Progressive News Digest - APRIL 7, 2008
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Date: Mon, April 07, 2008
PROGRESSIVE NEWS DIGEST
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Volume IV, Issue #45 Monday, April 07, 2008
Welcome to another edition of Progressive News Digest, still rolling along in
its fourth year (just over the halfway-mark of Year 4, BTW, and with rare
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... enjoy and see you next week! Check the site for constant
updates each day:
NEWS
01 - Troop drawdown likely to stop in July
02 - Campaign 2008: “Soft money” battle brewing
03 - UK: Scuffles during Olympic torch relay
04 - IN: Purdue device wins Rube Goldberg title
05 - Absolut apologizes for expanded Mexico ad
06 - TX: Conflict escalates at polygamist retreat
07 - 2008 PigBook: Republicans are top porkers
08 - Clinton, campaign obfuscate on Obama “electability” remark
09 - Hackers infiltrate Google searches
10 - AZ: State hopes to end-run voters on budget
11 - TN: Voters slow to sign up for identity theft protection
12 - Pakistan: Taliban stones couple to death for “adultery”
13 - Muslim reformer: The Islamic state is a dead end
14 - MA: Three of four towns say no to overrides
15 - AZ: Lawsuit over home sale focuses on neighbor’s odd behavior
16 - Scientist: CDC ignored warnings to Katrina victims on trailers
17 - WI: Student sues school for giving him a zero
18 - SCOTUS declines Capitol Hill search & seizure case
19 - GA: Third-graders sought to hurt teacher
20 - Superdelegates buoy Obama in rough month
21 - HUD Secretary Jackson resigns amid federal probe
22 - Chavez seeks Shangri-La with “socialist cities”
23 - MA: Tobacco funded many researchers
24 - Philanthropists ensure gay community’s future
25 - Gore unveils $300 million climate ads
26 - Researchers: Asteroid destroyed Sodom & Gomorrah
27 - States fight as REAL ID deadline nears
28 - McCain commitment to public financing questioned
29 - Katrina victims may have to repay $$$
30 - Mexico: Cartels training recruits near US
COMMENTARY
31 - Doing harm by “doing good”
32 - The Federal Reserve’s “socialist” agenda
33 - Experience matters
34 - All aboard the McCain Express
35 - What would Jackson think of his party?
36 - The upside [sic] of nationalism
37 - Czar none
38 - Statecraft is not soulcraft
39 - Two liars, no messiah
40 - Fired up and ready for a nomination battle
41 - Shrinking glaciers, rising seas affect food and security
42 - What I mean, not what I say
43 - Population to be sprayed with unregistered pesticide
44 - That which must not be said
45 - The audacity of depression
46 - A submarine to fight al Qaeda’s navy
47 - Rewards without risks for Wall Street
48 - Why doesn’t the 9/11 Commission know about Mukasey’s 9/11 story?
49 - Yoo talkin’ to me?
50 - CO2 reductions overly optimistic
51 - Bush policy: Quick border fence trumps environment
52 - Don’t “pull an Iraq” in Afghanistan
53 - Some preachers encourage dangerous culture of victimhood
54 - A hooker for every senator
55 - Time to break the silence
56 - Facing the truth about jihadist violence
57 - Leaving an occupied country is hard to do
58 - You can avoid being repelled; it’s your choice
59 - The gallant guides for the foreign press
60 - Secular Jews and the “Jewish State”
NEWS
01 - Troop drawdown likely to stop in July
Christian Science Monitor
“The two top US officials in Iraq –- Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker –- are on Capitol Hill this week to report on the Iraq war, but expectations are low that US policy will change much before the end of the year and the arrival of America’s next president. That’s not just because General Petraeus has indicated he will recommend against a further drawdown of US forces beyond the level they are programmed to hit at midsummer. It is also the case because, despite security gains of the past year, Iraq is expected to remain in a fragile state for the rest of President Bush’s term. Several factors could contribute in coming months to unstable conditions on the ground.” (04/07/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0407/p01s01-usmi.html
=====
02 - Campaign 2008: “Soft money” battle brewing
Boston Globe
“Four years ago, wealthy Republicans bankrolled two influential, loosely regulated political organizations that helped President Bush win reelection with TV ads invoking the 2001 terrorist attacks and maligning the Vietnam War record of Democratic nominee John F. Kerry. Now, some of the same GOP donors and operatives are planning a similar independent group to help the party hold onto the White House this fall, according to Republicans familiar with the discussions. The organization is one of several independent groups aligned with both Democrats and Republicans that are busy arming for the general election, in a year that could see record activity by such outside entities.” [editor’s note: And in the process they show McCain’s hypocrisy on this issue in high relief - SAT] (04/06/08)
=====
03 - UK: Scuffles during Olympic torch relay
San Francisco Chronicle
“Police scuffled with protesters as Olympians and dignitaries carried the torch Sunday during a chaotic relay through snowy London. Demonstrators tried to board a relay bus after five-time Olympic gold medalist rower Steve Redgrave launched procession at Wembley Stadium — presaging a number of clashes with police along the torch’s 31-mile journey. In west London, a protester tried to grab the torch out of the hands of a TV presenter, forcing police to briefly stop the procession as officers detained the man. Another demonstrator tried to snuff out the flame with what appeared to be a fire extinguisher. Others in the crowd threw themselves at torchbearers running past in official Beijing 2010 Olympics tracksuits, surrounded by a phalanx of security officials jogging alongside them to protect them — and the torch — from protesters.” (04/06/08)
=====
04 - IN: Purdue device wins Rube Goldberg title
Arizona Republic
“A team of Purdue University students concocted a 156-step recipe to prepare a hamburger to win Saturday’s annual national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. This year’s task was to assemble a burger consisting of no less than one precooked meat patty, two vegetables and two condiments, sandwiched between two bun halves. The victory by the 17-member Purdue Society of Professional Engineers was the team’s third such win in the past four years in the contest, named for the late cartoonist known for his drawings of complicated devices performing simple tasks. Texas A&M University placed second; the University at Buffalo in New York was third.” (04/06/08)
=====
05 - Absolut apologizes for expanded Mexico ad
Fox News
“The Absolut vodka company apologized Saturday for an ad campaign depicting the southwestern U.S. as part of Mexico amid angry calls for a boycott by U.S. consumers. The campaign, which promotes ideal scenarios under the slogan ‘In an Absolut World,’ showed a 1830s-era map when Mexico included California, Texas and other southwestern states. Mexico still resents losing that territory in the 1848 Mexican-American War and the fight for Texas independence. But the ads, which ran only in Mexico and have since ended, came as the United States builds up its border security amid an emotional debate over illegal immigration from their southern neighbor. … The ads sparked heated comment on a half-dozen other Internet sites and blogs.” (04/05/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,346964,00.html
=====
06 - TX: Conflict escalates at polygamist retreat
Raw Story
“Sect leaders at a polygamist compound in West Texas refused Saturday to let authorities search a temple for a teenage girl whose report of abuse led to the raid, and authorities said they were preparing ‘for the worst.’ If no agreement is reached with sect leaders, authorities will forcibly remove the sect’s followers ‘as peaceably as possible,’ Allison Palmer, a prosecutor in Tom Green County, told the San Angelo Standard-Times. Medical workers are being sent ‘in case this were to a go in a way that no one wants,’ Palmer said. Law enforcers are ‘preparing for the worst,’ she said.” [editor’s note: Waco II, or a peaceful solution? The choice is mostly up to the law-dogs - SAT] (04/06/08)
=====
07 - 2008 PigBook: Republicans are top porkers
Citizens Against Government Waste
“Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released the 2008 Congressional Pig Book, the latest installment in an 18-year exposé of pork-barrel spending. … In fiscal year 2008, Congress stuffed 11,610 projects (the second highest total ever) worth $17.2 billion into the 12 appropriations bills. That is a 337 percent increase over the 2,658 projects in fiscal year 2007, and a 30 percent increase over the $13.2 billion total in fiscal year 2007. … For the first time, the names of members of Congress were added to the projects. The top three porkers were members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, beginning with Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) with $892 million; Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) with $469 million; and Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) with $465 million.” (04/02/08)
http://www.cagw.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=11350
=====
08 - Clinton, campaign obfuscate on Obama “electability” remark
Washington Post
“Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared Thursday to deny published reports that she told New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson that Barack Obama cannot win the general election. But her campaign aides later said the New York senator had misunderstood the question. ‘That’s a no,’ she said at a news conference when asked if she had made the comment to Richardson, after saying she wouldn’t discuss details of their discussion. … Spokesman Mo Elleithee later said Clinton had misheard the question and thought she was being pressed anew on whether she’d be willing to disclose what she’d said to Richardson, who eventually endorsed Obama — and not her — for the Democratic presidential nomination. ‘Senator Clinton was simply reiterating what she had just said — she doesn’t talk about private conversations,’ Elleithee said.” (04/04/08)
=====
09 - Hackers infiltrate Google searches
San Francisco Chronicle
“Hackers have turned their attention to search engines in the latest attempt to invade the computers of unsuspecting Web users. In the past few weeks, they have taken advantage of Web pages that incorrectly use JavaScript, a computer language used in features like interactive maps, to infect thousands of sites. The altered sites show up in a Google search, and when clicked on, redirect the user to a malicious program that aims to steal information. One goal is to infect users’ computers, possibly by installing a device to capture keystrokes, and therefore passwords and other sensitive information. Seven out of 10 Websites are vulnerable to these flaws, according to WhiteHat Security in Santa Clara. It’s unclear, however, how widespread the problem is because many users don’t realize they’ve been infected.” (04/02/08)
=====
10 - AZ: State hopes to end-run voters on budget
Arizona Republic
“Staring down a deficit abyss of about $3 billion for this year and next, Arizona lawmakers complain that their efforts to cut spending and balance the budget are stymied by voters. Healthcare for the poor. Spending on schools. Money for clean elections and land conservation. Early-education and health programs for kids, funded by tobacco taxes. Major state programs and big bucks — all off-limits because they are protected by voter-approved initiatives. A measure passed by the House of Representatives would give voters a chance to change that. It would free lawmakers from spending restraints mandated by initiatives whenever the state faces a budget deficit. If approved by the state Senate, the referendum would go on the November ballot and, if passed, could have a dramatic effect on how the state balances future budgets.” [editor’s note: Defying federal unfunded mandates would show backbone, but that would be expecting too much of the “elected ones” - SAT] (04/02/08)
=====
11 - TN: Voters slow to sign up for identity theft protection
Tennessean
“With two weeks left to go, about 15 percent of Metro Nashville voters have signed up for free identity-theft protection following a computer theft from the Davidson County Election Commission. Almost 49,500 voters have signed up for the Debix service, said Janel Lacy, Mayor Karl Dean’s press secretary. Metro announced Jan. 9 that it would cover the cost of the service for one year for any voter who wants it. The deadline is April 16. There were 337,000 registered Metro voters when two laptop computers containing Social Security numbers were stolen from the election commission at Christmastime. Police found the computers Jan. 17. Tests indicated the data had not been viewed or copied.” [editor’s note: As one of those voters, after assessing the situation, I chose not to buy into the fear-mongering - SAT] (04/02/08)
=====
12 - Pakistan: Taliban stones couple to death for “adultery”
Fox News
“A couple found guilty of adultery by an Islamic ‘qazi’ court was stoned to death by Taliban militants in Pakistan’s northwest border region, according to a report in Dawn, Pakistan’s English-language newspaper. The execution, which reportedly took place Monday, is the first by stoning reported in the region, which borders Afghanistan. ‘Qazi’ courts, which are allowed to administer Islamic law outside the Pakistani judicial system, traditionally have ordered execution by firing squad in cases of adultery. The married woman, identified as Shano, had allegedly eloped on March 15 with Daulat Khan Malikdeenkhel. A spokesman for the Taliban said a complaint had been received from the woman’s family that she had been abducted by Daulat Khan. They later changed the report to say she had run away with him.” [editor’s note: “quasi” court is right, altho it compares to some forms of “justice” administered in this land! - SAT] (04/02/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,345088,00.html
=====
13 - Muslim reformer: The Islamic state is a dead end
Christian Science Monitor
“Abdullahi Ahmed an-Naim has seen what can happen to an Islamic reformer: His mentor was executed in 1985 in Sudan; he himself had to flee the country. Still, the self-described ‘Muslim heretic’ has no trouble traveling the Islamic world spreading his controversial message: There is no such thing as an Islamic state. A secular state and human rights are essential for all societies so that Muslims and others can practice their faith freely, he tells his co-religionists. ‘My motivation is in fact about being an honest, true-to-myself Muslim, rather than someone complying with state dictates,’ says Mr. Naim, a professor of law at Emory University in Atlanta since 1999. ‘I need the state to be neutral about religious doctrine so that I can be the Muslim I choose to be.’ So committed is this scholar to opening the door to free debate within his faith that he helped organize the first ‘Muslim Heretics Conference’ in Atlanta over the weekend.” (04/02/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0402/p01s01-usgn.html
=====
14 - MA: Three of four towns say no to overrides
Boston Globe
“Faced with a sagging economy, voters in three of four towns were in no mood yesterday to approve property tax increases. Voters in the blue-collar towns of Holbrook and Chelmsford along with well-to-do Harvard all rejected property tax hikes. However, Randolph voters approved a multimillion-dollar infusion for its troubled school system, which is at risk of a state takeover. The votes were among the first key tests as Massachusetts enters a season of overrides, municipal budget cuts, and battles on Beacon Hill over spending and taxes. The state is facing a $1.3 billion budget deficit, and the grim news is rippling down to cities and towns, not only in the form of a lower-than-expected increase in local aid, but in falling property values and diminishing excise tax receipts for towns.” (04/02/08)
=====
15 - AZ: Lawsuit over home sale focuses on neighbor’s odd behavior
Arizona Republic
“Do you have to disclose the fact that your neighbor is disruptive before selling your house? That is the subject of a case working its way through Maricopa County Superior Court for the past year. Glenn Melton thought he was buying the American dream for his daughter. What he got was a neighbor who launches into obscene tirades at any hour. So Melton sued the man who sold him the house. At issue is whether the neighbor’s behavior constitutes a nuisance that should have been noted on the ‘residential seller’s property-disclosure statement’ that every home seller has to fill out.” (04/01/08)
=====
16 - Scientist: CDC ignored warnings to Katrina victims on trailers
Tennessean
“A federal scientist said Tuesday his bosses ignored pleas to alert Gulf Coast hurricane victims earlier about severe health risks from formaldehyde in government-issued trailers and once told him not to write e-mails about his concerns. Exposure to the chemical has become a concern with a new disaster as FEMA has begun delivering some affected mobile homes to victims of February’s fatal storms in Arkansas and Tennessee. Christopher De Rosa, who until recently was one of the government’s top toxicologists, told a congressional panel that he repeatedly raised concerns early last year that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was not adequately informing the public of the hazard, even as symptoms of dangerous exposure were surfacing. As a result, tens of thousands of families displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita remained in the trailers without full knowledge of the risks, he said.” (04/01/08)te
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17 - WI: Student sues school for giving him a zero
Fox News
“A Tomah High School student has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his art teacher censored his drawing because it featured a cross and a biblical reference. The lawsuit alleges other students were allowed to draw ‘demonic’ images and asks a judge to declare a class policy prohibiting religion in art unconstitutional. ‘We hear so much today about tolerance,’ said David Cortman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal advocacy group representing the student. ‘But where is the tolerance for religious beliefs? The whole purpose of art is to reflect your own personal experience. To tell a student his religious beliefs can legally be censored sends the wrong message.’ Tomah School District Business Manager Greg Gaarder said the district hadn’t seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.” (04/01/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344350,00.html
=====
18 - SCOTUS declines Capitol Hill search & seizure case
Christian Science Monitor
“The US Supreme Court has declined to take up a case examining whether federal agents investigating corruption in Congress can seize thousands of documents from a lawmaker’s office without violating the Constitution’s speech or debate clause. On Monday, the high court said it would not hear an appeal of a case involving the bribery investigation of Rep. William Jefferson (D) of Louisiana. At issue was whether US agents violated a constitutional safeguard when they searched Mr. Jefferson’s office in May 2006, and seized 47,000 pages of documents — including papers related to the congressman’s legislative work. The high court’s refusal to hear the case means that an August 2007 decision by a federal appeals court panel in Washington will remain in place. The appeals court ruled that federal agents violated the speech or debate clause when they conducted a wide-ranging search of the congressman’s Capitol Hill office.” (04/01/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0401/p25s01-usju.html
=====
19 - GA: Third-graders sought to hurt teacher
San Francisco Chronicle
“A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday. The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said. ‘We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely,’ Tanner said. ‘We feel like if they weren’t interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don’t know.’ The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said. A prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.” (04/01/08)
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20 - Superdelegates buoy Obama in rough month
Boston Globe
“Throughout the Democratic primary race, Barack Obama has cast himself as an underdog trying to wrest the nomination from the grip of the party establishment, which he contends is partial to rival Hillary Clinton. But it is Obama, a first-term Illinois senator running against the conventions of Washington, who is increasingly benefiting from institutional support — bolstering his campaign during a rough month when he lost two key primaries and faced questions about his spiritual mentor.” (04/01/08)
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21 - HUD Secretary Jackson resigns amid federal probe
Bloomberg News
“U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson quit following calls by lawmakers for him to step down amid a federal criminal probe into contracts the agency awarded. ‘There comes a time when one must attend more diligently to personal and family matters,’ Jackson, reading from a statement, told reporters in Washington today. ‘Now is such a time for me.’ His resignation takes effect April 18. His departure, without an immediate replacement, comes as the Bush administration is working on measures to ease the housing crisis. Jackson was an advocate for an industry-led program to encourage lenders to voluntarily refinance troubled loans rather than using federal funds to tackle the mortgage crisis.” (03/31/08)
=====
22 - Chavez seeks Shangri-La with “socialist cities”
Christian Science Monitor
“Tucked in the mountains in a patch of land called Camino de los Indios just outside Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, up a treacherous dirt road that only a four-wheel-drive vehicle would dare, leftist President Hugo Chavez is building a new metropolis from scratch. To be called Caribia, it’s the first of about a dozen ’socialist cities’ that is intended as a utopia of sorts, where all residents will participate in community affairs and grow crops such as carrots and coffee on patches of countryside that will surround their homes. But to get there, you must first pass one of the swankiest shopping malls in Latin America. A Mercedez Benz SUV zooms by in a gray blur.” [editor’s note: This was not labeled as an April Fool’s piece - SAT] (04/01/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0401/p04s01-woam.html
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23 - MA: Tobacco funded many researchers
Boston Globe
“The nation’s largest cigarette maker has paid for scientific research at four Massachusetts universities since 2000, a practice that critics of the tobacco industry liken to the Mafia underwriting crime fighting. ‘Taking money from the tobacco industry to conduct scientific research is like the DA taking money from the Mafia to conduct investigations of crime,’ said Gregory Connolly, a Harvard School of Public Health professor and former director of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program. Philip Morris USA, which makes Marlboro and other top-selling cigarette lines, gave grants to scientists at Boston University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Massachusetts, company spokesman David M. Sylvia said Friday. The research supported by the company touched on conditions such as heart disease and cancer that are linked to smoking. The grants given by the Philip Morris External Research Program were not used to develop new tobacco pr
oducts or refine existing brands, but they may have helped the company rehabilitate its public image.” (03/31/08)
=====
24 - Philanthropists ensure gay community’s future
San Francisco Chronicle
“On a recent Thursday morning, Joseph Rosenthal, 77, drove from his barn-red, four-story house on Buena Vista Terrace to a lawyer’s office in the Castro, where he quietly transferred a substantial part of his estate to the endowment fund of the Horizon Foundation, a grant-giving organization for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. ‘I have almost no family living at this time,’ said Rosenthal, a retired librarian. ‘Certainly, not having children prompts one to consider other options, such as supporting charitable organizations in the area of my particular interest.’ The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement has traditionally depended on smaller, grassroots donations for specific causes. But more aging philanthropists like Rosenthal, whose generation was the first to be ‘out,’ are making end-of-life gifts to help secure the future of the community.” (03/31/08)
=====
25 - Gore unveils $300 million climate ads
Guardian [UK]
“Al Gore, elevated to almost prophetic status for his campaign against global warming, on Sunday night unveiled a new $300m advertising blitz intended to force a debate on climate change during the presidential elections. The Nobel laureate, who appeared with his wife, Tipper, on the CBS program 60 Minutes to roll out the effort, is to donate a share of his personal fortune to the campaign. The couple told 60 Minutes that they would donate his Nobel prize money as well as a matching sum in addition to their profits from the book and the movie of An Inconvenient Truth. The movie brought the issue of global warming home to millions of Americans, as well as winning Gore an Oscar. In this latest campaign, Gore said he hopes to persuade Americans that protecting the planet transcends the usual political divisions.” (03/31/08)
=====
26 - Researchers: Asteroid destroyed Sodom & Gomorrah
Fox News
“Researchers who cracked the cuneiform symbols on the Planisphere tablet believe that it recorded an asteroid thought to have been more than half a mile across. The tablet, found by Henry Layard in the remains of the library in the royal place at Nineveh in the mid-19th century, is thought to be a 700 B.C. copy of notes made by a Sumerian astronomer watching the night sky. He referred to the asteroid as a ‘white stone bowl approaching’ and recorded it as it ‘vigorously swept along.’ Using computers to recreate the night sky thousands of years ago, scientists have pinpointed his sighting to shortly before dawn on June 29 in the year 3123 B.C.” [editor’s note: Of course, at the time it was easier to blame it on a “vengeful God,” thereby providing many generations to come with hatespeech-fodder - SAT] (03/31/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343674,00.html
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27 - States fight as REAL ID deadline nears
Christian Science Monitor
“Frustrated by unfunded federal mandates, a number of states are revolting. The latest case in point: stiff resistance to REAL ID, a controversial post-9/11 law that aims to make driver’s licenses more secure [sic]. The Department of Homeland Security set Monday as the deadline for states to get an extension for implementing REAL ID. Miss this deadline, DHS warned resistant states, and come May, your residents won’t be allowed to board planes with their current driver’s licenses. Montana is one state that’s been opposed to the DHS requirements. Rather than request an extension, it sent DHS a letter explaining what it’s already doing to strengthen licenses. Still, DHS responded on March 21 by granting an extension. New Hampshire, another REAL ID holdout, took a similar path with DHS and also got an unasked-for extension last week.” [editor’s note: If this were truly about “making driver’s licenses more secure,” it would not be receiving nearly the opposition it is getting from us ci
vil libertarians - SAT] (03/31/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0331/p03s03-uspo.html
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28 - McCain commitment to public financing questioned
Boston Globe
“Senator John McCain has retreated from his longtime commitment to public financing of campaigns since he started planning his 2008 bid for the presidency, according to nonpartisan advocates who had hoped McCain would be a strong voice for reform during the most expensive presidential campaign in history. McCain, who angered conservatives when he coauthored a bipartisan law aimed at taking big money out of politics, in 2003 cosponsored legislation to expand the federal matching system to help fund presidential campaigns, but failed to add his name to similar measures in 2006 and 2007. And while McCain once supported a law in his home state of Arizona providing full public financing of campaigns, he now says he opposes that idea at the federal level.” [editor’s note: Hypocrisy, anyone? After burdening all other candidates with his “campaign reform” bill, Old John doesn’t wanna polay by those rules. Oh, and “screw BCRA” too! - SAT] (03/30/08)
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29 - Katrina victims may have to repay $$$
Raw Story
“Imagine that your home was reduced to mold-covered wood framing by Hurricane Katrina. Desperate for money to rebuild, you engage in a frustrating bureaucratic process, and after months of living in a government provided-trailer that gives off formaldehyde fumes you finally win a federal grant. Then a collector announces that you have to pay back thousands of dollars. Thousands of Katrina victims may be in the same boat. A private contractor under investigation for the compensation it received to run the Road Home grant program for Katrina victims says that in the rush to deliver aid to homeowners in need some people got too much. Now it wants to hire a separate company to collect millions in grant overpayments.” (03/29/08)
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30 - Mexico: Cartels training recruits near US
Arizona Republic
“The ranch near this border community is isolated, desolate and laced by arroyos — an ideal place, experts say, for training drug-cartel assassins. Mexican drug cartels have conducted military-style training camps in at least six such locations in northern Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon states, some within a few miles of the Texas border, according to U.S. and Mexican authorities and the printed testimony of five protected witnesses who were trained in the camps. The camps near the Texas border and at other locations in Mexico are used to train cartel recruits, ranging from Mexican army deserters to American teenagers, who then carry out killings and other cartel assignments on both sides of the border, authorities say.” (03/30/08)
COMMENTARY
31 - Doing harm by “doing good”
Orange County Register
Robert J. Samuelson
“In politics, it is imperative to be seen as ‘doing good.’ The present housing crisis is a case in point, as Congress now seems increasingly intent on aiding millions of homeowners who can’t easily pay their mortgages and may face foreclosure. This sort of rescue looks good, even though it is a bad idea and might perversely delay the housing recovery. No reasonable person takes pleasure from seeing people lose their homes, and Congress is understandably upset. … That’s why Senate leaders agreed last week on a bipartisan bill containing an amalgam of ideas aimed at boosting demand for housing and helping homeowners saddled with subprime mortgages avoid foreclosure.” (04/06/08)
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32 - The Federal Reserve’s “socialist” agenda
Salon
Andrew Leonard
“How many times in his career do you suppose Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been accused of carrying out an insidious socialist agenda? My bet is Thursday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing investigating the Bear-Stearns ‘rescue’ was the first.” (04/03/08)
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33 - Experience matters
Fox News
Susan Estrich
“Wrong track. The headline on Friday morning’s New York Times says it all: ‘81% in Poll Say Nation Is Headed on Wrong Track.’ It’s the economy, stupid, as James Carville so famously once said. It usually is. And when it comes to the economy, pessimism is in the air. The way the Times puts it, the mood in America has ‘darkened’ in recent months, to the point that we’re as bleak as we’ve been about our future since they started asking this question on polls in the early ‘90’s. When you’re doing politics, you watch these ‘right track-wrong track’ numbers like a hawk.” (04/06/08)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,347031,00.html
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34 - All aboard the McCain Express
The Nation
Rick Perlstein
“Back when the Republican presidential race was still competitive, the insults against John McCain from leading conservative voices were so extravagant they almost constituted a new literary genre. Rush Limbaugh said McCain threatened ‘the American way of life as we’ve always known it.’ McCain’s Senate colleague Thad Cochran said, ‘The thought of him as President sends a cold chill down my spine.’ Ann Coulter charged the most unforgivable sin of all: McCain was, in fact, ‘a Democrat.’ Coulter’s employer, Fox News, seconded the smear on February 7 by printing the words ‘John McCain (D-AZ)’ under footage of the Arizona Republican.” [editor’s note: If only it were McCain’s lack of consistent “conservatism” that damned him; no mention here of his basic authoritarian (anti-liberty) position on nearly every issue! - SAT] (04/04/08)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080421/perlstein
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35 - What would Jackson think of his party?
Tennessean
US Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)
“Andrew Jackson, the father of the modern Democratic Party and considered by many to be the first popularly elected president of the United States, once wrote that ‘the President is the direct representative of the American people’ and is ‘elected by the people and responsible to them.’ These are tumultuous times within the Democratic Party, and one cannot help but wonder what the champion of the populist ideals of ‘Jacksonian Democracy’ might think of the attenuated presidential nomination process that currently exists. In 1982, Democratic Party leaders negotiated a presidential nomination system that included unpledged party leaders and elected officials, commonly known as ’superdelegates.’ The idea that spurred then-DNC Chairman Chuck Manatt to espouse superdelegates was to overlay the nomination process with the political wisdom of party elders in the case that exigent circumstances required political considerations contrary to earlier popular votes.” (03/31/08)
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36 - The upside [sic] of nationalism
In These Times
David Sirota
“You don’t need to listen to presidential speeches or watch party attack ads to know that full-throated nationalism is now lodged in the ideological center of American politics. Look at social networking expert Valdis Krebs’ January chart to see what we -— the royal We —- are reading. Krebs amassed data from Amazon.com, examining what other titles buyers of conservative and liberal political books purchased in 2007. Most of this ‘also bought’ data showed buyers of one liberal book buying other liberal books—and conservatives doing the same on their side. Krebs’ chart, which draws a line connecting each ‘also bought’ book, looks like a dumbbell, with two big clusters on the right and left—a cliché of the media’s ‘polarized America’ meme. However, right in the middle are two books that both liberals and conservatives purchased: War on the Middle Class and Independents Day by Lou Dobbs, America’s most famous nationalist.” [editor’s note: Mr. Sirota goes on to offer a theory on how jin
goism may benefit “progressive” (populist) interests … DUH! But not much good news for liberty here - SAT] (04/04/08)
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3577/the_upside_of_nationalism/
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37 - Czar none
FreedomWorks
Dick Armey
“The genius of the American experiment is the clear line our Constitution draws between public and private lives. The government should be limited in its power and reach, especially when it comes to raising our families. As the old saying goes, a man’s home is his castle. That’s why it is so surprising to learn that a group of family advocates feels differently. Some so-called social conservatives, like Tony Perkins, actually think that the federal government needs to get more involved in our family life.” (04/04/08)
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38 - Statecraft is not soulcraft
Foundation for Economic Education
Sheldon Richman
“I get nervous when presidential candidates — or their surrogates — take up subjects that are clearly none of their business. Actually, most of what they talk about is none of their business. But some things are so far over the line that hearing politicians discuss them gives me the creeps. Herbert Spencer, where are you when we need you?” (04/04/08)
http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=1994
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39 - Two liars, no messiah
Center For Individual Freedom
staff
“Hillary’s a liar; Obama’s the Messiah. That is, at least, one of the message templates the media are using to baste the tough, aging, mold-growing political turkey that has become the contest for the presidency. Actually, both are liars, and neither seems to have the ‘experience’ not to get caught.” (04/03/08)
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40 - Fired up and ready for a nomination battle
Boston Globe
Joan Vennochi
“In Massachusetts, prominent Hillary Clinton supporters are fired up and ready to go after prominent Barack Obama supporters. Last week, a group of Democratic women who support Clinton rallied in front of the State House. They want the state’s superdelegates — including Governor Deval Patrick and Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry — to support primary revotes in Michigan and Florida. The men — all Obama supporters — are less than eager to take up their request. The women, lead by Senate President Therese Murray, have Clinton’s self-interest on their side. But they also have principle.” (04/06/08)
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41 - Shrinking glaciers, rising seas affect food and security
AlterNet
Brad Knickerbocker
“It’s becoming clear now that climate change may be altering the way people and governments think about water. The UN reported that the world’s glaciers are melting at ‘an alarming rate.’ Like reservoirs, glaciers store water and then release it at predictable rates, around which humans have formed communities and built economies.” (04/02/08)
http://www.alternet.org/water/81110/
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42 - What I mean, not what I say
Slate
John Dickerson
“When ABC reported the scoop that Hillary Clinton told Bill Richardson that Barack Obama couldn’t win in the general election, I thought it was a good nugget but not surprising. It’s not as if she’d previously said she’d be a better nominee because Obama is a bad dancer. The Clinton campaign has been arguing that Obama can’t win in the general election for months. … But as thoroughly obvious as the Clinton remark is, it’s the kind of plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face statement that candidates are never supposed to actually make out loud. They’ll walk you up to the idea. They’ll even sound out the vowels to help you say it yourself, but in primary season, no one is supposed to actually say, ‘He can’t win’ or ‘He doesn’t have the credentials to be commander in chief.’ Her campaign will suggest that your sleeping children could be extinguished in their beds if Obama is elected, but when Clinton is asked at a debate if Obama is not ready to be president, she’ll say that’s for the voters t
o decide.” (04/03/08)
http://www.slate.com/id/2188148/
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43 - Population to be sprayed with unregistered pesticide
Freedom's Phoenix
Barbara Peterson
“The people living in the Bay area of California are about to be sprayed with a new pesticide not registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in a pre-emptive strike against a perceived threat from the Light Brown Apple Moth.” (04/03/08)
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Feature-Article.htm?InfoNo=031990
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44 - That which must not be said
The New Republic
Eric Rauchway
“One could look at the Pew surveys and National Election Studies and conclude that Americans may be piecemeal liberals, but they are unready for a fully joined-up story of liberalism, let alone an ideology. And this is clearly what the Clinton campaign has decided. Yet even if we don’t recover the word ‘liberal’ — Obama himself is much fonder of ‘progressive’ — there’s no question that the old liberal history still fires the imaginations of Americans of all classes, creeds, and colors, even perhaps those jaded and scarred by disappointment.” (04/04/08)
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45 - The audacity of depression
CounterPunch
Joe Bageant
“But the reality is that totalitarian society (dubbed ‘Totoland’ in my household in a grim effort toward mockery: Dear Dorothy, fuck you and your little dog too! Signed, Bill Gates) is already here. And most of the planet accepts that as long as nobody next door is getting beheaded and at least some grains of corn keep dropping out of that ATM machine. Such is the belief in technology’s supposed production efficiency in dealing with the supply and demand problems of this world’s six billion. That belief will remain because the technology will remain. Until it collapses along with the corporate aristocracy that make and own it. Otherwise, it cannot be dismantled without dismantling the world as we have made it and we cannot undo our own evolutionary species trajectory. Regardless of what the New Agers and Earth worshipping goddess cultists believe, we cannot haul six billion people back into pre-technology or support them in any natural sustainable fashion. Most of the world’s commo
n people accept this, however unconsciously, thus the lack of protests and counter efforts on any meaningful scale.” (04/03/08)
http://counterpunch.org/bageant04032008.html
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46 - A submarine to fight al Qaeda’s navy
TruthDig
Robert Scheer
“I know eyes glaze when government budgets are discussed, but keep in mind that defense spending accounts for more than half of all the federal government’s discretionary spending. In short, funding for all the other stuff we argue about — science research, education, Arabic translators, insuring uninsured children — is minor compared to the waste on these military boondoggles that go unexamined. Yet nothing else the federal government does involves such waste because we are talking about weapons systems shrouded in secrecy and protected from unwelcome scrutiny by the Teflon coating of ‘national defense.’” (04/01/08)
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47 - Rewards without risks for Wall Street
The American Prospect
Robert B. Reich
“I spent all night trying to figure out how much I owe in taxes. I also figured out something else. Some of the dollars I’m sending to Washington are now being used to backstop Wall Street investment bankers, hedge fund and private equity managers, and anybody else associated with a borrower that’s too big to fail. The reason they’re too big to fail is they’ve borrowed so much from me and from you — from our pension funds and money-market funds — that if they went bust, our savings would disappear. Even the danger of them going bust might make us so anxious we’d demand our money, which would close down the entire financial system. … The tax code also rewards them for borrowing rather than investing, by letting them deduct interest payments on the money they borrow. Wall Street is leveraged to the hilt in part because the Street has got a fat tax break for taking on debt.” [editor’s note: As usual, “corporate welfare” distorts all semblance of “market forces” … at everyone else’s ex
pense! - SAT] (04/02/08)
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48 - Why doesn’t the 9/11 Commission know about Mukasey’s 9/11 story?
Salon
Glenn Greenwald
“If the Attorney General of the United States, out of the blue, makes an extraordinary and new assertion in a public speech about an easy opportunity the Bush administration had to detect those attacks — an opportunity he claims was lost because of eavesdropping laws — Hamilton ought to say whether the Commission was ever told about this incident and/or whether Mukasey is telling the truth. Preventing high government officials from lying about the 9/11 attacks or exposing concealment of key 9/11 facts is his obligation as Vice Chairman of the Commission. Some type of comment from 9/11 Commission officials on Mukasey’s claims is vital for generating further attention to this story and for compelling Mukasey to account for what he said.” (04/03/08)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/04/03/mukasey/
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49 - Yoo talkin’ to me?
Slate
Dahlia Lithwick
“1) Name the lawyer in the Bush administration who was sanctioned, sacked, or prosecuted for anything related to the firing of nine U.S. attorneys last spring. 2) How about the attorney fired for allowing the destruction of thousands of White House e-mails or the CIA torture tapes? 3) The guy dismissed after advocating for warrantless wiretapping in violation of the FISA law? 4) Disciplined for gross civil rights violations through the misuse of National Security Letters? Can’t think of anyone? Me neither. Someday, when we look back at the Bush administration’s ‘war on terror,’ we’ll be unable to point to the ‘bad guys’ because they will turn out to be a bunch of attorneys in starched white button-downs, using plausible-sounding legal analysis to beat precedent and statute and treatise from ploughshares into swords. And not one of them will be held to account.” (04/02/08)
http://www.slate.com/id/2188008/
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50 - CO2 reductions overly optimistic
Mother Jones
Julia Whitty
“Reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide over the coming century will be more challenging than society has been led to believe. This according to an important commentary, called ‘Dangerous Assumptions,’ appearing in the journal Nature, and summarized in a press release from the National Science Foundation. The authors, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, and McGill University in Montreal, write that the technological challenges of reducing CO2 emissions have been significantly underestimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel in for its Climate Change 2007 reports.” (04/03/08)
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51 - Bush policy: Quick border fence trumps environment
AlterNet
Liliana Segura
“Chertoff’s response to environmentalists has been to turn around and say that, in fact, it is illegal immigration that is bad for the environment. ‘I’ve seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas,’ Chertoff said last fall. ‘And believe me, that is the worst thing you can do to the environment.’Current controversy aside, the border ‘fence’ is one of those hairbrained schemes that might be funny if it weren’t so cynical and racist.” (04/03/08)
http://www.alternet.org/rights/81154/
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52 - Don’t “pull an Iraq” in Afghanistan
Christian Science Monitor
Benjamin H. Friedman
“This week at a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania American officials asked Europeans to send more troops to the war in Afghanistan. Leaders in both the Democrat and Republican parties agree that higher troop levels and a deeper commitment to state-building are the path to victory in Afghanistan. But both sides are wrong, and Iraq shows why. When it comes to military occupations, Iraq reveals that bigger isn’t always better. The heavy United States troop presence at the start of the occupation helped spark the insurgency. New tactics, militia cease-fires, and resettlement moved Iraqis out of harm’s way and reduced violence in Iraq in recent months. The surge in troop numbers mattered less than these factors. But what US involvement in Iraq principally demonstrates is the limitation of American military power in reordering foreign societies.” (04/03/08)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0403/p09s01-coop.html
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53 - Some preachers encourage dangerous culture of victimhood
Tennessean
Tim Alexander
“As a pastor, I am saddened by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s wrong words. … Pulpits are filled with preachers who believe that they are speaking truth to the entrenched powers of the world. What they are actually doing is pandering. It is unseemly, not to mention unbiblical, for shepherds to encourage a culture of victimhood among their sheep. A victim is a dangerous person, for a victim rarely calibrates retaliation against reason. Jesus did not encourage victimhood. Jesus said persecution on account of his name was inevitable. He challenged his followers to repay evil with kindness, to turn the other cheek, to go the second mile and, above all, to demonstrate living faith in earnest discipleship. Christians were not to expect the world to genuflect in their direction. Respect from the world was to come with the purposeful life and the thoughtful answer.” (04/02/08)
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54 - A hooker for every senator
San Francisco Chronicle
Mark Morford
“I want a smart, slutty senator. I want an effective, confident, sex-positive congressman or woman who, if asked, speaks openly and blamelessly and even happily about her proclivities, with a wink and a smile and maybe a bit of cleavage before Labor Day. Married, single, somewhere in between? Doesn’t matter. And, dare I say it, I want president who not only freely discusses and shrugs off his or her loves and sexual desires and even affairs, but dares to enjoy sex and thrives because of it and makes his behavior a part of his perspective and attitude on life and love and leadership and the general sticky messy beautiful evolution of the human soul. Is that too much to ask?” (04/02/08)
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55 - Time to break the silence
The Nation
Katrina vanden Heuvel
“Since 1865, when it was founded by Northern abolitionists, The Nation has always believed in the liberating power of truth, of conviction, of conscience, and of fighting for causes lost and found. And like our founders, the magazine has an abiding belief that there is no force so potent in politics as a moral issue. One of the great moral figures of our country’s history, Martin Luther King Jr. was a correspondent for The Nation — traveling the South in the early 1960s and filing annual dispatches for the magazine on the state of civil rights. In 1967, Dr. King traveled to Los Angeles … to give the speech that would align the armies of the Civil Rights Movement with the rapidly expanding national protest against the Vietnam War. It was at this gathering, before an overflow crowd at the Beverly Hills Hilton on February 25, that Dr. King first came out, courageously, eloquently and unequivocally , against the war. Two months later, on April 4th, King delivered his famous antiwar ser
mon at Riverside Church in New York City.” (04/02/08)
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=305672
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56 - Facing the truth about jihadist violence
Boston Globe
Jeff Jacoby
“The global jihad is unpleasant. Consequently Fitna, the controversial new film about the Koran and jihadist violence produced by the Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, is also unpleasant. Parts of it are graphic and violent, and you might find it difficult to watch. But watch it you should, if only to remind yourself of two things the media are generally too intimidated or politically correct to dwell on: Jihadists are waging a bloody and barbaric war, and they are waging it with explicit reference to their religion. Wilders’s 16-minute film intersperses quotations from the Koran with scenes of Islamist atrocities, such as the Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Madrid, the beheading of Nick Berg, and the ‘honor killing’ of women. To drive home the point that such horrors are committed in the name of Islam by fervent Muslims, Fitna includes footage of Islamic preachers exhorting their followers to crush the infidels.” [editor’s note: Having seen the film in question, we can only no
te that a similar flick might have been made about America’s religious rightists, almost as disturbing in content, and with the same sort of “scripture citation” - SAT] (04/02/08)
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57 - Leaving an occupied country is hard to do
The New Republic
Ilan Goldenberg
“What — a thoughtful plan for Iraq? Written by aspiring Democratic House members? Campaigning in highly competitive districts? Believe it. Led by Darcy Burner, who’s gunning to represent Washington’s eighth district, ten Congressional challengers recently released a 36-page proposal called, simply, ‘”A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.’ More than 40 candidates have now signed on to the document, which is a cross between a think tank report and a political platform.” (04/02/08)
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58 - You can avoid being repelled; it’s your choice
Nolan Chart
Jahfre Fire Eater
“Where are all the fun, irreverent, politically incorrect, non-religious, non-evangelical, non-conspiracy oriented, limited government, pro-choice, peace and prosperity advocating, free market Republicans? Well, I mean, I know where I am, but where are you? Have we met? I’ll be the one looking around during the prayers and rolling my eyes about conspiracy evidence and fudging the Pledge of Allegiance, literally.” (04/01/08)
http://www.nolanchart.com/article3338.html
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59 - The gallant guides for the foreign press
Boston Globe
H.D.S. Greenway
“The world got to know of Dith Pran, who died of cancer Sunday, through the power of movies, specifically The Killing Fields, in which he was played by Haing Ngor, who won an Oscar for his performance. I first got to know Pran — in Cambodia the first name often comes last — when he was a receptionist behind the desk of a hotel just outside the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat. That was more than 40 years ago when Cambodia was at peace while the war raged throughout the rest of what was once French Indochina. … Pran arranged evening elephant-back rides to a high hill overlooking the Tonle Sap, Cambodia’s great inland sea. But the ides of March 1970, saw a coup that deposed Cambodia’s eccentric ruler, Norodom Sihanouk. The war he had so assiduously maneuvered to avoid overwhelmed Cambodia with a fierceness that would eventually overshadow Vietnam in cruelty and access.” (04/01/08)
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60 - Secular Jews and the “Jewish State”
In These Times
Ralph Seliger
“American Jews remain, along with African Americans, the most left-leaning ethnic community in the country. While many support the State of Israel uncritically, some Jews express their concern for Israel’s welfare by joining organizations and activities that challenge certain policies and promote social change. Last November, ‘The Other Israel Film Festival: Images of Arab Citizens of Israel’ was inaugurated in a partnership with Manhattan’s Jewish Community Center and several other institutions. In January 2008, Meretz USA, a progressive Zionist group that I work with, along with the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace (Brit Tzedek v’Shalom), focused their annual ‘Israel Symposium’ on Israeli Arabs, who make up 20 percent of Israel’s population.” (04/01/08)
Peace, Love and Liberty
Steve Trinward, Editor