trying older, proven medications first, as guidelines advise. The key message from the study is “don’t do that,” Blumenthal said.
HARARE (AFP) – The opposition claimed victory on Sunday in Zimbabwe’s general election as concerns mounted over a delay to the results of a contest which could see veteran President Robert Mugabe turfed out of office.
Despite warnings from Mugabe’s camp that pre-emptive declarations were to tantamount to a coup, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it had secured nearly all parliamentary seats in the two main cities.
However more than 24 hours after polls had closed, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had yet to release a single result from any of the 9,000 stations where votes were cast on Saturday for the president, lawmakers and councillors.
I just recently 
