People Before Profit blog

Professor Skip Gates, Sgt. James Crowley and me

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:43:00 +0000

The second to the last time I was racially profiled was on 23rd Street and 11th Avenue in New York City. It was two summers ago. I had just completed a wonderful bike ride: the sun warm on my back, the wind a cool and welcome antidote. I was feeling good.

I dismounted the two wheeled bike and hopped on my scooter – I use a motorized chair due to a spinal problem to get around the city – and was leisurely making my way back home.

A police car pulled in front of me and a cop leaned out and yelled: “Hey what you doing with that bike?”

“Huh?” I thought he was kidding, knowing I’m quite a sight – bike in one hand, scooter in the other – the butt of frequent comments on the street.

“You’re kidding right?” I said.

“No, we ain’t kidding,” they said.

Two white cops got out of the cruiser and then began a half-hour long interrogation. “Whose bike is that? Where’d you get it? Why do you have it? Can you ride it? How much did it cost? Where’d you buy it?” Ad naseum.

Full disclosure: I am scared of cops. The shit I’ve seen, the things I’ve experienced, the things I’ve heard. My first experience was at the age of seven or eight. I was in my backyard. A teen aged, next-door neighbor was sitting on his steps. He had come home to find the house locked. He went in through a window. Someone called the cops. They approached and questioned; he stood up to get identification and spoke a word too loudly; he was then snatched off the steps and body slammed, beaten, handcuffed, drug into a car while we watched and as my mother screamed bloody murder.

I look at a cop, I see Organized Violence. When they’re around, I’m very very careful. As Richard Pryor once said, “I don’t way to be no ‘accident.’”

But this time, I almost lost it: in fact for a second I did lose it as the realization dawned: “I’ve been profiled!” I shouted it out, livid, “Y’all profiled me!”

I struggled to contain my anger, looked around and noticed people standing at the bus stop. “Y’all profiled me! What in the hell do I look like stealing a bicycle; a guy in a wheelchair stealing a bike? Are you kidding? You should be applauding me, not accusing me!”

I know how Skip Gates must have felt: criminalized. Criminalized: no matter what you do, in the eyes of some you are always suspect, always a problem. Almost a century ago, W.E.B. Du Bois posed an awful and anguished question: How does it feel to be a problem? Even in the Age of Obama it doesn’t feel good.

Despite the fact that he was in his own home, 'armed' with his Harvard ID and credentials in the eyes of the law, Professor Gates represented a “problem.” I feel his pain.

But bothersome as it is, it’s not the hurt and personal abuse that bothers me. After all, Professor Gates and I can take care of ourselves. Rather, it’s the systematic and consistent harassment; the unjust drug laws, the relentless attack on affirmative action, the targeting of Black and Latino homeowners for sub prime loans, the 40 percent of children of color who grow in poverty, the racial and gender wage gap -- that drives me up a wall -- particularly those who cannot take care of themselves.

Colin Powell, the other night, on Larry King Live, chastised Professor Gates saying he should have thought about whether now was the time to express his rage.

I for one am glad he did.

Tonight, Professor Gates, Sgt. James Crowley the arresting officer, and President Obama will sit down for a beer. I’m also glad they are. Whether they like it or not, they will emerge changed. The dialectics of life insist loudly that this is so.

But there is one thing that will not change: unless men and women of good will stand up and, yes, sometimes shout, the profiling, abuses and systemic discriminations will never end. I sure am glad Change has come to Washington.

A historic reintroduction

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:37:00 +0000

The word is out. On Sept. 1, the Peoples World launches a brand new state-of-the art website for the recently re-emerged daily working-class Marxist press in United States.

The new format has the potential of dramatically increasing the number of the 100,000 or so online readers we now reach on a monthly basis.

The website will offer news and features in a multi-media format that includes daily and even up to-the-minute news reports, on-site coverage of events, features, podcasts, photographs and even video.

You’ve already heard about the coming AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh Sept. 13 to 17. This convention and the events surrounding it will give us the opportunity to test this new venture in an unprecedented way as we bring you coverage of what will be a dynamic labor-led gathering of the new and powerful people’s movement that has exploded onto the scene in the 21st century.

We are taking this so seriously that we intend to have a full team on the ground to bring you up to date on everything.

The labor movement has already put everyone on notice that it will not stand for watering down health care or on the Employee Free Choice Act. It has already put everyone on notice that a second stimulus package on the order of the WPA program of the 1930s is called for. In Pittsburgh it will map the plans to make these things a reality.

And this newspaper will be there with at least 30 other labor publications from around the country, some with technological capabilities similar to ours and some with less technological capability. We are making plans right now to work with all of them to share and pool our resources so that the coverage you get is exponentially better than anything you’ve gotten before.

All of this, of course, costs money.

We will not get any help from the lobbyists who own the Republicans and are buying the conservative Democrats.

We will be in Pittsburgh using our new capabilities to re-introduce ourselves to the labor movement.

Along with Political Affairs and Labor-Up-Front we will have a hospitality suite that will feature a history of our press, the Communist Party and the left in the labor movement. Many at the convention will have the opportunity to see and talk about this history for the first time. You can see why we are so excited about this.

Through our coverage you can be there with us. Please donate whatever you can to reserve “your place” at Pittsburgh!

Big lies vs. health reform

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:28:00 +0000

Labor and other analysts are noting that a virtual river of lies now being pumped into millions of American homes via the mass media underlies much of the confusion about health care reform.

Turning their noses up at the life or death struggle of Americans for adequate health care, right-wing media giants Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, each earning more than $20 million a year and enjoying good insurance coverage, are stepping up their claims that there isn’t a health care crisis and that the United States has the best health care system in the world.

Limbaugh, the highest paid talk radio giant in the country, signed an eight-year, $400 million contract with Clear Channel Communications in July, 2008. According to the New York Times, Limbaugh’s “$50 million a year paycheck represents a raise of about $14.4 million a year over his current contract, which was paying him $285 million over eight years and was set to expire in 2009.”

Three of the most outrageous assertions he is making were heard first during the last half of July:

Limbaugh claimed, on July 22, that “there isn’t global warming and there isn’t a health care crisis, but Obama says he’s gotta raise taxes over the private sector to fix both those things.”

Three days earlier, on July 18, he said, “There really isn’t a crisis in health care in this country. The crisis in health care that – if you wanna say, that does exist – is the fear that a major illness or catastrophe could wipe you out, which isn’t gonna change. In fact, the odds of you being wiped out by a catastrophe or accident once the government gets started running this stuff is greater than if the private sector – but day-to-day, there’s no health care crisis in this country. You can get it. So, it isn’t about health care, per, se. This is about gaining control, taking money, and controlling people’s lives, and wiping out Republicans – a nice cherry on top.”

His opening shot with this line of “reasoning” came two days earlier still, when he asserted: “The crisis in health care is like the crisis in everything else – manufactured.”

Limbaugh’s comrade-in-arms, Glenn Beck, makes at least $23 million a year.

A recent report in Forbes Magazine lists his income sources as “a TV show ($2 million), a radio show ($10 million), books ($5 million), speeches (half a million), appearances ($2.5 million) and a Web site ($3 million).”

The report also indicates Beck signed a contract with Premiere Radio Networks “valued at $50 million over five years, through a combination of salary and profit-sharing from syndication,” making Beck “the third highest-paid talk radio host.”

On top of all that, the New York Observer says that, in 2008, Beck signed “a huge new two-book deal with Simon&Schuster worth approximately $3 million.”

Despite the attention so much money must require, the multi-millionaire found time on his July 23 radio show to question President Obama’s story about a woman whose insurance claim for her cancer treatment was denied. Beck said: “I just think we need a little more details other than, ‘big insurance company bad, woman almost die.’”

Then Beck aired an audio of the president talking about a “middle class college graduate whose health insurance expired when he changed jobs and woke up from emergency surgery that he required with $10,000 worth of debt.” After the clip Beck attacked the man Obama described for failing to “go on COBRA. He was either stupid, or didn’t want to spend the money.”

Eight days earlier, on July 15, a caller into his show reminded Beck that “we’ve got people out here who are really sick and do need health care.”

Beck responded by mocking the caller and said, sarcastically, “You’re right, I read all the time about all of the people who are dying in the streets because they can’t go to a hospital and get health care. You are exactly right. We are letting people die left and right in this country.”

Sean Hannity earns $20 million a year for his talk radio show alone. In a July article the Wall Street Journal noted that he had a contract with Premiere Radio Networks worth $100 million over five years.

The New York Daily News reported last October that Hannity had signed a “new multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract” to continue his Fox News program through 2012.

On the March 10 Hannity radio show Bob Beckel, a Fox News contributor, noted that one of the major problems with the health care system is that in the past “businesses insured their employees, and very few of them are doing it anymore.”

“That’s not true, Bob,” Hannity responded. (Lie number 1)

Several minutes later Hannity said to Beckel, “I just don’t understand the logic, why you believe that the government can do what the free market had successfully accomplished, which was a health care system that was the envy of the world.” (Lie number 2)

Beckel protested: “The free market system has not worked that way if 46 million are not insured and cannot get medical coverage.”

Right-wing opponents of health care reform in the government join their co-thinkers in the media in at least one important respect. Statements they are making are so absurd that many of the claims require almost no answer.

A leading GOP senator, earlier this week, railed against the public option supported by the president and said there was no need to keep health insurers honest.

“The health insurance industry is one of the most regulated industries in America,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) on the Senate floor Monday. “They don’t need to be ‘kept honest’ by the government.”

Again, the tactic was simply to lie.

Just weeks before Kyl made the remark The Los Angeles Times carried a story about a Blue Cross employee who earned a perfect score of “5” for “exceptional performance” because he had dropped thousands of policy holders and saved the company from paying for $10 million worth of medical care.

Kyl’s remarks were made less than a month after a congressional investigation found that WellPoint’s Blue Cross of California and two other companies saved more than $300 million in medical claims by canceling more than 20,000 sick policyholders over a five-year period.

The investigators found what they called “egregious” practices including insurance company targeting of every policyholder diagnosed with leukemia, breast cancer and 1,400 other serious illnesses.

Insurance companies conduct such investigations so they can do a fine tooth comb comparison of a policy holder’s original application with a year’s worth of medical and pharmacy records, in hopes of turning up discrepancies that would allow the company to withhold payments.

There’s a lot more behind the opposition to health care reform than just the right-wing media pundits and the Republicans in the Senate and House, however. Analysts are pointing to the existence among the wealthiest one percent of a well organized push to kill reform.

They see such reform as a first and dangerous move against their privileged status. “What if the struggle to get health care reform morphs into a struggle to end wealth disparity in America?” for example.

According to the government, the share of the nation’s total income earned by the top one percent is the highest ever since 1929.

On top of that wealth many in this class are profiting, via huge bonuses, from the $24 trillion in taxpayer bailouts which, according to the Treasury Department, could be on its way to the top financial firms.

Congress, in trying to deal with a situation in which 22,000 or more Americans die each year because of lack of health care, is considering a surcharge on income earned by people in this category.

The proposed surcharge, analysts note, would be much smaller than the windfall the group got from the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Those earning $1 million annually would pay just $9,000 more per year in taxes,

They have nevertheless reacted to the proposal by deploying “an army to destroy the initiative before it makes any progress,” writes David Sirota in his July 25 column for Creators Syndicate.

He described the effort by the wealthiest one percent to destroy health care reform as almost a “multi-layered” offensive.

Sirota describes even “Land Rover Liberals” as doing the bidding of the wealthy on health care reform. Some Democratic lawmakers, he notes, secure reform credentials by supporting good causes, like the right of women to choose. “However, being affluent and/or from affluent districts, they routinely drive their luxury cars over middle-class economic interests. Hence, this week’s letter from Boulder, Colorado’s dot-com tycoon Rep. Jared Polis, D, and other Land Rover Liberals calling for the surtax’s death.”

He notes that still another part of the gang-up on health reform is the group he describes as the “Corrupt Cowboys,” those like Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mt., “who come from the heartland’s culturally conservative and economically impoverished locales. These cavalrymen in both parties quietly build insurmountable campaign war chests as the biggest corporate fundraisers in Congress.”

Sirota said that politicians in this group make the absurd claim that because their constituents support gun rights and tend to be strongly religious, they are representing “conservatives” who oppose any moves to tax the rich. It’s an attempt, he notes, to divert attention from their own predisposition to accept payoffs from wealthy supporters and insurance companies who help guarantee their re-election.

The mainstream media has also joined the campaign to defend the prerogatives of the wealthy on this issue.

They brush aside the realities of injustice and inequality in the area of health care and take up the cause of the wealthy fighting against the surtax.

The Washington Post, in an editorial, attacks supporters of the surtax for believing “the rich alone can fund government.”

The Wall Street Journal asked why the surtax “soaks the rich” by “unduly lumping all the problems of the finances of the United States on 1 percent of its households?”

NBC’s Meredith Viera, in her interview with President Obama, asked him why he is intent on “punishing the rich.”

His simple response, perhaps better than any other statement, summed up what the whole struggle is all about:

“No, it’s not punishing the rich. If I can afford to do a little bit more so that a whole bunch of families out there have a little more security, when I already have security, that’s part of being a community.”

Calif. resolution apologizes to Chinese Americans

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:06:00 +0000

Though attention has focused largely on the state budget, among other issues the California legislature has dealt with this year is a unanimously-passed resolution recognizing the great contributions people of Chinese origin have made to the state’s development, and apologizing for past laws that persecuted them.

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 42, introduced by Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Cupertino, was passed in mid-July. It presents a compelling account of the many ways Chinese Americans have helped create present-day California, from their role in building the transcontinental railroad and developing agriculture and other industries to their present participation as elected officials, leading scientists, academics and businesspeople.

It also presents a graphic picture of repression and discrimination that continued well into the 20th century.

The resolution is “the first formal apology offered to the Chinese American community,” Fong said in a telephone interview. “Learning from the past and acknowledging the injustice our history holds will help us become a stronger state.” Fong, a former political science and Asian American studies professor, was elected to the Assembly last year.

According to the resolution, Chinese in California couldn’t own land or property, vote, or marry a white person. Their children couldn’t go to public schools, and immigrants were forced to stay outside town and city limits. Chinese couldn’t be employed on public works projects, couldn’t be issued licenses and couldn’t fish in state waters. They faced additional discrimination at the local level.

The resolution also cites California’s role in lobbying Congress to pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, “the first federal law ever passed excluding a group of immigrants solely on the basis of race or nationality,” which set a precedent reflected in Jim Crow laws and other segregation legislation. The 1882 law was not repealed until 1943, when China was a U.S. ally in World War II.

“These laws reverberate today,” Fong said. Despite the official repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, he said, Chinese exclusion did not really end until the Immigration and Nationality Act opened up immigration to all people in 1965.

Calling diversity “one of our state’s greatest strengths,” and citing the role of “immigrants of all backgrounds” in California’s development, the legislature “deeply regrets” past discriminatory laws “and reaffirms its commitment to preserving the rights of all people and celebrating the contributions that all immigrants have made to this state and nation.”

Chinese American community leaders agree the document has an important message for today. “Resolutions are a good step and we hope to see actions taken in this spirit as well,” said Alex Tom, co-director of the San Francisco-based Chinese Progressive Association. With Chinese and other poor working people facing unemployment, lack of health care and cuts in vital services, “it’s very important to have justice on a political level, recognition of poor past practices in our country. But moving forward, we hope this resolution can compel more legislatures to take steps toward economic justice, too.”

“When we look at the way Chinese Americans were treated in the past ― or African Americans ― where any group has faced various forms of discrimination and oppression, we ought to connect it to how we are treating the most vulnerable and disenfranchised in our society today,” added Vincent Pan, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, also based in San Francisco.

Both cited the problem of Asian Americans being viewed as a “model minority” that no longer faces challenges. Pan noted that some of the highest poverty rates among any ethnic or racial group occur in Southeast Asian communities, while many people of Chinese background, whether immigrants or U.S.-born, still struggle in low wage jobs and lack access to services.

And no matter how a particular racial or ethnic community experiences oppression, said Tom, “it’s all coming from the same larger system.”

While much work is needed to change a perspective that “still tells the story of America in a very narrow and limited way,” Pan said, younger people including elected officials increasingly recognize that truly loving one’s country also includes criticizing it when necessary.

Chicago postpones action on new Wal-Mart stores

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:41:00 +0000

CHICAGO – For the moment, the Wal-Mart monster has been held at bay. Standing up to immense pressure by the retail giant to open new stores in Chicago, the City Council postponed a decision allowing construction on the city’s south side.

A broad labor-community coalition had rallied opposition to Wal-Mart’s request and threatened a repeat of the fight around the Big Box Living Wage Ordinance that shook this city in 2006. Opponents warned of a race to the bottom in wages and benefits and increased union busting if Wal-Mart’s effort to open more stores went unregulated.

On July 28, the Council’s rules committee deferred action on an ordinance submitted by Alderman Howard Brookins to strip the City’s Planning Commissioner of oversight powers over certain development projects – including the ability to move forward on plans to build a second Wal-Mart in the city’s Chatham neighborhood. The committee sent the matter to the Finance Committee, chaired by Alderman Ed Burke, known as a friend of labor. 'Chicago is a strong union town,” Burke stated. “If every other organization can agree to card check neutrality, why can't Wal-Mart? They can build 14 stores here. All they have to do is make a commitment to the rights of working men and women in Chicago to organize. “If Wal-Mart can come in to Chicago and operate on a non-union basis, then how can Jewel and Dominicks (other major food retailers) and the other food chains continue to have union men and women?' asked Burke. The labor-community coalition had been calling on the City Council to resist Wal-Mart’s demands and protect residents against the unscrupulous business practices of the mega-corporation until some labor standards are established.

“This vote demonstrates the serious concerns by city council members about Wal-Mart’s poor labor practices which are well documented,” said Elizabeth Drea, director of Communications for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881, which led the fight.

“Alderman Burke’s statement sends a strong message to Wal-Mart. There needs to be some accountability of giant retailers. Chicago remains in the forefront of efforts to set labor standards. What happened elsewhere with Wal-Mart won’t happen here,” she said.

As a result of its action the city council postponed any decision about Wal-Mart until after the International Olympic Committee decides in October if Chicago will be host city for the 2016 Olympic games. Olympic backers, business and finance leaders fear public rifts between the Daley administration and labor will harm the chances of being awarded the games. Daley was silent on the council action.

As part of the campaign of intense pressure, Wal-Mart commissioned its own “poll” that showed 75% of Chicagoans supported Wal-Mart stores in the city. The “poll” results were a top story in the local corporate mass media on the eve of the council action.

Wal-Mart had also cleverly tried to take advantage of the desperation for jobs in the worst economic crisis since the “Great Depression” and exploited other real problems including an insufficient representation of African Americans in the trades and the existence of “food deserts” in the African American community.

Ald. Brookins and Wal-Mart supporters argued that confronted by mass joblessness in Chicago’s African American community, “any job is better than no job.” Wal-Mart worked through a south side church to mobilize buses of unemployed African American youth to the City Council meeting to support Wal-Mart’s demand.

“This is absolutely the wrong message,” said Elce Redmond, organizer for the South Austin Community Coalition and a leader of Chicago Jobs With Justice. “Rents are going up, mortgages are going up, utilities are going up and yet wages are going down. Even with a job at Wal-Mart how can a person afford to pay anything?”

“The goal of a job is to uplift people from poverty. Will you accept anything this multi-national corporation gives you? What builds a community is when people can pay their rents. Good wages build community,” Redmond said.

Wal-Mart also concealed other negative impacts of its business practice on the community including ruining small businesses and destroying jobs.

“If every small business in my community is gone at the end of three years, I’m going to get the blame because of this vote they want me to take for Wal-Mart,” said Alderman Freddrenna Lyle, a leader of the 2006 Big Box Living Wage Ordinance.

Redmond, local progressive economists and Chicago Jobs with Justice along with other unions and community groups believe the best way to create living wage jobs is by demanding a federally funded massive jobs creation program. They are planning a September 24 action called “Real Recovery for Working People: Jobs, Housing and Health Care”. The action takes place on the one-year anniversary of the Federal Bailout, which has so far only helped Wall Street begin to recover its profits.

jbachtell @ rednet.org

For many, state budgets cuts are life-or-death issue

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:13:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS - Melanie Shouse has a hard road to travel. Not only is she fighting breast cancer, she's also fighting the health care industry. As a small business owner, she could only afford a catastrophic health insurance policy, where her co-pay and deductible nears $10,000.

'When I first noticed a small lump on my breast, denial seemed the only option,' she told the World as Missouri State Workers' Union (CWA-MSWU), Jobs with Justice, Pro-Vote and ACORN members rallied out-side of the South Broadway Social Services office here July 29.

CWA-MSWU Local 6355 called the rally to draw attention to the proposed $25 million r budget cut to the Missouri Department of Social Services. The State Workers' Union represents Missouri's Social Service workers.

Shouse, who was told that she had a 13 percent chance of survival, knew she couldn't pay her co-pay and deductible. 'For weeks after diagnosis,' Shouse said, 'I was in a state of near panic regarding how I would pay for treatment. I had no savings and no real assets, and no idea how I was going to cover these monumental co-pays and deductibles.' 'And with this prize-winning pre-existing condition, I had no opportunity to seek a better private health plan. I was shut out of the market,' she said.

Melanie knew she could expect little help from her insurer, so she went to the St. Louis County Medicaid office.

'My fabulous caseworker got right to work. Within days I received this Missouri Medicaid card that probably saved my life,' Shouse continued. 'With this card, I could walk into one of the top cancer centers in the world and receive top-notch care without having to sell a kidney to cover my deductibles.' 'I'm standing here today thanks to the Missouri Medicaid program.' According to Bradley Harmon, president of the State Workers' Union, Melanie's story is exactly why cuts to social services is the wrong way to balance Missouri's budget - as fewer social workers mean fewer applications processed, and fewer applications processed means fewer Missourians will get the care they need.

'We know we're in a budget crisis,' Harmon said. 'There's no fat in our budget to cut, there's not even muscle. We're cutting into the bone and in the process we're destroying our social safety net.' 'We have to put the needs of ordinary Missourians, like Melanie Shouse, first,' Harmon continued.

Shouse, a strong supporter of the health care public option, added, 'Our efficient and effective public health plan [Medicaid] has allowed me to receive some of the best, cutting-edge care in the world. I didn't have to wait. And I don't have to worry about how I'm going to pay for it.' As Republicans and conservative Democrats deny health care reform in Washington, hundreds of thousands of Americans face the same stress, uncertainty and hardship as Melanie Shouse.

'But, as our nation has learned so painfully over the past eight years,' Shouse continued, 'denial leads to catastrophe.'

Climate bill provides real cost relief for consumers

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:28:00 +0000

While most people understand the urgency of climate change, one of the top concerns many working families have with a cap-and-trade system is added costs for energy.

During the House debate on the cap-and-trade program included in the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), which passed in June, Republicans exploited this concern by inaccurately citing an MIT study that showed that some consumers could expect higher energy costs under a cap-and-trade system. While the MIT study actually reported a price rise of around $31 for most customers, the Republicans in blasting the climate change legislation claimed the report estimated prices would go up by more than $3,000 annually.

Bad math and fear-mongering aside, the impact of the cap-and-trade program on the cost of electricity, natural gas and home heating oil remains a real concern for working families.

Concerns about higher prices of energy come from the fact that under the cap-and-trade system the emission of greenhouse gas pollution will be regulated by requiring polluters to hold a permit, or an allowance, for each ton of carbon pollution emitted. Allowances will be purchased for between $10 now and $13.60 in 2016, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimate.

Charging this extra fee, some claim, will trickle down to households and smaller businesses in the form of higher prices.

To resolve these concerns, ACES provides substantial aid to states and local energy distribution companies (LDCs) specifically for the purpose of investments in renewable energy and offsetting the costs to businesses and households of higher energy prices associated with the program, according to new analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Georgetown Climate Center (GCC),

According to the language of the bill, by 2016, when all of its programs are put in place, some 49 percent of those allowances will be distributed to states and LDCs for free. Those entities will be able then to put those allowances on the market for sale to bigger polluters. The goal of this provision of the program will be to fund the speed up of the transition to renewable energy sources with less or even no greenhouse gas emissions and to create an offset for higher energy prices, according to the WRI/GCC analysis.

In fact, the total value of those allowances to states and consumers for these purpose is projected to be more than $36 billion by 2016, with roughly more than 80 percent of that earmarked for 'residential, commercial, and industrial energy consumers through states and LDCs for cost relief and energy efficiency,' according to the report.

According to the authors of the report, oversight of how these funds are managed and used for cost relief will be worked out between state and local public energy commissions and the EPA. While public oversight and equitable distribution of allowances is mandated in the bill, 'the [state and local public energy commissions] have a lot of discretion in how they do it, but the EPA has to sign off on these plans,' said Gabriel Pacyniak of the GCC.

By 2028, as states and local energy distributors shift more to renewable resources, free allowances made available for cost relief will begin to be phased out. By 2032, consumer cost relief programs will shift entirely to federal sources, the report revealed.

More significantly, cost relief and investments in renewable energy sources will be funded entirely by the cap-and-trade system itself rather than by traditional federal revenue sources. The program will not add to the deficit or national debt.

On the contrary, by creating a market for greenhouse gas emission allowances, a new clean energy sector will emerge. The program will create millions of 'green' jobs, by some estimates. And within just a few decades, supporters of the bill say, we will see a reversal of the devastation to the environment caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

Canoes head for Suquamish, Chief Seattle's gravesite

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:24:00 +0000

NEAH BAY, Washington – Native American Indian youth are voyaging in their dugout canoes from throughout the Pacific Northwest to the town of Suquamish, gravesite of Chief Seattle, for the 20th annual Tribal Canoe Journey, Aug. 3-8.

Polly Debari, a Makah Tribal Tour Guide, told the World she and her family plan to join the festivities. Standing on a platform overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the farthest Northwest corner of the lower-48 states, Debari told a group of visiting Baltimore school teachers the annual canoe journey is an inspiration to the tribes, an “alcohol and drug-free” celebration of her people’s ancient history and culture.

Ten canoes are coming up the Pacific Coast and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, including dugouts from the Quinault, Hoh, Quileute and Makah nations. The handsome cedar dugouts replicate the vessels that once plied these waters in a highly developed trade network among the Pacific Northwest Indians. Some of the dugouts, more than 80 feet long, were designed to carry cargo.

The Makah, Debari said, ventured in their dugouts into the Pacific hunting whales, a staple of their diet. She pointed to Tatoosh Island, just offshore in the Pacific Ocean, site of a lighthouse built in 1857. “It is a special place for the Makah,” she said. “We held potlatches on Tatoosh Island every year. We smoked salmon on the island.”

The Ozettes, one of five tribes of the Makah nation, lived about 30 miles south of Neah Bay in Ozette village on the ocean beach overshadowed by towering bluffs. A disastrous mudslide engulfed the village one night centuries ago, triggered, geologists believe, by an earthquake. It sealed the victims and their belongings in a “shroud of mud.” Archaeological excavations on the Ozette Village site began in 1947, and in 1966, the Makah Tribal Council gave Washington State University (WSU) permission to expand the excavation. But the WSU team became distracted by other projects until torrential rains washed away mud and exposed a treasure-trove of artifacts in the winter of 1970. The site is now compared to Pompeii buried, suddenly, in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The artifacts recovered from Ozette are housed in the splendid Makah Tribal Museum in Neah Bay.

“More than 55,000 artifacts were recovered at Ozette,” Debari said. “I spent a summer as an intern at the Smithsonian in Suitland, Maryland, helping process artifacts from the Makah Tribe in the Smithsonian’s collection.”

Mudslides were not the only disasters that befell the Makah, she said. When the white settlers arrived, there were 6,000 Makahs. Smallpox wiped out all but 400 of them, she said. The Treaty of Neah Bay made no provision recognizing the Makah’s ancestral claim to Ozette. But 64 Makahs refused to leave Ozette to live in Neah Bay, so finally in 1893, President Grover Cleveland signed an Executive Order creating the Ozette Reservation. The last permanent residents left Ozette in 1917, drawn by the convenience of life in Neah Bay. It is now a seasonal village site for the Makah that is accessible only on foot through Olympic National Park.

One of the most oppressive policies enforced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Debari said, was the Indian Boarding Schools. The Indian students were physically beaten if they spoke their own language and were systematically stripped of their culture. “My father ran away from the Boarding School,” Debari said. “My generation is the first not to attend a boarding school. We have our own tribal school K through 12 in Neah Bay, now,” she said.

Debari said she is the mother of six children, foster mother of two, and a grandmother. “My kids have all grown up in the Tribal Canoe Journeys. They are going to be able to negotiate together because they are all friends. They know their families. They all paddled together.”

With a wry smile she added, that her youngest child, 14, “tells me he is too old to join the paddle. But we leave Tuesday to join the Paddle to Suquamish.”

Driving back through Neah Bay, we stopped in front of the Makah Tribal Youth Center. A mural is painted on the façade, “Rest in Paradise,” with images of three Makah youth, “Spra, Ronnie, and T.J.” Beside their portraits is the message, “Stay Drug and Alcohol Free.” A young woman leaving the center told this reporter the three Makah youths died in separate incidents involving substance abuse. Combating that scourge is one of the main purposes of the annual canoe journeys.

The crews paddle the dugouts during the day, an arduous struggle against wind, currents and tides along the Pacific Coast, into the Strait, down Admiralty Inlet into Puget Sound. Others travel south from British Columbia and north from the lower Puget Sound and Hood Canal. This year, members of a tribe from New Zealand are joining the Paddle to Suquamish as well as a crew from Hawaii.

The crews of “pullers” are greeted at towns and cities along the way. They ask for permission to come ashore and are welcomed with feasting, dancing, drumming, poetry and story-telling during their overnight stays. As many as 1,000 people are expected for the welcoming ceremony on Hollywood Beach in downtown Port Angeles at about noon July 29.

JON STEWART VIDEO Conservative William Kristol admits government-run health care is first class

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:56:00 +0000

Bill Kristol bets that Sarah Palin will come on the Daily Show and admits the government can provide first-class health care on Jon Stewart's Daily Show.

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Civil rights leaders talk economy, housing at La Raza conference

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:52:00 +0000

CHICAGO – Civil rights leaders and fair housing advocates during a “Putting Our Communities on the Map: The Economic Road to Recovery,” town hall meeting at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) conference here said Latino and African American communities continue to be the hardest-hit by the looming economic crisis.

Home foreclosures, rising unemployment, the credit crunch and the lack of affordable health care are wreaking havoc in predominantly working class communities as the U.S. continues to struggle through the worst recession since the Great Depression, they said.

On a distinguished panel, speakers discussed initiatives led by President Barack Obama’s administration and Congress and their efforts in addressing these devastating problems.

Are low-income communities, Latinos and Blacks getting a fair share of relief and opportunity during these tough times of economic recovery, they asked. What are real solutions in dealing with the greatest economic challenges of our time?

Studies show that 400,000 homes are expected to be lost in 2009 due to the housing crisis.

Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was the events featured speaker.

Donovan began saying the U.S. Latino community historically has made a significant impact in all areas of American society making up 15 percent of the entire U.S. population. Latinos, he said, continue to make a positive impact economically, socially and politically throughout the country.

At the same time Latinos undergo many unfortunate disparities, said Donovan.

For example every year a third of the Latino population goes without health care, he said.

Donavan added Latinos, and other low-income communities, suffer the most with the disastrous housing crisis.

“The foreclosure issue is at the root of our economic crisis,” said Donovan.

“Having a home is the basic foundation of building a family and it’s the engine of economic growth in every community,” said Donovan. But that simple truth continues to be eroded by the on-going housing crisis, he said.

Donovan added that the Obama administration is committed to stabilizing the economic crisis and signs of progress are slowly on the horizon. Tens of thousands are finally benefiting from reform loan modifications but the pressure to provide resources and accessibility to make homes affordable must persist, said Donovan.

Housing counselors must be ready to answer questions in order to help assist families in danger of losing their homes, he added. Local housing rights groups, especially those with bilingual speakers need to reach out to homeowners and break down the language barrier, he said.

The Latino community was one of the hardest hit with risky sub-prime loans devastating neighborhoods and it’s no coincidence that poor communities were targeted, said Donovan. It’s a tragedy, he said.

“I am absolutely committed to help as many families stay in their homes. This is our greatest test and I have every intention of passing it,” said Donovan.

Donovan also commented on the rising issue of hate and biased crimes committed against people of color. This is unacceptable, he said.

“It’s time to tell those who discriminate, it’s enough!” said Donovan. “And you can’t get away with it anymore. You will be held accountable for your actions.”

Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League said for the last eight years a sign on the fair housing door in Washington read, “closed.” Morial said Blacks and Latinos must work together on this catastrophic issue including fighting together for more jobs in both communities. “In great crises we are called to do extraordinary things and we must fight to put people back to work,” said Morial.

NCLR President Janet Murguia said strengthening partnerships in communities of color and learning from one another is the way to go. Blacks and Latinos make up more than 25 percent of the U.S. population and we need to stand together, she said. “Our families are hurting when it comes to the lack of jobs and health care,” she added. “We all want the same thing – a secure job, a safe mortgage and decent health care,” said Murguia.

Henry Cisneros, president and CEO of CityView, Inc. said, “The system of housing does not work unless it’s fair.” Home foreclosures destroy neighborhoods and minimizes a community’s confidence, he said.

Executive Director with the Opportunity Agenda, Alan Jenkins noted the Obama administration, after eight years of neglect under the previous administration, was left with “building a plane while actually flying the plane,” when it comes the economic crisis.

The panelist said millions underwent foreclosure during years of inaction under the George W. Bush administration.

Blaming the victim for losing their home is not supported by facts, they charged. This is not about weather people can be homeowners, it’s about doing it right and getting back to the basics when it comes to fair and equal lending practices, they said.

Recent finding point to the fact that foreclosures today are becoming more of a problem due to the rising number of unemployed, said the panelists.

Urban planning and fair housing initiatives should begin to keep in mind suburban, small towns and “so-called” rural areas that are becoming distinctly urban, some said. Smaller communities with fast growing populations in places not commonly known as urban including farmworker districts where many live in extreme poverty should also be noted when it comes to fair housing, they charge.

The biggest challenge will be “immigration-integration” and developing fair practices, equal opportunities, and bilingual programs for the rights of immigrant homeowners, some argued.

In the audience was Emeline Ortiz, 26, a Chicago college student who works as a housing counselor assistant for a northside group called the Latin United Community Housing Association, otherwise, known as LUCHA.

Ortiz said she helps about 40 people a month in her area and that she understands the difficulties when it comes to serving the Latino community on housing rights, especially with the language barrier.

The lack of Spanish material and protections for immigrant homeowners is a real problem, she said. “There needs to be more outreach on this,” said Ortiz.

“Families are losing their homes and this conference has helped me to better understand what’s really going on,” said Ortiz.

The NCLR four-day conference has been very informative for Ortiz and has given her incentive to stay active in her community, she said. Advocating for health care reform, educational opportunities and equal rights for the Latino community is important, she said.

“I have learned a lot and I am proud to hear and see what the Latino community is doing,” she said.

As food stamp use rises 20 percent, retail stores open doors

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:57:00 +0000

In a sign of the growing recessionary troubles, several retail outlets have begun accepting food stamps. According to USA Today, Family Dollar, 7-11, Costco and Target are among the outlets.

Greater profits along with consumer demand seem to be the source of the decision writes the daily:

“In its third-quarter earnings report July 8, Family Dollar cited EBT as among the reasons for its success in this economy. Same-store sales were up 6.2% for the quarter, and food and beverages gained the most. Food stamps represent 'a significant opportunity for us,' said CEO Howard Levine. EBT spending at Family Dollar (FDO) was up 18% from March 2008 to March 2009, says spokesman Josh Braverman.

Over 40 million people are presently enrolled in the Electronic Benefit Transfer program, 20 percent higher than a year ago.

U.S. to sign UN treaty on people with disabilities

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:04:00 +0000

Original source:

President Obama recently announced that the United States will sign on to the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at a ceremony commemorating the 19th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

'Until every American with a disability can learn in their local public school in the manner best for them, until they can apply for a job without fear of discrimination, and live and work independently in their communities if that's what they choose, we've got more work to do,' said Obama.

Under the Convention, signatory nations are required to prohibit discrimination based on disability in employment, education, housing, medical care, and other areas and ensure that mass media like television, newspapers, and the internet is provided in accessible formats for the visually and hearing impaired. Nations are also required to collect data and research on people with disabilities to track and eliminate disparities in opportunity. A U.N. committee will monitor compliance with the treaty and review a comprehensive report to be submitted by signatory nations at least every four years.

In the fall of 2008, Congress overwhelmingly passed and President Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008, which overturned recent Supreme Court decisions that had reduced protections for certain people with disabilities – including people with diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, mental disabilities, and cancer – who were intended to be covered by the original ADA. According to the Census Bureau, more than 54 million people in the U.S., or 19 percent of the population, have some level of a disability.

Health care reform a major theme at La Raza conference

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:25:00 +0000

CHICAGO – One of the most important topics discussed during the National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) four-day conference here July 25-28 was the overall need for health care reform and how the lack of medical coverage impacts low-income families in general and the Latino and immigrant community in particular.

Speaking at a July 26 town hall, “A Pound of Cure: The Role of Prevention in the Health Care Reform Debate,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said President Barack Obama’s administration is doing all that it takes to move the critical debate forward.

In her address Solis stated she is very proud to serve under Obama’s historic administration, proud to be serving her country and proud to be the U.S. Secretary of Labor.

Solis specifically thanked the NCLR and the Latino community in general for helping her get through the very tough period during her confirmation hearings.

She talked about the U.S. economy noting the recovery act passed by the Obama administration earlier this year, which has begun to create a sense of financial stability for the country, she said. The current economic problems, the worst since the Great Depression, she said, were many years in the making and correcting them wouldn’t be solved over night.

Solis affirmed that she along with the Obama administration is committed to working with Congress to confront the economic crisis, which continues to have an effect on every person living in the U.S. today.

“We will not be satisfied until we see a robust economy that provides good jobs and a secure and sustainable environment,” said Solis.

Solis said working people deserve quality jobs that protect workers from unjust labor practices. Ensuring high workplace standards including preventative measures that aim to keep the American workforce safe and secure is a top priority, she said.

“Protecting all workers and especially those on the front lines in the health care industry is our main concern.”

Solis added the current health care debate and how the industry directly affects Latinos is a major concern.

Much still needs to be done in order to change the under-representation of Latinos in the professional health care industry as a whole, she said. No community should be left out when it comes to medical coverage or equal opportunities in this field, she said.

The Latino population is one of the fastest growing communities in the American workforce and they, like many others, are the ones who continue to lack affordable health care, she said.

Nearly 15 million Latinos are uninsured in the U.S., and Latino immigrants, at 58 percent, are much more likely to go without medical coverage, she added.

“These numbers are not acceptable,” said Solis.

“President Obama has made a strong commitment to provide health care to all Americans,” added Solis.

“Reform is not just about the 46 million uninsured. It’s about all Americans, including the unemployed and small business owners.”

Everyone deserves the chance to receive affordable and adequate health care, Solis said.

Solis said the stakes were high and it would take everyone united to get the job done.

“It would be disastrous if we don’t move forward. People need to visit, call and write their congressional legislators and urge them that we need to stand together on this.”

On the panel several notable speakers echoed Solis’s urgent call for action highlighting different areas of how the current question of health care reform impacts all. The panel included key stakeholders in the current debate weighing in on important proposals. Each speaker answered questions about how health care reform concerns all working class communities, Latinos and immigrants. Innovative methods to expand coverage while focusing on prevention and diminishing health disparities were presented.

AARP President Jennie Chin said her organization was founded 50 years ago due to the lack of health care for seniors. “This fight is still very relevant today among those who are the most vulnerable,” she said.

Mary Medina, board member with the National Forum for Latino Healthcare Executives said her primary focus is to ensure that underrepresented voices like the Latino community get heard at hospital boardrooms. Latinos need to be represented at governing hospital board rooms to not only ensure health care accessibility but also that they are involved in the decision-making processes, she said.

Miguel Palacio, associate director with the Association House of Chicago added that community led grass roots education programs must begin at the local level. Local health care initiatives should also be implemented such as community based participatory research in order to promote wellness and good health, he said.

Dr. Garth Graham, deputy assistant secretary with the Office of Minority Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said two main landmark pieces of legislation have been passed regarding health under Obama. Tobacco control and the American Recovery Reinvestment Act will be instrumental in making a major impact on the well being of all Americans, he said.

Graham also said work is currently being done to revolutionize how patients’ medical records and prescription orders are stored through digitalization in the form of an ATM card.

Speakers on the panel said preventing diabetes, asthma, heart disease and other concerns that are prominent in low-income communities, especially in people of color could see major improvements if health care coverage were expanded.

Incorporating prevention strategies into health care reform as well as improving health equity for Latinos, other racial and ethnic minorities including low-income white communities will be an essential part of making health care in the U.S. affordable and accessible for all, panelists stressed.

Party of no and hate

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:14:00 +0000

EDITORIAL

What does the Republican Party stand for any more? If you had asked an old line GOPer, like Colin Powell 10 years ago, he might have said that it stands for 'free markets' and a 'strong defense.' Of course these are code words for tax cuts for the rich and corporate welfare across the board and aggressive foreign military interventions. But the platitudes would have been recognizable.

Today, the Republican Party seems to have openly adopted a new agenda that has little to do with those platitudes. Instead, hate-motivated conspiracies about race war, dictatorship and birth certificates abound.

For example, after President Obama chastised local police for wrongfully arresting Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates in his Cambridge home, Republican bloviator Rush Limbaugh essentially accused the president of conspiring to launch race war against white people.

'Last week, we saw white firefighters under assault by agents of Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor,' said Limbaugh. 'Now, white policemen are under assault from the East Room of the White House, by the President of the United States.'

In one of her last acts before quitting as Alaska governor, Sarah Palin signed a bill emphasizing the 'sovereignty' of her state. In this action, she followed in the footsteps of Texas Gov. Rick Perry and scandal-plagued South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. Perry notoriously hinted that Texas secession was under his consideration, and all three of these Republican governors have accused Obama of conspiring to impose dictatorial power over their states.

Incidentally, Palin's action doesn't stray far from her own personal and political connection to the secessionist Alaska Independence Party at whose 2008 convention she spoke.

In addition to race war and secession, another key GOP platform plank seems to be linked to the conspiracy around President Obama's birth certificate. Despite the fact that numerous media outlets have produced official copies of the document, GOP hardliners seem unimpressed. When asked about their view of the issue, several key Republican figures, such as Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., have given non-answer answers that fuel the conspiracy.

'Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate,' Shelby said. 'You have to be born in America to be president.'

Republican hatred of Obama extends into immediate policy questions, too. Intent on harming the president politically, Republican strategists have argued for obstructionism on health reform. When asked for his party's plan for reform, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele said 'We don't do policy.' He implied that blocking the President's health reform plan is his party's best bet for scoring a political victory.

At the same time Republican South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint told a conservative group that blocking health care is needed to 'break' the Obama administration. Simply put, forget the 50 million people who go without health care and the tens of millions more each year who are left only partially covered by insurance. The Republicans are all about the game of politics and stopping the president.

Devil and details

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:09:00 +0000

EDITORIAL

The president has urged passage of health reform in 2009. The main reason is to remedy quickly harm inflicted on some many thousands of working families each month Congress delays. But the Republicans – and some “Blue Dogs” are bound and determined to stop any kind of reform, having made their deal with the devils of the insurance/medical industry giants.

So far two different bills have passed in major committees in both houses of Congress. But those bills have stalled in two other equally important committees. Of particular note, the Senate Finance Committee stands as the final major hurdle to producing a final bill that 58 or 59 Democrats and 1 or 2 Republicans can vote for.

Both bills contain a lot of the same important reforms: investments in health information technology, ending discrimination by insurers against policy holders who have preexisting conditions and making insurance coverage portable from place to place and job to job.

In addition, both bills expand choices of insurance plans by creating a market place of options, including a publicly-funded and run insurance plan.

While some details about the public option differ, it seems that people who earn between 133 percent to 400 percent of poverty (or individuals earning less than $43,000 or a family of four below $89,000) will be eligible for a sliding scale of discounts in the public insurance plan based on income. (People below that level would be eligible for an expanded Medicaid program.) Essentially, most people choosing the public insurance plan would pay similar premium rates and expenses that a typical retired Medicare recipient pays now. Both bills mandate that beneficiaries of the public option have the same choices of doctors and care they would have in a private plan.

Financing the public plan differs in each bill. According to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag estimates the cost of the program range from $75 billion to $100 billion each year. Hence the CBO's pessimistic estimate of $1 trillion over 10 years.

Orszag says that the president favors three key reforms that will pay for the program. First, end federal overpayments to the privatized Medicare Advantage programs created by the Republicans and the Bush administration in 2005. Those programs add no quality or accessibility to care, but cost taxpayers between $15 and $20 billion each year, or almost $180 billion over 10 years.

Second, fix Medicare and Medicaid repayment procedures to create parity and fairness across the country. Something like $100 billion over 10 years can be saved this way.

Third, limit tax deductions for the very richest one percent of Americans, a tax code reform that would restore the levels signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1986. With the sunsetting of the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans scheduled for then end of 2010, more than $300 billion over 10 years could be raised, Orszag explained in a recent teleconference with reporters.

Above all, the president has pledged to sign a health reform bill that does not add to the federal budget deficit.

Not only are these funding mechanisms important to making sure the public option is viable, they are important to remedying the very worst economic policies adopted by the Bush administration: the creation of bloated and expensive privatized programs and tax cuts for the rich paid for by the rest of us.

Corporate profiteering at heart of foreclosure crisis

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:12:00 +0000

Maximizing corporate profits remains as a driving factor in the housing crisis according to Congressional testimony and news reports today.

Testifying before Congress on the foreclosure crisis, Keith S. Ernst, of the Center for Responsible Lending, stressed that the problem didn't start with the working people who took out the loans, but the business practices of the big banks and mortgage companies: “Our empirical research shows that the leading cause of the problem was the characteristics of the market and mortgage products sold, rather than the characteristics of the borrowers who received those products.”

These same practices are now frustrating Obama administration efforts to address the crisis according to a lead article in the Washington Post, pointing to the banking industry’s reluctance to renegotiate loan terms because foreclosure is more profitable.

“Policymakers,” writes the Post, “often say it's a good deal for lenders to cut borrowers a break on mortgage payments to keep them in their homes. But, according to researchers and industry experts, foreclosing can be more profitable.”

Standard loaning practices only help a slim margin of the over 1.5 million people who have received foreclosure notices since the beginning of the year, with only 200,000 having renegotiated terms. Such procedures are calibrated to assist only those who fall at least two months in arrears and who might barely manage to continue payments by means of assistance.

Curiously, “those who are most determined to meet their obligations are often unlikely candidates for loan modifications.” The Post continues, “These are the people who will get a second job, borrow from their family to keep up,” explained Paul S. Willen, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and an author of its report. 'From a cold-blooded profit-maximizing standpoint, these are the people the banks will help the least.'

While sub-prime loans sparked the crisis, standard mortgages are now a growing if not the main source of new foreclosures. The foreclosure rate is now a staggering “400 percent, four times the historical average and the highest it has ever been since the Great Depression,” testified Dr. Susan M. Watcher from the Wharton Business School, at today’s hearing.

Watcher warned that falling house prices and growing unemployment is fueling a mutually reinforcing crisis: “As average home prices fall, for more and more households, the amount for which they could sell their homes is less than what they owe on their mortgages. A loss of a job, illness, sudden sharp increases in required mortgage payments will force owners to sell and will force foreclosure, since homes cannot be sold for the amount of the mortgage due.”

Interestingly, Watcher raises the need for possible “non-cyclical” remedies. She said, “The financial system that triggered the crisis encouraged the production and securitization of uneconomic loans which eventually brought the system down. Is a less pro-cyclical financial system an achievable goal?”

Keith S. Ernst called for the passage of H.R. 3126 to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency as the chief means of addressing corporate profiteering. The banking industry is lobbying hard against the bill.

Carolyn Maloney, chaired today’s hearing.

Capitol Hill swamped with calls for health care public option

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:09:00 +0000

Union members and other health care reform advocates bombarded Capitol Hill July 28 with phone calls demanding enactment of health care reform with a strong “public option.”

The telephone calls came during a nationwide “call-in day for national health care reform” sponsored by the AFL-CIO and Health Care for America NOW. The toll-free number for the call-in is 1-877-702-0976.

This reporter telephoned the Washington D.C. office of Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and was put on hold for nearly 15 minutes, a sign of the flood of messages to Cantwell a member of the Senate Finance Committee that is drafting the Senate version of health care reform. Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Kent Conrad (D-ND), in secretive backroom talks with Republican Senate leaders, have drafted a bill that strips out the “public option” and also removes the surtax on the wealthy. Baucus who received at least $3.9 million in contributions health insurance-pharma lobbyists is determined to placate their profit drive and win over Sen. Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats.

The House version of health care reform contains both the public option, the surtax on the rich, and the mandate requiring employers to provide health insurance or pay an annual fee to help sustain the public option. Cantwell’s aide said the Washington State Senator is drafting an amendment to restore the public option when it reaches the floor.

Jacki Schechner, media spokesperson for Health Care for America NOW told the World, “We have always advocated for a strong public option and we will continue to do so.” She said her coalition has not examined the Baucus bill “but we expect the full Senate to fix whatever is lacking in the bill” when it reaches the Senate floor.

Former Democratic Party National Chairman, Dr. Howard Dean appeared on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show July 27 and is scheduled to substitute for MSNBC’s Keith Olberman two days this week to argue strongly for the public option. Dean has repeatedly told audiences, “I believe that if we don’t pass the health care plan with the public option it won’t be health care reform and we (the Democrats) will lose a tremendous number of seats in 2010.”

President Obama, speaking at a town hall meeting sponsored by the American Association of Retired Americans (AARP) July 28 pointed out that this month is the 44th anniversary of the enactment of Medicare in 1965. During the fight to push through Medicare, he said, “Everybody in favor of the status-quo was trying to scare the American people” with fear mongering against a federally-administered health care system. But today, he added, Medicare enjoys “extraordinary support. It works. And we can do the same this time. The present system is not working for too many people.”

Marc Laitin, director of the AFL-CIO’s online mobilization sent out an online appeal for union members and allies to telephone lawmakers’ offices. “Our all-out push for real health care reform continues,” he said. “We cannot afford to wait any longer….We need to fix our broken health care system with a reform bill that provides a quality public health insurance option, calls on employers to pay their fair share and doesn’t ask workers to pay more for what they already have.”

The 'Skip' Gates arrest: Racism is more than an attitude

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:57:00 +0000

The other day, I was sitting in a coffee shop in Cambridge, not far from the racial profiling incident of Henry Louis Gates that triggered a national conversation on race and racism, and, being a bit nosy, heard some references to 'Skip' Gates.

What these conversations (and others like them) reveal, I'm afraid, is that many people fail to understand that racism is more than an attitude of one person or people toward another person or people. That misunderstanding allows the mass media to make the ludicrous claim that Sonia Sotomyor is a racist.

Racism is a historically developed set of practices and beliefs, some obvious, some more subtle, that systematically subordinate racially and nationally oppressed people to an inferior status in every area of life. It developed in a symbiotic embrace with predator colonialism and nascent capitalism in this hemisphere centuries ago. This symbiosis gave racism a particularly brutal, bloody, and exploitative character, while at the same time acted as a major engine of capitalist development in the Americas.

One would think that given this history, racism (as well capitalism and colonialism) would have exited the world stage long ago. But it persists. But not in exactly the same way as it did in earlier centuries. While its essence remains the same, the institutional and ideological structures of racism have changed, in part due to the developmental pressures of developing capitalism and in part due to the popular opposition to this vile system by the racially oppressed and their allies

The election of Barack Obama and the nomination of Sonia Sontomyer were inspiring moments in our nation's life that advance the freedom agenda and auger well for the struggle for racial (and gender) equality. But they didn't eliminate the structures, institutions, and rationalizing ideological systems that sustain racist oppression and white supremacist ideology in the early part of the 21st century. That still needs to be done by a multi-racial movement, powered in no small part by a working class and labor movement that understands that its class interests are interlocked with a successful struggle for affirmative action and equality.

A challenge no doubt, but a worthy and necessary one for the broad coalition that elected the first African American president!

VIDEO Health care reform cannot wait

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:10:00 +0000

Americans United for Change, a labor-backed coalition, and MoveOn.org are fighting Republican moves to scuttle health care reform with new TV commercials.

150,000 South African workers walk out

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:50:00 +0000

Original source:

Johannesburg has been brought to a grinding halt with 10,000 local government workers marching to Mary Fitzgerald Square to reaffirm their union's demand for a 15 per cent wage increase and a housing subsidy.

About 150,000 workers in the country have stopped work. Unions say that most public services are disrupted.

Marches are happening in all the major centres - Johannesburg, Tshwane, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Sol Plaatjie - as well as in many of the smaller municipalities ranging from Bredasdorp, Mossel Bay and Beaufort West. In other municipalities workers are picketing the municipal offices.

The strikes are the first major challenge for new President Jacob Zuma, who has called for patience from workers but is faced by a situation in which South Africa's organised working class is rapidly running out of it.

Unions reported massive support for the strike, with many services, such as refuse removal, traffic, water maintenance and revenue collection, not operating.

In recent weeks there have been violent protests over the lack of housing, water and electricity in the poorest townships.

The police in charge of traffic policing in the country's major cities are also taking part in the strike.

The country has already faced a major strike by construction workers, threatening stadiums being built for next year's football World Cup.

That strike was ended earlier this month after workers and employers agreed on a 12 per cent rise.

Mr Zuma took power in May after a campaign in which he pledged to ease poverty.

He was supported by the main union federation Cosatu and the South African Communist Party, which wanted a change in the previous administration's economic policies that they argued were too pro-business.

In Cape Town, 3,000 workers marched to the provincial offices of employers' organisation Salga to assert the union's key demands of a living wage, filling of the 25 per cent of vacant posts in the public sector and the improvement of housing benefit, while in Durban 5,000 workers marched and picketed workplaces.

The actions around the country were generally peaceful but there were reports of police action in Polokwane, where workers were shot at and arrested.