January 26, 2012

Romney tax returns highlight tax code's breaks for rich

Romney tax returns highlight tax code's breaks for rich
Mitt Romney incurred a much lower rate than the average taxpayer for the $40 million he earned in the last two years.
By Ralph Vartabedian, Tom Hamburger and Matea Gold
January 24, 2012

Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington— Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's tax returns reveal a sophisticated low-tax investment strategy that includes offshore funds and a now-shuttered Swiss bank account, contributing to a fortune that has emerged as a potential liability in his quest for the White House.

Romney and his wife, Ann, reported more than $40 million in income in the last two years, partly from their investments in foreign jurisdictions long considered tax havens, including the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Ireland. Campaign officials say Romney gained no tax advantage from those overseas investments.

The documents underscore how Romney, the wealthiest candidate to seek the presidency in recent history, has benefited from a tax code that lets investors pay taxes at a much lower rate than people who earn wages or salaries.

It is impossible to tell how much of Romney's fortune, which his campaign estimates at between $190 million and $250 million, comes from his holdings in offshore funds and institutions. The Romneys' joint 2010 return includes 32 pages of detail on 17 separate "passive foreign" investments made by the couple.

Read the full article at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney-tax-20120125,0,5766212,full.story

January 26, 2012

U.S. Drops To Number 47 In Freedom of the Press international ranking!

America’s Press Freedom Ranking Drops Sharply
By: Jon Walker
January 25, 2012

The organization Reporters Without Borders conducts an annual ranking comparing each nation’s level of press freedom, and they’ve just dropped the U.S. rating by 27 places. The dramatic drop came as a result of the many arrests and efforts to harass reporters trying to cover the Occupy movement and the police raids of Occupy encampments. In the 2010 ratings, America was ranked 20th in press freedom, but we have now dropped to 47th this year.

We are now ranked lower then most western European countries including Finland, Norway, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, UK, France, Spain, etc.

One of the many things the occupy movement has done is help focus more attention on the aggressive militarization of basic law enforcement in the United States. And that’s been combined with police efforts to prevent both professional and amateur reporters from covering the story.

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2012/01/25/americas-press-freedom-ranking-drops-sharply/


Read the rankings at:



http://en.rsf.org/spip.php?page=classement&id_rubrique=1043

January 24, 2012

What President Obama Will Say Tonight: Excerpts from President Obama's State of the Union Speech

What President Obama Will Say Tonight

Matt Compton
January 24, 2012 at 06:00 PM EST

Now here are a couple of excerpts from the President's prepared remarks to give you a sense of what to expect at 9:00 ET.

Check them out.

“

Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs. A future where we’re in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren’t so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded. “

…

“….The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them.”

…

“As long as I’m President, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.

No, we will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt, and phony financial profits. Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last – an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values.”

…

“Let’s never forget: Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that does the same. It’s time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts. An America built to last insists on responsibility from everybody.”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/24/what-president-obama-will-say-tonight

January 24, 2012

Bill Moyers & Michael Winship: The White House-Wall Street Revolving Door Just Keeps Spinning Along

The Washington-Wall Street Revolving Door Just Keeps Spinning Along
by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
January 24, 2012

"Citigroup Replaces JPMorgan as White House Chief of Staff."

http://gawker.com/5874559/citigroup-replaces-jp-morgan-as-white-house-chief-of-staff

.... Jack Lew is President Obama’s new chief of staff -- arguably the most powerful office in the White House that isn’t shaped like an oval. He used to work for the giant banking conglomerate Citigroup. His predecessor as chief of staff is Bill Daley, who used to work at the giant banking conglomerate JPMorgan Chase, where he was maestro of the bank’s global lobbying and chief liaison to the White House.

Daley replaced Obama’s first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who once worked as a rainmaker for the investment bank now known as Wasserstein & Company, where in less than three years he was paid a reported eighteen and a half million dollars.

The new guy, Jack Lew – said by those who know to be a skilled and principled public servant – ran hedge funds and private equity at Citigroup, which means he’s a member of the Wall Street gang, too. His last job was as head of President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget, where he replaced Peter Orzag, who now works as vice chairman for global banking at – hold onto your deposit slip -- Citigroup.

President Obama may call bankers “fat cats” and stir the rabble against them with populist rhetoric when it serves his interest, but after the fiscal fiasco, he allowed the culprits to escape virtually scot-free. When he’s in New York he dines with them frequently and eagerly accepts their big contributions. Like his predecessors, his administration also has provided them with billions of taxpayer dollars – low-cost money that they used for high-yielding investments to make big profits. The largest banks are bigger than they were when he took office and earned more in the first two-and-a-half years of his term than they did during the entire eight years of the Bush administration. That’s confirmed by industry data.

Read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/24-3

January 24, 2012

Showtime at the Gates of Hell: The Republican Inferno

January 24, 2012
Showtime at the Gates of Hell
The Republican Inferno
by DAVID VEST

One of the two Mormons, “Hapless Jon” Huntsman, has quit the race, but not before receiving the highest praise the mainstream media could bring itself to bestow. To distinguish him from rival candidates, he was said to be “sane.” He demonstrated his sanity by bursting into Mandarin from time to time during the campaign. A clean-shaven Ezra Pound, straight out of St. Elizabeth’s, could not have been more unsettling.

Huntsman’s excruciating attempts at humor during the debates were never as funny as the constant media speculation that he was “in the wrong party.” Expect more of the same in four years. That the mainstream media sees the Democratic Party as the natural and logical home of a far-right Utah billionaire says more about both the press and the Democrats than anything I could invent. In the land of Know-Nothings vs Do-Nothings, if you’re a right wing Republican, all you’ve got to do is refrain from attacking science and displaying overt bigotry, and you’re in with the in-crowd.

The other Mormon, the one with the fixed grin and the Porky Pig stutter, was cast as the frontrunner whose victory by some strange logic seemed assured, even though nobody in particular particularly wanted him. Yet no sooner had he cloaked himself in the mantle of inevitability when, lo and behold, the trouble started. He loved to fire people. He hid his money in offshore banks and couldn’t gin up a straight answer about his tax returns. Best of all, he was revealed to be the offspring of Mormon renegades who fled the United States to avoid prosecution for polygamy. They settled in Mexico, where his father was born, thus making Mitt of the Multiple Grandmothers eligible to claim Mexican citizenship.

Imagine what Republican operatives would be doing with that story if only Romney were a Democrat. If you think putting a Muslim terrorist from Kenya in the White House was scary, wait until you meet the Mexican polygamist deserter who keeps his money in the Caymans! Our first Mexican president! No wonder he hired illegal aliens to mow his lawn … he might be one himself! Where’s his birth certificate? If Romney were a Democrat, every time his photo appeared on Fox News it would be accompanied by the sound of a fake Mariachi band playing the Star-Spangled Banner.

Read the full article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/24/the-republican-inferno/

January 24, 2012

“The Best Food Stamp President…” Gingrich Plays the Race Card, as Press Cheers “Debating Skills”

January 23, 2012
“The Best Food Stamp President…”
Gingrich Plays the Race Card, as Press Cheers “Debating Skills”
by LAURA FLANDERS

South Carolina. It’s going to be the state that keeps on giving to President Barack Obama. I’m not talking votes; I’m talking hate. Newt Gingrich’s primary win has the pundits praising his “debating skills,” but the less prudish among us can be clear: Gingrich’s skills aren’t rhetorical; they’re racial. He’s feeble at striking down his opponents’ arguments; what he’s great at is digging up his audience’s racial rage. It worked for the former Speaker in South Carolina; it’ll work against the Democrats all year.

War with Washington, the “best food stamp president,” a slap down of the one African American moderator (“First, Juan…) Newt Gingrich had the GOP crowd on its feet in Myrtle Beach last Monday with exactly the same linguistic bombast that worked so well to end federal income support for poor people when he was speaker of the House. For the Republican candidates it’s all about looking presidential and Newt Gingrich was so confident about what activists of the South Carolina GOP want in the White House that he re-cut his joust with Juan Williams for a campaign ad as if to say “Vote Newt! He Can Beat Up A Black Man!” Cap that with his attack on CNN’s John King and you have vintage Gingrich: beating up the straw black man – and the straw liberal broadcaster who coddles him too.

Unless Democrats grow some sudden spine, there’s no reason to believe Newt’s “best food-stamp president” will work any less well than his “welfare queen.” Poor people everywhere are in – more – trouble. Instead of holding firm against the Right’s assault on government programs, or talking up the facts of who suffers what when the nation’s stirred up by bigots — a President reluctant to call out white racist innuendo, has already agreed to multiple budget compromises that have cut social spending by billions of dollars.

President Barack Obama has defended food stamps generally but a battle is shaping up during the farm-bill debate, and that’s guaranteed to bore to death most urban voters — and all the media. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., a signer of Paul Ryan’s budget slashing plan, and House Agriculture Nutrition and Horticulture Subcommittee Chairman Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, have indicated they’re looking at tightening up eligibility for food stamps. Already Pennsylvania, facing a spike in use, plans to impose new “asset” tests on recipients, one that advocates say will hurt the poor already reeling from recession.

Read the full article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/23/gingrich-plays-the-race-card-as-press-cheers-debating-skills/

January 24, 2012

Obama Is on the Brink of a Mortgage Settlement With the Big Banks—and Progressives Are Furious

Critics of Mortgage Deal Press Obama, State AGs to Reject Big Bank Proposal
Progressives "Furious" at Emerging Details of Mortgage Deal
By Common Dreams staff
January 23, 2012

A long anticipated draft settlement between the nation's largest private mortgage lenders and US states has been announced, but it doesn't look good for industry critics who hoped the banking giants — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial —would suffer full investigations and payouts equal to the damage they caused to homeowners and the overall economy. The deal would still have to be accepted by the states.

Earlier today the Associated Press reported:

The nation's five largest mortgage lenders have agreed to overhaul their industry after deceptive foreclosure practices drove homeowners out of their homes, government officials said Monday.

Those who lost their homes to foreclosure are unlikely to get their homes back or benefit much financially from the settlement, which could be as high as $25 billion. About 750,000 Americans — about half of the households who might be eligible for assistance under the deal — will likely receive checks for about $1,800.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/23-2


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Obama Is on the Brink of a Settlement With the Big Banks—and Progressives Are Furious
George Zornickon
January 23, 2012

For months, a massive federal settlement with big Wall Street banks over their role in the mortgage crisis has been in the offing. The rumored details have always given progressives heartburn: civil immunity, no investigations, inadequate help for homeowners and a small penalty for the banks. Now, on the eve President Obama’s State of the Union address—in which he plans to further advance a populist message against big money and income inequality—the deal may be here, and it’s every bit as ugly as progressives feared.

The Associated Press reports that a proposed deal could be announced within weeks. Five banks—Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial (formerly GMAC)—would pay the federal government $25 billion. About $17 billion would be used to reduce the principal that some struggling homeowners owe, $5 billion more would be used for future federal and state programs and $3 billion would be used to help homeowners refinance at 5.25 percent. Civil immunity would be granted to the banks for any role in foreclosure fraud, and there would be no investigations.

Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio characterized the rumored deal as “not much more than a slap on the wrist,” and added that while banks were always know to be too big to fail, they were now apparently “too big to jail.”

“When laws are broken there need to be full investigations,” Brown said. “Wall Street should not get another bailout.”

Read the full article at:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/165806/obama-brink-settlement-big-banks-and-progressives-are-furious


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2012

Campaign for America’s Future Urges President: Stand Against a Sweetheart Deal With the Big Banks

WASHINGTON - January 23 - Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, is urging the Obama administration to investigate the big banks on mortgage related fraud before endorsing a settlement with them. With reports circulating of a pending state attorneys general settlement with the big banks that would immunize them from prosecution and civil suit in exchange for $25 billion, largely for principal reduction for underwater homeowners, the Campaign For America’s Future has joined in a broad coalition to oppose any sweetheart deal.

Statement from Robert L. Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future:

“Americans from across the political spectrum are angry that the Wall Street banks blew up the economy and got bailed out, while home owners and taxpayers were stuck with the bill.

“This is a fundamental question of justice and democracy. The law is respected only if it is enforced. Cutting a settlement with the banks before there is an investigation violates our basic sense of justice. No one who robbed a bank would be offered immunity, a modest fine and no admission of guilt – before there was an investigation into who stole the money and how much they took.

“And there is a fundamental question of whether the democracy can hold the wealthiest few accountable. Americans are increasingly cynical about politicians, believing that Wall Street can buy and sell Washington. This is destructive to our democracy. The President’s campaign will highlight his commitment to fair rules and a fair shot for every American. A sweetheart deal with the banks would be a glaring contradiction to that theme. Any deal, enforced over the objections of the most independent Attorneys General, like New York’s Eric Schneiderman, will fail that test.

“What the people want is clear: Investigation before immunity. Penalize the perpetrators, not their victims. Any settlement must have sufficient scope to deal with the scale of the problem. There is an estimated $700 billion of negative equity in underwater homes. While 1 million homeowners have been helped by efforts to save homeowners, 10.7 million homeowners are underwater and that does not count people who have already suffered foreclosure. The top six banks paid bonuses worth $140 billion last year alone, or $420 billion over the last three years. They hold assets of $9.5 trillion. The rumored settlement of $25 billion is barely a slap on the wrist.

“It is vital to this country that the banks are made accountable. It is vital that they do not see the law as simply a minor price of doing profitable business, a speed bump on the way to their bonuses.

“With Occupy Wall Street inspiring activists and with citizens across the country being asked to pay to clean up the mess the banks created in the economy, every state Attorney General and the Administration should understand that any deal will receive widespread public scrutiny. Any settlement must be able to satisfy the standards of justice and fairness. What is now on the table does not come close.

“I want to laud Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.) for defending the most vulnerable consumers and for advocating for better solutions to the foreclosure crisis.”

Act now: Stand Against a Sweetheart Deal for the Banks!
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The Campaign for America’s Future is the strategy center for the progressive movement. Our goal is to forge the enduring progressive majority needed to realize the America of shared prosperity and equal opportunity that our country was meant to be.

http://www.ourfuture.org/news-release/2012010423/campaign-america-s-future-urges-president-stand-against-sweetheart-deal-big-


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2012

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka on Possible Bank Mortgage and Foreclosure Fraud Settlement

WASHINGTON - January 23 - We need to hold banks accountable for the fraudulent practices that brought about the worst economic crisis since the Depression. State Attorneys General have been investigating bank fraud, and these critical investigations must not be undermined by a premature and inadequate settlement. We call on the administration to reject any deal that insulates banks from full responsibility.

It is critical that the Department of Justice lead a comprehensive investigation together with the state Attorneys General to prevent banks from engaging in future unlawful and deceptive practices that could exploit homeowners and put the economy further at risk.

We commend state Attorneys General like New York's Eric Schneiderman and Delaware's Beau Biden for their leadership and courage in calling for a real investigation and relief on a scale that helps the millions of homeowners who face a new wave of foreclosures.

The economy is currently weighed down by $750 billion in negative home equity, so relief on a massive scale is needed to lift home values and stimulate the economy by increasing consumer demand. A comprehensive settlement must force banks to write down underwater mortgages. A sum significantly larger than the rumored $25 billion is needed for the economy to grow and create jobs.

Specifically, the administration must stand strong against the big banks and insist on:

1) A full and thorough investigation into problems tied to the residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market, and

2) A guaranteed minimum amount of money set aside for reducing the mortgage principal of "underwater" homeowners in key states impacted by the foreclosure crisis.

This is an opportunity for the administration to demonstrate leadership and show that it has the political will to do what's right for homeowners and right for our economy.
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The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions. The AFL-CIO union movement represents 10.5 million members, including 2 million members in Working America, its new community affiliate. We are teachers and truck drivers, musicians and miners, firefighters and farm workers, bakers and bottlers, engineers and editors, pilots and public employees, doctors and nurses, painters and laborers-and more.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/01/23-8

January 24, 2012

Marc J . Leder: A Romney backer and poster boy for vulture capitalism

A Romney supporter and a poster boy for private equity
Sun Capital boss' life gives glimpse into how funds create the hyperrich
By JULIE CRESWELL
January 22, 2012

Beyond the windswept dunes in Bridgehampton, at a $400,000-a-month oceanfront mansion, bright young things bubbled up and the Champagne flowed fast. Into the small hours, professional dancers in exotic clothing gyrated atop platforms. One couple twirled flaming torches. The sounds of techno boomed over the beach.

The New York Post summed up the evening’s Dionysian mysteries with the following headline: “Nude Frolic in Tycoon’s Pool.”

The Post’s tycoon, and the party’s host, was a financier named Marc J. Leder, and those weekend revels last July had the East End of Long Island buzzing. Like many deal makers, though, Mr. Leder, 50, is virtually unknown outside financial circles. But from his headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., he presides over a multibillion-dollar private empire. He is a practitioner of a Wall Street art that helped define an age of hyperwealth, and which has now been dragged into the white-hot spotlight of presidential politics: private equity.

It was through private equity that one Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, amassed his wealth — and, it turns out, it was through private equity that Mr. Romney first met Mr. Leder. A couple of months after the blowout in Bridgehampton, Mr. Leder was host for a fund-raiser at his Boca Raton home for Mr. Romney’s campaign. But the connection goes back even further. Years ago, a visit to Mr. Romney’s investment firm inspired Mr. Leder to get into private equity in the first place. Mr. Romney was an early investor in some of the deals done by Mr. Leder’s investment company, Sun Capital, which today oversees about $8 billion in equity.

Read the full article at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46093730/ns/business-us_business/



Marc J. Leder Vulture Capitalist

January 20, 2012

"President Barack Obama has signed a death knell for the Bill of Rights."

2012's Civil Liberties Apocalypse Has Already Happened
by Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis
January 19, 2012


In case you missed it, President Barack Obama has signed a death knell for the Bill of Rights.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) makes a mockery of our basic civil liberties. It shreds the intent of the Founders to establish a nation where essential rights are protected. It puts us all at risk for arbitrary, indefinite incarceration with no real rights to recourse.

.... it also includes Sections 1021 and 1022, bitterly opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, among many others. The New York Times urged Obama to veto the bill because of them. The UK-based Guardian said NDAA 2012 allows allows for indefinite detention of US citizens "without trial [of] American terrorism subjects arrested on U.S. soil, who could then be shipped to Guantanamo Bay." The Kansas City Star was equally blunt, stating that the NDAA is "trampling the bill of rights in defense's name."

Section 1021 reasserts the President's authority to use the military to detain any person "who was part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners." It also includes the military's power to detain anyone who commits a "belligerent act" against the U.S. or its coalition allies under the law of war. Despite widespread public pressure, Obama did not veto the bill. In his signing statement he said: "I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists."

Read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/19-10


Harvey Wasserman is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service. He and Bob Fitrakis have co-authored four books on election protection, including Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election?, As Goes Ohio: Election Theft Since 2004 , How the GOP Stole America's 2004 Election & Is Rigging 2008, and What Happened in Ohio. BBI

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President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Into Law
December 31, 2011

President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) today, allowing indefinite detention to be codified into law. As you know, the White House had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill. While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use it and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations.

The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.

Under the Bush administration, similar claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress now assert that the NDAA should be used in the same way again. The ACLU believes that any military detention of American citizens or others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including under the NDAA. In addition, the breadth of the NDAA’s detention authority violates international law because it is not limited to people captured in the context of an actual armed conflict as required by the laws of war.

We are extremely disappointed that President Obama signed this bill even though his administration is already claiming overly-broad detention authority in court. Any hope that the Obama administration would roll back those claims dimmed today. Thankfully we have three branches of government, and the final word on the scope of detention authority belongs to the Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on the scope of detention authority. But Congress and the president also have a role to play in cleaning up the mess they have created because no American citizen or anyone else should live in fear of this or any future president misusing the NDAA’s detention authority.

http://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/NDAA


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US: Refusal to Veto Detainee Bill A Historic Tragedy for Rights
President Decides to Sign Ill-Conceived National Defense Authorization Act
December 14, 2011

Washington, DC) – US President Barack Obama’s apparent decision to not veto a defense spending bill that codifies indefinite detention without trial into US law and expands the military’s role in holding terrorism suspects does enormous damage to the rule of law both in the US and abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. The Obama administration had threatened to veto the bill, the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), over detainee provisions, but on December 14, 2011, it issued a statement indicating the president would likely sign the legislation.

“By signing this defense spending bill, President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in US law,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “In the past, Obama has lauded the importance of being on the right side of history, but today he is definitely on the wrong side.”

The far-reaching detainee provisions would codify indefinite detention without trial into US law for the first time since the McCarthy era when Congress in 1950 overrode the veto of then-President Harry Truman and passed the Internal Security Act. The bill would also bar the transfer of detainees currently held at Guantanamo into the US for any reason, including for trial. In addition, it would extend restrictions, imposed last year, on the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo to home or third countries – even those cleared for release by the administration.

“It is a sad moment when a president who has prided himself on his knowledge of and belief in constitutional principles succumbs to the politics of the moment to sign a bill that poses so great a threat to basic constitutional rights,” Roth said.

Read the full article at:

http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/12/14/us-refusal-veto-detainee-bill-historic-tragedy-rights

January 20, 2012

Obama Administration Protects Birth Control Access for Women

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 2012
Obama Administration Protects Birth Control Access for Women


WASHINGTON - January 20 - he Obama administration announced today that it will keep in place a proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that determines which essential services are covered by new health insurance plans. The administration resisted heavy pressure from the United States Conference on Catholic Bishops and other groups to permit a broad range of religiously affiliated organizations to deny contraception coverage to their employees. The administration’s decision will ensure effective birth control will be more affordable for millions of women.

“Virtually all women from all religious backgrounds use contraception at some point in their lives to protect their health and plan their families and their lives,” said Laura W. Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office. ”With today’s action, the administration refused to give religious employers the right to discriminate.”

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http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/01/20-7