Tuthout roundup 8/4

The historic Harvard commencement speech of recently deceased writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn; Florida delegates will be seated at Democratic National Convention; Senator McCain draws opposition from veterans for voting against their benefits; Kirkuk dispute puts Iraqi elections in jeopardy; bureaucratic obstacles continue to put a wrench in plans and dreams at FEMA trailer parks; and more ... Browse our continually updating front page at http://www.truthout.org

t r u t h o u t 08.04

Alexander Solzhenitsyn A World Split Apart
http://www.truthout.org/article/a-world-split-apart
Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who chronicled Soviet repression and exposed Stalin's labor camp system to the world, died Sunday at the age of 89. In June 1978, during a Harvard address, he said: "The split in today's world is perceptible even to a hasty glance. Any of our contemporaries readily identifies two world powers, each of them already capable of entirely destroying the other. However, understanding of the split often is limited to this political conception, to the illusion that danger may be abolished through successful diplomatic negotiations or by achieving a balance of armed forces. The truth is that the split is a much profounder and a more alienating one, that the rifts are more than one can see at first glance. This deep manifold split bears the danger of manifold disaster for all of us, in accordance with the ancient truth that a Kingdom -- in this case, our Earth -- divided against itself cannot stand."

Obama Asks DNC to Let Florida Delegates Cast Full Votes at Denver Convention
http://www.truthout.org/article/obama-asks-dnc-let-florida-delegates-cast-full-votes-denver-convention
Beth Reinhard, of The Miami Herald, reports: "Seeking closure of the bitter dispute that rocked Florida's Democratic primary, presumptive nominee Barack Obama asked the national party Sunday to let the state's delegates cast full votes at the convention in Denver. Practically speaking, whether Florida delegates have full or half votes won't matter because Obama won enough delegates in the primaries to claim the nomination. Still, Democratic leaders welcomed the gesture."

Dan Moffett Not All Veterans Salute McCain
http://www.truthout.org/article/not-all-veterans-salute-mccain
Dan Moffett writes for the Palm Beach Post: "The growing ranks of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will have a lot to say about who becomes president. And what they are saying isn't what you might expect. In theory, John McCain, with his long record of service as a Navy pilot and prisoner of war story from Vietnam, should have the market cornered on the military vote. Instead, he has drawn opposition from many veterans because of his voting record in the Senate. Sen. McCain has voted against bills that would have improved veterans' benefits, particularly health care, or measures to ease the strain on active-duty troops and their families."

Battle Over Oil-Rich City Threatens to Derail Iraqi Elections
http://www.truthout.org/article/battle-over-oil-rich-city-threatens-derail-iraqi-elections
For McClatchy Newspapers, Leila Fadel and Sahar Issa report: "Despite intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi legislators Sunday failed to reach an agreement to solve an increasingly bitter dispute over the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk. Kirkuk sits on Iraq's northern oil fields and also on a fault line between the Sunni Muslim Kurds who dominate most of northern Iraq and the Sunni Arabs who occupy the center of the country. Saddam Hussein forced thousands of Kurds out of the city to make way for more Arabs, but since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Kurds and their militia, the peshmerga, have driven many Sunni Arabs out of Kirkuk. The parliament's inability to resolve the dispute over the city mirrors Iraqi political leaders' inability to make progress on other fronts, including constitutional amendments and the passage of a law governing the distribution of the country's oil revenues, despite the recent improvements in security."

Out of FEMA Park, Clinging to a Fraying Lifeline
http://www.truthout.org/article/out-fema-park-clinging-a-fraying-lifeline
Shaila Dewan, of The New York Times, reports: "Two months ago, as he left the trailer park he called home after Hurricane Katrina, Alton Love, 41, just knew he was on the brink of getting a working car, an apartment and a good job to support the 9-year-old daughter he is raising on his own. Doris Fountain was in a comfortable hotel, waiting on a water heater and an air-conditioner for her once-flooded house in New Orleans. Matthew Bailey had just received his first check - $48 - for selling diet products via the Internet, a source of income he insisted would ultimately pull in $5,000 to $20,000 a month. Their plans, the fragile products of battered optimism, have been derailed by bureaucratic obstacles and the evacuees’ own tenuous abilities to cope."