Clippings for 21 December 2008

Announcement: Community Discussion to Focus on Improving Health Care
Date: Tuesday Dec. 30, 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.,
Where: Manhattan Public Library Auditorium

Health Care providers and all interested citizens are invited to attend a public forum to discuss ways to improve our health care delivery system. Forum participants will be encouraged to state their opinions and share their experiences. A summary of the forum comments and anecdotes will be shared with the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Project.

Sponsors for this public forum are the Kansas Chapter of the American College of Physicians Organizations, the Riley County Medical Society, the League of Women Voters of Manhattan and Riley County, and the North Central-Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging. Their goal is to provide information from those who use the health care system to those who will be forming legislative policy change of the Health Care system and the Federal Government.

Click on Titles to read complete stories.

A World Enslaved
E. Benjamin Skinner writes in Foreign Policy: "There are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in human history. True abolition will elude us until we admit the massive scope of the problem, attack it in all its forms, and empower slaves to help free themselves."

Tortured Reasoning
David Rose writes in Vanity Fair: "George W. Bush defended harsh interrogations by pointing to intelligence breakthroughs, but a surprising number of counterterrorist officials say that, apart from being wrong, torture just doesn't work. Delving into two high-profile cases, the author exposes the tactical costs of prisoner abuse."

Will War Crimes Be Outed?
Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith writes in The Nation: "As the officials of the Bush administration pack up in Washington and move into their posh suburban homes around the country, will they be able to rest easy, or will they be haunted by the fear that they will be held accountable for war crimes? There are many reasons to anticipate that the incoming Obama administration and the new Congress will let sleeping dogs lie."

Gates Orders Development of Plans to Close Guantanamo
Jonathan S. Landay and Margaret Talev write for McClatchy Newspapers: "The Defense Department is drawing up plans to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison in anticipation that one of President-elect Barack Obama's first acts will be ordering the closure of the detention center associated with the abuse of terror suspects. Defense Secretary Robert Gates 'has asked his team for a proposal on how to shut (the detention center) down, what would be required specifically to close it and move the detainees from that facility while at the same time, of course, ensuring that we protect the American people from some dangerous characters,' Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters on Thursday."

Foreign Donors to Clinton Charity Could Prompt Hillary Debate
Julian Borger reports in The Guardian UK: "The revelation that the Saudi Arabian government and Indian businessmen and politicians have donated millions of dollars to Bill Clinton's charitable foundation is likely to provoke allegations that his international fundraising could conflict with America's interests if his wife is confirmed as the next US secretary of state."

Pondering the Inner Meanings of Bill's Big List
Eugene Robinson writes for Truthdig.com: "It’s far-fetched to think that Hillary Clinton’s performance of her duties as secretary of state would be influenced in any way by foreign donations to her husband’s charitable foundation. But it is naive to think that the exhaustive list of donors released Thursday by the William J. Clinton Foundation won’t provoke suspicion and give rise to conspiracy theories in parts of the world where transparency is seen as nothing more than an illusion. "

It's a Man's Meltdown
Marie Cocco writes for Truthdig.com: "Today's brainteaser: Name the top female executives who were forced to go before Congress, explaining why their companies made multibillion-dollar mistakes that helped wreck the economy but nonetheless deserve billions in taxpayer bailouts."

White House on Times: 'Gross negligence'
Mike Allen writes for Politico.com: "The White House on Sunday issued a blistering 500-word response to a scathing 5,000-word article on the front page of Sunday's New York Times that says President Bush and his style and philosophy of governing played a direct role in the mortgage meltdown that's crippling the nation's economy."

Recommended Audio: Bush's Last-Minute "Conscience" Rules Cause Furor
Julie Rovner reports for National Public Radio News: "Health care workers, hospitals and even entire insurance companies could decline to perform, refer or pay for abortion or any other health care practice that violates a 'religious belief or moral conviction' under new rules issued by the outgoing Bush administration."

Jerry Brown: Gay-Marriage Ban Should Be Invalidated
Jessica Garrison reports for The Los Angeles Times: "In a surprise move, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to invalidate Proposition 8. He said the November ballot measure that banned gay marriage 'deprives people of the right to marry, an aspect of liberty that the Supreme Court has concluded is guaranteed by the California Constitution.'"

US Refuses to Sign United Nations' Anti-Gay Condemnation
Associated Press and David Carry write in Time magazine: "(UNITED NATIONS) — Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. In all, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with any-gay discrimination. More than 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality, and in several of them homosexual acts can be punished by execution. (Read "A Gay-Pride Revolution in Hong Kong".)

Katrina's Hiden Race War: White Vigilantes short African Americans with Impunity
A. C. Thompson writes in The Nation: "The way Donnell Herrington tells it, there was no warning. One second he was trudging through the heat. The next he was lying prostrate on the pavement, his life spilling out of a hole in his throat, his body racked with pain, his vision blurred and distorted."

For additional information on this topic, including a video and additional reading material made available by ProPublica.com, click here.

Obama Cranks Up Green Revolution
Geoffrey Lean reports in The Independent UK: "Barack Obama yesterday promised to end George Bush's 'twisting' of science to suit 'politics or ideology' in an extraordinarily outspoken address to the nation, and announced that he was putting top climate scientists in key positions in his administration."

How the West's Energy Boom Could Threaten Drinkign Water for 1 in 12 Americans
Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica and David Hasemyer, The San Diego Union-Tribune report: "The Colorado River, the life vein of the Southwestern United States, is in trouble. The river's water is hoarded the moment it trickles out of the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado and begins its 1,450-mile journey to Mexico's border. It runs south through seven states and the Grand Canyon, delivering water to Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego. Along the way, it powers homes for 3 million people, nourishes 15 percent of the nation's crops and provides drinking water to one in 12 Americans. "

EPA Eases Emissions Regulations for New Power Plants
David A. Fahrenthold and Steven Mufson report in The Washington Post: "The Environmental Protection Agency ruled yesterday that new power plants are not required to install technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, rejecting an argument from environmental groups."

Does Old Glory Have a Dark Side?
Lee Drutman reports for Miller-McCune: "Research suggests that seeing the flag doesn't make Americans feel more patriotic. But it does make them feel more nationalistic and more superior to non-Americans."

The Axe, the Book and the Ad: On Reading in an Age of Depression
Tom Engelhardt, writes for TomDispatch: "Worlds shudder and collapse all the time. There's no news in that. Just ask the Assyrians, the last emperor of the Han Dynasty, the final Romanoff, Napoleon, or that Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff. But when it seems to be happening to your world, well, that's a different kettle of fish. When you get the word, the call, the notice that you're a goner, or when your little world shudders, that's something else again. Even if the call's not for you, but for a friend, an acquaintance, someone close enough so you can feel the ripples, that can do the trick."

To Ten Media Blunders of 2008
Michael Calderone writes for Politico.com: "The media took its share of lumps this year, with persistent claims of bias and complaints about often wrong-headed speculation from a seemingly endless parade of talking heads. Of course, there was great reporting, with journalists breaking news and penning terrific profiles of the candidates and the campaigns. TV ratings and Web traffic were through the roof, evidence of huge voter interest. But there were plenty of missteps on the way, and Politico’s compiled a list of 2008’s greatest blunders (along with a look at how the media responded to each)."

Announcing the P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2008
Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon write for Truthout: "Now in their 17th year, the P.U.-litzer Prizes recognize some of the nation's stinkiest media performances. As the judges for these annual awards, we do our best to identify the most deserving recipients of this unwelcome plaudit."

LA Times Editor's Fear: We could 'cut ourselves out of business'
David Westphal writes for the Annenberg School of Communications that newspapers are reinventing the news business on the fly. But they need a break from the relentless cost-cutting of recent months. For Tribune Co., bankruptcy may give the company a little time to regroup and recoup.

Your Turn: Call for Broadband Action
Charles Benton, Benton Foundation, writes: "On December 2, the Benton Foundation joined over 50 diverse organizations and corporations calling on President-elect Barack Obama and Congress to create a National Broadband Strategy (NBS.) Benton took the opportunity to release the Action Plan for America: Using Technology and Innovation to Address Our Nation's Critical Challenges. This report includes persuasive evidence that broadband is a catalyst for innovation, economic growth, job creation, educational opportunity and global competitiveness. It enhances public safety, homeland security, health care, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability and the worldwide distribution of millions of products, processes and services. It aids in revitalizing depressed urban and rural economies. It creates a vehicle for enhancing the level of civic participation and discourse so important to a functioning democracy. In short, it links this powerful new technology with our nation's basic needs."