Meeting Community Healthcare Needs

On August 30, 2011, the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice sponsored a community forum featuring representatives from local hospital, mental health and dental services who responded to questions from the audience regarding the needs for low cost health care in the Manhattan area and service accessibility.

Clippings for December 27, 2010

What WikiLeaks Revealed to the World in 2010
Glenn Greenwald writes for Salon.com: "Throughout this year I've devoted substantial attention to WikiLeaks, particularly in the last four weeks as calls for its destruction intensified.  To understand why I've done so, and to see what motivates the increasing devotion of the U.S. Government and those influenced by it to destroying that organization, it's well worth reviewing exactly what WikiLeaks exposed to the world just in the last year:  the breadth of the corruption, deceit, brutality and criminality on the part of the world's most powerful factions."

Keeping State Secrets
Shay Toten reports for Seven Days: "You’ve probably heard of Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange. Maybe even Bradley Manning, the Army private and former intelligence officer who allegedly turned over thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks. But chances are you don’t know the name Thomas Drake, a former Vermonter charged under the Espionage Act for mishandling classified information. His alleged crime? Drake blew the whistle on a wasteful surveillance program within the National Security Agency."

Top 5 Overlooked Stories of 2010

Mark Clayton, Ron Scherer, Amanda Paulson and Chris Gaylord report for The Christian Science Monitor: "History, it seems, will remember 2010 in the United States as the year of health-care reform, the Gulf oil spill, and the tea party movement. But the most widely covered stories are clearly not the only events that could shape the future of the nation. Here we note five overlooked stories of 2010 - developments that might have received some press coverage but perhaps not as much as they should have, given the impact they could have on various aspects of American life in the years ahead." Photo: Christian Science Monitor

The Year in Trumped-Up Pseudo-Scandals

Alex Pareene writes for Salon.com: "Every day, right-wing blogs and Fox News are abuzz with hysterical reports of partly or wholly invented scandals that, in their fevered imaginations, threaten to once-and-for-all destroy the Obama administration. While most of the bloggers are true believers, convinced that they're one smoking gun away from opening everyone's eyes to the criminality of the administration, on Fox they just run with whatever sounds good until they get bored with it or something more entertaining comes along. Once a pseudo-scandal ceases to be useful, it doesn't really go away forever -- Free Republic commenters will reference it until the end of time -- but most people just sort of forget about it shortly after Megyn Kelly stops mentioning it." Photo: Salon.com

Free Trade Won't Cure Unemployment
Paul Krugman writes for Krugman and Co. via Truthout: "Now that there seems to be no hope of using reasonable fiscal policy to fix the United States's economy, I've been hearing a different idea lately: that trade can be a driver of economic recovery. Namely, the suggestion that the trade proposal South Korea and the United States recently agreed on can serve as a form of macroeconomic policy. Um, no. The problem in the United States is insufficient spending on American-produced goods and services - that is, a lack of demand."

Corporate America's Plan to Loot Our Pensions Is the Latest Battle in Decades-Long Assault on the Middle Class

Arun Gupta reports for AlterNet: "The severe economic crisis, now in its fourth year, is being used to batter the remnants of the social welfare state. Having decimated aid to the poor over the last 30 years, especially in the United States, the economic and political elite are now intent on strangling middle-class benefits, namely state-provided pensions, health care and education."  Image: AlterNet

SEC Describes Possible Criminal Activity in Unprosecuted Hedge Fund Case
Adam Zagorin and Michael Smallberg report for the Project on Government Oversight: "The Obama administration has stated it will aggressively go after Wall Street criminals, but is the government letting two defendants off easy? But what [the Obama administration has not] highlighted is a major case involving Pequot Capital Management, once the world’s largest hedge fund, and alleged insider trading in shares of Microsoft."

Where Things Stand: Foreclosure Paperwork Scandal
Marian Wang reports for ProPublica: "Some struggling homeowners are currently getting a temporary reprieve from foreclosure sales and evictions during the holiday season, but that doesn't mean all foreclosure cases have stopped moving through the courts -- and it doesn't mean we're done covering the developments in the foreclosure scandal either. Here's where things stand..."

Book Review: The Great American Stickup, by Robert Scheer

John Reimann comments for the Daily Censored: "After the mid-term elections, President Obama made a further turn to the right in part in an attempt to placate the right wing populists. Many supporters, including critical supporters, of Obama were somewhat shocked at. They shouldn’t have been, and if they’d read Robert Scheer’s “The Great American Stickup” maybe they would have been better prepared. Scheer’s book is a fairly detailed history of how the “financial services” industry – finance capital – integrated itself with the federal government. Reagan and then Bush Sr. had popularized the idea of deregulation, but it wasn’t until the 90s, first under President Clinton, that finance capital really came into its own in terms of political control. The main blow in this realm was the repeal of the Glass-Steagal Act. This Depression-era law established certain limits on what banks could do. The main limitation was the separation of banks into commercial and investment banks. Only the former held accounts from customers that were insured by the federal government. In return, they were forbidden from certain of the more risky investment practices that investment banks could engage in."

Social Security's Future at Risk With New Tax Deal

Jonathan Battaglia and Robert Weiner comment for The Palm Beach Post: "Under the radar screen, the new tax deal is threatening the livelihood of America's present and future seniors - to line the pockets of millionaires. If made permanent, a new Social Security 'payroll tax holiday,' reducing the 'match' employers pay from 6 percent to 4 percent of salary, will drop the solvency of the program 14 years, from 2037 to 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. At the same time, Congress agreed to increase high-end loopholes in the estate tax, exempting 39,000 estates worth as much as $5 million."

Beyond WikiLeaks: The Privatization of War
Jose L. Gomez de Prado reports for UN Working Group on Mercenaries via Truthout: "Human rights violations perpetrated by private military and security companies are indications of the threat posed to the foundations of democracy when inherently public functions - such as the monopoly on the legitimate use of force - become privatized."

$385 Million TSA Program Fails to Detect Terrorists

Matthew Harwood provides the followign analysis for Truthout: "Even though the TSA failed to carry out scientific testing of Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT), the TSA has allotted nearly $383 million to SPOT since 2007, rolling it out at 161 of 457 TSA-regulated airports. Despite this considerable investment, the agency didn't even perform a cost-benefit analysis on the pilot tests that began in 2003, according to the GAO.... Maybe the most damning evidence that SPOT doesn't work is that it has never identified a terrorist at an airport where the program has been implemented." Image: Troy Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: phunkstarr, Travelin' Librarian, Joshua Davis

Nearly One In Nine Federal Judgeships Are Now Vacant
Ian Millhiser reports for Think Progress: "The Senate adjourned earlier this week, even though it confirmed only half of the 38 judicial nominees awaiting a vote on the Senate floor. And the overwhelming majority of the blocked nominees cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee without a single negative vote."

EPA Presents Plan on Greenhouse Gases. Can Next Congress Stop It?
Mark Clayton reports for the Christian Science Monitor: "Setting the stage for a New Year battle royale between Congress and the White House over greenhouse gas emissions, the US Environmental Protection Agency Thursday laid out a timetable for the nation's largest carbon emitters – power plants and refineries – to begin curbing those pollutants."

Help Stop Destruction of the Free Internet Now

Elliot D. Cohen writes for Truthdig.com: "The recent Federal Communications Commission decision to “protect” net neutrality was long awaited by activists, but it turned out to be smoke and mirrors, catering largely to service providers such as Comcast and AT&T. What is needed now is a collective movement by all Internet users throughout the world, not just the relative few who have been fighting on our behalf, to stop the demise of Internet freedom before it’s too late." Photo: AP / Matt Rourke

The Art Of “Kicking The Can”—Uncertainty Rules When It Comes To Net Neutrality
Tim Wu writes for TechCrunch: "The new Net Neutrality rules put off most of the hard questions—but who does that help and hurt? When government faces a tough decision, it has three options: “Aye,” “Nay,” or “Kay”—“Kick the Can.” Postponement is attractive, and the Obama administration’s 2010 Net Neutrality rule has transformed can-kicking, the traditional domain of small children, into an art form. In its rule the FCC has successfully put off almost all of the hard Net Neutrality questions that have been buzzing around since 2000 or so. It is a remarkable feat to write a rule that actually creates more uncertainty than no rule, but by golly, the agency has done it."

Is This the Beginning of the End for the Open Internet?
John Naughton comments for The Guardian: "Readers with long memories will recall the celebrated Schleswig-Holstein question. This referred to a bundle of thorny diplomatic and other issues arising from the relations of two duchies, Schleswig and Holstein, to the Danish crown and to the German Confederation. It was the bane of diplomats' lives in the late 19th century, but we remember it nowadays mainly because of Lord Palmerston's famous wisecrack about it. 'The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated,' he said, 'that only three men in Europe have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead. The second was a German professor who became mad. I am the third and I have forgotten all about it.'"

New Report Exposes Media Love Affair with Right-Wingers and the Fox News Worldview: 'Reporters Can't Get Enough'
Joshua Holland reports for AltertNet: "Forget about fake moon landings and Obama's birth certificate. The most enduring unfounded conspiracy theory in America is that our institutions of knowledge – the media, the academy and even science -- are biased in favor of liberals.  The national media is based in large urban centers, so it should come as no surprise that conservatives would rarely see their views on strictly social issues well represented. But on matters of substance, we are talking about a corporate-owned media that pushes relentlessly for "free trade" deals, foreign wars and fiscal "austerity."

Clippings for 11 November 2010

Recommended Audio: Obama and the World

The Nation hosted its thirteenth annual cruise this year, a chance for readers to meet Nation editors and writers and engage in a week-long progressive brainstorming session while enjoying the pleasures of sun and sea.

In a panel discussion moderated by Katrina vanden Heuvel entitled "Obama and the World: Is There a New National Security Policy?" Lt. General Robert Gard and Nation writers Jeremy Scahill, Stephen Cohen and John Nichols discuss how far Obama has diverted from his promise to end the culture of fear that led the US into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Instead, as the panelists discuss in detail, foreign policy isn't that different today from what it was during the Bush years—if anything, Obama has increased secrecy around issues like torture and targeted killings abroad, and has expanded the power of government to spy on US citizens.

Listen for more on how the war in Iraq is over in name only, the danger of a new Cold War on the horizon and what kind of real change we should be demanding on the foreign policy front.
Download MP3 file.

Wall Street Wins Again
Nomi Prins writes for Truthdig.com: "The Republicans may have stormed the House, but it was Wall Street and the Fed that won the election. Regardless of party power plays and posturing, there are two constants that remain unaltered after the election. First, Wall Street will continue on with business as usual while shifting its campaign and lobbying dollars to the new winning team. And second, the Fed will keep on pretending to prop up the economy by buying more U.S. debt, thereby keeping interest rates low, the dollar weak and money cheap for the banking system to inhale. This fictional boosting of the financial economy, absent the real boosting of the general economy, will march on sans debate, inspection or restriction."

Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs Simpson And Bowles Release Eye-Popping Recommendations

Megan Carpentier reports for Talking Points Memo: "The White House's fiscal commission's co-chairs, Erskine Bowles and former-Sen. Alan Simpson today released their draft recommendations on how to reduce the country's budget deficit. But while the deficit, writ large, proved a potent political issue during the election season, the tough medicine recommended by Bowles and Simpson is likely to be met with more than a few raised eyebrows." Photo: Newcomzumawire

Is the Deficit Commission Serious?
Kevin Drum writes for Mother Jones: "I've been trying to figure out whether I have anything to say about the "chairman's mark" of the deficit commission report that was released today. In a sense, I don't. This is not a piece of legislation, after all. Or a proposed piece of legislation. Or even a report from the deficit commission itself. It's just a draft presentation put together by two guys. Do you know how many deficit reduction proposals are out there that have the backing of two guys? Thousands. Another one just doesn't matter."

The Coming War on Health Reform, Government Cheese, and how CPCs Incubate Anti-Choice Violence

Lindsay Beyerstein writes for Media Consortium: "Republicans don’t have the votes to repeal health care reform, but they are determined to use their newly-won control of the House to fight it every step of the way. Marilyn Werber Serafini gives Truthout readers a sneak-peek at the GOP playbook to attack healthcare reform in 2011."

Fiscal Commission Recommendations: VA Co-Pays, Top Tax Rate 23%
David Dayen writesf ro FireDogLake: "OK, here’s the draft document for the cat food commission co-chair’s mark. In addition, there’s a page with specific “illustrative cuts”, $100 billion in domestic spending and $100 billion in military spending. Between the two, you can get a sense of what Bowles and Simpson have planned. Keep in mind that this is more of a shock doctrine document than a blueprint; they have no support on the commission for all this, and they’re trying to gather it with this early release."

Recommended Audio: NPR - Deficit Panel Pushes Cuts To Social Security

The president's bipartisan deficit commission released some draft recommendations on Wednesday to bring the nation's debt under control. The preliminary report calls for cuts in domestic and military spending, reduction for some future Social Security recipients, and an overhaul of the tax code. Host Melissa Block talks to NPR's Mara Liasson about the draft report. Download here.

ACTION ALERT: Hell, No! Tell President Obama and His Catfood Commission: Hands off Social Security

Michael Whitney writes for FireDogLake: "Social Security cuts are coming for 'virtually every American alive and those yet to be born,' in the words of Eric Kingson, co-chair of the Strengthen Social Security Campaign. And for what? Corporate tax cuts. Seriously: the co-chairs of President Obama’s deficit commission want to cut Social Security benefits for everyone making more than $25,000 a year. And then cap corporate taxes at just 26%. Every member of this commission, every member of Congress, and President Obama himself must reject these insane ideas. We’re starting an emergency petition to President Obama, and his Catfood Commission to take Social Security cuts off the table.
Sign our petition to President Obama and his Catfood Commission: hands off Social Security. Click here to add your name.

Measuring America--New Book Presents Current Data on the American Human Development Index

Paul Rosenberg writes for Open Left: "Back in July 2009, I wrote a diary, "The Human Development Index--A Better Measure Of Where We Stand".   It was a response to an entry in the NY Times Economix blog, "Going Back in Time: Progress, or Lack Thereof, Around the Country" by Kristen Lewis and Sarah Burd-Sharps, co-directors of the American Human Development Project.  Today,  Kristen Lewis and Sarah Burd-Sharps have a new book coming out, The Measure of America 2010-2011: Mapping Risks and Resilience.  There's a truly overwhelming amount of information in this book, I'm only going to be able to give you a small of taste of what it contains here."

Recommended Audio: Majority Report Radio - Sam Seder on Blue Dog Democrats

 Download

On Today’s Show: Sam Seder slams Blue Dogs and their water carriers (like Matt Bai) and their establishment buddies (like Lawrence O’Donnell).

Americans Aren't Buying the GOP Agenda
Katrina vanden Heuvel comments in the Washington Post: "In the wake of the election, conservatives are full of advice for President Obama. The "unmistakable message" of the election, says presumptive House Speaker John Boehner, is "change course," and that begins by cutting spending and lowering taxes. The election, writes a dyspeptic George F. Will, was 'nationwide recoil against Barack Obama's idea of unlimited government.' A rational and alarmed American majority, says Will, believed that 'government commands and controls' were 'superseding and suffocating the creativity of a market society's spontaneous order.'"

Certified Right-Wing Extremists Set to Take Control of House Foreign Affairs Panels
Alexander Main writes for Truthout: "In the early years of the past decade, two hard-line cold warriors, closely associated with radical Cuban exile groups in Florida, occupied strategic positions in the US foreign policy machine. Otto Reich, former head of the Reagan administration's covert propaganda operations in Central America, and Roger Noriega, co-author of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, took turns running the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and held other influential administration posts such as ambassador to the Organization of American States and White House Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere."

As Deportations Increase, So Have Officials’ Attempts to Deport the Wrong People
Marian Wang reports for ProPublica: "As deportations have increased under the Obama administration, immigration judges have also increasingly denied requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport people who were legitimately entitled to stay in the country [1], according to new data obtained by Syracuse University’s Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse."

New Shipping Lanes in Melting Arctic Will Accelerate Global Warming

Lisa Song reports for Solve Climate: "In the next few decades, a warming Arctic will open up shorter shipping routes, potentially reducing the amount of fuel needed to travel between ports. But the increased amount of soot in the atmosphere could further accelerate the region's climate change, and the shorter distances won't generate enough fuel savings to offset the impact. Those are the key findings of a recent study published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. This new study is the first systematic analysis of how Arctic shipping could affect local climate."

What's Abstinence Got to do With Degrading Single-Parent Families?
Brigitte Amiri, Reproductive Freedom Project, and Tricia Herzfeld, ACLU of Tennessee, write on the ACLU Blog of Rights: "Mom, am I more likely to go to jail because you and Dad aren't married?" Imagine your sixth grader coming home and asking you that question after being taught family life in school. That's what happened to Caroleigh Heaton in Maryville, Tennessee. Ms. Heaton contacted us, and we obtained the abstinence-only-until-marriage program used throughout the Maryville school district. We found that in addition to withholding vital information that kids need to make healthy decisions about sex, the program also advanced questionable "facts" that implied that children from single-parent homes — especially homes without a father — were doomed to a lower rate of success than their classmates from two-parent homes. The program emphasized that kids from fatherless homes were significantly more likely to exhibit behavioral disorders, drop-out of school or go to prison.

The Anti-Abortion Clinic Across the Street

Kathryn Joyce writes for Ms. Magazine: "The deceptive tactics of many of the country's CPCs - which are estimated to total between 2,300 and 4,000 centers nationwide - have been well-documented: They often mislead women about whether they perform abortions, mimicking the style or names of abortion clinics and operating in close proximity to them. Some provide misinformation about women's pregnancy status or due date, or suggest unproven links between abortion and cancer, infertility or suicide. Yet despite these fraudulent practices, CPCs have received millions in funding from both federal and state coffers."

Sources: Pentagon Group Finds There Is Minimal Risk to Lifting Gay Ban During War
Ed O'Keefe and Greg Jaffe report for the Washington Post: "A Pentagon study group has concluded that the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, according to two people familiar with a draft of the report, which is due to President Obama on Dec. 1."

How will We Know When the Internet Is Dead?
Matthew Lasar writes for Ars Technica: "Are we moving towards two Internets? Or are we devolving towards an Internet along with something that superficially resembles the 'Net, but isn't? A small battalion of noted broadband engineers, developers, and academics have sent the Federal Communications Commission a thank you letter for simply noticing this dichotomy—an "open" version of cyberspace that treats all packets equally, versus an emergent space where ISPs will spawn a range of priority accessed products that the agency calls 'specialized services.'"

Bogus Neutrality Story Highlights Very Broken U.S. Press: Verizon talking point travels the world, nobody bothers to fact check
Karl Bode comments for Broadband/DSLReports.com: "As we mentioned the other day, Scott Cleland, a paid PR representative for major ISPs including AT&T and Verizon, began spreading a talking point claiming that network neutrality was the reason so many people lost recent elections. Cleland's "evidence" was that every politician that signed a recent pledge to network neutrality by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) lost their race. The talking point quickly circulated around countless major news outlets as truth, despite the fact that if you actually looked at voting results and other "pledges," it was perfectly clear that neutrality had little to nothing to do with election losses."

Comcast Control of NBC Will Add $2 Billion to Consumers' Bills, Group Says
Todd Shields reports for Bloomberg: "Comcast Corp.’s purchase of NBC Universal would add at least $2.4 billion to consumers’ pay- television bills over nine years because the combined company would gain power to raise prices, a cable-industry group said today. The enlarged Comcast might demand that customers pay more for NBC programming, and charge more in markets where it has a regional sports network, the American Cable Association said in an e-mailed news release. The Pittsburgh-based group says it represents almost 900 small- and medium-sized cable companies."

Clippings for 10 October 2010

10-10-10: Slavery and Climate Change

Mark Hertsgaard writes for The Nation: "From the standpoint of human survival, it makes no sense: our media and political systems are losing focus on climate change long before the problem is solved—indeed, while it manifestly continues to get worse. You can help change that on October 10. That's the date of a Global Work Party intended to celebrate climate solutions and press governments for change. Some 4,483 actions (and counting) are planned in 174 countries, says Jamie Henn of 350.org, one of the groups coordinating the event. "To build a grassroots movement that can challenge Big Oil and deliver real climate action, we need to root that movement in community solutions to the climate crisis," says Henn. 'By making climate solutions real and visible, we can build broader support for the type of transformation we need.'" Photo: 350.org

Unemployment at 9.6 Percent: Largest Cuts in Local Government Jobs in 30 Years

David Rosnick reports for The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "The economy lost 95,000 jobs in September - 77,000 of which were temporary Census positions - while the unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent. Including downward revisions in payroll employment for July and August, there are 110,000 fewer jobs than reported one month ago. Though the overall rate of unemployment did not change in September, different populations were not similarly affected by employment changes." Photo: Philo Nordlund / Flickr

DOJ's Troubled Case Against Uthman
Dafna Linzer reports for ProPublica: "A security mishap in court filings earlier this year led to the accidental release of the government's case against Uthman, one of the 48 men the Obama administration plans to keep imprisoned.... Until now, it has not been possible to assess the strength of the government's case against the detainees because the identity of the witnesses and other evidence has been redacted. But this examination, based on reviews of previous judicial opinions and court filings, as well as interviews with senior government officials, former military prosecutors, intelligence officials and other key players makes clear for the first time the extent of the weaknesses in the evidence."

Judge to US: Yes, Really, Torture is Illegal
Karen Greenberg reports for Mother Jones: "Finally, it seemed, the moment had arrived. The jury pool had been whittled down to 65, the final voir dire was set to begin, and lawyers on both sides were ready with their opening statements. Anticipation was high, and so, clearly, was nervousness. For the first time in more than a year of pretrial hearings, security held the press and observers on the ground floor of the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Anyone who took the elevator to the 26th floor without clearance from the US Marshalls was turned away."

Broken Promises: Thousands of Veterans Denied Crucial Care
Mike Ludwig reports for Truthout: "The Army tacked a five-month extension on Sgt. Ryan Christian Major's term of military service in 2006, and that November, just five days after his original discharge date, Ryan was critically injured when an underground bomb exploded during a foot patrol in Ramadi, Iraq.... For many Americans, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is startling: more than $1 trillion has been spent on the conflicts. At least 5,670 service members have been killed, and 91,384 have been wounded in conflict or evacuated from the war zone for treatment of wounds or illnesses. But for soldiers like Ryan and their families, the true costs of war cannot be summed up with numbers printed on a page. They have paid a price higher than most Americans can imagine, and now veterans' advocates say Congress and the government is in no way prepared to compensate them for their effort and sacrifice."

'Saving' Social Security from Its Previous Rescue

Jim Naureckas writes for Extra!: "Way back in 1983, corporate media helped sell the dubious notion that Social Security needed saving by a blue-ribbon commission (Extra!, 1–2/88). The panel—headed by future Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan—raised payroll taxes and the retirement age for the ostensible purpose of accumulating a large surplus to help finance the retirement of the baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. That this surplus, loaned to the general federal budget in exchange for Treasury bonds, would also help to finance the Reagan-era tax cuts for affluent taxpayers was treated as a complete coincidence."

How Immigration Reform Got Caught in the Deportation Dragnet

Seth Freed Wessler reports for ColorLines: "When President Obama entered the White House, he promised to push a 'comprehensive immigration reform' bill in his first year. Doing so, he apparently calculated, would require a compromise. To garner bi-partisan support for opening new paths to citizenship for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the US, the president, congressional Democrats and key Beltway advocates came together around a troubling political strategy: They would endorse a hawkish buildup of deportation and border security in hopes of creating space for broader reforms.... Almost two years into the Obama presidency, however, no bi-partisan support for a broader bill has emerged from this hawkishness - in fact, the few Republicans who once backed immigration reform have fled. Worse, the Democrats' would-be political trading game conceals a larger, more troubling fact: Even if the strategy eventually works, the 'comprehensive' schema Obama supports will undermine itself with its massive and indiscriminate deportation dragnet." Photo: Erin Hollaway 

Lou Dobbs, American Hypocrite
Isabel Macdonald reports for The Nation: "In Lou Dobbs's heyday at CNN, when he commanded more than 800,000 viewers and a reported $6 million a year for "his fearless reporting and commentary," in the words of former CNN president Jonathan Klein, the host became notorious for his angry rants against "illegal aliens." But Dobbs reserved a special venom for the employers who hire them, railing against "the employer who is so shamelessly exploiting the illegal alien and so shamelessly flouting US law" and even proposing, on one April 2006 show, that "illegal employers who hire illegal aliens" should face felony charges."

Recommended Audio: Media Matters - An Interview with Senator Bernie Sanders

Sunday, September 23 - Bob McChesney interviews Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on WILL AM580. Bernie Sanders was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. He is the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history. Listen to McChesney and Senator Sanders talk about the American political climate and call to comment.  Download MP3 file.

The Chamber's Foreign Influence
Faiz Shakir, Benjamin Armbruster, George Zornick, Zaid Jilani, Alex Seitz-Wald, and Tanya Somanader write the Progress Report for Think Progress: "Following the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in January, the right-wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce has taken record-breaking steps to influence the 2010 midterm elections. Pledging to spend an unprecedented $75 million this year, the Chamber is in the midst of launching one of the largest partisan attack campaigns to defeat Democrats, including candidates like Jack Conway (KY), Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA), Jerry Brown (CA), Rep. Joe Sestak (PA) and  Rep. Tom Perriello (VA). Having aired more than 8,000 campaign ads on behalf of GOP Senate candidates alone and having spent 85 percent of its current expenditure on Republicans, the Chamber's spending has "dwarfed every other issue group and most political party candidate committee spending." It is well-established that the Chamber has used dues from corporations like health insurance giant Aetna to try to defeat health care reform, received contributions from bailed-out banks to lobby against Wall Street reform, and solicited funds from Fox News' parent company News Corporation for its election season attack campaign. But a new ThinkProgress investigation reveals that the Chamber is leveraging foreign companies to help fund its activities. Foreign corporations that join the Chamber pay dues that go into the Chamber's general account, which the Chamber then employs to fund its attack campaign. The Chamber "firmly denies the charge, saying its internal accounting rules prevent any foreign money from being used for political purposes." But, as a New York Times editorial notes today, foreign money is fungible, so "it is impossible for an outsider to know whether the group is following its rules." "We want to know what the system is. Basically, they claim they have a system, it's not enough to simply trust them, we need to verify," said ThinkProgress' Editor-in-Chief Faiz Shakir on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews yesterday. While Congressional members and watchdog groups are calling for further investigation into the charges, such campaign actions fall into "something of a regulatory netherworld" leading campaign finance watchdogs, lawyers, and current and former federal officials to believe regulatory agencies like the IRS or the FEC will not examine them closely. Thus, with the Citizens United ruling and the Chamber's abuse of its 501(c)(6) standing, the Chamber is set to use 'unlimited money from donors who have no fear of disclosure.'" 

Recommended Audio: Rachel Maddow - Campaign Finance Reform We Can Agree on
Rachel Maddow addresses the concern about The Chamber of Commerce's donations to Republican candidates and the potential for foreign influence in American elections.



Conservatives Redefine the Abuse of Power

Adam Serwer writes for The Americna Prospect: "Liberals and conservatives love to accuse each other of shredding the Constitution while the other is in power. "The Pledge to America," the GOP's much maligned attempt at a governing agenda, begins by decrying "an unchecked executive, a compliant legislature, and an overreaching judiciary." What's interesting about this round of accusations from the right is that they ignore the very real abuses of power the Obama administration has carried over from the Bush administration in favor of mindless attacks on the administration's efforts to expand -- or even just maintain -- the welfare state."  Photo: Flickr/fibonacciblue

GoolsbeeGate: The GOP's Latest Obama "Scandal"
David Corn writes for Mother Jones: "If the Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives in the coming congressional elections, Americans can expect to see subpoenas flying like pigeons around Washington next year. Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican likely to take over the House oversight committee, has pledged that if the GOPers win the House, he will double the size of his staff in order to mount multiple investigations of the Obama White House. But will these be real probes or trumped-up witch hunts? A taste of what's to come can be found in the Republicans' current effort to whip up an Obama scandal: GoolsbeeGate."

Recommended Audio: Morning Joe - Ari Berman on How to Revamp the Democratic Party

Howard Dean helped the Democrats take control of the House in 2006, and his 50 state strategy laid the groundwork for Obama's exhaustive grassroots campaign.  So why is he out of the picture in Washington these days? Ari Berman talks with the hosts of Morning Joe about his new book, Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics, why the right manages to harness their movements better than the left and what it will take to revitalize the Democratic Party.



5 GOP Candidates Who Want to Force Rape Victims to Bear Their Attacker's Child
Tana Ganeva reports for AlterNet: "The GOP has always pandered to the right-wing base by promising to strip women of the right to control their own bodies. In the interest of not alienating sane people though, many Republican lawmakers make an exception in cases of incest and rape, and when a mother's life is in danger. But a group of ultra-conservative Republican Senate candidates -- recently propelled to victory in the primaries by Tea Party groups who claim to oppose government intrusion into people's lives -- want the government to force women to carry fetuses to term, even in cases of incest or rape. Rachel Maddow, in her show on Wednesday night, called this group the 'Bear Your Rapist's Baby Caucus.' According to Raw Story, at least 78 GOP candidates for the House would qualify for this extreme voting bloc.

Boon? or Bust?

David Norlin writes for the Kansas Free Press: ""Boon!"  was the headline for Tim Unruh's Salina Journal piece Sunday, Sept. 26.  It laid out how Clay Center (and Herington, Junction City, Abilene, and many others) are laying out the welcome mat for TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline.  Count the benefits:  Bud's Tire service sales tripling, with guaranteed overstock buyout/bailout; referrals for boat sales, doctors, and dentists; full restaurants; swelling campground rentals; pipeline spouses as public service volunteers; pump station/power generation cash cutting Clay Center's electric rates "up to" twenty percent; six million dollars for a 14.5-mile transmission line; and most heart-warmingly, 1,000 charity bucks from TransCanada and 500 from the pipeline company for Clay Center's Orchestra, which just lost funding from the Kansas Arts Commission. "

Tribal Councils in US and Canada Uniting Against Oil Sands Pipeline
Elizabeth McGowan reports for SolveClimate: "Indigenous communities in Canada and the United States are singing the same tune in opposition to TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline. Last week, representatives from Canada's First Nations traveled to Washington, D.C., to explain how mining of tar sands for heavy crude oil is causing severe health problems and environmental upheaval across their communities. They've also joined forces with Native American groups in the U.S., calling on tribal councils along the Keystone XL's route to come out against the proposed pipeline."

Follow Wyoming on Fracking Regs
David Sirota writes for Truthdig.com: "Frank Sinatra once said that if he could make it in New York, he could make it anywhere. Thanks to new drilling rules, environmentalists can now say the same about Wyoming. To review: Wyoming is as politically red and pro-fossil-fuel a place as exists in America. Nicknamed the “Cowboy State” for its hostility to authority, the square swath of rangeland most recently made headlines when its tax department temporarily suspended levies at gun shows for fear of inciting an armed insurrection. The derrick-scarred home of oilman Dick Cheney, the state emits more carbon emissions per capita than any other, and is as close as our country gets to an industry-owned energy colony. So, to put it mildly, Wyoming is not known for its activist government or its embrace of green policies."

Against 'Bullying' or On Loving Queer Kids

Richard Kim comments for The Nation: "When I read that 18-year-old Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi had committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge after two other students posted a video of him having sex with another man online, my heart dropped. Tyler grew up in New Jersey and played the violin, and I did too. I don't know what life was like for Tyler before he chose to end it, but my early high school years were spent improvising survival strategies. I mentally plotted the corridors where the jocks hung out and avoided them. I desperately tried to never go to the bathroom during the school day. I was Asian and gay, stood 5'2", weighed 95 pounds and when I got excited about something—which was often—my voice cracked into a register normally only heard among Hannah Montana fans. If it weren't for the fact that I ran really fast and talked even faster and enjoyed the protection of a few popular kids and a couple of kind-hearted teachers—well, it's not hard to imagine a similar fate."

How the Phone Companies Are Screwing America: The $320 Billion Broadband Rip-Off
David Rosen and Bruce Kushnick report for AlterNet: "Since 1991, the telecom companies have pocketed an estimated $320 billion --- that's about $3,000 per household. This is a conservative estimate of the wide-scale plunder that includes monies garnered from hidden rate hikes, depreciation allowances, write-offs and other schemes. Ironically, in 2009, the FCC's National Broadband plan claimed it will cost about $350 billion to fully upgrade America's infrastructure. The principal consequence of the great broadband con is not only that Americans are stuck with an inferior and overpriced communications system, but the nation's global economic competitiveness has been undermined."

Web of Dependency: The Thin New Line

Randall Amster J.D. Ph.D., comments for Truthout: "In just a few short years, it has become increasingly apparent that humankind is fast approaching a technological tipping point. Particularly in the West - the First World, the Developed Nations, or whatever self-consciously superlative designation you prefer - a thoroughgoing dependence on 'high technology' for life-sustaining essentials is evident in all spheres of modern society. The hardware of our lives, from food and energy to transportation and shelter, is entirely bound up with the workings of a highly mechanized and digitized global economy. And no less so, the software of our existence - communications, community, entertainment, education, media, politics, and the like - is equally entwined within that same technocratic system." Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Joseph Hatfield, 96dpi

Do ISPs Pay Minorities to Oppose Net Neutrality?
Gred Sandoval report for CNET: "The Los Angeles Times has raised questions about the financial relationship between some large telecommunications companies and influential minority groups. According to the report, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon Communications have poured big money into the coffers of such groups as the League of United Latin American Citizens, the National Urban League, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People."

Group: Merger Should Include Public Affairs Programming Support
Juliana Gruenwald writes for the National Journal: "A union representing online, film and television writers Wednesday called on federal regulators if they approve the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal to require the combine company to donate at least $10 million a year for a decade to support public affairs programming on television and online. In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the Writers Guild of America East said it hopes the commission and the Justice Department will block the proposed merger. But if regulators approve the deal, the combined company should "contribute significant resources to the production of truly independent content," the guild said.

Right-Wing Tilt on Sunday Morning: The conservative records of talking-head lawmakers

Jim Naureckas and Alyssa Figueroa write for Extra!: "Lawmakers talking about U.S. policy issues are the bread and butter of the Sunday morning news shows—NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday. An Extra! study of the lawmakers who appear on these shows finds they have voting records that tilt to the right. Extra! studied the guests on these four programs from January 25, 2009—the first show after Obama’s inauguration—until April 25, 2010, more than a year into his administration. Guests who were current members of the Senate or House of Representatives, or former members since 2001, were tallied by voting record (in the 111th Congress or, for former lawmakers, the most recent available) according to the VoteView system."

Ten Ways Your Mobile Phone Company Tried to Screw You in 2010
Josh Levy writes for the Huffington Post: "According to the Chinese calendar, it's the year of the Golden Tiger. But for mobile users in the US, 2010 is the Year Wireless Carriers Tried to Screw You.  Don't think the phone companies' actions warrant their own year? Check out how they've systematically conned consumers using hidden fees, self-imposed hardware limitations, restricted speech, and the mangling of perfectly good software."

AT and T: No One Can Stop Our "Paid Prioritization"
Nate Anderson reports for Ars Technia: The "paid prioritization" train is leaving the station, and not even the FCC's drive to "reclassify" Internet services as limited common carriers can derail it. Net neutrality advocates, incensed when AT&T's predecessor first suggested the need to charge some Internet companies for "using his pipes free," won't be pleased to hear that AT&T won't let such deals be halted by the FCC. Even if Chairman Genachowski succeeds in bringing ISPs under "Title II"—a prospect that looks increasingly unlikely—AT&T says it will have no effect on its ability to charges companies more for priority Internet access."

Clippings for 7 September 2010

A Labor Day Commitment to the Common Good

Jim Hightower, Truthout: "America's corporate chieftains must love poor people, for they're doing all they can to create millions more of them. ... This Labor Day, we see corporate executives and their politicians relentlessly dismantling that framework, piece by piece - and we see the middle class disappearing and poverty rising with each dismantled piece. But as labor icon Joe Hill said just before he was executed by Utah authorities for his unionizing activities, 'Don't mourn, organize.' It's time for working families to organize again for the revitalization of the middle class."

1938 in 2010
Paul Krugman writes for the New York Times: "Here’s the situation: The U.S. economy has been crippled by a financial crisis. The president’s policies have limited the damage, but they were too cautious, and unemployment remains disastrously high. More action is clearly needed. Yet the public has soured on government activism, and seems poised to deal Democrats a severe defeat in the midterm elections."

Why 100,000 Jobs a Month Won't Lower Unemployment Rate

Mark Trumbull writes for the Christian Science Monitor: "Stock investors cheered Friday because the latest monthly jobs report wasn't terrible. But the big issue remains: Even if you set aside the temporary impact of downsizing at the Census Bureau, the economy isn't generating nearly enough new jobs to bring down the US unemployment rate.  Here's the problem. August marked the eighth straight month of job gains in the the private sector – a welcome pattern that President Obama was quick to highlight. Yet those gains average less than 100,000 per month. That's not enough to improve the job market, economists say."

Unemployment Edges Up to 9.6 Percent as Weak Job Growth Continues
Dean Baker writes for The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "The unemployment rate edged up to 9.6 percent in August as the economy shed 54,000 jobs. The decline was entirely attributable to the loss of 114,000 temporary Census jobs. Excluding these jobs, the economy created 60,000 jobs. With job growth for the prior two months revised up by 123,000, excluding the Census jobs, the August pace is roughly even with June and July."

10 Ways to Solve the Jobs Problem
Fran Korten writes for YES! Magazine: "As the midterm political season heats up, one word on every politician's lips is 'jobs.' And for good reason. People are hurting - they can't pay their mortgages, send their kids to college, pay their dental bills. Young people are wondering if they have a place in the work world … So - imagine a no-holds-barred 'summit' that comes up with ideas to solve both our job and environmental problems. What might it come up with?"

How Ruthless Banks Gutted the Black Middle Class and Got Away With It
Devona Walker reports for AlterNet: "The American middle class has been hammered over the last several decades. The black middle class has suffered to an even greater degree. But the single most crippling blow has been the real estate and foreclosure crisis. It has stripped black families of more wealth than any single event in U.S. history. Due entirely to subprime loans, black borrowers are expected to lose between $71 billion and $92 billion."

The Great Jobs Depression Worsens, and the Choice Ahead Grows Starker

Robert Reich comments on Robert Reich's Blog: "The number of Americans willing and able to work but who cannot find a job hasn't stopped growing since the start of 2008. All told, about 22 million Americans are now jobless. Add in those who are working part-time who'd rather be working full time, and we're up to 25 million … It is not that America is out of ideas. We know what to do…The problem is lack of political will to do it."

We're Being Conned on Social Security
Joshua Holland writes for AlterNet: "Allow me to take a moment to fix that whole 'Social Security crisis' that has everyone in Washington gnashing their teeth. When you see how easily it's done, you may begin to realize that whenever our elites start chattering about 'tax-gaps,' they're almost certainly trying to rip you off - making a slick grab for something to which you are, ultimately, 'entitled.' But why stop there? Why play defense? After we fix the program, why don't we increase Social Security benefits?"

Social Security Under Attack

Faiz Shakir, Benjamin Armbruster, Zaid Jilani, Alex Seitz-Wald, Tanya Somanader, Pat Garofalo, and George Zornick write the Progress Report for Think Progress: "This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Social Security Act, and despite its standing as arguably the most successful social program in the country's history, Social Security has come under assault from a variety of Republican lawmakers and candidates. In his 'Roadmap for America's Future,' Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking member on the House Budget Committee, suggested privatizing the program, along the lines of the plan proposed by former President Bush in 2005. Florida's Republican Senate nominee Marco Rubio has said 'proposals that have to be talked about' include raising the retirement age and cutting benefits for younger workers. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) said she simply wants to 'wean everybody off' Social Security, while Nevada's Republican senate nominee Sharron Angle has called for it to be 'phased out.' Those launching the assault on Social Security are attempting to use the nation's budget deficit as an excuse to justify their desire to cut it. In fact, Alan Simpson, the Republican co-chair of President Obama's deficit commission, likened the program to 'a milk cow with 310 million tits.' But the arguments conservatives put forth for radically remaking a program that millions of Americans depend on are incredibly thin, especially given Social Security's relatively sound fiscal condition, which ensures its availability for decades. Here is a rundown of the three conservative views for reforming Social Security and why they all fail to pass the laugh test."

The Cry for Democratic Moral Leadership and Effective Communication
George Lakoff comments for Truthout: "If you have not read Drew Westin's outstanding piece "What Created the Populist Explosion and How Democrats Can Avoid the Shrapnel in November" on The Huffington Post, AlterNet, and other venues, read it immediately. Westin states as eloquently and forcefully as anyone what he, I, and other progressives have been saying from the beginning of the Obama administration. I agree fully with everything he says. But ... Westin's piece is incomplete in crucial ways. His piece can be read as saying that this election is about kitchen table economics (right) and only kitchen table economics (wrong)."

Anti-intellectualism in America

Dan Weil writes for The Daily Censored: "George W. Bush liked to spout off and boast about how he did not like to read the newspaper or even read at all.  Sarah Palin could not tell a piece of literature from a Facebook blog.   Yet they all pretend that they somehow have received or earned some intellectual status as they banter about regarding race, culture, economics, war, and society.  Glenn Beck, for example, tells his audiences how well read he is when it comes to the ‘founding fathers’ of which he picks and chooses the sections that will help him distort historical reality.  Well, the news is these anti-intellectual, check-out at the register magazine frauds are not alone in both their disdain for intellectualism and their own heightened embrace of ant-intellectualism under the guise of wisdom and sagacious policy proposals."

Glenn Beck's George Washington Wopper

Stephanie Mencimer writes for Mother Jones: "During his much-ballyhooed "Restoring Honor" rally on Saturday, Glenn Beck told a whopper involving the founding father who was supposedly unable to tell a lie: George Washington. Speechifying at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, the controversial Fox News host highlighted the legacy of the nation's first president to drive home his claim that encouraging honesty and integrity was a main aim of the event. Beck even told attendees that 'the next George Washington' was 'in this crowd. He may be 8 years old, but this is the moment. This is the moment that he dedicates his life, that he sees giants around him. And 25 years from now, he will come not to this stair, but to those stairs. And he can proclaim, 'I have a new dream.''"  Photoillustration by Mario Piperni

Is BP Blackmailing the Feds?

Kate Sheppard writes for Mother Jones: "When the details on the deal between the federal government and BP to set up a $20 billion fund to compensate spill victims were released last month, I reported on concerns that the design of the fund might compromise its long-term viability and create a conflict of interest in cracking down on BP's misdeeds. The fund was designed in such a way that it basically hinges on keeping BP's Gulf-drilling subsidiary in production and turning a profit."

Gulf Oil Spill Puzzle: A Giant Piece Begins Long Rise to Surface
Patrik Jonsson reports for The Christian Science Monitor: "The mystery of why the massive blowout preventer at the heart of the Deepwater Horizon accident failed and caused the enormous Gulf oil spill is a step closer to being solved.... The blowout preventer is expected to become a key piece of evidence in several federal probes, including criminal investigations, to find out the cause of the spill."

Why Al Franken Was Right about Net Neutrality
Leslie Harris writes for the Huffington Post: "Last week Senator Al Franken made an important speech, calling Internet neutrality 'the First Amendment issue of our time.' If I had heard that claim a few years ago, I would have thought it verged on political hyperbole. But after reading the comments filed by major ISPs in the FCC's net neutrality proceeding, I think Franken is right. For many members of Congress net neutrality isn't a polling point heading into the November elections, but few other issues hold significance for the future of speech and the democratic exchange of ideas in this country."