best political docs • kosher gets ethical

january 2011 's other community organizer How to manufacture a disease

terrorist

by association Are you guilty? Ask the FBI. by jeremy gantz PLUS Chris Lehmann takes down the Babbitt of the Bobos, David Brooks letters

syrup does not appear isn’t subsidized because the to push the boundaries and to be a measureable manufacturer itself may not struggle to earn recognition contributor to mercury be directly on the dole. The in a marketplace dominated in foods. large agribusinesses that by four or five major labels Also, it is important to grow corn reap not only worldwide. note that manufacturers grain, but lavish government The article’s dramatic of corn sweeteners do not handouts through what I headline reflects the au- receive government support called “skewed government thor’s out-of-date viewpoint. payments. Our industry buys policies.” That means that tax Nostalgia blinds Lears to corn on the open market at dollars allow HFCS manu- the present. It’s a viewpoint the prevailing market price. facturers to take advantage clearly evident when she Audrae Erickson, President of artificially cheap corn writes: “Those of us avid Corn Refiners Association prices to produce artificially listeners who came of age Washington, D.C. cheap HFCS. in the 1990s and earlier re- member how much effort it The mercurial Terry J. Allen Exorcising ‘90s nostalgia science of syrup took to learn about obscure responds With all due respect, Rachel bands and track down their The American public can rest You have confirmed in an Lears in “The End of Indie?,” recordings.” assured that high fructose email to ITT that Stopford’s (December 2010) misses the Indie music isn’t dead by a corn syrup is safe (“Let Them study was not independent: point. Yes, there are fewer long-shot. It’s just a bit harder Drink Soda,” December “Duke University Medical independent labels, and yes, to find than in the heady days 2010). No mercury or mercu- Center was compensated by it is harder for “indie” bands of the 1990s. ry-based technology is used the Corn Refiners Associa- to get signed nowadays. But Richard Sweeting in the production of high tion (CRA) for the time Dr. many indie bands continue Colchester, United Kingdom fructose corn syrup (HFCS) Stopford spent evaluating in North America. Safety is the test methodology and the highest priority for our the final results,” you wrote. industry, which is why we CRA also provided selective immediately commissioned test samples, the study was external testing as well as in- not peer reviewed, and it dependent expert review of did it disclose Dr. Stopford’s claims concerning mercury relationship to the CRA. and our corn sweetener. I suggest you read my Woodhall Stopford of current column (p. 12) on the InTheseTimes.com Duke University Medical corrosive effects of conflicts Center, one of the nation’s of interest in research. leading experts in mercury Low-level mercury For a video interview with Stephanie Weiner contamination, reviewed the contamination is really and Joe Iosbaker, the two subpoenaed activ- results of total mercury test- not the most serious issue ists who are featured on this month’s cover, ing of samples of high fruc- with HFCS, but if you need and for updates on the federal grand jury tose corn syrup conducted by evidence of its presence, see investigation into “material support for terror- Eurofins Central Analytical a peer-reviewed article in ism,” visit InTheseTimes.com. Laboratory in February and the journal Environmental The American dream is faltering, but the Hora- March 2009. Dr. Stopford Health which found “signifi- tio Alger myth persists. Chris Rabb, author of concluded: cant amounts” and another Invisible Capital: How Unseen Forces Shape En- • No quantifiable mer- study by the Institute for trepreneurial Opportunity explains how and why cury was detected in any Agriculture and Trade Policy. in our “20 Questions” interview feature. of the samples analyzed. Equally disingenuous • High fructose corn is your denial that HFCS

2 january 2011 In These Times contents Volume 35 – Number 1 frontline 7 Fighting for Peace of Mind Operation Recovery tries to stem war’s mental wounds. By Alexandra MArkowski a l s o : –Black farmers still losing ground 9 28 –India’s Green Party maverick –Kosher gets ethical 9 dear itt ideologist By Pete Karman

views 12 [SIC] Health + Science How to manufacture a disease By terry j. allen 21 16 13 Back Talk WikiLeaks: The TMZ of global politics By Susan J. Douglas FEATURES 14 The Third Coast Chicago’s torture cop awaits his sentence 16 terrorist by association By salim Muwakkil The Justice Department targets 15 public Defender nonviolent solidarity activists Good profits from “the good war” By jeremy gantz By Lenoard C. Goodman

21 your Holiday guide to Deficit Reduction CULTURE Pleasing your base while (maybe) saving some cash 28 The babbitt of the Bobos By David moberg Is David Brooks America’s most misguided pundit? 24 a three-point plan to save democrats By Chris Lehmann The party must reconnect to its populist roots 31 take two By roger bybee Get angry: The year’s top ten political documentaries 26 Chicago’s other community organizer By michael atkinson Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) wants to solve the deficit a l s o : crisis without soaking the lower and middle classes –Autopsy of an auto plant By David Moberg 34 excerpt Program or Be Programmed cover 36 Death and Crossing Subpoenaed activists Stephanie Weiner and Joe Iosbaker stand Too many migrants outside their Chicago home, which was raided by the FBI on meet Santa Muerte September 24, 2010. Photo by Peter Holderness By Norma Price

In These Times january 2011 3 editorial

Our Follower in Chief “With liberty and justice for all...” Founding Editor & Publisher he planned December ful counterinsurgency was endangered James Weinstein (1926–2005) Editor & Publisher Joel Bleifuss review of U.S. war policy in by Afghan government corruption and Web Editor & associate Editor Afghanistan was supposed ineffective military training. But propo- Jeremy Gantz to determine “the progress nents of escalation offered vague solu- Copy editor Maysan Haydar T Proofreader Alan Kimmel and proof of the [U.S.] operational tions such as “working” on the Hamid Senior Editors Terry J. Allen, Patricia concept.” But there is no “proof” the Karzai government, though there were Aufderheide, Susan J. Douglas, David Moberg, counterinsurgency has been effective. “no guarantees,” and “blending with Salim Muwakkil, David Sirota, Kurt Vonnegut As for “progress,” some in the mili- local culture.” Rather than drilling down (1922–2007) Contributing Editors Dean Baker, Frida tary are cautiously optimistic. But key into the details and likely consequences Berrigan, Will Boisvert, Roger Bybee, Adam Doster, Phyllis Eckhaus, , U.S. intelligence agencies are skepti- of these nostrums, Obama moved on. Mischa Gaus, Paul Hockenos, George Hodak, cal. Meanwhile, polls show that most His only definitive statements con- Doug Ireland, John Ireland, Hans Johnson, Pete Karman, Kari Lydersen, , Dave Americans—and two thirds of recent cerned U.S. politics. He insisted a time- Mulcahey, John Nichols, James North, Jehangir Democratic voters—oppose the $119 line to draw down the surge was needed Pocha, Jessica Pupovac, Laura S. Washington, Fred Weir, Adam Werbach, Jacob Wheeler, billion/year war. to maintain public support. Thus Slavoj Žižek The review should command Presi- Obama’s one contribution to policy: the In These Times board of editors R.M. dent ’s full attention. 18-month timeline to “begin” reducing Arrieta, Bill Ayers, Lindsay Beane, Frida Berrigan, Martha Biondi, Sharon Bloyd- Yet up to now, he has been detached U.S. forces “based on progress on the Peshkin, Michelle Chen, Bernardine Dohrn, from internal administration debate ground.” For the rest, he deferred to the Melvyn Dubofsky, Eve Ewing, James Flammang, John Foley, Sidney Hollander, over the escalating conflict. Accord- hawkish views of the Joint Chiefs of Peter Hoyt, Lynette Jackson, George Kenney, ing to Bob Woodward’s blow-by-blow Staff, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Alice Kim, Alan Kimmel, Selena Kohel, Barry Komisaruk, Andrew Lehman, Juan account of 10 presidentially-chaired and Secretary of State — Mora-Torres, Christopher Moraff, Nancy National Security Council sessions overruling dissents by Vice-President Fleck Myers, Achy Obejas, Laura Orlando, Gordon Quinn, Harish Patel, Jenny Tomkins, during the fall of 2009, Obama be- Joseph Biden and U.S. Ambassador to Cassandra West, John Wilson, Eric Wolfe, G. haved more like a debate moderator Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry. Pascal Zachary, Slavoj Žižek than a chief executive with a strategic As the obstacles to American suc- Art Director Rachel K. Dooley Art Interns Hope Asya Broughton, view of foreign policy. cess in Afghanistan become apparent, Charles Baker Obama asked the right questions: the issues identified in the 2009 review Associate Publisher Dan Dineen Should our mission be to defeat the remain salient. Obama and his advisers Circulation Director Peter Hoyt Taliban as well as al Qaeda? Can we need to grapple with and debate them. Advertising Coordinator Selena Kohel do that given the Afghan government’s The urgent policy question now is not EDITORIAL Interns Leanna Burton, Andrew Donakowski, Alexandra Markowski, Andrew corrupt governance? Would U.S. success how to implement the vague commit- Oxford, Stephen Patterson impact the stability of Pakistan, and ment to “begin” troop withdrawals in Web intern Jane Huh can we persuade that government to July. Rather, as world-class scholars of volunteer Donald Minich terminate safe havens for the Taliban as Afghan politics and European officials In These Times Publishing Consortium Grant Abert, Theresa Alt, Aris Anagnos, well as al Qaeda? suggest, it is: Should the United States Stuart Anderson, Paula and Hal Baron, Yet not once in the discussions did work to achieve a regionally supported Leonard C. Goodman, Matt Groening, Collier Hands, James Harkin, Lorraine and Obama offer his own opinions about political settlement that incorporates Victor Honig, Polly Howells and Eric Werthman, how the important issues might be re- the Taliban but excludes al Qaeda? Betsy Krieger and David Kandel, Nancy Kricorian and James Schamus, Lisa Lee, solved. And he almost never brought up It would be tragic if the man who Chris Lloyd, Bruce Merrill, Edith Helen any relevant perspectives on these mat- became president (and elevated his Monsees, Dave Rathke, Abby Rockefeller and Lee Halprin, Perry Rosenstein and Gladys ters gained from his reading of history, party’s congressional majority) because Miller Rosenstein, T.M. Scruggs, Lois and past membership on the Senate Foreign he appeared to think “outside the box” Richard Sontag, Lewis and Kitty Steel, Ellen Stone Belic, Dan Terkel, Jenny Tomkins Relations Committee or conversations and come to the right judgment on Board of Directors Lola Asensio, Joel with foreign leaders. When members of the Bush administration’s war in Iraq, Bleifuss, Ron Dorfman, James Flammang, James Harkin, Marguerite Horberg, Andrew his team proposed solutions, he failed failed to do the same for his own war in Lehman, Monica Murphy, Nancy Fleck Myers, to probe the bases for their positions. Afghanistan. Robin Peterson, James Thindwa, Jenny All the advisers agreed that a success- —Stephen R. Weissman Tomkins

4 january 2011 In These Times contributors

Letters to the editor The following writers are supported by the We encourage letters to the Puffin Foundation First Amendment Fund. editor and reserve the right to edit them for clarity, grammar and length. Send them to: Jeremy Gantz (1), 2040 North Milwaukee Avenue, web editor/associate editor of In Chicago, IL 60647. Or submit them These Times and a freelance writer, enjoys tempting fate electronically at: www.inthesetimes. while bicycling through Chicago winters. com/site/about/contact. Please Leonard C. Goodman include your full name and address. is a criminal defense attorney in Chicago and a member of the In These Times Pub- 1 Special Requests lishing Consortium. To inquire about lost or damaged Robert Hirschfield issues, back issues and classroom is a New York-based writer subscriptions, please contact and photographer who covers Israeli and Palestinian Rachel K. Dooley at rachel@ peace activists. He has written for The Progressive, The inthesetimes.com. National Catholic Reporter and Sojourners.

Subscription Questions Chris Lehmann (2), like many a son of the benighted 2 To renew your subscription or de-industrialized Midwest, has cobbled together a liv- change your address, please call ing as a casualized knowledge worker. He is employed 800-827-0270. as an editor for Yahoo! News, BookForum and the Advertising Baffler. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Ana Advertisers who choose In These Marie Cox, and a quartet of excellent pets. Times reach a highly educated, Alexandra Markowski (3) is an In These Times intern motivated and civically engaged and a journalism student at Northwestern University. audience. 3 To request a media kit or learn Louis Nayman is a union organizer living near about online and print advertising Washington, D.C. opportunities, contact Selena Kohel at [email protected]. Stephen Patterson is an In These Times intern from Bloomington, Ill., and a recent graduate of the Univer-

In These Times (ISSN 0160-5992) is published sity of at Chicago. monthly by the Institute for Public Affairs, 2040 4 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647. Periodicals Norma Price (4) moved to Tucson, Ariz., after prac- postage paid at Chicago, IL and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to In ticing medicine in Atlanta for 25 years. Price volunteers These Times, P.O. Box 433095, Palm Coast, FL at a local medical clinic and is committed to the work of Samaritans and 32143. This issue (Vol. 35, No. 1) went to press on December 2, 2011 for newsstand sales from other humanitarian groups that focus on border issues. December 28, 2011 to February 1, 2011. The entire contents of In These Times are copyright © 2011 Stephen R. Weissman, former staff director of the House Subcommit- by the Institute for Public Affairs, and may not be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, tee on Africa, is the author of A Culture of Deference: Congress’s Failure of without permission of the publisher. Copies of In Leadership in Foreign Policy. He wrote “The Presidents’War(s),” one of the These Times’ contract with the National Writers Union are available upon request. Contact the union at cover stories in the June 2010 issue of In These Times. (212) 254-0279 or www.nwu.org.

Subscriptions are $36.95 a year ($59 for institutions; $61.95 Canada; $75.95 overseas). For subscription questions, address changes and back issues call (800) 827-0270. Your ideals can live on. Complete issues and volumes of In These Times are available from Bell and Howell, Ann Arbor, MI. In These Remember In These Times in your will. Times is indexed in the Alternative Press Index and the Left Index. For more information contact Joel Bleifuss at Newsstand circulation through Disticor Magazine Distribution (773) 772-0100 x232 or e-mail: [email protected] Services, at (905) 619-6565. Printed in the United States.

In These Times january 2011 5 mixed reaction

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

—teddy roosevelt, May 7, 1918 just the facts

15 Years (1956-1971) the FBI conducted its Counter- Intelligence Program (COIN- TELPRO) against progressive American activists

150 Americans charged with material support for ter- rorism since 2001

6,500 Approximate number of arrest warrants held by the FBI at any given time

13,847 FBI agents with authority to carry fire- arms and make arrests

quid pro quo

The Quid: The Quo: Thousands of travelers in the None other than former head of United States have experienced new Homeland Security, Michael Cher- full-body X-rays. Since TSA first an- toff. Following 2009’s “underwear nounced plans for the screenings, bomber” scare, Chertoff traveled one manufacturer of the machines, the country extolling the need to Rapiscan Systems, has installed fully scan every air traveler. What them in 70 U.S. airports. And stock he didn’t mention when making for Rapiscan has risen sharply as his pitch was that Rapiscan had the company landed contacts worth hired him as a chief consultant. We transport industry. That’s how they $173 million. To whom should they don’t know how much Chertoff was found themselves on this year’s address their thank you notes for paid, but we do know that Rapiscan “nice” list of the people who man- this year’s Christmas bonus? spent $271,000 lobbying the air age TSA contracts.

6 january 2011 In These Times frontline one of thousands of soldiers dealing with the same problem.” According to the Journal of Traumatic Stress, studies estimate anywhere from about 10 to 50 percent, or 15,000 to 75,000 troops, of all service members deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from PTSD. PTSD is directly connected to an- other major military problem: suicide. The Army reported a record number of suicides—162—among its ranks in 2009. The suicide rate among active- duty troops is twice as high as that of ci- vilians, and veterans with PTSD are six times more likely to attempt suicide, ac- cording to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD. Currently soldiers undergo routine medical screenings when they are de- ployed. But this brief screening, Hughes says, “is more of a checkbox when go- W A

V ing through mobilization than anything else.” The U.S. Government Account- Iraq Veterans Against the War ability Office (GAO) has reported that march to promote Operation Recovery in Washington, D.C. the military has no comprehensive

image courtesy I oversight framework to assure that its members are medically and mentally fit for service, or to assess troops’ men- Fighting for Peace of Mind tal health conditions when they return. This framework, the GAO says, is criti- Operation Recovery tries to stem war’s mental wounds cal to any medical screening program. By Alexandra Markowski In the current system, a commanding officer has discretion over what happens n November 11, 2010—Vet- to stop the redeployment of traumatized after a soldier is screened. This means erans Day—Army Specialist soldiers suffering from PTSD, brain in- that someone deemed ineligible for de- Jeff Hanks made headlines juries and sexual trauma. ployment by a military mental health Owhen he turned himself into One in every 10 soldiers who has com- professional can still be forced to deploy military officials after going AWOL in pleted a single deployment has a mental with severe trauma, according to Under October. Hanks, a 101st Airborne Sol- ailment; the rate rises to 1 in 5 after a sec- Secretary of Defense for Personnel and dier, refused to return to Afghanistan af- ond deployment and nearly 1 in 3 after a Readiness David S.C. Chu. ter being denied treatment for the Post third, Time magazine reports. If the U.S. Operation Recovery is currently fo- Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) he military followed its own standards and cused on teaching the public how in- has suffered since his 2008 tour in Iraq. regulations, says IVAW’s Aaron Hughes, grained mental health mistreatment is The penalty for going AWOL could in- a minimum of 20 percent of soldiers that in American military culture. IVAW clude jail time or a less-than-honorable have fought in Iraq or Afghanistan could encourages citizens to pledge support discharge, which would strip him of all not be redeployed. That would make it on its website z(at www.ivaw.org) and veterans’ rights and health benefits. practically impossible for the United contact their representatives. “We want Hanks’ decision to speak out about States to continue its war in Iraq and Af- as many people talking about the mili- his struggle to secure mental health- ghanistan, the ultimate goal of IVAW. tary’s treatment of mental healthcare care drew attention to the Iraq Veterans “This issue is systemic, it’s epidemic,” as possible,” Hughes said. “That way, we Against the War (IVAW)’s latest cam- says Hughes, who served in Iraq and can stop sending traumatized soldiers paign: Operation Recovery, which aims Kuwait in 2003 and 2004. “Hanks is just back into combat.” n

In These Times january 2011 7 act now

Facebook Food for Thought Every five years or so, the U.S.

farm bill codifies U.S. agricultural aa

policy, warts and all. Now the f bf Gary R. Grant (second from right) Facebook forum Understanding speaks at a Washington, D.C., press the Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide to conference with Rep. a Better Food System is calling (D-Ohio) on April 21, 2010, in support on voices to help “demystify” U.S.

oto courtesy o of the Claims Settlement Act.

agricultural policy before Congress ph considers the next version of the legislation in 2012. The forum seeks to educate Black Farmers Still users on the ongoing legislative proved $100 million under the Food, process—the House Committee Conservation and Energy Act of 2008. on Agriculture has already begun Losing Ground (They aren’t the only group seeing jus- writing the massive bill—and initi- t only took 11 years and 10 floor tice: The Claims Settlement Act of 2010 ate discussion among Facebook votes. In late November, Congress also included $3.4 billion in restitution users. Creators Mark Muller (Insti- Ifinally agreed to pay black farmers for Native American farmers, who won tute for Agriculture and Trade Poli- $1.15 billion in compensation for de- a lawsuit against the government for cy), and Lee Zukor (of the Simple, cades of discrimination in lending prac- losses due to mishandled trust funds. Good, and Tasty food advocacy or- tices and access to U.S. agricultural sub- In October, another group of Native ganization), launched the page to sidy programs. The claims stem from a American farmers won $680 million in provide a platform for commentary civil-rights lawsuit settlement reached a discrimination lawsuit filed against and opinion sharing, and to amass relevant links. Posts include com- in 1999 between 400 farmers and the the USDA.) mentary on topics ranging from government. But Grant says that because the ap- conservation and public health to But even as payouts begin, America’s proaching relief is no panacea for black food justice and security. black farmers are still losing ground— farmers, the organization is working to The idea is to inspire and en- literally. “It’s not restitution for what’s call attention to the continued decrease able citizens to seek necessary been done,” says Gary R. Grant, national in black-owned farms before there are changes in our food system; us- president of the Black Farmers and none. In October, BFAA hosted its first ers are encouraged to ‘assume’ Agriculturalists Association (BFAA). annual Save the Land: Black Farmers their opinions matter. More than “Folks still don’t understand that farmers Benefit and Rally, in Tillery, to “bring 1,300 people have ‘liked’ the are continuing to lose.” awareness to the plight of the continued page and its creators plan to The number of U.S. farms operated by decline of black farmers and black land eventually expand the forum’s dis- cussion to other parts of the food black farmers decreased by a stagger- ownership.” The event consisted of lo- system. To get involved, go on ing 97 percent between 1920 and 2007 cal music, food and film screenings—all Facebook and search for the fo- (925,710 farms to 30,599) farms, accord- with justice for black farmers in mind. rum’s title. To contribute, contact ing to government statistics. More than 200 people attended the Muller at [email protected]. The BFAA, a national nonprofit -or event, says Grant, with representation —Stephen Patterson ganization based in Tillery, N.C, with from states across the country. One of more than 1,500 members across the the films, We Shall Not Be Moved: The country, works to reverse black farm- History of the Tillery Resettlement Farm, ers’ losses by connecting black farmers shows pre-Civil Rights era black farmers with services and monitoring the U.S. struggling against racism and discrimi- Department of Agriculture (USDA). nation in the Tillery farm community. For the newly settled lawsuit, known The BFAA is planning additional as Pigford II, BFAA worked with a events in 2011, perhaps in New York coalition of other black farmers’ orga- City or Washington D.C., to gener- nizations to lobby for relief through ate awareness of black land loss and Congress, Grant said. The group is now empower black farmers to stand their helping claimants obtain their due in ground. (Visit bfaa-us.org for more the Claims Resolution Act of 2010. information.) Grant says the goal is to The total sum to be claimed by black educate the public on the true stand- farmers is $1.25 billion, as Congress ap- ing of black farmers in America. “The

8 january 2011 In These Times farmers who were involved in Pigford from the roads. Two-thirds of Calcutta’s most precious green space the people are still trying to merely survive,” he air pollution is caused by its 1.2 million of Calcutta have,” Dutta says. In January says. “Many people don’t understand vehicles, according to Jayanta Basu of 2008, the Calcutta High Court upheld that land is not only power. It is an Calcutta’s Telegraph newspaper. his petition and the fair was relocated economic base that brings about in- The local transport industry, support- to the eastern reaches of the city. (These dependence and creates safe spaces for ed by West Bengal’s ruling Communist victories were made possible because people to stand their ground.” Party of India Marxist (CPIM), resisted Dutta successfully petitioned India’s Su- —stephen patterson the campaign against Calcutta’s anti- preme Court in 1996 to set up a Green quated vehicles. But Dutta, the 61-year- Bench in Calcutta’s High Court to hear old son of refugees from Dhaka, Bangla- environmental cases; it was the first India’s Green desh, prevailed. such bench in India.) Sometimes called “the poor man’s Ecologically imperiled West Bengal has Party Maverick ,” Dutta also fought the become more environmentally friendly ALCUTTA—Subhas Dutta CPIM, along with the Publishers & in other ways. (Calcutta oceanographer does not look like the man Booksellers Guild, to stop holding the Sugata Hazra predicts that the pristine Cbusy fathering the Green Party city’s annual book fair on the Maidan, Sunderbans mangrove swamps, a UNES- of India. Balding, with a pencil thin the largest of Calcutta’s few green spaces. CO World Heritage site, will lose 15 per- mustache, the legendary green activist “The Maidan is Calcutta’s lungs. [It] com- cent of their area by 2020 due to global looks more like an accountant, which prises sixty percent of the green cover of warming.) “The communist government he was trained to be. the city,” Dutta says during an interview made West Bengal the first state in India Dutta is best known in West Bengal in the massive park, with which he is to appoint a Minister of Environment,” for beating environmental polluters in twinned in the minds of Calcuttans. Basu says. “And the Bengali media has court. In 2008, the Calcutta High Court Every year the grass was torn up and lent strong support to Dutta, especially ruled in favor of his petition to per- smothered in garbage by more than for his court cases. It has helped him manently remove the city’s most toxic 1.5 million people attending the week- build credibility.” vehicles, those more than 15 years old, long book fair. “It was an assault on the In a world where citizens feel increas- dear itt ideologist

Dear Reader, patch to Washington on Your Royal Highness Your ITT Ideologist has gained access to this incident, has been King Abdullah of Saudi the damage control messages that Sec- stricken from our of- Arabia, ficial State Department retary of State Hillary Clinton is sending When you requested to world leaders to mitigate the negative handbook of diplomatic phrases. State Department help in effects of the latest WikiLeak revela- finding a medical facility tions. A sample of them appear below. Dear President in the United States to Dear President Chavez of Venezuela, Sarkozy of France, treat your back problem, a sincere but somewhat This is to extend my I imagine you have learned that secret insensitive junior foreign apologies for our ambas- traffic from our embassy in Caracas service officer suggested sador in Paris who is consisted of detailed plans to “take Brooklyn Jewish Hospital. quoted in a confidential you out” and “get rid of that goddam He has since been trans- dispatch as saying “this commie crowd in Caracas.” This was, ferred to Palau. of course, a running joke between the frog doesn’t jump high enough.” It was White House and our colleagues at an inadvertent error in translation. Your Holiness Pope Benedict, State, CIA and Exxon. In fact, I was An unfortunate error appeared in a planning to give you a big hug at our Dear Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy, dispatch from our embassy at the Holy next encounter. See back to Washington. After attend- A dispatch praising you as a peace- Dear President Hu Jintau of China, ing a particularly convivial reception at maker in Europe was erroneously tran- the recent convocation of cardinals in This is to inform you that the titters scribed as calling you “the mouthpiece Rome, our charge d’affaires humorously that occurred on the American side of [Russian premier] Putin in Europe.” meant to describe the frolicsome event when our ambassador in Beijing Also, the graffiti in the men’s room at as “boys being boys.” Somehow it passed air while kowtowing to you was the U.S. chancellery giving your person- came out as “boys doing boys.” It won’t entirely spontaneous and not meant to al phone number as the best place to happen again. be disrespectful in any way. “What A get hot chicks in Rome has been wiped —Pete Karman Gas!”, the misinterpreted title of a dis- from the wall. In These Times january 2011 9 mages be fought politically.” Kosher Gets Ethical Growing up in the poverty of Calcutta G etty I has left him with few illusions about how osher is about to get an A FP/ / the world works. The money needed to American makeover. Sometime URY get a Green Party off the ground and fi- between Passover and Chanu- WDH

O K H nance election campaigns (State assem- kah 2011, a new social responsibility

N C N bly elections are slated for this spring) certification—the Magen Tzedek (Star YA L A

K has proven hard to raise, because corpo- of Justice)—is expected to begin ap- A H rations won’t give him money. pearing on the labels of selected ko- ES D Dutta points sadly to the gray haze sher food products throughout the Children play on the Maidan, enclosing the iconic Victoria Memorial, United States. Calcutta’s public green space. which resembles an immense, uneaten Kosher products are those that meet wedding cake left over from the British the standards of kashrus, Jewish di- ingly powerlessness, Dutta is living Raj. Can he actually see himself accom- etary law prescribing what foods or proof that one person can effect sig- plishing more as a lone Green in India’s combination of foods are permissible nificantly change. Now he’s trying to parliament than by assaulting a more or prohibited to eat. Pork and shellfish change not just Calcutta, but India’s po- malleable judiciary with his petitions? are forbidden. Meat and dairy prod- litical landscape, by building a Green Dutta can. The chartered accountant ucts cannot be mixed. Ingredients Party. “The environmental issue is the is a believer, like Gandhi, in political and processes must be inspected to issue of today. The political parties, all miracles. “The Green movement can be make certain that nothing prohibited of them, have let us down,” he says. “We a mass movement in India,” he explains. is introduced. Even otherwise permis- want to be part of the decision-making “The future of India is tied up with the sible meat is kosher only if slaughtered, process on the state and national levels. future of India’s environment.” processed and inspected according to The struggle for the environment has to —robert hirschfield specific procedures under the supervi-

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10 january 2011 In These Times snapshot sion of a specially trained rabbi. Some orthodox Jews insist on an additional set of inspections involving examina- tion of the lungs and internal organs to make certain that they are smooth— glatt—and free of punctures or disease. Kosher food is a $250 billion business, accounting for approximately 40 percent of all packaged foods sold in the United States. That makes kosher certification— by agencies specializing in rabbinic supervision of kashrus compliance—a big enterprise as well. By far the largest certifier of domestic kosher products is the nonprofit Orthodox Union, whose U inside an O symbol appears on more than 400,000 products, including Land O’ Lakes butter, Golden West beef, Jolt energy drinks, Oreo cookies, Glenmor- angie Single Malt Scotch and Blue Bun- ny ice cream. Those who remember the 1970s tele- vision ad for Hebrew National hot dogs (“We answer to a higher authority!”) can be forgiven for assuming that current kosher certification explicitly mandates labor standards, hygienic conditions and environmental ethics surpassing federal or state requirements. It does not. SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA—South Korean war veterans protest North Korea on Magen Tzedek certification, say its de- November 30. South Korean and American military forces began war game velopers, is intended to assure purchas- exercises four days earlier as tensions between the two Koreas grew following ers that a kashrus-compliant product a North Korean artillery attack on the disputed island of Yeonpyeong. (Photo by also conforms to Biblical and Talmudic Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images) ethical values and standards regarding the treatment of workers, animal welfare, environmental impact and fair business dota Heights, Minn., Allen has a history consumer to try to ensure that com- dealings. Criteria for product certifica- of involvement as a pulpit rabbi in issues panies go beyond what governmental tion include: living-wage compensation such as prison reform and immigrants rules require of them.” and decent benefits, neutrality in labor rights, and has been leading the push for Rabbi Menachem Genack, one of the organizing drives, documented compli- Magen Tzedek during the last five years. foremost experts of kashrus certifica- ance with EPA and OSHA regulations, It has been a polarizing effort. Some tion in the world and the Rabbinic Ad- adherence to humane animal treatment Jewish leaders believe the new stan- ministrator and CEO of the Orthodox and farm standards, responsible energy dard is redundant and unnecessary. Union’s kashrus program, is “keeping an and water consumption, use of sustain- Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesperson for open mind.” Under his leadership, the able materials and alternative fuels, and Agudath Israel of America—a leading Orthodox Union will allow the Magen fair treatment of immigrant workers. fundamentalist Orthodox religious, ed- Tzedek to be placed on labels next to the The new certification is now in beta ucational and advocacy organization— familiar OU logo. testing, with an expected market rollout isn’t convinced that kashrus needs yet Allen is determined to bring the new sometime during the coming year, says another certification. “I think that kosher standard to grocery store shelves Rabbi Morris Allen, who is working many consumers have no reason to around the country. “We have one with Cornell University meat science distrust the government agencies and chance to do this right,” he insists. “We professor Joe Regenstein and Social Ac- law enforcement agencies as adequate as a people should not be more con- countability International to ready the safeguards for all those areas,” he says. cerned about the smoothness of a cow’s standard for market. The spiritual leader “I know of no halachic [pertaining to lung than the safety of a worker’s hand.” of the Beth Jacob Congregation in Men- Jewish law] opinion requiring a kosher —louis nayman

In These Times january 2011 11 [sic] health + science

by Terry j. Allen How to Manufacture a Disease AFTER THE FDA APPROVES a new with marketing needs.” It cranked out more than 100 ar- drug, it rarely faces follow-up studies that ticles and presentations for journals and symposia touting might reveal serious and possibly fatal Prempro’s virtues, and then paid prominent doctors and side effects. Some dangers remain hidden researchers who contributed little more than their names. for years until an accumulation of disas- A particularly lucrative medical market, with a histo- ters sparks lawsuits. Faced with litigation, ry of recalls and scandal, is the $200 billion U.S. medical corporations must cough up data—and device industry for replacement joints, pacemakers and sometimes choke on it. CT scanners. Fugh-Berman’s study of conflicts of inter- A suit against drug maker Wyeth est, using disclosures forced by government investiga- freed 1,500 documents that yielded “un- tions, revealed that in the year ending in January 2009, precedented insights into how pharmaceutical compa- five medical device companies doled out 1,654 payments nies promote drugs,” wrote Adrianne Fugh-Berman in a to orthopedic surgeons and researchers that totaled September study in PLoS Medicine. The 14,000 plain- more than $248 million. Fewer than half the experts tiffs who took the menopausal hormone therapy (HT) who published articles dealing with the “donor” compa- Prempro claim that Wyeth ny’s products disclosed their distorted study results and Disasters can spark lawsuits. Faced financial relationship. hid evidence of harm. Some with litigation, pharmaceutical Big pharma’s stake in patients traded the tempo- cooking the books is obvi- rary inconvenience of hot corporations must cough up data— ous, but why are medical flashes for the permanent and sometimes choke on it. journals complicit? One inconvenience of death. reason is that unlike most of It was not as if Wyeth didn’t have reason to suspect the web, most medical journal sites protect their mate- serious risk. In 1975, an eight-fold increase in endometrial rial behind a sturdy pay wall, and may charge up to $40 cancer was linked to estrogen use. To counter this side ef- per reprint. Drug companies sometimes buy up thou- fect, Wyeth added progesterone and created Prempro. But sands of product-favorable reprints to distribute free to the new combo not only failed to prevent cardiovascular doctors, thereby providing a cash incentive to journals disease, it increased the risk of breast cancer, stroke, de- that publish articles likely to be reprinted. mentia and incontinence, according to the 2002 Women’s If journal articles are insufficiently laudatory as market- Health Initiative study. ing vehicles, drug companies can turn to supplements. For decades Wyeth had promoted HT and the diseasifi- Separately bound, these publications bear the journal’s cation of menopause through tried and true schemes: name, but are industry produced and rarely peer- First, it redefined a normal process—in this case aging reviewed. Wyeth, for example, mailed its pro-Prempro and menopause—as an illness treatable with drugs. After supplement with the journal Women’s Health in Primary cherry picking studies, some conducted off-shore, it hired Care to 128,000 physicians. specialized companies to ghostwrite favorable articles for In 2000, big pharma firms spent more than $15.7 billion medical journals, and paid doctors to sign their names— promoting prescription drugs in the United States. Like thus creating the impression that independent research- other mega corporations, they have great advantages over ers, not hacks-for-hire, had authored the articles. citizens: They are rich, powerful, protected by laws and “Wyeth used ghostwritten articles to mitigate the tax rules, and given the rights of people while shielded perceived risks of breast cancer associated with HT, to from many of the responsibilities. On our side, we have defend the unsupported cardiovascular ‘benefits’ of HT, timid or weak politicians and bureaucrats, activist organi- and to promote off-label, unproven uses of HT such as zations and the ability to sue. Unfortunately, lawsuits tend the prevention of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, vision to punish rather than prevent. But the deterrent effect of problems, and wrinkles,” Fugh-Berman concluded. large settlements, the bad PR and the discovery of data DesignWrite, Wyeth’s hired ghostwriting outfit, boasts and records are nonetheless components in mitigating “long experience in blending scientific and clinical issues the epidemic of corporate greed. n

12 january 2011 In These Times back talk

by susan j. douglas WikiLeaks: The TMZ of Global Politics It is the morning after the right-wing hysteria about the leaks, such as Rep. Peter third WikiLeaks bomb. In addition to King’s (R-N.Y.) insistence that WikiLeaks be classified as a the embarrassing content of the embassy terrorist organization, are as preposterous as the likening cables leaked on the first day, WikiLeaks of Putin to Batman by one State Department employee. and its newspapers of choice—the Much more disturbing, and buried on page eight of Guardian, , Le The Times, is this: The Chinese government, in addition Monde, Der Spiegel and El País—promise to hacking into Google’s computer systems, has alleg- to titrate country-specific leaks over the edly “broken into American government computers and next days and weeks. Now, as a child of those of Western allies…and American businesses since the ’60s who rejoiced when the Pentagon 2002.” Not as sexy as imagining a Russian leader as a su- Papers saw the light of day in the Times, I tend to think perhero in tights, but, hello America, Congress and the that transparency, especially when it comes to our foreign presidency, are you reading this? China’s determination policy, is an ideal crucial to democracy. to control the future seems a bit more important than Having said that (and writing when we still don’t Colonel Gaddafi’s “Ukranian nurse.” know all the revelations), So, there are at least two there is something odd and Count me as one progressive larger issues here now af- pathetic about this latest who is uneasy about this effort fecting so many of us in WikiDump. Odd because quite profound ways. The what, exactly, was WikiLeaks to indiscriminately tear down as first is how the tenets of ce- founder Julian Assange’s many curtains as possible. lebrity gossip—who’s thin- motivation here—why skinned, who’s shallow, who these cables (some marked secret, some not), and why parties, who likes blonde babes—are now contaminat- have the offloads happened on Obama’s watch? What ing the reporting of international news. The second foreign policy efforts (or deceits) is Assange seeking to is the loss of anything resembling the backstage that reshape? Unlike the Pentagon Papers, whose release had every institution and individual needs. Both show how a very clear goal, we just don’t know. Why didn’t the now powerfully celebrity journalism, and its much more infamous “Downing Street Memo” get a fraction of this aggressive, “investigative” stance in recent years, are coverage? When a story like this allows Sarah Palin to informing notions of newsworthiness. bray that if she were president, she absolutely would have Much more so than People or Entertainment Tonight, never permitted such leaks, you have to wonder about snarky websites like TMZ or Perez Hilton have dedicated Assange’s intention and effects. themselves to getting ever deeper into the backstage. But here’s the pathetic part: a lot of the exchanges that Aided by celebrities or their love interests who are too got the most salivating, breathless coverage would be naive to appreciate that new media transmissions are not right at home in a junior high school gossip column; private, they have turned Tiger Woods’ raunchy texts and let’s call it the Gawker factor in mainstream journalism. Mel Gibson’s violent rants into public entertainment. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi parties too much This seems to be the ethos that Assange, and the papers and is Vladimir Putin’s European poodle; French Presi- who love him, are embracing, when it comes to covering dent Nicolas Sarkozy is too sensitive for his own good; recent diplomatic efforts that appear, by turns, heroic, Kim Jong-il still likes to drink; Muammar Gaddafi never clumsy and venal. But despite our legitimate desire for goes out without a “voluptuous blonde” at his side. Jour- transparency, diplomacy relies crucially on the existence nalists have been sucking this stuff up; it’s like TMZ for of a backstage, especially when dealing with dispersed the chattering classes, or what a Times editorial referred to and murderous terrorist organizations. So count me as as “sizzle.” Yes, there’s the Obama administration’s embar- one progressive who is uneasy about this effort to indis- rassing “Let’s Make a Deal” efforts to relocate Guanta- criminately tear down as many curtains as possible, and namo Bay prisoners, and the Saudis’ eagerness to have then to foreground and luxuriate in the most adolescent, Israel take out Iran’s nuclear facilities. But the immediate gossipy elements of life in the backstage. n

In These Times january 2011 13 the third coast

by salim muwakkil Chicago’s Torture Cop Awaits His Sentence G. Flint Taylor should be bask- federal sentencing guidelines, the federal probation of- ing in the glow of vindication as he fice has recommended 15 to 21 months. His lawyers are awaits the January 20 sentencing of Jon seeking probation, noting that Burge is 62 and suffering Burge, the retired Chicago police com- from prostate cancer. mander convicted for lying about a ring Taylor agrees with the prosecutors’ recommenda- of torturing cops he led. tions, but he is more concerned with the 20-odd men A federal jury found Burge guilty on still imprisoned because of confessions extracted in two counts of obstruction of justice Burges’ torture chambers. “Their issues must be ad- and one count of perjury last June. dressed and they should be compensated,” says Taylor. Taylor and the firm he co-founded, the “There are about 10 cops who directly worked with Chicago-based Peoples Law Office, have represented Burge and a broader range of people who aided and several of the more than 100 black men victimized by abetted his torture and lied for him.” Burge’s torture corps and have been trying to bring Despite the infamy the case brought to Chicago the rogue cop to justice for and the entire nation, there more than 20 years. has been no push by local “Burges’ conviction was The depressing Burge saga or national politicians to a significant victory for the reinforces the notion that racial bias pass statutes against police community, particularly the is part of the institutional gene pool torture. Taylor is particularly African-American commu- galled at the pass given to nity,” Taylor says. “It was also of the nation’s police departments. outgoing mayor Richard M. an important win for the Daley, who was state’s at- forces fighting for human rights and racial justice in this torney for Cook County during the worst of the torture country.” However, the lack of attention to other aspects and therefore “one of the prosecutors responsible for the of the torture case frustrates the veteran attorney. nearly 30-year delay in prosecuting Burge.” For many years, suspects and activists charged that Daley has announced he will not run for re-election, Burge was operating a “black site” of torture at police and as reporters assess his legacy there is scant mention district Area 2 on Chicago’s far South Side. In 1993, of his role in the torture scandal, both as state’s attorney those charges gained enough credibility to get Burge and mayor. Incredibly, Taylor notes, Daley authorized fired, but that just allowed him to retire on a police pen- the city to retain Richard Bueke, Burge’s hyperbolic sion in Florida. criminal attorney, in recently filed cases seeking justice Growing complaints forced a 2006 investigation of for torture victims. “This brings the city’s torture defense Burge by a Cook County special prosecutor that found meter to $12 million,” he says. evidence of systematic torture of black suspects through That sum is part of the “more than $30 million the techniques like electro-shocks to the genitals, beatings, city has spent on lawyers and payouts to Burge’s victims burning skin on radiators, Russian roulette, suffoca- as a result of many lawsuits,” according to the prosecu- tions, and mock executions. Despite that, the prosecutor tors’ court filing. The filing said Burge’s “criminal acts refused to indict Burge because the statute of limitation have tainted and prejudiced the thousands of hard- had run out on torture charges. working dedicated police officers who have followed in U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald did an end-run Burge’s polluted wake.” around the statute of limitations by charging Burge with This depressing saga of torture in the American perjury and obstructing justice, instead of actual torture. heartland reinforces the notion that racial bias is part Fitzgerald successfully used the ex-cop’s deposition from of the institutional gene pool of the nation’s police de- a 2003 lawsuit in which he denied knowledge of torture. partments. Burge’s conviction offers a glimmer of hope In court papers filed in early November, federal pros- that people willing to wage a protracted struggle for ecutors announced they are seeking at least 24 years social justice can sometimes win a battle. The larger in prison for the 62-year-old Burge. However, under war continues. n

14 january 2011 In These Times Public Defender

by leonard C. goodman Good Profits and ‘The Good War’ Now in its tenth YEAR, THE WAR For the defense industry, dumb wars are the best ones in Afghanistan is the longest in U.S. because they create more problems than they solve, assur- history. And as the war drags on, the ing future sales of weapons and services. A great example situation goes from bad to worse: 2010 of this bad policy propaganda machine in action oc- is the most violent year on record. The curred in the winter of 2002, when the Taliban had been Taliban, who were largely defeated in defeated in Afghanistan and there was a chance to install December 2001, now control about 80 a credible government. Then the defense industry helped percent of the country. In the mean- fund the campaign to convince Americans they needed to time, we are propping up a government divert resources from Afghanistan to launch a preemptive in Kabul that is predatory and cor- strike against Iraq. Eight years later, Afghanistan is in utter rupt. We are spending about $100 billion a year to wage chaos, yet think tank scholars assure us that we can still war in one of the poorest countries on earth. Yet our “win” the war as long as we pursue Gen. David Petraeus’ president, who assured us during the campaign that he counter-insurgency strategy. was opposed to “dumb wars,” When defense contrac- has re-committed America tors guide defense policy, the to this fight for at least four Defense firm board members public interest is not served. more years. Afghanistan, we cannot legally support policies Their interests are antitheti- are told, is the “good war.” making the world safer, because cal. By law, corporate boards The “bad war” was in Iraq. have a fiduciary duty to It is certainly true that for those would be bad for business. maximize the returns to their some Americans, Afghanistan shareholders. Most board has been a good war. My extended family owns a share members of defense firms are rational and charitable in of a major defense contractor. Many times I have asked: their personal affairs. Yet, when they sit in boardrooms, Why can’t this great technology company shift gears to they cannot legally support policies that might make the become a leader in high-speed rail or other green tech- world safer because those would be bad for business. nologies that might some day save our economy or even From the vantage of the boardroom of a defense con- the planet? Answer: There is no business more profitable tractor, the Afghan war is a good war. It destabilized much than war. The corporation’s board of directors continues of the Middle East and southern Asia, including nuclear- to hire ex-generals and well-connected lobbyists to make armed Pakistan. It has created tens of thousands of new sure that the lucrative contracts keep pouring in. The enemies for the United States—people who had no beef company’s profits have tripled since 9/11. with us until we invaded their country and killed their Less well understood is the role of defense contractors relatives. Most of our new enemies are too poor to pose in promoting policies that benefit their industry by mak- any immediate threat. But they will be targets for recruit- ing the world a more dangerous place. It takes more than ment into terror groups, thus assuring future dangers, direct political donations and revolving door lobbyists to more war and unsustainable levels of military spending. gin up public support for foolish wars. So defense con- Many, including George Washington and Dwight tractors contribute to think tanks that lend the veneer of Eisenhower, have warned of the danger to republican scholarship and credibility to the bad policies they push. liberty posed by massive standing armies and un- Corporate-funded think tanks like Project for a New checked military spending. One of the most eloquent American Century, the National Institute for Public scholars on this topic, Chalmers Johnson, passed away Policy, the Center for a New American Security and the in November. Johnson warned of the inherent instabil- Center for Security Policy have helped sell us such tur- ity of a political system that seeks to combine domestic keys as preemptive war, Star Wars and regime change in democracy and foreign imperialism. The final volume Iraq, while at the same time working to defeat any policies of his seminal treatise on militarism is titled, The Last which might reduce the demand for new weapons sys- Days of the American Republic. If his analysis is correct, tems, such as the START nuclear arms reduction treaty. we have no time to waste. n

In These Times january 2011 15 Joe Iosbaker, a Service Employees union steward, and Stephanie Weiner, a Palestinian solidarity activist, at home in Chicago. The FBI used their porch as a staging area before the raid.

Terrorist by association The Justice Department targets nonviolent solidarity activists By Jeremy Gantz

eptember 24 began like Ten hours after their arrival, as tele- The grand jury and FBI are looking any other Friday for Joe vision news crews filmed and activist for evidence that connects the 14 activ- Iosbaker and Stephanie supporters stood on the sidewalk, the ists and their “potential co-conspirators” Weiner. Then, at 7 a.m., agents drove away with nearly 30 box- to two organizations: the Revolutionary FBI agents knocked on the es of material, including t-shirts and a Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Sdoor of the Chicago couple’s house in photograph of Malcolm X. By that time, the Popular Front for the Liberation of the city’s North Side. Iosbaker and Weiner had been served Palestine (PFLP), which are both on the Armed with a search warrant, more subpoenas to appear before a grand jury State Department’s “Foreign Terrorist than 20 agents examined the couple’s investigating “material support” for “for- Organizations” list. None of the 14 has home, photographing every room and eign terrorist organizations.” And they been charged with a crime, and all deny combing through notebooks, family knew theirs wasn’t the only home invad- providing “material support,” including videos and books, even their children’s ed that day. More than 70 FBI agents had money, to any foreign organization. drawings. Some items were connected raided seven residences in Chicago and Citing the Fifth Amendment, all 14 to their decades of anti-war and inter- Minneapolis and questioned activists in are refusing to testify before the grand national solidarity activism, but others Michigan, California and North Caro- jury, which they say is a secretive arm of were not. “Folders were opened, let- lina, serving subpoenas to 11 people. A a government intent on silencing critics. ters were pulled out of envelopes,” says few days later, the Justice Department (The U.S. Attorney’s office conducting Weiner, an adult education professor at subpoenaed members of the Minnesota the investigation declined to comment.) Wilbur Wright College. “They had rub- Anti-War Committee (AWC), whose Most of those subpoenaed, includ- ber gloves and they went through every office was also raided on September 24, ing Weiner and Iosbaker, have been ac-

aspect of our home.” raising the number to 14. tive in the labor movement and/or are photo:peter holderness

16 january 2011 In These Times members of the Freedom Road Socialist tion’s violent objectives or actions. But all nonviolent aid is properly illegal be- Organization (FRSO), a self-described in June, the Supreme Court in Holder cause it “frees up other resources within “socialist and Marxist-Leninist orga- v. Humanitarian Law Project upheld a the organization that may be put to vio- nization” with about 100 members. much broader definition of material lent ends” and “legitimates” foreign ter- But affiliations vary: 71-year-old great- support—one that criminalizes speech rorist groups. Writing for the majority, grandmother Sarah Martin belongs to advocating peace and human rights if it Chief Justice John Roberts clarified that the Minneapolis-based group Women is “coordinated” with an official terrorist the law only criminalizes speech “under Against Military Madness; Hatem Abu- organization. It is this ruling that sets the the direction of, or in coordination with dayyeh is executive director of the Arab stage for September’s raids. foreign groups,” leaving “independent American Action Network, a Chicago “For the first time, [the court] actually advocacy” on the right side of the law. social services agency; others are con- says it’s criminal to speak out, to associ- Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader nected to Students for a Democratic ate,” says Michael Deutsch, an attorney Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor strongly Society (SDS), the Palestine Solidarity with the Chicago-based People’s Law disagreed, writing: “Not even the ‘serious Group-Chicago and the Colombia Ac- Office and one of the National Law- and deadly problem’ of international ter- tion Network, which has protested U.S. yers Guild members working with the rorism can require automatic forfeiture ‘Anyone who does international solidarity or anti-war work, anyone who goes against the grain of American politics, is affected by this,’ says activist Mick Kelly. military aid to Colombia and the assas- activists. “The ruling criminalizes First of First Amendment rights.” sinations of unionists there. The only Amendment activity. It’s quite ominous.” University of Chicago law professor connection they all have in common is Material support for was Aziz Huq takes issue with the court’s that they all participated in an AWC- first criminalized by the Anti-Terrorism distinction between “independent” and organized rally outside the 2008 Repub- and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. “coordinated” speech—a critical distinc- lican National Convention in St. Paul. The 2001 broadened the tion if any of the 14 activists are charged Except for Mick Kelly and Tom definition of “material support” to in- with “material support” of FARC and Burke, FRSO members who have inter- clude “expert advice or assistance” and PFLP. “There is some kind of speech viewed PFLP leaders, and Jess Sundin, provided a maximum sentence of 15 that is not possible to do independently,” who met with FARC members 10 years years. (The American Taliban fighter Huq says. “There are speech interests ago during a visit to Colombia, none of John Walker Lindh was charged with, that are squelched here.” those subpoenaed say they have ever but not convicted of, providing material Deutsch agrees: “It creates a chilling communicated directly with members support to al Qaeda.) In 1998 the Hu- effect on people who are challenging of FARC or PFLP. But many of the ac- manitarian Law Project went to federal U.S. foreign policy. If you speak out for tivists are sympathetic to those organi- court to challenge the material support the rights of Palestinians or question zations’ goals and some have traveled statute. The nonprofit group wanted the government of Colombia, or are to Colombia and Palestine as part of to assist the Kurdistan Workers’ Party supportive of the Kurds’ right to their solidarity delegations. (PKK) with conflict resolution and hu- homeland, you’ve invariably going to “Anyone who does international soli- man rights monitoring. It was later come into contact with these groups. darity or anti-war work, anyone who joined in the lawsuit by Tamil-American You’re going to be advocating some of goes against the grain of American poli- organizations wishing to provide medi- the things that they’re promoting.” tics, is affected by this,” says Kelly, a Uni- cal assistance to victims of the 2004 That’s a point familiar to former anti- versity of Minnesota cook and Teamster. South Asian tsunami, which would have apartheid activists, who organized to “It’s extremely important to push back required working with the now-defeated end white supremacy in South Africa. against this repression. It affects the Tamil Tigers, which, like the PKK, is a The anti-apartheid movement took di- movement as a whole.” State Department-listed terrorist group. rection from the African National Con- The Supreme Court’s The Humanitarian Law Project ar- gress (ANC), which was called a terror- ‘deeply chilling effect’ gued that the material support law vio- ist organization by President Reagan in lated the First Amendment’s right to free 1986. If the material support statute had The phrase “material support for terror- speech. But a majority of the Supreme been in place in the 1970s, the thou- ism” brings to mind money and weap- Court accepted the government’s argu- sands of people who led anti-apartheid ons, or other goods and services that ment—made by then-Solicitor General protests across the United States could directly support a terrorist organiza- and current Justice Elena Kagan—that have been considered criminals. (The

In These Times january 2011 17 ANC and its leader, Nelson Mandela, and try to do social justice work to make Buttar says that FBI surveillance of ac- were not removed from the U.S. list changes in this country and other plac- tivists without any implicating evidence of foreign terrorist organizations until es,” says Palestinian solidarity activist has “accelerated” under the Obama 2008, 15 years after Mandela won the Hatem Abudayyeh, whose five-year-old administration. In December 2008, .) daughter was home when the FBI raided former Attorney General Michael Mu- “This is almost the 1950s coming back. his Chicago house. (Many of the sub- casey issued more permissive guidelines It’s overreaching,” says Jim Fennerty, poenas demanded activists produce any governing FBI investigations. Current another attorney assisting the subpoe- records of money given to Abudayyeh, Attorney General could naed activists. Similarly, he adds, for- as well as PFLP and FARC.) amend those guidelines but has not. “We mer U.S. President could Two trends over the past few years had thought that these abuses had ended ‘This is another in a long line of cases of FBI oppression against people who think like we do,’ says subpoenaed Palestinian solidarity activist Hatem Abudayyeh. be charged with “material support” for are particularly disturbing, according after the [post-Watergate] Church Com- monitoring Lebanon’s 2009 elections, to Shahid Buttar, executive director of mittee,” Buttar says. “But the FBI’s abuses which involved coordinated activity the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, of the constitutional rights of activists with Hezbollah, an official terrorist -or which advocates local legislation pro- have only expanded under Obama.” ganization that was on the ballot. tecting civil liberties. First, the govern- Barbara Ransby, who along with In February, when the Supreme Court ment is criminalizing speech that was Barack Obama was an anti-apartheid heard Holder v. Humanitarian Law Proj- formerly constitutionally protected, activist while a student at Columbia ect, David Cole, the Center for Consti- and second, the FBI is regaining access University in the early 1980s, says that tutional Rights attorney sparred with to intrusive investigative tactics. Buttar given the long history of abusive FBI Justice Antonin Scalia: co-wrote a November 19 letter to the surveillance of political activists, the re- Cole: The New York Times, the Washington Obama administration and Congress cent raids aren’t surprising. But the fact Post, and the L.A.Times...published op-eds signed by 45 advocacy organizations, that it happened under the first black by Hamas spokespersons...thereby provid- that noted “an ongoing trend of intru- U.S. president matters. “In some ways ing a benefit to Hamas. [Under this statute,] sive government surveillance of pro- that gives it more cover,” says Ransby, they’re all criminals...President Carter— gressive activists in the United States.” now a historian at the University of Scalia: [Interrupting]: Well, we—we can cross that bridge when we come to it. The same week the FBI raided activ- Illinois-Chicago, who spoke at a recent ists’ homes, the Justice Department’s meeting of the Chicago chapter of the COINTELPRO redux? Inspector General released a report say- National Alliance Against Racist and While many in the legal world condemn ing the agency had improperly spied Political Repression. “It makes people the material support law, the subpoe- on American activists involved in First hesitant to see it as an attack. As a com- naed activists are focusing their anger Amendment-protected activities in the munity of progressives, at moments like on those responsible for the grand jury years following 9/11. The report, which this, we really have to step up and em- and the home raids—the Justice Depart- reviewed FBI investigations between brace people who are under attack and ment and the FBI. The activists say the 2002 and 2006 of advocacy groups in- defend them without question.” fervor of the current harassment is rem- cluding and the Religious Undemocratic and biased iniscent of the agency’s COINTELPRO Society of Friends (i.e. the Quakers), program of the 1950s and 1960s that tar- said the FBI had inappropriately labeled The activists directly affected have not geted Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X nonviolent civil disobedience as terror- hesitated to see the raids and subpoenas and Black Panther leaders, among many ism, thereby improperly placing activists as attacks. Just weeks after the raids, those others. (The long-running operation, on federal terrorist watch lists. subpoenaed and their allies formed which officially ended in 1971, also tar- Weiner says what angers her most the Committee to Stop FBI Repression geted the entire “New Left” movement, about the FBI raid on her home is that (www.stopfbi.net), which is demanding including Students for a Democratic So- the agents’ motivations were cloaked in an end to “the repression of anti-war and ciety, a chapter of which Weiner advises secrecy; they didn’t have to provide any international solidarity activists,” the re- at her college.) evidence of criminal activity. “The trau- turn of all materials confiscated by the “This is just another in a long line of ma is due to the [FBI’s] audacity—they FBI (some have already been returned) cases of FBI and government oppres- took the broadest approach—they didn’t and an end to the grand jury proceeding, sion against people who think like we do know what they were looking for.” which began in August 2009.

18 january 2011 In These Times “I don’t think there’s anything fair mony rather than punishment; famous quitted of all terrorism-related charges. about a grand jury,” says Tom Burke, victims include former Weather Un- He remains imprisoned. a central organizer of the committee derground member Bernadine Dohrn Solidarity drives pushback who was subpoenaed in Grand Rap- and former New York Times reporter ids, Mich., after the FBI followed him Judith Miller. Jail is an immediate pos- While they’d rather go to jail than be to a coffee shop. “There’s no judge, you sibility for some of the 14 activists, part of what they call a “government aren’t allowed to have your lawyer with three of whom were re-subpoenaed in witch hunt,” the 14 subpoenaed activ- you. … It’s a totally undemocratic and November. (The Justice Department let ists are trying to avoid both outcomes biased system, and it would be foolish all of their initial appearance dates pass by pressuring members of Congress and to cooperate.” after they refused to testify.) encouraging street protests around the The grand jury system was import- But while Dohrn and Miller were country. In October, the Committee to ed from England by American colo- released after less than 12 months, the Stop FBI Repression organized protests nists, who often used it to defend their uncooperative activists could face outside of the FBI’s Chicago and Min- rights and express grievances against much more time because the current neapolis offices, and during the week of the king’s policies. But the unique sub- grand jury is investigating support for November 29, it spearheaded a series of poena power of the modern grand jury terrorism. (“Terrorism enhancement” protests in cities across the country. system, in use virtually nowhere else, sentencing guidelines, passed after the The committee also sent a delegation has long since morphed into some- Oklahoma City bombing, allow judges to Washington D.C. in November that thing different, according to attorney to dramatically increase sentences if an met four members of Congress, includ- Deutsch. Since the Nixon era, he says, offense “involved, or was intended to ing Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Luis the Justice Department has used grand promote, a federal crime of terrorism.”) Gutierrez (D-Ill.), and Andrea Martin, juries against political activists, “forcing “They’re not just looking at a few the executive director of the Progres- them to testify [through compulsory months in jail if they don’t testify, they’re sive Caucus. No politician had commit- immunity], even what I call ‘interning’ looking at years,” says Deutsch, point- ted to sending a “Dear Colleague” letter them without charges.” ing to the case of Abdelhaleem Ashqar to fellow representatives, but commit- If a subpoenaed person refuses to as the most egregious recent example of tee members are hoping that protests testify before the grand jury after being grand jury abuse. In 2007, a federal judge outside home district offices, a national offered immunity by the government, sentenced Ashqar, a Palestinian and for- petition letter to President Obama and she can be jailed for contempt—with- mer professor of business administra- Attorney General Eric Holder, and ad- out ever having been convicted of a tion at Howard University, to more than ditional visits to the Capitol will cause crime. The government considers this 11 years in prison for refusing to testify influential people to condemn the grand “coercion” a means of compelling testi- before a grand jury—after he was ac- jury investigation. While the Justice Department’s next step is unclear—it could offer immu- nity to those subpoenaed, push for in- dictments or impanel a new grand jury after the current one expires in Febru- ary—the reaction to its investigation is not. More than 140 organizations from around the country, including the Green Party, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and dozens of labor unions and councils, have condemned the gov- ernment’s actions. Jess Sundin, the antiwar activist who traveled to Colombia 10 years ago, sees those actions as an affront to her free-

budayyah doms—and conscience. “The idea that it Subpoenaed activist could be against the law for Americans to Hatem Abudayyah protests meet with people who our government former Israeli Prime doesn’t support—I never imagined that Minister Ehud Olmert’s visit to the University of that was illegal. I always believed that we Chicago in October 2009. had a right and responsibility to speak our opinions and to dissent when our hoto courtesy of hatem A P government is making mistakes.” n

In These Times january 2011 19 The next time you hear someone railing against excessive, bloated public pensions, you might want to know the facts: An AFSCME public service worker receives an average pension of $19,000 a year. That’s right. $19,000. And the vast majority of our members pay into their pensions during their years of public service. Yet the right wing has been attacking public employee pensions as part of their campaign to slash vital public services. That’s just plain wrong. And just plain false. So is calling public employees “overpaid.” Recent research* has found that state and local employees make 11-to-12 percent less in salary than workers in the private sector, when education and experience are considered. It’s time to stop scapegoating public employees. It’s time to help our communities. It’s time to stop the lies.

You can help Go to www.afscme.org/StopTheLies.

20 january 2011 In These Times Your Holiday Guide to Deficit Reduction 10 ways to pleasure your base while (maybe) saving some cash By David Moberg

udget deficit mania grips the nation’s politi- cal elite. Never mind that many people are more worried aboutB finding a job, stagnant wages, home foreclosures and the state of the Main Street economy. Pundits and politicians from moder- ate centrists to the Tea Party right-wing- ers are frantically warning that if noth- ing changes, federal debt in 2050 will be three times the size of annual economic output—supposed proof that the end of

America as we know it is at hand if we g es don’t make “tough choices.” ma In late November, budget analysts Union members rally to support the planned ‘Access to the Region’s Core’ tunnel between began rolling out tough-choice plans New Jersey and New York City on October 19, that prescribe austerity for government, alaie/Getty I in North Bergen, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie (R) has and people in the working and middle refused federal funds and is killing the project. amin T amin classes. Center-right proposals (with- R nominally bipartisan mixtures of bud- get cuts and tax increases) have been Our Fiscal Security (OFS), a joint project big losers during the Bush years and the put forward, most importantly by the of the Economic Policy Institute, Demos Great Recession. the co-chairs of Obama’s Fiscal Com- and The Century Fund. On the right, a Predictably, the BS plan goes easy on mission, Democrat Erskine Bowles, a “road map” was offered by incoming the CEOs, bankers, speculators and rich multi-millionaire former investment Budget Committee Chair Rep. Paul Ryan people who caused the crisis—the very banker, and former Republican Sen. (PR), a Wisconsin Tea Party golden boy. same highly paid people (investment Alan Simpson (BS); by former Clinton On December 1, Bowles and Simpson bankers like Bowles) who, through the budget director Alice Rivlin and for- submitted a final Commission plan for media that they control, are stoking the mer New Mexico Repblican Sen. Pete a vote two days later. Cutting the defi- deficit mania. That prominently includes Domenici (RD); and by the Pew Trust cit prematurely and endangering job Peter G. Peterson, the billionaire invest- and Peterson Institute (PP). market recovery, it closed roughly two- ment banker (Lehman Brothers), one- A rejoinder, one that showed it is pos- thirds of the deficit with cuts, the rest time Nixon advisor and co-founder of sible to create jobs and grow a new, fairer with new revenue—and the cuts hit So- the notorious Blackstone Group. economy while balancing budgets, was cial Security, Medicare and other crucial This deficit grand opera plays out as provided by progressive Illinois Demo- social programs as well as defense and a variation on a discordant theme: The cratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky (JS; see inter- farm subsidies. Despite some tweaks of financial meltdown—viewed two years view, page 26)—a one-time community the BS draft to emphasize growth or to ago as a crisis of capitalism requiring organizer who is now a member of the soften some blows to the middle class, massive state intervention—has some- Fiscal Commission; The Citizens’ Com- the final BS plan made “tough” choices how (and so conveniently) morphed mission on Jobs, Deficits and America’s that would balance mainly on the backs into a crisis of government. The villain Economic Future (CC)—organized by of low- and middle-income Ameri- in this mainstream media fantasy is the the Institute for America’s Future; and cans—the very people who were the welfare state. It is a crisis that demands

In These Times january 2011 21 sacrifice from average citizens. Underly- Japan, which had debt equal to 160 pand it. As the BS plan states, So- ing this blame-the-government meme is percent of GDP). As the economy re- cial Security does not—and by law a drumbeat to unleashing rule of mar- covers, it will be easier to raise more cannot—contribute to the deficit. kets—in healthcare, education, pensions revenue or make cuts that do not By current projections it can pay and everything else. It is as if the collapse hurt low- and middle-income Amer- full benefits until 2037, and collect- of 2008 taught no lessons about the limi- icans and thus reduce the debt, even ing Social Security taxes on all in- tations of markets. to the arbitrary, low goal of 40 per- come—from earnings and capital— A review of the six deficit-reduction cent favored by the BS Commission. would make the system solvent for plans yields 10 points of advice. “The reality is we should be doing many more decades. (1) America is not Greece (and in the something to boost the economy,” Yet many deficit proposals (BS, short term, the deficit is a help, not says Center for Economic and Pol- RD) target Social Security, cutting a hindrance). The 2010 fiscal year icy Research co-chair Dean Baker. payments by changing the cost deficit of $1.3 trillion represented “Near-term focusing on the deficit is of living formula and raising the roughly 9 percent of America’s gross next to crazy.” qualifying age. domestic product. This was the big- 2) In the next few years, the para- But as both income inequality and gest deficit since the end of World mount fiscal policy goal should people’s risk of sudden changes in War II, when deeper deficits did not be stimulating growth and job income increase, and as reliable de- inhibit growth and, in fact, turned creation. That means, first of all, fined-benefit private pension plans out to precede two decades of shared not scheduling any serious deficit vanish (except for executives like prosperity. reduction plans before roughly FY Erskine Bowles), the government However, with the 2008 collapse 2015. The country needs faster job needs to increase the pay-out to re- of the $8 trillion housing bubble, the creation not only to reduce unem- tirees, not to privatize Social Secu- year’s federal deficit compensated for ployment but also to push up wages. rity as many Republicans still want. declining consumer demand, saved Faster job, wage and GDP growth— (4) Beware proposals that use deficits or created as many as 3.7 million jobs whether stimulated by a 2011 Social to mask attacks on government, and helped stop economic free fall. Security tax holiday or new public the welfare state, public employ- National governments do not op- investment—will also generate more ees or Keynesian policies.President erate like family households (which revenue to reduce government defi- Franklin Roosevelt, expanding on also go into debt, often wisely for cits than an economy hamstrung by his New Deal achievements, called needs like education). Governments constricted public demand. for a Second Bill of Rights—rights run surpluses or deficits in part as a Even if growth alone cannot solve to a useful and remunerative job, reflection of business cycles and in future budget shortfalls, government adequate income, a decent home, part as a way to moderate business spurs to long-term growth—includ- medical care, a good education, and cycles. But according to Economic ing infrastructure investment, basic protection from economic hard- Policy Institute studies, debt does research, more education funding ships of old age and sickness. “True not constrain future growth. (especially early childhood), support individual freedom cannot exist Even if U.S. debt rises to 70 or 80 for developing new “green” manufac- without economic security and in- percent of GDP in 2020, as different turing, and re-balancing the global dependence,” he argued. agencies project, it will still be mod- economy to reduce trade deficits— But Rep. Ryan, (PR) the Wiscon- erate compared with many other would be good in their own right. sin Tea Partier, sees in such poli- rich countries (in FY 2009 it ranked (3) There is no reason to cut Social cies a “culture of dependency” on a behind 46 other countries, including Security and many reasons to ex- government with an “unsustainably rapid rate of spending growth” that threatens to “smother the economy” and corrode our “national character.” The proposed austerity budgets are more Ryan (PR) than Roosevelt, seeking to cut government, not se- cure a “second bill of rights.” For ex- ample, some propose shrinking and limiting federal spending to 21 per- cent (BS) or 23 percent (RD) of GDP, a goal that has nothing to do with reducing deficits and everything to do with arbitrarily limiting govern-

22 january 2011 In These Times ment. Currently, the United States for example, would have two ben- orities. Most states can’t run defi- taxes and spends less as a share of efits: discouraging useless and often cits and have limited borrowing GDP than all but two other devel- dangerous speculation, and collect- power. Between congressional Re- oped countries, Turkey and Mexico. ing new revenue. publican insistence on cutting state Taxes account for more than 40 Likewise, a carbon tax—or less aid and Republican governors’ zeal percent of GDP in eight developed straightforwardly, a cap-and-trade to cut state government, even to countries, with thriving economies system, even a higher gasoline tax— the point of rejecting federal high- and high standards of living, but would combat , en- speed rail investment, state and combined taxes from all levels of government in the United States ac- ‘There isn’t a long-term deficit problem,’ Dean count for only 26.2 percent of GDP, according to data from the Organi- Baker says. ‘There’s a healthcare problem. If zation for Economic Cooperation healthcare gets under control, economic growth and Development. (5) Focus solutions on the real prob- goes a long way towards solving the deficit.’ lem: healthcare costs. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Pri- orities, the vast majority of the pro- courage efficiency, enhance security local cutbacks will intensify hard- jected deficit through 2020 comes and raise revenues to reduce long- ships for the vulnerable, and slow from, in this order, the Bush tax cuts, term debt. recovery of jobs and incomes. the economic downturn, Iraq and (7) Make solutions progressive to re- (9) Public opinion is not aligned with Afghan wars, and the Obama stimu- duce growing inequality. The BS the deficit-obsessed political, me- lus programs. Many of the deficit plan relies on budget cuts more than dia and business elite. Democrats plans include some military cuts, but revenue increases to reduce deficits. lost badly in the mid-terms largely none proposes a major shift on cur- University of California at Berkeley because too many working- and rent wars. economist Brad DeLong calculates middle-class Americans did not see Looked at from another perspec- that overall, BS gives the top 1 per- Obama and congressional Demo- tive, rising healthcare costs—both cent of income earners a $7,000 a crats delivering any tangible help in the general market and in pub- year tax cut but “an average $600 a for them. Some voters shifted to lic programs—drive virtually all year tax increase for the working and Republicans out of concern with the rising deficits. But other rich middle classes.” It uses much of the deficits and big government, but a countries spend less with better re- tax expenditure savings not to cut November NBC/Wall Street Journal sults and lower projected increases. deficits but to reduce tax rates—far poll showed little support for the BS Some plans (BS, RD) shift many outside the Commission mandate. deficit plan. In Democracy Corps costs to workers, also increasing The regressive tax burden adds to polling, voters by a 67 to 28 mar- medical and financial risk to re- the disproportionate harm people of gin wanted both growth-producing cipients. (RD and PR favor vouch- modest means will suffer from pro- investment and deficit cuts, and by ers for buying private insurance to gram cuts and shifting costs. 52 to 40 percent wanted Congress replace Medicare, an option raised The crisis stemmed in part from to fight against corporate interests by BS). But moving toward a pub- rising inequality and the policies and for the middle class rather than lic, single-payer plan—or at least a that fostered it, especially financial focus on controlling spending, defi- public option—could bring health- deregulation. The rich should pay cits and taxes. care costs more in line with those in the bulk of any deficit reduction (10) Tough choices. They’re not over tar- peer countries, control the deficit, costs: that is proportional to how gets for debt or spending as a share and better protect average citizens’ they benefited and to their ability to of GDP, nor how deeply to cut the health and financial well-being. pay. And new budget guidelines to incomes and security of the work- “There isn’t a long-term defi- reduce deficits should aim to reduce ing and middle classes. The tough cit problem,” Baker says. “There’s inequality over coming years, as the choices are over values, such as giv- a healthcare problem. If health- JS, CC and OFS plans would do. ing reality to a second bill of rights. care gets under control, economic (8) Help state and local governments It’s over the question plaintively growth goes a long way towards- with their budget crises. Despite posed by songwriter Florence Reece solving the deficit.” deep cuts in essential programs to the coal miners of Harlan County (6) Focus solutions to solve multiple and workforces in at least 46 states, as they faced the choice of being “a real problems. A very small finan- the crises continue, according to union man or a thug.” Which side cial speculation or transaction tax, Center for Budget and Policy Pri- are you on? n

In These Times january 2011 23 A Three-Point Plan to Save Democrats The party must reconnect to its populist roots By Roger Bybee F the Democrats are to re- gain power, they must first wage an elemental battle over their party’s fundamental identity and strategy. ITo briefly recap: The long-predicted Republican tidal wave arrived with the mid-term electorate—whiter, wealth- ier, older and more conservative than the mass of voters who elected Obama in 2008—evicting some 63 House Democrats and handing the Republi- cans six Senate seats. Progressives hoping to move Demo- crats toward policies promoting shared prosperity must understand the reasons for this “shellacking” and the transfor- mation necessary to get the party back on course. The punditocracy almost univer- sally pronounced that November 2 proved the nation wants to fundamen- tally change course. But this superficial s analysis both overstates the Republi- e mag y I y cans’ non-existent mandate and under- tt On November 24, Iris states the magnitude of the Democrats’ Martinez, 6, whose family loss of connection to their base. Poll- is facing eviction, protests outside a home that is ing data clearly suggest that the major- being foreclosed on in ity of 2010 voters may have pulled the Long Beach, Calif.

Republican lever, but they nonetheless RALSTON/AFP/Ge MARK decisively reject the pro-wealthy Re- publican program. Republicans depict as a central route to In Wisconsin, for example, the blue- The divergence between the vote for economic rejuvenation—was opposed collar vote for Democrats sank from 52 Republican candidates and support for by 63 percent of all voters.) percent in 2008 to 40 percent, which their policies was dramatized in poll- In a very different way, the Demo- more than accounts for the loss of out- ing by Peter D. Hart in the 100 con- crats also experienced their own gulf spoken progressive Sen. gressional races that swung the elec- between the approach of their leader- and the northwoods House seats held tion. By a margin of 77 to 21 percent, ship and the sentiments of key por- by staunch liberal Rep. Steve Kagen and the voting public as a whole favored tions of the 2008 pro-Obama coalition. the seat vacated by longtime progressive job creation through investment in Youth, people of color, and blue-collar Rep. David Obey. public roads, schools and other facili- workers all have suffered especially The main achievements touted by ties. (Continuing the tax cuts for those sharp losses in pay and jobs during the the Democrats—enacting a healthcare earning $250,000 or more—which the recession. plan whose main features do not kick

24 january 2011 In These Times in until 2014 and halting the huge cas- ingness to act decisively has been the hired; no other factor was so often cited cade of job losses that marked late 2008 result of unwavering pressure from the for current economic ills.” and early 2009—failed to dent the day- Right—from his coterie of Wall Street CNBC cited a finding that suggested to-day misery and anxieties about jobs, advisors to CEOs to the Right’s massive a possible political alliance: “While 65 pay and security still being experienced media apparatus. percent of union members say free by tens of millions of Americans. Even the most atrocious displays of trade has hurt the U.S., so do 61 percent The Great Recession continues to per- corporate greed have little visible or au- of Tea Party sympathizers.” sist in large part because, as Carl Rosen dible mobilization on the Left. BP’s spill These latest figures should remind of the United Electrical (UE) work- in the Gulf of Mexico and the death President Obama and his advisors that ers union puts it, “Workers can’t afford to buy what they make.” With earnings President Obama and his advisors should notice and savings falling for average families, the richest 1 percent of Americans com- that free trade policies have become such a mand 23.5 percent of all annual income, huge liability to nearly all Americans that they up from 9 percent in the 1970s. The remarkable plummet in public virtually foreclose his re-election prospects. enthusiasm for the Democrats over the past two years indicates that the party of 11 workers offered a clear lesson on free trade policies have become such of Roosevelt desperately needs a pro- what happens when corporate power a huge liability to nearly 90 percent of gressive transformation. It needs to re- becomes too big to regulate. No left- Americans that they virtually foreclose connect with the people most victim- wing version of the Tea Party emerged his re-election prospects. An analysis ized by the increasing inequality that is during the last two years—and we need by ’s Global Trade Watch coming to define our country. But this one badly. of the impact that “free trade” had on will only happen if three things occur: There are endless problems facing 182 competitive election indicated that The Democratic Party working families, but none more criti- opposition to “free trade” and the off- must clearly represent cal than a daily volume of foreclosures shoring of jobs served as a firewall for the interests of working 10 times higher than during the Great Democratic congressional candidates, 1 Depression, according to It Takes a Pil- with opponents of these policies three families and the poor. lage author Nomi Prins. Why don’t the times more likely to win compared to In 2006, pollsters and political analysts country’s two large labor federations, Democrats who supported them. John Halpin and Ruy Texeira analyzed the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, pick- Lori Wallach, the group’s director, Democracy Corps polling data and con- et the giant banks foreclosing on homes warned in a November 3 Common cluded: “A majority of Americans do not across the country? Dreams interview: “In 2008, Obama believe progressives or Democrats stand Democratic politicians only won the election because he won for anything.” In other words, it is un- must recognize “free trade” the critical states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, clear which values the Democratic Party for what it is: economic Michigan and Wisconsin by differenti- would find worthy of fighting for. 3 ating himself from McCain on trade. It poison for the country, and They must become clear. The Demo- political poison for the party. is pretty obvious with Dems and GOP cratic Party must become the party of nationwide running against the trade the people shut out from the record Since 1994, deals like the North Ameri- status quo and its job offshoring dam- profits and share of income enjoyed can Free Trade Agreement and the ad- age, that if Obama flip-flops now in fa- by Corporate America and the richest mission of China into the World Trade vor of more job-killing NAFTA agree- 1 percent. Just as the Republicans in- Organization have contributed to the ments, he will lose those states and end cessantly define themselves in simple, loss of 4.9 million U.S. jobs and the up a one-term president.” memorable terms like “smaller govern- closing of 43,000 U.S. factories. A different future could be charted ment and lower taxes,” the Democrats A September poll by the Wall Street by the Democrats, however. But it will must become known as “the party of Journal and NBC revealed that 86 per- depend on them adopting a clearly de- decent jobs, a fair shot for all, and dig- cent of the public opposed the export fined identity, embracing grassroots ac- nity for everyone.” of jobs. On October 2, the Journal ob- tivism and abandoning the “free trade” Strong grassroots served: “In the recent WSJ/NBC poll, 83 track to job destruction and commu- n movements must force percent of blue-collar workers agreed nity devastation. President Obama to that outsourcing of manufacturing to 2 foreign countries with lower wages was Roger Bybee is a writer in Milwaukee, Wis., rediscover his progressive side. a reason the U.S. economy was strug- and a regular contributor to In These Times’ la- Obama’s rightward slide and unwill- gling and more people weren’t being bor blog, Working In These Times.

In These Times january 2011 25 in person

by david moberg Chicago’s Other Community Organizer Last March, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi we could reduce long-term debt and achieve primary budget balance without appointed Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a progressive harming the middle class. It’s important Democrat from Chicago’s North Side and to have a progressive point of view. I also wanted to make the point— northern suburbs, to President Barack Obama’s which has gotten very much lost in the shuffle—that investment in the econo- 18-member National Commission on Fiscal my is very important for deficit reduc- Responsibility and Reform. Co-chaired by Erskine tion. If we make the needed investments, then more people will be working, the Bowles, former chief of staff for President Bill economic situation will be improved, Clinton and a millionaire investment banker, and and the deficit will actually be reduced. There’s very little discussion of that and former Wyoming Republican Senator Alan nothing in the Bowles-Simpson propos- al to invest in the economy. Simpson, the bipartisan but distinctly enue (mostly tax increases for the rich The other point is that it’s disin- conservative commission is supposed and corporations, but also from cap- genuous to talk about shared sacrifice. to come up with a plan to reduce fed- and-trade carbon emission controls). Low-income people and middle-class eral budget deficits fueled by George W. Twenty-five percent comes from de- people have done their share of sacri- Bush’s tax cuts, two wars, the Great Re- fense cuts and 9 percent from manda- ficing over the last number of decades. cession, programs to fight the recession tory programs (like offering a public op- We now have the largest disparity in and rapidly rising healthcare costs. tion for health insurance and requiring income since 1928. To exacerbate that In early November, Bowles and Simp- Medicare to bargain over drug prices). by cutting Social Security is wrong. son floated their proposal which in- Though Social Security does not con- Fixing the economy is not a green cludes dropping the top rate on the very tribute to the deficit, Schakowsky plans eyeshade, bean-counter kind of plan. rich from 35 to 23 percent. The proposal to secure future payouts without benefit It’s figuring out first what our values surprised commission members like cuts by increasing how much the wealthy are—who pays and who doesn’t. So I’ve Schakowsky, a longtime community or- pay into the retirement program. consistently asked for distributional ganizer (of senior citizens, among oth- A few days before Thanksgiving, analyses for any proposal. They pretty ers) and part of the House Democratic Schakowsky discussed the commis- clearly show that the burden will fall on leadership team. Shortly afterward, amid sion’s work. the very people who have not shared a flurry of other proposals, Schakowsky Do you see a consensus coming out of the prosperity over the years. So having presented her own, much different plan. this commission? a plan like mine out there has helped Finally, on December 1, the co-chairs of- It depends. The Bowles-Simpson plan the conversation. It’s useful to provide fered a slightly revised version of their is very sweeping—this complete over- progressives with examples of why we initial proposal but ignored their charter haul of the tax code, eliminating all tax don’t need to do this. by delaying the commission’s vote. expenditures, lowering the rates for ev- Do you see some common ground Unlike the Bowles-Simpson proposal, erybody. So I think the chance of that between your plan and Bowles- Schakowsky’s would not go into effect kind of recommendation is very low Simpson? until 2015 or after unemployment rates and probably impossible to achieve. subside and provides for $200 billion We may be able to agree on some of the What was the message you were trying of job-creating investments during the defense cuts, some of the discretionary to convey with your proposal? next two years. Slightly more than a spending like agriculture subsidies. third of Schakowsky’s proposed deficit The politics and economics are com- Where do you draw the principled lines reduction would come from new rev- bined. I wanted to make it very clear that of opposition with it?

26 january 2011 In These Times We have to be willing to fight. That has Rep. Jan Schakowsky to be a White House and congressional (D-Ill.), a longtime strategy we can all agree on because this community organizer, is now about the presidential election. was one of the few progressives appointed And with this Citizens United deci- to President Obama’s sion—God only knows what that means deficit commission. this next round. It doesn’t look like we are going to do anything about that, which is pathetic. Are senators going to have the courage to end the filibuster as we know it—or at least put some constraints on it? We have tools. It’s a question of whether we’ll be willing to use them. We need to be better poker play- ers. The president said he used to play poker when he was in Springfield as an Illinois state senator. For small stakes, though. s We’ve got big stakes now. And we haven’t e mag y I y been the best poker players. We’ve been tt ready to fold when we shouldn’t. We /Ge r e should be taking principled positions ill

M that are very clear and not just give an h aways. I feel so strongly about unem- Et ployment right now. A lot of us in the Democratic caucus don’t want to give up on that. I can’t vote for the Bowles-Simpson there actually may be arguments about plan. I don’t see how it could be made displacement that are real. Remember, Do you see the Republicans as having into a proper plan. This is supposed that’s all public dollars that we’re spend- an agenda beyond deficits? Obviously to be a deficit-reduction plan, and ing on these outdated weapons systems, they weren’t that concerned about they start with how much they won’t we could spend them in other ways and deficits under George W. Bush. raise taxes. put people to work in a more produc- Absolutely. This idea that they love— Many progressives see the deficit as tive way. Having that conversation about starve the beast—is one they embrace. a result of the recession and rising how we allocate resources in our society Where were they during the Bush years? healthcare costs. Are you convinced a is very much worth doing. Obama decided not to look back, and plan as ambitious as yours is needed? How do you anticipate Republicans we Democrats did a crummy job of It is very much a losing strategy for us will use the deficit issue in the next explaining how we got here, including to say we don’t need to do anything. Congress? deregulation—which Republicans now Among those anythings are major in- Their answer to every question is more want to go back to for Wall Street. This vestments. For example, we have to be tax cuts for the rich. Whatever the is the same old Republican way of cut- absolutely unwavering when it comes problem, that is the answer. ting spending and revenue and giving to unemployment insurance. The question is: Can we show the Tea tax breaks to rich people. It would fur- And we’re going to need to talk about Partiers—who in many ways are anti- ther exacerbate the disparity in income healthcare costs. We did for 18 months corporate—that they bought snake oil? we now have. on the healthcare bill, which made some If they’re looking for help for the mid- Do you worry that your colleagues will progress, but there are some other ways dle class, they bought the wrong thing. feel too much pressure to compromise? that we can do it. The notion of taxing The Republicans are in disarray them- I do. I worry that Democrats might dividends and capital gains as ordinary selves. It will be very interesting to see think the public will believe that we’re income is something we should do any- how they deal with these Tea Partiers. not sufficiently serious about this prob- way. Eliminating some tax expenditures There’s distrust of Wall Street among ev- lem, and so we’ve got to go along. so skewed to the wealthy is an important eryone, including the Tea Partiers, and Many people now associate Demo- thing to do. We need more money. a sense of how unfair the bailouts have crats with Wall Street, not working The defense contractors have been been. Yet the Republicans have talked families. On a number of key issues very clever and put jobs in every state, so about repealing the Wall Street reforms. we’ve lost the brand. n

In These Times january 2011 27 culture

Pundit David Brooks founded the discipline "comic sociology."

chris lehmann The Babbitt of the Bobos No matter how many times I espy New York Times columnist David Brooks patiently explaining the deeply antipopulist, economically astute and mildly amusing features of the American character, I somehow always picture him in a straw boater and a striped jacket, affecting the jaunty mien of Harold

Hill, the charming-huckster protagonist of Mer- ously waft upward to the talented knowledge elite. edith Willson’s The Music Man. That’s because, Brooks staked his claim as new millennial so- like Hill, Brooks keeps up a steady, wisecracking cial seer with his breakout 2000 bestseller, Bobos patter meant to lull his eager auditors into a state of in Paradise, which purported to gently mock the calm reassurance about the social order surround- bohemian pretensions of the new American power ing them. There’s really just one salient difference: elite. (These were, in Brooks’ waggish telling, the Hill was drumming up civic enthusiasm for the “Bobos”—a lazy conflation of “bourgeois” and “bo- blandishments of school band class; and Brooks is hemian” that Brooks claimed was a signature new pitching the stalwart myth of pseudomeritocratic formation on the American social landscape, even worth, a system by which all just rewards spontane- though bohemians have always been drawn from

28 january 2011 In These Times the ranks of the bourgeoisie, and rarely playbook to a tee, the United States be- cal 2004 anatomy of both Brooks’s re- harbor any serious ambition to forsake came mired in a disastrous and illegal search and mystifying popular acclaim, their socioeconomic birthrights.) imperial mission in Iraq—a project that the young reporter got a sober lecture But as with many works of pseudo- Brooks enthusiastically cheer-led from from Mr. Comic Sociology for his trou- meritocratic propaganda, Brooks’ la- his perches at The Weekly Standard, the ble. “This is dishonest research. You’re bored puckishness proved on closer New York Times and "All Things Con- not approaching the piece in the spirit inspection to be the sincerest form of sidered." And of course the whole rick- of an honest reporter,” Brooks chided his flattery. For all its consumer excesses, the ety debt-based fantasia that permitted interlocutor. “Is this how you’re going to Bobo class was, in his account, brilliant- countless Bobo homeowners to leverage start your career?” ly adaptive and surprisingly resource- ful. Instead of lurching into cataclysmic The beauty of Brooks’ brand of valentines hedonism, Brooks’ affluent Bobos em- barked on rigorous regimes of physical to the American knowledge elite is that you and spiritual self-improvement, practic- never have to say you’re sorry—or mean ing an enlightened “Modernism for the shareholders” and possessing a “Midas much of what you said in the first place. touch in reverse,” whereby everything they touch “turns to soul.” out their mortgages into upscale kitchen Brooks well understands that the way Behind Brooks’ gentle scoffing at the upgrades has collapsed into a smolder- to confidently pilot one’s career upward Bobo vogue for distressed furniture and ing ruin. is to play shamelessly to the broad-as-a- overpriced cave-aged cheese at Whole But the beauty of Brooks’ brand of barn cultural prejudices of an elite read- Foods, was a tacit bid to extort a very valentines to the American knowledge ership rather than challenge its sensibili- old kind of social deference on behalf elite is that you never have to say you’re ties with empirical findings. But there’s of this allegedly new social class—pro- sorry—or mean much of what you said no doubt, in pure terms of career am- vided, of course, that its members sum- in the first place. Aligning one’s pundit bition, that Brooks had the best of this moned forth the right sort of nation- brand with the credentialed smart set particular argument. Not long after the alist fettle. In the book’s closing pages, means automatically, in these United unhappy Atlantic episode, he was ele- Brooks exhorted the feckless Bobo States anyway, that one is on the right vated to the plum perch as the lead con- class to step up to the bar of history and side of history. servative columnist for the Times—and claim its proper role of stage-managing The hollowness of the “comic sociol- from there, he was off and running with the world-defining American civilizing ogy” Brooks sought to perpetrate in all sorts of similar grab-and-go general- mission. Sounding very much like his Bobos was exposed the following year, izations about the deep-seated cultural own imperialist hero Theodore Roos- when he composed a faux-anthropolog- determination of everything, from the evelt, Brooks fretted: ical cover story for the Atlantic, explor- rancorous mood of Major League Base- We may become a nation that enjoys the ing the mysterious hinterland sensibili- ball playoffs to the course of global de- comforts of private and local life but that ties of “Red America”—i.e., the virtuous velopment policy and foreign aid. has lost any sense of ... a unique historical right-leaning voting districts and states Lately, Brooks has even taken the mission. The fear is not that America will decline because it overstretches, but because that went into the George W. Bush col- stunningly obtuse view that money itself it enervates as its leading citizens decide that umn during the hard-fought 2000 elec- plays merely a nominal role in determin- the pleasures of an oversized kitchen are tion—in Franklin County, Penn. ing American elections and policy out- more satisfying than the conflicts and chal- Brooks strung together plausible- comes more broadly. In an October 2010 lenges of patriotic service. sounding tossed-off observations about column he airily dismissed worries over Christopher Lasch, a keen critic of the shopping mores and cultural sensi- the explosion of political campaign cash Theodore Roosevelt’s brand of impe- bilities of the place, all of which alleg- as so much “primitive mythology” sum- rial adventurism, astutely dubbed it “the edly shored up the big-picture thesis of moned up by members of Washington’s moral and intellectual rehabilitation of the piece: that Red and Blue America self-interested political elite. He writes: the ruling class”—and that is very plain- faced off against unfordable culture In the end … money is a talisman. It makes ly what Brooks had in mind in his bid to divides, which translated into abiding people feel good because they think it has marshal the home-happy Bobo elite into class segregation as well. The only prob- magical properties. It probably helps in local a gauzy ethos of national service. But of lem is that very few of the telling details legislative races where name recognition is low. It probably helps challengers get estab- course, with the benefit of hindsight, we Brooks crammed into the piece proved lished. But these days, federal races are over- can appreciate how deeply misguided to be, you know, true. saturated. Every federal candidate in a close this reckless conflation of ruling-class When Philadelphia magazine writer race has plenty of money, and the marginal rehabilitation and national mission can Sasha Isenberg ran a litany of contradic- utility of each new dollar is zero. be. Following the spirit of the Brooksian tory facts by Brooks for his sharply criti- Leave aside that the overall tally of

In These Times january 2011 29 cash expenditures in the 2010 campaign the prospect of government bailouts for capricious and planning futile. ... Re- cycle topped $5 billion—the largest-ever U.S. auto manufacturers, a policy that sponsibility is not often internalized. outlay of campaign money in a midterm he of course opposed as a defilement of Child-rearing practices often involve contest, and, amazingly, a sum that out- sainted free-market principle. Bailing neglect in the early years... We’re sup- strips the amount spent during the 2004 out automakers would unconscionably posed to politely respect each other’s presidential cycle. That is, in other words, introduce “politics” into industrial poli- cultures. But some cultures are more a shitload of primitive mythology, even cy (since, you know, unregulated market progress-resistant than others, and a in a political process as systematically activity had done so much to secure our horrible tragedy was just exacerbated hostile to reason as our own tends to be. collective economic stability), and this by one of them.” Also leave aside that the counter-ex- would be a bootless prospect indeed, There are few things as distasteful as amples Brooks has cherry picked from compared to the existing federal bailout an opportunistic pundit seizing upon 2010 to make the case for the nugatory of financial institutions to the tune of the wrenching spectacle of mass death impact of campaign spending—the pri- $100 billion and more. “That’s a public for the sake of scoring points in a self- mary upsets of GOP favorites Mike Cas- utility,” he airily proclaimed. When an- congratulatory sidebar to the culture tle in Delaware and in other panel member pressed him on this wars. Voodoo may be a fatalistic and Alaska—actually involved cases where outlandish claim, he just shrugged. “It’s a not-entirely-rational belief system, but the better-financed candidates were sav- metaphor,” he wheedled, with the same it at least addresses its believers in the ing the campaign treasuries they had condescending affect that came across actual circumstances of their lives and amassed for the general election. This in his churlish exchange with Isenberg. reserves a decent interval of genuine they did in the tactically mistaken belief Well, not so fucking much, actually. mourning for the dead. that their primary challengers were not a This particular government-supported One can only fantasize about the retri- serious threat, and so actually argues on metaphor drove millions of homes into butions its deities would arrange for their behalf of, rather than against, the propo- foreclosure, destabilized global credit counterparts in the David Brooks pan- sition that spending advantages often markets and helped plunge manufac- theon of household gods—his Patio Men, account for decisive swings in elections. turing enterprises like the auto industry Organization Kids, and all the mythi- Of course, both major parties and past the brink of economic viability. To cal, meritocratic Bobos suffering from their electoral standard bearers freneti- call this the handiwork of a public util- Status-Income Disorder. These supersti- cally spend mountains of cash on either ity is akin to awarding a peace prize to tious pasteboard inventions are, much side of a campaign, and only one side Benito Mussolini. like the syncretic African divinities who gets to claim victory at the end. That populate Voodoo forms of worship, by- doesn’t mean that funders of campaigns ot surprisingly, the Brooksi- words for capricious market forces that are not getting anything for their money an machinery of cultural deter- have ultimately proven no less imper- however. Quite the contrary, they are Nminism sours noticeably when sonally deranging in the wholesomely setting up incumbent lawmakers, again it becomes engaged with questions of progress-promoting cultures of Paradise on either side of the partisan aisle, for a poverty and global development. In Drive than they have in the slums of career in which they spend an enormous the immediate aftermath of the dev- Port-au-Prince. But this exurban Göt- number of their waking hours raising astating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, for terdämmerung, pleasing as it may be to funds for the next campaign cycle. And example, Brooks took to his column to contemplate, shall never come to pass— they are, of course, able to put the touch mount one of his favorite hobbyhorses: there are just too many prestige editorial on these skittish cash-junkies whenever the notion that the ultimate arbiter of operations too heavily invested in the there’s a notional legislative reform ef- fortunes in squalid, poverty-wracked career of David Brooks for his chirpy fort in play on Capitol Hill. nations such as Haiti, a longtime U.S. pronouncements on the fitness of robust To gaze out on such a policy land- protectorate that has witnessed violent market ideology to meet with any seri- scape and declare money to be a virtual political coup after violent political ous challenge. Failing that, though, one dead letter in American politics is to coup ever since Western powers re- might have at least hoped that Brooks confess, in essence, that one is too lazy to solved to isolate it from the global com- could have packed up his smug market be bothered to think seriously about it. munity following its successful slave cosmology just this once and given the But the shtick has worn threadbare rebellion is—wait for it—the mystical Haitian fallen what their own native faith as Brooks has turned his culture-bound force of culture. at least guaranteed them—a humble and pundit gaze on things of actual mate- The startling body count in the wake respectful silence. n rial import, as the course of events since of the Haiti quake, Brooks wrote, arose 2008 has mercilessly forced him to do. from “a complex web of progress- This essay was adapted from Rich Peo- On a dumbfounding appearance on resistant cultural influences. There is ple Things, © Chris Lehmann, and is George Stephanopoulos’s This Week in the influence of the voodoo religion, only available at OR Books (New York), late 2008, Brooks was holding forth on which spreads the message that life is www.orbooks.com.

30 january 2011 In These Times Take two

By michael atkinson Get Angry: The Year’s 10 Best Political Docs hanks largely to person- cause the man’s outrageous career movie uncovers a secret march of al technology and its discon- of graft, extortion, fraud, money destruction: a wave of deep-shale tents, we’re living through a laundering and possibly murder natural gas digging that, since T renaissance of activist film- reveals the essential amorality of Dick Cheney exempted the indus- making—never before in the history our federal circus so clearly that try from any environmental regu- of popular media have nonfiction any withering hope you held that lation of any kind, has carpeted films been so convenient the U.S. with hundreds of to execute, so inexpensive thousands of drill sites that to finance and so easy to routinely destroy entire wil- distribute. Every year oo- dernesses and commonly dles and oodles of angry turn people’s tap water into political essay-films come propane. Fox’s document out now, in theaters and/ should be a town-hall re- or on DVD and streaming quirement in every town sit- services, on every subject ting on gas deposits. Which from war to Wall Street to looks like something close industrial pollution, and to a full third of American no viewer can be blamed municipalities. for feeling like a drowner  The Most Dangerous Man in a sea of outrage. But you in America: Daniel Ellsberg need see only 10—the best and the Pentagon Papers political docs of 2010. (First Run) An orthodox but  Inside Job (Sony) As stirring recounting of Ells- thorough and well- berg’s famous conversion researched and abso- from a RAND Corp. func- lutely enraging an ex- tionary to the biggest whis- th plication of the financial Gasland: An environmental exposé with banjo. tleblower of the 20 century. meltdown as we’re likely to get When else did one man vir- (since that seeming obligatory we lived in a democracy worthy of tually stop a war all by himself? tsunami of thousand-page Grand the word will be squashed. WikiLeaks critics, take note. Jury indictments will never be  Waiting for Armageddon (First Run) written), Charles Ferguson’s film  Countdown to Zero (Magnolia) Lucy This doc, by Kate Davis, Franco Sac- is one of several Wall Street exposé Walker’s fire-breathing film about chi and David Heilbroner, endeav- docs this year. But it’s the one that the potentiality—nay, the inevita- ors to document our three major needs to be seen, preferably with bility—of a non-state actor acquir- monotheisms’ current lust for end an Ativan. ing or making a times. It’s not an insignificant topic, from the Soviet Union’s lost stock-  Casino Jack and the United States and it does intimately involve hun- piles actually doesn’t have that of Money (Magnolia) Alex Gibney’s dreds of millions of people, mostly much of a political axe to grind. It evangelicals, who love nothing bet- portrait of the felon-lobbyist is a just sets out to steal your sleep, and lively, action-packed evidentiary ter than to detail exactly how Bibli- it does. This is the one film of 2010 cal prophecy will scorch the Earth affair, and if you didn’t quite un- I frankly wish I hadn’t seen. derstand what Abramoff did when and of course rescue the handful of his name hit the headlines in 2006,  Gasland (New Video) Talk about twinkly-eyed maniacs who are con- here’s where you’ll get it all straight. nightmares: Josh Fox’s beauti- vinced they’re doing God’s business Which is what you should do, be- ful and poundingly distressing like no one else.

In These Times january 2011 31  Budrus (coming in May, Just Vision) viewing because of the thought-  The Oath (Zeitgeist) Also extolled Already touted in these pages, Ju- less accolades it’s received from a in an earlier column, this strange lie Bacha’s film recounts how a pa- political disengaged critical com- and insinuating film by Laura Poi- tient, quiet longtime community munity. It’s immediate, power- tras focuses on a sleekly handsome organizer and local family man ful stuff, but it’s also a one-sided, Yemeni taxi driver who just hap- in the titular Palestinian village pity-the-soldier piece of subtle, pened to be Osama bin Laden’s commits to a protest regimen of hawkish propaganda, in which we bodyguard, and a fervent jihadist, nonviolence, as the soldiers and grow intimate with these heart- for much of the ’90s. Now a kind of bulldozers move in to erect the of-gold warriors even as they kill minor jihadist celebrity who loves Partition Wall, in 2004 and 2005. civilians, maim babies and then the camera, he is also burdened Inspiring, as much for the sacrifice spend months bemoaning the by guilt, by having abandoned his and reason exhibited by the villag- death of a single platoon member role as a warrior, by the collision ers and the Israeli protesters that for whom the film is named. between his devotion and his di- help them, as for the central figure  Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot vulgence of al Qaeda info to the himself, a heroic ordinary man Spitzer (Magnolia) Alex Gibney’s FBI. Perhaps the most insightful, who seems to be the governor or characteristically thorough survey and yet inconclusive, film about congressman we wish we all had, n of the Spitzer history is compelling jihadism yet made. and never, ever will. as indictment—not of Spitzer, but  Restrepo (Virgil) A beautifully of the army of GOP honchos who michael atkinson is our resident cinephile made document of grunt life in spent years trying to bring him and has written or edited many books, including the worst combat zone in Af- down—and as tragedy, in which Exile Cinema: Filmmakers at Work Beyond Hol- ghanistan, this film by Tim Heth- privilege and self-indulgence lywood (2008) and the mystery novels Heming- erington and celebrity journal- robbed the landscape of an effec- way Deadlights (2009) and Hemingway Cut- ist Sebastian Junger is required tive anti-corporate man of action. throat (2010). He blogs at Zero For Conduct. [ art s p ac e ]

Belle of the Brawl Jesse Hazelip is an Oakland, Calif.-based street artist whose work focuses on the repeated mistakes in America's history of war and the sociopolitical effects they’ve had on the nation. Haze- lip’s paintings—which incorpo- rate symbolic images of buffalo, herons, Arabic script and WW1 weaponry—can be seen across the city of Oakland. With his latest solo exhibition, The Belle of The Brawl, Hazelip intends to use the same iconographic imagery to illustrate the crises and violence resulting from the U.S. oc- cupation of Iraq. The exhibition will showcase 20 of the artist’s mixed media images, an installation piece and an unknown piece set to be revealed at the opening re- ception on January 15 at the 941 Geary Gallery in San Francisco. —Leanna Burton

32 january 2011 In These Times perhaps the federal government. Even- tually, Clemens made the journey to Aguascalientes, Mexico, to view for himself the bitter irony of machinery from the Budd plant—which had been situated between two Chrysler-owned factories in Detroit—stamping parts for none other than Chrysler’s Dodge Journey line. To educate himself in the early stages of the project, Clemens studied the bi- weekly publication Plant Closing News, founded by Jon Clark during 2003. s

e Successful journalists understand that every story can be enhanced by spe- ag Im y cialized publications such as Clark’s tt

A car drives past the /Ge newsletter. The first year of publication, att

remains of the Packard l Clark reported on 983 plants closings Motor Car Company

er P er in the United States and Canada. The in Detroit, Mich. number rose every year after that. c Spen Clemens also draws on first-hand knowledge from an open stamping books plant. The result is vivid prose. Here is Punching Out is an excellent example an example: Autopsy of an of how time equals truth in journalism. Like the liftoff of an airliner, the stamping Spending almost every day for a year of auto body parts requires inhuman force, observing any story up close is bound producing decibels registered by your in- Auto Plant ternal organs. The presses sound, unmis- By Steve Weinberg to yield familiarity with sources (includ- ing the main characters) and processes takably, as if they could kill you, which they could, without much interrupting nother American factory unknown to journalists hampered by their normal functioning. You’d notice the closes. Thousands of union la- deadlines. collision more than they would…It would Aborers lose their jobs. The host Born in 1973, Clemens watched the be difficult to find a stamping plant of long city, in this case Detroit, spirals further city of Detroit decline in conjunction standing without a history of tragedy. In re- into debt. The automobile parts will with the American automobile in- cent decades, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and automation be coming from an obscure Mexican dustry. The sites of automobile parts have helped to reduce the human loss—the town, shipped into the United States plants that used to employ thousands latter, in large part, by reducing the need across a national border. of proud, well-compensated laborers for humans altogether.…Compared with The scenario is a cliché by now, and now sit empty. After the Budd Compa- a state-of-the-art assembly plant such as hyper-aware readers might be forgiven ny automobile parts stamping factory Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant, the scene in an old, closed stamping plant such as Budd for groaning at the thought of yet an- closed during 2006, Clemens decided is hellish, backlit by Goya. (There were in other journalistic account. But trust to investigate the reasons for the clos- fact foam fingers in the Budd plant that said me, Punching Out: One Year in a Clos- ing and observe what would become of GOYA. It stood for Get Off Your Ass.) ing Auto Plant is a journalistic account the gigantic building in its abandoned worth reading—for its uniqueness and state. (Stamping plants manufacture To find sources in the early stages of its humanity. specific parts, such as doors. Engine his research, Clemens printed the on- When freelance journalist Paul Cle- plants manufacture, naturally, engines. line comments connected to a Detroit mens decided to document the clos- Assembly plants put the parts and en- News feature about the Budd plant ing of an automobile industry factory gines together until a finished vehicle closing. One married couple men- in his native city of Detroit, he did not emerges.) tioned she had worked at the plant for initially grasp the international impli- He learned that heavy machinery 30 years, he for nearly 33 years, and her cations of the story. After a year of im- from the closed factory would be trans- father for 36 years. Naturally, Clemens mersion reporting, Clemens not only ported to Mexico by truck to perform interviewed them, and they led him to grasped the implications, he lived them the same functions as before, while other out-of-work laborers. Clemens as he crossed national borders in pur- Detroit workers drew unemployment also contacted the representative of suit of the big picture. checks from the state of Michigan and United Auto Workers Local 306 to gain

In These Times january 2011 33 excerpt access to documents and the physical plant itself. Through his contact with the union representative, Clemens re- Living an online life in the digital age ceived an introduction to Eddie San- In Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age (OR ford, a former Budd factory security Books, New York), Douglas Rushkoff writes, "Only by understanding the guard recently employed by the rig- biases of the media through which we engage with the world can we dif- ferentiate between what we intend, and what the machines we're using ging company dismantling the gigantic intend for us—whether they or their programmers even know it." In the presses. Sanford provided entry into chapter "Command VI, Identity: Be Yourself," Rushkoff writes: the plant for Clemens, making the im- According to best estimates, only 7 percent of human communication mersion reporting possible. occurs on the verbal level. Pitch, volume and other vocal tone account Here is a sampling of the remark- for 38 percent, and body movements such as gestures and facial ex- able scenes and facts throughout pression account for a whopping 55 percent. ... Punching Out: But online, we are depending entirely on that tiny 7 percent of what • The electoral implications of fac- we use in the real world. Absent the cues on which we usually depend tory closings and layoffs should be to feel safe, establish rapport or show agreement, we are left to won- obvious, but sometimes are not. der what the person on the other end really means or really thinks of Clark, the publisher of Plant Clos- us. Our mirror neurons—the parts of our brains that enjoy and are ing News, heard from Democratic reinforced by seeing someone nod or smile while we are sharing some- thing —remain mute. The dopamine we expect to be released when Party leaders as early as 2004; they someone agrees with us doesn't flow. We remain in the suspicious, wanted his help in calculating the protective crouch, even when the situation would warrant otherwise ... number of American jobs exported Living in a 7 percent social reality has real effects. As MIT researcher during the presidency of George W. Sherry Turkle has discovered, teens online rarely if ever apologize to Bush. “I tell you what,” he told the one another. When they are caught having wronged someone, they con- Democrats, “if you can get every- fess—but they never say they're sorry. It's as if the factual statement body to vote for you that’s lost their of guilt matters more than having any feeling about it. Sorrow goes out with the other 93 percent. job in this country, you can easily be elected. And that was four years As if desensitized by all this disembodiment, young people also exhibit an almost compen- ago. And that’s 5,000 plant closures satory exhibitionism. .... We might find some ago.” Well, Obama got elected. But solace in the sensibility of the internet's most what is his administration doing techno-progressive young people, who tend to about the pace of plant closings, and believe that the loss of privacy and collapse of how many votes of displaced labor- identity they're currently wrestling with online ers might depart the Democrats in is preparation—a trial run—for a human fu- 2012? ture in which people enjoy full telepathic pow- ers. They believe that they are getting a taste • Factory closings are immensely of what it is like to see inside other people's complex, with huge ripple effects. heads now in order to be able to handle the But American corporate execu- full sharing of all thought in some evolution- tives and labor union leaders gen- ary future. We'll see about that. erally fail to convey their signifi- cance. As Clemens notes, “…a car requires thousands of parts; these parts are provided by countless suppliers who, in turn, are sup- Auto Workers counselor and a ter- sion journalism older than Cle- plied by countless suppliers; all of minated employee who wonders mens include John McPhee, Gay these suppliers employ hundreds about selling his lifetime health Talese, Madeleine Blais, Susan of thousands…with the whole insurance guarantee back to Budd Orlean, Walt Harrington, Mike industrial supply chain stretching for $75,000 in quick cash. It sounds Sager, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc and back as far as the eye can see. This like a bad bargain, the counselor Tracy Kidder. Based on Punching message, bungled however badly, says. He then hedges while talking Out, Clemens is a worthy addi- remains absolutely sound.” to Clemens later: “The company, tion to the list and an example for • Trust of corporate management more than likely, eventually, down journalists not just in the United by workers must be re-established, the road, a number of years from States, but around the globe. His even if by government sanction. now—somebody’ll say ‘No, no, that story of another closed auto facto- It is heart-rending to overhear a ain’t what we meant.’ ” ry is sadly familiar. But it has never conversation between the United Superb practitioners of immer- been told this well. n

34 january 2011 In These Times Death & Crossing ing from drinking cattle-tank water. We sulate to pick up the ashes of baby bo encourage those who cannot keep up Ortiz. Alicia has already been deported, Continued from back page with their group to go back rather than but I had promised to mail the ashes so years, was not upset when she phoned risk a journey with Santa Muerte—Saint he can be buried in Mexico. Waiting him that the baby was stillborn. She Death. The patient was on dialysis. What on the paperwork, I am once more sit- says he wasn’t even sad when she left could Samaritans do? ting in front of the corner desk look- to come north al otro lado (to the I look back to the dry erase board. In ing again at the board on the wall. It is other side). He was, she says, “a type of the bottom right quadrant of the board empty. I wonder if that means there are man who would go out and look for was the last patient, Francisco Portes no Mexican nationals in the hospital. other women.” Alicia and I sit in the office of the consulate. People move back and forth Fifteen days later, I return to the consulate between the rooms. Amid all the bustle, Alicia looks out of place. At a corner to pick up the ashes of baby boy Ort iz. Alicia desk a pretty young woman with dark hair and perfectly arched eyebrows has already been deported, but I promised to helps Alicia. She is sympathetic. Her job at the consulate is to help mail the ashes so he can be buried in Mexico. Mexican nationals who had been hos- pitalized. On the wall behind her desk de la Peña. Date of birth: April 19, 1964. What happened to the four who were was a large board with posted informa- Diagnosis: fractured hip and cerebral on this board two weeks ago? tion regarding several patients in vari- lesions. Below, written ominously: “Un- The patient on the respirator prob- ous hospitals. The board is marked off conscious—on respirator.” ably died. The two who were in the in quadrants. The seriousness of the first tier probably had been discharged. medical condition worsened top to licia explains to the woman What about the woman on dialysis? bottom, while the likelihood of survival at the consulate the progression Perhaps she recovered and was sent declined left to right. of events resulting in her hospi- back home to Mexico. If so, I hoped In the top left quadrant was Imelda. talization. When she began her journey, that she lived in a city large enough to Her diagnosis: dehydration. In the bot- sixA months pregnant by her estimate, provide good medical care. tom left was José Nicolás Alvarez, who she felt the movement of her baby. But To the left of the blank dry erase was admitted to the hospital with a several days of walking in the scorch- board was a large square portrait of fractured leg. In the top right was Can- ing desert sun took its toll: dehydra- Benito Juárez, less Indian-appearing delaría Ortega Mendoza, a 30-year-old tion with symptoms of dizziness, nau- than most pictures of the mid-19th- woman. Diagnosis: dehydration. She sea and weakness. One day she felt the century Mexican president. To the left required dialysis every day because of kicking and the next day, no movement of Juárez was a black-and-white poster renal failure. Walking for days in the at all. Then she began to feel sick. She with three crosses and a cemetery with desert in blistering heat, one becomes became very alarmed when her water gravestones. Across the picture of the severely dehydrated, causing muscle broke. She pantomimes the gush of am- crosses was written in Spanish “¡No cells to break down. The protein from niotic fluid. expongas a los tuyos! ¡No dejes tu vida these cells gets into the bloodstream Two women traveling with her group en el desierto!” ("Do not put yourself at and circulates through the body, be- of 20 stayed with her when she was risk! Do not die in the desert!") coming trapped in the microscopic abandoned by the rest of the group and An official comes to the door and tubules of the kidneys and causing the the coyote, a smuggler paid to guide beckons me inside his office. He hands organs to shut down. them through the desert. The three of me the ashes in a little black box with In the same quadrant with Cande- them flagged down help and were fi- a file folder label taped on it: “José Or- laría’s information was written in brack- nally picked up by the border patrol. tiz Mendoza.” I take it home to wait for ets, “Samaritans will help with her.” I was Alicia was taken to the hospital, and her the proper paperwork from the consul- taken aback. How could we help? The friends were immediately deported. ate before mailing the small container. I help of Samaritans lies in trying to pre- In the air-conditioned office, the placed it on a ledge over the kiva fire- vent kidney failure, prevent dehydration forms are completed. Alicia signs an af- place in my living room, beside the urn that results in renal shutdown. We take fidavit as to her identity, having lost her for my own ashes. n water to the desert crossers before they identification papers in the desert. They need to go to the hospital. We bandage assure her they will call when the ashes This essay is adapted from Crossing with blistered feet, splint sprained ankles and could be picked up. the Virgin: Stories from the Migrant rehydrate those who have been vomit- Fifteen days later, I return to the con- Trail (University of Arizona Press, 2010).

In These Times january 2011 35 Death and Crossing By Norma Price

o you have any children?” I ask Alicia. She and 16-year-old sisters were still in high school and did not says no, then remains silent, eyes fixed on the work. The family wanted them to graduate since Alicia had car in front of us. She was discharged from the not had the opportunity to advance past primary school. hospital two days before, leaving behind the She had worked in a Coca-Cola plant making $65 a week remains of her baby that had been born dead for seven years. It was hard work, but steady. Sometimes she less than a week after she began her trek through the desert. worked from six in the morning until 10 at night, working Sitting at a stoplight, I glance sideways at her. Wavy black overtime to make extra money. But then the plant closed, hair reaches below her waist. She is pretty in a scrubbed- and she was only able to get temporary work. clean,D sad way. There is no light in her eyes. Her grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, treatment We are on our way to the Mexican consulate. The consul- was very expensive, and he accumulated a lot of medical bills. ate will make arrangements for transfer of the baby’s body Alicia’s severance pay from the Coca-Cola plant was used from the hospital to the funeral home, the final destination to pay for his care. Her mother made $40 per week cleaning for far too many border crossers. It will cover the cost for houses. There was not enough money to support the family, cremation of the infant and will help her get papers so she so 28-year-old Alicia headed north to earn more money. Six can take the ashes back to Mexico. months pregnant, with the promise of a job picking fruit in At home in Michoacán she had helped support her Oregon, she set out on her journey. mother, sisters and an eight-month-old nephew. Her 15- The father of her baby, a man she had been with for two continued on page 35