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Table of Contents


What is at Stake

by Dennis Bernstein Pacifica's tactics mirror those used in corporate takeovers. It has hired lawyers who specialize in fighting unions, a high-powered PR firm and IPSA International, a security firm which specializes in "hostile terminations" or firing in hostile takeovers. These moves took place with the connivance of the government's Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which worked closely with the top Pacifica management and encouraged the move away from local oversight


Fortress Pacifica

by Chris Thompson As the battle for control of KPFA continues, evidence continues to mount suggesting that Pacifica began preparing for its showdown with the community radio station more than a month before the lockout. In addition to hiring a consultant specializing in corporate downsizing and a security firm that boasts of its ability to keep order during labor difficulties, Pacifica executive director Lynn Chadwick even took the step of shipping up boxes of old tapes from the Pacifica archives in Los Angeles ten days before the lockout


No Middle Ground

by Alexander Cockburn Above all, the directorate wants obedience. KPFA was shut down when a broadcaster began to discuss the proposal of Pacifica's treasurer-elect for just such a sale. Berry and the directorate have now begun to talk about mediation. Aside from the lawsuit filed by the KPFA rebels, they probably are worried by the plan of a committee in the California Legislature to audit Pacifica's books


KPFA Battle Reaches Crisis

by Norman Solomon At 6PM, as usual, "Flashpoints" ended and the KPFA evening news began. After a lead story about health care proposals in Washington, anchor Mark Mericle moved on to read a report about the latest developments in the dispute between KPFA and Pacifica. Suddenly, listeners heard "Flashpoints" producer and co-host Dennis Bernstein yelling his protests as security guards surrounded him


Berkeley or Belgrade?

by Dennis Bernstein In the name of diversity, this community radio station that championed "free speech" is being systematically dismantled by powers-that-be in Washington who pull the plug on any staffer who dares to question their actions on the air


Study Predicts Complete Loss of World's Coral Reefs

Unless the United States and other industrial countries work quickly to cut pollution from the burning of coal, oil, and gas, a new study warns that global warming may wipe out all coral reefs on the planet within the next few decades


KLA Campaign Against Serbs Rages

by Brian Kenety Lt. Col. Rick Swengros, in charge of the military police in the U.S.-controlled sector of Kosovo, said that nearly every day, Albanians acting in the name of the KLA bring his soldiers the names of suspected Serb war criminals. Most are questioned and occasionally taken into custody, but are released within 24 hours as there is scant evidence to support the claims. U.S. Army personnel from the 82nd Airborne Division, which patrols eastern Kosovo, say that while the KLA is no longer displaying weapons, paramilitaries, sympathizers and common criminals are manning roadside checkpoints, confiscating identity papers and other documents from the few Serbs who remain


New Reports of Atrocities by and Against Serbs

Human Rights Watch documents Serb killings in spring, NATO documents killings of Serbs in summer


Serbs and Albanians Victims of the Same Game

by Vesna Peric-Zimonjic The truth about atrocities committed against Kosovo Albanians is slowly surfacing in Serbia, while the country watches the massive reprisals executed by KLA fighters against ethnic Serbs and Gypsies


Serbs Protest, Frightened of Unbearable Winter

by Vesna Peric-Zimonjic NATO targeted important sectors of Yugoslavia's factories, refineries and power plants, leaving the country practically in ruins, leaving many people in Serbia are "on the verge of starvation." But there is little hope for a quick recovery, as NATO and the European Union also blame Milosevic for the conflict and have denied any reconstruction assistance while he remains in office


Poorest Countries Will Pay Heaviest to Rebuild Kosovo

by Niccolo Sarno Although U.S. bill will eventually total about $25 billion, it will hit hardest the former communist bloc countries may lose around 10 percent of their total budgets for next year


Kosovo War Crime Investigation Will Have to Include NATO

Analysis By Milo Branic One of the largest criminal investigations in recent history, the case of Serbian atrocities in Kosovo, risks losing credibility if it fails to conduct inquiries on the NATO air attacks against Yugoslavia, lawyers and rights groups warned


Poverty, Not Y2K Bugs, Threaten Russian Nuclear Plants

by Sergei Blagov While concerns grow in the West about Russia's nuclear industry's capability to meet the "millennium bug" computer deadline, Russian experts warn that the real threat lies in unhappy workers and lack of maintenance


The Ugly Rider Game

by Donella H. Meadows This is only a game. Many of these riders won't survive. They'll get knocked off through negotiations, threats, publicity, back-room deals Passing every rider is not the point. The point -- one of them anyway -- is to let politicians assure campaign contributors that they TRIED to sneak through their special way of exploiting public assets for private gain. Failing is actually better for the politician than succeeding; if the ranchers ever got their outrageous grazing bills through, they wouldn't have to go on ponying up to keep Sen. Domenici in office


GOP Panders to Billionaires With Tax Cuts

by Mark Weisbrot More than two-thirds of the benefits from this legislation would go to the top 10 percent of taxpayers -- the same people who got 86 percent of all the gains in the stock market over the last decade. The lower 60 percent of taxpayers would get about 9 percent of the benefits. There is also about a hundred billion dollars worth of tax breaks for every special interest -- insurance, energy, banking, multinational corporations -- with an army of lobbyists to push its snout up to the public trough


Revenge of the Reaganuts

by Ted Rall Isn't it funny that the GOP didn't believe that you deserved your hard-earned money in 1997 or 1998? There's something about impending primaries that causes politicians to focus on voters' fiscal health. Make no mistake -- this is all about getting George Quincy Bush into the Oval Office next year, at the expense of paying down a national debt conservatives spent decades warning us would ruin the economy


Cherchez Les VP Femmes

by David Corn Time to talk about running mates. In the hyperspeed campaign of 2000 (by election day we'll be ready to boot out of office whoever is elected) it's not too early to consider number twos


Clinton Poverty Tour Dodges The Poor

by Mark Weisbrot Talk is cheap, and so is the Clinton administration when it comes to doing anything for the poor. This is a case where numbers speak louder than words. The annual amount of money that the President has proposed to spend for his "New Markets Initiative" is less than a few days supply of cruise missiles dumped on Belgrade in April


Smoggy Logic on Capitol Hill

by Cecil L. Bothwell III After the United States signed the Kyoto accord on global warming, an international agreement to reduce emission of greenhouse gases, the Senate flew into a high dudgeon. Their argument runs like this: If we take on the expense of reducing air pollution while developing nations like China and Mexico do not, then our effort will have been wasted and at the same time put us at a competitive disadvantage. Never mind that the U.S. currently produces 30 percent of the pollution in question


George W. Bandwagon Hard to Fathom

by Judith Gorman Democrats tend to choose policy wonks as Presidential candidates, even if their social skills are a bit rusty. Republicans, on the other hand, go for the dim bulb, the easy-going doofus who volunteers to go out for a case of Cheetos and a keg


Hostile AIDS Activists Target Gore

by Karine Cunqueiro AIDS activists have zeroed in on Vice President Al Gore, disrupting his presidential campaign with a series of protests over his support for U.S. policy on pharmaceutical patents


Native Groups "At War" With ARCO in Ecuador

by Danielle Knight Native groups in Ecuador warn of extreme violence ahead as opposition grows to any form of oil exploitation on their territory in the Amazon rainforests. Along with environmentalists, Native leaders say the British Petroleum-Amoco company will inherit a "nightmare" when it takes over Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), which is pushing forward with exploration plans despite local opposition


Error 404: News Not Found in Your Daily Paper

What the American media didn't report about the Kosovo War; probation for white man who murders black recalls worst of the Jim Crow era; journalist beats police entrapment rap; Salon magazine enthusiastically tilts toward the joy of sex and celeb hoopla


Poised to Kill

by Jeff Elliott Benjamin Smith killed two and wounded twelve during his July 4 weekend killing spree. Should his white supremacist 'church' be held responsible?


Smith Described Racist Hate in 1998 Interview

by Lisa Sorg In an interview last year with the Bloomington Independent, neo-Nazi Benjamin Nathaniel Smith said his hate list was lengthy: African-Americans, Hispanics, Christians, Jewish people, gays and lesbians


Pat Robertson Blames Watchdog Group for Killing Spree

TV preacher Pat Robertson's attempt to implicate Americans United for Separation of Church and State in neo-Nazi Benjamin Nathaniel Smith's deadly shooting rampage is "ridiculous and outrageous," according to AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn


Korean Americans Cope With Racist Murder

by Terry Lee The fact that an angry racist singled out Korean Americans in his shooting spree against minorities has shocked and frightened the Korean community, as Korean Americans are realizing that a "hate crime" is not some political abstraction -- it could target them anywhere, even while attending church


CIA is Rogue Agency Working Against Clinton, Ex-Official Says

by Tim Shorrock While leaks to the press were common in the nation's capital, "the leaks to the Washington Times are unprecedented in the level of intelligence," he said. "I would go to jail if I discussed the contents of those kinds of documents with you." The leaks are also unusual because they flow directly from the intelligence community and are "pointed at attacking specific White House policies"


Mexican Drug Use Skyrockets

by Diego Cevallos U.S. anti-drug chief, Barry MacCaffrey and Mexico's Secretary of Health, Ramon de la Fuente, signed declaration to continue their cooperation in "a central strategy promoting education to reduce demand." MacCaffrey and De la Fuente said they are open to new theories and scientific advances that help control drug use, but the word "legalization" did not appear during the talks


The City With the Grittiest Air

A 7-year-old with tiny pigtails, has an unexpected answer to a simple question: What color is the sky? Ê"White," she says. "Sometimes yellow." ÊÊÊÊJun-jun lives in Lanzhou, the world's most polluted city. It is a place where simply breathing is the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day


Angry Scientists Tell Congress: Take Global Warming Seriously

by Danielle Knight Scientists are demanding that Congress heed their calls to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, blamed for global warming. More than 50 prominent experts climbed Capitol Hill here June 28 to give legislators a refresher course on climate change -- and to berate them for not joining a worldwide effort to control the heat-trapping gases


Court Rules States Cannot Protest Against Multinational Companies

by Jim Lobe "This is a major setback," said Simon Billenness, a leader in the international campaign to force Burma's military junta to improve its human rights record and recognize the winner of the aborted 1990 elections, the National League for Democracy led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Kuu Kyi. "If this ruling had been applied to anti-apartheid selective purchasing laws in the 1980s, then (former South African president) Nelson Mandela would still be in prison," he added. While activists were despondent, the big U.S. corporations which brought the lawsuit last year voiced jubilation


Pinochet Launches PR Campaign to Fight Extradition

by Gustavo Gonzalez Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has declared his innocence in the London media, complicating his legal situation and eliminating the Chilean government's chances for obtaining his release for humanitarian reasons


Japanese Gangsters Control Stockholders' Meethings

by Edwin Karmiol Corporate executives normally do not relish stockholders' meetings, but in Japan, the annual events conducted in the middle of the year by publicly held companies are particularly dreaded. Their concerns stem from the fact that June is when these companies become subject to threats of blackmail and intimidation from the Japanese underworld


Native U.S. - Canada Groups Form Unique Alliance

by Mark Bourrie The theme of the uprecedented meeting was the fulfillment of 19th century Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who tried to forge an alliance of Canadian and U.S. Indians in the Great Lakes region to oppose the expansion of U.S. settlers across the Appalachian Mountains. He was killed at the War of 1812 Battle of Moraviantown in Ontario, fighting alongside the British. His battle cry was "one body, one heart"


Little Attention Given to Persecution of Gypsies

by Katalin Karcagi There is nothing new about the plight of gypsy minorities in Kosovo, Hungary and the Czech Republic: they are as excluded as they have always been. Nobody has ever fought a war for them, but many would like to fight one against them


"Channel One" Critic Hit by Dirty Tricks Ad Campaign

by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman In April 1998, GOP Senator Richard Shelby issued a news release expressing his concerns about Channel One and calling for Congressional hearings. A year passed, then, all of the sudden, radio spots started airing in Alabama attacking Senator Shelby, implying that he was part of a left-wing plot to put the kibosh on the pro-Christian values of Channel One


Taking Personal Responsibility for our Pollution

by Donella Meadows At the University of Wisconsin's program on Climate, People and Environment Dr. Jonathan Foley makes computer models to study what might happen if the human economy continues to emit greenhouse gases. Like hundreds of other climate scientists, he is deeply worried about global warming. Unlike most scientists I know, he carries that worry into his personal life


A Life Lived Deliberately

By Mumia Abu-Jamal Chosen by the 800 graduating seniors at Evergreen State College in Olympia Washington, death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal delivered the commencement address June 11 via tape recording. The participation of a man charged with killing a police officer raised the ire of conservatives, including the governor of Washington who cancelled his appearance at the event. Yet despite the controversy, few have had the chance to read the eloquent speech speech, which addressed injustice and the need to live by the "joy of doing the right thing"


Ex-Welfare Recipients Do Okay -- For Now

by Ted Rall Welfare removal appears to be working -- for now. The big caveat is that we live in a boom-and-bust economic cycle, and that this fiscal fiesta is fated to fail as surely as Cher will make another comeback. After Wall Street tanks, former welfare recipients, with their lousy resumes and marginal education, will be the first to get canned


Discrimination Alive and Well in Corporate America

by Earl Ofari Hutchinson The very small numbers of blacks that have cracked the corporate glass ceiling tell a story less of corporate progress than of corporate apartheid. There are still only a handful of black CEOs at the Fortune 1000 corporations. Nearly ten out of ten senior managers are white males. Black managers make up less than ten percent of the total managerial positions for all races and earn, on average, less than their white counterparts. And as the recent discrimination lawsuits against the three companies show, many corporate managers and employees continue to regard blacks as pariah -- lazy, undisciplined, poorly organized, incompetent affirmative action hires, with bad attitudes, outspoken and rebellious, and quick to blame management (or white employees) for any problems or failures


How to Best Waste Budget Surplus?

by Molly Ivins Gee, I can remember when Republicans were considered the party of fiscal restraint and sanity. Of course, that was before Ronald Reagan introduced us all to supply economics, where they cut taxes, increased military spending by $2 trillion and waited for the deficit to go away. Fixing that mess cost George Bush the presidency and the Democrats control of Congress


Racing Back to the Bad Old Days

by Molly Ivins How many times should a corporation be allowed to violate the law before the government refuses to do business with it? How many workers should they be allowed to fire for being in favor of a union? How many times should they be allowed to endanger the lives of workers by putting padlocks on fire exit doors? How many tons of untreated waste should they be allowed to illegally dump into a lake or river?


Pill Makers Ignore Third World

by Molly Ivins Only 1 percent of new medicines brought to market by multinational drug companies between 1975 and 1997 were designed to treat the tropical diseases that kill millions in the Third World


Misinformation For Patients' Bill of Rights

by Molly Ivins I have yet to see any way to limit corporate greed except through either government regulation or fear of lawsuit. "Sue the bastards!" is an ancient American right in danger of extinction these days because corporations have so much political stroke through their enormous campaign contributions. At the same time, and for the same reason, deregulation is the political fashion of the day, leaving consumers with no protection at all


No Sympathy for Doctor's Union

by Molly Ivins I would feel more sympathy for the docs, however, had the American Medical Association not been a key player in wrecking the original Clinton plan for universal health coverage. And one suspects what the docs are really upset about is their falling income


Faux Mourning of a Media Prince

by Norman Solomon Around the country, when the news of JFK Jr's death broke, television reporters dashed out to streets, malls and parks, searching for grief. Naturally, they found some. The death of a person so early in life is very sad, and the death of President Kennedy's son certainly was a terrible blow to an extended family that has suffered many human losses. But for a broad cross-section of Americans, this was hardly the enormous national tragedy announced by news media


The Triumph of Celebrity Culture

by Norman Solomon With the year 2000 just months off, a media rush is underway to characterize the importance of a decade -- and even an entire century. No news outlet is ahead of the world's biggest media conglomerate, Time Warner, which owns more than 200 subsidiaries across the globe. Time magazine is now trying to sum up the past 100 years by conducting an Internet poll to identify the "Person of the Century." The absurdity of the stunt is enhanced when you consider that the poll is just advisory: The guys who run Time will determine the Person of the Century


The Sham of Spotted Owl Protection

by Alexander Cockburn George W. was recently in the Pacific Northwest, painting Al Gore as a tree hugger and proclaiming himself a friend of the chain saw (and therefore apt for contributions from timber corporations). But at the level of substance, there's no way Al Gore can be damned (or for that matter praised) as a friend of the ancient forests


Ventura Run For President? Sure

by Alexander Cockburn As a force capable of reinvigorating our political DNA, the left is in terrible shape. The radical right -- which has contributed 80 percent of the political energy in the country for the past 20 years-- is almost as impotent, although more healthily endowed with a hostility to state power. The left will never break away from the Democratic Party to any important degree, since the institutional ties between labor and the Democrats will never allow it. The right might well tear itself loose from the Republicans. Bob Smith of New Hampshire is now leading such a breakaway. Who else might precipitate an invigoration of the system?


Victims of Both Drugs and the Drug War

by Alexander Cockburn "The CIA suit is important as a vehicle to expose what the CIA is capable of doing," Linda Fullerton said to me later. "Bottom line, everyone has to take responsibility for the drug-dealing here, but we can't look at drugs in a vacuum. First, we need to look at the politics of the Drug War and the law supporting it. Both target a false enemy, the individual black or Latino street dealer. Second, we need to identify the victims of the Drug War, which include the dealers for sure, along with all others crushed by poverty, addiction, disease, violence, incarceration, death. Third, we need to look at drugs and the big picture. Drugs not only support this community economically, they support the prison-industrial complex, the DEA, the ATF and others, all the way down to the local police"


Letters

JFK Jr. and the hubris of the rich; crisis at KPFA; giveaway of the broadcast spectrum; comparing N Ireland and Kosovo; the problem of news updates



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