Category Archives: National News/Commentary

America Speaks Back

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By Becci Robbins
SC Alliance for Retired Americans organizer

Some 700 South Carolinians gathered last Saturday in the big hall of the convention center in Columbia to talk about the deficit. No kidding. They could have been grilling or napping or swimming on a lazy summer day, but instead they chose to spend six hours huddled around tables and grappling with this country’s fiscal crisis. The average age in the room was 58.

That sort of civic engagement speaks volumes about our community, and that is very good news.

Unfortunately, the folks who turned out for the Columbia event — and the thousands like them who participated in 60 other cities across the country — may simply be pawns in a larger game staged by powerful forces trying to shape the national discussion on our economic policy.

The much-hyped “town hall” meetings were the product of America Speaks, a group funded by Wall Street fat cat Peter G. Peterson, whose proclaimed mission is to privatize Social Security. It was Peterson who urged President Obama to create the Fiscal Reform Commission — the body that is to receive on June 30 a special report culled from the results of last weekend’s town halls. In December, the Commission will offer its recommendations to Congress, which will then vote — with no debate.

Participants at the America Speaks events were given hand-held devices to record votes on items outlined in our workbooks. We sat at tables made up of 8 to 12 people, and discussed our votes as a group before we cast our individual votes. While we could create our own options if we didn’t feel satisfied by what we had to choose from, these alternative options were not recorded in the electronic tally.

Our table, for instance, unanimously supported the idea of single-payer as the best fix for our health care system, but that was not an option on the table. We objected to a process that did not include the one option we thought most viable and responsible. But our electronic votes did not — and in fact could not — reflect our true wishes.

The discussion became, then, not whether to cut services, benefits and entitlements, but by how much, and to whom. The workbooks offered background information about the deficit and economic projections that were misleading.

Social Security, for instance, does not contribute a penny to the deficit yet was on the chopping block for cuts. Given the false parameters, participants at the America Speaks events voted to raise the retirement age for full benefits to 69, never mind the system is fully funded well beyond 2025.

And while the workbooks at the America Speaks events did say the rising costs of Medicare and Medicaid are fueled by a health care system that is unsustainable and costing twice as much per person than in any other country, reforming health care was not an option.

“We’re playing with a stacked deck,” said SC Alliance for Retired Americans Vice-President Brett Bursey, who attended the event in Columbia. “We’re going to end up with results that are manipulated by those that framed the question.”

He said, “There is no mention of the fact that the war budget is one of the reasons we have this tremendous deficit. There is nothing about the housing bubble causing a $4 trillion hole in the budget that was due to financial mismanagement. So the things that created the situation are not even on the table to be discussed.”

America Speaks challenged participants to find ways to cut the deficit by $1.25 trillion by 2025.

“Single payer and negotiations for prescription drug prices could reduce the budget by $1.25 trillion by 2025,” Bursey said, quoting figures from the Congressional Budget Office that weren’t in the workbook.

According to the Center for Responsible Economic Policy, an infinitesimal tax on all Wall Street transactions could yield $300 billion. America Speaks option was to raise $30 billion with a tax only on standard stock transactions, not the exotic derivatives or default swaps that helped bring on our current economic crisis.

We can only hope that the President’s Fiscal Reform Commission is as thoughtful as Saturday’s participants when they go looking for their $1.25 trillion to plug the hole.

Becci Robbins is the state organizer for the South Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans. For more about the Alliance, call 803-957-8740 or email scalliance@mindspring.com.

SC Progressive Network scrambles to preserve voting machine records

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If the 46 county election offices are not stopped, within days they will erase the most critical data from the memories of all the voting machines, warns SC Progressive Network Director Brett Bursey. With controversy over the reliability of the touch-screen computers heating up, the Network is working to ensure that valuable information is not lost as counties prepare the machines for the upcoming run-off elections.

Bursey explained that the state Election Commission only keeps a summary of the information from the counties, and that only by preserving or copying the flash cards (memory chips) inside the computer will there be enough information to perform an audit.

“There is no way the machines you have in South Carolina can be audited without all the information on the computer flash card in each machine,” Dr. Douglas Jones said. Jones has taught at the University of Iowa Department of Computer Science since 1980, served on the Iowa Board of Examiners for Voting Machines and Electronic Voting Systems from 1994 to 2004, and chaired the board for three terms.

Jones, who serves on the Federal Election Assistance Commission’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee, has performed numerous audits on voting machines like those used in South Carolina. He provided the Network with an affidavit outlining the necessary steps to preserve data for an audit.

“We have been in communication with the US Justice Department’s Voting Rights Section,” Bursey said. “We are arguing that erasing the data violates the federal statute (USC 42-1974) that requires all records in a federal election to be preserved for 22 months.”

Bursey said that if the Justice Department doesn’t intervene, they will try to get a federal judge to order a halt to erasing the records. “We are not questioning candidates, motives or conspiracy theories,” Bursey said. “We simply want a trustworthy audit to assure that all votes are counted accurately.”

“It’s not difficult or expensive to copy the flash card,” Dr. Jones said. “You can hook up a flash card reader that you use to download pictures on your computer from a digital camera and save the data to a CD.” Replacing the flash card would cost a few dollars for each machine.

The flash card records all actions taken on the machine, the time of the vote or any errors in an “events log.” The “ballot image log” records the actual ballot cast. The detailed information on the flash cards is not saved by the state or counties and is routinely erased to prepare the machines for the next election.

Even as the calls increase for investigations into several races, counties will erase the data and install the ballot program for the June 22 runoff. “In a matter of days, there won’t be any way to determine whether the machines played a role in the unusual vote counts,” Bursey said. “We simply want a trustworthy audit to assure that all votes are counted accurately.”

Sen. Phil Leventis (D-Sumter) has sponsored legislation to require voting machines to produce a voter-verifiable paper record that can be used to recount or audit an election.

“With these machines not only is there no paper trail to examine, if the records are erased it’s like cremating the body before the autopsy is performed,” he said.

The Network presented expert testimony at a SC Election Commission Board meeting in  2004, urging the agency not to buy the iVotronic computers that do not have a voter verified paper record. SC is one of four states that has neither a paper record nor a regular audit of its machines.

Statement from Judge Vic Rawl regarding voting irregularities

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Earlier today, our campaign filed a protest of last Tuesday’s election results with the South Carolina Democratic Party.

We have filed this protest not for my personal or political gain, but on behalf of the people of South Carolina.

There is a cloud over Tuesday’s election. There is a cloud over South Carolina, that affects all of our people, Democrats and Republicans, white and African-American alike.

At this point, the people of our state do not have the basic confidence that their vote will be counted.

The strange circumstances surrounding Tuesday’s vote require a thorough investigation. For better or worse, this protest process is the only platform currently available for that investigation.

And let me be clear: regardless of the outcome of this protest, a full and unblinking investigation of this election and the overall integrity of South Carolina’s election system must go forward. Whether our protest is upheld or not, I intend to bring my full energies to electoral reform well into the future.

I want to speak briefly about the bases for our protest.

First is ongoing analyses of the election returns themselves, which indicate irregularities.

Second are the many voters and poll workers who continue to contact us with their stories of extremely unusual incidents while trying to vote and administer this election.

These range from voters who repeatedly pressed the screen for me only to have the other candidate’s name appear, to poll workers who had to change program cards multiple times, to at least one voter in the Republican primary who had the Democratic U.S. Senate race appear on her ballot.

For those who experienced problems voting, I urge you to go to our website, www.vicrawl.com and use the form there to report them. You can also call our Election Integrity Hotline at 843-278-0510.

Third is the well-documented unreliability and unverifiability of the voting machines used in South Carolina.

It is worth noting that these machines were purchased surplus from Louisiana after that state outlawed them.

The full details of our protest will be presented on Thursday.

For the people of South Carolina, getting to the bottom of Tuesday’s results will build confidence, either way.

I also hope that a full and frank discussion of our voting system will result in substantial reform.

At the risk of repetition, this protest is not about me, or my personal political fortunes. Indeed, if the protest is upheld and a new election ordered, I have not decided whether to run in it.

But, either way, I am not done with the issue of fixing our elections.

Lastly, let me make something clear. Like all of you, I am aware of the controversies surrounding Mr. Greene. This protest is not about him either.

I would like to speak directly to Mr. Greene and say: “Sir, this is not about you, and it’s not about me. I wish you and your family nothing but the best in the weeks and months ahead.”

Seniors first to benefit from new health law with $250 rebate checks

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Last year, about 61,000 Medicare beneficiaries in South Carolina hit the “donut hole” — the gap in prescription drug coverage in Medicare Part D — and as a result received no help with the cost of their medications.

That’s what happened to 72-year-old Mary Edna Crider of St. Matthews, SC. And it wasn’t the first time.

Crider, who has diabetes and suffers from a heart condition, said last year she hit the donut hole in early summer. “This year we were into it by April,” she said.

“I take a good bit of medication,” she said, and estimates they cost between $700-$800 a month. “My husband gets a good retirement check, but we have other expenses and the money doesn’t go that far. We get by.”

Crider will be among Medicare beneficiaries who, beginning this week, will receive a $250 rebate check in the mail from the government as part of the new health care law. “I think it’s good,” she said. “I’ll put it up to buy medicine.”

Medicare enrollees pay 25 percent of their prescription drug costs until the total reaches $2,830 for the year. Then they fall into the coverage gap known as the “donut hole” and have to pay a total of $4,550 in out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses before the plan resumes paying nearly 100 percent of drug costs. Some 4 million seniors will be in the donut hole this year, and will become eligible to receive rebate checks.

The rebate checks are the first of several provisions of the new law that will affect seniors. Throughout the rest of the year, seniors across the country will receive checks as they enter the coverage gap.  The law will close the gap over the next 10 years, cutting the donut hole in half by 2011 and eliminating it entirely in 2020.

“The new health care law offers lots of benefits for seniors,” said Julie Harbin, President of the South Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans. “It stops overpayments to private Medicare Advantage insurance companies that have made huge profits while causing millions of Americans to pay higher monthly premiums for their Medicare coverage.”

The law also protects nursing home residents against elder abuse and neglect, and it prevents discrimination against early retirees by health insurance companies.

Crider hopes the health care reforms help the people she sees at the drug store. “Bless their hearts, some of them don’t have enough money to buy a full prescription, but the pharmacy won’t let them buy half. I’d go out of business working there. I’d be giving people what they need.”

While Crider has not had to go without her medications, she isn’t above asking her doctor for free samples. As she says, every little bit helps.

For more about the South Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans, call 803-957-8740 or email scalliance@mindspring.com.

President Obama to speak via televised town hall on how the new health care law affects seniors

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On June 8, 11:15am – 12:45pm, the Alliance for Retired Americans will take part in a one-time, national “tele-town hall” broadcast on C-SPAN and on-line via web streaming at www.healthreform.gov. In South Carolina, Alliance members and allies are invited to watch the event together at the Modjeska Simkins House, 2025 Marion St., downtown Columbia. Free snacks and beverages provided, or bring your own bag lunch. There is a deli across the street.

President Obama will field questions regarding the new health care law and how it benefits seniors. Topics to be covered include the $250 checks for seniors caught in the Medicare prescription drug “doughnut hole” coverage gap, and efforts to combat scams associated with those checks. The CSPAN and phone portion of the town hall will start at 11:15 with Sec. Sebelius.The President will come on at approximately 11:40, and will speak until about 12:45.

For details, call 803-808-3384 or email scalliance@mindspring.com.

Immigrants R Us

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By Tom Turnipseed
Columbia, SC

The South Carolina Legislature is considering an anti-immigrant bill much like Arizona’s draconian law. It requires police to check a person’s residency status when stopped or detained for any reason and makes it a crime for illegal immigrants to solicit work.  Opponents of the bill say it would lead to racial profiling, marginalize the state’s Hispanic community and polarize the state.  On May 28, people who oppose the bill dominated public comment before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee claiming it was un-American and racist.

Bill Bunch, a small-business owner said “It smacks of racism and it smacks of pandering. You’re using these people as pawns for your own political gain.”

I serve on the Board of the S.C. Hispanic Leadership Council. Our Board President, Lad Santiago, told the legislators, “It polarizes our community by allowing for overt distinction of physical attributes and a law that allows this is an affront to all that is fair and just in America.”

Exactly what is fair and just in this land of immigrants? Discrimination and injustices against the “shanty Irish” or the Chinese “yellow peril” because of their race and ethnicity was certainly not fair or just. Over 400 years ago people from Europe migrated to what is now the United States and since then immigrants have come here from every country and region of the world. From the dawn of human history, people have constantly migrated all over the world.  But as Hegel said, “We learn from history that we do not learn from history.”

A consensus of historians agree that indigenous people, also known as Native Americans or Indians, were in the Americas at least 10,000 years before the European Christopher Columbus “discovered” America in 1492. Many Native Americans are descendants of people who lived in the southwest and far western region of what is now the United States. Their forebears were there thousands of years before white Europeans came to this continent. They are now called “illegal immigrants” by race-baiting politicians.

When the Spanish arrived in the Americas, Europe was ravaged by war, oppression, religious fanaticism, disease and starvation.  Native Americans were generally healthy, and mostly peaceable. Columbus sold his sponsors on the idea he would find a passage to China and the riches of the Orient, but “discovered” the Americas instead, so he decided to pay for his voyage in a commodity he found in ample supply—human lives.  He seized 1,200 Tiano Indians from the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), crammed them onto his ships, and sent them to Spain, where they were paraded naked through the streets of Seville and sold as slaves in 1495.  Because Columbus captured more Indian slaves than he could transport to Spain in his small ships, he put them to work as slaves for his family and followers throughout the Caribbean.

It was cheaper to work Indians to death and replace them than keep them alive.  In California the native people were forced to work in the fields on a starvation diet. They died from overwork, starvation and disease and were continually replaced, wiping out the indigenous populations.

As a descendant of Choctaw Indians I despise the nationalistic and historically blind rhetoric we hear about immigration.

European conquest of Mexican Native Americans exemplifies such blindness. European Americans under the flag of the United States took the land from these indigenous Americans in the Mexican Wars. Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, and the new Mexican republic included present-day Mexico and the territory that today constitutes five southwestern states and more territory further north.

In 1835 United States settlers in Texas revolted against Mexico, fought at the Alamo in 1836, and formed their own republic. In the years that followed, the United States pushed farther westward. The imperial doctrine of Manifest Destiny, the belief that God had destined the United States to be bordered on the east and west by the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, was used to justify the United States’ encroachment upon Mexican territories. It finally provoked a war in 1846 that enabled the United States to take almost half of Mexico’s territory.

Hard-working Mexicans in the United States had ancestors who lived in the Southwestern part of what is now the United States for thousands of years before there was a United States. Their ancestors were forcibly removed by the United States.  Should they be treated as undocumented criminals?

The best solution to the immigration question is comprehensive immigration reform legislation at the federal level that will:

  • Provide a path to permanent resident status and citizenship for all members of our communities;
  • Reunite families and reduce immigration backlogs;
  • Secure the border in a humane way;
  • Punish unscrupulous employers who drive down wages and make it hard for honest employers to compete in today’s economy;
  • And provide rights to all workers in the United States.

Such Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation must also be enforced primarily by the federal government.  The Arizona and proposed South Carolina laws, in  practice, will take even more resources away from state and local law enforcement who need to focus on apprehending real criminals who steal and commit violent crimes rather than on poor and peaceful working people who harvest our crops, construct our homes and do service work for our travel and hospitality industry.

A fair and just America must live the promise we make to the world.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
[Emma Lazarus]

Tom Turnipseed is an attorney, writer and peace activist in Columbia, SC. Read his blog here.

The new nullification

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By Hoyt Wheeler

Is South Carolina once again taking up the old Confederate cause by attempting to nullify national laws? Nullification was the theory of South Carolina’s John C. Calhoun that provided philosophical grounds for our state seceding from the United States a century and a half ago.

In the past year or so, we have seen a number of actions in this direction.

Most visibly, Attorney General Henry McMaster’s response to the new federal health law. He proposes taking legal action against the federal government to block the federal law’s application in South Carolina — to nullify it. He describes this as defending “state sovereignty.” Attorney General (and gubernatorial candidate) McMaster has said that although at one time the Soviet Union was the enemy, now “The enemy is Washington, D.C.”

Like the tea party crowd with whom he sympathizes, he is confused about what part of the S.C. heritage he’s following. It is not the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag of the American Revolution that he is waving. It is the stars and bars of the Confederacy.

Then there is the current attempt to forestall proposed federal labor legislation by amending the state’s constitution to mandate that all matters of employee representation (unions) be decided by secret ballot. It is currently federal law that an employer has the right to demand a secret ballot election if a union requests recognition. Pending in Congress is the Employee Free Choice Act, which would require an employer to recognize a union upon being presented with cards signed by a majority of employees. Although this bill has some merit, there is little chance of this particular provision being adopted.

More importantly, whatever the merits of the federal legislation, this is a matter for the national government, not the individual states, to decide. As our state legislators well know, in an area of law such as this, where the national government has lawfully acted, state action is preempted. This amendment to the state constitution would be patently unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution.

Nowadays in our Legislature, we hear much about support for the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides simply that matters not delegated to the federal government are left to the states or the people. In principle this is not controversial. However, a number of actions have been taken under its mantle by South Carolina and other states in the past year to assert state power against the federal government.

Our Legislature has adopted a state sovereignty resolution, or 10th Amendment resolution. State Sovereignty bills considered by some states go one step further and declare that the state must take action against federal laws that the state deems to be unconstitutional. The position of our attorney general on the federal health law is in line with these state sovereignty bills.

At a Tea Party rally in Boiling Springs, at which Attorney General McMaster spoke, a pastor from North Carolina described our president as “a proud young man who appears not to have a clue about America’s godly heritage.” A tea party organizer dressed as Tom Paine said: “I’m not calling people to arms, yet. But that may be what it comes down to at the end of 2010.” We have a congressman who shouts at our president, calling him a liar. This is in a national context where a former vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, tells a Southern Republican Leadership conference: “Don’t retreat. Reload.”

I, for one, do not see these extreme statements and actions as reflecting the good sense, patriotism and good will of South Carolinians. We can, and should, raise our voices and speak through the ballot to rid ourselves of those extremist public officials who have made themselves a source of embarrassment to our state.

Hoyt Wheeler is a retired university professor and attorney living in West Columbia. His publications include The Future of the American Labor Movement and Workplace Justice Without Unions.

Still, baby, still?

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Some Southern leaders rethink offshore drilling in wake of disaster, but most stay the course

By Chris Kromm

Faciing South

With oil still gushing from the site of BP’s failed Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf — a disaster that’s now likely to eclipse the scale of the Exxon Valdez — some politicians are rethinking the “drill, baby, drill” push for expanded offshore drilling.

But for others — including many leading Republicans and a few Democrats — the message seems to be: “Still, baby, still!”

Facing South took a tally of where key politicians stand in the wake of the Gulf oil disaster:

GULF COAST

The political fallout from the spill has been most interesting in the states nearest to the disaster:

* In Alabama, GOP Gov. Bob Riley is reconsidering his once-staunch support for drilling. In 2008, he said “we need to drill” and found it “astonishing” Congress wouldn’t lift a drilling moratorium. But when asked about his views on Wednesday, Riley said he will have “a completely different attitude” if the state’s efforts to protect the shoreline failed.

* Riley’s fellow AL Republican Sen. Richard Shelby was less reflective, saying Congress should “absolutely” move forward with offshore drilling: “We can learn something from this.”

* Gov. Haley Barbour in Mississippi doesn’t appear to think there’s anything to be learned at all: In an interview with CNN, he downplayed any potential fallout from the spill, saying it’s “not particularly damaging.” He’s still pro-drill.

* Then there’s Mississippi Blue Dog Rep. Gene Taylor (D), who seemed to compare the catastrophe to a school lunch mishap: “What I want people to know is this isn’t Katrina. This is not Armageddon,” he said. “I did this for the Coast Guard many years ago. Yeah, it’s bad. And it’s terrible that there’s a spill out there. But I would remind people that the oil is twenty miles from any marsh. … That chocolate milk looking spill starts breaking up in smaller pieces … It is tending to break up naturally.”

* In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has focused his statements on the immediate disaster response, as has Rep. Joseph Cao (R). But Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) immediately made a statement from the floor: “It is more risky to import our oil in tankers than it is to drill for it offshore, even considering this disaster that we’re dealing with today. Retreat is not an option. … We must continue to drill.” Sen. David Vitter (R) also encouraged Obama to press forward with new drilling projects.

* As for Texas, Gov. Rick Perry (R) drew criticism for describing the disaster as an unavoidable “Act of God” en route to calling to stay the course on drilling.

FLORIDA

What about the battleground Sunshine state and its $65 billion-a-year tourism industry?

* The spill is already making the Florida U.S. Senate race more interesting: Gov. Charlie Crist, after waffling on drilling — and deciding to run as an independent — is now urging caution: “If this doesn’t make the case that we have got to go to clean energy, … I don’t know what does.” GOP Senate candidate Marco Rubio said he change his (pro-drill) mind.

* Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Kendrick Meek has seized the moment to carve out a clear anti-drilling position: “It’s time to put an end to any and every misguided attempt to drill offshore and put Florida’s coasts and economy at risk.”

* U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D) has been even more strident, swiftly demanding that Obama issue a moratorium on new drilling, and getting a reputation for mocking his “drill, baby, drill” colleagues in the Senate. His GOP counterpart, Sen. Georgie LeMieux, is taking a more nuanced stand, arguing against new drilling until the BP spill is better understood, but still in favor of “safe” drilling.

* Another FL Republican has also come on board for a temporary drilling moratorium: U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller: “Right now, there should be no new drilling, period … until we find out what occurred. We can’t risk another disaster.”

EAST COAST

Plans to expand offshore drilling include the Atlantic seaboard — prompting a variety of responses from coastal states:

* In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) — who ran on a pro-offshore drilling platform in 2009 — allowed the disaster was “a setback.” but on Monday flew to an industry conference — co-sponsored by BP — to tout the benefits of offshore exploration, saying that drilling could start off the coast of Virginia as soon as 2012.

* Not all Virginia lawmakers agree: Sen. Mark Warner (D) — a previous drilling advocate — said it was “appropriate” for Obama to pause drilling plans. Northern VA Rep. James Moran (D) wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar saying, “Regardless of ideology, this situation should give everyone pause regarding expansion of offshore drilling.”

* In North Carolina, Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) — who’s held a study-and-see approach to drilling — merely said the disaster “emphasizes the importance of making sure that any drilling off our coast would be safe.” Sen. Kay Hagan (D) was similarly non-committal, saying “we need to understand what went wrong and we need a comprehensive plan.”

* NC’s Sen. Richard Burr (R), a member of the Senate Energy Committee — who falsely claimed that “there wasn’t a drop of oil” spilled in the Gulf during Hurricane Katrina (there were at least 124 spills) — has been silent since the spill. But just weeks before the disaster, Sen. Burr went on CNBC to criticize Obama for not moving fast enough on offshore drilling.

* Unlike many in his party, beleaguered South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) already had “serious reservations” about offshore drilling, even writing to President Bush in 2008 pleading for him to “protect the coral reefs.” He’s been quiet since the Gulf spill.

* Others in South Carolina appear unfazed: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) said halting offshore drilling after the Gulf disaster would be like halting space exploration after the space shuttle Challenger explosion.