Politics

Senate Vote On Constitutional Amendment Sept 8; Side With The People?

September 6, 2014 Public Citizen, www.citizen.org Organize! Citizens United, Congress, Money As Speech, Politics

Voters across party lines overwhelmingly oppose the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling and strongly support a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision and curb the influence of money in politics, a new bipartisan poll shows. When provided a short description of the amendment, which is scheduled for a Senate vote on Sept. 8, Republicans support the amendment by a roughly two-to-one margin. Notably, voters reject arguments against the amendment by wide margins. The poll was commissioned by Public Citizen and conducted by Lake Research Partners, a Democratic polling firm, and Chesapeake Beach Consulting, a Republican polling firm. The firms conducted a live telephone survey of 800 likely voters between July 26 and July 29. The numbers of Democrats, Republicans and independents polled reflected the proportions of projected likely national 2014 voters from each of those parties. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 3.5 percent. “It’s time for Congress to act on the people’s demand for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and restore our democracy,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “This poll shows that the public, including Republican voters, forcefully rejects arguments from Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Ted Cruz in defense of the status quo.”

Another Election, Another Flood Of Money

September 3, 2014 Russ Choma, Lalita Clozel and Viveca Novak, www.opensecrets.org Educate! Money, Money As Speech, Politics

Americans who have taken advantage of the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year to toss aside overall political contribution limits are one in a million. Actually, they’re slightly fewer than one in a million. Of the 318 million people in the U.S., a whopping 310 donors have given more than the total $123,200 they were allowed to contribute to candidates, parties and PACs before the April McCutcheon v. FEC ruling, a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics shows. This gilded group of donors favors Republicans over Democrats by a two-to-one margin: The GOP has pulled in $33.3 million from the group, Democrats just $15.6 million. That said, there are major funders on both sides of the aisle. The No. 1 donor is philanthropist and retired speech-language pathologist Marsha Z. Laufer, who has given $384,900 to Democrats. Sitting at No. 2 is Charles R. Schwab, founder of the investment firm, who has given $338,900 exclusively to Republican recipients. Many of them believe the Supreme Court got it right. “Anything that opens up the right of citizen to contribute to his or her choice of a candidate for public office… is basically a good thing,” Roy Pfautch, a public affairs consultant from St. Louis, told OpenSecrets Blog. “I now have the opportunity to support whom I want.” Pfautch has donated $165,800 so far this cycle, all of it to Republican recipients, and ranks 97th on the list of individual hard money donors in this midterm election.

Money Continues To Dominate The Politics Of Both Parties

September 3, 2014 Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, www.billmoyers.com Educate! Corruption, Money, Politics

There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart, a poet wrote, and as this year’s summer winds toward its end and elections approach, gratitude is indeed what our politicians have flowing from that space where their hearts should be. As the world burns, our political class whoops it up with the plutocracy, whether in Martha’s Vineyard or at the Kochs’ posh retreat in southern California. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is grateful to his friend Rick Anderson, the CEO of Delta Airlines. In late July, a week after McConnell treated him to breakfast in the Senate Dining Room, checks for McConnell’s super PAC came winging their way from Anderson and his wife, as well as Delta’s political action committee. “This is the kind of rare access that most of us will never experience.” That’s Sheila Krumholz, executive director the Center for Responsive Politics, the campaign finance watchdog. She was talking to National Journal about Delta’s boss dining in first class with McConnell: “Who makes a good enough breakfast companion for a sitting senator in a highly competitive reelection campaign to take time out of their busy day? It never hurts if the person can follow up with a donation, and all the better if it can be a sizable one.”

20 News Sites Kicking Our Generation Into Action

August 25, 2014 Eleanor Goldfield, www.occupy.com Educate! Media, Politics, Youth

At the height of the 2012 presidential election season, Gallup reported that “Americans' distrust in the media hit a new high this year, with 60% saying they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly.” As disappointing as the numbers are, they're not much of a surprise to Americans such as yourself, who have already sought out alternatives to mainstream news sources. Unfortunately, however, most Americans haven't. Television, the home base of mainstream media, remains the primary news source for most Americans regardless of age group, level of education, political affiliation, race or income bracket. Online news sources are becoming more and more popular, as one might expect. But a solid 50% of Americans ages 18 to 65 and over still get the majority of their news from TV – with just over one in five, or 21%, getting their news primarily from online sources. Couple this with the statistical fact that “someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic [political current event] questions correctly – a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all,” and it's no wonder trust is down and cynicism is up when it comes to the news.

Nicholas Heyward Sr. On The Killing Of His Son By NYPD

August 23, 2014 Josmar Trujillo, www.truth-out.org Educate! NYPD, Police, Politics, Violence

Twenty years ago this September, New York Police Department housing cop Brian George shot and killed 13-year-old Nicholas Heyward Jr. The boy was playing with a toy guy with other kids from the housing projects in Brooklyn where they lived when he and George met in the staircase. The City and the district attorney, Charles Hynes, argued that George mistook the toy gun for a real one and did not bring charges against George. Heyward's family and the kids playing with the young boy insisted he dropped the gun before the shots were fired. George never served a day in jail for the death, but the incident sparked 20 years of activism by Heyward's father, Nicholas Heyward Sr. Today, Hynes is facing a grand jury probe for corruption. I met Heyward Sr. at several policing-reform events over the years and worked with him closely as we campaigned against the appointment and return of Bill Bratton to head the NYPD. Bratton was NYPD commissioner at the time Heyward Jr. was killed. He also famously called Heyward and the mothers of Anthony Rosario and Anthony Baez - who joined him as the well-known parent group Parents Against Police Brutality - a "bunch of fools" during an infamous 1995 town hall meeting in the Bronx alongside then-mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Afromaiden: World Sees Ferguson As Example Of US Failed State

August 20, 2014 Ben Piven, www.aljazeera.com Educate! Human Rights, Mass Media, Politics, Racism

It should come as no surprise that the wall-to-wall U.S. coverage of the turmoil provoked by the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, was echoed in the global media. And a quick survey of international coverage of the ongoing protests suggests that it often reflects pre-existing views of the United States. Russian and Iranian media have, perhaps unsurprisingly, printed scathing judgments about the police response to protests in Missouri. One Russian site, Svobodnaya Pressa, coined the term “Afromaidan,” implying that the U.S. is getting a dose of its own medicine for backing anti-Russian Euromaidan rallies in Kiev, Ukraine. The article poked fun at the notion of a land of opportunity, signaling that America’s “race war” proves Washington’s hypocrisy. PressTV in Iran led with the Ferguson story on its website Monday. A news feature quoted an African-American historian referring to “institutionalized racism” in the U.S. and calling the country a “human rights failed state.” And Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Facebook page read Sunday: “Look at what they do to the black community in their own country … . The police may beat them to death over the crime of having dark skins!”

Part II: DoD Data Mining To Track, Kill Activists

August 20, 2014 Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, www.occupy.com Educate! Activism, Data, Politics, Violence

The Pentagon’s multimillion dollar Minerva research program to fund social science research for military applications includes a flagship project established in 2009 at Arizona State University (ASU) to examine “radical” and “counter-radical” Muslim movements in Southeast Asia, West Africa and Western Europe. The project’s "expert wisdom gathering tool," used by academics involved in the project to assess and rank the threat-level from organizations and civil society groups, set its sights on the UK, Germany, France, Europe generally, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. Although purportedly designed to assess Islamic movements, among the 36 UK organizations targeted for ranking on the tool’s "radicalization" scale are several non-Muslim activist groups critical of US, British and Israeli foreign policy. A deeper analysis of the criteria used by the project to label organizations discloses serious deficiencies that tend to cast suspicion of propensity for violence on any group calling for radical social, political or religious change. Conflating violent and nonviolent "radicalism" Explaining the rationale behind the Minerva initiative, program director Dr. Erin Fitzgerald said, “Decreasing terrorism and political violence requires an understanding of the underlying forces that shape motivations and mobilize action. The vast majority of political movements – even only those with seemingly ‘radical’ political philosophies – do not turn violent or destabilize regional security; we want to understand what makes those leading to armed conflict different.”

Democrats Call For Iraq Vote

August 18, 2014 Alexander Bolton, www.thehill.com Organize! Barack Obama, Iraq, Politics, Wars and Militarism

Will the Senate hold a vote less than two months before the midterm elections to authorize military strikes in Iraq? Democrats in both chambers have called for Congress to take action, but it’s a vote Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) almost certainly wants to avoid as he seeks to keep the upper chamber majority in his party’s hands. Democratic strategists warn that voting on a use-of-force authorization before the election could prove disastrous to Democratic candidates in tough races. “The base doesn’t want airstrikes and Democratic swing voters who tend to be more blue-collar don’t want re-involvement in Iraq. So I think many Democrats would face a challenge voting for this thing,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster and strategist. Lake said Democrats are in a box because if President Obama continues military action without congressional approval, that is likely to have political reverberations as well. “The second problem with airstrikes is that if they’re unauthorized all the controversy hurts the president’s job performance numbers, which is bad for Democrats too. You really need the president’s job performance numbers higher,” she said.

Truths And Falsehoods About Ralph Nader’s New Book

August 14, 2014 Bruce E. Levine, www.truth-out.org Strategize! Corporatism, Politics, Ralph Nader

Have progressives made a mistake of lumping all conservatives together and fueling their political energies into hating them? Or are there what Ralph Nader calls "anti-corporatist conservatives," who loathe undeclared, endless wars as much as progressives? And should progressives seek alliances with these anti-corporatist conservatives to oppose unnecessary wars, corporate welfare, NSA violations of our privacy, and many other issues where there is what Nader calls "convergence?" Earlier this year, AlterNet published a C.J. Werleman review of Ralph Nader's new book Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State (Nation Books, 2014), that paints Nader as having lost either his mind or soul and become a dull-witted lackey for the Koch brothers. Yet, Nader's book is endorsed by Robert Reich, Cornell West, and other critical-thinkers on the left (along with conservatives opposing corporate cronyism). Whom should we trust? Before Werleman begins his condemnation of Unstoppable, he assures us, "I like Ralph Nader. I like his politics and I like the causes he has championed," and he lists some of Nader's accomplishments, including auto and highway safety laws, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Indigenous Artist Refuses To Perform For Member Of Parliament

August 13, 2014 CBC News, www.cbc.ca Resist! Arts, Canada, Environment, Politics, Protest

An artist has refused to perform for Nunavut's Member of Parliament, Leona Aglukkaq. Nunavut's Lucy Tulugarjuk was asked to throat sing and drum dance during Aglukkaq's upcoming visit to Fort Smith, N.W.T., where the artist is currently living. But she said she's not pleased with Aglukkaq. She said the MP has not addressed the concerns from Nunavummiut over seismic testing. Some Inuit in Nunavut are furious over the National Energy Board's decision to approve an application to do seismic testing for oil and gas in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait off the east coast of Baffin Island. They're worried wildlife will leave the area. Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq is under pressure from constituents over environmental issues. (CBC) Tulugarjuk said Aglukkaq should be standing up for her people, rather than taking orders from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The Progressive Vision Of Urban America

August 13, 2014 Gary Younge, www.theguardian.com Organize! Chicago, Cities, Elections, Politics

After Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992 one of his key aides, Rahm Emanuel, sat in the campaign’s favourite restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas, venting his frustration at those who had tried to stand in their way. He would call out a name, ram his steak knife into the table and, like Bluto in Animal House, shout “Dead!” Then he would pull the knife out and call another name and stab the table again. Heaven only knows what damage he does to the furniture when he mentions Karen Lewis’s name. Emanuel, who was Barack Obama’s chief of staff, is now mayor of Chicago. Lewis is the head of the Chicago Teachers Union who got the better of him after leading the teachers in a strike two years ago. The two genuinely despise each other. When Lewis took on Emanuel over lengthening the school day, he told her: “Fuck you, Lewis!”; during the strike Lewis branded him a “liar and a bully”. Now Lewis is seriously considering running against Emanuel for the mayoralty next year. People are wearing buttons urging her candidacy and setting up Facebook pages to support her. When she showed up at a civil rights conference two months ago the crowd cheered “Run, Karen, run!”

Reflections On The Maidan And Pro-Autonomy Political Movements In Ukraine

August 12, 2014 Daniel Grigor'ev, www.truth-out.org Strategize! coup, Movement, Politics, Ukraine

Roger Annis: Can you describe the origin of the "Maidan" protest movement that arose last year in central and western Ukraine? What was its social base and program? Daniel Grigor'ev: To begin with, the so-called Maidan movement isn't something untypical for Ukrainian politics. You see, unlike some other post-Soviet countries (including Russia), the Ukrainian bourgeoisie found itself unable to promote any kind of stable, governing agreements. Instead, we see a number of business clans who are constantly fighting with each other in an effort to get the biggest share of national wealth. That's why protests, demonstrations, intense debates and more or less democratic procedures are common there, though it may be very misleading for someone who hasn't yet analyzed the nature of the newborn, post-USSR countries. When it comes to the social base, I think it would be accurate to distinguish two main categories. The first would be mainly Kiev's "middle class" (which isn't a middle class in a European understanding, but a relatively small and extremely privileged group). Apart from considering all the Maidan events as some kind of adventure (or a perfect place to take some selfies), those people provided a number of demands, which say a lot about their viewpoint. For example, we heard about "European choice," "joining the Western world," "becoming a part of civilization" and so on. Those claims seem rather peculiar, given the fact that no one invited Ukraine to become a part of the European Union.

Jimmy Carter: Begin With Recognizing Hamas

August 7, 2014 Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson, www.foreignpolicy.com Educate! Diplomacy, Hamas, Israel, Peace, Politics, Wars and Militarism

Israelis and Palestinians are still burying their loved ones as Gaza's third war in six years continues. Since July 8, when this war began, more than 1,600 Palestinian and 65 Israeli lives have been sacrificed. Many in the world are heartbroken in the powerless certainty that more will die, that more are being killed every hour. This tragedy results from the deliberate obstruction of a promising move toward peace in the region, when a reconciliation agreement among the Palestinian factions was announced in April. This was a major concession by Hamas, in opening Gaza to joint control under a technocratic government that did not include any Hamas members. The new government also pledged to adopt the three basic principles demanded by the Middle East Quartet comprised of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia: nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and adherence to past agreements. Tragically, Israel rejected this opportunity for peace and has succeeded in preventing the new government's deployment in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Quits Over UK Israeli Policy

August 7, 2014 The Telegraph, www.telegraph.co.uk Resist! Gaza, Israel, Politics, United Kingdom (UK)

Baroness Warsi, the senior Foreign Office minister, and Britain's first female Muslim member of the Cabinet, announced her resignation from the Government over Britain's policy on Gaza this morning, saying it is "morally indefensible". Lady Warsi's resignation appeared to have caught No 10 by surprise, with Prime Minister David Cameron currently out of the country on holiday. She wrote in her resignation letter: "My view has been that our policy in relation to the Middle East peace process generally but more recently our approach and language during the current crisis in Gaza is morally indefensible, is not in Britain's national interest and will have a long-term detrimental impact on our reputation internationally and domestically." It comes amid growing unease among some Conservative MPs that the Government has failed to take a firmer line with Israel over its incursion into Gaza in the face of mounting Palestinian casualties. The Telegraph's Tim Stanley said her resignation is "very significant" partly because she is the first member of parliament to step down over a foreign policy point of principle since 2003, despite the UK's at times contentious stance on issues such as arms sales, Syria or Libya in the decade that followed. But it is also significant he said because he thinks "It will spark a debate about the UK's relationship with Israel."

Protests As New Arm Of ALEC Is Announced

August 6, 2014 Candice Bernd, www.truth-out.org Resist! ALEC, Journalism, Politics, Privatization, Texas

Two grassroots activists from North Texas locked themselves inside the lobby of the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Thursday morning, as another two dropped a banner from the upper stories of the hotel to greet lawmakers and corporate officials gathered for the 41st annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Protesters Whytney Blythe and Joshua Carmona were removed by hotel security, within about an hour after they chained themselves inside, and released without charges. State legislators and corporate lobbyist members from across the country will sit on task forces designed to review and vote on conservative "model" legislation that will likely travel from the Dallas Hilton Anatole's luxury conference rooms to official state house chambers, as lawmakers often pass off ALEC model bills as their own. ALEC has generated legislation that advances the interests of its corporate members throughout state legislatures in the United States, as has been well documented, by organizations such as the Center for Media and Democracy. More than 98 percent of the organization's funding comes from corporations and corporate foundations, with the infamous petrochemical billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries, serving as some of the organization's largest donors.

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