New Year News Roundup!

By Heather Turner

It's been a bit quiet here at NTQ! But we are back with a bang after surviving the Mayan Apocalypse and the now delayed "fiscal cliff" apocalypse. 2012 was pretty exciting for news-watchers. Yet, methinks this year will be every bit as interesting. Lacking the headache of an impending major political election, 2013 has all of the potential to be the year the major news outlets start reporting on the issues that really matter to the public at large. Why such optimism?

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Well, as Alternet points out in its "Top 25 Progressive Victories" list of 2012, despite the electoral sideshow and Congressional dysfunction, quite a lot was accomplished last year by progressive activists and politicians alike. However, as  George Monblot, writing for the Guardian, notes, one of the most neglected issues of 2012 was the environment:

It was the year of living dangerously. In 2012 governments turned their backs on the living planet, demonstrating that no chronic problem, however grave, will take priority over an immediate concern, however trivial. I believe there has been no worse year for the natural world in the past half-century.

Three weeks before the minimum occurred, the melting of the Arctic's sea ice broke the previous record. Remnants of the global megafauna – such as rhinos and bluefin tuna – were shoved violently towards extinction. Novel tree diseases raged across continents. Bird and insect numbers continued to plummet, coral reefs retreated, marine life dwindled. And those charged with protecting us and the world in which we live pretended that none of it was happening.

Their indifference was distilled into a great collective shrug at the Earth Summit in June. The first summit, 20 years before, was supposed to have heralded a new age of environmental responsibility. During that time, thanks largely to the empowerment of corporations and the ultra-rich, the square root of nothing has been achieved. Far from mobilising to address this, in 2012 the leaders of some of the world's most powerful governments – the US, the UK, Germany and Russia – didn't even bother to turn up.

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Our leaders now treat climate change as a guilty secret. Even after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy and the record droughts and wildfires that savaged the US, the two main presidential contenders refused to mention the subject, except for one throwaway sentence each. Has an issue this big ever received as little attention in a presidential race?

The same failures surround the other forces of destruction. In 2012 European governments flunked their proposed reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which is perfectly designed to maximise environmental damage. The farm subsidies it provides are conditional on farmers destroying the vegetation (which also means the other wildlife) on their land. We pay €55bn a year to trash the natural world.

This contributes to what I have come to see as a great global polishing: a rubbing away of ecosystems and natural structures by the intensification of farming, fishing, mining and other industries. Looking back on this year a few decades hence, this destruction will seem vastly more significant than any of the stories with which the media is obsessed. Like governments, media companies have abandoned the living world.

With the hectic election season and other sensationalist news occupying a great deal of the corporate newshole, the environment took a back seat, and global warming denialism in the media became a routine part of creating a balanced debate. And on top of that, Shell started poking holes in the ground. Deeeep underwater. In the Arctic. Which was all but virtually forgotten until The Yes Men helped to put the media's attention back on Shell's half hazard efforts to drill for oil in Arctic waters. So could 2013 be the year of paying at least marginally more attention to environmental issues (and possibly doing something about it)? If starting off the year with a Yes Men press debacle and massive Australian wildfires are any indication, then it is reasonable to expect that global environmental catastrophes of historic proportions will continue to be staple news items of the coming year.

Blog Roundup!: Presidential Debate Style

It has hardly been two days since the first debate between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, yet the blogosphere and the news media are still analyzing and criticizing the event. The word is, Buzzfeed declared Romney the winner before the debate was even over - and the general consensus since has been that Romney won the debate.

However, as Mediamatters points out, an equally valid interpretation is that Jim Lehrer lost the debate.

Nevertheless, as Truthdig notes, the debate was definitely more style over substance.

Maddow also breaks down the numbers, further soothing the worries of Obama supporters who may be frustrated at the rather abrupt and widespread conclusion that he lost, to show that incumbents usually do lose the first debate.

Democracy Now! provided an alternative debate for third party candidates on Wednesday.

And besides Buzzfeed apparently calling the debate for Romney before halftime, it also declared "silly memes" the winner of the night. 

Misogynous notions about rape and pregnancy rampant among the right

Todd Akin is getting a real kicking from his own party over remarks he made in which he claimed that women rarely get pregnant from being raped. Not stopping there, he added, "From what I understand from doctors... if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." 

However, wouldn't it be strange if the same party that has pulled Akin's funding and called for him to step down from the Missouri Senate race he is trying to win, actually had some of the same crazy ideas about rape and pregnancy? On second thought, where did Todd Akin get the strange idea that a woman cannot get pregnant from rape? And where did he get the idea that there are shades of rape? It is not just your imagination. Misogynous ideas about rape and the apparent mystery of female conception are rampant in the right wing, even amongst elected officials. Rachel Maddow points out that the third bill that House Republicans introduced after taking over the chamber in 2010 would have essentially created a new category of rape, called "forcible rape," which is the term Mike Huckabee used when asking Akin what he meant by "legitimate rape." To which Akin replied, yes. Sure does seem awful similar to "legitimate rape."

Kudos to Rachel Maddow and her excellent research staff.

Mitt Romney makes his tax return troubles worse

By Nathan Rothwell

Mitt Romney displays "Presidential Accountability Scorecard"
source: Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

An excellent piece from Steve Benen over at the Rachel Maddow blog appeared yesterday on the ongoing tax-return saga with Mr. Romney. It seems that while he just wishes the issue would die already (even though he could very easily make that happen by just releasing the returns already!), he manages to keep it going by opening his mouth every now and again to put his foot in there.

I won't get into the six reasons Benen lists for how and why Romney continues to make life difficult for himself, as I highly recommend showing him some love and traffic by reading them over at the Maddow blog. However, I would like to add a seventh reason Romney dug his hole even deeper: he compared his religious tithing to his tax obligations.

Forgive me if I am mistaken, but I thought the entire point of giving to charity was to do so out of the goodness of one's heart. Romney may be required by his church to tithe 10% of his income, but this requirement comes from the idea that those who live comfortably and are well-off in life should feel obligated to make the world just a little bit brighter for those less fortunate. Unlike the tax debate plaguing this nation that centers on "fairness," charity tends not to get involved in that debate. No one argues over whether the impoverished "deserve" any help. It's done first and foremost in the name of human decency.

Granted, the Mormon Church tends to lavishly spend a great deal of its collected tithes on itself. It also uses much of that money to enter into the political arena (such as its enthusiastic and infamous backing of California's Prop 8 in 2008), which can hardly be considered charity. But like most religious institutions, it also contributes a great deal of money toward helping the less fortunate, which should be commended.

Maddow points out shoddy reporting in WaPo Romney article

Rachel Maddow spots some sketchy political reporting that recently appeared in the Washington Post. The journalist who wrote the WaPo piece detailed by Maddow has pulled a "repeater," when a reporter passes on the talking points of their sources as reporting.

Fast and Furious fact and fiction: major media organizations bungle story

Operation Fast and Furious and 
the subsequent “fury” that the operation has caused in certain circles in Congress is not new. However, the operation has become a full-blown scandal in recent weeks, with 17 Democrats joining Republicans voting to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in Contempt of Congress. In the meantime, something else has come to light: that all of the charges of “gunwalking” are completely fabricated.


That’s right. Its the phrase you’ve heard over and over again. Gunwalking. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives knowingly allowed guns sold in Arizona to end up across the border as an operational tactic. Unanimously it seems, reporters, relying heavily on the testimony from the GOP-lead Congressional inquiry, got it wrong. One reporter got it right. Katherine Eban, reporting for Fortune, finally set the record straight after an exhaustive six month investigation. ATF agents did not allow guns to be trafficked to Mexico and they did not “lose” guns, as has been widely reported. Phoenix Group VII agents were actually powerless in many cases to intervene and seize guns from straw purchasers due to conflicts with Arizona statutes regarding the “transfer of arms,” a “lack of adequate tools,” cautious senior prosecutors, and a new agency-wide focus on bringing down gun running conspiracies, rather than focusing on low-level straw purchasers. Much of the mass media misreporting on Operation Fast and Furious revolves around three big lies:

1.  The ATF Knowingly or willingly allowed “gunwalking,” resulting in “losing” some 2,000 guns.
2. The Justice Department lied to Congress about the details of the program.
3. The operation was a ploy by the Obama Administration to scare the public into approving an assault weapons ban.

Memo reveals dissent within Bush administration over torture

Rachel Maddow interviews Phillip Zelikow, the original memo author and former White House official.

It's already hard to vote in America

Rachel Maddow interviews Ann McFall (R), Volusia County, FL Elections Supervisor about new voter laws which have made early voter registration drives almost impossible. This new law has already led to two Florida teachers being fined $1000 for the crime of helping their students register to vote.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell officially over!

 That seemed to take an awful lot of bureaucratic red tape to get accomplished, but better late than never!

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Michigan voters fight Emergency Manager law

Opponents of Michigan's controversial Emergency Manager law say they have nearly collected enough signatures to hold a referendum on the issue in 2012. The law is largely considered to be unconstitutional.

The Michigan Citizen:

After a major push by volunteers over the Labor Day weekend, the coalition seeking to place a referendum on the November 2012 ballot said they will have collected enough signatures and expect the campaign to come to an end this month. The effort will have collected more than 161,000 signatures.

If the question gets to the ballot, citizens who oppose Public Act 4 will have the opportunity to vote no in 2012 and the EM law will not take effect.

Labor unions, social justice organizations, churches and community groups formed Stand Up for Democracy Campaign to place the issue on the ballot.

Five percent of the total votes cast for the governor, or 161,304 signatures will have to be gathered and submitted 90 days after the State Legislature adjourns Dec.15 to get the language on the 2012 ballot.

Rainbow PUSH President Rev. David Bullock said 120,000 signatures have been collected and he believes the group will be finished soon.

For some background on EM, check out this segment from Rachel Maddow. The Emergency Manager law was passed by the state legislature earlier this year.