"Imposed" Mideast Solution Would Stoke Violence - Israel FM


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - In a veiled warning to U.S. President Barack Obama, Israel's foreign minister said on Tuesday that any move to impose a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians would lead to greater conflict.

"Any attempt to force a solution on the parties without establishing the foundation of mutual trust will only deepen the conflict," Avigdor Lieberman told the assembled diplomatic corps at an event marking Israel's Independence Day.

Though he made no reference to the United States, the remark appeared to be a response to recent speculation in Washington that Obama may consider proposing a peace settlement in the absence of a negotiated deal between the Palestinians and Israel.

Lieberman, who leads a far-right, pro-settler party in the coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that before negotiating a final settlement of the 62-year-old conflict, it would be necessary first to establish "a new reality" in which Israel enjoys security, the Palestinians greater prosperity and both sides more stability.

He also told the assembled ambassadors in the grounds of the presidential residence in Jerusalem that Israel would never give up its control of all of Jerusalem, a city at the heart of the conflict.

Many foreign powers support a negotiated settlement of the dispute over Jerusalem that would satisfy Palestinian aspirations to have the capital of their future state in East Jerusalem, which Israel seized in a war in 1967.

(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Andrew Roche)

By REUTERS

Filed at 4:20 p.m. ET

BACK to margotbworldnews.com

Labels: Israel, Middle East, Op-Ed

 
Toxic Nail Salons: Why Your Nail Polish Color Could be the Next Agent Orange


"Pick a color!" a pretty, 38-year-old woman named Pong orders, as I enter Tower Nails, a typical Bay Area nail salon owned and staffed by Vietnamese immigrants of childbearing age.

Reds, corals, pinks, creams, blacks, blues, even Kelly greens. Selecting a polish can be as stimulating as shopping for baby names, a fun and serotonin-releasing, female preoccupation witnessed as early as the teenage years. Perhaps that explains the huge proliferation of the affordable walk-in salons -- the number of nail salons in California has tripled in the last two decades. The overwhelming majority of the workers are Asian immigrants, and of the 300,000 nail salon workers in the state, 80 percent are Vietnamese. And these women, and perhaps even their customers, may be at risk from a toxic cocktail of chemicals.

The biggest concern is the trio of toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) found in most base and top coats and polishes. This combination of chemicals has been linked to cancer, birth defects and skin rashes, especially with frequent exposure. Women in America need to ask themselves, are they picking their color or their poison?

The good news is that trips to the salon don't have to be toxic. There are readily available, safe products like Go Natural polishes and removers. But so far, for most salon workers and customers, convention has superseded the health of women.

Convincing the $35 billion cosmetics industry to voluntarily commit to reformulating its products is proving harder than getting squeezed in for a last minute mani-pedi appointment at noon on a Saturday.

Instead, the industry produces more 6,000 new chemical compounds each year and spends hundreds of thousands of dollars successfully lobbying against legislation to ban dangerous chemicals sold in states like California.

It is a different story in Europe, which has banned all phthalates from its cosmetics. The model in the European Union has been to prove that products are safe before they are allowed on the market. It's the opposite in the U.S., where we have to prove a product is harmful in order to see regulatory action.

Protecting Workers

How do we protect those most at risk? As the salon business continues to expand, the burden falls on state advocates to educate salon workers and lobby for an industry-wide polish change.

"In the last three years, there have been more organizations with outreach trying to inform manicurists of the dangers, but the education is only happening in pockets of the country rather than a unified campaign," explains Momo Change, an Oakland, California writer who has investigated the dangers posed to Vietnamese salon workers.

Five years ago, Chang began exposing the dangers to Vietnamese salon workers who reported high cases of chronic asthma, fungal infections, skin rashes and miscarriages among their co-workers. One of these women had a toddler born with a digestive disorder requiring gastric surgery and feeding through a tube, a condition linked to his mother's frequent exposure to salon chemicals throughout her pregnancy.

"Much of mainstream media's focus has been on regulating immigrant-owned discount salons that are portrayed as unhygienic, yet there has been virtually no mention of health risks to the 1.2 million cosmetologists in the United States, many of whom are recent immigrants," observes Chang.

In 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law requiring salons to clean up their acts to prevent bacteria leading to tuberculosis and staph infections, as well as other fungus-related sickness.

But the bill did not address exposure to toxic chemicals. That's why the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative was created. Backed by Asian Health Services, an Oakland-based community health clinic, much of the collaborative's work is aimed at informing non-English speaking workers who are at a great disadvantage when it comes to accessing and understanding information on chemical health risks and prevention.

"Although some regulatory agencies are starting to translate their information into Vietnamese and other languages, they don't have a lot of resources to do it, so a big communication gap remains," explains spokesperson Julia Liou. Working together with other health and women's rights activists, the collaborative seeks not only more regulation but action on the part of manufacturers to rid their potions of the solvents, glues and poisons now linked to illnesses from long-term exposure.

Liou says OPI, Sally Hansen, Zoya and the water-based Acquarella are a few of the companies committed to healthy change. The water-based alternative, used at some emerging, higher-priced, green salons in the Bay Area, have had a mixed reaction since the finishes may not last as long as the conventional products. But at least it is a step in the right direction.

"There has been some movement, but it is hard for consumers to always know what is free of the trio [of harmful chemicals] because sometimes it is taken out of a few summer shades but not from the winter ones," says Liou. "Our goal is for all companies to eliminate the trio, as well as other dangerous chemicals in their products." Those other dangers include fumes from acetone, acrylics and disinfectants. Advocates argue since the nail cosmetics are neither food we eat nor air we breathe, monitoring of this group of products lies in a "nebulous zone."

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) can only regulate salons with more than nine employees, so the more common smaller ones often fall through the cracks. To get government protection, these workers must report a problem to the state, and most are reluctant to risk losing their bread and butter and facing retaliation from employers or other employees.

"Our approach is prevention and targeting the root cause -- the manufacturing industry -- so salon workers don't have to choose between their health and their livelihood," says Liou.

These workers have carved a niche working long, tedious hours to support their families in an industry that tolerates a low level of education and broken English. Chang likens the salons to Chinese laundromats of the 1800s in offering a good, affordable business to Asian immigrants seeking the American dream.

The new dream translates into catering to the seemingly endless stream of women seeking instant grooming, a shade to match their dress for that party, a hot new color for baring their toes for summer sandals, acrylics to cover a nasty biting habit. That population is no longer limited to adults: Kids, tweens and teens who often accompany their mothers on a bonding salon outing might also be at risk, depending upon their exposure.

"It's a concern because while we know about many of the dangers from the chemicals, there is still a lot we don't know about some of them," explains Chang. "The average client might go in once every two weeks, but the workers are there five to seven days a week, sometimes up to ten hours, and their exposure is a lot higher."

One beacon of hope may be the fashion world's proclivity to jump on the green bandwagon for marketing purposes, cashing in on the growing consumer demand for healthier, plant-based products. It truly is up to the industry to take the helm, and for consumers to demand it. It is a health issue we can no longer ignore.

To find out more, manicurists and their families can read reports such as "Underexposed and Informed," a 2009 report and policy agenda published by the California Nail Salon Collaborative.

It warns: "In addition to being subject to an array of occupational health hazards, many workers and employees do not have access to affordable medical care which can mean forgoing treatment for a job-related illness or for consultation on the risks of continuing to work during pregnancy. At the same time there is insufficient surveillance of occupational-related illnesses, including those related to nail salons."

Salon customers in America should also read these reports, heed the warnings and demand immediate change in the industry we have made mega-rich. Or, we can be led like sheep to the parlor. What would you do if you knew the color you just chose might be the next Agent Orange?

Luanne Bradley is the senior editor of Ecosalon.com. She also is a contributor to AlterNet, the Examiner and Divine Caroline, and her eco articles have been featured at Huffington Post.
© 2010 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/146547/

By Luanne Bradley, AlterNet
Posted on April 21, 2010, Printed on April 21, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/146547/

Labels: health, medical

 

When colonial white society invades and occupies our territories
these are not called criminal acts.

But when Native people stand up and resist,
these acts are considered criminal.
But these are not crimes.

They are political acts in which our people stand up
for their rights of self-determination, self-dignity, and self-respect
against the cruel and oppressive might of another nation…

It is not a new development
for white society to steal from non-white people.
When white society succeeds,
it is called colonialism.

When white society’s efforts to colonise other people
are met with resistance,
it is called war.

But when the colonized Indians of North America
meet this theft with resistance, we are called criminals."

(Leonard Peltier, May 1976)

Luc Majno

Labels: Leonard Peltier, May 1976

 
Dianne Feinstein resigns committee post amid scandal; accused of war profiteering

Source: www.metroactive.com/metro/03.21.07/dianne-feinstein-resigns-0712.html

Posted by Joshua Holland at 12:52 PM on March 30, 2007.

SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.

As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.

Perhaps she resigned from MILCON because she could not take the heat generated by Metro's expose of her ethics (which was partially funded by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute). Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?

The MILCON subcommittee is not only in charge of supervising military construction, it also oversees "quality of life" issues for veterans, which includes building housing for military families and operating hospitals and clinics for wounded soldiers. Perhaps Feinstein is trying to disassociate herself from MILCON's incredible failure to provide decent medical care for wounded soldiers.

Two years ago, before the Washington Post became belatedly involved, the online magazine Salon.com exposed the horrors of deficient medical care for Iraq war veterans. While leading MILCON, Feinstein had ample warning of the medical-care meltdown. But she was not proactive on veteran's affairs.

Feinstein abandoned MILCON as her ethical problems were surfacing in the media, and as it was becoming clear that her subcommittee left grievously wounded veterans to rot while her family was profiting from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

I don't have much to add. For background, check out Joshua Frank giving it to the Senator with both barrels, here.

I'll just say this. Even if you think this criticism of Feinstein is unfair -- as I know some do -- you have to acknowledge that this kind of stuff sends the message that all of Washington is the same. It allows Republicans to hold onto the delusion that their brand of corruption over the past decade was run-of-the-mill -- just Standard Operating Procedure for the party in power -- and it just demoralizes progressives.

 
Conspiracy Theories and Plain Old Lies
by Marlow B


We hear a lot of what we assume are conspiracy theories and don't have time to check them out as well as not paying that much attention to the news anyway. We don't have time for that and by most of those around us, we're considered a bit obsessed if we spend too much time on it. Before I retired I got most of my news from the mainstream media and newspapers. When I did retire I spent my time catching up on all the things I had been putting off or had always wanted to do for so many years and never had time.

Getting that out of my system, I began researching some of the conspiracy theories floating around at the time. I was surprised to find that I was fairly good at recognizing the truth, or am I? I have been taken-in a time or two only to find that I resent it when I learn the truth. "Research" is the answer. I read everything I can get my hands on and, as time would allow, have as far back as I remember. Not much fiction but that's enjoyable too. The Internet is an excellent source for news. On line, I read the NY Times, Fox news and Washington Post almost daily, occasionally more. Fox News and some of the other conservative rags are far too often not verifiable. Of course I read two local papers for the gossip.

As a student of the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the remainder of the Amendments, what led up to the whole experiment and what followed, I find it odd that some reporters make false statements about what is in those documents. Are they not aware that most people know better, that we don't only read what the church, Rush Limbaugh or Bill O Riley, the phone sex guy, tells us to read? But that's another story.

Considering one subject, September 11, 2001: There has been a lot said about what happened on that date but our media doesn't seem to be reporting it well. Most of what had been covered supports the administration and the corporations, but not lately. Now we are hearing that some of what we suspected were "conspiracy theories" are often what really happened. There is an excellent web site, 911Timeline.net, which covers the timeline of that day quite well. I find what they have to say, or what I have checked of it, is based on public record. That's unusual. Of course it continues to be nonexistent in some of the media. You should check it out when you question what you read or hear a conflicting report. Much of the information on 911 Timeline site never hit the news or was buried toward the back of section B of the paper.

Can you remember the reporters who were posting columns produced by the administration's writers and claiming to be the authors? I remember that, they admitted it. They were paid handsomely for their efforts, or lack of efforts. A similar deception has been uncovered in reports from Iraq. In this case the Pentagon or military writers in Iraq are the authors and the reports are passed off as being filed by reporters. There is a fundamental difference between a theory and a lie. A theory is just that, a theory. A lie is a deception, spinning the truth and rewriting scientific data to show a different result, then passing it off as the scientific finding that supports a lie. Much like what happened with the government's own scientist's reports on global warming. Exxon/Mobile was happy to produce the editor for that job. That put the entire world and all its creatures in jeopardy.

The burning of fossil fuels is the main contributor to global warming and it would look bad for the producers of them if it were known. It could cut into profits if we did anything to curb their use.


The 2004 Ohio election produced both conspiracy theories and lies. This is an example of a theory becoming fact through public documentation. For example: a claim was made that over 600% of a party's registered voters voted for George W Bush in one precinct. That was easy to verify. Count the number of votes cast for Bush, than count the number of registered republicans. Count the votes for Kerry and the number of voters registered as members of his party. This happened in many Ohio precincts in '04 but to a lesser degree. In each case the exit polls showed results easily reconciled with the number of registered voters of each party. Did you hear much about people going to prison for tampering with the process? Well it happened and was reported toward the end of section B of some newspapers. I must, at this point, say that many papers are better at reporting the news but only after a good old-fashioned public outcry and a lot of letters to the editor.

When we find that the government is lying to us, we must speak out and there are organizations that give us a voice. Moveon.org, among others, is a good place to go for that voice, as are many of the blogs on the net. I suggest we use them.

 

Conveniently forgotten

Saddam committed most of his crimes when he was an ally of those who now occupy his country

By Tariq Ali

01/01/07 "The Guardian" --- It was symbolic that 2006 ended with a colonial hanging - most of it shown on state television in occupied Iraq. It has been that sort of year in the Arab world. The trial was so blatantly rigged that even Human Rights Watch had to condemn it as a travesty. Judges were changed on Washington's orders, defence lawyers were killed and the whole procedure resembled a well orchestrated lynch mob. Where Nuremberg was a relatively dignified application of victor's justice, Saddam Hussein's trial was the crudest and most grotesque to date.

The great thinker-president's reference to it "as a milestone on the road to Iraqi democracy" is as clear an indication as any that Washington pressed the trigger. The leaders of the European Union, supposedly hostile to capital punishment, were passive, as usual.
Although some Shia factions celebrated in Baghdad, the figures published by a fairly independent establishment outfit, the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies, reveal that more than 80% of Iraqis feel the situation in the country was better before it was occupied. (The ICRSS research is based on detailed house-to-house interviewing carried out during the third week of November.) Only 5% of those questioned said Iraq is better today than in 2003; 12% felt things had improved and 9% said there was no change. Unsurprisingly, 95% felt the security situation was worse than before.

Add to this the figures supplied by the United Nations high commissioner for refugees: 1.6 million Iraqis (7% of the population) have fled the country since March 2003, and 100,000 leave every month - Christians, doctors, engineers, women. There are 1 million Iraqis in Syria, 750,000 in Jordan, 150,000 in Cairo. These are refugees who do not excite the sympathy of western public opinion, since the US - EU-backed - occupation is the cause. Perhaps it was these statistics, and estimates of a million Iraqi dead, that necessitated the execution of Saddam.

That Saddam was a tyrant is beyond dispute, but what is conveniently forgotten is that most of his crimes were committed when he was a staunch ally of those who are now occupying the country. It was, as he admitted in one of his trial outbursts, the approval of Washington and the poison gas supplied by what was then West Germany that gave him the confidence to douse Halabja with chemicals in the middle of the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam deserved a proper trial and punishment in an independent Iraq. Not this.

The double standards applied by the west never cease to astonish. Indonesia's Suharto, who presided over a mountain of corpses, was protected by Washington. He never annoyed them as much as Saddam.

And what of those who have created the mess in Iraq today? The torturers of Abu Ghraib; the pitiless butchers of Falluja; the ethnic cleansers of Baghdad; the Kurdish prison boss who boasts that his model is Guantánamo. Will Bush and Blair ever be tried for war crimes? Doubtful. And former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar? He is currently employed as a lecturer at Georgetown University, in Washington, where the language of instruction is of course English - of which he hardly speaks a word.

Saddam's lynching might send a shiver down the spines of the Arab ruling elites. If Saddam can be hanged, so can the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, the Hashemite joker in Amman and the Saudi royals - as long as those who topple them are happy to play ball with the United States.

Tariq Ali is the author of Bush in Babylon: the recolonisation of Iraq - tariq.ali3@btinternet.com

 

My Election Musings
Nov 21st, 2006 in politics

by Marlow B



America was the big winner in the mid-term election of 2006. The Dem's control both houses of Congress. So now what? We have Nancy Pelosi as Leader of the House starting in '07. She said she wants to clean up the ethics problem that has plagued us for eons in Congress, especially for the last 12 years, all 12 of which have been controlled by the neo­ cons with their corrupt values. Not all Republicans have ethics problems, or are representing only the rich and the huge corporations. It was a Republican named Eisenhower who warned us about the Military Industrial Complex in the early 50's and there are still some Eisenhower Republicans around. Ms. Pelosi wanted an anti Iraq War Democrat to become the speaker of the House who had been caught on tape accepting a bribe. That happened years ago but it happened. What does this say to the voting public about Nancy's ethical values? Dennis Hastert may be moral and ethical enough now and do just a fine job as majority whip and I like him but he has an unethical past, on film. Fortunately a majority of the Democrats were wise enough and prevailed. Now Nancy Pelosi has a cloud over her head, right out of the chute. What's her next act? I like her values but she needs to give more thought to her decisions before she makes them.



The whole thing reminds me that things are not going to be all rosy now that the Democrats control Congress. There are Dem's who have voted along with the Republicans on issues like torture, preemptive war, homeland security and the list goes on.. They have the same ethics and corruption problems as the Republicans, just not to the same degree. I feel better about the people that will be in charge in Congress for now, not much better, but we still have two branches of Government that are controlled by the neo­ cons who insist on enacting outrageous laws. They' not supposed to do that but they do, and get away with it, so far. I'm looking foreword to seeing how the new Congress reacts to those attempts in the future.



Yes, America was the big winner and could be an even bigger winner in 2008 if the Democrats don't squander their winnings. They need to show that they don't hate every one of a different religion, political leaning, sexual orientation, etc. and they need to be clean, which has become a novel idea of late. Also of great importance, they need to continue to pursue those in the Government who have committed crimes, regardless of which party the criminals align themselves with. They need to counter the fabrications of the extreme right with gusto and they need to read the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and all the Amendments.

I suggest that the Supreme Court be required to read it weekly and those who can't or don't want to follow the laws laid down in those works need to be replaced. They should be required to read what Jefferson wrote in explanation of the Constitution, especially his "Letter of Separation" explaining that the very first amendment, the "Separation Amendment" to the Constitution states that Church and State are to remain separate, not meddle in one another's affairs. Those who can't understand that don't belong in any branch of government. They were our founding fathers who first came up with the Separation idea and it worked. Governments around the world that didn't follow suit have failed. The framers had had enough of the churches that controlled governments ­ the Catholic Church, the Church of England, the Puritans. Adams was the only one of the framers who wanted America to become an oligarchy, run by a few rich Christians. Let's be thankful he was overruled. I have been told by many people that God is mentioned in the Constitution a number of times and the number is always different. I have searched the Constitution and find no mention of God, not once.



It took about ten years to hammer out the Constitution and The Bill of Rights and get it all ratified by the states. The last to sign were Jefferson and Washington's Virginia. Virginians didn't want the new government telling them they had to free their slaves...something Jefferson, Washington, and some of the others wanted. In the end, the only slaves Jefferson freed where his own children and only after his death. Washington freed his slaves in his will. The Constitution was ratified only after the emancipation clause was removed from the document.



So we don't always get what we want, that's democracy. ‘Ignoring the Constitution is not a moral value.’, as proclaimed by the present government. A Democracy is what this country is supposed to be. This country was not intended to be controlled by the churches, corporations or those with money, which is the present situation. Remember "We the people"? The corporations even got a law passed that makes a corporation a person, with all the protections and freedoms afforded a person.



So where are these next two years going to take us if the Dems ignore the wishes so loudly heard in our most recent election. It wasn't the Democrats who turned the voting public to their party. It was the Bush administration and the Republican Party, with all the corruption and immoral displays that caused so many people to leave their party in disgust. Now it's up to the Democrats to keep the voters. They're not going to do that by showing a tolerance for failed ethics and dishonesty. It's Nancy Peloci's job to lead the Democrats in the House. She has a "hard job" and I hope she's up to the task.



Then there's the Senate that will be controlled by the deciding vote of an Independent named Joe Leiberman. Oh crap!

 

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!