Progressive News Digest - Feb 18, 2008
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Date: Mon, February 18, 2008
PROGRESSIVE NEWS DIGEST
The latest news, commentary & event listings
(from slightly left of center)
updated daily on the web at
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Volume IV, Issue #37 Monday, Feb 18, 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). Tonight we barely
made it on the date indicated; an emergency call in to work today, matched
by a late schedule last night ... apologies all around.
Meanwhile, over at the "parent company" (Rational Review News DIgest),
we finished the fundraising effort. (Dec. 23st marked our FIFTH year overall
in operation, without missing a SINGLE non-holiday day in that span!). We are,
however, still looking for donations, whether you call it "tipping" or "gifting" ...
If the impulse strikes you, we could sure use your help, both here and at the
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http://www.rationalreview.com/content/38515
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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 I 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 - Willie Nelson: Impeach Bush, “throw the bastards out”
02 - CA: Oakland needs cop cars on streets, too
03 - Japanese internees’ hard work created lush valley
04 - Lost JFK assassination docs found in Dallas courthouse
05 - Employer retaliation cases reach SCOTUS
06 - Retailers crack down on serial returns
07 - Report: CIA set up bogus companies after 9/11
08 - CA: Berkeley taxpayers hit with $93,000 for cops’ OT
09 - TN: Bill bans gay reference in schools
10 - Why Kosovo’s independence bid is unique
11 - More illegal immigrants rushing to file taxes
12 - TCS: Clinton tops in earmarks
13 - UK: Taser use on children okayed
15 - CA: Airline passenger “bill of rights” filed
16 - AZ: Valuations drop, but property tax may not
17 - “Today” Show apologizes for Fonda’s “language”
18 - East Timor: Peacekeepers hunt for rebels
19 - US: No permanent bases anywhere in the world
20 - AZ: Voters may have final say on speed cameras
21 - Tiger attack survivors back in court
22 - NY: Naked Cowboy sues for $6 million over “naked” M&M
23 - Kosovo tries to launch independence softly
24 - RI: Care, cost stressed in healthcare initiative
25 - Russia, China challenge US with proposal to ban space weapons
26 - TN: Nashville couple sues blog, claiming defamation
27 - Australia apology to Aborigines: How helpful?
28 - RI: Illegal workers targeted
29 - DHS, FBI warn of “pregnant women” as bomber risk
30 - CA: State high court OKs salmon-coloring suits
COMMENTARY
31 - Challenging Indian land trusts
32 - Military tribunals and you
33 - What’s missing from Democratic exit polls?
34 - Bush’s little obstacle
35 - If you have to ask, it isn’t over
36 - Wal-Mart can be good for your health
37 - How Republicans might sink Obama
38 - Chelsea and the kid gloves
39 - Health insurance: Problem or solution?
40 - The totally coolest candidate ever
41 - Mandatory, minimum, and misguided
42 - Three reasons to hate Facebook
43 - The last test of democracy, part 1
44 - Getting through these dark times
45 - Child abuse by the government
46 - Social business: Creating a world without poverty
47 - What would JFK do?
48 - Bringing the race to closure
49 - The candidate of the permanent will
50 - Unstoppable Obama
51 - The star-spangled delusion
52 - Disaster statism
53 - Is the hybrid Escalade an oxymoron?
54 - Shades of Chicago
55 - Jose Padilla brings torture to trial
56 - Candidate in a corner
57 - Iran’s winds of change
58 - Bush’s unfinished Africa legacy
59 - Be careful what you vote for, you just might get it
60 - The other healthcare issue: Getting costs down
NEWS
01 - Willie Nelson: Impeach Bush, “throw the bastards out”
Prison Planet
“American icon Willie Nelson says he supports efforts to impeach President Bush and ‘throw the bastards out,’ adding that the administration will do anything to stay in power, including staging an event to cancel the election. In his second appearance this month, Nelson told The Alex Jones Show Monday that he supported Dennis Kucinich’s attempt to impeach Bush, adding, “If you break the law you have to pay for it one way or another and if these guys haven’t broke the law nobody has. The deck’s been stacked and we need to figure out a way to get a new fresh deck in there in the deal and I don’t know how else to do it except throw the bastards out,’ said Nelson.” (02/18/08)
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02 - CA: Oakland needs cop cars on streets, too
San Francisco Chronicle
“Putting more cops on the street isn’t Oakland’s only crime-fighting problem — the city isn’t having much luck getting its new squad cars on the road, either. Dozens of brand new Ford Crown Victoria police cars have been sitting idle for months at the city’s corporation yard, waiting to be outfitted with lights, radios, cameras and computer equipment. As of last week, there were still 40 cars collecting dust at the yard on Edgewater Drive, more than half the 69 patrol cars that began arriving seven months ago.” (02/18/08)
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03 - Japanese internees’ hard work created lush valley
Arizona Republic
“In western Arizona, the land is dry and brown. Through Bouse and past the Plomosa mountains, the blur of desert is broken only by mobile homes with satellite dishes. Near the very edge of the state, however, on the Colorado River Indian Reservation, things begin to change. Suddenly, irrigation ditches flow with water, stacks of hay bales rise tall, fields are lush and farmers are busy. This burst of life is the complicated legacy of the time Japanese-Americans were forced to live here during World War II. They were sent to the Poston Relocation Center because they had the misfortune of being of Japanese descent at a time of war hysteria and prejudice.” (02/18/08)
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04 - Lost JFK assassination docs found in Dallas courthouse
Fox News
“A suspect transcript of a conversation between John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby, the man who killed Oswald, are among the treasure trove of items found in an old safe at the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins presented the items at a news conference Monday. Watkins says they were locked in a safe for nearly two decades and that investigators had made him aware of them after he took office in 2006. Much of the attention focuses on the transcript purporting that Ruby and Oswald met at Ruby’s nightclub on Oct. 4, 1963, less than two months before the Nov. 22 assassination. In it, they talked of killing the president because the Mafia wanted to ‘get rid of’ his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy.” [editor’s note: Whoops! Time to drag Carl Oglesby back into action? - SAT] (02/18/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331045,00.html
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05 - Employer retaliation cases reach SCOTUS
Christian Science Monitor
“Employers, managers, and supervisors wield enormous power in the workplace over the lives and wellbeing of their employees. Congress has recognized that sometimes this power can be abused by managers who retaliate if they don’t like something that employee has said or done. This week, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two cases examining how, when — or even if — employees can fight back against such abuses of power. On Tuesday, the high court will examine whether a US postal worker can claim retaliation in a lawsuit under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act because she says her supervisor refused to let her return to her old job because he didn’t like her personally. Instead, he hired a younger, less experienced worker.” (02/19/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0219/p03s03-usgn.html
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06 - Retailers crack down on serial returns
Boston Globe
Jimmy Deignan’s first time was with a $500 portable DVD player. He bought it a few years ago at Best Buy for a Boston-to-Los Angeles flight, knowing he would return it for a full refund when he got back. More recently, in November, rather than spending $600 to rent a LCD projector for a business presentation, the Holden resident purchased one at Staples, then returned it a few days later and got his money back. The way Deignan sees it, he is just a smart shopper: … But to retailers, this is wardrobing, a practice they say is unethical, damaging to their bottom line, and increasingly common. Nearly two-thirds of merchants had items wardrobed in 2007, up from 56 percent the year before, the first year the National Retail Federation started tracking the trend. Merchants blame tough economic times and a ‘customer-is-always right’ mentality gone too far.” (02/18/08)
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07 - Report: CIA set up bogus companies after 9/11
Raw Story
“Following the September 11, 2001, attacks, the US Central Intelligence Agency set up 12 bogus companies in Europe and other parts of the world in the hope of penetrating Islamic organizations, The Los Angeles Times reported on its website late Saturday. But citing current and former CIA officials, the newspaper said the agency had now shut down all but two of them after concluding they were ill-conceived. The firms were part of an ambitious plan to increase the number of CIA case officers sent overseas under what is known as ‘nonofficial cover’ in order to increase the agency’s potential for penetrating Islamic networks, the report said.” (02/17/08)
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08 - CA: Berkeley taxpayers hit with $93,000 for cops’ OT
Fox News
“The tab for just overtime pay for Berkeley cops to keep the peace at Tuesday’s Marine protest outside City Hall was reported to be $93,000. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, about 140 Berkeley police worked at the protest, which drew more than 2,000 demonstrators. Anti-war groups such as Code Pink mixed with pro-military groups, rallied over whether lawmakers should change their anti-Marine position. Only four arrests were made on Tuesday, all of them misdemeanors, the Chronicle reported.” [editor’s note: Gee, $23K+ per arrest … still less than Romney paid per primary vote? - SAT] (02/17/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330959,00.html
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09 - TN: Bill bans gay reference in schools
Tennessean
“For one state lawmaker, it’s a disturbing trend in public education: Tennessee middle school teachers attending seminars on how to teach about transgender people and a Massachusetts kindergarten class being taught about homosexuality. State Rep. Stacey Campfield, a Knoxville Republican, has proposed legislation to forbid ‘any instruction or materials discussing sexual orientation other than heterosexuality’ in Tennessee elementary or middle schools. ‘It’s such a blatant attack on freedom of speech,’ responded Marisa Richmond, president and lobbyist for the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition. Advocates for gay and transgender rights say they have noticed an alarming trend of their own: an assault on their lifestyle, which has required them to raise their profile in Tennessee politics.” (02/17/08)
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10 - Why Kosovo’s independence bid is unique
Christian Science Monitor
“As Kosovo prepares to be Europe’s newest state on Sunday — supported by the United States and most of Europe — it is doing so without United Nations Security Council approval, the guarantor of legality among nations. Russia calls Kosovo independence illegal, a ‘Pandora’s Box,’ in the words of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Serbia, a UN member, says Kosovo succession violates its ancient, sovereign territory. Cyprus and Romania cite a dangerous precedent in allowing minority groups to split willy-nilly. Even some diplomats supporting Kosovo say that on legal grounds alone, the arguments — Serbian sovereignty vs. ethnic Albanian self-determination — are inconclusive. They say Kosovo is a political not a legal problem — one clouded by nine years of world attention on terrorism, Iraq, Guantanamo, and an erosion of America’s high ground after the Berlin Wall fell.” (02/15/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0215/p07s01-woeu.html
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11 - More illegal immigrants rushing to file taxes
Boston Globe
“Illegal immigrants are pouring into tax-preparation offices and nonprofit agencies across Massachusetts and the nation to file state and federal income taxes, taking a step that some might deem unthinkable: giving their name, address, and financial information to the government. In Massachusetts, taxpayers here illegally are lining up from Chelsea to the Berkshires, despite the fear of deportation that is permeating the state after a massive raid in New Bedford last year and smaller raids in Boston-area cities and towns. While typical American taxpayers are wary of the Internal Revenue Service, illegal immigrants see the IRS as a friendly agency that could help in their quest for legal residency.” (02/17/08)
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12 - TCS: Clinton tops in earmarks
Boston Globe
“Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure more than $340 million worth of special projects for her home state of New York in last year’s spending bills, according to a new study by a government watchdog group. The figure places her among the top 10 Senate recipients of what are commonly known as earmarks, said the group, Taxpayers for Common Sense. Working in nearly every case with New York colleagues, Clinton supported almost four times as much spending on earmarked projects as her rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, whose $91 million total placed him in the bottom quarter of senators who seek earmarks, the study showed.” (02/14/08)
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13 - UK: Taser use on children okayed
Daily Mail [UK]
“Police have been given the go-ahead to use Taser stun guns against children. The relaxing of restrictions on the use of the weapons comes despite warnings that they could trigger a heart attack in youngsters. Until now, Tasers — which emit a 50,000-volt electric shock — have been used only by specialist officers as a ‘non lethal’ alternative to firearms. However, they can now be used against all potentially violent offenders even if they are unarmed. It is the decision not to ban their use against minors that is likely to raise serious concerns. Home Office Police Minister Tony McNulty said medical assessments had confirmed the risk of death or serious injury from Tasers was ‘low.’ But he failed to mention Government advisers had also warned of a potential risk to children.” (02/14/08)
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15 - CA: Airline passenger “bill of rights” filed
San Francisco Chronicle
“A bill that would require airlines to provide basic amenities for passengers — including water, snacks, fresh air, sanitary restrooms and lights — if their airplane is delayed on a tarmac in California for more than three hours is heading to state legislators for consideration. Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is sponsoring what he calls the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights, introduced Wednesday and modeled after legislation in New York that survived an airline industry challenge in federal court. ‘The status quo is really a tragedy waiting to happen,’ Leno said at a news conference at San Francisco International Airport, referring to a long list of protracted delays at airports, including delays of up to 11 hours for passengers on several JetBlue airplanes one year ago at New York’s Kennedy International Airport during a snow and ice storm.” (02/14/08)
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16 - AZ: Valuations drop, but property tax may not
Arizona Republic
“Most homeowners won’t be surprised when they open their property notices from the Maricopa County assessor this weekend. Values on most Valley homes have dropped. But homeowners hoping for an immediate property-tax reduction will be disappointed. Property-tax statements lag valuations by 18 months in Arizona, so homeowners won’t see a drop in their taxes until late 2009. And if Valley municipalities raise taxes to offset budget shortfalls, there won’t be a drop even then. The overall median value of homes in metropolitan Phoenix fell 13 percent, to $199,800 from $229,500, according to the assessor’s latest report, which covers the market from mid-2006 through the fall of 2007. About 94 percent of all Valley homes fell in value.” [editor’s note: In banking terms, it’s called the “float” but it only lasts a week or less, not a whole frickin’ year - SAT] (02/14/08)
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17 - “Today” Show apologizes for Fonda’s “language”
Fox News
“NBC News apologized Thursday for Jane Fonda’s use of the c-word on the Today show. The actress used the four-letter c-word for a woman’s anatomy on the show Thursday while talking about The Vagina Monologues. Fonda is appearing in a 10th-anniversary performance. Fonda said she was asked to perform a monologue with the offensive word as the title. She said her reply was, ‘I don’t think so. I’ve got enough problems.’ About 10 minutes later, Today co-host Meredith Vieira told viewers that [both the program] and Fonda apologized for the remark.” [editor’s note: So she was fine as long as she stayed clinical, but using a slang-term while discussing the specifics of the play’s dialogue was so off-limits they can’t even use it in reporting the story? - SAT] (02/14/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330700,00.html
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18 - East Timor: Peacekeepers hunt for rebels
Christian Science Monitor
“An Australian-led peacekeeping force began hunting Thursday for rebel soldiers suspected in assassination attempts on East Timor’s president and prime minister, both of whom were attacked Monday. The attempts on the lives of President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao highlight the nation-building challenges faced by East Timor, Asia’s newest country. Soldiers, helicopters, and armored vehicles have been searching the scrub outside the capital, Dili, for the suspects, the BBC reported. Australian doctors said Mr. Ramos-Horta, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning against Indonesia’s occupation, was stable, recovering from gunshot wounds. But he remains in serious condition.” (02/14/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0214/p99s01-duts.html
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19 - US: No permanent bases anywhere in the world
Raw Story
“Amid a bitter dispute over US bases in Iraq, the White House signaled Wednesday it does not view any US military installations overseas — except perhaps Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — as permanent. ‘The United States, where we are, where we have bases, we are there at the invitation of those countries. I’m not aware of any place in the world — where we have a base — that they are asking us to leave. And if they did, we would probably leave,’ said spokeswoman Dana Perino. Asked about Guantanamo Bay, Perino replied: ‘I’m going to say that one doesn’t count.’ The United States and Cuba disagree about the validity and the terms of the 1903 treaty that originally carved out the area for the base.” [editor’s note: So what this says is, the way to bring our troops home is to get the people in all the foreign nations to march in protest of our occupation of their lands, and … No wait, they’ve already tried that - SAT] (02/13/08)
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20 - AZ: Voters may have final say on speed cameras
Arizona Republic
“Don’t like speed cameras? You may get a chance to vote on it. A state Senate panel approved three measures Tuesday, including two for the November ballot, which would limit or outright ban the camera-based system that Scottsdale was first to use on its portion of Loop 101 in early 2006. Now, Gov. Janet Napolitano would like to take the technology statewide with as many as 170 mobile, stationary and red-light cameras over the next five years. The measures apply only to state roads, so they don’t affect municipal photo enforcement on local streets. But the stakes are still high considering the more than 1 million paid citations that are expected to initially result under Napolitano’s speed-camera expansion.” (02/13/08)
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21 - Tiger attack survivors back in court
San Francisco Chronicle
“Attorneys for the two brothers who survived a Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo said today they intend to seek the personnel records of San Jose officers who arrested the men Sept. 7 in a separate incident in which they allegedly scuffled with police. Kulbir Dhaliwal, 24, and his brother Paul, 19, said nothing during their brief appearance in a San Jose courtroom on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest. Paul Dhaliwal is also charged with misdemeanor battery on a police officer. The brothers were arrested after they allegedly refused to cooperate with officers who reported seeing them chasing two men down the street, according to police reports. Authorities have never located the men.” (02/13/08)
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22 - NY: Naked Cowboy sues for $6 million over “naked” M&M
Fox News
“Times Square’s Naked Cowboy is trying to take a $6 million bite out of a giant candy corporation, charging it stole his identity by dressing an animated blue M&M in his skimpy trademark outfit. The nearly nude street performer, whose real name is Robert Burck, has his tighty whities in such a bunch over a massive video billboard showing the candy in a white hat, boots, guitar and underwear that he’s filed suit against the mighty Mars candy corporation. The case of Naked Cowboy vs. The Men From Mars will be heard in Manhattan federal court.” (02/13/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330549,00.html
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23 - Kosovo tries to launch independence softly
Christian Science Monitor
“Albanians here have craved independence for nine long years of loud tearoom debates. Now with a declaration expected as soon as Sunday, Kosovo officials hope independence from Serbia will be so quiet it will scarcely be noticed. The hallmark phrase repeated by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci to local mayors all week is ‘independence with dignity.’ This means no bacchanalian outbursts, no in-your-face waving of Albanian flags around Serb enclaves, no mass rallies — nothing to provoke the incidents that officials here think Belgrade would like to see. Popular expectations in the breakaway province are being scaled back by officials — that independence can magically solve all the difficulties of this sensitive Balkan flash point that has been overseen by the United Nations since 1999.” (02/14/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0214/p01s02-woeu.html
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24 - RI: Care, cost stressed in healthcare initiative
Boston Globe
“Drawing lessons from Massachusetts, Rhode Island’s lieutenant governor unveiled a healthcare plan yesterday that puts as much emphasis on slowing soaring costs as it does on providing universal coverage. The plan, which would need legislative approval, acknowledges that Rhode Island cannot afford, financially or politically, to insure all its residents unless it can deliver healthcare more efficiently and raise money through a tax on businesses that do not provide coverage. … Healthcare specialists say that Rhode Island’s proposal is part of a trend among states to take a slower approach that addresses costs first, or at least simultaneously with access.” (02/13/08)
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25 - Russia, China challenge US with proposal to ban space weapons
Raw Story
“China and Russia challenged the United States at a disarmament debate Tuesday by formally presenting a plan to ban weapons in space — a proposal that Washington has called a diplomatic ploy by the two nations to gain a military advantage. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament that ‘weapons deployment in space by one state’ — a reference to the U.S. — could cause a ‘new spiral in the arms race both in space and on Earth.’ Lavrov’s call came with an implied threat, noting that the Soviet Union caught up with the U.S. after World War II by developing its own nuclear weapons.” (02/12/08)
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26 - TN: Nashville couple sues blog, claiming defamation
Tennessean
“A Nashville couple is suing a local blog they say invaded their privacy and libeled them. The lawsuit, filed in Davidson County Circuit Court on Monday, alleges that three John Doe defendants libeled Don and Terry Swartz of Old Hickory on a blog titled ‘Stop Swartz’ (stopswartz.blogspot.com). The anonymous blog, which lists its first post in September 2007, levies several accusations against the Swartzes, who live in Old Hickory Village. The lawsuit details an October post linking the Swartzes to fires set throughout the neighborhood last year. ‘I believe in the First Amendment, but there are limits,’ said Goodlettsville lawyer Charlie Sizemore, who represents the Swartzes.” (02/12/08)
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27 - Australia apology to Aborigines: How helpful?
Christian Science Monitor
“Aborigines who were taken from their families as children in a policy of forced racial assimilation will receive a historic apology from Australia’s new government Wednesday. In what will be the first parliamentary act of his government, center-left prime minister Kevin Rudd will fulfill an election campaign promise when he stands up in parliament in Canberra, the capital, and says sorry to the so-called Stolen Generation. The Labor leader said the apology would remove a ‘blight on the nation’s soul’ and had the overwhelming support of Australians. Supporters say it is of similar magnitude to America’s apology in 1988 for interning Japanese citizens during World War II.” (02/12/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0212/p07s02-woap.html
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28 - RI: Illegal workers targeted
Boston Globe
“Rhode Island, facing a budget crisis that will lead to massive cutbacks, is engulfed in the most intense battle over illegal immigration in New England, with Republicans and Democrats alike calling for a crackdown on unauthorized workers. In the past few weeks, state lawmakers and the governor have proposed a battery of measures targeting unauthorized workers, from expelling undocumented children from the state’s healthcare system to making English the official language to jailing business owners and landlords who harbor illegal workers. Even the father of the state’s first baby born in the New Year was caught up in the issue. Days after a beaming Mynor Montufar appeared in the news, the illegal immigrant was picked up for deportation to Guatemala.” (02/12/08)
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29 - DHS, FBI warn of “pregnant women” as bomber risk
Fox News
“The growing use by terrorist groups of women — some disguised as expectant moms — to deliver deadly homicide bombs has prompted the Department of Homeland Security and FBI to issue a rare warning that such attacks could take place on American soil. The joint security assessment cited recent female homicide bomber attacks in Baghdad — in which two women who appeared to have Down syndrome delivered a deadly explosion that killed 99 — as well as in Sri Lanka, Chechnya, India, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories as reason for the warning. ‘Female suicide bombers may have an advantage over their male counterparts in accessing targets,’ the analysis cautioned. ‘The means to conduct a suicide attack vary widely, but a key element in maximizing the lethality of a suicide bombing is the bomber’s ability to get close to the target.’” (02/12/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330415,00.html
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30 - CA: State high court OKs salmon-coloring suits
San Francisco Chronicle
“The state Supreme Court breathed new life today into a consumer complaint about the chemically induced orange coloring of farm-raised salmon and ruled that private citizens can sue to enforce California’s food labeling laws. The unanimous decision reinstated lawsuits filed in 2003 and 2004 that accused supermarket chains of misleading customers by failing to disclose on the labels that the fish had been fed chemicals to give their flesh the orange color of wild salmon. Salmon raised in fish farms are naturally grayish but take on the orange hue of their free-swimming kin after consuming the chemicals canthaxanthin and astaxanthin. … But the suits contended that the stores induced some customers to pay higher prices for salmon and led others to buy fish they normally would have shunned because of the artificial coloring.” (02/11/08)
COMMENTARY
31 - Challenging Indian land trusts
In These Times
Michelle Chen
“Across Indian country, two things are never in short supply: rich natural resources and endemic poverty. That paradox is driving a longstanding battle between indigenous people and the government trust that holds money generated from their lands. The class-action lawsuit, Cobell v. Kempthorne, targets a federal trust fund that handles revenues from activities like oil drilling and logging on land owned by individual Indians and tribes. The trust’s financial operations — covering more than 56 million acres and dating back for more than a century — have left a spectacularly messy paper trail. Many beneficiaries say they are in the dark about how much has been paid out and what is still owed, and charge that the system has drained wealth from Indian communities.” (02/18/08)
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32 - Military tribunals and you
Common Dreams
Cindy Sheehan
“How do these military tribunals in Egypt and Guantanamo affect us here in the US? Americans always receive fair and equal treatment under the law, right? Wrong! Madam Justice’s fabled scales are heavily weighted to benefit the wealthy or the established ruling class. Ask any person of color or poor citizen here how the American justice system works for them. There is no place for secrecy or suppression of dissent in any free, open or democratic society. In allowing these military tribunals to continue, the very cornerstone of human rights is being shattered.” (02/18/08)
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/18/7116/
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33 - What’s missing from Democratic exit polls?
The American Prospect
Dana Goldstein
“What are exit polls for? When responsibly analyzed, final exit poll results — not the early, leaked numbers that so often misrepresent outcomes — are most helpful in determining not who won an election, but what types of voters supported which candidates. Exit polls have identified Hillary Clinton’s strong showing among women, highly educated voters’ affinity for Barack Obama, and confirmed evangelicals’ affection for Mike Huckabee. They’ve also shed light on peculiarities such as John McCain’s support among pro-choice Republicans, even in Florida, when the nominally pro-choice Rudy Giuliani was still in the race. Over 40 percent of Sunshine State GOP voters believe abortion should be legal, and McCain won more of their votes than any other candidate in the race.” (02/18/08)
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34 - Bush’s little obstacle
San Francisco Chronicle
Jon Carroll
“Let’s talk about police states. That’s always fun. We do not currently have a police state in the United States, in my view (although others may, and do, differ), but we have a tendency. We have an urge. I believe that the urge to adopt a police state can be cured, perhaps through re-education camps and prayer. The imperial presidency of G.W. Bush has long claimed the authority to do pretty much anything it wants, usually in the name of national security. It has also claimed the authority not to tell anybody what it’s doing, also in the name of national security. When you have a government that can do anything and not tell its citizens about it, you have a police state.” (02/18/08)
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35 - If you have to ask, it isn’t over
Fox News
Susan Estrich
“How do you know? People ask that all the time. How do you know when you’re in love? How do you know when you’re not in love? How do you know when it’s over? The answer is always the same. You know when you know. If you have to ask, the answer is, not yet. That’s the answer to the question of whether the Democratic race is over. Not yet. Races end when a candidate puts down his hand, or her hand, or when the people who would never endorse while there was still a contest endorse, when all the money is flowing in one direction, and the only question is when and not if.” (02/18/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331057,00.html
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36 - Wal-Mart can be good for your health
Salon
Rahul K. Parikh, MD
“Many medical groups, like the American Academy of Family Practice and the American Academy of Pediatrics (to which I belong), have published position papers opposing retail clinics. Their basic argument is that retail clinics run counter to the concept of ‘a medical home,’ a place where patients receive care for any and all of their problems. They worry that patients will have no sensible place to follow up their test results, and that putting a clinic in a mall or a Wal-Mart could expose shoppers to people with a contagious illness. The medical community needs a second opinion. Retail clinics are good for American healthcare.” (02/18/08)
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/02/19/retail_health_clinics/
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37 - How Republicans might sink Obama
Christian Science Monitor
Walter Rodgers
“A fresh-faced Democratic presidential candidate promising change. An economy in turmoil. A nation soured on Republican rule. It sounds like a recipe for a big win for Sen. Barack Obama this November. It also sounds a lot like the 1976 campaign, which I covered as White House correspondent for the Associated Press. And if history is any guide, don’t count the GOP out just yet. In August 1976, after winning the Republican nomination in Kansas City, Mo., Gerald Ford invited GOP VIPs to his summer retreat in Vail, Colo., to plot strategy for the November election against Jimmy Carter, who at that time enjoyed a nearly insurmountable advantage in opinion polls. Indeed, as summer peaked, Mr. Carter was doubling Ford’s support in surveys — capturing nearly 70 percent. Yet there they stood: Ford, his vice presidential nominee Bob Dole, Nelson Rockefeller, a line of Republican biggies that seemed to stretch across the golf course where they assembled, all mouthing banalities about how the
GOP could come from behind and win.” (02/19/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0219/p09s02-coop.html
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38 - Chelsea and the kid gloves
Boston Globe
Elinor Lipman
“I must be woefully misaligned with family values or linguistically tone deaf to be so deeply offended by MSNBC’s suspension of Emmy award-winning Washington correspondent David Shuster. His crime: uttering a word no one liked. As a substitute host on Tucker Feb. 7, he discussed Chelsea Clinton’s phone calls to superdelegates. Shuster asked pundit Bill Press, ‘Doesn’t it seem like Chelsea is being pimped out in some weird sort of way?’” [editor’s note: SO nice to see a woman-writer, with obvious feminist cred, skewer this PC stupidity so well - SAT] (02/18/08)
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39 - Health insurance: Problem or solution?
Nolan Chart
Chuck Angier
“I am baffled that there are numerous grassroots efforts to provide health insurance for the uninsured, yet none to actually provide healthcare for those in need. According to recent reports from the Census Bureau, the number of uninsured increased 2.2 million in 2006 over 2005 to 47 million or 15.8% of the population. Part of this increase was due to a decline in insurance provided by employers. This decline in coverage might just be because the typical family plan offered by employers rose 7.7% to a staggering $11,480!” (02/18/08)
http://www.nolanchart.com/article2795.html
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40 - The totally coolest candidate ever
Slate
John Dickerson
“Among a crowd of hip and stylish Democrats, announcing one’s skepticism about the cool kid would totally dampen the party. Nor is the dynamic just true for young people. John Lewis, the venerable civil rights hero and congressman, put words to this feeling recently. ‘In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit,’ he said, suggesting that he might switch his superdelegate vote from Hillary Clinton to Obama. ‘Something is happening in America and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap.’ If you insist on being that party-killing skeptic, it either means you’re a Washington cynic, supporting the worst elements of Clinton’s campaign, or you’re cluelessly out of step with the sway of the culture. On Facebook, people write about dreams featuring Obama. There is only one correct reaction to the will.i.am ‘Yes We Can’ video, and that is to start chanting along. That’s why the Obama campaign sent it out to supporters. He is the sun, the moon, the Ambien,
and the Red Bull.” (02/15/08)
http://www.slate.com/id/2184611
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41 - Mandatory, minimum, and misguided
Mother Jones
Niko Karvounis
“On Tuesday, [US Attorney Gretchen] Shappert urged members of Congress to reject the Commission’s reforms and to keep sentencing changes up to the legislative branch. This was a clever move: the more political drug sentencing can remain, the more the ’soft on crime’ stigma can be utilized to thwart reform. But nowadays it would be tough to recreate the must-punish mania of the Reagan era. In 1989 27 percent of Americans thought drugs were the nation’s top problem, as opposed to one percent in 2007. And with drug use among teens in steady decline for more than a decade, parental paranoia has waned. Similarly anachronistic is the administration’s insistence that the system must never second-guess itself.” (02/15/08)
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42 - Three reasons to hate Facebook
AlterNet
Annalee Newitz
“Here is the insane list I had in my requests bar: ‘1 gay request, 1 american citizen test request, 1 good karma request, 1 smartest friend invitation.’ And there have been so many others, like ‘hottest friends invitation,’ ‘zombie invitation,’ ‘vampire bite request,’ and ‘compare movie scores invitation.’ Yes, it sounds fun and whimsical at first, as if social relations have been turned into a fanciful playground. But then you get a spam feeling. Usually, responding to requests requires you to sign up for something and give some information about yourself and download another piece of software. And why the hell do I want to answer a gay request from a zombie? I mean, that sounds good until you have to download unknown software from an unknown gay zombie. The fun turns out to be just noise. And there’s nothing worse than noise in your personal profile space.” (02/12/08)
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/76818/
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43 - The last test of democracy, part 1
The Libertarian Enterprise
L. Neil Smith
“Something is deeply wrong with the American political process. That’s the only way to explain why, despite polls showing that 70% of us want the wars in the middle east ended and our troops brought home now, the probable nominees of the ‘major’ political parties are a warmongering lunatic and a ‘peace candidate’ who says he wants to bomb Pakistan.” (02/17/08)
http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2008/tle456-20080217-02.html
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44 - Getting through these dark times
Salon
Leigh Flayton
“In 2003, Samantha Power won a Pulitzer Prize for her book ‘A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,’ in which she chronicled the United States’ responses to the major genocides of the 20th century. But that’s just one of her accomplishments. Power, 37, is a Harvard professor and founder of that university’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. She is a prominent voice on stopping the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and addressing numerous trouble spots around the world. She has shot hoops with fellow Darfur activist George Clooney, and once proclaimed herself the ‘genocide chick.’ Beneath her sense of humor is a fierce idealism and dedication to improving world affairs. Now, Power is immersed in what she considers the toughest challenge yet in her action-packed career: serving as a senior foreign policy advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.” (02/18/08)
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/02/18/samantha_power/
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45 - Child abuse by the government
Orange County Register
Steven Greenhut
“What kind of society rips a 17-year-old autistic boy from his loving home and places him in a state-run mental institution, where he is given heavy doses of drugs, kept physically restrained, kept away from his family, deprived of books and other mental stimulation and is left alone to rot? Certainly not a free or humane one. Yet that’s exactly what has happened to Nate Tseglin, after a teacher called Child Protective Services, the county agency charged with protecting children from many forms of abuse and given power to remove children from their family homes in certain circumstances. The teacher reported seeing self-inflicted scratches on Nate’s body and complained about the doctor-approved arm restraints his parents used to keep Nate from hurting himself. Nate remains in Fairview Developmental Center (formerly Fairview State Hospital) in Costa Mesa, labeled a danger to himself and others, while his parents fight a lonely battle to bring their son back home.” (02/17/08)
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46 - Social business: Creating a world without poverty
Christian Science Monitor
Muhammad Yunus
“Bill Gates caused a stir in Davos last month with his call for ‘creative capitalism.’ He pointed out that while capitalism is ‘responsible for the great innovations that have improved the lives of billions … to harness this power so it benefits everyone, we need to refine the system.’ I see traditional capitalism as a half-developed structure. It ignores the humanity within all of us. Moneymaking is an important part of humanity, but it is not the only part. Caring, concern, sharing, empathy — all of these aspects also must be considered when developing an economic framework that takes the whole person into account. Enter the missing piece of the global development puzzle: social business.” (02/15/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0215/p09s01-coop.html
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47 - What would JFK do?
Boston Globe
Jeff Jacoby
“In 1963, John F. Kennedy was murdered in Texas by a fervent admirer of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. In 2008, a large Cuban flag emblazoned with the image of Che Guevara, Castro’s brutal henchman, is prominently displayed in a Barack Obama campaign volunteer office in Houston. Obama has been widely compared to JFK, most notably by the late president’s brother and daughter. President Kennedy, a stalwart anticommunist, despised Castro and his gang of totalitarian thugs. But when word broke last week that Obama’s supporters in Houston work under a banner glorifying Che, the campaign’s reaction was to brush it off as an issue involving volunteers, not the official campaign. After two days of controversy, the campaign issued a statement calling the flag ‘inappropriate’ and saying its display ‘does not reflect Senator Obama’s views.’ Would JFK have reacted so mildly?” [editor’s note: Umm, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Che one of the first to be offed once Fidel took the throne? See
ms like when I was in college over half the folks I admired had Che posters! - SAT] (02/17/08)
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48 - Bringing the race to closure
The American Prospect
Paul Starr
“Remember when it was obvious that the Democratic Party would choose a presidential nominee early this year because of the front-loaded primary schedule? Like a lot else that was oh-so-obvious about this year’s election, things aren’t working out that way (not as of the week after Super Tuesday). While John McCain has nearly locked up the Republican nomination, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may continue battling for weeks, possibly for months, and perhaps all the way to the convention in Denver, intensifying the bitterness and disaffection between the two camps. What’s more, the nomination may hinge on procedural votes whose outcome seems unfair to the losing side. Is there anything that can be done to prevent the race from stretching into late summer and turning into an ugly donnybrook in Denver? In fact, if the primaries are not decisive, some steps could be taken to bring the contest to a fair resolution before the convention. The Democratic Party faces two separate issues. T
he first concerns the seating of the 366 delegates from Michigan and Florida, currently disqualified because their states violated party rules by advancing their primaries to January.” (02/15/08)
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49 - The candidate of the permanent will
In These Times
David Sirota
“To the consternation of news bureaus, political consulting firms and has-been politicians, the Wall Street Journal’s poll last month shows that America is hostile to an independent presidential candidacy by Michael Bloomberg. The New York mayor is viewed more unfavorably than favorably by voters. In head-to-head general election polls, he gets crushed everywhere, losing even the city he now governs. Yet, despite the unprecedented enthusiasm for the major parties’ 2008 presidential contenders, the media and political gatekeepers keep floating the possibility of Bloomberg’s candidacy, showing just how much change frightens the status quo. To review: Bloomberg is the billionaire who spent roughly the same amount to buy New York’s mayoralty as Bill Clinton spent on his entire national presidential campaign in 1992. By most measures, he is the antithesis of what Americans want in a president.” (02/14/08)
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50 - Unstoppable Obama
The Nation
Barbara Ehrenreich
“When did you begin to think that Obama might be unstoppable? Was it when your grown feminist daughter started weeping inconsolably over his defeat in New Hampshire? Or was it when he triumphed in Virginia, a state still littered with Confederate monuments and memorabilia? For me, it was on Tuesday night when two Republican Virginians in a row called CSPAN radio to report that they’d just voted for Ron Paul, but, in the general election, would vote for… Obama. In the dominant campaign narrative, his appeal is mysterious and irrational: he’s a ‘rock star,’ all flash and no substance, tending dangerously, according to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, to a ‘cult of personality.’ At best, he’s seen as another vague Reaganesque avatar to Hallmarkian sentiments like optimism and hope. While Clinton, the designated valedictorian, reaches out for the ego and super-ego, he supposedly goes for the id. She might as well be promoting choral singing in the face of Beatlemania.” [editor’s
note: The only good news to liberty-lovers so far in this election is that it won’t be Hillary vs. Ghouliani. How much better (if at all) the “choice” gets, remains to be seen - SAT] (02/14/08)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080303/ehrenreich
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51 - The star-spangled delusion
Asia Times
David Young
“Since the end of World War II, no US administration has indulged American idealism to the degree — and with the recklessness — that President George W Bush has. Previous presidents were better able to balance our raw idealism with our realist objectives, even though they often spoke the language of morality to the American people — telling us that we were the planet’s moral beacon — while quietly ensuring that our impulses be checked by a cold dose of caution and realism. For better or worse, it was inevitable that our own idealism (or more cynically, our self-righteousness) would lead us to overreach.” (02/16/08)
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB16Ak03.html
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52 - Disaster statism
Strike the Root
Hogeye Bill
“There’s actually existing capitalism and there’s the ideal of no state intervention at all free market capitalism — two different things. Nevertheless, both capitalists and anti-capitalists are prone to confuse the two. Naomi Klein’s book, ‘The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,’ is a case in point. Discussing the Iraq occupation, Klein writes, ‘When Iraqis resisted, they were rounded up and taken to jails where bodies and minds were met with more shocks.’ Here we have an occupied country, with checkpoints on streetcorners, where all capital goods are destroyed or under control of the occupation army or its puppet government, and Naomi Klein considers this to be ‘complete free trade!’ One can only wonder what controlled trade would be like for her.” (02/15/08)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/81/bill/bill1.html
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53 - Is the hybrid Escalade an oxymoron?
AlterNet
Clint Wilder
“Some years ago, I’m not sure when, the prize vehicles awarded to heroes of major sports events made the unfortunate transition from snazzy convertible sports cars to the biggest, hulkiest, meanest SOBs — I mean SUVs — on the block. So it was no surprise when New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, after engineering one of the greatest upset wins in Super Bowl history 10 days ago (with a tremendous assist from his team’s defense, I must add), was handed the MVP trophy and the keys to a brand-new black 2009 Cadillac Escalade. But this is 2008, and there’s a twist. It’s a hybrid Escalade. And that’s now officially a trend.” (02/13/08)
http://www.alternet.org/environment/76785/
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54 - Shades of Chicago
The American Prospect
Harold Meyerson
“In popular memory, Chicago ‘68 evokes images of police and demonstrators clashing — and cops swinging nightsticks at anyone who chanced by — in Grant Park and the old Conrad Hilton Hotel, while the Democratic National Convention proceeded apace. But take it from someone who was there (I was an 18-year-old working for Eugene McCarthy’s campaign): The rage inside the convention hall was every bit as great as the anger without. It wasn’t just the divisions over the Vietnam War and the sense among the antiwar delegates that Robert Kennedy’s assassination had stolen their chance to end the war and transform their party. The clash was more elemental. Just as the yippies and the police fighting on the streets seemed to come from two different Americas, so the party regulars … and the earnest young reformers … plainly came to loathe each other.” (02/14/08)
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=shades_of_chicago
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55 - Jose Padilla brings torture to trial
In These Times
Doug Cassel
“When on Jan. 22 a federal court judge sentenced Jose Padilla to 17 years in prison for conspiracy to commit terrorism, it was a one-day story. But, in fact, the Padilla case goes on. Padilla, a U.S. citizen and former Chicago gang member, alleges that he was tortured during the more than three and a half years he spent behind bars at a Navy brig in South Carolina. He is now suing John Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who reportedly devised the legal theories to justify the interrogation techniques used against him. While Padilla’s suit raises a number of constitutional claims — including that the military violated his rights to counsel and to exercise his Muslim religion — the heart of his argument is that Yoo gave legal advice to justify his torture, in violation of due process of law as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.” (02/14/08)
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56 - Candidate in a corner
The Nation
John Nichols
“With his ‘Potomac Primary’ sweep of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, Barack Obama continued one of the longer winning streaks ever sustained by a candidate locked in a still serious contest for a party presidential nomination. Following a Super Tuesday that saw Obama win most of the day’s twenty-two contests and a roughly even share of the delegates, he has been on a roll, securing victories in states as diverse as Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska and Washington. Add anticipated February 19 wins in Wisconsin and Hawaii, and the Illinois senator’s post-Super Tuesday record could be 10-0. Those numbers are making February the longest month for New York Senator Hillary Clinton.” (02/14/08)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080303/nichols2
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57 - Iran’s winds of change
Boston Globe
Iason Athanasiadis
“Ten months after moving to Boston from Iran, I returned in January to a snow-blanketed Tehran. After a nine-month crackdown on what Iran’s moral guardians call un-Islamic dressing, the city had gone back to looking remarkably like its representations in the just-released film Persepolis, a movie set in the repressive post-Revolutionary years of the early ’80s. The Tehran I left in 2007 was the capital of a country basking in the liberalizing glow of the post-Khatami period: a decade when the rock-star popular reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, allowed social freedoms to bloom as restaurants, cafes, and galleries reclaimed public spaces dominated by public art commemorating the martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war.” (02/14/08)
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58 - Bush’s unfinished Africa legacy
Christian Science Monitor
staff
“President Bush can safely claim a positive legacy in Africa, which he tours starting Feb. 15. He increased funds for health and tied foreign aid to reform. But one legacy hangs in the balance: a new American security arrangement there. It’s called AFRICOM, a United States military command center for the continent. It replaces a cold-war setup that viewed Africa as secondary to larger security concerns. That’s why its oversight was long divided among three US command centers that focus on other global regions. A year ago, the White House announced one central command for the continent. Africa had become too strategically important to be divvied up and filed away in various military portfolios.” (02/14/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0214/p08s01-comv.html
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59 - Be careful what you vote for, you just might get it
CounterPunch
Donna Volatile
“Well, the Revolution was over before it began … It has just packed up and gone to Texas. It was short, sweet and offered some of us a few moments of self delusion but such is the world of politics. Ron Paul galloped into our lives, like some aged knight, on an ol’ paint Texas pony, with promises of revolution and ending the war but now Ron Paul is limping back to Texas, to try and save his Congressional seat. … Dennis Kucinich too. Gone back to Ohio to try and save his Congressional seat, taking with him his sweet whispers of promise for Impeachment. I guess it’s off the table for good. Nancy Pelosi will be so pleased … As for the Antiwar Movement? … Well, it didn’t limp off anywhere, it’s just MIA. Moveon.org continues to support the war mongering democrats and their chosen star de jour is Barack Obama.” (02/14/08)
http://counterpunch.org/volatile02142008.html
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60 - The other healthcare issue: Getting costs down
International Herald Tribune
Richard Bernstein
“A few weeks ago a friend of mine received a bill from a hospital in New York where he had had a routine colonoscopy, one of those preventive procedures that people over a certain age are supposed to have every five years or so. The bill, my friend was surprised to see, was for $8,513.36, not including the doctor’s fee, which was a few hundred dollars more — this for a procedure involving no anesthesia and taking less than half an hour from start to finish. What was most surprising about the bill was not even the total, rather high, amount; it was an indication that Medicare — the government insurance program for people 65 and over — had paid the lion’s share of the bill, or precisely $8,200.61. Over $8,000 of the taxpayers’ money for a routine colonoscopy — a procedure that would normally cost a few hundred dollars, maybe a bit more than a thousand for a high-cost doctor in a high-cost area. What was going on here?” [editor’s note: At last! Someone writing from a “progressive” per
spective asks the right question -SAT] (02/13/08)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/13/america/letter.php
Until next week ...
Peace, Love and Liberty
Steve Trinward, Editor