Nov. 18 - Andy Worthington on GITMO

Community Bridge opens with British journalist Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison and co-director with Polly Nash of the documentary film, Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.

Having spent several years looking at the undercurrents of post-war British social history — in particular the clash between the state and some of its most outspoken critics (protest movements, travellers and alternative communities) — Worthington turned his attention to the “War on Terror” in 2006. Like many decent-minded citizens of the world, he had been deeply concerned, from the moment Guantánamo opened in January 2002, that the US administration’s response to 9/11 was both cruel and misguided, but although Worthington conducted some research in the years that followed, it was not until March 2006, when he read Enemy Combatant by the released British prisoner Moazzam Begg, that he asked himself the fateful question, “Who’s in Guantánamo?” The quest to answer this question consumed over a year of his life, and led to the creation of "The Guantánamo Files."

The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, published by Pluto Press, and distributed in the US by Macmillan, includes reviews by released Guantánamo prisoner Moazzam Begg, lawyers Clive Stafford Smith, Marc Falkoff and Candace Gorman, authors Michelle Shephard, Stephen Grey and Peter Bergen, film-maker Ken Loach, and film producer Marty Fisher. The book is available from Amazon.

MP3 File

Clippings for 4 April 2010

Dr. King's Economic Dream Deferred

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship comment for Truthout: "This is a perilous moment. The individualist, greed-driven free-market ideology that both our major parties have pursued is at odds with what most Americans really care about. Popular support for either party has struck bottom, as more and more agree that growing inequality is bad for the country, that corporations have too much power, that money in politics has corrupted our system, and that working families and poor communities need and deserve help because the free market has failed to generate shared prosperity - its famous unseen hand has become a closed fist."

Top Fed Official Wants To Break Up Megabanks, Stop The Fed From Guaranteeing Wall Street's Profits
Shahien Nasiripour writes for the Huffington Post: "The U.S. should bust up its megabanks and impose strict laws curbing the size and complexity of financial institutions, a top Federal Reserve official told the Huffington Post. In a 45-minute interview this week, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas M. Hoenig, who's emerged as one of the few influential voices calling for a fundamental redesign of a broken U.S. financial system..."

Economy Adds 162,000 Jobs in March, Unemployment Steady at 9.7 Percent
Dean Baker report for The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "The establishment survey (CES) showed the economy adding 162,000 jobs in March, the biggest increase since March of 2007. The household survey (CPS) showed the unemployment rate remaining steady at 9.7 percent with the employment to population ratio edging up to 58.6 percent, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from its low last November."

Fraud on the Street
Robert Reich writes on RobertReich.org: "The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday it had begun an inquiry into two dozen financial companies to determine whether they followed accounting practices similar to those recently disclosed in an investigation of Lehman Brothers."

Recommended Audio: Keith Olbermann - Predatory Banking Practices Interview With Rep. Barney Frank

Keith Olbermann discusses predatory banking practices and interviews Rep. Barney Frank on Countdown.


7th Anniversary of Iraq War Passes -- But Myths Endure

Greg Mitchell writes for the Huffington Post: "Seven years ago The New York Times ran a prominent photo from a meeting of past Pentagon chiefs who had gathered at the White House for a discussion about 10 days into our invasion of Iraq. Victory still seemed assured but it was also becoming clear that we were not being greeted as liberators in most areas. The picture showed current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with a past master, Robert McNamara."

McChrystal's Support for Afghan Raids Belies New Image
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "Gen. Stanley McChrystal has recently acquired the image of a master strategist of the population-sensitive counterinsurgency, reducing civilian casualties from airstrikes and insisting that troops avoid firing when civilians might be hit during the recent offensive in Helmand Province. One recent press story even referred to a 'McChrystal Doctrine' that focuses on 'winning over civilians rather than killing insurgents.'"

CIA Seeks to Influence Opinion on Wars
Daan de Wit reports for DeepJournal: "The CIA recommendations for influencing the European public into continuing their support for the mission in Afghanistan is receiving a lot of attention both in The Netherlands and beyond. But in a military conflict, war is only one stage of the struggle. The biggest struggle is for the hearts and minds of the public at large. What's special about the case of the document is not so much its content, but the fact that it is now available for all to see."

Destroying Educational Institutions or Using Them for Military Purposes Is a War Crime
Dirk Adriaensens comments for Truthout: "'The education system in Iraq, prior to 1991, was one of the best in the region; with over 100 percent Gross Enrollment Rate for primary schooling and high levels of literacy, both of men and women. Higher education, especially the scientific and technological institutions, was of an international standard, staffed by high quality personnel.' (UNESCO Fact Sheet, March 28, 2003)"

More Dark Truths From Guantanamo as Five Innocent Men Are Freed

Andy Worthington reports for Truthout: "After eight years imprisonment without charge or trial, five former Guantanamo prisoners are beginning new lives this week - two in Switzerland and three in Georgia. Their stories reveal, yet again, how Republican lawmakers and media pundits in the US, who have, in recent months, renewed their fear-filled attacks on those still held, are guilty of hyperbolic and unprincipled outbursts and, in addition, how these critics' attacks are damaging to the prospects of cleared men, seized by mistake, finding new homes in countries that, unlike the US, are prepared to offer them a chance to rebuild their shattered lives on a humanitarian basis."

Agent Orange and Vietnam's Forgotten Victims
Geoffrey Cain reports for GlobalPost: "At 46, each year of misery seems to have etched new wrinkles around Tran Thanh Dung's angry gaze. When he was child in the early 1970s, Tran says he witnessed U.S. soldiers shoot his parents - both of whom were communist Viet Cong soldiers during the Vietnam War. Bent on revenge, he joined the guerrilla group within hours."

Who Are the 46.3 Million Uninsured?
The Center for Economic and Policy Research reports: "The most recent available data (2008) show that 46.3 million people in the United States had no health insurance. Adults between 18 and 64 are by far the largest group of uninsured (38.3 million in 2008). Children are the next largest group of the uninsured (7.3 million). Thanks primarily to Medicare, only a small share of the uninsured are 65 or older (0.6 million). Most uninsured adults are workers. Over 23 million workers 18 to 64 have no health insurance from any source, compared to about 15 million non-working adults in the same age range. A large majority of the working adults (14.7 million) are “full-time, full-year” (that is, worked at least 50 weeks in the year, for at least 35 hours per week)."

Will Obama Screw the Left Again?

Eric Alterman writes for the Daily Beast: "A strong liberal appointment to replace Justice Stevens, who’s expected to retire soon, would fire up the president’s troops ahead of a bruising election season. But Obama may seek middle ground once more by choosing Elena Kagan. A symbol that Obama wants a fight would be the choice of either Cass Sunstein, formerly of the University of Chicago and now working in the Office of Management and Budget, or former Yale Law dean Harold Koh."

Will FOX News Destroy the Republican Party?
Leslie Savan writes for AlterNet: "Over the past week or so, stories about conservative hypocrisies have been popping up in mainstream media like cute kitten videos on the internets. There was the Vatican blaming the news media for the pedophilia practiced by priests; the Republicans blaming the violence against Democrats on the Democrats themselves; Sarah Palin, intoning that "violence isn't the answer," studding a map with gunsights to target the Dems who should be gotten rid of come November; and, of course, fundraisers for the family values party trying to expense-account their visit to that faux-lesbian, bondage-themed nightclub in West Hollywood. It almost made you think the conservative movement was about to collapse under the weight of its own delusions."

Democracy and Domestic Violence

Joe Conason writes for Turthdig.com: "When the Department of Homeland Security released a cautiously worded report on the potential dangers of right-wing extremism last April, the talk-radio wingnuts and certain Republican lawmakers went into spasms of indignation. Clearly, that report - an innocuous nine-page document commissioned by the previous Republican administration - had been conjured up by White House Democrats to smear conservatives."

Not Satisfied With US History, Some Conservatives Rewrite It
Steven Thomma reports for McClatchy Newspapers: "The right is rewriting history. The most ballyhooed effort is under way in Texas, where conservatives have pushed the state school board to rewrite guidelines, downplaying Thomas Jefferson in one high school course, playing up such conservatives as Phyllis Schlafly and the Heritage Foundation and challenging the idea that the Founding Fathers wanted to separate church and state. The effort reaches far beyond one state, however."

Meet the Toxic 100 Corporate Air Polluters
Michael Ash and James K. Boyce report for the Political Economy Research Institute: "Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst today released the Toxic 100 Air Polluters, an updated list of the top corporate air polluters in the United States."

Nate Phelps, TPAC and the Million Fag March
Amber Farley writes for the Kansas Free Press: "If you live in Kansas, chances are pretty darn good that you've heard of psychotic homophobe, religious cult leader and all-around a-hole freakazoid Fred Phelps.  You may not, however, have heard of his son, Nate Phelps. Nate is the 6th of Fred Phelps' 13 children. Rather than follow in his father's footsteps and stay with his family clan, Nate chose to leave home at 18 and has never looked back. He denounces all of his family's homophobic beliefs and, through lots of thoughtful contemplation, is an atheist."

Free Press Haven: Iceland May Soon Become Utopia for Journalists and Publishers
Samuel Knight writes for In These Times: "Icelandic members of parliament have plans to transform their crisis-ridden North-Atlantic nation into a sanctuary for publishers, production companies and information technology firms from around the world. 'It would free the press from fear,' says Thor Saari, one of the members of parliament spearheading the proposal, which is known as the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI). Iceland's Parliament, the Althingi, is expected to support the effort."

Comcast Rolls Out Broadband Meters Coast to Coast
Ryan Singel writes for Wired: "Comcast cable internet users across the country can now keep track of their data usage to make sure they don’t go over their 250GB a month data allowance, thanks to bandwidth meters deployed to customers nationwide Thursday. Comcast will send users an e-mail with a link to the meter, which can be found on their Comcast.net user page. As of Thursday, the meter is now available more than 25 states including all or parts of: Oregon, Washington, Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri , Colorado, Utah, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Washington, D.C."

Study: 52 Percent Of Bloggers Consider Themselves Journalists

Leena Rao writes for Tech Crunch: "According to a new study released by PR Week and PR Newswire, 52% percent of bloggers surveyed consider themselves journalists. This is an increase from 2009’s study, when just one in three had the same opinion. However, despite this, only 20% of bloggers obtain the majority of their income from their blogs; which is an 4% increase from 2009."

Clippings for 8 November 2009

Market Driven Hysteria and the Politics of Death
Henry A. Giroux writes for Truthout: "If we listen to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and an increasing number of their ilk, free-market fundamentalism is not only sexy, it is an argument against the very notion of politics itself and the power of the government to intervene and protect its citizens from the ravages of nature, corrupt institutions and an unregulated market. In this discourse, largely buttressed through an appeal to fear and the use of outright lies, free-market capitalism assumes an almost biblical status as an argument against the power of government to protect its citizens from misfortune and the random blows of fate by providing the most basic rights and levels of collective security and protection."

Obama, One Year On
Katrina Vanden Heuvel writes for The Nation: "Barack Obama was elected president at a time defined by hope and fear in equal measure. It was a remarkable moment in our country's history--a milestone in America's scarred racial landscape and a victory for the forces of decency, diversity and tolerance. For the first time in decades, electoral politics became a vehicle for raising expectations and spreading hope while it mobilized millions of new voters. Obama's was a campaign built on the power and promise of change from below. At the same time, he was elected as the nation was rapidly sinking into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression."

Obama One Year Later: The Audacity of Winning vs. The Timidity of Governing
I had arranged to meet David Plouffe on Saturday afternoon at a Starbucks on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington. The night before, a copy of his new book, The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory, was waiting for me when I checked into my hotel at midnight. I flipped it open, read a few lines and was hooked. I spent the rest of the night reading it. Plouffe has written the most important political book of the year (for reasons I'll get to in a moment). It's also completely gripping. It reads like a thriller. Even though you know how it ends, you quickly get caught up in every twist and turn of perhaps the most remarkable campaign in American history.

Too Big to Fail?:Why All the President's Afghan Options Are Bad Ones
Tom Engelhardt writes for TomDispatch.com: "In the worst of times, my father always used to say, "A good gambler cuts his losses." It's a formulation imprinted on my brain forever. That no-nonsense piece of advice still seems reasonable to me, but it doesn't apply to American war policy. Our leaders evidently never saw a war to which the word "more" didn't apply. Hence the Afghan War, where impending disaster is just an invitation to fuel the flames of an already roaring fire."

Recommended Audio: Turthdig podcast - Scott Ritter on Afghanistan: Don't Believe the Hype
Is the war in Afghanistan worth the sacrifice of even one American life? Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter says, “No! ... We are allowing the battle in Afghanistan to be defined by a domestic American political imperative. There is no urgency in Afghanistan, there is urgency in Washington, D.C.”

Unlearning the CIA
Christopher Ketchman writes for CounterPunch: "When I first met ex-CIA officer Bob Baer in Washington DC, I thought, The guy looks nothing like George Clooney. But Clooney, who won an Academy Award playing Baer in the film Syriana, had in fact captured something about the posture, the pathos, the weariness of a CIA man who spends too many years getting filthy in the field – in the peculiar mire of the Middle East, no less – risking his life and being ignored for it. Clooney in the film cycles among the suits at Langley, the cubicled bureaucracy, looking somewhat like the only sane man in a mental ward."

Claim: CIA Sent Prisoners Abroad to Be Boiled Alive and 'Raped with Broken Bottles'
Daniel Tencer writes for the Raw Story (via ALterNet.org): "The CIA relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, a place where widespread torture practices include raping suspects with broken bottles and boiling them alive, says a former British ambassador to the central Asian country. Craig Murray, the rector of the University of Dundee in Scotland and until 2004 the UK's ambassador to Uzbekistan, said the CIA not only relied on confessions gleaned through extreme torture, it sent terror war suspects to Uzbekistan as part of its extraordinary rendition program."

Italian Court Finds CIA Agents Guilty of Kidnapping Terrorism Suspect
John Hooper reports for The Guardian (UK): "Twenty-three Americans were tonight convicted of kidnapping by an Italian court at the end of the first trial anywhere in the world involving the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" programme for abducting terrorist suspects. The former head of the CIA in Milan Robert Lady was given an eight-year jail sentence for his part in the seizure of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, who claimed that he was subsequently tortured in Egypt. Lady's superior, Jeff Castelli, the then head of the CIA in Italy, and two other Americans were acquitted on the grounds that they enjoyed diplomatic immunity."

Bank Failure Friday Fells Another ‘Healthy Bank’ Bailout Recipient
Jake Bernsteing reports for ProPublica: "San Francisco-based United Commercial Bank has become the first recipient of TARP bailout money to be shut down by the FDIC. Last year, regulators approved a $299 million taxpayer funded injection into the bank. That money, which was supposed to go to only “healthy banks,” is now gone. The FDIC estimates United Commercial’s failure will cost the agency’s deposit fund about $1.4 billion. Our resident TARPologist, Paul Kiel, reported a few weeks ago that United Commercial Bank and three other supposedly “healthy banks” were in deep trouble. On November 1, CIT, another of the four, filed for bankruptcy protection. The collapse taxpayers lost $2.33 billion in TARP money invested in CIT."

Shifting the Burden From Main Street to Wall Street: Why We Need a "Tobin Tax"
Ellen Hodgson Brown comments for Truthout: "Wall Street bankers have been called today's 'welfare queens,' feeding at the public trough to the tune of trillions of dollars. They are taking from the taxpayers and not giving back. These banks were rescued so they could make loans, take deposits and keep our money safe. But while that is what banks used to do, today the big Wall Street money comes from short-term speculation in currency transactions, commodities, stocks and derivatives for the banks' own accounts."

We Are What We Trade and How We Trade It
David Sirota writes for Truthdig.com: "Trade and globalization: When not referencing blockbuster sports transactions or raucous street protests, debates over these abstract terms can give Ambien and Jack Daniels a run for their money as a cure for insomnia. Of course, that’s the problem—the rules governing what we buy and sell are now playing such a decisive role in almost every major policy that we’re falling asleep at our peril."

‘Brutal Milestone’ for Unemployment
Christopher Flavelle reports for ProPublica: "The big news: Unemployment hit 10.2 percent in October. The New York Times’ Paul Krugman called the 10 percent mark a 'brutal milestone,' and the news prompted more criticism of the stimulus. The AFP reports that President Obama will give a speech this afternoon to address the latest jobless numbers. Meanwhile, questions keep coming about the jobs 'saved' by the stimulus. The Sacramento Bee concludes that of the 110,000 jobs reportedly saved by stimulus money in California, as many as one-quarter 'probably were never in danger.' California State University officials first reported saving 26,156 jobs with the $268.5 million in stimulus dollars received by the university system—then backtracked. The money quote comes from CSU spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow, who told the Bee, 'This is not really a real number of people … It’s like a budget number.'"

House Passes Health Care Reform Bill
Alex Koppleman writes for Salon.com: "The House of Representatives took a historic step on Saturday night, passing the Democrats' healthcare reform bill and bringing supporters closer to passing the first major overhaul of the U.S. health in almost half a decade. As the time allotted for the vote expired, cheers and applause broke out on the floor of the House. In order to pass the bill, Democrats needed a majority, or 218 votes. They got 220 -- 219 Democrats, and a single Republican, Louisiana Rep. Joseph Cao. Voting against were 39 Democrats and 176 Republicans.

How Does a Religious Cult Have the Clout to Delay Health Care Vote?
Adele Stan writes for AlterNet: "Just when it seemed the stars were aligning for an historic vote tomorrow on health-care reform legislation in the House of Representatives, anti-choice Democrats are balking, saying that the plan would permit the indirect flow of federal dollars to fund abortion. Led by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., a member of the Capitol Hill religious cult known as The Family, and spurred on by the Catholic bishops, anti-abortion Dems are contesting the fact that some small number of private insurance plans offered via the bill's insurance exchange scheme may offer coverage for abortion -- even therapeutic abortion. Where the federal dollars come in is via the subsidies for which lower-income people would be eligible for buying insurance through the exchange."

Global Privatization of Education Policy
George Thompson writes for The Daily Censored: "The recent conflict of interest case of Lorna Earl in Ontario is merely the symptom of a growing trend in Canada and the rest of the world: the privatization of educational policy itself.  Earl’s complete bafflement as to why her case was sent to the conflict of interest commissioner in Ontario is itself a strong indication of the extent to which working as both a key influencer of policies and running a consultancy which stands to benefit from such policies has come to be seen as normal.  Taking a closer look at a few of only the most visible conflicts of interest in Ontario will provide an opportunity to learn how the privatization of policy is taking place there and elsewhere."

The Inflated Promise of Natural Gas
Stan Cox writes for CounterPunch: "Holding out the prospect of vast new domestic reserves, the natural gas industry is promising to make the United States an energy-rich nation once again. But we should be careful what we wish for. Spending those riches could endanger water supplies for millions of Americans while still failing to solve the climate crisis. Electric utilities have expanded their use of gas because gas-fired plants can be 'turned up' to meet high peak power demand more quickly than can coal-fired plants. Natural gas is also more climate-friendly than coal and less menacing than nuclear energy."

Gays, Lesbians Elected in Record Numbers on Tuesday
Gaypolitics.com writes: "Openly gay and lesbian candidates swept to victory in local and state races across the country last night, according to results released today by the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.  The group, which endorses openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) candidates, endorsed a slate of 79 contenders for 2009 races, a new record for a non-federal election year.  Of those, 49 won their races outright and six are still unfinished.  Thirteen additional openly gay candidates also won Tuesday."

Stonewall 2.0
Christopher Lisotta writes for The Nation: "Before November 2008, Tanner Efinger was just another 24-year-old working at a bar in the city of West Hollywood, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) center of Los Angeles. "I was really not a political person, even a little bit," he says. 'I didn't even know who Nancy Pelosi was and didn't really understand what a senator was.'"

How the Media Enables Government Lies
James Bovard writes for CoutnerPunch: "Why do politicians so easily get away with telling lies? In large part, because the news media are more interested in bonding with politicians than in exposing them. Americans are encouraged to believe that the media will serve as a check and a balance on the government. Instead, the press too often volunteer as unpaid pimps, helping politicians deceive the public."

Low-Power FM and What the Media Won't Tell You about the Media
Amber Sands comments for Truthout: "There's a classic problem for progressives who want to change the media: the media doesn't like to cover itself. Especially not when it comes to issues that challenge the status quo of corporate control. It's like turning to the military for news about the peace movement, or asking Big Oil to report on climate change legislation."

FCC Fine Print Could Undermine Open Internet
Tim Karr writes for Save the Internet: "Buried in the fine print of the FCC’s proposed Net Neutrality rules is a potential loophole that if left open would undermine the future of Internet freedom. So says a group of prominent law professors who on Monday told the FCC that its proposed rules don't sufficiently define what the agency means by its use of the terms 'non-discrimination' and 'reasonable network management.'"

Net Neutrality Required to Spur Innovation
Nicholas Economides writes for the Financial Times (UK): "For the first time in history, the majority of the Earth’s population is connected by a global communications network. Unlike traditional information networks, such as newspapers, radio and TV, however, the internet is based on interactive communication. It has allowed for a revolutionary real-time participation of users."

Copps: Maybe Bradcasters Deserve to Loss their Spectrum
John Eggerton reports for Broadcast and Cable: "FCC Commissioner Michael Copps took it to broadcasters again Tuesday, saying that if the FCC can't rejuvenate shuttered newsrooms, put the brakes on 'mind-numbing 'monoprogramming'' and otherwise turn the tide (he calls it a "tsunami"), of consolidation, then 'maybe those who want the spectrum back have the better of the argument after all.' He was referring to calls from wireless and computer companies, and an FCC outreach to broadcasters, to reclaim some, or even all, of their spectrum for wireless broadband."

Pentagon Pursuing New Investigation into Bush Propaganda Program
Brad Jacobson writes for The Raw Story: "The Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General is conducting a new investigation into a covert Bush administration Defense Department program that used retired military analysts to produce positive wartime news coverage. Last May, the Inspector General’s office rescinded and repudiated a prior internal investigation’s report on the retired military analyst program, which had been issued by the Bush administration, because it “did not meet accepted quality standards for an Inspector General work product.” Yet in recent interviews with Raw Story, Pentagon officials who took part in the program were still defending it by referencing this invalidated report."

Clippings for 3 September 2009

Living in a Culture of Cruelty: Democracy as Spectacle

Henry A. Giroux writes for Truthout: "Under the Bush administration, a seeping, sometimes galloping, authoritarianism began to reach into every vestige of the culture, giving free rein to those anti-democratic forces in which religious, market, military and political fundamentalism thrived, casting an ominous shadow over the fate of United States democracy. During the Bush-Cheney regime, power became an instrument of retribution and punishment connected to and fueled by a repressive state, a bullying rhetoric of war, a ruthless consolidation of economic forces and an all-embracing free-market apparatus and media-driven pedagogy of fear that supported and sustained a distinct culture of cruelty and inequality in the United States."

Bush's Third Term? You're Living It

David Swanson writes for TomDispatch.com: "It sounds like the plot for the latest summer horror movie. Imagine, for a moment, that George W. Bush had been allowed a third term as president, had run and had won or stolen it, and that we were all now living (and dying) through it. With the Democrats in control of Congress but Bush still in the Oval Office, the media would certainly be talking endlessly about a mandate for bipartisanship and the importance of taking into account the concerns of Republicans. Can't you just picture it?"

Ex-Countrywide Executives' Firm Modifies Bad Loans for Taxpayer Cash

Alexandra Andrews, ProPublica: "Among the servicers participating in the government's mortgage modification program is a new recruit that's not like the others. PennyMac, a firm founded by the former president and chief operating officer of Countrywide, buys distressed home loans on the cheap with the goal of modifying them and later selling them for a profit. The company, whose top management consists mostly of former Countrywide executives, now stands to receive up to $6.2 million in taxpayer money to modify those loans, through the Making Home Affordable program. The government's incentive payments go primarily to the participating servicer, but some of the money could also go to borrowers and investors."

Recommended Audio: Turthdig Interview - Not Really a Lifeline for Homeowners?

Turthdig interviews John Dunbar of the Center for Public Integrity who has analyzed the Obama administration’s home loan modification program, which aims to keep troubled borrowers in their homes, and finds it “highly problematic.”

Hell Hasn't Broken Out in Iraq

Juan Cole writes for Salon.com: " One of the major headlines out of Iraq today is the release of non-insurgent casualty figures for August, which are 456, as Agence France Presse reports. This was the highest monthly toll since July of 2008. I commend AFP on how it reported this story. Unlike a lot of other pieces, this one does not exaggerate the significance of August's figures and points out that there was also a surge of violence in June, when the U.S. military was still largely in charge of security, and when 367 Iraqi civilians and members of security forces were killed."

Obama's Meaningless War

Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig.com: "True, he doesn’t seem a bit like Lyndon Johnson, but the way he’s headed on Afghanistan, Barack Obama is threatened with a quagmire that could bog down his presidency. LBJ also had a progressive agenda in mind, beginning with his war on poverty, but it was soon overwhelmed by the cost and divisiveness engendered by a meaningless, and seemingly endless, war in Vietnam."

Animal House in Afghanistan

Daniel Schulman writes for Mother Jones: "Drunken brawls, prostitutes, hazing and humiliation, taking vodka shots out of buttcracks— no, the perpetrators of these Animal House-like antics aren't some depraved frat brothers. They are the private security contractors guarding the US embassy compound in Kabul." UPDATE: Here are the jaw-dropping photos.

Rachel Maddow Leaves Tom Ridge Begging for Homeland Security

Joe Coscarelliwrites for Mediaite: "When a high-ranking government official meets an establishment journalist, the ensuing fawning at the feet of power can sometimes be too much to bear. Just last weekend, blogger Andrew Sullivan compared Fox New Sunday’s Chris Wallace to a “teenage girl interviewing the Jonas Brothers” for his lack of incision in a televised segment with former Vice President Dick Cheney. And then there’s Rachel Maddow, who on last night’s episode of her MSNBC show was the most well-prepared “teenage girl” on TV, calmly dismantling every argument put forth by former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge."

C.I.A. Resists Releasing Disclosure of Records on Detention

Mark Mazzetti reports for the New York Times: "The Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to make public hundreds of pages of internal documents about the agency’s defunct detention and interrogation program, saying such disclosures would jeopardize national security by revealing classified intelligence sources and operations."

The Right's "Tenther" Constitution

Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Nate Carlile, Zaid Jilani, and Ian Milhiser write for The Progress Report at Think Progress: "In a recent Fox News interview, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) accused health care reform supporters of "forg[etting] what the Constitution says." Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who once called for his Party to defeat health reform because it will "break" President Obama, claimed that health reform violates the Tenth Amendment and urged state legislators and governors to "champion individual freedom" by resisting the bill. Numerous state lawmakers -- including secessionist Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) -- have struck a similar tone, endorsing "state sovereignty resolutions" that demand the federal government "cease and desist" enforcing many laws with which conservatives disagree. (Emboldened by Perry's hardline stance, Texas "tenthers" held a pro-secession rally at the state capital yesterday, demanding that their political opponents "go back to the U.S. where you belong.") Indeed, while "birther" conspiracy theorists make increasingly outlandish attempts to dismantle President Obama's legitimacy, "tenther" constitutionalists like Bachmann, DeMint, and Perry hope to dismantle an entire century's worth of progressive legislation."

How to Identify Astroturfers and Front Groups

Chris Walters writes for The Consumerist: "Everyone likes to hate on spammers, but they're basically the houseflies of the Internet. Far more insidious and damaging are astroturfers and front groups—those corporate-funded, agenda-pushing people who don't disclose who they're really working for while they participate in online culture and the media. The Center for Media and Democracy has put together a list of tips to help you identify them from real grassroots movements, while Free Press has created a widget that reveals front groups for five large companies you frequently see on Consumerist."

Facts Are First Casualty in Health Care Debate

Joe Garofoli reports for The San Francisco Chronicle: "People relying on TV advertising or partisan sources for information about health care legislation in Congress have heard that it will 'ration' care to the nation's oldest citizens and hike premiums '95 percent.' Or that Republican voters 'might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system.' President Obama, meanwhile, has said don't worry, the plan 'will be paid for.' Such statements, made in what analysts say is likely to be one of the most expensive issue-oriented campaigns ever, are misleading - if not flat-out wrong."

A Cake Knife Is Useless in a Gunfight

Gene Lyons writes for Salon.com: "If President Obama expects Congress to pass a healthcare reform bill worth signing, he'd better grasp that "bipartisanship" is a means, not an end. After eight years of cheering themselves hoarse over one catastrophic Bush blunder after another, Republicans will start dealing with reality only when they're afraid not to. Right now, it's their talk-radio/Fox News-hypnotized base that's got GOP congressmen running scared."

Against Wall Street's Health Care Takeover

Wendell Potter writes for Common Dreams: "I would like to begin by apologizing to all of you for the role I played 15 years ago in cheating you out of a reformed health care system. Had it not been for greedy insurance companies and other special interests, and their army of lobbyists and spin-doctors like I used to be, we wouldn't be here today." 

Six Health Insurance Companies Investigated for "Purging" Small Businesses

Jared Allen reports for The Hill: "Two House committees asked six large health insurance companies for information about the 'purging' of small businesses from their plans. Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who chairs the Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, asked the companies for data regarding the purging of small businesses when the employees of those businesses become ill and the companies' health insurance claims increase."

What's Karen Ignagni's Copay?

Stephanie Mencimer writes for Mother Jones: "What kind of health care coverage does the nation's top health insurance lobbyist have? Her trade group refuses to say.  Karen Ignagni is the health insurance industry's main defender in Washington. As the president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the industry's lobby, she represents all the big insurance companies: WellPoint, Aetna, UnitedHealth, and CIGNA, among others. As such, she's one of the leading opponents of the so-called public option—a proposed government-run health care plan that would compete with private plans as a way of lowering costs. AHIP recently organized 50,000 insurance company employees to fan out to congressional town hall meetings to fight the public option, which the industry views as a major threat to its bottom line. They recognize that without having to pay enormous executive salaries or hire corporate jets, the government-run plan might be cheap enough to steal away a big chunk of their business."

CLIMATE CHANGE: Early Warning Systems for Coming Storm

Stephen Leary reports for Inter Press Service: "Climate change is here. The challenge in Geneva this week is to find ways to help the world cope with a climate that will have more and worse extremes in terms of temperatures, floods, and storms.  More than 2,500 experts and policy-makers from 150 countries are attending the Aug. 31-Sep. 4 World Climate Conference to discuss how to improve weather forecasting and long-range seasonal weather projections, especially to help poor nations in areas such as agriculture."

New Light on Copenhagen Climate Talks

Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: "On Sept. 1, the European Union stopped manufacturing and importing incandescent light bulbs. Europeans will now turn to the much more efficient compact fluorescent, halogen and LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs. Incandescents, critics argue, waste up to 95 percent of energy as heat, using only 5 percent for light. The EU hopes to save the equivalent of 11 million households’ energy usage through the year 2020, worth $7.33 billion per year to the European economy."

Resisting Homophobia in the Military

Dahr Jamail writes for Truthout: "Homophobia arguably manifests itself in the worst form of discrimination in the military, surpassing even racism. Instead of enabling recruits to vanquish their prejudices and strengthening the individual and the collective spirit, all military training seems to be geared toward invoking the darkest elements in human nature - fear, hatred, pettiness, insecurity and similar aberrations. Under normal conditions, such an orientation legitimizes unacceptable behavior; under harsh and hostile conditions, it makes beasts of men. It is immaterial whether one is at the perpetrating end or the receiving end of unjust behavior."

Free Press Calls on FCC to Open Inquiry into Cable Market Competition

John Eggerton reports in Broadcasting and Cable: "Consolidation critic Free Press has called on the FCC to open a broad inquiry into competition in the cable marketplace, similar to the FCC's just-announced inquiry into wireless phone/broadband competition, citing a D.C. federal appeal's court's scrapping of the 30% ownership cap as making that inquiry more necessary."

Fox and Friends Support Blacklisting and “Stomping Out” Professors Who Aren’t “Fair and Balanced”

Priscilla writes for News Hounds: "No, they’re not playing Santa; but rather channeling that McCarthy era sport of drawing up lists – as in “black lists.” Taking a cue from their favorite political era, the good old days of publicly denouncing anyone deemed “commie,” young college Republicans are now drawing up lists of today’s “commies” – college professors deemed too liberal. In the spirit of “what’s old is new again,” today’s “conservatives” are doing a reprise of John Birch days of bobby sox and black lists in an attempt to bring back the “good old” and “happy” days of paranoia about those who are attempting to destroy the world as we know it. So it’s not surprising that Fox&Friends, a show that yearns to bring us back to the halcyon days of father knows best, is giving some face time to a young Republican who isn’t going to take it anymore so he’s making a list. Liberal college professor baiting – it’s so retro chic. Joe McCarthy would be so proud."

US Officials Cancel Contract to Profile Reporters

Richard Lardner reports for The Associated Press: "US military authorities in Afghanistan have terminated a contract with a company that was producing profiles of reporters seeking to cover a war that's becoming increasingly unpopular with the American public. The media analysis work being done by The Rendon Group had become a 'distraction to our main mission here,' Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, director of communications for US Forces Afghanistan, said Monday in an emailed statement."

Why Glenn Beck, and Fox News, Can't Escape the "Racist" Trap

Eric Boehlert writes for Media Matters for America: "Have so many blue-chip advertisers ever fled a program as quickly as the who's who of corporate America that's sprinted away from Glenn Beck in recent weeks? I certainly cannot recall ever seeing a mass exodus of this scale. The A-list collection of disgruntled Beck advertisers is staggering: Applebee's, AT&T, Bank of America, Best Buy, Campbell Soup, Clorox, ConAgra, CVS, Ditech, Farmers Insurance Group, GEICO, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, Lowe's, Nutrisystem, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack, Sprint, State Farm Insurance, The UPS Store, Travelers Insurance, Verizon Wireless, Vonage, and Wal-Mart, among others."

Chris Wallace, A Teenage Girl Interviewing the Jonas Brothers

Andrew Sullivan writes for The Atlantic: "Here are the tough and penetrating questions asked by Chris Wallace of a man whose critics accuse of war crimes, and whose administration presided over the death of over a hundred prisoners in interrogation, who authorized torture techniques once trade-marked by the Khmer Rouge:"

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."

Clippings for 12 July 2009

Obama's Tortured Democracy
Henry A. Giroux writes for Truthout: "By refusing to release photos of those tortured by US forces, Obama sadly continues yet another element of the Bush regime, organized around an attempt to regulate the visual field, to mandate what can be seen and modify the landscape of the sensible and visible. And equally important, as Judith Butler points out, the Obama administration's application of the state-secrecy privilege grants it the power to determine 'which lives count as human and as living, and which do not.'"

Cheney Linked to Secrecy of CIA Program
Greg Miller, The Los Angeles Times: "The CIA kept a highly classified counter-terrorism program secret from Congress for eight years at the direction of then-Vice President Dick Cheney, according to sources familiar with an account that agency Director Leon E. Panetta provided recently to House and Senate committees."

Inspectors General Confirm Bush Admin Carried Out Massive Illegal Surveillance, More Than Previously Known
Faiz Shakir writes for Think Progress: "A congressionally-mandated report by Inspectors General of five separate intelligence agencies confirms that the Bush administration carried out “unprecedented,” massive surveillance activities beyond the warrantless wirteapping program that had previously been revealed. The Bush administration authorized the program without fully notifying Congress:"

More Democrats Call for Investigating the CIA
Alex Isenstadt reprots for The Politico: "Calls for an investigation into the Central Intelligence Agency intensified this weekend amid revelations that former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the concealment of a covert agency spy program from Congress. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said that the Senate Intelligence Committee should 'absolutely' investigate the program."

CIA's History of Lying to Congress
Lisa Pease writes for Consortium News: "On TV this week, with a measure of disbelief in their voices, the pundits ask, did the CIA lie to or deliberately mislead Congress? How is that not a rhetorical question?"

Recommended Audio: Rethink Afghanistan (Part 5) - Women of Afghanistan


When Will The Recovery Begin? Never.
Robert Reich on Robert Reich's Blog: "In a recession this deep, recovery doesn't depend on investors. It depends on consumers who, after all, are 70 percent of the US economy. And this time consumers got really whacked. Until consumers start spending again, you can forget any recovery, V or U shaped."

Block Report Breaks the Blockade on Coverage of Cynthia McKinney Kidnapping


San Francisco Bay View reports: "Minister of Information JR caught up with former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party’s 2008 presidential candidate, upon her return to the U.S. from a week’s incarceration in an Israeli jail. She and the Free Gaza 21 – the crew and passengers, including political leaders, human rights workers, Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire among them, and journalists, of the boat “Spirit of Humanity” – had been boarded, assaulted and kidnapped while sailing in international waters by a fleet of Israeli warships."
Recommended Audio: McKinney Interview on Block Report Radio

Some Choice Words for "The Select Few"
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship comments for Truthout: "If you want to know what really matters in Washington, don't go to Capitol Hill for one of those hearings, or pay attention to those staged White House 'town meetings.' They're just for show. What really happens - the serious business of Washington - happens in the shadows, out of sight, off the record. Only occasionally - and usually only because someone high up stumbles - do we get a glimpse of just how pervasive the corruption has become."

Recommended Audio: Bill Moyer's Journal for 10 July
Wendell Potter on Profits before People
With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform.
Health Care Reform on the Table
Health care reform is coming. Both Congress and President Obama have made it a top priority. Now comes the tricky part — designing and funding a plan. Politicians are jockeying for the lead in structuring the final plan. And lobbyists and interest groups are spending lots of money making their case on the Hill and in the media.

Don't Enshrine Discrimination in Health Care Reform
Deepak Bhargava writes on The Huffington Post: "Finally, the country seems serious about reforming health care. But with discussions about a public option, cost control and competition raging, one aspect of achieving true universal coverage is being left out: what to do about immigrants who lack coverage?"

Howard Dean: "This Is Ridiculous. We're 60 Years Behind the Times" on Fixing Health Care
Joshua Holland writes for AlterNet: "During the 2004 presidential primaries, the conventional wisdom among Howard Dean's energized supporters was that the over-the-top conservative attacks on the Vermont governor reflected the degree to which the right feared his nomination. With his blunt, plainspoken populism, the argument went at the time, Dean represented a threat to the Bush administration's prospects for re-election that his more polished Democratic opponents lacked."

Let Them Eat Tax Cuts
Ellen at New Hounds writes: "On yesterday’s (7/11/09) Forbes on Fox, much of the mostly-conservative panel argued with a straight face that poor people would be better off with more corporate tax cuts instead of food stamps. Out of seven people, only panelists Quentin Hardy and Evelyn Rusli saw the mean-spirited ridiculousness of the suggestion. With video."

Massachusetts to Challenge US Marriage Ban
Nandini Jayakrishna and Jonathan Saltzman report for the Boston Globe: "Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, yesterday became the first to challenge the constitutionality of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, contending that Congress intruded into a matter that should be left to states."