UN Investigates US -- Finally!

For the first time in history, the United Nations is launching a human rights investigation within the borders of the United States -- specifically, a probe into the often-abysmal living conditions of 2.7 million native Americans. We are just now hearing about this, exclusively, from the U.K.'s Guardian. I guess it is too much of an embarrassment for the Administration's usual suspects corporate media mouthpieces to give it so much as an inside-page paragraph. It might take attention away from the Secret Service scandal or presidential fund-raising stats.

Finally. The rest of the world will learn that the greatest, most wonderfully exceptional country on earth is, in reality, a third world backwater of a banana republic when it comes to how it treats many of its poor and indigenous people. When the USA signed on to the U.N. mission in 2010 to explore the plight of the word's native populations, little did it know it would be included in the inquiry. The Americans kind of assumed the U.N. would be concentrating on the South American populations. After all, when our president talks about poverty and human rights abuses in his periodic oratories to the General Assembly, it's always about problems elsewhere.

The domestic probe, starting on Monday, will be led by James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on indigenous peoples. According to The Guardian's Ewan MacAskill, the investigation is likely to strike a sensitive chord amongst our elite  political class:

Many of the country's estimated 2.7 million Native Americans live in federally recognised tribal areas which are plagued with unemployment, alcoholism, high suicide rates, incest and other social problems.

The UN mission is potentially contentious, with some US conservatives likely to object to international interference in domestic matters. Since being appointed as rapporteur in 2008, Anaya has focused on natives of Central and South America.

A UN statement said: "This will be the first mission to the US by an independent expert designated by the UN human rights council to report on the rights of the indigenous peoples."

Anaya, who hails from New Mexico, is expected to present his preliminary findings at a press conference on May 4, prior to a formal report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Among the states he will visit is Oklahoma, the former Indian Territory established in the 19th Century as a concentration camp for the native populations banished from the Eastern seaboard during the infamous Trail of Tears. It was in Cushing, Ok that President Obama made a speech approving the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline last month -- and where protesting native Americans were literally kept caged, miles away:

“President Obama is an adopted member of the Crow Tribe, so his fast-tracking a project that will desecrate known sacred sites and artifacts is a real betrayal and disappointment for his Native relatives everywhere,” said Marty Cobenais of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “Tar sands is devastating First Nations communities in Canada already and now they want to bring that environmental, health, and social devastation to US tribes.”

Obama has actually gotten mixed reviews from native Americans. One Indian leader calls him the best friend the indigenous population has had since Richard Nixon advocated tribal self-determination as official United States policy. And the fact that the current president has met with Indian leaders every year and promised them that he "has their back" and appointed various task forces shows the usual Obama approach: steps in the right direction, with still a lot of work to do in the future.

However, Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic wrote a scathing article in December, calling Obama's native American initiatives a lot of talk and little to no action. Coupled with the Senatorial blockage of the judicial appointment of Native American Arvo Mikkanen, and the decision by the Supreme Court to withhold from the Apache Nation documents relevant to its legal case alleging misfeasance by the federal government, Cohen caustically allows that Obama did make a nice show of going easy on tribes who collect eagle feathers.

Is the White House pushing for Mikkanen to get a hearing? No. Is it pushing Congress to help change the procedural rules in Indian trust cases so that American Indian litigants can have more access to federal documents that pertain to their claims against federal officials? No. Those things would involve the expenditure of political capital -- and the administration has shown repeatedly its unwillingness to spend in this area.

(snip) 

Congress is no friend of the American Indian. Surely this Supreme Court isn't, either. And there was a need to clarify the rules on eagle feathers. But is this really the best President Obama can do? I hope an American Indian leader says to President Obama today at the White House: "Don't worry so much about adopting 'a formal policy that memorializes' common prosecution practice; worry more about why there are still only two federal judges in American history who were or are of Native American descent."

If pressure by independent journalists and political activists can't get our corporocrats to do right by a forgotten group of marginalized citizens, maybe they can be shamed into it by the results of the United Nations investigation and the glare of world opinion. Then again, don't hold your breath.

A Little More to the Left.... Please! (Reuters)

Notes on Some Scandals

The Secret Service prostitution scandal in Colombia is not so much a scandal as it is a symptom. It is a manifestation of the long history of Yanqui arrogance and hegemony in Latin America. The elite imperialists of the United States have long viewed Central and South American countries as either Marxist enemies that must be ridiculed and punished (Cuba and Venezuela) or complicit and corrupt satellites (Nicaragua, Honduras). President Obama, following in the footsteps of his idol, Ronald Reagan, is busily establishing a coalition of the willing south of the border. He has been quietly building up our military presence in Colombia, site of more labor-related murders than all other nations combined. He is quietly using yet another corrupt regime as a base of operations for the expansion of the War on Terror.


Instead of fighting Al queda and the Taliban, we are in South and Central America to fight a phony War on Narco-Terror. Drugs are just one more excuse to flex American muscle, enrich American corporations and ignore and flout international human rights principles. The Drug Enforcement Administration -- much like the paramilitarized police forces within our own borders -- has been turned into a virtual Army, replete with high tech weaponry left over from Afghanistan and Iraq. The fact that the DEA is fighting a virtual war in Honduras, even assassinating members of alleged drug cartels, is not getting a whole lot of attention in El Norte. Charlie Savage of the New York Times did write a brief article on the Terror-Drug Fusion Wars last fall.


As a matter of fact, the corporate media as a whole have glossed over the horrors of life in Colombia and other repressive regimes and as true American government mouthpieces, have concentrated on the socialistic evils of Venezuela and Cuba, whose records on human rights are stellar in comparison. From the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR):

What leads editors to discuss Colombia’s nightmarish human rights record with less alarm than Venezuela’s flawed but clearly superior record? The answer seems to lie in the relationship between the editors’ views and U.S. strategic thinking. Over the time frame of this study, U.S. officials have highlighted human rights concerns in Venezuela out of opposition to the populist policies of its President Hugo Chávez, which they see as threatening to U.S. interests. At the same time, officials have tried to diminish the gravity of Colombia’s human rights problems in order to sustain political support for a number of military, anti-drug and trade projects the U.S. shares with Colombia.   

(snip)

 Curiously, though government-linked Colombian death squads were in the habit of killing journalists, political activists and trade unionists over the entire time span of this study, virtually no editorials questioned the health of Colombia’s democracy, in stark contrast to the editors’ almost obsessive concern about the perilous state of Venezuela’s. Indeed, though President Uribe has been linked with death squads (Washington Post, 4/18/07), and former President Pastrana presided over a government with extensive death squad ties, the editors felt a need to insist time and again that the Colombian leaders were true and dedicated democrats.

The Obama Administration has been falling all over itself trying to justify approving the Colombian trade deal despite that country's horrible history of terrorizing its own people. As long as the government promises to try to cut back a tad on murdering trade unionists, then it's all good. Sound familiar? Just as banks can regulate themselves and factory farms can police their own filth and frackers can be relied upon to curb their polluting greed, Colombia shall be rewarded with no oversight and no penalties for non-compliance:

The Administration is asking worker rights advocates to believe that after over two decades of violence and impunity and other widespread violations that Colombia has now magically turned the corner on the basis of a Labor Action Plan signed in April.

As USLEAP* (US Labor Education in the Americas Project) and others have noted, the Plan has no enforcement measures and pressure for compliance will end as soon as the Colombia FTA is implemented. The Plan, which contains some positive features if fully implemented, must be given time to demonstrate concrete results in reducing violence and ending impunity, let alone addressing other long-standing obstacles to the exercise of basic worker rights. And there is not even a “Plan” to address violence against other human rights defenders or the negative impact that the FTA is expected to have on small farmers, Afro-Colombians and the environment.

Life in Latin American backwaters is cheap. So when Secret Service agents and military personnel hit the brothels and the bars the minute their jackboots touched Cartagena ground, they were simply exercising their rights as occupiers and conquerors. That they should objectify Third World Latina women forced to work as prostitutes to feed themselves and their children should come as no surprise. That they should expect to be secretly serviced for mere pennies should come as no surprise either. The only surprise is that somebody took the women's side for a change and the Americanos were exposed. 


It is of course also no surprise at all that our own politicians and pundits should concentrate on the symptom rather than the disease. The real scandal is a double one: the rushed approval of the Colombian free trade agreement, despite ongoing documented human rights abuses and murders of trade unionists, and President Obama's refusal to back down on his cynical War on Drugs. Corporate profits once again have trumped humanitarianism. Our Democratic president has pledged his allegiance to profits over people.

And how do labor leaders back home feel about this debacle? Well, Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO is "deeply disappointed" in President Obama. But not so much that he will withdraw his endorsement for Barry's re-election. And here you thought that this story couldn't get any more disgusting.

* "The U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP) is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization based in Chicago that engages a wide range of organizations and individuals in the U.S. and abroad to promote full respect for the rights of workers in Latin America. Founded in 1987 as the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project, the organization advocates for fundamental changes to U.S. trade policies, demands corporate responsibility, denounces violence against trade unionists, and conducts worker justice campaigns in the banana, flower, and apparel sectors. USLEAP seeks a global economy in which all workers, abroad and in the U.S., are treated fairly, paid a living wage, and respected by corporations and governments." Its website can be found here.

Eyeless Shrimp and Toothless Government

So, there has been a huge ongoing cover-up of the disastrous effects of the Gulf oil spill! The government, the corporate-controlled mass media, and BP have all conspired to hide the truth that the worst episode of pollution in the history of the planet continues unabated. Massive portions of the sea floor are dead, and fish and other marine life have become so diseased and deformed that the people fishing those waters all their lives have never seen anything like it.

It took a news outlet half a world away to gather together obscure reports, connect the dots, amd expose the shocking truth. In case you have not yet seen it, do make sure to watch the video and read the story that Al Jazeera started running this week. Then ask yourself why virtually no American broadcasters or newspapers have picked it up, and why the United States government is belching a big "No Comment."

Tune in any time to MSNBC or CNN or Fox, and interspersed with the manufactured outrage stories of presidential politics, you will see those flashy, happy, slick, ubiquitous BP commercials. They lead you believe that the oil spill was actually good for the Gulf -- the water is clearer than ever, the seafood more abundant and tastier, the sand is whiter, tourism is booming, wildlife is thriving, and the mildly inconvenienced business owners have been handsomely compensated. The spots usually feature African-American actors, thus delivering the message that BP is socially liberal as well as environmentally responsible. (Ironically, the latest $100 million ad inadvertently includes a shot of some anti-BP protesters in the distance!)

The TV networks are obviously raking in the profits from these greed-washing spots. Do you really think they are going to bite the BP hand that feeds them? President Obama and the rest of the political elite class are not about to offend the corporate interests on whom they depend either, especially in an election year. They have been complicit in covering up the magnitude of this disaster from day one. Why should they rock the boat now, by admitting that the tragic effects will be playing out long after we have all faded away? The president, desperate to prove to independents that he is no environmental softie, has actually expanded drilling in the Gulf, allowing operations in even deeper water than that in which the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded.

The truth exposed by Al Jazeera is the polar opposite of the BP public relations assault. Tar balls are still washing up on beaches and getting caught in fishing nets.There are reports of third generation eyeless shrimp, hardshell crab that have devolved into softshell crab, rotting from the inside out, and fish and crabs with lesions and burns believed to be caused by the chemical dispersants used to break up the oil.  From the Al Jazeera report:

Keath Ladner, a third generation seafood processor in Hancock County, Mississippi, is also disturbed by what he is seeing.

"I've seen the brown shrimp catch drop by two-thirds, and so far the white shrimp have been wiped out," Ladner told Al Jazeera. "The shrimp are immune compromised. We are finding shrimp with tumors on their heads, and are seeing this everyday."

While on a shrimp boat in Mobile Bay with Sidney Schwartz, the fourth-generation fisherman said that he had seen shrimp with defects on their gills, and "their shells missing around their gills and head".

"We've fished here all our lives and have never seen anything like this," he added.

Ladner has also seen crates of blue crabs, all of which were lacking at least one of their claws.

Darla Rooks, a lifelong fisherperson from Port Sulfur, Louisiana, told Al Jazeera she is finding crabs "with holes in their shells, shells with all the points burned off so all the spikes on their shells and claws are gone, misshapen shells, and crabs that are dying from within … they are still alive, but you open them up and they smell like they've been dead for a week".

Rooks is also finding eyeless shrimp, shrimp with abnormal growths, female shrimp with their babies still attached to them, and shrimp with oiled gills.

"We also seeing eyeless fish, and fish lacking even eye-sockets, and fish with lesions, fish without covers over their gills, and others with large pink masses hanging off their eyes and gills."

Rooks, who grew up fishing with her parents, said she had never seen such things in these waters, and her seafood catch last year was "ten per cent what it normally is".

Al Jazeera gleaned much of its information from poring through esoteric scientific journals not easily accessible to the general public. When its journalists asked the the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration for comment, they were referred to NOAA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). NOAA, in turn, declined to comment because of "ongoing lawsuits".


Meanwhile, if you rely on the Paper of Record (the N.Y. Times)  for all the latest BP disaster news, the only thing you learned this week is that lawyers hammered out their fees in the civil case, and that BP CEO Bob Dudley echoed his rosy TV commercial talking points. And there was this bland editorial about Congress being the opposite of Progress. Oh yeah, a criminal investigation by the Obama Justice Department is "continuing".

And continuing and continuing and continuing. The second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion is tomorrow. Halliburton is still in business and more profitable than ever. Dick Cheney still has a new heart. Ann Romney is still fabulously rich. BP is still here, and so is the oil spill.

 Cancerous and Eyeless Shrimp from the Gulf (Al Jazeera)

Norky Gets Needled



My Motto: To Rob the Poor and Give To the Rich!



We are, of course, talking about Grover Norquist. The nurses and other demonstrators who gathered outside his Washington office today came armed not with hypodermics but with words, songs, signs and their sheer, vibrant physical presence. The occasion was Tax Day, that most dreaded of all days for Grover Norquist. The only days he hates worse than Tax Day are Christmas and every Wednesday. That's when the Social Security checks are direct-deposited in the bloated bank accounts of the old and sick. In Norquist's world, Mr. Potter is the hero of It's a Wonderful Life and freedom is defined as the slashing of the social safety net.  For those of you who may not be familiar with Dorky Norky, he is the dour-looking little man who has uttered such gems as "our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub."

Norquist is the high priest of what is essentially a cult of Republicans, all of whom must sign his pledge to never raise taxes if they are elected to public office. Should they break their promise, he will destroy them. He is single-handedly responsible for Washington gridlock. No new taxes, no new programs, no government protection for our most vulnerable citizens. No jobs, no infrastructure spending, no new teachers. Cut, slash and burn. No, no, no. Norquistian is a synonym for nihilistic.

Thanks to Deborah Klaus, a D.C. registered nurse and poet who blogs as DreamsAmelia on the Shelved in Cyberspace site, for sending in some great photos and commentary on today's protest. Grover did not actually appear, she told me, to meet the people outside on 12th Street NW. He was probably curled up in a fetal position in a gold-plated bathtub deep in the noxious bowels of some undisclosed location. But one of those "patriot millionaires" did show up to protest -- Eric Schoenberg, a former schoolmate of Mitt Romney and current professor of behavioral economics at Columbia, he informed the protesters that where he comes from the bathtubs are the size of cars.... or in the case of the .0001% -- houses.

What the Tax Day protest crowd lacked in numbers, they more than made up in enthusiasm and creativity. The group even serenaded Grover (sung to the tune of Over the Rainbow):

Someday, Grover won't reign so--
We'll be free
To make wise budget choices
Based on sound policy.

Someday, Grover won't pain so
Many folks.
Just an unhappy memory--
Butt of a thousand jokes.

A pledge he wrote when he was ten
Now dominates our Congressmen's
Vocation!
The only oath that they should take
is for our flag and people's sake
To serve our nation!

Some say Grover's insane, though
if that's true,
Time we stopped letting Grover
Tell us all what to do!

As Deborah points out, just showing up to demonstrate for 40 minutes sends a message, making the oligarchs just a smidgen less confident in their everlasting power. If we have learned anything from Occupy Wall Street and other protests, it is that the rich and powerful have extremely thin skins. They do not like to be called names, they don't even like to be called rich. The latest ploy of inheritors of unearned, largely untaxed wealth is to call themselves "legacy families." Mitt and Ann Romney have been put on the defensive when confronted with their obscene riches and forced to whine that they don't "feel rich".

I'll let Deborah tell it in her own eloquent words:

People don't have to have elaborate education, think of themselves as "an activist" or be particularly "political" or aligned with any party, not Dem, Repub, OWS or Tea Party---they just have to put even a fraction of engagement into our democracy as they do filling up their car with a tank of gas, returning books to the library, shopping at the mall, or buying groceries---a modicum of thought to preserving democracy by protesting anti-democratic forces should be as intrinsic as a routine errand----but, sadly, it is not---and so, I am the first to admit, we get what we deserve: the best government money can buy. If we're too lazy to bar anti-democratic intruders at the door, then one has to expect an infinite parade of tyrants and opportunists at the helm of the state....

Those who say, well, I won't complain because I don't try are sadly mistaken about the nature of a society. The roof over their head is being defined by laws that favor the 5 largest banks in the U.S. over the individuals that inhabit them; the laws favor health insurance corporations over individuals who still may receive inadequate care or become bankrupt; the laws favor drug testing and packing private prison systems over something as trivial as immigration status while large corporations not only never go to jail but pollute and steal from the poor for the rich with all the back-slapping blessings of our elected officials....ad nauseum...

But the acceptance of corporations as more powerful than individuals, of debt as a way of life rather than unionizing for higher wages, seems to be a breaking of a treaty with the middle class that, inexplicably, so many seem willing to relinquish. One can look back on the decades-long history of westward expansion and broken treaties with Native Americans and can understand why Native American thought and politics do not dominate our society---they were outgunned and outnumbered, and consistently lied to and misled by our fledgling government. But it seems that the passivity of millions and millions of middle class may herald a similar fate where people will be written out of the Constitution, out of the courts, out of all laws, and only corporations will have any rights at all...it's not much fun to be a sheep being led to slaughter-- the bleating of a few is not going to delay the inevitable one iota--the whole herd has to revolt and run backwards....

And here are more of Deborah's great photos and captions:

Our protest was so small, it only required one cop to maintain law and order!

(Who looks like he became distracted in political debate.....)

Brenda King, my colleague, nurse for 41 years! Why should nurses pay higher taxes than Wall St. traders? Brenda will be uninsured if she retires before she is eligible for medicare. She doesn't want any cuts to medicare or social security--she loves paying her taxes because it continues to help families just as her devotion to their lives as a nurse does.

This guy (Eric Schoenberg) was our "token rich guy" who told us he had a taxable income of $700,000 in 2005 and only paid 15% on it and wants to pay more. His immigrant grandparents always told him it was not their efforts alone, but the laws of the country they lived in that helped them to be so successful.  Schoenberg is an expert in the psychology of money!

Thank you, Deborah! If Norky ever gets sick (er), I sincerely hope you and your group are assigned to cure whatever ails him. It'll be a long slog, but if anybody can do it, you can!

Happy Tax Day, everybody!

It's Alive

A strong young heart is now trapped inside Dick Cheney's body. It has no choice but to beat and beat and beat, enabling the ghoul of the 21st Century to fly around in his private jet, spewing his rejuvenated hate speech less than three weeks after getting his taxpayer-funded surgery. 

The man responsible for the deaths and dismemberments of thousands upon thousands of innocent people lives on to brag about it. When most people would still be recovering from such radical surgery, the undead Dick Cheney is on full zombie display. Rather than humbly fading into the background, he feels compelled to go on a speaking tour to celebrate torture, and to call his successor an "unmitigated disaster." The successor, mind you, made sure that Dick Cheney has Secret Service protection for life. That is how globally despised he is. The successor has guaranteed that Cheney will never be prosecuted for his war crimes. Cheney knows that his successor will never betray him, because he gifted him with unprecedented unitary executive power. It is but a short hop, skip and jump from "enhanced interrogation techniques" to "beyond-the-horizon" foreign policy -- a/k/a assassinations at presidential whim. President Obama is not only an accessory after the fact, he is going Cheney one better -- and Dick may just be feeling a wee twinge of jealousy to replace those old cardiac twinges.

Cheney made his surprise appearance Saturday at a Wyoming Republican confab, and reminisced about himself for over an hour. That is apparently what psychopaths do when they get a second chance at life. No regrets has Dick Cheney, no joyful epiphany, no devoting the rest of his life to serving the less fortunate. He did thank his donor and doctors, but failed to mention health care for the 50 million and counting uninsured Americans. He has probably never given them a thought.

And if he touched upon the fact that his 20-year addiction to cigarettes caused his own coronary disease, it obviously didn't sink in on the audience. According to the Washington Post, the GOP confab included "smoke breaks" to enable delegates to go outside and light up. They stood around and puffed and huffed and worried about their favorite son. I know you're all choked up about it, too.

There is always the chance that Cheney could reject his new heart, and he will be on preventive immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of his life. But I wonder if, given the vitriol flowing through his veins, this might be the first case in medical history of the heart rejecting the patient.

Why?

Hey, Barack! You Don't Know Frack

I have never seen a dual presidency quite like that of Barack Obama. Candidate Obama is in full-bore populist rampage mode. Fair shot, fair shake, fair share, put the glare on the millionaire! (Romney).

Then, there is President Obama, who is in (literally) full-bore deregulation, pro-business mode. The latest shocker was in the form of a Friday news dump that took even some in the oil and gas industry by surprise. The White House announced the formation of a Gas Fracking Task Force made up of a panoply of federal agencies and industry kingpins. Its purpose is to streamline and alleviate those onerous regulations that now require frackers to prove that injecting millions of gallons of water and toxic chemicals into shale in order to extract natural gas is safe. This is a huge hint that the major fracking polluters will be allowed to regulate themselves, just as Wall Street is starting to police itself again, and e-Coli and salmonella-contaminated factory farms can now inspect themselves to help reduce bad government overreach. Corporations have long complained that rules and regulations designed to protect the public health and welfare make it too hard for them to make a buck. Obama appears to be listening.  

If Republicans were acting like the president, you can be sure there would be an outcry from what is left of the left. But when a Democrat acts like Dick Cheney, and colludes with energy corporations in their ongoing rape of the earth, there is nothing but silence. 

Unlike Cheney, though, the Obama Administration has announced its new Frack Force with openness and self-righteousness. The only sneaky part is that the heavy hitters of the oil and gas industry just happened to be waiting in the wings the minute Obama signed his executive order ("Supporting Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources")  and then proceeded for their first sit-down with the government agencies they effectively own. From Obama's official announcement:

In 2011, natural gas provided 25 percent of the energy consumed in the United States. Its production creates jobs and provides economic benefits to the entire domestic production supply chain, as well as to chemical and other manufacturers, who benefit from lower feedstock and energy costs. By helping to power our transportation system, greater use of natural gas can also reduce our dependence on oil. And with appropriate safeguards, natural gas can provide a cleaner source of energy than other fossil fuels.

For these reasons, it is vital that we take full advantage of our natural gas resources, while giving American families and communities confidence that natural and cultural resources, air and water quality, and public health and safety will not be compromised.

Translation: You are all fracked, whether you like it or not. But, skilled politician that I am, I will never use that dreaded F word in any of my spiels. Big Business will rake in record profits and provide a few temporary, low-paying jobs. We say that this cheaper natural gas will help power our transportation systems without mentioning that high-speed rail and other transportation and infrastructure bills have been DOA  for a long time. This Frack Force will aid my re-election bid by allowing me to continue to spout the canard that it will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. This is utter bullshit, since although domestic production is higher than ever,  the oil and gas extracted from our lands are the property of multinational corporations who sell it on the global market. What is fracked in the Banana Republic of the Homeland will not stay here. It will be sold abroad, at a huge profit to our tax-evading corporations, who will continue to hoard their ill-gotten gains 

When it is burned, natural gas of course is cleaner than oil or coal. As the president you elected to serve and protect you, I choose not to mention that the evidence is clear that the actual process of extracting it is a major and proven polluter of our domestic water supply. People are already getting sick by drinking poisoned well water. The EPA is already being forced to deliver potable drinking water to victims of fracking. This, of course, is being done at taxpayer expense. Polluters continue to enjoy our long sacred national tradition of never cleaning up their own messes. We have the SuperFund program for that.

The government bureaucrats are right on top of things, people! Our aim is to lull you and to dull you, and give you that false sense of security. Then, when the next deregulatory disaster strikes, we will have covered our asses through the creation of this phony task force.  Ooops! Mistakes were made!  We tried, or at least made ourselves appear to be trying.  Nobody could ever, ever have foreseen......

The Executive Order of Friday the 13th came mere weeks after oil and gas tycoons griped to Cass Sunstein, the Obama Administration's go-to guy for deregulation, that rules making them divulge the poisons used in fracking are cutting into their bottom line. One of their demands is to be allowed to voluntarily inform the public on just what measures they are taking to keep us safe. The industry currently runs a "disclosure" website called FracFocus, which purports to divulge chemicals used, and other fracking arcana. All their chemicals, of course, are either good for you, innocuous, or rigidly contained within pipes that will never break -- even in manmade earthquakes! The only glitch is thatwhen you visit the website, you discover some of their well data are more than a year out of date! I wonder if the execs were honest about that little catch. I wonder if the White House even asked.

Business Roundtable Chief Lobbyist John Engler reveals on the BRT website that he met personally with President Obama last month to urge relaxation of public health and safety rules in order for the industry to pocket more money, more quickly. He says the Frack Force is a good first step.  But in the spirit of bottomless sociopathic greed, he also complained that Obama is not also forming a task force to explore freakin' fracking for oil, too. There is crude a-wasting in North Dakota, for crying out loud. Public lands, Indian lands, private lands. They want it all.

As Dave Dayen of Firedoglake notes in a post today, not one independent outside environmental group has been invited to meet with the Frack Force. Nobody from the National Resources Defense Council, or the Sierra Club, or the Water Council. And most especially, not film-maker Josh Fox of "Gasland" fame. He might have documented the private discussions, or even offered President Obama a glass of fracky-brown Pennsyltucky well water to taste -- and we can't have that, can we?

The Famous Exploding Tap Water Scene from Gasland

Buffett, Stuff It

You know that when the mainstream corporate press starts snickering behind your back about your latest campaign theme, you have overplayed your hand. Dana Milbank has put up a pretty hilarious post spoofing the president's Buffett Rule and its latest Kabuki manifestation yesterday in the White House: a backdrop of four wealthy "Patriot Millionaires" and their all-girl quartet of photogenic assistants. Milbank referred to them as "Bobbleheads" to describe their synchronized cranial movements every time Barry mentioned how well he and they are all doing. It was, of course, pure coincidence that the Fab Four just so happen to be big Obama donors. The token millionairess in the bunch was heiress Abigail Disney. Obama, in turn, has been a big promoter of the Disney franchise, and recently used the Magic Kingdom as a backdrop in a speech pushing for an expedited visa process to enable opulent foreigners to visit the Stand Your Ground State without having to wait in one of those boring lines like everybody else. 

And one of the walking wealth props, Whitney Tilson, would probably largely escape the Buffett Rule anyway. He has stashed a lot of his cash in offshore tax havens.

Call those who wait in line the Jimmy Buffetts and the privileged few taxomasochists the Warren Buffetts. Milbank suggests that every time the Buffett Rule phrase is uttered, we should all take a drink. Margaritas, Pina Coladas but no Dom Perignon! This presidential campaign between two phony one percenters -- one of whom flagellates himself with a flimsy overcooked piece of angel hair pasta, and the other who has already admitted that he relishes firing people --  sure has me wanting to sing J.B.'s "Why Don't We All Get Drunk."

But since I don't sing well, I wrote this little nursery rhyme instead. If anyone is offended, then I thank you kindly.

The rule they call Buffett,
I'd just as soon stuff it
Right up their political ass.

They'll poop out their speeches,
Those corporate leeches --
Nothing solid -- just more corrupt gas.

Barry and the Bobbleheads (photo by AP)

Populist Pablum and Two-Tiered Justice

Anybody noticing that President Obama is running a really bland re-election campaign? The Buffett Rule, under which millionaires would pay a flat tax of 30%, is so weak as to be laughable. Not only does it have no chance of passing and is thus just a sideshow in political Kabuki Theater, it would only raise about $40 billion in revenue over the course of a decade. Contrast this with the loss of more than a trillion in revenue because of the Bush tax cuts.


Nothing at all has been said lately about non-renewal of the so-called Bush tax cuts, nothing about taxing high-speed Wall Street trades. As a matter of fact, W himself came out of the woodwork yesterday to complain they are still called the Bush Tax Cuts, when they should be "another body's tax cuts." His heh-heh-heh appearance and still-untreated language disability reminds us why people were once so enthusiastic about Barack.


The public policy center Demos says a financial-speculation tax is not only long overdue, but would garner billions more revenue than the small ball Buffett Rule. The Eurozone is in favor of such a tax. But, wouldn't you know -- Obama and his bank-friendly Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner don't like it so much. It would cost the donors on whom they so heavily depend to remain in The White House. Writes Wallace Turbeville of The American Prospect:

The Obama administration has voiced doubts about the enforceability of an FST as well fears that the costs would be passed along to ordinary investors and the overall effect would be to raise the costs of capital and hurt growth. These objections are groundless. Enforcement has not proved to be a major problem in the U.K. as just discussed. And ordinary investors may actually benefit from an FST as fund managers have fewer incentives to engage in excessive trading that increases fees for investors. As Ian Salisbury has pointed out, “Excessive trading can be a drag on fund performance because funds' brokerage commissions and other costs are deducted from investors' returns. Trading can also pump up capital-gains taxes that investors pay.” 

Ironically, Obama made his Buffett Rule pitch in Florida, in a public speech crammed amidst several million-dollar fundraisers hosted by the very same wealthy anti-regulation people he is asking to contribute "just a bit more." It was one of those G-droppin' harangues in which his voice frequently strained against the fakery of his own words. Lots of folksy, incredulous stammerin' that rich folks get away with such an outrage. Which is pretty outrageous, considering just last week he signed into law that hilariously-named JOBS Act, which brings deregulation and fraud back to Wall Street. Obama disingenuously called it an opportunity for small investors to cash in on job-creatin' IPOs via that so-trustworthy and anonymous Internet. But in the words of Matt Taibbi, "it couldn't suck worse."


Come to think of it, the de facto campaign slogan of Barack Obama is "I Suck Less." In actuality, though, it should be "I Suck, Romney Sucks. We Both Suck Up to Capitalist Cronies, and You're All Just a Bunch of Suckers."


Not one word, moreover, from Obama on how that much-vaunted 55-member Financial Crime Task Force he announced during his State of the Union address is coming along. The fact is, it is non-existent. If you haven't yet signed the CREDO petition demanding answers from Dear Leader, here is where you can find it. Such petitions usually roll off his tefloned back like water off a duck. But it's fun to imagine that just one infinitesimal droplet of sweat might mar his brow during this election year, give him one nano-second of pause.  


CREDO points out that even were Obama to fill all 55 slots, the effort would still be but a hollow emphysemic wheeze aimed at the criminal conflagration. During the Savings and Loan Scandal of the 80s, more than 1,000 FBI agents were dispatched to investigate those crimes, which pale in comparison to the extent of the still-ongoing Big Bank cataclysm of conspiracy. And Obama's typical passive aggression is deliberate to the extreme. Time (read: statute of limitations) is starting to run out:

President Obama’s record on Wall Street accountability is abysmal. But because of enormous grassroots pressure from activists like you and polling that suggests he needs to take on Wall Street as a part of his election campaign, we have a real opportunity to move President Obama to meaningful action on Wall Street accountability. Time, however, is running out.

President Obama’s first task force at the Department of Justice did little if anything to prosecute Wall Street for crimes that led to the financial crisis. But because of your activism, he announced a new task force and named progressive champion and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman one of its five co-chairs.

Schneiderman, you may recall, was widely accused of selling out to the Obama Administration when he dropped his serious investigation of the mortgage fraudsters and reached a very bank-friendly settlement. You may also remember that he promised to walk away from the Task Force if it turned out to be a big fat sham. Well -- it has been three months. We are still waiting.


Actually, Schneiderman may be just a little slow on the uptake. Two years after my local newspaper broke the story of a scam involving a Bridezilla who faked terminal cancer in order to score a free wedding and honeymoon, our Attorney General has finally had the woman arrested, charged with fraud and grand larceny, and thrown in the slammer. (H/T Valerie)

"By pretending to have a terminal illness, Vega inexcusably took advantage of the community's hearts and minds, and profited off of their generosity," said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. "Our office will hold this individual accountable for fleecing the public through lies and deception."

Ironically -- perhaps just humanely -- the cancer bride's alleged victims think she should be receiving mental help instead of jail time. But Eric the Dread has to show that he is strong on Law and Order as it affects the lesser people. Crooks like Jon Corzine and Angelo Mozilo who deceived and fleeced the public are rich and free, because they are VIPs. Punishing them might give the Stock Market the jitters. As President Obama put it in his Buffett fluff-puffer of a speech Monday, "I believe the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history."


There you have it. Capitalists rule, working people drool. Straight from Boca Raton (the Mouth of the Rat*), Florida, USA, home of corporate Disneyworld fantasies and Stand Your Ground.

*Reader Jay informs me the literal Spanish translation of Boca Raton is Mouth of the Mouse. Its original name was Boca de Ratones, which would translate into Rat's Mouth. In any event, this pricey Florida resort town was named after a rodent's maw of some sort. According to "Urban Dictionary", Boca Raton is defined this way:

1) Are you from Long Island?
2) Nah, I'm from Boca
1) Same shit
<><> <><> <>  <> <><>

(Photo Courtesy of CREDO)

OWS Occupies Wall Street -- Literally

For the first time since the movement began, Occupiers set up camp on the actual Wall Street in the wee hours today. Forty protesters parked themselves right across the street from the New York Stock Exchange and remained for five hours until the NYPD showed up with the plastic cuffs. There's more on the official OWS site.


And following up yesterday's post, you can read more opinions on the co-optation controversy here and here and here. 


One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that the 99% Spring's "week of action" just happens to coincide with the Tea Party movement's traditional Tax Day protests on April 15. This feeds into the canard that the Occupy movement is the Democrats' answer to the Tea Party Republicans. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.


The closest you will come to discovering the official White House position on the Occupy movement is to go to its unofficial think tank, the Center for American Progress. In an interview with the New York Times last month, president Neera Tanden took the "concern troll" approach. (Concern troll definition: a wet blanket who pretends to be on your side by offering "constructive criticism", all the while sowing the seeds of doubt) Tanden says Occupy is not getting as much media attention because of suddenly being rousted from the camps; she does not offer an opinion as to the illegality and immorality of police treatment of the demonstrators. Just that the demonstrators had better find a way to gin up more press:

They have fewer people, and it’s not a new story anymore that there were people protesting in the streets or sleeping in parks. They need to think of new ways to garner attention and connect with people around the country.

Meh. 

Co-Opting OWS: Hollywood Hotties of the One Percent

Count me among those who consider the new "99% Spring" movement just one one more phony patch of Democratic Party astroturf.

The anonymous blogger "Insider" of Counterpunch recently listed eight smoking guns proving a direct link from the 99% Spring to various and sundry Obama veal pen organizations -- most notably, MoveOn.org. That DNC front group, you may remember, came under fire from the real OWSers last fall when it ham-handedly attempted to co-opt the movement for its own fundraising and candidate- boosting purposes.

And now, they're back with week-long "training sessions" throughout the country, to instruct participants on how to peacefully protest and emulate Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. No mention of the general national strike planned by the real Occupy for May Day. As a matter of fact, they're pushing a toned-down, sanitized version of the movement, aimed squarely at the same disenchanted young people who catapulted President Obama to victory in 2008, but who have now left him in droves -- disillusioned, unemployed or underemployed and facing mountains of education debt it will take them a lifetime to repay. 

MoveOn must think the recipients of its email blasts are all naive and star-struck and in their 20s. I got yet another unbelievably annoying invite from them today, asking me to attend their peacenik training school for hip young hippies in a nearby town close to hip Woodstock. For inspiration, they included a short film to convince me it was so going to be worth it. Did it feature such powerhouse figures as Noam Chomsky and Chris Hedges? Of course it didn't!

Instead, this glitzily-produced film, its soundtrack a kitschy guitar and flute piece of elevator music, featured three of today's biggest 20-something stars lecturing grizzled old me how to fight corporatism and Wall Street greed. Two of them -- Penn Badgely and Olivia Wilde -- shilled for Obama's 2008 campaign. The third, Zoe Kravitz, was only 20 at that time, but her musician father Lenny is an ardent Obama supporter and once wrote a song in support of the president. 

Badgely actually plays a rich young one percenter on the hit TV series "Gossip Girl". According to Wikipedia, the series "revolves around the lives of socialite young adults growing up on New York's Upper East Side who attend elite academic institutions while dealing with sex, drugs, and other teenage issues." Badgely was voted one of People Magazines's 25 Beauties and Hotties at 25 in 2011. And Badgely has done film work for MoveOn before -- he appeared in one of its Obama campaign commercials in 2008. What a perfect voice for a faux-Occupy ripoff.

Olivia Wilde is another one percent actress who lists among her forebears the colonialist oligarchs of the British Empire. Olivia, whose parents are hegemonic Beltway diplomats, presumes to tell us to get in the streets and put our bodies on the line. She ranked Number One on Maxim's "Hot 100" in 2009. Oh, and she has previously starred in MoveOn ads supporting Obama. Quelle coincidence.

Zoe Kravitz is apparently new to astroturf activism and politics, and as far as I can tell, this is her first MoveOn gig. But her mother was a Cosby Kid (Lisa Bonet). So she has got that elitist minority vanilla cred, too.

These meritocrats do not mention Obama in their 99% Spring film. They don't have to. But they used some of the same rhetoric he did during his last campaign to hypnotize the young and the restless. The word "change" was uttered. "Are You In?" the young millionaires ask. That's the same phrase on all the Obama ads following me all over the Internet. "Are You In?"

This latest ploy is so obvious as to be laughable. The Occupy Movement is not going to be co-opted by Hollywood tinsel and political platitudes. The Occupy Movement got started because its members were fed up with President Sellout. As "The Insider" wrote,

In MoveOn.org’s short history, the front group has proven that co-option works, but co-opting Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring has been no easy task for it this time around.

It has been a particularly tough task because the Democratic Party, which it fronts for, is beholden to Wall Street and the Obama Administration whichMoveOn.org dutifully supports, plans on raising hundreds of millions of dollars from the 1-percent during his 2012 election campaign.

Furthermore, the Obama Administration has been largely responsible for supplying weaponry to suppress the Arab Spring, including in places such asEgypt, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, to name a few.

MoveOn.org has to tell overt lies in order to paint the Democratic Party and its President, Barack Obama, as a friend of democracy and working class. TheBig Lie, it can be said, is only believable for so long.

When the 99% Spring liberal trust fund babies protest every appearance by Mitt Romney during the upcoming campaign season, and the paramilitary police forces stand benignly by with coffee and donuts for the brave apparatchiks putting their bodies on the line, we'll know for sure how phony they truly are.

Until then, the real OWS is gearing up for the real American Spring, with weekly tactical training sessions in Zuccotti Park. Colin Moynihan, the New York Times reporter who has covered the movement locally from its inception, explains:

To prepare, organizers have held weekly practice sessions, called “spring training,” inside Zuccotti Park, where participants learn about the gong and other tactics, some of them adapted from a British activist group called the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army.

Over the course of an hour on Friday, protesters practiced several tactics, including “hup,” which involves a knot of people jumping up and down (and can be used to coalesce a scattered group) and “melt,” in which protesters drift to the ground (used for a ”die-in” or to de-escalate a confrontation).

One tactic, known as “wall,” involved ranks of protesters locking elbows and trotting forward in close formation, and could be used, organizers said, to move quickly while making it difficult for the police to physically break up the group.

Organizers said the sessions, which have been followed by short marches to the stock exchange for the closing bell, are meant to teach participants to work together and instill a sense of camaraderie.

Moynihan, who has had his own taste of NYPD brutality during various camp evictions, noted that the police were watching. And waiting. Something tells me they won't be handing out goodie bags to the real protesters on May 1.  They will be striking too, and if past performance is any predictor, it won't have anything to do with solidarity with the working class.

Roll Me Over in the Clover!

So, are you miffed that you signed up for a chance to attend today's White House Easter Egg Roll and did not get picked? Attendance at this annual event is by the usual class-based, two-tiered selection process. You either received a personal invitation because you are a wealthy or famous VIP, or you waited breathlessly to find out if you were randomly selected in an Internet lottery. A lucky 30,000 common people (aged 13 or under, accompanied by a parent) were chosen, to be herded onto the lawn in five different groups of 6,000 for two hours of roiling, rolling, rollicking fun.

Begun under the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes (or, as Barack Obama mispronounced it in a recent speech, "Rooth-erford") this marks the Egg Roll's 175th anniversary. From the official WH handout: (parentheses mine)

This year’s theme, “Let’s Go, Let’s Play, Let’s Move!,” spotlights the Let's Move! campaign, focusing "on promoting health and wellness and encouraging children to lead healthy and active lives." The White House will livestream performances and events all day at whitehouse.gov/live. Follow the action on Twitter with @LetsMove and @ObamaFoodorama with the hashtag #EasterEggRoll. 

There will be celebrity (not amateurs of the underclass!)  entertainers and celebrity chefs giving cooking demonstrations in the Play With Your Food area, which surrounds the Kitchen Garden and features a mini-farmers market, and fooducation booths. (how irritating a made-up word is that?)  Sports stars (from only A-List teams) leading fitness activities in the Eggtivity Zone, singers will perform on the Rockin' Egg Roll Stage (Janelle Monae, Cody Simpson, Zendaya, China Ann McClain and the McClain Sisters), and A-list actors (not D List!) will read kids books on the Storytime Stage (Sarah Palin impersonator) Julianne Moore, (Idi Amin impersonator) Forest Whitaker, (Big Democratic donor ABC- Disney teeny bopper impersonator) Bella Thorne).

Oh, and it won't be official until Bo the Dog disguised as the Cadbury Bunny appears. Not to go off on a tangent or anything -- but have you ever pondered the monumental arrogance it took for Obama to name his dog after himself? More accurately, he took his initials (BO) and foisted them on the pooch. This would be like FDR naming Falla "Effer", or Clinton naming Socks the Cat "Beecee", or Bush the Younger calling Miss Beazley "Geebee", or to give it the full-bore dynastic patrician cred, "GeeDubyaBee".

Actually, Obama is not the first president to name a pet after himself. John Tyler called his obscenity-spewing parrot "Johnny Ty". Such extreme identification with one's pet must be a characteristic of presidents who profess to being Democrats and then suddenly reveal their true party affiliation once in office.

 The least sentimental of the White House pet owners probably was Lyndon Johnson, who posed for a photograph holding his two beagles, "Him" and "Her" by their ears.

 And who would have guessed that dour-looking George Washington had a sense of humor about his pets -- his four hunting coonhounds were named Tipler, Drunkard, Tipsy and Taster.

A few presidents would be prime candidates for the animal hoarding shows so popular these days. Theodore Roosevelt of course was a life-long and obsessive collector of animals, both dead and alive, with favorites being dogs, cats, pigs and ponies. And taciturn Calvin Coolidge seems to have been one of those humans who more closely identified with animals than people. Besides scores of dogs, he owned a donkey, two lion cubs, an antelope, a pygmy hippo, a couple of raccoons, a black bear and a bobcat. 

But I digress from whatever theme I originally started out with. Actually, I don't think I even had a theme. Forgive me, people. It's Monday. Happy belated Easter and Passover to all!

My Re-election Pledge: To Always Roll Over for Corporate Interests (graphic by Kat Garcia)

An Army of Propagandistas

When the opposition party is so misogynistic that it makes Ted Bundy look like Sir Galahad, all you really have to do to seduce a nation of women into pulling the lever for you is to be your own charming self. When the chair of the RNC utters such crazy talk as calling the Republican War Against Women as fictional as a war against caterpillars, all you have to do is sit back and let the creepy crawly jokes proliferate. Rance Priebus, the inventor of the caterpillar non sequitur, is one slimy species himself. Rance Priebus Rancidus, an easily identified garish garden variety. When he is disturbed, orange horns pop out of his head and emit a foul-smelling spray.

Fight for Larval Liberty!

  

It's nonsense like this, as well as the more psychopathic anti-birth control and anti-choice invective emanating from the right wing fringe that has enabled President Obama to score double-digit leads over Mitt Romney in recent polling. He has wasted no time in "targeting" women in battleground states. Following his pal Rahm Emanuel's advice to "never let a crisis go to waste", he is hosting a women's conference at the White House today to further cement his feminist cred. He has chivalrously called for the admission of rich lady golfers to Augusta. He boldly bumped New York Times editor Jill Abramson from her commencement address gig at all-female Barnard.

And later this month, the Obama Victory Fund is sponsoring a two-day training session for potential Obamettes. Become a propagandista in the president's All-Girl Army! Show how strong you are by putting your money and energy behind a charismatic male politician and become his unpaid shill. Join the BarryWAC, contribute to the BarryPAC.

Warning: this extravaganza for the Ladies Who Lunch is obviously not designed for the 99% -- though if you're under 35 or over 65, you can buy the cheap tickets at "only" $250, with no Barry face time included. From Politico: 

The Obama campaign is hoping to train an army of women at the DNC's national issues conference in Washington, D.C., later this month.

The two-day convention will include remarks by President Obama and strategy meetings on American women, values and the 2012 election as well as economic security and strengthening the middle class.

Confirmed training sessions include: "Talking to Your Neighbor: Persuading Women Voters," "Digital Organizing: Effective Social Media Strategies," "Talking about the President’s Accomplishments," and "Crafting Your Personal Narrative."

A photo with Barry as part of the Army of Women admission package will cost you $15,000. If you fork over $75,800, you'll get a group photo, special seating, special dinner, and your name mentioned in public.

The readers' comments to the Politico article came from the usual tripartate crowd -- the left, the right and the Bots. A sampling:

I don't think Obama has my interest in mind at all. Look at the cost of the tickets.. I am an average American who makes average wages and there is no way I can afford to buy a ticket. If he really wants to train "an army of women", he needs to do it for free.

So.... Omama's camp is going to train an "Army of Women"? by highlighting how the administration “has helped create economic security for women" and convince them to Talk about the President’s "Accomplishments," Hmmmmmm... Tough Task ahead!

The "Talking about the President’s Accomplishments" class will last a total of 30 seconds. Included in the corriculum will be: "We got Bin Laden" and...um...hold on I'll think of it.....

 I think women should be proud and I do well to set a fine example for my daughter's. I encourage my daughters to be independent thinkers who will work to care for themselves and to never rely on anyone to provide for them. Obama is not emphasizing the strength of women at all. He is simply trying to produce more people to sing his praises in the guise of raising women up. More importantly, he is trying to use this as an opportunity to raise money.

Why not have these training session in each state? Some of the price of the airplane tickets could go to pay for the training. Statewide training would be more productive and easier to manage. Statewide training would work better being able to focus on each individual States special interests and needs as well would adapt to the demographics of those particular states. I can't afford to go to Washington the plane tickets alone would block me and then add on to it the tickets. It almost feels as though it is exclusive to the rich women, and not to the Middle class women. I am for Obama, but find that the costs of things are prohibitive. I was excited when I heard about this program, but now that I see the costs, it is unrealistic. And so just like the GOP things go to the rich.

And finally this, my own personal favorite from a male Bot named Michael: You just never liked Obama...If thats th case then fine, But belive me their are alot of women and young ladys out there in Amrica who are more then eager to hear a message of hope and how the world and men would be far far worse off without strong women. Mabye the message that women are better left at home to procreate for men and cook and provide only for the family, mabye that message better suits (R) women. After all Santorm see's women as too weak mentally and physically to serve in our fine military, Gingrich..... well what really needs to be said about him...My point (before i get off of track ) IMHO only one party truly represents the ideas of modern women and truly wants to invest in the future of women and thats the (D) I have not seen one peice of legislation in the last four years come from any (R) person that supports anything regarding womens rights...

Get With the Program, Ladies!