Brownback's War on the Mental Health Services

 A new report from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, entitled, "State Mental Health Cuts: A National Crisis," reports that Kansas ranks seventh in the nation when it comes to cutting state funding for mental health programs.

Kansas spending on mental health services went from $115 million in 2009 to $97 million in 2011, a 16-percent decrease.
Kansas is among 34 states that have cut a total $1.8 billion, despite the need for mental health services increasing because of economic distress and troops returning home from war.

“Budget cuts mean people don’t get the right help in the right place at the right time,” said former Community Bridge guest Rick Cagan, executive director of NAMI Kansas to the Kansas City Star. “Local communities suffer and families break under the strain.”

Community Bridge takes up this issue in our second hour with Robbin Cole, Executive Director of Pawnee Mental Health on how Brownback's budget cuts to mental health services are hurting Kansans in need of mental health services in Manhattan and across the state.

At half past the hour, we are joined by Rev. Tobais Schlingensiepen, paster of First Congregational Church in Topeka, and Rev. Trudy Cretsinger, former pastor of Trinity Luthern Church in Topeka, representing Kansas families served by the Kansas Neurological Institute, another service Sam Brownback has deemed too costly for the state to continued to support. For fiscal year 2010, KNI's operational budget was $29 million, of which $16.5 million came from the federal government through Medicaid funds. State appropriations amounted to $10 million. KNI serves around 160 Kansans, the majority (83%) are aged between 30 and 59; 88 percent have a profound intellectual disability; 83 percent are unable to speak and the remainder have very limited speech abilities; 68 percent are unable to walk; and, 94 percent have lived at KNI for 10 years or more. But for Sam Brownback these people do not deserve to be care for by the state.

MP3 File

Clippings for 24 March 2010

Good-Bye: Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It
Paul Craig Roberts writes for CounterPunch: "There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial interest. "

Bank of America: Our Balance Sheet Management Is ‘Routine and Appropriate’
Marian Wang reports for ProPublica: "Yesterday we wrote about allegations that Bank of America had engaged in manipulation of its balance sheet using tactics akin to Lehman Brothers’ “Repo 105.” (Repo 105, as the Wall Street Journal puts it, is a 'more-than-questionable interpretation of accounting rules' that enabled the bank to hide its risks before its eventual bankruptcy.)"

Have You Caught Gold Fever? The Value of That Shiny Metal Is as Artificial as Paper Money

Scott Thill writes for AlterNet: "Quick, check out this hot investment tip! For decades now, the Federal Reserve has been suppressing the true value of gold to keep its prodigious impact out of the market, which is currently dominated by fiat currencies like the dollar and light-speed binary code transactions like high-frequency trading. If you stripped away the Fed's continuing manipulation, gold's free-market value, currently hovering around $1,000 per ounce, would increase by multiples. Wait, are you yawning? Why are you leaving?"

War in Iraq, Seven Years On
Greg Mitchell writes for The Nation: "The seventh anniversary of the start of the Iraq War dawned today with very little notice in the media, despite the huge (and ongoing) costs of the war, not the least of which the nearly 4,400 dead US military personnel and at least 100,000 deceased Iraqi civilians. What we have heard from commentators, again, this year is that the United States went to war with the overwhelming support of the public and the press. Actually, this is a myth."

U.S.-Led Forces in Afghanistan Are Committing atrocities, Lying, and Getting Away with It
Jerome Starkey,the Afghanistan correspondent for the Times of London, recently reported for The Times of London about a night raid on Feb. 12 in which U.S. and Afghan gunmen opened fire on two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials -- an atrocity which NATO’s Afghanistan headquarters then tried to cover up. Now, in a blistering indictment of both NATO and his own profession, Starkey writes for Nieman Watchdog that the international forces led by U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal are rarely called to account because most reporters are too dependent on access, security and the 'embed culture' to venture out and see what's happening for themselves.

PTSD Claims Rise Among Veterans Treated at VA, New Research to Study PTSD and TBI
Mary Susan Littlepage reports for Truthout: "New statistics show that the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veteran patients being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and who have had PTSD claims approved increased. Also, new research projects are in the works to treat PTSD and traumatic brain injuries (TBI)."

Obama's Military Is Spying on U.S. Peace Groups
Amy Goodman writes for the Huffington Post: "Anti-war activists in Olympia, Wash., have exposed U.S. Army spying and infiltration of their groups, as well as intelligence gathering by the U.S. Air Force, the federal Capitol Police and the Coast Guard.The infiltration appears to be in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act preventing U.S. military deployment for domestic law enforcement, and may strengthen congressional demands for a full-scale investigation of U.S. intelligence activities, like the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s."

Tens of Thousands March on Washington, DC, for Immigration Reform

Yana Kunichoff reports for Truthout: "Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Washington, DC, on Sunday to pressure President Obama to work toward reforming the nation's immigration system and giving legal status to the estimated 12 million undocumented people currently living in the United States." (Photo: RRRPhotos)

Immigration Reform: We Need a Better Alternative
David Bacon comments for Truthout: "Sens. Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham announced Thursday their plan for immigration reform. Unfortunately, it is a retread, recycling the same bad ideas that led to the defeat of reform efforts over the last five years. In some ways, their proposal is even worse."

Who Speaks for Human Rights?
D.D. Guttenplan and Maria Margaronis write for The Nation: "Its leaders may not wear white hats--or wings--but most people would put Amnesty International on the side of the angels. Decades of denunciations by dictators across the political spectrum have only increased the organization's prestige. Yet in recent weeks a new wave of criticism has portrayed Amnesty as "a threat to human rights," whose "leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy." And this time the attack, which may affect not only Amnesty's reputation but also its funding, originates inside Amnesty itself."

Why ACORN Fell: The Times, Lies, and Videotape
Peter Dreier and John Atlas write for the Huffington Post: "The New York Times hit ACORN with a one-two punch last weekend, making sure that the community organizing group -- flattened by attacks from the right and withdrawal of funding from liberal foundations -- stays knocked out. Both articles -- Ian Urbana's Saturday story, "Acorn on Brink of Bankruptcy, Officials Say" and public editor Clark Hoyt's Sunday column, "The Acorn Sting Revisited" -- reflect the paper's obsession with being so even-handed that the truth gets lost."

The Health Care Hindenburg Has Landed
Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s decision to vote 'yes' in Sunday’s House action on the health care bill, although he had sworn to oppose the legislation unless there was a public option, is a perfect example of why I would never be a politician. I respect Kucinich. As politicians go, he is about as good as they get, but he is still a politician. He has to run for office. He has to raise money. He has to placate the Democratic machine or risk retaliation and defeat. And so he signed on to a bill that will do nothing to ameliorate the suffering of many Americans, will force tens of millions of people to fork over a lot of money for a defective product and, in the end, will add to the ranks of our uninsured."

Health Care Reform Bill 101: Who Will Pay for Reform?
Peter Grier reports for the Christian Science Monitor: "For the United States, health care reform would come with a hefty co-pay. So where's the cash to pay for this coming from? The answer is that the money will be provided by new taxes, fees on industries involved in health care, and cuts in projected spending growth for existing government health efforts, primarily Medicare."

Health-Insurance Coverage Rates for US Workers, 1979-2008

Hye Jin Rho and John Schmitt report for the Center for Economic and Policy Research: "This study estimates rates of all forms of health insurance coverage for workers aged 18 to 64, by wage quintiles, over the past three decades. This analysis looks at health insurance from any source, while other reports (with rare exceptions) look at only employer-provided health coverage. This report provides trends from 1979 to 2008, while even the Census Bureau typically presents data starting from only either 1987 or 1999 (due to methodology changes made in those two years). The Census Bureau also does not publish data for workers, as this report does."
Download PDF of complete report here.

Calorie Count Disclosure And The Health Care Bill: Will This Lead To A Food Revolution?

Kathrine Goldstein writes for the Huffington Post: "One aspect of the health care bill that is taking effect immediately is that chain restaurants will be required to prominently display nutrition information. This could be a significant step in changing the food landscape in America."

Health Care and Wingnuts
Joe Conason writes for the New York Obaserver: "Listening to right-wing talk radio on the day after Congress passed health care reform, Bill O’Reilly was stunned. To him, the hosts and the callers sounded 'crazed; as they shrieked about 'the end of the world, we’re socialist now, we have to take the country back.'  Maybe the Fox News host hasn’t been listening, but there has been plenty of crazy in the air now for many months on his network and elsewhere on the airwaves."

Two Right-Wing Billionaire Brothers Are Remaking America for Their Own Benefit
Jim Hightower writes for the Hightower Lowdown: "Despite a constant racket from the forces of the far-out right (Fox television's yackety-yackers, just-say-no GOP know-nothings, tea-bag howlers, Sarah Palinistas, et al.), the great majority of Americans support a bold progressive agenda for our country, ranging from Medicare for all to the decentralization and re-regulation of Wall Street. Indeed, in the elections of 2006 and 2008, people voted for a fundamental break from Washington's 30-year push to enthrone a corporate kleptocracy."

Bruce vs. Beck: Borne in the USA
GReg Mitchell writes for The Nation: "When Bruce Springsteen became a political 'boss' about thirty years ago he could not have imagined that the lyrics from one of his most famous songs would be cited by one American president and used to lampoon critics of another--and read over the air by the wacky host of something called 'a cable news channel.'"

The 10 Most Outrageous Right-Wing Freakouts Over the Health Care Bill

Tana Ganeva writes for AlterNet: "The Monday after Congress passed historic health care legislation was a dark day for the right wing. Wouldn’t you be upset if you were doomed to live in a communist dystopia? Is there even a point in living once Nancy Pelosi kills every baby in America and your grandmother?  And by 'upset,' we mean certifiably insane. Here are the 10 most awesomely overwrought right-wing freakouts spurred by the passage of a bill that promises to extend coverage to tens of millions of the uninsured and curb some of the most inhumane abuses of the insurance industry." Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images - Mark Wilson

Are Greedy Water Bottlers Siphoning Your City's Drinking Water?

Tara Lohan, AlterNet: "It took six years for residents of tiny McCloud, California, to give Nestle Waters North America its walking papers. The water bottler had hoped to build a 1 million square-foot facility in the town of less than 2,000 and was given a backroom 50-year contract (renewable for an additional 50 years) to annually take 1,250 gallons per minute of delicious spring water from the town, hunkered in the shadow of Mount Shasta, and unlimited groundwater. But after years of opposition from community and environmental groups, Nestle scrapped its plans and left with its tail between its legs."

Recommended Audio: The Story of Stuff - The Story of Bottled Water 

Choi to HRC: "I Feel So Betrayed"
Advocate.com editors report: "Lt. Dan Choi is profiled in the week’s copy of Newsweek, recounting what really happened to him after he was arrested at the White House gates and spent the night in jail. Choi tells the magazine he was denied a phone call and at numerous points throughout the interview, slams the Human Rights Campaign."

Globalizing the Culture Wars

A groundbreaking investigation by Political Research Associates (PRA) discovered that sexual minorities in Africa have become collateral damage to our domestic conflicts and culture wars. U.S. conservative evangelicals and those opposing gay pastors and bishops within mainline Protestant denominations woo Africans in their American fight.

Report (PDF)| Executive Summary (PDF) | Key Background Documents

Google Departs China: The View From Beijing
Kathleen E. McLaughlin reports for GlobalPost: "Google has finally made its move, shifting searches from China to Hong Kong more than two months after threatening to quit China over hacking and censorship. But the big questions remain unanswered, in particular Beijing's next move and how the internet giant's shift will affect access to information for the world's biggest net population."

Fake Area Newspaper Gets Real Television Show

David Itzkoff reports for the New York Times: "The Onion, the satirical news organization that broke the fake story that the smoke monster from “Lost” would receive its own spin-off series and cheekily reported that television critics who praised “The Wire” had never seen the show, is itself headed to the small screen."

Recommended Audio: On The Media - A Man, a Plan - Broadband

After many months of fact-finding and opinion gathering, the FCC at last released its long-awaited National Broadband Plan. But will it bring better internet speeds at lower prices? Consumer advocates and the FCC's broadband chief weigh in.

Plans for Broadband: Pipe Dream
The Economist comments: "A YEAR ago, Congress asked for a plan that would provide affordable broadband service to all America’s citizens. On March 16th, the Federal Communications Commission responded with a non sequitur: a national wireless plan which is good in its way, but which largely fails to tackle the problem it was asked to solve."

Ending the Internet's Trench Warfare
YOCHAI BENKLER comments for The New York times: "IMAGINE that for $33 a month you could buy Internet service twice as fast as what you get from Verizon or Comcast, bundled with digital high-definition television, unlimited long distance and international calling to 70 countries and wireless Internet connectivity for your laptop or smartphone throughout much of the country."

For Many, the Local Newspaper Isn't Dying - It's Already Dead
Robert Hernandez writes for The Online Journalism Review: "The doomsday scenario has been on everyone's mind, including some at SXSWi, since the revenue/circulation has dropped through the floor and the brilliant mind of Clay Shirky articulated 'thinking the unthinkable.' The scenario, in short, is what will happen to a city when the last major newspaper dies? Who covers our city? Who becomes our watchdog? What happens to our community? Who tells our story? I would propose that this scenario, in many aspects, has already happened."

Clippings for 7 January 2010

The Second Decade
Michael T. Klare writes for TomDispatch.com: "As the second decade of the twenty-first century begins, we find ourselves at one of those relatively rare moments in history when major power shifts become visible to all. If the first decade of the century witnessed profound changes, the world of 2009 nonetheless looked at least somewhat like the world of 1999 in certain fundamental respects: the United States remained the world's paramount military power, the dollar remained the world's dominant currency, and NATO remained its foremost military alliance, to name just three."

Recommended Audio: Democracy Now! - Chris Hedges on his book Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Journalist Chris Hedges discusses his recent book “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” at the New School in New York. Hedges is a senior fellow at the Nation Institute. His writing appears regularly in Foreign Affairs, Harper’s, the New York Review of Books, Mother Jones, among other publications.

What's Ahead for the Economy and Politics in 2010
Robert Reich writes on RobertReich.org: "Just about everything you'll hear coming out of Washington starting now is really about November's midterm election. The gravitational pull of the midterms was already apparent last year, as Republicans marched in perfect lockstep to vote against whatever the president and Dems proposed (Republicans always have authoritarian discipline on their side, which is why they're Republicans) but you haven't seen anything yet."

Abandoning EFCA Is Obama's Political Suicide: Lessons From Three Presidents on Workers' Rights
Mike Elk comments for Truthout: "Whatever happened to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)? Is it dead? I remember sitting in a meeting last May with Senate staff who said that after Al Franken was sworn in, EFCA would be an eight-week fight and then a vote in the Senate. It has been nearly eight months and there still has been no vote, not even in committee."

Poverty and Unemployment Equal Misery In America
Tom Eley writes for The Daily Censored: "The new decade finds the US working class suffering a level of social misery not seen since the Great Depression. Unemployment, poverty, hunger, utility cutoffs, homelessness, foreclosures and bankruptcies have become common experiences for millions. But unlike in the Great Depression, when limited reforms were put in place in response to the crisis, the Obama administration, Congress, and state and local governments are taking no serious measures to provide relief. On the contrary, the two parties of big business are exacerbating the crisis through budget cuts at the state and local level and the federal government is preparing new austerity measures."

Less Than Honest Policy
Bob Herbert comments for the New York Times: "There is a middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate's version of President Obama's effort to reform health care. The bill that passed the Senate with such fanfare on Christmas Eve would impose a confiscatory 40 percent excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans, which are popularly viewed as over-the-top plans held only by the very wealthy. In fact, it's a tax that in a few years will hammer millions of middle-class policyholders, forcing them to scale back their access to medical care."

Recommended Audio: Rep. Eric Massa Delivers Dick Cheney Smack-Down

The Pictures of War You Aren't Supposed to See
Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "War is brutal and impersonal. It mocks the fantasy of individual heroism and the absurdity of utopian goals like democracy. In an instant, industrial warfare can kill dozens, even hundreds of people, who never see their attackers. The power of these industrial weapons is indiscriminate and staggering. They can take down apartment blocks in seconds, burying and crushing everyone inside. They can demolish villages and send tanks, planes and ships up in fiery blasts. The wounds, for those who survive, result in terrible burns, blindness, amputation and lifelong pain and trauma. No one returns the same from such warfare. And once these weapons are employed all talk of human rights is a farce. "

Multiple Deployments Leads to Major Increase in PTSD Cases, New Study Says
Mary Susan Littlepage reports for Truthout: "Soldiers with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan are more than three times as likely as soldiers with no previous deployments to screen positive for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression, according to a new study published by the American Journal for Public Health."

After Flight 253, Should Obama Ramp Up on Terrorism Politics?
Simon Rosenberg, who heads the New Democratic Network, has an interesting take on the failed Christmas Day terrorism attack. He notes that this bungled al Qaeda-linked attempt to blow up an airliner flying to Detroit from Amsterdam "could radically impact Washington's agenda in 2010" and "may very well knock other important priorities off the legislative calendar." That calendar is already overflowing with the completion of health care reform, financial reform, climate change legislation, and Obama's top priority for the election year of 2010: jobs, jobs, and jobs.

All Together Now: Shut Up You Lefties
Kai Wright comments for The Nation: "It's bound to happen, any time progressives have the audacity to demand brave leadership from a Democratic Party that asks for our money, our votes and our volunteer labor. The cry goes up from the self-proclaimed level heads of corporate media: You impractical, self-defeating lefties! Stop whining and let the adults run things! And so, as the leadership debacle that was health reform reaches its climax, it's little surprise that those of us who won't stop fighting for true reform are once again told to shut up."

Reading the Tea Leaves
Howard Kurtz writes for the Washington Post: "The tea party movement -- if that angry, inchoate mass of disaffected dissidents deserves to be called a movement -- was probably the most surprising development of last year, and the most underestimated by the MSM. It wasn't just that lots of folks turned out for protests, but that the demonstrators were fueled by considerable emotion -- which surfaced again amid the shouting of the summer's health-care town halls. Even today, I can't tell you exactly what the tea partiers stand for, since the shorthand label covers all sorts of people with all kinds of grievances."

Meltdown, USA: Nuclear Drive Trumps Safety Risks and High Cost
Art Levine writes the following news analysis for Truthout: "The pro-nuclear Department of Energy is set to offer this month the first of nearly $20 billion in loan guarantees to a nuclear industry that hasn't built a plant since the 1970's or raised any money to do so in years. But although the industry is seeking to cash in on global warming concerns with $100 billion in proposed loan guarantees, environmentalists, scientists and federal investigators are warning that lax oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of the nation's aging 104 nuclear plants has led to near-meltdowns along with other health and safety failings since Three Mile Island - including what some critics say is a flawed federal health study apparently designed to conceal cancer risks near nuclear plants."

Rethinking Education as the Practice of Freedom
Henry A. Giroux writes for Truthout: "As the market-driven logic of neoliberal capitalism continues to devalue all aspects of the public good, one consequence has been that the educational concern with excellence has been removed from matters of equity, while the notion of schooling as a public good has largely been reduced to a private good. Both public and higher education are largely defined through the corporate demand that they provide the skills, knowledge and credentials that will provide the workforce necessary for the United States to compete and maintain its role as the major global economic and military power."

Reclaiming Legal Abortion as a Fundamental Right
Frances Kissling writes for The Women's Media Center: "The debate about abortion coverage in health insurance reform is the latest disappointing moment in the efforts of feminists to ensure that the social transformation Roe promised women was equally available to all women, including those who were dependent on the government for health care. To hear President Obama call the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortion, an “American tradition” is only the most recent of many misstatements about what a fundamental right entails. It seems that prochoice legislators, following the president’s lead, now explicitly consider that throwing women who cannot afford to pay for their own abortions under the bus is a reasonable compromise between those who favor and those who oppose legal abortion and a sensible concession to those who think abortion is immoral."

Comcast Launches "TV Everywhere": Say Goodbye to Free Online Television
Josh Silver writes for The Huffington Post: "On Monday, public interest groups called on federal authorities to investigate a plan by the largest cable, satellite and phone companies that threatens the future of Web-based video. "TV Everywhere" gets programmers like TNT, TBS and CBS to keep their content offline unless a viewer also pays for TV through a traditional company like Comcast or AT&T (phone companies are starting to offer TV service, too)."

Consumer Groups Cry Foul over 'TV Everywhere'
Kim Hart writes for The Hill: "Free Press, Consumers Union, New America Foundation and Public Knowledge are among the public interest groups pushing Congress, the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department to investigate the "TV Everywhere" initiative. The groups say it is an attempt by phone, satellite and cable companies to stamp out competition by requiring consumers to pay for a pay-TV subscription to access online programming."

Nearly 140 Journalists Killed in 2009
John Plunkett reports for the Guardian (UK): "Governments must take more action to protect journalists after 137 media personnel were killed last year, according to the International Federation of Journalists.  The IFJ described last year as one of the worst for the targeted killing of journalists, with 113 deliberate killings out of a "grim total" of 137 deaths among journalists and media personnel.  The Philippines, Mexico and Somalia were the most dangerous countries for journalists, it found. But the number of killings in Iraq – which for much of the decade has seen the highest number of media deaths – fell from 16 to five."

Clippings for 30 July 3009

Better Balance Between Climate and Military Spending Urged
Marina Litvinsky and Jim Lobe report for Inter Press Service: "Despite its conviction that climate change represents a serious threat to national and global security, the administration of President Barack Obama has proposed spending one dollar on addressing the challenge for every nine dollars it intends to spend on the US military, according to a new report by the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)."

Casualties of War, Part I: The Hell of War Comes Home
Dave Philipps reports for The Colorado Springs Gazette: "Before the murders started, Anthony Marquez's mom dialed his sergeant at Fort Carson to warn that her son was poised to kill. It was February 2006, and the 21-year-old soldier had not been the same since being wounded and coming home from Iraq eight months before. He had violent outbursts and thrashing nightmares. He was devouring pain pills and drinking too much. He always packed a gun. 'It was a dangerous combination. I told them he was a walking time bomb,' said his mother, Teresa Hernandez."

Report Finds Advantages in Gov’t Takeover of Care for Injured Contractors
T Christian Miller reports for ProPublica: "The Congressional Research Service has found that the Defense Department was paying far higher premiums to insure civilians working in war zones than either the State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development. The insurance is required by the Defense Base Act [1] and provides medical care and disability benefits for those injured while working under U.S. contracts overseas. Pentagon contractors negotiate rates individually with insurance firms, while the other agencies use a bidding process to set a blanket rate."

Happiness Consultants Won't Stop a Depression
Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "Anthony Vasquez, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, worked at FedEx Kinkos for about two years. His store’s slogan was: 'Yes we can.' 'It meant that if a customer asked us to do a job for them, no matter what it was, we were to say "Yes we can!"' he said. Posters of the slogan were posted on telephones and in the backroom. Corporate auditors enforced the slogan by 'Yes we can' call audits. Employees would be punished as a group for failures, and individuals could be fired. Other slogans at the Santa Cruz, Calif., FedEx Kinkos included 'Winning by engaging the hearts and minds of every team member' and 'I promise to make every FedEx experience outstanding.'”

Military Commissions Debate Rages On in Senate
Daphne Eviatar reports in The Washington Independent: "Last week, President Obama's detention policy task force issued its preliminary recommendations on the prosecution of Guantanamo detainees. But as a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday afternoon revealed, there's little consensus in Congress over where and how to prosecute terror suspects, or the likely consequences of the various alternatives."

US Pressure Urged on Coup Regime in Honduras
Robert Naiman writes for Truthout: "It's been a month since Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was deposed in a military coup. Negotiations on restoring democracy supported by the United States broke down when the coup regime refused to accept a compromise that would allow Zelaya to return."

US Citizens Wrongly Detained, Deported by ICE
Tyche Hendricks reports for the San Francisco Chronicle: "The son of a decorated Vietnam veteran, Hector Veloz is a US citizen, but in 2007 immigration officials mistook him for an illegal immigrant and locked him in an Arizona prison for 13 months. Veloz had to prove his citizenship from behind bars."

Obama Accused of Continuing Bush's Racial Profiling of Immigrants
Roberto Lovato writes for AlterNet: "Can a president who is, by any measure, far more forthright and lyrical than his predecessors about the pernicious effects of racism simultaneously promote and expand the racist policies of past administrations?"

Infamous Astroturf Lobbying Firm Behind New Anti-Health Reform Group
Lee Fang reports for Think Progress: "The new anti-health reform front group known as the Coalition to Protect Patients’ Rights, is being managed by the lobbying firm known as the DCI Group. After being contacted by ThinkProgress this afternoon about its sponsorship of CPPR’s press conference last week, DCI Group staffers acknowledged that they coordinate PR for the front group. Not be confused with Conservatives for Patients’ Rigths, another front group opposing health reform, CPPR has been organizing lobbying efforts against health reform and publishing op-eds across the country with misinformation about the public option."

Health Care - Sorting Myth from Reality
Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, and Nate Carlile write in The Progress Report for Think Progress: "Congress may be moving one step closer to reforming health care, as the Senate Finance Committee nears agreement on a bipartisan compromise. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) vowed that the committee would wrap up its work by the end of next week. This deal, however, will most likely not contain a public option or a mandate for employers to provide employees with health insurance. While many progressives are upset with this outcome, it's important to remember that this is not the final legislation: After the bill passes the Senate Finance Committee, it will still need to be reconciled with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and House bills, both of which include a public option. While these lawmakers continue to hammer out the details, many Republicans, conservative activists, and industry lobbyists continue to spread misinformation and push for indefinite delays in the hope of killing any chance at change. Yesterday in a "tele-town hall" sponsored by AARP, President Obama addressed this obstruction, underscoring that no one is talking about 'socialized medicine,' despite what conservatives are charging. 'I think that we've been so accustomed to hearing those phrases that sometimes we can't sort out the myth from the reality,' Obama said."

Recommended Audio: Incredible Shrinking Health Reform
Real News Network reports that Republicans, conservative Democrats and the medical industry continue to chip away at President Barack Obama’s health care reform, leaving doubts that the final product will make much improvement at all. The Real News Network interviews New School economist Richard Wolff says the industry and its supporters in Congress are determined to permit “reform” only if the end result means more money or at least not a decline in profits for the industry. That means Americans would still be stuck with a remarkably inefficient health care system, Wolff says.

Nine More Go to Jail for Single Payer
David Swanson writes for After Downing Street: "Following a pattern of civil resistance in Washington D.C. and around the country, citizens in Des Moines Iowa on Monday risked arrest to press for the creation of single-payer healthcare, the establishment of healthcare as a human right, and an end to the deadly practices of Iowa's largest health insurance company, Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield."

Birther Whack Jobs: Citizens of Idiot America
Dan Kennedy writes for Comment Is Free in the Guardian UK: "Just because there are people who believe some mighty peculiar things doesn't mean I'm obliged to pay them any attention. After all, there are folks who are convinced that the moon landing was a hoax, that Israel was behind the World Trade Center attacks and that the US government has been covering up the truth about the crash of a UFO in Roswell, New Mexico, for the past six decades. Not every ludicrous notion is worth the mental energy it would take to debunk it."

Recommended Audio: Huffington Post asks Republicans if Obama is American-born
Michael Tomasky watches the 'birthers' video from Huffington Post.


Recommened Audio: Jon Stewart Eviscerates The 'Birther' Movement
From the Huffington Post: "In a lengthy opening segment, Jon Stewart took on "birthers" last night, mocking their internal leadership and the media figures and politicians who support them. If you don't know by now (which is totally possible as a rational adult who does not engage with the lunatic fringe) "birthers" think that our president is not an American citizen, but instead a citizen of Kenya, who, through a massive government and familial conspiracy, tricked the American people into electing him.

Despite OVERWHELMING evidence that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen, "birthers" have created a media frenzy of late that has prompted conservative representatives to introduced the so called "birther bill" that would call for presidential candidates to provide their birth certificates before running. There has been some very responsible reporting on the subject, if you can ever call engaging crazy people responsible, by Rick Sanchez, Chris Matthews and others who called these people crazy and showed copies of the president's birth certificate amongst other documents proving he was born in Hawaii."

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Born Identity
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

America the Great ... Police State
Gore Vidal writes for Truthdig.com: "For those of us who had hoped that the Obama administration would present us with a rebirth of the old republic that was so rudely erased a few years ago by that team of judicial wreckers, Bush and Gonzales, which led, in turn, to a recent incident in Cambridge, Mass. that inspired a degree of alarm in many Americans. But what was most alarming was the plain fact that neither the president nor a “stupid” local policeman seemed to understand the rules of behavior in a new America, where we find ourselves marooned as well as guarded (is that the verb?) by armed police who have been instructed that they are indeed, once armed, the law and may not be criticized verbally or in any other way and are certainly not subject to any restrictions as to whom they arrest or otherwise torment."

The Dominance of Rich, White Men Is Eroding -- It's Time to Truly Fight for Diversity
Cortney Martin writes for AlterNet: "With crisis, comes opportunity. It’s a cliché that has soothed the displaced, the bankrupt, and the lovesick for generations. Our own moment of transition is certainly no exception. We’ve got an economy in shambles, multiple ill-conceived wars fumbling violently on, a dangerously warming climate, and broken healthcare and education systems. It’s enough to make even the powerful quake in their proverbial boots…which is precisely where the opportunity now lies."

Recommended Audio: How Monsanto and Fox News Prevented Americans from Learning About Bovine Growth Hormone


GMOs' Questionable Global Conquest
Truthout provides a translation of Antoine de Ravignan's article in Alternatives Internationales that surveys the main issues involved in the regulation and spread of genetically modified food crops, while in ZNet, Marie Trigona reports in Study Released in Argentina Puts Glyphosate Under Fire on an Argentine findings that criticizes the GMO soy model from a variety of perspectives.

Clippings for 16 July 2009

Only Forceful Action Can Turn Foreclosure Crisis Tide
Mary Kane reports for The Washington Independent: "The time may be ripe for a shift in strategy as the foreclosure machine grinds on, and new foreclosure notices reach the troubling milestone of 10,000 per day. A weak economy has added job losses and falling home values to the mix of toxic loans that prompted the crisis two years ago, making an already difficult situation even more severe. Government measures from foreclosure freezes to loan modifications have only served, so far, to stall the inevitable - and to create an ominous backlog of millions of pending foreclosures."

'Government Sachs' Strikes Gold...Again
Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig: "Connect the dots: Goldman Sachs made $3.44 billion in profit this past quarter, while the U.S deficit topped $1 trillion for the first time in the nation’s history and appeared to be headed toward doubling that figure before the budget year is out. Since most of the increase in the federal deficit is due to bailing out the banks and salvaging the greater economy they helped destroy, why is the top investment bank doing so well?"

Recommended Audio - News Dissector Radio: Greening the Economy
Guest Dissectrix Cherie Welch from Atlanta discussing strategies for greening the economy and Danny’s dissections on corporate crime and the media.

Colonizing Iraq: The Obama Doctrine?
Michael Schwartz writes for TomDispatch.com: "Here's how reporters Steven Lee Myers and Marc Santora of The New York Times described the highly touted American withdrawal from Iraq's cities last week: 'Much of the complicated work of dismantling and removing millions of dollars of equipment from the combat outposts in the city has been done during the dark of night. Gen. Ray Odierno, the overall American commander in Iraq, has ordered that an increasing number of basic operations - transport and re-supply convoys, for example - take place at night, when fewer Iraqis are likely to see that the American withdrawal is not total.' Acting in the dark of night, in fact, seems to catch the nature of American plans for Iraq in a particularly striking way."

The Man Who Knew Cheney's Secret
Benjamin Sarlin writes for The Daily Beast: "The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh was mocked in March when he referred to Dick Cheney’s secret squad of CIA assassins. Now, he talks to The Daily Beast about the next shoe to drop. Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh raised eyebrows back in March when he told an audience at the University of Minnesota that Dick Cheney ran a secret hit squad that he kept hidden from congressional oversigh."

Cognitive Deficiencies of Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III
Ernest Canning writes for Brad Blog: "A fair reading of the full context of Judge Sotomayor's 2001 University of California remarks reveals that the above two statements are not inconsistent. In the first, Sotomayor was merely giving recognition to what cognitive science has long recognized --- that differences in culture, background and experience create frames through which our minds process data, or as George Lakoff observes in Don't Think of an Elephant and in greater depth in Moral Politics: 'Concepts are not things that can be changed by people telling us a fact. Frames are needed to make sense of the facts.'"

The Stench of Conservative Desperation
Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ryan Powers, Nate Carlile, and Ian Millhiser write for The Progress Report at Think Progress: "Judge Sonia Sotomayor is well-qualified to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, with more federal judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in 100 years. Her loyalty to settled law is, in the words of the Congressional Research Service, 'the most consistent characteristic of Sotomayor's approach as an appellate judge.' And she is tremendously popular; Americans overwhelmingly support her confirmation to the nation's highest court. Even Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), in a surprising moment of candor, told Sotomayor that she would be confirmed 'unless you have a complete meltdown.' Yet, as Sotomayor's elevation to the Court grows increasingly inevitable, conservatives are the ones melting down. They are using Sotomayor's confirmation hearings to hurl more and more desperate attacks."

Klobuchar's Contribution: Talking Law With Sotomayor
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar brought something rare and valuable to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor: a savvy questioning style that invited the nominee to offer extended and revealing answers regarding her views on the law. "

New Evidence Surfaces in Post-Katrina Crimes
A.C. Thompson reports for ProPublica: "Television news reports are casting new light on the violence that flourished in New Orleans in the anarchic days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The reports - broadcast Thursday by WTAE TV in Pittsburgh and WDSU in New Orleans - focus on two unsolved crimes: the near-fatal shooting of Donnell Herrington, who was allegedly attacked by a group of white vigilantes in the Algiers Point neighborhood, and the murder of Henry Glover, whose charred remains were discovered on a Mississippi River levee. Both victims are African American."

Bush Department of Justice Blacklisted Applicants from LGBT, Immigrant Advocacy Groups
Faiz Shakir writes for Think Progress: "The Washington Blade reports that, during the Bush administration, “applicants for Justice Department internships and honors programs may have been rejected based on their membership in LGBT” and immigrant advocacy groups. Pro-immigrant groups reportedly made up 25 percent of the list. "

Health Insurance Whistle-Blower Knows Where the Bodies are Buried
Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig: "Wendell Potter is the health insurance industry’s worst nightmare. He’s a whistle-blower. Potter, the former chief spokesperson for insurance giant CIGNA, recently testified before Congress, 'I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick—all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.'"

Senate Panel Passes Health Reform Bill
Jeffrey Young reports for The Hill: "A Senate committee became the first Congressional panel to advance health care reform legislation this year, marking a significant step toward the achievement of President Obama's foremost domestic initiative. On a party-line, 13-10 tally, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted to move its portion of the upper chamber's health care reform legislation to the floor."

PTSD Ignored on Active Duty
Maya Schenwar writes for Truthout: "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have thrown post-traumatic stress disorder into stark public light. As of the end of March, 346,393 US veterans were being treated for PTSD, and that number continues to grow rapidly. However, PTSD symptoms don't always wait to emerge until soldiers return home. For active-duty soldiers like Airman Steven Flowers, stationed in Aviano, Italy, it can take years to receive even minimal care. And once treatment begins, the soldiers are often punished for revealing their problems."

Activists Push Ballot Initiative to End State Benefits for Illegal Immigrants and Their U.S.-born Children
Teresa Watanabe reports for The Los Angeles Times: "In a stretch of desert just north of the US-Mexico border, men and women in khakis and the colors of the American flag recently gathered at a border watch post they call Camp Vigilance and discussed their next offensive in the nation's immigration wars. The target: Illegal immigrants and their US-born children who receive public benefits."

Accountability to Women Could Upset Business-as-Usual
Sholain Govender-Bateman reports for Inter Press Service: "A public presentation of the 'Progress of the World's Women' report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Pretoria, South Africa, this week suggests that one of the most powerful constraints on realizing women's rights and achieving the Millennium Development Goals is a lack of accountability to women's needs."

Fox New Targets Planned Parenthood -- Literally!
Priscilla writes for New Hounds: "As the “party of life,” the GOP seeks to end a woman’s right to an abortion. Planned Parenthood is on their enemies list as it is an abortion provider. That Planned Parenthood offers a whole range of reproductive related health services and education, especially in poorer communities, is of no concern to those conservatives who would seek to shut down this organization that offers help to those who need it. As the mouthpiece for conservative principals, Fox News offers a platform for those whose goal is to shut Planned Parenthood down. In addition to Sean Hannity’s hit piece on Planned Parenthood, Hannity, O’Reilly, and Beck have provided a platform for a group, whose “sting operations” against Planned Parenthood, are part of a greater effort to damage Planned Parenthood in the hope that state and federal funding will be cut off. Last week, subbing for Bill O’Reilly on “The Factor," Laura Ingraham interviewed one of these women and Alabama's Attorney General who was muy sympatico. While the interview contained the perfunctory anti abortion/Planned Parenthood memes, there was a troubling graphic which raised the question of whether Fox News was sending a signal to encourage domestic violence against Planned Parenthood."

Alternative views to read...

The Elitism Thing

Tom Sullivan writes for Campaign for America's Future: "When character attacks make us uncomfortable and defensive, maybe we should pay more attention and not dismiss them immediately as unfair or overblown. Like Republicans being obsessed with money. I can often identify an acquaintance as a Republican by how quickly money dominates the conversation. With the activist left, it is how quickly the topic of voter ignorance arises."

For the complete essay, click here.

Stopping the War Machine: Military Recruiters Must Be Confronted

Ron Kovic writes for Truthdig: "As a former United States Marine Corps sergeant who was shot and paralyzed from my mid-chest down during my second tour of duty in Vietnam on Jan. 20, 1968, I am sending my complete support and admiration to all those now involved in the courageous struggle to stop military recruitment in Berkeley and across the country."

For the complete article click here.

Where Is the Outrage?

Also at Truthdig, Robert Scheer's writtes: "Are we Americans truly savages or merely tone-deaf in matters of morality, and therefore more guilty of terminal indifference than venality? It’s a question demanding an answer in response to the publication of a 370-page report on U.S. complicity in torture."

For the complete column, click here.

“Pro-Military” Iron Man

Nick Truse writes: "Those who haven’t seen this summer’s biggest blockbuster (so far, at least—this weekend’s “Indiana Jones” sequel may well change that) “Iron Man” and are planning to hit the multiplex might want to take a gander at this review. The article points out how “Iron Man” is the latest in a string of “pro-military” movies served up for youngsters’ consumption—even as two disastrous wars rage on overseas."

For complete article, click here.

Post-Traumatic Stress Soars in US Troops

David Morgan of Reuters reports: "Newly diagnosed cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among US troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan surged 46.4 percent in 2007, bringing the five-year total to nearly 40,000, according to US military data released on Tuesday."

For the complete article click here.

Voter Repression

The Winston-Salem Journal's editorial board writes: "The US Supreme Court has effectively reinstated the poll tax that once kept minorities and the poor from voting, and it did so for no justifiable reason."

To read the complete editorial, click here.

Senator: VA Lying about Number of Veteran Suicides

By Les Blumenthal
McClatchy Newspapers
Wednesday 23 April 2008
To view original click here.
Washington - The Veterans Administration has lied about the number of veterans who've attempted suicide, a senator charged Wednesday, citing internal e-mails that put the number at 12,000 a year when the department was publicly saying it was fewer than 800.
"The suicide rate is a red-alarm bell to all of us," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Murray also said that the VA's mental health programs are being overwhelmed by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, even as the department tries to downplay the situation.
"We are not your enemy, we are your support team, and unless we get accurate information we can't be there to do our jobs," Murray told Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon Mansfield during the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing.
Mansfield told Murray and the other senators that he didn't think the VA had deliberately tried to mislead Congress or the public.
Murray remained skeptical, however, saying that the VA has demonstrated a pattern of misleading Congress about the increasing number of soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and are now seeking help and straining Defense Department and VA facilities and programs.
Murray said she's spoken with VA Secretary James Peake and demanded that he fire the man in charge of the department's mental health programs, Dr. Ira Katz. The senator said Peake has yet to respond to her request.
"I used to teach preschool, and when you bring up a 3-year-old and tell them they have to stop lying, they understand the consequences," Murray said. "The VA doesn't. They need to stop hiding the fact this war is costing us in so many ways."
The existence of the e-mails, uncovered as part of a class-action lawsuit filed against the VA in San Francisco, was first reported by CBS News on Monday.
"Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities," Katz wrote in a Feb. 13 e-mail to Ev Chasen, the department's communication director. "Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?"
Chasen responded: "I think this is something we should discuss among ourselves, before issuing a press release. Is the fact we are stopping them good news, or is the sheer number bad news? And is this more than we have ever seen before?"
CBS reported that the VA had provided it with data earlier that showed only 790 attempted suicides in all of 2007.
"How do we trust what you are saying when every time we turn around we find out that what you are saying publicly is different from what you are saying privately?" Murray asked Mansfield. "How can we trust what you are saying today?"
Mansfield responded that the situation was unfortunate and didn't "send the right message" to Congress or the public.
"I know Dr. Katz is a dedicated public servant," he said. "There isn't a lot the VA should be keeping secret."
Murray pointed to a RAND Corp. study released last week that found that 320,000 troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from traumatic brain injuries and 300,000 troops suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression.
Of those with PTSD or depression, Murray said, only half have sought treatment, and only half of those have received treatment that was "minimally" adequate.
"I think we ought to be worried," Murray said, adding that, as with Vietnam-era vets, some of the more violent symptoms might not show up for 50 years.
"They can be walking time bombs for decades," Murray said. "I hope everyone in the VA understands this."
Mansfield said the VA is spending $3 billion on mental health programs this fiscal year and has 17,000 mental health workers.
"We want to make sure we take care of these individuals," he said.

Four Years and Counting.

Christopher E. Renner
Originally Read on 15 March 2007

This week we learnt for the mainstream news something those of us who have questioned the Bush administration’s policies concerning civil rights had been award of for some time. The Justice Department reported rampant FBI abuses of the Patriot Act’s National Security Letter (NSL) provision that gives agents sweeping powers to demand sensitive personal records without court approval - that means you bank records, who you talk to on the phone, what e-mails you received, etc.

The Justice Department report reveals that from 2003 to 2005, the government issued a staggering 143,000 National Security Letters, in some cases barring recipients from even reporting they’ve received a letter. How much more proof does Congress need that this dangerous provision defies democratic values? How many more of us will be investigated and gagged before the FBI is reined in?

There’s only one course of action. It is time for Congress to repeal the expanded Patriot Act powers that opened the door to these abuses. This un-American, anti-democratic piece of legislation was designed to gut the constitution of our most fundamental rights and allow those who control the political process to control your personal choices. It is time it stopped!

I hope you will let Rep. Boyda and those two cow-toeing Senators we have, Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback, that you want the Patriotic Act repealed. Rep. Boyda might actually listen to you, I doubt of the other two will. All I ever get from Sentors Roberts and Brownback are the computer-generated replies to my almost weekly letters or faxes concerning the direction the Republicans have take our country that never address a single issue I raise, but simply parrot their mindless rhetoric.

Monday marks the anniversary of the Bush’s effort to bankrupt our nation or the so-called War in Iraq. To date 3,194 US men and women serving in the armed services have died in a war that is immoral, that was begun by lies, and has done nothing but demonstrate how the values we claim we hold dear have no real value. At the same time 23,417 have been wounded. I think it is interesting to point out that many of those aren’t actually labeled “wounded” but rather are listed as suffering from some “disease,” which is another way the corrupt Bush administration lies to the American public about the truth of the War in Iraq. I hope people take advantage of this anniversary to express your disapproval of Bush’s war by joining with other like-minded people on Saturday and march in opposition to this policy of destruction.

Moreover, Stacy Bannerman in Foreign Policy in Focus reports that “at least 30 percent of Iraq or Afghanistan [veterans] are diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), up from 16 percent to 18 percent in 2004,” (data reported Stratton VA Medical Center). “The number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans getting treatment for PTSD at VA hospitals and counseling centers increased 87 percent from September 2005 to June 2006, and they have a backlog of 400,000 cases, including veterans from previous wars. The most conservative estimates project that roughly 250,000 Iraq war veterans will struggle with PTSD.”

“These figures are particularly significant for citizen soldiers when considering that: A 2004 analysis of Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans who received VA health care revealed that 58 percent of the veterans seeking treatment were members of the Army Reserve/National Guard and 71 percent of Operation Enduring Freedom vets who utilized VA services were citizen soldiers. A 2006 report detailing VA healthcare utilization by Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans revealed that, of those who sought care for PTSD, 18 percent were formerly active duty personnel, and 30 percent were National Guard soldiers and Army reservists. Even at their highest rates of deployment, National Guard soldiers and Army reservists represented no more than 44 percent of deployed forces; and, many studies conducted at Walter Reed Military Hospital don't include National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers.”

“National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers have less training and preparation for deployment, less cohesive units, and most never expected to see combat, factors that put them at significantly higher risk for stress-related disorders than active-duty military.” For the complete article visit: http://www.alternet.org/story/49226/

We have to ask what are the long-term effects of this “War on Terror” going to be on our society and nation? How many people will be adversely affected psychologically and how will those people be cared for? What will their PSTD do to our communities? To their families? Who will bear the financial burned? How many will end up homeless?

And why aren’t more people asking why the hell are we are still stuck in a quagmire of a civil war we have no hope of ending or resolving?

We - the American citizenry - are responsible for allowing ourselves to be lead as a nation by irrational fear instead of our core values of democracy and civil rights. We are responsible for allow corrupt politicians to destroy our most sacred values as a nation and replace them with theocratic falsehoods the founders of this nation made sure to marginalize.

It is time we got our priorities right for a change. As long as we disrespect the human and civil rights of others, we put every man, woman and child in our country at risk of being another victim of mindless hate -- hate cause by our own very actions.

Only by respecting the rule of law, respecting national and international conventions on torture and imprisonment, controlling our irrational fears with knowledge and understanding, and, above all making sure that we obey the golden rule, will we be able to overcome to damage done to our nation and our history by those who are driven by arrogance, greed and pessimism.