Net Briefs

Pre-Emptive Strikes Against Protest at RNC: Marjorie Cohn, in truthout.org, reports that on May 21, the Minneapolis City Pages ran a recruiting story called "Moles Wanted" about how law enforcement was seeking help in preempting lawful protest against the policies of the Bush administration.

Anti-Immigrant Crusade: Rhonda Brownstein, Southern Poverty Law Center, reports on Alternet.org that since 1995, U.S. Rep. Bilbray (R-CA) has tried to deny American citizenship to children born in the United States of non-citizen parents. Bilbray is a former lobbyist for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a right-wing, anti-immigrant group that paid him almost $300,000 to lobby on its behalf between 2002 and 2005. The current version of Bilbray's perennially losing legislation is called the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2007. Brownstein comments on how bizarre it is for Bilbray to sponsor such a bill, since his mother was a non-citizen. But Bilbray carved out an exception that would conveniently apply to him—that a child born in the U.S. is considered a citizen so long as at least one parent is (1) a citizen; (2) a lawful permanent resident; or (3) in active military service. Bilbray's father was a U.S. citizen.

Unconstitutional Dragnet Wiretapping Law: On July 10 the ACLU (reporting on aclu.org) filed a landmark lawsuit to stop the government from conducting surveillance under a new wiretapping law that gives the Bush administration unchecked power to intercept Americans' international emails and telephone calls. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, not only legalizes the secret warrantless surveillance program approved in late 2001, but it gives the government new spying powers, including the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans' international communications.

State Department Refuses To Issue Passports To U.S. Citizens: On September 9, in McAllen, Texas, nine U.S. citizens sued the federal government, challenging the U.S. Department of State's refusal to issue passports because of their race and ancestry and because their births were attended by midwives. The class action lawsuit was filed by the ACLU, the ACLU of Texas, the law firm Hogan and Hartson LLP, and Refugio del Rio Grande, Inc.

Confronting the Cardinal: In "Catholic Schoolgirls Confront Chicago Cardinal Who Met with Bush" a member of Chicago World Can't Wait writes of an incident that happened three days after the sixth year of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. At Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral, the most prominent Catholic church in the area, Cardinal George started his homily on Easter, when six well-dressed young people in the congregation stood up. One said loudly, "The sixth commandment says, ‘thou shall not kill.'"

City of Peace: Bob Fitrakis notes (on freepress.org) that on March 17 the Citizens Grassroots Congress presented a Columbus City for Peace resolution to the Columbus City Council. Notably, 283 cities, 10 counties, and 17 states across the nation have passed peace resolutions, from Arrowsic, Maine to South Charleston, West Virginia to Missoula, Montana. Yet, the Columbus Dispatch, in a March 22 editorial, denounced the peace resolution as an "empty gesture." They cautioned the Council to "focus on city issues," not the war in Iraq. Fitrakis points out that, according to the National Priorities Project, taxpayers in Columbus will pay $135.1 million for additional proposed Iraq War spending for FY 2008

Labor Strike: Joshua Holland writes (alternet.org) that the executive board of the Vermont AFL-CIO, representing thousands of workers in countless sectors across Vermont, unanimously passed an historic resolution expressing their "unequivocal" support for the first U.S. labor strike against the war in Iraq. The strike, organized by the Longshore Caucus of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), sought to shutdown all west coast ports for a period of eight hours on May 1, 2008.

Blockading the IRS: War Resisters League reports (warresisters.org) that on March 19, 31 people staged a nonviolent blockade at the national headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, DC. The protestors placed yellow police tape saying WAR CRIME SCENE across the entrance to the building. New York City War Resisters League organizer Ed Hedemann, before he was arrested, said, "I'm doing my part to disrupt that relentless flow of money by standing in front of the IRS entrance and by refusing to send my taxes to the IRS."

Millionaires on the Ballot: Lindsay Renick Mayer, in a blog on opensecrets.org (April 24), tells us that the U.S. Supreme Court had its hands full with campaign finance dollars. The justices considered whether it was constitutional to "level the playing field" in congressional elections by increasing the dollar limit on individual contributions for candidates who face wealthy, self-funded opponents. It seems there is a millionaires amendment at issue in Davis v. the Federal Election Commission.

Congress Funds More War: Maya Schenwar, in a truthout.org report on Friday, June 20, writes that the House of Representatives voted to approve $162 billion for the occupation, with no strings attached. The vote followed a series of compromises and revisions, ultimately resulting in major concessions from Democrats.

Candidates' Female Employees: According to CNSNews.com staff writer Fred Lucas, both John McCain and Hillary Clinton employed a higher percentage of female employees—and paid them more—than Barack Obama. Additionally, McCain is the only one to pay women on his staff more than men.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's (Heavy) Hand in Government Affairs: The Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org) writes (September 11) that the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac marks the shutdown of one of Washington's most robust influence machines. Together, the two mortgage buyers have pent nearly $200 million on lobbying and campaign contributions over the last two decades. So how much did Fannie and Freddie's contributions and lobbying contribute to Congress's hands-off approach? That's hard to determine, but there is hard data to measure the companies' investment in politicians—more than 350 current members of Congress collected a total of $4.8 million in campaign contributions associated with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 1989, but 28 lawmakers had up to $1.7 million of their own money invested in the companies last year.

U.S. Launches Missile Strike in Somalia: Sahra Abdi Ahmed, writing for Reuters, gives us the news that two U.S. missiles hit a house in southern Somalia on March 3, according to local officials, in an attack Washington said was directed at "known terrorists." It was the fourth U.S. strike in 14 months on Somalia.

Pinochet Suspects Arrests Ordered: Portside moderator (portside.org) makes note of the fact that, finally, a Chilean judge has ordered the arrest of nearly 100 former secret police and soldiers over rights abuses committed under General Augusto Pinochet. The round-up is one of the biggest since the military leader's rule ended 18 years ago. The 98 detentions are part of a probe into Operation Colombo, a 1975 plot to murder left-wing opponents of Pinochet. More than 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared" during military rule in Chile between 1973 and 1990. According to court documents, during Operation Colombo, Pinochet's feared secret police force, the Dina, seized 119 dissidents in July 1975 and killed them. It is then said to have published news accounts claiming they had died in battles between leftist factions outside Chile. The bodies of 42 of the dead were never found.

States' Budget Crises Will Hurt Millions: An Associated Press review of the budgets in all 50 states revealed that coverage would soon begin to be eliminated for hundreds of thousands of poor children, disabled, and the elderly. More than 10 million people would lose dental care, access to specialists, name-brand prescription drugs, or other benefits. About 20 million could see further cuts to doctors' reimbursements. Legislators are also considering cuts in aid to schools and universities, shrinking state workforces, and releasing prisoners before their sentences are completed.

Labor Healthcare Backing: The Marine Firemen, Carpenters and Theatrical Local has recently endorsed HR 676 and has been joined by Local 22 of the Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners (see pnhp.org). HR 676 is single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressperson John Conyers (D-MI). In San Diego, Local 297 of International Alliance of Theatre and Stage Employees (IATSE) also endorsed the Conyers legislation. HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system in the U.S. by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to every resident. It would cover every person in the U. S. for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation, vision care, chiropractic and long term care. It would end deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 currently has 90 co-sponsors in addition to Conyers.

Internet Ads Hit Rock Bottom: A Z reader drew our attention to the following: On Wednesday, May 27, 2008, the Vancouver Sun had an article about a grandmother who was shocked when she saw an Internet ad on craigslist.com offering a 7-day-old baby for sale for $10,000. "A new baby girl, seven days old, healthy and very cute," read the ad. "Can't afford and unexpected. Looking for a good home. Please call ASAP." She called her husband, who looked at the ad over the Internet and said it was probably a hoax. "I said, ‘Even if it is, I'm calling police'," the grandmother recalled.