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Will Dur$t'$ 2011 Xma$ Gift Wi$h Li$t |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=6945"><span class="small">Will Durst, Reader Supported News</span></a>
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Saturday, 24 December 2011 12:14 |
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Durst begins: "Bah humbug everybody. And I imagine that sentiment is being echoed by more than a few of you overly familiar with the soft dark underbelly of this 'happiest time of the year.' Those of us who have been washed prone by the gushing holiday faucet of red and green greed and are dreading the repurposed solstice celebration as it drips down the gutter of melancholy revealing the regurgitated fruitcake of gloom and despair. Whoa. Wow. Sorry about that. Then again; what the hell. Pass a cookie and another glass of nog..."
Political satirist Will Durst. (photo: WillDurst.com)
Will Dur$t'$ 2011 Xma$ Gift Wi$h Li$t
By Will Durst, Reader Supported News
24 December 11
 ah humbug everybody. And I imagine that sentiment is being echoed by more than a few of you overly familiar with the soft dark underbelly of this "happiest time of the year." Those of us who have been washed prone by the gushing holiday faucet of red and green greed and are dreading the repurposed solstice celebration as it drips down the gutter of melancholy revealing the regurgitated fruitcake of gloom and despair. Whoa. Wow. Sorry about that.
Then again; what the hell. Pass a cookie and another glass of nog and go easy on the nutmeg and heavy on the brandy, because this warm comforting holly jolly Xmas spirit needs be relit. And to honor all you brave and steadfast consumers setting new records in your patriotic quest to sink heavily into debt to honor the birth of that Jewish hippie kid; we hope to rectify the sins of omission perpetrated by the corpulent bearded one in the scarlet suit by offering up to the most deserving of us - this annual scathingly incisive yet always trenchant, WILL DURST'S 2011 XMA$ GIFT WI$H LI$T.
For Newt Gingrich: who admits he says anything that flies into his head: a tiny rabid West African Hummingbird.
For Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: the AFL-CIO's Organizer of the Year Award.
For the East Coast: who whimpered for weeks after both a small earthquake and a slight brushing from a near hurricane: a 12 month supply of chill pills.
For American Philatelists: some glue for their Barack Obama stamps that won't stick to anything, and glossy coating for the one honoring Mitt Romney, which inexplicably causes people to spit on the wrong side.
For Joe Biden: a satellite phone that works from the depths of whatever trench he's going to be sent for the next year.
For Speaker of the House John Boehner: a gift certificate to Kaiser Permanente, good for one surgical procedure to remove that unsightly Tea Party growth clinging to his back.
For the Penn State University Athletic Department: Harry Potter's invisibility cloak.
For President Obama: a continuing series of ill-timed principled stands by the Republican House.
For the Tea Party: a boatload of petards upon which they can hoist themselves.
For Barry Bonds: the pleasure of his own company for as long as he can stand it.
For the Mayans: one of those really cute "Baby Monkey Riding on a Pig" calendars for 2013.
For Sarah Palin: a series of hedges to lurk behind for the next ten months.
For Alec Baldwin: an unlimited refillable prescription for Xanax in a carrying case suitable for travel.
For Angela Merkel and the Euro Zone: a diet book explaining how to thrive without Greece.
For Tim Cook, the new CEO of Apple: a world wide epidemic of Jobs amnesia.
For Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, et al.: prestigious offers for deanships from various universities so they can retreat with a semblance of dignity.
For Herman Cain: his own hour-long network talk show with an all male production staff.
For Anthony Weiner: see above.
For Grover Norquist: a one-way ticket on the clue train. Tax-deductible, of course.
For Charlie Sheen: a personal anger counselor on 24-hour call.
For Donald Trump: a stainless steel muzzle and detailed instructions on how to install it. With rivets.
And for all the rest of us: a reality TV show called Celebrity Russian Roulette starring the Kardashians. With the winner destined to become revered as... The Last Kardashian.
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FOCUS: The Scrooginess of Congress |
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Saturday, 24 December 2011 11:21 |
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Hightower writes: "The 1-percenters and the politicos who serve them are modern-day scrooges, oblivious to the hardships of others. 'Humbug,' they mutter, expecting downsized workers to be like Bob Cratchit - grateful to be given an extra piece of coal for the fire in Ebenezer's cold workspace. As you recall, Scrooge was a nasty old miser, but even he came to see the soul-destroying evil of his ways and found redemption in the end. One wonders, though - is there any hope for the Scrooges of Washington?"
Texas' progressive political curmudgeon, Jim Hightower. (photo: JimHightower.com)
The Scrooginess of Congress
By Jim Hightower, Battleground Blog
24 Decemeber 11
 t's at this time of the year that generous, big-hearted Americans reach out to aid the less fortunate among us - like those who've recently been knocked down by the recession and seen their incomes plummet. I speak, of course, about our nation's severely squeezed millionaires.
Yes, many in the infamous 1 percent class are no longer feeling like a million bucks. According to a new federal report, the income of these high-living swells averaged a robust $1.4 million in 2007, but after Wall Street crashed in a heap of greed late that year, their average income took a tumble. In 2009, it fell below the millionaire threshold, leaving these poor rich folks struggling to make it on an average income of only $957,000.
Also, talk about getting a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking, the share of our nation's total income taken by the 1-percenters fell from a whopping 23 percent in 2007 (the highest since the Roaring Twenties) to a mere 17 percent in 2009. How sad for them, huh?
The only balm for their little financial ouchie is they are using the slight setback to rebuke the 99-percenters of the Occupy Wall Street protests. See, say the rich, waving the federal report, our slice of the pie in 2009 was the smallest it's been in a decade, so your protest about inequality is out of date. "Get a time machine," one front man for the Koch brothers barked at the Occupy movement.
OK, but let's travel back only a few short years in time to 1980, when the top 1 percent was very happy to pocket a meager 10 percent of all of America's income. And, by the way, today's 1-percenters have had big income gains since 2009, while the 99 percent have lost income. So the Occupiers are right - the inequality is increasing - yet, shamefully, those who're back making a killing want America's hard-hit majority to feel sorry for them!
The 1-percenters and the politicos who serve them are modern-day scrooges, oblivious to the hardships of others. "Humbug," they mutter, expecting downsized workers to be like Bob Cratchit - grateful to be given an extra piece of coal for the fire in Ebenezer's cold workspace. As you recall, Scrooge was a nasty old miser, but even he came to see the soul-destroying evil of his ways and found redemption in the end. One wonders, though - is there any hope for the Scrooges of Washington?
Congressional Republicans continue to protect nonsensical tax breaks for Wall Street billionaires and Big Oil, while demanding that programs to aid America's growing number of poor people either be slashed or eliminated. The Obama White House is fighting most of this absurdity, but it keeps trying to appease the GOP by offering to sacrifice programs that ordinary people really need. For example, LIHEAP.
Much of the country doesn't know what that is, but people who go through the long, bitterly cold winters in the Northeast know that LIHEAP literally is a lifeline for the thousands of poor families there. It's the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps the poor afford the steadily rising price being charged for the heating oil that Northeastern states rely on. Home heating oil in Maine is presently running $3.66 a gallon, up from $2.87 a year ago.
Yet, in a concession to GOP leaders, Obama has proposed whacking LIHEAP's funding so severely that average benefits this winter would fall from about $800 per home to just over $300. That's not just throwing a program's budget into the Republican shredder, it's throwing people into it! In Bangor, Maine, where the average January low is only 7 degrees above zero, the slashed benefits will buy only about 100 gallons of fuel for the typical low-income home. It takes 850 gallons for those homes to stay heated through the winter season.
Rather than literally tossing the poor into the cold, how about cutting off all heat to the White House and Capitol? Let those Scrooges feel the sting of their budgetary miserliness, and maybe they'd seek a bit of redemption from those they're hurting.
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The Sixties Student Movement and the Working Class |
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Saturday, 24 December 2011 08:29 |
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Naison begins: "During the 1960's, New York city was the scene of an incredibly powerful anti-war and student movement. Like Occupy Wall Street, this movement was often attacked for being unrepresentative of the city's working class. In reality, this movement was far more diverse in class and race than critics at the time, or historians, realized. As both a participant in this movement, and a historian trying to make sense of it, I want to give a sense of how important the working class component of the anti-war and student movements in New York City were in the 1960's and early 70's."
In 1960's the students for a Democratic Society, an activist antiwar group, called for a March on Washington to protest the U.S. bombing in North Vietnam, 12/23/11. (photo: Magnum)
The Sixties Student Movement and the Working Class
By Mark Naison, LA Progressive
24 December 11
 uring the 1960's, New York city was the scene of an incredibly powerful anti-war and student movement. Like Occupy Wall Street, this movement was often attacked for being unrepresentative of the city's working class.
In reality, this movement was far more diverse in class and race than critics at the time, or historians, realized. As both a participant in this movement, and a historian trying to make sense of it, I want to give a sense of how important the working class component of the anti-war and student movements in New York City were in the 1960's and early 70's.
In doing so, I will present some rarely discussed features of the Columbia Strike, the most publicized of student movements during the period, as well as the struggle for Open Admissions in the City University, anti-war activism in the city's high schools, and neighborhood organizing projects spawned by SDS, the Black Panther Party? and the Young Lords Party
The Columbia Strike, a building occupation which lasted seven days, has often been held up as an prototypical example of elite leadership of the student movement and the anti-war movement. This is not entirely wrong. The vast majority of the leadership and membership of Columbia SDS, along with the majority of the white students who occupied four of the five buildings, were from middle class and upper middle class families.
However, the Black students who occupied Hamilton hall, without whose leadership and militancy the "occupation" strategy would have never been introduced, were far more diverse in class origins than SDS members. Many of the students occupying Hamilton Hall, including my own girlfriend at the time, came from working class and lower middle class families-products of a new admissions policy which Columbia had introduced beginning in 1966 that multiplied the number of black students at the school more than sixfold.
In addition, leaders from Harlem organizations were regular participants in the Hamilton Hall occupation, giving the entire movement space to operate because Columbia administrators were afraid they might cause rioting in Harlem, leading to attacks on the university, if they used police action to pull Hamilton Hall occupants out.
In addition, high school students from Harlem and the Upper West Wide played a major role in the strike when they marched, 500 strong, on to the Columbia campus to break through a blockade of the buildings that conservative athletes had set up to try to "starve out" protesters. Without a highly politicized Harlem community, and strong student movements in largely working class New York City high schools, both of whom mobilized in support of Black student occupiers and the movement as a whole, the Columbia strike would have likely ended in one or two days, and would not have won its most important victory-the prevention of the construction of a private gymnasium for Columbia students in a Morningside Park, a public park adjoining the campus.
But though the Columbia strike was the most publicized student movement in that era-not only in New York City, but the nation-in terms of material consequences, it was far surpassed by an entirely working class movement-the struggle for open admissions in the City University of New York. In 1969, Black and Latino students at City College initiated a strike, and blockaded the school, to demand that the overwhelming white 4-year colleges of CUNY open their doors to students of color who had become the majority in the city's high schools.
This fierce battle, supported by SDS chapters around the city won an incredible victory. The City University Board voted to radically change admissions standards for its 4-year colleges and initiate a broad-based remediation program to accommodate the new students.
The results were astonishing. Within one year, the number of freshmen attending CUNY 4-year colleges rose from 20,000 to 35,000 and the number of students of color tripled. This was arguably the greatest single victory won by the student movement in New York City during the entire period, and was organized and led by students from working class backgrounds.
Where did these students come from? How were they politicized? Here we have to look at the impact of Black students organizations founded in the city's high schools and colleges, as well as the impact of community organizing and political education carried on by the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Party.
When the Black Power slogan was launched by Stokely Carmichael of SNCC, it captured the imagination of Black students around the nation. The idea that Black people had to create separate organizations to achieve true self-determination touched a particular chord with Black students at predominantly white institutions and led to the formation of Black student unions on every City University campus and at private colleges like Columbia, NYU and Fordham.
The college Black student unions, in turn, reached out to black students at public high schools to form student organizations of their own, a process which was often resisted by recalcitrant administrators, and to demand that black history be taught as part of the curriculum. The result was considerable political turmoil at the city high schools around issues of race and representation, a tension only increased by the 1968 teachers strike which pitted community groups in Black and Latino neighborhoods seeking local control of all aspects of school management against a teachers union determined to have hiring and firing of teachers immune to local pressures.
These students were also exposed almost daily, in their neighborhoods, and outside their schools to representatives of the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Party. Men in black suits and bow ties selling Muhammed Speaks were a fixture of life in the city's black neighborhoods, as well as neighborhoods near schools and colleges (we had our salesman at Columbia everyday).
By 1969, men and women selling the Black Panther Party newspaper were almost as visible. High school students of color purchased and read these newspapers, giving them an exposure to a critical view of American society which was a reinforced by neighborhood and school newspapers sold and distributed on the streets by white radical students and activists.
This student activism was supplemented by community organizing, some of it around the war, some of it around issues of health care and labor rights. In the fall of 1969, some activists in a now splintered SDS decided to launch organizing projects in working class neighborhoods in the Bronx and Queens while the Black Panthers? and Young Lords joined initiated a remarkable campaign to improve health care and empower staff members and patients at the notoriously badly run and dangerous Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx.
As a participant in one of these initiatives-the Bronx Coalition-I saw how deeply student and community activism had become embedded into what was then a largely white, but rapidly becoming multiracial section of the Bronx. I was the only "Columbia" person in the group, which consisted of faculty in the Seek Programs (the new remediation initiative in CUNY) of Lehman and City colleges, nurses, teachers and postal workers, students from Lehman, Clinton, Taft, and Roosevelt High Schools as well as Bronx High School of Science, and students from SDS chapters at Lehman, Bronx Community, Fordham and NYU.
We participated in anti-war marches and demonstrations in support of imprisoned members of the Black Panther Party, but we also organized support for striking postal workers, did draft counseling for neighborhood youth, and ran a storefront women's health clinic that eventually evolved into the first abortion clinic at a New York City Hospital (Montefiore). We promoted all our activities through a community newspaper, The Cross Bronx Express, which we sold on the streets and outside schools for anywhere from a penny to 25 cents, usually selling out a print run of more than 3,000 papers.
We also held street rallies and concerts, picketed the local armed forces recruiting station and tried to take our message to the youth by playing basketball in schoolyards and parks. The abortion clinic was our most lasting achievement, along with the collective accomplishment of helping to the war, but during the two years we were together, we gave a voice to a working class people who were often left out of public discourse, and whose role in building sixties protest movements has often been overlooked.
One powerful example of the working class participation in the movement to end the war took place after the invasion of Cambodia. Not only did every university in the borough go on strike, but 5000 high school students, including those from Clinton and Roosevelt, marched out of school and commandeered buses and subway trains to express their outrage at this expansion of the war.
The Sixties Student Movement and the Working ClassI hope this brief overview will be helpful to Occupy Wall Street as it begins to embed itself in working class communities and to take up issues that are central to those communities economic and social health. Certainly, the greatest victory of that period-the struggle for open admissions at City University-holds numerous lessons for current activists, but so does the role of the Harlem community and high school students in defending, protecting and extending the Columbia strike. Now as then, involvement of the working class is key to endowing justice movements with the energy, power, and moral stature required to extract concessions from the powerful
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FOCUS: Ron Paul, the Soldier's Choice |
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Friday, 23 December 2011 13:41 |
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Egan begins: "So this is Christmas, season of peace, time to reflect on the people coming home from a war that most Americans say was not worth it, and those still fighting in another war that raises new doubts by the day. Many of the service members returning from Iraq - where nearly 4,500 American lives were lost, 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed and about 600,000 Christians were forced to flee the country with other refugees - are paying close attention to the campaign to decide who will be commander in chief. What would they think of a candidate who says: 'Far from defeating the enemy, our current polices provide incentive for more people to take up arms against us.' And, 'We have an empire. We can't afford it.'"
In 2005, Ron Paul attended a news conference with Representatives Walter Jones and Dennis Kucinich calling on President George W. Bush to phase out U.S. troops in Iraq, 12/23/11. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Ron Paul, the Soldier's Choice
By Timothy Egan, The New York Times
23 December 11
 o this is Christmas, season of peace, time to reflect on the people coming home from a war that most Americans say was not worth it, and those still fighting in another war that raises new doubts by the day.
Many of the service members returning from Iraq - where nearly 4,500 American lives were lost, 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed and about 600,000 Christians were forced to flee the country with other refugees - are paying close attention to the campaign to decide who will be commander in chief.
What would they think of a candidate who says:
"Far from defeating the enemy, our current polices provide incentive for more people to take up arms against us."
And, "We have an empire. We can't afford it."
And, "Acting as the world's policeman and nation-building weakens our country, puts our troops in harm's way, and sends precious resources to other nations in the midst of an historic economic crisis."
The men and women in uniform probably wouldn't support this proponent of limited engagement. So goes the conventional wisdom, which holds that those in the military support a leader itching for a fight.
But in fact, Representative Ron Paul, the congressman who favors the most minimalist American combat role of any major presidential candidate and who said all of the above quotes, has more financial support from active duty members of the service than any other politician.
As of the last reporting date, at the end of September, Paul leads all candidates by far in donations from service members. This trend has been in place since 2008, when Paul ran for president with a similar stance: calling nonsense at hawk squawk from both parties.
Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesIn 2005, Ron Paul attended a news conference with Representatives Walter Jones and Dennis Kucinich calling on President George W. Bush to phase out U.S. troops in Iraq.
This year, Paul has 10 times the individual donations - totaling $113,739 - from the military as does Mitt Romney. And he has a hundred times more than Newt Gingrich, who sat out the Vietnam War with college deferments and now promises he would strike foes at the slightest provocation.
What seems, at first blush, counterintuitive makes more sense upon further review. There's a long tradition of military people being attracted to politicians with Paul's strict interpretation of the Constitution.
Not even a full 1 percent of Americans are active-duty military. The troops have become props for politicians who shower them with fulsome praise, while dreaming up schemes to send them into harm's way.
Yet, these soldiers, sailors, air men and women, and assorted boots on the ground know the cost - in trauma, in lives ruined, in friends lost, in good intentions gone bad - of going to war far more than the 99 percent not currently serving. Where they put their money in a campaign, paltry though it may be in comparison to the corporate lords who control a majority of our politicians, says a great deal.
And if the overwhelming service support for Ron Paul is any indication, the grunts of American foreign policy are gun-shy about further engagement in "useless wars," to use Dr. Paul's term.
"It's not a good sign when the people doing the fighting are saying, ‘Why are we here?'" said Glen Massie, a Marine Corps veteran who lives in Des Moines, Iowa, and is supporting Paul for president. "They realize they're being utilized for other purposes - nation building and being world's policeman - and it's not what they signed up for."
With his mumbled, avuncular asides and aversion to snappy sound bites, the 76-year-old congressman from Texas is now the unlikely frontrunner in some polls in Iowa. He will not be the nominee; powerful Republicans have pledged to destroy him should he gain strength beyond the cornfields of Sioux City. His libertarian positions - on marriage, drug laws and monetary policy - are poison for too many GOP stalwarts.
He has other problems, as well. His position on health care for the elderly and working poor - basically, to let people fend for themselves, at the mercy of charity and the free enterprise system - is chilling and unrealistic. And in recent days, he's had trouble explaining some deplorable racist statements that went out under the name of his newsletter 20 years ago. (He has disavowed them.)
But, strictly considered, as the iconoclast among the toy warriors seeking to be the next president, Paul has performed an admirable service. His jabbing at Gingrich, now trying to get traction with an unconstitutional plan to arrest judges whose rulings he disagrees with, has been particularly productive. In Gingrich, we have the perfect combination of a blowhard who wants to play with real weapons, a chicken hawk and a politician who wears a rental sign to cover the empty space where principles should be.
Gingrich and other Republicans sound eager to rush into combat with Iran, should that theocratic nightmare of a country develop a nuclear weapon. Paul shrugs at the thought. And he's consistently called the Iraq war an unnecessary disaster.
Romney claimed, in November, that President Obama's decision to bring home all American troops from Iraq was premature and represented "an astonishing failure." True to his trademark elasticity, Romney has now changed his mind and is fine with bringing the troops home. Perhaps he's been reading the polls that show that nearly two-thirds of all Americans think the Iraq war was not worth the loss of lives and treasury.
The young people who actually fought in Iraq know better. They can tell a phony warrior from a real one. And in Ron Paul, the veteran who served as a flight surgeon for the Air Force, the man some call crazy, they hear a voice of sanity - at least in the realm of war and peace.
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or progressives, the first eight months of 2011 were the worst of times. Not since the Reagan tax cuts and slashing of domestic programs in 2001 have progressives been so left out of the national debate, and the 2011 exclusion occurred with Barack Obama as President. Obama got the year off to a terrible start with his agreement to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy for two years in exchange for one year of extending unemployment benefits. His failure to include raising the debt ceiling as part of the deal then allowed Republicans to use that as a bargaining chip for slashing domestic programs even further in August.
