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Paul Craig Roberts argues in the subscriber edition of CounterPunch that declines in pay and availability of USA employment can be best explained by ‘free trade’ policies that encourage export of middle-class work. We offer some excerpts, beginning with another indication of suppressed public information–gm

“If outsourcing jobs offshore is good for U.S. employment, why won’t the U.S. Department of Commerce release the 200-page, $335,000 study of the impact of the offshoring of U.S. high-tech jobs? Republican political appointees reduced the 200-page report to 12 pages of public relations hype and refuse to allow the Technology Administration experts who wrote the report to testify before Congress.
Democrats on the House Science Committee are unable to pry the study out of the hands of Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. On March 29, 2006, Republicans on the House Science Committee
voted down a resolution designed to force the Commerce Department to release the study to Congress. Obviously, the facts don’t fit the Bush regime’s globalization hype.”

American economists, some from incompetence
and some from being bought and paid for, described globalization as a “win-win” development. It was supposed to work like this: The U.S. would lose market share in tradable manufactured goods and make up the job and economic loss with highly educated knowledge workers. The win for America would be lower-priced manufactured goods and a white-collar work force. The win for China would be manufacturing jobs that would bring economic development to that country.

It did not work out this way, as Morgan
Stanley’s Stephen Roach, formerly a cheerleader for globalization, recently admitted. It has become apparent that job creation and real wages in the developed economies are seriously lagging behind emtheir historical norms as offshore outsourcing
displaces the “new economy” jobs in “software programming, engineering, design, and the medical profession, as well as a broad array of professionals in the legal, accounting, actuarial, consulting,
and financial services industries”.

The real state of the U.S. job market is revealed by a Chicago Sun-Times report on January 26, 2006, that 25,000 people applied for 325 jobs at a new Chicago Wal-Mart. According to the BLS payroll jobs data, over the past half-decade (January 2001 – January 2006, the data series available at time of writing) the U.S. economy created 1,050,000 net new private sector jobs and 1,009,000 net new government jobs for a total five-year figure of 2,059,000. That is seven million jobs short of keeping up with population growth, definitely a serious job shortfall.

The BLS payroll jobs data contradict the hype from business organizations, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that offshore outsourcing is good for America. CounterPunch subscriber edition Vol. 13, No. 13

By TOM HARRIS / KVUE News

A controversy is brewing over whether or not the state of Texas should provide prisoners with free condoms.

One of the reasons this topic is coming into light is because Texas ranks No. 2 in the nation for the number of inmates diagnosed with AIDS.

Texas ranks third for number of prisoners with HIV.

About twenty ACT UP Austin members marched to the offices of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

They are group working to stop the spread of HIV and they think condoms in prisons will help.

“It’s not just an issue that is contained behind bars people come out of the prisons they come back to our communities and bring with them anything they got in prison,” said Ruth True of ACT UP. Source: KVUE

How do we respond to the news from the Boston Globe? Just read the chapter on Civil Rights in Dime’s Worth of Difference. It’s all there.

Civil rights hiring shifted in Bush era
Conservative leanings stressed

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | July 23, 2006

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is quietly remaking the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, filling the permanent ranks with lawyers who have strong conservative credentials but little experience in civil rights, according to job application materials obtained by the Globe. Like we say, nothing more to add.

Dear Friends:

In the enclosed writings Ramsey Muniz shares very spiritual sentiments inspired by his favorite author, Carlos Fuentes. We were fortunate and perhaps
destined to hear him speak at Del Mar College more than twelve years ago. Please distribute.–Irma L. Muniz

Carlos Fuentes, Liberation, and Spirituality
6/25/06

“The key to understanding ourselves as a people today
remains in discovering and living our Mexicano spirituality and cultura. Today we are in the actual visible process of building our spiritual temple in our hearts in all Aztlan. We are unconsciously working together and assisting each other for the new millennium by growing in love, character, awareness,
sharing Mexicayotl, and preparing ourselves for the liberation of all Aztlan.”

–Tezcatlipoca

I can never forget when we met Carlos Fuentes in
Corpus Christi, Texas when he spoke at Del Mar College. We took photos with the author as I shared with him the importance of his words and wisdom for our people.

“Every single person in the valley of Morelos, Mexico, from the old veterans of the Mexican Revolution to present day schoolchildren, still believes that Zapata is alive. And perhaps they are right. Zapata will live as long as people believe that they have a right to their land and a right to govern themselves according to their deeply held beliefs and cultural values.”

The Buried Mirror. Carlos Fuentes.

During the late hours confined in these dungeons of the oppressor I was enlightened by the written spiritual words as expressed by Mr. Fuentes in his book entitled I Believe. I could feel the spirituality of our ancient Mexicano past enter into the brick walls of this realm of injustices and sorrow. Never before in all his writings had he expressed the reality and truth of our
spirituality as a people, as a race, and as a nation.

“The singularity of Jesus is that the permanence, fame or value of his work arises from obscurity and anonymity. Had he not been rescued by the apostles and propagandized by St. Paul, it is highly likely that the preacher from Galilee would have become lost
among the hundreds of holy men who traveled the paths of the ancient world. But nothing – not the gospels, not St. Paul, not even the Christian church itself can divest Jesus of his condition as a humble man, stripped of all power, unadorned by luxury, a man whose humility and poverty transform him into the most powerful symbol of human salvation.”

This I Believe. An A to Z of a Life. Carlos Fuentes. 2006. p. 39

There is definitely an aura of spirituality among our people like never before in our history. I can sense and feel the same positive spiritual attitude among those who find themselves in solitary confinement. I can feel the outcry and yearning of Mexicanos in the so-called free world as they too reach out for our spiritual
ancient power and resistance. Yes, it is and was part of us from the beginning of our creation. We can no longer deny that spiritual power which lies in our hearts and minds. We must rise again!

“Even during the times of sickness, pain, and suffering, the dreams were so vivid about us from the beginning to the end. It is truly an endless love between two hearts that were destined to meet before their births. The dreams during these times of sorrow and
loneliness were so clear and visions came into my heart about our direction and shining path that we must take as a people during this era of despair and destruction. We must once more seek the means of understanding each other as a race of humanity, harmony, peace,
and spirituality.”

–Tezcatlipoca – R. Muniz. 2005

The visions, dreams, and spiritual messages that I receive in this harsh debilitating incarceration bring joy and happiness to my heart, because I know that the “time” has come for us to rise once again in this world of our. At times tears will come from my heart as I feel the spiritual power of justice and liberation becoming a
part of us once again in all Aztlan.

“Was he, like Saints Francis and Augustine, a sated and reformed sinner? Precisely because he works within the constraints of time, Jesus encourages us to believe in time. His words reveal an extraordinary
temporal faith, for even when eternity seems to appear at the horizon of his words, the goal of Christ’s faith is the future of the human race. Jesus’ faith exhorts us to work in the world. The heaven of
Jesus Christ is found in solidarity with one’s brothers, not in some kind of celestial empiricism. And his hell is found in earthly injustice, not in some bottomless pit consumed by flames. Jesus does, however, extend the values of life on earth to the realm of the eternal:
‘For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; a stranger and you welcomed me; naked and you clothed me; ill and you cared for me; in prison and you visited me.’ ‘When did
we give you all this?’ His listeners asked him. And Jesus replies, ‘Amen I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

This I Believe. An A to Z of a Life. Carlos Fuentes. 2006. p. 41.

In conclusion, I thank the Creator and the power of our ancient Mexicano spirituality for the experience of feeling such spiritual emotions that come from my heart notwithstanding the fact that I reside presently in the world of hatred, cruelty, oppression, injustices, confinement, and loneliness. It is this Mexicano
spiritual love that has overcome the hatred and inhumane suffering of one’s life. This love that I have for Citlalmina, “illuminating star,” is like the universal cosmic visions of another world. This Mexicano love that I possess for my people is the reason that the
Creator of all things universally presents to my life in prison, joy, sadness, happiness, suffering, forgiveness, laughter, sorrow, hunger, love, loneliness, life, sacrifice, and the power of ancient Mexicano prayer. All Mexicanos know deep in their hearts that our time has come. We must no longer be afraid.

In exile,
Tezcatlipoca
Mexicano political prisoner
http://www.freeramsey.com

Recieved via email from Irma L. Muniz, July 22, 2006.