Electronic Pen

ROBERT C. KOEHLER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

"Play faster!" he cried, wildly, over and over. "Play faster!"

The dame who was tickling the ivories complied, out of control herself. The music revved to a dangerous velocity - oh, too fast for decent, sober, well-behaved Americans to bear - and . . . well, you just knew, violence, madness, laughter were just around the corner. The year was 1936 and, oh my God, they were high on marijuana, public enemy number one.

The scene is from Reefer Madness, arguably the dumbest movie ever made - but smugly at the emotional and ideological core of American drug policy for the last three-quarters of a century. The policy, which morphed in 1970 into an all-out "war" on drugs, has filled our prisons to bursting, created powerful criminal enterprises, launched a real war in Mexico and presided over the skyrocketing of recreational drug use in the United States. The war on drugs just may be a bigger disaster than the war on terror.

"The war on drugs, as it has been waged, has not only failed to curtail drug use; it has become a major public health liability in its own right," writes Christopher Glenn Fichtner in his comprehensive new book on our disastrous war on a plant, Cannabanomics: The Marijuana Policy Tipping Point (Well Mind Books).

Fichtner, a psychiatrist - he served as Illinois Director of Mental Health for several years - takes a long, hard look at the politics of irrationality and lays out a compelling diagnosis: "essentially, social or mass psychosis." You can also throw in racism. The war on drugs is simply a race war by another name, fueled by fear of Mexican and African American culture, with the weight of law brought down on African Americans with wildly disproportionate severity:

". . . during a period when the number of prison sentences for drug-related convictions increased dramatically for all drug offenders," Fichtner writes, citing Illinois statistics between 1983 and 2002, "it increased for African Americans at roughly eight times the rate of increase seen for Caucasians."

But reading Cannabanomics kept leaving me with the sense that there was a deeper irrationality to our anti-marijuana crusade than even the racism. For instance, "Examples abound," he writes, "in which the application of mandatory minimum sentences has led to harsher penalties for marijuana offenses than for violent crimes ranging from battery through sexual assault and even to murder."

And the violent enforcement of zero tolerance hasn't been limited to the pursuit of recreational potheads. Those using cannabis medicinally have also been harassed, arrested and sometimes treated with such shocking violence you have to wonder whether the official paranoia about marijuana use - that it leads to mental derangement and violent behavior - is sheer projection.

For instance, early in the book Fichtner relates the story of Garry, a California man who used marijuana to relieve arthritic pain. Despite the fact that this was legal under state law, his house was raided by federal agents: "As he opened his front door, he was greeted by a battering ram and a physical takedown maneuver that left him with a dislocated left shoulder, right hand fractures, blunt head trauma, and a back injury that aggravated the arthritis for which he grew cannabis in his garage in the first place."

read more

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

You can say this for the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State: it gave the Vatican a break.

Indeed, just the other day, the government of Ireland pulled its ambassador from the Vatican amid the aftermath of a large-scale sex abuse scandal in the Catholic country - one that the Vatican covered up for years.

Just as the child sex abuse incidents in Ireland, America and around the world tested the faith of Catholics in the Pope vs. the horrifying immoral acts of some priests who were sexual predators of children, the legendary football powerhouse of Penn State - and its all-time, game-winning, record-holder coach, Joe Paterno - were tested against the cover-up of a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, who is alleged to have sexually abused at least eight boys.

Paterno was fired by the Penn State board for ignoring at least one child abuse charge against Sandusky. According to The New York Times:

Upon learning about a suspected 2002 assault by Mr. Sandusky on a young boy in the football building's showers, Mr. Paterno redirected the graduate assistant who witnessed the incident to the athletic director, rather than notifying the police. Mr. Paterno said the graduate assistant who reported the assault, Mike McQueary, said only that something disturbing had happened that was perhaps sexual in nature. Mr. McQueary testified that he saw Mr. Sandusky having anal sex with the boy.

Just this month, Sandusky was finally charged with 40 counts relating to sexual child abuse by the Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelley, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Twenty of the 40 crimes with which Sandusky is charged allegedly took place during the time he worked for Paterno, including three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a first-degree felony.

One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a "soap battle" in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky's hands, a grand jury report said.

Indulging criminal and deviant behavior among football players and coaches is no new phenomenon in college sports, considering how football and basketball have become big-time fundraising machines for winning college programs. So it was with Paterno.

Thousands of students (estimates vary) rioted at Penn State in protest of the firing of Paterno. It was a small segment of the nearly 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students at what is considered one of the top public universities in the United States.

But it is still a bit disturbing to know that there is a significant segment of students who value a legendary football coach over the violation of young boys who were anally raped in the Penn State football shower.

No, Paterno is not charged with any deviant behavior, just with turning a blind eye to it.

The Los Angeles Times quotes a protesting Penn State student who sympathizes with Paterno:

James Choi, 18, a freshman from Baltimore, also thought the way Paterno was fired was unjust.

"He shouldn't have to go out this way," Choi said. "They should let him leave with his dignity."

Unfortunately for Paterno, he gave up his dignity and his moral authority when he chose not to tarnish the Penn State football brand over reporting the horror that happened in his team's shower room. As a result, Sandusky continued to violate young boys for years.

Football is a game that's over in three hours or so. The boys who he sexually abused will live with the scars for the rest of their lives.

Paterno is getting off easy. He just has to live with his conscience.

****

If you'd like to receive these commentaries daily from Truthout/BuzzFlash, click here. You'll get our choice headlines and articles too.

read more

BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Jackson is dead; Dr. Conrad Murray has been convicted of manslaughter; Philip Anschutz has walked away with millions

In case you've been on another planet, holed up in an Occupy tent somewhere, or just plain too stubborn to care, Dr. Conrad Murray has been found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson.

And one of the more interesting pieces of information that surfaced during the trial was the role played by Philip Anschutz, the head of the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), the company that was chiefly responsible for setting up Jackson's comeback tour.

In less than two days, the 12-person jury reached its verdict. Murray was found guilty and carted off to the Los Angeles County jail where he was placed on suicide watch.

Later this month Murray, who could receive probation or as much as four years in prison, will be sentenced.

Jackson's death came while the mega-pop star was preparing for "This Is It," the comeback of all comeback tours; a series of concerts at London's O2 arena. Millions and millions of dollars were at stake. Postponement or cancellation of the tour wasn't an option.

read more

TONY PEYSER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

The people's verdict in Ohio? SB 5 is dead.

(That pretty much sums up what they said.)

An anti-immigrant in Arizona wound up lacking

Necessary votes & he was then sent off packing.

Gov. Kasich & State Senator Pearce are already bringing

News to the Right that an unfriendly pendulum is swinging.

read more

PAUL ROGAT LOEB FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

The Occupy movement has done something amazing, getting Americans to start questioning our economic divides. It's created spaces for people to come together, voice their discontents and dreams, creatively challenge destructive greed. It's created powerful political theater, engaged community, an alternative to silence and powerlessness.

But it also faces major challenges. I'm fine that this new public commons isn't offering detailed platforms for change. We can find plenty in almost any Paul Krugman or Robert Kuttner column. Instead the movement has highlighted the destructive polarization of wealth while voicing what one young woman called "a cry for something better." And that's a major contribution. The movement and its allies now need to keep spreading this message to that majority of Americans who are sympathetic but have given up on the possibility of change. To reach those more resistant, who might respond if seriously engaged. To make the physical occupations not just ends in themselves, but bases where more and more people can participate, and find ways to publicly act. To keep momentum building even in the winter cold, and when media coverage fades. To find continuing ways for people to act without dissipating their energy in an array of fragmented efforts. And, although some participants would disagree, to become part of a broader movement that without muting its voice help bring about a better electoral outcome in 2012 than the disaster of 2010, when corporate interests prevailed again and again because those who would have rejected their lies stayed home.

One solution, which is beginning to happen, is for the movement to move to the neighborhoods, building on its existing efforts in hundreds of cities and towns. This doesn't mean abandoning the current encampments. At their best they've created powerful new centers for conversation, reflection, and creative action. People talk, brainstorm ideas, make posters and banners, draw in the curious, including those just passing by. In Seattle, even tourists riding the amphibious tour buses broke into cheers as they drove past. Participants tell stories of lost jobs, medical bills, and student debt, putting a human face on how they and so many others have been made expendable by a country that seems to care only for the wealthiest. Self-organized committees plan creative tactics, handle donations of food, address medical needs, reach out to the media, create innovative art projects, clean the occupation grounds, and ensure physical security. Common meals become a form of communion. The gatherings also convey a sense of festival, inviting in those not yet involved with puppets colorful banners, drum circles radical marching bands, signs saying "I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one," and people dressed up as predatory billionaires, Lady Liberty and dollar spewing zombies who chant "I smell money, I smell money." The spirit of play echoes the defiant folk and hip hop music of Tahir Square and the Gandhi meets Monty Python approaches of the Serbian youth movement Otpur, who helped train the initial Tahir Square occupiers.

But for all the value of creating visible protest communities in the centers of our cities, for all the powerful stories and Dadaist humor, most Americans are still watching from a distance, at most passive spectators. So maybe the rest of us. who are about these issues but aren't ready to sleep on the hard cold ground, need to build on the opening that this movement has created to consciously reach out to the rest of America. To the degree that the occupations have led the media to even briefly question America's fundamental divides is a victory. But it's not one that we can count on indefinitely. So we need to find creative ways to take the key issues that the movement's placed on the public agenda to every neighborhood, community, workplace and campus, even those that don't seem natural hotbeds of change.

read more

PAUL BUCHHEIT FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Redistribution of income has been taking place since 1980, when the top 1% already had a large piece of the pie (7%).

Then they took a second piece (7% more).

Then they took a third piece (7% more).

That's over a trillion dollars a year of AFTER-TAX income that would be going to the other 99% if it weren't for 30 years of tax cuts and deregulation.

If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000.

How do wealthy Americans respond to this? They argue that the top earners pay most of the income tax. But federal income tax is only a small part of the burden on the middle class. Based on data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the total of all state and local taxes, social security taxes, and excise taxes (gasoline, alcohol, tobacco) consumes 21% of the annual incomes of the poorest half of America. For the richest 1% of Americans, the same taxes consume 7% of their incomes. Furthermore, the richest people pay most of the federal income taxes because they've made ALMOST ALL the new income over the past 30 years. As productivity has risen 80%, average overall wages have remained flat.

Wealthy people also claim that opportunity exists for everyone, if only they work hard. But an American born in 1970 in the bottom economic quintile had only a 17% chance of making it into the top two quintiles. Data shows that much of Europe has more economic mobility than the United States.

Wealthy people also claim that they've earned whatever they have. But they've made their fortunes with considerable help from society. Government-funded research, infrastructure growth, national security, and property laws have largely benefited rich individuals and corporations. DARPA (the Internet), NIH (medicine), and NSF and NASA (science) have laid a half-century foundation for profit-seeking corporations.

read more

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

On Tuesday, America was occupied by sanity.

In a major pushback to the assault on collective bargaining and unions, a unified coalition of organized labor and progressives beat back Ohio Senate Bill 5. This legislation that would have severely restricted union rights - already signed into law by Tea Party Gov. John Kasich - was nullified by a landslide margin of almost two to one. The reverberations will be felt far and wide, including in the upcoming effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

And although even Keith Olbermann was predicting its passage on "Countdown," even the reddest of regressive states, Mississippi, defeated Initiative 26 that would have legally endowed a fertilized human egg with the attributes of a person. This would have had widespread horrendous impact, such as making any woman taking a morning-after pill a murderer.

There were other less touted victories for democracy and progress. In Maine, voters resoundingly defeated - again through a citizen initiative - a GOP Tea Party effort in that state to eliminate same-day voter registration. This GOP law was part of the broader nationwide GOP effort to reinstall Jim Crow laws and variations thereof to limit non-Republican voters.

In Arizona, there was a huge political upset. GOP State Senate President and Republican power house Russell Pearce - the prime political strategist behind the state's draconian anti-Mexican immigration law - was defeated in a recall election.

There were less noted victories for social progress, but still significant. In Iowa, Democrats held onto their two-vote majority in the state Senate. This ensures that there will be no legislation in the state, for the near future, to ban gay marriages.

If you are looking at party politics, the Republicans certainly won some elections and initiatives. But taking a broader perspective, one can argue that the Occupy movement cleared the air of the GOP dominance of the national media debate for several weeks.

Perhaps that - and this is just conjecture - allowed voters some breathing room to look at issues without the emotional pummeling and distortion that comes with Republican control of the media "frame."

Perhaps, the refusal of the Occupy movement to get tied down in electoral details is, ironically, having an electoral impact. It could be providing a buffer zone for sanity to once again creep into debates over public policy, which then has an impact at the polls.

****

If you'd like to receive these commentaries daily from Truthout/BuzzFlash, click here. You'll get our choice headlines and articles too.

read more

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

According to Forbes online, the financial firm MF Global, which just declared bankruptcy, paid out bonuses to its UK staff just before legally going under.

MF Global was headed by Jon Corzine - former governor of New Jersey, a former US senator and yet another past CEO of Goldman Sachs - until Corzine jumped ship and hired himself a defense lawyer as regulators closed in on the imploding Wall Street brokerage house.

Corzine is a Democrat, but as the Wall Street bailout and DC policies that allow thinly regulated financial risk taking reveal, both parties generally bow to the financial "Masters of the Universe." Remember, for example, that it was Bill Clinton who signed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, after bipartisan passage in the House and Senate. In fact, the Senate voted 90-8 for the repeal; the House, 362-57.

The repeal of Glass-Steagall is widely credited with being a major factor that led to the near implosion of the American economy.

Therefore, it is of little surprise that The New York Times recently ran an article headlined, "As Regulators Pressed Changes, Corzine Pushed Back, and Won":

Months before MF Global teetered on the brink, federal regulators were seeking to rein in the types of risky trades that contributed to the firm's collapse. But they faced opposition from an influential opponent: Jon S. Corzine, the head of the then little-known brokerage firm.

As a former United States senator and a former governor of New Jersey, as well as the leader of Goldman Sachs in the 1990s, Mr. Corzine carried significant weight in the worlds of Washington and Wall Street. While other financial firms employed teams of lobbyists to fight the new regulation, MF Global's chief executive in meetings over the last year personally pressed regulators to halt their plans.

The agency proposing the rule, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, relented. Wall Street, which has been working to curb many financial regulations, won another battle.

Now Corzine has a criminal defense lawyer - as well as a bankruptcy attorney - although the Department of Justice hasn't shown itself too keen on prosecuting Republicans or Democrats who gamble with America's economy.

If you'd like to receive these commentaries daily from Truthout/BuzzFlash, click here. You'll get our choice headlines and articles too.

read more

When truth takes a walk, nothing of value remains. In our current poisonous political environment it sometimes seems as if anything goes because after all it's campaign season and candidates are positioning themselves to take on President Obama in the general election.

The trouble is that instead of actually framing alternative policies the Republican field is in attack mode all the time whether their positions make sense or have anything to do with how to right the course of the country. Some commentators point out that a man like Herman Cain is the real deal and voters identify with him because he's a plain talker. Never mind that he is an empty vessel who knows very little about world events, the economy or how to run a campaign, even if his poll numbers are up and he has raised significant amounts of cash.

Factor in his defenders on the right who have some of the goofiest reasons at the ready for continuing to support Cain. Ann Coulter, for example, states that Liberals just can't stand a conservative man of color and besides, as she puts it "our blacks are better than theirs" of all the absurd and insulting positions to take. Apparently it doesn't alarm her and some of her colleagues that right-wing blacks constantly play the race card and are into the bargain remarkably under-informed about basic historical fact.

Cain is embarrassingly unable to make sense of the world in all its complexity. His comical take on "Uz Beki Beki Stan" may amuse listeners who are as untutored in the way of the world as he is, but one would hope a serious candidate would refrain from poking fun at countries about which he has no knowledge but which may, in fact, impact our country in significant ways. Never mind about that and never mind about his problems of possible sexual harassment. He may have bigger problems in terms of campaign finance that seem to be emerging. However, Bill Maher says, he doesn't have as big a problem with Cain's apparent misdeeds as he has with the fact that he's just "dumb." That is after all the defining problem with this man and the people who find excuses for supporting him.

We have come a long way from the days of Jim Crow and suppression of the minority vote. And yet maybe we haven't progressed as far as we might have thought. Richard Nixon had his "southern strategy" which continues to be a part of the right-wing approach to elections. Some of the efforts in several states to 'modify' voting laws will if carried out keep minorities, young people and others from exercising their rights at the polls. Widespread, non-existent voter fraud has been used as an excuse to limit access to those voters conservatives want to restrain. Unfortunately, a candidate like Herman Cain represents a step backward by people who are willing to accept an inferior candidate and claim anyone who opposes him is playing the race card. The real voter fraud is that incredibly stupid, uninformed people still vote.

How much are the American people willing to put up with when it comes to believing the nonsensical premises of candidates who bask in the spotlight of their ignorance as if it were a badge of courage and enlightenment. How many of his supporters, one wonders, believe Cain's claim that his security clearance is at a higher level than the president's - - probably far too many. There are always dozens of reasons right-wing politicians have for their opinions. It doesn't matter that logic is rarely a component of their position; they'll continue to 'wing it' forever. Daryl Issue defends the second amendment because he says it was part of the Constitution to protect citizens from a tyrannical government. But if anyone thinks about this for even a second it will be clear that even a hundred A-K 47s would be no match for tanks, air power and nuclear weapons.

When Republicans hold up those glossy folders they say lay out a jobs plan it becomes apparent that they are all about rolling back regulatory mechanisms that are agenda items not job inducers. And when they insist they have bi-partisan support for their plans it should be noted that the entire Republican field and two or three Democrats don't represent bi-partisanship. Maybe truth and logic will come to play a part once again in our world. If not we are doomed to make fools of ourselves on the world stage.

BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Four North Georgia senior citizens may have redefined what it means to have a senior moment. Were four old guys sitting around eating waffles and just blowing smoke, or were they really interested in a final shot at immortality? If the allegations that they planned to assassinate government officials and wreak havoc on the city of Atlanta are true, those seniors' "bucket list" contained a heap of militia movement mayhem.

According to government officials, Frederick Thomas, 73, of Cleveland, Ga.; Dan Roberts, 67, Ray Adams, 65, and Samuel Crump, 68, all of Toccoa, were involved in a plot to attack federal office buildings and to disperse a deadly biological poison in Atlanta (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/A_U.S.%20news/Crime%20&%20courts/GAmilitia.pdf).

"Their alleged plot was revealed to the FBI by a confidential informant last spring, and members of the group have been meeting since May with someone they thought was a black-market weapons dealer but who turned out to be an undercover federal agent, according to court documents," NBC News' Pete Williams reported.

"I'd say the first ones that need to die is the ones in the government buildings," Adams was overheard saying in an April 16 meeting, according to the FBI. "When it comes down to it, I can kill somebody," he allegedly said.

The FBI also alleges that, "Thomas, Roberts and others discussed the need to obtain unregistered silencers and explosive devices for use in attacks against federal government buildings and employees, as well as against local police."

"While many are focused on the threat posed by international violent extremists, this case demonstrates that we must also remain vigilant in protecting our country from citizens within our own borders who threaten our safety and security," said U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates.

"While the details of the plot may sound implausible at first glance, further details about those involved indicate that the potential for serious harm was very real," Devin Burghart, vice president of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR), told me in an email. "Some of the individuals arrested for this plot had been steeped in the violent conspiracies of the militia movement for over a decade and they may have felt that they had nothing left to lose-a potentially deadly combination that needed to be taken seriously. Thankfully no one was harmed."

read more

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

In a stunning analysis of the "performance artist" known as Herman Cain, Rachel Maddow lays out a devastating argument that we are being "punked" by a "satirical" campaign that has heavily borrowed from the video game Sim City, the kids' movie "Pokemon" and even a quotation from Chris Tucker in "Rush Hour 3."

No, Maddow is not making this up. Last week, at a high-profile meeting of the Koch brothers' America for Prosperity, Cain delivered the crowd-pleasing line: "I am the Koch brothers' brother from another mother." Maddow followed Cain's paraphrased statement with the original line uttered by Chris Tucker in "Rush Hour 3."

Where might Cain's dubious 9-9-9 tax plan have been formed? Maddow makes a strong case it is derived from the tax structure used in the fictional video game Sim City. As for a key section of Cain's closing statement at an Iowa GOP presidential debate, it came verbatim from a song in the animated movie version of "Pokemon."

Maddow points out that Cain pulls Sarah Palins at every turn in terms of being unaware of basic foreign policy and domestic issues that would face a president, baffling even Chris Wallace and John Stossel of Fox with his answers to questions.

One could argue that Cain's high GOP polling numbers are due to the successful Madison Avenue "packaging" of a presidential candidate. That would make the Cain bid consistent with the modern era of national campaigns as detailed in the seminal book by Joe McGinniss on the 1968 Nixon campaign, "The Selling of the President." But Cain's "run for the presidency" is closer to Jerzy Kosinki's, "Being There," a novel about a gardener lacking in knowledge whose simple statements are mistaken for wisdom and who rises to the highest levels of government influence.

Calling Cain's daily gaffes "too perfect" not to be planned, Maddow believes that Cain never expected to be taken seriously, but was just looking for his moment in history as flavor of the month. But the American public, or at least many Republicans, can no longer distinguish between plagiarized entertainment sound bites and effective public policy.

Speaking of "flavor of the month," Maddow notes that Cain asserted that if he were an ice cream flavor that he would be Haagen Dazs black walnut, because it's a flavor, like him, that will always be around - that, according to Cain, "has staying power."

Haagen-Dazs, Maddow clarifies, no longer manufactures the flavor black walnut.

****

If you'd like to receive these commentaries daily from Truthout/BuzzFlash, click here. You'll get our choice headlines and articles too. 

read more

BOB FITRAKIS AND HARVEY WASSERMAN FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Tuesday's most important vote is the repeal of Ohio's vicious anti-labor Issue 2.

Polls show the repeal winning by 20% or more. But will it - like the 2004 presidential election - be stolen by a 1% intent on crushing working people and stealing huge sums of money?

Like Wisconsin's millionaire assault on the bargaining rights of public unions, the thoroughly bought Ohio legislature has passed a draconian law aimed at crippling the organizing ability of working people.

The attack has the loud, persistent support of Wall Street's hand-picked Governor John Kasich, who made millions as a Foxist commentator and Lehman bond dealer. Among other things, Kasich helped pawn $400 million in Lehman's junk bonds onto the Ohio teacher's pension fund, making him a multi-millionaire. Control of that money would be directly affected by the outcome of this referendum.

The legislature's original passage of the anti-labor bill drew thousands of demonstrators to the statehouse lawn and key locations throughout the Buckeye State. The pre-occupy rallies got ardent support from progressive, union and working people across Ohio's political spectrum.

But the vast, apparently limitless resources of corporate America have been polluting the Ohio media and distorting the nature of the vote in an attempt to thoroughly confuse voters, who must vote no on this issue to defeat the bill. Since corporations are now considered "people," with no real limits on what can be spent, the corporate anti-labor deluge has been horrific.

But, that's only the beginning. In 2004, the Ohio's GOP control of the governorship and Secretary of State's office made possible the theft of the presidency for George W. Bush. Though highly sophisticated exit polls showed John Kerry winning the state by more than 4%, the "official" outcome had him losing Ohio's 20 electoral votes - and thus the White House - by more than 2%.

By all credible estimates such a shift of more than 6% was a statistical impossibility. It was primarily engineered by Bush consigliere Karl Rove and Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

Rove and Blackwell helped knock a half-million or more primarily Democratic voters off of Ohio's registration rolls prior to election day. Despite the obvious irregularities that defined the registration process, voting procedures, ballot tabulations and final electronic manipulations, John Kerry conceded Ohio - and the election - with more than 200,000 votes left uncounted.

In July of this year, www.freepress.org posted the architectural maps used in Blackwell's 2004 voting operation in Ohio. His electronic reporting operation was designed by a partisan Republican firm, GovTech and linked directly to servers at the premier Republican and right-wing tech company SmarTech in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In the 2005 election, a corporate coalition parallel to the one fighting to crush worker rights this year worked on a comparable issue. In reaction to the theft of the vote in 2004, a popular uprising had designed Issue 2 to make it easier for Ohioans to vote early by mail or in person.

Two days before the 2005 vote, the Republican-leaning Columbus Dispatch poll showed that Issue 2 passed by 26 points, 59% to 33%.

But, on that November 8 (the same day as this year's vote), Blackwell oversaw the defeat of Issue 2 with the utterly implausible support of 63.5%. Once again, the shift from pre-election polling to final "official" vote count was a virtual statistical impossibility.

read more

NIKOLAS KOZLOFF FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

As an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley in the late 1980s, I did not visit the nearby city of Oakland very frequently. For the most part, I was ensconced in my own student circles and, to the extent that I got involved in politics, it was the local campus activist scene which drew me in with its focus on Central America and US counterinsurgency efforts in the region. To be sure, Oakland had a radical tradition going back to the 1960s and the Black Panther movement, yet by the time I was in school that era was already a distant memory for many.

If there was any doubt about Oakland's radical stripes, however, then yesterday's general strike will certainly dispel any such notions. Galvanized by tumultuous developments over the past several weeks, in particular a nasty police crackdown on a local "Occupy" encampment, activists moved to effectively shut down the city by carrying out a general strike. Activists were particularly incensed by violent police tactics including use of tear gas and even grenades. During nighttime unrest, an Iraq war veteran was hit with a projectile and suffered a skull fracture.

Spurred on by the need to end police brutality, defend schools and libraries against local closures, and put an end to overall economic inequality, Occupy Oakland called for a day of action in which the circulation of capital would be blockaded, students would walk out of class, and various occupations would be staged around the city. Oakland is particularly important to commerce as the local port is the fifth largest in the country, and though union officials did not authorize a strike, many longshoremen voiced support for Occupy's efforts.

The Unusual Weapon of the General Strike

As I explained in another piece, general strikes are practically unheard of in the United States. Indeed, the Oakland unrest marks the first general strike in the country in 65 years. One notable exception to this pattern of labor docility was the Seattle general strike of 1919, which in my estimation holds profound historic lessons for anti-capitalist protesters in Lower Manhattan. For the most part, however, US labor has shied away from such confrontational tactics, and this has posed a great tactical dilemma for the left according to veteran organizers.

read more

TONY PEYSER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Does Boehner mean it or is this lifelong
Smoker just blowing smoke? Anyhoo,
This kinda sounds like Dubya did when
He used to call Ken Lay “Kenny Who?”

read more

A BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT NEWS ALERT

The following is a statement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont - I):

As a result of the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street, the American people have experienced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, homes, life savings, and ability to send their kids to college. Small businesses have been unable to get the credit they need to expand their businesses, and credit is still extremely tight. Wages as a share of national income are now at the lowest level since the Great Depression, and the number of Americans living in poverty is at an all-time high.

Meanwhile, when small-business owners were being turned down for loans at private banks and millions of Americans were being kicked out of their homes, the Federal Reserve provided the largest taxpayer-financed bailout in the history of the world to Wall Street and too-big-to-fail institutions, with virtually no strings attached.

Over two years ago, I asked Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, a few simple questions that I thought the American people had a right to know: Who got money through the Fed bailout? How much did they receive? What were the terms of this assistance?

Incredibly, the chairman of the Fed refused to answer these fundamental questions about how trillions of taxpayer dollars were being spent.

The American people are finally getting answers to these questions thanks to an amendment I included in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill which required the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit and investigate conflicts of interest at the Fed. Those answers raise grave questions about the Federal Reserve and how it operates -- and whose interests it serves.

read more

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

The following is a November 4th statement from the Congressional Progressive Caucus opposing a slap on the wrist White House settlement with big Wall Street banks who committed mortgage fraud and ruinous speculation:

Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), today released the following statement in response to the proposed $25 billion settlement currently under negotiation by the state Attorneys General and the U.S. Department of Justice with banks largely responsible for the national foreclosure crisis:

"Across the country, Americans are outraged and taking to the streets to demand accountability from the big Wall Street banks whose reckless actions cost millions of families their homes and wreaked havoc on the American middle class.

We applaud President Obama and the Justice Department for this effort to hold these banks accountable. However, a $25 billion settlement pales in comparison to the trillions of dollars in lost home equity, retirement savings and exploding public debt caused by these institutions.

We stand in support of the numerous Attorneys General that have demanded a better deal for homeowners in their states, from New York to California.

Instead of immunity for Wall Street banks, let's stand with the American people and demand a fair deal for homeowners."

read more

BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

As has been now widely reported in the national and local media, after a peaceful march on Wednesday, November 2nd that shut down the Port of Oakland, a relatively small band of people occupied an abandoned building in downtown Oakland, broke windows around the downtown area, and spray-painted slogans during the early Thursday morning hours - defacing many small downtown businesses, including businesses that had been supportive of the goals of Occupy Oakland.

Every nascent movement has its fair share of mischief-makers. Sometimes police provocateurs lurk in a crowd waiting for an opportunity to disrupt a demonstration. Sometimes there are those who see no other way forward but by instigating violence; some call it heightening the contradictions.

The November 2nd General Strike shut down several city banks, garnered support from a number of other businesses and blocked the night shift at the Port of Oakland the fifth busiest port in the U.S. Some 7 to 10,000 peaceful protesters (including yours truly) - from all walks of life - participated in these marches and rallies.  Labor was broadly represented.

Many who participated were undoubtedly new to political action. Tired but euphoric, Occupy campers and thousands of protesters returned to their tent city and homes believing that the General Strike -- the first in Oakland since 1946, succeeded in its mission.

Demonstrators in several cities around the country, including Philadelphia and New York, held solidarity rallies with Occupy Oakland. The early reporting in the mainstream press and on local television lauded the protesters for their numbers, their diversity and their non-violence.

It had been a good day for Occupy Oakland and the Occupy movement in general.

And then a small band of protesters sprang into action. The mayhem that ensued was unfortunate, counter-productive and stole the day.

An abandoned building in downtown was occupied, many storefront windows were shattered - including those of businesses that had supported the strike, fences were ripped down, graffiti sprayed, and the police predictably attacked. This time, unlike the police riot in late October - when the police used tear gas and rubber bullets, during which Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen was hospitalized with a critical skull fracture after he was hit with a projectile -- which brought national attention to Occupy Oakland, and support from all across the country, police use of tear gas and "flash bang" grenades action would not garner sympathy from folks across the country.

Instead of headlines about the huge crowd, its' diversity and peacefulness, the headlines on Thursday morning read: "Occupy Oakland Protesters Tear Gassed by Police" (ABC News); "Riot police fire projectiles, arrest dozens of Occupy Oakland protesters" (Los Angeles Times); "Occupy strike descends into chaos" (San Francisco Chronicle); "Peaceful Occupy protests degenerate into chaos" (AP). The Oakland Tribune, the local daily newspaper, headlined its story "Occupy Oakland, city regroup after night of confrontation."

Movement building is both an art and science, and its ebb and flow can be shaped by unforeseen events. In the case of Occupy Oakland, it was the confluence of the initiative of a few dozen protesters, a city of political activists, a righteous cause "We are the 99%," and a police riot that ultimately brought thousands to downtown Oakland.

Savvy organizers were able to mobilize quickly and effectively. The movement broadened from dozens in tents camped out at Frank Ogawa Plaza (renamed by the protesters Oscar Grant Plaza after the young unarmed man killed by BART police) to thousands. Teachers, public employees, office workers, the unemployed, students, seniors, and Mothers with children in strollers joined the activists that initiated Occupy Oakland. In terms of age, ethnicity and race it was a very diverse crowd.

Growing a movement often depends on how it is perceived. If it is dynamic, creative and achieves some of its goals, more people will join. Even small victories will bring more people and more energy to the movement.

Randy Gould, the Kansas City, Missouri-based editor of Scission (formerly The Oread Daily), who has been involved with his local Occupy movement and closely following national developments, offered this perspective:

"Most every Occupy Site in the country has people arguing about this today. Many opinions are being expressed. Keep in mind that the whole Occupy Movement is one big populist shindig.  It may vary from place to place, but the 'Occupations' are full of people from all over the political spectrum.

read more

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

The right-wing American Family Association (AFA) victimizes women twice when it comes to the violence and profound emotional trauma of being raped.

The AFA is vigorously supporting voter approval next week of a Mississippi State constitutional amendment to recognize fertilized eggs as "persons," thus making abortion - and even certain birth control methods - an act of murder.

In an AFA email for their online newsletter, OneNewsNow.com, there is a link for a story exclaiming: "Rape no excuse for abortion." Clicking on the story, one meets Ashley Sigrest of Brandon, Mississippi, who was raped and had an abortion, which she now regrets, 13 years ago. Sigrest held a news conference, at which she stated, according to the AFA:

"My rape was nothing compared to what I did to my child," she stated to the gallery. "What my rapist did to me does not compare to what I chose to do to my baby ... out of shame, out of guilt, out of fear because of what a man did to me. Rape is no excuse for abortion...."

As for the rapist, Sigrest says she prays for him every day. And when asked how she will vote on the amendment next Tuesday? "I am going to vote yes - very proudly and very loudly - on 26 [the number of the ballot initiative]."

It is important to remember that allowing a women - the victim of rape, incest, or otherwise - to have an abortion did not in any way prevent Sigrest from having borne the child that was conceived as the result of a heinous crime. That was and is her choice right now in the State of Mississippi and throughout the United States.

But the Mississippi constitutional amendment would forbid victims of rape who do not want to bear a rapist's child from aborting the violently forced pregnancy.

According to the Feminist Majority Foundation:

"The implications are staggering. By giving constitutional rights to a fertilized egg, the amendment could ban emergency contraception, birth control pills and IUDs as well as all abortions, even in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman or girl. It could eliminate medical choices for women, such as some cancer treatments or in vitro fertilization. It could allow the state to investigate and even prosecute a woman for a miscarriage. Undoubtedly it would lead to many court cases."

The amendment is so egregious that even the conservative, heavily anti-abortion Gov. of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, is expressing his "concerns" about the implications of the initiative.

Legalizing "personhood and constitutional rights for a fertilized egg" is taking away those rights from women.

No one forced Sigrest to have an abortion. It was her own personal choice, as it should be.

****

If you'd like to receive these commentaries daily from Truthout/BuzzFlash, click here. You'll get our choice headlines and articles too. 

read more

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

BuzzFlash at Truthout was hacked this morning by those who can't stand the truth.

We removed the locked "survey screen" that was maliciously inserted by an outside party that obviously wishes to drive readership away from the site.  BuzzFlash at Truthout has been a vigilant, irreverent watchdog for more than 11 years. The truth will not be stopped.

These type of attacks -- although varying in form -- have also been launched on Truthout, our parent site, in the past year.  It is clear that there are Americans and agendas simply too threatened by fearless sites and bold reporting and commentary.

BuzzFlash and Truthout do not accept any corporate advertising -- in fact, any advertising -- and that is a threat to many, because we can't be bought.

BuzzFlash and Truthout may be hacked again, but we will forge ahead with our mission of getting you the news and opinion that discloses the truth and energizes change.

You can help us overcome those who would prefer darkness to light by encouraging others to read BuzzFlash and Truthout. Sign up for our newsletter at the upper right hand corner of Truthout.org, follow BuzzFlash and Truthout on Facebook, or make a tax-free contribution by going to our donation page.

Trust us. In the end, no hackers will hack away at the truth, however they might try.

Your energized readership and support makes sure of that.

read more

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Some Iraq/Afghanistan veterans finally are fighting in a war worth winning: the battle for America's 99 percent.

On Wednesday, in a dramatic display of support for the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, veterans of America's recent wars for oil marched and spoke in support of OWS. They were not the first veterans to back economic democracy at home, in this case with a military precision march through southern Manhattan. Indeed, many of them participated in yesterday's show of support for OWS in honor of Scott Olsen. Olsen is still recovering from a traumatic head injury sustained in last Tuesday's Oakland Police Department assault on Occupy Oakland.

A few weeks ago, a video clip went viral of an Iraq war veteran, in uniform, berating New York Police Department (NYPD) members for their continued attacks on OWS protesters. It was a remarkably dramatic moment, with one former marine facing off against a phalanx of NYPD officers. "Why are you hurting these [unarmed] people?" the former marine exclaimed, "There is no honor in this."

It is speculative, but undoubtedly true, that few of the top 1 percent or their offspring serve as the cannon fodder in our wars for oil, natural resources and geo-positioning for corporate markets. Just look at Mitt Romney's five sons. Not a one of them entered the military.

To see veterans participate in the now-famous human microphone (to avoid the NYPD arresting them for using a megaphone) is to be stirred to a renewed sense of patriotism. To hear them declare that "this is the only occupation [OWS] that I believe in" is to receive a chill down the spine.

As a nation, we sent these volunteer soldiers - many of whom joined the military because they couldn't find jobs elsewhere and came home to unemployment - to fight in wars to largely benefit the interests and finances of the top 1 percent.

The "Masters of the Universe" on Wall Street and the political status quo in DC cannot easily dismiss them.

****

If you'd like to receive these commentaries daily from Truthout/BuzzFlash, click here. You'll get our choice headlines and articles too. ...

read more