[APR-news] March 20-31, 2006

Sun Apr 2 12:57:44 PDT 2006

Alternative Press Review - Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
www.altpr.org - March 20-31, 2006
"Magazine of the Year" -  2005 Press Action Award

Note: I'm catching up after an unplanned break. The Weekend Edition (Apr 
1-2) will follow shortly... - Thomas Wheeler, APR

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http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=619&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
"Operation Swarmer" - Do you trust the media?
By Gabriele Zamparini

Could you please explain why in your articles and in others (for example in 
"Iraq in civil war, says former PM", BBC News website, Sunday, 19 March 
2006) there is no mention at all about the results of this military 
operation on the people of Iraq? Will you update these articles or will you 
write another one on the real effects of this operation on human lives? Or 
do you think that those Iraqi people don't deserve your time and are too 
insignificant for the BBC to cover their story?

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=622&mode=nocomments&order=0&thold=0
US Media Bias: Covering Israel/Palestine
By Remi Kanazi

Every time a suicide bombing strikes Israel, mass coverage of the tragedy 
begins instantly. Whether landing on the front page of The New York Times or 
taking up the headline block on CNN.com, the pain Israeli people endure is 
shown endlessly. Israelis do suffer. Suicide bombings are horrific. 
Nevertheless, Palestinian pain occurs far more frequently, and yet often 
overlooked by the mainstream American media.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=620&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Brown Skin / Yellow Star: Turning the Corner Toward Fascism
by Juan Santos

Mr. Bush and the Christian fascists in power have found their scapegoat - 
and it is us. We are the new Jews in a new Germany in a new century. ... 
They call us "invaders." We represent a "destabilizing factor" for the 
"nation." They say we are dirty, just like they said the Jews were dirty --  
and disease ridden. They say our neighborhoods and our culture are 
"cesspools." They want to keep their culture "pure." They say we "steal" the 
jobs that they have in fact shipped overseas, and that are nowhere to be 
found. And now they're calling us "terrorists," just like they called our 
ancestors "savages." After decades the nation's long-suppressed racism is 
finding an open voice once more, and they are openly strategizing about how 
to best appeal to the unconscious racist sentiments just beneath the surface 
among a broader public.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=624&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
An Interview With the Anti-Minutemen Five
By Ron Jacobs

There have been a number of massive protests across the United States for 
immigrant rights in recent weeks. The particular impetus for these protests 
is a bill authored by the anti-immigrant Congressmen Rep. Sensenbrenner and 
his allies that was passed by the House in late 2005 and is currently being 
considered in the Senate. The bill, numbered H.B. 4437, is a repressive 
piece of legislation authored by one of the most reactionary legislators in 
the Congress. Not only would it penalize undocumented workers, it would also 
criminalize any acts designed to help these members of US society. This bill 
is just the most obvious aspect of a growing wave of anti-immigrant 
sentiment in the United States.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=623&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
A Call for Open Borders
By Rosemarie Jackowski

One argument being used against immigration is that the inclusion of the 
Mexican workers will lower wages in the US. That is like blaming the 
residents of the Ninth Ward for the failure of the levee system. The 
purchasing power of wages in the United States has been on the decline for 
decades. It has nothing to do with the Mexicans. It has everything to do 
with the globalization of corporations. Anger should be directed at 
corporate CEO's and shareholders, not the workers.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=625&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Rachel's Words Live On
By Remi Kanazi

Each Palestinian has a special place in their heart for Rachel Corrie. She 
symbolized strength, perseverance, and self assuredness. Conversely, she was 
labeled an enemy of Israel, a nuisance of the American government and a 
target of ridicule by pro-Israeli propagandists.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=618&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
"Crash" and the self-indulgence of white America
by Robert Jensen and Robert Wosnitzer

The problem of "Crash" can be summed up through one phrase from the studio's 
promotional material, which asserts that the film "boldly reminds us of the 
importance of tolerance." That's exactly the problem. On the surface, the 
film appears to be bold, speaking of race with the kind of raw emotion that 
is rare in this culture. But that emotion turns out, in the end, to be 
manipulative and diversionary. The problem is that the film can't move 
beyond the concept of tolerance, and tolerance is not the solution to 
America's race problem. White people can -- and often do -- learn to 
tolerate difference without ever disturbing the systemic, institutional 
nature of racism. The core problem is not intolerance but white supremacy --  
and the way in which, day in and day out, white people accept white 
supremacy and the unearned privileges it brings

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=621&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Is it really ADHD?
By Kenneth W. Thomas, RN

It is appalling that a child can be prescribed mind-altering, potentially 
deadly drugs for ADHD with no certainty that they even have an illness. The 
practice of psychiatry diverges greatly from science of medicine. Objective 
medical testing is not required before treatment is prescribed.

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Other articles of interest

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980,00.html
Polar Ice Caps Are Melting Faster Than Ever... More And More Land Is Being 
Devastated By Drought... Rising Waters Are Drowning Low-Lying Communities... 
By Any Measure, Earth Is At ... The Tipping Point
Jeffrey Kluger, Time Magazine

>From heat waves to storms to floods to fires to massive glacial melts, the 
global climate seems to be crashing around us. Scientists have been calling 
this shot for decades. This is precisely what they have been warning would 
happen if we continued pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, 
trapping the heat that flows in from the sun and raising global 
temperatures. Environmentalists and lawmakers spent years shouting at one 
another about whether the grim forecasts were true, but in the past five 
years or so, the serious debate has quietly ended. Global warming, even most 
skeptics have concluded, is the real deal, and human activity has been 
causing it.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/03/22/peakoil/
The oil is going, the oil is going!
Katharine Mieszkowski, Salon

Today's Paul Reveres of "peak oil" aren't waiting for Washington to save us 
from apocalypse. They're already planting gardens and drafting city plans 
for the days when oil is gone.

http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21882&s2=25
60 Minutes joins the propaganda war
Mike Whitney, Uruknet.info

We already know that the Pentagon is committed to the policies of deception 
and misinformation. Their unwavering support for the planting of stories in 
the Iraqi press further demonstrates their belief that lies are vital to 
their overall strategy. We must assume that the 60 Minutes fits into this 
paradigm of psy-ops (psychological operations) directed at the American 
public to shore up support for the war. The fact that 60 Minutes would stake 
its reputation on such a pathetic example of state propaganda, illustrates 
the desperation that's spreading like wildfire through the political 
establishment to their colleagues in the corporate media.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12454.htm
The Accepted System of Dissent
Mike Kress, ICH

We are here today because we believe that if we say the right words and 
carry the right signs we will get our foot in the door of democratic debate. 
In short, we are here because we believe in an illusion. That illusion is an 
accepted system of dissent that ensures our resistance doesn't go beyond 
boundaries established by the government and the corporate media. Methods 
that worked 40 years ago have been gradually homogenized into a manageable 
system of dissent that channels our moral outrage and our demands for peace 
into predictable, self-censoring, and largely ineffective protest. Like 
cattle penned inside corrals and channeled down chutes to the killing floor, 
we are following a blueprint for dissent that the people in power have 
basically designed for us. Is it any wonder that we find ourselves doing the 
same things we did before (and after) every previous war?

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=20503
Police state files: Government cracks down on dissent in name of 
'anti-terrorism'
Geov Parrish, Working for Change

As the released documents make clear, that, and only that, was why they 
became targets: because they opposed the war in Iraq. An FBI document from 
2002 notes that the center is "a left-wing organization advocating, among 
many political causes, pacifism." Pacifism! Egads! Aside from the fact that 
pacifism is a set of personal moral beliefs -- not a "political cause" -- is 
pacifism, in our militarized 21st Century America, the new Red Scare? Seems 
so. Just ask the Quakers. Or maybe, instead, pacifism is simply terrorism.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/032706.html
Time to Talk War Crimes
Robert Parry, Consortium News

In a world where might did not make right, George W. Bush, Tony Blair and 
their key enablers would be in shackles before a war crimes tribunal at the 
Hague, rather than sitting in the White House, 10 Downing Street or some 
other comfortable environs in Washington and London.

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2006cia_iran
The Dirty Secret Nobody Is Talking About: The CIA Passed Nuclear Weapons 
Technology To Iran
Mark W. Hughes, Infoshop News

With the US moving ever closer to a military attack targeting Iran, the 
Iranian nuclear program is the subject of much discussion and debate among 
politicians and in the mainstream news media. Ignored in this media coverage 
and diplomacy is the fact that any Iranian program successfully building 
nuclear weapons will owe much to the US intelligence community that handed 
Iran detailed technical blueprints for a nuclear weapon trigger. Just as the 
pre-war coverage of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs 
conveniently failed to mention that most of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass 
destruction came from the US and NATO, so too are the inconvenient facts 
about the history of Iran's nuclear program being hushed up.

http://www.socialistworker.org/2006-1/582/582_12_Massacre.shtml
Video exposes cold-blooded murders -- Massacred by the Marines
Nicole Colson, Socialist Worker

"It was a massacre in every sense of the word." That's how Khaled Ahmed 
Rsayef described the murder of 15 Iraqi civilians--including his brother and 
six other relatives--by U.S. Marines last November.

http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/2006/03/bush-does-not-equal-hitler-17-points.html
Bush does not equal Hitler: The 17 Points
Dr. Steve Jonas, Thomas Paine's Corner

In the United States a controversy rumbles with increasing intensity: are 
comparisons claiming that George Bush and Adolf Hitler have much in common 
valid? I would like to weigh in on the side that holds such comparisons 
indeed are not valid, for the following 17 reasons. 1. Bush had two Time 
covers, Hitler only one.

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/235/1/
Recuperated Enterprises in Argentina: Reversing the Logic of Capitalism
Marie Trigona, Upside Down World

Argentina's worker-run factories are setting an example for workers around 
the world that employees can run a business even better without a boss or 
owner. Some 180 recuperated enterprises up and running, providing jobs for 
more than 10,000 Argentine workers.

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/33703/
Infected Planet
Stan Cox, AlterNet

Modern human plagues like bird flu aren't the result of mysterious forces. 
Whether we mean to or not, we bring them on ourselves.

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NewsWire

http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/3814
Bush Launches Massive Shock & Awe Offensive... Against U.S. Media

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/commentary.aspx?id=16687
What if the practice of journalism became a crime?

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/23/152254
The return of black bag searches?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0327-04.htm
FBI Keeps Watch on Activists

http://www.alternet.org/rights/33949/
What are political and activist groups like Indymedia and Food Not Bombs 
doing on the FBI's Terrorist Watch List?

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_4572856,00.html
Memos suggest FBI has wide investigation nets; info on chat rooms, many 
activists groups included in records

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032206N.shtml
IRS Plan Would Allow Sale of Tax Data to Marketers

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/24/150203
IRS audited Greenpeace at request of ExxonMobil-funded group

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/nevi-m23.shtml
On orders from prime minister's department and police: Australian web site 
shut down

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/puer-m30.shtml
Puerto Rico sues FBI for stonewalling probe of independentista's murder

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4999734/
Top White House lawyer warned U.S. officials could be prosecuted for "war 
crimes"

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12505.htm
Secret memo: Bush was set on war path

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/21/1418210
Videotape Forces Pentagon to Investigate Claims U.S. Marines Shot Dead 15 
Iraqi Civilians in Apparent Revenge Killings

http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick03272006.html
War Crime in a Mosque: US Soldiers Massacre 22 in Baghdad Mosque

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12467.htm
Children continue to be main victims of US terror in Iraq

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/03/30/pf-1512671.html
US deserter tells of atrocities

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2006/03/sudden_increase.html
Sudden increase in tracking down Vietnam deserters appears tied to Iraq war

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/print.cfm?story=102251&ran=202519
Blackwater USA says it can supply forces for conflicts

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3012
Students Defy Lockdown, Walk Out for Immigrant Rights

http://www.hightimes.com/ht/news/content.php?bid=529&aid=5
Nearly half of Americans want pot regulated like alcohol

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2100776,00.html
London 'under water by 2100' as Antarctica crumbles into the sea

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0331-05.htm
Antarctic Air is Warming Faster Than Rest of World

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4826262.stm
Biodiversity being depleted

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4826262.stm
UN warns of worst mass extinction in 65 million years

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033006T.shtml
New Orleans recovery could take 25 years

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/50B0028B-B417-4FDE-866C-842CB3280A4F.htm
Asia must prepare for dollar collapse

http://www.theintelligencer.net/business/articles.asp?articleID=3732
Universal default forces many into bankruptcy

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/home-m28.shtml
US home foreclosures on the rise

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/HC24Dj01.html
US living on borrowed time - and money

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/696472.html
Baruch Marzel: IDF must assassinate left-wing activist Uri Avnery

http://www.socialistworker.org/2006-1/581/581_16_France.shtml
Revolts spread across France

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