Supporting Independent Media

This is one of the Action Issues on which our cell is focusing some of its actions. We hope to educate our community about this problem.

I just got the snail mail version of the brouchure for the "Take Back America" conference in DC, June 1 2 3 in DC - http://www.ourfuture.org

Some of the speakers include Julian Bond, John Sweeney, John Edwards, Paul Krugman, Jim Hightower, Howard Dean, Jesse Jackson Jr, Jesse Jackson Sr, Warren Buffet, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Kim Gandy, Naomi Klein, Barack Obama, Robert Reich, Tavis Smiley, Al Franken, Arianna Huffington, Janine Garafolo, Maria Cantwell, Kweisi Mfume, Eli Pariser, & many many more.

Thiswillpissyouoff...

http://www.alternet.org/rights/21574/
[snip]
Why does the military have direct access to the private information of American high school students? Under the No Child Left Behind legislation, Sec 9528, education funding in America has been turned into a recruiting tool for our military! Buried in this legislation is a section that mandates student's private information be given directly to the military unless the student's parent or guardian opts their records out – meaning that a request letter from the parent or guardian must be submitted to the school to keep the student's records private.

I've been making a list today, trying to see which of the little problems that seem to be cropping up are the most problematic for the Bush regime, and I just can't make up my mind what order to put things in. However, it is quite satisfying to see that the list is getting longer.

Anybody care to add or re-arrange? Have at it.....

1. The collapse of the great S. S. 'crisis' scam
2. Tom DeLay and his ethics problems
3. Terri Schiavo
4. Sneaky video news releases (VNR's)
5. Illegal aliens
6. Iraq
7. Prisoner abuse
8. Who outed Valerie Plame
9. the deficit
10. the budget
11. gas prices

Something is making the approval ratings tank. A lot of somethings. Is the political capital wallet empty? It's such a shame to run out of money before you run out of 'mandate.'

Is No One Accountable?

By Bob Herbert
The New York Times Monday 28 March 2005

The Bush administration is desperately trying to keep the full story from emerging. But there is no longer any doubt that prisoners seized by the U.S. in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have been killed, tortured, sexually humiliated and otherwise grotesquely abused.
~snip~
Lawlessness should never be an option for the United States. Once the rule of law has been extinguished, you're left with an environment in which moral degeneracy can flourish and a great nation can lose its soul.
read entire article~
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/032805O.shtml

6:01

Tut, I know I'm tempted to think each error and a perceived weakness will result in our success. Unless all those events are talked about, unfiltered, we're back to where we were at election, with all the misinformed.

Many are talking about DeLay's demise with the Schiavo stunt. I also heard some reports of how Fox reported lies about Schiavo, and I'm not sure the politicizing and cravenness will haunt them later. In a strange way, some disabled may find comfort from the intervention. Their payoff always comes later, small slices of constituents at a time, emotionally played.

Certainly good to be hopeful, but the NYT magazine article on the exurbs this weekend proves we can't rely on their failing, or our perception of their demise.

Hope you've been well. I'm tying to create activism, but as was told me, I should just go where the energy is. Easier, with better results.

Tutterfly,

We MUST add the flu season to that list. Alot of people are now puking their guts out and with every heave remember the lack of flu shots available and the long lines to get it.

Worst and longest flu season on record.

How about this on going onto the list

http://www.911forthetruth.com/

http://www.911forthetruth.com/pages/affidavit.htm

It's not your father's America any more.

This country is becoming more unrecognizable with each passing day. The government, we've learned recently, now packages the news. It provides television stations with hundreds of video
news releases made up to resemble actual news reports that give us predigested, Orwellian information designed to convince the public that everything in the nation is being well-managed.

* Read the full article at:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/217447_locke25.html

C-SPAN: Journalism of direct sources

If the politics of division has become cliché, it's because we have forgotten that the media can also bring us together. Beyond the strident rhetoric of blogs, cable TV and talk radio is
C-SPAN.

* Read the full article at:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/217586_trahant27.html

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8380.htm

Rossiann

This paragraph is taken from the article you just posted on "peak oil" - I had just received spam from WalMart in my emailbox, as a matter of fact! I had just written a long piece in the Forum about how environmentalism shouldn't be considered a "fringey" and extraneous era & earlier that you can't really separate domestic from international issues anymore.

from the article (after peak oil & collapse):

The circumstances of the Long Emergency will require us to downscale and re-scale virtually everything we do and how we do it, from the kind of communities we physically inhabit to the way we grow our food to the way we work and trade the products of our work. Our lives will become profoundly and intensely local. Daily life will be far less about mobility and much more about staying where you are. Anything organized on the large scale, whether it is government or a corporate business enterprise such as Wal-Mart, will wither as the cheap energy props that support bigness fall away. The turbulence of the Long Emergency will produce a lot of economic losers, and many of these will be members of an angry and aggrieved former middle class.

I would add to the list the fact that the Bush Administration used tax payers money to pay 'journalists' to push their agenda. In addition to the video news releases...

Posted by: tutterfly at March 28, 2005 06:01 PM

tut... I might add that pesky Osama to the list as well... Tora Bora, eh?

Kerry was correct... again (now THAT'S a list I wanna see!)

Andree
My "Chirac Please Help Us" shirt is being mailed.

I was asked the other day by a co-worker, who voted for Bush, when I was going to remove my Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker. I replied only when it is replaced by an "IMPEACH BUSH" one.

He is one of those people who does not know who Karl Rove is by the way...anyway...he gave me this blank look and asked me on what charge? Needless to say I was able to recite many reasons....leaving this co-worker speechless.
This is just so sad.

p.s. I do have my IMPEACH BUSH bumper sticker and it will be going on my car...right next to the Kerry/Edwards one.

Andrea

You will know my car if you see it - black VW Bug with EIGHT Kerry/Edwards signs, a "No Iraq War" sign & a "W" with an x through it. I may add "Don't Blame Me I Voted for Kerry" and "Kerry 2008" soon. As you know, Seattle is still full of vehicles with Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers & even yard signs! I have had an "Impeach Bush" sign in my window ever since he got into office. I do not hardly ever see Bush/Cheney or other rightwing signs on cars in Seattle & when I do, they are usually pulling a horse trailer & have come in on one of the freeway exits for a Dicks burger. There is one yellow Humvee & I am irate when I see it.

Up in Everett, it's much more radical to have them so some people try to push me off the road, others drive up next to me at intersections with honk & thumbs up. There is even a group of kids that wait for me to drive by them when I get out of work & they cheer. The best thing was when Navy guys gave a honk & thumbs up! I do also work with someone with advanced degree who did not know who Condoleeza Rice is. Amazing ..

I dont know whether this has been linked yet it was just sent to me by Truth Shall Prevail

http://gregpalast.com/video/BBCIraqOilReport.mov

Guys can you all sign this petition please if it is not to much trouble. thanks to all

http://www.911forthetruth.com/

I FEEL THE TIDES ARE CHANGING

Our new nightmare: the United States of America
Australians are as just as concerned about United States foreign policy as Islamic extremism and regard the US as more dangerous than a rising China, according to a new poll. Full report
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/28/1111862327556.html

Iraq adventure leaves little taste for possible Taiwan call-up
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/28/1111862325226.html

This is way off topic:

With all of the bad news for the party in power, who doesn't think a terror alert isn't around the corner?

Maybe about time for another Bin Laden tape?

NY Congressman Calls on ABC and Good Morning America to Drop Wal-Mart as Sponsor
28 March 2005

Congressman Anthony Weiner of NY is holding a rally tomorrow morning outside of ABC's Good Morning America studio in NYC, calling on ABC and Good Morning America to drop Wal-Mart as a sponsor of it’s patriotic-themed "Only in America" series.

MORE - http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=636

http://www.proudparenting.com/page.cfm?Sectionid=65&typeofsite=snippetdetail&ID=1204&snippetset=yes

Michigan Preparing To Let Doctors Refuse To Treat Gays

(Lansing, Michigan) Doctors or other health care providers could not be disciplined or sued if they refuse to treat gay patients under legislation passed Wednesday by the Michigan House.

The bill allows health care workers to refuse service to anyone on moral, ethical or religious grounds.

E-mail Governor Granholm....Share this post all over the web!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-21995-65331--,00.html

Per above, encourgage Governor Granholm to veto this bill:

"Are you telling me that a health care provider can deny me medical treatment because of my sexual orientation? I hope not," he said.

"I think it's a terrible slippery slope upon which we embark," said Rep. Jack Minore (D-Flint) before voting against the bill.

Paul A. Long, vice president for public policy for the Michigan Catholic Conference, said the bills promote the constitutional right to religious freedom.

"Individual and institutional health care providers can and should maintain their mission and their services without compromising faith-based teaching," he said in a written statement.

http://www.911forthetruth.com/

For Further Information Contact:
Philip J. Berg, Esquire
706 Ridge Pike, Lafayette Hill, PA 19444-1711
Cell (610) 662-3005, (610) 825-3134
(800) 993-PHIL, Fax (610) 834-7659
PJBLAW@aol.com

3000 reporters were invited to a press confrence and only one showed up...fox news..they taped 40 minutes and never ran the story

Oncall,

Another quote from your link:

"Opponents of the bills said they're worried they would allow providers to refuse service for any reason. For example, they said an emergency medical technicians could refuse to answer a call from the residence of gay couple because they don't approve of homosexuality."

So, who would be next? Could Jews be denied medical services on "religious grounds"? I don't think 'slippery slope' adequately characterizes the dangers of this discriminatory legislation.

Apparently, action by the state Senate is next, but it's hard to imagine this ever holding up in court. Or did we abolish the Constitution? (Sometimes, it's hard to tell these days . . . )

Bob,

I wanted to cut and paste the whole article. Personally, I see this as a very important issue that has to be to be publicized. Just like the fundamentalist repugs stepped in it with Terri Schiavo, they are doing the same thing here. Americans have to be made aware of this. We have to expose these frauds for what they really are. As the ditz, Peggy Noonan said, (paraphrasing) "these people embrace a culture of death." We have to demostrate the obvious hypocrisy. Flood web sites!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First I went to the bookstore at the mall - I could not believe that they had started a huge Religion section and had La Haye "Left Behind" books front and center. I picked one up and reading the book jacket I could see that someone has their wires crossed. The end may well be coming but I think the Beast comes from Wyoming and his name starts with a C.

Then as I was leaving to go to the gym, I was harassed by fundamentalist Christians in the freaking Food Court! They must have thought I was the most Godless looking middle-aged person there, in my gym clothes & black leather jacket. They pretended to be a survey team but asked questions about heaven and then moved in for the hard sell.

Later I was at the gym, watching Serena Williams play tennis with the sound off while lifting weights and getting more & more frustrated thinking about the encounter at the Mall. I called home & told my husband & he called Security & gave a description of the "missionaries" or whatever they were. They definitely were not supposed to be proselytizing in the Food Court and Security guards were alerted.

Funny - they focussed on getting into heaven & I told them it was more important to attain a positive level of lifestyle and well-being for all than to worry about oneself. I wish I'd remembered to show them my 22k Kwan Yin that I never remove & tell them that this female Boddhisatva will never enter heaven until every other living being of the universe does.

Scientific American Sees the Light?

Okay, We Give Up

There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong.

In retrospect, this magazine's coverage of socalled evolution has been hideously one-sided. For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it.

Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.

Moreover, we shamefully mistreated the Intelligent Design (ID) theorists by lumping them in with creationists. Creationists believe that God designed all life, and that's a somewhat religious idea. But ID theorists think that at unspecified times some unnamed superpowerful entity designed life, or maybe just some species, or maybe just some of the stuff in cells. That's what makes ID a superior scientific theory: it doesn't get bogged down in details.

Good journalism values balance above all else. We owe it to our readers to present everybody's ideas equally and not to ignore or discredit theories simply because they lack scientifically credible arguments or facts. Nor should we succumb to the easy mistake of thinking that scientists understand their fields better than, say, U.S. senators or best-selling novelists do. Indeed, if politicians or special-interest groups say things that seem untrue or misleading, our duty as journalists is to quote them without comment or contradiction. To do otherwise would be elitist and therefore wrong. In that spirit, we will end the practice of expressing our own views in this space: an editorial page is no place for opinions.

Get ready for a new Scientific American. No more discussions of how science should inform policy. If the government commits blindly to building an anti-ICBM defense system that can't work as promised, that will waste tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars and imperil national security, you won't hear about it from us. If studies suggest that the administration's antipollution measures would actually increase the dangerous particulates that people breathe during the next two decades, that's not our concern. No more discussions of how policies affect science either—so what if the budget for the National Science Foundation is slashed? This magazine will be dedicated purely to science, fair and balanced science, and not just the science that scientists say is science. And it will start on April Fools' Day.

Okay, We Give Up

MATT COLLINS
THE EDITORS editors@sciam.com
COPYRIGHT 2005 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.

Now that's a reason to subscribe to Scientific American. Thanks, oncall.

Paul A. Long, vice president for public policy for the Michigan Catholic Conference, said the bills promote the constitutional right to religious freedom.

"Individual and institutional health care providers can and should maintain their mission and their services without compromising faith-based teaching," he said in a written statement.

Posted by: oncall at March 28, 2005 11:00 PM

Well now, this would be hilarious if it wasn't so horrifying. Having spent most of my youth inside Catholic churches, I can tell you that many, many priests are gay. It's high time we outed these people. Once we start refusing medical attention to priests, these Catholics who are so ready to do something so unChristlike as this will find themselves victims of their own hypocracy. I can't wait.

We each have our own faith, our own spiritual beliefs. Who would we refuse to treat? It would be a crap shoot - go to the hospital, and who knows, you may be what someone else sees as immoral. It could be your last name, or your eye color, or your favorite movie. I can think of a few people I'd like to refuse to treat.

Amy, ain't it the truth.

I remember one Meet the Press a few years back, after the Priest Sex Abuse scandal broke, on which three Catholic Scholars who study this sort of thing estimated that anywhere from 33% to 50% of the current Priesthood was gay (not necessarily sexually active, but gay in orientation). The rep representing the Vatican claimed that it was less than 2%. How anyone can lie while representing Christ is beyond me, but this fink was also a mucky-muck at Notre Dame.

The Catholic Church has lost its soul. And the old fool in Rome, who has gone out of his way to pack the hierachy with conservatives, is responsible.

Look for a schism in the next two decades, with elements of the American Catholic Church likely telling the Vatican to shove it.

We each have our own faith, our own spiritual beliefs. Who would we refuse to treat? It would be a crap shoot - go to the hospital, and who knows, you may be what someone else sees as immoral. It could be your last name, or your eye color, or your favorite movie. I can think of a few people I'd like to refuse to treat.

Posted by: Amy at March 29, 2005 01:08 AM

Amy, I have decided not to treat people who pronounce nuclear, nukular. It is against my beliefs to allow somebody who mispronounces words any form of health care.

Schindler’s List
28 March 2005

“It’s only a movie”… No, it’s not the movie… It’s Bob Schindler's pro-life donors list.

The NY Times is reporting that Bob Schindler have “authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters.”

"These compassionate pro-lifers donated toward Bob Schindler's legal battle to keep Terri's estranged husband from removing the feeding tube from Terri," says a description of the list on the Web site of the firm, Response Unlimited, which is asking $150 a month for 6,000 names and $500 a month for 4,000 e-mail addresses of people who responded last month to an e-mail plea from Ms. Schiavo's father. "These individuals are passionate about the way they value human life, adamantly oppose euthanasia and are pro-life in every sense of the word!"

MORE - http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=637

The stories and photos the bush administration does not want the public wounded soldiers returning home. They have no moralty of conscience

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2005/03/24/magazine/20050327_WOUNDED_SLIDESHOW_1.html

http://dominionpaper.ca/accounts/2005/03/28/i_cant_go_.html

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Mar/06/ln/ln05p.html

Bob and Oncall,

When will people see that God, Jesus, Allah, or whoever one calls "Higher Power" doesn't WANT hate, discrimination, war, and sanctimonious-self-serving ideology?

Isn't faith suppose to be a personal relationship between a person and God but without external influence over the whole world? If infact God created all of us, then God loves all of us: gay, Jewish, muslim, budhist, Christian, etc... And that in a nutshell, is why I gave up on organized religion! I don't want to force my beliefs on anyone, nor do I want to consign others to H*ll for not believing what I do.

And for a Pharmacist or Doctor to refuse treatment because of their religion, then they need to work at a pharmacy that only serves to like minded people. Maybe they could set up a Pharmacy at their local church or temple. But if they are in a PUBLIC business, then they serve the PUBLIC--that is democracy. So dispense or get the heck out of there! We don't need to go back to pre-hitler days when jews were not welcome and people refused to serve someone because their faith was different.

What I want to know is how anyone advocating these discriminatory types of positions gets around Jesus' instruction to not judge other people's behavior? Because if you use the brain that God gave you, you cannot get from his words to their actions.

When push comes to shove, Christianity has consistently diverged from the path that Christ's teaching would have it on. It has chosen to accomodate the human need to discriminate, to hate, to create artificial distinction, to obsess about the behavior of others, rather than to focus on self-examination and self-perfection.

sparrow...that is exactly correct.

Furthermore, I am still waiting for someone to show me in the Bible where it says a single word about homosexuality.

My Republican uncle in the midwest wants this posted:

"nothing surprises me any more......guess I don't feel any symapthy for those getting solicited.....eveyone needs a living will to avoid the circus that took place in Florida......Tom DeLay isn't commenting on pulling the plug on his father a couple years ago.....his apologists are saying that case was "different"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/politics/29donate.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print&position=

List of Schiavo Donors Will Be Sold by Direct-Marketing Firm

Spiritual idiocy. I wonder when other faith based businesses will spring up. Surely we need dry cleaners who only clean suits for others who share their beliefs. Real estate agents should only list and sell homes for the suitably faithful, grocers should only sell to the memebers of their own church. We need landscapers for God, and HVAC repairmen who restore heat/cooling for those they find deserving. If you aren't the right faith, you can't buy from holy car dealerships.

Far be it for me to point this out, but why is it that only doctors and pharmacists are somewhow encouraged to dole out their care based on faith? Wouldn't denying care or medication based on religion somehow go against the culture of life? Wouldn't that be some kind of erring?

I think that it's not very nice for the faith based cults to limit the fun of turning us away only to doctors and pharmacists. I mean really, if a truly devoted person has to offer just everyone fries with that order, what is this world coming to?

Just found out about 3 cool things happening in the Seattle area:

tonight - grassroots meetings to solicit info from PCOs and volunteers

in 2 days - Town Hall with 5 female Senators with topic of Social Security (following banquet)

soon - legislation barring discrimination in housing & most other areas of life r/t gender or other "difference"

Jurors' Bible study reason penalty tossed

The Colorado Supreme Court yesterday threw out the death penalty in a rape-and-murder case because jurors had studied Bible verses such as "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" during deliberations.

On a 3-2 vote, justices ordered Robert Harlan to serve life in prison without parole for kidnapping 25-year-old cocktail waitress Rhonda Maloney in 1994, raping her at gunpoint and then fatally shooting her.

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court last month, defense attorney Kathleen Lord said the jurors had gone outside the law. "They went to the Bible to find out God's position on capital punishment," she said.
________________________________________________
Washington
Former U.S. diplomats urge Bolton's rejection

Fifty-nine former U.S. diplomats are urging the Senate to reject John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

"He is the wrong man for this position," they said in a letter to Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Hearings are scheduled for April 7.
_________________

2000 dead & rising in south Asia earthquake

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court last month, defense attorney Kathleen Lord said the jurors had gone outside the law. "They went to the Bible to find out God's position on capital punishment," she said.

Posted by: DiAnne at March 29, 2005 09:33 AM

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the irony in the name of the defense attorney?

On the Colorado Supreme Court issue, this line from the end of the AP article...

The conservative Christian group, Focus on the Family, had sharp criticism for the court.

"Today's ruling further confirms that the judicial branch of our government is nearly bereft of any moral foundation," said Tom Minnery, the group's vice president for government and public policy.

(... that statement confirms that conservative Christians are bereft of any understanding of the seperation of church & state when it comes to governing and legislating and the dangers of blurring the line)

Benson on blogging..

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/benson/

Local Arizona columnist on Terri's case.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0329montini29.html

[snip]
And while I heard a lot about Schiavo, I didn't have a single e-mail expressing outrage over an Arizona budget proposal calling for cuts in child-abuse prevention programs and subsidies for the working poor.

Or for a plan not to increase the budget for the state's Child Protective Services. Even though such decisions are certain to condemn some Arizona children to death.

The Kerry Reference Library is Back

The Kerry Reference Library is back, now moved to: http://kerrylibrary.invisionzone.com/
(It was necessary to move due to Forum Flash shutting down recently.)

The Kerry Reference Library started during the 2004 campaign and currently has about 2500 articles on the candidates and issues. The Library continued to be updated after the election, including new sections on moral values, Bush's second term nominees, Tom DeLay and the Republican Congress, and Terri Schiavo. Multiple other issues are present, so this site should also be a useful resource even for people not interested in the articles on Kerry or Bush.

Of course news and interviews on John Kerry have also been updated. At present articles posted until last Thursday have been moved over, and I'll be updating in the near future. There's still a little work to be done. For example, the graphics files (including Avatars and photos in some of the posts) have not been moved yet.

Registered members have been emailed with the new link, but many people read as guests and might not know where the new site is. To help get the word out to all former readers, as well as others who might be interested, I'd appreciate it if anyone with sites or blogs on related topics would post the new link.

Posted by: Marc Trager at March 29, 2005 11:01 AM

I know I repeat myself, but thank God for lawyers. They are what stand between Americans and fascism at the moment.

Court Won't Step Into Newspaper Lawsuit
Mon Mar 28, 6:12 PM ET

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court refused Monday to step into a lawsuit against a newspaper, leaving the media in Pennsylvania legally vulnerable when they report defamatory comments by public figures.

The case could chill news coverage of political campaigns where charges and countercharges are commonplace, First Amendment advocates say.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=558&ncid=703&e=3&u=/ap/20050328/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_journalists

As important as this issue is. It will force the media to be more responsible in their reporting (does swifties come to mind?). Yet, I suspect that this decision will make it harder for blogs and bloggers to discuss issues.

Finially somebody mentions this. Personally, I have been talking to local business folks for years about this and was always ignored and often ridiculed...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0503.wallace-wells1.html

[snip]
This new competition from other developed countries, and the failure of America to fully keep pace, is one cause of our anemic job creation, three years after what was, by historical standards, a brief and fairly light recession. Another reason, of course, is the rise of China and India, where U.S. firms have not only moved manufacturing plants but also “outsourced” service sector jobs. America's employment base is being squeezed by these two pincers—China and India from below, and the developed world innovating from above.

Dirty battle in SS war.

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opcoc294194610mar29,0,1361244.column?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

Congress is going after the labor unions for fighting the SS plan.

Extremists Seek More Interference in our Personal Lives

March 29, 2005

Not content to misuse congressional authority for an 11th hour intervention into a single family's private medical decisions, right-wing leaders across the country are seeking more ways to violate the nation's laws and our personal freedoms in order to impose their will on Americans. Although we must respect deeply held religious beliefs, this does not include allowing extremists to run rough shod over all constitutional principles.

Right-wing leaders are willing to jettison any law or principle to impose their selective morality on Americans. There seems to be no limit to what the extremists will do to impose their will on the country. Right-wing leaders across the spectrum called upon Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to throw aside the state's constitution and use the police powers of the state to forcibly take control of Terri Schiavo. Conservatives talk of the sanctity of marriage and then intervened to violate the spousal rights of a single family. Congressional leaders willingly tossed aside constitutional principles to politicize a family tragedy for political gain. The abuse of power is boundless. As Majority Leader Tom DeLay stated last week about the Schiavo case, "We can do anything we need to do to pass any bill that we need to pass."

Right-wing activists will go to any length to threaten Americans who disagree with their beliefs. The Washington Post reported yesterday that at least eleven states are considering (and fours have passed) laws that would exempt pharmacists from having to fill prescriptions for birth control, emergency contraception, or any other medication they decided violated their system of personal belief, even when that refusal directly endangers a patient's health or rights. In Kansas, attorney general and "ardent abortion opponent" Phill Kline has requested the medical records of 90 women from two Kansas abortion clinics, including the prior sexual and medical history of patients.

Politicians have no right meddling in our personal affairs and private medical decisions. Right-wing leaders don't care about your privacy and will do anything – including violating long standing constitutional and moral principles – to impose their way of thinking on unsuspecting Americans. Americans must stand strong in defense of personal freedom and against the encroachment of religious and political extremists.

Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress Action Fund.

Posted by: oncall at March 29, 2005 12:34 PM

Oncall,

The PA Supreme Court decision won't change anything. In this case, involving defamatory statements about public figures, it was the Superior Court, ruling on an appeal, that departed from established law in granting a "neutral reportage" privilege instead of relying on the established "actual malice" standard.

So, the PA Supreme Court's reversal of the decision leaves the law unchanged.

Correction:

It was the trial court, not the Superior Court, that granted the "neutral reportage" privilege. The Superior Court reversed the trial court's ruling, and that reversal was affirmed by the actions of both the PA and U.S. Supreme Courts.