Progressive breakfast club headlines 12/27/08 23456

 

Progressive breakfast club headlines 12/27/08   "GAZA IS BUCKLING.  WHILE THE WORLD WATCHES, A PEOPLE IS BEING DESTROYED."  So says Ellen Cantarow, but her article on the subject suggests that the world is NOT watching, at least if the "destroying" power, Israel, can help it.  Israel has recently denied access to Gaza of Richard Falk, a UN special envoy charged with reporting of humanitarian conditions in occupied territories.  The New York Times "reports" to its reading world that the Israeli action was based on the fact that "some Israelis" find Falk's views to be offensively anti-Semitic. http://www.counterpunch.org/cantarow12262008.html   WHAT DOES THE U.S.-TOUTED "REGIONAL APPROACH" TO THE AFGHAN WAR PRESAGE FOR ASIAN NATIONS? According to M.K. Bhadrakumar, this call by Admiral Mullen suggests an intensification of the Afghan war as "politics by other means," a way of advancing U.S. geo-political power in the region. India in particular is vulnerable to being drawn into this "regionalized" conflict as it alone, among the great powers and their satellites in central and south Asia, has hitched its diplomatic wagon to its foreign policy ties to the U.S.  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21532.htm    RHODE ISLAND TOWN MAKES A FAUSTIAN BARGAIN WITH U.S. GOVERNMENT.  Town of Central Falls, pop. 1900, landed in the 1990s the construction of the Wyatt Detention Center, designed as a facility in the war on drugs but, with the recent "crackdown" on illegal immigrants, has become a black hole of detention into which many of these immigrants are poured, including many residents of Central Falls itself.  This New York Times feature article highlights a "burgeoning industry " across the country in which localities receive federal subsidies for every detainee housed in one of these facilities.   http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/us/27detain.html?_r=1&hp   WILL CENTER FOR WATER ADVOCACY BAIL OUT TIM DeCHRISTOPHER?   The Center tries to raise $1.7 million to purchase as preservation land what an environmental activist bid at a Bureau of Land Management auction of lands for oil and gas development near Utah's national park monuments. With an intention of disrupting the auction rather than purchasing the land, he may be charged with a "false statement" that he had the funds to pay if he won the bid.    http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/26-1   "IF THEY DON'T WANT TO BE PUBLIC, DON'T ASK FOR PUBLIC MONEY" says an Orange County commissioner in response to resistance to public auditing of the Orlando/Orange County Convention and Visitor's Bureau.  The agency has come under fire recently from revelations of lavish expenditures for "tourism" trips of executives.  Heavily dependent on the county's "hotel tax" which was recently raised, more public figures are beginning to demand public accountability. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/custom/tourism/orl-cvb27x08dec27,0,1681273.story   These headlines and following additional stories posted on website today. To read them, click http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ scroll below headlines and click on any article you want to read.   ooo Air war is on in Gaza. ooo Mexican gays to Catholic Church: we're families too. ooo Rehab? Throw that kid in jail! ooo Bush's "ownership" society turns sour in Atlanta neighborhood. ooo Sorry guys:  last pole dance has been danced in Brandon. ooo And more.   Quote of the day:   "If I am not willing to take a stand for my generation, then who will? This year I have come to terms with the idea that I might be my own best hope to defend my future. Hopefully all of us will realize that we are the ones we have been waiting for."  Tim DeChristopher, against whom federal charges are pending for disrupting Utah land auction by making a bid for land in vicinity of national parks which he had no