Politics
We’ll never know, we’ll never know, we’ll never know. That’s the mocking-bird media refrain this season as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of America’s greatest mystery – the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson hijacked a large chunk of her paper’s Sunday Book Review to ponder the Kennedy mystery. And after deliberating for page after page on the subject, she could only conclude that there was some “kind of void” at the center of the Kennedy story. Adam Gopnik was even more vaporous in the Nov. 4 issue of the New Yorker, turning the JFK milestone into an occasion for a windy cogitation on regicide as cultural phenomenon. Of course, constantly proclaiming “we’ll never know” has become a self-fulfilling prophecy for the American press. It lets the watchdogs off the hook, and excuses their unforgivable failure to actually, you know, investigate the epic crime. When it comes to this deeply troubling American trauma, the highly refined writers of the New Yorker and the elite press would rather muse about the meta-issues than get at the meat.
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As if they haven’t caused enough havoc by destroying social programs, pensions, women’s health and voting rights – our multi-tasking state legislators now want to line their pockets while they line our landfills with radioactive waste. Ohio’s neo-conservative Republican Governor John Kasich, a founding member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has come up with another way to frack the people of Ohio with this “beneficial use” scam.
If you wanted to suck up to the fracking industry and transform Ohio into a haven of radioactive waste dumps, the best place to hide it is in the budget. The Ohio budget bill (SB 59) passed in June gives the Ohio Department of Natural Resources sole authority over the radioactive content of fracking wastes, along with the most of the toxic sludge that the industry brings up from deep underground. This squeezes-out other regulatory agencies like the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Department of Health.
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In the book All Labor Has Dignity Reverend Martin Luther King describes how the organized labor movement first came into being: "The worker became determined not to wait for charitable impulses to grow in his employer. He constructed the means by which a fairer share of the fruits of his toil had to be given to him."
Janitors in the Midwest have decided not to wait for charitable impulses to grow in their employers. A series of strikes began last month in Columbus, Ohio, and janitors in Cincinnati went on strike for the first time last Thursday.
On the same day 12 supporters from Chicago, Cleveland, Toledo and Columbus were arrested in a supportive act of civil disobedience at PNC Bank in Columbus to raise awareness of unfair labor practices by New York-based ABM Industries, the largest janitorial contractor in the U.S.
"At the negotiating table, ABM was the ringleader—demanding a part-time janitorial workforce in Columbus," said Claude Smith, a Vietnam War veteran and full-time ABM janitor in Columbus.
Using the citizen initiative provisions of the Columbus City Charter that allows citizens to propose legislation, the Columbus Coalition for Responsive Government (“the Coalition”) announced it will file signatures in support of a proposed law to reform political campaigns in Columbus on Thursday.
“As progressive people, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, we recognize the pernicious influence of money in our political life. Because all politics is local and we think globally but act locally, we are addressing this issue in Columbus,” said Coalition committee member Denise Benning.
“Governance should be about more than staying in power. True public servants will want to ensure we have a robust, competitive, and fair electoral system, and we are hopeful that the individual members of Columbus City Council can see past their short-term political goals and approve this ordinance based upon the good it provides to residents of Columbus, present and future,” said Willis Brown.
“This will be a test of our priorities. Council approves casino tax money to fund a bailout of an entertainment venue -- Nationwide Arena.
While the votes of politicians are recorded, even when they slip through an obscure clause in the budget, the question of who influenced them remains. Who poured them the glass of tainted water to wash this poison bill down our throats with the budget? While it is not technically correct to use campaign contributions and bribes interchangeably, there is a tendency to contribute to politicians who will support one’s position.
A leading recipient of fracking money in Ohio is House Speaker William Batchelder. The cushions of Batchelder's house seat are stuffed with a considerable amount of fracking money. Since 2006, he has received $44,293 from the Ohio Oil and Natural Gas Association, an industry lobbying group. The fracking industry also supported him directly with $55,000 from FirstEnergy Corp, $26,850 from NISOURCE, $26,350 from Dominion, $16,250 from Duke Energy, $12,500 from Chesapeake Energy and $35,750 from American Electric Power.
Cheryl Shuman’s successful tour of Ohio to promote the Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment, sponsored by the Ohio Rights Group (ORG), concluded in Cleveland a week ago with a segment by Lee Jordan on the city’s News Channel 5. Success becomes self-evident when the opposition appears, often in the form of the Drug Free Action Alliance (DFAA), which is headquartered on Huntley Road in Columbus. The segment, entitled “Northeast Ohio family seeks medical cannabis in Colorado to find effective treatment for seizures” and aired on October, 25, 2013, included several quotes from DFAA Executive Director Margie Seidel to rebut the use of cannabis for treating the devastating seizures experienced by Jordan Lykes who suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy.
In the first quote, Ms. Seidel states that, “Medicine goes through a very rigid process of study and research through the FDA, a revered system throughout the world." Really?
Many of these FDA approved drugs have proven to be harmful or even deadly. For example, in 2009, drug induced deaths, principally from otherwise legal opiates, exceeded deaths from motor vehicle accidents for the first time since such tracking began.
The Committee of Citizens Against Issue 50 & 51 will start open discussion and state points of correction for the education of children in the the Columbus City Schools district.
Ever since the first big revelations about the National Security Agency five months ago, Dianne Feinstein has been in overdrive to defend the surveillance state. As chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she generates an abundance of fog, weasel words, anti-whistleblower slander and bogus notions of reform -- while methodically stabbing civil liberties in the back.
Feinstein’s powerful service to Big Brother, reaching new heights in recent months, is just getting started. She’s hard at work to muddy all the waters of public discourse she can -- striving to protect the NSA from real legislative remedies while serving as a key political enabler for President Obama’s shameless abuse of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
Last Sunday, on CBS, when Feinstein told “Face the Nation” viewers that Edward Snowden has done “enormous disservice to our country,” it was one of her more restrained smears. In June, when Snowden first went public as a whistleblower, Feinstein quickly declared that he had committed “an act of treason.” Since then, she has refused to tone down the claim. “I stand by it,” she told The Hill on Oct. 29.
Feinstein’s powerful service to Big Brother, reaching new heights in recent months, is just getting started. She’s hard at work to muddy all the waters of public discourse she can -- striving to protect the NSA from real legislative remedies while serving as a key political enabler for President Obama’s shameless abuse of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
Last Sunday, on CBS, when Feinstein told “Face the Nation” viewers that Edward Snowden has done “enormous disservice to our country,” it was one of her more restrained smears. In June, when Snowden first went public as a whistleblower, Feinstein quickly declared that he had committed “an act of treason.” Since then, she has refused to tone down the claim. “I stand by it,” she told The Hill on Oct. 29.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Police in Saudi Arabia stopped and fined at least
16 women who intentionally drove cars on Saturday (Oct. 26) after the
monarchy and Islamist clerics refused to support demands to give
drivers' licenses to females.
Police had received an advisory describing how to deal with female drivers, including a suggestion that they should be taken into a side street, issued a warning, made to promise not to drive again, and their car keys should be given to a male guardian, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"Police stopped six women driving in Riyadh, and fined them 300 riyals (about 80 US dollars) each," said the capital's police deputy spokesman, Colonel Fawaz al-Miman, according to Agence France-Presse.
Police stopped six other women in Eastern Province, plus two in Jeddah and two more elsewhere in the kingdom, local media reported.
More than 60 women claimed to have driven on Saturday, activists said.
Aziza Youssef, a Saudi university professor and activist, said 13 videos plus 50 phone messages from women showed or claimed females drove cars that day, Associated Press reported.
Police had received an advisory describing how to deal with female drivers, including a suggestion that they should be taken into a side street, issued a warning, made to promise not to drive again, and their car keys should be given to a male guardian, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"Police stopped six women driving in Riyadh, and fined them 300 riyals (about 80 US dollars) each," said the capital's police deputy spokesman, Colonel Fawaz al-Miman, according to Agence France-Presse.
Police stopped six other women in Eastern Province, plus two in Jeddah and two more elsewhere in the kingdom, local media reported.
More than 60 women claimed to have driven on Saturday, activists said.
Aziza Youssef, a Saudi university professor and activist, said 13 videos plus 50 phone messages from women showed or claimed females drove cars that day, Associated Press reported.
A common angle from the mainstream U.S. media is that NSA leaker Edward Snowden will regret his asylum in Russia (rather than life in prison in the U.S.). A quote from ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern was used in support of that theme, but he has asked the New York Times to clarify it.
I was quoted in Steven Lee Myers's "In Shadows, Hints of a Life and Even a Job for Snowden," published by the New York Times on Oct. 31, as saying (about former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden), "He's free, but not completely free" in asylum in Russia.
An unfortunate juxtaposition in the text of Mr. Myers's piece has led several acquaintances to misinterpret my words. I trust you will agree that the issue is of some importance; thus, my request that you publish this clarification.
I was quoted in Steven Lee Myers's "In Shadows, Hints of a Life and Even a Job for Snowden," published by the New York Times on Oct. 31, as saying (about former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden), "He's free, but not completely free" in asylum in Russia.
An unfortunate juxtaposition in the text of Mr. Myers's piece has led several acquaintances to misinterpret my words. I trust you will agree that the issue is of some importance; thus, my request that you publish this clarification.