News Release Archive - 2011

Poverty Rate in Most States and Among Children Lowered by New Measure

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SHAWN FREMSTAD, fremstad at cepr.net, Alan Barber, alanbbarber at gmail.com
Fremstad is senior research associate with the Center for Economic and Policy Research and just wrote the piece “New Obama Poverty Measure Lowers Poverty Rates in Most States and Among Children.”

The piece states: “On Friday, November 4, the Census Bureau is holding a webinar on the Obama Administration’s proposed ‘supplemental’ poverty measure. The webinar is in advance of the release of new research on the measure on Monday. … In most states, the Obama poverty measure, at least as currently conceived, would result in lower poverty rates (and poverty thresholds) than the current official measure. …

“It is particularly striking that the biggest declines in poverty rates under the Obama measure would occur in many of the poorest states. Among the 10 states with the lowest per capita GDP, six are also in the top 10 of the states that would see the largest decline in poverty rates under the Obama measure. If, as [right-wing critics Robert Rector and Robert Samuelson] claim, the Obama measure ‘promotes income redistribution,’ it is regressive rather than progressive in federal fiscal terms — redistribution from a majority of mostly smaller and poorer state economies to a minority of mostly larger and wealthier ones.

“This result is largely produced by two flawed elements of the Obama measure: 1) it adopts a poverty threshold that is far too low as a measure of what is needed to live a minimally decent life today (only $23,854 for a family of two parents and two children in 2009, according to the Administration); and 2) it adjusts this threshold for geographic differences in housing costs in a way that allows the poverty thresholds for many states and sub-state areas to actually fall below the outdated federal poverty threshold.”

WikiLeaks Reveals U.S. Ties to Honduran Drug Dealer

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DANA FRANK, danafrank at ucsc.edu
Frank is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of many books, including Bananeras: Women Transforming the Banana Unions of Latin America, which examines the banana workers’ unions of Honduras. She recently wrote “WikiLeaks Honduras: U.S. Linked to Brutal Businessman.

She said today: “New Wikileaks cables reveal that the U.S. embassy in Honduras — and therefore the State Department — has known since 2004 that Miguel Facussé, the richest man in Honduras, who is allegedly responsible for the deaths of campesino activists in the Aguan Valley, is a cocaine importer. U.S. `drug war’ funds and training are being used to support a known drug trafficker’s war against campesinos.

“The U.S. is funding and training Honduran military and police that are conducting joint operations with the security guards of a known drug trafficker to violently repress a campesino movement on behalf of Miguel Facussé’s dubious claims to vast swathes of the Aguán Valley, in order to support his African palm biofuels empire.

“Despite strong anti-drug rhetoric from U.S. officials, State Department cables recently made available by Wikileaks show that the U.S. has been aware of the drug ties of one of Honduras’ most powerful and wealthy individuals since 2004, yet has continued to support him. U.S. military and police assistance is also aiding the businessman, landowner and coup-backer Miguel Facussé, in a campaign of repression targeted at the campesinos whose land Facussé wants for production of palm oil. Despite the objections of 87 members of Congress, U.S. funding for the Honduran military and police continues, even though reports continue to emerge of police involvement in killings, such as in the recent case of the son of a university rector, and journalists and human rights activists continue to be targeted, with impunity.”

“Freedom Wave to Gaza” Approaching Shore

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The group U.S. Boat to Gaza has released a statement: “The Canadian ship Tahrir and the Irish ship Saoirse have successfully reached international waters, initiating the ‘Freedom Wave to Gaza.’ The boats have embarked from Turkey and are on the Mediterranean Sea. In all, the two boats carry 27 passengers from Canada, Ireland, U.S., Palestine, and Australia.” The boats are reportedly close to Gaza, where Israel maintains a blockade, which has effectively shut off outside trade and travel for decades.

Interviews with the individuals on the boat, including those listed below, and more information can be obtained via Felice Gelman, gazafreedomwave at gmail.com

Kit Kittredge on board the Tahrir was previously a passenger on the American ship, The Audacity of Hope, which attempted passage to Gaza last July. Kittredge says, “The only obstacles in our way are Israel’s military and the complicity of the Obama administration but in our sails is the wind of worldwide public opinion which has turned against the illegal blockade.” Another of the Americans on the boat is Bob Naiman, who is with the group Just Foreign Policy and recently wrote the piece “Shalit Is Free. Lift the Siege of Gaza Now.”

Ann Wright, retired U.S. army Colonel and former U.S. diplomat says, “We carry inspiration from the Arab Uprisings and the worldwide ‘Occupy’ movements that are demanding freedom and justice. Where governments fail, civil society must act. As Americans we are fed up with our government’s unquestioning support of Israel no matter how violent, illegal and oppressive its actions. We will not stand by and watch $30 billion of our tax money committed to buying Israel weaponry used to carry out this illegal occupation of Palestine including the blockade of Gaza.”

Jane Hirschmann added, “Our sailing coincides with UN agency UNESCO’s recognition of Palestine as a member state, defying U.S. threats to cut off $80 million of U.S. funding in retaliation. This shows the growing strength of opposition by the international community to U.S. and Israeli policies in Palestine. We call on the international community to go further and take effective action to lift the siege of Gaza.” Hirschmann was one of the organizers this past summer of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope which is still captive in Greece.

See report from one of the boats from Jihan Hafiz on Democracy Now.

HUSSIEN AMODY, hussien.bassam2011 at gmail.com.
Amody is one of the founder of Witness Gaza, a group of young people in Gaza. Today, they organized a gathering at Gaza’s Haidar Abdel Shafi Square, a march to the nearby United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) building before holding a press conference in the Gaza Seaport. “We support these boats,” said Amody, a 19-year-old computer engineering student at Al-Azhar University. “We want to prevent any Israeli attacks and break this illegal blockade. We demand protection from the UN for these boats.”

AFP reports today”Israeli strike kills two in northern Gaza: medics.

G-20: * Greece * Financial Transaction Tax

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COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS, [in NYC] cpanayotakis at gmail.com
Panayotakis is associate professor of sociology at the New York City College of Technology at CUNY and author of the forthcoming book “Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy.” He said today: “Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s attempt to escape growing popular opposition to austerity by calling for a referendum has turned into a political fiasco, as German chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy have responded to his announcement by dictating that Greek voters can decide not on the latest European agreement but only on whether Greece will remain in the eurozone. By raising the possibility of Greece getting out of the eurozone, the German and French governments are hoping that they can blackmail the Greek public into submission. This threat has thrown the Greek government into turmoil and made it unclear whether the referendum will actually take place. By recommitting themselves to draconian austerity policies that have led not to the containment of the European crisis but to its spread and deepening, European leaders are as likely to fuel anti-austerity movements in Greece and across the continent as they are to exacerbate political instability in Greece.”

Reuters reports today: “European leaders could make progress in their drive for a financial transaction tax at a Group of 20 summit this week after French President Nicolas Sarkozy indicated Washington may prove less of a barrier than in the past.”

KAREN HIGGINS, Charles Idelson, cidelson at calnurses.org
DONNA SMITH, donnas at calnurses.org,
Higgins and Smith are with National Nurses United, the largest union and professional association of nurses in the U.S. — with 170,000 members. They just released a statement: “Nurses from Four Continents to Step Up Call Nov. 3 on President Obama, Other World Leaders for Tax on Wall Street,” which says: “National Nurses United, joined by the AFL-CIO and community activists, including participants from the Occupy Wall Street movement, will protest outside the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Nov. 3 to press President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for a meaningful financial transaction tax (FTT) to help heal the U.S. and join the growing global movement for an FTT.

“On that same day, nurses from four continents, including a delegation from NNU, will be on hand at the opening of the G-20 summit of world leaders in France to demonstrate how to ‘inject an FTT’ to resuscitate the ailing global economy.”

“It is long past time for Secretary Geithner and President Obama to get on board with other world leaders in supporting this common-sense approach to raise badly needed revenues to help fund the critical programs we need to revive the U.S. and other global economies,” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro, who will speak at the G-20 press conference in Cannes.

The group states: “NNU has been campaigning since early spring for an FTT, essentially a sales tax on trades of stocks, bonds, derivatives, and other financial transactions mainly targeting the big banks and investment firms whose reckless activities caused the current economic crisis. As much as $350 billion annually could be raised by a meaningful FTT, with the revenues available for such needs as good jobs, healthcare for all, and funding for quality public education. The Obama administration has been an obstacle for the Wall Street tax, and in the face of a growing international demand for other nations, especially in Europe, to adopt their own FTT, Geithner has lobbied European finance ministers to oppose the FTT.”

Note: Citizens for Tax Justice today released a report titled “Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010.” “These 280 corporations received a total of nearly $224 billion in tax subsidies,” said Robert McIntyre, director at Citizens for Tax Justice and the report’s lead author. “This is wasted money that could have gone to protect Medicare, create jobs and cut the deficit.”

* Oakland General Strike * “Veterans of the 99%”

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AP is reporting this morning: “Oakland prepared Wednesday to again become the epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street movement as local organizers aided by labor unions and advocacy groups finalized plans for a broad-based call to action that was expected to include marches, pickets outside banks, school shutdowns and an attempt to close the nation’s fifth-busiest port.” For more, see: OccupyOakland.org

SCOTT CAMPBELL, angrywhitekid at gmail.com
Campbell is a social media officer at a nonprofit who was arrested during the police raid on Occupy Oakland on Tuesday morning, when former Marine and Iraq War vet Scott Olsen sustained a skull fracture when he was hit by a police projectile. For more, see his website Angry White Kid and his twitter, @AngryWhiteKid

MELVYN DUBOFSKY, dubof at binghamton.edu
Distinguished professor emeritus of history and sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Dubofsky’s books include “The State and Labor in Modern America.” He argues that general strikes “have rarely been successful in the U.S. — especially when they are not accompanied by a specific set of demands and absent some sort of organization.” For more, see his faculty profile”.

BOOTS RILEY, bootsriley1 at gmail.com
Riley is an American musician, writer and front man for the political hip hop group the Coup. Riley is an organizer of the Occupy Oakland protests, including the general strike and mass day of action today. He said today: “The success of today’s actions is that we’re ushering in a new phase in organizing. It’s a one-day general strike. It’s a warning shot. It’s beyond saying that ‘we are the 99 percent.’ This is showing that the 99 percent can be organized, that we won’t be limited to the rules and regulations that unions have confined themselves to in the last 60 years. We can build a broad consensus and we don’t need the bosses any more.” Riley appeared on Democracy Now this morning: DemocracyNow.org — also, listen to: KPFA’s live streams .

ROBBIE CLARK, robbie at cjjc.org
Clark is Oakland Housing Organizer for Causa Justa :: Just Cause (CJJC) — a multi-racial, grassroots organization building community leadership to achieve justice for low-income San Francisco and Oakland residents. Today, the group is planning on protesting and occupying banks in Oakland and participating in the general strike and marching on the Oakland port this afternoon. For more, check out Causa Justa’s “Mass Day of Action” news bite.

ANDREW JOHNSON, via Matt Smucker, jmattsmucker at gmail.com
President of the New York City chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Johnson said today: “As veterans who have served our country in the military, we now have a unique opportunity to continue serving here at home through our participation in this civic movement for change. We want to connect with other veterans, to advocate for veterans, and to spotlight veterans’ involvement in this movement.” Johnson is part of a new group, “Veterans of the 99%” will walk in uniform to Occupy Wall Street. Other members of the group are also available for interviews and will participate at a news conference at the center of the Occupy Wall Street encampment. The group notes: “Veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and even World War II have participated in the movement, speaking out for the 99%, and raising the movement’s visibility in the process. Most recently, the unconscionable treatment of Marine veteran Scott Olsen in Oakland has drawn national attention to veterans’ participation in the Occupy Wall Street movement.”

For more: OccupyTogether.org, CommonDreams.org/Occupy

Greek Government “Blackmailing” Public

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COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS, cpanayotakis at gmail.com
Panayotakis is associate professor of sociology at the New York City College of Technology at CUNY and author of the forthcoming book “Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy.” He said today: “Faced with escalating opposition and resistance to the austerity measures it has imposed on the Greek population ever since the IMF and EU-backed bailout 18 months ago, the Greek government has announced a referendum on the latest European deal, which includes a new bailout for Greece as well as a voluntary 50 percent haircut for the country’s privately held debt.

“The fact that a second bailout has become necessary is a sign of the first bailout’s failure, thus further fueling the feeling of the Greek public that its sacrifices are leading to nowhere. As a poll and a wave of protests late last week showed, people’s first reaction to the new deal is not positive, so the Greek government is desperately trying to cling to power by blackmailing citizens that, if they don’t approve the deal and the new austerity measures it will imply, Greece will have to declare bankruptcy and leave the eurozone. This latest development has caught officials and observers outside Greece by surprise, leading to new economic volatility and making the European deal announced last week even more shaky than it already was.”

See Panayotakis’s articles: “Youth in Revolt” and “Greeks on the Move: Capitalism’s Wreckage and the Demand for Real Democracy”

As Violence in Afghanistan Escalates, Drone Trial Starts Tomorrow

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There have been a string of attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan the last several days, killing over 20 troops.

On Tuesday the trial of the Hancock Drone Resisters, 38 people from throughout Central New York and beyond who converged on Syracuse, New York on April 22, 2011 to protest the piloting of hunter-killer Reaper drones at Hancock Air National Guard Base is scheduled to begin. They participated in a die-in at the main entrance, symbolizing the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan by drones.

BRIAN TERRELL, brian at vcnv.org
One of the 38 people being charged in the trial, Terrell is co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. He said today: “Members of the New York National Guard are sitting in front of computers and operating drones with a mouse or joystick that fire hellfire missiles, killing people in Afghanistan 6,000 miles away. Then they go home to a warm dinner.”

ANN WRIGHT, microann at yahoo.com
Another defendant in the trial, Wright, a former State Department diplomat and retired Army colonel, helped re-open the U.S. embassy in Kabul in 2001. She resigned from the State Department in protest of the Iraq invasion in March of 2003. She said: “The recent spike in attacks on the U.S. embassy complex and elsewhere in Afghanistan can be attributed to the drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan. When the U.S. is attacking innocent civilians — and there are large numbers of innocents killed in drone strikes — it breeds anger. The so-called ‘collateral damage’ — women and children and men not involved is horrific. As we kill with drones, our troops will be killed by IEDs and suicide bombers. Our government won’t make that correlation, but we must.

“Drones are also being used in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, probably Ethiopia. Israel uses them against Palestinians and sells them to Turkey. China is starting to produce drones and will likely be selling them. Tragically, I think we will see military drone operators transition into civilian law enforcement positions and surveillance drones become weaponized and potentially used in domestic police actions.”

CAROL BAUM, carol at peacecouncil.net
Baum is staff organizer for the Syracuse Peace Council that helped organize the event. More updates, videos of the die-in, resources, media coverage and general info see: upstatedronereaction.org and this footage of the die-in.

Background: Nick Turse’s “Mapping America’s Shadowy Drone Wars.”

Article in Air Force Magazine: “Air Force World”

Is the 7 Billion or the 1% Causing Environmental Crises?

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According to the United Nations, world population will reach the 7 billion mark on Monday.

IAN ANGUS, ecosocialism at gmail.com
Angus is the co-author of the recent book Too Many People?: Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis. He has just published the piece “Is the Environmental Crisis Caused by the 7 Billion or the 1%?” which states: “[M]ost of the 7 billion are not endangering the earth. The majority of the world’s people don’t destroy forests, don’t wipe out endangered species, don’t pollute rivers and oceans, and emit essentially no greenhouse gases … [W]hile populationist groups focus attention on the 7 billion, protestors in the worldwide Occupy movement have identified the real source of environmental destruction: not the 7 billion, but the 1%, the handful of millionaires and billionaires who own more, consume more, control more, and destroy more than all the rest of us put together.”

CHRIS WILLIAMS, chriswilliams66 at hotmail.com
Williams is author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis and a professor of physics and chemistry at Pace University. He said: “It isn’t population growth that is causing food scarcity or is primarily responsible for the many accelerating global environmental crises. Even if population growth were to end today, worsening rates of starvation, the growth of slums, and ecosystem collapse would continue more or less unabated. Food production continues to outstrip population growth and therefore cannot be considered the cause of hunger. Clearly, there are very serious planetary problems of soil erosion, overfishing, deforestation and waste disposal, to name only a few, which are putting pressure on the sustainability of food production over the long haul. However, these are all inextricably bound to questions of power and a system run in the interest of a small minority — the 1% — where profit continually outweighs issues of hunger, waste, energy use, or environmental destruction. Concentrating on population confuses symptoms with causes.”

The Myth of Military Job Creation

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Today, as the Super Committee meets, the House Armed Services Committee holds a hearing on “The Economic Effects of Defense Sequestration.”

HEIDI GARRETT-PELTIER, hpeltier at econs.umass.edu
Assistant research professor at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and co-author of the report “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities: An Updated Analysis,” Garrett-Peltier said today: “My calculations show that the arms industry’s claims about increased unemployment are vastly exaggerated. A billion dollars spent on military production created about 11,000 jobs, compared to about 17,000 from clean energy, 19,000 from health care, and 29,000 from education.”

MIRIAM PEMBERTON, miriam at ips-dc.org
Research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Pemberton said today: “This committee needs to get back to the task of figuring out how much we need to spend to keep our country safe, not pushing unlimited military spending as a jobs program.”

Occupations and Public vs Congress and Super Committee?

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Today, the “Super Committee” will hold its first open public hearing in more than a month. Congressional Budget Office head Doug Elmendorf will testify. The CBO just released a study finding that the top 1 percent of earners more than doubled their share of the nation’s income over the last three decades.

THOMAS FERGUSON, thomas.ferguson at umb.edu,
Ferguson is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and a senior fellow of the Roosevelt Institute. He said today: “Look at Occupy Wall Street and almost any poll you pick up: Most Americans don’t want Social Security and Medicare to be cut. They also want taxes raised on the wealthy. The question is whether the Super Committee and the Congressional leadership are getting the message. The Committee’s report is due the day before Thanksgiving. It’s a toss up which will be the bigger turkey day.” Ferguson just wrote the piece “Posted Prices and the Capitol Hill Stalemate Machine”.

DAVID SWANSON, david at davidswanson.org
Swanson is with the group RootsAction and has been involved in the Freedom Plaza occupation in Washington, D.C. Some from that occupation have protested at recent congressional hearings. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie.

He said today: “Super Congress Member John Kerry’s home state is fifth in the nation in military spending, employing lots of registered voters building machines of death for Raytheon, whose former head was brought in by the Obama administration as Deputy Secretary of Defense and who told the Washington Times in June, ‘The wars of the future will be longer, deadlier and waged against a more diverse variety of enemies than ever before.’

“Super Congress co-chair Patty Murray, Democrat from Boeing, since 2007 has taken $276,000 from war industries, Max Baucus $139,000, Dave Camp $130,000, John Kerry $73,000, and so on. The President who must sign or veto whatever comes out of the Super Congress and the Less Than Super Congress took over $1 million from war industries just in the 2008 election, not to mention $39 million from finance, insurance, and real estate. Targeting our social safety net is a goal that Wall Street and the military industrial complex have shared for many years. And of course the general corporate exploitation of foreign resources and workers depends on the threat of military force. Military spending has increased at the President’s request each year since 2008 as well as since 2001.

“Thanks to Occupy Wall Street, a conversation has been launched about the damage the wealthiest one percent is doing to the rest of us. California just pulled out of a mortgage fraud settlement deal that is expected to let the crooks off easy. Who’s to say Occupy Wall Street didn’t influence that decision?

“The Super Congressional crusade to slash spending can only be carried through without causing massive misery and death in one of two ways, neither of which the U.S. Congress or President wants to touch, but both of which are central demands of the Occupation movement. The first is to significantly raise taxes on the super wealthy. The second is to significantly cut spending on the military. A progressive demand right now is not ‘Jobs Not Cuts’ but ‘Jobs Not Wars.’

“Seventy members of Congress have pointed out that ending the two biggest current wars in fiscal year 2012 would save $1.8 trillion over the following decade, above planned savings from promised reductions in troops. But war spending is pocket change in comparison with the overall military and security budget.

“Leon Panetta, who holds the position that we used to more usefully call ‘Secretary of War,’ considers $350 billion over 10 years, or $35 billion per year, to be serious cuts to the national security budget. But he’s discussing cuts to dreamed-of future budgets. The current budget would still increase under those so-called cuts. But imagine really taking $35 billion from a budget of well over a trillion. (According to Chris Hellman of National Priorities Project, the security budget is $1.2 trillion, including the spy agencies and various other departments.) That would be a cut of less than 3.5 percent.

“China spends about $114 billion per year on its military. Let’s generously assume there are enough hidden costs in China’s budget to double it to $228 billion. And let’s assume that we must spend twice as much as they do, because … well, just because. Now we’re at $456 billion. How do we get from there to Panetta describing a U.S. security budget of $965 billion as the lowest we can safely go, and a budget of $950 billion as ‘doomsday’? Is the danger here to us or to the profits of the weapons makers who are also demanding that any cuts made be made to troops’ benefits rather than to weaponry?”