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The deputy school superintendent in Fairfield, Conn., said the school system did not sanction a recent "save the rainforests" excursion by second-grade students. He also said media coverage of the event resulted from a "misunderstanding." The Rainforest Action Network asked the second graders to visit JP Morgan Chase Bank, where they had cookies and milk, John Boyle, deputy superintendent for the Fairfield County, Conn., public school system, told Cybercast News Service . "It was never intended as any kind of a demonstration -- protest," he said. The elementary school students visited New York City last week at the behest of...

Adapting the Exploitation Model: Does the US have NO plan, or a NEW plan? What are the Bush administration’s plans in Iraq? On the surface, everything is going badly. The Jan 30th elections are destined to fail, and there are huge structural obstacles to overcome before Iraq can become a stable, peaceful nation. On top of that, the Iraq situation is so closely intermingled with two neighboring crises, in Iran and Saudi Arabia, that it will be exceptionally more difficult to deal with any single problem in isolation. Does the Bush administration have a plan to deal with this web...

Have You No Shame Senators? Judson Cox In January, I wrote a column entitled “The John Edwards North Carolina Knows.” I accused Sen. Edwards of being a side show huckster, a snake oil salesman, a man willing to exploit any situation and use any person to advance his career. I based my evaluation of Edwards, not only on his public statements, but on my personal experience with him. I knew his faults, because I know the man. Many people responded, angrily defending Edwards. This week, Edwards proved my point. Edwards said, at a rally in Newton, Iowa, “... when John...

DEBATE 3: JOHN KERRY OUTS JOHN KERRY"THIS IS NOT A GOOD MAN"   POURQUOI JOHN KERRY EST DANGEREUX POUR L'AMÉRIQUE by Mia T, 10.15.04   DEBATE 3: JOHN KERRY OUTS JOHN KERRY "THIS IS NOT A GOOD MAN" (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)   COPYRIGHT MIA T 2004   election update!JOHN KERRY IS UNFIT~THE SERIES YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF AMBULANCE-CHASING BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE AMBULANCE-CHASING OUT OF THE BOYRAISING TAXES, YOU POOR SLOBS + TERESA'S 11.5% TAX RATE (LAISSEZ-LES MANGER LE GÂTEAU)THE LETHAL DANGER OF JOHN KERRY: SPACE-TIME, TESSELLATIONS OF THE PLANET +...

The Children, the Desperate, the Helpless, the Homeless Fall Victim to the Heartless Hong Kong: loud, decadent, exotic, dazzling day and night with flashing, brilliant, multicolored lights. Quite a contrast from Paris -- the serene, romantic city of warmth, hope and dreams that I had just left. Hong Kong's streets were lined with makeshift shelters used to sell meager goods by day, and as shelters by night for some of the million Chinese who had escaped the tyranny of the Communist regime on the mainland. The ex-pat community and the elite Hong Kong Chinese, on the other hand, had built...

What Could Trigger China’s Economic Internal Shock? By Heide B. Malhotra The Epoch Times Sep 05, 2004 A man sits with his bicycle in front of a wall of a new development under construction in Beijing, 05 September 2004. China's economy is on unstable ground, and there are many factors that could trigger shock in its system. (PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images) The Taipei Times suggested that China’s economic crisis might be triggered by internal rather than external shocks. The Times left it up to the reader to come to a conclusion as to what could cause such internal shocks. Given the...

BEIJING (AFP) - China's migrant workers are owed a staggering 360 billion yuan (43 billion dollars) by their employers, with some still waiting to get paid for jobs they did 10 years ago, state media said. A nationwide investigation has found 124,000 construction sites where workers were toiling all day even though they were being paid late or never, the China Daily newspaper reported. The survey suggests the problem is much worse than previously thought, as a similar estimate last year had China's 120 million migrant workers being owed 100 billion yuan. Not just rogue private companies are to blame....

A few days after Michael Moore's blockbuster documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 opened in theaters, a friend approached Roy Mitchell with a strange look on his face. Mitchell, an Army staff sergeant, is a patient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he is recovering from the loss of his left leg in an explosion in Afghanistan. As the friend approached him that day, he studied Mitchell's face, then told him something that shocked him. "You're in that 9/11 movie," he said, then added: "Man, it doesn't make you look good." It was the first Mitchell knew that Moore's controversial...

<p>Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign issued a second mass fund-raising e-mail yesterday based on the Iraqi prisoner abuse situation amid Republican charges that the Democratic candidate is capitalizing on a national disgrace.</p> <p>"Keep the ball rolling," urged the e-mail from Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill. "Donate now!"</p>

China's "Workers Paradise" Becoming a Workers Nightmare For Many Mao's promised land ends in sweated labour As China's Prime Minister arrives today to meet Tony Blair, Jonathan Watts in Beijing examines how its economic miracle is built on employers who fail to pay wages, ignore safety rules and discard workers at will Sunday May 9, 2004 The Observer Overworked, underpaid and about to lose his job, Huang Zungkun must wonder how the socialist revolution in China ended up creating one of the world's most ruthlessly capitalist states. Not that he has any time for reflection. Like many of the 100...

Over 8300 signatures on the PABAAH "Say No To Fahrenheit911" petition Have you signed it yet?

Bush campaign ads that fleetingly depict Ground Zero and a flag-draped stretcher are generating Democratic charges of "exploitation" of a national tragedy. Several weeks ago, President Bush donned a racing jacket and presided over the opening of NASCAR's Daytona 500, which similarly drew Democratic criticisms of "exploitation" of racing fans. Does anyone see a trend emerging? Frankly, this Democratic shtick of ranting about GOP "exploitation" is becoming both stale and predictable. Are the Democrats going to feign righteous indignation every time the Republicans engage in successful outreach to the public during this campaign season? Well, I sure hope so -...

Che Guevara daughter's fury over 'image exploitation' The daughter of Che Guevara says she is trying to stop capitalists from exploiting her father's famous image. The world-renowned image is from a snapshot taken of the bearded and beret-wearing revolutionary leader by photographer Alberto Diaz in 1960 in Havana, Cuba. "It cannot be that they are using it on bottles of vodka, bottles of rum," Aleida Guevara said in reference to the prevalent use of the "Che" image by businesses for advertising and profit-related ventures. Ms Guevara said she and other relatives are currently going through legal channels to prevent businesses...

Monday, Jan. 26, 2004Sex Education in Amherst A high school takes on a controversial play ByNATHAN THORNBURGH This Feb. 14, V won't stand for just valentine at Amherst Regional High School in Amherst, Massachusets. The local school board and superintendent last month approved a student request to stage The Vagina Monologues the night before Valentine's Day as part of a national campaign to call attention to violence against women. The theater piece, written by Eve Ensler, has played off-Broadway and in all-star benefits around the country and the world on Valentine's Day for the past six years. But this...

From Part I Indeed, what is exerting this irresistible pressure to conform (by "rebelling") on most of today's youth? Just as the military and private schools and Boy Scouts have uniforms, so does the youth culture: baggy pants, backward hats, chokers and other jewelry, body piercings, tattoos and the like. But if uniforms symbolize values and allegiance, a loyalty to a higher (or lower) order, then in this case it's an allegiance to an increasingly defiant musical, social, sexual and cultural world, a mysterious (to parents) realm that seems magically to be drawing millions of children into it. For three...

Thu September 18, 2003 09:13 PM ET By Elinor Mills Abreu SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An Internet search company on Thursday filed a $100 million antitrust lawsuit against VeriSign Inc., accusing the Web address provider of hijacking misspelled and unassigned Web addresses with a service it launched this week. VeriSign's new SiteFinder service takes searches for ".com" and ".net" Web addresses that are not spelled correctly or have not yet been registered and redirects them to a VeriSign Web page that includes options and pay-for-placement topic links. Since it was launched on Monday, the SiteFinder service has drawn widespread criticism...

Book by Police Chief in Sniper Case Set Book by Charles Moose, Police Chief in Washington, D.C.-Area Sniper Case, Goes on Sale Monday The Associated Press BETHESDA, Md. Sept. 14 — The book that Charles Moose gave up his police job to write reveals little new about the three-week sniper investigation he led, but focuses much on his life, racism, criticism of the media and the ethics controversy over the book itself. "Three Weeks in October" goes on sale Monday, nearly a year after the Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings started. The book by Moose, the former Montgomery County police chief,...

More than 1,000 Russian would-be "cyber-brides" are lobbying the US Congress to halt laws aimed at protecting them from exploitation. The women, who are members of the biggest American-owned dating agency that recruits in the former Soviet Union, claim that the new laws would destroy their hopes of finding husbands over the internet. A bill passing through Congress would force American matchmaking agencies - mostly run from websites - to give foreign women details of the marital history and any criminal record of suitors. Supporters say that the move - inspired by the death of Anastasia King, 20, who was...

<p>Aug. 18 issue — Like many teenage girls in Minneapolis, 17-year-old Stacey liked to hang out after school at the Mall of America, Minnesota’s vast shopping megaplex. Cute, blond and chatty, she flirted with boys and tried on the latest Gap fashions. One day last summer, Stacey, which isn’t her real name, says she was approached by a man who told her how pretty she was, and asked if he could buy her some clothes. “He was an older guy, dressed really well,” she recalls. “He said he just wanted to see me in the clothes.” Stacey agreed, and went home that night with a $250 outfit.</p>

<p>A television ad that began airing Tuesday tells Hispanic audiences and other poor families to expect "nada," or "nothing," in their mailboxes Friday when the government begins mailing child credit rebate checks.</p> <p>The ad is aimed at informing Hispanic families that of the 12 million children whose families won't get the tax credit, a third of them are Hispanic, Congressional Hispanic Caucus members said.</p>