Clippings for 29 January 2009

Tear Down This Myth
Will Bunch comments for Truthout: "Last week didn't only mark the inauguration of Barack Obama. January 20, 2009, was also a less noticed anniversary - marking 20 years to the day that the 40th president, Ronald Reagan, said his final goodbye to the Oval Office. During those two decades since, the world evolved, and the man who some called a Great Communicator and others called a 'Teflon president' passed away - yet, watching last year's presidential race unfold, you might have been excused if you'd thought Reagan was somehow on the ballot."

Too Big to Fail; Too Big to Jail
Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: "Karl Rove recently described George W. Bush as a book lover, writing, “There is a myth perpetuated by Bush critics that he would rather burn a book than read one.” There will be many histories written about the Bush administration. What will they use for source material? The Bush White House was sued for losing e-mails, and for skirting laws intended to protect public records. A federal judge ordered White House computers scoured for e-mails just days before Bush left office. Three hundred million e-mails reportedly went to the National Archives, but 23 million e-mails remain “lost.” Vice President Dick Cheney left office in a wheelchair due to a back injury suffered when moving boxes out of his office. He has not only hobbled a nation in his attempt to sequester information—he hobbled himself. Cheney also won court approval to decide which of his records remain private."

The Union Way Up
Robert B. Reich writes for The Los Angeles Times: "Why is this recession so deep, and what can be done to reverse it? Hint: Go back about 50 years, when America's middle class was expanding and the economy was soaring. Paychecks were big enough to allow us to buy all the goods and services we produced. It was a virtuous circle. Good pay meant more purchases, and more purchases meant more jobs. At the center of this virtuous circle were unions."

Geithner's Dilemma: How to Fix Financial System
Kevin G. Hall reports for McClatchy Newspapers: "The fate of the US banking system and the economic well-being of roughly 300 million Americans, not to mention billions of people around the globe, is now is in the hands of Timothy Geithner, the newly confirmed treasury secretary. Few, if any, treasury secretaries since America's first, Alexander Hamilton in 1789, have stepped into the office facing more daunting challenges. Geithner faces an accelerating global financial crisis that's plunging the nation and the world into a recession that's destroying jobs, wealth and the established economic order."

'Organizing for America" Means Fighting for Human Rights Worldwide
Yifat Susskind writes for CommonDream.org: "So now we know the fate of Team Obama's thirteen-million strong e-mail list, that unprecedented netroots force that used social networking and new media technologies to put a one-time community organizer in the White House. President Obama is banking on the continuing support of his online constituency through the creation of "Organizing for America."

The Wrong Man for the Job
Scott Ritter writes for Truthdig.com: "It was early in October 2001, and I had been invited to New York City on behalf of The History Channel for a show in which I was to discuss the situation in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. I was pitted against a seasoned American diplomat who had made his reputation negotiating peace accords in difficult corners of the world. I felt a little out of place, since my area of expertise was arms control and disarmament, and specifically how arms control was being implemented in Iraq. I had written a few scholarly articles about Afghan-Soviet relations, with a focus on the ethnic and tribal aspects of Afghan politics, and in the mid-1980s I had been an analyst with the Marine Corps component of the rapid deployment force, following very closely the Soviet war against the Afghan mujahedeen, so I wasn’t totally out of my element."

Torture Case Tests Obama Secrecy Policy
Daphne Eviatar writes for The Washington Independent: "President Obama's sweeping reversals of torture and state secret policies are about to face an early test. In issuing an executive order and two presidential memoranda last week proclaiming a new transparency in the workings of the federal government, advocates for open government were thrilled. The test of those commitments will come soon in key court cases involving CIA 'black sites' and torture that the Bush administration had quashed by claiming they would reveal state secrets and endanger national security."

ACLU Tests Obama With Request for Secret Bush-Era Memos
Marisa Taylor reports for McClatchy Newspapers: "Dozens of secret documents justifying the Bush administration's spying and interrogation programs could see the light of day because of a new presidential directive. The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Obama administration on Wednesday to release Justice Department memos that provided the legal underpinning for harsh interrogations, eavesdropping and secret prisons."

Wanted: A Revolution in Critical Thinking
Susan Jacoby writes for On The Issues: "Of all the revolutions we need, as a society, the most crucial—and the foundation of all other social change—is a renewal, on a vast scale, of respect for critical, tough-minded, evidence-based thinking. We have just been through a political era of unprecedented disdain for evidence and unprecedented reliance on blind faith—for everything from justification for the war in Iraq to belief in the efficacy of abstinence-only sex education."

Redefining "Moral Clarity"
Sara Robinson writes for the Campaign for America's Future: "On Thursday night, for the first time since 9/11, I actually sat down and watched George Bush speak. (At this late date, I figured there was absolutely nothing the man could say that could quench the deep satisfaction of knowing that this was the last time we'd ever have to endure The Smirk.) There was one passage, in particular, that rang in my ears long after his final goodbye. It probably went over most Americans' heads—but it went right to the heart of Our Problem With George..."

State of the States: Political Party Affiliation
Gallup reports: "An analysis of Gallup Poll Daily tracking data from 2008 finds Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Hawaii to be the most Democratic states in the nation, along with the District of Columbia. Utah and Wyoming are the most Republican states."




Un-American: Have You Listened to Right-Wing Media Laterly?
Michael Massing writes for the Columbia Journalism Review: "In the weeks following the election, the debate over the issue of media bias, and of whether the press was overly kind to Barack Obama, has continued to swirl. Much less attention has been paid to another, more troubling aspect of the coverage, and that’s the relentless and malevolent campaign that the right-wing media waged against the Democratic candidate. Few people who did not regularly tune in to the vast, churning combine of bellowing radio hosts, yapping bloggers, obnoxious Web sites, malicious columnists, and the slashingly partisan Fox News have any idea of just how vile and venomous were the attacks leveled at Obama."

Religion Crowds into America's Bedroom
Don Monkerud writes for Dissident Voices: "Evangelical, right-wing groups are engaging in a vast, many-pronged “cultural war” to manipulate sexual anxieties and determine what goes on in American’s bedrooms. To help roll back the sexual revolution of the 1970s, the Bush administration spent over $1 billion on abstinence-only programs. Thousands of sermons, workshops and other propaganda reinforced the message. Under the pithy slogan ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms), ultra-conservative religious groups, such as Focus on the Family, American Family Association and Concerned Women for America, promote marriage as a solution to everything from suicide to poverty and self-worth issues."

The Definition of a "Two-Teared Justice System"
Glenn Greenwald writes for Salon.com: "Aside from the intrinsic dangers and injustices of arguing for immunity for high-level government officials who commit felonies (such as illegal eavesdropping, obstruction of justice, torture and other war crimes), it's the total selectivity of the rationale underlying that case which makes it so corrupt. Defenders of Bush officials sing in unison: We shouldn't get caught up in the past. We shouldn't be driven by vengeance and retribution. We shouldn't punish people whose motives in committing crimes weren't really that bad. "

Global Warming Is Irreversible, Study Says
Richard Harris of NPR News writes: "Climate change is essentially irreversible, according to a sobering new scientific study. As carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, the world will experience more and more long-term environmental disruption. The damage will persist even when, and if, emissions are brought under control, says study author Susan Solomon, who is among the world's top climate scientists. 'We're used to thinking about pollution problems as things that we can fix,' Solomon says. 'Smog, we just cut back and everything will be better later. Or haze, you know, it'll go away pretty quickly.'" To listen to the story, click here.

Obama Has Opportunity to Reverse Mistake on Offshore Drilling
Mark Weisbrot, The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "Campaigning in Florida last June as a presidential candidate, then-Senator Barack Obama blasted the proposal of his opponent, Senator John McCain, to open coastal areas of the United States to offshore drilling. Declaring that it 'makes no sense at all,' Obama correctly stated that such drilling would make very little difference in the price of gasoline, and supported a reduction of fossil fuel use through a stimulus program that would create 'green jobs.' But as gasoline prices soared past $4 a gallon and the Republicans campaigned on the issue of 'drill here, drill now,' the Democratic leadership softened its position. The end result was that a 27-year ban on drilling in coastal areas off the United States was allowed to expire."