Undernews For July 14, 2010

Undernews For July 14, 2010

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FARM WORKERS UNION OFFERS JOBS TO REAL AMERICANS, FEW SIGN UP

BIG PROGRESS FOR INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING

PASSINGS: TULI KUPFERBERG

WHAT'S HAPPENING: A GREEN NEW DEAL

MORE QUESTIONING USE OF BODY SCANNERS AT AIRPORTS

HOW THE RECORDING INDUSTRY RIPS OFF MUSICIANS

HIDDEN HISTORY: AMERICA AND CORPORATIONS

SCHOOL SYSTEMS RESORTING TO FRAUD TO IMPROVE SCORES

HOW BIG PHARMA RIGS MEDICAL EDUCATION

ONE THOUSAND TROOPS FOR EACH MEMBER OF AL QAEDA

POLITICAL SPYING INCREASING IN U.S.

OBAMA'S RETREAT FROM ENDING MILITARY DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAYS

A FOREIGN VIEW: BP DISASTER IS WHAT AMERICAN COMPANIES HAVE DONE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

MORE QUESTIONING USE OF BODY SCANNERS AT AIRPORTS USA Today - Opposition to new full-body imaging machines to screen passengers and the government's deployment of them at most major airports is growing.

The machines are running into complaints and questions here and overseas:

- The International Air Transport Association, which represents 250 of the world's airlines, including major U.S. carriers, says the TSA lacks "a strategy and a vision" of how the machines fit into a comprehensive checkpoint security plan. "The TSA is putting the cart before the horse," association spokesman Steve Lott says.

- Security officials in Dubai said this month they wouldn't use the machines because they violate "personal privacy," and information about their "side effects" on health isn't known.

- Last month, the European Commission said in a report that "a rigorous scientific assessment" of potential health risks is needed before machines are deployed there. It also said screening methods besides the new machines should be used on pregnant women, babies, children and people with disabilities.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said in October that the TSA was deploying the machines without fully testing them and assessing whether they could detect "threat items" concealed on various parts of the body. And in March, the office said it "remains unclear" whether they would have detected the explosives that police allege Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate on a jet bound for Detroit on Christmas.

HOW THE RECORDING INDUSTRY RIPS OFF MUSICIANS

Tech Dirt - An article from The Root goes through who gets paid what for music sales, and the basic answer is not the musician. That report suggests that for every $1,000 sold, the average musician gets $23.40. Here's the chart that the article shows, though you should read the whole article for all of the details:

Going back ten years ago, Courtney Love famously laid out the details of recording economics, where the label can make $11 million. . . and the actual artists make absolutely nothing. It starts off with a band getting a massive $1 million advance, and then you follow the money:

What happens to that million dollars?

They spend half a million to record their album. That leaves the band with $500,000. They pay $100,000 to their manager for 20 percent commission. They pay $25,000 each to their lawyer and business manager.

That leaves $350,000 for the four band members to split. After $170,000 in taxes, there's $180,000 left. That comes out to $45,000 per person.

That's $45,000 to live on for a year until the record gets released.

More funny money

SCHOOL SYSTEMS RESORTING TO FRAUD TO IMPROVE SCORES

Diane Ravitch, Ed Week - Over the past several years, efforts to "hold teachers accountable" and "hold schools accountable" have produced perverse consequences. Instead of better education, we are getting cheating scandals, teaching to bad tests, a narrowed curriculum, lowered standards, and gaming of the system. Even if it produces higher test scores (of dubious validity), high-stakes accountability does not produce better education.

In their eagerness to show "results," states are dumbing down their standards. The New York state education department dropped cut scores on the state tests from 2006 (the year that annual testing in grades 3-8 was introduced) to 2009. In 2006, a student in 7th grade could achieve "proficiency" by getting 59.6 percent of the points correct on the state math test; by 2009, a student in the same grade needed only 44 percent of the available points. Back in the pre-accountability days, a score of 60 percent would have been a D, not a mark of proficiency, and a score of 44 percent would have been a failing grade. According to a report by The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the gains registered in the elementary schools of Chicago during Arne Duncan's tenure were almost entirely the result of changes to the scoring of the tests, rather than evidence of any genuine improvement in student learning.

When New York state's education department was criticized for dropping the cut scores on its tests, officials responded by insisting that the department dropped the cut scores because the tests were actually harder than in previous years. This was utter nonsense because the passing rates soared as the cut scores fell, which would not have been the case if the tests were "harder." So, although it never acknowledged its past chicanery, the state education department claimed that the tests would really, really, truly be hard this year and that standards would once again be high.

However, some whistle-blowing teachers tipped off the New York Post that the scoring rubrics for this year's test recommended giving half-credit for wrong answers and even for no answer at all. Here are examples from the 4th-grade scoring guide, as reported in the Post:

- "A kid who answers that a 2-foot-long skateboard is 48 inches long gets half-credit for adding 24 and 24 instead of the correct 12 plus 12.

- A miscalculation that 28 divided by 14 equals 4 instead of 2 is "partially correct" if the student uses the right method to verify the wrong answer.

- Setting up a division problem to find one-fifth of $400, but not solving the problem-and leaving the answer blank¬gets half-credit.

- A kid who subtracts 57 cents from three quarters for the right change and comes up with 15 cents instead of 18 cents still gets half-credit.

- A student who figures the numbers of books in 35 boxes of 10 gets half-credit despite messed-up multiplication that yields the wrong answer, 150 instead of 350."

One hopes that these students never become pharmacists or engineers or enter any other line of work where accuracy matters.

The Baltimore Sun wrote about a major cheating scandal at an elementary school that had been widely recognized for its excellent test scores. In 2003, only one-third of the students in the school passed the state reading test, but within four years, almost all did. This was a "miracle" school; it won a federal Blue Ribbon for its remarkable gains. But it turned out that the school's success was phony: Someone had erased and corrected many student answers.

The more that test scores are used to measure teacher effectiveness and to determine the fate of schools, the more we will see such desperate efforts by teachers and principals to save their jobs and their schools.

EFFORTS TO ERADICATE SLUMS DEFEATED BY POPULATION GROWTH

Agence France Presse - Nearly a quarter of a billion people escaped slums in the past decade, but the housing effort was outstripped by population growth and rural exodus to the cities, the United Nations said.

A total of 227 million people rose out of slum conditions from 2000 to 2010, thanks especially to hard work in China and India, according to the UN Human Settlements Programme, also called UN-Habitat.

The bad news is that from 2000-2010, the absolute numbers of slum dwellers increased from 776.7 million to 827.6 million.

Half of the increase of 55 million extra slum dwellers came from population growth in existing slum homes; a quarter by rural flight to the cities; and a quarter by people living on the edge of cities whose homes became engulfed by urban expansion.

UN-Habitat warned: "Short of drastic action, the world slum population will probably grow by six million each year, or another 61 million people, to hit a total of 889 million by 2020."

These were among the document's highlights:

-- sub-Saharan Africa has the largest slum population, totalling 199.5 million people, or 61.7 percent of its urban population. It is followed by South Asia (190.7 million people, 35 percent of urban population) and East Asia (189.6 million, 28.2 percent).

-- China and India are lauded for making "giant strides" to improve the life of slum dwellers. China made improvements to the daily conditions of 65.3 million urban residents without shelter. The proportion of urban Chinese living in slums fell from 37.3 percent in 2000 to 28.2 percent in 2010. India, meanwhile, lifted 59.7 million out of slum conditions last decade. Slum prevalence now stands at 28.1 percent.

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE

Billboard - The former home of the King of Pop could become California's latest state park under an idea being floated by a California state lawmaker.

Assemblyman Mike Davis said that he believes it's worth studying whether the California Department of Parks and Recreation should take over the Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County.

The Los Angeles legislator said fans from around the world would visit Michael Jackson's former estate.

Jackson's 2,500-acre estate once housed amusement park rides and a zoo with tigers and snakes, but many of the estate's attractions were dismantled or sold after his death in 2009.

Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed closing 220 of California's 279 state parks to save money, but later backed down. Instead, he and lawmakers agreed to close half the parks on certain days and reduce services.

OBAMA'S RETREAT FROM ENDING MILITARY DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAYS

Grit TV - The White House has pulled quite a bait and switch on the LGBT community. LGBT voters came out and contributed en masse to Barack Obama's campaign. A year ago, he promised them action on, among other things, repeal of the military's discrimination policy, Don't ask Don't Tell. This May it seemed as if they'd won. To much ballyhoo, on the eve of a war appropriation vote, the White House announced what sounded like repeal.

Except what the President actually announced wasn't repeal. It was a compromise that opened the way for a vote on repeal if a Pentagon working group, the President, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs all approved such a thing.

Now it turns out that 400,000 service members are going to have their say as well.

As the jobless go with nothing and school libraries are shut up tight for lack of cash, we the taxpayers have, it turns out, paid a research firm some $4.4 million to send an email-survey to 400,000 troops.

Leaked copies include the following questions: "If a wartime situation made it necessary for you to share a room, berth or field tent with someone you believe to be a gay or lesbian service member, what are you likely to do?" (The survey offers options.) "If Don't Ask Don't Tell is repealed and you are assigned to bathroom facilities with open bay showers with a gay or lesbian service member, would you: Take no action? Use shower at different time?"

There's also a question asking service members, if a gay or lesbian member moved into military housing with a same-sex partner, would they pick up their family and move out.

No one surveyed the troops when it was time to desegregate. No one surveyed male soldiers about allowing women in. When it came to school desegregation, the Supreme Court didn't survey white kids. In fact it's impossible to imagine such a thing.

FOXES IN THE CHICKEN COOP

David Sirota, Open Left - Check out this little-noticed report from the Billings Gazette:

"Liz Fowler, a key staffer for U.S. Sen. Max Baucus who helped draft the federal health reform bill enacted in March, is joining the Obama administration to help implement the new law. . . Fowler headed up a team of 20-some Senate Finance Committee staffers who helped draft the bill in the Senate. She was Baucus' top health care aide from 2001-2005 and left that job in 2006 to become an executive at WellPoint, the nation's largest private insurer. She was vice president of public policy at WellPoint, helping develop public-policy positions for the company. In 2008, she rejoined Baucus to work on health reform legislation."

Clearly, this is a telling indictment of the health care law itself, strongly suggesting that it was constructed by the Obama administration - as some progressives argued - as a massive taxpayer-financed giveaway to private insurers like Wellpoint. And let's be honest: In investment terms, Fowler has been a jackpot for the health industry. The industry maximized her public policy experience for their own uses when they plucked her out of the Senate. Then, having lined her pockets, they deposited her first into a key Senate committee to write the new health care law that they will operate under, and now into the administration that will implement said law. Any bets on how much Fowler will make when Wellpoint (or another health insurer) inevitably rehires her in a few years?

This story is also a telling indictment of the Washington media. The Obama administration's move was reported by the Billings Gazette, but . . was almost completely ignored by national Washington-based publications. That's not because D.C. reporters didn't know it was happening - more likely, it is because the political press corps in the nation's capital no longer sees this kind of revolving door corruption as even mildly problematic, much less newsworthy. That's how pervasive corruption is these days - ubiquitous to the point of invisible in the eyes of most of the so-called watchdogs.

WORD

Randy Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers - I am shaken to the core--in fact, I am horrified¬by the immense threats to public services, particularly public education, that exist in the corridors of power in this country.

I never thought I'd see the superintendent of a major city's public school system call public education "crappy." I never thought I'd open a major newspaper to see us described as "self-interested adults trying to deny poor parents choice for their children."

I might have expected to hear the House Republican Leader say that preventing teacher layoffs is a scheme to, quote, "Pad the education bureaucracy."

But I never thought I'd see a Democratic president, whom we helped elect, and his education secretary applaud the mass firing of 89 teachers and staff in Central Falls, R.I., when not a single one of the teachers ever received an unsatisfactory evaluation.

And I never thought that I'd see a documentary film about helping disadvantaged children in which the villain wasn't crumbling schools, or grinding poverty, or the lack of a curriculum, or overcrowded classrooms, or the total failure of No Child Left Behind. No, the villain was us. Look, I can take it. It's part of my job. But taking abuse shouldn't be in the job description of more than 3 million public school teachers who work hard every day to do right by their students.

FARM WORKERS UNION OFFERS JOBS TO REAL AMERICANS, FEW SIGN UP

CNN - Facing growing anti-immigrant rhetoric, the United Farm Workers union is challenging Americans to take their labor-intensive, low-paying farm jobs.

As communities nationwide grapple with tenacious unemployment, migrant workers are often accused of stealing jobs from Americans. The union believes this accusation is without basis, and intends to demonstrate this with a newly-launched campaign called "Take Our Jobs."

"Farm workers do the work that most Americans are not willing to do," said union president Arturo Rodriguez in the announcement of the campaign.

At least half a million applicants are needed to replace the immigrant workforce, so the union has posted an online application for Americans who want to work on a farm.

Through its Web site, at www.takeourjobs.org, the union promises to connect applicants with farm jobs in their area.

Since June 24, at least 4,000 people have responded to the application, said Rodriguez. Some are serious responses and others are hate mail. "Only a few dozen have really followed through with the process," he said.

Most applicants quickly lose interest once the reality sinks in that these are back-breaking jobs in triple-digit temperatures that pay minimum wage, usually without benefits, according to the union. Some small farms are not required to pay minimum wage and in 15 states farms aren't required to offer workers' compensation.

BIG PROGRESS FOR INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING

Fair Vote - A charter commission in New York City has recommended in its preliminary report a November ballot measure on adoption of instant runoff voting, with backing from a range of New York leaders. A charter commission in Portland, the biggest city in Maine, has made its final recommendation for a November ballot measure to amend its charter to elect its mayor directly with IRV.

Internationally, the big news is in the United Kingdom, where the government has committed to moving legislation through parliament to hold a national referendum on May 5, 2011 to adopt IRV for elections to the House of Commons. The influential Financial Times has come out for the change, with the New York Times also indicating support. The leading candidates to head the opposition Labour Party also back IRV. . .

POLITICAL SPYING INCREASING IN U.S.

ACLU - Political surveillance and harassment by U.S. law enforcement agencies are on the rise with incidents reported in at least 33 states since 9/11, according to a review published by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Political spying – rampant during the Cold War under the FBI’s COINTELPRO, the CIA’s Operation Chaos and other programs – has experienced a steady resurgence in the years following 9/11 as state and local law enforcement are being urged by federal law enforcement agencies to participate in counterterrorism practices.

“In our country, under our Constitution, the authorities aren’t allowed to spy on you unless they have specific and individual suspicion that you are doing something illegal,” said Michael German, ACLU Policy Counsel and former FBI Special Agent. “Unfortunately, law enforcement in our country seems to be reverting to certain old, bad behaviors when it comes to political surveillance. Our review of these practices has found that Americans have been put under surveillance or harassed by the police just for deciding to organize, march, protest, espouse unusual viewpoints and engage in normal, innocuous behaviors such as writing notes or taking photographs in public.”

The ACLU released its report of 111 incidents in 33 states and the District of Columbia in conjunction with the launch of its new “Spyfiles” web hub on domestic political surveillance, which will serve as a major new resource on domestic spying for the benefit of reporters, researchers, bloggers and any other interested members of the public. It will include a database of documents obtained through state and federal open-records requests as well as links to news reports and other relevant materials.

“In a democracy, there is no place for political spying or surveillance or the collection of information about routine daily activities of citizens by government,” said German. “The ACLU has been warning against domestic political spying for several years now. From our lawsuits against Defense Department spying in the middle of the past decade, to our work on fusion centers, to our ongoing close cooperation with our affiliates in states across the nation to monitor and combat these activities, the ACLU is determined to prevent the emergence of a domestic secret police apparatus in this country.”

United States law enforcement agencies, from the FBI to local police, have a long history of spying on American citizens and infiltrating or otherwise obstructing political activist groups.

A FOREIGN VIEW: BP DISASTER IS WHAT AMERICAN COMPANIES HAVE DONE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

Chan Akya, Asia Times - Watching Hayward being mauled in front of congress on Thursday, the thoughts in the back of my mind related not so much to sympathy for the American point of view but rather for the CEO. Instead of agreeing with the generally held opinion that BP is to blame for all the problems in the Gulf of Mexico - a view that has been cemented by an apparent history of cost-cutting that led to the mishap - my feelings are now tending towards the Karmic perspective, that is, that what BP is doing to America is pretty much what American companies have done and are doing to the rest of the world.

Perhaps BP, formerly British Petroleum, is merely exacting vengeance on Americans on behalf of Britain's former colony, India. Two wrongs don't make a right for sure, but when Americans sit around bawling about the sheer injustice of it all, the rest of the world could well use examples like Bhopal to still feel less than sympathetic.

The worst such incident by any measure is Bhopal. In 1984, an American company, Union Carbide, faced a similar litany of problems in a plant making pesticide. It was located right in the middle of a densely populated city in central India, Bhopal. Reacting to the declining profitability of the plant in the early 1980s, management enacted a number of cost savings as well as holding back much-needed capital expenditure that would have helped restore various safety systems to acceptable standards.

The end result was that on December 3, 1984, water entered tanks storing methyl isocyanate, a poisonous gas that should never have been stored in this form in the first place; the resulting build-up of pressure caused a leak that spread the gas over Bhopal, killing more than 2,000 people, according to the official figure, and maiming tens of thousands more. Additionally, subsequent generations of people in Bhopal have shown the effects of MIC poisoning with deformities, congenital health problems, cancer and painful deaths. (Some estimates say that more than 15,000 people died after the initial leak.)

Adding insult to injury, US courts ruled that Union Carbide couldn't be tried in US courts for the crimes against Indians (it is interesting that various US politicians make the case for trying foreigners for alleged crimes against Americans even though its own citizens can never be tried for crimes against foreigners in their courts). The parent company, Union Carbide, was put into liquidation and subsequently acquired by another company (Dow Chemical). After this acquisition, the name Union Carbide is still used, even though Dow Chemical has refuted all responsibility for the 1984 catastrophe.

The response of Union Carbide to Indians has been on the lines of "Accidents happen. You can use the Bhopal plant as collateral to take any payments that will be used to compensate our victims. Make that your victims."

After years of meandering through the Indian court system, the verdict on the 1984 catastrophe was handed down in an Indian court earlier this month. Britain's Guardian newspaper reported:

"An Indian court today convicted seven former senior employees of Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary of causing 'death by negligence' over their part in the Bhopal gas tragedy in which an estimated 15,000 people died more than 25 years ago.

"The subsidiary company, Union Carbide India Ltd, which no longer exists, was convicted of the same charge. The former employees, many now in their 70s, face up to two years in prison ...

"Union Carbide was bought by the Dow Chemical Co in 2001. Dow says the legal case was resolved in 1989 when Union Carbide settled with the Indian government for US$470m ... and that all responsibility for the factory now rested with the government of the state of Madhya Pradesh, which owns the site."

So there you have it, courtesy of a British newspaper - the exact strategy that BP needs to follow against America. Put up a few of its American employees for trial (at vast public expense), hand over the Gulf of Mexico site to the government, and pretty much say "Ta".

Karma Americans have mass cognitive dissonance with respect to their self-image. In their own minds, they view the American system as "fair, equitable, meritocratic, innovative and good". They also perceive that this view is considerably different in the minds of foreigners: "greedy, evil, litigious, hypocritical, lazy". Americans view their enterprise system through companies like Apple, Google and Boeing. The rest of the world views the system through the eyes of companies like GM, Goldman Sachs and McDonald's.

Reaction in the US media after the Bhopal verdict on June 7 was muted. My random sweep through Google revealed factual news items, but virtually no expression of outrage in the American or European media. Sure, there was much outrage expressed in the Indian media but then again, that appears to have been directed (justifiably) against their own courts and politicians rather than (also justifiably) a foreign company.

POLICE BLOTTER

Fark - Naked man leaps from his moving car and jumps into woman's car to fire off rounds using her gun before lying on his back in road and stabbing a motorist in leg. Cops capture him with help of 4 truckers.

West End News, Portland ME - An unknown person went into the sculpture garden of the Art Gallery at the University of New England on the night of June 17th and hacked off the penis of a two-foot high clay sculpture that was on exhibit. The sculptor, Munjoy Hill artist Nancy Nevergole, had been asked the previous day to remove the sculpture. Nevergole discovered the vandalism when she arrived to remove the sculpture. The statue was part of the annual Sculpture Garden Invitational held

ICEBERG SIZE OF LUXEMBOURG BREAKS OFF OF ANTARCTIC

AFP - An iceberg the size of Luxembourg knocked loose from the Antarctic continent earlier this month could disrupt the ocean currents driving weather patterns around the globe, researchers said Thursday. While the impact would not be felt for decades or longer, a slowdown in the production of colder, dense water could result in less temperate winters in the north Atlantic, they said.

HOW BIG PHARMA RIGS MEDICAL EDUCATION

Unsilent Generation - The pharmaceutical industry has wormed its way into the hearts and minds of the medical professions in any number of ways¬wining and dining doctors, sending them off to vacation in splendid spas, and even buying their names to put on industry-written articles promoting different drugs.

One little known facet of this drugster-doctor relationship is Big Pharma’s role in continuing medical education programs, which are important in keeping medical professionals informed and up to date on the fast developing profession. Of the $2 billion-odd spent on these programs every year, nearly half comes from the drug business, which not-so-subtly uses the education programs to push new drugs.

Last week a conference at Georgetown University called “Prescription for Conflict” pulled together experts from academia, government, and industry to discuss the question: Should industry fund continuing medical education? The main instigator here is a former colleague of mine named Adriane Fugh- Berman, a doctor and teacher at Georgetown University Medical School. Fugh-Berman long ago became the nemesis of Big Pharma with a stream of articles and talks questioning the different aspects of liaison between the drugsters and the medical profession. . .

The conference at Georgetown included few critics as candid as Fugh-Berman. Those gathered included polite academics with hedged criticism of industry funding, and regulators like Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner at the FDA, and Julie Taitsman, chief medical officer the Department of Health and Human Services, who presented a list of the different laws protecting the public. . .

One blunt critique came from Paul Thacker, an investigator for Senate Republican Charles Grassley, who has been the most visible Congressional muckraker on the doctor-drug company love-in. Thacker bluntly told the docs to get off their supercilious “who me?’’ attitude and come to grips with the scarcely believable conflicts of interest existing between the medical profession and the drug industry–conflicts that more often than not have been to the detriment of their patients.

The industry, as always, insists it isn’t doing anything bad–far from it. Big Pharma, its representatives would have you believe, is really performing a public service, trying to educate docs so they can do a better job. This conference, however, offered a different point of view, in the statement of an anonymous “pharmaceutical executive,’’ who admitted industry involvement in “CME has the potential for inappropriate promotional messaging and influence.’’

The anonymous exec went on to state: “Typically,companies make CME investment decisions at annual budget meetings. The Sales and Marketing divisions dominate deliberations.and distribution of CME cash.’’ In deciding what institutions are to get money, he continued, “large volume, influential institutions are not likely to be rejected…Friendly institutions, as defined by access and volume, are more likely to receive grants than those that favor another company’s products. Grants may also be made in support of programs including particular KOLs [key opiniong leaders] whose opinions resonate with the promotional plan…Similarly, those known for positions antithetical to the company’s promotional plan are less likely to be supported.’’

In conclusion, the exec said, “CME contributions are commercial decisions,’’ and, finally, “CME is not compatible with commercial intervention.’’ Too bad it takes a drug company whistleblower to make this statement of the obvious, rather than the medical organizations and government regulatory agencies who are supposed to be looking out for us.

HIDDEN HISTORY: AMERICA AND CORPORATIONS

Reclaim Democracy - When American colonists declared independence from England in 1776, they also freed themselves from control by English corporations that extracted their wealth and dominated trade. After fighting a revolution to end this exploitation, our country's founders retained a healthy fear of corporate power and wisely limited corporations exclusively to a business role. Corporations were forbidden from attempting to influence elections, public policy, and other realms of civic society.

Initially, the privilege of incorporation was granted selectively to enable activities that benefited the public, such as construction of roads or canals. Enabling shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end.

The states also imposed conditions (some of which remain on the books, though unused) like these:

- Corporate charters (licenses to exist) were granted for a limited time and could be revoked promptly for violating laws.

- Corporations could engage only in activities necessary to fulfill their chartered purpose.

- Corporations could not own stock in other corporations nor own any property that was not essential to fulfilling their chartered purpose.

- Corporations were often terminated if they exceeded their authority or caused public harm.

- Owners and managers were responsible for criminal acts committed on the job.

- Corporations could not make any political or charitable contributions nor spend money to influence law-making.

For 100 years after the American Revolution, legislators maintained tight control of the corporate chartering process. Because of widespread public opposition, early legislators granted very few corporate charters, and only after debate. Citizens governed corporations by detailing operating conditions not just in charters but also in state constitutions and state laws. Incorporated businesses were prohibited from taking any action that legislators did not specifically allow.

States also limited corporate charters to a set number of years. Unless a legislature renewed an expiring charter, the corporation was dissolved and its assets were divided among shareholders. Citizen authority clauses limited capitalization, debts, land holdings, and sometimes, even profits. They required a company's accounting books to be turned over to a legislature upon request. The power of large shareholders was limited by scaled voting, so that large and small investors had equal voting rights. Interlocking directorates were outlawed. Shareholders had the right to remove directors at will.

In Europe, charters protected directors and stockholders from liability for debts and harms caused by their corporations. American legislators explicitly rejected this corporate shield. The penalty for abuse or misuse of the charter was not a plea bargain and a fine, but dissolution of the corporation.

In 1819 the U.S. Supreme Court tried to strip states of this sovereign right by overruling a lower court's decision that allowed New Hampshire to revoke a charter granted to Dartmouth College by King George III. The Court claimed that since the charter contained no revocation clause, it could not be withdrawn. The Supreme Court's attack on state sovereignty outraged citizens. Laws were written or re-written and new state constitutional amendments passed to circumvent the Dartmouth ruling. Over several decades starting in 1844, nineteen states amended their constitutions to make corporate charters subject to alteration or revocation by their legislatures. As late as 1855 it seemed that the Supreme Court had gotten the people's message when in Dodge v. Woolsey it reaffirmed state's powers over "artificial bodies."

But the men running corporations pressed on. Contests over charter were battles to control labor, resources, community rights, and political sovereignty. More and more frequently, corporations were abusing their charters to become conglomerates and trusts. They converted the nation's resources and treasures into private fortunes, creating factory systems and company towns. Political power began flowing to absentee owners, rather than community-rooted enterprises.

The industrial age forced a nation of farmers to become wage earners, and they became fearful of unemployment--a new fear that corporations quickly learned to exploit. Company towns arose. and blacklists of labor organizers and workers who spoke up for their rights became common. When workers began to organize, industrialists and bankers hired private armies to keep them in line. They bought newspapers to paint businessmen as heroes and shape public opinion. Corporations bought state legislators, then announced legislators were corrupt and said that they used too much of the public's resources to scrutinize every charter application and corporate operation.

Government spending during the Civil War brought these corporations fantastic wealth. Corporate executives paid "borers" to infest Congress and state capitals, bribing elected and appointed officials alike. They pried loose an avalanche of government financial largesse. During this time, legislators were persuaded to give corporations limited liability, decreased citizen authority over them, and extended durations of charters. Attempts were made to keep strong charter laws in place, but with the courts applying legal doctrines that made protection of corporations and corporate property the center of constitutional law, citizen sovereignty was undermined. As corporations grew stronger, government and the courts became easier prey. They freely reinterpreted the U.S. Constitution and transformed common law doctrines.

One of the most severe blows to citizen authority arose out of the 1886 Supreme Court case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. Though the court did not make a ruling on the question of "corporate personhood," thanks to misleading notes of a clerk, the decision subsequently was used as precedent to hold that a corporation was a "natural person."

From that point on, the 14th Amendment, enacted to protect rights of freed slaves, was used routinely to grant corporations constitutional "personhood." Justices have since struck down hundreds of local, state and federal laws enacted to protect people from corporate harm based on this illegitimate premise. Armed with these "rights," corporations increased control over resources, jobs, commerce, politicians, even judges and the law.

A United States Congressional committee concluded in 1941, "The principal instrument of the concentration of economic power and wealth has been the corporate charter with unlimited power. . . "

Many U.S.-based corporations are now transnational, but the corrupted charter remains the legal basis for their existence.

BOOKSHELF: WHERE DID THE PARTY GO?

William Jennings Bryan, Hubert Humphrey, & the Jeffersonian Legacy

By Jeff Taylor

Sam Smith - This book, which was published several years ago, puts the decline of the Democratic Party - in character if not always at the polls - in fine historical perspective. It also helps to explain why folks like myself have such a hard time with the contemporary Democratic Party, which has dumped much of its populism and Jeffersonian tendencies that made it worthwhile in favor of Hamiltonian elitism.

Bill Kauffman, American Conservative - Where Did the Party Go? amounts to a populist reinterpretation of the 20th-century Democratic Party. The author is both an exhaustively thorough researcher and a pleasingly partisan writer . . . Taylor has devised a 12-tenet definition of the protean term ‘Jeffersonianism,’ which is really more a tendency than an ideology and savors of a decentralist, libertarian populism. The party of Jefferson today may be as empty as the party of Hamilton is full, but Taylor ends the book with a rallying cry for ‘a coalition of the populist Left and populist Right’ in opposition to ‘plutocracy and imperialism’ and ‘a domineering state and a materialistic world view.’ . . Among Taylor’s virtues is his spirited refusal to inter persons and ideas in the coffins labeled ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative.’ He knows too much political history for that.

ONE THOUSAND TROOPS FOR EACH MEMBER OF AL QAEDA

Think Progress - The U.S. has committed nearly 100,000 troops to the mission in Afghanistan. ABC This Week host Jake Tapper asked CIA Director Leon Panetta how big is the al Qaeda threat that the soldiers are combating:

TAPPER: How many Al Qaeda, do you think, are in Afghanistan?

PANETTA: I think the estimate on the number of Al Qaeda is actually relatively small. I think at most, we’re looking at 50 to 100, maybe less. It’s in that vicinity. There’s no question that the main location of Al Qaeda is in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The 100,000 U.S. forces that have been tasked to dismantle the 100 or so al Qaeda members ¬ a ratio of 1000:1 ¬ is complicated by the fact that we are also engaged in operations going after the Taliban leadership. Panetta said the Taliban insurgency is “engaged in greater violence right now” than when Obama took office. “They’re doing more on IED’s. They’re going after our troops. There’s no question about that. In some ways, they are stronger, but in some ways, they are weaker as well.”

Addressing whether the U.S. is pursuing the right strategy, CIA Director Leon Panetta meekly responded, “We think so.” Panetta added that the U.S. is making progress in Afghanistan. “It’s harder, it’s slower than I think anyone anticipated.”

“Winning in Afghanistan is having a country that is stable enough to ensure that there is no safehaven for al Qaeda or for a militant Taliban that welcomes al Qaeda,” Panetta told Tapper. “That’s really the measure of success for the United States.”

DC SCHOOLS EXPAND TEST TORTURE

Washington Post – [DC schools] Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is seeking an outside contractor to help dramatically expand DCPS' use of standardized tests, so that every grade from K through 12 will have some form of assessment to measure student progress and teacher effectiveness.

The plan would add to an already busy testing calendar. No Child Left Behind requires that all public school students in grades three through eight be tested annually in reading and math proficiency. The District does that with the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System, or DC CAS, administered every April in those grades as well as to high school sophomores. The CAS also tests science in grades 5 and 8, biology in high school, and composition in grades 4, 7, and 10. Many students also take quarterly DC Benchmark Assessment System (DC BAS) tests so that teachers can flag learning issues. Every two weeks, children in grades K through three receive DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy). Every two years, fourth- and eighth-graders receive the federal NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) in math and reading.

But DCPS is expected to release a request for proposals this week to push what many teachers and parents already regard as a test-happy culture to a new level. An e-mail to principals last week from the office of interim chief academic officer Michael Moody said the expanded testing coverage would include English language arts and math in kindergarten through second grade, math "pretesting" in third grade, social studies and science in grades 6 through 8, and core subjects in high school evaluation. . . . .

FURTHERMORE. .

Urban Dictionary: Inflight Refueler - A man in a pub that takes his beer with his when he goes to the gents and drinks it while having a pee. . . "Right I'm off for a slash". . . . . . "I'll look after your pint mate.". . . "No it's OK I am an inflight refueler

Thomson West News - Evidence that at preliminary hearing accused asked witness "How do you know it was me when I had a handkerchief over my face?" was properly admitted at trial for robbery as an admission. Nance v. United States, 299 F.2d 122 (D.C. Cir. 1962)

Green Party Watch - Members of the legislature in Germany’s most populous state elected Social Democrat Hannelore Kraft to lead a new minority government, in coalition with the Greens. Kraft is the first woman to become premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.. . . The new government is to be made up of seven ministers from the SPD and three from the Greens.

NY Country Lawyer, Slashdot - In a rare outburst of subjectivity, I commenced my blog post 'Ha ha ha ha ha' when reporting that, based upon the RIAA's disclosure form for 2008, it had paid its lawyers more than $16,000,000 to recover $391,000. If they were doing it to 'send a message,' the messages have been received loud & clear: (1) the big four record labels are managed by idiots; (2) the RIAA's law firms have as much compassion for their client as they do for the lawsuit victims; (3) suing end users, or alleged end users, is a losing game.

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