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    • Voting Behind Bars (Greenhouse, NYTimes)
      "Given the implications of the case, the Supreme Court’s order has received surprisingly little attention. Forty-eight states, all except Maine and Vermont, deny convicted felons the right to vote, a modern version of the old concept of “civil death” for those convicted of serious crimes. In some states, as in Massachusetts, the ban lasts for the duration of the prison sentence. More often, it extends for years longer, through the parole period, as in New York, where in 2006 the federal appeals court rejected a challenge over the dissent of four judges, including Sonia Sotomayor."
    • Obama agencies invoking secrecy provision more often than under Bush (Byrne, Raw Story, March 2010)
      "One year later, Obama's requests for transparency have apparently gone unheeded. In fact a provision in the Freedom of Information Act law that allows the government to hide records that detail its internal decision-making has been invoked by Obama agencies more often in the past year than during the final year of President George W. Bush."
    • A political filter for info requests (Bridis, AP, 7/21)
      "For at least a year, the Homeland Security Department detoured hundreds of requests for federal records to senior political advisers for highly unusual scrutiny, probing for information about the requesters and delaying disclosures deemed too politically sensitive, according to nearly 1,000 pages of internal e-mails obtained by The Associated Press."
    • More on the Latest DOJ Whitewash (Horton, Harper's Magazine)
      "Now information has emerged that seriously undermines the reputation of former Connecticut U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, tapped by former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to handle the probe. In a report prepared by the Justice Integrity Project, Harvard University’s Nieman Watchdog reports: Four days before Nora Dannehy was appointed to investigate the Bush Administration’s U.S. attorney firing scandal, a team of lawyers she led was found to have illegally suppressed evidence in a major political corruption case."
    • Against Despair (Tomasky, Democracy, Summer 2010)
      "It’s one thing to be disappointed in policy outcomes, or even angry about them. But more and more it seems that we are in an age of liberal despair–as reflex and first instinct, as motif and explanation, even, it sometimes seems to me, as fashion. Criticism of legislation and proposals is always proper and necessary, as is the application of whatever pressure people can apply to try to produce more progressive outcomes. But I’ve read and heard many critiques that then race right past that into outright desolation."
    • Should Israel Bomb Iran? (Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Weekly Standard)
      Neocon wet dream: "Although dangerous for Israel, a preventive strike remains the most effective answer to the possibility of Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards having nuclear weapons. Provided the Israeli air force is capable of executing it, and assuming no U.S. military action, an Israeli bombardment remains the only conceivable means of derailing or seriously delaying Iran’s nuclear program and—equally important—traumatizing Tehran." This despite admissions elsewhere that prospects of 'success' is not guaranteed (to put it mildly). If this is how they think in Israel, I can only hope the Israeli air force tells its civilian leaders the thing isn't doable.
    • Unending Divisions of the Bosnian War (Estrin, NYTimes, 7/12)
      "This month marks the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, when more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were rounded up and executed by Bosnian Serb forces. On June 10, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a U.N. court of law at the Hague, convicted two Bosnian Serb security officers of genocide and sentenced them to life in prison for their roles at Srebrenica."
    • The Fall and Rise of Rand Paul: Critical Eye(J.Miles, Details)
      "Rand Paul and I are trying to remember why Harlan, Kentucky, might be famous." Wow, Rand Paul is even stupider than I thought. Plus wonderful quotes on the Montcoal disaster and mountaintop removal. If Kentucky elects this nitwit to the Senate they deserve him -- problem is, the rest of us don't.
    • Drivers on Prescription Drugs Are Hard to Convict (Goodnough, Zezima, NYTimes)
      "Some states have made it illegal to drive with any detectable level of prohibited drugs in the blood. But setting any kind of limit for prescription medications is far more complicated, partly because the complex chemistry of drugs makes their effects more difficult to predict than alcohol’s. And determining whether a driver took drugs soon before getting on the road can be tricky, since some linger in the body for days or weeks."
    • The Right Reason for Saving Social Security (Rivlin, Brookings Institution)
      "The right reason for saving Social Security is to reassure all Americans that this hugely successful program is solidly funded and will be there for the millions who depend on it when they need it. That such action will make a modest contribution to reducing long run deficits is a serendipitous by-product, not the central motivation. The reason for acting now rather than later is simply that the sooner we act the less drastic adjustments we have to make."
    • Which Side Are You On? Alice Rivlin and the Wall Street Bailout King, or Social Security? (Eskow, HuffPo)
      "There's a battle going on between those who are defending Social Security - that is to say, the "good guys" - and those like economist Alice Rivlin and Wall Street banker/giveaway king Neel Kashkari, who would cut it. The attackers pretend to see nuances that don't exist, slanting their arguments to make benefits reductions seem inevitable and even humane."
    • Felon Voting Rights and Democracy (Gould, openDemocracy)
      "Although the judicial branch of government at both the state and national levels commonly supports felon voting rights, legislators, who for the most part do not support felon voting rights, have more influence than judges on the everyday ramifications of felon disenfranchisement. To overturn felon disenfranchisement, then, a massive education effort is needed, targeted at the American public. Americans should be made to reflect on the practical consequences of felon disenfranchisement as well as on its implications for democratic governance."
    • Positive Punishment (Henley, "")Unqualified Offerings
      "Across a whole range of problems there’s a class of responses I’ll dub the “low road” and another class I’ll call the “high road.” Examples of the former include war, torture, sanctions and blockades, imprisonment, aversive conditioning of all types (spanking; “dominance”-based animal training). Examples of the latter include diplomacy, rapport-building, civil disobedience, the free exchange of goods and ideas, decriminalization and rehabilitation, positive conditioning (of humans and animals). [...] ...what we see over and over again is that we judge high-road approaches as failures unless they produce nigh-instant and complete favorable results, while we show nearly infinite patience for journeys down the low road."
    • What Obama Should Have Said to BP (Pfaff, The New York Review of Books)
      “I am instructing that all BP assets within the United States, or in its surrounding waters, including funds immediately at its disposal, and all other BP funds accessible to the United States government, be temporarily seized and sequestered so as to prevent the transfer of any funds or assets of this company outside United States jurisdiction and access. The disposition of those assets will eventually be determined by the courts or by a new independent federal agency, with priority given to the reimbursement of persons and property-holders victimized by this catastrophe, and the redressment of damage or destruction to public assets and municipal, state, and national interests for which the former British Petroleum corporation is deemed by the courts, or by the independent agency, to have been responsible.”
    • The Photo That Brought AIDS Home - Photo Gallery - LIFE
      "In November, 1990, LIFE magazine published a photograph of a young man, David Kirby -- his body wasted by AIDS, his gaze locked on something beyond this world -- surrounded by anguished family members as he took his last breaths. The haunting image of Kirby's passing (above), taken by a journalism grad student named Therese Frare, became the one photograph most identified with the HIV/AIDS epidemic that, by then, had seen as many as 12 million people infected."

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Down here below

Posted by Thomas Nephew on February 13th, 2010

pale male the famous redtail hawk
performs wingstands high above midtown manhattan
circles around for one last pass over the park
got his eye on a fat squirrel down there
and a couple of pigeons
they got no place to run
they got no place to hide
but pale male he’s cool, see
‘cause his breakfast ain’t goin’ nowhere
so he does a loop t loop for the tourists and the six o’clock news
got him a penthouse view from
the tip-top of the food chain, boys
he looks up and down on fifth ave
and says “god i love this town”		 For Wall St., Question on Top Bonuses Is 7 Figures or 8 - (Story, Dash, NYTimes, 1/9/10)
The bank bonus season, that annual rite of big money and bigger egos, begins in earnest this week, and it looks as if it will be one of the largest and most controversial blowouts the industry has ever seen.
but life goes on
down here below
and all us mortals struggle so
we laugh and cry and live and die
that’s how it goes
for all we know
down here below [...]
pale male swimmin’ in the air
looks like he’s in heaven up there
people sufferin’ everywhere
but he don’t care		 An Update on State Budget Cuts

(Johnson, Oliff, Williams; Center for Budget and Policy Priorities; updated January 28, 2010)

Governors Proposing New Round of Cuts for 2011; At Least 43 States Have Already Imposed Cuts That Hurt Vulnerable Residents

With tax revenue still declining as a result of the recession and budget reserves largely drained, the vast majority of states have made spending cuts that hurt families and reduce necessary services. These cuts, in turn, have deepened states’ economic problems because families and businesses have less to spend. Federal recovery act dollars and funds raised from tax increases are greatly reducing the extent, severity, and economic impact of these cuts, but only to a point.

The cuts enacted in at least 43 states plus the District of Columbia in 2008 and 2009 occurred in all major areas of state services, including health care (29 states), services to the elderly and disabled (24 states and the District of Columbia), K-12 education (28 states and the District of Columbia), higher education (37 states), and other areas. States made these cuts because revenues from income taxes, sales taxes, and other revenue sources used to pay for these services declined due to the recession. At the same time, the need for these services did not decline and, in fact, rose as the number of families facing economic difficulties increased.

=====
Lyrics in the left column are of “Down Here Below”, by Steve Earle on the album “Washington Square Serenade.”
The Pale Male photo is at and links to the excellent palemale.com site maintained by Dr. Ward Stone.

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