Monday, November 30, 2009

Weekly Diaspora: Autumn Holiday Edition (10:18 am)

Ed. Note: This week’s Diaspora is short because of the holidays. We’ll be back to full-length next week.

Last Tuesday, Amy Traub dismantled a few harmful myths about immigrants for The Nation. Traub takes on the old ‘immigrants steal our jobs’ myth, saying it “holds no water.” Immigrants of both documented and undocumented status help the economy, and their energy and efforts create jobs that would not exist without their participation. Traub makes a crucial connection clear: Immigrants are a boon to the economy, and “U.S. natives gain $37 billion a year from immigrants’ participation” in the U.S. workforce.

In AlterNet, Timothy Noah outlines the cost of denying immigrants health insurance, dubbing the overall effect a “Nativist Tax.” If we begin restricting the access immigrants have to health care, why not bar them from other parts of society? Why not bar them from the hospital altogether? Why not prevent them from buying milk at the corner store? It’s the beginning of what could be a bad chain reaction.

Katherine Vargas describes her own naturalization ceremony for the Progressive. It’s a good read. Vargas writes that citizenship is not, to her, only about apple pie and baseball, or even the paper we call a passport. To Vargas, citizenship is the ability and right to participate in the political process and take part in the history of the country.

New America Media covered the “Phone Call Heard Around the Country,” a nationwide teleconference on the approaching year and immigration reform. “Tens of thousands” of callers were connected, and on the call—which turned telephones on speakerphone into “de-facto radios” around which so many gathered—legislators urged listeners to “call their members of Congress and ask for action on immigration reform.”<

Finally, for some light fare, Wiretap Mag features a “humorous—albeit problematic—parody” of the immigration issue.

I understand why Wiretap deems it problematic. The cartoon tries to create a perfect parallel between the conquest and decimation of the North American indigenous population in the 1600s by Europeans with today’s economically displaced immigrants (who are, themselves, often indigenous, or descended from the indigenous). In this way, it... read more

posted by Nezua | 1 comment

Friday, November 27, 2009

Weekly Mulch: Countdown to Copenhagen (12:36 pm)

On Wednesday, President Obama pledged to cut U.S. carbon emissions “in the range of” 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. Obama also confirmed that he will attend the international climate conference in Copenhagen next month, as Aaron Wiener notes for the Washington Independent. But here’s the catch: It’s a one-day deal. Obama is only planning to stop by Copenhagen on Dec. 9 before flying to Oslo to accept his Nobel Piece Prize. The climate talks, on the other hand, span Dec. 7 to Dec. 18.

Still, Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly writes that “Obama’s in-person lobbying efforts will give the talks a boost, and signal to the world that the United States intends to lead.”

Obama also announced plans to send a large delegation to Copenhagen, including his “Green Cabinet,” notes Talking Point Memo’s Christina Bellatoni. Former Vice President and global warming expert Al Gore will also attend the conference. Gore wrote that “[Obama’s attendance] is another example of the significant change in policy on the climate crisis…Those who feared that the United States had abdicated its global responsibility should take hope from these actions and work towards completing a strong operational agreement next month in Copenhagen and guidelines for negotiators to complete their work next year on a comprehensive treaty.”

Meanwhile, climate skeptics had a field day last Friday after hundreds of private emails from prominent climate scientist Phil Jones were leaked. Naysayers claim that the emails suggest that climate scientists have overstated how much humans impact climate change. In the video below, the Real News reports that Jones stands by the data but admits that his emails were poorly worded.

Finally, in Mother Jones, Tristram Stuart suggests how we can be less wasteful this Thanksgiving. According to Stuart, about 50% of all food in the U.S. is wasted, which is “enough to feed all the hungry people in the world three times over.” Yikes! Although the biggest food wasters are farms, restaurants, supermarkets and warehouses, there are ways that the average consumer can conserve more. When looking at expiration dates, it is key to know the difference between... read more

posted by Raquel Brown | 1 comment

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Weekly Pulse: Crunch Time in the Senate (10:38 am)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is determined to get a health care bill passed in the Senate by Christmas.

This is a momentous time, as John Nichols writes in The Nation:

…Harry Reid has a health-care reform bill, and it is advancing. Indeed, with Saturday night’s 60-39 Senate vote to open a historic debate on the measure, the movement humanize America’s healthcare system — which began almost 70 years ago — is closer to a congressional breakthrough than at any time in its history.

It won’t be a cakewalk, though. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has famously threatened to torpedo the bill if it includes a public option. This week he tried to rewrite history. “This is a kind of 11th hour addition to a debate that’s gone on for decades,” Lieberman told reporters that “Nobody’s ever talked about a public option before. Not even in the presidential campaign last year.” Brian Beutler sets the record straight at Talking Points Memo: In fact the Obama campaign’s health policy white paper explicitly called for the creation of a public option.

According to Mike Lillis in RH Reality Check, progressive senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is feeling optimistic about the public option’s prospects.

Also in RH Reality Check, reproductive health policy analyst Jessica Arons reports that the merged Senate bill does not call for the much-debated abortion restrictions encoded in the Stupak amendment to the House bill.

In the Progressive, Ruth Conniff takes a closer look at the controversy over the latest mammogram guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a commission appointed by the Department of Health and Human Services. Compared to the old guidelines, the new recommendations suggest that women start getting regular mammograms later and wait longer in between screenings.

Liberals and conservatives are accusing the federal government of cheating women out of preventative care to save money. But as Conniff explains, more mammograms aren’t necessarily better. There’s just not much statistical evidence that screening women in their forties saves lives. In this age group, regular mammograms are more likely to generate hair-raising false alarms than lifesaving discoveries. Furthermore, mammograms use... read more

posted by Lindsay Beyerstein | start the discussion

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Weekly Audit: Unemployment Fueling Political Storm (10:26 am)

Unemployment figures in the U.S. are staggering: The official rate stands at 10.2%, the highest in 26 years. A broader measure that includes people who are involuntarily working part-time or who have given up looking for work is at 17.5%. That’s a full-blown economic emergency.

But, as Joshua Holland explains for AlterNet, President Barack Obama’s response to the unemployment crisis has not matched the urgency of his response to the crisis on Wall Street. This isn’t just unfair, it’s bad economics.

“It’s important to understand that the economic crisis in which we find ourselves is not just a function of a shaky financial system but of a crash in consumption that’s come along with the evaporation of $14 trillion worth of the wealth of American families,” Holland writes.

Widespread joblessness can be every bit as damaging to the economic structure as a financial crisis. When people are out of work, they buckle down on household expenses. When several million people cut back at the same time, the economic machine grinds to a halt. If people are not buying and selling stuff, the economy isn’t working.

As Mary Kane explains for The Washington Independent, about 40% of families don’t have enough money to cover expenses through a three-month stretch of unemployment—even if one member of the household is receiving unemployment benefits. Kane highlights a Brandeis University study that reveals the haggard state of the American household and the unfair distribution of wealth along racial lines. A full 66% of African-American and Latino families can’t afford three months without work. At a time when 5.6 million workers have been jobless for at least six months, the study highlights just how dire finances have become for many households.

GRITtv’s Laura Flanders discusses potential labor market remedies with economist Dean Baker and The Nation’s John Nichols. Baker suggests a work-share arrangement, in which employers cut back on their workers’ hours to allow more people to work. To prevent losses for households, the government would step in and pay for the shortfall in hours. Employers would have more part-time jobs available, but the government would make... read more

posted by Zach Carter | 2 comments

Friday, November 20, 2009

Weekly Mulch: No Treaty in Copenhagen? (11:08 am)

Last weekend in Singapore, President Barack Obama acknowledged that a comprehensive international climate deal will not be reached during the climate change summit in Copenhagen. While many might view this as a letdown, lowering expectations might actually be a good thing, as Matthew Yglesias notes for the American Prospect. According to Yglesias, the conference can now be framed as a relative success whatever happens, and that will keep the momentum for climate action going after Copenhagen.

Now that the conference is no longer a shoe-in failure, it’s more important than ever that the president is on hand. Obama’s attendance will signify that the his administration is committed to passing climate legislation through the Senate.

In the video below, The Real News notes that Obama is simply trying to buy more time. Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, is hopeful that a legally binding treaty that focuses on the clear, main points, like how much to reduce emissions and finance the bill, are still attainable. Even though the Senate has not passed a climate bill, the United States can still play a constructive role in Copenhagen.

But will the international climate summit put any pressure on the Senate to actually pass a climate bill? Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly remains skeptical. “Republican [lawmakers] seem entirely unfazed when told, ‘There’s a health care crisis, and the entire country is waiting for you to be responsible and do your duty,’” writes Benen. “These same lawmakers will soon be told, ‘There’s a climate crisis, and the entire world is waiting for you to take your obligations seriously.’ Will they find this compelling? I suppose time will tell.”

In Mother Jones, Bill McKibben criticizes Obama’s weak leadership on climate change. Rather than applying the necessary political pressure to reach a climate deal, Obama has made climate change a second priority to health care reform. Even worse, the Obama administration conceded a sturdy treaty because it was unrealistic that Senate would pass it. McKibben notes that the “White House is starting to use the Senate in the same way that the Bush... read more

posted by Raquel Brown | 1 comment

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Weekly Diaspora: Fort Hood, Pundits and Immigration Reform (12:01 pm)

First it was immigrants from Mexico, now Muslims in the armed services. After the tragic shootings at Fort Hood, conservative pundits are verbally attacking Muslims and Arab-Americans, much like they have vilified the immigrant community. The complexities of Islamic faith are being glossed over and “Muslim Terrorist” is stamped upon any act of violence involving their community. As a result, nuanced voices are buried in favor of suspicion and violence.

Dr. Riad Z Abdelkarim loves and serves this country, but is lumped in with alleged and actual enemies of the state due to his faith. In an article for The Progressive, Abdelkarim writes about his sense of anger and betrayal over the Fort Hood massacre. He is angry that the perpetrator of such harm is an American and as a doctor. He feels betrayed because the killer practices Islam, which is a beautiful and inspiring faith to Dr. Abdelkarim. “The Fort Hood murders are a huge setback” to the progress that Arab-Americans and American Muslims have made to clear the “guilt by association” that has affected their communities since 9/11, writes Abdelkarim.

The Real News Network also thoughtfully examines the aftermath of Fort Hood. Host Riz Khan gives background on shooter Nidal Malik Hasan and explores the effects of the Fort Hood shooting. Kahn asks “If a Muslim commits a serious crime in America, is that crime seen as that much more deadly?”

The violent culture that many U.S. citizens attribute to Islam and Arab-Americans criminalizes everyday people. For example, a bit of Arabic script led to a frenzied media reaction when Texas border guards found “ski jacket with three unusual patches” in Hebbronville, Texas in 2005. The patches were irresponsibly described as “terrorist garb” by “right wing media,” according to the Texas Observer. “One [patch] featured a lion’s head, a parachute and Arabic script, another an airplane flying toward a tower and the words ‘Midnight Mission.’ The third patch read ‘Daiwa.’”

It all made for a “fine story,” as Melissa Del Bosque writes. But the results were not so dramatic. “Daiwa” is an ad for a “popular fishing company,” the... read more

posted by Nezua | 1 comment

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Weekly Pulse: Bachmann Fan Threatens to Shoot Up Newspaper (11:38 am)

A Michigan woman threatened a Minnesota newspaper with mass murder for criticizing Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)’s anti-health reform rally, reports Paul Schmelzer in the Minnesota Independent:

…A woman in Michigan, angered over a newspaper editorial criticizing Bachmann’s event, threatened to take a gun to the paper and “do what they did at Fort Hood” in response.

How pro-life.

David Corn of Mother Jones reports that Bachmann (R-MN) may also face an ethics investigation for using her taxpayer-funded website to promote the Tea Pary-Superbowl of Freedom, a partisan political rally to defeat health care reform. The Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a non-profit political watchdog, alleges that Bachmann violated a House rule against using official websites for “grassroots lobbying or [to] solicit support for a Member’s position.” She literally told her supporters to come to Washington on Nov 5 and tell their representatives to vote against health reform. That’s textbook grassroots lobbying and a clear no-no for a taxpayer-funded website.

Speaking of pesky rules and regulations, Rep. Bart Stupak’s (D-MI) C Street residence is no-longer tax exempt. Stupak, who became famous for inserting a radical and far-reaching abortion funding ban into the House health reform bill, lives with several other lawmakers at a house on C Street. The house is owned by a secretive fundamentalist sect known as The Family. For years, C Street avoided paying property taxes by claiming to be a church. All that’s over now. Ed Brayton of the Michigan Messenger reports that the IRS has finally figured out that C Street is a dorm.

Alex Koppelman reports in Salon that Stupak is reiterating his threat to kill health care reform if his language is stripped from the final bill:

“They’re not going to take it out,” Stupak said of Senate Democrats during an appearance on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday morning. “If they do, healthcare will not move forward … At least 10 to 15 to 20 of us will not vote for it.”

At Feministing, Jos Truit discusses the Hyde Amendment, a piece of 1976 legislation that bans the use of federal funds for abortions.... read more

posted by Lindsay Beyerstein | start the discussion

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Weekly Audit: Saying ‘No’ to Corporate America (10:09 am)

By proposing financial reforms that won’t curb Wall Street excess, U.S. policymakers have offered an unacceptably weak response to our enormous financial crisis. If voters don’t demand that their elected representatives help workers and consumers instead of simply boosting corporate profits, the economic downturn will last for several more years and leave the economy vulnerable to another bank-induced meltdown.

The banks have unbelievable lobbying clout. In an interview with Cenk Uyger of The Young Turks, Heather Booth, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, describes how one-sided the Wall Street reform fight has been. Despite broad public support for a fundamental financial overhaul, going up against the bank lobby is, as Booth describes, “a David and Goliath fight.” It’s basically Americans for Financial Reform against every major corporation in the U.S.

Booth notes that the Chamber of Commerce has vowed to spend $100 million on a campaign to defend the “so-called free enterprise system”—you know, the “free market”—in which corporate lobbyists spend millions of dollars to write the rules of the economic game. Just seven financial lobby groups have spent a massive $147 million peddling influence over the past two years.

In fact, as Janine Wedel observes for Salon, the U.S. economic system is starting to look an awful lot like the clannish systems of government that looted Eastern European countries in the early 1990s. Today, the public good takes a backseat to the narrow interests of powerful corporations.

With the Obama administration working with advisers from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, we’re not just watching Wall Street write its own regulations. We’re watching the financial sector re-write the official role of the government in the economy. In this new role, the government’s top priority is securing profits for corporate America.

“The intertwined coterie of financial and policy deciders in the United States is creating not only the financial architecture of the future, backed by the power and billions of the state, but, more generally, new relationships between the bureaucracy and the market,” Wedel writes.

GRITtv’s Laura Flanders echoes this theme in an interview with John Perkins, author of Confessions of an... read more