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  • CANNED MUSIC AT THE THEATER ISN’T A SWEET SOUND
    7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    BY CARLTON WILKINSON
    The two-week musicians’ strike at Radio City Music Hall in November ended in a deal hammered out with the help of a mediator named by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. A job action staged by musicians union Local 802 halted a dress rehearsal, and the resulting dispute left the Rockettes dancing to prerecorded music for shows in the first two weeks of November.
    On Nov. 18, the live musicians returned to the "Christmas Spectacular," playing to packed audiences as (…)

  • War Crimes, USA. Could administration officials be called to account?
    7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    3 comments

    by Mark Engler
    In normal times, suggesting that the leaders of our country might have committed war crimes would violate a firm taboo in American political discussion. Yet in the post-Abu-Ghraib era-and especially as President Bush has quarreled with Congress over the McCain amendment prohibiting abuse of all detainees in U.S. custody-observers can no longer profess shock at the idea that criminal breaches of humanitarian law have occurred. According to a recent editorial in the Washington (…)

  • Overcoming Apartheid
    7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    by JONATHAN KOZOL
    Apartheid education, rarely mentioned in the press or openly confronted even among once-progressive educators, is alive and well and rapidly increasing now in the United States. Hypersegregated inner-city schools—in which one finds no more than five or ten white children, at the very most, within a student population of as many as 3,000—are the norm, not the exception, in most northern urban areas today.
    "At the beginning of the twenty-first century," according to Gary (…)

  • Students Not Expelled! ...But Fight Not Over
    7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    By John Robinson
    Hampton University students faced disciplinary hearings on Dec 2, 2005 at 9:00 am in the Student Center cyber lounge. As I arrived I immediately noticed bands of protesters already picketing right outside the University. By the time the six other students and I met with the parents and lawyers in front of the room that the hearing was to be held, there were already over 20 student supporters standing right outside the door. As we made last minute preparations to our (…)

  • If it’s not torture, then it’s OK to use it on Cheney
    7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
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    by Kirk Caraway Nevada Appeal Internet Editor, kcaraway@nevadaappeal.com
    "We do not torture."
    That’s what President George W. Bush said, and we can believe him, right? After all, that whole water boarding thing is just a walk in the park. Here is how CIA sources described this technique to ABC News:
    "The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner’s face and water is poured over him.
    Unavoidably, the (…)

  • Rice signs US-Romania bases deal
    7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signed a deal allowing the US to use military bases in Romania.
    It is the first such deal to be signed with a former communist country in eastern Europe.
    Ms Rice arrived in Romania from Germany, on the second leg of a European tour overshadowed by a controversy about CIA operations.
    She stressed that the US does not carry out or condone torture, but did not comment on alleged secret CIA prisons.
    She has defended the CIA practice of (…)

  • Airline Passenger Who Made Threat? Killed
    7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    5 comments

    MIAMI - A passenger who claimed to have a bomb in a carry-on bag was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday on a jetway to an American Airlines plane that had arrived from Colombia, officials said. ADVERTISEMENT Anderson Cooper
    Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said the dead passenger was a 44-year-old U.S. citizen.
    It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that an air marshal had shot at a passenger or suspect, he said. A witness said that the man (…)

  • An Open Letter to Randy “Duke” Cunningham
    7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    Dear Ex-Rep. Cunningham:
    On Nov. 28, 2005, you copped a plea before a federal judge, the Hon. Larry Burns, in San Diego, CA, to assorted criminal bribery, mail and wire fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy charges. (1) You confessed to taking $2.4 million in bribes in order to steer lucrative defense contracts to your fellow, at this point unnamed, coconspirators. You are, in a word, a “bought” congressman, who served eight-terms in the House of Representatives. Your price was, indeed, (…)

  • 20,000 Troops Hospitalized after given Anthrax Vaccine
    7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
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    The Pentagon never told Congress about more than 20,000 hospitalizations involving troops who’d taken the anthrax vaccine, despite repeated promises that such cases would be publicly disclosed.
    Instead, a parade of generals and Defense Department officials told Congress and the public that fewer than 100 people were hospitalized or became seriously ill after receiving the shot from 1998 through 2000.
    They also showed Congress written policies that required public reports to be filed for (…)

  • Cunningham Briber Wilkes befriended other legislators, ran a hospitality suite with several bedrooms
    7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    In government documents, he is referred to as "co-conspirator No. 1": a man who gave more than $630,000 in cash and favors to former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham for help in landing millions of dollars in federal contracts.
    ADCS has received at least $80 million in government contracts since 1996. Its $11 million headquarters is located in Poway. Poway military contractor Brent Wilkes - whom Justice Department officials identify as the co-conspirator - has long been active in local (…)