Resource Materials on Jeff Sharlet

The Democrats' New "Family" Values:Thanks to C Streeter Bart Stupak and his allies, the GOP isn't the only party kowtowing to the Christian right
Sharlet writes on 10 November 2009 for Salon:com: "American women will pay the price for the Democratic dithering that allowed Saturday's passage of the Stupak-Pitts amendment, a worm virus inserted into the House healthcare reform bill with surgical precision. But the Democratic Party will suffer collateral damage."

Recommended Audio: Democracy Now! - Jeff Sharlet on “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power”

A secretive group known as The Fellowship, or “The Family,” is one of the most powerful Christian fundamentalist movements in the United States. The Family’s devoted membership includes congressmen, corporate leaders, generals and foreign heads of state. Author Jeff Sharlet profiles the group in his book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.

Jesus Killed Mohammed: The Crusade for a Christian Military
Sharlet writes in the May 2009 Harpers: "When Sergeant Jeffery Humphrey and his squad of nine men, part of the 1/26 Infantry of the 1st Infantry Division, were assigned to a Special Forces compound in Samarra, he thought they had drawn a dream duty. “Guarding Special Forces, it was like Christmas,” he says. In fact, it was spring, 2004; and although Humphrey was a combat veteran of Kosovo and Iraq, the men to whom he was detailed, the 10th Special Forces Group, were not interested in grunts like him. They would not say what they were doing, and they used code names. They called themselves 'the Faith element.' But they did not talk religion, which was fine with Humphrey."

Sex and Power inside "the C Street House"
Sharlet writes on 21 July 2009 for Salon.com: "I can't say I was impressed when I met Sen. John Ensign at the C Street House, the secretive religious enclave on Capitol Hill thrust into the news by its links to three political sex scandals, those of Gov. Mark Sanford; former Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss., who allegedly rendezvoused at the C Street House with his mistress, an executive in the industry for which he then became a lobbyist; and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. Although Sanford declared today that his scandal will actually turn out to be good for the people of South Carolina because he's now more firmly in God's control, the once-favored GOP presidential prospect will finish out his term and fade away. And Ensign's residence at the C Street House during his own extramarital affair now threatens to end a career that he and other Republicans hoped would lead him to the White House."

Recommended Media: Rachel Maddow - Sharlet Reveals Disturbing Details about Conservative "C Street House" Organization

Nicholas Graham writes for the Huffington Post (July 2009): "More and more information is beginning to leak out about the "C Street House" and the conservative and religious brethren of GOP politicians who live or have lived in the now infamous house. The house made headlines recently when it was discovered that among its occupants had been John Ensign, Mark Sanford and Charles Pickering, all religious Republican politicians who were revealed to be having extramarital affairs."

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God's Senator: Who Would Jesus Vote for? Meet Sam Bronback
Sharlet writes in the January 2006 RollingStone: "Nobody in this little church just off Times Square in Manhattan thinks of themselves as political. They're spiritual -- actors and athletes and pretty young things who believe that every word of the Bible is inerrant dictation from God. They look down from the balcony of the Morning Star, swaying and smiling at the screen that tells them how to sing along. Nail-pierced hands, a wounded side. This is love, this is love! But on this evening in January, politics and all its worldly machinations have entered their church. Sitting in the darkness of the front row is Sam Brownback, the Republican senator from Kansas. And hunched over on the stage in a red leather chair is an old man named Harald Bredesen, who has come to anoint Brownback as the Christian right's next candidate for president."

Through a Glass, Darkly: How the Christian Right is Re-Inventing American History
Sharlet writes in the December 2006 Harpers: "We keep trying to explain away American fundamentalism. Those of us not engaged personally or emotionally in the biggest political and cultural movement of our times those on the sidelines of history keep trying to come up with theories with which to discredit the evident allure of this punishing yet oddly comforting idea of a deity, this strange god. His invisible hand is everywhere, say His citizen, otheologians, caressing and fixing every outcome: Little League games, job searches, test scores, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, the_success or failure of terrorist attacks (also known as "signs"), victory or defeat in bat,.. tie, at the ballot box, in bed. Those unable to feel His soothing touch at moments such as these snort at the notion of a god with the patience - or the prurience to monitor every tick and twitch of desire, a supreme being able to make a lion and a lamb cuddle but unable to abide two men kissing. A divine love that speaks through hurricanes. Who would worship such a god? His followers must be dupes, or saps, or fools, their faith illiterate, insane, or misnformed) their strength fleeting, hollow, an aberration. A burp in American history. An unpleasant odor that will pass."

Jesus Plus Nothing: Undercover with America's Secret Theocrats
Sharlet writes in the March 2003 Harpers: "This is how they pray: a dozen clear-eyed, smooth-skinned “brothers” gathered together in a huddle, arms crossing arms over shoulders like the weave of a cable, leaning in on one another and swaying like the long grass up the hill from the house they share. The house is a handsome, gray, two-story colonial that smells of new carpet and Pine-Sol and aftershave; the men who live there call it Ivanwald. At the end of a tree-lined cul-de-sac, quiet but for the buzz of lawn mowers and kids playing foxes-and-hounds in the park across the road, Ivanwald sits as one house among many, clustered together like mushrooms, all devoted, like these men, to the service of Jesus Christ. The men tend every tulip in the cul-de-sac, trim every magnolia, seal every driveway smooth and black as boot leather. And they pray, assembled at the dining table or on their lawn or in the hallway or in the bunk room or on the basketball court, each man's head bowed in humility and swollen with pride (secretly, he thinks) at being counted among such a fine corps for Christ, among men to whom he will open his heart and whom he will remember when he returns to the world not born-again but remade, no longer an individual but part of the Lord's revolution, his will transformed into a weapon for what the young men call 'spiritual war.'"

Sharlet also writes for Religion Dispatches.  His archive of article for this blog can be found at: http://www.religiondispatches.org/authors/jeffsharlet/ 

For more information of Sharlet, visit his webpage at http://www.jeffsharlet.com

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 15 February 2009

Trying to Revive the Bubble Economy: Obama's Awful Financial Recovery Plan
Michael Hudson writes for Counter Punch: "Martin Wolf started off his Financial Times column for February 11 with the bold question: 'Has Barack Obama’s presidency already failed?' The stock market had a similar opinion, plunging 382 points. Having promised 'change,' Mr. Obama is giving us more Clinton-Bush via Robert Rubin’s protégé, Tim Geithner. Tuesday’s $2.5 trillion Financial Stabilization Plan to re-inflate the Bubble Economy is basically an extension of the Bush-Paulson giveaway – yet more Rubinomics for financial insiders in the emerging Wall Street trusts. The financial system is to be concentrated into a cartel of just a few giant conglomerates to act as the economy’s central planners and resource allocators. This makes banks the big winners in the game of 'chicken' they’ve been playing with Washington, a shakedown holding the economy hostage. 'Give us what we want or we’ll plunge the economy into financial crisis.' Washington has given them $9 trillion so far, with promises now of another $2 trillion– and still counting."

The Stimulus Plan: A Detailed List of Spending
Michael Grabell and Christopher Weaver write for ProPublica: "The House approved the economic stimulus plan Friday afternoon with a vote of 246 to 183, followed by the Senate with a vote of 60 to 38. Want to know what's in it? You could read the 1,071-page gorilla that passed today. Or you could let us do the work for you. We’ve dissected the beast in two charts – one for spending below, and one for taxes. The appropriations section of the bill details spending in excess of $311 billion for programs ranging from Pell grants for college students to clean water in central Utah to nearly $100 billion in new transportation and infrastructure projects. "
More on the Stimulus Package:

• Download the Stimulus Bill
• Track the Stimulus (Decoder Ring Included!)
• The Stimulus Bills: House vs. Senate

Stimulus Bill Limits TARP Executive Pay
Paul Keil writes for ProPublic: "Top executives at banks that got money from the TARP will face stricter compensation limits thanks to the stimulus bill. That’s because tucked into the 1,071-page bill is a twelve-page section that goes much further than any limits imposed by the Bush administration or even contemplated by the Obama administration."

Economic Stimulus Bill Passes Without a Single Kansas Republican Vote
Our friends at KansasJackass writes: "At least they're predictable. Not a single Kansas Republican Member of Congress voted in favor of the economic stimulus bill as it achieved final approval yesterday. In fact, in the House, not a single Republican from anywhere voted for it for the second time, while three moderate Republicans in the Senate broke ranks and voted for final passage."

Schools Take the Back Seat Again
Derrick Z. Jackson comments for the Boston Globe: "Eight years ago, President Bush entered office with some bipartisan credibility on education, rightfully proclaiming that schoolchildren suffer from the soft bigotry of low expectations. He and the Republicans quickly discredited themselves with low federal funding for reform. So long was Washington anesthetized that the Democrats still seemed in a coma this week as Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the three moderates the Democrats desperately needed for the stimulus bill, stripped more than $40 billion in school construction and general aid to schools."

Report: Public Fears More Job Losses
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reports: "For the public, the continuing financial crisis has been overtaken by a jobs crisis. The proportion of Americans citing jobs or unemployment as the nation's most important economic problem has more than quadrupled - from 10% to 42% - since early October and job worries now far surpass concerns over the financial crisis."

Media Under Scrutiny for "Talking Up" Financial Crisis
Kathleen Moore reports for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: "In September 2007, the BBC broke a huge story: troubled bank Northern Rock was to get an emergency loan from Britain's central bank. The next day, anxious depositors queued up to withdraw their cash in the first run on a bank in Britain in around 150 years. One year later, during perhaps the most intense week in the credit crisis, Britain's Lloyds bank was reported to be in talks to buy its rival, HBOS. Shares in HBOS soared. These were among a series of major scoops that catapulted BBC reporter Robert Peston to national attention, and made financial journalists part of last year's biggest news story."

Dump the GOP
William Rivers Pitt comments for Truthout: "Former GOP Congressman Joe Scarborough was doing his MSNBC morning yak-fest on Friday, and made a comment about how President Obama's newly-finalized stimulus package has 'greatly offended Republicans.' His guests all agreed with solemnly nodding heads, yeah, you're right, Joe, Obama offended the Republicans. Greatly and stuff. This grim pronouncement came on the heels of GOP Sen. Judd Gregg's stunning announcement that he was withdrawing as Obama's nominee for commerce secretary. Citing irreconcilable differences between himself and the Obama administration on the stimulus bill as well as the upcoming census, Gregg said, 'The bottom line is, this was simply a bridge too far for me.'"

The Ultra-Radical Republicans
Robert Barry writes for Consortium News: "Sixteen years ago, when another new Democratic President was trying to enact an economic package, the Republicans were entrenched in opposition, too. But there was a striking difference between those Republicans and today’s: the 1993 Republicans still showed some respect for democracy. In the Senate, Minority Leader Bob Dole whipped 100 percent of his troops into line opposing President Bill Clinton’s “deficit reduction plan.” With the help of six Democrats, Dole managed to deny Clinton a majority on the bill and forced Vice President Al Gore to break the 50-50 tie."

World Social Forum: Is Another World Possible?
Tim Costello and Brendan Smith write for The Nation: "The recently concluded World Social Forum is a good gauge for assessing the state of the world's alternative social, economic and political movements. Organized in 2001 as a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum, the annual meeting of global and corporate elites held in Davos, Switzerland, the WSF brings social movement organizations and activists from around the world together around the idea that 'another world is possible.'"

It's Called: "Misprison of a Felony" (And it is a felony, too!)
Stephen Pizzo writes for News for Real: "During the Bush years Americans the boogeyman used to keep Americans cowed was the real or imagined threat of imminent terrorist attack. Now we have a new president – and we have a new boogeyman – the economic meltdown. Now don't get me wrong. Anyone who's read this column over the past few years knows I've been Chicken Littling about the financial house of cards for a long time. And, now that it's finally collapsed, it's even worse than I predicted, and getting worse by the day."

New Torture Memos Outline Black Sites, Ghost Prisoners
Steve Aquino writes for Mother Jones: "Three human rights groups released more than a thousand pages of Department of Defense and CIA documents Thursday that outline how closely the two agencies worked in rendering terrorism suspects to black sites, keeping detainees' identities secret, and tempering bad publicity for inmate treatment at Guántanamo Bay."

"That young man never should have come into the Army"
Kenneth Eastridge had PTSD before he ever donned a uniform or did two tours of duty in Iraq. Now he's in prison for his part in the murder of a fellow soldier.

Editor's note: This is the fourth installment in a weeklong investigative series called "Coming Home." You can look at Kenneth Eastridge's MySpace page here, and read the story of Robert Marko here. Marko was sent to Iraq despite psychological problems and is now awaiting trial for murder in Colorado. You can also read the introduction to the series, and the first, second and third installments, which appeared Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Michael de Yoanna and Mark Benjamin write for Salon.com: "Feb. 13, 2009 | FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Late on the night of March 11, 2006, Kenneth Eastridge got in a fight with his girlfriend. It ended with his arrest for a felony. The Kentucky native, an Army soldier stationed at Fort Carson, between deployments in Iraq, had fallen asleep after drinking when his girlfriend began to pound on his apartment door. She wanted inside, and she wanted to talk. Eastridge responded with a string of obscenities and then flung the door open. He pointed a loaded pistol at his girlfriend. She looked at him like he was crazy, then turned and ran. Eastridge didn't fire. He stood motionless, stunned by his own reaction."

Six Key Questions for Obama on Health Care
Rashi Fien writes for Nieman Watchdog: "There are some critical decisions that need to be made on the way to universal health care. Distinguished medical economist Rashi Fein wants to know if the new president is of the 'strike while the iron is hot' school – or the 'haste makes waste' school? Which does he think comes first: universal health care or cost containment? And four other questions."

Elevating Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning Under the Obama Administration
Maurice Middleberg writes for RH Reality Check: "By repealing the Global Gag Rule on his third day in office, President Obama took a huge first step toward leading the world in addressing the health needs of the world's poorest women, children and families. Now it is time to get to work on elevating what has been a stagnant American response on global family health and work toward saving the lives of millions of women and children."

Recovery Plan Captures Energy Opportunity
Daniel J. Weiss and Alexandra Kougentakis write for the Center for American Progress: "More than a year after the recession began and after 3.6 million Americans lost their jobs, Congress is about to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, H.R. 1. The act will inject $789 billion into new programs and tax incentives to stimulate the economy. Unprecedented investments in clean energy are a central element of the recovery plan. The bill includes $71 billion for clean energy programs—more than three times the current spending for these same programs (download the breakdown here (.xls)). H.R. 1 also adds $20 billion in clean energy tax incentives. The bill would 'spark the creation of a clean-energy economy' that President Barack Obama promised during his inaugural address."

Don't Get Duped like Obama: Here's the Top 5 Myths about Coal
Torra Lohan writes for AlterNet.org: "The facts are pretty simple, the U.S. Department of Energy said: 'Burning coal is the dirtiest way we produce electricity.' And yet oddly the Obama administration, which has embraced climate legislation and green jobs, is a supporter of the oxymoronic 'clean coal.' The White House Web site proclaims that one of Obama's priorities is to, 'develop and deploy clean coal technology.' And Obama isn't the only who is helping to spread the 'clean coal' myth. The new stimulus bill, which just passed Congress, calls for $3.4 million for 'fossil energy research,' which refers to carbon dioxide sequestration projects (more on the problems with that below) -- the key component in the 'clean coal' fantasy."

Coal-Fired Power Stations Are Death Factories. Close Them.
James Hansen writes for the Guardian UK: "A year ago, I wrote to Gordon Brown asking him to place a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in Britain. I have asked the same of Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd and other leaders. The reason is this - coal is the single greatest threat to civilisation and all life on our planet. The climate is nearing tipping points. Changes are beginning to appear and there is a potential for explosive changes, effects that would be irreversible, if we do not rapidly slow fossil-fuel emissions over the next few decades. As Arctic sea ice melts, the darker ocean absorbs more sunlight and speeds melting. As the tundra melts, methane, a strong greenhouse gas, is released, causing more warming. As species are exterminated by shifting climate zones, ecosystems can collapse, destroying more species."

Western Front: While secularists sleep well-funded creationists are on the march in Europe
Peter C Kjærgaard writes for the New Humanist: "On 4 October 2007 the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly passed Resolution 1580, which issued a stark warning: creationism, the denial of Darwinian evolution, is on the rise in Europe. The resolution focused on the way that creationists across the continent, using the model pioneered in America, have been targeting education, and warned of 'a real risk of serious confusion being introduced into our children’s minds between what has to do with convictions, beliefs, ideals of all sorts and what has to do with science.' 'An ‘all things are equal’ attitude,' it concludes, 'may seem appealing and tolerant, but is in fact dangerous.'"

What's the Outlook for Broadband and the Internet?
Bruce Kushnick writes for Nieman Watchdog: The congressional stimulus packages could go either way, writes consumer advocate Bruce Kushnick. They could mark a new, promising beginning—or they could be a new boondoggle for AT&T, Verizon and rural phone companies."

David Brooks Reveals the Mentality of the Beltway Journalist
Glen Greenwald comments for Salon.com: "The New York Times' David Brooks and Gail Collins had an online "conversation" with one another this week, and Brooks did an excellent job of explicitly demonstrating most everything that is relevant -- and destructive -- about the mentality of the standard Beltway journalist (h/t reader jm). In fact, much of what Brooks wrote about what he believes tracks almost completely the discussion I had with Jay Rosen on Bill Moyers' show last week regarding the rot of the American political press. First, there's this from Brooks..."

Clippings for 4 january 2009

Click on titles to read complete stories.

Making "Duck Soup" Out of 2009
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship write for Truthout: "As 2008 ends and this New Year begins, with all its fledgling promise despite turmoil and crisis, it's also that time when the media offers its lists of ten best or worst this and that of the previous year, an exercise that simultaneously entertains and infuriates. Forced at knifepoint to make such lists, at least ours would be a little different. One would be favorite headlines of the year from The Onion, the hilarious weekly that doesn't bill itself as 'America's finest news source' for nothing. If you can read it without laughing, you probably have been paying too much attention to your 401(k)."

The Iraq War is Now Illegal
Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway write for the Daily Beast: "The Bush administration’s infatuation with presidential power has finally pushed the country over a constitutional precipice. As of New Year’s Day, ongoing combat in Iraq is illegal under US law. In authorizing an invasion in 2002, Congress did not give President Bush a blank check. It explicitly limited the use of force to two purposes: to 'defend the national security of the US from the threat posed by Iraq' and 'enforce all relevant UN Security Council resolutions.'"

Iranians Ponder Their Future with an Obama Administration or Everything You Need to Know about Iran but the Mass Media, the Republicans, and Hilary Clinton Are Afraid to Tell You.
Ann Wright writes for Turthout: "Just a month ago, while Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US President George Bush met for the last time as heads of state in late November 2008 in Washington and continued their relentless bellicose rhetoric toward Iran, I and three activists from the United States were in Iran as citizen diplomats talking with Iranians on their views of a new American presidential administration and their hopes for their country."

Will Obama "Deimperialize" the Presidency?
Gail Russell Chaddock writes for The Christian Science Monitor: "As a US senator and presidential candidate, Barack Obama routinely criticized the accretion of presidential power during the Bush years. But in the run-up to assuming the presidency himself, the President-elect has gone silent on whether he would roll back powers claimed during the Bush years - or support congressional efforts to do so."

Israel in Gaza: Right but not Smart
Rabbi Michael Lerner comments for Religion Dispatches: "Israel's attempt to wipe out Hamas is understandable, but dumb. No country in the world is going to ignore the provocation of rockets being launched from neighboring territory day after day. If Mexico had a group of anti-imperialist South Americans bombing Texas, imagine how long it would take for the US to mobilize a counterattack. Israel has every right to respond. But the kind of response matters."

More Groups Than Thought Monitored in Police Spying
Lisa Rein and Josh White report for The Washington Post: "The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored - and labeled as terrorists - activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes. Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a "security threat" because of concerns that members would disrupt the circus. Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate increase in 2006 were targeted. The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without explanation."

Treasury Has Pledged More Rescue Funds Than Authorized
Michael Crittenden reports for The Wall Street Journal: "The Treasury Department has committed nearly $10 billion more than the $350 billion Congress has authorized to date for the financial-sector rescue package, which could constrain how the incoming Obama administration deploys the rest of the fund. Treasury's announcement Monday that it is directing $6 billion to auto-finance company GMAC LLC brought to $358.4 billion the total funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program that have been pledged to a variety of programs and guarantees. That suggests Treasury is tapping into the second half of the $700 billion set aside in October before it has been released by Congress."

A Trillion Dollar Recovery
Katrina vanden Heuvel writes for The Nation: "Poverty is on the rise, record numbers of people are relying on food stamps and we've seen no relief for the foreclosure crisis. There are increasing rates of child abuse and domestic violence linked to this recession. State governments don't have financial resources to cope at the exact moment when those resources are most needed. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have lowered Medicaid payments or eliminated people from eligibility. The senior economist of the International Monetary Fund recently warned of another Great Depression. We don't need a stimulus, we need a recovery. And that means investing $1 trillion over the next two years. "

Recommended Audio: Truthdig.com "Why We Fight" Director on the American Way of War
Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki speaks with Truthdig’s Kasia Anderson about his new book, whether Obama can deliver, and why the U.S. is like Elvis.

The January Edition of Scientific American
This month's edition is entitled: The Evolution of Evolution and features articles such as:
The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom, by Glenn Branch and Eugenie C. Scott: Creationists who want religious ideas taught as scientific fact in public schools continue to adapt to courtroom defeats by hiding their true aims under ever changing guises.
Putting Evolution to Use in Everyday Life by David Mindell: Understanding of evolution is fostering powerful technologies for health care, law enforcement, ecology, and all manner of optimization and design problems.

Mercury's Place on the Far Right Secured
Christopher Renner writes in the Manhattan Mercury: "In the Mercury's editorial on Dec. 19, the editorial staff has once again shown it belongs to the reactionary right where bigotry is considered respectable. President-elect Barack Obama's selection of the Rev. Rick Warren for the inaugural invocation is disappointing to those of us who worked for Obama's election. It is a cheap grab for political gain that will taint his presidency in the long term and is worthy of denunciation."

2008 Top Ten Wins for Women's Health
Beth Fredrick writes on her blog for RH Reality Check: "The election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States provides an opportunity to uphold human rights, promote health for all, and change the future of millions. Women's health and rights advocates in every corner of the world expressed excitement and hopefulness."

Let's Pledge to Stop Being Stupid about Teenage Sex
Ellen Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: "I hate to bring this up right now when the ink is barely dry on your New Year’s resolution. But if history is any guide, you are likely to fall off the assorted wagons to which you are currently lashed. I don’t say this to disparage your willpower. Hang onto that celery stick for dear life. And even if you stop doing those stomach crunches and start sneaking out for a smoke, at least you can comfort yourself with fond memories of your moment of resolution."

Where Things Stand: The Road to Nowhere, Still Going Nowhere
Paul Keil reports for ProPublica: "The $26 million gravel road that Gov. Sarah Palin's administration constructed on nearly uninhabited Gravina Island still leads to an empty beach. And her administration is still planning on using $73 million in federal dollars to construct a better link between the town of Ketchikan and the island."

Climate Change Policies Failing, NASA Scientist Warns Obama
James Randerson reports for The Guardian UK: "Current approaches to deal with climate change are ineffectual, one of the world's top climate scientists said today in a personal new year appeal to Barack Obama and his wife Michelle on the urgent need to tackle global warming."

Dynegy Abandons Plans for 5 New Coal Plants
Bruce Nilles, Sierra Club, writes on Alternet's blog: "The hints came down in December, but today it is confirmed: Dynegy is abandoning its plans to build five new coal plants as a joint venture with LS Power. Without its larger partner, LS Power will have a very difficult time developing and financing the proposed plants, even though the company has said it will try."

Six Reasons Nuclear Power Won't Get Us Out of This
Rob Hopkins of Chelsea Green Publications offers a new book, The Transition Handbook: From oil dependency to local resilience. This article is an adaption from his new book.

Clippings for Friday, 24 October

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F Is for Failure: The Bush Doctrine
Tom Engelhardt writes for TomDispatch.com: "On the brief occasions when the President now appears in the Rose Garden to 'comfort' or 'reassure' a shock-and-awed nation, you can almost hear those legions of ducks quacking lamely in the background. Once upon a time, George W. Bush, along with his top officials and advisors, hoped to preside over a global Pax Americana and a domestic Pax Republicana - a legacy for the generations. More recently, their highest hope seems to have been to slip out of town in January before the you-know-what hits the fan. No such luck."

Communication Scholars Speak Out About Negative Campaigning
A group of top American communication professors have crafted and signed a statement calling on the McCain campaign, primarily, to stop its negative campaigning. “The purposeful dissemination of messages that a communicator knows to be false and inflammatory is unethical. It is that simple,” the statement says.

The Future of the Internet - Call to Action
A huge decision is going to be made on Election Day that could change the lives of millions of Americans. And it’s not about Obama or McCain. On Nov. 4, the Federal Communications Commission will vote to open unused television airwaves to provide affordable, wireless Internet services nationwide. Find out how you can help.

Could the US Election Be Stolen?
Agence France-Presse reports: "With John McCain and Barack Obama already swapping accusations of widespread voter fraud, experts warn that a bitter and protracted fight could ensue if the race to the White House is decided by a narrow margin. The legal battle over election rules has already made it all the way to the Supreme Court as Republicans fight to block potentially false registrations from being validated and Democrats struggle to prevent voter disenfranchisement."

Police Prepare for Post-Election Unrest
Alexandra Bolton reports for The Hill: "Police departments in cities across the country are beefing up their ranks for Election Day, preparing for possible civil unrest and riots after the historic presidential contest. Public safety officials said in interviews with The Hill that the election, which will end with either the nation's first black president or its first female vice president, demanded a stronger police presence.... Democratic strategists and advocates for black voters say they understand officers wanting to keep the peace, but caution that excessive police presence could intimidate voters."

Recommended Audio: New America Now: Border Special
New America Now (formerly UpFront Radio) is New America Media's award-winning radio show about dispatches from the new majority - inter-ethnic, international and intergenerational news for the new America. This episode from October 10th looks at issues of "borders" and the United States. It features: Navajo Times in Arizona covers the border and is also a link to home for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan; Edward Alden on his book "The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration and Security After 911"; David Danelo on his new book "The Border: Exploring the US Mexico Divide" about the complicated issues of immigration and the way we view Mexico; and, Robin Goldfadden, Attorney for the ACLU explains why some Americans near the border can't get passports.

McCain Banking on a Confederacy of Duces
David Sirota writes for Truthdig.com: "Is John McCain stupid, or does he believe we are? That’s the question as he criticizes Barack Obama for allegedly trying to 'redistribute the wealth' with a plan to lower taxes on the middle class and raise them on the super-rich."

Bush Authorizes Record Defense Budget
Maya Schenwar writes for Truthout: "Last week, Bush signed the 2009 Defense Authorization Act, allowing $611 billion to be spent this fiscal year on defense. Though the number was not a surprise - the money in the bill had already been appropriated over the last few months - this bill makes it official, placing ceilings on spending, granting authority on who gets to spend what, and nailing the 2009 defense budget into place. It is the highest defense budget since World War II, and Pentagon officials estimate that it will increase by $450 billion over the next five years."

Wealth Gap Creating a Social Time Bomb
John Vidal writes for The Guardian UK: "Growing inequality in US cities could lead to widespread social unrest and increased mortality, says a new United Nations report on the urban environment. In a survey of 120 major cities, New York was found to be the ninth most unequal in the world and Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington, and Miami had similar inequality levels to those of Nairobi, Kenya Abidjan and Ivory Coast. Many were above an internationally recognised acceptable 'alert' line used to warn governments."

Wrecked Iraq: What the Good News From Iraq Really Means
Michael Schwartz writes for TomDispatch.com: "Even before the spectacular presidential election campaign became a national obsession, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression crowded out other news, coverage of the Iraq War had dwindled to next to nothing. National newspapers had long since discontinued their daily feasts of multiple - usually front page - reports on the country, replacing them with meager meals of mostly inside-the-fold summary stories. On broadcast and cable TV channels, where violence in Iraq had once been the nightly lead, whole news cycles went by without a mention of the war."

Obama, McCain Views on Unequal-Pay Case Are Revealing
Kia Franklin writes in Newsday: "Roe v. Wade wasn't the only important Supreme Court case mentioned during the final presidential debate at Hofstra University last week. The candidates also had a tense exchange over a less-famous case, Ledbetter v. Goodyear, which involved a woman named Lilly Ledbetter, who received unequal pay at her job for years without realizing it."

Creationist Declare War over the Brain
Amanda Gefter writes for the New Scientist: "'YOU cannot overestimate,' thundered psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz, 'how threatened the scientific establishment is by the fact that it now looks like the materialist paradigm is genuinely breaking down. You're gonna hear a lot in the next calendar year about... how Darwin's explanation of how human intelligence arose is the only scientific way of doing it... I'm asking us as a world community to go out there and tell the scientific establishment, enough is enough! Materialism needs to start fading away and non-materialist causation needs to be understood as part of natural reality.'"

Net-neturality May Not Be Exciting, but Don't Ignore It
Dustin Michael Harris writes in an opinion piece for the Napervill Sun: "Net Neutrality is not something you'll hear a lot about on CNN. It's not a hot button issue, but it is very important and could have lasting effects on how the Internet shapes and delivers information."

Winning the Media Campaign: How the Press Reported the 2008 Presidential Campaign
The Project for Excellence in Journalism reports the media coverage of the race for president has not so much cast Barack Obama in a favorable light as it has portrayed John McCain in a substantially negative one, according to a new study of the media since the two national political conventions ended.

The Idiots Who Rule America
Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "Our oligarchic class is incompetent at governing, managing the economy, coping with natural disasters, educating our young, handling foreign affairs, providing basic services like health care and safeguarding individual rights. They have no concept, thanks to the educations they have received, of the common good. "

National Security: Women Must Define the Priorities Debate
Lorelei Kelly, The Women's Media Center: "The 'guns versus butter' debate is on the way out. Even the US military has realized the importance of providing the latter. For this election and beyond, women leaders are learning how to recast the conversation and set new priorities to measure the nation's security."

Obsession with Controversy
Seth Hettena writes for the Columbia Journalism Review: "Editors and publishers of newspapers who distributed an inflammatory DVD about radical Muslim activities have defended their decisions to distribute it as principled ones. But the missed opportunities for meaningful civic dialogue in the aftermath of the distribution say otherwise."

Clippings for 15 September

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McCain Would Privatize Social Security
Dean Baker writes for Truthout: "The Republicans have already turned to sick sexual innuendo and nonsense about their vice-presidential candidate, pigs and lipstick in order to distract the public from the real issues in this campaign. One of the items that should be on top of the list of real issues is Senator McCain's plans to privatize and cut Social Security."

The $70 Billion Spectrum Rip-Off
Megan Tady reports In These Times that in February 2009, new digital TV channels on spectrum valued at over $70 billion will be handed over to the current 1,762 U.S. broadcast licensees. Local communities, entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, unions, schools and everyday taxpayers won't be allowed to set one foot in this new broadcasting game.

Tawdry Tale of Oil Drillers and "MMS Chicks"
Carl Hiaasen reports in The Miami Herald: "People always say the Bush administration is in bed with the oil companies, but it turns out to be literally true. According to the Interior Department, some government officials in charge of collecting oil and gas royalties smoked pot, snorted cocaine and had sex with employees of big energy firms. Meanwhile, the rest of us were getting screwed at the gas pump."

Rage on the Radio
What happens when America's airwaves fill with hate? BILL MOYERS JOURNAL takes a tough look at the hostile industry of "Shock Jock" media with a hard-hitting examination of its effects on our nation's political discourse. The JOURNAL traveled to Knoxville, where a recent shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church has left the pastor asking what role hateful speech from popular right-wing media personalities may have played in the tragedy. "A lot of people are hurling insults from the safety of television studios, the safety of radio studio, the safety of cyberspace," says Rev. Chris Buice, "So that's a void in our community — the chance to be in the same room and to have these exchanges and remember the humanity of the person on the other side." To watch the video of this segment, click here.

Military Industrial Complex 2.0
Frida Berrigan qrites for TomDispatch.com: "Seven years into George W. Bush's Global War on Terror, the Pentagon is embroiled in two big wars, a potentially explosive war of words with Tehran, and numerous smaller conflicts, and it is leaning ever more heavily on private military contractors to get by. Once upon a time, soldiers did more than pick up a gun. They picked up trash. They cut hair and delivered mail. They fixed airplanes and inflated truck tires. Not anymore. All of those tasks are now the responsibility of private military corporations."

Charles Darwin to Receive Apology from Church of England
Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent for the UK Telegraph, writes: "The Church of England will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin's ideas. It will call 'anti-evolutionary fervour' an 'indictment' on the Church. The bold move is certain to dismay sections of the Church that believe in creationism and regard Darwin's views as directly opposed to traditional Christian teaching."

Impact of Big Box Stores on Taxes and Public Costs
Institute for Local Self-Reliance, reports that when evaluating retail development proposals, municipal officials often focus on only one side of the equation: the amount of new tax revenue that the project will generate. It's easy to overlook the fact that big-box stores and shopping centers also create new costs.

McCain's Court: Change We Don't Need
Cass R. Sunstein, writes for The Washington Independent: "John McCain has said that, should he be president, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito 'would serve as the model for my own nominees.' He regularly attacks what he calls 'activist judging,' and he described a recent ruling vindicating the right to habeas corpus as 'one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.' McCain has repeatedly said that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled. If McCain is elected, change would clearly be coming to the US Supreme Court."

Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote
Eartha Jane Melzer reports for The Michigan Messenger: "The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP's effort to challenge some voters on Election Day."

US Should Disclose Funding for Opposition Groups in Bolivia
The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) called on the US State Department, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and other agencies to release information detailing whom it is funding in Bolivia - where violent right-wing opposition groups have wreaked havoc this week in a series of shootings, beatings, ransacking of offices and sabotage of a natural gas pipeline - as well as in other Latin American countries, including Venezuela."

Rule Changes Would Give FBI Agents Extensive New Powers
Carrie Johnson writes for The Washington Post: "The Justice Department will unveil changes to FBI ground rules today that would put much more power into the hands of line agents pursuing leads on national security, foreign intelligence and even ordinary criminal cases. The overhaul, the most substantial revision to FBI operating instructions in years, also would ease some reporting requirements between agents, their supervisors and federal prosecutors in what authorities call a critical effort to improve information gathering and detect terrorist threats. The changes would give the FBI's more than 12,000 agents the ability at a much earlier stage to conduct physical surveillance, solicit informants and interview friends of people they are investigating without the approval of a bureau supervisor."

Clippings for September 10

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Tyranny on Display at the Republican Convention
Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com that St. Paul is a window into our future. It is a future where constitutional rights mean nothing and where lawful dissent is branded a form of terrorism.

Demand Free Press, Free Speech at Conventions
Johns Nichols writes for the Nation that the rush to get on with the business of the fall campaign makes it easy to neglect the serious civil liberties and freedom of the press concerns raised by the arrests that occurred in St. Paul during the convention.

Sarah Palin: "A Gidget for God's Truth"
Steve Weissman writes for Truthout: "'The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation,' declared John McCain back in September 2007. With his vice-presidential pick of Governor Sarah Palin, he has found a winsome soul mate who is even more of a Christian nationalist, eager to use government to impose her religious views on the rest of us."

A Telling Palin Scandal: Her Environmental Record.
Leonard Doyle writes for the UK Independent that Sarah Palin has an environmental policy so toxic it would make George W. Bush blush.

Ten Ways the GOP Is Now Stealing the Ohio Vote
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman write for The Free Press: "The McCain/Palin GOP is already in the process of stealing the Ohio vote, as was done in 2004. Among those at the center of the GOP strategy is Bush family computer operative Michael Connell, who programmed the key vote-counting mechanisms that were used to give George W. Bush his second term."

9/11 Plus Seven
Andrew J. Bacevich writing for TomDispatch.com states: "The events of the past seven years have yielded a definitive judgment on the strategy that the Bush administration conceived in the wake of 9/11 to wage its so-called Global War on Terror. That strategy has failed, massively and irrevocably. To acknowledge that failure is to confront an urgent national priority: to scrap the Bush approach in favor of a new national security strategy that is realistic and sustainable - a task that, alas, neither of the presidential candidates seems able to recognize or willing to take up."

Workers Overcome Divisions After Mississippi Raid
David Bacon reports for Truthout: "In the recent raid of the Howard Industries electrical plant in Laurel, Mississippi, 481 workers have been detained for almost two weeks in Jena, Louisiana. Neither they nor their attorneys know when they will be formally charged, deported or released, and Barbara Gonzalez, spokesperson for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says simply, 'Their cases are being investigated.'"

Not a Flock of Dodos: The Lastest Chicken Research Flies in the Face of Creationism
Rick Weiss writes for Science Progress that the battle over teaching evolution is still far from won in this country, despite the overwhelming mass of scientific evidence that supports this model of how the biological universe works.

VIDEO: Olbermann | Obama: McCain/Palin "Not Telling the Truth"
Senator Barack Obama is interviewed by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC's "Countdown," where he addressed "stretching the bounds of spin" by McCain and Palin.



Five McCain Videos Everyone Needs to See.
Below are the links to five videos that present the Real McCain: an elitist out of touch with hard-working Americans; a double talker who supports a costly war in Iraq but won't support our veterans. This is the McCain everyone should know.

1. The Real McCain 2: Watch as McCain's YouTube problem became his nightmare in the video that received over 4 million views.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtZlR3zp4c

2. Less Jobs. More Wars: What is this 'Iraq war' charge on my bill?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh-T2iGkLJY

3. John McCain vs. John McCain: Tell McCain to get off the Double Talk Express.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioy90nF2anI

4. McCain's Spiritual Guide: The video that caused McCain to renounce Rev. Rod Parsley's bigoted endorsement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXZbIGJrDkg

5. Why Won't McCain Sign the GI Bill? Presenting the most blatant hypocrisy of the McCain campaign.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK_9sI7hzAc

Articles of interest...

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The Chinavore's Dilemma
Joshua Kurlantzick writes in Mother Jones: "For a while last year, it seemed the reports of tainted food, drugs, and toys flowing in from China would never cease. First came the pet food scare, in which a toxic additive killed thousands of animals. Summer brought vast recalls of lead-tainted Thomas trains and other name-brand toys, counterfeit Colgate containing antifreeze, salmonella-infected toddler snacks, and DDT-contaminated seafood. Yet the Bush administration, in its eagerness to expand trade, has relegated consumer safety to the backseat."

The Fight for Women's Voting Rights
Ailene Taylor writes for the Marin Independent Journal: "August 26 marks the 88th anniversary of the signing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, an act that granted women citizens the right to vote in all elections. Very few people understand the scope and complications of the suffrage movement. Yet it was full of drama and replete with incredible women of courage and determination who kept the effort going in the face of relentless opposition."

FCC Commissioner Targets Media Consolidation
Greg Griffin reports in the Denver Post that the FCC is beholden to media conglomerates to the exclusion of minority- and women-owned media companies, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said at a symposium on media and democracy.

What We Need is a Digital Bill of Rights
Erick Schonfeld for TechCrunch writes that it is time to really think about a comprehensive national technology policy for the Internet Age. Many laws and policies governing the Internet and digital property are inadequate attempts to transplant rules from a different era.

Democracy Burns while the Networks Sleep
Timothy Karr writing for the Huffington Post asks why the "Big Three" television networks are keeping their convention coverage limited to prime time, highlighting the sad reality of a corporate media that prefer laugh tracks and the bottom line to political discourse.

The Christian Right's Got a New Stealth Tactic to Smuggle Creationism into Science Class
Sandhya Bathija writes for Church & State Magazine and republished on Alternet: "In the 21 years Patsye Peebles taught biology in Louisiana public schools, she never received one complaint from parents for teaching evolution. 'The bottom line is that I never questioned their faith,' she said. Whenever she had a student who brought up creationism, she always made it clear that science is science, and religion is religion."

Bush's Deal With Iraq: A Time Bomb Set to Explode
Steve Weissman writes for Truthout: "Back in January, the Bush administration proposed a Status of Forces Agreement to govern relations between American troops and the Iraqis after the UN mandate expires in December 2008. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton accused the White House of trying to tie the hands of a future American president and many Democrats in Congress voiced the same concern. Even at the time, any agreement had to be less than a binding treaty, which would have required confirmation by an impossible two-thirds vote of the US Senate."

Running for War President at Any Cost
Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig.com: Just great! Nuclear-armed Pakistan is falling apart, Iran’s nuclear program is unchecked and congressional legislation on cooperation with the Russians on controlling nuclear proliferation is now dead in the water. Horrid news except for Sen. John McCain, who thrills to a repeat of the danger lines of the Cold War, and now stands a good chance of being our next president.