Definitions

It seems like an infinite struggle to determine an equitable share of the tax load between the upper and middle classes in the United States. Last December, our holiday season was marked with the threat of raised taxes against the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts for our wealthiest neighbors. Well, the fat cats celebrated a happy new year last year, with their hard-earned tax dollars safely tucked away in their pockets (oops! I meant trickled down to the rest of us, of course), costing the U.S. treasury millions of dollars every day.

This holiday season, middle class taxes are on the table again, and if Congress doesn't act in the next 21 days, they will be raised. Whether or not this will actually happen should be enough of a concern for working families during a time of year when money seems to be slipping through their fingers, but unfortunately, there's more.

Our Congress is mulling the idea of leaving our taxes be, but they're also considering a slew of riders onto this slight concession that are, to say the least, terrifying. On the republican chopping block to pass this year's spending bill:

-The right of the Washington D.C. government to fund abortions for poor women*

-Federal funding for needle exchange programs, which are effective in reducing HIV transmission**

-EPA's ability to regulate methane emissions from farms and designate new wetlands for protection, and a limit on their regulatory power in CO2 emissions, coal ash, and oil refineries

-Federal funding for family planning services, and implementation of more grant-incentivized abstinence-only sex education

-The ability of Cuban-American citizens to visit family in Cuba

These riders are completely ideological, and for the most part will have no major effect on the federal budget (government funding of needle exchange, for example, is largely symbolic and very few dollars are actually spent on supporting these programs). And while it's unlikely that all of them will pass this time (although the D.C. abortion ban already has), the fact that they are continually discussed is a frightening thing. Removing evidence-based practices such as family planning services, and plowing forward with inept ideological principles, such as abstinence-only education will have serious implications for our nation's already sub-par health status. Limiting the power of our government to protect us from environmental hazards because such regulation would hamper the market-justice of top polluting corporations is something like evil, and keeping families separated because of some archaic political agenda is simply cruel.

Personally, when I read about these measures taking place within a government that is supposed to represent my voice, I feel marginalized. I feel terrorized. And despite calling my representatives, signing petitions, occupying my city and writing this blog, I feel voiceless and powerless against their acts of injustice. Now, I know that our nation's political definition of "terrorism" involves murderous intent and a heaping amount of racism, but what if the term also applies to continuous and prolonged threats against our rights, our health, and our vitality? When a body is acting out of ignorance and ideological extremism to the ultimate peril of a vulnerable group, what do you call it?

Fail

The state of Florida has started requiring that recipients of welfare benefits in that state submit to drug testing before they are able to receive their entitlements. This law impacts new applicants for the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, who incur the cost of these drug tests, and are reimbursed only if they pass.

Despite the fact that this new bill is questionable at best in its constitutionality, it is highly discriminatory, based on the presumption that poor people in need of benefits are likely to be drug users. This is purely a stereotype, as a 2001 pilot testing study in Florida found no significant difference in drug use among aid recipients. And in a state where the unemployment rate is among the highest in the country, the government is compromising the ability of families to survive by failing to provide a valid harm reduction model.

Consider the children who are impacted by this new law. If a parent is denied their welfare checks because of a failed drug test, which has now cost the family up to $70 of crucial funds, where will money for the child's food and clothing come from? For their educational materials? Under the law, a parent is supposed to be able to name another adult who can receive benefits on behalf of their child. But in an environment where support is low and resources are limited, this answer may become more of a problem than it is a solution.

It seems as if the agenda of this new law aims more to deter families from applying for benefits than it does to deter drug use. In the absence of a drug therapy or rehabilitation program to accompany the testing subjection, what choices will a despondent parent have to support their family and get back on their feet? If drug use was actually a critical concern of the Florida government, the position of these individuals would be considered before applying such a harsh invasion into their privacy.

Called Out

The trouble with corporate personhood is that while behemoth corporations like General Electric and Exxon Mobile are entitled to the same basic rights and constitutional protections as you and I, as if they were individual citizens (natural persons), they are not held accountable for their actions in the same ways. For example, if you or I were unable to pay our taxes because of say, unemployment or rising health care costs, the IRS would come down on us with heavy penalties to put us even further into the hole. And if I poisoned my entire community's water supply by drilling into my backyard, using hazardous chemicals to extract natural gas to heat my home, it is likely that I would go to jail. But corporate criminals are not prosecuted the way that individual criminals are; they are afforded a lot more leeway. Meanwhile, our fellow "citizens" the big corporations are entitled to a number of tax loopholes allowing them to legally evade paying the IRS while the rest of us set-up scheduled plans to pay down what we owe.

In the midst of a huge set of government budget cuts primarily targeting programs for low-income Americans, we hear about those companies we bailed out a few years ago posting record profits, giving out record bonuses to their top execs, and failing to pay billions of dollars in corporate income tax.

But some groups are calling them out on their hypocrisy, like US Uncut. Yesterday, in collaboration with the Yes Men, US Uncut released this fake press release from General Electric, stating that the company intends to repay its $3.2 billion tax refund to the government to help alleviate budget cuts affecting the poor. The release stated:

"We know that Americans are going through tough times... While we owe it to our shareholders to use every legal loophole to maximize returns, we also owe something to the American people. We didn't write the laws that let us legally avoid paying taxes. Congress did. But we benefit from those laws, and now we'd like to share those benefits."

Ha! If only... while it is indeed true that these laws were written by congress, by OUR representatives, it is also true that they were written as a result of the massive pressure put onto these representatives (and into their pockets) by corporate lobbyists, in the form of large campaign donations and gifts. Which brings us back to the trouble with corporate personhood. Anyone else notice a pattern here? My head is spinning.

D.C. Women

For many people living in and around Washington, DC, the recent aversion of a federal government shutdown has meant so much more than a continuing budget negotiation. For those of us who live in the shadow of power, the recent deal struck between feuding parties on Capitol Hill is an infringement on local sovereignty, and a direct attack (once again) on already undeserved citizens.

The full details of the compromise have not yet been realized, but what is certain is that Washington D.C. has lost the right to determine the use of its own Medicaid funds- specifically, that Washington, D.C. can no longer use its funds to pay for abortions for low-income women. These crucial funds, which prevent women from having to make a life-altering decision based on immediate circumstances, were only reinstated in 2009, and have now been revoked again, in the agonizing, dehumanizing game of ping-pong that Congress plays with the rights of D.C. residents.

This issue is beyond women's rights, because those women who are not on Medicaid, and those who can afford to pay out of pocket for an abortion procedure will not be affected by these cuts. Instead, this setback will have a wildly disproportionate effect for low-income women, leaving them with little to no choice in the event of an unplanned pregnancy.

I understand that this is a controversial issue, and many people have very disparate opinions on the matter of abortion. However, if your empathy or sympathy will allow it, please make a donation today to the DC Abortion Fund, a volunteer-run, non-profit organization helping low-income women in the district access abortion services. You can give as little as $10, and they guarantee that 95% of your donation will go towards helping a woman in need. And if ever the women of D.C. were in need, it would be now.

If you'd like to donate to the fund, you can do so here.

Insanity, Made to Order

It seems as if those rascally republicans in the House of Representatives haven't missed a beat in laying a thick layer of hateful crazy onto the capitol since taking power earlier this week. They've already taken a number of damaging, damning actions and are threatening to do much more to our environment, our health care, and to our voter's directly.

It's hard to choose from the array of craziness just which measure proposed by the republicans is the craziest. Is it the exhaustive, but ultimately futile promise to repeal a health care reform law that the American people actually favor when words like "ObamaCare," "Government Option," and "Death Panels" are excluded from the rhetoric, and the true intention of the bill is explained? After all, a new finding by the Congressional Budget Office estimates that repeal of the health care reform law would actually increase our federal deficit by $230 billion. It is only the thick-pocketed favorite children of the insurance industries who so fervently defend this repeal (see Fox News' 5 Reasons Repealing ObamaCare Won't Increase the Deficit -ha!).

Then there is the republicans' outright assault on the environment. In just one week, they've managed to eliminate the House Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, declared that greenhouse gases should not be subject regulation under the Clean Air Act (despite the Supreme Court ruling them so back in 2007), announced intentions to block funding for government agencies who support cap and trade, and ultimately pushed to limit the power of the Environmental Protection Agency's regulation of greenhouse gases and methane emissions. Meanwhile, the head of the house committee on oversight and government reform has reached out to energy companies and other business executives, asking them how they would like the government to be re-shaped.

But perhaps the insanity plat-du-jour is the blatant and vile racism that the republicans have shown towards citizens in the District of Columbia and in other U.S. Territories. Despite paying full federal taxes, residents in Washington, D.C. are not provided with any full representation in Congress. The one representative that they do have, Eleanor Holmes Norton, was stripped of her already limited voting rights in congress by House Republicans this week. Previously, the D.C. representative was allowed to vote on amendments and procedure, and could serve on committees, but could not vote to enact legislation. However, the Republicans in power have squashed even those limited rights that were previously allowed to the DC representative. And it is more than just a little suspicious that D.C., along with another 5 U.S. territories denied voting rights, is a Democratic area with a large number of minority constituents.

This is just the first week of the next two years of Republicans holding power in the House of Representatives. Over the course of this next Congressional session, we may anticipate more of such outrageous behavior. We could also maybe anticipate that the Republicans will continue, with the help of Fox News and other media puppets, to twist the truth and interject fearful, hateful language to further confuse and frustrate the American People. But perhaps we can also anticipate that this extremism will result in a powerful whip effect from progressives in the U.S., and that our citizens will become more informed, and thus more powerful to rally against this carefully pitched, well disguised agenda of the Republican lunatics.

Tragedy

According to Sarah Palin, drilling for oil makes our country a "more secure, prosperous, and peaceful nation." Sure. Except for when there are 25,000 barrels of crude oil pouring into the gulf of Mexico every day, slaughtering marine life, threatening 50% of our nation's wetlands, and compromising the livelihoods of countless fishing and coastal communities.

21 years after the infamous Exxon-Valdez oil spill in the northern gulf of Alaska, communities along the coast have yet to fully recover from the total environmental catastrophe that decimated their fishing industry, and left some species of marine life never to recover. In recent years, Alaskan sea otters and harlequin ducks have had traces of Exxon oil in their systems, oil remains a few inches below the surface on certain beaches, and coastal communities have reported increased rates of alcoholism, suicide, and violence. They are still awaiting a full clean-up, and it has been twenty-one years and counting.

Who knows what the effects of this recent spill will look like. But scientists are posturing left and right that this will be the worst oil spill in history, leaving Exxon Valdez to 'pale in comparison.'

Still, lunacy and denial prevail among those who support off-shore drilling. Sarah Palin herself, although claiming to be "heartbroken" over the disaster, noted on her facebook page that "accidents happen." Right. Oops! And never to be topped for the title of #1 moron, Rush Limbaugh is now claiming that the spill might have been triggered by environmentalists... because they wanted to "head off more oil drilling" and insinuated that this was somehow an earth day commemoration. Wow. What a wacko.

This event is a complete and utter environmental tragedy, an economic calamity, and a political minefield. What is truly heartbreaking about it is the lack of significance it has held in conservatives' attitudes toward energy policy. But how can it represent any action other than a full-fledged investment in alternative energies? How many more decimated ecosystems and toppled communities will it take before we learn that offshore drilling is unsustainable? As my friend Adam so wisely put it, we have to "start talking about alternative fuels as future fuels, because in reality, we have no alternative." Drill, baby, drill, is obsolete and irrelevant, and it's time we regarded it as such.

But for the United States to shift gears on offshore drilling policy, it would defer only a fraction of the tragedy that we are experiencing now along our southern gulf coast. Because spills like this happen all the time, with just as much intensity and at a higher frequency, wreaking environmental havoc all around the world. In Nigeria, for example, it is said that a spill equal to the Exxon Valdez spill has happened at least once every year since 1969, and the country is currently dealing with approximately 2,000 active oil spills. Other countries around the world have limited or no regulations on offshore drilling, and this is not just their problem, it is ours. We import approximately two-thirds of our oil supply from other countries, with half of this supply coming from unstable regions. And although the U.S. accounts for only 5% of the world's population, it is responsible for 25% of its oil consumption. So, this is not just an issue of extraction policy, although that is a central piece to achieving sustainability. This is also an issue of consumption and lifestyle in America, and hugely so.

The dangers and consequences of offshore oil drilling have been present for decades, but only now are they becoming real in Americans' minds, as the evidence is being brought right to our doorstep... our shoreline. It is time we reconsider our demand for these unsustainable forms of energy, and react in a way that will ensure no more tragedies like this one will ever happen again. But if we wait for total environmental destruction before we venture to make any changes, then it will certainly be too late.

Discovering Truth Through Action

Today marks the ten-year anniversary of the monumental protests in Seattle, which rocked the city to its core, halted the odious goings-on of the World Trade Organization, and created the conflict which came to be known as the "Battle in Seattle," as a result of the violent outcome of police intervention on the streets. The protestors of those days have been praised for their tenacity and their bravery, as they clashed with officers, refused to back down, and refused to allow the imperialist agenda of the WTO to continue. At the time, the agenda of capitalist globalization was left largely unqualified, and it took hundreds of arrests and the shut-down of the down-town area of one of America's largest cities for people to take notice of the issue. For this, Walden Bello writes in Yes! Magazine about the truth that was brought to light because of these audacious protestors, who took a stand against injustice and put a temporary wrench in its works in his article "The Meaning of Seattle: Truth Only Becomes True Through Action." To read it is to reflect back on a time when the wool was removed from our eyes, and the outrage of thousands became the the burden of millions. It is to relive the shock that was experienced that day, and the lessons that have been learned thereafter. To read it is to remember a time when the concept of Democracy was ripped open and reconsidered, and people's freedom was a wild, unhinged force to be reckoned with.

Good News..?

At first it would seem like a hoax: an exorbitant movement of great symbolic power that swells with a righteous sense of justice in the name of the people. Then it is deemed as sinister: yet another intrusion on the part of the government into matters that are technically considered private. Either way, it sparks controversy and debate, and a slight feeling of discomfort that leaves the mind to wonder what has really happened after all.

It was an assertion today made by the Obama administration that will call for pay cuts from 25 of the top-earning employees of recently bailed-out industries. These 25 individuals have been singled out for their paychecks, and for the extravagance that they have gained through the exploitation of loan borrowers, home owners, and other Americans just trying to get by.

The financial institutions have been making record profits, and posting record salaries and bonuses less than a year after our tax dollars bailed them out for the economy's sake. But putting billions into a localized, private pocket did not benefit us all, no matter how they might have tried to convince us that the trickle would fall.

And though a few tiffs have been launched about the government over-stepping its role in cutting executive pay, this is not an issue of technicality. It goes beyond large scale theorems of laissez-faire liberties and big government intrusions, to progress to a paradigm that is concerned with moral responsibility, social justice, and retribution for those whose wounds have not yet healed from predatory loans and mortgages, rising credit card rates, and continued obligatory debt.

There is an intuitive issue of fairness here. These executives whose pay is being cut have earned far more than they've needed to earn, and they have done it in part by breaking the backs of the working classes. There is such a thing as too much wealth, and these bullies have it. Perhaps it's about time that big brother steps in and defends his battered brothers and sisters. And although the move is largely allegorical and hardly resolves any of our immediate plights, it is something which resembles a victory of principle, and for that I'm glad.

...What About the Green Jobs?

This past weekend, human rights activist and environmental visionary Van Jones resigned from his post as President Obama's advisor on Green Jobs. This action came amidst controversy, after a campaign of slanderous smears and allegations against him by several right-wing "news" pundits. Unfortunately, some of Mr. Jones' progressive beliefs fell inexcusably outside of the norm for mainstream politics, and were therefore besieged by the rabid pundits of conservative media, who painted him as a villain while ensuring the end of his career as a white house advisor.

But this man is far from villainous. Before joining the Obama office in his unprecedented role, Mr. Jones was an active, inspirational voice and an environmental leader for many. He is the author of the bestselling book The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems. It is a coherent breakdown of the complexities of our socio-economic system, as well as those involving our environmental effects and consequent policy. It addresses what Jones refers to as the "Green New Deal," an environmental program whose model is similar to that of FDR's post-depression restructuring, and places the government on the same page as the people, working sensibly to create reliable economies and stable jobs through the demand for all things "green." Besides founding and advocating for several human rights organizations, Van Jones was also listed as one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people for 2009.


There is no doubt that Mr. Jones is a sound, forward-minded thinker who appreciates the demands as well as the barriers of our times, and understands the dynamics of action in the face of a looming ecological crisis. Yet the effect that his experience and knowledge would have had on Obama's handling of two of our nation's greatest threats will never be known, since past statements that he had made in an unofficial manner were so scrutinized and condemned by those of the right-wing punditry. They claimed that his views, which included a criticism of the Republican party and a call for truth about the attacks of September 11th, were proof that he was too partisan to be effective in the White House. As if no one in Washington has ever held a personal opinion, or sought out truth in the face of endless lies. They accused him unfairly in such a radically exaggerated measure that what followed was a resignation, not a resolution.


It is probably not surprising that the punditry took such vicious actions against Jones, considering that he is the founder of the organization Color of Change, which petitioned to have advertisers boycott Glenn Beck's Fox News show after Mr. Beck made appalling comments about president Obama being a racist. There was very personal fire taking place in this situation, and unfortunately the environmental policy of our country is being compromised in its name.


Our nation will continue to move forward, however, despite the ridiculous manic punditry frantically assailing us with negative falsities. Perhaps Mr. Jones no longer holds an official post, but as Ariana Huffington noted in her piece, Thank You, Glenn Beck!, he will continue to educate, inspire, and lead Americans as we search for new alternatives to the ecological crisis we find ourselves in. And a green collar economy still has every chance of being realized, along with the millions of jobs it will create for our struggling workforce, which is in desperate need of real change. It is absolutely in the interest of the American people, and is undeniably something that has gathered enormous attention in our popular culture. So the resignation of a potentially effective leader in the White House is meaningless, as the ideals and actions that he represents are still very prominent on the minds of the people in power ...us.