Thomas has the good news that Adel Hamad, of Project Hamad, has finally been released and is back in Sudan. The Project Hamad blog reminds us that
... we must remember that Adel is only one of many detainees cleared for transfer long ago, but who remain in legal limbo at Guantanamo. Adel Hamad’s downstairs neighbor in Pakistan, Ameur Mammar, detainee #939, is just one of many examples. Lets keep them in our hearts while we celebrate Hamad’s release.
Speaking of torture, Digby is rightly worried about what being a country that sanctions torture will do to us.
And we are in the process in this country of "defining deviancy down" in ways I never thought possible. We are legitimizing torture and indefinite detention --- saying that we will only do this to the people who really deserve it. One cannot help but wonder what "really deserves it" will mean in the years to come as we fight our endless war against terror.
But as I've already written here, we've been defining deviancy down for a very long time in this country. I think part of our national depression is because of the torture that's happening in our name, but I also hold out hope that now that we are no longer able to pretend that we don't torture, we'll be able to have a productive conversation about whether we want to be that sort of place. It's not going to happen overnight, but when it does, I hope the condition of our domestic prisons is considered as part of the same debate.
Money, money, money, money ...
The Income Gap widens - no surprise there. But don't call it a class war because that's just rude.
|
Average After-Tax Income by Income Group, 1979-2005 |
||||
| Income Category | 1979 | 2005 | Percent Change 1979-2005 |
Dollar Change 1979-2005 |
| Lowest fifth | $14,400 | $15,300 | 6% | $900 |
| Second fifth | 29,100 | 33,700 | 16% | 4,600 |
| Middle fifth | 41,500 | 50,200 | 21% | 8,700 |
| Fourth fifth | 54,300 | 70,300 | 29% | 16,000 |
| Top fifth | 95,700 | 172,200 | 80% | 76,500 |
| Top1 Percent | 326,400 | 1,071,500 | 228% | 745,100 |
| Source: Congressional Budget Office, Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979-2005, December 2007. | ||||
The Senate Farm Bill stinks. This is Bread for the World's diplomatic reaction to today's hideous developments in the Senate: (emph mine)
The farm bill passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee made modest changes, but did little to reform unfair commodity programs to make programs fairer for U.S. farm and rural families and enable poor farmers in poor countries to earn their way out of poverty. In addition, while the Senate bill provides $5.4 billion in new investments for the nutrition title, those program improvements are short-lived: essentially all new investments in the nutrition title sunset after 5 years. That means when the farm bill comes up again in 2012, Congress will have to find $9 billion just to continue the benefit increases included in this year's farm bill,. If those offsets are not found, the repercussions for low-income families will be immediate and severe: over 10 million food stamp recipients would see a reduction in benefits, and more than 100,000 low-income people would lose eligibility for food stamp benefits.
The full Senate had its chance to strengthen the nutrition programs and conservation and rural development programs and make the commodity programs fairer to all our nations' farmers. Despite the best efforts of Bread for the World members and our coalition partners, the Senate failed to take advantage of this opportunity.
Now it's on to conference where they'll do whatever they have left to do to to get the bill off of Dear Leader's veto list. I hear that he's holding out for the exile of all small farmers and the turning over of their land directly to Archer Daniel Midlands. I'm sure that Harry Reid can make that happen.
Union busting means less safe living conditions for everyone, but anyone in their right mind already knew that.
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