Send Karl Rove to Jail

July 22, 2008

Karl Rove has spent a career putting politics before due process, democracy and civil rights. So it's not surprising that when recently faced with a subpoena from Congress, Rove refused to testify. This refusal was a violation of federal law -- Rove's attorney Robert Luskin asserted executive privilege as an excuse to ignore Congress; however, President Bush has not invoked the privilege. (And why would he since that would be an admission that the President sought advice on the politicization of the Department of Justice.)

Since Rove regards the law with such contempt, it's high time the law and Congress hold him in contempt as well. Our friends at Brave New Films have launched a new video campaign and petition asking the House Judiciary Committee to cite former presidential adviser Karl Rove with contempt for failing to comply with a Congressional subpoena. The video explains the issues surrounding Rove's failure to testify and makes a compelling case that he should be held in contempt and sent to jail. Watch the video and sign the petition.

South Dakota Showdown

July 21, 2008

I've blogged in the past about efforts in South Dakota to impose draconian restrictions on women's reproductive rights. Falling short of their ultimate goal of overriding Roe v. Wade, the state's anti-abortionists gained a major victory last Friday when the state attorney general told doctors in South Dakota that they are now legally required to tell women "that the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."

Women also would have to be told they have a right to continue a pregnancy and that abortion may cause them psychological harm, including thoughts of suicide. "So basically," as Jessica Valenti blogged at Feministing, "they have to provide patients with false information."

Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota is fighting back against this law, the only one of its kind in the US, which forces doctors to give ideologically charged, nonscientific and inaccurate messages to their patients. "We remain optimistic that, in time, the court will find that the law is unconstitutional," says PPMNS President and CEO Sarah Stoesz.

Honoring the Next Generation

July 17, 2008

The final piece of the first season of This Brave Nation, the Brave Nation Young Activist Award was designed to celebrate a next generation of progressive activism.

A collaboration between The Nation and Brave New Films, This Brave Nation comprises five episodes featuring intergenerational conversations between historic figures discussing the issues and movements that have inspired and informed their work.

Participants include Pete Seeger, Majora Carter, Dolores Huerta, Tom Hayden, Naomi Klein, Bonnie Raitt, Van Jones, Carl Pope, Ava Lowery and Anthony Romero, who all share their ideas, lessons and experiences so as to inform, enlighten and inspire a new generation to seize the moment.

Standing Up to FISA

July 15, 2008

Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel's recent post explained why The Nation has joined with the ACLU in a lawsuit filed in the US District Court of New York challenging the constitutionality of the FISA Amendments Act.

Moments after President Bush signed the bill into law, the ACLU filed suit challenging the law's constitutionality. Congress has not only legalized the Bush administration's secret NSA spying program, it has given the government even more power to listen to our phone calls and read our emails than even the administration itself claimed for itself under its secret program. And, by granting telecom companies immunity, it has made it highly unlikely that we will ever learn the extent of the administration's lawless actions.

Watch this brief clip of Senator Russell Feingold, one of the Senate's foremost Constitutional defenders, detailing the ramifications of the new FISA bill.

Tide is Turning on Big Media

July 11, 2008

The Senate voted in overwhelming numbers recently to reject an FCC ruling that would unleash a new wave of media consolidation across America. Spurred by a grassroots campaign by our friends at Free Press, more than a quarter-million people took action and sent a powerful message to Washington demanding that legislators curb the ability of a few giant corporations to control the bulk of the nation's media.

The fight now moves to the House, where a bipartisan version of the Senate "resolution of disapproval" (H.J.Res.79) needs your support. Free Press has set an ambitious goal of convincing 100 legislators to agree to co-sponsor the House version of the bill in the next 100 days. The Nation is joining the campaign and asking readers to support Free Press' efforts and sign your name to a new Nation petition calling on House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi to make passage of H.J. Res. 79 a top legislative priority as soon as Congress comes back from recess. (This petition will be delivered to Pelosi as soon as the House reconvenes after its summer break.)

Watch this video by Free Press' Alexandra Russell for a re-telling of how the recent Senate victory was achieved and what still needs to be done to secure victory in the House.

Of House and Home

July 3, 2008

Kai Wright's moving Nation cover story from last week's issue of the magazine put a human face on the subprime mortgage foreclosure crisis and illuminated a little remarked upon aspect of the catastrophe -- the way that the mortgage industry has effectively stolen much of black America's hard-won wealth. (The total loss of wealth for people of color due to the subprime crisis could reach $213 billion, including $92 billion for African-Americans and $98 billion for Latinos.)

One of the most useful legislative responses has been proposed by Rep. Stephanie Jones and eighteen other co-sponsors of the Predatory Mortgage Lending Practices Reduction Act, who are calling for lending practices that contribute to the health of the economy rather than to its undermining.

The people drowning in unmanageable debt aren't the only ones affected by this epidemic. Neighborhoods physically decay as houses are abandoned, property values plummet and blight spreads through entire communities.

Save Jeff Wood

June 30, 2008

Many of you were among the more than 17,000 outraged citizens who successfully petitioned Texas Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles last year demanding the commutation of the death sentence for Kenneth Foster.

Foster was convicted under Texas' notorious Law of Parties, under which the distinction between principal actor and accomplice in a crime is abolished. The law can impose the death penalty on anybody involved in a crime where a murder occurred whether a person had anything to do with the murder or not. (Texas is the only state that applies this statute in capital cases, making it the only place in the United States where a person can be factually innocent of murder and still face the death penalty.)

Now, Jeff Wood faces similar straits on Texas death row with an execution date of August 21. Having no prior criminal record, Wood was convicted and sentenced to die for killing a convenience store clerk during a January 1996 robbery in Kerrville, TX under the "Law of Parties." Wood was not the shooter in this case and he can reasonably claim that he had no idea that a murder would occur during what he says was meant to be a gas station robbery. The actual shooter in this case -- Daniel Earl Reneau -- was executed by the state of Texas more than six years ago.

Brave Nation Outtakes

June 27, 2008

The fifth episode of the Brave Nation series featuring Naomi Klein and Tom Hayden is being released this Sunday. Take an exclusive sneak peek at author, activist and Nation columnist Klein discussing the factors that first pulled her into activism.

And watch Hayden talking about how and why people join social movements.

The DSM-V and Kenneth Zucker

June 24, 2008

In May, the American Psychiatric Association announced the makeup of the team responsible for revising the fifth (and latest) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM-V.

The DSM-V will serve as a manual for mental health professionals as well as policy makers and pharmaceutical companies concerned with mental health issues. As such, the views it presents will play a major role in shaping the national understanding and discussion of mental health as well as the legislative and regulatory climate on issues relating to employment discrimination and insurance coverage.

When the APA named the researchers, major alarm bells sounded in the transgender community when Dr. Kenneth Zucker surfaced as the head of the group on "Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders" The executive director of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Zucker is a chief proponent of the theory that children who fail to conform to typical gender identity in youth are merely indicating an eventual homosexual identity in adulthood, rather than as an expression of a core identity. This view is in direct contrast to the bulk of the scientific community which recognizes an inherent difference between gender identity and sexual orientation.

OffTheBus Listening Post

June 23, 2008

In another creative innovation on campaign reporting, HuffPost's OffTheBus has just launched a new feature in which the daily Obama and McCain media conference calls, heretofore the exclusive province of the credentialed media, are now recorded and uploaded so everyone can hear firsthand how the presidential contenders are trying to play the press. The calls can be both surprisingly informative as well as amusing.

The conversations are usually posted sixty to ninety minutes after they end. If you want to start listening in you can receive e-mail alerts about new uploads; Subscribe to the OffTheBus Listening Post podcast or check the OffTheBus Listening Post Homepage for a full archive of recordings. Finally, click here if you'd like to find out how to become part of OffTheBus' army of on-the-ground citizen reporters.