Read back issues of the JackRabbit here

January Monday, Feb. 13 The Yakima Valley Peace Advocates Network (YVPAN) will have its monthly meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 225 N. 2nd St. in Yakima, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Enter from the alley in back of the church. YVPAN is the group that promotes local peace actions, such as counter-recruitment and signing for peace at street intersections. All who wish for peace and are willing to work for it are welcome to attend the meetings. Why not come and help with the planning? To find out more about YVPAN, as well as other peace activities, type www.yvpan.net into your browser. At the same web site, you can reach links to national peace organizations such as Veterans for Peace, and you can read the current issue of The Jackrabbit News. Sunday, Feb. 19 Signing for peace at the intersection of 16th Ave. and Nob Hill Blvd., 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. We sign at that location on the third Sunday of each month. We need more volunteers to take the places of our elderly peace activists, who have given their all for peace, but now can’t come because of illness. Why not give it a try? We have signs or bring your own. Here are some suggestions: OUT OF AFGHANISTAN BRING OUR $BILLIONS HOME STOP PERPETUAL U.S. WARFARE WAR—WHO DIES? WHO PAYS? WHO PROFITS? Hanford council seeking public input The Hanford Natural Resources Trustee Council is conducting a Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA), and would like input from the public. The NRDA will try to determine if four decades of contamination from defense activities have injured natural resources at Hanford. To find out more about the Council’s project and how you can become involved, go to www.hanfordnrda.org. Obama—some good news On January 18, President Obama stood up to Big Oil and Republicans by announcing that his administration is denying the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The proposed pipeline would have carried millions of gallons of tar-sands oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, passing through America’s heartland. Oil from tar-sands is the dirtiest form of oil. It produces three times the global warming pollution as regular oil, and causes damage to our health and our environment. A spill from 2012 the pipeline could contaminate a huge aquifer in the Midwest. Also, in mid-January, the Obama administration officially proposed raising fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars and light trucks to 54.5 mph by 2025. In the year 2030, the new standards will save American families $44 billion for gas and reduce our oil use by 23 billion gallons. Another good move by Obama was his use of his constitutional power to make recess appointments (those made when Congress is not in session). On Jan. 4, he appointed Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Obama tried to appoint Cordray in December, but Senate Republicns filibustered and blocked the appointment. Also on Jan.4, Obama appointed three new members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB would have been unable to function this year without the appointments. The pipeline decision and the appointments naturally infuriated Republicans in Congress. But maybe Obama is learning not to worry so much about pleasing Republicans. His tendency in that direction in his first three years in office has not appeased them, but has merely whetted their appetite for more. What this election year will mean If Republicans this fall hang onto their majority in the House, take control of the Senate, and elect a Republican president, an oligarchy (total rule by the wealthy elite) will prevail, and democracy may never be reestablished. Here is some of what will happen: Social Security and Medicare will be privatized. There are some Republicans in Congress who favor abolishing these programs altogether. Obama’s health care plan will be repealed. The agency recently set up to protect consumers will be abolished. The Environmental Protection Agency will disappear. Any government agencies related to the environment, such as the Department of Energy, will be headed by executives from the big polluting industries, as they were when George W. Bush was in office. Republicans will be able to get more of their kind, such as Clarence Thomas, appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Millionaires and billionaires will continue to avoid paying their share of taxes, and the middle class and the poor will be squeezed even more than they are now. There will be no more efforts to reduce military expenditures, and the military-industrial complex will continue its domination. Our crumbling infrastructure will continue to crumble. Congresss will be able to defund government agencies they don’t like, such as the NLRB. Wealthy industrialists will find a welcome for their goal of smashing the country’s labor unions. And now, a war with Iran? There are indications that the U.S. may soon be warring with Iran. Threats and counter-threats are rife between the two counries. The U.S. and Israel are preparing for huge joint military drills. The U.S. Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain is ready for action. The U.S. also has about 23,000 troops in Qatar, plus another 2,000 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Israel is preparing to shut down its nuclear reactor at Dimona. In case of war with Iran, a missile attack on the reactor could spell a radiation disaster. Iran, for its part, will be holding military drills of its own, with naval exercizes to begin on January 27. The emphasis will be on practicing to close down the Strait of Hormuz, through which twenty percent of the world’s sea- borne supply of oil flows. The U.S. is threatening military action if Iran tries to close the strait. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, "We made it very clear that the United States will not tolerate the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz." Iran’s army chief, Major General Ataollah Salehi, warned that American warships, which have now left the Arabian Gulf after a millitary drill there, should not return. "The Islamic Republic of Iran doesn’t intend to repeat this warning," said Salehi. But in defiance of Salehi’s warning, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, based in Everett, WA, sailed into the Gulf. While Iran probably won’t attack the U.S. ships, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Navy could harass oil tankers passing through the narrow strait and lay mines to impede and pose a danger to them. U.S. allies in the region are understandably worried about what could happen to them if war should come. Iran has often warned that it would attack U.S. military facilities in the Gulf Arab states. The UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia would all be vulnerable to an Iranian attack. Last November, a senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary guard warned that if the country is attacked by the U.S. or Israel, Iran would retaliate by attacking NATO’s missile defense installations in Turkey. "The clock is ticking, and we in the Gulf do not have control over it," said Kuwaiti political analyst Sami al-Faraj. The confrontation with Iran was precipitated by international economic sanctions, including one by the U.S. aimed at the Iran Central Bank. The European Union has joined the embargo against importing Iranian oil. Sanctions have been in place for four years now, and they have dealt a hard blow to Iran’s economy. Iran is strongly suspected of trying to develop nuclear weapons, and this is the basis for the sanctions, the worsening relations and the threats. For several years, Iran has been using centrifuges to enrich its supply of uranium, which it claims it is doing for research and to develop nuclear energy, and not for making atomic bombs. It says it needs enriched uranium to refuel a reactor that makes medical isotopes. Inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency have been unable to determine with certainty just what Iran’s intentions are. The question is, will the Iranians enrich their uranium to the degree required by power reactors, or will they enrich it to the higher degree required to make bombs? At a press conference on January 8, Iran’s top nuclear official, Fereydoon Abassi, announced that the country was on the verge of starting production at a second uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom. But this one, unlike the one at Natanz, which is already operating, is buried deep in the ground, and is believed to be safe from aerial attacks. The U.S. has known about the Qom plant since at least 2009, and IAEA inspectors have inspected it regularly since then. Officials said then that they doubted that Iran would ever go forward with it. But in December, inspectors reported that when they visited the plant, they saw the finishing touches being put on the enrichment centrifuges. They said they expected the plant to be operating soon. The inspectors, who will keep monitoring the plant, will be likely to detect any progress toward enriching the uranium to bomb-grade levels. Iran has already produced enough fuel at its Natanz site to make about four atomic weapons, but the fuel will need further enrichment before it can actually be used. If Iran did start further enrichment of its uranium stock, U.S. officials have estimated that it would take from six months to a year before it would be ready to use for weapons. Iran has chosen a location for its Qom plant that is hard for enemies to attack. The facility is far underground, surrounded by anti-aircraft guns, and situated in a mountainous area. If Iran actually carried out its threat to close the narrow Strait of Hormuz, the price of oil would go zooming up, followed by zooming gasoline prices. This would affect the economies of countries around the world. And so the question remains, is there going to be a war? Will either the U.S. or Iran be so foolish as to carry out their threats? Yes, they would. Once a threat has been made, a country has a choice—either to carry it out or be perceived by the world as a wimpish paper tiger. Throughout history, that has started many a war. And it’s a fact that there are people in the U.S. and the Middle East who are just itching for a war to start. And then there is the power and influence of the military- industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about. Already, arms sales to worried countries in the Middle East have increased. During 2011, Saudi Arabia signed a deal to buy 84 U.S. F-15 fighter jets and upgrade 70 other jets. Also, UAE made a deal to purchase an advanced anti-missile system, Kuwait bought 209 missiles, and Saudi Arabia made a deal to strengthen Patriot missile batteries. Such deals are guaranteed to gladden the hearts of arms manufacturers. The American people seem to have accepted a permanent state of war as the norm for our country, regardless of how many lives are lost or how many $trillions are wasted. You seldom hear anyone talking about the possibility of a peaceful world any more, and the mass peace rallies and marches no longer happen. Our government continues to spend nearly as much on the military as all the rest of the world put together, friend and foe alike. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "A nation that continues, year after year, to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Leaving Iraq in chaos In the April-May issue of The Jackrabbit, we talked about how much ruin our invasion has brought to Iraq. We talked about how the Iraqi government threatens members of labor unions with torture; how the people lack electricity and drinking water; how the people are hungry and the children suffer from malnutrition; how millions of Iraqis have been forced from their homes, have had to flee to neighboring countries, and can never go home again; how men suspected of being gay or even men who appear "unmanly" are subject to kidnapping, torture and killing; how "honor killings" of women are now rampant; how women are being beheaded for taking off their veils; how, in desperation, women resort to self-immolation; how violent attacks on Christians have caused thousands of them to flee to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where they have no jobs, no schools, don’t understand the Kurdish language, and where they suffer from the icy cold winters; how children are not being educated because they can’t get to the schools, or because they are closed; how the ragged, hungry street children in the cities survive by begging, stealing, forced prostitution, and by rooting through garbage cans to find something to eat; how there is a big shortage of doctors because many of them have fled the country; and how, in the cities, there are large areas that still lie in rubble. Since U.S. troops left in December, bombings have become more frequent, with Shiites killing Sunnis and Sunnis killing Shiites. Americans are not safe there either, because factions among both the Sunnis and the Shiites are out to get revenge for the invasion and occupation of their country. People in Iraq who cooperated with the Americans are now desperate to get out. They had the idea that the U.S. would take care of them after the troops left, and see that they got to America. But that hasn’t happened, and they feel betrayed. With nothing to protect them now, they are sitting ducks for those out to punish them. News reports indicate that the Iraqi government is now falling into chaos. After the U.S. troops left, one of the first things Prime Minister al-Maliki did was to order the arrest of his vice president, who thereupon fled to safety in the Kurdish area. Responding to a boycott by Sunnis in the government, al-Maliki locked them out of their jobs. He has sent troops and tanks into the Green Zone, where most prominent political leaders live, and has warned that he is "keeping files" on them. An excerpt from a letter to Obama from the president of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq: Now that you have destroyed our country, withdrawal is not enough. Your withdrawal, which we still do not trust to be total or final, will not solve the problems that our society faces. It will not end the crisis that the U.S. created. We will need many long years to forget the painful memories and suffering of being victims of occupation. We will need decades to restore what you have destroyed and decades to save our future generations. You have left behind an environment polluted by radiation and soil poisoned with chemicals. Our children and elders are dying from diseases caused by your weapons and destruction. They cry out for treatment, but there is no cure for their suffering. Many hope for death just to end their pain. Strange weather In the last few years, global warming has been producing strange, unseasonable weather events. The first two for 2012 occurred in the U.S. and South America. In the first week in January, new records were set for high temperatures in states from California to North Dakota. In North Dakota, temperatures reached as much as 40 degrees above early January averages. Temperatures in Minot, ND hit 61 degrees. In Aberdeen, SD it hit 63 degrees. Des Moines, Iowa, got to 65 degrees, Rapid City, SD—73 degrees, St. Louis, Missouri—66 degrees, and Fargo, ND—55 degrees. As the heat wave moved eastward, states in the East were warmed too. In Southern California, heat records were set also, with Long Beach reaching 88 degrees, San Diego—88 degrees, and San Gabriel—91 degrees. A heat wave hit South America, also. In Argentina, record highs were set, and southern Patagonia, the temperature climbed to an amazing 111 degrees. High temperatures at the wrong time can cause great economic harm to a region. The total lack of snowcover in the Dakotas means that wildfires will be more likely. Also, three or more inches of snow on the fields can protect crops from sudden surges of cold air. Freakish weather events have been happening more and more frequently in the last few years, which is an indication that global warming is causing profound disturbances in climate patterns. Doomsday Clock is moved forward A picture of the "Doomsday Clock" has appeared on the front cover ofThe Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ever since 1947. The magazine publishes articles by scientists that usually relate to atomic weapons and atomic energy. Each year, scientists evaluate how close the world is coming to nuclear catastrophe, and they then set the hands of the clock accordingly, in order to symbolize their evaluation. The number of minutes to earth’s doomsday has varied over the years. The clock was set at two minutes to midnight in 1953 after the first test of the hydrogen bomb. After the Cold War was over and the U.S. and Russia began to reduce their nuclear arsenals, the minute hand was moved back to 17 minutes to midnight in 1991. But then, over the years, there was disappointment over lack of progress on disarmament treaties, so the setting crept forward until it stood at six minutes to midnight. But this month, the scientists decided to move the minute hand forward by one minute, so it now stands at five minutes to midnight. Weighing various factors, they took into consideration the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the growing interest in nuclear power from countries such as Turkey, the UAR and Indonesia. "The world still has approximately 20,000 deployed nuclear weapons with enough power to destroy the world’s inhabitants many times over," said Lawrence Krauss, co-chair of the Bulletin’s Board of Sponsors. "We also have the prospect of nuclear weapons being used by terrorist non-state actors." About The Jackrabbit News The Jackrabbit News, now in its 32nd year, is published by the Jackrabbit Alliance of Yakima. We are not affiliated with any political party, commercial enterprise, or religious group. We have non-profit status, but are not tax-exempt. We are truly independent. The Jackrabbit runs on goodwill donations. We try to economize and use our funds wisely. We have no paid staff, but rely on volunteer help. The Jackrabbit promotes peace, social justice and conservation on our earth. The Jackrabbit thrives on feedback. Comments pro or con are welcome. Letters to the editor are welcome too, but please keep them brief, as space is limited. The Jackrabbit has a collection of materials we are happy to share—books, magazines, videos, government reports and much more. Just ask and ye shall receive. Many of the items are kept in the small library in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Church, 225 N. 2nd St. in Yakima. Anyone is welcome to borrow the items, but please return them so that others may use them. Here are some of the items: Books—Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, by William Blum. War is a Lie, by David Swanson. (Shows how wars are based on lies from start to finish, causing the public to consent to endless destruction and slaughter.) The Bomb. (This is the last book by the late Howard Zinn—WWII veteran, professor, author and peace activist.) Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq, by Nicolas J.S. Davies. The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer. Will War Ever End?, by Captain Paul Chapell. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins. (How U.S. corporations use violence and threats to force other countries to accept their economic dictates.) The Secret History of the American Empire , by John Perkins. (This is a kind of sequel to "Confessions." But this book goes into more personal detail, explaining how Perkins gradually came to see that his career as a corporate hit man was wrong.) Videos—The Most Dangerous Man In America. (The story of how Daniel Ellsberg "stole" secret Pentagon documents and had them published for all to see. He is credited with helping to bring the Vietnam War to an end.) Rethink Afghanistan (A documentary by award-winning filmmaker Robert Greenwald) Blood and Oil. (How the quest for oil in the Middle East has driven the foreign policy of every U.S. president since FDR.) Sir! No Sir!(How U.S. soldiers rebelled in the Vietnam War.) War Made Easy (About the media’s complicity in promoting wars, such as the one in Iraq.) Taxi to the Dark Side (A documentary about an innocent young taxi driver who was beaten to death by U.S. soldiers.) The Forgotten Bomb (The story of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, their meaning for world peace, and how nuclear weapons and nuclear energy are related.) Magazines and newspapers—The Progressive, The Nation, The Hightower Lowdown, The War Crimes Times, The Washington Spectator, The New Internationalist, Mother Jones, National Geographic, In These Times, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Z Magazine. Organizations that work for peace Yakima Valley Peace Advocates Network (YVPAN) Peace & Justice Action League of Spokane (PJALS) World Citizens for Peace (Tri-Cities) Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation (WWFOR) American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) War Resisters League (WRL) Veterans for Peace (VFP) Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) Pastors for Peace Peace Action Witness for Peace Organizations for the environment Greenpeace Sierra Club Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) The Population Institute Friends of the Earth The Wilderness Society National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)l National Wildlife Federation World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Washington Environmental Council Worldwatch Institute Green America Heart of America Northwest Physicians for Social Responsibility Global Exchange Earthjustice Waterkeeper Alliance Social justice organizations American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Southern Poverty Law Center Center for Constitutional Rights Washington Coalition Against the Death Penalty Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Georgia Innocence Project Drug Policy Alliance Quotes of the Month Any good capitalist democracy needs to keep the rabble in line to make sure that they are atoms of consumption, obedient tools of production, isolated from one another, lacking any concept of a decent human life. They are to be spectators in a political system run by the elites, blaming each other and themselves for what’s wrong. .............Noam Chomsky When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. ...............Jimi Hendrix How to contact the Jackrabbit Mailing address: The Jackrabbit News, PO Box 772, Yakima,WA 98907. Phone/fax: (509) 965-6061.