Clippings for 19 july 2009

Who Is the CIA Allowed to Kill?
Mark Benjamin writes for Salon: "Media reports recently exposed efforts by the Bush administration to create a CIA "assassination squad" so secret that former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the agency to keep Congress in the dark about it. The Wall Street Journal called it a secret plan to "capture or kill al Qaida operatives"; on Thursday, the Washington Post said the program was about to be activated when CIA director Leon Panetta pulled the plug."

The Democrats' Selective Amnesia on Assassination: Clinton Did It and Obama Does It Too
Jeremy Scahill writes for Rebel Reports: "Members of Congress have expressed outrage over the 'secret' CIA assassination program that former vice president Dick Cheney allegedly ordered concealed from Congress. But this program - and the media descriptions of it - sounds a lot like the assassination policy implemented by President Bill Clinton, particularly during his second term in office."

Everything That Happens in Afghanistan Is Based on Lies or Illusions
Ann Jones writes for TomDispatch.com: "I've come back to the Afghan capital again, after an absence of two years, to find it ruined in a new way. Not by bombs this time, but by security. The heart of the city is now hidden behind piles of Hescos - giant, grey sandbags produced somewhere in Great Britain. They're stacked against the walls of government buildings, UN agencies, embassies, NGO offices, and army camps (of which there are a lot) - and they only seem to grow and multiply."

Fights Over the F-22 Engulf Senate, House
Roxana Tiron reports for The Hill: "The Senate is kicking off next week with one of the most contentious issues engulfing the fiscal 2010 defense policy bill: whether to include money for more F-22 fighter jets and ultimately draw a presidential veto."

Krugman: White House Treatment of Stiglitz Reveals Lack of Respect for ‘Progressive-Economist Wing.’
Faiz Shakir writes for Think Progress: "Newsweek’s Michael Hirsh reports that progressive economist Joseph Stiglitz, 'the man who predicted the global financial meltdown,' is not getting his due respect from the Obama administration. Hirsh writes that the Nobel Prize-winning economist has “heard barely a word from the White House.” For his part, Stiglitz has been critical of the Obama administration:"

Pelosi's Toothless 'Commission'
Joe Conason writes for Truthdig: "Very soon, congressional leaders are expected to announce the creation of a new commission to investigate the causes of America’s crippling financial disaster. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that this investigative panel will be modeled on the legendary “Pecora Commission,” which held a series of hearings on Capitol Hill in 1933 that arraigned the nation’s biggest bankers and stock swindlers before an angry and suffering people. Named for Ferdinand Pecora, the cigar-chomping New York prosecutor who oversaw the proceedings, those confrontations mobilized public support for the financial reforms of the New Deal—which curbed the excesses of Wall Street’s overclass until a decade ago when the reforms were undone."

The Bank Lobby's Insane Assault on Consumer Protection
Zach Carter writes for ALterNEt: "If the administration's plan goes through, the existing sieve of consumer protections in the financial world will finally be consolidated into a single agency that answers only to consumers, not bank balance sheets. Anyone who sells financial products to consumers, from the lowliest mortgage brokers to high-flying Wall Street elites, will finally have to play by a single, fair set of rules."

TARP Watchdog Says Treasury Lacking Bank Data
Silla Brush reports for The Hill: "The top watchdog over the financial bailout package said the Treasury Department is rejecting 'common sense' by not requiring banks receiving billions of dollars in government money to say how they are using the money. In a report to be released on Monday, Neil Barofsky said banks that have received money from the $700 billion bailout package passed last year are able to indicate how they are using taxpayer money and that Treasury should require banks to be more transparent."

Wall Street Welfare Queen Average Bonuses $1 Million Per Employee
Michael Collins writes for Dissident Voice: "There are a number of stories out there about Goldman Sachs gaining unfair advantage in the financial markets. One concerns a former employee who allegedly swiped a special program to maximize automated stock trades. Questions were raised about the propriety of this since Goldman is hauling in tons of cash on a daily basis while others struggle. A variation of this story involves speculation that Goldman gets insider information through some internet scheme and uses that to maximize their haul."

Democracy Hangs by a Thread in Honduras
Hugh O'Shaughnessy reports for The Independent UK: "The international group of right-wingers who staged the coup d'etat against the democratic government of Honduras on 28 June are watching their plot fast unravel. There is stiffening international opposition to their protege, Roberto Micheletti, who, in his capacity as President of Congress, ordered President Manuel Zelaya to be expelled from the country by plane in his pyjamas."

Oysters for Health Care
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship comment for Truthout: "This is a story of health care and two Americans; a tale of two citizens, if you will. This week, Regina Benjamin was nominated by President Obama as our next surgeon general, charged with educating Americans on medical issues and overseeing the United States Public Health Service. She was the first African-American woman to head a state medical society, a member of the board of trustees of the American Medical Association and last year was named the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation 'genius award.' But more important, she's a country doctor, a family physician along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, serving the poor and uninsured - white, black and Asian."

A Real Win for Single-Payer Advocates
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "Those of us who know that the only real cure for what ails the U.S. health care system is a universal public plan that provides health care for all Americans while controlling costs recognize the frustrating reality that there are many economic and political barriers to the federal action that would create a single-payer system. This makes clearing the way experimentation at the state level all the more important. And, remarkably, the forces of real reform have won a congressional victory on that front, a victory that ought not be underestimated."

From Tax Breaks To Tax Hits
Sam Pizzigati writes for The Campaign for America's Future: "The push to overhaul the system that takes care of America’s health may be on the verge of morphing into something even grander, a promising new offensive against the unhealthy concentration of America’s wealth. The entire House Democratic leadership now stands united behind health care reform legislation that hikes taxes on America’s richest well beyond the levels that pundits, over recent years, have deemed 'politically feasible.'"

Tracking the Influence of Frank Luntz’s Obstructionist Health Care Memo.
MattCorley writes for Think Progress: "In early May, conservative word guru Frank Luntz authored a messaging memo defining the Republican rhetoric on health care reform. In order to obstruct reform, Luntz offered a set of poll-tested words that he said 'should be used by everyone.' Some of those words were 'rationing,' 'doctor-patient,' 'takeover' and 'bureaucrats.' Using the Capitol Words search engine, the Sunlight Foundation’s Paul Blumenthal has found that Republicans are following Luntz’s advice:"

Grading a Climate Bill
William S. Becker writes for The Huffington Post: "If Mother Nature were handing out grades, she'd have a difficult time assigning one to the 1,200-page climate dissertation known as Waxman-Markey, approved by the House and now being considered by the Senate. For one thing, she'd have to grade on a curve. What looks like an 'A' in Washington may qualify for no more than a 'C' or 'D' outside the beltway - and may be no better than 'F' in the rest of the world."

Jimmy Carter: How Religion Subjugates Women
Frances Kissling comments for Salon: "The Words of God Do Not Justify Cruelty to Women: That's the title of an Op-Ed that ran in the U.K. Observer earlier this week. It wasn't written by a feminist theologian like Karen Armstrong or one of the women on President Obama's faith-based council -- but by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter."

Fox Nation Promotes Intelligent Design
Priscilla at New Hounds writes: "I guess the time hasn’t come to “say no to biased media” because Fox Nation links to an article (under “Culture”) titled “Jefferson’s Support for Intelligent Design.” But there is clearly a bias in that the article is written by Stephen C. Meyer who is director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture whose mission is to promote intelligent design. Undettered by the defeat of intelligent design, in the famous Kitzmiller vs. Dover court case, in which “ID” was shown to be recycled creationism, Mr. Meyer is still peddling his dogma which, not suprisingly, has been picked up by Fox Nation. That Jefferson was a commited Deist and the author of a New Testament in which all the miracles were excised doesn’t seem to be a problem for Meyer who speculates that Jefferson’s beliefs coincided with those of “ID.” But what is ironic is that the Gilder Lehrman Institute of History, an organization that promotes the study of history, is a 'friend' of Fox Nation. One suspects that they might take issue with the contention that Jefferson believed in repackaged creationism. It is worth noting that Fox Nation has other 'friends' and that is troubling as one questions whether the American Legion, the USO, and the VFW are aware of the ignorance, bigotry, and hatred that is peddled on Fox Nation."