This Was The Week That Was
February 10–February 17, #41

Howard J.Ehrlich


Violence seems to be the catchword for the week—guerrilla assaults on a police compound in
Fallujah, Iraq; deadly skirmishes in Afghanistan,; Israelis and Palestinians battle in the Gaza Strip;
and in Ohio a lone gunman continues the random shooting of cars on I-70.

The Southeast Asian bird flu continues its human death toll in Thailand and Vietnam and has apparently spread beyond to wild birds and even leopards. Infested chickens have been found in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

If voting could change the system......John Kerry won his 13th and 14th primary this week,
defeating the other nominees in D.C. and Nevada. Back in Iowa, some analysts have begun to
explain Howard Dean’s loss and carom downward as a consequence of vicious attack ads run by
a private, unregulated group led by former Senator Robert Torricelli, who in 1995 had been
forced to resign his run for re-election as a result of campaign financing fraud. (Pacifica News
Network.Org; NPR.Org)

The dismal science....The Federal Reserve Board in its semiannual report to Congress declared
that national “economic prospects are good.” Board Chairman Alan Greenspan predicted a
“sustained” economic expansion. (New York Times) Despite Greenspan’s rhetoric, job growth
has been substantially below the administration’s forecast that 5.5 million jobs would have been
created by last July. In fact, only 296,000 were created.

Hats off.....Protests over the ban on wearing religious paraphernalia to school continued in Paris.
The new French law prohibits “signs and dress that conspicuously show the religious affiliation of
students are prohibited in public schools.” (Associated Press)

Supply and demand.....OPEC, the Oil and Petroleum Exporting Countries announced it would cut
its production around April 1. The purpose of the cuts is to make sure that prices stay high.
Another increase in prices can be expected in cable tv costs if Comcast’s $66 billion bid for the
Disney company is allowed to go through. The merger can also be expected to decrease diversity
in tv news.(Diversity in tv news?)

One for our side.....Federal prosecutors in Des Moines, Iowa dropped all subpoenas against peace
activists and demands that Drake University relinquish all records concerning an antiwar forum
held on campus last November.
Elsewhere, the Department of (In)Justice has been going around the country demanding
hospitals turn over their medical records in cases of abortion. The Feds claim that this is an
information seeking inspection concerning partial birth abortions. (New York Times) In an
editorial, The New York Times called on hospitals to resist government pressure for medical
records.

Affirmative action.....At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor applications from minority
students are down 23 percent. This appears to be the a result of the university’s court-ordered
change in their admission process. Ohio State, which also changed, reports that black student
applications are down 19 percent. Previously these universities operated on a point system which
granted admission points based on race/ethnicity. The Supreme Court had ruled that system to be
impermissible. (Associated Press)

Vital Statistics.....The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its national vital
statistics report. The good news is that life expectancy is up–now 77.2 years. The bad news is
that infant mortality is also up. The national rate is now 7 deaths for every 1,000 live births.
(cdc.org)

The polls.....The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds that answers to the question “Was the
situation in Iraq worth going to war over, or not?” reveals the sharp division of Americans: 49%
say yes, 49% say no.

The polls suggest that the issue of same sex marriage may not be the wedge issue that
professional politicians are looking for. The Zogby survey of Roman Catholics finds 29% agreed
that the Church should make the sacrament of marriage available to same sex couples. Thirty-
nine percent agreed that same sex couples could be married legally; and 56% agreed that civil
union s were ok as long as the word marriage was not used.

The war front....President Shrub has refused to make public the financial holdings and potential
conflicts of interest of the seven commissioners he appointed to investigate the intelligence
agencies performance around 9-11. The chairman of the commission is close friends with
Cheyney and Rumsfeld. Another commissioner had been employed by the CIA and the National
Security Agency. (New York Times)

Women of Afghanistan....In a psuedononymous article published in The Guardian, the writer, a
member of the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, describes the continuing
discrimination and violence against women. Her report indicates the reestablishment of
misogynist control by the Northern Alliance and the Taliban. (rawa.org; twf.org)

Annals of corporate crime.....A new tactic for corporate criminals is being played out in Humboldt
County, California. After the newly elected District Attorney, Paul Gallegos, filed charges against
Maxxam Corporation/Pacific Lumber Company for fraud and illegal lumbering activities, the
corporation responded by engineering a recall campaign against the D.A. This may be the first
time that a recall has been used as a defense in a criminal trial. (cienfuegos @ igc.org)

This week in history.....Fredrick Douglass born (1817); NAACP founded (1904); workers strike in St. Petersburg launching the Russian Revolution (1917); Lithuania proclaimed its independence–school kids are still trying to find it on the map (1918); Seattle General Strike ends (1919); general strike of Spain's anarchist-syndicalist workers leads to insurrection (1932); Superman made his radio debut (1940); first peacetime draft card burning (1947); the first nightly television newscast began on NBC (1948); Fidel Castro became prime minister of Cuba following the overthrow of the Batista regime (1959); unions at Yale University strike in solidarity with teaching assistants (1992).