(Getty Images)

OBAMA’S NEW TAX PLAN WOULD SLASH CORPORATE RATES BY UP TO 10 PERCENT.

(New  York Times)

Seeking to beat potential Republican vials to the fore of the “tax debate,” President Obama on Wednesday announced sweeping proposals for overhauling the nation’s corporate tax code. Currently sitting at a listed rate of 35 percent, the White House wants to slash that to 28 percent for most corporations, but reduce it to as little as a 25 percent rate for undefined “manufacturing” companies. With Republicans and most Democrats rushing to seize the mantle of “pro-business” policy, Obama’s tax plan indicates his willingness to shift to a decidedly conservative platform if it means outfoxing the GOP on taxes. But the President’s proposal is both meaningless and consequential at the same time. Meaningless because there is little chance of such dramatic changes being enacted by Congress in an election year and also because most corporations pay nowhere close to the advertised 35 percent rate, what business types love to claim is the “highest corporate tax rate in the world.” But severe ramifications loom, as the White House only offered vague promises to close some tax loopholes in a bid to make more companies pay the actual rate and recoup some of the tens of billions of dollars in revenue that will be lost through what amounts to a sizable corporate tax cut.

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DESCRIBING A PREEMPTIVE ISRAELI STRIKE ON IRAN AS “NOT PRUDENT”? SUCH TALK ONLY “SERVES IRAN,” ISRAEL CLAIMS.

(Haaretz)

Top officials in the Israeli military and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu are livid with American military officers for questioning Israel’s plan to preemptively attack Iran’s suspected nuclear facilities. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said in an interview last week that he believes an Israeli strike on Iran is “not prudent” and would be a “destabilizing” event in the region. The first high-level criticism of Israel’s hawkish strategy against Iran was not received well by top Israeli officials. Speaking to the Haaretz newspaper, senior Israeli officials balked that critical “statements and briefings only served the Iranians,” and that there is “controversy” between the US and Israel. Their chances for a secret strike blown, Netanyahu’s government is now demanding the United States enact even more sanctions on Iran in order to stop Israeli military action.

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UNLESS YOU’RE RICH AND WHITE, DON’T BOTHER APPLYING FOR COLLEGE…

(Christian Science Monitor)

The question of race-based admission to universities and colleges is slated for the Supreme Court’s docket once again as a case pitting a white applicant against the University of Texas was agreed to be heard by the court. UT implemented a program aimed at boosting minority enrollment after years of minimal acceptance on black and Hispanic applicants. The Texas program significantly enhanced minority enrollment at the university, leading to record numbers of minority students. But critics say the idea of “favoring” minorities in the application process is unconstitutional and a form of “race-based” discrimination against whites. It’s likely that the Supreme Court will agree. The last time so-called “affirmative action” went before the Supreme Court was 2003, when a Michigan law similar to the policy now under fire in Texas was upheld by justices. But with the court experiencing a dramatic shift to the right, conservative activists are “hopeful” that the new court will quickly throw out the Texas program and strike a fatal blow to all affirmative action directives.

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WAGES COULD BE GOING ‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’ FOR RESTAURANT SERVERS IN FLORIDA.

(NBC Miami)

Already making around $3 dollars less than the minimum wage for other jobs in the state, Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that would cut the minimum wage for restaurant servers by more than half, to just $2.13. That number was last the minimum wage back in 1985. The bill — already out of one committee and on a fast track to the full legislature — has been heavily lobbied for by the powerful restaurant industry in the state . Major chains like Outback Steakhouse have pressed lawmakers to give them the legal authority to slash wages for the workers staffing their establishments. Lawmakers and industry officials contend that even with the reduction in wages, the law would make restaurants “promise” that servers would still make an average of $9.98 an hour with tips. But short of tacking on mandated tip charges to diners’ bills, servers scoff at the idea that they could possibly make up the difference after more than a 50 percent pay cut.

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Screen grab of a TV ad paid for by the pro-Romney super-PAC "Restore Our Future"

At a pace much faster than anyone could have projected, the landscape of campaign finance in American politics has undergone a dramatic transformation to a point where deregulated outside groups hold a distinct advantage over individual campaign war chests.

The monumental presidential contest of 2012 appears to be the dawn of the super-PAC age in representative democracy. A single multi-billionaire has the power to openly fund an entire presidential campaign by themselves. Why not? It’s “doable” under the current campaign finance system. The question is, can it be stopped?

Born directly from the US Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision at the beginning of 2010, powerful independent outside groups possessed of strong ideological agendas steered the outcome of that year’s midterm elections and ushered in a new era of “soft money” and outside influence — all with unlimited contributions and anonymity.

Most experts predicted a similar playbook for 2012, with billionaire Democrats joining the likes of the Koch brothers and Karl Rove in stocking the coffers of loosely regulated groups charged with swaying the election.  But with Barack Obama’s reelection team boasting of a possible billion dollar campaign, traditional routes of fundraising  – still with plenty of loopholes for big money supporters and “bundlers” to pack official campaign bank accounts– were expected to thrive.

How did things change? Rich guys with vast personal fortunes did not want to play by the old rules. The vast pool of super-rich multimillionaires and billionaires at the heart of the American political system’s old-guard establishment were only too happy to exploit the new loopholes put in place by “Citizens United” that allowed for dozens of super-PACs to pop up.

Accepting unlimited donations and only barred from openly “coordinating” with the actual campaigns , super-PACs have proven wildly successful in raising and directing huge sums of cash to boosting their favored candidates and tearing down their opponents, all without the pesky little regulations that are forced upon traditional campaigns.

There are no limits to super-PAC contributions. The now-familiar “I approve this message” tagline at the end of television or radio ads that were required to protect accountability are absent from ads purchhased by super-PACs. No rules; just pure cash. Gobs of it.

The shrinking field of Republican presidential candidates have perfected the art of the super-PAC to an exacting degree. Every super-PAC has more cash on hand and has spent more money since the beginning of the primary than the actual campaigns of the candidates they were created to support.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s official campaign is running low on money and may soon need a personal investment from the candidate’s own fortune. But “Restore Our Future,” the super-PAC aligned with Romney’s presidential bid, is swimming in cash from corporations and rich supporters. “Restore” spent nearly $20 million on behalf of Romney in January alone, and has raised nearly $40 million — much of it from a small handful of Wall Street and corporate elites — since the start of 2011.

With only basic regulations governing their operations and no limit to the amount of money dedicated financiers can pour in, super-PACs have quickly become the medium of choice for wealthy individuals whose interests are at stake to almost singl-handedly fund a campaign — and buy an election.

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate who has already pumped tens of millions of dollars into Newt Gingrich’s GOP primary bid, told Forbes magazine that he could see himself giving another $100 million to Gingrich’s campaign.

Sheldon Adelson plays as stubbornly in politics as he does in business. So the criticisms that he’s trying to personally buy the presidential election for Newt Gingrich are met with a roll of the eyes. “Those people are either jealous or professional critics,” Adelson tells me during his first interview since he andhis wife began funneling $11 million, with another $10 million injection widely expected, into the former speaker’s super PAC, Winning Our Future. “They like to trash other people. It’s unfair that I’ve been treated unfair—but it doesn’t stop me. I might give $10 million or $100 million to Gingrich.”

“I’m against very wealthy ­people attempting to or influencing elections,” Adelson also told Forbes, not having the least bit of trouble digesting the hypocrisy of that statement coming moments after he pondered giving another $100 million to a Gingrich super-PAC.

“I’m against very wealthy ­people attempting to or influencing elections,” he shrugs. “But as long as it’s doable I’m going to do it.

As the magazine also points out, Adelson could theoretically give as much a a billion dollars — literally funding an entire presidential campaign — and his personal fortune would barely be scratched. And through the a super-PAC, such an investment could legally be made.

Fueled by super-rich political kingmakers like Sheldon Adelson,  Wall Street elites and Obama “bundlers” like Jeffrey Katzenberg, liberal and conservative outside groups are poised to dominate the 2012 campaign’s money game.

In a preview of what is likely to come in the summer and fall, the explosive growth of super-PACs in the Republican primary has made them more powerful than the actual campaigns themselves. Tens of millions of dollars in super-PAC money were spent on ads in January alone, only the tip of the proverbial iceberg once Republicans have picked a contender to challenge Barack Obama.

An unmistakable dynamic is playing out in the money game among Republican presidential candidates: New “super” political action committees are growing more powerful than the campaigns they support.

For two of the GOP front-runners, their supportive super PACs raised more money and have more cash left in the bank than the candidates’ own campaigns. Helping their efforts are major financial gifts from wealthy business executives, whose contributions can be essential to the groups’ continued operations.

Mitt Romney-leaning Restore Our Future and Newt Gingrich-supportive Winning Our Future raised a combined $17 million last month and spent nearly $24 million during that same period. That financial strength allowed the groups to splash the airwaves in key primary states with millions of dollars in TV ads.

The proliferation of new super PACs continues to underscore how the groups, which can raise and spend unlimited sums, are influencing the race. The groups’ fundraising last month offers a periodic behind-the-scenes glimpse into the identities of the rich supporters who will help elect the next president, along with details on how the millions of dollars they donated have been spent.

Restore Our Future, which had $16 million cash on hand, has been boosted by more than two dozen repeat donors. Winning Our Future, which had $2.4 million in the bank, is largely supported by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife.

The power and influence of super-PACs stands to grow at dizzying levels now that Democrats have decided to join the game. Despite having called outside groups a “threat to democracy” and promised to eschew financial support from such organizations acting on his behalf, President Obama has shifted course and now is directing his supporters to give money to the small cadre of liberal super-PACs devoted to reelecting Obama.

With a goal of raising up to one billion dollars through his official campaign alone, Obama’s flip-flop on outside money is undoubtedly the single greatest boost given to super-PACs and their level of influence since “Citizens United.” Wealthy “bundlers” forced to recruit new donors because their own ability to write checks to the Obama campaign had been limited now have an outlet for limitless contributions that could dwarf what GOP groups have raised and spent so far.

The Obama campaign predicted that Republican super-PACs could raise as much as $700 million to spend in challenging the president’s reelection bid. Team Obama wants to outspend them.

In early January, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina called David Axelrod, the president’s top strategist, into his Chicago office and started writing on a white board.

On one side of the board, Messina sketched out the amounts of money he expected Republican “Super PACs” and other groups to raise and spend to try to defeat the Democratic president in the November 6 election.

Drawing a line under that cumulative number — roughly $700 million — Messina then highlighted the amount raised by the Republican groups’ Democratic counterparts. It was a measly figure.

“We’ve got to talk about this. This is a problem,” Messina told Axelrod, according to a campaign official.

Roughly a month later, on February 6, the Obama campaign announced it would start supporting Priorities USA Action, the struggling Super PAC formed to help Obama. The move reversed a plan rooted in Obama’s distaste for a Supreme Court decision that allowed such independent groups to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to try to influence elections.

Despite having endorsed Mitt Romney — the recipient of the most super-PAC expenditures in the GOP campaign —  in the Republican primary, Sen. John McCain has publicly disparaged the “Citizens United” decision as the result of “ignorance” from the US Supreme Court.

Speaking just last weekend, McCain slammed the idea of super-PACs doing an end-run around campaign finance regulations. “Why do we have the super-PACs?”, McCain said on ABC’s “This Week” program.

“I’ve been in very tough campaigns. I don’t think I’ve seen one that was as personal and as characterized by so many attacks as these are. And, quite frankly, one of the reasons is the Super PACs. And why do we have the Super PACs? Because of the ignorance and naïvete of the United States Supreme Court in the Citizens United campaign.”

(Gainesville Sun photo)

PAYNES PRAIRIE IS NOT VERY COMPANIONABLE TO BUFFALO ROAMING THEREON.

(Gainesville Sun)

Local “cowboys” begin a long talked-about process of thinning the herd of about 70 bison who roam the state preserve of Paynes Prairie just south of Gainesville, Florida  (coincidentally the locale of a fog-induced disastrous traffic pile-up 3 weeks ago—an event which no one has blamed on the bison) as 6 are rounded up and removed. The program plans a halving of the herd with removal of older bulls and castration of the younger ones, looking to the ultimate demise of the herd. Animal activists are of course interested in the fate of the “removed” animals but are (sort of) assured by officials that they are not headed to the “slaughterhouse” but to more humane “retirement” in the likes of zoos and other preserves. At least that will be their immediate destination, officials cannot guarantee that their ultimate fate will be their extermination, as some will go to “farms” with ties to the meat industry.

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GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM WITH U.S. AND TERRORISTS AS COMBATANTS. WHAT’S THE SCORE SO FAR?

(Z-Net)

Foreign policy expert Andrew Bacevich undertakes to “score” the conflict as if it were a prize-fight noting that, since 9/11, the battle has gone through three distinct “rounds,” all three of which, it turns out, are rounds in which the U.S. has not scored many points. Round 1 is called “liberation,” the brain child of the Bush administration and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The U.S. fighter was involved in a lightning quick strike that would induce “shock and awe” in the terrorist corner of the ring. Didn’t work, the “enemy” was more pissed off than shocked or awed. Well, round 2, send in David Petraeus (and later William McCrystal) who would substitute a “pacification” or otherwise called counter-intelligence strategy, winning “surge” victories in Iraq and later Afghanistan and manipulating the native government to “stand up as we stand down.” Another round lost as Afghan and Iraqi governments remain corrupt and/or incompetent. Round 3 comes in the Obama era, and is labeled the “assassination” round, as U.S. officials decree (with Michael Vickers as an obscure leader for a murky strategy) the rise of a clandestine approach of using drones and targeted assassinations directly to kill the people who want to kill Americans. Navy Seals of the sort that offed Osama bin Laden become the military operation de jure. (One observer said that Vickers thinks like a gangster.) Problem of winning Round 3 is it appears that, as our list of assassinated opponents of U.S. policy all over the world grows, so does the list grow of those who are identified as needed “targets” for these special operations. Short of an unexpected knockout in some yet-unknown fourth round strategy, the U.S. seems doomed to lose this battle.

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SHARED SACRIFICE THE TUNE OF THE DAY AS EURO ZONE FINANCIAL MINISTERS AGREE ON A BAILOUT PACKAGE FOR GREECE.

(New York Times)

In a move intended to stave off Greek defaulting on its debts, ministers agree to a second round of bailout funding with “conditions.” These increase a mandated “haircut” for investors in government bonds, as they agree to forgive over 50% of the debts owed to them. On the other side of the social class divide, Greek people must sacrifice by austerity measures that will cut deeply into medical care services; and a more stringent application of the country’s tax collection laws.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA CAN’T WIN FOR LOSING IN THE NAMING OF ITS ATHLETIC TEAMS.

(Duluth News Tribune)

The University decides on the nickname and a team mascot of “The Fighting Sioux” and earns the wrath of NCAA, stung by protests elsewhere of the “degrading” of native Americans in this fashion. Whether native Americans are in fact so degraded, they experience some of this when their hockey team plays the University of Minnesota at Duluth and some of the UMD fans jeer the UND team and their mascot, calling them “smallpox blankets” among other epithets. UMD officials re-inforce the age-old admonition to rowdy hockey fans (rowdiness belongs on the ice, not in the stands) by threatening to remove any fan for any “inoffensive” or “inappropriate” language. The composer of these headlines, himself a hockey fan, has attended a Buffalo Sabres game in which a whole cheering section responded to an unpopular referee’s call by chanting “bull shit, bull shit,” at which point he asked the usher for that section to “remove this section of people!”

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Quote(s) of the day…

The attempted terrorist attack in Bangkok proves once again that Iran and its proxies continue to perpetuate terrorism.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on a recent terrorist plot in Thailand.

(Israel remains) in the dark about the source or sources of the attacks on Israeli diplomats abroad and the investigations have a long way to go.

Mossad (Israeli intelligence) connected DEBKAfile, on a recent terrorist plot in Thailand.

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The Duggar family -- featured on the television program "19 Kids and Counting" -- at the 2010 "Values Voters Summit" in Washington (Getty Images)

A QUIVERFULL OF KIDS: DON’T LAUGH, THE “CULT” OF ANTI-CONTRACEPTION MAY BECOME POLITICALLY MAINSTREAM.

(In These Times)

“Quiverfull” is a movement promoting an agenda of couples having multiple children under an ideological flag of patriarchal domination. It is depicted on a Learning Channel show called “19 Kids and Counting,” a couple who are literally expecting their 20th child. The recent Catholic Church outburst against requiring churches to provide birth control services to their employees lays bare this agenda which has always been against having “recreational orgasms with a person you like,” whether that person be a spouse or not. (Sex for creation, not for recreation.)

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REGIME CHANGE IN SYRIA: THE AGENDA OF A HUGE INTERNATIONAL PROPAGANDA REGIME.

(Counterpunch)

Political action posing as “news”: this seems to be the situation with a pliant mainstream media press ready to report as fact the “atrocities” of the Assad government. At least three agencies closely allied to the opposition movement in Syria–the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, al Jazeera, Local Coordinating Committees—are carrying water for the Western agenda of deposing Assad’s rule in favor of a more Western-friendly one. Their condemnation of regime “brutality” ignores the brutality with which the Western governments themselves have put down rebellion in their own countries: think Waco or Attica or Wounded Knee if you need U.S. examples.

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THE FACE OF JOB “RECOVERY” IN AMERICA: TEMPORARY JOBS BECOME A PERMANENT REALITY.

(Seattle Times)

Behind the facade of a falling unemployment rate is the reality that at least a quarter of the jobs “created” in the process of economic recovery have been temporary positions without the job security associated with traditions of people employed by and staying employed by the single companies for a long time if not for “life.” Look for a growing level of job insecurity among temporarily employed workers, as they will bear the brunt of job layoffs associated with further fluctuations in the business cycle.

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JUST IN TIME FOR MARDI GRAS: OIL SPILL HITS NEWS ORLEANS AREA.

(Los Angeles Times)

Last Friday an oil tanker collided with another vessel 50 miles north of New Orleans on the Mississippi River and a quantity of sweet crude oil was released into the river. This is no indication so far that the ensuring clean-up has dampened the annual Mardi Gras festivities in the city.

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DAYTONA BEACH KID GETS IN TROUBLE FOR STEALING A TOMATO PLANT.

(Miami New Times)

A 15-year old boy steals the plant thinking it was a marijuana plant. A columnist for Miami New Times laments the ignorance of “dumb kids” today and contributes to their “education” by publishing pictures of non-resembling tomato and marijuana plants.

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Quote of the day...

When Obama invokes the “level playing field,” as he did in the State of the Union speech, he is sending a message to the US corporate elite that he fully supports their drive to revive manufacturing in the United States by reducing the living standards and working conditions of American workers to the levels that now prevail in China, Mexico and other “competitor” nations.

Patrick Martin, as U.S. President “celebrates” the saving of General Motors and other companies by labor contracts that drive down the costs of their doing business.

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Despite an incumbent president vulnerable thanks to persistent economic worries and states faced with ills ranging from budget deficits to foreclosure crises, America’s current crop of political leaders are litigating contraception and “fetal personhood” in the year 2012. Women in the United States arguably have not faced the construction of such legislative barriers since the suffrage movement.

Seizing the most headlines this month has been the public spat between the Catholic Church and the federal government over birth control, which has developed into a one-sided national discussion; the Church and conservative lawmakers seeking to place restrictions on contraception against the overwhelming majority of the country (including 98 percent of Catholics) that heartily approves of the general theory and use of birth control.

The Obama administration’s ruling that religious organizations employing and serving a significant number of people outside of their own religion must include access to contraception as part of employer-provided health insurance  ignited a firestorm among religious leaders. The U.S. Catholic Church — the group most likely to be affected by the law thanks to its number of public hospitals, schools and other institutions — launched an immediate protest.

The government eventually relented, offering a compromise ridiculed by experts and progressive as a dangerous risk to women’s health and rights. Catholic bishops still refused to acquiesce, claiming “moral concerns” about the idea of including any kind of birth control coverage in employer-provided insurance since church doctrines preach against the use of contraceptives.

U.S. Catholic Church leaders said they will fight President Barack Obama’s controversial birth-control insurance coverage policy despite his compromise that religious employers would not have to offer free contraceptives for workers, shifting the responsibility to insurers.

In an abrupt policy shift aimed at trying to end a growing election-year firestorm, Obama on Friday announced the compromise.

But the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said its concerns were not addressed and cited “serious moral concerns.”

In a statement issued Friday evening, the bishops said Obama’s proposal “continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions.”

“We will therefore continue – with no less vigor, no less sense of urgency – our efforts to correct this problem through the other two branches of government,” the bishops said in urging Congress to take action to overturn the rule.

Not only has the issue of contraception been up for debate within the church establishment itself but, as noted above, virtually all U.S. Catholics defy their own church’s teachings and accept birth control as a basic staple of modern life. Observers say that the Catholic Church has blundered and seems out of touch in forcing an extreme debate over women’s health considering its own recent past is littered with highly public failings.

Religious sensitivities aside, the question of birth control on a constitutional level was answered by the U.S. Supreme Court nearly half a century ago in the famous “Griswold v. Connecticut” decision. The present day brouhaha is literally an anachronism from the 1960′s.

Nonetheless, contraception has suddenly become a hot button — if not one-sided — issue for the current campaign season. “The pill”  has become a political football, which is how American taxpayers ended up paying for a congressional hearing on Thursday that delved into the question of contraception and its role in American society.

Chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) the House hearing was devoted to the Obama administration’s mandate and the religious community’s opposition to it, with the Republican majority accusing the government of launching an attack on religious freedoms.

But in the officially sanctioned debate over birth control — a decidedly ”female” decision — not a single woman was called upon as a witness. Such an oversight caused quite a stir with the female lawmakers sitting in on the conversation.

A Capitol Hill hearing that was supposed to be about religious freedom and a mandate that health insurers cover contraception in the United States began as an argument about whether Democrats could add a woman to the all-male panel.

“Where are the women?” the minority Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., asked early in the hearing.

She criticized the Republican committee chairman, Rep. Darrel Issa, for wanting to “roll back the fundamental rights of women to a time when the government thought what happens in the bedroom is their business.”

“We will not be forced back to that primitive era,” she said.

The unexpected referendum on birth control has led to an eye-opening reveal of the lack of enlightenment, as some may call it, among certain individuals on an issue that can unquestionably be described as settled and wholly uncontroversial.

To ask Foster Friess, a conservative multi-millionaire currently bankrolling a super-PAC supporting Republican presidential frontrunner Rick Santorum, American women would be better off to forgo the “costly” modern methods and simply put a “Bayer aspirin…between their knees.”

Foster Friess, the mega donor behind the pro-Rick Santorum Super PAC, dismissed questions about his patron’s controversial views on women in combat, contraception and gay marriage.

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He went on: “On this contraceptive thing, my Gosh it’s such [sic] inexpensive,” he added. “You know, back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”

While birth control has suddenly become a topic for debate on the national scene, only a select few are actually seeking  legislation that would ban the use of contraceptives. This is not the case with the reproductive rights, another issue crucial to women’s health and constitutional integrity.

New fronts in the war on a woman’s right to choose have developed across the United States. In Texas, where last year lawmakers passed one of the strictest laws regarding abortion tights at the time, a federal court has blocked a challenge to the state law mandating sonograms before any abortion procedure. Women’s health advocates complain that the ruling has “violated” the First Amendment rights of Texas women.

This week alone, two states have approved unprecedented restrictions on abortion rights that could have far-reaching legal and health consequences.

In Virginia on Tuesday, the radical conservative legislature passed a pair of bills that instantly give the the commonwealth some of the most extreme laws barring a women’s right to choose in the nation. Lawmakers passed legislation that would require ultrasounds before any abortion procedure and a so-called “personhood bill,” a law considered the last step before an outright ban on abortion that bestows the rights of  ”personhood” on “unborn children” almost from the moment on conception.

Virginia’s “personhood” law is a virtual copy of a referendum that failed in Mississippi last year. Contraception is also under attack with this law, because its language bars the use and access to certain form of birth control. Critics argue the legislation could be used to place an outright ban on birth control in the future.

The Tuesday passage in Virginia of two of the strictest anti-abortion bills in the country has sparked fierce debate over abortion rights the battleground state, with Democrats decrying the acts as an unprecedented encroachment on women’s rights as Republicans push to move the legislation forward.

One bill, Republican Del. Bob Marshall’s House bill 1, would define personhood at conception and “provides that unborn children at every stage of development enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of the Commonwealth.” The second bill requires that women be required to undergo an ultrasound procedure prior to having an abortion.

The personhood bill, which passed by 66-32 in the Virginia state House, does not ban abortions, the legality of which are protected under the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. It would, however, make illegal certain types of contraceptive measures, including emergency contraception. Women’s health advocates say it could also open the door to banning birth control pills and intrauterine devices (IUD).

Besides outrage from pro-choice groups and women’s rights advocates, doctors in Virginia have expressed deep concern with the language of the personhood bill and the potential ramifications it could hold. Doctors say they could be charged with manslaughter in cases of contraception or abortive procedures used to save the life of a patient.

Going even further than Virginia, lawmakers in Oklahoma approved legislation this week that would create a similar “personhood law.” More extreme than any law currently in effect, Oklahoma has moved to the brink of a challenge to Roe v. Wade by virtually outlawing abortion.

The Oklahoma state Senate passed a “Personhood Act” that would give all human embryos individual rights from the instant of conception, effectively banning abortions and most forms of contraception. Most significantly, there is no exception for cases of rape, incest, or instances where a mother’s life could be saved. The state Senate President said he is “proud” to “stand up” for the “right to life.”

Oklahoma lawmakers edged closer toward trying to outlaw abortion on Wednesday by approving “personhood” legislation that gives individual rights to an embryo from the moment of conception.

The Republican-controlled state Senate voted 34-8 to pass the “Personhood Act” which defines the word person under state law to include unborn children from the moment of conception.

The measure now goes to the state House where pro-life Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than a 2-1 margin.

Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Mary Fallin, who signed every anti-abortion bill sent to her last year, did not issue a reaction to the latest right-to-life measure.

“Oklahoma is a conservative pro-life state-we are proud to stand up for what we know is right,” Senate Pro Tempore President Brian Bingman, a Republican, said.

“This bill is one of many Senate Republicans have advanced which affirms the right to life and I am proud to support it,” he added.

…………

But Martha Skeeters, president of the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice, said that a state law declaring that life begins at conception could have “dire consequences.”

The bill offers no exceptions in the case of a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest and could mean some forms of contraception such as the “morning after pill” would be unavailable, she said.

“COCAINE, DEATH SQUADS AND THE WAR ON TERROR: U.S. IMPERIALISM AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN COLOMBIA.”

(Counterpunch)

Daniel Kovalik reviews a recent book of this title that makes the case that the “war on drugs” in Colombia is not as advertised to the public an attempt to eradicate the cocaine trade of the country but rather to maintain the monopoly on that trade by the Columbian government and para-militaries, and is directed against the peasant-based FARC because it threatens that monopoly. This long-term program of eradicating not cocaine but the peasantry has resulted already in the “disappearance” of more than 250,000 civilians who have resisted the U.S.-backed forces that make Colombia a true “narco-state.”

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TERRORIST CAR BOMBS IN INDIA, THAILAND AND GEORGIA: DID IRAN DO THEM?

(Global Research)

Highly unlikely, says a writer for Global Research, though sources in Israel immediately made that accusation. Why would Iran attack targets in two of its trading partners, India and Thailand? More likely, but not yet proven, they were “provocations” by those hoping to instigate an aggressive action against Iran: warhawks in the U.S., Israel and elsewhere who have openly declared the convenience to Western aspirations if Iran were to engage in retaliation-generated actions. False flags, anybody?

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NEW YORK STATE AIMS TO LEAD THE “RACE TO THE TOP” BY GETTING RID OF ITS “INEFFECTIVE” SCHOOL TEACHERS.

(Buffalo News)

Governor Andrew Cuomo, with reluctant approval of state teachers’ association, unveils a new program of stringent teacher assessment based largely on the performance of their students on standardized testing, but also on “peer” evaluations that include unannounced visits from other teachers. Arne Duncan and federal educational policy, take a bow!

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FUNNY, PARENTS OF SIMON WIESENTHAL DIDN’T LOOK MORMON.

(Deseret News)

Church of Latter Day Saints apologizes for church-sanctioned posthumous baptism of Jewish victims of the Holocaust, including the parents of Weisenthaler, famed Nazi war criminal hunter and foe of anti-Semitism who died this week. Along with this apology, LSD levies a serious penalty to those arranging those baptisms: denying them access to the Church’s prized genealogy data base.

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DAYTONA BEACH JUDGE MAKES A STARTLING REVELATION: POLICE OFFICERS OFTEN LIE IN THE COURSE OF THEIR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS.

(Daytona Beach News Journal)

Judge throws out a case of drug possession against a defendant whose premises were accessed for search on a false statement of police on why they were on those premises. This decision is somewhat of a novelty in that the use of lies in treatment of suspects is usually court-tolerated, even though a police official who lies to a court can be convicted of perjury. The judge takes the more common sense approach in saying that, if a police officer lies to a suspect, he/she can’t be trusted to tell the truth in court.

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Quote of the day…

We are told that Greece will only be able to pay off its debt if it reduces public spending and starts collecting tax. When people hear that, it sounds logical. If you have debt as a private individual or household, it’s a good idea to see where you can trim your spending and whether you can find new sources of income. But this doesn’t always apply even at that level, as there are circumstances where you might need to borrow more money in order to invest in order to get out of debt. For example you might need to upgrade your qualifications. Taken to the national level it is not going to work under any circumstances that I can imagine. Spending cuts in Greece and taxes which hit the poor and middle income groups will exacerbate the already precipitous levels of ‘negative growth’. The same applies to Italy, which is a much bigger economy and therefore a much bigger problem for Europe and the world.

Ed Lewis, labor activist, on “austerity” measures in European countries as indicators of a situation of “class war” in that area rather than a realistic avenue to economic recovery.

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(Image from Black Agenda Report)

IN SOUTH AFRICA, THE FREEDOM CHARTER IS A DEAD LETTER (BUT NOT TO WORRY, NELSON MANDELA’S PICTURE IS ON THE NEW SOUTH AFRICAN CURRENCY.)

(Black Agenda Report)

The current President of South Africa, of the revolutionary ANC party, makes it clear that nationalization of the mining industry, as pledged in the 1950s-era Freedom Charter of the ANC, is “never going to happen,” The process of Mandela’s betrayal of that revolution is thus completed, with nothing left but his picture on the 50 Rand note.

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FOR LAUGHING OUT LOUD! WHITE HOUSE REACTS TO SYRIAN PRESIDENT’S PLAN FOR A REFERENDUM FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORM IN SYRIA.

(Yahoo News)

As Assad announces plans for nationwide referendum which would legitimate opposition political parties, White House spokesman Jay Carney calls the idea “laughable,” the desperate last gasp of a leader whose “days are numbered” and who is trying to circumvent the only real source of democratic reform in the country, which will come only if he resigns. Regime changes-R-us!

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“WHAT’S A LOCKOUT?”

(Dissident Voice)

Playwright and sometimes union activist David Macaray uses this question by a company representative during a strike in which he was involved in 1983 to keynote the “then and now” evolution in the forms of work stoppage in labor/management disputes. At the time lock-outs (in which management refuses to allow employees to work unless they accept management demands, typically for wage and benefit cuts) were the exception to the rule of worker initiation of work stoppage. (So much so that an employee who tried to work despite a strike was met with a puzzled “what’s a lockout?” when he asked a company officials if the denial constituted a lockout). Now they are the rule, as demonstrated in the Caterpillar lockout in London, Ontario. For all the difficulties associated with executing a successful strike, they were labor’s best if not only tool to force management into providing living wages and working conditions.

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KILLING VIBRANCY OR DESTROYING PEACE AND QUIET? DEBATE UNDERWAY IN BOONE, NORTH CAROLINA.

( Mountain Times)

In this small mountain town in western NC, town council is debating a noise ordinance which would protect the tranquility of residents in areas adjacent to downtown places of entertainment. Of particular concern to proprietors of downtown establishments is a change in the ordinance that would define the limits of patios or other external parts of their properties as the point of measurement as distance from which noise can be heard by neighbors (rather than the walls of these establishments). Neighbor want more restrictive noise controls, operators complain that “vibrancy” of downtown depends on their ability to treat these external areas as part of their entertainment establishments.

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FLORIDA LEGISLATORS ALREADY HAVE IMMUNITY FROM LAW SUITS AGAINST THEM BECAUSE OF THE LAWS THEY PASS. SHOULD THEY ALSO HAVE IMMUNITY FROM TURNING OVER DOCUMENTS USED IN THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS?

(Tampa Bay Times)

This could be if such an immunity bill passes in the state’s House. This comes as the legislature is completing the process of redistricting and numerous suits against the state are expected to result. If the bill passes, legislators would be able to withhold such documents from examination by courts during lawsuits.

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Quote of the day...

In his portrayal of the Belgian Congo, the young Hergé reflects the colonial attitudes of the time…he depicted the African people according to the bourgeois, paternalist stereotypes of the period.

Book cover blurb attached to recent English edition of a children’s book Tintin in the Congo, first written in the late 19th century—as the book is being challenged on whether it violates Belgian ban on racism in children’s literature.

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An austerity protest in Portugal (AFP/Getty Images)

PORTUGAL: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AUSTERITY DOESN’T WORK…

(New York Times)

Greece is in flames, with hundreds of thousands of citizens taking to the streets and clashing with authorities over more mandated austerity measures that bankers and financiers claim are a vital step on the path to economic recovery for Europe. Greece is in bad shape, it’s economy in tatters and little hope of improvement in the future as opposition to austerity grows stronger. But what about Portugal? The government in Portugal has “done everything that the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have asked it to” in pushing through vigorous austerity measures, all without much public comment. The new Portuguese finance minister, the man in charge of pleasing the lenders and implementing austerity, is a “brilliant” economist lauded with praise by the banking community and the IMF. Then Portugal should be a model Euro economy, surging upwards thanks to austerity and decoupling from the old “safety net” economic model that brought Europe to the brink of collapse, right? Wrong. Portugal’s austerity programs have worked in reducing the nation;s budget deficits sand pleasing lenders and economists in Brussels, but it has led to an economy that is rapidly sliding backwards. Shockingly, drastic cuts in spending and incomes has destroyed Portugal’s economy. It receded by 1.5 percent last year, and is projected to shrink by a devastating 3 percent in 2012. The European financial community is puzzled, hardly believing that their strict blueprint for recovery has failed. And the people are growing restless, with over 100,000 demonstrating against the IMF and austerity in Lisbon last week. .

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WHAT’S THE COST OF ANTI-IMMIGRANT HYSTERIA? ABOUT $10.8 BILLION PER YEAR

(Business Week)

Alabama’s “toughest in the nation” immigration law, enacted last year and virtually outlawing the existence of anyone suspected of being undocumented, has not quite worked out in the fashion its many vocal proponents promised that it would. To be sure, tens of thousands of Hispanic individuals and families — legal and undocumented — have fled the state, which was undoubtedly the main goal of those calling for stricter immigration enforcement. But those immigrants worked in Alabama, adding billions of dollars to the state’s economy. Anti-immigrant activists and state lawmakers promised that legal (“white”) Alabamians would simply step in and take over the jobs vacated by immigrants, because those hard-working “illegals” had to be “stealing jobs!” The immigrants have disappeared, but so have workers available to do the “dirty” work in Alabama’s fields, farms and factories. Legal state residents simply refuse to work the kinds of jobs that had been filled by immigrants. Now the state’s coffers are suffering, with a net job loss totaling as much as 140,000 and a projected drop in Alabama’s GDP output of nearly $11 billion each year.

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HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN TEAMS WITH WALL STREET’S “POSTER BOY FOR…LIES” TO PROMOTE MARRIAGE EQUALITY.

(Salon)

Why would one of the nation’s foremost and well-respected non-profit advocacy groups to promote gay and lesbian rights proudly celebrate an endorsement from one of Wall Street’s most notorious swindlers? That’s the question David Sirota would like answered, taking aim at Human Rights Campaign’s decision to embrace an endorsement of gay marriage from Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. A high-profile supporter pf gay rights is not inherently a negative development, obviously, but HRC’s choice in cooperating with Blankfein is, at the least, in poor taste. Blankfein and Goldman were at the heart of the financial crisis, closing deals that contributed to the economy’s near total collapse and then taking billions of dollars in taxpayer bailout money to fix a system that they had broken. Goldman has also recently been under investigation and reprimanded by the government for various schemes and unsavory deals. Sirota concludes that HRC is engaging in an unseemly trade of civil rights and equality for economic justice, giving Wall Street another break that allows them to move further away from their crimes.

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STATE LEGISLATURE TAKES AIM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA WITH “AWFUL” BUDGET CUTS.

(Tampa Bay Times)

The nearly 50,000-student University of South Florida in Tampa is on the hook for a shocking $100 million in cuts that could be mandated by state lawmakers in Tallahassee. University and local elected officials are “outraged” at the plan, which would lead to layoffs, a reduction in the number of students USF can serve, and the elimination of entire departments. The general embrace of “austerity” measures by conservative lawmakers controlling the state legislature can be blamed for an overall drive to slash higher education spending; besides USF, all of Florida’s other colleges and universities would face similar, though smaller, cuts. But a single lawmaker, state Sen. J.D. Alexander, is the prime force behind the especially severe penalties for USF. Seeking to create a new “Polytechnic” university out of a smaller USF campus in his own district, Alexander is concerned that USF leaders are “dragging their feet” in allowing that to happen. Alexander insists his proposed spending reductions are not “punitive,” but that explanation is deemed a fallacy by the scores of opponents that have contacted lawmakers and organized protests to block the legislature’s cuts.

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A couple celebrates in Washington State

Monday featured two landmark occasions in the struggle for marriage equality, more evidence that the tide of public and political opinion is turning on the issue.

But historic advances in gay rights in individual states are often tempered by greater restrictions elsewhere, as was the case this week, and it will likely remain the pattern until a national effort is joined.

American values on the issue of same-sex marriage and whether gays and lesbians have a legal right to marry have seen a dramatic change in only the last year. In what many say is a backlash to the flurry of gay marriage bans and anti-gay legislation passed at the end of last decade, public opinion for the first time has shifted to majority support for legalizing same-sex marriage.

A Gallup poll done last summer found over 50 percent of Americans favor legalizing gay marriage, a ten-point swing from the previous year and the first time in recorded polls that gay marriage has enjoyed majorty support.

The changing dynamic in favor of gay marriage came into full effect on Monday in Washington State. Proud that she was able to “make history,” Gov. Christine Gregoire signed legislation that recognizes marriage equality into law. Washington becomes the seventh state to legalize gay marriages, as well as the District of Columbia.

An emotional Gov. Chris Gregoire signed legislation Monday making Washington the seventh state to legalize marriage between same-sex couples, declaring it was time “to make history in this great state.”

Gregoire’s voice broke as she descrbed conversations with her two daughters, who told her that marriage equality was “the civil rights issue of their generation . . . Thank you to that younger generation and my two daughters.”

The governor presided at a ceremony in Olympia, joined by legislative leaders and the longtime same-sex partners of such lawmakers as Sen. Ed Murray and Reps. Jamie Pedersen and Laurie Jinkins.

The law goes into effect on June 7, unless opponents succeed in gathering 120,577 valid voter signatures to force a referendum in November.  If so, marriage equality would be held up pending a decision by Washington voters.

Gregoire predicted that Washington, for the second time, would vote to ratify a major piece of gay/lesbian civil rights legislation.  Washington voted in favor of Referendum in 2009, becoming the first state to ratify an “everything but marriage” domestic partner law.

“Washington will say yes because a family is a family,” Gregoire declared.  “It is time to give our loving gay and lesbian couples a chance to have a married life in the state of Washington.

National conservative groups are already mobilizing to force a voter referendum on the marriage equality law, but many state religious organizations were supportive of the gay marriage bill. Washington State law already provides a loophole protecting the right of churches or other private groups not to perform marriage ceremonies that they oppose on religious grounds.

As Washington was becoming the latest state to recognize marriage equality, a landmark step was being taken on the other side of the country on Monday that could make it eight states with legal same-sex marriage.

Lawmakers in the New Jersey state Senate passed legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage in a 24-16 vote. Gay rights advocates applauded the vote, but it faces certain death beyond the Senate at the hands of Gov. Chris Christie. The high-profile Republican, a famous supporter of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and with national ambitions himself, has been cheered by national conservative groups for his promise to veto any legislation that legalizes gay marriage.

In a move that supporters called a civil rights milestone, New Jersey’s state Senate on Monday passed a bill to recognize same-sex marriages, marking the first time state lawmakers officially endorsed the idea — despite the promise of a veto by Gov. Chris Christie.

Monday’s vote was 24-16 in favor of the bill, a major swing from January 2010, when the Senate rejected it 20-14.

“It means the world isn’t changing, it means the world has already changed,” Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality said after the vote. “So wake up and smell the equality.”

Before the vote, Marsha Shapiro squeezed the hand of her longtime partner Louise Walpin, and reflected on how a body that rejected gay marriage two years ago was about to change its stance. “The pride will overpower the sorrow,” she said.

But opponents say it’s “an exercise in futility” even if the Assembly passes the bill Thursday as expected, given Christie’s veto vow.

Christie’s veto threat may play well with national conservatives, but New Jersey voters are against him on the issue of gay marriage. Like the national shift in public opinion that has led to a majority of Americans supporting the legal right of gays to marry, a majority of New Jersey voters say they back legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage.

Monday’s dual victories for same-sex marriage rights come only days after a federal court ruled Califronia’s Proposition 8, a referendum that banned gay marriage in the Golden State, to be unconstitutional, placing the controversial provision on a track to the Supreme Court.

But for the unquestioned progress that the events in Washington State, New Jersey and a California court represent, the national picture of marriage equality remains pockmarked and tenuous. There are strong conservative majorities in many state legislatures after the 2010 elections. Lawmakers on the state level, buoyed by support from national “family political organisations, are not holding back from taking on gay rights and same-sex marriage, no matter public opinion.

The New Hampshire legislature is likely to pass a bill; repealing that state’s existing gay marriage law, though Gov. John Lynch has promised a veto. And national groups are plotting more state-based referendums to ban gay marriage for the November elections. Minnesota and North Carolina are to states where such referendums are likely to be on the ballot.

And beyond the question of same-sex marriage, state lawmakers are also attacking the basic legal rights of gay citizens on a number of levels. The Virginia Senate, with two conservative Democrats voting ‘yes’, approved a bill last week that authorizes private adoption agencies in the commonwealth to ban the placement of children based on “moral beliefs,” including homosexuality.

The legislation provoides a backdoor way to ban gay adoptions, and critics argue that it could put gay foster children at risk by allowing religious adoption agencies to place them in homes and with families that are opposed to homosexuality.

The Virginia House has already passed an identical bill, and GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell has said he will sign the legislation as soon as it hits his desk.

The Virginia Senate voted 22-18 on Thursday to approve a bill that would allow private adoption and foster care agencies to deny placement of children based on religious or moral beliefs, including disapproval of homosexuality.

The action by the Senate, which fell mostly along partisan lines, came one week after the state’s House of Delegates approved an identical bill. With Republican Gov. Robert McDonnell saying he planned to sign the legislation if it came to him, the bill is certain to become law.

“This bill authorizes every one of the 80 private adoption agencies licensed in Virginia to refuse to offer their services to any GLBT person based on a written moral policy, which they can make up tomorrow,” said State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria and Fairfax), who is gay.

“The bill says they can do that no matter how qualified the prospective mom and dad is to become a parent,” said Ebbin in an impassioned floor speech urging his colleagues to vote against the bill.

Even in states where same-sex marriage has been legalized, gay couples face significant hurdles to live a life that can be considered normal. The most pervasive is the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which supersedes state laws recognizing gay marriages and forces same-sex couples to take steps such as carrying their marriage license with them wherever they go to assure hospital visitation and filing separate federal tax returns.

Until marriage equality is recognized on the federal level, and President Obama’s feelings on same-sex marriage is finished “evolving,” gay Americans will continue to face second-class treatment.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Bahrain's king, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa (State Department image)

TWO VARIETIES OF U.S. REACTION TO “ARAB SPRING”: SUPPORT OPPOSITION FORCES AGAINST “BRUTAL OPPRESSION” IN SYRIA; HELP THE BAHRAINI REGIME “DIFFUSE TENSION” BY SUPPRESSING ITS HOMEGROWN OPPOSITION.

(Asia Times)

Pepe Escobar explores this apparent cognitive dissonance between U.S. and Western powers’ divergent reactions to events in Bahrain and Syria. A year after a genuine expression of popular discontent against the Bahraini regime was crushed by government and Saudia Arabian action against the protesters, the internationally-fomented “uprising” is Syria is supported by the demands of Obama and others that the current government “step aside” in response to popular protest. At the same time the Bahraini regime gets a fresh infusion of U.S. military support to ensure that tension will diffused so the regime will not have to step aside. No cognitive dissonance here, just an old-fashioned case of foreign policy hypocrisy.

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HOW DO YOU GET TO ARMAGEDDON? GO TO DAMASCUS, TAKE A SHARP RIGHT TURN.

(Counterpunch)

This is Diana Johnstone’s “road map” to how Western powers are talking themselves into support of an Islamist overthrow of the secular “regime” in Syria. This way lies World War III as these powers ignore the “reality” of this path to world conflagration—all in the name of “democracy” promotion of profoundly anti-democratic forces and a “responsibility to protect” these forces which are themselves violent purveyors of violence.

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SOMETHING IN DENMARK IS NOT SMELLING SO GOOD.

(Copenhagen Post)

Part of this olfactory dysfunction comes from the rising tide of debt, defaults on debts and housing evictions in the country. In 2009, at the height of the recession, 16% of Danes lacked enough cash to pay their bills. Now, in the midst of a supposed economic “recovery,” 28% of them find themselves in this situation. Seems that more people than Greeks in Europe are feeling the pinch of austerity, even where it is not being imposed by European Union creditors.

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ASK YOUR DOCTOR: HOW MUCH SLEEP DOES YOUR KID NEED?

(Houston Chronicle)

Like as not, you’ll get an answer somewhat like the proposed question: “Is my heart healthy enough to have sex?” The answer is tailored to the patient’s expectations and practices. Just so, research on children’s sleep throughout the history of sleep research shows that “scientists” have consistently said that kids need more sleep than most of them get but, as the pace of modern life results in less provision for children’s sleep, the view of pediatricians about how much sleep they need shows a downward trend, so children today who sleep less than those of former years are just about as “sleep deprived” by “expert” standards as they were in the past.

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IF YOU ARE A FLORIDA NON-PROFIT, YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOOK A GIFT DONOR IN THE MOUTH.

(Sarasota Herald Tribune)

Sarasota Herald Tribune describes the plight of Girls Inc., who were the “beneficiary” of a large donation from Art Nadel, convicted Ponzi schemer now serving a long prison term. As Nadel’s assets go into receivership, his creditors are demanding that funds contributed to charity be re-claimed for distribution among themselves. Girls Inc. and other non-profits are lobbying the Florida legislature for a law exempting their funding from such actions, as GI faces the possibility of the loss of about half their funding if this reclaiming of donations of carried forward.

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Quote of the day…

Before (protests) used to be just in the main city among the lower middle class groups, but now we are seeing also farmers and nomads in the countryside, and even some student demonstrations. It’s not just monks anymore. And there have been trials of famous leaders from the Tibetan business community too, extremely wealthy Tibetans who stood to gain the most from loyalty to the state. Many more people than before are referring to independence openly or waving the forbidden Tibetan flag – perhaps people are bolder now, or perhaps nationalism has become more widespread.

Robert Barnett, Tibetan scholar at Columbia University, on growing independence protests in Tibetan region of western China.

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