January 2010
President's Message
We are kicking off this important election year by hosting a brilliant young progressive who is the voice of the future. We are all aware of the mess our country is in as a result of many bad decisions in our recent past.
Here is a man who not only brings awareness but answers leading to a truly democratic and Democratic future. The Democratic party needs our voices now more than ever. There is no way for the politicians to wrest power away from the mega-corporations unless we raise our voices.
Not a day goes by that a person in office can neglect the job of fund-raising. Not a day goes by that the elected official and his aides are not inundated with the voices of the lobbyists. That means we have a huge job ahead.
Everyone of us has to step up our calls, letters, emails and faxes to the people we have elected. When that volume is high enough, those officials will listen or understand that when they ignore us, they do so at their own peril.
Our club is dedicated to getting Democrats elected. But Democrats have to vote like Democrats or we must find others to take their places. Democracy flourishes only when there is an informed and active electorate. We can’t rely on ‘the next guy’ to do the work for us.
The Bush administration left a huge, ugly scar on our democracy. All of us are needed to bring the nation back to its best self. Everyone of us must work for a better, more peaceful future for our nation.
Elna Laun
“Activism need not be a profession in itself. It can be in the writing of a letter to the editor or to your congressperson; it can be in taking part in a local action or a national one or for that matter, a worldwide one; it can be in attending a rally or marching in a parade; it can be in any form, freely expressing your grievance or your hope.”
Studs Terkel
Palm Beach Democratic Club
PO Box 665
Palm Beach, FL 33480
New Improved Military/Industrial Complex
From USA TODAY
In a marketplace awash in firms that help defense companies sell to the Pentagon, the Colorado-based Durango Group has a unique advantage. The firm has become a base of operations for retired officers who also are handsomely paid by the military for their advice. No other defense consulting firm employs more "senior mentors" than Durango. Of the 59 former officers who work for Durango, 15 also serve as mentors.
Durango pays the retired officers to help private companies win and administer Pentagon contracts. As mentors, the retirees are paid by the military to help run war games, which gives them access to classified strategies and weapons systems. Durango brags on its website that these mentoring assignments are signs of its associates' unique connections.
These retired officers, mostly Air Force, are not only paid by Durango and the military but are paid advisers, consultants and corporate directors on the boards of at least 20 companies, according to public records. Three of them work for private equity firms to help them identify, buy and then run defense contractors.
The firms' mentors move seamlessly between roles as paid advisers to the services and paid consultants to defense companies in the same subject areas. As a result, Durango and the mentors it employs draw income from multiple sources. Both get paid by the military for advice and by defense contractors who want consulting help. The firm also benefits from having its mentors serve as corporate directors or advisers for other companies. And all of that is legal.
"That is an amazing conflict of interest," said Craig Holman of the non-partisan watchdog group, Public Citizen. "They are working for two masters. Are they pursuing the public interest, or are they pursuing the contractors' interests? ... The conflict of interest law ought to be expanded to cover this.
The Dow and the Down & Out
“While markets surged past 10,000, the official unemployment rate stood near 10 percent. The United States is in a unique historical position. People on top are doing extraordinarily well, but in the real world the middle class is collapsing. The top 1 percent owns more wealth then the bottom 90 percent. CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. That is not what America is supposed to be about. With all the issues we are dealing with – from health care to global warming to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – please do not forgot what is happening to tens of millions of our brothers and our sisters out there who are struggling hard to keep their heads above water.”
Rep. Bernie Sanders, Ind-VT
How Old is Old Enough for Students to be Approached by Military Recruiters?
Excerpt from Jon Letman, truthout.com
He made the announcement with the same levity he uses in recalling the plot line of Frog and Toad or a Nemo video. My wife and I looked at each other incredulously. "Soldiers came to school? What do you mean?" I asked.
Then I remembered, it was "Career Day" at school. My son mentioned a bus driver too, but it was the soldier who stuck out in his mind. He thought the soldier was cool
The soldier had given my five-year-old a gift. From his yellow backpack, he produced a six-inch, white, plastic ruler with big, bold, red letters reading "ARMY NATIONAL GUARD" next to a waving American flag and below that www.1-800-GO-GUARD.com.
Now we know the answer to the question
The Global War on Stealth Underwear
Excerpt from truthdig article by Robert Scheer
There is no “war” against terrorism. What George W. Bush launched and Barack Obama insists on perpetuating does not qualify unless if by war one means checking a highly suspicious air traveler’s underwear to see if explosives have been sewn in. If Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had put the stuff in his shoes we would have had him because that was tried before, but our government was too preoccupied with fighting unnecessary conventional wars and developing anti-missile defense systems to anticipate such a primitive delivery system.
The explosives-laden underwear worn by an airline passenger was the terrorist’s weapon of choice of a man who had been flagged as a potentially dangerous fanatic, had paid cash for his ticket and had no checked luggage. But it is not a weapon to be effectively countered by deployment of hundreds of thousands of American combat troops. Nor can it be stopped by the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of planes, subs and missiles in our arsenal of Cold War-era weapons, part of an annual defense budget that is higher in inflation-adjusted dollars than at any time in the past half-century.
In response to the 9/11 hijackers, armed with artillery that cost a couple hundred dollars at most, we threw money and attention at conventional military responses while neglecting the difficult police work and the intelligence evaluation and civilian-focused technology necessary to thwart homeland attacks. Yes, there are evildoers out there that mean us harm, as President Bush declaimed. But they are often the products of the best of Western education who, as examples ranging from the lead 9/11 hijackers – the Hamburg group—to the elite University College London-educated engineer in the latest incident demonstrate, move more easily in urbane Western societies than in Afghan villages.
Protecting the U.S. homeland has nothing to do with occupying vast tracts of land or winning the hearts and minds of backward villagers whom we falsely depict as surrogates of an evil empire, as we did in Vietnam and are now doing in Afghanistan.
What is needed is smart police work to catch these highly mobile fanatics, and that begins with actually reading and then acting on the readily available intelligence data. It requires detectives with brains and not generals with firepower.
The ballooning of the defense budget after 9/11 has proved a great boondoggle for the military-industrial complex, which suddenly found an excuse to build weapons and deploy conventional forces against a superpower enemy that no longer exists. But our stealth fighters and bombers designed to defeat Soviet defenses that were never built are a poor match against a terrorist’s stealth underwear.
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High school? Junior high? Fourth grade? How about ten weeks into kindergarten? Last week my five-year-old son announced blithely, "Soldiers came to school today They only kill bad people. They don't kill good people."
Help Iranians by Ignoring the Bomb
Protests on Iran’s streets underline how the Tehran regime is faltering. The West’s obsession risks throwing it a lifeline. The Islamic republic of Iran’s year of living dangerously is finding an apt end in the extraordinary scenes unfolding after the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. The senior cleric’s funeral has turned into a huge anti-government demonstration with tens of thousands of protesters descending on the holy city of Qom.
The YouTube clip of the murder of the young protester Neda Agha-Soltan in the summer’s demonstrations symbolized the Tehran regime’s betrayal of its youth. Her death was a reminder of an older generation betrayed. Montazeri, a founding father of the republic and once a chosen successor of Ayatollah Khomeini, came to despise the monster that grew out of the revolution. He recently denounced the regime’s shock troops, the Basij, as having chosen the “path of Satan”.
Diplomatic observers in Tehran have no doubt about the potential of this moment to change the course of history. Ambassadors from Eastern European countries sense a familiar spirit in the air, and regale their colleagues with stories of the final days of Honecker and Ceausescu.
Its legitimacy eviscerated, support crumbling from top to bottom, you would imagine Tehran to be fielding international protests about its repressive handling of the protests. Instead, it has secured almost a free hand at home by distracting the world with its nuclear ambitions.
No protests about human rights abuses could get in the way of securing a deal with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Iran’s program to create a nuclear bomb. What do we have to show for this venal bargain? Very little. Untenable as this ought to be, strategically as well as morally, a more damning prospect still is emerging. We may be about to provide a dying regime with a lifeline at the moment of its greatest vulnerability. Even if intensified sanctions forced the regime to comply with Western demands over its nuclear project, an unlikely prospect, an agreement between Tehran and the West would benefit only one party, President Ahmadinejad and his illegitimate government.
Deeper sanctions would be welcomed by Mr. Ahmadinejad. It would allow him to appeal to nationalist sentiment and tighten his grip on the economy. (Of course, a military attack would be the ultimate gift to the theocracy, something hardline elements of the regime are reportedly seeking actively to provoke.) Worse still, an agreement would enable the leadership to claim victory without actually impeding its repressive rule. Having lost legitimacy in the streets of its own cities, the regime is being offered a chance to regain it in the halls of the UN. With its very existence in the balance, pressure on the regime to freeze its nuclear program is not a threat, but an opportunity to regain international credibility.
The fracturing of the Islamic republic’s traditional elite, and the persistence and power of Iran’s democratic awakening six months and countless acts of arrest, torture and repression later, make clear that regime change is under way in Iran. Western leaders should ask just one question whenever faced with a new set of measures towards Iran: will they help or hurt Iran’s Green Movement?
The reform movement’s recent chant, “Obama, are you with us or with them” makes plain the West needs to do more. It means providing Israel with security guarantees robust enough to dissuade it from a calamitous strike on Iran. It means using creative covert operations to disable and delay the nuclear program. The West should redirect its focus to helping the new Iran emerging, however erratically, from the fallout of the June elections. This means using every opportunity to highlight support for the Iranian people’s legitimate aspirations in every international forum where Iran is discussed.
From an article by Nader Mousavizadeh, a consulting senior Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a special assistant to Kofi Annan 1997-2003.
A Solution We Can Use
It is not unusual, says Paul Munsen, president of Sun Ovens International Inc., which sells solar cookers, for a family to spend half its income on charcoal, or many of its waking hours scavenging for wood. Trading some of the fires for solar stoves would save money, time, forests—and a significant amount of emissions.
Simple cardboard-and-aluminum stoves are manufactured for as little as $8 each, according to Solar Cookers International, a nonprofit organization that distributes solar stoves to impoverished communities abroad.
President Obama can expand projects in the developing world that have been funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the EPA, and send solar cookers to impoverished people from Haiti to Kenya to Nepal.
Rating Agencies Escape Reform
It doesn't take an expert in finance to figure out there's something rotten with the Big Three credit rating agencies. Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings are an integral part of the financial system, yet they have an inherent conflict of interest. They're paid by the banks and other securities-issuers to rate their products.
It's sort of like "a restaurant paying a critic to review its food and only if the verdict is highly favorable," explains the New York Times. Their incredibly optimistic ratings played a big role in giving investors confidence to invest in exotic securities that collapsed during the financial crisis. But instead of being raked through the coals, the Big Three are making bank, thanks in part to "re-Remics," which are essentially ways to turn downgraded mortgage securities into ones with the strongest of ratings, which seems a lot like profiting "from a mess they helped make," as the NYT puts it.
While some lawmakers have proposed fundamental changes in the system it seems likely the Big Three will emerge intact from reform efforts, partly because of fears that any fundamental changes would spook investors too much and derail a recovery.
Up is Down & Down is Up
From article by Robert Scheer truthdig.com
Maybe I got it wrong. During the presidential campaign I wrote columns blasting John McCain for siding with the big bankers on deregulation, citing his choosing ex-Sen. Phil Gramm, a vice chairman of the Swiss-owned banking giant UBS, as his presidential campaign chair. Campaigner Obama repeatedly blasted Gramm and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which the Texas Republican had pushed through Congress, with President Bill Clinton’s support—legislation that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and radically deregulated the financial industry.
But now the roles are reversed, and it is McCain who, along with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has sponsored a bill to repeal Gramm’s legislation, while Obama seeks to preserve it. The Gramm legislation, which permitted the merger of investment and commercial banks into too-big-to-fail corporations (including Citigroup and AIG that had to be bailed out by taxpayers), was thought by Obama, the candidate, to be a key cause of the meltdown.
But as president he reappointed the Clinton-era officials who had sided with Gramm in ending sensible banking regulations that had protected the public for 70 years and made the U.S. banking system the envy of the world. Rather than restore Glass-Steagall, the Obama-backed banking regulation bill passed last month in the House went along with the Wall Street lobbyists to prevent the breakup of the big conglomerates and to block control of their massive trading in the derivatives that proved to be so toxic.
The result, with some deceptive reformist window dressing, is a pro-business-as-usual cop-out, and the Senate version is likely to be the same. Fortunately, there is a better way, and thanks to the McCain-Cantwell bill and a companion one authored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., in the House, there is still a chance at serious financial regulation through the restoration of the key provisions of Glass-Steagall.
Exploding Salaries of Federal Workers
The percentage of federal workers who make more than $100,000 increased from 14% to 19% during the first 18 months of the recession, reports USA Today. When millions of people have lost their jobs, many federal workers are living large. The ones who were already earning more than the average have been doing particularly well.
In December 2007, there were 1,868 civilian employees at the Defense Department who earned more than $150,000. Now there are more than 10,100. In the Transportation Department there was one person who earned more than $170,000; now there are 1,690.
Get Active & Stay Active
ALERT: 1/22/10 Here's a way to help Haiti by supporting a progressive organization which was there before the earthquake, is there now & will be there after.
Why Do They Hate Us?
A US court has absolved the Blackwater murderers in the unprovoked killing of 14 Iraqi civilians. If we opened a school for terrorists, we could not do more harm.
Obama Chef Stars on YouTube
Jane Black Washington Post 12/17/09
First, he was profiled in Men's Health magazine. Then it was People. Now White House assistant chef Sam Kass has taken the first step to small-screen stardom. And by small screen, that means YouTube.
The White House released a video of Kass and Agriculture Department officials readying the South Lawn garden for winter. A group of what appear to be a dozen volunteers set up hoop houses, a kind of temporary greenhouse, in which staff members will grow cold-weather greens for the White House table. The group also planted a cover crop of rye, which will help protect and enrich the soil during the cold months.
Kass introduces the USDA video. In it, Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan talks up a new agency program called "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food," which helps support smaller farmers and local and regional food systems.
USDA brass also outlined a new policy under which farmers who want to build their own hoop houses would get assistance. The tunnels, made of ribs of plastic or metal pipe covered with a layer of plastic sheeting, are easy to build, maintain and move. They can help provide steady incomes to farmers by letting them grow produce year-round.
So what is the White House growing this winter? In a blog post, Kass said the team has planted spinach, lettuce, carrots, mustard greens, chard and cabbage. He is especially looking forward to winter spinach, which is so sweet that it "tastes almost like candy."
What a great idea for our schools and public areas. Let’s replace some of that fake Florida grass.
A True Progressive Democrat
a board member of Progressive Democrats for America and Voters for Peace. He served as press secretary for Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign and has been a leading voice for the prosecution of Bush and Cheney for war crimes.
Beginning in November 2009 Swanson served as an online organizer and blogger for a campaign to oppose First Amendment free speech rights for corporations. He created a website for CODE PINK. Swanson regularly serves as a judge in the annual labor media contest overseen by the International Labor Communications Association.
He has been ...Published in Baltimore Sun, Washington Examiner, Humanist, quoted in and reported on in the Nation, In These Times, Progressive and Mother Jones and on the web on: DavidSwanson.org, Democrats.com, PDAmerica.org, AfterDowningStreet.org, Truthout.org, Alternet.org, TomPaine.com, HuffingtonPost.org, OpEdNews.com, American Chronicle, Democratic Underground, DailyKos.com, MichaelMoore.com, BuzzFlash.com, ConsortiumNews.com.
He is often heard on Pacifica, Air America, other progressive radio programs in addition to being seen on Fox, CNN, PBS, C-Span, Democracy Now!, Free Speech TV, Link TV,
Throughout the ferment of the Bush-Cheney years, the calls for change that followed, and the new moment we are all hoping to seize, David Swanson has stood at the forefront of citizens movements for a more just America. Popular blogger, a leader of the antiwar and pro-impeachment movements, and a star progressive, Swanson is, as John Nichols calls him, “the true heir of the most radical—and thus the most American—of our Founders.” His book is an assessment of how Bush/Cheney fundamentally altered the way our government works, inflated the powers of the executive, and deteriorated the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Only through the active efforts of citizens, Swanson argues, can we restore our rights, and expand our conception of political rights to meet new challenges. Daybreak offers a shocking and inspirational breakdown of all that we have lost, and all that we have to gain.
What powers were stripped from Congress and handed to the White House, and what will it take to permanently move them back? Which of these powers is Barack Obama making use of or even expanding upon? And in the future, how can we embellish our rights, create democratic representation in Congress, and make presidents into executives rather than emperors?
Swanson lives in Charlottesville VA with his wife Anna Swanson and son Wesley, and can see Thomas Jefferson's house Monticello from his window. James Madison's house is also close enough for Swanson to feel it when he rolls in his grave.
David Swanson, a Democratic progressive leader, has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director. He is co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, creator of ProsecuteBushCheney.org, the Washington Director of Democrats.com and
A Great Idea in Tallahassee
From the desk of Rep. Mark Pafford, D Dist 88
The FCAT offers only a snapshot of a student’s ability. HB473, sponsored by Rep. Dwight Bullard (D-Miami), calls for replacing the FCAT with comprehensive end-of-year exams which would expand school accountability by focusing on the entirety of a student’s scholastic achievement throughout the year including Civics, Geography, World History and the Humanities which the FCAT does not cover.
If Rep. Bullard’s bill becomes law, its reforms would be implemented in the 2014-2015 school year. FCAT ratings are used now to punish schools which is bad for students, bad for teachers, and bad for Florida’s future.
“What I want to do is signal that Afghanistan is going to be $5 billion to $10 billion a month and 300 to 500 killed and wounded a month by next summer. That’s what we probably should expect. And that’s light casualties,” retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, adjunct professor of international affairs at West Point.
"Politics isn't about left versus right; it's about top versus bottom."
Jim Hightower
Hidden in the “Health” Bill
Another poison pill buried in the so-called Health Care bill is an amendment that would provide $50 million in federal funding for Abstinence Only Education which promotes virginity but not condom use and has been blamed for a slowdown in the decline of the national teen pregnancy rate. "We're optimistic," said a spokesman for the National Abstinence Education Association. "Nothing is certain, but we're hopeful."
Program directors had expected to lose funding after President Obama authorized a federal budget that directed teen pregnancy prevention money to programs that have been "proven effective through rigorous evaluation." "This is a last-ditch attempt by conservatives to resuscitate a program that has been proven to be ineffective," the president of Advocates for Youth complained.
Let's work together to move the Democratic Party back to its job of representing the people who worked to put them in office. We need 2 parties in America.
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