Achievement and Recognition Award: 2/21/2008
ADC-NEW JERSEY ANNUAL BANQUET
ADC-NJ Chapter is pleased to announce our keynote speaker for this Year’s banquet,
Mr. Ralph Nader
Mr. Nader, a pioneering - consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. Since 1966, Nader has been responsible for at least eight major federal consumer protection laws such as the motor vehicle safety laws, Safe Drinking Water Act; the launching of federal regulatory agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Environment Protection Agency (EPA), and Consumer Product Safety Administration; the recall of millions of defective motor vehicles; access to government through the Freedom of Information Act of 1974.
ADC-NJ’s Annual Banquet will be held at
Mayfair Farms Banquet Hall
West Orange, New Jersey,
Saturday, March, 8th, 2008.
Tickets are on sale now for $100.00 (student discounts available).
Purchase your tickets online
For information or tickets, please contact Amal at 973.246.7474
For more information on the ADC please visit our website at
http://www.adcnj.us
In addition we are pleased to announce that this year’s recognition award will be presented to:
Mr. Farid El-Asmar
Also, this year’s achievement award will be presented to:
Mr. Baher Azmy, Esq.
Seton Hall University School of Law
Center for social justice
Article Of Interest:
Bush blunders should have Republicans running scared
Home News Tribune Online 02/1/08
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HASSAN
MAHMOUD
Be Counted
During the current primary election season, the country is going through a severe economic downturn. It is natural that the Democratic contenders vilify President Bush's policies, but it is unusual to see the Republican candidates running away from their party's sitting president and making Ronald Reagan their hero.
For the last few years, the Iraq war's disastrous consequences of lost lives and treasure was the indefensible issue from which many Republicans, let alone the Democrats, have disassociated themselves. Recently, the so-called surge in troops reduced the number of casualties, although it is still mounting, without achieving the intended goal of giving the Iraqi factions a space to reconcile and re-create a united peaceful Iraq. That was Bush's hope to help extract our troops from the morass of this misbegotten war.
One sober prediction about the war was its high cost and the lack of an exit plan. Lawrence Lindsey, a former Bush economic adviser, estimated a cost of $200 billion. For that he was fired. Conversely, Paul Wolfowitz, one of the neocons' architects of the war, scoffed that it would only cost $50 billion and it would be paid from the revenue of the Iraqi oil and it would be over in a few months.
Disastrously, we are approaching the sixth year, and war advocates like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., want to leave our troops in Iraq for 100 years. Up to now, the estimated war cost is about $1 trillion, including the medical care for our 60,000 wounded and disabled soldiers, with no end in sight. These dollars were not allocated in the regular budgets but, rather, were paid by emergency funding, i.e. borrowed money, thus curtailing any financing of our education, health care or relieving the crisis of the subprime home loan upheaval. We borrow from foreign countries, like China, and this depresses the value of the dollar against major world currencies. Since the oil prices are pegged to the dollar, which has lost one-third of its value against the Euro, the oil producers are offered the real value of their oil — which is one-third above what the dollars can buy.
It's noteworthy that the Persian Gulf countries, including Iran, produce only 25 percent of world oil and the United States imports only 10 percent of its need from these countries. Our major oil exporters are Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and Nigeria. Russia produces 12 percent of world oil, so we are not sending the total $400 billion (our oil import value) to Middle Eastern nations. Because oil is a global commodity and the demand outstrips the supply, any instability in the Middle East results in higher prices whether the oil is produced in OPEC countries, Russia, the North Sea or Texas.
Before the start of the Iraq war, oil was at $30 a barrel. It now oscillates around $100. According to some experts, the current price carries a war-risk premium of about one-third of its rate. The combined Iraqi and Iranian oil capacity could have doubled the current output of 5.5 million barrels a day if not for the war's destruction in Iraq and sanctions on energy investment in Iran that reduces oil supply.
Considering the unrestricted war expenses, the devaluation of the dollar, the cost of replenishing destroyed armaments, exuberant recruiting bonuses and health care for the returnees, all resulting from the belligerent Bush administration's foreign policies, in addition to the subprime home loan crisis, one can figure the roots of the sad economic state afflicting our country.
Bush hasn't learned from the Iraq fiasco. Now, he and the Israelis are beating the war drums against Iran. A recent national intelligence report concluded that Iran had abandoned its efforts to produce a nuclear weapon since 2003. A swift rebuttal came from the Israelis, who ridiculed our intelligence and insisted that Iran is developing a nuclear bomb (versus an estimated 400 bombs in Israel's nuclear arsenal). Disgracefully, George Bush declared, during his recent visit to Israel, that he didn't agree with our intelligence and sided with the Israelis. Amazingly, he declared that the U.S. intelligence agencies are independent entities and he had his own independent opinion. One wonders why doesn't he, therefore, abolish our agencies, save $60 billion and hire the Mossad.
Despite the pompous Bush's reception by Gulf rulers, they snubbed him on two issues: increasing oil production and rallying against Iran. The Saudis declared that the production is determined solely by the market. Friendly gestures were accorded to Iran. The Iranian president was invited to the pilgrimage in Mecca and the Saudi foreign minister said that Iran is a neighbor with which Saudis have to maintain a peaceful relationship. Also, the Kuwaiti foreign minister paid a friendly visit to Iran while Bush was still touring the region.
No wonder that those irrational Bush policies are helping the Democrats and hurting the Republicans' prospects in the coming election.
"Be Counted" columnist Hassan Mahmoud is a resident of Westfield..
Regards,
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. ADC - NEW JERSEY Chapter
is a civil rights organization committed to defending the rights of Arab Americans
and promoting their heritage. ADC, which is non-partisan and non-sectarian, is the
largest Arab-American grassroots organization in the United States. It was founded
in 1980 in response to stereotyping, defamation and discrimination directed against
Americans of Arab origin. For more information on the ADC please visit our website at
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