Houston : Rape Victims Dunned for Hospital Costs

Posted on May 9, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Rape victim. Photo from The Sun, U.K.

The price of justice? Sounds more like the cost of doing bidness. Since when does one get billed for being a victim of a violent crime?

Harry Edwards / The Rag Blog

May 8, 2009

‘I’m the victim, and yet here I am. I’m asked to pay this bill and my credit’s going to get hurt,’ said a single mom from Houston.

HOUSTON — Victims of sexual assault are getting bills, rejection letters and pushy calls from bill collectors while a state crime victims’ fund sits full of cash, Local 2 Investigates reported Thursday.

“I’m the victim, and yet here I am. I’m asked to pay this bill and my credit’s going to get hurt,” said a single mom from Houston.

She received bills marked, “delinquent,” after she visited a hospital where police told her to have evidence gathered. Officers assured her she would not pay a dime for that rape kit to be handled.

“That was unreal,” she said. “I never thought I’d be out anything for what I went through.”

She was 44 years old when she was attacked in her own bed. She said she awoke to find a burly 15-year-old friend of her son assaulting her. He was found delinquent, meaning he was convicted, in juvenile court, thanks in part to the evidence gathered with the rape kit.

“It is set up legislatively so that the criminal justice system pays for whatever evidence collection occurs,” said Kelly Young, with the Houston Area Women’s Center, a rape crisis facility.

Police departments are reimbursed for up to $700 by the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund, but many departments cover the bills if they exceed that.

After that happens, victims can apply for other costs associated with the rape kit hospital visits to be covered by the fund.

The Houston Police Department made one payment toward the single mother’s hospital bill, but when she submitted the $1,847 worth of remaining bills to the Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund, she received a denial letter, telling her that law enforcement should have paid.

“She’s getting the run-around,” said Young at the rape crisis center, which was not involved in her case.

“There may be lots of survivors who have this happen and we don’t know because they don’t know that they shouldn’t be getting the bills,” she said.

“A lot of people aren’t going to ask. They’re just going to go ahead and pay it and move forward with their lives. They don’t want to keep re-living that experience,” said Young.

Texas State Comptroller’s office figures show the fund has tens of millions of dollars left over at the end of each year.

In September 2006, the balance was $67,058,646 and one year later, the balance was $57,669,432.

In 2008, that figure was up again to $66,572,261 that was left unspent in the fund.

Attorney General’s spokesman Jerry Strickland said the crime victim fund is enforcing strict guidelines imposed by the legislature as to which bills are paid and which victims are sent a denial notice.

Otherwise, he said that fund could become “insolvent.”

He said state law is clear that crime victims must exhaust all other potential funding sources, such as local police or their own health insurance.

“The legislature set it up that way,” said Strickland.

When asked for a number of how many denial letters had been sent out to Texas rape victims in the past, Strickland did not have an answer after checking with his crime victims’ compensation office workers.

He said the attorney general’s office constantly trains hospitals and health care providers on how to help victims in getting reimbursed for their expenses.

Health care workers and rape crisis counselors told Local 2 Investigates that victims have come forward with denial letters for varying reasons, such as police listing the case as inactive, paperwork being filed incorrectly, or expenses falling into the wrong category.

Young, the advocate at Houston Area Women’s Center said, “They’re not dotting the Is and crossing the Ts to make sure that the person who was victimized does not have to re-live it six months later because they get a bill.”

When Local 2 Investigates contacted the hospital where the single mother had her rape kit performed, hospital leaders quickly canceled her bill when they found out the state would not be paying the charges She now owes nothing.

She said she’s amazed it happened to begin with, adding, “I don’t look very kindly to them. I mean, I would expect that they would have had a little more feeling for me and they didn’t.”

Source / KPRC-TV / The Political Asylum

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Roger Baker : The Zombie Bank Syndrome

Posted on May 8, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Zombie banker. Image from Mother Jones.

Dead Banks Walking. . .

Except for the bankers and the Obama administration, the prevailing reaction of many prominent economists is not one of optimism.

By Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / May 8, 2009

The latest news headlines say that as the result of federal stress testing, some of the biggest US banks are likely to fail if hard times continue. The numbers proposed to correct the bank problem don’t seem too large. Except for the bankers and the Obama administration, the prevailing reaction of many prominent economists is not one of optimism. For one, the widely read Paul Krugman is not too hopeful about the current situation:

“. . .I won’t weigh in on the debate over the quality of the stress tests themselves, except to repeat what many observers have noted: the regulators didn’t have the resources to make a really careful assessment of the banks’ assets, and in any case they allowed the banks to bargain over what the results would say.

A rigorous audit it wasn’t. But focusing on the process can distract from the larger picture. What we’re really seeing here is a decision on the part of President Obama and his officials to muddle through the financial crisis, hoping that the banks can earn their way back to health.

It’s a strategy that might work. After all, right now the banks are lending at high interest rates, while paying virtually no interest on their (government-insured) deposits. Given enough time, the banks could be flush again.

But it’s important to see the strategy for what it is and to understand the risks. Remember, it was the markets, not the government, that in effect declared the banks under-capitalized… given the possibility of bigger losses in the future, the government’s evident unwillingness either to own banks or let them fail creates a heads-they-win-tails-we-lose situation.

If all goes well, the bankers will win big. If the current strategy fails, taxpayers will be forced to pay for another bailout. But what worries me most about the way policy is going isn’t any of these things. It’s my sense that the prospects for fundamental financial reform are fading…”

So how big is the bad debt problem? The federal stress test predicts that the Bank of America will only need about $35 billion to survive the crisis. Yet it has securities in its portfolio worth a staggering $38 trillion, or more than a thousand times as much! In other words, Timothy Geithner’s proposed solution is not anywhere near in scale with the probable debt problem, and it may need a miracle to succeed

”…According to author F. William Engdahl:

Five US banks, according to data in the just-released Federal Office of Comptroller of the Currency’s Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activity, hold 96 per cent of all US Bank derivatives positions in terms of nominal values, and an eye-popping 81 per cent of the total net credit risk exposure in event of default.

“The top three are, in declining order of importance: JPMorgan Chase, which holds a staggering $88 trillion in derivatives; Bank of America with $38 trillion, and Citibank with $32 trillion. Number four in the derivatives sweepstakes is Goldman Sachs, with a mere $30 trillion in derivatives; number five, the merged Wells Fargo-Wachovia Bank, drops dramatically in size to $5 trillion. Number six, Britain’s HSBC Bank USA, has $3.7 trillion.

(Geithner’s Dirty Little Secret, F. William Engdahl, Asia Times)…”

The banks that are too big to fail, yet are drowning in red ink, are being termed “zombie banks.” These banks are being kept on life support through emergency federal cash injections on a case by case basis. Some economists, like the recently successful Wall Street prophet Roubini, say we should just let the zombies fail:

“The U.S. government should let its weakest banks fail, argues economist Nouriel Roubini, whose pessimistic forecasts have earned him the moniker Dr. Doom. Roubini and fellow New York University economist Matthew Richardson, writing in the Financial Times, ask the question: ‘Why keep insolvent banks afloat?’ Their answer: ‘We believe there is no convincing answer; we should instead find ways to manage the systemic risk of bank failures.’ The bank stress tests ‘could have facilitated this process,’ the duo explain. The problem is, ‘the tests, which measure how viable banks are under adverse economic conditions, have no “failed” category, even if as many as 10 are reported to need additional capital,’ they write…”

One genuinely progressive solution to the zombie bank syndrome might be to create a parallel system of closely regulated and guaranteed-to-be-solvent federal banks. A sort of people’s banking system to underwrite the vital functions of government. There are some very bright economists who support this concept of a parallel public banking system; a sort of a banking safety net to shield the “personal sector.”

Levy Economics Institute economist Elias Karakitsos has collected some basic numbers relating to the zombie bank problem, and supports a parallel bank solution. In effect, the proposed solution is to set up healthy banks and then let the air out of the over-leveraged banking bubble gradually, since a cold turkey approach might crash the US financial system. See page 5, entitled “A ‘Good Bank’ with a Personal Sector Shield: A Viable Solution.”

“The conclusion that emerges from this analysis, therefore, is that the ‘good bank’ solution carries a risk that the entire economy may sink into a worse depression than in the 1930s.”

Our current federal policy of bailing out Detroit might possibly fit the description of what a wise and sound public bank should be doing, assuming that we really have a plan to make a transition to sensibly restructure the car industry. There are many important social needs that are not profitable enough to attract the shell-shocked private investment bankers. Things like retooling for rail transit, preserving our basic industrial muscle, while preparing to decentralize agriculture. Such strategic investments that make good sense in preparation for a leaner energy future. But we are not making this shift, as Jim Kunstler acidly observes.

Many economists long to see the Obama’s Administration make a commitment to a deep reform of the banking system; one sufficient to cure the problem and prevent its recurrence. A lot of the current job creation by the Obama administration is disappointing in character, and does not seem to be based on an inspiring vision.

Assuming that we do somehow manage to make a transition to a healthier banking system, we should also take the next oil shock into account. We cannot ignore the key role that high oil prices played in triggering the current economic and banking crisis in 2008. Since world oil production has probably already peaked, a return to a tight oil market and another debilitating oil shock seems all but certain within a few years. If the dollar is devalued by inflation, the problem of buying imported oil will be compounded:

Meanwhile, some like Mr. Goldman, below, argue that we are too pain-adverse to exorcise our banking demons, through nationalization and major economic cleansing. And furthermore, that trying to do so would not be likely to work. So we prop up our zombie banks with as much federal credit as is needed to prevent their collapse and stall for time. The guys in charge of the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve seem decidedly short on solutions, other than providing enough easy federal credit to keep the zombies alive. This might work for awhile, but at some point the currently sluggish dollars we are injecting will start actively bidding for oil and food, whereupon hyperinflation could make things get truly exciting.

The following is from “Profit-Taking Opportunity for Banks” by David Goldman:

“…Nationalization never-never-never was going to happen because if it did, the rest of the financial system (e.g., insurers) would go with it, and shortly afterward the credit of the United States. This should have been obvious to anyone with an abacus, let alone a spreadsheet program.

The clowns in the Obama administration lurched drunkenly from one stupid scheme to another, confusing the market no end, until they settled on the only thing that they could do: let the banking system remain in a zombie state indefinitely. Zombie, as I kept telling you, was as good as it gets. I said this in mid-March at the bottom of the market. This was an easy call. It like watching a very stupid lab rat run a maze. The rat might double back or spin circles, but eventually it would find the exit by trial and error. So much for the great genius of Larry Summers.”

I think Goldman is right. Whenever the big banks go down, then the dollar will likely get dragged down too, and discredited as the world’s standard reserve currency. With no stable way to store wealth except gold, international trade, already suffering, is likely to get really tough.

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Health Care and Senator Baucus : Channeling Emile Zola

Posted on May 8, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Psychiatrist Dr. Carol Paris is arrested for disorderly conduct outside of a U.S. Senate office building Tuesday, May 5, for speaking out at Sen. Max Baucus’ Congressional hearings on health care reform. Photo from South Maryland News.

Dr. Carol A. Paris [a psychiatrist], spent Tuesday in jail — all in the name of health care reform.

“I interrupt this so-called public hearing to bring you the following unpaid, political announcement: Put single-payer on the table. My name is Dr. Carol Paris, and I approve this message,” Paris said as she was taken out of a congressional public hearing by police for disorderly conduct, as several other protesters with Paris who are part of Physicians for a National Health Program also shouted similar messages.

Kayleigh Kulp / South Maryland News / May 8, 2009

‘I have seen many blatant excesses of power and suppression of free speech in our “land of the free,” but never have I seen anything like the excesses that Sen. Max Baucus has exhibited in his hearings on health care in the Senate of The United States.’

By Dr. Stephen R. Keister / The Rag Blog / May 8, 2009

J’accuse.

It was in 1895 that Emil Zola challenged the openness and truthfulness of The Third Republic. It would appear that it is time for a voice to be raised against the corporatocracy that now rules our Republic and permeates every level of our government institutions.

In the near 88 years that I have been a citizen of this nation I have seen many blatant excesses of power and suppression of free speech in our “land of the free,” but never have I seen anything like the excesses that Sen. Max Baucus has exhibited in his hearings on health care in the Senate of The United States. These farcical hearings are but a theatrical performance to satisfy the uninformed public.

Thus, I would accuse Senator Baucus of being a willing tool of his corporate masters, those who make such excessive contributions to his campaigns — the insurance (HMO), pharmaceutical, and medical equipment industries. I would further aver that — in conducting these hearings in such a fashion — he is doing exactly what his donors expect of him, with no consideration of his duty to, or the rights of, the citizens of the United States. It should be pointed out that only Sen. John McCain receives similar amounts of money, openly, from these sources.

Approximately 70% of the public desires single payer, universal health care, or as an interim solution, President Obama plan of “Medicare for all.” This is echoed by polls of physicians with near 60% approval. Yet, Senator Baucus convenes Senate hearings excluding the various advocates of universal, or publicly insured, health care as proposed by Physicians For A National Health Care Program, Healthcare Now, Single Payer Action, Doctors For America, and with endorsements from hundreds of labor, civic, and religious organizations — and includes only his corporate handlers in the discussion: the health insurance industry, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, AARP, the national Chamber of Commerce, the American Enterprise Institute.

Not only does Senator Baucus deny representation to the single payer advocates, but when they appear at his hearings, uninvited, he not only refuses them the right to speak but he has them handcuffed and taken to jail. Is this my country, the nation where we are guaranteed freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, or has it morphed into a nation run without rights for its citizen, with the population answerable only to the corporations that bribe our elected representatives?

On Monday night, an emergency health care briefing was held with Dr. Howard Dean. More than 20,000 persons signed up for it — the biggest conference call ever. Dr. Dean made a key point during the briefing: “If there is no public insurance option — then this is not health reform at all.” To date I have heard no discussion of the bill for universal health care introduced into the Senate by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Of course some of the Obama handlers have marginalized Dr. Dean, a uniquely honest politician.

Sadly, the main stream media has assiduously avoided the now contentious discussion on health care. Even our “liberal” commentators on MSNBC from 5-9 P.M. have pretended that there is no such debate going on in the nation or within the Washington establishment. Step back a moment and think. The newspaper industry is in the financial pits; the TV industry has all but lost automobile advertising; hence, two crippled “news” sources are greatly dependent on advertising revenues from the pharmaceutical, insurance, hospital and medical supply industries. Are we going to get any fair, in depth, discussion of health care for all Americans from our normal media. If you want to find the truth go to the internet.

We were hopeful that the Democrats would bring change; however, it has become only too apparent that many of our legislators on that side of the isle are also bought and paid for by the corporations. To see for yourselves go to . If not, why are there not more co-sponsors for Rep. John Conyers’ health care bill in the House or Senator Sander’s bill in the Senate. Further, to see where many of our “peoples’ representatives’” hearts lie, look at the lukewarm reception that President Obama’s suggestions for closing corporate tax loopholes and shipping jobs overseas received. The Republicans of course merely say “no” and the Democrats equivocate.

It is also interesting that the Republicans who mouth desire for better health care, when asked for a solution, once again respond with their ongoing mantra regarding tort reform. “The high cost of health care is due to the trial lawyers and the malpractice hazard.” In reality legal problems amount to less than 1% of healthcare costs. Enough said, we know already that the Republicans, by and large, are corporate toadies and will offer no reasonable plan. It is the Democrats, who appeared to back the Obama call for change, that are the disappointment; although anyone with a keen sense of history and of human nature is familiar with baksheesh and its behavioral effect.

The “flu crises” creates other problems about our health care in this nation of unchallenged capitalism. The New York Times recently in an editorial reminds us that The President, as a reasonable public health measure,suggested that those with flu symptoms stay home from work. Problem: about 60 million workers do not have paid sick leave, Many will be fired if they stay home. And if not fired, many cannot afford to lose the hours. 43% of Americans have no sick days at all. Yet, as The Times indicates. 160 countries have laws that ensure all their citizens receive paid sick leave, and more than 110 guarantee paid leave from the first day of the illness. Perhaps, Senator Baucus, you should incorporate some of these stipulations in your health care discussion. Forget it, your handlers would never permit such government intrusion into their culture just as they will fight to the death against The Employees Free Choice Act.

I would suggest that — in spite of Senator Baucus and his corporate handlers — the American people must be heard. In many European nations the heavy fisted suppression of free speech in the Baucus hearings would have produced a virtual general strike with swarms of folks taking to the streets. In our “free” nation such activity is looked on harshly and we shouldn’t be surprised at the heavy-handed police response; hence, proceed slowly. I note that demonstrations are planned for a Day of Action on May 30 in support of Hr 676 and S 703. (Information at Healthcare-Now) We must try, but we must not expect any comfort from the powers that be.

You might ask, does this old duffer have the right to criticize a U.S. senator in this manner?. Perhaps I do not; however, my forbearers were at the Battle of Bushy Run in the French and Indian War, they were active in the events of 1776 and 1861, and a cousin of my grandmother made the well known statement (in my opinion a bit overblown) “Lafayette We are Here.” Thus, though I am no Zola, humor me, as I once again ask this nation to revisit the intentions of Franklin, Paine, Jefferson, Madison, et al. The United States was founded as a secular nation designed to represent the interests of its citizens, not the interests of the folks who become extremely wealthy off the labor of others, and still deny them the opportunities for health care and a decent everyday life. One notes that the average American CEO makes 400 times more per day than the average worker, while in Europe the average is merely 20 times more. An excellent article on this appears in the Magazine Section of the May 3, 2009, New York Times entitled “Going Dutch.”

NOTE: Shortly after I finished this article The Ed Show on MSNBC gave an excellent account of the denial of civil rights before the Baucus committee and also publicized the amount of money that the Senator receives from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Our thanks and gratitude to Ed!

[Dr. Stephen R. Keister, a regular contributor to The Rag Blog, lives in Erie, PA. He is a retired physician who is active in health care reform. His previous articles on The Rag Blog can be found here.]

Doctors protest exclusion of single-payer at Senate Finance Committee

Please see Doctors, Single Payer Activists Arrested, Make History at Senate Finance Roundtable by Donna Smith / Monthly Review / May 5, 2009

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Fidel: ‘Cuba Has Been the Victim of Terrorism for Many Years’

Posted on May 8, 2009 by RagBlog


Reflections by Comrade Fidel – Cuba: A Terrorist Country?
By Fidel Castro Ruz / May 2, 2009

“Cuba has been the victim of terrorism for many years and it has a completely clean record in this matter. Cuban territory has never been used to organize, fund or execute terrorist acts against the United States of America. The State Department which issues those reports cannot say the same.”

Thursday, April 30 was unlucky for the United States. On that day it occurred to them to include Cuba yet again on the list of terrorist countries. Committed as they are to their own crimes and lies, perhaps even Obama himself was unable to untangle himself from that mess. A man whose talent nobody denies must feel ashamed about the empire’s cult of lie. Fifty years of terrorism against our Homeland come to light in an instant.

What can one explain to those who know about the horrific event of a plane blown up in mid flight, with its passengers and crew, about the participation of the United States in the events, the recruiting of Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles, and the supplying of explosives, funds and the complicity of the intelligence agencies and the authorities of that country? How can one explain the campaign of terror that preceded and followed the mercenary invasion of the Bay of Pigs, the attacks on our coasts, towns, transport and fishing vessels, the terrorist actions inside and outside of the United States? How can one explain the hundreds of frustrated assassination plots on the lives of Cuban leaders? What can one say about the introduction of viruses such as hemorrhagic dengue and swine fever that genetically had never even existed in the hemisphere? I am merely mentioning some of the acts of terror in which the United States has played a part, the ones recorded in their own declassified documents. Don’t these events embarrass the current administration?

I could put together an endless list of abhorrent activities.

At our request, Bruno Rodríguez, Minister of Foreign Affairs, sent me the exact words used by a France-Presse reporter to ask him a question on April 30, along with his compelling answer.

Rigoberto Díaz, of AFP: “Coinciding with the final moments of this meeting and also on a subject that has been dealt with during this event, the US government has once more included Cuba on the list of countries sponsors of terrorism along with Sudan, Iran and Syria. I would like to hear your opinion on this.”

Bruno’s reply:

“We do not recognize any political or moral authority to the US government to make any list on any subject, or to “certify” good or bad behavior.

The Bush government was “certified” by world public opinion as a government violating international law; as being aggressive and war-mongering; as a government that tortures and that is responsible for extrajudicial executions.

“Bush has been the only president who has boasted in public, in the US Congress, about having carried out extrajudicial executions. That is a government which kidnapped people and transported them illegally, created secret prisons that nobody knows whether they are still in existence, and a concentration camp where torturing is going on in the part of territory usurped from the Republic of Cuba.

“In the matter of terrorism, the US government has historically held a long record of State terrorism acts, not only against Cuba.

“In the US, Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles are free to come and go; these two who are responsible for numerous terrorist acts including the blowing up of a civilian Cuban plane in mid-flight. There is no answer to Venezuela’s official request for the extradition of Posada Carriles who is being tried for various charges, but not as a notorious international terrorist.

“The US government held a travesty of a trial against the five young Cuban anti-terrorist activists who are today being held as political prisoners in its jails.

“The US government covers up acts of State terrorism committed by Israel against the Palestinian people and the Arab peoples. And, it kept silent before the crimes taking place in the Gaza Strip.

“Therefore one shouldn’t recognize that the United States has any moral authority whatsoever, and I, frankly, believe that nobody pays any attention or reads those documents, among other things, because the author is an international outlaw in many of the matters which it criticizes.

“Cuba’s position against all manifestations and forms of terrorism, wherever they may be committed, against any state that may be affected, in any form it may be carried out, for whatever purpose, is clear and consistent with its actions.

“Cuba has been the victim of terrorism for many years and it has a completely clean record in this matter. Cuban territory has never been used to organize, fund or execute terrorist acts against the United States of America. The State Department which issues those reports cannot say the same.”

This declaration, issued at the ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Countries, is not yet widely known by the population which in these days has been receiving plenty of news of all kinds. If the State Department wishes to discuss this with Bruno, there is sufficient information to bury it in its own lies.

Source / Kingston Chronicle

Thanks to Jeffrey Segal / The Rag Blog

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Dick J. Reavis : The Narco Republic of Texas

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Cool beard, chief. David Gouverneur Burnet was the first president of the original Republic of Texas. The Rag Blog’s Reavis has some ambitions of his own. Photo from Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

If Texas were an independent nation, [Perry] could let the narco globalists set up headquarters in Highland Park, near a busy airport. After all, if Houston can host Enron and KBR, what harm is done if Dallas attracts cartels?

By Dick J. Reavis / The Rag Blog / May 7, 2009

When Rick Perry used the word “sovereignty” in a speech at a tea-bagger demonstration, some of his followers chanted “secede!” They gave pundits, far and wide, a chance to mock, deplore and accuse Texans again. Perry and his crew played both roles that are incumbent on Texas in the national media: as clowns and villains. Most columnists called them “crazy,” and at least one said the very idea was “treasonous.”

Of course, Perry and his party had guffaws coming — but for other reasons. One has to sympathize with anybody who wants to break from the Empire, however impractical the idea may seem.

I have always aspired to be the first governor of the Socialist Military Republic of Texas, an ambition that Perry is too clueless to entertain. Blessings would accrue to Texans if, under my leadership, we were to break away. A few of them are:

1. Texans would no longer have to participate in costly conquests. As a small nation, we could not make war on other governments, and the loss of the cannon fodder and bases we provide the United States would hobble its undying ambition to rule the world badly.

2. An independent Texas could make up with its mother, Mexico. Were I in charge, I’d order the dismantling of the walls along the Rio Grande and have them rebuilt along the Red and Sabine.

3. In order to establish economic and cultural equality, I’d resurrect the slogan “Made in Texas, By Texans,” and would institute policies of preferential hiring for Texans in universities, the media, and national government. If Texas has a culture, it shouldn’t, as at present, be largely in alien hands.

I don’t say any of this entirely in jest. Instead, I proceed from common sense, which holds that Nothing is Forever. If that adage is true, the United States is not eternal. Like the Soviet Union, like Yugoslavia, like the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman and British empires, it will someday dissolve into its constituent parts.

The only problem I see with the Republic of Reavis (my apologies to Plato) is that it requires the inclusion of the term “Military.” That’s because I know my people. I can’t imagine that anyone in Texas would endorse my ideas, except maybe in the wake of a revolution or coup.

But Perry doesn’t have the socialist handicap. If he’d been smart, he could have attracted potent forces to the cause of independence. His mistake was that he shouldn’t have said “sovereignty.” Instead the governor should have said, “cartel.” The boys who run the Zetas and the Gulf, Sinaloa and Juárez outfits could give him some muscle if he wants to stand off the feds. Of course, he’d have to do a favor for them. If Texas were an independent nation, he could let the narco globalists set up headquarters in Highland Park, near a busy airport. After all, if Houston can host Enron and KBR, what harm is done if Dallas attracts cartels? Murder and fraud are old-line, respectable business in the Lone Star State.

The only consequence I can see for Perry is that if the narcos moved into Highland Park, his mentor George Bush would have to flee, because Bush brought a passel of Mexican narco executives to trial and imprisonment in the United States.

The Narco-Military Republic of Texas! It couldn’t hold a candle to the glories of my Military Republic, but maybe the idea deserves second place.

[Rag Blog contributor Dick J. Reavis is an award-winning journalist, educator and author. He wrote for Austin’s underground newspaper The Rag, and was a senior editor at Texas Monthly magazine. Dick Reavis’ book, The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation, about the siege and burning of the Branch Davidian compound, was published by Simon and Schuster and may be the definitive work on the subject.]

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Schwarzenegger : Let’s Talk About Legalizing Pot

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California says it’s time to talk about legalizing pot. Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images.

‘This is only going to increase the governor’s popularity,’ Aaron Smith of the Marijuana Policy Project said. ‘We have solid polling data showing that a majority of Californians are ready for this.’

By Declan McCullagh / May 6, 2009

In the last week or two, proposals to legalize medical marijuana have advanced in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken a significant step further, saying on Tuesday that it’s time to debate legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California.

“I think it’s time for debate,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “I think all of those ideas of creating extra revenues — I’m always for an open debate on it.”

Thanks to a 1996 ballot measure, medical marijuana is already legal under California law, though local officials have substantial discretion. Although that conflicts with federal law, the Obama administration has chosen not to target California medical marijuana dispensaries.

“Most Californians support the idea of making marijuana legal,” Aaron Smith, the California policy director for the Marijuana Policy Project, told CBSNews.com. “Right now, the state is in a budget fiasco that not going to go away soon… It’s about time they look outside the box at ways of generating revenue.”

State legislator Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco Democrat,
introduced a bill in February to legalize recreational marijuana. Bill AB 390 would license “commercial cultivators of marijuana” and establish a complicated web of regulations and tax rules they and retailers must follow.

It could raise over $1.2 billion a year in new tax revenues, assuming a $50-an-ounce tax, according to one analysis one analysis.

“This is only going to increase the governor’s popularity,” Smith said. “We have solid polling data showing that a majority of Californians are ready for this. It’s a good political move, though I don’t think he necessarily did it for those reasons alone.”

A Field poll (PDF) released on April 30th found that 56 percent of the state’s registered voters support legalizing marijuana and taxing its proceeds.

[CBSNews.com’s Charles Cooper contributed to this report.]

Source / Political Hotsheet / CBS News

Governor Says ‘It’s Time For Debate’ On Pot

Also see New Poll: 52% Say Marijuana Should Be Legal, Taxed, Regulated / Salem News-com / May 6, 2009

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GI Victor Agosto : ‘There is No Way I Will Deploy to Afghanistan’

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Victor Agosto with fan club at opening of Under the Hood Cafe in Kileen, Texas, on March 1, 2009. Photo by Carlos Lowry / The Rag Blog.

To Victor Agosto, Ft. Hood, Texas:

‘You will deploy in support of OEF on or about [XXXXX] with 57th ESB. This is a direct order from your Company Commander CPT Michael J. Pederson.’

By Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / May 7 / 2009

In a photo taken at Under the Hood Café in Killeen, Texas, Victor Agosto stands soldier tall, flanked by two older women peace activists from Fort Worth. Victor doesn’t talk a lot, but when he does he reveals a resolve and intelligence that seems far older than his 23 years.

Victor has served three years and nine months in the U.S. Army, including one tour in Iraq. His Estimated Termination of Service (ETS) date was until very recently August 3, 2009. With his impeccable record and accrued leave, he was slated for release at the end of June. That date slipped away, apparent victim to the Stop Loss clause that renders the phrase “voluntary service” meaningless. The Army has told Specialist (SPC) Victor Agosto that he will be deployed to Afghanistan. He has told the Army he won’t go.

Victor’s Facebook page posts the specifics. His Counseling Form dated May 1st states the Army’s position:

“You will deploy in support of OEF on or about [XXXXX] with 57th ESB. This is a direct order from your Company Commander CPT Michael J. Pederson.”

Victor’s Session Closing statement is succinct:

“There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect.”

Victor has been something of a fixture at Under the Hood. In the small house turned gathering spot, a free speech zone has been created for GIs, military families and friends. Coffee, snacks and GI Rights literature is available.

A large world map featuring U.S. interventions takes up one wall. The first interventions posted were Iraq and Afghanistan. Gradually, more countries and dates have been added: Chile, 1973, the CIA-backed military coup; Guatemala, 1954, the Marine invasion; Iran, 1953, the CIA-backed overthrow of the democratic government.

Under the Hood is a place where GIs can talk, relax, and think. It is the thinking that has brought Victor to his decision. In his words, “The supportive ‘family’ that I have found at Under the Hood helped me muster up the courage to resist.”

[Under the Hood Café is a project of the Fort Hood Support Network. Donations can be made at underthehoodcafe.org.: Rag Blog contributor Alice Embree is a founder of Austin’s original underground paper The Rag and serves on the Board of the Fort Hood Support Network.]

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Nice is Not Enough : Obama and the Israeli Political Mess

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Is Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman (with lifted glass) even embarassing his boss, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu? Photo from acus.org.

Obama vs. Netanyahu and Lieberman

Obama, as shrewd a gentleman as he is supposed to be, is in no way prepared to handle the weird mix of arrogance and insult originating from Netanyahu and Lieberman and flooding the Israeli media.

By Reuven Kaminer / May 6, 2009

Universally respected, even loved in many quarters, and still the embodiment of hope for many of the simple folk and the downtrodden, Barack Obama is not doing very well with the new government of Israel. Obama sounds well intentioned when he talks of peace in the area. But Obama, as shrewd a gentleman as he is supposed to be, is in no way prepared to handle the weird mix of arrogance and insult originating from Netanyahu and Lieberman and flooding the Israeli media.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, ignores the hints by many of the pundits that he may be embarrassing his boss, Bibi Netanyahu. Thriving on media attention, Lieberman keeps up a barrage of inanities like his statement in an interview to a Russian publication to the effect that “the US will do what we tell it to do.” Despite his appearance as a thug and a buffoon, Lieberman has a broad geo-political agenda and even presumes to explain to Obama that Pakistan and Afghanistan and not Iran are the chief problem.

Lieberman is working on his very own contribution to world security by pushing the idea of a USA-Russia alliance against the Islamic world (civilization) to be brokered by…you guessed it…Israel and its foreign minister. There are people out there who take the clash of civilizations seriously. Just what we need – a Judeo-Christian alliance for the preservation of Western values.

Lieberman is no genius but he can pick up on a racist strain in US-European thinking. Bibi is a bit more elegant, but he is following the very same scenario as his buddy. This policy must be characterized as the right wing-extremist line of the more aggressive and adventurous elements in the US administration. These forces dislike Obama’s “moderate” style even when it is seen purely as a matter of form. They know the hard facts of imperial power and will exploit every element to wear down Obama, who has hitherto been simply unable to elaborate a coherent alternative to traditional hegemonic thinking.

Israel sees itself a pioneer in the war of civilizations. From its forward position it looks back at Obama and reminds him that, in the light of the conceptual continuity of US foreign policy, respect and consideration are due to the pioneers watching the fort.

Obama and the U.S. are in a particularly sensitive situation in the ME. Netanyahu has effectively scuttled the peace process, as faint and unconvincing as it was. Iran is exerting greater influence in the ME where the moderate Arab regimes are reduced to depending on Israel muscle to protect themselves from the fall out resulting from their collaborationist betrayal of the Palestinians.

Odds and increasing signs on the ground indicate that the departure and the redeployment of US troops will have a destabilizing effect in Iraq. There are increasing signs that the present leadership in Baghdad might take a hike to Teheran. The US leadership has figured out it needs some secular horses in the Iraqi race and is busy trying to resurrect Sadaam Hussein’s old party. You see, this is the Middle East.

Meanwhile, for the last few weeks, Bibi Netanyahu has been working overtime to kill off any chance whatsoever for any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian and the Israeli-Arab conflict. He has already demonstrated clearly and unequivocally that, when and if he deigns to be so kind to his US buddy as to agree to go back to the negotiating table, he will talk only exclusively to a waterboarded Palestinian delegation that will kiss the whip after being thoroughly inundated by a flood of new unconditional demands.

Israel now demands that the Palestinians must not only recognize Israel and undertake peaceful coexistence with it, the Palestinians must recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. This recognition is to be interpreted by Israel, inter alia, as a clear renunciation of the demands for the rights of the Palestinian refugees. You see, Israel seeks closure.

The plain fact of the matter is that while Obama’s advisers’ limit him to bland generalities such as “Let’s have two states,” and “Everybody should behave well,” Lieberman and Netanyahu are hard at work. They are ostensibly reviewing their policy options, but really making sure that by issuing a slew of new demands, one more outrageous than the other, there will not be a Palestinian in sight who will dare to sit down to discuss “Two-states.”

Washington is stupefied and fails to react. Netanyahu says that Israel has just as much right to build in the occupied territories as the Palestinians and that the status of the land in the territories is “disputed land.” Washington is stupefied and fails to react. Netanyahu wants it clear right now that Palestine will never have any sort of army, and accept all kinds of limitations regarding water and elctro-magnetic fields on its truncated sovereignty. Washington is stupefied and fails to act.

Some wise guy pundit here called this new list of demands, Netanyahu’s shopping list for Obama. Obama has scheduled a full and frank discussion with Netanyahu for the 18th this month. Hillary Clinton is looking forward to hear about new developments in Israeli policy and hopes to explain to Netanyahu the danger of alienating the moderate Arab regimes. But Netanyahu is smart enough to exploit any opening given him in D.C. to present a new agenda of unlimited complications. Obama and Clinton may want to play dumb but if they allow Netanyahu to participate in shaping the agenda, they are selling the Palestinian down the river…again.

Netanyahu is not without friends and connections in D.C. within the present administration which is still in the grips of the political ideas and anti-Iran hysteria of its predecessor.

Making War for Peace or Making Peace for War

Everybody watching Bibi here knows how he is preparing himself for the coming meeting with Obama. The war on terror he says trumps peacemaking in the region. With Ahmadinajad on the loose, how could you conceivably talk to us about concessions affecting our vital rights. First lets take out Iran and then I will have time and patience to talk with you about Palestine. The hawkish, militarist, chauvinist boss here is telling Obama, no peace with Palestine without war on Iran.

Hillary Clinton was unable to understand that she was trailing far behind the discussion when she suggested that Netanyahu should desist from alienating the moderate Arab by making peace with the Palestinians. Despite the rumors that Lieberman is spitting in the soup, the Israeli-Egyptian love fest is on again. The Israeli government and the head of Egyptian intelligence, meet personally on a regular basis to work out the details of the siege and isolation of Gaza.

When he has a chance, Bibi will explain to Hillary Clinton that he has the moderate Arab regimes in the palms of his hands. The moderates fear, more than anything else, political confrontation with Arabs and Muslims who have their very own ideas as to the disposition of their own oil. They, the “moderates”, are simply too busy defending their own privileges to be bothered by the fate of Palestine.

Even so, Obama and Hillary will tell Netanyahu that progress in the Palestinian talks is absolutely necessary to isolate Iran either for heavy sanctions or eventually a full sale attack. We must have peace they will explain before we can make war. Netanyahu, if it appears that he cannot really get his war (with Iran) for promising peace (with the Palestinians) will make the “ultimate concession” and agree to renew talks with the Palestinians.

Obama will fake a victory, the “moderate” Arab countries will marvel at US diplomatic and the US will proceed on its mission to Teheran. The US will ostensibly have moved in the direction of dialogue but will brandish the Israeli sword in the face of the recalcitrant Iranians to keep them up to speed. With all this jockeying hither and thither very few bright people will be fooled into forgetting the name of the game.

This region is oil country and it is the United States and it alone which wants it hands on the spigot. Iran with its reactionary regime and crude and clumsy leadership has the weird idea that it should decide how to dispose of its own oil, a crime punishable by death and invasion in the US playbook.

Barack Obama Really Seems Like a Nice Guy

I wish to avoid the full scale debate on the significance of the Obama presidency. Suffice it to say that even the most enthusiastic of Obama’s admirers on the left understand that he is the man responsible for tending store for the US empire and its interests. He himself has chosen to surround himself especially in foreign affairs by circles that represent continuity while he must rely on a state apparatus which honors the “virtues” of continuity above all else.

Meanwhile, the US is in full retreat in the Middle East, where Iran and its allies enjoy a spurt of prestige for their support for the forsaken Palestinians. And now South Asia is falling apart. It is worth believing that the nuclear warehouse in Pakistan is in safe hands, but nothing else is safe and no where else is the area secure. Iraq is evermore inherently unstable, and the latest news is that the US is trying to resurrect Saadam Hussein’s party in order to balance the Shi’ite predilection for friendship in Teheran.

Unless it is ready to radically increase its military activity, directly or by proxy, in these regions, the US must come up with a serious shift in policy and the cosmetic stuff is just not enough. In short, the US must demonstrate a serious willingness to recognize Iran’s legitimate interests and get rid of the “axis of evil” baggage.

And now back to Bibi and his plans for war. As long as the hard line Israeli policy and the softer line US policy are supposed to advance the same goal of thwarting and obstructing Iranian influence, as long as Washington buys the Israeli propaganda that Israel is in danger of a new Auschwitz and Ahmadinajad is a new Hitler (like Nasser and Arafat figured in previous Israeli narratives), there is a danger that Israel will attack. Equivocation in DC can easily translate to Israeli provocation in Boshir.

Our condemnation of the US-Israeli alliance in the ME does not mean that we have any sympathy whatsoever for the reactionary Islamic Republic and its leadership. Ahmadinajad seems totally unable to understand that his sloppy loose and crude formulations regarding Jewry and Israel are just what Bibi and Lieberman ordered. However, recent experience has shown that US intervention, direct or sponsored, will only strengthen a vicious regime, while spreading untold death and destruction among the people of Iran.

[Reuven Kaminer, was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1929, and he emigrated to Israel in 1951. He is a writer, political analyst, and veteran activist of the Left in Israel. His blog can be found here.]

Source / CounterPunch

Thanks to David Hamilton / The Rag Blog

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Austin Metro Policies Are Creating Fewer Riders and More Pollution

Posted on May 7, 2009 by RagBlog


Capital Metro and the Environment
By Glenn Gaven / The Rag Blog / May 7, 2009

As EPA clean air requirements become more stringent, Texas’ Travis County is poised to enter a new phase of its non-attainment status. For the first time, TCEQ and the County will likely be forced to implement a serious action plan to reduce greenhouse gases, or risk massive reductions in federal transportation subsidy. Mass transit is well recognized as an immediate, efficient means to reduce pollution.

For whatever reason, our local transit authority is so far unwilling to genuinely participate in cleaning our air. They have opted against natural gas and expanding hybrid utilization as fuel options in favor of diesel. Capital Metro last year discontinued free rides on ozone action days even though they saw an average 15% ridership increase on those days. They raised fares last year and are set to raise them again this October. Raising fares reduces ridership. In fact, current ridership goals are set for 20,000 less trips per month and actual ridership figures are even lower, averaging 10% fewer riders from last year. This means more cars, far and away the number one source of ozone pollution, on our roads.

On Earth Day 2008, the Bus Riders Union-ATX submitted a proposal for fare-free transit to Capital Metro. The proposal was aimed at increasing mobility for all Austin residents, and just as important, at reducing pollution.

Fare-free transit is highly efficient as it eliminates the expensive and time consuming collection of fares on the bus. Such a system reduces pollution by getting people out of their cars. During a 15 month fare-free period in 1989-90 Capital Metro increased ridership by 80%. Not only were more people riding the bus, but discussion about adding more freeway capacity on IH35 subsided. Pollution is further reduced as idling times for buses lessens without fare collection and decreased traffic congestion lowers idling times of both buses and cars.

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority should not just rescind the impending fare hike which would devastate ridership, they should immediately implement a fare-free system to coax riders out of their ozone emitting cars. The small drop in revenue would be more than recovered by eliminating the cost of collection, maintaining and increasing federal funding, and reducing the expensive and deadly health care costs resulting from breathing dirty air.

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Steven Johnson: Making Something More of Imagination

Posted on May 7, 2009 by RagBlog

Nod office. Steven M. Johnson.

Searching for Value in Ludicrous Ideas
By Allison Arieff / May 4, 2009

This is a relentless age we’re living in, a time when innovative solutions — or any solutions, for that matter — to our seemingly infinite problems seem in short supply.

So how do we come up with new ideas? How do we learn to think outside of normal parameters? Are the processes in place for doing so flawed? Do we rely too much on computer models? On consultants? On big-idea gurus lauding the merits of tribes and crowds or of starfish and spiders? On Twitter?

At the risk of sounding like a big-idea guru myself, I can’t help thinking that we’re all so mired in it that we’ve forgotten how to get out of it — how to daydream, invent, engage with the absurd.

That’s why I am so enamored with the work of inventor/author/cartoonist/former urban planner Steven M. Johnson, a sort of R. Crumb meets R. Buckminster Fuller. Johnson is a former urban planner, and his work tends toward the nodes where social issues intersect with design and urban planning issues.

In discussing his often fantastical, sometimes silly, sometimes visionary concepts, he has said, “If I could use two words to describe what it is that I enjoy it is that I love to be sneakily outrageous . . . [It may be that] I have decided an idea has no practical worth and would never be likely to be adopted seriously (like most of my ideas), but I like it anyway.”

A latent inventor, Johnson discovered his “ability” only at age 36 in 1974, when he was the editorial cartoonist for The Sierra Club Bulletin and the editor, Roger Olmsted, asked him to invent whimsical recreational vehicles. Olmsted asked for 16; Johnson gave him 109. “I had never invented anything before,” he told me in an e-mail recently, “because no one had ever asked me to invent anything!”

Variations on the theme of recreational vehicles. Steven M. Johnson. (Click to enlarge.)

It would be ridiculous to suggest that the powers that be should do nothing but give in to their wild imaginations. But there’s something to Johnson’s explorations that warrants our attention. It may be, as the title of his 1984 book suggests, exactly “What the World Needs Now: A Resource Book for Daydreamers, Frustrated Inventors, Cranks, Efficiency Experts, Utopians, Gadgeteers, Tinkerers, and Just About Everybody Else.”

As the 70-year-old told me last week, “America has been falling into a depression, a psychological depression, for many years. Yet this is a land of pioneer inventors. It annoys me that an untrained person like myself can think up products easily (in fact I usually spend energy ‘turning off’ the idea-generating machine just as psychics train themselves to turn off their capability) and yet the nation seems to sit helplessly passive and wait to be saved somehow.”

So maybe there are some lessons to be learned from Johnson.

Many of his musings are simply whimsical, existing primarily as a source of inspiration or delight. Others tackle very real issues, from environmentalism to alternative transportation to homelessness. Here, a look at both ends of the spectrum.

Every worker would appreciate the Nod Office (1984), an ingenious desk that can be transformed into a hidden sleeping chamber, perfect for late afternoon naps. Owning such a contraption remains for me a significant yet unrealized career goal.

Anyone who ever left the house without eating breakfast will appreciate his dashboard toaster oven. (Another feature, the Automobile Snack Conveyer, allows you to deliver that toast to your kid in the back seat.)

Variations on the theme of recreational vehicles. Steven M. Johnson.

Yet there’s a darker side to Johnson as well, as evidenced by this much more recent exploration, drawn in 2009, of office cubicles: these are now used not just for afternoon siestas but to offer working seniors, unable to retire in this economy, a much-needed place to rest.

Sleep-in cubicles for seniors. Steven M. Johnson.

In Johnson’s oeuvre, nothing gets to exist if it doesn’t have at least two functions: the skylight uses solar energy to cook the dinner, for instance, and the exercise bike operates the washing machine (cleaning clothes and toning the wearer’s muscles simultaneously).

Sky-Light Oven. Steven M. Johnson.

Hide-a-Shower. Steven M. Johnson.

“Accessories with a purpose,” drawings from 1991, include such then seemingly silly items as “hands-free phones” and “pouchpants” (a tragically unflattering variation on what would become the still tragically unflattering fanny pack). A very small apartment might house the Hide-a-Shower, a sofa that can be upended for bathing. Murder on the upholstery, no doubt.

Grindplay. Steven M. Johnson.

Johnson has even done a series of drawings on how not to invent: here, a radio powered by a coffee grinder (2005). Other bizarre explorations include adjacent commodes in an exploration of Toilets for Immodest Times. And the Cigaire smoke hood, which redirects cigarette smoke from the smoker’s mouth into a stylish helmet, a variant of which Johnson actually saw at an inventors’ convention in 1989.

Self-shortening sedans. Steven M. Johnson.

Transportation figures prominently in Johnson’s work, much of it showcased in his second book, “Public Therapy Buses” (1991). Again, many of his concepts are simply cute and clever, like the self-shortening sedan with its adjustable bumper (combines the stability of a larger car with the parking convenience of a tinier one), or the View Cab (puts some power back in the hands of the drivers of compact cars).

View Cabs. Steven M. Johnson.

Other Johnson transportation ideas do move increasingly, if not entirely, toward practicality, like the clever albeit cumbersome Bike Vest:

Bike Vest. Steven M. Johnson.

A golf-cart-meets-treadmill contraption seems to predate the Segway.

Treadarounds. Steven M. Johnson.

Some of his transit concepts begin to address tangible issues. Automobile Abandonment Zones intuit the very contemporary possibility of commuters fleeing gridlock for a nearby train, willingly relinquishing their keys to Abandonment Officers.

Automobile Abandonment Zones. Steven M. Johnson. (Click to enlarge.)

Pedaltrains posit the intriguing concept of combining two car alternatives: bicycles and public transit.

Pedaltrain. Steven M. Johnson. (Click to enlarge.)

It was nearly 20 years ago, in “Public Therapy Buses,” that Johnson predicted that shopping malls would be given over to mega-malls for consignment and thrift items. He was pretty on-target with concepts like Landfill Surprise: The Quality Trash Store.

Landfill Surprise: The Quality Trash Store. Steven M. Johnson.

And his Neighborhood Sharing Booths, designed to provide food, water and clothing from kiosks on neighborhood lawns, seem eerie predictors of the current reality of foreclosed subdivisions.

Fans of prefab can appreciate flexible housing concepts like “Rooms Added a Piece at a Time” and “Homes Purchased by the Room,” while builders of gated communities, tongue firmly out of cheek, clearly missed the intended irony of Johnson’s “Double-Walled Communities,” in which “developers gain approval from planning departments to build double-walled communities for wealthy executives,” or his “Monitowers” — staffed towers in subdivisions that feature surveillance cameras.

What fascinates me about Johnson is his ability to riff on anything, from a sort of frivolous contraption called a brief skate (yes, a briefcase that morphs into a skateboard — perfect for today’s unemployed boomers) to a wholly prescient formed concept like Oakville, a gasoline-and-diesel-engine free city that features a freeway for electric cars and bicycles, and a medieval-like perimeter wall that keeps polluting cars out. He can be so out there as to make one think he shouldn’t be taken seriously until you realize just how serious his thinking can be.

To be sure, there’s no small amount of goofiness in Johnson’s creations, but deeper exploration into his decades of inventions show not only a complex and intuitive mind but real visionary tendencies. His mental process? It’s one he describes as “Mix-’N-Match, outrageous extrapolation, speeded-up thinking, random/lateral thinking (which comes close to the hypnagogic state between waking and sleep where some claim inspired inventions and scientific inventions come through), and so forth.”

He writes of avoiding his desk when inventing, avoiding the connotations of serious endeavor, of earning a living. “I wish instead,” he writes, “to be irresponsible, rash, associative, dreamy, impish, brainy, intuitive, and stupid.” Which seems, to me, about the right strategy for our times.

[Allison Arieff is editor at large for Sunset, and the former editor in chief of Dwell magazine. She is co-author of the books “Prefab” and “Trailer Travel,” and the editor of many books on design and popular culture, including “Airstream: The History of the Land Yacht” and “Cheap Hotels.” Ms. Arieff lives in San Francisco.]

Source / New York Times

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MEDIA / Where Were the Watchdogs on Iraq and the Economy?

Posted on May 6, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Were the watchdogs asleep on the job? Photo of Rottie ( “Who me?”) from Dog Infopedia.

When the Watchdogs Are Asleep, We All Get Robbed

In the wake of the financial collapse, I wonder if the remaining (if relatively low) public respect for the press is gone for good. Yes, the delivery platform of the future will change, but the content still has to be credible. And now it must be said: The media blew both of the major catastrophes of our time.

By Greg Mitchell / May 5, 2009

NEW YORK — Sometimes, pieces that may not really fit come together in revealing ways, especially nowadays, thanks to immediate distribution and then saturation via the Web. It happened again recently.

Several leading newspapers announced new layoffs, furloughs and/or pay cuts. A few hours later, a new Rasmussen poll revealed that one in four Americans now believe that the “faux” news delivered by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is replacing “real” news sources as viable outlets.

Unlike previous polls, this one showed that it wasn’t just Democrats and the under-30 crowd who feel this way (actually, more Republicans endorsed this view). After recent press performance, who could blame them? Especially since Stewart seemed to reveal more guts and passion — and even skill — than nearly anyone else in the “real” media in destroying Jim Cramer and some of his blowhard CNBC brethren for their cheerleading role in the financial collapse.

A few days after that, Ben Stein, a friend of Cramer’s, in his regular Sunday column for The New York Times, hailed Stewart for “calling us all to account.” Why wasn’t he praising the Times itself or any other member of the mainstream news media?

But it goes way beyond that.

No one is a bigger booster of newspapers than I, going back to my first job in journalism as a summer reporter four decades ago. I have long defended newspapers from charges of political “bias” and championed their coverage, and credibility, over that found in any other media.

But in the wake of the financial collapse, I wonder if the remaining (if relatively low) public respect for the press is gone for good. Yes, the delivery platform of the future will change — the Kindle, iPhone apps or rubbery plastic may replace paper everywhere — but the content still has to be credible. And now it must be said: The media blew both of the major catastrophes of our time.

I speak, of course, of the Iraq war and the financial meltdown. I wrote a book about the first, calling it “So Wrong for So Long.” I could write a sequel on the second disaster, and maybe title it “So Wrong Again.”

True, there’s more of a consensus around the Iraq failure. The press has circled the wagons on the latest flop, and I agree that individual reporters at certain papers did some fine watchdog work, to no avail. But the defenders of the press in this matter are cherry-picking the good stuff, much like Bush with his intelligence on Iraqi WMDs.

Others admit the press failed but could not have possibly understood how bad things were at the banks and on Wall Street. “No one knew” and “we’re only as good as our sources” or “they lied to us” are the common excuses. That sounds exactly like the media defending its Iraq miscues.

Many point to the terrific press coverage of the financial meltdown since September. Agreed, but again, the media also played great catch-up on Iraq — when it was too late.

And to say that some did probe deeply — well, I concur, just as some did on Saddam and WMDs. And, as in that case, the reports were often buried in the paper or the broadcast, or just sat there quietly waiting for follow-up or editorial comment. The watchdogs barked, but often off in the distance, and then went on their way. Why else was the Jon Stewart rant taken as such a breath of fresh air?

History will be the judge, although I suspect the first books that prove my case will appear any month now. But it doesn’t matter what I or other commentators charge. It’s what the news consumer thinks. And there’s no way that most of them, fairly or unfairly, have not already thought: Damn media. Why didn’t they warn us of these financial shenanigans in time?

The media miss stories all the time, always have, always will, and there’s nothing to be ashamed about in that — you can only do so much, especially in a time of slashed newsroom staffs. But to miss a story of this enormity, with consequences that will echo (like Iraq) for decades, only adds weight to the warnings of doom for the “old” media.

[Greg Mitchell is editor of Editor & Publisher. His latest book is Why Obama Won.]

Source / Editor & Publisher

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Not Samuel Clemens : Blue Dog Diary

Posted on May 5, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Image of Samuel Clemens from Vintage Memorabilia

During my days in college at Virginia Beach I learned quite early that one should beware of certain American writers such as Twain, Upton Sinclair, and John dos Pasos, who were in favor of anarchists and did not have the interests of America at heart.

By Joseph Clemens
[As told to Dr. Stephen R. Keister] / The Rag Blog / May 5, 2009

My name is Joseph Clemens and I am not kin to Samuel, who was otherwise known as Mark Twain. My mother assured me that we were not related, since Sam, as he got older, developed queer ideas, some even saying that he was an atheist. During my days in college at Virginia Beach I learned quite early that one should beware of certain American writers such as Twain, Upton Sinclair, and John dos Pasos, who were in favor of anarchists and did not have the interests of America at heart.

In any event, as I look into the mirror shaving for my breakfast appointment with the gentleman from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, I cannot get the wonderful gathering of last evening out of my mind. I should realize, as a senior adviser to a Democratic United States Senator, that one is blessed with certain privileges; however, last evening and this morning are indeed mind boggling. It was a humdinger of a party and I am eternally grateful to my boss, who is a committee chair whose responsibilities include health care, for including me in the function.

The entire ball room of the Mayflower was taken up by the several hundred folks feted by the AARP. The same AARP that was instrumental in providing our seniors with that excellent legislation incorporated in Medicare Part D prescription plans. Though few of the Democrats from the House or Senate were included, we by and large felt at home with our numerous Republican colleagues. The cocktail hour was excellent, although I limit myself to two mint-juleps. The problem was that darned journalist I encountered at the bar. I cannot recall whether he was from Madison or Austin, but he was surely out of place dressed in a turtleneck and corduroys. Even worse, he kept talking of unacceptable writers such as Will Rogers, H.L.Mencken, and I.F.Stone, all communist toadies at one time or other as I recall.

In any event, I was able to shake the chap and spent the remainder of the evening enjoying the main speaker, Richard Scott, who founded the American Hospital Corporation. He, and his adjunct speakers, made a point of indicating that we in the United States have the best medical care in the world, unlike those socialist countries in Europe that provide free medical care for all. Huh! Somehow, the stupid Europeans just do not get it. Medicine, like banking and the stock market, should be controlled by the free market. Ronald Reagan made a point of that. One just does not appreciate medical care unless one pays for it oneself. So, what if a few folks die from lack of care. They, in all probability, are poor or are illegal immigrants and will not be missed by proper folks in any event. The evening ended with all of us standing at attention singing God Bless America.

But time to move on and get dressed. Breakfast at the Hay Adams demands that I wear my pin stripe Brooks Brothers suit, with, of course, the American flag pin in my lapel. My boss asked me to carry along my brown briefcase and enclose in it yesterday’s Washington Post. He also had pre-ordered me a limousine to pick me up at my Connecticut Avenue apartment building. That gentleman thinks of everything especially when the Senate is working on health care, a subject dear to his heart. He was even considerate enough yesterday to organize a breakfast for Americas’s Health Insurance Plans, The Business Round Table, Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the Heritage Foundation. It is because of his thoughtfulness that he is helped out in his campaigns by many of these fine civic organizations. A true American, as are another half dozen Senators and quite a few Democrats in The House, unkindly called “blue dogs.”

I am always happy to dine at the Hay Adams and have the opportunity to look over Lafayette Park at The White House. At the moment I have mixed feelings looking at the White House. Odd, to have a dark complected foreigner living there. He has such peculiar ideas: equal pay for women, the discontinuation of enhanced interrogation which the liberals call “torture,” the closure of our fine detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, educational opportunities for pre-school children, treating foreign governments with respect. Frightening, for as Rush points out, “it is not the American Way.” Perhaps with the excellent efforts of The NRA and thinking folks at Colorado Springs we can inculcate our legislators with some decency.

Yet, there are certain factors I find frightening, such as a group of 15,000 nutty doctors, called Physicians For A National Health Program, obviously duped by the commies, who feel that health care is a right and a privilege for all Americans. I am glad to hear that they get little attention on Capital Hill. Added to this there is a Catholic Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, which is broadening its base for health care for the indigent and dispossessed. We all know that most of these folks are drug addicts or those too lazy to look for a job. I cannot imagine what motivates folks like this.

Here we are at The Hay Adams and my limousine driver tells me that he will wait. Strange, but there seems to be a bulge under his left arm. Probably his shirt does not fit or his coat is badly tailored. Had to await the head waiter and noted a lone man sitting at a table inside the door reading the Wilson Quarterly — probably one of those liberal professors from Georgetown or American University. Another group that needs the attention of patriotic thinking Americans.

At last seated with the gentleman from the Chamber of Commerce who sits his black brief case next to mine under the table. He had pre-ordered breakfast, which was first rate. We had an engaging conversation about the wonderful days under President Bush, who he tells me is to make his first speech in the United States since leaving office on June 17, in Erie, Pennsylvania. The Manufacturers Association there is raising $150,000 to be able to enjoy Mr. Bash’s company for the evening and to listen to his engaging words of wisdom. The Chamber anticipates flag waving, cheering crowds along the route from the airport to the convention center. It is great to be an American!

We also had a chance to discuss the fact that the present administration has crazy ideas about energy production, plans that will reduce income to the oil companies and antagonize our Saudi friends. He, like I, is concerned that we won’t thoroughly whip the Islamic fascists in Iraq and Afghanistan and establish a true Pax Americana. Much to be done; however, we agree that the initial problem is keeping health care in the devoted hands of the insurance industry it belongs.

I thanked my friend for the excellent breakfast and found my driver waiting. I instructed him to take me back to the Senate Office Building and it was only on the drive back that I noted I now had a black briefcase — considerably heavier than my brown one that my companion had accidentally picked up from under the table. I tried to open this one; however, it is locked. Best ask my boss, the Senator, what to do about it.

The Rag Blog

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