Progressive News Digest - Dec 3, 2007
stri...@comcast.net
Date: Mon, December 3, 2007
PROGRESSIVE NEWS DIGEST
The latest news, commentary & event listings
(from slightly left of center)
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Volume IV, Issue #26 Monday, Dec. 3, 2007
Welcome to another edition of Progressive News Digest, still rolling along in
its fourth year (this is 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're engaged in our quarterly fundraising effort, aiming for $5,000 in total
this time (Dec. 23st will mark our FIFTH year overall in operation, without
missing a SINGLE non-holiday day in that span!).
If the impulse strikes you, we could sure use donations, both here and at the
parent-site:
http://www.rationalreview.com/content/38515
We appreciate your support, in any amount … but subscribing contributors really
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* * * * * * *
I am continuing 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: Sec of State casts doubt on future of electronic voting
02 - Hopes rise for British teacher jailed in Sudan
03 - IRS: 38 million tax refunds could be delayed
04 - Republican Romney to give speech on his Mormon faith
05 - Thompson warns against Democrats, welfare
06 - Russia: Election marred by allegations of fraud, coercion
07 - Sudan: “Teddy bear teacher” convicted, jailed
08 - Venezuela: Students stage anti-Chavez rally
09 - UK: Computers blamed as reading standards slump
10 - Scientists stand up to government for privacy rights
11 - More protests in Bolivia
12 - FL: Trial by fire hose
13 - The moment of truth for Clinton
14 - WHO to classify late shift as “probably carcinogenic”
15 - UK: Widow told off for sweeping leaves
16 - AZ: Bake sales, beware
17 - Track convention delegate: Expunge Bonds’ records
18 - Bin Laden: Europeans should end US help
19 - OH: Show will go on for “Ten Little Indians”
20 - A Kucinich/Paul ticket? Not even in your dreams
21 - Verizon hears you now
22 - OH: “Ten Little Indians” cancelled for “racial slur concerns”
23 - Sri Lanka: Two bombings in capital
24 - New Romney brochure rips rivals’ stance on marriage
25 - WA: Teachers under fire for anti-war protest
26 - SCOTUS lets stand welfare home searches
27 - Kyl seeks to replace Lott as whip
28 - Rise of family-friendly cities
29 - ME: Test of regulations on Net tobacco sales to minors
30 - Stepped-up Army recruiting enlists many with problems
COMMENTARY
31 - Get the state out of marriage
32 - The Upper Left awakes
33 - How the peace movement can win
34 - Iraq 3.0
35 - The grown-ups never showed up
36 - For Mideast peace, think bigger
37 - Huckabee rise reveals Republican weaknesses
38 - Last call for Boston’s gay bars
39 - Really supporting the troops
40 - If Iran’s Guards strike back
41 - America’s gulag goes before the court
42 - Guns beat Green: The market has spoken
43 - Bush’s next preemptive strike
44 - “Fluidity” of Dem campaign … All bets are off
45 - A plan for energy security, not “independence”
46 - Who’s policing the police?
47 - Betrayed via entitlements
48 - Gold rush
49 - The logic of the anti-immigrant crowd
50 - On the attack
51 - In defense of Ron Paul
52 - No money, no justice
53 - The god-awful GOP debate
54 - Go negative, Fred!
55 - The proliferation game
56 - The Iraqification of Afghanistan
57 - Does the fear of jail actually prevent crime?
58 - Facing up to the falling dollar
59 - An immigrant’s hard but unsurprising choice
60 - Citizens’ constant mobility shouldn’t affect voting right
NEWS
01 - CA: Sec of State casts doubt on future of electronic voting
San Francisco Chronicle
“Electronic voting systems used throughout California still aren’t good enough to be trusted with the state’s elections, Secretary of State Debra Bowen said Saturday. While Bowen has been putting tough restrictions and new security requirements on the use of the touch screen machines, she admitted having doubts as to whether the electronic voting systems will ever meet the standards she believes are needed in California. ‘It’s a real challenge,’ she said at a San Francisco airport conference on voting and elections. ‘I don’t rule out the ingenuity of some computer science student now in the eighth grade,’ but what’s available now isn’t as transparent or auditable as the paper ballot systems they replaced.” (12/02/07)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/02/BASRTMOPE.DTL
=====
02 - Hopes rise for British teacher jailed in Sudan
Christian Science Monitor
“A delegation of Muslim members of the British House of Lords met with Sudan’s president to seek the release of Gillian Gibbons, a British schoolteacher who is serving a 15-day sentence for allowing her class of 6- and 7-year-olds to name a teddy bear ‘Mohammed.’ … Gibbons was arrested last week after several parents complained to authorities that she had allowed her class of 23 students in Khartoum’s Unity High School to vote on the name of a teddy bear. The class voted overwhelmingly to give the bear the same name as the seventh-century founder of Islam, whom Muslims venerate as the last messenger of God. Islamic law, which serves as the basis for Sudan’s criminal code, views it as an insult to associate the name with an animal. On Thursday, a Sudanese court sentenced Gibbons to 15 days in prison and deportation. The following day hundreds took to Khartoum’s streets in
protest of what they perceived as a lenient sentence for a crime that carries a punishment of up to six months in prison and 40 lashes carried out in public.” (12/03/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1203/p25s01-woaf.html
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03 - IRS: 38 million tax refunds could be delayed
Fox News
“The Internal Revenue Service is looking hard at delaying the start of its filing season, set to kick off on Jan. 14, if Congress fails to pass legislation in the next two weeks. At issue is how to handle what could be a dramatic increase in the number of people facing a higher alternative minimum tax. If there is a delay and it extends into mid-February, it would slow nearly 38 million refunds worth a total of about $87 billion, the IRS Oversight Board predicts. … The board, an independent advisory group, said in a report to lawmakers last week that it is ‘gravely concerned about the serious risks’ to the filing season if Congress does not make timely changes to the tax. They include more mistakes by both taxpayers and the IRS and more people failing to pay taxes because of uncertainty about what they owe.” [editor's note: And (show of hands) how many people think there will be interest payments from the Feds for the delayed refunds?- SAT] (12/01/07)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314506,00.html
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04 - Republican Romney to give speech on his Mormon faith
Boston Globe
“Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, striving to be the country’s first Mormon president, will give a speech this week
explaining his relatively unknown faith to voters, his campaign said Sunday. The decision, made after months of debate at his Boston headquarters over whether to make a public address about his religion, comes as the former Massachusetts governor’s bid is threatened in Iowa by underdog Mike Huckabee. The ex-governor of Arkansas and one-time Southern Baptist minister has rallied influential Christian conservatives to erase Romney’s months-long lead and turn the race into a dead-heat. Romney will deliver a speech called ‘Faith in America’ at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, on Thursday, outlining his religious beliefs and how they might impact his administration.” [editor’s note: Thus obscuring the real issues, like authoritarian fiefdom (driven by whatever “faith” the winner professes?) vs. enhancement of individual liberty (only one person speaking about that) - SAT] (12/02/07)
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05 - Thompson warns against Democrats, welfare
Tennessean
“GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson said Saturday that election of a Democrat to the White House in 2008 would open the way for a welfare state where bigger government, higher taxes and defense cutbacks sap the country’s economic and military strength. ‘Our country is at a crossroads,’ Thompson told several hundred people at a rally at a community clubhouse. ‘We know that the most liberal element of the Democratic Party has taken control of the Democratic Party, and if they win this next election we’re going to go down the road of a welfare state,’ he said. After warning of a government that gets ‘bigger and bigger,’ he said ‘I don’t think the American people are going to turn the keys to this country over to the most left-wing part of a left-wing party next year.’” [editor’s note: And as long as this bonehead and his ilk keep missing the real point, those “left-wing” Dems (who are actually almost as neocon as Freddie is?) will continue to “fool (almost) all of the people som
e of the time” - SAT] (12/02/07)
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071202/NEWS0206/71202007
=====
06 - Russia: Election marred by allegations of fraud, coercion
Christian Science Monitor
“Though more than a dozen parties are on the ballot for Russia’s parliamentary election Sunday, one would hardly know it. The pro-Kremlin United Russia (UR) party, whose standing has jumped more than 25 percent since President Vladimir Putin announced he would head its candidate list last month, could fairly win up to two-thirds of votes for the 450-seat State Duma, according to most polls. But in what some experts say may be the least democratic election since the USSR collapsed, boycotted by Europe’s election-monitoring body, the campaign has been marred by complaints from opposition parties of official interference, seizure of campaign literature, the exclusion of some candidates from the ballot, and the sidelining of independent Russian poll observers.” (11/30/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1130/p06s02-woeu.html
=====
07 - Sudan: “Teddy bear teacher” convicted, jailed
Guardian [UK]
“British teacher Gillian Gibbons has been found guilty of inciting hatred after she let her Sudan school pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad. The 54-year-old mother of two from Liverpool escaped a possible sentence of 40 lashes but was given 15 days in jail and ordered to be deported by the court in Khartoum. Mrs Gibbons was arrested on Sunday after complaints to the Education Ministry that she had insulted the Prophet Muhammad, the most revered figure in Islam, by applying his name to a toy animal.” [editor’s note: Well, at least it’s only a short sentence and deportation, not cutting something off … or death - SAT] (11/29/07)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-7114723,00.html
=====
08 - Venezuela: Students stage anti-Chavez rally
BBC News
“Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have held a protest against Sunday’s referendum on President Hugo Chavez’s controversial constitutional reforms. … It is the latest in a series of student-led rallies, ahead of the ‘yes’ campaign’s final march on Friday. However, correspondents say the ‘no’ campaign is gaining force. No official crowd estimates were available but an opposition politician put the figure at about 160,000. ” (11/30/07)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7120133.stm
=====
09 - UK: Computers blamed as reading standards slump
Independent [UK]
“British children have plummeted in an international league table of reading skills. Middle-class parents have been blamed for failing to encourage a love of books over computer games. Primary-school children in England fell from third to 15th in the study of 45 countries, recording the third highest drop behind Romania and Morocco over the past five years. Scotland fell 12 places compared to 2001, slumping to 26th. … The findings are a severe embarrassment for the Government, which has poured hundreds of millions of pounds into reading and literacy after coming to power 10 years ago under the slogan ‘education, education, education’.” (11/30/07)
=====
10 - Scientists stand up to government for privacy rights
Wired News
“Next week 28 NASA Jet Propulsion Lab scientists (including William Banerdt, a project scientist on the Mars rover program) will fight for their right to privacy in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California. They are fighting against Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12) that President Bush issued in August 2004. Policies resulting from the directive requires all federal employees and contractors to ‘voluntarily’ (JPL employees would be terminated immediately for non-compliance) sign a form allowing the government the right to investigate them ‘without limit’ for two years — even if they leave government work during that time.” (11/27/07)
=====
11 - More protests in Bolivia
Radio Netherlands
“In many parts of Bolivia, strikes are taking place in protest at the decision of President Evo Morales to alter the constitution. The new constitution will not only give the president extra power but also increase the influence and prosperity of many poor, indigenous native farmers. … While the Bolivian government has played down the importance of the protests, it is warning that they could lead to riots similar to those at the weekend, in which four people died.” (11/30/07)
=====
12 - FL: Trial by fire hose
Common Wonders
“At the beginning of the school year, as reported by Orlando’s Channel 6 News, a group of kids began wearing T-shirts hand-decorated with peace themes every Thursday. They also put peace posters up on their lockers. Apparently such activities were controversial — like, oh, sitting down, while black, at a Woolworth’s lunch counter once was — and pretty soon people started ripping down the posters or defacing them with swastikas and those other overly familiar, bizarrely racist-edged expressions of hate. The school corridors became gauntlets of derision for the ‘peace kids’ — some broke down in tears — and eventually a counter-group started wearing Confederate flags to school. At first I could hardly manage a thought more articulate than: huh? But even as I felt a centrifugal spin of incredulity, anger and despair — how come people hate the idea of peace so much? — I also felt some deeper click of, oh yeah, this is how it is.” (11/29/07)
=====
13 - The moment of truth for Clinton
Boston Globe
“Oprah for Obama. Susan for Hillary. On Monday, Hillary Clinton countered news that Oprah Winfrey will be stumping for Barack Obama with endorsement news of her own. She has the backing of Susan Lynch, the wife of Governor John Lynch, who describes herself as the first lady of New Hampshire, a pediatrician, and ‘most importantly’ a mother. Lynch’s husband is officially neutral in the race to win the New Hampshire primary. Clinton arrived an hour late for this announcement. The candidate offered no apology to the 50 or so supporters who waited it out in a small, overheated room, designed to make a small gathering look large. Lynch sounded sincere, but her comments lacked emotion or spark. And so did Clinton’s follow-up remarks, which focused on healthcare, the one topic that should stir her passions.” (11/29/07)
=====
14 - WHO to classify late shift as “probably carcinogenic”
Fox News
“It was once scientific heresy to suggest that smoking contributed to lung cancer. Now, another idea initially dismissed as nutty is gaining acceptance: the graveyard shift might increase your cancer risk. Next month, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization, will classify shift work as a ‘probable’ carcinogen. That will put shift work in the same category as cancer-causing agents like anabolic steroids, ultraviolet radiation, and diesel engine exhaust.” (11/29/07)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,313727,00.html
=====
15 - UK: Widow told off for sweeping leaves
Ananova [UK]
“A council has apologized to an 88-year-old widow after a street cleaner told her off for sweeping leaves from her porch. Betty Davies said the council worker knocked on her door in Splott, Cardiff, after seeing her sweeping the leaves. Mrs Davies said she was ‘lost for words’ when he told her she could be fined.” (11/29/07)
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2618436.html
=====
16 - AZ: Bake sales, beware
Arizona Republic
“For more than two decades, Earlene McDonald and her neighborhood friends have baked cookies to raise dough for their central Phoenix neighborhood. They cooked thousands of rum balls, rows of gingerbread and loads of other Christmas treats to sell to the crowds at the annual holiday home tour in the F.Q. Story Historic District. And, until this year, they did it all in the comfortable, familiar settings of their own kitchens. The tradition changed after a visit last year by a Maricopa County health inspector who said she would snatch up the cookies because they weren’t prepared in a kitchen approved by the county. So, instead of mixing and measuring in their own homes, they gathered one night this week to bake away inside the gigantic kitchen of a professional catering company.” (11/29/07)
=====
17 - Track convention delegate: Expunge Bonds’ records
Orange Country Register
“A delegate to the annual USA Track and Field Convention being held here this week called on Major League Baseball to treat Barry Bonds as his sport treated Marion Jones and other athletes caught cheating: take away his records. ‘Baseball’s drug policy is a sham,’ said Robert Weiner, who also served as spokesman for the White House National Drug Policy Office from 1995 to 2001. ‘Baseball should learn from track and field.’ Bonds has been charged with four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury about his steroids use. Jones pleaded guilty to similar charges and was stripped of her Olympic gold medals.” (11/29/07)
=====
18 - Bin Laden: Europeans should end US help
Yahoo! News
“Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden called on Europeans to stop helping the United States in the war in Afghanistan, according to excerpts of a new audiotape broadcast Thursday on Al-Jazeera television. Bin Laden said it was unjust for the United States to have invaded Afghanistan for sheltering him after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, saying he was the ‘only one responsible’ for the deadly assaults on New York and Washington. ‘The events of Manhattan were retaliation against the American-Israeli alliance’s aggression against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and I am the only one responsible for it. The Afghan people and government knew nothing about it. America knows that,’ the al-Qaida leader said.” [editor’s note: The most interesting thing about this alleged story is the Raw Story’s Etch-A-Sketch graphic of OBL on its front page - SAT] (11/29/07)
=====
19 - OH: Show will go on for “Ten Little Indians”
Fox News
“A high school that canceled its student theater production of Ten Little Indians reversed its decision Thursday to allow the show to go on despite complaints about a racial slur in the original title of the Agatha Christie novel. The best-selling murder mystery originally was named ‘Ten Little N***ers’ when it was published in England in 1939. It was never published under that name in the United States. Lakota Superintendent Mike Taylor apologized, announcing plans to make some changes to the play to honor diversity in the southwestern Ohio community. … A group of students and community members will decide what needs to be added to the performance.” [editor’s note: Posted as follow-up — Much ado about … but at least Agatha’s not alive to see them rewrite her work - SAT] (11/29/07)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,313881,00.html
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20 - A Kucinich/Paul ticket? Not even in your dreams
Raw Story
“Call them 2008’s odd couple: Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich says if his long-shot bid for the presidential nomination were successful, he’d ask Republican Ron Paul to be his running mate. The two men are lagging in opinion polls of their parties’ primary voters, but exploding in popularity among online supporters. With their powers combined … well, who knows what would happen. Kucinich raised the possibility of a gadfly team-up at a recent campaign stop in New Hampshire, although the idea has been kicking around for months in blogs and Internet forums. … However, even if Kucinich can bolster his support enough to topple the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama-John Edwards juggernaut currently battling for Democratic primacy, such a pairing is nearly impossible. … Besides, if either of the gadflies is going to take center stage in his party’s presidential quest, Paul seems the more likely contender.” (11/28/07)
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21 - Verizon hears you now
San Francisco Chronicle
“In a move that could give cellular customers unprecedented freedom and choice, Verizon Wireless announced Tuesday it will be the first major carrier to allow any device or application to connect to its network. The nation’s second-largest carrier, with 64 million subscribers, said it will launch an initiative next year called Any App, Any Device, which will allow manufacturers of phones and other mobile devices to connect them to the Verizon Wireless network provided they meet some minimum standards. The move is a major reversal for Verizon Wireless, which has been known for jealously guarding access to its network.” (11/28/07)
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22 - OH: “Ten Little Indians” cancelled for “racial slur concerns”
Fox News
“An Ohio high school has canceled its student theater production of Ten Little Indians after local residents complained about a racial slur in the original title of the Agatha Christie novel, which never has been published under that name in this country. The best-selling murder mystery originally was named ‘Ten Little N—ers’ when it was published in England in 1939. The name of the book was changed for production in the United States, and the school was using the name Ten Little Indians for the play’s title. … The play was to be performed this week by students at Lakota East High School in Liberty Township, Ohio, about 20 miles north of Columbus. Students now will perform Harvey, scheduled for February.” [editor’s note: At least until someone complains about the “supernatural” themes of that classic - SAT] (11/28/07)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,313483,00.html
=====
23 - Sri Lanka: Two bombings in capital
Christian Science Monitor
“A female suicide bomber struck Wednesday in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, killing herself and one other person, but not the government minister who was the intended target. Authorities blamed the attack on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers, whose long-running separatist war flared up last year after the collapse of a Norwegian-brokered 2002 cease-fire. Just hours after the suicide attack, another bomb exploded in a busy central district of Colombo, killing at least 16 people, reports the British Broadcasting Corp. Thirty-seven were also injured in the blast, which occurred outside a clothing shop in the Nugegoda district. The bombings came one day after Sri Lanka warplanes bombed a LTTE radio station to stop the broadcast of an annual speech by rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.” (11/29/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1128/p99s01-duts.html
=====
24 - New Romney brochure rips rivals’ stance on marriage
Boston Globe
“The colorful brochure from Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign looks like many of the political fliers flooding Iowa mailboxes this time of year. But there is a difference. The piece is Romney’s first to single out his rivals by name, a shift that shows him becoming more aggressive in the final weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses. The mailing juxtaposes photos and quotes from Romney showing his support for a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman with photos and quotes showing that Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Fred Thompson all oppose such a measure. But it makes no mention of Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher whose website says he has consistently supported a federal marriage amendment and led successful efforts to pass such an amendment at the state level in 2002. Huckabee has surged from the back of the pack to a virtual tie with Romney for first place in the Iowa polls.” (11/28/07)
=====
25 - WA: Teachers under fire for anti-war protest
King 5 News
“Students in Tukwila are rallying around a group of teachers in trouble with the school district for taking part in an anti-war protest. That war protest turned into a full-fledged controversy at Foster High School in Tukwila. Should teachers have encouraged students to walk out of class to protest the war in Iraq? The civics lesson is now under the microscope. The Tukwila School Board is sorting out whether anyone should be punished over the issue. … Roughly 125 Foster High students walked out of class earlier this month to protest the war, part of a state-wide effort. But the Tukwila School District is investigating six teachers who may have encouraged the students, including the one who marched out with the kids.” (11/28/07)
=====
26 - SCOTUS lets stand welfare home searches
Los Angeles Times
“County welfare officers may conduct routine searches of the homes of welfare recipients to combat fraud under a ruling in a California case that the Supreme Court let stand Monday. The justices refused to hear a challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union, which contended that San Diego County’s policy of requiring home searches without a warrant violated privacy rights. The 4th Amendment to the Constitution forbids the police to search a residence without a warrant. But the home inspections in San Diego County are different, judges said, because they do not seek evidence of a crime. Instead, they are intended to determine whether welfare recipients qualify for benefits.” (11/27/07)
=====
27 - Kyl seeks to replace Lott as whip
Arizona Republic
“Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl launched a quiet campaign on Monday to become the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, a move that could boost his power and influence over legislation. The job will soon be vacant because Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., announced Monday that he will resign his seat and leadership post by the end of the year. Within hours, aides for Kyl said the Arizona conservative would try to move up to Republican whip, one rung higher than his current job of chairman of the GOP conference. No others announced plans to challenge Kyl for the post, although rivals could jump in later. Elections won’t be held until lawmakers return to Capitol Hill next week from a Thanksgiving break. Lott’s replacement as whip will be chosen in a closed meeting among the 49 Republicans in the Senate. Lott said he would leave the Senate after nearly 19 years to ‘pursue other options,’ although he didn’t specify what they were.” (11/27/07)
=====
28 - Rise of family-friendly cities
National Center for Policy Analysis
“For much of the past decade, business recruiters, cities and urban developers have focused on the young urban single professional, the so-called ‘dream demographic.’ But analysis of migration data shows that the strongest job growth has consistently taken place in those regions — such as Houston, Dallas, Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham — with the largest net in-migration of young, educated families ranging from their mid-20s to mid-40s, says Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow at Chapman University.” (11/27/07)
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=15295
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29 - ME: Test of regulations on Net tobacco sales to minors
Christian Science Monitor
“If a teenager in Maine wants to buy a pack of cigarettes in a store, the teen is required to prove he or she is at least 18 years old. No proof of age, no cigarettes. That’s the law. But what if an underage teen logs onto the Internet and orders several cartons of cigarettes for home delivery? That’s the scenario Maine’s Tobacco Delivery Law was designed to prevent. The law requires the shipping company’s delivery driver to verify that the individual who ordered and is receiving the cigarettes is, in fact, 18 or older. From a public-health perspective, Maine’s Tobacco Delivery Law is exemplary. But shipping companies are complaining that the 2003 statute is an illegal restraint on interstate commerce.” (11/27/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1128/p02s01-uspo.html
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30 - Stepped-up Army recruiting enlists many with problems
Boston Globe
“Two weeks ago, the Pentagon announced the ‘good news’ that the Army had met its recruiting goal for October, the first month in a five-year plan to add 65,000 new soldiers to the ranks by 2012. But Pentagon statistics show the Army met that goal by accepting a higher percentage of enlistees with criminal records, drug or alcohol problems, or health conditions that would have ordinarily disqualified them from service. In each fiscal year since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, statisics show, the Army has accepted a growing percentage of recruits who do not meet its own minimum fitness standards. The October statistics show that at least 1 of every 5 recruits required a waiver to join the service, leading military analysts to conclude that the Army is lowering standards more than it has in decades.” (11/27/07)
COMMENTARY
31 - Get the state out of marriage
Orange County Register
Steven Greenhut
“How often do you have knock-down, drag-out fights with your neighbors about what church to attend or what car to buy? Never, right? The reason: You are free to attend any church you choose or buy any car that you prefer. So is your neighbor. … Your neighbor can’t force you to become Catholic, and you can’t force him to choose an S2000 over an RX-8. You each do as you please. Now compare that situation to the world of government action and politics. For some reason, many folks believe that decisions made in a democratic manner — i.e., by voting -– are preferable to those made in the world of private transactions. But political decisions entail one side winning and imposing its will on the other side. When 55 percent of your city’s voters choose to float a bond measure to fund a community center, the other 45 percent of the voters also are forced to endure the traffic and pay for the project. It is a winner-takes-all situation.” (12/02/07)
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/marriage-state-people-1933193-one-choose
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32 - The Upper Left awakes
The Free Liberal
Carl Milsted, Jr.
“The Ron Paul phenomenon has caught the mainstream media by surprise. A fringe candidate with some very extreme views, hostility from the Republican leadership, and tiny numbers in polls of ‘likely Republican voters’ has exploded onto the scene: straw poll victories, large enthusiastic rallies, online poll victories, and record-setting one-day fundraising. The pundits scratch their heads. ‘He’s making better use of the Internet.’ ‘It’s all spam.’ ‘It’s a coalition of loonies, druggies and conspiracy theorists.’ Mostly nonsense. … What we are seeing is bigger than any particular campaign. What we are seeing is the political awakening of the ‘Upper Left.’” (11/29/07)
http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003076.html
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33 - How the peace movement can win
The Nation
Tom Hayden
“The Republicans, led by George W. Bush, Rudy Giuliani and their hard-core neoconservative hit squads, have spent millions on television messages supporting the military surge in Iraq. They mounted a major campaign to demonize MoveOn.org in order to derail the group’s proven ability to raise funds for antiwar messages and Democratic candidates. During the election year, pro-war Republicans are poised to promote staying the course in Iraq while threatening or even instigating a war on Iran. The Democrats will have to respond with more than an echo. But at this point the leading Democratic contenders are reluctant to say they would pull out all the troops from a war they claim to oppose. In sharp contrast to Republicans, Democrats at least support withdrawing most or all American combat troops on a twelve- to eighteen-month deadline. Asked for exact timelines, however, the top contenders indicate that they would put off the withdrawal of all troops until sometime in their second term
.” [editor’s note: Ah, but if only former Cong. Hayden really was focused on ending a war, rather than perpetuating an agenda in its place - SAT] (11/29/07)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071217/hayden
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34 - Iraq 3.0
CounterPunch
Sheldon Richman
“One gets the feeling that even the White House realizes the mess it’s made of Iraq. The other day the newspapers reported that the Bush administration has scaled back its objectives rather substantially. We might call it Iraq 3.0.” (11/29/07)
http://www.counterpunch.org/richman11292007.html
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35 - The grown-ups never showed up
Truthdig
Joe Conason
“To the Washington establishment, George W. Bush’s arrival in the White House marked the ‘return of the grown-ups’ to the running of American foreign policy. While that judgment upon President Bill Clinton was unfair, the implied endorsement of the first Bush administration was based on real achievement in the management of the Gulf War and the 1991 Madrid peace conference. But the second Bush White House has never come under adult supervision. The president has rejected advice from the wise old heads who counseled his father and who repeatedly pleaded with this president for seriousness and maturity in dealing with Iraq, Iran, Syria, Israel and Palestine. Instead, as the Annapolis meeting suggests, his approach to those issues has been both ideological and inconsistent, with a vacillating quality that seems unlikely to encourage progress.” (11/29/07)
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36 - For Mideast peace, think bigger
Christian Science Monitor
Helena Cobban
“Four-and-a-half years after the invasion of Iraq, President Bush has launched another, equally high-stakes, gamble in the Middle East. This time, it is a gamble for peace, the one he started at the Nov. 27 conference in Annapolis, Md. If it succeeds, it could do much to restore calm and hope to a region long cloaked in turmoil and dread. … Bush should understand that success in the post-Annapolis peacemaking effort requires a lot more commitment and vision than he and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have shown to date. Specifically, it requires much stronger direct involvement from the president himself and resurrection of the fine, old vision of an Israel at peace with all of its neighbors. Imagine that! Israel and its five Arab neighbors would no longer need to live in mutual fear.” (12/03/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1203/p09s01-coop.html
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37 - Huckabee rise reveals Republican weaknesses
Fox News
Susan Estrich
“What’s with the Republican field? Not to take anything away from Mike Huckabee, who has caught Mitt Romney in Iowa, but when a candidate who has been consistently ranked in the ’second tier’ and has raised in a year what Hillary and Obama have done on good days, or weekends anyway, you have to ask what it says about the Republican field. The one word answer is: weak. Huckabee is an interesting guy. He is a straight shooter, a former Baptist minister, a born — not born-again — conservative. But as a Democrat, am I worried about Hillary or Barack taking on this former Arkansas governor? Not a little. Certainly not a lot.” [editor’s note: And the focus on Huckleberry as the only “real” challenger, in the face of evidence to the contrary, continues - SAT] (12/02/07)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314571,00.html
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38 - Last call for Boston’s gay bars
Boston Globe
Robert David Sullivan
“The first thing I ever did to identify myself as a gay man — before coming out to a friend or relative, before putting a rainbow-flag pin on my jacket — was to walk into a gay bar. This was not so unusual in the early 1990s, when few gay men identified as such before they left high school. Some of us needed to walk around the block four or five times before finally pushing open a dimly lit, unmarked door. At the time, there were plenty of dimly lit doors in Boston. At the time, there were plenty of dimly lit doors in Boston. … Today, that number has been cut to less than half. None of the bars I’ve mentioned are still in business, and most of the city’s seven remaining gay-every-night bars have sparse customers for most of the week. (Lesbian bars were never numerous to begin with.) The gay population may have political clout and the right to marry in Massachusetts, but it has fewer and fewer public spaces to call its own.” [editor’s note: And the bemoaning of this fact may be one
of the less functional responses to what has otherwise been a pretty successful fight for equal rights - SAT] (12/02/07)
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas//articles/2007/12/02/last_call/
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39 - Really supporting the troops
Brattleboro [VT] Reformer
staff
“For all the talk about “supporting the troops” that we hear from the Bush administration, we keep seeing more and more evidence that the men and women who serve in the military are nothing more than campaign props to be trotted out whenever convenient.” (12/01/07)
http://www.reformer.com/editorials/ci_7608493
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40 - If Iran’s Guards strike back
Asia Times
Hussain Mousavi
“In the event of a US attack on Iran, it’s a cinch that the ‘terrorist’ Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps will fiercely retaliate with a volatile mix of sophisticated conventional forces and unconventional means. One thing is certain, however: US thinking has ignored the highly complex relationship between post-Ba’athist Shi’ite militias in Iraq and the Guards.” (11/29/07)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IK30Ak01.html
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41 - America’s gulag goes before the court
TruthDig
Marie Cocco
“The last time anyone made headlines involving the American penal colony at Guantanamo Bay, it was Mitt Romney, eagerly promising to expand it. ‘My view is we ought to double Guantanamo!’ he enthused during a Republican presidential debate in May. A sober audiotape of arguments before the Supreme Court next week, where the legal future of hundreds of alleged terrorists still held without charge or trial at the prison in Cuba is to be decided, probably won’t produce such a snappy sound bite. The high court’s decision to release a tape immediately after it hears arguments on this latest round of Guantanamo cases — a rare instance when the justices believe an issue has significant public interest — shows the court is getting serious.” (11/29/07)
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42 - Guns beat Green: The market has spoken
The Nation
Naomi Klein
“Anyone tired of lousy news from the markets should talk to Douglas Lloyd, director of Venture Business Research, a company that tracks trends in venture capitalism. ‘I expect investment activity in this sector to remain buoyant,’ he said recently. His bouncy mood was inspired by the money gushing into private security and defense companies. He added, ‘I also see this as a more attractive sector, as many do, than clean energy.’ Got that? If you are looking for a sure bet in a new growth market, sell solar, buy surveillance; forget wind, buy weapons. This observation — coming from an executive trusted by such clients as Goldman Sachs and Marsh & McLennan — deserves particular attention in the run-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali at the beginning of December. There, world environment ministers are supposed to come up with the global pact that will replace Kyoto.” (11/29/07)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071217/klein
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43 - Bush’s next preemptive strike
The American Prospect
Harold Meyerson
“George W. Bush is focusing now on his legacy. Duck. Run. Hide. Some of his legacy-building, I’ll allow, is commendable, if overdue — most particularly, his efforts to resurrect the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which he ignored for seven long years. But the linchpin of Bush’s legacy, it appears, is to make his Iraq policy a permanent fixture of American statecraft. On Monday, Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a declaration pledging that their governments would put in place a long-term political and security pact sometime next year.” (11/29/07)
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44 - “Fluidity” of Dem campaign … All bets are off
Fox News
Susan Estrich
“‘Fluid’ is the word of the day. That’s how one of my savviest friends described the situation on the Democratic side with the opening bell little more than six weeks away. No locks. No sure things. Fluid. The conventional wisdom is that Iowa is the four-letter word for Demcrats. But that’s only partly true. Iowa picks losers. New Hampshire picks winners. Iowa winnows down the candidates. Hillary can lose Iowa and be just fine, if she turns around — almost literally, in just five days — and wins New Hampshire. But if she loses them both, we’re in for a marathon.” (11/28/07)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,313647,00.html
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45 - A plan for energy security, not “independence”
Christian Science Monitor
Mackubin Thomas Owens
“After gaining control of Congress in 2006, Democratic leaders laid out goals: Achieve energy independence, strengthen national security, grow the economy and create jobs, lower energy prices, and begin to address global warming. The energy legislation now pending in Congress — which raises taxes on the oil industry, repeals incentives designed to increase domestic oil and natural-gas production,and mandates increased use of ‘renewable’ energy sources (e.g., wind, solar, and biofuels) — will almost certainly achieve none of these objectives. Indeed, it will make things worse, especially with regard to energy security. Energy security should not be confused with ‘energy independence.’ The latter is a chimera, especially in this age of global interdependence. It is the mantra of those who stress ‘renewable’ sources of energy.” (11/30/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1130/p09s01-coop.html
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46 - Who’s policing the police?
Strike the Root
Benjamin Gohs
“We trust these people to patrol the streets armed with firearms, Tasers, batons, pepper spray and unnatural amounts of trust and power. When they molest that trust, it leaves an odious funk on the citizenry’s collective taste buds. Trite though it may be, bad things happen when good people — good cops especially — do nothing.” (11/29/07)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/72/gohs/gohs3.html
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47 - Betrayed via entitlements
Machan\'s Inputs
Tibor R. Machan
“As people think about public affairs they deploy a variety of criteria by which to evaluate them. Some want to know if a law or policy increases happiness in society; some care about whether it pleases God; some are concerned about whether the policy meets standards of justice. In the United States of America the official criteria for whether some proposed law or policy passes muster is whether it is constitutional. But that is not the end of it because constitutions can be flawed, as the American one was and arguably continues to be under the influence of highly opinionated Supreme Courts. In the back of the Constitution stands the philosophy sketched in the Declaration of Independence. This is America’s original revolutionary statement of what constitutes of just country. And as anyone can check, there is no mention of increasing happiness or pleasing God.” (11/29/07)
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48 - Gold rush
Slate
Bruce Reed
“As any conservative will tell you, people vote with their feet. Just ask Larry Craig. But that’s bad news for a Republican Party whose leaders are looking at the GOP’s future and deciding to walk away. The sudden, simultaneous departure of both former Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott has been treated as a coincidence, not a trend. But congressional resignations tend to be an even more accurate forecast than Intrade. If you’re checking the parties’ vital signs, consider this: The GOP lost the two longest-serving congressional leaders in Republican history — in the same week.” (11/29/07)
http://www.slate.com/id/2178790/
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49 - The logic of the anti-immigrant crowd
Classically Liberal
CLS
“There are numerous arguments that the xenophobes make against immigration — or more precisely against certain kinds of immigrants. Rarely do I find that they want to stop all immigrants. After all no one wants to build a wall on the Canadian border — but those people look like us so they are okay. Some of these arguments are merely mistaken — based on false premises. Some are just daft, moronic or stupid — those based on false logic. Others are just mean-spirited and openly hateful.” (11/29/07)
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50 - On the attack
Mother Jones
Nick Baumann
“Is this the return of the summer showdowns between Capitol Hill Democrats and the White House? The Senate Judiciary Committee moved a big step closer to contempt citations against top Bush administration officials today. Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) ruled that White House claims of executive privilege ‘are not legally valid.’ A Senate aide tells Mother Jones the committee could begin contempt proceedings as early as next Thursday if current and former administration officials do not comply immediately with the subpoenas.” (11/29/07)
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51 - In defense of Ron Paul
AlterNet
Joshua Holland
“Ron Paul has arrived, thanks in large part to the unrivaled intensity of his supporters. In the weeks since his dedicated — some say obsessive — online army organized a ‘money bomb’ that delivered over $4 million in a single day to Paul’s war chest, his quixotic campaign has gotten a boatload of media attention. It is officially the quirky, nontraditional candidate story of the 2008 race. If the campaign pulls off the $10 million ‘tea party’ planned for Dec. 16, the spotlight on Paul will get hotter still. With that attention comes a new level of scrutiny, as one would expect. But most of the media’s analyses don’t put the Paul ’sensation’ into a larger context. Often missing is the degree to which Paul’s popularity is related to Washington’s structural inability to handle the issues most important to American voters — a flaw that extends to the corporate media as well. Lacking that context, the criticism flung at the Paul campaign is superficial and distracting.” (11/29/07)
http://www.alternet.org/rights/69139/
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52 - No money, no justice
Reason
Radley Balko
“Most people don’t care much for public defenders. The job is often despised not just by prosecutors, victims, and the public, but by defendants themselves, who see the lawyers as at best second-rate and at worst just another cog in a machine designed to crush them. Some don’t want a defense and can be openly hostile, even threatening. The common thread Davis finds among the public defenders seems to be cynicism, if not fatalism, about the criminal justice system. ‘I’ve heard attorneys here say, ‘I want a case where there’s no chance of winning,’’ Shelton Green, head of the Murder Task Force, tells Davis. ‘That way, you can’t fuck it up. But if you win, it’s a miracle.’ Yet embedded in that cynicism Davis finds an unwavering dedication and passion among the task force attorneys, often to the detriment of their families, relationships, and health.” (for publication 12/07)
http://www.reason.com/news/show/123025.html
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53 - The god-awful GOP debate
Salon
Walter Shapiro
“Rarely has a debate left me so troubled about the future of the nation. By now, I should have learned not to be shocked when Republicans like Mitt Romney, who spent the Vietnam War doing missionary work in France, pretend to believe that they have more expertise about waterboarding and other forms of torture than John McCain who spent five and a half years being abused and sometimes tortured in a North Vietnamese prison. I should have also learned not to be dismayed that the standard Republican position on immigration (McCain and Mike Huckabee excepted) now seems to be Emma Lazarus in reverse: ‘Take my tired and poor, please. I never want to see those shiftless bums again.’ No, what sent me into a free fall of depression was CNN’s instinct for the fatuous in choosing the debate questions.” (11/30/07)
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54 - Go negative, Fred!
Slate
John Dickerson
“Thompson has been falling in the polls since he entered the race. Campaign aides like to summon the tortoise and hare parable, but in Thompson’s case, the turtle is walking backward in South Carolina and Florida — the states that were supposed to be his strongest — in Iowa it’s at best sleeping, and in New Hampshire it has died. A well-placed knock on Romney and Huckabee could begin to revive Thompson in Iowa, where conservatives might give him a second look. That would help him survive the pounding he’s going to take in New Hampshire so that he can perhaps make it to competing in the early Southern states.” [editor’s note: Of course, Thompson attempted just such a knock. Guess we’ll see how well it worked - TLK] (11/28/07)
http://www.slate.com/id/2178714/
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55 - The proliferation game
Mother Jones
Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz
“Globalization, what a concept. You can get a burger prepared your way practically anywhere in the world. The Nike Swoosh appears at elite athletic venues across the United States and on the skinny frames of t-shirted children playing in the streets of Calcutta. For those interested in buying an American automobile — a word of warning — it is not so unusual to find more ‘American content’ in a Japanese car than one built by Detroit’s Big Three. So don’t kid yourself about the Pakistani bomb. From burgers to bombs, globalization has had an impact. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal — as many as 120 weapons — is no more Pakistani than your television set is Japanese. Or is that American?” (11/28/07)
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56 - The Iraqification of Afghanistan
AlterNet
Marie Cocco
“Nothing exposes a hollow promise like the prospect of mass starvation. By now, six years after the United States and its Western allies launched military operations to avenge the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and free Afghanistan from the grip of the Taliban, humanitarian workers surely should not be forced to give up on feeding the desperate. But this is only one measure of our catastrophic failure. While the Bush administration crows about the apparent pacification of some neighborhoods in Iraq as proof that its surge of military forces there is working, Afghanistan hurtles toward chaos.” (11/28/07)
http://www.alternet.org/audits/68952/
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57 - Does the fear of jail actually prevent crime?
Fox News
John Lott, Jr.
“Does the risk of prison deter crime? According to a brand-new and extensively covered study by the JFA Institute, a George Soros funded group, the U.S. prison system doesn’t deter crime and is ‘a costly and harmful failure.’ Prison is supposedly so useless that the U.S. prison population could be cut in half with no effect on crime. This distrust of prison reducing crime is not new, but many have a hard time believing the simplest rule of economics: if you make something more costly, people do less of it. People accept that this principle applies to what we buy in grocery stores, but not to ‘bad’ things that people might do. So how plausible is deterrence? Let us take a couple examples from sports.” (11/27/07)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,313310,00.html
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58 - Facing up to the falling dollar
Christian Science Monitor
Donald J. Boudreaux
“What do Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and rap mogul Jay-Z have in common? They’ve all recently dissed the US dollar. And for good reason. Seven years ago, a euro would set you back as little as 84 cents. Today, it takes a whopping $1.49 to buy a euro. The trend line with respect to other currencies is similarly negative. The precipitous drop in the dollar’s value has set off alarm bells around the globe. Will China dump its massive hoard of dollars? Will OPEC stop trading oil in greenbacks? Will Persian Gulf states break their peg to the dollar? How low will the dollar go? The response to all of these concerns is this: Be afraid, but not very afraid. Yes, the dollar’s fall makes Americans poorer. It also reflects concerns about the health of the US economy. But so long as policymakers refrain from greater protectionism, foolish regulations, and loose monetary policy, the US economy and currency won’t become second-rate.” (11/28/07)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1128/p09s01-coop.html
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59 - An immigrant’s hard but unsurprising choice
Arizona Republic
Laurie Roberts
“It was around dusk on Thanksgiving Day when a lone man, trudging through the rugged Arizona desert, reached a crossroads. Help a child or help himself. The decision he made that night says a lot about Jesus Manuel Cordova and where he came from and who he is. He made a choice that I’d like to think most of us would make. Which, at a time when illegal-alien bashing has become a national sport, is precisely the point. … He could have walked on. He had, after all, broken the law to get here, which makes him a callous criminal in the minds of many. He could have walked on. The boy spoke no Spanish and he spoke no English. But the language of desperation is easily understood and so he went with the boy and was there when his mother died.” (11/28/07)
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60 - Citizens’ constant mobility shouldn’t affect voting right
Tennessean
staff
“Government officials might have a challenge on their hands with how to register people to vote who live in recreation vehicles, but disenfranchising any citizen can’t be tolerated. Election authorities have come upon a curious — but quintessentially American — problem. Thousands of people are beginning to live full-time in their RVs. This includes many seniors who choose to spend their retirement years traveling the nation. They literally shift from place to place. But along the way, election officials have caught on to the fact that some ‘residents’ don’t actually spend much time in the locations where they’re registered. Some of those people are being purged from voter rolls. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit on behalf of people being denied the right to vote, and there needs to be a clear solution somewhere. No citizen should be prevented from voting.” (11/28/07)
Until next week ...
Peace, Love and Liberty
Steve Trinward, Editor