People Before Profit blog

Uninsured rate in Houston among highest in the nation

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:59:00 +0000

HOUSTON – A front page article in the 8/30/09 edition of the Houston Chronicle notes that Houston is among the worst in the nation in terms of uninsured residents. This great, culturally diverse city which is the nation’s fourth largest, frequently boasts of the Texas Medical Center, which is world-renowned for medical treatment and research.

Houston is the largest city in Texas, a state which has the nation’s highest rate of uninsured. Four congressional districts in Houston are among the worst ten in the nation. Thirteen of Texas’ districts fall in the worst 30 in the US.

Texas as a whole ranks very poorly on this vital issue: even the wealthiest districts had at least 15% uninsured. There was not a single Texas district that made it to the top half of the nation. It should be pointed out that this is the case just after President Bush left office. During Bush’s administration, it was well known that Houston companies were richly rewarded with no-bid contracts in Iraq and have been recipients of extremely generous bailouts from the federal government. Also, major oil companies reported the highest profits of any industry in history during the Bush administration. It appears the corporations failed to share their rich rewards with their employees.

The Chronicle article points out that six million Texans are uninsured. This includes one in five children. There are 1.3 million uninsured in Harris County which includes Houston. This is more than any other county in Texas.

In addition, Rep. Al Green says 500,000 are underinsured. Speaking of the astonishing rate of uninsured in Texas, Rep. Green says, “It’s not something I’m proud of.” U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee calls the disparities in health coverage between the wealthy and poor in Texas “a link for disaster and a call for serious attention.” In poor districts, the rate of uninsured ranged from 46.4% to 26.4%.

The article also points out that “Houston’s best-insured district is John Culberson’s Westside district … It ranks 244th of 435 in the country … Culberson calls American medical care ‘the greatest health-care system that the world has every known.’”

These clear class differences have energized Houstonians. Numerous Congressional town hall meetings have been held with large numbers of people demanding health care reform in a very public way. Some of the early meetings were disrupted by characters who have gotten a lot of attention in the mainstream media. A participant in Al Green’s town hall meeting reported that it was marked by civility and the 1000 plus people attending strongly supported health care reform and shut down disrupters with no problem. An article in the Chronicle called Green’s handling of the meeting “masterful, ” a model of how to conduct such meetings.

A health care rally at Houston City Hall will be held on September 3 at 6:30 p.m. and activists are eagerly looking forward to it. It has been endorsed by Harris County AFL-CIO, SEIU, Justice for Janitors, Organizing for America and the Harris County Democratic Party.

PHill1917@comcast.net

Peace groups map actions for Oct. 7, Afghanistan war’s 8th anniversary

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:57:00 +0000

With the U.S. commander in Afghanistan expected to ask President Obama to send more troops, peace groups are planning actions across the U.S. on Oct. 7, the eighth anniversary of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

United For Peace and Justice, the national peace coalition, is urging grassroots peace and economic and social justice groups to gather in their cities and towns on Oct. 7 for “action, dialog, and reflection on the eight years of death and dying in Afghanistan.”

The events, UFPJ says, will raise the issues of “the costs, human and economic, of the occupation and war in Afghanistan and impact on the region.”

UFPJ, which was formed in 2002 as the Iraq war was looming, is calling on its 1,400 member groups to initiate local actions or educational events including teach-ins, vigils, rallies and delegations to congressional offices. Also suggested are phone call and letter-writing campaigns, house parties to raise money for Afghanistan relief or other aid to the Afghan people, and “creative actions to highlight the devastating effects of the drone air strikes” on civilians in the region.

President Obama was elected with hopes for diplomacy, not war, the coalition notes. With recent polls showing 54 percent of Americans believe the Afghanistan war is a mistake, “the peace movement is challenged to organize the hope for change into a movement to end the war in Afghanistan as one of the big steps towards addressing the crisis in our communities,” UFPJ says. “With every bomb dropped and every civilian and military death, we are no closer to helping the Afghan people and the region to grapple with their problems. In fact, the U.S. presence is the biggest obstacle to doing so.”

The Oct. 7 events are “aimed at galvanizing the grassroots” to blunt the expected Pentagon request for more troops, Judith LeBlanc, UFPJ national organizing coordinator, said. LeBlanc said there is a growing consensus “that there should not be an escalation, it has to end.” The question, she said, is “not only does it need to end, but how? It’s a complicated question — people have many questions about what will happen to the Afghan people, the women.” Therefore, teach-ins, house parties and similar events are important to “expose some of the myths, explain the costs of the U.S. military involvement, highlight the importance of political engagement to create a better international framework in the region, and bring pressure to bear on Congress to speak out.”

“We need an open congressional debate on what the U.S. goals are and what the timetable is to get our troops out,” she said.

More information is available at www.unitedforpeace.org.

Two days before the war’s anniversary, on Oct. 5, a coalition led by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance will hold a procession to the White House, deliver a petition calling for an end to the Afghanistan war, and hold a nonviolent direct action in Washington. The pacifist group, founded in 2002 as the Iraq Pledge of Resistance, says it is “committed to ending the wars and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and trying to encourage our government to invest in human needs rather than death and destruction.”

The petition can be signed online at www.iraqpledge.org/nogoodwar.html. Along with the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, the petition asks the U.S. government to “fund vigorous international efforts at assisting Afghans with the rebuilding of their decimated infrastructure.” It appeals to President Obama to “close a tragic chapter in our nation's history, restore its honor and improve our relationship with the global community.”

Peace Action, is calling for "out-of-Afghanistan" house parties. The group says, “Now is the time to tap into the political momentum for peace and educate the American public about the need to remove foreign forces from Afghanistan and increase international support of Afghan-led aid and development.”

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., have called on the administration to present an exit plan and timetable. McGovern has introduced a bill, HR 2404, that would require the defense secretary to present an exit strategy by the end of the year. The bill, HR 2404, has 95 copsonsors to date, including seven Republicans. Feingold is calling for a “flexible timetable” for withdrawal. A petition pressing the Senate to demand an exit strategy is online at www.justforeignpolicy.org.

suewebb @ pww.org

Once again, Albuquerque shouts ‘Health care now!’

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:55:00 +0000

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As a huge Organizing for America bus rolled into the Hispanic Cultural Center here on the evening of Aug. 27, it was greeted by the shouts of nearly 1,000 people: “Health Care Now!”

Stepping out of the bus were health care activists from New Mexico and as far away as New York. Among them were Fonda Osborn, president of Local 1199 Health Care Workers, Dr. Luella Toni Lewis, executive vice-president of the Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU Healthcare, Greg Bloom, state director for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and state Sen. Dede Feldman from Albuquerque.

While all the people on the stage spoke strongly for health care with a public option, the most significant contribution was made by Sen. Bingaman’s staffer Greg Bloom, who relayed the message that Bingaman continues to support a strong public option in health care reform, and is joined in this by the state’s junior senator, Tom Udall.

Don Manning, national AFL/CIO coordinator for health care and the Employee Free Choice Act, said Bingaman’s stand was reinforced by his announcement at a recent town hall debate that he backed use of the congressional reconciliation process to get the health reform bill passed and prevent the Republican minority from blocking it. This appeared to put to rest some public concerns that the senator was waffling.

Of the nearly 1,000 people who turned out for the spirited health reform rally, more than a third were members of local unions and of Working America, according to participants. One of the most active unions was the New Mexico Federation of Teachers, whose political action director, Tiffany Fiser, was busy handing out blue AFT T-shirts to the crowd.

People from southern New Mexico reported that they had collected thousands of signatures for national health care reform from constituents that the right-wing “teabaggers” had previously claimed as their own. It was proof positive, they said, that the vast majority of New Mexicans were for a strong public option.

As Bloom made his announcement on behalf of Bingaman, a number of people in the audience started to chant “Single Payer Now.” The chant drew little attention and quickly died down. In a marked contrast with the Republicans’ responses in 2004 and 2008, where dissenting opinions were either not permitted in their town hall meetings or their advocates were thrown out, this was an extraordinary example of civility.

Emil Shaw contributed to this article.

1500 rally for health care in St. Louis

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:50:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS – “Health care reform is about family values,” Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed told over 1,500 union members, community leaders and activists here at an Organizing for America (OFA) health care rally August, 30. “I can’t think of anything more critical than the health of our families,” he said.

OFA’s rally is part of nationwide bus tour to refocus the health care debate and build momentum for the public option before Congress reconvenes. Additionally, as the media seems to be tiring of reporting on town-hall disrupters, hecklers and yellers, health care public option supporters are retaking the offensive.

Marian Miller, a housing analyst for the City of St. Louis, agrees.

“What’s the issue,” she asked quizzically? “People are on Medicaid and Medicare, both government-run plans, and they seem to be doing just fine.”

Tom George, a self-employed truck driver who lost his health care in 2004, would love to be on a government-run health care plan. With diabetes, a pre-existing condition, he’s unable to get private coverage. Additionally, George has filed chapter 13 bankruptcy due to health care costs.

While he is optimistic and believes that “everyone should be educated, healthy and equal,” he also fears that the Republicans are out to “discredit and dissuade.” “They are trying to keep people from talking about the real issues.”

According to him, health care reform is a “civil rights issue” and “this is our opportunity to achieve it.”

St. Louis Central Labor Council president Bob Soutier couldn’t agree more. He told the crowd, “This labor council represents 125,000 union members and we fight to make sure they all have health care. Not because it’s a union issue. Because it’s a human rights issue. Good, affordable health is a human right.”

As about 100 anti-reform protesters tried to chant over the speakers, Soutier added, “They want a debate. Well there is nothing to debate. Health care is not debatable.”

”Currently there are 47 million Americans without health care,” Soutier continued. “There is something wrong with that. There is something wrong with our for-profit health care system.”

Mark Harvey, a pastor with the United Methodist Church, evoked scripture and said, “everybody deserves the health and wellness promised by Jesus.”

He said we need health care reform “for access, for affordability, and for fairness. For the sick and for the well.”

While some politicians have argued for more time to discuss the various health care proposals, Congressman Russ Carnahan has taken a firm stance in support of President Obama’s health care reform. He said, “We can-not sustain the cost of a broken system.” Additionally, OFA delivered over 25,000 petition signatures to Congressman Carnahan from Missouri voters supporting health care reform.

Bradley Harmon, president of the Missouri State Workers’ Union, told the World, “I’m a social worker. I service poor people without health care. They can’t wait for reform. I’m telling Congress health care reform can’t wait.”

NY health care rally honors Ted Kennedy

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:46:00 +0000

NEW YORK – At nearly the same time as the funeral for Ted Kennedy, the “Lion of the Senate,” took place in Boston, thousands of people gathered at the crossroads of the world to both fight for President Obama’s health care reform package and to say “thank you” to Kennedy for his lifelong struggle on behalf of working people, especially his fight to make sure everyone in America had access to quality care.

Attendee Curtis Lewis summed up the sentiment of most at the rally: “I’m here to support health care for everyone,” he said. “It’s a very important issue, and it’s about time. I’m also here to honor Senator Edward Kennedy.”

“Let’s make Senator Kennedy’s dream a reality,” John T. Ahern, president of the New York City Central Labor Council said to those gathered. “We know no one should be without health care. But right now, 47 million Americans are without health care. It ain’t right, brothers and sisters. We need a public option.”

Ahern, who was surrounded by members of both AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions, told the World that the C.L.C. had decided, for the first time, to make this year’s Labor Day parade a march, with two demands: to pass Obama’s health reforms and to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers the right to organize unions without intimidation.

“Most of our members have health care,” Ahern told the World, “but we need to look out for those who don’t.”

There was a palpable sense of optimism in the crowd. “Optimistic? I’m very optimistic. I know it’s going to happen,” Nina Agrawal, founder of NYC for Change and community outreach director for the National Physicians Alliance, told the World.

While most members of the city’s Congressional delegation were attending Sen. Kennedy’s funeral, the rest were at the rally. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told the crowd that he was ready to get back to Washington and fight. To loud cheers, he condemned those who say that the U.S. can’t afford health care reform, but could afford “a trillion dollars for a stupid war in Iraq that did nothing but serve the vanity of George W Bush.”

Rep. Yvette Clark, D-N.Y., was also in attendance. She emphasized that there was no contradiction in fighting for the Obama plan and at the same time fighting for single payer.

“Don’t believe the hype,” Clarke said. “Single payer health care is still on the table!” Indeed, many in the crowd seemed to share this sentiment, carrying both Organizing For America and Health care for America Now signs, as well as handwritten placards calling for the enactment of the so-called “Medicare for All” bill. Both OFA and HCAN are in full support of the Obama proposals.

As for Obama himself, there was a nearly universal affection for him in the crowd. When Clarke announced that Obama “had given us our marching orders” and that people should follow them, the crowd erupted in cheers.

“He’s been strong,” said Mark Hannay, director of Metro New York Health Care for All. “He’s definitely in touch with popular attitudes, especially through his organization, Organizing for America.”

Agrawal, a pediatrician who works in New Jersey and lives in New York, said that there was a new atmosphere among “the new generation of physicians.” The American Medical Association played a notoriously bad role in the fight for health care reform in the 1990s, but has now backed Obama’s proposals. According to Agrawal, “what is good for patients is good for doctors.” Her organization has been doing visits to legislators, led by both patients and doctors united. “It’s very powerful,” she said.

The rally was organized by dozens of organizations, including Organizing for America, Healthcare for America Now, the New York State AFL-CIO, and numerous local groups.

As much as it was a rally demanding health care reform and a remembrance of Ted Kennedy, it was also a celebration. Those gathered celebrated both the life of Michael Jackson—whose birthday was today—as well as the feeling that victory in the struggle for health care is finally near.

A Jackson song played over the sound system, summed up the mood of those in the crowd and in the fight: “Don’t stop ‘til you get enough.”

I survived a health care town hall

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:40:00 +0000

Any one paying attention to the news media’s coverage of the health care town halls across the country could be forgiven for assuming they all must be full of loud, gun-toting talk-radio disciples who would all very much like to see Obama’s long-form birth certificate. In actuality there are plenty of these town halls in which all the participants carry on peacefully and civilly. Unfortunately, the town hall I attended in Missouri’s state capital on August 26th was definitely not one of those. The conversations I had with health care opponents outside were civil enough, even if they were full of inane observations like, “Ya know, Hitler liked socialized medicine, too!” (This, from someone who gleefully supported rounding up “illegals.”) However, once we got inside and the show began, it was a whole different story.

The event was moderated by Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, and the first question she heard was from an honest citizen who was just genuinely concerned about the ‘death panels.’ McCaskill expressed her own genuine concern that anybody still believed in this as she explained the difference between forced execution and end-of-life counseling. Despite the Senator’s patient, rational response debunking the ridiculous rumor, I could still here people behind me repeatedly insist that she had somehow dodged the question. Later, Dixie, a woman literally red in the face with anger, demanded to know why the hell Congress was even considering any kind of universal health care when Medicare and Medicaid are such obvious failures. The health care opponents roared in approval. McCaskill responded by asking how many people in the crowd were covered by Medicare, and roughly a fourth of the audience raised their hands. She then asked who among them wanted to give up their Medicare. “Me! I do!” one man shouted as he furiously waved his hand, though most of the other conservatives were more ambivalent.

There were also plenty of universal health care advocates in attendance. They seemed to outnumber the health care opponents, though not by much, and certainly not by volume. Our behavior was decidedly more civil, though we definitely made some noise whenever Senator McCaskill spoke of her support for a public option, when she criticized health insurance companies and when she made clear that any taxes raised to pay for expanded government coverage would come from the wealthy. Still, universal health care proponents never matched the virulent rage of the opposing crowd.

Still, despite of all their angry shouting, Senator McCaskill made appeals to the conservatives in the audience. For one, she repeatedly noted her pledge to vote against any health care reform bill that was not deficit neutral. She made it clear she opposed instituting a single payer system. She also pledged to oppose any measure to include coverage for elective abortions, but when one woman asked in response if she would oppose covering Viagra, McCaskill totally missed the point. Instead of seriously addressing the sexually discriminating nature of such a pledge, she joked about how embarrassed the questioner’s husband must be. This is after she seriously answered a question about death panels, mind you. Finally, in what was perhaps the most chilling episode of the evening, McCaskill promised to continue her support for the anti-immigrant and ethnically discriminative e-verify system, to which the conservatives in the crowd gave a roaring standing ovation.

Despite these appeals, the conservatives still jeered loudly when Senator McCaskill noted they would soon enough get the chance to vote her out of office. In the end, it didn’t seem that anyone was leaving the town hall with a different view of health care reform than they had coming in.

As I walked out of the town hall myself, a man, noticing my Jobs With Justice “Health care for All” sticker, asked me if I really wanted socialism. “Heck yeah!” I replied, prompting nearby woman to warn, “You don’t know what socialism is!” If only she knew.

Unfazed by Glenn Beck, silent majority turning out to back health reform

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:29:00 +0000

You wouldn't know it from the sensation-hungry commercial media and the right-wing pundits, but supporters of health care reform and a public option are turning out at vigils, rallies and town hall events across the country.

Increasingly, they are outnumbering the hostile right-wing-organized "tea-party" protesters who filled our TV screens and commentaries a week or two ago.

Sunday night, some 200 people turned out for a candlelight vigil and procession from one downtown Columbus church to another, to "Shine Our Light on Health Care." The vigil/procession was led by the Revs. Tim Ahrens of First Congregational Church and Denise Edwards of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The peaceful religious-themed event perhaps was not exciting enough for Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh. It began with remarks and prayers at First Congregational and concluded with prayers at Trinity. A similar event took place in Youngstown.

On Saturday night, nearly 100 Toledo residents joined together for a vigil as well.

The events, the organizers said, "serve as a reminder that we seek health care reform that is grounded in the sacred bonds of our common humanity, and that this reflects faithful stewardship of our abundant health care resources."

Their goal, they said, was to "demonstrate the depth and breadth of public support for a health care future that includes everyone and works well for all of us."

At a downtown rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Sunday, close to 100 supporters of health care reform and a public option outnumbered opponents by about 4 to 1.

Adam Bakker, 31, of Grand Rapids, told the local newspaper, the Grand Rapids Press, that he and friends organized the rally to end what he called a campaign of misinformation and half-truths by right-wingers.

"The debate has been dominated by misinformation," he said. Reading a sign carried by the small anti-health-reform group across the street, Bakker said, "‘My health, my choice'? I couldn't agree more. All we want is choice. People should have options, actual choices."

"Some people have to choose between buying a prescription for a child or buying food. We want people to have a real choice," he said.

In West Warwick, R.I., last Thursday, a community dinner with Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse drew a strongly pro-reform crowd, with more than two-thirds of those inside the event applauding for a public plan and progressive reform, and a similar majority outside.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has turned a green RV into a mobile action center fitted out with computers and phones, and taken it on a Highway to Health Care tour to cities across America's heartland. It started out Aug. 12 in Bismark, N.D., headed to Fargo, then Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., Fayetteville and Little Rock, Ark., Shreveport and Baton Rouge, La., Evansville, Bloomington and Indianapolis, Ind., and Cincinnati.

As the RV rolled into Cincinnati on Saturday, AFSCME's Blaine Rummel commented, referring to the right-wing cable shows, "One thing really striking is what we have seen on cable TV is not indicative of what's going on in America."

In Fargo, 100 people came out to write letters to Sen. Kent Conrad, he noted in a video posted on YouTube. Fifty came out in Omaha on a rainy day. In Little Rock, 250 came to the State Capitol. Over 300 came out in Indianapolis, where Rep. Andre Carson lambasted the insurance industry.

As a result of door-knocking by union members and affiliated groups like Working America, 20,000 people have sent letters to Congress in just the last two months pressing for health care reform, Rummel said.

As he spoke, behind him in the AFSCME van people were lined up to sign letters to their senators.

After a rally today in Charlottesville, Va., the action tour heads to Wilmington, Del., tomorrow, and on up to Portland and Bangor, Me., on Wednesday.

Political prisoner Leonard Peltier denied parole

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:28:00 +0000

Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) Leonard Peltier, 64, was again denied parole in a recent hearing by the U.S. Parole Commission. Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975, has said he was framed. His last hearing was in 1994. The AIM activist is not due for another parole hearing until 2024 when he will be 79 years old.

Peltier's lawyer Eric Seitz blamed the denial of parole on Bush appointees, saying: "The Bush administration holdovers on the U.S. Parole Commission ... adopted the position of the FBI that anyone who may be implicated in the killings of its agents should never be paroled and should be left to die in prison."

Two other co-defendants were earlier acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. In speaking before the hearing, Peltier reminded commissioners that another co-defendant admitted to firing the fatal shots.

Amnesty International and other human and civil rights groups regard Peltier as a political prisoner. In a statement Amnesty International called for his immediate release. The organization said it "regretted the U.S. Parole Commission's decision not to grant Leonard Peltier parole despite concerns about the fairness of his 1977 conviction for murder." It called for the "immediate release on parole" of the activist.

A key fact in the case was Peltier's extradition from Canada based on eyewitness testimony the FBI knew to be false. The witness, Myrtle Poor Bear, recanted her testimony but was not allowed to testify at trial. Other legal concerns according to Amnesty International "include the withholding by the prosecution of evidence, including potentially key ballistics evidence that might have assisted Leonard Peltier's defense." The ballistics evidence including a telex discovered post-trial suggested that the firing pin in the rifle in question is different than the one used to kill the agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.

Rights coalition calls for end to immigrant arrest program

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:37:00 +0000

More than 500 immigrants’ rights and social justice organizations have sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking that he stop a controversial program whereby state and local police are allowed to participate in immigration enforcement policies.

The program to which the letter objects, called 287 (g), was created in 1996 as part of a piece of repressive anti-immigration legislation called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA). Although it became law under the Clinton administration, the Bush administration really pushed it. It allows the U.S. Agency for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.), to sign cooperation agreements with state, local and county police departments which provide immigration training enforcement for their officers and then permit those departments to hold people they stop for other reasons (often for trivial traffic offenses), and, if they have reason to believe they are undocumented immigrants or have otherwise fallen afoul of immigration laws, hand them over to I.C.E. for immigration action including, often, deportation.

There are currently about 63 police and correctional agencies with memorandum of agreement to participate in this program. Many of them are in areas where local politicians have been whipping up anti-immigrant feelings. These include Farmers Branch (Texas), Prince William County (Virginia), Herndon (Virginia) and Frederick (Maryland).

Since the 287 (g) program was started under the Bush administration, it has become the focus of complaints that it stimulated racial profiling and harassment of Latino, Asian and other minority people by local police.

This kind of harassment is not new. For as long as there has been undocumented immigration to this country (which means as long as there have been restrictive immigration laws), there have been police officers and other officials who have either been overzealous about stopping and arresting people who appear to be foreign, or have been corrupt and have harassed the foreign born by extorting bribes.

When this reporter lived, for many years, on the West Side of Chicago, I was always hearing stories, or reading about them in the local press, of immigrants being “shaken down” by Chicago or suburban police

In one notorious case, corrupt Chicago police officers made a nice living off shaking down undocumented Polish immigrants on the Northwest Side of the city. I also heard about cars containing Mexican immigrant workers traveling from inner city Latino neighborhoods to factories on the city’s outskirts being regularly stopped for imaginary or trivial reasons, so that the police officers could inquire into the drivers’ and passengers’ immigration status, and not let them go until money was paid.

The problem with 287 (g) is that it exacerbates these problems by making it legal for the police to question people on immigration status at the outset. Instead of just being rogue cops, they become deputized I.C.E. agents also.

A notorious example of the abuse of the 287 (g) program is the campaign of Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio against Latinos in his jurisdiction, which has involved Maricopa County police descending on small Latino communities to conduct sweeps to check everybody’s immigration status. Arpaio’s brutal treatment of people detained for immigration offenses is notorious.

Now the situation has become more urgent, because the Obama administration is signaling that a new immigration reform legislative package, which would legalize most of the undocumented, will not be finished until next year, and not this year as originally stated.

Immigrants’ rights advocates express disappointment, and say that if this is the case, there should be a moratorium or freeze on immigration enforcement actions except those aimed at drug dealers and other serious criminals. Their argument is that it makes no sense to be deporting people today, with all the disruption and heartache which that entails, who next year might have qualified for legalization and permanent residency in this country.

In a recent policy statement, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that she is having all police departments who now participate in 287 (g) sign new contracts which bind them to a more restrictive interpretation of who they can and can not stop, question and arrest. But she is also adding eleven new police departments to the program. Opponents of 287 (g) say that the new rules will not deter corrupt or racist police from abusing the program, and that adding more departments to the program now will make the problem so much worse.

The organizations’ letter, signed by Marielena Hincapie, Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center, to Obama cites the fact that even many police and sheriffs’ departments do not like the program, and that a General Accounting Office report on it in March of this year was scathingly critical.

The letter concludes “We know that you are committed to tackling our nation’s most complex issues, for these reasons we ask that you examine the damaging impact of the 287 (g) program is having on immigrant communities across the country and terminate the program”.

How the right wing manufactures perceived truths

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:30:00 +0000

Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free
By Charles P. Pierce
Doubleday 2009, 293 pp.

If you’ve ever wondered how the right wing has been so successful at manufacturing perceived truths, Charles P. Pierce’s new book "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free" is a must read.

The old saying, "It would be funny if it wasn’t true," applies perfectly to the ideas discussed in this book. Some parts of "Idiot America" made me want to laugh out loud, while others made me cringe and wonder how so many people can be so fooled so often by craziness.

For example, Pierce starts off the book with a story about a trip to a Tennessee amusement park called Creation Museum where statue dinosaurs wear saddles and wait patiently in line as Noah herds them into the Ark. Park-goers fork out almost $150 per-head to hear sermons about how “dinosaurs co-existed with humans (hence the saddles)…”

Ken Ham, the park’s mastermind and founder of an organization called Answers in Genesis, tells participants, “We are taking the dinosaurs back from the evolutionists!”

According to Pierce, right-wing nuts (Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, et al) gain their credibility by adhering to "The Three Great Premises."

“The First Great Premise: Any theory is valid if it sells enough books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units,” writes Pierce. “The crank then becomes simply someone with another product to sell within the unimaginative parameters of the marketplace; his views are just another impulse buy, like the potato chips near the cash register.”

Hence, Ken Ham’s Creation Museum is a commercial success where hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of kids are brought by their parents, schools and churches to be indoctrinated, challenging a whole generation to disbelieve established scientific fact, evolution.

“The Second Great Premise: Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough.” Again, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage come to mind. How many times have they hammered away, yelling and interrupting condescendingly as guests sincerely try to make points and honestly provide answers to complex questions? This is their method. They thrive off of anger and cynicism. And rile people up without providing answers to anything.

“Idiocy can come to the nation wholly and at once and, because idiocy is almost always good television,” writes Pierce, “it can remain a viable product long after the available evidence and common sense has revealed it to be what it is.” Idiocy!

Even worse, “Get your ideas on television – or, even better, onto its precocious great-grand child, the Internet, where television’s automatic validation of an idea can be instant and vast – and it will circulate forever, invulnerable and undying. The ideas will exist in the air,” writes Peirce. “They will be ‘out there,’ and therefore they will be real, no matter what reality itself may be.”

“The Third Great Premise: Fact is that which enough people believe,” writes Pierce. “Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it.”

“Under The Third Great Premise, respect for the effort required to develop and promulgate nonsense somehow bleeds into a respect that validates the nonsense itself,” writes Pierce.

To illustrate his point, Pierce cites Daniel Patrick Moynihan in writing about the J.F.K. assassination. Moynihan wrote, “a solid 70 percent of the American people did not believe the the conclusion of the Warren Commission…This percentage has not changed substantially since…the commission first published its findings” in the 1960’s.

However, “the revelation of an actual conspiracy - the Iran-Contra matter, say – has come to have a rather deadening effect on American politics and culture,” writes Pierce. Unfortunately, Pierce continues, “then the whole thing just dies in banality…” it is “commonplace and boring.” It’s not exciting. It doesn’t sell. It isn’t believed fervently.

“Iran-Contra should have immunized the American public forever against wishful fact-free adventurism...,” writes Pierce.

Ultimately though, nonsense promulgated by pundits, politicians and presidents alike (President Bush anyone? Weapons of mass destruction? Iraq?) continues to impact the body-politic.

How many times have we heard the tea-baggers, militias and racists – all funded by right-wing health care industry lobbyists – yell at the top of their lungs: President Obama wants to kill my grandma. A health care public option will create rationing. Etc. It doesn’t matter that it isn’t true. Glenn Beck believes it. A lot of people watch Glenn Beck. He moves units, therefore he must know what he’s talking about. Additionally, he’s loud and yells a lot. And he works hard spreading nonsense. He believes fervently in his nonsense, therefore, according to The Great Premises, it must be true.

Is this what right-wing political discourse has come down to? It’s an insult to the American people!

While "Idiot America" is generally a good, hilarious and scary book, outlining how the right wing has claimed the sound-bite in the war on ideas, Pierce seems to have too little faith in the American people. His only shortcoming is in not acknowledging two simple facts: First, ordinary people don’t expect to be lied to every time they turn on the TV, read the paper, or check their favorite websites. Second, most Americans – working two, three jobs, taking care of the kids, the mortgage, etc. – don’t have the time to really investigate and challenge the daily dose of nonsense being spoon-fed to them.

Nonetheless, "Idiot America" is an important contribution.

Rally urges city to keep mental health clinics open

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:25:00 +0000

CHICAGO – After dozens of mental health patients and community activists led a rally here, August 27, at City Hall to keep five public mental health clinics open, a top city health official said it has no plans of closing any of the 12 centers.

Dr. Terry Mason, Chicago Dept. of Public Health Commissioner made the announcement after the protest, which was in front of Mayor Richard Daley’s office. Over 1,000 letters were delivered to the Mayor’s door urging him to keep the clinics open.

Mason said the city has shifted $2.5 million dollars into the clinics to keep them open. A meeting has been scheduled for next month with city, state and mental health officials to find ways in providing steady funds to keep the clinics operating.

Yet Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, organizer with the Southside Together Organizing for Power, said the whole situation is very tenuous now that the Mayor has back peddled on the issue. We are still concerned that the Mayor is still trying to privatize the public facilities, something he is known for doing with other city institutions, he said.

Ginsberg-Jaeckle said the major concern now is to ensure that both patients/consumers and health care workers with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, be at the table to discuss the matter with city officials.

“We are optimistic that the Mayor has backed off for now but there are still many problems that need correcting,” said Ginsberg-Jaeckle.

N’dana Carter is a patient at the Greater Grand Mental Health Clinic and said she welcomes the news.

“But the Mayor is not always honest,” she said. “True consumers need to be invited and be at the next meeting,” added Carter. “If we are not it says to me the Mayor does not want to keep our clinics open.”

“These clinics and mental health services are worth fighting for because they help people like me and others with a whole grocery list of mental health conditions,” said Carter. “Keeping these clinics open is vital and I hope the Mayor finds the money,” she said.

Earlier in the year four south side facilities were targeted for closure. Yet they remained opened after pressure from community leaders and mental health advocates who staged a sit-in. City officials even promised to rehire 40 employees as a result of layoffs. Since then they have only re-hired 4.

After the clinics were re-opened, city officials said they would look for ways to keep them afloat in the long term, but since the state budget crisis slashed annual funding to $4.2 million from $8.4 million, problems began again.

That’s when city officials suggested closing 5 of the clinics to save money because of the state cutbacks.

Leaders at the rally say much of the problem regarding the lack of funding stems from the city’s failure to get millions in available state funding because of problems with the city’s billing system.

The Chicago Department of Public Health lost more than $1 million in state funding by failing to fix computer problems with its billing system, which sparked a funding crisis and the possible threat of closing four clinics earlier in the year.

City officials blamed the reason behind the possible closings in large part due to the state budget cutbacks.

But according to the Chi-Town Daily News, a trail of paperwork obtained through the Freedom of Information Act revealed that the department’s new computerized billing system was so flawed that patient bills weren’t submitted to the state for six months in 2008.

Billing the state was crucial to getting funds because of the way the state allocates dollars for mental health services. The city’s current-year state payments are based on monthly reimbursements for service. And when the state received no bills from the city for the last four months of the previous fiscal year, it amended the contract it had with the city to reflect the city’s apparent lesser need for funds.

At the rally several patients who receive mental health services were present including Margaret Sullivan who said she was suicidal at one point in her life. Sullivan said the treatment she gets now at her facility literally saved her life. “If there was no clinic for me to go to, I would be dead,” she said.

Linda Hatcher said she too struggles with depression and has been diagnosed as bipolar. “If we didn’t have our clinics then where would we go,” she said. When Hatcher heard that her clinic was suggested for closing she felt hurt and even more rejected. It just didn’t make any sense, she said.

Speakers at the rally said the clinics in question are more than just places where people get medication. They’re communities where people feel safe and at home. If it were not for the mental health clinics patients would end up on the streets, in jails, at emergency rooms or possibly dead, they said.

Activist charge Mayor Daley has millions in the bank from recently privatizing the parking meter system throughout the city that could be tapped into. The Mayor should commit money toward mental health patients who are taxpayers and voters rather than the millions he’s advocating on behalf of for the Olympics, they charge.

Badonna Reingold is a retired social worker and is now on the advisory board with the Woodlawn mental health clinic. She is also a member of the city’s Community Mental Health Board.

Reingold said mental health services are a vital need for the community. “If people who need these services don’t get their treatment then they will continue to suffer and deteriorate in perpetual crisis,” she said.

“It’s the city’s responsibility to maintain these facilities and keep mental health clinics open,” said Reingold. She said it would cost 5-8 million to staff them.

The clinics provide therapy, medication and activities for people with mental illness who can’t get access to city not-for-profit centers that are maximum capacity, activists say.

plozano@pww.org

‘Make Sen. Kennedy’s health care dream America’s reality’

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:22:00 +0000

The labor movement and other mass organizations of the people unleashed a torrent of tributes to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, hailing him as a “hero” who fought to the final hours of his life for civil rights, health care and workers’ rights to union protection.

Arlene Holt Baker, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, wrote on the labor federation’s blog that she had seen Kennedy’s brother, President John F. Kennedy, just hours before he was assassinated, had mourned the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy in 1968 and went to the Democratic Party convention in 1980 as a Ted Kennedy for President delegate hoping that with his election “the nation finally would get universal health care.” She added, “That was not to be but I never stopped believing in Teddy Kennedy and worked and supported all that he stood for … on this day, I am filled with hope and a fighting determination to see Sen. Kennedy’s dream of health care reform become America’s reality.”

Another blogger on the AFL-CIO site said Kennedy “wasn’t just a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, he helped create it. He was the first to introduce it in the Senate.” The Employee Free Choice Act is a measure designed to make it easier for workers to organize into unions free of employer harassment and intimidation.

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said, “Sen. Kennedy was a courageous leader for civil and human rights. He championed more civil rights initiatives than any other senator in U.S. history. Even as he took his last breath, he was passionately fighting for the health care reform our nation critically needs.”

Terrie O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women said, “We lost a true legislative hero in Ted Kennedy, a defender of women and children and all those who are discriminated against and underserved in this country. We have Kennedy to thank for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Family and Medical Leave Act. He was a great leader in the fight for health care reform and I only hope that we can honor him by passing real reform designed to benefit the people — not insurance CEOs.”

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said, “He made himself into one of the greatest senators with his advocacy of human rights, for health care, education and worker protections.”

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., noted on the Tavis Smiley Show that Kennedy’s first major speech after he was elected to the U.S. Senate “was on the 1964 Civil Rights Act … He didn’t just stay in Boston and Washington. He traveled to Mississippi. He traveled to Atlanta” to fight for civil rights and equality.

Ron Pollack, president of Families USA, said, “It is impossible to be a part of the fight for universal health care without honoring Sen. Edward Kennedy. He showed us all what compassion, a strong vision, and real dedication to humanity can do. It’s important that all of us reaffirm our dedication to his fight — our fight — for real meaningful health care reform. Let’s win this for America and win it for Ted.”

greenerpastures21212 @ yahoo.com

Reports show drinking water contaminated by herbicide

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:20:00 +0000

U.S. drinking water is widely contaminated by atrazine, a weed-killer that disrupts hormones in animals and is considered dangerous for pregnant women, according to a new report released by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The NRDC report says the chemical “is a known endocrine disruptor, which means that it affects human and animal hormones. It has been tied to poor sperm quality in humans and hermaphroditic amphibians.”

Another new report says atrazine, one of the nation’s most widely used herbicides, has been found to exceed federal safety limits in drinking water in four states: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kansas. Atrazine is commonly used on corn, so it is no surprise that those are all major corn-growing states.

More than 40 water systems in those states showed spikes in atrazine levels that normally would have triggered automatic notification of customers, the report from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund says. Residents were not alerted in any of these cases.

Both reports are based on federal Environmental Protection Agency records from 2003 to 2008 that the organizations obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

“Water that’s being polluted by atrazide is being drunk by you and your neighbors,” Paul Wotzka, a Minnesota farmer and former hydrologist for the state, says in a video produced by the Huffington Post Fund.

Yet another new report, from ProPublica, says drinking water in Wyoming has been contaminated by chemicals commonly used in the gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing.

And The New York Times reported this week that an analysis of EPA data shows that 40 percent of the nation’s community water systems violated the Safe Drinking Water Act at least once last year, and dozens of chemicals have been detected at unsafe levels in drinking water.

This comes on top of findings announced by the Interior Department last week that fish in streams across the country are contaminated with mercury, whose main source is coal-fired power plants. And pollution of watersheds by toxic animal wastes from corporate “factory farms” is triggering lawsuits and public outcry.

As the Obama administration moves into its eighth month, departments and agencies responsible for safeguarding the environment and public health face the challenge of cleaning up eight years of neglect or deliberate sabotage by Bush appointees who made protection of corporate profits their priority.

The NRDC report is titled "Poisoning the Well: How the EPA is Ignoring Atrazine Contamination in Surface and Drinking Water in the Central United States."

Jennifer Sass, a scientist and an author of the report, said the EPA has been “ignoring some very high concentrations of this pesticide in water that people are drinking and using every day. This exposure could have a considerable impact on reproductive health. Scientific research has tied this chemical to some ghastly impacts on wildlife and raises red flags for possible human impacts."

"People living in contaminated areas need to be made aware — and the regulators need to get this product off the market," she said.

The report shows that the EPA, by relying on a yearly average for assessing the levels of the dangerous herbicide in drinking water, allowed dangerously high peaks of the chemical to occur.

The EPA currently does not consider one-time spikes in atrazine to be dangerous, but according to the Huffington Post Fund report, many scientists think otherwise. One study, published this year in the medical journal Acta Paediatrica, found that birth defect rates in the U.S. were highest for women who conceived during months when atrazine levels were spiking.

“If you happen to become pregnant in June, you care about the levels in June, not in January,” said Shanna Swan, an epidemiologist at the University of Rochester who has studied atrazine’s effect on semen quality and development.

“For pregnant women, you have a critical period of a couple of weeks to a couple of months,” Swan said. “If you have a peak exposure in that period, that’s what’s relevant to the pregnancy.”

EPA officials say they expect President Obama’s new EPA head, Lisa Jackson, to re-examine atrazine and other chemicals, The New York Times reports.

“Atrazine is obviously very controversial and in widespread use, and it’s one of a number of substances that we’ll be taking a hard look at,” Stephen Owens, who was recently confirmed as the EPA assistant administrator for prevention, pesticides and toxic substances, told The Times.

He continued: “I can’t say whether the outcome will be any different, but Administrator Jackson has made clear that we need to take a close look at decisions made in the previous administration, and be certain about the science behind those judgments.”

In addition to its use in agriculture, atrazine is also used on lawns, gardens, parks and golf courses.

It is the most commonly detected pesticide in U.S. waters.

suewebb @ pww.org

Pioneering lawyer Doris Brin Walker dies at 90

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:15:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — Doris Brin Walker Roberson, a pioneering attorney and lifelong member of the Communist Party USA, who helped win victories in many of the 20th century’s most important civil liberties and civil rights cases, died Aug. 13 following a stroke. She was 90 years old.

In the early 1970s, Walker was part of the legal team that successfully defended Angela Davis against murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges, in a case called by Harvard University law professor Charles Ogletree Jr. “clearly the trial of the 20th century.”

In 1956-1961, she successfully defended William and Sylvia Powell against Korean War sedition and treason charges after William Powell reported on Chinese officials’ allegations that the U.S. and Japan were conducting germ warfare in Korea and China.

During the mid-50s McCarthy era, Walker represented people charged in California under the anti-communist Smith Act which was used to frame CPUSA leaders and others on trumped-up charges. Her work contributed to the historic 1957 Supreme Court decision that overturned Smith Act convictions. No further prosecutions were ever filed under the act.

She was also called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee and represented others called before the committee.

In 1970 Doris Walker was elected the first woman president of the National Lawyers Guild.

As a UCLA undergraduate, Walker became a Marxist and joined the CPUSA, remaining a member the rest of her life. She was the only woman in her class at the University of California’s Boalt Law School, from which she graduated in 1942.

After a brief stint as a practicing lawyer, Walker known to family and friends as “Dobby” became a labor organizer in California canneries, which repeatedly fired her. Finally, after Cutter Labs (now Bayer) fired her, the resulting court case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Though the court refused to hear the case, Justice Black and Chief Justice Warren joined a powerful dissent by Justice Douglas asserting that her dismissal was not for misconduct, but rather “either because of her legitimate labor union activities or because of her political ideology or belief.” Douglas called Walker’s dismissal a flagrant violation of the First Amendment.

During this period she was also arrested in Mississippi as part of a women’s delegation seeking to free Willie McGee, an African American falsely accused of rape.

From 1961 to 1977, Walker was a partner in the Oakland-based law firm, Treuhaft & Walker, focusing on free speech, civil rights and death penalty cases and during the Vietnam war draft cases.

Doris Brin Walker also played an important part in developing international human rights law, serving as vice president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers in the 1970s, and as one of eight international observers at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

A staunch anti-war activist, Walker in 2004 submitted a resolution to the California Bar Association on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild Bay Area chapter, calling for investigation of claims the Bush administration used to justify the Iraq war, with an eye to possible impeachment. During the 2008 election campaign she contributed commentary supporting San Francisco anti-war ballot measures.

From 1952 until his death in 1977, Doris Walker was married to Mason Roberson, a founder of the Bay Area’s first African American newspaper, The Spokesman. Roberson was for many years a reporter for and editor of the People’s World, a predecessor of the PWW.

Doris Walker was a devoted fan of the San Francisco 49ers football team, and in her spare time an avid traveler, hiker and amateur naturalist.

She is survived by her daughter Emily Brin Roberson, granddaughter Iris Tamara Roberson Feldman — both of San Francisco —and her sister Jean Zembrosky of Minneapolis.

Not just talk, but action for jobs, health care and democracy

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:11:00 +0000

This is among the basic issues the Peoples World/Nuestro Mundo grapples with every day. What story can we tell to inspire and mobilize people to get involved?

There are a million stories out there that make you depressed, tired and overwhelmed. Many of them are meant to do that. Why fight? You won’t win, they say.

The Peoples World tells the untold stories of people coming together and figuring out how to make their job, their community and their world a better place for all.

These aren’t fairy tales. These aren’t just words. They are stories, photographs, blogs and videos that show actions. People in motion, fighting.

But is it enough just to fight?

You also need an outlook, a world view, a strategy for the long haul. And the staff and volunteers of Peoples World/Nuestro Mundo grapple with that as well. Like, who are the main enemies of health care reform? Who are the main fighters for universal coverage? How can we win?

It’s not enough to just critique developments, as many in the media do. To paraphrase a wise German man, “Journalists interpret the world in various ways, the point is to change it.”

Maybe that’s why Marilyn Bechtel’s story “Workers demand Toyota keep NUMMI plant open” has been the most popular story on www.peoplesworld.org for three days running. Because people joining together to change their situation inspires.

Or why Susan Webb’s “Unfazed by Glenn Beck, silent majority turns out for health reform” also hit the top of the charts. (See page 5) The determination of the American people to make sure the far-right Republican fringe do not commit a “coup” on health care and turn back progressive gains since President Barack Obama’s election is also inspiring.

The fight to win meaningful change — from health care to jobs to peace to democratic and workers rights (especially the Employee Free Choice Act) — is the project of millions, united and mobilized.

You know this. That’s why getting Peoples World and Nuestro Mundo stories out to millions is part and parcel of bringing long-lasting social change to the country.

In the coming weeks, history will be made. Our website, www.peoplesworld.org, will be transformed. You can be part of this history by making a donation, and getting your friends and family to donate. It’s easy and it’s necessary. Because the Peoples World/Nuestro Mundo isn’t just about words, but about action.

Take action, donate today.

Working class mourns the loss of its 'lion': Ted Kennedy

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:28:00 +0000

Millions of working-class families are feeling an emptiness today that they know they will have to struggle hard to fill.

Sen. Edward Kennedy's death creates that emptiness because throughout his political life he had a single-minded focus: the betterment of the lives of the working people. He was the champion of civil rights and equality for African American, Latino, Asian, Native American, and all people of color. Everyone, he said, should be able to take a seat at a lunch counter anywhere in America.

He fought for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Millions of American children have gotten decent educations because of battles waged by the senator. He was in the forefront of the struggle for immigration reform.

He helped put an end to an America that thought it was OK to relegate women to back alleys for abortions.

No one in the Senate spoke out more forcefully for an entire array of workers' rights, especially the right of workers to choose a union. Then there is health care reform, the signature cause of his life. In its official statement on his passing, the AFL-CIO labor federation said, "Kennedy wasn't just a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. He helped create it, and he was the first to introduce it in the Senate."

While for some other senators all of these struggles were issues to which they could relate and to which they gave their support, for Kennedy they were a burning passion. Kennedy called health care reform "the cause of my life," and in 1966 introduced his first health care bill. He had taken a tour of a community clinic at a housing project in Boston and was impressed to see the people there receiving necessary medical care. Some union folks on the tour with him said, as was typical for him, that he noticed everything, including rocking chairs that had been set aside in special waiting rooms for nursing mothers.

In less than 90 days, Kennedy managed to get funding for 30 such clinics in low -ncome areas around the country. Every one of the clinics had the special areas set aside for nursing mothers. A few months later several hundred such clinics were established. The burning passion for justice fueled his entire career in the Senate.

Soon after he was first elected he declared war against the poll tax, which he despised with all his heart. With little power and almost no seniority he tried to kill the poll tax by attaching an amendment to the 1965 Civil Rights Act. Other liberal senators with more power and seniority were afraid to join him in that struggle which, of course, ultimately succeeded.

Senator Kennedy was the greatest senator to serve during the 20th and 21st centuries, if not during the entire history of the United States.

"In a magnificent career," read the AFL-CIO statement, "Kennedy achieved considerably more than did most presidents, and he proved to be one of the finest friends in public life American working men and women have ever had. "It may seem odd for someone who came from vast wealth and privilege, but his relationship with workers and their unions was one of deep affection and - one hesitates to say it - love. Anyone who ever spotted Kennedy at a Labor Day event or local union meeting could see it. He always listened closely to us. He understood and enjoyed us."

Kennedy joined his brothers, John and Robert, in their belief that unions were critical to improving the lives of workers.

In his speech at the AFL-CIO Convention in 2005, Kennedy said, "Kennedys are with you because we know the difference you make in the lives of average families. Union workers earn 35 percent more than non-union workers, 40 percent more likely to have health insurance, four times more likely to have a solid pension plan.

"But each year - each year over 20,000 workers are illegally discriminated against for exercising their rights in the workplace. In a quarter of all organizing campaigns, a worker is fired for supporting the union. Every employee who manages to form a union often can't get a contract because employers refuse to bargain. That's wrong, and it's doubly wrong that this GOP Congress won't fix it."

While he is greatly missed because he never let up in his fight for working people most in the labor and progressive movements feel that even in his death, the fight goes on.

Millions will see Kennedy's smile again, they say, on the day President Obama signs into law a bill that provides Americans with affordable universal health care.

Labor leader to head New York Fed

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:23:00 +0000

The Federal Reserve has for so long been thought of as the guarantor of what’s good for big business that news out of New York yesterday came as a big surprise to many in labor and progressive circles.

For the first time ever a labor leader was appointed to a leadership role at the Fed. Dennis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, was named chairman of the powerful Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The New York bank is the operating arm of the Federal Reserve system in New York, northern New Jersey, Fairfield County in Connecticut, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It is the largest of the 12 Federal Reserve district banks in terms of assets and volume of activity.

The central bank has a seven-member Board of Governors in Washington, which appointed Hughes to the New York leadership post. District bank chairs are designated annually.

Hughes, a 40-year member of the Electrical Workers union (IBEW), has led the New York AFL-CIO since 1999.

Hughes, who has been a member of the district Federal Reserve Board, described that position as “a great experience.” He said it has allowed him to see firsthand how the nation’s economy really works. He told the press yesterday, “My job is to do whatever I can to make sure working families are considered when decisions are made.”

The AFL-CIO has frequently been critical of the Federal Reserve’s failure to consider working class needs in its drive for a “stable” money market. In January 2008, the labor federation severely criticized the Fed’s concentration on policies that “manipulate interest rates at the expense of following its original mandate to work to achieve a full employment economy.”

When the Federal Reserve was first created by the government in the 1913, it was charged, among other things, with the responsibility of helping create the financial conditions necessary to building a full employment economy. Unions have long said that the Fed has instead often settled for high levels of unemployment when those contribute to greater profits for big business.

Back in the 1980s, for example, Federal Reserve head Paul Volcker’s policy was to restrain the then-recovering economy from reaching full employment. His decision was that 7 percent unemployment was just about right. Seven percent will keep wages down and business booming, Volcker decided. Whether a despairing laid off worker jumped off a bridge or could not buy his kids new clothes did not factor into the Fed’s policy. After layoffs at a local steel mill a Pittsburgh banker told a reporter, “This is hardball. The steelworkers have given up a lot, but they haven’t given up enough.”

The naming of Hughes to chair the New York Fed has symbolic importance at least, observers say, with a labor leader succeeding a former Goldman Sachs executive in the post.

Stephen Friedman, who was also a former adviser to President Bush, stepped down from the chairmanship in May because of the impropriety surrounding his purchase of Goldman stock while serving on the New York Fed’s board.

The chairmanship of the powerful New York Fed has almost always gone to either a Wall Street executive or a pro-business academician. The rise of a labor leader to the position is seen as a sign of public pressure on the Fed to cut some of its ties to Wall Street.

Widely asked questions in and around the labor movement today include, “Does this show labor is gaining more power?” and “Are labor leaders being co-opted by the federal government and corporate America?”

Technically, a labor leader now runs a board whose members include General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt and JP Morgan Chase chief James Dimon.

Earlier this year the United Auto Workers took a seat on the General Motors board and the union got an “ownership” stake in the post-bankruptcy “re-organized” auto giant.

It is impossible to analyze these developments out of the context of a much bigger picture.

The labor movement, in its struggle to reverse the ultra-right stranglehold on the economy, has grown in power and influence. It has successfully entered the electoral arena and changed the makeup of the government. It has waged struggles for labor law reform and health care reform that could be on the verge of success. Against the backdrop of mass anger over the corporate greed that created the economic disaster, the appointment of someone like Hughes should not be seen as a surprise.

Representation of labor on the GM board, however, came about differently. There the union was forced to help bail out a poorly run enterprise, tasking financial responsibility from incompetent capitalists who couldn’t do it properly themselves.

None of these developments signal a move by labor away from militant collective bargaining struggles, fights on the electoral front, and struggles for passage of legislation, including a law that will make it easier to organize millions of new workers. They signal, instead, a labor movement that is growing stronger because of those struggles.

jwojcik @ pww.org

The federal deficit: The bar tab will have to be paid

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:20:00 +0000

Lonesome Hobo Economics

...Kind ladies and kind gentlemen...
I did not trust my brother, I carried him to blame
Which led me to my fatal doom
to wander off in shame.....

Bob Dylan, JWH, Lonesome Hobo 1967

The Congressional Budget Office announcement of a nearly $10 trillion price tag on government borrowing for the next decade has sent a shiver down the spine of the most committed liberals.

Some time ago economic pundits were debating the “multiplier” effect of the stimulus. For every dollar spent, how many jobs would be created? How much real value would be created in exchange? Capital investments in infrastructure, for example, are generally thought to provide the biggest bang for the buck: mass transit, universal single-payer health care and other investments in public health, high-speed Internet, and education come to mind as high return spending.

However, these take longer to get into the pipeline and people are hurting now. Bailouts to bankers, while necessary to prevent financial collapse, have not provided much bang. Unemployment benefit extensions likewise, while vital, have less octane. Of course, replacing unemployment with national and regional service, employer-of-last-resort spending, would rank rather high on the return value list.

The bill will have to be paid by ourselves and our children. We will probably have to “inflate” our way out of some of this debt; the dollar will likely fall relative to other currencies and we will pay even higher prices for imports -- especially oil. If the more-bang-for-the-buck return on spending is too small, that will mean a lower average standard of living in the US.

Of course no one will stand idly by for that. But the rich have abundant defenses most lack in the scramble for crumbs. Unless of course we all put our shoulders to the wheel and begin to kick some serious butt!

The Hobo heard Limbaugh yesterday whining about Obama's “zombies” of “union thugs” and “OFA zombies” that are now showing up in force at more town meetings and scaring the bejeezus out of the creeps, screamers, white supremacists, outright ignoramuses and insurance company employees tea-bagging health care reform.

I even detect a note of apprehension in Limbaugh's rants, wondering if “show trials” for his ditto heads may be coming. My wife is a Quaker, and thinks it is a good thing for due process that the Hobo is not president, as he would have difficulty resisting such trials for forces seriously working to destroy American democracy: the torturers and flagrant liars and scoundrels.

The era of class struggle is not over. It turns out the owner of the bar has been drinking most of the profits and now wants the loyal patrons to double down on the tab. We better get him now before he scoots out the back door and we are the only ones with glasses when the cops come!

700 cheer ‘Mad as Hell Doctors’

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:16:00 +0000

SEQUIM, Wash. — Nearly 700 people packed the Sequim High School auditorium Aug. 25 to cheer calls by Oregon-based “Mad As Hell Doctors” for universal single-payer health care.

The five physicians launched their nationwide “care-a-van” to Washington, D.C., here with a scathing critique of the current profit-driven health care system and called for passage of HR 676, the “Medicare for all” bill sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and 76 others. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised a floor vote on the measure this fall. They showed a 15-minute clip of their 48-minute documentary, “Health, Money and Fear.”

Singer Bob Wickline led the crowd in singing, “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore.” A line in the song slams lawmakers who serve “special interests,” concluding, “it’s time to let them know our interests are special too.”

The Reform Health Care Now Coalition, local sponsor of the event, had braced for right-wing hecklers. But the coalition that includes the League of Woman Voters, Clallam County Democrats, the Green Party, Veterans for Peace and other pro-reform organizations, mobilized for weeks to turn out a friendly crowd. The AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades and the Service Employees International Union also helped mobilize.

People came in droves, lining up an hour before the doors opened. There was not a single incident of heckling in the nearly three-hour meeting that included heart-rending testimonials from people in the audience.

One woman, fighting back tears, told the meeting she has breast cancer and has been rejected for coverage by all private insurance companies. Her COBRA coverage ran out and now she pays a ruinous $1,200 monthly premium for coverage under a program offered by the state of Washington for the “uninsurable.”

Another young woman said her father has Medicare Part A but not Part B. She rushed him to the Olympic Medical Center with a medical emergency this spring. The “fine print” on the admissions form committed her father to pay the entire bill within 30 days, impossible on his limited income. She had to drive him to Seattle to get care.

A woman told the crowd she has rheumatoid arthritis, a degenerative disease, and fears losing her job and being unable to afford medication to slow the progress of the disease.

Each of the doctors was asked to explain why he or she was “mad as hell.”

Dr. Michael Huntington, a retired radiation-oncology physician, said diagnostic tests are so expensive it discourages people from regular checkups. “People show up at the emergency room with advanced cancer and there’s nothing we could do. It made me mad as hell.”

Dr. Joseph Eusterman, a retired internal medicine physician, told the crowd that quality, affordable health care is “one of the four freedoms” yet tens of millions are denied coverage by the health care insurance profiteers. He blasted them for sowing fear and hysteria to block reform. “We don’t need any more fear in this country,” he said. “I’m mad as hell about all the fearmongering.”

Dr. Penny Burdick of Sequim challenged the Oregon doctors. “Why are there no women on the panel?” she demanded. The doctors, on the spot, invited her to come to the stage and she did. She told the meeting, “People can’t afford to get reasonable insurance. Many insurance companies don’t even cover preventive medicine.” She said she has given up her office in frustration and now makes house calls, virtually unheard of in current medical practice.

Dr. Bob Seward, a retired physician from Forest Grove, Ore., said it makes him “mad as hell” that the insurance companies and the corporate media spread the lie that health care reform is “socialized medicine.” He paused and retorted, “What if it is?” The crowd burst into applause. He pointed out that both Britain and Spain have socialized medicine and the people “love their system.”

Dr. Paul Hochfeld, an emergency room physician from Corvallis, Ore., and the producer of the “Health, Money, and Fear” film, said he is mad because Congress is basing health care reform on “protecting corporate interests” and insurance company and pharmaceutical profits rather than the needs of the people.

Hochfeld dismissed President Obama’s public option, concluding, “We’re not going to solve this by throwing more money at the insurance industry.”

But Dr. Tom Locke, public health officer for Clallam and Jefferson Counties, had a different view.

Locke, who is also medical director of the Volunteers in Medicine in the Olympic Clinic that serves the nearly 10,000 people here without health insurance, pointed out that President Theodore Roosevelt pushed for health care reform in 1912. “The same appeals to fear have been used over and over again,” Locke said. He warned that reform will not be won with a single magic bullet but will be won step by step over time.

While he acknowledged that single-payer is the best solution, the public option may be the best that can be won with the current lineup in Congress, he said, arguing that it is a step toward a single-payer system.

“The partisan rancor in Washington D.C. is at an all-time high,” Locke said.

The doctors will launch their 20-city “care-a-van” in Seattle Sept. 8 and end with a rally in Washington, D.C., Sept. 28.

greenerpastures21212 @ yahoo.com

US attorney general announces torture probe

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:34:00 +0000

Human rights groups hailed President Obama’s decision to remove the CIA from interrogation of detainees in the so-called “war on terror” and to create a new White House unit that spurns torture methods such as “waterboarding” in questioning prisoners.

The White House announced Aug. 24 creation of the so-called HIG unit, strictly bound by the guidelines of the U.S. Army Field Manual. The same day, a newly declassified CIA document revealed that CIA interrogators threatened to kill the children of a Sept. 11 suspect. The document released Monday by the Justice Department says that an interrogator told Khalid Sheik Mohammaed that if any further attacks are launched against the U.S. “We’re going to kill your children.”

Another interrogator allegedly told another terror suspect that his mother would be sexually assaulted in front of him. The new disclosures come just days after a report by the CIA Inspector General revealed gruesome new details of torture by the CIA and subcontractors including Blackwater.

The Rev. Richard Kilmer, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture told the World in a phone interview, that the Inspector General report “is absolutely horrific. We’re calling for the creation of a Commission of Inquiry and asking the Attorney General to undertake an investigation of these crimes.”

As if in anticipation, Attorney General, Eric Holder, announced Aug. 24 that he will appoint a prosecutor to examine a dozen or more cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors, violated anti-torture laws in questioning detainees. Kilmer praised the administration’s creation of the new interrogation unit. “We’re pleased,” he said. “We’re glad this is happening, especially in light of the CIA Inspector General report. The report goes beyond what has previously been released to describe CIA agents threatening death and carrying out mock executions. It also describes the use of waterboarding and other methods of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”

He added, “Our country will not end this sordid chapter of American history until we understand the full nature of U.S.-sponsored torture and put safeguards in place to make sure that U.S.-sponsored torture never happens again. Torture is always immoral and illegal.”

Stacy Sullivan, Director of Human Rights Watch’s Terrorism Task Force told the World, “We’re very relieved that the administration has announced that no additional guidance is needed other than the Army Field Manual for the interrogation of detainees.” She explained that the human rights movement had long demanded that the Army Field Manual be the “single standard of interrogation, across the board, with no exceptions.” The manual spells out what kind of techniques are permissible. “It forbids torture such as waterboarding. We were worried that the Obama administration like the Bush administration would authorize ‘enhanced interrogation techniques.’”

Sullivan said the administration has not moved as quickly as Human Rights Watch had hoped to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. “The administration has not made much progress in repatriating 98 detainees” still held at the prison infamous for torture methods employed on several hundred prisoners. Many have been held there for years without criminal charges. “We are urging people to contact their congressional representatives and the Attorney General to ask him to appoint a prosecutor to investigate the abuses by the previous administration. We know that there was a policy of abuse of detainees that was planned at the highest levels of the Bush administration yet only a few low-ranking military personnel have been held accountable.”