While the eyes of the world are on Haiti's illegitimate elections and the return of the deposed dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, about 1.5 million displaced earthquake survivors continue to live in sub-human conditions. In the absence of large-scale or systemic responses by the government, international community, or aid organizations, progressive civil society organizations are evolving strategies to win the right to housing. "We're supporting earthquake victims who are organizing themselves to form a social movement to claim their rights, first, for quality housing and, second, against being evicted," said human rights lawyer Patrice Florvilus.

Overall conditions in the camps have not improved since their spontaneous creation a year ago. New research by Professor Mark Schuller shows almost no progress in providing basic services in camps, even in the midst of a cholera epidemic which has claimed more than 4,000 lives and infected more than 209,000 others. Schuller's team of researchers found that the number of camp residents with access to water today is only 40.5 percent, while only 30.3 percent of camps have toilets. In a second report just released by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and the LAMP for Haiti Foundation, 60 percent of the camp residents surveyed live on less than $1 a day, and have only marginal access to food and clean water. One-half said they had been unable to feed their children for at least one entire day during the preceding week.

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I was nervous about going to hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu this past Sunday at All-Saints Church. I was nervous because, despite his remarkable life story, which of course includes fighting and winning the battle against apartheid in his homeland, South Africa, he has made comments in the past about Israel and the Palestinians that have made him unwelcome in the mainstream Jewish community. So, in choosing to attend the service, sit in the VIP section up front, alongside other dignitaries, interfaith leaders and Hollywood actors, among others, rather than stand outside with a picket sign, as I imagine some in our community would have rather me do, I was nervous about what I might hear from this renowned voice for civil and human rights, especially in light of the fact that just two days earlier, the United States had chosen to veto a U.N. resolution calling the Israeli settlements illegal, even though our stated foreign policy agrees with that resolution, not to mention all of the unrest and turmoil in the greater Middle East. I sat anxiously, surrounded by Muslims and Christians, and because it is an Episcopal Church, a few Jews as well, and waited for Bishop Tutu to preach.

He is about to turn 80, but he has a presence and fortitude that belies his age. Not much more than 5'4" tall, a higher pitched and sweet sounding voice emanates from his throat, overlaid with an accent that sometimes makes him hard to understand. He rose to speak, looking out over the capacity filled church, including hundreds watching on video monitors outside, and gave us the following message: God is holy, therefore we are all holy; we are God carriers, God's stand-ins, God's viceroys. He told us that each human being, no matter what color of skin they have, is created in God's image, therefore is a piece of God, therefore is holy, therefore deserves respect, dignity, compassion and love. It was a message of deep spiritual depth, one that he brought around for just a moment, at the very end, to today's reality. More on that to come.

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When we signed on to help with the social media for Gasland (pro bono), it was not a documentary that was nearly as well known as it is now. Fresh out of Sundance, they had just started to create grassroots buzz. There was no Twitter profile, and a small Facebook fan page. Now they sit at a cumulative 42,000+ fans. The buzz created has been successful in two parts: the first is that it is true and people echo this honesty. The second is that it truly is the little movie that could, by that we mean it did really start off with Josh, his camera, his beat up car (that he still owns) and the story that is the reality. There is something gut wrenching about the fact that it is happening everywhere, it is very real, yet it took this movie to bring a mass consciousness together.

We signed on to work closely with Josh Fox and his team to help disseminate this message because it needs to go as far reaching as possible to create the change in policies that are direly needed. This wouldn't work if it was a one sided mission for entertainment purposes. This works because people that see this movie and are touched. They are touched because they have been directly affected by hydraulic fracturing or they want to be a voice for those that have been and don't want to become a silent statistic as well. The citizens of affected areas began participating in the conversation, many posting photos of their polluted water, or personal health horror stories on the Facebook wall. Others use it as a place to get petitions signed when their homes are considered hot beds for drilling, and they need to take preliminary action.

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To people down here in the U.S., Thompson, Canada and its fight with the Brazilian mining giant Vale may seem very far away.

It's not.

(Don't be embarrassed if you need a map to find Thompson, though -- blame the U.S. media, which will only tell you about Canadians if they have some connection to Justin Bieber.)

Right now Thompson is fighting a frontline battle in a war that's been raging for the past 30 years -- the global war of the world's rich on the middle class. It's a war the people of Flint and all of Michigan know much too well. It's a war going on right now in Wisconsin. And it's a war where the middle class just won a round in Egypt. (You probably didn't know -- because the U.S. media was too busy telling you about Justin Bieber -- that Gamal Mubarak, son of Egypt's dictator and his chosen successor, worked for years for Bank of America.)

Here's what's happening in Thompson, and why it matters so much:

Canada isn't like the United States -- it's still a first world country, where corporations are supposed to exist to benefit people, not the other way around. They don't just have universal health care -- they even have something called the Investment Canada Act, which says multinationals like Vale can only invest in Canadian industries if it will benefit all of Canada. I know, crazy!

The mine in Thompson used to be run by Inco, a Canadian corporation that made peace with unions and shared the wealth. When Vale bought Inco in 2006, they signed a contract with the government setting out what they would do to benefit Canadians.

Immediately afterward, Vale violated the contract and went on the attack -- forcing miners in Sudbury, Ontario out on the longest strike in their history. And now in Thompson they're trying to shut down the smelting and refining operations that have made the city a major economic hub of the province. Meanwhile, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper -- think of George W. Bush with a Canadian accent -- is actually helping Vale do this to their fellow citizens, with a giant $1 billion government loan which Vale is using to move jobs out of Thompson. Moreover, the largest institutional investor in Vale is Blackrock, an investment firm which in turn is owned by several of America's bailed-out banks ... including Bank of America.

So this is about one thing and one thing only: killing the social contract of Canada. Vale and the Harper government don't want a future where Brazil gradually becomes more like Canada. Instead, they want a future where Canada becomes Brazil. And not just Canada: the corporations' plan is that the Third World will become the Only World.

That's why people everywhere need to support Thompson. As Niki Ashton -- the MP who represents Thompson and the second-youngest woman ever elected to the Canadian Parliament -- says: "It Was Flint Yesterday, It's Us and Wisconsin Today, and Tomorrow It's Going to Be Everyone."

And that's why I'm proud to feature Ashton and voices of the people of Thompson on my website. And it's why I'm asking you to watch their powerful video, hear their stories, and share them with everyone you know.  

Regular people across the world are standing up right now and saying "No!" to the future they have planned for us. We won in Egypt. We're waking up and fighting back across the U.S. Let's all stand with Thompson and make it the place where we turn the tide in this awful war. As Kamal Abbas, one of Egypt's most important union leaders, said in a video message to Wisconsin: "We stand with you, as you stood with us."

(Confidential to people of Thompson: we're not saying Americans will only help if you promise to introduce us to Justin Bieber. We're just saying, you know, it couldn't hurt.)
      

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By Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger

The Arizona state Senate moved forward with two controversial measures this week that threaten to marginalize undocumented youth to an unprecedented degree.

An anti-birthright citizenship bill, which initially failed to muster the votes necessary to proceed, was finally approved Tuesday after Senate President Russell Pearce (R) shrewdly reassigned it to a "friendlier" committee. SB 1309 is now headed to the Rules Committee, where it is, again, expected to pass. The bill seeks to deny automatic citizenship to the U.S.-born children of undocumented persons--an effort that, if successful, would effectively create a self-perpetuating underclass of stateless children.

Proponents argue that the bill would discourage unauthorized immigration by taking away a chief incentive, but the measure has more ominous implications. It would render generations of U.S.-born undocumented children vulnerable to a variety of discriminations--their rights to education, employment and a breadth of social services repeatedly contested, if not altogether denied.

Arizona Senate to vote on sweeping omnibus immigration bill

And, as if the prospect of that future isn't bleak enough, the Arizona state Senate is considering another bill that would, essentially, force similar outcomes on undocumented youth living in Arizona today. Valeria Fernández at New American Media reports that the measure would, among other provisions, "ban undocumented students from accessing higher education; require proof of legal status to attend K-12 schools; and require hospitals to inquire about the immigration status of their patients."

Like SB 1309, the success of Pearce's omnibus bill is the product of some artful maneuvering on the part of the senate president. After watching several of his party's anti-immigration measures flounder in recent weeks, Pearce devised the omnibus bill--hobbling it together over the weekend from the tattered remains of several failed immigration measures. He introduced it Monday, tardily and to the surprise of his fellow senators, according to Colorlines.com's Julianne Hing. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed the bill on Wednesday--though not without considerable debate and dissent--and it is already headed to the floor for a vote.

Notwithstanding the measure's swift progress, many opponents believe Pearce's legislative chicanery is a sign of weakness. Hing writes:

Immigrant rights activists say the maneuver is proof of Pearce's desperation. "It is clear he does not have the votes to do what he wanted the way he wanted," said Alfredo Gutierrez, a former state senator who heads the immigrant rights group Somos America. "Pearce has clearly staked his reputation on the 14th amendment bills, but now he's found himself on the defensive. [...] It's proof that we're being effective," Gutierrez said.

Both SB 1309, the citizenship bill, and SB 1622, the omnibus measure, tread dangerously close to unconstitutionality. While the former attempts to reinterpret the 14^th Amendment's Citizenship Clause--which has, for 130 years, guaranteed the right to citizenship at birth--the latter threatens to violate its Equal Protection Clause--which, as upheld by the Supreme Court in Plyler v. Doe, grants all children the right to a public education. As such, the bills would likely face myriad legal challenges if passed, much the same as SB 1070.

While the bills are shocking in their breadth and pernicious in their potential for marginalizing scores of unauthorized immigrants, even under current law undocumented youth must contend with a number of barriers to education, employment and stability.

Undocumented college graduates mired in immigration limbo

As Liane Membis notes at Campus Progress, countless undocumented students graduate from college straddled with debt, burdened by the constant threat of deportation, and unable to obtain gainful--or even legal employment--due to their immigration status. Membis relates the story of Teresa Serrano, an accomplished, civically minded, 2010 Yale University graduate whose undocumented status now inhibits her from pursuing her chosen career:

"What I felt on graduation day was different--something more severe," she said. "I had spent the past four years at this elite institution, compartmentalizing a painful truth, and I knew that when I graduated I would be confronted with my harsh reality yet again." [...] She left New Haven and returned to her home in Texas. Now her daily routine consists of nine-to-five job shifts at fast food restaurants and laundromats, the advantages of her Yale degree negated by her undocumented status.

The DREAM Act, a federal bill that would have created a path to legalization for certain undocumented college students, could have changed Serrano's life. But after its defeat last November, and given the high improbability that any sort of comprehensive immigration reform will progress this year, her career ambitions are necessarily eclipsed by the simple goal of remaining in the United States.

Undocumented LGBT youth bear double burden

Still other undocumented youth fare worse--among them, a growing population of homeless LGBT immigrants. At Feet in 2 Worlds, Von Diaz reports that roughly half of New York City's homeless youth identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender while 15 percent were born outside of the United States. Moreover, between 10 and 20 percent of residents at two homeless shelters in 2010 were LGBT immigrants. Many of them were turned out onto the streets by intolerant families and must now routinely contend with threats and vulnerabilities owing to their youth, sexual identities, and undocumented status.

Juan Valdez, a 21-year-old gay immigrant from the Dominican Republic, tells his story below:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bejJqEK_wiY[/youtube]

Note that the future imagined by Pearce and his anti-immigrant cohorts is one in which the daily injustices endured by Teresa Serrano and Juan Valdez are not only the norm, but evidence of a job well done.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Pulse. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

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Now that Arnold Schwarzenegger has officially announced that he is returning to acting, it is perhaps as good a time as any to look back at some of his better works of would-be art. Since even his most recent picture (the underrated Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) is nearly eight-years old, the entire filmography of Mr. Schwarzenegger can almost be considered something of a relic worthy of study. What is worth noting is how succinctly his career can be divided up into three chapters. You've got the B-movie phase which goes from 1982 (Conan the Barbarian) to 1988 (Twins). You've got the Arnold Schwarzenegger: world's biggest movie star phase, which was from 1990 (Total Recall) to 1997 (Batman & Robin). Then, following a nearly three-year break due to heart surgery, you have the last act of Schwarzenegger's career. This lasts from 1999 (End of Days) to 2003 (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) where he attempted to remain relevant in an era where respected young actors (Nicolas Cage, Matt Damon, etc) were becoming action stars. There are hits and misses in each era, as the B-movie phase gave us The Terminator while the 'world's mightiest hero' middle-act gave us Jingle All the Way. Let us take a moment to remember the very best that 'Ah-nuld' had to offer, even if he doesn't have the sense to quit while he is somewhat ahead.

A little-noticed proposal in the President's budget managed to squeak by without a ripple in the media, or comment from savvy political pundits and progressive activists. The President is offering $250 million dollars over four years to the states to test ways to curb medical malpractice tort, further denying the rights of victims to seek justice and redress for medical malpractice. Our President appears to have bought into the conservative flim-flam of frivolous lawsuits and lottery-sized payouts, both of which are non-existent. Even though this issue has been buried for decades, what better time to resurrect it than now, since the budget and deficit are on the minds of all those newly minted deficit "hawks" in DC?

If we're going to have one of those "adult conversations" on this issue, Mr. President, then we need to look at what is the real contributor to the impact medical costs have on the deficit. Congress and the medical community are in denial when it comes to the great harm and costs medical malpractice and in-hospital adverse events from drug reactions, infections, surgery, unnecessary procedures, etc. impose on our health care system, while also inflicting pain and suffering on a generally unsuspecting public. Millions of victims have been invisible and voiceless for too long, with no massive protests in the streets and few advocacy organizations speaking for the them, with one notable exception: Public Citizen and its Health Research Group, which has been fighting for patient safety for decades, researching the system's failures and offering up solutions. Public Citizen has been instrumental in removing some of the most dangerous drugs from the market, and their book "Worst Pills, Best Pills" (http://worstpills.org/) by Dr. Sidney Wolfe, Director of their Health Research Group, is an invaluable resource for all who care about their own health and safety.

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It's 10:30 p.m. You're a black male driving along the back roads of Anywhere, USA. Your car breaks down just as your cell-phone battery dies, so you'll have to get out and knock on someone's door for help. You come upon a patch of houses, some proudly boasting American flags, the others flagless. Which of these houses shall you approach? While it may come as a shock to some, most blacks to whom I have posed this scenario opt for a flagless house. This has nothing to do with any lack of patriotism. Outside these circumstances, they proudly stand for, salute and wave the flag. In fact, that Ralph Lauren gear with the chic little American flags as emblems -- you can't keep 'em on the shelves in some black communities! History, however, and the political symbolism that the deeds and rhetoric of some have attached to Old Glory have simply transformed it under certain circumstances from our national flag into a red flag.

The same applies to shariah. Most Americans have no idea what it really means or stands for. But the deeds and rhetoric of some have produced a similar effect: shariah has come to constitute a red flag, even without the misrepresentations of so-called Islamophobes. Many Muslims dislike this logic and are actually as offended by it as some Americans will be by the insinuation that our flag can double as a symbol of racism. Both groups would do well, however, to note that people are not going to ignore their actual experiences just to make others comfortable in their ideologically constructed world of ideals.

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To casual observers the history of science goes something like this: Greek philosophers introduced the world to rational, naturalistic ways of thinking which freed us from superstition and myth. Sadly, the Roman Empire crumbled, Christianity replaced paganism, religious dogma replaced rationalism, and progress stagnated until about the 16th century when the foundations of science began taking shape. Of course, the real story is more complicated (interested readers should see David Lindberg's The Beginnings of Western Science). At the risk of disorienting casual observers, I am going to explore one of those interesting complications: Medieval neuroscience.

The 12th and 13th centuries witnessed a flourishing of natural philosophy in Christian Europe. While creation, the cosmos, miracles and the nature of God were uppermost on the agenda, medieval natural philosophy also included the biological basis of the human mind. The major brain theory of the time was called the theory of the "inner (or interior) senses," the roots of which ran back to Aristotle (see Simon Kemp's book Cognitive Psychology in the Middle Ages, chapter 4). In his De Anima, Aristotle identified a number of intellectual functions including sensation, imagination and memory. Originally, Aristotle located these functions in the heart, but the renowned Roman physician Galen relocated them to the brain. Physicians after Galen (precisely who is unclear) put these function specifically in the ventricles of the brain given that the ventricles were highly interconnected via nerve fibers to sensory and motor systems throughout the body. Animal spirits flowing from the ventricles through the nerve fibers could then account for the direction of thought and action throughout the body.

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I believe in athletes having the freedom and space to take political stands without having to worry about media and corporate backlash. I believe in athletes having the freedom and space to NOT take political stands if that's their choice. But I also believe that there are moments in history when silence itself becomes a political stand, a luxury we cannot afford. For Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl MVP quarterback, this is one of those moments. I'm just returning from Madison, Wisconsin where tens of thousands of teachers, nurses, unionists, and students, are fighting for their very lives. Day after day, I saw the crowds swell as people arrived on buses from across the state and even across the country. I saw feeder marches of 5,000 high school students chanting with an unguarded, proud fury you'd never know today's teenagers possessed. I saw people dressed like King Tut with a banner saying they would "protest like Egyptians." I spoke to nurses choking with rage that they would have to take second jobs or go onto food stamps if business as usual took place in the Capitol Building. I saw thousands sing the Wisconsin Badger football fight song, ending with "Fight Fight Fight and We'll WIN THE DAY!" and they weren't talking about football.

They're trying to stop their Governor Scott Walker, also known as "The Mubarak of the Midwest", from gutting their pay, benefits, and very right to collectively bargain. Walker has also threatened to bring in the National Guard if he can't get his way. For those who don't know, the budget "deficit", Walker is so concerned about is a result of tax breaks he handed to out-of-state corporate donors, gutting the state's surplus. Now he wants the workers to pay.

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Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably familiar with the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar -- an African-American mother who was jailed for using her father's address in an attempt to enroll her children in a better school district than the one in the housing project where she lives. The offense came with a felony charge for "stealing municipal services" that had the potential to derail this mother's ambition of becoming an educator herself. Luckily, according to a recent report, theft charges against Kelley and her father have been dismissed. I don't think there's any disputing the technical legality of Ms. Williams-Bolar's actions, but the sting of the incident resonated across the nation, particularly in under-resourced communities that have recently become the battlegrounds of the current education reform debate.

Ms. Williams-Bolar is really just another "Tiger Mother;" she is a woman using everything she knows to make sure her children have access to a quality education. And that reality is juxtaposed to the widely held assumption that at the heart of the American opportunity gap is a subculture that simply does not value education. There are many self-proclaimed education activists who, in advocating quality education for all, propose that low-income children should be educated in spite of their families of origin. The reality is that in 20 years of working tirelessly on behalf of New York City's children, I have never met a parent who didn't want the best for his or her child. Most parents, regardless of their resources, understand that education is the best chance for economic, social, and political equality that this country has to offer.

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By Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger

Days after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne filed suit against the federal government for allegedly failing to protect the state from a Mexican "invasion," the high-profile murder conviction of a Minutemen border vigilante underscores the state's misguided border priorities.

Earlier this week, a jury found Shawna Forde--leader of the Minutemen American Defense (MAD)--guilty of murdering 8-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father, Raul Flores, Jr. during a racially motivated home invasion in 2009. Forde faces the death penalty for orchestrating the robbery and murders.

ColorLines' Julianne Hing reports that Forde had planned a number of elaborate home invasions to raise funds for her border patrol activities--targeting individuals whom she (erroneously) believed to be drug dealers. Though no drugs were found in the Flores home, Forde--who, incidentally, has close ties to both the Tea Party and the conservative think tank Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)--nevertheless justified Brisenia's murder on the grounds that "people shouldn't deal drugs if they have kids." After watching Forde's accomplices shoot her mother and kill her father, Brisenia was shot twice in the face.

While Latino advocacy groups have characterized the Flores murders as hate crimes provoked--at least in part--by state leaders' incendiary anti-immigrant rhetoric, many regard Forde's conviction as one of many indicators that the tables are turning on anti-immigrant politicos like Brewer who have curried political support through fear-mongering and misinformation.

Less tolerance for border vigilantes

As Valeria Fernandez reports at New America Media, the verdict comes just weeks after another Arizona court upheld a decision against rancher Roger Barnett who, in an act of unwarranted border vigilantism, assaulted a group of migrants traveling across his property. Barnett was fined $80,000. While the Forde and Barnett cases are only two incidents of a nationwide rash of anti-Latino crime, their convictions are particularly significant in Arizona, where state leaders have long tolerated and even encouraged border vigilantism as a necessary response to purported border-related violence.

A year ago, state politicians--including Brewer--fomented a national anti-immigrant mania (which handily ushered in SB 1070) by promoting false reports of border violence. As Valeria Fernandez reported at Feet in 2 Worlds last March, lawmakers were quick to attribute the shooting of Arizona rancher Robert Krentz to an unidentified, undocumented Mexican immigrant--though the sheriff in charge of the case later told the press that the prime suspect was not actually Mexican.

Brewer, for her part, gained national notoriety after fabricating tales of beheadings in the Arizona desert--which, as I wrote for Campus Progress at the time--generated support for her anti-immigrant political agenda while diverting public attention away from the reality that most of Arizona's border violence is directed at immigrants, rather than perpetrated by them.

Arizona's countersuit against the federal government

Brewer's recent countersuit against the federal government--which alleges that Arizona is under invasion from the south and that the feds have failed to protect the state accordingly--similarly conjures nativist fantasies of immigrant-fueled border violence. But, as Scott Lemieux posits at TAPPED, the suit idly and transparently villainizes immigrants:

It is (to put it mildly) a stretch to argue that Arizona is undergoing an "invasion." Illegal immigration does not constitute a military threat or an attempt to overthrow the state government; anti-immigration metaphors are not a sound basis for constitutional interpretation.

Like those propagated by state lawmakers during Arizona's nativist heyday last spring, this new offensive belies the reality that, while anti-Latino hate crimes have risen by 52 percent nationally in recent years, border crime has been on the decline for quite some time--a fact noted by Alternet's Julianne Escobedo Shepherd in her coverage of the countersuit.

Yet, in an effort to further their extreme, anti-immigrant agenda, Arizona's nativist lawmakers determinedly maintain the myth that Latin American immigration somehow generates a groundswell of violent crime--even when doing so requires the hasty revision of a rancher's death, and the callous disregard of an innocent child's murder.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Pulse. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

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There is something about the new cosmetic "option" for thicker eyelashes that bothers me, though I'm not sure what it is. Perhaps it's the resistance I still feel after leaving behind those false lashes I wore while modeling with Wilhelmina in the 70s. Or maybe wearing my current hat as a psychologist, it doesn't fit with my belief that women can find true beauty within. Yet, my patients in their twenties and thirties insist, "Hey, it's great. Why not have beautiful lashes without having to apply mascara?" Older women claim, "My lashes have thinned and it helps me get back to what I used to have naturally." Undeniably, the reviews on these products -- including Latisse, Lilash, Revitalash and Marini Lash to name a few -- are largely positive. Except for a few complaints about mild irritation, allergic reactions and occasional permanent eye color change, most report they are satisfied by the thicker and darker lashes they see as long as they keep using the product.

Some women don't realize that Latisse (the first of lash thickeners to be FDA approved) was a drug originally intended for glaucoma. An unexpected side effect was that it was found to increase the growth of eyelashes. It was then approved to treat hypotrichosis (a technical term for medical hair loss) and over time has been prescribed to treat what marketers call "inadequate eyelashes." Much the way Retin-A cream and Botox (produced by the same company that created Latisse) once served to treat medical symptoms, Latisse now routinely serves cosmetic purposes. Miracle drug? Or another slippery slope for women to slide down?

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The fall of Mubarak; this unarmed, pacific crowd, risking death to bring down a deadly regime; this demonstration of power by men and women proving, once again, that there is only one superpower in this world, that of the people gathered together; the grandeur of these people finding the source of unimaginable energy in "fusion" (Sartre) and, in "hope" (the other John Paul, Wojtyla), the invitation to "fear" no longer. The apparition, out of nowhere or, more precisely, out of a space believed to be merely virtual, that of the social networks of the web, of this new agora that was, for 18 days, Tahrir Square in Cairo; these responsible, republican demands, moderate and on a human scale; this absence of lyrical illusions; this astonishing political maturity that also seems to have sprung from nowhere--except, again, from the web; even more striking, this discretion of Islamic agitators who initially remained silent, then reluctantly rallied to the movement, only to try, at the last moment, hand in hand with Suleiman, to plaster over a regime in the process of disintegration; the fact, again, that all this occurred, for the first time in modern Arab history, without a single anti-American or anti-Western slogan, without the burning of an Israeli flag, without dragging out the worn out slogans about the "Zionist" origins of all the plagues of Egypt; the incredible spectacle, then, of these demonstrators who, once having gotten rid of the tyrant, had the civic, citizen's, city dweller's reflex to clean up the place where they had besieged him, telling the world, in effect, that 'clearing away the old order is not an abstract slogan, the clearing away starts here, now, in the lives and in the minds of each of us'--all this constitutes one of the most moving political sequences I have ever lived through. Whatever happens, there is a stock of indelible images that call to mind those of the revolutions of the year of grace 1989; it is the mark of this marvel the French Christian philosopher Maurice Clavel called an Event and that no fear, no reservations, no sombre foreboding should, for the moment, dissuade one from applauding.

That said, it is one thing to salute, to celebrate, to embrace the summer dawn of this Egyptian spring in winter, to say and repeat, as I have for weeks, that a page of the History of the region, hence of the world, is being turned, and that one should rejoice without misgivings. But it is quite another to do one's job by trying to be not, as the media put it, "partners" of the event, but its demanding witnesses, asking the same questions that, at the moment I write, the wisest and most lucid Egyptian democrats are posing.

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Our first Valentine's Day, Jeff and I agreed we didn't need to battle the crowds at a restaurant or exchange gifts or do anything expensive. Yet he shocked me with his simple yet romantic gestures that evening. He brought me into my bathroom, glimmering with candlelight, and I saw my bathtub filled with bubbles. He instructed me to relax for twenty minutes while he cooked us dinner. I soaked in the luxurious water and when I got out Jeff did the most amazing thing. He wrapped me in a towel right out of the dryer. It was warm and soft and that small detail was so incredibly thoughtful, I was floored. It really was a Valentine's Day filled with love.

Our last Valentine's Day together, I had been working at MTV for a few months. The joke at the office was, "Is Sascha really married, or is she just making it up?" because no one had met Jeff. He didn't go to any parties or come out for after-work drinks or stop by for lunch, like the other significant others often did. I wanted my coworkers to meet Jeff and see that I did in fact have a husband, and he was charming and adorable, and I wanted that producer who had jokingly asked me if I was happy at home to see that I was happy at home. I wanted the assistant who was selling me grams to know that just because I did the occasional blow didn't mean I wasn't in a good marriage. So I asked Jeff, as a special Valentine's present to me, could he please come pick me up at MTV for lunch, meet some of my coworkers, and bring me pretty flowers so I could have them on my desk to remind me of his affection.

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It wasn't too long ago when Iceland was something of the prom queen of nations, the envy of countless other countries. She seemed to have it all -- stunning beauty (Geysers! Hot springs!), a rich sense of culture (mandatory music classes for every child, sagas), a strong focus on sustainability and a historically excellent education system. And what's more: she can party. Reykjavik's bars and clubs run the gamut from the raw and raucous to the subdued to the surreal, and they stay open until dawn -- when the sun is rising, that is. In 2008, Iceland was ranked number one by the United Nations in its Human Development Index, meaning it was the most desirable place to live. That, of course, came at a price: it was also one of the more expensive nations to live in.

The Icelandic stock market was an embarrassment of riches, swelling to nine times its value from 2003 to 2007. It was still a nation of fishermen, but an investment banking industry had developed alongside that. Then, in October 2008, the Icelandic banking system became what would be only the first on the planet to fall, sending this nation of 320,000 into a financial tailspin. In short: mortgages and car loans were tied to other nations' currencies, and with the Icelandic krona plunging in value, they were impossibly to repay. The rose up against the government for lack of oversight. Then just a few months later, Iceland made international headlines again when an unpronounceable volcano erupted, spewing ash into the air and disrupting global travel. Thing is, barely anyone on the ground on the island was affected.

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Last week, former President George W. Bush emerged from his Texas mansion to declare that the biggest failure of his presidency was not privatizing Social Security. President Bush should take a good look around because he failed at a number of things, but failing to gut one of America's most effective programs was, in fact, a huge success for the American people. Nevertheless, Bush's dream of putting our retirement benefits into the reckless hands of Wall Street hasn't died, and Republicans have made it clear that privatizing Social Security and Medicare is among their top priorities.

Republicans aren't resurrecting Bush's plan verbatim; instead, they've dressed up Bush's privatization policies in new clothing, hoping the American people simply won't notice. If Republicans take control of the House next week, self-described Republican "young gun" Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is poised to take over the Budget Committee in the next Congress. Ryan recently made his plan for privatization evident when he released his "Roadmap for America's Future" which, among other senseless policies, includes plans to privatize Social Security and to turn Medicare into a voucher system in which seniors would be forced to fend for themselves on the private insurance market. The vouchers wouldn't keep pace with health care costs, leaving millions of older Americans vulnerable to having no health coverage at all. Yet, despite its dismantling of America's most fundamental safety net, nearly 80 percent of House Republicans voted in favor of Ryan's Medicare plan. Republicans may not be campaigning on privatizing these popular programs, but it's clear they're committed to restarting the failed efforts of the Bush Administration to destroy them.

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Via Zillow: Ashton Kutcher has listed his old bachelor pad for a modest $2.6 million (by Hollywood standards). Described as a "modern craftsman," this home features four bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms, a home theater, and a two-story wine cooler that can hold 210 bottles. The indoor/outdoor floorplan allows visitors to flow outside to an infinity-edge spa, pool, and waterfall. The estate sits on just under an acre of landscaped grounds behind a gated drive, allowing for privacy. After purchasing the home in 2004, the actor and his father, Larry, renovated and expanded it from roughly 2,000 square feet to 3,235 square feet.

Zillow reports that the star will not just sell his labor of love, but will also have "an online home listing and designer showcase to benefit the Demi and Ashton Foundation (DNA), a non-profit organization that raises awareness about child sex slavery and helps in the rehabilitation of the victims." Gilt.com is now selling tours of the home, which has been staged by five LA designers, at $250 per person. All proceeds from the home tour ticket sales--as well as a portion of listing agent Gary Gold's commission from the home's sale--will go directly to DNA. To purchase a ticket to see this celebrity pad, visit Gilt City Los Angeles.

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Prime Minister Netanyahu has demonstrated through his actions-or more specifically, his inactions-that he rejects the notion of land for peace. This has been clearly illustrated through his reluctant rhetorical acceptance of a two-state solution, rife with caveats, and his refusal to halt settlement construction in the West Bank for even an additional two months in exchange for a doubling of the United States' aid package. Thus, it has become increasingly clear that the framework of Israel's successful peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan based on "land for peace" no longer holds true. This represents nothing less than a fundamental change in Israel's peace posturing in relation to the Syrians and especially the Palestinians. As such, today the prospect for successful bilateral negotiations is not only incredibly remote, but creates an extremely dangerous situation.

In forming a government with Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu has prioritized Israel's security and demographic threat not dissimilarly to previous Israeli governments-but with the exception of one critical provision. Today, there are approximately 5.8 million Jews living in 'historic Palestine,' the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. There are a total of 5.3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza and in Israel proper. The birthrate of Israeli Jews is 1.7 children per family, while among the Palestinians in the West Bank it is 2.1, and in Gaza, 3.3. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics recently estimated that the Palestinian Arabs will constitute a majority in historic Palestine by as early as 2014. A recent study by the Taub Center for Israeli Studies at NYU showed that nearly 50 percent of students in Israel's schools today are either Arab or religious Jews.

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What is the use of poetry when the world shifts underfoot? The question arises in the face of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, with the news dominating every discussion. I shuttle between newspaper and television reports, Al Jazeera's live streaming video, messages on Twitter and Facebook, and blogs, trying to reconcile each development in this fast-changing story with Ezra Pound's definition of literature as "news that stays news." The flight of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who ruled Tunisia with an iron fist for twenty-three years; the clashes in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria, between demonstrators against the regime of Hosni Mubarak and supporters of the Egyptian strongman; the protests in Yemen, Jordan, and Syria -- a bewildering set of changes is upon the region, and the world: hardly the moment to turn to poetry for instruction.

And yet, and yet. One poet understood the dynamics of power better than most analysts, not to mention politicians, and since he spent most of his life in Alexandria it may be useful to reacquaint ourselves with the work of Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), the Greek poet who turned his search for an enduring image of the city that for him represented the highest in human civilization into news that stays news. His external life was uneventful -- he worked as a minor civil servant in the Ministry of Public Works, he dabbled on the Egyptian stock exchange, he frequented brothels that catered to a gay clientele. But what a rich interior life he led, exploring ancient Greek and Byzantine history for sources of inspiration. An exacting craftsman, Cavafy completed 154 poems in his lifetime, which he refused to publish, preferring to print them for a small coterie of readers, thus preserving his imaginative independence.

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With skyrocketing pension costs the primary economic threat to many states, it is obvious that there needs to be reform. State workers can still retire with full pensions that are often padded near the end of their careers. The costs are exceeding the contributions and the income made from the pension funds as many more workers retire. Due to these huge costs States are being forced to make huge cuts to many important programs from education, to health care to aid for the needy and in some cases are threatened with bankruptcy. Many State workers also have health care benefits that require no contribution from them. Both of these programs are unrealistic and small modifications could save them and the finances of many States and Cities.

A primary example I give you is the benefits for Federal Employees. Now the noise you hear from Washington is what a drain Federal Employees are on the budget and how highly paid we are. People also assume that we also have a fully funded pension and health care costs. However, upon closer inspection, federal employees are a bargain for the taxpayer. The days of the fully funded pension have been gone since 1986. Any employee who began with the Federal Government since that time as an Individual Retirement Account similar to that in the private sector as their primary source of retirement funding. These are contributions the employee makes to his/her account. Like many private sector employees we do get a partial match from our employer, but this is only a small fraction of what would have been paid under the old pension system. Employees get their choice of mix of retirement funds with different risk levels, but it is a private investment. This along with our Social Security constitutes our retirement savings.

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If you fell in love with the soft-spoken, lanky Tareq in Ruba Nadda's indie summer hit Cairo Time then you are familiar with the elegant charm of Alexander Siddig. Or you may have been watching him lately on the newly revamped BBC America series Primeval, in which he plays scientist Philip Burton. But later this March he will be returning to the big screen in all his understated charisma as Jamal, the unselfish, supportive father in Julian Schnabel's Miral.

I meet Siddig in Doha, Qatar, where he is promoting Miral, the latest Julian Schnabel film which has had more than its fair share of criticism. Things are quite different at screenings throughout the Middle East -- the film was at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in October -- where Miral has been receiving standing ovations. The story of the film, and the book by Rula Jebreal on which her screenplay is based, is one of strength and dignity in the face of adversity. A statement that could well apply to Siddig himself. Though his eyes may sparkle with an almost otherworldly beauty and for our meeting he elegantly wears a crinkled light blue cotton shirt with cuff-links, a pair of beige chinos and tan loafers, I can't help but notice a tragic hero quality in him. Granted, hidden well behind his broad smile and glowing caramel complexion the color of a perfect tan, this bittersweet quality is what makes him so charismatic in his work, but also so authentic to talk with in real life.

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Late last night, we received an email from Mahmoud Hashim, an Egyptian living in Toronto. Like us, he has watched with horror as peaceful demonstrators have been killed in the violence in Egypt. He told us about the growing movement to help document the martyrs losing their lives in the streets and pointed us to a collaborative Google Doc that is being circulated around the world to aid the process. Mahmoud wrote "I realized then that the least we can do is not forget these brave young men and women, and to honor them by letting the whole nation know who they were" He then asked us for a favor: Could we take the data being collected from observers in Egypt and make a more visually compelling website. He wanted us to "create a page that will help young people honor the memory of those heroes and for the whole world to see and then dive deeper."

This email came at the very end of a long day, but we knew what we had to do. We rolled up our sleeves and stayed up late into the evening creating a special online memorial to the Egyptian martyrs. A place to remember their sacrifices and know that these are not just numbers. We hope that this can be a place that shows the world what is happening and helps a little to remember each of the lives lost that they might not be wasted and that the violence may end. You can see it at 1000Memories.com/Egypt.

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Now that the WikiLeaks releases about Tunisian corruption have directly sparked a peoples' uprising in Tunisia; now that Egypt is in the throes of pro-democracy protest driven in large measure by WikiLeaks' revelation in the Palestine Papers about US manipulation of Palestine, surely one would expect key U.S. news organizations and journalists to rally prominently to the defense of the right to publish that that site represents. One would expect lead editorials supporting Assange's right to publish from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USAToday, not to mention every major TV outlet. But instead, what we have heard is the deafening sounds of what middle-schoolers call 'crickets' -- that is, an awkward silence. As Nancy Youssef in the McClatchy papers reported recently, most U.S. journalists -- and, even more shamefully, journalists' organizations -- decided, regarding supporting Wikileaks' freedom to publish, to "take a pass."

How on earth could this be? This cravenness represents one of American journalism's darkest hours -- as dark as the depth of the McCarthy era. In terms of the question of the legalities of publishing classified information, most American journalists understand full well that Assange is not the one who committed the crime of illegally obtaining classified material -- that was Bradley Manning, or whomever released the material to the site. So Assange is not the 'hacker' of secrets, as People magazine has mis-identified him; he is of course the publisher, just as any traditional news organization is. He is not Daniel Ellsberg, in the most comparable analogy, the illegal releaser of the classified Pentagon Papers; rather, Assange is analogous to the New York Times, which made the brave and correct decision to publish the Pentagon Papers in the public's interest.

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Okay, the deal is the that the people of the Depression era changed the world, inspired by a President with a vision and who got stuff done.

The Roosevelt Campus Network is trying to replicate that, and here's more:

On FDR's birthday, the Roosevelt Campus Network, is launching a youth-generated vision for the
future-- a New Deal for the Millennial America. In the same way that FDR's New Deal established America's political course for years to come, the culmination of the Campus Network's Think 2040 project, Blueprint for the Millennial America, outlines the Millennial generation's goals and policy priorities for the next thirty years and offers a unique glimpse
at an engaged, socially empathetic, community-minded, and hyper informed generation of
Americans. To date, thousands of Millennials nation-wide have contributed their 2040 vision.
Now, young people across the country are taking action to
make their vision a reality. Over the course of the next few months, students nation-wide are
launching action projects to move towards their 2040 goals, including

• Investments in public infrastructure
• Equal access to quality education
• Elimination of the socioeconomic achievement gap
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation
• A strong green jobs sector
• The creation of a stronger, more flexible "social safety trampoline" as top priorities for
the next thirty years.

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by Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger

This week, two high-profile trials involving the racially motivated murders of Latinos in Pennsylvania and Arizona are exposing the unsettling implications of growing anti-immigrant sentiment. But while antagonistic political discourse and incendiary policy are shown to provoke ethnic violence--correlating with a 52 percent increase in hate crimes--they also indirectly drive sexual violence against immigrant women. The combination of stricter enforcement and increased cultural animosity toward immigrants renders undocumented women workers more susceptible to workplace rape and sexual exploitation--violent crimes that don't generally register as hate crimes but that nevertheless bespeak of racially charged motives.

Two murder cases highlight senseless violence against Latinos

The trial of Minuteman border vigilante Shawna Forde, and two other individuals charged with the 2009 murder of a nine-year-old Latina girl and her father, began this week in Arivaca, Arizona. Julianne Hing at ColorLines reports that Brisenia Flores was shot twice in the head by home invaders allegedly enlisted by Forde, who is accused of sanctioning racially motivated home invasions to finance (via robbery) her border patrol activities. Flores' parents were also shot, but her mother, Gina Gonzales, survived.

As Hing notes, Forde had strong ties with both the Tea Party movement and prominent anti-immigrant groups, including the influential conservative think-tank Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR):

Forde had a habit of ending her emails with the sign off, "Lock and Load" and had close ties with tea party groups. She was involved with the Minutemen American Defense--her supporters claim she was once a Minuteman National Director--a loose affiliation of anti-immigration border activists who took to policing the border on their own with guns and surveillance equipment. Forde has also had ties with the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform. These groups have all been labeled hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Immigrant rights groups and Latino community advocates alike have characterized the grisly crime as part of a growing anti-immigrant hate crime epidemic plaguing many divided communities across the country.

One such community, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, recently saw the close of another hate crime case, in which three police officers were accused of covering up the racially motivated murder of 25-year-old immigrant Luis Ramirez. As New America Media reports, a Shenandoah jury issued a split verdict against the officers who were charged with obstruction of justice, falsifying records and conspiracy for their alleged attempt to protect Ramirez's teenage murderers. Former police Chief Matthew Nestor was found guilty on the first two counts, but found not guilty of conspiracy. Former police Lt. William Moyer was similarly found guilty of making false statements, but acquitted of all other charges, as was former police Officer Jason R. Hayes. Latino advocacy groups have characterized the officers' actions as a stark example of politicized community leaders privileging white criminals over their Latino victims.

Death of 17-year-old farmworker brings to light workplace exploitation

As antagonistic immigration discourse and prejudicial policies foster violence, immigrant workers are increasingly susceptible to workplace exploitation. In the case of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, that exploitation proved deadly.

Change.org's Antonio Ramirez reports that Jimenez, who was two months pregnant, died of exposure while pruning grapes on a field owned by California's Merced Farm Labor. The company had been fined previously for violating heat regulations, but still failed to ensure that its workers received legally mandated access shade, water and breaks. Now, Merced's owner, Maria De Los Angeles Colung, as well as its former safety coordinator, Elias Armenta, are charged with involuntary manslaughter in Jimenez's death but, as Ramirez notes, they've accepted a plea bargain which would only mandate community service.

Jimenez's preventable death highlights rampant exploitation of immigrant workers in the U.S. food industry--particularly of women. As Alternet's Jill Richardson reports, immigrant workers are increasingly the victims of wage theft and are routinely exposed to toxic pesticides and other hazardous conditions while women workers regularly contend with a variety of workplace sexual abuse and harassment. Richardson summarizes the phenomenon thusly:

In addition to the fondling and groping the women endured on the job, women also engaged in consensual relationships with supervisors to gain "a secure place in American society, a green card, a husband -- or at the very least a transfer to an easier job at the plant." [...]

And then there's the nonconsensual stuff: A 2008 piece in High Country News revealed that farmworkers refer to one company's field as the "field of panties" because so many women workers are raped by supervisors. And as far back as 1993, the Southern Poverty Law Center found in its own study that 90 percent of female farm workers cite sexual harassment as a serious problem.

While the sexual abuse of (largely undocumented) women farmworkers doesn't register as a hate crime in the same way that the racially motivated murders of Luiz Ramirez and the Flores family do, the nature of their exploitation is clearly gendered and racialized. As immigration enforcement tightens, effectively pushing undocumented workers further underground while discouraging undocumented victims of violent crimes from coming forward, farmworkers will continue to be targeted for exploitation based on their gender, race and nationality--the same criteria upon which Ramirez and the Flores family were targeted for deadly violence.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Pulse<. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

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For President Obama, the path to victory in 2012 appeared to become more evident in recent weeks. Since last November's shellacking, Obama has done two things that could strengthen his reelection chances in 22 months. First, he has begun to successfully portray himself as charting a middle course between extremists in both parties. By forging compromises that have angered both the left of his Democratic Party and the far right of the Republican Party, Obama has contributed to this image. The lengthy list of legislative accomplishments, in spite of a confoundingly difficult political environment, to which he can point also contributes to this perception. Second, Obama has, for one of the few times since taking office, regained some of the communication skills that he demonstrated as a candidate. This was most apparent during his speech in Arizona following the tragic shooting in Tucson.

The problem with narrative is that it isn't relevant, and it will not become relevant unless the economy turns around in a way that is meaningful for the millions of Americans who are unemployed, underemployed, deeply in debt, scared of losing their home, frightened about the future or some combination of these things. If the economy is still in this shape in November 2012, voters will continue to be oblivious to Obama's lists of accomplishments or his reinvigorated communication skills and attempts to stress these things will be viewed as merely spin and in some cases acutely insensitive spin. This is not good news for the president or his party. If, however, the economy begins to turn around by the election, Obama's other strengths will reinforce his candidacy, making him a very difficult candidate to defeat.

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By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger

Oil barons Charles and David Koch held their annual billionaires' summit in Palm Springs on Sunday, Nancy Goldstein reports in The Nation. Every year, the Kochs gather with fellow plutocrats, prominent pundits, and Republican legislators to plan their assault on government regulation and the welfare state. This is the first year that the low-profile gathering has attracted protesters.

The Kochs are best known for pumping millions into the ostensibly grassroots Tea Party movement. At TAPPED, Monica Potts points to Jane Mayer's famous 2010 profile of the Koch brothers that made their name synonymous with vast right wing conspiracy. Her colleague Jamelle Bouie questions whether the Koch brothers really deserve their bogeyman status--no single cabal of funders can single-handedly sway public opinion, he argues.

That's true, but $30 million can go a long way. That's the amount the event's organizers expect to raise for the GOP, according to Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly, who also notes the event was off-limits to the mainstream media.

David Dayen reports at AlterNet that about 800 to 1,000 protesters rallied outside Sunday's summit at the Rancho Las Palmas resort. Twenty-five protesters were arrested for trespassing. Police in full riot gear carted the protesters away. To add a surreal note to the proceedings, conservative provocateur Andrew Brietbart emerged from the summit on roller skates to argue with the protesters.

Several progressive organizations collaborated to draw the crowd including Common Cause, the California Courage Campaign, CREDO, MoveOn.org, 350.org, the California Nurses Association, and the United Domestic Workers of America. The Media Consortium's own Jim Hightower was a featured speaker at the rally.

Plastic vs. the poor

YES! Magazine highlights a video lecture by racial and environmental justice advocate Van Jones on the hidden economic toll that plastic takes on the world's poor. When we discard our plastic bottles in the recycle bin, we assume they are destined to be reused or recycled. In fact, Jones says, they are often shipped to developing countries and simply burned. Needless to say, these toxic plastic bonfires aren't held in the tonier parts of town. It's the poorest people who bear the brunt of living next door to heaps of flaming pop bottles. Jones' central point is that treating objects as disposable inevitably leads to treating people the same way, because the most vulnerable are forced to live with the worst consequences of pollution.

Wall Street winfall doesn't help Main Street

The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly hovered above 12,000, prompting the New York Times to proclaim the booming stock market as a sign of an economic recovery. But as George Warner notes in Campus Progress, surging stocks aren't bringing jobs back:

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, 9.4 percent, underestimates the true extent of our employment problems by leaving out the many workers said to have "dropped out of the workforce." By the Economic Policy Institute's estimates, we are 11.5 million jobs short. 27 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. (To see how little our labor market has bounced back, check out this Youtube visualization of the last 3 years...the only thing you can't see is recovery.)

Warner adds that an analysis released last week by the Congressional Budget Office predicts that unemployment will remain high until 2016. What few jobs have been created are overwhelmingly low-wage positions without benefits. This is hardly a foundation on which to build lasting prosperity. A surging stock market without job creation means that the investor class is getting richer while ordinary people continue to struggle.

Hawkeyes Eying Wage Hike?

State Rep. Bruce Hunter (D-Des Moines) has introduced a bill that would raise the Iowa state minimum wage, Tyler Kingkade reports for the Iowa Independent. The bill would increase the minimum hourly wage to $7.50 on January, 1, 2012 and to $8.00 on July 1, 2012. The last time Iowa raised the minimum wage was in 2007 when the rate jumped from $5.15 per hour to the current $7.25.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the economy by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Audit for a complete list of articles on economic issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Mulch, The Pulse and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

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