Sunday, April 26, 2009
News From Asheville Global Report
Israel stands ready to bomb Iran's nuclear sites
By Sheera Frenkel
Apr. 18- The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government.
Among the steps taken to ready Israeli forces for what would be a risky raid requiring pinpoint aerial strikes are the acquisition of three Airborne Warning and Control (AWAC) aircraft and regional missions to simulate the attack.
Two nationwide civil defence drills will help to prepare the public for the retaliation that Israel could face.
"Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words," one senior defence official told The Times.
Officials believe that Israel could be required to hit more than a dozen targets, including moving convoys. The sites include Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges produce enriched uranium; Esfahan, where 250 tonnes of gas is stored in tunnels; and Arak, where a heavy water reactor produces plutonium.
The distance from Israel to at least one of the sites is more than 870 miles, a distance that the Israeli force practised covering in a training exercise last year that involved F15 and F16 jets, helicopters and refuelling tankers.
The possible Israeli strike on Iran has drawn comparisons to its attack on the Osirak nuclear facility near Baghdad in 1981. That strike, which destroyed the facility in under 100 seconds, was completed without Israeli losses and checked Iraqi ambitions for a nuclear weapons programme.
"We would not make the threat [against Iran] without the force to back it. There has been a recent move, a number of on-the-ground preparations, that indicate Israel's willingness to act," said another official from Israel's intelligence community.
He added that it was unlikely that Israel would carry out the attack without receiving at least tacit approval from America, which has struck a more reconciliatory tone in dealing with Iran under its new administration.
An Israeli attack on Iran would entail flying over Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, where US forces have a strong presence.
Ephraim Kam, the deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies, said it was unlikely that the Americans would approve an attack.
"The American defence establishment is unsure that the operation will be successful. And the results of the operation would only delay Iran's programme by two to four years," he said.
A visit by President Obama to Israel in June is expected to coincide with the national elections in Iran — timing that would allow the US Administration to re-evaluate diplomatic resolutions with Iran before hearing the Israeli position.
"Many of the leaks or statements made by Israeli leaders and military commanders are meant for deterrence. The message is that if [the international community] is unable to solve the problem they need to take into account that we will solve it our way," Mr Kam said.
Among recent preparations by the airforce was the Israeli attack of a weapons convoy in Sudan bound for militants in the Gaza Strip.
"Sudan was practice for the Israeli forces on a long-range attack," Ronen Bergman, the author of The Secret War with Iran, said. "They wanted to see how they handled the transfer of information, hitting a moving target ... In that sense it was a rehearsal."
Israel has made public its intention to hold the largest-ever nationwide drill next month.
Colonel Hilik Sofer told Haaretz, a daily Israeli newspaper, that the drill would "train for a reality in which during war missiles can fall on any part of the country without warning ... We want the citizens to understand that war can happen tomorrow morning".
Israel will conduct an exercise with US forces to test the ability of Arrow, its US-funded missile defence system. The exercise would test whether the system could intercept missiles launched at Israel.
"Israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate the threat of a nuclear Iran. According to Israeli Intelligence they will have the bomb within two years ... Once they have a bomb it will be too late, and Israel will have no choice to strike — with or without America," an official from the Israeli Defence Ministry said.
Source: Times (UK)
By Sheera Frenkel
Apr. 18- The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government.
Among the steps taken to ready Israeli forces for what would be a risky raid requiring pinpoint aerial strikes are the acquisition of three Airborne Warning and Control (AWAC) aircraft and regional missions to simulate the attack.
Two nationwide civil defence drills will help to prepare the public for the retaliation that Israel could face.
"Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words," one senior defence official told The Times.
Officials believe that Israel could be required to hit more than a dozen targets, including moving convoys. The sites include Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges produce enriched uranium; Esfahan, where 250 tonnes of gas is stored in tunnels; and Arak, where a heavy water reactor produces plutonium.
The distance from Israel to at least one of the sites is more than 870 miles, a distance that the Israeli force practised covering in a training exercise last year that involved F15 and F16 jets, helicopters and refuelling tankers.
The possible Israeli strike on Iran has drawn comparisons to its attack on the Osirak nuclear facility near Baghdad in 1981. That strike, which destroyed the facility in under 100 seconds, was completed without Israeli losses and checked Iraqi ambitions for a nuclear weapons programme.
"We would not make the threat [against Iran] without the force to back it. There has been a recent move, a number of on-the-ground preparations, that indicate Israel's willingness to act," said another official from Israel's intelligence community.
He added that it was unlikely that Israel would carry out the attack without receiving at least tacit approval from America, which has struck a more reconciliatory tone in dealing with Iran under its new administration.
An Israeli attack on Iran would entail flying over Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, where US forces have a strong presence.
Ephraim Kam, the deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies, said it was unlikely that the Americans would approve an attack.
"The American defence establishment is unsure that the operation will be successful. And the results of the operation would only delay Iran's programme by two to four years," he said.
A visit by President Obama to Israel in June is expected to coincide with the national elections in Iran — timing that would allow the US Administration to re-evaluate diplomatic resolutions with Iran before hearing the Israeli position.
"Many of the leaks or statements made by Israeli leaders and military commanders are meant for deterrence. The message is that if [the international community] is unable to solve the problem they need to take into account that we will solve it our way," Mr Kam said.
Among recent preparations by the airforce was the Israeli attack of a weapons convoy in Sudan bound for militants in the Gaza Strip.
"Sudan was practice for the Israeli forces on a long-range attack," Ronen Bergman, the author of The Secret War with Iran, said. "They wanted to see how they handled the transfer of information, hitting a moving target ... In that sense it was a rehearsal."
Israel has made public its intention to hold the largest-ever nationwide drill next month.
Colonel Hilik Sofer told Haaretz, a daily Israeli newspaper, that the drill would "train for a reality in which during war missiles can fall on any part of the country without warning ... We want the citizens to understand that war can happen tomorrow morning".
Israel will conduct an exercise with US forces to test the ability of Arrow, its US-funded missile defence system. The exercise would test whether the system could intercept missiles launched at Israel.
"Israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate the threat of a nuclear Iran. According to Israeli Intelligence they will have the bomb within two years ... Once they have a bomb it will be too late, and Israel will have no choice to strike — with or without America," an official from the Israeli Defence Ministry said.
Source: Times (UK)
Time To Divorce Sports And Education
Recently Washington County, Utah got concerned over its school budget, because there was a threat to cut sports.
To me, this is just another reason, among many, to divorce sports and education, and so permanently. It sounds like I am just another anti-sports fanatic, when nothing could be further from the truth. I have enjoyed sports at all levels most of my life. I have cheered for teams at all levels of competition. But, I have come more and more to the conclusion, that the odd hybrid that we have in America, which exists nowhere else in the world, of grafting sports onto education is bad, archaic, and just plain unworkable.
I think I started coming to my conclusion last fall. I was a witness to a football game, in which a young man, who was a student of mine, was very seriously injured. He is a smart young man, and not at all what I would conclude to be a dumb jock. He missed several weeks of school because of his injuries, and for the remainder of the term, he hobbled into class, and had to be excused for several medical procedures. The school he attends is Division II, and so, there is scholarship money made available to him, but his health care costs are not attended to. It seems to me barbaric that we hold out the promise of education to young people while they risk injury for our amusement. The same could be said about most sports at the professional level. But, those are adults, and we can expect independent judgment from them of risks and benefits.
Another reason for the divorce is that the desire to win and flout the rules that govern education and athletics is omnipresent. For instance, in March, 60 Florida state students, who participate in athletics were cheating in online courses. Athletics in the educational realm requires constant policing to keep it above board.
I am not impugning students who participate in athletics. I have known many fine, upstanding students who do so. But, at most levels, athletic competition requires more effort and time than does their education. The eventual reward of athletics for most of them is elusive. The number of people who can make any sort of career of sports is miniscule, and yet, we dangle this is front of students constantly.
Let us not forget the students who would never be admitted to college without athletics. I knew of a young man who took a class from me twice, and still failed to earn the required grade for his major. He was cashiered from this major and steered into an independent-degree major from which he could graduate. I do not think he did. He went the free-agency route into an NFL team, was cut and continued into NFL Europe before it suspended operations. Where he is now, and what he is doing I cannot say, but the cruel carrot of pro sports, a fickle mistress at best, was probably dangled in front of him, all of his life.
Let us do what nearly every country does. For those who want to participate in sports, let us have training programs sponsored by professionals and competitive league for youngsters. Let us end the charade of education and sports, and the student-athlete. It is bad for education, bad for sports, and bad for the competitors.
To me, this is just another reason, among many, to divorce sports and education, and so permanently. It sounds like I am just another anti-sports fanatic, when nothing could be further from the truth. I have enjoyed sports at all levels most of my life. I have cheered for teams at all levels of competition. But, I have come more and more to the conclusion, that the odd hybrid that we have in America, which exists nowhere else in the world, of grafting sports onto education is bad, archaic, and just plain unworkable.
I think I started coming to my conclusion last fall. I was a witness to a football game, in which a young man, who was a student of mine, was very seriously injured. He is a smart young man, and not at all what I would conclude to be a dumb jock. He missed several weeks of school because of his injuries, and for the remainder of the term, he hobbled into class, and had to be excused for several medical procedures. The school he attends is Division II, and so, there is scholarship money made available to him, but his health care costs are not attended to. It seems to me barbaric that we hold out the promise of education to young people while they risk injury for our amusement. The same could be said about most sports at the professional level. But, those are adults, and we can expect independent judgment from them of risks and benefits.
Another reason for the divorce is that the desire to win and flout the rules that govern education and athletics is omnipresent. For instance, in March, 60 Florida state students, who participate in athletics were cheating in online courses. Athletics in the educational realm requires constant policing to keep it above board.
I am not impugning students who participate in athletics. I have known many fine, upstanding students who do so. But, at most levels, athletic competition requires more effort and time than does their education. The eventual reward of athletics for most of them is elusive. The number of people who can make any sort of career of sports is miniscule, and yet, we dangle this is front of students constantly.
Let us not forget the students who would never be admitted to college without athletics. I knew of a young man who took a class from me twice, and still failed to earn the required grade for his major. He was cashiered from this major and steered into an independent-degree major from which he could graduate. I do not think he did. He went the free-agency route into an NFL team, was cut and continued into NFL Europe before it suspended operations. Where he is now, and what he is doing I cannot say, but the cruel carrot of pro sports, a fickle mistress at best, was probably dangled in front of him, all of his life.
Let us do what nearly every country does. For those who want to participate in sports, let us have training programs sponsored by professionals and competitive league for youngsters. Let us end the charade of education and sports, and the student-athlete. It is bad for education, bad for sports, and bad for the competitors.
Monday, April 13, 2009
News From Infoshop
April 13- Halla targeted as Ontario Common Front members meet
They’re part of the Ontario Common Front (OCF), a group holding a series of workshops and protest planning sessions this weekend.
A variety of delegates were expected Saturday at Belleville’s Organic Underground coffee shop to discuss future protests against the G8 meeting of world leaders, the 2010 Olympic Games, and the Security and Prosperity Partnership. But also on the agenda was an information picket outside one of three local buildings owned by Halla Climate Control Canada Inc.
“We’ve been asked to do an action against the local plant,” said Belleville activist Samuel Kuhn.
Halla’s parent company, Visteon Inc., has laid off hundreds of workers in Europe.
Workers at several sites have responded by occupying those buildings to protest the layoffs and demand better severance packages.
Kuhn said OCF members would hand out information on Visteon’s labour situation and the protests to Halla workers. Though the protest was slated for Sunday, Kuhn and Picton OCF member Terry Douglas said the date, time and location would be finalized in a closed planning session Saturday afternoon.
“We want to make sure the workers know what’s happening to their brothers and sisters in Europe,” said Kuhn.
Read more about the OCF gathering in Monday’s Intelligencer.
They’re part of the Ontario Common Front (OCF), a group holding a series of workshops and protest planning sessions this weekend.
A variety of delegates were expected Saturday at Belleville’s Organic Underground coffee shop to discuss future protests against the G8 meeting of world leaders, the 2010 Olympic Games, and the Security and Prosperity Partnership. But also on the agenda was an information picket outside one of three local buildings owned by Halla Climate Control Canada Inc.
“We’ve been asked to do an action against the local plant,” said Belleville activist Samuel Kuhn.
Halla’s parent company, Visteon Inc., has laid off hundreds of workers in Europe.
Workers at several sites have responded by occupying those buildings to protest the layoffs and demand better severance packages.
Kuhn said OCF members would hand out information on Visteon’s labour situation and the protests to Halla workers. Though the protest was slated for Sunday, Kuhn and Picton OCF member Terry Douglas said the date, time and location would be finalized in a closed planning session Saturday afternoon.
“We want to make sure the workers know what’s happening to their brothers and sisters in Europe,” said Kuhn.
Read more about the OCF gathering in Monday’s Intelligencer.
Uncool Singer-Song Writers
When people talk about singer-songwriters they usually mean something in the weepy confessional mode like James Taylor, or, in a more contemporary mode, Sufjan Stevens. Not that both Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Stevens have not done estimable work, they have. But the singer-songwriter tag is never applied to people who put together AM radio pop fare. Singer-songwriter to me can be equally applied to Gene Pitney, Tommy Roe, and the subjects of this essay, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.
Boyce and Hart made substantial contributions to the pop sound of the 1960s. Tommy Boyce started his career as a boy-singer in a teeny-bop mode and posted a couple of minor chart entries. But, when he teamed up with Bobby Hart, they had the magic touch. They started penning songs for Jay and The Americans, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and of course, their most famous contributions to the catalog of the pre-fab four, the Monkees. They may have just about written the toughest pop song of the 1960s. (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone is one of the great kiss-off songs in the vein of the bad boy kissing off the rich girl in the history of that sub-genre of 1960s songs. But, it was as a singing duo that Boyce and Hart should be remembered. They were singer-songwriters in every sense of the word and do not credit for being as such. They had a few hits, but really should have had more and should have been a major act. They produced what I consider to be one of the great AM nuggets of all time. One of these days I will put together a list of these and this will be on the top (as a side note: I'm A Believer, It's a Cryin' Shame, and It's Only Make Believe would also be on the list, but that is another essay). The song is, I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite. This song has it all, heavily-strummed guitars, punchy horn charts, and stellarly belted harmonies from Tommy and Bobby. The duo was pimped on network TV programs, but it only added marginally to their status. Elizabeth Montgomery dancing with Elizabeth Montgomery (in her dual roles as cousins Samantha and Serena) while a record album is spinning in mid-air and playing their non-hit, I'll Blow You A Kiss In The Wind, is one of the great moments of 1960 TV.
Did you know that Tommy and Bobby even got political? Yep, they penned a song that promoted the 18-year old vote called L.U.V. (Let Us Vote), even though the duo themselves had been eligible to vote for about a good ten years when this record came out.
Why are they not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? It is hard to imagine the 1960s without them.
The duo teamed up with a couple of Monkees in the mid-1970s with a group called Dolenz, Jones, Boyce, and Hart. The attempt was to pass the quartet off as a reconstituted Monkees, but the band name was tied up in litigation at the time. An album under the name of this quartet which largely went nowhere had some more Boyce and Hart originals on it. Bobby Hart had a solo bubbling under hit in the 1980s. It was really an ignonymous end, and these two, who helped craft the sound of that decade really deserve better
Boyce and Hart made substantial contributions to the pop sound of the 1960s. Tommy Boyce started his career as a boy-singer in a teeny-bop mode and posted a couple of minor chart entries. But, when he teamed up with Bobby Hart, they had the magic touch. They started penning songs for Jay and The Americans, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and of course, their most famous contributions to the catalog of the pre-fab four, the Monkees. They may have just about written the toughest pop song of the 1960s. (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone is one of the great kiss-off songs in the vein of the bad boy kissing off the rich girl in the history of that sub-genre of 1960s songs. But, it was as a singing duo that Boyce and Hart should be remembered. They were singer-songwriters in every sense of the word and do not credit for being as such. They had a few hits, but really should have had more and should have been a major act. They produced what I consider to be one of the great AM nuggets of all time. One of these days I will put together a list of these and this will be on the top (as a side note: I'm A Believer, It's a Cryin' Shame, and It's Only Make Believe would also be on the list, but that is another essay). The song is, I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite. This song has it all, heavily-strummed guitars, punchy horn charts, and stellarly belted harmonies from Tommy and Bobby. The duo was pimped on network TV programs, but it only added marginally to their status. Elizabeth Montgomery dancing with Elizabeth Montgomery (in her dual roles as cousins Samantha and Serena) while a record album is spinning in mid-air and playing their non-hit, I'll Blow You A Kiss In The Wind, is one of the great moments of 1960 TV.
Did you know that Tommy and Bobby even got political? Yep, they penned a song that promoted the 18-year old vote called L.U.V. (Let Us Vote), even though the duo themselves had been eligible to vote for about a good ten years when this record came out.
Why are they not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? It is hard to imagine the 1960s without them.
The duo teamed up with a couple of Monkees in the mid-1970s with a group called Dolenz, Jones, Boyce, and Hart. The attempt was to pass the quartet off as a reconstituted Monkees, but the band name was tied up in litigation at the time. An album under the name of this quartet which largely went nowhere had some more Boyce and Hart originals on it. Bobby Hart had a solo bubbling under hit in the 1980s. It was really an ignonymous end, and these two, who helped craft the sound of that decade really deserve better
Sunday, April 5, 2009
News From Indymedia
On the 3rd and 4th of April - right after the G20-meeting in London - in Strasbourg, France, and Baden-Baden, Germany, a summit meeting of the NATO members is taking place for NATO's 60th anniversary. No less than the very continuance of this military alliance is at stake. Expect broad resistance from all section of the left from labor unions through to extra-parlimentary radical leftists – as well as heavy state repression.
In Strasbourg a resistance camp is under construction, while the Convergence Center (CC) in Freiburg is already in use by activists getting ready for the summit protests. Another CC will open in Strasbourg on the 31st of March. The Infopoints have published an infosheet to support the campaign.
Some 30,000 police are expected to secure this militarist gathering, while German intelligence services are aggressively aiming to recruit activists (1 | 2 | analysis). The CC Legal Team will provide legal advice and aid to protesters from across the border.
The protests will kick-off on Monday, 30th of March, with an unregistered demonstration in Freiburg. Prior to this demonstration the cops attempted to intimidate activists by harassing the alleged organizers of the latest major leftwing demonstration in December, 2008. Their only achievement was to convince activists and the general public that they have no intention of enforcing the law.
In Strasbourg a resistance camp is under construction, while the Convergence Center (CC) in Freiburg is already in use by activists getting ready for the summit protests. Another CC will open in Strasbourg on the 31st of March. The Infopoints have published an infosheet to support the campaign.
Some 30,000 police are expected to secure this militarist gathering, while German intelligence services are aggressively aiming to recruit activists (1 | 2 | analysis). The CC Legal Team will provide legal advice and aid to protesters from across the border.
The protests will kick-off on Monday, 30th of March, with an unregistered demonstration in Freiburg. Prior to this demonstration the cops attempted to intimidate activists by harassing the alleged organizers of the latest major leftwing demonstration in December, 2008. Their only achievement was to convince activists and the general public that they have no intention of enforcing the law.
Documentary Spotlights Salt Lake Top 40 Radio
I guess it's about time I wrote about a documentary and I might as well right about a documentary that people have about exactly zero chance of ever seeing unless they go over to the Mountainland Applied Technical College website and order it.
The doc is a labor of love by Mountainland instructor Greg Carlisle who started doing an all vinyl radio show on the college's radio station to help recreate the sound of Salt Lake City Top 40 radio from the 1960s and 1970s when KNAK and KCPX duked it out over listeners in this market.
I know what people are thinking, the city's LDS fathers sitting in the ivory temple towers of this city put the kibosh on the evil rock and/or roll from the era. But, nothing could be farther from the truth. I've seen playlists from the era and these stations rocked!! Little known fact: the Beach Boys found Salt Lake City and the outdoor venue, Lagoon amusement park to be such a receptive venue that they included a composition named after the town on one of their early albums. Need further evidence of the rock credentials of Salt Lake? In the late 1960s, such hard and heavy stalwarts as Jefferson Airplane, CCR and Jimi Hendrix all played Salt Lake. Jimi Hendrix! I know someone who is working on a documentary about the rock years of Lagoon. I cannot wait to see it.
A side note: A certain Communication Department chair of a small southwestern Utah college was a drummer for a band called the InMates that had a hit on Salt Lake radio with a song called London Town. Anyone who has serious lead on this record should get a hold of me via this column.
The production on this doc is iffy and low budget, but the makers of the film employed a brilliant strategy: they invited jocks from the era to a couple of dinners and then put them in front of mikes in roundtables to spin their tales. Need I tell you what happens when you put a bunch of ex-rock jocks in front of a bunch of microphones? The stories come hard and fast. Some of them are even true!
There is genuine drama in some of the stories as the jocks spin tales such tales as: How ex-KNAK jock Wooly Waldron left for cross-town competitor KCPX and immediately went on a talent raid of KNAK and made his station the one to work for and listen to; How a Salt Lake radio station broke the world-wide rock news story that Doors front-man Jim Morrison had died in Paris; How Salt Lake radio became the focus of the story when LDS prophet Spencer Kimball made the call to admit blacks to the LDS priesthood.
Top 40 radio really mattered at one time and the doc entitled: AM to FM shows us how this was the case.
The doc is a labor of love by Mountainland instructor Greg Carlisle who started doing an all vinyl radio show on the college's radio station to help recreate the sound of Salt Lake City Top 40 radio from the 1960s and 1970s when KNAK and KCPX duked it out over listeners in this market.
I know what people are thinking, the city's LDS fathers sitting in the ivory temple towers of this city put the kibosh on the evil rock and/or roll from the era. But, nothing could be farther from the truth. I've seen playlists from the era and these stations rocked!! Little known fact: the Beach Boys found Salt Lake City and the outdoor venue, Lagoon amusement park to be such a receptive venue that they included a composition named after the town on one of their early albums. Need further evidence of the rock credentials of Salt Lake? In the late 1960s, such hard and heavy stalwarts as Jefferson Airplane, CCR and Jimi Hendrix all played Salt Lake. Jimi Hendrix! I know someone who is working on a documentary about the rock years of Lagoon. I cannot wait to see it.
A side note: A certain Communication Department chair of a small southwestern Utah college was a drummer for a band called the InMates that had a hit on Salt Lake radio with a song called London Town. Anyone who has serious lead on this record should get a hold of me via this column.
The production on this doc is iffy and low budget, but the makers of the film employed a brilliant strategy: they invited jocks from the era to a couple of dinners and then put them in front of mikes in roundtables to spin their tales. Need I tell you what happens when you put a bunch of ex-rock jocks in front of a bunch of microphones? The stories come hard and fast. Some of them are even true!
There is genuine drama in some of the stories as the jocks spin tales such tales as: How ex-KNAK jock Wooly Waldron left for cross-town competitor KCPX and immediately went on a talent raid of KNAK and made his station the one to work for and listen to; How a Salt Lake radio station broke the world-wide rock news story that Doors front-man Jim Morrison had died in Paris; How Salt Lake radio became the focus of the story when LDS prophet Spencer Kimball made the call to admit blacks to the LDS priesthood.
Top 40 radio really mattered at one time and the doc entitled: AM to FM shows us how this was the case.
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