January 28, 2012

DNA Database of Men Who Pay for Sex? The Strange Push to Make Cops Collect DNA from Suspected Johns

AlterNet / By Melissa Gira Grant

DNA Database of Men Who Pay for Sex? The Strange Push to Make Cops Collect DNA from Suspected Johns
Law enforcement and conservative campaigners want to threaten men who buy sex with the possibility of being marked for life in a government database.

January 27, 2012 |


For the last six years, police across the United States have been empowered by federal and state law to collect DNA from the people they arrest in order to build a government DNA database. The database includes those who have yet to face trial as well as people who are later found innocent. Now a group of researchers, law enforcement and conservative campaigners want to exploit people's concerns about being included in such a database in order to scare people out of involvement in the sex trade. By threatening people with the possibility of being marked for life in a government database, these well-funded campaigners -- with allies in law enforcement, including the Department of Justice -- are using a questionably legal policing practice, a combination of "scared-straight" strategies that became a signature of the war on drugs and the extension of the surveillance state propelled by the war on terror.

DNA databases have the power to extend government surveillance to the cellular level. In 2005, a provision added to the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act permitted the collection and indefinite retention of DNA from, as the Center for Constitutional Rights understood at the time, "anyone arrested for any crime whether or not they are convicted, any non-U.S. citizen detained or stopped by federal authorities for any reason, and everyone in federal prison.”

In the intervening years, there have been several challenges to pre-conviction DNA collection and retention, with some courts divided as to whether or not DNA collection is a violation of the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Despite the questionable constitutionality of pre-conviction DNA collection, an organization called Demand Abolition has commissioned a study proposing that men who buy sex should be added to government DNA databases. Demand Abolition, which is engaged in a national campaign to increase arrests and criminal penalties for prostitution, claims these "crimes justify mandatory DNA testing," in order to serve as "a deterrent to buying sex, as most people who commit crimes do not want their DNA samples taken." Demand Abolition explicitly recognizes and exploits the consequences of being added to a government DNA database for people arrested merely under suspicion of committing misdemeanors, and who have not yet been tried or convicted. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/sex/153918/dna_database_of_men_who_pay_for_sex_the_strange_push_to_make_cops_collect_dna_from_suspected_johns/

January 28, 2012

Selling the ‘Supply-Side’ Myth

from Consortium News:



Selling the ‘Supply-Side’ Myth
January 27, 2012

Exclusive: Any rational assessment of America’s economic troubles would identify Ronald Reagan’s reckless “supply-side” economics as a chief culprit, but that hasn’t stopped Republican presidential hopefuls, led by Newt Gingrich, from selling this discredited theory to a gullible GOP base, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry


Despite Newt Gingrich’s claim that “supply-side” economic theories have “worked,” the truth is that America’s three-decade experiment with low tax rates on the rich, lax regulation of corporations and “free trade” has been a catastrophic failure, creating massive federal debt, devastating the middle class and off-shoring millions of American jobs.

It has ”worked” almost exclusively for the very rich, yet the former House speaker and the three other Republican presidential hopefuls are urging the country to double-down on this losing gamble, often to the cheers of their audiences — like one Florida woman who said she had lost her job and medical insurance but still applauded the idea of more “free-market” solutions.

Gingrich even boasts of his role in pioneering these theories of massive tax cuts favoring the rich, combined with sharp reductions in the role of government. That approach, once famously mocked by George H.W. Bush as “voodoo economics,” was supposed to spur businesses to expand production (the “supply side”), thus creating jobs and boosting revenues from all the commercial activity.

“I worked with Ronald Reagan to develop supply-side economics in the late ’70s, along with Jack Kemp and Art Laffer and Jude Wanniski and others,” Gingrich declared at a recent town hall event. “We ended up passing it into law in ’81. At the time it was very bold. People called it ‘voodoo economics.’ It had one great virtue: it worked.” ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/27/selling-the-supply-side-myth/

January 28, 2012

Aussie Open women's final spoiler.........

Azarenka blitzes Sharapova is the grand slam women's final with the highest-ever decibel level of players' shrieks.



Congrats to Vika!

January 28, 2012

Liberals’ Inequality Narrative Ignores Role of Free Trade, Unionbusting

Published on Friday, January 27, 2012 by In These Times
Liberals’ Inequality Narrative Ignores Role of Free Trade, Unionbusting

by Roger Bybee


The Occupy movement forcefully injected a long-taboo topic—America’s appalling “banana republic”-level economic disparities—into the mainstream political debate.

That inequality has immense implications, from falling wages, to deteriorating healthcare coverage, the overgrown financial sector, and the decline of America's productive base. Such sweeping inequality, deeply rooted in our economic and political system of legal payoffs and policy paybacks, has been intensified by union-busting and globalization.

But even many of America’s most liberal mainstream politicians and pundits have narrowed the debate over inequality, perhaps out of a desire to shield President Obama from any pressure coming from his left. The issue of tax inequities has soared in importance, exposing the privileged status enjoyed by CEOs and hedge fund and private equity executives like Mitt Romney. But other crucial dimensions of inequality painfully experienced by ordinary Americans have been crowded out.

For example, the liberal and likable Lawrence O’Donnell, host of MSNBC’s The Last Word, declares in a TV ad that all the talk about “class war” amounts to a battle over a proposed 4 percent increase in tax rates for the super-rich. Really, Lawrence? ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/27-6

January 27, 2012

Taking Back Globalization

from Project Syndicate:



Taking Back Globalization

Olivier De Schutter
2012-01-25


DAVOS – The World Economic Forum’s annual gathering is normally little more than a toast to the benefits of increasing global GDP, trade, and investment. But this year’s meeting comes at a time when economic expansion can no longer be taken for granted, and when the uneven benefits of past growth are sparking mass social unrest.

So it is little wonder that doomsday scenarios about the “seeds of dystopia” and the risks of “rolling back the globalization process” are being dangled in Davos. The world’s economic and political leaders stand warned: do globalization better, or it will be derailed by the growing legions of the discontented.

Leaders would be unwise to ignore this warning. Discussions in Davos must go beyond how to rectify the imbalances in developed countries’ debt-to-GDP ratios. They must finally pay attention to the wider imbalances generated by unfettered globalization.

Popular anger is directed not only at the bank bailouts, soaring public debt, and bleak employment prospects of recent years. All around the world, people have fallen afoul of a two-track economic process whereby whole industries have been sacrificed to cheaper imports, whole regions have been consigned to abandonment or degradation, and whole populations have been frozen out of economic progress. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/deschutter4/English

January 27, 2012

Selling the ‘Supply-Side’ Myth

from Consortium News:



Selling the ‘Supply-Side’ Myth
January 27, 2012

Exclusive: Any rational assessment of America’s economic troubles would identify Ronald Reagan’s reckless “supply-side” economics as a chief culprit, but that hasn’t stopped Republican presidential hopefuls, led by Newt Gingrich, from selling this discredited theory to a gullible GOP base, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry


Despite Newt Gingrich’s claim that “supply-side” economic theories have “worked,” the truth is that America’s three-decade experiment with low tax rates on the rich, lax regulation of corporations and “free trade” has been a catastrophic failure, creating massive federal debt, devastating the middle class and off-shoring millions of American jobs.

It has ”worked” almost exclusively for the very rich, yet the former House speaker and the three other Republican presidential hopefuls are urging the country to double-down on this losing gamble, often to the cheers of their audiences — like one Florida woman who said she had lost her job and medical insurance but still applauded the idea of more “free-market” solutions.

Gingrich even boasts of his role in pioneering these theories of massive tax cuts favoring the rich, combined with sharp reductions in the role of government. That approach, once famously mocked by George H.W. Bush as “voodoo economics,” was supposed to spur businesses to expand production (the “supply side”), thus creating jobs and boosting revenues from all the commercial activity.

“I worked with Ronald Reagan to develop supply-side economics in the late ’70s, along with Jack Kemp and Art Laffer and Jude Wanniski and others,” Gingrich declared at a recent town hall event. “We ended up passing it into law in ’81. At the time it was very bold. People called it ‘voodoo economics.’ It had one great virtue: it worked.” ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/27/selling-the-supply-side-myth/

January 27, 2012

Had to flee or 'I might be dead,' victim says of racial attack

By Ryan Haggerty, Jeremy Gorner and Kate Thayer Tribune reporters
4:00 a.m. CST, January 27, 2012


Joshua Merritt said he had no reason to be suspicious when one of his friends texted him, asking him to hang out with two other teenagers they both knew.

But after Merritt, 17, arrived at the home of one of the boys in Chicago’s East Beverly neighborhood Dec. 23, he realized his friends weren’t simply looking to have a good time.

The three teens, who are white, allegedly put a noose around the neck of Merritt, who is black, and hurled racial epithets at him before one of the boys held a knife to his throat and threatened to kill him, police and Merritt said Thursday.

The teens were apparently upset about Merritt’s relationship with one of the boys’ female cousins, police said. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-3-teens-charged-in-alleged-racial-christmas-eve-attack-20120126,0,1748759.story

January 27, 2012

‘Get a Job’? Not So Easy for Teens, as Adults Snap Up Openings

from In These Times:



‘Get a Job’? Not So Easy for Teens, as Adults Snap Up Openings
By Kari Lydersen

Teen employment rate of 26 percent is lowest since World War II—and much worse for African Americans


Even as the economy slowly picks up, finding a job is harder than ever for teenagers, according to a national study released on Tuesday. That’s likely because the jobs that are being "created" in recent months are being snapped up by adults—often people over age 50 who were laid off from other positions or forced out of retirement during the economic crisis. Meanwhile, funding for youth jobs has suffered because of state and local budget crises, and significant "stimulus" funding for youth jobs and training under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has now expired.

The study, by researcher Andrew Sum at the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, looks at teen employment over time through "jobless" numbers rather than "unemployment" numbers, since unemployment figures don’t include youth who are not actively looking for work. As with adults, since it has become harder and harder to get a job many youth have given up and hence dropped from the unemployment figures.

A press release for the report says:

................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12616/get_a_job_--_not_so_easy_for_teens/

January 27, 2012

Der Spiegel: 'There Is No European Emergency Plan'

Greece is struggling to reach an agreement on debt relief with its private-sector creditors. But even if it ultimately does, the country may need vastly more funding than has been envisioned so far. German commentators on Friday say it's time for a bit of honesty from Europe's leaders.

Greece needs more money. That would seem to be the growing consensus in Europe as negotiations over debt relief between Athens and the private sector drag on. On Friday, Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs meetings of euro-zone finance ministers, became the most recent European politician to sound the warning bell.

"If Greece's ability to sustain debt is proven and there is an overall understanding with the private sector, the public sector will also have to ask itself whether it will not provide help," he told the Austrian daily Der Standard in an interview published Friday.

The talks between Greece and the Institute of International Finance, which is representing the country's private creditors in the haircut negotiations, have proven difficult as the two sides have been attempting to come up with an interest rate on the new bonds that will be issued to current debt holders. European politicians have said that this rate should be as low as possible so as to give Greece a shot at meeting its goal of reducing its sovereign debt to 120 percent of its economic output by 2020. Institutional bond holders, however, are holding out for a higher rate and resisting any agreement that could push their losses beyond the 50 percent they had originally agreed to. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,811792,00.html

January 27, 2012

David Sirota: The Economic Normalcy Bias

from truthdig:



The Economic Normalcy Bias

Posted on Jan 26, 2012
By David Sirota


In 1977, two Boeing 747s collided on an airstrip in the Canary Islands. According to accident investigators, those who survived the initial blast in one plane had time to escape before a fire consumed the wreckage. But eyewitnesses reported that many remained in their seat looking perfectly content—as if nothing was wrong.

Not surprisingly, dozens of these dazed victims were burned to death, and the episode became a reminder of the so-called normalcy bias—a cognitive phenomenon whereby many who are faced with imminent disaster instantly convince themselves that everything is normal and that they don’t have to modify their behavior.

Unpleasant as this anecdote is to recount, it exemplifies the psychology at the root of one of America’s most destructive traits: our obsession with materialism and consumerism. To extrapolate the metaphor, if our damaged economy, record-low savings rate and sky-high personal debt levels are that smoldering plane about to explode, then America’s “shop till you drop” normalcy bias may be engineering yet another avoidable tragedy.

......(snip)......

A glance at new data from the holiday season tells this story. After Black Friday’s now-annual melee of hyper-aggressive shoppers, The Washington Post reported that Christmas saw credit card purchases jump 7 percent over last year. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve bank reported that consumer borrowing surged to pre-recession levels; Forbes reported that online holiday spending hit a record; and the Los Angeles Times reported that “consumer spending “grew faster than people’s take-home incomes” as households “cut their savings rate (to) support their purchases of cars and other goods and services.” ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_economic_normalcy_bias_20120126/