by Bob Herbert
I once had a young black girl, whose brother had been murdered, tell me she was too old to dream. She was 12.

I remember a teenager in South-Central Los Angeles a few years ago saying, in a discussion about his peers, “Some of us don’t last too long.”

Don’t bother cueing the violins. This is an old story. There’s no shock value and hardly any news value in yet another black or brown kid going down for the count. Burying the young has long since become routine in poor black and Latino neighborhoods. Nobody gets real excited about it. I find that peculiar, but there’s a lot about the world that I find peculiar.
Full Article:commondreams.org

Four US soldiers serving on anti-narcotics missions in Colombia are being held on charges of drug trafficking after the discovery of 35lb (15kg) of cocaine on a military aircraft.

The four, who have not been identified, were arrested at the end of March when their plane landed in Texas after taking off from southern Colombia. A fifth man was released.

Colombian authorities are investigating to see if other members of the US or Colombian military were involved.

William Wood, the US ambassador in Bogotá, said the four would not be extradited even if it was proved they had committed crimes on Colombian soil. He said a three-decade old agreement gave immunity to US soldiers serving in Colombia, but stressed: “We do not tolerate corruption.”
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

WASHINGTON, April 8 – Stephen L. Johnson, the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said on Friday that he was canceling a study of the effects of pesticides on infants and babies, a day after two Democratic senators said they would block his confirmation if the research continued.

Rich Hood, a spokesman for the agency, acknowledged that Mr. Johnson had canceled the test because of the objections to his confirmation. “They are pretty juxtaposed in time, aren’t they?” Mr. Hood said. “There is clearly a connection.”

But Mr. Hood said the opposition was not the only reason for the cancellation.

“Mr. Johnson said in a meeting this morning that, his confirmation aside, he had come to pose serious questions as to whether or not this study was the appropriate thing to do,” he said.

A recruiting flier for the program, called the Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study, or Cheers, offered $970, a free camcorder, a bib and a T-shirt to parents whose infants or babies were exposed to pesticides if the parents completed the two-year study. The requirements for participation were living in Duval County, Fla., having a baby under 3 months old or 9 to 12 months old, and “spraying pesticides inside your home routinely.”

The study was being paid for in part by the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that includes pesticide makers.

In an interview on Friday, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, one of two Democrats who said they would block the confirmation, said the study amounted to “using infants in my state as guinea pigs.”

Mr. Nelson said the study sought to recruit subjects in a poor neighborhood by offering parents compensation for practices potentially dangerous to their children.
Full Article: nytimes.com

HONG KONG, April 8 – After years of running large trade surpluses mainly with the United States, China is now exporting around the world at such a rapid rate that other countries find themselves racking up large bills to China as well. The resulting boom for China is certain to step up trade frictions elsewhere and increase pressure on Beijing to let its currency appreciate.

If the trend of the first two months continues, China would run a trade surplus with not only the United States but it would also turn its deficit with the rest of the world into a surplus. This could lead some of China’s trading partners in Europe to join the United States in stronger demands for trade restrictions on China.
Full Article: nytimes.com

O I see. ‘Free trade’ is only desireable when the U.S. in the beneficiary.

ROME, April 8 – In the Circus Maximus, the dusty stadium nearly two miles from the Vatican where chariot races were held in pagan times, more than 10,000 people on Friday watched the funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II on two giant screens, live from St. Peter’s Basilica.
Full Article: nytimes.com

Circus Maximus. How apt.

by Vicente Navarro
The predominant perception of John Paul II, as extensively reproduced in most of the Western media, is that he was very conservative (“traditional” is the term widely used) in religious subjects but progressive in social matters, as evidenced by his defense of the poor and his concern for human and social rights. His key ideological role in the demise of the Soviet Union is put forward as further proof of his commitment to liberty and democracy. John Paul’s support for the Polish trade union Solidarnosc, his numerous speeches in support of the poor and of those left behind by capitalism or globalization, and his frequent calls for human solidarity ­ not to mention his opposition to the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces ­ all are presented as examples of his progressiveness in the social arena.

In this perception of Pope John Paul II, some critical elements are forgotten. Let’s detail them. He was groomed for the Papacy, long before he was elected Pope, by the ultra-right-wing sect Opus Dei. This secret organization was founded by Monsignor Escrivá, a Spanish priest who was formerly a private confessor to General Franco, organizing spiritual meetings for the Spanish fascist leadership. Opus Dei chose John Paul as the candidate for Pope very early in his career, when he was bishop of Krakow. His conservatism and anti-communism were very attractive to this sect.

John Paul traveled extensively at that time on trips organized and funded by Opus Dei, developing a very close working relationship with the sect. Opus Dei was the organization that developed the strategy to make him the Pope, assisted by the bishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger; the U.S. cardinals close to Opus Dei, Joseph Krol and Patrick Cody; and a cardinal then close to Opus Dei, Cardinal Franz König from Vienna (who later distanced himself from Opus Dei and from the Pope). The center of operations for this campaign was Villa Tevere, the Opus Dei headquarters in Rome.

Immediately after his election as Pope, John Paul designated Opus Dei as a special order directly accountable to him, not to the bishops. He surrounded himself with members of the order, the most visible being Navarro-Valls, an Opus Dei journalist who had worked for Abc, an ultra-conservative Spanish paper that had been supportive of the Franco regime. Navarro-Valls is well-known for selecting journalists to cover the Pope’s international visits who would report on them favorably. He constantly vetoed critical voices, such as that of Domenico del Rio of the Italian paper La Repubblica.

The Pope later named another Opus Dei member, Angelo Sodano, as Secretary of State of the Vatican. Sodano had been the Vatican’s ambassador in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, becoming a close friend and advisor to the dictator. He was responsible for the Pope’s visit to the Pinochet dictatorship in 1987. During this visit, the Pope never called publicly for liberty or democracy in Chile. By contrast, when John Paul visited Cuba he was publicly critical of the Cuban regime. But he remained silent when he visited Pinochet. Later, when Pinochet was detained in London (awaiting extradition to Spain at the request of the Spanish Judge Baltazar Garzon), the Vatican, under Sodano’s influence, asked the British Government to let Pinochet return to Chile. This same Sodano had referred to liberation theologian Leonardo Boff ­ one of the most popular priests in Latin America ­ as “a traitor to the Church, the Judas of Christ.” Under Pope John Paul II, the founder of Opus Dei was made a saint just twenty seven years after his death (one of the fastest such processes ever). Meanwhile, Pope John XXIII and Bishop Romero, assassinated in El Salvadore because of his support for the poor of that country, have been waiting in line for sainthood for a much longer time.
Full Article: counterpunch.org

Republican members of congress were forced to defend the house majority leader and Christian right stalwart Tom DeLay yesterday after damaging new allegations of financial misconduct.

The Texas Republican has already had three reprimands from the house ethics committee, and the latest allegation deepen speculation that his job as majority leader may be in jeopardy. Mr DeLay’s associates are under investigation in his home state.

Yesterday the New York Times reported that Mr DeLay’s wife and daughter had been paid more than $500,000 by his re-election campaign since 2001 for their work as organisers and fundraisers.

Meanwhile the Washington Post carried details of a 1997 trip to Moscow by Mr DeLay paid for by a Bahamian firm engaged in lobbying for Russian business interests.

Mr DeLay is barred by congressional ethics rules from accepting paid travel from lobbyists or foreigners.

It is the third of his trips to fall under scrutiny. Last month it was reported that he had a $70,000 visit to London and Scotland paid for by a native American tribe and gambling interests, and a $106,921 trip to South Korea in 2001 financed by Korean business.

“Each time he says he doesn’t know who was behind it, and that is just not credible at this point,” said Larry Noble, director of the Centre for Responsive Politics.

“There is a continuous political fallout from his ethics issues, and while he has been good at getting Republican troops to rally around him there comes a point at which they begin to see him as a liability, and begin to move away.”
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

MEXICO CITY, April 7 – With the fate of the Mexican presidency at stake, hundreds of thousands of people thronged this city’s central plaza today to support the leftist Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who faced a vote in Congress that could force him off the ballots in next year’s national elections.

The lower chamber of deputies today was scheduled to approve a measure that would strip Mayor López of his official immunity so that he could stand trial in a minor land dispute. And since the Mexican Constitution holds suspects guilty until proven innocent, Mr. López would be banned from politics until the end of the trial.

In addressing the immense crowd today, the 51-year-old Mr. López called the proceedings against him a “farce” staged from the offices of Vicente Fox, Mexico’s first opposition president. He charged that the attempt to knock him out of the race for president would undermine country’s fragile democracy, moving Mexico back into a past when the political elite ruled like monarchs.

“The move to prosecute me,” he said, “returns Mexico to authoritarian times when Los Pinos decided who would or would not become president.” Los Pinos is Mexico’s presidential mansion.

Mr. López added that President Fox’s National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ran this country for seven consecutive decades, had forged an unlikely alliance to cripple his left-wing movement and maintain the status quo.

“Whichever of them wins, things remain the same,” he said. “They maintain a corrupt and privileged regime, and will continue devouring the country.”
Full Article: nytimes.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 6 – A Kurdish militia leader who fought Saddam Hussein for decades was named president on Wednesday by Iraq’s national assembly as Mr. Hussein watched the proceedings on a television inside his prison.

The militia leader, Jalal Talabani, will be the first Kurd to serve as president of an Arab-dominated country. But immediately after his appointment, tensions among Iraq’s political groups erupted, as some Shiite and Kurdish members of the assembly demanded that the interim government resign as soon as Mr. Talabani, 72, is sworn in on Thursday.

That government, led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, has infuriated many officials from the main Shiite and Kurdish parties, which will dominate the new administration. They accuse Dr. Allawi, a secular Shiite, of having brought back into the government former senior members of the Baath Party who played key roles in oppressing ordinary Iraqis, especially Shiites and Kurds.
Full Article:nytimes.com

A conservative activist who criticizes what he calls the leftist domination of college campuses was struck with a pie Wednesday night at Butler University.

David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, had just started a lecture at Butler when he was hit.

Horowitz’s supporters followed the assailants out of the hall, and confronted them with what a witness called “pushing and shoving.” However, the attackers got away.

“There’s a wave of violence on college campuses, committed by what I’d call fascists opposing conservatives,” Horowitz said. “It’s one step from that to injury.”
After the incident, Horowitz completed his lecture.

It was the second time in a week that a conservative lecturer was hit by a pie at an Indiana university. On March 30, William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, was attacked during a speech at Earlham College in Richmond.

Butler spokesman Marc Allan called Wednesday’s incident “deplorable.”
Full Article: indystar.com

I hear the lemon meringue is deadly.