4-18-07, 9:13 pm

Gabcast! Poltical Affairs #11 - Defense Secretary Gates Contradicts Bush on Iraq Timetable
Defense Secretary Gates Contradicts Bush on Timetables; Ecuador Votes for Socialist Reforms; Northern Ireland Takes Big Steps Toward Peace; Americans Sound Off on Global Warming; Sen. Barack Obama Criticizes Today's Supreme Court Abortion Ruling

In honor of the life and work of celebrated novelist Kurt Vonnegut, we offer some of his words from his 1965 novel, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater:

'Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies – 'God damn it, you've got to be kind.''

Defense Secretary Gates Contradicts Bush on Timetables

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told reporters that congressional efforts to establish a timetable for withdrawal are 'helpful' and that they likely have had a 'positive impact' by sending a message to Iraq's government that the US occupation is not open-ended.

Gates made these comments earlier this week during his Middle East tour, according to the Washington Post.

These statements contradict the opposition expressed by the White House towards a congressional troop funding bill that includes a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq passed in late March. President Bush has repeatedly stated that he intends to veto the bill.

Gates' remarks also counter Vice President Cheney's repeated assertions that proponents of timetables aid the 'enemy' and have a 'plan for defeat.'

Gates' statements echo somewhat the views of Middle East expert Juan Cole who told a public forum in Detroit last December that imposing a timetable for withdrawal would force the Iraqi government to redouble its efforts to develop a power and revenue sharing plan that includes Iraq's three major cultural groups and to bolster its security efforts.

According to Pentagon sources, 64 US service members have been killed in Iraq in the first 17 days of April, bringing the total number of deaths to 3,311. More than 26,000 have been wounded.

Hundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killed this month in that country's ongoing civil war caused primarily by the US occupation, including 148 today alone.

Respected scientific estimates say that more than 655,000 Iraqis have been killed as a result of the invasion since 2003.

Ecuador Votes for Socialist Reforms

In Ecuador this week, voters agreed to a provision that will launch a constitution revision process to introduce a number of socialist and democratic reforms.

Early results of a national vote on the constitutional reform process indicate that more than 8 in 10 Ecuadorans supported the project promoted by President Rafael Correa.

Correa won Ecuador's election last November on a platform to reverse neoliberal economic policies such as 'free trade' and structural adjustment programs imposed by international financial institutions.

Internationally mandated policies have forced Ecuador to kill or weaken social provisions in health care, education, low-cost public utilities, and anti-poverty programs.

Correa announced that Ecuador had finished paying off debts owed to the International Monetary Fund, telling reporters over the weekend, 'We paid $9 million on Thursday and do not want to hear any more about the IMF.'

Correa is also promising to renegotiate oil contracts with foreign controlled oil companies.

He has called for the expansion of participatory democracy by making national lawmakers more directly responsible to their constituencies and ending elitist domination through reducing their control of the courts.

Constitutional reforms would shift the balance of power away from the traditional political parties dominated by wealthy elites to the mass of people who have been marginalized under the current constitution.

The next step is the formation of a constituent assembly of 130 representatives from around the country to write a new constitution. The draft constitution will be submitted for a public referendum in 2008.

Northern Ireland Takes Big Steps Toward Peace

Northern Ireland's two largest political parties have agreed to a power-sharing arrangement that may reduce ongoing political tensions in the country.

According to Dublin's Socialist Voice newspaper, the agreement brokered by the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein creates a national executive by May 8th and is a 'big step forward in the building of peace and reconciliation.'

Socialist Voice also reports that the DUP, Sinn Féin, the Social Democratic and Labor Party, and the Ulster Unionist Party will hold talks. The parties are expected to join together to call on the British government for an increased financial package to underpin the new political arrangements.

The radical monthly also called for focusing the efforts of the new institutions on resisting privatization, cuts to public services, and rate increases for public utilities.

Americans Sound Off on Global Warming

This past weekend, thousands of people attended more than 1,400 events across the country as part of Step It Up 2007 and related campaigns to address global warming and promote public policies aimed at reversing it.

Protests, vigils, public forums, and congressional office visits highlighted the issue and called on Congress to pass the Safe Climate Act, which would require the reduction of carbon emissions by 80 percent over the next four decades.

The nationwide campaign came just before a special meeting of the UN Security Council, initiated by the British, linking the issues of climate change and collective security.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told the council that the international community needs to build a shared understanding of the relationship between energy, security, and climate.

The discussion was started just two weeks after the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report detailing the likely devastating impact of global warming.

One of the most important consequences will be access to water. The panel's experts say that drought and water shortages could affect as many as 250 million people.

Massive flooding, meteorological extremes, disease, and consequent social problems were also predicted to worsen over the next few decades.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and shifting to sustainable non-carbon based energy are the first steps needed to combat global warming, say experts.

Bush administration representatives blocked more urgently worded recommendations issued by the UN panel.

Policy changes to reverse global warming have broad public support, according to a recent survey conducted for the Center for American Progress.

More than three-quarters of Americans believe the case is closed and that global warming is real. Six in 10 believe that human actions are at fault and that immediate action must be taken to stop it.

Sen. Barack Obama Criticizes Supreme Court Abortion Ruling

The Supreme Court today upheld a federal abortion ban passed by a previous Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by President Bush in 2003. The ban criminalizes abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy even when doctors say they are safe and best to protect women's health.

In a strongly worded statement disagreeing with the politically motivated Court ruling, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama described the decision as a departure 'from previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women.'

Obama characterized the conservative dominated court's willingness to disregard past decisions and settled Constitutional law as 'alarming.'

Obama said, 'I am extremely concerned that this ruling will embolden state legislatures to enact further measures to restrict a woman's right to choose, and that the conservative Supreme Court justices will look for other opportunities to erode Roe v. Wade, which is established federal law and a matter of equal rights for women.'

Planned Parenthood Federation lawyer Eve Gartner, who argued the case before the Court, said, 'Today the court took away an important option for doctors who seek to provide the best and safest care to their patients. This ruling tells women that politicians, not doctors, will make their health care decisions for them.'

A statement by the National Organization for Women called for renewed activism. It read in part: 'This [decision] is a clarion call for feminists, progressives and everyone who cares about justice, equality and democracy. We must link arms and say 'No more.' We must elect a Congress that will repeal this ban and a president who will sign the repeal.'

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