ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION

By R. A. Pearson

As America looks at the Middle East in the wake of the recent “transfer of sovereignty” in Iraq, the nation hopes that insurrectionist attacks on the American peacekeeping troops, contractors attempting to rebuild Iraq, and the Iraqi nation’s fragile infrastructure and interim government will cease now that Iraqi’s are “running their country” once again. America hopes to build the proverbial “city on the hill” in Iraq, a show place of democracy and economic prosperity in that troubled region of the world. While a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Iraq will help settle some of the region’s problems, it is still a region of ethnic, religious, and economic tensions and diversity.

While Americans often think of the entire region as Arab and oil rich, these stereotypical concepts are far from true. Non-Arab nationalities like the Turks, Persians, and Jewish peoples have countries in the area and the Kurds of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria still chafe for a nation state in the Middle East. While most of the region is Moslem, the religion itself is divided between Sunni and Shiite Islam. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been, and still is exporting a radical form of Islam known as Wahhabism.

Wahhabism, named after its founder Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab (born sometime around 1700), is a quite militant, violent, and terrorist-friendly form of Islam. It has revived the Islamic idea of jihad as military expansionism and has been growing in popularity among the various terrorist and insurrectionist groups in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Islamic world.

Economically, the Middle East is a poor region. The oil wealth of various Kingdoms and Emirates is held by the elite ruling classes and very little wealth trickles out to the general population. In Saudi Arabia over 250,000 guest workers work in the oil fields and no one knows if the Saudi’s could really run the oil fields, pipelines and refineries without outside, western help. Other Middle Eastern countries, such as Jordan, Yemen, and Lebanon, have no oil wealth and rely on more traditional economic endeavors, such as farming and trade, for their livelihoods. Economic repression of the poorer classes helps breed discontent with wealthy nations and aids in the religious extremism that keeps volunteers pouring into the jihad and terrorist units in the Islamic world.

However, the ‘elephant in the room’ of Middle East peace remains the constant conflict, now over 60-years-old, between the Israelis and the Palestinians. While most people believe that a two-state solution is the answer, neither party in the conflict is willing to make any real concessions to solve the problem. Sharon’s concept is to create a rump Palestinian State with inadequate and marginal lands now occupied by the Palestinian peoples. Yassar Arafat’s position is the return of all lands ceased during the 1967 War, the return of all of Jerusalem, and a right of return by displaced Palestinians to all lands and property abandoned by Palestinians fleeing Jewish forces during the Six Day War. Both of these represent extreme positions, unacceptable to the other side and many in the world community.

The state of Israel under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government has done little to promote a peace settlement in the region. While recent discussions in the Israeli government indicate a willingness to abandon some of Israel’s Gaza Strip settlements, the government is divided on the issue. Meanwhile Israel continued to attack into the Gaza Strip and West Bank areas destroying Palestinian homes and farmlands. Israel also uses bombs and rockets to attack terrorist leaders in the region, even if the targets of the attack are in crowded urban areas of Palestinian towns or cities.

Perhaps the most recent affront to the issue of peace between Israel and the Palestinians is Israel’s new the security wall, being built in the region. The wall does not follow the recognized boundary of Israel (the 1967 boundary), but it zigs and zags through the West Bank often separating Palestinians from their farms, families, jobs and even hospitals in the area. At one point, the fence was planned to cut through a major Palestinian university, separating the academic buildings from the schools athletic fields. The world has condemned this structure and recognizes it as a major impediment to peace in the area.

In Palestine, the corruption of the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Yasser Arafat, has been on the world’s radar screen for decades. The recent concrete scandal in Palestine is a prime example of the wide spread corruption in the PA. A Palestinian parliamentary inquiry has found that four Palestinian companies sold cement to Israeli firms building Jewish settlements and even the controversial security wall in the West Bank. The Palestinian firms reportedly sent 420,000 tons of cement imported from Egypt to Israel. The cement was to have been used to build houses for homeless Palestinians in the area.

Money sent by the European Union (EU) to support the Palestinian government, pay governmental salaries, rebuild the Palestinian infrastructure, and help develop the economy is also mismanaged. The EU has launched several investigations into the reported fraud. The EU provides more than $10 million of the PA's $90 million monthly budget. The EU has given a total of about $1.3 billion to the PA over the last decade and fraud experts believe much of the funds wound up in the hands of terrorist organizations such as the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas, cronies of Yassar Arafat, and Arafat himself.

It is believed that last year Yasser Arafat diverted nearly $1 billion in public funds to insure his political survival and a lot more is unaccounted for. US officials estimate Arafat's personal nest egg at between $1 billion and $3 billion (not bad for a ‘poor revolutionary’).

With money siphoned off the top of the Palestinian economy for terrorism, cronyism, and Arafat’s personal bank account, it is impossible to build a viable economy or infrastructure in Palestine.

It is widely believed by Middle East experts that neither Arafat nor Sharon want peace; because, peace would erode the power base inside their parties and governments. It is in the best interest of these two uncompromising leaders to maintain the status quo in the area. Meanwhile, concerned parties have met and worked out a reasonable peace plan, a plan that was immediately accepted by 40 to 45% of the Palestinian and Israeli public.

The plan, known as the Geneva Accord, was drawn up in 2003 by Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli justice minister and Yasir Abed Rabbo, a former information minister to Yasser Arafat. The plan address all the major problems that have plagued Palestine for the last 60 years, and offers solutions, compromise, and compensation on issues left unaddressed, or glossed over, by the previous US negotiated Oslo, Camp David Accords, and the Bush administration’s Road Map designed to settle the conflict.

At the heart of the Geneva Accord is the proposal of a Palestinian State, the Palestinian concession on the right of return to lands within the State of Israel and Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount and the Mosques located there. The plan also calls for an Israeli withdrawal from most of the West Bank and the entire Gaza Strip to 1967 boundaries. Any lands that Israel should annex in the West Bank area will be compensated for by lands ceded by Israel adjacent to the (more densely populated) area of the Gaza Strip. Israel will maintain control of the wailing wall, the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus and the Mt. of Olives in Jerusalem, as well as Ma'aleh Edumim and the Gush Etzion settlement block and settlements around East Jerusalem. The implementation of the accord will be overseen by an international committee, which would also ensure access to holy places, and security will be the responsibility of a multinational force.

Under the agreement about half of the 220,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank would have to evacuate their homes while the other half live in settlements that would be incorporated into Israel.

UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, applauded the peace plan, saying that grass-roots initiatives “helped to create a vision of a common future.” While President Bush preferred his Road Map to nowhere, US Secretary of State, Colin Powell lends support to Geneva Accord saying the U.S. believes projects such as the initiative “are important in helping to sustain an atmosphere of hope.”

Meanwhile, in the Middle East pollsters indicated that today 53% the Israelis and 56% of the Palestinians supported the Geneva Accords. The problem was that the respected leaders of the area did not support the plan; therefore, it sits on a table. Meanwhile, people in the area still die from bombs, bullets, rockets, and even the inability to pass through a checkpoint for dialysis or some other medical treatment at a hospital four miles away. This time, the devil is not in the details; it is in the leadership-both Palestinian and Israeli.

THE SCOTSMAN & THE DENTIST

A Scotsman goes to the dentist and asks how much it is for an extraction.

$85 for an extraction sir," was the dentists reply.

"Och, huv ye no got anything cheaper," replies the Scotsman getting agitated.

"But that's the normal charge for an extraction sir", said the dentist.

"What about if you didn't use any anaesthetic?" asked the Scotsman hopefully.

"Well it's highly unusual sir, but if that's what you want, I suppose I can do it for $70," said the dentist.

"Hmmmm, what about if you used one of your dentist trainees and still without anaesthetic," said the Scotsman.

"Well it's possible but they are only training and I can't guarantee their level of professionalism and it'll be a lot more painful, but I suppose in that case we can bring the price down to say $40," said the dentist.

"Och, that's still a bit much, how about if you make it a training session and have your student do the extraction and the other students watching and learning," said the Scotsman hopefully?

"Hmmmmm, well OK it'll be good for the students I suppose, I'll charge you

only $5 in that case," said the dentist.

"Wonderful, it's a deal" said the Scotsman. "Can you book the wife in for next Tuesday?"

EVEN LAWYERS HAVE A HEART

A wealthy lawyer was riding down the road in his nice limousine when he saw two men eating grass along the side of the road. He immediately told his driver to pull over, got out of the limo, and went to talk to the men. He asked them why they were eating grass.

The first man replied that he was hungry. He had been downsized and had no money to buy food. The lawyer replied that he would take the man home and feed him. The man thanked the lawyer and indicated that he had a wife and two children under a nearby tree who were hungry also.

“Bring them along,” said the lawyer.

The second man had a similar tale of woe. His job had been outsourced to India and he had no money for food.

The lawyer told him to come along too.

The second man implied that he had a wife and six kids under a nearby tree and they were also hungry.

“The more the merrier,” said the attorney.

They all piled into the limo and began the drive to the lawyer’s house. On the way to his house the first man’s wife remarked how kind and nice the attorney was. She alluded to the stereotypical lawyer and the general public’s opinion of them. Finally she said she hoped the lawyer was not too put out by having such a large group of people over for dinner.

“Heavens no,” replied the lawyer. “I have two acres of grass, and it’s all a foot high.”

SPEAKIN’ SOUTHERN

A SOUTHERN LOOK AT INDIA

Gan/deeeee (Gandhi)- (drag out the eeee like a Mini Pearl “Howdeeeeee”) A small man in India who led them to indeeeeependence from ’em ’er British folks.

Sick (Sikh)- A religion in India where everyone wears a towel on their head.

Sacred Cowez (Sacred Cow)- 1) A cow in India that ain’t never et (ate) by starving people. 2) A building, like an old church, that can not be torn down due to semi/mental (sentimental) value. (plural: Sacerd Cowezes)

Prune/jab (Punjab)- 1) A state in India. 2) Jelly made out’a prunes and good for “ah keepin’ ya regular.” 3) To jab (stab) someone underhanded in the side.

Tadge/may/hawll (Taj Mahal)- 1) The mostest beautifulest building in the world, for a semi/tear/rey (cemetery). 2) A small jar of may/hawll (mayhaw) jelly.

Gang/gees (Ganges)- 1) A river in India. 2) A gangsta rapper with hits like “Yo Mama,” “Yo Mama Shot Yo Daddy With A Nine Millimeter,” and “Yo Mama Shot Yo Daddy With An AK-47.”

Hemi/lay/an (Himalayan)- 1) The mostest tallest mountains in the world. 2) Type of cat that looks like a Siamese with long hair. 3 (Other pronunciation Him/a/lie/in’) A southern accusation that “he ain’t a tellin’ the truth.”

Cats/smear (Kashmir)- 1) A state in India near them Hemi/lay/an Mountains where them Hindus and Moslems are a fightin’. 2) What can happen ifin’ a cat gets shut out ah its litter box.

USAGE

Billy Ray: “Tell me Lester, what’s on the news today?”

Lester: “More fightin’ in that there Cats/smear area in India between them ’re Hindus and Moslem folkez.

Billy Ray: “What they a fightin’ over this time?”

Lester: “Them Hindu women don’t wanta wear them there veils.”
Billy Ray: “Lester, what you a talkin’ ’bout?”
Lester: “Billy Ray, ain’t ya ever heared of the veil of Cats/smear.”

Billy Ray: “Naw Lester I auin’t. But I’ve sho’ ‘nuff heared of the smell of Cats/smear!”

Skeeter: “Hey Bubba, It says here in the paper that there was a disaster in India last night. The Gang/gees spilled out and over 10,000 people died.

Bubba: “Yeh Skeeter, somein’ ort ‘a be done ‘bout them ’re rappers. Pert near the same thing happened when that rapper, Emin-enema, pulled down his drawers and mooned the crowd at the MTV awards.”

Cooter: “Billy Jean, you want’a hear a Sick joke.”

Billy Jean: “Cooter, all yo jokes are sick.”

Cooter: “Billy Jean, don’t sho yo ignerance, a Sick is a religion in India!”

Billy Jean: “Well go ahead, Cooter. I knowez you is a dying to tell me.”

Cooter: “Ya see thar’s a Russian and ‘merican arguing who has the bestest space progum, and a Sick is a listin’ to ‘em both. The Russian allows, ‘We wuz the firstest in space with that thar Sput/nick sat/a/light!’

The ‘merican allows, ‘We had that that Tell/es/star sat/a/light.’

The Russian allows, ‘We wuz the firstest to put a man up, and walk in space!’

The ‘merican allows, ‘We wuz the firstest and onlyest to ah land on the moon.’

Then that thar Sick allows, ‘Oh yea, us Sicks are ah fitten to land a man on the sun!’

Well the Ruskeeee and ‘merican allows, ‘You can’t do that-You’ll burn up.’

Then the Sick allows, ‘Oh no- we’re ah gonna land at night!’”

Billy Jean: “You’se right Cooter. That was a sick joke.”

DID HE REALLY SAY THAT?

“Do you have blacks, too?”

Pres. G. W. Bush to Fernando Cardosa, President of Brazil.

PREHISTORIC WHALE SPECIES FOUND IN VIRGINIA

Scientists at the Virginia Museum of Natural History have announced the discovery of a species of whale that lived 14 million years ago in a sea that covered what is now eastern Virginia. Paleontologists indicated they found bones from the 35-foot whale, now called Eobalaenoptera harrisoni, in 1990. The skeleton took almost 14 years to excavate, prepare, and identify as a new species.

The whale predates the oldest known member, by at least 3 million years, of the family of whales that includes today’s giant blue and fin whales. This whale was several feet longer than any other whale in its time, according to Alton Dooley, a museum paleontologist. The discovery indicates that modern-looking whales lived considerably further back in time than scientists realized, said Larry Barnes, an expert in fossilized marine mammals at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. The whale is one of the numerous marine and land fossils found at a quarry in eastern Virginia and were meticulously excavated by a team of paleontologist and other scientist from the Museum and other scientific institutions in the area.

The new species was named Eobalaenoptera harrisoni, after Carter Harrison, a museum volunteer at the Virginia Museum of Natural History.

Soon after the announcement of the new whale species, Japanese fisherman/whalers on the northern island of Hokkaido began to sharpen their harpoons in great expectation of new whales to hunt. According to one Japanese whaler, “We’ll hunt those whales to extinction before the international community can draw up treaties to protect them.”

A PERFECTLY GOOD WOMAN THROWN AWAY?

A Mississippi woman was looking for her keys in a Dumpster behind her Ridgeland, Mississippi, apartment on June 30th, when the Dumpster was picked up by a garbage truck. The unnamed woman was inadvertently emptied into the truck's waste compactor. The truck put the Dumpster down and kept going on its rounds.

A few miles later, someone heard the woman’s screams and told the driver. The woman was very lucky; the driver was about to start crushing the load of garbage

The woman complained of joint pain after climbing out of the back of the truck and was treated at a local hospital and released.

Dumpster companies warn people not to enter dumpsters looking for lost objects or to go ‘Dumpster diving’ in search of objects others have thrown away. The companies advised people who think they may have lost something in the trash to call the company instead of diving into Dumpsters. According to Waste Management district manager David Myhan of Mississippi, “We take this real seriously. We do not want people getting in our containers.”

RAY CHARLES DIES AT AGE 73

Ray Charles, the influential rhythm and blues singer and musician from Albany, Ga., died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, on June 10, 2004, of liver disease. Ray Charles was 73.

Ray Charles Robinson was born Sept. 23, 1930, in Albany, Ga. He began his interest in music at age three, encouraged by a cafe owner who played the piano. The knowledge he learned was basic, but his early influences and inspirations included the classics, country music he heard on the Grand Ole Opry, and the big bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie.

At age seven he lost his sight to Glaucoma and was sent away from his family to the state-supported St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind. He became an orphan at age 15 and graduated from the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind that same year. He wound up playing gigs in black dance halls, then called the chitlin' circuit, where he was exposed to a variety of music. He would later drop his last name for the stage, in deference to boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.

His first big hit was “What'd I Say” in 1959. He had a string of hits in the early 1960s, including “I Can't Stop Loving You,” “Hit The Road Jack,” and “Georgia On My Mind,” which later replaced “Georgia” as the state song of his native state.

Charles won twelve Grammy Awards. His last Grammy came in 1993 for “A Song for You.” He went on to co-star in several movies including the Blues Brothers in 1980. His humor and friendly demeanor were evident in his film appearances, and even the commercials he made for Pepsi and various restaurant chains.

“I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of,” Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, Brother Ray. “Music was one of my parts ... Like my blood. It was a force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water.” In a press interview he added, “The way I see it, we're actors, but musical ones. We're doing it with notes, and lyrics with notes, telling a story. I can take an audience and get 'em into a frenzy so they'll almost riot, and yet I can sit there so you can almost hear a pin drop.”

Charles' health deteriorated rapidly over the past year, after he had hip replacement surgery and was diagnosed with a failing liver. But he kept on working on what would be his last CD, “Genius Loves Company.”

His life is being chronicled in an upcoming biographical movie set for release in October, titled simply Ray, starring Jamie Foxx.

CONDOLENCES ON YOUR VICTORY

FAUX PAS HAS TAMPA BAY NEWSPAPER BAFFLED

Taking a page from the Dwight D. Eisenhower D-Day playbook, the Tampa Bay Tribune prepared two editorials prior to the final game of the Stanley Cup playoff held on June 7, 2004. One editorial was to run if the Tampa Bay Lightning won the final game and the cup, while one editorial was designed to celebrate the team and a great season in case of a loss. Despite the Lightning’s 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames, the paper mistakenly ran the editorial designed to console the team and fans for a loss. The editorial appeared in the newspaper’s 275,000 copies on the following day, June 8th.

Publisher Gil Thelen said it was unclear how the mistake was made Monday night as the newspaper rushed to press. Tribune Editor Frank Denton said the newspaper was investigating the error to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Editorial Page Editor Rosemary Goudreau issued a statement on the newspaper’s affiliated Web site, TBO.com, telling readers “We took a puck in the gut this morning.”

The incorrect editorial that appeared in the paper opened, “The Tampa Bay Lightning did not win the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup last night. But the team had a championship season nevertheless.” The correct editorial, which didn’t get in the paper, lauded the Lightning and credited the team for generating pride and excitement in the community.

It’s not a DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN faux pas that will forever appear in the history books, but it goes to show you can not believe everything you read in the newspapers, unless, of course, it is in the Clarion Issue.

The Nation           Back to Top

HBO SHOW VIDEO PROVES ACCUSED MAN INNOCENT

The HBO comedy show, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” has helped prove Juan Catalan of murder charges in the left coast state of California. While his family provided an alibi for Catlan in the alleged killing of Martha Puebla, Los Angeles Police arrested Catalan in August and charged him with the crime.

Catalan insisted that he and his 6-year-old daughter were watching the Los Angeles Dodgers lose to the Atlanta Braves, 11-4, at the time Puebla was killed about 20 miles north of the stadium. He even had ticket stubs from the game and testimony from his family as to his whereabouts the night Puebla was killed. But police believed he was responsible, and they had a witness who placed Catalan at the scene of the slaying. Catalan offered to take a lie detector test but law enforcement refused his request.

Police said Catalan killed 16-tear-old Martha Puebla because she had testified against his brother in another case.

Juan Catalan spent 5 1/2 months in jail on murder charges before his attorney found video footage taken by the show at Dodger Stadium that backs up his client's claims of innocence.

Defense attorney Todd Melnik subpoenaed the Dodgers and Fox Networks to scan videotape of the televised baseball game. While the videotapes showed where Catalan was sitting Melnik couldn't make him out. Melnik later learned that HBO had been at the stadium the night of the killing to tape an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” a comedy show starring “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David. The lawyer found what he was looking for in footage that had not made the final cut. “I got to one of the scenes, and there is my client sitting in a corner of the frame eating a hot dog with his daughter,” Melnik said. “I nearly jumped out of my chair and said, There he is!” The tapes had time codes that allowed Melnik to find out exactly when Catalan was at the ballpark. Melnik also obtained cell phone records that placed his client near the stadium later that night, about 20 minutes before the murder.

Catalan could have faced the death penalty had he been convicted of murder. He was released and charges dropped because a judge ruled there was no evidence to try him. The 26-year-old Catalan said “To hear the words from the judge's mouth, I just broke down in tears. It was the happiest moment in my life.”

The LAPD is still searching for the killer of Martha Puebla.

The episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” was not about a ballpark crowd that night. It focused on Larry David hiring a prostitute, not for sex, but to be a passenger in his car so he could travel in the carpool lane and escape traffic on his way to the stadium.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE IN ILLINOIS SENATE RACE COMES UP SHORT ON FAMILY VALUES

The Republican candidate for the US Senate in Illinois, Jack Ryan, was forced out of the race in late June due to his lack of family values, a cornerstone of Republican campaign rhetoric in recent years. Ryan faced embarrassing allegations that he tried to pressure his former wife to perform sex acts in clubs while others watched.

On June 22, a California judge ordered his divorce records unsealed at the request of several news outlets in Illinois. Jack Ryan is the former husband of actress Jeri Lynn Ryan, best known for roles on TV's “Boston Public” and “Star Trek: Voyager.” Jeri Lynn Ryan charged during a custody hearing that Ryan took her on surprise trips to New Orleans, New York and Paris in 1998, the year before they divorced, and that he insisted she go to sex clubs with him each time.

Ryan's former wife described various clubs “with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling.” She said she refused when Ryan asked her to perform a sexual act while others watched.

Ryan denied the accusations and said he felt bad for their son, now aged 9, that she would falsely accuse him. “I did arrange romantic getaways for us, but that did not include the type of activity she described,” Ryan said in court papers.

It is important to note that Ryan’s Democratic opponent in the race, Barack Obama was not instrumental in having the court documents released. Shortly before Ryan withdrew from the race, Obama indicated that it would not be “appropriate” for him to comment on the revelations, but he added, “Obviously, Mr. Ryan and his supporters will be discussing this, and I don't think that's my role.” Obama continues to campaign on real issues concerning the citizens of Illinois and the United States.

Jack Ryan, a millionaire investment banker, won the GOP Senatorial primary in March despite having little political experience. Ryan had repeatedly assured GOP leaders the files contained nothing embarrassing.

It is interesting to note that the values and moral issues cited by the Republicans are never resolved, even though the Republican Party controls the executive and legislative branches of the national and many state governments. Today the status of abortion, school prayer, the teaching of evolution in schools, and the other family value issues has not been altered. The Ten Commandments are not posted in every school, public building, or street corner in America. The Republican Party is the party of big business. Merrill Lynch, Halliburton, and Bank of America get what they want from government. Enron executive “Kenny Boy” (President Bush’s pet name for him) Lay has yet to serve a single day in prison for the theft of several thousand employees retirement plans and squandering the investment dollars of many other American investors. Think about these issues the next time a Republican candidate talks about “family values.”

RONALD REAGAN DIES AT AGE 93

Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the Untied States, died at his home in California on June 5th from complications of pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease. After lying in state in both California and Washington, D.C., he was buried on June 11th at his presidential library during a sunset service. The former President had announced to the nation that he was battling Alzheimer’s disease over ten years ago.

Reagan was born Feb. 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. He was the second and last son of John Edward Reagan, an itinerant shoe salesman known to everyone as Jack, and Nelle Wilson Reagan. The family moved to Dixon, Illinois, in 1920. Reagan always considered Dixon his hometown.

In 1932 Reagan graduated from Eureka College and landed a radio job in Des Moines as a sports announcer on WHO. By 1937 he had moved on to movies. His best Known films were “Kunte Rockne, All American,” “Hellcats of the Navy,” and “Kings Row.” In 1940 Reagan married actress Jane Wyman. The couple divorced in 1949.

In 1952 Reagan married Nancy Davis. The couple were married for 52 years.

In 1947 Reagan became president of the Screen Actors Guild and served six terms at that position.

Reagan was elected Governor of California in 1966 and served two terms before moving on to national politics in the later 1970s. In 1980 Reagan defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter to win his first of two terms as President. During the Reagan years domestic inflation was held in check, there was a good economy, and defense was improved. In foreign policy the Soviet Union fell, Cuban expansion was stopped in Grenada, and American prestige improved around the world.

Politically, Ronald Reagan reshaped the Republican Party in his conservative image. He challenged the growing size of government social programs while increasing defense spending and slashing taxes.

President Reagan was seriously wounded by would be assassin John Hinckley in March 1981 and also survived surgery for colon cancer during his second term.

Reagan’s major political faux pas came after figures in his administration were found to have sold weapons to Iran in an effort to free hostages, and illegally diverted some profits to fund anti-Communist forces in Nicaragua. While ultimately Reagan fessed up to the ‘Contragate’ charges, he was not impeached and left office in 1989 with the highest popularity rating of any retiring president in the history of modern-day public opinion polls.

Nancy Reagan is expected to take up Alzheimer’s and stem cell research in opposition to President Bush’s restrictions on the research. Toward the end of his long struggle with Alzheimer’s, Nancy Reagan told the nation that “Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him. Because of this, I'm determined to do whatever I can to save other families from this pain. I just don't see how we can turn our backs on this.”

Shortly after the death of former President Reagan, fifty-eight senators, from both sides of the isle, signed a letter to President Bush asking him to relax federal restrictions on stem cell research. Several of the senators indicated that the late President Reagan's Alzheimer's disease underscored a need to expand the research using human embryos and stem cells.

Mrs. Reagan's previous involvement with advocating extended stem cell research has been largely behind the scenes. She wrote letters and made telephone calls to power brokers in Washington. However, this November Californians will be asked in a ballot initiative to approve a $3 billion bond for stem cell research. Backers of the measure credit Mrs. Reagan with breathing new life into the debate that could put the state in the forefront of developing a new technology. Clarion Issue sources indicate Mrs. Reagan plans to take her stem cell research awareness campaign nationwide as soon as her astrologer assures her the stars and planets have aligned and are in the proper position for such an undertaking.

LUNA THE WHALE CAUSES TEMPIST IN NOOTKA SOUND

Officials in Gold River, Canada, a small town on the Pacific coast near Vancouver Island, wish to relocate a five-year-old orca whale that has been named Luna. Luna first appeared in the area in 2001 as a young whale. Experts believe that Luna became separated from his pod, or whale extended family, while swimming with his uncle who died during the swim. The young Luna did not have the adequate skills to rejoin the pod. Since orca whales are very social, experts believe the whale is in danger of dying and needs to rejoin the pod. Luna has compensated for the loss from the pod by becoming very closely attached to humans. This close attachment, which officials consider dangerous to boaters, seaplanes, and other human water activity, is one of the reasons cited for the relocation of Luna.

The plan is to relocate Luna and reunite him with his pod. Officials with the Vancouver Aquarium and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans plan to use a boat to lead Luna into a net pen where he will be given a course of medical tests to determine if he's healthy. If Luna passes the tests, he will be coaxed into a sling, crane-lifted into a container, then trucked 350 kilometers down the Vancouver Island coast to a bay near Victoria where Luna will stay in another net pen until his pod swims by. Once he hears them and appears to recognize them, the scientists will set him free in hopes he returns to his family. The plan spares no expenses for moving and relocating Luna, now an adult whale who weighs around 4000 pounds (1,800 kilograms). The plan is to save the Luna since orca whales are an endangered species.

However, a local Native American Mowachaht band has come to view Luna as the reincarnation of their late chief and oppose his capture and relocation. Members of the Mowachaht First Nation believe Luna embodies the spirit of local chief Mike Maquinna's father, Ambrose, who told band members he had visions of returning to Nootka Sound as a killer whale before he died three years ago. Less than a week after Maquinna's death, Luna became stranded in an inlet. “I hope that they drop the (relocation) plan,” said Chief Mike Maquinna.

Members of the Mowachaht tribe are some of the people to which Luna has developed an attachment. The attachment is so strong that the Mowachaht were able to lure the killler whale away from the officials trying to capture Luna in mid June. The Mowachaht truly believe that Luna is a rebirth of their late chief and hold ceremonies in dugout canoes that include drums and singing while Luna frolicks beneath them.

The tribe has a plan to rescue Luna from the officials if they try to remove Luna in the future. They plan to lure Luna to a cove by singing and stamping their paddles on the bottom of the canoes and keep him there by putting a net across the cove. They plan to leave him there all summer until the chance to reunite Luna with his pod would be lost.

The Mowachaht believe Luna will be safe in the cove. One tribal member commented, “We have enough salmon to keep him alive. He apparently eats about 100 pounds a day and we were just going to throw plenty of salmon in with him.”

Luna has won the hearts of Gold River and the surrounding area. A local softball club has taken on the name the Luna-tics. Team T-shirts, now being sold in town, include L-98, the unemotional official name Fisheries gave Luna. The Luna controversy has brought world attention to the small town and the Clarion Issue hopes a settlement can be achieved that will please everyone concerned.

SARS DOCTOR ARRESTED IN CHINA

Jiang Yanyong, the 72-year-old military doctor who exposed China's SARS cover-up last year, and his wife, Hua Zhongwei, were arrested on June 1, 2004, the eve of the 15th anniversary of the army crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protestors. Jiang became a hero to many Chinese last year for blowing the whistle on the government’s cover-up of an outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Jiang’s release of the information about SARS upset Chinese authorities.

Earlier this year Jiang, a noted critic of the Chinese government, wrote a letter to the country's top leaders asking for a reappraisal of the student-led pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989. His detention may be related to the Chinese government’s crackdown on critics ahead of the 15th anniversary of the massacre on June 4.

According to the reports of Human Rights Watch, Jiang and his wife were leaving their home on June 1 to go to the US Embassy in Beijing to obtain a visa.

Jiang’s wife was later released on June 15th, but the doctor is still in custody. Many China watchers and Human Rights groups feel that he will not be released in the near future.

Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were killed in the crackdown on the protests in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, on June 3-4, 1989. China watchers indicate that any rehabilitation of the 1989 protests was unforeseeable in the near future because such a move would be “politically sensitive and risky.” Such a move would split the Chinese Communist Party and trigger a power struggle. Some of the top leaders involved in, or who benefited from, the massacre are still alive or in power today.

At this time, many of the student leaders and activists arrested after the Tiananmen Square massacre are still in prison. If the Corporate Communists who lead China really want to join the world community and play host to prestigious events like the Olympic games and the World Summit on Toilets, they need to review their human rights record and their standing in the world.

A LOOK AT INDIA’S NEW GOVERNMENT

In tumultuous elections held in stages during April and May, 2004, India’s Congress Party, led by Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, ousted Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose Hindu-nationalist government had controlled the Indian government for eight years. Sonia Gandhi is the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, a former prime minister assassinated by a suicide bomber in 1991, and a daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was assassinated in 1984. Sonia Gandhi refused the office of Prime Minister but will continue to be the head of the Congress party.

The new Prime Minister will be 71 year old Manmohan Singh, a former finance minister and the father of India’s sweeping economic reforms in the early 1990s. He is expected to keep control of the finance department in the new coalition government. Singh, a Sikh, is the first non-Hindu to become Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy. He was sworn in on May 21st by India’s President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, a member of India’s large Muslim minority. Singh took the oath of office wearing his trademark blue turban. Singh hopes to improve India’s faltering economy and has promised to work for better relations with its western neighbor Pakistan.

Twenty-eight cabinet ministers and thirty-nine junior ministers were also sworn in at the May 21st ceremony. They will represent the various parties (most of which represent various communist or leftist parties) that have agreed to cooperate with the Congress Party in the new government of Prime Minister Singh. Congress has 145 seats in the 545-member house, while its committed allies have another 170.

The foreign minister's job in the Congress government will go to Natwar Singh. Natwar Singh, 73, served as envoy to various nations including nuclear rival Pakistan before joining politics. His main problem will be to reactivate the peace process with nuclear rival Pakistan. India and Pakistan have gone to war three times, twice over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Natwar Singh has said Congress was “willing to discuss everything from the nuclear issue to Kashmir” and would urge Islamabad to look at New Delhi's ties with China, with which it also has a border dispute but cooperates in other areas. But he may take a harsher tack toward the United States which he feels has placed India into a subordinate relationship.

The defense cabinet position will feature another prominent Congress leader, Pranab Mukherjee, a former lawyer and journalist who will serve in the trade ministry. Mukherjee is a graduate of Calcutta University and has held the posts of commerce and finance in previous Congress governments for three decades. At 67, Mukherjee has served on the boards of the international agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. He has served in at least a dozen Congress governments in past, including finance and external affairs.

A powerful regional politician in the cabinet is Sharad Pawar. Pawar broke away from the Congress party a few years ago, but agreed to ally with it during the recent elections. He is a former defense minister who will now lead the food and agriculture ministry. The agriculture portfolio is of vital importance in India, which is still mainly a farm-dependent economy. Election analysts say it was rural voters, angered at being left out of India's economic boom, who were responsible for the surprise upset of the ruling Hindu nationalists. Mr Pawar has a reputation for being an efficient administrator.

Maverick regional politician, Laloo Prasad Yadav leader of the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) party, was tipped to get the important railways portfolio. The rail network is the backbone of transportation in India where most people still travel long distances by train rather than road or air. Yadav is a key ally of Congress in the lawless northeastern Bihar State. Analysts find his appointment a bit of an irony, as ticketless railway travel is a way of life in Bihar. But he is “colorful and vocal. He has defied logic in many ways. He has done nothing for Bihar, but he gets re-elected because he has worked out the caste equations in his state, and his rivals have played into his hands,” says one Indian expert. Ticket-less railroad travel is a mainstay in the state of Bihar.

A relatively young minister who will be keenly watched is Dayanidhi Maran, who has the information technology portfolio. Maran is Harvard-educated and runs a flourishing cable network business in Tamil Nadu state.

Another interesting ministerial tap was Sunil Dutt to be India’s youth and sports minister. Dutt is a tenacious Congress politician who has won five elections in a row from Bombay (also known as Mumbai). Dutt was a star in Bollywood (India’s version of Hollywood) in the 1960s and 1970s. Clarion Issue correspondents in India report that Indians are looking forward to Dutt reruns after the Friday night soccer games on India’s TV networks.

The lone woman of cabinet rank was Meira Kumar, who was given the social justice and empowerment ministry. Kumar is the daughter of a former defense minister Jagjivan Ram. Six other women got junior portfolios.

Manmohan Singh's government also included seven Muslim ministers, two of them with cabinet rank.

The new government of India faces many problems. While the growth of India’s economy has helped the cities of India, the vast majority of India’s 985,000,000 people still live in rural villages with little hope of economic prosperity. India also needs to improve its internal transportation infrastructure. There are very few serviceable roads. British interests built most of India’s railroads during the colonial period that ended after World War II.

India’s major foreign woes come from neighboring Pakistan. The two nations have been at odds with one another since both nations received independence in 1947. The major issue along the Indo-Pakistani border is the Himalayan State of Kashmir. The population of Kashmir is mainly Moslem, yet the Raj of Kashmir elected to become part of the mainly Hindu country of India. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir, and the border areas in this war torn state are a constant hot spot. The new Indian government was welcomed into existence with a Moslem terrorist attack in the northern areas of Jammu and Kashmir that killed 33 people. To add to the border problem, both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers.

India’s new administration plans to modernize India’s armed forces and speed up deals to bring in new military armaments and hardware.

India's new government also plans to scrap the unpopular anti-terrorism law, known as the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), passed after the September 11, 2001, attacks. Critics complained that the law passed by the former government, “has been grossly misused in the past two years” especially against India’s Muslim community.

Finally, India's new IT and communications minister, Dayanidhi Maran, pledged to defend the country's surging outsourcing industry against protests by Western nations about job losses. Maran said, “I shall make all endeavors to make India the world's hub for outsourcing skilled manpower in the IT sector.” Maran indicated that India's new left-leaning government would have a committee chaired by the finance minister to deal with the backlash against outsourcing, especially from the United States.

SPORTS SHORTS

YANKEE PITCHER’S FAMILY MAKES HIGH SPEED ESCAPE FROM CASTRO’S CUBA

The wife and two daughters of Yankee pitcher Jose Ariel Contreras completed a daring escape from Castro’s Cuba on Monday, June 21, 2004. The escape reached a climax as the high-speed “fast-go” boat, driven by professional smugglers, led the Coast Guard on a three-hour chase ending on the island of Big Pine Key, Florida. The three were taken into custody along with 18 other Cubans and the two suspected smugglers around 5:15 a.m. They were reunited with Contreras the following night. The reunion came nearly 21 months after the New York Yankees pitcher escaped the island nation. According to one witness Contreras said very little to the press, “he was too busy smiling.”

Miriam Murillo Flores, 31, and the couple's two girls, Naylan (11) and Naylenis (3) Contreras, were released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tuesday afternoon. The defection was declared legal under the “wet foot, dry foot ruling,” which allows Cubans who make it safely to US dry land to qualify for the Cuban Adjustment Act. Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, any Cuban “absent of criminal convictions, that can adjust in a year and a day,” can become legal residents of the United States.

The reunion closes a difficult chapter in Contreras' life. Since his defection in 2002, he has publicly suffered the separation from his wife and young daughters. Contreras went 7-2 with a 3.30 ERA in his rookie year, he was up and down between the majors and minors as the Yankees tried to help him work out what they called mechanical flaws. Contreras insisted, however, that the problem wasn't in his arm. It was in his head: He was homesick. The devoted father missed his girls, and he longed for his wife, whom he had married in 1988, when he was 16 and she was 15.

Contreras had tried to bring his family to the United States, but said the Cuban government has denied them “permission to exit” twice. In April, Murillo told a New York Newspaper that a government official said she would have to wait five years, “until people had forgotten about Jose,” to get government authorization to emigrate.

Jose Contreas was a national hero in Cuba, where baseball is a true national past time. As a national hero he lived well. He drove a blue Peugeot that Castro gave him as a reward for his baseball exploits. He was also one of the dictator's favorites. Castro, who claims that he could have played in America’s major leagues, had nicknamed Contreas “the bronze titan,” a name Contreras uses as his email address today. Castro gave the family an apartment, and often singled out “the bronze titan” for praise. Contreras had dinner with Castro on numerous occasions often discussing baseball during and after dinner. During the 2002 trip to Mexico, Contreras was so trusted that he was given the responsibility of guarding the team's passports. Contreras defected with Miguel Valdes, a Cuban baseball official, in the fall of 2002.

Castro was quick to denounce Contreras as a traitor who sold out his homeland for money, and Contreras’ family suffered after his defection. His wife was harassed and arrested several times this spring on trumped-up on charges of prostitution. Contreras would ask, “Why would a woman whose husband makes $7 million a year have to sell her body?” Friends indicated that he and Murillo had been speaking by phone every day racking up monthly bills that soared into five figures and when he was at home in his St. Petersburg condo, he would spend nights on his balcony staring south toward Cuba.

After his defection almost all major league teams sought Contreras, but the ultimate choice for the Cuban pitcher was between the New York Yankees and their arch rivals, the Boston Red Socks. Contreras opted for Yankee pinstripes creating even more dislike between the good folks in Beantown and the Big Apple. The rumor mill in Boston has it that Yankee owner George Steinbrenner orchestrated the escape, but if it is true, George ain’t saying and that’s a little strange for George.

What is true is that baseball observers now expect Contreras’ game to improve as he adjusts to having his family around him.

Clarion Issue Trivia

The word thug has its origins in what language?

A.English/German
B.Basque
C.Italian/Latin
D.Mandarin (Chinese)
E. Indian (Hindi/Sanskrit)
F. Swahili

Answer E. The Thuggee (Thuglana) were professional thieves and murderers in India from the 1300s until they were virtually eradicated by the British in the 1800s. The thugee worshipped the Hindu mother goddess Kali, a goddess of destruction. The thuggee practiced large-scale robbery and murder of travelers by strangulation. Induction into the thuggee was typically from father to son, with the women of the household being kept ignorant of the cult activity. The Thuggee was suppressed by the British rulers of India in the 1830s, due largely to the extensive efforts of William Sleeman.

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