Progressive breakfast club headlines 12/15/08 12356

 

Progressive breakfast club headlines 12/15/08   SOFA: A CHANGE IN U.S. OCCUPATION THAT IRAQIS CAN BELIEVE IN?  In the just-concluded Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq, there was a firm commitment by the U.S. to remove all forces from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009.  Now top U.S. General Ray Odierno says it may be necessary to retain those forces past that deadline.  This and similar indications that the U.S. will have a "flexible" interpretation of SOFA's terms lead Iraqis to wonder whether they can trust that the U.S. will honor any of the terms of that agreement.  http://news.antiwar.com/2008/12/14/sadr-bloc-sees-growing-evidence-us-wont-honor-pact/   EATING KHOBBEIZEH IN GAZA.  As standoff between Israel and Hamas continues and the Israel/Gaza border is opened only sporadically, people of Gaza are resorting to eating the wild grasses (khobbeizeh) found on the streets of Gazan cities. The UN humanitarian force is in despair about its mission, saying that it has run out of food and other emergency supplies except for those in the most desperate of straits---and it's never sure when border openings will allow the delivery of even those supplies.  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21455.htm   MORE BAILOUTS? U.S. STATES ARE SEEING THEIR SUPPLY FUNDS FOR UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE DWINDLE INTO INSOLVENCY.  With record levels of unemployment applications, 30 states are facing the necessity of borrowing from the federal government or passing "solvency tax" levies on employers.  Indiana and Michigan are leading the parade, having already reached the dead broke level in these funds.  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/us/15funds.html?th&emc=th   WILL THE NEXT SECRETARY OF EDUCATION BRING ANOTHER "HOUSTON MODEL" TO THE WHITE HOUSE?  Education expert fears that it will, as the heads of the school systems of Chicago and New York are among the most commonly floated names for the post.  Arne Duncan and Joel Klein are called "test-crazy" bureaucrats, proponents of further extensions of standardized testing and perhaps a prescribed national college curriculum.  The one true reformer in the batch of "floated" candidates, Linda Darling-Hammond, is being assaulted by the conservative press as a proponent of the educational "status quo." Will Obama include in his cabinet an official that progressives can believe in? (See the string of comments debating this issue in Common Dreams re-post of Nation article.) http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/14-1    ONE MAN'S FAMILY: FROM WHITE PICKET FENCE IN AZALEA PARK TO BEDS AT ORLANDO UNION RESCUE MISSION. Orlando Sentinel chronicles the crash from middle class comfort to destitution of one family which came from New York to Florida in 2004.  Both Andres Rivera and his wife had jobs with the trucking and construction industry and at Disney World, before the central Florida economic crash eliminated those employment opportunities.  His wife and their four children try to keep up their "hope" and the family struggles now just to survive.  The Sentinel describes this situation as "typical" of millions of middle class-threatened families in the area. (Attention must be paid.)  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-riveras1508dec15,0,4562436.story?page=1   Quote of the day:   "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."  Tina Andres, as she scrubs the floor of an Orlando homeless shelter in which she, her husband and four children are living after their "fall" from middle class status with the collapse of the central Florida labor economy.   http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-riveras1508dec15,0,4562436.story?page=1