Sam Smith - America’s Silent Collapse

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/20/americas-silent-collapse/

December 20, 2011

by SAM SMITH

One of the curiosities of being chronically ahead of the mainstream is that periodically you suddenly discover that you’re not. For example, over the past decade I’ve putting forth the notion, seemingly bizarre to many, that the First American Republic was over and that we had moved into a post constitutional adhocracy. Lately, however, the idea seems to be becoming increasingly mundane, almost like saying, “Geez, that was a lot of rain we had.”

But when did it shift from being a radical thought to becoming so inevitable? I don’t remember people debating it on corporate TV, writing about it in the NY Times, arguing it in a campaign speech, or analyzing it in a professorial paper. It just happened. The most important development in our nation’s history since the Civil War crept into the room like a shy new guest. And somewhere in between, radical conjecture transformed itself into the norm.

We have moved into a time in which the Bill of Rights is being routinely trashed, the true unemployment rate is higher than anything we’ve seen since the thirties, our corporations are out of control, no one in power seems to care about climate change, and the only presidential candidate in either major party who won’t send you to Gitmo without an indictment and trial is Ron Paul.

What’s critical about this is not just that the new reality has been recognized but that it has been accepted as inevitable without debate, anger, or strong protest.

Some years ago I wrote about such a time:

Click to read more ...

Gary Younge - The US is Blind to the Price of War That is Still Being Borne by the Iraqi People

Published on Monday, December 19, 2011 by the Guardian/UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/18/us-blind-price-paid-iraqis

by Gary Younge

On 19 November 2005 a US marine squad was struck by a roadside bomb in Haditha, in Iraq's Anbar province, killing one soldier and seriously injuring two others. According to civilians they then went on the rampage, slaughtering 24 people. They included a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair and a three-year-old child. It was a massacre. "I think they were just blinded by hate … and they just lost control," said James Crossan, one of the injured marines.

When he heard the news, Major General Steve Johnson, the American commander in Anbar province at the time, saw no cause for further examination. "It happened all the time … throughout the whole country. So you know, maybe, if I was sitting here [in Virginia] and heard that 15 civilians were killed I would have been surprised and shocked and done more to look into it. But at that point in time I felt that it was just a cost of doing business on that particular engagement."

Eight soldiers were originally charged with the atrocity. Charges against six were dropped, one was acquitted and the other is awaiting trial. We know this because a New York Times reporter found documents from the US military's internal investigation in a rubbish dump near Baghdad. An attendant was using them to make a fire to cook smoked carp for dinner.

Click to read more ...

Thomas Edsall - The Trouble With That Revolving Door

Published on Monday, December 19, 2011 by the New York Times

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/the-trouble-with-that-revolving-door/

by Thomas Edsall

Last week, an inside-the-Beltway newsletter, First Street, published a unique top-ten list. It reveals which former members of Congress are among the most important Washington lobbyists.

The first four on the list — Senator John Breaux, of Louisiana (who served in Congress from 1972 to 2005), Representative Tom Downey, of New York (1974 to 1993), Representative Victor Fazio, of California (1979 to 1999), and former Democratic House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (1977 to 2005) – are all members of the Democratic Party, which historically has represented the bottom half of the income distribution.

These former Democratic members of the House and Senate are on the cutting edge of a revolution in the political culture of the nation’s capitol. Without attracting the attention of the general public, the career path of retired legislators has transformed the thinking of those still in Congress, Democrat and Republican alike.

When Washington politicians leave office, many, if not most, no longer return home. Instead, they head straight to the lucrative world of K Street, the nation’s lobbying corridor, which runs through the heart of Washington. A former member of the House or Senate with even modest seniority can now expect to walk into a job paying up to $1 million or more a year – and much more when bonuses are paid for bringing in new clients.

Click to read more ...

ScienceDaily - Why Do People Defend Unjust, Inept, and Corrupt Systems?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111212153157.htm

ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2011) — Why do we stick up for a system or institution we live in -- a government, company, or marriage -- even when anyone else can see it is failing miserably? Why do we resist change even when the system is corrupt or unjust? A new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, illuminates the conditions under which we're motivated to defend the status quo -- a process called "system justification."

System justification isn't the same as acquiescence, explains Aaron C. Kay, a psychologist at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, who co-authored the paper with University of Waterloo graduate student Justin Friesen. "It's pro-active. When someone comes to justify the status quo, they also come to see it as what should be."

Reviewing laboratory and cross-national studies, the paper illuminates four situations that foster system justification: system threat, system dependence, system inescapability, and low personal control.

Click to read more ...

Scott Thill - The Fracking Industry Has Bought Off Congress: Here Are the Worst Offenders

By Scott Thill, AlterNet

Posted on December 16, 2011, Printed on December 18, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153467/the_fracking_industry_has_bought_off_congress%3A_here_are_the_worst_offenders

Environmentalists and other well-adjusted citizens of Earth, I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that, thanks to illuminating documentaries like Josh Fox's Gasland and determined pressure from activists in and out of the mainstream, the toxic ravages of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, are no longer the shale gas sector's dirty secret. The bad news is that, thanks to the United States' morally bankrupt political system and its Supreme Court's reality-defying ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the fracking lobby's power of the purse is greater than it has ever been.

That power was depressingly dissected in Common Cause's recent report, Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets, which explained that earnings junkies like Exxon, Koch and more have paid House and Senate politicians on select energy and commerce committees nearly $750 million over the last decade to smother regulatory oversight of the expanding fracking practice, whose complete chemical components still remain a relative mystery. It was evidently money well spent. During that lobbying stretch, the Environmental Protection Agency scientifically linked fracking with water poisoning in Wyoming, and probably isn't far from siding with the increasing ranks of those who blame fracking for earthquakes from Oklahoma to Ohio to England. And yet beyond manageable fines and stock devaluations, no one from the industry has yet to seriously face the music for groundwater contamination and worse.

Click to read more ...

URGENT National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 * on Senate Floor

** S 1867 WAS ON THE SENATE FLOOR NOVEMBER 28, 2011 **

the National Defense Authorization Act passed in the House on May 26th by a vote of 322 – 96 with 227 Republicans and 95 Dems voting YES and

90 Dems (progressive coalition) and 6 Republicans voting NAY

Only TWO organizations listed at opposing the Act...”Environmentalists against War” and the Progressive Democrats of America.

with

Interests that support this bill:

• Defense electronic contractorsDefense electronic contractors (close)

• DefenseDefense (close)

• Alternate energy production & servicesAlternate energy production & services (close)

• ChemicalsChemicals (close)

• Optical instruments & lensesOptical instruments & lenses (close)

• Industrial/commercial equipment & materialsIndustrial/commercial equipment & materials (close)

• Fabricated metal productsFabricated metal products (close)

• Clothing & accessoriesClothing & accessories (close)

• Hardware & toolsHardware & tools (close)

• Small arms & ammunitionSmall arms & ammunition (close)

• Shoes & leather productsShoes & leather products (close)

• Textiles & fabricsTextiles & fabrics (close)

Top recipients for ALL supporting interest groups

Name	Amount Received	Vote On Passage
Rep. Eric Cantor [R, VA-7]	$99,950	Aye
Rep. Steny Hoyer [D, MD-5]	$98,000	Aye
Rep. Kay Granger [R, TX-12]	$76,950	Aye
Rep. Bennie Thompson [D, MS-2]	$71,600	Nay
Rep. James Clyburn [D, SC-6]	$65,000	Nay
Rep. Geoff Davis [R, KY-4]	$61,600	Aye
Rep. Bill Young [R, FL-10]	$61,300	Aye
Rep. Michael Rogers [R, MI-8]	$60,800	Aye
Rep. David Camp [R, MI-4]	$55,469	Aye
Rep. Vern Buchanan [R, FL-13]	$54,800	Aye

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h1540/show

Michell Eloy - Protestors Cry Foul at Emanuel over Proposed G8, NATO Restrictions

Published on Friday, December 16, 2011 by WBEZ (Chicago)

http://www.wbez.org/story/protestors-cry-foul-over-proposed-g8-nato-restrictions-94957

by Michell Eloy

Protesters are criticizing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to raise fines and tighten security measures during the upcoming G8 and NATO summits.

The mayor introduced an ordinance during Wednesday's City Council meeting that, if passed, would temporarily raise fines for resisting police or aiding someone escaping arrest. During the summits, which could draw thousands of protesters, Emanuel wants to increase the minimum fine from $25 to $200 and double the maximum fine to $1,000. His proposed ordinance would also close parks, playgrounds and beaches overnight for longer periods of time.

"People are outraged," said Mary Zerkel, who's with the Quaker group American Friends Services Committee. "It's, again, the tightening of free speech."

Zerkel said the proposed restrictions could deter peaceful protesters.

Click to read more ...

Jim Wallis - The Disappearance of the Compassionate Conservatives

Thursday 8 December 2011

by: Jim Wallis, Sojouners 

http://www.truth-out.org/disappearance-compassionate-conservatives/1323804807

I would never have been mistaken as a political supporter of President George W. Bush. But in his early days as president, I was invited to have conversations with him and his team about faith-based initiatives aimed at overcoming poverty, shoring up international aid and development for the most vulnerable, and supporting critical agendas such as international adoptions of marginalized children and the broken domestic foster care system.

My invitations to the Bush White House ended when I strongly and publicly opposed the Iraq War. But I continued to support the administration’s efforts to combat poverty and disease, especially Bush’s leadership in combating HIV/AIDs, malaria, and massive hunger in the poorest places in Africa.

That agenda was called “compassionate conservatism” and I was grateful for it. Back then, Republican leaders could be fiscally conservative, favor “small government,” and believe in the free market, for example, but also believe that government should and must partner with the private sector — especially non-profit and faith-based organizations — to help lift people out of poverty, both abroad in the developing world and here at home in the richest nation on the planet. Such a conviction requires two things: A genuine empathy and commitment to the poor, and a more balanced and positive view of government — neither of which were much evident in the GOP’s right-wing quarters, where the compassionate conservative agenda was opposed by party leaders such as Tom DeLay and Dick Armey.

I met people like Mike Gerson, who was then George Bush’s chief speech writer and a policy advisor, and is now a columnist for The Washington Post. I was told it was Gerson and the Bush himself who often were the ones to stand up for the compassionate conservative vision at Oval Office meetings.

Gerson and I have talked and worked together since he left the White House, and convened something called the Poverty Forum [5] that brought together policy experts from across the ideological spectrum to propose common-sense steps to reduce poverty. The project produced a surprising level of agreement, as participants focused on practical solutions, instead of ideology.

Click to read more ...

Robert Scheer - There Goes the Republic

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/there_goes_the_republic_20111214/

Posted on Dec 15, 2011

By Robert Scheer

Once again the gods of war have united our Congress like nothing else. Unable to agree on the minimal spending necessary to save our economy, schools, medical system or infrastructure, the cowards who mislead us have retreated to the irrationalities of what George Washington in his farewell address condemned as “pretended patriotism.”

The defense authorization bill that Congress passed and President Obama had threatened to veto will soon become law, a fact that should be met with public outrage. Human Rights Watch President Kenneth Roth, responding to Obama’s craven collapse on the bill’s most controversial provision, said, “By signing this defense spending bill, President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in US law.” On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney claimed “the most recent changes give the president additional discretion in determining how the law will be implemented, consistent with our values and the rule of law, which are at the heart of our country’s strength.”

Click to read more ...

WashingtonsBlog - The Indefinite Detention Bill DOES Apply to American Citizens on U.S. Soil

Posted on December 14, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog 

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/12/the-indefinite-detention-bill-does-apply-to-american-citizens-on-u-s-soil.html

“Don’t Be Fooled”: The Indefinite Detention Bill DOES Apply to American Citizens

Even at this 11th hour – when all of our liberties and freedom are about to go down the drain – many people still don’t understand that the indefinite detention bill passed by Congress allows indefinite detention of Americans on American soil.

The bill is confusing. As Wired noted on December 1st:

It’s confusing, because two different sections of the bill seem to contradict each other, but in the judgment of the University of Texas’ Robert Chesney — a nonpartisan authority on military detention — “U.S. citizens are included in the grant of detention authority.”

A retired admiral, Judge Advocate General and Dean Emeritus of the University of New Hampshire School of Law also says that it applies to American citizens on American soil.

The ACLU notes:

Click to read more ...