Clippings for 16 July 2009

Only Forceful Action Can Turn Foreclosure Crisis Tide
Mary Kane reports for The Washington Independent: "The time may be ripe for a shift in strategy as the foreclosure machine grinds on, and new foreclosure notices reach the troubling milestone of 10,000 per day. A weak economy has added job losses and falling home values to the mix of toxic loans that prompted the crisis two years ago, making an already difficult situation even more severe. Government measures from foreclosure freezes to loan modifications have only served, so far, to stall the inevitable - and to create an ominous backlog of millions of pending foreclosures."

'Government Sachs' Strikes Gold...Again
Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig: "Connect the dots: Goldman Sachs made $3.44 billion in profit this past quarter, while the U.S deficit topped $1 trillion for the first time in the nation’s history and appeared to be headed toward doubling that figure before the budget year is out. Since most of the increase in the federal deficit is due to bailing out the banks and salvaging the greater economy they helped destroy, why is the top investment bank doing so well?"

Recommended Audio - News Dissector Radio: Greening the Economy
Guest Dissectrix Cherie Welch from Atlanta discussing strategies for greening the economy and Danny’s dissections on corporate crime and the media.

Colonizing Iraq: The Obama Doctrine?
Michael Schwartz writes for TomDispatch.com: "Here's how reporters Steven Lee Myers and Marc Santora of The New York Times described the highly touted American withdrawal from Iraq's cities last week: 'Much of the complicated work of dismantling and removing millions of dollars of equipment from the combat outposts in the city has been done during the dark of night. Gen. Ray Odierno, the overall American commander in Iraq, has ordered that an increasing number of basic operations - transport and re-supply convoys, for example - take place at night, when fewer Iraqis are likely to see that the American withdrawal is not total.' Acting in the dark of night, in fact, seems to catch the nature of American plans for Iraq in a particularly striking way."

The Man Who Knew Cheney's Secret
Benjamin Sarlin writes for The Daily Beast: "The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh was mocked in March when he referred to Dick Cheney’s secret squad of CIA assassins. Now, he talks to The Daily Beast about the next shoe to drop. Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh raised eyebrows back in March when he told an audience at the University of Minnesota that Dick Cheney ran a secret hit squad that he kept hidden from congressional oversigh."

Cognitive Deficiencies of Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III
Ernest Canning writes for Brad Blog: "A fair reading of the full context of Judge Sotomayor's 2001 University of California remarks reveals that the above two statements are not inconsistent. In the first, Sotomayor was merely giving recognition to what cognitive science has long recognized --- that differences in culture, background and experience create frames through which our minds process data, or as George Lakoff observes in Don't Think of an Elephant and in greater depth in Moral Politics: 'Concepts are not things that can be changed by people telling us a fact. Frames are needed to make sense of the facts.'"

The Stench of Conservative Desperation
Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ryan Powers, Nate Carlile, and Ian Millhiser write for The Progress Report at Think Progress: "Judge Sonia Sotomayor is well-qualified to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, with more federal judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in 100 years. Her loyalty to settled law is, in the words of the Congressional Research Service, 'the most consistent characteristic of Sotomayor's approach as an appellate judge.' And she is tremendously popular; Americans overwhelmingly support her confirmation to the nation's highest court. Even Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), in a surprising moment of candor, told Sotomayor that she would be confirmed 'unless you have a complete meltdown.' Yet, as Sotomayor's elevation to the Court grows increasingly inevitable, conservatives are the ones melting down. They are using Sotomayor's confirmation hearings to hurl more and more desperate attacks."

Klobuchar's Contribution: Talking Law With Sotomayor
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar brought something rare and valuable to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor: a savvy questioning style that invited the nominee to offer extended and revealing answers regarding her views on the law. "

New Evidence Surfaces in Post-Katrina Crimes
A.C. Thompson reports for ProPublica: "Television news reports are casting new light on the violence that flourished in New Orleans in the anarchic days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The reports - broadcast Thursday by WTAE TV in Pittsburgh and WDSU in New Orleans - focus on two unsolved crimes: the near-fatal shooting of Donnell Herrington, who was allegedly attacked by a group of white vigilantes in the Algiers Point neighborhood, and the murder of Henry Glover, whose charred remains were discovered on a Mississippi River levee. Both victims are African American."

Bush Department of Justice Blacklisted Applicants from LGBT, Immigrant Advocacy Groups
Faiz Shakir writes for Think Progress: "The Washington Blade reports that, during the Bush administration, “applicants for Justice Department internships and honors programs may have been rejected based on their membership in LGBT” and immigrant advocacy groups. Pro-immigrant groups reportedly made up 25 percent of the list. "

Health Insurance Whistle-Blower Knows Where the Bodies are Buried
Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig: "Wendell Potter is the health insurance industry’s worst nightmare. He’s a whistle-blower. Potter, the former chief spokesperson for insurance giant CIGNA, recently testified before Congress, 'I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick—all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.'"

Senate Panel Passes Health Reform Bill
Jeffrey Young reports for The Hill: "A Senate committee became the first Congressional panel to advance health care reform legislation this year, marking a significant step toward the achievement of President Obama's foremost domestic initiative. On a party-line, 13-10 tally, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted to move its portion of the upper chamber's health care reform legislation to the floor."

PTSD Ignored on Active Duty
Maya Schenwar writes for Truthout: "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have thrown post-traumatic stress disorder into stark public light. As of the end of March, 346,393 US veterans were being treated for PTSD, and that number continues to grow rapidly. However, PTSD symptoms don't always wait to emerge until soldiers return home. For active-duty soldiers like Airman Steven Flowers, stationed in Aviano, Italy, it can take years to receive even minimal care. And once treatment begins, the soldiers are often punished for revealing their problems."

Activists Push Ballot Initiative to End State Benefits for Illegal Immigrants and Their U.S.-born Children
Teresa Watanabe reports for The Los Angeles Times: "In a stretch of desert just north of the US-Mexico border, men and women in khakis and the colors of the American flag recently gathered at a border watch post they call Camp Vigilance and discussed their next offensive in the nation's immigration wars. The target: Illegal immigrants and their US-born children who receive public benefits."

Accountability to Women Could Upset Business-as-Usual
Sholain Govender-Bateman reports for Inter Press Service: "A public presentation of the 'Progress of the World's Women' report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Pretoria, South Africa, this week suggests that one of the most powerful constraints on realizing women's rights and achieving the Millennium Development Goals is a lack of accountability to women's needs."

Fox New Targets Planned Parenthood -- Literally!
Priscilla writes for New Hounds: "As the “party of life,” the GOP seeks to end a woman’s right to an abortion. Planned Parenthood is on their enemies list as it is an abortion provider. That Planned Parenthood offers a whole range of reproductive related health services and education, especially in poorer communities, is of no concern to those conservatives who would seek to shut down this organization that offers help to those who need it. As the mouthpiece for conservative principals, Fox News offers a platform for those whose goal is to shut Planned Parenthood down. In addition to Sean Hannity’s hit piece on Planned Parenthood, Hannity, O’Reilly, and Beck have provided a platform for a group, whose “sting operations” against Planned Parenthood, are part of a greater effort to damage Planned Parenthood in the hope that state and federal funding will be cut off. Last week, subbing for Bill O’Reilly on “The Factor," Laura Ingraham interviewed one of these women and Alabama's Attorney General who was muy sympatico. While the interview contained the perfunctory anti abortion/Planned Parenthood memes, there was a troubling graphic which raised the question of whether Fox News was sending a signal to encourage domestic violence against Planned Parenthood."