Clippings for 3 December

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20th World AIDS Day Observed
Towleroad offers a roundup of coverage of the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, including a video message from UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot and the construction of the first memorial to people with AIDS in New York City. In related news, President-elect Barack Obama pledged to keep the current focus on global AIDS relief, while boosting U.S. strategies to stop the spread of the virus. "We must also recommit ourselves to addressing the AIDS crisis here in the United States, with a strong national strategy of education, prevention and treatment, focusing on those communities at greatest risk," Obama said.

A World of Trouble Awaits Obama
Ben Smith and Bill Nichols writes for Politico.com: "Picking the people was the easy part. President-elect Obama and his new national security team will now turn to a world full of vexing, linked problems on every continent, and tricky, early choices. From the speed of withdrawal from Iraq to the speed of investment in Afghanistan, from Kashmir to Moscow, Obama will make some of his most important choices early. Here are some of the toughest."

Will Obama Stay the Course
Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig.com: "I do so want to believe that Barack Obama is on the right track. His brain is big, his style fresh, his pronouncements both logical and compelling, and it does feel good to have a president-elect elicit universal respect rather than make the world cringe."

Barack Obama's Kettle of Hawks
Jeremy Scahill writes for The Guardian UK: "Barack Obama has assembled a team of rivals to implement his foreign policy. But while pundits and journalists speculate endlessly on the potential for drama with Hillary Clinton at the state department and Bill Clinton's network of shady funders, the real rivalry that will play out goes virtually unmentioned. The main battles will not be between Obama's staff, but rather against those who actually want a change in US foreign policy, not just a staff change in the war room."

Beyond the Bailout State: Roosevelt's Brain Trust vs. Obama's Brainiacs
Steve Fraser writes for TomDispatch.com: "On a December day in 1932, with the country prostrate under the weight of the Great Depression, ex-president Calvin Coolidge - who had presided over the reckless stock market boom of the Jazz Age Twenties (and famously declaimed that 'the business of America is business') - confided to a friend: 'We are in a new era to which I do not belong.' He punctuated those words, a few weeks later, by dying."

Chevron in the White House
Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: "President-elect Barack Obama introduced his principal national-security Cabinet selections to the world Monday and left no doubt that he intends to start his administration on a war footing. It is revealing that his choice for national security advisor is a director of Boeing, a weapons manufacturer, and Chevron, an oil giant."

Paulson and Bernanke Spread the Wealth Around
Dean Baker writes for Truthout: "During the campaign, Barack Obama provoked a media flurry and right-wing outrage over his comment to Joe the Plumber about 'spreading the wealth around.' They told us that this view was contrary to the American Way, that this was socialism. Given all the concern over Obama's ideas about spreading the wealth, it is remarkable how little attention is being given to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke's much more ambitious effort to spread the wealth."

Treasury Rebuffs Watchdog's Request for more Oversight of Bailout
Paul Kiel reports for ProPublica: "The first big report from the Government Accountability Office on the $700 billion bailout is a pretty mild affair. Given that TARP is just 60 days old, the watchdog office says it’s too soon to assess the impact of having pumped billions into the country’s banks. And since the Treasury Department is still working at getting its special bailout section, the Office of Financial Stability, off the ground (it had about 48 full-time employees as of late last month and Treasury hopes to have as many as 200), the GAO report is mostly full of recommendations on how Treasury can streamline and improve the entire process."

End of the Road: If the Auto Industry Is Dead What Does that Mean for the Workers?
Mark Brenner and Jane Slaughter write for Labor Notes: "n the 1980s Chevrolet proclaimed itself the “Heartbeat of America.” Today many would say that the American auto industry qualifies for life support. Last November, General Motors announced that it was cutting 25,000 jobs and closing up to 12 factories by 2008."

A Consensus Emerges: Build, and Build Big
Eric Lotke writes for The Campaign for America's Future: "Everybody is saying the same thing. Stimulus plans don't mean tax rebates worth a few tanks of gas and a restaurant dinner. Stimulus plans mean new roads and bridges, aid to states so they won't lay off nurses and teaching assistants, and a down payment on a new energy economy with windmills and commuter rail."

Confronting the Terrorist Within
Former Community Bridge guest, Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "The world is far more complex than our childish vision of good and evil. We as a nation and a culture have no monopoly on virtue. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when viewed from the receiving end, are state-sponsored acts of terrorism."

Observers Cite Clinton's Human Right Commitment
Elizabeth Moore reports for Newsday: "Clinton's 'women's rights are human rights' speech, and her work on international women's rights and rural development causes, may make her the cabinet member who has the most in common with Obama's own mother, Ann Dunham, an early champion of the same kinds of projects advancing women's economic development and microcredit for the poor."

In Courtroom Showdown, Bush Demands Amnesty for Spying Telecoms
David Kravets writes for Wired.com: "The Bush administration on Tuesday will try to convince a federal judge to let stand a law granting retroactive legal immunity to the nation's telecoms, which are accused of transmitting Americans' private communications to the National Security Agency without warrants."

Is Gay the New Black?
This Associated Press article looks at the controversy over whether the marriage-rights fight should be compared to the struggle for black civil rights, with some saying "gay is the new black," and others refusing to even acknowledge gays as a minority group. "Civil rights have come much further than gay rights," said Emil Wilbekin, a black gay man and the editor of Giant magazine.

Recommended Audio: Plunder Trailer
"News Dissector" Danny Schechter investigates our economic calamity in the upcoming feature documentary 'PLUNDER,' based on his recent book. Want to support this film? Write Dissector@mediachannel.org



Get Ready to Pay More for the Web
Stacy Bradford writes for Smart Money: "In times like these, surfing the Web might seem like one of life's cheaper entertainment options. But the next time you fire up your home computer, consider this: If some Internet service providers get their way, the meter could be running while you're shopping, emailing or reading news reports like this one."

Recommended Audio: CounterSpin for November 28
This week on CounterSpin: Bailing out the Big Three. GM, Ford and Chrysler are on the brink of total failure, we're told. In a season of corporate bailouts of all sorts, this one is meeting more resistance—in part because union autoworkers, we're told, are making too much money. Mark Brenner of Labor Notes will join us to talk about it.

Also on CounterSpin today, with Democrats poised to take more power in Washington, is there really a plan in the works to muzzle right-wing talk radio? Steve Rendall of FAIR and CounterSpin will join us to dispel some of the myths surrounding the Fairness Doctrine.