Progressive News Digest - February 11, 2008
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Date: Mon, February 11, 2008
PROGRESSIVE NEWS DIGEST
The latest news, commentary & event listings
(from slightly left of center)
updated daily on the web at
http://rationalreview.com/pnd
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Volume IV, Issue #36 Monday, Feb 11, 2008
Welcome to another edition of Progressive News Digest, still rolling along in
its fourth year (just over the halfway-mark of Year 4, BTW, and with rare
exception this has appeared every week at some point).
Meanwhile, over at the "parent company" (Rational Review News DIgest),
we've finished our quarterly fundraising effort, settling for a $3,000 total
this time (Dec. 23st marked our FIFTH year overall in operation, without
missing a SINGLE non-holiday day in that span!).
Although formal fundraising is over for a while, should the impulse strike
you, we could sure still use donations, both here and at the parent-site:
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We appreciate your support, in any amount … but subscribing contributors
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* * * * * * *
I continue to publish this now with a contents list, without attempting a
summary of the highlights. It still takes a little time to prepare this, and
then let you do the browsing.
Here you go ... enjoy and see you next week! Check the site for constant
updates each day:
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NEWS
01 - CA: Row erupts over Berkeley’s anti-Marine stance
02 - FL: Firm handshake = assault charge
03 - Venezuela: Chavez threatens to cut off oil sales to US
04 - Turkey votes to lift head-scarf ban, but battle continues
05 - Ex-strategists point to Pres race dynamic
06 - CA: Battle royal brewing at Berkeley council meeting
07 - GA: Lawmakers want TN border redrawn
08 - CA: Dispensaries closing under fed threats
09 - AZ: Napolitano, Cho seek to reshape immigrant farm labor
10 - Saudi Arabia : Religious police arrest mother for sitting with a man
11 - US free trade accords face rocky road
12 - MA: Governor opposes casino land request
13 - Pakistan: Taliban offers truce, Army demurs
14 - TN: Pearl Jam, Metallica to headline Bonnaroo
15 - UN report: Afghan opium growth in “alarming” rise
16 - NY: Abducted entrepeneur gets 30 years in prison
17 - Dems divided: Blessing or curse?
18 - Scientology feud with its critics takes to Internet
19 - AZ: Libertarians sue County Elections Department
20 - CA: In Berkeley, push to rescind letter to Marines
21 - Mexico: Police caught between drug crackdown, cartels
22 - Ruptures call safety of Internet cables into question
23 - NOW attacks Obama’s abortion voting record
24 - Why Bush’s budget will change its shape
25 - Vets often denied academic credits
26 - MA: Subsidized healthcare plan cost to double
27 - Dead, Deadheads reunite for Obama fundraiser
28 - Cyber-savvy town gets rich on eBay frauds
29 - Google says: Microsoft-Yahoo deal raises “troubling questions”
30 - Russian groups: Draft curbs opposition
COMMENTARY
31 - The case for a national primary
32 - Race and the Democratic Party
33 - The irrelevance of Obama’s color
34 - Women behind bars
35 - Clintons’ conduct shows how much we need the “new”
36 - California dreaming
37 - Here come the Brownshirts, again
38 - The Bush financial bust of 2008
39 - The toughest Republican to beat
40 - Obama’s biggest obstacle
41 - The repudiation of Rove
42 - Avoiding a Dem convention trainwreck
43 - The rock, paper, scissors strategy
44 - Inserting “terror” into campaign 2008
45 - Hating on McCain
46 - McCain not stopped
47 - Basic budget training
48 - The fragility of the information age
49 - Why Saudis aren’t lifting a finger to ease oil prices
50 - The mystery in the voting booth
51 - The next President’s Iran dilemma
52 - Obama wins big on Independents
53 - Katrina housing grant looted
54 - The machine gun of capitalism
55 - The counter-narrative candidate
56 - The new kid and the old warhorse
57 - There’s been no contest like it
58 - Which womanhood?
59 - The “women’s vote” and Clinton
60 - Toeing the line on world stage
NEWS
01 - CA: Row erupts over Berkeley’s anti-Marine stance
Reuters
“Officials in the famously liberal California town of Berkeley have stirred a national fuss by telling U.S. Marine Corps recruiters they aren’t welcome anymore and by aiding those protesting against them. That stance is too much for some Republican lawmakers, who are threatening to retaliate by stripping the counter-culture city of about $5.3 million in federal and state dollars. ‘If the U.S. Marines are not good enough for Berkeley, neither are taxpayer dollars,’ Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said in a statement.” (02/10/08)
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02 - FL: Firm handshake = assault charge
Arizona Republic
“A lawyer has been charged with assault for shaking a federal prosecutor’s hand so hard that it injured her shoulder, authorities said. Kathy Brewer Rentas, 49, was arrested Thursday after attending a court hearing for her husband, who was accused of violating the terms of his probation for a cocaine distribution case. The husband, Anthony Rentas, was sentenced to 90 days of house arrest. After the hearing, Brewer Rentas asked to shake hands with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Keene. A court security officer reported that Brewer Rentas shook Keene’s hand so forcefully that the prosecutor’s arm was nearly ripped out of its socket.” (02/10/08)
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03 - Venezuela: Chavez threatens to cut off oil sales to US
Fox News
“President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets. ‘If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we’re going to harm you,’ Chavez said, directing his words to U.S. President George W. Bush. ‘Do you know how? We aren’t going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger.’ Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of Venezuela’s state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar (euro) oil project by Chavez’s government last year. A British court has issued an injunction ‘freezing’ as much as $12 billion in assets.” (02/10/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330252,00.html
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04 - Turkey votes to lift head-scarf ban, but battle continues
Christian Science Monitor
“With its vote Saturday ending a decades-old ban on wearing head scarves in public universities, Turkey’s parliament may have marked a historical moment in the ongoing struggle between religion and secularism in this predominantly Muslim country. But concerns remain in Turkey that the government’s zeal for lifting the ban could undermine other reforms, particularly those relating to democratization and the country’s ongoing European Union membership bid. ‘Some intellectuals [who support the government] are starting to have second thoughts about whether [it] has a well-defined strategy for change for Turkey, and what triggered this doubt is the priority that the government has put on the head-scarf issue,’ says veteran Turkish journalist Yavuz Baydar, a columnist for the English-language newspaper Today’s Zaman.” (02/11/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0211/p07s02-wome.html
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05 - Ex-strategists point to Pres race dynamic
Boston Globe
“At some point each consultant dreamed that his candidate would survive to go one-on-one in the campaign with Hillary Clinton. They had scenarios, strategies, and contingencies — all left on the shelf as their candidates dropped out. Now, advisers to four Democratic candidates who have left the trail agree on one thing: They never imagined that Clinton would be struggling to stop Barack Obama, a neophyte in national politics, this late in the campaign or might need the party elders and apparatchiks, the so-called superdelegates, to win the Democratic presidential nomination. And all four of the strategists believe that Obama, at this stage, enjoys more advantages, though no one is making any predictions.” (02/10/08)
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06 - CA: Battle royal brewing at Berkeley council meeting
San Francisco Chronicle
“If you want to get a seat at Tuesday night’s Berkeley City Council meeting, you better start lining up now. And you might want to bring earplugs. And a flak jacket. Hundreds of protesters from across the country and the political spectrum are expected to descend on City Hall with bullhorns, drums, banners and plenty of vitriol in anticipation of the City Council’s debate over the Marines’ recruiting station in town. The ruckus started last week when the council voted to send a letter to the Marines, calling them ‘unwanted intruders’ for opening the recruiting center on Shattuck Avenue last year. At the same time, the council granted Code Pink a parking space and a sound permit to make it easier for the peace group to conduct protests outside the center. On Monday, Councilwomen Betty Olds and Laurie Capitelli introduced an item for this week’s meeting, asking the city to retract its statements about the Marines and clarify that the city is against the war, not against the armed for
ces.” (02/10/08)
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07 - GA: Lawmakers want TN border redrawn
Tennessean
“Desperate for water amid a historic drought, some Georgia lawmakers are trying to reopen an 1818 border dispute with Tennessee. They have set their sights on a stretch of the 652-mile long Tennessee River that flows tantalizingly close to the Georgia line — and by some historic accounts, should be within Georgia’s borders. ‘It’s never too late to right a wrong,’ said Georgia state Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth. Shafer’s Senate resolution says a flawed survey in 1818 mistakenly marked Georgia’s border one mile south of the 35th parallel — and thus excluded the Tennessee River from Georgia’s reach. There is a reason thirsty lawmakers are eyeing the river: It has a flow about 15 times greater than the river feeding Atlanta.” (02/07/08)
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08 - CA: Dispensaries closing under fed threats
San Francisco Chronicle
“Medical marijuana in San Francisco may be going up in smoke. In late December, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sent letters to landlords of buildings that housed medical cannabis dispensaries in the city, telling them they face the loss of their property and possibly prison if the businesses stay open. Now, less than two months later, seven of the city’s 28 dispensaries have closed or are on the verge of closing, according to medical marijuana supporters and activists. They fear more will follow. ‘It’s like a dagger in the heart,’ said Wayne Justmann, a medical marijuana advocate. ‘We’re barely holding on right now.’” (02/07/08)
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09 - AZ: Napolitano, Cho seek to reshape immigrant farm labor
Arizona Republic
“Arizona’s governor wants to play a leading role in expanding and reshaping a little-used federal program that allows farmers to hire temporary foreign agricultural workers. U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao on Wednesday proposed sweeping reforms, the first major overhaul of the H-2A program in two decades. The changes would make it easier for growers to participate in the H-2A visa program, which is intended to grant work permits to foreign workers for jobs Americans don’t want. Gov. Janet Napolitano has called for many of the program changes outlined by Chao, although she would like more state control than Washington has offered.” (02/07/08)
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10 - Saudi Arabia : Religious police arrest mother for sitting with a man
The Times [UK]
“A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia’s religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh. Yara, who does not want her last name published for fear of retribution, was bruised and crying when she was freed from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom’s ‘Mutaween’ police. Her story offers a rare first-hand glimpse of the discrimination faced by women living in Saudi Arabia. In her first interview with the foreign press, Yara told The Times that she would remain in Saudi Arabia to challenge its harsh enforcement of conservative Islam rather than return to America.” (02/07/08)
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11 - US free trade accords face rocky road
Christian Science Monitor
“A fresh battle is brewing in Washington over foreign trade, with the White House persevering in its pursuit of free trade agreements while congressional Democrats — some elected two years ago on protectionist planks — appear more inclined to take up trade issues with China than pass new deals. President Bush is ramping up efforts to get Congressional approval of free-trade agreements (FTAs) already negotiated with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. Late last month, he dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Colombia, with a bevy of House Democrats in tow, to renew the push for the Colombia accord, invoking national security interests over economic ones for the agreement.” (02/07/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0207/p02s03-uspo.html
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12 - MA: Governor opposes casino land request
Boston Globe
“Governor Deval Patrick asked the federal government yesterday to reject efforts by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe to place its planned casino site in Middleborough in a federal trust, an attempt by Patrick to steer the tribe toward a state-issued casino license that would garner far more money for Massachusetts. With billions of dollars at stake, Patrick’s move was part of a brewing dispute over what form expanded gambling could take in Massachusetts and whether it will be controlled by the state or by the tribe and the federal government.” (02/07/08)
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13 - Pakistan: Taliban offers truce, Army demurs
Christian Science Monitor
“In a curious development highlighting the confusion in Pakistan’s tribal areas, the Taliban announced Wednesday it had declared a cease-fire with Pakistani forces. But Pakistani forces promptly denied it. It appears that the militants in the tribal belt are maneuvering for time and space. Taliban leader Mullah Omar has recently been trying to turn the Taliban’s attentions toward Afghanistan, not Pakistan. This cease-fire claim could represent an effort to call off Pakistan operations so that the Taliban can refocus and regroup.” (02/07/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0207/p04s02-wosc.html
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14 - TN: Pearl Jam, Metallica to headline Bonnaroo
Tennessean
“The list of performers at this year’s Bonnaroo festival — which includes headliners Pearl Jam and Metallica, along with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Kanye West, Willie Nelson and Jack Johnson — pushes its already flexible musical boundaries even further, with performers running the gamut from heavy metal and hip-hop to bluegrass and classic country. The range of entertainment offered this year is a point of pride for Ashley Capps, president of Bonnaroo co-organizer A.C. Entertainment. ‘I think it’s probably our most diverse lineup ever,’ Capps said.” (02/06/08)
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15 - UN report: Afghan opium growth in “alarming” rise
Fox News
“Opium cultivation in rebel-controlled areas in southern and southwestern Afghanistan is expected to grow this year, fueling the Taliban insurgency with more drug money, a U.N. report said Wednesday. The report, by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said that Afghanistan, in turmoil since a U.S.-led military operation toppled the repressive Taliban regime in 2001, is also steadily increasing its production of marijuana. Afghanistan supplies some 90 percent of the world’s illicit opium, the main ingredient in heroin, and the Taliban rebels fighting the U.S.-led forces receive up to $100 million from the drug trade, the U.N. estimates.” (02/06/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328825,00.html
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16 - NY: Abducted entrepeneur gets 30 years in prison
Arizona Republic
“A Colombian described by the U.S. government as one of the world’s biggest drug lords was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison for directing an organization that shipped tons of cocaine into the United States. Manuel Felipe Salazar-Espinosa was ‘a very big fish’ who smuggled tons of cocaine into the U.S. and laundered tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in drug proceeds, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said. Salazar-Espinosa was ordered to forfeit $50 million. Salazar-Espinosa, 58, could have faced life in prison, Kaplan said, but U.S. prosecutors honored Colombia’s request not to seek the maximum sentence.” (02/06/08)
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17 - Dems divided: Blessing or curse?
Boston Globe
“Get ready for weeks — if not months — of a tightly fought Democratic presidential race, while last night’s big winner on the GOP side, John McCain, could soon be sitting on the sidelines, secure in victory, trying hard to raise money and pull together a fractious Republican coalition. So far, the Democrats have dramatically outdrawn the Republicans at the polls and generated greater enthusiasm among their core constituencies, especially among women, minorities, and younger voters. A fierce, protracted contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could sour the good feelings — or energize the party even more, depending on how the candidates conduct themselves.” (02/06/08)
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18 - Scientology feud with its critics takes to Internet
Los Angeles Times
“A long-simmering dispute over digital copyrights between the Church of Scientology and its critics has boiled over in recent weeks after video clips turned up on the Internet from a 2004 interview by the church’s most famous member, actor Tom Cruise. When Scientology officials complained the clips were copyrighted and requested their removal from YouTube and other websites, a shadowy organization of online troublemakers sprang into action. The group known as ‘Anonymous’ posted an eerie video on the Internet featuring a computer-generated voice announcing a campaign to destroy the church and calling for worldwide protests Feb. 10.” (02/05/08)
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19 - AZ: Libertarians sue County Elections Department
Freedom\'s Phoenix
“The Arizona Libertarian Party in Maricopa County is attempting to make use of the law that provides for the County Chairman of each ballot status party to appoint election observers. Computer Voting Experts Jim March and John Brakey have successfully sued the Pima County Elections Department for information vital to the exposing of Election Fraud and other felonies. Their knowledge and experience are requested by the Maricopa County Libertarian Party on the party’s behalf and for the benefit of all Arizona residents and voters. In violation of Arizona Statutes, the Maricopa County Elections Director has generated new unwritten law that they will now require the judiciary to uphold to prevent Libertarian oversight of the election process.” (02/05/08)
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20 - CA: In Berkeley, push to rescind letter to Marines
San Francisco Chronicle
“A week after blasting the Marines as ‘unwelcome intruders’ in Berkeley, two City Council members want the city to back off the declaration that ignited the wrath of the nation’s right wing and inspired a Republican senator to try to sever Berkeley’s federal funding. Council members Betty Olds and Laurie Capitelli on Monday proposed that Berkeley rescind its letter to the U.S. Marine Corps that stated that the downtown Berkeley recruiting center ‘is not welcome in our city,’ and publicly declare that Berkeley is against the war but supports the troops. The City Council will vote on Olds’ and Capitelli’s two proposals at its meeting next Tuesday.” (02/05/08)
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21 - Mexico: Police caught between drug crackdown, cartels
Arizona Republic
“Poorly trained, badly paid and vulnerable to corruption, Mexico’s legions of local police are increasingly caught in the crossfire as the Mexican government embarks on a crackdown on drug smugglers. Dozens of municipal police have been killed in recent months in apparent drug hits, and several others, including the intelligence chief of Mexico City’s Police Department, are under investigation, suspected of links to smugglers. Last month, the Mexican government announced it was scrutinizing police commanders nationwide, and the Mexican army said it was disarming 300 police along the Texas border while prosecutors investigated them. ‘We are evaluating police chiefs of all three levels of government (federal, state and local) … to purge our police forces of bad elements and criminals who have infiltrated them,’ Mexican Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna said during a federal law-enforcement meeting last month.” (02/05/08)
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22 - Ruptures call safety of Internet cables into question
International Herald Tribune
“Four undersea communication cables have been cut in the past week, raising questions about the safety of the oceanic network that handles the bulk of the world’s Internet and telephone traffic. Most telecommunications experts and cable operators say that sabotage seems unlikely, but no one knows what damaged the cables or whether the incidents were related. One theory — that a wayward ship traveling off course because of bad weather was responsible for cutting the first two cables last week — was dismissed by the Egyptian government over the weekend. No ships passed the area in the Mediterranean where the cables were located, the country’s Ministry of Communications said Sunday.” (02/05/08)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/04/technology/cables.php
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23 - NOW attacks Obama’s abortion voting record
Washington Post
“A national women’s rights group supporting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) distributed an e-mail yesterday accusing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) of being soft on abortion rights, revisiting an eleventh-hour attack that some analysts credited with swaying female voters in New Hampshire. The e-mail from Rosemary J. Dempsey, president of the Connecticut National Organization for Women, told members that Obama’s record during his time in the Illinois Senate included several instances in which he voted ‘present’ instead of yes or no on abortion-related legislation.” (02/05/08)
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24 - Why Bush’s budget will change its shape
Christian Science Monitor
“When it comes to President Bush’s new $3 trillion budget blueprint for 2009, one thing is almost certain: It’s going to get changed. Probably a lot. In part that’s because events may intervene. The economy could be falling into recession, with unpredictable fiscal results. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars will probably cost far more than the $70 billion allotted them in Mr. Bush’s plan. But politics is the main reason why Uncle Sam’s actual ‘09 spending and taxing policies will probably end up so differently from the way the president proposes. Bush is a lame duck, with less power to get his way. A new chief executive — be they Republican or Democratic — will have different policy priorities.” (02/05/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0205/p01s01-usec.html
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25 - Vets often denied academic credits
Boston Globe
“When Sean Lunde enrolled at the University of Massachusetts at Boston in 2005, he expected his four years of training and experience as an Army medic in Kosovo, Germany, and Iraq would earn him as much as 50 college credits, or about a year and a half of courses. He received none. ‘I went to medic school for 12 hours a day, six days a week, for four months,’ he said. ‘None of that was accepted.’ When recruiting, the military highlights its educational advantages. … But many of the thousands of veterans who attend college after tours of duty are denied credit for military courses and specialized skills despite an accreditation system set up to award it, veterans’ advocates and students say. That forces students to take more courses than they expected to, straining already thin GI Bill benefits.” (02/05/08)
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26 - MA: Subsidized healthcare plan cost to double
Boston Globe
“The subsidized insurance program at the heart of the state’s healthcare initiative is expected to roughly double in size and expense over the next three years — an unexpected level of growth that could cost state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars or force the state to scale back its ambitions. State projections obtained by the Globe show the program reaching 342,000 people and $1.35 billion in annual expenses by June 2011. Those figures would far outstrip the original plans for the Commonwealth Care program, largely because state officials underestimated the number of uninsured residents. The state has asked the federal government to shoulder roughly half of the program’s cost from 2009 through 2011, but there is no guarantee of that funding. Commonwealth Care provides free or subsidized insurance for low- and moderate-income residents.” (02/03/08)bo
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27 - Dead, Deadheads reunite for Obama fundraiser
Reuters
“Saying Barack Obama embodies political hope absent since Robert Kennedy was slain 40 years ago, three surviving members of the Grateful Dead rock band reunited on Monday for the first time in four years to back the presidential candidate. ‘Every few generations a guy like this comes along,’ drummer Mickey Hart told a news conference a day before California’s primary, in which Obama, a senator from Illinois, faces New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. ‘It seems like desperate times and we’re desperate people.’ The counter-culture band, known for its loyal ‘Deadhead’ fans, broke up in 1995 after the death of its leader [sic], guitarist Jerry Garcia. They have since played together occasionally, most recently in 2004. At a San Francisco concert in front of 2,400 fans, singer-guitarist Bob Weir, 60, said the band had never before, performed on behalf of a presidential candidate, although they have often embraced liberal social causes.” (02/05/08)
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28 - Cyber-savvy town gets rich on eBay frauds
Times [UK]
“Hundreds of people in the poor Romanian town of Dragasani have grown rich by conning eBay online auction customers with deals that seem too good to be true — and often are. The scammers have even put the new town hall up for sale on eBay, the mayor admitted last week. ‘I mean, who would want it?’ he asked. Despite growing concern about online frauds, the European Union has poured £150,000 into computer training courses in Dragasani over the past three years in ’special recognition’ of its IT skills. ‘I heard about another offer on eBay selling a MiG fighter jet. There was a photo and a very good price as the customer was only being asked to pay for the fuel to fly it. One guy paid $2,000!’ the mayor, Gheorghe Iordache, exclaimed.” (02/03/08)
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29 - Google says: Microsoft-Yahoo deal raises “troubling questions”
San Francisco Chronicle
“In a thinly veiled attack on Microsoft’s $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo, Google Inc. said Sunday that the proposed deal ‘raises troubling questions’ and urged policy makers to take a close look before approving any merger. The criticism came in a blog post by David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president and chief legal officer, who said that the combination potentially threatens competition, recalling Microsoft’s past run-ins with regulators over monopolistic behavior. ‘Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?’ he asked. The posting represented Google’s first comments about Microsoft’s surprise buyout bid last week, which promises to reshuffle the Internet landscape by bolstering Microsoft’s online advertising business.” (02/03/08)
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30 - Russian groups: Draft curbs opposition
Arizona Republic
“For two years, Oleg Kozlovsky has been a fixture at anti-Kremlin street demonstrations, confronting riot police and just as often getting arrested. One of the leaders of a youth movement called Oborona (Defense), Kozlovsky, a 23-year-old graduate student at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, said his group’s goal is nothing less than the ‘downfall of the authoritarian regime.’ … ‘The police system has not been able to cope with this small yet cohesive and dedicated group,’ Kozlovsky wrote last year on a blog. ‘Oborona has now been transformed into a serious political force.’ But the system, as Kozlovsky calls it, has finally silenced him. Late last month, Kozlovsky was picked up by police, taken to a military-conscription office and quickly shipped to a military base to serve a year in the army. He and friends say his status as a student legally exempts him from service.” (02/03/08)
COMMENTARY
31 - The case for a national primary
Christian Science Monitor
Andrea Cooper
“I didn’t expect to feel sad the day John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani left the presidential race. Then Mitt Romney bailed, too. I probably wouldn’t have voted for any of them, but now I won’t have the chance. Here in North Carolina, we aren’t holding our presidential primary until May 6. Though I follow the news, I didn’t bother to find out our exact primary date until recently, because I figured it didn’t matter. By the time I’m allowed to vote, other states will probably have already chosen the winners. Sure, it’s possible come May that Mike Huckabee will still be a candidate. It’s possible the race between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama will stay close. … That’s why I propose a national primary.” [editor’s note: Yet another example of exalting “democracy” above all else, obscuring the fact that it matters less who votes than who counts the votes … and what they intend in doing so - SAT] (02/11/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0211/p09s02-coop.html
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32 - Race and the Democratic Party
Fox News
Susan Estrich
“A funny thing keeps happening to Barack Obama on his way to victory against Hillary Clinton. It happened in New Hampshire. It happened again in Nevada. It happened last week in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and even in New York. It’s not easy to figure out, but it deserves to be addressed. In the days leading up to the voting, all anyone talks about is the wave of support for Obama, the momentum flooding in his direction, the crowds like they’ve never seen, the power of the unexpected endorsements — whether from the Culinary Workers’ Union in Nevada or the Kennedys (as in Ted, Caroline, and Maria Shriver) in California and Massachusetts.” (02/10/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330248,00.html
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33 - The irrelevance of Obama’s color
Boston Globe
Jeff Jacoby
“On the subject of Black History Month, I’m with Morgan Freeman, who described it a few years ago as ‘ridiculous’ — for the excellent reason that ‘black history is American history,’ not some segregated addendum to it. The only way to get beyond racial divisions, he told Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes, is to ’stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man, and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.’ Amen to that. The sooner we resolve to abandon the labels ‘black’ and ‘white,’ the sooner we will be a society in which such racial labels are irrelevant. … Whether or not Barack Obama’s bid for the White House ultimately succeeds, it has already demolished the canard that America will not elect a black president. His impressive win over Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses could perhaps be dismissed as a fluke, but after Super Tuesday there is not much left to argue about.” (02/10/08)
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34 - Women behind bars
In These Times
Silja J.A. Talvi
“Oklahoman Tina Thomas has been caught up in the American war on drugs. In many respects, she fits the common profile of a woman doing time for a drug-related offense. Her crimes have ranged from possession to check forgery and theft, including an arrest for trying to steal a $64 comforter from Wal-Mart. Eventually sentenced to a two-year state prison term, Thomas admits that she committed her crimes to feed the ‘800-pound gorilla on my back that I just hadn’t been able to shake.’ Thomas is part of an alarming statistical trend and a modern-day American phenomenon. For starters, she is one of half a million people (roughly one-fourth of the total prison population) locked up on drug-related charges.” (02/07/08)
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3501/women_behind_bars/
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35 - Clintons’ conduct shows how much we need the “new”
Tennessean
Saritha Prabhu
“Decency has been imposed on Hillary Clinton’s campaign. After the outcry following Bill Clinton’s verbal attacks on Barack Obama, the Hillary campaign announced that he would go back to being the supportive, behind-the-scenes spouse he was before Iowa. All of which highlights an unfortunate fact about the Clintons: For them, decency is more a poll-driven commodity than an innate virtue. What does it say when a 46-year-old relative rookie runs a nobler campaign than two sixtysomething political veterans? In trying to inject race into the campaign, Bill Clinton inadvertently injected the ‘baggage’ card that the Clintons carry.” (02/04/08)
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36 - California dreaming
The Nation
Lakshmi Chaudhry
“‘I’ve got a little piece of California in me,’ averred Barack Obama, staking a modest claim to what was rapidly emerging as the most precious piece of real estate in Super Tuesday’s primaries. The state’s First Lady was far more effusive in her assessment. ‘If Barack Obama was a state, he’d be California,’ declared Maria Shriver in a fit of Kennedyesque munificence. ‘I mean, think about it: diverse, open, smart, independent, bucks tradition, innovative, inspiring, dreamer, leader.’ At the time, Shriver’s endorsement seemed prophetic, offered as it was at the ultimate ‘girl power’ rally, headlined by Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama, aimed at Hillary Clinton’s most treasured constituency in the heart of what has long been considered — next to New York and Arkansas — her political backyard. … In the end, however, conventional wisdom and established strength triumphed at the ballot box.” (02/07/08)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080225/chaudhry
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37 - Here come the Brownshirts, again
CounterPunch
Paul Craig Roberts
“The Brownshirt Party has chosen John ‘hundred year war’ McCain as its presidential candidate. Except for Cheney, Norman Podhoretz, and Billy Kristol, McCain is America’s greatest warmonger. In a McCain Regime, Cheney will be back in office with another stint as Secretary of War. Norman ‘Bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran’ Podhoretz will be Undersecretary for Nuclear War with General John ‘Nuke them’ Shalikashvili as his deputy. Rudy Giuliani will be the Minister of Interior in charge of Halliburton’s detention centers into which will be herded all critics of war and the police state. Billy kristol will be chief White House spokesliar. The whole gang will be back — Wolfowitz, Perle, Wurmster, Feith, Libby, Bolton. America will have a second chance to bomb the world into submission.” (02/08/08)
http://counterpunch.com/roberts02082008.html
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38 - The Bush financial bust of 2008
Global Research
Mike Whitney
“On January 14, 2008 the FDIC web site began posting the rules for reimbursing depositors in the event of a bank failure. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is required to ‘determine the total insured amount for each depositor. … as of the day of the failure’ and return their money as quickly as possible. The agency is ‘modernizing its current business processes and procedures for determining deposit insurance coverage in the event of a failure of one of the largest insured depository institutions.’ The implication is clear, the FDIC has begun the ‘death watch’ on the many banks which are currently drowning in their own red ink. The problem for the FDIC is that it has never supervised a bank failure which exceeded 175,000 accounts.” (02/08/08)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8033
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39 - The toughest Republican to beat
Fox News
Susan Estrich
“Tough. That’s the word of the hour. Hillary Clinton wants everyone to know that she won’t be swift-boated by anyone. She may or may not win the Democratic nomination, but it won’t be for want of toughness. And toughness is what it will take to beat John McCain in November. How do you win in a system in which, unlike the Republican contests, the loser takes almost as many delegates as the winner, and reaching the magic majority requires the sort of statistical run that neither Clinton nor Barack Obama has managed to pull off consistently?” (02/07/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,329008,00.html
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40 - Obama’s biggest obstacle
Christian Science Monitor
Pepper D. Culpepper
“Super Tuesday made one thing clear: Barack Obama, whose biography and oratory promise sweeping change, is locked in a street fight with Hillary Rodham Clinton, the establishment candidate of the left. Yet with each passing contest, his prospects in November appear to grow brighter. It’s deja vu for those of us who follow French politics. We watched in 2006 as Segolene Royal rode to primary victory on the backs of new voters inspired by her promise to renew French politics by listening to the people. We then saw her lose the election last May to Nicolas Sarkozy, a straight-talking candidate of the right who had campaigned on a platform of change, even though the incumbent was an unpopular two-term president of the right. What lessons does Ms. Royal’s defeat offer Senator Obama?” (02/07/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0207/p09s02-coop.html
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41 - The repudiation of Rove
The American Prospect
Harold Meyerson
“John McCain had a surprising but pleasant evening [Tuesday] night — watching Mitt Romney go down to defeat in nearly every contest and encountering a newly victorious but ultimately unnominatable Mike Huckabee all across the Bible Belt. McCain’s successes so far reflect not only his appeal as a candidate but also the bankruptcy of the conservative agenda and political strategy that have steered the Republicans for many years. McCain’s victories have been chiefly a triumph of biography over ideology. … A more direct affront to the Republican strategy devised by Karl Rove — to build support within the party’s right-wing base and then try to win over just enough moderates to carry elections — cannot be imagined.” (02/07/08)
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_repudiation_of_rove
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42 - Avoiding a Dem convention trainwreck
The Nation
Katrina vanden Heuvel
“One thing that’s clear after [Tuesday] night, we’ve got a tough and potentially ugly delegate fight ahead of us for the Democratic nomination. Not only might the unaccountable and undemocratic superdelegates come into play, but the prospect looms of a bitter intra-party battle to seat the Michigan and Florida delegates. The DNC, Governor Dean, and the state parties need to do some serious thinking — starting now — on how to avoid a situation where backroom deals determine the nominee and his or her legitimacy is called into question.” (02/06/08)
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=281170
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43 - The rock, paper, scissors strategy
Boston Globe
H.D.S. Greenway
“Remember the old children’s game called Rock, Paper, Scissors? You and the other kid presented your hands simultaneously, making either a fist for a rock, a flat palm for paper, or two fingers for scissors. Scissors cut paper, rock breaks scissors, but paper wraps up rock. Looking ahead, John McCain is the rock, the most experienced, the most seasoned candidate in the running. The Clintons are the scissors, sharp as they proved to be in South Carolina, ready to cut up Barack Obama whom they perceive to be a paper tiger. But the Clinton scissors could break on the McCain rock, where the question of who is ready to serve on day one of the next administration would not be answered in Hillary’s favor. Yet the youth and hope, the Kennedy-like image of Obama, could form the paper that could wrap up John McCain.” (02/06/08)
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44 - Inserting “terror” into campaign 2008
Consortium News
Robert Parry
“As Campaign 2008 reaches a critical point, George W. Bush’s top intelligence officials are raising new alarms about a revitalized al-Qaeda recruiting Westerners, possibly including Americans, to carry out terror attacks inside the United States.” (02/06/08)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/020608.html
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45 - Hating on McCain
Salon
Joe Conason
“John McCain’s gleeful proclamation on Tuesday evening that he is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination could only have intensified the despairing rage of his party’s far right. For months the zealots have watched helplessly as the Arizona senator, who built his maverick reputation by taunting and tweaking them, clambered back into contention by humbling their would-be champions. Suddenly, the conservative cause found its last hopes reposing in the likes of Mitt Romney, a dubious convert, and Mike Huckabee, a suspect populist. That desperate situation, which displayed the political disarray of their movement, only got worse for conservatives as McCain moved inexorably closer to victory on Tuesday night. And now they will have to listen to his claim that he is a legitimate heir to Ronald Reagan and decide whether to line up dutifully behind a man they have despised for a decade.” (02/07/08)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/02/07/mccain_conservatives/
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46 - McCain not stopped
Slate
John Dickerson
“If Karl Rove thought claims about the conservative crackup were premature, the voters didn’t listen. The early election results Tuesday suggested the GOP is still deeply split. This week, conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and Ann Coulter all rallied against John McCain, telling their listeners to back Mitt Romney. Forget Huckabee, they’ve argued, a vote for him only ensures that the apostate McCain will win. … These loud voices of protest were thoroughly ignored.” (02/06/08)
http://www.slate.com/id/2183810
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47 - Basic budget training
Mother Jones
Mark Fiore
Cartoon. [Flash format] (02/06/08)
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48 - The fragility of the information age
AlterNet
Annalee Newitz
“So why do a crashing spy satellite and a partly dark Internet mean we’ve entered the age of information dystopia? Quite simply, they are signs that our brave new infrastructure is failing around us even as we claim that it offers a shining path to the future. It’s as if the future is breaking down before we get a chance to realize its potential. But the information age doesn’t have to end this way, in a world where can-and-string-network jokes aren’t so funny anymore. There are a few simple things we could do.” (02/06/08)
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/76238/
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49 - Why Saudis aren’t lifting a finger to ease oil prices
Christian Science Monitor
Steve Yetiv & Lowell Feld
“Here’s one of the most important puzzles of global oil security: Since the late 1970s, Saudi Arabia has pumped the market with oil, fearing that high prices could hurt global growth, reduce demand for Saudi oil, and anger its protector, Uncle Sam. Now, oil has almost doubled in one year to more than $90 a barrel, and the Saudis have barely lifted a finger despite the fear that high oil prices could increase the likelihood of an American, and therefore a global, recession. Why? The answer may define oil in the 21st century — or at least underscore the reasons for the US to seek greater oil independence.” [editor’s note: Two things — (1) under the theory of “abiotic petroleum” there’s no scarcity, nor is there a limit to Saudi-desert-as-source; (2) we’re rapidly reaching a level where sane people are limiting their travel plans in expectation of price-drops soon - SAT] [additional editor’s note: Even assuming that the abiogenic petroleum theory is correct — and the evidence for it l
ooks pretty thin — scarcity would be, um, scarcely affected. The actual and potential amounts of oil would still be finite, as would be extraction capacity - TLK] (02/06/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0206/p09s01-coop.html
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50 - The mystery in the voting booth
Boston Globe
Jeff Jacoby
“The know-it-alls didn’t know it all. Months of predictions to the contrary notwithstanding, the presidential nominations weren’t all sewn up on Super Tuesday. John McCain didn’t put it away. Mike Huckabee has not been reduced to political irrelevancy. Once again — as with earlier forecasts of Hillary Clinton’s implosion in New Hampshire, Rudy Giuliani’s commanding national appeal, and Mitt Romney’s untouchable leads in the early states — the politicos proposed but the voters disposed.” (02/06/08)
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51 - The next President’s Iran dilemma
In These Times
Chris Toensing
“Quick: Who is the strategic victor, to date, of the war in Iraq? Nearly everyone outside the Bush administration (and perhaps some within it) would answer: the Islamic Republic of Iran. The catastrophe of the U.S. occupation of Iraq has bolstered the clerical regime in Tehran, while souring ordinary Iranians on the prospect of U.S.-delivered ‘democracy.’ The occupation has done so by emplacing Iranian-backed Shiite Islamists in power in Baghdad and cooling the jets of those in Washington hoping to ’shock and awe’ Iran’s mullahs.” (02/06/08)
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52 - Obama wins big on Independents
The Nation
Ari Melber
“The Democrats’ Super Tuesday battle offers a revealing yet indeterminate snapshot of a Democratic Party that is unusually energized and firmly divided. Barack Obama won the most states, including pivotal red territory like Missouri, Georgia and Kansas, while Hillary Clinton ran up large margins in the blue strongholds of California, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Final estimates for delegates, which ultimately choose the nominee, were close and still being tabulated overnight. Across the country, over three million more voters turned out in Democratic primaries than Republican contests — a trend that persisted even in traditionally conservative states.” (02/06/08)
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?pid=280868
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53 - Katrina housing grant looted
New America Media
Michael Datcher
“A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization, said Samuel Johnson, the great 18th century English author and critic. The U.S. government has just failed its latest pop quiz. Last week, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson approved a plan that will divert $600 million in congressional funds specifically earmarked for Hurricane Katrina-related low-income housing relief along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Where’s the loot going? To expand the port at Gulfport, Miss., which state officials say suffered $50 million in damage during the Category 4 storm. An uncivilized move when you consider that according to most estimates more than 30,000 people in the region are still living in FEMA trailers and mobile homes.” (02/05/08)
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54 - The machine gun of capitalism
San Francisco Chronicle
Mark Morford
“Surprisingly moving Barack Obama music videos? The potential end of the writer’s strike? Cute young deer being saved by helicopters? No no no no no. Here are your most deeply inspiring news stories of the month: A flurry of pink slips fluttered over the job sector as corporate payrolls were sliced like sour pie. Foreclosures are skyrocketing and new home sales across the nation are plummeting faster than Britney Spears’ serotonin levels. A nasty recession is either creeping or flooding in, depending on your perspective and how recently you purchased your home and/or tried to dump your Google stock. Meanwhile, the largest corporation in the world, the one which has consistently raked in the largest and most appalling profits of any organization on Earth … has recently posted the largest profit of any company in American history.” [editor’s note: Although he uses the word “capitalism” (connoting some variation on “free market” to most folks?) to describe this, where “feudal mercanti
lism” would be far more appropriate, the analysis is otherweise spot-on - SAT] (02/06/08)
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55 - The counter-narrative candidate
The American Prospect
Spencer Ackerman
“There is a lot of speculation that Virginia Senator Jim Webb would make an appealing vice presidential nominee for the Democrats. Some of it emanates from this magazine. It’s not hard to see why. Webb is a tough-as-nails Marine veteran of Vietnam who served as a Navy secretary under Ronald Reagan, a vociferous enemy of the Iraq war and an extremely improbable progressive. He’s also from the capitol of the Old Confederacy as its 11 electoral votes trend Democratic. What’s more, if the nominee is Barack Obama, having a war veteran who also writes paeans to the Scots-Irish cultural tradition round out the ticket creates a juggernaut not seen since Spider-Man joined the New Avengers. But there’s actually a more important way Jim Webb can help elect the Democratic nominee. It has everything to do with the story he can tell at the convention this summer — a story about how the Republican Party abandoned him, and through him, the U.S. military, at a time of war. Call it the Reverse Jeane
Kirkpatrick.” (02/05/08)
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56 - The new kid and the old warhorse
Orange County Register
Steven Greenhut
“I’ve pored over Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s voting record and positions on the issues, and — other than his longtime opposition to the Iraq war — I’m hard-pressed to find any areas of agreement. Sen. Obama is a liberal Democrat, eager to use the federal government to ‘improve’ this or that area of life, and I’m a libertarian, who was last energized by a politician who reminded Americans that government is the problem, not the solution. Yet surveying the rather dismal presidential political landscape, I realize that there are worse things than if America becomes an Obama nation. Sure, Ron Paul speaks my language, but only the most myopic observers think his candidacy — especially after his dismal 3 percent showing in Florida — can do more than remind the Republican Party of its long-forgotten limited-government and non-interventionist heritage. It’s dispiriting, but that’s life.” (02/02/08)
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57 - There’s been no contest like it
The Guardian [UK]
Michael Tomasky
“Ever since those days and weeks in late 2006 when this longest of presidential campaigns began to assume form, commentators have been reaching back into history to find the most apt and dramatic comparison to insert into that evergreen sentence of American punditry, the one that begins ‘Not since …’ Some landed on 1976, when contested nomination battles in both parties lasted well into the spring and summer. Some went back to 1952, which is the last time both parties’ nominations were truly ‘open’ — no incumbent president seeking re-election, and no vice-presidential heir apparent on either side.” (02/05/08)
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58 - Which womanhood?
The Nation
Laura Flanders
“I wish I felt what Robin Morgan feels. ‘Our President Ourselves!’ she cheers, in a rousing pitch for Hillary Clinton. ‘We need to rise in furious energy — as we did when courageous Anita Hill was so vilely treated in the US Senate, as we did when desperate Rosie Jimenez was butchered by an illegal abortion, as we did and do for women globally who are condemned for trying to break through.’ Morgan asks, ‘Why should all women not be as justly proud of our womanhood and the centuries, even millennia of struggle that got us this far, as black Americans women and men are justly proud of their struggles?’” (02/05/08)
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=280397
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59 - The “women’s vote” and Clinton
Christian Science Monitor
staff
“If Hillary Clinton wins any of the primaries on Super Tuesday, exit polls will reveal how much her victories relied on voter preferences for a woman. And if that electoral edge among women then puts her in the White House, America will stand in a new era of affirmative action by ballot — for the top job. Mrs. Clinton disclaims any such thing. ‘Neither race nor gender should be a part of this campaign,’ she says. Still, on the campaign trail she reaches out to women’s groups. And her chief strategist, Mark Penn, said women will launch Clinton into the presidency. So far, Mr. Penn has been partly right. In New Hampshire and Nevada, Clinton won both contests in part because she outpolled Barack Obama in the women’s vote. However, in Iowa (where most voters were white) and in South Carolina (where most voters were black), Obama won the women’s vote.” (02/05/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0205/p08s01-comv.html
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60 - Toeing the line on world stage
Boston Globe
HDS Greenway
“The World Economic Forum, with its unparalleled convening powers, often brings together strange bedfellows who might not otherwise appear together on the same stage. Last month in Davos, for example, America’s ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, sat next to Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, on a panel. According to news reports, the White House was furious. President Bush is still taking a hard line against Iran, and to have one of his senior diplomats sit next to evil was apparently seen as a betrayal. A spokesman for Khalilzad had to quickly say ‘there was no separate meeting or separate conversation or handshake … [just a] multilateral conversation with the moderator.’ It is pathetic that a former ambassador to Kabul and Baghdad should have to explain himself, but then again the administration is split on what to do about Iran, and Bush’s policy has become incoherent.” (02/05/08)
Until next week ...
Peace, Love and Liberty
Steve Trinward, Editor