Mark Potok on the Rise of Right-Wing Extremists

Community Bridge opens this week with Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center, in a discussion of the Center's annual report "The Year in Hate."  Potok discusses the rise of right-wing extremists and how they are infiltrating organizations such as the Tea Party to make racism mainstream once again.  We close out the hour with Monique King, Yasche Glass, and Jonathan Anderson, from the Manhattan Juneteenth Planning Committee discuss this year's celebration.

Related Articles:

The Year in Hate and Extremism, 2010; Marl Potok, Intelligence Report, Spring 2011.

'Armed and extremely dangerous' ex-militia leader hunted after Mont. shootout; The Associated Press, Reuters, NBC News and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report, June 14, 2011.

Exclusive: Polluter Billionaire David Koch Says Tea Party ‘Rank And File Are Just Normal People Like Us’; Lee Fang, Think Progress, January 6, 2011.

Right-Wing Militias Are Resurging -- Will They Produce More Terrorists Like Timothy McVeigh?; David Love, AlterNet, August 2009.

MP3 File

Navigating the WikiLeaks Document Dump

Corporate media is doing a bad job of informing the public debate about the third WikiLeaks document dump. Right-wing pundits and members of Congress show their contempt for our democracy by calling for the death of Julian Assange - more the reaction of a dictatorship than of people called to stand strong for the values of democracy.

We hear views and perspectives not getting much air-time on corporate media - first we hear from GRITtv featuring retired US Army Colonel and former State Depatment official, Ann Wright; then we hear a clip from Law and Disorder Radio featuring Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Michael Steven Smith; and finally a clip looking at the how the media has handled the document dump from NPR's On the Media, hosts Brook Gladstone and Bob Garfield interview the executive editor of the New York Times, Bill Keller.

Where do the documents come from? Wikileaks had been using Tableau's hosted charting software to display visualization of the State Department cables. The company now says that it removed the charts in response to Senator Joe Lieberman's public request. Here's a copy of the chart for our readers to review.

MP3 File

Clippings for 21 April 2010

Earth Day Edicts: What to focus on if you really want to green your lifestyle.

Nina Shen Rastogi writes for Slate: "Lantern, I too have laid awake at night wondering whether dry-erase pens were better for the environment than blackboard chalk. But in honor of Earth Day, maybe you can get past the Green Lantern's this-vs.-that coverage of consumer products and offer some bigger-picture advice? Overall, what are the most important things for individual consumers to focus on?"

Remembering Fascism: Learning From the Past
Noam Chomsky comments for Truthout: "As I mentioned, I am just old enough to remember those chilling and ominous days of Germany's descent from decency to Nazi barbarism, to borrow the words of the distinguished scholar of German history Fritz Stern. He tells us that he has the future of the United States in mind when he reviews 'a historic process in which resentment against a disenchanted secular world found deliverance in the ecstatic escape of unreason.' The world is too complex for history to repeat, but there are nevertheless lessons to keep in mind."

Goldman Plays, We Pay
Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig.com: "The story of the financial debacle will end the way it began, with the super-hustlers from Goldman Sachs at the center of the action and profiting wildly. Never in U.S. history has one company wielded such destructive power over our political economy, irrespective of whether a Republican or a Democrat happened to be president."

The SEC's Dangerous Gamble

Harvey Pitt writes for The Daily Beast: "The SEC’s recent action against Goldman Sachs gives new meaning to the expression “betting the farm.” That phrase signifies actions accompanied by huge risk, especially financial. In litigation, the expression references risks for one party to civil litigation, most frequently the defendant. It suggests a party risks losing everything if it gambles and follows a path to its logical conclusion. The expression rarely references plaintiffs, and certainly not government-plaintiffs litigating against regulated entities."

The Sanders Standard for Serious Bank Reform
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "There will be a lot of talk about holding big banks and Wall Street to account in coming days, as the Senate takes up the question of how to overhaul a financial-services industry that is currently defined by a toxic combination of blind greed, unsustainable speculation and "too-big-to-fail" threats not just to the economy but to the stability of this country's democratic experiment."

The Paycheck Fairness Act: Now an Economic Imperative
Linda D. Hallman writes for the Women's Media Center: "Today, as we do every year in April, AAUW and our allies mark Equal Pay Day. This day represents how far into the next year the average woman must work to earn what the average man took home the previous calendar year. In other words, every year women start out more than 100 days behind."

How Bubble Barons Protected Their Influence While the Economy Tanked

Kevin Connor writes for AlterNet: "Following the deadly mine explosion in West Virginia last week, the CEO of the company that owned the mine quickly emerged as a sort of Dickensian villain in media reports. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship's cavalier, profit-obsessed approach to mining had led him to dismiss pressing safety concerns at his mines."

Recommended Audio: Media Matters - Joseph Stiglitz and Bob McChesney on the American Economy

Noted economist and author Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Bob discuss "Freefall: America, Free Markets and the Sinking of the World's Economy" on Sunday. Because this is a pre-recorded program, calls will not be taken. If you are unable to listen to the show on Sunday, please remember to check our archives here at this website, and podcasts are updated weekly. To download the MP3 file, click here.

Iraq Election: Can Maliki Win With a Baghdad Recount?

Jane Arraf reports for The Christian Science Monitor: "An Iraqi appeals panel ordered Monday that more than 20 percent of the votes cast in national elections be manually recounted in response to complaints from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's political bloc, further placing the Iraq election results in doubt."  Photo:(UPI Photo/Iraqi Government)

A Neocon Split on Afghanistan?
David Corn writes for Mother Jones: "Last September, as President Barack Obama was conducting a strategic review of his Afghanistan policy, leading members of the neoconservative crowd—Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan, David Frum, Thomas Donnelly, Danielle Pletka, John Podhoretz, and others—sent an open letter to Obama praising him for changing the military leadership in Afghanistan and for devoting more resources to the war. The letter, which was also signed by Sarah Palin and Karl Rove, decried the "errors of previous years" and indicated that the neocons and their allies would back Obama if he would continue granting "full support" to the war effort. This letter signaled that the neoconservatives shared a fundamental view: The United States had to commit to a full-fledged "counterinsurgency strategy" aimed not at containing but defeating the Taliban—an endeavor which would entail sending tens of thousands of troops to Afghanistan for as long as it takes. The influential group that had helped lead the nation into war in Iraq looked unified on Afghanistan."

Seven Years of (Unconvincing) Lies in 39 Minutes: A Primer
Dr. Matthew Feldman comments for Truthout: "No wonder the US military said the tape was lost. Those murderous images leave you gasping for air like a punch in the gut at boot camp. Then you hear a bit of cackling, some banter and more shooting. Dahr Jamail reported in Truthout that a dozen people were killed in the massacre, including two Reuters news staff, with another two children wounded but (amazingly) alive. The US troops sounded as if they were having fun, like aiming for high-score on an arcade game."

RommeyCare Vs. ObamaCare
Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Igor Volsky, Zaid Jilani, and Alex Seitz-Wald write The Progress Report for Think Progress: "As former Republican Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney travels around the country promoting his new book No Apology and feeling out a potential 2012 presidential bid, he continues to struggle with questions about why he wants to repeal a new federal health care law that is so similar to the  reform he signed in 2006 as governor. If he wants to promote "himself as a problem-solving pragmatist, Mr. Romney can justifiably point to the landmark universal coverage law in Massachusetts that he, as governor, proposed in 2006," the New York Times observes. "But as he appeals to conservative activists and Republican primary voters, he is trying to draw nuanced distinctions between his Massachusetts law and the federal legislation that shares many of its fundamental elements, including a requirement that people have insurance." Indeed, Romney is attempting to present himself as a pragmatist and a principled conservative who opposes federal intervention into health policy. Thus, Romney has had to embrace his plan while, at the same time, attacking President Obama's in an effort to appease the GOP and the conservative base, which adamantly oppose it."

Is the NRA Encouraging Anti-Government Extremism?

Stephanie Mencimer writes for Mother Jones: "Apparently the actions of National Rifle Association member Timothy McVeigh didn't teach the organization that its violent anti-government rhetoric can have dangerous consequences. On a day when thousands of Tea Party activists are taking to the streets to protest Tax Day, the Violence Policy Center has released a report today chronicling the increasing ties between the gun lobby and the Tea Party movement, and the NRA's adoption of much of the "Patriot movement's" anti-government language. The center sees direct parallels between the NRA's current activities and those in the years leading up to McVeigh's fateful decision to blow up the Oklahoma federal building..."

Tea Baggers Fail to See Their Own Hypocrisy
Irene North writes for The Daily Censored: "So, there was yet another tea party rally, this time in Boston. They’re still pissed off at health care reform, calling it socialist and communist without ever understanding the definition of those two words. I wonder where they were a few years ago when Medicare part D was push through with no vote and why they weren’t rioting against socialized medicine then. Welfare queen, Valerie Shirk, however, seems to be the biggest hypocrite of them all."

The Populism of the Privileged
E.J. Dionne writes for Truthdig.com: "The tea party is nothing new, it represents a relatively small minority of Americans on the right end of politics, and it will not determine the outcome of the 2010 elections. In fact, both parties stand to lose if they accept the laughable notion that this media-created protest movement is the voice of true populism. Democrats will spend their time chasing votes that they will never win. Republicans will turn their party into an angry and narrow redoubt with no hope of building a durable majority.

Recommended Audio: How do the Drug War and NAFTA Affect Mexico?

How is the so-called "war on drugs" and NAFTA affecting Mexico? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with journalist Charles Bowden, author of Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields. In 2009, 23,000 people were killed in drug-related violence in Mexico, 4,300 of them in Ciudad Juarez alone. What explains the rise in drug violence?
To listen click here.

Disaster Capitalism

Clive Thompson writes for MOther Jones: "Last year, Beluga Shipping discovered that there's money in global warming. Beluga is a German firm that specializes in "super heavy lift" transport. Its vessels are equipped with massive cranes, allowing it to load and unload massive objects, like multiton propeller blades for wind turbines. It is an enormously expensive business, but last summer, Beluga executives hit upon an interesting way to save money: Shipping freight over a melting Arctic."  — Illustration: Christoph Hitz

Attractive Nuisance: Can federal courts help tackle global warming?
Doug Kendall and Hanna McCrea write for Slate: "If Congress and the president fail to tackle global warming, can courts step in? Can federal judges allow people struggling with the losses of global warming to sue polluters directly?  The idea may at first seem crazy. In a legal world obsessed with claims of judicial activism, the image of a judge taking on a global problem like climate change seems like the punch line to a bad joke at an Exxon board meeting. But it turns out there is a long and proud history of judges addressing pollution in the absence of environmental regulation. For much of the last century—long before Congress acted—federal courts allowed plaintiffs to seek injunctions to stop all kinds of pollution. Successful suits prevented an ore smelter from releasing deadly atmospheric arsenic over the homes and families of Utah, the City of Chicago from draining its sewage into St. Louis' drinking supply, and New York City from dumping its garbage into the Atlantic, where it washed up on the beaches of the New Jersey Shore. Today, states and environmentalists are turning to these and other historic precedents to make the case that climate change, too, belongs in the courts—when the other branches of government refuse to act."

Obama's Caution on Gay Rights, Other Issues, Frustrates Some Liberals Who Want More
Chales Babington and Philip Elliott write for AP and the Los Angeles Times: "President Barack Obama's move to grant same-sex partners full visitation rights in hospitals is the latest example of his making concessions to liberals without getting too far ahead of public opinion. Obama has moved just as cautiously, if not more so, on immigration and gays in the military. Supporters and some critics agree that he tries to walk a line that neither angers liberals who helped elect him, nor fires up conservatives hoping to defeat Democrats this fall and to oust Obama in 2012."

Draft of Secretive International Copyright Treaty Leaked -- Confirms Fears About Internet Freedom

Michael Geist reports for AlterNet: "Negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) resumed last week in Wellington, New Zealand, with Canada, the United States, the European Union, and a handful of other countries launching the eighth round of talks. While even the most optimistic ACTA supporters do not expect to conclude an agreement before the end of the year, the next five days may prove to be a pivotal point in the negotiations since over the past several weeks, there have been two major leaks that could dramatically alter the still-secret discussions."

NPR And Trust in Government
Robert Shetterly writes for Common Dreams: "I was just sitting down in my kitchen this morning -- Sunday, April 18^th, 2010 -- to a bowl of oatmeal topped with walnuts, some pieces of ginger, and a little brown sugar when I heard the host of NPR's Sunday Weekend Edition program, Liane Hansen, say that the next segment would begin a series of programs focusing on Trust in Government. She said, as we all know, that cynicism about our political leadership has metastasized. The new series would look at how it got this way and how it could be different."

Public Outcry over Comcast Ruling Reaches the FCC
Tim Karr writes for Save the Internet: "The public outrage over last week's appeals court decision against an open Internet reached Washington this week. People are doing all they can to stop a decision that would effectively give phone and cable companies power to control Internet content and undermine the open architecture that has transformed the Web into a democratic force in society."

Net Neutrality is Not Dead

Pete Osnos writes for The Altantic: "On April 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled that the Federal Communications Commission had misused its authority to control traffic on the Internet. To casual observers -- I was one -- the 3-0 decision by Judge David S. Tatel, a distinguished, progressively minded jurist with seventeen years on the bench, seemed like a serious setback to the concept of "net neutrality," the doctrine that requires Internet service providers to treat all content equally."

Newspaper Guild President to FCC: Media Consolidation Impairs Journalism, Democracy
Editor and Publisher staff writes: "Newspaper Guild-CWA President Bernard Lunzer, scheduled to speak Tuesday afternoon in Tampa, Fla., at a Federal Communications Commission workshop on broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership, set out to deliver the message that media consolidation is the enemy of quality journalism -- and, in effect, democracy."

Clippings for 9 August 2009

Is the US on the Brink of Fascism?
Sara Robinson comments for The Campaign for America's Future: "In tracking the mileage on this trip to perdition, many of us relied on the work of historian Robert Paxton, who is probably the world's pre-eminent scholar on the subject of how countries turn fascist. In a 1998 paper published in The Journal of Modern History, Paxton argued that the best way to recognize emerging fascist movements isn't by their rhetoric, their politics, or their aesthetics. Rather, he said, mature democracies turn fascist by a recognizable process, a set of five stages that may be the most important family resemblance that links all the whole motley collection of 20th Century fascisms together ... It's odd that I haven't been asked for quite a while; but if you asked me today, I'd tell you that if we're not there right now, we've certainly taken that last turn into the parking lot and are now looking for a space."

Inside Story on Town Hall Riots: Right-Wing Shock Troops Do Corporate America's Dirty Work
Adele Stan reports for AlterNet: "The recent spate of town hall dustups may look like an overnight sensation, but they've been years, even decades, in the making. Since the days in the late 1970s, when the New Right began its takeover of the Republican Party, it has cultivated a militia of white people armed with a grudge against those who brought forth the social changes of the '60s. These malcontents have been promised their day of retribution, a day for which they are more than ready. Few seem to understand that they are merely dupes for a corporate agenda that will only worsen the conditions in which they live."

But Seriously, Folks: Obama Death Panels?
Joan Walsh writes for Salon.com: "I've been writing about "town hells" and anti-health care reform hysterics, as well as the crazy Birthers, for a few weeks. Every few days, I think: Maybe we're giving these fringe folks the oxygen they need; maybe we should ignore them. But it all got even loonier today, and it can't be ignored."

What are the Birthers Really After?
Joe Conason comments for Truthdig: "On Aug. 4, President Barack Obama celebrated the anniversary of his birth, an event that occurred 48 years ago in the state of Hawaii. This is an indisputable fact, as sane critics on the right, such as the editors of the National Review and the veteran pundit Patrick Buchanan, acknowledge. And yet there is a significant minority, especially within the Republican Party, that fervently insists otherwise."

Senators Block Obama Nominees, Protest Guantanamo
Lolita C. Baldor reports for The Associated Press: "Kansas' two U.S. senators are blocking 10 of President Barack Obama's nominees for senior administration posts at the Pentagon and Justice Department in protest over a proposal to house Guantanamo detainees at the Fort Leavenworth prison. The list of blocked nominees includes a fellow Republican member of Congress - Obama's pick for Army secretary, Rep. John McHugh of New York."

US Still Paying Blackwater Millions
Jeremy Scahill reports for The Nation: "Just days before two former Blackwater employees alleged in sworn statements filed in federal court that the company's owner, Erik Prince, 'views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,' the Obama administration extended a contract with Blackwater for more than $20 million for 'security services' in Iraq, according to federal contract data obtained by The Nation. The State Department contract is scheduled to run through September 3. In May, the State Department announced it was not renewing Blackwater's Iraq contract, and the Iraqi government has refused to issue the company an operating license."

Recommended Audio: GRIT TV - Will Blackwater Founder Face Charges?
Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army writes in the Nation that Blackwater founder Erik Prince “may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company,” according to the sworn testimony of a former Blackwater employee and an ex-US marine. Scahill discusses the story and its implications for Prince and Blackwater itself. You can read Scahill’s blog, Rebel Reports, here.

You're Wrong, Eric Cantor: The Stimulus Is Working
Isaiah J. Poole writes for the Campaign for America's Future: "It's surprising that it took a full 69 minutes from the moment the Bureau of Labor Statistics July jobs report was released for the condemnatory news release from House Republican Whip Eric Cantor to reach my inbox. No doubt it was written hours of even days before, the message being so predictable - and wrong."

Bundled Mortgages Pose Problems for Housing Program
Karen Weise reports for ProPublica: "Seventy-year-old Barbara Harris can’t help crying when she walks around her neighborhood. She says she hates seeing possessions piled up on front lawns — the remnants of foreclosure. Three times, the Harrises received foreclosure notices and thought they’d be next. For two years, the Harrises have been trying to get Wells Fargo to modify their mortgage to something they can afford. But they face one big catch: Though Wells Fargo services their mortgage and is participating in the federal modification program, it doesn’t actually own their loan. And the investors that do own the loan, Wells Fargo told the Harrises, won’t allow the modification."

Honduras Is Only Part of the Story: The Conservative Counter-Attack in Latin America
Miguel Tinker Salas writes for Counter Punch: "I would submit that events in Honduras are not isolated, but rather part of a conservative counterattack taking shape in Latin America. For some time, the right has been rebuilding in Latin America; hosting conferences, sharing experiences, refining their message, working with the media, and building ties with allies in the United States. This is not the lunatic right fringe, but rather the mainstream right with powerful allies in the middle class that used to consider themselves center, but have been frightened by recent left electoral victories and the rise of social movements. With Obama in the White House and Clinton in the State Department they have now decided to act. Bush/Cheney and company did not give them any coverage and had become of little use to them. A "liberal" in the White House, gives conservative forces the kind of coverage they had hoped for. It is no coincidence that Venezuelan opposition commentators applauded the naming of Clinton to the State Department claiming that they now had an ally in the administration. The old cold-warrior axiom that the best antidote against the left is a liberal government in Washington gains new meaning under Obama with Clinton at the State Department."

Recommended Audio: Truthdig Podcast Featuring Thom Hartmann
The Truthdig panel talks to radio host and author Thom Hartmann about his new book, “Threshold,” the need for serious financial regulation and his trip to Darfur.

The Me-First, Screw-Everybody-Else Crowd
David Sirota writes for Truthdig: "I know I should be mortified by the lobbyist-organized mobs of angry Brooks Brothers mannequins who are now making headlines by shutting down congressional town hall meetings. I know I should be despondent during this, the Khaki Pants Offensive in the Great American Health Care and Tax War. And yet, I’m euphorically repeating one word over and over again with a big grin on my face."

You Do Not Have Health Insurance
James Kwak writes for The Baseline Scenario: "Right now, it appears that the biggest barrier to health care reform is people who think that it will hurt them. According to a New York Times poll, '69 percent of respondents in the poll said they were concerned that the quality of their own care would decline if the government created a program that covers everyone.' Since most Americans currently have health insurance, they see reform as a poverty program - something that helps poor people and hurts them. If that's what you think, then this post is for you. You do not have health insurance. Let me repeat that. You do not have health insurance. (Unless you are over 65, in which case you do have health insurance. I'll come back to that later.)"

Health Insurance Executives Undermine Insurance Lobbyist’s Pledge to Reform Insurance Market.
Igor Volsky writes for Think Progress: "Yesterday (August 5th), during an interview with Bloomberg Radio, Karen Ignagni — the President and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) — reiterated insurers’ commitment to reforming the health insurance marketplace:

That’s what people want. They want to be in. They don’t want to be rejected because of preexisting conditions, and they want to make sure they have continuity of care. We’ve committed to that. That’s what our industry is doing. We are one of the first to step up and offer real change that affected our industry. And we’re still committed to that."

Recommended Audio: GRIT TV - Summer Swiftboaters: The Healthcare Battle Heats Up
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and political consultant Karen Finney discuss healthcare reform and Washington politics. As members of congress head home for the summer, are the astroturf tactics of the opposition working? And what can single payer advocates do to fight for healthcare reform in August? Finney says that this may be the single best opportunity for real reform and that what happens over the next month will be decisive.


MoJo Interview: The Cove's Louie Psihoyos and Ric O'Barry
Kiera Butler writes for Mother Jones: "There's something fishy about the coastal town of Taiji, Japan: Statues and murals of dolphins line the streets, yet every year, the town's fishermen kill thousands of dolphins and sell their meat. That’s a whole lot of dead dolphins—you'd think some enterprising activist journalist would have blown Taiji's cover long ago. They tried, but no one could penetrate the heavily guarded cove where the killing takes place. Until now. When photographer Louie Psihoyos heard about Taiji, he teamed up with marine mammal activist (and former Flipper TV dolphin trainer) Ric O'Barry. Together, the two launched a high-tech espionage mission to infiltrate the cove and expose the slaughter. We spoke with O'Barry and Psihoyos about making The Cove, assembling an Ocean's Eleven-style team, and why a little paranoia can be a good thing."

Coal Lobby's 'Purest Form of Gressroots' Delivered by GOP Voter Fraud Company
Think Progress reports: "The coal industry lobbying outfit the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is pressing forward with an aggressive astroturfing campaign going after U.S. senators — despite the recent revelation that it was responsible for forged “grassroots” letters to lawmakers, attacking the American Clean Energy and Security Act:"

The Clock is Ticking on DADT
Paul DeMigilo writes for The Bilerico Project: "The time to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is long overdue. Service members are being fired -- almost two per day -- because they are gay or lesbian. So far, 13,000 have been kicked out under DADT. The experience of Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach is a painful reminder of how this law harms qualified patriots and denies LGBT Americans the freedom to serve. A highly decorated, F-15E combat aviator, Fehrenbach has earned nine Air Medals, including one for Heroism, throughout his 18-year career. He was hand-picked to protect the airspace over Washington, D.C. after the Sept. 11 attacks."

FOX News Directs Viewers to Town Halls Hosted By Democrats
Nate Carlile reports for Think Progress: "Earlier today, Fox News publicized the time and location of “gladiatorial” town halls hosted by Democrats — but not Republicans. With “heated” and increasingly confrontational town halls now dominating news coverage, Washington correspondent James Rosen announced he had “obtained a large Excel spreadsheet showing the schedule of town halls for Democratic members of Congress.” Rosen reported the time and location of several town halls, including those for Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA). To explain why Fox wasn’t reporting on town halls hosted by Republicans, Rosen assured viewers that if he 'had the spreadsheet for the Republican members,' he would 'share' that as well:" View video here.

FCC Wants Real Answers from ISPs on Broadband Investment
Nate Anderson writes for Ars Technica: "Yes, we know—when the FCC puts out a press release (PDF) titled "Columbia Institute for Tele-Information to Conduct Independent Review of Telecom Capital Expenditures to Assist FCC," the eyeballs begin to glaze and the limbs feel suddenly heavy. But this one's worth rousing the brain for, because the FCC announcement means that the agency is taking a close look at just how much investment ISPs make in their broadband lines."

Why Murdoch, the Old Media Reactionary, Is Wrong to Charge for Content
Roy Greenslade writes for the Guardian UK: "I have never received so many calls from so many places across the world to talk about the momentous decision by Rupert Murdoch to charge people for access to his newspaper websites. As so often with statements by the world's most famous media mogul, the announcement is being treated as the word of god. Where Rupert goes, said several TV and radio presenters, others are sure to follow."

Community Bridge update for 2 September

Click on titles to view complete stories.

Did a Mississippi Raid Protect Rightwing Politicians?
David Bacon reports for Truthout from Laurel, Mississippi: "On August 25, immigration agents swooped down on Howard Industries, a Mississippi electrical equipment factory, taking 481 workers to a privately-run detention center in Jena, Louisiana. A hundred and six women were also arrested at the plant, and released wearing electronic monitoring devices on their ankles if they had children, or without them if they were pregnant. Eight workers were taken to Federal court in Hattiesburg, where they were charged with aggravated identity theft."

Yes He Can: Obama's Speech and the Decline of Political Journalism
Bill Boyarsky writes for Truthdig.com how in a speech that rose beyond the occasion, Sen. Barack Obama changed the dynamics of the presidential campaign. With fire in his eyes and politeness thankfully forgotten, he finally put Sen. John McCain on the defensive, most notably mocking the Republican’s claim that he’s best suited to be commander in chief.

Evidence of Extremist Infiltration of Military Grows
Date Holthaus writes for Hatewatch: "The racist skinhead logged on with exciting news: He’d just enlisted in the United States Army. 'Sieg Heil, I will do us proud,' he wrote. It was a June 3 post to AryanWear Forum 14, a neo-Nazi online forum to which “Sobibor’s SS,” who identified himself as a skinhead living in Plantersville, Ala., had belonged since early 2004. (Sobibor was a Nazi death camp in Poland during World War II). Two years ago, the Intelligence Report revealed that alarming numbers of neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacist extremists were taking advantage of lowered armed services recruiting standards and lax enforcement of anti-extremist military regulations by infiltrating the U.S. armed forces in order to receive combat training and gain access to weapons and explosives. Forty members of Congress urged then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to launch a full-scale investigation and implement a zero-tolerance policy toward white supremacists in the military.

US Military Keeping Secrets About Female Soldiers' "Suicides"?
Ann Wright reports for Truthdig: "Since I posted on April 28 the article 'Is There an Army Cover Up of the Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers?,' the deaths of two more US Army women in Iraq and Afghanistan have been listed as suicides - the September 28, 2007, death of 30-year-old Spc. Ciara Durkin and the February 22, 2008, death of 25-year-old Spc. Keisha Morgan. Both 'suicides' are disputed by the families of the women."

McCain Running Mate Sarah Palin Misled GOP
Alex Spillius writes for The Telegraph UK: "The Governor of Alaska gave a misleading version of events over a controversial bridge project in her home state when she made her maiden speech as the presumptive nominee. Mrs. Palin told a cheering audience in Ohio that she had turned down an offer from the US Congress to build the so-called 'Bridge to Nowhere', which would have connected Gravina Island with Ketchikan International, an airport in Alaska's southeast serving just 200,000 passengers a year. Mr. McCain routinely cites the $100 million project as a symbol of wasteful central government spending."

Why CIA Veterans Are Scared of McCain
Laura Rozen writes in MotherJones: "Four years ago, the candidate called the CIA a 'rogue organization'; now he's advised by a former Chalabi promoter and Agency basher. No wonder the spooks are spooked."

What a McCain Victory Could Mean: No Money for Health Care and the End of Our Volunteer Army
Robert Parry writes for Consortiumne News: "In judging the shape of a future John McCain presidency, there are already plenty of dots that are easy to connect. They reveal an image of a war-like Empire so full of hubris that it could take the world into a cascade of crises, while extinguishing what is left of the noble American Republic."

The Christian Right's Slick Campaign to Make Abstinence Seem Trendy
Vanessa Valenti writes for Alternet how conservatives finally learned that sheer moralizing doesn't keep teens from having sex. Now they have a creepy new tactic.

Big Brother is Watching Your Every Move
Better not be planning that addition to the house when the cable guy comes.
Bruce Finley writes for The Denver Post: "Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for "suspicious activity" — and are reporting their findings into secret government databases. It's a tactic intended to feed better data into terrorism early-warning systems and uncover intelligence that could help fight anti-U.S. forces. But the vague nature of the TLOs' mission, and their focus on reporting both legal and illegal activity, has generated objections from privacy advocates and civil libertarians. "Suspicious activity" is broadly defined in TLO training as behavior that could lead to terrorism: taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements or notes, espousing extremist beliefs or conversing in code, according to a draft Department of Justice/Major Cities Chiefs Association document."

For complete story, click here.

Ideology Makes for Bad Policy

By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Sunday 17 February 2008

Ideology is a closely held belief system that guides an individual, social movement or institution. It is a comprehensive view that society can be made better, and projects the vision of an individual or group's ideal concept of how to live in the world. When the abstractions of ideology are combined with practical and realistic applications, very positive things can happen. The Colonists believed in liberty, freedom and self-rule. They combined those ideologies and created an organized resistance to defeat the better armed and better financed British. It was people's commitment to freedom, equality and civil rights that gave them the strength to challenge the status quo and create the civil rights movement. The combination of an ideology and its realistic application defeated Jim Crow segregation and improved the quality of life for many people of color in America. Belief in a particular ideology is the glue that holds a group together.

The problem with ideologies is that by themselves they are not rational. They tend to focus on and confuse the imagery of the "should be" and "ought to be" with the practical "is." Without people who are able to inject pragmatism and tie logic and reason to an ideology, it can take an institution, group or country down some very perilous roads. This is why ideologues (people who profess ideologies) make terrible politicians and ideology can make for very bad public policy. Ideologues are so focused on the "should be" they fail to take into account the practical applications of the "how."

For the past seven years, fascist Republican ideologues have hijacked American politics and policy. The so-called Reagan Republicans or neo-conservatives have co-opted American domestic and foreign policy. At the same time, Christian social conservatives have controlled the parties' social agenda in an attempt to redefine American values.

Fascism can be defined as an authoritarian political ideology that considers the individual subordinate to the interests of the state. Some of the characteristics of fascism are nationalism, militarism, totalitarianism, corporatism, autocracy and religiosity. The following are a few practical examples of fascist tactics that have been implemented by the Bush administration and allowed to continue by the Democrats.

The fact oil/energy companies have had unchecked influence over American energy policy, while pharmaceutical and insurance companies are writing health care policy, is an example of corporatism. President Bush and Vice President Cheney's attempt to consolidate power within the executive branch through the implementation of the unitary executive theory is a clear example of autocracy. The invasion of sovereign nonthreatening nations and the use of unilateral foreign policy are good examples of militarism. This administration's ignoring the protections guaranteed by the Constitution through their attacks on civil rights and civil liberties, the suspension of habeas corpus, warrantless wiretapping, ignoring the FISA court, extraordinary renditions and torture are examples of totalitarianism.

After seven years of ideological babble such as "compassionate conservatism," "American internationalism," "ownership society" and "war on terror," Americans are beginning to focus on real issues such as home foreclosures, affordable health care, outsourcing American jobs, global warming and sky-rocketing energy costs.

The Christian social conservatives have been able to distract the public's attention away from real problems and focus their attention on politically irrelevant and divisive issues. Wedge issues such as gay marriage and abortion pale in comparison when you've lost your home, lost your job, can't afford to take your sick child to the hospital and can't afford to put gas in your car to get them there.

Paul Weyrich, head of the Free Congress Foundation, was quoted in the Christian Science Monitor as saying, "... Republicans traditionally stood for limited government, free enterprise, and a strong national defense. We added a fourth leg to that stool, which was traditional American values." What are these so-called "traditional American values" and who made people such as Weyrich, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, or any other self-proclaimed Christians the arbiter of such values?

When seeking clarity on American values and ideals, Americans should look to the documents upon which the country was founded. In the Declaration of Independence, ideology was combined with pragmatic application. The true ideological basis of the country is articulated as follows: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The pragmatic manner to implement the ideology is stated as, "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ... "

We can also look to the preamble of the Constitution of the United States: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are where the real traditional ideals of America are articulated.

Currently, the Republican Party finds itself engaged in an internal battle. Does it stick to the divisive ideology and wedge politics of its so-called Christian base as articulated by individuals named above? Do the Republicans hide behind the guise of Christianity while practicing the mean-spirited and heavy-handed brand of politics implemented by individuals such as former House Speaker Tom DeLay and current House Minority Leader John Boehner or move back towards the center, more in line with mainstream America?

While seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 and trying to amplify his support among independents and moderates, Arizona Senator and current Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said evangelists like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were "corrupting influences on religion and politics," and said parts of the religious right were divisive and even un-American. Senator McCain also showed support for gay marriage by saying, "... I think that gay marriage should be allowed if there's a ceremony kind of thing, if you wanna call it that? I don't have any problem with that... " He also supported Roe v. Wade. In 1999, McCain told the San Francisco Chronicle, "I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations."

Now that he has come under attack by the socially conservative, evangelical wing of his party for not being conservative enough, Senator McCain is trying to mend fences and "heal the party" by flip-flopping on these clearly articulated positions. In 2006, he "kissed Falwell's ring" and delivered the commencement address at Liberty University. McCain now also supports the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Sounds like the "maverick straight talker" fell off of the "straight talk express" and is being forced to support positions that are out of step with the independents and moderates that have supported him for so many years.

This has nothing to do with Sen. John McCain. He is certainly not the only politician that has flip-flopped under the pressure of ideologues. Senator McCain is just the most recent example of the impact ideologues are having on the American political landscape.

The future of American politics and American policy is at stake. America is at a political crossroads. Are Americans going to continue to allow the politics and policies of this country to be hijacked by fascist neo-conservatives and right-wing evangelical ideologues, or will we choose to put this vocal, well financed, but relatively small group of ideological thugs in their rightful place?

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Dr. Wilmer Leon is the producer/host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program "On With Leon," producer/host of the television program "Inside The Issues With Wilmer Leon," a regular guest on CNN's Lou Dobb's Tonight, and a teaching associate in the Department of Political Science at Howard University in Washington, DC. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com.

Christianists on the March

by Chris Hedges
Originally published on 28 January 2007 on Truthdig

Chris Hedges, who graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School and worked for many years as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, warns that the Christian Right is the most dangerous mass movement in American history in his recent book: "American Fascist: The Christian Right and the War on America." Hedges will be our guest on Community Bridge, Thursday 31 January.

Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told his students that when we were his age—he was then close to 80—we would all be fighting the “Christian fascists.”

The warning, given 25 years ago, came at the moment Pat Robertson and other radio and television evangelists began speaking about a new political religion that would direct its efforts toward taking control of all institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government. Its stated goal was to use the United States to create a global Christian empire. This call for fundamentalists and evangelicals to take political power was a radical and ominous mutation of traditional Christianity. It was hard, at the time, to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously, especially given the buffoonish quality of those who expounded it. But Adams warned us against the blindness caused by intellectual snobbery. The Nazis, he said, were not going to return with swastikas and brown shirts. Their ideological inheritors had found a mask for fascism in the pages of the Bible.

He was not a man to use the word fascist lightly. He had been in Germany in 1935 and 1936 and worked with the underground anti-Nazi church, known as the Confessing Church, led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Adams was eventually detained and interrogated by the Gestapo, who suggested he might want to consider returning to the United States. It was a suggestion he followed. He left on a night train with framed portraits of Adolf Hitler placed over the contents of his suitcases to hide the rolls of home-movie film he had taken of the so-called German Christian Church, which was pro-Nazi, and the few individuals who defied the Nazis, including the theologians Karl Barth and Albert Schweitzer. The ruse worked when the border police lifted the tops of the suitcases, saw the portraits of the Führer and closed them up again. I watched hours of the grainy black-and-white films as he narrated in his apartment in Cambridge.

Adams understood that totalitarian movements are built out of deep personal and economic despair. He warned that the flight of manufacturing jobs, the impoverishment of the American working class, the physical obliteration of communities in the vast, soulless exurbs and decaying Rust Belt, were swiftly deforming our society. The current assault on the middle class, which now lives in a world in which anything that can be put on software can be outsourced, would have terrified him. The stories that many in this movement told me over the past two years as I worked on “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” were stories of this failure—personal, communal and often economic. This despair, Adams said, would empower dangerous dreamers—those who today bombard the airwaves with an idealistic and religious utopianism that promises, through violent apocalyptic purification, to eradicate the old, sinful world that has failed many Americans.

These Christian utopians promise to replace this internal and external emptiness with a mythical world where time stops and all problems are solved. The mounting despair rippling across the United States, one I witnessed repeatedly as I traveled the country, remains unaddressed by the Democratic Party, which has abandoned the working class, like its Republican counterpart, for massive corporate funding. The Christian right has lured tens of millions of Americans, who rightly feel abandoned and betrayed by the political system, from the reality-based world to one of magic—to fantastic visions of angels and miracles, to a childlike belief that God has a plan for them and Jesus will guide and protect them. This mythological worldview, one that has no use for science or dispassionate, honest intellectual inquiry, one that promises that the loss of jobs and health insurance does not matter, as long as you are right with Jesus, offers a lying world of consistency that addresses the emotional yearnings of desperate followers at the expense of reality. It creates a world where facts become interchangeable with opinions, where lies become true—the very essence of the totalitarian state. It includes a dark license to kill, to obliterate all those who do not conform to this vision, from Muslims in the Middle East to those at home who refuse to submit to the movement. And it conveniently empowers a rapacious oligarchy whose god is maximum profit at the expense of citizens. We now live in a nation where the top 1 percent control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined, where we have legalized torture and can lock up citizens without trial. Arthur Schlesinger, in “The Cycles of American History,” wrote that “the great religious ages were notable for their indifference to human rights in the contemporary sense—not only for their acquiescence in poverty, inequality and oppression, but for their enthusiastic justification of slavery, persecution, torture and genocide.”

Adams saw in the Christian right, long before we did, disturbing similarities with the German Christian Church and the Nazi Party, similarities that he said would, in the event of prolonged social instability or a national crisis, see American fascists rise under the guise of religion to dismantle the open society. He despaired of U.S. liberals, who, he said, as in Nazi Germany, mouthed silly platitudes about dialogue and inclusiveness that made them ineffectual and impotent. Liberals, he said, did not understand the power and allure of evil or the cold reality of how the world worked. The current hand-wringing by Democrats, with many asking how they can reach out to a movement whose leaders brand them “demonic” and “satanic,” would not have surprised Adams. Like Bonhoeffer, he did not believe that those who would fight effectively in coming times of turmoil, a fight that for him was an integral part of the biblical message, would come from the church or the liberal, secular elite.

His critique of the prominent research universities, along with the media, was no less withering. These institutions, self-absorbed, compromised by their close relationship with government and corporations, given enough of the pie to be complacent, were unwilling to deal with the fundamental moral questions and inequities of the age. They had no stomach for a battle that might cost them their prestige and comfort. He told me, I suspect half in jest, that if the Nazis took over America “60 percent of the Harvard faculty would begin their lectures with the Nazi salute.” But this too was not an abstraction. He had watched academics at the University of Heidelberg, including the philosopher Martin Heidegger, raise their arms stiffly to students before class.

Two decades later, even in the face of the growing reach of the Christian right, his prediction seems apocalyptic. And yet the powerbrokers in the Christian right have moved from the fringes of society to the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Forty-five senators and 186 members of the House before the last elections earned approval ratings of 80 to100 percent from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups—the Christian Coalition, Eagle Forum, and Family Resource Council. President Bush has handed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid to these groups and dismantled federal programs in science, reproductive rights and AIDS research to pay homage to the pseudo-science and quackery of the Christian right. Bush will, I suspect, turn out to be no more than a weak transition figure, our version of Otto von Bismarck—who also used “values” to energize his base at the end of the 19th century and launched “Kulturkampf,” the word from which we get culture wars, against Catholics and Jews. Bismarck’s attacks, which split Germany and made the discrediting of whole segments of the society an acceptable part of the civil discourse, paved the way for the Nazis’ more virulent racism and repression.

The radical Christian right, calling for a “Christian state”—where whole segments of American society, from gays and lesbians to liberals to immigrants to artists to intellectuals, will have no legitimacy and be reduced, at best, to second-class citizens—awaits a crisis, an economic meltdown, another catastrophic terrorist strike or a series of environmental disasters. A period of instability will permit them to push through their radical agenda, one that will be sold to a frightened American public as a return to security and law and order, as well as moral purity and prosperity. This movement—the most dangerous mass movement in American history—will not be blunted until the growing social and economic inequities that blight this nation are addressed, until tens of millions of Americans, now locked in hermetic systems of indoctrination through Christian television and radio, as well as Christian schools, are reincorporated into American society and given a future, one with hope, adequate wages, job security and generous federal and state assistance. The unchecked rape of America, which continues with the blessing of both political parties, heralds not only the empowerment of this American oligarchy but the eventual death of the democratic state and birth of American fascism.

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Video Files
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On 22 May 2007, Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith (2004), which won the 2005 PEN/Martha Albrand Award, and Letter to a Christian Nation (2006), and Chris Hedges debated religion and politics in Los Angeles.  Here is the streaming video version of the event, broadcast on KPFK’s Beneath the Surface with Suzi Weissman.

Protecting Democracy

Following Bill Moyers' special this week on PBS concerning the media's lack of critically challenging the propaganda of the Bush administration leading up to the War in Iraq, I post the following points for people to reflect on. We must constantly be vigilant to guard the democracy we have be blessed with. It can easily be destroyed if reason and critical thought is replaced with irrationalism and fear.

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.