News from The Progressive Review
LOOK AT THE RECORD
http://prorev.com/democrats.htm#grassroot
ONE OF THE GREAT disservices of the media is to perpetuate the notion that American politics rises and sets on the presidency. In fact, the election of a president is the end result of many other decisions and choices made throughout the country that often are of little interest to the press. For example, the makeup of state legislatures strongly effects decennial redistricting; governors often serve as the ward leaders of national politics, and so forth.Our newly updated charts illustrate what really has happened to the Democratic Party and why, even in the midst of a disastrous foreign policy and bad economic conditions for many Americans, it is doing so poorly.These charts show a party that has been in general decline over the past four decades. In fact, in the Senate and the House, the peak of Democratic power was way back in 1937. The party has been on a downward trend ever since. More recently, it was the Carter administration - not Reagan's - that accelerated the party's fall followed by the disastrous effect the Clinton years had on the party. The party did worse under Clinton than it had under any incumbent since Grover Cleveland.None of this is incorporated into the mythology of either the party or the media, both of which persist in blaming party progressives for the Democrats' problems, when in fact it has been those such as Carter and Clinton who so muddled the party's social democratic image that in the end no one quite knew where it stood.
DUMP THE CLINTONS
As the record of Democratic Party losses indicates, Bill Clinton's administration was disastrous for the Democratic Party: GOP seats gained in the House: 48 GOP seats gained in Senate: 8 GOP governorships gained: 11 GOP state legislative seats gained: 1,254 (as of 1998)State legislatures taken over by GOP: 9Democrat officeholders who became Republicans: 439 (as of 1998)One reason for this failure: Clinton moved the party dramatically away from its populist past towards a low carb Republicanism. One of the best things Democrats could do is to dump the Clintons and get on with something new. Hillary Clinton not only carries the baggage of the corrupt and cynical Clinton years, she adds huge liabilities of her own, including being the only First Lady to come under criminal investigation. She is the Democrat's Bernie Kerick and there is no Clinton Justice Department to cover things up this time. Remember: the GOP now has access to all the case files.
THINGS TO DO IN THE BAD TIMES
http://prorev.com/thingstodo.htm
DRUG BUSTS
PEOPLE WHO WON'T BE OUT CELEBRATING NEW YEARS
RON KAMPIA, MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT -
Twenty-five-year-old Weldon Angelos celebrated Christmas in federal prison this year ... just like he'll do every year until he's 80. Last month, Angelos was sentenced to 55 years in prison for selling marijuana to undercover police officers. As U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell pointed out at sentencing, that's more time than he would have received if he had hijacked an airplane (25 years), beaten someone to death in a fight (13 years), or raped a 10-year-old child (11 years). In fact, the maximum sentence for all those crimes combined is less than the federal mandatory minimum sentence for a drug felony involving a gun. (Angelos was carrying a gun at the time of his arrest, although he never brandished it or threatened anyone.)The assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case justified putting Angelos -- a first-time offender and father of two -- behind bars for 55 years by saying that he was a "purveyor of poison" who got what he deserved. (The "poison" was marijuana, which has never killed anyone.)Angelos isn't alone in having his life destroyed by the government's war on marijuana users:-
Jonathan Magbie died three months ago while serving a 10-day sentence for marijuana possession in a jail in Washington, D.C. Magbie, a 27-year-old quadriplegic, used marijuana to treat his chronic pain. He was unable to breathe on his own, and the jail -- unequipped to meet his medical needs -- allowed him to die while in custody.-
Last year, a 19-year-old Florida college student was brutally raped by his cellmate while serving the first of four weekends in jail for a small-scale marijuana offense.-
And the year before that, 20-year-old Jose Colon - just months away from being the first in his family to obtain a college degree - was shot and killed by police in a raid in which eight ounces of marijuana were seized. Colon wasn't even a suspect. He just happened to be visiting the house being raided, and he had no drugs or weapons on him.
http://mpp.org
BUSINESSES OVERSEAS HIT WITH RISING ANTI-AMERICANISM
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1229-09.htm
JIM LOBE, ONE WORLD - The Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas--according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite. . . Brands closely identified with the U.S., such as Marlboro cigarettes, America Online, McDonald's, American Airlines, and Exxon-Mobil are particularly at risk. GMI, an independent market research company, conducted the survey in eight countries December 10-12 with consumers over the internet. One third of all consumers in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom said that U.S. foreign policy, particularly the "war on terror" and the occupation of Iraq, constituted their strongest impression of the United States. Twenty percent of respondents in Europe and Canada said they consciously avoided buying U.S. products as a protest against those policies. That finding was consistent with a similar poll carried out by GMI three weeks after Bush's November election victory. . . Those deemed "safe" or "insulated" generally were either not seen as particularly "American" (Visa, Kodak, Kleenex or Gillette), or they apparently lacked real competition (Microsoft, Heinz, and Disney). . . "Problem" companies, on the other hand, included those which more than a third of boycotting consumers said they intended to avoid, and more than 40 percent of consumers said they considered to be "extremely American." On that scale, Marlboro was found to be the most problematic. Sixty percent of respondents said they avoided the product, while two-thirds said they considered it to be "extremely American." Only McDonald's had a higher "American" score, at 73 percent, but only 42 percent of respondents said they avoided the Golden Arches.
DC GUERILLA RADIO TAKES FCC'S MIND OFF NAKED BREASTS
http://www.indiadaily.com/breaking_news/17810.asp
INDIA DAILY - An unauthorized radio station in the nation's capital called for "massive protests" in the week leading up to the January 20 presidential inauguration. The station broadcast Wednesday at 1680 AM and identified itself as "Guerrilla Radio, WSQT." During the identification message, an announcer said, "WSQT is a project of urban activists in the D.C. area working on housing issues, homeless issues, issues of war, issues of occupation both at home and abroad, and issues of the environment that we all have to live in." After being tipped by a reporter, an official with the Federal Communications Commission said enforcement investigators will try to pinpoint the transmitter using direction-finding equipment.
A man responding to a request for an interview sent to an e-mail address that had been mentioned on the radio told CNN the station uses a homemade transmitter and a concealed antenna. "It's about $40 in parts from Radio Shack and the Dumpster," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon. The caller's voice sounded similar to the voice heard on the broadcasts throughout the day. Other programming featured rap music with urgent, unsettled lyrics that were generally shouted instead of sung. The station's poor audio quality made the vocalizations nearly unintelligible. An unidentified announcer said, "It's time to say no to Bush and no to a ban on abortions." The announcer also called on the Supreme Court justices to "get off your butts" and free people unfairly imprisoned on drug convictions, and further stated that "we know you can hear our signal up there, and all you people in Congress."
There is no authorized radio outlet in the Washington area on the frequency used by the protesters, federal records show. CNN monitored the signal on a conventional car radio as far away as the Maryland suburbs, about 10 miles from downtown Washington. An FCC monitoring station is within reception range of the signal, the agency official said.
NEARLY HALF OF U.S. FOOD GOES TO WASTE
http://foodproductiondaily.com
FOOD PRODUCTION DAILY - A new study reveals that almost half the food in the country goes to waste --- a statistic that should alarm an industry that is struggling to achieve greater efficiency in order to salvage profits. The new study, from the University of Arizona in Tucson, indicates that a shocking 40% to 50% of all food ready for harvest never gets eaten.
Timothy Jones, an anthropologist at the UA Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, has spent the last ten years measuring food loss, including the last eight under a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jones started examining practices in farms and orchards, before going onto food production, retail, consumption and waste disposal.
What he found was that not only is edible food discarded that could feed people who need it, but the rate of loss, even partially corrected, could save U.S. consumers and manufacturers tens of billions of dollars each year. . .
A certain amount of waste in the food stream cannot be helped of course. Little can be done, for instance, about weather and crop deterioration. The apple industry, for instance, loses on average about 12% of its crop on the way to market. . . But Jones argues that fresh fruit and vegetable growers often behave like riverboat gamblers. They will take a risk on the commodity markets if they think it will help them make a financial killing. A bad bet often means an entire crop is left in the field to be ploughed under. . .
On average, households waste 14% of their food purchases. Fifteen per cent of that includes products still within their expiration date but never opened. Jones estimates an average family of four currently tosses out $590 per year, just in meat, fruits, vegetables and grain products.
LAST MINUTE HOLIDAY IDEA
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1413581,00.html
JUDY DEMPSEY INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE - According to the first written accounts, which date back a thousand years, monasteries in southern Bohemia around that time began constructing special fishponds for raising carp, a staple on various Christian holidays, particularly during the 40-day Lenten period leading to Easter.
Cultivating carp became quite an art form thanks to the Rozemberk family, who from 1366 until the beginning of the 17th century ruled southern Bohemia. Here, surrounded by swamps, stagnant water and overgrown forests, the family set to work. . . To this day, it is these lakes that provide Czechs with their Christmas dish.
Usually fried, often breaded, the carp is accompanied by a dark plum sauce in some Czech families, with potato salad in others. Carp is also a Christmas specialty in Hungary, Poland and some parts of eastern Germany, but it is less of a ritual and is served differently.
The carp also made its way into Jewish cuisine, where it is perhaps best known as gefilte fish - stuffed and served cold in jelly. The eastern European tradition of buying the carp live persists even in western Europe, with fishmongers doing a lively business in areas like the Marais in Paris around the time of the main Jewish holidays. The water is changed regularly to purge the carp of its muddy taste.
BOOKSHELF
THE EMPIRE HAS NO CLOTHES
Ivan Eland
In The Empire Has No Clothes, Ivan Eland, a leading expert on U.S. defense policy and national security, examines American military interventions around the world from the Spanish-American War to the invasion of Iraq.
Eland shows that the concept of empire is wholly contrary to the principles of both liberals and conservatives and that it makes a mockery of the Founding Fathers' vision for a free republic. Eland also warns that in recent years, "blowback" and the enormous expansion of domestic federal power resulting from this overextended empire have begun to threaten the American homeland itself and curtail the very liberties these interventions were supposed to protect.
Ivan Eland exposes the imperial motives behind interventionist U.S. policy, questions the historical assumptions on which it is based and advocates a return to the Founding Fathers' vision of military restraint overseas.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0945999984/progressiverevieA/
http://prorev.com/democrats.htm#grassroot
ONE OF THE GREAT disservices of the media is to perpetuate the notion that American politics rises and sets on the presidency. In fact, the election of a president is the end result of many other decisions and choices made throughout the country that often are of little interest to the press. For example, the makeup of state legislatures strongly effects decennial redistricting; governors often serve as the ward leaders of national politics, and so forth.Our newly updated charts illustrate what really has happened to the Democratic Party and why, even in the midst of a disastrous foreign policy and bad economic conditions for many Americans, it is doing so poorly.These charts show a party that has been in general decline over the past four decades. In fact, in the Senate and the House, the peak of Democratic power was way back in 1937. The party has been on a downward trend ever since. More recently, it was the Carter administration - not Reagan's - that accelerated the party's fall followed by the disastrous effect the Clinton years had on the party. The party did worse under Clinton than it had under any incumbent since Grover Cleveland.None of this is incorporated into the mythology of either the party or the media, both of which persist in blaming party progressives for the Democrats' problems, when in fact it has been those such as Carter and Clinton who so muddled the party's social democratic image that in the end no one quite knew where it stood.
DUMP THE CLINTONS
As the record of Democratic Party losses indicates, Bill Clinton's administration was disastrous for the Democratic Party: GOP seats gained in the House: 48 GOP seats gained in Senate: 8 GOP governorships gained: 11 GOP state legislative seats gained: 1,254 (as of 1998)State legislatures taken over by GOP: 9Democrat officeholders who became Republicans: 439 (as of 1998)One reason for this failure: Clinton moved the party dramatically away from its populist past towards a low carb Republicanism. One of the best things Democrats could do is to dump the Clintons and get on with something new. Hillary Clinton not only carries the baggage of the corrupt and cynical Clinton years, she adds huge liabilities of her own, including being the only First Lady to come under criminal investigation. She is the Democrat's Bernie Kerick and there is no Clinton Justice Department to cover things up this time. Remember: the GOP now has access to all the case files.
THINGS TO DO IN THE BAD TIMES
http://prorev.com/thingstodo.htm
DRUG BUSTS
PEOPLE WHO WON'T BE OUT CELEBRATING NEW YEARS
RON KAMPIA, MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT -
Twenty-five-year-old Weldon Angelos celebrated Christmas in federal prison this year ... just like he'll do every year until he's 80. Last month, Angelos was sentenced to 55 years in prison for selling marijuana to undercover police officers. As U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell pointed out at sentencing, that's more time than he would have received if he had hijacked an airplane (25 years), beaten someone to death in a fight (13 years), or raped a 10-year-old child (11 years). In fact, the maximum sentence for all those crimes combined is less than the federal mandatory minimum sentence for a drug felony involving a gun. (Angelos was carrying a gun at the time of his arrest, although he never brandished it or threatened anyone.)The assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case justified putting Angelos -- a first-time offender and father of two -- behind bars for 55 years by saying that he was a "purveyor of poison" who got what he deserved. (The "poison" was marijuana, which has never killed anyone.)Angelos isn't alone in having his life destroyed by the government's war on marijuana users:-
Jonathan Magbie died three months ago while serving a 10-day sentence for marijuana possession in a jail in Washington, D.C. Magbie, a 27-year-old quadriplegic, used marijuana to treat his chronic pain. He was unable to breathe on his own, and the jail -- unequipped to meet his medical needs -- allowed him to die while in custody.-
Last year, a 19-year-old Florida college student was brutally raped by his cellmate while serving the first of four weekends in jail for a small-scale marijuana offense.-
And the year before that, 20-year-old Jose Colon - just months away from being the first in his family to obtain a college degree - was shot and killed by police in a raid in which eight ounces of marijuana were seized. Colon wasn't even a suspect. He just happened to be visiting the house being raided, and he had no drugs or weapons on him.
http://mpp.org
BUSINESSES OVERSEAS HIT WITH RISING ANTI-AMERICANISM
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1229-09.htm
JIM LOBE, ONE WORLD - The Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas--according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite. . . Brands closely identified with the U.S., such as Marlboro cigarettes, America Online, McDonald's, American Airlines, and Exxon-Mobil are particularly at risk. GMI, an independent market research company, conducted the survey in eight countries December 10-12 with consumers over the internet. One third of all consumers in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom said that U.S. foreign policy, particularly the "war on terror" and the occupation of Iraq, constituted their strongest impression of the United States. Twenty percent of respondents in Europe and Canada said they consciously avoided buying U.S. products as a protest against those policies. That finding was consistent with a similar poll carried out by GMI three weeks after Bush's November election victory. . . Those deemed "safe" or "insulated" generally were either not seen as particularly "American" (Visa, Kodak, Kleenex or Gillette), or they apparently lacked real competition (Microsoft, Heinz, and Disney). . . "Problem" companies, on the other hand, included those which more than a third of boycotting consumers said they intended to avoid, and more than 40 percent of consumers said they considered to be "extremely American." On that scale, Marlboro was found to be the most problematic. Sixty percent of respondents said they avoided the product, while two-thirds said they considered it to be "extremely American." Only McDonald's had a higher "American" score, at 73 percent, but only 42 percent of respondents said they avoided the Golden Arches.
DC GUERILLA RADIO TAKES FCC'S MIND OFF NAKED BREASTS
http://www.indiadaily.com/breaking_news/17810.asp
INDIA DAILY - An unauthorized radio station in the nation's capital called for "massive protests" in the week leading up to the January 20 presidential inauguration. The station broadcast Wednesday at 1680 AM and identified itself as "Guerrilla Radio, WSQT." During the identification message, an announcer said, "WSQT is a project of urban activists in the D.C. area working on housing issues, homeless issues, issues of war, issues of occupation both at home and abroad, and issues of the environment that we all have to live in." After being tipped by a reporter, an official with the Federal Communications Commission said enforcement investigators will try to pinpoint the transmitter using direction-finding equipment.
A man responding to a request for an interview sent to an e-mail address that had been mentioned on the radio told CNN the station uses a homemade transmitter and a concealed antenna. "It's about $40 in parts from Radio Shack and the Dumpster," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon. The caller's voice sounded similar to the voice heard on the broadcasts throughout the day. Other programming featured rap music with urgent, unsettled lyrics that were generally shouted instead of sung. The station's poor audio quality made the vocalizations nearly unintelligible. An unidentified announcer said, "It's time to say no to Bush and no to a ban on abortions." The announcer also called on the Supreme Court justices to "get off your butts" and free people unfairly imprisoned on drug convictions, and further stated that "we know you can hear our signal up there, and all you people in Congress."
There is no authorized radio outlet in the Washington area on the frequency used by the protesters, federal records show. CNN monitored the signal on a conventional car radio as far away as the Maryland suburbs, about 10 miles from downtown Washington. An FCC monitoring station is within reception range of the signal, the agency official said.
NEARLY HALF OF U.S. FOOD GOES TO WASTE
http://foodproductiondaily.com
FOOD PRODUCTION DAILY - A new study reveals that almost half the food in the country goes to waste --- a statistic that should alarm an industry that is struggling to achieve greater efficiency in order to salvage profits. The new study, from the University of Arizona in Tucson, indicates that a shocking 40% to 50% of all food ready for harvest never gets eaten.
Timothy Jones, an anthropologist at the UA Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, has spent the last ten years measuring food loss, including the last eight under a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jones started examining practices in farms and orchards, before going onto food production, retail, consumption and waste disposal.
What he found was that not only is edible food discarded that could feed people who need it, but the rate of loss, even partially corrected, could save U.S. consumers and manufacturers tens of billions of dollars each year. . .
A certain amount of waste in the food stream cannot be helped of course. Little can be done, for instance, about weather and crop deterioration. The apple industry, for instance, loses on average about 12% of its crop on the way to market. . . But Jones argues that fresh fruit and vegetable growers often behave like riverboat gamblers. They will take a risk on the commodity markets if they think it will help them make a financial killing. A bad bet often means an entire crop is left in the field to be ploughed under. . .
On average, households waste 14% of their food purchases. Fifteen per cent of that includes products still within their expiration date but never opened. Jones estimates an average family of four currently tosses out $590 per year, just in meat, fruits, vegetables and grain products.
LAST MINUTE HOLIDAY IDEA
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1413581,00.html
JUDY DEMPSEY INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE - According to the first written accounts, which date back a thousand years, monasteries in southern Bohemia around that time began constructing special fishponds for raising carp, a staple on various Christian holidays, particularly during the 40-day Lenten period leading to Easter.
Cultivating carp became quite an art form thanks to the Rozemberk family, who from 1366 until the beginning of the 17th century ruled southern Bohemia. Here, surrounded by swamps, stagnant water and overgrown forests, the family set to work. . . To this day, it is these lakes that provide Czechs with their Christmas dish.
Usually fried, often breaded, the carp is accompanied by a dark plum sauce in some Czech families, with potato salad in others. Carp is also a Christmas specialty in Hungary, Poland and some parts of eastern Germany, but it is less of a ritual and is served differently.
The carp also made its way into Jewish cuisine, where it is perhaps best known as gefilte fish - stuffed and served cold in jelly. The eastern European tradition of buying the carp live persists even in western Europe, with fishmongers doing a lively business in areas like the Marais in Paris around the time of the main Jewish holidays. The water is changed regularly to purge the carp of its muddy taste.
BOOKSHELF
THE EMPIRE HAS NO CLOTHES
Ivan Eland
In The Empire Has No Clothes, Ivan Eland, a leading expert on U.S. defense policy and national security, examines American military interventions around the world from the Spanish-American War to the invasion of Iraq.
Eland shows that the concept of empire is wholly contrary to the principles of both liberals and conservatives and that it makes a mockery of the Founding Fathers' vision for a free republic. Eland also warns that in recent years, "blowback" and the enormous expansion of domestic federal power resulting from this overextended empire have begun to threaten the American homeland itself and curtail the very liberties these interventions were supposed to protect.
Ivan Eland exposes the imperial motives behind interventionist U.S. policy, questions the historical assumptions on which it is based and advocates a return to the Founding Fathers' vision of military restraint overseas.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0945999984/progressiverevieA/
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