Clippings for 15 February 2009

Trying to Revive the Bubble Economy: Obama's Awful Financial Recovery Plan
Michael Hudson writes for Counter Punch: "Martin Wolf started off his Financial Times column for February 11 with the bold question: 'Has Barack Obama’s presidency already failed?' The stock market had a similar opinion, plunging 382 points. Having promised 'change,' Mr. Obama is giving us more Clinton-Bush via Robert Rubin’s protégé, Tim Geithner. Tuesday’s $2.5 trillion Financial Stabilization Plan to re-inflate the Bubble Economy is basically an extension of the Bush-Paulson giveaway – yet more Rubinomics for financial insiders in the emerging Wall Street trusts. The financial system is to be concentrated into a cartel of just a few giant conglomerates to act as the economy’s central planners and resource allocators. This makes banks the big winners in the game of 'chicken' they’ve been playing with Washington, a shakedown holding the economy hostage. 'Give us what we want or we’ll plunge the economy into financial crisis.' Washington has given them $9 trillion so far, with promises now of another $2 trillion– and still counting."

The Stimulus Plan: A Detailed List of Spending
Michael Grabell and Christopher Weaver write for ProPublica: "The House approved the economic stimulus plan Friday afternoon with a vote of 246 to 183, followed by the Senate with a vote of 60 to 38. Want to know what's in it? You could read the 1,071-page gorilla that passed today. Or you could let us do the work for you. We’ve dissected the beast in two charts – one for spending below, and one for taxes. The appropriations section of the bill details spending in excess of $311 billion for programs ranging from Pell grants for college students to clean water in central Utah to nearly $100 billion in new transportation and infrastructure projects. "
More on the Stimulus Package:

• Download the Stimulus Bill
• Track the Stimulus (Decoder Ring Included!)
• The Stimulus Bills: House vs. Senate

Stimulus Bill Limits TARP Executive Pay
Paul Keil writes for ProPublic: "Top executives at banks that got money from the TARP will face stricter compensation limits thanks to the stimulus bill. That’s because tucked into the 1,071-page bill is a twelve-page section that goes much further than any limits imposed by the Bush administration or even contemplated by the Obama administration."

Economic Stimulus Bill Passes Without a Single Kansas Republican Vote
Our friends at KansasJackass writes: "At least they're predictable. Not a single Kansas Republican Member of Congress voted in favor of the economic stimulus bill as it achieved final approval yesterday. In fact, in the House, not a single Republican from anywhere voted for it for the second time, while three moderate Republicans in the Senate broke ranks and voted for final passage."

Schools Take the Back Seat Again
Derrick Z. Jackson comments for the Boston Globe: "Eight years ago, President Bush entered office with some bipartisan credibility on education, rightfully proclaiming that schoolchildren suffer from the soft bigotry of low expectations. He and the Republicans quickly discredited themselves with low federal funding for reform. So long was Washington anesthetized that the Democrats still seemed in a coma this week as Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the three moderates the Democrats desperately needed for the stimulus bill, stripped more than $40 billion in school construction and general aid to schools."

Report: Public Fears More Job Losses
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reports: "For the public, the continuing financial crisis has been overtaken by a jobs crisis. The proportion of Americans citing jobs or unemployment as the nation's most important economic problem has more than quadrupled - from 10% to 42% - since early October and job worries now far surpass concerns over the financial crisis."

Media Under Scrutiny for "Talking Up" Financial Crisis
Kathleen Moore reports for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: "In September 2007, the BBC broke a huge story: troubled bank Northern Rock was to get an emergency loan from Britain's central bank. The next day, anxious depositors queued up to withdraw their cash in the first run on a bank in Britain in around 150 years. One year later, during perhaps the most intense week in the credit crisis, Britain's Lloyds bank was reported to be in talks to buy its rival, HBOS. Shares in HBOS soared. These were among a series of major scoops that catapulted BBC reporter Robert Peston to national attention, and made financial journalists part of last year's biggest news story."

Dump the GOP
William Rivers Pitt comments for Truthout: "Former GOP Congressman Joe Scarborough was doing his MSNBC morning yak-fest on Friday, and made a comment about how President Obama's newly-finalized stimulus package has 'greatly offended Republicans.' His guests all agreed with solemnly nodding heads, yeah, you're right, Joe, Obama offended the Republicans. Greatly and stuff. This grim pronouncement came on the heels of GOP Sen. Judd Gregg's stunning announcement that he was withdrawing as Obama's nominee for commerce secretary. Citing irreconcilable differences between himself and the Obama administration on the stimulus bill as well as the upcoming census, Gregg said, 'The bottom line is, this was simply a bridge too far for me.'"

The Ultra-Radical Republicans
Robert Barry writes for Consortium News: "Sixteen years ago, when another new Democratic President was trying to enact an economic package, the Republicans were entrenched in opposition, too. But there was a striking difference between those Republicans and today’s: the 1993 Republicans still showed some respect for democracy. In the Senate, Minority Leader Bob Dole whipped 100 percent of his troops into line opposing President Bill Clinton’s “deficit reduction plan.” With the help of six Democrats, Dole managed to deny Clinton a majority on the bill and forced Vice President Al Gore to break the 50-50 tie."

World Social Forum: Is Another World Possible?
Tim Costello and Brendan Smith write for The Nation: "The recently concluded World Social Forum is a good gauge for assessing the state of the world's alternative social, economic and political movements. Organized in 2001 as a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum, the annual meeting of global and corporate elites held in Davos, Switzerland, the WSF brings social movement organizations and activists from around the world together around the idea that 'another world is possible.'"

It's Called: "Misprison of a Felony" (And it is a felony, too!)
Stephen Pizzo writes for News for Real: "During the Bush years Americans the boogeyman used to keep Americans cowed was the real or imagined threat of imminent terrorist attack. Now we have a new president – and we have a new boogeyman – the economic meltdown. Now don't get me wrong. Anyone who's read this column over the past few years knows I've been Chicken Littling about the financial house of cards for a long time. And, now that it's finally collapsed, it's even worse than I predicted, and getting worse by the day."

New Torture Memos Outline Black Sites, Ghost Prisoners
Steve Aquino writes for Mother Jones: "Three human rights groups released more than a thousand pages of Department of Defense and CIA documents Thursday that outline how closely the two agencies worked in rendering terrorism suspects to black sites, keeping detainees' identities secret, and tempering bad publicity for inmate treatment at Guántanamo Bay."

"That young man never should have come into the Army"
Kenneth Eastridge had PTSD before he ever donned a uniform or did two tours of duty in Iraq. Now he's in prison for his part in the murder of a fellow soldier.

Editor's note: This is the fourth installment in a weeklong investigative series called "Coming Home." You can look at Kenneth Eastridge's MySpace page here, and read the story of Robert Marko here. Marko was sent to Iraq despite psychological problems and is now awaiting trial for murder in Colorado. You can also read the introduction to the series, and the first, second and third installments, which appeared Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Michael de Yoanna and Mark Benjamin write for Salon.com: "Feb. 13, 2009 | FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Late on the night of March 11, 2006, Kenneth Eastridge got in a fight with his girlfriend. It ended with his arrest for a felony. The Kentucky native, an Army soldier stationed at Fort Carson, between deployments in Iraq, had fallen asleep after drinking when his girlfriend began to pound on his apartment door. She wanted inside, and she wanted to talk. Eastridge responded with a string of obscenities and then flung the door open. He pointed a loaded pistol at his girlfriend. She looked at him like he was crazy, then turned and ran. Eastridge didn't fire. He stood motionless, stunned by his own reaction."

Six Key Questions for Obama on Health Care
Rashi Fien writes for Nieman Watchdog: "There are some critical decisions that need to be made on the way to universal health care. Distinguished medical economist Rashi Fein wants to know if the new president is of the 'strike while the iron is hot' school – or the 'haste makes waste' school? Which does he think comes first: universal health care or cost containment? And four other questions."

Elevating Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning Under the Obama Administration
Maurice Middleberg writes for RH Reality Check: "By repealing the Global Gag Rule on his third day in office, President Obama took a huge first step toward leading the world in addressing the health needs of the world's poorest women, children and families. Now it is time to get to work on elevating what has been a stagnant American response on global family health and work toward saving the lives of millions of women and children."

Recovery Plan Captures Energy Opportunity
Daniel J. Weiss and Alexandra Kougentakis write for the Center for American Progress: "More than a year after the recession began and after 3.6 million Americans lost their jobs, Congress is about to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, H.R. 1. The act will inject $789 billion into new programs and tax incentives to stimulate the economy. Unprecedented investments in clean energy are a central element of the recovery plan. The bill includes $71 billion for clean energy programs—more than three times the current spending for these same programs (download the breakdown here (.xls)). H.R. 1 also adds $20 billion in clean energy tax incentives. The bill would 'spark the creation of a clean-energy economy' that President Barack Obama promised during his inaugural address."

Don't Get Duped like Obama: Here's the Top 5 Myths about Coal
Torra Lohan writes for AlterNet.org: "The facts are pretty simple, the U.S. Department of Energy said: 'Burning coal is the dirtiest way we produce electricity.' And yet oddly the Obama administration, which has embraced climate legislation and green jobs, is a supporter of the oxymoronic 'clean coal.' The White House Web site proclaims that one of Obama's priorities is to, 'develop and deploy clean coal technology.' And Obama isn't the only who is helping to spread the 'clean coal' myth. The new stimulus bill, which just passed Congress, calls for $3.4 million for 'fossil energy research,' which refers to carbon dioxide sequestration projects (more on the problems with that below) -- the key component in the 'clean coal' fantasy."

Coal-Fired Power Stations Are Death Factories. Close Them.
James Hansen writes for the Guardian UK: "A year ago, I wrote to Gordon Brown asking him to place a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in Britain. I have asked the same of Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd and other leaders. The reason is this - coal is the single greatest threat to civilisation and all life on our planet. The climate is nearing tipping points. Changes are beginning to appear and there is a potential for explosive changes, effects that would be irreversible, if we do not rapidly slow fossil-fuel emissions over the next few decades. As Arctic sea ice melts, the darker ocean absorbs more sunlight and speeds melting. As the tundra melts, methane, a strong greenhouse gas, is released, causing more warming. As species are exterminated by shifting climate zones, ecosystems can collapse, destroying more species."

Western Front: While secularists sleep well-funded creationists are on the march in Europe
Peter C Kjærgaard writes for the New Humanist: "On 4 October 2007 the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly passed Resolution 1580, which issued a stark warning: creationism, the denial of Darwinian evolution, is on the rise in Europe. The resolution focused on the way that creationists across the continent, using the model pioneered in America, have been targeting education, and warned of 'a real risk of serious confusion being introduced into our children’s minds between what has to do with convictions, beliefs, ideals of all sorts and what has to do with science.' 'An ‘all things are equal’ attitude,' it concludes, 'may seem appealing and tolerant, but is in fact dangerous.'"

What's the Outlook for Broadband and the Internet?
Bruce Kushnick writes for Nieman Watchdog: The congressional stimulus packages could go either way, writes consumer advocate Bruce Kushnick. They could mark a new, promising beginning—or they could be a new boondoggle for AT&T, Verizon and rural phone companies."

David Brooks Reveals the Mentality of the Beltway Journalist
Glen Greenwald comments for Salon.com: "The New York Times' David Brooks and Gail Collins had an online "conversation" with one another this week, and Brooks did an excellent job of explicitly demonstrating most everything that is relevant -- and destructive -- about the mentality of the standard Beltway journalist (h/t reader jm). In fact, much of what Brooks wrote about what he believes tracks almost completely the discussion I had with Jay Rosen on Bill Moyers' show last week regarding the rot of the American political press. First, there's this from Brooks..."

Clippings for 12 February 2009

Where's the Top Gun?
Marie Cocco writes for Truthdig.com: "The split-screen image of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s speech on a new-and-we-all-hope-improved financial industry bailout plan was of a banker trying to do a politician’s job while the markets he was trying to calm jumped off the cliff. Things got worse when Geithner went before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee to explain himself. How much worse?"

Tiny Tim Sings Off Key
Willian Geirder writes for The Nation: "The look and tone of the Treasury Secretary reminds me of the third grade. The smartest kid in the class, the one teachers loved, was the boy who always raised his hand and waved it impatiently while some other student fumbled for an answer. If the teacher stepped out of the room for a moment, bedlam usually followed and this kid would try to restore order. 'Be quiet or I will tell.' Kids threw things and tormented him until the teacher returned. "

The Stimulus Deal: The Latest Tally
Michael Garbell writes for ProPublica: "Well, we wanted to tell you what’s in the final, $789 billion stimulus package, but guess what? The bill still hadn't been released as of late Thursday. So the best we can do is this partial account, which is based on summaries (PDF) released (PDF) so far. In our chart, where an item is blank, it means we don't yet have the figure. For those of you following education spending, note that while school construction has been cut out, about $41 billion of the amount for state fiscal relief is for schools. States will have the option to use that money for school repairs."

Humor: Red State Update - We're all mad at the Wall Street bigwigs


Cut the Military Budget - I
Christopher Hayes writes for The Nation: "The cardinal rule of bargaining is that the first number you propose should never be the number you actually think you can get, and nobody knows this better than the Defense Department. In September the Army Times reported that the Pentagon was preparing to box the new president in to a major increase in military spending by drawing up a budget before the election had been decided. The number it eventually leaked was $584 billion, a whopping increase of $68.6 billion over last year. It was kind of like telling the new boss that your old boss had already agreed to give you a $100,000 raise. In any other context, the sheer hubris would get you fired or laughed out of the room. "

How Economists (and Pundits and Politicians) Helped Steer American Off a Cliff
Joshua Holland writes for AlterNet: "As the economy crashes around us, Dean Baker's star has been on the rise, and for good reason. While most of his colleagues were following the herd, swept up in the irrational exuberance of an economy fueled by the growth of a massive housing bubble, Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, was one of the few voices warning of the housing market's impending crash."

Cut the Military Budget -- II
Rep. Barney Frank writes in The Nation: "I am a great believer in freedom of expression and am proud of those times when I have been one of a few members of Congress to oppose censorship. I still hold close to an absolutist position, but I have been tempted recently to make an exception, not by banning speech but by requiring it. I would be very happy if there was some way to make it a misdemeanor for people to talk about reducing the budget deficit without including a recommendation that we substantially cut military spending. "

Taliban Stealing War From US
Shahan Mufti writes for the GlobalPost: "Throughout the ages, this ancient Silk Road town near the border of Afghanistan has been the place where the black market thrives and the military spoils of empires are hawked openly. Here in the storefronts you can still buy antique field rifles left over from the British presence of the 19th century and find uniforms and revolvers from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Now the shops in this industrial rim of Peshawar are filling with military equipment and computers looted from the most recent empire to bog down in this hostile and impenetrable terrain: the United States of America."

Obama's Canada Trip May Spell Change for NAFTA
Rick Arnold writes for Foreign Policy in Focus: "Canadians are looking forward to Barack Obama's February 19 visit to Ottawa - the president's first trip to a foreign country since he took office. Many of us here dare to hope Obama's 'change' agenda will inspire some fresh thinking among our own politicians. Ironically, Canadians concerned about our country's economic future (along with the well-being of our social programs) may now find a more sympathetic ear in Washington than in Ottawa - particularly when it comes to the subject of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)."

Petraeus Leaked Misleading Story on Pullout Plans
Gareth Porter reports for Inter Press Service: "The political maneuvering between President Barack Obama and his top field commanders over withdrawal from Iraq has taken a sudden new turn with the leak by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus - and a firm denial by a White House official - of an account of the Jan. 21 White House meeting suggesting that Obama had requested three different combat troop withdrawal plans with their respective associated risks, including one of 23 months."

The Real Economics of Immigration Reform
Cristina Jimenez writes for The American Prospect: "Shortly after the November election, a few congressional offices privately acknowledged that it would be smart for the Obama administration to try to include pro-immigration provisions in the upcoming stimulus package. Some policy staffers were reading studies and hearing testimonies about how hardworking immigrants drive productivity and job creation across many different sectors of the economy. But as the stimulus bill gets finalized in conference this week and heads to Obama's desk for a signature, immigration will be debated only in the narrow terms of E-verify, the Bush-mandated system that all businesses benefiting from the stimulus may be required to use to verify the immigration status of their employees."

The GOP's Jihad on Obama
Robert Parry writes for Consortium News: "The Republicans and their right-wing media allies are doing whatever they can to strangle the Obama phenomenon in its cradle; the mainstream media pundits are stressing the negative so they don't get called 'in the tank for Obama'; and the Democrats are shying away from holding the Bush-Cheney administration accountable for its crimes. None of these developments is particularly surprising. Indeed, they track closely to the political-media pattern that took shape the last time a young Democrat won the White House, when Bill Clinton became President in 1993."

Big Pharma Gone Wild
Martha Rosenberg writes for AlterNet: "Risperdal (risperidone), an atypical anti-psychotic, may have contributed to the deaths of 31 children since its 1993 approval, according to The New York Times - including 11 treated for unapproved uses."

A Dubious Equality for Women
Ellen Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: "I suppose this falls under the general heading 'Be Careful What You Wish For.' There are a whole lot of folks who once looked forward to the day when women would become equal participants in the work force with men. They tracked the gradual increase of women. They debated why progress stalled over the past decade. They talked about work-family conflicts and the appeal of 'opting out.'"

What Would Harvey Milk Say about President Clinton's Speech at the Manchester Hotel?
Cleve Jones writes for the Huffington Post: This Sunday, President Clinton is scheduled to give a paid speech at the Manchester Hyatt in San Diego to the annual convention of a major political action committee, the International Franchise Association. To give this speech, President Clinton will have to violate a union boycott and labor dispute - the workers at the hotel lack job security and the housekeepers face onerous workloads. He will also offend gay and lesbian Americans, including myself - the owner of the hotel, Doug Manchester, contributed $125,000 in early seed money to the Proposition 8 campaign. President Clinton should move this speech.

Kansas Jackass of the Century: Sen. Dennis Pyle
Our friends at KansasJackass write: "Apparently, Dennis Pyle decided today he was going to lock up the award for most insensitive, bigoted and just down-right ignorant comment of this legislative session. The bill in question, SB 169, would add sexual orientation and gender identity as a protected class, protecting Kansans from being discriminated against in job firings, eviction from rental property and other forms of harassment. Note it doesn't add "being gay," just sexual identity. This means that you couldn't be fired for being straight either."

Clippings for 8 February 2008

Impact of Budge cuts on Kansas Public Education - Update from Kansas Families for Education
The House debated the budget bill for several hours yesterday and the final result was a $66 per pupil cut for schools. Rep. Kevin Yoder (R) amended his own bill first thing, lessening the blow to school districts by $22 per pupil from his original $88 plan. It passed.

Our opposition didn't fall on deaf ears, just on ears that are still hard of hearing.

Rep. Bill Feuerborn (D) offered an amendment that would have reduced education cuts to $33 per pupil (the same as the Senate plan); reduced the cuts to SRS; and reduced the cuts to corrections, but it failed, essentially along party lines with Rep. Dan Johnson being the only Republican to support it. The same type of attempt was made later in debate by Rep. Tom Sawyer, it failed as well.

During debate Rep. Lana Gordon offered an amendment that added back in money for Kansas, Inc., it passed.

In the end it came down to choices. Everything in my opinion is a choice.

Our allies argued that education was mandated by the constitution (in fact it's the only state expenditure mandated by the constitution).

They argued that the state is projecting a $200 million deficit and they proposed $280 million in reductions to cover that and give them some wiggle room.

The slash-the-schools zealots argued that everyone is equal and needed to share the pain and that somehow more education cuts now would mean a better scenario for schools in the 2010 budget. I don't know how that works. And frankly, we don't believe the board of cosmetology, the board of realtors, the board of accountants and the board of barbers, for example, ought to be an equal priority to our children and our schools.

One big difference for schools is they have a budget year that ends June 30th, while most other agencies end in December. So schools have to enact cuts in a much shorter period of time. Where's the equality in that?

Schools are a large part of the budget (perhaps because of that pesky constitution) and they are willing to share in the pain. But they need time to prepare. Cuts of this magnitude are very difficult to implement between now and the end of this school year. Teachers are on contract through the end of the year, and there are no student fees to raise at this point.

Let's face it, our kids are preparing to be tested under guidelines handed down by the state. These cuts will take vital learning opportunities away when we need them most, without any time for preparation.

The bill goes to a final vote this morning. Don't expect a change.

We feel the choice made to cut more funding to the disabled and school children, versus taking a more cautious approach, was unfair to the most vulnerable Kansans who need our protection.

After final action today the bill will go to conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House plan. We will be asking you to contact the conference committee appointees as soon as they are named.

Finally, all I can say is hold on to your hats...........the debate on the 2010 budget is going to blow us away. Prepare for deeper cuts!

The only way to salvage the situation is direct political action by large numbers of people. If you want to protect your schools and your children's future, you can't sit on the sidelines any more. You have to get involved!

Kathy Cook

Executive Director

Kansas Families for Education

Public Revolt Builds Against Rip-off Rescue Plans for the Economy
Naomi Klein writes for Z Magazine: "Watching the crowds in Iceland banging pots and pans until their government fell reminded me of a chant popular in anti-capitalist circles in 2002: 'You are Enron. We are Argentina'. Its message was simple enough. You--politicians and CEOs huddled at some trade summit--are like the reckless scamming execs at Enron (of course, we didn't know the half of it). We--the rabble outside--are like the people of Argentina, who, in the midst of an economic crisis eerily similar to our own, took to the street banging pots and pans. They shouted, '¡Que se vayan todos!' ('All of them must go!') and forced out a procession of four presidents in less than three weeks. What made Argentina's 2001-02 uprising unique was that it wasn't directed at a particular political party or even at corruption in the abstract. The target was the dominant economic model--this was the first national revolt against contemporary deregulated capitalism."

Watchdog: No, Hank, You Didn't Get a Good Deal for the Taxpayer
Paul Kiel writes for ProPublica: "Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said last October that the taxpayers shouldn't fret about putting $250 billion in the nation's banks: 'This is an investment, not an expenditure, and there is no reason to expect this program will cost taxpayers anything.' But a draft report from the Congressional Oversight Panel for the TARP says Paulson should have known better. According to the panel's analysis, the preferred stock and warrants Treasury received are worth far less than the investments themselves, amounting to at least a $43 billion subsidy to the banks. That shortfall, they found, was inevitable from the structure of the investments. That's because the analysis 'demonstrates that the value received – including the market’s estimate of its future worth – was considerably less at the time of the transaction than the amount paid by Treasury.'”

TARP Recipients Paid $114 Million to Lobby Lawmakers
Tierney Plumb reports for the Washington Business Journal: "Recipients of the $700 billion federal bailout package in the finance and auto sectors may view their contributions and lobbying as the smartest investments made in years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics."

Watchdogs: Government Overpaid for Wall Street Assets
Kevin G. Hall and Greg Gordon, McClatchy Newspapers: "The federal government overpaid by about $78 billion for stock and other troubled assets when it bailed out big banks last year, and it lacks sufficient internal controls to police and protect taxpayers' investment in the institutions, government watchdogs said Thursday. The new special inspector general for the bailout effort, formally called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, issued his first report Thursday and said that the Treasury Department needs to put more safeguards in place to protect taxpayers."

Nationalized Banks Are "Only Answer," Economist Stiglitz Says
Michael Knigge interviews Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz for Deutsche Welle: "We live in a very different world than during the Great Depression. Then, we had a manufacturing economy. Now we have a service-sector economy. Many people in the in the United States are already working part time because they can't get full-time jobs. People are talking more about the 'comprehensive' measures of unemployment, and these show unemployment at very high levels, around 15 percent. So it clearly is a serious downturn."

Beyond the Bailout: Agenda for a New Economy
David Korten writes for YES! Magazine: "The financial crisis has put to rest the myths that our economic institutions are sound and markets work best when deregulated. Our economic institutions have failed, not only financially, but also socially and environmentally. This, combined with the election of a new president with a mandate for change, creates an opportune moment to rethink and redesign."

They Just Don't Get It
Bernie Horn writes for the Campaign for America's Future: "Right now, conservative U.S. senators—both Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats—are thrashing around trying to cut pieces out of President Obama’s economic recovery plan. They say it costs too much. Ironically, these are the same senators who increased the legislation by more than $100 billion just a couple of days ago. They just don’t get it."

The Economic Crisis Returns with a Vengeance
The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism reports: "The financial crisis filled 45% of the coverage studied from Jan 26-Feb. 1, as measured by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. A week earlier, it was Obama’s move into the White House that consumed most of the media’s attention, also accounting for 45% of the newshole, or the time on TV and radio and space in print and online."

Fundamentally Flawed Stimulus Coverage
Jamison Foser writes for Media Matters: "If there's one fact that should be made clear in every news report about the stimulus package working its way through Congress, it is this: Government spending is stimulative. That's a basic principle of economics, and understanding it is essential to assessing any stimulus package. So it should be an underlying premise of the media's coverage of the stimulus debate. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case. Indeed, reporters routinely suggest that spending is not stimulative."

Obama's Team of Zombies: Even under the new president, Washington is the same one-party town it always has been -- controlled not by Democrats or Republicans, but by thieves.
David Sirota writes for Salon.com: "Only weeks ago, the political world was buzzing about a 'team of rivals.' America was told that finally, after years of yes men running the government, we were getting a president who would follow Abraham Lincoln’s lead, fill his administration with varying viewpoints, and glean empirically sound policy from the clash of ideas. Little did we know that "team of rivals" was what George Orwell calls 'newspeak': an empty slogan 'claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts.'"

Obama and the Empire
William Blum writes for Counterpunch: "I've said all along that whatever good changes might occur in regard to non-foreign policy issues, such as what's already taken place concerning the environment and abortion, the Obama administration will not produce any significantly worthwhile change in US foreign policy; little done in this area will reduce the level of misery that the American Empire regularly brings down upon humanity. And to the extent that Barack Obama is willing to clearly reveal what he believes about anything controversial, he appears to believe in the empire."

Whistling Past the Afghan Graveyard: When Empires go to Die
Tom Englehardt writes for Tomdispatch: "It is now a commonplace -- as a lead article in the New York Times's Week in Review pointed out recently -- that Afghanistan is "the graveyard of empires." Given Barack Obama's call for a greater focus on the Afghan War ('we took our eye off the ball when we invaded Iraq...'), and given indications that a "surge" of U.S. troops is about to get underway there, Afghanistan's dangers have been much in the news lately. Some of the writing on this subject, including recent essays by Juan Cole at Salon.com, Robert Dreyfuss at the Nation, and John Robertson at the War in Context website, has been incisive on just how the new administration's policy initiatives might transform Afghanistan and the increasingly unhinged Pakistani tribal borderlands into 'Obama's War.'"

Afghanistan: Losing a No-Win War
Steve Weissman writes for Truthout: "I could go on, but it all boils down to the one lesson of Vietnam that Robert Gates and his Pentagon brass do not want to accept - that Afghans, Pakistanis, Iraqis and other people in Asia, Africa and Latin America will no longer accept the United States and Europe occupying and running their countries. Counter-insurgency can prolong the pain, but it will never overcome the anti-colonial dynamic, as the British Empire, the French Empire and others all learned before us."

Army Reports Alarming Spike in Suicides Last Month
Pauline Jelinek reports for The Associated Press: "The Army is investigating an unexplained and stunning spike in suicides in January. The count is likely to surpass the number of combat deaths reported last month by all branches of the armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the fight against terrorism. 'In January, we lost more soldiers to suicide than to al-Qaida,' said Paul Rieckhoff, director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He urged 'bold and immediate action' by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs."

Rush Limbaugh Loses Popularity Contest
Max Blumenthal writes for the Daily Beast: "Congressional Republicans have turned to Rush Limbaugh to lead the battle against Obama. One problem: A poll says he's less popular than Jeremiah Wright. Republicans who have turned to Rush Limbaugh to lead the fight against President Obama may have backed the wrong horse. According to one recent poll, Limbaugh turns out to be one of the most unpopular political figures in the country."

Ann Coulter Under Investigation for Voter Fraud
Rachel Weiner reports for the Huffington Post: "The New York Daily News reports that Ann Coulter is under investigation by the Connecticut Elections Enforcement Commission for allegedly voting in that state while registered to vote in New York City."

KDP National Smacks Kansas GOP for Duplicity
Our friends at KansasJackass write: "Kinch is exactly right. The Republican Party nationwide, and right here in Kansas, as pushed this country to the brink of fiscal catastrophe with unsound economic policies as they pay lip service to caring about the poor. They've dragged our Constitution through the mud, they've fought right here in Kansas has hard as possible to prevent public schools from getting the funds they need, and all the while they continue to push the lie the GOP is the party of fiscal responsibility when it was they, they Republicans, who wasted the Clinton budget surplus on tax cuts for the rich that were supposed to bolster the economy, only to have the exact opposite become reality."

What's The Matter With Kansas? The Fight Against Big Coal Hits the State Legislature, with National Repercussions.

Simran Sethi and Heather Mueller write for The Huffington Post:

On October 18, 2007, Kansas made history. Health and Environmental Secretary Roderick Bremby made the landmark decision to deny permits for two new 700 MW coal-fired power plants proposed by Sunflower Electric, on the grounds that carbon emissions from the plants would negatively impact health. "After careful consideration of my responsibility to protect the public health and environment from actual, threatened or potential harm from air pollution, I have decided to deny the Sunflower Electric Power Corporation application for an air quality permit," Bremby said in the official press statement.

Let's be clear, this decision was a game-changer. In his ruling, Bremby stated it would be "irresponsible" to ignore the impacts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases on global warming. It was the first time that climate change was cited in such a context, setting a precedent for other decisions of its kind across the nation. In response, Sunflower proposed three bills to the state legislature in 2008 that would have allowed the plants to be built, but all three were vetoed by Governor Kathleen Sebelius. Now, with the state legislature back in session, Sunflower is continuing their fight to expand the reach of big coal.

Read the complete article by clicking on the title.

Clippings for 5 February 2009

Recommended Audio: Progressive Radio for 5 January
The Progressive editor, Matt Rothschild interviews Bill V. Mullen, the author of "Afro-Orientalism" and "Popular Fronts: Chicago and African-American Cultural Politics." They talk about Obama's political background and his prospects including an informative discussion of the role of race in 21st Century America.

Recommended Audio: Progressive Radio for 19 January.
The Progressive editor Matt Rothschild interviews Jennifer Loewenstein, the Associate Director of the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a leading expert on the impact of Israeli policies on Gaza and the West Bank, where she’s been many times. They discuss the recent aggression against Gaza in detail and analyze the West's understanding of Hamas.

Tom Daschle and the Populist Revolt
Robert Reich writing for Robert Reich's Blog states: "Tom Daschle's surprise withdrawal today shocked most Washington insiders - after all, Daschle had been a key figure in the Senate, was Obama's pick for a major role in the new administration, would very likely have done a superb job getting a new health-insurance system enacted, and, probably could have mustered enough votes to be confirmed. So what happened? My guess is that official Washington underestimated the public's pique at what appeared to be the old ways of Washington."

The Daschle Dilemma
Katia Bachko writes for the Columbia Journalism Review: "Earlier today, former senator Tom Daschle—embroiled in controversy over $128,000 in unpaid taxes—withdrew from consideration for the Secretary of Health and Human Services post, after several days of persistent reporting on the tax issue by news organizations across the country. Calling for Daschle to step down, a Times editorial today dedicated its first six paragraphs to Daschle’s accounting errors, and the last three to the ultimately more important and more questionable issue of Daschle’s financial relationships with various health care organizations. Yet these relationships were the best reason to question Daschle’s nomination, regardless of the tax issue."

Getting There from Here: How Should Obama Reform Health Care?
Atul Gawande writes for The New Yorker: "The stories become unconscionable in any society that purports to serve the needs of ordinary people, and, at some alchemical point, they combine with opportunity and leadership to produce change. Britain reached this point and enacted universal health-care coverage in 1945, Canada in 1966, Australia in 1974. The United States may finally be there now. In 2007, fifty-seven million Americans had difficulty paying their medical bills, up fourteen million from 2003. On average, they had two thousand dollars in medical debt and had been contacted by a collection agency at least once. Because, in part, of underpayment, half of American hospitals operated at a loss in 2007. Today, large numbers of employers are limiting or dropping insurance coverage in order to stay afloat, or simply going under - even hospitals themselves."

Iraq: Elections Have Come and Gone
Salam Adil reports for Global Voices: "Elections have come and gone in Iraq. With reports that the day passed peacefully, the whole process could have been seen as the most boring national event after the war. Najma highlights this in a rambling post which ends with:

'The day before yesterday a car bomb exploded close to our house, but we were warned and expected it so there were little damages (a single window). No human losses in the neighborhood, thank God.

Oh, I almost forgot what this post was supposed to be about :)

Yesterday I finally got to vote on something without having a fight (that something being Ninevah's Provincial Council's Elections). I was feeling dizzy, and it pretty much felt like going to an exam without studying, and I proved quite dumb at the voting room: I was about to put my ID in the voting box instead of the voting card, I didn't know which finger to put in the ink pot, and finally, I almost took the voting pen home! but I FINALLY DID IT and voted! Now I have a violet finger and it shocks me every time I see it, until I remember.'"

World Social Forum: "Globalization Is Destroying Itself"
Agency French Press reports: "The world economic crisis spells the death of globalization and action is needed to protect the poor, said organizers of the World Social Forum as it wrapped up in Brazil on Sunday. 'We have come out against neoliberal globalization, and now that this globalization is destroying itself we have to define the world we want,' the founder of the event, Candido Grzybowski, told AFP."

World Social Forum: 'Stateless Peoples' Defend Diversity
Intre Press Service Reports: "The presence of 1,900 indigenous people representing 190 ethnic groups as well as 1,400 Quilombolas (people of African origins living in traditional communities) was conspicuous among the 133,000 participants from 142 countries. They had their own tents, discussions and celebrations at the event. For the first time, there was also a tent for the Collective Rights of Stateless Peoples, initiating a reflection at the WSF about a "radical democracy" that upholds the self-determination of peoples, said Arnau Flores, a Catalonian journalist responsible for communication at the Escarré International Centre for Ethnic Minorities and Nations (CIEMEN)."

When Did We Stop Caring about Civilian Deaths in War Time?
Robert Fisk comments for The Independent (UK): "I wonder if we are 'normalising' war. It's not just that Israel has yet again got away with the killing of hundreds of children in Gaza. And after its own foreign minister said that Israel's army had been allowed to "go wild" there, it seems to bear out my own contention that the Israeli "Defence Force" is as much a rabble as all the other armies in the region. But we seem to have lost the sense of immorality that should accompany conflict and violence. The BBC's refusal to handle an advertisement for Palestinian aid was highly instructive. It was the BBC's "impartiality" that might be called into question. In other words, the protection of an institution was more important than the lives of children. War was a spectator sport whose careful monitoring – rather like a football match, even though the Middle East is a bloody tragedy – assumed precedence over human suffering."

Waste, Fraud in Iraq Being Repeated in Afghanistan
Richard Lardner reports for The Associated Press: "The US has devoted more than $30 billion to rebuilding Afghanistan. Yet despite the hard lessons learned in Iraq, where the US has spent nearly $51 billion on reconstruction, the effort in Afghanistan is headed down the same path, the watchdogs told a new panel investigating wartime contracts. 'Before we go pouring more money in, we really need to know what we're trying to accomplish (in Afghanistan),' said Ginger Cruz, deputy special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. 'And at what point do you turn off the spigot so you're not pouring money into a black hole?'"

Helping Afghan Women and Girls
Katrina vanden Heuvel writes for The Nation: "As the coalition I'm working with - Get Afghanistan Right - continues to make the case that the Obama administration would be wise to rethink its plan to escalate militarily in Afghanistan, I've tried to engage the arguments made by some feminists and human rights groups who believe that such an escalation is necessary to protect Afghani women and girls. I share their horror when I read stories like this one by New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins describing an acid attack against girls and women - students and their teachers - at the Mirwais School for Girls. But how will escalation or increased US troop presence improve their security or make their lives better?"

The Looming Crisis at the Pentagon: How Taxpayers Finance Fantasy Wars
Chalmers Johnson writes for TomDispatch.com: "Like much of the rest of the world, Americans know that the US automotive industry is in the grips of what may be a fatal decline. Unless it receives emergency financing undergoes significant reform, it is undoubtedly headed for the graveyard in which many American industries are already buried, including those that made televisions and other consumer electronics, many types of scientific and medical equipment, machine tools, textiles, and much earth-moving equipment -- and that's to name only the most obvious candidates. They all lost their competitiveness to newly emerging economies that were able to outpace them in innovative design, price, quality, service, and fuel economy, among other things. A similar, if far less well known, crisis exists when it comes to the military-industrial complex."

How to Rescue the Bank Bailout
Joseph E. Stiglitz comments for CNN: "America's recession is moving into its second year, with the situation only worsening. The hope that President Obama will be able to get us out of the mess is tempered by the reality that throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at the banks has failed to restore them to health, or even to resuscitate the flow of lending. Every day brings further evidence that the losses are greater than had been expected and more and more money will be required."

Doing the Recovery Right
Robert Pollin writes for The Nation: "For most of the past generation, the aims of environmental sustainability and social justice were seen as equally worthy, yet painfully and unavoidably in conflict. Tree huggers and spotted owls were pitted against loggers and hard hats. Fighting global warming was held to inevitably worsen global poverty and vice versa. Indeed, the competing demands of the environmental and social justice agendas were frequently cited as a classic example of how public policy choices were fraught with trade-offs and unintended consequences - how you could end up doing harm while seeking only to do good."

It's Not Going to Be Okay
Former Community Bridge guest Chris Hedges writes for Truthdig.com: "The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time. And not much time. When things start to go sour, when Barack Obama is exposed as a mortal waving a sword at a tidal wave, the United States could plunge into a long period of precarious social instability."

Health and Human Rights: A Journalist's Perspective
Rory O'Connor writes for the Media Channel: "In 1995, after producing a successful weekly TV program about apartheid in South Africa against all odds, we broadcast an edition of a new series that explored revolutionary ideas about human rights, such as those then being formulated by a visionary at Harvard named Jonathan Mann. In our show, called Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television, Dr. Mann laid out in typically brilliant fashion the crystal-clear thinking behind his vision of human rights – and in particular, his then (and still) controversial notion that health and human rights are inextricably linked, that access to quality health care is a self-evident, inalienable right shared by all human beings, as recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted without dissent by the entire United Nations sixty years ago."

FAIR Study: Human Rights Coverage Serving Washington's Needs
Steve Rendall and Daniel Ward and Tess Hall report for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting: "Any evenhanded comparison of the Colombian and Venezuelan governments’ human rights records would have to note that, though Venezuela’s record is far from perfect, that country is by every measure a safer place than Colombia to live, vote, organize unions and political groups, speak out against the government or practice journalism. But a new survey by FAIR shows that, over the past 10 years, editors at four leading U.S. newspapers have focused more on purported human rights abuses in Venezuela than in Colombia, and their commentary would suggest that Venezuela’s government has a worse human rights record than Colombia’s. These papers, FAIR found, seem more interested in reinforcing official U.S. policy toward the region than in genuinely supporting the rights of Colombians and Venezuelans." To download the PDF file of the report click here.

Tennessee Coal Ash Disaster Raises Concerns About Similar Sites Nationwide
Tom Bearden reports for the PBS NewsHour: "Even today, it's difficult for anybody who hasn't been to Kingston, Tennessee, to understand how big the problem is. Video just doesn't do it justice. In the pre-dawn hours of December 22, 5.4 million tons of ashes created by 50 years of burning coal to generate electricity here burst through a dike, spreading like an avalanche for more than a mile, burying 300 acres of riverbank several feet deep, spilling out into the nearby river itself."

Biofuels More Harmful to Humans than Petrol and Diesel, Warm Scientists
Alok Jha reports for the Guardia UK: "Some biofuels cause more health problems than petrol and diesel, according to scientists who have calculated the health costs associated with different types of fuel.The study shows that corn-based bioethanol, which is produced extensively in the US, has a higher combined environmental and health burden than conventional fuels. However, there are high hopes for the next generation of biofuels, which can be made from organic waste or plants grown on marginal land that is not used to grow foods. They have less than half the combined health and environmental costs of standard gasoline and a third of current biofuels."

Water - Another Global "Crisis"?
Richard Black reports for the BBC News: "If you look at the numbers, it is hard to see how many East African communities made it through the long drought of 2005 and 2006. Among people who study human development, it is a widely-held view that each person needs about 20 litres of water each day for the basics - to drink, cook and wash sufficiently to avoid disease transmission. Yet at the height of the East African drought, people were getting by on less than five litres a day - in some cases, less than one litre a day, enough for just three glasses of drinking water and nothing left over."

Let's Talk About Sex
Alison Lobron reports for The Boston Globe: "In eighth grade, Luke Detwiler, of Natick, and his friends saw graphic pictures of people having sex. The photos contained 'close-ups of various body parts and sex acts,' remembers Detwiler, now 16. But the kids weren't furtively flipping through a nudie magazine swiped from somebody's dad. They weren't sneaking onto pornographic websites after school. They were in church on a Sunday morning, and their parents had signed them up for the experience."

Kansas State Rep. Mike Burgess Introduces Modern Day Poll Tax
From KansasJackass: "Rep. Mike Burgess will make a case Wednesday for voter identification legislation vetoed last year by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Burgess, a Topeka Republican, said the bill up for a hearing in the House Elections Committee would stipulate that all voters present an ID at polling stations and when obtaining an advance ballot. There would be limited exceptions."

Washington Reporters' Mass Exodus
Megan Tady writes for In These Times: "There’s a problem with journalism when a newspaper lays off a reporter like Phil Dine. For 20 years, Dine doggedly covered the labor beat for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, first from St. Louis, and then from the nation’s capital. His work was nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize, and he has landed a laudatory list of awards, including first place for investigative reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists. This year, Dine published his first book, State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence."

Debating the Ban on Domestic Propaganda
Diane Farsetta writes for the Center for Media and Democracy: "'I want to make sure that we strengthen prohibitions against domestic covert propaganda campaigns aimed essentially at breaking down the Constitutional barriers between who controls policy and who makes war,' stressed Representative Paul Hodes. 'It's an important point, given the recent history.'"

Parent Group Blasts Excessive School Budget Slash Planned in Kansas House

Kansas Families for Education says Senate bill's $33 per pupil cut balances the budget, asks why House members want to cut more SHAWNEE, Kan. - Members of the Kansas House of Representatives are poised to cut an additional $41 million from local school budgets this year, even though the state Senate has already passed a bill that balances the budget without making those cuts. Kansas Families for Education, a grass-roots parent group that supports public schools, is demanding answers from House members who appear to be determined to make enormous additional cuts in education that are clearly not needed to balance the state's budget. The state needs to cut hundreds of millions in spending to balance the budget this year. The bill passed by the Senate, SB 23, calls for $335 million in spending cuts, including more than $25 million in education cuts. The Senate bill cuts state education support by $33 per pupil. The alternative being pushed by House leaders, on the other hand, cuts only $328 million in spending. But the House bill includes $66.6 million in education cuts, or $88 per pupil. "We can't see how any legislator who claims to be a supporter of education can favor the House bill over the Senate plan," said Kathy Cook, executive director of KFE. "Every child in Kansas deserves a proper education, and in fact has a constitutional right to a proper education. There is no getting around the fact that the House bill does far more damage to Kansas children and families than the Senate's alternative." Cook said that many House leaders were among those legislators who bitterly opposed the decision by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2005 to require the state to boost education spending to meet the constitutional requirement. "The Senate bill cuts more total spending, so why do House leaders want to cut schools more and everything else in the budget less? It looks like the House plan is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to roll back the court's ruling, using the state's budget crisis as an excuse." Cook said KFE urges all Kansas legislators to support the Senate plan and will keep all of its members statewide apprised of the votes of each legislator on this critical decision. # # #

Contact your legislator and tell them to vote No on the Yoder Budget!

Clippings for 1 February 2009

Stop Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic and Nationalize the Damn Banks
Joshau Holland writes for AlterNet.org: "The painful but unavoidable reality of the financial crisis is that every dollar spent trying to prop up a failing bank is just good money thrown after bad; a taxpayer rip-off, short and sweet. But in Washington, many are trying to avoid that fact nonetheless. Economist Paul Krugman wrote that the political establishment has 'become devotees of a new kind of voodoo [economics]: the belief that by performing elaborate financial rituals we can keep dead banks walking.' Goldman Sachs' economists estimate that those rituals might cost up to $4 trillion to perform."

No Economic Team of Rivals on Obama Staff: Rubin's Manic Neoliberals Dominate
Steve Clemons writes for The Huffington Post: "The deep ideological divide that is emerging in the economics profession between those who worried about manic neoliberalism and Bob Rubin-style turbo-charged tilts towards an increasing unregulated finance industry is not hitting the Obama administration - because it is only hiring one side of that divide. As best I can tell Obama is stacking his team with those who George Soros disdainfully calls 'market fundamentalists.' Liaquat Ahmed metaphorically profiles the Rubin-led financial ideologues in his Depression-focused new book, The Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World."

Giuliani Defends Wall Street Bonuses While Slamming Tax Cuts For The Poor
Ali Flick writes for Think Progress: "Yesterday, reacting to a New York State Comptroller report showing that Wall Street banks doled out $18.4 billion in bonuses in 2008, President Obama denounced the practice as 'shameful.' 'That is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful, and part of what we’re going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility,' Obama said emphatically. The same day, the Congressional panel overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) recommended that financial regulators revoke bonuses for executives of firms seeking government help. "

Fetishizing Off-Center Centrism
Jamison Foser writes for Media Matters: "From the way the media have covered this week's stimulus package vote, you would think the goal of the legislation was to get Democrats and Republicans to sit together for lunch in the House cafeteria, rather than to turn around an economy in free fall. After the House passed the stimulus package by a comfortable margin, much of the media reacted not by examining the bill's contents and the likelihood that it would provide a much-needed boost to the economy, but by focusing on the fact that it passed without a single Republican vote."

Bailout Recipients Hosted Call to Defeat Key Labor Bill
Sam Stein writes for The Huffington Post: "Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community's top legislative priority. Participants on the October 17 call -- including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG -- were urged to persuade their clients to send "large contributions" to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill."

This Week in Scandals: Wall Street’s Bonus Bonanza, Gitmo’s File Fiasco and More
Alexandra Andrews writes for ProPublic: "That BofA-Merrill deal is still making waves: BusinessWeek reports that Merrill doled out $565 million in dividends [4] to its shareholders three weeks before they approved the BofA deal, which comes after news that Merrill also fast-tracked $4 billion in employee bonuses [5] before the deal closed. BofA ousted ex-Merrill CEO John Thain last week amid furor over the bonuses and potentially hidden losses."

What A Difference Ten Days Make
Isaiah J. Poole writes for The Campaign for America's Future: "Consider how far we've come since January 20. On Thursday, the Senate followed the House in passing a reauthorization of a child health insurance bill that will mean 4 million more children will have access to health insurance. When the Congress passed similar legislation last year, then-President Bush vetoed the legislation - twice. This time, President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law next week. Increasing the number of working-class families who have health insurance for their children is just one of the significant victories progressives can lay claim to in just the first 10 days of the Obama administration."

Obama and the Return of the Real
Jonathan Schell writes for The Nation: "The inauguration of Barack Obama, 'whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant,' is both a culmination and a beginning. The culmination is the milestone represented by the arrival of a black man in the office of president of the United States. That achievement reaches back to the founding ideals of the Republic - 'all men are created equal' - which have been fulfilled in a new way, even as it resonates around a world in which for centuries white imperialists have subjected people of color to oppression. The event fully justifies the national and global jubilation it has touched off. This much is truly accomplished, signed and sealed."

Moving the Political Center
David Sirota writes for the San Francisco Chronicle: "When they write their retrospectives about the era that ended with the 2008 election, economic historians will undoubtedly credit George W. Bush with almost single-handedly moving the country to embrace extremist conservatism. It's a simple storyline: Cowboy president drives bewildered American herd over laissez-faire cliff. What such reductionism will ignore, though, is what we must remember now: namely, that Congress also played a decisive role in the stampede."

Progressive Faith Groups Now Trying to Shift the Debate
Jacqueline L. Salmon and Michelle Boorstein write for The Washington Post: "With a president they view as more sympathetic to their causes, progressive religious activists are pushing the new Obama administration for aggressive action -- on poverty, the environment and social justice issues -- that would mark a significant shift in the faith agenda that dominated the Bush years. Many faith groups close to President George W. Bush focused on abortion, stem cell research and same-sex marriage. But now, liberal and centrist evangelicals and other activists say they are getting a voice and trying to turn the debate.

Let the Limbaughs Whine
Joe Conason writes for Truthdig.com: "How fortunate for Barack Obama that Rush Limbaugh, big radio personality and leader of the instinctual far right, has yet to retire to a sunny island with his bottles of pills. At a moment when Republicans on Capitol Hill feel they must pretend to negotiate with the popular new president over spending to revive the economy, he blurted out what they really feel."

Obama Hosts Labor Leaders, Will Undo Bush Orders
Philip Elliott reports for The Associated Press: "President Barack Obama is playing to one of the Democratic Party's most reliable constituencies - organized labor - reversing a number of his predecessor's executive orders that critics regard as anti-union. Labor leaders were to visit the White House for a second consecutive day Friday, where, a union official said, Obama was to abolish four Bush-era directives that unions opposed and then reintroduce Vice President Joe Biden's task force focused on the middle class."

Poor Women Are Not "Pork"
Ruth Rosen writes for Talking Points Memo: "Responding to President Obama's request, House Democrats cut a provision from the stimulus package that would expand contraceptive family planning for Medicaid patients - usually poor women and girls. He, in turn, was responding to Republicans' opposition to expanding Medicaid family planning for poor women and girls."

As Army Suicides Mount, Officials Promise (Again) to Address It
Christopher Weaver writes for ProPublica: "Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that the rate of soldiers committing suicides increased last year to the highest level in thirty years. As today’s New York Times reports, the number of suicides among soldiers has now increased for the fourth year in a row [1]. Somewhere between 128 and 143 soldiers killed themselves in 2008. (Fifteen cases are still under investigation.) Army officials in turn pointed yesterday to new programs [2] and a campaign to combat the stigma of mental wounds. "

Two Wars, 400,000 VA Patients
Maya Schenwar writes for Truthout: "Amid talk of a drawdown of troops in Iraq, new statistics from the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) show that US casualties are still climbing quickly. Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield injuries and deaths number 81,361, up from 72,043 last January, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Veterans for Common Sense (VCS). Veteran patients - including those who didn't seek care until their return home - shot up to 400,304 (from 263,909 in December 2007). For the thousands of soldiers flooding the VA, mental illness tops the list of ailments.... However, many barriers to adequate care and compensation remain, particularly for veterans filing for disability benefits."

Purple Hearts: A Cold-Blooded Decision
Conn Hallinan writes for Foreign Policy in Focus: "Behind the recent Pentagon decision to deny Purple Heart medals to soldiers suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a cold-blooded calculation: It saves money. The official rationale for refusing to honor what is widely considered the 'signature wound' of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that PTSD, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez, is 'an anxiety disorder caused by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event,' not 'a wound intentionally caused by the enemy.'"

Single Payer Moment
David Swanson writes for AfterDowningStreet.org: "While a Democratic polling firm has just found, as pollsters always do, dramatic public support for public health coverage, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill appear divided, as they have always been, over whether to take a comprehensive approach to health care. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on C-Span on Sunday that incrementalism would suit him better 'than to go out and just bite something you can't chew.' Clyburn said he opposes any comprehensive approach in 2009. Meanwhile House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) made a long speech about healthcare at a conference in D.C. on Thursday in which he said 'I am committed to helping bring comprehensive reform to the floor of the 111th Congress.'"

Is America on the Brink of a Food Crisis
Robert Jenson wites for ALterNet.org: "As everyone scrambles for a solution to the crises in the nation's economy, Wes Jackson suggests we look to nature's economy for some of the answers. With everyone focused on a stimulus package in the short term, he counsels that we pay more attention to the soil over the long haul."

Gays Hope to Gain from New Political Scene
Karen Crummy writes for the Denver Post: "Despite a year of disappointing electoral setbacks on the issue of same-sex marriage, political organizers in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community see fresh opportunities in their quest for equal treatment. Not only are more states including them in civil-rights protections, but President Barack Obama has signaled he is more supportive of LGBT rights than his predecessors. "

Prop. 8 Campaign Can't Hide Donors' Names
Bob Egelko reports for The San Francisco Chronicle: "Proposition 8 proponents' complaint that a California campaign-finance disclosure law has led to harassment of same-sex marriage opponents failed today to sway a federal judge, who refused to throw out the law or shield donors' names. Lawyers for Protect Marriage, sponsor of the constitutional amendment that won voter approval Nov. 4, said contributors have already faced consumer boycotts, picketing and even death threats after the state posted their names and other information in mandatory campaign reports."
Christopher's comment: This is a real victory for democracy. This neo-fascist try to pervert the constitutions of our nation and individual states and then don't want to be know for their actions. Says something about their character! Basic ethics teach that a person is responsibile for his/her actions. Seems like the Radical Right wants to impose their "morals" on all of us, but to hell with ethics. The ends justify the means. I really think they need to re-read their Bible.

KS House Democrats Propose Nearly Free Legislation to Help Kansans
From Kansas Jackass: "Saying the session should be about more than budget cuts, House Democrats on Thursday unveiled a list of proposals that they said would cost nothing — but help Kansans. 'The budget crisis, of course, tops our priority list this year,' said House Minority Leader Paul Davis of Lawrence. 'But that does not mean it is acceptable to spend three weeks at a virtual standstill.'”

Broadband Stimulus
Yochal Benkler writes for Talking Points Memo: "Lots of people are wary about the stimulus bill, and on broadband there was a good deal of concern that it would end up simply funding the incumbents to do what they were going to do anyway, without really taking the opportunity to bring in new models of broadband. But from the current versions: the version the House passed, and the Senate Appropriations Committee released, I'm actually reasonably optimistic.