Making music in Linux and beyond

By Anders Bylund | Ars Technica


You can do a lot with free open-source software, also known as FOSS. Musicians with a yen for Linux are in luck; the array of choices for creating, editing, producing, and publishing music using nothing but FOSS software is staggering.


One way to get your hands on a plethora of audio tools is to run the Ubuntu Studio distro, which comes preconfigured for real-time audio processing and includes every studio tool under the sun. Failing that, there are the ubuntustudio-audio and ubuntustudio-audio-plugins virtual packages in Ubuntu, which will install 54 and 18 specialized packages, respectively. Other alternatives include the Musix distribution and the low-end hardware distro dyne:bolic, but Ubuntu Studio has the largest toolkit in the genre and enjoys the widest support as well.


Pick your favorite multimedia distro and go nuts, or just install the applications you want to try out, one RPM or DEB package at a time.


To cover it all in useful detail would take a book, so we'll spare you most of the gory details. Instead, this article will focus on a few of the leading suites used to actually make music—multi-track MIDI sequencers with the ability to add live audio tracks such as guitar strums and voice.


You still don't know JACK


Having a lot of tools available lets you work in the grand tradition of Unix-like operating systems, chaining specialized programs together to perform complicated tasks. The pipe operator in the audio world is the JACK audio server, which lets you route inputs and outputs of myriad different flavors to whatever JACK-enabled tool you like. For example, you can use JACK to route MIDI inputs to a software synthesizer, then a flangers and a compression effect, and then on to your sequencer suite of choice. From there, you'd then pipe the finished song to a separate mixer program and an output tool to write the song to disk in your favorite audio file format. And all of this is accomplished in real time, without adding ugly latency anywhere in the process chain. That's the magic of JACK.

Don't be scared; most of these connections happened automatically

On the downside, JACK can be a beast to configure just right. It has to play well together with the underlying ALSA audio mechanism, and there is definitely a learning curve to routing your tool chains effectively. But every major music tool for Linux works with JACK, and many outright depend on it and refuse to run any other way. It's a mixed blessing, but a necessary tool at your belt.


To get a MIDI workstation running properly, you need a few things:

• A low-latency kernel, also known as preemptive or real-time kernels. The old preemptive patches have long ben a part of the standard kernel distribution, so this is mostly a historical note unless you're running really old versions of Linux
• Real-time priority permissions for audio applications, as explained by the Rosegarden team
• Properly configured ALSA settings with JACK ports
• JACK set to real-time operation and started before you fire up any of your sequencers, soft synths, or effects. The routing between these things can be done by hand, but is often handled automatically by the startup scripts of your applications
• Either an external bank of MIDI instruments, connected via USB MIDI controllers, or the TiMidity software MIDI handler. TiMidity is a great piece of software, but be warned that it sometimes decides to eat all available processor time which is a performance-killing problem when the process has real-time execution rights
• A MIDI keyboard isn't exactly required if you're planning to enter notes by hand or if you prefer virtual keyboards. However, most musicians probably prefer performing their parts over the more mechanical note-by-note entry method. We're not judging, though.

The purpose of introducing JACK and real-time operations is to make your audio subsystem more responsive. You want to hear a note exactly when you press the B-flat key, not some unspecified interval later. Glitches can be repaired after the fact through quantization and manual tinkering, but then you lose some of the natural imperfections that make a performance feel real—and you never even get a chance to do these things if you're using your audio workstation to perform live. Latency is a musician's worst enemy, in other words.


The JACK project keeps a list of JACK-aware applications where you can dive in to find the tools you're looking for. However, even that list is incomplete as the very JACK-friendly LMMS sequencer isn't included, and I'm sure there are other omissions. Ubuntu Studio probably has you covered either way.


Working with Ardour and Audacity


I'm not talking about a studio attitude, but about two of the finest tools in your toolbox.


Ars ran a roundup of FOSS audio editors five years ago, wherein most of the focus was placed on Ardour and Audacity. Those are still the two leading editor and multitracker packages in the game, so not much has changed.


Except, of course, that everything has changed.


Audacity still can't play or edit MIDI files, but it has removed one of the biggest knocks against it by adding JACK support. ALSA is still the default audio transport mode when you fire Audacity up, but JACK is available as an option and works very well. It's still the most user-friendly audio editor you're likely to find with full support for a plethora of sound file formats that Ardour can't handle. And the interface is as easy to use as ever—anecdotal evidence comes from a non-geek friend of mine whom I was able to guide through creating a theatrical sound effect he needed (a ship falling off the edge of the world), from downloading Audacity for the first time to a finished and usable effect, in less than 45 minutes. That was a remote assist via instant messaging.


Ardour is also chugging along, now available for Linux and Mac OS X workstations. The interface has been somewhat refined since 2005, but should still look and feel very familiar to anyone who has ever used ProTools. The big feature upcoming in version 3.0 is MIDI editing, making a full-featured workstation out of Ardour rather than a specialized multitrack mixer and wave editor.


And when SpicyMcHaggis signed off on his Ardour review in 2005, his major concern was that Ardour's professional focus requires serious market share in order to make any sense. Well, I don't know how large the total addressable market is for this type of armor-clad audio tool, but the project is trumpeting 284 paying subscribers and a healthy amount of monthly donations. The cause is alive and well.


But I'm not here to fill volumes about Audacity and Ardour. Instead, today's focus is on MIDI sequencers and the toolkits that surround them. What can I say—I'm a one-man band with a keyboard and a MIDI cable, so every musical problem looks like a MIDI events roll to me.


We love acronyms: LMMS


For many of us music hobbyists (and a fair number of more professional musicians), it's just not feasible to create songs with a full set of live instruments. But an impressive set of sounds can be generated in digital form and controlled as MIDI streams, which makes MIDI sequencers fundamental to one-man bands with ambitions beyond a ukulele by the campfire.


Linux MultiMedia Studio, or LMMS, is a comprehensive MIDI sequencer with some audio recording features, all rolled into an impressively complete user interface with tons of effects. JACK is supported, but by no means required, as LMMS also supports input/output directly through ALSA or OSS, or even the user-friendly but laggy PulseAudio framework. This is perhaps the simplest MIDI tool available to Linux users, and will remind you of Apple's GarageBand or FL Studio (formerly known as FruityLoops) to some degree.


This is by no means a complete replacement for proprietary suites such as Avid ProTools or Cakewalk Sonar, but it's a great way to get your digital feet wet. LMMS takes MIDI input from a properly connected keyboard or software keyboards like the vkeybd or vmpk Ubuntu packages. There's a handy piano roll editor for adjusting your keyboard tracks or for creating entire melodies from scratch, but no MIDI events editor or score notation input method. The addition of a drum and bassline module makes it a snap to set up a basic groove over which your melodies and recorded lyrics can soar. If you've been around the computerized music block for a while, the drum'n'bass tool brings back memories of good old SoundTracker—only infinitely more sophisticated.


In spite of its obviously Linux-focused name, LMMS is also available for Windows and Mac OS X. The Mac version is better off with the JackOSX audio interface, but the Windows version just relies on DirectSound instead. Yes, Jack exists for Windows too, but LMMS support for it on that platform is buggy and underdeveloped.


The key to making music in LMMS is to get a handle on automation. Wherever you see an adjustable value, you can probably automate how it changes across the song. For instance, right-click on the TEMPO/BPM controller and you'll be greeted with the ubiquitous "Edit song-global automation" option. Draw your tempo changes in a simplistic graphical interface, and there's your super-granular tempo change chart. The same thing works for volume controls, distortion effects, left/right pans, or the very waveform of your synth. If you see a control, you can probably automate it.

I'm gating my flanger here, yo! Click for full size.

The documentation for LMMS is pleasantly complete on a feature-by-feature basis, but the tutorials leave a lot to be desired. The best way to get acquainted with this starter kit is to roll up your sleeves and dig in on your own.


Thanks to the drum and bass editor and modular approach to song structures, LMMS lends itself to techno and trance music with ease, particularly if you create separate tracks for each instrument rather than complete rhythm sections in a single track. That way, you can add or pause individual instruments on a bar-by-bar basis, as well as apply phase shifters and flangers with precision. Armin van Buuren and Tiesto, eat your hearts out!


I never promised you a Rosegarden


If LMMS is the starter package for MIDI musicians on Linux, then Rosegarden is the fully functional, flying Batmobile. However, this package needs some tinkering under the hood with JACK routing in order to really shine, and is better suited for more experienced musical tinkerers.


This is the tool for you if you're comfortable reading and writing sheet music. Of course Rosegarden lets you play a MIDI instrument to input your notes, but you can also edit a traditional staff by hand or import existing MIDI files as a starting point. Editing modes include the piano roll you saw in LMMS, but also a MIDI events editor and the default notation editor. Rosegarden also has a percussion matrix for handling drum parts.

The hard part comes later. Click for full size.

Unlike LMMS, Rosegarden's tutorials are extremely extensive and are likely to answer just about any question you might have about working with the program. The user interface is also more intuitive than that of LMMS, assuming that you know your tenor clefs from your semiquavers. Given the reliance on standard musical notation, this program will make sense if you're transcribing sheet music into playable MIDI files, or if you're a classically trained musician.


Drum loops and the like can be produced, but not by Rosegarden itself. Instead, you're directed to external programs like the Hydrogen drum sequencer for this kind of task, or to ZynAddSubFX for polyphonic synth action if the available MIDI instruments don't tickle your fancy. For editing a rendered audio track, Rosegarden relies on Audacity by default but can also be configured to use Ardour or any other properly designed audio editor.


This is a fine example of how chaining various programs together can achieve astonishing effects with some elbow grease and know-how, and it's also one reason why this program doesn't play well with Mac or Windows systems. The expected array of helper programs just isn't available on those platforms.


Since Rosegarden was designed with score notation firmly in mind, the program seems a natural fit for composing orchestral or classical tunes where such notation is commonplace. There are a few built-in effects plugins, but more advanced effects will generally have to be handled by routing Rosegarden's instruments through other programs by way of JACK. Also, you have full control over every attribute of every note through the MIDI events editor, but automating changes over time can become a time-consuming exercise in pedantry here. Hence, more avant-garde musicians may prefer other toolkits like LMMS.


There are other sequencers in my life


It doesn't end there. In case neither LMMS nor Rosegarden float your boat, MusE falls in-between the two in terms of sophistication and ease of use. While Ardour is expanding to cover MIDI sequencing, MusE simplified things by splitting its notation-based input off into the MuseScore package. Seq24 is an ultra-simple sequencer, designed mostly for live performances. Development of Seq24 recently resumed after a two-year hiatus, breathing new life into the project. As you can see, the music side of Linux is a living, breathing thing.


For an imperfect measure of popularity, try searching the "Music Made With Linux" repository for tools names. Rosegarden yields 49 results today while LMMS and MusE hover around the 10-results mark and Seq24 hardly shows up at all. Running searches to "toolname linux song" on YouTube yields radically different results as LMMS wipes the floor with the competition. It seems like LMMS wins the popular vote in mass-market fora, perhaps because of its similarities to popular tools on Windows and Mac systems.


The audio editing powerhouse that is Ardour is expected to get MIDI editing features in version 3, which always seems to be right around the corner. And I'm still barely scratching the surface of the available tools—see the Ubuntu Studio and JACK listings above for further options.


Extracurricular activity


I can't leave you without shining a spotlight on some of the most useful and impressive tools in the Linux-based audio toolchain that aren't part of one of the big packages.


The guitar heroes out there may never buy an effects pedal again once they get a load of the multi-effects board known as Rakarrak. A picture truly says a thousand words in this case:

Feel the power! Click for full size.

JAMin is the mixing tool that allows Ardour to be a quality application without a built-in mastering board. As part of the JACK toolkit, this is the finishing tool of choice pretty much regardless of your favorite editor or sequencer.


Maybe you don't like the drum and bass patterns in LMMS and want a more complete drum machine. Hydrogen is the tool for you, and yes, you can link those beats into tracks of other applications thanks to the JACK switchboard. It's a beautiful thing.


I've seen professional DJs in the wild, beat-matching tracks on their Mixxx DJ boards. It's not two turntables and a microphone, but about as close as you can get in the digital world. This is a little bit outside the realm of creating music, but hey, you gotta present your freshly minted tunes in their best light!


Finally, if the standard rack of MIDI sounds isn't enough for you and you can't find the sounds you want in your application's built-in synthesizer plugins, there's always ZynAddSubFX. It's an infinitely customizable synthesizer that comes preloaded with hundreds of brilliant presets. If you can't find, create, or modify your way to the instrument you want here, you're probably on the wrong planet.


And if you can't imagine loading and saving your projects and configurations in a thousand different programs by hand, then you need to look at the Lash audio session manager. It isn't perfect and development is sporadic, but the tool is still very handy for complicated projects. This one could use a hand if you have one to spare.


Thanks to the inter-linking power of JACK and the efforts of the open source army of audio enthusiasts, Linux-friendly musicians have an embarrassment of riches at their disposal. The fact that some of the tools are venturing into more mainstream operating systems can only raise the profile and widespread acceptance of these tools, but you still don't get the full power out of them unless you're able to link all the pieces together. If you've never tried Audacity or LMMS and are afraid of penguin-powered change, go ahead and try out their Windows or Mac versions. Just don't be surprised if that experience then leads you down a more involved road, to the point of installing Ubuntu Studio for your musical needs.

Music really can be intoxicating, after all

By Matthew Lasar | Ars Technica


An "outburst of the soul," the composer Frederick Delius called music. The sounds associated with the form produce "a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without," observed Confucius. It is the art "which is most nigh to tears and memory," noted the writer Oscar Wilde.


It turns out that these guys were more on target than we thought. Our experience of the music we love stimulates the pleasure chemical dopamine in our brain, concludes a new study produced by a slew of scholars at McGill University. The researchers followed the brain patterns of test subjects with MRI imaging, and identified dopamine streaming into the striatum region of their forebrains "at peak emotional arousal during music listening."


Not only that, but the scientists noticed that various parts of the striatum responded to the dopamine rush differently. The caudate was more involved during the expectation of some really nice musical excerpt, and the nucleus accumbens took the lead during "the experience of peak emotional responses to music."


In other words, just the anticipation our favorite passage stimulates the production of dopamine. "Our results help to explain why music is of such high value across all human societies," the writers conclude.


Chills and thrills


To learn more about the music/brain/stimulation process, the McGill researchers followed subjects through the 'chills' or 'musical frisson' response moment. You may have thought that chills were just a subjective concept, but that isn't the case. They involve a "clear and discrete pattern of autonomic nervous system (ANS) arousal," the experimenters say, which facilitate "objective verification through psychophysiological measurements."


Bottom line: the chills moment "can be used to objectively index pleasure." So these scientists rounded up a cohort of people who had a proven record of getting the "verifiable chills" when listening to their favorite songs.


It took a while to find these folks. 217 people responded to an advertisement looking for chill-susceptible music lovers. Each candidate provided ten pieces of instrumental music that set them off in some way. The genres included tango, techno, punk, rock, electronica, jazz, folk, and classical. They then filled out a questionnaire designed to make sure their chills were authentic, and went through a mental illness screening session.


Degrees of pleasure


The process produced a cohort of 10 subjects for the actual experiment, who were scanned over two sessions. The participants listened to music that they experienced as pleasurable or to which they felt neutral. They also kept track of their chills themselves, including the "number of chills, intensity of chills and degree of pleasure experienced from each excerpt."




Nature neuroscience
Meanwhile these frisson seekers were MRI scanned during the listening experience, and images that correlated with chill laden moments were examined.


"We found that hemodynamic activity in the regions showing dopamine release was not constant throughout the [musical] excerpt, but was restricted to moments before and during chills and, critically, was anatomically distinct," the researchers note.


The McGill group says that this experiment is "the first direct evidence that the intense pleasure experienced when listening to music is associated with dopamine activity in the mesolimbic reward system, including both dorsal and ventral striatum."


Thus dopamine "is pivotal for establishing and maintaining behavior," the researchers conclude:

If music-induced emotional states can lead to dopamine release, as our findings indicate, it may begin to explain why musical experiences are so valued. These results further speak to why music can be effectively used in rituals, marketing or film to manipulate hedonic states. Our findings provide neurochemical evidence that intense emotional responses to music involve ancient reward circuitry and serve as a starting point for more detailed investigations of the biological substrates that underlie abstract forms of pleasure.

It also may explain why, as Oscar Wilde suggested, we experience bursts of pleasant recollection while listening to the music that we enjoy. As studies of nicotine use show, the cigarette induced release of dopamine stimulates the remembrance of things past.

Bankruptcy of U.S. is ‘Mathematical Certainty...

...Says Professor & Former CEO of Nation's 10th Largest Bank
Published on 01-18-2011 at The Daily Bail

vidlink

Sick Gulf Residents Beg Officials for Help

By Dahr Jamail

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, Jan 14, 2011 (IPS) - In an emotionally charged meeting this week sponsored by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, fishermen, Gulf residents and community leaders vented their increasingly grave concerns about the widespread health issues brought on by the three-month-long disaster.

"Today I'm talking to you about my life," Cherri Foytlin told the two commissioners present at the Jan. 12 meeting. "My ethylbenzene levels are 2.5 times the 95th percentile, and there's a very good chance now that I won't get to see my grandbabies. What I'm asking you to do now, if possible, is to amend [your report]. Because we have got to get some health care."

Ethylbenzene is a form of benzene present in the body when it begins to break down. It is also present in BP's crude oil.

"I have seen small children with lesions all over their bodies," Foytlin, co-founder of Gulf Change, a community organization based in Grand Isle, Louisiana, continued.

"We are very, very ill. And dead is dead. So it really doesn't matter if the media comes back… or the president hears us, or… if the oil workers and the fishermen and the crabbers get to feed their babies and maybe have a good Christmas next year… Dead is dead…I know your job is probably already done, but I'd like to hire you if you don't mind. And God knows I can't pay you. But I need your heart. And I need your voice."

Toxic Symptoms

Many of the chemicals present in the oil and dispersants are known to cause the following health problems:

Headaches, nausea, vomiting, kidney damage, altered renal functions, irritation of the digestive tract, lung damage, burning pain in the nose and throat, coughing, pulmonary edema, cancer, lack of muscle coordination, dizziness, confusion, irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, difficulty breathing, delayed reaction time, memory difficulties, stomach discomfort, liver and kidney damage, unconsciousness, tiredness/lethargy, irritation of the upper respiratory tract, and hematological disorders.

Commissioner Frances Beinecke, president of the National Resources Defence Council, vowed to convey her concerns to the White House.

"We hear what you are saying," said Beinecke. "We will take these health issues and concerns back to the president."

The commission, appointed by President Barack Obama, released its final report this week after a six-month investigation into the nation's worst-ever oil disaster.

The report recommended a massive overhaul of the oil industry's failed safety practices in the Gulf, as well as the creation of a new independent agency to monitor offshore drilling activity.

However, most of the 250 people at the meeting here focused on the health crisis that has exploded in the wake of the April 2010 disaster, leaving former BP clean-up workers and Gulf residents alike suffering from ailments they attribute to chemicals in BP's oil and the toxic dispersants used to sink it.

Dr. Rodney Soto, a medical doctor in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, has been testing and treating patients with high levels of oil-related chemicals in their bloodstream.

These are commonly referred to as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Anthropogenic VOCs from BP's oil disaster are toxic and have negative chronic health effects.

Dr. Soto is finding disconcertingly consistent and high levels of toxic chemicals in every one of the patients he is testing.

"I'm regularly finding between five and seven VOCs in my patients," Dr. Soto told IPS. "These patients include people not directly involved in the oil clean-up, as well as residents that do not live right on the coast. These are clearly related to the oil disaster."

Nevertheless, U.S. government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with President Obama himself, have 'declared' the Gulf of Mexico, its waters, beaches, and seafood, 'safe and open to the public.'

Gulf residents at the meeting on Wednesday made sure the two commissioners were aware of the health crisis they are facing.

Tom Costanza of Catholic Charities in the New Orleans area stated that the region is in the middle of a social service crisis and faced a claims process he said is fraught with problems.

"People call me crying and dying," he said. "They need medical attention and support to get through this."

Ada McMahon works with Bridge the Gulf Project, a citizen journalism website that highlights stories from Gulf Coast communities about justice and sustainability. She told IPS that "the unmet health issues are the biggest issue, along with residents turned advocates going to meetings of the commission or with [BP oil spill fund administrator Kenneth] Feinberg to tell people about their health problems."

"People who can afford the 300-dollar blood tests have found alarming rates of chemicals in their bodies, and these people are concerned and doing what they can to speak out," she said. "But they feel they can't wait for Congress or Obama to address this, because they need doctors and support now in the communities."

LaTosha Brown, director of the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health, which works with 250 community groups, agreed that "the key concern expressed by the community in response to the report is the overwhelming need for access to health care."

"Over and over, people exposed to crude and dispersants from the drilling disaster told stories of serious health issues - from high levels of ethylbenzyne in their blood, to respiratory ailments and internal bleeding - and expressed an urgent need for access to doctors who have experience treating chemical exposure," she said.

Stephen Bradberry, executive director of the Alliance Institute, a non-profit that provides community organising support in the Gulf South, worries that the Gulf Coast Claims Facility is not accepting health claims, thus leaving sick residents unable to work and without any income to pay their medical bills.

"There is bruising and skin lesions, not just with clean-up workers, these are residents not involved in the clean-up," Bradberry told IPS. "Just yesterday I learned of five people on Grand Isle who passed away…people who did not have health problems prior to this. Nevertheless, there has not been any talk of monitoring of these communities."

Bradberry, who also attended the forum on Wednesday, also said, "We need a separate health task force that can focus solely on testing, monitoring, and studying the long-term health issues from exposure to crude and dispersants. And this needs to happen now."

Without aid, Detroit Public Sschools may close half of its schools

(I have friends in Detroit, and the problems there continue to be a concern for me.--jef)

***

Class sizes also would swell under proposal filed with the state
Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News - January 17. 2011

Detroit — Detroit Public Schools would close nearly half of its schools in the next two years, and increase high school class sizes to 62 by the following year, under a deficit-reduction plan filed with the state.

The plan, part of a monthly update Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb gives the Department of Education, was filed late Monday to provide insight into Bobb's progress in his attempt to slash a $327 million deficit in the district to zero over the next several years. Under it, the district would slim down from 142 schools now to 72 during 2012-13.

Bobb has said school closures, bigger classes and other measures would be needed if he cannot get help from lawmakers to restructure finances in the state's largest school district.

DPS considered but declined to file for bankruptcy in 2009. In the past year, debt in the district has increased by more than $100 million, brought on by a mix of revenue declines in property taxes, reduced state aid, declining enrollment and an unplanned staffing surge this past fall.

Starting this fall, the district plans to boost class sizes in grades 4-12 and at all grade levels by fiscal 2012, which begins July 1, to save $16.8 million. The plan would hike class sizes for: Grades K-3 from 17-25 students to 29 in 2012-13 and 31 in 2013-14.

Grades 4-5 from 30 students to 37 in 2012-13 and 39 in 2013-14.

Grades 6-8 from 35 students to 45 in 2012-13 and 47 in 2013-14.

Grades 9-12 from 35 students to 60 in 2012-13 and 62 in 2013-14.

Because the district's contract with the Detroit Federation of Teachers requires payments to teachers for class sizes that exceed specified maximums, the district estimates it would spend $10 million in oversize class pay over four years.

Keith Johnson, president of the teachers union, said the proposed class size increases won't work and will never happen.

"I will never agree to any class-size increases," Johnson said. "These increases are antithetical to learning. Secondly, our classrooms aren't even built to accommodate those numbers.

"Johnson said the teachers' contract does not let the district exceed contracted class sizes through 2012. DFT filed an unfair labor practice charge in July to restore class sizes for the upcoming school year.

Parent Petrina Johnson said swelling high school classrooms to 60 students or more will only leave them uneducated.

"There is one teacher and she can barely get to each of the 36 kids now. That makes no sense," said Johnson, who has three children at Mumford High School.

School officials said the plan would create a "lecture hall" model similar to a university.

Johnson said teenagers aren't ready for that.

"This gives more opportunity for them to slip through the cracks," she said.

The proposal calls for closing 40 schools in fiscal 2012 and 30 schools in fiscal 2013. That would leave DPS with 72 schools for a projected 58,570 students, down from about 74,000 now. The district closed 30 schools this fiscal year, which is expected to save $23 million. The planned closings in fiscal 2012-14 would save more than $33 million.

Bobb said the district could save another $12.4 million from the school closures if it "simply abandons" the closed buildings. Past policy has been to keep the closed schools clean and secure, officials said, but the district could cut costs by eliminating storage, board-up and security.

DPS spokesman Steve Wasko said the district has laid out the path it must take to eliminate the deficit, and Bobb remains focused on working with lawmakers to pass one of three plans to restructure DPS' finances.

Those plans include splitting the district in two to put its debt obligation with an "old district," covering about 9,000 students. State revenue would pay off the debt, allowing the "new district" to move forward debt-free with undetermined start-up funds.

Such a plan would need approval by state lawmakers and Gov. Rick Snyder.

District officials said they are pursuing "renaissance" legislation to free up $400 million in future tobacco settlement funds that could help mend DPS' deficit and those of 40 other districts statewide. In return, the districts would make dramatic reforms based on the federal Race to the Top initiative, such as eliminating teacher seniority.

That proposal died last month in the state Legislature's lame duck session. A third plan would look at new systems and agencies used in New Orleans, which has converted more than half of its public schools into charter schools in the past several years.

Besides closing schools and increasing class sizes, Bobb's plan calls for the district to abolish its divisions of finance, legal services, human services and public safety and contract with either Wayne County or the city of Detroit for those services.

"This is the route that we'd need to take if the other larger solutions are not found," Wasko said. "It is in fact the route that we continue to take until alternatives are approved."

There was no mention of any of these plans in the documents Bobb filed with the state, Wasko said, because the plans are still being researched and fleshed out in and outside DPS.

"There is a lot of work going on," he said.

Joseph Johnson, executive director for the National Center for Urban School Transformation, said almost every urban school district in the country is struggling, but perhaps none as severely as Detroit.

"I haven't heard of an urban district taking such drastic of steps," Joseph Johnson said. "Certainly every urban district is engaging in some serious belt-tightening as they are dealing with smaller budgets and at the same time often higher expectation from the public in terms of student achievement."

High Oil Price = Faster Economic Decline

By The American Dream on 01-18-2011

Most Americans have no idea how important oil prices are to the overall health of the U.S. economy.  Whenever oil prices have pressed toward record levels in recent decades, it has always resulted in an economic downturn.  A high oil price does not just mean that consumers will have to pay a little more at the pump.  The truth is that oil is the very lifeblood of our economic system.  We have built our entire country around the concept that we can transport lots of stuff very long distances for a very, very cheap price.  When that paradigm beings to change, it fundamentally alters the dynamics of the U.S. economy.  A high oil price will mean an even faster economic decline for America.

The cost of oil factors into everything.  A high oil price means that transportation of products and services costs more, travel costs more and energy costs more.  It means that consumers will have less disposable income.  When the price of oil goes up it benefits the big oil producers and few others, but for everyone else it is very painful.  But perhaps even more importantly, because the U.S. has to import such massive quantities of oil, whenever the price of oil goes up it means that we are becoming poorer as a nation because even more of our money flows out of the country and into the hands of the oil barons.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States consumed a grand total of 6.9 billion barrels of oil during 2009.  That represented approximately 27 percent of the total oil consumption of the entire globe.

Unfortunately, the U.S. imports over half of the oil it consumes, and this represents a massive transfer of wealth out of the United States.

Every single month we send the giant oil producers of the world billions of our dollars in exchange for the oil that we are deeply addicted to.

Meanwhile, many formerly great American cities are being transformed into rotting hellholes.

It is kind of like a rich young man that is rapidly going broke by blowing all of his money on a drug habit.

We’ve just always got to have more, more, more and it is draining more of our national wealth out of us every single month.

Sadly, the truth is that the United States has absolutely huge untapped reserves of oil that the “powers that be” will not let us touch.  It turns out that certain interests are making insanely huge profits by keeping America addicted to foreign oil.  The ultra-wealthy and ultra-powerful people that are involved in doing this to us are destroying our nation economically just so that they can profit.

It is absolutely sickening.

So does any of this money that we ship off to foreign oil producers ever come back to the United States?

Well, yes, there are a couple main ways that it comes back to us.

One way that it comes back is that it gets loaned back to our government.  The U.S. government has now borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars from the top oil producing nations around the globe.

Remember, the borrower is always the servant of the lender, and we are rapidly becoming servants of the big oil producing nations.

Another way it comes back to us is when sovereign wealth funds from nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other major oil producing nations buy up huge chunks of our infrastructure.  These giant sovereign wealth funds are buying up highways, ports, toll roads and even parking meters from coast to coast.

In a recent piece for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi described some of the U.S. infrastructure assets that these sovereign wealth funds are buying up….

A toll highway in Indiana. The Chicago Skyway. A stretch of highway in Florida. Parking meters in Nashville, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and other cities. A port in Virginia. And a whole bevy of Californian public infrastructure projects, all either already leased or set to be leased for fifty or seventy-five years or more in exchange for one-off lump sum payments of a few billion bucks at best, usually just to help patch a hole or two in a single budget year.

America is literally being sold off piece by piece.

We are slowly becoming owned by foreign entities.  We are slowly being transformed into paupers in the land of our forefathers.

Not only that, but a high price for oil will only cause this incredible transfer of wealth to accelerate and it will likely crash the entire global economy once again.

Already the U.S. economy is teetering on the brink of disaster.  If the price of oi lhits $100 or $120 a barrel, it could be enough to set off another huge economic slide.

According to Sabine Schels, a commodity analyst at Merrill Lynch, whenever the size of the energy sector reaches 9 percent of the global economy it spells big trouble….

“It was in the 1980s and it was the same in 2008. Right now we are at about 7.8 percent and if you go above $100 per barrel to $120 per barrel, you get to that 9 percent level.”

But it isn’t just the rising price of oil that is causing the cost of gasoline to go up.  All over the country, states that are facing massive budget shortfalls are raising gas taxes.  Many state officials believe that since consumers don’t actually “see” the higher gas tax on their receipts that they won’t be as angry as if state income taxes were raised.

Another consequence of a high oil price is that it means that the price of food all over the world will be very high.  In some areas of the globe, even a minor increase in the price of food is enough to threaten the survival of millions.  If the price of oil gets up around $140 or $150 a barrel, it is likely to set off food riots that will make what is currently going on in Tunisia and Algeria look like a Sunday picnic.

But right now, many of the big oil producing nations of the world are openly welcoming the arrival of $100 oil.  Iran, Venezuela and Libya all say that there is no reason for OPEC to act even if oil hits $120 a barrel.

Venezuela says that they now have the biggest crude oil reserves in the entire world. Venezuela says that they had certified deposits of 297 billion barrels of oil at the end of 2010.

That certainly puts a larger target on their back, doesn’t it?

In the years ahead, the demand for natural resources is going to continue to intensify.  It is going to be one of the dominant economic trends during the coming decade and beyond.

The United States should be much further along in developing alternative energy sources, but up to this point big business and the U.S. government have been openly repressing many promising technologies.  Whenever anyone comes along that could seriously upset the status quo they are bought out or squelched.

Because of all of this corruption we are all going to pay the price.  There are plenty of untapped oil reserves inside the United States.  There are plenty of alternative energy sources that we could be developing.  But we have been kept completely and totally dependent on foreign oil and now rising oil prices are absolutely going to devastate our dying economy.

***

(What this also says to me is we need to ease up on our boycott of Venezuelan oil. Citgo used to import all of its oil from Venezuela before the US got all rankled by Hugo Chavez, and we were paying about $1.75 a gallon. I'm just saying. As far as dictators go, he is by far the most harmless and his people love him. I'm not saying he's all that, but we need cheaper oil, and he happens to have a whole bunch of it. He even donates heating oil to poor American families during the winter. I mean, come on!--jef)

Obama Launches Rule Review, Pledging to Spur Jobs, Growth

(OK, first, none of the legislation during Obama's administration even comes close to real regulation because the laws were written by corporate lobbyists, like 99% of our laws are. And now he's going to "take it easy" on big business so they'll hire more people? We DO need jobs, but this president caves into corporate interests quicker than they come--no one has ever folded with a better hand than Obama has had, and he does it routinely. He IS the corporate special interests "go to guy," after all. When I hear people complaining that Obama is 'anti-big business', I'm just like "What planet are you on?" After it's all said and done, when history looks back on this period in America, Obama will be viewed as one of the most corporate-friendly presidents there ever was, rivaling both Bush and Clinton at making it easier on the corporations while simultaneously making it more difficult on the lives of American families who are not wealthy.--jef)

***

Obama Launches Rule Review, Pledging to Spur Jobs, Growth
By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON - The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama plans a government-wide review of federal regulations, aiming to eliminate rules that stymie economic growth.

In an article published in the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Obama said he intends to issue an executive order initiating a review to "make sure we avoid excessive, inconsistent and redundant regulation," focusing on rules that "stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive." He also suggested future regulations must do their job "while promoting economic growth."

The move is the latest effort by the White House to repair relations with corporate America, hoping to spur investment by the nation's largest multinationals and reduce unemployment.

Business leaders say an explosion in new regulations stemming from the president's health-care and financial regulatory overhauls has, along with the sluggish economy, made them reluctant to spend on expanding and hiring. Companies are sitting on nearly $2 trillion in cash and liquid assets, the most since World War II.

In recent weeks, the administration has made new efforts to push stalled free-trade agreements with Korea and others through Congress, and signaled its eagerness to consider an overhaul of the U.S. corporate tax code. The president invited chief executives to the White House last month, where they formed task forces to work on specific issues, including export growth and taxes.

On Feb. 7, Mr. Obama will visit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—a chief opponent to his administration's regulatory approach—for a discussion on how the White House can work with the group to create jobs. The efforts are designed to give companies more confidence in the president's stewardship of the economy, and bolster his re-election prospects among a wealthy constituency not traditionally allied with Democrats.

In Tuesday's article, the president defended his administration's efforts to strike "the proper balance" between protecting the public and not interfering with economic growth.

The president said the government sometimes failed to meet its "basic responsibility to protect the public interest," citing the run-up to the financial crisis. He also acknowledged the cost of regulation and said that sometimes "rules have gotten out of balance, placing unreasonable burdens on business—burdens that have stifled innovation and have had a chilling effect on growth and jobs."

He also said: "Where necessary, we won't shy away from addressing obvious gaps: new safety rules for infant formula; procedures to stop preventable infections in hospitals; efforts to target chronic violators of workplace safety laws. But we are also making it our mission to root out regulations that conflict, that are not worth the cost, or that are just plain dumb."

For close to a year, the White House has been asking leading business groups in the capital to identify regulations they believe are obstacles to job-creating private investment. But these efforts are being dwarfed by complaints about the administration's unfriendly rhetoric toward the financial industry and large corporations, and regulations stemming from its legislative agenda.

Even some of the president's corporate allies have joined criticism of the White House's regulatory and tax policies. The Business Roundtable, an association of chief executives of many of the largest U.S. corporations, last year compiled a 54-page report that includes proposals to streamline rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission, among scores of others. It was accompanied by public criticism from the Roundtable, whose members have frequently advised the White House on the economy.

At the same time, the administration faces pressure from the left not to appear to be too close to Wall Street and corporate interests. Liberals were irked most recently when Mr. Obama tapped political veteran and J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. executive William Daley as his chief of staff.

Eisenhowers grim warning on 'corporate military industrial complex' rings true 50 years later

50 years later, Eisenhower’s grim warning on military profit rings true
By Daniel Tencer
Monday, January 17th, 2011

The term (corporate) "military-industrial complex" entered the American lexicon 50 years ago today, when President Dwight Eisenhower warned of its dangers in an unusually frank farewell speech to the nation.

Ike said in a televised address on January 17, 1961:

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society."

 "Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

(Read Eisenhower's entire speech here.)

For years, that warning -- issued by a hero of World War II and a Republican president -- was heralded by anti-war activists as a sign that "the very structure of our society" was indeed threatened by the merger of weapon-making and profit.

And in 2011, as the US -- with some 5 percent of the world's population -- spends nearly half of all the money spent in the world on defense, the warning seems prescient to some -- and perhaps even too tame for others.

At The Independent, Rupert Cornwell argues that Ike had it right.

Adjusted for inflation, US national security spending has more than doubled since Eisenhower left office. Year after year, the defence budget seems to rise – irrespective of whether the country is actually fighting major wars, regardless of the fact that the Soviet Union, the country's former global adversary, has ceased to be, and no matter which party controls the White House and Congress.

But while Cornwell argues that things could actually be worse -- the US spends about 4 percent of its GDP on national security, compared to about a third for the Soviet Union prior to its collapse -- others argue that the US's situation has outgrown even what Eisenhower imagined.

The corporate military industrial complex "has become a 'Permanent War State,' with the power to keep the United States at war continuously for the indefinite future," writes Gareth Porter at FireDogLake.

Porter argues that the corporate military industrial complex suffered two significant setbacks in the years since Eisenhower -- one in the late 1960s and 1970s, when the US turned against a disastrous Vietnam War and demanded a less militarily active foreign policy, and another in the 1980s and 1990s, when the fall of Soviet communism allowed for a "peace dividend" in the form of reduced defense spending.

But that ended with two historical events, Porter argues: The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which led to the Gulf War and the expansion of US military presence in the Middle East, and 9/11, which provided "the biggest single boon to the militarist alliance."

From that point on, Porter argues, the US's military might broke free of almost all constraints:

• The CIA sought and obtained virtually unlimited freedom to carry out drone strikes in secrecy and without any meaningful oversight by Congress.

• The Pentagon embraced the idea of the “long war” – a twenty-year strategy envisioning deployment of U.S. troops in dozens of countries, and the Army adopted the idea of “the era of persistent warfare” as its rationale for more budgetary resources.

• The military budget doubled from 1998 to 2008 in the biggest explosion of military spending since the early 1950s – and now accounts for 56 percent of discretionary federal spending.

• The military leadership used its political clout to ensure that U.S. forces would continue to fight in Afghanistan indefinitely, even after the premises of its strategy were shown to have been false.

But not all is lost, Porter argues: Just as US public opinion turned against defense spending in the past, so too can it turn against it today. "The only thing missing from this picture is a grassroots political movement organized specifically to demand an end to the Permanent War State," he writes.

At The Independent, Cornwell suggests a different solution.

"George H.W. Bush was the last commander-in-chief to have tasted war and its horrors. His son famously had not, and – perhaps to make up for it – gave the military everything it wanted, and more. So maybe there is only one answer. America should elect a general as commander-in-chief. Like Dwight D. Eisenhower."

vidlink

No. 2 bank— JP Morgan Chase —overcharged troops on mortgages

(despicable!--jef)

***

JPMorgan Chase also improperly foreclosed on homes
By Lisa Myers and Sarah Heidarpour
NBC News
updated 1/17/2011

One of the nation's biggest banks — JP Morgan Chase — admits it has overcharged several thousand military families for their mortgages, including families of troops fighting in Afghanistan. The bank also tells NBC News that it improperly foreclosed on more than a dozen military families.

The admissions are an outgrowth of a lawsuit filed by Marine Capt. Jonathan Rowles. Rowles is the backseat pilot of an F/A 18 Delta fighter jet and has served the nation as a Marine for five years. He and his wife, Julia, say they’ve been battling Chase almost that long.

The dispute apparently caused the bank to review its handling of all mortgages involving active-duty military personnel. Under a law known as the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), active-duty troops generally get their mortgage interest rates lowered to 6 percent and are protected from foreclosure. Chase now appears to have repeatedly violated that law, which is designed to protect troops and their families from financial stress while they’re in harm's way.

A Chase official told NBC News that some 4,000 troops may have been overcharged. What’s more, the bank discovered it improperly foreclosed on the homes of 14 military families.

“We are deeply appreciative of those who fight to protect our country and Chase funds a number of programs that provide benefits to military personnel and veterans, and while any customer mistake is regrettable, we feel particularly badly about the mistakes we made here,” Chase chief communications officer Kristin Lemkau said in a statement to NBC News.

She said that beginning this week Chase will be mailing a total of about $2 million in refunds to families that may have been overcharged. She says most of the families improperly foreclosed on have gotten or will get their homes back. A bank official described what happened here as “grim,” but emphasized the mistakes were inadvertent, not malicious.

The news comes as millions of Americans are struggling to keep their homes. Banks have come under fire for allegedly improperly foreclosing on homes across the country.

JP Morgan Chase had over $2.14 trillion in total assets as of September, second only to Bank of America Corp., which had $2.34 trillion.

The overcharges may never have come to light but for Rowles, 31, and his wife, Julia.

“It’s been a nightmare. It’s been my living nightmare,” Julia Rowles said of her experience with Chase, in an interview with NBC News in Beaufort, S.C.

The saga began in 2006 when Rowles went on active duty. Under the SCRA, he could get his mortgage interest rate, which was adjustable and rising, lowered to 6 percent.

But Chase took a few months to lower Rowles' rate, overcharging the family, Rowles says, by as much as $900 a month. In the fall of 2006, Chase finally began charging Rowles the correct 6 percent rate. For the next year or so, everything went relatively smoothly.

Then, two years ago, the Rowles family says, Chase began hitting them with collection calls that escalated to sometimes three a day, claiming they owed as much as $15,000.

"Saturday, Sundays, middle of the night. It did not matter if it was a holiday," Julia said. “Collection calls at 3 in the morning. He would state, "I'm in California. I'm stationed here in Miramar. It's 3 in the morning. What are you doing calling me?" "Well, sir, this is an attempt to collect a debt."

She said they threatened to take the house and report the family to a credit agency, even though the Rowles family didn't owe the bank anything and never missed a payment.

The Rowles' records show that while they kept making payments on their mortgage at 6 percent, the bank wrongly had been charging them at rates above 9 or 10 percent. They kept calling the bank to explain there had been a huge mistake but say no one would listen. They say they kept being harassed for money they did not owe.

Fed up, Capt. Rowles got a lawyer and sued Chase, for himself and other members of the military.

"They ought to only have to worry about fighting the fight and keeping alive, not about whether their wives and children and going to be put out on the street," said Dick Harpootlian, an attorney for the Rowles family.

The lawsuit is still pending. But a Chase official now tells NBC that Rowles did everything right, and the bank did a lot wrong. (The bank maintains, however, that it previously refunded the initial overcharges of the Rowles family. The couple disputes that.)

"We made mistakes here and we are fixing them," said Chase spokeswoman Lemkau.

"We now have a dedicated team in place devoted to servicing home loans for military personnel —the members of our military deserve nothing less. We welcome the opportunity to talk to Captain Rowles and others who would like to discuss their accounts," she added.

“JP Morgan's treatment of our military personnel is inexcusable," said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the senior Republican on the Senate Banking committee. "I expect them to make this right without any further delays.”

Revolts the 'Tea Party-Obsessed' Corporate Media Overlooked

85-Year-Old-Woman Arrested for Bank Protest
Some of the most undercovered stories of 2010 were actions taken by ordinary people standing up for a more just and equitable society.
By Rose Aguilar, AlterNet on January 17, 2011

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
-Martin Luther King Jr.

Some of the most undercovered stories of 2010 were actions taken by ordinary people standing up for a more just and equitable society. People are taking to the streets on a regular basis across the country, but unlike the corporate-sponsored Tea Party -- whose spokespeople can't answer basic questions about the deficit they claim to be so worried about -- those who believe in health care, affordable housing, economic justice, education, a living wage, and a better life for all rarely, if ever, get the attention they deserve. Instead, the media, even the alternative media, spent the better part of last year obsessing over the Tea Party and manufactured personalities like Sarah Palin, while ignoring people like 85-year-old Julia Botello.

Last month, Botello was among 22 people arrested for blocking the doors of a Chase Bank branch in downtown Los Angeles. Over 200 people, many of them homeowners facing foreclosure and eviction, took part in the action organized by Home Defenders League and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.

According to the Alliance, these families have never participated in an event or protest before, but they have exhausted all other options. Imagine if over 200 Tea Partiers took part in a similar action. Imagine if an 85-year-old Tea Party member was photographed being led away by two cops, one holding each arm. Not only would this video footage be shown over and over again on the cable shows, Julia Botello would be bombarded with interview requests, but because she's standing in solidarity with people who are losing their homes, she's only been contacted by two other reporters.

"If we're united, we're a better force. We need to stand together," she says. "I use my voice for the people. I know all of the councilmen and councilwomen in my area. I'm not afraid to speak and ask for better conditions for my community."

Botello found her voice 10 years ago after falling and hurting her knee on a routine walk home. Her South Central Los Angeles neighborhood was usually dark because the street lights rarely worked. "We usually had only one light that worked, so I went to local council meetings and raised my voice. Why are our streets dark? We need light. My neighborhood hasn't been dark since." She's been going strong ever since. If there's an action focusing on an issue she cares about, she will do whatever it takes to be there, even if it means rescheduling an overdue eye surgery. "I still have time and I want to keep going."

In addition to the Chase Bank action last month, several other grassroots actions failed to receive the attention they deserve. These actions, no matter how small, should not be discounted. Let's hope these voices and demands become too loud to ignore in 2011.

-- On December 9, thousands of inmates in Georgia state prisons began a six-day strike to call attention to their treatment and to demand basic human rights: a living wage for work, educational opportunities, decent living conditions and health care, and an end to cruel and unusual punishment. It was largest prison strike in U.S. history, but the New York Times was one of the few mainstream outlets to cover it.

“Perhaps there was a larger hand at play—one that did not want the deplorable conditions of the Georgia prison system to surface,” writes Death and Taxes’ Joe Weber.

For extensive coverage, analysis and interviews with inmates, you had to turn to independent outlets like Facing South and the Black Agenda Report. “They want to break up the unity we have here,” said an anonymous strike leader in an interview with the Black Agenda Report. “We have the Crips and the Bloods, we have the Muslims, we have the head Mexicans, and we have the Aryans all with a peaceful understanding, all on common ground.”

By refusing to work or leave their cells, the inmates brought attention to prison labor and the growing prison-industrial complex, two issues that rarely get covered in the national media. In These Times ran a piece about Georgia’s hidden prison labor force and The Irish Times ran a piece about what prison life is actually like in Georgia, which has the highest prisoner-to-resident ratio in the U.S. with 60,000 prisoners and 150,000 people on probation. According to the piece, African Americans comprise 63 percent of the prison population, but only 30 percent of state residents.

“Even though reports are stating that the strike is effectively over, the momentum created by the activities of these inmates cannot be understated,” writes Boyce Watkins, founder of the Your Black World Coalition. “By coming together in such an amazing way, the individuals in the Georgia State correctional system have made a strong statement for human rights around the world.”

-- On December 11, a few local media outlets in Waterville, Maine reported on an action organized by the Maine Fair Trade Campaign to call attention to President Obama's decision to bring the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement to Congress for a vote. The group, which opposes NAFTA and CAFTA, rang a bell 31 times in honor of the more than 31,000 Maine-based jobs that have been outsourced since 2000. "People all over the state have suffered because of this," said campaign board member Sarah Bigney in an interview with The Morning Sentinel. "We know what the impact of NAFTA has been. We must say no to this madness. We know it will continue to worsen the job crisis." According to the Economic Policy Institute, the deal will increase the deficit with Korea by $16.7 billion, and cost 159,000 U.S. jobs within the first seven years after it takes effect.

Public Citizen says it's up to Congress to make the "right decision and reject this deeply flawed, job-killing" deal, which is an expansion of the deals negotiated under the Bush administration. "As a Senator and then as a presidential candidate, President Obama opposed the deal,” says a statement on Public Citizen’s site. “He pledged to replace the damaging NAFTA model. In June 2010, President Obama said he would start renegotiating parts of the agreement in preparation for sending it to Congress. But he only focused on some modest changes to automobile trade issues. This came after over 100 members of Congress and over 500 unions, environmental, faith and other organizations called on him to meet his commitments and really fix Bush’s old text. The deal Obama is now pushing directly conflicts with his campaign commitments.”

Congress is expected to vote on the deal in February.

-- On December 15, workers, union activists, and community supporters took part in more than 40 actions at Rite Aid stores in 11 states to raise awareness about low wages and health insurance cost increases. In These Times, one of the only outlets to report on the National Day of Action, ran a piece by AFL-CIO campaign coordinator Rand Wilson. He writes that the actions were "sparked by a rash of poor decisions by Rite Aid officials across the country."

"In Lancaster, California, Rite Aid executives stalled talks with 500 warehouse employees for nearly two years. Now officials are proposing to gouge employees by 'marking-up' the cost of health insurance 28 times over the increases charged by insurers. In Rome, New York, Rite Aid is closing a distribution facility that pays family-sustaining wages and benefits and provides workers with a voice on the job. Work is being shifted to a nearby location that pays low wages with few benefits and no job rights."

Watch a video of the action in Oakland, California.

-- On December 16, 131 veterans and their supporters were arrested after chaining themselves to the White House fence during a snowstorm to demand an end to the ongoing occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. According to Veterans for Peace, it was the largest veteran-led demonstration in recent years, but just like Winter Soldier, the action was completely ignored by the corporate media. Dave Lindorff reports that it was blacked out of the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

"None of us expected that these illegal wars of aggression would immediately stop due to our simple action, but we did hope that we would send a message -- a message that there are citizens who do not support our government’s illegal wars and occupations; a message to the world that we are shamed by the actions of our government and we will do everything we can to stop it," writes veteran and peace activist Leah Bolger. "It is our sincere hope that this action will be a spark that ignites the consciousness of others; that our refusal to obey and willingness to put our liberty on the line will give them the courage of their own convictions and they will also begin to act in resistance as well."

In New York City, 75 veterans, members of Grandmothers Against the War, including two in their 90s, the Green Party, and other groups stood in solidarity with the activists in DC. Eleven people were arrested for blocking an intersection near the military recruiting station in Times Square. Joan Wile, founder of Grandmothers Against the War, writes, "It is hoped that the New York protest along with the big one in Washington served as a wake-up call to the American people about the tragedy of this hopeless and destructive war. Wake up, America!"

At another solidarity action in San Francisco, 26 people were arrested for taking part in a die-in and blocking the doors of the Federal Building.

-- On December 20, six people were arrested for trespassing after they locked arms and climbed the steps to the Bank of America entrance in Clayton, St. Louis. According to organizers, some 80 people gathered in front of the bank to raise awareness about a pending foreclosure facing Mary and Mike Boehm. Mary Boehm says after her husband lost his job in 2009, she applied for the mortgage modification program designed to keep people in their homes. On November 8, 2009, Bank of America told her she qualified, but she needed to turn in additional paperwork in order to be officially approved. Even though the Boehms never missed a payment, they received a notice in November 2010 saying they were in default. The foreclosure proceedings began on December 26. The action was organized by the grassroots group Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment.

Watch KMOV's coverage here. A class action lawsuit has since been filed in St. Louis federal court against Bank of America for allegedly refusing to participate in foreclosure prevention programs despite taking $25 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program money, according to the Courthouse News Service.

An isolated incident?

The shooting in Arizona--Oh, and by the way, all those other threats were isolated too.
By Tom Tomorrow

Swiss Banker Gave WikiLeaks Information Revealing Crimes by World's Most Powerful People, as Attacks on Assange and the Site Continue

The mountain of damning information acquired by WikiLeaks just keeps growing -- as do attacks on Assange.
By Lauren Kelley, AlterNet  on January 17, 2011

The mountain of damning information acquired by WikiLeaks just keeps growing, this time thanks to former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer, who has reportedly fed the whistle-blower site information that could uncover "massive, unmitigated tax evasion " by powerful individuals and corporations around the globe.

Elmer handed over two optical discs worth of data, said to contain Swiss bank accounts linked to thousands of individuals, including some 40 politicians and "pillars of society" from the U.S., Asia and Europe. Speaking at a press conference outside the Frontline Club, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is under house arrest, Elmer called WikiLeaks "my only hope to get society to know what's going on" and said "it is damaging our society in the way that money is moved."

After leaving a Cayman Islands outpost of the Swiss bank Julius Baer in 2004, Elmer alleged that many of the bank's top clients engaged in tax fraud with the full cooperation of Julius Baer leaders, according to Raw Story. Elmer, who went on to found the Swiss Whistleblower website, has fed significant information to WikiLeaks once before, in 2007. He faced a court hearing over that release just last Tuesday.

Assange said he plans to release the information in "a matter of weeks," as soon as it's been verified.

The news comes as Assange faces allegations of sexual misconduct and attempts to extradite him from the UK to Sweden. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is continuing its efforts to smear Assange and punish everyone involved with his website. Most notably, Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. soldier behind a massive leak of classified government documents, is being tortured by being kept in solitary confinement in a Virginia prison.

Assange himself has received numerous thinly-veiled (and not so thinly-veiled) death threats from people all over the world, including individuals associated with the governments of the U.S. and other countries. A website called "People OK With Murdering Assange" compiles the most egregious statements from individuals -- including politicians and prominent media personalities -- who have called for him to be killed.

The Feds have convinced a number of major companies, including PayPal, MasterCard, Visa and Amazon, to stop doing business with Assange's site.

Even the newly crowned Miss America got some jabs in at WikiLeaks' expense, saying during the question portion of Saturday's pageant, "You know when it came to that situation, it was actually based on espionage, and when it comes to the security of our nation, we have to focus on security first and then people's right to know. It's important that everybody who's in our borders is safe and so we can't let things like that happen, and they must be handled properly." That answer may have won Teresa Scanlan the crown, but it is of course inaccurate, since no one has ever been successfully prosecuted under the Espionage Act.

Drug War Kabuki Theater

by Kevin Carson on Jan 14, 2011

Center for a Stateless Society

In 1984, the three global superpowers of Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia were in a constantly shifting pattern of wars and alliances, two against the other.  Oceania was always at war with either Eurasia or Eastasia.  But as described by the fictional Emanuel Goldstein, the very distinction between war and alliance was meaningless.  It was the state of permanent economic and military mobilization, and the psychic benefits of an ever-present foreign “threat,” that propped up the totalitarian system of domestic power in each country.  The three superpowers were really de facto allies that propped each other up through the pretense of perpetual war, like three sheaves of wheat.

The ostensible opposing sides in the so-called Drug War have a similar relationship.  In the real world, the private drug cartels derive their power from the existence of a lucrative black market which the state plays a central role in maintaining.  And the state itself is just another drug cartel which profits from controlling — rather than eliminating — the drug trade.

You can be sure that, if anyone presented a plausible threat of actually ending the production of all illegal narcotics, the black ops people in the national security state would “neutralize” them, and that right quickly.  Without the drug trade, how would the CIA fund its global network of death squads and other criminal thugs around the world?

In a dipolomatic cable published by Wikileaks (quoted in an article by Ginger Thompson and Scott Shane at the New York Times — “Cables Portray Expanded Reach of Drug Agency,” Dec. 25),  we see a long list of examples of the Drug Enforcement Agency acting — not so much to eradicate illegal drugs — but to determine the balance of power between government and private drug cartels.

When you look at the “friendly” governments the U.S. colludes with, and the drug cartels it’s allegedly trying to suppress, it’s hard — as with the men and the pigs in Animal Farm — to tell the difference between them.

The Panamanian president presented the American ambassador with a demand “that the D.E.A. go after his political enemies: ‘I need help with tapping phones.’”  An attempted prosecution of cocaine traffickers in Sierra Leone “was almost upended by the attorney general’s attempt to solicit $2.5 million in bribes.”  The “biggest narcotics kingpin” in Guinea “turned out to be the president’s son, and diplomats discovered that before the police destroyed a huge narcotics seizure, the drugs had been replaced by flour.”

So the D.E.A. and the friendly governments it works with can be most accurately described as drug cartels in their own right.  Their goal is not to stamp out the drug trade as such, but to control the terms on which it takes place.

Al Giordano of Narco News Bulletin argues (“Telling the Whole Truth About the ‘Drug War,’” Sept. 22, 2010)  that the very term “drug cartel” is an inappropriate label for private drug traffickers.  Unlike genuine cartels (for example OPEC), the drug traffickers can’t control drug supplies.  They depend entirely on helpful governments like the United States and its allies to control supply and drive up prices.  And the real drug profiteers are not the common organized criminals who fight the turf wars on the street, but the politicians and bankers living the high life on laundered drug money.  “The real bosses of the illegal drug trade wear suits and ties, give big donations to all the political parties and their candidates, and get invitations to state dinners from Los Pinos to the White House.”

So it’s safe to say the drug cartels don’t see the D.E.A.’s activities as a threat.

Back in 2009 Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, the chief of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and worth an estimated $1 billion, “officially thanked United States politicians for making sure that drugs remain illegal.” In a heartfelt expression of thanks, he stated: 

“I couldn’t have gotten so stinking rich without George Bush, George Bush Jr., Ronald Reagan, even El Presidente Obama, none of them have the cajones to stand up to all the big money that wants to keep this stuff illegal. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say, Gracias amigos, I owe my whole empire to you.” (“Mexican Drug Lord Officially Thanks American Lawmakers for Keeping Drugs Illegal,” Huffington Post, March 29, 2009).

So to all you drug lords out there:  Have you thanked a cop today?

The New Feudalism

Friday, January 14, 2011 – by Daily Bell Staff Report

TSA Pays Off In Breast Exposure Suit ... Texas woman, 24, receives "nominal" settlement ... The woman who sued the Transportation Security Administration after her breasts were exposed during a frisking at a Texas airport will receive a "nominal" payment from the government as part of a legal settlement ... The settlement was disclosed in documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, where Lynsie Murley last year filed a lawsuit accusing the TSA of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress in connection with the May 2008 incident at the Corpus Christi airport. – Smoking Gun

Dominant Social Theme: Fairness is the least that can be expected.

Free-Market Analysis: A new feudalism is being born. It is a quite deliberate effort of the power elite in our view, but people don't notice it – or haven't verbalized it – because it is difficult to analyze something when one is in the middle of it. But the feudal evolution is surely occurring. We can see its signature in the article above but there are many other signs.

Feudalism's "flourishing" or time-span was between ninth and 15th century, apparently. It was not a formal system but a sociopolitical evolution of relationships between various power nexuses. Wikipedia describes feudalism as "a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warrior nobility, revolving around the three key concepts of lords, vassals and fiefs. There is also a broader definition, as described by Marc Bloch (1939), that includes not only warrior nobility but the peasantry bonds of manorialism, sometimes referred to as a ‘feudal society.'"

The evolution of the new feudalism can be seen in various ways, including the erosion of property rights for the middle class and the increasing molding of employment around the vast portfolios of the powers-that-be. (Lawyers and accountants are in high-demand.) The Western middle classes – especially in America where they have been the most vital – are under sustained attack. Taxes, inflation and unemployment are signatures of such a society, along with expansive regulations.

Of course the economic issues mentioned above have been features of Western regulatory democracies for some time. What is changing is the regulatory environment and people's attitudes towards its enforcement. Partially as a result of a bad economy, people are more willing to put up with a level of authoritarianism that would have disturbed them years ago. Ms. Murley is something of an exception, yet even here it is not her reaction that is so noteworthy as the attitude of those who harassed her. Here's some more from the article:

The 24-year-old Murley alleged that after being "singled out for extended search procedures," a TSA agent frisked her and "pulled Plaintiff's blouse completely down, exposing Plaintiff's breasts to everyone in the area." Her complaint noted that, "as would be expected," Murley was "extremely embarrassed and humiliated." Murley charged that TSA employees "joked and laughed about the incident for an extended period of time." After leaving the security line to be "consoled by an acquaintance who had brought her to the airport," Murley returned to the line, where a male TSA worker said that he had wished he was there when she first passed through. The employee, Murley recalled, added that "he would just have to watch the video."

There is a sense of entitlement, even arrogance, among TSA employees, or so it seems; and this is evidently and obviously shared by other government workers in the US, including law enforcement officials. There are endless reports in mainstream media of inappropriate use of tazers, and of outright shootings; the drug-war has been especially corrosive to American civil rights, encouraging government "takings" of private property without due process. Government service is increasingly glorified, if not rhetorically than through compensation. The average government worker apparently makes up to 50 percent more than the average individual in the private sector.

The inequities are increasingly obvious. Senior government officials contravene tax laws without penalty; central banks hand out trillions to favored financial firms and corporations; government secrecy is increasingly enshrined by judicial fiat along with the ever-expanding power of the US executive bench via authoritarian executive orders. As the inequities increase, so does the arrogance. Gradually a two-tier society is created.

At the center of the new feudalism, apparently, are the Anglosphere's great banking families and assorted appendages: major multinationals and even elements of church institutions. Beyond the core are lesser families and wealthy entrepreneurs, along with the corporate and government lieges that carry out the will of the central core. Still further down are government workers, soldiers, intelligence agents and others working within formal government institutions. In the private sector, lawyers, accountants and academic professors provide resources for the emergence of the new feudalism. Then, finally, there are the vassals ... everyone else.

The new feudalism is evidently to be worldwide; and the drive toward increased global governance is to be accompanied by eroding economic conditions, food insecurity and heightened authoritarianism. There is evidently and obviously a pattern in what is occurring; a level of planning seems evident and the implementation is ongoing. On the other hand, as we have pointed out, there has been a shock to the system: the Internet, the advent of which was unexpected. It has resulted in close scrutiny of the emergent new feudalism and may yet help ameliorate it.

Conclusion: The new feudalism is not being built openly but in secret; society is to be reorganized gradually and without any fanfare. But it is difficult to conduct a pan-social reconfiguration under the bright lights of electronic scrutiny. The Tea Party in America and the austerity riots in Europe are but two examples of the Internet's impact in our view. And just yesterday, protests flared in Tunisia, with much of the organizing apparently taking place on Facebook as occurred previously in Iran. Signs of the new feudalism are widespread; but because of the ‘Net, its imposition remains somewhat problematic.

Antipsychotic drug prescriptions triple in the US

by Setrok Layl on January 15th, 2011
New Scientist – Health

Doctors are prescribing too many expensive antipsychotic drugs, often for conditions where there is little evidence they work, say US researchers.

PRESCRIPTIONS for antipsychotic drugs have more than doubled in the US over the past 15 years, often given for conditions for which there is scant evidence they work.

Antipsychotic drugs are often given for conditions for which there is scant evidence they work.

Expensive antipsychotics were originally approved to treat schizophrenia. They are now also prescribed for conditions including anxiety disorders and dementia, even though the Food and Drug Administration has not approved these off-label uses. The side effects of such drugs can include diabetes, weight gain and an increased risk of heart disease.

Caleb Alexander at the University of Chicago and colleagues analysed the results of a survey of visits to doctors between 1995 and 2008. In the sample population, the prescriptions of antipsychotics went from 6.2 million in 1995 to 16.7 million in 2006 and fell to 14.3 million in 2008. Off-label prescriptions also doubled during this time (Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, DOI: 10.1002/pds.2082).

Alexander points to ways to combat the trend, such as reducing heavy drug marketing and raising awareness of off-label prescribing.

Design, setting, and measurements

We used nationally representative data from the IMS Health National Disease and Therapeutic Index to describe outpatient antipsychotic use. The primary outcome was the volume of visits where antipsychotics were used for specific indications (treatment visits). We also quantified use without U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval (off-label use) and off-label use with compendium data suggesting an uncertain evidence base.

Results

Antipsychotic use increased from 6.2 million (M) treatment visits (95% CI, 5.4–7.0) in 1995 to 16.7 M visits (15.5–18.2) in 2006, then declined to 14.3 M visits (13.0–15.6) by 2008. A shift occurred from typical agents in 1995 (84% of all antipsychotic visits) to atypical agents by 2008 (93%). As they declined, typical medications shifted toward use in schizophrenia (30% in 1995 to 48% 2008). In contrast, use of atypical agents expanded for bipolar affective disorder (10 to 34%), remained stable for depression (12 to 14%), and declined for schizophrenia (56 to 23%). Overall, antipsychotic use for indications without FDA approval increased from 4.4 M visits in 1995 to 9.0 M in 2008. The estimated cost associated with off-label use in 2008 was US$6.0 billion.

Conclusions

Atypical use has grown far beyond substitution for the now infrequently used typical agents. Antipsychotics are increasingly used for conditions where FDA approval and associated clinical evidence is less certain. Despite the value of innovation, the benefits of widening atypical antipsychotic use should be weighed against their cost, regulatory status, and incomplete nature of available evidence.

Top Ten Legal Drugs Linked to Violence

By Maia Szalavitz Friday, January 7, 2011, TIME Magazine

When people consider the connections between drugs and violence, what typically comes to mind are illegal drugs like crack cocaine. However, certain medications — most notably, some antidepressants like Prozac — have also been linked to increase risk for violent, even homicidal behavior.

A new study from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices published in the journal PloS One and based on data from the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System has identified 31 drugs that are disproportionately linked with reports of violent behavior towards others.

Please note that this does not necessarily mean that these drugs cause violent behavior. For example, in the case of opioid pain medications like Oxycontin, people with a prior history of violent behavior may seek drugs in order to sustain an addiction, which they support via predatory crime. In the case of antipsychotics, the drugs may be given in an attempt to reduce violence by people suffering from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders — so the drugs here might not be causing violence, but could be linked with it because they're used to try to stop it.

Nonetheless, when one particular drug in a class of nonaddictive drugs used to treat the same problem stands out, that suggests caution: unless the drug is being used to treat radically different groups of people, that drug may actually be the problem. Researchers calculated a ratio of risk for each drug compared to the others in the database, adjusting for various relevant factors that could create misleading comparisons. Here are the top ten offenders:

10. Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) An antidepressant which affects both serotonin and noradrenaline, this drug is 7.9 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

9. Venlafaxine (Effexor) A drug related to Pristiq in the same class of antidepressants, both are also used to treat anxiety disorders. Effexor is 8.3 times more likely than other drugs to be related to violent behavior.

8. Fluvoxamine (Luvox) An antidepressant that affects serotonin (SSRI), Luvox is 8.4 times more likely than other medications to be linked with violence

7. Triazolam (Halcion) A benzodiazepine which can be addictive, used to treat insomnia. Halcion is 8.7 times more likely to be linked with violence than other drugs, according to the study.

6) Atomoxetine (Strattera) Used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Strattera affects the neurotransmitter noradrenaline and is 9 times more likely to be linked with violence compared to the average medication.

5) Mefoquine (Lariam) A treatment for malaria, Lariam has long been linked with reports of bizarre behavior. It is 9.5 times more likely to be linked with violence than other drugs.

4) Amphetamines: (Various) Amphetamines are used to treat ADHD and affect the brain's dopamine and noradrenaline systems. They are 9.6 times more likely to be linked to violence, compared to other drugs.

3) Paroxetine (Paxil) An SSRI antidepressant, Paxil is also linked with more severe withdrawal symptoms and a greater risk of birth defects compared to other medications in that class. It is 10.3 times more likely to be linked with violence compared to other drugs.

2) Fluoxetine (Prozac) The first well-known SSRI antidepressant, Prozac is 10.9 times more likely to be linked with violence in comparison with other medications.

1) Varenicline (Chantix) The anti-smoking medication Chantix affects the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, which helps reduce craving for smoking. Unfortunately, it's 18 times more likely to be linked with violence compared to other drugs — by comparison, that number for Xyban is 3.9 and just 1.9 for nicotine replacement.