Remembering others as we celebrate Christmas:

Far to many people are without jobs this Christmas.  The decisions they have made about how to celebrate the holidays are different than they would have made otherwise.  The housing crisis still impacts many people, and the economic outlook remains poor as a result.  Families face foreclosure, doubling up or even homelessness.  Remember the faces of homeless people around the world.  And a particular face of the U.S. recession belongs to homeless children.  To quote from the Reuters story:

How does anyone explain to kids like Aeisha and countless others how they wound up homeless in the world's richest nation?

In a report issued earlier this month, the National Center on Family Homelessness, based in Needham, Massachusetts, said 1.6 million children were living on the streets of the United States last year or in shelters, motels and doubled-up with other families.

That marked a 38 percent jump in child homelessness since 2007. . . 

 

Remember the needs of our Mother Earth.  As the carbon dioxide output soars, the problem of climate change is big enough to be defined an a national security issue.  "Water Poor" Will Suffer Most as Climate Change Hits Cities. To explain how the poor will suffer in India, for example: 

Like many cities in the developing world, Indore's water infrastructure and institutions face the mounting pressures of population and growth and urbanization. Experts worry that global warming will compound these problems, enlarging a category of people they call the "water poor."

Astronauts and cosmonauts are away from their families this Christmas.  The European Space Agency's International Space Station's representative just arrived on orbit.  Andre Kuipers is featured in this story: "Space-Flying Dutchman's Must-Haves: Time, Space Stamps & Cheese," is the headline from a Space.com.  To quote:

The first Dutch astronaut to return to space, André Kuipers is about to begin five and a half months on board the International Space Station (ISS), a mission the European Space Agency named "PromISSe."

<See also, a short slide show: "A Rare Stunning Glimpse Inside the World's Space Programs.">

Finally, if all this news is beginning to depress you, here are 8 Ways To Forget Your Troubles.  My wishes are that you are having happy holidays, and that your 2012 is a good year.

Unexpectedly saddened

. . .  by the death of Christopher Hitchens.  I often disagreed with his views.  Sometimes I would change the channel to watch someone easier to take. But I always admired his capacity for sophisticated thought and his amazing articulation of those ideas.  He died yesterday, according to a Reuters article from which I quote:

British-born journalist and atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens, who made the United States his home and backed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, died on Thursday at the age of 62.
Hitchens died in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of cancer of the esophagus, Vanity Fair magazine said.
"Christopher Hitchens - the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant - died today at the age of 62," Vanity Fair said.
A heavy smoker and drinker, Hitchens cut short a book tour for his memoir "Hitch 22" last year to undergo chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer.
As a journalist, war correspondent and literary critic, Hitchens carved out a reputation for barbed repartee, scathing critiques of public figures and a fierce intelligence.

Over the years I came to admire Hitchens, not for his beliefs or lack of religious belief, but for the sheer power of his mind.  No one in their right mind, except perhaps William Buckley,  would take him on in a face to face debate.  We who watched him over the years would often be rivited as his wonderfully upper crust British accent embellished his authority.  I was not familiar with his writing, but he counted on it as "who he was" to the very end.  The article concludes:

 In his last essay on www.vanityfair.com, dated "January 2012," Hitchens said his illness made him question the saying attributed to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that "Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger."
A painkiller injection just before typing the article titled "Trial of the Will," Hitchens wrote, caused "numbness in the extremities, filling me with the not irrational fear that I shall lose the ability to write. Without that ability, I feel sure in advance, my 'will to live' would be hugely attenuated."

For such a wonderful raconteur to die of esophogeal cancer is terribly ironic.  And that he died not long after writing his last piece for Vanity Fair I find very sad.  He and Steve Jobs (another towering intellect) were too young to be victims of cancer.
How long do we have to wait for a cure for the scourge of early death from cancer?  After all it is 2011.  I am 74 and a breast cancer survivor, soon to be five years.  I am optimistic about my chances because of a very early diagnosis.  But I remain sad because others were not so lucky.
Rest in peace, Mr Hitchens.  I am sorry your voice has been stilled too early.

Additional reading in the Washington Post.

It may be as bad as we fear when it comes to our long recession.

The United States and other nations, for that matter, are far from being out of the woods economically.  Almost half the people in the United States are poor or low income, according to recent census data.  Congress is unable to get its act together and the government may just shut down. Republicans and Democrats differ wildly on the reality of the current situation.  To quote from CBS News, 

Congressional Republicans and Democrats are sparring over legislation that would renew a Social Security payroll tax cut, part of a year-end political showdown over economic priorities that could also trim unemployment benefits, freeze federal pay and reduce entitlement spending.

Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, questioned whether some people classified as poor or low-income actually suffer material hardship. He said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they have gone too far, citing poor people who live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.

A compassion deficit within the Far Right seems apparent.  Politics trumps concern about what is currently happening to the so-called "99%" of us.  Reuters reports that, "Republicans introduced a $915 billion spending bill in the House of Representatives early on Thursday in an attempt to force Democrats to finalize legislation that would keep the U.S. government operating beyond the weekend."  We are again into hostage taking mode. Too many House Members and Senators have been "purchased" by corporate money. Fiscal ignorance and greed abounds.  We are at risk until Congress comes to understand the peril into which they are propelling us.  

Read further and come to your own conclusion.  Joseph Stiglitz, Pulitzer prize winning economist, explained a great deal about our long term economic and fiscal crisis in a recent Vanity Fair article, "A Banking System  Is Supposed To Serve Society, Not the Other Way Around."  HT to @mattyglesias for the article.

Poverty Digest - for Thanksgiving Week, 2011

This from Twitter provoked me to prepare a short digest on the subject of U.S. poverty:

@kfedor79 Ken Fedor

Millions face #poverty without #unemployment benefits. Tell Congress to extend UI benefits now! bit.ly/qf0LnV @usaction #P2

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About the rise in U.S. poverty rates, David Hawkings sent a Roll Call newsletter on Nov. 7 with astounding new figures.  To quote:

POVERTY DATA: The government today increased by 2.9 million its estimate of the number of Americans living in poverty. The new total is 49.1 million, or 16 percent of the population, the Census Bureau said. In September, the agency pegged the numbers at 46.2 million, or 15.1 percent. Much of the increase came because of a recalculation of everyday costs, especially inflation in non-prescription health care items. As a result, the population 65 and older had the biggest poverty jump — to 15.9 percent from 9 percent. But the poverty rate for Hispanics rose to 28.2 percent, surpassing that of African-Americans for the first time.

**********

Newt Gingrich supports child labor as a solution to poverty explains Michael Stickings at The Reaction.

**********

The following chart is from Mother Jones,— "Child Poverty in the Great Recession," By Tim Murphy| Thu Sep. 29, 2011

Latino child poverty has skyrocketed during the recession: Courtesy of Pew Research

**********

Closer to home, in Fort Worth, according to the Star Telegram, the author of a book on poverty is again trying to climb out.

**********

So, as you approach your heavily-laden Thanksgiving table on Thursday, take a moment to reflect.  Some, indeed will still be hungry this Thanksgiving.

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

The Surveillance State(s)

The cliche "big brother is watching you" is now becoming more the reality.  These stories caught my eye just in the last couple of days.


New York's finest, detectives working on gathering intelligence entered church sanctuaries and basements to surveil Occupy Wall Street protestors.  Words and phrases found on Twitter will be data mined for clues to possible uprisings and unrest.  Texas border patrol agents may soon be the recipients of night vision equipment and unmanned drones that come home from the Middle East.  And with U.S. financing, Afghanistan has plans to gather biometric data on all coming and going to or from the country, and eventually will fingerprint, photograph and scan the irises of all Afghans.  Seen together it is a not a picture that matches with our vision of assumptions about freedom, privacy or justice.  Not to mention spending inordinate amounts of public money on such ventures.


Even in Churches, Wall Street protesters can’t escape the watch of police.* (After their encampent in Zucotti Park was destroyed by the highly militarized NYC police department), protestors had been allowed to sleep in welcoming churches. The police entered the churches with the excuse of needing a bathroom.  To quote from the New York Times story, 

. . . demonstrators were sleeping on the cushioned pews of a United Methodist church on the Upper West Side on Thursday morning when one of them spotted a man in plainclothes wandering through the sanctuary, apparently counting heads.

"U.S. Spy Agency to Use Twitter to Forecast Unrest" is the headline.  According to Scientific American, a US intelligence agency aims to forecast unrest by studying . . . social media. This is the use of so-called open source intelligence and it amounts to more widespread domestic surveillance. To quote:

It is every government's dream: a system that can predict future events such as riots, political upheavals and the outbreak of wars.The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), a research arm of the US intelligence community, is sponsoring the work under the Open Source Indicators (OSI) program. The three-year project, with an unspecified budget, is designed to gather digital data from a range of sources, from traffic webcams to television to Twitter. The goal, according to IARPA, is to provide the intelligence community with predictions of social and political events that can "beat the news".

Here is a recent tweet I posted regarding the possiblity of widespread coordination of recent police actions:
GeeCarolNov 16, 4:08pm via HootBar

A long list of possibilities for #OWS raid coordination via DHS | Fusion Center Locations/Contact Information: is.gd/wvMo1Z

Using left-over war-zone equipment along the Texas border is the idea of Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX).  More and more we see evidence that domestic security is becoming militarized.  To quote from the New York Times, 

The Send Equipment for National Defense Act, written by RepresentativeTed Poe, a Republican from Humble, would require that 10 percent of certain equipment returned from Iraq — like Humvees, night-vision equipment and unmanned aerial surveillance craft — be made available to state and local agencies for border-security operations.

Afghanistan has big plans for obtaining biometric data.  And the United States will pay for it.  (Note also recent news of far more widespread demand for identity cards for voting).To quote from the New York Times:

A handful of other countries fingerprint arriving foreigners, but no country has ever sought to gather biometric data on everyone who comes and goes, whatever their nationality. Nor do Afghan authorities plan to stop there: their avowed goal is to fingerprint, photograph and scan the irises of every living Afghan. It is a goal heartily endorsed by the American military, which has already gathered biometric data on two million Afghans who have been encountered by soldiers on the battlefield, or who have just applied for a job with the coalition military or its civilian contractors.The Kabul airport program is also financed by the United States, with money and training provided by the American Embassy. Americans, like all other travelers, are subject to it.

*In conclusion, for years I have blogged about civil liberties or security.  Despite the fact that "the war on terror" was always a misnomer, Fourth amendment protection from unreasonable search or seizure remains at increased risk for citizens of states becoming more and more militarized.

Rick Perry Roundup

Every day I receive a number of news feeds.  I save them in Gmail and often do a search of these newslteers to see what dominated the news opinion about a certain subject.  Today's theme is Governor Rick Perry, Republican of Texas.

Having lived in the state all of my adult life, I watched its evolution from a Democratic to a Republican dominated state.  And it has been painful because I am a progressive Democrat.  And my Republican governor has decided to run for POTUS.  Here are a few items to help you understand why I am embarrassed by his attempt. 

The loner from the Lone Star state - I have taken this paragraph from CQ Homeland Security Behind the Lines for Friday, Nov. 11, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly.  To quote:

“If the White House is out,” besieged GOP wannabe prez Herman Cain has “a future in airport security,” National Journal’s Theresa Poulson headlines — while Indybay’s Juan Batista alleges that also-running Rick Perry once “sought the support of the Republic of Texas militia, which has a long history of terrorism,” and Calvin Woodward’s Associated Press issues round-up hears the Texas gov terming it “unprincipled” for Republicans to have voted to create DHS. In Wednesday’s debate, meantime, libertarian long shot Ron Paul invoked DHS, natch, as the epitome of overweening federal incompetence, Time Magazine’s Michael Sherer summarizes.

The speedy spin - This is by David Hawkings at Congressional Quarterly  [Nov. 10, 2011]

MAKING THE BEST OF IT: Rick Perry’s campaign quickly found a way to spin his epic “oops” from last night’s debate. This morning the Texas governor’s supporters were greeted by a fundraising e-mail that played up the incident as a “human moment” and announced the creation of an email address — forgetmenot@rickperry.org — where people can send suggestions about which federal agencies should be eliminated.

Perry himself did multiple TV interviews this morning, noting that the third agency he’d eliminate — in addition to the departments of Commerce and Education — indeed would be the Energy Department. (He’s been on the record about the three-department hit list in the past, but couldn’t recall Energy last night.) And what about ending his campaign? “This ain’t a day for quitting nothing,” he told the Associated Press this morning.

In the end, Perry’s forgetfulness squares well with his well-noted disdain for Washington, D.C. And Washington doesn’t have much to offer in return. He hasn’t pursued congressional endorsements with much vigor, and the federal workforce is an unlikely base of support for a candidate who makes no bones about his desire to shrink the government drastically.

It has gone from bad to worse -  This is from David Hawkings at Congressional Quarterly [Nov. 8, 2011]  To quote:

. . . polls out today . . .  An NBC/Wall Street Journal survey found . . . the Rick Perry candidacy slides toward the abyss. He has only 10 percent support now, a drop of 6 points in a month — to fourth place behind Newt Gingrich, who’s up to 13 percent.

 

My senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison Stands by Criticism of Perry.   The story is by Melanie Starkey [from Roll Call Politics, Nov. 7, 2011]

Retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison refused Sunday to soften any of the criticisms she leveled at Texas Gov. Rick Perry when she challenged him in last year’s GOP gubernatorial primary. Full Story

"Read my book" urged the governor at the beginning of his run.  Read a review of Rick Perry's "Fed Up.", from Congress.org[Oct. 17, 2011]

In conclusion, we know our governor will return before long, a bit chastened, I fear.  But I predict he will glad to be home, glad to be out of the blinding glare of national Republican politics.

 

 

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

Reich knows my thoughts:

Since it is less than a year until the U.S. presidential election is held, we are getting more and more into campaign mode.  I do not have to think about for whom I will vote; it will be the incumbant.  But my trip to the polling place will be less enthusiastic than the first time I voted for Senator Barack Obama.  I was not sure why this is the case, but a blog post by Robert Reich gave me the reasons.  To quote (emphasis mine),

Robert Reich (Why We May Be In Store for a Passionless Presidential Race) [Nov. 11, 2011]  To quote:

President Obama will be supported by progressives and the Democratic base, but without enthusiasm. His notorious caves to Republicans and Wall Street — failing to put conditions on the Street’s bailout (such as demanding the Street help stranded home owners), or to resurrect Glass-Steagall, or include a public option in health care, or assert his constitutional responsibility to raise the debt limit, or protect Medicare and Social Security, or push for cap-and-trade, or close Guantanamo, or, in general, confront the regressive Republican nay-sayers and do-nothings with toughness rather than begin negotiations by giving them much of what they want — are not the stuff that stirs a passionate following.

In conclusion, I add a few other Presidential complaints not mentioned by Mr. Reich.  I am disappointed by his failure to roll back the assaults on the Fourth Amendment in the name of national security and by the President's remaining in Afghanistan far too long.   However, I still like the President enormously and think he is doing a great job with foreign policy.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Robert Reich: When Will Wall Street Call for More Federal Spending?
• Robert Reich: The Wall Street Occupiers and the Democratic Party
• Robert Reich: Obama should call for return of Glass-Steagall

More about the direction of Occupy Wall Street

Demanding the the OWS dissenters announce their purpose or agenda is not a good idea at this point. If you cannot determine or infer what is going on with the Occupiers, then you are not reading between the lines well enough.



The best way to learn is to watch the process in action. There is lots of video out there. The other is to read the various news items with an eye for trends, for how they are evolving over time. You might also learn by reading the items for what is bedrock, what stays the same along the way.

Amplify’d from www.mcclatchydc.com

Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2011

Occupy Wall Street is many things, but one thing it's not is partisan

By Gianna Palmer | McClatchy Newspapers

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The Occupy Wall Street protest may be a movement, a momentary phenomenon or something in between, but one thing its most fervent activists insist that it's not is a team of shock troops for any partisan political campaign.

Yet though most activists at Occupy Wall Street claim to be dissatisfied with the state of American government and politics, their views come in many flavors. Some are leftists of the '60s generation, others are curious newcomers to political activism. Still others are Ron Paul supporters, anarchists, or soured Obama campaign volunteers — and many more. How this chorus of interests will evolve politically is, they say, yet to be determined.

Last Wednesday, a group of protesters left for a two-week march to Washington D.C., with plans to arrive by Nov. 23, the deadline for the congressional supercommittee to decide how to deal with federal budget deficits. The activists plan to protest extending the Bush-era tax cuts.

But beyond such singular acts of protest, most Occupy Wall Street activists hope their movement will remain outside formal politics for now. They offer several explanations.

Some say they feel the political status quo is so corrupt, it's best not to engage with it at all. Elisa Miller, 38, a New Orleans resident who came to New York for the protests in late September, said she was personally boycotting the 2012 elections.

Several protesters said they want their effort to avoid being co-opted by or beholden to a particular party or candidate.

Many praised the protests as a space to nurture the exchange of new, progressive political ideas entirely outside of the two-party system.

Others said that the question of what would become of the protests, politically or otherwise, was missing the point.

"The question to me is, what's the right way to come up with an answer to that, based on democratic principles?" said Bray, the press team member.

Or, as one middle-aged woman who wished to remain anonymous said: "The model is the message."

Above all, most protesters said they felt it was simply too early in the organizing process to get involved formally with politics.

Organizers from various working groups echoed this statement, saying that they were now most concerned with the logistics getting their individual groups off the ground. Indeed, the majority of proposals passed so far by the General Assembly here have not been about ideologies, but requests for funding, many related to keeping the physical camp up and running. Proposals for funding storage bins, walkie talkies, and laundry were all approved in October, for example.

One notable exception came on Thursday night, when the General Assembly passed a $29,000 proposal to send a delegation of Occupy Wall Street activists to Egypt to serve as international observers in the country's parliamentary elections later this month. The proposal was sparked by a letter from a coalition of civil society organizations in Egypt, who requested a delegation from Occupy Wall Street. Read more at www.mcclatchydc.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1hyx5

Drill versus Spill

There are recent news stories regarding the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill.   They follow, along with further references.

Gulf Oil Spill? What Gulf Oil Spill? From Mother Jones , by Kate Sheppard, Nov. 9, 2011.  Tweet: "Feds leave Gulf spill out of economic impact analysis for new offshore drilling plan: http://t.co/KY1Ihv3Q .  Also, recent RT @thegoodhuman Government officials have decided to let BP end its cleanup efforts http://t.co/bewwpBHT

Disc Spins Its Way to $1-Million Oil Spill Cleanup Prize -- Is there a better way to clean up the next oil spill disaster? FromScientific American , David Biello reports October 16, 2011.

U.S. blames BP for Gulf spill : from Reuters , by Ayesha Rascoe and Anna Driver Sep 14, 2011. - The United States heaped the lion's share of blame for the country's biggest ever offshore oil spill on BP on Wednesday as the government issued its final assessment of last year's Gulf disaster.

Here is a list of my South by Southwest blog posts written when the story was happening last year:

1. More on the Gulf Oil Spill - 7/29/10
2. On living near the Gulf - 6/27/10
3. Skimming reactions to the Oval Office Speech yields little lubrication for Presidential ego. - 6/16/10
4. Updating the energy lexicon - 6/15/10
5. Presidential field trip full of potential - 6/14/10
6. Above and Below - Worlds Far Apart? - 5/21/10
7. Contra catastrophe - 5/19/10

Other references:
Deepwater Oil Spill - McClatchy Newspapers
Deepwater stories, etc. - Huffington Post
Deepwater Horizon oil spill - Wikipedia

Related articles

• BP to end cleanup operations in Gulf oil spill (guardian.co.uk)
• New Documentary Says Gulf Oil Spill Crisis Isn't Over (forbes.com)
• How To Put A Value On Oil Damaged Life In The Gulf (npr.org)
• Gulf Oil Threatens an Underwater 'Rain Forest' (time.com)

Some Legal Thoughts For Today

Image via Wikipedia

Today is Monday, November 7, 2011 - It is a good day to be alive, despite the bad things that are happening.  What I have read in the news this morning raises for me a number of important questions in the legal realm.

As the Feds seek unfettered GPS surveillance power as location-tracking flourishes, I feel alarmed at the growth of domestic sureillance in our day to day lives.  Tomorrow the Supreme Court of the United States will hear arguments about whether law enforcement can attach a GPS tracking device to a vehicle without a probable cause warrant from a judge.  Where is the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection? As Wired blogger David Kravets wrote,

Technology has advanced since both of these cases, feeding the government’s growing hunger for cost-efficient, easy-to-use spy tools, and making the latest debate before the justices seem Orwellian. Today, one’s exact position on Earth can easily be secretly monitored with devices costing less than $200. Add to this the government’s argument in court briefs that “a person has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another,” and you have the makings for widespread, unchecked surveillance.

The Implications of DOJ’s FOIA “Lies,” according to blogger emptywheel, have all kinds of possibilities for the abuse of our civil liberties.  How is it that the government can lie when it comes to matters involving the lega lights of citizens?  To quote and list:

. . . the practice of DOJ for nearly a quarter century to provide misleading information in response to FOIAs asking for certain kinds of information–broadly, ongoing investigations, informants, and foreign intelligence. In this post I want to consider how the practice may be ripe for abuse.

1. Ongoing Legal Investigation - The first exclusion–for information that might tip the subject of an investigation into a potential crime to that investigation and therefore lead her to, for example, destroy evidence–makes a bit of sense. But it seems ripe for abuse in several ways.
2. Informants - The second exclusion prevents people from asking for information on people they suspect might be informants by name. So, for example, if a peace group thinks Joe Smith asks too many question about group members’ pot smoking and therefore might be an informant, their FOIA request for information on him could be excluded.
3. Classified FBI records on “foreign intelligence or counterintelligence, or international terrorism” - As with the other two exclusions, there’s some logic to the third, covering classified FBI records on foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, or international terrorism. . . . logic held before 9/11 turned the “foreign intelligence” category into a giant grab bag.

A Pennsylvania man gets jail for paying judges for favors, according to this (11/5/11) Reuters story.  This is one of the dangers that come in when we make something the State should do on its own into a profit-making scheme. How is it that anyone should profit for providing juvenile detention?  Here are the pertinent details:

A . . . man who owned for-profit juvenile detention centers was sentenced to 18 months in prison . . . for paying judges to send youths to his facilities in a so-called "kids for cash" scheme. Robert Powell, 53, a former trial lawyer . . . also must pay $60,000 for his involvement in the scheme. He was found guilty in 2009 of paying $770,000 in kickbacks to then-judges Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan, who in return sent youths to his detention centers.

Mississippi [is] to decide if [a] fertilized egg is a human being on Tuesday.  If the proposition wins it could put women's lives in jeopardy, threaten birth control and would certainly be legally challenged in many different ways.  Will it truly put Roe vs. Wade in the biggest danger since it was adopted? Reuters has the story.

Mississippi . . . could be the first state in the nation to define a fertilized egg as a person, a controversial concept aimed at outlawing abortion, some types of birth control and infertility methods that result in the loss of embryos. The so-called "personhood amendment" to the state constitution represents a twist in strategy for anti-abortion efforts, which have notched great success across the country this year with dozens of new restrictions put into law.

From a constitutional, ethical or procedural point of view, these news stories raise important questions.  What questions do you have?

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

Related articles

• Ex-owner of Pa. youth lockups gets 18 months (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Obama Justice Dept. Looking to Legalize Perjury? (pjmedia.com)
• Who's on the Intelligence Oversight Board? Government Won't Say (eff.org)