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...... MORE Page 2>

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.

School Recruiting Could Violate Intl. Protocol

Torture: a Bully's Creed

Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers

World carbon dioxide levels highest for 650,000 years, says US report

Living Standards Under Stress

The Problem with Rev. Wright ... There are Too Few Like Him

Is Who Becomes the Next President All That Matters?

Brazil activists fear death squads back

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