Progressive News Digest - June 16, 2008
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PROGRESSIVE NEWS DIGEST
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Volume V, Issue #02 Monday, June 16, 2008
Welcome to another edition of Progressive News Digest, still rolling along
and now in YEAR FIVE, with rare exception appearing 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.
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... enjoy and see you next week! Check the site for constant updates
each day:
NEWS
01 - CEOs: Still big bucks despite slowed economy
02 - MA: Towns push sex offender limits
03 - ND: Feds contemplate giving half of park back to Sioux
04 - Cost of retiring alarms boomers
05 - CA: Public-bus clampdown could jeopardize school ride
06 - China resources can’t match use
07 - New Obama website aimed at smears
08 - SCOTUS: Child-abuse claims vs. parents’ rights
09 - CA: Drug thugs find “pot forest” in Sonoma state park
10 - MA: Patrick plans new mandatory propaganda day camps
11 - Southern Baptists won’t create sexual predator database
12 - UK: Al Qaeda secret docs left on train
13 - AZ: Fun-park raids may test state hiring law
14 - CA: Same-sex couples told to avoid lawsuits
15 - AZ: ASU plans big rooftop solar grid
16 - Colbert picks up his Peabody
17 - PA: US court orders deportation of former Nazi guard
18 - ISPs take major step to curb child porn
19 - Citizenship no guarantee spouse can follow to US
20 - Group files FEC complaint against McCain
21 - UBS told only some about risk
22 - FBI report: Crime drops after two years of rises
23 - TN: Teachers must change churches or leave Christian school
24 - Study: Same-sex weddings could boost California’s economy
25 - MN: Democrats endorse Franken in Senate race
26 - Clinton admits defeat, urges backers to support Obama
27 - NE: Trial judge bans the word “rape”
28 - CA: Legislators could be hit with pay cut
29 - AZ: Sanctions law ruling will ripple across US
30 - MD: Mongtomery schools cave to pressure with Islam book
COMMENTARY
31 - Actually, lawmakers don’t feel your pain
32 - The feminist mistake
33 - Take a broader view of history, people
34 - Empire or republic?
35 - The dumbing down of voters
36 - The real reason running mates matter
37 - The politics of “the list”
38 - Webb of deception
39 - Supreme Court to Bush: You’re not above the law
40 - Give us something to talk about
41 - Second best
42 - Operation American Dream
43 - Bush, World Bank pushing bogus “clean energy” funds
44 - GOP invents mythical Cuban-Chinese oil connection
45 - Obama is truly a democratic expansionist
46 - Why oil prices are so high
47 - Iraq War becomes suicidal
48 - When laws become contemptible
49 - The Libertarian Party: A 37-year-old girl child but still a minor to many
50 - Just blame Bush
51 - What Tiananmen crushed in me
52 - Close of an era
53 - Why I can’t support Barack Obama
54 - Picking a Vice President is difficult
55 - Damned if feminine, damned if feminist
56 - A new approach for the age of $4 gasoline
57 - Smoking cannabis where tobacco smokers smoke tobacco
58 - America’s native criminal class
59 - Governor steals from the poor to pad state budget with unconstitutional tax
60 - Lesson of ‘72: Compromise on war plank
NEWS
01 - CEOs: Still big bucks despite slowed economy
Fox News
“As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows. The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4 million. That’s a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006. The 3 1/2 percent pay increase for CEOs came even as the landscape for both workers and shareholders darkened considerably and the economy was choked by a housing market in free fall, layoffs and soaring prices for fuel and food.” (06/15/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,367202,00.html
=====
02 - MA: Towns push sex offender limits
Boston Globe
“This suburban South Shore community on the edge of Boston Harbor is home to only a handful of the most dangerous kind of sex offender — roughly one for every 5,400 residents. But this spring, Weymouth joined a growing number of communities across the Commonwealth by banning Level 3 sex offenders — those deemed most likely to re-offend — from living within 1,500 feet of any school, park, daycare center or recreational facility. … It’s a land rush of sorts. Without a state law restricting where sex offenders can or cannot live, municipalities are increasingly doing it on their own, drawing up maps that hem sex offenders into tiny pockets of town or forbid them from visiting public places like libraries.” [editor’s note: Were it not for the fact that the “sex predator plague” is a fabrication (born of scummy politicians seeking re-election issues), and that “sex offender” is a term that includes even two teenagers having consensual sex, this trend MIGHT have some validity. Since thes
e two conditions also exist … not so much! - SAT] (06/15/08)
=====
03 - ND: Feds contemplate giving half of park back to Sioux
Arizona Republic
“The southern half of this swath of grasslands and chiseled pink spires looks untouched from a distance. Closer up, the scars of history are easy to see. Unexploded bombs lie in ravines, a reminder of when the military confiscated the land from the Oglala Sioux tribe during World War II and turned it into an artillery range. Poachers who have stolen thousands of fossils have left gouges in the landscape. On a plateau, a solitary makeshift hut sits ringed by empty Coke cans and shaving-cream canisters. It is the only remnant of a 3-year occupation by militant tribal activists who had demanded that the land be returned. Now, the National Park Service is contemplating doing just that: giving the 133,000-acre southern half of Badlands National Park back to the tribe. The northern half, which has a paved road and a visitor center, would remain with the park system.” (06/15/08)
=====
04 - Cost of retiring alarms boomers
Tennessean
“James Gann is 61 years old and looking forward to his retirement. The problem is he can’t afford it. ‘I’ll have to start making whiskey in order to make ends meet,’ joked the traveling millwright, who currently works at the General Motors plant in Spring Hill, TN. Gann and many of his fellow baby boomers face increasingly uncertain retirement years because of insufficient personal savings rates, fewer corporate benefits, disappearing pensions and the threat of a weaker national economy. Many members of the baby boomers’ generation … are sorely unprepared for their own aging, financial analysts say. The generation’s personal financial hurdles, in fact, could have a ripple effect that puts unprecedented pressure on private and government institutions that care for them in the years to come.” [editor’s note: Since this is happening even to Boomers who took the Big Daddy corporate job, expecting cradle-to-grave to be thereby “covered” … it’s hard to say that those who chose other path
ways were any more delusional about their futures - SAT] (06/15/08)
=====
05 - CA: Public-bus clampdown could jeopardize school ride
Christian Science Monitor
“Like many inner-city students, Keren Osman’s school bus isn’t yellow. It’s a public transit bus. Every morning, the 658 takes her from the poor flatlands of East Oakland up into the posh, eucalyptus-strewn hills where she attends Skyline High School. ‘Most people think our school could be private, it’s in such a nice location. And I’ve been going for two years and don’t want to leave,’ says Keren. She may not have a ride to school much longer, however, because of a bureaucratic fight brewing between Washington and major cities across the country. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is clamping down on transit bus routes such as the 658 that were created to shuttle schoolchildren. The FTA wants to be sure that federal dollars to city transit systems aren’t subsidizing school busing, harming private bus companies’ ability to compete.” [editor’s note: A Federal agency actually concerned about the effects of “public policy” on private industry? Are we in Bizarro World again? Coul
d this be a DOE/FTA smackdown? - SAT] (06/15/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0614/p04s01-uspo.html
=====
06 - China resources can’t match use
Arizona Republic
“China consumes more than double what its natural resources can supply, a report by environmentalists says. If China were to follow the U.S. in individual demand on natural resources, it would need the available capacity of the entire planet, the report issued recently by the WWF said. China uses 15 percent of the world’s biological capacity — resources such as water, land and timber, the report said. ‘In the next 10 to 20 years, China’s consumption will likely continue to pose threats to China’s own ecosystems and place increasing pressures on global biocapacity,’ it said.” (06/15/08)
=====
07 - New Obama website aimed at smears
New York Daily News
“Barack Obama is tapping the Internet to try to deflect smears like the devastating Swift Boat attacks that four years ago questioned John Kerry’s duty in Vietnam, the campaign said Thursday. ‘The Obama campaign isn’t going to let dishonest smears spread across the Internet unanswered,’ said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor. Team Obama unveiled its www.fightthesmears.com Web site amid rumors circulating on right wing blogs claiming Obama’s wife, Michelle, supposedly used the word ‘whitey’ during a rant at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Obama says it never happened.” (06/12/08)
=====
08 - SCOTUS: Child-abuse claims vs. parents’ rights
Christian Science Monitor
“The US Supreme Court is being asked to determine whether procedures used in Illinois to investigate allegations of child abuse or neglect violate the fundamental rights of parents. The case arises at a legal crossroads between the government’s interest in moving quickly to safeguard children from abuse or neglect and the right of parents to raise and maintain a family without undue government interference. The high court is scheduled to consider whether to take up the case, Dupuy v. McEwen, at its private conference Thursday. An order agreeing or refusing to hear the appeal could come as early as Monday.” (06/12/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0612/p02s01-usju.html
=====
09 - CA: Drug thugs find “pot forest” in Sonoma state park
San Francisco Chronicle
“Narcotics agents destroyed 27,000 marijuana plants that were found growing at a state park in Sonoma County, authorities said today. The plants were found in a remote area in the northwest corner of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Kenwood, the Sheriff’s Department said. Agents from the county Narcotic Task Force, along with the Napa Special Investigation Bureau, had to be airlifted to the site for Tuesday’s raid because the terrain was so rough. Two campsites showed signs of hasty departures — when agents arrived, breakfast was half-eaten. ‘The individuals also left burning candles on a makeshift altar, and had constructed a makeshift pit for their garbage,’ said sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Chris Bertoli.” (06/11/08)
=====
10 - MA: Patrick plans new mandatory propaganda day camps
Boston Globe
“Governor Deval Patrick, in a potential break with the teachers unions that helped elect him, is set to propose a new form of public school that would assume unprecedented control over matters ranging from curriculum and hiring decisions to policies on school uniforms and the length of the school year. The governor’s proposal for ‘readiness schools,’ a key element of his sweeping 10-year education plan to be unveiled later this month, aims to combine features of the state’s charter schools and Boston’s experimental pilot schools. … The plan is likely to be embraced by suburban parents, who have clamored for more choices, and several education groups yesterday signaled their approval. But it could meet stiff resistance from teachers unions …” [editor’s note: Since the teachers’ UNIONS are against the idea, it must have SOME educational merit - SAT] (06/11/08)
=====
11 - Southern Baptists won’t create sexual predator database
Tennessean
“A top leader at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting urged fellow Baptists to drive sexual predators out of the churches. Morris Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive board, told more than 7,200 church representatives meeting here Tuesday that preventing sexual abuse in the church is the responsibility of local congregations. … The executive committee announced Tuesday it would not create a national database of Baptist ministers accused or convicted of sexual abuse. … Instead of a Baptist-only database, Chapman and other Southern Baptist leaders argue that churches should use the national sexual offender database, maintained by the federal government.” [editor’s note: This would be the database that fails to distinguish between teenage lovers (both parties), bogus charges, “exposure” (public urination, etc.) … and truly predatory, power-driven assaults on very young children (comprising a very tiny portion of said database), which is the all
eged “threat” being addressed - SAT] (06/11/08)
=====
12 - UK: Al Qaeda secret docs left on train
BBC News [UK]
“Police are investigating a ’serious’ security breach after a civil servant lost top-secret documents containing the latest intelligence on al-Qaeda. The unnamed Cabinet Office employee apparently breached strict security rules when he left the papers on the seat of a train. A fellow passenger spotted the envelope containing the files and gave it to the BBC, who handed them to the police. The official was later suspended from his job, the Cabinet Office announced. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith now faces demands for an official inquiry.” (06/11/08)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7449255.stm
=====
13 - AZ: Fun-park raids may test state hiring law
Arizona Republic
“Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies seized hundreds of employee records from the parent company of three Valley summer-fun spots on Tuesday as part of a sweeping ID-theft investigation that may lead to the first use of a new state law to prosecute employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants. Nine workers associated with Golfland Entertainment Centers, which operates Waterworld, Golfland and Big Surf, were arrested in an investigation that stems from a tip the Sheriff’s Office received in February. But any potential penalty for Golfland Entertainment Centers through a civil violation of the state’s employer-sanctions law is likely a ways off, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said.” (06/11/08)
=====
14 - CA: Same-sex couples told to avoid lawsuits
San Francisco Chronicle
“Gay and lesbian couples from around the country who flock to California to get married in the coming months should try to win support from friends and neighbors when they return home but refrain from filing lawsuits, which could backfire, nine advocacy groups said Tuesday. ‘One thing couples shouldn’t do is just sue the federal government or, if they are from other states, go sue their home state or their employer to recognize their marriage or open up the health plan,’ the organizations said in a joint message to their members. Couples are likely to lose such lawsuits, creating precedents that will take a long time to overturn, and in the process may alienate people the movement needs to win over, the groups said.” (06/10/08)
=====
15 - AZ: ASU plans big rooftop solar grid
Arizona Republic
“More than 20 percent of the energy needs of Arizona State University’s main campus eventually could be met by one of the largest rooftop solar-power plants in the United States. ASU planned to announce an agreement today under which three companies will install, at their expense, solar electricity-generating equipment on up to 330,000 square feet of rooftop space at its main campus in Tempe. Jonathan Fink, director of the Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU, said that the university will pay the companies a fixed rate that is slightly lower than what it is now paying for power from Arizona Public Service Co. If APS raises its rates, the savings will become greater, Fink said. Besides saving the university money, the solar-generating system will provide an important teaching and research tool, he said.” (06/10/08)
=====
16 - Colbert picks up his Peabody
Tennessean
“The walls of The Colbert Report studio are plastered with letters and artwork of the show’s fearless leader submitted by loyal fans. In one painted portrait, Stephen Colbert, astride a horse, is substituted for George Washington. Outside Colbert’s office sits a brand new GPS system that he had pleaded for on the show just days earlier. A publicist shrugs, ‘Ask and you shall receive.’ Inside, Colbert’s desk is surrounded by leftover props and gifts from guests — a veritable record of the absurdity he’s created from this place Jon Stewart calls ‘bizarro world.’ This is where Colbert and his staff hatch plans for where they might next fling their bloviating, perpetually suit-clad creation.” (06/10/08)
=====
17 - PA: US court orders deportation of former Nazi guard
Fox News
“A retired steelworker who served as a Nazi guard should be deported even though the United States granted him a visa in 1956, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. Anton Geiser’s work as a guard meets the type of persecutory conduct banned under the Refugee Relief Act, which was in effect when he entered the U.S., the ruling said. Geiser, 83, did not cite his Nazi ties on his visa application, but he is not accused of lying about them. Files from the period have been lost and it is not clear what questions he was asked. … But the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court, which focused on the language of the Refugee Relief Act, said Geiser should have his U.S. citizenship revoked and be deported.” (06/10/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,365484,00.html
=====
18 - ISPs take major step to curb child porn
Christian Science Monitor
“US law enforcement officials have some new deputies in their efforts to control child pornography: big telecommunications firms that provide Internet service to millions of Americans. On June 10, New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable have agreed to block access to child pornography and eliminate it from their servers. The move will affect customers of these companies nationwide. In the past, Internet service providers (ISPs) have been reluctant to block specific content, arguing that they were portals, not hosts — and that the freewheeling nature of the Web would blunt any attempt at such regulation.” (06/11/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0611/p01s09-usgn.html
=====
19 - Citizenship no guarantee spouse can follow to US
Boston Globe
“On a proud December day, Nancy Hanna raised her right hand in the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester and took the oath of US citizenship. Then she rushed home to call her congressman: She told him she wanted her husband back. Hanna believed that becoming a US citizen would open the door for her husband, Ekram, a native of Egypt like her, to join her in this country. But that was more than two years ago. Now, instead of living with her husband, she is a single mother learning a hard lesson increasingly confronting US citizens and their immigrant spouses: Marriage is no guarantee of legal residency.” (06/10/08)
=====
20 - Group files FEC complaint against McCain
Fox News
“A group that supports public financing of campaigns filed a federal complaint against John McCain’s presidential campaign Monday, calling for an investigation into two financial transactions involving two top McCain aides. The Federal Election Commission complaint by Campaign Money Watch, a group that has received financing from Democratic leaning donors, questions payments from former finance chair Tom Loeffler to campaign finance director Susan Nelson. It also questions the reduction of a debt to a Web services firm co-owned by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis. ‘A campaign manager renegotiating a debt with a company he partly owns raises serious conflict of interest questions,’ said David Donnelly, the director of Campaign Money Watch.” [editor’s note: hard to decide whether “poetic justice” or “hoist … petard” is more appropriate for the co-perpetrator of McCain-Feingold aka BCRA! - SAT] (06/09/08)
=====
21 - UBS told only some about risk
Boston Globe
“UBS Financial Services Inc. knew as early as December that a segment of the municipal bond business was in trouble, but the Wall Street firm kept selling the investments to some clients without warning them of the risk, according to documents reviewed by the Globe. By February, the $330 billion auction-rate securities market had collapsed, locking out the nonprofits and municipalities that had used the market for years to issue inexpensive debt, as well as the investors who had purchased it. UBS brokers have said they were as surprised as anyone about the market’s shutdown. But on the other side of the firm, UBS was advising some large investment banking clients of the looming problems at least three months before all trading stopped, according to a letter to investors by one of those clients, a New Hampshire bond issuer.” [editor’s note: UBS knew in December … what anyone with half a brain and a CLUE about economics or money policy knew … decades ago! - SAT] (06/09/08)
=====
22 - FBI report: Crime drops after two years of rises
Raw Story
“After rising for two years straight, both violent crime and property crime in the United States dropped significantly in 2007, according to preliminary figures released by the Federal Bureau of Organization Monday. Violent crimes fell 1.4 percent last year compared to 2006, with drops in each of the four sub-categories: rapes fell 4.3 percent, murder 2.7 percent, and robbery and assault both declined 1.2 percent. Property crimes, the second main category of crime overall, dropped 2.1 percent last year, the FBI said.” [editor’s note: One can only speculate on how sooner (and farther) this “rate” would have dropped … without the War on (Some) Drugs fueling property and violent crime as it has for the past 40+ years - SAT] (06/09/08)
=====
23 - TN: Teachers must change churches or leave Christian school
Tennessean
“A teacher at a Christian school in Columbia says she is retiring after the board told her and four others to switch churches or leave. The action from the leadership at the Church of Christ-affiliated Columbia Academy came after Maury Hills Church, which the five attend, allowed musical instruments during a Good Friday service. Sandra McCarthy, who has taught kindergarten at the school for 27 years, said she has decided to retire; but she said the board did offer a compromise, which two other teachers accepted. They will be allowed to stay at Maury Hills Church as long as they agree not to attend the two or three services a year where musical instruments are played. She said the other two teachers given the ultimatum are leaving for other jobs.” (06/09/08)
=====
24 - Study: Same-sex weddings could boost California’s economy
San Francisco Chronicle
“Same-sex weddings could create hundreds of new jobs and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into California’s economy, according to a new study released Monday. Gay couples are projected to spend $684 million on flowers, cakes, hotels, photographers and other wedding services over the next three years — so long as voters don’t put a halt to the same-sex marriage spree, according to a study by the Williams Institute at University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. During the three-year period, the researchers project that about half of the state’s more than 100,000 same-sex couples will get married and another 68,000 out-of-state couples will travel to California to exchange vows. The nuptial rush is expected to create some 2,200 jobs. The study estimates that over the next three years, gay weddings will generate $64 million in additional tax revenue for the state, and another $9 million in marriage-license fees for counties.” (06/09/08)
=====
25 - MN: Democrats endorse Franken in Senate race
Bloomberg
“Minnesota Democrats formally endorsed comedian and author Al Franken’s bid to run against Republican U.S. Senator Norm Coleman in November, even as some party members questioned his ability to win the seat. Delegates to a convention of the state’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party selected Franken over college professor Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. He was endorsed by unanimous consent after his opponent acknowledged balloting showed Franken moving past the 60 percent majority he needed among convention delegates. … In remarks to delegates, Franken tried to address concerns about a column he wrote for Playboy magazine eight years ago, apologizing to those offended by the bawdy article. He has also been dogged by recent disclosures of tax troubles that resulted in him paying $70,000 in back income taxes and penalties to 17 states. Franken still may face a challenge in the state’s Democratic senatorial primary race on Sept. 9. The filing deadline for that contest is July 15.” (06/07/08)
=====
26 - Clinton admits defeat, urges backers to support Obama
Dallas Morning News
“Vanquished but no longer defiant, Hillary Rodham Clinton cheerfully endorsed Barack Obama on Saturday and ended her history-making presidential bid before teary supporters. ‘Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it,’ she told an audience of thousands. Belatedly but unequivocally, Mrs. Clinton acknowledged defeat, urging supporters to set aside doubts about Mr. Obama and close ranks behind him.” (06/08/08)
=====
27 - NE: Trial judge bans the word “rape”
Kansas City Star
“It’s the only way Tory Bowen knows to honestly describe what happened to her. She was raped. But a judge prohibited her from uttering the word ‘rape’ in front of a jury. The term ’sexual assault’ also was taboo, and Bowen could not refer to herself as a victim or use the word ‘assailant’ to describe the man who allegedly raped her. The defendant’s presumption of innocence and right to a fair trial trumps Bowen’s right of free speech, said the Lincoln, Neb., judge who issued the order. ‘It shouldn’t be up to a judge to tell me whether or not I was raped,’ Bowen said. ‘I should be able to tell the jury in my own words what happened to me.’ Bowen’s case is part of what some prosecutors and victim advocates see as a national trend in sexual assault cases.” [editor’s note: A trend indeed — Judges have been denying tax rebels, medical marijuana patients and others these rights for years - SAT] (06/08/08)
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/654147.html
=====
28 - CA: Legislators could be hit with pay cut
“Some California legislators might claim to be victims of pay discrimination if the commission that sets state elected officials’ salaries decides this week to impose its first pay cut. The California Citizens Compensation Commission is scheduled Tuesday to consider a proposal by its chairman to cut elected officials’ salaries by 10 percent to help deal with a $15.2 billion state budget deficit. But a legal opinion the commission requested could limit those affected by the cut to the 80 members of the Assembly and half of the 40 state senators.” (06/08/08)
=====
29 - AZ: Sanctions law ruling will ripple across US
Arizona Republic
“Arizona’s employer-sanctions law was among the first in the nation to go on the books, sending the state into a new world of employee screening, absent workers and anxious waiting for prosecutions. Now, a year after it was signed into law, the measure has survived a challenge in federal court and is the first in the nation to get an airing before a federal appeals court. On Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears the case, which is being pressed by business groups, civil-rights groups and Latino organizations. The law allows the state to suspend or revoke the business license of employers found to have knowingly hired illegal workers. The case is being closely watched by lawmakers, attorneys, employers and immigration activists of all stripes. And not just in Arizona.” (06/08/08)
=====
30 - MD: Mongtomery schools cave to pressure with Islam book
The Examiner
“A new report issued by the American Textbook Council says books approved for use in local school districts for teaching middle and high school students about Islam caved in to political correctness and dumbed down the topic at a critical moment in its history. ‘Textbook editors try to avoid any subject that could turn into a political grenade,’ wrote Gilbert Sewall, director of the council, who railed against five popular history texts for ‘adjust[ing] the definition of jihad or sharia or remov[ing] these words from lessons to avoid inconvenient truths.’” (06/08/08)
COMMENTARY
31 - Actually, lawmakers don’t feel your pain
Orange County Register
staff
“Imagine that the company you worked for was running massively in the red, and all employees were told that, to stay in business, everyone must take a pay cut. Now imagine the company’s board of directors, already paid more than the bosses of all other companies, refused to cut their own pay. Outrage and resentment might be appropriate responses. Welcome to California government. Last week the panel of appointed bureaucrats who decide how much state elected officials get paid, voted 4-1 to freezesalaries for state legislators, the governor and other constitutional officers. That might seem prudent considering the state’s $15 billion budget deficit.” (06/15/08)
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32 - The feminist mistake
Reason
Michael C. Moynihan
“The Democratic primary was a lose-lose proposition for the image of American tolerance: If Senator Obama lost, ours was an irredeemably racist country. Senator Clinton lost, and we are infected by sexism. But whether viewed through the prism of radical gender feminism or a boy’s club media conspiracy, the truth is considerably less complicated. The vaunted Clinton machine — devoid of fresh ideas and facing a dynamic, inspirational opponent — simply couldn’t compete.” (06/13/08)
http://www.reason.com/news/show/127012.html
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33 - Take a broader view of history, people
Tennessean
David Lawrence, Ph.D.
“When the United States under its new administration seeks to formulate an effective foreign policy with Iran, those who have responsibility for devising that policy would do well to be thoroughly informed in Iranian history, culture and society. Iran has long been a great civilization characterized usually by peaceful pursuits. For instance, it was Iran (Persia) that allowed the Jews to return to their homeland after 70 years of exile in Babylon (Iraq). … Today, Iran is a highly complex society while appearing to be a monolithic Shiite theocracy, and many Iranians still hold to values of peace, sophistication and respect for human rights. American foreign policymakers need to be informed of the pulse of the society in general and not just its current leadership, vociferous and threatening though it is.” (06/15/08)
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34 - Empire or republic?
The Nation
Robert Scheer
“The dominant assumption of our nation’s founders was to avoid ‘foreign entanglements,’ to use Thomas Jefferson’s words of warning. Indeed, the policy of nonintervention was considered by the founders as a basic demarcation between the politics of the Old and New Worlds. Explaining in his farewell address why he, as our first President, followed ‘our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world,’ George Washington cautioned his countrymen to ‘moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.’ What has happened to the American people that these modest yet profound sentiments seem so foreign to the tongues of our politicians and the ears of their constituents?” [editor’s note: This would be far more weighty, were it not for the fact Mr. Scheer is among those merely intent on “bringing the imperialism home,” rather than taking Tom and George seriousl
y about the tyranny of intervention … in our domestic affairs! It’s a great start, though. - SAT] (06/12/08)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080630/scheer
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35 - The dumbing down of voters
Boston Globe
Rick Shenkman
“Decade by decade Americans are getting smarter and smarter, and decade by decade our politics is getting dumber and dumber. How can we explain it? In 1940 six in 10 Americans hadn’t gone past the eighth grade. Today, most Americans have attended college. Partly as a result of their added schooling, Americans today are more tolerant of dissent and less racist. But surveys show that increased schooling doesn’t correspond to a higher aptitude for civics. To put this bluntly: Americans today are no better informed about politics than their grade-school educated grandparents. With respect to some subjects they are less well-informed.” [editor’s note: It has way too much to do with the schools themselves. I ran across this, written by a high school kid, recently: “Our government enables us to be free as long as we follow the rules set by the Constitution.” I can only shudder at the other disinformation these “educators” are imparting to these callow minds! - SAT] (06/15/08)
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36 - The real reason running mates matter
Christian Science Monitor
Joshua Spivak
“We’re already hearing plenty of chatter about possible vice presidential choices. But as pundits and politicians debate who will provide party tickets with the most electoral bang, the one thing we won’t hear is why the VP selection is important. It is important, though not for electoral reasons. Studies have found that vice presidents have a negligible impact on the electorates’ voting decision. Still, the choice is arguably the biggest decision the candidates will make through the entire campaign period. The reason goes largely unstated, but whoever the president-to-be names as VP is also most likely to be his successor. And not just in case of death or resignation, but in another more important way. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the person who is elected the vice president in November will become the prohibitive favorite for his or her party’s nomination for the presidency in 2016.” [editor’s note: And in many cases, the process has been even sooner (Truman, LBJ, Ford …)! -
SAT] (06/16/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0616/p09s02-coop.html
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37 - The politics of “the list”
Fox News
Susan Estrich
“The list. A politician keeping track of those who stand with them, and those who don’t — It’s almost as shocking as gambling in Casablanca. I’ve never met a politician who doesn’t have one. So why was it big news this week that Doug Band, who travels with former President Clinton and quite literally controls access to him, would be keeping track of who had stood with the Clintons in this last campaign — and who had not? Will it be easier for the loyalists to get through or, as someone put it, get a job reference for their son-in-law, than it will be for those who deserted Hillary for Barack? I should hope so. And I don’t have a son-in-law.” (06/13/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,366721,00.html
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38 - Webb of deception
The New Republic
Richard Just
“I am amazed at how many Democrats have fallen for Jim Webb. Suddenly, everywhere you look, people are touting Webb as the perfect running mate for Barack Obama. In recent days, as Webb has seemed ubiquitous (hawking his book, bantering with Jon Stewart, grinning at Obama’s side), a disturbing number of my otherwise sane friends, family, and colleagues have told me that they view Webb as a perfectly acceptable choice — or, more disturbingly, a good one. This madness has to stop. Now. Unless we want to end up with a vice president who harbors a worldview that is fundamentally illiberal, not to mention downright creepy.” (06/13/08)
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39 - Supreme Court to Bush: You’re not above the law
Salon
James Ross
“For the third time in four summers, the U.S. Supreme Court has slammed the Bush administration’s detention policies at Guantanamo Bay — locking up terrorist suspects indefinitely and beyond the law. And this time, some real progress might even come out of it. In a 5-4 decision drafted by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that Guantanamo detainees have a constitutional right to habeas corpus — that is, to challenge the legal basis for their detention in a federal court.” (06/13/08)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/06/13/gitmo_bush/
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40 - Give us something to talk about
Slate
John Dickerson
“I wish presidential candidates were as honest as they tell us they’re going to be. For one thing, it would make campaign events more entertaining. I’d like to thank Bill Wilson for that generous introduction if I had any idea who Bill Wilson was. A little honesty would also inject a note of reality — and also panic — into the current debate about the economy. Instead of sticking to the supposed panacea of new programs or tax cuts to lure voters, the presidential candidates would admit that the federal budget is such a mess that voters are likely to face substantial trade-offs and sacrifice in the coming years.” (06/11/08)
http://www.slate.com/id/2193223/
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41 - Second best
Slate
Christopher Beam
“In the fantasy baseball game known as the Veepstakes, Kathleen Sebelius appears to be the complete package. She’s a popular Democratic governor in a red state. She stood up to out-of-state insurers to keep health care premiums down. She delivered the Democratic response to this year’s State of the Union address. And, best of all for Barack Obama, she’s a woman. What better way to win over disaffected Clinton supporters? Or piss them off. Obama could also privatize healthcare forever, overturn Roe v. Wade, and order Hillary to make him a sandwich. At least that wouldn’t infuriate die-hard Clinton supporters as much as making Kathleen Sebelius his running mate.” (06/13/08)
http://www.slate.com/id/2192829/
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42 - Operation American Dream
Mother Jones
David Case
“Abather Abdul Hussein had just arrived at John Wayne International Airport in Orange County, California. Already, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The sign read, ‘Car pools only.’ Could it be? Cars with pools? Abather is an easygoing Iraqi with a lively sense of humor, but he’s no one’s fool. He holds a master’s in engineering, and was savvy enough to rescue his young family from Baghdad, to keep them alive and sane as illegal refugees in Jordan. Yet since the day that he and his wife, Balqes Abdel Mohammed, threw flowers at victorious US troops rolling into Baghdad, he’s been through so much that almost anything about America could seem believable. Even cars with pools. They were certainly large enough.” (06/08)
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43 - Bush, World Bank pushing bogus “clean energy” funds
AlterNet
Abid Islam
“‘Climate Investment Funds’ to be run by the World Bank and backed by the George W. Bush administration are drawing fire from lawmakers and environmentalists who say the initiatives will accomplish little against global warming. Critics question whether the funds - including a planned 10-billion-dollar Clean Technology Fund - set out a clear way to reduce pollution, whether they provide the right type of financing for poorer countries, and whether the World Bank is the right choice to run them.” (06/14/08)
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44 - GOP invents mythical Cuban-Chinese oil connection
Mother Jones
Jonathan Stein
“To gin up support for off-shore drilling, the Right has an ace up its rhetorical sleeve: the Chinese in Cuba. Here’s Vice President Cheney. ‘[O]il is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We’re not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government” …. Problem is, that’s all false. Like, completely false. China is not currently drilling off the shores of Cuba; in fact, it doesn’t even have a off shore drilling contract. What is does have is a permit to drill on Cuban land.” (06/12/08)
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45 - Obama is truly a democratic expansionist
LewRockwell.Com
John Pilger
“In 1941, the editor Edward Dowling wrote: ‘The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it.’ What has changed? The terror of the rich is greater than ever, and the poor have passed on their delusion to those who believe that when George W Bush finally steps down next January, his numerous threats to the rest of humanity will diminish. The nomination of Barack Obama, which, according to one breathless commentator, ‘marks a truly exciting and historic moment in US history” is a product of the new delusion. Actually, it just seems new. Truly exciting and historic moments have been fabricated around US presidential campaigns for as long as I can recall, generating what can only be described as bullshit on a grand scale.” (06/13/08)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/pilger/pilger63.html
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46 - Why oil prices are so high
AlterNet
Sam Pizzigati
“Grand concentrations of private wealth, history tells us, have a nasty little habit of nurturing wasteful and witless speculation. Wasteful and witless speculation, news reports last week revealed, just happens to be the economic joker in the deck that’s turbocharging our current surge in crude oil prices. The speculation now doing so much damage at America’s gas pumps comes mostly out of hedge funds, those shadowy mutual funds on steroids open only to the deepest of deep-pocket investors.” (06/10/08)
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/87474/
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47 - Iraq War becomes suicidal
Common Dreams
Saul Landau
“Throughout the country, communities cope with tens of thousands of U.S. troops returned from Afghanistan and Iraq with blighted bodies and brains. As long as Bush’s wars continue — no candidate has pledged to withdraw all the troops — the country faces a growing collection of veterans, many of whom cannot function in family or work settings. They suffer from war wounds — physical and mental — that require expensive treatment.” (06/12/08)
http://counterpunch.org/landau06122008.html
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48 - When laws become contemptible
That Other Paper
Garry Reed
“According to news reports, immigration advocates are advising illegals that their best bet against deportation is to clam up and say nothing when the cops come calling. This hacks off critics who claim the do-gooders are aiding lawbreakers. Quoting one article, ‘It shows blatant contempt for the rule of law in this country and blatant contempt for local police working with federal authorities to clean up this mess,’ said Chris Simcox, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Continuing crackdowns on undocumented border-busters have thousands of immigrants flocking to pro-immigrant forums where techniques on ducking deportation are taught. Mass movements have always engaged in widespread lawbreaking whenever enough people decided the current laws were contemptible.” (06/11/08)
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49 - The Libertarian Party: A 37-year-old girl child but still a minor to many
Liberty For All
William P. McMillen
“Imagine the Libertarian Party as a 15-year-old girl out on her own having fled from an abusive government that denied her the music to which she wished to listen, any semblance of privacy, and imposed upon her an assessment that burdened her with emotional distress that led her to cry out for something new and different. Imagine yourself as a man, somewhat older, sitting in a coffee shop when this young girl comes in and sits herself down on the seat beside you. After a couple of minutes and a polite ‘hello’, she begins to tell you a little about some of her ideas and ambitions, and says that what she has to offer you is ‘freedom.’” (06/11/08)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=1330
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50 - Just blame Bush
The Nation
Robert Scheer
“Sure, in the long run we consumers, particularly the most wasteful ones who happen to reside in the good old USA, and who have become accustomed to consuming many times our population’s worth of the world’s resources, do need to shape up. But that has little to do with the five-fold rise in the price of oil since George Bush became our President. Yep, he did it; Bush’s deliberate roiling of world politics is the key variable in the run-up of oil prices. No President has been more brilliant in destabilizing the politics of oil-producing countries from Venezuela to Russia and on to the key oil lakes of Iraq and Iran.” (06/11/08)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080623/scheer
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51 - What Tiananmen crushed in me
Christian Science Monitor
Trevor Corson
“I was born in the final year of the 1960s, too late to identify with that decade of rebellion, idealism, and change. I grew up in an orderly American suburb and spent my teen years at a comfortable prep school, doing my homework and following the rules of the Reagan era. But the ’60s had left their mark. When I received a scholarship to study in China for a year after graduating high school, my open-minded parents and politically liberal teachers encouraged me to go. None of us realized I was on a collision course with history that would end in Tiananmen Square. In the two short years I would spend in China, I would witness one of the most dramatic, pivotal, and — for some unfortunate citizens — deadly moments in China’s emergence as a modern nation. Though I had missed out on the student radicalism of the ’60s in America, I was soon to see an even more intense flowering of student idealism — and a far more brutal response from the government.” (06/12/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0612/p09s03-coop.html
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52 - Close of an era
The American Prospect
Sean Wilentz
“Despite an interruption in the late 1970s and a temporary reversal in the 1990s, the age of Reagan has marked the longest era of conservative political domination in American history — roughly as long as the period from the rise of the New Deal to the fall of the Great Society. The close of the Reagan era will not automatically bring a dramatic shift toward liberal government comparable to the rightward shift of 1980. Conservatism and the Republican Party may be in deep trouble, but neither is going away; indeed, the Republicans could well fare far better in November than anyone would have predicted only a few months ago. A reopened rift between the left wing of the Democratic Party and its traditional middle- and working-class base … could easily cause the party, yet again, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Even if an old order has died, the future remains uncertain.” [editor’s note: It is interesting that a multiple book review like this, focusing on “conservative” issu
es, omits consideration of Ron Paul’s Manifesto … Could it be that the “progressives” are the only ones who recognize the difference between libertarians and the right-wing? - SAT] (06/11/08)
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=close_of_an_era
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53 - Why I can’t support Barack Obama
CounterPunch
Joshua Frank
“Four years ago, as the sentiment against George W. Bush’s administration mounted, the entire left-wing spectrum hung on tight to the coattails of John Kerry, grasping for dear life. Critics called it the ‘Anybody but Bush’ syndrome, but it should have been more aptly coined ‘Nobody but Kerry.’ Virtually every progressive cause, from labor to the environment, had been co-opted by a mindset that would have ensured more of the same. There was no pressure put on Kerry to change, and he didn’t. As a result, the antiwar movement collapsed, with no demonstrations and a strict allegiance to the Democrat’s pro-war campaign. Fortunately, the movement to end the war was resurrected by Cindy Sheehan’s as she erected her tent outside the Bush compound in Texas months later. Today we find our political climate in a similar state of shock. Call it the ‘Nobody but Obama’ epidemic. Senator Barack Obama has now sealed up the Democratic nomination, and the usual suspects, from MoveOn.org to Progress
ive Democrats for America, are falling in line. Sadly, what seems to be reigning in this year’s election is even worse than the storm that flooded our issues in 2004. After eight dreadfully long years of Bush, it is to be expected that a lot of voters would support any Democrat if it meant kicking the wretched Republicans out of the White House. Obama’s message of ‘change’ has certainly resonated well. But underlying his rhetoric is a brilliant public relations campaign, orchestrated by DC insiders, that is void of any real substance.” [editor’s note: At long last, a substantive critique of the Obama campaign, from an actual “progressive” (instead of a DemParty lackey) - SAT] (06/11/08)
http://www.counterpunch.org/frank06112008.html
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54 - Picking a Vice President is difficult
Fox News
Susan Estrich
“The vetter got vetted. The resignation of former Mondale campaign chair and Fannie Mae chief Jim Johnson from Barack Obama’s Vice Presidential selection committee after reports that he may have received a preferential mortgage from Countrywide Financial should not be viewed as a sign that Johnson did anything wrong. The Wall Street Journal story last week that mentioned his name in connection with possible preferential loans given by his friend, Countrywide chief Angelo Mozilo, has been confirmed by no one. The original story was based on unidentified sources. Johnson himself has denied any wrongdoing, stating that ‘blatantly false statements and misrepresentations’ have been made about him.” [editor’s note: Bottom line is, if Obama were smart enough to pick, say, Virginia’s Jim Webb, as his “heartbeat away” … it’s all over but the shouting - SAT] (06/11/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,365722,00.html
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55 - Damned if feminine, damned if feminist
In These Times
Susan J. Douglas
“What role has sexism played in the race for the Democratic nomination? Hillary Clinton answered that seething question herself in late May, telling the Washington Post that the press turned a blind eye to the ‘incredible vitriol that has been engendered … [by] people who are nothing but misogynists.’ Her most avid supporters are clearly aggrieved by what they see as anti-woman sentiment in the media. Then there’s the pointless debate about what’s more permissible, racism or sexism? How do we imagine, say, Michelle Obama might answer that? She stands at the intersection of both streams of prejudice. These false oppositions … miss the point.” [editor’s note: Actually, the REAL point here is that the problem with Hillary is not her gender, but the fact that the only “energy” she gives off is … (for lack of a better term?) “masculinist machismo;” Obama seems far more in contact with his “feminine side” … than she perhaps ever has been with hers! - SAT] (06/10/08)
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56 - A new approach for the age of $4 gasoline
Boston Globe
Armando Carbonell
“The summer of 2008 already has the feel of a real turning point — a time Americans will remember when gasoline first sold for over $4 a gallon. Political calls for a gas tax holiday have been greeted with universal scorn. The search for longer term, sustainable solutions is on. Recognizing the deeper, structural issues at work, a growing number of planners and policy analysts are seeking to prepare for the future with a fundamental overhaul of the nation’s systems of transportation and of land and energy use. Those systems were built on the premise that fossil fuels would serve as a cheap, abundant, and environmentally benign source of energy into the indefinite future. Demand for oil is outpacing supply, escalating prices to $140 a barrel and more.” (06/11/08)
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57 - Smoking cannabis where tobacco smokers smoke tobacco
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Alison Myrden
“Speaking of my being busy, I had another trying month here in Canada. There have been two fairly important issues that have risen in our country that are breaking ground for medical marijuana patients across Canada. The first incident involves medical marijuana patient Steve Gibson, who happens to reside around the corner from where I do in a small town called Oakville, Ontario. Mr. Gibson, or Steve as I now know him, is a legally licensed cannabis patient due to issues with constant chronic pain from a work related neck injury a number of years ago.” (06/09/08)
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58 - America’s native criminal class
Hawaii Reporter
Paul Driessen
“There is no distinctly native American criminal class, Mark Twain observed — except Congress. A century later, government power and intrusiveness have increased exponentially — and special interests have adapted by employing lobbyists who can navigate Washington, explain technology to tech-challenged members and staffs, persuade legislators that provisions are vital (or disastrous), and give clients ‘a seat at the table’ where subsidies, mandates, taxes, preferences and penalties are meted out.” (06/11/08)
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59 - Governor steals from the poor to pad state budget with unconstitutional tax
FreedomWorks
Michael Mruk
“Well, it seems that the old mantra of ‘tax and spend’ lives on in Colorado. Democrat Governor Bill Ritter, who pushed a $1.7 billion tax increase in 2007, has decided to freeze property taxes in Colorado rather than lowering them as planned. This is tantamount to raising taxes up to $3.8 billion over the next 10 years. The debate rages strongly as of January 2008, when legislative sessions commenced. As if that weren’t enough, the Colorado state Constitution clearly states that any tax increase must go to a vote by the people. But this tax scheme has not gone to the people for a vote.” (06/11/08)
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60 - Lesson of ‘72: Compromise on war plank
Common Dreams
Ira Chernus
‘Now that the Obama-Clinton battle is over, the Democrats face another fight that could split the party. Over the summer, their 186-member Platform Committee will have to write a plank on the war in Iraq. And the convention in Denver will have to ratify it.The lines are already being drawn. ‘On the issues of Iraq and foreign policy, Democrats can’t be vague or fuzzy,’ says a contingent of progressive party leaders. They call for a clear forthright plank that demands ‘an end to the war in Iraq by initiating the safe and secure withdrawal of all US combat forces, leaving no permanent military bases behind.’ Peace activists who know the Iraq issue well will not be sure whether to laugh or cry. Not vague or fuzzy? This is precisely the kind of vague coded language that Dems have been using for many months now to avoid a clear, forthright call to end the war now.” (06/11/08)
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/11/9551/
Peace, Love and Liberty
Steve Trinward, Editor