Clippings for 30 April 2009 -

Obama's 100 Day Report Card
Vincent Rossmeier, Mark Schone and Gabriel Winant write for Salon.com: "It has been 100 days since Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. The 100th day of a presidency is traditionally a time for taking stock of what the new occupant of the White House has achieved -- especially when the nation confronts a crisis, as in 1933 and 2009, or when there has been true ideological regime change -- again, as in 1933 and 2009. Salon asked 21 writers, politicians, activists and economists for their assessment of the Obama presidency so far. The state of the president's report card is (mostly) strong. He earns a high GPA, though there are critics both left and right ready to give him failing grades in a few crucial areas."

Obama's 100 Days of Progress
Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers write for Think Progress: "Today marks 100 days since President Obama took office. Yesterday, The Progress Report examined how conservatives chose to spend their first 100 days. Today, we highlight the accomplishments of the Obama administration. President Barack Obama took the oath of office on Jan. 21, 2009, with two broad mandates bestowed upon him by the American people: repair the mess that President Bush and his administration left behind after eight disastrous years in office, and enact a bold, progressive agenda that includes fixing our nation's health care system and seriously addressing global climate change. Obama went to work right away, pushing the 'biggest, boldest countercyclical fiscal stimulus in American history' through Congress -- a $787 billion dollar measure that not only creates jobs but also provides investments in energy, transportation, education and health care. Obama also announced his intention to shift focus and resources away from Bush's misbegotten adventure in Iraq and refocus on Afghanistan, where the security situation is worse than it has been since the start of the U.S.-led war there in October 2001. Now, a series of recent public opinion polls shows that the American public not only overwhelmingly approves of the job Obama is doing as president, but they also believe the nation is heading in the right direction -- 'the first time in years the nation has held such an optimistic view of its future.' For example, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 50 percent of Americans now say the country is on the right track (48 percent say the wrong track), compared with just 13 percent who had the same feeling last October (85 percent said the U.S. was heading in the wrong direction at that time). Indeed, in his first 100 days in office, Obama has received the support of the American public to implement the progressive agenda he campaigned on."

Obama's First 100 Days:How the President Fared In the Press vs. Clinton and Bush
The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism reports: "As he marks his 100th day in office, President Barack Obama has enjoyed substantially more positive media coverage than either Bill Clinton or George Bush during their first months in the White House, according to a new study of press coverage. Overall, roughly four out of ten stories, editorials and op ed columns about Obama have been clearly positive in tone, compared with 22% for Bush and 27% for Clinton in the same mix of seven national media outlets during the same first two months in office, according to a study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Democrats' "Battered Wife Syndrome"
Robert Parry reports for Consortium News: "In recent years, the Washington political dynamic has often resembled an abusive marriage, in which the bullying husband (the Republicans) slaps the wife and kids around, and the battered wife (the Democrats) makes excuses and hides the ugly bruises from outsiders to keep the family together. So, when the Republicans are in a position of power, they throw their weight around, break the rules, and taunt: 'Whaddya gonna do 'bout it?' Then, when the Republicans do the political equivalent of passing out on the couch, the Democrats use their time in control, tiptoeing around, tidying up the house and cringing at every angry grunt from the snoring figure on the couch."

Progressives Lack a Limbaugh-Like Voice
George Lakoff writes in the The San Francisco Chronicle: "You turn the AM on and there's Rush, or Savage, or another of the army of right-wing radio talk show hosts. You may not be listening hard, just working, driving, doing busywork or the laundry. Yet if you listen day after day, year after year, your brain will begin to change. Words, even those heard casually and listened to incidentally, activate frames - structures of ideas that are physically realized in the brain. The more the words are heard, the more the frames are activated in the brain, and stronger their synapses get - until the frames are there permanently. All this is normal. It is how words work. And the right-wing message machine has found a way to take advantage of it - activating, as it were, a conservative system of thought."

The Clinton Bubble
Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig: "Has Timothy Geithner ever had lunch with a non-megamillionaire who has lost his job or home because of the banking meltdown? I ask that question after reading the list of the treasury secretary's luncheon dates when he was head of the New York Federal Reserve, a list that the government was forced to provide in response to a lawsuit."

The Crisis Hasn't Hit Everywhere: 10 States Weathering the Economic Storm
Daniel Wood writes for the Christin Science Monitor (on AlterNet): "The economies of 10 states are outperforming the US economy as a whole, according to a just-released study by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, an independent research group in Albany, NY, which analyzes state and local government. The two biggest reasons, say the authors of the report, are that most of these states have economies that benefited through much of 2008 from high and rising oil and natural gas prices, and their real estate markets have not suffered the bust to the extent seen elsewhere." --> Note last paragraph....

Can Economic Development and Social Justice Coexist?
Tom Vander writes for the Huffington Post: "A friend asked, 'Can economic development and social justice be achieved simultaneously?' I think the answer is, 'Yes, they always develop together but are always in tension.' This is the central question of the American experiment. We each contemplate the opportunity-equity dialectic when we vote (e.g., to what extent does a tax cut expand opportunity at the expense of equity?). The two-party system is organized around this American paradox. It's a long standing societal tension dating, in part, to the Judeo-Christian conception of a God that embodies justice and mercy--it's hard to exhibit one universally much less both simultaneously. American certainly doesn't have it right but, arguably, careens slowly in that direction."

Chasing Ghosts in Afghanistan
Katrina Vanden Heuvel comments in The Nation: "There were two important hearings regarding Afghanistan on the Hill last week -- in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and at the Congressional Progressive Caucus' (CPC) third forum examining the war. Both raised critical questions about the current strategy of escalation -- questions Congress should take to heart as it considers the $83 billion war supplemental in coming weeks. "

Dick Cheney's Torture Hypocrisy
Joseph C. Wilson IV writes for The Daily Beast: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney's reemergence on the political stage after his ignominious departure on Inauguration Day, eschewing the traditional handshake with his successor and the new president, is nothing if not ironic. The most secretive individual in American politics is now calling for the selective release of documents that remain classified in one of his own files marked 'Detainees.' We have also learned that a principal reason for having tortured senior al-Qaeda detainees was not, in fact, to defend the Homeland, but rather to build the case for war with Iraq based on alleged ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden."

Torture Was Used to Try to Link Saddam with 9/ll
Marjorie Cohn reports for Truthdig: "In order to justify George W. Bush's illegal and unnecessary invasion of Iraq, Bush administration officials put heavy pressure on Pentagon interrogators to get Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah to say there was a link between Iraq and the 9/11 hijackers. That link was never established."

Boehner: I Only Want to Declassify Those Documents That Help My Party and Me Politically
Ryan Powers writes for Think Progress: "Last week, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) asked President Obama to release several classified memos referenced in a recent interview by former Vice President Dick Cheney, claiming that the memos could show that the Bush administration's torture program was effective in gathering intelligence. "

Climate Change Hitting Entire Arctic Ecosystem
John Vidal reports for The Guardian UK: "Levels of summer sea ice in the Arctic have drastically reduced since 2005. Extensive climate change is now affecting every form of life in the Arctic, according to a major new assessment by international polar scientists."

Employee Free Choice Act: Making Green Jobs, Good Jobs
Mike Elk comments for The Campaign for America's Future: "Last December, Republic Windows, maker of energy-efficient windows, gained worldwide attention when members of United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) Local 1110 occupied the plant after their company refused to provide them with severance pay. After a six-day occupation, in which President Obama declared his support for the occupying workers, the UE members won their struggle for severance pay and established a committee to look for buyers to reopen the Chicago plant."

Reform US Foreign Policy. Pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Robert Naiman comments for Truthout: "Sometimes an opportunity for reform comes along that is 'strategic' in that it changes the playing field for efforts to win other reforms in the future. Passage of the National Labor Relations Act - establishing the right of American workers to organize unions and bargain collectively - was a strategic reform. It increased the power of people previously excluded from power, and thereby reduced the power of corporate interests. But the right of workers in America to organize has been steadily eroded by unpunished abuses by anti-union employers."

Recommended Audio: Are Women Being Denied Justice?
NOW on PBS reports: "A terrible statistic: one in six women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. But an even more shocking reality: A backlog in processing rape kits - crucial evidence in arresting violent predators - is delaying and sometimes denying justice for tens of thousands of American women."

GOP State Rep. Brenda Landwehr: BEWARE OF GARDASIL!!!
Jason at Kansas Jackass writes: "This was one of those hand-to-forehead smacks that happens to me every once in awhile that actually gives me a headache for the rest of the day. Gardasil is a vaccine against certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus which can cause cervical cancer. Matter of fact, nearly all cervical cancer cases are linked directly to HPV. Because this is a vaccine for a virus that can cause cancer (and that's a frickin' awesome), a number of states have taken action to require every single girl and young women who attends public schools to receive the vaccination as part of their required vaccine regimen. Such requirements will certainly save lives (certainly more lives than the vaccines for measles, mumps, and chicken pox vaccines save, at least)."

Equal Payback for Lilly Ledbetter
Heidi Brown writes for Forbes: "Nothing will stop her. That is the lesson of Lilly Ledbetter on this Equal Pay Day - April 28. For 10 years the 71-year-old former factory worker fought to close the gap between women's and men's wages, sparring with the Supreme Court, lobbying Capitol Hill and campaigning for President Barack Obama along the way."

KS Congressional Republicans Votes Against Matthew Shepard Act
Jason writes for KansasJackass: "Our lone Democrat, Congressman Dennis Moore, voted yes- and I thank him for that. The votes from Congressman Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran aren't surprising. The two men both have zero ratings from the Human Rights Campaign, and are always hostile toward bills that protect LGBT Americans from discrimination. I am surprised and deeply saddened by the vote of my Congresswoman, Lynn Jenkins."

Supreme Court Upholds TV Profanity Crackdown
James Vicini reports for Reuters: "The Supreme Court upheld a US government crackdown on profanity on television, a policy that subjects broadcasters to fines for airing a single expletive blurted out on a live show. In its first ruling on broadcast indecency standards in more than 30 years, the high court handed a victory on Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission, which adopted the crackdown against the one-time use of profanity on live television when children are likely to be watching."

Bill O'Reilly vs. The Family Guy
Priscilla writes for News Hounds: "Like his fellow culture warrior, minder of other people’s business, determiner of decency, and arbiter of morality Brent Bozell, Bill O’Reilly is upset with the satirical cartoon, The Family Guy. Taking a page from his fellow tight derriered grand inquisitor, Bill used part of his Reality Check ('Where we look out for you by correcting the record') segment, last night (April 27th) to whine about yet another attack on our way of life as we know it. (sexual harassment – not a problem!) But wait, isn’t The Family Guy part of the Murdoch empire? Oh, no, say it ain’t so. Is Rupert Murdoch contributing to the decline of American values? How can America’s Big Daddy stay in the employ of a company that encourages media degeneracy?"

Fear-Mongering and the 'FOX Effect'
Timothy Karr writes for the Huffington Post: "Last week, conservative factions within the Republican National Committee circulated an e-mail urging party leadership to brand as a "socialist" anyone who advocates even moderate changes to the government's role in society. It's clear that the overlords at Fox News Channel already got that memo and decided to ratchet the volume up a notch -- to 11."