Recommended Holiday Reading for the Caring, Agitated Mind

Guest perspective by Ralph Nader

1. America Beyond Capitalism by Gar Alperovitz (Democracy Collaborative Press and Dollars and Sense, 2011). If you want to see how community economies are spreading to displace the sales and influence of companies such as Bank of America, ExxonMobil, Aetna, ADM and McDonalds, this is your book. Democratic credit unions, local renewable and efficient energy, community health clinics and farmer-to-consumer markets are some of the possibilities outlined in this optimistic book.

2. Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers by Ellen E. Schultz (Portfolio/Penguin Hardcover, 2011), award-winning reporter for The Wall Street Journal. This book meticulously documents how big business and their attorneys avariciously turned pension plans into piggy banks, tax shelters and profit centers, at the expense of millions of trusting, loyal workers. This is the searing story of corporate greed on steroids.

Congressional Tyranny, White House Surrender

 Guest perspective By Ralph Nader/In the Public Interest 

Paraphrasing Shakespeare, something is rotten in the state of Capitol Hill. A majority of Congress is just about to put the finishing touches on an amendment to the military budget authorization legislation that will finish off some critical American rights under our Constitution.

Here is how two retired 4 star marine generals, Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar, described in the New York Times the stripmining of your freedom to resist tyranny in urging a veto by President Obama:

           

“One provision would authorize the military to indefinitely detain without charge people suspected of involvement with terrorism, including United States citizens apprehended on American soil. Due process would be a thing of the past….

More data about the Top 1% and income inequality

Finally catching up on issues of the WSJ that have been sitting around this week and found this piece from Dec. 6, to be quite interesting: ["Tax Rates, Inequality and the 1%"].
While one might find anything written by a fellow from the Cato Institute suspect, there are a few nuggets of truth in here that are worthy of further analysis. 
First, the share of income increased by the Top 1% post 1979 seems to not be as drastic as first thought, especially when looking post 2007. It's 11.3 percent not 17 percent, according to Alan Reynolds' analysis.

Closing down the Noise chart

Late last month, TMax from the Noise emailed me to say that due to space limitations, he probably wasn't going to have room for Top 30 chart in this month's edition of the Noise. I told him that wasn't a problem since my computer was being fixed and I didn't have access to all the data and wouldn't have made the deadline this month.
We got to chatting over email and came to a decision that we should probably stop producing the chart. It had gotten cumbersome, since few radio stations were sending me the lists - I'd have to hunt them down or do audits on various websites - and I was missing the deadline for the print edition repeatedly. I have promised him that I will put together a top list of the year for the online edition, and then, we're going to call it a day.
Almost 10 years of tracking Boston radio station local music airplay. Quite an accomplishment, actually.

Not Made in America

Guest perspective by Ralph Nader

"Here, look at this handsome L.L. Bean catalog and tell me what you want for Christmas," said a relative over Thanksgiving weekend. I started leafing through the 88 page cornucopia with hundreds of clothing and household products, garnished by free gift cards and guaranteed free shipping. I wasn't perusing it for any suggested gifts; instead, I was going through every offering to see whether they were made in the U.S.A. or in other countries.

This is what I found: over 97 percent of all the items pictured and priced were noted "imported" by L.L. Bean. The only ones manufactured in the U.S. were fireplace gloves, an L.L. Bean jean belt, a dress chino belt, quilted faux-shearling-lined L.L. Bean boots (made in Maine), a personalized web collar and leash (for your pet), and symbolically enough, the "made in Maine using American-made cotton canvas are the Original Boat and Tote Bags" to carry all those goodies coming in from China and elsewhere.

Finalists for Lie of the Year

I'm on the PolitiFact email list but I admit that I don't get a chance to read many alerts these days. I'm just too busy with other things.
However, while clearing out email earlier today, I came across this email offering PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: ["Finalists announced for 2011 Lie of the Year"].
There are some pretty good whoppers there, from both sides of the political spectrum. :-) Personally, I think Congressional Republicans have introduced dozens of bills on social issues and other topics, but "zero on job creation" and The stimulus created "zero jobs" are the best - or in this case, worst - ones. Enjoy!

The state of Occupy

 Editor's Note: Writer and political activist Steve Iskovitz has occasionally emailed around updates from Occupy Wall Street. I asked him recently if he minded if I posted them and he said No. So, here's his latest update, from Nov. 23:

It's been slow around here since my last post. Strange to say this, since up to recently things have been frantic.

We're still hanging in, securing housing for ourselves and running meetings again. I went to a spokes council meeting the other night. It was kind of nice to see the process functioning. Spokes council is a cumbersome process, but it's quite democratic. Of course, it's a messy process, lots of arguments, and then the next day everyone else yells about the decisions made. Once you explain the reasons, they lower the volume of their yelling a bit. I suppose groups making decisions about how to conduct themselves is by nature complicated and controversial and always will be.

Instead of Occupy out, how about Occupy in?

Guest Perspective by Ralph Nader

From New York City to Oakland, and several cities in between, the police, on orders from city officials, have smashed the Occupy encampments and evicted the protestors from public parks and spaces. More politicians from Congress to the state and local level want the Occupy people OUT!

Well, why don't they start letting them into the places where decisions are being made against their legitimate interests? 

The Road to Twenty One Presidential Debates in 2012

 In the Public Interest By Ralph Nader, 11/2/11

What people would not want Presidential Debates in multiple cities all over America in September and October 2012? Why, the people at the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). CPD is a private corporation created in 1987. It is controlled by the Republican and Democratic Parties and acts as the iron gatekeeper regarding the number of debates, who is chosen to ask the questions and who is excluded from most important forums for reaching millions of people interested in the presidential elections.

Jesse Ventura to run ... or run for president ...

 "Ventura, miffed by court, says he's off to Mexico"

I personally hope he does the latter. The nation needs a powerful independent presidential candidate.

Occupy Wall Street is On the Move

 Guest perspective by Ralph Nader

The question confronting the Occupy Wall Street encampments and their offshoots in scores of cities and towns around the country is quo vadis? Where is it going?

This decentralized, leaderless civic initiative has attracted the persistent attention of the mass media in the past five weeks. Television cameras from all over the world are parked down at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, two blocks from Wall Street.

But the mass media is a hungry beast. It needs to be fed regularly. Apart from the daily pressures of making sure the encampments are clean, that food and shelter are available, that relations with the police are quiet, that provocateurs are identified; the campers must anticipate possible police crackdowns, such as that which has just occurred in Oakland, and find ways to rebound.

"Jersey Shore" ... costumes ...

 This is so, so wrong, in so many ways I can't even explain it ... "Jersey Shore" costumes at Wal-Mart for $19.99. I wonder what their cut is for something like this. Is it like a CD royalty or something, maybe $1? $2? I mean, I guess they probably don't care what happens to their lives at this point, considering what goes on during the show. But really, a Halloween costume? That's downright scary! Boooooo!

November 2011 Top 30 Noise chart

14 different radio and internet stations reporting

1. The Grinds – Whatcha Lookin’ At? EP

2. The Grownup Noise – This Time With Feeling

3. Juliana Hatfield – There’s Always Another Girl

4. The Hush Now – memos

5. Eolune – Tiny Oceans EP

6. Tan Vampires – For Physical Fitness s

7. Buffalo Tom – Skins

8. The Lights Out – Primetime

9. The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library – Volume One

10. Count Zero – Never Be Yourself

11. The Diamond Mines – The Diamond Mines

12. The Future Everybody – It Takes Nothing

13. Kingsley Flood – Dust Windows

14. The Fatal Flaw – Narrow Hours

15. Freezepop – Imaginary Friends

16. Blackout Mafia – The Dark Season

17. Guillermo Sexo – Secret Wild

18. Gentlemen Hall – Give Us Roots, Give Us Wings EP

19. Comanchero – The Undeserved

20. Ado – Ado

21. The Organ Beats – Mishmash

22. Full Body Anchor – The Restless EP

23. Girls, Guns and Glory – Sweet Nothings

24. My Own Worst Enemy – Electric Like The Moon

25. The Rationales – The Distance In Between

26. Naked on Rollerskates – Naked on Rollerstakes

27. Deer Tick – The Black Dirt Sessions

28. Township – One More Summer

29. Ad Frank & The Fast Easy Women – Your Secrets Are Mine Now

30. Bring the Knife – Bring the Knife

Jill Stein to announce presidential run for Greens on Oct. 24

Dr. Jill Stein, a two-time gubernatorial candidate for the Green-Rainbow Party in Massachusetts, will announce that she is running for president on Oct. 24, in Boston, at the State House.
The Lexington resident who has served as a Town Meeting member and also ran unsuccessfully for Secretary of State there, announced the presidential run in an email blast late last night.
"The coming year represents an extraordinary opportunity for the Green Party to emerge as the people's alternative to the incumbent parties who are servants of Wall Street," she stated, inviting people to get involved in the process with her and others.
Her site is JillStein.org.
Richard Winger of Ballot Access News told me earlier today that the Greens are on 15 state ballots and possibly 16, after Ohio grants them ballot access in the coming days. Building alliances with other third parties like what's left of the Reform Party and leftwing and progressive groups in other states could help the effort get on more state ballots. 
I'll have more analytical comment about this later but I can tell readers that Stein is a relentless campaigner. She doesn't give up. She doesn't give long policy speeches (she gives short ones). Stein talks to people, fires them up and activates them, and then continues on and on and on. With money that can be raised via presidential matching funds, a lot of anxiety out there concerning the two major political parties, and a decent campaign team that focuses the traditional movement building-types into active electoral participants, she'll be a force in the next general election.
Photo courtesy of the Boston Herald.

Let Our Farmers Grow

 Guest perspective by Ralph Nader

Although Rep. Paul has introduced several bills like this one in the past, there are several reasons that this bill should be passed now. Hemp has an amazing number of uses. Its fiber can be used in carpeting, home furnishings, construction materials, auto parts, textiles, and paper. Its seeds can be used in food, industrial oils, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. There are assertions, reported by The Guardian and in Biodiesel Magazine that using industrial hemp in biofuels instead of crops like corn and other feedstock provide greater environmental benefits. The expansion of industrial hemp as a feedstock for biofuels could also help to reduce oil imports.