Readers letters, May 23, 2003

I thought of you when I picked up the phone this morning and a young professional male voice said if I ever compared Israel to Warsaw again he would kill me, "You f*king c*nt b*t*h." I called the police. But have not told the children. Just getting through high school is enough worry for my teenager without this too!

Regards, Jane Stillwater

Now that the Feds no longer provide services, do we still have to pay taxes?

"Government" happens when we all get together and hire folks to provide services for us.

The federal government has gone off on some hair-brained scheme to conquer the world and is no longer providing the services we need.

Since our state and local governments have stepped in to fill the void, would it be a good idea to start paying income taxes directly to state governments instead of to the Feds? Or, since we are not receiving the services that we pay for, do we have to pay taxes at all?

Why give the Feds a big chunk of our salary when they are no longer doing their jobs.

Very truly yours, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!" Plus it would be less taxing.

Prayer from an Ann LaMott book (I forget which one):

Help for the sick and hungry

Home for the homeless folk

Peace in the world forever

This is my prayer, Oh Lord.

From Truthout: Trouble in Bush's America

By Bob Herbert, New York Times

While our "What, me worry?" president is having a great time with his high approval ratings and his "Top Gun" fantasies, the economy remains in the tank. And the finances of state and local governments are sinking tragically into ever deeper and ever more unforgiving waters.

You want shock and awe? Come to New York City, where jobs are hard to find and the budget (as residents are suddenly realizing) is a backbreaking regimen of service cuts, tax increases and that perennial painkiller, wishful thinking.

The biggest wish, of course, is that the national economy will suddenly turn around and flood the city and state with desperately needed revenues. Meanwhile, the soup kitchens and food pantries are besieged.

...The high unemployment and sharply reduced social services are having devastating consequences. In some cases people are being driven to destitution.

"This is a really spooky time for us," said John Hoffmann, who runs a food pantry and soup kitchen in the Bronx. He's faced with both a surge in demand and, because of government budget cuts, a threat to his financing.

...California is trying to borrow its way out of a nightmarish crisis. Texas, already near the bottom nationally in social services, is heading further south.

Two forms of help from the federal government are needed. One is direct assistance to local governments to help alleviate the disastrous budget shortfalls. The other is an economic stimulus program that really works, that boosts the economy and creates jobs through investments in some of the nation's real needs, rather than simply transferring trainloads of money to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts.

Mr. Bush has no interest in such remedies. Easing the economic struggles of poor and working families in America is not part of his agenda.

http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news City studies budget options - including bankruptcy (Pittsburgh) [Mayor Tom] Murphy administration officials are studying "worst-case scenarios" including bankruptcy, layoffs and closing city facilities in case the city does not get budget help by July 1.

The old shell game (or is it bait and switch?): Give states block grants which don't cover costs of programs then blame the states when the programs fail -- and thus get rid of the programs without appearing to be the bad guys who just cut off education, housing, social security, healthcare, etc.

Dear Dr. Hassan A El-Najjar,

I am writing to you regarding "The future of the Mujahideen Khalq" article, I left Iran to live in exile and oppose this regime for the past 18 years.

I am not sure who Mahan Abedin is, what I can feel from this article that s/he does not have any knowledge about history of Mojaheedin and is only another great voice of Mullah's regime.

I am not going to speak on Mujaheedin's behalf but I can speak on my behalf as of one of their supporters for over 24 years.

I have been in prison, tortured, lost family members and many of my friends whom were all students (16-17) at the time of their arrest, were killed and cut to the pieces, I am writing on their behalf and in their name.

It makes me sick to see someone defend a back warded, fundamentalist and terrorists regime. But I am not surprised Mullahs regime has been spending million of dollars to buy PR for themselves and criticize or label Mojaheedin with anything that can be done even if it sound ridiculous.

The comments made in this article is no different than those published in Iran by so called moderates or hard liners publishers.

The truth of fact is that regime knows that their only main opposition is Mujaheedin, they are still powerful and popular in Iran. The proof, take a look at thousands and thousands supporters demonstrating in their behalf in exile or more than 130,000 people executed or thousands men and women in their army. What other organization you know that have such a support. Of course people would not openly support Mujaheedin in Iran since they know they will be immediately arrested and killed. But when they leave the country, they join Mujaheein's opposition in the streets, or join their army.

Mujaheedin is not a cult this is what regime tries to say all the time if that is the case then Khomeniisim is a cult as well.

NO, those freedom lovers and independent Iran lovers join this group and won't stop until Mullahs and fundamentalists are out of Iran, until freedom and democracy restored in Iran.

It is not important how many years will it take but it will happen. Mujaheedin's fight did not start in Iraq and certainly will not end there, this opposition will move on.

It makes me laugh to read that about 80 ex-leaders of Mujaheedin had a seminar and conclude that this is end of Mujaheedin. First of all, out of all supporters, members and commanders, 80 ex-claimed leaders are pretty good number. By the way who were they and why did not hear/read form this seminar any where or any place?

Also, who are they to determine if mujaheedin will exist or not? We all know as they know very well. that they left the opposition since obviously they couldn't take the level of dedication shown by Mujaheen.

Let me repeat Lajevardi (head of Evin prison) 22 years ago. I was in prison and Lajevardi was the sole decision maker in Evin, carrying 400 executions a night right behind the walls they kept us.

One night in prison mosque, he said it to all us that "yes, we will kill all of you, if you want to say we are afraid of you so be it, we think any of you alive is a small Mujaheedin organization, we must destroy this organization and get rid of every single one of you because as long as they are and you are present you are our enemy". No wonder that we have a list of known 130,000 people killed by this regime and that is not the whole picture. I am confident that we will find mass graves after these mullah's are gone.

I like to advice your author, "Instead of using your pen and try to label Mujaheedin take your pen and write about the atrocity of this regime or peoples resistance against this regime. That way Iranian will remember you as of an Iran lover not Iran's enemy.

Thanks

Shirin Nariman

I thank you all for your heartfelt responses, and I repeat my initial assertion

and also the thesis of the last message below. Osama bin Laden is not who you say

he is, because that would make George W. Bush an honest man. At least Lyndon

LaRouche agrees with me.

http://rense.com/general37/exevc.htm

Best wishes,

John Kaminski

Tarrytown judge's remark sparks outrage

By JONATHAN BANDLER

THE JOURNAL NEWS

May 21, 2003

http://www.nynews.com/newsroom/052103/a0121tarryjudge.html

TARRYTOWN — An Arab-American woman who fainted in village court said she

suffered an anxiety attack after the judge asked if she were a terrorist.

Subj: Foreign secretary was target for assassination by Zionist groups

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=408352

Soros goes on Iraq watch

nzoom (New Zealand) 21 May 2003

Concerned that Iraq's oil might fall under the control of US-led coalition forces, financier and philanthropist Georges Soros has launched an "Iraq Revenue Watch" to ensure that the Iraqi people will benefit from their own resources.

Watch will monitor the defeated country's oil industry, which should be managed "with the highest standards of transparency and that the benefits of national oil wealth flow to the people of Iraq".

Soros, who made a fortune from foreign currency trading, is well known in Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia for his humanitarian programs, which are managed by his New York-based Open Society Institute.

The institute has criticised oil-rich countries like Nigeria and Venezuela for squandering their natural resources and for the lack of proper stewardship, which has often led to political abuses, corruption and a failure to raise living standards.

The institute has called on the United States to set up rules to ensure complete transparency in using Iraq's oil to benefit the Iraqi people.

Soros called on the UN Security Council to modify the latest draft of a resolution written by the US and Britain to give an explicit and important role to the UN and to define the responsibilities of those two countries as the occupying powers in Iraq.

He said at a press conference at UN headquarters that the revised draft was still too vague on the UN role.

"If approved (by the council), the resolution ... would establish an indefinite American protectorate of Iraq sanctioned by the United Nations and paid for by Iraq's oil revenues," the Open Society Institute said in a press statement.

"It would also undermine international law," the statement said.

"The UN and the secretary-general should be given a more substantial role in Iraq."

Source: AAP

http://onebusiness.nzoom.com/onebusiness_detail/0,1245,191712-3-168,00.html

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