World Social Forum 2011

Community Bridge opens this week with Jim Hamilton and Gwethalyn Williams for a discussion of this weekend’s youth experimental theatre project at the Manhattan Arts Center. Then Mallory Knodle joins host Christopher Renner for a discussion of the World Social Forum that took place in February in Dakar, Senegal.

Additional Links/Articles:

Experimental Theatre Workshop

World Social Forum 2011 Dakar - in pictures, The Guardian UK, February 9, 2011.

World Social Forum activists buoyed by fall of Egypt and Tunisia regimes, Liz Ford, The Guardian UK, February 14, 2011.

Climate Justice Declaration at World Social Forum 2011


Axelrod claims Bush saddled Obama with a big deficit, PolitiFact.com, January 2010.


Bush Administration "the Least Fiscally Responsible in History," Budget Hawk Says, Aaron Task, Newsmakers, March 31, 2010.


Bush Era Tax Cuts Increased Budget Deficit, Joshua Sanders, The Economy in Crisis, August 188, 2010.

GOP Cuts To Food Aid For Seniors And Food Banks Equals One Day Of Bush Tax Cuts For Millionaires, Pat Garofalo, Think Progress, June 14, 2011.

Study: Bush Tax Cuts Cost More Than Twice As Much As Dems' Health-Care Bill, Susie Madrak, Crooks and Liars, September 9, 2009.

MP3 File

More Voices Against Plutocracy

In our second hour we first hear from Dr. Vandana Shiva is a clip from GRITtv. Shiva says: "The American people should see that corporations have abandoned them long ago." Shiva is a scientist, environmentalist, and food justice activist Dr. Vandana Shiva. Shiva was named one of the seven most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine.  Shiva spoke at K-State in October 2009 and the podcast of her speech is available on the Community Bridge website. Click on the link to the 2009 podcasts and scroll down to October.

Then we hear a clip from Truthdig Radio featuring Tim Canova, the Betty Hutton Williams Professor of International Economic Law and co-director of the Center for Global Law & Development at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California. Canova takes on the Standards and Poors treat to downgrade the US credit rating in a discussion of the economic meltdown in our casino economy.

The show closes out addressing the Manhattan City Commission’s vote to repeal the new anti-discrimination ordinance.

MP3 File

April 28 - David Solnit on Social Activitism

David Solnit first became involved in creating change in high school when he joined a campaign to abolish draft registration. Since then, the California-based carpenter, activist, and puppeteer, has been on the frontlines of direct action, protesting the US role in Central America in the 1980s, free trade deals and the WTO in the 1990s, and, more recently, the US intervention in Iraq.

Solnit is a co-founder of Art and Revolution, a loose-knit collective that combines art and theater with direct action. This creativity-with-a-purpose stands in a colorful tradition of theatrical dissent from the Diggers, the Yippies, and the French Situationists of the 1960s. Solnit and his predecessors subvert the system by pointing to alternatives,  using blatant contrast they show how fundamentally flawed the “normal” state of affairs  truly is.

Solnit was in Manhattan earlier this month to conduct a workshop on social action and to speak at the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice annual meeting. I spoke with him on April 8th here in the KSDB studio.

Related articles:
David Solnit Stands Up For Protest, Yes! Magazine
The Battle for Reality, Yes! Magazine
David Solnit and The Art of Protest, Aid and Abet
David Solnit and The Arts of Change, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest
People Power: An Interview With David Solnit, Mother Jones

MP3 File

Clippings for 17 October 2010

Conservatives Push Absurd Lie that Wall Street Hustlers Were Innocent Victims ... of Poor People

AlterNet is proud to present this excerpt from senior writer Joshua Holland's new book, The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy (And Everything Else the Right Doesn't Want You to Know about Taxes, Jobs, and Corporate America).  Joshua Holland writes: "Perhaps the most pernicious right-wing lie of late is that the Wall Street hustlers who came close to bringing the global economy to its knees in 2008 were just innocent victims of government-sponsored programs that forced them to lower lending standards in a misguided effort to increase home ownership among the poor (read: dark-skinned). It’s an alluring story line for those who are ideologically predisposed to blame “inner city” people instead of MBAs in suits roaming the executive suite. It’s also patent nonsense—a Big Lie that has nonetheless become an object of almost religious belief for some on the Right."  Photo: AFP/File - Timothy A. Clary

Why the U.S. Has Launched a New Financial World War -- And How the the Rest of the World Will Fight Back
Michael Hudson writes for CounterPunch: "What is to stop U.S. banks and their customers from creating $1 trillion, $10 trillion or even $50 trillion on their computer keyboards to buy up all the bonds and stocks in the world, along with all the land and other assets for sale in the hope of making capital gains and pocketing the arbitrage spreads by debt leveraging at less than 1 per cent interest cost? This is the game that is being played today."

Why Is the White House Against Freezing Foreclosures in the Face of Rampant Fraud?

Nomi Prins provides the following analysis for AlterNet: "At first, there was a deafening silence from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on the foreclosure front. It was as if they: 1) didn't read the news; or 2) were afraid someone would notice afresh their incompetence in dealing with the ongoing housing crisis and deteriorating economy, while convincing everyone that the bank bailouts and subsidizations were good for us."

Stop the Anonymous Hit Men: Make Shadowy Campaign Money the Issue
Paul Rogat Loeb comments for Truthout: " We need to talk about the ads of all the front groups from the Chamber of Commerce to Karl Rove's American Crossroads and the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity. We also need to highlight the Republican justices who overruled a century of legislative precedent to enact Citizens United, and talk about how Republican senators have stood in unison to prevent requiring corporate interests to at least put their names on their ads."

Personally Invested in Mortgage Banks, House Republican Opposes Fixes for "Foreclosure-Gate"

Lee Fang reports for ThinkProgress: "Many lenders, like Bank of America, JP Morgan, and Ally Financial, have halted foreclosures, while Democratic lawmakers and a cadre of a bipartisan state attorney generals have called for a wider foreclosure moratorium and investigations into the banks' practices. However, most Republicans have balked at any attempt to seriously respond to the banks' fraudulent foreclosures. In particular, House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) said last Sunday that he opposed any efforts to expand a moratorium on foreclosures. 'Now, come on, people have to take responsibility for themselves,' said Cantor." Photo: republicanconference / Flickr

Recommended Audio: Rachel Maddow - Chamber of Commerce Champions Outsourcing American Jobs

The Rachel Maddow Show: "Rachel Maddow reveals the history of the Chamber of Commerce advocating the business benefits of outsourcing American jobs even as they spend millions of dollars accusing Democratic candidates of doing the same."



The Imperial Defense of Pentagon Bloat
David Sirota writes for TruthDig.com: "Beware the sophistry of budget talking points—especially those seeking to deter any criticism of defense spending. That’s the lesson of these last few weeks, as Establishment Republicans desperately try to thwart both progressives and tea party conservatives who are pressuring Congress to reduce Pentagon bloat. The latest talking point du jour has been around in one form or another for years. It asks us to forget that (A) America spends more on defense than all other major nations combined and (B) the Pentagon, whose annual budget is now approaching World War II levels in inflation-adjusted terms, has lost track of trillions of taxpayer dollars. In light of those troubling truths, we are nonetheless urged by Beltway Republicans to focus on the fact that defense spending is “4.9 percent of our gross domestic product, significantly below the average of 6.5 percent since World War II,” as a recent Wall Street Journal editorial proclaimed."

This Year, Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan
T. Christian Miller reports for ProPublica: "More private contractors than soldiers were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months, the first time in history that corporate casualties have outweighed military losses on America’s battlefields. More than 250 civilians working under U.S. contracts died in the war zones between January and June 2010, according to a ProPublica analysis of the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Labor, which tracks contractor deaths. In the same period, 235 soldiers died, according to Pentagon figures."

Rule of Law Is Alive and Well Outside the United States
David Swanson writes for WarIsACrime.org: "The World Justice Project on Thursday published a 'Rule of Law Index,' and there's no easy way to say this. Let me put it this way: as when rankings on education, infant mortality, work hours, lifespan, retirement security, health, environmental impact, incarceration rates, violence, concentration of wealth, and other measures of quality of life come out, it is time once again for we Americans to shout 'We're Number One!' more loudly than ever. Because, of course, we're not."

Recommended Audio: CounterSpin -  Jodi Jacobson on Tea Party and Social Issues

This week on CounterSpin: The New York Times says democrats are "wielding" issues like abortion rights in hopes of frightening voters about Republican victories in upcoming elections, whereas Republicans really just want to talk about the economy. Same goes for the Tea Party: we're told not to focus on the movement leader who calls rape "part of God's plan," because actual Tea Partiers really only care about fiscal issues. What's going on, or not going on, here? We'll hear from Jodi Jacobson, editor in chief of RHReality Check, whose recent piece is titled, "Social Issues and the Tea Party: By Their Leaders Ye Shall Know Them."

Social Issues and the Tea Party: By Their Leaders Ye Shall Know Them
Jodi Jacobson reports for HR Reality Check: "In a late September column for RH Reality Check, Amanda Marcotte asked: "Is the Media's Tea Party Delusion Coming to An End?"  The answer quite obviously is no. Over the past several months, as Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell, Rand Paul, Joe Miller, Pat Toomey and other mad-hatters have stumped for office, I have listened and read in disbelief as one after another otherwise respected media representative or outlet continues to suggest that the Tea Party is not interested in 'social conservative issues.'"

How Democracy Dies: Lessons from a Master

Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "The ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes spent his life battling the assault on democracy by tyrants. It is disheartening to be reminded that he lost. But he understood that the hardest struggle for humankind is often stating and understanding the obvious. Aristophanes, who had the temerity to portray the ruling Greek tyrant, Cleon, as a dog, is the perfect playwright to turn to in trying to grasp the danger posed to us by movements from the tea party to militias to the Christian right, as well as the bankrupt and corrupt power elite that no longer concerns itself with the needs of its citizens. He saw the same corruption 2,400 years ago. He feared correctly that it would extinguish Athenian democracy. And he struggled in vain to rouse Athenians from their slumber."  Photo: AP - Matt York

Violent Hunter of Progressives Tips His Hat to Glenn Beck for Inspiration - He 'Blew My Mind'
John Hamilton reports for Media Matters for American (via AlterNet): "Byron Williams, a 45-year-old ex-felon, exploded onto the national stage in the early morning hours of July 18. According to a police investigation, Williams opened fire on California Highway Patrol officers who had stopped him on an Oakland freeway for driving erratically. For 12 frantic minutes, Williams traded shots with the police, employing three firearms and a small arsenal of ammunition, including armor-piercing rounds fired from a .308-caliber rifle. When the smoke cleared, Williams surrendered; the ballistic body armor he was wearing had saved his life. Miraculously, only two of the 10 CHP officers involved in the shootout were injured."
For more information on this issue, visit Media Matters for America.

Six Reasons Why Americans Should Care About What is Happening in Uganda
Rachel Tabachnick writes for Talk to Action blog: "A May 2010 Vanguard documentary, Missionaries of Hate, shows the impact of a conference in Uganda featuring Scott Lively and the "kill the gays" bill proposed in their Parliament, but it took more than one conference to demonize Uganda's gay population.  For years there has been a multi-faceted effort by western politicians and evangelists to promote a politicized Christianity in Uganda. Jeff Sharlet exposed the role of The Family in his book by the same name and his newly released C Street House. Kapya Kaoma produced a report on western evangelical involvement in Uganda in The Public Eye. Charismatic evangelicals, now organized under the authority of apostles, have declared Uganda as a prototype in Transformation movies. The situation for gay Ugandans is dire, but for the groups who have helped to bring this about, Uganda is a prototype to be replicated in countries around the globe. Following are six reasons why we should be paying more attention."

Conservatives' Big Hypocrisy: Turning Women Candidates (Who Are Anti-Sex and Anti-Woman) into Sex Symbols
David Rosen writes for AlterNet: "Sexuality is as important to politics as it is to the entertainment industry. The 2008 presidential campaign was a testament to the power of charismatic, highly sexualized candidates capturing national media attention and driving the election. Barack Obama and Sarah Palin represented the future of the American political candidate: sexy, articulate, a saleable commodity. The 2010 election is a replay of 2008, but with a likely very different outcome due in small part to the presence of the sexy sisters, the “new” Republican woman represented by Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell, Nikki Haley and Michele Bachmann, among others."

Climate Zombies

Faiz Shakir, Benjamin Armbruster, George Zornick, Zaid Jilani, Alex Seitz-Wald, Brad Johnson, and Tanya Somanader write the Progress Report for Think Progress: "One of the defining characteristics of the current Republican Party is the near-unanimous denial of the science behind the threat of global warming pollution. "The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones," writes the National Journal's Ron Brownstein. Many of the candidates -- whom Daily Kos blogger RL Miller has dubbed the "climate zombies" -- are signatories of the Koch Industries' Americans For Prosperity No Climate Tax pledge and the FreedomWorks' Contract From America. The second plank of the Contract From America is to "Reject Cap & Trade: Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation's global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures." The Koch oil billionaires have pumped $1,125,400 into the campaign accounts of congressional candidates and $332,722 to state-level candidates, 87 percent to Republicans, and have contributed $1 million to the Proposition 23 campaign to kill California's AB32 climate legislation. But Koch's main influence is through its Astroturf arm, Americans for Prosperity, which has spent $649,188 in attack ads while organizing a massive get-out-the-vote effort for its Tea Party members across the nation. The polluting power of Koch Industries and other fossil fuel giants over the GOP in the Tea Party age is overwhelming. "[S]kepticism about climate science has become one of the many litmus tests for candidates backed by the surging right," Nature magazine's Jeff Tollefson observes. The denialism is an excuse to oppose green economic policies that would bring jobs back to America and clean the air, and would also limit the influence of the fossil fuel industry's dirty money on our nation's politics."

Family Research Council Leads Fight Against Opponents of Anti-Gay Bullying
Media Matters for American reports: "Family Research Council president Tony Perkins recently suggested that gay youths who committed suicide after being bullied were actually responding to their "despair" after being told by gay-rights groups that "they are 'born gay' and can never change." The FRC has long sought to minimize anti-gay bullying and attacked those who seek to stop it.

WikiLeaks Says Funding Has Been Blocked after Government Blacklisting

David Leigh and Rob Evans reports for The Guardian: "The whistleblowing group WikiLeaks claims that it has had its funding blocked and that it is the victim of financial warfare by the US government. Moneybookers, a British-registered internet payment company that collects WikiLeaks donations, emailed the organisation to say it had closed down its account because it had been put on an official US watchlist and on an Australian government blacklist." Photo: Andrew Winning/REUTERS

FCC Calls for Clearer Phone Bills
Kim Hart writes for Politico: "The Federal Communications Commission wants to make cell phone bills a little less confusing. At the agency’s monthly meeting Thursday, Chairman Julius Genachowski will recommend ways to help consumers avoid “bill shock,” or surprise when they find unexpected charges. Complaints about unexpected charges — the most extreme cases reaching tens of thousands of dollars in fees — have been mounting. A recent survey found that 30 million Americans, or one in six mobile phone users, have experienced bill shock. More than half of those noticed an unexplained increase of $50 or more on their bill."

NPR Bans Employees From Jon Stewart's and Stephen Colbert's Rallies

Danny Shea reports for the Huffington Post: " NPR has reminded its employees that they are not allowed to participate in the upcoming rallies led by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. 'NPR journalists may not participate in marches and rallies involving causes or issues that NPR covers, nor should they sign petitions or otherwise lend their name to such causes, or contribute money to them,' Senior Vice President for News, Ellen Weiss, wrote in a memo Wednesday morning. 'This restriction applies to the upcoming John [sic] Stewart and Stephen Colbert rallies.'"

That New Super WiFi? What’s in It For You?
Ryan Singel reports for Wired: "In late September, the FCC announced it would be freeing up spectrum from television broadcasters and opening it to public use to create “super Wi-Fi.” Tech industry groups and public interests groups hailed the new “white-space spectrum” as a way to expand upon the success of the open frequencies that allow anyone to set up a Wi-Fi radio hot spot in their house or coffee shop, without needing to buy spectrum or get a license. But what will this super-Wi-Fi look like in practice? Will it replace the 3G service we pay for for our smartphones? How fast will it be? Will we need new equipment or can our current laptops and cellphones just be upgraded?"

FCC Chairman: Why We Need More Wireless Spectrum
Om Malik reports for GigaOm: "For FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, it’s been a rough summer. He’s come under fire from all sides over his and the FCC’s stance on net neutrality. We haven’t been shy in unloading on the man either, expecting him to do more than he has and he can. But if there’s one bright spot for the FCC Chairman, it’s been the recent order to free up under-utilized TV spectrum and use it for broadband and other open wireless transmission purposes."

Think Again: Just What Exactly Is Fox News?

Eric Alterman writes for the Center for American Progress: "Fox News Channel is often described as a cable news station. On occasion, the words “conservative” or “biased” are attached to that description. But few dispute the journalistic orientation of the overall enterprise. This is a mistake. Fox is something new—something for which we do not yet have a word. It provides almost no actual journalism. Instead it gives ideological guidance to the Republican Party and millions of its supporters, attacking its opponents and keeping its supporters in line. And it does so at a hefty profit, thereby turning itself into the political equivalent of a perpetual motion machine." Photo: Village Voice

Clippings for 28 April 2010

‘God, What a Piece of Crap’

Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig.com: "It was the Perry Mason moment in the unraveling of what was left of Goldman Sachs’ reputation. Only in this case, it involved a grizzled former prosecutor, Sen. Carl Levin, rather than a genial defense attorney. The case was broken and the truth about the depth of Goldman’s corruption revealed in his startling cross-examination of Goldman Chief Financial Officer David Viniar."

Goldman Executives: 'No Regrets' for Deals that Accelerated Crisis
Chris Adams and Greg Gordon report for McClatchy Newspapers: "A key Goldman Sachs trading manager indicated in his personnel performance review that he could use the 'fear' in the market of a coming collapse in the nation's mortgage market to make profits for the Wall Street firm, documents released Tuesday show."

The Importance of Getting Wall Street Out of Washington, and Washington Out of Wall Street
Robert Reich writes on RobertReich.org: "Washington's relationship with Wall Street is growing more schizophrenic by the day. On the one hand, Congress is trying to show how tough it can be on the financial sector by enacting a law ostensibly designed to prevent another near-meltdown and taxpayer-supported bailout. As the mid-term election looms, a staggering number of Americans remain unemployed or underemployed, and most Americans blame Wall Street (whose top bankers are raking in almost as much money as they did before the crisis)."

The Death of Self-Interest Fundamentalism
Joe Brewer writes for Cognitive Policy Works: "Self-interest fundamentalism was the economic religion of the 20th century. We are now in the midst of an economic reformation on par with the Enlightenment as we enter the new millennium. Have you noticed that a lot of people seem to think that appeals to self-interest lead to a moral and just society?"

Globalization on the Rocks

David Ransom reports for the New Internationalist: "In September 1993 Mexicans were, it was said in high places, about to be liberated from their historic destiny: ‘So far from God, so close to the United States.’ The solution was simply to merge with the US and Canada in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), leaving the rest to take care of itself. Ciudad Juárez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, was on the front line of this radical advance, and I went there to take a look."

How Much Does It Cost to Educate One Student?
Lori Yount reports for the Wichita Eagle: "How much money does the state spend to educate one Kansas student each year? It's hard to blame Kansas taxpayers for being confused about how much money is spent on and by public schools. Different organizations give different answers."

Obama Nuclear Weapons and the Future of the Planet

Helen Caldicott writes in The Huffington Post: "Isn't it strange? In the 1980's an overwhelming 80% of Americans wanted to see an end to the nuclear arms race. The U.S. establishment treated this grassroots movement almost as an aberration, virtually ignoring it. This massive, global, grassroots movement helped bring an end to the Cold War. But, throughout the duration of the Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush presidencies there was no respect for, no move to act on, the wishes of the American people and the worldwide supporters of nuclear disarmament."

Fueling the Afghan War
Aram Roston reports for The Nation: "In Napoleon Bonaparte's day an army may have marched on its belly, as the French emperor famously quipped, but the modern-day American military campaign in Afghanistan needs not just food but also fuel. Diesel for the MRAPs and Humvees, aviation fuel for the planes and helicopters--that's the fodder for the military surge under way in Afghanistan. Fuel is precious there--they call it liquid gold--and the effort to keep it flowing has created an array of bizarre monopolies, strange alliances and allegations of corruption entangling the US government."

Does Anyone Know That a Palestinian Created a Museum of the Holocaust?

Christophe Ayad interviews University of London scholar Gilbert Achcar, author of the just-released book, The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives, for Liberation (via Truthout.org): "One finds two symmetrical attitudes among the Palestinians. Some of them have understood that the lessons of the Holocaust are universal and that to deny it is not only wrong but also counter-productive. But does anyone know that a Palestinian created a museum of the Holocaust? Does anyone know that the village of Ni'lin (on the West Bank), known for its struggle against the separation wall, organized an exhibition on the Holocaust? Western media show these kinds of attitudes far less than their opposite..."  Photo: Anne Alexander

Lindsey Graham and the Real “Cynical Political Ploy” on Immigration
Frank Sharry writes for The Huffington Post: "Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been courageous in working with Democrats on both comprehensive immigration reform and climate change legislation. He has seemed deeply committed to both. So why exactly is he threatening to derail a climate bill because he's angry that Democrats are promising to move forward on immigration reform?"

Exposing the Christian Right's New Racial Playbook

Sarah Posner reports for AlterNet: "When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line. The true Negro does not want integration. That was the assertion made by a young Rev. Jerry Falwell in a sermon he preached at his Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, 1958, four years after the Supreme Court struck down school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education. But at a gathering of the religious right earlier this month at the late preacher's Lynchburg compound, integration was not only the topic of the day, but touted as the future of the conservative Christian movement."  Photo Credit: VisualLightBox.com

The New Secessionists

Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "Acts of rebellion which promote moral and political change must be nonviolent. And one of the most potent nonviolent alternatives in the country, which defies the corporate state and calls for an end to imperial wars, is the secessionist movement bubbling up in some two dozen states including Vermont, Texas, Alaska and Hawaii.  These movements do not always embrace liberal values. Most of the groups in the South champion a 'neo-Confederacy' and are often exclusively male and white. Secessionists, who call for statewide referendums to secede, do not advocate the use of force. It is unclear, however, if some will turn to force if the federal structure ever denies them independence."

Arizona's New Immigration Law Is an Act of Vengeance
Eugene Robinson comments for the Washington Post: "Arizona's draconian new immigration law is an abomination -- racist, arbitrary, oppressive, mean-spirited, unjust. About the only hopeful thing that can be said is that the legislation, which Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed Friday, goes so outrageously far that it may well be unconstitutional."

New Climate Movement in Bolivia
Naomi Kline writes for The Nation: "It was 11 am and Evo Morales had turned a football stadium into a giant classroom, marshaling an array of props: paper plates, plastic cups, disposable raincoats, handcrafted gourds, wooden plates and multicolored ponchos. All came into play to make his main point: to fight climate change, 'we need to recover the values of the indigenous people.'"

"Mother Earth Is a Living Being": Cochabamba and the Civilizational Root of the Climate Crisis

 Roberto Lovato reports for the Huffington Post: "Leonardo Boff's elegant white beard and wavy white hair make him look like classical depictions of God(s) in ancient and early modern art. And as a Catholic priest, he would appear to be both benefactor and bulwark of what's often called "western civilization." But when you ask the world-renowned catholic theologian about the root causes of the climate crisis being discussed and debated at the CMPCC here in Cochabamba, Bolivia, he does indeed speak passionately about western civilization-as the primary cause of that crisis."

Militarism, Torture ... and Air Conditioning?
Stan Cox writes for CounterPunch: "Two days before Earth Day 2010, the Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate released a report on efforts by the U.S. military to 'reduce dependence on fossil fuels and cut global warming pollution by enhancing energy efficiency and harnessing clean energy technologies.'"

The Nazis Didn’t Even Dare This, But Mainstream And Even Progressive Media Voices Are Silent
Bruce Wilson writes on ALterNet: "After a burst of media coverage towards the close of 2009, the growing persecution of gays in Uganda seems to have dropped off radar screens not only of mainstream US media but also most of alternative and progressive media, on and off the Internet."

Historic March Draws over 200

Christopher Renner reports for the Kansas Free Press: "Over 200 people demonstrated their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality in Manhattan and Riley County on Saturday in first Pride march and rally the community has seen. Marchers represented individual LGBTs, allies, various community and K-State organizations and two of Manhattan's religious congregations: the Unitarian Universalism Fellowship and First Congregation - United Church of Christ."

Zombie Magazines: The Washington Blade Will Resume Publishing
Alex Alvarez reports for FishBowlNY: "The Washington Blade, the 40-year-old DC-area gay weekly that folded late last year when parent company Window Media LLC ceased operations, is back! In February of this year, MediaJobsDaily reported that, although the weekly's assets may not have amounted to much, there was a chance that it would be incarnated. In fact, many of the paper's former employees offered $15,000 for its assets, including copyright, trademark, archives, office equipment and office furniture. In the days following Window Media filing for bankruptcy, the paper ran under the name D.C. Agenda."

Bill Moyers Retires

Eric Alterman writes for The Nation: "Nearly twenty years ago, I spoke to Edward R. Murrow's top producer, Fred Friendly, who told me he thought of Bill Moyers as "the Murrow of our time...the broadcaster who most upholds his mantle." But while Murrow remains television journalism's most admired historical figure, it's all but inarguable that Moyers long ago surpassed his achievements."

Communications Law Is Outdated, Panelists Agree
Sara Jerome writes for the National Journal: "Congress needs to update telecommunications law to better address broadband issues. That's a single idea that united speakers with starkly different ideas on FCC authority at the Politics Online conference on Monday. Panelists disagreed on the merits of net neutrality regulation, arguing over whether the FCC should regulate traffic management practices by Internet access providers. But they all thought that Congress should clarify who regulates broadband issues."

FCC Remains Mum on Broadband Reclassification
Marguerite Reardon reports for CNET news: "The Federal Communications Commission started the ball rolling on some items in its National Broadband Plan on Wednesday, but regulators made no mention of whether they are considering reclassifying broadband traffic. One of the first items the FCC addressed on Wednesday was beginning the process to reform the Universal Service Fund. The commissioners voted unanimously to shift the fund's goal from addressing and subsidizing rural telephone service to providing universal broadband service."

Social Media Reshapes Journalism
Robert Quigley writes for the Austin Statesman: "Social media have gone mainstream, but what does that really mean? Sure, you can share pictures from a party quicker, and with more people than ever before (including long-forgotten high school classmates). You can also see what Lance Armstrong is up to at any given moment or share your opinion of a new restaurant."

We Can't Afford to be Neutral on Net Neutrality
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel comments: "Say 'net neutrality' to a person, and chances are you'll be rewarded with a quizzical look and a profoundly confused 'huh?' Ask folks, however, if they want anyone to restrict the information available on the Internet. Understanding dawns. And that is precisely the issue in net neutrality. A court ruling earlier this month in Comcast vs. Federal Communications Commission significantly curtailed the FCC's ability to insist that all Web content be treated equally. The Web as a virtually unfiltered, unfettered fountain of information is in jeopardy."

Another World Is Possible: Another US in Necessary: The US Social Forum in Detroit June 22 - 26

Community Bridge welcomes Mallory Knodel to discuss the US Social Forum that will take place June 22-26, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan under the theme: "Another World is Possible. Another US is Necessary!"  The US Social Forum (USSF) is a movement building process. It is not a conference but it is a space to come up with the peoples’ solutions to the economic and ecological crisis.

The US Social Forum will provide a space to build relationships, learn from each other's experiences, and share analysis of the problems our communities face. It will help develop leadership, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world.

We close out this week by rebroadcasting two segments from On The Media that discusses the alarming rise of U.S. hate groups and the rhetoric that feeds them featuring Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Then Daniel Levitas, an expert on homegrown terrorist groups, says that there's a double standard regarding which groups get the "terrorist" label.

MP3 File

War in Iraq Year Seven: What is this war costing us?

As of October 2009, the U.S. was spending $7.3 billion a month in Iraq.

National Priorities Project estimates that for this fiscal year, $64.5 billion is directed to Iraq and $72.3 billion to Afghanistan.

Click to enlarge.

In a time of economic crisis with a crumbling national infrastructure, American families loosing their homes and retirements, how can such spending be sustained?

Joining us in studio today to answer this and other questions about the on-going war mentality we find our nation in is Prof. John Exdell and Dr. Stan Cox.

MP3 File

Clippings for 28 March 2010

We Are in the Middle of Transformational Change: It's Time the Debate Matches up with the Huge Challenges Ahead of Us

Frank Joyce writes for ALterNet: "A better world is possible. So is a worse one. Which will we get? Finding the proper focus is itself a challenge. For example, much of the conversation these days among well-meaning people about the state of our economy and what the president (or somebody) ought to do about it centers on jobs. Do we need more jobs? The conventional answer is of course we do, so let’s keep on having the old arguments about tax breaks versus government stimulus, big business versus small business, blah, blah, blah."

The Difference Between Liberalism and Progressivism
David Sirota writes for Truthdig.com: "As a progressive, I’m often asked if there is a real difference between progressivism and liberalism, or if progressivism is merely a nicer-sounding term for the less popular L-word. It’s a fair question, considering that Democratic politicians regularly substitute progressive for liberal in news releases and speeches. Predictably, Republicans call their opponents’ linguistic shift a craven branding maneuver, and, frankly, they’re right: Most Democrats make no distinction between the two words."

Globalization Marches On
Noam Chomsky writes for the New York Times Syndicate (via CommonDreams.org): "Shifts in global power, ongoing or potential, are a lively topic among policy makers and observers. One question is whether (or when) China will displace the United States as the dominant global player, perhaps along with India. Such a shift would return the global system to something like it was before the European conquests. Economic growth in China and India has been rapid, and because they rejected the West's policies of financial deregulation, they survived the recession better than most. Nonetheless, questions arise."

Why the President's Next Big Thing Should Be Jobs

Robert Reich, RobertReich.com: "Few presidents get a second honeymoon of their own making. (George W. got one when terrorists attacked the United States.) Barack Obama's victory on health care reform has breathed new life into his administration, recharged the Democratic base, and given the rest of America a sense of someone who fights for average working people. The question now is: What does he do with his second honeymoon?"

The Most Vital Ingredient in Wall Street Reform Goes Missing
Pam Martens writes for CounterPunch: "Last Fall, it was all about the wall: financial bigwigs like former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker, former Citigroup co-CEO John Reed, Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, all espoused reestablishing the legal barrier between the derivatives casino that masquerades today as Wall Street and commercial banks holding insured deposits."

Derailing Help for Consumers
Bob Herbert comments for the New York Times: "Why should there be any significant opposition to the creation of an independent agency with strong powers of enforcement to protect consumers from exploitation by banks, mortgage companies, auto dealers and other purveyors of credit? The dragons lurking in the fine print of some credit agreements are enough to give you heart failure. Payday loans, for example, typically carry annual interest rates in the vicinity of 400 percent. Or look at the lineup of fees, penalties and interest rates on your credit cards and overdraft privileges. Don't even start on mortgage abuses. That would take too long, and it's too depressing."

Kansas Chamber for Wall Street, Not Main Street
Marty Keenan writes for the Kansas Free Press: "The Kansas Chamber of Commerce scolded 14 local chambers of commerce on Thursday for supporting a tax increase to fix the yawning Kansas budget deficit. The starkly differing constituencies of the KCCI (Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and local chambers of commerce can no longer be papered over."

Coburn Pulls The Trigger: Jobless Benefits Extension Blocked By GOP
Evan McMorris-Santoro reports for Talkign Points Memo: "Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) promised that he'd be the next Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) if he had to be. And last night, he made good on his threat. Coburn is blocking unanimous consent on extension of unemployment benefits, just as Bunning did a few weeks ago. Only this time, Coburn's not alone -- the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other members of the Republican caucus have joined with Coburn, promising to block billions in unemployment benefits just as the Senate is set to leave on a two-week recess."

Counterfactual: A curious history of the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program.

Jane Mayer writes for The New Yorker: "On September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of Al Qaeda's attacks on America, another devastating terrorist plot was meant to unfold. Radical Islamists had set in motion a conspiracy to hijack seven passenger planes departing from Heathrow Airport, in London, and blow them up in midair. Courting Disaster (Regnery; $29.95), by Marc A. Thiessen, a former speechwriter in the Bush Administration, begins by imagining the horror that would have resulted had the plot succeeded. He conjures fifteen hundred dead airline passengers, televised "images of debris floating in the ocean," and gleeful jihadis issuing fresh threats: 'We will rain upon you such terror and destruction that you will never know peace.'"

Pentagon Wants $33 Billion More for War in Afghanistan
Gordon Lubold, The Christian Science Monitor: "The Pentagon wants $33 billion in additional funding to pay for the war in Afghanistan this year and train the Afghan military, but members of Congress want to make sure they're not writing a blank check."

Obama Appoints New Chief for War Court at Guantanamo

Carol Rosenberg reports for the Miami Herald and McClatchy News: "In the clearest sign yet that the Obama administration is re-energizing tribunals for captives at a Guantanamo it wants closed, the Pentagon this week installed a retired three-star admiral with national security and international law experience to run the war court."

Obama Gives Up: The era of bipartisanship is over, at least until November.

John Dickerson writes for Slate: "President Obama's allies have occasionally been irritated that he won't do away with all his bipartisan talk and treat his opponents as they deserve to be treated. These allies/critics must be happy with his speech today in Iowa City, the same place he unveiled his health care proposal in December 2007 and where today he mocked his opponents with the thoroughgoing enjoyment he displayed during the campaign. 'Leaders of the Republican Party, they called the passage of this bill Armageddon.' Obama told the audience, to laughter. 'End of freedom as we know it.' So after I signed the bill, I looked around to see if there [were] any asteroids falling or some cracks opening up in the Earth. It turned out it was a nice day. Birds were chirping. Folks were strolling down the Mall. People still have their doctors.'"

Recommended Audio: GRITtv - Gearing up for Battle on Immigration Reform

Last weekend's 200,000-person-strong march on Washington for justice on immigration was spared from too much violence and anger because the press was largely focused on health care reform. But as that bill was signed into law Monday, immigration will again find itself at the top of the list for political action--and the passions that it inspires are certain to flare.  Joining Laura Flanders to talk about whether the Obama administration and this Congress will have the will, vision, and political capital to get anything done on immigration--and whether the legislation being considered at the moment will do more harm than good--are Seth Freed Wessler of the Applied Research Center and ColorLines, and Roberto Lovato of New America Media.

Recommended Audio: Bill Moyers - John Nichols and Terry O'Neill on Health Care Reform

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is now law — but the battle over health care reform is far from over. Already at least 14 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits in state courts charging that the mandate for individuals to buy health insurance is unconstitutional. The Republican Party has vowed to make health care reform the central issue in their bid to gain Democratic seats in the mid-term elections. Stalwart advocates of a single-payer system are also unhappy with the outcome — calling the bill "a false promise of reform" and "wimpy."

On Pop Clarity: Public Intellectuals and the Crisis of Language
Henry Giroux comments for Turhtout: "The presupposition that academics no longer function as critical public intellectuals willing to connect their knowledge and expertise to larger public issues is now pervasive. Many factors have contributed to this alleged withdrawal from speaking to public issues, ranging from the demands of academic professionalism and the suppression of dissent to a simple lack of time to address such work. What is indisputable is that the voices of progressive academics have become increasingly irrelevant when it comes to assuming the role of engaged intellectuals interested in sharing their ideas, research and policy recommendations with a broader public. All the better for those neoliberal and conservative critics, who insist that academics must remain neutral, apolitical and professional, disavowing that politics has a place in the classroom or in the pursuit of research that speaks to broader public concerns. Sadly, the most pronounced voices critical of academics as public intellectuals come from the general public (who may or may not agree with right-wing portrayals of the university as a hotbed of left totalitarianism), who unite in their dismissal of ivory tower elites for speaking and writing in a discourse that is as arcane as it is irrelevant."

The Horrible Prospect of Supreme Court Justice Cass Sunstein
Glenn Greenwald writes for Salon.com: "A media consensus has emerged that the retirement of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the 90-year-old Ford-appointee who became the leader of the Court's so-called "liberal wing," is now imminent.  The New York Times' Peter Baker has an article today on Obama's leading candidates to replace Stevens, in which one finds this strange passage:

The president’s base hopes he will name a full-throated champion to counter Justice Antonin Scalia, the most forceful conservative on the bench. . . . The candidates who would most excite the left include the constitutional scholars Harold Hongju Koh, Cass R. Sunstein and Pamela S. Karlan."

The Mad Tea Party

Richard Kim writes for The Nation: " Leftists like to say that another world is possible, but I was never quite sure of that until I started reading tea party websites. There, a government of leftists is not only possible, it's on the cusp of seizing permanent power, having broken American capitalism and replaced it with a socialist state. Down that rabbit hole, Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel are communists, and 'The Left'--which encompasses everyone from the Democratic Leadership Council to Maoist sectarians--is a disciplined and near omnipotent army marching in lockstep to a decades-old master plan for domination called the 'Cloward-Piven strategy' or, as of January 20, 2009, 'Cloward-Piven government.'" Graphic by DREW FRIEDMAN.

Nooses And Broken Windows: A Week Of Threats And Vandalism

Rachel Slajda reports for Talking Points Memo: "As the health care debate came to its conclusion this week, the high-running emotions of many finally crested, taking the form of threats and acts of vandalism at the offices of several lawmakers, most of them Democrats. Here, a roundup: The FBI is investigating a severed gas line at the home of Rep. Tom Perriello's (D-VA) brother. A local tea party group had posted the brother's address online, thinking it was Perriello's and calling for a protest there." Photo: Clockwise, from top left: Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-SC), a broken window, the stage prop coffin used in the demonstration on Rep. Russ Carnahan's lawn, and Rep. Louise Slaughter.

Secrets of the Tea Party: The Troubling History of Tea Party Leader Dick Armey
Beau Hodai, In These Times: "As the Tea Party movement has gained momentum during the last 12 months, it seems few Tea Partiers have caught on to the troubling past of the man at the center of their movement: FreedomWorks chairman, former House Majority Leader and recently-retired lobbyist extraordinaire, Dick Armey."

Inside David Frum's Bitter Exit

Tunku Varadarajan writes for The Daily Beast: "David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, no longer works for the American Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank in Washington. We know this because Frum has said so and the AEI has confirmed it. All narrative similarities end there, however."

Fox News, Health Care, and the Right-Wing Nervous Breakdown
Eric Boehlert writes for Media Matters for America: "Watching Fox News personalities recently come unglued as the realization set in that (surprise!) Democrats might actually have the votes to pass health care reform -- and noting how extraordinarily loopy and dire both the attacks on the White House, and the proclamations for pending, apocalyptic doom were becoming -- I was getting nervous that one of Fox News' more unhinged hosts might finally just snap and pull a Rev. Jim Jones, beseeching viewers to make the ultimate sacrifice."

The Oxymoron of "Texas Education"
Jim Hightower writes for his blog: "love nuts. Pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios – I love them all. But my favorite nuts by far are those homegrown natives on the Texas Board of Education. You just can't get any nuttier than this bunch!"

Nuclear Waste Piles Up, and It's Costing Taxpayers Billions

Mark Clayton reports for The Christian Science Monitor: "In the waning days of the Bush administration, the US Department of Energy signed contracts with more than a dozen utilities promising to permanently store nuclear waste from 21 not-yet-built reactors, nuclear watchdog groups reported Wednesday. But that "below the radar" DOE commitment was an unreasonable and unnecessary risk to taxpayers given the $1 billion dollars in contractual penalties the agency faced at the time – and the agency's 35-year failure to develop a permanent radioactive waste storage site, the groups said, citing federal contract documents they had obtained."

Kansas's Got Talent: Lisa Engelken's "Caravan"

Christopher E. Renner writes for the Kansas Free Press: "What now seems like a lifetime ago, I taught English as a Foreign Language in Naples, Italy. A young lady came into my life for the academic year 87-88. She was the younger sister of a friend, and the last child of huge German Catholic family. She was a student at the University of Kansas and had come to Naples to study the great 20th Century Neapolitan playwright, Eduardo De Fillippo."
Engelken will be our guest on the April 1st edition of Community Bridge. 

New Millennium, Same Old Backlash?

Maya Schenwar comments for Ms. Magazine: "From the climate of angry machismo that accompanied the drive toward the Iraq war, to the Bush-led campaign against contraception and abortion that has overflowed into the current Congress, this past decade has seen a host of reactionary shifts in attitudes towards women. Barbara J. Berg chronicles this current backlash in Sexism in America: Alive, Well, and Ruining Our Future (Chicago Review Press)."

Cheat Sheet: Sticking Points In Broadband Plan
Sara Jerome writes for The National Journal: "Every American should have broadband access -- that's an idea every faction in the telecom world seems to endorse. Making it so is another thing altogether. While not everyone has shown their cards yet, major telecom players are sure to air grievances soon over Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's decade-long plan to get more Americans online. Hearings scheduled on the Hill this week and panels featuring industry lobbyists will provide forums for venting. In fact, with its aims to spark action from Congress and in the agencies, including heavy lifting at the FCC, the blueprint may also inadvertently pay many telecom lobbyists' salaries over the next few years in a sector that already spends exorbitantly on sway.

Newspaper Ads Tumbled to 1963 Levels Last Year
Ryan Chittum writes for the Columbia Journalism Review: "The New York Times reports that newspaper advertising tanked by more than 27 percent last year, shedding $10 billion from 2008. Online advertising swooned more than 11 percent, which would largely be, I suspect, because it’s so tied to print sales via upsells."

"We're At a Ground Zero Moment to Save Real Journalism"

Byard Duncan writes for AlterNet: "On March 24, 2010, the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, in Ithaca, NY announced that award-winning independent journalist Jeremy Scahill would receive the second annual 'Izzy Award.' The Izzy, which is named after the legendary muckraker I.F. Stone, celebrates outstanding achievement in independent media. Last year's winners were Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com." Photo Credit: Troy Page / t r u t h o u t

Public Knowledge and Free Press: Sprint Shutdown of Haiti Relief Effort Shows FCC Needs to Protect Text Messaging
Liz Rose writes for Free Press: "Public Knowledge and Free Press said this new incident provided fresh evidence that the FCC needs to act to prevent telephone companies from having unlimited power to shut down text-messaging campaigns they may not like for whatever reason. A petition filed by those two groups and others asking the FCC to protect text messaging from the whims of big telephone companies has been pending at the FCC since Dec. 11, 2007, after Verizon arbitrarily denied NARAL Pro-Choice America a short code for text messages to be sent to that group’s members."

Court OKs Local Media Consolidation
Ira Teinowitz reports for The Wrap: "An appellate court panel Tuesday removed its hold on a 2007 Federal Communications Commission rule that let newspapers and broadcasters buy each other in a market. But while lifting the hold, the three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals said it would continue to look at the rule’s legality. The move appears to let Tribune Company and some other media companies keep their TV stations -- and could further consolidate local media."

Recommended Audio: Democracy Now! - Court Strikes Down Restrictions on Media Ownership

A federal court has lifted a key set of government rules aimed at curbing media consolidation in the United States. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit struck down the FCC's ban on ownership by a single company of both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same market. The media reform group Free Press urged the FCC to respond to the ruling.