Israel Attacks Humanitarian Aid Ship!; Gulf Oil Leak Here for Months; ACORN innocent but Opponents GUILTY! (posted 05/31/10)

- BP: 'Top Kill' Has Failed to Stop Gulf Oil Leak BP has abandoned its most recent "top kill" effort to contain its well, a company official announced Saturday evening.
"After three full days, we have been unable to overcome the flow," said the company's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles.

In its next effort to halt what its officials have called an "environmental catastrophe," BP will cut off the leaking riser at the top of the five-story blowout preventer atop the wellhead to get an even surface on the broken pipe.

- Oil to Spill Into Gulf 'for at Least Two More Months' Millions of gallons of oil could be gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for at least the next two months, as Barack Obama's top energy adviser said the spill was the biggest environmental disaster in US history.

- Fake ACORN Pimp Pleads Guilty; the New Yorker Adds its Voice to the Anti-ACORN Story What's the difference between James O'Keefe, who made national headlines with his ACORN undercover video, and ACORN? O'Keefe is a criminal and ACORN is not. Yesterday O'Keefe pleaded guilty to charges of entering federal property under false pretenses when he attempted to embarrass Senator Mary Landrieu because of her support for the health care legislation.

- Live coverage: Israel's flotilla raid


Israel Attacks Gaza Aid Fleet
Published on Monday, May 31, 2010 by Al Jazeera English
Israeli forces have attacked a flotilla of aid-carrying ships aiming to break the country's siege on Gaza.

People protest against Israel in front of the Israeli ambassador's residence in the Turkish capital Ankara on May 31. At least 10 activists were killed before dawn on Monday when Israeli navy commandos stormed a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, sparking international outrage and plunging the Jewish state into a diplomatic crisis.(AFP/Adem Altan)

At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured when troops intercepted the convoy of ships dubbed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, Israeli radio reported.

The flotilla was attacked in international waters, 65km off the Gaza coast.

Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, confirmed that the attack took place in international waters, saying: "This happened in waters outside of Israeli territory, but we have the right to defend ourselves."
Footage from the flotilla's lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, showed armed Israeli soldiers boarding the ship and helicopters flying overhead.

Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, on board the Mavi Marmara, said Israeli troops had used live ammunition during the operation.

The Israeli military said four soldiers had been wounded and claimed troops opened fire after "demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF Naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs".

Free Gaza Movement, the organisers of the flotilla, however, said the troops opened fire as soon as they stormed the convoy.

Our correspondent said that a white surrender flag was raised from the ship and there was no live fire coming from the passengers.

Before losing communication with our correspondent, a voice in Hebrew was clearly heard saying: "Everyone shut up".

Israeli intervention
Earlier, the Israeli navy had contacted the captain of the Mavi Marmara, asking him to identify himself and say where the ship was headed.

Shortly after, two Israeli naval vessels had flanked the flotilla on either side, but at a distance.

Organisers of the flotilla carrying 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid then diverted their ships and slowed down to avoid a confrontation during the night.

They also issued all passengers life jackets and asked them to remain below deck.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Jerusalem, said the Israeli action was surprising.

"All the images being shown from the activists on board those ships show clearly that they were civilians and peaceful in nature, with medical supplies on board. So it will surprise many in the international community to learn what could have possibly led to this type of confrontation," he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli police have been put on a heightened state of alert across the country to prevent any civil disturbances.

Sheikh Raed Salah,a leading member of the Islamic Movement who was on board the ship, was reported to have been seriously injured. He was being treated in Israel's Tal Hasharon hospital.

In Um Al Faham, the stronghold of the Islamic movement in Israel and the birth place of Salah, preparations for mass demonstrations were under way.

Protests
Condemnation has been quick to pour in after the Israeli action.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, officially declared a three-day state of mourning over Monday's deaths.

Turkey, Spain, Greece, Denmark and Sweden have all summoned the Israeli ambassador's in their respective countries to protest against the deadly assault.

Thousands of Turkish protesters tried to storm the Israeli consulate in Istanbul soon after the news of the operation broke. The protesters shouted "Damn Israel" as police blocked them.

"(The interception on the convoy) is unacceptable ... Israel will have to endure the consequences of this behaviour," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.  

Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, has also dubbed the Israeli action as "barbaric".
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists, including a Nobel laureate and several European legislators, were with the flotilla, aiming to reach Gaza in defiance of an Israeli embargo.
The convoy came from the UK, Ireland, Algeria, Kuwait, Greece and Turkey, and was comprised of about 700 people from 50 nationalities.

But Israel had said it would not allow the flotilla to reach the Gaza Strip and vowed to stop the six ships from reaching the coastal Palestinian territory.

The flotilla had set sail from a port in Cyprus on Sunday and aimed to reach Gaza by Monday morning.

Israel said the boats were embarking on "an act of provocation" against the Israeli military, rather than providing aid, and that it had issued warrants to prohibit their entrance to Gaza.

It asserted that the flotilla would be breaking international law by landing in Gaza, a claim the organisers rejected.

Sean

Howard Zinn Dies; Global Warming is Ignored and Worsens; Media Wrong on ACORN again; Hypocritical Republican Media; more (posted 01/27/10)

- Anti-ACORN Filmmaker Arrested Federal authorities have arrested four men on felony charges for attempting to infiltrate Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office, including one Republican filmmaker who targeted the community group ACORN last year in undercover videos. According to the FBI, the four men could each face up to 10 years and a fine of $250,000 if they are convicted.

- ACORN Is Back in the News, but the News Still Gets it Wrong O'Keefe's antics might have been dismissed as a clever college-age prank except that, with the help of veteran right-wing journalist Andrew Breitbart, who runs the biggovernment.org website, the videos became part of a right-wing campaign to destroy ACORN, a progressive grassroots anti-poverty community organization.
Fox News broadcast those videos on a virtual round-the-clock basis, causing a controversy far out of proportion to its news value. The conservative echo chamber, particularly Glenn Beck and his Fox News cohorts, treated O"Keefe like a celebrity hero and broadcast his videos continually. Their videos and other attacks on ACORN became a regular staple of the right-wing blogosphere. The conservatives sought to discredit ACORN and, by linking the group to President Obama, undermine Obama and his liberal agenda.

- How Will SCOTUS Decision Affect Corporate Media? In 2004, the United Church of Christ produced a television commercial promoting its inclusive approach to organized faith. The ad showed two nightclub-style bouncers guarding the rope line of a church as they denied entry to a gay male couple, several people of color, and a man in a wheelchair. By contrast, a white family of four had no problems getting through.

"Jesus didn't turn people away" was the ad's tagline, but CBS did, turning down the commercial which was intended for broadcast during that year's Super Bowl. The 30-second spot apparently violated the network's policy of "prohibiting advocacy ads, even ones that carry an 'implicit' endorsement for a side in a public debate."
Now, six years later, CBS has agreed to run an ad by the notoriously anti-reproductive rights, anti-gay organization Focus on the Family, featuring college football star and anti-choice crusader Tim Tebow....

The media love to talk about transparency and accountability when it comes to politicians and the government -- they should, it's an important subject. They, too, have an obligation of transparency to the American people.

It is long past time these powerful corporate media institutions make their policies surrounding political and issue-advocacy ads readily available, publicly transparent, clear, and, most importantly, consistent.

- Howard Zinn, Historian who Challenged Status Quo, Dies at 87 Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87.  "His writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our lives," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once wrote of Dr. Zinn. "When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and trustworthy guide."

- Goodbye Howard Zinn (with VIDEO, watch!) Zinn's brand of history put common citizens at the center of the story and inspired generations of young activists and academics to remember that change is possible. As he wrote in his autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (1994), "From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than ‘objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble."


Scientists Warn Doing Nothing Will Likely Lock in Worst Consequences of Climate Change
UCS Says Cap on Global Warming Emissions Essential
Published on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Union of Concerned Scientists
WASHINGTON - Three top U.S. climate scientists stressed on a telephone press conference today the United States must rapidly reduce its global warming emissions to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. The scientists, all of whom have been involved in U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, were speaking during a telephone press briefing organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

An environmental activist walks next to a snowman as part of a climate change awareness action in Berlin January 22, 2010. (REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch)

The prospects for federal action on climate are uncertain. Some senators have suggested the Senate may not consider a climate bill this year. Meanwhile Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has introduced a resolution that would undermine the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority to regulate heat-trapping emissions under the Clean Air Act.

"Policymakers must understand that unlike a steel tariff, action on climate change is not something that can be postponed a year," said Richard Somerville, a research professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and co-author of the Copenhagen Diagnosis, a synthesis of the most policy-relevant climate science since the 2007 IPCC report. "The longer we delay in reducing our emissions, the higher the global temperature increase we lock in."

Reporters on the call asked the scientists for their perspective on the controversy surrounding stolen emails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit and an error about Himalayan glaciers in an IPCC report.

"It's time for policymakers to pay attention to the atmosphere and not the blogosphere," said Peter Frumhoff, UCS's director of science and policy. "While climate naysayers spout all sorts of excuses for not taking action, heat-trapping emissions continue to accumulate in the atmosphere, making the problem worse."

Robert Corell, a scientist with the Arctic Governance Project and the Global Environment and Technology Foundation, reminded reporters that the science is solid. "The vast body of peer-reviewed literature speaks for itself," Corell said. "Claims that say otherwise are completely unjustified."

Some climate legislation opponents now are calling for a stand-alone energy bill that includes renewable energy and energy efficiency standards without a cap on carbon emissions. This approach would fail to deliver the necessary emissions reductions, said Frumhoff. Scientists have indicated that cuts of at least 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 are required. To reach that goal, the government must ensure reductions of at least 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

The energy bill passed by the Senate Energy Committee in July, which could go to the Senate floor, would not reduce emissions enough and therefore should not be seen as a substitute for a comprehensive climate bill, according to UCS. Because of its various loopholes and exemptions, the bill would do less to promote renewable energy sources than state policies already in place.

Conversely, a cap like the one in the House's "American Clean Energy and Security Act," which it passed last June, would put a price on carbon emissions, providing a market incentive for polluters to reduce their emissions and rewarding clean technology innovations.

"Economists agree that a carbon price is a critical, cost-effective way for the United States to reduce its emissions and transition to a clean energy economy," said Rachel Cleetus, an economist at UCS. "A strong cap would encourage investments in clean energy sources and energy efficiency and help ensure that U.S. companies capture a share of the growing global market in clean technologies. Green is the new red, white and blue."

The clean tech industry is the growth industry of the future, she said. The United States must act quickly to secure a leadership role in this industry, rather than ceding it to China and other nations that are rapidly expanding their renewable energy industries.
A cap would not interfere with economic growth, Cleetus added. According to the EPA, Energy Information Administration and Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. economy would continue to grow robustly under the cap in the House "American Clean Energy and Security Act." Costs to households, meanwhile, would be marginal. By contrast, the costs of inaction could be immense, according to a report UCS issued last year. Unchecked climate change will likely impose massive social, environmental and economic losses from rising sea levels, intense coastal storms, erratic weather patterns, drought and flooding, crippled infrastructure, and collapsed ecosystems.

"A bill that creates a cap would generate significant revenues to help in the transition to a clean energy economy," said Cleetus. "Revenues could be used to subsidize weatherization and other improvements in energy efficiency that would save money for low- and middle-income households, as well as to train workers for new clean energy jobs."

Finally, if Congress does not enact an emissions reductions plan sometime in the next few months, it will lower worldwide confidence in the United States' ability to live up to its pledge, to reduce emissions "in the range" of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, in the Copenhagen Accord, said UCS Director of Policy and Strategy Alden Meyer, who has been involved in international climate negotiations for 20 years. "Much would depend on President Obama's ability to lay out a clear path forward for the United States to meet its commitment in the absence of Senate action."

Sean

The Climate Crisis is REAL; Republicans Stall Healthcare Reform While 135,000 Die; Another Dumb War; ACORN Unjustly Attacked; The Rightwing Media LIES ( posted 12/15/09)

- While Republicans Block Healthcare Reform, 135,000 Uninsured Americans Will Die Before Reform Takes Effect, Analysis Finds A Raw Story analysis, based on a recent Harvard Medical School study, estimates that 135,000 American citizens and over 6,600 US veterans will die due to a lack of health insurance before current proposed healthcare reform measures would take effect. ... Even more shocking is that these are modest estimates.

- Gravel's Lament: Fighting Another Dumb War Barack Obama, who is as mesmerized by the red, white and blue bunting draped around our vast killing machine as the press, the two main political parties and our entertainment industry, will not halt our doomed imperial projects or renege on the $1 trillion in defense-related spending that is hollowing out the country from the inside. A plague of unchecked militarism has seeped outward from the Pentagon since the end of World War II and is now sucking our marrow dry. It is a familiar disease in imperial empires. We are in the terminal stage. We spend more on our military-half of all discretionary spending-than all of the other countries on Earth combined, although we face no explicit threat.

- The Racist War on ACORN; Why ACORN Won ACORN has been a target of right-wing politicians for years. Conservatives hate ACORN primarily because it registered over two million people to vote since 2003 and because it has an overwhelming African American, working class, Democratic-voting, membership.

Fox News is obsessed with ACORN. Google Fox News and ACORN and you will see over two million hits. Google Glenn Beck and ACORN and you get over a million hits, six hundred thousand for Rush, and three hundred thousand for Michelle Malkin.

- There Is No Liberal Media (video clip from Keith Olberman's Show)

- Did the Yes Men Punk Canada in Copenhagen? So, did you hear the one about Canada making a huge splash at the COP15 Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen by completely reversing its climate change policy and setting aggressive new carbon reduction targets? Well, then you've heard about a high-concept prank ... We're guessing this is probably the work of the Yes Men, obviously!

- This Is Bigger Than Climate Change. It Is a Battle to Redefine Humanity This is the moment at which we turn and face ourselves. Here, in the plastic corridors and crowded stalls, among impenetrable texts and withering procedures, humankind decides what it is and what it will become. It chooses whether to continue living as it has done, until it must make a wasteland of its home, or to stop and redefine itself. This is about much more than climate change. This is about us.


Copenhagen: Only the Numbers Count - and They Add up to Hell on Earth
Climate Interactive's software speaks numbers, not spin - which is where the true understanding of the Copenhagen summit lies
by Bill McKibben
Published on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 by The Guardian/UK
 
The Bella centre is a swirl of chatter, the streets of Copenhagen are a swirl of protest. Depending on what hour you listen to the news bulletin, the UN climate negotiations have "come off the rails" or are "back on track" or have "stalled" or are "moving swiftly". Which is why the only people who really understand what's going on may be a small crew of folks from a group of computer jockeys called Climate Interactive. Their software speaks numbers, not spin - and in the end it's the numbers that count.

First number to know: 350. It's what scientists have been saying for two years is the maximum amount of carbon dioxide we can safely have in the atmosphere, measured in parts per million. Those scientists have been joined by an unprecedented outpouring from civil society: in late October, activists put on what CNN called "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history," with 5,200 demonstrations in 181 countries, all rallying around that number. Three thousand vigils last weekend across the planet spelled out the number in candles. Thousands of churches rang their bells 350 times on Sunday, and yesterday the World Parliament of Religions, meeting in Melbourne and representing the "largest interreligious gathering on earth" sent an emergency 350 declaration here to Copenhagen.

The second number: 100. That's (roughly) how many countries are backing a 350 target here at Copenhagen. That's more than half the nations in attendance - unfortunately, they're the small, poor ones. But it's amazing to see them, in the face of enormous pressure, keeping the idea of real action alive. Yesterday Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, spoke to a roaring crowd of thousands: "We know what the laws of physics say: the most important number in the world is 350."

The third number: 4%. That's how much the US is offering to cut its emissions from their 1990 levels by 2020. Scientists tell us that the developed world would need to reduce by at least 40% to get us back on a 350 track, so the American offer is exactly an order or magnitude off. And they're not alone. All the rich countries, not to mention China, are looking to do as little as possible and still escape here with some kind of agreement they can hide behind.

The fourth number - and the most important one. When the folks at Climate Interactive plug in every promise made at these talks (the American offer on the table, the Chinese promise to reduce "energy intensity", the EU pledges, and so on) their software tells them almost instantly how much carbon they would eventually produce. When they hit the button last night, the program showed that by 2100 the world's CO2 concentrations (currently 390) would be - drumroll please - 770. That is, we would live in hell, or at least a place with a similar temperature.

So that's the scorecard. You may hear a lot of happy talk from world leaders over the next few days as they "reach a historic agreement". But that's how it all adds up.

Sean

Americans Forget about Climate Change; Grayson ROCKS!; Republican Hypocrisy; Republicans say US 'Entitled' to Iraqi Oil?!; more (posted 10/23/09)

- American Public More Complacent About Climate Change According to the survey by the Pew Research Centre for the People & the Press, 65 percent of the public believes that warming constitutes either a "very serious" (35 percent) or "somewhat serious" (30 percent) problem, down from 79 percent in July 2006 and from 73 percent just 18 months ago.
The survey also recorded a sharp drop in the percentage of the public that believes that "there is solid evidence the Earth is warming" - down from 71 percent in April, 2008, to 57 percent - and in the percentage that believes global warming is caused primarily by human activity - from 47 percent to 36 percent over the same period.

- Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now It's the #1 question I'm constantly asked after people see my movie: "OK -- so NOW what can I DO?!" You want something to do? Well, you've come to the right place! 'Cause I got 15 things you and I can do right now to fight back and try to fix this very broken system.

- Study Shows 151 Members of House and Senate Who are Opposed to Public Option Get the "Public Option" Themselves! A new study by Representative Anthony Weiner (D - Queens & Brooklyn), member of the Health Subcommittee and Co-Chair of the Caucus on the Middle Class, revealed that 151 members of the House and Senate currently receive government-funded; government-administered single-payer health care - Medicare.
On the list of recipients are 55 Republicans who have steadfastly opposed other Americans getting the public option, like the one they have chosen. Weiner said, "Even in a town known for hypocrisy, this list of 55 Members of Congress deserve some sort of prize. They apparently think the public option is ok for them, but not anyone else."

- Republican T. Boone Pickens says US Firms 'Entitled' to Iraqi Oil Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens (huge moronic Republican and Bush supporter) told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are "entitled" to some of Iraq's crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq. (What about the 650,000 to one million Iraqi civilians we killed as a result of the US invasion of Iraq?)

- Congressman Grayson Wins Another Round in Healthcare Debate Florida Congressman Alan Grayson keeps provoking congressional Republicans and their media allies with fact-based challenges to the lies being used to block health care reform. (also watch video below).


Democratic Representative Alan Grayson tries to explain the U.S. Constitution to Congressional Republicans
The Congress today had five minutes of worthwhile dialogue
Published Oct. 22, 2009 on Salon.com
by Glenn Greenwald

Earlier today, Republican Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia introduced yet another amendment to deny all funding to ACORN. Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson took the five minutes allotted to him to question Broun about this thing called "the Constitution" and, specifically, "bills of attainder," which happen to be prohibited by the "Constitution." What ensued is both hilarious and very worthwhile.

(NOTE FROM SEAN: watch to the end for full explanation, also read this thread that explains how the Republicans are unfairly targeting ACORN, because they register many poor voters who ultimately vote Democratic. So, because poor people tend to vote Democratic, the Republicans have sought to destroy ACORN, recently by removing federal support from the organization through an illegal Bill of Attainder. A bill of attainder is an act of the legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. This is what the Republicans have tried to do to ACORN).
 
Every member of Congress should be subjected to questioning like this on a daily basis (For those interested, my interview with Grayson several weeks ago about ACORN and bills of attainder is here):

Sean

The Lies about ACORN; Republicans are Pro-Rape; Racist Republicans; Climate Change; US Supports War Criminals; Single Payer Health Care; more (posted 10/16/09)

- Republicans Side with Rapists! Yes, You Read that Correctly! Thanks to democratic senator Al Franken, US defense firms (like Haliburton, etc) are to be barred from lucrative government contracts if they refuse to allow employees access to the courts, this after a woman working for a Halliburton subsidiary in Iraq was prevented from taking legal action after being gang raped by fellow workers.

- The Gang Rape and the Republicans It's a story from the dark political underbelly that makes you question the entire setup, rethink humanity, and lean out your window and scream: what the hell is wrong with these people? Who are they, really? Why do we give them power?

Here is freshman Minnesota senator Al Franken's first-ever legislative action, a relatively simple, almost laughably surefire bill requiring the Pentagon no longer do business with any contractor -- like former Vice President Dick Cheney's company Halliburton -- that requires its employees to agree that she cannot sue said contractor if she is, oh let's just say, gang raped by its employees.

The most repellant part is the 30 U.S. senators -- Republicans each and every one -- who just stepped forth to vote against the Franken amendment, essentially saying no, women should have no right to sue if they are sexually abused or gang raped, Halliburton and its ilk must be protected at all costs...

- Republican Congress Members Call for Investigation of Muslim Political Activity CAIR is a non-profit organization of American citizens who are Muslim and their "mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding." They stand accused of plotting to influence members of Congress and trying to help interns obtain positions in Congress in order to advance their political agenda. That's consistent with what virtually every political advocacy group in the nation does; it's normally called activism and democracy. But because, in this case, it's a group of Muslims who are doing this, these House Republicans are depicting it as some sort of nefarious espinage plot against the U.S. that demands a criminal investigation.

- Why We Need Single Payer Health Care: Insurer ends health program rather than pay out big Ian Pearl has fought for his life every day of his 37 years. Confined to a wheelchair and hooked to a breathing tube, the muscular dystrophy victim refuses to give up. But his insurance company, Guardian, already has.

Legally barred from discriminating against individuals who submit large claims, the New York-based insurer simply canceled lines of coverage altogether in entire states to avoid paying high-cost claims like Mr. Pearl's.

In an e-mail, one Guardian Life Insurance Co. executive called high-cost patients such as Mr. Pearl "dogs" that the company could "get rid of." A federal court quickly ruled that the company's actions were legal, so on Dec. 1, barring an order by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Pearl will lose his benefits.

- US Berated for Shielding Israel on Gaza Killings A U.S. decision to stall Security Council action against Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for war crimes during the 22-day conflict in Gaza last December has come under heavy fire both from inside and outside the United Nations.

The number of Palestinians killed during the recent conflict is estimated at between 1,387 and 1,417, mostly civilians, compared with four Israeli fatal casualties in southern Israel and nine soldiers killed during fighting, four of whom died as a result of friendly fire.

- She Who Has Borne the Battle Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) has released a report, "Women Warriors: Supporting She 'Who Has Borne the Battle,'" on the horrific and largely overlooked problems facing women veterans, who make up over 11% of those serving in America's wars. Among the findings: last year's 3,000 reports of sexual assault, widely viewed as a fraction of the true number; divorce rates triple that of male soldiers; inadequate health care; and rising homelessness.

- The Arctic Will Be Ice-Free in Summer within 20 Years, Research Says The Arctic will be ice-free in summer within 20 years, the study found, while the Earth will lose the white cap that can be seen in photographs taken from space.



The ACORN Standard
by Jeremy Scahill
Published on Thursday, October 15, 2009 by The Nation
 
The nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight and Reform recently revealed that the top 100 government contractors made nearly $300 billion from federal contracts in 2007 alone. Since 1995 these same contractors have been involved with 676 cases of "misconduct" and were paid $26 billion in fines to settle cases stemming from fraud, waste or abuse. Fines and other penalties, it seems, are simply the stunningly small price of doing government business.

Take the case of the top three war contractors, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman. These companies have engaged in 108 instances of misconduct since 1995 and have paid fines or settlements totaling nearly $3 billion. In 2007 they won some $77 billion in federal contracts. Or consider pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which in September paid $2.3 billion to settle a slew of criminal and civil cases, including Medicaid fraud. According to the Justice Department, this was "the largest healthcare fraud settlement" in its history. Yet Pfizer made more than $40 billion in profits last year and won $73 million in federal contracts in 2007; it continues to do robust business with the government. Not bad for a "corporate felon."

Unfortunately, neither Pfizer nor the largest US military contractors are targets of significant Congressional action. Instead it's ACORN, a community organization that trains and advocates for poor and working-class Americans. Over the past fifteen years, ACORN has received just $53 million in federal funds, much of it for low-income housing.

Despite--or perhaps because of--its efforts to empower some 500,000 member families, ACORN was the subject of a sting video produced by a right-wing activist that featured a fake pimp and prostitute seeking tax advice. The group swiftly fired the handful of employees who were entrapped, but that didn't put an end to the storm. Fox News aired the video repeatedly, and right-wing astroturf operative Rick Berman set up a Rotten ACORN website. The campaign was wildly successful. In mid-September all but seventy-five House Democrats and seven senators voted with their Republican colleagues to bar the group from receiving federal funds.

ACORN, like all organizations receiving federal dollars, should be subject to Congressional scrutiny. But ACORN was clearly singled out for political reasons. Those Democrats who voted for the "defund ACORN" bill should be required to explain their reasoning to their constituents, particularly when so few of them have taken substantive actions to apply the ACORN standard to corporate criminals with real rap sheets.

A small but growing number of lawmakers are fighting to confront out-of-control corporations. Here are three legislative initiatives that stand out:

§ HR 3679. Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota introduced her own ACORN Act--the Against Corporations Organizing to Rip off the Nation Act--which seeks to deny federal funds to "corporations or companies guilty of certain felony convictions." Pfizer is singled out, but the act could be applied to other corporations too. "Why are companies that break the law as a business strategy allowed to receive taxpayer funds?" asks McCollum. "A government contract is a privilege, not a right. If a company commits a felony against the people of the United States, then that privilege must end." Significantly, Wisconsin Representative David Obey, chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has signed on as a co-sponsor. Obey also voted to defund ACORN.

§ In the Senate, Bernie Sanders put forward an amendment to the current defense authorization bill (HR3326 S. AMDT. 2617) that calls on the defense secretary to conduct a wide-ranging study of the money the government pays to contractors that have been indicted, settled charges or been fined by any federal agency, as well as those that have been convicted of fraud. It also calls for recommendations on how to penalize contractors that are "repeatedly" involved with fraud. "Virtually every major defense contractor in this country has, for a period of many years, been engaged in systemic, illegal and fraudulent behavior while receiving hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money," says Sanders. While Sanders is just calling for a "study," the spirit of his amendment could be the basis for legislation that targets corporate criminals receiving federal dollars.

§ Several Congressional offices say they are weighing the possibility of introducing legislation that would apply the ACORN standard to companies like Blackwater, whose operatives will stand trial next year on manslaughter charges stemming from killing Iraqi civilians; or KBR, which is being investigated in connection with the electrocution deaths of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq. Representative Jan Schakowsky says she is considering reintroducing a version of her 2007 Stop Outsourcing Security Act, which sought to ban the use of Blackwater and other mercenary companies from performing armed activities on the federal payroll. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a co-sponsor in the Senate, now oversees the work of Blackwater and other armed State Department contractors, increasingly employed in Afghanistan.

Florida Representative Alan Grayson is spearheading calls for fraudulent military contractors to be defunded under the anti-ACORN legislation. He points to Halliburton's misconduct and its "extreme and gross negligence...putting in showers in Iraq that end up electrocuting soldiers, and feeding them poisoned water." The federal funding ACORN has received over the past twenty years, Grayson says, "is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq."

And for more on the republican lies about ACORN, watch these segments from the Rachel Maddow show which explain it all. Very interesting:

The Media Fails ACORN: http://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/09/25-0

Republicans Lie ABout ACORN: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/25-1

GOP seeking wedge issue in ACORN: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#33064799

ACORN on Republican Hit List: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#33080922

The Man Behind the Lies about ACORN, also claims Global Climate Change is fake: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#33111033

Sean