Progressive News Digest - Jan 21, 2008
stri...@comcast.net
Date: Mon, January 21, 2008
PROGRESSIVE NEWS DIGEST
The latest news, commentary & event listings
(from slightly left of center)
updated daily on the web at
http://rationalreview.com/pnd
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Volume IV, Issue #33 Monday, Jan 21, 2008
Welcome to another edition of Progressive News Digest, still rolling along in
its fourth year (just over the halfway-mark of Year 4, BTW, and with rare
exception this has appeared every week at some point).
Meanwhile, over at the "parent company" (Rational Review News DIgest),
we're engaged in our quarterly fundraising effort, aiming for $5,000 in total
this time (Dec. 23st marked our FIFTH year overall in operation, without
missing a SINGLE non-holiday day in that span!).
We are just slightly past HALFWAY to that goal ... and have now LOWERED
the bar, seeking only $3,000, as was usually the quarterly goal. However,
fundraising will now continue until we reach that mark ...
If the impulse strikes you, we could sure use donations, both here and at the
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* * * * * * *
I continue to publish this now with a contents list, without attempting a
summary of the highlights. It still takes a little time to prepare this, and
then let you do the browsing.
Here you go ... enjoy and see you next week! Check the site for constant
updates each day:
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NEWS
01 - TN: Employers shun ID database
02 - NH: Baby for sale on Craigslist?
03 - Smoking 101: Paying middle-schoolers to not light up
04 - Serbian elections focus on keeping Kosovo
05 - MA: Budget to challenge legislators on casinos
06 - CO: Birth control tested on elk herd
07 - Lax oversight found at some forensic labs
08 - NV: Judge OKs caucus sites in casinos
09 - MA: Patrick to seek corporate tax cut
10 - Politics of race ensnare Democrats
11 - Zimbabwe issues 10-million-dollar bill
12 - One new word in Book of Mormon stirs debate
13 - Candidates abandoning small-government [sic] ideology
14 - CA: Schwarzenegger flip-flops on Prop 93
15 - TN: Council prohibits “aggressive” panhandling
16 - New research raises concern on biofuel safety
17 - Computer learns dogspeak
18 - NY: Man says hospital forced rectal exam
19 - Study: Aggression satisfies just like food, sex
20 - Report: Major studios nix writers’ contracts
21 - CA: Venture capitalist backs offbeat cancer cure ideas
22 - TX: Town abuzz over multiple UFO sightings
23 - US pushes Iraq to clear more “benchmarks”
24 - MI: Romney’s newest tune sweeter to Detroit’s ears
25 - CA: Anti-violence activist slain outside daughter’s game
26 - Threats to US ships in Gulf came from “heckler?”
27 - AZ: McCain’s daughter blogging for Dad
28 - CA: Student’s welfare drug-screening bill advances
29 - Fertilizer, frustration fuel Gaza’s rockets
30 - MA: Bill proposes cellphone restrictions in cars
COMMENTARY
31 - “Treat it like car insurance …”
32 - Subject or citizen?
33 - Digging in the right place
34 - Clinton & Obama win Nevada
35 - The global grain bubble
36 - Hillary Clinton’s massive conflict of interest
37 - A short history of the Lakota freedom movement
38 - The war for middle Earth
39 - Those too-consistent libertarians
40 - The empire needs new clothes
41 - Romney’s new new thing
42 - What happens when blogs go mainstream?
43 - Surgetopia!
44 - SCOTUS to Enron retirees: Drop dead
45 - Huckabee’s magic “FairTax”
46 - Obama’s eloquence reflects end of the age of the rant
47 - Candidates should put their political philosophy on the table
48 - Atomic power regains its glow
49 - A classic tale of two parties
50 - False gods create false hope
51 - Iran sanctions: An unclear strategy?
52 - See instructions before beginning
53 - Death of the Bush Doctrine
54 - Ideological labels don’t account for shades of gray
55 - The woman vs. the black guy
56 - From disaster springs humanity
57 - “Liberal fascism” isn’t about fascism
58 - There’s big money in poverty
59 - The surge of lies
60 - America’s pain inside
NEWS
01 - TN: Employers shun ID database
Tennessean
“When Tennessee’s new law penalizing employers who knowingly hire illegal workers went into effect Jan. 1, the state gave companies a clear way to avoid the law’s serious consequences: Use the E-Verify system. Despite that incentive, the number of Tennessee employers who use the federal identity check database remains minute. Of Tennessee’s 117,903 private employers, 543 have registered to use E-Verify, according to numbers released Jan. 12 by the Department of Homeland Security. That’s up from 214 a year ago. Tennessee’s trend mirrors the nation’s. Some analysts attribute limited participation in the E-Verify program to everything from lack of need to worries about what business owners will have to do if they discover illegal workers and fears about mistakenly turning away eligible workers.” (01/20/08)
=====
02 - NH: Baby for sale on Craigslist?
Fox News
“Police in Newmarket, N.H. are investigating whether a recent ad on craigslist offering to sell a baby is true or just a hoax. The ad in part reads, My daughter is almost 1-year-old and is driving me nuts … if you have always wanted a child of your own and you either (expletive) or can’t get approved for adoption then this is you, MyFoxBoston.com reported. It continued, I am somehat flexible on the terms of the lease. If you decide you would like to purchase the child at the end of the lease, all baby cloths and toys that I have are included in the final sale price. The ad was removed within 19 minutes of being published, according to the report.” (01/19/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324050,00.html
=====
03 - Smoking 101: Paying middle-schoolers to not light up
CBC News [Canada]
“Canadian smokers and non-smokers in grades five through eight are being offered $5,000 to quit smoking or stay smoke-free throughout their high school years. The group Rewarding Everyone Who Acts Responsibly and Doesn’t Smoke, or R.E.W.A.R.D.S., is unveiling its Canada-wide program in conjunction with National Non-Smoking Week, which begins Sunday. In order to be eligible, students must sign a contract pledging to remain smoke-free at least until graduation. They must also enlist four sponsors who agree to donate a small amount of cash each month to the R.E.W.A.R.D.S. foundation which, in turn, hands the money to the student when they complete Grade 12.” (01/17/08)
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/01/17/smoking-school.html
=====
04 - Serbian elections focus on keeping Kosovo
Christian Science Monitor
“The first round of key elections for a state half in and half out of Europe takes place Sunday, as Serbs go to the polls amid a fantastic focus on one issue: keeping Kosovo. The elections, closely watched in the US and Europe, pit a moderate nationalist, Boris Tadic, against numerous hard-edged nationalists, chief among them Tomislav Nikolic, who are deeply opposed to the independence of Serbia’s mythic Kosovo heartland. Many experts feel the West is unprepared for the implications of electing a radical nationalist like Mr. Nikolic. The outcome will probably be clarified in a second round of voting on Feb. 3.” (01/18/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0118/p06s01-woeu.html
=====
05 - MA: Budget to challenge legislators on casinos
Boston Globe
“In a challenge to lawmakers to accept his plans to expand gambling, Governor Deval L. Patrick will propose using $124 million of the $300 million that he said could be generated from casino licensing fees to cover a local aid shortfall. Leslie Kirwan, the state’s secretary of Administration and Finance, said yesterday that Patrick has decided against a plan to use the entire $300 million to help close a huge budget deficit and pay for some of his expanded programs and initiatives. Patrick will unveil his budget plan for fiscal year 2009 on Wednesday. ‘The governor’s budget will not be balanced with this money,’ Kirwan said in an interview yesterday. She said the $124 million would make up the projected shortfall in the State Lottery, the major source of local aid to already financially strapped cities and towns, and would not be part of the budget’s balance sheet.” (01/20/08)
=====
06 - CO: Birth control tested on elk herd
Arizona Republic
“A cow elk lay on her side in a meadow ringed by towering, snowy peaks on Friday, rocking back and forth before struggling to her feet. She had just been darted with an anesthetic, injected with an experimental contraceptive and given a test for chronic wasting disease. A second drug to reverse the anesthesia was taking hold, and after a brief wobble, she bounded off to join the rest of the herd. This 15-year-old is one of 120 female elk in Rocky Mountain National Park undergoing similar treatment from researchers who are seeking reliable, multiyear contraception for wildlife and an easier way to detect chronic wasting, a fatal disease that attacks the brain. All will get the chronic wasting test, but half will get a saline solution instead of the contraceptive and will serve as a control group. It will be the first such research conducted on a free-ranging elk herd.” (01/20/08)
=====
07 - Lax oversight found at some forensic labs
Arizona Republic
“Charges of negligence and misconduct at some police forensic-evidence labs remain unchecked because of lax oversight allowed by the Justice Department, an internal audit concludes. Critics say the gaps raise questions about the accuracy of DNA evidence used to convict or clear suspects in criminal cases. The audit, released Friday, found that the Justice Department doesn’t require allegations of wrongdoing at state and local police labs to be reported to independent investigators. Moreover, 34 percent of independent investigators charged with overseeing the labs lacked the authority, ability or resources to do so, according to the report issued by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.” (01/20/08)
=====
08 - NV: Judge OKs caucus sites in casinos
Fox News
“A federal judge on Thursday denied an attempt to cancel at-large Nevada caucus sites, boosting Barack Obama’s campaign, which has the backing of Las Vegas’ largest labor union. Judge James Mahan washed his hands of the case, saying that existing election law allows for the Democratic Party to resolve the differences internally and it’s not the place of the federal court to adjudicate how the party conducts its caucuses. ‘State Democrats have a First Amendment right to association, to assemble and to set their own rules,’ Mahan said, encouraging the two sides in the suit to work out their differences.” (01/17/08)
=====
09 - MA: Patrick to seek corporate tax cut
Boston Globe
“Governor Deval Patrick will propose a gradual reduction in the state’s corporate tax rate from 9.5 percent to 8.3 percent when he unveils his budget next week, a bid to win business support and jumpstart his stalled plan to tighten what he calls corporate tax loopholes, administration sources said. The plan is an olive branch of sorts that Patrick is hoping will help revive a cornerstone of his legislative agenda that has failed to move in the face of strong opposition from the business community and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi. In a further bid to win corporate support, Patrick may also propose a freeze on an increase in unemployment insurance rates that is due to take effect in March, the sources said.” (01/17/08)
=====
10 - Politics of race ensnare Democrats
Christian Science Monitor
“As America pauses to mark the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have declared a truce in their war of words over race. But the Democratic presidential contest has been altered nonetheless. No longer can Senator Obama, the nation’s first African-American presidential candidate with a serious chance of winning the election, make allusions to the historic nature of his candidacy without sparking memories of the charges and countercharges that took the Democratic contest away from issues and onto the politics of identity.” (01/18/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0118/p01s04-uspo.html
=====
11 - Zimbabwe issues 10-million-dollar bill
Raw Story
“Zimbabweans will be soon lining their pockets with 10-million-dollar bills. The central bank annouced Thursday it would increase the denomination of the nation’s highest bank note more than tenfold to keep pace with the world’s highest inflation rate, officially estimated at 25,000 percent annually. Independent financial institutions say real inflation is closer to 150,000 percent. The new 10-million note is the equivalent of about $4 at the dominant black market exchange rate. In an effort to end chronic cash shortages and long, chaotic lines at banks and automated teller machines, the bank will issue the new notes on Friday along with 1-million and 5-million dollar bills, said Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono.” (01/17/08)
=====
12 - One new word in Book of Mormon stirs debate
Arizona Republic
“One word is causing a world of controversy. The Mormon community, as well as outsiders, is abuzz over a slight change to the latest edition of the Book of Mormon. Local Mormon faithful appear to be unswayed by the change, while those who already questioned the validity of the community’s religious claims are using the controversy to bolster their stance against the religion. A Mormon scholar has called the hubbub ‘nonsense,’ while an Arizona State University religious scholar said the change appears to be a nod to science. All this over five letters. But those letters, the word ‘among,’ could signal a bigger change than it seems.” (01/17/08)
=====
13 - Candidates abandoning small-government [sic] ideology
Boston Globe
“For most of the past year, almost every Republican presidential contender tried to present himself as the real Reagan conservative, without questioning whether Ronald Reagan’s antigovernment message was applicable in 2008. Now, after voting in three high-profile states, it seems that many GOP candidates might have miscalculated: Republican voters may still love Reagan, but his antigovernment message isn’t playing well on the campaign trail. Iowans chose Mike Huckabee, who promised an administration that would do more for low- and middle-income people. New Hampshire chose John McCain, who promised a small government but one committed to activism against problems such as global warming. Mitt Romney initially pledged his total fidelity to Reagan’s ‘three-legged stool’ of strong defense, low taxes, and a ‘pro-life’ social agenda. But after losing two states and much of his credibility, he shifted gears in auto-crazed Michigan, promising government action to combat the loss of manufact
uring jobs.” [editor’s note: The funniest part here is that this reporter thinks he has a clue about what “the Reagan message” actually was, or how lip-service to its alleged tenets these pols actually are - SAT] (01/16/08)
=====
14 - CA: Schwarzenegger flip-flops on Prop 93
San Francisco Chronicle
“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger flip-flopped Tuesday on term limits, endorsing a measure on the Feb. 5 ballot that would allow several legislators, including state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, to stay in office longer. The move prompted speculation that a political deal was in the works over any number of key issues facing the governor and Legislature — from a $14.5 billion budget deficit to a bill that would overhaul health care in California. Proposition 93, set to go before voters in less than three weeks, would reduce the total number of years lawmakers can serve in the Legislature from 14 to 12. But it would allow incumbents who were set to leave this year — including Nunez, D-Los Angeles, and Perata, D-Oakland — more time in office.” (01/16/08)
=====
15 - TN: Council prohibits “aggressive” panhandling
Tennessean
“The Metro Council outlawed ‘aggressive’ panhandling in Nashville on Tuesday night after calling for a citywide task force to look for a solution to the problem of homelessness that’s better than simply rounding up anyone caught begging for money in the wrong place or at the wrong time downtown. ‘What we will be doing is criminalizing people who are poor,’ said Jerry Maynard, councilman at large. ‘For some of them, this is their last means by which they can feed their family, or achieve any type subsistence by which they can live.’ The law, which takes effect immediately, bans all panhandling after dark or near automated teller machines, sidewalk cafes, business entrances, bus stops or schools. It also makes it a crime to approach someone ‘aggressively’ to ask for money, which the bill defines as everything from making threatening statements to touching people, blocking their path or refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer.” (01/16/08)
=====
16 - New research raises concern on biofuel safety
Christian Science Monitor
“Creating fuel from plants seems like a win-win proposition. It reduces dependence on foreign oil, and it doesn’t produce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming — at least that’s what advocates claim. But biofuels are not without their critics. Some recent research suggests bio fuels could have a greater environmental impact — biodiversity loss, destruction of farmland, and the energy necessary to produce them, for example — than burning fossil fuels, reports The Guardian, a British daily.” (01/17/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0117/p04s01-wogi.html
=====
17 - Computer learns dogspeak
Science Daily
“Computer programs may be the most accurate tool for studying acoustic communications amongst animals, according to Csaba Molnár from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary and his research team. Their research shows that a new piece of software is able to classify dog barks according to different situations and even identify barks from individual dogs, a task humans find challenging. The aim of Molnár and colleagues’ experiments was to test a computer algorithm’s ability to identify and differentiate the acoustic features of dog barks, and classify them according to different contexts and individual dogs. The software analyzed more than 6000 barks from 14 Hungarian sheepdogs (Mudi breed) in six different situations: ’stranger,’ ‘fight,’ ‘walk,’ ‘alone,’ ‘ball’ and ‘play.’ The barks were recorded with a tape recorder before being transferred to the computer, where they were digitalized and individual bark sounds were coded, classified and evaluated.” (01/16/08)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080116095531.htm
=====
18 - NY: Man says hospital forced rectal exam
Fox News
“A construction worker claimed in a lawsuit that when he went to a hospital after being hit on the forehead by a falling wooden beam, emergency room staffers forcibly gave him a rectal examination. Brian Persaud, 38, says in court papers that after he denied a request by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital emergency room employees to examine his rectum, he was ‘assaulted, battered and falsely imprisoned.’ His lawyer, Gerrard M. Marrone, said he and Persaud later learned the exam was one way of determining whether he had suffered spinal damage in the accident. Marrone said his client got eight stitches for a cut over his eyebrow. Then, Marrone said, emergency room staffers insisted on examining his rectum and held him down while he begged, ‘Please don’t do that!’ He said Persaud hit a doctor while flailing around and staffers gave him an injection, which knocked him out, and performed the rectal exam.” (01/16/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,323186,00.html
=====
19 - Study: Aggression satisfies just like food, sex
Fox News
“Do you enjoy arguing? Turns out there may be a reason why. New research from Vanderbilt University found that the brain processes aggression as a reward — much like it does with sex, food and drugs. … The study was published online this week by the Journal of Psychopharmacology. ‘Aggression occurs among virtually all vertebrates and is necessary to get and keep important resources such as mates, territory and food,’ Craig Kennedy, professor of special education and pediatrics at Vanderbilt, said in a news release. ‘We have found that the ‘reward pathway’ in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is involved.’” [editor’s note: Defining this as “aggression” is a bit misleading to us libertarians, since confrontation with an adversary can also be a defensive act. However, this study does seem to claim pacifism is a hard row to hoe - SAT] (01/15/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,322847,00.html
=====
20 - Report: Major studios nix writers’ contracts
CNN
“Four major studios have canceled dozens of writers’ contracts in a possible concession that the current television season cannot be saved, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. The move means the two-month old writers strike may also endanger next season’s new shows, the Times said. January is usually the beginning of pilot season, when networks order new scripted shows. But the strike leaves networks without a pool of comedy and drama scripts from which to choose. 20th Century Fox Television, CBS Paramount Network Television, NBC Universal and Warner Bros. Television told the Times they have terminated development and production agreements.” (01/15/08)
=====
21 - CA: Venture capitalist backs offbeat cancer cure ideas
San Francisco Chronicle
“A new multimillion-dollar cancer research fund supported by a veteran Silicon Valley venture capitalist is awarding its first three grants today to scientists whose projects are so risky that they couldn’t get money anywhere else - and that’s exactly how the donor wanted it. Retired Benchmark Capital co-founder Andrew Rachleff says major advances against cancer will never arrive unless cautious grant-making agencies start thinking like VCs, who bet the farm on ideas with a high risk of failure but a stunning payoff if they succeed. ‘There’s a fundamental relationship between risk and reward,’ said Rachleff, who with his wife, Debra, has endowed a fund that will funnel $9 million into novel cancer research projects that would never get a dime from the National Institutes of Health. ‘You don’t get great rewards without taking great risks.’” (01/15/08)
=====
22 - TX: Town abuzz over multiple UFO sightings
Fox News
“In this farming community [Stephenville, TX] where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO. Several dozen people — including a pilot, county constable and business owners — insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it. ‘People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it’s the end of times,’ said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. ‘It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts.’” (01/15/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,322751,00.html
=====
23 - US pushes Iraq to clear more “benchmarks”
Christian Science Monitor
“The Bush administration is counting on Saturday’s passage of a key piece of legislation in Iraq, easing measures against former Baathists, to act as a break in a logjam that has held up national reconciliation. With violence down, insurgent groups quieted, and many of the forces affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq routed, the United States is hoping passage of the new law means the ’surge’ of 30,000 additional troops is succeeding. In announcing the surge a year ago, President Bush said its aim was to provide the conditions for Iraq’s warring power blocs to find common ground on important political issues.” (01/15/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0115/p02s01-usfp.html
=====
24 - MI: Romney’s newest tune sweeter to Detroit’s ears
Boston Globe
“On the eve of today’s potentially make-or-break primary in Michigan, Mitt Romney campaigned yesterday as the savior of the auto industry, trying to convince voters that he is the Republican presidential hopeful best equipped to turn around the state’s battered economy. In a speech to business leaders and at an international auto show, he was especially critical of new fuel efficiency standards signed into law last month by President Bush. ‘Instead of throwing over a life preserver, Washington has dropped yet another anvil on Michigan,’ Romney told the Detroit Economic Club. ‘And now it’s passively sitting back to see if car companies can swim, and the answer is: just barely.’ But as governor, Romney imposed tough emissions standards in December 2005 that added Massachusetts to a growing list of states seeking to force the auto industry to produce cleaner-burning cars.” (01/15/08)
=====
25 - CA: Anti-violence activist slain outside daughter’s game
San Francisco Chronicle
“Police are searching for two gunmen who shot and killed an anti-violence activist Saturday night outside the packed San Francisco gymnasium where he had been watching and rooting for his daughter, a star player on the nation’s top-ranked high school basketball team. Terrell ‘Terray’ Rogers, whose daughter is a top-rated junior guard for Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, had walked across the street from the school during halftime when he was attacked in a parking lot in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood, police said. Investigators have made no arrests in the slaying of the 39-year-old father of two from Pacifica, while those who knew Rogers are struggling to understand why he was apparently targeted. Rogers, they said, grew up in a tough part of San Francisco and got into some trouble, but later dedicated himself to helping young people.” (01/14/08)
=====
26 - Threats to US ships in Gulf came from “heckler?”
Raw Story
“Threatening comments heard at the end of a Pentagon-released audio recording designed to prove harassing maneuvers by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz may have come from a local heckler known as the ‘Filipino Monkey,’ The Navy Times reported. The 36-minute video aired Friday included footage of Iranian boats following the US ships at some distance. It includes a shot of a dark object floating in the water, but it could not be determined whether this was one of the box-like objects that the Pentagon claims were dumped in the path of a US warship by two speedboats.” (01/13/08)
=====
27 - AZ: McCain’s daughter blogging for Dad
Arizona Republic
“Tabloids give a snapshot of the lives of political children. Jenna was caught drinking. Chelsea has a steady. But largely their lives are a mystery. Meghan McCain is trying to beat the paparazzi to the punch. She’s using a personal blog to give a backstage pass to voters, who normally see nothing more from a candidate, and his or her children, than a stump speech and glad-handing. At mccainblogette.com, the 23-year-old talks about her adventures, however big or small, along the campaign trail. Her honest, sometimes wide-eyed, voice describes reels of photos and offers narration and confessionals in videos. She’s tired from the whirlwind of campaign stops. She admires the campaign volunteers … and she loves shoes.” (01/14/08)
=====
28 - CA: Student’s welfare drug-screening bill advances
Palm Springs Desert Sun
“A Mira Loma high school sophomore born with a disabling condition brought on by his mother’s drug abuse will see his proposal to screen welfare applicants for narcotics introduced this year before the state Assembly, a lawmaker announced Friday. R.J. Feild, a student at Jurupa Valley High School, competed with more than 200 students from campuses across Riverside County in Assemblyman John J. Benoit’s ‘There Ought To Be a Law’ contest. The youths composed 500-word essays stating what new laws they believe should be put on the books. The teen’s essay was well-written, the most compelling and met feasibility criteria, according to Benoit, a Republican who represents the 64th District that encompasses part of the Coachella Valley and western Riverside County.” (01/14/08)
=====
29 - Fertilizer, frustration fuel Gaza’s rockets
Christian Science Monitor
“After a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Jan. 3 landed 17 kilometers (10 miles) inside Israel — deeper than any has penetrated so far — the Israeli press was full of speculation of where the weapon may have come from and how it got into Gaza. The Israeli army first said the missile was made in Russia. Later it said it had come from Iran. Israeli officials said the weapon was further evidence that the smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Gaza needed to be closed. Israel’s Yediot Aharanot newspaper quoted an unnamed Israeli security official alleging the rocket had been smuggled into Gaza by boat.” (01/15/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0115/p06s01-wome.html
=====
30 - MA: Bill proposes cellphone restrictions in cars
Boston Globe
“Days after Christmas, a 13-year-old boy walking down a Taunton road was struck and killed by a driver who told police he was trying to type a text message on his phone. The parents of Earman Machado and Amanda Martin say Massachusetts should enact a ban on the use of hand-held devices while driving. In October, a 17-year-old Southbridge girl driving to school crashed and died when she veered off the road just after receiving a text message. State lawmakers this week are preparing to debate banning the use of all hand-held calling devices while driving. … Violators would be fined $100 for the first offense, $250 for the second, and $500 thereafter.” (01/14/08)
COMMENTARY
31 - “Treat it like car insurance …”
ISIL Medical Freedom Channel
Steve Trinward
“In almost every cry for ‘nationalized healthcare’ there seem to be one of two basic mindsets advanced for such a program. One camp continues to advocate the ‘Medicare model,’ seeking to base an expansion of health insurance on this overblown and bloated methodology, which is already very near the point of bankruptcy or drastic cutback on services in order to continue to function at all. … However, even among those who recognize the serious faults in the present Medicare model, there are many who see health insurance as just another mismanaged program, which if only it were better regulated would answer all the problems it now presents. These folks point to the ‘automobile insurance’ paradigm as something the healthcare industry should emulate. They also use the fact that mandatory auto insurance has become the rule rather than the exception, to indicate how easily health mandates could be applied across the board. What they fail to consider is how different insuring an automobile
is from the personal health and wellness realm.” (01/18/08)
http://www.isil.org/channels/archives/12888
=====
32 - Subject or citizen?
Liberty For All
R. Lee Wrights
“Republicans and Democrats are quite clever at disguising the practice of controlling your choices, so it is fitting to spend some time exploring just how limited your choices really are. The only way to abolish the slavery passed onto you by the State is to recognize how you are being exploited; and, what you can do to bring it to an end. James Bovard said it best in the preface of his 1994 book on governmental abuse entitled Lost Rights when he wrote, ‘Americans need to remember their constitutional birthright and stand up to arrogant government officials who treat them like subjects rather than citizens.’” (01/20/08)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=1131
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33 - Digging in the right place
In These Times
David Sirota
“There’s a memorable moment in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones sees a rival’s archaeological excavation and realizes the buried treasure is somewhere else. ‘They’re digging in the wrong place!’ he exclaims. The line could explain why our national elections leave us feeling empty. By expecting so much so fast from Washington D.C., we are digging for ‘change’ in the wrong place. Think about it: The White House can only be won by raising truckloads of cash from moneyed interests looking to preserve the status quo. Likewise, the U.S. Senate’s filibuster rules allow 41 lawmakers, representing just 11 percent of the population, to stop anything. These are institutions designed to prevent change, not embrace it. Thankfully, the same cannot be said for the so-called ‘laboratories of democracy’ — state legislatures.” [editor’s note: wise and insightful commentary here, even if his conclusions about the “important issues” show the usual “pseudo-progressive” (government as solution
) skew - SAT] (01/18/08)
=====
34 - Clinton & Obama win Nevada
The Nation
Ari Melber
“So the Clintons like Nevada after all. Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama by about six points in the state’s caucus on Saturday, netting 12 of the 25 delegates at stake. But Barack Obama won the number that could matter most, earning 13 of Nevada’s national convention delegates, which ultimately determine the Democratic nominee. That made for a ’split decision,’ according to Congressman James Clyburn, an influential member of the House Democratic leadership who is unaffiliated with any candidate. Obama sounded even more confident on Saturday, saying ‘we came from over twenty-five points behind to win more national convention delegates than Hillary Clinton because we performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled.’ But it’s not that simple.” (01/19/08)
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=272940
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35 - The global grain bubble
Christian Science Monitor
staff
“Record prices for grain from corn to rice have ignited food riots from Jakarta to Rome. In Pakistan, troops now guard wheat stocks. China and Russia have imposed price controls. Connect the dots and there’s a need for a fix to a crisis that, strangely, isn’t caused by smaller harvests. No, the main reasons for a long-term bubble in grain prices lie largely in a number of dubious human actions, related to heightened competition for grain as either fuel or feed. One reason is an ill-conceived dash by both the United States and Europe to use grain and valuable farmland for biofuels, motivated more by powerful farm lobbies than concerns about global warming. … Then there is the rising demand for grain-fed meat by an expanding middle class in China, India, and other fast-growing economies.” [editor’s note: Meanwhile, according to other sources, soybeans could be used just as easily, with only the oil (none of the food-value) being used to create the “biodiesil” - SAT] (01/18/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0118/p08s01-comv.html
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36 - Hillary Clinton’s massive conflict of interest
Fox News
Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
“As American banks go hat in hand to foreign financial institutions and governments, begging for capital to help them get out of the mess into which their subprime loans have landed them, the question arises as to whether the United States should permit nations like China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the banks they control to acquire part ownership of our leading banks. The presidential candidates discussed this issue in their Nevada debate and Hillary was asked about it in an interview with Neil Cavuto on the FOX Business Network yesterday. She replied that she would not ’stand in the way’ of such investments, but said that they needed to be vetted and called for more disclosure and ‘transparency.’ The fact is that Hillary Clinton is totally unable to be objective on this key question of our national financial sovereignty because she and her husband have been so compromised by their financial dealings with the very countries at issue in the decision.” (01/19/0
8)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,323887,00.html
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37 - A short history of the Lakota freedom movement
Nolan Chart
Hickory Hendrickson
“It’s not anything new. There has always been a Republic of Lakotah. Russell Means, Chief Facilitator for the Intern Government, Republic of Lakotah, is the most visual of today’s Lakota Freedom activists but he’s not alone in his quest. People of all races and religions support the Lakotah Republic and the idea of freedom it represents.” (01/20/08)
http://www.nolanchart.com/article1305.html
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38 - The war for middle Earth
LewRockwell.com
Steven LaTulippe
“With several ongoing wars, an economy in peril, and a farcical electoral season upon us, the pursuit of power is the narrative of the day, and our cast of characters is veritably Tolkienesque. Here, then, are my nominations for our very own Americanized version of <em>The Lord of the Rings</em>:” (01/19/08)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/latulippe/latulippe83.html
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39 - Those too-consistent libertarians
Foundation for Economic Education
Sheldon Richman
“The writer Michael Kinsley is very intelligent. He is also very glib, and his glibness often gets in the way of his intelligence. The expression ‘too clever by half’ could have been coined for him. You can see this when he writes about the libertarian philosophy, as he did recently for the Washington Post website. After paying some compliments (’The libertarian perspective is useful, and undervalued.’) he attempts to show that ultimately the consistent application of libertarian principles is foolish and anti-egalitarian.” (01/18/08)
http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=1824
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40 - The empire needs new clothes
Liberty For All
Thom Hartmann
“It’s easy to vilify George W. Bush as a cynical warmonger, anxious to attack Iraq to repay the oil companies that funded his election campaigns. But to do so is to make a dangerous and fundamental error, and such a myopic view of the Bush administration’s policies puts America’s future at risk. The reality is that the current administration has a clear and specific vision for the future of America and the world, and they believe it’s a positive vision. In order to put forward an alternative vision, it’s essential to first understand the vision of America held by the New Right.” (01/17/08)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=1128
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41 - Romney’s new new thing
Slate
John Dickerson
“I don’t know whether I watched Romney 4.0 or Romney 1.0 at the University of South Carolina Wednesday night. He was standing in front of a big sign that said ‘Washington Is Broken,’ which is a new addition to his road show. Also newish is his almost total emphasis on using his business skills to fix the federal government. At the same time, this pitch is also not that different from the one he was running on a year ago, before he started giving synthetic presentations that felt more like he was reading a Conservative Union Mad Lib.” (01/17/08)
http://www.slate.com/id/2182397
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42 - What happens when blogs go mainstream?
AlterNet
Annalee Newitz
“I’m certainly not the first person to observe that blogs are fast becoming indistinguishable from mainstream media, and indeed places like the New York Times and the Washington Post have blogs that are often more newsy than the papers themselves. This blurring between formerly mainstream media and formerly alternative media means that the upstarts are having to follow old-school rules.” (01/17/08)
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/74103/
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43 - Surgetopia!
Mother Jones
Mark Fiore
Cartoon. [Flash format] (01/17/08)
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/fiore/2008/01/surgetopia.html
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44 - SCOTUS to Enron retirees: Drop dead
Tom Paine/Our Future
Robert Borosage
“Remember the Enron employees who watched their retirement savings evaporate as the Enron ponzi scheme, chaired by George Bush’s best buddy, ‘Kenny Boy’ Lay, went up in smoke? The conservative majority on the Supreme Court just told them all: ‘Drop Dead.’ Forced to choose between protecting the rights of the small investors who got defrauded and the companies, banks, accountants and vendors who conspired in creating and profited from the fraud, the Court protected the crooks and skewered the victims. No surprise. That was the entire point of stacking the court with right-wing, activist judges. Sure the nomination battles over the judges focused on Roe v. Wade and civil rights. But the intent all along was to choose judges who would protect corporate interests and presidential prerogatives. Roe v. Wade is still standing. But consumers, workers, small investors, and the freedoms of Americans are taking it in the ear.” (01/16/08
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45 - Huckabee’s magic “FairTax”
The American Prospect
Ezra Klein
“‘When the FairTax becomes law,’ Mike Huckabee promises, ‘it will be like waving a magic wand releasing us from pain and unfairness.’ That’s quite a tax policy. I’ve always found sales taxes to be more like a magic wand imbuing me with lots of pennies, even though the sweater clearly said $25.95. And let’s be clear. That is what the ‘FairTax’ is: A sales tax. A big one. The magical tax fairy is going to float down from her wondrous revenue castle and, with a click of her enchanted rates calculator, eliminate all federal income and payroll taxes. But she will leave in its place a hefty sales tax affecting everything you purchase (save educational spending). For every dollar you spend, you will pay an extra 30-or-so cents in ‘FairTaxes.’ It’s like the worst magic trick ever. I say ‘30-or-so cents’ because no one is exactly sure what the required rates will be.” (01/17/08)
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=huckabees_magic_fair_tax
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46 - Obama’s eloquence reflects end of the age of the rant
Tennessean
Joel Rice
“Whether presidential hopeful Barack Obama prevails in the nominating process, he has already done something historic. He has ended, at least for now, the age of the rant. George W. Bush, not given to rhetorical flight, set the tone for the now receding era of screed. However one feels about the 43rd president, few would ever accuse him of eloquence. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, a senator, on national television, called for our citizens to drag Osama bin Laden’s body through the street as other national political figures called not just unabashedly, but proudly, for torture. This was the age of the rant.” (01/17/08)
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47 - Candidates should put their political philosophy on the table
Fox News
Father Jonathan Morris
“In baseball, three strikes … and you’re out. The Republican nomination for president is still adrift because none of the three Republican winners of the three early states has stepped up to the plate with a clear political philosophy of governance. As a result, they may all go down in history as 2008 one-state wonders. Just in case, let’s be clear: calling for ‘change’ is not a philosophy; polling and placating the locals is not a philosophy; not even some good and creative policy is a philosophy of governance.” [editor’s note: Of course, an open admission that they are all authoritarian imperialists just wouldn’t do - SAT] (01/16/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,323167,00.html
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48 - Atomic power regains its glow
Christian Science Monitor
staff
“More than two decades after the Chernobyl meltdown, the world again is staring uneasily at the Janus faces of nuclear power. One offers an energy source that won’t cause global warming. The other presents challenges in cost, safety, disposal, and nuclear proliferation. Rising energy prices, and especially the need to find alternatives to fossil fuels that pour out greenhouse gases, have put a fresh focus on nuclear power. ‘We are facing a nuclear renaissance,’ the head of a French nuclear energy company said recently. ‘Nuclear’s not the devil anymore. The devil is coal.’ Today the world’s 439 nuclear plants provide about 16 percent of electricity, a percentage that has altered little over 20 years. But that’s changing.” (01/18/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0117/p08s01-comv.html
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49 - A classic tale of two parties
Boston Globe
Todd Domke
“If you can forget that in choosing the next president we may be placing the future of humankind in the hands of one politician, this campaign is something to savor. We have not seen such an unpredictable presidential race, with so many unusual candidates and diverse opinions, in our lifetimes. Perhaps it’s best understood as a tale of two parties. … Even if you are underwhelmed by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, you should appreciate that their primary battle will become one of the most pivotal, analyzed, and debated in American history. … The Republican candidates seem to be taking turns winning primaries — Mike Huckabee in Iowa, John McCain in New Hampshire, Mitt Romney in Michigan. If Huckabee or McCain win South Carolina, and Rudy Giuliani wins Florida, and five candidates continue to split the vote through the ‘Super Tuesday’ primaries on Feb. 5, GOP delegates might be heading for a wide-open convention.” (01/17/08)
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50 - False gods create false hope
Nolan Chart
Joel S. Hirschhorn
“The good news is the huge pent up public demand for political change. The bad news is that presidential candidates have made a mockery of the concept of change while ignoring true political reforms. Missing are details about fixing the corrupt, dysfunctional political system and restoring balance among the three branches of government and between the states and the federal government.” (01/17/08)
http://www.nolanchart.com/article1237.html
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51 - Iran sanctions: An unclear strategy?
Hawaii Reporter
Jim Kouri
“The 2006 United States National Security Strategy stated that this nation faces challenges from Iran, including Iran’s proliferation efforts and involvement in international terrorism. To address these concerns, the United States employs a range of tools, including diplomatic pressure, a military presence in the Gulf, and economic sanctions.” (01/17/08)
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52 - See instructions before beginning
Liberty For All
Lady Liberty
“The government smothers its citizens in page after page of instructions intended to ‘help’ us build our lives. From our families to our businesses; from our property to our health; and from our creative ideas to our civil liberties; we’re folded, bent, stapled, and mutilated to fit into the assembly guidelines established by lawmakers and regulatory agencies. Within the thousands of pages of IRS code alone, sufficient contradictory rules exist that every taxpayer breaks some law merely by obeying others. Across the country, there are more than 22,000 laws and ordinances that are all basically intended to enforce the simple fact that it’s illegal to shoot somebody except in self defense and to say that you should be careful with loaded guns. Why, we lament, can’t the instructions be in plain English?” (01/16/08)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=1125
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53 - Death of the Bush Doctrine
Boston Globe
Jeff Jacoby
“The Bush Doctrine — born on Sept. 20, 2001, when President Bush bluntly warned the sponsors of violent jihad: ‘You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists’ — is dead. Its demise was announced by Condoleezza Rice last Friday. The secretary of state was speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route with the president to Kuwait from Israel. She was explaining why the administration had abandoned the most fundamental condition of its support for Palestinian statehood — an end to Palestinian terror.” (01/16/08)
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54 - Ideological labels don’t account for shades of gray
Tennessean
Saritha Prabhu
“Are ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ the two most overused and misused words in America today? Probably so If an alien landed in this country today and took in some of the political discourse from different media for a week, he would quickly reach some conclusions: 1) The United States is very divided. 2) The two camps along party and ideological lines hate each other and revel in name-calling. 3) Liberals are moral-less, godless and unpatriotic; conservatives are mean, greedy and parochial. 4) Some of the discourse is healthy; a lot of it is toxic and counterproductive. 5) In some ways, this is like the Shiite-Sunni rivalry, minus the bloodletting. But if that alien stuck around a little longer, he would realize that the polarization is most pronounced in the most vocal and visible areas of the population — the talking heads in the media, political bloggers, academia; political junkies.” (01/14/08)
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55 - The woman vs. the black guy
San Francisco Chronicle
Mark Morford
“It’s the question everyone seems to want to address, the imponderable and frightening and slightly insane sociopolitical phenomenon that’s happening right now to such a degree that even the left is falling all over itself trying to digest and parse and comprehend it all at once, and simply can’t. It is this: Just how the hell did it come to pass and which planets finally aligned and what sort of Kool-Aid has been gulped by the universe that the two white-hot Dem frontrunners, the two brightest lights on the political spectrum for the 2008 presidential election also just so happen to be members of the two most controversial/least represented groups in modern uber-white ultra-patriarchal American snake-oil politics — which is to say, a smart, savvy woman and a smart, savvy black male?” (01/16/08)
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56 - From disaster springs humanity
Christian Science Monitor
Carla Seaquist
“‘Home’ is a term instantly understood, even for mobile Americans who, over a lifetime, change residence many times. No matter how long we live at a particular address, there is still that bit of emotional geography where our heart flies to at the mere mention of ‘home.’ In the movies, home usually involves a winding country road, maple trees, a house, a barn. My heart’s home — Washington’s Lewis County — looks like the movie version, except it’s hillier and the trees are fir. Plentiful rainfall has always been welcome here, as it sustains a strip-mall-free landscape of stunning natural beauty. Green of every shade dominates — or it did until last month, in December, when a severe flood turned this area into brown wasteland.” (01/16/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0116/p09s02-coop.html
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57 - “Liberal fascism” isn’t about fascism
Tom Paine
Sam Boyd
“I haven’t read Jonah Goldberg’s new book Liberal Fascism … but I have been reading Goldberg’s blog of the same name and I think liberal commentators have been basically missing the point of his project. You can argue, and be right, that the whole concept of ‘liberal fascism’ is self-contradictory and silly, but if you do that you’re playing Goldberg’s game. Goldberg reminds me of a friend of mine with a taste for arguments about philosophy. His secret was that he cheated. He’d argue some seemingly absurd premise but then retreat to a definition of a key word that was so different from a reasonable one that it was unrecognizable. … A similar thing is going on with Goldberg.” [editor’s note: Ever since I learned the value of cross-labeling (”liberal fascist” … “right-wing socialist”) this argument has mostly become a source of amusement, just as the next post is - SAT] (01/15/08)
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58 - There’s big money in poverty
Unknown News
JS Magruder
“We seem to be (as a nation) suffering a collective case of misplaced hostility. It isn’t the poor taking your money. It isn’t the immigrant family down the street taking your job. Your jobs were sent abroad by the people representing you in Washington. Your taxes are torturing and killing people the world over. Your hard-earned money is funding the building of more prisons to house petty criminals, and for the police helicopter looking for God only knows what.” (01/14/08)
http://www.unknownnews.org/080114a-JSMagruder.html
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59 - The surge of lies
Consortium News
US Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL)
“According to the mainstream media, Republicans, and unfortunately even some Democrats, the President’s surge in Iraq has been a resounding success. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.This assertion is disingenuous, factually incorrect, and negatively impacts America’s national security. The surge had a clear and defined objective — to create stability and security — enabling the Iraqi government to enact lasting political solutions and foster genuine reconciliation and cooperation between Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds. This has not happened.” (01/16/08)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/011608a.html
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60 - America’s pain inside
Guardian [UK]
David Thomson
“But there is immense anxiety in the land, too, which accompanies a lack of trust in nearly anything. Americans have faced two crises of conscience in the last few years: they acknowledge their government is employing (and lying about) the practices of torture and prisoner abuse and they are not sure what to do about it. This has made for a fascination in cruelty akin to looking in the eye of a deadly snake and wondering just how close you can get without it striking. The sensation is ugly, terrifying and insane, but it is there.” (01/16/08)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2241408,00.html
Until next week ...
Peace, Love and Liberty
Steve Trinward, Editor