The State of Media in Kansas

This week Community Bridges takes up the issue of the media in Kansas. In particular we explore the media landscape in Kansas, the conservative bias in reporting, consolidation of media ownership, lack of diversity on opinion pages of newspapers, and the role of new media (blogs, e-newspapers, online radio) in informing the public debate and challenging what corporate media isn't telling Kansans. Guests include: Michael Caddell, host of Radio Free Kansas and the blog Fightin’ Cock Flyer; R. J. Dickens, host of the long-running talk show "The River City Forum" on KCTU-TV Wichita and Acting Executive Director of the American Low-Power Television Association; Jim Herrman, a data base consultant and co-chair of the Kansas Progressive Caucus of the Kansas Democratic Party; and veteran journalist Carl Williams, a media consultant for a non-profit organization with responsibilities that include producing video training programs.

MP3 File

The Hudspeth-Jenkins Debate

This is a rebroadcast of the debate sponsored by KTWU Channel 11 and the Topeka/Shawnee County Chapter of the League of Women Voters between Cheryl Hudspeth, Democratic challenger, and Rep. Lynn Jenkins, Republican, for the second congressional district of Kansas. This debate originally aired on KTWU on October 19th.  Community Bridge and KSDB thank KTWU for making this audio available for rebroadcast to our listeners.

MP3 File

Hudspeth for Congress

Cheryl Hudspeth, Democratic Candidate for Kansas' 2nd Congressional District, joins host Chloe Beeman in studio for a discussion of key issues facing Kansas voters: the economy, bringing the defense budget under control, education, and the environment. Hudspeth shares her opinions and discusses how to respond to the many concerns we face.

MP3 File

March 25, Pt. 2 - An Interview with Cheryl Hudspeth

For our second hour, we welcome Cheryl Hudspeth, candidate for Congress from the 2nd Congressional District. Two years ago Lynn Jenkins upset Nancy Boyda and has been a strong advocate of the Party of NO since before she got to Washington! Hudspeth, a Girard native, who has thirty years of experience helping communities and people, shape their goals and realize their aspirations, is working to remove Jenkins from office in November. She will share her vision for what Kansas and what she plans to do to help all Kansans.

MP3 File

Clippings for 2 May 2009

Recommended Audio: The History of May Day and the Haymarket Massacacre


'34 General Strike Laid Base for Counterculture
Fred Glass writes for the San Francisco Chronicle: "These days, when San Franciscans of a certain age respond to the visitors' (or their grandchildren's) query, "What made San Francisco different?" they tend to think culture. Beat poets, flower power and Castro Street are instantly recognizable tropes reflecting the city's historically tolerant attitudes and liberal politics."

Our Hunger for Cheap Meat Has Created Swine Flu
Johann Hari writes for the San Francisco Bay View: "A swelling number of scientists believe swine flu has not happened by accident. No, they argue this global pandemic - and all the deaths we are about to see - is the direct result of our demand for cheap meat. So is the way we produce our food really making us sick as a pig? At first glance, this seems wrong. All through history, viruses have mutated, and sometimes they have taken nasty forms that scythe through the human population. This is an inescapable reality we just have to live with, like earthquakes and tsunamis."

How "The NAFTA Flu" Exploded
Al Giordano reports for Narco News: "US and Mexico authorities claim that neither knew about the 'swine flu' outbreak until April 24. But after hundreds of residents of a town in Veracruz, Mexico, came down with its symptoms, the story had already hit the Mexican national press by April 5."

Sick System in the U.S. Helps Spread Swine Flu
Martha Burk and HeidI Hartmann write for the Huffington Post: "As of today, at least 132 cases of the swine flu have been confirmed in the United States, and hundreds more in other countries, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the situation a "public health emergency of international concern." The U.S. government followed suit, clearing the way for the distribution of antiviral drugs from a federal stockpile."

Don't Let Insurance Company Greed Block Swine Flu Response
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "Anyone who has had much experience with America's health care system knows that nurses are the essential players in making things work. So as the swine flu outbreak evolves into a genuine public health emergency - with cases being discovered in more states and the announcement by President Obama of the first death in the US - it is time to consult the nation's nurses."

Banksters Win One, Lose One in Congress
Bernie Horn, The Campaign for America's Future: "Yesterday, the US House of Representatives handed bankers in the credit card industry a defeat. But almost simultaneously, mortgage bankers won big in the Senate. Senator Richard Durbin lamented that the banks 'are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.'"

Do They Frankly Own the Place? You Betcha!
Paul Blumenthal writes for The Huffington Post: "Earlier this week, Ryan Grimm reported on the words of Sen. Dick Durbin describing the power of the bankers and financial sector over Congress. Durbin remarked about the banking industry's relation with Congress by saying, "they frankly own the place." You would think that this might be an exaggeration, or just a rhetorical bit of anti-bank populism, but if you look at the numbers, Durbin isn't wrong. From 1997 to 2008, financial sector lobbying -- represented by the finance, insurance and real estate industries -- has amounted to fully 15% of all lobbying spending in Washington."

End of the Middle Class as We Know It
Marie Cocco writes for Truthdig: "This is how it ends. Or at least, this is how the latest, sad chapter in a story that has been ending for three decades is written. If Chrysler survives, it will be in partnership with the Italian automaker Fiat, an odd pairing for any number of reasons. If General Motors survives, it will be only because the government effectively took it over, ousted its management—and cleared the way for thousands upon thousands of workers to lose their jobs and the hard-won benefits that once made them symbols of a robust American middle class."

Rep. Jenkins Could Stand To Learn "A Thing Or Two About Handling Taxpayer Dollars"
Media Matters writes in response to Jenkin's Republican Radio Address this week: "In the Republican Radio Address set to air May 2, 2009, Rep. Lynn Jenkins claimed to "know a thing or two about handling taxpayer dollars." She must have forgotten that as state treasurer of Kansas she misallocated $15 million in taxpayer money AND played hookie as a trustee of a public retirement fund as it lost over $1 billion for Kansas workers."

Mortgaging the White House
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship comment for Truthout: "Your opinion of Obama's first 100 days depends, of course, on your own vantage point. But we'd argue that as part of his bending over backwards to support the banks and avoid the losers, he has blundered mightily in his choice of economic advisers."

Jenkins, Tiahrt Vote Against New Credit Card Rules
Jason at Kansas Jackass writes: "With another attempt to protect big business instead of average Americans, Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins and Congressman Todd Tiahrt voted against a bill that would protect people from predatory credit cared companies...Only 70 people voted against it, and two of our uber partisan Republican representatives were among them."

Secession-Ready Texas Has Received the Most Federal Disaster Assistance of Any State
Ali Flick writes for Think Progress: "Just weeks after declaring that Texas might secede from the union because “the federal government has become oppressive,” Gov. Rick Perry (R) today asked for more federal aid when he “issued a disaster declaration” because of the swine flu. Mother Jones’ Jonathan Stein found that, since the beginning of FEMA’s record-keeping, Texas has actually received more federal assistance from FEMA than any other state."

The Budget Fails!
Jason at Kansas Jackass writes: "The Kansas House of Representatives just defeated the budget proposal endorsed by the House Republican leadership, even after the body adopted an amendment to strip the proposed 5% pay cut for state employees out of the bill."

Torture Memos Expose Dark, Imperial Presidency
Robert S. Becker, Ph.D., writes on BeyondChron.org: "This was not a happy week for the torture lobby, nor its defenders, derailing months of charm offensive by Bush-Cheney legacy boosters. A wary President Obama backed off attempts to defuse the torture parade - fretting over divisive investigations and hard-to-win court convictions. Public indignation likely surpassed February polling when 65% favored torture investigations, 40% criminal prosecutions."

Rorschach "Rachel"
Andrew Hehir writes for "Beyond the Multiplex" on Salon.com: "Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Simone Bitton's documentary Rachel, which premiered this week at the Tribeca Film Festival, is what's not in it. Bitton, a Moroccan-born Jewish filmmaker who spent many years in Israel and now lives in France, conducts a philosophical and cinematic inquiry into the death of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American activist who was killed under ambiguous circumstances in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip in March 2003. But the political firestorm that followed Corrie's death, which saw her beatified as a martyr for peace by some on the left and demonized as a terrorist enabler by some on the right, is virtually absent from the film."

Recommended Audio: Listen to the interview with Simone Bitton.

How To Make a Film about Rachel Corrie

Human Rights in the Dust
Karen Greenberg writes for TomDispatch.com: "These days, it's virtually impossible to escape the world of torture the Bush administration constructed. Whether we like it or not, almost every day we learn ever more about the full range of its shameful policies, about who the culprits were, and just which crimes they might be prosecuted for. But in the morass of memos, testimony, op-eds, punditry, whistle-blowing, documents, and who knows what else, with all the blaming, evasion, and denial going on, somehow we've overlooked the most significant victim of all. One casualty of the Bush torture policies -- certainly, at least equal in damage to those who were tortured and the country whose laws were twisted and perverted in the process -- has been human rights itself. And no one even seems to notice."

Recommended Audio: Rain Forest Residents, Texaco Face Off in Ecuador
Juan Forero reports for National Public Radio: "A judge is preparing to render a decision in a long-running, multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by residents of Ecuador's Amazonian rain forest against Texaco for fouling their land."

Air Pollution Endangers Lives of Six in Ten Americans
Environmental News Source reports: "Six out of every 10 Americans - 186.1 million people - live in areas where air pollution endangers lives, according to the 10th annual American Lung Association State of the Air report released today. Some of the biggest sources of air pollution - dirty power plants, dirty diesel engines and ocean-going vessels - also worsen global warming, the Lung Association says in State of the Air 2009. "

Book Review: Taking Inequality to Court
Maya Schenwar comments for Truthout: "'Equal' brings to light perhaps the most obstructive force in the fight for women's rights and liberation: the predicament of not being taken seriously. The book depicts the institutionalized stereotypes of vengeful wives bringing rape cases and vindictive female employees suing for sexual harassment, showcasing the overwhelming tendency of courts to 'disbelieve women.' During one sexual harassment case, the referee asks the plaintiff whether her boss was simply a 'pain in the neck.' When she responds emphasizing the situation's severity, the referee rejoins, 'Oh, so he's one of these Male Chauvinist Pigs?' The dismissive vibe makes its way all the way up to the Supreme Court: In attacking VAWA, Justice Rehnquist asserts that the federal courts should be reserved for 'important national interests.' Strebeigh wonders 'why the issue of violence against women was not important and not national.'"

Recommended Audio: Laura Flanders and GritTV for April 9
"The news this week has been bad for supporters of women's rights in at least three parts of the world." So began a blog post in the New York Times last Friday. One of those parts of the world was Pakistan—much in the news these days--where the flogging of a 17 year old girl in the Swat valley, who allegedly had an affair, has been circulated widely on line. But what does that video say? About women's rights around the globe and about the US role in Afghanistan? Over here, in the United States, however, it didn't take long for Michelle Obama’s fashion and the sex lives of Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston to dominate national coverage. To unpack the big stories of the past week--the politics of gender, sexual identity, and power--are Michelle Goldberg, journalist and author most recently of The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World, Rebecca Traister a regular contributor to Salon, and The Nation’s Associate Editor Richard Kim.



Culture of Unpunished Sexual Assault in Military
Dahr Jamail writes for Inter Press Service: "Sexual assault of women serving in the US military, while brought to light in recent reports, has a long tradition in that institution. Women in America were first allowed into the military during the Revolutionary War in 1775, and their travails are as old."

O'Reilly Calls Kelly McGillis a Pinhead – For Coming Out as a Lesbian
Julie writes for News Hounds: "And now on Bill O'Reilly's Pinhead front . . . Top Gun star Kelly McGillis got O'Reilly's top billing for saying that 'she's looking for a few good women – she's a lesbian.' O'Reilly, clearly in disbelief, quoted her as saying, 'I'm done with the man thing.' With video."

Clippings for 30 April 2009 -

Obama's 100 Day Report Card
Vincent Rossmeier, Mark Schone and Gabriel Winant write for Salon.com: "It has been 100 days since Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. The 100th day of a presidency is traditionally a time for taking stock of what the new occupant of the White House has achieved -- especially when the nation confronts a crisis, as in 1933 and 2009, or when there has been true ideological regime change -- again, as in 1933 and 2009. Salon asked 21 writers, politicians, activists and economists for their assessment of the Obama presidency so far. The state of the president's report card is (mostly) strong. He earns a high GPA, though there are critics both left and right ready to give him failing grades in a few crucial areas."

Obama's 100 Days of Progress
Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers write for Think Progress: "Today marks 100 days since President Obama took office. Yesterday, The Progress Report examined how conservatives chose to spend their first 100 days. Today, we highlight the accomplishments of the Obama administration. President Barack Obama took the oath of office on Jan. 21, 2009, with two broad mandates bestowed upon him by the American people: repair the mess that President Bush and his administration left behind after eight disastrous years in office, and enact a bold, progressive agenda that includes fixing our nation's health care system and seriously addressing global climate change. Obama went to work right away, pushing the 'biggest, boldest countercyclical fiscal stimulus in American history' through Congress -- a $787 billion dollar measure that not only creates jobs but also provides investments in energy, transportation, education and health care. Obama also announced his intention to shift focus and resources away from Bush's misbegotten adventure in Iraq and refocus on Afghanistan, where the security situation is worse than it has been since the start of the U.S.-led war there in October 2001. Now, a series of recent public opinion polls shows that the American public not only overwhelmingly approves of the job Obama is doing as president, but they also believe the nation is heading in the right direction -- 'the first time in years the nation has held such an optimistic view of its future.' For example, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 50 percent of Americans now say the country is on the right track (48 percent say the wrong track), compared with just 13 percent who had the same feeling last October (85 percent said the U.S. was heading in the wrong direction at that time). Indeed, in his first 100 days in office, Obama has received the support of the American public to implement the progressive agenda he campaigned on."

Obama's First 100 Days:How the President Fared In the Press vs. Clinton and Bush
The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism reports: "As he marks his 100th day in office, President Barack Obama has enjoyed substantially more positive media coverage than either Bill Clinton or George Bush during their first months in the White House, according to a new study of press coverage. Overall, roughly four out of ten stories, editorials and op ed columns about Obama have been clearly positive in tone, compared with 22% for Bush and 27% for Clinton in the same mix of seven national media outlets during the same first two months in office, according to a study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Democrats' "Battered Wife Syndrome"
Robert Parry reports for Consortium News: "In recent years, the Washington political dynamic has often resembled an abusive marriage, in which the bullying husband (the Republicans) slaps the wife and kids around, and the battered wife (the Democrats) makes excuses and hides the ugly bruises from outsiders to keep the family together. So, when the Republicans are in a position of power, they throw their weight around, break the rules, and taunt: 'Whaddya gonna do 'bout it?' Then, when the Republicans do the political equivalent of passing out on the couch, the Democrats use their time in control, tiptoeing around, tidying up the house and cringing at every angry grunt from the snoring figure on the couch."

Progressives Lack a Limbaugh-Like Voice
George Lakoff writes in the The San Francisco Chronicle: "You turn the AM on and there's Rush, or Savage, or another of the army of right-wing radio talk show hosts. You may not be listening hard, just working, driving, doing busywork or the laundry. Yet if you listen day after day, year after year, your brain will begin to change. Words, even those heard casually and listened to incidentally, activate frames - structures of ideas that are physically realized in the brain. The more the words are heard, the more the frames are activated in the brain, and stronger their synapses get - until the frames are there permanently. All this is normal. It is how words work. And the right-wing message machine has found a way to take advantage of it - activating, as it were, a conservative system of thought."

The Clinton Bubble
Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig: "Has Timothy Geithner ever had lunch with a non-megamillionaire who has lost his job or home because of the banking meltdown? I ask that question after reading the list of the treasury secretary's luncheon dates when he was head of the New York Federal Reserve, a list that the government was forced to provide in response to a lawsuit."

The Crisis Hasn't Hit Everywhere: 10 States Weathering the Economic Storm
Daniel Wood writes for the Christin Science Monitor (on AlterNet): "The economies of 10 states are outperforming the US economy as a whole, according to a just-released study by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, an independent research group in Albany, NY, which analyzes state and local government. The two biggest reasons, say the authors of the report, are that most of these states have economies that benefited through much of 2008 from high and rising oil and natural gas prices, and their real estate markets have not suffered the bust to the extent seen elsewhere." --> Note last paragraph....

Can Economic Development and Social Justice Coexist?
Tom Vander writes for the Huffington Post: "A friend asked, 'Can economic development and social justice be achieved simultaneously?' I think the answer is, 'Yes, they always develop together but are always in tension.' This is the central question of the American experiment. We each contemplate the opportunity-equity dialectic when we vote (e.g., to what extent does a tax cut expand opportunity at the expense of equity?). The two-party system is organized around this American paradox. It's a long standing societal tension dating, in part, to the Judeo-Christian conception of a God that embodies justice and mercy--it's hard to exhibit one universally much less both simultaneously. American certainly doesn't have it right but, arguably, careens slowly in that direction."

Chasing Ghosts in Afghanistan
Katrina Vanden Heuvel comments in The Nation: "There were two important hearings regarding Afghanistan on the Hill last week -- in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and at the Congressional Progressive Caucus' (CPC) third forum examining the war. Both raised critical questions about the current strategy of escalation -- questions Congress should take to heart as it considers the $83 billion war supplemental in coming weeks. "

Dick Cheney's Torture Hypocrisy
Joseph C. Wilson IV writes for The Daily Beast: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney's reemergence on the political stage after his ignominious departure on Inauguration Day, eschewing the traditional handshake with his successor and the new president, is nothing if not ironic. The most secretive individual in American politics is now calling for the selective release of documents that remain classified in one of his own files marked 'Detainees.' We have also learned that a principal reason for having tortured senior al-Qaeda detainees was not, in fact, to defend the Homeland, but rather to build the case for war with Iraq based on alleged ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden."

Torture Was Used to Try to Link Saddam with 9/ll
Marjorie Cohn reports for Truthdig: "In order to justify George W. Bush's illegal and unnecessary invasion of Iraq, Bush administration officials put heavy pressure on Pentagon interrogators to get Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah to say there was a link between Iraq and the 9/11 hijackers. That link was never established."

Boehner: I Only Want to Declassify Those Documents That Help My Party and Me Politically
Ryan Powers writes for Think Progress: "Last week, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) asked President Obama to release several classified memos referenced in a recent interview by former Vice President Dick Cheney, claiming that the memos could show that the Bush administration's torture program was effective in gathering intelligence. "

Climate Change Hitting Entire Arctic Ecosystem
John Vidal reports for The Guardian UK: "Levels of summer sea ice in the Arctic have drastically reduced since 2005. Extensive climate change is now affecting every form of life in the Arctic, according to a major new assessment by international polar scientists."

Employee Free Choice Act: Making Green Jobs, Good Jobs
Mike Elk comments for The Campaign for America's Future: "Last December, Republic Windows, maker of energy-efficient windows, gained worldwide attention when members of United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) Local 1110 occupied the plant after their company refused to provide them with severance pay. After a six-day occupation, in which President Obama declared his support for the occupying workers, the UE members won their struggle for severance pay and established a committee to look for buyers to reopen the Chicago plant."

Reform US Foreign Policy. Pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Robert Naiman comments for Truthout: "Sometimes an opportunity for reform comes along that is 'strategic' in that it changes the playing field for efforts to win other reforms in the future. Passage of the National Labor Relations Act - establishing the right of American workers to organize unions and bargain collectively - was a strategic reform. It increased the power of people previously excluded from power, and thereby reduced the power of corporate interests. But the right of workers in America to organize has been steadily eroded by unpunished abuses by anti-union employers."

Recommended Audio: Are Women Being Denied Justice?
NOW on PBS reports: "A terrible statistic: one in six women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. But an even more shocking reality: A backlog in processing rape kits - crucial evidence in arresting violent predators - is delaying and sometimes denying justice for tens of thousands of American women."

GOP State Rep. Brenda Landwehr: BEWARE OF GARDASIL!!!
Jason at Kansas Jackass writes: "This was one of those hand-to-forehead smacks that happens to me every once in awhile that actually gives me a headache for the rest of the day. Gardasil is a vaccine against certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus which can cause cervical cancer. Matter of fact, nearly all cervical cancer cases are linked directly to HPV. Because this is a vaccine for a virus that can cause cancer (and that's a frickin' awesome), a number of states have taken action to require every single girl and young women who attends public schools to receive the vaccination as part of their required vaccine regimen. Such requirements will certainly save lives (certainly more lives than the vaccines for measles, mumps, and chicken pox vaccines save, at least)."

Equal Payback for Lilly Ledbetter
Heidi Brown writes for Forbes: "Nothing will stop her. That is the lesson of Lilly Ledbetter on this Equal Pay Day - April 28. For 10 years the 71-year-old former factory worker fought to close the gap between women's and men's wages, sparring with the Supreme Court, lobbying Capitol Hill and campaigning for President Barack Obama along the way."

KS Congressional Republicans Votes Against Matthew Shepard Act
Jason writes for KansasJackass: "Our lone Democrat, Congressman Dennis Moore, voted yes- and I thank him for that. The votes from Congressman Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran aren't surprising. The two men both have zero ratings from the Human Rights Campaign, and are always hostile toward bills that protect LGBT Americans from discrimination. I am surprised and deeply saddened by the vote of my Congresswoman, Lynn Jenkins."

Supreme Court Upholds TV Profanity Crackdown
James Vicini reports for Reuters: "The Supreme Court upheld a US government crackdown on profanity on television, a policy that subjects broadcasters to fines for airing a single expletive blurted out on a live show. In its first ruling on broadcast indecency standards in more than 30 years, the high court handed a victory on Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission, which adopted the crackdown against the one-time use of profanity on live television when children are likely to be watching."

Bill O'Reilly vs. The Family Guy
Priscilla writes for News Hounds: "Like his fellow culture warrior, minder of other people’s business, determiner of decency, and arbiter of morality Brent Bozell, Bill O’Reilly is upset with the satirical cartoon, The Family Guy. Taking a page from his fellow tight derriered grand inquisitor, Bill used part of his Reality Check ('Where we look out for you by correcting the record') segment, last night (April 27th) to whine about yet another attack on our way of life as we know it. (sexual harassment – not a problem!) But wait, isn’t The Family Guy part of the Murdoch empire? Oh, no, say it ain’t so. Is Rupert Murdoch contributing to the decline of American values? How can America’s Big Daddy stay in the employ of a company that encourages media degeneracy?"

Fear-Mongering and the 'FOX Effect'
Timothy Karr writes for the Huffington Post: "Last week, conservative factions within the Republican National Committee circulated an e-mail urging party leadership to brand as a "socialist" anyone who advocates even moderate changes to the government's role in society. It's clear that the overlords at Fox News Channel already got that memo and decided to ratchet the volume up a notch -- to 11."

Clippings for 12 April 2009

ACTION ALERT: Save Organic Standards: Tell the USDA and the NOSB to Protect Organic Standards
Certified organic food and personal care products are just about the only things sold in grocery stores these days that can be accurately described as healthy, nutritious, safe and good for the environment. (Beyond organic you can vote for economic justice with your consumer dollars by choosing items that are labeled as Fair Trade or Union-Made.) But constant vigilance is required to prevent unscrupulous companies from driving down organic standards, or exploiting their workers. Family-scale organic dairy farmers are being undermined by factory farm feedlots masquerading as organic, as well as Wal-Mart and other national retail chains driving down farm gate prices. Multi-ingredient organic food processors are cutting costs by using the same supply chain as bottom-of-the-barrel conventional brands, with unfortunate results such as the recent peanut butter food poisoning scandal. And, fake organic imports threaten to flood the domestic organic marketplace.

Under the Bush Administration, the USDA National Organic Program contributed to these problems by being slow to address National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) recommendations, issue definitive regulations and enforce existing ones. Under the new Obama Administration, with Kathleen Merrigan as second-in-command at the USDA, we have an opportunity to prevent corporate greed from corrupting organic standards.

Please send a letter to the USDA

This Week in Scandals: Bailout Moves Threaten to Backfire
Alexandra Andrews reports for ProPublica: "The Obama administration is concocting a plan to sidestep congressionally mandated restrictions on bailout funds, like executive pay caps, in future rescue efforts, the Washington Post reported this week, prompting the House oversight committee to open an investigation. Meanwhile, other aspects of the administration's strategy came under fire for being too risky. The New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin concluded that the Federal Reserve's plan to insure 85 percent of the loans investors will use to buy toxic assets (as part of the Treasury's Public-Private Investment Program) will actually add 'more risk, not less, to the system.' And the Post raises the possibility that the administration's plan to ramp up financial oversight will actually spur greater risk-taking. "

Recommended Audio: William K. Black - Sharing the Blame for the Economic Crisis?
Bill Moyers interviews William K. Black on who's to blame for our current economic crisis, "liars' loans" and the Wall Street barons.

How a Green Economy Is an Antidote to Casino Capitalism
Robert Pollin writes for New Labor Forum: "The convergence of a profound economic crisis and the inauguration of Barack Obama as President has created both tremendous challenges and opportunities for progressives in the United States. Two of the overarching economic issues around which progressives will need to struggle are: first, how to build a clean energy economy, creating millions of good jobs in the process; and second, how to create a financial system focused on channeling money toward productive investment as opposed to destabilizing speculation."

America's 20 Percent Unemployment Rate
Carlton Meyer writes for Sanders Research Associates: "Measuring unemployment is an art that can result in widely varied rates. Not surprisingly, the US government uses a method that excludes millions of Americans seeking employment. This lower rate is used to prove that America's economic system is superior to those in Europe. Their higher unemployment rates are blamed on unions and socialism, which guarantee workers health care and paid vacations. The implication is that while many American workers lack such benefits, at least they have jobs. This argument is faulty since unemployment is measured differently."

Jenkins Requests Nearly $70 Million in Earmarks
Jason at Kansas JAckass writes: "I'll start with my obligatory statement saying I have no problem with earmarks. Making sure federal dollars come back to the various states is important, and I think it is the duty of every single Member of Congress to bring home the dough. With that said, I do have to admit I take a certain amount of glee in Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins breaking to high Hell her promises to the people of Kansas regarding earmarks."

Krugman Calls Out GOP Hypocrisy on Job Creation and Defense Cuts
Amanda Trekel writes for Think Progress: "In February, only three Republican senators broke party ranks to vote for the economic recovery package. Zero House Republicans voted for passage. Part of their opposition centered around the belief that an increase in government spending would do nothing to create jobs:"

ObamaNation Wants Taliban Talks, Not Military Escalation, in Afghanistan
Robert Naiman writes for Truthout: "Americans elected President Obama in part based on his promise to put diplomacy and international cooperation, rather than the use and threat of military force, at the center of his foreign policy. With respect to Afghanistan and Pakistan, while there have been some encouraging signals in terms of actually implemented policies, the folks who voted for Obama are not yet getting the 'diplomacy first' that they were promised."

Requiem for the War on Terror
Ira Chernus writes for TomDispatch.com: "This is the way the Global War on Terror (also known, in Bush-era jargon, as GWOT) ends, not with a bang, not with parades and speeches, but with an obscure memo, a few news reports, vague denials, and a seemingly off-handed comment (or was it a carefully calculated declaration?) from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: "The administration has stopped using the phrase ['war on terror'] and I think that speaks for itself. Obviously."

Torture Is a Crime That Must Be Punished
Eugene Robinson writes for Truthdig: "It’s no longer possible to mince words, or pretend we didn’t know. The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration’s so-called enhanced interrogation methods, used on “high-value” terrorism suspects, plainly constituted torture. The time for euphemisms is over and the time for accountability has arrived."

U.S. Medical Personnel and Interrogations: What Do We Know? What Don’t We Know?
Sheri Fink reports for ProPublica: "This week's posting of a confidential International Committee of the Red Cross report (PDF) about the treatment of 14 'high value detainees' held in secret CIA prisons has again raised a nettlesome question: In exactly what ways were medical personnel involved in abusive detainee interrogations?"

CIA to Close Secret Overseas Prisons
Think Progress writes: "Although the CIA stated yesterday that it will decommission overseas prisons where detainees were tortured, CIA Director Leon Panetta announced that he would not punish those who perpetrated the acts. He said officers who committed such acts 'should not be investigated, let alone punished' because the Justice Department under President Bush had assured them that their actions were legal. The New York Times writes that Panetta's move to close the prisons 'underscored the new administration's sharp break with policies' from the Bush administration after 9/11. However, 'a number of CIA officials implicated in the torture program not only remain at the highest levels of the agency, but are also advising Panetta,' writes The Daily Beast's John Sifton. 'Panetta's attempt to suppress the issue is making Bush's policy into the Obama administration's dirty laundry. Indeed, as Salon's Glen Greenwald writes, Panetta's stance reflects an administration 'vigorously shielding criminals from all investigation and accountability.' Meanwhile, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) insists he is still "continuing to explore" the idea of a truth commission-style torture investigation in congress even though he told several of his constituents last week that the political opposition from Republicans may be too great to overcome."

Race and the Obama Administration
Danny Glover comments for Then Nation: "In 2001 I traveled to Durban, South Africa, to join the tens of thousands of people who came to participate in the United Nations-sponsored World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. More than 2,000 came from the United States, a rainbow of people crossing all lines--racial, ethnic, national, language, immigration status, religious and much more--joining an equally diverse crowd from across the globe. It was an extraordinary opportunity to meet, discuss, argue and strategize over how to rid the world of these longstanding evils. "

The Heritage Foundation Spreads Lies on YouTube About the Employee Free Choice Act
Joseph Palermo writes for the huffington Post: "The Heritage Foundation posted a paid advertisement yesterday on YouTube's homepage claiming that in the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) workers only hear "the union organizer's side." The infomercial tells viewers that worker enthusiasm for union membership drops off from the time of the initial card check to the time of electing a union, but it leaves out the tactics management uses to scare and cajole workers not to join a union in the first place. The Heritage Foundation deployed 21st Century 'new media' technology to make its case for a return to 19th Century labor practices."

Why Unions Matter
Seth Sandronsky writes for Truthout: "Back in the day, my mother took me to a big United Farm Workers rally. Until then, what I knew of large crowds came from sitting with my father at pro baseball games. That thrilled me. By contrast, the protesters and speakers at the lively UFW event totally rocked my world. To be a part of such cohesion changed my vision of what working people could do to improve their lives. This view of human liberation, in which those who toil daily also actively engage with others politically, motivates author Michael D. Yates, a labor economist and educator, and Monthly Review editor."

The Progressive Conscience in Action
Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, The Center for American Progress: "A progressive moral vision is deeply connected to the exercise of conscience. But the interface between conscience and policymaking is poorly defined, making the concept of conscience susceptible to hijacking by conservative political forces."

Relax, FOX News: ACORN has other plans on tax day
Julie writes for News Hounds: "Before I forget, I'm gonna do a shout-out to Neil Cavuto and Michelle Malkin for their help in alerting me to a petition that, what was it, Tea Party gate-crasher ACORN is having people sign and is 'misrepresenting as opposition to the Obama agenda?' The Tea Party people are writing about it; I'm sure you masterminds managed to procure a copy. Let's see it. In a moment of self-punishment, I wandered over to FOX Nation and browsed through this article about effective tea party organizing. (Incidentally, the word 'affect' in the headline's subtitle should have been 'effect' – just sayin'). I noted that Fox News Contributor and right-wing darling Michelle Malkin put out the Red Alert against potential saboteurs. 'These tea parties have become a real target and a magnet for folks on the other side who defend all this big spending,' wrote Malkin, adding that protest participants need to be 'happy warriors.'”

REPORT: "Fair and balanced" Fox News Aggressively Promotes "Tea Party" Protests
Media Matters reports: "Despite its repeated insistence that its coverage is 'fair and balanced' and its invitation to viewers to 'say 'no' to biased media,' Fox News has frequently aired segments encouraging viewers to get involved with "tea party" protests across the country, which the channel has described as primarily a response to President Obama's fiscal policies. Media Matters has compiled an analysis of Fox News' promotion of these events."

Quiet Push to Recognize Suffrage Site
Peggy Simpson reports for The Women's Media Center: "Virtually unnoticed by the national news media, a Votes for Women Trail in western New York has been authorized to recognize the suffragists who helped transform this country. The trail will be operated by the National Park Service (NPS) if Congress provides follow-up funding for the bill, which passed Congress in late March and was signed into law by President Obama shortly before his European trip."

Activists Expect Swift Action on Hate Crimes
Chris Johnson writes for The Washington Blade: "After languishing in Congress for 12 years, hate crimes legislation is expected to see swift movement due to strong support from lawmakers and a sympathetic president in the White House. Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said the recent re-introduction of the bill in Congress was “one of the most important factors” in passing the legislation."

UCLA’s Williams Institute Releases New Study Analysing the Economic Impact of Same-Sex Marriage in the District of Columbia
Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law released a new research study on April 7 predicting that same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia would have a positive impact on the local economy, generating $52.2 million in new spending over the next three years. This new spending will generate 700 new jobs and an additional $5.4 million in tax revenues. This study can be accessed at the Williams Institute website, www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute.

Clippings for 22 January 2009

The Day the Earth Still Stood: What Will Obama Inherit?
Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch.com, discusses the impact of Tuesday's inauguration and the legacy the Bush administration will leave behind.

Seven Questions for Barak Obama
The Colombia Journalism Review staff write: "As the inaugural crowds pack their bags and head home from Washington, suffused with the sense of having been part of history, the time has come for the media to pack away their superlatives and start treating Barack Obama like a president, not a monument."

And Now, the Hard Part
BillBoyarsky writes for Truthdig.com: "President Barack Obama’s inaugural speech was an inspiring call to national service. But you have to read it closely. The words were challenging: 'What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.'"

Let There Be Light
The editors of the Columbia Journalism Review write: "Over many years, Americans have come to embrace the idea that democracy suffers when the work of government is excessively secret—the people are shut out, corruption and cynicism thrive, and accountability wanes. Yet President Bush and Vice President Cheney have run an administration in which the executive’s lust for power outstripped the public’s right to know. One of the most troubling aspects of Bush’s campaign against government transparency was the ease of its advance. Battles were won with brief memos, unilateral executive orders, and signal flags from on high."

Obama Has to Hold Bush Accountable for the Laws He Broke
Elizabeth Holtzman writes for The Nation: "President Obama, on his first day in office, can make a number of changes that will mark a clean break with the Bush presidency. He can, and should, issue an executive order revoking any prior order that permits detainee mistreatment by any government agency. He should begin the process of closing Guantanamo, and he should submit to Congress a bill to end the use of military commissions, at least as presently constituted. Over the coming months he can pursue other reforms to restore respect for the Constitution, such as revising the Patriot Act, abolishing secret prisons and 'extraordinary rendition,' and ending practices, like signing statements, that seek to undo laws. While these steps are all crucial, however, it is not enough merely to cease the abuses of power and apparent criminality that marked the highest levels of George W. Bush's administration. We cannot simply shrug off the constitutional and criminal misbehavior of the administration."

Peace Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Former Community Bridge guest, Chris Hedges, writes for Truthdig.com: "I do not like Hamas. I detest religious fundamentalism and the use of suicide bombers. I find the group’s anti-Semitism and ruthless silencing of internal Palestinian opponents repugnant. The rocket attacks on Israeli civilians are a war crime. But this does not negate the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance to the long Israeli siege and occupation of Gaza. "

MLK's Dream Also Included Economic Justice
Deepti Hajela reports for The Associated Press: "While the election of Barack Obama is a huge step toward King's dream of a time when people are judged on the content of their character and not their skin color, economic data shows racial disparities are still pervasive when it comes to financial equality."

The Bailout: TARP Failing, Next Step Unclear
Paul Keil reports for ProPublica: "The TARP hasn't saved [1] the nation's major banks, and the Obama administration doesn't know what to do [2] to save them. That is the unusually sober takeaway in the morning's major papers, following yesterday's sharp decline for banks in the stock markets. Bank stocks have been sliding all month: "The common stock of the major banks tracked by the Dow Jones Wilshire U.S. Banks Index has fallen roughly $287 billion in value since Jan. 2, a 43% decline in just over two weeks," reports the Wall Street Journal [3]."

TARP II: Money for Banks, Not Homeowners
Dean Baker, Truthout: "TARP II, the second helping of $350 billion that is supposed to restore the health of our financial system, will soon be dished out by the Obama administration. Ostensibly, much of this money will go to help homeowners stay in their homes. But, as is the case with many Washington policies, this money is also going to end up in the bankers' pockets."

Fiddling While the Coal Burns
Bill McKibben writes for Grist: "Given the sheer number of candidates for 'worst legacy of the Bush years,' it may seem perverse to pick the hundreds of coal-fired power plants that have opened across China during his administration. But given their cumulative effect - quite possibly the concrete block that broke the climate-camel's already straining back - I think they may be what history someday seizes on. And they are emblematic of George W. Bush's utter failure to help the world rein in carbon emissions at what may have been the last possible moment."\

Gas Drilling Update: An Industry Set Back in Utah
Abrahm Lustgarten writes for ProPublica: "A U.S. District Court judge put the brakes on a 110,000-acre last-minute sale of federal lands for natural gas drilling in Utah last week, adding another voice to a chorus of concerns over the environmental prudence of the Bush administration's energy policy. The judge, Ricardo M. Urbina, found that the Bureau of Land Management's management plans and environmental analysis for the lands that border Arches National Park and other significant scenic areas failed to adequately study air pollution and other impacts. His decision to stay the highly contested sale, which took place Dec. 19, will allow the court time to fully evaluate a lawsuit brought by environmental organizations challenging the sale."

Learn the Myths of Roe vs. Wade
Gary Bauer of Politico.com writes: "Few Supreme Court decisions have had as much of an impact on American life as has Roe v. Wade, which subsequent courts have interpreted as having discovered a constitutional right to abortion for virtually any reason and at any time during pregnancy. Since Roe, abortion has taken the lives of at least 50 million Americans (equal to the combined populations of 25 states). The demographic repercussions of Roe continue to shape voting patterns and are a driving force behind America’s fast-approaching entitlements crisis."

End Torture, End Domestic Violence
Rhonda Copelon writes for On the Issues Magazine: "When one compares what is done to a woman in an advanced domestic battering cycle and to prisoners subjected to torture, the situations are frighteningly similar. But only recently have they begun to be equated legally and culturally."

Getting over the Rev. Rick
David Kirp writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: "There has been much gnashing of teeth, and not only in the gay community, over the selection of the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the premier prayer at tomorrow's Inauguration. Understandably so -after all, the televangelist had famously likened same-sex marriage to incest, polygamy, and 'an older guy marrying a child.'" It would be a mistake, though, to read the choice as signaling that the Obama administration will leave gays out in the cold. The decision to ask Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop and the center of a religious firestorm, to deliver the invocation at the opening ceremony is smart politics. What's more important, the fact that Barack Obama sought out Robinson during the campaign - asking him "what it's like to be first"; discussing Obama's commitment to gay civil rights as well as to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals for reducing poverty and disease - speaks volumes about the breadth of the president-elect's worldview.

Lynn Jenkins, CPA Blunder: Legislators Want Multimillion Dollar Mistake Fixed
From our friends at KansasJackass: "One of the several reasons no one, save Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins herself, thought she would beat former Congresswoman Nancy Boyda in November was that, while treasurer, Jenkins overlooked a massive accounting error- effected by her predecessor in the treasurer's office- that resulted in her office misallocating tens of millions of Kansas tax dollars."

Network VP Dismisses Military Pundit Scandal
Ali Flick writes for Think Progress: "Yesterday, the Department of Defense Inspector General released its report on the military analyst program first revealed by the New York Times last April. The report said there was 'insufficient evidence to conclude that OASD(PA) conceived of or undertook the type of disciplined public relations effort' alleged by the program’s critics. The report concluded that the program 'was not a secret or covert effort,' and thus not propaganda, which it defined as activities that 'are covert, that is, the communications do not reveal to the target audience the government’s role in sponsoring the material.'”