Congrats to all DREAMIEs for getting our idea into the second round of voting at Change.org. Voting starts on Monday, Jan 5 so get your contacts, facebook groups, friends and family ready to vote again.

Lets throw our support squarely behind all three ideas.

Fox is kicking off 2009 the only way it knows how, by continuing to serve as the GOP's mouthpiece.  That's just what Chris Wallace did yesterday on Fox News Sunday while pretending to hold a "fair and balanced" discussion about the Employee Free Choice Act with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. 

Wallace referred to the Employee Free Choice as "Big Labor's top priority," repeatedly dubbing it "union card check."  Wallace also continued to push the false notion that Employee Free Choice would do away with secret ballots.  Fox's overt use of Republican talking points to fearmonger about Employee Free Choice is certainly nothing new, but what happened on Fox News Sunday is alarming for two reasons.

First, Hoyer wasn't nearly clear enough in explaining that the Employee Free Choice will NOT deny anyone the right to a secret ballot; all the act does is give workers the alternative of forming a union by signing union cards.  I repeat, Employee Free Choice means just what its name implies: workers can either hold a secret ballot election or form a union if a majority of employees sign up for one.

Second, Hoyer's failure to articulate this point enables Fox and the Republicans to control the false frame, which suddenly gives credence to the GOP's otherwise ludicrous Save Our Secret Ballot initiative.  This movement, backed by Big Business, is attempting to amend state constitutions to "guarantee" the secret ballot under the guise of protecting workers' rights.  Consider it a preemptive shot across the bow of Employee Free Choice, which would be federal legislation once Congress passes it this spring (as Hoyer suggested).

The United States has effectively blocked the UN Security Council from issuing a formal statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, alleging that there was no indication Hamas would abide by any agreement. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed, humanitarian aid is in short supply, and Israel has refused to allow reporters to enter the region. There are many reasons why Israel decided to attack Gaza now. An outgoing and completely ineffectual U.S. administration; upcoming Israeli elections; the Israeli desire to remove Hamas from power; and the inability of the international community to mount an effective response to Israel's actions. The war now enters its 9th day. 

Moustafa Barghouti writing in Al-Ahram Weekly notes that, "there is another reason -- beyond the internal politics of Israel -- why this attack has been allowed to occur: the complicity and silence of the international community.

Israel cannot and would not act against the will of its economic allies in Europe or its military allies in the US. Israel may be pulling the trigger and ending hundreds, perhaps even thousands of lives this week, but it is the apathy of the world and the inhumane tolerance of Palestinian suffering that allows this to occur."

It's not easy to get the runaround when you have a traumatic brain injury from George's war.

Take a load off at www.michaelmoore.com

Nine days. 507 Palestinians killed. More than 2,400 injured. And a quarter of those killed are civilians, according to the United Nations. Those are the figures. Hospitals at breaking point, families devastated, people forced from their homes with nowhere to go. That is the reality of Israel's war on Gaza. Al Jazeera is the only international broadcaster with a presence there. Sherine Tadros is on our team in Gaza. This is her latest report, from the epicentre of Gaza's struggle to survive: its main hospital.

From our friend Jason Rosenbaum:

The New York Times has a in-depth look at the corruption in the Afghan government, and it’s a stark reminder of how closely we’re repeating history on many fronts.

As Dexter Filkins explains, almost anything in Afghanistan is for sale:

When it comes to governing this violent, fractious land, everything, it seems, has its price.

Want to be a provincial police chief? It will cost you $100,000.

Want to drive a convoy of trucks loaded with fuel across the country? Be prepared to pay $6,000 per truck, so the police will not tip off the Taliban.

Need to settle a lawsuit over the ownership of your house? About $25,000, depending on the judge.

“It is very shameful, but probably I will pay the bribe,” Mohammed Naim, a young English teacher, said as he stood in front of the Secondary Courthouse in Kabul. His brother had been arrested a week before, and the police were demanding $4,000 for his release. “Everything is possible in this country now. Everything.”

Guess where all that money is coming from? Bribes and drug trafficking.

 

The brazenness of the corruption is astounding. You can rent a mansion owned by Kabul’s police chief, Mohammed Ayob Salangi, for $11,000 a month. President Karzai’s salary is only $600 a month, making it clear that the mansion is maintained through ill-gotten wealth.

 For more, go here.

The heavy Israeli aerial bombardment and threat of a ground offensive has forced Gazans to remain indoors for safety.   Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros spent the evening with one family in Gaza City to see how they're coping.

The "enhanced interrogation tactics " used in Guantanamo under orders from the Pentagon and the White House have been the subject of numerous hearings on Capitol Hill recently. The lawyers who approved the policies - which many call torture -- are under increasing pressure to explain how it was possible for such methods to be ordered by the United States government. More hearings are on the way.

Israel's aerial assault on Gaza continues for a seventh day.

news.yahoo.com KABUL, Afghanistan The number of roadside bombs and kidnappings doubled in Afghanistan in 2008 from the year previous, the U.S. ambassador said Tuesday, grim statistics that underscore the country's deteriorating security situation. The number of roadside bombs rose from roughly 1,000 in 2007 to 2,000 in 2008, while the number of kidnappings jumped from about 150 to 300, said Ambassador William Wood. Compiling accurate data for roadside bombs and kidnappings is difficult, he said, and the numbers were approximate. Glad to be alive for 2009 at www.michaelmoore.com

On Saturday, Israel began airstrikes over Gaza, killing over 300 people.  The attack violates U.S. and international law including the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, and several international humantarian laws. You can read more here.

From our friend Jason Rosenbaum:

Hey, guess what? Remember that plan to work with local militias in Afghanistan a la Iraq? The plan that’s doomed to fail because it lacks clear goals:

It’s hard to see how this strategy can work, and what’s worse, it falls into the same trap that made the “surge” in Iraq a military success but a strategic failure. -snip-

Similarly, we are not imposing any real goals for this militia-arming program, accompanied by a surge of 30,000 more foreign troops scheduled for this summer. We are simply hoping a reduction in violence (if it even comes, given the obstacles) will lead to a magical transformation of the corrupt Karzai government largely seen as illegitimate into a political force that can unite Afghanistan against the Taliban, to only governing force to control Afghanistan in perhaps a century.

It gets better. We’re going to give them free guns, too!

 To read more, go here.

The Obama team's report about their contact with Blagojevich wasn't just not good enough but FOX News trotted out Karl Rove, no poster child for government transparency and ethics, to baselessly suggest that sinister facts had been concealed. From the 12/23/08 Hannity & Colmes.

Your Daily Politics Video Blog: Yesterday we announced the much-anticipated nominees for the 2008 Golden Duke Awards. Today for your holiday viewing pleasure we bring you a reel of the 5 nominees in the category of Sleaziest Campaign Ad. Be sure to stay tuned for the announcement of the Golden Dukes winners on December 31!

The town of Harriman, TN. must have really pissed off Santa this year, because on Dec. 22, 2008, an earthen dam holding back an enormous coal ash sludge pond broke, spilling millions of cubic yards of coal sludge into the town of Harriman, Tennessee. The sludge came from the Kingston Fossil Plant, a coal-fired power plant located about 40 miles west of Knoxville. Coal ash (or fly ash) has significant amounts of heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury, and selenium, which can cause cancer, neurological problems, and birth defects. The ash is produced when ash from burning coal is cleaned from exhaust before being pumped out of smokestacks.

Originally, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) reported that 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had been spilled. Turns out their estimate was off by about 300%. From NYTimes:

Authority officials initially said that about 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had spilled when the earthen retaining wall of an ash pond at Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, gave way on Monday. But on Thursday they released the results of an aerial survey that showed the actual amount was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep.

The amount now said to have been spilled is larger than the amount the Authority initially said was in the pond, 2.6 million cubic yards.

Yet more proof that “clean” coal is a total myth. Obama talked about his support for “clean” coal technology during the campaign, but he better take a look at Harriman, TN and get off that bandwagon fast. This is another one of those disasters that republicans and business “never saw coming”, even though environmentalists have been warning about it for years.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION BY SIGNING THE PETITION in support of Shirin Ebadi and human rights advocates working in Iran!

From Medea Benjamin today:

In our recent visit to Iran, we saw among the young university women what an important role model Shirin Ebadi is to them. As a female law student told us, "Shirin is our hero. That's why many of us decided to study law. We want to be like her and help the women of Iran gain equal status with men in areas such as marriage, divorce, custody of children, inheritance."

Shirin Ebadi received worldwide recognition when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. The Iranian government has tried repeatedly to silence her, but to no avail. The latest government clampdown happened this weekend,  when  two human rights centers that she founded were illegally shut down without explanation or written justification.

George W. Bush is on pace to impose more last-minute changes to Federal rules than any president in history. Many consider Bush's "midnight regulations" to be a parting gift to big industry and against the greater public interest. Discussions are already underway to see if the next Congress can undo what the Bush White House has done.

Tell us what you think of Bush's midnight regulations at BNF's Santa Bush page. 

Cenk thinks not.

Watch more at www.theyoungturks.com

A.C. Thompson of the Nation talks with Amy Goodman about his investigation into race-related shootings in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where white vigilante groups shot 11 African-American men. Local police have never conducted investigations into the shootings. (The picture is out of sync, but just listen to it like it was radio ;-))

It appears Cenk (and reality) disagrees with Rick Warren's justifications for opposing gay marriage. Watch more at www.theyoungturks.com