(LAST WEEK: July 4, 2008) Independent's Day: I want my Democracy back!

in·de·pend·ent - adjective

1. not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, etc.; thinking or acting for oneself.

2. not subject to another's authority or jurisdiction; autonomous; set free.

3. not bound by, or committed to, a political party.

July 4th is here again. Time once more for festivities and fireworks, hotdogs, potato salad and Big Red.

Many Americans will head to the beaches or mountains to camp, fish or golf (although with rising cost of gas this is getting harder to do). Some will flock to stores to find comfort in consumer goods, oblivious of economic peril. Others will drown their fears in the latest fictional movie or book, watching television while their country burns. A few will take time to vaguely consider Freedom and Independence. Others will act, working for the health of our land.

At our home we will probably do a bit of all of the above. However, this July I feel less like celebrating and more like joining in a New Revolution.

I want my Democracy back!

For too long, traitorous, murderous thugs and their cult followers have controlled the agenda of this nation while this country has been run like a third-rate corrupt banana republic. Who do they think we are, sheeple?

Breach of peace at home and abroad, pillage of the treasury, corporate cronyism, perjury and torture are only some of the many charges against the current regime. American voices have been silent, but no more a

I want my country back, the one described in the Declaration of Independence.

In this country, men and women recognized the self-evident Truth that all persons are created equal. In this country, Patriots weren't afraid to abolish the existing system in order to create a new government driven by the "consent of the governed". In this country they at first patiently suffered - the acted - to make needed changes. In this country they were Independents, yet pledged to one another.

I want my country back, the one codified in The Constitution.

In this Republic, people focused on freedoms: Freedom of Expression, Freedom to Worship in the manner of one's own choosing; Freedom from Want; Freedom from Fear. This Republic's leaders hoped to usher in a new world in which the tyranny of kings, potentates, dictators and warsmongers was replaced by a "more perfect" unions focused on justice, tranquility, common defence, general welfare and Liberty for all generations to come. They sought to create an indispensable system of government for effective management of common concerns. They represented a country of free thinkers building a nation that would "cultivate peace and harmony with all."

I want my country back, the nation that once served proudly as a beacon to the world.

In this nation a place people around the world felt welcomed by the "lamp beside the golden door". In this nation, torture was illegal and jurisprudence reigned supreme. In this nation, government began with a small "g" and wasn't prayed to by the people. This nation relegated demagogues to back-alley liaisons with liars and thieves - it did not elect them to office.

I want my Democracy back.

On this July 4th Texans for Peace calls on all Americans to join together in a common purpose - a New Revolution for Democracy.

As free and independent people, secure our own liberty and safe in the knowledge that peace and justice are within our reach, we call for the following measures to restore the nation and correct the current imbalances:

1. Impeachment of the current leaders and executives of this nation for dereliction of duties and common crimes;
2. Replacement of Congress with members who are representatives of the people and reflect the diversity of this great land;
3. Abolition and reconstitution of all executive federal agencies and bodies to ensure that they remain servants, and subservient, to civilian control.

It's time to take control of our lives and to place the destiny of this nation in the "hand and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women." We will no longer depend on politicians, pundits and parties to bring about needed change.

In doing so, we will help to usher in, what Langston Hughes called the America that will be.

Stand and declare your own independence on this Independent's Day.

Take your Democracy back!

Dallas man freed after 15 years

A man sent to prison more than 15 years ago has been freed after DNA testing concluded he was innocent. Patrick Waller had been behind bars since late 1992 on convictions for aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping stemming from the abduction of a Dallas couple. DNA testing conducted late last year proved Waller was innocent. Waller is the 19th man in Dallas County since 2001 shown by DNA evidence to be innocent of the crime for which he was convicted

Pastors for Peace held up at border

The annual Pastors for Peace caravan to Cuba has been detained at the Mexica border by U.S. officials. Border authorities are holding up the 'Friendshipment" while agents search for and confiscate all donated computers. Trade sanctions against Cuba have been in place since the presidency of John F. Kennedy, more than forty-seven years ago, and American citizens are forbidden to travel to the island.

Pastors for Peace is an interreligious community organization created to deliver humanitarian aid to Latin America and the Caribean and to challenge the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Thousands of people have participated in more than 40 caravans to Mexico and Central America, inculding 16 to Cuba since 1992.

Oil up, Jobs down, Congress AWOL

The price of a gallon of gasoline has topped $4 in much of the sate, with steady rises expected throughout the year. The State of Utah and many school districts are switching to 4-day workweek in desparae attempts to manage public budgets in these tough times.

Americans are losing their jobs, homes and life savings in record numbers. Economic worries of Texans has nearly reached a boiling point. More are becoming homeless.

Meanwhile, Congress expects to go on holiday for much of July and August..but not before they eviscerate rights to privacy and give the President a pass on all of his illegal activities. Candidates hit the campaign trail, asking for money. America burns.

Impeachment Day in Fort Worth

Texans will gather outside the Fort Worth City Hall on July 8th at 7pm to attend the City Council meeting where a resolution calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush will be offered. This is part of a growing effort around the U.S. of "Citizens for Impeachment".

(ARCHIVES: June 20, 2008) When the power goes out

It's already looking like Texas will be hotter'n the hinges of Hell this summer with temperatures in the triple digits for much of the time; and when your lights darken, the refrigerator goes silent and the AC no longer cools, you might just want to remember this article. You won't be able to look it up online without Internet access.

Rolling blackouts and equipment-frying brownouts are on their way to the Lone Star State.

Rising demand due to extremely hot temperatures will be blamed by energy and political officials. Additionally, just as we saw with Enron, some of these will be manipulated on purpose to gain public acceptance for approval of coal and nuclear power plant applications and more aggressive drilling for oil and gas in otherwise off-limit areas such as the Artic Wildlife Refuge or Texas schoolyards. However, much of the fault lies with the Great Electrical Deregulation Roulette, played by those same officials.

A Brief History of Texas Deregulation

In 1999 then Governor George W. Bush signed into law Senate Bill 7 the Texas Electric Restructuring Act which allowed "the electric utility industry in Texas to provide retail competition and customer choice beginning January 1, 2002, for all customers now served by investor-owned utilities." It even "guaranteed" a rate cut of 6%.

When deregulation became mandatory in 2002 the great electric roulette wheel began to spin. Texas Legislators, under sway of the "free market" ideology machine, set into motion the dismantling of one of the public's remaining services - electricity. By January 2007 Texas electric companies in deregulated territories were released from the last bit of government regulation and free to prey upon consumers without regulation by the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas.

As a result, most Texans were now free to "choose" their electrical service provider, just as they have a "choice" of their local telephone company, cable provider and roads on which to drive. In other words, consumers get to select from what is essentially a single public monopoly provider.

What did the companies get in return? The law designated the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) would have the authority to oversee grid reliability and operations so as to ensure no particular buyer or seller would gain an unfair advantage in the marketplace. Instead we've gotten mismanagement, fraud, and even higher electrical rates - while domestic and foreign energy pirates make off with the booty.

A recent failure by Riverway forced 35,000 Houston-area customers to switch to a new provider, at higher rates. Last week E-tricity's 12,000 customers were forced to switch after that company defaulted on financial obligations. In May 8,430 customers of PreBuy Electric were left hanging while 15,100 customers of National Power were transferred.

National Power founders are being investigated by the SEC for allegedly bilking investors of our money in various dubious deals. Customers who were paying 11.9 cents a kilowatt-hour to National Power before it failed last month found themselves facing new rates of 21.7 cents. Patricia Dolese, the former head of consumer protection at the PUC who now runs a consulting firm says, "Legislators and regulators are fond of saying that a competitive market requires transparency, but It seems it is about time that transparency trickled down to consumer information as well."

In addition to these failures of "free market" companies, complaints have risen dramatically by captive consumers in other areas of the state. The PUC reports that complaints related to the electric market jumped from 704 in January to 1,123 in May. One company has collected payments from customers but not delivered any electricity, according to some complaints.

Figment of cheaper rates through market mechanisms

The assumption of deregulation is that increased competition will lead to lower rates. However, the facts show publicly-owned utility rates are lower.

The deregulation in Texas permitted a few regions to retain regulated rates, such as Austin Energy (city owned) and San Antonio (city owned). In these areas, the electricity rate has stayed closer to the average American rate of about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. San Antonio's City Public Services (CPS) residential electricity rate now stands at 8.2 cents per kilowatt-hour. The City of Georgetown, which gets its wholesale electricity from the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) a public entity, recently announced that consumers' rates would rise to 11.46 cents per kilowatt-hour starting June 25.

By comparison, most fixed-rate prices in the Houston area - provided by private companies - currently are running in the range of 14.5 cents (Reliant Energy) to 22.2 cents (Commerce Energy) a kilowatt-hour. The lowest fixed-rate price in North Texas is 13.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, provided by private firms. The PUC said that prices in 2008 alone have already risen by 5% and are expected to higher by the end of the year.

In the face of this deregulation debacle, parts of East Texas are fighting to remain regulated. In Marshall, local officials plan to take their fight back to the Capitol. "Our area enjoys much lower costs for electricity than parts of the state that are deregulated," State Sen. Kevin Eltife, recently said. "Because the state is experiencing problems in those deregulated areas, we will probably be taking a hard second look at deregulation." State Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, said the low cost of power in East Texas will keep potential competitors out of the market. "We're already well below cost compared to the rest of Texas," Merritt said. "I plan to fight to keep us segregated from the rest of the state as long as that is the case."

Another way to keep the lights on

Carol Bierdrzycki, director of the Texas Ratepayers' Organization to Save Energy (ROSE), says it's time to declare the electric market a bona fide disaster. The consumer advocate urges the Texas Legislature to make dramatic changes. "This whole system is defective," she said.

The state of Texas is the largest electricity market in the United States; Texas also ranks as the 11th largest worldwide market, falling between Great Britain and Spain in terms of annual consumption. As such, it is a rich target for corporate profiteers who may have little regard for Texas consumers. Some of the private energy companies operating locally are owned by pools of investors outside of the state (AEP - Ohio, Calpine - California, Ecel - Minnesota).

Not all public services are best suited for the "free market", particularly those that are essential to the public good - schools, roads, utilities - and where privatization would results in high-priced monopolies, such as local phone, cable television and Internet access.

A better way to deal with the energy needs of Texas is to provide more publicly-owned and operated grids and re-regulation of private industry providers. At least then, if the lights do go out, it's only a matter of getting in touch with local officials and not a remote board of investors.

As the long days of summer roll on, let's hope we can keep our cool and not to remain in the dark regarding our energy needs and available options. And, if it gets really, really hot, don't worry - you can always cool your beer with ice from Mars.

Racist, Sexist Texans don't get it

We're sad to have to acknowledge that there are still racist and sexist people who don't understand that their wod can be not only offensive, but hurtful to their fellow Texans. At the recent Republican convention in Texas this "humor" hit a near low. One vendor sold buttons that read, "If Obama is President ... will we still call it the White House?"

During the same week, Senator John McCain came under criticism for using disgraced former Governor Clayton Williams to raise funds for his campaign. Williams, an anti-environmental Republican oil man, is infamously known for saying "As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it” in response to a question about the rape of women in texas.

War Accomplices

Last wek the U.S. House of Representatives, by
a vote of 268-155 provided an additional $162 Billion to extend the occupations and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2009. War accomplices from Texas include:

Aye TX-1 Gohmert, Louis [R]
Aye TX-2 Poe, Ted [R]
Aye TX-3 Johnson, Samuel [R]
Aye TX-4 Hall, Ralph [R]
Aye TX-5 Hensarling, Jeb [R]
Aye TX-6 Barton, Joe [R]
Aye TX-7 Culberson, John [R]
Aye TX-8 Brady, Kevin [R]
Aye TX-10 McCaul, Michael [R]
Aye TX-11 Conaway, K. [R]
Aye TX-12 Granger, Kay [R]
Aye TX-13 Thornberry, William [R]
Aye TX-15 Hinojosa, Rubén [D]
Aye TX-16 Reyes, Silvestre [D]
Aye TX-17 Edwards, Thomas [D]
Aye TX-19 Neugebauer, Randy [R]
Aye TX-20 Gonzalez, Charles [D]
Aye TX-21 Smith, Lamar [R]
Aye TX-22 Lampson, Nicholas [D]
Aye TX-23 Rodriguez, Ciro [D]
Aye TX-24 Marchant, Kenny [R]
Aye TX-26 Burgess, Michael [R]
Aye TX-27 Ortiz, Solomon [D]
Aye TX-28 Cuellar, Henry [D]
Aye TX-29 Green, Raymond [D]
Aye TX-31 Carter, John [R]
Aye TX-32 Sessions, Peter [R]

Tx Monthly: End the War

In a forceful editoral, Texas Monthly this month called for an immediate end to the war in Iraq. "So, let's bring the troops home now. Let's give them parades and take care of them and their families. They deserve it. Let's give the Iraqis economic, technical, and diplomatice supporttohelp the stand up for themselves," wrote Willam Broyles, founding editor, in the July edition of the Magazine. Broyles served as a Marine in Vietnam. His son, David, served three tours in Iraq with Special Ops and today raises money for injured soldiers. Now William has, "had enough of this war."

For years the Texas media establishment has served the Administration's purposes by frequently publishing stories written by soldiers or "embedded" reporters, while refusing to listen to Iraqis and civilians on the issue. Perhaps in the future they will give as much room to the views and facts from peacemakers as they do to that of warriors. Otherwise, we'll continue to have "the pictures of good American families, the mom with her arms around her children and the caption saying she’d just celebrated her wedding anniversary when she was killed in Iraq...pictures of wounded Americans trying to learn to walk or talk or eat again...of the Iraqi children dead in our bombings, their homes destroyed, their families blown away..."

Pastors for Peace visit Tx on way to Cuba

The annual Pastors for Peace caravan to Cuba has finally reached Texas. One leg of the caravan was in Dallas this weekend, and more "carvanistas" are expected during the coming week.

Pastors for Peace is an interreligious community organization created to deliver humanitarian aid to Latin America and the Caribean and to challenge the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Thousands of people have participated in more than 40 caravans to Mexico and Central America, inculding 16 to Cuba since 1992.

(ARCHIVES: June 1, 2008) Is Congress still needed?

Long after buttonhooks and buggy whips have gone out of style, we have a small group of persons who put on jackets and ties each day and meet in splendid solitude to ponder and debate weighty matters of state. Bowing to advances in technology, their platitudes can be viewed daily on C-SPAN. They call themselves "Representatives of the People".

But in a world ruled by oligarchs the question arises, is Congress relevant anymore?

During this season of incontinence and 'lections, like our four score and seven-fathers and mothers, Americans are once again faced with the challenge of whether this grand experiment "so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."

We expect our nation, like all cultures and institutions, to struggle as it evolves. The interplay of societal forces - politics, religion, economics, knowledge, technology - generates new opportunities, but sometimes also leads to crises.

At least this time, let's hope we can solve our differences without trampling out any wrath vintages.

But it's getting hard to leave the lasso in the barn when we see an impotent Congress neglecting to protect the citizens on issues ranging from starting overseas wars to corporate cronyism.

Setting aside for a moment the executive and judicial branches of government, Americans are asking themselves if the legislative branch still has relevancy. Would anyone even notice if "people's house" ceased to exist?

The Shrinking Domain of "Religion" and "Politics"

Even backwoods Texans know that religion and politics have been on decline for centuries when it comes to our daily lives. That's not to say that people are any less spiritual, religious or interested in politics, but rather that the impact of these institutions on our daily lives pales in comparison to other things such as media, sports, and worklife.

Religionists no longer dictate (despite their tries) science, entertainment, economics and public policy. Likewise, as people have grown wealthier, we've grown less dependent on the polis (or state) for the greatest part. Our interconnectedness and improved forms of communication, transportation and commerce have made political control more fragmented and less significant - except for those who derive their daily sustenance from suckling at the teat of government.

As these old systems of power pass away, new forms have taken their place.

The rise of "Corporatism"

Capitalism and Consumerism have supplanted religion and politics as the dominant social forces. One Shopping Sunday trumps an entire deck of churches, and three CEOs can beat a full house of Senators every time.

With the increase in general wealth and commerce and the rise of ever larger businesses, corporations now rule the overwhelming part of "modern" societies and, increasingly, "emerging" parts of the world as well.

Does anyone doubt that banking, manufacturing, medicine, education, work and other "corporate" institutions don't affect our lives to the greatest degree today?

If we compare global corporations to countries' production of goods and services (gross domestic product or GDP), some interesting things appear. For example, we see that the revenues of Walmart ($351 billion in 2006) were more than the GDP of Saudi Arabia ($309 B).

The top 10 public companies together, with total revenues of $2.25 trillion outrank all countries but the U.S., Japan, Germany and China ($13.2 T, $4.3 T, $2.9 T, $2.67) and the 500 largest corporations account for 70 percent of all world trade.

Of the world's hundred largest economies, fifty-one are not countries but corporations. All of this just means is that money has central control over our lives - whether we like it or not.But the political machine in Washington isn't out of the picture quite yet. While dancing the Virginia Quick Step, members of Congress know that they control the largest "corporation" on the planet.

Congress just might still be relevant ... like a tube of hemorrhoid ointment.

Biggest gorilla in the yard

Growing at a rate faster than private industry is one entity - the United States federal government.

At $3,000,000,000,000 per year, this behemoth is greater than all of the fortune 500 profits for last year combined. Writing out check after check from this enormous entity is the U.S. Congress.

Need a few hundred million dollars for your favorite perk? Ask a member of Congress.

Want to get rich? Build throwaway armaments, nuclear missiles or supply a war. Sell to the government.

It is estimated that since WWII, the U.S. Congress has spent $25 Trillion on military and defense. For example, since 1940 the U.S. spent $5.8 trillion just on the manufacture, stockpiling and dismantlement of nuclear bombs, according to the Brookings Institute - that's a lot of beans.

This waste was clear to President Eisenhower as far back as 1953 when he wrote, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Not since Roman dictators bankrupted that republic with wars and monumental follies has so much public treasury been thrown away - and never so fast.

Thanks to Congress, Washington will spend $25,117 per American in 2008.

"Get a Rope"

While a natural inclination to the pilfering of the nation's wealth might be to call for the abolishment of government altogether, legislators still hold our wallets and necks for ransom.

So long as the Republican institution that we call the United States Government makes workers give up their earnings under threat of jail, requires soldiers to remain in Iraq under threat of courts martial, spies on most of its citizens while rewarding a few, we cannot hold Congress in much esteem. However, with a checkbook of $3 Trillion, it's something to be reckoned with.

We can only hope that, in the coming year, the House and the Senate will be filled with good and honest citizens so that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

But if that doesn't work out, there's always next season's American Idol.

Crawford is coming to Crawford

What happens to the 705 residents of Crawford, Texas when George W. Bush moves to town?

The new movie Crawford, by David Modigliani will be shown in the Texas town for which it is named this Sunday. The movie depicts how this small community was changed when President Bush decded to move next door. The film follows the lives of residents as they confront the issues that the Administration brought to their tiny town.

The movie will be shown at 8:30 pm at the Crawford Football Stadium in Tonkawa Park, Sunday June 8, thanks to the help of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema of Austin. Tickets can be purchased online.

Texas GOP tries to stifle dissent

A Harris County judge has ordered the Texas Republican Party to comply with state election law at its state convention in Houston next week after Republican activists alleged that the party illegally uses procedures to minimize grass-root dissent.

Activists complain that party leaders violated procedural laws at past conventions and plan to do so again. Texas Republican Party spokesman Hans Klingler said the party follows the rules and is willing to address complaints about how the convention is conducted. The state convention in Houston will select delegates to the Republican National Convention in August.

Note: Texans for Peace will have a table at the state Democratic Party and Green Party conventions. We would also like to have a table at the Republican convention.

Kill TxDOT Commission?

The Sunset Advisory Commission, the panel created by the Texas Legislature to regularly assess state agencies, has recommended that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)'s five-member commission should be abolished and replaced with a single commissioner accountable to the governor and lawmakers.

In addition, the report said, the Legislature should create a new oversight committee that will more closely monitor the agency and in many ways take over the policymaking and project priority-setting roles now filled by the Texas Transportation Commission. All five current commission members were appointed by Gov. Rick Perry and are loyal to his vision of building the Trans-Texas "Nightmare" Corridors.

The Sunset Commission also recommends that the TxDOT's next sunset report be delivered in just four years -- in essence, putting the agency on probation.

Exxon confronted

Activists confronted Exxon-Mobil outside of their annual shareholder meeting in Dallas last week.

A coalition of environmental, faith and peace organizations held anews conferences and a demonstration to increase shareholder and public awareness about ExxonMobil's irresponsible pollution and how it is causing illness and death, and destroying quality of life for people living in the Texas Gulf Coast while that same company enriches itself from the war in Iraq.

Worse than oil subsidies - food for ethanol

With the price of a gallon of gasoline expected to reach $4 (or even perhaps $5!) by this summer, American consumers are angrier than ever over the effects of the war in Iraq and the declining dollar on world oil prices. Oil companies are also a target of rage because of their rising profits and tax subsidies. But, there's something even worse - the "clean energy" ethanol movement.

Big Oil is the largest business in the world today. Last year the five largest companies, ExxonMobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP-Amaco, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhilips had a combined profit of $104.6 Billion. Exxon's profits ($39.5) nearly exceeded those of IBM, Microsoft, Walmart and AT&T combined ($40.45 B). Oil corporations have come a long way from the wildcatters of East Texas to the corporate behemoths of Dallas and Houston.

However it's not the size of the oil industry, nor their profits, that is of the greatest concern in a free market economy. It is the fact that they take enormous profits while being subsidized by you and me, the taxpayer, for the production of non-renewable resources

A multitude of state and federal income tax credits and deductions results in an income tax rate of less than 11% for the oil industry compared to average business taxes of 18%. A 2006 study by the Interior Department estimated that royalty-free incentives by the government allow oil companies to escape tens of billions of dollars in royalties that they would otherwise pay the government for oil and gas.

Oil subsidies aren't the worst thing.

As unbalanced as public policy is regarding non-renewable energy, it pales compared to the looming disaster being created by converting crops into ethanol. Every new ethanol project (also taxpayer subsidized) essentially takes food out of the mouths of the poor and the spectre of food shortages is already casting a shadow around the globe. Children may die while Americans and Europeans pat themselves on the back for their being "environmentally conscious".

Grain is essential to sustain human life and accounts for nearly 50% of the calories consumed by each person. In recent centuries, the production of grain has improved so much that no person in the world need go hunger. The world's grain farmers produced record crops in 2007 - more than 2.3 billion tons of grain.

Grain is also used for livestock feed, and increasing for ethanol and other fuels. Worldwide, the amount of coarse grains converted to energy jumped 15 percent to 255 million tons and food stocks are falling fast. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is predicting that supplies of on-hand stocks may fall to a 47-year by the end of this year. "The USDA projects global grain supplies will drop to their lowest levels on record. Further, it is likely that, outside of wartime, global grain supplies have not been this low in a century, perhaps longer," said NFU Director of Research Darrin Qualman.

But 2007/08 will mark the seventh year out of the past eight in which global grain production has fallen short of demand. Data and analysis from the Earth Policy Institute shows how the drive to create biofuels is accelerating the rise in food prices around the globe.

There have already been riots in parts of the world as the poor find themselves unable to buy need grains - rice, corn, and wheat. In Mexico and much of Central America, many people live on diets of mostly tortillas and beans. Now, even tortillas are becoming too expensive. The World Bank reports that for each 1 percent rise in food prices, caloric intake among the poor drops 0.5 percent.

The spectre of food shortages is casting a shadow across the globe, causing riots in Africa, consumer protests in Europe and panic in food-importing countries. In a world of increasing affluence, the hoarding of rice and wheat has begun. The President of the Philippines made an unprecedented call last week to the Vietnamese Prime Minister, requesting that he promise to supply a quantity of rice. Half of the planet depends on rice but stocks are at their lowest since the mid1970s when Bangladesh suffered a terrible famine. Rice production will fall this year below the global consumption level of 430 million tonnes. n Mexico, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal. There have also been protests in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, over government price increases.Population

If 80 percent of the 62 distilleries now under construction in the are completed by late 2008, grain used to produce fuel for cars will climb to 114 million tons in the U.S., or 28 percent of the projected 2008 U.S. grain harvest.

Congress needs to immediately roll back all subsidies on non-renewal energy production and for converting food grains into ethanol. While this won't be popular with corn growers, it will help to divert a growing food crisis. What should be a call for justice is turning out to be a hobbesian choice.

Summer lectures at Dallas Peace Center

The Dallas Peace is proud expanding its Summer Dinner Lecture Series this year with three lectures: June 4, July 23 and Aug 6.

First on the series will be Rita Marie Johnson founder of the Academy for Peace of Costa Rica. Next up will be Col. Ann Wright, author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience. Third in the series will be Dr. Erika Frank, president of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). Tickets for each fundraiser/dinner are $75 and the are opportunities for sponsorship.

Another homegrown redneck terrorist

Jeffrey Don Detrixhe, 38, of Higgins, Texas, was arrested this week after trying to sell a 25-gallon drum of cyanide to an FBI informant, touting the poison's usefulness in mass killings. "I could kill a city with that ... Euthanize a whole village," Detrixhe said in the taped conversation, according to an affidavit.

FBI agents taped conversations in which Detrixhe told an informant that he had a 25-gallon drum of cyanide and was willing to sell it in exchange for $10,000, a thermal imager and a fully automatic Russian-made AK-47 assault rifle.

In 2003 a A Tyler man with ties to white supremacists pleaded guilty to possessing chemical weapons in one of the most serious cases of domestic terrorism. Documents seized indicated there may be other co-conspirators across the country.

Iraq vets return to E. Texas

More than one hundred National Guard members from Delta Company of the 144th Infantry Division got a huge "Welcome Home." this week in Palestine after returning from more than a year in Iraq.

Every soldier had their own story of relief to finally be home. One couple married five years has been apart for three of them. "It's hard, it's hard on people, it's hard on the family and it's just pretty difficult sometimes," said Sergeant Sergio Dominguez

Violence grips Juarez

Juarez, Mexico is in the grips of an epidemic of violence with more than 200 people killed this year. Last Week thousands of white-clad people marched silently to protest a surge of drug-related violence in a Mexican city across from Texas where the No. 2 police officer was shot dead.

The crowd of several thousand students, church leaders, businessmen and politicians walked for about four miles (six kilometers) across Ciudad Juarez to a park near a border crossing, breaking the silence in a burst of speeches, dancing and singing. "We need to unite against this," said Julian Ochoa, an architecture student at the march. "I hope we achieve something."

Guns in schools

Last week an East Texas High School student was arrested after bringing a rifle on his school campus while a sixth-grader in San Marcos was suspended after a handgun was found in his backpack.

These are only a couple of gun-related incidents that have struck Texas schools this year. In September, a Rio Hondo High School student was arrested after taking a gun to school and A. Maceo Smith High School, in Dallas, was locked after a student brought a pistol to school. A similar incident occured at Anna High School in Collin County. Near Houston, a Katy student at Mayde Creek High School brought a gun for "protection".

A Beaumont 7th grader was arrested in December for having a gun at school while 9-year-old elementary student brought a gun on board his school bus in Nacogdoches. In Brownsville, an elementary student was taken away in handcuffs after bringing a gun to school. Tragedy occured at Greenville High School, in Hunt County, when a Junior brought a gun to school and shot himself.

Easy access to handguns and poor parenting (afterall, exactly how do kids get access?) are blamed for increase in guns in schools.

(LAST WEEK: May 1, 2008) Immigrant Rights: No hay ser humano ilegal

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The New Colossus (Statue of Liberty poem) by Emma Lazarus

Throughout America's history, the topic of immigration has engendered strong emotions - especially as most of the continent became populated with foreign born families. And while arguments for and against immigration have varied only slightly through the years (they will bring disease, take away jobs, etc.) the heart of the matter is racism and religious prejudice - a willingness or unwillingness to welcome the other.

Chinese laborers, African slaves, Irish, Italians, Morovians, Jews … the list is long of those who came to America only to face the brunt of "nativists" who subversively (i.e. KKK) terrorized and institutionally created barriers to those not born within the country's boundaries. Nativism is even enshired in the U.S. Constitution's provision that excludes immigrants from attaining the highest elected office - that of the President.

It's happening again.

Along with the neoconservative ideologies that grew out of the post-Nixon era, anti-immigration sentiment has grown to become a major political issue. The 1994 Contract on America launched the current crisis when supporters sought to cut off public aid to undocumented workers. The same businessowners (and their pandering politicians) who refuse to pay livable wages, began to dismantle "safety nets" for the poor, many who are immigrants. (They are surely inheritors of industrialist who fought against the eight-hour work day - that led to the May 1 strike of 1886).

Today's anti-immigrant forces - from the Minute Men to neo-liberal activists - argue that the issue isn't about race or religious prejudice, but rather about economic necessity and "population stabilization". But even these argument, at heart, are racist. The implication is that one sort of person is somehow superior to another. That one's own child (or tribe) is inherently more valuable that another's.

Such nonsense is the antithesis of humanity and the principles enshrined in this experiment called "America".

Our Declaration, Constitution and tremendous statue-gift from the people of France stand for the rights of all people to enjoy inalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. This, is the dream and hope of America.

Immigrants, whether recently arrived or on this continent for hundreds of years, shall be treated with equal dignity and value. From the language (no person is "illegal") that is used to refer to undocumented workers to the policies regarding their housing, healthcare, education and livelihoods, all people should be given the full benefits of participation in, and contribution to, society. No one should live in fear or needlessly face prejudice because of where they happened to be born.

Texans for Peace, as followers of peace and social justice, will stand firmly by anyone who faces discrimination and work to build up, rather than tear down, families. We will continue to counter and oppose anti-immigrant legislation, the criminalization of immigrant communities, the militarization of the Texas border, the detention and deportation of immigrants, while showing friendliness by making room for all of our fellow Texans.

We will gently counsel our anti-immigrant neighbors and work with others to build bridges to one another rather than building walls. And, we will march for the rights of immigrants because we also remember what it's like to be a stranger in a new land.

TX housing agency sued over discrimination

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs is being sued by Inclusive Communities Project, a Dallas civil rights group, over claims that claims the agency has awarded housing tax credits primarily to apartment complexes in minority-dominated urban areas with high rates of crime and poverty. The suit asks for an equal number of credit in both minority and non-minority census tracts.

"Tax-credit housing is now the largest program for providing affordable housing in the country, the state and in this area," Mike Daniel, an attorney for the Inclusive Communities Project, told the Morning News. "Like all the other affordable housing programs, it is still marked by racial segregation which reduces its value to many of the people it's supposed to serve by subjecting them to conditions of slum and blight in order to get the housing."

Creation "science" degree rejected

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board voted last week to reject the Institute for Creation Research's application to offer a master's degree in science education. The Board flatly rejected that teaching creationism was "science". “Evolution is such a fundamental principle of contemporary science it is hard to imagine how you could cover the various fields of science without giving it [evolution] the proper attention it deserves as a foundation of science,” said Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes.

Texas public school biology classes teach that the universe and organisms evolved over millions of years. Creationists, advocate a literal, Bible-based theory that God created the earth and all life forms instantly in their current state. However, most religious people reject this view of the world (and also know that the earth revolves around the sun, not vice versa).

Welfare for the rich

Rackspace is a much-admired successful and profitable technology firm in San Antonio that is getting ready to launch a $400 million IPO. The company's CEO/investor, Graham Weston, is a wealthy scion whose family is a member of the billionaire asset class. Graham's uncle, is reportedly worth $9.4 billion and the Weston family's holdings also include Fortnum & Mason, a famous department store in London founded in 1707, and the $1 billion British department store Selfridges & Co.

However, that hasn't stopped Governor Perry from giving the company $22 million of taxpayer dollars from his crony capitalism fund. In a state where business owners complain about raising the Federal minimum wage to $6.55 per hour in July and where median household income is only $46,715 (2005 Dollars), Texas taxpayers do not need to give corporate welfare...especially by the hand of weak-willed "public servants".

25% of 8th-graders failing math

More than 70,000 eighth-graders failed the math portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test this year, according to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), much worse than in past years. Students who don't pass the math and reading exams (they have 2 more tries), could be held back this year.

"I think we've just had a larger, more intense focus on reading over the years for this group of students," said Debbie Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for the TEA. "We've increased our math focus, but reading still has dominated. We know that students who can't read have trouble not only in reading class, but in social studies and even in math class because there are so many word problems."

April 22 is celebrated as Earth Day, in Texas and around the planet. From tending trees in Austin's "Peace Grove" (Zilker Park) and attending the Living Green Festival to Mothers for Clean Air 5K in Houston, tens of thousands of Texans will celebrate our planet this weekend. Plenty more will be out enjoying wildflowers, sunshine or tending to gardens. Everywhere people are searching for better ways to be good stewards of nature.

On this day, we are pleased to bring you the following essay to reflect (and act) upon:

On Earth Day, by Alex Steffen, executive director of World Changing

Green is the new black. No buzz-phrase better sums up both the excitement many of us feel about the blooming environmental and social consciousness around us and the essential hollowness of the answers being promoted by many newly-minted eco-pundits.

The flood of environmental magazine cover stories, documentaries and advertisements has pushed us over a public-opinion threshold, which is great. But the solutions being touted by many of our new-found allies are themselves creating a new kind of problem -- people who should know better are selling a muddle-headed, style-over-substance, "lite green" environmentalism at a time when we need to be rebuilding our civilization to avoid disaster. To be blunt, we're being sold out.

People are being told to buy organic cotton T-shirts, keep their tires inflated and recycle their beer bottles. But the reality of the situation is that the impacts of these sorts of actions are totally out whack with the magnitude of the planetary problems bearing down upon us. Those of us who care about the future of the planet need to reclaim this moment from those who would have people think that our biggest challenge is picking the most stylish vegan shoes.

With every passing day, we are discovering that things are worse than we thought. Our climate is ripping apart at the seams at a rate that's surprising even the so-called alarmists. Natural systems are collapsing. The ocean seems headed towards a series of catastrophic tipping points. Economic inequity is producing a planet of billionaires and a billion desperate people. Our political systems are suffering a massive crisis of legitimacy, while insane fundamentalists, violent criminals and two-bit dictators (wearing both uniforms and Armani suits) are stealing or destroying everything they can get their hands on. Everywhere on the planet we find an empty consumer culture so accepted we barely speak of it, except perhaps to make an ironic joke. We have placed a Great Wager on the future of humanity, and the odds are getting worse.

In the face of this reality, recycling a bottle is an act so insignificant as to be merely totemic. Paper or plastic? Who the hell cares?

In the developed world, few of us, essentially none of us, currently live a "one-planet life." The vast majority of us, even of those of us who have committed ourselves to change, consume more resources and energy than our sustainable share: indeed, it is very, very difficult to live an individually sustainable life, because the very systems in which we are enmeshed -- which enfold and make possible our lifestyles -- are themselves insanely unsustainable. We're driving our hybrid SUVs down the highway to the Collapse.

Most of the harm we cause in the world is done far from our sight, created through the workings of vast systems whose workings are often intentionally hidden from us, and over which we have very little influence as single individuals. Alone, we are essentially powerless to change anything that matters.