Progressive News Digest - May 19, 2008
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PROGRESSIVE NEWS DIGEST
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Volume IV, Issue #50 Monday, May 19, 2008
Welcome to another edition of Progressive News Digest, still rolling along in
its fourth year (almost at the end of Year 4, BTW, and with rare
exception this has appeared every week at some point).
This week, we're back to semi-normal, with a Table of Contents and all that.
However, I will not attempt to summarize those contents; I'll let you do that
for yourselves.
Also, a head's up: Next week might look a bit light, since for the VERY first
time in it's 5+ years in existence, Rational Review News Digest will be going
on sabbatical, May 22-27. (Half the staff'll be in Denver, trying to salvage
Liberty, while the rest of us have other plans or commitments.) Since RRND
is the core source for the info that goes into Progressive News Digest,
there's likely to be less to work with, but we'll try to give what we have. (You
may also get some links to podcasts and bloggings centered around the
Libertarian Party convention, and its Presidential nominee mudfights.)
Meanwhile, If the impulse strikes you, we could sure use donations, both here
and at the parent-site:
http://www.rationalreview.com/content/38515
(Dec. 23st marked our FIFTH year overall in operation, without missing a SINGLE
(non-holiday) day in that span!). We still have not missed one since, but we
often wonder at the lack of support for the effort, except from a very small
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... enjoy and see you next week! Check the site for constant
updates each day:
NEWS
01 - MA: Kennedy in hospital after seizure
02 - Drug cartels to Mexican police: “Join us or die”
03 - Farm bill highlights rich-poor debate
04 - Poland: Catholic Church offers therapy to “cure” gays
05 - Microsoft seeking alternative Yahoo deal
06 - Pirates take aid ship off Somali coast
07 - VT: State may rethink civil unions
08 - CA: High court ends marriage apartheid
09 - McCain: Troops (some, at least) out of Iraq … by 2013
10 - Sweet sorghum could be biofuel hit
11 - TN: Lawmakers to divert conservation money for budget
12 - CA: MO woman indicted in MySpace cyber-bullying case
13 - TN: Neighbors affected by pollution may seek legal action
14 - If inflation’s up 3.9 percent, why does it feel worse?
15 - AZ: Arpaio cut out of state funding
16 - Not as green as they claim to be
17 - Court bars Bush administration’s logging plans for Sierra
18 - WA: Did state worker fake brain cancer to avoid work?
19 - MPP disputes NIDA marijuana study risk findings
20 - CA: San Francisco parking meters retooled to aid homeless
21 - TX: FLDS mom not a minor after all
22 - Virtual schools see growth, calls for oversight
23 - McCain: Let free trade limit global warming
24 - Bill’s OK may halt delivery of reserve oil
25 - Supreme Court refuses to hear forced abortion case
COMMENTARY
26 - Blacklisted by the Bush government
27 - Iron Man versus the imperialists
28 - Boogeyman foreign policy
29 - Barack Obama, Muslim apostate?
30 - The Great American Rebate Scam
31 - Security gone wild
32 - Obama not feelin’ the love from Smiley
33 - Is the party over?
34 - McCain’s Supreme wrongheadedness
35 - The big farm scam
36 - Anarchism shouldn’t be a dirty word
37 - What’s next for the Ron Paul Revolution?
38 - Put your money where evil’s mouth is
39 - Manufacturing a food crisis
40 - John McCain and al Qaeda
41 - TN: Economic problems might test property tax freeze
42 - Race, gender & hardball politics
43 - American as reluctant warrior
44 - Big Brother close up
45 - You won’t fool the children of the rEVOLution
46 - Celebrate clean coal, come on!
47 - Defining deviancy down
48 - Constant sorrow
49 - Radioactive hypocrisy
50 - What would really rebuild Iraq?
51 - Mississippi turning: Dems grab another GOP seat
52 - Sexism … stoked by the media
53 - Bad news for Obama?
54 - Losing Lebanon
55 - The Kosovo dilemma
NEWS
01 - MA: Kennedy in hospital after seizure
Boston Herald
“Massachusetts and the political world is holding its collective breath today as the state’s legendary senior senator, Edward M. Kennedy, lies in a Hub hospital recovering from a seizure — the latest health scare for the colorful 76-year-old statesman. Kennedy was conscious, talking and “joking” with family members in his room last night at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was flown after being stricken at his family’s Hyannis Port compound, family said. … In a statement, Kennedy aides said he would remain in the hospital until at least tomorrow. ‘He is undergoing a battery of tests at Massachusetts General Hospital to determine the cause of the seizure,’ the statement read. ‘Senator Kennedy is resting comfortably, and it is unlikely we will know anything more for the next 48 hours.’” (05/18/08)
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02 - Drug cartels to Mexican police: “Join us or die”
Fox News
“Drug cartels are sending a brutal message to police and soldiers in cities across Mexico: Join us or die. The threat appears in recruiting banners hung across roadsides and in publicly posted death lists. Cops get warnings over their two-way radios. At least four high-ranking police officials were gunned down this month, including Mexico’s acting federal police chief. Mexico has battled for years to clean up its security forces and win them the public’s respect. But Mexicans generally assume police and even soldiers are corrupt until proven otherwise, and the honest ones lack resources, training and the assurance that their colleagues are watching their backs. Here, the taboo on cop-killing familiar to Americans seems hardly to apply.” (05/18/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356532,00.html
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03 - Farm bill highlights rich-poor debate
Christian Science Monitor
“At the heart of the standoff between the White House and Congress over a $307 billion farm bill is the question: Should taxpayers subsidize rich farmers — and who counts as rich? What income levels qualify — or disqualify — Americans from federal aid programs has figured in several clashes between the Bush administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress. The farm bill on the way to the president’s desk this week limits eligibility for farm subsidies to individuals with an adjusted gross farm income of less than $750,000; $1.5 million for couples. That’s down from the $2.5 million for couples under current law, but President Bush wants the eligibility cap for farm subsidies to be much lower: $200,000.” (05/19/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0519/p02s01-uspo.html
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04 - Poland: Catholic Church offers therapy to “cure” gays
Raw Story
“The sixth-ever International Day Against Homophobia is held May 17, but many homosexuals in Poland will not celebrate it. The Catholic Church has created rehabilitation centers in Poland to rehabilitate gay people and ‘get them back on the right path.’ The Odwaga Center uses therapy, prayer and chastity to teach its patients to resist their homosexual impulses. Men at the center are taught to play football and women are taught to cook. ‘When you want a candy for example, you can resist and have it later,’ said Lena Wojdan, a psychologist at the center. ‘And you can trade it for a piece of chocolate.’ But gay associations said that such psychological treatment can be dangerous for the patients’ mental health.” (05/18/08)
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05 - Microsoft seeking alternative Yahoo deal
San Francisco Chronicle
“Microsoft Corp. is once again trying to team up with Yahoo Inc. to challenge Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc., although at this point the renewed talks haven’t escalated to another attempt to take over Yahoo. The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker disclosed the revived discussions Sunday without providing any specifics about the nature of the deal being explored except to say it involved bolstering the companies’ position in the online search and advertising markets.” (05/18/08)
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06 - Pirates take aid ship off Somali coast
Arizona Republic
“Somali pirates hijacked a Jordanian ship carrying humanitarian aid to Mogadishu on Saturday in the latest in a string of attacks off the lawless Somali coast, the head of a seafarer’s association said. Andrew Mwangura of the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Program said the attack occurred early Saturday morning. The pirates seized the ship not far from the Somali capital of Mogadishu and were taking it north, he said. Jordan’s minister of transportation, Ala’a al-Batayneh, said about a dozen crew members from Pakistan, India, Tanzania and Bangladesh were on board the ship, according to Jordan’s official Petra news agency.” (05/18/08)
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07 - VT: State may rethink civil unions
Boston Globe
“People on both sides of the gay-marriage debate in Vermont say they expect a California Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage in that state will be used as ammunition if, as expected, Vermont lawmakers take up the issue next year. ‘There will be an effort in the next legislative session to have a bill that would move marriage forward for all Vermonters,’ said Bari Shamas of the Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force. ‘Vermont’s civil union law does not go far enough, and this California decision matters,’ Shamas added. ‘The Legislature will have yet another example of why it is important. Each time the wheels turn in that direction it helps create momentum that says this is really the right thing to do.” (05/18/08)
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08 - CA: High court ends marriage apartheid
Christian Science Monitor
“California joins Massachusetts as the second state to legalize gay marriage following a decision Thursday by the state’s highest court. Ruling 4 to3, the court found marriage to be a ‘fundamental constitutional right,’ and to deny that right to same-sex couples would require a compelling government interest. The Republican-dominated court said the state had failed to show such an interest. Unlike in Massachusetts, nothing prevents out-of-state same-sex couples from coming to California to get married. ‘The invitation is going to be a kind of come one, come all, and that’s going to produce a large number of [gay] marriages,’ says Douglas Kmiec, law professor at Pepperdine University. ‘They will then return to their home communities and will insist the states recognize their marriages as valid.’ The decision also sets up political confrontations at the ballot box in November, at the state level and possibly within the presidential contest.” (05/16/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0516/p25s17-usju.html
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09 - McCain: Troops (some, at least) out of Iraq … by 2013
Los Angeles Times
“Republican John McCain, in a speech forecasting what the country would look like after his first term in office, said today that he expects the war in Iraq to be won and most troops to be home by January 2013. The prediction marks a major departure for McCain, who railed against rival Mitt Romney shortly before the Florida primary for his remark in April 2007 that he thought President Bush and Iraqi leaders should privately discuss a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. At the time, McCain suggested that the comment would embolden America’s foes in Iraq. The Arizona senator leveled the same criticism at Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, stating that their advocacy for withdrawing troops from Iraq amounted to setting a date for ’surrender.’” [editor’s note: Keep rattlin’ them sabers, Old John; time for housecleaning, anyway - SAT] (05/15/08)
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10 - Sweet sorghum could be biofuel hit
Arizona Republic
“Sweet sorghum is grown in the U.S. for cooking and livestock feed. But the tall plant also could help at the gas pump. A sugary sap inside the plant’s stalk, which grows as tall as 12 feet, can be turned into a potent biofuel, and experts and companies are studying its potential with hopes that farmers will want to plant more of it. Ethanol made from the stalk’s juice has four times the energy yield of the corn-based ethanol, which, unlike sweet sorghum, is already in the marketplace. Sweet sorghum produces about eight units of energy for every unit of energy used in its production. That’s about the same as sugarcane but four times as much as corn.” (05/15/08)
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11 - TN: Lawmakers to divert conservation money for budget
Tennessean
“Most of a $30 million fund for land and soil conservation programs in Tennessee appears likely to fall victim to the state’s budget crunch. Lawmakers confirmed Thursday that they plan to use about $12 million from the fund to help make up for a rejected plan to end a tax exemption for family-owned businesses. Gov. Phil Bredesen has proposed using another $12 million from the pool to help bridge other budget gaps. That real estate transfer tax money is currently spent on wetlands acquisition, local and state parks and soil conservation. The fund is drawn from a 37-cent tax on every $100 of real estate deals. Bredesen’s original budget plan this year had envisioned restoring the fund its full $30 million level after it had been raided for other purposes in previous years. But that was before the extent of the budget shortfall for the upcoming budget year became clear earlier this month.” [editor’s note: Sure, anything’s fair game to avoid CUTTING that bloated budget! - SAT] (05/15/0
8)
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12 - CA: MO woman indicted in MySpace cyber-bullying case
Fox News
“A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted a Missouri woman Thursday for her alleged role in a MySpace hoax on a teen neighbor who committed suicide after being spurned by the ‘boy’ in the fake profile. Lori Drew, of Dardenne Prairie near St. Louis, was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress on the girl. Drew allegedly helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact Megan Meier, who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named ‘Josh Evans.’” [editor’s note: Frankly, I hope they find a way to fry her; this was one of the most vicious crimes in memory! - SAT] (05/15/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356056,00.html
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13 - TN: Neighbors affected by pollution may seek legal action
Tennessean
“Homeowners near Egyptian Lacquer Manufacturing Co. say they’re prepared to take the paint manufacturer to federal court to sue them to clean up the pollution under their homes if action on the matter isn’t taken in the next three months. Environmental attorney Elizabeth Murphy says three homeowners she represents are worried about their health, families and homes because of the continued exposure to pollution flowing to Liberty Creek and the Harpeth River.” [editor’s note: It will be interesting to watch this story, since back before federal courts intervened (back in the 1930s IIRC?) to protect corporatist polluters, this was how “water pollution disputes” were settled … in court! - SAT] (05/14/08)
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14 - If inflation’s up 3.9 percent, why does it feel worse?
Christian Science Monitor
“Between the gas pump and the grocery checkout, Americans have plenty of reasons to list inflation as Economic Enemy No. 1. But how bad is it, really? The short answer: bad enough, but don’t judge the problem only by what it costs to fill a fuel tank. It’s not surprising that many people feel as if inflation is running hotter than the government’s consumer price index (CPI) suggests: just under 4 percent over the past year. … Another cause for worry: Wages are not keeping up with inflation.” [editor’s note: When do they ever? - SAT] (05/15/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0515/p01s04-usec.html
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15 - AZ: Arpaio cut out of state funding
Arizona Republic
“An executive order signed by Gov. Janet Napolitano has prompted state police to cancel a $1.6 million agreement with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and, instead, use the money to create a fugitive task force. The move effectively stripped two squads of Sheriff’s Office deputies from a statewide multiagency team designed to go after crimes dealing with human smuggling. It also took away Arpaio’s ability to tap some of the squad members to supplement immigration sweeps at the state’s expense. In response, Sheriff Joe Arpaio accused the governor of orchestrating with others to pull the money from his department as political payback. House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, meanwhile, called for an audit of the Department of Public Safety.” [editor’s note: Some of the stuff happening in this state … at ALL levels of gummint! Ernie Hancock must be drooling, once again - SAT] (05/14/08)
=====
16 - Not as green as they claim to be
Boston Globe
“Just how green should you feel driving the new Chevy Tahoe hybrid sport utility vehicle? The eight-passenger vehicle is plastered with ‘hybrid’ labels. An automobile magazine panel that included the executive director of The Sierra Club named it the ‘Green Car of the Year.’ But the Tahoe gets only about 20 miles per gallon — not much better than the nonhybrid Honda Pilot SUV, which also seats eight. The celebrated Toyota Prius gets around 46 miles per gallon. ‘How a 6,000-pound behemoth can be the green car of the year is beyond me,’ said David Champion, director of Consumer Reports Auto Test Division. ‘It’s a marketing exercise rather than reality.’” (05/14/08)
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17 - Court bars Bush administration’s logging plans for Sierra
San Francisco Chronicle
“A federal appeals court blocked the Bush administration’s plans today for logging three tracts in the northern Sierra and said the government has failed to justify a critical element in its plan for the forests — selling trees to lumber companies to pay for removing brush that increases the threat of fire. Preventing fires is important, ‘but are there no alternative ways of getting money to do the clearing?’asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The court said the U.S. Forest Service has not explored the obvious alternatives: finding the money elsewhere in its budget or asking Congress for more.” (05/14/08)
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18 - WA: Did state worker fake brain cancer to avoid work?
Fox News
“A former Washington state social worker has been accused of faking brain cancer to avoid work. Theft charges were filed Tuesday against 40-year-old Sandra Dee Martinez, formerly of Mountlake Terrace, who was employed by the Department of Social and Health Services in Arlington. According to investigators, Martinez presented fake letters that appeared to be from doctors saying she had malignant brain tumors. Prosecutors wrote that she received $21,000 worth of paid leave and took advantage of sick days donated by co-workers last year. Prosecutors wrote that Martinez came under scrutiny after using a neighbor’s computer and leaving one of the letters on the printer. Arlington Police Chief John Gray says Martinez has moved to another state and won’t speak with investigators.” (05/14/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355773,00.html
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19 - MPP disputes NIDA marijuana study risk findings
Raw Story
“Heavy marijuana use can boost blood levels of a particular protein, perhaps raising a person’s risk of a heart attack or stroke, U.S. government researchers said on Tuesday. Dr. Jean Lud Cadet of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, said the findings point to another example of long-term harm from marijuana. But marijuana activists expressed doubt about the findings. … Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Bruce Mirken said, for example, the study involved people who were extremely heavy users: ‘I think the low end was 78 joints a week. That’s 10 or 11 joints a day. We’re talking about people who are stoned all the time … the marijuana equivalent of the guy in the alley clutching a bottle of cheap wine. If you do anything to that level of excess, it might well have some untoward effects, whether it’s marijuana or wine … or broccoli,’ Mirken added.” (05/13/08)
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20 - CA: San Francisco parking meters retooled to aid homeless
San Francisco Chronicle
“Rather than tossing loose change into a panhandler’s empty cup, San Francisco officials want you instead to slide your spare quarters and nickels into a homeless meter. The city’s latest attempt to deal with one of its most vexing problems will be announced in coming weeks in the form of 10 old parking meters installed in some of the most heavily panhandled areas. Money deposited in the meters would go directly to charities that help the homeless. The goal, officials say, is to reduce panhandling and to educate tourists and residents about the problem of giving money directly to people on the streets.” (05/13/08)
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21 - TX: FLDS mom not a minor after all
Fox News
“Texas child welfare officials conceded Tuesday that a newborn’s mother, held in foster care as a minor after being removed from a polygamous sect’s ranch, is an adult. A Child Protective Services attorney told state District Judge Barbara Walther that the mother of a boy born April 29 is not a minor, as CPS had claimed as justification for holding her. The woman had been held along with more than 400 children taken last month from a west Texas ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. State officials say the children were endangered by underage and polygamous spiritual marriages.” [editor’s note: And if this surprises anyone, they’ve just not been watching close enough - SAT] (05/13/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355504,00.html
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22 - Virtual schools see growth, calls for oversight
Christian Science Monitor
“Rather than send her kids off on the yellow bus, Briana LeClaire has school come to her home. Her kids attend a virtual public school, connecting online to teachers and coursework. Everything from books to microscopes to radish seeds arrives via brown trucks. Mrs. LeClaire describes it as the 21st-century, middle-class version of the private tutor. Her 6th-grader can move quickly through her strong subjects, such as literature, and spend more time on her weaker areas, like math. Enrollment in online classes last year reached the 1 million mark, growing 22 times the level seen in 2000, according to the North American Council for Online Learning. That’s just the start, says a new paper by the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank at Stanford University. Its authors predict that by 2019 half of courses in Grades 9 to 12 will be delivered online.” (05/14/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0514/p03s08-usgn.html
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23 - McCain: Let free trade limit global warming
Arizona Republic
“Arizona Sen. John McCain broke with the Bush administration and Republican Party orthodoxy Monday as he not only declared global warming real, but reached out to Democrats and independents with a free-market solution that includes capping carbon-fuel emissions. The GOP presidential contender also prodded China and India, two major emitters of the greenhouse gases blamed for the planet’s warming, to join the effort, although he muted planned talk of tariffs against them in favor of ‘effective diplomacy’ to encourage their compliance. An aide later said that McCain didn’t want to be interpreted as being ‘at odds with his commitment to open trade.’ [editor’s note: Let’s hope the “true conservatives” are willing to hold Old John’s feet to the fire on this claim, even though neither has the foggiest idea what “free trade” actually means - SAT] (05/13/08)
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24 - Bill’s OK may halt delivery of reserve oil
Boston Globe
“Sponsors of a measure to halt shipments of oil to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve — offered as a way to help bring down record gasoline prices — say they are confident the bill will pass. The proposal was the lone measure endorsed in both Senate Republican and Democratic gasoline price plans. House and Senate plans set for a vote today would halt deliveries to the reserve until December unless oil falls to $75 a barrel for more than 90 days. ‘Everyone expects it to pass,’ said Bill Wicker, a spokesman for New Mexico Democrat Jeff Bingaman, speaking of Senate prospects. ‘Oil got up to $125 per barrel, and it no longer made sense,’ Wicker said of Republicans decision to support the measure.” (05/13/08)
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25 - Supreme Court refuses to hear forced abortion case
Christian Science Monitor
“The US Supreme Court has declined to take up a case examining whether a Chinese national should be granted political asylum in the United States because his wife was forced to abort their first child under China’s harsh population-control measures. The action, announced on Monday, means that lower court rulings rejecting the Chinese citizen’s asylum claims remain in place. At issue in the case was whether the spouse of someone who had suffered directly under the Chinese program — enduring a forced abortion or sterilization — could claim political asylum in the US.” (05/13/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0513/p25s07-usju.html
COMMENTARY
26 - Blacklisted by the Bush government
Salon
Tim Shorrock
“Ever since a New York Times report uncovered warrantless domestic spying by the Bush administration, the issue of NSA surveillance and the 1978 law governing it has been intensely scrutinized and debated. Until now, however, little attention has been paid to dubious activities directly connected with the domestic spying. The Bush administration has used expanded national security powers to undermine the legal rights of people in the United States who are identified as al-Qaida supporters, but who are not charged with terrorist-related crimes. The U.S. Treasury Department and other agencies investigating domestic organizations and U.S. persons rely on the NSA to spy and collect evidence for them — a fundamental shift from the past, when the NSA’s vast eavesdropping powers were used only for foreign intelligence gathering. And in the name of protecting national security, the Bush administration has regularly withheld what it claims is key evidence against those accused — insisting,
essentially, that the public accept without question its private conclusions about the suspects’ guilt.” (05/19/08)
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/05/19/al_haramain/
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27 - Iron Man versus the imperialists
The American Prospect
Spencer Ackerman
“For any fan of the Iron Man comic books, Jon Favreau’s new movie adaptation isn’t just good, it’s glorious. Robert Downey Jr. delivers an emotionally raw, ironic, and compelling portrait of brilliant billionaire defense mogul Tony Stark. … Even more amazing is Favreau’s refusal to lift Iron Man out of the context of America’s current endless wars. Within the first five minutes, an IED disables a Humvee carrying Stark through Afghanistan’s Kunar Province, setting off a series of events whereby a jihadist gang with dreams of overrunning Asia kidnaps our hero and forces him to use his weaponry against the innocent. … But what’s missing in the movie is what has sustained the character for most of its history. Iron Man is a scathing critique of American imperialism.” [editor’s note: We’ve seen very few first-run (pre-Netflix) movies over the last few years, but we did see Iron Man the other night at a drive-in. Not sure what movie Mr. Ackerman saw, that he did not consider a “scathing
critique of American imperialism” … but it was NOT this film; Iron Man rips and slashes, at the present situation as well as the longstanding jingoism and tyranny of the USofA! (However, the co-feature, 21, was a far superior piece of film!) - SAT] (05/16/08)
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28 - Boogeyman foreign policy
Slate
John Dickerson
“The quickest way to understand the emerging foreign-policy debate between John McCain and Barack Obama is to look at the unpopular world leader each is trying to turn into the other’s running mate. McCain has picked Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Obama, and Obama has selected George W. Bush for McCain.” (05/16/08)
http://www.slate.com/id/2191497/
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29 - Barack Obama, Muslim apostate?
Christian Science Monitor
Shireen K. Burki
“Osama bin Laden must be chuckling in his safe house. After all, the 2008 campaign could very well give Al Qaeda the ultimate propaganda tool: President Barack Hussein Obama, Muslim apostate. The fact that Senator Obama -– the son of a Muslim father -– insists he was never a Muslim before becoming Christian is irrelevant to bin Laden. In bin Laden’s eyes, Obama is a murtad fitri, the worst type of apostate, because he was blessed by Allah to be born into the true faith of Islam. There are two types of apostates according to sharia (Islamic law) and the Hadith (sayings of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him). The first type is murtad milli, one who converted to Islam and later renounced the faith. The second, and most egregious, type is murtad fitri. It refers to a person born of a Muslim father who renounces his birthright.” (05/19/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0519/p09s02-coop.html
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30 - The Great American Rebate Scam
from Reason to Freedom
Michelle L
“There has been much ballyhooing lately about the ‘economic stimulus rebate’ and many otherwise intelligent economic experts and talking heads have been busy advising the public how best to invest and/or spend their windfall. Merchants as varied as car dealerships to your local mega-store have been running ads enticing you to spend ‘your money’ at their places of business — with the underlying theme being to parrot the administration’s assertion that by spending, rather than saving this bonanza, you can do your patriotic part to help the staggering economy get back on its feet and focus our national attention once more to spreading democracy around the world. The real problem here is that no one seems to want to talk about the elephant in the room; the elephant being that the funds that make up this generous hand out by our beloved government is, in fact, stolen from you in the first place.” (05/16/08)
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31 - Security gone wild
Fox News/Heritage Foundation
James Jay Carafano
“Weapons proliferation is a growing threat, but the spread of nuclear weapons technology and ballistic missiles may not be the gravest danger facing free people everywhere. The biggest problem could well be governments that increasingly want to classify every global challenge as a ’security’ issue. In the wake of World War II, ‘national security’ became a popular term of art. In 1947, the U.S. government created a National Security Council in the White House based on the idea that protecting the nation from its enemies required more than just military force. All the elements of national power (political, economic, diplomatic, etc.) had to work together to keep Americans safe, free and prosperous.” [editor’s note: Just seeing a self-styled “conservative” publication running a piece as critical as this one is, of the “Islamo-fascist” neocon claims, has to be a little encouraging - SAT] (05/16/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356361,00.html
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32 - Obama not feelin’ the love from Smiley
In These Times
Laura S. Washington
“Now that Sen. Barack Obama has taken care of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tavis Smiley appears to be the next black contender for an ‘08 smackdown with the presidential candidate. But this time, black folks are taking care of it on their own. Obama’s April was a month full of stormy Mondays, thanks to Wright, the senator’s former spiritual adviser and longtime pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s South Side. Obama’s campaign endured a hail- storm as the controversial preacher dominated the cable talk fests, a presidential debate and multiple news cycles. Wright’s April 28 appearance before the Washington Press Club provoked Obama to do something he should have done more than a year ago — deep-six Wright and his anti-American rantings. Now, it’s Tavis’ turn.” (05/15/08)
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33 - Is the party over?
The Nation
Eyal Press
“Two long years ago, veteran political reporter Thomas Edsall published Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power. In the course of several hundred fluidly argued, thoroughly dispiriting pages, Edsall threw a wet blanket on the hopes of Democrats who thought their party stood a fighting chance of wresting power back from Karl Rove & Co. Republicans were more ruthless, more unified and more generously bankrolled by big business, Edsall maintained, in addition to being inordinately savvier. He was, of course, hardly alone in this view.” [editor’s note: The only question now is, WHICH party he is talking about … and when? - SAT] (05/15/08)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080602/press
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34 - McCain’s Supreme wrongheadedness
Boston Globe
Jeff Jacoby
“In a speech on the federal judiciary last week, John McCain sounded the familiar conservative call for judges who know their place. ‘My nominees,’ he promised, ‘will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power, and clear limits to the scope of federal power.’ The judiciary’s moral authority depends on self-restraint, said McCain, and ‘this authority quickly vanishes when a court presumes to make law instead of apply it.’” (05/14/08)
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35 - The big farm scam
Mother Jones
Jonathan Stein
“It’s something environmental activists and almost everyone in DC can attest to: the farm bill is a boondoggle. A pork-laden behemoth that is sold to the public as family farmers’ only hope for survival in a modernizing world, the bill is written by lawmakers from agricultural states to protect the interests of large, cash-flush agricultural operators who spread around hundreds of millions in lobbying funds and donations. The end result? A bill that doesn’t do enough for the environment, subsidizes all the crops needed to prolong America’s obesity epidemic, and takes money out of the pockets of third-world farmers.” (05/16/08)
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36 - Anarchism shouldn’t be a dirty word
AlterNet
Ziga Vodovnik
Interview with Howard Zinn. Zinn: “I am an anarchist, and according to anarchist principles nation states become obstacles to a true humanistic globalization. In a certain sense the movement towards globalization where capitalists are trying to leap over nation state barriers, creates a kind of opportunity for movement to ignore national barriers, and to bring people together globally, across national lines in opposition to globalization of capital, to create globalization of people, opposed to traditional notion of globalization. In other words to use globalization — it is nothing wrong with idea of globalization — in a way that bypasses national boundaries and of course that there is not involved corporate control of the economic decisions that are made about people all over the world.” (05/17/08)
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/85427/
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37 - What’s next for the Ron Paul Revolution?
Christian Science Monitor
John Dillin
“Ron Paul and his 1 million supporters aren’t going away. And that’s probably a good thing for America’s future. Remember Dr. Paul? He — not John McCain — was the real maverick in this year’s fight for the Republican presidential nomination. While Senator McCain often sneered at Paul during their debates, many voters cheered Paul and poured $35 million into his campaign. Paul, a Texas congressman and longtime gynecologist, remains in the hunt for delegates to September’s Republican National Convention. But his focus has now broadened — widening to what the Idaho Observer calls a ‘national civics lesson.’” [editor’s note: A rather respectful MSM analysis of what Ron’s real purposes might be? - SAT] (05/16/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0516/p09s02-coop.html
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38 - Put your money where evil’s mouth is
Strike the Root
B.R. Merrick
“From now on, whenever I get a refund from our benevolent government, it will go directly to assist the innocents who survived what my money has purchased. While the Iraqi Red Crescent can take direct donations, the Afghans would receive help probably from this link. (Since there are three e-mail addresses for the Afghan group, I am assuming that you could send a donation via PayPal.) If there are any other charities that are more directly involved, or have greater efficiency at getting the resources to those most in need, I would appreciate hearing about them, and will update this article as soon as I get the information.” (05/14/08)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/81/merrick/merrick7.html
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39 - Manufacturing a food crisis
The Nation
Walden Bello
“When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a 60 percent increase in the price of tortillas, many analysts pointed to biofuel as the culprit. Because of US government subsidies, American farmers were devoting more and more acreage to corn for ethanol than for food, which sparked a steep rise in corn prices. The diversion of corn from tortillas to biofuel was certainly one cause of skyrocketing prices, though speculation on biofuel demand by transnational middlemen may have played a bigger role. However, an intriguing question escaped many observers: how on earth did Mexicans, who live in the land where corn was domesticated, become dependent on US imports in the first place?” [editor’s note: This one is noteworthy, if only because the writer knows enough to put quotes around “free trade” as practiced by the current set of manipulators - SAT] (06/02/08)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080602/bello
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40 - John McCain and al Qaeda
Huffington Post
Gary Hart
“Historians of early 21st century American politics will remark the degree to which radical forces, usually called neoconservatives, perverted language as recommended by the National Socialist Party in 1930s Germany. Continue to demonize liberals, blame them for all social and economic problems, and soon enough no one will be willing to admit to being a liberal. Claim that liberals and Democrats are too soft to combat terrorists and soon enough a majority, even in the oldest democracy on earth, will believe it. Open up entire electronic networks, such as Fox, and chains of radio stations, such as Clear Channel, and buy enough newspaper chains, and make all these media available to pre-programmed neoconservative ditto heads, and sure enough a subculture will emerge which distrusts its own government and believes that an entire political party is not to be trusted.” (05/15/08)
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41 - TN: Economic problems might test property tax freeze
Tennessean
staff
“One of the most popular steps in government in Tennessee in recent years has been the move to freeze property taxes for seniors. Voters nailed down the concept with an amendment to the state constitution in 2006. The following year, enabling legislation in the General Assembly put the matter into the hands of individual communities. … Tennessee was right to take the step to help seniors, who are frequently on fixed incomes and get hammered when local government raises property taxes. But the entire issue is beginning to get interesting, because some of the warnings that came with the senior property tax freeze loom ominously over elected officials who will have to make difficult decisions in the near future.” [editor’s note: Watch this one for how they weasel out of the commitment - SAT] (05/15/08)
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42 - Race, gender & hardball politics
Boston Globe
Joan Vennochi
“The Hillary Nutcracker is sexist. Keeping Florida and Michigan out of each candidate’s primary vote tally is not. It’s hardball politics. Hillary Clinton’s female supporters are playing hardball politics of their own to get Howard Dean to acknowledge that those votes deserve to be counted. During a private meeting last week, a group of Massachusetts women asked the chairman of the Democratic National Committee to confront the ugliness of sexism, just as Democrats are confronting the ugliness of racism as a result of Barack Obama’s presidential bid.” (05/15/08)
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43 - American as reluctant warrior
Information Clearinghouse
Michael Sherry
“Most Americans see their nation as essentially peace-loving, a reluctant warrior that fights only when fanatical enemies force it to. But measured by its actions rather than its self-image, the United States is a warrior nation more than any other major modern power is. Since 1898, it has entered 10 conflicts most people recognize as wars, and only twice — in World War II and the recent Afghanistan war — directly in response to major attacks on its people or forces. In other cases, provocations — some delivered, some received, some grossly exaggerated (as with the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incidents) — preceded war, but the U.S. initiated full-scale action. Hundreds of other military actions have gone forward without the ‘war’ moniker.” (05/15/08)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19933.htm
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44 - Big Brother close up
CounterPunch
Stan Cox
“I’d never had to show my driver’s license to speak at a conference before, but not being the type to seek out trouble — especially at this conference — I obediently handed the card over to the woman at the registration desk. She ran it through a scanner, looked at her screen, paused, and, for the first time, smiled. ‘It’s real!’ she announced. ‘Now put your license in the clear pocket below your namecard and keep it visible at all times.’ She pointed to the big black pouch I was to hang around my neck. It read, ‘FBI — 3rd Annual International Symposium on Agroterrorism.’” (05/15/08)
http://counterpunch.org/cox05152008.html
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45 - You won’t fool the children of the rEVOLution
Reason
David Weigel
“[Ron] Paul is 72 years old. He has been reading libertarian philosophy for close to 50 years and writing it for more than 30. That his labors should finally bear fruit now, at the end of a presidential bid where he succeeded beyond a fool’s dream by simply reiterating all those decades’ worth of opinions, carries a kind of irony. All of the quirks of his presidential bid make more sense. Why did he give the same dense, 40-minute speech at every stop? Why didn’t he get into the muck with the rest of the GOP candidates, even when he started to out-fundraise them? Hey, he was trying to tell you people: He wasn’t running for president; he was spreading a message. It is impossible to imagine his new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, selling in droves, or even being published at all, if Paul had not run his quixotic presidential race.” (05/14/08)
http://www.reason.com/news/show/126457.html
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46 - Celebrate clean coal, come on!
Salon
Diane Silver
“In one TV commercial, Kool and the Gang warble their celebration of good times because coal, yes, coal, makes the party possible in America. In another, white and black, young and old, male and female, and even someone in a doctor’s green scrubs, stare into the camera and soulfully declare: ‘I believe’ American know-how will make coal clean and stop it from contributing to climate change. Not sold? Maybe you missed the newspaper ads and billboards warning that turning away from coal could mean blackouts, unemployment and higher electric bills. These messages and other variations on the coal-is-great theme are flooding the nation courtesy of the coal industry, coal-fueled utilities, railroads and related industries. The pro-coal marketing campaign — known by its tag line ‘Clean Coal’ — has kicked into high gear as prospects for new plants have turned bleak. Wall Street is tightening financing, leading to what one analyst told the Christian Science Monitor is a ‘de facto moratorium
on coal power.’” (05/15/08)
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47 - Defining deviancy down
Slate
Bruce Reed
“Human weakness may be a renewable resource, but public attention is not — so, no matter how many cads live in the tri-state area, only the most shameless can make the front page of the tabloids. According to the tabloids, Rep. Fossella’s troubles began in December 2002, when he fell for Air Force legislative liaison Laura Fay on a junket to Malta. The Daily News marvels that their union could take root on such rocky soil: ‘Malta is not an obvious place for a love affair to flourish. Not unlike Staten Island, it tends to be a conservative place.’ Of course, in those days, so was the House of Representatives.” (05/13/08)
http://www.slate.com/id/2191293/
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48 - Constant sorrow
Mother Jones
Bernice Yeung
“It wasn’t Toto Constant’s human rights violations that finally landed the Haitian paramilitary leader in prison. It was mortgage fraud in Long Island.” (05/08)
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49 - Radioactive hypocrisy
AlterNet
Tad Daley
“‘Why can’t we have them when they can?’ That, for the ‘nuclear have-nots,’ has long been the essence of what some call the nuclear double standard, what others call nuclear narcissism, what others still call America’s nuclear hypocrisy. The bitterness about that double standard has steadily intensified for almost exactly four decades now (the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT, was signed on July 1, 1968, and came into force in 1970). Why? Because in the basic bargain of the NPT, the non-nuclear weapon states promised forever to forego nuclear weapons, in exchange for a pair of promises from the nuclear weapon states. First, the nuclear weapon states conceded — quite explicitly, in Article IV — that the non-nuclear weapon states possess an ‘inalienable right’ to develop ‘nuclear energy for peaceful purposes’ and even promised ‘to facilitate’ their efforts to do so. Second, the nuclear weapon states promised — quite explicitly, in Article VI, and reiterated quite explicitly a
t the NPT Review Conferences in 1995 and 2000 — to negotiate the complete elimination of their own nuclear arsenals, and eventually to deliver to the human race a nuclear-weapon-free world.” (05/15/08)
http://www.alternet.org/story/85375/
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50 - What would really rebuild Iraq?
Christian Science Monitor
Walter Rodgers & Yasmeen Alamiri
“‘Iraqi mothers want the same thing for their children American mothers want for theirs,’ President Bush has said. ‘A place for their child to grow up and get a good education and be able to realize dreams.’ The president is correct. The two institutions Iraqis prize most are family and education. But the US military occupation and the insurgency have produced a total disruption of both. Can Iraqis return to social normalcy so long as US troops — and their enemies — are engaged there? One has to look no further than the Palestinian territories to discover the long-term effects of children not going to school. Israel’s occupation and perennial lockdown of Palestinians created a new uneducated generation seeking salvation through the radical Islam of Hamas.” [editor’s note: Hint … Although the “nation building” solution is unclear, and the non-interventionist one is untried … continuing to occupy, control and devastate the place is not the right path - SAT] (05/14/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0514/p09s01-coop.html
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51 - Mississippi turning: Dems grab another GOP seat
The Nation
John Nichols
“Not since a Republican president named Richard Nixon was trying to explain away the Watergate scandal has the Grand Old Party been on such a losing streak in special elections for congressional seats vacated by Republican incumbents. For the third time in four months, a Democrat has won a special election for a House seat representing a district that George Bush won overwhelmingly in 2000 and 2004 and where Democrats hadn’t had been out of the congressional competition for years. This time, the Republican lost a U.S. House seat in a north Mississippi, where Democrat Travis Childers prevailed over Republican Greg Davis by a remarkably comfortable 54-46 margin.” (05/13/08)
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52 - Sexism … stoked by the media
Boston Globe
Michal Regunberg
“Time for a history lesson. In 1964, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was the first woman to be placed into nomination at the Republican convention, a nomination that Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona had all but wrapped up. They asked her why she didn’t drop out of the GOP nomination fight when it was clear Goldwater had the nomination in his grasp, and she said, ‘I never had any intention of giving up until the final vote was cast. When I announced my candidacy, I was in to stay all the way. To do otherwise would have let down my supporters. … I wasn’t just running, I was breaking the ice for women running for the highest office in the land … I think I made a gain for women of the future.’” [editor’s note: Fascinating! So could the same be said of Ron Paul now, operating for “liberty-lovers of the future?” Maybe not so much - SAT] (05/14/08)
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53 - Bad news for Obama?
Fox News
Susan Estrich
“There is good news and bad news for Democrats in the wake of Tuesday’s voting in West Virginia and Mississippi. The good news is that Democrats are now three-for-three in the contests for open House seats, adding Mississippi to the list where a Democrat, albeit one running as pro-life and pro-gun, defeated his Republican opponent in a traditionally Republican, conservative district. The bad news is that Barack Obama, who has been crowned by the media as the ‘presumptive nominee’ of the Democratic Party, got trounced in a state that every Democrat to be elected president in recent generations has carried on his way to the White House.” (05/14/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355756,00.html
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54 - Losing Lebanon
The American Prospect
Gershom Gorenberg
“The time, according to Hilal Khashan, was ten minutes past the ceasefire. That was another way of saying ten minutes after another Hezbollah victory, Khashan explained. I phoned Khashan — head of the political science department at Beirut’s American University — several days into Lebanon’s latest armed upheaval. He spoke in a strangely dispassionate tone I’ve heard before in Jerusalem and Ramallah, the voice of a man taking refuge from chaos in careful analysis. So far, Khashan said on Sunday night, the crisis that erupted last week has yielded ‘a major achievement’ for Hezbollah. Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, has extended its influence in Lebanon. The obvious loser is the pro-Western government of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. From Beirut, U.S. support appears to be a phantom; Bush unwilling or incapable of supporting its Lebanese allies.” (05/14/08)
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=losing_lebanon
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55 - The Kosovo dilemma
In These Times
Stuart Anderson
“In 1990, Yugoslavia was a country comprising six republics. By the beginning of 2008, it had splintered into six independent countries, with Kosovo remaining a southern province of Serbia. Kosovo’s independence, declared on February 18, continues to divide the international community, with the United States and nearly all European Union states supporting the declaration and Russia, China and Serbia refusing to recognize it. Drawing on overlooked or forgotten reportage from mainstream and underground news sources, this essay will re-examine the causes and effects of NATO’s 78-day ‘humanitarian’ bombing of Serbia in 1999 — which resulted in at least 1,500 civilian causalities, 10 years of international sanctions, 20 percent unemployment and more than $12 billion of debt, according to Z Magazine.” [editor’s note: At last, someone explores the history, so that not only the current “nation builder” is to blame - SAT] (05/14/08)
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3675/the_kosovo_dilemma/
Peace, Love and Liberty
Steve Trinward, Editor