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“Former U.S. lawmaker and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and several other human rights activists remained in an Israeli prison Thursday after refusing to sign a deportation form that they claim is self-incriminating. In a press release from the Green Party, McKinney said the form states that the Spirit of Humanity, a Greek-flagged relief boat carrying 21 activists, medical supplies, cement, olive trees and children’s toys en route to Gaza, was violating the Israeli blockade and trespassing the country’s territorial waters.” (07/02/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/nx7l3o | |
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“An array of government-created insurance agencies — which have long charged bargain-rate premiums to banks, credit unions, and brokerages — are seeking to make up for massive shortfalls in their insurance funds by raising fees and premiums, many of which are likely to be passed on to consumers. The billions of dollars in new fees are the result of decisions by Congress and the agencies to allow the insurance funds and premiums to be capped at levels that proved far too low, according to Jeffrey R. Brown, a finance professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who has studied the issue. ‘This is what happens when you put the government in charge of an insurance program,’ Brown said. ‘Politically, they don’t run them the way the need to be run.’” (07/02/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/lu9u5v | |
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“This could become the third time in a row that Americans struggle out of recession only to find themselves in a so-called ‘jobless recovery.’ The phrase became popular back in the early 1990s, when a frigid post-recession job market paved the way for Bill Clinton to defeat incumbent George H. W. Bush in the 1992 presidential election. Then the pattern was repeated after the 2001 recession, in a more pronounced way. Despite a disappointing monthly jobs report Thursday, the good news is that economists generally expect the US economy to start growing again later this year. But the report, showing 9.5 percent unemployment in June, served as a reminder that the current environment for US workers is unusually tough.” (07/02/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/n4l5zn | |
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“Facebook is revising its privacy settings to give the more than 200 million users of the social network the ability to share as much or as little about themselves online as they want. Chris Kelly, chief privacy officer at the Palo Alto, California-based company, outlined the changes in a post on the Facebook blog. Kelly said Facebook would now offer a tiered level of privacy options for its users including ‘all of your friends, your friends and people in your school or work networks, and friends of friends.’ There is also an option to publicly share with everyone on the Web in what is being seen as an effort by Facebook to compete with the hot micro-blogging service Twitter.” (07/02/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mr6gz5 | |
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“In a major break with most other large companies, Wal-Mart said Tuesday in a letter to President Barack Obama that it supports a move to mandate health insurance coverage by employers. ‘We are for an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage,’ said the letter, signed by Wal-Mart Chief Executive Mike Duke. Also signing were two prominent liberals: Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, and with John Podesta, former Bill Clinton chief of staff and head of the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank. The move ‘flabbergasted’ the National Retailer’s Federation, according to the Wall Street Journal.” (07/01/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/l6vrur | |
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“Gov. Phil Bredesen just vetoed a bill that would have prevented local health boards from enacting menu-labeling requirements. The Metro Board of Health moved to put such requirements in place earlier this year, but a group of Metro Council members then filed legislation to repeal the board’s action. The council has been waiting for the state and Congress to act. The bill barely survived an initial council vote in March.” (07/01/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/nomgyo | |
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“Al Franken’s recount victory in Minnesota’s US Senate race gives the Democratic majority its 60th senator — but no guarantee that the new ’supermajority’ will hold on tough votes on energy, healthcare reform, and war. That 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster by the minority party has been Exhibit A in fundraising appeals on both sides of the aisle throughout the 239-day recount in Minnesota. What the red-flagged e-mail appeals didn’t say was this: It may not matter. Take Jimmy Carter — the last US president with a filibuster-proof majority, at least on paper. President Carter came into office in 1977 with a head count of 61 senators in the Democratic majority, but it didn’t ensure him the votes to jump-start a morose economy or move White House tax and welfare reforms.” (07/01/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/lbngsb | |
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“Federal drug regulators warned Wednesday that patients taking two popular stop-smoking drugs should be watched closely for signs of serious mental illness, as reported suicides among the drugs’ users mount. But officials emphasized that patients should not be scared away from taking the smoking-cessation medicines, Chantix, made by Pfizer, and Zyban, made by GlaxoSmithKline. … The F.D.A. required Pfizer and Glaxo to place so-called black box warnings — the agency’s most serious caution — on the prescribing information for both drugs. Both companies will be required to conduct clinical trials to assess the mental health risks associated with the drugs’ uses.” (07/01/09) Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/health/02drug.html | |
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“Dozens of wind turbines could sprout within sight of the Massachusetts shoreline under a first-of-its-kind state blueprint with the promise of generating both electricity and controversy. The draft plan, scheduled to be released today, would allow a series of small wind farms of up to 10 turbines each in coastal waters that stretch 3 miles from shore. Substantially larger farms — similar to what’s proposed in Nantucket Sound — could be built off Cape Cod near Cuttyhunk Island and adjacent to another tiny island several miles off Martha’s Vineyard.” (07/01/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mqa3sl | |
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“Approximately 229 detainees from ‘about two dozen countries’ are still held in Guantanamo, according to the latest Pentagon figures, provided to AFP. Of the remaining detainees, the largest group — about 100 men — is from Yemen. The next most represented nationals are Afghans and Algerians, with about 20 from each country, according to the US Department of Defense. In addition, the Pentagon said there are roughly 10 Saudi detainees and 13 Chinese Muslim ethnic Uighurs left at the detention facility in the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in southeastern Cuba. There are between five and 10 detainees each from Libya, Pakistan, Syria and Tunisia, according to the figures.” (06/30/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mupnph | |
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“Oregon’s House of Representatives voted Monday night to legalize the cultivation of hemp, becoming the sixth state to do so just this year. Oregon’s Senate voted 27 to 2 in favor of the new law last week. Monday’s 46 to 11 House vote means that the measure will become law, barring an unlikely veto by Governor Ted Kulongoski. The move is part of a rapidly growing nationwide trend to liberalize laws relating to marijuana. Hemp is a botanical cousin of marijuana, traditionally used to make clothing, rope and other durable fiber goods.” (06/30/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/l62rsq | |
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“Both Russia and Georgia claim to fear a fresh attack from the other. That’s why, each insists, they’re staging war games and building up military forces to levels unseen since last August’s brief but brutal war over the breakaway Georgian territory of South Ossetia. Some experts suggest the Russians may be testing President Barack Obama, who arrives in Moscow on Monday, the very day Russia’s current military mobilization is scheduled to end. Together with its new allies South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Moscow is this week holding its biggest post-Soviet army maneuvers amid the tense, mountainous borderlands where last summer’s war raged. Georgia has denounced the Kavkaz-2009 games, which feature 8,500 troops and 200 tanks, as ‘pure provocation’ and a possible prelude to renewed hostilities.” (06/30/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/n44thy | |
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“Officials in New Haven, Conn., illegally discriminated against white members of the city’s fire department when they refused to honor the results of a civil service exam after no African-Americans qualified for a promotion. The US Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 on Monday that the Connecticut city violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by using race as the key criterion in refusing to certify a group of white and Hispanic firefighters for promotion. City officials said they were afraid that if they promoted the white and Hispanic firefighters but no African-American firefighters, the city would be subject to a lawsuit by black firefighters. The high court disagreed.” (06/29/09) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0629/p02s04-usju.html | |
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“The handgun battle is heading from Capitol Hill to City Hall. Local governments and advocates for firearms owners are gearing up for a summer face-off over how far to take a new state law that lets people with carry permits bring handguns into parks. City councils across Tennessee, including Nashville and Hendersonville, are moving to reaffirm their bans on handguns in parks following passage of a new state law. But people opposed to handgun restrictions are mobilizing to block their efforts. … A state law signed earlier this month by Gov. Phil Bredesen has touched off the debate. The law is meant to let handgun permit holders carry their weapons into every park in the state, wiping out local policies governing handguns.” [editor’s note: Once again, the greatest value of the 2nd Amendment’s affirmation of the right to bear arms is in not knowing who might be packing in a given situation; someone seeking to do wrong must consider the risks — which disappear instantly when law-abiding citizens (who’ve even gone to the trouble of obtaining carry-permits?) become disarmed by law! - SAT] (06/29/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/l2xeyg | |
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“Swiss banks are shutting the accounts of Americans as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service accelerates the hunt for tax dodgers. UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group AG, the country’s biggest banks, have told Americans to move their money into specially created units registered in the U.S., or lose their accounts. Smaller private banks such as Geneva-based Mirabaud & Cie. are closing all accounts held by U.S. taxpayers. While the banks declined to say how many people are affected, more than 5 million Americans live abroad, including about 30,000 in Switzerland, according to estimates from American Citizens Abroad in Geneva. Swiss banks must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission to provide services for those customers.” (06/29/09) Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_8VwpO5m0WQ | |
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“American adults from young to old disagree increasingly today on social values ranging from religion to relationships, creating the largest generation gap since divisions 40 years ago over Vietnam, civil rights and women’s liberation. A survey being released today by the Pew Research Center highlights a widening age divide after last November’s election, when 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Democrat Barack Obama by a 2-to-1 ratio. Almost 8 in 10 people believe there is a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people today, according to the independent public-opinion research group. That is the highest spread since 1969, when about 74 percent reported major differences in an era of generational conflicts over the Vietnam War and civil and women’s rights.” [editor’s note: The funny part of this is, many of us “free love” Boomers are now becoming the “old farts” … standing in the way of youthful exuberance and new ideas about self-expression - SAT] (06/29/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/kkw7at | |
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“When the longtime mayor of North Adams, John Barrett III, picks up the phone these days, he often hears a familiar deep voice that he once acidly complained wasn’t heard very much in his city or other smaller venues in Massachusetts. John F. Kerry’s voice. ‘He’ll say, What do you need? What’s going on back there? How can I help you?‘ Barrett said. ‘I’ve been all over him like a cheap suit when I think he’s wrong about something or not paying attention,’ added Barrett, a Democrat who snubbed Kerry to endorse GOP Senate candidate William Weld in 1996. ‘I would go through the wall now for John Kerry, and I wouldn’t have said that 10 years ago.’” (06/29/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/l4hd7o | |
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“Governor Deval Patrick plans to announce a spending proposal tomorrow that retains medical coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants who are at risk of losing it, and will also agree to ensure dental coverage for another 700,000 of the state’s poorest residents, administration officials said yesterday. State-subsidized coverage for the two groups has been endangered this year as Patrick and lawmakers struggled to craft a budget amid an economic downturn that has sharply curtailed tax revenues. The governor will propose the healthcare spending for legal immigrants as an amendment to the state’s $27.4-billion budget that he will sign tomorrow. Patrick’s proposal for the legal immigrants is a short-term fix that will require more work with lawmakers, who have resisted the coverage because it is especially expensive for the state.” (06/28/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/lo9j94 | |
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“The White House left open the possibility Sunday that President Obama could tax employer-provided health insurance to pay for his $1 trillion universal healthcare plan, a violation of the president’s campaign pledge to not raise taxes on middle-class families. White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration wouldn’t rule out taxing some employees’ benefits to fund a healthcare agenda that has yet to take final form. The move would be a compromise with fellow Democrats, who are pushing the proposal as a way to pay for the massive undertaking without ballooning the federal deficit. ‘There are a number of formulations and we’ll wait and see. The important thing at this point is to keep the process moving, to keep people at the table, to the keep the discussions going,’ Axelrod said. ‘We’ve gotten a long way down the road and we want to finish that journey.’” (06/28/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/lsr8s6 | |
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“India is set to review its long-standing laws barring gay sex, in a move that could decriminalize homosexuality in the largely conservative country, a report said Sunday. Consensual sex between same-sex adults is currently punishable by a fine and a 10-year prison term under the Indian Penal Code, and most politicians have so far resisted amending the statute which dates back to British rule. Now three key ministers have agreed to meet shortly to discuss a possible revamp of the country’s homosexuality laws.” (06/28/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/kr7aac | |
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“Lucie Kundra is something of a feminist rebel — not because she wouldn’t take her husband’s name when they got married in 2008, but because she did. She adopted his surname exactly as it was and in doing so defied centuries of tradition and the wishes of her own mother. That’s because she refused to add the customary feminine suffix ‘ova’ to the end of her husband’s name, as the Czech language normally dictates; she answers to Lucie Kundra, not Lucie Kundrova. … Though still a small minority, more and more young Czech women are grappling with that question as women make further inroads in Czech society and inch closer to parity with men.” (06/28/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mtnblc | |
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“The U.S. is shifting its strategy against Afghanistan’s drug trade, phasing out funding for opium eradication while boosting efforts to fight trafficking and promote alternate crops, the U.S. envoy for Afghanistan said Saturday. The aim of the new policy: to deprive the Taliban of the tens of millions of dollars in drug revenue that is fueling its insurgency. The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told the Associated Press that poppy eradication — for years a cornerstone of U.S. and U.N. efforts in the country — was not working and was only driving Afghan farmers into the hands of the Taliban. ‘Eradication is a waste of money,’ Holbrooke said on the sidelines of a Group of Eight foreign ministers’ meeting on Afghanistan, during which he briefed regional representatives on the new policy.” (06/28/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/kr9mrd | |
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“A clearly emotional Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina Sunday invoked former President Clinton as a defense for why embattled Gov. Mark Sanford, also of South Carolina, should potentially be allowed to finish his term. Senator Graham is the godfather of Governor Sanford’s fourth and youngest son, and he fielded questions about Sanford’s admitted infidelity with difficulty on NBC’s Meet the Press. In a contrite moment, he called the GOP a party of sinners — apparently referring to his own religious convictions, because he added that the same was true of ‘every other group in America.’” [editor’s note: The hypocrisy of this clown, after the way he hounded Billy Boy so (for all the wrong reasons) - SAT] (06/28/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ndnrkc | |
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“The Federal Emergency Management Agency ignored the law and misused millions of dollars to build two warehouses after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, according to government investigators. Some of the money FEMA misused should have gone toward Katrina victims in Louisiana, according to a Homeland Security Inspector General report obtained by the Associated Press. The report is expected to be released today. ‘FEMA had no authority to use appropriated funds to construct the two buildings,’ the investigators said, adding that the agency violated a prohibition against agreeing to spend money without congressional authority.” (06/25/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mtuqfc | |
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“Congress has yet to come up with a clear prescription for the nation’s healthcare system. But some state legislators are already urging voters not to take the medicine. Under Arizona’s Health Care Freedom Act, which was passed by the state legislature this week, a voting initiative will be placed on the 2010 ballot that, if passed, will allow the state to opt out of any federal healthcare plan. Five other states — Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming — are considering similar initiatives for their 2010 ballots. ‘Our healthcare freedoms are very much at risk by healthcare reforms proposed in Washington, D.C.,’ said Arizona state Rep. Nancy Barto, the Republican legislator who sponsored the measure. ‘We needed to act as a state to protect our citizens and ensure that they will always be able to buy their own healthcare and not be forced into a plan they don’t want.’” (06/25/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mz7h6x | |
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“Federal authorities indicted 53 people on Wednesday on suspicion of scheming to cheat Medicare out of $50 million. Suspects were arrested in Detroit, Miami and Denver as part of a wide-ranging effort by the government to crack down on those allegedly defrauding the government-funded health-care program for the elderly and disabled. Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced the charges at a news conference in Washington. Sebelius said the Obama administration is determined to crack down on Medicare fraud through new teams of investigators detecting patterns of false billing. Forty of the suspects have already been arrested and the rest are being sought, authorities said.” (06/25/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/kkzbwy | |
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“One’s a pub classic, belted out at top volume by tipsy patrons around closing time. The other is a more dignified affair, a favorite of youth choirs and choral groups. Now, as unlikely as it seems, the classic children’s song, Kookaburra, and the Men At Work hit, Down Under, are set to go head-to-head in court amid accusations part of the rock anthem is a rip-off, the Daily Telegraph reports. Music publishing company Larrikin owns the Kookaburra song and claims the melody that accompanies the line ‘Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree’ is reproduced in Down Under. The case is due to start in full within days. … The part of the [latter] song that is alleged to have breached copyright is the distinctive flute-riff.” [editor’s note: I’m as staunch a defender of song-rights as they come, but this seems specious at best (far less than 8 bars of music) … and about 25 years after-the-fact as well - SAT] (06/24/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ldeg5y | |
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“California state controller John Chiang warned Wednesday that if legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fail to come up with a budget-balancing package in the next week, he would begin paying California’s bills with IOUs on July 2. The controller’s warning came as legislators began what many on both sides of the aisle acknowledged was a rhetorical song-and-dance over closing a $24 billion deficit that stretches over the fiscal year that ends Tuesday and the one that begins Wednesday. Republicans in both houses were rejecting a Democratic bill that contained $11 billion in spending cuts — the first of a 20-bill package aimed at reducing the deficit. The Democratic plan contains new tax hikes and some accounting legerdemain along with the spending cuts.” (06/24/09) Link: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/70621.html | |
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“Iran’s Sunni Arab neighbors have long feared its revolutionary rhetoric, its Islamist political style, and its popularity among many of their own citizens for its strident criticism of Israel. With that background, one would expect the Arab states to be jumping for joy at the political turmoil in Iran, a Shiite oil power. But so far their response has been muted to non-existent. Here’s why: The mechanism that has created Iran’s biggest political crisis since the Islamic revolution in 1979 is street power, the voice of a disenfranchised populace. And while that might eventually deliver a regime in Iran that Arab states would be more comfortable with, it also provides a powerful immediate example of the sort of popular sovereignty that the autocratic Arab regimes fear most.” (06/24/09) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0625/p06s01-wome.html | |
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“Overseers of Massachusetts’ trailblazing healthcare program made their first cuts yesterday, trimming $115 million, or 12 percent, from Commonwealth Care, which subsidizes premiums for needy residents and is the centerpiece of the 2006 law. The board of the Connector Authority made the cuts as officials confronted two side effects of the recession: the state budget crisis and a surge in enrollment by the recently unemployed. The largest share of the savings will come from slowing enrollment. An estimated 18,000 poor residents who qualify for full subsidies, but who forget to designate a health plan, will no longer be automatically assigned a plan and enrolled and thus could face delays in getting care.” [editor’s note: This bears watching, ESPECIALLY because MassCare is now being touted as a model for the proposed nationalization of wellness - SAT] (06/24/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/nzufc4 | |
Commentary
jump to News Section | jump to Events and Movement News Section
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“A year ago, the idea of setting national education standards was a lot like the idea of legalizing marijuana: Despite all common sense, it just wasn’t going to happen. It didn’t matter that No Child Left Behind proved that when states are allowed to define their own standards, most dumb them down. … Yet on June 1, the National Governors’ Association announced that 49 states and territories have signed on to an agreement, called the Common Core Standards Initiative, to develop national standards in math and English. For education reformers across the political spectrum who have long urged that the United States join its developed world peers in articulating national standards, the news is a major victory.” (07/02/09) Link: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=testing_testing | |
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“This is probably not the best week to air any reservations about the American passion for independence. After all, we don’t have fireworks for Dependence Day. We don’t hold parades to celebrate Interdependence Day. Our allegiance to independence as a nation is Yankee doodle dandy. But I’m wondering whether our ode to independence as a people is a bit over the top. We foster an unrealistic view of the way we live, not just in the designated years of caring for our children but in the undesignated years when we care for our elders. Maybe independence is too crisply defined as ‘exemption from reliance on, or control by, others; direction of one’s own affairs without interference.’” (07/03/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/n7zr3g | |
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“Sometimes, the whole world prefers a lie to the truth. The White House, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and much of the media have condemned the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this past weekend as a coup d’etat. That is nonsense. In fact, what happened here is nothing short of the triumph of the rule of law. To understand recent events, you have to know a bit about Honduras’s constitutional history. … It has endured because it responds and adapts to changing political conditions: Of its original 379 articles, seven have been completely or partially repealed, 18 have been interpreted, and 121 have been reformed.” (07/02/09) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0702/p09s03-coop.html | |
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Drug manufacturers: $80 bil in Rx savings … but what’s their angle?
Source: Our Future Author: Monica Sanchez “Prescription drug manufacturers, represented by their trade and lobbying group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), have one of the most powerful and successful lobbies in Congress. Seeing them willing to give away $80 billion over the next ten years shows just how strong the push for health care reform is now and how much more savings could be had from prescription drug costs. Otherwise, PhRMA would just keep up its pressure on Congress to forestall any legislation that affected its members’ bottom line, as it has in the past. One of the drug lobby’s most significant victories came when the 2003 Medicare law, which added a long-awaited drug benefit to the program (Part D), was passed.” (07/02/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/l58qld | |
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“Just before midnight on a Friday evening a week before Iran’s much-disputed June 12 election, the initial tremors of the earthquake that has shaken the country to its core were palpable deep in south Tehran, a gritty, working-class section of the city with a reputation for being a stronghold of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Past shuttered shops and empty, debris-strewn sidewalks, a late-night stream of cars, trucks and motorcycles, engines revving, horns honking, roared along the wide boulevard.” (07/01/09) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090720/dreyfuss | |
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“Apple’s iPhone looks good enough to eat. I’ve yet to take a bite of this ’smart’ phone, but know that once I do, there will be no going back; I’ll be reaching for it before I get out of bed and updating my Facebook status from yoga class. … The temptation to join the growing legions of iPhone admirers is strong. So what’s stopping me from signing up? Purchasing an iPhone means I have to become an AT&T subscriber. The company has an exclusive deal with Apple to provide wireless service to iPhoners — I’m backed into a corner. If I don’t like AT&T, or it’s not available in my area, I’m facing a digital impasse: no service, no phone.” (07/02/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ox55ok | |
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“It wasn’t surprising when, after seven months of legal wrangling, the Minnesota Supreme Court declared that Al Franken had won the 2008 Senate race against incumbent Norm Coleman. Still less surprising (although vastly more entertaining) was the simultaneous breakdown of nearly all of Franken’s adversaries on the right, whose regurgitated insults, whining complaints and exploding noggins revealed nothing about him or his victory — and everything about them.” (07/03/09) Link: http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/07/03/al_franken/ | |
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“This Monday, in the New Haven, Conn., firefighters case Ricci v. DeStefano, the Supreme Court held that it’s unlawful race discrimination for an employer to refuse to act on the results of a promotion exam because the test eliminated a disproportionate number of minority candidates (in the New Haven case, all the black firefighters up for promotion). I’ve written before that this argument threatens to burn down civil rights law. Now that the fuse has been lit, I’m writing to explain just how far the fire could spread.” [editor’s note: What’s “disproportionate?” Is there never any case in which a particular group of members of “race A” might perform better or worse than a particular group of members of “race B” at some particular task for some reason OTHER than the “races” involved? - TLK] (07/02/09) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2222092/ | |
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“Over the past couple of weeks there’s been a lot of blogospheric chatter surrounding a cost-benefit analysis of Waxman-Markey done by Jim Manzi. I’m not going to link to the dozens of posts going back and forth about it, but suffice it to say that Manzi concludes that W-M isn’t a good deal. Over the next century, it’s going to cost us more in lost economic growth than it will benefit us in reduced global warming. I didn’t get involved in this conversation for a simple reason: I’ve been on both the producing and receiving end of too many cost benefit analyses to trust them. If you’re being relatively honest and if you’re dealing with fairly concrete, short-term issues, they’re useful tools, but even then it’s still the case that you can manufacture strikingly divergent conclusions by manipulating your assumptions and inputs by surprisingly small amounts.” (07/01/09) Link: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/07/waxman-markey-worth-it | |
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“It hardly seems worth mentioning that the search for role models of sexual rectitude has gone pretty badly lately. That famous poster of Farrah Fawcett — her golden locks tumbling around her shoulders and her gleaming smile offering a girl-next-door counterpoint to the suggestiveness of her red swimsuit — sure makes it look as though, by comparison, the 1970s were an era of wholesomeness. They weren’t. It was about then that social conservatives — fed up with sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, divorce, Roe v. Wade, women surging into the work force and who knows what else — began organizing politically to stamp out all this threatening change. They failed. But eventually they did succeed in imposing their prescription — abstinence-only sex education that studies have repeatedly shown doesn’t work — on the one group of sexually active people most in need of hard information and least likely to respond to harangues: teenagers.” (07/02/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/m3bdk9 | |
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“It’s encouraging that General Jim Jones, the national security adviser, seems to have laid down the law to US generals in Afghanistan: no more troops. That’s not the same as less troops, but it’s a start. In a lengthy Washington Post report, Jones is quoted extensively telling the generals that economic development in Afghanistan will win the fight with the Taliban, not more soldiers. And he used rather colorful language to make his point. During the meeting with Jones, General Nicholson, the US commander, dropped hints that he’d like more forces.” (07/01/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mm3w7o | |
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“When the Democrats started their campaign for a congressional majority in 2006, at the center of their platform was a simple promise: competence. The party of government was going to make government work again. Coming a year after Hurricane Katrina and amid U.S. attorney purges and military contractor scandals in Iraq, it was no small claim. Now the party of government is the Party Of Government. President Barack Obama is rolling out major policy programs in response to the financial crisis, the recession, and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress is overhauling the healthcare system, putting together a landmark energy bill, and composing the most comprehensive financial regulatory reform since the Great Depression.” (07/01/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mkvmfx | |
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“How can it be that 70,000 protesters in Leipzig in 1989 tore down the Berlin Wall, while up to a million protesters in Tehran in 2009 managed only — so far — to trigger repression? Or, to phrase it differently, what’s the tipping point for revolution? Just when does civil society trump entrenched political power? Different observers would, of course, give different answers along the spectrum, running from a historian’s retrospective determinism to a journalist’s fixation on daily blips. But whatever the viewpoint, the similarities and the differences between Leipzig and Tehran are striking.” (07/01/09) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0701/p09s01-coop.html | |
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“Congress will be appointing a special commission to investigate the causes of the economic crisis and to determine who is to blame. This proposal originated among progressives who wanted to see a replay of the depression era Pecora Commission, which exposed the Wall Street corruption that laid the basis for the 1929 stock market crash and the depression that followed. At the very least, a similar exposure of the greedheads at Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and the rest could provide an element of justice to this disaster and possibly lay the basis for criminal prosecutions of the worst offenders. Undoubtedly there are many multi-millionaires at these institutions who would make far more appropriate prisoners than some of the 2 million current guests of our criminal justice system. Unfortunately, there is a real possibility that the commission appointed by Congress may follow a different precedent. Instead of striving to uncover the truth, it may seek to conceal it.” (07/01/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/n6fjon | |
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“Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer, the original head of the unit dedicated to hunting down Osama bin Laden before 9/11 and the anonymous author of ‘Imperial Hubris,’ knows a whole lot about national security and counterterror strategy. That can’t really be debated. But he’s also a hothead, and he tends to embrace the extremist fringes of whatever issue he’s discussing. So combine him with Fox News host Glenn Beck, and there’s bound to be some fireworks. When Scheuer appeared on Beck’s show Tuesday afternoon, though, things got even weirder than you might normally expect.” (07/01/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mmprew | |
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“What Sullivan got absolutely right in 1938 is that technology, culture, business, and audience tastes are always in flux, making it the job of writers young and old to grab the best available tools and get to the business of chronicling the world. If Sullivan were alive today, I’ll bet he’d be encouraging journalists to study PHP and Javascript, to hone their video-cutting skills, and to learn how to manipulate databases. The cheap tools and affordable devices the average Joe has at his disposal to produce precision journalism and distribute it around the world are enough to make the reporters of yesterday sob in envy. It’s the difference between digging ditches with a spade and excavating a canal with dynamite. Let me say it another way: The barriers of entry into the journalism business have been battered down, making it easier than ever to enter the profession. That will read as small consolation to the journalists who have had their publications shot out from under them — the Rocky Mountain News, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Ann Arbor News (come July 23), and magazines too numerous to tally. But please notice that I’m not saying there has never been a more lucrative or prestigious time to become a journalist.” (06/30/09) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2221856/ | |
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“Since 1985, the number of newspapers with Washington bureaus has dropped by more than 50%. 72% fewer newspapers and wire services cover Congress today than in the mid-1980s. 1/3 fewer newspaper reporters are dedicated to covering state capitols today than in 2003. Nearly 2/3 of newspaper executives say they’ve cut foreign coverage in the past 3 years. In May 2007, Pasadena Now announced it would outsource 2 local reporting jobs to India.” (07/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/o5pohn | |
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“So Madoff got 150 years for breaking into the bank. Fine. But what about the guard who was asleep out front? What about the clerk who forgot to lock the door? What about the $300 billion that Citigroup walked out with from one vault, and the $200 billion that AIG took from another? Does anybody know where that money went or what we got for it? Don’t they get in trouble too? Did you know that, or do you know why, Goldman Sachs is paying its biggest bonus payouts in its 140 year history? That’s why we need a Pecora Commission.” (06/30/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/lqe6xb | |
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“America’s unsettled debate over race has too often been conducted between judges writing alone in their chambers rather than in open forums by the public or their elected representatives. That was true again in a ruling on Monday by the Supreme Court that will set back the use of race in employment decisions. In a case known as Ricci, the justices revealed their heated arguments in separate opinions that went beyond mere legal precedent and the Constitution. … The days of using quotas to fix the effects of past discrimination are over. And more states are banning official use of race in hiring and school admissions. With the election of an African-American as president, the politics of race that is aimed at boosting diversity or widening benefits specifically for minorities now faces an uphill battle.” (06/30/09) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0630/p08s01-comv.html | |
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“Since its formation in 1997, the Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) has been one of the progressive movement’s least heralded but most essential organizations. Best known for its annual ‘Take Back America’ conference, CAF has also been a key catalyst in the growth of the movement’s extensive infrastructure of grassroots organizations, single-issue coalitions, think tanks, media watchdog groups and polling firms. With Barack Obama in the White House and strong Democratic majorities in both branches of Congress, CAF changed the name of this year’s conference (held in Washington D.C. in early June) to ‘America’s Future Now.’ … The new conference name only heightened my unease. After all, are progressives only supposed to be concerned with America’s future? What about the rest of the world?” (06/30/09) Link: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4526/progressive_blind_spots/ | |
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“You can’t always get what you want. Especially in a recession. Unfortunately, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, network television correspondents on a nationwide book tour and media blitz, haven’t gotten the memo. In their book, Womenomics, Kay and Shipman tell women that all they need to do to fulfill their work-life balance dreams is, well, ask. Want to work three days a week instead of five? Just ask. Want to work from home? Just ask. Need to walk your dog every day at 5:15? Heck, march right into you boss’ office and tell him it’s nonnegotiable! … [T]he authors advise, ‘Your company needs you more than you realize and quite possibly more than you need them.’ But as the national unemployment rate inches toward the double digits, is that true?” [editor’s note: As usual. it depends on your perspective; if you view getting laid off (from a job you only tolerated) as a golden chance to start something new, or renegotiate a better deal where you are … it’s not a barrier but an opening! - SAT] (06/30/09) Link: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=recession_depression | |
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“Californians are bracing for another dangerously dry season, with high temperatures and increased risk of fire. Nationwide, there have already been over 41,000 wildfires this year — 10,000 more than the 10-year average. And as fire danger climbs here in the West, fire protection is gradually being added to the list of essential services for which the rich are better off than their less fortunate neighbors. … Privatization of fire protection, especially in the Western United States, has emerged in several forms. In some instances, private contractors are hired by state and local government to deal with extreme fire emergencies. The National Wildfire Suppression Association, formed in 1991, represents over 150 private firms that employ firefighters and equipment to assist locally on an ‘as needed’ basis.” [editor’s note: And this scribbler is utterly aghast at the possibility that “privatization” might actually improve the coverage for fire-protection (hint: He’s afraid public funding will go down …) - SAT] (06/30/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ng8nw8 | |
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“As the media trumpets sound for the pullback of American troops from urban areas in Iraq, the essential lesson of our involvement must be recalled: Nothing about our entanglement in Iraq has ever been as it seemed. We did not invade because Saddam Hussein was behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as Bush administration officials repeatedly suggested, or even because Iraq threatened the United States with stores of chemical and biological weapons. The 2005 Iraqi election symbolized with images of purple ink stains on voters’ fingertips … did not result in a flourishing democracy or an end to the U.S. military occupation. The bloody insurgency intensified and Bush belatedly deployed additional troops to quell it.” (06/29/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/nkxo74 | |
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“The last barrier to Al Franken’s election as U.S. Senator from Minnesota crumbled Tuesday, as Republican incumbent Norm Coleman finally conceded the contest. Coleman’s concession came after the Minnesota Supreme Court confirmed what everyone pretty much knew: The voters chose Franken, the Democratic Farmer Labor Party candidate over Coleman in last fall’s U.S. Senate election. While the election result was close, the court’s decision was not. … Under Minnesota law, the court’s decision gave Franken the right to occupy the seat that a series of recounts and official reviews confirmed was won by the satirist with a narrow but steady margin that ultimately expanded to 312 votes.” [editor’s note: And so “the Al Franken decade” commences for real? B-R-R-R-R! - SAT] (06/30/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/nupe7b | |
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“In late May the new leader of America’s fight against illegal drugs, Gil Kerlikowske, returned to Seattle, the dope-tolerating city where he’d previously served as police chief. As part of the visit, he stopped by a local morning radio talk show, where right off the bat he declared, ‘I’m ending the phrase, the war on drugs.’ As far as statements from high government officials go, it was a radical declaration. Kerlikowske, and by extension Barack Obama, was rejecting four decades of federal government marching orders. … But even more striking than his announcement was the reaction: crickets. … There was no immediate outcry, no conservative clamor for Kerlikowske’s head, not much of anything except expressions of gratitude from drug-policy-reform advocates. It’s easy to figure out why Kerlikowske’s statement has been such a notable nonevent. … Recent polling found that more than 75 percent of people in this country think the drug war has not worked and will not work in the future.” [editor’s note: One can only hope and pray the title’s prediction comes true; however, there may just be too many elements of society who profit big-time from Prohibition Redux - SAT] (06/29/09) Link: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_last_drug_czar | |
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Couples counseling for India and Pakistan
Source: San Francisco Chronicle Author: Deepak Chopra & Salman Ahmad “Suspicions over a cooked election in Iran have brought a glimmer of hope for real reform. It takes glimmers in the long, fractious fights that hold societies in thrall. Can we find one in the toxic fight that has plagued India-Pakistan relations for six decades? We’ve already had a Camp David moment. When the two heads of state met to shake hands in mid-June, Manmohan Singh of India and Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan obeyed some new forces. One was the force of economics, which has cut both ways. Economics promises to make India a prosperous player on the world scene. With money has come the expectation of rational behavior, and India can see rationally that a stable, nonaggressive Pakistan is the kind of neighbor it wants to have. The other side of economics is the downturn. The mini-Cold War that has raged between the two countries keeps draining much needed resources that neither side can afford to squander.” (06/29/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/n5fgp2 | |
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“In October 2008, Human Rights Watch rated Somalia the most ignored tragedy in the world. Almost 1.5 million Somalis are internally displaced, and an additional half million are refugees. Two decades of instability, including a U.S.-backed intervention by Ethiopian troops in December 2006, have failed to put Somalia on the map. If the American public has thought about Somalia at all this decade, it was as the setting of the popular 2001 movie Blackhawk Down, based on the October 1993 battle in Mogadishu between U.S. troops and Somali militia, rather than as a real place where Washington’s policies were fueling conflict and prolonging suffering.” (06/29/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ksrsfx | |
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“The events we are witnessing in Iran are not the makings of another revolution, but rather a continuation of the struggle for reform that began in 1979 and has not yet ended. This is the latest installment in Iran’s unresolved revolution. The shorthand narrative of the 1979 revolution tells us that the Iranian people, under the charismatic leadership of Ayatollah Khomanei, rose up against an unpopular shah, a dictator whose misguided reforms alienated large swaths of his country. But it is important to remember what happened after the shah was overthrown. There were two phases to the revolution that began in 1979. After Iran’s diverse segments from both rural and urban classes — students, professionals, the religious establishment, the bazaaris (Iran’s commercial class) — came together to overthrow the Pahavli dynasty, another, more meaningful, struggle began.” (06/29/09) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0629/p09s02-coop.html | |
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“Twice now, when asked his position on single-payer healthcare or a public option, our congressman launched into a dissertation on the problems of junk food and childhood obesity, and how wellness must be part of any healthcare reform. … The first time, it just seemed like a pretty odd segue. … The second time wellness made an appearance, it was head-scratching strange: Constituents come to talk about insurance, and end up hearing about fat kids and eating more fruits and vegetables. … So, what’s going on? Why are we bringing wellness to an insurance fight? The wellness meme has been circulating widely on Capitol Hill of late. It pops up with talking-point regularity in House and Senate hearings on healthcare reform, among insurance CEOs and among politicians in the habit of calling for ‘clean’ bills uncluttered by side issues.” (06/28/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/myqhb9 | |
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“The fuzzy math behind the Massachusetts universal healthcare law is starting to add up — just as Washington studies the law as a possible model for the nation. Because of a recession-related drop in state revenues and a surge in enrollment by the recently unemployed, the truth is emerging at an inconvenient time. Massachusetts doesn’t have enough money to pay for the coverage envisioned by the law. In June, state officials announced they are cutting $100 million from Commonwealth Care, which subsidizes premiums for needy residents. The poorest residents, along with the newest — legal immigrants — will take the hit. This outcome is not surprising, but it is instructive as President Obama pushes for a national healthcare plan.” (06/28/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mhtg2w | |
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“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered a reasonably muscular condemnation of the military coup in Honduras, where elected President Manuel (Mel) Zelaya was kidnapped and flown out of the country by soldiers bent on blocking an advisory vote on constitutional reform in the country. … President Obama’s statement was softer and in tone. … Senior aides to the Obama administration tell reporters that U.S. diplomats were working to ensure Zelaya’s safe return. And the Wall Street Journal suggests that the administration may have worked behind the scenes to try and avert the coup.” (06/29/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/lujy96 | |
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Amanda Palmer’s Twitter riches — and journalism
Source: The Future of Journalism Author: King Kaufman “The big question in both journalism and music these days is how to make it pay. The bottom has fallen out of the advertising market for journalism, out of the disc-selling market for music. What Palmer’s doing represents what could be a big part of the answer for both: Draw a crowd, create a community, and then sell that community the things it wants. At Techdirt, one of the places where they’re talking about this, honcho Mike Masnick calls this ‘CWF + RTB = $$$.’ That is, connect with fans and give them a reason to buy.” (06/29/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/kob56k | |
Events and Movement News
jump to News Section | jump to Commentary Section
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“Legislative leaders unveiled the most sweeping ethics overhaul in decades yesterday, as they attempted to move past a series of high-profile scandals on Beacon Hill and reach an accord with Governor Deval Patrick on a sales tax increase. The ethics bill — which strengthens enforcement, levies higher penalties for violations and bans nearly all gifts to public officials — is the final piece of legislation requested by the governor before he said he would consider asking Massachusetts residents to pay more at the register.” (06/25/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/mfhng9 | |
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“Vice President Joe Biden, well-known for his verbal gaffes, may have finally outdone himself, divulging potentially classified information meant to save the life of a sitting vice president. According to a report, while recently attending the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, an annual event where powerful politicians and media elite get a chance to cozy up to one another, Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a secret bunker under the old U.S. Naval Observatory, which is now the home of the vice president. The bunker is believed to be the secure, undisclosed location former Vice President Dick Cheney remained under protection in secret after the 9/11 attacks.” (05/17/09) Link: http://tinyurl.com/qhgu78 | |
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“Pressure from a dam, its reservoir’s heavy waters weighing on geologic fault lines, may have helped trigger China’s devastating earthquake last May, some scientists say, in a finding that suggests human activity played a role in the disaster. The magnitude-7.9 quake in Sichuan province was China’s worst in a generation, causing 70,000 deaths and leaving 5 million homeless. Just 550 yards from the fault line and 3.5 miles from the epicenter stands the 511-foot-high Zipingpu dam, the area’s largest. The quake cracked Zipingpu, forcing the reservoir to be drained. Fan Xiao, a chief engineer at the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, said Wednesday that the immense weight of Zipingpu’s waters — 315 million tons — likely affected the timing and magnitude of the quake.” (02/04/09) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,487967,00.html | |
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“The Albuquerque Police Department has turned to the want ads for snitches. An ad this week in the alternative newspaper The Alibi asks ‘people who hang out with crooks’ to do part-time work for the police. It reads in part: ‘Make some extra cash! Drug use and criminal record OK.’ Capt. Joe Hudson says police received more than 30 responses in two days. He says one tip was a ‘big one’ but wouldn’t elaborate. An informant whose tip helps officers arrest a drug dealer could earn $50. A tip about a murder suspect could bring up to $700.” (11/23/08) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,456466,00.html | |
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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 | |
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“A conservation group has sued the U.S. Coast Guard in an effort to protect whales from being struck by passing ships off the coast of California. The Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court here, seeks to force the Coast Guard to consult more closely with the National Marine Fisheries Service . The group wants the Coast Guard to adhere to Endangered Species Act rules and consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service on how best to protect endangered whales.” (06/18/08) Link: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9626820 | |
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“By declaring bankruptcy, Vallejo has thrust itself into the national spotlight as a test case for thousands of floundering cities desperate to unload their extravagant public employee contracts. ‘There’s a wave of this coming across the U.S.,’ said Sajan George, an adviser to struggling public entities who worked on restructuring Orange County after it declared bankruptcy in 1994. ‘What happens in Vallejo could definitely set a precedent.’ Battered by the plummeting housing market and skyrocketing public employee contracts, Vallejo made dubious history Tuesday night by becoming the largest California city to declare bankruptcy. The North Bay city of 117,000 was on track to start the fiscal year July 1 with a $16 million deficit and no money in reserve.” (05/11/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6bketo | |
