...... ...................Larouche Online Almanac

Published: Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Volume 4, Issue Number 21

This Week You Need to Know:

SAVE OUR U.S. CONSTITUTION NOW!

by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

May 22, 2005

If you care about our country and your family's future, you must give full support to the U.S. Senate's Democratic Party leadership now! On this Tuesday, Senate Republican leader Frist is prepared to act to tear down the Constitution of the U.S.A., in an effort to establish a right-wing White House dictatorship in the U.S.

The immediate target of this attempted illegal coup d'etat is the institution of the U.S. Senate. The purpose is to overturn the U.S. Constitution, in favor of White House dictatorship, by breaking the Constitutional powers built into the Senate's power to impose checks and balances against an out-of-control Presidency or temporary errant majority of the House of Representatives. This provision to defend our Constitution was centered in the powers of advice and consent which the Constitution assigned specifically to the U.S. Senate.

Do not be taken in by the fraudulent claims that the contested judicial nominees are "Christians." When judges of fascist leanings are up for confirmation, the issue is not religion, but economics. The issue is, which side will those judges take, when the financial sharks come to eat you in foreclosure proceedings?

...more

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Latest From LaRouche

This Is One of the Great Moments in World History

Here is Lyndon LaRouche's presentation to a LaRouche Youth Movement cadre school in Houston, on May 20.

Well, I can tell you, this coming week, and already this weekend, is one of the great moments in world history. Right now! And it's happening largely in the United States, and it's centered on the U.S. Senate. Because, as of now, as of Tuesday—the way it's planned—you're going to have a make-or-break situation coming up in the Senate, to decide whether we're going to have a country or not.

This is now. ...more

The Economy

World and Nation-State

This Week in History

May 23 - 29, 1861

James Eads, Lincoln's Riverboat Captain, Takes on the Mighty Mississippi

In the spring of 1861, President Abraham Lincoln called James Buchanan Eads to Washington, to consult with him on the Union's best offensive and defensive strategy for America's western rivers. Eads, born on May 23, 1820, was a cousin of the traitorous James Buchanan, but unlike his relative, he held strong pro-Union sentiments. More than any man alive at the time, Eads knew the potentialities and dangers of the western rivers, especially the Mississippi, and it was this knowledge that President Lincoln wanted to tap.

Eads had gone to work at an early age, but had the good fortune to work for a dry-goods store owner who let him use his library in his spare time. In 1838, Eads could resist the call of the Mississippi no longer, and became a purser on a steamboat which made the St. Louis-New Orleans run. In between his duties, Eads worked on inventing a diving bell, which he patented and which became very useful in the salvage business which he founded in 1842. In addition, Eads designed a twin-hulled boat, equipped with derricks and pumps, and convinced a St. Louis boatbuilding firm to produce it in return for a partnership in the salvage business.

The snags and sandbars in the western rivers brought many a steamboat to the bottom, and Eads became expert at rescuing their cargoes and, later, even raising the ships from the riverbed. In his salvage business, Eads learned valuable lessons about the strength of the Mississippi's currents, and about the characteristics of the other rivers he navigated, including the Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and the Cumberland.

Writing about one dive he made beneath the Mississippi, Eads wrote: The sand was drifting like a dense snowstorm at the bottom. "At sixty-five feet below the surface I found the bed of the river, for at least three feet in depth, a moving mass and so unstable that, in endeavoring to find a footing on it beneath my bell, my feet penetrated through it until I could feel, although standing erect, the sand rushing past my hands, driven by a current apparently as rapid as that on the surface, I could discover the sand in motion at least two feet below the surface of the bottom, and moving with a velocity diminishing in proportion to its depth." This finding was to serve him well in one of his later projects.

Eads became convinced that the destructive action of the Mississippi, and indeed all rivers, could be successfully combatted. In 1856, when the Federal government abandoned its snag-clearing program, he submitted a proposal to Congress which stated that he would remove all the snags and wrecks from the Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, and Ohio Rivers, and keep the channels open for a set number of years. The new snag-clearing bill passed the House, but it was defeated in the Senate through the opposition of Jefferson Davis, who said that it would be a mistake to take up the proposal of a person "whose previous pursuits gave no assurance of ability to solve a problem in civil engineering."

Abraham Lincoln had no such problem in utilizing Eads' talents. When the President met with him in 1861, Eads stated that control of the Mississippi and its lower tributaries was the key to the war in the West. He proposed building a fleet of armor-clad gunboats, and when the War Department called for bids, he contracted to construct seven iron-plated steamships of 600 tons each, ready for their guns in 65 days.

Within two weeks, Eads had 4,000 men, in locations all over the Union, working on various aspects of the construction, and he launched the first gunboat, the "St. Louis," in 45 days, 20 days earlier than the contract stipulated. The other six followed quickly, and they were in service on the western waters months before the famous fight between the "Monitor" and the "Merrimac" in the eastern theater of war.

The little armored fleet, which could navigate in six feet of water, was put into service on the Tennessee River, where it helped capture Forts Henry and Donelson. The fleet then steamed to the Mississippi, where it captured the Confederate fortress of Island No. 10, defeated enemy ironclads in two stiff battles, and joined forces with Admiral Farragut's ocean-going warships at Vicksburg to cut the Confederacy in two. Farragut cabled the War Department, "Only give me the ironclads built by Mr. Eads, and I will find out how far Providence is with us."

As the Civil War was ending, plans were underway for expanding America's railroads. A railroad bridge, made famous by Abraham Lincoln's legal battle to establish its right to exist, already spanned the Mississippi at Rock Island, Ill., but there was no bridge on the wider part of the river near St. Louis. The Illinois Railroad had reached East St. Louis many years before, but freight had to be ferried across the bridgeless river. In 1865, Congress authorized the construction of a bridge at St. Louis, calling for a 500-foot center span and 50 feet of clearance. Twenty-seven of the country's leading civil engineers said the project was impracticable, but one of the construction companies hired James Eads as its engineer.

Eads proposed that the St. Louis Bridge be built with tubular steel arches, even though no structure of any kind had yet been made of steel. The center arch would rest on two piers sunk to bedrock, with another pier at each shore. The arches would carry a double-decked roadway, with carriages above and railroad trains underneath. To make the project even more daunting, the bed of the Mississippi fell off sharply from west to east, so that the easternmost pier might have to go down 100 feet or more to bedrock.

In 1869, Eads travelled to France to talk with a French engineering firm that might bid on the superstructure of the bridge, and while there, he inspected the construction of a deep-foundation bridge where the pneumatic caisson was in use. When he returned to St. Louis, Eads had William Nelson, who had built his old twin-hulled salvage vessel, construct the necessary caissons. But the French engineers had neglected to tell him about the serious medical problem known as "the bends."

As work on the eastern pier required the men to go deeper and deeper, several started to have painful cramps. Eads shortened shifts, required long rest periods, and enforced strict rules on nutritious diets and long overnight sleeping time, but in vain. When one of the workers died, Eads was horrified and called in his personal physician, Dr. Jaminet and added a floating hospital. The doctor himself, during an inspection of the caissons, was struck with the bends and, after his recovery, analyzed the problem. He hit on the solution of requiring slow decompression, and it saved the men's lives.

Captain Eads had promised that he would not block the Mississippi while he was building the bridge, but this presented a difficult problem. Arched bridges were built by supporting the arch during construction by "centering;" that is, building timber supports for it in the river. Eads solved the problem by cantilevering the arches out from the piers, holding them suspended by cables and timber supports built on top of the piers.

...more

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Feature:

U.S. Nuclear First Strike Doctrine Is Operational
by Jeffrey Steinberg

The Bush Administration has quietly put into place contingency plans for the use of nuclear weapons in pre-emptive attacks on at least two countries—Iran and North Korea. Confirmation of the new 'global strike' plan appeared in the Washington Post on Sunday, May 15, in a column by William Arkin, a former Army Intelligence analyst. EIR has interviewed several senior U.S. intelligence officials, who have confirmed the essential features of Arkin's report. They link the accelerated drive to prepare for offensive nuclear strikes against Iran and North Korea to the failure of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the dismal results of the use of 'shock and awe' massive conventional bombings against Afghanistan and Iraq.

From Deterrence to Nuclear Warfighting
by Carl Osgood

Since 2001, the Bush Administration has been promulgating a new nuclear doctrine that replaces deterrence with war fighting. The January 2002 Nuclear Posture Review broke down the wall that had previously existed between the use of nuclear forces and the use of conventional forces. It redefined nuclear weapons as just another tool in the tool kit of strategic operations by which adversaries and potential adversaries could be coerced into a position favorable to the United States.

The Ghost of Bertrand Russell Stalks Cheney-Rumsfeld Pentagon
by Jeffrey Steinberg

This article is reprinted from EIR, March 7, 2003.
The United States nuclear weapons policy known as the 'negative security assurance' aimed at stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons and encouraging all nations not currently possessing nuclear weapons to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other treaties, was publicly promulgated a quarter-century ago. On June 12, 1978, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance addressed the United Nations Security Council and delivered a pledge from the U.S. government that America would never use nuclear weapons against a nonnuclear power, except under the unique circumstances of that country joining with one of the nuclear powers in an attack on the U.S.A. or its allies.


Economics:

CONGRESS FACES NEW TURN
On the Subject of Strategic Bankruptcy
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

May 14, 2005
A rising series of political earthquakes is now shaking the world. Now, the financial collapse of the air-passenger-transport industry, hitting the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation from United Airlines today, and perhaps Delta and American Airlines next, intersects the efforts of GM/GMAC to dump the auto-workers' pensions, and the threatened collapse of GM, Ford, and others, threatening to set off a global hedgefunds panic. At the same time, the planet as a whole has already been seized during past days, by a panic-ridden hedge-fund crisis which is orders of magnitude worse than that of August-October 1998.

United Case Warns:
All U.S. Pensions Bankrupt
by Anita Gallagher

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court's May 10 decision to allow United Airlines to dump its pensions onto the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)—termed 'a political earthquake' by Democratic economist Lyndon LaRouche—shows that the 'defined benefit' pensions of 44 million American workers still fortunate enough to have one, can and will disappear, unless LaRouche's measures are enacted by the U.S. Congress.

'Hedge Fund' Blowout Threatens World Markets
by Lothar Komp

Decades of insane economic policies, and the stubbornness of central banks papering over the symptoms of a systemic crisis by providing ever more liquidity, have produced an impossible situation as of late May, after the GM/Ford credit shocks.

EIR Testimony Scored Scorched-Earth Looters
by John Hoefle

This article originally appeared in EIR on Sept. 17, 1993, reporting on testimony to the House Banking Committee.
A warning of the impending collapse of the international derivatives market, triggering the biggest financial blowout in centuries, was delivered by this writer to the House Banking Committee on Sept. 8, 1993, in testimony on the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) upon the U.S. banking system. My appearance before the banking committee was requested by committee chairman Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Tex.), one of the few men in Washington with the courage to take on the international bankers and their scorched-earth looting policies.

The Time Has Come for A New Bretton Woods
The dramatic collapse of the mainstays of U.S. productive capability, General Motors and Ford, and the looming monster crash of the financial markets leave no doubt that the time is now for a New Bretton Woods architecture. One nation's lawmakers have collectively voted up a resolution calling for an international meeting of heads of state 'to create a new and more just global monetary and financial system.' Italy's resolution, crafted in collaboration with the LaRouche political movement in Italy, emphasizes the problem of the huge speculative and predatory bubble economy crushing millions of people, while the real productive economy lies in ruins.

Control Speculation And Start Production
Hon. Mario Lettieri is a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and sits on the Finance Committee. He was elected in the southern region of Lucania on the slate of La Margherita, the secondlargest party in the coalition opposing Silvio Berlusconi's government.

Interview: Alfonso Gianni
NBW Is a First Step Toward Ending Folly
Hon. Alfonso Gianni of the opposition party Communist Refoundation (Rifondazione Comunista) is a member of Italy's Chamber of Deputies, and of its Commission on Labor and Welfare affairs. The party belongs to the Union coalition led by Romano Prodi, who is going to be the center-left challenger to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the 2006 parliamentary elections.


International:

Is the Bernard Lewis Plan On the Move in Central Asia?
by Ramtanu Maitra

By now most of the major media outlets have spelled out with a great deal of inaccuracy what 'exactly' happened in the eastern Uzbek town of Andijan on May 13: How many got killed and who killed them. Led by the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, the world media has accused the muchmaligned Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov of yet another bloody and ruthless suppression of 'public dissent.' But, not much has been heard about who the players really are, and what their end objective is.

LaRouche: U.S. Must Withdraw From Iraq, Now
by Jeffrey Steinberg

American statesman and political economist Lyndon LaRouche has called on the Bush Administration to withdraw all American troops from Iraq immediately. Such a departure would probably require the interim establishment of an American zone, into which the U.S. forces could regroup, pending the logistical plans for the pullout.

Kissinger Plan for Lebanon: Death by 'Democracy'
by Michele Steinberg

If Lebanon survives the upcoming May 29 election and beyond, it will be despite the George W. Bush Administration, not because of it. Bush's claim of 'his' victory for democracy in Lebanon, is widely viewed with bitterness and suspicion inside Lebanon, and for good reason. It is recognized by the leaders of both the Lebanese opposition and the Lahoud government that was close to Syria, that the Bush Administration's major—and perhaps only—interest in Lebanon, is to use the country against Syria.

Calipari Death: Is Negroponte To Blame?
by Claudio Celani

An Italian Senator has accused U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte of having planned the context in which Italian military intelligence official Nicola` Calipari was killed in Baghdad, on March 6. Calipari was killed by a U.S. patrol while escorting a liberated hostage, Giuliana Sgrena, to the Baghdad airport.

Neo-Cons Light Fuse on Iran Crisis
by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach

A number of operations are converging, which indicate that the Bush Administration neo-cons have set a June 2005 timetable for confrontation with Iran. Once it is understood that the timetable has been set by a bunch of lunatics in Washington, it should be clear that a confrontation, and war, can be stopped, by effective action to neutralize the neocon command center.

North Rhine-Westphalia Election
LaRouche Intervention: No 'Politics As Usual'
by Rainer Apel

The outcome of the May 22 State parliament elections in North Rhine-Westphalia will be decisive for the way politics develops in all of Germany. With its almost 18 million inhabitants, this largest state of Germany is home to more than 20% of the nation's electorate.

Interview: Elke Fimmen
LaRouche Forces Take On The Neo-Cons in Germany

Elke Fimmen, a long-time leader of the LaRouche movement in Germany, was one of the authors of Deutschlands Neocons: Wer führt den neoliberalen Grossangriff auf den sozialen Bundesstaat?) (Germany's Neo-Cons: Who is out to destroy the federal social state?), a book released in January by the Civil Rights Movement Solidarity party (the BüSo). She replied on May 18 to written questions submitted by Katherine Notley.


National:

LaRouche: Shut Down Senate If Cheney Goes Nuclear
by Edward Spannaus

If Dick Cheney tries to ram through a Senate rule change to cut off a filibuster, the Democrats should shut downthe Senate until the next election, Lyndon LaRouche said on May 20; LaRouche was speaking as the word went out that Cheney and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist were planning to trigger the so-called 'nuclear option' on May 24. This would means that Cheney is illegally trying to change the rules of the Senate with a simple majority vote, when the Senate rules clearly require 67 votes for such a measure.

Galloway Testimony
British MP Blasts Senate Iraq Charges

British Parliamentarian George Galloway (Labour) appeared before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on May 17, to answer charges made against him in hearings on the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program. Galloway's statement followed opening presentations by Senators and investigators that outlined the charges against him and others, but made clear that at least50%of the surcharge-kickbacks which were made to Saddam Hussein, were carried out by the American company Bayoil. We include here the bulk of Galloway's opening statement, and some of his interchange with Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Ranking Democrat Sen. Carl Levin (Mich.).

Labor Speaks Out
'Retool Auto Industry, Stop Globalization'

On May 14, 'The LaRouche Show' Internet radio program hosted a round-table discussion on the immediate crisis of General Motors and Ford, and the future of the entire auto/ machine-tool sector of the United States. The guests were Sue Daniels of Tyler, Tex., former vice president of the TexasAFLCIO, and currently on the national board of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW); Eugene Morey, president of United Autoworkers Local 849, Ypsilanti, Mich. (site of a Visteon Ford parts supplier plant); Mark Sweazy, president of United Autoworkers, Aerospace and Agriculture Implement Workers Local 969 in Columbus, Ohio (site of a Delphi GM parts supplier plant); and Heather Detweiler of the LaRouche Youth Movement in Philadelphia, Pa. The program was hosted by Harley Schlanger, Western states spokesman for Lyndon LaRouche.

Interview: State Rep. Perry Clark
Kentucky Legislator: 'A Crisis Situation'

Rep. Perry Clark (D) has been in the Kentucky Legislature for six terms, representing Jefferson County, which is the Louisville region. On May 11, Clark filed a Resolution in the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 'Urging Congress To Take Emergency Actions To Save the Economy and the Auto Industry' (see last week's EIR). Representative Clark was interviewed by Marcia Merry Baker on May 17.

  • Documentation
    Missouri Resolution

    This resolution was filed on May 13 by State Rep. Juanita Head Walton (D) with the Missouri House of Representatives. Rep. John L. Bowman (D) and Rep. Craig C. Bland (D) are co-sponsors. A Resolution Urging Congress To Take Emergency Actions To Save the Economy and the Auto Industry
  • Michigan Resolution
    This House Concurrent Resolution 0013 (2005) was filed on May 18 by Michigan State Rep. LaMar Lemmons III (D), as a concurrent resolution with the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate. LaMar Lemmons III was joined by 19 Democratic Representatives as cosponsors.

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