Iranian Authorities Continue Brutal Oppression: Is This the Beginning of the End?

Today has been a pretty crazy day in Iran. The authorities decided to use deadly force on a holy day, and the nephew of Mousavi, who was in the line of the Imam, was murdered. Both of these have serious cultural implications, and are likely to attract even more people to the revolution who have previously been standing on the sidelines. I highly recommend Andrew Sullivan's blog for frequently updated information on what's going on.

Whole Foods Proves the "Buycott" Was a Joke

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey got himself in a lot of trouble earlier in the year when he wrote a letter arguing against health care as a human right and claiming that the way to fix the system was to remove "government control."

As a result of Mackey's letter, Whole Foods (already known for unethical union busting tactics) came under a lot of pressure from progressive groups.  Many people have boycotted Whole Foods since his letter.  And as a response to that campaign (or rather, as a pretend response to that campaign), the tea party called for a "buycott" of Whole Foods where they would start shopping there to support the CEO's "courageous" stance and, of course, "free speech" (unsurprisingly the same people who love Mackey's "free speech" recently called for a boycott of Build-a-Bear for acknowledging the scientific consensus that climate change exists, so it's hard to take their love of "free speech" too seriously).  

The TPs exaggerated and manipulated their numbers to make it seem like their buycott made a big difference, and as a result they got a fair amount of media attention.  And I wrote at the time that their campaign had absolutely no chance of actually helping Whole Foods, and furthermore that they didn't really care about helping Whole Foods since their only goal in this was to create a political stunt that allowed them to make a few extra anti-healthcare reform remarks to the local media.

I think this point has been validated recently.  John Mackey is giving up the title of chairman of Whole Foods, specifically because of concerns that he's tarnished their image.  Now it's true that he's still their CEO and on their board of directors, so no one who was boycotting should rush out to go shopping there, but this action still shows that his letter was unmistakably harmful to the company as the company is taking actions to make it look like they're punishing Mackey.  If the "buycott" was successful, Whole Foods wouldn't be taking actions to punish Mackey or make it look like his role in the company is diminished; they would be putting him out front and center.  But, as I said, the buycott was never about actually helping the company, and it never had any chance of significantly affecting the company, whereas the tarnished image of Whole Foods among liberals is unquestionably harming their bottom line.

Of course, the TPs don't care.  This was just one of a long string of unprincipled publicity stunts for them, and if Whole Foods went out of business tomorrow, they wouldn't even bat an eye.  

An open letter to progressives: ideology kills people

Letter from a trusted friend reprinted in full:

I have been amazed at the rancor and deceit that many politically “right wing” and conservative leaders have demonstrated during the long, heated struggle to pass health reform legislation. I’m amazed that for political, partisan and ideological reasons, Republicans and Libertarians are willing to lie to their own voters. I’m awestruck at the monumental steps people are taking to protect corporations, defend outrageous profits and protect a status quo that working people in any political party cannot afford much longer.

Of course, we expect that sort of vitriol and cynicism from the right wing and from conservative political operatives who have lost ground in the last election and are bitterly losing the health care fight.

I am having a much harder time understanding the fierce attack by some folks who are thoughtful, independently-minded and progressive. Like any significant human and civil rights struggle, we are in a place where we’ve won a lot, we’ve lost some of our demands, and there’s more work to be done to get a final bill out of conference. Both the House and Senate health care bills represent an incredible step toward real, affordable, quality health care for every person in our country. Neither of them accomplish everything we need.

I hope we all evaluate the bills and what they accomplish based on the ambitious reforms they include and an understanding of the context in which the measures are proposed. The bils do many things for our communities--like funding clinics and doctors. It’s important to consider the flaws in the bills alongside a balanced understanding of just a few examples of what we are gaining and winning:

1. The Senate bill delivers health coverage to 94% of Americans --31 million uninsured people will gain access to affordable health coverage. (The House bill would cover 36 million—95%.)

2. The proposed expansion of Medicaid will provide a lifeline to 15 million low-income and disabled Americans. Congress is about to enact a significant expansion of Medicaid for both individuals and families up to 133% of the federal poverty level. Currently in Missouri a family of three is eligible for the state health insurance program if their income is less than $292 a month. Both House and Senate bills lift the income rules for the whole country to about $2029 a month for that same family of three. For the first time adults without dependent children will get this coverage. These 15 million uninsured, low income individuals will gain insurance through a public health insurance program that is affordable and has very nominal out of pocket costs. This provision will help laid-off workers and part-time workers. This expansion will revolutionize life for people with disabilities and people living with mental illnesses. For many of us, when disability strikes, we will no longer have to prove that we are “permanently and totally disabled” and unable to work just to have access to the public option of Medicaid. We won't have to stop working just to get health care.

3. Corporate abuses are curtailed and health Insurance companies have been significantly pushed back in both bills. The Senate bill went much farther than we imagined in reining in insurance company abuses. What’s really in the Senate bill? Insurance companies will not be able to turn us down or charge us more if we have pre-existing medical conditions. Insurers will be required to spend 85 cents out of every dollar they receive in premiums on health care rather than profits and administrative costs. If not, people would receive rebates from their insurance companies for the difference. Insurance companies will be banned from issuing policies that have lifetime or annual limits on benefits. Consumers gain the right to an independent appeal of any decision by an insurer to deny coverage.

4. Both the House and Senate bills bill create a national, non-profit, publicly accountable option for health insurance coverage. The House bill contains a national public insurance option. However, even in the Senate bill, people purchasing insurance in the Exchange will be able to choose from national plans, including at least one non-profit plan, supervised by the same department of the federal government that selects health insurance plans for federal employees. Before the recent invention of a “public plan” demand, progressive health care activists were asking Congress to either open up Medicare for all or allow people to buy into the plans administered by the Office of Professional Management—the same plans that Congress and Federal employees have. We just won a long-standing demand.

5. We cannot “start over” and get more progressive reform through Congress any time soon. Getting landmark legislation passed is a treacherous, long chess game, especially when that legislation has powerful corporate enemies or extends significant civil and human rights. Unprecedented political capital and economic capital have been spent—the years spent making health reform a key issue in the last election, the storybanks, the canvasses, the phone calling. We all put our best game on the field. It’s time for a final push to improve the legislation in conference committee and to plan on how we will take this momentum and build and expand on our victory. Many leaders in the health reform movement predict that if health reform fails now, we will not have another meaningful effort for 15 to 20 years, if at all. If health reform fails now, the insurance companies and for profit health care corporations will laugh (at us) all the way to the board room.

This fight has been long and vicious because Congress is creating federal rules that make insurance companies behave. Insurance companies are going to be regulated, and they don’t like it. So much is at stake. It is very dangerous to forgo these incredible victories because they are not far enough, especially since losing means millions of struggling Americans will have to continue in the health care system as it is for many, many years. I’ve spent the last three years talking to hard working people throughout Missouri who will get real, measurable, concrete help from these legislative changes. For some of them, their lives literally hang in the balance. We have a responsibility to stand beside and for the uninsured working people who will gain much from these bills.

As a few progressive groups send emails around to “kill the bill” (along with the tea party) or “a bad bill is worse than no bill,” insurance companies and right wing political operatives throw fuel on that fire. All of us should deeply consider the consequences of squandering this opportunity to move our health care system several strides forward. Kill the bill, and insurance companies win. I believe we are better than that.

Fighting for health reform for Christmas,

Amy S.

St. Louis, MO

St. Louis Activist Events for Dec. 21-27

This week's events:

Monday, Dec. 21,  The County Council is having their final vote to decide whether to put funding for public transit on the April 6 ballot at their 3 PM meeting.  Please contact the County Council and let them know you think voters should have a chance to decide to keep our public transit system at full funding!  And, if you can attend the meeting and show your support, please do.  

Tuesday, Dec. 22, there will be a fundraiser for St. Louis native Jasmine Crockett who is running for District Attorney in Texarkana, TX.  The event will be at the EXO Restaurant and Lounge at 3146 Locust from 5:30 to 7 PM.  

Wednesday, Dec. 23, the Mad Art Gallery (2727 S. 12th St.)  is hosting the 4th Annual Christmas Improv Jam featuring Bill Chott at 7 PM.  The event raises money for America's Second Harvest and the St. Louis Food Bank.

Also Wednesday, 15% of sales from pizza at Racinelli's will go towards the United Way of St. Louis's 100 neediest cases. Find out more here.

Also Wednesday, Barry Rosenberg, who teaches non-profit management at Washington University, will be speaking about his experiences in the non-profit world as part of Next Dor St. Louis's Local Leader Series.  The event goes from 6:30 to 9:30 Pm at 5062 Waterman.

Saturday, Dec. 26, Schlafly Beer is turning 18!  Celebrate at the Schlafly Tap Room (2100 Locust) from 9 PM to 1 AM.

Saturday and Sunday, it's Bald Eagle Days bright and early at Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton, IL.  Get there by 8:30 AM and have a chance to do some eagle-spotting along the river.

Sunday, Dec. 27, and every Sunday, the St. Louis Instead of War Coalition holds a candlelight vigil for peace at the corner of Grand and Lindell.

Post-Dispatch Reporter Schools Right-Wing Blogger

Tony Messenger is a top notch reporter at the Post-Dispatch.  He has tenaciously covered scandals on both sides of the political isle, hounding former Governor Matt Blunt when he flaunted the sunshine law and later reporting extensively on the E. Coli scandal for Governor Jay Nixon.  And since Messenger has a professional code of ethics where he applies the same standards to both political parties, it is of course inevitable that he will be accused of being a Marxist with a liberal bias by right-wing activists who think that Fox News's ideological ranting is the model for what all news should be.  

However, awesomely, Messenger recently pushed back against one of these accusations and left a right-wing blogger completely unable to articulate the basis for his personal attack on Messenger.   The incident started when Jim Durbin (a right-wing blogger who likes to stalk, slander, and conspiracy theorize) said the following: 

Messenger, to his great credit, called on Durbin to back up this implication: 

Durbin, who didn't have any facts to back up his charges, instead responded with meaningless generalities:
Messenger wasn't having it though, and called upon Durbin to provide some actual specific criticisms:
So finally, forced to actually provide evidence for his claims that Messenger was liberally biased, Durbin had to back down:
But like all right-wingers, Durbin, despite not being capable of producing any evidence whatsover to support his claims, still was convinced that he couldn't have been imagining it:

Get that?  Durbin says, "maybe it's the topic, or the new sources," as in, "maybe you're being mislead by liberally biased sources even if you personally aren't biased."  But of course the reality is that neither the topics, nor the sources, nor Messenger are biased.  Durbin just won't accept any reporter who doesn't carry water for the Missouri Republican Party.  Even as Durbin is forced to acknowledge that he can't provide any support for his claims that Messenger is biased,  he still secretly believes that he's right.  Sadly, political evaluations are all too often like this (and not only on the political Right): people have a gut feeling first, and search for any evidence they can find to support that feeling.  Sometimes, as Durbin illustrates time and time again, they'll cling to the feeling even when they can't find any evidence whatsoever. 

YAL disowns Jon Burns

If you don't recall, Jon Burns was the charming fellow who said that maybe the students at Washington University were "in a gulag all along" after the university shut down a display by the Young Americans For Liberty (YAL) on campus, and then promptly went on to try to disrupt the free speech of another group a couple weekends later.

After the gulag display, Burns was paraded around the local right-wing media as the leader of YAL, who generally forgot to mention that he wasn't actually a student.  Most recently, he went around claiming that YAL had been framed for the hammer and sickle graffiti that mysteriously appeared on campus the day of their event.

I thought it was a little strange that Burns was a member of YAL despite not being a student, but I suppose it could be possible that there was a group that was open to both students and nonstudents alike.  However, in a recent article in the the Washington University students newspaper StudLife, the author (a member of YAL) made it quite clear that Burns is not even a member of their group:

A quick perusal of our Web site, however, reveals that Burns is neither a member of YAL nor a student at Washington University, but rather the owner of the construction company which erected our gulag.

In other words, Burns, the guy paraded around by Dana Loesch and Gateway Pundit as the "leader of YAL," isn't actually a member of YAL.  I'm sure they'll be issuing a correction soon.

Will Jim Durbin and Dana Loesch Apologize for Lying About Patricia Reddington?

Right-wing bloggers Jim Durbin and Dana Loesch (writing on Breitbart's Big Government site) have gone completely off the rocker in their allegations of massive conspiracy regarding the incident between Kenneth Gladney and Elston McCowan.  In addition to alleging, with no evidence whatsover, that this altercation was the result of a intimidation campaign ordered by the White House, SEIU, and Health Care for America Now, they have suggested that the only reason McCowan wasn't tried with a felony is because of a coverup at the local county prosecutor's office.  

In particular, both Durbin and Loesch have accused County Counselor Patricia Reddington of filing charges in the case without even looking at Kenneth Gladney's medical reports:

24thstate: 

Redington's office never even looked at Gladney's medical records before downgrading charges.

Dana Loesch on Big Government:

St. Louis County Prosecutors watered-down the charges in the Kenneth Gladney case from a misdemeanor to an ordinance violation without so much as even calling St. John’s Hospital, where Gladney received treatment for his injuries, and checking Gladney’s hospital record or speaking with care providers on site.

Loesch and Durbin's claims are clearly intended to defame Redington, as they are accusing her of not doing her job for political reasons.  And their allegations are clearly false, as is admitted by even fellow right wing bloggers.  Here's Reboot Congress on a visit to Redington's office:

During our conversation with Redington, I asked when she had received Kenneth Gladney's medical records. I had read that his medical records had not been reviewed, yet I had heard on the radio that Redington's office had seen the records. She told me that she had received them with the police report. I was left with the impression that it is common practice for medical records to be submitted as evidence along with police reports.

In other words, Durbin and Loesch asserted both false and damaging claims as if they were facts, without even bothering to find out the truth.  And even since it was revealed that the office did see the medical reports, neither has had the common decency to admit that they falsely accused the County Counselor.  Of course, they live in a world where they simply invent conspiracy theories, slander everyone who disagrees with them, and then simply move on without a second thought when their wild-eyed theories are proven wrong.  That's how the right-wing media works, both on a local and national level.