Volume 5 Issue 48…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…December 6, 2002

Bomb Iraq

By Author Unknown

If we cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.

If the markets hurt your Mama, bomb Iraq.

If the terrorists are Saudi

And the bank takes back your Audi

And the TV shows are bawdy, bomb Iraq.

If the corporate scandals growin', bomb Iraq.

And your ties to them are showin', bomb Iraq.

If the smoking gun ain't smokin'

We don't care, and we're not jokin'.

That Saddam will soon be croakin', bomb Iraq.

Even if we have no allies, bomb Iraq.

From the sand dunes to the valleys, bomb Iraq.

So to hell with the inspections;

Let's look tough for the elections,

Close your mind and take directions, bomb Iraq.

While the globe is slowly warming, bomb Iraq.

Yay! the clouds of war are storming, bomb Iraq.

If the ozone hole is growing,

Some things we prefer not knowing.

(Though our ignorance is showing), bomb Iraq.

So here's one for dear old daddy, bomb Iraq,

From his favorite little laddie, bomb Iraq.

Saying no would look like treason.

It's the Hussein hunting season.

Even if we have no reason, bomb Iraq.

About Me: Bomb Iraq was forwarded to The DISH by stormshaddow@yahoo.com, with instructions to sing to the tune of: "If You're Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands;" author unknown. Venue Homepage

Henry A. Kissinger

Born in Fuerth, Germany, on May 27, 1923, Henry Alfred Kissinger immigrated to the United States in 1938. Naturalized a United States citizen on June 19, 1943, he served in the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps (1943-1946) and was a captain in the Military Intelligence Reserve from 1946 to 1949.

Kissinger graduated from Harvard College in 1950. He received his MA and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1952 and 1954. A member of Harvard's faculty from 1954 until 1971, he authored many books and essays on foreign policy, international affairs, and diplomacy. Recipient of numerous awards and honors, Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.

Often quoted on international policy and relations, Kissinger served in a number of governmental positions. These include the Department of State (1965-68), US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1961-68), Rand Corporation (1961-68), National Security Council (1961-62), Joint Chiefs of Staff (1959-60), Psychological Strategy Board (1952) and Operations Research Office (1951).

From 1973 to 1977, Dr. Kissinger served as the 56th US Secretary of State during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford Administrations. Dr. Kissinger was the first German-born and the first Jewish Secretary of State. An influential advisor, he served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (1969-1975).

After leaving government, he founded Kissinger Associates, an international consulting firm, whose clients include many gas and oil producing countries and entities. Dr. Kissinger is a frequent guest on television news programs and the speaking circuit. He was recently appointed by George W. Bush to head the independent commission charged with investigating the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States. More Bits of History

Matrix 2003

By John Burl Smith

Explaining their dilemma, Morpheus, the wise mentor in the movie Matrix, tells Neo that humans were so afraid of machines taking over and humans losing power that they scorched the sky to keep machines from using the sun as an energy source. In the process, man destroyed humanity. As a result of this desperate action, people became the machines' energy. Referring to Neo's reaction, Morpheus says, "You have the look of a man, who accepts what he sees because he believes he is going to wake up." Alluding to universal justice, Morpheus tells Neo, "Life is not without a sense of irony."

Matrix is a fitting metaphor for the unending dilemma posed by the slavery of black people in the United States of America. Every time political leaders make decisions about race and equality, whites do as the humans in Matrix. Beginning with the "Founding Fathers," who nuked the Declaration of Independence by accepting the 3/5 Compromise of Article 1 Section 2 of the Constitution and legalizing slavery, they traded freedom, justice and equality for white supremacy. After defining blacks as "others" valued at 3/5 white, they failed to repeal it following the Civil War, so whites chose to keep blacks as energy pods to power the US capitalist economy and fuel its industrial revolution.

Basing its economic system on the exploitation of blacks and their descendants, the US remains committed to bigotry, racism and discrimination to maintain white supremacy. Presently, the US Supreme Court is poised to rehabilitate Plessy v. Ferguson's doctrine of "separate-but-equal." Increasingly conservative, the court is expected to rule for the plaintiffs in two affirmative action cases involving Michigan higher education. A dark allegory, Matrix stretches the imagination. However, in light of the Supreme Court's conservative direction, the movie fails to capture the day-to-day horrors of black life in the USA.

Artfully depicted in Matrix, all humans share the same fate. Transformed into hideous shells, people are like pieces on a game board manipulated by agents to maximize output. Morpheus spends his life looking for "the One," who can change the Matrix. True in Matrix, as in the real world, the irony of life is struggle and the reward of struggle is living. In enduring, people continually change. Learning from their experiences, they develop schemes to overcome obstacles.

Blacks in the USA are like Neo, they must come to understand the nature of their enslavement and work to end their oppression and exploitation. Dot M. Smith's search for "the one" unifying principle that explains the socioeconomic and political impact of institutionalized racism led to the 3/5 Compromise. Her chasm analysis quantifies its modern-day implications for blacks; it is Morpheus' red pill that blacks fear swallowing and whites avoid like the plague.

Using median family income and unemployment data collected by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Smith conclusively shows the stable gap or chasm, which exists between the socioeconomic condition of blacks and whites, mimics the 3/5 Compromise. An unbroken chain, it extends from the Civil War to the present. Relatively speaking, economic outcomes for blacks vis-a-vis whites in the USA are essentially the same as they were one hundred-fifty years ago.

In running for US president, George W. Bush pledged to "turn back the clock" to the Jim Crow days of Plessy v Ferguson. The courts have wiped out all the so-called gains made by blacks over the last 50 years. "Welcome to the desert of the real." Witness the power and permanence of the 3/5 Compromise, an actual live demonstration for blacks who thought those hard-won and justly deserved rights were permanent. Now they know "slavery never ended," because the 3/5 Compromise was never repealed. Emblem of total control, the US perfected the power plant system for controlling the output and income of blacks during the heyday of plantation slavery. Consequently, like batteries, blacks are the energy that keeps the US running. Like the humans in "Matrix," black slavery will never end, unless we consciously work to end it!

Other Essays by John Burl Smith

Disgruntled wants to know: A year old, the Enron scandal forced Arthur Andersen, Enron's auditor, to fold. VP Dick Cheney must hold close to his vest documents that show Enron vetted White House energy policy. Given the cozy Bush-Cheney-Enron connection will Kenny Boy and company avoid incarceration?

Disgruntled feels: Cart-Horsed! Identifying the problem is the first step in problem solving. Congress rushed to pass the Department of Homeland Security, which will ostensibly prevent another 9-11 attack. The bill created a commission to investigate 9-11. Creating the department before identifying existing problems literally puts the cart before the horse or is cart-horsed!

Disgruntled says: From employment and educational opportunities to healthcare and housing, blacks lag behind their white counterparts. The group most adversely impacted is black youth. Relegated to the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, they frequently experience unemployment rates that exceed 30 %. More than 25 % live below the poverty line. More than a third of them at any given time are on probation or doing time for some petty crime in an adult or juvenile facility. More Disgruntled Moments

9-11 Cover-Up?

After months of naysaying an independent investigation, George W. Bush's appointment of Henry Kissinger to lead the 9-11 commission sent shockwaves around the world. His most vocal critics believe he is incapable of impartiality. They cite his record under previous Republican Administrations. A product of foreign and intelligence services, Kissinger could face prosecution for his war crimes and crimes against humanity in countries from Africa to South America.

Atrocities for which he could be prosecuted include the mass murder of millions of civilians in Indochina, Bangladesh, Cyprus and East Timor. Ironically, on September 11, 1973, a CIA-backed coup overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvadore Allende in Chile and installed General Augusto Pinochet, who killed and tortured thousands of Chileans. Kissinger's role is well-documented, even though most of the record is sealed until five years after his death.

To justify US actions in maintaining Pinochet in power and assassinating his opposition, Kissinger said, "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." This quote is indicative of Kissinger's disdain for democracy and total disregard for the intelligence of people and the right to self-determination. For a closer look at Kissinger's record and why his appointment to the commission to investigate 9-11 is viewed with such skepticism, see http://www.eclipse.net/~tgardnet/kiss/hitchens.html. Politics Y2K2 Homepage

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is well versed in the properties of electricity. He knows opposites attract. When asked to explain this phenomenon, he exclaimed, "I have a girl friend!" Back to the Bat Cave

Boston Bias

by Malik Al-Arkam

No amount of rhetoric and spin-doctoring by a few well-paid Black servants of Boston's white power structure can change reality. Boston continues to oppress the masses of Afro-Descendants. The masses of Boston Blacks continue to suffer from mal-education, job discrimination and blatant judicial injustices.

During the past year there has been a marked increase in the murder of Black people by trigger-happy policemen. Boston's slums are among the worst in the nation: white slumlords rake in high rents, while routinely abusing Black and Brown tenants.

In the area of environmental pollution, the Menino administration has facilitated the placement of more than 60 toxic waste dumps and incinerators in the confined Black neighborhood of Roxbury. That is the same as waging chemical warfare against its inhabitants.

In education, the vast majority of Black students who do make it into the city's colleges are forced to pay skyrocketing tuition. They must take out loans, which result in thousands of dollars of debts on graduation day. The white mass media, including the Boston Globe and Herald, refuse to cover the international legal battle for reparations unfolding inside the United Nations. Reparations are desperately needed to begin rectifying some of the problems that plague blacks in Boston, a microcosm of urban centers across the USA. Hood Notes Homepage

Email robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net Kissinger and Vaccinations: Bush Decisions Linked to Mark of the Beast Numerology. In a prophetically titled book, released months before 9-11, "Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare" (Tetrahedron Publishing Group; 1-888-508-4787), Dr. Leonard Horowitz explained several of the largest multinational corporations, and Anglo-American intelligence agencies, i.e., MI6 and U.S. Special Services, use letters such as "S," as Hitler did with his "SS," to signify the number "6." The researcher determined this designation reflects an alphanumeric code; multiples of six are assigned to each letter in the English alphabet from A to Z, e.g., A=6, B=12, S=114...Z=156. When these numbers are added, the words "Kissinger" and "Vaccination" both decipher to "666"-the biblical "mark of the beast."

Email admin@73.org This holiday season, the working families of Local 881 UFCW asks you to be aware of the 'Grinch" type attitude of Wal-Mart. On Friday, November 29, Wal-Mart Stores had sales of $1.43 billion, yet this corporation refuses to give over 2/3 of its workforce affordable healthcare coverage or pay them a livable wage. This holiday season boycott the mean spirit and the heartless Grinch - Wal-Mart!

Email www.washingtonpost.com A federal appeals court threw out the $15 million settlement of a lawsuit accusing Boeing of discriminating against about 15,000 black employees. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco objected to the $4 million in legal fees and the large disparity in the payments given employees. The 1999 settlement covered two class-action suits accusing the world's biggest maker of passenger jets of discriminating against blacks when it came to promotions and retaliation against them for complaining.

Email www.washingtonpost.com The day Ellen Early walked into her first Diversity Roundtable meeting, she was a confident and ambitious junior executive at Marriott Management Services. Seven years later, she was an embittered former employee whose dreams of success had evaporated. Early and a dozen other black managers at the 100,000-employee company, known as Sodexho Inc., are plaintiffs in one of the nation's largest class-action race discrimination lawsuits. The plaintiffs allege that Sodexho has a "pattern and practice" of denying blacks promotions and deserved advancements. Similar allegations are being leveled in unprecedented numbers, against small businesses, sprawling corporations and even professional sports teams. More Mailbox

On Affirmative Action

by Dot

On Monday (12-02-02), the US Supreme Court agreed to hear two Michigan affirmative action cases. Grutter v Bollinger involves affirmative action in law school admissions. Gratz v Bollinger involves the use of race in undergraduate admissions. The plaintiffs, white women, claim affirmation action discriminates against them. Their applications were turned down, while black students, presumably with inferior qualifications, in the form of test scores and other factors, gained admissions.

Since the Supreme Court's ruling in Regents of the University of California v Bakke (1978), subsequent decisions have eroded the ability of institutions of higher learning to craft admissions policies to increase black student enrollment. From City of Richmond v Croson (1989) to Adarand Construction Inc. v Pena (1995), the court has frowned on affirmative action. Affirmation action and diversity efforts to increase black enrollment on college campuses are labeled quotas and reverse discrimination Schools, like the University of Georgia (UGA), and states, like Florida and California, dismantled their affirmative action programs. Yet, most college admissions allow the use of legacies, which favor white students. Prior to three decades ago, most public universities openly practiced racial discrimination.

Moreover, most universities use scores on tests, such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), as admission criteria. These tests measure exposure and contain built-in biases that favor white students and those who attend the best public and/or private schools, students that receive tutoring and/or other costly test preparation, those who can afford to take it several times to improve test scores and those who come from families that can provide life enriching experiences and other advantages unavailable to the vast majority of black students. Like legacies, the use of SAT scores as admission criteria gives white students an advantage over their disadvantaged black counterparts.

Since the 1954 US Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education recognized the inherent disadvantages of segregated public education, the majority white society has fought tooth and nail to maintain the status quo. School districts across the nation erected roadblocks to delay desegregation. Nearly half a century later, the issues raised in Brown remain part and parcel of the American landscape as black children continue to receive inferior educational opportunities relative to whites. While the court in the Brown decision recognized the built-in disadvantage of forcing black children to attend vastly inferior public schools, it has failed to provide a mechanism to address the inherent disparities. All efforts to do so have been labeled reversed discrimination and barred by the court.

Clearly, the original intent of the Bakke decision, like Brown, was to level the field of opportunities in education for blacks. Given the level of hostility to that proposition to date, it will go the way of equal employment and K-12 school desegregation. Though hypocritical, as shown in Bush v. Gore (2000), the Supreme Court is more conservative. It is expected to ban affirmative action. Thus, the rollback that has been sought since the 1954 Brown decision will be achieved. DISHing It Up Hot! Homepage

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