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Debt Ceiling “Theatre” not a “Balanced Approach”
DAVE JOHNSON, djohnson at ourfuture.org, @dcjohnson Johnson is a fellow at Campaign for America’s Future. He said today: “Poll after poll shows that the public gets it. People understand that our deficits were caused by tax cuts for the wealthy, wars and increases in military budgets and the effects of the recession, and they want our government to cut the deficits by fixing those. They want taxes raised on the wealthy, cuts in military, investment in infrastructure and education and, mostly, jobs. But D.C. elites are using a contrived crisis to impose back-room ‘solutions’ that benefit elites at the expense…
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Environmentalist Sentenced to Two Years in Jail; Thousands of Political Arrests Since Obama Inauguration
Reuters reports: “An environmental activist was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday in a federal court in Salt Lake City for defrauding the U.S. government by posing as a bidder for oil and gas drilling rights on Utah public lands. Tim DeChristopher, 29, had submitted the phony bids to derail an auction of energy rights.” See today’s Salt Lake Tribune editorial “Justice Denied.” DeChristopher just wrote the piece: “I Do Not Want Mercy, I Want You To Join Me.”
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Potential Medicaid Cuts Threaten Women, Elderly and Minorities
STACY SANDERS, ssanders at wowonline.org, @wowonlinewow Sanders is the director of the Elder Economic Security Initiative, a branch of Wider Opportunities for Women. She said today: “With a decline in employer-based pensions and losses in personal retirement plans due to the recession, older Americans are struggling to make ends meet. Health care costs are a major component of older Americans’ monthly budgets. According to the national Elder Economic Security Standard Index, a single older adult on Medicare needs $254 per month to cover basic health care costs, including premiums, co-pays and prescription support. Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid could break…
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Norway: Behind the Terrorism
ALI GHARIB, agharib at americanprogress.org Gharib is a national security reporter for Think Progress. He wrote “Suspect in Custody for Norwegian Terror Attacks Allegedly an Anti-Islam Right-wing Extremist” and co-wrote “Right-wing Pundits Jumped to Blame Muslims and ‘Jihadists’ for Norway Attacks.” He cites Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, Michelle Malkin, Andrew Breitbart, the Wall Street Journal and Erick Erickson as journalists and outlets that jumped to pin the attacks on Muslims.
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Norway Terror Suspect Described as Far-Right Nationalist Islamophobe
DEVIN BURGHART, dburghart at gmail.com Burghart is vice president of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights and just wrote the piece “Norway Terror Suspect Described as Far-Right Nationalist Islamophobe.” Burghart tweeted: “UPDATE: Looks like the Norway terror suspect is a fan of the Tea Party’s favorite Islamophobe, Pam Geller.” Burghart has toured Norway on speaking and fact-finding missions about the far-right and has shared a byline with the noted Norwegian writer Stieg Larsson (who died in 2004).
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Cutting Social Security Is Not Strengthening It
President Obama recently stated: “We have a Democratic president and administration that is prepared to sign a tough package that includes both spending cuts, modifications to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare that would strengthen those systems and allow them to move forward, and would include a revenue component.” NANCY ALTMAN, njalt at aol.com Altman is co-chair of the Strengthen Social Security Campaign, a coalition of over 300 national and state organizations representing more than 50 million Americans. She said today: “Social Security is in the crosshairs of the debt negotiations currently going on in Washington. This, even though Social Security…
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Somalia Famine: Politics and Global Warming Causing Disasters
AP reports: “‘Somalia is facing its worst food security crisis in the last 20 years,’ said Mark Bowden, the U.N.’s top official in charge of humanitarian aid in Somalia. ‘This desperate situation requires urgent action to save lives … it’s likely that conditions will deteriorate further in six months.'” JAMES JENNINGS, jimjennings at earthlink.net Available for a limited number of interviews, Jennings is president of Conscience International. Now in Ethiopia, he is scheduled to be in Kenya tomorrow organizing a medical response devoted to saving the most vulnerable children affected by the famine in Somalia and those two countries. He…
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Murdoch “Can’t Have it Both Ways”
NICHOLAS JOHNSON, mailbox at nicholasjohnson.org Johnson is currently in the D.C. area and is available for a limited number of interviews. Now teaching at the University of Iowa College of Law, Johnson is a former FCC commissioner who helped block the attempted takeover of ABC by ITT in the 1960s. He said today: “Murdoch is taking the classic position of big media owners: No responsibility. It’s a typical corporate tactic that tries to place the blame on underlings who actually have very little responsibility or power. And when finally faced with the illegal actions of his companies, Murdoch pleads that…
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Public on Budget: Tax the Rich, Cut Military Spending
STEVEN KULL, skull at pipa.org Kull is director of the Program for Public Consultation, a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes and the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, which released the study “Public Proposes Federal Budget Dramatically Different Than House or White House.” The study found: “When a representative sample of the American public was presented the federal budget, they proposed changes far different from those the Obama administration or the Republican-led House have proposed. The biggest difference in spending is that the public favored deep cuts in defense spending, while the administration and…
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California Prisoners on Hunger Strike to Protest “Torture”
The Los Angeles Times reports today: “More than 400 inmates at four California prisons are in the third week of a hunger strike to protest long, punitive stays in isolation cells. … “Inmate advocates say thousands of inmates have joined the strike, which began July 1. Many are beginning to show dramatic weight loss and collapse with the early signs of starvation, they say.” The paper reports that prison officials refuse to allow reporters into the institutions to interview the strikers.
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“With a tiny staff, it has managed to place on the air and in newspapers, points of view otherwise excluded from the national debate.”
Howard Zinn