Quack!!! Lame Duck Bush Ripping Through Wilderness Protection

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer


‘With barely 60 days to go until Bush hands over to Barack Obama, his White House is working methodically to weaken or reverse an array of regulations that protect America’s wilderness.’
By Suzanne Goldenberg / November 20, 2008

George Bush is working at a breakneck pace to dismantle at least 10 major environmental safeguards protecting America’s wildlife, national parks and rivers before he leaves office in January.

With barely 60 days to go until Bush hands over to Barack Obama, his White House is working methodically to weaken or reverse an array of regulations that protect America’s wilderness from logging or mining operations, and compel factory farms to clean up dangerous waste.

In the latest such move this week, Bush opened up some 800,000 hectares (2m acres) of land in Rocky Mountain states for the development of oil shale, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet. The law goes into effect on January 17, three days before Obama takes office.

The timing is crucial. Most regulations take effect 60 days after publication, and Bush wants the new rules in place before he leaves the White House on January 20. That will make it more difficult for Obama to undo them.

“There are probably going to be scores of rules that are issued between now and January 20,” said John Walke, a senior attorney at the National Resources Defence Council. “And there are at least a dozen very controversial rules that will weaken public health and environment protection that have no business being adopted and would not be acceptable to the incoming Obama administration, based on stances he has taken as a senator and during the campaign.”

The flurry of new rules – known as midnight regulations – is part of a broader campaign by the Bush administration to leave a lasting imprint on environmental policy. Some of the actions have provoked widespread protests such as the Bureau of Land Management’s plans to auction off 20,000 hectares of oil and gas parcels within sight of Utah’s Delicate Arch natural bridge.

The Bush administration is also accused of engaging in a parallel go-slow on court-ordered actions on the environment. “There are the midnight regulations that they are trying to force out before they leave office, and then there are the other things they are trying not to do before they go. A lot of the climate stuff falls into the category of things they would rather not do,” said a career official at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Other presidents have worked up to the final moments of their presidency to impose their legacy on history. But Bush has been particularly organised in his campaign to roll back years of protections – not only on the environment, but workplace safety and employee rights.

“This is Bush trying to leave a legacy that supports his ideology,” said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, an independent Washington thinktank that monitors the White House office of management and budget. “This was very strategic and it was in line of the ideology of the Bush administration which has been to put in place a free market and conservative agenda.”

The campaign got under way in May when the White House chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, wrote to government agencies asking them to forward proposals for rule changes. Bolten had initially set a November 1 deadline on rule-making. The White House denies that the flurry of rule changes is politically motivated. “What the chief of staff wanted to avoid was this very charge that we would be trying to, in the dark of night in the last days of the administration, be rushing regulations into place ahead of the incoming, next administration,” Tony Fratto, the White House spokesman, told reporters.

But OMB Watch notes that the office of management and budget website shows 83 rules reviewed from September 1 to October 31 this year – about double its workload in 2007, 2006 and 2005.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration cut short the timeframe for public comment. In one instance, officials claimed to have reviewed 300,000 comments about changes to wildlife protection within the space of a week.

The new regulations include a provision that would free industrial-scale pig and cattle farms from complying with the Clean Water Act so long as they declare they are not dumping animal waste in lakes and rivers. The rule was finalised on October 31. Mountain-top mining operations will also be exempt from the Clean Water Act, allowing them to dump debris in rivers and lakes. The rule is still under review at the OMB. Coal-fired power plants will no longer be required to install pollution controls or clean up soot and smog pollution.

Yet another of the new rules, which has generated publicity, would allow the Pentagon and other government agencies to embark on new projects without first undertaking studies on the potential dangers to wildlife.

Announcements of further rule changes are expected in the next few days including one that would weaken regulation of perchlorate, a toxin in rocket fuel that can affect brain development in children, in drinking water.

The Bush strategy has prompted a fightback from environmentalists, the Democratic-controlled Congress, and members of the Obama transition team.

John Podesta, who is overseeing the transition, has said that Obama will review the last-minute actions, and will seek to repeal those that are “not in the interests of the country”.

Pollute, baby, pollute

The last-minute rules passed during the “midnight hours” of the George Bush presidency differ from his predecessors because they are basically a project of deregulation – not regulation. Among the most far-reaching:

• Industrial-size pig, cow and chicken farms can disregard the Clean Water Act and air pollution controls.

• The interior department can approve development such as mining or logging without consulting wildlife managers about their impact.

• Restrictions will be eased so power plants can operate near national parks and wilderness areas.

• Pollution controls on new power plants will be downgraded.

• Mountain-top mine operators could dump waste into rivers and streams.

• 2m acres of land in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado opened to development of oil shales, the dirtiest fuel on Earth.

Source / The Guardian, U.K.

Thanks to Common Dreams / The Rag Blog

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Arabs Are Skeptical Since Obama Appointed Rahm

Posted on November 20, 2008 by RagBlog


Obama inspires Arab dreams – and despair
By Hasan al Subaihi / November 19. 2008

Shabaan Abdel Raheem is a popular Egyptian singer who has developed a style inherited from the musicians of the Egyptian countryside. Abdel Raheem worked as a dry cleaner for many years while keeping his talents for the entertainment of his local neighbourhood. Now his songs are heard across Egypt and the Arab world. He sings about important issues that touch the hearts of the Arab people and many admire him for his openness.

He has sung about Israel, the Palestinian occupation and the Iraq war, and he now sings about Barack Obama. The lyrics of this enthralling song about the next President of the United States echo the way the Arab world relates to Obama’s presidency. Here is a small sample:

What will Obama do
with the catastrophe of Bush and his father?
Let’s not start our wishful
dreaming,
In case the dream will turn into
a nightmare

Before the US elections, the majority of Arabs were vigorously supporting Obama, putting a lot of faith in his ability to help to resolve the situation in Iraq and mediating between the Arabs and Israelis. This desperate hope derives from disappointing past experiences that have led Arabs to believe that the US, for a number of reasons, will side with the Israelis.

The fact that Obama comes from a minority race that has suffered much throughout US history was enough for Arabs to believe that he would be different. Yet hope turned to widespread shock and disappointment when Obama announced his support for Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Among Arab intellectuals, however, it was common knowledge that the would-be President needed to display a fair amount of support to Israel to secure the votes of the American Jewish community – and an overwhelming number did indeed vote for him: 78 per cent.

Now the Arab public is divided into a dozen or more schools of thought about Obama. The main group belong to those who believe that no American government is ever likely to show fairness towards the Arabs in their conflict with Israel.

After the election, this group has started to become even more pessimistic. They believe that it is better to deal with a clear enemy out in the open rather than a disguised, hidden foe – and Obama they identify as one of the latter. Their negativity increased when the President-elect chose Rahm Emanuel, his Jewish friend, as his chief of staff in the White House.

Emanuel has strong personal and family links with Israel, which leads this group to believe that the Obama White House is likely to be more supportive of the Israelis than even the Bush administration. These suspicions will only increase if Obama appoints other Jews to senior positions on his staff. After past disappointing experiences with Henry Kissinger, Dennis Ross and Madeleine Albright, many Arabs are now expecting the worst from Emanuel.

Another significant section of Arab intellectuals believe that Obama is different from all his predecessors. His career and his political history have shown him to be a fair man; a man of ideals and vision. These people feel that his treatment of the Palestinian and Iraqi issues could be based on developing negotiations and the implementation of United Nations resolutions.

Surprisingly, some of these intellectuals are Palestinian, who would normally be expected to take a strong stand against any American initiatives. Yet they are relatively few in comparison with those who have strong doubts about Obama’s future leadership and expect him to take the same positions as George Bush in his early days in the White House.

Finally, there are another three distinct groups worth mentioning. These three have the conviction that there is no chance that the United States will take a neutral stand and encourage a fair settlement between Arabs and Israelis – especially when it comes towards Palestinian rights, both in the struggle to make Jerusalem their capital and also in the return of refugees to their homeland.

One of the three groups is the Islamic fundamentalists of Hamas, al Qa’eda and the Muslim Brotherhood, who persist in their struggle to establish an Islamic caliphate. Such groups would never accept any deal coming from America – even if it were to adopt their strategy and plans.

The second group is made up of that large number of partially educated Arabs who have learnt what little they know through television stations such as Al Jazeera and the like. Such channels have already inflamed the tempers of millions of Arabs by the violence and bloodshed they have shown, and by the radical viewpoints that they broadcast. These people will not believe that Obama will be the kind of hero that they crave.

The third group is those who take the silent position, always subdued and lacking the courage to stand against the extremists. In times of crisis, they are likely to side with the radicals.

Despite this predominantly gloomy survey of Arab thinking, there is still one small glimmer of hope – and that comes from the Israelis. Signs are emerging of an increasing willingness by Israeli officials to accept Arab initiatives and come to a compromise with all Arab countries in one wide-reaching agreement. Here lies a way to a more peaceful future…

Dr Hasan Qayed al Subaihi is an assistant professor of Mass Communication at the UAE University.

Source / The National (UAE)

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Posted on November 20, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

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Andy Borowitz : Change we can Actually Understand!

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

William Buckley Syndrome? Barack Obama, interviewed by Steve Krofft on 60 Minutes, spoke in complete sentences and the show still scored record ratings. Go figure.

Stunning Break with Last Eight Years:
Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy
By Andy Borowitz / November 18, 2008

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama’s appearance on CBS’ “Sixty Minutes” on Sunday witnessed the president-elect’s unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama’s decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it “alienating” to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

“Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement,” says Mr. Logsdon. “If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist.”

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, “Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate – we get it, stop showing off.”

The President-elect’s stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

“Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can’t really do there, I think needing to do that isn’t tapping into what Americans are needing also,” she said.

Source / Borowitz Report

Thanks to Steve Russell / The Rag Blog

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Gulf War Syndrome: Self-Poisoned Under Orders

Posted on November 20, 2008 by RagBlog


Panel: 1 in 4 Gulf War vets is sick
By Anne Usher / November 17, 2008

Report blames exposure to toxic chemicals and other causes, demands more research and spending.

WASHINGTON — At least one in four U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffers from a multisymptom illness caused by exposure to toxic chemicals during the conflict, says a congressionally mandated report that is being released today.

For most of the past 17 years, government officials said that the health problems of the veterans — more than 175,000 out of about 697,000 deployed — were the effects of wartime stress, even as more people have come forward with severe ailments.

“The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that ‘Gulf War illness’ is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time,” says the report from a panel of scientists and veterans. A copy was obtained by Cox Newspapers.

The panel said in a 2004 draft report that many of the veterans were suffering from neurological damage and pointed to toxic chemicals as a possible cause. The new report goes further by pinpointing known causes, and it criticizes past U.S. studies, which have cost more than $340 million, as “overly simplistic and compartmentalized.”

The panel is urging Congress to spend at least $60 million annually on research. It notes that no effective treatments have been found.

Two things that the military provided to troops in large quantities to protect them in combat — pesticides and pyridostigmine bromide tablets, aimed at thwarting the effects of nerve gas — are the most likely culprits, the panel found.

Gulf War illness is typically characterized by a combination of memory and concentration problems, persistent headaches, unexplained fatigue and widespread pain. It may also include chronic digestive problems, respiratory symptoms and rashes.

The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses, created by Congress in 1998 , will present the 450-page report to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake. The panel said its report is the first to review the hundreds of U.S. and international studies on Gulf War veterans conducted since the mid-1990s.

It recommends that the Department of Veterans Affairs order a redo of past Gulf War health reports, calling them “skewed” because they did not include evaluations of toxic exposure studies in laboratory animals, as Congress had requested. The panel examined such tests and notes that recent ones have identified biological effects from Gulf War exposures that were previously unknown.

Although the report calls some new VA and Defense Department programs promising, it notes that overall federal funding for Gulf War research has dropped sharply in recent years. The studies that have been funded, it says, “have little or no relevance to the health of Gulf War veterans.”

The report also faults the Pentagon, saying that it clearly recognized scientific evidence substantiating Gulf War illness in 2001 but did not acknowledge it publicly.

“The VA has accepted and implemented prior recommendations of the committee and values the work represented in the report presented today,” said press secretary Alison Aiekele. “Secretary Peake thanked the committee for its report and recommendations and directed VA to review and respond to the committee’s recommendations in the near future.”

The panel focused its research on comparing the brains and nervous systems of healthy adults with those of sick Gulf War veterans, as well as analyzing changes to the neuroendocrine and immune systems. It found that in terms of brain function, exposure to pesticides and the pyridostigmine bromide pills is damaging to memory, attention and mood. Some people, it notes, are genetically more susceptible to exposure than others.

About half of Gulf War personnel are thought to have taken the tablets during deployment, with the greatest use among ground troops and those in forward positions. Many veterans say they were forced to take the pills, which had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Some say they fell ill immediately.

“Many of us got sick from the pills,” said retired Staff Sgt. Anthony Hardie, a Wisconsin native who was with a multinational unit that crossed from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait and then Iraq. He said he was required to take them for several weeks and soon had watery eyes and vision problems, diarrhea, muscle twitching and a runny nose. A fellow special operations forces officer, he said, lost about 20 pounds.

To ward off sand flies in Kuwait City and the eastern Saudi province of Dhahran, Hardie said, trucks would come through at 3 a.m. and spray “clouds” of pesticides.

“The pesticide use was far and away (more) than what you’d see in daily life,” he said.

Several soldiers who were interviewed said they were ordered to dunk their uniforms in the pesticide DEET and to spray pesticide on exposed skin and in their boots to ward off scorpions.

The federal panel also said it could not rule out an association between Gulf War illness and the prolonged exposure to oil fires, as well as low-level exposures to nerve agents, injections of many vaccines and combinations of neurotoxic exposures.

Retired Sgt. Randy Stamm of Mesquite was among the 100,000 U.S. troops who may have been exposed to low levels of sarin gas as a result of large-scale U.S. demolitions of Iraqi munitions near Khamisiyah in 1991. Troops who were downwind from the demolitions have died from brain cancer at twice the rate of other Gulf War veterans, the report says.

His unit was nearby during the demolitions and near the burning oil fires for 31\/2 months. He said he took the pyridostigmine bromide pills for more than a month.

Stamm now takes 63 pills a day to treat health problems that include gastritis and esophagitis.

“My intestinal system is hosed,” he said, adding that he is losing vision in his right eye. “I lost eight wives because of this.”

A panel member, Dr. Roberta White, chairwoman of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health, found evidence last year that links low-level exposure to nerve gas among Gulf War troops with lasting brain problems. The extent of the deficits — less brain “white matter” and reduced cognitive function — corresponded to the extent of the exposure.

In addition, the panel said, Gulf War veterans have significantly higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, than other veterans.

White said that although there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of Gulf War veterans contracting multiple sclerosis, studies haven’t confirmed a combat link to that degenerative disease. Questions also remain about rates of cancers, disease-specific mortality rates in veterans and the health of their children.

Conversely, the panel said, little evidence supports an association or major link with depleted uranium, anthrax vaccine, fuels, solvents, sand and particulates, infectious diseases or chemical agent-resistant coatings.

That veterans’ complaints are still repeatedly met with cynicism, White said, “upsets me as a scientist, as someone who cares about veterans.”

Source / Austin American-Statesman

Thanks to Janet Gilles / The Rag Blog

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Texas : Arraignment Set for Cheney and Gonzales

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

Judge J. Manuel Banales has set arraignment for Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales in Raymondvill, TX.

Former Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales and veep Dick Cheney shown at the White House in 2006. Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP.

The highest-profile indictment charges Cheney and Gonzales with engaging in organized criminal activity. It alleges that the men neglected federal prisoners and are responsible for assaults in the facilities.

By Christopher Sherman / November 19, 2008

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas — A Texas judge has set a Friday arraignment for Vice President Dick Cheney, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a state senator and others named in indictments accusing them of responsibility for prisoner abuse in a South Texas federal detention center.

Presiding Judge Manuel Banales said Wednesday he will allow them to waive arraignment or have their attorneys present rather than appear in person at the hearing.

Banales also said he would issue summonses rather than warrants for the indicted since all have served in some public capacity. That would allow them to avoid arrest and the need to post bond.

After the prosecutor who won the indictments, lame duck Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra, was a no-show in court, Banales ordered Texas Rangers to go to his house, check on his well-being and order him to court on Friday.

That was only the latest development in a situation that has lawyers from Texas to Washington, D.C., scratching their heads.

Half of the eight high-profile indictments returned Monday by a Willacy County grand jury are tied to privately-run federal detention centers in the sparsely populated South Texas county and the other half target judges and special prosecutors who played a role in an earlier investigation of Guerra.

“The state of Texas is not present, which is a rarity,” Banales said Wednesday. “I will not have a hearing when one of the parties is not present.”

Tony Canales, an attorney speaking on behalf of attorneys for Cheney and Gonzales and representing private prison operator The GEO Group, subpoenaed Guerra’s office manager to stand in for her boss.

Banales questioned Hilda Ramirez about her boss’ whereabouts, but got nowhere.

“I have been calling Mr. Guerra all day. I have not had him answer,” Ramirez told the judge. “I don’t know what to do.”

If Guerra does not appear Friday, Banales said he would likely appoint a temporary replacement.

The chance for further delay frustrated a courtroom packed with attorneys. Even though Banales said he would not hear their motions until Friday, they argued the indictments were improperly handled and the product of a vindictive prosecutor. All of the defendants had filed motions to dismiss indictments. They complained that Guerra had time to talk to the media about the indictments Tuesday, but did not show up for court Wednesday.

David Oliveira, Canales’ partner, said after the hearing, “the news media told him there was a hearing today and he ran.” Canales asked Banales to consider holding Guerra in contempt. Canales said if Guerra shows up Friday, he will put him on the stand.

The highest-profile indictment charges Cheney and Gonzales with engaging in organized criminal activity. It alleges that the men neglected federal prisoners and are responsible for assaults in the facilities.

The grand jury traced a sketchy line between Cheney’s influence over the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, which oversees the county’s federal immigrant detention center, and his substantial holdings in the Vanguard Group, which invests in private prison companies.

Combining those interests, the grand jury accused Cheney of a conflict of interest because the more the prison companies were paid to hold inmates, the better he did financially.

“It is appalling to find that numerous elected officials from different levels of our government throughout our country to our U.S. Vice President Richard B. Cheney, defendant, are profiting from depriving human beings of their liberty,” the indictment said.

The indictment accuses Gonzales of stopping an investigation into abuses at the federal detention center.

Canales filed two motions Wednesday accusing Guerra of “prosecutorial vindictiveness” and of not presenting the indictments to the trial court.

In one motion, Canales said Guerra had hijacked “the grand jury process and disregarded the requirements of the Code of Criminal Procedure designed to protect defendants’ due process rights.”

T. Gerald Treece, a constitutional law specialist and professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, questioned Guerra’s jurisdiction over federal officials and federally-run buildings.

“You can’t have district attorneys across the country bringing charges against federal officials,” Treece said. If there are issues at the federal detention centers, then Guerra should turn the investigation over to the federal government, he said.

And even in a federal probe, Cheney and Gonzales have a “qualified privilege” that would protect them so long as they were acting within their jobs, Treece said.

The attorney for state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., who was indicted on a charge of profiting from his position through his consulting work for private prison companies, said that on the chance the indictment was not dismissed he wanted to go to trial before Guerra’s term ended this year. Banales set a Dec. 8 trial date, if necessary.

“I think it shows that this has just been a game,” Michael Cowen, Lucio’s attorney, said of Guerra’s absence after the hearing.

At times Wednesday it did seem like a bizarre game.

Since District Clerk Gilbert Lozano is under indictment, Banales decided he needed to appoint a temporary replacement to handle the cases. He asked Lozano for a recommendation, but Lozano said his top deputy is a witness and his next choice was out of town. Banales instead turned to his left and gave the job to a clerk from the 197th district, whose boss District Judge Migdalia Lopez is also under indictment.

Some attorneys argued that Banales may not even have the authority to schedule an arraignment because the indictments before him were invalid. One lawyer said Guerra never should have been allowed to present the cases to the grand jury because at least four of the indictments deal with people who had some role in the investigation of his office last year.

“He is the witness, the victim and the prosecutor,” said the attorney for Mervyn Mosbacker Jr., a former U.S. attorney who was appointed special prosecutor to investigate Guerra.

Lozano, the county clerk, District judges Janet Leal and Lopez, and special prosecutors Mosbacker and Gustavo Garza, a longtime political opponent of Guerra, were all indicted on charges of official abuse of official capacity and official oppression.

The grand jury tied all of their charges to an earlier investigation of Guerra’s office.

Banales dismissed an indictment against Guerra last month charging him with extorting money from a bail bond company and using his office for personal business. An appeals court had earlier ruled that Garza was improperly appointed as special prosecutor to investigate Guerra.

After Guerra’s office was raided as part of the investigation early last year, he camped outside the courthouse in a borrowed camper with a horse, three goats and a rooster. He threatened to dismiss hundreds of cases because he believed local law enforcement had aided the investigation against him.

Guerra has been in office nearly 20 years, but was defeated for re-election in the March Democratic primary.

© 2008 The Associated Press

Source / AP / Houston Chronicle

Also see Ritmo: Inhumane Texas Detention Center Should be a Crime. Cheney or No Cheney. by Will Bunch / The Rag Blog / Nov. 19, 2008

And Cheney and Gonzales Indicted in Texas : Abuse of Federal Prisoners / The Rag Blog / Nov. 18, 2008

Thanks to S. M. Wilhelm / The Rag Blog

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Thorne Dreyer : Our Progressive Opportunity

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

New Start / mogallery.com.

‘Millions have been newly engaged and motivated as a result of the recent electoral process and most are not traditional players who automatically buy in to the traditional assumptions.’
By Thorne Dreyer / The Rag Blog / November 20, 2008

History has taken an unexpected turn and, astounding as it may seem to those of us made numb by decades of disappointment, the possibility of building a viable progressive movement is before us.

Millions have been newly engaged and motivated as a result of the recent electoral process and most are not traditional players who automatically buy in to the traditional assumptions. Add to that the critical and tantalizing fact that these people need not fall back into the woodwork thanks to the unprecedented communications networks that we now have at our disposal.

The emergence and consolidation of a serious progressive movement is nowhere near a given, and we certainly have a tradition of blowing it — especially through turning in on ourselves rather than intelligently identifying and directing our energies at the real enemy — but we’d be fools not to bust our butts trying to make it happen.

We must recognize and be tolerant of our differences in ideology and approach, but we must also recognize that our only power is in unity. It is not only our right but our responsibility to address the Obama presidency with a critical eye; we must always hold Obama accountable to a progressive vision.

But we must likewise be supportive and leave the Obama-bashing to those who are best at it — the rabid right. The resurgent clout of the racists and the fear-mongers will be underestimated only at our serious peril.

The crises we face now scream of catastrophic potential and there may not be another chance.

Rag Blog reading list on the task at hand (much more to come):

I highly recommend that everyone read Carl Davidson’s Bumpy Road Ahead: Obama and the Left posted on The Rag Blog Nov. 18, 2008.

Few of us will agree with every word, but I believe it to be a bold and thoughtful beginning. Please join in the discussion by clicking the “comments” at the end of this (and every) post.

Other articles recently published on The Rag Blog that analyze the election from a left perspective and address the question of the day: what do we do now?

Robert Jensen : Real Hope: Facing Difficult Truths About an Uncertain Future by Robert Jensen / The Rag Blog / Nov. 18, 2008

‘Two Party’ or Not ‘Two Party’ : A Rag Blog Discussion on Change with articles by David P. Hamilton and Scott Trimble / The Rag Blog / Nov. 16, 2008

Bert Garskof on the Obama ‘Movement’ : Shoot Where the Ducks are by Bert Garskof / The Rag Blog / Nov. 10, 2008

Paul Buhle : The American Elections of 2008: A First Take by Paul Buhle / The Rag Blog / Nov. 8, 2008

Makani Themba-Nixon : A Black Woman Looks at the Election by Makani Themba-Nixon / The Rag Blog / Nov. 8, 2008

Obama Presidency : What the Left Should Expect by David P. Hamilton / Nov. 8, 2008

Ayers Seems Relieved That the Election is Over by Bill Ayers / Nov. 7, 2008

The Crash of 2008 : More ‘Washington as Usual’ Under Obama? by Dr. S. R. Keister / The Rag Blog / Nov. 7, 2008

Ron Ridenour on Obama : Conditional Hope from Across the Seas by Ron Ridenour / The Rag Blog / Nov. 6, 2008

Tim Wise : Tuesday Night Obama Made History; Now the Work Begins by Tim Wise / Nov. 5, 2008

Paul Buhle : FDR, Obama and a new Popular Front by Paul Buhle / The Rag Blog / Nov. 5, 2008

Michael Moore : Pinch Me! by Michael Moore / Nov. 5, 2008

[Thorne Dreyer was a pioneering underground journalist in the sixties and seventies and was active with SDS in Texas and nationally. He lives in Austin where he works with MDS/Austin and Progressives for Obama. A writer, editor and bookseller, he is a contributing editor to Next Left Notes and is co-editor of The Rag Blog.]

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Barack Obama on Climate Change : Crystal Clear

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer


‘Obama on the environment is why I managed to “stuff it” over FISA, the Clintons, and everything else that was upsetting in the campaign.’
By Thomas Cleaver / The Rag Blog / November 19, 2008

See ‘Obama sends clear message on global warming’ by Steve Benen, and Video, Below.

This is refreshing.

This past summer, going through boxes of books in the garage, I ran across my copy of “The Limits to Growth,” by the Club of Rome, published in 1974, and a text for my MPA in Environmental Management. At the time, the book was excoriated for being “commie trash” and “alarmist.” I sat down and read it again, and EVERY ONE of the forecasts it had for events over the next 30 years (i.e., through 2004) can be seen in 34 years of hindsight as either dead-on or conservative.

Obama on the environment is why I managed to “stuff it” over FISA, the Clintons, and everything else that was upsetting in the campaign. Let’s remember that the nearest identified planet is 24 light years away (500 years one-way at maximum possible sub-light speed), and is like Jupiter. There are no identified planets anywhere that humans could live on, in this solar system or any other discovered so far. This little blue jewel in the vastness and blackness of space is all we’ve got.

Obama sends clear message on global warming
By Steve Benen / November 18, 2008

A two-day gathering called the Bi-Partisan Governors Global Climate Summit convened this morning in Los Angeles, and Barack Obama made an unexpected video presentation, vowing a “new chapter in American leadership on climate change.”

If you can’t watch clips online, the Washington Post has a full transcript of the text, but I’d note that Obama offered unambiguous remarks on the issue, criticizing the federal government’s recent failures, touting a federal cap and trade system, promising to “invest $15 billion each year to catalyze private sector efforts to build a clean energy future,” and citing specific annual targets on emission reductions.

Obama also spoke to the international delegations (12 counties sent representatives to this week’s event) on hand in L.A. “Let me also say a special word to the delegates from around the world who will gather in Poland next month: your work is vital to the planet,” Obama said. “While I won’t be President at the time of your meeting and while the United States has only one President at a time, I’ve asked members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to report back to me on what they learn there. And once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations, and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change.”

In other words, don’t worry about that Bush guy; hope is on the way.

As Greg Sargent noted,”Pretty refreshing to have an adult as incoming president.”

Source / Political Animal / Washington Monthly

A New Chapter on Climate Change

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Homophobia : The Great Unifier

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

Button: Rainbow Youth Niagra.

‘That complete strangers could be so unequivocally united in their homophobia was a chilling reminder that hatred of queers is not quarantined to one community.’
By Luna M. Yasui

On Nov. 5, I awoke to the uncomfortable realization that more Californians had voted to protect the living conditions of chickens than to preserve my civil rights. Chickens deserve a good life; they bring exquisite joy when fried up and served with a side of biscuits. I may not be as delicious, but why hate?

My bittersweet post-Election Day was foreshadowed by this street corner exchange near my polling site: on Election Day, I joined a few young queer women of color in handing out No on 8 flyers at my polling place. (Yes, I was a safe, non-electioneering 100 feet from the polls.) A construction crew of men approached two of the women and informed them that in order to protect their children, they had voted yes on 8. The posse of men then sat on a stoop to enjoy their sandwiches and entertained themselves by tossing homophobic slurs our way. Soon after, we were brushed back from the curb by a roaring SUV, full of venomous, epithet-screaming young men. The construction crew joined the jeering. Men of color in worn work boots and doo-rags echoed the hate spewed by the SUV-riding white men in baseball caps and polo shirts. Homophobia the great unifier, bridges fashion and racial divides.

It was just one incident, but my hopes died somewhere in that convergence of vitriol. That complete strangers could be so unequivocally united in their homophobia was a chilling reminder that hatred of queers is not quarantined to one community.

Yet, that was not the post-Election Day message, for every failed campaign must find a scapegoat. I wanted to revel in the promise of a New Day full of Hope and Change, but instead was confronted with the tired old Blame Black People mantra. “Seventy percent of African Americans voted Yes on 8!” went the indignant assertions by the liberal and not so liberal media. Culled from one exit poll of 2,240 voters, this “finding” was based on the responses of a mere 224 African American voters. Some 224 people speak for the entire African American electorate in California? The poll only included 90 African American men — too few to produce any statistics.

For the sake of argument, let’s accept this 7 out of 10 statistic. According to the U.S. Census, African Americans are 6.7 percent of the entire California electorate — that’s 2.3 million people. White people comprise 43 percent, or 22 million people. Our “venerable” exit poll says white people were evenly split on 8, which means about 11 million white people voted Yes on 8. Simple arithmetic reveals… whoa… way more white people voted Yes on 8. Wait… that’s almost five times the entire black electorate.

If we want to play the blame game with this exit poll, the groups to blame for the passage of Proposition 8 are white Republicans (82 percent for Prop. 8) and voters of all races who attend church on a weekly basis (84 percent for Prop. 8).

I’ve also heard a few Asian Americans attempting to claim Moral Model Minority status based on our purported majority opposition to Proposition 8. To them, a few words of caution: always be wary of polls that lump all Asian Americans together. Some 134 “Asians” polled represent the ever-mythical unified Asian America? As the most ethnically and linguistically diverse racial group in the United States, we are rarely, if ever, one blended happy South Asian-Filipino-Chinese-Japanese-Tongan-Samoan-Vietnamese-American family. Talk to your parents, aunts, uncles or born-again cousin about queerness lately? Catch the hundreds of Yes on 8 Chinese Christians rallying in Portsmouth Square Park? There’s a lot of in-house work to do.

Every community has its homophobes — even in San Francisco 24 percent of the voters approved of Prop. 8. That’s right, 1 in 4 residents of the purported “Gay Mecca” voted to discriminate against gays and lesbians.

A majority of California voters decided to write discrimination into the state constitution. If questionable exit polls tell us anything, it is that homophobia is everywhere. It is not confined to a single race, religion or county. So let’s quit the blame game and start confronting the hate and homophobia embedded in each of our lives. Then, maybe next time California votes on my rights, I’ll fare as well as the chickens.

[For more than a decade, Luna Yasui has worked as an attorney and organizer on behalf of low-wage immigrant workers, communities of color, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The views expressed in the preceding commentary are not necessarily those of the Nichi Bei Times. The Nichi Bei Times is a Japanese American news weekly.]

Source / Nichi Bei Times / Posted Nov. 13, 2008

Thanks to Jeff Jones / The Rag Blog

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Note to Self : Pot May Actually HELP the Memory

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

OR NOT!!

Researchers at Ohio State say that THC ‘can reduce inflammation in the brain and might even stimulate the production of new brain cells.’
By Mary Ann Roser / November 19, 2008

How many Baby Boomers have blamed pot smoking for their forgetful middle-aged memories?

As a Boomer myself, I was surprised to read this today: Researchers at Ohio State University say they are accumulating mounting evidence that certain properties in a legal drug that mimics marijuana can be good for the aging brain and might prevent Alzheimer’s disease. They contend that properties like those in tetrahydrocannabinol — or THC, the active ingredient in marijuana — can reduce inflammation in the brain and might even stimulate the production of new brain cells.

It is believed that chronic inflammation in the brain contributes to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a news release about the research on EureakAlert, a resource for journalists.

“Could people smoke marijuana to prevent Alzheimer’s disease if the disease is in their family?” asked lead researcher Gary Wenk, professor of psychology at Ohio State. “We’re not saying that, but it might actually work. What we are saying is it appears that a safe, legal substance that mimics those important properties of marijuana can work on receptors in the brain to prevent memory impairments in aging. So that’s really hopeful.”

So far, his team has shown that a man-made THC-like drug can improve memory in rats. But that’s not the same thing as proving it works in humans, which will take more time and more research.

And here’s another caution: The research has not been published. It merely is being described in a poster presentation today at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C. But that’s a first step, and it’s interesting.

Source / Statesman.com

Thanks to Jim Baldauf / The Rag Blog

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Detroit Bailout : We Can Save Capitalism But We Can’t Tell it to Behave

Posted on November 19, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

Streetcar in Portland: Detroit killed the streetcar system. Photo by Steven Nehl / The Oregonian.

‘We need government to chain down capitalism and set up rules that force it to start using its innovative powers for the public benefit.’
By Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / November 19, 2008

I sort of focus on transportation, energy, and economics and obviously have strong opinions on related issues.

The thread of continuity running through current government policy is that (A) we have the responsibility to save capitalism like in Detroit but (B) we have no right to dictate the rules for how capitalists must behave — now that they have nearly run the UKS whole US industrial system into the ground.

That thinking is absurd; we provide the money and we have every right to call the tunes to prevent even greater disasters.

As for Detroit, they killed the streetcar system to the point that I hear there is only ONE manufacturer still building light rail cars in the whole USA (Siemens in California), and they are way overbooked on orders.

If Detroit built tanks and bombers during WWIII, it can certainly refocus on what most transpo experts agree we now need — a strong rail program to deal with global warming and peak oil. Just because the oil price has suddenly collapsed due to a world recession does not mean that world oil production won’t continue to decline and soon enough leave us in even worse shape.

We need government to chain down capitalism and set up rules that force it to start using its innovative powers for the public benefit, rather than enslaving us to the demands of what has become what James Galbraith calls a “Predator State”.

In other words, we need to demand DEEP CHANGE in our government philosophy, away from privatization, based on public need and expert opinion unsullied by special interest influence.

Will Obama challenge capitalism even as much as FDR? We don’t know yet. We only know that our very survival depends on him doing so. We need to demand that public control needs to replace the greed and anarchy of a system that has spun out of control, and has indeed invented numerous tricks and tactics to shield itself from democratic control (try fighting the Texas road lobby and you’ll see what I mean).

The Rag Blog

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Neil Young : How to Save a Major Automobile Company

Posted on November 19, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer


‘We need visionary people now with business sense to create automobiles that do not contribute to global warming.’
By Neil Young

See ‘Neil Young’s car heads west’ by Chris Frank and Video, Below.

Find a new ownership group. The culture must change. It is time to turn the page. In the high technology sector there are several candidates for ownership of a major car and truck manufacturer. We need forward looking people who are not restricted by the existing culture in Detroit. We need visionary people now with business sense to create automobiles that do not contribute to global warming.

It is time to change and our problems can facilitate our solutions. We can no longer afford to continue down Detroit’s old road. The people have spoken. They do not want gas guzzlers (although they still like big cars and trucks). It is possible to build large long-range vehicles that are very efficient. People will buy those vehicles because they represent real change and a solution that we can live with.

The government must take advantage of the powerful position that exists today. The Big 3 are looking for a bailout. They should only get it if they agree to stop building autos that contribute to global warming now. The stress on the auto manufacturers today is gigantic. In order to keep people working in their jobs and keep factories open, this plan is suggested:

The big three must reduce models to basics. a truck, an SUV, a large family sedan, an economy sedan, and a sports car. Use existing tooling.

Keep building these models to keep the workforce employed but build them without engines and transmissions. These new vehicles, called Transition Rollers, are ready for a re-power. No new tooling is required at this stage. The adapters are part of the kits described next.

At the same time as the new Transition Rollers are being built, keeping the work force working, utilize existing technology now, create re-power kits to retrofit the Transition Rollers to SCEVs (self charging electric vehicles) for long range capability up to and over 100mpg. If you don’t think this technology is realistic or available, check out the Progressive Insurance Automotive X prize. Alternatively, check out Lincvolt.com or other examples.

A bailed out Auto manufacturer must open or re-purpose one or more factories and dedicate them to do the re-power/retrofit assembly. These factories would focus on re-powering the Transition Rollers into SCEVs but could also retrofit and re-power many existing vehicles to SCEVs. These existing vehicles are currently sitting unsold at dealerships across America.

Auto manufacturers taking advantage of a government bailout must only sell clean and green vehicles that do not contribute to global warming. No more internal combustion engines that run exclusively on fossil fuels can be sold period.

No Big Three excuses like “new tooling takes time”. New tooling is not a requirement for SCEV transition rollers.

Build only new vehicles that attain the goal of reversing global warming and enhancing National Security.

Government legislation going with the bailout should include tax breaks for purchasers of these cars with the new green SCEV technology. The legislation accompanying the bailout of major auto manufacturers must include directives to build only vehicles that attain the goal of reversing global warming while enhancing National security, and provide the financial assistance to make manufacturing these cars affordable in the short term while the industry re-stabilizes.

Eventually the SCEV technology could be built into every new car and truck as it is being assembled and the stop gap plan described above would have completed its job of keeping America building and working through this turbulent time.

Detroit has had a long time to adapt to the new world and now the failure of Detroit’s actions is costing us all. We pay the bailout. Let’s make a good deal for the future of America and the Planet. Companies like UQM (Colorado) and others build great electric motors right here in the USA. Use these domestic electric motors. Put these people to work now. This plan reverses the flow from negative to positive because people need and will buy clean and green cars to be part of World Change. Unique wheel covers will identify these cars on the road so that others can see the great example a new car owner is making. People want America to win!

This plan addresses the issue of Global warming from our automobiles while enhancing our National Security and keeping Detroit working.

Neil Young, activist (Bridge School, Farm Aid) rock legend, has assembled a team that is in the process of transforming his gargantuan 1959 Lincoln Continental from a gas guzzler into a showcase for green technology and sustainability. The car will be entered into the Automotive X Prize that offers a $10 million prize to develop a vehicle that can get 100 miles per gallon or better. The almost 50 year old Lincoln, one of the biggest, heaviest production cars of all time, has been re-named “Linc Volt” and is the subject of a feature documentary called “Repowering The American Dream” that is now in production under the aegis of Young’s Shakey Pictures.

Source / The Huffington Post / Posted Nov. 13, 2008

Neil Young’s car heads west
By Chris Frank / November 19, 2008

The ’59 Lincoln is from the days of when cars came with lots of chrome, lots of weight and guzzled more 30-cent-a-gallon fuel than a camel in the dessert.

Over the past 14 months, Neil Young has come to Wichita to oversee some of the conversion work and take it for a spin around town.

Now, the car is headed west.

“This is it. This is the very last day in Wichita for probably at least six months,” said Jonathan Goodwin, H-Line Conversions

Goodwin and his crew have turned Young’s Lincoln from a nine mile per gallon car to a car that gets more than 75 miles to the gallon.

They had to completely replace the original engine.

“What we’ve done is installed an electric motor. And this motor generates 500 foot pounds of torque. That’s more than a diesel pickup truck,” Goodwin said.

The car makes a popping sound as the hydrogen bubbles from water are being used to enhance fuel efficiency.

“We’re not at the point of being able to use water as a fuel source yet,” Goodwin said.

They are, however, at the point of using the Lincoln to demonstrate how a car can generate more electricity than it needs to run.

“But you’ll probably want to plug this into your house. Not to power the car, but to actually take your house off the grid,” Goodwin said.

That means instead of taking electricity to recharge the car the way hybrids are now, this car will have electricity left over to power your house.

The Lincvolt is now on its way to California, then later to Las Vegas to demonstrate its capabilities to the world.

Source / KAKE.com

Also see Long May You Run: Neil Young’s Eco-Lincoln by Dan Fost / New York Times / Oct. 29, 2008

Neil Young 1959 Lincoln Electric Car Conversion Project

Thanks to Carl Davidson / The Rag Blog

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