Two kind of totally unrelated stories here but they both illustrate the way corporate power in the U.S. is completely out of hand. 

First up, the pox that calls itself "tort reform" but is really a hugely successful attempt to choke off access to the courts for ordinary citizens. Here's an op-ed by filmmaker Susan Saladoff about her new documentary "Hot Coffee":

Taking away people’s rights to access the courts is not that new for corporations. It has been going on for more than 25 years. It has been done through legislation, judicial elections, contractually and supported by a massive, corporate-funded public relations campaign.

Most Americans, however, have no idea – and, again, don’t seem to care — until something bad happens to them personally. Then, people understand, usually for the first time, how their constitutional rights — which stem from the 7th Amendment — have been taken away.

And after the jump is some info on the new corporate assault on ICANN, the entity that manages top level domain names on the Internet.

Wireless For America is trying to get broadband spectrum increased, which the FCC has approved (as did the Obama and Bush Admins). But Senator Chuck Grassley (R- Iowa) is standing on the neck of innovation, choking off any chance of improving America's patheticly low rankings for broadband access.

The US is #15 in Broadband penetration and a pathetic 26th in Broadband speed -- behind Romania, that noted hotbed of innovation. This isn't an accident. Bad service and limited access are very much in the interest of Big Telecom. Underserved neighborhoods in rural and urban areas have broadband access issues, jobs that would be created by growing small telecoms are being stopped by Grassley, Tom Petri (R-Wisconsin) and their buddies, and the rest of us are paying more for crappier service, which is the point of telecom monopoly.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

One of the most annoying endangered creatures in the current political environment is the moderate Republican. These are the ones who claim to be somewhat civilized and yet, when push comes to shove, they always vote with the corporate bosses. 

Some environmentalists in New Jersey are attacking the GOP at its most vulnerable point -- moderate congressional districts that strongly favor commen sense environmental solutions. 

We've endured the atrocities that George Bush thought constituted "education reform" for almost a decade now and I think it's clear to everyone that "teaching to the test" has just made our already troubled educational system even worse.

I'm happy to say that I came across something that sounds like a promising alternative (via Al Jazeera):

...education expert Dr Steve Edwards, nationally recognised for his leadership of East Hartford High School in Connecticut. During Edwards' tenure, violence at the school has dropped by 50 per cent and dropout rates have fallen below two per cent.

One thing you can say about our friends at the National Rifle Association is that they're intellectually consistent. Ok, so they're not.

Here's the latest crazy-making example:

If the Washington gun lobby and their allies in Congress get their way, your state will no longer be able to make its own decisions about who can legally carry a hidden, loaded gun.

Domestic abusers, drug addicts, stalkers, people with violent arrest records and even people with absolutely no training who have never held a gun before could be granted a concealed gun permit in another state, and your state would have to honor it -- no matter what.

The secret: not investing in or even adequately maintaining our infrastructure and when we do invest, we invest in the wrong stuff. 

A survey came out earlier this week that is pretty scarifying:

According to Norman F. Anderson, president and CEO of CG/LA Infrastructure, the survey paints a dark picture for U.S. infrastructure. “We have conducted this survey around the world, and the overall results for the U.S. are some of the lowest scores that we have seen. U.S. scores are on par with Peru, in terms of the country’s ability to develop infrastructure projects, and well below those of Brazil, India, China, and other countries with which we compete for scarce infrastructure dollars and expertise. Particularly in the wake of President Obama’s jobs plan and call for an infrastructure bank, the survey reveals the need for urgent action and a clear infrastructure strategy for the US.”

It's no secret that we've been waging a long uphill battle against corporate/right-wing control of media. Some outlets like cable news and talk radio may be hopelessly out of whack, but we've long had the edge online. 

Here's a cool new way to expand that progressive info advantage into the mobile realm:

Welcome to Progressive Voices, your progressive media universe designed specifically to perform optimally on your favorite supported smart phone. Catered to your quest for truth and ready to leverage the growing mobile platform.

Interesting take on Israel and Palestine:

Last week I posted some news about a violent land grab going on in Guatemala. Here is some background explanation from Annie Bird of Rights Action connecting policies that purport to fight climate change and the land grab.

On March 15, 16 and 17, thousands of Mayan Qeqchi villagers were violently evicted from 14 communities, to make way for 'for export' agribusiness initiatives, particularly production of sugar cane and African palm trees aimed at biofuel promotion.

Sad news:

After a vibrant life, Joe Bageant died yesterday following a four-month struggle with cancer. He was 64. Joe is survived by his wife, Barbara, his three children, Timothy, Patrick and Elizabeth, and thousands of friends and admirers. He is also survived by his work and ideas.

According to Joe's wishes, he will be cremated. His family will hold a private memorial service.

Nice obit from the Hartford Courant:

I was a latecomer to Joe Bageant's fan base. I first stumbled across him after finding "Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches From America's Class War."

(With a title like that, of course I was going to read the book. I am a huge fan of books whose titles put Jesus where you'd least expect him.)

In a word? The book was brilliant. Better than any one I've ever read, Bageant explained why those of us who grew up far from those proverbial silver spoons continue to vote against our own best interests. I was so moved that I did something I never do. I sent the author an email, just to let him know how much I appreciated his work.

He wrote back, and it wasn't one of those pat thank-you-for-taking-the-time notes. He wrote a full-fledged missive in which he discussed my email, and asked me enough questions that I thought it was OK if I fired off another email.

I don't remember how many emails we exchanged, but I think somewhere in there, he told me to call him, so I did, and we had a kind of whittle-and-spit exchange you'd expect from two smart-mouthed hillbillies. And when we hung up, he said, "Now don't be a stranger."

I loved his next book, "Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir" every bit as much as "Deer Hunting," and we exchanged a few emails over that one, too.

I am under no delusion that Joe treated me special. I think he treated all his readers that way. He took the time, is what I'm saying, and I still don't know how he had the energy to do that. I found myself linking to his work -- articles, essays, and the like -- on this blog, and another blog I used to have. He made sense to me.

Cancer got Joe Bageant yesterday. Sharon, who is also a fan, sent me the notice, and when I read it, I cussed out loud. I think we need writers like Joe Bageant, maybe now more than ever. I am going to miss him.

Kawok Waqlaju, a friend of mine in Guatemala has sent me some very distressing material that I will be posting here on the Agonist over the next few days. Take it away Kawok:

Urgent Update, March 20, 2011, 4:30 p.m.:

At 4:27 pm I was talking to a compañero from Finca Los Recuerdos when he told me that a
truck full of police and security forces was coming. I could hear him scrambling, and he told me almost in a whisper, "We have to hide. I'm going to have to hang up the phone."

Earlier today, March 20, 2011, the private security forces and national police arrived at the Finca Los Recuerdos again, as they had promised that they would do on March 18 when they forcibly evicted this community of Q'eqchi' Maya subsistence farmers without any prior warning. On March 20, when they entered the property and found the community members in a meeting, they began to threaten them. "Get out of here! This is the property of Carlos Widmann, because he already paid Q46 million to the president! We have the eviction order. We are going to kill you right here if you do not get off this land!" The police and security forces began shooting. They went into the fields, where they found one man harvesting maize and shot him three times: in the back, the stomach and the leg. He had to be evacuated by ambulance to a hospital in serious condition.

This Q'eqchi' community of 49 families (including 92 children) that farms subsistence crops on this land was evicted by force on March 17, when army soldiers, police, anti-riot police, and paramilitaries hired by the Chabil Utzaj sugar company, their faces hidden by ski masks, used chain saws, axes, machetes, guns and tractors to destroy the community members' homes and crops, and robbed their belongings. Because they have nowhere else to go, the Q'eqchi' community stayed on the property, where they had been suffering in the rain without shelter, food, and potable water, for the past two days.

The eviction at Los Recuerdos is one of a series of violent and illegal evictions of 13 communities affecting 670 families that have been taking place over the past 7 days resulting in one death, many serious injuries , and the loss of millions of quetzales worth of property and subsistence crops.

Clay Johnson has an provocative blog post about the crisis in municipal financing and the opportunity it presents:

There’s a crisis coming. Chicago is running a half-billion dollar deficit. New York City’s FY2011 deficit is nearly five billion dollars. Two months ago, Warren Buffett reduced his exposure to municipal bonds. According to the Pew Center on the States, there’s a trillion dollar gapbetween what states can pay for retirement benefits, and what those retirement benefits cost.

I've historically been neutral at best on gun laws. Coming from Texas it's such a cultural loser with so many voters who ought to be voting Democrat that I haven't even tried to fight that fight.

That has changed since I got older, became a parent and started having to go to so many funerals. 

There's no reason we need to allow crazy people to own guns. A group of Mayors has launched a new initiative to close the biggest loopholes in the background checks law. Here's NYC Mayor Bloomberg at Huff Po:

This is sad news for all of us who have been enriched by his wisdom and humor:

As you may or may not know, I have been struck down by an extremely serious form of cancer. Presently I am back in the United States receiving treatment through the U.S. Veterans Administration hospital system. Due to the nature of the massive internal tumor, I am currently unable to even carry on email correspondence or Skype conversations.

Right now I am at a hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. Once a treatment program has been designed and set in motion, I will probably be transferred back to the Veterans Administration facility near my home in Winchester, Virginia. The condition is inoperable, but it is hoped that with chemotherapy plus the use of a pain killer such as OxyContin, I will be able to resume my online work.

Six years ago Tom DeLay was publicly crowing about the Republican "permanent majority". Seven years ago he told a man who asked him to put out a cigar, "I AM the federal government."

Today a jury of his peers has convicted him of felony money laundering.

The Department of Justice, despite having convicted criminal-lobbyist turned informer Jack Abramoff set up with a desk of his own at the DoJ, dropped the investigation of DeLay's many many crimes three years ago. But one Texas prosecutor with a naive sense of justice pressed charges against DeLay in a much tougher case and today a tiny bit of justice was done. Here's to you Ronnie Earle! Well done and at great personal cost.

I wrote at some length about the underhanded process the Albert Gonzales/Karl Rove DoJ used to remove the lead prosecutor from the DeLay case here. Basically instead of firing him the way they did most of the other prosecutors who were investigating corrupt GOP congressmen in that period, they made a deal with Harry Reid and got the guy a judgeship then replaced him with a party apparatchik. The fact that Obama applied their "let's not bicker and argue about who killed who" philosophy to DeLay and the rest of his criminal coterie is just one of their many sins of omission.

But here's some sweet vindication for those who clung to the belief that someone who committed so many egregious crimes as DeLay would someday see justice. I'd also like to commend my friend the late Kelly Fero who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to bring press attention to DeLay's crimes and Fred Lewis the activist who actually spotted the $190,000 discrepancy in the TRMPAC records and Richard Morrison who ran a quixotic campaign against DeLay in 2004 that led directly to his downfall.
There were also literally dozens of activists, mostly volunteers, some pros who fought tirelessly against DeLay Inc for years, both in Texas and nationally. The peerless Juanita -- a blogger right in his district -- Glenn Smith, Charles Kuffner, David Donnolly, Howard Dean, Josh Marshall among many many others. None of these people got any credit or thanks from the media or the political establishment, in fact they are all treated like pariahs for trying to stop the bi-partisan money go round. But today we all win.

This is nothing more than a logical consequence of allowing for-profit prisons and a captured legislative system. I've been expecting this sort of thing for some time. Nonetheless, it still raises the hair on the back of my neck.

NPR reports:

What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison in a way never done before. And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them.

They came for the drug users. I wasn't a drug user so I did nothing. They came for the illegal aliens. I wasn't an illegal alien so I did nothing. They came for the Muslims. I wasn't a Muslim...

As Progressives it is our job to ensure that we stop electing Blue Doggish, corrupt Democrats just because they have a D next to their name, whether it is to local, state, or federal office. We can start with Kevin Boyce, Treasurer of Ohio.

A quick summary: Immediately after his appointment in 2006 (the opening was created due to a scandal in the AGs office, and a domino effect from there), Treasurer Boyce spent taxpayer money to put his name and likeness on pretty muchevery piece of swag he could find. While Ohio was losing jobs by the boatload, he filled many of the few good state jobs available with his high school, political and church cronies.

He also gave more taxpayer money in the form of contracts to a bank (State Street) that raided California workers' pensions and didn't inform New York workers it was investing their pensions with Bernie Madoff (yeah, that one). It might have something to do with the fact that his deputy's best bud is their lobbyist, and the lobbyist's wife is hid deptuty's personal assistant. He also likes to reward other big banks who contribute to him by giving them fat government contracts.

This is not the kind of Democrat we need in office killing our brand while partaking in corruption. If you live in Ohio, do us all a favor, don't vote for Treasurer Kevin Boyce.

Guns abound and the far right’s interpretation of the second amendment (the only one that seems to matter) is now inviolate.
Peter Daou, The Demise of the Left

Ah, another day, another campus shooting. This time it happened in my home town of Austin, TX. I'm surprised to see the author of "More Guns, Less Crime" is cancelling his speech scheduled for tonight near campus. Apparently there is just a tiny modicum of shame left on the right. But never fear, UT Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (yes that's a real organization) are working to get his speech rescheduled ASAP.

I wonder if they'll even pay attention to the latest research on gun trafficking. The New York Times reports on a new study released by Mayor Bloomberg's Mayors Against Guns:

A study due to be released this week by a coalition called Mayors Against Illegal Guns uses previously unavailable federal gun data to identify what it says are the states that most often export guns used in crimes across state lines. It concludes that the 10 worst offenders per capita, led by Mississippi, West Virginia and Kentucky, supplied nearly half the 43,000 guns traced to crime scenes in other states last year.

The study also seeks to draw a link between gun trafficking and gun control laws by analyzing gun restrictions in all 50 states in areas like background checks for gun purchases, policies on concealed weapons permits and state inspections of gun dealers. It finds that, across the board, those states with less restrictive gun laws exported guns used in crimes at significantly higher rates than states with more stringent laws. An advance copy of the study was provided to The New York Times.

It's sad that it requires research to show what ought to be obvious. But I guess if house flies had a lobby as well-funded as the NRA, window screen supporters would have to organize and put out studies like "screens on your windows keeps flies out of the house."

Here's Glenn Smith on the Huffington Post:

A mysterious fire last Friday destroys all of the voting machines in Harris County (Houston), Texas. Arson investigators have not yet issued an opinion. Meanwhile, a well-funded right-wing group emerges in Houston and begins raising unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud. A video on their website pictures only people of color when it talks of voter fraud. White people are shown talking patriotically about the need for a million vigilantes to suppress illegal votes.

Very interesting analysis from Stratfor. I could easily cut and paste the whole thing, as it is a must read for Agonistas. But let's boil down the main points:

1. "...the Mexican government has lost control over matters having to do with drugs and with the borderlands of the United States, Mexico City’s control over other regions — and over areas other than drug enforcement — has not collapsed..."
2. The areas most affected by the drug war are far from the population centers of central Mexico.
3. The amazing profit margins on the drug trade mean the drug trade dwarfs every other industry as a generator of cash in Mexico and that money "has to enter the economy through legitimate institutions — banks and other financial entities — and then be redeployed into the economy."
4. "From Mexico’s point of view, interrupting the flow of drugs to the United States is not clearly in the national interest or in that of the economic elite."
5. "Mexico’s policy is consistent: It makes every effort to appear to be stopping the drug trade so that it will not be accused of supporting it. The government does not object to disrupting one or more of the smuggling groups, so long as the aggregate inflow of cash does not materially decline."
6. "Mexico has deep historic grievances toward the United States dating back to the Mexican-American War."

And here's their conclusion:

The United States does not know how to reduce demand for drugs. The United States is not prepared to legalize drugs. This means the choice lies between the status quo and a complex and uncertain (to say the least) intervention. We suspect the United States will attempt some limited variety of the latter, while in effect following the current strategy and living with the problem.

Unless the American body politic can somehow reassert control from the corporate oligarchs and the military-industrial complex, we should prepare ourselves for a long-term low-intensity military presence in Mexico.

The most tangible impact of that will be that so many of the problems that have so far contained themselves to places like Juarez will be heading north.

Plus our race to bankrupt ourselves in the pursuit of strategic objectives that are impossible or a net negative if achieved. will accelerate.

The New York Times covers the escalating zinc in denture cream scandal:

For 14 years until just last month, GlaxoSmithKline sold a denture cream called Super Poligrip that contained high levels of zinc.

The zinc helped with adhesion and was probably safe so long as people used moderate amounts of cream. Indeed, the human body needs small amounts of zinc to function. But some people ended up using much larger amounts, and they began to develop the kind of nerve damage associated with excess zinc.
...
Either way, the evidence has become strong enough that last month GlaxoSmithKline — which also makes Tums, Nicorette and the country’s top-selling asthma drug — stopped making the version of Poligrip with zinc, after having previously resisted just such a move. In Japan, responding to regulators’ concerns, the company has also recalled from stores any remaining zinc-infused cream.

All of which makes you wonder: did it have to come this?

Every society needs to make a choice about how to prioritize consumer safety. If you try too hard to avoid problems, you can end up stifling daily life. Outlawing gasoline, for instance, would doubtless reduce pollution and respiratory disease, but no one is suggesting such a step. Europe, with its hostility to genetically modified foods, arguably errs on the side of being too cautious about chemicals and other such substances.

But the United States clearly seems to be on the other side of the line. We are not taking toxic risks seriously enough.

Unless we turn it around and re-invigorate the FDA and EPA, we are just going to keep poisoning ourselves so the wealthiest few can squeeze more money from the rest of us.

Disclosure: I am advising Blizzard, McCarthy and Nabers, a law firm that is helping the victims of denture cream poisoning.

From the Independent (UK):

And drug-related bribery is gnawing deep into US institutions, as Calderon has long alleged. Thomas Frost of the US Department of Homeland Security says that last year the department accused 839 of its own agents of corruption. In evidence to a US Senate committee this month, Kevin Perkins of the division of the FBI charged with fighting corruption within the US government said his – presumably honest – staff had deployed some 120 agents along the border. They dug up more than 400 public corruption cases that resulted in well over 100 arrests and more than 130 state and federal prosecutions.

A multiplicity of US government agencies, some of them deeply infiltrated by narcos with their deep pockets, are falling over themselves in efforts to bring order to a chaotic situation: the Department of Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

...

Down the Rio Grande, in Matamoros and Reynosa, the drug cartels are taking over the prerogatives of the state. Cars of the local Gulf drug cartel cruise with darkened windows and no number plates, displaying transfers with the letters CDG, standing for Cartel del Golfo. According to the Mexico City daily El Universal, the drivers collect protection money from businessmen and shopkeepers, and fine other drivers for speeding or running through a red light.

When a state loses its monopoly on violence, its other prerogatives are soon to follow. And unlike the drug cartels, Mexico is running out of its biggest revenue producer:

Mexico had proven hydrocarbon reserves at the start of 2010 of 13.99 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which represents 10.2 years of output at the current level, state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos said.

More on the big confab between senior U.S. and Mexican officials in the wake of the murder of U.S. consulate employees in Juarez last week in the full entry.

A lot of grim Mexico news today. The headline quote comes from the sister of U.S. anti-kidnapping expert Felix Batista who was abducted by gunmen in December 2008 in the northern city of Saltillo and hasn't been seen since. The U.S. State Department has issued a revised report showing that more U.S. citizens were murdered in Juarez in 2009 than any other Mexican city.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the people leaving Mexico's murder capitol:

the city's planning department estimates 116,000 homes are now abandoned. Measured against the average household size of the last census, the population who inhabited the empty homes alone could be as high as 400,000 p

That would mark one of Mexico's largest single exoduses in decades.
...
Just 2½ years ago, Juárez was one of Mexico's engines of growth, a magnet of manufacturing with an easy entry point into the U.S. The North American Free Trade Agreement had helped to expand Juárez into the base for assembly plants that accepted parts for everything from consumer electronics to plush toys, and shipped the finished products back to America tariff-free.

Since 2005, 10,600 businesses—roughly 40% of Juárez's businesses—have closed their doors, according to the country's group representing local chambers of commerce.

Now Monterrey is seeing the drug cartels directly challenging the authority of law enforcement, per the NYT:

Armed men likely linked to drug gangs blocked highways with trucks and buses in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey on Friday in an apparent attempt to hamper army operations near the U.S. border.

Gunmen pulled truck and bus drivers out of their vehicles in the wealthy business city and used them to set up blockades on major four-lane highways, sometimes slashing tires to make it harder to tow them away, police and motorists said.

I'm frequently criticized for being overly apocolyptic in my writings about Mexico. Just call me Nate the Revelator I guess.

So far in 2010, I haven't been able to blog as much here at the Agonist as I'd hoped to. Much of this has to do with increased family obligations now that my wife is working full-time again. Being a dad is great fun but also hard work and not something you can do while "multi-tasking".

Other obligations have also been eating up my time. One of the most interesting projects I've been working on is an endeavor to warn people of the dangers presented by denture creams such as Fixodent and Poligrip.

This will shock some of you, and others will not be surprised, but the relatively high levels of zinc present in these products present a very real danger to people with poorly fitting dentures who use a lot of adhesive to keep their false teeth in.

My clients have launched a web site called "Denture Cream Justice" where you can learn more than you ever wanted to know about neuropathy, the terrifying nerve syndrome caused by zinc overdose.

The reason I'm bringing this up at the Agonist is to emphasize the important role the plaintiff's bar plays in policing corporate power. GlaxoSmithKline has pulled their zinc-containing denture creams from the market due to the pressure of the law suits and bad PR they're facing.

Like unions and every other counter-balancing force to utterly unfettered corporate power, trial lawyers have been under siege for the past fifteen years. Our right to sue those who injure us has been collateral damage -- although some would say that was the target the whole time.