Clippings for 29 October 2009

War is a Hate Crime
Chris Hedges writes for Turthdig.com: "Violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is wrong. So is violence against people in Afghanistan and Iraq. But in the bizarre culture of identity politics, there are no alliances among the oppressed. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the first major federal civil rights law protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, passed last week, was attached to a $680-billion measure outlining the Pentagon’s budget, which includes $130 billion for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Democratic majority in Congress, under the cover of protecting some innocents, authorized massive acts of violence against other innocents."

The War Condolences Obama Hasn't Sent
Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: "U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Chancellor Keesling died in Iraq on June 19, 2009, from “a non-combat related incident,” according to the Pentagon. Keesling had killed himself. He was just one in what is turning out to be a record year for suicides in the U.S. military. In August, President Barack Obama addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, saying, “[T]here is nothing more sobering than signing a letter of condolence to the family of [a] serviceman or -woman who has given their life for our country.” To their surprise, Jannett and Gregg Keesling, Chance’s parents, won’t be getting such a letter. Obama does not write condolence letters to loved ones of those who commit suicide in the theater of combat. [After making inquiries, the Keeslings discovered that this was not because of an oversight. Instead, it’s because of a longstanding U.S. policy to deny presidential condolence letters to the families of soldiers who take their own lives.]

Why Obama's Iran Policy will Fail
Dilip Hiro writes for TomDispatch: "While the tone of the Obama administration is different from that of its predecessor, and some of its foreign policies diverge from those of George W. Bush, at their core both administrations subscribe to the same doctrine: Whatever the White House perceives as a threat -- whether it be Iran, North Korea, or the proliferation of long-range missiles -- must be viewed as such by Moscow and Beijing."

Democrats: CIA Lied to or Misled Congress at Least Five Times Since 2001
Jason Leopold reports for Truthout: "Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday that the CIA misled and/or lied to Congress at least five times since 2001 about it's intelligence programs, including one previously alleged instance in which the agency failed to disclose to top members of the House and Senate intelligence committees that the CIA tortured war on terror detainees."

Depleted Uranium Causes Cancer
HenryW reports for Project Censored: "Depleted Uranium is nuclear waste…quite literally…and it causes cancer and birth defects. Depleted uranium is extracted from spent nuclear fuel.  It is a waste byproduct of 'enriching' uranium. It is a substance with some remarkable properties.  It is denser than lead, harder than steel.   Munitions tipped with DU are extremely effective, especially when engaging enemies using armored vehicles.  These shells cut right through tank armor and then the uranium itself burns…at 500 degrees Celsius, (932 Fahrenheit).  The only tanks or fixed fortifications that can repel depleted uranium munitions are those which themselves have armor made from depleted uranium.  The use of DU on the battlefield is increasing, and it is used in “bunker buster” bombs, a variety of missiles and now in 30mm ammunition as well.  Since the early 90’s it has been associated mostly with the M1A1 'Abrams' tank."

Too Big to Fail: Why The Big Banks Should Be Broken Up, But Why The White House and Congress Don't Want To
Robert Reich writes on Robert Reich's Blog: "And now there are five - five Wall Street behemoths, bigger than they were before the Great Meltdown, paying fatter salaries and bonuses to retain their so-called 'talent,' and raking in huge profits. The biggest difference between now and last October is these biggies didn't know then that they were too big to fail and the government would bail them out if they got into trouble. Now they do. And like a giant, gawking adolescent who's just discovered he can crash the Lexus convertible his rich dad gave him and the next morning have a new one waiting in his driveway courtesy of a dad who can't say no, the biggies will drive even faster now, taking even bigger risks."

Did Hank Paulson Break the Law?
Nick Baumann writes for Mother Jones: "Did Henry Paulson, George W. Bush's Treasury secretary, break the law? According to a new book on the financial meltdown by New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin, in June 2008, Paulson, who was the chairman of Goldman Sachs before joining the Bush administration, held a secret meeting in Moscow with the board of directors of his former employer. The problem for Paulson—then and possibly now—was that after he had been nominated in 2006 to the Treasury post he had signed an ethics letter vowing to stay clear of potential conflicts of interest with Goldman Sachs and promising not to take any action that might affect the firm's ability to cover his multimillion-dollar pension."

Chamber Rejects Use of Term "3 Million Members"
Josh Harkinson writes for Mother Jones: "For the first time, the US Chamber of Commerce has admitted that its membership should be reported at one tenth the size that many major media outlets have listed it for more than a decade.  In an interview on Friday, Greg Marx of the Columbia Journalism Review asked Chamber spokesman Eric Wohlschlegel to comment on two competing newspaper accounts. Presented with a Wall Street Journal article that said the Chamber claims '300,000 members,' Wohlschlegel said, 'That's accurate.' Read an Associated Press article that said the Chamber claims 'a membership of 3 million,' he responded, 'That's not exactly reported correctly.'"

Health Care Hypocrites
Jim Hightower comments for Truthout: "How do you spell 'hypocrisy'? Try this: 'H-Y-P-O-C-O-N-G-R-E-S-S.' The hypocongress consists of those Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats who have risen up on their hind legs in recent weeks to snarl and howl at any mention of a government role in meeting America's health care needs. 'Socialism,' they bark -- we won't allow Barack Obama and the liberals to create a Washington-run, big-government intrusion into the hallowed private market. Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, even pledged to fight so ferociously that the health care battle would be Obama's 'Waterloo.'"

The Tide Is Turning on Health Care Reform
Peter Dreier writes for The Nation: "Social movements are messy, so it is often difficult to know, in the midst of the battle, which side is winning. But in the past month, momentum on healthcare reform has unmistakably shifted as liberals and progressives have taken to the streets, the Internet, the airwaves and the halls of Congress to push for a bold public option, strong regulations on insurance abuses and a progressive tax plan to finance reform.  The Obama administration and its allies in Congress now understand that permitting the unholy alliance of insurance industry muscle, conservative Democratic obfuscation and right-wing mob tactics to defeat the president's healthcare proposal would write the conservative playbook for blocking other key components of his agenda--including action on climate change, immigration reform and labor laws. So in just the past few weeks, we've seen a change in strategy, a strong grassroots movement and markedly firmer resolve by the White House and liberal Democrats in Congress."

What's So Scary About Michael Pollan? Why Corporate Agriculture Tried to Censor His University Speech
Martha Rosenberg writes for AlterNet: "Even if agribusiness could shut Michael Pollan up, the outspoken author of Omnivore's Dilemma and a journalism professor at University of California, Berkeley, it still has the Los Angeles Times to contend with. Last week, the Times blasted California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo for downgrading a scheduled Pollan lecture because it received pressure from David E. Wood, a university donor who happens to be chairman of the Harris Ranch Beef Co."

Events In 181 Countries Urge International Action On Climate Change
Alec Sprague reports for Project Censored: "A total of 5,200 actions were held around the world to urge action on climate change, according to 350.org who sponsered an International Day of Climate Action this past Saturday. The number, 350, refers to the goal of three hundred fifty parts per million of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, which is claimed by scientists to be the safe upper limit. The current level is about 387 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere. A recent report in the Journal of Science shows that the last time levels were this high was fifteen million years ago."

Future of Abstinence-Only Programs Unclear Without Federal Funding, Newsweek Reports
Women's Health Policy Report writes: "Abstinence-only sex education programs that received substantial federal grants under the Bush administration are turning to private donors as an attempt to keep their programs running, Newsweek reports. Since 1997, the abstinence-only industry has received a total of $1.9 billion in government funding, including $1.5 billion from the federal government. However, the "next decade may well be its bust," as President Obama's 2010 budget cut federal funding for abstinence-only programs in favor of programs that have been proven effective, Newsweek reports."

A History of Failed Press Coverage of Afghanistan
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould comment for Nieman Watchdog: "For almost 30 years – ever since we got a close-in view of it – American press coverage of Afghanistan has been simplistic, misleading, unexamining, accepting and echoing government propaganda, and just plain wrong. There have been exceptions…but not many."

Recommended Audio: Democracy Now! - House Advances Measure to Create Hundreds of New Low Power FM Radio Stations
The Local Community Radio Act of 2009 is on its way to a full House vote after sailing through the Energy and Commerce Committee with little opposition. The measure would repeal legislation which requires the FCC to protect full-power broadcasters from interference from Low Power FM stations being placed on third-adjacent channels. We speak to Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle, a co-sponsor of the bill; and Cory Fischer-Hoffman, campaign director of the Prometheus Radio Project.

Kids Watch more than a Day of TV Each Week
Matea Gold reports for the LA Times: "Reporting from New York - More than an entire day -- that's how long children sit in front of the television in an average week, according to new findings released Monday by Nielsen.  The amount of television usage by children reached an eight-year high, with kids ages 2 to 5 watching the screen for more than 32 hours a week on average and those ages 6 to 11 watching more than 28 hours. The analysis, based on the fourth quarter of 2008, measured children's consumption of live and recorded TV, as well as VCR and game console usage."

CNN's Lou Dobbs Problem
Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Pat Garofalo, and Zaid Jilani write for the Progress Report at Think Progress: "Last week, CNN aired the four-hour documentary, 'Latino in America,' which explored 'how Latinos are reshaping our communities and culture and forcing a nation of immigrants to rediscover what it means to be an American.' The documentary has become a 'rallying cry for activist groups' that are attempting to get CNN to take action against nightly news anchor Lou Dobbs. As one of CNN's leading TV personalities, Dobbs has used his stature to infuse hate and vitriol into the immigration debate. Latino and immigrants' rights activists have launched several campaign -- including Drop Dobbs, Tell CNN Enough is Enough, and Basta Dobbs (Basta is Spanish and Italian for 'stop' or 'enough') -- that are aimed at pressuring CNN to hold Dobbs to journalistic standards or drop him altogether and raising awareness about Dobbs to his show's advertisers. 'Lou Dobbs is the gigantic anti-immigration elephant in the room at CNN,' said Roberto Lovato, one of the organizers of Basta Dobbs. "If CNN won't drop Dobbs, it's time that his advertisers did. It's time to do more than simply highlight the damage Dobbs does and the threat he poses," wrote John Santore of Media Matters for America, one of the organizations behind the Drop Dobbs campaign. Dobbs has responded to the efforts against him by claiming that liberals think Hispanics 'are so stupid that they'll believe that I am some sort of racist.'"

Clippings for 28 June 2009

White House Drafts Indefinite Detention Order
Dafna Linzer and Peter Finn report for ProPublica and The Washington Post: "The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate suspected terrorists indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Government Reports Stimulus Impact on Income
Amanda Michel reports for ProPublica: "'The income of Americans soared in May because of the government’s economic stimulus,' reports the Wall Street Journal. Calculated Risk points out that consumer spending remains weak. All of the raw data is available at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a division of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Working America Rallies Behind Climate Bill
Bill Scher writes for the Campaign for America's Future: "It took a very long time to end the fallacy that you can't protect the environment and grow the economy at the same time. But that day has come. The nail in the coffin of the canard was delivered this week, as both the AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers formally endorsed the House clean energy and climate protection bill expected to be voted on this afternoon."

Kicking the Nuclear Habit
Lawrence S. Wittner writes for Truthout: "With President Barack Obama and other world leaders now talking about building a nuclear-free world, it is time to consider whether that would be a good idea. Six reasons for supporting nuclear abolition are particularly cogent."

Liberals Prod Obama on Their Health Bill
Charles Babington reports for The Associated Press: "Obama says he supports a government-run health insurance program to compete with private insurers, a proposal that is popular with many Americans, especially Democrats. But he is standing by as a watered-down, bipartisan version appears likely to be included in a Senate package."

Hate Crimes Bill: How Not to Remember Matthew Shepard
Alexandar Cockburn writes for Counter Punch: "We’ve got the Hate Crimes Bill, aka the Matthew Shepard Act, aka the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, before Congress and far advanced on its repellent journey towards the statute book. On Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill, which passed the House of Representatives by a 249-175 vote in April. If passed, President Obama is expected to sign it."

Recommended Audio: The Start of the Gay Rights Movement Franklin Kameny Remembers Stonewall June 28, 1969
American Association of Retired Persons for their "Prime Time Radio" program has produce a remarkable piece of LGBT history. Frank Kameny comes across as a disarmingly modest man. But he's not shy about claiming his rightful place as a pioneer in the fight for gay rights in the United States. In this illuminating and sometimes funny interview, Kameny says he had always dreamed of being the first gay astronaut, an ambition thwarted by the discriminatory civil service laws in place through the mid-1970s. And he describes the gay rights movement, and his own "agenda" - total, non-negotiable equality for all people, regardless of sexual orientation.



Download the conversation with Frank Kameny in mp3 format.

Obama's Stonewall
Richard Kim writes for The Nation: "Obama's slide hit what one hopes will be a nadir on June 12 when his administration filed a brief defending the legality of DOMA by comparing same-sex marriage to incest and pedophilia. It is impossible to accept that a president who owes so much to movements for civil rights and social justice, never mind the Obama of 1996, believes in such right-wing bigotry; the only plausible explanation can be one of political calculation.

On Stonewall Anniversary Ft. Worth Police Raid Gay Nightclub
Domingo Ramirez reports for the Ft. Worth Star-Telegraph: "A crowd of more than 100 protesters chanted 'No more!' from the steps of the Tarrant County Courthouse Sunday evening as they demanded an investigation into a police raid earlier in the day at a gay night club. One patron was seriously injured in the raid, several protesters said, as police used excessive force in making seven arrests. Police defended their actions. Speaker after speaker demanded an inquiry into the late-night raid at the Rainbow Lounge on South Jennings Street."

Clippings for 12 April 2009

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

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

Please send a letter to the USDA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Clippings from the progressive press for 10 December - Human Rights Day

Click on titles to read complete articles.

Speak Up for Human Rights - The Price of Silence is Much Too High
Marcia G. Yerman writes for the Huffington Post: "With Barack Obama poised to take office in January 2009, one of the major lessons his candidacy has offered is that movements are built from individuals taking action. In an effort to rally attention to the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Amnesty International, working in cooperation with Link TV: Television Without Borders, is releasing the international song and video The Price of Silence. "

Spying on Pacifists, Environmentalists and Nuns
Bob Drogin writes for The Los Angeles Times: "'Lucy' was an undercover Maryland State Police trooper who between 2005 and 2007 infiltrated more than two dozen rallies and meetings of nonviolent groups. Maryland officials now concede that, based on information gathered by 'Lucy' and others, state police wrongly listed at least 53 Americans as terrorists in a criminal intelligence database - and shared some information about them with half a dozen state and federal agencies, including the National Security Agency. Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist and a registered lobbyist. One suspect's file warned that she was "involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her property for meetings."

The Secret Weapon: Religious Abuse in the War on Terror
Michael Peppard writes for Commonweal: "In Fünf Jahre meines Lebens (“Five Years of My Life”), the most powerful memoir yet published by a former Guantánamo detainee, the German Murat Kurnaz remembers an especially disturbing episode that took place while he was in a cage at Camp X-Ray: 'One time there was a long, tortured cry. I turned around. There was a second and then a third cry, but they sounded different from the cries of people being beaten. It was the long and frightening wail of death. Through the chain-link fencing I could see a guard in the cage of one of the Arab prisoners. I immediately knew what had happened.'"

Capitalist Fools
Joseph Stiglitz writes for Vanity Fair: "There will come a moment when the most urgent threats posed by the credit crisis have eased and the larger task before us will be to chart a direction for the economic steps ahead. This will be a dangerous moment. Behind the debates over future policy is a debate over history—a debate over the causes of our current situation. The battle for the past will determine the battle for the present. So it’s crucial to get the history straight."

Stimulus is for Suckers
James Galbraith writes for Mother Jones: "The historical role of a stimulus is to kick things off, to grease the wheels of credit, to get things "moving again." But the effect ends when the stimulus does, when the sugar shock wears off. Compulsive budget balancers who prescribe a "targeted and temporary" policy followed by long-term cuts to entitlements don't understand the patient. This is a chronic illness. Swift action is definitely needed. But we also need recovery policies that will continue for years."

The Best and the Brightest Led America Off a Cliff
Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "The multiple failures that beset the country, from our mismanaged economy to our shredded constitutional rights to our lack of universal health care to our imperial debacles in the Middle East, can be laid at the feet of our elite universities. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, along with most other elite schools, do a poor job educating students to think. They focus instead, through the filter of standardized tests, enrichment activities, advanced placement classes, high-priced tutors, swanky private schools and blind deference to all authority, on creating hordes of competent systems managers. The collapse of the country runs in a direct line from the manicured quadrangles and halls in places like Cambridge, Princeton and New Haven to the financial and political centers of power. "

Republicans Bring Socialism to America
Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig.com: "Let the record show that it was George W. Bush, the rich Texas Republican, who brought socialism to America, so don’t blame it on that African-American Chicago Democrat community organizer who made it into the White House. The government takeover of the banking and automobile industries not only happened on President Bush’s watch, it was also the deregulatory mania of this president’s family, beginning with his father, which took this country into such starkly unfamiliar territory. "

A Whitewash for Blackwater
Eugene Robinson writes in the Washington Post: "The federal manslaughter indictment of five Blackwater Worldwide security guards in the horrific massacre of more than a dozen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad may look like an exercise in accountability, but it's probably the exact opposite -- a whitewash that absolves the government and corporate officials who should bear ultimate responsibility."

The Silent Winter of Escalation
Norman Solomon comments for Truthout: "...the silence now enveloping the political nonresponse to plans for the Afghanistan war is a message of acquiescence that echoes what happened when the escalation of the Vietnam War gathered momentum. Right now, the basic ingredients of further Afghan disasters are in place - including, pivotally, a dire lack of wide-ranging debate over Washington's options."

The Imperial Transition: 44, the Prequel
Tom Engelhardt writes for TomDispatch: "Maybe if the imperial presidency and the national security state worked, none of this would matter. But how can they, given the superlatives that apply to them? They're oversized, over-muscled, overweight, overly expensive, overly powerful, and overly intrusive. Bottom line: they are problem creators, not problem solvers. To expect one genuine 'decider,' moving in at the top, to put them on a diet-and-exercise regimen is asking a lot. After all, at the end of the George Bush era, what we have is the GM of governments, and when things start to go wrong, who's going to bail it out?"

Recommended Audio: Counter Spin for 5 December
This week on CounterSpin: For years veterans claiming to suffer from Gulf War Syndrome were derided as cranky and hysterical by the department of defense and even by some journalists. Will that change now that a definitive report says the Gulf War illnesses are real, incurable, and caused by toxic materials used by the U.S. military during the 1991 Gulf War? We'll talk to Paul Sullivan, a veteran and the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.

Also on the show: As the Obama White House takes shape, Americans are asking what the president-elect's cabinet choices suggest about the political direction his administration may take. Corporate media are making no effort to hide what they think are smart, responsible choices for Obama, but the reasons for those strong preferences are rarely explored. We'll talk with FAIR's Peter Hart about the press reception of the new cabinet picks.

Read FAIR's media advisory: Media Cheer for "Non-Ideological" Centrists.

Who is 'Senate Candidate 5'?
Ben Protess writes for ProPublica: "The FBI’s arrest today of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has brought a new figure into our political lexicon: 'Senate Candidate 5.' The FBI recorded Blagojevich last week saying to an adviser that “Candidate 5” might raise money for Blagojevich and even give him “some (money) up front, maybe” in exchange for being appointed to replace Obama, according to today’s criminal complaint (PDF) filed by the United States Attorney’s office in Chicago."

Environmentalists Say Big Three Blocking States from Imposing "Clear Car" Standards
Tiffany Gabbay reporting for Cybercast News Service says: "Environmental groups say consumers want to buy cars that get 50 miles per gallon and they want electric vehicles - but Big Three automakers don't want to have to produce them. When asked why the Big Three - Ford, GM and Chrysler LLC - should be forced to make cars that the automakers say there is no demand for, Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network claimed that the market actually wants environment-friendly vehicles."

'Yes We Can' Create a Sane Food Policy in the US
Bruce Friedrich writes for CommonDreams.org: "Two extensive reports released in April indicate that our current method of devising food policy is broken and that the current system is doing tremendous harm in many areas, including those that are of particular interest to President-elect Obama: human health, the environment, and global poverty. "

Who Started the War on Christmas?
'The War on Christmas' started in a white nationalist cabal and spread to conservative media.
Max Blumenthal writes for The Daily Beast: "What would Christmas be without warnings of the secular crusade to destroy it? Thanks to the fulminations of cable news cranks and evangelical moralists, the War on Christmas has become an annual outrage. The story typically goes as follows: secular elements have intimidated stores into replacing the phrase “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays;” nativity scenes have been removed from public spaces under threat of ACLU lawsuits; a decadent culture is moving ever closer to eradicating Christian morality; and America slouches towards Gomorrah."

Boxed Ballots
Ben Adler writes for The New Republic: "In the weeks leading up to Election Day, the hand-wringing over voting irregularities reached a fever pitch. Rolling Stone published a feature by Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., warning that Republicans may have already stolen the election. The McCain campaign highlighted accusations that the civil rights group ACORN was trying to commit voter fraud by fabricating voter registrations. Voting rights groups sent nearly daily e-mail blasts to reporters obsessing over every state and local incident of voter intimidation or suppression. And yet after Election Day, the stories seemed to have vanished. What happened?"

Fair Trade Magic: Women profit from news ways of doing business
Ann Hutchens writes for the New Internationalist: "Doing business in Vanuatu is a struggle at the best of times. But a group of illiterate women basket-weavers on one of its remote islands, with no market, no business skills and no money, have been showing that fair trade can offer previously unheard-of opportunities."

Take Action: Tell Congress to Pass the Matthew Shepard Act
A law protecting all of our citizens against senseless hate and violence is long overdue. Twenty-one year old Mathew Shepard died ten years ago on a lonely fence in Wyoming. It is now time for the Congress and President to act. Lawrence King was just 15 when he was shot dead by a classmate in February of 2008 because he was gay. Trans youth Simmie Williams Jr., was also killed in a hate-based drive-by shooting. Many others have shared their fate.

The Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Hate Crimes Prevention Act/ Matthew Shepard Act would add sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability to existing hate crimes legislation. It would strengthen federal hate crime laws by allowing the Department of Justice to assist local authorities in the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes cases.

Send a message to Congress today. Remind them that America still needs the Matthew Shepard Act to help ensure safety and security for ALL Americans from senseless Hate Crimes, especially our youth.

36 Years and counting: when will lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgered people have eqaulity?

by Christopher E. Renner
From Bob Strawn's interview with Citizens for a Better Manhattan...
Yes or no. Do you support amending the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity?
No. I grew up as a man working for Chevron, a San Francisco company, and later for General Atomics, and currently for General Atomics, a San Diego company. I have had a tremendous amount of exposure, more so than probably 99% of the people in Manhattan, to gay and lesbian cultures in commerce. I have many friends who are gay people, gay men. I can’t say that I know a lot of lesbian women because I just don’t, but I do know a lot of gay men. We have had gay people in our house for dinner. I consider them my friends. I do not believe in Manhattan that we have, what I have seen, that we have achieved a level where we need to make a special class of people and segregate them based on their sexual orientation. I grew up at a time during the sexual revolution when once sexuality was a very private matter. I don’t want people knowing what my sexual proclivities are or making choices about my employment or where I live based on what my sexual choices are. I think that exacerbates the problem; it doesn’t cure the problem. Those are intensely personal choices that ought to remain there. So I do not believe and I have not seen in this community a level of angst towards gays, lesbians, transsexuals that would require me as a city commissioner today to say we need to establish a special class of people. If that changes, I’ll deal with it, but I sure don’t see it today.

Bob Strawn’s comments during his interview for the City Commission conducted by Citizens for a Better Manhattan on whether he would or would not support changing Manhattan’s Anti-Discrimination Ordinance typifies the inherent prejudice and ignorance of many politicians when it comes to assuring that the citizens they supposedly represent have their basic civil and human rights protect. When he says he doesn’t see the “angst” needed to change the ordinance, I have to ask how can he, since he is a member of the heterosexual majority and as such has no idea of fear many LGBTs live in daily. His statement, along with statements by Don Miller and Paul Barkey at the Human Rights and Service Board in 2006, exemplify the prejudice and bigotry LGBTs face daily in Manhattan.

In a new report released by the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, they document that hate crime rates against lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are comparable to other groups already covered by federal hate crime laws that currently only defines race, color, religion and national origin as protected categories.(1)

The "Comparison of Hate Crime Rates across Protected and Unprotected Groups" report shows that on average, 13 in 100,000 gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals per year report being the victim of a hate crime, compared with eight in 100,000 African-Americans, 12 in 100,000 American Muslims and 15 in 100,000 Jews.

Those who were in attendance at the Human Rights and Services Board’s deliberations on the proposal to change Manhattan Anti-Discrimination Ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, saw hate crimes that had been committed against residents of Manhattan dismissed by the Board’s members. One person who gave testimony of being attacked and beaten while walking home form Aggieville was told that his story didn’t demonstrate any form of discrimination because he was covered by state statue for battery. The individual was beaten by three thugs, who did so solely because they assumed he was gay and repeatedly called him a “faggot.” According to the Human Rights and Services Board this wasn’t an example of discrimination. Go figure!

Shortly after I returned to the US in August, 1998, I had the culture shock of dealing with the killing of Matthew Shepard. I have to say that part of the reason I left the US in 1982 was because I was tired of being afraid of being an openly gay man. Returning to US brought up all those fears I had from my adolescence when I was reminded daily by my classmates that as a faggot, I was less than human. The brutal murder of Matthew Shepard brought up all those feelings I had long thought were behind me. Why, as a culture are we so afraid of people who are different from ourselves?

About four months after that event, I had a late night visitor come to my house. Bloody and distraught, he too had been attacked in Aggieville because someone thought that fag bashing was a sport. This individual was not out to his family and refused to go to the hospital or call the police to report the beating he had just endured. He was filled with fear that his parents would find out he was gay and would disown him. He was more worried about that than the fact that he could have serious injuries. He had been beaten with 2X4s by two guys who had approached him in a bar and asked if he wanted to spend the night with them. I cleaned him up to the best of my ability and urged him to go to the hospital, but mostly he just cried about being a disappointment to his family. Two months later he graduated from KSU and moved to Los Angles.

His story is an example of why Bob Strawn doesn’t see the “angst” in Manhattan that would require changing the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance. But even larger is the fact that Bob has to see “angst” in order to make local laws better. What we see in Bob Strawn’s thinking is nothing more than government not doing what it is supposed to do: protect the residents of the community.

Then there is the issue of work place discrimination, examples of which were brought before the Human Rights and Services Board that were once again dismissed by its members.

On June 19th Harris Interactive released the results of a survey it had conducted for CareerBuilder.com, an online employment service, and Kelly Services. It focused on workers in seven groups - African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Females, LGBT workers and people in the workforce over the age of 50.(2)

CareerBuilder said it ordered the survey to gauge the frequency and severity of discrimination or unfair treatment in the workplace, whether employee diversity is valued and how diversity impacts hiring decisions, compensation and career advancement.

This study found that 28 percent of LGBT employees have suffered harassment in the workplace with nearly half describing it as severe. However, 48 percent of respondents reported that the most common incidents of discrimination or unfair treatment involved not receiving credit for one's work.

Almost as many said their concerns about discrimination were not addressed or taken seriously by their superiors/employers. Thirty-three percent said they were victimized by co-workers talking behind their backs and almost as many said they were overlooked for promotion.

Half of diverse workers who experienced discrimination or unfair treatment said they did not report the incident. Of these workers, 64 percent said they didn't think reporting the incident would make a difference while 35 percent feared being labeled as a trouble-maker and 32 percent feared losing their jobs.

The Harris Interactive survey is supported by another report conducted by the Williams Institute at UCLA.(3) It found that “Studies conducted from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s revealed that 16% to 68% of LGB respondents reported experiencing employment discrimination at some point in their lives. Since the mid-1990s, an additional fifteen studies found that 15% to 43% of LGB respondents experienced discrimination in the workplace.”

“When asked more specific questions about the type of discrimination experienced, LGB respondents reported the following experiences that were related to their sexual orientation: 8%- 17% were fired or denied employment, 10%-28% were denied a promotion or given negative performance evaluations, 7%-41% were verbally/physically abused or had their workplace vandalized, and 10%-19% reported receiving unequal pay or benefits.” (3)

We can continue to pretend that hate crimes against members of our community don’t happen and we can go on believing that people aren’t discriminated against on the job because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. The fact is that people are in both situations.

But more disturbing to me is that we, a democratic society based on the believe that all people are created equal, have allowed our government and laws to be hijacked by a small group of people who want to dismantle our government and our society and replace it with theocracy.

In his recent book, American Fascist: the Christian Right and the War on America, Chris Hedges talks about how followers of the Christian Right have cloaked the cross in the US flag; they have latched onto the “despair, isolation, disconnectedness and fear” of our modern society and use it to pass repressive laws, like the Kansas Marriage Amendment, that penalize those they fear. “The Bush administration has steadily diverted billions of taxpayer dollars from secular and governmental social service organizations to faith-based organizations, bankrolling churches and organizations that seek to dismantle American democracy and create a theocratic state “- Hedges page 23.(4)

LGBTs saw the face of this fascism at the final Human Rights and Services Board meeting when Don Miller, Paul Barkey and their followers went on for over 3 hours describing what vile, evil people LGBTs were. And just as the leading American institutions tasked with defending tolerance and liberty - from mainstream churches to research universities like KSU, our political parties, and the media - our local institution failed to stand up for the very people they are charged with protecting.

We cannot in the name of tolerance allow people whose intent is the destruction of our way of life to highjack our institutions and demonize whole segments of American society, saying that they are manipulated by Satan and worthy only of conversion or eradication.

Thus we must speak out on this anniversary of Stonewall for all Americans who suffer oppression and be vigilant against those who wish to turn our nation into another Iran.

Sources:
1. Stotzer, Rebecca (2007). Comparison of Hate Crime Rates Across Protected and Unprotected Groups. Los Angles: The Williams Institute.
2. Study: 28 Percent Of LGBT Workers Harassed by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff, http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/06/061907jobs.htm
3. Badgett, M. V. Lee; Lau, Holning; Sears, Brad; & Ho, Deborah (2007). Bias in the Workplace: Consistent Evidence of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination. Los Angles: the Williams Institute.
4. Hedges, Chris (2006). American Fascist: The Christian Right and the War on America. New York: Free Press.