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Last Updated: Aug 27th, 2009 - 10:59:05 |
Supreme Court Upholds Voting Rights Act
The Supreme Court has handed down several closely watched decisions. The Court upheld a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, but the Court declined to rule on the constitutionality of part of the law which sought to protect minorities in states with a history of racial discrimination. Only Clarence Thomas, the lone African American on the court, voted against upholding the Act.
Senate Apologizes for Slavery
The US Senate has unanimously approved a resolution apologizing for slavery and segregation of African Americans. A disclaimer tacked on at the end of the bill said nothing in the resolution authorizes or supports reparations for slavery.
Trial of Former Democratic Rep. William Jefferson Begins
The federal trial of former Democratic Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana has begun. Federal prosecutors told jurors Jefferson had squeezed hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from people who sought his help. Jefferson has been charged with sixteen counts, including bribery, racketeering, obstruction of justice and money laundering. In 2005 the FBI raided Jefferson’s Capitol Hill home and found $90,000 wrapped in foil and stuffed in food containers in a freezer.
GOP Aide in Tennessee Distributes Racist Image of Obama
In Tennessee, Republican State Senator Diane Black is refusing to fire a staffer who sent a racist image of President Obama. The staffer, Sherri Goforth, sent out an email with images of all the presidents of the United States. Barack Obama was depicted in the bottom right hand corner only as a pair of bright white eyes on a black background.
GOP Operative in SC Compares First Lady to a Gorilla
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, a prominent Republican activist has apologized after making a joke on his Facebook page that an escaped gorilla from a local zoo was an ancestor of First Lady Michelle Obama. Rusty DePass is the former Republican state elections director in South Carolina.
Obama Defends Public Health Plan, But Signals Willingness to Drop It
President Obama was speaking at his fourth White House news conference. After his comments on Iran, Obama was asked about protests from insurance companies that his support for a government-run public option in healthcare reform would put them out of business.
President Obama: “Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If private—if private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality healthcare, if they tell us that they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical.”
Although Obama defended the public health option, he later suggested an openness to dropping it entirely. Asked if the inclusion of a government-run program in healthcare reform is “non-negotiable,” Obama initially ignored the question. When later asked to respond again, Obama refused to call the public health proposal non-negotiable and said he hasn’t “drawn lines in the sand.”
President Obama: “We are still early in this process. So, you know, we have not drawn lines in the sand, other than that reform has to control costs and that it has to provide relief to people who don’t have health insurance or are underinsured. You know, those are the broad parameters that we’ve discussed.”
Insurance Companies: Public Health Option Would Be “Devastating”
Obama’s comments come as the insurance industry is intensifying its lobbying against the public insurance option. On Tuesday, the nation’s largest insurance industry group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, said a government-run program would bring “devastating consequences” and “dismantle employer-based coverage, significantly increase costs for those who remain in private coverage, and add additional liabilities to the federal budget.”
Group: Dem Proposal Could Hurt Low-Income Job Seekers
Meanwhile, a progressive think tank is now criticizing a Democratic proposal that would force employers to help pay the health insurance costs of low-income workers. Under the plan, employers who don’t provide health coverage would have to pay half the cost of Medicaid benefits or the full cost of subsidies for workers who opt to buy coverage through the proposed insurance exchange. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the plan could discourage the hiring of low-income workers by essentially imposing a surcharge on their employment. Backers of a universal, single-payer healthcare system have criticized the Democratic approach in part because it makes workers and employers responsible for health insurance coverage instead of the government.
Poll: 72% of Americans Back Creation of Public Healthcare Plan
A new poll by the New York Times and CBS News has found that 72 percent of Americans support the government creating a public healthcare plan, similar to Medicare, which would compete with private insurance plans. The poll also found the majority of Americans now believe the government would do a better job than private insurance companies in providing medical coverage.
Supreme Court Denies Post-Conviction DNA Testing
Prisoners attempting to challenge their convictions have been dealt a major setback by the Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled Thursday that criminals do not have a constitutional right to DNA testing after their conviction. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said it is up to the states and Congress to decide who has a right to testing that might prove innocence long after conviction. In the dissenting opinion, John Paul Stevens wrote, “There is no reason to deny access to the evidence and there are many reasons to provide it, not least of which is a fundamental concern in ensuring that justice has been done.” The Innocence Project says DNA testing has exonerated 240 people nationwide, at least seventeen of whom had been sentenced to die.
Report: Unemployment Crisis to Continue Until 2014
Meanwhile, a leading economic forecaster is projecting that much of the country will not return to peak employment until at least 2012, and many cities won’t return to recent peaks until 2014 or later. Six million jobs have been lost since the recession began eighteen months ago. NSA Database Collects Millions of Intercepted Emails
NSA Database Collects Millions of Intercepted Emails
The New York Times has revealed that the National Security Agency is operating a secret surveillance database that contains millions of intercepted foreign and domestic emails. The NSA’s database, codenamed Pinwale, allows the NSA to search through millions of email messages, including correspondence to and from Americans. The Times reports the NSA database even includes some intercepted personal correspondence of former President Bill Clinton.
ACLU Files Suit over Communication Management Units
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons challenging the legality of the government’s use of secretive prison units known as Communication Management Units, or CMUs. The units are designed to severely restrict prisoner communication with family members, the media and the outside world. Most of the prisoners held in the CMUs have been Muslim men, but the units have also held political activists, including the environmental activist Daniel McGowan, who is being held at a CMU in Marion, Illinois. Daniel McGowan’s attorney Lauren Regan appeared on Democracy Now! in April.
Lauren Regan: “The inmates there do call Marion, Illinois, ‘Little Guantanamo.’ Part of the reason that they call it that is because it is a secret facility. They do feel as if they are being hidden, not only from society at large, but from other inmates in the federal system.”
Immigrant Rights Groups Criticize Lax Sentencing in Penn. Murder Case
Immigrant rights groups are outraged over the sentencing of two white teenagers involved in the beating death of a Mexican immigrant in the town of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. The teenagers will serve as little as six months in jail. Last month, an all-white jury exonerated the two former high school football players of the most serious charges in connection with the fatal beating.
Top Minutemen Officials Arrested on Murder Charges
Two top officials of the anti-immigrant group Minutemen American Defense have been arrested on murder charges in Arizona. Shawna Forde, the group’s executive director, and Jason Bush, the group’s operations director, were both charged with two counts of first-degree murder. A third person was also charged. Police say the three broke into a home and killed a man and his eight-year-old daughter. The Minutemen American Defense organization has sent teams of armed vigilantes to the US-Mexico and US-Canada border in an attempt to stop undocumented workers. It is a separate organization from Jim Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project.
Key Dem Endorsed Nixon Bombing of Cambodia; Nixon Urged Abortion for Interracial Couples
And newly released documents and tapes have provided fresh revelations about President Richard Nixon’s time in office. Telephone transcripts show Nixon got the approval of the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee five days before expanding US attacks on Cambodia in April 1970. In response to Nixon’s plans to attack Cambodia, Senator John Stennis replied, “I will be with you…I commend you for what you are doing.” The newly released material also shows Nixon favored abortions in the case of interracial couples. Speaking to an aide, Nixon said, “There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. Or a rape.”
DC Transit Officials Were Warned on Subway Cars Before Fatal Crash
In Washington, DC, federal transportation officials say transit authorities ignored recommendations to replace older subway cars before Monday’s crash that killed nine people. On Tuesday, National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson Debbie Hersman said the warnings were first issued three years ago.
Debbie Hersman: “We made recommendations in 2006 about the crash-worthiness of the 1000-series cars. We recommended to WMATA to either retrofit those cars or to phase them out of the fleet. They have not been able to do that, and our recommendation was not addressed, so it has been closed and in an unacceptable status.”
US Rules Out Panel’s Call for 40% Emissions Cut
The Obama administration has rejected a UN scientific panel’s call for a 40 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. On Tuesday, US climate envoy Todd Stern called the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s target “not necessary,” “not feasible” and “not in the cards.” Stern made the comments at international talks in Mexico ahead of the December global climate summit in Copenhagen.
US climate envoy Todd Stern: “These are hard issues, and I think that we are just—you know, we’re working through it and making progress. I do think that we will have a successful agreement in Copenhagen, but it would be—we just say, in the context of any kind of negotiation like this, it would be incredibly unusual.”
Southern Baptist Convention Expels Church for Support of Gay Rights
The Southern Baptist Convention has cut ties with a Texas church over what it calls an overly lenient stance on homosexuality. On Tuesday, delegates voted to end a 127-year relationship with Fort Worth’s Broadway Baptist Church. The church had drawn scrutiny from opponents of gay rights over proposals to allow photographs of same-sex couples in its directory.
Kidnapped NYT Reporter Escapes from Taliban
In other news from Afghanistan, a New York Times reporter has escaped from the Taliban after being held hostage for seven months. David Rohde was abducted on November 10, but his kidnapping had been kept a secret by the Times and other Western media outlets.
Nestle Recalls Cookie Dough Products Due to E.Coli Scare
The food giant Nestle has recalled all Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products because of e.coli contamination. The Food and Drug Administration said there has been sixyt-six reports of illness across twenty-eight states since March from the contaminated cookie dough.
Somalia Declares State of Emergency After Intense Fighting
Thousands have fled Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu as government forces continue to fight opposition Islamist fighters. Fierce street fighting over the past month has claimed hundreds of lives. Bombs have killed two lawmakers, the country’s security minister, the police commander of Mogadishu, and nearly two dozen civilians.
Parliament Speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Madobe urged the neighboring countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Yemen and Djibouti to immediately send troops to Somalia. He also asked the wider international community to assist Somalia against, quote, “foreign fighters” and “terrorists.”
SHEIKH ADEN MOHAMED MADOBE: [translated] We are also calling on the international community, especially the US, the EU and the Arab League, to play their role in helping ensure the survival of Somalia from an aggressive enemy of terrorists.
Some news sources, including Al Jazeera, have reported that Ethiopian troops had returned to Somalia. The Ethiopian government spokesperson, however, told reporters that Ethiopia would not invade Somalia without an international mandate.
Kenya’s Foreign Minister said Sunday that his country would not, quote, “just sit by and watch the situation in Somalia deteriorate beyond where it is.” Somalia’s Islamist Al-Shabaab militia issued a stern warning against any intervention by neighboring countries.
Meanwhile, the number of people displaced by the fighting continues to rise. The humanitarian situation is dire, with over a third of the country—that is, some four million people—dependent on international agencies for aid.
US to Return Ambassador to Syria
The Obama administration says it plans to return a US ambassador to Syria after a four-year absence. The Bush administration withdrew its ambassador in 2005 after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The Syrian government has denied allegations of involvement in Hariri’s death.
Veterans of Kenyan Anti-Colonial Struggle Sue Britain
The British government is facing a lawsuit over the repression of the Kenyan struggle for independence against colonial rule. On Tuesday, a group of veterans of Kenya’s resistance movement filed a suit in British court seeking compensation for human rights abuses during the Mau Mau rebellion of 1952 to 1960. More than 100,000 Kenyans are believed to have been killed in the British crackdown. Gitu Wa Kahengeri is a Mau Mau veteran and spokesperson for the case.
Gitu Wa Kahengeri: “The colonial regime in Kenya at that time had robbed all our lands, had broken almost every human right against us, and we were living at that time in our country like slaves, and therefore we rose up and say we must see that Kenya recovers its freedom and its land.”
Deep Packet Inspection: Telecoms Aided Iran Government to Censor Internet, Technology Widely Used in US
the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that European telecommunications companies have helped the Iranian government develop one of the world’s most sophisticated mechanisms to monitor and control communications on the internet. This capability was provided in part by a joint venture of the German-based Siemens AG and Nokia, the Finnish cell phone company.
The Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called “deep packet inspection,” which enables authorities to block communication, gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes. The Wall Street Journal also reports that China’s internet censoring mechanism is believed to use deep packet inspection, as well.
The media reform group Free Press says the same technology is also being widely deployed here in the United States.
Report: Iran Ordered Family of Slain Protester to Pay $3,000 “Bullet Fee”
The Wall Street Journal reports the Iranian government ordered the family of a slain nineteen-year-old protester to pay $3,000 in order to get his body back. The $3,000 has been described as a “bullet fee”—a fee for the bullet used by security forces to kill their son. The fee was waived after the family agreed not to hold a funeral or burial in Tehran. All mosques in Tehran have been reportedly prohibited from holding memorials or publicly mourning the deaths of protesters.
Judge Orders Release of Guantanamo Prisoner After Seven Years, Saying Government Position “Defies Common Sense”
A federal judge has ordered the release of another prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay, thirty-year-old Syrian national Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Janko. In the year 2000, al-Janko was tortured by al-Qaeda, who accused him of being a Western spy, and he was imprisoned by the Taliban for eighteen months. He was then captured by the United States in 2002 and spent the next seven years in Guantanamo. On Monday, District Court Judge Richard Leon rejected the government’s position that al-Janko had once been a part of al-Qaeda, saying it “defies common sense.”
Report: Israel Authorizes 300 New Settlement Homes
In Israel and the Occupied Territories, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has reportedly authorized the construction of 300 new homes in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz is reporting the housing units will be built near the Talmon settlement in an outpost initially established even without Israeli government approval. The new construction would conflict with the Obama administration’s public call for a freeze on Israeli settlement expansion. President Obama, however, has refused to apply any meaningful pressure on Israel by withholding some of the billions in annual US aid. He’s also refused to call for the settlements’ complete dismantlement, even though they’re widely considered illegal under international law.
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