Wednesday, May 7, 2008

We know which way you’ll have it (1:39 pm)

If you thought this was bad, get a load of the scoop Eric Schlosser delivers in this New York Times op-ed today.

In an interview, a Burger King executive told me that the company had worked with Diplomatic Tactical Services for years on “security-related matters” and had used it to obtain information about the Student/Farmworker Alliance’s plans — in order to prevent acts of violence. “It is both the corporation’s right and duty,” a company spokesman later wrote in an e-mail message to me, “to protect its employees and assets from potential harm.”

But the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are not dangerous, extremist groups. Both are pacifist, mainstream nonprofits inspired by the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The coalition is supported by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Pax Christi, the Catholic peace movement.

To be clear: Burger King hired a private security company to spy on student activists, all to avoid paying immigrant workers one additional penny per pound of tomatoes picked. Words just can’t describe it.

posted by Adam Doster | start the discussion

The election echo chamber (12:16 pm)

Although it might be the most tedious and unnecessary thing I’ve ever read, this NY Times article does ably prove two things:

1) America has too many pundits, who too often say the same thing with barely different inflections.

2) There’s something very narcissistic about a major news organization writing major news organizations into the news script. It’s hard to imagine anyone reading every line of this article - this paragraph can put a speed addict to sleep:

Even as Mrs. Clinton’s real-vote lead over Mr. Obama in the state dwindled to just 16,000 as later returns came in, the CBS News Web site held on to its headline, “Clinton Wins Ind., Obama Takes N.C.”

But at least halfway in, a small dose of wry perspective on the punditocracy appears:

Of course, the political news media have not exactly showered themselves in glory this year. They have frequently made predictions that have been upended by actual votes from actual people.

Good to be reminded that actual people still figure into this election’s equation.

posted by Jeremy Gantz | start the discussion

Monday, May 5, 2008

The endless, unwinnable war (3:55 pm)

No no no, not that war. This one.

Two new reports, issued Monday by the Sentencing Project in Washington and by Human Rights Watch in New York, both say the racial disparities reflect, in large part, an overwhelming focus of law enforcement on drug use in low-income urban areas, with arrests and incarceration the main weapon.
In 2006, according to federal data, drug-related arrests climbed to 1.89 million, up from 1.85 million in 2005 and 581,000 in 1980 […]

More than four in five of the arrests were for possession of banned substances, rather than for their sale or manufacture. Four in 10 of all drug arrests were for marijuana possession, according to the latest F.B.I. data.

Apart from crowding prisons, one result is a devastating impact on the lives of black men: adult black males are nearly 12 times as likely to be imprisoned for drug convictions as adult white men, according to the Human Rights Watch report.

posted by Adam Doster | 1 comment

Green Zone Spring Breakkkk!!!! (2:01 pm)

This is disgusting.

Forget the rocket attacks, concrete blast walls and lack of a sewer system. Now try to imagine luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos in the heart of Baghdad.

That’s all part of a five-year development “dream list” — or what some dub an improbable fantasy — to transform the U.S.-protected Green Zone from a walled fortress into a centerpiece for Baghdad’s future.

But the $5 billion plan has the backing of the Pentagon and apparently the interest of some deep pockets in the world of international hotels and development, the lead military liaison for the project told the Associated Press.

Ackerman has a nice takedown here. And let’s not forget that while particularly ostentatious, this development trend is nothing new.

What kind of digs do the 600,000 deployed American service members inhabit? U.S. military bases, Gillem writes, “combine the sprawling and segregated patterns of suburbs, the social control so prevalent in nineteenth-century company towns, and the fear-driven enclosure of twentieth-century gated communities.” Through an overview of planning data and case studies of three diverse military bases, he shows that contemporary American outposts are auto-focused, extensively lawned, filled with chain retailers and restaurants, and haphazardly ordered. Features like conformity, consumption and golf dominate the lives of troops overseas, just as they do for their stateside suburban counterparts.

posted by Adam Doster | 1 comment

Burmese Cyclone Death Toll At 10,000 (1:17 pm)

You’re going to find the best coverage at the BBC.

posted by Jarrett | start the discussion

What do you know about Iraq? (10:30 am)

I am ashamed to admit I barely passed Z Magazine’s new 10-question Iraq quiz. I was hoping the answer to this question was ‘b’:

2) If the U.S. spent $1 per day in Iraq, how much would go to repair and humanitarian assistance?

a) 7 cents
b) 13 cents
c) fraction of one penny
d) 1 penny

Of course, I was wrong.

Try your luck.

posted by Jeremy Gantz | start the discussion

Cause of death ‘undetermined’ (8:18 am)

Shades of Gitmo in a must-read article at the NY Times this morning, which details death in America’s patchwork system of immigration detention:

Mr. Bah’s relatives never saw the internal records labeled “proprietary information — not for distribution” by the Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the New Jersey detention center for the federal government. The documents detail how he was treated by guards and government employees: shackled and pinned to the floor of the medical unit as he moaned and vomited, then left in a disciplinary cell for more than 13 hours, despite repeated notations that he was unresponsive and intermittently foaming at the mouth.

I’d rather not live in a country where this can happen with near impunity:

The records leave unclear exactly when or how Mr. Bah was injured in detention. But they leave no doubt that guards, supervisors, government medical employees and federal immigration officers played a role in leaving him untreated, hour after hour, as he lapsed into a stupor.

Be sure to check out this page, which offers a compendium of video, graphics, news reports and documents related to dozens of these horrifying “in-custody” deaths.

Thank God for the Freedom of Information Act. I don’t want to imagine what would never see the light of day without it.

posted by Jeremy Gantz | start the discussion

Friday, May 2, 2008

Bush taking on credit cards? (9:30 am)

I know, I was surprised too.

The Federal Reserve and two other banking regulators are set to unveil today one of the most aggressive efforts in decades to crack down on the credit card industry, prohibiting practices such as arbitrarily raising interest rates on outstanding balances.

The proposed regulations, which could be finalized by year’s end, would label as “unfair or deceptive” practices that consumers have long complained about. That includes charging interest on debt that has been repaid and assessing late fees when consumers are not given a reasonable amount of time to make a payment. When different interest rates apply to different balances on one card, companies would be prohibited from applying a payment first to the balance with the lowest rate.

But I’m with Travis Plunkett.

Travis Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America, said it would be hard to properly assess the proposal until all the details were released.

“The details matter,” he said. “What we don’t know is whether there will be exceptions or limits on what they say they’re going to do. “

Let’s not give Bush any more credit (no pun intended) than he deserves until we see the details.