Progressives present ‘People’s Budget 2012’

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

Republicans are embarked on a slash and burn, privatize and destroy, mission, and the Caucus of Congressional Progressives has pushed back with a budget of the people.  

The Congressional Progressive Caucus's ‘PEOPLE’S BUDGET 2012’ rises from four core principles of “Fighting for economic justice and security for all, Protecting and preserving our civil rights and civil liberties, Promoting global peace and security, and Advancing environmental protection and energy  independence. With particular concern with the current federal budget priorities and debate, the Caucus says, “We must fight for the American people.

“We need a tax system that is fair and stops the giveaways for millionaires and corporations that ship American jobs overseas. We need to close corporate tax loopholes being exploited at a great cost to taxpayers.We must cut subsidies to oil and gas companies currently reaping windfall profits at the expense of consumers.

“We must protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — the safety nets that have made this country strong and prosperous.We must invest in our children and make sure they have the same opportunities we have. 

“We need to responsibly end the wars abroad and limit future military excursions that obligate tax dollars and the lives of young men and women with little direct benefit to the United States. We should use this money to take care of our troops and veterans by making sure they have jobs and health care when they return.

“The best way to get us on track is to put the millions of Americans who would love to be taxpayers again back to work building new infrastructure and a twenty-first century economy.”

  

Progressive alternative

‘PEOPLE’S BUDGET 2012’

CPC Policies detail — Individual income tax policies

1. Extend marriage relief, credits, and incentives for children, families, and education, but let the upper-income tax cuts expire and let tax brackets revert to [President] Clinton-era rates

2. Index the AMT for inflation for a decade (AMT patch paid for)

3. Rescind the upper-income tax cuts in the tax deal

4. Schakowsky millionaire tax rates proposal (adding 45 percent, 46 percent, and 47 percent top rates)

5. Progressive estate tax (Sanders estate tax, repeal of Kyl-Lincoln)

6. Tax capital gains and qualified dividends as ordinary income

CPC Policies detail — Corporate-tax reform

1. Tax U.S. corporate foreign income as it is earned

2. Eliminate corporate welfare for oil, gas, and coal companies

3. Enact a financial crisis responsibility fee

4. Financial speculation tax (derivatives, foreign exchange)

CPC Policies detail — Health care

1. Enact a public option

2. Negotiate Rx payments with pharmaceutical companies

3. CMS program integrity and other Medicare and Medicaid savings in the [current] president’s budget.

4. Prevent a cut in Medicare physician payments for a decade (maintain doc fix)

CPC Policies detail — Social Security

1. Raise the taxable maximum on the employee side to 90 percent of earnings and eliminate the taxable maximum on the employer side

2. Increase benefits based on higher contributions on the employee side

CPC Policies detail — Defense savings

1. End overseas contingency operations emergency supplementals starting in 2013, providing $170 billion in FY2012 funding for withdrawal

2. Reduce baseline Defense spending by reducing strategic capabilities, conventional forces, procurement, and R&D programs

CPC Policies detail — Job Creation

1. Invest $1.45 trillion in job creation, early childhood, K-12 and special education, quality child care, energy and broadband infrastructure, housing, and R&D

2. Infrastructure bank

3. Surface transportation reauthorization bill

4. Finance surface transportation reauthorization

FY2012 Progressive Budget in sum 

• Eliminates the deficits and creates a surplus by 2021
• Puts America back to work with a ‘Make it in America’ jobs program
• Protects the social safety net
• Ends the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
• Is FAIR (Fixing America’s Inequality Responsibly)

Accomplishes—

• Primary budget balance by 2014
• Budget surplus by 2021
• Reduction in public debt as a share of GDP to 64.4 percent by 2021, down 16.9 percentage points from a baseline fully adjusted for both the doc fix and the AMT patch
• Reduction in deficits by $5.7 trillion over 2012-2021
• Both outlays and revenue equal 22.3 percent of GDP by 2021 

The Progressive Caucus counters a Republican campaign “to make the richest tier of the economy even more comfortable at everyone else’s expense,” and, says the Caucus, “The People’s Budget …is catching fire.”

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) consists of one United States Senator and seventy-five members of the United States House of Representatives. CPC is the largest caucus within the House Democratic Caucus.  Established in 1991, the CPC reflects the diversity and strength of the American people and seeks to give voice to the needs and aspirations of all Americans and to build a more just and humane society.

CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS MEMBERS

Keith Ellison, Raúl Grijalva - CO-CHAIRS

Tammy Baldwin, Judy Chu, William “Lacy” Clay, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Chellie Pingree - VICE CHAIRS

Hank Johnson - WHIP

Bernie Sanders - SENATE MEMBER 

Karen Bass, Xavier Becerra, Earl Blumenauer, Robert Brady, Corrine Brown, Michael Capuano, Andre Carson, Donna Christensen, Yvette Clarke, Emanuel Cleaver, David Cicilline, Steve Cohen, John Conyers, Elijah Cummings, Danny Davis, Peter DeFazio, Rosa DeLauro, Donna Edwards, Sam Farr,

Chaka Fattah, Bob Filner, Barney Frank, Marcia Fudge, Luis Gutierrez, Maurice Hinchey, Mazie Hirono, Michael Honda, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Eddie Bernice Johnson, Marcy Kaptur, Dennis Kucinich,

Barbara Lee, John Lewis, David Loebsack, Ben Ray Lujan, Carolyn Maloney, Ed Markey, Jim McDermott, James McGovern, George Miller, Gwen Moore, Jim Moran, Jerrold Nadler, Eleanor Holmes Norton, John Olver, Frank Pallone, Ed Pastor, Donald Payne, Jared Polis, Charles Rangel, Laura Richardson, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Bobby Rush, Linda Sanchez, Jan Schakowsky, Jose Serrano, Louise Slaughter, Pete Stark, Bennie Thompson, John Tierney, Nydia Velazquez, Maxine Waters, Mel Watt, Henry Waxman, Peter Welch, Frederica Wilson, Lynn Woolsey - HOUSE MEMBERS

Sources and notes

“We Need The People's Budget in 2012” (Source: Daily Kos), April 8, 2011, FY2012 Progressive Budget, Progressive Caucus People's Budget FY12 Memorandum - Eliminates National Deficit by 2021, Progressive Caucus co-chairs Raúl M. Grijalva and Keith Ellison sent a memo to House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen April 6 outlining the Caucus’s top budget priorities. http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=70&sectiontree=5,70

http://grijalva.house.gov/uploads/CPC.Budget.112th.Memo.pdf

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=71&sectiontree=2,71

CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS PROMISE

Caucus members promote a strong, progressive agenda, called ‘The Progressive Promise — Fairness for All.’

The Progressive Promise is rooted in four core principles that embody national priorities and are consistent with the values, needs and aspirations of all the American people, not just the powerful and the privileged.  They reflect a fundamental belief in government of the people, by the people, and for the people. 

FOUR CORE PRINCIPLES of the Progressive Promise:

1. Fighting for economic justice and security for all

2. Protecting and preserving our civil rights and civil liberties

3. Promoting global peace and security

4. Advancing environmental protection and energy independence

The Progressive Promise

Fairness for All

DETAIL

The Congressional Progressive Caucus believes in government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our fairness plan is rooted in our core principles. It also embodies national priorities that are consistent with the values, needs, and hopes of all our people, not just the powerful and the privileged.

“We pledge our unwavering commitment to these legislative priorities and we will not rest until they become law.”

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

1. Fighting for Economic Justice and Security in the U.S. and Global Economies 

» To uphold the right to universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare for all

» To preserve guaranteed Social Security benefits for all Americans, protect private pensions, and require corporate accountability

» To invest in America and create new jobs in the U.S. by building more affordable housing, re-building America’s schools and physical infrastructure, cleaning up our environment, and improving homeland security

» To export more American products and not more American jobs and demand fair trade

» To reaffirm freedom of association and enforce the right to organize

» To ensure working families can live above the poverty line and with dignity by raising and indexing the minimum wage

RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES

2. Protecting and Preserving Civil Rights and Civil Liberties 

» To sunset expiring provisions of the Patriot Act and bring remaining provisions into line with the U. S. Constitution

» To protect the personal privacy of all Americans from unbridled police powers and unchecked government intrusion

» To extend the Voting Rights Act and reform our electoral processes

» To fight corporate consolidation of the media and ensure opportunity for all voices to be heard

» To ensure enforcement of all legal rights in the workplace

» To eliminate all forms of discrimination based upon color, race, religion, gender, creed, disability, or sexual orientation

PEACE AND SECURITY

3. Promoting Global Peace and Security 

» To honor and help our overburdened international public servants – both military and civilian

» To bring U. S. troops home from Iraq as soon as possible

» To re-build U.S. alliances around the world, restore international respect for American power and influence, and reaffirm our nation’s constructive engagement in the United Nations and other multilateral organizations

» To enhance international cooperation to reduce the threats posed by nuclear proliferation and weapons of mass destruction

» To increase efforts to combat hunger and the scourge of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases

» To encourage debt relief for poor countries and support efforts to reach the UN’s Millennium Goals for Developing Countries

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

4. Advancing Environmental Protection & Energy Independence

» To free ourselves and our economy from dependence upon imported oil and shift to growing reliance upon renewable energy supplies and technologies, thus creating at least three million new jobs, cleansing our environment, and enhancing our nation’s security

» To promote environmental justice in affirmation that all people have an inherent right to a healthy environment, clean air, and clean water wherever we live, work, and relax

» To change incentives in federal tax, procurement, and appropriation policies to —

(A) Speed commercialization of solar, biomass, and wind power generation, while encouraging state and local policy innovation to link clean energy and job creation 

(B) Convert domestic assembly lines to manufacture highly efficient vehicles, enhance global competitiveness of U.S. auto industry, and expand consumer choice 

(C) Increase investment in construction of “green buildings” and more energy-efficient homes and workplaces 

(D) Link higher energy efficiency standards in appliances to consumer and manufacturing incentives that increase demand for new durable goods and increase investment in U.S. factories

» To eliminate environmental threat posed by global warming and ensuring that America does our part to advance an effective global problem-solving approach

» To expand energy-efficient transportation choices by increasing investment in synthesized networks, including bicycle, local bus and rail transit, regional high-speed rail and magnetic levitation rail projects

» To preserve prudent public interest regulations that encourage sustainable growth and investment, ensure energy diversity and system reliability, protect workers and the environment, reward consumer conservation, and support an expanding marketplace that rewards the commercialization of energy-efficient technologies”

The CPC is committed to helping progressives, both inside and outside of Congress, to work together more effectively, in order to bring all of us closer to making good on The Progressive Promise.

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=74&sectiontree=2,74

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=63&sectiontree=2,63

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Bennett's books 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]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, 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]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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Pull together or deepen BREAKDOWN

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Economist and educator Joseph Stiglitz appeared in interview today on the Democracy Now news program. This is some of what he said about America’s BREAKDOWN and requisite collective action.

EDUCATION breakdown

America has become “Old Europe.” Something dramatic has happened over the past 30 to 40 years. “Right now,” Stiglitz said, “we are worse than Old Europe. …

“Old Europe has become more of a land of opportunity.”  The people there recognized they had a problem and, after World War II, “they reformed their education systems. They changed.”

The United States, on the other hand, wound up with a society broken up, portioned out, separated — one in which an education system is more private. Those who have money get “a first-class education” but “the average American” cannot.  As a result, average Americans, as revealed in recent education studies, “are doing more poorly than countries around the world.”

TAKING, CONTRIBUTING NOTHING breakdown

Speculator income rises. Worker income falls or is lost entirely.

During the financial crisis, we saw “titans of the financial industry get mega-bonuses while their companies took mega-losses.” Their actions sent domestic and global economies into a tailspin from which recovery has not yet arrived. Their salaries have recovered but not the incomes of the rest of us.

Speculators earned more money by speculating than by working hard. Government lowered their tax rates so that they “pay a much lower tax rate than people who work for a living.”  

If people get “rewards for contributing to our society… you could say, ‘okay, those who contribute more should get more’” but that’s not what happened. Bonuses rose as companies collapsed, worker income fell or was lost entirely. 

“All the growth that has occurred in our country over the last decade or more has gone to the upper one and two percent. … If they were getting richer because they were contributing more to our society and everybody else was doing well, that would be one thing; but actually, they are gaining and everybody else is decreasing.”

HOUSE DIVIDED or collective effort

“There has been this growing inequality not only in income but an even greater inequality of wealth. There is a shrinking of opportunity. Right now, it is not just the bottom, but also the middle, the median income earners (half above, half below) are poorer today than they were more than a decade ago.”

If you are wealthy and you have an electoral system that allows you to use your wealth to influence politics, you say, “‘I’d rather have small government that isn’t able to redistribute money, take money away from me. I have private money; I do not need public schools. I have large private land; I don’t need public parks.’”  What results is erosion that makes society less efficient, less productive.

We spend more money than other countries in the advanced industrial world, with poorer health outcomes; and the situation is going to get worse as poor and elderly people cannot get access to healthcare.  We have to have infrastructure. We are competing in education with countries in Asia that not very long ago were much poorer than we are. We have to have an educated population.

These phenomena are evident protests in states of the U.S. Midwest and in the current budget wrangle in federal Washington.

In a divided society people become tense, they worry more, and then they “start not paying attention to the things that make us cohesive as a nation,” Stiglitz said.  A house divided cannot stand. 

Collective action creates efficient, productive society. “A successful economy requires collective action.” Many things we must do together.

Sources and notes

“Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Assault on Social Spending, Pro-Rich Tax Cuts Turning U.S. into Nation ‘Of the 1 Percent, by the 1 Percent, for the 1 Percent,’” Democracy Now, April 7, 2011,

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/7/nobel_economist_joseph_stiglitz_assault_on

Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz teaches at the Columbia University Business School, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Department of Economics) and the School of International and Public Affairs. He is co-founder and president of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), chair of Columbia University's Committee on Global Thought, chair of the Management Board and Director of Graduate Summer Programs, Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester, and member of the CFTC-SEC Advisory Committee on Emerging Regulatory Issues

Among his books: Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy (January 2010); G20 and Recovery and Beyond (the): An Agenda for Global Governance for the Twenty-First Century (PDF), e-book (2011 by The Paris Group); Debates on the Measurement of Global Poverty, with Sudhir Anand, Paul Segal, and Joseph E. Stiglitz, eds., Initiative for Policy Dialogue Series, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010,  http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/

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Bennett's books 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]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, 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]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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Occupied Palestine — Creative Healer Killed

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Art aids children caught in conflict until armed men in masks kill all the artists

“Participation in cultural activities strengthens human resources such as creativity, knowledge and a sense of identity and dignity,” he said two years ago in an interview with the multimedia organization Explore.


“Cultural activities have great potential for stimulating communication and cooperation, building leadership and deconstructing social barriers. Support for the arts must be considered crucial to the promotion of human rights and to a healthy, equal society. The Freedom Theatre [established in 2006] raises both the quantity and quality of performing arts and filmmaking in the region, while also contributing toward rebuilding the shattered foundations of Palestinian culture and identity.

The interview subject in 2009 was actor, director, filmmaker, and General Director of The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, Juliano Mer Khamis.

Answering a question about security in this occupied-territory home of The Freedom Theatre, he said the Jenin Refugee Camp [existing since the 1950s] had been under heavy siege for the most recent seven years. “Israel ghettoized the area and restricted movement of people as well as mobility of goods. During the first two years of The Freedom Theatre [2006-2007], we had to smuggle in scenography and artists. Audiences were sometimes brought on small buses through the mountains.”

The situation improved after “some agreements with the Palestinian Authority [and] Israel eased the movement restrictions, reducing the number of checkpoints from more than 400 to 220,” Khamis said. “The travel between Jenin and other parts of Palestine is difficult but possible.”

West Bank North — Occupied Palestine

The Freedom Theatre’s mission, according to its website, is to help heal children growing up under occupation.

“One of the greatest tragedies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the 40-year long Occupation is the consequences it has for the young generation — the most innocent and vulnerable part of society. Since the eruption of the Second Intifada in 2000, conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have rapidly deteriorated. In a context of almost daily violence and aggression, young Palestinians’ experiences and perceptions of the world are increasingly shaped by frustration, accumulated trauma and feelings of impotence and hopelessness.

“Almost every child or young person in Jenin Refugee Camp has witnessed actual or threat of death, experienced serious physical injury, or threats to physical and/or psychological integrity. Many of the children exhibit symptoms of severe emotional problems, including difficulty with concentration, aggressive behavior, sleeplessness and nightmares, bed-wetting, withdrawal and a range of psychosomatic symptoms.

“This situation is directly opposed to that of an ideal childhood, in which children investigate and experience the world through play. Instead of being able to carelessly experiment with the world, develop a sense of coherence and create the skills needed to manage their tasks and overcome problems successfully — these children grow up in fear, oppression and humiliation. Seeing their parents incapable of protecting them, children lose their source of safety and trust and, instead, tend to develop feelings of helplessness and victimization.”

Yesterday masked assailants murdered The Freedom Theatre’s general director, actor, filmmaker, director Juliano Mer Khamis.

Sources and notes

Juliano Mer Khamis [was] an actor, director, filmmaker, and General Director of  The Freedom Theatre.

His greatest work was said to have been his “creation of a theatre in the Jenin Refugee Camp that provides a creative outlet for local youth in an emotionally-charged environment.”

http://www.explore.org/interviews/juliano-mer-khamis/

Israel in 2002 reinvaded the camp as part of its ‘Operation Defensive Shield.’ It brought one of the fiercest battles of the Second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) to Jenin Camp. Altogether 75 civilians, fighters and soldiers died in the battle.  Most of the central camp ended up in ruins.

The Freedom Theatre, established in 2006, is a theatre and cultural centre in Jenin Refugee Camp developing the only professional venue for theatre and multimedia in the north of the West Bank in Occupied Palestine. Since its 2006  opening, “the organization  continues to grow, develop and expand, enabling the young generation in the area to develop new and important skills, which will allow them to build a better future for themselves and for their society.”

http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/aboutus-background.php

“Leading Palestinian Peace Activist & Theater Director, Juliano Mer-Khamis, Killed in Jenin,” Democracy Now, April 5, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/

Jenin town (also spelled Janin)

Jenīn was contained within mandated Palestine during 1923–48. It was an important centre for Jordanian and Iraqi forces in 1948. In 1950, following the Arab–Israeli War of 1948–49, Jenīn (northern Samaria, central Palestine) was in the area annexed by Jordan.

Though Israel took much of the strategic territory in the vicinity, Janīn remained in Arab hands. It was the northern apex of ‘the triangle’ (Janīn, Ṭūl Karm, Nābulus), a staging area for Arab guerrilla activity against Israel in 1949-1967. Since the Six-Day War of 1967, Jenīn has been in the West Bank territory under Israeli administration.

Lying in a well-settled Arab agricultural region, Janīn has long been the chief marketing centre of northern Samaria; wheat, olives, dates, carobs, and figs are grown in the vicinity. Ruins of an interesting Byzantine church have been excavated in the town. Population was estimated in 1984 at 25,000 — Janīn.  (2008). Encyclopædia Britannica. Deluxe Edition.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica —

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Bennett's books 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]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, 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]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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Contemporaries in thought — “in this together”

Individualism or Collective effort

Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

  

CLAWSON ON LABOR

Community organizing, unionism work together not just to address workplace issues, but also to lead community-wide struggles

Meld ‘Left’ social movements

“Labor must do more than build alliances. It must fuse with these movements such that it is no longer clear what is a labor issue and what is ‘woman’s’ issue or ‘immigrant’ issue.… Failure of assorted social movements to connect is a primary cause of weakness in the U.S. Left.”

Democratize labor movement

Even the “‘new’ labor movement” remains unfortunately “staff driven, [failing] to empower or activate the rank and file.…

“Labor advances will come only from a mass movement involving millions — not from a process directed and controlled by a handful of leaders or staff.”

Go Beyond ‘New Deal Labor System’

Workers should “talk about what they want and need [not what is ‘politically feasible’], and … move from that to thinking about what would be necessary to achieve [what they want and need].”

Labor should “rethink the basic concept of what a union is and how it operates.”

Unions should consider fundamental restructuring… Unions might “ignore the definitions in existing labor law insisting that new groups (managers, students, maids) are entitled to [separate] unions.”

KING ON LIFE

Progress

[Individuals] have not started living until [they] can rise above the narrow confines of individualistic concerns to broader concerns of all humanity.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle — the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people — but the appalling silence of the good people.

Ignorance

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Rarely do we find [people] who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

War

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

We have guided missiles, misguided [leaders].

One of the greatest casualties shot down in war, on the battlefield of Vietnam, [was] the Great Society.

Nonviolence

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon that cuts without wounding, ennobles [people] who wield it. Nonviolence is a sword that heals.

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.

Unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

Sources and notes

MARTIN LUTHER KING, Ph.D. (b. 1929- d.1968), recipient of the Kennedy Peace Prize among other awards, was an American leader in human rights (1957-1968) assassinated by an American

QUOTES, edited for contemporary noun neutrality, source of quotes: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr.html

DAN CLAWSON, Ph.D., is an American professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts and author of many books and articles including The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements. From Review of Dan Clawson’s The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 58, No. 1. Available at: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/ilrreview/vol58/iss1/81

http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1144&context=ilrreview

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Bennett's books 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]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, 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]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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Notes from Progressives United

Excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

• Empowering Americans to stand up against exploding corporate influence in Washington
• 
  
• Holding representatives accountable to every constituent, regardless of economic class or insider access
• 
  
• Supporting national, state, local candidates who stand up for our progressive ideals

—Progressives United  —

Citizen's Confidence that government is working for them is at an all time low so nothing can be more important than progressive action working to ensure that elected officials are accountable to their constituents.

We simply cannot allow our representatives in government to become liable to corporate interests willing to spend millions to elect politicians sympathetic to their agenda.

Formed in wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC (January 21, 2010) “that undercut one hundred years of precedent, and declared that corporations have the same political rights as individuals, Progressives United is founded … to fight back by empowering Americans to take back their right to free speech and fair elections.”

Progressives United as stated by its founder, former Senator Russell Feingold — Building a massive grassroots effort dedicated to mitigating the effects of, and eventually overturning, the Citizens United decision.

An organization working to — 

• Provide means for individuals to stand up to the big money special interests ruling Washington.

• Ensure that elected officials are held accountable to their constituents and are not beholden to corporate interests.  

• Elect leaders at all levels of government who will stand up for progressive ideals.

 Ready to — 

• Rapidly respond to stories, ensuring that democratic principles and individual rights are at the forefront of all stories regarding corporate influence in politics. 

• Closely monitor all elected officials, calling them out when they are acting against what is best for their constituents in order to benefit a special interest. 

• Ensure that campaign finance is a prominent issue in the 2012 campaign…

“Progressives United is dedicated to opposing corporate dominance over U.S. elections. Working every day to ensure and hold true, in Abraham Lincoln’s words, that we are ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people.’”

Latest from Progressives United

“He Has Got To Go”

By Russ Feingold, March 29, 2011

“News broke last week that General Electric, America’s largest corporation, made $14,200,000,000 in profits last year and paid $0 in taxes — that’s right, ZERO dollars in taxes.

“At the same time, C.E.O. Jeffrey Immelt saw his compensation double. Now I hear that GE is expected to ask 15,000 of its unionized workers to make major concessions in wages and benefits.

“What really adds insult to injury is the prestigious, influential position Jeffrey Immelt holds as chair of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

“That’s wrong… “It is everything that’s wrong with corporate power today.”

“We cannot stand by and watch while we are led down this road. Mr. Immelt must step down from the president’s jobs panel. If he won't, the president needs to ask for his resignation.”

Sources and notes

http://www.progressivesunited.org/blog/

Progressives United P.O. Box 620062 Middleton, WI 53562

phone: 608/831-7877 | fax: 608/831-3192 | email: info@progressivesunited.org

© 2011 Progressives United - all rights reserved, http://www.progressivesunited.org/about/

Russell Dana FEINGOLD (former) Senator from Wisconsin: elected as a Democrat to the Senate of the United States in 1992; reelected in 1998 and again in 2004— Senate Years of Service: January 3, 1993- January 3, 2011. Member of Wisconsin State Senate (1983-1993)

Admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1979, practiced law in Madison, Wisconsin (1979-1985); was a visiting professor at Beloit College (1985). Academic credentials received University of Wisconsin, Madison (1975); Magdalen College, Oxford (England) as a Rhodes Scholar (1977); Harvard University Law School (1979). Russ Feingold was born in 1953 in Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000061

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Bennett's books 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]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, 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]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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April starts still at WAR

Covert, “humanitarian” — 

Righteously destroying lives

Where is anti-war movement?

Re-reporting, compiling, editing by Carolyn Bennett

“Three western governments have been undertaking, with a little help from two Arab governments, very lethal military action against Libya,” Helena Cobban writes in a late March essay “War and humanitarianism.” They have “worked to ‘justify’ those acts of war largely in the name of either ending an existing humanitarian crisis or preventing one that was about to happen. In parlance too common in western countries, this war has been described as ‘humanitarian intervention’— although war itself is anywhere and always an intrinsically anti-humanitarian undertaking. …”

Most worrying is the long term for the Mediterranean region and for the people of Libya, Cobban continues, “It is extremely unclear what the political upshot of all this will be…

“How will Libya look 12 years on? Will it be one state, or two, or three? Will its people still be locked in an unresolved, very damaging civil war or a situation of long-term political conflict? Will the Libyan people finally have the chance to have a well-run, transparent, and accountable government?

“I do not think anyone in the Obama administration has any idea what Libya will look like— or, how it might get from its present situation of war-wracked division and NATO-inflicted infrastructural breakdown to anything that might be desirable.

“How on earth do [the three Western nations] expect Libyans, or anyone else to look at what NATO (and Qatar and the UAE) are doing in Libya today and to take away a lesson that is essential to the building of any decently functioning democracy? That when you have political differences with others — even sharp differences — the only acceptable way to solve them is through a commitment to nonviolence and to the nonviolent practices of deliberation, discussion, social solidarity, and voting?”

U.S.-led

WAR DEAD

Casualty sites reporting April 2, 2011

(accurate totals unknown)

Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20,

2009: 213] Information out of date

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Wounded 32,992-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Latest update on this site: March 22, 2011

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

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Iraq Body Count

The worldwide update on civilians killed in the Iraq war and occupation

Documented civilian deaths from violence

100,287 – 109,565

MARCH TOTAL: 287 CIVILIANS KILLED.

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

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ICasualties figures:

AFGHANISTAN: 1,521 U.S.; 2,388 Coalition

IRAQ: 4,441 U.S.; 4,759 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/

AFGHANISTAN

U.S. preacher burns Quran

Kandahar

Nine people died and 73 suffered wounds Saturday in Kandahar city as new protests rose against a Quran burning in the United States. These protests come a day after a mob in Afghanistan attacked and killed seven United Nations staffers. This press said this was “the worst attack on the world body in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.”

From the centre of the main southern city of Kandahar protests spread to other locations. Police clashed with crowds marching towards the U.N. offices and provincial administration headquarters. Protesters reportedly damaged government and private buildings and torched vehicles. Protests also were reported Saturday in Kabul involving “a small group of insurgents” wearing burqas who attacked a coalition base and caused “light injuries to three soldiers.” More protests were anticipated across “volatile and deeply religious Afghanistan where anti-Western sentiment has been fuelled for years by civilian casualties.”

Chants rising from demonstrators were ‘Death to America,’  ‘Death to Karzai.’ ‘They have insulted our Quran.’ ‘The foreigners brought the wrath of the Afghans on themselves by burning the Quran.’

Kabul

At UN headquarters in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday, 11 people died; among them were three foreign U.N. workers, five Nepalese UN guards and three protesters. The chief of the mission in the city was wounded, but survived; the dead included employees of Norwegian, Romanian and Swedish nationalities.

Protests were also held in Kabul, where riot police were on hand as demonstrators shouted slogans against the United States, Israel and Britain.

A deeply devout Islamic country where even rumors that the Koran has been insulted can result in deadly violence, “Afghanistan had condemned the ‘disrespectful and abhorrent’ [March 21] burning of the Quran copy by U.S. evangelical preacher Wayne Sapp in a renegade Florida church, calling it an effort to incite tension between religions.… Sapp [had] set light to a Quran copy under the supervision of Terry Jones, who last year drew condemnation over his plan to burn a pile of the holy books to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.”

PAKISTAN

Peshawar

Thirteen people died and 42 suffered wounds Thursday in northwestern Pakistan when a suicide bomb struck a convoy carrying a prominent Islamist leader. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle blew himself up at a police checkpoint where supporters had assembled to greet a provincial minister, Maulana Fazalur Rehman, en route to the town of Charsadda where Thursday’s bombing occurred.

“U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks last year revealed that Rehman allegedly sought support from U.S. officials in Pakistan despite his fierce public criticism of Washington.… About a year ago, a suicide bomber attacked a rally being held by the Jamat-e-Islami party, another Islamist group that is sympathetic to many of the goals of the Taliban and regularly criticizes army operations against them. That attack killed more than 20 police and civilians.”

SAUDI ARABIA

"Global war on terrorism"

“Saudi Arabia has sent 2,215 people to trial on charges related to terrorism.” The Saudi authorities “freed 5,000 repenting terrorists,” according to a statement issued by a prosecutor on Saturday and obtained by Al Arabiya.

The statement noted, “A specialized criminal court had convicted 1,612 people on charges of terrorism and another 603 are still on trial.” Further, the Saudi prosecution “is preparing lists of charges against 934 people and is investigating the cases of 1,931 others.”

IRAQ

U.S.’s private Baghdad

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Al Arabiya quotes a Washington envoy, “is expected to double its staff after American forces pull out of the country later this year.” The embassy is already the largest in the world.

The U.S. Embassy in 2012 would be protected by “a private security force estimated at 5,500; the current total of armed security contractors in Iraq is given as 2,700.  The American civilian presence in Iraq in  2012  will consist of up to 20,000 at sites that include two embassy branches, two consulates, and three police training, according to the U.S. ambassador James Jeffrey. The embassy staff would double from the present 8,000 plus personnel and “U.S. forces would make up only a very small part of that number.” Currently fewer than 50,000 U.S. troops are said to be Iraq, down from a peak of more than 170,000. 

Fifty-seven people died Saturday in Iraq during a hostage-taking incident at a government building in northern Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda front group, claimed responsibility.

The month of March in Iraq saw a rise in deaths compared with February. Fifty-five police officers and 56 soldiers died in attacks in March. The Health Ministry reported on Friday, “136 civilians died in bombings and other attacks compared with 119 in February. In March 215 civilians, 80 police officers and 75 soldiers suffered wounds.

Overall violence has fallen sharply in Iraq since the peak of sectarian warfare in 2006-2007 but bombings and other attacks occur daily. “War casualties decreased at the end of last year despite predictions that the formal end of U.S. combat operations in August would lead to an increase in attacks. American troops are scheduled to withdraw completely by the end of this year.”

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Jerusalem (Reuters)

The Israeli government on Saturday called on the United Nations to cancel the Goldstone Report that found Israel had committed war crimes during its December 2008-January 2009 Gaza offensive.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a written statement calling on the UN to cancel the Goldstone report.

The request came after the chair of the fact-finding mission that issued the report said in a newspaper essay, “‘If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.’”

South African jurist Richard Goldstone chaired the fact-finding mission that, in a 2009 report to the UN Human Rights Council, said both Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, were guilty of war crimes in the conflict. Goldstone indicated in his Friday essay that had the Jewish state cooperated with him at the time, Israel might have showed it did not deliberately target civilians ‘as a matter of policy.’

About 1,400 Palestinians including hundreds of civilians and 13 Israelis died in the devastating war that was launched with Israel’s declared aim of ending cross-border rocket fire from Palestinian militants. Israel had refused to cooperate with the Goldstone mission and later condemned the report as distorted and biased.

TURKEY (nuclear ally)

Ankara (AP)

Despite fear voiced in Greece and Cyprus that Japan’s nuclear disaster shows the new nuclear plant could threaten the Mediterranean region, Turkey plans to build a coastal nuclear power plant close to an earthquake-prone area.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said in Brussels last week, “‘Nuclear power for us is not an option because we are in a highly seismically active region.’” However, Turkey “plans to build three nuclear power plants in the years ahead — including one at Akkuyu [60 miles, 100 kilometers, north of the island of Cyprus] on the Mediterranean coast, close to the Ecemis Fault, which an expert says could possibly generate a magnitude-7 quake.”

Nuclear protests have come from activists inside Turkey and from Cyprus. “Hundreds of protesters have marched in Istanbul, holding banners that read: ‘Don't let Akkuyu become Fukushima.’” The nuclear standoff comes against a background of territorial disputes between Greece and Turkey, including in Cyprus.

The EU is reassessing the 27-nation bloc’s energy policy and questioning the role of nuclear power on a continent where no one can forget that the 1986 Chernobyl disaster spewed radiation for thousands of miles (kilometers).

LIBYA

U.S. on the ground
Covert operations, friendly fire, civilian deaths

The chief spokesman for the Libyan ‘rebels’ said Saturday at least 13 people died and seven suffered wounds after coalition air strikes on Friday hit a convoy by mistake as fighters claimed victory in the battle for Brega.

NATO authorities called the “friendly fire” incident a “regrettable occurrence” of “unintentional deaths.”

The Libyan government has produced a video said to show civilians, including women and children, in a Brega hospital. They are believed to have been wounded as they tried to escape the air strikes.

Doctors say more than 240 people have been killed and over 1,000 wounded in Misurata in the last month alone, as a counter-offensive by Gaddafi's troops raised the number of casualties.

Covert operations

U.S. and Egyptian special forces, Al Jazeera is reporting an unnamed ‘rebel’ source, have reportedly been offering covert armed training to ‘rebel’ (anti-government) fighters in the battle for Libya. The unnamed source revealed that he had undergone training in military techniques at a ‘secret facility’ in eastern Libya.

“[A] new shipment of Katyusha rockets had been sent into eastern Libya from Egypt, the source said Thursday night. ‘These were state-of-the-art, heat-seeking rockets and they [rebels] needed to be trained on how to use them, which was one of the things the American and Egyptian special forces were there to do.’”

Al Jazeera reported, “Our correspondent said the intriguing development has raised several uncomfortable questions, about Egypt’s private involvement and what the arms embargo exactly means.

“There is also the question of whether or not the outside world should arm the rebels, when in fact they [rebels] are already being armed covertly.”

“If the rationale sounds high-minded and noble, “the vast majority of our citizens [left and right] see nothing wrong with their government killing masses of people.” 


Peace lovers among us are rare, Margaret Kimberley writes in her March 31 essay “Obama, Libya, and our challenge: the true anti-war movement must reawaken.”

U.S. foreign interventions “should be taboo,” she says, because “our system is in no way designed to be humanitarian.” No matter how evil enemies are made out to be, evidence of history should make us wary of arguments pushing war.… 

“True anti-war activists, not just anti-Republican activists, must raise their voices. A true anti-war movement must reawaken; hundreds of thousands take to the streets as they did before the invasion of Iraq.”

Sources and notes

“War and humanitarianism: From Kosovo to Libya? (Posted by Helena Cobban), March 27, 2011, filed in Libya http://justworldnews.org/archives/004184.html

“Taliban deny role in attack on UN staff Nine dead in 2nd day of Afghan Quran burning demos,” April  2, 2011,  http://www.alarabiya.net/index/searchengine/search?cnt_search=afghanistan&lang=en

“Three protesters killed in the attack Afghan Quran protest attack kills 8 UN workers,” April 1, 2011, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/04/01/143828.html

“Leader of Pakistan Islamic party survives murder attack13 dead in attack on Pakistan Islamic party leader,” March 31 2011, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/31/143677.html

“Saudi frees 5,000 repenting convicted terrorists, Saudi sends 2,215 to trial on terrorism charges” (Written by Mustapha Ajbaili), April 2, 2011, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/04/02/143964.html

“U.S. embassy in Iraq already the largest in the world US Baghdad embassy will double in size: envoy,” April 2, 2011, http://www.alarabiya.net/index/searchengine/search?cnt_search=IRAQ&lang=en

“Number of violent deaths rises in Iraq in March” (Writing by Khalid al-Ansary; Editing by Caroline Drees and Elizabeth Fullerton), April 1, 2011, http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110401/wl_nm/us_iraq_violence_toll_1

“Request comes after jurist says may have been wrong Israel urges UN,” http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/04/02/143975.html

“Turkey plans to build three nuclear power plants Turkish nuclear plans on Mediterranean raise fears Saturday,” April 2, 2011, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/04/02/143981.html

“Libyan rebels ‘receiving covert training’ — Rebel source tells Al Jazeera about training offered by U.S. and Egyptian special forces in eastern Libya,” April 2, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/04/201142172443133798.html

“Opposition forces retake oil town of Brega, NATO air strikes kill 13 Libyan opposition fighters” (Ajdabiyah, LIBYA, Agencies), “A Western coalition air strike hit a group of Libya’s opposition fighters on the eastern outskirts of Brega late on Friday, killing at least 13 of them,” April 2, 2011, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/04/02/143883.html

“Rebels ‘killed by coalition plane’” (James Tapsfield, PA), April 2, 2011, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebels-killed-by-coalition-plane-2260427.html

“Obama, Libya, and Our Challenge: the True Anti-War Movement Must Reawaken,” March 31, 2011 (Margaret Kimberley’s article appears at World Can’t Wait), http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php/home-mainmenu-289/7067-obama-libya-and-our-challenge-the-true-anti-war-movement-must-reawaken; her Freedom Rider column appears weekly in Black Agenda Report, Margaret Kimberley is Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist

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Bennett's books 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]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, 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]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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Power chipping away at rights under law

Excerpt, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Karen Greenberg’s 

“America’s Growing Intolerance”

The message that ‘political correctness’ is allowing al-Qaeda-ish wolves in  sheep’s clothing to penetrate the [America]’s defenses has been spreading, based in part on claims about unlearned lessons from past incidents of terrorism. 

The conviction that ‘political correctness’ has been crippling America’s struggle with violent jihadists inevitably led former attorney general and chief judge of the Southern District of New York Michael Mukasey and others of like position and stature into treacherous waters tending to sweep away ever more civil liberties. This has been true for Washington policymakers since the advent of the George W. Bush administration’s Global War on Terror.

When rights were first denied to captives at Guantanamo Bay, the Bush administration argued that a prison in Cuba should not be considered subject to the constitutional principles that apply to Americans everywhere or to anyone within the territorial boundaries of the U.S. 

It was quite another matter, however, as New York Congressman Peter King convened hearings on radicalization and the Muslim religion. This singling out of Muslims or others in our midst as potential terrorists then arguing that when arrested — even if they are U.S. citizens, or captured or tried on U.S. soil — they should be denied the protections of U.S. law.

This urge to chip away at a traditional American commitment to religious toleration reflects a deeper imperative to jettison a wide range of traditional legal protections.

Perhaps we should consider the King hearings and the ever more extreme statements of a growing cadre of well-respected figures as an omen.  

At an increasingly rapid pace, the boundaries of acceptable civil discourse are being crossed and rights in America are being tossed away — at least when it comes to national security issues. Even today with a constitutional lawyer as president, fear continues to cow those who have the power to make a difference.

Sources and notes

Karen J. Greenberg is author of the Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days (Oxford University Press, 2009); the Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib (Cambridge University Press, 2005); editor of the Torture Debate in America (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and Al Qaeda Now (Cambridge University Press, 2005). She is co-editor with Joshua L. Dratel of The Enemy Combatant Papers: American Justice, the Courts, and the War on Terror (Cambridge University Press, 2008.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Greenberg is also executive director of the NYU School of Law Center on Law and Security and editor of the NYU Review of Law and Security, http://www.lawandsecurity.org/About/leadership

“America’s Growing Intolerance — How ‘Enemy Creep’ Is Guantanamo-izing America” (Karen J. Greenberg), Copyright 2011 Karen Greenberg, http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175373/tomgram%3A_karen_greenberg%2C_intolerance_%22r%22_us/#more; Tomgram: Karen Greenberg, Intolerance ‘R’ Us,” posted by Karen J. Greenberg at 10:01am, March 29, 2011, http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175373/tomgram%3A_karen_greenberg%2C_intolerance_%22r%22_us/#more

Political Correctness

Politically correct (adjective, 1936): conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated; political correctness (noun), Merriam Webster

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Bennett's books 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]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, 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]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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