THE DAY OF ALL DAYS HAS ARRIVED

COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

EXAMINATION OF THE UNITED STATES 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th PERIODIC REPORTS

OF APRIL, 2007

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

IN THE UNITED STATES

CONSOLIDATED INDIGENOUS SHADOW REPORT

Submitted by Alberto Saldamando

International Indian Treaty Council

2390 Mission Street, Suite 301

San Francisco, California, 94110 USA

Tel: + (415) 641-4482

Fax: + (415) 641-1298

Email: alberto@treatycouncil.org

http://www.treatycouncil.org

Dedicated to Floyd Redcrow Westerman

American Indian Movement Statesman, Warrior,

IITC Spokesman, Leader and Guide

Who passed into the Spirit World on December 13, 2007

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge all of the testimonies provided by Indigenous Peoples, Nations, Organizations and individuals that, in their own words, make up the substance of this Shadow Report. Although not all could be included, all contributed to whatever richness and scope it may have. Contributions and testimonies are cited in the body of the report.

This Shadow Report is an enlargement of the US National Indigenous Shadow Report. Contributors include: Alberto Saldamando, Working Group Co-coordinator, International Indian Treaty Council; Julie Fishel, Working Group Co-coordinator, Western Shoshone Defense Project; Hope Clark, Candidate for Masters in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management from the School for International Training; Manuel Pino, Professor, Scottsdale Community College; Josh Clark; Jaime Arsenault; Roxanne Ornelas, University of Minnesota; Sakura Saunders, CorpWatch; and, Andrea Carmen, International Indian Treaty Council.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary 1

Introduction – Major Concerns and the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples 3

The Obligation to Report on Indigenous Peoples 5

I.Omissions of the US Periodic Report 5

II.Un-recognized Indigenous Peoples 6

III.Indian Reservation Apartheid 7

A. Life Expectancy on the Indian Reservation 8

B. Unemployment and Poverty in Employment 9

C. Disproportionate Victimization, Incarceration and Sentencing 10

Racially Discriminatory Constitutional Foundations 13

I.The Marshall Trilogy: The Origins of Racist Constitutional Doctrine 13

A. The Plenary Powers Doctrine 14

B. The “Trust” Relationship 15

II.Current Application of Racist Constitutional Doctrines 16

A. The Termination of Recognized Indian Tribes 17

B. The Abrogation of Treaties between the United States and Indigenous Peoples 20

C. The Continuing “Taking” of Indian Lands 22

D. The Corruption of the “Trust” Doctrine 24

E. The Continuing Denial of the Right of Self Determination: “Criminal” Jurisdiction 26

III.The Failure of Recognition of Indigenous Peoples as Peoples 28

A. “Unrecognized” Indigenous Tribes 28

B. Alaskan Native Peoples 29

C. Native Hawai’ians 31

D. The Indigenous Peoples of Puerto Rico and Guam 32

Sacred Lands and the Right of Spiritual Practice 33

I.Sacred Lands 34

A. Recognized Tribes and Treaty Rights: The Lakota Nation and Bear Butte (Mato Paha), Black Hills, South Dakota: 36

B. Dishonored Treaty, Seeking Recognition: The Winnemmem Wintu of Northern California, McCloud River: 38

C. Indigenous but with No Recognized Rights: the Native Peoples of Hawai’i, Mauna Kea: 39

D. No recognition and no rights at all: The Taino, Native Peoples of Puerto Rico, The Sacred Caguana Ceremonial Center in Utuado, Borikén: 39

II.The Religious rights of Prison Inmates 41

Environmental Racism and its effects on Indigenous human rights 44

I.The Right to Life: The Nuclear Fuel Chain and Environmental Racism 46

II.Environmental Racism and the Right to Food 48

III.Health and Environmental Racism 49

The Denial of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the Political, Economic, Social, Cultural or any Other Field of Public Life 51

I.The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health 51

II.Freedom from Violence - Violence against Indigenous Women 54

III.Racism in “Homeland Security” 55

A. Death along the Border: 55

B. Desecration and Denial of Access to Sacred Places: 56

C. The confiscation of Indigenous lands: 58

IV.Voting Rights 59

Racist Science and the Collective Right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent 60

I.The Indigenous Human Genome 60

II.The Wild Rice Genome: 1Manoomin and the Anishinaabeg 63

Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention 65

I.Boarding Schools 65

II.Textbooks 69

III.Racist Sports Mascots and Logos 72

United States and its Transnational Companies Violations of the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples Abroad 73

I.US Transnationals Abroad 73

II.United States Complicity: the Manufacture and Exportation of Banned Pesticides 77

III.Direct US Government Environmental Racism Abroad: 82

IV.US military bases on Indigenous communities in the Philippines 84

Conclusion and Recommendations 84

Executive Summary

The Introduction reviews the standards by which compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) should be measured, reviewing the recent passage of the United Nations Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and the lack of recognition and respect of the rights of many Indigenous Peoples and Nations within the jurisdiction of the United States (US). Many rights contained in the UN Declaration are already customary international law and recognized by the US itself but only with reference to “recognized” tribes. The Introduction also points out that the US takes the attitude that recognition of Indigenous rights, particularly political rights, are a form of “racial preference” and not a matter of rights.

The US fails in its Obligation to Report on Indigenous Peoples. We cite data on the overwhelming disparities in income, life expectancy, poverty and unemployment, as well as disproportionate victimization, incarceration and sentencing suffered by Indigenous Peoples on Indian Reservations, not reported by the United States. The data contained in this section as well as others (see, e.g., Violence Against Women, The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health) reflect what can only be describe as a system of Apartheid and forced assimilation, by purpose or effect, on many if not most Indian Reservations, where Indigenous people are warehoused in poverty and neglect, their only option being to abandon their lands, families, languages and cultures to search for a better life.

The United States Racist Constitutional Foundation, Legal Structure is examined, as is the current application of racist constitutional doctrine established by the United States Supreme Court in the 1830s. Incuded in current application are the threat of termination of the Cherokee Nation, Treaty abrogation, corruption of the so-called “Trust Doctrine” and the continuing negation of Indigenous Peoples’ right of self determination.

Considerable attention is paid to Sacred Lands and the Right of Spiritual Practice, as it continues to be of paramount importance to Indigenous Peoples, whether recognized by the US or not. The Addendum, Sacred Lands, incudes Indigenous Peoples’ own testimony on the negation of religious rights in all parts of the United States. Given the disfavor in international law to the extinguishment of Aboriginal Title, and the fact that most of these Sacred Lands are owned and administered by agencies of the United States, a major recommendation of this Shadow Report is the recommendation to the United States of the return to Indigenous Peoples of these Sacred Lands, still in use by them for Spiritual and religious practice in spite of great obstacles posed by the US and its agencies. Environmental Racism and its effects on Indigenous human rights is examined as it permeates all aspects of Indigenous life, including Spiritual Practice examined above, as well as means of subsistence, health and well-being, culture and religion.

Other current and particularly discriminatory policies and practices are examined in The Denial of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the Political, Economic, Social, Cultural or any Other Field of Public Life, including the right to health, violence against women, so-called “Homeland Security” and the lack of protection for the right to vote.

Racist Science and the Collective Right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent describes how scientific inquiry in th United States particularly attacks Indigenous Peoples in their own human genome and identity and that which they hold Sacred.

US compliance with Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention is examined particularly with regard to the lack of any reparation or apology for Indian Boarding Schools (the kidnapping of children in order to “kill the Indian and save the man), as well as texbooks in public schools and the use of racist logos and mascots by US sports teams.

United States Racial Discrimination against Indigenous Peoples Abroad describes racism in the conduct of US foreign policy negatively affecting the human rights of Indigenous Peoples abroad. Domestic US policy, the allowing of the manufacture for export of pesticides banned in the United States affecting the life, health and well being of Indigenous Peoples abroad is also documented. The conduct of US transnational Corporations is examined, with another major recommendation that the US be held accountable for its own behavior as well as the behavior of its corporations, as they affect the rights of Indigenous Peoples abroad.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary 1

Introduction – Major Concerns and the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples 3

The Obligation to Report on Indigenous Peoples 5

I.Omissions of the US Periodic Report 5

II.Un-recognized Indigenous Peoples 6

III.Indian Reservation Apartheid 7

A. Life Expectancy on the Indian Reservation 8

B. Unemployment and Poverty in Employment 9

C. Disproportionate Victimization, Incarceration and Sentencing 10

Racially Discriminatory Constitutional Foundations 13

I.The Marshall Trilogy: The Origins of Racist Constitutional Doctrine 13

A. The Plenary Powers Doctrine 14

B. The “Trust” Relationship 15

II.Current Application of Racist Constitutional Doctrines 16

A. The Termination of Recognized Indian Tribes 17

B. The Abrogation of Treaties between the United States and Indigenous Peoples 20

C. The Continuing “Taking” of Indian Lands 22

D. The Corruption of the “Trust” Doctrine 24

E. The Continuing Denial of the Right of Self Determination: “Criminal” Jurisdiction 26

III.The Failure of Recognition of Indigenous Peoples as Peoples 28

A. “Unrecognized” Indigenous Tribes 28

B. Alaskan Native Peoples 29

C. Native Hawai’ians 31

D. The Indigenous Peoples of Puerto Rico and Guam 32

Sacred Lands and the Right of Spiritual Practice 33

I.Sacred Lands 34

A. Recognized Tribes and Treaty Rights: The Lakota Nation and Bear Butte (Mato Paha), Black Hills, South Dakota: 36

B. Dishonored Treaty, Seeking Recognition: The Winnemmem Wintu of Northern California, McCloud River: 38

C. Indigenous but with No Recognized Rights: the Native Peoples of Hawai’i, Mauna Kea: 39

D. No recognition and no rights at all: The Taino, Native Peoples of Puerto Rico, The Sacred Caguana Ceremonial Center in Utuado, Borikén: 39

II.The Religious rights of Prison Inmates 41

Environmental Racism and its effects on Indigenous human rights 44

I.The Right to Life: The Nuclear Fuel Chain and Environmental Racism 46

II.Environmental Racism and the Right to Food 48

III.Health and Environmental Racism 49

The Denial of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the Political, Economic, Social, Cultural or any Other Field of Public Life 51

I.The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health 51

II.Freedom from Violence - Violence against Indigenous Women 54

III.Racism in “Homeland Security” 55

A. Death along the Border: 55

B. Desecration and Denial of Access to Sacred Places: 56

C. The confiscation of Indigenous lands: 58

IV.Voting Rights 59

Racist Science and the Collective Right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent 60

I.The Indigenous Human Genome 60

II.The Wild Rice Genome: 1Manoomin and the Anishinaabeg 63

Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention 65

I.Boarding Schools 65

II.Textbooks 69

III.Racist Sports Mascots and Logos 72

United States and its Transnational Companies Violations of the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples Abroad 73

I.US Transnationals Abroad 73

II.United States Complicity: the Manufacture and Exportation of Banned Pesticides 77

III.Direct US Government Environmental Racism Abroad: 82

IV.US military bases on Indigenous communities in the Philippines 84

Conclusion and Recommendations 84

Executive Summary

The Introduction reviews the standards by which compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) should be measured, reviewing the recent passage of the United Nations Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and the lack of recognition and respect of the rights of many Indigenous Peoples and Nations within the jurisdiction of the United States (US). Many rights contained in the UN Declaration are already customary international law and recognized by the US itself but only with reference to “recognized” tribes. The Introduction also points out that the US takes the attitude that recognition of Indigenous rights, particularly political rights, are a form of “racial preference” and not a matter of rights.

The US fails in its Obligation to Report on Indigenous Peoples. We cite data on the overwhelming disparities in income, life expectancy, poverty and unemployment, as well as disproportionate victimization, incarceration and sentencing suffered by Indigenous Peoples on Indian Reservations, not reported by the United States. The data contained in this section as well as others (see, e.g., Violence Against Women, The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health) reflect what can only be describe as a system of Apartheid and forced assimilation, by purpose or effect, on many if not most Indian Reservations, where Indigenous people are warehoused in poverty and neglect, their only option being to abandon their lands, families, languages and cultures to search for a better life.

The United States Racist Constitutional Foundation, Legal Structure is examined, as is the current application of racist constitutional doctrine established by the United States Supreme Court in the 1830s. Incuded in current application are the threat of termination of the Cherokee Nation, Treaty abrogation, corruption of the so-called “Trust Doctrine” and the continuing negation of Indigenous Peoples’ right of self determination.

Considerable attention is paid to Sacred Lands and the Right of Spiritual Practice, as it continues to be of paramount importance to Indigenous Peoples, whether recognized by the US or not. The Addendum, Sacred Lands, incudes Indigenous Peoples’ own testimony on the negation of religious rights in all parts of the United States. Given the disfavor in international law to the extinguishment of Aboriginal Title, and the fact that most of these Sacred Lands are owned and administered by agencies of the United States, a major recommendation of this Shadow Report is the recommendation to the United States of the return to Indigenous Peoples of these Sacred Lands, still in use by them for Spiritual and religious practice in spite of great obstacles posed by the US and its agencies. Environmental Racism and its effects on Indigenous human rights is examined as it permeates all aspects of Indigenous life, including Spiritual Practice examined above, as well as means of subsistence, health and well-being, culture and religion.

Other current and particularly discriminatory policies and practices are examined in The Denial of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the Political, Economic, Social, Cultural or any Other Field of Public Life, including the right to health, violence against women, so-called “Homeland Security” and the lack of protection for the right to vote.

Racist Science and the Collective Right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent describes how scientific inquiry in th United States particularly attacks Indigenous Peoples in their own human genome and identity and that which they hold Sacred.

US compliance with Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention is examined particularly with regard to the lack of any reparation or apology for Indian Boarding Schools (the kidnapping of children in order to “kill the Indian and save the man), as well as texbooks in public schools and the use of racist logos and mascots by US sports teams.

United States Racial Discrimination against Indigenous Peoples Abroad describes racism in the conduct of US foreign policy negatively affecting the human rights of Indigenous Peoples abroad. Domestic US policy, the allowing of the manufacture for export of pesticides banned in the United States affecting the life, health and well being of Indigenous Peoples abroad is also documented. The conduct of US transnational Corporations is examined, with another major recommendation that the US be held accountable for its own behavior as well as the behavior of its corporations, as they affect the rights of Indigenous Peoples abroad.

MEGWEETCH.

Now will you PLEASE Let Leonard Peltier out of jail.

We all need to walk in dignity after all these decades.

And should you find this and be concerned with Canada,

please act on the behalf of Paula Sherman, Robert Lovelace and Shawn Brant

Have you done something for aboriginal peoples today?

The full report can be obtained at:

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bo.../usa/ USHRN8.doc.

Bush administration intervenes to shield Wall Street from housing meltdown

My comment: This is a GREAT article. Very precise and lays it all out.

However, my instincts tell me that for CONgress to drop legislation securing mortgages for the vulnerable is way out of line. The Bushistas/ neocons/ Clintonistas are so good at manipulating markets I don't trust them on anything. Wallpapering over cracks is the name of one of their games.

This new ploy is just an attempt to keep the stock and currency markets from falling over the next couple of months, as most spending is during the Christmas season and DEBT is created. They want that consumer debt piling up to prop up the banks' liquidity problems. Only increased consumer debt can bail out the current market panic.

The banks' "liquidity problem" is way out of control; it can be exasperated by lack of debt being piled on through consumer purchases over the next two months - but the real underlying problem is going to come home to roost ANYWAY. There really is no way to avoid the long-term tanking out of the global financial system - the values created by the housing bubble's prop up of the global financial system are just too starkly out of line.

We can get into a discussion here of discussion of the creation of private property and the state ala Fredrick Engels, but I'll bypass that and spare you all. But the main point is, with this system of creating value, any and all NATURAL disasters wreck havoc on state and market created values of land. So, as these earthchanges proceed (and they will!) things are going to stay volatile, the banks be damned. They really are just a convenient place to stash money for those that have it. That is all. Helping them stay afloat and provide so-called liquidity is just pure rubbish to my mind, esepcially at a time when funding wars of aggresion on behalf of transnationals.

We are going to see a DEPRESSION, we are going to see folks have to come together in order to survive .. and if we aren't CAREFUL in the extreme, the woman and children are going to suffer even more than before as the values currently held in society are so messed up.

But this is a good "Read" of the current state of play, the hijinks of the Plunge Protection Team and the hysteria afloat. But to give Bush credit? Give me a break!! That's why I think people like Paul Krugman are the most awful deceivers of all.

What is actually happening is an attempt to bail out investors in banks so that the crisis is not so apparent; if they sell in mass, the market tanks ala 1987 and 1929. This has little to do with "being nice to homeowner X". Here's a number: So far BuZh and Ben Helicopter Bernake and Hank have bailed out only 80,000 mortgage holders with federal guarantees on their mortgages and ONLY those who never defaulted on their payments. this is as we say "diddly squat". So how many more are ACTUALLY going to get bailed out this round? Let's WATCH.

At least the economic discussions are going mainstream and that's the best I can say at this point. People are waking up.

Plan to freeze some subprime mortgage rates

Bush administration intervenes to shield Wall Street from housing meltdown

By Barry Grey
3 December 2007

Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author

The Bush administration is seeking to obtain the agreement of major US banks, mortgage lenders and servicers, and financial institutions holding subprime mortgage-backed securities to freeze the interest rates on some subprime loans that are scheduled to reset at higher rates in the coming months.

As first reported in the November 30 Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, officials of the Federal Reserve Board and other US financial regulators met last Thursday with top Wall Street and home mortgage executives as well as housing counselors to discuss the plan. The newspaper said Paulson might speak publicly about the scheme at a housing conference today.

Calling itself the “Hope Now Alliance,” the government-Wall Street consortium is casting its deliberations as an altruistic effort to rescue homeowners overwhelmed by mortgage debt from foreclosure when their adjustable-rate loans reset upwards by as much as 30 percent. However, press reports make clear that, should the plan come to fruition, only a minority of the 2 million families whose subprime mortgages will reset over the next 18 months would get temporary relief in the form of a rate freeze or some other mortgage restructuring arrangement.

The motivation behind the discussions is the growing alarm on Wall Street and in Washington over the potentially catastrophic financial implications of the accelerating housing slump and related crisis on credit markets. The proposals under discussion are calibrated to avert—at the least possible cost to the banks and big investors—a collapse of major US banks and other financial institutions that could be triggered by spiraling home foreclosures and the implosion of hundreds of billions of dollars in speculative investments tied to the subprime housing boom of previous years.

In essence, the scheme is aimed at containing the home foreclosure epidemic sufficiently to shield the major financial institutions from the full consequences of years of rampant speculation, accompanied by accounting manipulations that concealed the immense levels of risk behind the soaring profits and gargantuan salaries reaped by Wall Street executives.

Were the plan implemented, it would allow holders of mortgage-backed securities to put off marking down their assets.

Most of those who stand to lose their homes —after having been lured into high-interest rate mortgages by predatory lenders, including some of the biggest US banks, when their “teaser” rates expire and their monthly payments shoot up by hundreds of dollars— will not benefit from the plans being thrashed out between the administration and Wall Street.

Among those involved in the negotiations are Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual and Countrywide Financial (the country’s largest home mortgage lender). Also at Thursday’s Washington meeting were representatives of the American Securitization Forum, whose members issue, buy and rate securities backed by bundles of mortgages.

According to the Wall Street Journal, key aspects of the plan have yet to be agreed upon, and some press reports suggest that the entire project could founder, primarily because some big holders of securities backed by subprime loans object to foregoing the increased profits they anticipate once the higher mortgage rates take effect. However, according to the Journal, the American Securitization Forum has come around to the position that the potential losses from foreclosed homes would be far greater than the losses from an interest rate freeze on some subprime loans.

Citigroup, the largest US bank, Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual and Countrywide Financial all face potentially disastrous losses from the accelerating housing and foreclosure crisis. Citigroup has already announced $13 billion in write-offs of securities linked to subprime mortgages, and may be forced to absorb another $65 billion in losses from off-balance-sheet speculative investments that are crashing.

Just last week Moody’s Investors Service announced it had downgraded or put on review $119 billion in debt issued by so-called “structured investment vehicles” (SIVs). This includes $64.9 billion in debt issued by six SIV’s set up by Citigroup.

According to some estimates, between $400 and $500 billion in assets of international banks, investment houses, insurance companies and hedge funds will be wiped out by the collapse of the US housing market and resulting credit crunch.

Among the issues still under discussion between the administration and financial houses, according to press reports, are the length of any temporary freeze on subprime interest rates and the criteria for deciding which subprime borrowers would be eligible.

The Journal wrote on Friday: “Treasury officials say financial institutions are likely to set criteria that divide up subprime borrowers into three groups: those who can continues to make their payments even if rates rise, those who can’t afford their mortgages even if rates stay steady, and those who could keep their homes if the maturity date of their mortgages were extended or the interest rates remained at the teaser rates. Only the third group would be eligible for help.”

The newspaper added that creditors would take into account whether the borrowers had equity in their homes, despite falling house prices, and whether their incomes were steady. Because of the precipitous decline in house prices, many subprime borrowers now owe more than the market value of their homes.

The criteria outlined above make it clear that the most distressed homeowners would be excluded from a temporary interest rate freeze and left to be thrown onto the street.

Harvey L. Pitt, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is now working for some hedge funds with a stake in the negotiations on a possible subprime rate freeze, said that even a generous freeze would help only a minority of subprime borrowers. He said a freeze would do nothing to help people who took out a “no documentation” loan, overstated their incomes and borrowed more than they could repay. Nor would a freeze help those whose mortgage is higher than the market value of their homes.

The increasingly desperate state of the US financial system and the precarious position of some of the biggest banks, has led the administration to shift its previous position of a hands-off approach, aside from urging mortgage lenders to provide relief to mortgage borrowers on a one-by-one basis.

It is estimated that there are $1 trillion in US subprime loans. Interest rates are scheduled to reset next year on $362 billion worth of adjustable-rate subprime mortgages, and another $85 billion in these mortgages is resetting in the course of the current quarter. These include loans that are bundled into so-called “collateralized debt obligations” that are held in the portfolios of banks, hedge funds, mutual funds and insurance companies.

In recent months, the foreclosure rate on subprime loans has soared to 10 percent, and top Treasury officials fear that unless some relief is provided, the foreclosure rate could spiral even higher.

The announcement of the subprime negotiations was the second major step taken last week by government and finance officials to reassure the stock market and financial institutions in response to a raft of reports showing a deepening credit crunch, rapidly falling home sales and prices, soaring foreclosure rates, declining durable goods orders, rising unemployment claims and sagging personal incomes and consumer spending—all pointing to a sharp contraction in economic growth in the current quarter and the likelihood of a full-scale recession in 2008.

The vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Donald L. Kohn, and the chairman, Ben Bernanke, both delivered speeches broadly hinting at a further interest rate cut when Fed policy makers meet again on December 11. Financial interests are clamoring for a cut of at least 0.25 percent—the third since last August—to further open the credit spigot and forestall catastrophic losses on Wall Street.

The Fed officials’ remarks helped spark a two-day rally of 546 points Tuesday and Wednesday in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and similar sharp gains in the other major stock indexes, and further, more modest gains, on Thursday and Friday. Reports of the subprime negotiations led to large gains for the stocks of financial companies involved in the talks in Friday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares in Citigroup rose 3.1 percent, Countrywide Financial shot up 16 percent, and Wells Fargo rose 6 percent.

Another factor driving the administration’s subprime initiative is a desire to preempt legislation being introduced by Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate to halt predatory lending and restrict some practices that are widespread among subprime lenders. Some Democrats are also seeking to pass a bill that would allow bankruptcy judges to change the terms of mortgages to help people retain their homes.

The initial response of prominent Democrats to news of the government-led negotiations indicates that they are more than willing to seize on the plan to drop any serious legislation to curb mortgage lending abuses. The liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman offered “kudos to the Bush administration” on his blog, and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank said he was “encouraged by reports of progress” in efforts to help borrowers facing foreclosure.

See Also:
Credit crisis reveals widespread accounting manipulation by top US banks
[27 November 2007]
US recession fears grow as bank losses mount
[21 November 2007]
Near-panic atmosphere as US Federal Reserve chairman testifies before Congress
[9 November 2007]
Citigroup ousts CEO, warns of billions more in subprime losses
[6 November 2007]
Stock market gyrations fueled by credit, housing market crisis
[3 November 2007]

Top of page The WSWS invites your comments.

Plan to freeze some subprime mortgage rates

Bush administration intervenes to shield Wall Street from housing meltdown

By Barry Grey
3 December 2007

Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author

The Bush administration is seeking to obtain the agreement of major US banks, mortgage lenders and servicers, and financial institutions holding subprime mortgage-backed securities to freeze the interest rates on some subprime loans that are scheduled to reset at higher rates in the coming months.

As first reported in the November 30 Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, officials of the Federal Reserve Board and other US financial regulators met last Thursday with top Wall Street and home mortgage executives as well as housing counselors to discuss the plan. The newspaper said Paulson might speak publicly about the scheme at a housing conference today.

Calling itself the “Hope Now Alliance,” the government-Wall Street consortium is casting its deliberations as an altruistic effort to rescue homeowners overwhelmed by mortgage debt from foreclosure when their adjustable-rate loans reset upwards by as much as 30 percent. However, press reports make clear that, should the plan come to fruition, only a minority of the 2 million families whose subprime mortgages will reset over the next 18 months would get temporary relief in the form of a rate freeze or some other mortgage restructuring arrangement.

The motivation behind the discussions is the growing alarm on Wall Street and in Washington over the potentially catastrophic financial implications of the accelerating housing slump and related crisis on credit markets. The proposals under discussion are calibrated to avert—at the least possible cost to the banks and big investors—a collapse of major US banks and other financial institutions that could be triggered by spiraling home foreclosures and the implosion of hundreds of billions of dollars in speculative investments tied to the subprime housing boom of previous years.

In essence, the scheme is aimed at containing the home foreclosure epidemic sufficiently to shield the major financial institutions from the full consequences of years of rampant speculation, accompanied by accounting manipulations that concealed the immense levels of risk behind the soaring profits and gargantuan salaries reaped by Wall Street executives.

Were the plan implemented, it would allow holders of mortgage-backed securities to put off marking down their assets.

Most of those who stand to lose their homes —after having been lured into high-interest rate mortgages by predatory lenders, including some of the biggest US banks, when their “teaser” rates expire and their monthly payments shoot up by hundreds of dollars— will not benefit from the plans being thrashed out between the administration and Wall Street.

Among those involved in the negotiations are Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual and Countrywide Financial (the country’s largest home mortgage lender). Also at Thursday’s Washington meeting were representatives of the American Securitization Forum, whose members issue, buy and rate securities backed by bundles of mortgages.

According to the Wall Street Journal, key aspects of the plan have yet to be agreed upon, and some press reports suggest that the entire project could founder, primarily because some big holders of securities backed by subprime loans object to foregoing the increased profits they anticipate once the higher mortgage rates take effect. However, according to the Journal, the American Securitization Forum has come around to the position that the potential losses from foreclosed homes would be far greater than the losses from an interest rate freeze on some subprime loans.

Citigroup, the largest US bank, Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual and Countrywide Financial all face potentially disastrous losses from the accelerating housing and foreclosure crisis. Citigroup has already announced $13 billion in write-offs of securities linked to subprime mortgages, and may be forced to absorb another $65 billion in losses from off-balance-sheet speculative investments that are crashing.

Just last week Moody’s Investors Service announced it had downgraded or put on review $119 billion in debt issued by so-called “structured investment vehicles” (SIVs). This includes $64.9 billion in debt issued by six SIV’s set up by Citigroup.

According to some estimates, between $400 and $500 billion in assets of international banks, investment houses, insurance companies and hedge funds will be wiped out by the collapse of the US housing market and resulting credit crunch.

Among the issues still under discussion between the administration and financial houses, according to press reports, are the length of any temporary freeze on subprime interest rates and the criteria for deciding which subprime borrowers would be eligible.

The Journal wrote on Friday: “Treasury officials say financial institutions are likely to set criteria that divide up subprime borrowers into three groups: those who can continues to make their payments even if rates rise, those who can’t afford their mortgages even if rates stay steady, and those who could keep their homes if the maturity date of their mortgages were extended or the interest rates remained at the teaser rates. Only the third group would be eligible for help.”

The newspaper added that creditors would take into account whether the borrowers had equity in their homes, despite falling house prices, and whether their incomes were steady. Because of the precipitous decline in house prices, many subprime borrowers now owe more than the market value of their homes.

The criteria outlined above make it clear that the most distressed homeowners would be excluded from a temporary interest rate freeze and left to be thrown onto the street.

Harvey L. Pitt, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is now working for some hedge funds with a stake in the negotiations on a possible subprime rate freeze, said that even a generous freeze would help only a minority of subprime borrowers. He said a freeze would do nothing to help people who took out a “no documentation” loan, overstated their incomes and borrowed more than they could repay. Nor would a freeze help those whose mortgage is higher than the market value of their homes.

The increasingly desperate state of the US financial system and the precarious position of some of the biggest banks, has led the administration to shift its previous position of a hands-off approach, aside from urging mortgage lenders to provide relief to mortgage borrowers on a one-by-one basis.

It is estimated that there are $1 trillion in US subprime loans. Interest rates are scheduled to reset next year on $362 billion worth of adjustable-rate subprime mortgages, and another $85 billion in these mortgages is resetting in the course of the current quarter. These include loans that are bundled into so-called “collateralized debt obligations” that are held in the portfolios of banks, hedge funds, mutual funds and insurance companies.

In recent months, the foreclosure rate on subprime loans has soared to 10 percent, and top Treasury officials fear that unless some relief is provided, the foreclosure rate could spiral even higher.

The announcement of the subprime negotiations was the second major step taken last week by government and finance officials to reassure the stock market and financial institutions in response to a raft of reports showing a deepening credit crunch, rapidly falling home sales and prices, soaring foreclosure rates, declining durable goods orders, rising unemployment claims and sagging personal incomes and consumer spending—all pointing to a sharp contraction in economic growth in the current quarter and the likelihood of a full-scale recession in 2008.

The vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Donald L. Kohn, and the chairman, Ben Bernanke, both delivered speeches broadly hinting at a further interest rate cut when Fed policy makers meet again on December 11. Financial interests are clamoring for a cut of at least 0.25 percent—the third since last August—to further open the credit spigot and forestall catastrophic losses on Wall Street.

The Fed officials’ remarks helped spark a two-day rally of 546 points Tuesday and Wednesday in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and similar sharp gains in the other major stock indexes, and further, more modest gains, on Thursday and Friday. Reports of the subprime negotiations led to large gains for the stocks of financial companies involved in the talks in Friday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares in Citigroup rose 3.1 percent, Countrywide Financial shot up 16 percent, and Wells Fargo rose 6 percent.

Another factor driving the administration’s subprime initiative is a desire to preempt legislation being introduced by Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate to halt predatory lending and restrict some practices that are widespread among subprime lenders. Some Democrats are also seeking to pass a bill that would allow bankruptcy judges to change the terms of mortgages to help people retain their homes.

The initial response of prominent Democrats to news of the government-led negotiations indicates that they are more than willing to seize on the plan to drop any serious legislation to curb mortgage lending abuses. The liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman offered “kudos to the Bush administration” on his blog, and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank said he was “encouraged by reports of progress” in efforts to help borrowers facing foreclosure.

See Also:
Credit crisis reveals widespread accounting manipulation by top US banks
[27 November 2007]
US recession fears grow as bank losses mount
[21 November 2007]
Near-panic atmosphere as US Federal Reserve chairman testifies before Congress
[9 November 2007]
Citigroup ousts CEO, warns of billions more in subprime losses
[6 November 2007]
Stock market gyrations fueled by credit, housing market crisis
[3 November 2007]

Top of page The WSWS invites your comments.

Recent list of URLS re the SPP and the North American Union

Despite the deafening silence in the US and Canadian media (Have they put ANY reporters on this in the lamestream media? one wonders .. hard to find them!!) the purpose of the upcoming conference is to ratify the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which was initiated by Bush, Martin and Fox in 2005. This so-called ‘partnership’ will result in what the politicians refer to as ‘continental integration’-newspeak for a North American Union- and basically a harmonization of 100’s of regulations, policies and laws.

Once this ‘partnership’ has been ratified a fait accompli; we will be following in the footsteps of the European Union. It will mean that Canada will become part of the North American Union by 2010, and resources, agricultural, health and environment issues, to name a few, will be controlled not by Canada or Mexico, but by the government of the North American Union.

Only there is a BIG difference: you see thesde two member countries are DWARFED by superpower the US! not the same as the European Union at ALL. Europe wasnt' boogged down in an era of genocide and endless way either at the start of the EU .. comparisons are not apt.

The coming megolithic‘NAFTA’ highway, one quarter of a mile wide, is already being built in Texas, where private land is being expropriated, and will eventually reach the Manitoba border and go on from there ... it allows the west coast shipping ports to be circumvented, instead relying on Mexican ports, in the name of facilitating "free trade" . but free trade of what ..? Asian drugs ..?

Water (the new gold) will be the ‘issue’ of this century, as more than 25 states in the U.S. are currently in desperate need. Where do you think they will get the water they need? Canada claims 20% of the world's fresh water "reserves"!! and plans to get it out where developed IN SECRET by the Center for Strategic and International Affairs in Washington DC; they very people who brought you the shock and awe technique used in bombing Iraq into submission.

The United States is already guaranteed 60% of Canadian natural gas resources from NAFTA, which mean that even during emergencies when we need energy which is somewhat perplexing since Canada only has 9 years of PROVABLE gas supplies for itself. Canada is asked to import it! in case of shortage ... This is just one example of how Canada is being shortchanged, and it’s only going to get worse. Even people in Harper's own Conservative party are aghast at this, which was only revealed in Parliament by Gordon Laxer - and the committee Chairman walked out in protest of his testimony!! -- a first in Canadian history. So much for government transparency.

People who are "in the know" in Canada are are perplexed and asking an obvious question these days: Why has there been absolutely NO public consultation on the biggest issue (North American Union) facing Canadians since Confederation?

What has happened to democracy ... or maybe more accurately .. why have we devolved into demo-craaaazee?

Government claims to be democratic, but in fact, does it act like one, or does it prefer to make the big decisions at committee level behind closed doors, while masking its real intentions?

The ratification of the SPP, and the emergence of the North American Union have been organized entirely by government committees and private enterprise for THEIR benefits which simply "won't do"! if we are to live through the 21st century.

Privatization of our resources, transnationals holding ALL the cards, and Canadian and Mexican governments with less and less authority will be a lasting legacy of DIS integration for all our chldren.

http://noworldsystem.com/2007/08/02/unrest-in-canada-over-nau/

Military To Crackdown On North American Union Protesters
http://www.infowars.net/articles/july2007/250707NAU.htm

10,000 To Protest North American Summit
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56703

Bush to Attend SPP Meeting in Canada (Aug. 20-21)
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56264

John Whitehead on the North American Union
Cheney Denies Plans To Build NAFTA Highway
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Confronted about SPP/
NAU Montebello Quebec Free Speech Ban
Oxycontin, Rudy Giuliani & the Sellout of America
Global Backlash Against Globalization?
No “Conspiracy Theory”: OKC Mayor Signed North American Union Document
Canadians Unaware Of Looming NAU
No Security or Prosperity for Canada in NAU
Opponents of U.S. sovereignty plan to sneak their agenda around Congress
Canadians Completely Unaware of North American Union
The Militarization and Annexation of North America
Protests As U.S. City Gives Aliens ID Cards
Illegal immigrants to get ID cards in Connecticut
DHS Warns States Not to Reject Real ID

What is the ‘North American Union’?

www. care2.com/news/member/956805373/441990

Here's a link to a YouTube video on the North American Union http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxCeWQ9Ge38 http://www.care2.com/news/member/956805373/441972 http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/backgrounders/guide/index.html Citizen's Guide to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) In March 2005, as a result of intense lobbying from North America’s richest corporations, the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States met in Waco, Texas to shake hands on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). The SPP was a pledge to speed up the corporate goal of continental economic integration by linking it to U.S. government security demands... For more information about the Council of Canadians, or its campaign against the SPP, please sign up to receive updates below or call us at 1-800-387-7177. http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/backgrounders/guide/index.html check this out: President Bush Declares State of National Emergency - Martial Law is Next Step http://www.care2.com/news/member/367830772/442943 http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=6415&pst=809487&archival=&posts=66 Red & White Ribbon Campaign - http://www.vivelecanada.ca/index.php http://www.vivelecanada.ca/staticpages/index.php/20030129013604271 Canadian Action Party http://www.canadianactionparty.ca/ Plus: http://www.care2.com/news/member/956805373/443155

Heading towards Global Famine

In case you are new here or are wondering - NO, I don't agree with this article.

He does not understand GLOBALIZATION or the role of transnationals in the global economy . he also does not understand human NEED nor the fact that unfettered capitalism leaves only the Big Fish with an assured diet ..

Veeger

Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies

Are we Heading Towards Global Famine?

Posted in Uncategorized by freemarketman on March 16th, 2008

I came across this interesting article by MSN Finance, Could we really run out of food?

Biofuel production, poor harvests and emerging nations’ growing appetites are emptying the world’s pantry, sending prices soaring. It’s a good time to invest in agricultural stocks.(My emphasis: See Jim Rogers on CNBC: Abolish The Federal Reserve and Bernanke)

As if a bear market, U.S. credit crunch, energy crisis and city financing emergency were not enough for one year, experts say the world is now facing down the barrel of the worst catastrophe of all: famine.

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The very idea that the modern world could run out of food seems ludicrous, but that is the flip side, or cause, of the tremendous recent increase in the cost of raw wheat, corn, rice, oats and soybeans. Food prices are not escalating because speculators have run them up for sport and profit. Food prices are escalating because accelerating demand in developing nations, biofuel production and poor harvests in some areas have made basic foodstuffs truly scarce.(My emphasis)

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In energy circles, folks who warn about the beginning of the end of cheap fossil fuels talk about “peak oil” as a point we have dangerously and expensively crossed. Likewise, you can now add “peak wheat” to your political and investment lexicon. And it’s a lot worse.

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It’s good to see the MSM reporting some thruth. The old line always sold to people is that the “bad capitalists” are driving food prices up through speculation and just “raising prices” for a fat profit. As the author correctly points out, accelerating demand from developing nations, stupid government socialist policies for biofuel production and crop failures (which is normal) are all factors coming together that facilitate rising prices. But, it’s not the real cause.

There is one issue the author doesn’t touch on, and it is the biggest, but least visible factor. It is called Monetary Inflation. This world has been flooded with cheap money by Central Banks since the beginning of the new millenium. So what has cheap money and food shortages got to do with each other?

I’m going to try and make this as easy as possible. First, have a look at this image of the Nile Delta. Keep the window open. Now read this (from Henry Hazlitt’s, “What You Should Know About Inflation“) :

“…it is contended that the increase in commodity prices often occurs before the increase in the money supply. This is true. This is what happened immediately after the outbreak of war in Korea. Strategic raw materials began to go up in price on the fear that they were going to be scarce.

Speculators and manufacturers began to buy them to hold for profit or protective inventories. But to do this they had to borrow more money from the banks. The rise in prices was accompanied by an equally marked rise in bank loans and deposits. From May 31,1950, to May 30,1951, the loans of the country’s banks increased by $12 billion.

If these increased loans had not been made, and new money (some $6 billion by the end of January 1951) had not been issued against the loans, the rise in prices could not have been sustained. The price rise was made possible, in short, only by an increased supply of money.”

And this…

One of the most stubborn fallacies about inflation is the assumption that it is caused, not by an increase in the quantity of money, but by a “shortage of goods.”

It is true that a rise in prices (which, as we have seen,should not be identified with inflation) can be caused either by an increase in the quantity of money or by a shortage of goods—or partly by both.

Wheat, for example, may rise in price either because there is an increase in the supply of money or a failure of the wheat crop. But we seldom find, even in conditions of total war, a general rise of prices caused by a general shortage of goods.

Yet so stubborn is the fallacy that inflation is caused by a “shortage of goods,” that even in the Germany of 1923, after prices had soared hundreds of billions of times, high officials and millions of Germans were blaming the whole thing on a general “shortage of goods”—at the very moment when foreigners were coming in and buying German goods with gold or their own currencies at prices lower than those of equivalent goods at home.

And lastly, this…

Inflation, to sum up, is the increase in the volume of money and bank credit in relation to the volume of goods. It is harmful because:

• it depreciates the value of the monetary unit,
• raises everybody’s cost of living,
• imposes what is in effect a tax on the poorest (without exemptions) at as high a rate as the tax on the richest,
• wipes out the value of past savings,
• discourages future savings,
• redistributes wealth and income wantonly,
• encourages and rewards speculation and gambling at the expense of thrift and work,
• undermines confidence in the justice of a free enterprise system,
• and corrupts public and private morals.

Now let’s go back to that image of the Nile Delta. From the bottom you’ll notice the main artery flowing north, and then split up into smaller arteries before flowing towards the sea. That is the way money flows.

First, you have the major vein of money (savings) flowing towards the market (sea). However, before it can get to the market, it is allocated towards different investments by the owners of that savings, depending on the needs of the market. Under normal circumstances, the delta represents investments in agriculture, technology, capital goods, property, pharma etc., i.o.w. savings are allocated proportianally.

And this is where cheap money distorts the picture. What happens under a regime of cheap money and credit? Consumers start spending money on capital goods like plasmas, cars, furniture, more eating out, luxury goods, property speculation etc. And that is where savings/investments starts flowing to.

Thus, if you look at the delta, it would mean that the agriculture vein is busy drying up because there were little savings/investments flowing in its direction. As a result, production of agriculture declines because it can not compete with capital goods. But now we are reaching the end of the credit cycle and the markets in capital goods, property etc. is going bust because cheap credit and money has dried up.

At the same time, your paper money has devalued because of the monetary inflation. Lew Rockwell uses a very good analogy:

The monetary issue can be understood by analogy to orange juice. The more water you add, the less substance it has. If you keep adding, eventually you come to the point when you can no longer tell that it was ever orange. This is the same with money. If you print enough — literally or electronically through the credit markets — it will continue to lose value. If money grew on trees, it would be about as valuable as autumn leaves.

Remember, that an increase in the money supply doesn’t result in an immediate rise in prices. It takes time to flow through the market. We are now starting to see the results of the monetary decadence of the last 7 years.

Expect to see prices of commodities continue to rise rapidly during the next couple of years. Expect to see government idiots trying to fix prices and cause more shortages. Expect to see more money/investments starting to flow towards the commodity markets. Expect to see poor people suffering the most.

And expect the demagogues to blame free market capitalism for this mess. At least you now know the truth.

INFO re buses from TO and other directive stuff ...

To an email buddy,

Yes, it is closer than DC AND

1. ensure you have proper ID before you come up guys assuring that they cannot keep you OUT as I suspect they will have border agents looking for potential protestors and will CERTAINLY be looking for vans with more than five people in them .. we've been given THAT clue. UGH!

They will be looking for signs and placards, DON'T carry them with you as I read the White House Protocol for all events that Bush attends and they are always looking for such things. Even watch what teeshirts you bring. ( I still have WHP available if anyone wants to read it ... I know what they are up to!!!! They even go out and recruit sorority and frat guys as volunteers at such events to help them out. Leave these telltale signs (bad pun) behind you.

2. Lots of groups have buses going .. war resister groups, OPIRG, etc. Cost runs about $60 but bursaries are available. I can get better info on this for anyone that wants it .. just park in TO and go up en masse which will be right fun! for those staying over. There is a housing committee in Ottawa already, which will function rather well, we hope or I hope.

3. If you need a parking space here in TO, I have one and you can stay here coming and going. At a stretch I can put up maybe six people ..? I did this for a drupal camp this spring to save hotel expenses for people. The guy turned out to be a jerk! but hey! for this event, I open my arms again.

4. See if you can get a pre-event forum/teach in going! I have videos you could show on a laptop (see below). or hold a post summit teach-in, all you would need to do is put up flyers in food coops, start a Meetup group (and boy! up here the one is ACTIVE, runs about $12 a month which you can recoup real fast) and put a little blurb in your local paper .......... no need to have "experts", just print up some fact sheets off the web and xerox them and hand them out to interested parties who show up. Expect a vast array of very very differing folks politically.

5. Get on some activist websites like OpEd News and just keep on blamming away at them. I am a real good role model fo this .. LOL. I just keep it up over at OpEd as they seem to be in a holding pattern expecting Cindy S. to lead them .. as she has in the past . she has other fish to fry like getting Nancy Pelosi OUT OF OFFICE just now.

But there is a change of direction happening like a focus on the role of transnationals happenin' .. I don't forward all the research I do every single day to this group on this . but just let me say, we are going to have to get REAL specific against all of these greedy global players and point out what they have been doing for DECADES.

As I say, WATCH OUT! YOUR landlord is stealing YOUR apartment.

Read Mohawk Nation News (www.mohaknationnews.com) if you can, they know the score! Great archives and regional items.

Post to firedoglake and other very very progressive US internet websites. Also follow www.globalresearch.com and wsws.org for updates and worldnetnews.com. I post as MANY items as I can on my blog each day, but sometimes get sick of google's interference in my posting - yet there is a wealth of info you can USE for a teachin regularly put up on there .. NO NEED TO BE AN EXPERT. Maybe some others on this list can make some suggestions ..? we can be a force for good ...
Here is one real good list for info
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56838
and this is very recent
http://www.augustreview.com/news_commentary/north_american_union/
global_backlash_against_globalization?_2007072672/

this is list of videos and so on, posted on suicide girls ...

One World Government, Loosing your rights, Loosing your freedom... watch this video first then take a look at the additional links below:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=497251819335380093

Here are a few links:
http://amerocurrency.com/
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_05/kirby062806.html
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53350
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15017
http://oldfraser.lexi.net/publications/critical_issues/1999/amero/

Here are a few video links:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5746053279286349888
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3472351822108870777
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6638097241299092586&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2282867471160155093

6. Watch for develpments in CONgress, H of R, who are really achieving things right now, under the radar. Info about that posted on my blog already and you can digg it . The actual demo (our resistence) starts NOW! We CAN DO STUFF NOW.

5. Post to digg and other social networking sites. This becomes easy with OpEd News actually if you post there. They take news items, articles, dairies, quotes and have great software including a handy dandy tool for your web browser that allows you to post items with just a couple of clicks. Let them know how this is affecting you personally over the next few weeks.

OpEd is now the No. 5 internet news site! for good reason .. a very user friendly format has been developed and is good for Canadian and US postings . and I suspect Mexican ones eventually as well! I think so highly of it I got myself a purpose built server for the future to handle Canadian postings LOL "they".org cannot crash should the internet get all wanky. Now if I could just run it! LOL.

If anyone knows drupal.org on this list (??!!) setting up a Civic space would be a real possibility. This is the platform Kucinich is now using and was develped by the Dean people awhile back .. but Rob Kall's ingenuous php technique may work out just fine. I do not know. I just picked a direction I thought I could (handle to run with this spring. I dont' expect yahoogroups to be very stable as "things"/action pick up and lots of bigger groups are going to find way too hard to handle their :"traffic" and postings SOON. Google is really no better, as i have discovered.

Last but NOT Least . we ARE the leaders, expecting others to lead is a nonstarter - it's US that are being evicted by our (haha) LANDLORDS as the SPP comes into its own and we must all SCREAM as if our lives depended on it. This is a totally, entirely unholy alliance between government opportunists who wish to expand their departments and careers (and are totally ignorant) and Big Business interests who wish to GRAB resources wherever they can in the western hemisphere as you probably know.

Prosperity and Security for WHO ....?

What a backward slogan but oh! so! very apt!

Virginia

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