Sunday Roundup - June 30, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media. Today we look at reaction to the immigration bill that passed the Senate Thursday. Sources are The News (Mexico) website and Mother Jones.

“The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources--because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples.” - Lyndon B. Johnson

A compromise bipartisan immigration bill passed the US Senate this past Thursday by a vote of 68-32. It combines a path to citizenship with $40 billion in "border security" measures thrown in to try to bring in more Republican votes. As the Senate bill was being debated, Mexico's Foreign Secretary Jose Antonio Meade noted that the bill "could benefit the millions of Mexican immigrants who make contributions each day to the prosperity and development of the United States." But he had some reservations about the 700 mile fence... “We are convinced that fences do not bring people together,” Meade said, adding that, “Fences are not the solution to the phenomenon of immigration and are not consistent with a modern and safe border.” [The News (Mexico)]

 

"We’ll be the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall." - John McCain

 

 Ricardo Castillo in a July 27 post in The News wrote "Hardcore conservative U.S. Senators have conveniently forgotten Ronald Reagan's history making June 1987 statement at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' Now they have inserted a wall of their own in the Immigration Reform Bill. Seen from a psychoanalytical point of view, the wall on the Mexican border, along with a Communist East German-like police guarding it, is a revisitation of the southern U.S.A.'s secession in the 1860s."

[Archival photo from latinamericanstudies.org website "A meeting at a border fence near Tijuana"]

“I take issue with many people's description of people being "Illegal" Immigrants. There aren't any illegal Human Beings as far as I'm concerned.”   - Dennis Kucinich

In spite of its wasteful border surge provision, which was bad enough to cause the Latino advocacy group Presente.org to withdraw its support for a bill that is "guaranteed to increase death and destruction through increased militarization of the border.", the Senate measure faces an uncertain future in the House which has been preparing its own harsher version of an immigration bill. Again from The News: "Far-reaching immigration legislation cruised toward passage in the Senate as House Republicans pushed ahead Wednesday on a different approach that cracks down on millions living in the United States illegally rather than offering them a chance at citizenship." Two bills have passed through the relevant House committee. The first makes it a new crime to remain in the country without legal status, allows state and local governments to enforce federal immigration laws, and encourages those living in the United States unlawfully to depart voluntarily. "The second bill that cleared last week deals with farm workers who come to the United States temporarily with government permission. Unlike the Senate legislation, it offers no pathway to citizenship."

"In 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that about 0.8% of the U.S. population was of American Indian or Alaska Native descent." - Wikipedia entry on "Native Americans in the United States"

Mother Jones notes that the House GOP now faces its "moment of truth." Gavin Aronsen in a June 27 post writes: "Bipartisan talks regarding immigration reform have repeatedly stalled in the lower chamber, and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has found himself in a tight spot, forced to choose between alienating millions of Latino voters—a key constituency the Republican Party is trying to court—and appeasing tea party lawmakers who oppose a pathway to citizenship. The coming weeks, before Congress recesses for the month of August, will be a make-or-break moment for the House GOP."

 

“Recognize yourself in he and she who are not like you and me.”   - Carlos Fuentes

 

 

SCOTUS: R.I.P. Voting Rights

The long-awaited Supreme Court decision on the 1965 Voting Rights Act, renewed by Congress in 2006, is in.  While not ruling on the constitutionality of the law itself, the right-wing majority, in a 5-4 vote, struck down one of the most important clauses of the act and effectively invalidated another.  Hang with me on this.  SCOTUS struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act.  Section 4 is a key provision that designates which parts of the country must have changes to their voting laws approved by the Federal government or in Federal court.  In striking down Section 4, the right-wing justices effectively emasculated the even more important Section 5, which enforces review of voting rule changes.  The justices did not rule specifically on Section 5 but as reported in the Huffington Post : "...the court ruled that the current formula that determines which states are covered by Section 5 is unconstitutional, effectively eliminating Section 5 enforcement, at least for the time being."  What do you think the possibility of getting an amended Section 4 through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Republican-filibuster-hamstrung Senate is?  The majority argument seems to have been "times have changed" and we don't need this any more.  Effectively, SCOTUS has declared dead the Voting Rights Act, one of the most important and fundamental achievements of the Civil Rights Era.

What utter nonsense!  With the move towards restrictive voter ID laws aimed primarily at minorities and the continuing use of so-called poll watchers for intimidation purposes, these sections of the Act are needed just as much now as then.  As recently as the 2012 elections, the Voting Rights Act has been used to block a voter ID law in Texas and delay implementation of another in South Carolina. 

Justice Ginsburg's dissent says it effectively: "The sad irony of today’s decision lies in its utter failure to grasp why the VRA has proven effective," Ginsburg wrote. "The Court appears to believe that the VRA’s success in eliminating the specific devices extant in 1965 means that preclear­ance is no longer needed."  The provision has proven "enormously successful" in increasing minority registration and access to the ballot and preventing a "return to old ways," Ginsburg said. Even in jurisdictions where discrimination may not be overt, "subtle methods" have emerged to diminish minority    turnout, such as racial gerrymandering. [Huffington Post] [Photo: Mother Jones]

The reaction from civil rights leaders was swift - unanimous condemnation as the activist court interfered with Congressional authority to pass laws regarding the right to vote.  Obama expressed his deep disappointment and called on Congress "to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls."  Honestly, has he been asleep for the past 3 or 4 years? The well-organized effort of Republican-controlled state legislatures with Republican governors has been undertaken to ensure that this equal access does not occur. 

Justice Ginsburg's dissent is 37 pages long and contains page after page of well-reasoned and passionate argument and numerous examples.  Fortunately, Mother Jones has selected the ten best quotes from the Justice in a June 25 post.  Here's just one of them: ""Demand for a record of violations equivalent to the one earlier made would expose Congress to a catch-22. If the statute was working, there would be less evidence of discrimination, so opponents might argue that Congress should not be allowed to renew the statute. In contrast, if the statute was not working, there would be plenty of evidence of discrimination, but scant reason to renew a failed regulatory regime." 

The most fundamental right in a democracy, the single most important difference from other political systems whether they be dictatorships, tyrannies, monarchies, or theocracies, is the right to vote.  Denying this right strikes at the heart of what it means to be a democracy.  Not protecting the voting rights of all brings us another step closer to plutocracy - a government of, by, and for the wealthy and the powerful.

Other Links

John Nichol's post in today's The Nation

Previous TLBC Posts on Voter Suppression Efforts
Stealing an Election
Keystone State is Key
What's with Florida?
Florida 2000 Redux

Sunday Round-Up - June 23, 2013

Iranian Elections

In what nearly all observers think is a good sign for Iranian relations with the West, Hassan Rouhani won a landslide victory in the Iranian presidential elections "promising better relations abroad and more freedom at home".   Rouhani won the election outright after securing more than 50% of the vote - far ahead of the next candidate, who received just 16% of the vote - and thereby avoiding the need for a run-off.   Al Jazeera reported: "In a statement, reported by the Iranian media on Saturday, the president-elect hailed his election as a victory of moderation over extremism:  'This victory is a victory for wisdom, moderation and maturity... over extremism.' "  The jubilant crowds celebrating in the streets were a marked contrast to the demonstrations following the 2009 presidential election, when results showed the conservative Ahmadinejad had won over the reformist candidate.   According to Al Jazeera's analyst: "The outcome will not soon transform Iran's long tense relations with the West, call into question its disputed pursuit of nuclear power or lessen its support of Syria's president in the civil war there - matters of national security that remain the domain of [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei. But the president runs the economy and wields important influence in decision-making and Rouhani's meteoric rise could offer latitude for a thaw in Iran's foreign relations and more social freedoms at home after eight years of confrontation and repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." The pace of change will ultimately be decided by the Ayatollah Khamenei, whom Rouhani visited on Sunday (June 16) after the election. [Reuters]

[Photo: Al Jazeera]

 

NSA Surveillance, Snowden and Hong Kong

The US has charged 29 year old whistle-blower Edward Snowden with espionage. Kind of ironic, isn't it?   They are charging the person who blew the cover on the NSA's warrantless surveillance with spying.   Snowden meanwhile remains in Hong Kong.   Thursday's South China Morning Post reported on the commentary in China's "party newspapers."  Reporting on an article in the Global Times, it noted the Times commentary "that Hong Kong should follow public opinion in handling the case, not worry about Sino-US relations and 'be more spontaneous'."   Public opinion in Hong Kong is strongly supportive of Snowden.  The People's Daily said "the Prism scandal was America's trouble in the first place", but some US politicians were trying to "create a new link between China and the scandal with their own imagination" by hinting that Snowden was a Chinese spy. It said such a link was 'nonsense' and Beijing should ask the 'big mouths' to shut up. "Pouring dirty water on China shows how American politicians are embarrassed and anxious," it said. Both articles indicate that China is determined to separate the Snowden case from overall Sino-American relationship.

[Photo from South China Morning Post A banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former contractor at the National Security Agency, is seen at Central district. Photo: David Wong]

 

UPDATE - 9AM EDT, 6/23/13

Edward Snowden is reported as having left Hong Kong today.  Hong Kong officials had rejected the US request for extradition "since the documents provided by the U.S. government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law."  Hong Kong had requested more information from the US and said that "there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."

Palestinian Diaspora Forgotten?

Thursday was World Refugee Day. Press TV reported on the plight of the victims of what they termed the world's largest and longest standing refugee crisis:  "Following World Refugee Day, The Palestinian Liberation Organisation called upon the international community to hold Israel accountable for one of the largest refugee crises, since Israel displaced Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.   Palestinian refugees constitute the largest and longest standing refugee crisis in the world with up to 6 million 1st and 2nd generation Palestinian refugees scattered around the world unable to return to Palestine." Palestinian refugees have the right of return per UN resolution 194 which resolves "that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date. It further states that compensation should be paid if they do not wish to return." In the on again/off again push towards a two-state solution and the attempts to resuscitate the long-moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, many Palestinians feel that international law is being ignored as all parties "continue to insist that refugees should wait indefinitely to return home."   The Syrian Civil War has added significantly to the plight of the refugees.  530,000 Palestinians are registered with the UN as refugees in that country.  The United Nations News Centre reported on June 17: "Warning that the centrifugal force of the Syria crisis continues to imperil the region, a senior United Nations agency official today said that more than half of the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria have become 'theatres of war,' where killings and kidnappings have become the norm.  According to the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Filippo Grandi, seven out of 12 of the agency’s camps are now virtually inaccessible." 

[Photo: UNRWA]

Brazil 2014 World Cup Protests

Brazil has won five World Cups - more than any other nation. It is the fifth most populous country and, depending on what list you use, has between the sixth and ninth largest economy. Still its social inequity has been as legendary as its Rio de Janeiro slums. Things have been improving somewhat for Brazil's poor especially since the election of "pink revolution" hero Lula (Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva) as President in 2002 and his succession by Dilma Rousseff.  Pulsamerica opined in a January article: "Though Brazil remains a country of stark contrasts, its strides against poverty and inequality cannot be underestimated. It can be argued that until recently the focus in Brazil has always been on reducing poverty rather than combating income and social inequality overall, however, an emphasis on distribution, creating more job opportunities, investing in structural education systems and addressing discrimination are being implemented to ensure more equality in the future." But the movement towards more social equality is far from complete. (See, for example, Harper's Magazine's June 2013 article "Promised Land" by Glenn Cheney about the efforts of Sister Leonora Brunetto for agrarian land redistribution.) Just how far from complete the march towards equality is was demonstrated this past week as protests erupted against the money being spent on 2014 World Cup preparations (~18 bln USD) . As reported Friday in the Daily Mail: "More than a million Brazilians took to the streets of at least 80 Brazilian towns and cities in demonstrations that saw violent clashes and renewed calls for an end to government corruption and demands for better public services. Riot police battled protesters in at least five cities, with some of the most intense clashes in Rio de Janeiro, where an estimated 300,000 demonstrators swarmed into the city's central area." At least one person has been killed in the rioting.  President Rousseff , who was "a former Marxist rebel who fought against Brazil's 1964-1985 military regime and was imprisoned for three years and tortured by the junta, pointedly referred to earlier sacrifices made to free the nation from dictatorship. 'My generation fought a lot so that the voice of the streets could be heard,' Rousseff said. 'Many were persecuted, tortured and many died for this. The voice of the street must be heard and respected and it can't be confused with the noise and truculence of some troublemakers.' " The protests continued Saturday.

[Photo from Daily Mail website (copyright Marco Isensee/Demotix: "Revolution: A football shirt-clad protester waves the Brazilian flag through clouds of smoke and teargas during violent clashes between protesters and police in Rio de Janeiro"]

World Refugee Day

Today, June 20, is World Refugee Day.  World Refugee Day was established by the United Nations "to honor the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homes under threat of persecution, conflict and violence." [US World Refugee Day website] Refugees are not something we think about much here in the US (Angelina Jolie notably excepted) but maybe we should. After all, currently 45 million people have been forced to leave their homes - displaced either internally or internationally. This total is a fourteen year high and was announced by the UN's refugee agency yesterday. Were they a nation, refugees would form the 30th most populous country on Earth.

The Syrian Civil War has played a large part in the recent increase in refugees with more than 1.6 million refugees created by the crisis so far. Syria now surpasses Somalia (1.1 million) and Iraq (~750,000) in the number of refugees. Only Afghanistan has created a higher number of refugees (~2.5 million) than Syria. [Euronews website]

Although famine plays a role (especially in sub-Saharan Africa), the root cause of the great majority of this displacement and misery is war. Until war is renounced by all the nations of the world, until the international arms trade stops, until nations begin to apply serious diplomacy instead of violence to end conflicts, not much will change. In the meantime, international efforts are focused on relieving the suffering of the refugees. But as in so many other areas, the support is forthcoming in totally inadequate amounts. Regarding the Syrian refugees, "Jana Mason, a senior advisor with the U.N.’s refugee agency, testified before the Helsinki Commission last week that the U.S. and other nations must provide greater financial aid to host countries that have opened their borders to Syrians." [Time.com]

 

Scene from the Zaatari refugee camp - now home to more than 100,000 Syrians from The Guardian.  It's included in a Guardian post from April: "A city that’s not a city – inside a Syrian refugee camp".

 

 

Still some small progress is being made:

• At the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland earlier this week, leaders pledged to disburse $1.5 billion of humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees and those who are internally displaced." [Time.com]
• With the increasing stability in Somalia, Kenya is pushing for the repatriation of the 600,000+ Somalians now in refugee camps in Kenya. Both Somalia and Kenya now want the international community to provide immediate resources to support the repatriation of refugees living in UN designated camps in Kenya. Without such aid, the effort is doomed to failure. From the Press TV website: "Analysts warn that the government is not in a position to accommodate the massive number of returning refugees from camps. The government is still struggling to relocate IDPs who fled the famine in mid-2011 and the return of refugees is likely to increase the burden on the government."

Click here for a link to the Get Involved webpage of the USA for UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency).

Sunday Round-Up - June 16, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the government's prosecution of Bradley Manning, Obama's meeting with Chinese President Xi, and the progress towards reaching the UN's Millennium Development Goals.  Sources are TomDispatch (recent winner of Utne Reader's 2013 media award for best political coverage), Xinhuanet, and Le Monde Diplomatique.

The Prosecution of Bradley Manning

In a June 11 post on TomDispatch , human-rights lawyer Chase Madar takes on the "dystopian secrecy" of the post 9/11 era in the government's prosecution of Bradley Manning.  Manning, the Wikileaks source within the US Army, potentially faces decades of jail time if convicted. Speaking of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Madar writes: "Both wars of occupation were ghastly strategic choices that have killed hundreds of thousands, wounded many more, sent millions into exile, and destabilized what Washington, in good times, used to call 'the arc of instability.' Why have our strategic choices been so disastrous? In large part because they have been militantly clueless. Starved of important information, both the media and public opinion were putty in the hands [of] the Bush administration and its neocon followers as they dreamt up and then put into action their geopolitical fantasies." Transparency in foreign relations is a good thing, argues Madar, and "what gets people killed, no matter how much our pols and pundits strain to deny it, aren’t InfoSec breaches or media leaks, but foolish and clueless strategic choices."  Madar contrasts the military's flexibility on rape and sexual assault and on the killing of foreign civilians with the strictness that they use in dealing with declassifying so-called classified information. He concludes that "the young private’s act of civil defiance was in fact a first step in reversing the pathologies that have made our foreign policy a string of self-inflicted homicidal disasters."

US - China Cooperation

On June 13, Xinhuanet reported on comments from a senior Chinese lawmaker on the recently concluded meeting between President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.   Referring to the historic summit as an important moment for China and the United States, Fu Ying, chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the 12th National People's Congress, spoke to the Washington-based think tank Brookings Institute. "One of the most important messages coming out of this summit is their commitment to working together to build a new model of relationship for the two countries to head for partnership, not for conflict as some had feared," she said. "We hope it will lead to many years of working together with excellent results coming on the way." The Xinhuanet article concludes: "During the summit at Annenberg estate, both Xi and Obama reaffirmed their commitment to seeking to build a new type of great-power relationship that features win-win cooperation based on mutual respect and benefit, so as to avoid the repetition of the zero-sum game usually seen in history between a resident power and an emerging one."

 

Millennium Development Goals

In a supplement to its June issue, Le Monde Diplomatique reported on the mixed results towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000. The eight goals to be achieved by 2015 are "to (i) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (ii) achieve universal primary education, (iii) promote gender equality and empower women, (iv) reduce child mortality, (v) improve maternal health, (vi) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, (vii) ensure environmental sustainability and (viii) develop a global partnership for development." The intent is to reach specific targets by following an action plan and measuring progress. Progress towards the goals is measured relative to 1990. The article by Philippe Rekacewicz notes that "India and China have made considerable headway [towards reaching the goals], while sub-Saharan Africa has stagnated or regressed."

Rekacewicz then reviews the three health goals in some detail. Goal 4 is "to reduce child mortality by two thirds. According to figures published by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), it fell by a third between 1990 and 2010, which is not fast enough....Only around 10 out of the 70 countries concerned are likely to achieve the two-thirds reduction by 2015. " Goal 5 (maternal health - reducing maternal mortality by 75%) has shown very slow progress: "In 2010 some 287,000 women died in childbirth (85% of them in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia), compared with 550,000 in 1990." Goal 6 ("combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases") has three separate targets:

• Check the spread of HIV/AIDS. The rate of increase has slowed but as of 2010 the number of people living with the virus was still rising.
• Provide access to antiretroviral treatments to all who need them by 2010. In 2010 6.5 million people received treatment compared to a worldwide total of over 30 million. But, Rekacewicz notes, "On the positive side, since 2005 the wider availability of treatment has significantly reduced mortality."
• Combat the great endemic diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis. Progress is being made on malaria - "World Health Organisation (WHO) figures show that the number of declared cases of malaria fell by 50% between 2000 and 2010 in 40 of the 100 countries where the disease is found." But the long-range outlook for malaria is somewhat pessimistic due to a lack of sufficient funding and "the emergence of drug-resistant strains in a growing number of Southeast Asian and sub-Saharan African countries". On a more confident note, the spread of tuberculosis "could be halted by 2015, in line with the development goal."

With less than three years to go before the 2015 deadline, many of the targets will not be achieved. The UN is trying to launch "accelerated action programmes" but, the article concludes, "if the institutions and states which pledged special contributions do not keep their promises, these efforts will come to nothing."

Cicadas, Memory, and the Art of Forgetting

Here on the East Coast of the US, 2013 is the year of the return of the seventeen-year cicadas. I have not as yet actually heard any cicadas this year but, all in good time, I'm sure. The seventeen-year cicadas have an unusual life cycle to say the least. Nearly all cicadas spend years underground as juveniles, before emerging above ground for a short adult stage of several weeks to a few months.  Periodical cicada species, such as the 17 year cicadas, are so named because, in any one location, all of the members of the population are developmentally synchronized—they emerge as adults all at once in the same year. This periodicity is especially remarkable because their life cycles are so long. [Wikipedia; photo: Wikipedia]

Prompted by what appeared to be a cicada that had been crushed underfoot by an (I hope) unawares jogger in a nearby park, I began thinking about those 17-year cicadas the other day. The seventeen years between their emergences are about half of a human generation. Seventeen years also seems to be about the length of time at which details of events, the ambience of the political climate, and all but the deeper personal memories begin, in many instances, to blur or be forgotten. So how was the country doing in 1996? Well, the nation was getting ready for the Presidential elections with Clinton, Dole and Perot the eventual candidates. With the GDP up almost 4.5% vs. 1995 and with unemployment at 4.7%, we were in the midst of an economic boom. Nevertheless, a budget showdown between Clinton and Congressional Republicans forced a government shutdown for the second year in a row. We were about midway between Newt Gingrich's "Contract for America" and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The Cold War had been over for years. And only people in the intelligence community were aware of a militant Middle Eastern group called Al-Qaeda. And 17 years from now, what will we make of the state of the union in 2013? Will we have forgotten the NSA spy programs, the Republican obstructionism, the do nothing Congress, the Tea Party, the Recession, the Supreme-Court-mandated corporate personhood?

I've no scientific basis at all for this speculation on the length of long-time memory. Some long-term memories last decades, others are gone in a matter of days. Still seventeen years seems to me like a good compromise for a breakpoint.

To what extent do we choose our memories? To what extent do they choose us?

Memories seem to be part of us. They allow us to re-experience our past, albeit in a less vivid and physical way.

Loss of memory is the greatest loss experienced by Alzheimer's patients. They are losing the awareness of their past experiences and relationships. In a way they are losing their selves.

Forgiving a past wrong often requires forgetting the wrong.

Elizabeth Loftus, a memory researcher, has identified four major reasons why people forget: retrieval failure, interference, failure to store and motivated forgetting.

“The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

It is singular how soon we lose the impression of what ceases to be constantly before us. A year impairs, a luster obliterates. There is little distinct left without an effort of memory, then indeed the lights are rekindled for a moment - but who can be sure that the Imagination is not the torch-bearer? - Lord Byron

Well, before I forget, I'm going out now and look around and listen for some 17 year cicadas.

Sunday Round-Up - June 9, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at various current examples where the right of assembly, freedom of speech or other civil liberties are being compromised.  Sources are Mother Jones, The Guardian, Haaretz, Reuters, and Human Rights Watch.

NSA Spying I

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

It was government overreach under Bush and it still is under Obama. The only thing new about the recent revelations of government telephone spying is that the practice is still continuing. The National Security Agency is sweeping up the telephone records of Americans suspected of no wrongdoing. David Corn in a June 6 Mother Jones post writes : "This is a sweeping surveillance program—the sort of activity that two Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee, Mark Udall of Colorado and Ron Wyden of Oregon, have been complaining about for years. The pair have warned that the government was engaged in a surveillance program under the Patriot Act that went beyond what most people would assume permissible given a reasonable interpretation of that law." In the statement issued by the Administration, there's this rejoinder: "As we have publicly stated before, all three branches of government are involved in reviewing and authorizing intelligence collection under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Congress passed that act and is regularly and fully briefed on how it is used, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizes such collection." The response from the ACLU was swift.  In a Guardian article on June 6, Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union is quoted as saying: "From a civil liberties perspective, the program could hardly be any more alarming. It's a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents. It is beyond Orwellian, and it provides further evidence of the extent to which basic democratic rights are being surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies."

[Photo: Wikimedia Commons]

NSA Spying II

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..." - Fourth Amendment, US Constitution

Then there is the more recent revelation that besides the telephone records' program, there is another program, called PRISM, that is targeting search histories, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats.  If anything, this may be even more troubling. The story broke on June 6 in a Guardian article by Glenn Greenwald and Ewan MacAskill. "The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian....The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called Prism, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says....The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers." The NSA access was enabled by changes to US surveillance law introduced under President Bush and renewed under Obama in December 2012. The named internet companies deny any knowledge of the program.

Honestly, America, isn't it time to undo the excesses unleashed by the "Patriot Act" and get back our constitutional liberties?

Palestinian Teenagers Under the Watchful Eye of the IDF

On June 6, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on the intimidation tactics of the Israeli Defense Forces against four teenage Palestinian demonstrators: "Israeli soldiers entered the West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum several days ago for an unconventional mission - to post leaflets that, from a distance, looked innocent enough, but upon closer inspection proved to be photographs of four youths from the village bearing the caption, in faulty Arabic: 'We are the army. Be careful. If we see you, we’re going to catch you or come to your house.' Demonstrations have been ongoing for years at the site because of the closure 10 years ago of the main road leading from this West Bank town to Nablus, another West Bank town. The article quotes a village resident: "...the army hasn’t been able to stop the demonstrations and has sought new ways to thwart them...Now they’ve put up the leaflets, they probably thought that people would be frightened to go to to the demonstration and that this would stop it, but we say it doesn’t matter what they do – they won’t stop the demonstration.” Still the intimidation has had a chilling effect. The father of one of the teenagers asks: "How can an army that claims to be the strongest in the region threaten children?”

Istanbul Park Protests

In Istanbul, an Occupy-style protest against the proposed demolition of Taksim Gezi Park as part of a redevelopment plan sparked a crackdown by the Turkish police.   Protesters started gathering in the park on May 27.   Police responded with pepper spray and tear gas and burned tents the protesters had set up on the site. The Guardian reported on June 6 that the protests have apparently fallen on deaf ears: "Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has vowed to press ahead with the controversial redevelopment of a square in Istanbul, in a move that puts him on a collision course with tens of thousands of anti-government protesters and could provoke further unrest across the country." Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Turks demonstrated on Saturday, defying the government's demand that protests stop immediately. [Reuters, June 8] 

Erdoğan is the leader of the AKP, a political party whose base is "the conservative Muslim bourgeoisie that first emerged as a result of Turgut Özal's economic policies in the 1980s. But, while denying it is a religious party, it has used the politics of piety to gain a popular base and to strengthen the urban rightwing." [The Guardian, May 31]  Hmm..."politics of piety to gain a popular base...strengthen the rightwing"...where did we hear something like this before?

[Photo: Reuters/The Telegraph (UK)]

Malaysia Blackout 505 Arrests

Meanwhile on the opposite side of the Eurasian land mass, Malaysian authorities are prosecuting activists and opposition figures involved in rallies protesting the recent elections. The well-ordered “Blackout 505” rallies in several Malaysian cities "attracted large numbers protesting the results of, and alleged malfeasance during, the country’s May general elections" according to the Human Rights Watch website. Human Rights Watch sent a letter on June 4 to the Malaysian Prime Minister Najim Razak protesting the arrests. “Prosecuting activists for organizing peaceful protests makes a mockery of the prime minister’s promises to establish a rights-respecting government in Malaysia,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of HRW. “The government should drop the charges against the six activists and publicly pledge to cease bringing cases against organizers of peaceful protests.”

Tornadoes, Hunger, and Getting Angry

Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

- Plato

The personal tragedies wrought by tornadoes over the past few weeks in Oklahoma are just the latest reminders of the difficulties faced by ordinary people in the course of everyday life in this country. Untimely deaths from disease and accidents, impoverished and malnourished children, homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, urban violence, hate crimes, student massacres ... the list is seemingly endless. That is why I can't understand the positions taken by today's Republican Party. If you have the opportunity to do something to relieve or prevent the suffering of the vulnerable in our society, why on Earth would you choose not to?

Former Republican presidential candidate and former Senator Bob Dole, answering a question put to him by Fox News' Chris Wallace, said that neither he nor Ronald Reagan would feel comfortable with the GOP's present membership. Dole said that the party should hang a “closed for repairs” sign on its doors until it comes up with a few positive ideas.    A May 28 NYT editorial put it like this: "The difference between the current crop of Tea Party lawmakers and Mr. Dole’s generation is not simply one of ideology....Republicans used to set aside their grandstanding, recognize that a two-party system requires compromise and make deals to keep the government working on the people’s behalf. The current generation refuses to do that. Its members want to dismantle government, using whatever crowbar happens to be handy."

Dole is a staunch conservative and holds many of the same general policy positions as the Tea Party Republicans - although admittedly less extreme. There are few moderate Republicans around nowadays - at least in the Republican Party. The closest you have to moderate "Eisenhower Republicans" - people like former Senators Mark Hatfield of Oregon and Clifford Case of New Jersey - can now be found within the Democratic Party. Whether because of Republican obstructionism or because of his belief in his role as Compromiser-In-Chief, Obama has effectively become an Eisenhower Republican. This is not what we voted for in 2008 or 2012.   That said, his policy and budget positions are generally better than or, at least, no worse than, those of the Tea-Party-controlled GOP. (For a comparison of the various 2014 budget proposals, here's a link to a one-page summary from the National Priorities Project.)

There is so much to criticize in the proposed Republican budget that time and space do not permit even a partial listing. Their proposed cuts to social services can best be described as Draconian. And then there is the infamous sequester brought about by the Budget Control Act of 2011, which in turn was the compromise response to the phony debt-ceiling crisis initiated by Republicans. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 750,000 jobs will be lost or not created because of this austerity measure in this year alone.

"But", in the immortal words of Arlo Guthrie, "that's not what I come to talk about tonight." What I really want to talk about is hunger in America and the current and future proposed cuts to the food stamp program. The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Food insecurity then is the opposite: when you don't have enough food to maintain a healthy and active life.

Take a guess. How many Americans, citizens of the wealthiest country on Earth, live with "food insecurity"? Well, in 2011, 50.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 33.5 million adults and 16.7 million children. [Feeding America website] That corresponds to about 1 American out of every 6.

What was our elected representatives' response to hunger in America? The Republican-controlled House Agriculture Committee proposed cuts of $20.5 billion to the food stamp program over the next 10 years. The Senate Agriculture Committee proposed cuts of $4.1 billion. This is all part of the response to the phony deficit crisis - imposing austerity measures in the midst of a recession. On May 21, the U.S. Senate blocked an amendment to reinstate the $4.1 billion for food stamps. It was not just Republican obstructionism this time. For whatever reason, 28 Senate Democrats voted with all the Republicans for the 2013 Farm Bill which put corporate welfare ahead of  low-income families.

The differences in the farm bills will now be resolved in a joint House-Senate committee. As of December 2012, approximately 48 million people relied on food stamps. That's more than at any time in history and a direct result of the number of people thrown into poverty in the Great Recession. The House bill would drive 2 million low-income people off food stamps. Paul Krugman's excellent op-ed of May 30 analyzes these untimely and mean-spirited cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and concludes:

"Look, I understand the supposed rationale: We’re becoming a nation of takers, and doing stuff like feeding poor children and giving them adequate health care are just creating a culture of dependency — and that culture of dependency, not runaway bankers, somehow caused our economic crisis.  But I wonder whether even Republicans really believe that story — or at least are confident enough in their diagnosis to justify policies that more or less literally take food from the mouths of hungry children. As I said, there are times when cynicism just doesn’t cut it; this is a time to get really, really angry."

Yup.

RIP Frank Lautenberg

New Jersey lost one of its finest Senators in history on Monday morning. Frank Lautenberg had a consistently liberal voting record and he will be missed by the Senate majority. He had been ill for a while. But so important was his vote and so total his dedication, he was brought to the floor for several important Senate votes during his illness - including gun control. Unfortunately, thanks to the Republican filibuster, these last public services from the ailing Senator Lautenberg generally went for naught. You can rest assured that Republican Governor Christie will appoint a Republican until the special election later this year. Times will be even tougher for the Senate majority. With the next chance of changing Senate filibuster rules in 2014 and with the unlikely return of the House with its gerrymandered Congressional seats to the Democrats until the next census (2020), it will be a hard time for progressives.

Sunday Round-Up - June 2, 2013

Syrian Peace Talks in Jeopardy

Wednesday's Guardian reported on the increasing difficulty of getting all the parties to the peace table to end the Syrian conflict: "Plans for Syrian peace talks in Geneva next month appeared in danger of being derailed on Wednesday night as the country's divided opposition movement issued a fresh demand for Bashar al-Assad's government to be excluded from the political process, while Damascus insisted the Syrian president would stay in power until 2014 and possibly beyond...Russia and France also clashed over whether Iran should be allowed to attend the talks, and diplomats suggested that the mid-June target date might have to be pushed back. Turkey warned that if the negotiations failed, it would mark the end of the road for diplomacy and open the gates to the wholesale arming of opposition forces." On the issue of Iran's participation in the talks, the May 19 issue of Al Monitor Week in Review commented: "For the Geneva II conference on Syria to have the best chance of enacting a cease-fire and beginning a transition, Iran needs to be there...It should be a no-brainer to have all parties to a conflict represented at a peace conference. There is no 'transition' in Syria absent a cease-fire, and no cease-fire without Iran, which provides the military and intelligence lifeline to the Assad regime."

A New Arms Race? A New Cold War?

Michael Klare posted an article in Thursday's TomDispatch on the international arms trade titled "The Cold War Redux?" In it, Klare provides some recent examples of "arms deals ...that suggest a fresh willingness on the part of the major powers to use weapons transfers as instruments of geopolitical intrusion and competition." Two such examples of these arms deals are:

 

"In early May, ...Russia ... supplied several batteries of advanced anti-ship cruise missiles to the embattled Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. With those missiles, the Syrians should be in a better position to deter or counter any effort by international forces, including the United States, to aid anti-Assad rebels by sea or mount a naval blockade of Syria."

 

"In April, during a visit to Jerusalem, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced a multibillion-dollar arms package for Israel.... At least two of the items, the KC-135 refueling planes and the anti-radiation missiles,...could only be intended for one purpose: bolstering Israel’s capacity to conduct a sustained air campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities, should it decide to do so."

The recent Global Arms Treaty gave the world some hope to reducing conflict and armed violence but Klare concludes "such expectations will quickly be crushed if the major weapons suppliers, led by the U.S. and Russia, once again come to see arms sales as the tool of choice to gain geopolitical advantage in areas of strategic importance. Far from bringing peace and stability -- as the proponents of such transactions invariably claim -- each new arms deal now holds the possibility of taking us another step closer to a new Cold War with all the heightened risks of regional friction and conflict that entails."

Bachmann Won't Run

On Tuesday night, Michele Bachmann announced her intention to not seek re-election in 2014. Jim Graves, her once and (maybe*) future opponent for the job, said after her announcement: "This is a good day for America." Off-the-deep-end only starts to describe this icon of the lunatic fringe. Known for her outrageous and counter-factual claims about everything from American history to health care to foreign relations, she is "honored" in a May 30 Informed Comment postby Juan Cole titled "Top Ten Michele Bachmann Goofs on the Middle East". Cole notes that "nowhere has she left a trail of mayhem and misinformation more colorful than in regard to the Middle East." From closing the American embassy in Iran (it hasn't existed since 1979) to her "insight" into a plot to give half of Iraq to Iran to her claim that Iraq should reimburse the United States for having invaded and occupied it, the list leads us to wonder as Cole does at one point: "Why she is allowed to serve on the Intelligence Committee, none of us can understand."

* Graves announced Friday that he was indefinitely suspending his 2014 campaign.

The Recession
 

As the Occupy protests become a dim and rather fuzzy memory here in America, conditions in Europe have spawned the Blockupy Movement. As blogged in the Guardian by Graeme Wearden and Katie Allen on Friday: "Thousands of Blockupy demonstrators were out in the rain in Frankfurt to cut off access to the European Central Bank in protest at what they see as its role in imposing austerity measures on southern European nations." The protests come as "Eurozone unemployment hit a fresh record high of 12.2%. Youth unemployment was double that at 24.4%." In another Guardian post on Friday, Larry Elliott warns that "Europe now faces a triple crunch: an interlocking human, economic and political crisis that will have devastating consequences if left unattended" and that the "mistakes now being made in the eurozone mirror those in the United States and Germany early in the Great Depression." Meanwhile in the US, a Federal Reserve report Thursday states that American households have rebuilt less than half of the wealth (45%) they lost during the recession. Most of this recovery has been in the form of increased stock prices and Mother Jones quotes a Washington Post reporter: "Recent gains in the stock market mean that the recovery of wealth is nearly complete for white and Asian households and older Americans." I guess he meant older Americans who own a lot of stock. Not good news for anyone else though - especially those whose home was their sole source of wealth. "Because the housing market is improving overall, there is less of an incentive for the government to push any new measures to help underwater homeowners. Prominent economists say that allowing initiatives that would reduce borrowers' loan principle balances is the single most important thing the administration could do to help the Americans who lost all that home wealth."