When We Were Strangers: An Interview with Pamela Schoenewaldt

Community Bridge opens this week with an interview featuring author Pamela Schoenewaldt in a discussion of her new novel, When We Were Strangers. The novel tells the story of Irma Vitale, an Italian immigrant who leaves her Abruzzo mountain village to come to America. Schoenewaldt takes up such current issues as immigration reform and women's reproductive rights in this historical novel that readers of Geraldine Brooks, Nancy Turner, Frances de Pontes Peebles, and Debra Dean will most certainly cherish. When We Were Strangers will live in the mind and the heart long after its last page is turned. Visit Schoenewaldt's webpage for more background information about the story.

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Clippings for 7 March 2010

Winter in America: Democracy Gone Rogue
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "Democracy in the United States is experiencing both a crisis of meaning and a legitimation crisis. As the promise of an aspiring democracy is sacrificed more and more to corporate and military interests, democratic spheres have largely been commercialized and democratic practices have been reduced to market relations, stripped of their worth and subject to the narrow logics of commodification and profit making. Empowerment has little to do with providing people with the knowledge, skills and power to shape the forces and institutions that bear down on their lives and is now largely defined as under the rubric of being a savvy consumer. When not equated with the free market capitalism, democracy is reduced to the empty rituals of elections largely shaped by corporate money and indifferent to relations of power that make a mockery out of equality, democratic participation and collective deliberation."

Setting the Record Straight on Chile
Naomi Klein writes for OpEdNews: "Just two days after Chile was struck by a devastating earthquake, Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens informed his readers that Milton Friedman's 'spirit was surely hovering protectively over Chile' because, 'thanks largely to him, the country has endured a tragedy that elsewhere would have been an apocalypse'. It's not by chance that Chileans were living in houses of brick - and Haitians in houses of straw - when the wolf arrived to try to blow them down."

Afghanistan and the "Balance of Armaments"
Dallas Darling comments for Truthout: "Before discussing what Afghanistan has to do with the 'balance of armaments' idea, it is obvious that US and NATO forces, with regards to superior weapons and advanced armament industries, have had tremendous advantages over insurgents in the Middle East and Asia. Unfortunately, the production, maintenance and use of these advanced weapons systems and war technologies have routinely been accepted in the West. How modern war technologies, including their manufacturing and support systems, collectively shaped and changed those involved have rarely, if at all, received any type of criticism, too."

New Research on State Crimes Against Democracy
Peter Phillips reports for The Daily Censored: "New research in the journal American Behavioral Scientist (Sage publications, February 2010) addresses the concept of “State Crimes Against Democracy” (SCAD). Professor Lance deHaven-Smith from Florida State University writes that SCADs involve highlevel government officials, often in combination with private interests, that engage in covert activities for political advantages and power. Proven SCADs since World War II include McCarthyism (fabrication of evidence of a communist infiltration), Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (President Johnson and Robert McNamara falsely claimed North Vietnam attacked a US ship), burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in effort to discredit Ellsberg, the Watergate break-in, Iran-Contra, Florida’s 2000 Election (felon disenfranchisement program), and fixed intelligence on WMDs to justify the Iraq War."

The Other Victims of Battlefield Stress; Defense Contractors' Mental Health Neglected
T. Christian Miller reports for ProPublica: "While suicide among soldiers has been a focus of Congress and the public, relatively little attention has been paid to the mental health of tens of thousands of civilian contractors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. When they make the news at all, contractors are usually in the middle of scandal, depicted as cowboys, wastrels or worse."

Turning Point: When Soldiers Have Had Enough

Nadya Williams writes for Truthout: "Josh Stieber and Conor Curran spoke to a gathering of Veterans For Peace and civilian peace activists in San Francisco, as part of their six months of walking and biking from the East Coast to the West to engage in dialogue about war and to become involved in community service along the way ... They spoke of their motivations for joining the Marines, their experiences in Iraq and the turning points that made them reject violence."  Stieber and Curran were interviewed on Community Bridge last fall.  To hear their interview go to: http://communitybridge.blogspot.com/2009/10/turning-form-war-to-peace-contagious.html

The Torture Memo John Yoo Should Have Written
Stephen Rohde writes for The Daily Journal (via Turthout.org): "On February 19, the Department of Justice released the long-awaited 261-page Report of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which concluded, among other things, that in his legal memos on torture and presidential power, John Yoo had 'committed intentional professional misconduct when he violated his duty to exercise independent legal judgment and render thorough, objective, and candid legal advice.' A senior Justice Department official, acknowledging that he had not reviewed all the documents available to the OPR, found that Yoo exercised 'poor judgment' and that Yoo's memos were 'flawed,' 'one-sided and conclusory' and 'wrong,' in various respects, but nevertheless declined to accept the report or refer Yoo for disciplinary action, leaving this decision to the state bars. Given what we now know, here is the memo John Yoo should have submitted to President George W. Bush."

Blackwater's Gunrunners

Daniel Schulman writes for Mother Jones: "Blackwater improperly obtained hundreds of weapons intended for use by Afghanistan's already underequipped police force—and then falsely claimed to a Senate committee that the firearms had been returned when many remained unaccounted for. According to a months-long investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee that unearthed a range of misconduct by the company's personnel, contractors working for a Blackwater subsidiary named Paravant operated recklessly and routinely violated military regulations. The inquiry also identified a series of major vetting lapses by the company, which employed at least one contractor it had previously fired for improper behavior in Iraq and others who abused alcohol and drugs, including steroids. The investigation paints a grim picture of the state of contracting oversight in Afghanistan, where, according to committee staffers, military officials missed multiple red flags calling Paravant's conduct into question—and were even confused about who was ultimately responsible for overseeing the company's work in the first place."

America's Public Debt: The Least of Our Worries
Mark Weisbrot writes for The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR): "Various political demagogues and Wall Street interests have mounted a campaign to convince Americans that despite persistent massive unemployment for the foreseeable future, more than 15 million people underwater on their home mortgages, and two unnecessary wars, what we really should be worried about is America's national debt."

Dear America: Welcome to the Third World

Janice Leber writes for The Daily Censored: "According to Wikipedia, the term “third world” originally described countries that did not align themselves with either the capitalist USA or the communist USSR. As time has marched on and the Soviet Union has disappeared, the definition has changed.  This is a definition that seems to describe the modern definition of third-world countries:

… nations which struggle to compete because of a lack of one or more of the following: health, education, employment, resources, money, and other various factors. Many are also hampered by corrupt governments who have long ago given up on looking after their own people and use funds to fatten their own wallets while their citizens are starving in the streets. Some are hampered by war or out of control epidemics such as AIDS. These factors make it next to impossible for them to compete in any real way with the industrialized nations."

State by State, Unions Matter
Dick Meister comments for Truthout: "Union members invariably have better pay and benefits than nonunion workers. But, as a new study shows, the number of workers who've joined unions varies widely from state to state. Even in some states with a relatively high number of union members, the number is only a small percentage of the state's overall workforce, according to the study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research."

FBI Confirms Investigations Into Post-Katrina Violence Widening
A. C. Thompson reports for ProPublica: "If you’ve been following our Law & Disorder series, there are a couple of fresh developments. Our partners at the Times-Picayune have some new information about the expanding federal probe of the New Orleans Police Department, confirming that the FBI is investigating two more shootings described in stories we published in December."

Broken ICE
Jackie Stevens writes for The Nation: "In January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that by February 26 it would be transferring roughly 250 detainees from the privately run Varick Detention Center in Manhattan to the Hudson correctional center in Kearny, New Jersey. About 12,000 people annually, mostly New Yorkers who would be held at the Varick center, will now be distributed to facilities outside the city. ICE claims it is making the transfer to provide "outdoor recreation space and visitation services," but civil rights advocates paint a darker picture."

Like Crist-Rubio for GOP, Lincoln-Halter Race Could Define Dems
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "Most major media in the United States has given up on covering politics as if it mattered. From talk radio to talk television to the Washington bureaus of too many of our dying newspapers, the coverage of the 2010 election cycle is framed in one of two ways:

A. A fight between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. B. A fight between conservative Republicans and Tea Party Republicans to decide who will get to vanquish the liberal Democrats in November."

Prayer Warriors and Palin Organizing Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America
Bill Berkowitz reports for AlterNet: "It's a movement whose followers played a significant role in the battle over Proposition 8, California's anti-same-sex marriage initiative, and Uganda's infamous proposed Anti-Homosexuality Law, more commonly associated with the Family, a religious network of elites drawn from the ranks of business and government throughout the world."

The Dirty Truth Behind Clean Coal

Joshua Frank provides the following news analysis for Truthout: "If you've tuned in to the Winter Olympics this past week, you likely sat through repeated showings of a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign paid for by Big Coal regarding the potential laurels of 'clean-coal' technology. The premise of the 30-second spot is simple: Coal can be clean and America needs to wean itself off of foreign crude and create jobs back home by tapping our nation's vast coal reserves."

Domestic Violence: A Pre-Existing Condition?
Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: "March is Women’s History Month, recognizing women’s central role in society. Unfortunately, violence against women is epidemic in the United States and around the world. Domestic violence is on the minds of many now, as reports published by The New York Times implicate New York Gov. David Paterson in an alleged attempt to influence a domestic violence case against one of his top aides. The Times reports, based in part on unnamed sources, say that the Paterson aide, David W. Johnson, attacked his girlfriend on Halloween night, Oct. 31, 2009, 'choking her, smashing her into a mirrored dresser and preventing her from calling for help.' New York state police from the governor’s personal protection detail contacted the victim, despite having no jurisdiction. Then the governor himself intervened, the Times alleges, asking two aides to contact the victim and to arrange a phone call between him and the victim. The call occurred on Feb. 7 of this year, the night before the victim was to appear in court to request an order of protection from Johnson. She did not appear in court, and the case was dismissed. After the exposé, the governor ended his bid for election and suspended Johnson without pay."

EFF Demands FCC Close Copyright "Loophole" in Net Neutrality
Nate Anderson writes for Ars Tecnica: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation might be expected to love the FCC's 'Open Internet' push, but the group has one big concern with the rulemaking: the presence of 'a loophole for copyright enforcement in its proposed regulations for network neutrality.'"

Jana's Campaign to End Domestic Violence

This week's Community Bridge opens with a conversation on domestic violence with Curt Brungardt, Executive Director at the Center for Civic Leadership, Ft. Hays State University, who along with his wife, Christie, are the co-founders of Jana's Campaign to End Domestic Violence.

Jana's Campaign is a grassroots, community-based advocacy effort developed for the purpose of working in the domestic violence public policy arena. According to a recent United Nations report, one in every three women worldwide will directly experience violence in their lifetime. The overwhelming majority of these women will be physically harmed by their intimate partners. In the United States, domestic violence is recognized as the leading cause of injuries experienced by women. And data from the US Department of Justice says on an average, three women every day are killed by their current or former partners. On July 3, 2008, Jana Lynne Mackey, a University of Kansas law student was one of these fatalities.

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Clippings for 26 April 2009 - World Children's Day

Today marks the 22nd Anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant melt down that release radiation across southern Russia and Eastern Europe.

ACTION ALERT:Send a letter to President Obama and Congress telling them that any investigation must be backed by the full force of law and adequate funding.
If you agree, as I do, that we need a non-partisan, fully-funded independent investigation into the Bush Administration's role in torturing detainees, please read on and follow the links below to send an important letter to President Obama and Congress. -- Christopher Renner, Community Bridge host.

From Amnesty International:
Just as the volume of calls for investigations into the U.S. torture program reached deafening levels this week, another classified report came out Tuesday revealing new details about the military's role in torturing detainees.
The Senate Armed Services Committee report refutes claims by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that the military had nothing to do with the vile activities at Abu Ghraib and other military detention centers.(1) And it exposes the "few bad apples" argument as a complete farce, clearly showing that torture was sanctioned and even encouraged in military detention centers.
The momentum for investigations is snowballing. President Obama said last Friday this was a time for "reflection, not retribution"; less than a week later, the national press reports that the President is now open to an investigation.(2)
There's a growing risk that we may get an investigation that lacks independence, the legal authority and funding necessary to tell the full truth about the illegal, U.S. torture program.
Tell President Obama and Congress that any investigation must be independent, backed by the full force of law and sufficiently funded to uncover the full truth behind the U.S. torture program.
We're getting closer to seeing our government actually do the right thing.

Thanks for standing with us.

Njambi Good
Counter Terror with Justice Campaign Director
Amnesty International USA

1 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/politics/22report.html
2 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/21/AR2009042102187.html

Obama Needs to Address Domestic Violence
Laura Finley comments for Truthout: "During his presidential campaign, President Obama pledged to make violence against women a priority. He promised to help expand programs and services for victims of domestic violence in the US and abroad, and to strengthen criminal laws. Although he is still in the early days of his presidency and is dealing with many serious issues, it is imperative that the public holds Obama accountable for these campaign promises."

Warrantless Tracking Of Suspects Using Cell Phone GPS
Lee Fang writes for Think Progress: "While serving as a U.S. attorney during the Bush administration, Christopher Christie, now a Republican candidate for Governor in New Jersey, tracked the whereabouts of citizens through their cell phones without warrants. The ACLU obtained the documents detailing the spying program from the Justice Department in an ongoing lawsuit over cell phone tracking."

Recommended Audio: Daily Show - A Brief History of Torture
John Steward rips apart the media's tortured logic on covering torture.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
A Brief History of Torture
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

CIA Official: No Proof Harsh Techniques Stopped Terror Attacks
Mark Seibel and Warren P. Strobel report for McClatchy Newspapers: "The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any 'specific imminent attacks,' according to recently declassified Justice Department memos."

Recommended Audio: High Crimes?
April 22: Shedding new light on the birth of torture techniques in America, Rachel Maddow is joined by Ron Suskind, author of "The One Percent Doctrine," as they follow the trail of a carefully constructed interrogation program right to the top.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Killing Civilians: How Safe Do You Actually Want to Be?
Tom Engelhardt writes for TomDispatch.com: "Almost like clockwork, the reports float up to us from thousands of miles away, as if from another universe. Every couple of days they seem to arrive from Afghan villages that few Americans will ever see without weapon in hand. Every few days, they appear from a world almost beyond our imagining, and always they concern death -- so many lives snuffed out so regularly for more than seven years now. Unfortunately, those news stories are so unimportant in our world that they seldom make it onto, no less off of, the inside pages of our papers."

100 Down, 900 to Go
Katrina vanden Heuvel comments for The Nation: "As we mark the first 100 days of his presidency, it is staggering to consider the enormous challenges President Obama inherited from his predecessor, arguably the worst President ever. Can the devastation wrought by an eight-year nightmare be sorted out in 100 Days? Of course it can't. That's why Obama himself talked about needing to measure his accomplishments not by the first 100 days, but by the first 1,000."

Blocking the Progressive Agenda
Think Progress writes: Since January, Congress has expanded access to health care for low-income children through the passage of SCHIP Expansion, laid the ground work for economic recovery with the passage of Obama's Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and passed a budget resolution that demonstrated the Obama administration's intention to push for real progressive changes in the tax code, the health care system, and environmental regulation. On health care in particular, congressional Republicans have worked hard to register their opposition to reform. As the Wonk Room's Igor Volsky explained yesterday, "Key Republicans voted against the popular SCHIP legislation, eight Republican senators (including health care heavy weights Grassley and Hatch) voted [in committee] against Gov. Kathleen Sebelius's nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services, misrepresented the intent of health information technology...in the stimulus, and have already taken the public option off the table." But both the Senate and House leadership are serious about making health care reform happen this year. Due to obstructionism, however, they may now have to implement health care reform through the budget reconciliation process, which would allow the reform measures to be "protected from filibusters and passed by a simple majority vote." Republicans used reconciliation to pass the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, key provisions of their signature legislative agenda in 1994, the Contract with America, and on many other occasions in the last 30 years. Now, however, the Republicans have developed a bit of "political amnesia" and are calling the use of reconciliation the "Chicago approach to governing" and "a declaration of war." Further, they are plotting retaliatory parliamentary tactics -- including refusing to attend committee hearings and demanding that the text of bills, often hundreds of pages long, be read aloud -- that would "grind the Senate to a virtual halt." Yesterday, however, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) conceded that Democrats have the "right" to pass health care reform using the reconciliation process.

Understanding Obamanomics
Bernie Horn writes for the Campaign for America's Future: "When Barack Obama bails out failing banks but also calls for a restructuring of the banking system—when he proposes hundreds of billions of dollars in deficit spending but promises long-term fiscal responsibility—when the President insists on universal health care now but leaves crucial details in doubt—what is he thinking? How can we understand the Obama economic philosophy?"

Firms Infused With Rescue Cash Find Money to Fund Lobbying
Dan Eggen reports for The Washington Post: "Top recipients of federal bailout money spent more than $10 million on political lobbying in the first three months of this year, including aggressive efforts aimed at blocking executive pay limits and tougher financial regulations, according to newly filed disclosure records."

Education Gaps Create "Permanent Recession" Report Says
Stacy Teicher Khadaroo reports for The Christian Science Monitor: "Educational achievement gaps are typically measured in terms of test scores - across lines of race and income, or even across state and national borders. But what if they were measured in dollars?"

Recommended Audio: Truthdig podcast -U.S. Citizens Detained and Deported by Immigration
In its zeal to crack down on illegal immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining and deporting American citizens. The Center for Investigative Reporting’s Andrew Becker talks about his investigation into this disturbing trend.

Why Somalis Seize Ships
Abayomi Azikiwe reports for the San Francisco Bay View: "After the execution of three Somalis and the wounding and capturing of another in the Indian Ocean on April 12, a leader of the so-called pirates vowed to avenge the deaths of these youth who held the U.S. captain of a cargo vessel known as the Maersk Alabama for five days. Capt. Richard Phillips was released while the U.S. military and the corporate media hailed the killings of the Somalis, saying the actions were justified. "

Rep. Shimkus Says Capping CO2 Is a Greater 'Assualt on Democracy' than 9/11:
Think Progress writes: On April 23, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) described President Obama's energy plan as "the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I've ever experienced." Speaking at a hearing for the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy and Security Act -- which if passed, will introduce stricter regulations on greenhouse gas emissions in order to build a clean energy economy -- Shimkus made his intense fear of the legislation clear, saying, "I've lived through some tough times in Congress -- impeachment, two wars, terrorist attacks. I fear this more than all of the above activities that have happened." Shimkus's comments, however, are not the first nonsensical remarks he has made about environmental policy. Earlier this year, the congressman asserted that there is no need for a cap-and-trade system to limit CO2 emissions both because CO2 is "plant food" and because carbon emissions were much lower "in the age of the dinosaurs," therefore yielding a "theological debate that this is a carbon-starved planet, not too much carbon." He has also claimed that global warming is not an issue since "the earth will end only when God declares its time to be over."

Can We Afford to Eat Ethically?
Siobhan Phillips writes for Salon.com: "Last month, a report from England found sales of some organic food had fallen up to 31 percent. Ethical food advocates have been worrying about a similar trend in this country since the recession began: Just as the need for better food choices became more widely accepted, our economy fell apart, and consumers who once considered free-range, $5-a-dozen eggs a necessity may start eyeing the caged-hens carton for half that price. A recent National Review column argued that organic food was, in fact, 'an expensive luxury item, something bought by those who have the resources.'"

Hate Crimes Bill Clears Hurdle
Joshua Lynsen reports for the Washingotn Blade: "Hate crimes legislation cleared a hurdle Thursday, winning approval from the House Judiciary Committee. Committee members backed the bill, 15-12, following a second day of debate. The measure will next go to the House floor for a vote, something that Capitol Hill observers have said could occur as soon as next week."

Can Psychiatrists Really "Cure" Homosexuality?
Thomas Maier reposts in Scientific American: "A British survey published last month found that one in 25 therapists would assist gay and bisexual patients attempting to convert to heterosexuality. That's despite the fact that many medical groups, including the American Medical Association, have for years condemned such practices, saying they don't work and can actually cause harm."

Recommended Audio: NPR Examines Barriers to Contraception, Factors That Contribute to Unintended Pregnancies
NPR's "Morning Edition" on Monday, 20 April, examined various methods of contraception and barriers that can limit their effectiveness. According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 50% of pregnancies in the U.S. are unintentional. Vanessa Cullins, medical director for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said that although society often portrays unintended pregnancies as the fault of the woman, it "should be a responsibility that society shares." Contraception must be used correctly and consistently to avoid unintended pregnancies and, although there are many methods available, several factors -- including culture, lack of information or barriers to access to care -- can hinder use, according to "Morning Edition." These barriers can be especially challenging for younger women, who might be more likely to face long waits at physician offices, providers who might not be up-to-date on the most modern methods of contraception and insurers who do not always cover birth control or only cover a one-month supply, "Morning Edition" reports.

NYT's Barstow: Pulitzer-Winning 'Generals' Story Has Made a Difference
Joe Strupp writes for Editor and Publisher: "One year after his blockbuster investigation into the links between retired military commentators and the Pentagon -- which won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday -- New York Times scribe David Barstow says the reporting has made a difference even if the television networks targeted in his coverage have not come clean."

Is Sean Hannity Hoping For Another Terrorist Attack?
Ellena at New Hounds writes: "As I recently wrote, you have to wonder about Sean Hannity's motives for screeching on national television, night after night, that our country is more vulnerable to attack now. I mean, if you really believe that the release of the torture documents has made us more vulnerable to attack, as Hannity claims, because it lets them know they won't be tortured if they're caught, then why would you further help the enemy by letting them know this is a good time to attack? After watching last night's (4/24/09) edition of Hannity, you now have to wonder whether Hannity isn't actively trying to make that happen. Hannity reiterated many times that our national defenses have been weakened, that President Obama doesn't like America, added that he couldn't believe Obama 'made it' to 100 days in office, then “sincerely” hoped the 9/11 Commission was wrong when they said another attack was inevitable – but if so, would Obama be responsible? Hannity was aided in his efforts by Mike Huckabee, a guest with absolutely no professional experience in this area, but who nonetheless opined that waterboarding is 'like a carnival ride.' Then, with tortured logic, the two agreed that banning those harsh interrogiations carnival rides would embolden our enemies."

US Lawmakers Target Deep Packet Inspection in Privacy Bill
Tom Gross, IDG News Services writes in PC World: "U.S. lawmakers plan to introduce privacy legislation that would limit how Internet service providers can track their users, despite reports that no U.S. ISPs are using such technologies except for legitimate security reasons. Representative Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, and three privacy experts urged lawmakers Thursday at a hearing before the House Energy Commerce subcommittee to pass comprehensive online privacy legislation in the coming months. Advocates of new legislation focused mainly on so-called deep packet inspection (DPI), a form of filtering that network operators can use to examine the content of packets as they travel across the Internet."

Ruling Boost to Press Freedom, Reporters Rights Groups Claim
JOE SWICKARD, BEN SCHMITT, M.L. ELRICK and JIM SCHAEFER report for the Detroit Free Press: "Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter -- whose legal travails became a rallying cry for media groups seeking to create a federal shield law to protect journalists -- learned Tuesday he will not have to go to jail for refusing to reveal confidential sources. In a decision hailed by reporters rights groups, U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland said Ashenfelter could keep his silence by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a civil lawsuit brought by former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino."

Clippings for 24 November

Click on titles to read complete stories.

Past and Future: Obama's Treasury Pick has All the Wrong Ideas
William Greider offers the following commit in The Nation: "A year ago, when Barack Obama said it was time to turn the page, his campaign declaration seemed to promise a fresh start for Washington. I, for one, failed to foresee Obama would turn the page backward. The president-elect's lineup for key governing positions has opted for continuity, not change. Virtually all of his leading appointments are restoring the Clinton presidency, only without Mr. Bill. In some important ways, Obama's selections seem designed to sustain the failing policies of George W. Bush. "

As Obama Taps Larry Summers, Recalling Summer's Days as a Regulation Foe
David Corn writes on Mother Jones' blog: "On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama announced his economic team, noting that Lawrence Summers would be the director of his National Economic Council. In touting Summers, Obama praised the former treasury secretary for his work during the Clinton years..."

The Fed's Secret $893 Billion Loan Portfolio
Ben Protess writes for ProPublica: "And you thought the Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout was massive and secretive. In fact, the Federal Reserve is lending significantly more – $893 billion to a wide range of institutions — in a plan receiving even less public scrutiny, the Washington Post reports."

Zombie Economics: Don't Bail out the System that Gave Us SUVs and Strip Malls.
James Howard Kunstler in this week's The Clusterfuck Nation Chronicle: "Though Citicorp is deemed too big to fail, it's hardly reassuring to know that it's been allowed to sink its fangs into the Mother Zombie that the US Treasury has become and sucked out a multi-billion dollar dose of embalming fluid so it can go on pretending to be a bank for a while longer. I employ this somewhat clunky metaphor to point out that the US Government is no more solvent than the financial zombies it is keeping on walking-dead support. And so this serial mummery of weekend bailout schemes is as much of a fraud and a swindle as the algorithm-derived-securities shenanigans that induced the disease of bank zombification in the first place. The main question it raises is whether, eventually, the creation of evermore zombified US dollars will exceed the amount of previously-created US dollars now vanishing into oblivion through compressive debt deflation." (Note: you'll need to scroll down some on Mr. Kunstler's webpage to find the article; you can also read the commentary on AlterNet.)

"Drop Dead" Conservatism, Part 1
Terrance Heath writes for the Camapign for America's Future: "Drop Dead. That's the best answer that some conservatives have been able to offer to a country in teeth of the worst financial crisis we've faced in a generation. When the Wall Street crisis loomed and the bailout was being debated: let the market fail, and risk another Great Depression, "for the sake of the altar of the free market." Now, the economic downturn having worsened — and in ways that are more deeply felt in parts of the country far from centers of financial or political power — their response to rescuing the largest remnant of our manufacturing sector? "Drop Dead," and devil take the hindmost. "

Fair Trade Victory
Todd Tucker and Lori Wallach write for Foreign Policy In Focus: "As the dust starts to settle from the historic election of our nation's first African-American president and first president who ran on fair trade, we have some time to contemplate other impressive changes voters brought to Congress. At least 41 new fair-traders were elected to House and Senate seats, which represent a net gain of 33 in Congress' overall economic justice contingent. This comes on top of the 37 net fair-trade pick-ups in the 2006 congressional elections."

Gates and the Urge To Surge
Recent Community Bridge guest Ray McGovern writes for Common Dreams: "It may become a biennial ritual. Every two years, if the commander-in-chief (or the commander-in-chief-elect) says he wants to throw more troops into an unwinnable war for no clear reason other than his political advantage, panderer-in-chief Robert Gates will shout 'Outstanding!'"

The Debate over Gates
Chris Bowers writes for the blog Open Left: "The most important appointment decision Obama will make during the transition, bar none, is who becomes, or remains, Secretary of Defense. As I have noted in the past, the Department of Defense oversees the expenditure of 52% of all discretionary spending, rendering it literally impossible for any other cabinet Secretary to oversee as much federal money."

Despite Army's Assurances, Violence at Home
Lizette Alvarez reports for The New York Times: "The Army says that the measures it has taken have been effective in curbing domestic violence. But advocates of victims of domestic violence say that among combat troops the violence has spiked in the past two years and that women are often disinclined to report violence for fear of angering their partners and hurting their careers. These advocates point to the gruesome murders of three female soldiers based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina within the last four months. One woman's body was dismembered and dumped in the woods. Another woman, seven months pregnant, was found dead in a motel bathtub. The third was stabbed to death."

What's Wrong with Discriminating Against Those Who Want to Discriminate?
Michael Russnow writes for the Hufffington Post: "After reading an article in the Los Angeles Times today about whether there should be "boycotts, blacklists, firing or de facto shunning of those who supported Proposition 8," it didn't take more than a moment for me to come up with a response: Why the hell not?"

Waxman Coup Has Loud Echo on K Street
Jeanne Cummings writes for Politico.com: "The overthrow of House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) is reverberating beyond Capitol Hill and shuffling the balance of power on K Street and among advocacy groups. Environmental group leaders are thrilled to see a staunch supporter take the reins of the committee that is expected to draft a major global warming bill in the new Congress."

Police Spy on Climate Activist while Global Warming Goes Unarrested
Michael Tidwell writes for the Guardian UK: "I'm not sure what's more shocking: the news that the Maryland State Police wrongfully spied on me for months as a "suspected terrorist," or that, despite surveillance of me, officers apparently wouldn't recognize me if I walked into their police headquarters tomorrow."

Starving for Change
Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "Elba Figueroa worked as a nurse’s aide until she got Parkinson’s disease. She lost her job. She lost her health care. She receives $703 a month in government assistance. Her rent alone costs $750. And so she borrows money from friends and neighbors every month to stay in her apartment. She laboriously negotiates her wheelchair up and down steps and along the frigid sidewalks of Trenton, N.J., to get to soup kitchens and food pantries to eat. "

When Did Experience Become a Flaw?
Jamison Foser writes for Media Matters: "Midway through Bill Clinton's first year as president, Time magazine reported that among the new president's problems was "a staff that has almost no White House or executive experience," pointing to then-political director Rahm Emanuel as a prime example."

Bart Stupak Slams FCC
John Eggerton writes for Broadcasting & Cable: "'The way FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has run the commission is not the way it is supposed to be run,' said Bart Stupak in an interview on C-SPAN. Stupak is a member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and is chairman of the investigations and oversight subcommittee, which has been investigating the FCC."

Obama, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News: A Look at Media in 2009
Josh Silver writes for the Huffignton Post: "Now that the champagne has been put away, it's time to realize that while the Bush administration is heading toward the exits, the disastrous members of mainstream media remain firmly in place. The work of media policy reform for the Internet, media ownership and public media needs to kick into high gear."

What Women Want…

Originally read on 8 March 2007 - International Women's Day
by Christopher E. Renner

In the rhetoric of the social conservatives they often belittle women who want such things as equal pay for equal work. Such groups as Concerned Women of America of the Eagle Forum rail against single mothers, fought the Equal Rights Amendment, and promoted a punitive Welfare reform package during the Clinton Administration that negatively impacts women most. They have kept the debate on reproductive rights limited to oversimplifications of an extraordinarily complex issue.

On this International Women’s Day, I would like for us to reflect on how far we haven’t come as a nation when it comes to the issue of equality between the sexes. While there is much to talk about on this topic, I will keep my comments to the issue of intimate partner violence against women.

Patriarchy - the male dominance of society - is set up to see women as nothing more than property. When we look at the national statistics on domestic violence, rape, and child abuse, it would seem that as a nation we are no better than many less developed nations.

∑ Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year (1) to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year. (2)
∑ Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. (3)
∑ Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. (4)
∑ Nearly 25 percent of American women report being raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date at some time in their lifetime. (5)
∑ Thirty percent of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year. (6)
∑ In 2001, more than half a million American women (588,490 women) were victims of nonfatal violence committed by an intimate partner. (7)
∑ Intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women. In 2001, women accounted for 85 percent of the victims of intimate partner violence (588,490 total). (8)
∑ While women are less likely than men to be victims of violent crimes overall, women are five to eight times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner. (9)
∑ In 2001, intimate partner violence made up 20 percent of violent crime against women. (10)
∑ As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy. (11)
∑ Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate. (12)
∑ Male violence against women does much more damage than female violence against men; women are much more likely to be injured than men. (13)
∑ The most rapid growth in domestic relations caseloads is occurring in domestic violence filings. (14)
∑ Women are seven to 14 times more likely than men to report suffering severe physical assaults from an intimate partner. (15)
In Sexual Assault as Spectator Sport, Mariah Burton Nelson reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee found that in only two percent of cases are the men ever caught, tried, or jailed, for rape. 80 percent of all rape trails end with the men being found not guilty - example - the recent Duke University LaCrosse team scandal in which the players were made out my the media to be innocent and the victim a whore. In such cases as gang rape as the Duke University case typifies, what is her word against his, becomes her word against theirs which usually convinces the jury, the grand jury, or the DA that the victim isn’t telling the truth.

But we have to ask as a nation what is the root cause of this reality? According to Peggy Reeves Sandury, rape-prone societies are strongly associated with militarism, male dominance, high male status, sex-role diffentiation, an ideology of male roughness, distant father-child relationships, general interpersonal violence, and separate spheres for men and women. Sounds pretty close to contemporary US society and especially when we consider our national obsession with “manly” sports - football, TV wrestling, hockey, basketball.

A direct correlation exists with the rise of the women’s civil rights movement beginning in the 60s and the rise of a national phenomena concerning “professional” sports from grade school to professional teams.

It would seem that as a nation, we have enshrined men’s right to rape with the heart felt assistance of Concerned Women of American and their need for “manly” men.

Men’s bodies have become an instrument of power that enables him to “force others to do his bidding” (See Against Our Wills by Susan Brownmiller). In sports, a boy learns to use his body in forceful, space-occupying, even dominating ways and these behaviours become directly linked to the young male’s concept of manliness, and thus his definition of self. He carries these concepts over to his intimate encounters with women.
But also tied to this rise of the sports industry has been the rise of a related male industry: pornography.

Pornography promotes the myth that women are willing receptacles for male sexuality and aggression. Porn promotes the myth that women enjoy gang rape and it appropriates lesbian images for male excitement.

Research has shown that it is men, mostly young men, who support the porn industry. I remember a report back in the early 90s on PBS’s New Hour in which a study being conducted by Duke University amongst itself Freshman male students was discussed. The study produced the startling statistic that 90some percent of the male students had learnt about sex from the porn, not from their parents, not their religious leaders, not in sex education class in schools.

Sexual Assault as a Spectator Sport reports the following findings: (I apologize for not having the references, but the references were missing from the photocopy I have of the article.)

- In a survey of 32 college campuses, men who admitted to rape also tended to rate “very frequently” their reading of population pornographic magazines like Playboy and Penthouse.
- In another study, massive exposure to pornography was associated with a loss of compassion toward women as rape victims and toward women in general.
- A federally funded study by Surgeon General Koop found that: “Exposure to violent pornography increases punitive behavior toward women” at least in the short term.

I am not calling for banning pornography. I believe in free speech and freedom of the press, but what I am going to call for is a total separation between theocracy and our public education system.

It is obvious from the scientific studies that have been mentioned that we are failing the women of our community, state and nation by not providing a comprehensive education to our young men when it comes to sexuality.

We need to have Comprehensive Health Education starting in 1st grade that go against the culture of pornography and aggression supported by the social conservatives and their free-market principles. I am willing to give parents the option to opt their children out of such a program, but I think it is misinformed, dangerous, selfish and down right stupid because could cost their children their lives.

The social conservatives claim that Comprehensive Health Education leads to “promiscuity;” a claim that has no hard scientific evidence to support it. But what it does do is challenge their theocracy of “imposed virginity until marriage” as if we were still living in the 1300 where the daughters of royalty were locked away in convents until their parents had arranged their marriages.

As an educator it is obvious to me that a lack of comprehensive sex education has contributed to social norms which I find repulsive: a culture of crudeness, aggression and sexual violence amongst our young people. Learning about sex from Hustler isn’t a good sex education program! And that is what happens when we deny young people access to knowledge in the information age.

What I have seen first hand is the impact that curriculums like Our Whole Lives, a sexuality education curriculum developed jointly between the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Association, have had on young people who grow up to hold healthy, honest, and scientifically sound ideas about sex and sexuality.

On this International Women’s Day I would hope that each of us realize that we have to be responsible ending the culture of domestic violence we have allowed to rise up in our nation as a direct result of the social conservatives agenda of disinformation and ignorance. We need to elect to our local school boards members who we are sure are going to support an environment that is free from religious ideology in matters of science so that our young people have the knowledge they need to protect themselves from rape, STDs, and unwanted pregnancies.

I also ask each of my listeners to download and read Planned Parenthoods “George W. Bush’s War on Women.” Go to: www.plannedparenthood.org and type in the title to the search engine. It is an enlightening reading of the social conservatives agenda to support sexual exploitation of women and deny women their sexual and reproductive as it has carried out by the Bush administration over the past seven years.

And finally, we have to fend off the social conservatives most recent attack on women: stalling the legislative impetus to require young women to be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus (HPV). By allowing the sex-phobic social conservative to win on this issue we are tolerating, no condemning, women to cervical cancer.

At any time about 20 million people in the U.S. have HPV. Between 10 and 15 million have high-risk types of the virus that are associated with cervical cancer. HPV is so common that about three out of four people have HPV at some point in their lives. But most people who have it don't know it. As a result 9,700 new U.S. cases a year of cervical cancer are reported in the US each year with 3,700 deaths. Deaths that are totally preventable through vaccination.

The HPV vaccine is given in three separate injections over the course of six months. It protects against two types of HPV that cause 90 percent of all genital warts and two types of HPV that cause 70 percent of all cervical cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the HPV vaccine for girls and women from age nine to 26. The vaccine has also been shown to be effective for older women and young men.

So I have to ask what will be next: preventing people from being vaccinated against small pox? The social conservatives agenda to deny women this vaccine is just another example of the blatant disregard of life for women. It is time is stopped.

I hope you celebrate IWD today. Celebrate the contributions of women to our society and the world and speak out against the violence perpetrated against them, because after all that is what women want.

References:
1. U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998
2. The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, May 1999
3. Heise, L., Ellsberg, M. and Gottemoeller, M. Ending Violence Against Women. Population Reports, Series L, No. 11., December 1999
4. The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, May 1999
5. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The National Institute of Justice, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, July 2000.
6. Lieberman Research Inc., Tracking Survey conducted for The Advertising Council and the Family Violence Prevention Fund, July – October 1996
7. Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
8. Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
9. U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998
10. Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
11. Gazmararian JA, Petersen R, Spitz AM, Goodwin MM, Saltzman LE, Marks JS. “Violence and reproductive health; current knowledge and future research directions.” Maternal and Child Health Journal 2000;4(2):79-84.
12. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey, August 1995
13. Murray A. Straus and Richard J. Gelles, Physical Violence in American Families, 1990
14. Examining the Work of State Courts, 1995: A National Perspective from the Court Statistics Project. National Center for the State Courts, 1996
15. National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November 1998