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“The ship, operating off Oman in the lawless waters of the Gulf of Aden, was crewed by heavily armed men, some carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers. What followed, officials said Wednesday, was a rare victory in a sea war against Somalia-based piracy that has become increasingly more violent. A patrolling Indian navy frigate quickly identified the vessel as a ‘mother ship,’ a mobile attack base used to take gangs of pirates and smaller speedboats into deep water, and ordered it to stop and be searched. … Navy officials wouldn’t say how long the battle Tuesday lasted, but the frigate, the INS Tabar, is a 400-foot war machine, carrying cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles and six-barreled 30mm machine guns for close combat, according to the Web site GlobalSecurity.org.” (11/20/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5dsyaz | |
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“During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama made a ‘talk to our enemies’ position a highlight of his diplomatic vision, using that stance in particular to underscore how American foreign policy under him would change toward Iran. But neither close Obama advisers nor Iran experts are expecting a rush to dialogue with Tehran come Jan. 20, for a number of tactical and event-driven reasons … None of this means Iran can be expected to have slowed its nuclear program and its pursuit of uranium-enrichment technology, Iran experts say.” (11/21/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1121/p03s05-usfp.html | |
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“If it’s no surprise that Michigan lawmakers are behind the pitch for a $25 billion lifeline for Detroit automakers, then it might be just as predictable that Southerners would be leading the charge against it. Southern politicians have spent years luring foreign automakers to build cars in their states, with huge success. Most recently, Tennessee attracted a $1 billion Volkswagen assembly plant to Chattanooga. South Carolina has BMW. Mississippi landed a major plant for Toyota Motor Corp. Alabama boasts plants run by Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co.” (11/20/08) Link: http://tennessean.com/article/20081120/BUSINESS01/811200368 | |
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“The Pentagon has suffered from a cyber attack so alarming that it has taken the unprecedented step of banning the use of external hardware devices, such as flash drives and DVD’s, FOX News has learned. The attack came in the form of a global virus or worm that is spreading rapidly throughout a number of military networks. ‘We have detected a global virus for which there has been alerts, and we have seen some of this on our networks,’ a Pentagon official told FOX News. ‘We are now taking steps to mitigate the virus.’ The official could not reveal the source of the attack because that information remains classified.” [editor’s note: The only question is, why the Pentagon? Hitting the IRS, the Treasury or the Federal Reserve would have a much greater effect on things! - SAT] (11/20/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/55r3hz | |
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“After more than 30 years, those comic poets of dope, Cheech and Chong, have reunited for their Light Up America tour, which arrives this weekend in the Bay Area. We caught up with the pair earlier in the week from a hotel room on the road and started by asking them why they’ve hit the road again. Cheech: We’re doing it for the kids. Chong: The kids are our future. Cheech: Yeah, the kids are the future, so we’re doing it for them. Chong: And they really appreciate it. Especially the kids that only know Cheech from Nash Bridges and me from That ’70s Show. We’re doing it for those kids, letting them know who Cheech and Chong is.” (11/20/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5d2gqd | |
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“Gov. Janet Napolitano is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security, multiple news agencies reported late Wednesday. If appointed, the Democrat in her second term would head the sprawling federal agency, which is responsible for immigration policy and border security as well as emergency response issues. The Governor’s Office neither confirmed nor denied the reports Wednesday. When asked whether the governor has been offered the Homeland Security post, or whether she has indicated she would accept it, Napolitano spokeswoman Jeanine L’Ecuyer said repeatedly, ‘I can’t answer that.’ A popular Democratic governor in a red-state, and an early Obama supporter, Napolitano, 51, has been the focus of Cabinet speculation for weeks.” (11/20/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5owar9 | |
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“John Kenneth Galbraith bought a copy of Le Monde there every day. Julia Child searched for obscure Italian and German cooking magazines, and Robert Frost once stopped by — it actually was a snowy evening — to get directions to a reading. Over the years, pretty much anyone looking for news from far and near, be they eminent professors or the masses rushing to work on the Red Line, found it at Out of Town News. But the landmark shop, an axis at the center of Harvard Square’s bustle, may be about to go away.” [editor’s note: This truly IS a landmark in those climes, and will be sorely missed, although the internet has mostly replaced its scope - SAT] (11/20/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5roxjw | |
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Update, 11/20/08 – Thanks to contributors IJ and CF, and to subscribing contributor ADR! Their contributions yesterday, totaling $75, bring our running total to $3552.87 against our goal of $5,000! Hmmm … contributions seem to run in inverse proportion to my fundraising verbiage running out, so I think I’ll just continue keeping these updates short and sweet - TLK —– Dear readers, Earlier this year, I told you that RRND/FND would be moving to a “twice-a-year” fundraising schedule — and we’re keeping our word. We’ve even waited almost a month past mid-year to start our first 2008 drive. But now it’s time. The goal is $5,000, and we’ll keep plugging until we reach it (even if that means extending into our year-end fundraiser, which we’d certainly prefer not to do!). You can support “the freedom movement’s daily newspaper” (and our offshoot publications — 2nd Amendment News Digest, Liberty Action News Digest and Progressive News Digest) in any of several ways: One-Time Payments Online
Become a Subscribing Contributor! [Note: All subscription payments received during the fundraiser will be credited toward its total]
Other Options If you prefer to support RRND/FND through the International Society for Individual Liberty, to target your contribution to this project. Please drop me a line so that I can thank you and add your contribution to our total (ISIL doesn’t send us a daily report). If you’d like to send a check, money order, cash or other valuable thing via US Snail, again, write me so I can send you the address and instructions.
And Now For Something Completely Different Would you like to see NO MORE RRND/FND fundraisers for nearly a year? So would we … so here’s a “side bet.” Up-front disclaimer: This mid-year fundraiser WILL continue until the goal is met, even if that’s some time next year (hopefully it will be some time next month!). But, we’re running a simultaneous “contingent pledge drive” through Fundable.Com to raise ANOTHER $5k … and if we make it, our next fundraiser won’t be until at least mid-2009. It’s a simple concept: You pledge the amount of money you’re willing to contribute to that second $5k. If we raise $5k in pledges like yours, you pay. If we don’t, you don’t. That simple. Click here to make your pledge. We didn’t make the Fundable.Com goal … but we’ll set a new project of this type up Real Soon Now. Yours in liberty, | |
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“The Syrian facility bombed last year by Israel had features similar to a nuclear reactor and chemically processed uranium particles were found at the site, but a full assessment cannot be done until Syria provides ‘the necessary transparency,’ a new U.N. International Atomic Agency report said Wednesday. A second IAEA report said that Iran has persisted in blocking the agency’s probe of its nuclear program and continues to defy U.N. Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that produces fuel for nuclear weapons. The confidential reports by the nuclear watchdog’s director general, Mohammad ElBaradei, were sent to the agency’s 35-nation board of governors. Copies were posted on an Internet blog, armscontrolwonk.com.” (11/19/08) Link: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/56146.html | |
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“Senior state education leaders are considering expanding the state MCAS exams to include science experiments, group projects and oral presentations in an attempt to inject more critical thinking into the widely criticized tests. The recommendations, which were unveiled yesterday, respond to growing concerns that the state’s high school graduates are entering college or the workplace lacking the sophisticated skills needed to succeed, such as the ability to solve problems, communicate or work in teams. The state originally emphasized these ’21st Century skills’ after passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act, but many schools stopped teaching them as the state ramped up the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, which placed a higher premium on content knowledge.” [editor’s note: Having been among those who have “scored” some of the prior MCAS tests, I can only hope their group-approach is better! - SAT] (11/19/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5mptxq | |
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“With only 206 votes out of 2.9 million total ballots separating Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota from his Democratic opponent Al Franken, every vote counts — including the elusive 32 absentee ballots first reported to be found in a state official’s car three days after the election. The Coleman campaign claims that Minneapolis elections director Cynthia Reichert said the ballots had been ‘found’ in her car and would be counted. Reichert denies that account, saying no ballots ever were placed in her vehicle.” [editor’s note: Nobody asked, but it sure seems to me that if (1) a statewide election for US Senate is to be decided on 32 votes, and (2) the outcome could result in a filibuster-proof 60-40 Democrat (plus two “Independents”) dominance of said body … democracy has now provably outlived its usefulness! - SAT] (11/19/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/689spv | |
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“Madeleine Pickens, wife of Texas billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, said Tuesday that she plans to build a refuge for America’s wild horses, potentially saving thousands of them from slaughter. Pickens, a longtime horse enthusiast, hit upon the idea after she heard that the federal agency charged with managing the animals was considering euthanasia as a way to grapple with a looming budget crisis. ‘This is a solution, and it’s a solution that will work,’ Pickens told The Arizona Republic in a phone interview. ‘This is our heritage, and I am very excited about what we can do.’ Pickens said she plans to purchase between 500,000 and 1 million acres of Western land for her sanctuary, which would also house public-education and recreation programs.” (11/19/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6b8pdc | |
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“A Newport Beach-based Coast Guard crew earlier this week made a 9,987-pound marijuana seizure about 100 miles southwest of San Diego, an amount estimated to worth roughly $32 million. The seizure is one of the largest … the Coast Guard has done in the Southern California area in the past 15 years, said Coast Guard Lt. Kristopher Ensley. … The crew on the Coast Guard Cutter Narwhal spotted a suspicious boat on Sunday afternoon about 100 miles southwest of San Diego while patrolling. They spotted a vessel that was headed northbound going about 6 knots, but as the sun went down, the boat sped up.” (11/19/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6fjxel | |
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“A sheriff’s spokeswoman in Chattanooga says a deputy used an electric stun device on a 14-year-old student at Hixson High School. The Chattanooga Times Free Press quoted Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Janice Atkinson in reporting two students who were fighting Wednesday morning were arrested. Atkinson said school resource Officer Greg Carson used the stun device on one of them when he refused to stop fighting and became aggressive toward Carson. The spokeswoman said Carson had been called to the room to stop the fight and used the stun device after repeatedly warning the student to stop. The students’ names weren’t released.” (11/19/08) Link: http://tennessean.com/article/20081119/NEWS01/81119061 | |
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“Heads bowed and legs tucked behind them, a class of 10th-graders sits in silence on a wooden floor. On a platform at the front of the room, two Buddhist monks intone prayers before leading a 10-minute talk on ethics. At the end, several students shuffle forward on their knees to offer bowls of food. The weekly Buddhist ethics class is part of a pilot project that uses everything from meditation to dancing and singing to curb troubling levels of violence in Thai schools. Involving parents, teachers, school administrators and religious figures, the effort aims to instill tolerance and discipline in students, as well as instructors.” [editor’s note: Seems at least as effective as using “timeouts” and detentions for punishment - SAT] (11/20/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1120/p01s01-woap.htmlc | |
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“Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on separate charges related to alleged prisoner abuse in federal detention centers, Willacy County, Texas, District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra told CNN Tuesday. The indictment stems from Cheney’s investment in the Vanguard Group — an investment management company that reportedly has interests in the prison companies in charge of the detention centers, according to The Associated Press. It also charges Gonzales halted an investigation into abuse at the detention centers while he was attorney general.” (11/18/08) Link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/18/cheney.gonzales.indicted/ | |
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“Half the world’s population could face a shortage of clean water by 2080 because of climate change, experts warned Tuesday. Wong Poh Poh, a professor at the National University of Singapore, told a regional conference that global warming was disrupting water flow patterns and increasing the severity of floods, droughts and storms — all of which reduce the availability of drinking water. Wong said the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that as many as 2 billion people won’t have sufficient access to clean water by 2050. That figure is expected to rise to 3.2 billion by 2080 — nearly tripling the number who now do without it.” (11/18/08) Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27781117/ | |
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“Wine lovers, wine sellers, winemakers and retail grocers gathered Monday on Capitol Hill to debate — again — whether Tennessee should relax its liquor laws and allow wine to be sold on grocery shelves and over the Internet. ‘Wine and food go together on the table and should go together in the store,’ said Jarron Springer, president of the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association, who kicked off the three-hour hearing in a Senate hearing room packed wall to wall with lobbyists from both sides. Not so, countered Thad Cox, owner of Ashes Wine and Spirits in Knoxville, testifying on behalf of other small liquor retailers in the state. ‘If wine goes in the grocery stores, I guarantee you, each and every (mom-and-pop liquor store) in the state will have to sit down and make a decision about their staff, who they would have to lay off, or even whether they could keep their doors open,’ he said.” [editor’s note: And if the only reason those “mom&pop liquor stores” exist at all, is because they can sell bottles of wine … Begone with them! - SAT] (11/18/08) Link: http://tennessean.com/article/20081118/NEWS02/811180332 | |
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“Exotic dancer Kimberlee Ouwroulis has filed a complaint against a Mississauga strip club, New Locomotion, saying she was fired because of her age. The 44-year-old, who has taken an age discrimination complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, spoke to the Post’s Rob Roberts: Q My first question was going to be, how long did you expect to be stripping? But then I discovered you were 40 when you started stripping. How’d that come about? I started dancing on the suggestion of customers and managers at another bar where I had been waitressing for a year, at a strip club. I started in the business due to a nasty divorce.” (11/18/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6g88ar | |
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“The U.N. Human Rights Council, frequently accused of coddling some of the world’s most repressive governments, threw itself a party in Geneva Tuesday that featured the unveiling of a $23 million mural paid for in part with foreign aid funds. In a ceremony attended by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo told the press that his 16,000-square-foot ceiling artwork reminded him of ‘an image of the world dripping toward the sky’ — but it reminded critics of money slipping out of relief coffers.” (11/18/08) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454191,00.html | |
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“By hijacking a Saudi oil tanker — the largest ship ever taken — Somali pirates this week may have guaranteed their biggest ever haul of ransom. The capture of the Sirius Star, which can carry more than one-fourth of Saudi Arabia’s daily oil output, helped send prices above $58 a barrel. And the fact that it was nabbed 450 miles off Kenya’s coast is a sign of growing sophistication and reach by the pirates, who have tended to stay closer to the Gulf of Aden, a pinch point for sea traffic routed through the Suez Canal. The news also raises concern from some Western analysts that the pirates’ spoils could help fund a growing Islamist insurgency in Somalia, although there is little evidence of that so far.” (11/19/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1119/p01s03-woaf.html | |
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“A vast majority of physicians in Massachusetts say the fear of being sued is driving them to order unnecessary tests, procedures, referrals, and even hospitalizations, a phenomenon that is adding at least $1.4 billion to annual healthcare costs in the Bay State, according to a study released yesterday. The Massachusetts Medical Society reported that 83 percent of physicians surveyed said they have practiced so-called defensive medicine and that an average of 18 to 28 percent of tests, procedures, referrals, and consultations, and 13 percent of hospitalizations, were ordered to avoid lawsuits.” (11/18/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5pt4xc | |
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“Barack Obama said on Tuesday the United States would ‘engage vigorously’ in climate change talks when he is president, and he pledged to work to reduce emissions sharply by 2020, despite the financial crisis. The Democratic president-elect, who regularly criticized the Bush administration’s attitude toward global warming, reiterated his plans to start a ‘cap and trade’ system that limits carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from big industries. … Obama said he would not attend U.N.-sponsored climate talks in Poland in December as President George W. Bush will still be in office.” (11/18/08) Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSN18276285 | |
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“Calling it the most aggressive target in the nation, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order Monday calling for utilities to provide one-third of their power from renewable resources by 2020. ‘Today is all about changing our goals and raising the bar,’ Schwarzenegger said. Legislation will be drafted to put the 33 percent target into state law, to consider penalties for noncompliance, and to bolster the cost competitiveness of renewable energy, according to the governor’s aides. The executive order directs state agencies to consider the goal in all permitting processes.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11009573 | |
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“The likelihood of a final California Supreme Court showdown over same-sex marriage increased dramatically Monday when Attorney General Jerry Brown and the pro-Proposition 8 campaign urged the justices to decide whether the voter-approved ballot measure is constitutional. Both Brown, the state government’s top lawyer, and the Protect Marriage campaign organization plan to defend Prop. 8, which would write a ban on same-sex marriage into the state Constitution. In separate filings Monday, the liberal attorney general and the conservative sponsors of the initiative gave similar reasons for asking the court to review lawsuits filed by the measure’s opponents. ‘There is significant public interest in prompt resolution of the legality of Proposition 8. This court can provide certainty and finality in this matter,’ Deputy Attorney General Mark Benington said in court papers.” (11/17/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6ed9lc | |
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“Supporters of two former Border Patrol agents facing years in prison for the shooting of a fleeing drug smuggler are urging President Bush to commute their sentences. And if that fails, their lawyers plan to take their case to the Supreme Court. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, former Border Patrol agents, were convicted two years ago of assault, discharge of a weapon in the commission of a crime of violence, deprivation of civil rights and tampering with an official. Ramos was sentenced to 11 years in prison and Compean to 12, the bulk of the time coming from a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence for discharging their weapon.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,453444,00.html | |
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“Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) has a good shot at retaining his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee when Democrats cast their secret ballots tomorrow, according to Democratic insiders. And if he keeps the gavel, Democrats are floating a far less draconian punishment: Lieberman could get booted off the Armed Services or environmental committees as punishment for backing John McCain and questioning Barack Obama’s fitness to lead, Democrats say. Either way, Lieberman faces a day of reckoning tomorrow in the historic Old Senate Chamber during an organizational meeting of the Democratic caucus.” (11/17/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5sd7pt | |
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“Space shuttle Endeavour linked with the International Space Station on Sunday, kicking off a huge home makeover that will allow twice as many astronauts to live up there beginning next year. Commander Christopher Ferguson guided the shuttle to a smooth docking as the two spacecraft soared 212 miles above India. His ship’s radar worked just fine, despite earlier trouble with the antenna. ‘Can’t wait to open the hatch, guys, and welcome you aboard,’ said the space station’s skipper, Mike Fincke. His crewmate, Gregory Chamitoff, was especially excited to see Endeavour. He’s been living on the space station for almost six months, and the shuttle is his ride home.” (11/17/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5cqmwa | |
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“The military leader of the Basque terrorist group ETA was removed from the top of Spain’s most-wanted list early Monday morning, when French police arrested Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, alias Txeroki, in the Pyrenean town of Cauterets. Spanish police allege that he’s directly responsible for several murders. Txeroki, they say, is suspected of ordering the 2006 bombing at Madrid’s Barajas airport. … Although experts have been sounding the death-knell of ETA for years, the detention of Txeroki comes on the heels of several other significant arrests, including the recent capture of the group’s political leader.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1118/p06s01-wogn.html | |
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“When the Supreme Judicial Court handed down its landmark decision five years ago allowing same-sex couples to wed in Massachusetts, opponents warned that traditional marriage would be endangered, while supporters envisioned an equality movement that would spread across the nation. Over 11,000 same-sex marriages later, neither has happened. … Gay marriage rates leveled off at about 1,500 a year (about 4 percent of all state marriages) in 2006 and 2007. The divorce rate in Massachusetts has remained the same — the lowest in the country. And only one other state now allows same-sex marriage; 30 states have a ban against it. What’s really changed is more subtle than cosmic, more about the everyday lives of gay couples in Massachusetts than about a national transformation.” (11/17/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6knegs | |
Commentary
jump to News Section | jump to Events and Movement News Section
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“Henry Paulson’s $700 billion plan to save the world is dead or dying, but the bailout was not killed by his arrogance or his grossly misleading claims about what the public’s money would buy. The plan collapsed because it didn’t work. The Treasury secretary has launched a PR offensive to revive his falling influence. Too late. The Democrats should be equally embarrassed. In September their leaders in Congress rushed to embrace the Paulson solution, no hard questions asked. They now claim they were duped.” [editor’s noteL There are times when (uynlike many “progressive” pundits) Mr. Greider points his finger at ALL of the culprits in this chaos, instead of just targeting “those damned GOP neocons” … this is one of them! (We look forward to his first critical Obama column) - SAT] (11/19/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081208/greider | |
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“Speculation that President-elect Barack Obama may appoint Senator Hillary Clinton as secretary of state has induced reams of commentary on their personal compatibility, Bill Clinton’s income sources, and historical precedents for a Cabinet of rivals. … This ought to be a moment for a serious public conversation about the qualities needed at this precarious juncture. The nation’s top diplomat must be someone who has — and is known to have — the complete confidence of the president. Whatever mistakes she may have made, when Condoleezza Rice spoke to a foreign head of state her interlocutors understood that she spoke for the president. The same was true of James Baker when he served as secretary of state for the first President Bush.” (11/20/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6otfp8 | |
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“In the old days bank robbers went to jail. Today, the bankers and the robbers are one and the same, and they are being rewarded for incompetence with huge bags of extra money, courtesy of us taxpayers. We have centuries of history that prove that markets don’t go up forever. Bankers, more than almost any other group, should know this and if they do not, they should not be bankers. When bankers give mortgages to those who obviously can’t repay, there is a serious shortage of basic common sense (or maybe just plain stupidity) as well as a lack of financial responsibility to stockholders and customers. When you look at today’s banking and real estate crisis, it is clear to even the least sophisticated among us that common sense has been lacking and basic ethics are out the window.” (11/20/08) Link: http://tennessean.com/article/20081120/BUSINESS01/81120031 | |
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“When it comes to the transition, the most important cliché is this: If you know, you don’t say, and if you say, you don’t know. The work going on among the Agency Review teams and the personnel office remains hidden, leaving reporters to fixate on high-level appointments. And there haven’t been many. Sure, Rahm Emanuel publicly agonized over his appointment for a few days, and there have been constant (and conflicting) reports about Hillary Clinton’s potential role as secretary of state. But standards have dropped: In the past, good insider information told who was stabbing whom in the back to become Treasury secretary. Now the press just wants to know who got the job.” [editor’s note: “Drama-free Obama”? Hardly, with the prospect of the likes of Clinton, Napolitano, Emanuel, et alia in the wings - SAT] (11/20/08) Link: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_drama_free_transition | |
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Venezuela’s fork in the road: socialism or capitalism?
Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: David D. Sussman “As the dust settles after the US presidential vote, there is another important election that the world should watch. Venezuelan citizens head to the polls Nov. 23. At stake is the selection of governors for each of the country’s 22 states, as well as mayors for 338 of the largest cities. President Hugo Chávez already controls the legislature, has stacked the Supreme Court in his favor, and now hopes to consolidate his power at the regional and local levels.” (11/21/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1121/p09s01-coop.html | |
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“Next year, President Barack Obama and the solidly Democratic Congress can pass legislation that provides universal healthcare, establishes a sustainable energy program, reforms labor laws and restores environmental safeguards. In addition, the current economic crisis gives progressives an opportunity to pursue institutional reforms that have previously been off the table. We have nationalized elements of our financial system, but its institutions remain unresponsive to the needs of the American people. How can we hold the banks that we now own accountable? What adjustments can we make in our economic model so that the tremendous productivity of American workers will translate into higher wages and better lives? We can also put on the agenda issues that were ignored during the presidential campaign.” [editor’s note: One has to wonder how much Mr. Bleifuss expects to accomplish, with a “progressive” administration already having Rahm Emanuel installed as “power behind the throne” and now seriously considering putting imperialist-authoritarian Hillary Clinton (instead of a bring-the-troops-home Richardson?) in as Sec. of State … and “higher fence” Napolitano over Homeland Security! - SAT] (11/20/08) Link: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4038/we_have_much_to_celebrate/ | |
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“What can Barack Obama be thinking?I suspect that those in Obama’s circle who are promoting Gates may be the same advisers responsible for Obama’s most naïve comment of the recent presidential campaign: that the ’surge’ of U.S. troops into Iraq in 2007-08 ’succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.’ Succeeded? You betcha — the surge was a great success in terms of the administration’s overriding objective. The aim was to stave off definitive defeat in Iraq until President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney could swagger from the West Wing into the western sunset on Jan. 20, 2009.” (11/20/08) Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21275.htm | |
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“The biggest [Ponzi scheme] of them all by far, however, was launched just 15 years after Charles Ponzi’s was closed, is still running after 73 years, and is called ‘Social Security Insurance’. In truth, there are no such funds, and benefits are paid from new, incoming funds exactly as happens in any other Ponzi scheme; the differences are that (a) the point of maximum net inflow has long since passed, but instead of going out of business, SS has prolonged the fraud by reducing benefits and increasing premiums, (b) those premiums are not volunteered but are payments compelled at gunpoint, (c) the whole scheme is perfumed by backing it with the full faith and credit of the US Government, and (d) the fuzz descends not on the operators of the scheme but upon any who refuse to support it. To call that a Ponzi scheme is to dishonor the memory of a businessman who was certainly creative and quite possibly honest.” (11/19/08) Link: http://www.strike-the-root.com/82/davies/davies11.html | |
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“Obama’s foreign policy approach will likely come to nothing more or less than a matter of sticking blue helmets and the word ‘humanitarian’ on his immediate predecessor’s way of doing things. Or, to put it a different way, his foreign policy will likely feature the Clinton administration’s trappings and the Bush administration’s … vigor. This was fairly predictable from the start.” (11/20/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5562n2 | |
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“Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and other friends have spent the past year screaming about the horrors of Barack Obama. And, while it’s true that they talked ad nauseam about socialism and the Weathermen and Jeremiah Wright, careful listeners would have noticed a recurring theme of anxiety: that Obama was going to use the newly acquired levers of government to destroy them. Specifically, conservative paranoia over the possible reinstatement of the ‘fairness doctrine,’ a defunct policy requiring that broadcasters allow opposing points of view to be heard over the airwaves, has reached a fevered pitch.” (for publication 12/03/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5dabw4 | |
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“Svetlana Bakhmina, a Russian lawyer and mother, has never been involved in politics or public affairs. Yet this ordinary 39-year-old woman has become the famous yet invisible heroine of a drama that is both intensely personal and highly political … A former legal counsel for the Yukos oil company, Bakhmina has spent four years in a penal colony after being convicted of embezzling funds from the Yukos subsidiary Tomskneft (which disputed the charges and denied incurring any losses). The case against her is widely believed to have been trumped up as part of the politically motivated persecution of her former boss, jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who angered then-President Vladimir Putin with his political activism and funding of opposition groups.” (11/19/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5qr638 | |
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“The clear theme of Obama’s transition team, White House staff decisions, and leaked cabinet appointments has been experience. Rahm Emanuel. Tom Daschle. Eric Holder. John Podesta. Hillary Clinton. Jim Messina. Pete Rouse. Phil Chiliro. And on, and on, and on. There’s not much ‘change’ here. Rather, the emphasis is on folks who know how Washington works, with the clear operating theory being that they’ll know how to get things done. That’s a different conception of ‘change’ than presidents who come in and bring a lot of new people, which is what Clinton did (though, to be sure, Clinton didn’t have a successful recent administration he could draw on for talent). But it’s very similar to what Obama did in the primary.” [editor’s note: The more I see of “Obama’s concept of change,” the less I see of the real kind - SAT] (11/19/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/57n6r7 | |
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“‘What do we do now?’ That’s the question Bill McKay (Robert Redford), ponders in The Candidate (1972). He won the presidency, promising ‘a better way.’ After Nov. 4, America is asking Democrats the same haunting question. These are heady times for the party of Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and, now, President-elect Barack Obama. Only a few years ago, Democrats were almost relegated to permanent minority status by a ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign and an ass in a flight suit. … Republicans used the threat of ’socialism’ to turn the 2008 campaign into a referendum on conservatism. The result? Democrats notched their highest percentage of the popular vote since 1964 — when Lyndon B. Johnson won in one of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history.” (11/19/08) Link: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4041/mandate_for_change | |
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“This is not change we can believe in. Not if Robert Rubin or his protege, Lawrence Summers, get to call the shots on the economy in President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming administration. Both Clinton-era treasury secretaries deserve a great deal of the blame for the radical deregulation of the financial industry that has derailed the world economy. They both should, along with former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, perform rites of contrition and be kept at a safe distance from the leadership of our nation.” [editor’s note: The continued definition of what Clinton and Bush admin Treasury wonks did to the economy as “deregulation” aside … this is a fairly good piece - SAT] (11/19/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/scheer | |
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To turn the tide on Somalia piracy, bring justice to fisheries
Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Katie Stuhldreher “While Somalia’s weak transitional government fails to assert control on land, a band of highly organized pirates have taken firm control of the country’s sea lanes. The pirates’ recent seizure of a Ukrainian ship transporting military hardware and a Saudi oil supertanker has prompted the world to take action, with many countries sending warships to patrol the area around the Somali coast and Gulf of Aden. A longer-term solution may prove simpler and less costly: Forget about freight and focus on fishing. … a coalition force tasked with fishery protection should be deployed.” (11/20/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1120/p09s01-coop.html | |
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“With Mark Begich winning in Alaska, Gordon Merkley victorious in Oregon and Al Franken hot on Norm Coleman’s heels, it looks like the Democrats’ quest for 60 Senate seats is headin’ on down to Georgia, where early voting has begun in a run-off between Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin. Democrats are fighting an uphill battle in the red state: A Rasmussen poll shows Martin 4 points back and Georgia’s secretary of state reports a decrease in African-American turnout. But the party is doing its best to take the seat, and hoping that some of the residual enthusiasm from Barack Obama’s win will help Martin. Meanwhile, Republicans are doing their best to make sure this ends up as more than a war of Democratic aggression.” (11/19/08) Link: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/11/19/georgia_runoff/ | |
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“Is it better for the environment to eat takeout or cook at home? The downsides of takeout containers are obvious, but I live alone — and it seems pretty inefficient to cook for just one person. Can I justify ordering to-go on environmental grounds?” (11/18/08) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2204833/ | |
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“A gallon of regular, in fact, was retailing for less than a buck when Bill Ford began his term as chairman in January 1999. Ford trucks were selling like mad, and the company was on an acquisition binge. During the chairman’s first year, Ford hauled in more money than any car company ever had: a $7.2 billion profit on sales of $163 billion. Its 25 percent US market share put Ford within reach of General Motors, the world’s top vehicle manufacturer. (Earlier this year, Ford’s market share fell to around 15 percent, putting it well behind Toyota.) In theory, the gangbuster sales should have given executives leeway to experiment. Bill Ford also had Nasser, a president and CEO 10 years his senior with the clout to implement his vision. Former company executives say there’s a reason Nasser, not Ford, announced the fuel-economy initiative: ‘Nobody dared defy him,’ one of them recalls. ‘Nobody was afraid of Bill Ford.’ Indeed, nearly everyone I spoke with — from auto executives and industry analysts to environmentalists and activist shareholders — agreed that no matter his personal convictions, Bill Ford had neither the operational skills nor the management talent to make his green aspirations a reality. Instead, the chairman tried to tack environmental changes onto a business model focused obsessively on bigger, badder trucks — Built Ford Tough.” (11/08) Link: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/11/losing-focus.html | |
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“Now that the presidential campaign is over and gasoline has — for the time being — fallen well below $3 a gallon, the chants of ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!’ have died down. That is a welcome development, for during the campaign voters were lured by the siren’s song of offshore drilling and its supposed benefits, while hearing virtually nothing about its costs. But the truth is that the environmental price of offshore drilling could be very high, and in no place more so than the state where I live: Alaska.” (11/19/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5hmkjo | |
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“With all the talk of a new ‘Great Depression,’ Herbert Hoover has enjoyed an ignominious revival. On the day when Lehman Brothers winked out of existence and the simmering financial crisis boiled over, John McCain infamously pronounced that the ‘fundamentals of the economy are strong,’ a phrase that uncomfortably echoed Hoover’s 1929 pronouncement that ‘the fundamental business of the country … is on a sound and prosperous basis.’ Hoover’s inaction in the face of the mounting crisis has made him an enduring symbol of economic mismanagement, but as bad he was, his neglect was nowhere near that of his secretary of the treasury, Andrew Mellon.” [editor’s note: Mr, Hayes’ recommendation, that “nobody from Wall Street, and nobody involved in creating the current crisis,” might be tough to pull off, however correct it would be - SAT] (11/17/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/hayes | |
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“A lot will change on Jan. 20, when George W. Bush takes one last wistful glance around the Oval Office before heading back to Texas, and a few thousand Republicans begin finding out whether having ‘former Bush administration official’ on their resume is a help or a hindrance in getting that next job. It’s more than just a new set of policy goals and a round of executive orders undoing some of Bush’s worst offenses. For the first time in eight long years, the federal government will be managed by people who have a clue about what they’re doing.” (11/18/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5uw69p | |
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“When your car is burning oil, you have a few choices. Buy quart after quart and watch your money go up in smoke. Scrap it and try to manage without. Or overhaul the engine and keep it for the long run. As it stands, the $25 billion US auto industry bailout championed by congressional leaders amounts to another quart of oil. The only jobs it may save — temporarily — are those of executives, without forcing real accountability for management and unions. Hope, maybe. Change? Not a chance. … Consider a third way: Provide $25 billion in federally guaranteed loans only after company management seeks Chapter 11 protection, to finally and fundamentally restructure their operations, and prepare to compete. In other words, offer the carrot only after the stick.” (11/19/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1119/p09s01-coop.html | |
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“Find the common thread and win a free Prozac prescription: Treating cattle for lameness and fever drives vultures to the brink of extinction; planting biofuel crops fuels forced labor and sickness; drilling wells for the poor poisons a country. Not so long ago, millions of vultures swirled in dark, majestic clouds above the Asian subcontinent and performed a vital role: By eating carrion and waste — everything from ritually laid out human corpses to dead livestock — the scavengers cleansed the environment and checked infectious disease. Then, in the ’90s, the birds began mysteriously disappearing, until today, when 99.9 percent of them are dead.” (11/18/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6ykz5p | |
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“Since this is, by all accounts, a ‘defining moment’ in American history, let’s redefine the way we think about health. Over the past decade, a rich vein of research has detailed the links between large social forces — from income and discrimination to education and neighborhood safety — and a community’s physical and mental well-being. Last summer, a pair of fascinating reports — overlooked in the US press — drew on this perspective to suggest a blueprint for the next administration’s health agenda. Both reports stepped back from our conventional explanations of health — ‘individual lifestyle’ and ‘biomedical miracle’ — to analyze the structural factors behind disease and suffering in our society.” (11/18/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/674nob | |
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“A ruling by a Louisiana court could shed further light on the shadowy work of Beckett Brown International (BBI), the now defunct private security and investigations firm that spied on Greenpeace and other targets on behalf of corporate clients. On Monday, state appeals court judge Kent Savoie ordered two of the firm’s former officials, Tim Ward and Jay Bly, to testify or face potential contempt charges in a case related to a massive spill of ethylene dichloride in Lake Charles, Louisiana by chemical manufacturer Condea Vista. Working for Condea in the late 1990s, BBI mounted a wide-ranging operation to gather intelligence on the company’s opponents, including local activists and lawyers suing the chemical maker on behalf of clients harmed during the cleanup of the 1994 spill. In addition to tailing activists and obtaining the phone records of Condea opponents, BBI installed a mole inside a Lake Charles environmental group to report inside information about the organization’s strategy and campaigns.” (11/18/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6ma6fg | |
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“If the Republican Party wants to recover from the Great Drubbing of 2008, it shouldn’t waste too much time worrying about how to turn blue states red. It should be thinking about how to turn itself green. There are signs the party knows this. Reports of actual substance from the Obama/McCain meeting on Monday were scarce, but aides speculated that they discussed climate change. … Still, the Democrats get all the publicity on the climate-change issue — the Dalai Lama of green, Al Gore, is one of them. What must be doubly frustrating to Republicans is that their policies can be pretty green, too. There’s actually plenty of overlap between the interests of conservatives and environmentally conscious Americans.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2204859/ | |
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“It’s no secret that most of the liberal blogosphere loves Howard Dean and loathes Joe Lieberman. So it’s interesting to see how progressive bloggers have responded to the news that Dean supports Senate Democrats’ decision to give Lieberman a slap on the wrist for his efforts on behalf of John McCain and other Republicans over the past year. Responding to the news that Senate Democrats voted 42-13 to allow Lieberman to keep his position as Homeland Security chairman, Dean told Greg Sargent of TPMElection Central that he’s ‘fine’ with the outcome, saying that the senators only did what President-elect Barack Obama wanted them to.” (11/18/08) Link: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/11/18/dean_lieberman/ | |
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“In January of 2009 — on New Year’s Day, to be precise — it will have been half a century since the brave and bearded ones entered Havana and chased Fulgencio Batista and his cronies (carrying much of the Cuban treasury with them) off the island. Now the chief of the bearded ones is a doddering and trembling figure, who one assumes can only be hanging on in order to be physically present for the 50th birthday of his ‘revolution.’ It’s of some interest to notice that one of the ways in which he whiles away the time is the self-indulgence of religion, most especially the improbable religion of Russian Orthodoxy.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2204820/ | |
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“When president George W. Bush assumed office, most of those disgruntled about the stolen election contented themselves with this thought: Given our system of checks and balances, given the gridlock in Washington, how much damage could be done? Now we know: far more than the worst pessimists could have imagined. From the war in Iraq to the collapse of the credit markets, the financial losses are difficult to fathom. And behind those losses lie even greater missed opportunities. Put it all together — the money squandered on the war, the money wasted on a housing pyramid scheme that impoverished the nation and enriched a few, and the money lost because of the recession — and the gap between what we could have produced and what we did produce will easily exceed $1.5 trillion.” (11/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5vg23z | |
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“With half the state yet again in flames, I find myself of two minds with respect to the residents of California. On the one hand, my heart aches or this latest crop of Californians to lose their homes in this month’s out-of-control brush fires. On the other hand, it amazes me that, despite seeing these same fires every few months, so many Americans continue to cling to the fantasy that California is a ‘green’ state. That California routinely burns to the ground from groundwater abuse, and yet so many residents of that state imagine themselves on the cutting edge of the sustainability revolution, is one of the greatest feats of collective self-delusion in the history of the United States — as if dropping a brick in your toilet tank, driving a Prius, and wearing organic t-shirts constituted a sustainable economy.” (11/17/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5qmh6v | |
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“Since the election, the newspapers and Internet have been flooded with unsolicited advice for President-elect Barack Obama. I’ll go ahead and add mine. I don’t agree with Obama on much (I don’t agree with the current administration on much, either), so I won’t make an appeal with him to compromise with the Republicans on the issues where I agree with them. Instead, here are a few recommendations — some substantive, some symbolic — of moves Obama could make that are consistent with the principles he articulated during the campaign: Increase government transparency. The Bush administration has been the most secretive in history. … Open up the White House. This would largely be a symbolic move, but I think it’s an important one.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,453093,00.html | |
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“Democrat-turned-independent-turned-John-McCain-backer Joe Lieberman faces an election of sorts on Tuesday. … Arguments have been made that, because of his support for McCain and his neo-conservative stances on foreign-policy issues, Lieberman should be stripped of all his committee assignments. And some pound-of-flesh critics propose expelling him from the caucus.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/state_of_change/383982 | |
Events and Movement News
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“Bharati Chaturvedi, the director and cofounder of Chintan, a small Indian NGO that provides education to waste-pickers, claims that more than 1 percent of Delhi’s population sifts through garbage, recycling as much as 59 percent of the city’s waste. ‘These waste-pickers are providing a public service — for free,’ she says. That may soon change. A new waste incinerator that turns trash into electricity is slated to be built in Timarpur, a suburb of Delhi. Because it will reduce the amount of methane off-gassed by landfills, it will generate carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol. But the incinerator will also emit cancer-causing dioxins, mercury, heavy metals, and fly ash. Are the carbon credits available under Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism worth putting thousands of impoverished waste-pickers out of business?” (07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/638ptj | |