As many as 1,800 are now reported dead in the wake of the mudslide in the central Philippines.  I often check Topix.net's "world" news feeds for information following disasters of this magnitude but right now their Philippines page does not seem to be drawing many stories.  Maybe this will change in the near future but for the time being, if you're searching for information about the disaster your best bet is to do a Google News search.

Speaking of schadenfreude, Coingate kingpin Tom Noe was formally indicted on February 14.  He was indicted on 53 felony counts which carry a combined maximum sentence of 172½ years in prison.  Happy Valentine's Day, Tom! 

From toledoblade.com

Within hours of gaining control of $25 million from the state of Ohio in 1998, Tom Noe began stealing it, according to a 53-count indictment unsealed yesterday.

He did not stop, the indictment states, until state officials shut down his coin funds last spring.

The indictment by a Lucas County grand jury alleges that Mr. Noe laundered and stole more than $3 million from the rare-coin investment funds he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.  (full story)

Let's not forget that Noe is also facing separate charges for funneling thousands into Ohio's Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

And whatever you do, make sure you don't confuse Tom Noe with Ohio Representative Bob Ney, who is under investigation over allegations that he accepted bribes from D.C. supercrook Jack Abramoff.  Late last month, Ney announced he will run for re-election despite the swirling allegations of corruption and impropriety.  Tell me, folks...Do we call that "chutzpah" or "audacity"?  Hell, I just can't decide.

A specter is haunting American universities—The specter of independent thought!  America's right wing has reacted with shock and alarm at this phenomenon and they have mobilized an effort to undermine the intellectual freedom of American students through a campaign that utilizes intimidation and censorship.  Consider this recent example from California:

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A conservative activist dropped his offer to pay students up to $100 per class for providing information on what he called "radical" professors at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The activist, Andrew Jones, said Monday he would continue his effort with unpaid volunteers.

Jones' Bruin Alumni Association had offered UCLA students up to $100 to supply tapes and notes from classes to expose professors he considered to be pushing liberal political views on their students.

After news reports about the plan, Jones was criticized by faculty members who complained of a "witch hunt." Several prominent members of his organization's advisory board, including a former congressman, resigned from the group after details of the payment plan became public. (full article)

In Ohio, there has been some recent legislation has been introduced which  allegedly aims to create a so-called "Academic Bill of Rights."  The bill purports to protect the "rights" of students but instead opens the door to extreme censorship and intellectual repression on college campuses.  The ACLU is one of several groups to have taken issue with the effort, and they summarize the major concerns regarding Senate Bill 24 as follows:

· The bill forces the board of trustees, of both public and private schools, to adopt policies about what can and cannot be taught.

· Under the bill, faculty would be discouraged from teaching anything "controversial" - a vague term that could pertain to any number of topics including evolution, history, or religion.

· If they do raise controversial issues, instructors would have to present alternative views regardless of the merits of those views or their own beliefs about them.

· Senate Bill 24 would shift the responsibility for course content and student evaluation from highly trained faculty to the state government or the courts. (full article)  (full text of SB 24)

Whether these efforts are led by a lone individual, a political organization or elected officials, the ultimate goal remains the same: The elimination of dissent and diversity in all forums, both public and private.  

It's hard to say when Americans will finally take a definitive stand against this new wave of McCarthyism. Perhaps it would do us well to reflect upon the words of Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out.

 

Joseph Welch to Joseph McCarthy, June 9, 1954:
"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?"

---

 

Further Reading
American Association of University Professors statement on Academic Bill of Rights
Board members resign after group targets UCLA profs    CNN.com article
McCarthy-Welch Exchange: "Have You No Sense of Decency"  americanrhetoric.com

From day to day, it's easy enough to find items in the international press that chronicle the ongoing controversy over Iran's nuclear program. But what the press doesn't cover — one might even say they neglect to cover — is the struggle of working class Iranians in their efforts at building an Iran in which both life and livelihood are respected.

Over the course of recent years, Iran has seen a resurgence in the momentum of its workers movement.  In response to this, the Iranian government has stepped up its efforts to stifle organization and solidarity amongst workers.  In late 2005, several prominent figures in Iran's workers movement received prison sentences following their attempt to organize a May Day demonstration in 2004.

From News & Letters:

The courts of the government of Iran have sentenced a number of prominent labour movement activists to several years in prison, to be followed for some of them with exile. Their only "crime" is the attempt to hold a celebration event on May Day 2004.

These workers were arrested at the gathering for International Workers' Day on May 1, 2004 at the Children's Park in the city of Saqiz, and sent to the dungeons. According to the rulings issued by the courts, Mahmud Salehi, the spokesman for the Coordinating Committee for the Creation of a Workers' Organization has been sentenced to 5 years in prison and 2 years in exile. Jalal Hosseini has been sentenced to 3 years in prison. Mohsen Hakimi, also a member of Iranian Writers' Association, Muhammad Abdipur and Borhan Divargar, other prominent figures in the workers' movement, have been sentenced to 2 years in prison each.  (full article)

Although the above sentences are indeed draconian, they are simply the most recent examples of the systematic repression of working people in Iran.  Police intimidation and assault are foremost among the measures employed by the elite of Iran in their ongoing campaign against Iran's workers and their families.

While the better part of the "New World Order" spends its time scrutinizing Iran's nuclear program and building its case for a new war in the Middle East, the working people of Iran continue to struggle under the constant shadow of hostility and repression from the combined threat of foreign aggressors and their own ruling class.

[special thanks to "K" for contributing to this article]

With the news of yesterday's mine accident in West Virginia, the US has now seen a total of three serious mine accidents in just a few short weeks.  The news dispatches from these grim scenes are reminiscent of the harsh reality chronicled by George Orwell in his 1937 book, The Road to Wigan Pier:

It is not long since conditions in the mines were worse than they are now. There are still living a few very old women who in their youth have worked underground, with the harness round their waists, and a chain that passed between their legs, crawling on all fours and dragging tubs of coal. They used to go on doing this even when they were pregnant. And even now, if coal could not be produced without pregnant women dragging it to and fro, I fancy we should let them do it rather than deprive ourselves of coal. But—most of the time, of course, we should prefer to forget that they were doing it. It is so with all types of manual work; it keeps us alive, and we are oblivious of its existence. More than anyone else, perhaps, the miner can stand as the type of the manual worker, not only because his work is so exaggeratedly awful, but also because it is so vitally necessary and yet so remote from our experience, so invisible, as it were, that we are capable of forgetting it as we forget the blood in our veins. In a way it is even humiliating to watch coal-miners working. It raises in you a momentary doubt about your own status as an ‘intellectual’ and a superior person generally. For it is brought home to you, at least while you are watching, that it is only because miners sweat their guts out that superior persons can remain superior.

Sit-down strike by coal miners in Wilsonville, Illinois, May 24, 1937

Further Reading
The Road to Wigan Pier   full text at george-orwell.org
Herald-Dispatch.com  Huntington, West Virginia

[Many thanks to my friends Anuradha, Ardhendu and Kumar for contributing to this article]