Clippings for 12 March 2009

John Yoo: UC Berkeley Is a "Magnet for Hippies, Protesters and Left-Wing Activists"
Jason Leopold writes for Truthout: "John Yoo doesn't have any regrets about the controversial legal opinions he wrote for the White House - many of which were later withdrawn and repudiated - that gave former President George W. Bush unfettered and unchecked power in the aftermath of 9/11. In a little known interview with the Orange County Register, published March 3, Yoo said he doesn't 'think he would have made the basic decisions differently.'"

U.N. Report Says US Rendition Policy Broke International Law
Julie Sell reports for the McClatchy Newspapers: "A UN expert is accusing the United States and some of its allies of breaching international law for the so-called extraordinary renditions and subsequent alleged torture of terrorism suspects during the Bush administration's global war on terrorism, and is launching a probe into the detention of suspects. Martin Scheinin, a UN special rapporteur and expert on international law, issued his annual report to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday. While it identifies a US role in masterminding a 'comprehensive system' of rendition and detention of suspects as well as creating 'an international web' of intelligence sharing, his report notes that it was possible only through collaboration with many other countries."

Socialism Without a Soul
Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig: "Newt Gingrich is right: 'It is European socialism transplanted to Washington.' How else to describe an economy in which the government controls the entire financial center and is now supplying life support for the auto industry? That's on top of the existing socialist economy run by the military-industrial complex, which, thanks to George W. Bush, now absorbs upward of 60 percent of the non-entitlement federal budget. Although we still have a way to go to catch up with the good parts of the European system, including universal health care, high-quality public education and decent working conditions, we do have a system that is now as socialist in budget size as Europe's."

Van Jones: Beyond the Politics of Confrontation
Sarah van Gelder writes for Yes! Magazine: "When I first met Van Jones in 2004, he was working in Oakland with young people of color who were being funneled from inadequate schools and impoverished neighborhoods into overcrowded courts and detention centers. Jones was speaking at a beachside peace conference that day, trying to explain his world to a predominantly white, middle-class audience. When he spoke of his newborn son and the steep odds against his future success, the audience got it. The next economy needs to be both green and just, Van said. It needs to include those left out of the last economy. Van later founded Green for All, became a YES! contributing editor, and now speaks widely about the need for a transition to a just and green economy. I interviewed him shortly after the election of Barack Obama."

Seymour Hersh Describes "Executive Assassination Ring"
Eric Black writes for MinnPost.com: "At a 'Great Conversations' event at the University of Minnesota last night, legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an 'executive assassination ring.'"

Afghanistan: Hearings not Escalation
Katrina Vanden Heuvel writes for The Nation: "Despite what most of the mainstream media would have you believe, a recent CBS News/New York Times poll revealed that more Americans want troop levels in Afghanistan to remain the same or decrease rather than to grow. It's time for Congress do its job representing the people by taking a hard look at this war before committing more treasure and lives to it -- and before President Obama's ambitious progressive agenda at home is sacrificed to another quagmire."

Baxter Admits Contaminated Seasonal Flu Product Contained Live Bird Flu Virus
The Canadian Press reprots: "The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. And an official of the World Health Organization's European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International's research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria." Christopher's comment: And people wonder why I am skeptical about having NBAF in Manhattan!

Beneficiaries of Biodefense Dollars May Oppose Increased Oversight
Marcus Stren reports for ProPublica: "ProPublica last year reviewed the federal government’s $50 billion effort over the past seven years to prepare for a biological attack. We concluded [1] that the government might actually have significantly increased the risk of such an attack while making only marginal progress in preparing the nation to deal with one, if it happens."

Pork Nation: The political media’s frenzy over earmarks sort of misses the point
Katia Bachko writes for the Columbia Journalism Review: "The recent debate over earmarks in the spending bill signed today by Barack Obama has politicians and the national media twisting the story of pork into a bacon explosion. Earmarks are wasteful, or corrupt; the Democrats are to blame, or the Republicans are. John McCain took to Twitter to rail against humorous-sounding projects like '$819,000 for catfish genetics research in Alabama' and '$150,000 for lobster research.' Maureen Dowd gleefully recounted some of McCain’s top offenders (grapes, beavers, gang tattoos) and criticized the president for 'accepting the status quo by signing a budget festooned with pork.'”

"Fair and Balanced" Fox News Wages Assault on Unions: Distorts Facts on the Employee Free Choice Act
Think Progress reports: "Yesterday, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — a bill that makes it easier for workers to form unions and prevent employer harassment and intimidation — was introduced in both the House and Senate. The bill allows workers to unionize if a majority agrees, rather than forcing them to go through the months-long and often fruitless process of negotiating with powerful employers for the right to organize."



Give Me a Union, Not a Wheelchair: The Case for EFCA
Mike Elk writes for The Campaign For America's Future: "Gestapo-style, union-busting tactics by employers have kept workers from exercising their right to join a union. Today, the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would give workers a weapon against these tactics, is on in Congress. It's time to say, as one nurse in a union-organizing drive once said, 'I'm not going to let them put me in a wheelchair.'"

KS GOP Blocks Stimulus Funds for Higher Education
Our friends at Kansas Jackass write: "Sometimes I really just don't understand what gets into the Republican members of the Kansas House of Representatives."

We Are Breeding Ourselves to Extinction
Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "All measures to thwart the degradation and destruction of our ecosystem will be useless if we do not cut population growth. By 2050, if we continue to reproduce at the current rate, the planet will have between 8 billion and 10 billion people, according to a recent U.N. forecast. This is a 50 percent increase. And yet government-commissioned reviews, such as the Stern report in Britain, do not mention the word population. Books and documentaries that deal with the climate crisis, including Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” fail to discuss the danger of population growth. This omission is odd, given that a doubling in population, even if we cut back on the use of fossil fuels, shut down all our coal-burning power plants and build seas of wind turbines, will plunge us into an age of extinction and desolation unseen since the end of the Mesozoic era, 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs disappeared."

Ask the Expert: Building a National Clean Energy Grid
Bracken Hendricks, Center for American Progess: