Women Senators Hutchison and Snowe leave parting words

Senate Women 

Bipartisan Power Workshop 

November 15, 2012

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison 

(R-Texas): front right

Sen. Olympia Snowe

(R-Maine): rear four from right

Impenetrable internal divisiveness undermines provisions of Constitution, business of American people

Excerpting, editing, re-reporting by 

Carolyn Bennett

Atmosphere of polarization, ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies have become pervasive in campaigns, in governing institutions ─ Outgoing Senator Snowe

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)

FAREWELL

 “As I exit the Senate, I am aware that we are divided as a legislative body and as a country. I do not think we have different goals--not here, and not in America--but we do have different ways of reaching them.  

“Congress suffers a great deal of criticism for partisan acrimony. But while we may disagree politically and air our opposition in this Chamber, it is the conversation behind the scenes that cements and defines our relationships. I will leave the Senate knowing I have worked with men and women of great patriotism, intellect, and heart on both sides of the aisle.

“… We seconded one another at times and engaged in rigorous debate in others but the American people should know that, either way, we are collegial and we all understand that our States have different needs and there will be differences in priorities.

“But in the Senate, an adversary today will be an ally tomorrow. It is a rare occasion for acrimony to turn personal.

 “It [is] my parting hope that this collegiality will not be lost.

“When our committees function, we pass bills in vigorous markups, we put the bills in shape for floor debate. If they do not go through committees and are not allowed floor amendments, the quality of the legislation suffers and mistakes are often made. What differentiates the U.S. Senate from the House is open debate and open amendments.”

 

As is the intent of the Constitution of the United States, “protecting the rights of the minority assures that every Senator’s voice is heard and every State represented in the Senate is heard.” 

K

ay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) served in the U.S. Senate from 1993 until this year (January 3, 2013).  She held positions of temporary co chair of the Republican National Convention in 1992; Republican Conference vice chair (2000-2007); Republican Policy Committee chair (2007-2009); deputy permanent chair of the Republican National Convention in 2004. She was not a candidate for reelection to the Senate in 2012.

Before elections to the Senate, Kathryn Ann Bailey (Kay) Hutchison was Texas state treasurer (1990-1993), vice chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (1976-1978); bank executive and general counsel; businesswoman; a television reporter; a member of the Texas House of Representatives (1972-1976).

She took her academic credentials at the University of Texas (Austin) and University of Texas Law School (1967). Kay Bailey Hutchison was born in Galveston, Texas (July 22, 1943).

Bibliography: Women in Congress, 1917-2006:  “Kathryn Ann (Kay) Bailey Hutchison” prepared under the direction of the Committee on House Administration by the Office of History and Preservation, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2006. HUTCHISON, Kathryn Ann Bailey (Kay, 1943 - )

Senator Olympia Jean Snowe (R-Maine)

PARTING WORDS

Quoted in Maine news sources, Senator Snowe said, “There is no reason that we should be in the economic doldrums we are in today but we have wasted precious time over the last few years by engaging in this political combativeness for the purpose of gaining political leverage in the next election.

“An atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies have become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions and, realistically, “I do not expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term,” said outgoing Senator Olympia Snowe.

“We should individually and collectively be embarrassed by what is occurring here.

“Political heavyweights are more interested in taking jabs at each other through press releases and floor speeches than they are in coming together and doing even the most basic legislative work [and] my concern is that this is going to create generation upon generation of lawmakers who think this is the only way to conduct themselves. But there is another way and there are some of us who still remember it.

“I don’t want to be part of the problem,” Senator Snowe said. “I want to be part of the solution and I just didn’t see it changing from the inside.”

“It is time for change in the way we govern and I believe that outside the United States Senate there are unique opportunities to build support for that change.

“I intend to help give voice to my fellow citizens who believe as I do that we must return to an era of civility in government driven by a common purpose to fulfill the promise that is unique to America.”

 

O

lympia Snowe served in the U.S. Senate from 1995 until this year (January 2013).

Before elections to the U.S. Senate (1994-2012, she was not a candidate for reelection to the House in 1994 or to the Senate in 2012), she served in the U.S. House of Representatives from January 3, 1979 until January 3, 1995. In the 108th and 109th Congresses, she was chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

In her years preceding the U.S House and Senate, Olympia Jean Snowe was a member of the Maine House of Representatives (1973-1976) and the Maine State Senate (1976-1978); delegate to the Maine State Republican convention and Republican National Convention (1976); member of the Auburn board of voter registration (1971-1973); and was a businesswoman.

She took her academic credentials at the University of Maine (Orono, 1969). Olympia Snowe was born Olympia Jean Boucles in Augusta (Kennebec County), Maine (February 21, 1947).

Bibliography: Women in Congress, 1917-2006: ” Olympia Snowe” prepared under the direction of the Committee on House Administration by the Office of History and Preservation, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2006. SNOWE, Olympia Jean (1947 - )

Sources and notes

HUTCHISON

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), FAREWELL TO THE SENATE -- (Senate - December 19, 2012), Congressional Record, 112th Congress (2011-2012),

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r112:51:./temp/~r1125CW5MQ:e0:

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=h001016

Kay Bailey Hutchison urges common ground in Senate farewell speech

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20121220-kay-bailey-hutchison-urges-common-ground-in-senate-farewell-speech.ece

SNOWE

“Olympia Snowe Says Good-Bye to US Senate” (WABI-TV5 News Desk) January 4, 2013, http://www.wabi.tv/news/36521/olympia-snowe-says-good-bye-to-us-senate

“Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe Says Goodbye” 12/13/2012   Reported By: Jay Field

http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNewsArchive/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3475/ItemId/25203/Default.aspx

http://thecommongood.net/2012/12/senator-olympia-snow-farewell/

 “Sen. Olympia Snowe’s full statement ─ U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe issued this statement this afternoon saying that she will not seek re-election,” February 29, 2012, Portland Press Herald

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Sen-Olympia-Snowes-full-statement.html

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000663

Image: Mikulski, Senate Women Gather for Traditional, Bipartisan Power Workshop November 15, 2012: WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Dean of the Senate women, today hosted her traditional, bipartisan Senate Women Power Workshop for the newly elected women Senators. The Workshop is an opportunity for Senator Mikulski and the Senate women to discuss everything from how to set up their offices to getting on the power committees that make them effective advocates for their states, using the Senate rules to achieve their objectives and building coalitions to get things done in the Senate. 

In addition to Senator Mikulski, participants included Senator-Elect Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Senator Susan M. Collins (R-Maine), Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Senator-Elect Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Senator-Elect Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Senator-Elect Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Senator-Elect Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). http://www.mikulski.senate.gov/media/pressrelease/11-15-2012-2.cfm

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison: front right

Sen. Olympia Snowe: rear four from right

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Struggle not done yet ─ Jill Stein calls out flimflammers, Washington’s fiscal show

Shining light on scam, betrayal

Excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Last year’s candidate for the U.S. presidency, Jill Stein, writes today of the bipartisan betrayal and fiscal cliff “scam.” This is some of her statement.

Bipartisan betrayal of Americans

Protects wealthy households earning up to HALF A MILLION DOLLARS ($450,000) annually from tax increases.

Ends payroll tax holiday, hitting the vulnerable working and middle class with significant tax increases. 

Ushers in $205 billion more in wasteful corporate tax favors (new racetracks,  tens of millions; Goldman Sachs, $1.6 billion tax-free financing for its new massive headquarters; banks, 9 billion-dollar loophole for offshore financing; U.S. multinationals allowed to dodge taxes on income earned by foreign subsidiaries – enabling them all to continue moving jobs offshore)

Deals a setback to caretakers of family members at home, repealing a the Affordable Care Act provision designed to let millions of elderly and disabled people get help at home instead of being placed in institutions

Bipartisan betrayal, groundwork for disaster

The Obama government, Stein says, “has already agreed to $4 trillion in deficit reduction and the revenue side of the deal [the president] just signed generates little more than $600 billion, which means –

[Americans] are looking at bipartisan collaboration on more than $3 trillion in cuts going in to the next round of brinkmanship over the debt ceiling.

[The Obama government’s] earlier pattern of willingness to cut Social Security, Medicare and other health programs together with its current capitulation lays the groundwork for disaster.

 “Once again,” Dr. Stein says, “we are seeing that real solutions will not be coming from the corporate sponsored political establishment.” As daylight dawns shining light on the ‘fiscal cliff’ deal just passed by the U.S. Congress, “it is clear that the expected bipartisan betrayal has occurred and, even worse, it lays the groundwork for much more to come.…

You can be prouder than ever of your vote against the continued bipartisan sell out.

Continuing her campaign for a Green New Deal, she declares the struggle far from over. In the urgency of this moment in history and politics, “Our voices are needed more than ever to continue the fight for strong Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid – and for an economy that works for all of us.

More than ever

we the people  

are the ones 

we've been waiting for.

Sources and notes

“STATEMENT BY JILL STEIN: Bipartisan fiscal scam lays groundwork for austerity,”

http://www.jillstein.org/stein_bipartisan_fiscal_scam_lays_groundwork_for_austerity?utm_source=jillstein&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fiscal_scam1&recruiter_id=114940

JILL STEIN

A 2012 candidate for the U.S. presidency, Jill Stein is a Midwest born-New England physician, environmentalist and health expert, political leader, activist and writer who two years ago (2009), along with her routine responsibilities, was active in implementing the Massachusetts “Secure Green Future” ballot initiative that earned high percentage points in voter returns. The measure called on legislators to accelerate efforts to make development of green jobs a priority and move the State economy to renewable energy.

Leader in politics and public health

In 2002, Jill Stein ran for the office of Governor of Massachusetts under the Green-Rainbow Party banner. In 2003 through 2006, she represented Greens or Green ideals in co-founding the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, a non-profit organization addressing a variety of issues that are important to the health and well-being of Massachusetts communities: health care, local green economies, grassroots democracy. She represented the Green-Rainbow Party in  races for State Representative (2004) and for Secretary of State (2006), garnering the greatest number of total votes ever received by a Green-Rainbow candidate.

Jill Stein’s environmental advocacy “as a human health issue” began in 1998 “when she realized that politicians were failing to take action to protect children from the toxic threats emerging from current science.” Over the years, she has provided services to parents, teachers, community groups and a Native American group seeking to protect their communities from toxic exposure. She has offered expert advice on television programs and testified before numerous legislative panels and local and state governmental bodies. Her testimony on the effects of mercury and dioxin contamination from the burning of waste helped preserve the Massachusetts moratorium on new trash incinerator construction in the state.

She has been on Massachusetts and national boards of directors of the Physicians for Social Responsibility; and has won the Clean Water Action’s award, Not in Anyone’s Backyard Award, the Children’s Health Hero Award, and the Toxic Action Center’s Citizen Award, among others.

Documentation

Jill Stein is coauthor of two widely-praised reports aimed at promoting green local economies, sustainable agriculture, clean power, and freedom from toxic threats: “In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development (2000, translated into four languages and used worldwide); and Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging (2009). 

Her “Healthy People, Healthy Planet” teaching program makes clear the critical connections of human health, climate security, and green economic revitalization. Her body of work has been presented at government, public health and medical conferences, and has been used to improve public policy.

Personal

Born in Chicago, raised in suburban Highland Park, Illinois, Jill Stein took her academic credentials at Harvard College (1973) and Harvard Medical School (1979). She is married with children and lives in Massachusetts. Revised from http://www.jillstein.org/bio

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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U.S., Western States causing failed state; thousands die, thousands protest

Syrians protest
ALL
Foreign interference

Entrenched paradigm: interference, destabilization, provocation, lawlessness, impunity, violence

Editing, re-reporting, brief comment by 

Carolyn Bennett

The geopolitical struggle intensifies and nations must support a political, nonviolent solution.

The biggest problem in Syria is finding a mechanism to solve the crisis. This can be done only if pressure is exerted on regional powers and regional states now funding and arming the Syrian opposition. 

Geopolitics

Middle East

If nothing is done to stop the violence, Syria will become a failed state. ─ Lakhdar Brahimi, UN-Arab League peace envoy to Syria

D

anny Makki is a graduate in International Relations and regular commentator on the crisis in Syria. He spoke with Press TV. This is some of what he said.

Since the very first day of the Syrian conflict, Makki said, “The United States has rejected any political solution. …

By providing non-lethal aid, supporting the Syrian opposition politically, providing stinger missiles and other forms of weapons, the United States has been one of the major protagonists in making the crisis continue.

For the last forty years, the United States of America has wanted to seek the downfall of Assad, both Assad Junior and Assad senior. They want a moderate pro-Western government in Syria that allows for U.S. hegemony, U.S. plans and dominance in the region.

Displaced Syrians

The United States wants the death of Arab nationalism, the death of any powers and forces that fight imperialism in the region; they want a pro-U. S. government such as exists in Jordan or that existed in Egypt under Mubarak.

The United States wants the death of the Arab kind of nationalism, of an Arab ideology that rejects colonialism, rejects imperialism ─ this is exactly what is happening in Syria.

The United States has an atrocious history of human rights within the Middle East and has never been a friend of the Syrian people or the Syrian government.

Victims of geopolitics

What obstructs a nonviolent process in resolving the Syrian crisis, Danny Makki concludes, is “the absolute intransigence of Western governments and Western regimes and reactionary Arab regimes. They block any political solution. They block any political settlement that negotiates a peaceful ending to what is happening.

“In this day and age,’ he says, “this is an absolute travesty.”

U.S. government wars
U.S. War industry 

T

he UN Human Rights Commissioner today released a United Nations report showing that at least 60,000 people have died in the Syrian conflict.

Commissioner Navi Pillay noted that since the conflict has not subsided in the weeks between November 30 and the turn of 2013, the total dead likely exceeds 60,000.

For the study, researchers analyzed five months of data, cross-referencing seven sources to compile a list of 59,648 individuals reported killed between March 15, 2011, and November 30, 2012. The number of casualties, much higher than we expected, Pillay said, “Is truly shocking.”

F

Lashback, backlash 2011: “Syrians Denounce Presence of U.S. Ambassador”

Syrians protest
Foreign interference

Friday, July 8, 2011, “Hundreds of Syrians gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy in Damascus to protest U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford’s violation of the principles of diplomacy and his blatant interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

Syrians protesting
foreign interference

“Syrians in most provinces (thousands gathered at Bab Touma Square in Damascus) reiterated adherence to the independence of decision-making in Syria, rejecting all forms in foreign interference, stressing commitment to national dialogue and reform, and denouncing the presence of Ford in Hama to incite its people.

Pakistanis protest U.S.

Protesters carried banners and repeated slogans denouncing the blatant U.S. interference in Syria’s affairs and demanding that the U.S. ambassador leave the country. They also saluted the Syrian army, saying that the army is supported by all of Syria, underlining the importance of the Syrian people’s national unity in confronting the conspiracies targeting their country.

Yemenis protest U.S.

Geopolitics

T

Libyans protest U.S.

he United States’ presence and performance in the Middle East demonstrates the deeply critical failure in America’s moral leadership and adherence to the rule of law.

Sources and notes

“‘U.S. seeks an end to anti-imperialist governments in Mideast: Danny Makki’  … A prominent London-based analyst tells Press TV that the Western countries and their regional allies are trying to hamper any political solution to the Syrian armed rebellion to install a pro-Western puppet government in the country,” January 1, 2013 (Approximate transcription of the interview excerpt), http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/01/281240/us-after-a-prowestern-regime-in-syria/

In interview with Press TV:

Danny Makki is co-founder of the Syrian Youth in Britain (SYB)

Dr. Webster Griffin Tarpley, U.S. historian and journalist

Omar Bakri, political analyst from the Lebanese capital city of Beirut.

“Over 60,000 dead in Syria: UN” (Reuters, Al-Akhbar), January 2, 2013, http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/over-60000-dead-syria-un

July 9, 2011 Rallies in Most Provinces Voice Rejection of Foreign Interference in Syrian Affairs

http://www.islamicinvitationturkey.com/2011/07/09/rallies-in-most-provinces-voice-rejection-of-foreign-interference-in-syrian-affairs/

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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CENSORED U.S. greatest harm: human rights, HEW, foreign relations

U.S. military
assault on women in service

“Project Censored” lists TOP 25

Excerpt, editing by 

Carolyn Bennett

Project Censored examines the coverage of news and information important to the maintenance of a healthy and functioning democracy.The mission of Project Censored is to teach students and the public about the role of a free press in a free society – and to tell the News That Did not Make the News and Why.

M

odern Censorship as defined by Project Censored is “the subtle yet constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality in mass media outlets: on a daily basis, the intentional non-inclusion of a news story – or piece of a news story – based on anything other than a desire to tell the truth. Such manipulation can take the form of political pressure (from government officials and powerful individuals), economic pressure (from advertisers and funders), and legal pressure (the threat of lawsuits from deep-pocket individuals, corporations, and institutions).”

Through a partnership of faculty, students, and the community, Project Censored conducts research on important national news stories that are under-reported  ignored, misrepresented, or censored by the U.S. corporate media. Each year, Project Censored publishes a ranking of the top 25 most censored nationally important news stories in the yearbook, Censored: Media Democracy in Action, which is released in September. Recent Censored books have been published in Spanish, Italian and Arabic.

Founded in 1976 as a media research program, Project Censored works in cooperation with numerous independent media groups in the United States. Its principle objective is training Sonoma State University: (SSU) students in media research and First Amendment issues and the advocacy for and protection of free press rights in the United States.   

P

roject Censored obviously does a great job pointing up what mass media inadvertently or deliberately missed ─ censored. What I wanted further was to see the censored stories or issues placed in categories by type so I made an attempt. And though there is overlap and the categories are not perfect, in making them I find the greatest harm has been done to civil/human rights, health, education and welfare, and foreign relations. 

We are the world but not in the sense that many Americans like to think. What I mean is that the practices we use on others, the harm we do to peoples of the world is the harm we also do to ourselves. These are my alphabetically listed categories containing numerical ratings of Project Censored.

Universal Declaration of
Human Rights

CIVIL LIBERTIES/ HUMAN RIGHTS

1. Signs of an Emerging Police State

Since the passage of the 2001 PATRIOT Act, the United States has become increasingly monitored and militarized at the expense of civil liberties.

The 2012 passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has allowed the military to detain indefinitely without trial any U.S. citizen the government labels a ‘terrorist’ or an accessory to terrorism.

President Barack Obama’s signing of the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order has authorized widespread federal and military control of the national economy and resources during ‘emergency and non-emergency conditions.’

Since 2010, the Department of Homeland Security’s ‘If You See Something, Say Something™’ campaign has encouraged the public to report all suspicious activity to local authorities ─ even though actions that the DHS identifies as ‘suspicious’ include the constitutionally protected right to criticize the government or engage in nonviolent protest.

4. FBI Agents Responsible for Majority of Terrorist Plots in the United States

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has embarked on an unusual approach to ensure that the United States is secure from future terrorist attacks.

The agency has developed a network of nearly 15,000 spies to infiltrate various communities in an attempt to uncover ‘terrorist’ plots; however, these moles are actually assisting and encouraging people to commit crimes. Many informants receive cash rewards of up to $100,000 per case.

9. Prison Slavery in Today’s USA

The U.S. comprises less than 5 percent of the world’s population yet U.S. prisons hold more than 25 percent of all people imprisoned globally.

Many of these prisoners labor at twenty-three cents per hour or similar wages in federal prisons contracted by the Bureau of Prisons’ UNICOR, a quasi-public, for-profit corporation ─ the United States government’s thirty-ninth largest contractor.

                

As incarceration rates rise, so do the numbers of prisoners (in the thousands) confined to solitary units, often for having committed minor disciplinary infractions.

10. HR 347 Would Make Many Forms of Nonviolent Protest Illegal

In March 2012, President Obama signed into law HR 347 (the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011).

The law criminalizes acts of entering or remaining in areas defined as ‘restricted’ … [and makes]  it easier for the Secret Service to overuse or misuse existing laws to arrest lawful protesters by lowering the requirement of intent in the prosecution of criminal activity.

16. Sexual Violence against Women Soldiers on the Rise and under Wraps

The U.S. Department of Defense ruled it suicide but the death of U.S. Army Private LaVena Johnson (2005) is an example of the sexual violence suffered by female soldiers while serving their country. The autopsy of Private Johnson revealed wounds inconsistent with suicide, including chemical burns that many believe were intended to destroy DNA evidence of rape.

Johnson’s case is among at least twenty cases in which female soldiers have died under suspicious circumstances. The mysterious deaths coincide with an increase in sexual violence against women in the military. The Pentagon has tried to intimidate reporters and editors working on stories about Johnson.

There were 3,158 total reports of sexual assault in the military in 2010. The Department of Defense estimates that this number represents only 13.5 percent of the actual assaults, making the total number of military rapes and sexual assaults in excess of 19,000 for the year.

19. New York Police Plant Drugs on Innocent People to Meet Arrest Quotas

Police impunity

A host of stories document how the New York Police Department operates outside the very laws it is charged with enforcing. And although the NYPD’s use of unlawful restraints and disproportionate force to arrest peaceful Occupy protesters received some news coverage, police brutality directed against people of color continues to go underreported.

                                    

In October 2011, a former NYPD narcotics detective testified that he regularly saw police plant drugs on innocent people as a way to meet arrest quotas.

The NYPD’s controversial ‘stop and frisk’ program has invested seventy-five million dollars to arrest suspects for possessing minimal amounts of marijuana, each arrest costing approximately $1,000 to $2,000.

25. Evidence Points to Guantánamo Dryboarding

In June 2006, three Guantánamo prisoners were found dead in their cells. They were hanging from what appeared to be makeshift nooses.

Invest in People
Not prison

The Department of Defense declared the deaths suicides. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) inquiry found evidence inconsistent with suicide (e.g., the prisoners’ hands were bound behind their backs) and concluded that the prisoners had died from lethal interrogations including ‘dry-boarding,’ the use of controlled suffocation.

DISESTABLISHMENT

PUBLIC SERVICES

PUBLIC TRUST FDIC destroyed

(See also EDUCATION)

21. Conservatives Attack U.S. Post Office to Break the Union and Privatize Postal Services

The U.S. Postal Service has been under constant assault for years from conservative Republicans who aim to eviscerate the strongest union in the country.

Under the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, USPS must fully fund retirement health benefits for future pensioners—including the retirement packages of employees not even born yet.

No other organization, public or private, has to pre-fund 100 percent of its future health benefits. Thus, the post office’s oft-reported nine-billion-dollar deficit is largely a result of government-imposed overpayments.

22. Wachovia Bank Laundered Money for Latin American Drug Cartels

Wachovia Bank between 2004 and 2007 handled funds totaling $378.4 billion for Mexican currency-exchange houses acting on behalf of drug cartels.

These transactions amount to the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history. Wachovia is one among several United States and European banks (e.g., HSBC) used by drug cartels to launder money.

Climate Crisis

ENVIRONMENT

2. Oceans in Peril

We thought the sea was infinite and inexhaustible ─ it is not.

Scientists from the Climate Change and European Marine Ecosystems Research project report the overall rise in ocean temperature has led to the largest movement of marine species in two to three million years.

A February 2012 study of fourteen protected and eighteen unprotected ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea demonstrate that this previously healthy sea is now quickly being depleted of resources.

An international team of scientists conducted the study over a period of three years and found that in well-enforced marine reserve areas the fish populations were five to ten times greater than the fish populations in unprotected areas. The work of these scientists encourages the establishment and maintenance of marine reserves.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

8. NATO War Crimes in Libya

Although the rationale of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for entry into Libyan conflict invoked humanitarian principles, the results have proved far from humane.

Civilian dead
U.S. war in Afghanistan

In July 2011, NATO aircraft bombed Libya’s main water supply facility that had provided water to approximately 70 percent of the nation’s population.

12. U.S. Joins Forces with al-Qaeda in Syria

From its beginning in 2011, the United States, Britain, France, and some conservative Arab allies have funded and armed the Syrian rebellion.

Though the United States has been funding groups opposing Syria’s head of state since the mid 1990s, those filling the anti-Assad ranks are members of al-Qaeda, Hamas, and other groups the United States lists as ‘terrorist’ organizations.

18. Palestinian Women Prisoners Shackled during Childbirth

Female Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are treated inhumanely and often denied medical care and legal representation and are forced to live in squalid conditions.

The United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) says the conditions and violations faced by women in Israeli jails need to be addressed from a gender perspective.

23. U.S. Covers up Afghan Massacre

The March 2012 massacre of sixteen unarmed Afghan civilians, nine of whom were children, received a great deal of news coverage.

But independent news sources have focused on whether the massacre was perpetrated by, as U.S. officials insist, one U.S. solider acting alone; or whether, as Afghan witnesses and Afghanistan  President Hamid Karzai contend, multiple U.S. soldiers bear direct responsibility for the killings.

Independent news reports highlight the fundamental responsibility of U.S. high military command including the Commander in Chief, U.S. President Barack Obama for the crimes committed by U.S. troops.

HEALTH, EDUCATION, WELFARE

3. Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Worse than Anticipated

Developing evidence from a number of independent sources suggests that negative consequences of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are far greater than first acknowledged or understood.

U.S. Disestablishment 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s radiation-detection network (RadNet) has serious drawbacks, including a lack of maintenance and equipment that is often improperly calibrated; but a December 2011 report by the International Journal of Health Services reveals an estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout in Japan.

13. Education “Reform” a Trojan Horse for Privatization

Public education is the target of a well-coordinated, well-funded campaign to privatize as many U.S. schools as possible, particularly in cities.

This disestablishment campaign ─ whose driving logic is profits  ─ claims it wants great teachers in every classroom but its rhetoric demoralizes teachers, reduces the status of the education profession, and champions standardized testing that perpetuate social inequality.

15. Dangers of Everyday Technology

Recent research raises compelling concerns about two commonplace technologies, cellular phones and microwave ovens.

Heavy, long-term exposure to cell phone radiation increases risks for certain types of cancer, including leukemia, and in males impairs sperm production. Prenatal exposure to cell phone radiation has been shown to produce blood-brain barrier leakage, and brain, liver, and eye damage.

Microwave radiation that heats food also creates free radicals that can become carcinogenic, while the consumption of microwave foods is associated with short-term decreases in white blood cells.

The Food and Drug Administration has yet to recognize studies that indicate microwave ovens alter foods’ nutritional structure, and, as with the dangers of cell phone use, most studies indicating minimal or no health risks are, in fact, industry-sponsored.

17. Students Crushed By One Trillion Dollars in Student Loans

In April 2012, U.S. student loan debt exceeded credit card debt, topping one trillion dollars.

Student loan debt is the only form of consumer loan debt that has increased substantially since 2008. The threat of massive student loan defaults requiring another taxpayer bailout is a systemic risk as serious as the bank failures that brought the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse in 2008; and the Federal Reserve could introduce a new quantitative easing program to remove student loan debt, giving the economy a boost similar to that created by the GI Bill.

The corporate media reported the trillion-dollar milestone but underplayed its significance and ignored a promising solution.

20. Stealing from Public Education to Feed the Prison-Industrial Complex

A systemic recasting of education priorities gives official structure and permanence to a preexisting underclass comprised largely of criminalized, poor people of color.

The rise of corporate-backed charter schools and privatized prisons cannot be understood apart from the record closures of public schools across the country.

24. Alabama Farmers Look to Replace Migrants with Prisoners

Alabama’s expansive anti-immigrant law (HB56) has been so economically devastating that farmers in the state sought legislation to force hard labor on prison inmates eligible for work release programs, to ‘help farms fill the gap and find sufficient labor.’

Alabama’s Department of Corrections opposed the legislation noting that its approximately 2,000 prisoners eligible for work release already have jobs and ‘the prison system is not the solution to worker shortages caused by the law.’

ORCHESTRATED INEQUALITY

SOCIETY

5. First Federal Reserve Audit Reveals Trillions Loaned to Major Banks

An audit of the First Federal Reserve reveals sixteen trillion dollars in secret bailouts to major American and European banks during the height of the global financial crisis (2007-2010)

Documentation obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and an act of Congress shows Morgan Stanley received up to $107.3 billion, Citigroup $99.5 billion, and Bank of America $91.4 billion.

6. Small Network of Corporations Run the Global Economy

Ochestrated
Inequality

A University of Zurich study (the first study to look at all 43,060 transnational corporations and the web of ownership among them) reported that a small group of companies—mainly banks—wields huge power over the global economy.

The researchers’ network analysis identified 147 companies that form a ‘super entity,’ controlling 40 percent of the global economy’s total wealth.

The close connections mean that the network could be prone to “systemic risk” and vulnerable to collapse.

7. 2012: The International Year of Cooperatives

The United Nations named 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives.

According to the UN, nearly one billion people worldwide are co-op member-owners, and the co-op is expected to be the world’s fastest growing business model by 2025.

Worker-owned cooperatives provide for equitable distribution of wealth and genuine connection to the workplace ─ two key components of a sustainable economy.

11. Members of Congress Grow Wealthier Despite Recession

Regardless of the economic recession, the net worth of the members of the U.S. Congress continues to rise.

Roll Call magazine’s analysis of financial disclosure forms using the minimum valuation of assets shows that members of the U.S. House and Senate in 2010 had a collective net worth of $2.04 billion ─ a $390 million increase from the 2008 figure of $1.65 billion. Excluded from disclosure forms are non-income-producing assets.

14. Who Are the Top 1 Percent and How Do They Earn a Living?

The richest 1 percent of the country now owns more than 40 percent of the wealth and takes home nearly a quarter of national income.

Evidence based on tax returns indicates that this super-élite 1 percent consists of nonfinancial executives, financial professionals, and members of the legal, real estate, and medical professions.

A 2011 Stanford University study shows earnings at this level correlate with the deregulation and other legal changes that brought on the financial crisis. The 1 percent increasingly left behind deteriorating neighborhoods in favor of wealthy enclaves, further isolating themselves; the 99 percent are left to deal with the direct consequences of the crisis.

Sources and notes

http://www.projectcensored.org/about/

http://www.projectcensored.org/

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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