Aym Playing

right2wear:

A ban by world soccer body FIFA on Muslim women wearing Islamic headdress is taking its toll on the performance of not only Iran but also Jordan.

Iran earlier this month lost its chance of reaching the 2012 Olympics after its qualifying match was cancelled because the Islamic republic’s women soccer team appeared on the pitch wearing a hijab that covered their ears and neck and not only their hair as originally had been agreed with the Iranian Football Federation (IFF).

Ironically, the match was to be played in Amman against the Jordanian women’s team.

FIFA bans all religious and political symbols on the pitch but negotiated an exception with Iran involving a specially designed cap. FIFA argues that the Islamic headdress or hijab could cause a choking injury.

Iran charged that FIFA’s decision to disqualify its women’s team constituted an attack on all female Muslim players. Iranian and other Muslim women players reject the cap as un-Islamic.

… War has a way of turning almost anything upside down, including language. But with lost jobs, foreclosed homes, crumbling infrastructure, and weird weather, who even notices? This undoubtedly means that you’re using a set of antediluvian war words or definitions from your father’s day. It’s time to catch up.

So here’s the latest word in war words: what’s in, what’s out, what’s inside out. What follows are nine common terms associated with our present wars that probably don’t mean what you think they mean. Since you live in a twenty-first-century war state, you might consider making them your own. …

Permanent bases: In the American way of war, military bases built on foreign soil are the equivalent of heroin. The Pentagon can’t help building them and can’t live without them, but “permanent bases” don’t exist, not for Americans. Never.

That’s simple enough, but let me be absolutely clear anyway: Americans may have at least 865 bases around the world (not including those in war zones), but we have no desire to occupy other countries. And wherever we garrison (and where aren’t we garrisoning?), we don’t want to stay, not permanently anyway.

In the grand scheme of things, for a planet more than four billion years old, our 90 bases in Japan, a mere 60-odd years in existence, or our 227 bases in Germany, some also around for 60-odd years, or those in Korea, 50-odd years, count as little. Moreover, we have it on good word that permanent bases are un-American. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said as much in 2003 when the first of the Pentagon’s planned Iraqi mega-bases were already on the drawing boards. Hillary Clinton said so again just the other day about Afghanistan, and an anonymous American official added for clarification: “There are U.S. troops in various countries for some considerable lengths of time which are not there permanently.” Korea anyone? So get it straight, Americans don’t want permanent bases. Period.

And that’s amazing when you think about it, since globally Americans are constantly building and upgrading military bases. The Pentagon is hooked. In Afghanistan, it’s gone totally wild—more than 400 of them and still building! Not only that, Washington is now deep into negotiations with the Afghan government to transform some of them into “joint bases” and stay on them if not until hell freezes over, then at least until Afghan soldiers can be whipped into an American-style army. Latest best guesstimate for that? 2017 without even getting close.

Fortunately, we plan to turn those many bases we built to the tune of billions of dollars, including the gigantic establishments at Bagram and Kandahar, over to the Afghans and just hang around, possibly “for decades,” as—and the word couldn’t be more delicate or thoughtful—“tenants.”

Bush’s global war on terror called drones up from the depths of its unconscious to fulfill its most basic urges: to be endless and to reach anywhere on Earth with an Old Testament-style sense of vengeance.

And by the way, accompanying the recent reports that the CIA is preparing to lend the U.S. military a major covert hand, drone-style, in its Yemen campaign was news that the Agency is building a base of its own on a rushed schedule in an unnamed Persian Gulf country. Just one base. But don’t expect that to be the end of it. After all, that’s like eating one potato chip.

Withdrawal: We’re going, we’re going…Just not quite yet and stop pushing! …

downlo:

Georgia’s tough anti-illegal-immigrant law drove a sizable fraction of the migrant labor pool out of the state, and as a result, “millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops [are] unharvested and rotting in the fields.” The jobs the migrants did paid an average of $8/hour, without benefits, a wage that is so low that the state’s probationed prisoners have turned it down.

Yet another story that demonstrates why harsh immigration policy is short-sighted and ultimately fucks us, as a country, over.

(And yes, I’ll continue unashamedly to put immigration reform in cost-benefit terms. I’m a social scientist; it’s in my blood, damnit.)

There have been two critical developments in the LA TRAMACÚA PRISON, which was built with U.S. funds and input. We have learned of a brutal eight hour attack against the striking prisoners at La Tramacúa. The attacks occurred this weekend and have left five people in the hospital and at least 30 persons in need of medical attention. These aggressions are a blatant attempt to crush prisoner mobilizations demanding:

* An adequate supply of potable water;
* Clean food free of fecal contamination;
* Sanitary and functioning toilet facilities;
* An end to beatings and torture that target political prisoners;
* The closure of La Tramacúa.

Please respond to the Call to Action in the following section.

palestinianrefugeerevolution:

CJPME is tracking performers who have performed, or intend to perform in Israel. CJPME encourages its adherents to add their voice to those who call such performances to stop, until Israel respects international law, and respects the human rights of Palestinians.

…

Below is the letter I sent based on this action alert from Pax Christi USA.

John Tegtmeir
U.S. DOE/NNSA Los Alamos Site Office

Dear Mr. Tegtmeir,

The Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) project in
Los Alamos, New Mexico should be cancelled.

I oppose all preparations for nuclear weapons, and I ask that the
United States begin nuclear disarmament immediately.

I’m also concerned about the tremendous cost of this project. The
“Details of Project Cost Estimate” table in the FY2012 budget puts
CMRR’s current projected cost at $5.86 billion and a completion date
of FY2023 - this is more than ten times the original forecast - and
who knows what the final cost might be.

It’s also disturbing that this facility is sited near a fault line.
This raises important safety concerns and no doubt is responsible for
the tremendous cost increase.

Sincerely,

My address and phone number

Part of my continuing coverage of the student scholarship organizations law in Georgia.

This report by the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) finds that Georgia’s program of tax credit scholarships for private K-12 schools has failed to achieve its primary public aim of providing the state’s low income children attending troubled public schools with new, affordable opportunities for a good education. During the last three years, the state program has diverted more than $72 million of Georgia’s tax revenues to private organizations operating virtually in secret.

For background information, visit a blog entry I wrote on this topic.