On August 13th, President Barack Obama fortified the religious freedom of all Americans by defending the right of developers to build an Islamic community center with a prayer room (a.k.a. Park51) in Lower Manhattan. A day later, the president differentiated between the "wisdom" of the Park51 project (labeled the "Ground Zero Mosque" by its opponents) and the constitutional rights of project developers. Michael Gerson, former Bush speechwriter, immediately put Obama's comments in proper context. In the Washington Post, Gerson writes that just because the President changed his tone on Park51, doesn't mean what he said was wrong. Gerson praises Obama's promotion of religious freedom as a matter of vital national interest. Ironically, it's conservative Michael Gerson and most recently libertarian Ron Paul who are taking the national conversation about Park51 to a new level. It is mind-boggling that Democrats -- given President Obama's record on matters of vital national interest -- are not driving the debate on Park51. The truth that Democrats must start shouting from the rooftops is that the debate is not only about fighting intolerance; it's about protecting America. Gerson's clarity on the Park51 debate is out of sync with Republican leaders who hammered Obama's August 13th comments as out of touch and cowardly - their latest cycle of political grandstanding and Islamophobic lies in the matter of the "Ground Zero Mosque". In his Washington Post piece, Gerson guts the logic behind these attacks on Obama, making it clear that it's Republican demagogues who don't understand how to fight America's enemies. Gerson writes, "Those who want a president to assert that any mosque would defile the neighborhood near Ground Zero are asking him to undermine the war on terrorism. A war on Islam would make a war on terrorism impossible." In his June 2009 speech in Cairo, President Obama called for a "new beginning" between the Muslim world and America and powerfully reminded a worldwide audience of the centuries of coexistence and cooperation between Islam and the West. The speech was a landmark step forward in creating new allies in the moderate Muslim world -- new, powerful allies in America's fight against those violent Islamic radicals who do our nation and the world harm. The Muslim world celebrated the speech and even extremist Web sites, which have carried statements from Al Qaeda in the past, praised Obama, calling him a "wise enemy." The Cairo speech clearly shows that President Obama inherently understands what experienced FBI terrorist interrogator Ali Soufan has been saying recently -- that Al Qaeda loses every time Americans dispel the twisted myth that we are at war with Islam and all Muslims. Ron Paul raised the level of debate most recently by asserting that the hateful and demagogic opposition to Park51 is driven by "neo-conservatives who demand continual war in the Middle East and Central Asia and are compelled to constantly justify it." Paul's assertions are a powerful reminder of neo-cons/the Bush Administration's disastrous record on national security -- a record that President Obama has swiftly begun to correct. President Bush's ill-conceived invasion of Iraq has given way to Obama's responsible end of combat in Iraq. The neo-con's fraudulent search for WMD's in Iraq has given way to Obama's first victory (a nuclear arms treaty with Russia) in a large-scale, audacious plan to keep terrorists from acquiring nuclear materials and to stop new nations from obtaining these weapons as well. Eight years of neo-conservative ineptitude in Afghanistan have given way to a Commander in Chief who honors our troops by creating the strategy they need to win. Recent successes like the Marja and Kandahar offensives as well as Obama's decisive installation of Gen. Petraeus as commander in Afghanistan are key parts of this strategy. The Park51 debate also continues to reveal Republicans' incompetence on national security. Republican fraud and xenophobia over Park51 does nothing to keep America safe and potentially imperils our nation. No one is happier about the GOP's "Ground Zero Mosque" hysteria than Osama Bin Laden. Ali Soufan writes that Bin Laden's "next video script has just written itself". On the issue of Afghanistan, Republicans clearly have no discernable strategy...beyond making it harder for Gen. Petraeus to do his job. As Frank Rich sagely points out, Islamaphobic hysteria over Park51 undercuts Petraeus' mission to win hearts and minds in Kandahar. In an attempt to create a new wedge issue out of a craven desire to win elections, Republicans are undermining the core message of American troops in Afghanistan. As the debate continues, Progressives must follow the advice of Jim Arkedis, director of the Progressive Policy Institute's National Security Project: "Progressives speaking about national security should say, with numbing repetition, the following truths: that progressive policies have the Taliban on the run, al-Qaida crippled, Iran isolated, nukes secured, terrorist plots squashed and pirates crushed. Compare that to the recklessness of conservatives who got us into the wrong war against the wrong enemy at a high cost." The Park 51 debate is a chance for Democrats to connect with the American people on the most vital truth of all: that on the fierce and urgent matter of paying real tribute to those who gave their lives on 9/11 and to those who serve and sacrifice as members of our Armed Forces, it's President Barack Obama who has a strong, smart, principled plan to protect every American man, woman and child today, tomorrow and in the years to come. It's time to shout this truth from the rooftops.

The participants in this unique dialogue may have been doing no less than opening the window on the next 500 years. As scary and stupefying as our world sometimes seems, we are at a place of enormous potential right now -- a transition point of unprecedented understanding among cultures and peoples and worldviews. Pushing that understanding, creating, in the words of the late physicist David Bohm, a milieu of "participatory consciousness" among radically diverse thinkers, is the idea behind the Language of Spirit Conference, sponsored by the SEED Graduate Institute, which has been held in Albuquerque every year since 1999. Last week I attended the 12th annual Language of Spirit Conference, which brought together Western scientists and scholars and Native North American and Australian scientists, philosophers and storytellers, not to argue, but to grope for commonality at the far reaches of their belief systems. The original dialogues, convened by Bohm and Leroy Little Bear (former director of Native Studies at Harvard) in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1992, came about because Little Bear, who was well-versed in the developments of quantum physics, realized that Western science had reached the end of linear thought and finally got it: The universe is a living, conscious, interconnected organism. This is how the world's indigenous people see things. They always have. Reverently tied to place, they have been the natural world's caretakers for thousands of years. They are of the world, living not just sustainably but in intimate relationship with their sacred piece of Planet Earth. "We are a people who never made singing or dancing unrespected ways of knowing," said Pat McCabe, a Navajo writer and scholar who also goes by the name Woman Stands Shining. "All of the five-fingered ways of knowing remained open to us." And now . . . now . . . 500 years after Western conquistadors subdued and divided the planet, devastating indigenous people on every continent and, while they were at it, pushing the natural world to the brink of eco-collapse, we are turning -- some of us -- to the wisdom of connectedness that has been ours for the asking all along. This isn't easy or simple. Our disconnect from one another, from ourselves and from the natural world is embedded in the Western languages, which break the world into millions of discrete, manipulable pieces, called nouns ("My name is Matthew. I'm a nounaholic," cried linguist Matthew Bronson). Westerners control reality through language, but they don't evoke it. Indigenous languages are, as I am slowly coming to understand them, verb-based, intrinsically linking speaker and object in a flow of motion that cannot be linguistically sliced and diced. Just as I began writing this column, the New Yorker arrived in the mail. On the cover of the Aug. 30 issue is a drawing of a middle-aged white guy sitting on a beach chair at the edge of the ocean, smugly pointing a TV remote at it -- perfectly illustrating the disconnected, control-fixated Westerner the Language of Spirit Conference was addressing . . . the one who has done so much harm. With eerie synchronicity, the water on the New Yorker cover flows back to the dialogue. Speaking about the BP oil spill, SEED founder Glenn Aparicio Parry noted in amazement, "The mainstream world believes that water is dead -- yet we're 70 percent water." "The assumption of the laws (of science)," said biophysicist Beverly Rubik, "is that we're a non-living universe. We ought to start over. We have a science that starts with deadness. It's time to revision science -- in a living universe." These words begin to get at the vibration of the conference -- this exercise in participatory consciousness -- which struck at the core of something vital. The ostensible subject of the 12th Language of Spirit dialogue was time. The speakers dismantled linear time, the kind that moves in a straight line and pulls us along on its track. (In the U.S., time wasn't standardized till 1886, when the railroads demanded it.) Nonlinear time -- the timelessness of dreaming, reverence, prayer and awe -- filled the room, and I could feel the living universe pulse. It pulsed with love. "The eagle is more valuable to you alive" than as merely a source of feathers, said Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan. "The sacred thing is the life force." It also pulsed with anger. Writer M.J. Zimmerman, speaking about SEED spiritual mentor Leon Secatero, who died in 2008, said: "Grandfather Leon always talked about getting ready for the next 500 years. We're in a transition point. The anger of colonization should not be brought into the next 500 years. "Hurt people hurt people," she added. "Europeans have moved into every part of this planet and hurt people." She offered the plea that we in the disconnected West find our own roots, dig "way back into our own traumatic history" and begin to heal our brokenness. And for the first time in my life I found myself groping in the darkness of my own past, beyond a few generations of known ancestors and beyond my identity as an American, toward an ancient tribal commonality that has fallen out of history, and I felt a slow give in the assumptions of my life. "Everyone is indigenous," said Jill Milroy, dean of the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia. Perhaps knowing this is the first step in envisioning the next 500 years. - - - Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist, contributor to One World, Many Peaces and nationally syndicated writer. His new book, Courage Grows Strong at the Wound (Xenos Press) is now available for pre-orders. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com or visit his website at commonwonders.com. © 2010 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

Last week I had an epiphany. I have been operating under the mistaken belief that those who continually forward emails full of vicious lies and distortions smearing President Obama, his family, and others with whom they politically disagree were simply mistaken. I was sure that if I could send them conclusive proof that they were forwarding deliberately manufactured lies -- not honest mistakes -- then they would be grateful and thank me. But they never did. In fact, they almost always got angry and berated me for being a liberal -- which I guess is a term they use to describe people who care about the truth. They never said "Thank you so much! I can't believe I just sent a horrible lie about our president to a whole bunch of my friends. I will have to get back in touch with all of them right away and make sure they know it's not true!" Then my friend Doug, a highly respected attorney, helped me see the light. I had just responded to a number of people who had sent me an email claiming that President Obama had sent $17 million dollars in stimulus money to officials at Oregon State University to help save the job of Michelle's brother, Craig Robinson, who was supposedly about to be fired as the school's basketball coach. Now to any reasonable person (particularly a sports fan familiar with the Pac 10), this piece was obviously phony. In the first place, Robinson is the best coach Oregon State has had in over a decade and has turned their basketball program around. OSU fans were scared that he would leave for a bigger school and were thrilled when he signed a contract extension through 2016 last March. As Snopes, Urban Legends, and other truth sites have pointed out, every sentence in the bogus email is false. And, as with all these creations, it is a professionally manufactured lie--not the result of an average person making an honest mistake. So I wrote the friends who had forwarded me this piece (under a headline encouraging me to be outraged) along with proof that it wasn't true. But this time I asked Doug "now that you know it's a lie, what are you going to do?" His response made it clear to me just how misguided I have been -- and a whole lot more. "I'm going to keep sending it out," he said. "After all, Obama lies all the time, so we have the right to lie too." Then it hit me. We are not dealing with rational discourse about politics, economics, and what is best for America any more. We are dealing with a religious cult of tens of millions of people who are addicted to anger, outrage, and hatred and the media outlets that feed that addition. Issues that most of us consider to be questions of truth and reason have now become questions of religious faith. These are Americans who now believe with perfect faith the our black president, dark-skinned Muslim terrorists and Mexican immigrants, and liberal Democrats are the cause of every problem we face in America today. These self-described patriots don't just disagree with their adversaries --they actually believe that the bad guys are pure evil and out to destroy everything is great about America. They are true believers in the same way that Orthodox Jews believe that the entire Hebrew Bible was given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai -- in the same way that devout Christians believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God. It is not a matter that lends itself to intellectual discussion. It is not about reason or facts -- it is a matter of faith. Rational discourse and fact checks that prove that what is being said is untrue have become irrelevant to people for whom this was never about truth and accuracy. Glenn Beck has become the high priest of Fox News and of the new religion and his language and demeanor have become increasingly evangelical as this trend has continued. The business network CNBC has jumped on board as well. The late-morning business program The Call now includes a regular segment entitled "Viewer Outrage." Think about that. They are now committed to a televised segment of outrage on a daily basis in the way The 700 Club might commit itself to airing a daily prayer or bible passage. But all this anger and outrage and thinly veiled racism and bigotry and lies are only the symptoms. The disease is the widespread and growing sense of fear that is gripping millions of Americans who just a few years ago felt confident about their circumstances and future but who today are more frightened and confused than they have ever been in their lives. For an entire generation, most people got used to secure employment, a growing economy, rising home, stock, and real estate prices. There were ups and downs along the way but we were all told that if we worked hard, owned quality investments, and hung in for the long term that things would work out fine. And for 25 years they did. If a person put away a nest egg, they could count on at least 5 percent a year from risk-free investments and an average of 10-15 percent a year in riskier investments. Most of my clients who retired during that period (I'm a financial adviser when I'm not busy saving the world) would go on to buy the nicest house they ever owned, live better than they did when they were working, and see their net worth go up year after year due to the rising value of their investments. This was the case despite the stock market crash in 1987, the savings and loan crisis of the early '90s, the popping of the tech bubble, and even 9/11. We always came back stronger than we were before. But all that has changed for the worse during the last five years. Million of Americans have lost 100 percent (or more) of the equity in their homes. Most growth-oriented investments such as stocks and real estate have been losers instead of winners. More importantly, most investors have lost confidence in the future pulling more than $33 billion out of stock mutual funds already this year and moving that money into bonds and CDs that are yielding virtually nothing. Just ten years ago, there was full employment and companies such as mine were offering a $1,000 bonus to any employee who helped find a new worker because the labor market was that tight. Today, we have tens of millions of Americans out of work and most companies are looking to make even more cuts even as business has improved dramatically. In its effort to stimulate the economy by dropping interest rates to zero, the Federal Reserve has actually hurt most investors by making it impossible to get any income at all from bank deposits and money market funds. A person with a million dollars in the bank used to be able to get $50,000 or more a year in income. Now they are lucky to get $1,000. People who thought they had a grip on their lives are now scared and confused and looking for someone to blame. They used to look forward to leaving something to their children and grandchildren. Today our kids are inheriting a reverse annuity -- a mountain of debt they can never outlive. The patriots blame estate taxes and Obama's anti-wealth policies, but deep down they know the truth. We just didn't have the guts to act like grown-ups. We paid our bills with credit cards and when we were maxed out, we put them on our kids' tab. We now face two basic choices. We can look in the mirror and realize that the challenges we now face are due in large part to choices we made as voters and citizens. We elected and supported government leaders who spent too much and taxed us too little. We wanted to keep Medicare and drug benefits and Social Security and to expand homeland security and fight two wars but we didn't want to pay for it. We re-elected a president and Congress who told us we could have it all and make no sacrifices. Those same officials allowed our financial institutions and oil drillers and miners and others to take huge risks in search of profits and personal gain without regard to the consequences to all of us when those gambles crapped out. So now we can look in the mirror or we can find someone else to blame. It's obvious which choice millions of Americans have made. Instead of looking at how they need to change their own behavior and expectations, these cult patriots have chosen to blame others and get very angry. They have chosen to blame a president who wasn't even around when everything was coming unglued. They have chosen to blame every member of Congress, even though WE were the ones who elected them. They have chosen to blame a variety of dark-skinned people, starting with our black president but not ending there. We also blame dark-skinned immigrants who, like most of our parents and grandparents came to America seeking a better life and who make a huge contribution to our economy and society. And now, nine years after 9/11, Fox News and opportunistic politicians are choosing to revive a new wave of bigotry and resentment against the millions of law-abiding, tax-paying Muslim Americans (thousands of whom serve in our military and dozens of whom were killed in the 9/11 attacks) under the guise of showing respect for the Real American victims at the World Trade Center. The anger and hatred and lies being spread about Muslims and the leaders of the cultural center are yet another embarrassment to our country. The notion that an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory three blocks from Ground Zero is "hallowed ground" while there are already two strips clubs operating even closer to the site without any concern is yet another indication of how our sense of nation fear and confusion has eliminated any pretense of honesty or fairness in how we think or what we today come to call "news." My friend, teacher and Rabbi Brad Hirschfield of CLAL has taught that anger and fear can be very useful as an alarm system--the flashing red lights and clanging bells that alert us that we are facing a serious challenge. But he goes on to point out that people should not make important decisions while they are angry or afraid, wisely pointing out that those actions never seem to work out well and are often disastrous. We are facing enormous challenges both individually and as a country. And at a time when we can least afford it, we have allowed anger, outrage, racism, bigotry, and lies to become the ritual practices of our fasting growing religion. Before a disease can be cured, it has to be accurately diagnosed. As long as a growing group of people continues to believe that our national sickness is all about dark-skinned people who are not like us and evil politicians, our problems will only get worse. This first step toward a cure has to be a return of honesty and rational, fact-based conversation regarding where we are and how to proceed. And the first step toward that first step must be a rejection of news media and politicians who are the false prophets and leaders of this new, fast-growing cult. And finding the "delete" button on our computers when we receive an email that blares in its headline that we should be angry and outraged and claims to have identified the villains who got us into this mess. It's going to be long and hard but, as Will Rogers once said, when you find yourself in a hole and need to get out, the first thing to do is stop digging. Because they are angry and afraid, too many self-described Patriotic Americans have used anger, outrage, and demonization as a shovel and as a result they are sinking deeper and deeper into the pit.

Politico - Opinion: The game of politics is holding back some lawmakers from supporting the energy bill.

AP - The Auschwitz memorial in Poland says it has obtained around 150 medical instruments believed to have been used by the Nazis in experiments on the death camp inmates.

"Moderate" is one of those words, like "terrorist," that can be used precisely and informatively or loosely and ideologically. The difference is that "terrorist" is a reproach, while "moderate" is a term of approbation. Because "moderate" contrasts with "extreme," and because all ethical systems deem moderation a virtue and extremism a vice, the ideological appropriation of the term follows naturally and occurs in many political contexts. Thus Middle Eastern and African regimes that collaborate with "the West" have long been deemed "moderate," no matter how nefarious or corrupt or, by any reasonable metric, extreme they might be. A similar usage has lately been applied to Latin American countries where, under the unwatchful eye of an American government occupied with wars in the Middle East, counter-systemic forces have been on the rise. What applies to governments applies as well to political movements. Whatever is friendly to imperialism is "moderate" and therefore good; the rest are "anti-American" and therefore "our" enemies. "Moderate" plays a role in our domestic politics too. The two, semi-official parties are of one mind in protecting the interests of corporate, military and national security elites, even as they have become increasingly polarized around issues that are of only marginal importance to these masters of "democracy." Because Democratic politicians regard their base with contempt, while Republicans live in fear of theirs, the resulting spectrum, which never included more than a trace of a genuine left, has veered increasingly rightward in recent years. Nevertheless, Democrats who list towards the Republican side are deemed "moderate," as are Republicans who lean Democratic. Nowadays, there are many more moderate Democrats than Republicans. Because moderation is considered good, this has been, and probably still is, good for the Democrats' electoral prospects. However it is far from good for those who would transform the political status quo for the better. The idea that pleasing moderates is necessary for electoral success has become conventional wisdom. One must wonder, though, whether the pillars of the Democratic establishment really believe this; if they had half the sense they were born with, they'd realize that their own parochial interests would be better served if they showed more willingness to take what they claim is their own side. But the fact that it is conventional wisdom to play to what passes for a "center" helps them serve their corporate masters better. If nothing else, it keeps the pesky demands of the people Democrats call on for votes at bay. None of this is exactly news. But it is news that this disabling ideological posturing has gotten out of control -- to the point that it now threatens elite interests in what unreconstructed neo-cons still think of as "the war on terror." For this, we have right-wing demagogues and a media culture that feeds on fear mongering sensationalism, along with Republican guile and Democratic pusillanimity, to thank. The change is subtle, but momentous. It is also ironic - uniting the interests of the elites our political class serve and the popular interests they consistently disappoint. The issue is "moderate" Islam, and what has catalyzed the change is the "debate" over the "Ground Zero mosque." [Scare quotes are appropriate because there is really nothing to debate - of course, the mosque should be built - and because the building in question isn't exactly a mosque and neither is its location Ground Zero.] What has emerged from the storm and fury is a widespread assumption: that everything Islamic should be presumed immoderate ("extremist," "radical") and therefore evil until proven otherwise, and that the presumption is difficult if not impossible to overcome. In contrast, Judaism and Christianity are presumed moderate no matter what evils are done in their name. Even when the facts on the ground make it impossible to claim moderation, Jewish and Christian extremists are deemed aberrant and described in terms, like "fundamentalist," that don't challenge this underlying assumption. What then follows for anyone with the wits to draw obvious conclusions is that if this is what Americans think, then America really is at war with Islam. It also follows that "true Americans" don't want Muslims in their midst. This is a recipe for generating terrorists. It also provides an additional reason, as if more were necessary, for Muslims to resist American imperialism. Needless to say, what is bad for imperialism is good for the world and for the American people (in contrast to American elites) -- especially now, as the empire is crumbling and the need for a soft landing is becoming increasingly urgent. Yet another demonstration of the futility of "counter-insurgency" would therefore be welcome, other things being equal. But other things are not equal because, even as the vaunted General Petraeus and his co-thinkers go down to defeat, the rest of us stand to lose even more if islamicist resistance continues unabated. Then the likelihood that we will become victims of terror at home increases mightily, and it becomes certain that we will continue to be agents of murder and mayhem abroad. For the targets of imperialism's depredations, the prospects are even bleaker. This is why there is no reason to welcome the self-defeating machinations of those who, wittingly or not, encourage endless war. Even George Bush knew enough not to stir the islamophobic pot. Because his successors lack even that much decency, their self-serving ideological constructions are careening out of control -- into lethal territory. In these circumstances, there are even worse things than making common cause with enlightened imperialists. Republicans may know no better. But shame on Democrats who allege "sensitivity" to the feelings of 9/ll families as an excuse for not acknowledging the obvious.

A progressive non-profit group supporting the Islamic cultural center in downtown Manhattan released a video on Thursday chastising prominent Democrats for enabling the anti-Muslim sentiment that led to the stabbing of a cab driver this week. The New York-based Agenda Project took aim at some unusual suspects in its latest push to coalesce public opinion around the building of the Cordoba House. In the latest in a series of videos, the group named former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, New York Gov. David Patterson, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid along with Newt Gingrich, John McCain, and Sarah Palin as culprits to blame for an environment of prejudice against Muslim Americans. The video, released only on the web, is perhaps the hardest shot taken to date at the pool of Democratic politicians who have either backed away from or directly questioned the construction of the so-called "Ground Zero mosque." And by invoking the recent incident of violence against a Muslim cab driver -- however hazy the details are around that episode -- the group makes a powerful case that social tensions have been brought to a boiling point, in large part because of political leadership. But in making its case, the Agenda Project also takes some rather large leaps. The group draws no distinction between those who are urging a compromise location but would ultimately be fine with the Cordoba House's construction near Ground Zero and those who would be outraged if the project proceeded as planned. Indeed, one of the main reasons Dean argued against building the cultural center blocks from Ground Zero is because he felt it would diffuse the heat of the debate.

The Upshot - Could Democrats be in danger of losing majority control of the Senate in November? A new analysis from FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver suggests that the GOP is gaining momentum heading into the midterm elections, putting at least six or seven Democratic Senate seats at serious risk. "The Democrats now have an approximately 20 percent chance of [...]

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF. Former Wyoming Republican Senator Alan Simpson is co-chair of President Obama's Fiscal Commission. This is what he said the other day about the relationship between the American people and our government: "We've reached a point now where it's like a milk cow with 310 million tits!" This country that was once run by We, the People with government "of the people, by the people and for the people" has become instead a country where the ruling elites can talk about the public as babies, the unemployed as parasites who are jobless because they are "lazy." The prevailing attitude about the public, from the new Versailles that has grown up around Washington, DC -- what bloggers call "the village" seems to be if you feed them they will breed. Look at the weird situation we are in today. The wealthy are wealthier than ever. The gap between the rich and the rest of us is bigger than ever. Big corporate profits are soaring and the too-big-to-fail multinational corporations have more power than ever. At the same time wages that were stagnant for decades are now dropping, people with jobs are working longer and harder, more of our people are unemployed and unemployed for longer, more without health insurance, more are depending on food stamps for basic nutrition, more are losing their homes than ever with bankruptcies soaring, and small businesses are barely hanging on or are going under at an alarming rate. But what are our political leaders up to? On the one hand, the deficit commission is focused on cutting Social Security (which does not contribute to the deficit or debt) at a time when more people need it and need it more than ever. On the other hand many in the Congress are looking for ways to extend the deficit-causing Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2%. And few are talking about our government hiring or helping the unemployed, stimulating the economy, or holding the bad actors who caused this mess accountable. In fact, far from talking about helping our fellow citizens, our ruling DC elites have a different view of things entirely. We, the People are just in the way. It is our own tit-sucking fault, they say, and we need to step up and sacrifice because we are not doing enough to help the people who really deserve it: the producers, the "job creators." Did you catch the rhetorical trick I used above? I said "our" people, and "our" government. How quaint. You don't hear that kind of talk much anymore. Instead you hear about "personal responsibility," which makes everything that is done to someone by the wealthy and powerful their own fault. This Is About Democracy vs. Corporatist Plutocracy These battles over cutting Social Security and extending tax cuts for the wealthy expose the competing worldviews of We, the People democracy vs corporatist plutocracy. Is our country a community of the people, by the people and for the people? Or are we "the help," only here for the benefit of the wealthy few. In the democracy worldview we are a community that takes care of and watches out for each other. We are each citizens with equal rights and equal value, to be respected equally. Our government and economy are supposed to be for us. In the democracy worldview we should be increasing Social Security's benefits because people really need it. In the plutocratic worldview held by conservatives and corporatist moderates we are "the help," 310 million loafers ("parasites" is the Randian word) sucking their " unearned sustenance" (more Rand) from the tits of the milk cow when we all ought to be working harder because the portfolios of the "achievers" (and more) are down a bit. Your value to society is only what you "produce." Your role otherwise is to "consume." In that worldview the wealthy deserve tax cuts and the parasites shouldn't be getting Social Security checks at all. So what is it going to be? Will we see and understand ourselves as citizens, who share this country on an equal basis with the rich and the poor, with rights and entitlements, deserving dignity, respect, protection and empowerment from a government that is of, be and for We, the People? Will we demand those things and fight for them? Or will we quietly yield those hard-won rights to our "betters" and allow ourselves to be told what to do, fleeced by giant corporations, hoping to get a flat-screen TV out of the deal if we behave? Sign up here for the CAF daily summary.

Immigration increased by a fifth last year, driven by a sharp rise in the number of foreign students being allowed into the country.

Thirty-four Immigration New Zealand staff are being investigated for misconduct, including allegations of fraud and corruption.This follows the sacking this year of seven immigration staff, three of whom were directly involved…

Thirty four Immigration New Zealand Staff are being investigated for misconduct, including fraud and corruption.

TRENTON – Proponents of immigration law change and activists favoring law enforcement and curbing illegal entry into the United States will square off at a debate tonight.

British Immigration Minister Damian Green said Wednesday that his country has no plans to erect barriers and close doors on Indians in its efforts to control immigration effectively.

Thirty-four Immigration New Zealand staff here and overseas are being investigated for misconduct, including allegations of fraud and corruption

Immigration detention centers, which make up the fastest-growing prison system in the United States, have not yet implemented universal standards on prison abuse. That has left detainees--especially women--vulnerable to abuse, according to a new report. About 380,000 people were in in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers at some point in 2009 for suspected [... ]

MANILA, Philippines Immigration officers who have been receiving death threats from human trafficking and illegal recruitment syndicates will be provided police protection.

With over 3,000 lives lost during the September 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center, the U.S. and its allies wasted no time in trying to eradicate a growing problem. Terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda were directly blamed for the incident and are now highly considered a threat to the peace and security of every country. And thus, Operation Enduring Freedom was launched on October 7, 2001 to hunt down and destroy terrorist groups and their training grounds. Along with other NATO countries, the U.S. armed forces have been facing strong resistance from Al Qaeda and from the Taliban Insurgency. With every American solder getting killed in Afghanistan, the lower the confidence and trust of the American people in pursuing the war. For years, the armed forces have not only faced armed resistance but also harsh criticisms from several politicians, lawmakers and citizens themselves. It is evident that more and more people have lost their patience with the armed forces indicating that the war itself isn’t winnable at all. After over 9 years in combat and with almost 8,000 allied casualty, the U.S. has finally decided to end the war by bring back home their troops. U.S. President Barack Obama’s announced that the U.S. will begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July 2011. With suicide attacks increasing every day, the troop withdrawal is good news to all the families of U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan. Some said that it will help prevent any further bloodshed and save more American lives. But retiring marine General James Conway said that the announcement by Pres. Obama is just going to boost the morale of insurgency groups. It is good to note that the Taliban Insurgency has been mainly responsible for the recent attacks on allied bases which are constantly claiming the lives of many allied soldiers. Conway believes that the insurgency can now wait till the last U.S. soldier leaves Afghanistan in order to reclaim the land back. While the argument of Conway may be partly true, it is still reasonable to withdraw those troops as the war has been going on for over 9 years without any significant results. More and more U.S. servicemen are losing their lives in foreign soil on a war that is perceived as unwinnable. Many people believed that the moment the U.S. armed forces step foot in Afghanistan was already a big mistake. With the insurgency not going any weaker, it is best to withdraw those troops to save lives and be reasonable enough. Also, with the economic recession depleting the federal budget very rapidly, ending combat operations in Afghanistan will save a lot of federal money which can be used to create jobs instead.

The Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill has been widely considered as very destructive not only on the environmental habitat surrounding the Mexico gulf but also for the thousands of business establishments and residents that were affected by the incident. With the large volumes of oil that leaked into the sea, it is widely regarded as the largest oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and the one of the worst oil spill in the U.S. The extensive damage to wildlife and marine habitat has been a major concern to local residents, environmental experts and to the U.S. government itself. Because of the major environmental disaster that is had caused, scientists are now scrambling to collect valuable data which will be used to determine the extent of the disaster and effect it will bring in the future. Although the oil blowout has been capped and the surface oil slick already been dispersed, there may still be the presence of toxic chemicals that has combined with sea water. These chemicals are a huge threat to the surrounding habitat and may disrupt the food chain. Scientists believed that despite of the successful cleanup operations, there are more work to be done in assessing the long term effect of the disaster. But despite of the massive efforts of scientists to conduct research, there has been an unequal treatment with regards to funds, access to vital information and access to key locations in the gulf. Since the location of the oil spill is owned by BP, only those who are directly working for them or those who are working for the federal government’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment program are given enough funding and the privilege to access those important sites. Other independent researchers are discarded or have limited access to the research site. The results of the numerous will be used to pursue the legal remedies that BP will be facing. Without proper transparency on these researches, expect a one-sided result which will surely favor BP. The results will be in total secrecy without uncovering the truth to the public. Independent scientists are now asking the government to grant them access to affected sites in order to conduct their own research and investigation on the disaster. Without the commitment to provide appropriate funding and vital access, the rehabilitation and restoration of the gulf will be in jeopardy.

Before his presidency, Barack Obama was a democratic Senator of the state of Illinois. Having graduated at Harvard University law school with Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude honors, he was then perceived as an intelligent and skillful man. On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his bid for presidency. During his campaign, his platforms with regards to ending the war in Iraq, improving and increasing energy efficiency and creating a universal health care program caught the attention of a lot of people. Obama would then win the presidential race being the first African-American to take the highest position in office in America. During the early days of his presidency, there was renewed hope felt by millions of citizens especially that the nation has been plagued by a lot of social, political and economical problems left by the previous administration. Because of him being considerably black, there were also high hopes in the restoration of freedom and justice regardless of race. But after almost 2 years in office, it seems that the voting population has been steadily losing trust and patience with Obama. His inability to resolve the rising death tolls in both wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) have drawn many criticisms from several politicians, lawmakers and citizens. Also, the controversial health care reform bill has also received negative reviews stating that it is unreasonable and will only negate the freedom enjoyed by millions of Americans. Another big issue is his capability to find a solution to the present economic crisis that has left 12% of the population without a job. The increasing budget deficit is also a huge concern limiting government funding on basic social services and also erasing thousands of federal jobs. But perhaps the most controversial issue that the President has faced is with regards to his comments on the proposed Mosque to be constructed two blocks away from Ground Zero. Because of that incident, more people have developed doubts about the real religion of Obama. A recent poll indicated that 1 in every 5 Americans believed that Obama is a Muslim. Even before his comments on the proposed Mosque, there is already a continued rise on the belief that he is indeed a Muslim. Various democrats label this as a politically-charged action ahead of the Congressional elections. They also argued that some of the disagreements that pertain to Obama’s religion were linked to discontent of his performance. Whatever the real score is, the degree of distrust to the president is really increasing. I can fully say that this has also something to do with the lack of transparency that the present administration has. If indeed Pres. Obama is really a Christian, then the government should have nothing to hide and show the actual proof to the people. With lack of confidence and trust, the nation will never achieve national unity.