Robert McNamara : Expanding the Imperial Mission

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

LBJ and Robert McNamara. Photo from Dr. X’s Vintage Photos.

The hallmark of the McNamara era:

Modernization, scientific management, mutually assured destruction

The most critical contribution to U.S. imperialism… for which McNamara was a leading advocate, was to foster the belief and promote the ideology that the United States model of economic and political development could transform the world.

By Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / July 7, 2009

The blogosphere is already churning up demonic imagery of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who served Presidents Kennedy and Johnson in the era of the Vietnam War. Others are reminded of the tragic Robert McNamara, portrayed in the recent documentary of his life, “The Fog of War.”

Rather than condemn or express empathy for the man, it is important for peace activists to reflect on his contributions to United States foreign policy in the context of United States imperialism.

McNamara was plucked from his leadership role in the Ford Motor Company by the new President John Kennedy. As someone trained in administration, the still new scientific management, McNamara was seen as a talented young man able to help institutionalize Kennedy’s vision of a new U.S. global and capitalist hegemony.

As the 1960s dawned, the new president, his key advisors, and far-sighted representatives of burgeoning multinational corporations saw the need for expanding access to markets, resources, cheap labor, and investment opportunities in the face of growing support in poor countries for Communist models of growth. The outgoing Eisenhower administration had been slow to expand U.S. military power and to develop a model of economic and political development that newly independent peoples would embrace as an alternative to Communism.

In that historical context, McNamara served skillfully as a policymaker pursuing the 1960s goals of U.S. global capitalism. As to global vision, articulated purpose, “theory,” McNamara and his colleagues promoted policies of “economic development” and “modernization.”

Borrowing liberally from another, Kennedy advisor Walt Rostow, the new administration launched a program to stimulate a “non-Communist” path to economic development. What the Kennedy team claimed, and probably believed, was that if newly independent countries in Africa and Asia, and neocolonial countries in Latin America embraced policies promoting markets, trade, expanding the “middle class,” modest democratization, and the celebration of science the way Europe and North America did over the last 500 years, they would experience a political and economic development that would satisfy their citizens and would resemble the United States course as well. For Rostow, the processes of economic and political development in the direction of market democracies would occur naturally if the “Communists” were prohibited from interfering with this historical evolution.

Here is where an expanded U.S. military capability was needed. The United States, the Kennedy team believed, needed to develop the technologies, the personnel, and the training to forestall “Communist” expansion in the Global South, at the same time that the United States would deter communist enemies-the Soviet Union and China-from attacking the U.S. or its allies.

The Pentagon, under McNamara’s leadership, assumed a major role in developing policies and capabilities to achieve this expanded imperial mission. Significant research and development funds were allotted to modern social science research teams who enthusiastically launched studies of “modernization;” or how to best achieve non-communist development in “less developed countries,” “developing countries,” “newly independent countries,” “Third World countries,” etc.

(Heretofore, DOD allocation of resources for social scientific research was more narrowly provided for those doing studies about making propaganda more effective or fighting “the appeals of communism.” Some of this work had been funded by the CIA but not DOD).

Additional research investment was geared to the development of new kinds of military tactics such as how to more effectively develop the capacity for “counter-insurgency’ capabilities. Finally, other DOD research dollars were channeled into the development of new military technologies; guns that could shoot around corners, electronic fences, and other gadgetry that could be used in counter-insurgency campaigns.

The most critical contribution to U.S. imperialism coming out of these new DOD programs, for which McNamara was a leading advocate, was to foster the belief and promote the ideology that the United States model of economic and political development could transform the world. If other peoples were reluctant to embrace it, the United States would use its technical advisors and military capabilities to impose this form of modernization.

When McNamara assumed the leadership of the Pentagon, he found much resistance to change. The officer core was suspicious of the new civilian undersecretaries, the new tactics derived from academic studies, and to some degree the dramatic increase in defense dollars channeled to new programs. While the Eisenhower administration increased military spending in the 1950s over the early post-World War II, the president, himself, had insisted on capping such spending at about $45 billion (in 1950s terms).

Colleagues of McNamara’s in the business community and supporters of candidate Kennedy demanded dramatic increases in military spending and programs for more nuclear weapons, increased ground troops, battlefield nuclear weapons technology, specially trained counter-insurgency forces, military assistance and training for threatened anti-Communist regimes in poor countries, and much more research and development.

When Eisenhower gave his famous warning of the expansion in American society of a “military-industrial complex” in 1960, he was standing against the growing demands of economic and political elites. The new Kennedy administration, with its new Secretary of Defense, embraced and more than fulfilled the wishes of these elites.

Finally, the new civilian militarists argued that the United States needed to maintain and enhance its capacity to deter Soviet aggression. That meant developing a technological capacity to be able to respond with devastation to any surprise attack from the Soviet Union. Deterrence theory claimed that each side needed to maintain military might of a magnitude to destroy cities and literally millions of enemy peoples even after the enemy attacks first. Thus, there was a need to continue developing new nuclear weapons, new delivery systems, new ways to bury and protect them from surprise attack, and, in the end, to be able to slaughter millions of people. This was the strategy which became known as Mutually Assured Destruction or MAD.

In the end, Robert McNamara was a product of the stage of U.S. global capitalism — its needs and contradictions — in which he had influence. While it remains important to debate questions of human complicity in policies that lead to death and destruction, it is also vital to reflect on the meaning of those policies, visions, and tactics for today.

First, then as now (in a slightly refined way), policies are justified by claiming that the United States has a particular contribution to make toward the development of other countries. Today the emphasis is placed more on “democracy,” not “development,” but politicians and pundits without a blush still refer to the United States as the “leader of the free world.” The United States is still on a mission, or so its citizens are told.

Second, as in the 1960s, the DOD still has a blank check. Tax dollars still are allocated to new military technologies and programs. Academic researchers, even more now than the days of the 1960s, provide the data and theories that lead to and/or justify foreign and military policy.

And finally, and sad to say, the new administration — while saddled with much greater economic, political, and military problems — projects that same “can-do” spirit that motivated the enormous enthusiasm for the Kennedy programs that led to the Vietnam War and disastrous policies toward Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and the Middle East.

In the end, those interested in peace and justice should use the occasion of the death of Robert McNamara for reflecting on the past to think about the present and the future.

[Harry Tarq is a professor in American Studies who lives in West Lafayette, Indiana. He blogs at Diary of a Heartland Radical, where this article also appears.]

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Robert McNamara and his Band of Brothers

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Political cartoon by Ralph Solonitz / The Rag Blog / July 6, 2009
[Ralph Solonitz’ cartoons also appear at MadasHellClub.net]

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One Small Consequence of the War of Terror

Posted on July 7, 2009 by RagBlog

Tanveer Ahmad with Shanise Farrar, his American wife, at Six Flags Great Adventure. Photo: Shanise Farrar.

Piecing Together an Immigrant’s Life the U.S. Refused to See
By Nina Bernstein / July 5, 2009

When the 43-year-old man died in a New Jersey immigration jail in 2005, the very fact seemed to fall into a black hole. Although a fellow inmate scrawled a note telling immigrant advocates that the detainee’s symptoms of a heart attack had long gone unheeded, government officials would not even confirm that the dead man had existed.

In March, more than three years after the death, federal immigration authorities acknowledged that they had overlooked it, and added a name, “Ahmad, Tanveer,” to their list of fatalities in custody.

Even as the man’s death was retrieved from official oblivion, however, his life remained a mystery, The New York Times reported in an April article on the case that pointed up the secrecy and lack of accountability in the nation’s ballooning immigration detention system. Just who the man was and why he had been detained were unknown.

Yet at the end of a long trail of government documents and interviews with friends and relatives in New York, Texas and his native Pakistan, there was his name, “Ahmad, T.,” still listed last week on the tenants’ buzzer board at the Eldorado, an apartment building in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he had lived for years. And the tenant list itself — Jones, Nadler, Mahmud, Fong, Quinones — testified to the long history of American immigration that he had tried so hard to join.

Tanveer Ahmad, it turns out, was a longtime New York City cabdriver who had paid thousands of dollars in taxes and immigration application fees. Whether out of love, loneliness or the quest for a green card, he had twice married American women after entering the country on a visitor’s visa in 1993. His only trouble with the law was a $200 fine for disorderly conduct in 1997: While working at a Houston gas station, he had displayed the business’s unlicensed gun to stop a robbery.

It would come back to haunt him. For if Mr. Ahmad’s overlooked death showed how immigrants could vanish in detention, his overlooked American life shows how 9/11 changed the stakes for those caught in the nation’s tangle of immigration laws.

In the end, his body went back in a box to his native village, to be buried by his Pakistani widow and their two children, conceived on his only two trips home in a dozen years. He had always hoped to bring them all to the United States, his widow, Rafia Perveen, said in a tearful telephone interview through a translator.

“He said America is very good,” she recalled. “When it comes to the treatment of Muslims in the U.S., he had faith in the rule of law. He said, ‘In America, they don’t bother anyone just for no reason.’ ”

When immigration agents burst into Mr. Ahmad’s two-room Flatbush apartment on Aug. 2, 2005, they were looking for someone else, his friends say — a roommate suspected of violating his student visa by working. But they ordered Mr. Ahmad to report to immigration headquarters in Manhattan on Aug. 11.

He went, and was delivered in shackles to the Monmouth County Correctional Institute in Freehold, N.J. His Texas misdemeanor had popped up in the computer as an offense involving a deadly weapon — reason enough, after 9/11, for authorities to detain him pending deportation proceedings.

Like several million other residents of the United States, Mr. Ahmad occupied the complicated gray zone between illegal and legal immigration. Though he had overstayed his first visa, he had repeatedly been authorized to work while his applications for “adjustment of status” were pending. Twice before 9/11 he had been allowed back into the country after visits to Pakistan.

But the green card application sponsored by his Bronx-born wife, Shanise Farrar, had been officially denied in March 2005, leaving him without a valid visa. Although the couple could have reapplied, by the time he was arrested they had not spoken in more than a year, and Ms. Farrar, who had received a letter threatening a marriage fraud investigation, was unaware of his detention.

As she tells it, theirs was an intimate relationship ruined by 9/11. With regret, she recalled her reaction: “I was just cursing him. I was like, ‘You people come here and kill us and mess up our city.’ He was trying to convince me and prove to me that he’s a good man, not those people.”

“I loved him,” she added. “It was just, once the World Trade Center came down, I changed my mind.”

He was a natural immigrant, friends said, the fifth child in a poor but striving family, the captain of his village school’s victorious cricket team who grew into a funny and generous adult. After his family arranged his engagement to his cousin Rafia, he left to work in a brother’s store in Saudi Arabia. But once he visited New York, he had eyes only for the United States.

“His brother called him to come back,” recalled Mohammad S. Tariq, 58, a cabby whose Brooklyn apartment was Mr. Ahmad’s first home in the city. “But Tanveer did not want to go back.”

Instead he followed a job to Texas. He worked the night shift at a gas station that was robbed at gunpoint 7 times in 35 days, said the manager, Kathy Jean Lewis — who married him while she was battling thyroid cancer.

After her recovery, Mr. Ahmad made a three-month trip back to Pakistan, where he wed his cousin in 1998. His marriage to Ms. Lewis, now 53, was annulled by a Texas court in 1999.

She harbors no hard feelings. “He was emotionally supportive when I was sick,” she said, recalling how Mr. Ahmad took her to midnight dinners at her favorite restaurant when she was undergoing radiation treatment. “He just had a very big heart.”

His second American wife, Ms. Farrar, tells a similar story.

They wed at the city clerk’s office in Manhattan in July 2000, when Ms. Farrar was a single mother struggling to support her young son as a car service dispatcher, and they applied for a green card. She says she did not know he had a wife in Pakistan, and she denies that hers was “a paper marriage,” as Mr. Ahmad’s Pakistani widow put it. Ms. Farrar, 36, still speaks wistfully of family outings to Six Flags Great Adventure and the Bronx Zoo.

Then came 9/11. “Friends and family, ringing my phone — ‘You better watch it, you maybe married a terrorist,’ ” Ms. Farrar recalled, evoking a period when hundreds of Muslim immigrants in New York were swept up on the strength of vague suspicions. “I would bring it to him. He was scared anybody was going to hurt him.”

They patched things up before a November 2002 immigration interview, Ms. Farrar said. But they flunked it — the interviewing agent apparently doubted their marriage was genuine — and never appeared for the second-chance interview in 2003, Ms. Farrar said, because they had split up.

By the time Mr. Ahmad was taken in handcuffs to immigration court on Aug. 17, 2005, all he wanted was to return to Pakistan. He insisted on giving up his right to contest deportation, even though he faced a 10-year bar on returning, said Kenneth M. Schonfeld, an immigration lawyer hurriedly hired by Mr. Ahmad’s friends, all cabdrivers from Pakistan.

“He couldn’t stand the thought of having to stay in custody,” the lawyer said, and he seemed “really terrified” of the Monmouth jail. “It’s a place that would frighten or depress anyone.”

Three weeks later, Mr. Ahmad was dead. Since he had no known health problems, his friends were shocked and disbelieving. They were told that Mr. Ahmad had suffered a heart attack in the jail, and despite all efforts to revive him, had been pronounced dead in a hospital emergency room at 5:51 p.m. on Sept. 9. An autopsy cited “occlusive coronary atherosclerosis.”

His friends did not know that the jail had a history of detainee complaints of medical neglect and physical abuse, and did not allow guards to send detainees to the medical unit without prior approval. Similar complaints have been made about many detention centers, spurring the Obama administration to order a review of the system.

According to the jail’s internal investigation, Mr. Ahmad walked into the medical unit shortly after 3:50 p.m. on Sept. 9 and “was seen immediately.” But the letter scrawled by a fellow inmate contended that before he showed up there, Mr. Ahmad’s pleas for treatment had been rebuffed by a guard for an hour.

Complaints about his death were filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, documents show; the matter was passed for internal inquiry to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with the notation that it need not report back its findings.

By 2007, when the immigration agency compiled its first list of deaths in immigration detention, under pressure from Congress and the news media, Mr. Ahmad’s death was not on it.

Yet if his death was not counted, his arrest was — it had been added to the agency’s anti-terrorism statistics, according to government documents showing he was termed a “collateral” apprehension in Operation Secure Commute, raids seeking visa violators after the London transit bombings.

How his children will remember him is another matter. Without the money Mr. Ahmad used to send, they had to move in with relatives far from his grave in Pakistan. But his 10-year-old son clings to a souvenir, the widow said: “He keeps his father’s photograph in his pocket.”

Source / New York Times

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Health Care : Obama Must Channel Inner FDR

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Unfortunately, throughout the Congressional debate about health care reform President Obama has not shown the clarity or leadership of a Roosevelt…

By Dr. Stephen R. Keister / The Rag Blog / July 6, 2009

My earliest memory of a presidential election was early in the Great Depression when Franklin D. Roosevelt challenged Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt was a product of privilege; nevertheless, he was an individual of courage and conviction.

I was reminded of this the other day when I came across a brochure entitled Keeping America’s Promise, Strengthening The Middle Class. A well written, lucid account of Obama’s promises to America, which I had picked up at the local Obama headquarters during the primary election. On page 34 is a detailed plan for health care for all in which he three times cites his support of a PUBLIC PLAN offering all Americans the same health benefits as incorporated in the plan ‘members of Congress have.”

Unfortunately, throughout the Congressional debate about health care reform President Obama has not shown the clarity or leadership of a Roosevelt on this issue, but has rather enveloped himself with the special interests opposed to universal health care, avoided the organizations dedicated to universal health care, and maintained a deafening silence, save for a few offhand remarks at town meetings or press conferences.

Not once has he taken a firm stand, but rather has continued the absurd commitment to “bipartisanship” and has failed to face the fact that the Republicans in Congress are there to systematically destroy any progressive agenda rather than to work in the interests of the American people. Many individuals have encouraged Mr. Obama to show conviction and leadership, including Ralph Nader in an article in the Boston Globe on June 30.

On June 28 in the Washington Post, E.J. Dionne, one of the few remaining honest progressive columnists, takes Mr. Obama to task for his silence. Mr. Dionne indicates that Obama has shied away from handing Congress his own plans on “stone tablets,” a phrase much loved by senior adviser David Axelrod, and instead allowed it room to legislate. Mr. Dionne continues to note the absence of substantial Republican support for comprehensive change.

Max Baucus, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has done practically everything short of making ethanol a reimbursable prescription drug to win the heart of his good Republican friend from Iowa, Chuck Grassley. This creates a terrible dynamic in which Baucus is pushed toward one concession after another. It’s a setup for a sellout, and the compromise Baucus is likely to produce cannot be the final word. (Mr. Dionne, gentleman that he is, omits reference to the large sums of money lavished on Sen. Baucus by the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the AMA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.)

Dr. Paul Krugman, in an Op-Ed in The New York Times on June 26, he points outthat, when it comes to domestic policy, there are two Barack Obama’s. On one side there’s the Policy Wonk, whose command of the issues — and the ability to explain those issues in plain English — are a joy to behold. But on the other side there’s Barack the Post-Partisan, whose searches for common ground where none exists, and whose negotiations with himself, lead to policies that are far too weak.

Further, the President is presented with another dilemma. On one side he has his Secretary of HEW, Kathleen Sebelius, urging needed health care reform. On the other hand his health care policy czar, Nancy-Ann DeParle, served as a director of corporations that faced scores of investigations, whistleblower lawsuits and other regulatory actions, according to government records reviewed by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University. Since leaving her prior government job running Medicare for The Clinton administration, DeParle built a lucrative private-sector career. Records show that she has earned more than $6.6 million since 2001, according to a tally by the Investigative Reporting Workshop.

Mcjoan, in an article on Daily Kos entitled “The Worst Health Care Money Can Buy,” notes that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent more money lobbying since 1998 than any individual company, a total of $22.5 million to promote their interests. The contributions of the insurance industries and PhARMA have been well documented in my previous articles. AARP — a major lobbyist, and major purveyor of health insurance — has spent $4 million this year and $158.8 million since 1998. Individuals cited that we have not previously documented are Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia who has raised $69,000 and Sen. Harry Reid who has taken $78,800 for their PACs. Further, the Washington Times on June 13 provided financial links to the health insurance industry for Sen. and Mrs. Dodd, Sen. and Mrs. Rockefeller and Sen. Harkin

Where then, do we look for leadership in the Senate? Little can be expected from the jellyfish Harry Reed or from Sen. Baucus with his connections to the nation’s corporate leadership. Happily, there is one strong, dedicated, unimpeachably honest voice — that of Sen. Bernie Sanders. In the June 29 Huffington Post,Sen. Sanders demands that Democrats commit to stopping a health care filibuster, something that became possible with the arrival of Al Franken to the Senate, even anticipating that the Democrats will lose 8-9 votes from among their numbers. Implied is the budget reconciliation process, or the so-called “nuclear option.” These would require crossing various parliamentary hurdles, and would be much easier with strong leadership from the White House. Sen. Sander’s official Senate website contains a wealth of interesting material.

Another significant problem that has surfaced is in the House of Representatives. On July 1, National Politics and Policy reported that “Nineteen House Dems Plan to Vote Against Health Reform if Abortion Funding is Included.” Of course, this statement is a bit ambiguous; what is really meant is that these 19 Blue Dog Democrats, largely from the South or Appalachia, will not vote for a health care bill “unless it explicitly excludes abortion funding from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan.”

The abortion issue had never occurred to me in connection to universal health care. I believe that 99.9 % of the proponents of care had never considered that issue as we were consumed by the fact that 20,000 individuals in the United States die yearly for lack of insurance, and thus, of health care. We were aware that health care in the United States ranks 26th worldwide, and that we have the highest incidence of infant mortality, child poverty, and lack of pre- and post-natal care in the Western world. We, of course, were totally dedicated to the government having nothing to do with the relationship between the public and their physicians. (If there should appear to be the slightest connection the Republicans would shout “socialized medicine.” Although worldwide I know of no “socialized medicine” save that available through our Veteran Administration system, which was excellent care before being underfunded and professionally eviscerated by the Bush administration.)

Should Congress be diverted by calls for exclusion of certain kinds of care such as abortion, think where that might lead. Imagine that the Scientologists will demand that psychiatric care be excluded; that the crusaders against circumcision demand that that procedure be excluded; that the right wing, self appointed, ill advised opponents of smallpox and papilloma virus immunization desire their prohibition; or indeed that those other folks still mired in other 13th century thinking will wish to exclude antibiotic therapy in view of the fact that they disagree with Louis Pasteur’s ‘germ theory’.

The letter demanding that a woman and her physician be denied free choice of medical care included the following House Members: Dan Boren (Okla), Bobby Bright (Ala), Travis Childers (Miss.), Jerry Costello (Ill), Lincoln Davis (Tenn), Kathleen Dahlkemper (Pa), Steve Driehaus (Ohio), Tim Holden (Pa,), Paul Kajorski (Pa), John Murtha (Pa), Marcy Kaptur(Ohio), Mike McIntyr (NC), Charlie Melacon (LA) , James Oberstar (Minn), Solomen Ortiz (Texas), Collin Peterson (Minn), Heath Shuler (NC), Bart Stupak (Mich) and Gene Taylor (Miss).

Many of these folks voted against the recent legislation to address climate change but, on the other hand, votde for the bill for additional war funding! They do exhibit a great amount of intellectual and ethical inconsistency.

The Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats still complain that universal health care is a budget breaker. This of course is folderol. In an article posted on Campaign for America’s Future, July 2, 20089, Bill Scher points out that “The Public Plan Option Indisputably Saves Money”

The need for universal care is demonstrated quite graphically in a July 1 New York Times article. If anyone questions the need for universal care, and the need for the President to begin leading, and the people to really get to contacting their congresspersons and senators,read this article. This is intolerable in a supposedly advanced, supposedly Christian nation.

I had wanted to further address the question of possible legalization of marihuana, as there are encouraging developments, but space becomes short, and there is quite a lot of information developing; hence, once again, I will defer this for the next issue. However, I would like to address one light matter if I may, regarding the future of Sarah Palin… If I had to bet, at this time, I would guess that she could be in line for a multimillion dollar contract to do a program on Fox News in the 9 P.M. weekday slot. The “lady” has the insight, the knowledge, the feeling for the truth, and the ethical character to fit well into that forum!

[Dr. Stephen R. Keister, a retired physician who is active in health care reform, lives in Erie, PA. His previous articles on The Rag Blog can be found here.]

Larry and Claire Yurdin. Photo from NYT.

Also, please see Insured, but Bankrupted by Health Crises from the June 30, 2009, New York Times, about the amazing health insurance/bankruptcy story involving Larry and Claire Yurdin, formerly of Austin.

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Banking : Independence and the Texas Patels

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

A rupee saved is a rupee earned.

In contrast to the frozen giants of global finance who drag us every day down closer to the next bottom… the Texas Patels are moving their Dallas banking enterprise into competition with billion-dollar Chicago houses, actually making finance possible for one of the toughest sectors of the 2009 depression.

By Greg Moses / The Rag Blog / July 6, 2009

Over the Fourth of July weekend 2009, Chandrakant “Chan” Patel became a Dallas banker. But if you’ve never been to a Dallas men’s club meeting it may be difficult for you to grasp what that means.

Born in India in 1945, Patel — according to his official bio — earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering from Bombay University, then emigrated to the USA where he became a citizen in 1965. He earned masters degrees at Stanford and Johns Hopkins before embarking on a business career in 1976 as a hotel owner and operator.

By 1987 Patel’s ambitions had become cramped by Dallas-area bankers who seemed to understand neither the hotel business nor the Indian community, so he put together a bank with about $2 million of family money.

From the time Patel opened the State Bank of Texas (SBT) in late 1987, he has steadily grown the enterprise into three suburban locations in Irving, Garland, and Richardson.

Then, on July 2, with the acquisition of the short-lived Millennium Bank of Texas — which was closed by the FDIC and sold to Patel’s bank — the Indian-born entrepreneur finally put his banking footprint down inside the Dallas city limits.

Ironically enough, reports the Dallas Business Journal’s Chad Eric Watt, Patel will soon be losing his Irving bank headquarters. It will be razed by the Texas Department of Transportation in order to widen Airport Freeway.

With the closing of Georgia’s Haven Trust Bank in late 2008, Patel’s SBT became the third largest “Indian Bank” in the USA, behind two billion-dollar operations in Chicago: Mutual Bank and the legendary National Republic (see an excellent overview of the players by Lavina Melwani at Little India dot com.)

According to FDIC figures, SBT reported first quarter average assets of $589 million. The Millennium acquisition will add $118 million in assets, says the FDIC, bringing the value of Patel’s bank to over $700 million.

Patel’s Fourth of July gambit into Dallas banking says something doubly remarkable about his business skills and the role of immigrant entrepreneurs in the recovering economy of the USA.

On the matter of Patel’s business skills, the prudent observer will want to wait about two more years to see how he fares a widely predicted cyclone in commercial real estate and the hotel sector.

Just a day before the FDIC announced the transfer of Millennium’s assets to Patel, the entire hotel sector was downgraded from “Neutral” to “Negative” by Barclay Capital analyst Felicia Hendrix.

“While the industry declines should be less negative next year, we do not expect to see positive growth until at least 2011,” said Hendrix in a report filed by the AP.

A good example of Patel’s challenge can be found in a February dispatch out of Florida in which Patel’s bank was reported to be filing a foreclosure lawsuit against a $13 million dollar property east of the Tampa Convention Center.

The lawsuit was filed against Indian entrepreneurs who — like so many others those days — thought they were picking up property at bargain rates in 2006, before the real estate bubble burst.

The report from the Tampa Bay Business Journal implies that Patel has worked out a modified agreement with the Tampa entrepreneurs.

Another report from Chad Eric Watt of the Dallas Business Journal indicates that Patel is still scouring the hotel business for promising leads. In a June 26 story, Watt reports that the Texas Patels are being sued for unscrupulous bidding practices by the Georgia Patels — the same Georgia Patels who lost the Haven Trust Bank last year.

According to federal court documents, the Texas Patels outbid the Georgia Patels by $20,000 for a note on a property that the Georgia Patels owned and operated. But this was after the Texas Patels said they could not finance the lower bid that the Georgia Patels were planning to make. Federal Judge Robert L. Vining, Jr. has given the Texas Patels until July 22 to answer the charges.

It seems that the Texas Patels — who by the way are not without their J.R. — have never been too proud to earn money the old fashioned way. As Michael Davis of the Dallas Progressive Blog is fond of remembering, the Texas Patels have admitted to the Dallas Morning News that they sometimes charge hotel fees by the hour.

As I recall, it was a license plate study of Dallas motels back in the 1950’s that first revealed the hot data that most Dallas motel customers were in fact from the Dallas area. In attempting to verify my memory I checked a prestigious academic database for key words “sex, motel, Dallas” and only came up with one hi t– a plot summary for the Mike Judge classic, Beavis and Butthead Do America.

Which brings us back to the Fourth of July in all of its red, white, and blueness. Somehow a code is working itself out in the symbolic collision of Patel, Millennium, State Bank of Texas, and the Fourth of July. You see, it’s not Cowboys leading the charge for the New American Dream anymore, it’s the Indians.

In contrast to the frozen giants of global finance who drag us every day down closer to the next bottom rather than up to the next top, the Texas Patels are moving their Dallas banking enterprise into competition with billion-dollar Chicago houses, actually making finance possible for one of the toughest sectors of the 2009 depression.

By the light of the Patel example we have a right to ask: how many more immigrant entrepreneurs are out there who only need a respectful certificate of citizenship to begin hauling this country up again by its own financial bootstraps? The spirit of independence, remember?

[Greg Moses is editor of the Texas Worker and the Texas Civil Rights Review, where this article also appears. Greg is a regular contributor to The Rag Blog. He can be reached at gmosesx@gmail.com .]

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Treatment of Homeless Kids : Texas is DEAD LAST

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

This map shows state rankings on the issue of homeless children. Click on image to enlarge. For an interactive version, go here.

In the grand tradition:
Texas is dead last in its treatment of homeless children

By Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / July 6, 2009

Texas is one of those states like Mississippi that tends to rank up near the top in things that are bad, and way near the bottom in things that are are good, especially concerning things that take money to fix. Texas has a governor, Rick Perry, who is now leading a crusade against taxes to get reelected, with predictable results on the neediest citizens.

Now Texas has done it again by ranking DEAD LAST among all fifty states in how Texas treats its homeless children. Children cost money to house and feed, and of course they can’t vote. Go here to see the report card explaining how all the states rank:

To get the details for Texas, go here for either an executive summary or a more detailed report:

Here are some lowlights of the report on child homelessness in Texas:

Minimum wage: $6.55
Average wage for renters: $14.94
Hourly wage needed to rent a 2 bedroom apartment: $15.02

High school graduation rate for homeless children — 25%

under 6 years of age = 141,584
Grades K-8, enrolled = 164,086
Grades 9-12, enrolled = 31,484
Total = 337,105

Total housing units available for homeless families. 3,694
Extent of child homelessness. Rank: # 49
Child well-being. Rank: # 44
Risk for child homelessness # 50
State policy and planning: Inadequate
Overall rank. #50 (50 is worst)

Percent of uninsured children: 21.8%
Funds allocated to schools for education of homeless children: $16

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If It Can Happen in Port Angeles, Washington, It Can Happen Anywhere, USA

Posted on July 6, 2009 by RagBlog


July 4th demonstrator’s cry: Health care now!
By Tim Wheeler / July 5, 2009

PORT ANGELES, WA. — Thousands of onlookers stood and applauded along the July 4 parade route in this paper-mill town as marchers walked by with banners demanding health-care reform and chanting “48 million uninsured. SHAME!” and “Health Care Now!”

There were the obligatory floats with the royalty of the Clallam County Fair and the Sequim Lavender Festival waving at the crowd. There were many gleaming fire engines and antique cars and tractors. An honor guard of the U.S. Coast Guard at the Ediz Hook Station led the way. Candidates for City Council were also out in force. The Victoria, B.C. Police Department came by ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca with their bagpipers who piped “Amazing Grace” as they marched in their tartan kilts.

But by far the biggest hit was two contingents marching for national health care, the League of Women Voters and Reform Health Care Now, a coalition that includes the Clallam County Democratic Party, the Green Party, Veterans for Peace, and other progressive organizations on the Olympic Peninsula.

Dottie Nicassio, a retiree from Sequim stole the show. She marched dressed in a hospital gown open at the rear with comically large plastic buttocks flashing in the bright sun. Her placard read, “Inadequate Coverage.” Walking arm-in-arm with her was Lou Templeton, leader of the League of Women Voters, modestly attired and wearing a placard, “I’m fully covered with singlepayer Medicare.”

Another placard proclaimed, “72 Percent Support Public Option.”

A U.S. Army veteran dressed in combat fatigues, marched with her little boy behind the banner of Veterans for Peace. Her stroller was decorated with signs that said, “Health Care Not Warfare,” and “Support the Troops, Bring them Home.”

The march here echoed a message from the White House. In his Fourth of July broadcast, President Obama hailed patriots in the War of Independence who did not “wilt or cower” in the face of tyranny. He called on the people to end the nation’s “unsustainable health care system that is imposing crushing costs on families…. No more talk, no more delay. Health care reform must happen this year.”

Health Care for America Now initiated a petition, “Declare Your Independence from the Insurance Industry” demanding “real health care reform in 2009, with coverage I can afford, benefits that I can count on, a public health insurance option to give me choice, and equal access to quality care.”

Earlier, many of of the same crowd marched about 50 miles west in the “Old Time Fourth of July Parade” in Forks, WA, “Logging Capital of the World.”

And indeed, there were many logging trucks loaded with big logs bound for the Allen Logging Company saw mill just outside Forks. One truck was groaning under the weight of huge old-growth Douglas fir driven up from Springfield, Oregon to join the parade. Lance Slyter was driving a trucks that idled along highway 101 through Forks. Asked if the economic recession has affected production he told the World, “We’re down to one shift. We used to have two, so yes, it’s the slow-down.” Unemployment means millions are losing their employer-based health insurance.

Forks is trying to capitalize on the “Twilight” best-selling novels by Stephanie Meyers featuring a family of vampires that settles in the rain-soaked town in the west-end of Clallam County.

Four local teenagers stepped forward as the march was assembling to ask if they could carry signs in the parade. Willie Hatch, a member of the Quileute tribe, from Lapush, held up a sign that read, “Medicare Para Todos! (Medicare for All).” Nehemiah Tejano walked with a sign, “Stop Drug Company Ripoffs!”

But Alvaro Ortiz, a 6th grader, drew the most laughter and applause holding a hand-lettered red sign, “Vampires Need Healthcare Too!”

Retired teacher, Bill Kildall, coordinator of the Reform Health Care Now Coalition, was over the moon on the positive feedback from the crowd. “There are plenty of people in Clallam County, people right here in Forks, who have no health insurance,” he told the World as he marched. “We aren’t going to be marginalized by the insurance companies and the rightwingers. Health Care is a human right, not a privilege.”

Source / People’s Weekly World

Thanks to Diane Stirling-Stevens / The Rag Blog

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Barack Obama’s Encouragement of Our Activism

Posted on July 6, 2009 by RagBlog


President Obama, My Response To Your Fourth of July Letter
By Linda Milazzo / July 5, 2009

Yesterday morning I received the following letter from President Barack Obama:

“Linda —

This weekend, our family will join millions of others in celebrating America. We will enjoy the glow of fireworks, the taste of barbeque, and the company of good friends. As we all celebrate this weekend, let’s also remember the remarkable story that led to this day.

Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, our nation was born when a courageous group of patriots pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the proposition that all of us were created equal.

Our country began as a unique experiment in liberty — a bold, evolving quest to achieve a more perfect union. And in every generation, another courageous group of patriots has taken us one step closer to fully realizing the dream our founders enshrined on that great day.

Today, all Americans have a hard-fought birthright to a freedom which enables each of us, no matter our views or background, to help set our nation’s course. America’s greatness has always depended on her citizens embracing that freedom — and fulfilling the duty that comes with it.

As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content. And as America comes ever closer to achieving the perfect Union our founders dreamed, that triumph — that pride — belongs to all of us.

So today is a day to reflect on our independence, and the sacrifice of our troops standing in harm’s way to preserve and protect it. It is a day to celebrate all that America is. And today is a time to aspire toward all we can still become.

With very best wishes,

President Barack Obama

July 4th, 2009

P.S. — Our nation’s birthday is also an ideal time to consider serving in your local community. You can find many great ideas for service opportunities near you at http://www.serve.gov.”

One part in particular screamed out at me:

“As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content.”

As an active participant in our democracy who works to lessen the burdens of the oppressed, I take the President’s challenge seriously – and personally. I view it as his encouragement of my activism. In return, I request that the President provide we who participate in our democracy every protection granted by our Constitution to challenge those policies with which we disagree.

I also ask the President to stand with us to end our government’s collusion with war profiteers who create weapons of destruction and fill their coffers with our money. I ask the President to replace the obscenity of war with the audacity of peace. I ask the President to stand with us to put public interest above corporate greed, and to put our health above all else.

Mr. President, on this Fourth of July when you write to Americans and ask us to “take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own,” I remind you of a quote by Thomas Jefferson:

“Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.”

Mr. President, without health, Americans can’t enjoy their liberty. Without health, our teachers can’t teach and our learners can’t learn. Without health, our parents can’t parent. Without health, our builders can’t build. Without health, our health practitioners can’t practice. Without health, our society can’t thrive.

Mr. President, since your primary responsibility is to protect the American people, as President you must be aware that private insurers place money values above human values. Our government has long sanctioned this practice, which Mr. President, should not be the American way. Private insurers and self-interested pharmaceutical companies are more a danger to Americans than the foreign governments and individuals our military engage. Americans who can’t seek medical treatment because of lack of insurance battle the war of untended illness. Many die. This, Sir, should not be the American way.

Thomas Jefferson also said:

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”

I accept your challenge, Mr. President, to participate in my democracy and to be as Mr. Jefferson said, a “safe depository” for our democracy. I will work hard to bring about much needed change and I expect the same of you.

If you stand with me, Mr. President, I will gladly stand with you. If you stand with our corporate oppressors — then, Sir, you must be challenged.

[Linda Milazzo (pimbalina@mac.com) is a Los Angeles based writer, educator and activist.]

Source / Common Dreams

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Study : Coffee a Cure for Alzheimer’s?

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Drink coffee: Don’t forget.

Researchers at the University of Florida believe there may be an incredibly simple solution to the Alzheimer’s problem — coffee.

By Ted McLaughlin / The Rag Blog / July 5, 2009

According to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA), “Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the brain’s nerve cells, or neurons, resulting in loss of memory, thinking and language skills, and behavioral changes.” They go on to say, “Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, or loss of intellectual function, among people aged 65 and older.”

It is believed that the disease is caused by “two types of abnormal lesions clog the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease: Beta-amyloid plaques -— sticky clumps of protein fragments and cellular material that form outside and around neurons; and neurofibrillary tangles — insoluble twisted fibers composed largely of the protein tau that build up inside nerve cells.”

Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s. AFA estimates that between 2.4 and 4.5 million Americans now have the disease. With the large number of “Baby Boomers” now starting to reach retirement age, it is expected the disease will mushroom. As many as 16 million Americans could have the disease by the middle of this century.

That is a terrifying vision, especially since there is no cure. But there may be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Researchers at the University of Florida believe there may be an incredibly simple solution to the Alzheimer’s problem — coffee (caffeine).

The Florida researchers have been doing tests on mice bred to have Alzheimer’s. According to the BBC, “First the researchers used behavioural tests to confirm the mice were exhibiting signs of memory impairment when they were aged 18 to 19 months, the equivalent to humans being about 70. Then they gave half the mice caffeine in their drinking water. The rest were given plain water. The mice were given the equivalent of five 8 oz (227 grams) cups of coffee a day — about 500 milligrams of caffeine.”

“When the mice were tested again after two months, those who were given the caffeine performed much better on tests measuring their memory and thinking skills and performed as well as mice of the same age without dementia. Those drinking plain water continued to do poorly on the tests.”

The mice that had received the caffeine also showed a 50% reduction in beta-amyloid plaques. The researchers believe the caffeine actually inhibits the production of the two enzymes needed to produce beta-amyloid.

And there was even better news. It seems the caffeine may actually act as sort of a vaccine against Alzheimer’s. Other tests done by these researchers showed that “younger mice, who had also been bred to develop Alzheimer’s but who were given caffeine in their early adulthood, were protected against the onset of memory problems.”

Could the solution to Alzheimer’s really be that simple? Could five cups of coffee a day (or 14 cups of tea or 20 carbonated soft drinks) really prevent Alzheimer’s, or improve performance in those who already have the disease?

Dr. Gary Arendash, who led the research, says it is exciting and important “because caffeine is a safe drug for most people, it easily enters the brain, and it appears to directly affect the disease process.”

But we must be careful about making too much of this research. So far, the study has only been done on mice. It might or might not work with humans. We’ll just have to wait and see what the caffeine does for humans when studied.

As Rebecca Wood of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust says, “In this study on mice with symptoms of Alzheimer’s, researchers found that caffeine boosted their memory. We need to do more research to find out whether this effect will be seen in people. It is too early to say whether drinking coffee or taking caffeine supplements will help people with Alzheimer’s.”

Even so, for us “Baby Boomers,” this is a welcome ray of hope.

[Ted McLaughlin, who contributes regularly to The Rag Blog, also posts at jobsanger, an excellent Texas political blog.]

Source /

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Mairead Maguire Interviewed by Al Jazeera

Posted on July 5, 2009 by RagBlog

Mairead Corrigan-Maguire talks to Al Jazeera from Israeli jail – July 4, 2009

Mary Maguire Speaks from Israeli Jail
By Juan Cole / July 5, 2009

Aljazeera English reports on the activists abducted by Israel as they attempted to deliver food and other civilian aid to Gaza, which is under a debilitating blockade by Israel.

This site explains the dire character of the Palestinians’ straits.

A reader asked what would happen if someone tried to get food aid to Cuba. That person unwittingly underlined how extreme Israel’s policies are, since Russia and others routinely ship food aid to Cuba despite the US embargo.

Source / Informed Comment

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Singin’ on Sunday – Topaz McGarrigle and Mudphonic

Posted on July 5, 2009 by RagBlog

Topaz @ the Granada Theater

July 5, 2009

Evolution. Applying the term to Topaz McGarrigle’s career as a professional musician provides a fascinating case study with more twists and turns than a Colorado River water moccasin. And its end result is more satisfying than a heaping plate of Texas barbecue washed down by an ice cold beer.

Topaz, a native Texan, took up saxophone at an early age and was classically trained in jazz principles while attending the Duke Ellington School for the Arts in Washington D.C. Armed with a vast set of skills at a young age. Topaz further honed his chops on the horn with a move to New York City and landed a record deal with the Velour label in the mid 1990s. In the Big City. Topaz enjoyed a decade of remarkable success as a jazz saxophonist – performing on national networks such as BET, and sharing stages with internationally known artists including Norah Jones, TV on the Radio, and Widespread Panic.

As time progressed, the need to do more, to grow – to evolve – burned deep inside the musician. Often the first step toward eventual maturity in any spirit is a return to roots, and that’s where Topaz headed with a return to his hometown of Austin. Reconnecting with Austin’s free-flowing organism of sound, Topaz felt compelled to explore and add more to his traditional jazz/funk sax-only repertoire.

Vocals came first, and – despite initial anxiety – taking the mic felt right. Next harmonica, and eventually guitar were incorporated into his musical persona. With these new sets of developing skills came a new accompanying sound that brought out new emotions and gave the listener an experience that felt more … raw… dirty… real.

In the pursuit of band mates to add layers of sound and depth, Topaz first began talking to Alex Marrero about starting a new project. Marrero, lead singer of the alternative Latin group Ghandaia, had perfected his front-man charisma and vocal skills and was experiencing his own musical evolution by moving to the drums. He was the foundation for this roots-oriented vision.

Marrero introduced Topaz to a key ingredient of what would become a most intoxicating brew. Guitarist John Branch, much like Topaz, had left behind a jazz background in the Bay Area to return home to Texas. Branch had recently turned his considerable skills toward perfecting sweet southern-drenched bottleneck guitar licks.

They then met Greg Rhoades at a downtown punk club where they were experimenting with the new sound. They were immediately blown away by his funky Jack Bruce influenced bass lines – a wonderful and mesmerizing way to tie this foursome together to form one dynamic, succinct unit.

Thus was born Mudphonic.

A new, sweaty, dance-your-ass off sound that fuses gritty blues and groove with the collective band history of jazz and Latin sounds. After a month spent recording in a barn on the river, Mudphonic has emerged with their debut album ‘Music for Dorothy.’

This band that describes itself as “Big Beat Texadelic Swamp” will be playing on July 25, 2009 at 10:00 pm at Antone’s in Austin, Texas.

Mudphonic MySpace page.

The Official Mudphonic Web site was the source of the biographical information above.

Thanks to Thomas McGarrigle / The Rag Blog

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The Sky Is Falling, the Sky Is Falling !!

Posted on July 4, 2009 by RagBlog

These Israeli myth mongers have to be the most cynical lot on Earth. I, for one, am so tired of hearing this drivel from them that I could just scream. These guys are perfectly content massacring hundreds of Palestinians at a crack, while they fear a nuclear attack from a country that, by all known facts, has no nuclear weapons, no nuclear weapons development program, and no nuclear aspirations. And the Israelis know it. Cynical …

Richard Jehn / The Rag Blog


THE MYTH

‘Iran nuke could wipe Israel off map in seconds’
By Haaretz Service / July 1, 2009

Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, on Friday warned that an Iranian atomic bomb could “wipe Israel off the map in a matter of seconds,” and that the Iranians could “accomplish in a matter of seconds what they denied Hitler did, and kill 6 million Jews, literally.”

Oren made his comments in a conversation with journalist Jeffrey Goldberg at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.

The newly appointed ambassador warned, “There are clocks ticking all around,” with regard to the Iranian nuclear issue. “One of those clocks is the uranium enrichment clock, which will show that by a certain date the Iranians will have sufficient, highly enriched uranium materials to create a bomb that could literally wipe Israel off the map in a matter of seconds.”

Oren said the world must remain vigilant about what happens in Iran during the country’s tumultuous post-election period.

“It’s very important that we watch carefully what happens in Iran – the events in Iran have unmasked to the world the true nature of this regime,” said Oren. “This is a regime that’s willing to kill its own citizens; it will certainly have no compunctions killing other people in the region, Jews and Sunni Arabs alike.”

Oren added that he would not “second-guess” the Obama administration’s next move in dealing with Tehran’s nuclear aspirations, and added that he was certain Obama had “the best interests of the U.S. and the interest of Israel at heart.” Israel, he said, was concerned mainly about the “timing and timeline” of dealing with Iran.

Oren also addressed the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have stoked tensions in recent weeks between Israel and its close ally.

“I never said settlements are not an issue, but they’re not the issue,” he said.

Source / Ha’aretz

THE FACT

New IAEA chief sees no proof Iran developing nuclear weapons
July 3, 2009

The incoming head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says he knows of no hard evidence that Iran is trying to gain the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano told the Reuters newsagency he has seen no such evidence in IAEA official documents.

Outgoing IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said last month it was his “gut feeling” that Iran wants the ability to build atomic weapons. He said Iran’s ultimate aim is to be known as a major power in the Middle East.

Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA (Ali Asghar Soltanieh) said at the time ElBaradei is wrong and that Iran has no intention of ever having a nuclear weapon.

The United States and its Western allies believe Iran’s nuclear program may have a military component.

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is intended to produce electricity.

Iran has been hit with three sets of U.N. sanctions for its refusal to stop enriching uranium, a process that can be used to develop nuclear weapons.

Amano, who on Thursday was elected director-general of the IAEA, will succeed ElBaradei later this year. ElBaradei has served for 12 years as head of the U.N. nuclear agency.

Source / Big News Network

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