THE HEADLINES

Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli President Peres

PEACE PROCESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST? WHAT PEACE PROCESS?

(Foreign Policy in Focus)

Analyzing the state of play in the long running effort to bring peace between Jews and Arabs, Didier Jacobs reaches the gloomy conclusion that the peace process has little going for it in terms of the dispositions of all parties, as they realize that peace will in the long run be mutually beneficial, though short-run policies that subvert the process are more politically feasible. From their side, the Israelis pursue a de facto policy of keeping the “status quo” of power from which they overwhelmingly benefit. For their part, Palestinians have largely abandoned hope for bilateral negotiations with Israeli and are relying instead on the “international community” embodied in the UN: a rather forlorn hope in view of the role of the United States as the designated protector of Israeli interests in that body.

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FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE MINNESOTA STATE PARKS.

(Mother Jones)

As Minnesota goes into its third week of government shut-down over unresolved fiscal crisis, Asawin Suebsaeng recalls the “First they came for the Communists” statement attributed to Pastor Niemoller, and notes how the shutdown is becoming more and more painful as more state services are no longer serving public needs. Case in point: restaurateurs and bar owners who need to renew liquor licenses are finding state licensing offices closed and themselves unable to obtain those renewals. Well I didn’t complain much when they closed the park—never went there anyway—but take my BEER away? Come on! What, nobody left to protest?

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MEDICAID REFORM: WHAT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR UTAH...

(Deseret News)

Utah’s Governor joins with other state governors in support of effort by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch to have the state’s approach to Medicaid reform the approach adopted across the country. These public figures tout “flexibility” in the way states implement the federal program, as opposed to the supposed “one-size-fits-all” nature of the federal legislation. Utah’s program demonstrates how this “flexibility” is likely to work out for poor people seeking medical care as the Governor speaks disparagingly of the “entitlement mentality” and of the necessity of the poor carrying more of the burden of paying for their medical care.

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SMART-ALECS ARE TRYING TO PRIVATIZE ALMOST EVERY PUBLIC SERVICE IN AMERICA.

(In These Times)

Dubbing the array of public services provided the American people as the product of a “publicocracy,” the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is embarked on a nationwide campaign to roll back public services by broad attacks on anything challenging the “corporatocracy” that ALEC services. Legislation introduced in Florida to remove the ability of labor unions to have dues checked off by employers was heavily influenced by ALEC, despite its claims to the contrary. This powerful conservative lobby is joined by private forces the like of the owners of Koch Industries in pursuing their privatizing agenda one state at a time.

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WHOSE CEMETERY IS THIS ANYWAY?

(Ocala Star-Banner)

This question is a bone of severe contention at a Marion County (Ocala) cemetery, a controversy erupting after mourners planned a burial in a long-established cemetery, only to find that a new land owner was determined to allow no more burials on the plot. He was seemingly in his rights to do this, as an agreed condition of his purchase of the land from an AME church. Still, local residents are incensed at this violation of what they see as a facility that does or should properly belong to the community.

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Quote of the day…

As long as the Pentagon bankrolls the Pakistan Army to fight its wars and NATO troops remain in Afghanistan there will be quarrels, charges of infidelity, tantrums, a reduction in the household allowance, taking away of toys like night-vision goggles, perhaps even a short separation, but a divorce? Never. The cash/arms nexus is crucial to this most recent phase of the AmPak relationship. In return for it, as Wikileaks revealed, Washington defines, interprets and implements the rules of the marriage. It drones the country, it violates its sovereignty, its agents kill citizens on public highways, etc. International law is arbitrary and Pakistan’s response was suitably mild: the expulsion of 100 US Army special trainers.

Tariq Ali, on the stormy but enduring “marriage” between U.S. and Pakistani governments.

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