Blog Posts By Duane Shank

Global poverty. “The United Nations says it needs $5bn to help the world's poor this year, warning that the need for aid has never been greater.” Pakistan. “Two major military offensives in recent years failed to rub them out. And now, as Pakistani generals brace again for war in South Waziristan, the Taliban militants there are tougher and greater in number than their brethren on the run from the military in the country's volatile Swat Valley.” F-22 stopped. “The Senate voted Tuesday to kill the nation's premier fighter-jet program, embracing by a 58 to 40 margin the argument of President Obama and his top military advisers that more F-22s are not needed for the nation's defense and would be a costly drag on the Pentagon's budget in an era of small wars.” Quote of the day. "There are one million black men in jail in this country, and last Thursday I was one of them. This is outrageous. … This is how poor black men across the country are treated every day in the criminal justice system. It's one thing to write about it, but altogether another to experience it." Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates on his arrest by Cambridge, MA, police. (USA Today, from Washington Post)

North Korea. “Images and accounts of the North Korean gulag become sharper, more harrowing and more accessible with each passing year. A distillation of testimony from survivors and former guards, newly published by the Korean Bar Association, details the daily lives of 200,000 political prisoners estimated to be in the camps.” Hispanic worker deaths. “The number of Hispanic workers who die on the job has risen, even as the overall number of workplace deaths has declined, according to federal statistics.” U.S. war deaths. “U.S. troops have now departed almost completely from the streets of Iraq's cities, and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki plans to visit the graves of American soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery during a trip to Washington this week and to offer a personal 'thank you' to the men and women who gave their lives for the sake of a new Iraq.” Quote of the day. "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Astronaut Neil Armstrong, as he took his first step onto the surface of the moon, 40 years ago today. (Today’s news on the commemoration, Washington Post)

Immigration. “The Obama administration has opened the way for foreign women who are victims of severe domestic beatings and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the United States.” CIA assassins. “CIA officials were proposing to activate a plan to train anti-terrorist assassination teams overseas when agency managers brought the secret program to the attention of CIA Director Leon Panetta last month.” Colombia. “The United States and Colombia are poised to sign an agreement to transfer anti-drug flight operations from Ecuador to at least three Colombian air bases, a move that has drawn criticism here that it will leave the country even more dependent on Washington.” Quote of the day. "You needed people in office who really did vibrate sympathetically with what the people needed. Paul Wellstone helped me see somebody in action trying to make the world better for working people, people of color, everybody who's in the so-called out crowd." Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), explaining his transition from community activist to elected official. (Washington Post)

CIA paramilitary teams. “The CIA ran a secret program for nearly eight years that aspired to kill top al-Qaeda leaders with specially trained assassins, but the agency declined to tell Congress because the initiative never came close to bringing Osama bin Laden and his deputies into U.S. cross hairs.” Iraq. “They've only got a five year-old softball bat, a threadbare cap, three scuffed balls and nine second-hand gloves from a flea market. They train on a college soccer field. And there's not a uniform among them. However, they love America's pastime as much as Crash Davis of 'Bull Durham' ever did. Meet Iraq's national baseball team.” Episcopal Church. “The bishops of the Episcopal Church voted at the church’s convention on Monday to open 'any ordained ministry' to gay men and lesbians, a move that could effectively undermine a moratorium on ordaining gay bishops that the church passed at its last convention three years ago.” Quote of the day. "Small-scale farming is management-intensive. It's an incredibly intellectual exercise, but you're also getting your hands in the dirt — that's why it's so attractive. There's a hunger for that." Tom Philpott, food editor at Grist.org, which covers food and agriculture, on a new generation of young organic farmers. (USA Today)

Recession. “While the numbers of individual homeless people remained relatively flat, the number of people in families that were homeless rose by 9 percent from Oct. 1, 2007, to Sept. 30, 2008, the report found.” Obama & Pope. “Both the pope and the president recognize that despite their differences, they have an opportunity to join forces on international issues that are mutual priorities: Israel and the Palestinians, climate change, nuclear nonproliferation, increased aid to poor nations and immigration reform.” Iraq. “With little notice and almost no public debate, Iraq’s Kurdish leaders are pushing ahead with a new constitution for their semiautonomous region, a step that has alarmed Iraqi and American officials who fear that the move poses a new threat to the country’s unity.” Quote of the Day. "We're going to see pretty significant increases. We are even hearing from many people that, a year or two ago, used to be financial donors to the pantry." DeWayne Wells, president of Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeast Michigan, the largest food bank in the state, on the growing number of middle class families seeking food assistance. (Wall St. Journal)

Economic stimulus. “While other stimulus money has been slow to circulate, the food-stamp boost is almost immediate, with 80% of the benefits being redeemed within two weeks of receipt and 97% within a month, the USDA says.” Health care. “African Americans are less likely than whites to survive breast, prostate and ovarian cancer even when they receive equal treatment, according to a large study that offers provocative evidence that biological factors play a role in at least some racial disparities." Sudan. “Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have appealed against a decision by the body's tribunal not to charge Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, with conducting genocide.” Quote of the day. "While the poor of the world continue knocking on the doors of the rich, the world of affluence runs the risk of no longer hearing those knocks, on account of a conscience that can no longer distinguish what is human." Pope Benedict XVI in Caritas Veritate, his new encyclical on the world economic system. (Guardian)

Burma. “Rather than tying negotiations, not to mention sanctions, to the treatment of just one figure, say policy analysts, humanitarian workers and exiles, the world should engage the junta on a broad range of economic, humanitarian and ethnic issues that will return electoral politics to its rightful place as one concern among many.” Gaza activists. “Israel says it will expel eight pro-Palestinian activists detained at sea last week as they tried to ferry aid to Gaza in defiance of Israel's blockade.” Passing. “Robert S. McNamara, perhaps the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century, who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of Vietnam and spent the rest of his life wrestling with the war’s moral consequences, died early Monday at his home in Washington.” Quote of the day. “I’ve always been about seeking social justice and combating discrimination and racism. I always wanted to stand up and fight for the underdog.” Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor. (New York Times)

Honduras. “The Organization of American States (OAS) has given the current leaders of Honduras three days to restore exiled President Manuel Zelaya to power.” Iraq. “Up to 40 people have been killed in a bomb blast in the northern city of Kirkuk, just hours after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq's towns and cities.” Climate bill. “As the most ambitious energy and climate-change legislation ever introduced in Congress made its way to a floor vote last Friday, it grew fat with compromises, carve-outs, concessions and out-and-out gifts intended to win the votes of wavering lawmakers and the support of powerful industries.” Quote of the day. "It was a real David and Goliath fight. This news is extremely gratifying to all the people and organizations who have worked so hard on this issue for the past eight years. We're thrilled to death." California State Senator Fran Pavley, author of a state law setting carbon dioxide limits on new vehicles that was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Honduras coup. “Soldiers stormed the presidential palace in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa at dawn Sunday and forced President Manuel Zelaya into exile in Costa Rica.” School nutrition. “It didn't seem like a radical idea at the time. First, Ginger Gray, the food service director for Kenton County, Ky., schools, took away fried potato chips, offering students baked versions instead. Next, she phased out fruit drinks such as Kool-Aid in favor of 100 percent juices.” Iran. “More than 2,000 Iranians have been arrested and hundreds more have disappeared since the regime decided to crush dissent after the disputed presidential election, a leading human rights organization said yesterday.” Quote of the day. “There are so many competing interests at work now, 24-7 — whether it’s the people who want the governor to stay, or people who want him to go. It’s as rough as I’ve ever seen it — it’s mean, the long knives come out at night.” Katon Dawson, former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, on the political jockeying over the future of Gov. Mark Sanford. (New York Times)

Children of soldiers. “After seven years of war, most children of combat troops are showing more fear, anxiety and behavioral problems, according to the Pentagon's most sweeping survey of the effects of war on military children.” South Carolina governor. “Mark Sanford's extramarital excursion to Latin America is just the latest -- albeit the most lurid -- in a series of setbacks that have plagued Republicans as they struggle to recast the party and promote a new generation of national leaders.” Tanzania. “Africa is full of at least 50 million orphans, the legacy of AIDS and other diseases, war and high rates of death in pregnancy and childbirth. With the numbers increasing every day, Africans are struggling to care for them, often in ways that differ strikingly from the traditional concept of an orphanage in the developed world.” Quote of the day. "We are flexible. But we don't trust the government. It has shown it's ready to settle disputes by force and not through dialogue. And we have shown we will stand up for our rights." Peruvian tribal leader Luis Pizango in opposition to plans to open the Amazon to development. (Los Angeles Times)

Martyr of Iran. “Her name was Neda Salehi Agha Soltan and she was a philosophy student. But the manner of her death has turned her into an instant, global symbol of the Iranian regime’s brutality.” Energy bill. “Climate-change legislation would cost the average household $175 a year by 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office, far below the figure commonly used by GOP critics of the House bill.” Voting Rights Act. “A key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act survived a constitutional challenge yesterday in the Supreme Court, but justices made it clear that a law forged in the darkest days of the nation's civil rights struggles may no longer be appropriate in a new era of American racial politics.” Quote of the day. "[There was an] enormous crashing jolt. You could hear all this crashing and glass breaking, I didn't hear any brakes at all. When the dust settled, the entire front of the train was gone." Tom Baker, 47, a District resident, on the crash of two Metro trains in Washington, D.C. At least 9 people are dead and more than 70 injured. (Washington Post)

Financial regulation. “President Barack Obama's proposed overhaul of financial regulations aims to eliminate a number of the loopholes that contributed to the recession. Here's a summary of what went wrong and how his proposals would try to fix it.” Guns to Mexico. “The United States lacks a coordinated strategy to stem the flow of weapons smuggled across its southern border, a failure that has fueled the rise of powerful criminal cartels and violence in Mexico, a government watchdog agency report has found.” Iran. “Iran's government sought today to decapitate the opposition movement by rounding up ­hundreds of activists, journalists and intellectuals. A total of 500 were reported to have been detained across the country, including well-known political figures from the 1979 Islamic revolution.” Quote of the day. "It's cool now to be an active, involved father. Overall, men being more active fathers is starting to become more of the norm and less of the anomaly." Aaron Rochlen, associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas-Austin, on new attitudes in 21st century fatherhood. (USA Today)

Iran elections. “Social media sites are challenging levers of state media control and allowing Iranians to find novel ways around restrictions.” North Korea. “Two American journalists sentenced by North Korea last week to 12 years of hard labor were caught shooting video for what the North said was a politically motivated 'smear campaign,' state-run media said Tuesday.” Sotomayor. “Judge Sonia Sotomayor defended her membership in an all-female networking club, telling senators that the group did not discriminate in an inappropriate way.”

Iran. “The political chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard has warned reformists in the country against seeking what he called a 'velvet revolution,' vowing that it would be 'nipped in the bud.'” Health care. “For a Canadian facing emergency surgery in the United States, a ride on a privately chartered Lear jet back to Canada is a whole lot cheaper than having the operation in a U.S. hospital.” Violence at Holocaust Museum. “An elderly Maryland man with a long history of ties to neo-Nazi organizations walked into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday and opened fire, killing a security guard and sending visitors scrambling for cover.” Quote of the day. "I am more concerned with the threat from the Christian-identity groups than the homegrown Islamic terrorists. It's a disaster waiting to happen. The fact that this guy did what he did may be symptomatic of things to come." Maria Haberfeld, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, on yesterday’s shooting at the Holocaust Museum. (Washington Times)

Economy. “President Obama today promised to deliver more than 600,000 new jobs this summer with accelerated spending of some of the $787-billion economic stimulus that Congress approved at his urging earlier this year.” Iran. “Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets of Tehran in a mass show of support for their candidates in the upcoming presidential election.” Afghanistan. “Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has given the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan 60 days to conduct another review of the American strategy there, the fifth since President Barack Obama took office less than five months ago.” Quote of the day. “Globe workers and the New England community understand that the quality of The Boston Globe, an institution so vital to the life and culture of the region, depends on the fair treatment of the men and women who work so hard to produce it." Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Globe Newspaper Guild, commenting on the union voting down proposed pay and benefit cuts. (Boston Globe)

Unemployment rises. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nationwide unemployment rate now stands at 9.4%, the worst it has been in more than 25 years. If workers abandoned their job searches or settled for part-time employment were factored in, the rate would have been 16.4%.” Abortion. “Tiller's death has focused attention on abortions late in pregnancy. While it is clear that they account for a tiny fraction of the 1.2 million U.S. abortions each year, much about the procedures is unclear, including exactly how many are done, by whom and under what circumstances.” Burma - Aung San Suu Kyi. “The spray-painted demands appear overnight -- 'Free Aung San Suu Kyi' read the scrawls on walls across this city -- only to be whitewashed by security forces as soon as they are discovered.” Quote of the day. "For the first time a woman member has been elected Speaker - and that too a woman from the Dalit community. In electing you ... we members of parliament pay tribute to the women of our country and the great contribution that they have made." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the election of Meira Kumar, 64, a former lawyer and diplomat, as Speaker of India’s Parliament. (BBC)

Obama in Middle East. “Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda leader, has accused Barack Obama … of following the policy of his predecessor George Bush in 'antagonizing Muslims.'" Afghanistan. "A military investigation has concluded that American personnel made significant errors in carrying out some of the airstrikes in western Afghanistan on May 4 that killed dozens of Afghan civilians, a military investigation has concluded.” China. “In a crackdown apparently timed to the 20th anniversary Thursday of the crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations, the Chinese government has pulled the plug on the social networking site Twitter and dozens of other Internet sites and blogs.” Quote of the day. "It's good to have some money in my pocket. I can buy my own meals every so often or get on the bus rather than doing so much walking. [But] It's not going to pay enough money for me to get out of homelessness." Eric Sheptock, currently homeless, but working in a janitorial job. (Washington Times)

Doctor killed in church. “George R. Tiller, the nation's most prominent provider of controversial late-term abortions, was shot and killed yesterday in the lobby of his Lutheran church in Wichita, where he was serving as an usher.” Immigration. “In a high-stakes battle that could affect California's share of federal funding and political representation, immigrant activists are vowing to combat efforts by a national Latino clergy group to persuade 1 million illegal immigrants to boycott the 2010 U.S. census.” U.S.-Cuba. “Cuba has agreed to restart talks with the United States on immigration and has signaled its willingness to cooperate on issues including terrorism, drug trafficking and even mail service, a sign that the island's communist government is warming to President Obama's call for a new relationship after decades of tension.” Quote of the day. "We ask the question all the time: 'What are y'all doing for us in this neck of the woods?' We can't get streetlights down here. We got holes in the street." R.C. Brock, a resident of the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans on the pace of rebuilding poor, mostly African-American neighborhoods. (Los Angeles Times)

FBI & terrorism. “The FBI and Justice Department plan to significantly expand their role in global counter-terrorism operations, part of a U.S. policy shift that will replace a CIA-dominated system of clandestine detentions and interrogations with one built around transparent investigations and prosecutions.” Human rights crisis. “The global economic crisis is exacerbating human rights abuses, Amnesty International has warned. In its annual report, the group said the downturn had distracted attention from abuses and created new problems.” Israel. “Rebuffing Israel on a key Mideast negotiating issue, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the Obama administration wants a complete halt in the growth of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory, with no exceptions.” Quote of the day. “We sent them food, fertilizer, factories, more than we give our own poor people. And all they pay us back with is this nuclear test.” Lee Soon-hwan, a South Korean office worker, on North Korea’s nuclear test. (New York Times)

Supreme Court. “If confirmed, Sotomayor, 54, would be the first Supreme Court justice of Hispanic descent and only the third woman ever to sit on the panel.” Climate change. Caps, Trades and Offsets: Can Climate Plan Work? “It sounds like alchemy, an act of bureaucratic magic. Under the climate-change bill just approved by a House committee, the U.S. government would literally make a commodity -- as tradable as a Pontiac or a pork belly -- out of thin air.” Israel. Israeli legislation raises issue of loyalty “The ultranationalist party led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has unveiled two bills targeting Israel's Arab minority, one that would outlaw the Arabs' traditional day of mourning over the birth of Israel and another that would require an oath of allegiance to the Jewish state.”

Guantanamo. “President Obama will attempt today to answer critics of his dismantling of Bush-era policies on detention and interrogation, in a speech reminding Americans that strong national security and adherence to laws and national values are not mutually exclusive.” Iran. “Iran test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile yesterday which Western analysts believe is capable of hitting targets in Israel, as well as southern Europe and U.S. bases in the Middle East.” Aung San Suu Kyi. “The United Nations Secretary General promised to go to Burma to demand the release of political prisoners as the authorities resumed their closed trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning democracy leader, a day after briefly admitting journalists and foreign diplomats.” Quote of the day. "People are going to have to figure out: Do they want schools, do they want roads, do they want public safety, do they want to take care of the less fortunate?" John Burton, a former state Senate leader who is now chairman of the California Democratic Party, after voters rejected the state budget plan. (Los Angeles Times)

Burma. “As protests grew around the world, the trial of Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, entered its second day Tuesday as the government pursued its charges that could transform her years of house arrest into the harsher conditions of a prison term.” Pentagon ends Bible quote. “The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House, as was the practice during the Bush administration.” Fuel and emissions standards. “President Obama will announce tough new nationwide rules for automobile emissions and mileage standards on Tuesday, embracing standards that California has sought to enact for years over the objections of the auto industry and the Bush administration.”

War funding. “The House passed a bill yesterday that would provide more than $96 billion in funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through Sept. 30, as President Obama had requested, but a bloc of 51 Democrats opposed it.” Israel-Iran. “Israel has acceded to American demands by pledging to coordinate its moves on Iran with Washington and not surprise the United States with military action.” Immigration. “Census data from the Mexican government indicate an extraordinary decline in the number of Mexican immigrants going to the United States.”