Political and Social Thought to the Left of College Station

The crowd was lined up from the doors of the Brazos Center to Briarcrest Drive; all waiting for a chance to take part in the town hall on health care reform. While I waited in line I listened to the people around me, and what I heard could simply be described as the irrational fear of change that has been fermented by misinformation. I heard rumors about the federal government taking control of bank accounts, and that government control of health care would lead to rationing. I heard about socialism, and how much more other countries pay in taxes. I heard about death panels, and tax payer funded abortions. I heard about people that where happy with their health insurance, and who did not want to pay for someone else’s health care. I heard that this was not about health care, but about the government. I heard everything but concern for the people that do not have access to health care.

The opponents of health care reform are right about one thing in particular; there opposition is not about health care reform. This is about fear. This is about a fear that has been fermented by conservatives for decades, about a fear that the government is going to take your stuff. They have their stuff, and they do not want else one else to touch their stuff. If someone else does not have stuff, well then it is their own fault. For three decades we have been told by pundits, politicians, and Presidents that government is the problem, that government is one of the main sources of what they perceive to be wrong with America.

Over those three decades many Americans have lost any trust that they may have had in the government, and over the last eight years Americans have learned that government can be one of the main sources of many of our problems. So, now our new leaders ask us to place our faith in a government that we have been told that is the problem and that over the last year eights we have seen a government that has been the problem. There are many Americans that are having a difficult time reconciling that idea. That government can be more than something to point your finger at, and say there is the problem.

As I looked around the town hall there was one thing that I noticed in particular. Most of the people that gathered there where white and middle class, many people where middle aged and many people where senior citizens. There was an entire cross section of people that I did not see well represented, people of color and people on the lower end of the economic scale. Some people will say that this outcry against health care reform is not about race, but excuse me for thinking that there is a racial element to a older white woman wearing a t-shirt with a picture of President Obama pictured as a African witchdoctor with a bone through is his nose. Excuse me in noticing the irony that when those same middle aged and older white people talk about wanting their country back that it is easy to make the connection to the country that they are speaking about might be the country that they grew up in during the days of segregation.

It is interesting to not that those people on the lower end of the economic scale could not be at the town hall perhaps because at five o’clock they might be working. A single mother who lives in northern Bryan, does not have time to come to a town hall meeting when she has to work two jobs to provide for her children. Of course it should not be important for us as a society to ensure her decent quality health care because she should have personal reasonability. It should not both us that a recent immigrant from Mexico living in western Bryan could not come to the meeting, because he is busy landscaping the yard of one the affluent white people at the meeting. Besides, if he is an illegal immigrant than he doesn’t deserve access to quality health care. Then there is that working poor family that lives just outside of town, and the husband lost his job in a factory because of cut backs and the wife works long hours as a nurse. There son was recently diagnosed with cancer and even though they have health insurance it just does not cover the enormous cost. But those people where not at the meeting.

There is a vocal minority that fears anything that has to do with change, and they will voice their opinions about what they may think is wrong with the system but they will also voice their opinions about why that system does not need to change. The only thing I really saw at the town hall meeting was a group of mostly white middle class people that only desire that things will stay the same as they remember through rose color glasses, and that their “freedom” will not be taken away. Even if it means that someone else’s freedom is continued to be denied. They will point their finger at the government, an institution designed to protect our freedoms and serve the citizens. Government is at its best when it is serving the needs of everyone, and not just protecting the desires of the privileged few. Government will not be able to solve all of our society’s problems, but government can be a place where people can work towards making significant changes that can allow individuals to solve those problems. To paraphrase President Kennedy, we can look ahead and not behind, welcome new ideas without rigid reactions, care about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies. Government can be public service, where we can serve each other.

Headlines

Local News
Economic Numbers Show Bryan-College Station In A Recession

Economic analysts look to specific indicators to tell them whether an economy is thriving or diving. According to a report by KBTX Channel 3, A new economic index shows the Bryan-College Metropolitan area's economy has been in a decline since the first of 2009. The analysis is, the area is and has been in a recession since the first part of the year. The report looks at factors like unemployment (6.5%), Retail Sales (-10%) Construction Permits (-52.3%) Home Sales(-15.1%). While these numbers are gloomy, there are some bright spots which indicate future optimism. Single Family Housing Permits rose in July by 25% and Hotel Motel Tax Receipts for the year are up 2.4%. Taking all these factors into consideration the Commerce National Bank-Eagle Economic Index for the area is down 4.8%

Local Politics
Congressman Edwards Holds Town Hall on Health Care

Congressman Chet Edwards took questions during a town hall on health care; the Bryan-College Station Eagle characterized as the approximately 1,200 residents as “raucous and occasionally hostile.” There was twenty questions asked and four expressed support for health care reform, three did not make their positions known, and thirteen expressed disapproval for health care reform while about half of those questions repeated misinformation about the health care reforms. While there was vocal opponents to health care reform, include the Texas A&M Chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas, the overall tone of the residents in the town hall seemed much more evenly divided than reported by the local media. Compared to much publicized town halls in other parts of the country, the town hall at the Brazos Center was relatively calm and all points of view where allowed to be heard.

Texas News
State Agents Involved in Rainbow Lounge Inspection Are Fired

The Fort World Star-Telegram reported that two state agents who assisted Fort Worth police during the controversial bar check at the gay bar Rainbow Lounge in June have been fired. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) fired two agents, disciplined two supervisors, and the fired agents’ supervisor, who had earlier announced his retirement, will be terminated effective Wednesday. The commission is continuing an investigation into whether its agents used excessive force, and Fort Worth police officials continue their investigation as well. In an internal affairs report that was released earlier this month, the commission said that the two agents violated numerous policies in connection with the inspection.


National News
C.I.A. Abuse Cases Detailed in Report on Detainees

According to an article in the New York Times, the Justice Department released a report this week chronicling abuses inside the Central Intelligence Agency’s overseas prisons. The C.I.A. inspector general’s 2004 report was released on Monday under court order in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Although large portions of the 109-page report are redacted, it gives new details about a variety of abuses inside the C.I.A.’s overseas prisons, including suggestions about sexually assaulting members of a detainee’s family, staging mock executions, intimidation with a handgun and power drill, and blowing cigar and cigarette smoke into prisoners’ faces to make them vomit.

War and Peace
New US Deaths Make 2009 Afghan War's Deadliest

TruthOut.org reports that 2009 is the deadliest year for the growing contingent of foreign troops since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. The deaths highlight the steadily worsening violence in the country, which has been in political limbo since a disputed presidential election last week. More than 30,000 extra U.S. troops arrived in Afghanistan this year, most part of a package of reinforcements ordered by Obama in May. There are now more than 100,000 Western troops in the country, 63,000 of them Americans. The number of foreign troops who have died in Afghanistan this year is 295, according to website icasualties.org, which compiles official figures. Last year was the previous deadliest year when 294 were killed.

Environment
Climate Change Costs Could Triple Early Estimates

According to an article in the Environment News Service, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that estimates on the cost of global warming are based on "substantial" underestimates of what it will cost to adapt to global warming. The real costs of adaptation are likely to be two to three times greater than estimates for the year 2030 made by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2007. The UNFCCC has estimated the global costs of adapting to climate change to be US$40-170 billion each year. But the report's authors say that these estimates were produced too quickly and did not include key sectors such as energy, manufacturing, retailing, mining, tourism and ecosystems.

Health Care
Health Insurance Premiums Are Eating Up Middle-Class Incomes

A report by the Common Wealth Fund found that the rapid rise in health insurance premiums has severely strained U.S. families and employers in recent years. An analysis of federal data finds that if premiums for employer-sponsored insurance grow in each state at the projected national rate of increase, then the average premium for family coverage would rise from $12,298 (the 2008 average) to $23,842 by 2020—a 94 percent increase. However, if health system reforms were able to slow premium growth by 1 percentage point in all states, by 2020 employers and families together would save $2,571 per premium for family coverage, compared with projected trends.

Reproductive Rights
Expectations That Abortion Pill Would Dramatically Improve Abortion Access Have Not Been Realized

According to a report by the Guttmacher Institute, while becoming an integral part of abortion provision, the abortion pill has not expanded geographic access. New research published in Obstetrics & Gynecology suggests that, although use of the abortion pill has become widespread and has contributed to the shift toward earlier abortions, its use has not improved women’s geographic access to abortion services. The research found that both the number of medication abortions and the number of providers offering the abortion pill increased dramatically between 2000 and 2007, even as the total number of abortions performed in the United States declined steadily over this period. However, the authors also found that most medication abortions were performed at or near facilities that also provided surgical abortions.

Women’s Issues
Baghdad Underground

According to an article in Ms. Magazine, there is a team of 35 Iraqi activists who call themselves the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), provides the only sanctuaries for victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence outside the quasi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq in what has become known as the Underground Railroad. Violence against women is rampant and goes virtually unchecked by Iraq’s new legal system, which is influenced by conservative clerics now dominating the country’s politics, and which follows tribal and Islamic Sharia law more closely than it ever had during Hussein’s harsh but secular rule. In addition to providing temporary asylum, the Railroad helps women resettle in places where their abusers cannot find them easily. Since its inception the Railroad has helped thousands of women. Several have been transferred to Turkey, at least two now live in the U.S., but most of the rescued women have remained in Iraq.

GLBT Issues
Lutherans Vote to Approve Gay Clergy

According to an article in the Advocate, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination, voted on Friday to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, lifting a restriction that had required gay and lesbian ministers to remain celibate. Church delegates voted 559-451 to remove the ban during their biennial conference in Minneapolis. The vote makes the ELCA, which claims nearly 5 million members, the largest denomination in the country to allow non-celibate gay and lesbian ministers. The resolution approved by the ELCA does not force individual congregations to select gay and lesbian ministers, but allows them to pick the candidates if they wish to do so. The delegates also voted 619 to 402 to approve a resolution allowing individual congregations to recognize same-sex unions in the way they see fit.

This Week on Information Underground

This week on Information Underground our studio guest is Heather Duchscher, author of the blog Simple - Green - Frugal, and environmental activist who is involved with the Brazos Valley Famers’ Market and the Brazos Locavores. Topics of conversation will include the blog Simple - Green - Frugal, the Brazos Valley Farmers’ Market, Brazos Locavores, and local environmental issues.

Listen to Information Underground on 89.1FM KEOS on Sundays from 5-6pm after Tavis Smiley, for all the alternative news, politics, and commentary that you don’t hear in the mainstream media. To listen to Information Underground online and to listen to past episodes visit Information Underground on BlogTalkRadio. Tune in every week to hear headlines, interviews, and political and social thought to the Left of College Station.

Political and Social Thought to the Left of College Station

The 2010 campaign has begun.

In Texas, Republicans have already began to campaign for the primaries.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison began her campaign for governor on Monday by making announcements in both La Marque and Austin; Hutchinson will be campaigning against current Texas governor Rick Perry. Hutchinson’s announcements ended months of speculation and makes official a campaign that was already unofficially in progress. The Republican primary pits a long term governor versus a long term Senator. While Hutchinson argues that Perry has been in Austin too long, Perry argues that Hutchinson has been in Washington too long.

The Republican primary is going to be interesting to watch to say the least, as the Republican primary in Texas is dominated by socially conservative Republicans. Both Hutchinson and Perry are going to positioning themselves to appeal to the conservative base, however, Perry has been positioning himself further to the right than Hutchinson has. Perry has embraced the “Tea Party” movement, and has also become more involved with the pro-life movement in Texas. While Hutchinson has embraced the politics of obstruction with her vote against Justice Sonya Sotomayor and her stance against health care reform.

The polling has shown that Perry is currently ahead of Hutchinson, and while he has overtaken her lead he has not been able to pull out as far ahead as she was. Last year in June, in a poll conducted by Texas Lyceum, Hutchinson held a 51% to 21% advantage over Perry. Then in December Hutchinson’s internal polling, conducted by VCR, had Hutchinson holding a 55% to 31% advantage over Perry. Hutchinson was able to hold her advantage over the next several months until a Rasmussen poll had Perry with a 42% to 38% advantage over Hutchinson. The latest poll by Texas Lyceum shows Perry with a 33% to 21% lead over Hutchinson.

It should be interesting over the next few months to watch where the money goes, as already several prominent former Perry donors have given over a $1 million to Hutchinson’s campaign. Out of the $6.7 million that Hutchinson raised in the first half of the year 21% came from former Perry donors, while Perry was only able to raise $4.2 million in the first half of the year. It is also going to be interesting to watch what sides prominent Texas Republicans may take, that is if they decide to publicly support one side or the other.

I am hesitant to make predictions, because so much can happen between now and the primaries. However, conventional wisdom suggests that whoever the Republican nominee is will likely win the general election. Conventional wisdom also suggests that the more conservative of the candidates, Governor Perry, would be likely to win the primary. Conventional wisdom also suggests that a candidate with appeal to moderates, Senator Hutchinson, could attract independents and conservative Democrats. However, conventional wisdom also suggests that in Texas you can count on anything happening in a general election, including something Kinky.

In Bryan-College Station the 2010 campaign began the moment that Congressman Chet Edwards won reelection; as a collection of Republican hopefuls have entered the campaign for Texas Congressional District 17.

Rob Curnock is once again running for the Republican nomination, after securing the nomination last year by filing right before the deadline. Curnock, a businessman from Waco who lost in two contested Republican primaries for Congress, has essentially been campaigning since he lost in the general election in November. There are six candidates, including Curnock that are campaigning for the Republican nomination: Jeff Beene, Timothy Delasandro, David McIntyre, Chuck Wilson, and Darren Yancy.

For any Republican candidate it will be an uphill battle to defeat Edwards. Historically reelection rates of incumbents in the House of Representatives have been extremely high, since 2000 incombants have been reelected 96% of the time. Even during the 1994 “Republican Revolution,” 90% of incumbents where reelected. Edwards also performs better during non-presidential election years. During the presidential election years of 2008 and 2004 Edwards received 53% and 51% of the vote. While during the midterm election in 2006 Edwards received 58% of the vote.

While I would also hesitate to predict what may happen during the midterm elections, it is hard to foresee an electoral defeat of Congressman Edwards. Although there is an outspoken minority, Edwards is well liked in the community. Also, Edwards has a significant fundraising advantage that will allow him to outspend his opponent, an opponent that may be weakened by a tough primary. Overall there does not seem to be a significant candidate among the Republicans, however, one could emerge during the primary. While things may be strange during the gubernatorial election in Austin, things will probably stay normal in College Station.

I would like to extend an invitation all of the Republican candidates. Since the Republican candidates have expressed their view that Congressman Edwards is a far left liberal I would like to invite them to debate an actually liberal. I would gladly debate any of the six Republican candidates on Information Underground, and allow the public to judge whether or not those candidates are being hyperbolic when the claim that he is a liberal.

Headlines

Local News
Red-Light Cameras Go To a Vote

The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports that this fall the residents of College Station will be able to vote on whether or not to keep the controversial red light camera program. The City Council voted unanimously Monday night to place the measure on the November 3rd ballot; the City Council will decide on the language of the measure during an August 27th meeting.

Local Politics
Edwards Announces Busy Schedule of District Health Care Meetings

Congressman Chet Edwards announced that he will hold three regional town halls in Brazos, McLennan, and Johnson counties. According to a press release, Edwards will hold the first of the three town hall meetings at the Brazos Center in Bryan on Wednesday from 6:00-8:00pm. This comes after a telephone town hall meeting that Edwards held on Thursday, in which constituents from throughout the twelve counties on Texas Congressional District 17 where called. Questions for the town hall will be selected at random by an independent third party in a lottery system. District 17 Constituents who want to ask questions will fill out cards as they come in, and they will be called on randomly to ask their question. No printed signs, electronic or recording devices will be permitted.

Texas News
Federal Judge Upholds UT's Consideration of Race in Admissions

The Austin American-Statesman reported that the consideration of race and ethnicity in deciding whom to admit to the University of Texas was upheld as constitutional by a federal judge. A lawsuit filed by two white students whose applications to the university were rejected was dismissed, as the judge described the university’s use of race in admissions as narrowly tailored to further a compelling governmental interest and therefore constitutional under the equal protection clause.

National Politics
Six Lobbyists Per Lawmaker Work on Health Overhaul

There are 3,300 lobbyists in Washington, D.C. that are lobbying on behalf of interested parties concerning health care reform; six lobbyists for each of the 535 members of the House and Senate which is three times the number of people registered to lobby on defense. According to an article in Bloomberg more than 1,500 organizations have health-care lobbyists, and about three more are signing up each day. These groups spent $263.4 million on lobbying during the first six months of 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group, more than any other industry. They spent $241.4 million during the same period of 2008. Drugmakers alone spent $134.5 million, 64 percent more than the next biggest spenders, oil and gas companies.

Economy
Texas Adds 37,900 Jobs in July

The Fort Worth Star-Tribune reported that Texas added 37,900 jobs in July, with "signiificant job growth" in professional and business services, but because more people entered the workforce, the jobless rate rose to 7.9 percent, up from 7.5 percent in June. The Texas Workforce Commission noted that the economic recession has continued to have an adverse impact on Texas, however, Texas unemployment rate remained well below the national rate, and there were signs of positive growth in certain industries. Professional and business services added 18,700 jobs. Education and health services added 14,900. Construction added 3,000 jobs after several months of job losses. Hospitality and leisure added 2,800, and financial activities, 1,800.

Environment
Study Says Global Warming Shrinks Birds

Some species of Australian birds are shrinking, and the trend will likely continue because of global warming; a team of scientists measured museum specimens to plot the decline in size of eight species of Australian birds over the past century. According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor, the research, published last week in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, found that the birds in Australia’s southeast had become between 2 percent to 4 percent smaller. Over the same century, Australia’s average daily temperature rose 1.3 degrees F. (0.7 degrees C), with the sharpest increase since the 1950s. The research concluded that the birds were likely downsizing because smaller bodies shed heat faster than larger ones.

Health Care
At Free Clinic, Scenes From the Third World

The Los Angeles Times reported that a nonprofit called Remote Area Medical, which was founded in 1985 to bring medical care to Third World countries, began getting requests in 1992 to do the same work in the United States. Last week RAM brought in volunteers to treat legions of the uninsured Los Angeles, California. The doctors who volunteer for RAM believe that “there are far too many parallels between the uninsured in the United States and the residents of impoverished Third World nations.”

Human Rights
Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq

A report released by Human Rights Watch documents a wide-reaching campaign of extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, and torture of gay men that began in early 2009. HRW called on Iraq's government to act urgently to rein in militia abuses, punish the perpetrators, and stop a new resurgence of violence that threatens all Iraqis' safety. The killings began in the vast Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, and spread to many cities across Iraq. Mahdi Army spokesmen have promoted fears about the "third sex" and the "feminization" of Iraq men, and suggested that militia action was the remedy.

Reproductive Rights
Oklahoma Abortion Law Overturned

An Oklahoma judge on Tuesday overturned a state law that required women seeking an abortion to receive an ultrasound and a doctor's description of the fetus. According to an article on TruthOut.org, an Oklahoma County District Judge ruled that the law violated constitutional requirements that a legislative measure deal only with one subject, and did not rule on the validity of the ultrasound provisions. The ruling also overturned provisions in the law that allowed doctors and other healthcare providers to refuse to take part in an abortion for moral or religious reasons, required certain signs to be placed in clinics where abortions are performed, and prohibited wrongful-life lawsuits arguing that a disabled child would have been better off aborted.

GLBT Issues
DOJ Shifts Tone on Marriage Act

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama Administration Department of Justice shifted its tone on a federal marriage law, calling the statute that bars federal benefits for same-sex marriages "discriminatory" even as it filed a legal defense of the law. The DOJ filed its latest defense of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, citing mostly technical arguments to justify Congress's decision to define marriage as between one man and one woman. The department's last filing, in June, angered gay-rights groups, in part because it largely repeated arguments made by the Bush administration. The June filing said, in part, that the marriage law "reflects a cautiously limited response to society's still-evolving understanding of the institution of marriage."

Race and Racism
White Men Get More Executive Job Tips

According to a new study from North Carolina State University white men receive significantly more tips about job opportunities than white women or Hispanics – particularly among people in upper management positions. The study, which examined data from a survey of 3,000 people, examined the amount of information people received about job opportunities through routine conversations without asking for it. The research shows that 95 times out of 100, white men receive more (upper-management) job leads than white women or Hispanic men or women. The findings of the study show that the disparity between white men, minorities and women is greatest among workers in high-level management.

This Week on Information Underground

This week on Information Underground the studio guest will be Ron Crozier, the Director of Community Relations for Twin City Missions, and our topics of conversation will be about the Twin City Missions homeless shelters and the problems of homelessness in our community and in America.

Listen to Information Underground on 89.1FM KEOS on Sundays from 5-6pm after Tavis Smiley, for all the alternative news, politics, and commentary that you don’t hear in the mainstream media. To listen to Information Underground online and to listen to past episodes visit Information Underground on BlogTalkRadio. Tune in every week to hear headlines, interviews, and political and social thought to the Left of College Station.

Political and Social Thought to the Left of College Station

Since the Supreme Court issued its decision on Roe v. Wade there has been a struggle in the United States over reproductive rights, and that struggle has included violence. This year for the first time since 1998 an abortion provider was murdered, and the rhetoric of the anti-choice movement has become increasingly vicious. After the murder of George Tiller in his church earlier this year, there is only one doctor in the country that specializes in late term abortions; Doctor Warren Hern is now the only place for women in the most difficult of circumstances to go if they need a late term abortion.

One of the most tragic things in the reproductive rights protest is the stories of women who have been actively involved in the anti-choice movement who then either desire or need an abortion. Those in the reproductive health care field have told me stories of patients that consider themselves pro-life but felt that their situation was justified. A doctor that performs abortion in Arkansas has told me stories of anti-choice protesters who would bring in their crying daughters to have an abortion at the very facility that they protested with the parents. In an article in Esquire magazine, Doctor Hern described one incident with a teenage patient:

“What brings you here? he asked. I have to have an abortion. Why? I'm not old enough to have a baby. But you told the counselor we should all be killed? Yes, you should all be killed. Why? Because you do abortions. Me too? Yes, you should be killed too. Do you want me killed before or after I do your abortion? Before.”

There has been a discussion in the last few months of the extremism that has been surfacing in the public discourse over several issues and the most prominent of the issues is currently health care. The rhetoric from conservative lawmakers, commentators, and the blogosphere has been increasingly severe, although they have repeatedly denounced violence while invoking increasing vicious rhetoric. Across the country townhall meetings have erupted with constituents, who may have legitimate concerns, shouting down lawmakers and invoking violent and distasteful images; North Carolina Congressman Brad Miller received a death threat because of his support for the health care reform proposed by Congress.

However, this situation has been present in the reproductive rights debate for decades, and now that the relative calm of the Bush Administration is over another wave of violence may be around the corner. The murder of Doctor Tiller is not an isolated incident, nor was it perpetrated by a “lone wolf.” Scott Roeder, the man accused of murdering Doctor Tiller, is involved in a fanatical network of anti-choice activist. According to a report by the Kansas City Star, since Roeder’s arrest he has been visited in jail by the man behind the Army of God web site, two convicted clinic bombers, and several other radical anti-choice activists. One of the activists that visit Roeder said that they “support the shooting of George Tiller as justifiable homicide.” This also comes after Roeder made a threat after Doctor Tiller’s murder that there are “many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal.”

However, in the months that have followed the murder of Doctor Tiller, the Department of Justice has scaled by measures to protect doctors that provide abortions. The U.S. Marshals Service was directed to protect reproductive health care providers by the White House, however, in Nebraska Leroy Carhart is not longer being protected by the U.S. Marshalls despite being targeted by groups such as Operation Rescue and Army of God. According to a report by RH Reality Check, pro-choice organizations are "deeply alarmed" by the removal of the U.S. Marshals, especially during a time when violence against medical professionals and staffs of women's health clinics is on the rise.

According to the National Abortion Federation (NAF), there have been 1,401 reported harassing phone calls and hate mail received by abortion providers this year (through April); the totally amount of harassing phone calls and hate mail received by abortion providers from 2006-2008 was 1,466. There have been more reported incidents of harassing phone calls and hate mail this year since 1999, when there was a reported 1,646 incidents. Also, Doctor Tiller’s murder was the first murder of a reproductive health care provider since 1998, and if the threats are not taken seriously other reproductive health care providers may be at risk.

What those of us that are pro-choice need to realize is that while Roe v. Wade may have made abortion legal in the United States, the intimidation and terrorist activities have worked in limiting women’s access to reproductive health care. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, 24% of women in the United States travel 50 miles or more for abortion services; according to the Guttmacher Institute, the number of abortion providers in the United States has declined by 25% between 1992 and 2005 and 87% of counties lack an abortion provider. This problem is particularly acute in Texas; according to NARAL Pro-Choice America 93% of Texas counties have no abortion provider.

Why should we worry about a doctor having to wear a bullet proof vest, and patients having to drive from a time zone away only to have to walk through protesters and doors of bullet proof glass? Because what those that are against reproductive rights will not tell you are the stories of the women who are grateful for those doctors and who sometimes owe their lives to those doctors. The protesters who stand outside the gates of reproductive health clinics will tell you the stories of women who regret their abortions, but they will not tell you the stories of the women who do not regret the care that was given to them after making one of the most difficult decisions of their life.

This is not about pro-choice, or anti-choice, pro-abortion, or anti-abortion. This is about life; the life of women that do not see this debate in rhetorical platitudes but in real life colors that paint their lives with painful choices that they can make because of the brave souls like Doctor Tiller.

Headlines

Local News
McLennan County Abstinence-Only Education Group Out of Public Funding

The Waco Tribune-Herald reports that the McLennan County Abstinence Project no longer has federal or state funding; the $1 million in federal and state funds received annually allowed the MCAP to serve about 3,600 students in six McLennan County school districts. Multiple studies of abstinence-only programs have shown they do not keep teens from having sex at greater rates than comprehensive sex education programs, and in fact, may be even less effective at getting them to save sex for marriage. A report early this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the rate of teen pregnancy and sexual transmitted diseases increased between 2002 and 2007.

Texas A&M News
Ceremonies Monday To Close The MSC

Texas A&M University officials announced that there will be a ceremony Monday to commemorate the Memorial Student Center (MSC) before its closing for major renovation and expansion. According to a press release, at 9:00am the ceremony will take place at the traditional entrance facing Simpson Drill Field. University officials stated that “the MSC Renovation and Expansion project will bring much-needed improvements and enhancements to the building,” and that the MSC will reopen in 2012.

Texas News
Texas Sued Over Delay in Food Stamps

A class-action lawsuit has been filed in an attempt to force Texas to comply with federal regulations requiring that most eligible applicants be certified for food stamps within 30 days. According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, Federal regulations stipulate that state must process 95% of food stamp aplications within 30 days; the percentage of applicants not being processed on time has increased from 19.2% in January to 37.2% in July. In 2007 2.3 million Texans depended on the food program; this year number has increased to 2.8 million

Texas Politics
Has Perry improved Texans' health care?

The Austin American-Statesman reports that Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the country, premiums are increasing at a faster clip here than in the country as a whole, and many areas of the state lack an adequate supply of doctors. Governor Rick Perry has criticized the proposed health care reform by the Obama Administration, and has argued that health care should be handled by the states. Texas has seen an increase in the number of doctors in the state, which Perry and many doctors attribute to the 2003 approval of a constitutional amendment limiting jury awards in medical malpractice cases, however, there are 114 Texas counties that do not meet the national standard of one physician per 3,500 people, according to the Texas Academy of Family Physicians.

National News
Michigan Prison Assessed for Possible GITMO Transfers

Federal and state officials visited a maximum-security prison in rural Michigan on Thursday to begin assessing its suitability to house Guantanamo Bay detainees. According to an article by the Associated Press, the prison in Standish, 145 miles north of Detroit, and a military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., are being considered to house the 229 suspected al-Qaida, Taliban and foreign fighters currently at the Guantanamo Bay prison, if it is closed by 2010 as President Barack Obama has ordered. The region around Standish is hurting economically, with an unemployment rate of more than 17 percent, and some residents welcome bringing in the Guantanamo detainees if it will prevent closing down the prison, which with about 340 workers is the area's largest employer.


National Politics
Probe Shows Rove Played Key Role in Firing U.S. Attorneys

McClatchy reported that Karl Rove and other top officials in the George W. Bush White House were deeply involved in pushing for the ouster of several U.S. attorneys, notably including one in New Mexico, according to testimony and e-mails that the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee released Tuesday. Sworn testimony from former White House Counsel Harriet Miers revealed that Rove considered former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico a "serious problem" and "wanted something done about it" because of complaints about politically sensitive investigations that Iglesias had mounted. Miers said that she couldn't recall whether Rove specifically demanded Iglesias' firing during a 2006 conversation, but Iglesias was fired later that year.

Economy
Banks Make $38 Billion From Overdraft Fees

According to the Financial Times, United States banks stand to collect a record $38.5 billion in fees for customer overdrafts this year, with the bulk of the revenue coming from the most financially stretched consumers. Overdraft fees accounted for more than three-quarters of service fees charged on customer deposits, and a survey by the Consumer Federation of America found that five of the ten largest banks have raised their overdraft fees in some way in the last year.

Environment
Hurricane Peak Not Unique

According to a study published in the journal Nature, a surge in the number of Atlantic hurricanes over the past 10 years is not unusual and could be part of a naturally occurring millennial peak, however, the results suggest that the annual number of hurricanes will continue to increase as a result of global warming. Previous research has shown that warm sea surface temperatures could encourage hurricanes to form, and the historical peak in hurricane activity coincided with periods of high sea surface temperatures.

Human Rights
Immigrant Detainees Staging Hunger Strikes to Protest Deplorable Confinement

The South Louisiana Correctional Center has seen five hunger strikes in one month, as detainees are denied medical care and access to legal libraries, according to an article on AlterNet.org. The New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, along with other human rights and civil liberties groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, urging her to address the mounting complaints at the detention center, whose parent company, LCS Corrections Services, holds a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to manage the detention center. Detainees and their advocates say that other measures indicated in ICE's guidelines are regularly ignored and violated, including access to phones and other communication, supplies of clothing, bedding and towels, providing nutritious food, and honoring different religious practices.

GLBT Issues
Maine Moves Into High Gear

In November residents of Maine will vote on a measure that would repeal Maine’s same-sex marriage law, which was passed in May. Marriage equality opponents, led by Stand for Marriage Maine, turned in 100,000 signatures (45,000 more than necessary) at the end of July to qualify for the ballot. This will be the first vote on same-sex marriage since Proposition 8 in California was voted on in November of last year, however, this vote will be concerning a law passed by the state legislature rather than a judgment handed down by a court. Both New Hampshire and Vermont recently legalized same-sex marriage, however, neither state's constitution affords the opportunity for a people's veto.

Race and Racism
New SPLC Report Details the Resurgent Militia Movement

A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that almost a decade after largely disappearing from public view, right-wing militias, ideologically driven and sovereign citizens are appearing in large numbers around the country; ostensibly mainstream politicians and media pundits have helped to spread Patriot and related propaganda, from conspiracy theories about a secret network of U.S. concentration camps to wholly unsubstantiated claims about the president's country of birth.

This Week on Information Underground

This week on Information Underground the studio guest will be Charles Baish of the Human Rights Coalition, our topics will include human rights activism and the recent announcement by the Obama Administration of the closure of the T. Don Hutto immigrant detention facility in Taylor, Texas.

Listen to Information Underground on 89.1FM KEOS on Sundays from 5-6pm after Tavis Smiley, for all the alternative news, politics, and commentary that you don’t hear in the mainstream media. To listen to Information Underground online and to listen to past episodes visit Information Underground on BlogTalkRadio. Tune in every week to hear headlines, interviews, and political and social thought to the Left of College Station.

Political and Social Thought to the Left of College Station

Making War to Bring ‘Peace’

By Noam Chomsky

From In These Times

A debate is under way at the United Nations over a policy that may seem uncontroversial: an international framework to prevent severe crimes against humanity.

The framework is called "responsibility to protect," or R2P, in U.N. parlance. A restricted version of R2P, adopted at the U.N. World Summit in 2005, reaffirmed rights and responsibilities that were accepted by member states in the past and sometimes implemented by them.

However, the discussions about R2P or its cousin, "humanitarian intervention," are regularly disturbed by the rattling of a skeleton in the closet: history, to the present.

Throughout history, few principles of international affairs apply generally. One is the maxim of Thucydides that the strong do as they wish while the weak suffer as they must.

Another principle is that virtually every use of force in international affairs has been accompanied by lofty rhetoric about the solemn responsibility to protect the suffering populations, and factual justifications for it.

Understandably, the powerful prefer to forget history and look forward. For the weak, it is not a wise choice.

The skeleton in the closet made an appearance in the first dispute considered by the International Court of Justice 60 years ago, the Corfu Channel case about an incident involving Great Britain and Albania.

The court determined it "can only regard the alleged right of intervention as the manifestation of a policy of force, such as has, in the past, given rise to most serious abuses and such as cannot, whatever be the defects in international organization, find a place in international law...from the nature of things, (intervention) would be reserved for the most powerful states, and might easily lead to perverting the administration of justice itself."

The same perspective informed the first meeting of the South Summit of 133 states in 2000. Its declaration, surely with the bombing of Serbia in mind, rejected "the so-called `right' of humanitarian intervention, which has no legal basis in the United Nations Charter or in the general principles of international law."

The wording reasserts the U.N. Declaration on Friendly Relations (1970). It has been repeated since, among others by the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-aligned movement in Malaysia in 2006, again representing the traditional victims in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Arab world.

The same conclusion was drawn in 2004 by the high-level U.N. Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. The panel concluded that U.N. Charter "Article 51 needs neither extension nor restriction of its long-understood scope."

The panel added, "For those impatient with such a response, the answer must be that, in a world full of perceived potential threats, the risk to the global order and the norm of nonintervention on which it continues to be based is simply too great for the legality of unilateral preventive action, as distinct from collectively endorsed action, to be accepted. Allowing one to so act is to allow all"--which is, of course, unthinkable.

The same basic position was adopted by the U.N. World Summit in 2005. The Summit also stated the willingness "to take collective action...through the Security Council, in accordance with the Charter...should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities are manifestly failing to protect their populations" from serious crimes.

At most, the phrase sharpens the wording of Article 42 on authorizing the Security Council to resort to force. And the phrase keeps the skeleton in the closet--if we can regard the Security Council as a neutral arbiter, not subject to the maxim of Thucydides.

That assumption, however, is untenable.

The Council is controlled by its five permanent members, and they are not equal in operative authority. One indication is the record of vetoes--the most extreme form of violation of a Security Council Resolution.

During the past quarter-century, China and France together vetoed 7 resolutions; Russia, 6; the United Kingdom, 10: and the United States, 45, including even resolutions calling on states to observe international law.

One way to mitigate this defect in the World Summit consensus would be to eliminate the veto, in accord with the will of the majority of the U.S. population. But such heresies are unthinkable, as much so as applying R2P right now to those who desperately need protection but are not on the favored list of the powerful.

There have been departures from the Corfu Channel restriction and its descendants. The Constitutive Act of the African Union asserts "The right of the Union to intervene in a Member State...in respect of grave circumstances." That differs from the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), which bars intervention "for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other state."

The reason for the difference is clear. The OAS Charter seeks to deter intervention by the United States, but after the disappearance of the apartheid states, the AU faces no similar problem.

I know of only one high-level proposal to extend R2P beyond the summit consensus and the AU extension: the Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty on Responsibility to Protect (2001).

The commission considers the situation in which "the Security Council rejects a proposal or fails to deal with it in a reasonable time." In that case, the report authorizes "action within area of jurisdiction by regional or sub-regional organizations...subject to their seeking subsequent authorization from the Security Council."

At this point, the skeleton in the closet rattles loudly. The powerful unilaterally determine their own "area of jurisdiction." The OAS and AU cannot do so, but NATO can, and does.

NATO has determined that its "area of jurisdiction" extends to the Balkans, Afghanistan and beyond.

The expansive rights accorded by the International Commission are in practice restricted to NATO alone, violating the Corfu Channel principles and opening the door for R2P as a weapon of imperial intervention at will.

The "responsibility to protect" has always been selective. Thus it did not apply to the sanctions against Iraq imposed by the United States and United Kingdom and administered by the Security Council, condemned as "genocidal" by the distinguished diplomats in charge, both of whom resigned in protest.

There is also no thought today of applying R2P to the people of Gaza, a "protected population" for whom the United Nations is responsible.

And nothing serious is contemplated about the worst catastrophe in Africa, if not the world: the murderous conflict in eastern Congo. There, the BBC just reported, multinationals are once again accused of violating a U.N. resolution against illicit trade of valuable minerals--funding the violence.

Nor is R2P invoked to respond to massive starvation in the poor countries.

Several years ago UNICEF reported that 16,000 children die every day from lack of food, many more from easily preventable disease. The figures are higher now. In southern Africa alone it is Rwanda-level killing, not for 100 days, but every day. Action under R2P would be easy enough, were there the will.

In these and numerous other cases the selectivity conforms to the maxim of Thucydides and the expectations of the I.C.J. 60 years ago.

But the maxims that largely guide international affairs are not immutable, and, in fact, have become less harsh over the years as a result of the civilizing effect of popular movements.

For such progressive reform, R2P can be a valuable tool, much as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been.

Even though states do not adhere to the Universal Declaration, and some formally reject much of it (crucially including the world's most powerful state), nonetheless it serves as an ideal that activists can appeal to in educational and organizing efforts, often effectively.

The discussion of R2P may be similar. With sufficient commitment, unfortunately not yet detectable among the powerful, it could be significant indeed.

***

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the author of dozens of books on U.S. foreign policy. He writes a monthly column for The New York Times News Service/Syndicate.

Headlines

Local News
Fort Hood Soldier Pleads Guilty to Refusing Deployment to Afghanistan

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, Specialist Victor Agosto was sentenced to a thirty days in jail after pleading guilty to a charge from his refusal to deploy to Afghanistan; the sentence was handed down after a hour long Court martial at Fort Hood on Wednesday. Agosto also received a reduction in rank from Specialist to Private. After a deployment in Iraq Agosto was informed he was being forced to stay in the Army beyond his enlistment date, commonly referred to as “stop loss,” and that he would be ordered to deploy to Afghanistan. For more information on military members that are refusing to deploy visit couragetoresist.org.

Local Politics
Bryan-College Station Residents Call For In-Person Town Hall Meeting

Some Bryan-College Station area residents are calling for Congressman Chet Edwards to have a town hall meeting; according to a report from KBTX Channel 3, Edwards has planned to have a telephone town hall conference with community member from all of Congressional District 17’s twelve counties. The community members who are calling for a town hall are the same people who formed the “Tea Parties” early this year, and it comes at a time when many lawmakers from around the country are experiencing disruptive protest at town halls. The protests are focusing on the current health care debate, and the majority of the protests are against health care reform.

Texas A&M News
Texas A&M Research Group's Chair to Leave Post

According to an article in the Bryan-College Station Eagle, the chair of a group representing the Texas A&M University research community stepped down; Deborah Bell-Pedersen announced her resignation from the Council of Principal Investigators for personal reasons and to pursue research interests. The CPI has been critical of the A&M System's proposed National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing, including what it has called a lack of "due diligence" by the Board of Regents in assessing its viability and the appearance of it being set up as a business even though it has an educational component. Nancy Amato, a computer science professor, will serve as interim chair of the group.

Texas News
New Bible Requirement for Texas Schools This Fall


All Texas public school districts for the first time this fall must offer instruction in the literature and history of the Bible; according to a report by the Austin American-Statesman, the Texas Education Agency informed school districts that it would not provide the training and materials for the new requirement because the Legislature did not budget the $750,000 necessary. There was not a specific budget rider directing the agency to spend the money for the Bible course, nor was the agency precluded from using $750,000, a relatively small amount in its budget, for that purpose. Legislators wrote the law to ensure the class on the Bible's impact on history and literature of Western civilization would be taught in an "objective, academic manner that neither promotes nor disparages religion," curriculum standards approved by the State Board of Education, though constitutional, were vague and provided districts little direction for crafting a course on such a legally and culturally touchy topic.

Texas Politics
History Curriculum Battle: McLeroy Blind to Reality

Last week the American Humanist Association (AHA) submitted a letter to the Texas State Board of Education advocating education without theism, this week Don McLeroy, former nominee for Chairman of the SBOE, responded to the AHA. The Burnt Orange Report reported that the letter by McLeroy made the claim that “freedom is unique to the areas of the world that have been touched by Christianity.” This comes in the middle of the debate over the future of social studies curriculum in the state of Texas, after the heated battle earlier in the year over science curriculum standards and text books.

National News
US Secret Service Stretched as President Obama Faces 30 Death Threats a Day

According to an article in the London Telegraph, since President Obama was inaugurated the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush. The article reports on a new book, In the President's Secret Service by Ronald Kessler, that reveals that the Secret Service may not have the amount of agents needed to protect the President and deal with the substantial amount of threats, and that the Secret Service increasingly cut corners after it was absorbed by the new Homeland Security Department under President Bush.

National Politics
Hispanic Votes Not Swaying GOP on Sotomayor

The political blog FiveThirtyEight reported this week that eight out of the nine Republican Senators that voted for the confirmation of now Justice Sonya Sotomayor represent states with very small Hispanic populations. Senator Mel Martinez was the only Republican Senator who voted for Sotomayor’s confirmation whose state has a significant population of Hispanics; his state of Florida has a Hispanic population of 16.8% of the total population. However, Martinez announced his resignation on Friday after voting for Sotomayor. Both Senator’s Cornyn and Hutchison of Texas voted against Sotomayor’s confirmation.

Environment
Global Warming Could Lead to Evolutionary Explosion

In a matter of years or decades, researchers believe, animals and plants already are adapting to life in a warmer world, according to a report by Yale Environment 360. Some species will be unable to change quickly enough and will go extinct, but others will evolve, as natural selection enables them to carry on in an altered environment. Global warming is projected to drastically raise the average global temperature, as well as producing many other changes to the world’s climate, such as more droughts in California. And in response, researchers contend, life will undergo an evolutionary explosion. Unfortunately, scientists may not be able to appreciate the full scope of evolution’s effects for decades.

Religion
Christian Group's Billboards Denounce Separation of Church and State

The Texas Freedom Network reports that billboard advertisements in Florida are attacking the separation of church and state; the Community Issues Council (CIC) has funded the billboards advertisements in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. Terry Kemple, the president and sole employee of the CIC, claims that there is a national necessity for Christian governance. The billboards falsely attribute the fictitious quote “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible” to President George Washington. The CIC web site links to SBOE “expert” David Barton’s Wallbuilders.com as a “fantastic resource for information on America’s Christian heritage.” The same “expert” that believes that the separation of church and state is a “myth” and that the United States laws should be based on fundamentalist Christian biblical principles and the same “expert” who wants to remove historical figures such as César Chavez and Thurgood Marshall from the social studies curriculum for public education.

Reproductive Rights
Religious Groups Say "Abortion Mandate" Ads Mislead

According to an article on RH Reality Check, two religious organizations have called on the Family Research Council and other anti-abortion groups to shut down a television ad and Web site that contain “massive misinformation” related to the national discussion on health care reform. The television ad portrays the conversation of a husband and wife, claiming that current health care proposals would deny funding for essential treatments while providing public funding for abortions. The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and Catholics United have both called on the FRC to stop “consistently and repeatedly twisting the truth to promote their agenda and bring down health care reform.” The bill that was approved Friday by the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Finance has provisions that abortion services that could be paid for with government funds only in cases in which the mother’s life was endangered or in cases of rape or incest.

GLBT Issues
New Report on Race, Sexuality and Gender Aims to Create Space for Continued Dialogue

As part of Equality Forward, an ongoing diversity initiative focused on fostering a greater sense of connection and opportunity within the LGBT community, the Human Rights Campaign released a report titled, “At the Intersection: Race, Sexuality and Gender.” The report is an effort launched two years ago to reach out to LGBT people of color by surveying individuals from across the country in hopes of gaining a deeper understanding about the complexities at the intersection of race, sexual orientation and gender identity. The findings in the report echo previous research into the area of diversity by showing that more work must be done to promote racial diversity within larger LGBT communities, as well as sexual diversity within people of color communities.

Race and Racism
Official Leaves Minuteman Group for ‘Patriot’ Movement

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s blog Hate Watch has reported that a top official of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) has announced that his resignation; Al Garza, who was vice president of the largest and richest Minuteman organization in the country, will now head the newly formed Patriots Coalition, a that is a conspiracy-mongering Patriot group whose website contains jokes about assassinating President Obama. This is believed to be the result of a conflict between the extreme members of the MCDC and its founder Chris Simcox, who has toned down rhetoric and disavowed other members as he prepares for a campaign in the Republican primary against Arizona Senator John McCain. The Patriots Coalition web site contains information on how to join the so-called “tea party” tax-protest demonstrations as well as the militant antigovernment outbursts erupting at health care reform town hall meetings across the country.

This Week on Information Underground

This week on Information Underground the studio guest will be members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) Fort Hood Chapter; Information Underground welcomes Michael Kern, Joie Michaels, Avrey Owens, Jeremy Wright and Chuck Luther. Topics of conversation will include the peace movement, the current state of the war in Iraq, developments in the war in Afghanistan, and a special update on war resister and guest of Biased Transmission, Victor Agosto.

Listen to Information Underground on 89.1FM KEOS on Sundays from 5-6pm after Tavis Smiley, for all the alternative news, politics, and commentary that you don’t hear in the mainstream media. Tune in every week to hear headlines, interviews, and political and social thought to the Left of College Station.

Political and Social Thought to the Left of College Station

Perception, Perspective, and Race

Race has been front and center in the last few weeks; from the confirmation hearings of Judge Sotomayor to the arrest of a Professor Gates in his home. While race may be front and center in the public discourse for the time being, race is front and sent for African-Americans, Latinos, and other people of color every day of their lives. Because the most defining characteristic of our lives is not what social class we are born into, what religion we practice, what geographical region of the world we were born, but what the color of our skin is when we are born. It is this everyday reality that millions of Americans live with everyday.

So then, it is important to acknowledge in any discussion about race that perspective matters, and perception is much more powerful than intent. That is the very reason why there is such a divide between what whites heard Judge Sotomayor say and what people of color heard her say; that is why there is such a difference between what whites thought about Professor Gates’ arrest, and what people of color thought about Professor Gates’ arrest. Americans viewed the exact same incident based on the experiences they have based on the color of skin that they where born with.

Most whites viewed the arrest of Professor Gates through what is known was the “white racial frame,” and as noted anti-racist writer Tim Wise writes:

“As long as you are respectful to police, nothing bad will happen to you (thus, if something bad does happen to you it was likely your own fault)...[and]…there can be no racism involved in an incident unless the person being accused of such a thing clearly acted with bigoted and prejudicial intent.”

Most blacks viewed the arrest of Professor Gates through an entirely different frame, a perspective shaped by the fact that being respectful to the police does not always guarantee that they we be treated respectfully in return. This is a perspective in which they view racism not necessarily through actions of bigotry and prejudicial intent, but through barriers that have been put up by hundred of years of oppression that have maintained the advantage of whites over people of color.

Throughout the recent public discussion of race, the white racial frame has been the frame that it has been most often viewed, and commentators have expressed the opinion that because Officer Crowley was a diversity trainer and assisted a dying black man that he could not be a racist. The very idea that because Officer Crowley gave mouth to mouth resuscitation to a black basketball player as he lay dieing on the court somehow proves that Officer Crowley could not be racist is ridiculous. As if we should expect our law enforcement officials to do anything else?

But whether or not Officer Crowley is a racist, and in reality he is probably a decedent human being who would not commit any racist action, but whether or not there is a system in place that elevates whites over people of color. Because racism is not simply found in individual acts; racism is in fact usually found in institutionalized frames of thought which gives one group dominance over another. This frame of thought is often revealed unconsciously by an individual who has the privilege of being oblivious to this frame of thought.

The focus of the mainstream media has mostly been on whether the officer or the professor was to blame for the incident, and on the President’s reaction. The focus should have been on the perspectives of the individuals involved the incident, and should have been explored how the incident was perceived by people of different experiences and perspectives.

The truth is that the Professor Gates case is not about whether or not the arresting officer acted in a racist way, or whether or not Gates acted in a belligerent way. The truth is that case is about our perceptions. Whether or not we succeed on our long road to not only racial equality and justice, but gender equality and justice, and sexual identity equality and justice, realizes heavily on our ability to view the other perspective.

Some would like to persuade us that our country is not in the midst of the same struggle that has been going on for hundreds of years, but the simple truth is that we are all still struggling with our past, our present, and our future. In fact the future poses great challenges just as our past did, and the best way to move forward is through a dialog that recognizes that our shared experience is not shared in our perspectives but shared in our ideals. The best way to heal our divide is to realize that striving for a colorblind society is not the answer, but striving for a society that embraces color and embraces everyone, with all of their flaws and hopes.

Political and social thought to the Left of College Station.

Headlines

Local News
Rock the Republic Launches at Village Café

At the Village Café in Downtown Bryan, Rock the Republic launched a 75 day campaign to promote the music and art festival that will be held in October. A diverse crowd of about 50 people gathered in the café and art gallery to listen to music and spoken word poetry. Joaquin Zihuatanejo, the number one ranked slam poet, rattled off several poems throughout the night; Zihuatanejo performed poems about serious issues such as war and peace to the more playful poems about being a young kid in the early 1980s. Rock the Republic will also be hosting a Rock The Republic will be hosting a launch concert at Revolution Bar and Café, that will included a performance from featured Rock the Republic artist Suzanna Choffel. For more information on Rock the Republic visit www.rocktherepublic.net.

Four Bryan Schools 'Unacceptable’

The Bryan-College Station Eagle headline noted that four Bryan Independent School District schools received the Academically Unacceptable rating from the Texas Education Agency, however, more Bryan ISD schools received the TEA highest rating of Exemplary than did College Station ISD schools (including the Bryan Collegiate High School). There where no schools in College Station ISD rated as Academically Unacceptable, but both Bryan and College Station ISD received an overall Academically Acceptable rating. According to the article in the Eagle, low passing rates on science tests lowered three Bryan ISD middle schools to an unacceptable level.

Texas A&M News
A&M Provost Steps Down

The Texas A&M University Provost, the second most powerful university administrator, resigned on Monday after Interim President R. Bowen Loftin requested that Jeffrey Vitter step down. According to an article in the Eagle, Vitter will accept a computer science faculty position at the university. This comes six weeks after the resignation of Elsa Murano and Murano’s chief of staff and executive vice president for operations.

Watson to Fill Provost Vacancy

Texas A&M University announced on Tuesday that Karan Watson will serve as the interim Provost after Jeffery Vitter resigned on Monday. The Eagle reported that Interim President R. Bowen Loftin stated that there would not be a search for a new Provost until the search for a new President has been completed.

Texas News
Texas Tech Petition Opposes Hiring of Former Attorney General Gonzales

A group of Texas Tech University faculty members has objected to the university hiring of former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The Associated Press reported that a group of faculty members has started a petition that states that Gonzales has “demonstrated significant ethical failings." The Chancellor of Texas Tech has stated that the petition will not deter the college from employing Gonzales, but the faculty members felt that it was important to voice their concerns. Gonzales resigned as Attorney General in 2007, and was President George W. Bush’s White House Counsel in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks when several memorandum where written and approved by Gonzales that permitted the use of torture and indefinite detention by the United States.

Texas Politics
State Board Advised to Keep Religion Out of Social Studies

The American Humanist Association submitted a letter to the Texas State Board of Education advising the board not to “present the United States as having biblical foundations and would minimize our nation’s strong tradition of separation of church and state.” The State Board of Education, which is controlled by a group of members that vote according strictly social conservative and fundamentalist Christian beliefs, has appointed a panel to review the states social studies curriculum. The letter from the American Humanist Association lays out the case that those that helped found the United States believed that “our government did not ground itself in Christianity or the Christian bible, but rather the United States Constitution, a secular document.” According to an article in the Austin American-Statesmen, the first draft of the social studies standards is due to be released next week.

National News
President Obama Names Medal of Freedom Recipients

The White House named sixteen nominees for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in a press release on Thursday. The recipients included Stephen Hawking, an internationally-recognized theoretical physicist and author of A Brief History of Time. Senator Edward M. Kennedy will also receive the honor; Kennedy has served in the Senate for 46 years, and has championed the causes of education and health care. Also receiving the honor is Billie Jean King, acclaimed professional tennis player who has champion gender equality not only in sports, but in all areas of public life. The honor will be given posthumously to the first openly gay elected official from a major city in the United States; before he was assassinated in 1978 Harvey Milk, who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was a pioneer of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender civil rights movement.

Media
What the FTC Says Bloggers Owe Readers

The Federal Trade Commission is considering revising its guidelines for editorials and testimonials in ads by requiring that bloggers tell readers when they have been paid or otherwise compensated by a company they are writing about. According to an article in Poynter, critics of the plan say that the FTC may be trying to legislate ethics in the blogosphere when marketers and amateur writers are forming new kinds of partnerships that fall outside the traditional boundaries between vendors and consumers. The FTC's policy change mostly concerns the activities of independent blogs vs. posts written by journalists who work for news organizations.

Environment
Research Offers Hope for Recovery of Global Fish Populations

According to an article in the Environmental News Service, efforts to curb overfishing have begun to succeed, bringing hope that fish populations can rebuild if given a chance. A new study by an international team of scientists examined global fish populations and fishing trends in 10 large marine ecosystems and found that in five of the areas where intensive management is taking place, fish stocks are beginning to rebuild. However, the two-year study, published the journal "Science," found that global fisheries are in crisis; marine fisheries provide 15 percent of the animal protein consumed by humans, yet 80 percent of the world's fish stocks are either fully exploited, overexploited or have collapsed. While there is hope for rebuilding, the study warns that many areas are still suffering from collapse of fisheries as a result of overfishing with some 63 percent of assessed fish stocks in need of help.


Edcuation
ACLU Says DHS Gave False Info At Abstinence Summit

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a complaint against the Mississippi Department of Human Services for spending taxpayer dollars on an abstinence summit. The event featured religious speakers and misinformation about contraception, crossing the line of separating church and state with the number of religious speakers and faith-based groups who performed at the summit. According to a report by WAPT, the department reported a drop in the number of teenage births between 2006 and 2008, however, Mississippi still leads the nation in the category. According to the Center for Disease Control, teen birth rates increased in more than half of states nationwide in 2006, with the rate still highest in the South and Southwest, according to final birth statistics released by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The highest teen birth rate was recorded in Mississippi, with 68.4 births per 1,000 teenaged girls aged 15-19. New Mexico and Texas rounded out the top three states, with teen birth rates of 64.1 and 63.1.


GLBT Issues
LGBT Issues in Health Reform

The Center for American Progress reports that The National Coalition for LGBT Health has developed a set of principles for policymakers to incorporate into legislation in order to ensure equity for LGBT Americans, due to the fact that LGBT people often face additional barriers to coverage and care due to ongoing stigma and policies that do not fully recognize their identities. The report notes that a number of studies have shown that members of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community are less likely to hold private health insurance, whether employer-sponsored or through the individual market. This gap remains even when adjusted for age, employment status, income, and education. The report concludes that federal health surveys should be instructed to include LGBT identities in their demographic information, Congress and advisory committees should include trans health benefits as they define minimum benefit packages, and privacy protections for health IT should be specifically required to address LGBT concerns.

Women’s Issues
Despite Promises, Some Rape Victims Stuck Paying Exam Bills

Fifteen years after Congress passed a federal law protecting rape victims from being charged for hospital expenses, loopholes and bureaucratic tangles have forced victims to pay for expenses and exams. According to an article in Pro Publica, an investigation uncovered that some state law enforcement agencies have allowed hospitals to bill the victim's insurer, and usually this policy has been enforced when a victim has refused to cooperate with an investigation. Texas authorities pay for an exam only if the victim reports her attack within four days, a time limit that could exclude some victims and viable evidence. There will be an opportunity to strengthen Violence Against Women Act (the federal law that is intended to protect rape victims); Congress must reauthorize the law before it expires in 2011.