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Last Updated: Jul 8th, 2008 - 13:33:59 |
Campaign News:
Obama to Opt Out Of Public Financing
In campaign news, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has announced he is opting out of the federal public financing system in the general election. By turning down $84 million in federal money, Obama will be allowed to raise and spend an unlimited amount during the election. Obama is the first major party candidate to reject public funds since the system started in 1976. The decision marks a reversal for Obama—last year he had pledged to accept public financing if his opponent did as well. McCain confirmed he will stay in the public financing system. McCain spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker said: “Obama’s] decision will have far-reaching and extraordinary consequences that will weaken and undermine the public financing system.”
Racist Anti-Obama Pins Sold at Texas GOP Convention
In other campaign news, the Texas Republican Party is coming under criticism for allowing the sale of racist pins at last week’s convention. One vendor was selling a pin that read “If Obama is President…will we still call it the White House?”
Denver Police Stock up on Pepper Spray Guns Ahead of DNC
The Denver Police Department is stocking up on pepper spray guns ahead of the Democratic National Convention. The city has ordered eighty-eight projectile launchers that fire plastic balls filled with cayenne pepper and other substances. Denver is purchasing the weapon from SWAT, Security with Advanced Technology. The news comes just weeks after SWAT announced plans to merge with the company PepperBall Technologies. Meanwhile, some residents of Denver are questioning why a half-dozen military helicopters flew over parts of the city on Monday as part of a secret security drill. The Denver Post reported the military aircraft buzzed above the Pepsi Center, the site of the Democratic Convention. A military spokesperson denied the drill was connected to the convention. Lt. Nathan Potter said, “It’s routine preparation for the global war on terrorism."
Obama Hires Clinton’s Ex-Campaign Manager
In other campaign news, Obama has hired Senator Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle to be chief of staff of Obama’s future running mate. Many Clinton supporters view the decision as proof that Obama will not pick Clinton as his vice president. Clinton ousted Doyle as her campaign manager in February, and the two are said to be barely on speaking terms.
Al Gore Endorses Sen. Barack Obama
Former Vice President Al Gore has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president. Gore spoke at an Obama campaign rally in Detroit on Monday.
Al Gore: “After eight years of lost jobs and lower wages, we need change. After eight years of incompetence, neglect and failure, we need change. After eight years in which our Constitution has been dishonored and disrespected, we need change. After eight years of the worst, most serious foreign policy mistakes in the entire history of our nation, we need change.”
Barack Obama praised Gore for his years of public service.
Sen. Barack Obama: “I want to thank, most of all, Al Gore. I want to thank him for his support. I want to thank you for your service. I want to thank Al Gore for everything that he is doing to ensure that we leave a planet that is better for our children.”
McCain Calls for 45 New Nuclear Reactors
In other energy news, John McCain has called for the United States to build forty-five new nuclear reactors by 2030. McCain said his ultimate goal is 100 new nuclear plants. No nuclear plant has been built in the United States since the meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979. Barack Obama also supports the expanded use of nuclear power but has not laid out a detailed plan on building new plants.
Ex-Clinton Cabinet Officials to Advise Obama on Foreign Policy
In other campaign news, Barack Obama has announced the formation of his Senior Working Group on National Security. The group features several former cabinet officials from the Clinton administration, including former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher, former National Security Adviser Tony Lake, and Clinton’s Defense Secretary William Perry. Other members of Obama’s advisory board include two members of the 9/11 Commission: Lee Hamilton and Tim Roemer.
Muslim Women Kept from Camera at Obama Rally
Barack Obama’s campaign has apologized to two Muslim women who were barred from sitting behind Obama during his rally on Monday in Detroit. Obama campaign volunteers prevented Hebba Aref and Shimaa Abdelfadeel from sitting behind the podium because they were wearing traditional Muslim headscarves. A campaign volunteer told one of the women that because of the political climate it was not good for her to be seen on television or associated with Obama.
More National News:
Gen. Taguba: Bush Administration Committed War Crimes
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| Prisoners at Guantanamo |
The Army general who first investigated the abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of committing war crimes. Retired Major General Antonio Taguba made the comment in a new report about US torture practices. Taguba wrote, “The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture.” Taguba went on to say, “The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”
Also, McClatchy Newspapers has conducted an extensive eight-month investigation of the US detention system created after 9/11. Based on interviews with sixty-six former prisoners, the investigation found that the US imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay into a school for jihad. The online series, “Guantanamo: Beyond the Law,” includes extensive information of each prisoner, complete with accompanying officials documents, pictures and video.
LA School Teacher Fired for Being Too “Afrocentric”
Protests in support of dismissed Los Angeles School District high school teacher Karen Salazar have increased this week. She is a second-year English teacher at Jordan High School in Watts. Last month, she was told her contract would not be renewed, because she was “presenting a biased view of the curriculum” and “indoctrinating her students with Afrocentrism.” Her course material included board-approved texts like the writings of Malcolm X and Langston Hughes.
Last week, a student took issue with the negative characterization of Salazar’s teaching.
STUDENT: She encourages her students to continue on. She gives them the push. She doesn’t give up on her students. She says, “OK, you’re struggling in my class. I will take time off. I will help you after school.” Most teachers don’t even do that. And the fact that she’s teaching us about our culture and things that are relevant to us, that’s what they’re afraid of. They’re scared of a teacher who does that, because that involves critical thinking. They don’t like students who question or to think critically. They just want students to absorb everything and then to regurgitate back to them.
AMY GOODMAN: Jordan High School officials refused to comment when we contacted them and said the issue was an internal matter relating to personnel.
But the case of Karen Salazar is not unique. In 2006, Jay Bennish, a high school teacher from Aurora, Colorado, was briefly dismissed because one of his lectures was deemed “anti-American.” On the eve of the Iraq war in 2003, Deborah Mayer, an Indiana schoolteacher, was fired after telling her class, “I honk for peace.” A federal appeals court in Chicago upheld the school’s decision last year and ruled public school teachers do not have the constitutional right to express personal opinions in the classroom.
In related news, a legislative panel in Arizona endorsed a proposal in April that would cut state funding for public schools whose courses “denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization.” The measure would also prohibit students of state-funded universities and community colleges from forming groups based in whole or in part on the race of their members.
Critics say the bill would essentially destroy the state’s Mexican American or Chicano studies programs, as well as student groups such as the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or MEChA.
Harlem Residents to Protest Rezoning Plans
Here in New York, residents of Harlem are staging a protest Saturday to protest plans to rezone the 125th Street area. Critics say the rezoning will permanently change the character of Harlem and pave the way for greater gentfrication. Nellie Bailey of the Harlem Tenants Council is a lead organizer of Saturday’s march.
Nellie Bailey: “All of this is tied, this isn’t just random. This tied into to the way the city and the Bloomberg administration is determined to redefine these neighborhoods. And these neighborhoods where the message I believe is very, very clear. Low income and poor people cannot live on expensive real estate here in New York City.”
Crackdown on Mortgage Fraud; FBI Arrests Two Bear Stearns Hedge Fund Managers
In business news, the FBI has arrested and charged two former hedge fund managers at the investment bank Bear Stearns for fraud over two funds that collapsed last year. Matthew Tannin and Ralph Cioffi are the first executives to face criminal charges in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis. The FBI also announced it has charged more than 400 people since March in a nationwide crackdown on mortgage fraud. Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip announced the charges.
Mark Filip: “And the allegations detailed in that indictment are that the losses to investors are roughly $1.4 billion … The other cases are believed to encompass an additional billion dollars so you are talking about billions of dollars.”
Flooding Spreads Along the Mississippi River
The extreme weather report was released while the Midwest continues to face widespread flooding. Officials say 18 more levees on the Mississippi River are at high risk of being overwhelmed this weekend. 31 levees have already been breached or topped. USA Today reports many of these levees were not built to handle a flood of such historic proportions.
Congress to Grant Immunity to Telecoms
Leaders in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate have agreed to rewrite the nation’s surveillance laws and to give what amounts to legal immunity to phone companies that took part in the Bush administration’s secret domestic surveillance program. The bill has been described as the most significant revision of surveillance law in three decades. The legislation gives the government new powers to eavesdrop on both domestic and international communications. One provision would allow the government to wiretap Americans for up to a week without a court order. The House is expected to approve the measure today. The Senate will vote next week. Several prominent Democratic Senators criticized the bill. Senator Russ Feingold said: “The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation.”
House Approves $162 Billion War Funding Bill
Meanwhile the House has passed a $162 billion war-funding bill to keep funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill was approved by a vote of 268-155. As the House approved the war-funding bill, a protester in the visitor’s gallery began throwing red-stained dollars at lawmakers. Minority Leader Republican John Boehner said he was pleased with the vote.
Rep. John Boehner: “A compromise is a compromise. I want to thank my Democrat colleagues for working with us to get to this point and I want to thank them for their commitment that this is the bill. This is the bill that will end up on the President’s desk.”
Many Democrats criticized the bill for not setting any conditions on President Bush. This is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “So, let us think and hope that this is the last time that there will ever be another dollar spent without constraints, without conditions, without direction. Why should we trust the same judgment that got us here in the first place in this war?”
The House also voted to approve spending $63 billion to expand college aid for veterans of the two wars.
KBR Accused of Overcharging Navy After Hurricane Katrina
Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s Inspector General is accusing KBR of overcharging the Navy in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. KBR was hired by the US Navy after the hurricane to provide meals to workers and service personnel. According to the Pentagon’s audit, the Navy paid approximately $4.1 million for meals and services that should have cost less than $2 million. The Pentagon’s audit requests that the Navy seek refunds of at least $8.5 million for “inappropriate” payments to KBR.
Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP to Get No-Bid Oil Contracts in Iraq
The New York Times reports four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations on contracts that will return them to Iraq for the first time in thirty-six years. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP—the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company—are among the corporations in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest oil fields. The Times reports it is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts. Americans continue to serve as advisers to Iraq’s Oil Ministry.
Bush Urges Congress to Lift Oil Drilling Ban
On Wednesday, President Bush urged Congress to lift a federal ban on offshore oil drilling and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
President Bush: “So this morning I asked Democratic congressional leaders to move forward with four steps to expand American oil and gasoline production. First, we should expand American oil production by increasing access to the outer continental shelf, or OCS. Experts believe that the OCS could produce about 18 billion barrels of oil. That would be enough to match America’s current oil production for almost ten years.”
Bush’s comments came just days after Republican presidential candidate John McCain said the lifting of the ban on offshore oil drilling is needed to combat rising gas prices. Since McCain’s original statement, his own advisers have begun acknowledging that lifting the ban would have no immediate effect on supplies or prices. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has opposed offshore oil drilling. On Wednesday, Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois says the Democratic leadership will fight efforts to lift the ban.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel: “We will not scare the American people into doing something that they should not do at this point, given the oil industry holds leases today, fourteen years worth of energy supply that would—ability of us to literally wean off of foreign dependence. And so, we would have a very sensible, commonsense, but strategically thought through approach that includes both supply and demand as it relates to conservation and efficiency.”
Wall Street Banks Urge Against Regulation of Oil Speculators
Meanwhile, as the price of gas continues to rise, several Wall Street investment banks are lobbying Congress to hold off on passing new bills to regulate energy trading. The Washington Post reports representatives of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are trying to convince lawmakers that no new regulation on oil speculation is needed.
Prosecution of Undocumented Immigrants Reaches New High
The Bush administration’s prosecution of undocumented immigrants has reached a new high. Over 9,000 immigrants were prosecuted in the month of March. Immigration cases now account for more than half of all federal criminal prosecutions.
EU Approves New Rules on Detaining Immigrants
Meanwhile, European Union lawmakers have agreed that undocumented immigrants can be detained for up to eighteen months and face a re-entry ban of up to five years. Amnesty International’s Nicolas Beger said human rights groups had serious concerns over the rules.
Nicolas Beger: “This is a particularly grave concern that Amnesty International has. I mean, Amnesty International principally is against the detention of minors, but this direction, while not prohibiting detention, doesn’t even specify that minors cannot be detained in prisons. We might be seeing twelve-year-olds being detained in adult male prisons without any protection in terms of their status.”
NYPD Arrests Two Members of Hip-Hop Group Rebel Diaz
Here in New York, a protest was held yesterday in the Bronx calling for the release of two members of the political hip-hop group Rebel Diaz. The musicians say they were arrested and beaten when they tried to videotape the police confronting a street vendor selling fruit. Another member of Rebel Diaz said, “They asked for the badge information from the police officer, and basically the police just started beating them up."
More International News:
Mugabe Threatens to Arrest Opposition Leaders
Tension remains high in Zimbabwe, ten days ahead of a run-off election between President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. On Monday, Mugabe threatened to arrest opposition leaders.
Robert Mugabe: “Sooner or rather than later, we are going to accuse the party and the party leadership of being vicariously liable and responsible for those crimes of violence, because there is now a pattern readable across the country, and that has to stop. We want to go into the election exercise peacefully.”
In London, President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused Mugabe of orchestrating the violence in Zimbabwe.
Gordon Brown: “Mugabe must not be allowed to steal the election that is now less than two weeks away. And that is why we call for Zimbabwe to accept a United Nations human rights envoy to visit Zimbabwe now and to accept the international monitors from all parts of the world who are available to ensure that this is a free and fair election.”
Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since it won its independence from Britain in 1980.
Fidel Castro Seen on TV with Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez
In news from Latin America, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro was shown on Cuban TV on Tuesday with his brother, President Raul Castro, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The video showed the first public images of Castro since January.
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