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Archive for the 'U.S. Domestic Affairs' Category
Zionism and the Educational Elites – An Analysis (23 September 2014) by Lawrence Davidson
Part I – The Zionists Have a Problem
Due to Israel's brutal racism and repeated attacks on Palestinian civilians, it is losing popular support internationally. As this happens, the Zionists appear to be intensifying pressure on societal and political elites, particularly in the U.S. and other Western states, to maintain policies that support and protect Israel's criminal behavior. Their vehicle for achieving this goal has always been financial gifts and donations to elite individuals and institutions. These gifts and donations help grease the wheels, so to speak, of the systems of power through which the elites operate, and create a monetary dependency on, among others, Zionist donors. It also creates an obligation to respond to these donor's needs. The result is a growing disconnect between evolving popular attitudes toward Israel and the static positions held and actions taken by the elites.
American Zionist leaders are aware of this gap and they take it seriously. However, they have a problem in that open debate and the offering of evidence can no longer win the argument for their side. In short, the Zionists don't have a monopoly anymore on the story of how Israel came to be and Palestine came not to be. And without that monopoly the imperialist origins and ongoing racist nature of Israel are can no longer be concealed.
Part II – Donor Blackmail
If you cannot win by debate, how do you combat the growing popular suspicion of Israeli and Zionist actions? You do it by pressuring the donor-dependent elite leadership of institutions, such as universities and colleges, to suppress and punish those who criticize Israel. That such action, if carried forth in public institutions in the U.S., would be a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, does not bother the Zionists at all. Their standard of rights is that practiced in the discriminatory environment of Israel and not the ideal established by the United States constitution.
A good example of American Zionists subtly urging what is in fact unconstitutional behavior can be seen in a letter sent by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an aggressive Zionist organization, to top administrators at several U.S. universities and colleges.
The letter purports to offer "information and recommendations about how to respond to conflicts that may arise on your campus due to the recent conflict in Gaza." It goes on to accuse those critical of Israel of "stifling dialogue … refusing to work with pro-Israel and Jewish student groups" and pressuring educational institutions to "engage in 'Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions' activities." The letter goes on to warn that 23 September 2014 will be a day of "action on college campuses" by such groups critical of Israel as American Muslims for Palestine.
It is interesting that the letter seeks to turn the tables on pro-Palestine groups by labeling them as the ones that seek to limit freedom of speech by advocating the boycott of Israel. On the one hand, this is a misinterpretation of the tactical rules of the boycott (which principally targets Israeli institutions rather than individuals) and, on the other, it fails to mention that Israel is a country that systematically undermines the civil rights of the Palestinians. The ADL letter also ignores the fact that Zionist organizations on U.S. campuses (Hillel, for example) actively try to suppress dialogue and debate when it comes to Israel. The letter goes on to accuse those who stand against Israel of "attempting to harass and intimidate Jewish and other students." Actually, there have indeed been minor instances of such behavior on both sides of what is, after all, a very heated issue. However, when it comes to modeling the suppression of rights, it should be noted that Israel has turned harassment and punishment of Palestinians and their few Jewish Israeli supporters into a high art.
The ADL letter concludes with an invitation that seeks to strengthen the dependency of academic administrative elites on this highly biased Zionist organization. It states, "As one of the country's premier civil rights organizations, ADL has decades of experience in helping administrators and students on campus respond to bigotry and intergroup strife. We would be happy to discuss the challenges many campuses face today and to assist your efforts to ensure your campus remains a place where all viewpoints can be discussed." So said the spider to the fly.
The ADL might have been a "premier civil rights organization" in 1913, when it was founded, but soon after 1967 it went the way of most major American Jewish organizations by becoming a mouthpiece for the uncritical defense of Israel. To this end it has confused opposition to Israel and its behavior with anti-Semitism and, in doing so, has lost any ability to objectively know what civil rights means within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.
Part III – Tragic Consequences
So why would a highly placed academic administrator such as Chancellor Linda Katehi, of the University of California, Davis, accept this missive from the ADL and distribute it to all her vice chancellors, deans and, significantly, the head of the UC Davis police department? Because, unlike her student constituency, which is evolving an accurate view and critique of Israel, she is stuck in the world of elites dominated by donors and ideologues who have always been pro-Israel. In other words, her world remains static while the world outside her clique is changing.
It is because of the continuing vulnerability of higher education's administrative elites to donor blackmail that we continue to witness the tragic and unjust treatment of scholars and teachers who have taken a public stand against Israel. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times describes the negative institutional consequences:
"For any university, but especially a public institution … the encroachment of donor pressure on the administration is a harbinger of the destruction of academic freedom. Wealthy donors are able to step in and exert strong influence because public funding sources, such as the state legislature, have systematically withdrawn support for public universities. They seldom have an interest in independent, objective academic study; they're interested in advancing their own notions of how the world works or should work – in ideology, not ideas."
Donor blackmail is the last front line for the Zionists as they continue to suffer defeats in the battle for public opinion. Unfortunately, their activities on this front have resulted in dozens of ruined careers, and no doubt there will be more in the future. As Stephen Lendman has observed, American Zionists have collectively taken on the role of a modern-day Joe McCarthy now attempting to purge higher education of those critical of Israel. In so doing they join the ranks of other dubious pressure groups such as those who would purge the teaching of evolution from the classrooms and censor books in our libraries. And, in the case of the operatives at the ADL, they go about this corrupting process while proclaiming themselves a "premier civil rights organization." Well, you know the old saying: actions speak louder than words.
International Law vs U.S. Democratic Practice – An Analysis (13 September 2014) by Lawrence Davidson
Part I – The Importance of International Law
International law is vital to the welfare of every man, woman and child on this planet, although the vast majority of them do not know this is so. The vital aspect lies in the fact that the universally applicable nature of human rights – which prohibit such actions as the use of torture, arbitrary arrest and detention while supporting freedom of movement, conscience, cultural rights and the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, among other things – has its primary foundation in international law. Examples of this can be found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the various Geneva Conventions.
To understand just how important international law is to the universal application of human rights, one has to consider just how inadequate to this end are national and local laws. This inadequacy should come as no surprise. For hundreds of years now, the dominant form of political organization has been the nation-state. The most common sort of law is that specific to the state, and in the vast majority of cases, protection of rights under such law is reserved for the citizen. In other words, if you are not a citizen of a particular state, you cannot assume you have any rights or protections within that state's borders. Worse yet, if you happen to be stateless (and the number of such people is rapidly increasing), you are without local legal rights just about everywhere.
Ideally, this is not how things should go. Indeed, Article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that "everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law." And, if you find yourself in a country that has ratified this Declaration, you should come under its protection. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case in practice. The mystique of the nation-state and the nativism that goes along with it often leads to the denigration of this vital legal obligation just because it originates from outside of the state.
Part II – U.S. Behavior
Many people in the West assume that the denigration of international law upholding human rights occurs mostly within authoritarian states – states that do not protect such rights for their own citizens, much less recognize them as universally applicable. But that is not the case. Such flouting of international law is common among democracies as well. It is even noticeable in the behavior of the United States. Take for instance the current treatment of illegal immigrants. Their human rights are certainly not respected in this country which, historically, is a nation of immigrants.
The problem goes beyond the maltreatment of immigrants. In fact, the current dismissive attitude toward human rights and the international laws that uphold them has its roots in the fear of terrorism. Such actions as arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention, the use of torture, and so forth are all justified by the so-called war on terror. These actions by the U.S. government are illegal under international law, but because the enforcement of law is almost always the business of the state, and the United States is a "superpower," who is to call U.S. officials to account for their crimes? No one. International law has no designated policemen.
Part III – The Culpability of Special Interest Politics
Although the "war on terror" appears to be an open-ended one, its influence on policy and national behavior may wax and wane. There are other obstacles that are actually structurally embedded within U.S. democratic practice that also undermine adherence to international law. One of these is the pervasive influence of apparently all powerful special interests or lobbies in the formation of state policy.
Within the United States, there are a myriad number of special interests that ply the halls of power at every level of government. Some of them are dedicated to good causes. Indeed, advocates for human rights and supporters of international law have their own, albeit not very influential, lobbies.
There are other interests of great power, however, that devote themselves to, among other things, the dehumanization of entire groups of people. A good example are the Zionists whose multiple lobbies influence U.S. Middle East policy so as to assure unquestioned support of Israel, and thereby secure American involvement not only in the destruction of Palestinian human rights, but of the Palestinians as a nation and a people. In short, the power of some special interests is sufficient to involve the U.S. in what amounts to international criminal behavior.
The average U.S. citizen, engrossed as he or she is in their local environment, does not understand this aspect of their politics. The media, from which U.S. citizens take most of their information on government behavior, are themselves subject to the influence of the same special interests that stalk the halls of power in Washington, D.C. Therefore, the media cannot be relied upon to educate the citizenry on the role of lobbies. We are thus faced with a messy set of problems: widespread lack of popular awareness of how special interests can control government, what this can result in, and the fact that this lack of awareness is likely compounded by the public's equally widespread apathy regarding their own ignorance.
It is this insularity and the know-nothing attitude that goes along with it that has allowed special interests to become the main center of political power in America. Short of catastrophic political breakdown, this arrangement is not going to change. The only thing that those who value international law and human rights can do is to continue to build their own special interest lobbies and compete for influence in government against the dehumanizers and other assorted international law breakers.
Justice Corrupted – An Analysis (10 July 2014) by Lawrence Davidson
Part I – Dogmatists in the Justice System
Scattered throughout the ranks of U.S. federal prosecutors and judges there have always been men and women who are unwilling to make a distinction between their own biases and the rules of evidence that are designed to keep the system focused on the goal of justice. Such closed-minded individuals, embedded in the system, can find themselves set free to act out their prejudices by special circumstances. One might think back to the "hanging judges" who appeared here and there on the American frontier in the 19th century. Being among the few enforcers of law and order in an otherwise anarchic environment, they indulged their fantasies of playing the wrathful god.
The "War on Terror" has likewise created a special circumstance that has liberated Justice Department dogmatists: Islamophobes, Zionists, neoconservatives and others who fancy themselves on a special mission to protect the nation from evil and conspiratorial forces. And, as with the hanging judges before them, the result has been an enhanced possibility not of justice, but rather of the miscarriage of justice.
Part II – The Case of Sami Al-Arian
In the past twenty years one of the most notable victims of doctrinaire judges and prosecutors has been Sami Al-Arian. Al-Arian is the son of Palestinian-refugee parents. He came to the United States in 1975 to attend university and earned his degree in computer systems engineering. Eventually he earned a Ph.D. and obtained a tenure-track position at the University of South Florida.
Not only did Al-Arian become a prominent professor, winning several teaching awards, but he also became a community activist, defending the civil liberties of minority groups, particularly Muslim Americans. During the Clinton administration he was an active campaigner against the Justice Department's pre-9/11 use of "secret evidence" to hold people in jail indefinitely. He also actively and publicly supported the right of Palestinians to resist Israeli oppression.
At some point in the mid-1990s what may have been a coordinated effort to ruin Dr. Al-Arian developed among neoconservative and Zionist elements. Steven Emerson, a man who has made his living as a faux expert on terrorism and a professional Islamophobe, accused one of Al-Arian's organizations, the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, of being a "terrorist front." This accusation proved to be baseless, but it nonetheless led other Islamophobe radicals to focus on Al-Arian. Some of these people resided within the Justice Department and the FBI, and they went on a fishing expedition looking for alleged connections between Al-Arian and a recently designated "terrorist organization" called the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
During the 2000 presidential election Al-Arian became a prominent figure in national politics as it played out in Florida. His major concern was the government's use of secret evidence, and it was George W. Bush who promised to rein in the practice. Therefore Al-Arian backed Bush in the election. His trust in this regard proved horribly misplaced.
On September 26, 2001, Bill O'Reilly invited Al-Arian onto his TV show ostensibly to discuss Arab-American reactions to the 9/11 attacks. It was a trap. O'Reilly immediately asked Al-Arian if he had said "Jihad is our path. Victory to Islam. Death to Israel" at a rally thirteen years before (in 1988). Though Al-Arian tried to explain that it was a reference to his support for Palestinian resistance against apartheid policies in Israel, O'Reilly proclaimed that the CIA should watch Al-Arian from now on. Almost at once Al -Arian started to receive death threats. At this point the University of South Florida placed him on administrative leave. He would eventually be fired by the University.
The O'Reilly interview may have been a public relations booster for the ongoing Justice Department investigation mentioned above.That lasted until September 2003, when Al-Arian and three others were indicted on 25 counts of "racketeering" for the PIJ. The Bush administration's Attorney General John Ashcroft went on television to extol the indictment as a great blow against terrorism (thus confusing an indictment with a conviction) that was made possible by the extensive powers of the USA PATRIOT Act. Among these powers were those George W. Bush had promised Al-Arian he would rein in.
After a 5-month, 13-day trial Al-Arian was acquitted on 8 counts and the jury deadlocked on the remaining 17. When a juror was interviewed after the trial and asked what was lacking in the government's case he replied, "evidence." Nonetheless, the outcome allowed the government to hold Al-Arian pending retrial on those deadlocked counts. The case had a distinctly contrived and corrupt feel to it – the result of Islamophobes turned loose by the events of 9/11 to substitute their own biases for the rules of legal evidence.
In 2006 Dr. Al-Arian was still in prison. His health was deteriorating and the strain on his family (his wife and five children) was great. Given the situation he agreed to a plea bargain agreement whereby he would plead guilty to one count of acting in a fashion that benefited the PIJ. In exchange the other counts would be dismissed by the government. He would be incarcerated for a relatively short period on the guilty count with time already served counting toward this sentence. In order to secure the plea bargain, Al-Arian also had to agreed to be deported upon release.
Once more the government, in this case the judge and the federal prosecutor, proved untrustworthy. Despite the jury verdict, the judge had decided that Sami Al-Arian was a "master manipulator" and "a leader of Palestine Islamic Jihad." This was exactly what the jury decided the evidence could not substantiate. However, the judge, moved by emotional convictions, had equated statements on the part of Al-Arian showing understanding of acts of Palestinian resistance with actual material support of those actions. In doing so the judge went beyond the rules of evidence and corrupted the system he was sworn to serve. The judge gave Dr. Al-Arian not the minimum recommended in the plea bargain but the maximum of 57 months for the one count to which he pled guilty.
Then began a series of additional prosecutorial steps involving the issuing of repeated subpoenas demanding that Al-Arian testify at grand jury investigations. This was also in defiance of his plea bargain and so he refused. He was held in civil and later criminal contempt which added substantially to his jail time.
So egregious was the behavior of the prosecutors seeking his testimony that another, more objective judge eventually stepped in and halted the government's efforts to force Sami Al-Arian's to appear before grand juries. Dr. Al-Arian was also let out of prison and allowed to live under a liberal form of house arrest at his daughter's home in Virginia. His case was held in a kind of legal limbo until just recently, when on 27 June 2014, prosecutors decided to drop all charges against Al-Arian. One should not think of this as a total victory, for the government still intends to deport Sami Al-Arian.
Sami Al-Arian and his family had to endure eleven years of persecution on the basis of assumptions that were substituted for evidence. In the process the life of an upright man, devoted to teaching, charitable works and the cause of a persecuted people, was ruined. The people who did this to him simultaneously corrupted the justice system the integrity of which they were sworn to uphold.
Part III – Other Victims
While Sami Al-Arian was perhaps the most high-profile of these cases, his was not the only one. Four members of the Holy Land Foundation charity were charged with materially aiding Hamas when, in fact, all the foundation did was supply money to charitable Palestinian organizations which had been accredited by Israel. It took two trials, one in 2007 and another 2008, for the U.S. government to eke out a conviction on weak evidence that included the testimony of anonymous Israeli witnesses.The Supreme Court refused to interfere with this prima facie unconstitutional procedure.
At present a Palestinian civil rights activist in Chicago, Rasmea Odeh, is being prosecuted for an alleged immigration fraud for failing to report on her immigration application that forty-five years ago, when she was a child, she was arrested by the Israeli military and briefly held without charge. The same prosecutor who went after the Holy Land Foundation is involved in the prosecution of Odeh.
Part IV – Conclusion
Times of high tension often result in the lowering of important standards in the application of law. They do so by heightening the fears of the general public, which in turn gives license to bigots embedded in the justice system such as judges and prosecutors who have Islamophobic prejudices, Zionist biases, or neoconservative delusions. All of these motives may come into play in cases such as those mentioned above.
Normally the appeals process should catch and reverse such problematic behavior. However, if the period of public fear is prolonged, the appeals process might also become corrupted by public hysteria and political pressures. It took Sami Al-Arian eleven years to overcome his prosecutorial ordeal and those of the Holy Foundation members and Rasmea Odeh are ongoing.
The last word on this dilemma should go to Sami Al-Arian's son, Abdullah, who in a recent statement observed,"It's a sad day when you have to leave America to be free." Indeed, when dogmatists are in control none of us are really free.
Repugnant Republicans – An Analysis (12 June 2014) by Lawrence Davidson
Part I – Something Disturbing
There is something disturbing about the Republican response to just about everything President Obama does. It has a knee-jerk yet patterned nature. It displays a meanness that is acted out with a certain gloating quality as well. Take for instance Republican Representative Joe Wilson shouting "You Lie!" during Obama's speech to Congress on health care. Wilson's anger was displayed with the malicious satisfaction of a nasty child. Subsequently, Republican politicians have called President Obama a "tar baby," a socialist, lazy, Hitler, and perhaps most tellingly, un-American. None these epithets are accurate, yet apparently they are believed to be true not only by the persons who said them, but many others among the Republican base.
What is the reason for this?
The New York Times editors think Republican attitudes towards Obama are politically motivated. As they put it in an editorial on 5 June 2014, referencing Republican reaction to the negotiated release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from captivity in Afghanistan: "The last few days have made clearer than ever that there is no action the Obama administration can take — not even the release of a possibly troubled American soldier from captivity — that cannot be used for political purposes by his opponents." Of course the Democrats are political opportunists as well, but usually they do not operate in such a persistently mean-spirited manner.
According to liberal commentator M.J. Rosenberg the source of Republican animosity is racial. "The right knows that nothing they can do will remove … what they see as the … the indelible stain of an African American president having been elected. Twice." However, seeing racism as a primary motivation is probably inadequate. The Republicans reacted in a similarly bloodthirsty way toward Bill Clinton when he was caught fooling around with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office. At that time Republican congressmen gleefully rushed to impeach Clinton even though a number of them had pursued extramarital affairs of their own.
Part II – Fear and Loathing
No doubt there are Republicans who are both racist and politically unprincipled in their attitudes to President Obama. However, it seems to me that there is something else going on – something repugnantly familiar – a suffocatingly narrow defining of the nation, an intolerance and disdain of everything outside of that definition, and a belligerency toward those who disagree. What some Republicans are doing is declaring President Obama not only politically wrong but downright un-American, someone who is, in essence, a traitor. Against this backdrop the Republican moderates are very few and very quiet.
The last time we got a glimpse of this attitude was during the 2011 televised Republican presidential primary debates. Back in December 2011 I wrote an analysis entitled "So What Shall We Ruin in November 2012?" that noted this outlook. Here, in summary, is some of that piece:
Most of the Republican nominees are reflections of the so-called Republican base, representatives of which constitute the audience for the presidential primary debates. There is something at once humorous and horrifying about this audience. Their cheers and jeers reflect attitudes that used to be seen only at drunken fraternity parties and out-of-control soccer games.
Who are these people with whom the Republican hopefuls now identify? They appear to be highly partisan Republicans who largely define themselves by what they don't like: minorities, abortion, big government and the lack of religion in politics, among other things. When we say these are aspects of society they don't like we really mean that they feel personally threatened by them and see them undermining their way of life. Therefore, they approach those who appear to represent these aspects of public life with fear and loathing. People who meet this description make up about 20 percent of eligible voters in the U.S.
What is important to understand is that these are not just people addicted to a set of traditions. They are folks who possess a nebulous anger, which is the other side of the coin of their fear. This anger can potentially lead them to act in dangerous ways. And, of course in the U.S., most of these people are armed. The Republican Party leadership, from Nixon onward, has catered to this 20 percent – not just because these leaders are political opportunists, but also because they have an unhealthy affinity for this population and its outlook. That today's Republican leadership has this affinity constitutes one of the major differences between the Republican and Democratic parties.
Part lll – On the Democratic Side
President Obama's response to the consistent nastiness of his opponents is usually mild and ineffectual. For instance, referring to the stubborn Republican opposition to his health care reform, he complained, "This does frustrate me, [Republican controlled] states that have chosen not to expand Medicaid for no other reason than political spite. You got 5 million people who could be having health insurance right now, at no cost to these states – zero cost to these states – [yet] other than ideological reasons, they have chosen not to provide health insurance for their citizens." The president's observation is quite true, but truth rarely breaks down the barriers put up by ideology.
Obama's response reflects the liberal take on politics and social decorum. Reason and compromise are supposed to be the guiding lights of domestic public life. While this might have been possible in the days before Richard Nixon led the Republican Party it is not so today. As Obama realized, reason has nothing to do with Republican actions. Those actions are now directed by a nebulous ideology that partakes of anarchism, laissez faire economics, and neoconservative aggressiveness all at once. Underlying it all is a fear and anger that breeds meanness and the behavior of the bully.
Of course the Democrats are also capable of saying and doing stupid things. However, their foibles and hypocrisies tend to be based on misplaced principles (as against no principle at all). Take Secretary of State Kerry's recent "Man Up" proclamation reported on 29 May 2014. Referring to Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who revealed that the agency was pursuing wholesale spying on just about the entire U.S. population. Kerry said the following: "The bottom line is this is a man who has betrayed his country, who is sitting in Russia, an authoritarian country where he has taken refuge. He should man up and come back to the United States."
This was a stupid and misleading statement. It is actually U.S. leaders, starting with George W. Bush and continuing on with President Obama, who "betrayed their country" by allowing the NSA to run wild. Snowden just caught them at it and made their betrayal public. However, as distasteful and downright silly as is Kerry's "man up" pronouncement, it lacks the hateful quality of the typical Republican attack stance.
Part IV – Conclusion
There is a qualitative difference between today's Democrats and Republicans. That difference does not lie in the potential to pursue policies that negatively impact the world. Both parties do that. The difference is in their attitude toward policy and action as such. When it comes to the Democrats, particularly their supporting base, many of them seem to retain the ability to think critically about their positions and sometimes even change course. But with the Republicans, one gets the sense that they are really true believers. They see their positions and actions as absolutely right and good, and if you disagree with them you are absolutely wrong and bad. In other words, while both parties are often dangerously wrong, the Republicans are wrong in a demented ideological fashion. As such they really are more repugnant than the Democrats.
Class Segregation and the Housing Market – An Analysis (2 June 2014) by Lawrence Davidson
Part I – Class Discrimination
There are many forms of discrimination, but one that Americans seem to have a high tolerance for is that based on class. Class discrimination is a natural outcome of capitalist ideology. That ideology, in turn, has been assimilated into American culture to the point that even the poor accept it on the assumption that they or their children might someday become rich.
Thus, unlike race and sex discrimination, that based on class has gone largely underregulated. Eventually the result is a number of embarrassing instances of abuse that become hard to ignore. That is what has happened in New York City's housing market, as testified to by an expose on the front page of last Sunday's (18 May 2014) New York Times real estate section.
Part II – The Situation:
Since 1943 New York City has sought to protect the income diversity of its population by classifying a percentage of its housing market as "rent-controlled" or "rent-stabilized." There are technical differences between these statuses, but we will refer to them both as part of a regime of "rent-regulation." Landlords and developers who provide a certain number of such "affordable housing units" (particularly rent-stabilized units) alongside of apartments renting or selling at market rates can qualify for city-or-state-subsidized low-interest loans and tax breaks. Even though the landlords and developers are thereby benefiting from publicly provided money, they still complain that the rent-regulation regime is a burden. While, with some exceptions, it does not prevent them from making a profit, it can prevent them from maximizing their profit. And that, of course, is what capitalism is supposed to let the businessperson do.
The piece in Sunday's New York Times real estate section is all about how the landlords and developers are trying to make life unpleasant for their rent-regulated residents, who, as of 2011, have a median income of $51,000 and pay a median rent of $1,321 a month. Ultimately, as Mark Zborovsky, "a broker who sells bundles of rent-regulated apartments to investors," put it, "his [the landlord's] goal is to get him [the tenant] out of the apartment." If these tenants do leave, their dwellings cease to be regulated and can be rented anew at market rates – which can be as high as $7,000 a month for a two-bedroom flat.
Part III – Some Examples
The tactic now being employed by the landlords and developers is to add amenities to existing buildings – things like roof gardens, gyms, playrooms for children, added storage areas and the like – and then prevent those tenants in rent-regulated apartments from using them. It is an interesting fact that in this game of class discrimination the doormen and other building staff become the ones charged with enforcing segregation for the owners.
The landlords and developers argue that these new amenities are "market tools" to attract high-end tenants who will pay market rates for apartments. Therefore, the amenities should be reserved for such residents. Actually, this only makes sense if you assume the potential high-end renter cares who else will be using the gym or playroom. In other words, the landlords and developers are assuming their clientele have the same class bias and resentments as themselves. Based on this assumption, some of them have gone so far as to put in separate lobbies and entrances (nicknamed "poor doors") for those living in rent-regulated apartments. Here is how David Von Spreckelsen, the president of the development company Toll Brothers City Living puts it, "The two populations [rent-regulated and market rate payers] don't mix at all. It really feels separate." Of course, after Mr. Von Spreckelsen gets done segregating the two groups of tenants, his statement becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The fact that the practices of Mr. Von Spreckelsen and those like him are making rent-regulated tenants feel like, as one of them put it, "a second-class citizen in my own home" seems not to matter. That is probably because, in the landlord and developer's capitalist worldview, the tenants residing in such apartments are indeed, by definition, second-class citizens.
Part IV – The Need for Regulation
Alas for Von Spreckelsen, the rent-regulated tenants are also voting citizens. There are hundreds of thousands of them in New York City, and their complaints have reached the mayor's office and city council. Newly elected mayor Bill de Blasio had made an issue of the "dwindling availability of affordable housing" in his campaign for office, and some city council members are busy drafting legislation that would "expand the city's anti-discrimination code to include rent-regulated tenants."
However, one should not see this as much more than a holding action against an ongoing and successful effort by landlords and developers to erode the number of rent-regulated apartments they have to maintain. One can see it in the annual decreasing percentage of rent-controlled residences: 2002 = 2.8%; 2005 = 2.1%; 2008 = 1.9 %; 2011 = 1.8%. Those in the rent-stabilized category have fallen from 63% in 1980 to 47% in 2011. Some of this decline is the result of attrition. Those in these affordable apartments are generally an older crowd. However, perhaps more important in the long run is that the landlords and developers have the nation's economic ideology on their side as well as a lot of money to pay out to ambitious politicians. Ultimately, New York City may well become a city gentrified for the wealthy. The poor will have nowhere else to go but the next slum over, and the middle class will be pushed out altogether, largely to the towns and suburbs of New Jersey.
Part V – Conclusion
The condition of the New York City's real estate market is symptomatic of a much broader problem of class discrimination and segregation. You can see it in the wealth-based segregated nature of everything from accommodations on trains and planes to the more serious discrepancies between suburbs and inner cities. In the fields of health care and criminal justice, the wealthy go in one door and the rest of us in another. In this country exceedingly little comes to you because you are a human being, or even because you are a citizen. Almost everything you get, or don't get, is a function of how much you can or are willing to pay.
Against this backdrop one must sadly conclude that rent-regulation is an anomaly, a policy that is at odds with American culture. It is also a window on the inhumane economic practices we have become so addicted to. Could such an addiction lead to an overdose? And if does, will we then learn that regulation is necessary and healthy?
The Role of the Intellectual – An Analysis (22 May 2014) by Lawrence Davidson
Part I – Watershed Moments
World Wars I and II created watershed moments in the lives of Western intellectuals, defined here as those who are guided by their intellect and critical thinking, and understand various aspects of the world mainly through ideas and theories which they express through writing, teaching and other forms of public address. Just how were they to respond to the call of patriotic duty that seduced the vast majority of citizens to support acts of mass slaughter? What constituted a proper response is often debated. How most of them did respond is a matter of historical record.
During the world wars most intellectuals on all sides of the conflicts uncritically lent their talents to their government's war efforts. Some did so as propagandists and others as scientists. Some actually led their nations into the fray, as was the case with Woodrow Wilson. Wilson held a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University, had taught at Cornell, Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan, and became president of Princeton University. Eventually he was elected President of the United States and, having taken the nation to war, sanctioned the creation of a massive propaganda machine under the auspices of the "Committee on Public Information." He also supported the passage of the Sedition Act of 1918 to suppress all anti-war sentiments. Wilson never experienced combat, but another intellectual, the British poet Siegfried Sassoon, did so in the trenches of the Western front. After this experience he wrote, "war is hell and those who initiate it are criminals." No doubt that was his opinion of the intellectual President Woodrow Wilson.
In 1928 the French philosopher and literary critic Julien Benda published an important book, The Betrayal of the Intellectuals. In this work Benda asserted that it is the job of the intellectual to remain independent of his or her community's ideologies and biases, be they political, religious or ethnic. Only by so doing could he or she defend the universal practices of tolerance and critical thinking that underpin civilization. Not only were they to maintain their independence, but they were also obligated to analyze their community's actions and, where necessary, call them into question.
However, as the memory of the intellectuals' complicity in World War I faded, so did the memory of Benda's standard of behavior. By World War II it held little power against the renewed demands of national governments for citizens to rally around the flag. Thus, in that war, with even greater atrocities being committed, most intellectuals either supported the slaughter or remained silent. Some became fascists, others communists, and all too many once more lent their talents to propaganda machines and war industries in all the fighting states.
As a result the debate over the proper role of the intellectual in relation to power and ideology continues to this day. It is not a question that needs a world war to be relevant. There are any number of ongoing situations where nationalism, ethnicity, or religious views spark intolerance and violence. And with each of them the intellectuals, particularly those whose home states are involved, have to make the same age-old choice. Do they follow Woodrow Wilson's path or that of Julien Benda?
Part II – The Fate of the Jewish Intellectual
This problem has recently been raised in reference to the seemingly endless Palestinian-Israeli conflict. On 14 April 2014 Eva Illouz, a professor of sociology at Hebrew University, published an article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz entitled, "Is It Possible to Be a Jewish Intellectual?" In this piece she sets forth two opposing positions: one is the Zionist/Israeli demand for the primacy of "ahavat Israel," or the "love of the Jewish nation and people" – the claim that all Jews have a "duty of the heart" to be loyal to the "Jewish nation." The other position is that of the lone intellectual (here her model is the philosopher Hannah Arendt), whose obligation is to maintain the "disinterested intelligence" necessary to, if you will, speak truth to power.
Illouz explains that Zionists have a "suspicion of critique" and use "the memorialization of the Shoah" (the Holocaust) and "ahavat Israel" to mute it. "The imperative of solidarity brings with it the injunction to not oppose or express publicly disagreement with official Jewish bodies." It is within this context that she can ask if it is still possible to be a Jewish intellectual, at least as portrayed of by Julien Benda. Illouz's conclusion is that it has become exceedingly difficult to be so, particularly in the diaspora communities, where the demands for Jewish solidarity are particularly "brutal."
Illouz is unhappy with this situation. While she feels the allure of ahavat Israel, she ultimately supports the position of the independent-mindedness of Benda's thinker. She insists that the "contemporary Jewish intellectual has an urgent task … to unveil the conditions under which Jewish solidarity should or should not be accepted, debunked or embraced. In the face of the ongoing, unrelenting injustices toward Palestinians and Arabs living in Israel, his/her moral duty is to let go, achingly, of that solidarity."
Part III – The Primacy of Group Solidarity
While the portrayal of the intellectual as a thinker insisting on and practicing the right of critical thinking about society and its behavior is an ancient one (consider Socrates here), such behavior is not common in practice. This, in turn, calls Benda's notion of a proper intellectual into question.
Thus the description of an intellectual offered at the beginning of this essay (which is in line with common dictionary definitions) does not reference any particular direction of thought. For instance, in practice there is nothing that requires an intellectual to think about societal or government behaviors, much less take a critical public position on such matters. And, no doubt, there are many very talented minds who, deeply involved in aesthetic matters or certain branches of scientific, linguistic, literary or other pursuits, do not involve themselves with issues of the use or abuse of power.
In addition, one might well be judged an intellectual and be a supporter or even a perpetrator of criminal policies and actions. Woodrow Wilson might fall within this category, as might Henry Kissinger, Condoleezza Rice and many others.
Indeed, from a historical perspective most people of high intellect have sought to serve power and not critique or question it. This is quite in line with the fact that most non-intellectuals accept the word of those in power as authoritative and true. According to Eva Illouz this reflects the primacy of group solidarity over truth. She is correct in this judgment. That, no doubt, is why the independent-minded, outspoken intellectuals demanding moral integrity and responsibility from those in power are so rare, be they Jewish or gentile.
Censorship Is The Norm – An Analysis (9 May 2014) by Lawrence Davidson and Janet Amighi
Part I – Shutting Down the Academics
Most Americans assume the United States government speaks "the truth" to its citizens and defends their constitutional right to "free speech" (be it in the form of words or dollars). On the other hand, it is always the alleged enemies of the U.S. who indulge in propaganda and censoring of "the truth."
In practice it is not quite that way. Washington, and more local American governments as well, can be quite censoring. Take for instance the attempt to censor the boycott of Israeli academic institutions – institutions engaged in government research that facilitates illegal settlement expansion and the use of Palestinian water resources. In this case, the fact that a call for boycott is an age-old, non-violent practice also falling within the category of free speech, is mostly disregarded. Instead we get a knee-jerk impulse on the part of just about every American politician to shut down debate, even to the point where various state legislatures threatened their own state colleges and universities with a cutoff of funds if they tolerate the boycott effort on their campuses.
It is not only American academics who suffer censorship at the hands of a government that claims to defend freedom of speech. Academics of countries deemed unfriendly to the U.S. have been subjected to the same treatment. Take, for instance, Iranian academics. U.S. trade sanctions on Iran, put in effect in 1980, included strict curbs on academic exchanges. Later, a few in Congress managed to ease these with a "free trade in ideas" amendment, but the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sabotaged the effort. That office violated the spirit of the Congressional amendment by asserting that while there could now be exchanges of information with academics in sanctioned states, say, in the form of manuscripts submitted to U.S. journals for publication, they could not be "enhanced" by such practices as editing for style purposes. Violation of this regulation could result in fines and imprisonment for journal editors. On the other hand, as far as we know, no OFAC official was ever fined, fired or imprisoned for violating the intent of Congress.
Several organizations, including the American Association of Publishers, took the U.S. government to court over the issue in 2003. In 2004 the matter was settled out of court, granting the right of publishers to use standard editing procedures for manuscript submissions from Iran. However, the OFAC has failed to officially promulgate this change in regulations, and as a result many journal editors are ignorant of the revised regulation. Many still "play it safe" and simply return submissions from Iran marked "denied due to sanctions."
More generally, there are now reports that the internet provider Yahoo, which is used by a 63 percent of Iranians communicating through the worldwide web, has "decided that it will not allow Iranians to create new e-mail accounts. Cutting off access to Yahoo will require many in Iran to use the e-mail service provided by the Iranian government – which, of course, censors communications. Yahoo thus becomes complicit in the process of censoring millions of people.
Part II – Media Manipulation
Perhaps the grossest ongoing censorship of all is the culturally conditioned, narrow range of opinion fed to the vast majority of Americans by their own media. The differences in story lines and opinions in the "news" given by well-watched television channels such as ABC. CBS, NBC and CNN, or those of the nation's major newspapers and news magazines, is minuscule. One venue that stands out is Fox TV, and its "news" and opinion offerings verge on the mendacious. The narrow range of views offered creates a uniform background noise hiding most of what is at variance with the standard message. In other words, media practices constitute de facto censorship.
So well does this process work that it is probably the case that many news editors and broadcasters and most of the public taking in their reporting do not understand that their reductionism has rendered the constitutional right of free press ineffectual. Really meaningful contrary opinion and reporting (particularly of the progressive persuasion) is so infrequent and marginalized that it stands little chance of competing with the orthodox point of view.
An exception is to be found on the TV channel Comedy Central. There Americans can find the popular Daily Show with Jon Stewart. This show presents the only ongoing, nationally televised critique of the foibles of U.S. government leaders and their policies. But, of course, it all must be done in the form of comical political satire.
As successful as media conditioning is, some elements of the U.S. government feel they must go the extra mile to guarantee that the public receives an acceptable view of events. Take the revelations given in a recent report by Amnesty International on the trial of the so-called Cuban Five (five Cuban residents of Florida arrested for espionage on the part of the Cuban government). Amnesty's official report on the trial of the five defendants alleges that "the United States [government] paid journalists hostile to Cuba to cover the trial and provide prejudicial articles in the local media asserting the guilt of the accused." Under such circumstances the "free press" was transformed into a vehicle for government propaganda and this, in turn, helped to generally devalue the right of free speech. We do not know how often the government acts in this corruptive way.
Part III – Et Tu, Obama?
In a report issued late in 2013 by the Committee to Protect Journalists, President Obama, a liberal within our political spectrum, has been accused of pressuring journalists to tow the line. He has done this by "attacking sources, conducting surveillance, creating a climate of fear, and prosecuting double the amount of cases for alleged leaks of classified information as all previous administrations combined."
As a consequence the global index on media freedom issued annually by the conservative Freedom House alleges that in 2014 the U.S. suffered a sharp erosion of press freedom and the right of the citizen to know what his or her country is doing. The report cites "attempts by the government to inhibit reporting on national security issues" as a major reason for this situation.
At the same time, President Obama makes speeches critiquing foreign governments, such as that in Egypt, for limiting freedom of the press and speech. There is no doubt that the governments he targets are guilty of gross violation of these rights and many more besides. But what is equally true is that the vast majority of Americans can listen to the president castigate these governments with no sense of cognitive dissonance. They do not know that they too are victims of propaganda and manipulation. How could they? They are culturally conditioned to believe that their country is the foundation of freedom and truth. And, beyond their local area, they haven't the knowledge, or often the interest, to fact-check what their leaders and media agents tell them. That is why it is accurate to describe the U.S. information environment as closed.
Part IV – Censorship Ubiquitous
Actually, there is nothing particularly unique about the self-censoring environment under which Americans live. All states and cultures, to one extent or another, practice this sort of manipulation of the information environment whereby reality is distorted. Thus we can ask, is the United States the great defender of its own constitutional freedoms? It is when it suits the purposes of policy makers. When it doesn't, hypocrisy prevails. The system is successful because all but a few people are culturally conditioned not to notice or care. Such a manipulative process as this at once helps keep societies cohesive and at the same time creates the conditions wherein hate is easily bred and vast numbers are made willing to charge enemy machine guns.
Those who see through their conditioning and manipulation are, if you will, cultural mistakes. They are also the human race's best, albeit slim, hope for a saner, more tolerant world.
Free Speech Or Bribery? – An Analysis (15 April 2014) by Lawrence Davidson
Part I – Legalizing Bribery
On Wednesday 2 April 2014 the U.S. Supreme Court took another step toward the destruction of campaign finance reform with a five to four decision known as McCutcheon v. Federal Elections Commission. One gets the feeling that this is part of a general campaign, waged by class-biased, ideologically committed conservatives, against government regulation, which they see as somehow a violation of their constitutional rights. As if to suggest that this is so, the Court majority rationalized their decision in the name of "free speech."
What does this ruling do?
First, the ruling removes limitations on overall campaign donations given in an an election cycle. The wealthy can now sit down and write checks to unlimited numbers of candidates and political organizations and thereby make themselves indispensable in an electoral process dependent on the raising of large sums, particularly for television advertising. Indeed, in this way the influence and demands of wealthy donors continue to be more powerful and persuasive than the solicitations of ordinary constituents whose interests the elected official is pledged to serve. In other words, McCutcheon vs. FEC pushed forward the process of legalizing bribery within our political system – a phenomenon which already is well along in its development.
Second, the ruling corrupts the notion of free speech by equating it with the use of money. Thus, the Court majority confuses free speech with that very act of bribery noted above. They seem to be pretending that we are dealing with the transparent efforts of constituents seeking to convince their political representatives of a certain point of view. This is an illusion. We are dealing with donor individuals and organizations funneling millions of dollars to politicians in need of small fortunes just to maintain their professional positions, and to do so in exchange for political and legislative favors. That is the exercise of free speech only if you equate it with the suborning of elected officials. It is hard to believe that the five Supreme Court Justices who voted in the majority do not know this. And if they do, they are guilty of using the Constitution to rationalize criminal behavior.
Part II - The Specific Arguments and Their Flaws
Argument One - "Contributing money to a candidate is an exercise of an individual's right to participate in the electoral process through both political expression and political association."
In taking this line of argument the justices ignore an established principle that operates in the social (as well as physical) realm: that is that quantity can shape quality and in so doing "act as a causal mechanism in social behavior." For instance, you can say that contributing of money to campaigns and parties is an inherent part of the right to political participation. However the quality of that right, that is, its consequence, is dependent on the quantity of the donation and its source.
Thus, this form of political participation has different consequences if a multitude of citizens give small amounts to various candidates and parties than if a few citizens, cleverly bundling their donations, give millions. The former is unlikely to skew an election through overwhelming, and often distorting, media advertising or to compromise the integrity of the candidate once elected. The latter is almost certain to do these things. In other words, so much money coming from a few sources into an electoral process dominated by the need for money transforms donations into bribes and payoffs. This transformation is exactly what effective campaign finance reform is designed to prevent.
Argument Two – Restricting contributions is like restricting the number of endorsements a newspaper can make. "Government may no more restrict how many candidates or causes a donor may support than it may tell a newspaper how many candidates it may endorse."
The problem with this assertion is that newspapers do not usually trade in favors. Big donors almost always do. Newspapers usually do not expect those they endorse to change the regulatory environment in which the newspaper operates. Big donors almost always do. By making the comparison between newspaper endorsements and the actions of large donors, the Justices are making a false analogy. They are mixing apples and oranges.
Argument three - "Spending large sums of money in connection with elections, but not in connection with an effort to control the exercise of an officeholder's official duties, does not give rise to quid pro quo corruption. Nor does the possibility that an individual who spends large sums may garner 'influence over or access to' elected officials or political parties."
This statement contains one dubious assumption and one misstatement of fact. First, assuming that "spending large sums of money in connection with elections" is not done in an "effort to control the exercise of an officeholder's official duties" and therefore does not result in "quid pro quo corruption" is, at best, dangerously naive.
Do these Justices really believe that the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and a host of corporations and special interest organizations would spend millions of dollars in an election cycle apart from "an effort to control the exercise of an officeholder's official duties"?
The claim that "an individual who spends large sums" does not "garner 'influence over or access to' elected officials or political parties" is just wrong. What do these Justices think the American Rifle Association or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee are doing if not buying influence and access?
It is odd that these Justices, who undoubtedly recognize that they live in a capitalist country where just about everything is up for sale, would so blatantly pretend that politicians and elections are not also available for purchase.
Part III – A Formula for Disaster
Senator John McCain, one of the sponsors of the bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, predicts that the recent Supreme Court decision will result in "major scandals in campaign finance contributions" and these in turn "will cause reform."
Scandals there are sure to be. However, I am not sure about reform. Past "major scandals" have not necessarily led to reform. In the United States numerous school shootings have shocked the public but not resulted in the reform of the nation's gun laws. Recent financial crises have led to recession and government bailouts for savings and loans, banks and mortgage houses, but have not resulted in sufficient regulatory reform to prevent a recurrence of these problems. Therefore, campaign finance scandals may not yield the reform Senator McCain foresees. All these scandals do indicate one thing, though, and that is that the Supreme Court justices don't know what they are talking about when they assert that big money contributions are not corrupting.
Let us keep in mind that the U.S. citizenry is largely estranged from politics and ignorant of the workings of their national economy. Such
indifference and ignorance allows power to default to the minority who are unethical enough and wealthy enough to not only buy politicians, but to buy public opinion through the manipulation of the media – a particular specialty of people like Rupert Murdoch.
This concentration of power usually results in periods of wholesale deregulation of business and politics leading inevitably to political unrest and economic ruin of one degree or another. Yet it is only when these consequences become so disastrous (I am talking here on the scale of the 1929 depression or the race riots of the 1960s) that the public's backlash brings about significant reform. And even then the nature of such events is cyclical. We have forgotten the corruption of the Gilded Age and the hardship of the Great Depression. Some of us have even forgotten the racist nature of our politics prior to the Civil Rights Movement. So you should let your children know they may see these troubles again in the near future. Maybe they will be able to handle them better than we are.
Stereotyping In Congress, Then and Now (14 February 2014) – An Analysis by Lawrence Davidson
Representative Duncan D. Hunter
Part I - Stereotyping in Congress 1922
In the year 1922 the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings on a joint resolution in support of the Balfour Declaration. The committee chairman, the pro-Zionist representative from New York, Hamilton Fish, called an array of witnesses, including a few who did not favor a "Jewish home" in Palestine. This did not mean that the committee's support for the Balfour Declaration was ever really in doubt, but rather their apparent openness resulted from the political influence of certain academics, as well as American Christian missionary societies, who were sympathetic to Arab nationalist aspirations.
Among those who testified against the resolution was Fuad Shatara, a Palestinian-born American citizen and successful physician who led an organization called the Palestine National League. Among the points he made to the committee was that a good number of Palestine's Zionist community were devoted socialists. This information, given to congressmen who feared leftist "red scares" in the U.S., was dynamite. If accepted, it could have scared the committee members enough to derail the resolution.
But Shatara's quite accurate assertion was not accepted by Fish and his committee. It was not even investigated, because it appeared utterly counterintuitive. Why so? We learn the answer from committee member Representative Henry Allen Cooper of Wisconsin, a successful lawyer with a college education, and also an imperialist who had supported the retention of the Philippines as an American colony following the Spanish-American War. According to Cooper, the assertion that socialists were active among the Zionists in Palestine could not be true, because all the world knew that the Jew is "proverbially a believer in private property." In other words, at least some members of the U.S. Congress had bought into the stereotype that a capitalist orientation is a congenital part of Jewish culture.
There was, of course, a racist undertone to this stereotype, and in Europe such a belief, conjuring up the figure of Shylock, had contributed to widespread anti-Semitism. Nonetheless, there it was coming out of the mouth of a U.S. politician with a seat on the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Part II – Stereotyping in Congress 2013
We now fast-forward 91 years. Representative Duncan D. Hunter of California, a college graduate holding the rank of major in the Marine reserves, is a member of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities. He appeared on 4 December 2013 on C-Span, a cable network that largely concentrates on government affairs. The program concerned the negotiations of the P5 + 1 powers (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) with Iran seeking a limitation on that country's nuclear energy program in exchange for a lessening of international sanctions.
Representative Hunter, a "tea party" Republican, is suspicious of these negotiations because he feels that even if there is a positive outcome, Iran cannot be trusted. Why so? Iran is part of the Middle East and, according to Representative Hunter, "In the Middle Eastern culture it is looked upon with very high regard to get the best deal possible, no matter what it takes, and that includes lying." In other words, at least some of members of the U.S. Congress have bought into the stereotype that lying is a congenital part of the Middle Eastern personality.
Once more we can readily identify the racist undertone of this stereotype. It presently feeds into an islamophobia that has led to hysteria and violence among some elements of the American population. And now we see it coming from the mouth of a U.S. politician with a seat on the Congressional Subcommittee for (of all things) Intelligence.
Part III – Consequences
These beliefs reflect ignorance bordering on stupidity and, despite their wide spacing in time, they both feed into behaviors with large destructive potential. In1922 Henry Allen Cooper probably gave little or no thought to the fact that his endorsement of the Balfour Declaration would contribute to the displacement of millions, the destruction of an entire culture, and all the death and misery that goes along with such a process. If he thought about this at all he would probably have agreed with his fellow committee member Representative W. Bourke Cockran of New York, who saw Jewish immigration into Palestine as akin to the white man's arrival in the New World.
Representative Hunter, on the other hand, is much more a conscious militarist. His vision of the Middle East is not overlaid with misplaced idealism. The Iranians are liars and if their their duplicity results in a face-off on the battlefield, the United States should use "tactical nuclear devices" so as to "set them back a decade or two or three. …That is the way to do it with a massive aerial bombardment campaign." Hunter has done several combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He knows what dead and maimed Middle Easterners look like and it apparently does not bother him. Indeed, with his glib reference to the use of tactical nuclear weapons laid alongside his stereotype of all the region's people as congenital liars, who knows what horror the baby-faced Representative from California is capable of.
Part IV – Conclusion
The Greek poet Homer, who lived around the 8th century BCE, once bemoaned, "Would that strife might perish from among gods and men." I don't know about the gods, but today among men there seems little hope of Homer getting his wish.
The ignorant, the ideologues, and the stereotypers call out to each other decade after decade, and Henry Allen Cooper and Duncan D. Hunter thus belong to the same dangerous fellowship. As they echo their menacing ideas, the rest of us, mostly ignorant of all that is not local, bend our ears and listen intently. Indeed, presently it may only be the weariness of 70 years of off-and-on war that has led us to a momentary reluctance to buy into Representative Duncan's warmongering nonsense.
Momentary reluctance or not, I'll take it. Unmasking the disastrous consequences of the Balfour Declaration on the one hand and on the other, achieving that elusive comprehensive settlement with Iran, can't help but be good for the planet. Even if the next slippery slope to conflict is around a near corner, these are rational, sensible, sane goals for the present.
Whose Academic Freedom Are We Talking About? An Analysis (14 January 2014) by Lawrence Davidson
Part I – An Inevitable Controversy
The controversy that broke out over the American Studies Association's December 2013 vote to adopt an academic boycott of Israel was inevitable.The ASA's academic boycott is a just a part of a much larger effort – the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement – which has been growing worldwide over the last decade. In fact the movement's progress in the United States has been relatively slow, but this is changing, and the ASA controversy is an indicator of this shift. That being the case, the reaction on the part of Zionist supporters of Israel in and out of academia came as no surprise.
On 5 January 2014 the New York Times reprinted a piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education more or less summarizing the reaction to the ASA move. It noted that "the presidents of more than 80 United States colleges have condemned the vote." In addition five of these institutions of higher learning "have withdrawn from ASA membership." The Chronicle piece concludes that the ASA has become "a pariah of the United States higher-education establishment."
That is a rather premature judgment. There are roughly 4,500 colleges and universities in the U.S. Being condemned by the administrations (which is not the same as the faculties and student bodies) of 80 represents condemnation by less than 2 percent. Over one hundred institutions of higher learning have ASA membership. Losing five is again a small percentage. All of this hardly makes the ASA a "pariah."
There are also other ways of judging the impact of the ASA action. If one goal of the ASA boycott move is to stimulate debate about Israeli behavior and policies within a society (the U.S.) that has long been dominated by Israeli propaganda, then the move is certainly a success. It has brought to the surface many statements and charges that demonstrate just how decontextualized attempts to defend Israeli behavior are. If insightful counterarguments are spread about because of the ASA resolution, then the "pariah" has done quite well.
Part II – Charges and Responses
Let's take a look at some of the public charges and possible responses:
Damaging Academic Freedom:
- Carolyn A. Martin, president of Amherst College: "Such boycotts threaten academic speech and exchange, which is our solemn duty as academic institutions to protect."
- Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council of Education: "Such actions are misguided and greatly troubling, as they strike at the heart of academic freedom."
Response: It is hard to argue against the ideal. Everyone associated with higher education does, or should, value academic freedom and the free flow of ideas. The problem is, people such as Dr. Martin and Dr. Broad and many others are directing their criticism at the wrong party. The ASA resolution, which one suspects has not been read by many of its critics, is not directed against individual scholars, researchers or teachers. It is quite explicitly directed against Israeli institutions – institutions that have abetted in the destruction of the Palestinian right of academic freedom for decades. The Israelis have just done this largely out of sight of the American academic community, to say nothing of the American people.
The fact is that the Israeli government, assisted by many of the country's academic institutions, runs an illegal occupation that has long impeded education in the PalestinianTerritories. One wonders just how aware of this historical fact are those who criticize the ASA. The facts in this regard are not a secret, although one does have to go out and look for them. Just do a thorough on-line search of the subject and all kinds of reports, analyses, and documents show up. For instance, here is a link to a report about the complicity of Israeli universities in maintaining the occupation. Here is another on the impact of occupation on Palestinian education, and yet another on the struggle for Palestinian academic freedom.
It should also be mentioned that the Israeli government is embarked on an effort to enforce its own version of history on Palestinian schools. This may soon appear as an Israeli priority in its ongoing negotiations with the Palestine Authority. And, right now in the U.S., the Zionist student organization Hillel has laid down rules restricting any free discussion about Israel in their chapters on American college campuses. These facts should raise questions about the sincerity of Zionist concern over academic freedom and the free flow of ideas. It is policies and actions such as these, which have multiplied themselves out many fold, that are part of the context of the BDS movement and the action taken by the ASA.
Damaging Institutional Reputations and Solvency:
- William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton University and president emeritus of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: "Boycotts are a bad idea. … It is dangerous business … for institutions to become embroiled in these kinds of debates. The consequences for institutions are just too serious."
Response: What might this mean? I don't think that Dr. Bowen is implying that what the ASA did is "dangerous" because it allegedly put the institution on the wrong side of a moral question. Here is another possible answer:
- Leon Botstein, president of Bard College: "Calls from alumni to take a stand against the boycott had played a role [in Bard College's withdrawal of its institutional membership in the ASA]. … I recognize that the American Jewish community is disproportionately generous to American higher education. For the president of an institution to express his or her solidarity with Israel is welcomed by a very important part of their support base."
Response: Dr. Botstein is suggesting that if one wants to know why "the presidents of more than 80 United States colleges have condemned the vote," one should follow the money, and not necessarily the ideal of academic freedom.
Promoting Anti-Semitism:
- Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University, on the Charlie Rose show of 10 December 2013: "I regard them [boycott efforts against Israel] as being anti-Semitic in their effect if not necessarily in their intent." That is because these efforts "single out Israel."
Response: Dr. Summers can say this only because he and other Zionists take the position that Israel and the Jews are one. This is factually wrong. There are many Jews in the U.S. (and elsewhere) who do not identify with Israel and, in fact, a good number who publicly oppose Israeli behavior and the notion of a Jewish state. As to the singling out of Israel, it is certainly warranted given the influence Zionist supporters exercise over U.S. politicians and foreign policies and the resulting inordinate amount of aid and assistance given to Israel.
Part III – Conclusion
A lot more has been written about the ASA position, and below I list a small number of articles in support of the academic boycott position by thoughtful Americans.
Henry Siegman, former director of the National Jewish Congress, "There is no bigotry in the boycott."
- M. J. Rosenberg, former longtime aide to various congressmen and senators, Propaganda vs. History.
- Joan W. Scott, scholar at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, N.J., "Changing My Mind about the Boycott."
- Eric Cheyfitz, professor at Cornell University, "Why I Support the Academic Boycott of Israel,"
Sydney Levy, director of advocacy for Jewish Voices for Peace, "Academic Freedom."
If the academic freedom of Palestinians was not being destroyed as part of an overall policy of ethnic cleansing and apartheid, there would be no need for an institutionally centered academic boycott of Israel. As it is, however, the Zionists in their relentless drive to create a Jewish-only state in historic Palestine have created the conditions for resistance, and the boycott in its many forms is part of that effort. It is not going to go away.
Israel's future is one of increasing isolation. The Zionists recognize this possibility and that is why they are kicking and screaming. They even want to outlaw aspects of the boycott effort. It might be easier if they joined the twenty-first century by giving up their racist ambitions. However, ideologues rarely give up their ideologies willingly, so we will all have to do this the hard way.


text:
Post reblogged from with 62 notes
How to make a Crack Baby, Kate Middleton's preferred cocktail:
Coming soon to my family Mother's Day brunch, methinks?
Mix the ice, passionfruit juice, vodka and chopped strawberries in a blender and blend well. Half-fill glasses, then top with Asti.
Above: Kathie Lee Drinking A Crack Baby During The Royal Wedding
(via buzzfeed.)
um yum! but…asti?
Reblogging this so I can save it for later. Man, Kathie Lee looks like a sloppy mess.
ooooooooo, that's going to be my first alcoholic drink once I become legal!
In honor of the Royal Wedding, the creepy, yet most likely yummy,...drink. And an even...
Take notes, Natalie.
Crack Baby, Kate...cocktail: Coming soon to my family Mother's Day brunch, methinks?

subset: commoncrawl


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Spider-Man crackers, "Star Wars" fruit gummies, Super Mario soup, and other geek tie-in foods cry out for a taste test. Crave's Amanda Kooser answers the call.
With open auditions for the new "Star Wars" film under way, Crave's Bonnie Burton asked five veteran "Star Wars" actors to share tips on standing out from the rest of the Jedi hopefuls.
The Force is...solid in this new and original Lego Star Wars minigame, which offers kid-friendly gameplay and parent-friendly pricing.
Show off both your Star Wars and school pride with a new line of shirts, caps, and accessories featuring Darth Vader, Yoda, Stormtroopers, and more.
Whether running for office on Tattooine or in Washington, D.C., some of the nation's top political leaders would get walloped by Jedi, Sith lords, and even Jar Jar Binks.
Japanse warriors combine with "Star Wars" for Darth Vader and Stormtrooper costumes designed to look like samurai in space.
A defunct factory in Japan has a new life as an LED-powered indoor farm that turns out 10,000 heads of lettuce per day.
We're all familiar with charts and infographics. Data Cuisine makes them more creative (and delicious) by expressing information with edibles.
At Steve Sansweet's Rancho Obi-Wan in Petaluma, Calif., 'Star Wars' fans of all colors have a chance to see what might be the best collection of the films' artifacts in the world.
Get your hands on a piece of "Star Wars" history with an auction offering everything from posters to helmets to the skin from a Yoda head.


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Unemployment remains a major challenge nationwide. Iowa's unemployement rate has stayed lower than the national average during the recession, at six percent or less.
But in one eastern Iowa county--it's even lower: under four percent.
Carmi Flavor and Fragrance Company is building a 34,000 square foot warehouse in Waverly's Northwest Industrial Park.
"We've been successful because we're able to compete. We're able to do things other people aren't willing to do or cannot actually do it in the field that we're in," said Eliot Carmi with Carmi Flavor & Fragrance Co.
Groundbreakings and business expansions are becoming a common site in Bremer County, which has weathered the tough economy.
"Waverly's been very supportive, very helpful. The state of Iowa's been very helpful," Carmi said.
Across town, Peoples Insurance is growing its business, too. A $500,000 addition is being constructed. When its completed, the company will be able to double in size, adding 40 jobs.
"Basically, we just found a niche in the insurance industry. It's important that my brothers and I have worked together, and it just really took off. We found the right people to help bring other people on and have just went with it," said Josh Whitinger of Peoples Insurance Agency.
The city's thrilled companies continue to find this area a good place to locate new businesses and expand existing ones, and gives credit to strong leadership coupled with good available tax incentives.
"Our mayor and city council have done a great job of promoting growth within this area. When a business sees there's an opportunity for growth, that gets the interest of another business. It kind of almost is that domino effect where once somebody goes, somebody else is going to take that challenge and build also," said Brent Matthias, Waverly Area Economic Development executive director.
Now Bremer County's working on new initiatives to recruit workers to fill jobs created by growing businesses.
Waverly's economic status could even play a part in the upcoming presidential election, where jobs and the economy are sure to be key issues. That's because experts have identified Bremer County as one of about half-dozen "swing counties" in Iowa that could ultimately determine the election's outcome.


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Records 781 to 790 of 893
|Brandao Named to Soccer America Team of the Week
|PISCATAWAY, NJ – Rutgers junior back Kim Brandao (Rahway, NJ) has been named to the Soccer America National Team of the Week for Division I women's soccer, the group has announced.
|Rutgers Women's Soccer Team Returns to National Polls
|PISCATAWAY, NJ – Thanks to a pair of victories in last weekend's Rutgers Classic, the Scarlet Knight women's soccer team (4-2) returned to the national top 25 polls this week for the first time in two years.
|Jones Named ECAC Goalkeeper of the Week
|PISCATAWAY, NJ – Rutgers sophomore Robyn Jones (Titusville, NJ) has been named the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division I Women's Goalkeeper of the Week, the league office announced Sept. 14.
|Three Rutgers Soccer Players Earn BIG EAST Weekly Honors
|PISCATAWAY, NJ – Three members of the Rutgers women's soccer team were singled out by the BIG EAST Conference with player-of-the-week awards Sept. 13.
|Rutgers Women's Soccer Hands Michigan State First Loss, 2-1
|PISCATAWAY, NJ – Senior All-American Carli Lloyd (Delran, NJ) scored in the 106th minute to lift Rutgers (4-2) to a 2-1 double-overtime victory against Michigan State (6-1) Sept. 12 at the Rutgers Classic. In the day's first match, No. 12 Santa Clara (2-2-1) defeated Rhode Island (2-4) 6-0.
|Rutgers Women's Soccer Upsets No. 12 Santa Clara 1-0
|PISCATAWAY, NJ – Sophomore Domenique Esposito (Rivervale, NJ) struck a 25-yard blast into the upper left-hand corner to lift Rutgers (3-2) to a 1-0 upset of No. 12 Santa Clara (1-2-1) Sept. 10 at the Rutgers Classic. In the evening's first match, Michigan State (6-0) defeated Rhode Island (2-3) 2-1.
|Scarlet Knight Women's Soccer to Host Rutgers Classic
|PISCATAWAY, NJ – The Scarlet Knight women's soccer team (2-2) will host the Rutgers Classic this weekend at Yurcak Field, taking on No. 12 Santa Clara (1-1-1) Friday, Sept. 10, at 8:00 p.m. and Michigan State (5-0) Sunday, Sept. 12, at 2:30 p.m.
|Rutgers Falls to USC in Double Overtime 3-2
|LOS ANGELES, CA – Two goals by All-American Carli Lloyd (Delran, NJ) weren't enough as the Rutgers women's soccer team (2-2) fell 3-2 in double overtime at USC (2-2) Sept. 5.
|Women's Soccer Suffers First Loss
|LOS ANGELES, CA – The Rutgers women's soccer team (2-1) suffered its first loss of the season, a 1-0 decision at Loyola Marymount (2-1) Sept. 3.
|Brandao Named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week
|PISCATAWAY, NJ – Rutgers junior back Kim Brandao (Rahway, NJ) has been named the BIG EAST Conference's Women's Soccer Defensive Player of the Week, the conference office announced Aug. 30.


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Firefighters are on the scene of a blaze that has caused damage inside a restaurant in Rochester Hills.
The fire broke out around 11:00 a.m. inside Mark's Coney Island at the corner of Auburn and Adams Roads. The restaurant suffered heavy fire, smoke and water damage inside, but no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Auburn Road was closed while crews were working to put out the blaze.
25 FOX DriveDedham, MA 02026
Phone (781) 467-2525


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- Project Presentations: will take place Thursday, May 10, at 1:30PM - 4:00PM
- Here's the next great idea in mobile:
About the course
iPhone/iPad programming is about creating mobile applications that run on iOS, Apple's operating system for mobile devices including the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad (and also in some fashion on the next version of Apple's operating system for all its computers, OS X). The course covers the technologies necessary for creating native mobile applications including objective C, Xcode and Interface builder (IB), and the Cocoa Touch frameworks. The course will be run as a seminar. Students will be expected to independently master technologies and give presentations and lectures on these technologies.
To program for iOS, it is most common to use Apple's development environment, Xcode, and the object-oriented programming langauge designed for iOS, objective C. You can code applications in other langauges (such as python or ruby) and use other (or no) IDEs, but you'll find it's much much easier to use the tools that Apple has designed for iOS.
These tools will only run on a Macintosh computer and normally need the most recent version of OS X. There are VM images that you can download from the web that run OS X, but these are not legal and will not be supported in this class. The class will be held in Williams 320 which has macintosh computers running Xcode. There are also several iMacs with the developer tools available in Williams 308.This class will cover objective C, Xcode, and the Cocoa Touch foundation classes. We will cover the creation of iOS applications from the design to implementation and testing on an actual deivce. We will have several iPad and iPod touch devices available for use in the class. Please note that there is an intricate certification process that must be followed to download applications on an actual device. Ithaca College is part of the Apple iPhone/ iPod touch/iPad developer program and we will be able to supply certificates.


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Home > OPTO & PHOTONICS > Flir awarded $18M for Navy Imaging Systems...
May 25th, 2012
Flir awarded $18M for Navy Imaging Systems
The US Navy Expeditionary Combat Command has awarded Flir Systems Inc. a $17.9 million delivery order for its SeaFlir maritime imaging systems, which are expected to be deployed on US Navy patrol boats.
Flir's SeaFlir product line is currently deployed for search and rescue, interdiction, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting application missions. In addition, all systems are engineered, designed and qualified for operation in the harshest maritime conditions. Work for this contract will take place at the company's Billerica, Mass., facility. Deliveries are expected to begin in the third quarter of this year.
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Shauna Prewitt's story of rape followed by a pregnancy left me feeling heartbroken for her, stunned, and inspired by her strength all at once. But there was one detail that made me gasp out loud: "In the vast majority of states -- 31 -- men who father through rape are able to assert the same custody and visitation rights to their children that other fathers enjoy."
Rapists have custody and visitation rights to the children they forcibly fathered?!? Who thought THAT was a good idea? Oh wait, let me guess -- yes, probably some unraped men who are empathy-deficient, poor souls. Happens to the best of them, right Congressman Akin?
The man who raped Prewitt actually did try to get custody of her daughter. Are you kidding me?!? "But thankfully I got lucky and his visitation rights were terminated," she said in an interview. It's not so much that there are laws specifically granting rapists those rights -- it's that they get those rights by default just by fathering a child any which way. States have actually had to pass laws that remove those rights from rapists.
Prewitt goes on to say that this might motivate a woman to bargain away her legal rights to a criminal trial in exchange for an agreement from the rapist that he won't request access to her child. In other words, allowing rights to the rapist gives him leverage for getting away with rape. Splendid. Well done, assholes who defend rapists.
So. Which 31 states are we talking about? These are the states where we have some work to do. Daily Kos was able to get a little info on this. If I'm reading this correctly and their info is good, the following states have laws or provisions that at least limit a rapists' visitation and custody rights: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Missouri (Akin's state: "biological father's guilty plea or conviction of forcible rape of the birth mother is conclusive evidence to termination of his rights"), Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.
The rest of you states: You're on notice. Let's fix this: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming.
Needless to say, I think the idea of a rapist making custody or visitation claims is heinous. You should lose certain rights when you rape a woman. Being a regular presence in your victim's life -- as you'd have to be if you shared custody or made visits -- is an unreasonable burden on her. Women who choose to keep a pregnancy resulting from rape and who raise their children usually take that responsibility seriously. They need support, not another threat in their lives.
Do you think a rapist should have custody or visitation rights of the children they father from rape?
Image via johntintinjordan/Flickr
obviously, my first answer is HELL NO they should not have rights.
then, if you think about how there are SOME women (repeat, some.) that claim rape because they got drunk and slept with someone, etc. i can understand why there has to be a specific law regarding this issue. for a legitimate rapist, they should absolutely NOT have any types of rights to the child, in my opinion. but in situations where you're in the gray area - i think that would have to be a case by case basis.
''but thankfully I got lucky and his visitation rights were terminated''
Surely that speaks volumes? That she feels lucky those rights were terminated? No rapist should have access to the child they forcibly fathered. Why should the child's mother be forced to have contact with a man who raped her? Why should a child spend time with a monsterous human being, one who sexually assaulted someone, caused them considerable physical and psychological pain and distress?
But maybe it'll be okay. After all, if it were a ''legitimate rape'' the victim's body would have ''shut that whole thing down''.
Joshua of course rape is rape. A girl getting drunk at a party and having consensual sex and then later for whatever reason claims rape, however, is not rape. Or a girl who has sex with a guy and then he doesn't want to be in a relationship so she claims rape, is also not rape. Class dismissed.
@ Zach that is not true. So if the man and the woman are drunk and have sex did they rape each other?
And @ "guest" way to tske it to the extreme. People always call people bad parents for very little reason. Calm down lady.


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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB)---Work is underway in Corydon, Indiana on a new handicap accessible retreat center for veterans and first responders.
Rodney Bruce, with the organization Hero Reward, says they've been working on the building for the last 2 weeks.
The organization owns 240 acres where service members can fish, hunt, and get back on their feet.
"We can handle multiple families and they still have their personal space. It's going very well," says Rodney Bruce, the founder of Hero Reward.
Ford and UAW Local 862 donated $60,000 dollars, along with $40,000 in labor to make the new handicap accessible retreat center possible.
"They've really made this dream a reality," says Rodney Bruce.
Nick Reid is one of the men helping with the project.
"These guys coming back from foreign wars, I can't imagine the stress they go through and the kind of peace they would need to get over that," says Nick Reid, a UAW member and Ford employee.
The retreat center will give veterans and first responders a chance to relax, and become re-acquainted with their families. This will be Hero Reward's second retreat center. The first served more than two dozen families last year.
It's not only the physically wounded who need help. It's places like this, that aim to give them the help they need.
"There's a lot of veterans out there that have issues stemming from PTSD and things like that. Their injuries aren't apparent by looking at them. They've experience some pretty traumatizing events.," says Rodney Bruce.
"There's people who react to tragedies and the soldiers that keep us free so we can do what we want in this country, and I don't think they get the help they end," says Nick Reid.
And as for when this new retreat center will be complete, they hope to have the project finished in the next 2 to 3 weeks.
To learn more about Hero Reward, Click here.
Copyright 2013 WDRB News. All Rights Reserved.
624 W. Muhammad Ali BlvdLouisville, KY 40203


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Everything but the shot! She could've won it if only her answer was connected to the question. Deym, that was close. Anyways, congrats for bagging the 5th place Venus Raj ! That's still an accomplishment!
Ms. Universe 2010 Result
Winner – Jimena Navarrete of Mexico
The Major Major part blew it, sayang! Bawi na lang next time!


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Daily Archives: June 15, 2007
Crossing Bridges IV: Tawau & Semporna – Day 2
4th of June 2007. The wake up call was at 5 30am. Why so early? Sunrise is at 6am and the first agenda of the day is to capture some sunrise shot.
We walked about 800 meters from the hotel to the seafront, and we passed along this scene,
Where's the sun?
I purposely hide it behind some objects, such as the mosque and the trees, for aesthetic and safety reason. I composing for strong lines and silhoutte while avoiding direct sunlight that could damage the nerve in the eye. All those lights magnified thru the lens and converging on the eye won't do you any good.
When I finally ge tto the seafront, the sun is already appeared above the horizon and the warm sidelighting began to illuminate the land…
…kinda snappish kind of photography, but when there's another 30 odd photographers around you clicking away, you kinda get in the 'mood' oso *grins*
Soon, I realised the errors of my way, and began to actually 'look' into the scene and deciding that if I shoot everything I may not to be able to show anything, soo…
..I decided to concentrate on the many boats that plying the area. Btw, local folks calling this particular seafront area 'Batu'. That's mean 'rock' in the Malay language.
Soon, more boats appeared and after haggling over the price of renting one we hop on to one and began to explore the surrounding area…
..a close up of a fishing boat
..and then, I saw this image,
I decided this is the shot that I've been looking for. A fleet of silhoutted fishing boats in a back lit scene.
I believe the French word for it is 'contre-jour' tho I have no idea how to pronounce it.
I am preparing some materials for this weekend workshop (of which all available slots are fully subscribes weeks ago) so I got to go back to work.
Till next time. Wassalam.


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An article that ran Friday in papers owned by McClatchy Newspapers says that Lubbock, Amarillo and San Angelo economies are not doing well. We were put into the category of metros that are either in recession or are at risk of recession.
Oddly though, the article says that oil, healthcare and higher education are doing well. Five of the top 10 oil producing counties in Texas are within a two-hour drive of Lubbock. As you may already know healthcare and higher education are staples of the Lubbock economy.
So are we really in bad shape? Lubbock Chamber President Eddie McBride says, "We're pertty sure our local economy is doing well." He also says, "That article is either unclear or it's wrong. Either way it's misleading."
It is fair to point out that Lubbock has a slowdown in new home construction. But the latest report from LEDA and Lubbock National Bank shows that commercial construction is up, hotel occupancy is up, and auto sales are up. Numbers from the Texas Wokforce Commission show that Lubbock's unemployment rate is fourth best in Texas right now.
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Important News for Tuesday, March 4, 2014
IBERIABANK Location Open/Close Information:
The winter storm system and current conditions have led to the following decisions regarding branch opening/closing times today, March 4, 2014:
Northwest Arkansas branch locations will open for 9:30 am CT.
Northwest Arkansas Mortgage offices will open for 10:00 am CT
Northeast Arkansas branch locations will open for 10:00 am CT.
Memphis market will be open for normal business hours.
We will continue to monitor weather conditions and make adjustments in the communities affected by the storm.
Like IBERIABANK on Facebook for up-to-the minute information. If you cannot visit with us today in person, be sure to use IBERIABANK Online and Mobile Banking. Clients enrolled in IBERIABANK Online Banking can make deposits from their smartphone!
Have a great day! Stay safe and warm.