Thieves in the Temple.

I got yr uniform financial product right here!

The Coalition for Human Needs helps you tell Congress to pay for health care reform with responsible tax increases. And by "responsible" we mean "not on the backs of poor people." CHN makes only two suggestions -- making the Medicare tax more progressive, and extending the Medicare tax to investment income (excluding the first $50,000, or $100,000 for married couples) -- but you can probably think of others. And I don't believe that we need to raise taxes to pay for health care improvements, even a single-payer system. But in order to avoid raising any taxes, we'd need to a) cut wasteful defense spending and b) cut corporate welfare. Given the chances of getting a) and/or b) done, we might as well make sure taxes get raised responsibly -- meaning the folks who've benefited the most from Tha Bush Mobb's tax policies ought to cough it up.

The People's Email Network, not known for pulling punches, calls H.R. 2749 "the Gestapo Food Act." The bill itself makes Finnegans Wake look like bathroom reading, but the scuttlebutt isn't good -- the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund tells us that the bill would use a one-size-fits-all approach to policing food safety, with fees and fines that would break most small farmers, and wouldn't address the real problem with food safety -- large corporations and their animal mills. The FDA will also be able to search any and all farmers' records without a warrant; I guess Congress thinks the FISA Amendments Act sets all kinds of precedents. Here's the action page.

Meanwhile, from the "if you live long enough" file: the Supreme Court rules 5 to 4 that states can enforce their own financial regulations even if they conflict with federal ones. And the 5 in that 5-to-4 consisted of the Court's four nominally liberal justices and the court's most conservative justice, Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion. (No, Justices Roberts, Alito, and Thomas are not conservatives, but reactionaries.) Justice Scalia probably wishes he'd been able to write that decision about a state that had more lax financial laws than the federal government, but at least he's honest enough to write the opinion he actually holds. Besides, what state has more lax financial regulations than the feds at this point in history? You'll find the usual whining from financial "titans," including the one who says the decision "will have a significant, negative impact on the ability of a national bank to offer a financial product uniformly throughout the country." Which is, for those of us who believe banks should serve communities rather than impose their will on them, kind of the idea.

gay marriage, California budget follies, and right-wing smut.

CREDO helps you demand the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents federal recognition of gay marriage. What's the occasion, you ask? Why, the recent infidelity confessions of Sen. Ensign and Gov. Sanford -- both Republicans, both pushers of Mr. Clinton's impeachment, both "staunch" "defenders" of marriage "between one man and one woman" except, apparently, when another alluring woman comes along. Does this seem like piling on -- especially in the case of Mr. Sanford, whose emails suggest he's got a little Dante Rossetti in him? Nah. It's not piling on. It's just using a news hook to do what's right.

California residents, I'm sorry about your troubles. CALPIRG has identified nine corporations receiving $30 million each -- each! -- in corporate tax loopholes, while public services get slashed grim-reaper style. Also, the California government will start issuing IOUs to its workers on Thursday if they don't get a budget passed -- which seems likely, since Gov. Schwarzenegger will likely veto the budget the Legislature has finally put together. I guess it's because Apple, Genentech, and Disney (three recipients of California tax breaks) are just too big to fail. See? Always the hostage situation with these clowns! But what are they gonna do? Crash the economy again? CALPIRG provides the contact tool.

Meanwhile, Markos Moulitsas shares a piece of hate mail with us, a screed "so brilliant, I almost wept at its beauty," in his words. I would advise not clicking the above link at work or in front of your children, since it contains, like, a bajillion curse words -- unless, of course, you want to show your kids how not to be. To add to the fun, you can, if you like, vote on your favorite part of the email! I honestly can't decide among "you, sir, are a illegal immigrant. i dont give two (expletive) whether you are an american citizen or not:," "go back to guatemala or whatever (expletive) middleeastern (incorrect expletive) you came from," or "no proof, just science and that makes it true for you liberals." I will not vote for "This email can't possible be real," though. I know these people exist. (For even more fun, compare the above missive with this passionate and articulate anti-Obama screed from a liberal. I don't assert that liberals write better conservatives -- but then I don't hear from many conservatives these days, only "conservatives.")

blowback.

Today, believe or not, Public Citizen advises us to call our House Reps and demand that they vote against H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Why? Because it's little more than welfare for oil, coal, and nuclear corporations. The bill gives away 85 percent of its pollution credits, rather than auctioning them off -- which, you know, would have raised revenues to complete actual renewable-energy projects. That's damn insulting. Also, the bill doesn't cut carbon emissions nearly enough, establishes a weak renewable energy standard, and generally protects corporations at the expense of consumers. But the pollution credit giveaway is what sticks in my craw. The Democrats seem to be willing to do anything to give the appearance of getting something done -- you're seeing that in health care reform efforts, too, as first the abominable Tom Daschle abandoned his support for a public health care option, and now Mr. Obama won't commit to vetoing health care reform that excludes said public option. But we are the people. We don't have to commit to "getting something done." We need only to commit to doing the right thing. H.R. 2454 is the wrong thing.

And now, for some good news: the House approved the defense authorization amendment that would force the Pentagon to release names of WHINSEC graduates and instructors. And now, for some bad news: the Senate also must approve the amendment, and we all know the Senate as "that place where good House bills go to die." Occasionally we also know the Senate as "that place where bad House bills go to die," but not in this instance. Maybe our esteemed Senators will claim national security concerns or state secrets or something when they hold it up. Folks, if releasing the names of possible foreign and domestic torturers compromises our own national security, then we deserve whatever happens to us afterward. I'm tempted to ask how a government with unparalleled military power can be afraid of every little sliver of sunlight -- but I know that question answers itself. SOA Watch helps you hand out the beatdowns to your Senators.

Meanwhile, MediaChannel (an outstanding resource I've underutilized for several years) informs me that CNN provides a "timeline" of events in Iran, ostensibly to help us poor schumcks understand why things are the way they are there, but starts said timeline in 1979. 1979! Why not, say, 559 B.C., when Cyrus the Great unified the Medean and Persian Empires, or 1501 A.D., when the Safavid Dynasty established the Shi'a Islamic state? Or even 1935, when the world stopped calling the country Persia? Or 1941, when the U.K. and the U.S.S.R. invaded Iran to commandeer its railroad lines? Or 1953, when the U.S. conspired to overthrow their democratically-elected Prime Minister, Dr. Mossadegh, because he nationalized Iran's oil reserves -- thus opening the door for that tyrant, the Shah, who got tossed out on merit even if we don't agree with the beliefs of those who tossed him out? And this profound amnesia about Dr. Mossadegh after Ron Paul brought him up during every single Republican Presidential debate in 2007 and 2008? Like I said before: the newspapers are dying, but they don't deserve death nearly as much as cable news does. Give us a la carte cable packaging, and cable news will finally suffer the blowback it deserves.

crazy not in a Patsy Cline or Gnarls Barkley sort of way.

Public Citizen continues calling for stricter oversight of the financial sector. Mr. Obama proposed an overhaul recently, but, as CNN Money said on Monday, Mr. Obama's plan "appears designed to avoid some big battles" with lawmakers and financial titans. Sigh. Mr. Obama's health care plan also seemed design to "avoid big battles." As long as Republicans continue to act crazy, there will always be big battles over the most trifling crap. And, ideally, the only battle that matters is the battle with the people. So let's make that a fight, especially since it is the fight of our lives -- these lawmakers and financial titans destroyed our economy.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has just authorized construction of 300 new homes in an "illegal outpost" in the West Bank. "Illegal," in this case, means illegal according to Israeli law. Would it be too much to ask that Israel abide by its own laws when it takes $3 billion a year in U.S. funds? Hell, would it be too much to ask that Israel not act so damn crazy all the time? Has lashing out in fear bought Israel all that much security? I say all these things, as I'm sure you know by now, as a friend of Israel. And, as I'm sure you know by now, friends need to be slapped to their senses every once in a while. Or often. And I'm not the only friend of Israel to speak to Israel in this manner: the Central Conference of American Rabbis also opposes new settlements. So Jewish Voice for Peace helps you demand that the U.S. withhold funding for Israel until they actually freeze new settlements in the West Bank. It's not that much to ask.

Meanwhile, the crazy happy budget fun continues in California! Gov. Schwarzenegger has threatened to veto the budget the Legislature has finally put together because of -- are you sitting comfortably? -- taxes on oil and tobacco companies. Not impressed? California currently collects fewer taxes on oil at the wellhead than anyone in the Union. Collecting more in taxes from rich oil companies might well prevent schools and hospitals from closing, might well prevent the expulsion of 900,000 children from the state health insurance program, and might well prevent public transportation services from falling apart. Worse, Mr. Schwarzenegger himself proposed new oil taxes in November. We had such high hopes for Arnold, despite the scarlet R next to his name; now it's clear he's just like the rest of them, willing to sacrifice services people might actually use so rich folks can gild their plumbing. Barbara Boxer has nothing to worry about from Arnold in 2010. CALPIRG, again, helps you hand out the beatdowns.

In other news, Sen. Max Baucus (slave to mammon-MT) has, after much thought, decided that ruling out a single-payer plan from the beginning of the health care debate was, in retrospect, a mistake -- because it made Mr. Obama's middle-of-the-road proposal look like the "liberal" alternative to private insurance. All I can say to Senator Baucus is: well, duh. Seems like I've been saying for years now that you don't negotiate by starting with your fall-back position, and you certainly don't negotiate with madmen that way. And sometimes I wish Matthew Yglesias himself wouldn't be so restrained in the face of such madness -- he says things like "(f)raming effects are important in politics," which we all know in our gut even if we don't throw words like "framing effects" around at the water cooler. But, as usual, he still has much to say -- like that "single-payer" isn't "government-run" but government-insured, which difference at least one New York Times reporter apparently doesn't get.

UPDATE. I forgot to mention that only California residents can sign the petition to which I link in paragraph 3. I'm sorry about that. Also, did you know Willie Nelson wrote Patsy Cline's "Crazy"? I didn't. Willie Nelson is the cat's pajamas. He had no discernible involvement in Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," however.

all-defense Wednesday!

As the House considers its annual defense authorization bill, missile defense shield proponents aim to reverse Pentagon-requested cuts in said missile defense shield. The Pentagon really shouldn't be spending any money on missile defense, but certainly House members shouldn't be asking for more. Why my animus against missile defense shields? Roll call! It could take a dozen or more missiles, at $50 million (or more) a pop, to take down one incoming! Missiles can be easily and (relatively) cheaply defended against using mylar and/or reflective paint! Tha Bush Mobb rigged its own missile defense shield tests to succeed, and the tests still failed! But I'm not all about negativity here; I'm also about solutions. If you're that worried about "rogue states," you can park your aircraft carrier outside their border and arm that with missiles that'll have a better chance of taking down their missiles. Of course one can always offer inducements to "rogue" states to permit you to park your carriers at their doorstep. Basically, the "missile defense shield" is a way of funneling taxpayer money to undeserving defense contracting corporations, and no "deficit hawk" worth the title should tolerate that. Council for a Livable World helps you hand out the beatdowns.

Both Peace Action West and True Majority help you oppose funding for F-22 fighter planes, which were born of the cauldron of the Cold War and yet have never flown a single combat mission. It gets better. The House Armed Services Committee funded almost $370 million (out of a long-term commitment of $2 billion) toward the F-22 by taking it from a fund to clean up hazardous nuclear waste. I can't imagine proponents of nuclear power standing for that kind of madness. Unless, of course, they're dishonest. The F-22 has suppliers and plants in 44 states, so a lot of Reps and Senators will have to vote against their naked self-interest in restoring the funding to nuclear waste cleanup. Funny how often it comes down to that. But I, for one, will not yield. Reps and Senators must come to understand that the people's interest is their self-interest. You'd think that Republicans, at least, would get that, having been hemorrhaging Congressional seats lately.

Meanwhile, the House also plans to vote on an amendment to the same defense authorization bill that would force WHINSEC (the Artist Formerly Known as the School of the Americas) to release names of graduates and instructors. Widely known as the place torturers go to learn the trade, Tha Bush Mobb has denied Freedom of Information Act requests to learn those names since 2005, and I wouldn't expect better from the Obama Administration, certainly not right away. Would releasing the names of graduates and instructors violate their privacy rights? Not when you consider that you can find names of graduates and instructors of any other school -- or that many of WHINSEC's graduates and instructors might be guilty of war crimes. SOA Watch provides the contact tool.

Finally, I offer two readings regarding recent events in Iran that, taken together, suggest that Andrew Sullivan, God bless him, is wrong to suggest that "the revolution will be televised." According to Wired, Nokia Siemens seems to have installed deep-packet inspection technology on Iran's national telecom network, which has permitted the Iranian government to read everything happening over its wires (and which has also slowed down the national network to about a tenth of its speed). Meanwhile, the BBC reports that Nokia Siemens has confirmed that it's supplied the Iranian government with technology that could monitor and control cell phone calls. Spooky, eh? In any case, the death of an Iranian street protestor captured on a cell phone camera suggests that the system of repression only needs one crack for light to pass through -- and systems of repression always have cracks. It may not topple a government. But the world will hate the mullahs more than they hate us for the indefinite future, which is almost certainly to the greater good.

UPDATE. I replaced the word "Iran" with the word "mullahs" in the last sentence of the above -- it's true that folks will see Iran when they think of its government, but it's not true that "hating Iran" is "to the greater good." I apologize profoundly for suggesting as much. Error now corrected.

health care and nuke policy, plus bonus bad lawyering.

The Interfaith Week of Prayer for Healthcare is underway! The United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries provides a toll-free number, 1.888.797.8917, with which you may express-yourself-not-repress-yourself on real health care reform -- which would (if you're still reading this blog) likely be either a) a Canadian-style single-payer national health insurance system or b) a public health insurance system option (and that's my way-backup choice). Think Progress provides a handy graphic demonstrating that the CBS/NYT poll you heard about the other day did actually demonstrate widespread public support for (at the very least) a public option. NETWORK helps you think of what to say to your Reps and Senators, if you get stuck. (If you're not Catholic, just adapt their points to your faith; morality is a universal language.) And if you want to get your anger on, USPIRG helps you watch HMO execs refuse to say they'll stop using pre-existing conditions as a reason to deny coverage, even if said pre-existing condition is minor and/or irrelevant, and even if said denial results in death. I mean, you know you're doing badly when you provoke Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) to join the side of the angels. (He is pretty glorious in the video; he doesn't come in until near the end.)

You know Tha Bush Mobb pushed odious official nuclear policies, including pre-emptive strikes, bunker-busters, and pulling out of long-standing agreements; you probably also know that even a Republican Congress couldn't stomach most of that policy. So Peace Action West helps you push the Obama Administration toward a nuclear weapons policy that makes a bit of sense. The Obama Administration will soon officially review U.S. nuclear policy, so now's the time for them to hear from government's owners, the people. And no, spelling out a desire for a nuke-free world (or a plan to get there) will not make the terrorists stronger. We have approximately eight bajillion more nuclear weapons than all the terrorists in the world put together; cutting down to four bajillion isn't a show of weakness. And if al-Qaeda somehow provokes the U.S. into unleashing nuclear horror on some part of the world, then, frankly, the terrorists have already won. That's kind of how power works.

Finally, we come to the monstrous legal opinion described here. An Obama Justice Department lawyer suggested to a federal judge that Mr. Cheney's remarks in the Scooter Libby probe ought to be kept secret not just because future executives would otherwise be reluctant to cooperate with probes, but because if they say anything idiotic, The Daily Show might make fun of them. In other news, politicians shouldn't have to listen to their constituents because their feelings might get hurt, shouldn't have to lift packages weighing more than two pounds because they might get a boo-boo, and shouldn't have to walk anywhere because their tootsies might ache. The good news? The judge rejected the argument. But I'm annoyed that the Justice Department still reeks of Bushian boldness.

world town.

Pennsylvania residents, take note: we've got dueling gay-marriage bills in the Senate. One, SB 935, would make Pennsylvania the 7th state to recognize gay marriages, while the other, a John Eichelberger bill, would ban them. Mr. Eichelberger recently stated that our society "allows" gays to exist; I guess in 1900 he'd have said we "allow" Jews to exist. Sadly, a lot of folks are like Mr. Eichelberger, and even still think folks get "turned" gay. The science tells us folks are born gay, and I believe a God that would create souls just to damn them would be a cruel God indeed. And my God ain't cruel. So Keystone Progress provides the relevant petition.

Free Press provides a petition demanding more freedom for consumers using their cell phones to access the internet. You probably already know about all this if you have an iPhone -- which I'd love to have, but won't get, because I'd only be able to use AT&T's network, would only be able to use applications that AT&T deems unthreatening, and wouldn't be able to access any website I'd like. (That's before we get to AT&T's willingness to give everyone's phone records to Mr. Bush as part of his warrantless wiretapping program.) I shouldn't have to add that more people have cell phones than have broadband-at-home, and thus cell phones have a lot more power to give fast internet services to poor people. Long story short: we demand freedom for consumers, not corporations.

H.R. 1618/S. 779, the Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act, would expand the number of trucks for which government can set size and weight limits, and it would hold down said limits. This is the kind of thing only wonks care about, right? It shouldn't be -- trucks take a disproportionate toll on our roads, cause a disproportionate number of crashes and deaths, and pump out a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gases. Bigger, heavier trucks are also bad for already-overworked truck drivers. So Public Citizen helps you support the bill.

Meanwhile, American Rights at Work helps Pennsylvania residents hold Arlen Specter's feet to the fire in re the Employee Free Choice Act. As you recall, Sen. Specter co-sponsored the EFCA in 2005 and 2007 when it had no chance of overcoming a Republican filibuster -- then abandoned his support earlier this year when it looked like he'd be the deciding vote on, you know, bringing the EFCA to an actual Senate vote. Since then he's changed parties, but he hasn't changed positions. I didn't expect him to flip-flop back right away, of course, because that would look opportunistic. But how he looks doesn't matter. The will of the people he represents matters.

Finally, let me state for the record that I think Mr. Obama handled the official American reaction to the Iranian election protests just fine. Only an idiot would put pressure on a foreign government to rush its own process for verifying election results -- until that government starts killing its own citizens as they peacefully protest, which is exactly the point at which Mr. Obama spoke out against the Iranian government's abuses. That all might sound callous, but this ain't a one-world government. And Mr. McCain needs reminding that the American people put his opponent in office partly because they grew sick of a government that constantly told everyone else what to do.

starring the usual suspects: Free Press, NETWORK, FactCheck.

Remember a few months back when Time Warner wanted to overcharge folks for internet usage? They abandoned that plan because, get this, nobody who uses the internet liked it. But that doesn't mean they won't try again. So H.R. 2902, the Broadband Internet Fairness Act, would give the Federal Trade Commission (in consultation with the FCC) the authority to review volume usage service plans, and would require internet providers to justify such plans based on cost, and not on, you know, whatever said internet providers feel like charging. Or what they say the "free market" will bear -- the free market ought to be providing freedom for consumers, not corporations, and (at the risk of sounding self-interested) a file-neutral internet provided at reasonable rates gives consumers more freedom than a system that lets corporations gouge them. Free Press has the contact tool.

The Healthy Families Act (H.R. 2460/S.1152), which we've discussed here before, would allow workers to earn seven paid sick days per year, in a country where, for example, almost 80% of food service workers don't get any paid sick days. The bill is now officially "stuck in committee," both House and Senate versions having been referred to committee in mid- to late-May. Some deal-making could go on, I suppose, that would dislodge these bills from committee hell -- or we could keep telling our Congressfolk, again and again, that we want this dang bill passed already. Imagine, citizens demanding that their Congressfolk actually represent their interests! Call me dreamer if you like, but I've consecrated a big chuck of my life to the whole idea. NETWORK provides one contact tool for your House Reps, and another for your Senators.

Meanwhile, factcheck.org, true to its name, fact-checks claims President Obama made in June 11 and June 15 addresses about the cost of health care, and Mr. Obama largely comes out clean. Factcheck has some qualms about Mr. Obama's claim that "the average family pays a thousand dollars in extra premiums to pay for people going to the emergency room who don't have health care," but admits that the figure could be that high. Hell, anyone who thinks about the cost of an E.R. visit versus a cost to your primary care physician knows all these E.R. visits have to be a huge drag on costs -- whether it's a grand per family or $200, that's a lot of families and therefore a lot of money that could be better spent. And nobody doubts that we could all be a lot healthier for all that money we're spending. I can't see all of Frank Luntz's "framing" stacking up well against this particular wall of data. Well, unless the "liberal" media helps him (and the Republicans) out, and when does that ever happen, besides always?

I got yr too-big-to-fail right here!

The Obama Justice Department filed a brief supporting the Defense (sic) of Marriage Act against a gay California couple's challenge thereof -- and suggested that when states refuse to recognize incestuous marriages, they set precedent for refusing to recognize gay marriages. How many times must I tell these pimps! Gay marriage has nothing whatsoever to do with incest, nor, for that matter, bestiality or polygamy. They're on entirely different slopes -- gay marriages would happen between consenting gay adults, but the family dog can't consent to sex with its owner, younger relatives can't consent to sex with older relatives who have power over them, and brothers and sisters (and cousins) can't consent to sex with each other, given all the familial power struggles they endure. I'd even argue that polygamous relationships aren't consensual -- three or more adults could theoretically agree to be married, but they'd have a prohibitively difficult time making decisions within the relationship so that every partner has an equal say. So CREDO helps you hand out the smack to the Obama Justice Department.

S. 990, the AFTERSchool Meals Act, would expand the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to help provide meals for children enrolled in after-school programs in low-income areas. The bill's sponsors include the usual suspects (Sanders, Brown), but they also include The Artist Formerly Known as Nixon's Mayor, Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana. If Sen. Lugar thinks it's good enough to bear his name, then I guess only a Scrooge McSmallgovernment would oppose it, especially since similar programs already work in ten states. On the other hand, S. 990 is also the kind of bill that could die from lack of attention. So NETWORK (told you I'd stop) helps you remind your Senators to support S. 990.

California residents, take note: your state's economy might be collapsing thanks to cowardly Democrats and insane Republicans (I mean, isn't that whole set-up so 2008 already?), but CALPIRG provides a way into the debate. Apparently California's highly-esteemed government will let schools close, let hospitals close, let parks close, and let public transportation systems wither and die, but are perfectly happy to let nine big corporations (plus the film industry) take home billions in tax loopholes. Let me guess: these corporations are just too big to fail. It's always a damn hostage situation, isn't it? First they pick your pocket and then they tell you that you can't live without them. Enough already! CALPIRG helps you hand out the beatdowns.

on wage theft, health care theft, and election theft.

How do corporations get through hard economic times? Well, they lay off workers, or stop hiring workers, but they also might try just not paying the workers they already have, which we know as "wage theft." Wage theft can take many forms -- companies might pay you less than minimum wage, pay you with a bad check, withhold wages for hours you've already worked, forget to pay your final paycheck when they let you go, or (even) forget to pay you for all that overtime you did. All of these can very easily look like mistakes -- or could be a company's way of needling its workers until they stop fighting. NETWORK, the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby (I'll stop soon), helps you urge your Reps and Senators to increase funding to the Department of Labor and add another 250 investigators to the Wage and Hour Division. See? Big government does create jobs. Absolutely necessary jobs, in fact.

The Senate apparently will start "working" on health care "reform" today, and Consumers Union helps you support a strong public health care option. You can change the text in the contact tool if (like me) you want to assert a preference for a Canadian style, single-payer national health care program. But this contact tool does a number of things quite well; for one, it demands that a public health option must have affordability, choice of doctors, and security if you lose your job or get sick. For another, well, I'll just quote these two paragraphs in their entirety: "I pay more today for health care because doctors and hospitals must cover the costs of the 46 million people without insurance. People without insurance usually delay getting early treatment for an illness or put off preventive care, and as a result, they get sicker and are harder to treat, and we all end up paying more. This is a terrible cycle we have to break, which is why we need meaningful reform that gets everyone covered, with financial help on a sliding-fee basis for those who can't afford health insurance." I've long made this point, and I'm glad to see someone else make it.

Finally, this may already be old news, but folks-in-the-know haven't been following the Iranian election mess via mainstream media outlets, but via the internet. Apparently you find out more about Iran from blogs and (especially) from twitter than you do from CNN these days, and the conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan, in particular, has been covering events in Iran just about non-stop. His work provides a good primer, though I think he's a little too hopeful about what's happening -- it's no sure bet that from now on "the revolution will be televised," not just since the Revolutionary Guard has been cracking down on internet use within Iran, but because the "tools" of "televised revolution" (the cell phone, the laptop, etc.) are just as available to Ahmadinejad's mob as any other. Indeed, I saw a twitter report yesterday warning that the Iranian state has been posting false twitter reports. Police states, we must remember, are always run by people, and that's cause for both hope (because people are basically good) and despair (because people do so much evil in spite of -- or even in service of -- their good nature).

good good soldiers and bad good soldiers.

Common Cause asks you to sign a "letter of commendation" celebrating five stalwart soldiers who stood up to Bush Mobb abuses of power. When I look at Tha Bush Mobb, I see only torturers and thugs, but I will never look at our Armed Forces that way -- certainly not when so many good Americans in our Armed Forces have shown the courage and the decency to protect our values, even at risk of their own careers. I'm glad that Common Cause has reminded us of these good folk, and I'll continue to remind my readers of good folk like these every chance I get.

Meanwhile, I understand that only 36 Senators support a public health insurance option, which is, as you know, Mr. Obama's fall-back position. CREDO helps you tell your Senator to support a public option, but I'm not sure I'm going to do that. I see no hypocrisy in supporting both a single-payer system and a public health insurance option as long as I'm clear about which one I prefer, and of course if it's a choice between having a public health insurance option and the pile of dung Max Baucus will likely call "reform," I'll take the option. But I don't think that should be our choice. And I think the citizen's job is to communicate his or her will, not play the political games Senators play. So you'd probably be better off calling your Senator (using the tools in the upper left-hand corner) and communicating your preference for a Canadian-style single-payer health insurance system, if that is a preference you share. I think you'd know how to argue for it -- as I've said repeatedly over the last few weeks-if-not-months, the other side's arguments are weak, and all we need to do is call that weakness out.

readings for Monday, June 15, 2009.

America's Last Reporter, Greg Palast, explains that the Peruvian government's seizure of indigenous lands -- a seizure made easier by our "free"-trade agreement with that nation, which we unsuccessfully fought in this space in 2007 -- is part of a long tradition of finding oil beneath Indians and then getting rid of the Indians. We travel from 1980s Oklahoma to 1969 Alaska to modern-day Ecuador, but we don't get much hope: even when Shell Oil pays out a $15 million settlement to the Ogoni people, it's only a drop in the bucket, as they say, for them. One hopes that Noam Chomsky is right: that world public opinion has emerged as a world superpower. If so, corporations will have to be cagier, if nothing else.

The Institute for Southern Studies provides evidence suggesting that exposure to arsenic makes you more vulnerable to swine flu. Regulating arsenic has been a federal bone of contention for some time; remember the glory days of 2001, when Mr. Bush very reluctantly accepted a Clinton-era EPA mandate to reduce arsenic from 50 ppm to 10 ppm in drinking water? Well, many, many areas of the country (especially in the South) still have much higher levels of arsenic in their water than that, and many areas of Mexico (where the H1N1 strain was first reported) also have very high levels of arsenic in their water. Of course (as the article's expansive second section demonstrates), arsenic is a fairly common emission of coal-burning power plants. "Clean" coal plants, too, I'll bet.

If you need more evidence that the right-wing's push-back against public health insurance is a complete failure on the merits, check out this factcheck.org analysis of a Conservatives (sic) for Patients Rights (sic) ad. OMFG the public health option would move 119 million people off their health insurance...onto, er, public health insurance, and that's only the most unlikely scenario. The ad also quotes something someone said in the New York Times as if the New York Times itself said it. And, er, "hundreds of choices in health care today"? That is to laugh. Allowing HMOs to buy out and gut other HMOs gives us fewer choices, and, ah, 47 million folks have only one "choice" for health care: the ER -- which in turn means we have no "choice" but to pay charity care bills through higher premiums on our own health care. Of course, though the right-wing's case is a complete failure on the merits (don't get me started about "rationing" -- hello? The "free market" has already "rationed" 47 million Americans out!), that doesn't mean they won't win -- former single-payer advocate Barack Obama is out there now campaigning for his fall-back position, and you can't count on the "liberal" media or the cowardly Congress to see what's in front of their nose.

penny rants for Friday, June 12, 2009: special "hatorade drinkers of the world unite!" edition.

So "conservatives" are ripping into Fox News (sic) anchor Shepard Smith for linking the Holocaust Museum shooting on Wednesday to that DHS report on right-wing extremism that "conservatives" didn't like. What sayeth FNC braintrust to this development? I think they're saying, everything's going according to plan. I want to like Shepard Smith, since he's likely the only Fox News talking head to say we shouldn't torture even if it works. But what if Mr. Smith's good-guy persona is part of Pravda TV's calculus for not just surviving the Obama era, but thriving in it? Even as Mr. Smith rips into Fox News viewers who buy into "hate that's not based in fact", plenty of his Pravda TV co-workers and contributors deal in, well, hate that's not based in fact -- they just don't shoot up museums, probably because (as rich men and women) they don't feel like they have to. Again, I really want to believe Shepard Smith is as good a guy as he seems. But the folks at FNC are nothing if not cunning. And he could be in on the scam.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me that the right wing paints Holocaust Museum shooter James von Brunn as a "leftist" -- especially since Roy Edroso had their number the day of the shooting. He finds a right-winger who harrumphs that Mr. von Brunn is a "nut job" (congratulations on your moral compass!) but then goes on to actually sympathize with a hypothetical "hard working stiff" (sic) who might act similarly tomorrow. Are "American's" (sic) really being "crush(ed)" under such "fascist" policies as a three-percentage point increase in income taxes for the very richest Americans that won't even go into effect for another 18 months? Were we not worse off under actual Bush Mobb fascist policies like the PATRIOT Act, warrantless wiretapping, and "voluntary" corporate regulation? I've long said that the last eight years should have put a Coxey's Army on the steps of the White House every week. Now we're more likely to get armies of sick bastards. Rick Santelli will call them "populists."

In other news, American Rights at Work points me to Business Leaders for a Fair Economy, which boasts of bringing together 1,000 business leaders who support the Employee Free Choice Act, because, strange as it may sound, they believe in a functioning middle class. But the haters are ready for it -- Investor's Business Daily's anaylsis of BLFE is light on facts, heavy on non-facts, and, interestingly, heavy on personal attacks. IBD disses leaders it's never heard of, as if they didn't get the memo that you're supposed to be nice to small businesses -- or as if they didn't check to see if these leaders they've never heard of have websites that might have helped them hear of them, as more than half of the ones I checked do. But IBD also disses leaders it has heard of -- it finds the involvement of investment firm Trillium Asset Management sinister, though it doesn't seem to find the involvement of, oh, just about every large corporation and business magazine in the country against EFCA at all sinister. For added flavor, IBD also notes "a distinct countercultural tinge" to the moving slide-show of EFCA supporters! How dare those pinkocommieterrorist construction companies, printing services, and independent bookstores join BLFE -- not to mention that bastion of dirty hippiedom, the Pizza Boli's chain. Really, IBD takes ignorance to a whole new level. It's as if they've been taking a bath in the Great Depression of 2008 or something.

Finally, I'd like to wish the good citizens of Iran luck today as they vote for President. Sadly, they'll be voting for whether they want a far-right President or a somewhat less far-right President -- hey! That sounds kind of familiar! -- but nonetheless count me in the "Anybody but Ahmedinejad" camp.

you don't need to be in who's who to know what's what.

Mr. Obama's supplemental war funding request (H.R. 2346) now has the yoke of an unpopular $100 billion giveaway to the IMF attached -- Sen. Brown (D-OH) managed to ameliorate that giveaway a good bit with some conditions about social spending and workers' rights, but regardless of my stated support for said conditions, a bailout is still a bailout, and immoral war is still immoral war. So the People's Email Network provides an email contact tool and several toll-free numbers (800.828.0498, 866.338.1015 and 866.220.0044) with which you may oppose the war supplemental. Apparently the Democratic leadership wants to pass the supplemental with only Democratic votes, so that they won't have to debate the inclusion of IMF funds with Republicans, many of whom would be (understandably!) upset at the inclusion. So Firedoglake provides contact information for some six dozen Democratic Reps who might vote against the supplemental. The House leadership might wind up failing to fund the wars this way; then they'll either have to ditch the IMF funding or fund the wars' end -- either, certainly, a desirable aim.

Meanwhile, we haven't heard enough about financial re-regulation lately, so Consumers Union provides a contact tool demanding an overhaul of our financial regulation system. Specifically, CU calls for a Financial Product Safety Commission, which sounds kind of odd if, like me, you think the word "product" should apply to things that actually exist in space-time, versus "products" that only exist in the minds of financial "wizards." But if a Financial Product Safety Commission actually helps regulate the financial industry, if it actually helps put consumers first when they need to borrow or invest money, then I'll submit to the fiction a bit. Key words in that previous sentence: "a bit."

Two Senate committees will jointly hold a hearing on their federal whistleblower protection legislation today (S. 372), so now's the time to tell them that the House federal whistleblower protection bill -- H.R. 1507, which may pass the House for the third time very shortly -- is the better idea. The House bill gives federal employees and contractors access to jury trials for claims of retaliation -- which right many private-sector employees already have -- and would also provide safe channels of disclosure for intelligence and national security workers. The Senate will no doubt claim that government workers shouldn't have the ability to wreak so much havoc on the government in these difficult times, but if our values aren't good enough for troubled times, they're not good enough at all, and I refuse to believe our values aren't good enough. Public Citizen helps you tell your Senators what's what.

Finally, we again address the canard that higher state tax rates cause millionaires to move out of the state. The media jumped on Maryland Treasury Comptroller Peter Franchot's statement that the number of millionaires filing tax returns had dropped significantly in 2008 -- see, they said, high state tax rates really do cause millionaires to move out! Not so fast, says the Institution on Taxation and Economic Policy -- they note that, while the preliminary number of tax returns from millionaires dropped between 2007 and 2008, the preliminary number of tax returns from folks making between $250,000 and $999,999 rose rather dramatically, which suggests that maybe the Great Depression of 2008 changed a lot of millionaires into sub-millionaires. Of course, absent actual address change figures, final-versus-preliminary tax return numbers, et cetera, we don't actually know the whole story. Strange how that doesn't stop the media from acting like they know the whole story, though.

I got yr Green Dam right here!

The government of China has announced that, beginning July 1, all PCs sold in China will have to include "Green Dam" software. They say the software will help keep pornography off computers, but we can't take their word for it -- China already restricts internet usage more than just about anyone on Earth, forbidding its citizens from viewing sites relating to Tianenmen Square or the Falun Gong or the Dalai Lama. It gets better: American computer-makers Dell and Hewlett-Packard will have to comply with the rules if they want to sell computers in China. The corporations seem, happily, rather upset with the rules, but will likely need more steel in their spine to defy the Chinese government; CREDO helps you supply that steel.

H.R. 2404, a Jim McGovern (D-MA) production, would force the Secretary of Defense to outline an exit strategy for U.S. forces in Afghanistan by the end of this calendar year. That is, actually, all the bill says; I guess you can't fault Jim McGovern for overstaying his welcome. But Peace Action West's contact tool lets you go on about supporting H.R. 2404 as long as you like -- up to 5,000 characters, though of course your House Rep is more likely to read something shorter. You may want to mention, if this is your view, that one possible exit strategy might be "get bin Laden and get out." That's mine, anyway -- I mean, we could do plenty of noble things in Afghanistan if we were willing to run their country for them, but we're not. Nor should we be.

for the want of a nail.

Robert Reich may be right -- we're losing the battle against the big health insurers for health care reform. So USPIRG helps you tell your health care horror story. Feeling underwhelmed by that idea? As I pointed out many weeks ago, the big insurers' fight against reform depends on the American voters completely forgetting what health care is already like -- the other side talks about dem big-govmint bureaucrats getting between you and your health care when private health insurers already get between you and health care. Remind your Congressfolk of what health care is really like -- they get government health care, you know, so they don't really understand -- and we'll be showing them that we're not falling for their tricks.

Sen. Webb (D-VA), who's still my homey despite all the times he's disappointed me over the last two years, has introduced S. 714, which would establish the National Criminal Justice Commission. The National Criminal Justice Commission would review, well, the entire criminal justice system, both at federal and state levels, and a perusal of the bill's findings (sec. 2) reveals that S. 714 is pretty mad that our incarceration level is five times the world's average, that minorities suffer disproportionately at the hands of the justice system, that corrections expenditures eat up money that could be spent on education and public safety, that high incarceration rates for drug offenses haven't made drugs less available, that the number of ex-offenders returning to prison has doubled over the last two decades -- well, the list goes on and on. I think some good could come out of this, and so does NETWORK, the (wait for it) National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, which helps you support the bill. (You might want to ask that the bill shows more awareness of women's issues in incarceration.)

Pennsylvania residents, take note: the Pennsylvania state Senate Communications and Technology Committee will take up S.B. 621, which would end Real ID in the state. We all know the problems with Real ID, right? That it would force the state database to synchronize with national databases, which would actually make it easier for some unscrupulous individual to steal your ID? That it would force the state to keep more copies of your important documents around, which increases the number of documents that could be stolen? That it would put (you guessed it) an easily-stolen machine-readable zone on the back of your ID? That all of this would cost gobs of money we could be spending on something more worthwhile, like health care or putting actual boots on the ground to find bin Laden? The ACLU of Pennsylvania helps you oppose Real ID, which has already been successfully resisted by 13 states.

Meanwhile, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) has apparently discovered twitter, but, unfortunately, uses it like a twit. Really, look at that link. Done looking? Good. This is, seriously now, one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen -- I'm shocked and saddened to witness a not-so-bad Republican Senator write like a just-jilted high school boy. Plus, he has to work weekends (or, rather, WKENDS)! I figured Sen. Grassley would cruise to re-election in 2010, and I was OK with living with that, but now I can think of at least two Iowa Democratic Congressmen who might think they have a shot at him. They wouldn't show that message in their ad, of course -- Iowa voters wouldn't like that -- but Mr. Grassley has sixteen months to crack up further.

UPDATE. I'm thrilled to report that both my Senators (Casey and Specter) are co-sponsors of S. 714 (see second paragraph above). Mr. Casey often impresses me with his compassion, but I should also have expected Mr. Specter's support, as he has long taken a keen (and not rightist) interest in crime and punishment. I guess sometimes I ought to cut Mr. Specter a little slack. Key word: sometimes.

this used to be the future.

Sen. Feingold has introduced S. 1173, the Community-Based Health Care Retraining Act, which would create a "demonstration project" retraining laid-off workers as health-care workers in communities which have unusually low employment rates. That's right, low employment rates -- Russ Feingold knows as well as you and I that the meaning of the word "unemployment" has been jerked around so much in recent years that it now tells you about half the story. The "demonstration project" would give grants to partnerships consisting of local workplace investment boards and institutions of higher learning (not excluding tech schools, of course). You may want to give your Senator a call (using the tools in the upper left-hand corner) expressing your support for this legislation. They'll never see it coming.

Public Citizen helps you demand better climate change legislation from Congress. As I've said, I prefer good old-fashioned regulation over cap-and-trade, but the contact tool, at least, helps us get a better cap-and-trade law. There's no hypocrisy in advocating for both -- and you can edit this particular message to suit your views. Meanwhile, the Union for Concerned Scientists helps you encourage Obama Administration officials to advocate for better climate-change legislation. You'll be talking to two separate branches of government, so you can go ahead and use both contact tools without muddying the data.

Meanwhile, close to home, the Pennsylvania state Senate's budget proposal has gutted funding for state parks and forestlands, which could shut down one in four state parks across the state. Why would Republicans gut park funding? Perhaps they're gunning (so to speak) to lose the fishing-and-hunting vote, or the folks-who-are-vacationing-within-Pennsylvania-because-hello-there's-a-depression-on vote. Sen. Scarpati can stop playing stupid, too -- you close a state park by selling it off to your cronies for "development." If you're a Pennsylvania resident, you can email your State Senator and begin the backlash.

it's super-gay Friday!

Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach is the latest gay airman to get the axe under don't-ask-don't-tell; he has served 18 years in the Air Force, has logged 400 combat hours, and has nine air medals. I mention these just so you don't think it's only about gay Arabic linguists around here. Anyway, the Servicemembers' Legal Defense Network provides a petition to Air Force Secretary Michael Donley asking Sec. Donley to continue to let Lt. Col. Fehrenbach serve. I know that don't-ask-don't-tell is the law of the land, but I also know that Rosa Parks broke the law when she wouldn't move to the back of the bus, and I don't regret that, either. Mr. Obama has kept putting don't-ask-don't-tell on the back burner, despite having two wars to fight; maybe, just maybe, an Air Force Secretary's defiance will convince him to do better.

Now that New Hampshire has embraced gay marriage (is that why Mitt Romney won't move there now?), we turn our attention to New York, where the state Assembly has passed a marriage equality bill and Gov. Paterson has promised to sign it. Who are we forgetting? Ah, of course -- the New York state Senate, which also must pass the bill. So the ACLU helps you contact all your New York friends and remind them to contact their state Senators. Better hurry, because the innocuously-named National Organization for Marriage has spent a boatload of bucks in New York trying to defeat the bill -- just so that gays can't visit their beloved in the hospital or make important medical decisions or inherit estates, among so many other things. Why would anyone do such a thing? Because they drink hatorade for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's that simple.

for the people who work and play/doin' it everyday/this is how it need to be.

The FCC seeks comments on America's national broadband plan, and Free Press helps you leave said comments on said plan. Basic theme? Up with people, down with corporations. Good news? This theme resonates across the political spectrum -- organizations like the Christian Coalition and the NRA have been just as steadfast in their defense of freedom-for-people media issues as the rest of us have. Bad news? The big telecoms are the biggest dogs on the block right now -- I mean, big agriculture and big pharma don't care about big media, we didn't regrow our manufacturing sector this week, and the auto manufacturers and financial kingpins aren't doing so hot right now. So who does that leave between us and freedom? That's right, the big telecoms, with their high prices, their favoring of "partners," their limits on usage and content, their blocking of actual innovative products, and their snooping on our private communications. What are they good for? Good records and TV shows? That only comes down to cases, and in any case you and I can do that on our own, and use a free, net-neutral internet to share it. So keep fighting.

NETWORK, the Catholic Social Justice Lobby (yes in fact I do love writing that), will join an Interfaith Service of Witness and Prayer (I love writing that too) for universal health care in D.C. on June 24. NETWORK will also sponsor "echo" events during the June 19-26 Week of Prayer for Health Care for All; there may be some echo events in July as well. The Senate can throw out all the advocates of single-payer health care they want, but truth is the wheels of the Senate grind slower than those of God, so the more we fight, the better chance we have of winning. You can find more information about these events here. The D.C. event takes place at Freedom Plaza, on Pennsylvania Ave and 13th St. NW, near the Metro Center stop, it should run from 4 pm to 7 pm. I'll have more details, of course, as they arrive.

the usual -- good Catholics, bad Republicans.

S. 1085, the Reuniting Families Act, aims to cut down immigration visa backlogs, mainly by raising per-country immigration limits, utilizing unused visas, and permitting widows, widowers, and orphans to remain eligible for visas after the death of their beloved. Since a lot of relatives have to wait decades to be reunited with parents and/or siblings, these all seem like awfully compassionate moves. No doubt the far right (some of whom, as you know, are either immigrants themselves or the offspring of immigrants) will call S. 1085 just another way to let terrorists flood our country. What's the big deal? Find the trouble, get the warrants, make the arrests, stop bad things from happening. I guess it's understandable that they would go bat-guano at any liberalization of immigration laws, given that their Personal Lord and Savior, George W. Bush, did the worst job of using the legal tools he had to stop terrorists than any President I can remember. NETWORK has the contact tool.

Meanwhile, factcheck.org weighs in on Republican claims that the Obama cap-and-trade proposal would cost households an average of $3,100 per year. Long story short: the MIT study Republicans cite actually puts the figure at around $800, and the study actually predates Mr. Obama's plan by almost two years. But here's what never gets challenged in all the hullabaloo: Republicans constantly insist that government should never force businesses to incur any sort of extra cost because businesses will always pass that cost onto their consumers. I have a few questions for Republicans: one, is that moral, and if not, why do Republicans tolerate it? Two, how come their beloved "free market" never seems to answer their nightmare scenarios? It couldn't be because their "free market" only benefits corporations, and never benefits consumers, could it?

there is beauty in the bellow of the blast.

S. 1152, the Healthy Families Act, would require employers to permit employees to accrue one hour of paid sick time for every thirty hours worked, up to 56 hours of paid sick time per year (unless the employer permits more hours). Not everybody's as lucky as me, you know -- some employers don't give their employees any sick time, and everyone gets sick sooner or later. I'm guessing the right-wing response to S. 1152 would be that, since some employers give sick time and others don't, the employee should be responsible enough to get a job that gives him or her sick time. I think such people forget how hard it is to get a job, period -- particularly in a rural or depressed area. NETWORK, the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby (see? We're not all like Bill Donohue!) provides the contact tool.

Secretary Vilsack has requested that the USDA update its 50-year-old regulations on importing invasive plant species. That's a good thing, and Union for Concerned Scientists helps you support this effort. You'll specifically ask that Mr. Vilsack approve stricter plant-importations standards more quickly. A lot has happened in the last 50 years, you know -- for example, the Plant Protection Act of 2000 mandated that the USDA's Animal Plant Health and Inspection Service (or APHIS) update its regulations concerning weeds. But then, you probably remembered what happened in the intervening eight years -- or, should I say, who happened.

H.R. 1507, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2009, would, well, enhance protections for whistleblowers, mainly by eliminating time limits for disclosure. No doubt the right would have us believe that the bill would protect employees who make frivolous claims of waste or fraud, but they would need to show me where the bill does that, because I don't see it. Perhaps the right will even invoke the specter of national security in keeping whistleblowers in line. Folks, if we have to choose between our security and protecting good citizens who put an awful lot on the line in order to do the right thing, then we don't deserve any security. The road of liberty is not an easy road, nor should it be. The National Whistleblowers Center provides the contact tool.

As anticipated, Bill O'Reilly had a little something to say last night about the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a.k.a. "Tiller the Baby-Killer," with whom Mr. O'Reilly has been a bit obsessed over the years. I don't blame Bill O'Reilly for George Tiller's murder -- I blame him for his fake independence, his fake compassion, and his fake rage, all of which are, I believe, more damaging to our society than a single murder, or even a single act of domestic terrorism. How do I know he's such a fake? Because he spends about 15 seconds condemning the death of Dr. Tiller -- forgetting, even, to offer condolences to friends and family -- but spends two full minutes responding to critics of Fox News and the Factor. In short, for Bill O'Reilly, George Tiller's death is mainly all about how persecuted Bill O'Reilly is. That's exactly the kind of sickness, immorality, and decadence I keep talking about here.

thieves!/thieves and liars!/murderers, hypocrites, and bastards!

With the exoneration of two more death row inmates in the last week, the ACLU reminds us that Troy Davis, of whom we've spoken before, remains on death row in Georgia although no physical evidence backs his murder conviction, and though seven of the nine non-police witnesses in the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. I suspect Georgia won't reopen the investigation at least partly because the murder victim was a cop -- but if one must care more about cop murders than other murders, shouldn't one be even more adamant about getting the right perp? The ACLU helps you write Chatham County D.A. Larry Chisholm asking to reopen the Troy Davis investigation. You may want to remind Mr. Chisholm that even staunch death penalty advocates William Sessions and Bob Barr are on Mr. Davis's side in this matter.

Meanwhile, America's Last Investigative Reporter, Greg Palast, exposes the GM bankruptcy scheme for what it is -- an illegal attempt to grab GM's worker pension fund and give it to GM's lenders so they can be repaid. America's Last Conservative, Paul Craig Roberts, has been warning for months about the coming pension fund raids, and apparently he was reading the mind of Obama Administration "Car Czar" Steven Rattner. Whatever happened to everybody's gotta make sacrifices in These Difficult Times, you wonder? Apparently our sick, immoral, and decadent government believes that banksters don't have to make sacrifices -- or, more precisely, that we must sacrifice so that they don't have to. But the actual pension raid hasn't quite happened yet, and you know where Mr. Obama's contact page is; now go tell him what's what. Feel free to use the words "sick, immoral, and decadent" if you like. He really doesn't deserve better right at this moment.