Bush Admin Going After The Little "Periodical" Guy

When the Founding Fathers wrote the words "We The People" into the constitution they wanted all citizens to benefit from a more perfect union and a promotion of the general welfare among other things. One such issue was helping to secure a free and vibrant press in America.

Well we now know that the Bush Administration and all of it's underlings are on a mission to destroy all the liberties we hold dear. By controlling the Postal Service, Republican appointees are going after small periodicals by dramatically raising their postage costs. Some people in the Congress are not too happy about that, but like with any other Congressional investigation, we get a lot of angry sounding speeches from legislators and in return they get "who me?" answers. Here's part of an exchange between Rep. Elijah Cummins (D-MD) and James Miller, the Chairman of USPS' board of Governors.

From Mother Jones:

"If these small publications go out of business, is that a win-win?" Cummings asked James Miller, chairman of the USPS's Board of Governors, the entity that approved the rate hikes, during one tense exchange.

"That's a hypothetical," Miller protested.

"Nah, nah, nah," Cummings said. "You got a lot of businesses that put out publications that are saying that this is going to affect them in a negative way.... I'm asking you a simple question. If they go out of business, is it a win-win?"

"I would say if they cannot cover their costs, it is a win-win situation," said Miller. "Let me tell you why I think that. Because other classes of mail would be covering their costs." He went on to explain that every American letter writer pays 200 percent of the cost of shipping his or her letter because small magazines and periodicals don't pay their fair share.

"So your answer is, it's a win-win for everybody but the people who go out of business," Cummings retorted.

"Yes, yes," Miller said, adding, "It's not that I'm heartless. It's not that we're heartless. We have to cover all sides. And I think the fairest thing is for every class of mail to cover the cost directly attributable to carrying their mail."

This is a Bushie going with the business model. If "x" is bad for business, then get rid of "x". Well sometimes "x" is a critical tool of democracy, both nationally and locally. The problem with their business model is that Bush's tools (like Miller) are so steadfastly wedded to their ideology that they forget where America's roots are. As Mother Jones points out in the article, George Washington wanted no postage fees for small periodicals. Instead their biggest costs are from the post office, not the payroll.

If these changes go into affect, many magazines such as "The Nation" and "The National Review" and many other smaller publications would have their doors shuttered by the Post Office's rate change. As long as people like James Miller around, expect American democracy to be on the decline as the neo-cons bow down to their gods made of money and bottom lines.

The Big Chin Meets The Republican No Neo-Cons Like

What The Traditional Media Won't Tell You

Project Censored is one of the best outlets to hear about what the traditional media will simply not report. Unless the regular media feel generous and give a couple minutes to real news instead of Britney, Lindsey or JonBenet Ramsey these are the top twenty-five stories from 2006-2007 you might not have heard about:

# 1 No Habeas Corpus for “Any Person”
# 2 Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
# 3 AFRICOM: US Military Control of Africa’s Resources
# 4 Frenzy of Increasingly Destructive Trade Agreements
# 5 Human Traffic Builds US Embassy in Iraq
# 6 Operation FALCON Raids
# 7 Behind Blackwater Inc.
# 8 KIA: The US Neoliberal Invasion of India
# 9 Privatization of America’s Infrastructure
# 10 Vulture Funds Threaten Poor Nations’ Debt Relief
# 11 The Scam of “Reconstruction” in Afghanistan
# 12 Another Massacre in Haiti by UN Troops
# 13 Immigrant Roundups to Gain Cheap Labor for US Corporate Giants
# 14 Impunity for US War Criminals
# 15 Toxic Exposure Can Be Transmitted to Future Generations on a “Second Genetic Code”
# 16 No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden to 9/11
# 17 Drinking Water Contaminated by Military and Corporations
# 18 Mexico’s Stolen Election
# 19 People’s Movement Challenges Neoliberal Agenda (Free Trade through Central and South America)
# 20 Terror Act Against Animal Activists
# 21 US Seeks WTO Immunity for Illegal Farm Payments
# 22 North Invades Mexico
# 23 Feinstein’s Conflict of Interest in Iraq
# 24 Media Misquotes Threat From Iran’s President
# 25 Who Will Profit from Native Energy?

Even as a news junkie, I have heard next to nothing about numbers 3, 6, 8, 12, 15, 19, 21 and 25. Now imagine if you only get your news from CNN and MSNBC, or worse, just from Fox News.

As Walter Cronkite said of the group, "Project Censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcasting outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism." If journalists won't listen, then we need to do some leg work ourselves. Thankfully you can click on this link and help open your mind to what is going on in this big, bad world.

NY Legislature Steps Up Against The Fare Increase

With the MTA's first board meeting tonight in Brooklyn, transit advocates have been increasingly clamoring for a halt to a fare increase slated for February. In addition to the Daily News daily assault against the MTA, state legislators have been joining the public chorus. Now the State Assembly and Senate are doing something that the rest of us can't, introducing a substantial budget increase for the MTA, a concrete solution that can put the brakes on the MTA's fare increase.

From The NY Sun:

State lawmakers today are announcing new legislation that would increase city and state aid to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority by $660 million, a boost they say could help stave off the fare hike scheduled for February.

Transit advocates are rallying behind the bill and are planning to voice their opposition to higher subway and bus fares this evening in Brooklyn at the first public hearing on the fare hike.

"The state has not been giving the MTA its fair share of revenue to operate the system," state Senator Thomas Duane of Manhattan, who is introducing the bill today, said.

"It's the MTA's job is to make the fare hike seem inevitable," the chief attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, Gene Russianoff, said. "We have some good arguments that this one isn't."

The proposal has finally hit some of the ears at the MTA. Some board members are pleased by it, but others still want to see $2 billion in funds for the next two years. According to board insiders, even this hefty sum doesn't seem to impress enough of the decision makers. For now, the MTA has a huge surplus and the body itself does not expect to run deficits until 2009.

Ultimately, the decision to increase fares might come down to the Mayor. If Bloomberg is smart, he'll head the board's decision to hike the fare and come down on the side of New Yorkers and not a board that probably doesn't even ride the subway much.

A Scary Democratic Halloween

Now this is one party I would have wanted to be at, kudos to Saturday Night Live for being momentarily funny:

Don't Destroy The World Trade Center

Most people know the World Trade Center as two 110 story towers built in the 1970s and demolished by the terrorist attacks in 2001. However, hardly anyone is aware that the first World Trade Center was built in 1831 down on Pearl Street. The 19th century center of commerce is only a quick walk from what is known as Ground Zero. One building still remains at 213 Pearl after the two around it were demolished for new buildings. Now a developer wants to smash it down as well and a fight begins to save this historic landmark.

From AM New York:

The Greek Revival warehouse is in a lower Manhattan neighborhood that was part of "the process that made New York into America's great city," says historian Paul E. Johnson.

Alan Solomon, an amateur historian helping spearhead the effort to preserve the old red-brick warehouse on Pearl Street, said on Saturday that he believes its demolition to make way for a new Sheraton hotel could start as early as this week.

(snip)

The warehouse was erected in 1831 -- one of the earliest examples of the Greek Revival style of a cluster of buildings that made up the original world trade center in lower Manhattan, long before the 110-story twin towers that opened in 1970. The Pearl Street wholesalers specialized in dry goods they shipped to storekeepers all over the country.

New York "became like a funnel through which the wealth of the Western world would now have to pass," according to a television documentary by Ric Burns called "The Town and The City." Narrow lanes like Pearl Street "were transformed into the first district in the world devoted exclusively to commerce."

And now it is on the brink of destruction, to make way for another downtown hotel. I am all for rebuilding and revitalizing the Financial District, but we can still preserve the history of our city in the process. This old Greek revival building definitely deserves it's due, a Sheraton can be built anywhere.

Rudy Hasn't Made Any Friends In Britain

My friends, the real Rudy is finally starting to get out, the information has even made it across the pond to the United Kingdom. Michael Tomasky writes for the Guardian and nailed Giuliani in spectacular form, he is....George Bush with brains.

From The Guardian:

People of Britain: congratulations are in order. You have now joined ferret owners, sidewalk artists, hot dog vendors, publicly funded attorneys for poor people, low-income community college students, museum curators, a couple of innocent black men shot dead by the police, the sections of the New York City charter governing rules of succession to the mayoralty and, of course, Hillary Clinton, as objects of Rudy Giuliani's demagoguery and wrath.

You may by now have heard the story. In a radio ad that his campaign prepared for New Hampshire voters, Giuliani tells listeners that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000 and goes on to say: "My chance of surviving cancer - and thank God I was cured of it - in the United States: 82%. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only 44% under socialised medicine."

The numbers are false. The actual five-year survival rate in Britain is 74%, which is still lower than America's, but obviously high enough for the figure not to have constituted fodder for a campaign commercial. (Even the remaining, much smaller difference, is largely explained by more widespread screening in the US, which catches many more incidents of prostate cancer that are non-lethal).

Yet when Rudy's campaign was confronted with the truth behind his false numbers, he stubbornly continued the charade. Much like Bush Jr, his refusal to give ground in light of facts is astonishing. He has also had lots of practice being Mayor here for eight goddamn years.

So he sticks to the 44% even though it is really 74% and despite being called out for relying on "socialized medicine" here with NYC's health care plan, he staggers on with the ego that fights to be bigger than New York itself.

Yes Mr.Tomasky, Britain does have to take heed of this dangerous man. He is George Bush with brains and it scares the hell out of many of us back here on this side of the pond. As a New Yorker I've known only too well.

Ron Paul's New Message

For the New Hampshire voters that love to "live free or die." No other Republican certainly endorses the state motto like he does.

Hemmerdinger May Not Be Deaf, But Is He Blind?

The vast majority of New Yorkers who oppose a fare hike for the nation's largest subway system got a whiff of good news when the new chairman Dale Hemmerdinger responded to public outcries. The MTA is under an increasing attack from straphanger advocates and state legislators to wait and see about increasing the fare from $2.00 to $2.25. Up until now, the MTA has held steadfast to raising the price of a ride. Finally we have a slightly promising response.

From The Daily News:

Hemmerdinger, Gov. Spitzer's choice to lead the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, said he's taken note of the escalating clamor from legislators, transit advocates, political leaders and riders who want fares to remain unchanged.

"I'm paying attention, myself and the board members," Hemmerdinger told the Daily News, which has launched a Halt the Hike campaign. "No one is ignoring what we're hearing from the public and the legislators. We're not deaf."

The state Senate approved Hemmerdinger's nomination on Oct. 22, several months after MTA staff proposed a series of higher prices for the subways, buses, commuter trains and regional bridges and tunnels.

It is a good thing that him and the board is hearing what New York is telling them, but how will that translate into action? If Hemmerdinger does more than smooth-talk the city, he will listen and promptly respond by delaying the board's decision until April. Legislators are not asking for a lot, just a few months' delay so that they can find the funding so that the people do not have to suffer a rise in the toll. With the MTA's budget in the black through next year, what is the harm in waiting?

Is Bloomberg The Next John Lindsay?

Bloomberg has been warning city agencies to tighten their belts due to a downturn in real estate and Wall Street, but is there more to the city's upcoming fiscal woes? The New York Times certainly thinks so, and The Gothamist points out an interesting connection to former Mayor John Lindsay.

From The Gothamist:

Now The New York Times is reporting that the deals the Mayor has made with city unions may have hamstrung city budgets long after the billionaire politician has left office. Basically, these generous pay raises to unions including the police sergeants', sanitation workers', and police detectives, will lead to "expenses that stand to outpace revenue, especially toward the end of the city’s four-year spending plan."

Contracts like those as well as ones with city teachers (that boosted pay 40%) and with FDNY brass, may have left the city in the lurch long after the mayor's left office. Some critics are concerned, suggesting that the costs may force downsizing in the future, but Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler said, "You have to deal with these expenses whether you put them in the financial plan now or later. Not including them at this point would be burying your head in the sand.”

The historical parallels to Mayor John Lindsay are worth mentioning. Lindsay was a Rockefeller Republican from the Upper East Side, much like Mayor Bloomberg. His negotiations with the city's public unions wound up being calamitous to the fiscal state of New York. The aftermath led to the city verging on the brink of bankruptcy and the turmoil of 1977.

Is New York in for another bankruptcy? I certainly hope not, but the numbers are not very comforting to say the least. Bloomberg's plan to save $500 million by cutting agency spending in the next budget might help in the short term, but those salaries could be devastating over the long run. Remember, the glitzy and glamorous New York everyone sees now is superficial for the most part. Just because there are several hundred Starbucks and even more bank branches does not mean all of the city is fiscally solvent.

New Rules: You're An Idiot If Ya Don't Know Whats Going On

Here's another brutally honest commentary from the one and only Bill Maher:

Spreading Tyranny In The Middle East

The neo-cons are so obsessed with spreading "democracy" around the world, they often forget that the means can copy the means instead of achieving the ends. With Pakistan falling into chaos yesterday George Bush's White House is in crisis mode, as a nuclear country just went nuclear politically speaking. The Bush Administration is in part responsible for propping Musharraf's dictatorship up and now it coming back to haunt them.

An Op-Ed in the New York Times highlights just how bad it is, for Pakistan and the Bush Administration:

Teresita Schaffer, an expert on Pakistan at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, called General Musharraf’s action “a big embarrassment” for the administration. But she said there was not much the United States could do.

“There’s going to be a lot of visible wringing of hands, and urging Musharraf to declare his intentions,” she said. “But I don’t really see any alternative to continuing to work with him. They can’t just decide they’re going to blow off the whole country of Pakistan, because it sits right next to Afghanistan, where there are some 26,000 U.S. and NATO troops.”

The hand-wringing began even before General Musharraf imposed military rule. Ms. Rice said she has had several conversations with General Musharraf in the past few weeks — the last one two days ago — in which she appealed to him not to declare emergency powers. The American ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, had also been exhorting General Musharraf and his top deputies against making that step, Ms. Rice said.

“We were clear that we did not support it,” Ms. Rice said, speaking to reporters aboard a flight from Istanbul to Israel, where she is traveling for regional talks. “We were clear that we didn’t support it because it would take Pakistan away from the path of democratic rule.”

But even as she criticized General Musharraf’s power grab, Ms. Rice stopped short of outright condemnation of General Musharraf himself, even going so far as to credit him for doing “a lot” — in the past — toward preparing Pakistan for what she called a “path to democratic rule.”

That seeming contradiction highlights the quandary in which the Bush administration now finds itself.

It will be interesting to see how Pakistan develops over the coming days and weeks, especially if an election can be held, if it all. Not to put it lightly of course, especially with armed fundamentalists in the country's hinterlands who would love to take over the nuclear arsenal. That would be the worst scenario and hopefully unlikely to occur. Nevertheless, we are left with a Pakistan that has seriously veered of course on the democratic road....something anyone could have seen coming years ago.