Monday 20 June 2011
by: Henry A. Giroux, Truthout | News Analysis
The inability to identify with others was unquestionably the most important psychological condition for the fact that something like Auschwitz could have occurred in the midst of more or less civilized and innocent people.... The coldness of the societal monad, the isolated competitor, was the precondition, as indifference to the fate of others.... Regressive tendencies, that is, people with repressed sadistic traits, are produced everywhere today by the global evolution of society.... Everywhere where it is mutilated, consciousness is reflected back upon the body and the sphere of the corporeal in an unfree form that tends toward violence. -Theodor Adorno
War, violence and death have become the organizing principle of governance and culture in the United States as we move into the second decade of the 21st century. Lacking a language for the social good, the very concept of the social as a space in which justice, equality, social protections and a responsibility to the other mediate everyday life is being refigured through a spectacle of violence and cruelty. Under such circumstances, ethical considerations and social costs are removed from market-driven policies and values just as images of human suffering are increasingly abstracted from not only their social and political contexts, but also the conditions that make such suffering possible. Moreover, as public issues collapse into privatized considerations, matters of agency, responsibility and ethics are now framed within the discourse of extreme individualism. Unexpected violence, aggression and the "'masculine' virtues of toughness, strength, decisiveness and determination ... are accentuated," along with the claims of vengeance, militarization and violence.(1) The collapse of the social and the formative culture that make human bonds possible is now outmatched by the rise of a Darwinian ethic of greed and self-interest in which violence, aggressiveness and sadism have become the primary metric for living and dying. As the social contract is replaced by social collapse, a culture of depravity has emerged in American society. The spectacle of violence permeates every aspect of the machinery of cultural production and screen culture - extending from television news and reality TV to the latest Hollywood fare. Of course, this is not new. What is new is that more and more people desire spectacles of high-intensity violence and images of death, mutilation and suffering and their desires should no longer be attributed to an individual aberration, but instead suggest an increasingly widespread social pathology.
Death and violence have become the mediating link between US domestic policy - the state's treatment of its own citizens - and foreign policy, between the tedium of ever expanding workdays and the thrill of sadistic release. Disposable bodies now waste away in American prisons, schools and shelters just as they litter the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. America has become a permanent warfare state, with a deep investment in a cultural politics and the corollary cultural apparatuses that legitimate and sanctify its machinery of death. The American public's fascination with violence and death is evident in the recent popular obsession with high-octane action films, along with the ever-expanding volume of vampire and zombie films, TV shows and books. We also see death-dealing and violent acts accrue popularity with Hollywood films such as the 2010 academy-award winning "The Hurt Locker," in which the American bomb disposal expert, William James (Jeremy Renner), repeatedly puts himself at risk in the face of defusing various bomb threats - thus to highlight the filmmaker's concern with a growing "addiction" to war. As Mark Featherstone points out, there is more represented here than the reckless behavior of immature and hyper-masculine soldiers. He writes, "James takes unnecessary risks and lives for the limit experience.... [H]e feels most alive when he is closest to death ... When James ... throws the bomb suit away and stands before the bomb with no protection, he puts himself at the mercy of the bomb, the embodiment of the death drive."(2)
"The Hurt Locker" is only one of a number of serious films that address, if not mirror, a psychological state in which the production of a virulent masculinity now augurs both a pathological relationship with the body, pain and violence and a disdain for compassion, human rights and social justice. The death drive in American society has become one of its fundamental characteristics and, undoubtedly, its most disabling pathology. More than a trace of this mode of aggression and moral indifference now dominates contemporary American life. Marked by a virulent notion of hardness and aggressive masculinity, a culture of depravity has become commonplace in a society in which pain, humiliation and abuse are condensed into digestible spectacles of violence endlessly circulated through extreme sports, reality TV, video games, YouTube postings and proliferating forms of the new and old media. But the ideology of hardness and the economy of pleasure it justifies are also present in the material relations of power that have intensified since the Reagan presidency, when a shift in government policies first took place and set the stage for the emergence of an unchecked regime of torture and state violence under the Bush-Cheney regime. Conservative and liberal politicians alike now spend millions waging wars around the globe, funding the largest military state in the world, providing huge tax benefits to the ultra-rich and major corporations, and all the while draining public coffers, increasing the scale of human poverty and misery and eliminating all viable public spheres - whether they be the social state, public schools, public transportation, or any other aspect of a formative culture that addresses the needs of the common good.
Mainstream politicians now call for cutbacks in public funding in order to address the pressing problems of the very deficit they not only created, but gladly embrace, since it provides an excuse either to drastically reduce funding for vital entitlements such as Medicare and early childhood education or to privatize public education, transportation, and other public services, while putting more money into the hands of the rich and powerful. The real deficit here is one of truth and morality. The politics of austerity has now become a discourse for eviscerating the social state and forcing upon cities, families and individuals previously unimaginable levels of precarity, suffering and insecurity. As Rania Khalek points out, conservatives want to "exploit the budget crisis in order to starve government…. The truth is that the economic crisis, sparked by decades of deregulation and greedy financial forms, caused high levels of unemployment that dramatically reduced state and local tax revenues. Add to that years of tax cuts for the wealthy and decades of corporate tax-dodging and you've got yourself a budget crisis."(3) The discourse of "deficit porn" now justifies the shift in public policy and state funding further away from providing social protections and safeguarding civil liberties toward the establishment of legislative programs intent on promoting shared fears and increasing disciplinary modes of governance that rely on the criminalization of social problems.(4)
The broader cultural turn toward the death drive and the strange economy of desire it produces is also evident in the emergence of a culture of depravity in which the American public appears more and more amenable to deriving pleasure from images that portray gratuitous violence and calamity. As mentioned above, exaggerated violence now rules screen culture. The public pedagogy of entertainment includes extreme images of violence, human suffering and torture splashed across giant movie screens, some in 3D, offering viewers every imaginable portrayal of violent acts, each more shocking and brutal than the last. The growing taste for sadism can be seen in the recent fascination on the part of the media with Peter Moskos' book "In Defense of Flogging," in which the author seriously proposes that prisoners be given a choice between a standard sentence and a number of lashes administered in public.(5) In the name of reform, Moskos argues, without any irony, that public flogging is more honest and a sure-fire way of reducing the prison population. Not only is this book being given massive air time in the mainstream media, but its advocacy of corporal punishment and flogging is treated as if it is a legitimate proposal for reform. Mind-crushing punishment is presented as the only choice left for prisoners outside of serving their sentences. Moreover, this medieval type of punishment inflicts pain on the body as part of a public spectacle. Moskos seems to miss how the legacy of slavery informs his proposal, given that flogging was one of the preferred punishments handed out to slaves and that 70 percent of all current prisoners in the United States are people of color. Surely, the next step will be a reality TV franchise in which millions tune in to watch public floggings. This is not merely barbarism parading as reform - it is also a blatant indicator of the degree to which sadism and the infatuation with violence have become normalized in a society that seems to take delight in dehumanizing itself.
As the social is devalued along with rationality, ethics and any vestige of democracy, spectacles of violence and brutality now merge into forms of collective pleasure that constitute what I believe is an important and new symbiosis among visual pleasure, violence and suffering. As I have suggested, taking pleasure in violence can no longer be reduced to a matter of individual pathology, but registers a larger economy of pleasure across the broader culture and social landscape. The consumption of images of human pain as a matter of personal pleasure and taste has given way to representations of human suffering, humiliation and death that circulate across the culture as part of the collective indulgence in gross spectacles that persist in being called entertainment, news and knowledge sharing. What is more, privatized pleasures and violence translate increasingly into forms of structural violence that are mobilized by the death drive and use the spectacles of violence to generate a source of gratification and intense socially experienced pleasure. Amplified sadism and voyeurism are now characteristic of a contemporary society that has narrowed the range of social expression and values to the receipt of instant gratification and the pursuit of pleasure as one of its sole imperatives. As images of degradation and human suffering become more palatable and pleasurable, the body no longer becomes the privileged space of agency, but "the location of violence, crime and social pathology."(6) Americans now find themselves in the midst of a brutal authoritarianism in which freedom is reduced to the narrow realm of individual needs, narcissistic pleasures and the removal of all forms of social responsibility, particularly those imposed by the government. Sovereignty and governance, under the guise of "personal choice," are instead produced and defined by the market and the power of large corporations and financial institutions. As decadence and despair are normalized in the wider culture, people are increasingly exploited for their pleasure quotient, while any viable notion of the social is subordinated to the violence of a deregulated market economy and its ongoing production of a culture of cruelty.(7) For all intents and purposes, politics as a matter of public governance is dead in the United States.
How else to explain the insistent demand by many conservative and liberal pundits and the American public at large that the government release the grisly images of Osama bin Laden's corpse, even though the fact of his assassination was never in doubt? How might we understand the growing support among the American populace for state-sanctioned torture and the rising indifference to images which reveal its horrible injustices? Just as torture is sanctioned by the state and becomes normalized for many Americans, the spectacle of violence spreads through the culture with ever-greater intensity. Whatever bleeds - now gratuitously and luxuriously - brings in box office profits and dominates media headlines, despite being often presented without any viable context for making sense of the imagery, or any critical commentary that might undercut or rupture the pleasure viewers are invited to derive from such images. Representations of violence and human tragedy now merge seamlessly with neoliberalism's culture of depravity in which risk and mayhem reinforce shared fears rather than shared responsibilities and a Hobbesian war of all against all becomes the organizing principle for structuring a vast array of institutions and social relations.
As corporate capitalism translates into corporate fascism, prominent politicians such as Sarah Palin, radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and media monopoly moguls such as those who deliver Fox News repeatedly deploy the vocabulary of violence to attack the social state, labor unions, immigrants, young people, teachers and public-service employees. At the same time, the depravity of aesthetics gains popular currency in organs of the dominant media that reproduce an endless stream of denigrating images and narratives of people constrained by the forces of poverty, racism and disability. Their pain and suffering now become a source of delight for late-night comics, radio talk show hosts and TV programs that provide ample narratives and images of poor families, individuals and communities who become fodder for the "poverty porn" industry.(8) Programs such as the reality TV series "Jersey Shore," the syndicated tabloid TV talk show series "The Jerry Springer Show" (and its endless imitators) and "The Biggest Loser" all exemplify what Gerry Mooney and Lynn Hancock claim is a massive "assault on people experiencing poverty [seizing] on any example of 'dysfunctionality' in poor working class communities ... [exhibiting] expressions of middle-class fears and distrust, [while] also [displaying] a fascination with poverty and the supposedly deviant lifestyles of those affected - where viewers of moral outrage are encouraged to find the worst and weakest moments of people's lives also funny and entertaining."(9) Disconnected from any moral criteria, the search for ever more intense levels of sensation and excitation become the pedagogical and performative force par excellence in shaping the world of entertainment. Within this context, the pleasure of humiliation and violence is maximized and cruelty is elevated to a structuring principle of society.
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What has led to this immunity and insensitivity to cruelty and prurient images of violence? Part of this process is due to the fact that the American public is bombarded by an unprecedented "huge volume of exposure to ... images of human suffering."(10) As Zygmunt Bauman argues, there are social costs that come with this immersion of the culture in staged violence. One consequence is that "the sheer numbers and monotony of images may have a 'wearing off' impact [and] to stave off the 'viewing fatigue,' they must be increasingly gory, shocking and otherwise 'inventive' to arouse any sentiments at all or indeed draw attention. The level of 'familiar' violence, below which the cruelty of cruel acts escapes attention, is constantly rising."(11) Hyper-violence and spectacular representations of cruelty disrupt and block our ability to respond politically and ethically to the violence as it's actually happening on the ground. In this instance, unfamiliar violence such as extreme images of torture and death becomes banally familiar, while familiar violence that occurs daily is barely recognized, becoming, if not boring, then relegated to the realm of the unnoticeable and unnoticed. An increasing volume of violence is pumped into the culture as yesterday's spine-chilling and nerve-wrenching violence loses its shock value. As the need for more intense images of violence accumulates, the moral indifference and desensitization to violence grow, while matters of cruelty and suffering are offered up as fodder for sports, entertainment, news media, and other outlets for seeking pleasure.
Under the regime of neoliberal policies, relations and values, profit-making becomes the only legitimate mode of exchange; private interests replace public concerns; and unbridled individualism infects a society in which the vocabulary of fear, competition, war and punishment governs existing relationships. Within an economy of pleasure and commodification, freedom is subsumed by a calculated deficit that reduces agency to a regressive infantilism and degraded forms of gratification. What Leo Lowenthal called "the atomization of the individual" bespeaks a figure now terrorized by other human beings and reduced to living "in a state of stupor, in a moral coma."(12) This type of depoliticized inward thinking - with its repudiation of the obligations of shared sociality, disengagement from moral responsibility and outright disdain for those who are disadvantaged by virtue of being poor, young or elderly - does more than fuel the harsh, militarized and ultra-masculine logic of the news and entertainment sector. This "atomization of the individual" also elevates death over life, selfishness over compassion and economics over politics. The spectrum of disdain and vulnerability has been extended at the current historical moment to contempt for life itself. Life reduced to "bare life" and the vulnerability it produces elicits imperviousness at best and a new kind of pleasure at worst. Precarity, uncertainty and misfortune no longer evoke compassion but disdain, while simultaneously opening up a space in which vulnerability offers a pretext for forms of pleasure that reinforce a culture of cruelty.(13) But even more so, it produces a kind of dysfunctional silence in American society in the face of widespread hardship and suffering - virtually wiping out society's collective memories of moral decency and mutuality.
The merging of violence and pleasure has been on full display throughout American history, though images of such depravities have often been hidden. Exceptions can be found in the history of racism and the startling and disturbing images of the public lynching of African-Americans, the brutal murder of Emmett Till and the mass killings at My Lai depicted in photographs of American soldiers relaxing and smiling after the carnage. More recently, a number of photographs have once again surfaced which display grotesque acts of violence and murder by a select group of American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. The images released by Rolling Stone magazine in the United States focused on the murderous actions of 12 US soldiers, who decided to kill Afghan civilians allegedly for sport. They used the moniker "The Kill Team" to refer to themselves, aptly registering both the group's motivation and its monstrous actions. In the five months during which these soldiers went on a murderous rampage in Kandahar Province, writes one reporter, "they engaged in routine substance abuse and brutality toward Afghan locals that led to four premeditated murders of innocent civilians, the ritual mutilation of corpses (some of the soldiers reportedly severed fingers from their victims to keep as trophies) and the snapping of celebratory photographs alongside the deceased as if they were bagged deer."(14) The soldiers' actions exhibited their immersion in a death-driven culture that differs only in degree from the one I have been documenting throughout this article. Their actions were neither isolated nor individualized, but reflect their evident belief that killing for sport in such a culture could take place with impunity. Proudly bearing the title "Kill Team" registers "the pure depravity of the alleged crimes."(15) In one particularly disturbing photo celebrating a kill, one of the soldiers, Jeremy Morlock, is shown posing with the body of Gul Mudin, a 15-year-old Afghan boy. With a grin on his face and a thumbs-up sign, Morlock is kneeling on the ground next to Mudin's bloody and half-naked corpse, grabbing a handful of hair to lift up his bloodied face.
The platoon's squad leader, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, was so pleased with the kill that he desecrated the young boy's dead body by severing one of his fingers. Mark Boal quotes one soldier's account of the incident: "'It was like another day at the office for him'.... Gibbs started 'messing around with the kid, moving his arms and mouth and acting like the kid was talking.'" Boal adds, "Then, using a pair of razor-sharp medic's shears, [Gibbs] reportedly sliced off the dead boy's pinky finger and gave it to [the soldier], as a trophy for killing his first Afghan."(16) Gibbs' instinct for barbarism appears utterly ruthless and lacking in any sense of ethical consideration or self-reflection - to say nothing of the political and social costs incurred by the US-led mission. The staff sergeant was so intent on killing Afghan civilians that he actually boasted about it, telling one soldier, "Come down to the line and we'll find someone to kill."(17) Revealing the depth of his inhumanity, Gibbs reportedly told his soldiers that all Afghans were savages, and talked to his squad about how they might be inventive in killing civilians. In one almost unbelievable scenario, the soldiers considered throwing "candy out of a Stryker vehicle as they drove through a village and shoot[ing] the children who came running to pick up the sweets. According to one soldier, they also talked about a second scenario in which they 'would throw candy out in front and in the rear of the Stryker; the Stryker would then run the children over.'"(18)
Unlike the Abu Ghraib prison photos that were designed to humiliate detainees, the "Kill Team" photos suggest a deeper depravity, an intense pleasure in acts of violence that are preplanned and carried out with no impending threat, culminating in the sadistic collection of body parts of the slain victims as trophies. The "Kill Team" was after more than humiliation and the objectification of the other; it harbored a deep desire to feel intense excitement through pathological acts of murder and then captured the savagery in photos that served as mementos, so they could revisit and experience once again the delight that comes with descending into the sordid pornographic hell that connects violence, pleasure and death. The smiles on the faces of the young soldiers as they posed among their trophy killings are not the snapshots of privatized violence, but images of sadism that are symptoms of a social pathology in which shared pleasure in violence is now commonplace. As my colleague David L. Clark points out, the smiles on the faces of these soldiers suggest something perverse and alarming. He writes, "This isn't Hannibal Lecter, after all, but G.I. Joe [and these photos appear as] symptomatic evidence of a certain public enjoyment of violence for the sake of violence, i.e., not the smile of shared pleasures between intimates (one form of the everyday), but a smile that marks a broader acceptance and affirmation of cruelty, killing for sport. Those smiles register a knowing pleasure in that violence and say that it is okay to kill and okay to take pleasure in that killing."(19)
The "Kill Team" photographs are important because they signify a new register of what can be called a failed sociality. In this instance, the social does not disappear as much as it is overwritten by a sociality of shared violence - a sociality marked not by the injurious violence of the lone sociopath, but instead by a growing army of sociopaths. The "Kill Team" photographs offer a glimpse into a larger set of social conditions in a winner-take-all society in which it becomes difficult to imagine pleasure in any other terms except through the spectacle of violence buttressed by a market-driven culture and dominated by a survivalist ethic. What is it about these photos that reveals the smear of the pornographic, a titillation grounded in maximizing the pleasure of violence? What are the political, economic and social forces bearing down on American society that so easily undercut its potential to raise critical questions about war, violence, morality and human suffering? What forms of responsibility and what pedagogical strategies does one invoke in the face of a society that feeds off spectacles of violence and cruelty? What forms of witnessing and education might be called into play in which the feelings of pleasure mobilized by images of human suffering can be used as "a catalyst for critical inquiry and deep thought?"(20) Rather than being reduced to a mechanism for the cathartic release of pleasure, a society saturated in the claims of violence, war, aggression and poisonous modes of masculinity must serve as an indictment, a source of memory and evidence of the need to imagine otherwise.
In contrast to the "Kill Team" photos, we have seen images from Libya, Syria and Iran where the murder of young students and other protesters by state militia thugs have been captured on video and circulated the world over. Such images become a pedagogical tool, a critical mode of public pedagogy capable of forms of witnessing that allow people to imagine the unimaginable. What is emancipatory about these images, as Georges Didi-Huberman points out in a different context, is that they work to refuse what he calls the "disimagination machine"; that is, these are images that are "images in spite of all" - bearing witness to a different and critical sense of remembering, agency, ethics and collective resistance.(21) These images have ignited massive collective protests against repressive governments. Such images did not feed the basest of collective desires and pleasurable fantasies detached from any real consequences. To the contrary, such images of abuse and suffering have inflamed a society in which a formative culture exists that enables people to connect emotional investments and desires to a politics in which unthinkable acts of violence are confronted as part of a larger "commitment to political accountability, community and the importance of positive affect for both belonging and change."(22)
America has lost the formative culture that would allow us to contest, challenge and transform the prevailing culture of unbridled individualism, consumerism, militarism and desire for instant pleasure. Both major political parties now impose harsh penalties on the poor, young people, the elderly, immigrants, and other groups considered disposable. We are on the brink of an authoritarianism in which war and violence not only cause unbearable hardship and suffering for the vast majority of the American people, but also produce a larger social pathology in which the actions of the "Kill Team" soldiers who sought out pleasure in the most vile and grotesque acts of violence are symptomatic of something that is becoming normalized and commonplace in American society. This is a violence being waged against democracy and the public good, one that feeds on mobilization of desires and collective pleasures in the face of the suffering of others.
Footnotes:
1. Richard J. Bernstein, The Abuse of Evil (London: Polity, 2005), p. 49.
2. Mark Featherstone, "The Hurt Locker: What is the Death Drive?" Sociology and Criminology at Keele University - Blogspot (February 25, 2010). Online here.
3. Rania Khalek, "Death by Budget Cut: Why Conservatives and Some Dems Have Blood on their Hands," AlterNet (June 13, 2011). Online here.
4. See, for instance, Loic Wacquant, "Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity," (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009).
5. Peter Moskos, "In Defense of Flogging," (New York: Basic Books, 2011).
6. Paul Gilroy, "'After the Love Has Gone': Bio-Politics and Ethepoetics in the Black Public Sphere," Public Culture 7:1 (1994), p. 58.
7. I take up in great detail the notion of a culture of cruelty in Henry A. Giroux, "Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism," (New York: Peter Lang, 2011).
8. I have taken the term "poverty porn" from Gerry Mooney and Lynn Hancock, "Poverty Porn and the Broken Society," Variant 39/40 (Winter 2010). Online here.
9. Ibid.
10. Zygmunt Bauman, "Life in Fragments," (Malden: Blackwell, 1995), p. 149.
11. Zygmunt Bauman, "Life in Fragments," (Malden: Blackwell, 1995), pp. 149-150.
12. Leo Lowenthal, "Atomization of Man," False Prophets: Studies in Authoritarianism (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1987), p. 182.
13. Judith Butler touches on this issue in Judith Butler, "Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence," (London: Verso Press, 2004).
14. Jim Frederick, "Anatomy of a War Crime: Behind the Enabling of the 'Kill Team,'" Time (March 29, 2011). Online here.
15. Ibid.
16. Mark Boal, "The Kill Team," Rolling Stone, (March 27, 2011). Online here.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. David L. Clark, personal correspondence, May 15, 2011.
20. Mieke Bal, "The Pain Of Images," in "Beautiful Suffering," ed. Mark Reinhardt, Holly Edwards and Erina Duganne (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), p. 111.
21. Georges Didi-Huberman, "Images in Spite of All: Four Photographs from Auschwitz," trans. Shane B. Lillis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), pp. 1-2.
22. Clare Hemmings, "Invoking Affect: Cultural Theory and the Ontological Turn," Cultural Studies 19:5 (September 2005), pp. 557-558.
http://truth-out.org/reveling-pain-others-moral-degeneracy-and-violence-kill-team-photos/1308333080
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
US soldier admits killing unarmed Afghans for sport
Jeremy Morlock, 23, tells US military court he was part of a 'kill team' that faked combat situations to murder Afghan civilians
* Paul Harris in New York
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 March 2011 23.17 GMT
An American soldier has pleaded guilty to being part of a "kill team" who deliberately murdered Afghan civilians for sport last year.
Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 23, told a military court he had helped to kill three unarmed Afghans. "The plan was to kill people, sir," he told an army judge in Fort Lea, near Seattle, after his plea.
The case has caused outraged headlines around the world. In a series of videotaped confessions to investigators, some of which have been broadcast on American television, Morlock detailed how he and other members of his Stryker brigade set up and faked combat situations so that they could kill civilians who posed no threat to them. Four other soldiers are still to come to trial over the incidents.
The case is a PR disaster for America's military and has been compared to the notorious incidents of torture that emerged from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. This week the German magazine Der Spiegel published three pictures that showed American soldiers, including Morlock, posing with the corpse of a young Afghan boy as if it were a hunting trophy.
Some soldiers apparently kept body parts of their victims, including a skull, as souvenirs. In a statement issued in response to the publication of the photos the US army apologised to the families of the dead. "[The photos are] repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States army," the statement said.
Morlock has told investigators that the murders took place between January and May last year and were instigated by an officer in his unit, Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs. He described how elaborate plans were made to pick out civilian targets, kill them and then make their deaths look like they were insurgents. In his confession Morlock described shooting a victim as Gibbs tossed a grenade at him. "We identify a guy. Gibbs makes a comment, like, you know, you guys wanna wax this guy or not," Morlock said in the confession.
Morlock now stands to be sentenced to at least 24 years in jail but with eligibility for parole after seven years. That has come about because Morlock struck a plea bargain that will see a lighter sentence in return for testifying against his fellow soldiers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/23/us-soldier-admits-killing-afghans/print
* Paul Harris in New York
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 March 2011 23.17 GMT
An American soldier has pleaded guilty to being part of a "kill team" who deliberately murdered Afghan civilians for sport last year.
Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 23, told a military court he had helped to kill three unarmed Afghans. "The plan was to kill people, sir," he told an army judge in Fort Lea, near Seattle, after his plea.
The case has caused outraged headlines around the world. In a series of videotaped confessions to investigators, some of which have been broadcast on American television, Morlock detailed how he and other members of his Stryker brigade set up and faked combat situations so that they could kill civilians who posed no threat to them. Four other soldiers are still to come to trial over the incidents.
The case is a PR disaster for America's military and has been compared to the notorious incidents of torture that emerged from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. This week the German magazine Der Spiegel published three pictures that showed American soldiers, including Morlock, posing with the corpse of a young Afghan boy as if it were a hunting trophy.
Some soldiers apparently kept body parts of their victims, including a skull, as souvenirs. In a statement issued in response to the publication of the photos the US army apologised to the families of the dead. "[The photos are] repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States army," the statement said.
Morlock has told investigators that the murders took place between January and May last year and were instigated by an officer in his unit, Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs. He described how elaborate plans were made to pick out civilian targets, kill them and then make their deaths look like they were insurgents. In his confession Morlock described shooting a victim as Gibbs tossed a grenade at him. "We identify a guy. Gibbs makes a comment, like, you know, you guys wanna wax this guy or not," Morlock said in the confession.
Morlock now stands to be sentenced to at least 24 years in jail but with eligibility for parole after seven years. That has come about because Morlock struck a plea bargain that will see a lighter sentence in return for testifying against his fellow soldiers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/23/us-soldier-admits-killing-afghans/print
Wisconsin, Inc.: New Republican Politics in the Age of the Recall
By Abe Sauer | June 16, 2011
James Smith said that, at first, he was worried about a backlash. "No one protested my house yet," he said. "I thought that was coming for sure this weekend."
A 25-year-old behemoth redhead, Smith works as a technician at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center. His Facebook page says he's a fan of Rachel Maddow. His real Facebook page describes him very differently. He's a Republican who is running for office in Wisconsin. He's a would-be spoiler.
What Smith doesn't know is that he is being sacrificed, like so much else, by a rogue Wisconsin Republican Party determined to monetize as much of the state as possible before everyone gets recalled. Iron ore. Internet access. Human beings. It doesn't matter. Welcome to Wisconsin, Inc.
To get to La Crosse, you follow Interstate 90, going northwest out of Madison, and it's a good highway, and often new. On the banks of the Mississippi River, just across from the People's Republic of Minnesota, it's a wet University town that just decriminalized limited marijuana possession. It's hard to believe that inside such a leafy quaint place some of the dirtiest politics in the nation are brewing.
The outraged thousands who descended on Madison in March have fulfilled a promise, triggering recall elections for nearly a third of the state's senators.
With recalls certified for nine senators (six Republican; three Democratic), the impatient Republican majority has called a rare "extraordinary session" to punch through the collective bargaining prohibitions of the budget bill. But just as the session started, the state's highest court ruled, speedily, in favor of the bill's passage. The most surprising part of the court's ruling was the dissenting opinion, in which the Chief Justice, in no uncertain terms, accused the majority of disinformation: that the ruling "set forth their own version of facts without evidence."
That may sound tame by the screaming hyena standard of cable news political discourse, but in the legal world, it's a bona fide scandal and finally confirms that everything in Wisconsin, from the highest court in the land to the dirt, has become rabidly partisaned.
The promiscuous nature of the emergency session may also be used to pass as many bills as possible before recall elections potentially shift the power in the senate.
To stall the recall elections, the state Republican Party has openly admitted it will run "spoiler" candidates in the Republican recalls, in order to force a Democratic primary and postpone, for a month, the general elections. Those who made "consequences" a rallying cry after November 2010, are suddenly not so fond of the concept.
The spoiler candidate strategy is a move many Wisconsin voters find distasteful. And yet: the Wisconsin Democratic Party appears eager to bite. "We cannot and will not stoop to the Republicans' level by encouraging candidates to lie about their party affiliation, or recommending that people try to deceive voters," said Dem Chair, Mike Tate—and then announced that the party will run "placeholder" candidates to force primary elections in all six of the Democratic recalls.
Not only are the Democrats apparently so dense they think Wisconsin voters will punish the Republicans for the financial irresponsibility of "spoiler" candidates but not the Dems for "placeholders," but also, as state Republicans have rightly pointed out, it's pretty rich for the Dems to take the high road.
In the 2010 race for the 25th Assembly District representative, a candidate recruited by the AFSCME union got on the ballot as a Republican in an attempt to split the conservative vote against Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer. (The tactic didn't work.)
Meanwhile, as both sides complain about how best to fix the state budget shortfall, these placeholding spoilers will cost the respective counties about $45,000 per election, meaning the forced primaries will cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than $400,000 on top of the $400,000-plus for the general recall elections.
Especially for the "fiscally responsible" Republicans, this stunt seems indefensible.
Wisconsin Republican Party executive director Stephan Thompson has claimed that the "protest candidates" are being used because GOP incumbents are disadvantaged by the fact that Democratic challengers can campaign, while the recalled senators must continue working in Madison. But in La Crosse, for example, recalled GOP Senator Dan Kapanke's challenger is Rep. Jennifer Shilling, a current legislator. The same is true of Republican Senator Alberta Darling, who is being challenged by current Democratic Representative Sandra Pasch.
One election where a senator is, by Thomas' definition, "disadvantaged," is the recall election of Republican Senator Rob Cowles, who is being challenged by fake Democrat Otto Junkerman. Junkerman, who is 82 and a former Republican state representative, once described on the House floor how he had turned in his own son for using and selling drugs, after which, his wife left him.
Fake Democrat John Buckstaff hates Wisconsin so much he took out a $3,600 ad in the Wall Street Journal in 1986, complaining about the business climate and advocating people "escape" the state. That came a year after his business was sued by the Department of Natural Resources for air pollution.
The Republicans have also put up another octogenarian, Gladys Huber, formerly an Ozaukee County Republican Party board member, as a Democrat—forcing a primary and moving the general recall election of Alberta Darling to August. Other longtime Republicans who will run as Democrats include 65-year-old Rol Church and John Buckstaff. Both retirees, the former was a financial backer for "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" and the latter is a self-made business leader in that he made himself by selling the huge furniture corporation he inherited. Buckstaff hates Wisconsin so much he took out a $3,600 ad in the Wall Street Journal in 1986, complaining about the business climate and advocating people "escape" the state. That came a year after his business was sued by the Department of Natural Resources for air pollution.
What almost all of the recruited Republicans have in common is that they do not need to worry about living down their actions, even if they do have to worry about living through the campaign.
All but James Smith.
* * *
Born in 1985, it's not difficult to see how James Smith got himself into this mess. A Republican groupie, Smith is painfully willing to please the Republican party he fetishizes. Smith's real—as in, private—Facebook page features photo after photo of him standing alongside Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, Newt Gingrich, Senator Ron Johnson, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Governor Scott Walker. And there he is next to Dan Kapanke, the recalled Republican Senator that Smith resigned his local GOP post to register as a Democrat to run against.
James Smith worked on Governor Scott Walker's election. He was a delegate to the Republican State Convention. It was a week ago that he resigned his position on the La Crosse County Republican Party Executive Committee and filed as a Democratic candidate for partisan state office. Smith admits that the candidacy was arranged by the state party. The fake Facebook page, Smith said, was done by himself, "for the fun of it."
The most generous possible way to describe him is naive. James Smith is what would happen if Lennie from Of Mice and Men somehow became involved in All the King's Men.
Smith told me that the state Republican office, with which he spoke before announcing his candidacy, helped him get signatures for his nomination papers. Needing only 400, he already had more than 600 on Sunday. He told me he's shooting for 800, though, because he expects many of them will be challenged. Smith received many of these signatures thanks to a letter circulated on his behalf by the 3rd District Republican Party Chair, Maripat Krueger. The letter asking for signatures, dated June 3 and signed by Krueger, also read "Paid for by Friends of James Smith, James Smith, Treasurer."
Yet, on June 14, Smith told me he had not raised any money. When I asked him where the money came from for "Friends of James Smith," Smith said, "I don't know." He is also unsure how he became treasurer.
Neither Krueger nor the 3rd District Republican Party responded to requests for comment.
By just getting on the ballot and forcing a primary, his candidacy is already successful, which means he is no longer necessary. Like the other dull patsies, Smith has been suckered into doing something the rest of the state's Republican leadership supports, but is too spineless and self-preservationist to volunteer for themselves.
Smith's future political career, whatever he imagined for himself, is ruined—and Smith's unmistakable physical stature makes it impossible for him to blend in anywhere.
A lifelong resident of La Crosse, James Smith's name is mud. The local newspaper has a steady stream of letters to the editor, such as June 10's "Smith should be ashamed of actions." At 25, he's a local villain in a town of 50,000, the kind of small place where people traditionally try and keep a low profile. A Willie Stark who never quite figures out what Tiny Duffy is up to, Smith's future political career, whatever he imagined for himself, is ruined—and Smith's unmistakable physical stature makes it impossible for him to blend in anywhere.
Smith plays a far larger role in the Republican strategy than he probably understands. Dan Kapanke, the senator for whom Smith is throwing himself on a grenade, will be removed by a grenade coming soon after. Kapanke is the most vulnerable of the recalled senators, and he knows it. During the height of the Madison protests, Kapanke claimed that protestors had smashed his windshield, despite police reports that noted the small chip was "consistent with a stone being picked up from another vehicle tire and launched into the air." More recently, Kapanke was recorded saying “We’ve got tons of government workers in my district. Tons.... We gotta hope that they, kind of, are sleeping on July 12th. Or whenever the date is.” As expected, Kapanke's continents didn't take kindly to their elected representatives pinning hopes on their sleeping habits.
In what was largely seen as a referendum on Governor Walker in April, La Crosse County went for unknown challenger Joanne Kloppenburg against sitting Supreme Court Judge David Prosser. Just after that, a special election to fill the seat of 16-year incumbent Republican Representative Mike Huebsch was won by a Democrat.
At a "chicken Q" fundraiser at the Concordia polka hall in La Crosse, I listened as Shilling, alongside new rock star, state Senator Jon Erpenbach, addressed hundreds and banged away on the Democrats' latest winning strategy: Paul Ryan's Medicare plan. Tying Kapanke to the Republican plan to gut the entitlement will play no worse in Wisconsin than it did in Buffalo. Even the Republicans know this—fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan was suddenly removed as a guest at a Kapanke recall fundraiser in May.
Three of the ten people I spoke with at the "chicken Q" admitted they had voted for Walker and Kapanke. La Crosse County—Democrat from the waist up, Republican from the waist down—went for Walker in the 2010 gubernatorial election. It won't do it again.
The most telling example of Kapnake's future is the yard signs. Throughout La Crosse, I saw Shilling for Senate signs everywhere. After several days in town, I had counted only four Kapanake yard signs. During my visit to the La Crosse Republican Party's office, I spied piles of Kapanke signs piled up in the back room, gathering dust. Meanwhile, a month before the July 12 election date, the Shilling campaign posted on its Facebook page that it was currently out of yard signs, its second batch, but that it was printing more.
For the current herd of Republican legislators, James Smith is just a resource. Dug from the ground, sucked from a river, recruited via a conference call, it's all just a natural resource that desperately wants to be capitalized. This new strain of Republican is not one Wisconsin, nor the United States, has ever seen. Gone is the Republican who, in genuinely wanting the best for Wisconsin, cut corners and chomped cigars with captains of industry, rolling the silk purse strings in his fingers in an attempt to balance the sort of corporate patronage that had ever been. The new Republicans are corporate wrecking crews, given a sledgehammer, a piece of legislation and a command to "make it fit."
They're making it fit. All of it.
* * *
Madison. Since election, Governor Walker is fond of saying the state is now "open for business." But Wisconsin isn't just opening up to business, it's becoming business, where human and natural resources are valued only immediately as commodities.
Late in the draft process, the University Omnibus legislation suddenly swelled with provisions that would force the University of Wisconsin system to cease support of WiscNet, a high-speed Internet network started in 1989 and now servicing schools, hospitals and municipal governments statewide. The provision forces the UW to return more than $37 million in federal funding to expand the service, including hundreds of miles of new fiber-optic cables. Republican legislators and the Wisconsin Telecommunications Association point out that the UW can use BadgerNet, a state-run network supplied by private providers such as AT&T. UW administrators estimate that the $2 million it would spend on WiscNet services by 2016 would amount to payments to BadgerNet over the same period of $27 million. That doesn't even count the schools.
Three-fourths of public schools and nearly every public library in the state accesses the Internet via WiscNet. The new language will require them to contract with private providers, multiplying schools' ISP costs just as Walker cuts their budgets and expands access, and state payments, to private charter schools.
As with every naked quest for profit, the collateral damage will be significant. For beginners, UW officials have pointed out that the provision will require the UW to resign from its partnership in federal research networks like Internet2 and BOREAS-net.
Another new proposal offered by the corporate-controlled legislature is a relaxing of the state's child labor laws, essentially allowing 16-year-olds to work the same schedules as adults. Michelle Kussow, the grocers association’s vice president of governmental affairs and communications, told The Cap Times that "the limited number of hours they could work" was "tough on teens." Those "limited" hours? 26 during school weeks, 32 during partial weeks, and 50 during vacations and summer break.
This new unrestricted work schedule dovetails perfectly with the administration's massive cuts to education. It doesn't take a formal understanding of geometry to understand how groceries best fit into a paper bag.
Proving that the Wisconsin Republicans are such in name only, the legislature has also raised the ire of conservatives, with a proposal limiting the rights of individual land owners. A proposal receiving unanimous Republican Budget Committee support makes it easier for the state government to appropriate private land to build highways and power lines. No surprise that there is a corporate power line contractor backing the rule: American Transmission Company. A testament to how unengaged with true conservative values the current legislature is, even blindly pro-Walker right wing radio host Vicki McKenna slammed the proposal as "Bad policy. Period."
This change to eminent domain policy comes just as ATC gets ready to buy up property for a $400-million power project linking Madison and La Crosse. Sounding a lot like a socialist, ATC's attorney recently said the policy is fair "because in the long run it benefits all of us."
The fair price ATC wants to pay land-owning Wisconsinites? Wisconsin's conservative Journal Sentinel, which endorsed Scott Walker, notes that ATC offered a Marathon County family $7,750 for a piece of land appraised at more than $40,000.
Then there is the "venture capital" bill which would create a Wisconsin Venture Capital Authority tasked with extending hundreds of millions to out-of-state insurance firms in exchange for slighly more than those hundreds of million in in-state investments. Known in the corporate world as a "CAPCO," the investment plan is better known in the real world as a "Ponzi Scheme." Literate Wisconsin conservatives should even know this, seeing as the Journal Sentinel reported on the disaster of Missouri's CAPCO program in December of 2003, noting that the majority of the initial funds had been immediately swallowed by the corporate partners, leaving only 34 percent for any actual business development. Republican Senator Glenn Grothman even described the plan's out-of-state organizers as "bunko artists."
Once discovered, Walker's CAPCO proposal stank of such cronyism that Walker himself backed off and asked for a rewrite. But the plan will go forward.
Meanwhile, impatient with even this progress, corporations have just started advertising their own legislation.
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's most powerful corporate lobby, has begun airing a radio campaign supporting the "Jobs for Generations Act," even though no such bill has been introduced. The spot praises the legislation for creating 2000 $60,000-a-year jobs in an iron ore mine that would last 100 years. In her district, the ad even mentions recalled Republican Senator Alberta Darling, even though Darling admitted surprise at hearing her name attached to the bill. This is the real world equivalent of sending out invitations announcing the wedding of yourself and Angelina Jolie—and then expecting her to show up.
Defend Wisconsin has put togethera heartbreaking list of the legislature's other plans to return "fiscal sanity" to the state. Even if you assume that three-fourths of the very biased Defend Wisconsin's list is inflated, the remaining measures cannot be mistaken as anything short of an attempt to skin the state for as much immediate profit as possible, with no thought to its long term welfare.
Much like with its tear-down of public education, the Wisconsin legislature is not building business: it is finding ways to privatize existing public services so that they may become bullet points on the annual reports of private corporations.
* * *
But after Kapanke, the Democrats need only pick up two more of the five other recalled seats, defend their own three recalled seats—and they will have wrestled control of the state senate.
Unfortunately, it's clear that many of the newly politicized think that the recalls will pave the way to reverse the collective bargaining abolition. With the bill passed, and the most significant challenge struck down by the Supreme Court, a Democrat-controlled wing of the legislature will only be able to stop the bleeding. Even if the Senate passed a repeal of Walker's bill, it would never get through the House, and if it did, which it won't, Walker would veto it. Following the ruling, the state chapter of the AFL-CIO immediately filed a federal suit, claiming the bill violates the 1st and 14th amendment—but that's a long shot.
Collective bargaining in Wisconsin is dead.
The tent city that has surrounded the Madison capitol each night for the last week was called "Walkerville." It's an odd name but not as odd as the one the pro-Walker camp came up with when the right-wing, phony news organization The MacIver Institute ran a poll: "Entitledtown."
The second round of Madison protests have been angrier, more aggressive and more desperate. Some are unreasonable. A recent stunt where protesters dressed as zombies interrupted Walker's address to Special Olympics athletes was the PR equivalent of a shotgun in the mouth. The footage from that screw-up was broadcast, in outrage, around the state for days afterward.
Following the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday, general strike signs were rumored to be circulated. By Wednesday afternoon though, the capitol grounds were largely empty of protesters. The Sentinel's All Politics Blog reported that "demonstrators and public in the Assembly gallery have thinned out." "Of course it's thinning out. They're out of munchies and pot..." wrote one commenter. Another: "Quitters."
After a month where hundreds of thousands occupied the capitol, not a single arrest was made, despite the protesters being slandered by Republicans as "thugs." Now, on Wednesday, three were arrested for disorderly conduct in the assembly gallery. Even the Democratic minority is fed up; Wednesday night on the Assembly floor, Democratic Representative Cory Mason blankly admonished the Republicans, "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining." On Thursday morning, after the budget was passed, a women in the assembly gallery locked her head to the railing.
In the coming days, several major events will take place. These were planned in advance of the ruling, and expected to confront the extraordinary session. With the bill passed though, they'll likely be ignored by the media. Just more Madison hippies acting like Madison hippies.
It's noteworthy that Russ Feingold, completely absent both in spirit and voice and presence during the massive March protests, has, after Senator Herb Kohl's announcement to not seek another term, suddenly become a very vocal presence at Walkerville. Feingold's statement at Walkerville? "We will not stop until we win." He was not more specific.
Governor Walker, for his part, appears to know that he has overstepped. Recent statements by the Governor have attempted to make peace with state workers, calling them reasonable and respectable, calling Wisconsin's teachers the nation's best—all while blaming the protests and strife on "out of state" forces and agitators. But most recent polling puts his approval rating at an all-time low of 43 percent, with 50 percent now favoring a recall. November is a long time away though, and Walker, and the Republicans, are hoping the already-recovering economy provides a credit-taking opportunity, after which everyone will judge results but not process.
Walker hopes Wisconsin will forget the labor when they see the baby.
But those in it for the long haul, like the Teaching Assistants' Association members who were some of the first capitol occupiers three months ago, hope that energy will shift to the recall elections, including the one that has been promised for Walker himself in November.
More months of this. More rhetoric. Exhausting rhetoric.
But then, that's also part of the plan: an exhausted electorate sweltering in the summer heat is unlikely to vote, let alone twice in a month.
Back in La Crosse, Dan Kapanke doesn't have to worry about exhaustion. He has no future. The corporations to which he now belongs have mined their stake, and will continue to wring him of his usefulness over the next two months until they cast him aside, just like James Smith, just like Wisconsin.
Update 6/16 pm: The link to James Smith's Facebook page is not incorrect. In the hours after publication, Smith deleted both his real and fake Facebook pages.
Abe Sauer can be reached at abesauer at gmail dot com.
Photo of Feingold via @DefendWisconsin
http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/wisconsin-inc-new-republican-politics-in-the-age-of-the-recall
James Smith said that, at first, he was worried about a backlash. "No one protested my house yet," he said. "I thought that was coming for sure this weekend."
A 25-year-old behemoth redhead, Smith works as a technician at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center. His Facebook page says he's a fan of Rachel Maddow. His real Facebook page describes him very differently. He's a Republican who is running for office in Wisconsin. He's a would-be spoiler.
What Smith doesn't know is that he is being sacrificed, like so much else, by a rogue Wisconsin Republican Party determined to monetize as much of the state as possible before everyone gets recalled. Iron ore. Internet access. Human beings. It doesn't matter. Welcome to Wisconsin, Inc.
To get to La Crosse, you follow Interstate 90, going northwest out of Madison, and it's a good highway, and often new. On the banks of the Mississippi River, just across from the People's Republic of Minnesota, it's a wet University town that just decriminalized limited marijuana possession. It's hard to believe that inside such a leafy quaint place some of the dirtiest politics in the nation are brewing.
The outraged thousands who descended on Madison in March have fulfilled a promise, triggering recall elections for nearly a third of the state's senators.
With recalls certified for nine senators (six Republican; three Democratic), the impatient Republican majority has called a rare "extraordinary session" to punch through the collective bargaining prohibitions of the budget bill. But just as the session started, the state's highest court ruled, speedily, in favor of the bill's passage. The most surprising part of the court's ruling was the dissenting opinion, in which the Chief Justice, in no uncertain terms, accused the majority of disinformation: that the ruling "set forth their own version of facts without evidence."
That may sound tame by the screaming hyena standard of cable news political discourse, but in the legal world, it's a bona fide scandal and finally confirms that everything in Wisconsin, from the highest court in the land to the dirt, has become rabidly partisaned.
The promiscuous nature of the emergency session may also be used to pass as many bills as possible before recall elections potentially shift the power in the senate.
To stall the recall elections, the state Republican Party has openly admitted it will run "spoiler" candidates in the Republican recalls, in order to force a Democratic primary and postpone, for a month, the general elections. Those who made "consequences" a rallying cry after November 2010, are suddenly not so fond of the concept.
The spoiler candidate strategy is a move many Wisconsin voters find distasteful. And yet: the Wisconsin Democratic Party appears eager to bite. "We cannot and will not stoop to the Republicans' level by encouraging candidates to lie about their party affiliation, or recommending that people try to deceive voters," said Dem Chair, Mike Tate—and then announced that the party will run "placeholder" candidates to force primary elections in all six of the Democratic recalls.
Not only are the Democrats apparently so dense they think Wisconsin voters will punish the Republicans for the financial irresponsibility of "spoiler" candidates but not the Dems for "placeholders," but also, as state Republicans have rightly pointed out, it's pretty rich for the Dems to take the high road.
In the 2010 race for the 25th Assembly District representative, a candidate recruited by the AFSCME union got on the ballot as a Republican in an attempt to split the conservative vote against Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer. (The tactic didn't work.)
Meanwhile, as both sides complain about how best to fix the state budget shortfall, these placeholding spoilers will cost the respective counties about $45,000 per election, meaning the forced primaries will cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than $400,000 on top of the $400,000-plus for the general recall elections.
Especially for the "fiscally responsible" Republicans, this stunt seems indefensible.
Wisconsin Republican Party executive director Stephan Thompson has claimed that the "protest candidates" are being used because GOP incumbents are disadvantaged by the fact that Democratic challengers can campaign, while the recalled senators must continue working in Madison. But in La Crosse, for example, recalled GOP Senator Dan Kapanke's challenger is Rep. Jennifer Shilling, a current legislator. The same is true of Republican Senator Alberta Darling, who is being challenged by current Democratic Representative Sandra Pasch.
One election where a senator is, by Thomas' definition, "disadvantaged," is the recall election of Republican Senator Rob Cowles, who is being challenged by fake Democrat Otto Junkerman. Junkerman, who is 82 and a former Republican state representative, once described on the House floor how he had turned in his own son for using and selling drugs, after which, his wife left him.
Fake Democrat John Buckstaff hates Wisconsin so much he took out a $3,600 ad in the Wall Street Journal in 1986, complaining about the business climate and advocating people "escape" the state. That came a year after his business was sued by the Department of Natural Resources for air pollution.
The Republicans have also put up another octogenarian, Gladys Huber, formerly an Ozaukee County Republican Party board member, as a Democrat—forcing a primary and moving the general recall election of Alberta Darling to August. Other longtime Republicans who will run as Democrats include 65-year-old Rol Church and John Buckstaff. Both retirees, the former was a financial backer for "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" and the latter is a self-made business leader in that he made himself by selling the huge furniture corporation he inherited. Buckstaff hates Wisconsin so much he took out a $3,600 ad in the Wall Street Journal in 1986, complaining about the business climate and advocating people "escape" the state. That came a year after his business was sued by the Department of Natural Resources for air pollution.
What almost all of the recruited Republicans have in common is that they do not need to worry about living down their actions, even if they do have to worry about living through the campaign.
All but James Smith.
* * *
Born in 1985, it's not difficult to see how James Smith got himself into this mess. A Republican groupie, Smith is painfully willing to please the Republican party he fetishizes. Smith's real—as in, private—Facebook page features photo after photo of him standing alongside Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, Newt Gingrich, Senator Ron Johnson, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Governor Scott Walker. And there he is next to Dan Kapanke, the recalled Republican Senator that Smith resigned his local GOP post to register as a Democrat to run against.
James Smith worked on Governor Scott Walker's election. He was a delegate to the Republican State Convention. It was a week ago that he resigned his position on the La Crosse County Republican Party Executive Committee and filed as a Democratic candidate for partisan state office. Smith admits that the candidacy was arranged by the state party. The fake Facebook page, Smith said, was done by himself, "for the fun of it."
The most generous possible way to describe him is naive. James Smith is what would happen if Lennie from Of Mice and Men somehow became involved in All the King's Men.
Smith told me that the state Republican office, with which he spoke before announcing his candidacy, helped him get signatures for his nomination papers. Needing only 400, he already had more than 600 on Sunday. He told me he's shooting for 800, though, because he expects many of them will be challenged. Smith received many of these signatures thanks to a letter circulated on his behalf by the 3rd District Republican Party Chair, Maripat Krueger. The letter asking for signatures, dated June 3 and signed by Krueger, also read "Paid for by Friends of James Smith, James Smith, Treasurer."
Yet, on June 14, Smith told me he had not raised any money. When I asked him where the money came from for "Friends of James Smith," Smith said, "I don't know." He is also unsure how he became treasurer.
Neither Krueger nor the 3rd District Republican Party responded to requests for comment.
By just getting on the ballot and forcing a primary, his candidacy is already successful, which means he is no longer necessary. Like the other dull patsies, Smith has been suckered into doing something the rest of the state's Republican leadership supports, but is too spineless and self-preservationist to volunteer for themselves.
Smith's future political career, whatever he imagined for himself, is ruined—and Smith's unmistakable physical stature makes it impossible for him to blend in anywhere.
A lifelong resident of La Crosse, James Smith's name is mud. The local newspaper has a steady stream of letters to the editor, such as June 10's "Smith should be ashamed of actions." At 25, he's a local villain in a town of 50,000, the kind of small place where people traditionally try and keep a low profile. A Willie Stark who never quite figures out what Tiny Duffy is up to, Smith's future political career, whatever he imagined for himself, is ruined—and Smith's unmistakable physical stature makes it impossible for him to blend in anywhere.
Smith plays a far larger role in the Republican strategy than he probably understands. Dan Kapanke, the senator for whom Smith is throwing himself on a grenade, will be removed by a grenade coming soon after. Kapanke is the most vulnerable of the recalled senators, and he knows it. During the height of the Madison protests, Kapanke claimed that protestors had smashed his windshield, despite police reports that noted the small chip was "consistent with a stone being picked up from another vehicle tire and launched into the air." More recently, Kapanke was recorded saying “We’ve got tons of government workers in my district. Tons.... We gotta hope that they, kind of, are sleeping on July 12th. Or whenever the date is.” As expected, Kapanke's continents didn't take kindly to their elected representatives pinning hopes on their sleeping habits.
In what was largely seen as a referendum on Governor Walker in April, La Crosse County went for unknown challenger Joanne Kloppenburg against sitting Supreme Court Judge David Prosser. Just after that, a special election to fill the seat of 16-year incumbent Republican Representative Mike Huebsch was won by a Democrat.
At a "chicken Q" fundraiser at the Concordia polka hall in La Crosse, I listened as Shilling, alongside new rock star, state Senator Jon Erpenbach, addressed hundreds and banged away on the Democrats' latest winning strategy: Paul Ryan's Medicare plan. Tying Kapanke to the Republican plan to gut the entitlement will play no worse in Wisconsin than it did in Buffalo. Even the Republicans know this—fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan was suddenly removed as a guest at a Kapanke recall fundraiser in May.
Three of the ten people I spoke with at the "chicken Q" admitted they had voted for Walker and Kapanke. La Crosse County—Democrat from the waist up, Republican from the waist down—went for Walker in the 2010 gubernatorial election. It won't do it again.
The most telling example of Kapnake's future is the yard signs. Throughout La Crosse, I saw Shilling for Senate signs everywhere. After several days in town, I had counted only four Kapanake yard signs. During my visit to the La Crosse Republican Party's office, I spied piles of Kapanke signs piled up in the back room, gathering dust. Meanwhile, a month before the July 12 election date, the Shilling campaign posted on its Facebook page that it was currently out of yard signs, its second batch, but that it was printing more.
For the current herd of Republican legislators, James Smith is just a resource. Dug from the ground, sucked from a river, recruited via a conference call, it's all just a natural resource that desperately wants to be capitalized. This new strain of Republican is not one Wisconsin, nor the United States, has ever seen. Gone is the Republican who, in genuinely wanting the best for Wisconsin, cut corners and chomped cigars with captains of industry, rolling the silk purse strings in his fingers in an attempt to balance the sort of corporate patronage that had ever been. The new Republicans are corporate wrecking crews, given a sledgehammer, a piece of legislation and a command to "make it fit."
They're making it fit. All of it.
* * *
Madison. Since election, Governor Walker is fond of saying the state is now "open for business." But Wisconsin isn't just opening up to business, it's becoming business, where human and natural resources are valued only immediately as commodities.
Late in the draft process, the University Omnibus legislation suddenly swelled with provisions that would force the University of Wisconsin system to cease support of WiscNet, a high-speed Internet network started in 1989 and now servicing schools, hospitals and municipal governments statewide. The provision forces the UW to return more than $37 million in federal funding to expand the service, including hundreds of miles of new fiber-optic cables. Republican legislators and the Wisconsin Telecommunications Association point out that the UW can use BadgerNet, a state-run network supplied by private providers such as AT&T. UW administrators estimate that the $2 million it would spend on WiscNet services by 2016 would amount to payments to BadgerNet over the same period of $27 million. That doesn't even count the schools.
Three-fourths of public schools and nearly every public library in the state accesses the Internet via WiscNet. The new language will require them to contract with private providers, multiplying schools' ISP costs just as Walker cuts their budgets and expands access, and state payments, to private charter schools.
As with every naked quest for profit, the collateral damage will be significant. For beginners, UW officials have pointed out that the provision will require the UW to resign from its partnership in federal research networks like Internet2 and BOREAS-net.
Another new proposal offered by the corporate-controlled legislature is a relaxing of the state's child labor laws, essentially allowing 16-year-olds to work the same schedules as adults. Michelle Kussow, the grocers association’s vice president of governmental affairs and communications, told The Cap Times that "the limited number of hours they could work" was "tough on teens." Those "limited" hours? 26 during school weeks, 32 during partial weeks, and 50 during vacations and summer break.
This new unrestricted work schedule dovetails perfectly with the administration's massive cuts to education. It doesn't take a formal understanding of geometry to understand how groceries best fit into a paper bag.
Proving that the Wisconsin Republicans are such in name only, the legislature has also raised the ire of conservatives, with a proposal limiting the rights of individual land owners. A proposal receiving unanimous Republican Budget Committee support makes it easier for the state government to appropriate private land to build highways and power lines. No surprise that there is a corporate power line contractor backing the rule: American Transmission Company. A testament to how unengaged with true conservative values the current legislature is, even blindly pro-Walker right wing radio host Vicki McKenna slammed the proposal as "Bad policy. Period."
This change to eminent domain policy comes just as ATC gets ready to buy up property for a $400-million power project linking Madison and La Crosse. Sounding a lot like a socialist, ATC's attorney recently said the policy is fair "because in the long run it benefits all of us."
The fair price ATC wants to pay land-owning Wisconsinites? Wisconsin's conservative Journal Sentinel, which endorsed Scott Walker, notes that ATC offered a Marathon County family $7,750 for a piece of land appraised at more than $40,000.
Then there is the "venture capital" bill which would create a Wisconsin Venture Capital Authority tasked with extending hundreds of millions to out-of-state insurance firms in exchange for slighly more than those hundreds of million in in-state investments. Known in the corporate world as a "CAPCO," the investment plan is better known in the real world as a "Ponzi Scheme." Literate Wisconsin conservatives should even know this, seeing as the Journal Sentinel reported on the disaster of Missouri's CAPCO program in December of 2003, noting that the majority of the initial funds had been immediately swallowed by the corporate partners, leaving only 34 percent for any actual business development. Republican Senator Glenn Grothman even described the plan's out-of-state organizers as "bunko artists."
Once discovered, Walker's CAPCO proposal stank of such cronyism that Walker himself backed off and asked for a rewrite. But the plan will go forward.
Meanwhile, impatient with even this progress, corporations have just started advertising their own legislation.
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's most powerful corporate lobby, has begun airing a radio campaign supporting the "Jobs for Generations Act," even though no such bill has been introduced. The spot praises the legislation for creating 2000 $60,000-a-year jobs in an iron ore mine that would last 100 years. In her district, the ad even mentions recalled Republican Senator Alberta Darling, even though Darling admitted surprise at hearing her name attached to the bill. This is the real world equivalent of sending out invitations announcing the wedding of yourself and Angelina Jolie—and then expecting her to show up.
Defend Wisconsin has put togethera heartbreaking list of the legislature's other plans to return "fiscal sanity" to the state. Even if you assume that three-fourths of the very biased Defend Wisconsin's list is inflated, the remaining measures cannot be mistaken as anything short of an attempt to skin the state for as much immediate profit as possible, with no thought to its long term welfare.
Much like with its tear-down of public education, the Wisconsin legislature is not building business: it is finding ways to privatize existing public services so that they may become bullet points on the annual reports of private corporations.
* * *
But after Kapanke, the Democrats need only pick up two more of the five other recalled seats, defend their own three recalled seats—and they will have wrestled control of the state senate.
Unfortunately, it's clear that many of the newly politicized think that the recalls will pave the way to reverse the collective bargaining abolition. With the bill passed, and the most significant challenge struck down by the Supreme Court, a Democrat-controlled wing of the legislature will only be able to stop the bleeding. Even if the Senate passed a repeal of Walker's bill, it would never get through the House, and if it did, which it won't, Walker would veto it. Following the ruling, the state chapter of the AFL-CIO immediately filed a federal suit, claiming the bill violates the 1st and 14th amendment—but that's a long shot.
Collective bargaining in Wisconsin is dead.
The tent city that has surrounded the Madison capitol each night for the last week was called "Walkerville." It's an odd name but not as odd as the one the pro-Walker camp came up with when the right-wing, phony news organization The MacIver Institute ran a poll: "Entitledtown."
The second round of Madison protests have been angrier, more aggressive and more desperate. Some are unreasonable. A recent stunt where protesters dressed as zombies interrupted Walker's address to Special Olympics athletes was the PR equivalent of a shotgun in the mouth. The footage from that screw-up was broadcast, in outrage, around the state for days afterward.
Following the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday, general strike signs were rumored to be circulated. By Wednesday afternoon though, the capitol grounds were largely empty of protesters. The Sentinel's All Politics Blog reported that "demonstrators and public in the Assembly gallery have thinned out." "Of course it's thinning out. They're out of munchies and pot..." wrote one commenter. Another: "Quitters."
After a month where hundreds of thousands occupied the capitol, not a single arrest was made, despite the protesters being slandered by Republicans as "thugs." Now, on Wednesday, three were arrested for disorderly conduct in the assembly gallery. Even the Democratic minority is fed up; Wednesday night on the Assembly floor, Democratic Representative Cory Mason blankly admonished the Republicans, "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining." On Thursday morning, after the budget was passed, a women in the assembly gallery locked her head to the railing.
In the coming days, several major events will take place. These were planned in advance of the ruling, and expected to confront the extraordinary session. With the bill passed though, they'll likely be ignored by the media. Just more Madison hippies acting like Madison hippies.
It's noteworthy that Russ Feingold, completely absent both in spirit and voice and presence during the massive March protests, has, after Senator Herb Kohl's announcement to not seek another term, suddenly become a very vocal presence at Walkerville. Feingold's statement at Walkerville? "We will not stop until we win." He was not more specific.
Governor Walker, for his part, appears to know that he has overstepped. Recent statements by the Governor have attempted to make peace with state workers, calling them reasonable and respectable, calling Wisconsin's teachers the nation's best—all while blaming the protests and strife on "out of state" forces and agitators. But most recent polling puts his approval rating at an all-time low of 43 percent, with 50 percent now favoring a recall. November is a long time away though, and Walker, and the Republicans, are hoping the already-recovering economy provides a credit-taking opportunity, after which everyone will judge results but not process.
Walker hopes Wisconsin will forget the labor when they see the baby.
But those in it for the long haul, like the Teaching Assistants' Association members who were some of the first capitol occupiers three months ago, hope that energy will shift to the recall elections, including the one that has been promised for Walker himself in November.
More months of this. More rhetoric. Exhausting rhetoric.
But then, that's also part of the plan: an exhausted electorate sweltering in the summer heat is unlikely to vote, let alone twice in a month.
Back in La Crosse, Dan Kapanke doesn't have to worry about exhaustion. He has no future. The corporations to which he now belongs have mined their stake, and will continue to wring him of his usefulness over the next two months until they cast him aside, just like James Smith, just like Wisconsin.
Update 6/16 pm: The link to James Smith's Facebook page is not incorrect. In the hours after publication, Smith deleted both his real and fake Facebook pages.
Abe Sauer can be reached at abesauer at gmail dot com.
Photo of Feingold via @DefendWisconsin
http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/wisconsin-inc-new-republican-politics-in-the-age-of-the-recall
Monday, June 13, 2011
Madison360: Walker's scorched-earth start nearly complete
PAUL FANLUND | The Capital Times | pfanlund@madison.com
Posted: Monday, June 13, 2011 6:30 am
Call it round two.
Soon, we will start to learn the consequences of governing Wisconsin as a de facto right-wing dictatorship. Round one is finally winding down with the imminent passage of the most partisan budget in state history.
This next round will feature nine recall elections against state senators (six Republicans and three Democrats) that will play out over the summer. Furious progressives and centrists must wait a bit longer -- until Republican Scott Walker has been governor for a full year next January -- before trying to recall him.
Walker, of course, has become the nation's most polarizing governor for his stunning, scorched-earth style. In national polling by Public Policy Polling, Walker's approval rating among state Democrats was 9 percent, not only lowest of any governor with the opposition but even 2 percentage points lower than President Obama's 11 percent approval among state Republicans.
Given Walker's robotic and scripted bearing, it's hard to know what he's really thinking, unless maybe you're a blogger posing as a billionaire donor. He seems to revel in being reviled by so many.
Let's be clear about what we are witnessing.
There was no crisis that merited Walker's unprecedented, over-the-top actions. He could have tried to build upon his GOP base by attracting independents and moderates, a now-discredited approach that kept fellow Republican Tommy Thompson as governor for most of a generation.
No, Walker and his legislative cronies chose instead to cater to any right-wing interest with deep pockets: Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, charter school advocates, mining interests, payday loan sharks, the Koch brothers, the Club for Growth, social conservatives. The apparent goal has been to raise so much campaign money that Walker and allies can buy their way out of any messy electoral fix.
A New York Times story last week was headlined: "In Wisconsin, legislative urgency as recall threat looms." In it, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, the Republican Senate leader, said: "You want to make sure there aren't things undone. If some major issue hasn't been taken care of, voters wouldn't be as motivated." Just substitute "right-wing contributors" for "voters" and you have it.
As a parallel strategy, Walker and team have tried their best to cripple Democrats' capacity to compete in all future elections -- recall votes or otherwise -- by destroying public employee unions as a political force, enacting a radical vote-suppression law and changing the rules on redrawing political maps. The reasoning seems to be, if you can essentially destroy your foe, what difference does it make whether you win over hearts and minds?
Meanwhile, Walker's propaganda machine continues spinning the daily fiction that -- but for their guy's resolve -- no new job would be created nor any school cost concession realized. Like talk radio, I suppose, if you repeat it enough, somebody will believe it.
All the while, you have conservative opinion writers lecturing Democrats about refusing to compromise. The Republican says: "I want to kill your dog." The follow-up editorial: "What can't you guys compromise? Just let them rough up your dog a little."
Most of our state's national notoriety in 2011, of course, has been around Walker's efforts to destroy the state's public employee unions.
But the list of other extremist proposals is staggering, even if all of them don't go through: extravagant corporate tax breaks; boosting private schools with vouchers while slashing public education; attacking environmental protections that touch stewardship funds, recycling laws and phosphorus bans; attacking crucial health programs including SeniorCare, Family Care and a broad range of services offered by Planned Parenthood; passing tort "reform" that's shorthand for reducing consumer rights; passing the heavy-handed voter identification law; a gun-promoting "constitutional carry" law; rejecting wind energy and almost anything that touches on urgently needed, future-focused mass transit.
In interviews, the two Democrats who lead the minorities in each house use sweeping language to frame the extremism. Sen. Mark Miller of Monona says the unprecedented partisanship exploded on the first day of the new Legislature, when Republicans refused to approve hiring lawyers to represent Democrats in legislative redistricting, reversing a bipartisan practice going back years.
Rep. Peter Barca of Racine says he quit having regular meetings with Walker months ago because the governor made it clear he was unwilling to negotiate anything. Barca recalls that Walker told a congressional committee that his goal is to not be bipartisan.
Miller says the current "agenda has been promoted for 20 years by think tanks funded by the Bradley Foundation and the Koch brothers and others." What is different, he says, is "this time, they have been coached to go for broke."
Miller says Wisconsin tradition is one of cooperation between parties for incremental progress on human rights, access to health care, quality education. "What we are seeing is an extremist agenda turning its back and thumbing its nose at that tradition."
"They are pursuing an agenda that strips away progress back to World War II and before," Miller says. "It doesn't matter what the facts are; it's whatever (special interest) Kool-Aid they have been served."
Barca is equally blunt. "This governor not only does not care about the middle ground, he does not care about the middle class," he says. "Everything he comes up with is the most extreme version of anything you can bring forward."
A keen observer of state politics scratches his head. "It's interesting that the GOP Legislature is willing to dig itself deeper in a hole -- and perhaps be committing political suicide" with its rigid partisanship, observes Mordecai Lee, a former Democratic legislator who teaches government at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
"It has displayed no interest in re-passing a softer version of the union bill, no interest in holding off on enacting some other highly ideological bills and budget items that appear to turn off Tommy's centrist voters. Their apparent goal is to pass as much as possible devant le deluge rather than surviving the recalls." His French translates to "before the flood," as in: before all hell breaks loose via voter retribution.
"I might be wrong and they retain the majority-ship after the recalls, but why risk it?" Lee asks. "To me, the political logic in the run-up to the recalls would be to back off, soften up, move to the center, and bury anything controversial. I guess I'm a dinosaur in thinking of that as a political strategy."
If Lee is a dinosaur, those of us who fondly recall political history way back when, say, before Christmas, would happily join him in Jurassic Park.
Looking back, there must be some GOP think tank or special interest not yet fully serviced by Walker, but if so, they must have failed to RSVP. Walker has dragged all the Republican legislators along on this voyage and now he has burned the boats.
In times ahead, we will see how they fare in this brave new world they've created.
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/madison_360/article_cebc234e-9572-11e0-97aa-001cc4c03286.html
Posted: Monday, June 13, 2011 6:30 am
Call it round two.
Soon, we will start to learn the consequences of governing Wisconsin as a de facto right-wing dictatorship. Round one is finally winding down with the imminent passage of the most partisan budget in state history.
This next round will feature nine recall elections against state senators (six Republicans and three Democrats) that will play out over the summer. Furious progressives and centrists must wait a bit longer -- until Republican Scott Walker has been governor for a full year next January -- before trying to recall him.
Walker, of course, has become the nation's most polarizing governor for his stunning, scorched-earth style. In national polling by Public Policy Polling, Walker's approval rating among state Democrats was 9 percent, not only lowest of any governor with the opposition but even 2 percentage points lower than President Obama's 11 percent approval among state Republicans.
Given Walker's robotic and scripted bearing, it's hard to know what he's really thinking, unless maybe you're a blogger posing as a billionaire donor. He seems to revel in being reviled by so many.
Let's be clear about what we are witnessing.
There was no crisis that merited Walker's unprecedented, over-the-top actions. He could have tried to build upon his GOP base by attracting independents and moderates, a now-discredited approach that kept fellow Republican Tommy Thompson as governor for most of a generation.
No, Walker and his legislative cronies chose instead to cater to any right-wing interest with deep pockets: Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, charter school advocates, mining interests, payday loan sharks, the Koch brothers, the Club for Growth, social conservatives. The apparent goal has been to raise so much campaign money that Walker and allies can buy their way out of any messy electoral fix.
A New York Times story last week was headlined: "In Wisconsin, legislative urgency as recall threat looms." In it, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, the Republican Senate leader, said: "You want to make sure there aren't things undone. If some major issue hasn't been taken care of, voters wouldn't be as motivated." Just substitute "right-wing contributors" for "voters" and you have it.
As a parallel strategy, Walker and team have tried their best to cripple Democrats' capacity to compete in all future elections -- recall votes or otherwise -- by destroying public employee unions as a political force, enacting a radical vote-suppression law and changing the rules on redrawing political maps. The reasoning seems to be, if you can essentially destroy your foe, what difference does it make whether you win over hearts and minds?
Meanwhile, Walker's propaganda machine continues spinning the daily fiction that -- but for their guy's resolve -- no new job would be created nor any school cost concession realized. Like talk radio, I suppose, if you repeat it enough, somebody will believe it.
All the while, you have conservative opinion writers lecturing Democrats about refusing to compromise. The Republican says: "I want to kill your dog." The follow-up editorial: "What can't you guys compromise? Just let them rough up your dog a little."
Most of our state's national notoriety in 2011, of course, has been around Walker's efforts to destroy the state's public employee unions.
But the list of other extremist proposals is staggering, even if all of them don't go through: extravagant corporate tax breaks; boosting private schools with vouchers while slashing public education; attacking environmental protections that touch stewardship funds, recycling laws and phosphorus bans; attacking crucial health programs including SeniorCare, Family Care and a broad range of services offered by Planned Parenthood; passing tort "reform" that's shorthand for reducing consumer rights; passing the heavy-handed voter identification law; a gun-promoting "constitutional carry" law; rejecting wind energy and almost anything that touches on urgently needed, future-focused mass transit.
In interviews, the two Democrats who lead the minorities in each house use sweeping language to frame the extremism. Sen. Mark Miller of Monona says the unprecedented partisanship exploded on the first day of the new Legislature, when Republicans refused to approve hiring lawyers to represent Democrats in legislative redistricting, reversing a bipartisan practice going back years.
Rep. Peter Barca of Racine says he quit having regular meetings with Walker months ago because the governor made it clear he was unwilling to negotiate anything. Barca recalls that Walker told a congressional committee that his goal is to not be bipartisan.
Miller says the current "agenda has been promoted for 20 years by think tanks funded by the Bradley Foundation and the Koch brothers and others." What is different, he says, is "this time, they have been coached to go for broke."
Miller says Wisconsin tradition is one of cooperation between parties for incremental progress on human rights, access to health care, quality education. "What we are seeing is an extremist agenda turning its back and thumbing its nose at that tradition."
"They are pursuing an agenda that strips away progress back to World War II and before," Miller says. "It doesn't matter what the facts are; it's whatever (special interest) Kool-Aid they have been served."
Barca is equally blunt. "This governor not only does not care about the middle ground, he does not care about the middle class," he says. "Everything he comes up with is the most extreme version of anything you can bring forward."
A keen observer of state politics scratches his head. "It's interesting that the GOP Legislature is willing to dig itself deeper in a hole -- and perhaps be committing political suicide" with its rigid partisanship, observes Mordecai Lee, a former Democratic legislator who teaches government at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
"It has displayed no interest in re-passing a softer version of the union bill, no interest in holding off on enacting some other highly ideological bills and budget items that appear to turn off Tommy's centrist voters. Their apparent goal is to pass as much as possible devant le deluge rather than surviving the recalls." His French translates to "before the flood," as in: before all hell breaks loose via voter retribution.
"I might be wrong and they retain the majority-ship after the recalls, but why risk it?" Lee asks. "To me, the political logic in the run-up to the recalls would be to back off, soften up, move to the center, and bury anything controversial. I guess I'm a dinosaur in thinking of that as a political strategy."
If Lee is a dinosaur, those of us who fondly recall political history way back when, say, before Christmas, would happily join him in Jurassic Park.
Looking back, there must be some GOP think tank or special interest not yet fully serviced by Walker, but if so, they must have failed to RSVP. Walker has dragged all the Republican legislators along on this voyage and now he has burned the boats.
In times ahead, we will see how they fare in this brave new world they've created.
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/madison_360/article_cebc234e-9572-11e0-97aa-001cc4c03286.html
Friday, June 3, 2011
House GOP Cuts To Nutrition Assistance Equal To One Week Of Bush Tax Cuts For Millionaires
By Pat Garofalo on Jun 2, 2011 at 3:50 pm
House Republicans, as part of their 2012 budget, have proposed dramatic cuts to food assistance programs, including cuts to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) that would prevent hundreds of thousands of eligible women and their children from accessing the program. Late last month, the House Appropriations Committee approved more than $830 million in cuts to WIC and millions more in cuts to the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/02/234878/gop-nutrition-cuts-one-week/
House Republicans, as part of their 2012 budget, have proposed dramatic cuts to food assistance programs, including cuts to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) that would prevent hundreds of thousands of eligible women and their children from accessing the program. Late last month, the House Appropriations Committee approved more than $830 million in cuts to WIC and millions more in cuts to the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.
To cut these programs with so many families still feeling the effects of the Great Recession is a travesty. But to do so after spending tens of billions of dollars to extend tax cuts for the richest 2 percent of Americans, as Republicans forced Congress to do back in December, is even worse. CAP’s Melissa Boteach and Seth Hanlon found that the cost of the GOP cut to WIC is equivalent to the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts for millionaires alone for just one week:
The deal struck last December to extend the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush gave the average millionaire a tax break of $139,199 for 2011, according to the Tax Policy Center, or nearly $2,700 per week. Given that about 321,000 households reported incomes of more than $1 million in the most recent year for which there are data from the Internal Revenue Service, that means the Bush tax cuts provide millionaires with about $860 million in tax breaks every week—more than enough to stave off the $833 million in proposed cuts to WIC.
Economists have estimated that every dollar invested in WIC “saves between $1.77 and $3.13 in health care costs in the first 60 days after an infant’s birth by reducing the instance of low-birth-weight babies and improving child immunization rates.”
The Hill reported today that Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) convinced GOP appropriators to reinstate $147 million of their $833 million in cuts to WIC, but she is not optimistic that the money will ultimately be approved on the House floor. “I don’t think [the Republicans] will let it stand. I think they will attack it on the floor,” DeLauro said.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/02/234878/gop-nutrition-cuts-one-week/
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Eliminate All Bush Era Tax Cuts and Reduce the National Debt by 50% by 2020
STARTED BY
Mason Colbert
Cary, NC
OVERVIEW
The CBO has calculated that the Bush era tax cuts have directly placed the U.S. in it's current dangerous economic condition. The CBO stated; If the Clinton era tax rates were still in place, the national debt (which was $10.5 trillion when George W. Bush left office) would have now been TOTALLY payed off and the U.S. would now have a SURPLUS of two trillion dollars.
I have signed this petition to ask my President and Congress to eliminate all Bush era tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. Elimination of these tax cuts will reduce the national debt by 50% by the year 2020. Congress is now considering the elimination or severe modification of important social safety net programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Changing these programs to their detriment would be unconscionable, short-sighted and unnecessary . The savings will then be used for yet another one trillion dollar tax cut for the most wealthy Americans (and lower their top tax rate from 35% down to 25%). All of these social safety net programs were enacted and developed through dedication, persistence and hard work by many millions of people over the past century. These valuable and valued programs provide desperately needed assistance to the elderly, disabled individuals and less privileged Americans. They are a promise from one generation to another and must be maintained for future generations. Debt and deficit spending come and go. These programs must remain and be improved for the current and future health and well-being of our country.
America does not have a national debt problem, instead, the U.S. has a negative revenue problem. The Republican leadership has maintained for 30 years that Americans are taxed to much and the government spends to much. Which is it? The truth is, the government has consistently offered a '40% discount' on all products and services provided to the nation, by the government, for the past three decades now. This 'discount' has precipitated the need for massive borrowing. This has in turn lead to massive debt to cover lost revenue, caused by massive unproductive and wasteful tax cuts. The CBO has calculated that 'tax cuts' are the least effective approach to generating true economic growth (tax cuts generate roughly 32 cents for each dollar expended).
The top 2% of the wealthiest Americans have an average tax rate of 16.7% (the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans own 35.6% of all private wealth). Wall Street pays an average tax rate of 11%. Many of the largest corporations in America pay zero in taxes and instead, generally receive 100's of millions or even billions of dollars in refund checks from the IRS (many corporations actually make money when filing their income tax return). The tax burden has shifted to small businesses and individuals in the bottom 90% of tax payers. In 1961, small business owners and individuals paid twice as much in federal income taxes as large corporations. By 2011, small business owners and individuals will be paying nearly five times in taxes as compared to what large corporations pay. Are these tax rates completely out of balance? Definitely.
Here is the basic problem; Far to much money is now in far to few hands. This highly concentrated wealth is typically saved in the U.S. or off-shored. There is a total of approximately 20 trillion dollars in offshore bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios. Approximately $1.4 trillion is held in offshore banks in the Cayman Islands alone. This figure is most likely much higher, however, the wealthy and large corporations intentionally make this figure difficult to determine. This money is not available to recirculate in the economy, nor is it subject to U.S. taxes. The net effect of this is; the money will not generate new jobs, to produce goods, to satisfy additional demand, created by a larger base of purchasers, which would in turn, generate additional revenue to fuel the government. The Republican approach will not work, even during very strong economic times (deficit spending will merely decrease). The tax base must be expanded and the distribution of tax liability must become more equitable. The purchasing base must also be expanded. The net effect would be more money in more hands capable of creating more demand and generating more jobs.
Americans discuss 'the very wealthy' and 'corporations' as if they are separate entities. They are not, and this fact must be made crystal clear. The very-wealthy in the U.S. ARE the corporations. The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans own roughly 85 percent of all outstanding stocks, roughly 85 percent of all financial securities, own 90 percent of all business equity and earn 50% of all income generated in the U.S. The wealthy and the large corporations are one in the same.
American corporations are currently 'holding' roughly 2 trillion dollars in cash reserves. This $2 trillion is not being 'reinvested' in the U.S. to create jobs for middle-class Americans. Instead, the new emphasis has become giving large corporations massive tax breaks. In reality, the wealthy have merely devised a 'new' indirect method to continue the ever increasing flow of money to themselves by giving large corporations the tax cuts, thereby capturing these funds in a round about way. Republican leadership on the state level are now drastically cutting programs for less advantaged citizens and allocating this money instead to large corporation tax cuts. Decreasing taxes for large corporations will have the same result as reducing taxes for the very wealthy and this would mean........less money, in less hands, in circulation to fuel and expand the economy.
The current 14 trillion dollar national debt is a direct product of continuous unfunded and irresponsible tax cuts (mostly for the very wealthy) by Republican leadership in Washington for the past 30 years. Please do not destroy programs that protect and enhance the lives of million of Americans on a daily basis, for a 'short term' perceived political gain. Please do not balance the budget and pay down the national debt on the backs of the middle-class, the poor and the most vulnerable members of our society. Wall Street's excessive gambling and large corporations shipping millions of jobs overseas while cutting their own tax liability to astoundingly low levels has caused this economic crisis and they should therefore, pay their fair share in placing the U.S. Back on sound economic footing.
An alternate strategy could be; totally revise the tax codes and eliminate corporate welfare (subsidies), loop-holes and completely revise tax structures that would be more balanced and discourage shipping American jobs overseas (structure tax laws to retain and expand job creation in the U.S.). Additionally, the U.S. Spends more on the defense budget and the current wars than all the other countries on the planet spend on their defense budgets combined. The U.S. Military Industrial Complex would be an ideal source for very large budget reductions. Last, but certainly not least, the very wealthy, large corporations and Wall Street should pay higher taxes.
The very wealthy argue they are paying 'what the government requires'. Unfortunately, these same wealthy Americans are the ones that have paid billions of dollars to Washington lobbyists over the past three decades to ensure this is 'what' the government requires. The countries economy should be rebuilt and expanded from the 'bottom up' (larger base) and not from the failed approach of the 'top down'. The total elimination of all the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will be a good start in setting the U.S. on sound economic ground and will begin to close the tremendous inequality of tax rates in America.
http://www.change.org/petitions/eliminate-all-bush-era-tax-cuts-and-reduce-the-national-debt-by-50-by-2020?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=own_wall
Mason Colbert
Cary, NC
OVERVIEW
The CBO has calculated that the Bush era tax cuts have directly placed the U.S. in it's current dangerous economic condition. The CBO stated; If the Clinton era tax rates were still in place, the national debt (which was $10.5 trillion when George W. Bush left office) would have now been TOTALLY payed off and the U.S. would now have a SURPLUS of two trillion dollars.
I have signed this petition to ask my President and Congress to eliminate all Bush era tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. Elimination of these tax cuts will reduce the national debt by 50% by the year 2020. Congress is now considering the elimination or severe modification of important social safety net programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Changing these programs to their detriment would be unconscionable, short-sighted and unnecessary . The savings will then be used for yet another one trillion dollar tax cut for the most wealthy Americans (and lower their top tax rate from 35% down to 25%). All of these social safety net programs were enacted and developed through dedication, persistence and hard work by many millions of people over the past century. These valuable and valued programs provide desperately needed assistance to the elderly, disabled individuals and less privileged Americans. They are a promise from one generation to another and must be maintained for future generations. Debt and deficit spending come and go. These programs must remain and be improved for the current and future health and well-being of our country.
America does not have a national debt problem, instead, the U.S. has a negative revenue problem. The Republican leadership has maintained for 30 years that Americans are taxed to much and the government spends to much. Which is it? The truth is, the government has consistently offered a '40% discount' on all products and services provided to the nation, by the government, for the past three decades now. This 'discount' has precipitated the need for massive borrowing. This has in turn lead to massive debt to cover lost revenue, caused by massive unproductive and wasteful tax cuts. The CBO has calculated that 'tax cuts' are the least effective approach to generating true economic growth (tax cuts generate roughly 32 cents for each dollar expended).
The top 2% of the wealthiest Americans have an average tax rate of 16.7% (the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans own 35.6% of all private wealth). Wall Street pays an average tax rate of 11%. Many of the largest corporations in America pay zero in taxes and instead, generally receive 100's of millions or even billions of dollars in refund checks from the IRS (many corporations actually make money when filing their income tax return). The tax burden has shifted to small businesses and individuals in the bottom 90% of tax payers. In 1961, small business owners and individuals paid twice as much in federal income taxes as large corporations. By 2011, small business owners and individuals will be paying nearly five times in taxes as compared to what large corporations pay. Are these tax rates completely out of balance? Definitely.
Here is the basic problem; Far to much money is now in far to few hands. This highly concentrated wealth is typically saved in the U.S. or off-shored. There is a total of approximately 20 trillion dollars in offshore bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios. Approximately $1.4 trillion is held in offshore banks in the Cayman Islands alone. This figure is most likely much higher, however, the wealthy and large corporations intentionally make this figure difficult to determine. This money is not available to recirculate in the economy, nor is it subject to U.S. taxes. The net effect of this is; the money will not generate new jobs, to produce goods, to satisfy additional demand, created by a larger base of purchasers, which would in turn, generate additional revenue to fuel the government. The Republican approach will not work, even during very strong economic times (deficit spending will merely decrease). The tax base must be expanded and the distribution of tax liability must become more equitable. The purchasing base must also be expanded. The net effect would be more money in more hands capable of creating more demand and generating more jobs.
Americans discuss 'the very wealthy' and 'corporations' as if they are separate entities. They are not, and this fact must be made crystal clear. The very-wealthy in the U.S. ARE the corporations. The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans own roughly 85 percent of all outstanding stocks, roughly 85 percent of all financial securities, own 90 percent of all business equity and earn 50% of all income generated in the U.S. The wealthy and the large corporations are one in the same.
American corporations are currently 'holding' roughly 2 trillion dollars in cash reserves. This $2 trillion is not being 'reinvested' in the U.S. to create jobs for middle-class Americans. Instead, the new emphasis has become giving large corporations massive tax breaks. In reality, the wealthy have merely devised a 'new' indirect method to continue the ever increasing flow of money to themselves by giving large corporations the tax cuts, thereby capturing these funds in a round about way. Republican leadership on the state level are now drastically cutting programs for less advantaged citizens and allocating this money instead to large corporation tax cuts. Decreasing taxes for large corporations will have the same result as reducing taxes for the very wealthy and this would mean........less money, in less hands, in circulation to fuel and expand the economy.
The current 14 trillion dollar national debt is a direct product of continuous unfunded and irresponsible tax cuts (mostly for the very wealthy) by Republican leadership in Washington for the past 30 years. Please do not destroy programs that protect and enhance the lives of million of Americans on a daily basis, for a 'short term' perceived political gain. Please do not balance the budget and pay down the national debt on the backs of the middle-class, the poor and the most vulnerable members of our society. Wall Street's excessive gambling and large corporations shipping millions of jobs overseas while cutting their own tax liability to astoundingly low levels has caused this economic crisis and they should therefore, pay their fair share in placing the U.S. Back on sound economic footing.
An alternate strategy could be; totally revise the tax codes and eliminate corporate welfare (subsidies), loop-holes and completely revise tax structures that would be more balanced and discourage shipping American jobs overseas (structure tax laws to retain and expand job creation in the U.S.). Additionally, the U.S. Spends more on the defense budget and the current wars than all the other countries on the planet spend on their defense budgets combined. The U.S. Military Industrial Complex would be an ideal source for very large budget reductions. Last, but certainly not least, the very wealthy, large corporations and Wall Street should pay higher taxes.
The very wealthy argue they are paying 'what the government requires'. Unfortunately, these same wealthy Americans are the ones that have paid billions of dollars to Washington lobbyists over the past three decades to ensure this is 'what' the government requires. The countries economy should be rebuilt and expanded from the 'bottom up' (larger base) and not from the failed approach of the 'top down'. The total elimination of all the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will be a good start in setting the U.S. on sound economic ground and will begin to close the tremendous inequality of tax rates in America.
http://www.change.org/petitions/eliminate-all-bush-era-tax-cuts-and-reduce-the-national-debt-by-50-by-2020?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=own_wall
Afghanistan's resources could make it the richest mining region on earth
By Kim Sengupta, Diplomatic Correspondent
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Afghanistan, often dismissed in the West as an impoverished and failed state, is sitting on $1 trillion of untapped minerals, according to new calculations from surveys conducted jointly by the Pentagon and the US Geological Survey.
The sheer size of the deposits – including copper, gold, iron and cobalt as well as vast amounts of lithium, a key component in batteries of Western lifestyle staples such as laptops and BlackBerrys – holds out the possibility that Afghanistan, ravaged by decades of conflict, might become one of the most important and lucrative centres of mining in the world.
President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Waheed Omar, said last night: "I think it's very, very big news for the people of Afghanistan and we hope it will bring the Afghan people together for a cause that will benefit everyone."
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan, told reporters that the economic value of the deposits may be even higher. "There's ... an indication that even the £1 trn figure underestimates what the true potential might be," he said.
According to a Pentagon memo, seen by The New York Times, Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium", with one location in Ghazni province showing the potential to compete with Bolivia, which, until now, held half the known world reserves.
Developing a mining industry would, of course, be a long-haul process. It would, though, be a massive boost to a country with a gross domestic product of only about $12bn and where the fledgling legitimate commercial sector has been fatally undermined by billions of dollars generated by the world's biggest opium crop.
"There is stunning potential here," General David Petraeus, the US commander in overall charge of the Afghan war, told the US newspaper. "There are lots of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant."
Stan Coats, former Principal Geologist at the British Geographical Survey, who carried out exploration work in Afghanistan for four years, also injected a note of caution. "Considerably more work needs to be carried out before it can be properly called an economic deposit that can be extracted at a profit," he told The Independent. "Much more ground exploration, including drilling, needs to be carried out to prove that these are viable deposits which can be worked."
But, he added, despite the worsening security situation, some regions were safe enough "so there is a lot of scope for further work".
The discovery of the minerals is likely to trigger a commercial form of the "Great Game" for access to energy resources. The Chinese have already won the right to develop the Aynak copper mine in Logar province in the north, and American and European companies have complained about allegedly underhand methods used by Beijing to get contracts.
The existence of the minerals will also raise questions about the real purpose of foreign involvement in the Afghan conflict. Just as many people in Iraq held that the US and British-led invasion of their country was in order to control the oil wealth, Afghans can often be heard griping that the West is after its "hidden" natural treasures. The fact US military officials were on the exploration teams, and the Pentagon was writing mineral memos might feed that cynicism and also motivate the Taliban into fighting more ferociously to keep control of potentially lucrative areas.
Western diplomats were also warning last night that the flow of money from the minerals is likely to fuel endemic corruption in a country where public figures, including Ahmed Wali Karzai, the President's brother, have been accused of making fortunes from the narcotics trade. The Ministry of Mines and Industry, which will control the production of lithium and other natural resources, has been repeatedly associated with malpractice.
Last year US officials accused the minister in charge at the time when the Aynak copper mine rights were given to the Chinese, Mohammed Ibrahim Adel, of taking a $30m bribe. He denied the charge but was sacked by President Karzai.
But last night Jawad Omar, a senior official at the ministry, insisted: "The natural resources of Afghanistan will play a magnificent role in Afghanistan's economic growth. The past five decades have shown that every time new research takes place, it shows our natural reserves are far more than what was previously found. This is a cause for rejoicing, nothing to worry about."
According to The New York Times, the US Geological Survey flew sorties to map Afghanistan's mineral resources in 2007, using an old British bomber equipped with instruments that offered a 3-D profile of deposits below the surface. It was when a Pentagon task force – charged with formulating business development programmes and helping the Afghan government develop relationships with international firms – came upon the geological data in 2009, that the process of calculating the economic values began.
"This really is part and parcel of General [Stanley] McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy," Colonel Lapan said yesterday. "This is that whole economic arm that we talk about but gets very little attention."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghanistans-resources-could-make-it-the-richest-mining-region-on-earth-2000507.html
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Afghanistan, often dismissed in the West as an impoverished and failed state, is sitting on $1 trillion of untapped minerals, according to new calculations from surveys conducted jointly by the Pentagon and the US Geological Survey.
The sheer size of the deposits – including copper, gold, iron and cobalt as well as vast amounts of lithium, a key component in batteries of Western lifestyle staples such as laptops and BlackBerrys – holds out the possibility that Afghanistan, ravaged by decades of conflict, might become one of the most important and lucrative centres of mining in the world.
President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Waheed Omar, said last night: "I think it's very, very big news for the people of Afghanistan and we hope it will bring the Afghan people together for a cause that will benefit everyone."
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan, told reporters that the economic value of the deposits may be even higher. "There's ... an indication that even the £1 trn figure underestimates what the true potential might be," he said.
According to a Pentagon memo, seen by The New York Times, Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium", with one location in Ghazni province showing the potential to compete with Bolivia, which, until now, held half the known world reserves.
Developing a mining industry would, of course, be a long-haul process. It would, though, be a massive boost to a country with a gross domestic product of only about $12bn and where the fledgling legitimate commercial sector has been fatally undermined by billions of dollars generated by the world's biggest opium crop.
"There is stunning potential here," General David Petraeus, the US commander in overall charge of the Afghan war, told the US newspaper. "There are lots of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant."
Stan Coats, former Principal Geologist at the British Geographical Survey, who carried out exploration work in Afghanistan for four years, also injected a note of caution. "Considerably more work needs to be carried out before it can be properly called an economic deposit that can be extracted at a profit," he told The Independent. "Much more ground exploration, including drilling, needs to be carried out to prove that these are viable deposits which can be worked."
But, he added, despite the worsening security situation, some regions were safe enough "so there is a lot of scope for further work".
The discovery of the minerals is likely to trigger a commercial form of the "Great Game" for access to energy resources. The Chinese have already won the right to develop the Aynak copper mine in Logar province in the north, and American and European companies have complained about allegedly underhand methods used by Beijing to get contracts.
The existence of the minerals will also raise questions about the real purpose of foreign involvement in the Afghan conflict. Just as many people in Iraq held that the US and British-led invasion of their country was in order to control the oil wealth, Afghans can often be heard griping that the West is after its "hidden" natural treasures. The fact US military officials were on the exploration teams, and the Pentagon was writing mineral memos might feed that cynicism and also motivate the Taliban into fighting more ferociously to keep control of potentially lucrative areas.
Western diplomats were also warning last night that the flow of money from the minerals is likely to fuel endemic corruption in a country where public figures, including Ahmed Wali Karzai, the President's brother, have been accused of making fortunes from the narcotics trade. The Ministry of Mines and Industry, which will control the production of lithium and other natural resources, has been repeatedly associated with malpractice.
Last year US officials accused the minister in charge at the time when the Aynak copper mine rights were given to the Chinese, Mohammed Ibrahim Adel, of taking a $30m bribe. He denied the charge but was sacked by President Karzai.
But last night Jawad Omar, a senior official at the ministry, insisted: "The natural resources of Afghanistan will play a magnificent role in Afghanistan's economic growth. The past five decades have shown that every time new research takes place, it shows our natural reserves are far more than what was previously found. This is a cause for rejoicing, nothing to worry about."
According to The New York Times, the US Geological Survey flew sorties to map Afghanistan's mineral resources in 2007, using an old British bomber equipped with instruments that offered a 3-D profile of deposits below the surface. It was when a Pentagon task force – charged with formulating business development programmes and helping the Afghan government develop relationships with international firms – came upon the geological data in 2009, that the process of calculating the economic values began.
"This really is part and parcel of General [Stanley] McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy," Colonel Lapan said yesterday. "This is that whole economic arm that we talk about but gets very little attention."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghanistans-resources-could-make-it-the-richest-mining-region-on-earth-2000507.html
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Truth, Propaganda and Media Manipulation
Global Research, April 5, 2011
Never before has it been so important to have independent, honest voices and sources of information. We are – as a society – inundated and overwhelmed with a flood of information from a wide array of sources, but these sources of information, by and large, serve the powerful interests and individuals that own them. The main sources of information, for both public and official consumption, include the mainstream media, alternative media, academia and think tanks.
Never before has it been so important to have independent, honest voices and sources of information. We are – as a society – inundated and overwhelmed with a flood of information from a wide array of sources, but these sources of information, by and large, serve the powerful interests and individuals that own them. The main sources of information, for both public and official consumption, include the mainstream media, alternative media, academia and think tanks.
The mainstream media is the most obvious in its inherent bias and manipulation. The mainstream media is owned directly by large multinational corporations, and through their boards of directors are connected with a plethora of other major global corporations and elite interests. An example of these connections can be seen through the board of Time Warner.
Time Warner owns Time Magazine, HBO, Warner Bros., and CNN, among many others. The board of directors includes individuals past or presently affiliated with: the Council on Foreign Relations, the IMF, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Warburg Pincus, Phillip Morris, and AMR Corporation, among many others.
Two of the most “esteemed” sources of news in the U.S. are the New York Times (referred to as “the paper of record”) and the Washington Post. The New York Times has on its board people who are past or presently affiliated with: Schering-Plough International (pharmaceuticals), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chevron Corporation, Wesco Financial Corporation, Kohlberg & Company, The Charles Schwab Corporation, eBay Inc., Xerox, IBM, Ford Motor Company, Eli Lilly & Company, among others. Hardly a bastion of impartiality.
And the same could be said for the Washington Post, which has on its board: Lee Bollinger, the President of Columbia University and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Warren Buffett, billionaire financial investor, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; and individuals associated with (past or presently): the Coca-Cola Company, New York University, Conservation International, the Council on Foreign Relations, Xerox, Catalyst, Johnson & Johnson, Target Corporation, RAND Corporation, General Motors, and the Business Council, among others.
It is also important to address how the mainstream media is intertwined, often covertly and secretly, with the government. Carl Bernstein, one of the two Washington Post reporters who covered the Watergate scandal, revealed that there were over 400 American journalists who had “secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency.” Interestingly, “the use of journalists has been among the most productive means of intelligence-gathering employed by the CIA.” Among organizations which cooperated with the CIA were the "American Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald-Tribune."
By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc. The CIA even ran a training program “to teach its agents to be journalists,” who were “then placed in major news organizations with help from management.”
These types of relationships have continued in the decades since, although perhaps more covertly and quietly than before. For example, it was revealed in 2000 that during the NATO bombing of Kosovo, “several officers from the US Army's 4th Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) Group at Ft. Bragg worked in the news division at CNN's Atlanta headquarters.” This same Army Psyop outfit had “planted stories in the U.S. media supporting the Reagan Administration's Central America policies,” which was described by the Miami Herald as a “vast psychological warfare operation of the kind the military conducts to influence a population in enemy territory.” These Army PSYOP officers also worked at National Public Radio (NPR) at the same time. The US military has, in fact, had a strong relationship with CNN.
In 2008, it was reported that the Pentagon ran a major propaganda campaign by using retired Generals and former Pentagon officials to present a good picture of the administration’s war-time policies. The program started in the lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003 and continued into 2009. These officials, presented as “military analysts”, regurgitate government talking points and often sit on the boards of military contractors, thus having a vested interest in the subjects they are brought on to “analyze.”
The major philanthropic foundations in the United States have often used their enormous wealth to co-opt voices of dissent and movements of resistance into channels that are safe for the powers that be. As McGeorge Bundy, former President of the Ford Foundation once said, “Everything the Foundation does is to make the world safe for Capitalism.”
Examples of this include philanthropies like the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation providing immense financial and organizational support to Non-Governmental Organizations. Furthermore, the alternative media are often funded by these same foundations, which has the effect of influencing the direction of coverage as well as the stifling of critical analysis.
This now brings us to the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and Global Research.
As an institution which acts as a research centre as well as a source of alternative news through the website www.globalresearch.ca, the CRG has become a much needed voice of independence seeking to break through all the propaganda and misinformation.
To maintain our independence, Global Research does not accept assistance from public and private foundations. Nor do we seek support from universities and/or government.
While the objective is to expand and help spread important and much-needed information to more people than ever before, Global Research needs to rely upon its readers to support the organization.
Thank you, dear readers, for your tireless support.
Supporting Global Research is supporting the cause of truth and the fight against media disinformation.
Thank you.
The Global Research Team
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23868
Ron Paul: U.S. may try to occupy Pakistan
By Kase Wickman
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 -- 12:10 pm
GOP 2012 hopeful Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) thinks U.S. troops will soon be on the ground for an occupation of Pakistan — and he said so on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Wednesday morning.
Paul called America's relationship with Pakistan "an impossible situation," where the U.S. hailed both its friendship with and suspicion of the country.
"I think we are going to be in Pakistan, I think that's going to be our next occupation, and I fear it," Paul said. "It's ridiculous. I think our foreign policy is such we don't need to be doing this."
Paul said he had no inside information on Congress authorizing or ordering troops to invade Pakistan. He simply said based on U.S. history, he wouldn't be surprised to see further U.S. involvement there.
"Right now, Pakistan is a big problem," he said. "We have created a civil war there, and the fact that we go over there and we violate their security and the people rebel against the government because they see their government as being a puppet of the American government, so it's total chaos and I'm afraid, and I hope I'm absolutely wrong, but I'm afraid we'll be in Pakistan trying to occupy that country, and it will probably be very unsuccessful."
In the weeks since President Barack Obama announced that Navy SEALs had killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Paul has said that he would not have given the go-ahead for the mission.
"I think the real tragedy of this is that we didn't get him 10 years ago when we could have and should have," he said.
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Earlier this month, Paul supported an ultimately failed resolution to bring the troops home from Afghanistan beginning in July.
Data from a new Gallup poll released Tuesday night shows that while Paul enjoys high name recognition — 76 percent among Republicans, trailing only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. However, despite his name recognition and popularity with the tea party, the poll shows Paul is not viewed favorably by Republican voters.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/18/ron-paul-u-s-may-try-to-occupy-pakistan/
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 -- 12:10 pm
GOP 2012 hopeful Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) thinks U.S. troops will soon be on the ground for an occupation of Pakistan — and he said so on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Wednesday morning.
Paul called America's relationship with Pakistan "an impossible situation," where the U.S. hailed both its friendship with and suspicion of the country.
"I think we are going to be in Pakistan, I think that's going to be our next occupation, and I fear it," Paul said. "It's ridiculous. I think our foreign policy is such we don't need to be doing this."
Paul said he had no inside information on Congress authorizing or ordering troops to invade Pakistan. He simply said based on U.S. history, he wouldn't be surprised to see further U.S. involvement there.
"Right now, Pakistan is a big problem," he said. "We have created a civil war there, and the fact that we go over there and we violate their security and the people rebel against the government because they see their government as being a puppet of the American government, so it's total chaos and I'm afraid, and I hope I'm absolutely wrong, but I'm afraid we'll be in Pakistan trying to occupy that country, and it will probably be very unsuccessful."
In the weeks since President Barack Obama announced that Navy SEALs had killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Paul has said that he would not have given the go-ahead for the mission.
"I think the real tragedy of this is that we didn't get him 10 years ago when we could have and should have," he said.
TAKE ACTION
Petitions by Change.org|Get Widget|Start a Petition »
Earlier this month, Paul supported an ultimately failed resolution to bring the troops home from Afghanistan beginning in July.
Data from a new Gallup poll released Tuesday night shows that while Paul enjoys high name recognition — 76 percent among Republicans, trailing only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. However, despite his name recognition and popularity with the tea party, the poll shows Paul is not viewed favorably by Republican voters.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/18/ron-paul-u-s-may-try-to-occupy-pakistan/
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