neoliberalism and "sovereign democracy" are the two so opposed? this article seems to think so, anyway, thought it might be interesting

Reviving the evil empire

The Los Angeles Times
NIALL FERGUSON
Niall Ferguson

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-0e-ferguson28may28,0,1696009.column?coll=3Dla-opinion-columnists

May 28, 2007

THERE IS NO such thing as the future. There are only futures, plural.
Historians are supposed to confine themselves to the study of the
past, but by drawing analogies between yesterday and today, they can
sometimes suggest plausible tomorrows.

Seven years ago, the economist Brigitte Granville and I published an
article in the Journal of Economic History titled "Weimar on the
Volga," in which we argued that the experience of 1990s Russia bore
many resemblances to the experience of 1920s Germany.

No historical analogy is exact, needless to say. Russia's currency did
not collapse as completely as Germany's did in 1923, though the annual
inflation rate did come close to 300% in 1992. Our hunch,
nevertheless, was that the traumatic economic events of the 1990s
would prove as harmful to Russian democracy as hyperinflation had been
for German democracy 70 years earlier.

"By discrediting free markets, the rule of law, parliamentary
institutions and international economic openness," we concluded, "the
Weimar inflation proved the perfect seedbed for national socialism. In
Russia, too, the immediate social costs of high inflation may have
grave political consequences in the medium term. As in Weimar Germany,
the losers may yet become the natural constituency for a political
backlash against both foreign creditors and domestic profiteers."

Seven years later, the man who succeeded Boris N. Yeltsin as our
article was going to press is doing much to vindicate our analysis.

Throw A Pebble At Goliath: Don't Buy Israeli Produce
Saturday, May 26, 2007 by _The Guardian/UK_
(http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/yvonne_roberts/2007/05/throw_a_pebble_at_goliath_dont.html)

by Yvonne Roberts

`The boycott campaign is not really about what happens in the Middle
East but about what happens in our unions, on our campuses and in our
public discourse. The damage that it does in the UK is that it
disables politicalwork in solidarity with those who fight for peace in
the Middle East by polarising opinion around an artificial and
destructive issue.'

So _writes_
(http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_hirsh/2007/05/wrong_way_to_help.html)
David Hirsh on Comment is free, on the vote next Wednesday at a
conference held by the University and College Union (_UCU_
(http://www.ucu.org.uk/) ), arguing against what he calls `the boycott
movement'.

So the boycott movement allegedly `disables political work in
solidarity with those who fight for peace in the Middle East' does
it? Is that thesame political work that is so highly effective that
the only major change sincethe 1970s, when I regularly reported from
the region, is of a profound deterioration in all aspects of life for
ordinary Palestinians?

In contributing his blog, David Hirsh ironically illustrates precisely
why the boycott movement has an impact. It clears a space in the
public arena which, in the UK and the USA, is normally hopelessly
biased in favour of Israel - not least because Zionist supporters of
Israel in both countries have money and political clout on a scale the
Palestinians cannot hope to match.

While we frequently see and hear about the lives of ordinary Israelis,
whether illegally settled on the West Bank or endeavouring to live
under harrowing rocket bombardment or simply `being' Israelis - when
was the last time the reality of day-to-day life in the refugee camps
was regularly portrayed?

This was sent from Martha:

"The public airwaves should be used for the public good. The government must protect our airwaves from corporate gatekeepers who would stifle innovation and competition in the wireless Internet market."

The federal government is on the verge of turning over a huge portion of our public airwaves to companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast—who will use them for private gain instead of the public good.
These newly available airwaves are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to revolutionize Internet access—beaming high-speed Internet signals to every park bench, coffee shop, workplace, and home in America at more affordable prices than current Internet service. Phone and cable companies don't want this competition to their Internet service—they'd rather purchase the airwaves at auction and sit on them.1
In June, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will make a major decision: Use the public airwaves for the public good, or turn them over to big companies who will stifle competition, innovation, and the wireless Internet revolution.
The FCC is only accepting public comments for a few more days. Can you sign this petition to them today, and send it to your friends?
"The public airwaves should be used for the public good. The government must protect our airwaves from corporate gatekeepers who would stifle innovation and competition in the wireless Internet market."

Sign here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/airwaves/?id=10433-3738025-DFyiOt&t=3

The ecological and social tragedy of crop-based biofuel production in the Americas

Miguel A Altieri - Professor of Agroecology, University of California, Berkeley
Elizabeth Bravo - Red por una América Latina Libre de Transgenicos, Quito, Ecuador

The nations of the OECD—the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, who account for 56% of the planet’s energy consumption, are desperately in need of a liquid fuel replacement for oil. Worldwide petroleum extraction rates are expected to peak this year, and global supply will likely dwindle significantly in the next fifty years. There is also a great need to find substitutes for fossil fuels, which are one of the major contributors to global climate change through the emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
Biofuels have been promoted as a promising alternative to petroleum. Industry, government and scientific proponents of biofuels claim that they will serve as an alternative to peaking oil, mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing farmer incomes, and promoting rural development. But rigorous research and analysis conducted by respected ecologists and social scientists suggests that the large-scale industrial boom in biofuels will be disastrous for farmers, the environment, biodiversity preservation and consumers, particularly, the poor.

15 YEAR OLD GIRL, GETS SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON FOR PUSHING A TEACHER!!!

 Creola Cotton (left) and Shaquanda Cotton
By Tracy Stokes, BET.com News Staff & Wire Services

Posted March 28, 2007 - In Paris, Texas, last year, a 14-year-old White girl burns down her family's home. Her punishment? Probation. In the same town three months later, a 15-year-old Black girl, Shaquanda Cotton, is sentenced to seven years in prison for pushing a hall monitor at her high school.
Shaquanda had no prior arrests, and the monitor, a 58-year-old teacher's aide, was not hurt, according to Black leaders in the northeast Texas town of about 26,000 residents.  But in March 2006, the same judge, Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville, who let the White teenage girl go on probation, convicted Shaquanda of  "assault on a public servant" and sent her to prison at least until she turns 21.
Officials at the Texas Youth Commission declined to discuss the case with BET.com, citing Texas law.
"State law forbids us from acknowledging whether we have any youths are in our system, despite the 50 million issues of print that's been run," said Jim Hurley, a spokesman for the Texas Youth Commission. "We'd have to break the law to talk about it."
Civil Rights Uproar
While the U.S. Department of Education is investigating the incident, the case has civil rights groups in an uproar.
"I don't understand the judge's rationale for his decision," Dr. Howard Anderson, president of the San Antonio Branch of the NAACP, told BET.com.
In highlighting what he called an egregious miscarriage of justice in a town with a long history of civil rights abuses, Anderson pointed to the case of the 14-year-old convicted arson (whose name was not released because of her age), who was slapped with probation, and the case of a 19-year-old White man in Paris, convicted of killing a 54-year-old Black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck. The latter, he said, was also sentenced to probation and told to send the family a Christmas card every year.
"Then you have Shaquanda's case," Anderson said. "She pushed a hall monitor, and she gets seven years confinement? If I look at all three of these sentences, and I'm not a lawyer, I have to wonder what the judicial system is doing.  In this particular case, what is this judge doing?"
Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who heads the state NAACP branch, told BET.com that Shaquanda was merely trying to defend herself.
"All she (Shaquanda) did was grab the aide to prevent a strike," Bledsoe said.  "It's like they are sending a signal to Black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated."
Sad History
And keeping Blacks in their place is nothing new in Paris, say leaders, who remind that it's the site of the first highly publicized lynching of a Black by a large White mob. In 1893, fugitive Henry White was captured in Arkansas and brought to Paris, where he was tortured and burned alive on a train bed as more than 10,000 angry townsfolk cheered and jeered.
Activists say that the Shaquanda sentence is nothing more than a modern-day lynching.

Under Israeli Law Anyone Can be Defined as a "Foreign Agent"
Why is Israel After Me?

By AZMI BISHARA

Amman, Jordan.

I am a Palestinian from Nazareth, a citizen of Israel and was, until
last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.

But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of France's Dreyfus affair--in
which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state--the
government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during
Israel's failed war against Lebanon in July.

Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a
foreign agent and of receiving money in return. Under Israeli law,
anyone--a journalist or a personal friend--can be defined as a
"foreign agent" by the Israeli security apparatus. Such charges can
lead to life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

The allegations are ridiculous. Needless to say, Hezbollah--Israel's
enemy in Lebanon--has independently gathered more security information
about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide.
What's more, unlike those in Israel's parliament who have been
involved in acts of violence, I have never used violence or
participated in wars. My instruments of persuasion, in contrast, are
simply words in books, articles and speeches.

These trumped-up charges, which I firmly reject and deny, are only the
latest in a series of attempts to silence me and others involved in
the struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel to live in a
state of all its citizens, not one that grants rights and privileges
to Jews that it denies to non-Jews.

When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians
were expelled or fled in fear. My family was among the minority that
escaped that fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long
lived. The Israeli state, established exclusively for Jews, embarked
immediately on transforming us into foreigners in our own country.

For the first 18 years of Israeli statehood, we, as Israeli citizens,
lived under military rule with pass laws that controlled our every
movement. We watched Jewish Israeli towns spring up over destroyed
Palestinian villages.

Today we make up 20% of Israel's population. We do not drink at
separate water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and
can serve in the parliament. But we face legal, institutional and
informal discrimination in all spheres of life.

More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The
Law of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from
anywhere in the world. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right
to return to the country they were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic
Law of Human Dignity and Liberty--Israel's "Bill of Rights"--defines
the state as "Jewish" rather than a state for all its citizens. Thus
Israel is more for Jews living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for
native Palestinians.

Israel acknowledges itself to be a state of one particular religious
group. Anyone committed to democracy will readily admit that equal
citizenship cannot exist under such conditions.

Most of our children attend schools that are separate but unequal.
According to recent polls, two-thirds of Israeli Jews would refuse to
live next to an Arab and nearly half would not allow a Palestinian
into their home.