Clippings for 2 July 2009

The Truth Alone Will Not Set You Free
Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig: "The ability of the corporate state to pacify the country by extending credit and providing cheap manufactured goods to the masses is gone. The pernicious idea that democracy lies in the choice between competing brands and the freedom to accumulate vast sums of personal wealth at the expense of others has collapsed. The conflation of freedom with the free market has been exposed as a sham. The travails of the poor are rapidly becoming the travails of the middle class, especially as unemployment insurance runs out and people get a taste of Bill Clinton’s draconian welfare reform. And class warfare, once buried under the happy illusion that we were all going to enter an age of prosperity with unfettered capitalism, is returning with a vengeance."

Democracy Derailed in Honduras
Greg Grandin writes for The Nation: "When Honduran president Manuel Zelaya--who was rousted out of his bed on Sunday morning by a detachment of armed soldiers and forced into exile still in his pajamas--took office in early 2006, unionists, peasant activists and reformers expected little of the center-right politician, a rancher and member of the establishment Liberal Party. Neither did the handful of elite Honduran families who, bankrolled by foreign finance, control their country's media, banking, agricultural, manufacturing and narcotics industries. "You are only temporary, while we are permanent," they told him soon after his inauguration, according one report, reminding Zelaya that he served at their pleasure. "

How to Deal With America's Empire of Bases
Chalmers Johnson writes for TomDispatch.com: "The U.S. Empire of Bases - at $102 billion a year already the world's costliest military enterprise - just got a good deal more expensive. As a start, on May 27, we learned that the State Department will build a new 'embassy' in Islamabad, Pakistan, which at $736 million will be the second priciest ever constructed, only $4 million less, if cost overruns don't occur, than the Vatican-City-sized one the Bush administration put up in Baghdad. The State Department was also reportedly planning to buy the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel (complete with pool) in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, to use as a consulate and living quarters for its staff there."

Abstract Quality Journalism for War
Norman Solomon writes for Truthout: "The New York Times used three square inches of newsprint on Tuesday to dispatch two US Army soldiers under the headline 'Names of the Dead.' Their names - Peter K. Cross and Steven T. Drees - were listed along with hometowns, ranks and ages. Cross was 20 years old. Drees was 19. They were, the newspaper reported, the latest of 706 Americans 'who have died as a part of the Afghan war and related operations.' There wasn't enough room for any numbers, names or ages of Afghans who have died as a part of the Afghan war and related operations."

The Root of Madoff's Evil
Robert Scheer writes for The Nation: "How convenient for the judge and the media to paint Bernard Madoff as Mr. Evil, a uniquely venal blight on an otherwise responsible financial industry in which money is handled honestly and with transparency. "

Turthout Special: The Madoff Scandal: Nothing Is Settled
Three Francophone editorialists argue from right, left and center that Bernard Madoff's sentencing for the swindle of the century fails to reveal both the inner workings of that swindle and other dark sides of the whole financial system. One asks, "Will Madoff's punishment exonerate those who are responsible?"

Recommended Audio: Noam Chomsky at Riverside Church, 12 June 2009
On the forty-year anniversary of the publishing of his classic American Power & the New Mandarins, Noam Chomsky comes to The Riverside Church to address a wide range of issues from the global economic crisis, US military intervention in the Middle East and South Asia, left electoral and social movement upsurges in places like El-Salvador, Bolivia and Venezuela, and the election of Barack Obama.

Recommended Audio: Truthdig Podcast - Illuminating the Connection Between Money and Politics
In this episode, we talk with Maplight.org’s executive director, Dan Newman. Maplight, which lobbies for greater transparency in government, is a nonprofit group dedicated to illuminating the connection between money and politics. Its data reveals which politicians are on the take and the source of questionable political contributions.

Worker Uprising Against Wells Fargo Spreads
Mike Elk writes for The Huffington Post: "This week, workers at Hartmarx Factory won a major victory against Wells Fargo, as Wells Fargo agreed to keep their factory open. The story of the Hartmarx workers had drawn national attention as they threatened to occupy their factory if Wells Fargo closed it. Their victory yesterday represents a major triumph in the growing trend of factory sit ins that started last December when workers, members of United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE), occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago."

New Poll: Majority Supports Government-Run Health Option
David M. Drucker reports for Roll Call: "A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday gauging registered voters' views of health care reform underscores the political complexity of the issue, with the results offering ammunition to both the supporters and opponents of President Barack Obama's No. 1 legislative priority."

Media Outlet Refuses To Run Republican TV Ad Filled With Misrepresentations Of Clean Energy Bill
Lee Fang writes for Think Progress: "This afternoon, Roanoke television station WDBJ-TV, announced they will be refusing to air a National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) ad attacking freshman Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA), citing factual inaccuracies. The NRCC had been planning to run television ads against Democratic members of Congress, like Perriello, who voted for the Waxman-Markey clean energy economy legislation that passed last week. After receiving information about the factual inaccuracies in the ad, the station pulled it from rotation."

Warming Up a New Politics?
E. J. Dionne writes for Truthdig: "Hours before the House passed its cap-and-trade bill last week, freshman Democrats Tom Perriello and Frank Kratovil were pondering the political fallout of the votes they were about to cast in favor of a plan Republicans were denouncing as 'cap-and-tax.'"

Political Foolishness and Teen Pregnancy
Marie Cocco writes for Truthdig: "It hardly seems worth mentioning that the search for role models of sexual rectitude has gone pretty badly lately. That famous poster of Farrah Fawcett—her golden locks tumbling around her shoulders and her gleaming smile offering a girl-next-door counterpoint to the suggestiveness of her red swimsuit—sure makes it look as though, by comparison, the 1970s were an era of wholesomeness."

Africa: Maternal Mortality, a Human Rights Catastrophe
Rosemary Okello and Terna Gyuse report for Inter Press Service: "The right to the highest attainable standard of health: not the most fashionable of human rights, but the limits on people's enjoyment of their right to health often coincide with continuing inequalities behind claims of economic growth or political reform. The quality of life of women and children - particularly poor women, rural women, and women from ethnic and indigenous minorities - is a strong measure of real change for the world's most vulnerable people. During the month of June, women's sexual and reproductive health rights received some welcome attention."

Three Laws to Protect Americans from Sexual Discrimination
Steve Hildebrand writes for the Huffington Post: "Everyday, children in this country are bullied because a fellow student doesn't like that they may be gay. Too often these bullying tactics -- including several already this year -- result in suicide and the sad loss of life of a completely innocent victim."