Clippings for 25 June 2009

PDF Download: "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment"
We discuss this document on this week's show. It was released in April by the Department of Homeland Security and caused the Republicans and right-wing pundits to rail against its contents. The killing of Dr. George Tiller and the attack on the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC has confirmed the reports findings and raise serious questions about the Republican's motivation for attacking the report.

A Global Recovery for a Global Recession
Joseph E. Stiglitz writes in The Nation: "A poorly designed and insufficient stimulus means that the downturn will last longer, the recovery will be slower and there will be more innocent victims. Among these victims are the many developing countries--including those that have had far better regulatory and macroeconomic policies than the United States and some European countries. In the United States a financial crisis transformed itself into an economic crisis; in many developing countries the economic downturn is creating a financial crisis."

Recommended Audio: GRIT TV Media Roundtable

New world meets old… Non traditional reporters have been bringing us most of the news from Iran this week, but here in the US, a very traditional debate has broken out. New media report, but with an old media spin. What did this “new media” miss or misrepresent this week? And are we just repeating ourselves? This week on GRIT TV’s media roundtable: we’ll talk about the video of Neda Agha-Soltan, — quite possibly the most broadcast death in history, the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, and South Carolina’s governor, Mark Sanford abandons his duties to pursue an affair. Haven’t the pundits gotten it yet that when it comes to the sanctity of marriage, same sex couples may actually be the strongest believers?

Joining us are Allison Kilkenny, Contributor to the Huffington Post and Host of Citizen Radio, Danny Schechter, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of “Media Channel,” Host of a new radio show, “The News Dissector” and author of Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, and Andrew Golis, Deputy Publisher of “Talking Points Memo.”

GOP: No Benefit to Court Fight
Manu Raju writes for Politico: "Nearly a month after President Barack Obama picked her for the Supreme Court, Republican senators say Sonia Sotomayor isn’t serving as the political lightning rod some in their party had hoped she would be."

Free Speech vs. Surveillance in the Digital Age
Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig: "Tools of mass communication that were once the province of governments and corporations now fit in your pocket. Cell phones can capture video and send it wirelessly to the Internet. People can send eyewitness accounts, photos and videos, with a few keystrokes, to thousands or even millions via social networking sites. As these technologies have developed, so too has the ability to monitor, filter, censor and block them."

Why Does the US Government Torture People?
markadamsjdmba writes for Daily Censored: "Well, it’s just standard practice, and unfortunately, U.S. government agents torture Americans far more often than they torture foreign 'terrorists.' Since most of you are saying, 'No way. That can’t be true!' I’ll let you in on one of the dirty secrets that the 'news' media cartel has kept you in the dark about. In 2003, Congress made the following findings:"

A Thoroughly Un-American Institution
Louis Wolf writes for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs: "Today, Thursday June 25th Congress will to vote on an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act which would require the School of the Americas/WHINSEC to release to the public the names, ranks, countries of origin, courses taken and dates of attendance of all the students and instructors at the institute. The School of the America's, renamed WHINSEC, is an organization founded with the explicit purpose of teaching its students the science of torture and interrogation techniques. Its records have been concealed, and for the most part its dealings shrouded in mystery."

Debate Joined Over New Consumer Financial Protection Agency
Kevin G. Hall reports for McClatchy Newspapers: "A key committee in the House of Representatives began breaking down the Obama administration's financial-regulation revamp into separate parts Wednesday, promising to pass the portion that would affect most Americans, a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, by the end of July."

George Tiller: Health Care Provider
Eyal Press comments for The Nation: "Rare in the news coverage of the murder of Dr. George Tiller were the voices of physicians who referred patients to him. That's because, in the media, abortion features as an "issue," a battlefront in the culture wars, and only secondarily, if at all, as a medical procedure. The letter below, written by a physician in response to my comment in The Nation on the murder, is a rare exception, shedding light on Dr. Tiller's role as a healthcare provider. Many thanks to Dr. Laurence Burd, its author, for writing it."

Why We Need a Public Health Care Plan
Robert B. Reich writes in The Wall Street Journal: "Why has health-care reform stalled in Congress? Democrats, after all, control both Houses, and President Obama, whose popularity remains high, has made universal health care his No. 1 priority. What's more, an overwhelming majority of the public wants it. In the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 76% of respondents said it was important that Americans have a choice between a public and private health-insurance plan. In last week's New York Times/CBSNews poll, 85% said they wanted major health-care reforms."

Public Health Plan Could Save Money Faster
Susan Heavey reports for Reuters: "A nationwide health insurance exchange that includes a Medicare-like government option could save $1.8 trillion more than if only private plans are offered, a prominent private U.S. health policy group said on Wednesday."

Senate Panel Hears of Health Insurers' Wrongs
David S. Hilzenrath reports for The Washington Post: "Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released yesterday by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee. The report was part of a multi-pronged assault on the credibility of private insurers by Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.)."

The Sickening Influence of Campaign Contributions
Jo Conason writes for Truthdig: "If Congress fails to enact health care reform this year—or if it enacts a sham reform designed to bail out corporate medicine while excluding the “public option”—then the public will rightly blame Democrats, who have no excuse for failure except their own cowardice and corruption. The punishment inflicted by angry voters is likely to be reduced majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives—or even the restoration of Republican rule on Capitol Hill."

Food Inc: Michael Pollan and Friends Reveal the Food Industry's Darkest Secrets
Tara Lohan writes for AlterNet: "It turns out that figuring out the most simple thing - like what's on your dinner plate, and where it came from - is actually a pretty subversive act. That's what director Robert Kenner found out while spending six years putting together the amazing new documentary, 'Food Inc.,' which features prominent food writers Michael Pollan ('The Omnivore's Dilemma') and Eric Schlosser ('Fast Food Nation')."

The Virginity Movement, Rebranded
Jessica Valenti writes for The Nation: "Keith Deltano has a high school student tied up onstage and is precariously dangling a cinder block over the young man's genital region. Deltano is not a school bully or an escaped lunatic. He's an abstinence proponent, a comedian who uses this brick trick to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of condoms (although the actual lesson learned may be to steer clear of comics brandishing bricks). "

The Real Mob at Stonewall
Lucian K. Truscott IV comments for the New York Times: "I WAS perhaps the unlikeliest person in the world to cover the Stonewall riots for The Village Voice. It was June 27, 1969. I had graduated from West Point only three weeks earlier and was spending my summer leave in New York before reporting for duty at Fort Benning, in Georgia. After a late dinner in Chinatown, I was about to enter the Lion’s Head, a writers’ hangout on Christopher Street near the Voice’s offices, when I blundered straight into the first moments of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar a couple of doors down the street. Even a newly minted second lieutenant of infantry could see that it was a story."

The $9.5 Billion Gay Marriage Windfall
Miriam Marcus writes for Forbes: "Howls of protest erupted last month when California's Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, stripping gay and lesbian couples of their right to marry. Adding to the din: all the disappointed planners, seamstresses, jewelers, travel agents and caterers who comprise the massive yet plodding American wedding industry."

How To Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ryan Powers, and Nate Carlile write for the Progress Report: "While campaigning for the White House, President Obama pledged to repeal the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT) policy, which bars openly gay men and women from serving in the military. But since taking office, the Obama administration has yet to follow through on its promise and has repeatedly resisted calls to suspend DADT by executive order. The administration is seeking "Congressional action" to resolve the issue. As a consequence, the military has discharged more than 265 service members on the basis of the discriminatory and counterproductive policy since Obama took office. Despite the losses, when asked about DADT in March, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that repealing DADT would have to be pushed "down the road a little bit." Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that the Senate was waiting for "a legislative proposal from the White House on repeal so as to provide clear guidance on what the President would like to see and when." Seventy-seven members of the House recently sent Obama a letter urging him to "suspend" DADT. As part of an effort to build momentum from this call for action, the Center for American Progress published a report yesterday by Lawrence J. Korb, Sean Duggan, and Laura Conley that provides a practical outline for repealing DADT and opening the armed forces to men and women who are currently excluded."