Facing South

Watchdog group files complaint against Sen. Landrieu's campaign for mysterious donation to Treasury

2009-11-20T17:54:23Z

Why did the campaign committee of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) donate $25,300 to the U.S. Treasury last year?

That's what the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington hopes to find out through the complaint [pdf] it filed today with the Federal Election Commission.

Reports submitted to the FEC show Landrieu's campaign made the donation to the Treasury on Aug. 7, 2008. According to CREW, that may have happened because the campaign committee discovered it had accepted illegal contributions:

In such cases, campaigns generally return the contributions to the original donors. In this case, however, the committee chose to turn over the contributions to the U.S. Treasury. When asked about the payment to the Treasury, campaign committee lawyer Marc Elias refused to explain the circumstances, insisting the campaign was protecting the identity of the contributors who "are private citizens who in most instances may not have done anything wrong ... ."

"We all know politicians don't give up campaign contributions -- much less $25,000 -- without a very good reason," says CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. "It appears Sen. Landrieu's reason may have been to avoid a scandal or, even worse, a federal investigation into some of her contributions."

Under federal campaign finance law, a campaign committee can transfer an illegal contribution to the Treasury rather than return it to the original donor -- but only when the committee learns the source of the funds is either under a Department of Justice investigation or indictment, or has been convicted for making illegal contributions. But even in such cases, a campaign committee must make the contributor's identity public before handing over the money.

Back in January 2008, CREW asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether Landrieu violated Senate rules seven years earlier by asking for a $2 million earmark for the Voyager Expanded Learning literacy program for the Washington, D.C. public schools four days after receiving $30,000 in campaign contributions from company executives and their relatives. The committee announced earlier this month that it cleared Landrieu of any wrongdoing in that matter.

But Sloan recently told the Huffington Post that it seemed odd that the $25,300 was handed over to Treasury during the Voyager investigation. Elias told the publication that the donation had nothing to do with the Voyager matter, but he would not say why it was made.

Virginia Tech massacre survivor captures shady gun dealers on hidden camera

2009-11-20T15:45:22Z

Colin Goddard suffered four gunshot wounds when a fellow Virginia Tech student who was mentally ill opened fire at the Blacksburg campus in 2007, killing 32 people and wounding many others before turning the gun on himself.

Determined to ensure something like that could never happen again, the 24-year-old Goddard began visiting gun shows this past summer -- and he took along a hidden camera to record just how easy it was for anyone to purchase a firearm.

His goal? To get Congress to take action so people can't buy weapons at gun shows without a background check.

"It is time -- actually, way past time -- for America to close the loophole that allows people who can't legally buy a gun from a gun dealer to literally buy one in the back corner of the same convention center," says Goddard, who turned the guns he purchased over to local police.

The federal Brady Law requires criminal background checks of people who buy guns from federally licensed dealers, but unlicensed private sellers are not required to conduct background checks. That loophole is a special problem at gun shows, where in most states anyone including convicted felons, domestic violence abusers and people with dangerous mental illnesses can buy weapons from unlicensed dealers, no questions asked.

Gun shows also supply firearms for criminals. A 2000 report [pdf] from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found that shows are the second-leading source of illegally diverted guns in the United States, trailing only corrupt federally licensed dealers. Gun shows have also been identified as an important source of weapons for drug cartels operating in the Houston area, for gangs in New Orleans, and for criminals in Richmond, Va., according to a 2007 Justice Department report [pdf].

To date, only seven out of 50 states have completely closed the gun show loophole -- and none of them are in the South. Ten other states have taken limited steps, including North Carolina, which requires individuals seeking to purchase a handgun to get a permit that involves a background check, and certain counties in Florida that require background checks on all private sales of handguns at gun shows. But 33 states do not have any restrictions in place.

Bills have been introduced in the U.S. House (H.R. 2324) and Senate (S. 843) to close the gun show loophole. That legislation is supported by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, where Goddard now works.

Of the 49 current co-sponsors of the House bill, only three are from the South -- two from Virginia (Gerry Connolly and James Moran) and one from Texas (Sheila Jackson-Lee). Of the 15 current co-sponsors in the Senate, none represent Southern states.

To get Americans interested in the initiative, the Brady Campaign has put together a short video with highlights of Goddard's hidden-camera footage, which includes footage from Texas, Virginia, Minnesota and Ohio. The image above is a still from the video.

"I want to see an America that wants background checks on every gun sale," Goddard says. "There's no background check, there's no gun, there's no excuses."

Watch the video with the undercover footage here:

Remembering civil rights leader James Armstrong

2009-11-20T15:09:01Z

When participants in the first Selma to Montgomery voting rights march crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. and were beaten by state troopers, Army veteran and marcher James Armstrong fell to his knees -- but he never dropped the American flag he was carrying.

That March 1965 incident came to be known as Bloody Sunday and helped ensure passage later that year of the Voting Rights Act.

This week Armstrong died of heart failure in Birmingham, Ala. He was 86.

The Birmingham News reports:

On Wednesday the barbershop he ran for more than 50 years was locked, with a "for sale" sign on the door. But signs of its life -- decades of it -- were apparent from the sidewalk. On the door was a faded message: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." And next to that: "If you don't vote, don't talk politics in here."

Running his own business allowed Armstrong to take part in civil rights demonstrations without worrying about repercussions from his employer. He ended up being jailed several times for his efforts to end Jim Crow.

Armstrong also played a key role in the desegregation of Birmingham's school system, initiating a class-action lawsuit in 1957 so his children could attend an elementary school previously reserved for whites. Two of his sons became the first black children to attend Graymont Elementary.

Born in 1923 in Dallas County, Ala. to a farming family, Armstrong was drafted into the Army after high school and spent two years fighting in Europe during World War II. When he returned to Alabama, as his son Dwight Told the Birmingham News, "he knew God had a plan for him."

Armstrong kept the flag that he carried that historic March 1965 day in his home in Birmingham's College Hills community. He was also a longtime volunteer at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

(PHOTO: In a snapshot taken earlier this year, a group of Michigan students studying civil rights history stand with Armstrong in front of his Birmingham barbershop. The photo originally appeared in the Muskegon News.)

Court finds Army Corps liable for Katrina damage caused by New Orleans shipping channel

2009-11-19T15:54:08Z

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to properly maintain the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet shipping channel in New Orleans -- a failure that was directly responsible for the devastating flood damage in the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish after Hurricane Katrina.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports:

"The failure of the Corps to recognize the destruction that the MRGO had caused and the potential hazard that it created is clearly negligent on the part of the Corps," said U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. in his ruling. "Furthermore, the Corps not only knew, but admitted by 1988, that the MRGO threatened human life ... and yet it did not act in time to prevent the catastrophic disaster that ensued with the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina."

Following a trial that got underway in April, the decision awards $719,000 in damages to four plaintiffs -- three individuals and a business -- who initially filed the lawsuit in 2006. There were initially six plaintiffs, but two of them -- WDSU TV anchor Norman Robinson and his wife -- were found to be not entitled to compensation because the damage in their eastern New Orleans neighborhood was not directly related to the MRGO.

However, the case has implications for people other than the plaintiffs, according to the Christian Science Monitor:

More important, the ruling ... now puts pressure on President Obama to help the region settle claims that could reach into the billions of dollars. (Without a court judgment, the Bush administration had refused calls for a settlement.)

The Justice Department is expected to appeal the decision to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals -- and, if necessary, to the Supreme Court.

The Army Corps built the 76-mile-long MRGO in the 1960s as a shortcut for navigation between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. The channel severely damaged tens of thousands of acres of wetlands that once protected vulnerably low-lying communities from storms, and it also acted as a funnel that intensified storm surges into the New Orleans area.

During the trial that led to yesterday's ruling, Louisiana geologist and former Corps consultant Sherwood Gagliano testified that the agency's failure to properly maintain the canal caused it to bump into Lake Borgne on the east city of New Orleans. When Katrina came ashore, the breach allowed waves from the lake to travel along the MRGO and hit the city's levees with a force that they were not designed to withstand.

Congress directed the Corps to develop a comprehensive plan to close the MRGO and restore the wetlands by May 2008, but the agency missed that deadline. The Coalition to Close the MRGO continues to demand action to protect the city from future disasters related to the channel.

(Image of the MRGO from Save Our Wetlands.)

Which way will Landrieu go?

2009-11-19T15:17:44Z

Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana -- one of three Democratic swing votes in the Senate over health reform -- says today is the day: She will announce whether she supports the bill unveiled by Sen. Harry Reid this week ("support" meaning whether she'll help Democrats get the 60 votes they need to override a Republican filibuster).

What will she say? Right now, 78% of readers on Congress.org's Predict-a-Vote are predicting Landrieu will say "yes" (vote here), giving her slightly higher odds that Democratic fence-sitters Sens. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.).

But close followers of Landrieu's ever-changing stance on health reform are less sure. In November 2008, Landrieu openly proclaimed her support for a public option in a letter to health care advocates.

Yet by October of this year -- after Town Hall uprisings and Obama's sinking poll numbers -- Landrieu boxed herself into a corner by blasting the public option as a "government-run, national, taxpayer-subsidized plan," and said she'd "never" support it.

Yet by Nov. 4, Landrieu was hopping back on the fence, telling Roll Call (sub) she was warming to a public option that raises more revenue. As of yesterday, Landrieu was sounding "positive" after a meeting with Reid.

The interesting thing about Landrieu is that her fence-sitting on health reform isn't as clearly about political survival as it is for fellow Democrats like Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, who faces a tough re-election battle next year.

Matthew Bigg of Reuters has a good piece looking at the Louisiana political landscape Landrieu faces (he briefly cites my analysis of the state's electoral situation). Obama lost big in Louisiana in 2008, and the continued displacement of thousands of African-American voters from New Orleans post-Katrina -- removing the state's most reliable Democratic voters -- have made Louisiana Democrats even more wary of stepping onto what they perceive to be dangerous political limbs.

But it's also true that, despite being an increasingly tough state for Democrats, Landrieu won re-election in 2008 by a six-point margin. Even more importantly, she won't face another election until 2014.

As Michael Tomasky writes in an interesting piece on Landrieu's counterparts in the House, the Blue Dogs, it's unclear how much a "risky" vote on health care will really hurt Democrats who hail from moderate and conservative districts. Tomasky speculates that it could cause some to lose up to a couple percentage points of support for backing health reform -- nothing to sneeze at, for sure -- but overall, it pales in comparison to the power of incumbency and other factors.

That's likely to be doubly true for Landrieu. By the time she runs again, the health reform vote will be five years old -- ancient political history. It's hard to see it proving decisive in the 2014 election.

What might be more damaging, however, is Landrieu's waffling: evidence that Landrieu supported a public option before she opposed it. If that ends up hurting Landrieu, she'll have no one to blame but herself.

Which way do YOU think Landrieu will go? What will it mean for her career? Let us know in the comments.

Washington home of politically elite Christian group loses tax-exempt status

2009-11-18T17:51:29Z

The secretive, elite Christian fellowship known as "The Family" will no longer be able to avoid paying property taxes on the posh brick townhouse it owns on Washington's C Street. The group had been avoiding property taxes by calling itself a tax-exempt church.

Natalie Wilson, a spokesperson for the city's Office of Tax and Revenue, told TPMMuckraker that her office inspected the house this summer:

"It was determined that portions of it were being rented out for private residential purposes," she said. As a result, the tax exempt status was partially revoked. Sixty-six percent of the value of the property is now subject to taxation.

According to online records, the total taxable assessment is $1,834,500. The building's owner last month paid taxes of $1714.70 on the property.

Among the lawmakers who reportedly lived at the former convent -- and enjoyed below-market rents -- were Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.). There have also been reports that Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) is a resident, though he refused to confirm that to his local paper.

Other members of the group reportedly include Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), and Congressmen Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.), John Tanner (D-Tenn.) and Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.).

Among the things that led to questions about the group's tax-exempt church status were the numerous extramarital affairs its members have been embroiled in:

* An alienation of affection lawsuit filed earlier this year by the estranged wife of former Congressman Charles W. "Chip" Pickering (R-Miss.) alleged that he had an extramarital affair while living at the group's house.

* When former Congressman and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford held a press conference earlier this year where he confessed to having an extramarital affair, the conservative Republican said "C Street" is where men face "hard questions."

* Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) reportedly moved out of the house after being confronted by fellow members about an affair with an aide's wife. He now faces possible expulsion from the Senate and criminal penalties over his actions.

The Family has also been in the news recently for the key role its members played in inserting a far-reaching anti-abortion amendment in the House health care reform bill. Writing about that recently at Salon.com, "The Family" author Jeff Sharlet wrote discussed how the group plays a key role in "a culture war strategy designed to take territory within the Democratic Party as well the GOP."

An unreported culprit in New Orleans' slow recovery: low wages

2009-11-18T14:28:23Z

Here at Facing South, we've reported a lot on the affordable housing crisis still gripping New Orleans as the city enters the fifth year of post-Katrina recovery.

To address the problem, policy-makers and advocates have focused on supply, pushing to preserve or build affordable housing options.

But a new report by the excellent Greater New Orleans Community Data Center points out that's only part of the equation. The other problem is the city low-wage service economy: 47% of full-time, year-round employees in the Big Easy earn less than $35,000 a year.

Here's a chart from the Center laying out the problem:

In 2002, New Orleans was one of the first cities to pass a city-wide living wage ordinance. After Katrina hit in 2005, an explosion of rebuilding jobs drove down unemployment and boosted wages.

But clearly workers in New Orleans, like many metro areas, face a deeper problem: A metro economy structurally built around low-wage jobs, and a relatively weak labor movement to advocate for workers' interests.

The Washington Times' Confederate (fifth) columnist

2009-11-18T00:09:18Z

A column by Wesley Pruden that appeared in yesterday's Washington Times is generating anger and controversy because of its views on race and President Obama.

Writing critically about Obama greeting the Japanese emperor with a deep bow, a move the State Department said was meant to show respect, Pruden opined (link added for clarity):

... Mr. Obama, unlike his predecessors, likely knows no better, and many of those around him, true children of the grungy '60s, are contemptuous of custom. Cutting America down to size is what attracts them to "hope" for "change." It's no fault of the president that he has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what the America of "the 57 states" is about. He was sired by a Kenyan father, born to a mother attracted to men of the Third World and reared by grandparents in Hawaii, a paradise far from the American mainstream.

He no doubt wants to "do the right thing" by his lights, but the lights that illumine the Obama path are not necessarily the lights that illuminate the way for most of the rest of us.

The liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America reported on the column, which triggered a storm of critical commentary around the blogosphere.

Steve Benen at Washington Monthly slammed Pruden as part of a persistent "Know-Nothing strain" in U.S. politics. Left in Alabama called the column "Racist, Xenophobic, and Clueless." And Pam's House Blend blogger Pam Spaulding -- a civil rights advocate and board member of the Institute for Southern Studies, publisher of Facing South -- bluntly denounced what she called Pruden's "miscegenation analysis" as "racist bullsh*t."

This isn't the first time Pruden -- a Little Rock, Ark. native who once covered the civil rights movement for Dow Jones' now-defunct National Observer -- has generated controversy over his views on race and politics.

Four years ago, while still serving as the Washington Times' editor-in-chief, Pruden wrote another controversial column in which he denounced the U.S. Senate for unanimously approving a resolution apologizing for failing to enact a federal anti-lynching law during the height of Jim Crow-era violence. He accused the resolution's sponsors -- Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and George Allen (R-Va.) -- of putting on a "demonstration of manufactured remorse."

Pruden has also at times openly expressed sympathy for Confederate causes, as the Southern Poverty Law Center reported in a 2003 story about the Washington Times' promotion of extremist views. After Pruden was promoted from managing editor to editor in chief in 1992, he gave an interview to Southern Partisan, a pro-Confederate political magazine:

After singling out the Southern culture warrior, Sen. Jesse Helms, as a political hero, Pruden bragged about his great-grandmother shooting a Union cavalryman and boasted that the Times was the most "in-your-face" conservative newspaper in America. When Robert E. Lee's birthday rolls around every year, he said, "I make sure we have a story" -- especially because the occasion "falls around Martin Luther King's birthday."

In 1997, Pruden hired as the Times' assistant national editor the Georgia-born Robert Stacy McCain -- a member of the neo-Confederate League of the South, a pro-secessionist organization that SPLC classifies as a hate group for its defense of segregation and slavery. With Pruden's approval, McCain began covering conferences sponsored by American Renaissance, a white nationalist journal, and reprinting excerpts from the journal in the paper's culture section.

And in 1998, Pruden spoke to the neo-Confederate United Daughters of the Confederacy at the Manassas Battlefield Park in Virginia, praising them for their efforts to "cherish and protect and preserve the heritage of our great Southern people." As SPLC reported:

Concluding with a flourish, Pruden said "Southerners ... hold loyalty to two countries in our hearts." The second country is one "baptized 137 years ago on this very field in the blood of First Manassas, a country no longer at the mercy of the vicissitudes in the tangled affairs of men, a country that lives within us, a country that will endure for as long as men and women know love. ... God bless America, God bless the Confederate States of America, and God bless you all."

Loyalty to the pro-slavery CSA? What does that say about Pruden's instinct for what America is about?

(Photo of Wesley Pruden from the Southern Poverty Law Center's website.)

Is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce losing its grip on Washington?

2009-11-17T15:15:14Z

When news broke yesterday that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was shopping for a "respected economist" they could pay $50,000 to produce a study opposing health care reform, it likely wasn't a surprise to readers of Facing South.

This past March, Facing South was one of the first media outlets to break the story about another Chamber-backed study -- this one an attack on the Employee Free Choice Act, a key labor reform bill. Through a front group called the Alliance to Save Main Street Jobs, the Chamber funded a report by "noted economist" Anne Layne-Farrar which claimed the bill would cause 600,000 people to lose their jobs.

As Facing South documented, dozens of media outlets -- including CBS, Fox and MSNBC -- covered Layne-Farrar's study but failed to mention the powerful anti-union business interests backing it. (They also didn't mention another key point which Facing South was first to raise -- that the study was based on the experience of just three Canadian provinces over three decades ago.)

The fact that this week, the Chamber's efforts to buy favorable research generated so much attention -- and even some retrospective coverage of their role in the EFCA debate -- likely has to do with the growing awareness and controversy over the business group's key role in pushing a conservative policy agenda in Washington.

But is the controversy enough to diminish the Chamber's power as a mover for Republican and right-wing politics?

The Chamber calls itself "the voice of business," but that label has been put into question with the recent defection of Apple, Nike and other major companies, mostly over the Chamber's vociferous opposition to cap-and-trade climate legislation.

These defections also revealed that the Chamber was inflating -- or at least being misleading about -- the number of companies it actually represents. While the Chamber's website states it represents "3 million" businesses, they recently admitted the actual number of dues-paying member companies is a tenth of that -- around 360,000.

And as Josh Harkinson in Mother Jones noted, many of those business simply join the Chamber because they want to be listed in their business directory, a helpful marketing move.

But the Chamber does much more with the business dues it collects. Since CEO and president Thomas J. Donohue assumed power in 1997, the Chamber has increasingly viewed itself as a leading player in the conservative movement, openly aligning with Republicans and ensuring pro-corporate policies are a centerpiece of the broader right-wing political agenda.

The Chamber has always been key to conservative politics. Indeed, when corporate lawyer Lewis F. Powell drafted "The Powell Manifesto" in 1971 -- a founding document of the New Right which called for the creation of conservative think tanks and other institutions -- he addressed it to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., then the director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Powell knew powerful corporations would be the driving force behind a new conservative politics.

Today, with over 300 staff and an annual budget well over $150 million, the Chamber is one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington. As of late October, they had already spent $65 million this year lobbying against the key pieces of the Democratic policy agenda, especially health reform, cap-and-trade and the Employee Free Choice Act.

But while the Chamber's openly partisan and staunchly conservative views worked during the Bush years, it's put the group at odds with many of the moderate and liberal-leaning companies in its orbit. The recent high-profile defections couldn't have come at a worse time for the Chamber, as it battles what it views as major threats to the reign of a corporate-centered agenda.

For the first time in decades, the Chamber's claim to represent American business is being questioned. Each company exit seems to open space for more criticism: MoveOn claims that over 5,300 medical professionals have signed a petition urging the American Medical Association to sever ties with the Chamber.

The Chamber is even being openly mocked, as when the agit prop jokesters The Yes Men held a fake press conference last month in which they impersonated Chamber officials and announced bogus changes in Chamber policy:

The fake Chamber press release distributed to reporters Monday looked like an authentic document from the Chamber, with a logo and contact information for follow-up stories [...]

[T]he press release said that the Chamber is implementing an "immediate moratorium on lobbying and publicity work opposing climate legislation" -- and suggested that high-profile defections from Apple, Nike PGandE and other companies played a role in the decision.

The Chamber has deep enough pockets and has ensconced itself fully enough into Washington's political culture to shake off such irritating episodes.

But at this volatile political moment, the Chamber's leaders must be rattled that so many are questioning the long-held assumption that what's good for the Chamber -- or at least the companies still in their corner -- is necessarily what's good for business, much less the rest of the country.

Free health clinic in New Orleans highlights need for reforms

2009-11-17T14:01:35Z

This past Saturday, more than 1,000 uninsured people showed up at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans for a free health clinic organized by the National Association of Free Clinics and the Louisiana Free Clinic Association.

Many of the patients who came had not seen a physician since Hurricane Katrina struck the city in 2005, the organizers report. Most of the patients cared for at NAFC events -- 83% -- are employed but cannot afford to buy health insurance or visit a doctor regularly.

"We saw a number of very sick patients today who have not had medical care for many years," said Dr. Corey Hebert, a New Orleans physician and one of the event's medical directors. "This clinic was a life saver for many people who have no way to pay for their health care needs."

Some 840,000 Louisiana residents lack health insurance -- 22% of the population, according to a recent report from the Center for American Progress.

According to preliminary numbers released by the organizers, 90% of patients treated at the clinic (pictured above) had more than one diagnosis, with hypertension and diabetes being the most prevalent. Besides being treated on the spot, patients were also connected with local clinics and other health care providers to give them ongoing care.

Rich Stockwell is a senior producer at MSNBC's "Countdown" news show who came up with the idea to raise money for free clinics in states with senators key to passing health care reform legislation; more than $1.7 million has been raised for the cause since anchor Keith Olbermann put out the call. Stockwell attended Saturday's clinic in New Orleans and wrote about what he witnessed there:

It happened as I watched a 50-something woman walk out, after spending several hours being attended to by volunteer doctors. "She's decided against treatment. A reasonable decision under the circumstances," the doctor tells us as she heads for the next patient. The president of the board of the National Association of Free Health Clinics tells me why: "It's stage four breast cancer, her body is filled with tumors." I don't know when that woman last saw a doctor. But I do know that if she had health insurance, the odds she would have seen a doctor long ago are much higher, and her chances for an earlier diagnosis and treatment would have been far greater.

The problem of finding affordable health care has been especially difficult in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, as Jeannette Alcon, executive director of the Lafayette Community Health Care Clinic, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

"They used to have networks and pockets where they could get services, but that was all washed away for them," Alcon said. "So here they are now, as poor, if not poorer, with none of the support systems in place. When you don't have health care, your quality of life is poor, you can't go to work, you can't do things you need to do to go forward."

"Countdown" reported that it invited U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) to appear on its newscast yesterday to discuss the clinic and health reform but was told that her schedule would not allow it. Landrieu has voiced reservations about the Democratic health reform legislation and has refused to commit to invoking cloture -- a procedure to end debate in case of a Republican filibuster -- should the bill include a public health insurance option.

The Hill reports that Senate Democrats hope to pass a health reform bill by Christmas but expect Republicans will try to delay by asking for the entire bill to be read on the Senate floor. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has said the Democrats will fight back by keeping the Senate in session, requiring Republicans to be there 24 hours a day and ending the reading should they leave the floor.

The next free clinic organized by NAFC is scheduled for this coming Saturday, Nov. 21, in Little Rock, Ark. That state is home to Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a moderate Democrat and critic of the public option who along with Landrieu and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) may determine whether Democrats can get the 60 votes they need to break a filibuster.

(Image above is from "Countdown's" Nov. 16 report on the free clinic in New Orleans.)

Reps. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) speak from the same page on health reform

2009-11-16T18:29:21Z

The New York Times reported last week that during the historic House debate on health care reform, statements made by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten in whole or part by lobbyists working for one of the world's largest biotechnology firms.

The lobbyists for California-based Genentech -- a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swiss firm Roche -- drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

But it turns out that Rep. Heath Shuler -- a Democrat from North Carolina -- actually delivered a statement based on the Republican version of the script, as the blog Firedoglake reported yesterday.

Shuler is part of the conservative Blue Dog caucus in the House. When in Washington, he reportedly lives at the C Street house owned by The Family, a controversial right-wing Christian organization that caters to the political elite.

Based on Firedoglake's report, we thought it would be interesting to compare what was said by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) -- the lawmaker infamous for shouting "You lie!" during President Obama's national address on health care reform -- during the debate to Shuler's remarks.

We also thought it would be interesting to compare the two lawmakers' campaign contributions from health industry interests.

As we reported previously, Wilson is a major recipient of contributions from health care professionals, who have invested a total of $244,196 in his campaign to date, according to the Center for Responsive Politics OpenSecrets.org database. He received another $86,150 from pharmaceutical companies, $73,050 from insurance companies and $68,000 from hospitals and nursing homes. He has been in office since 2001.

Shuler has also received generous contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, health professionals and insurance interests: All appear among his top 20 contributors at $78,800, $67,062 and $38,500 respectively, according to OpenSecrets.org. He has been in office since 2007.

And now, the comparison of Wilson's and Shuler's lobbyist-inspired comments on health reform:

Wilson: I have criticized many of the provisions of this bill (H.R. 3962) and rightfully so. But in fairness, I do believe the sections relating to the creation of a market for biosimilar products is one area of the bill that strikes the appropriate balance in providing lower cost options to consumers without destroying a healthy and functioning industry in this country.

Shuler: Mr. Speaker, as you know I am opposed to the bill we are considering today for many reasons that I have articulated previously. I am pleased, however, that the bill strikes the appropriate balance on the issue of follow on biologics. This bipartisan compromise language will provide lower cost options to consumers and my constituents without destroying a healthy and functioning bio-tech industry in this country.

* * *

Wilson: Creating a pathway for new products that doesn't destroy the ability or the incentives for innovator companies to develop breakthrough technologies and at the same time providing a safe and effective way to bring competition to benefit patients is a laudable achievement.

Shuler: I believe it is critical that the creation of a pathway for new products does not destroy the ability or the incentives of innovator companies to develop breakthrough technologies. We have a moral obligation to provide a safe and effective pathway of bringing competition that will benefit patients.

* * *

Wilson: I wish we could remove this provision from this fatally flawed piece of legislation and consider it separately because it would pass with the kind of overwhelming bi-partisan support that Americans across the country wish to see.

Shuler: I wish we could consider this as a stand-alone bill because it would pass with the kind of overwhelming bi-partisan support that Americans across the country wish to see.

* * *

Wilson: One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country.

Shuler: One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country and in my home state of North Carolina.

South still leads in child deaths from swine flu

2009-11-16T17:13:59Z

Three weeks ago, Facing South reported that two-thirds of child deaths attributed to the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, had happened in states centered in the South.

Here's an update: The South's share of H1N1 fatalities has declined, but children in Southern states are still bearing the brunt of the epidemic.

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control show that, out of 117 pediatric deaths directly related to swine flu, 49 have come from two areas in or near the South.

The CDC collects data in 10 regions nationally. Region 6, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, leads the nation with 44 H1N1 deaths among children.

Region 4, which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, has the second-highest figure: 25.

Together, the two regions make up 42% of the total child deaths from H1N1.

Why has swine flu been uniquely devastating in Southern states? The high rate of children without health insurance in many Southern states, and therefore limited health care options, could be one factor.

Another is timing: Swine flu hit the South first, so it's claimed more victims in the region. Other areas might well catch up as the H1N1 virus makes its way through populations in places like the Northeast (one of the few where the documented cases of the virus isn't in decline).

Here's a Google Flu Trends map that shows which states first documented 5,000 cases of H1N1:

As Nate Silver at 538.com (not just election analysis!) observes:

Although the initial outbreak of H1N1 back in April was centered on Texas, California, New York, Illinois and South Carolina, the place where the flu first hit critical mass several months later was in Louisiana. It then slowly radiated its way outward to most of the neighboring states -- Maine finally hit the 5,000-point threshold just last week.

Nuclear companies face reactor design problems, ethics questions

2009-11-16T13:58:12Z

Federal regulators have expressed serious safety concerns about the design for 14 of the nation's 25 proposed new nuclear reactors, raising questions about the future of what the industry calls its "renaissance."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced last month that Westinghouse failed to demonstrate that the building designed to shield its AP1000 reactor (pictured at right) from outside threats such as tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes is adequate. In addition, there are concerns about whether the shield building, which also provides a radiation barrier, will be able to support the 8 million-pound emergency cooling water tank that's supposed to sit on top.

"We've been talking to Westinghouse regularly about the shield building since October 2008, and we've consistently laid out our questions to the company," said Michael Johnson, director of the NRC's Office of New Reactors. "This is a situation where fundamental engineering standards will have to be met before we can begin determining whether the shield building meets the agency's requirements."

Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse, which is owned by the Toshiba Group of Japan, downplayed the NRC's concerns, releasing a statement that said it "fully expected that the NRC would require additional analysis, testing or actual design modifications to the shield building" and that it had "already begun to address certain portions of the design." The company says it remains "confident" it will answer the NRC's concerns.

Whether it does has important implications for the South's energy future, as all of the planned AP1000 reactors -- designated by green squares on the NRC map at left (click on the image for a larger version) -- are slated for the region. Two AP1000 units have been proposed at each of the following facilities:

* Tennessee Valley Authority's Bellefonte plant in Hollywood, Ala.;
* Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Ga., owned by Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power.;
* Progress Energy's Levy County Nuclear Plant in Florida. and its Harris plant in Wake County, N.C.;
* Florida Power & Light's Turkey Point plant in Miami-Dade County;
* South Carolina Electric & Gas Co.'s V.C. Summer plant northwest of Columbia, S.C.; and
* Duke Energy's Lee nuclear plant in Cherokee County, S.C.

But nuclear power watchdogs say the reactor's design problems should mean no taxpayer money in the form of Department of Energy loan guarantees should go toward its construction. Last month an alliance of 10 nuclear watchdog groups including the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the NC Waste Awareness and Reduction Network sent a letter [pdf] to DOE officials calling on the agency to stop issuing conditional loan guarantees to utilities using AP1000 technology. Among the new nuclear projects with AP1000 reactors that the DOE is reportedly considering for loan guarantees are the Vogtle site in Georgia and the Summer site in South Carolina.

"With billions of taxpayer dollars at stake in the proposed nuclear loan guarantees, the Department of Energy owes it to the public to get on the same page as the NRC about these serious AP1000 reactor design problems," said Sara Barczak, a nuclear power specialist with SACE. "We believe that the DOE should assure the public that utilities considering problematic nuclear reactor designs, such as the AP1000, would not qualify for these loan guarantees."

A report released earlier this year by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that the potential risk exposure to the federal government and taxpayers from guaranteeing loans to build new nuclear plants -- now estimated to cost upwards of $6 billion each -- could range from $360 billion to $1.6 trillion. At the same time, a study put out earlier this year by the Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment estimated the per-kilowatt cost of new nuclear plants at two to more than three times the cost of efficiency and renewables.

But the nuclear power industry is pushing hard for more taxpayer assistance -- or what some of its critics are calling a "bailout." Last month, the Nuclear Energy Institute, industry's lobby group, announced that it wanted to build 45 new reactors by 2030 and was seeking $100 billion in additional loan guarantees.

And the industry has key champions in Washington, as several moderate Republicans including Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina have said policies promoting nuclear power would be necessary for them to vote in favor of climate legislation now being considered in Congress.

Did the AP1000 get improper insider help at the NRC?

Meanwhile, the other company behind the AP1000 -- the Shaw Group, which is handling construction of the reactors -- is facing problems of its own related to the project.

A major defense contractor and an important player in the post-Katrina reconstruction of the U.S. Gulf Coast, the Louisiana-based Shaw Group is also the largest provider of commercial nuclear power plant maintenance and modification services in the United States.

The company has long been known for working its insider connections. For example, it was one of several firms that won contracts to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina with the help of hired lobbyist Joe Allbaugh -- a campaign manager for former President George W. Bush and that administration's first FEMA director.

But now the Shaw Group faces questions about whether improper insider connections at the NRC benefited its commercial nuclear power ambitions.

Back in 2007, the Project on Government Oversight reported that Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Jeffrey S. Merrifield "vigorously championed several major policy initiatives that directly benefited his future employer": the Shaw Group, who he went to work for 12 days after leaving the NRC.

The initiatives Merrifield promoted included a procedural change for certain types of construction activities at nuclear plants that effectively eased environmental restrictions. "Because Shaw is among the largest construction companies in the nuclear industry, few companies stood to benefit more from this initiative," POGO said at the time.

Then last month, the NRC Inspector General issued a report that confirmed Merrifield twice cast votes during his time on the NRC regarding matters involving companies he had contacted about jobs. The others were Westinghouse and General Electric. The report said the firms could potentially have benefited financially from his votes at the same time Merrifield was negotiating with them for jobs.

In one of the questionable votes, Merrifield voted to change the criteria for emergency cooling systems, a change that would directly benefit Westinghouse, of which the Shaw Group owned a 20% interest. He also approved a plan by the Shaw Group to cooperate with China on building nuclear plants using AP1000 technology. China reportedly wants to have 100 AP1000 units operating by 2020.

Merrifield has denied that his job search affected any decision he made while at the NRC. The IG has referred the case to the Department of Justice.

Charges dismissed against Duke Energy Cliffside coal plant protester

2009-11-13T20:32:39Z

Charges were dismissed today against Ken Davies, an attorney from Charlotte, N.C. who was arrested earlier this year during a civil disobedience action against Duke Energy's new Cliffside coal-fired power plant now under construction in western North Carolina.

As Facing South reported earlier this week, Davies was one of 43 people arrested during an April protest against the plant and charged with second-degree trespass. All but 10 of those arrested pleaded guilty and paid court costs; of those 10 who did not plead guilty, nine had their charges dismissed earlier this month.

Davies' case -- which was scheduled to go before a judge on Monday -- resulted in a subpoena being issued to Charlotte-based Duke Energy's CEO Jim Rogers.

"I am disappointed the trespass charge against me was dismissed," Davies said in an e-mailed statement. "The real crime is the Cliffside Coal Plant. With the help of others, I had hoped to confront CEO Jim Rogers with the facts against this monumental environmental disaster, all in presence of Judge and Jury. Duke Energy asked for dismissal of the trespass charge, no doubt to avoid this public confrontation."

The Cliffside plant will release 6 million tons of climate-disrupting carbon dioxide annually as well as tons of toxic pollutants, including 296 pounds of highly dangerous mercury.

UPDATE: Cliffside opponents had organized protests set for Monday, Nov. 16 outside Davies' trial in Charlotte and later that day at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce's annual meeting, where Rogers will receive the Citizen of the Carolinas Award. Both of those actions are still scheduled to take place -- the first at 1 p.m. at McDowell and 4th Street and the second at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Charlotte Convention Center at 501 S. College St.

CULTURE BEAT: Old Hat Records preserves the musical heritage of North Carolina's Depression-era textile mills

2009-11-13T14:22:46Z

It was more than a decade ago that music collector Marshall Wyatt established Old Hat Records, an independent label based in Raleigh, N.C. that's devoted to quality reissues of vintage American music.

Since then the label has released a half-dozen compilations featuring genres including old-time stringband music from Ashe County, N.C., African-American fiddle tunes, and North Carolina folk songs.

Old Hat's latest offering is "Gastonia Gallop: Cotton Mill Songs & Hillbilly Blues." Its 24 tracks document the musical traditions heard in the textile mill villages of Gaston County, N.C. between 1927 and 1931, a period of great social and cultural change for the region. As Southern Exposure reported in 1974 in a story about Gastonia's Loray Mill Strike of 1929:

After World War 1, northern interests increasingly gained ownership of southern mills and relocated other shops to the region to take advantage of cheap labor. The number of spindles in Gaston County, N.C., grew from 3000 in 1848 to 1,200,000 in 1930 making it first in the state and the South, and third in the nation. The town of Gastonia swelled from 236 in 1877 to 30,000 in 1930, primarily from the influx of mountaineers exchanging their exhausted land for jobs in the new factories. Although blacks made up 15 per cent of the population of the county, few were allowed to work in the mills.

Digitally re-mastered from original 78 rpm records, the songs on "Gastonia Gallop" range from satires of cotton mill life to heartfelt ballads. The CD package includes a booklet with rare photographs as well as a historical essay by Patrick Huber, author of the award-winning book "Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South."

"Here are musicians who mastered instruments like the harmonica and banjo and took them to heights of virtuosity," says Justin Robinson of the noted traditional African-American stringband the Carolina Chocolate Drops. "Cotton mill life was no picnic, so many of the songs from this era speak of hard work, unfair treatment and poverty."

That hard reality is colorfully captured in the lyrics of one of the collection's songs, "Cotton Mill Colic" by David McCarn:

When you buy clothes on easy terms the collectors treat you like measly worms
One dollar down, and then Lord knows, if you don't make a payment they'll take your clothes
When you go to bed you can't sleep, you owe so much at the end of the week
No use to colic, they're all that way, peckin' at your door 'til they get your pay

I'm a-gonna starve, everybody will
'Cause you can't make a living at a cotton mill

When you go to work, you work like the devil, at the end of the week you're not on the level
Payday comes, you pay your rent, when you get through you've not got a cent
To buy fatback meat, pinto beans, now and then you get turnip greens
No use to colic, we're all that way, can't get the money to move away

I'm a-gonna starve, everybody will
'Cause you can't make a living at a cotton mill

Twelve dollars a week is all we get, how in the heck can we live on that?
I got a wife and 14 kids, we all have to sleep on two bedsteads
Patches on my britches, holes in my hat, ain't had a shave since my wife got fat
No use to colic, every day at noon the kids get to cryin' in a different tune

I'm a-gonna starve, everybody will
'Cause you can't make a living at a cotton mill

They run a few days and then they stand just to keep down the working man
We can't make it, we never will, as long as we stay at a lousy mill
The poor are gettin' poorer, the rich are gettin' rich, if I don't starve I'm a son of a gun
No use to colic, no use to rave, we'll never rest 'til we're in our grave

I'm a-gonna starve or nobody will
'Cause you can't make a living at a cotton mill.