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Undernews For October 8, 2009
Undernews For October 8, 2009
THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
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October 6, 2009
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WORD
What makes a long residence in Washington so bad for one's temper is the horrible display of vanity, especially among the men. If ever, once, in all these forty years that I have known statesmen, I had met one solitary individual who thought, even at intervals, of anyone or anything but himself, I would forgive him as a sad example of human eccentricity, and say no word against him - Henry Adams 1902
FLOTSAM & JETSAM: LOSS OF OLYMPICS NO BIG DEAL
Sam Smith
One of the most common - and costly - myths is that urban economies are improved by things like stadiums - especially for the Olympics. For example, I watched my own home town,. Washington, spend several billions for stadiums, convention centers, faux urban renewal and a a new subway system, and still end up with fewer jobs for local residents.
Smith College economics professor Andrew Zimbalist estimated the benefits of a new sports franchise to be roughly the same as opening a branch of Macy's. Potential benefits are often dissipated by wrong location, excessive city subsidy, cost overruns, faulty projections and just plain corruption.
Sadly, iconic liberals - those who think a tall building or a black president is the answer to all our problems - are among the biggest boosters of edifice economics, so it was not surprising to find Rachel Maddow joining the Olympic funeral choir. Cartoonist Mike Flugennock reacted this way in a note he sent me:
[] It wasn't just the bare-assed naked sense of entitlement on display on Maddow's program this evening that burnt my toast, it was the thinly-veiled suggestion that not only rooting against Chicago in the Olympic voting was somehow unpatriotic, but that somehow only the Teabaggers and other right wingnuts were glad to see Chicago lose out.
Her seeming willful ignorance of the fact that there were substantial numbers of people on the left -- workers' rights advocates, anti-gentrification activists and others -- who, for the right reasons, were also cheering Chicago's losing out on the chance to host the gentrifiers' land grab, the corporatization of public space and the financial debacle known as the Olympic Games.
I can still remember that day here in DC, back in '02, when I was in the meeting room at the District Building, covering the Olympic host-city voting announcement for the DC Indymedia Center, photographing with barely concealed glee the cheers and applause erupting from a contingent of housing activists in the room when it was announced that Washington, DC's bid to host the 2012 Games had gone down in flames.
Thinking back on that day here in DC reminds me what really made me feel slapped in the face tonight -- that Rachel Maddow would play that shopworn old vast right-wing conspiracy card, and totally ignore the widespread anti-Olympic-hosting sentiment on the left in Chicago. []
But that's where we are and it's not a new phenomenon. As Tom Frank wrote in the Chicago Reader more than a decade ago: "The time is not far distant when indoor stadiums will be filled entirely with millionaires not watching as other millionaires cavort on the artificial turf below." In fact by the beginning of this decade over 300 cities had built convention centers to compete with other cities that had built convention centers. And every one of them world class.
The idea, Richard Sennett has written, goes back to the 1860s design for Paris by Baron Haussmann. Haussmann, Sennett suggests, bequeathed us the notion that we could alter social patterns by changing the physical landscape. This notion was not about urban amenities such as park benches and gas lighting or technological improvements such as indoor plumbing but about what G. K. Chesterton called the huge modern heresy of "altering the human soul to fit its conditions, instead of altering human conditions to fit the human soul."
Eventually this idea would produce waves of urban renewal, freeways, convention centers, stadiums, subways, pedestrian malls, aquariums, waterfront developments, casinos and riverboat gambling -- all in the name of urban progress and a happier tax base. But as one city's weekly paper asked of a planned aquarium, "How many big fish can the American public be expected to look at?" Few of these schemes would ever come close to realizing the claims made on their behalf. Few were little more than a false front on a city's declining core and fraying soul.
So don't shed any tears for Chicago. It came out ahead as a city and, if it has the soul, it can use some of the money it saved for all those of its citizens who can't afford buy a ticket to a baseball game, let alone the Olympics.
MORNING LINE
If Obama were to run for reelection today, he'd have no trouble against any of the major challengers. But the story in the Senate is not as good. Right now it looks like the Democrats will lose 3 seats and there are five contests with unclear results. Democrats stand to lose 2 governorships with 3 unclear. Chart
15 REASONS TO GET OUT OF VIETGHANISTAN
David Swanson
1. The planning of 9-11 was done in hotels and apartments in Germany and Spain, and flight schools in the United States. Even Paul Pillar, former CIA deputy chief for counter-terrorism will tell you that an al Qaeda base in Afghanistan would not significantly increase threats to the United States.
2. If the Taliban had control of Afghanistan, it would likely not allow al Qaeda in. Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. president's guy in Afghanistan, will tell you the same.
3. The Taliban would not necessarily gain full control of Afghanistan if the United States left. It never had it before, and appears unlikely to be able to take it now. These three points, as Robert Naiman has pointed out, make the leap from US withdrawal to an al Qaeda attack on the United States quite a large one.
4. Occupying and bombing Afghanistan is actually making us less safe. It is enraging people against the United States, building the Taliban and other resistance.
5. The occupation is also damaging the rule of law. Our engagement in this illegal enterprise makes it more difficult to prevent other nations from engaging in wars of aggression.
6. The occupation is not benefiting the Afghan people. It is not protecting their rights or their lives. It is brutally taking their lives with bombs and imprisoning them without charge or trial or the rights of prisoners of war.
7. The Taliban is made up of poor people fighting in order to eat. They need aid, diplomacy, jobs, education, and resources, not bombs and troops and mercenaries. We're paying tens of thousands of Afghans to fight as mercenaries. We could pay them to rebuild their country and have money to spare.
8. That we are supposedly succeeding against al Qaeda when arguments are needed to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act, but supposedly failing against al Qaeda when it's time to continue or escalate wars is insulting, not credible.
9. The citizens of the United States oppose the war, and it's our money and our kids, and our country being placed in danger of blowback.
10. The people of Afghanistan, according to an ABC News poll, want the United States to withdraw. It's their country, and you cannot impose democracy on them without obeying their majority opinion.
11. If we've been through eight years of this and not been able to even devise a rough description of what a "success" would look like, what are the chances that it will be identified and achieved in year nine?
12. It's called the graveyard of empires for a reason.
13. Our states' militias, the national guard, are needed at home and cannot constitutionally be sent abroad to fight for empire.
14. US soldiers signed up to defend the United States, not to commit war crimes in distant lands.
15. There is nothing worse than war that could conceivably take its place. Killing people is the worst thing there is.
David Swanson is the author of the new book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union"
HALF MILLION HOMEOWNERS HAVE LOAN PAYMENTS REDUCED
NY Times - Half a million troubled homeowners have seen their loan payments lowered under an Obama administration relief plan, the Treasury announced. . . Unaffordable mortgages are now being modified at a pace faster than homes are being sold in foreclosure proceedings, the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, said. . . "Half a million families are participating in loan modifications that are substantially decreasing their housing costs." Mr. Geithner added that roughly 40 percent of the 1.2 million homeowners deemed eligible for loan modifications under the Making Home Affordable Program have received them. . .
Many homeowners continue to complain that seeking loan modifications can be frustrating and seemingly futile: Mortgage companies routinely lose documents and require them to resubmit their files repeatedly, while giving them incorrect fax numbers and leaving them on hold for hours only to receive contradictory instructions from customer service officers.
Some mortgage companies assert they cannot modify loans because they merely send out the monthly bills, while the mortgages are owned by investors. Yet industry insiders say many mortgage companies actually profit by delaying the process and keeping homeowners in long-term delinquency, extracting myriad fees along the way. . . .
"Unacceptably large numbers of families across the country are still at risk of losing homes they could otherwise afford to stay in," Mr. Geithner said.
Treasury first announced its anti-foreclosure program in February before delivering details in March: Mortgage companies would be paid $1,000 for each loan they modified, then $1,000 a year for up to three years. The plan was advanced with the promise that it would eventually spare up to four million households from foreclosure.
But by June, evidence was mounting that the program had become a bureaucratic nightmare. Thousands of homeowners recounted poor treatment and disorganization at the hands of their mortgage companies. By the end of June, only about 50,000 loans had been modified, according to a Treasury estimate.
In July, frustrated by the pace of the progress and irritated by legions of homeowner complaints, Treasury summoned major mortgage companies to Washington for what was subsequently described by officials as a dressing-down.
In the months since, mortgage companies have added and trained staff and improved their processes of fielding applications, according to the administration.
"We've put significant pressure on the servicers to ramp up production," said the Housing and Urban Development secretary Shaun Donovan, during Thursday morning's briefing.
Still, the administration acknowledged that glitches and frustrations remain. Treasury and H.U.D. again summoned to mortgage industry officials to Washington for meetings this afternoon aimed at further accelerating the program, Mr. Donovan said.
SCHOOL DEFORMERS AT PLAY
DC school superintendent Michelle Rhee, a beloved icon of the liberal right, has just fired a couple hundred teachers. Here's some of the reaction:
Washington Post - A neat row of X's stretches down Eve McCarey's performance evaluation, showing that in category after category, she is someone who "exceeds expectations." With three years of experience as a special education teacher at Anacostia High School, she is hardworking, well-spoken and now unemployed.
McCarey seems to be the sort of teacher any hard-charging, reformist schools chancellor would want in a classroom. But despite layoff rules designed to help the system retain high-performing teachers, McCarey found herself out of a job Friday, along with other educators who range from idealistic Teach for America newcomers to a 32-year guidance counselor who is praised by parents as uncommonly effective.
"It just feels like my heart has been broken," said counselor Sheila Gill, 57, of McKinley Technology High School. "I have been trying to process all of what's going on. It happened so quickly and so suddenly."
McCarey, 28, a graduate of D.C. public schools who once helped develop curricula in Sudan, shared Gill's bruised feelings about the decision to lay her off and the manner in which her dismissal was executed. Nearly 400 school employees, including 229 teachers, lost their jobs.
"It was just the most disrespectful thing," McCarey said. Teachers were interrupted in the middle of class, escorted to the principal's office and read a script by their soon-to-be-ex-boss. The office of Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee told principals not to give laid-off employees specific reasons for their dismissals.
The reasons for McCarey's dismissal from Anacostia High couldn't have been based on much observation, she said. The administration was new this school year. Her contact with her new supervisors was limited to an interview over the summer, after which she was rehired, and a five-minute classroom visit the week before the layoff, she said.
Her June 1 job evaluation, a copy of which she shared with The Washington Post, gave her 28 of 30 possible points.
School officials have said the layoffs were necessary to close a $43.9 million gap in their 2010 budget caused by D.C. Council spending cuts in July. Critics, including council members, students and the teachers' union, have questioned the timing and underlying math of the layoffs. . .
Gill, the McKinley guidance counselor, had been with D.C. schools for 32 years and is a member of the executive committee of the Washington Teachers' Union. Her dismissal, and those of 14 other staff members at McKinley, helped spark a protest Monday that brought about 200 students to the school system's headquarters and the John A. Wilson Building. . .
"She's probably one of the most awesome and caring and loving counselors in this city," Lynne Holcomb said. She credited Gill with helping her son track down many of the 28 scholarships that together have helped pave the way to a full ride at N.C. State University this year.
Gill said that she had received excellent job evaluations in the past but that she hadn't had one in the two years since Principal David Pinder arrived at McKinley. Pinder and other principals contacted for this report declined to comment, citing personnel rules. . .
The layoffs also caught the young, although Rhee and the union disagree on the extent. Rhee said that, overall, less-experienced teachers were more likely to have been laid off. But she declined to release the numbers, saying they were being reviewed by District lawyers. The union has expressed concerns that veteran teachers might have been disproportionately affected by the cuts and filed suit Wednesday in D.C. Superior Court.
Washington Post letter - The Post asserted that the teachers terminated by D.C. Public Schools are those who "habitually can't control their classes, fail to plan lessons, are late for school, waste instructional time and, most troubling of all, have no expectations for their students Wrong. No one but Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee knows why these layoffs happened. My husband devoted his time, energy, eight years of teaching experience and 50-plus years of life experience to teaching.
What we do know is that Mr. Fenty and Ms. Rhee demonstrated to those children that it isn't enough to do your job well, be early and always prepared, and never give up on what you believe in. . . They took away my husband's job, and they broke his heart. Such is life. These cuts will not improve the quality of teaching; they will only exacerbate the dysfunction of the system. And what do those children have to believe in when they arrive in class now? - Karen Howard
Ann Loikow, DC Watch - I was appalled at not just Michelle Rhee's abrupt firing of hundreds of DCPS employees, but the outrageous manner in which it was conducted. To send police officers in to escort them out as if they were criminals, instead of giving employees appropriate notice and time to clean out their offices or desks and say good-by to coworkers and prepare their classes for their departure is beyond the pale. Ms. Rhee obviously does not care about other human beings and was never taught how to show the most minimum modicum of courtesy and consideration for other people. If this is the way she was raised, I would not want her teaching or overseeing the teaching of our children. It is doubly outrageous that it is our government and our governmental officials whom we are paying that operate in this manner.
Gary Imhoff, DC Watch - In order to fire teachers and other school system workers without hindrance, Fenty and Rhee have demonized teachers and are lying about the cause of the firings. The firings were not necessitated by cuts in the school budget made by the city council. In fact, DCPS's budget this year was fifteen million dollars more than last year's, for fewer students, and DCPS has shed three major areas of expense over the past few years. No, the necessity of the firings was caused by Rhee herself, when she hired hundreds of new teachers that she knew she wouldn't need. That enabled her to issue a reduction in force order and to fire hundreds of teachers and other school employees who were not part of her clique and loyal to her, and whom she wanted to get rid of without the inconvenience of obeying the union agreement and city laws regulating firing decisions. . Fenty and Rhee are breaking the unions and breaking the will of the city council. They are doing this by persuading some gullible portion of the public that they actually have a good government motivation.
THINGS WE HADN'T STARTED WORRYING ABOUT YET
Nature - Analysis of Chinese historical records stretching back for over a thousand years show that locust outbreaks are more likely to occur in warmer and drier weather, especially in the country's northern provinces, researchers say. "The results are an alarm bell for yet another serious consequence of climate change," says Ge Quansheng, deputy director of the Beijing-based Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research.
TOP TWEETS
scottsimpson: Every hundredth or so person I pass on the street gives me a look like they know my secret. I wish they would tell me what it is.
highindustrial: Never rhyme "yogurt" with "upskirt." Just trust me on this one.
SCALIA THINKS JEWS GET BURIED UNDER CROSSES
Wall Street Journal - The Supreme Court seemed inclined Wednesday to permit a five-foot-tall cross to remain standing in California's Mojave National Preserve, while avoiding a broader ruling that could affect religious symbols on government property. . .
Federal courts in California found that the cross, erected on Sunrise Rock, a remote outcropping in the 1.6 million-acre desert preserve, violated the Constitution's ban on a congressional "establishment of religion." Congress then declared the cross a "national memorial" and voted to transfer an acre around it to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, whose local post first built a cross there in 1934 as a memorial to fallen soldiers. Lower courts found the arrangement effectively was a sham, though the government received property in return, because the one-acre parcel reverts to the government if the VFW fails to maintain the memorial. . .
Justice Antonin Scalia disputed the premise behind the lawsuit, telling Mr. Eliasberg that it was unfair to view the cross merely as a Christian symbol.
"The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead," he said. "What would you have them erect? Some conglomerate of a cross, a Star of David, and you know, a Muslim half moon and star?"
"I have been in Jewish cemeteries. There is never a cross on a tombstone of a Jew," Mr. Eliasberg said. "So it is the most common symbol to honor Christians."
"I don't think you can leap from that to the conclusion that the only war dead that that cross honors are the Christian war dead," Justice Scalia said. "I think that's an outrageous conclusion."
FCC HEAD: WIRELESS SPACE RUNNING OUT
Financial Times - The head of the US Federal Communications Commission warned hat there is not enough room in the airwaves for the "explosion" in wireless data traffic, setting the stage for a big realignment of spectrum usage as the government tries to help mobile carriers keep up with consumer demand.
"The biggest threat to the future of mobile in America is the looming spectrum crisis," said Julius Genachowski, the Obama administration appointee who took over as head of the five-member FCC in late June.
Mr Genachowski noted that what had been seen as a big auction of spectrum last year helped cap a three-fold surge in the amount of commercial spectrum available.
"The problem is, many anticipate a 30-fold increase in wireless traffic," he said at the CTIA wireless industry convention in San Diego. . .
As an indicator of the bottleneck ahead, AT&T has been overwhelmed with a 5,000 per cent increase in wireless data consumption in three years, driven by the minority of customers who own Apple's iPhone. For now, AT&T is the exclusive US carrier for that device.
"We're seeing a disproportionate number of users driving consumption," Ralph de la Vega, AT&T Mobility president, said at the conference.
"If we don't find a way to keep them from crowding out others, we're going to have a very significant issue."
Mr de la Vega said the top 3 per cent of its smartphone customers were responsible for 40 per cent of data usage, consuming 13 times more than the average smartphone user. With new smartphones that have software from Google and others coming, and the prospects of wider distribution of broadband-enabled notebook PCs, the demands for connectivity will continue to jump geometrically.
"AT&T is the canary in the coal mine," Ms Arbogast said.
HOW TO BOOST THE ECONOMY
Robert Reich
(1) Use existing authority under both the stimulus package enacted earlier this year and the nefarious TARP bailout fund -- extending and combining them into a fund to make up for state and local cuts in public school budgets, childrens' health, public health (we need workers to administer swine flu vaccine) and public transportation. Instead of bailing out banks and giant automakers, we should switch to bailing out public services that average people need.
(2) Propose a one-year payroll tax holiday on the first $20,000 of income. Republicans as well as Blue Dog Dems could go along with this, and it would be a highly progressive tax cut since 80 percent of Americans pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes.
(3) Give small businesses a "new jobs tax credit" for every net new job created over the next year. Granted, under normal circumstances this sort of jobs credit doesn't have much effect, and it's difficult to separate hires that would have happened anyway from net new ones. But we're not in normal circumstances; small businesses, which are responsible for most new jobs, still aren't hiring. They need a boost.
(4) Dramatically expand the Small Business Administration's lending programs and have the Fed buy up the SBA's debt. Big banks are not lending to small businesses. TARP has been an utter failure in this regard. The SBA and the Fed should circumvent them and help small businesses get the capital they need, so they can start hiring again.
DUNCAN, HOLDER MEET AT CHICAGO'S FOUR SEASONS HOTEL TO DISCUSS URBAN VIOLENCE Chicago Sun Times - Chicago officials and members of President Obama's cabinet met at a Downtown hotel morning to discuss teenage violence in the city and how to combat it. Mayor Daley, Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman, U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan were at the Four Seasons Hotel for a discussion of ways to keep school children safe
The meeting comes less than two weeks after 16-year-old Fenger High honor student Derrion Albert was beaten to death outside a Far South Side community center. The attack gained national attention after a video of the beating was obtained by the media.
"I think Chicago is going to lead this national conversation about how we combat violence," Duncan said. . .
Some observers, who were not in on the meeting, were unhappy. A woman outside the hotel, Evangell Yhwhnewbn, a community activist also known as "Mama D," questioned how effective the meeting could be if community members were not allowed to participate.
"It's the same people doing the same thing and they expect a different result. It's not going to happen," she said.
ACLU CHALLENGES REQUIRED DNA SAMPLES FROM ARRESTEES Wired - California law requiring the authorities to take a DNA sample from every person arrested on felony accusations was challenged in federal court as an unconstitutional privacy breach. A lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two Californians who were arrested and released, seeks to overturn a voter-approved law that became effective this year. Proposition 69 requires detainees to provide a saliva or sometimes a blood sample upon felony arrest. The sample is stored in state and FBI databases, even if the arrested person is never charged or convicted of a crime. The challenge, if successful, threatens to derail similar laws in other states. . . 10 other states have such statutes. . . . The ACLU says DNA sampling is different from the compulsory fingerprinting upon arrest that has been standard practice in the U.S. for decades. A fingerprint, for example, reveals nothing more than a person's identity. But much can be learned from a DNA sample, which codes a person’s family ties, some health risks, and, according to some, can predict a propensity for violence.
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE'S TAKE ON HEALTHCARE BILL Jonathan Cohn, New Republic - CBO is out with its rough estimates of the Senate Finance bill as it looks now, following the amendments made during the recent markup hearings. . .
The good news, substantively and politically, is that CBO expects the measure would reduce budget deficits by $81 billion over the next decade and by even larger sums in the following decade. . .
The coverage news is not quite so good--although, to be honest, it's better than I expected, given the rumors . . . CBO estimates that, as of 2019, 94 percent of legal non-elderly residents and 91 percent of all non-elderly residents would have insurance.
That's significantly lower than the projections from the House bill, which would result in corresponding figures of 97 percent and 94 percent. In raw numbers, it's the difference between 25 million people (Senate Finance bill) and 17 million (House bills) still uninsured ten years from now.
Of course, those numbers involve a lot of uncertainty. Their significance is that they correspond to a particular level of benefits and financial assistance, at least in the calculations of the CBO.
And this is something we've known for a while: The Senate Finance bill isn't as generous or as protective as it ought to be.
But the fact that the measure would actually save money means, or should mean, there's a bit more room (financially and politically) to throw additional funds at expanding/improving insurance coverage--ideally, by raising a little more money in taxes and/or offsetting savings.
Remember, the difference between covering people at the level of the Senate Finance bill and covering something close to all legal residents is maybe $150 billion over ten years. That's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.
OBAMA'S PRESS SECRETARY MOCKS FEINGOLD FOR CONCERN OVER CZARS
Washington Times - A top Senate Democrat said just because other presidents have created "czars" to carry out administration policy does not mean President Obama is right to follow their lead - and warned that Congress may have to step in and keep White House appointees in check.
Senators say the arrangement goes against the Constitution because many czars are never vetted by Congress, even though they have a major role in making policy.
But there may be few options for reeling them in. Experts told Sen. Russ Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who convened a hearing on the issue, that the tools available are either to cut off funding for the positions or write laws to control how much authority Congress gives the president.
"While there is a long history of the use of White House advisers and czars, that does not mean we can assume they are constitutionally appropriate," said Mr. Feingold, chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Constitution subcommittee. . .
The White House declined to provide a witness for Mr. Feingold's hearing, which press secretary Robert Gibbs mocked.
"I don't know if Sen. Feingold's calling Franklin Roosevelt to be a witness," Mr. Gibbs said. "I would assume that Congress and Sen. Feingold have more weighty topics to grapple with than something like this."
But Mr. Feingold isn't the only Democrat to express concern on the topic. Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the longest-serving lawmaker in Congress, has also criticized the administration for impinging on congressional authority, as has Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with the Democrats.
Lawmakers made clear Tuesday that not all czars are created equal. For example, "intelligence czar" Dennis Blair is actually the director of National Intelligence, a position created by Congress following a recommendation by the 9/11 Commission. By his count, Mr. Feingold said there are as many as 10 czars who could be exercising authority that has not been delegated to them by Congress.
The Appointments Clause of the Constitution gives the president the authority to make appointments with the advice and consent of the Senate but says that, "Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the president alone."
Constitutional experts advised senators that it is within their power to ask unconfirmed czars to testify before Congress, though they are not bound to do so. One expert suggested that overly broad legislation, such as the financial bailout bill, cedes too much authority to the executive branch for implementation.
Politico - "[When] it's possible that somebody in the White House is actually more involved in making policy than the person who is the cabinet secretary, I think that raises questions in the mind of the public," Feingold said. "It certainly raises questions in the mind of a senator, who wants the person who we confirmed to be the principle policymaker."
COST OF CURTAILING GLOBAL WARMING
Dean Baker, Prospect - The NYT told readers that the investments needed to curtail global warming would cost the world $10 trillion over the years from 2010 to 2030. It would have been helpful to also note that global GDP will be around $1500 trillion over this period, so that the estimated cost of these measures would be equal to approximately 0.7 percent of GDP. This means that they would impose approximately one sixth as much of a burden on the world economy as the defense department budget does on the U.S. economy.
ARCHDIOCESE CLAIMS GAY MARRIAGE A SECULAR ISSUE
Statement of the Archdiocese of Washington on DC Council Bill to Redefine Marriage in the Nation's Capital
Marriage is a personal relationship with public significance. Marriage between a man and a woman transcends cultures, religions and all time. Marriage is about more than two people who love and are committed to each other.
It also is about creating and nurturing the next generation. As natural law and biology dictate, this requires both a man and a woman. Men and women complement each other physically, psychologically and emotionally and each has distinctive gifts for a child's upbringing. They are not interchangeable.
Nature intends for children to have a mother and a father. Research tells us a healthy marriage with a father and mother provides the most stable and nurturing environment for a child. This is the reason that civil governments have given marriage special recognition throughout time.
The bill introduced today by some members of the District of Columbia City Council to redefine marriage is at odds with marriage's fundamental purpose. You cannot redefine biology.
The "Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009" is not about religious freedom. In fact, there are legitimate concerns that this legislation will result in a loss of religious liberty of the people of the District of Columbia. If passed, the bill could require Catholics to make choices between a "law" and the fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church.
Sam Smith, Progressive Review - The archdiocese's disingenuous and weak argument is significant because it appears to recognize a hidden flaw in the legal case against gay marriage, which is that opposition is overwhelmingly based on religious belief. Hence any government intervention in this matter represents an unconstitutional establishment of religion, e.g. choosing the Catholic view on the issue over that of Unitarians and Quakers. This issue has played virtually no part in the debate but the archdiocese's statement seems to recognize its importance. The Catholics have good lawyers as well as good priests.
BUILDING A NEW ORLEANS HOUSE THAT FLOATS
NPR - The Make It Right Foundation will unveil a house Tuesdayin New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, which was largely wiped away by floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina. The house is different from others in the neighborhood that were rebuilt after the hurricane: It floats.
The house is the brainchild of Morphosis Architects and its founder, Thom Mayne, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. "We rethought the idea of a house in terms of the potential conditions of the flooding that took place in Katrina," Mayne tells Melissa Block.
He says the designers gave the building a chassis, made it out of polystyrene foam and covered it with glass-reinforced concrete.
"What does that do? It produces a raft; it floats," Mayne says. "And it's thought about as a seat belt. I mean, hopefully it never gets used. But when it gets used, it's important."
The house is anchored to the ground by two vertical guideposts. At times of flooding, the house moves up the guideposts - up to 12 feet - to prevent it from drifting.
GREAT NEWS FOR KIDS: LETTUCE AND SPINACH TOP
RISKY FOOD LIST CNN - Leafy greens -- including
lettuce and spinach -- top the list of the 10 riskiest
foods, according to a study from a nutrition advocacy group.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest listed the
following foods, in descending order, as the most risky in
terms of outbreaks: leafy greens, eggs, tuna, oysters,
potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts and
berries.
The scientists rated these foods, all of them regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, by the number of outbreaks associated with them since 1990, and also provided the number of recorded illnesses.
The severity of the illnesses ranged from minor stomach aches to death, the center said. With leafy greens such as lettuce, the top cause of illness were pathogens like E. coli, Norovirus and Salmonella in foods that were not properly washed.
Over the past 20 years, leafy greens caused 363 outbreaks, resulting in 13,568 reported illnesses, the center said. That's compared to berries, No. 10 on the list, which were associated with 25 outbreaks totaling 3,397 reported illnesses.
RAMPANT SELF-PROMOTION
Your editor has selected as a "New Media Hero" by the staff of the major progressive online news service, Alternet. There were 24 nominees, five were elected by readers and then the staff added its own choices, including your editor, to the list - "those sites and individuals that may not have been among the top vote getters, but who still deserve special recognition for their new media efforts." The popular vote went to:
1. Chip Giller, Editor of Grist, the online magazine and newsletter of environmental news, features, columns and activism
2. Leif Utne, Editor of Utne Web Watch, the Utne Reader's digest of alternative sites and articles from elsewhere on the web
3. Josh Karliner, Director of CorpWatch, the online activism center and magazine of the Transnational Resource and Action Center
4. John Moyers, Creator and Editor of Tompaine.com, the online magazine known for its controversial New York Times Op. Ed. page ads
5. (virtual tie) Art McGee, Internet Communications director of the Black Radical Congress, which hosts the lively BRCNet listserv ()
5. (virtual tie) Josh Knauer, founder of EnviroLink Network, a free web host for over 500 non-profits, and CEO of Green Marketplace, a socially responsible e-store
"The New Media Heroes contest is not so much about ranking the best public interest sites on the Web," says Don Hazen, AlterNet's executive editor. "It's more an opportunity to look around in this climate of dotcom failure and see what works online. These heroes reach more people with information that makes a difference in their lives faster than they ever could before the technology of the Internet."
The staff picks were:
Farai Chideya, founder of PopandPolitics.com, is an African-American journalist, writer and new media pioneer who has been running her site for over five years. Aimed at engaging a younger, more urban audience, PopandPolitics tackles topics from hardcore political analysis to hip hop and electronic music.
Becky Bond, the creative force behind Working Assets' new media properties (workingforchange.com, radioforchange.com, actforchange.com) and the host of Web radio program Fast Forward, is probably the most anomalous of the New Media Heroes.
IMC - Instead of an individual hero, the collective effort of the Independent Media Centers (indymedia.org) deserve special honor for their powerful and ambitious coverage of anti-corporate protest events worldwide. The IMCs are especially noteworthy because they rely very little on leadership and much more on the tireless volunteers who staff them.
Don Rojas, CEO of The Black Word Today (tbwt.com), has been bringing high-quality progressive news to the African-American community for many years. TBWT has survived as a business without any significant backing from the venture capital community, due in large part to Rojas' perseverance and political savvy.
Sam Smith is the one-man operation behind the Progressive Review newsletter and Web site (prorev.com). . . . One nominator called him "a hero of ours. We consider him a national treasure." Another said: "Sam is almost like a latter-day, progressive I.F. Stone. He's a one-man band."
Says Alternet:
[] What all these New Media Heroes have in common -- with the exception of Becky Bond and the IMCs --is that they essentially use the very basics of Web technology. Instead of flashy sites filled with eye-popping graphics and high bandwidth interactive pages, they use simple pages of text, links and e-mail newsletters. According to dotcom consultant Paulsen, this is something to be proud of.
"Most Internet thinking has been all about high bandwidth sites and applications -- trying to squeeze more through the pipe," says Paulsen. "Even regardless of the fact that the vast majority of users are still jacking in with less than 56k modems, the philosophy is still wrong. This tech-twisted thinking ignores the superceding reality: time is the ultimate bandwidth. Regardless of how fast the pipe, we are all short on time."
In other words, if there is a message the New Media Heroes might send to their comrades, it's to go back to the Internet basics.
"The New Media Hero Award winners, and many of the nominees, deserve praise for their low-tech delivery of good thinking," Paulsen says. "Their products are available to people with old computers, and people living in remote areas where big bandwidth is not available. They give people what we really want -- help getting the information we need quickly, no muss no fuss." []
FURTHERMORE. . . .
Radar - David Letterman's self-confessed bad behavior has reinforced the credo - controversy creates cash: Nielsen reported a 4.2 rating for Monday's edition of The Late Show, a rating so high it beat out anything NBC broadcast in prime time. Last Thursday's episode was a huge ratings winner, as Nielsen reported more than 5.8 million viewers tuned in to see Letterman tell his audience he was the target of a $2 million extortion plot and that he had "sex with women who work for me."
Watch out for the proposed tax credit for companies that create new jobs. There are some ways to get the credit without hiring a single new person, such as turning a subconstrator into an employee.
NY Times - China began its swine flu vaccinations on Sept. 21, the first country to do so. Of the first 39,000 Chinese to get shots, only four had side effects, muscle cramps and headaches, a World Health Organization spokesman said.
House whip count on public option
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