Part 1 of Public Policy: the prison-industrial complex, ALEC, SB 1070 social engineering and the art of double-speak began with a review of the facts.
The main characters in this story are NPR’s Neil Conan who recently interviewed Laura Sullivan, NPR’s police and prisons correspondent and also “Beau Hodai. Beau’s a freelance journalist who's been covering private prisons in Arizona.”
Then there’s ALEC (that only the Supremes apparently think of as a character) not so much a character as a place for characters. ALEC this organization that’s something of a non-lobby-lobby. Those characters include, Senator Russell Pearce, the Corrections Corporation of America which is the nation's largest detainer of undocumented immigrants and a cast of untold (and that adds to the problem) additional supporting actors---largely miscast as members of a “democracy.”
About a year ago Sullivan did a series on bail bonds in the United States. In doing so she “stumbled upon an organization called the American Legislative Exchange Council, which was very instrumental in passing a number of pro-bail-bondsman laws throughout the country.” While researching ALEC Sullivan “came across a fascinating article written by Beau [Hodai] that made the connection between the private industry - private prison industry and ALEC.” That lead to NPR’s investigation.
NPR’s investigation uncovered a link or connection between “immigration and ALEC.” The connection involves state Senator Russell Pearce who “is on the ALEC Public Safety Task Force. He's an executive public-sector member. And the way the task forces are comprised is you have the public-sector represented, and then you also have the private sector. Also sitting on that task force is the Corrections Corporation of America, What happens at ALEC is completely private. It doesn't there is no public oversight. The public is not invited. The media's not allowed. What's happening in these taskforce meetings is completely secret to the rest of the world. And these corporations have the undivided ear of these state legislators, who have been, by all accounts, wined and dined at these conferences by these very corporations. In fact, these corporations, for the most part, paid for them to come to the conference.”
What makes these practices so egregious is that ALEC while existing almost exclusively for the purpose of lobbying for its money making causes does so without the regulations that apply to lobbyists. This subtle pattern of influence is made the worse because often it is with the complicity of elected representatives. At best this is an end run around democratic practices by both big business and those elected to represent the people.
The story was put in motion when “This past April, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer set off a national controversy when she signed Senate Bill 1070 into law. That's the measure that requires state law enforcement officers to ask suspects they believe may be here illegally about their immigration status.
Supporters praise it as a tough law that lets state authorities enforce laws the federal government will not. Critics say it will lead to racial profiling. The Justice Department believes it's unconstitutional, and most of the law has been suspended while that case proceeds in federal court.”
If there is one thing at which the Euro Anglo culture excels it is the art of double-speak. Native Americans referred to it as “speaking with a forked tongue.”
In the case of the prison-industrial complex white supremacist types use this art of double-speak to sell and institutionalize racist tendencies in the guise of a new and improved form of immigration law enforcement. It is more the subtle evolution of lynching to imprisoning.
This social psychology has been noted to derive from the Southern "cultural tradition of exclusion," and that exclusion is “a basic element of the legacy of slavery.”
[NPR’s Neil Conan’s interview with “Sullivan, NPR’s police and prisons correspondent and also “Beau Hodai. Beau’s a freelance journalist who's been covering private prisons in Arizona” continued.]
“CONAN: But, you know, again, it's one thing to have a model piece of legislation, Laura. It's another thing to get it passed through the state legislature.
SULLIVAN: Exactly. And I think what Beau was alluding to there is that they spent a lot of money. The private prison industry donated to 30 of the 36 co-sponsors. Thirty-six co-sponsors jumped onto this legislation. That is an extremely high number for Arizona. Thirty of them received campaign contributions within the six months while the bill was under consideration.
And a number 24 of them were ALEC members, according to some documents that we received here at NPR. So what this is is you can see a subtle pattern of influence that helped this bill along from the very beginning. And it made it all the way to the governor's office, where she, too, also has connections to the private prison industry.
CONAN: Well, I have to say CCA, the Correction Corporation of America, in a statement released on November 1st said: What the NPR story neglected to report was that CCA has not contributed any money to any Arizona legislator, supporter of SB 1070 or otherwise, in 2010.
SULLIVAN: That is simply not what it what let me tell you the little situation here. That may be - it may be true. Actually, it is true that they did not what they did is they gave all their money to lobbyists who are specifically hired to lobby for them, and the lobbyists gave the money to the legislators. So it's a little bit of an end-run. [this is the part where the Euro Anglo art of double speak comes into play, ask the Native Americans]
CONAN: All right. So technically correct, but...
SULLIVAN: Technically correct. In the grand scope of things, not correct.
CONAN: Just a couple of seconds before the break, Laura, but this law is on hold in Arizona, the state law passed 1070, according to the judicial order. Nevertheless, other states are trying to institute very similar legislation.
SULLIVAN: Yes, and not just any other state. The board members that were at this conference room, five of the 10 people that are board members with Senator Pearce are now either sponsoring or trying to introduce the exact same law in their own states. And it's spread to at least two dozen other states, as well.
CONAN: If you've not heard Laura Sullivan's two-part investigation into Arizona's tough new immigration law, how SB 1070 was written and by whom, you can listen to those reports on our website. Go to npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.”
Bascially these companies and elected representatives are conspiring and colluding in the drafting of legislation used to promote their businesses by way of discriminatory, unconstitutional agendas while they are on the taxpayers’ clock. The ballot majority taxpayers in Arizona and maybe the entire South may find it acceptable for their respective tax dollars to be used to promote very race-based agendas but I’ll bet there’s more than a few minorities who find it offensive, reprehensible and outright repugnant---to say little of unethical.
While it can be said that these “elected representatives” are working to enforce the law as they perceive it and that what they are doing is not technically illegal---it is also obvious that it is not designed with “equal protection of the law” in mind.
The single most important difference between a republic and a democracy is that a republic promotes and follows laws designed to protect the rights of minorities while a democracy concerns itself with majority rule or what the founders termed “tyranny by majority.”
Given the nature and guile of Euro Anglo double speak, this may be egregious conduct exempted by design. (Call it an enclave immune from prosecution while permitting persecution.) It is notwithstanding, reprehensible, unethical and a long, long way from the letter and spirit of the foundational principles of this nation.
Then again given the fact that the nation was born of Euro Anglos who declared that “all men are created equal” while holding the chains of slavery over Blacks in one hand and the musket of terror and genocide aimed at the Native American in the other maybe not….
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Texas Red
http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/texas-statewide-partisanship/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Main%20Feed
The prison-industrial complex, apartheid public education system, racism and Elections 2010
http://robertruiz-respublica.blogspot.com/2010/10/prison-industrial-complex-aparatheid.html
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/the-prison-industrial-complex-aparatheid-public-education-system-racism-and-elections-2010
How Corporate Interests Got SB 1070 Passed
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131191523&sc=tw&cc=share
Shaping State Laws With Little Scrutiny
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130891396
The prison-industrial complex, apartheid public education system, racism and Elections 2010
http://robertruiz-respublica.blogspot.com/2010/10/prison-industrial-complex-aparatheid.html
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/the-prison-industrial-complex-aparatheid-public-education-system-racism-and-elections-2010
There are several topics on which I’ve railed for more than a year now. The central of these are best captured in my tagline, Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way.
Here & Now: SB 1070/Private Prisons
http://kjzz.org/news/arizona/archives/201010/hn_1070prisons
NPR Uncovers Web of Prison Companies and Politicians Profiting Off of Arizona’s SB 1070
http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/entry/npr_az_politicians_profit_off_of_sb_1070/
Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law
NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741
State Immigration Measures Show Business Influence
So, for example, last December Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce sat in a hotel conference room with representatives from the Corrections Corporation of America and several dozen others. The group voted on model legislation that was introduced into the Arizona legislature two months later, almost word for word.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130891396
Report says education charities stingy with needy kids
A watchdog charity group has chided the nation's biggest education foundations for only allocating 11 percent of their collective grant money to the country's neediest children.
The National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy's report evaluated 672 foundations that gave at least $1 million in grants to education from 2006 to 2008. Only about 11 percent of those grants went to "marginalized communities," defined primarily as children in low-income families and minority children. And just 2 percent of those funds went to fostering long-term change through advocacy efforts and community building.
This leaves the "alarming inequities in educational opportunities" in America unaddressed, the report charges. Since about half of public school funding comes from the local level, students living in poor areas tend to go to schools that are under-funded, and kids in richer areas go to better-funded schools. This feeds the persistent achievement gap between low-income and high-income students and minority and white students.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101031/us_yblog_upshot/report-says-education-charities-stingy-with-needy-kids
Dragging death in Texas raises tensions
Recent death of black man in Paris echoes horrific crime a decade ago
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27365080/
Farmers Branch keeps up illegal-immigration fight
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/25/2141306/farmers-branch-keeps-up-illegal.html
Speak English Only, Small NY Towns Decree
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/speak-english-only-small-ny-towns-decree/19477485?icid=main|htmlws-main-w|dl1|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Fspeak-english-only-small-ny-towns-decree%2F19477485
Civil Rights Act (1968)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1968
Civil Rights Act 1964
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964
Slavery by Another Name
http://www.amazon.com/Slavery-Another-Name-Re-Enslavement-Americans/dp/0385506252
Illusions of Justice
http://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Justice-Rights-Violations-United/dp/0934936005/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282216290&sr=1-1
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
“However, James W. Marquart, Sheldon Ekland-Olson, and Jonathan R. Sorensen offer a more complex thesis. In their book, The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990,[5] they argue that
Texas' execution rate reflects the Southern "cultural tradition of exclusion," and that "[s]uch exclusion was a basic element of the legacy of slavery."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rope,_the_Chair,_and_the_Needle:_Capital_Punishment_in_Texas,_1923-1990
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+Rope%2C+the+Chair%2C+and+the+Needle%3A+Capital+Punishment+in+Texas%2C+1923-1990&ih=1_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0.2973_1&fsc=-1&x=19&y=17
The Conscience of a Liberal
http://www.krugmanonline.com/books/the-conscience-of-a-liberal.php
Think the mid-term election was bad? Wait 'til Republicans get to redraw the electoral map…
The Republican Decade?
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/republican-decade-congressional-redistricting
Republicans map out their agenda of less
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/05/AR2010110507092.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
'Open Veins' and enduring ills in Latin America
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-miller26-2009apr26,0,2896392.story
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent'
http://www.amazon.com/Open-Veins-Latin-America-Centuries/dp/0853459916
/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1289408988&sr=1-1
Doublespeak
Doublespeak (sometimes called doubletalk) is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs), making the truth less unpleasant, without denying its nature. It may also be deployed as intentional ambiguity, or reversal of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth, producing a communication bypass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak
Forked tongue
The phrase "speaks with a forked tongue" means to say one thing and mean another or, to be hypocritical, or act in a duplicitous manner. In the longstanding tradition of many Native American tribes, "speaking with a forked tongue" has meant lying, and a person was no longer considered worthy of trust, once he had been shown to "speak with a forked tongue".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forked_tongue
Immigrant Voter Fraud Fears Didn't Materialize
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131089170
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Elections 2010: SBOE, public policy and why who wins matters
I”ve been blogging/railing for Examiner.com for the better part of a year and a half but before that I’ve been talking to anyone who would listen about three inter-related subjects: the prison-industrial complex, our apartheid public education system and our abominable healthcare (insurance) system. Okay maybe four subjects when you count the overarching umbrella that covers it all--- the wholly trinity; government, big business and organized religion and the majority that run that trinity of power--foisting prejudiced, bigoted and discriminatory public policy. There are notable exceptions to the main fortunately.
Recently the Austin Texas based Equity Center released a report entitled “Money Does Matter.” The study details the financial difficulty being experienced presently by the public school system.
The Equity Center “was founded in 1982 by 55 school districts and now represents more than 650 of the state’s 1,025 districts. It is the only education organization in Texas that exclusively represents the interests of children in school districts that are habitually underfunded by the Texas school finance system. Fair treatment of Texas children and taxpayers is the principal goal of the Equity Center.”
The Equity Center states in its overview that, “From our founding days, Texans have recognized that providing free universal education for our children is a major role of state government.” Therein lies the rub and the crux of the problem.
Almost from the outset Texas was a slave state and in many ways still is. Today’s slaveholders are simply not identified or called such---that would understandably be more than even the majority population could get away with and for minorities to swallow.
Just today it is reported that “Dozens of wealthy Texas school districts held onto more than $40 million in tax dollars that should have gone to poorer districts under the state's so-called "Robin Hood" law until the state demanded they pay up this year, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.”
It should be fairly obvious that there is at best “Illusions of Justice” and tenable and conditioned freedom for some but certainly not for all across the entire width and breadth of the South.
From my life long studies and experience in and with social-science, political-science, the much misnamed or mislabeled “politics” and of course history I recognize just how unpopular and offensive this indictment is to those of the majority population of Texas Red and the other Southern states. But that’s only because the picture as seen is what we’ve been told we are seeing and not necessarily what is. Perhaps if we risked offending a few more people we would see things for what they are rather than what we would have them and get about the task of fixing them.
There is a most illustrative of illustrations I first encountered in Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Efficient People” which best makes the point.
In this sketch some individuals see an old woman and others a young one. The old woman and the young woman exist at once. Which one we see is a matter of perspective but without changing one brush stroke, one pixel, without altering any part of it in even the slightest way there it is---both existing at once.
Some people can see only the young woman others only the old---they are fixated, rigid, inflexible. Others can see both but are fairly indifferent and largely unaffected by it.
Take no prisoners, shoot the wounded and eat the dead…..
Jaklich said two years ago, Harlandale was hit hard with the problem when HISD was forced to cut 100 positions, close an elementary school and attempt to run the district with $3.9 million in the bank.
“It costs $8 million a month to run the district,” he said. “Harlandale is 22nd from the bottom as far as property wealth, so our funding is very low.”
Recently the Austin Texas based Equity Center released a report entitled “Money Does Matter.” The study details the financial difficulty being experienced presently by the public school system.
The Equity Center “was founded in 1982 by 55 school districts and now represents more than 650 of the state’s 1,025 districts. It is the only education organization in Texas that exclusively represents the interests of children in school districts that are habitually underfunded by the Texas school finance system. Fair treatment of Texas children and taxpayers is the principal goal of the Equity Center.”
The Equity Center states in its overview that, “From our founding days, Texans have recognized that providing free universal education for our children is a major role of state government.” Therein lies the rub and the crux of the problem.
Almost from the outset Texas was a slave state and in many ways still is. Today’s slaveholders are simply not identified or called such---that would understandably be more than even the majority population could get away with and for minorities to swallow.
Just today it is reported that “Dozens of wealthy Texas school districts held onto more than $40 million in tax dollars that should have gone to poorer districts under the state's so-called "Robin Hood" law until the state demanded they pay up this year, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.”
It should be fairly obvious that there is at best “Illusions of Justice” and tenable and conditioned freedom for some but certainly not for all across the entire width and breadth of the South.
From my life long studies and experience in and with social-science, political-science, the much misnamed or mislabeled “politics” and of course history I recognize just how unpopular and offensive this indictment is to those of the majority population of Texas Red and the other Southern states. But that’s only because the picture as seen is what we’ve been told we are seeing and not necessarily what is. Perhaps if we risked offending a few more people we would see things for what they are rather than what we would have them and get about the task of fixing them.
There is a most illustrative of illustrations I first encountered in Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Efficient People” which best makes the point.
In this sketch some individuals see an old woman and others a young one. The old woman and the young woman exist at once. Which one we see is a matter of perspective but without changing one brush stroke, one pixel, without altering any part of it in even the slightest way there it is---both existing at once.
Some people can see only the young woman others only the old---they are fixated, rigid, inflexible. Others can see both but are fairly indifferent and largely unaffected by it.
Unfortunately, for the children of Texas Red and the rest of the width and breadth of the South whose collective fates and eventually that of this republic hang in the balance the unfair and unequal apartheid public education system seems the choice of public policy by the majority population. That is one unmendable misfortune that cannot be survived without creating an enormous subclass of largely illiterate and unskilled citizens. Neither is good for what is billed as a “democracy.”
If there is a reason that our federal representatives (government) has to “overreach” it is this type of condition. Federal level representatives had to step in to provide equal protection under the law through the Civil Rights Act time and again or else the majority population would have just gone on abusing, beating and lynching minorities. Short of what compassionate, conservative religiosities call the government’s “over-reach” it is unlikely the present apartheid public education system will change anytime soon or late.
Southern states have created and entrenched an apartheid public education system. Given the history and legacy of slavery in the South that should not surprise anyone. The surprise is that states in general and Southern states in particular were ever entrusted with such an important task. It is a task that rises to the level of national security. The South has paid little more than lip service to Brown vs. Board of Education. If this was an incorrect assessment we wouldn’t have the Equity Center’s report, a per student $9,000.00 gap between poor and rich school districts, or our apartheid public education system which is a holdover from the days of slavery.
Individuals like this state’s governor know no shame. Instead of working to change the state’s apartheid public education system as well as to deal with its $18 to 25 million dollar deficit he’s out hawking his book. That’s just sad for the children of this state.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
Hasta Siempre,
Wealthy Texas school districts kept millions
HALLSVILLE, Texas — Dozens of wealthy Texas school districts held onto more than $40 million in tax dollars that should have gone to poorer districts under the state's so-called "Robin Hood" law until the state demanded they pay up this year, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7294682.html
Take no prisoners, shoot the wounded and eat the dead…..
My buds usually say to this type of discovery, “No shit Sherlock?”
The Austin-based advocacy firm The Equity Center recently released a report called “Money Does Matter” detailing the trouble with public school finance in the current educational climate.
Two San Antonio superintendents — Robert J. Duron with SAISD and Robert Jaklich with Harlandale ISD — contributed to the project and said they both understand why unequal funding is becoming more and more of a problem.
“It costs $8 million a month to run the district,” he said. “Harlandale is 22nd from the bottom as far as property wealth, so our funding is very low.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/community/equity_center_releases_ominous_finance_report_106975173.html
The Equity Center recently released a report called “Money Does Matter”
http://www.equitycenter.org/moneymatters/Money%20Matters%20Publication.Sept%202010.pdf
http://www.equitycenter.org/moneymatters/Money%20Matters%20Publication.Sept%202010.pdf
Illusions of Justice
History of Slavery in Texas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_Texas
Young Woman or Old Woman
"a new breed of Southern demagogues, intolerant and and vengeful...."
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/a-new-breed-of-southern-demagogues-intolerant-and-and-vengeful
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
http://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/0671708635
Public Policy & Elections 2010 Post-election, apartheid America...still red after all these years....
The prison-industrial complex, aparatheid public education system, racism and Elections 2010
Institutionalized racism at the center of public education's problems
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/institutionalized-racism-at-the-center-of-public-
education-s-problems
Institutionalized racism at the center of public education's problems (part 2)
Institutionalized racism at the center of public education's problems (part 3)
Institutionalized racism at the center of public education's problems (part 4)
Three of four inmates in America's prison-industrial complex are people of color
Texas Red: government, big business, organized religion and public policy
American Failure in Education, Reason- Moyers, Susan Jacoby
Saturday, November 13, 2010
$4B mid-term election? We the people need to take the country back from the money-mongers, lapdogs and others…
When I was just a boy my white guy peers would mouth what they had heard their parents say after an election, “it’s the best government money can buy.” Never has that been more the case.
The rockstar wannabe bootlicking lapdogs of the oligarchs of both predominant parties and yes even the darling Tea Partiers demand and after victory proclaim they’re going to “take the country back!” I doubt it.
What these clowns are talking about is that they are moving the nation’s philosophy back into the column that favors their respective master.
This is not what the founders intended. It is the reason the founders did not want political parties. The process as practiced then and even more so today is just a money making machine.
The same people who whine about having their taxes increased (the top 1%) think nothing of making enormous contributions to their favorite political money-machine. (think Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, American Crossroads)
Why? Not for some brain numbing, eye-glazing esoterically ecomomics-based philosophical purpose that’s for certain. Unless of course, truth be told, that ecomomic-based purpose is to keep the money and power---purely and simply.
A few years ago there was an Hispanic (from Houston if memory serves) and a Black politician (from neo-naziland DFW) who were giving the status quo white guy state-wide office holders (please excuse the expression) “a run for their money.” In one night---literally overnight---Texas Red powers that be raised $24 million dollars for the status quo and kept the compassionate conservative religiosities a/k/a nincompoop mean-spirited, racist white guys in office. A sad but true tale of the power of money.
Money which by the way is still in the hands of the same top 1 percent in America. In that sense we’re not much better than the “thug run Third World countries” the majority folk routinely criticize and belittle.
The answer? The pundits, office holders, political scientists, and most lucid folk know but are impotent, powerless to make so because the big money interests are just too powerful in our “democracy.” As I have long believed our culture (republic/capitalist state) is a delicate balance between the host and the parasite. Capitalists have a stranglehold on our republic and are pleased as punch to keep it that way.
If “democracy” is “the top 1 percent is worth more and is therefore more powerful than the bottom 95 percent”---it sounds like not much of a “democracy” to me. I’m just saying…I could be wrong---but I doubt it.
If that’s “democracy” what else have you got? If money = "democracy" then it is so in a twisted, tortured, tormented way. You know like in Animal Farm. We're all equal it's just that some of us are more equal. I mean what with the top 1% being worth more than the bottom 95% (and driven to keep things that way).
Not to put too fine a point on it:
Stunning Statistics of the Week:
• $97: The amount per vote spent by Nevada Republican Sharron Angle and Connecticut Republican Linda McMahon – a record
• $69: The amount per vote spent by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
• $33: The average cost of a vote in the midterms
Koch Industries spent $1.7 million on midterms
Koch Industries, the company run by two wealthy conservative brothers, spent nearly $1.7 million in the midterms, Capitol News Connection reports. The expenditures included $1.2 million to 169 congressional candidates, most of which were Republicans or Tea Party candidates, and $439,750 to 65 leadership political action committees.
Want an appointment with a senator? Better hope you’re a lobbyist
A Colorado business consultant tried a little experiment during the health care debate: He called senators’ office and asked for an appointment. Sometimes he called as a private citizen, sometimes as a business lobbyist. As a lobbyist, he got meetings with senators nearly four times as often as when he was seeking a meeting as a concerned citizen. As a lobbyist, he scored 25 meetings with staffers and two with senators; but as a citizen, not a single senator would meet with him to discuss the health care bill.
Say it isn’t so---there is no conservative activists on the bench---pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...I am the great and powerful white guy compassionate conservative religiosity…
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Alito puts his money behind conservative causes
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was spotted recently at a fundraiser for the conservative magazine American Spectator along with such heavyweights as Michael Steele, chair of the Republican National Committee. In the past, Alito – known for siding with business and conservatives in his court rulings – has helped raise money to help conservative candidates. When a Think Progress blogger confronted Alito at the magazine’s fundraiser and questioned the propriety of his political activity, Alito replied, “It’s not important that I’m here.” Right.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
$4B mid-term election? We the people need to take the country back from monied
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/4b-mid-term-election-we-the-people-need-to-take-the-country-back-from-the-mone
Public Policy: on the prison-industrial complex, ALEC, SB 1070 and the art of double-speak
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/the-prison-industrial-complex-alec-sb-1070-the-art-of-double-speak
Elections 2010 What will Tea Party, GOPer mid-term wins mean for immigration, prison-industrial complex?
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/what-will-tea-party-goper-mid-term-wins-mean-for-immigration-reform
Elections 2010 outcome:GOPers, Tea Partiers readying to further entrench, spread the williwas of Texas Red…….
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/elections-2010-outcome-gopers-tea-partiers-readying-to-further-entrench-spread-the-williwas-of-tex
Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way
(part one)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m10d4-Texas-Red-a-cratered-landscape-of-prisons-deplorable-public-education-lack-of-healthcare-and-poli
The Conscience of a Liberal
http://www.krugmanonline.com/books/the-conscience-of-a-liberal.php
Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity
www.amazon.com/Good-Capitalism-Economics-Growth-Prosperity/dp/0300158327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285203922&sr=1-1
13 Bankers
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307379051
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
http://www.amazon.com/Winner-Take-All-Politics-Washington-Richer-Turned/dp/1416588698
Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future
http://www.amazon.com/Aftershock-Next-Economy-Americas-Future/dp/0307592812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1285922323&sr=1-1
The rockstar wannabe bootlicking lapdogs of the oligarchs of both predominant parties and yes even the darling Tea Partiers demand and after victory proclaim they’re going to “take the country back!” I doubt it.
What these clowns are talking about is that they are moving the nation’s philosophy back into the column that favors their respective master.
This is not what the founders intended. It is the reason the founders did not want political parties. The process as practiced then and even more so today is just a money making machine.
The same people who whine about having their taxes increased (the top 1%) think nothing of making enormous contributions to their favorite political money-machine. (think Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, American Crossroads)
Why? Not for some brain numbing, eye-glazing esoterically ecomomics-based philosophical purpose that’s for certain. Unless of course, truth be told, that ecomomic-based purpose is to keep the money and power---purely and simply.
A few years ago there was an Hispanic (from Houston if memory serves) and a Black politician (from neo-naziland DFW) who were giving the status quo white guy state-wide office holders (please excuse the expression) “a run for their money.” In one night---literally overnight---Texas Red powers that be raised $24 million dollars for the status quo and kept the compassionate conservative religiosities a/k/a nincompoop mean-spirited, racist white guys in office. A sad but true tale of the power of money.
Money which by the way is still in the hands of the same top 1 percent in America. In that sense we’re not much better than the “thug run Third World countries” the majority folk routinely criticize and belittle.
The answer? The pundits, office holders, political scientists, and most lucid folk know but are impotent, powerless to make so because the big money interests are just too powerful in our “democracy.” As I have long believed our culture (republic/capitalist state) is a delicate balance between the host and the parasite. Capitalists have a stranglehold on our republic and are pleased as punch to keep it that way.
If “democracy” is “the top 1 percent is worth more and is therefore more powerful than the bottom 95 percent”---it sounds like not much of a “democracy” to me. I’m just saying…I could be wrong---but I doubt it.
If that’s “democracy” what else have you got? If money = "democracy" then it is so in a twisted, tortured, tormented way. You know like in Animal Farm. We're all equal it's just that some of us are more equal. I mean what with the top 1% being worth more than the bottom 95% (and driven to keep things that way).
Not to put too fine a point on it:
Stunning Statistics of the Week:
• $97: The amount per vote spent by Nevada Republican Sharron Angle and Connecticut Republican Linda McMahon – a record
• $69: The amount per vote spent by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
• $33: The average cost of a vote in the midterms
Koch Industries spent $1.7 million on midterms
Koch Industries, the company run by two wealthy conservative brothers, spent nearly $1.7 million in the midterms, Capitol News Connection reports. The expenditures included $1.2 million to 169 congressional candidates, most of which were Republicans or Tea Party candidates, and $439,750 to 65 leadership political action committees.
Want an appointment with a senator? Better hope you’re a lobbyist
A Colorado business consultant tried a little experiment during the health care debate: He called senators’ office and asked for an appointment. Sometimes he called as a private citizen, sometimes as a business lobbyist. As a lobbyist, he got meetings with senators nearly four times as often as when he was seeking a meeting as a concerned citizen. As a lobbyist, he scored 25 meetings with staffers and two with senators; but as a citizen, not a single senator would meet with him to discuss the health care bill.
Say it isn’t so---there is no conservative activists on the bench---pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...I am the great and powerful white guy compassionate conservative religiosity…
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Alito puts his money behind conservative causes
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was spotted recently at a fundraiser for the conservative magazine American Spectator along with such heavyweights as Michael Steele, chair of the Republican National Committee. In the past, Alito – known for siding with business and conservatives in his court rulings – has helped raise money to help conservative candidates. When a Think Progress blogger confronted Alito at the magazine’s fundraiser and questioned the propriety of his political activity, Alito replied, “It’s not important that I’m here.” Right.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
$4B mid-term election? We the people need to take the country back from monied
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/4b-mid-term-election-we-the-people-need-to-take-the-country-back-from-the-mone
Public Policy: on the prison-industrial complex, ALEC, SB 1070 and the art of double-speak
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/the-prison-industrial-complex-alec-sb-1070-the-art-of-double-speak
Elections 2010 What will Tea Party, GOPer mid-term wins mean for immigration, prison-industrial complex?
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/what-will-tea-party-goper-mid-term-wins-mean-for-immigration-reform
Elections 2010 outcome:GOPers, Tea Partiers readying to further entrench, spread the williwas of Texas Red…….
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/elections-2010-outcome-gopers-tea-partiers-readying-to-further-entrench-spread-the-williwas-of-tex
Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way
(part one)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m10d4-Texas-Red-a-cratered-landscape-of-prisons-deplorable-public-education-lack-of-healthcare-and-poli
The Conscience of a Liberal
http://www.krugmanonline.com/books/the-conscience-of-a-liberal.php
Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity
www.amazon.com/Good-Capitalism-Economics-Growth-Prosperity/dp/0300158327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285203922&sr=1-1
13 Bankers
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307379051
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
http://www.amazon.com/Winner-Take-All-Politics-Washington-Richer-Turned/dp/1416588698
Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future
http://www.amazon.com/Aftershock-Next-Economy-Americas-Future/dp/0307592812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1285922323&sr=1-1
Bill Moyers on Plutonomy
Friday, November 12, 2010
Public Policy: on the prison-industrial complex, ALEC, SB 1070 and the art of double-speak
If there is one thing at which the Euro Anglo culture excels it is the art of double-speak. Native Americans referred to it as “speaking with a forked tongue.”
In the case of the prison-industrial complex white supremacist types use this art of double-speak to sell and institutionalize their antebellum South racist tendencies in the guise of a new and improved form of immigration law enforcement. This evolution has taken several form. Over the past 30 years in the South it is evidenced in the evolution of lynching to imprisoning (guilt not a necessity). Both the Arizona and Southern practices are holdovers from the days of slavery which in the South were still in practice after WWII.
This social psychology has been noted to derive from the Southern "cultural tradition of exclusion," and that exclusion is “a basic element of the legacy of slavery.” In a sense it is a prejudice by the majority population toward those unlike the majority.
Supporters praise it as a tough law that lets state authorities enforce laws the federal government will not. Critics say it will lead to racial profiling. The Justice Department believes it's unconstitutional, and most of the law has been suspended while that case proceeds in federal court.”
Recently NPR’s Neil Conan interviewed Laura Sullivan, NPR’s police and prisons correspondent and also “Beau Hodai. He's a freelance journalist who's been covering private prisons in Arizona.”
About a year ago Sullivan did a series on bail bonds in the United States. In doing so she “stumbled upon an organization called the American Legislative Exchange Council, which was very instrumental in passing a number of pro-bail-bondsman laws throughout the country.” While researching ALEC Sullivan “came across a fascinating article written by Beau [Hodai] that made the connection between the private industry - private prison industry and ALEC.” That lead to NPR’s investigation.
NPR’s investigation uncovered a link or connection between “immigration and ALEC.” The connection involves state Senator Russell Pearce who “is on the ALEC Public Safety Task Force. He's an executive public-sector member. And the way the task forces are comprised is you have the public-sector represented, and then you also have the private sector. Also sitting on that task force is the Corrections Corporation of America, which is the nation's largest detainer of undocumented immigrants.”
Mr. HODAI: That is correct. Their primary customers are the U.S. Marshal Service, the Bureau of Prisons - which also holds immigrant detainees -and ICE.
CONAN: These are while hearings are conducted to see if they are going to be deported, that sort of thing.
Mr. HODAI: Right.
CONAN: Okay. So this conference, ALEC, Laura, this is a private-public partnership. We hear about these kinds of things all the time. There's nothing suspicious about that.”
“SULLIVAN: So here's how this whole thing breaks down. So by all accounts, this idea comes from Senator Russell Pearce. He's passed similar legislation or tried to have similar legislation passed in Arizona. He's very adamant about illegal immigration, and he had this idea, and that's what he said.
And all the evidence suggests that he in fact did have this idea. But instead of taking this idea to the state House floor, to other legislators, to committees in public domains, where the public can see what's happening and what ideas legislators are making, he took it to a private conference room at the Washington Hyatt last December.
And it was in this conference room that the final draft of this legislation was written, and it was introduced two months later, word for word, in the Arizona State House.”
And in as Beau was saying earlier, in this room is the private prison industry and some other powerful corporations, and they are they all have a hand in this.
And it's interesting also that it's not even just what happens in this conference room. It's also the phone calls and the emails that take place before the legislation's even brought to this hotel conference room.
CONAN: Well, let me quote from Senator Pearce, and he has replied about - that the how much influence prison firms had over his legislation. He says: Zero. Can I make it any more clear? Zero. I've never spoken to them on it. They've never had influence. They never came to me over it. I don't know where they come up with that stuff. They've never asked to talk to me about it.
But they, I assume he means you, Laura.
SULLIVAN: Well, Senator Pearce and I had a very long conversation about this in his office, and specifically about whether or not - the role that the private prison industry played in the drafting of this legislation.
He at first said that he had never spoken to the private prison industry before. This is not what the evidence suggests. He is a board member of this committee that met in this conference room. He and the private prison corporations have been board members for 10 years almost together, for years and years together.
The private prison corporation has chaired this board twice in the past 10 years. They are a very active member in this group. And they, you know, in addition to meeting three times a year at very, you know, conferences in very sunny locations, they also have conference calls. They also send draft legislation around to each other email. They discuss what they're going to bring up to the entire committee when they meet in the boardroom, in the conference room.
So it was Senator Pearce suggested to me, as well, that he had not spoken to them before. But that doesn't appear to be the fact."
This is where the art of double-speak and the forked tongue becomes important.
Why does any of this matter? Quite simply because what these huge corporations are doing ---away from the light of day---is buying influence with elected representatives unbeknown to the constituents of those elected representatives.
In other words there is no transparency. To the casual observer what happens looks like what ALEC and huge corporations would really like for constituents to believe happened. Little could be further from the truth.
“When you when a corporation wants a piece of legislation passed - and many of them are very active about this.”
CONAN: Sure.
SULLIVAN: They go out and they push for it and they hire a lobbyist, or they register themselves as a lobbyist.
That allows the public to know two things: One, what they're lobbying for, and two, how much money they're spending on it, and the sort of things that they're paying for in order to convince legislators to go their way on a piece of legislation.
What happens at ALEC is completely private. It doesn't there is no public oversight. The public is not invited. The media's not allowed. What's happening in these taskforce meetings is completely secret to the rest of the world. And these corporations have the undivided ear of these state legislators, who have been, by all accounts, wined and dined at these conferences by these very corporations. In fact, these corporations, for the most part, paid for them to come to the conference.”
What makes these practices so egregious is that ALEC while existing almost exclusively for the purpose of lobbying for its causes does so without the regulations that apply to lobbyists. This subtle pattern of influence is made the worse because often it is with the complicity of elected representatives. At best this is an end run around democratic practices by both big business and those elected to represent the people.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Public Policy: on the prison-industrial complex, ALEC, SB 1070 and the art of double-speak
Elections 2010 What will Tea Party, GOPer mid-term wins mean for immigration, prison-industrial complex?
The prison-industrial complex, apartheid public education system, racism and Elections 2010
How Corporate Interests Got SB 1070 Passed
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131191523&sc=tw&cc=share
Shaping State Laws With Little Scrutiny
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130891396
The prison-industrial complex, apartheid public education system, racism and Elections 2010
There are several topics on which I’ve railed for more than a year now. The central of these are best captured in my tagline, Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way.
Here & Now: SB 1070/Private Prisons
http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/entry/npr_az_politicians_profit_off_of_sb_1070/
Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law
NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.
State Immigration Measures Show Business Influence
So, for example, last December Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce sat in a hotel conference room with representatives from the Corrections Corporation of America and several dozen others. The group voted on model legislation that was introduced into the Arizona legislature two months later, almost word for word.
Report says education charities stingy with needy kids
A watchdog charity group has chided the nation's biggest education foundations for only allocating 11 percent of their collective grant money to the country's neediest children.The National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy's report evaluated 672 foundations that gave at least $1 million in grants to education from 2006 to 2008. Only about 11 percent of those grants went to "marginalized communities," defined primarily as children in low-income families and minority children. And just 2 percent of those funds went to fostering long-term change through advocacy efforts and community building.
This leaves the "alarming inequities in educational opportunities" in America unaddressed, the report charges. Since about half of public school funding comes from the local level, students living in poor areas tend to go to schools that are under-funded, and kids in richer areas go to better-funded schools. This feeds the persistent achievement gap between low-income and high-income students and minority and white students.
Dragging death in Texas raises tensions
Recent death of black man in Paris echoes horrific crime a decade ago
Farmers Branch keeps up illegal-immigration fight
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/25/2141306/farmers-branch-keeps-up-illegal.html
Speak English Only, Small NY Towns Decree
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/speak-english-only-small-ny-towns-decree/19477485?icid=main|htmlws-main-w|dl1|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Fspeak-english-only-small-ny-towns-decree%2F19477485
Civil Rights Act (1968)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1968
Civil Rights Act 1964
Slavery by Another Name
Illusions of Justice
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
“However, James W. Marquart, Sheldon Ekland-Olson, and Jonathan R. Sorensen offer a more complex thesis. In their book, The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990,[5] they argue that Texas' execution rate reflects the Southern "cultural tradition of exclusion," and that "[s]uch exclusion was a basic element of the legacy of slavery."
The Conscience of a Liberal
Think the mid-term election was bad? Wait 'til Republicans get to redraw the electoral map…
The Republican Decade?
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/republican-decade-congressional-redistricting
Republicans map out their agenda of less
'Open Veins' and enduring ills in Latin America
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
Doublespeak
Doublespeak (sometimes called doubletalk) is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs), making the truth less unpleasant, without denying its nature. It may also be deployed as intentional ambiguity, or reversal of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth, producing a communication bypass.
Forked tongue
The phrase "speaks with a forked tongue" means to say one thing and mean another or, to be hypocritical, or act in a duplicitous manner. In the longstanding tradition of many Native American tribes, "speaking with a forked tongue" has meant lying, and a person was no longer considered worthy of trust, once he had been shown to "speak with a forked tongue".
Immigrant Voter Fraud Fears Didn't Materialize
Racial inequality and slavery - Bill Moyers_pt1
ALEC
American Legislative Exchange Council
Corrections Corporation of America
Arizona SB 1070
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_SB_1070
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Elections 2010: Will Tea Partiers’ stated cost cutting, smaller government mean more VA denial of benefits?
On this Veteran’s Day 2010 it is important to note that flowery speeches, solemn memorials, magnetic yellow ribbons and lip service do not “support the troops.”
It is important to note this because, “For most of U.S. history, less than 1 percent of the population served in the military, except for brief periods when the country was at war.” Approximately 1.3 percent of Americans will ever wear the uniform. During WWII that number was 3 percent---the highest it’s ever been.
Since 2007, more than 70,000 service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury — more than 20,000 of them in 2009, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. Most of the injuries are mild but leave symptoms such as headaches and difficulty concentrating.
“The debilitating effects of psychological trauma can lead troops and veterans into a downward spiral of drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness, anger issues, failed marriages and eventually suicide, he explained, noting that more veterans have committed suicide since 2001 than the number of servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan over that period.” To put that in perspective more than 5,000 men and women have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. More than 5,000 veterans have committed suicide in the same time period.
Over summer 2009 the claims backlog at the V.A. topped one million.
Between 150,000 and 225,000 veterans are homeless. At least 10 percent of those are women.
Only one in five service members, whether, active duty, guard or reserve ever make it to retirement. Guard and reserve member have to wait to age 60 for retirement regardless of the age they become retirement eligible.
Last year Texans voted on a constitutional amendment to build a veterans hospital in the southern part of the state known as the “valley.”
Listen up. The VA is one million cases backlogged. Getting a new VA hospital built takes forever and is expensive to maintain. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of veterans go without medical treatment.
Why not just provide Tricare?
The real reason a civil servant was fired for taking a picture of the flag draped coffins at Dover AFB is that our “leaders” don’t want us to see those coffins. Only one percent of the population serves. Few families are affected. The moral majority isn’t clamoring to provide our service members more. In fact, people are busier attending Tea Parties and promoting “smaller government and an end to big government “over-reach.” That’s hilarious. Does that sound like people who are going to be activists to push big government to help veterans?
If we really want to support the troops simply provide them with Tricare. It is more cost effective and makes more sense.
While we are at it why not provide the troops a real living wage.
That is supporting the troops. To those in uniform, I salute you.
Given the outcome of the recent mid-term general election I wish you much luck. Most of the people I met in the service during my career were conservative in the extreme and thus prone to vote GOPer and Tea Party.
The recent crop of new members of congress who ran on the philosophy of “smaller government” and “less intrusive government” or “over-reaching.” I can only say to you---you could well be the victim of the law of unintended consequences.
It is unlikely that Tea Partiers and GOPers are going to expand any spending to assist you.
Maybe we do need to bring back the draft. No exemptions. I’ll bet we would have really short wars if we had them at all.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Joseph Stiglitz on Our 'Three Trillion Dollar War'
Factors Driving Up Spending
The major factors driving up war costs go beyond the number of troops deployed or the operating pace or "opstempo" of the war. Since 2004, the average number of military personnel deployed to the region in a given period has grown by 15 percent—but the costs have rocketed by 130 percent. Similarly, the intensity of operations is estimated to have risen by 65 percent during the period—half the rate of cost increases.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87801279
Divisions Arise in Wounded Iraq Veteran's Family
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89213921
Military fails brain injured soldiers
Is it really the military or is it really the nation?
http://www.westerncitizen.com/2802/military-fails-brain-injured-soldiers/
The Cost of War
http://www.pbs.org/now/society/casualties.html
Public Policy: For many veterans no Happy 4th: TBI, PTSD, and physical disability claims denied
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=dlRnb0ZTWTRUQkJHOFRNV1VhcmtHZVhhekpBM2tLKzIzNFIwaGJHcXFoaz0%3D&CFID=100119400&CFTOKEN=57933771#
Public Policy: Veteran’s Day (2009): Support the troops. Right.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m11d11-Veterans-Day--Support-the-troops--Right
Woman fired for photo of flag-draped coffins
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4808371/
Number of wounded troops in Afghanistan increasing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_veterans_day_the_injured
Shinseki cites collaboration in mental health care
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123174629
New Directions for Homeless Veterans
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5436613
Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million
During the past four months, the Department of Veterans Affairs backlog of unfinished disability claims grew by more than 100,000, adding to an already mountainous backlog that is now close to topping one million.
http://pubrecord.org/nation/499/crisis-at-the-va-as-benefits-claims-backlog-nearly-tops-one-million/
America's Military Population
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3761/is_200412/ai_n9468428/
Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles
http://www.amazon.com/Vets-Under-Siege-Deceives-Dishonors/dp/B0043RT9WG%3FSubscriptionId%3D0EP44N4Z8Y93MBZ1ZC82%26tag%3Ddianerehm-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB0043RT9WG
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Honoring Veterans | PBS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoTn92RJlbk&playnext=1&list=PL3FA0422F87F9FAB3&index=18
It is important to note this because, “For most of U.S. history, less than 1 percent of the population served in the military, except for brief periods when the country was at war.” Approximately 1.3 percent of Americans will ever wear the uniform. During WWII that number was 3 percent---the highest it’s ever been.
Since 2007, more than 70,000 service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury — more than 20,000 of them in 2009, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. Most of the injuries are mild but leave symptoms such as headaches and difficulty concentrating.
“The debilitating effects of psychological trauma can lead troops and veterans into a downward spiral of drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness, anger issues, failed marriages and eventually suicide, he explained, noting that more veterans have committed suicide since 2001 than the number of servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan over that period.” To put that in perspective more than 5,000 men and women have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. More than 5,000 veterans have committed suicide in the same time period.
Over summer 2009 the claims backlog at the V.A. topped one million.
Between 150,000 and 225,000 veterans are homeless. At least 10 percent of those are women.
Only one in five service members, whether, active duty, guard or reserve ever make it to retirement. Guard and reserve member have to wait to age 60 for retirement regardless of the age they become retirement eligible.
Last year Texans voted on a constitutional amendment to build a veterans hospital in the southern part of the state known as the “valley.”
Listen up. The VA is one million cases backlogged. Getting a new VA hospital built takes forever and is expensive to maintain. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of veterans go without medical treatment.
Why not just provide Tricare?
The real reason a civil servant was fired for taking a picture of the flag draped coffins at Dover AFB is that our “leaders” don’t want us to see those coffins. Only one percent of the population serves. Few families are affected. The moral majority isn’t clamoring to provide our service members more. In fact, people are busier attending Tea Parties and promoting “smaller government and an end to big government “over-reach.” That’s hilarious. Does that sound like people who are going to be activists to push big government to help veterans?
If we really want to support the troops simply provide them with Tricare. It is more cost effective and makes more sense.
While we are at it why not provide the troops a real living wage.
That is supporting the troops. To those in uniform, I salute you.
Given the outcome of the recent mid-term general election I wish you much luck. Most of the people I met in the service during my career were conservative in the extreme and thus prone to vote GOPer and Tea Party.
The recent crop of new members of congress who ran on the philosophy of “smaller government” and “less intrusive government” or “over-reaching.” I can only say to you---you could well be the victim of the law of unintended consequences.
It is unlikely that Tea Partiers and GOPers are going to expand any spending to assist you.
Maybe we do need to bring back the draft. No exemptions. I’ll bet we would have really short wars if we had them at all.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Joseph Stiglitz on Our 'Three Trillion Dollar War'
Factors Driving Up Spending
The major factors driving up war costs go beyond the number of troops deployed or the operating pace or "opstempo" of the war. Since 2004, the average number of military personnel deployed to the region in a given period has grown by 15 percent—but the costs have rocketed by 130 percent. Similarly, the intensity of operations is estimated to have risen by 65 percent during the period—half the rate of cost increases.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87801279
Public Policy: Veteran’s Day 2010 Support the troops, magnetic yellow ribbons---VA delay, deny benefits
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/elections-2010-will-tea-partiers-stated-cost-cutting-smaller-government-mean-more-va-denial-of-be
Divisions Arise in Wounded Iraq Veteran's Family
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89213921
Military fails brain injured soldiers
Is it really the military or is it really the nation?
http://www.westerncitizen.com/2802/military-fails-brain-injured-soldiers/
The Cost of War
http://www.pbs.org/now/society/casualties.html
Public Policy: For many veterans no Happy 4th: TBI, PTSD, and physical disability claims denied
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=dlRnb0ZTWTRUQkJHOFRNV1VhcmtHZVhhekpBM2tLKzIzNFIwaGJHcXFoaz0%3D&CFID=100119400&CFTOKEN=57933771#
Public Policy: Veteran’s Day (2009): Support the troops. Right.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m11d11-Veterans-Day--Support-the-troops--Right
Woman fired for photo of flag-draped coffins
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4808371/
Number of wounded troops in Afghanistan increasing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_veterans_day_the_injured
Shinseki cites collaboration in mental health care
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123174629
New Directions for Homeless Veterans
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5436613
Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million
During the past four months, the Department of Veterans Affairs backlog of unfinished disability claims grew by more than 100,000, adding to an already mountainous backlog that is now close to topping one million.
http://pubrecord.org/nation/499/crisis-at-the-va-as-benefits-claims-backlog-nearly-tops-one-million/
America's Military Population
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3761/is_200412/ai_n9468428/
Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles
http://www.amazon.com/Vets-Under-Siege-Deceives-Dishonors/dp/B0043RT9WG%3FSubscriptionId%3D0EP44N4Z8Y93MBZ1ZC82%26tag%3Ddianerehm-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB0043RT9WG
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Honoring Veterans | PBS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoTn92RJlbk&playnext=1&list=PL3FA0422F87F9FAB3&index=18
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Elections 2010 outcome:GOPers, Tea Partiers readying to further entrench, spread the williwas of Texas Red…….
It’s not as if GOPers need a reason to rob the poor to give to the rich nor that Tea Partiers need a reason to cling to their guns and bibles or to demand smaller government and the right to be let alone. It is part of their DNA. Their respective predecessors were here in 1776 and probably in Europe and England before that.
Already we have “ Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way.”
The grossly misnamed “right to work” state public policy has long been the source of pride for the state’s governors, its senators and oligarchs. So if paying people chump change and giving them absolutely no rights as employees is supposed to be so good for the state---why are we in an estimated $18 to $25 billion dollar deficit? Why does the state have a deplorable lack of healthcare ranking 49 out of 50? (only New Mexico another GOPer state has worse) Why do we only graduate about half of our high school students? Why do we have the nation’s highest incarceration rate? Doesn’t sound so great to me. Yet we have “politicians and a majority population intent on keeping it that way.”
Here’s another question. Given the recent tupping we the collective received from the GOPer wealthy financial industry oligarchs (Wall Street, the banks and mortgage industry) leaving us bandy legged and less well off---if we get “smaller government” who will monitor the appetites of the oligarchs? We can’t keep up with what’s being done to us as is.
Where would the people of the segregationist (racist) South be absent the executive branch marshaling the national guard to enforce the right of Blacks to attend schools and universities? Still lynching those different from themselves? Blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals?
Where would women, Blacks and those of Hispanic descent be if there were no Civil Rights Act of 1964? (Rand Paul we already know you think the act should never have been enacted into law)
In our republic we the people are “the government.” Tea Partiers and GOPers make it seem as if some disconnected entity has descended on us from another planet or that a colonizing power has landed to occupy us. Tea Partiers and GOPers talk about taking back the country from this other-worldly power.
GOPers and Tea Partiers are talking about taking the country back from anyone that doesn’t accept their twisted, tortured, tormented world view. It is a world view in which minorities have no rights, capitalist oligarchs reward their lapdog representatives in congress and other offices, where “smaller government” means no affordable healthcare, more prisons and a feckless apartheid public education for everyone---except the wealthy. Doesn’t sound like anything to my liking.
Well Tea Party and GOPer dudes we’ve met the enemy and it’s us in general but you in particular!
Given the state of the nation’s angst, all we can do is hang on. It is a far cry from creating “a more perfect union.”
The results of the just passed mid-term general election brings to mind the old axiom; be careful what you ask for---you just might get it. Tea Party and GOPer voting folks you asked for it.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Perry & GOPers set to steal from the poor to give to the rich---- again; how compassionate conservative religiosities….
'A perfect storm': Cities fear next state legislative session will lead to local cuts
The estimate over the state budget shortfall has varied widely. Some Republicans, including Governor Rick Perry, said it would likely end up being around $12 billion. Other Democrats have predicted it would be closer to $25 billion.But that’s just the beginning. With the Republican sweep of almost two dozen state House races, a major fight is brewing over redistricting. Also, several lawmakers are already touting bills that will take on illegal immigration.
Still, the Texas Municipal League (TML) worries that the state’s budget problems will trickle down to city governments, forcing them to lay off police officers and firefighters.
"We’re concerned about the tendency of the state legislature to balance on the budget on the backs of cities and municipalities," said Bennett Sanlin, the TML’s director
http://www.kens5.com/news/local/A-perfect-storm-Cities-fear-next-state-legislative-session-will-lead-to-local-cuts-106883548.html
Immigration, voter ID bills filed
AUSTIN – State Rep. Debbie Riddle camped out and endured “creepy” noises inside the cold, empty Capitol to be first in line Monday morning to file legislation targeting illegal immigration and ballot security.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/texas_legislature/republicans_file_immigration_voter_id_bills_106924058.html?showFullArticle=y
new GOPer Rep hires a Neo-nazi-minded racist whose salary will be paid by our tax dollars…
dyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110904767.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
Incoming congressman Allen West taps outspoken Fla. radio host as chief of staff
Kaufman has been a prominent and controversial voice on the Florida political scene for decades. For example, according to the Miami New Times, she said about illegal immigrants on a 2007 show, "If you commit a crime while you're here, we should hang you and send your body back to where you came from, and your family should pay for it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110904767.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
oligarchic entities are creating the future world previously the domain of Hollywood; Escape From New York, Terminator, The Body Snatchers….
How Corporate Interests Got SB 1070 Passed
Arizona's controversial immigration-enforcement law has received a lot of attention from critics who say it encourages racial profiling, and supporters who argue it is a bold step at stopping illegal immigration. But the story of how the law was written involves more economics than politics.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131191523&sc=emaf
4 million more Americans added to the rolls of the uninsured in just the past two years; wait till the GOPers….
Nearly 59 million lack health insurance: CDC
“… Republicans who just took control of the House of Representatives last week have vowed to derail the new law by cutting off the funds for it, and some want to repeal it. Experts from both sides predict gridlock in Congress for the next two years in implementing healthcare reform's provisions.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101110/hl_nm/us_usa_healthcare_insurance
Illusions of Justice
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
“However, James W. Marquart, Sheldon Ekland-Olson, and Jonathan R. Sorensen offer a more complex thesis. In their book, The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990,[5] they argue that Texas' execution rate reflects the Southern "cultural tradition of exclusion," and that "[s]uch exclusion was a basic element of the legacy of slavery."
The Conscience of a Liberal
Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity
13 Bankers
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future
Republicans map out their agenda of less
Immigrant Voter Fraud Fears Didn't Materialize
compassionate conservative euro anglo religiosity majority made the difference?---weirdly usual…..
Weird Findings From 2010's Exit Poll Data
The most important categories are probably white voters and older voters, both of whom shifted Republican far more than the general population. Beyond the raw size of the shift, however, whites are important because their absolute numbers are so big and older voters are important because their big.
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/11/raw-data
A return to the norm
For all the turmoil, the spectacle, the churning - for all the old bulls slain and fuzzy-cheeked freshmen born - the great Republican wave of 2010 is simply a return to the norm. The tide had gone out; the tide came back. A center-right country restores the normal congressional map: a sea of interior red, bordered by blue coasts and dotted by blue islands of ethnic/urban density.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/04/AR2010110406581.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline
Part 1 - High Noon Geithner v The American Oligarchs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esK7bU_Ip0g
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