Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has criticized both Enbridge and the EPA for their inadequate response to the crisis. She warned of a “tragedy of epic proportions” if the oil reaches Lake Michigan, a distinct possibility.

What’s so striking is how formulaic the oil spill story has become.

First, there are the governmental notices of potential problems with the current system, in the months and years leading up to the leak. In this case, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration notified Enbridge that the old pipeline could be corroding and needed monitoring. The Detroit Free Press reports that it’s not clear if the company acted on the government notices or whether the concerns played any role in the leak.

Second, the company lowballs the extent of the problem. Enbridge says 800,000 gallons; EPA says 1 million.

Next, reporters trying to cover the leak are hampered in their work. A reporter and photographer from the Detroit Free Press were not allowed into a wildlife recovery area, but the newspaper doesn’t specify whether it was government or Enbridge that stopped them.

Then it’s time for the President to pledge swift response. Done.

Meanwhile, local pols say cleanup needs more resources. Granholm toured the affected area by helicopter and then met with state and federal officials. She remains unimpressed by current efforts. “From my perspective, the response has been anemic,” she said.

And this story always has a sad ending. The spill has already killed fish and soaked snails, frogs, and muskrats. Get ready for pictures of oil-coated king fishers and great blue herons.

Jesse Jacox, who enjoyed canoeing the Kalamazoo River, told the Free Press, “It saddens me to death. I don’t see any way they’re going to clean all that.”

Oil spills don’t “just happen.” Companies drill for oil because it makes them profits. Our economic system—one that demands growth, not sustainability—guarantees environmental degradation.

Until we start to heavily invest in renewable energy and get off the carbon economy, we are bound to hear this story over and over again.

In the circus known as Illinois politics, the center ring corruption trial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich is coming to an end. Closing arguments are set for Monday, and a verdict is expected in August.

The trial is ending surprisingly early, as Blago told a judge this week he would not be taking the witness stand. “His attorneys rested their case quietly, without calling a single witness or putting on any kind of defense, and jurors looked at each other with raised eyebrows,” writes John Kass of the Chicago Tribune. “There was no cross-examination to worry about, no embarrassing tapes to explain, no jury comparing his credibility against FBI recordings in which he expressed his desire to ‘(bleep)’ the people of Illinois.”

Blago’s quiet defense lets a lot of other people off the hook, including Jesse Jackson Jr.

After Barack Obama was elected President in November 2008, Blago was left to fill the vacancy of the Illinois Senate seat. Blago’s top priority was taking care of himself and his family. He wanted to cash in with his choice.

His choices ranged from Valerie Jarrett to Oprah Winfrey, secret FBI recordings show.

But no one pushed harder for the seat than Jesse Jackson Jr. He commissioned a Zogby poll that showed him being the choice of most Illinoisans.

“Jackson was the most publicly aggressive candidate for the Senate appointment, launching a campaign-like bombardment of e-mails, petitions, and phone calls from supporters to try to pressure Blagojevich into appointing him,” write John Chase and Rick Pearson of the Trib.

The governor laughed off the idea at first, ridiculing the Congressman as a political lightweight.

Blago was right about that—Jackson hasn’t been the progressive politician many were hoping for. He hasn’t done all that much in Congress.

The governor and the Congressman knew each other back in the 1990s when both were ambitious, young pols serving in the Illinois Congressional delegation. They both had delusions of grandeur. “Jesse was leaking to the press his hopes to become the nation’s first black president in 2004; Blago was envisioning the governor’s office as a steppingstone to the Oval Office,” writes Carol Felsenthal in Chicago magazine.

But in Illinois, the governor’s office is more likely a stepping stone to a minimum security prison.

When Blago ran for governor, Jackson did not endorse him, and Rod’s ego has been bruised ever since. Perhaps this explains Blago telling his advisers (caught on those FBI recordings) calling Jackson a “a bad guy . . . he’s really not the guy I hoped or thought he was.”

But by December 2008, the governor was warming to the idea of appointing Jackson to Obama’s old seat. Why the change of heart? Money.

No one else in Washington or Illinois was interested in cutting a deal with Rod. “And I can cut a better political deal with these Jacksons and, and most of it you probably can’t believe, but some of it can be tangible upfront,” Rod tells his brother in a taped phone conversation.

Both Blagojevich and Jackson have a funder in common—Raghuveer Nayak, a prominent businessman. In an FBI recording, the governor’s brother told Blago that Nayak offered to do “some accelerated fundraising” on the governor’s behalf if Jackson got the seat.

Blagojevich met with Jackson to discuss the Senate seat the day before the feds closed in and arrested Blago on December 9, 2008.

Jackson has long denied knowledge or involvement of the alleged scheme to buy the Senate seat. But a few weeks ago, the federal prosecutors for the first time publicly suggested that Jackson was aware of efforts by his allies to swap campaign cash for his appointment.

At this point, Jackson hasn’t been charged with any wrongdoing. He has kept quiet throughout the trial, promising to “clear up the misstatements made by some” when the trial ends. Then he faces the resumption of a House ethics probe into his actions.

It’s disappointing to many that it’s come to this. So many Illinois politicians knew to stay away from the corrupt governor. House Speaker Michael Madigan and his daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, wouldn’t play this game. On those FBI tapes, Blago is heard calling the Madigans “the Madigoons.”

It begs the question: If the Madigan dynasty was smart enough to avoid getting ensnarled in a classic “Chicago Way” corruption probe, why wasn’t the Jackson dynasty?

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald may have saved the Dems from themselves. What more could he had found out if the wiretapping had continued?

Blago’s silence during his corruption trial doesn’t mean that his voice wasn’t heard in court. In one memorable recording, the governor talked with an advisor about the Senate seat pick and said, “I’ve got this thing and it’s fucking golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for fuckin’ nothing.”

Silence is golden, too. But the time for Jesse Jackson Jr. to remain silent is over. His constituents and progressives who believed in him deserve to hear him speak.

There have been a “series of  strikes at almost half of the World Cup stadiums as guards are being paid less than one tenth of what they were promised when they were employed,” reports AllAfrica.com. Seems like a newsworthy event, but the camera lens is focused on the soccer stars, not the working stiffs.

Yesterday during a sports panel hosted by journalists Davey D, Dave Zirin, and artist Favianna Rodriguez, longtime activist Trevor Ngwane joined us live via Skype from South Africa. It was so cool.

Ngwane talked about the “FIFA mafia” and said he “wouldn’t wish the World Cup on any country.”

The Anti-Privatisation Forum and other groups have been protesting throughout the games.

“The government has the wrong priorities,” said Ngwane. “The government shouldn’t prioritize mega-sports and mega-sports stars.”

Ngwane listed what the South African government should be prioritizing: housing, education, health care; youth unemployment is above 80% he said.

He added that there needs to be a more sustainable basis for unity for the poor besides the World Cup.

More marches are planned for next week in J-burg. Now if we could only get some coverage of that.

Speaking of television coverage, Dave Zirin mentioned a really shocking and sad statistic: only 40,000 Africans outside of the host country are watching the World Cup on TV. The TV rights are too expensive. There are probably more Americans watching the World Cup in New York City than in Africa (outside of South Africa).

And that’s one of the problems with these big games, be it World Cup or Olympics. Corporate rights get prioritized over human rights.

by Ai-jen Poo, for Domestic Workers United
from “Organizing with Love: Lessons from the New York Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Campaign”

Rarely do you hear an activist comparing a great campaign to a great love affair. But that’s the exact metaphor Ai-jen Poo used to describe the fantastically successful campaign to give basic labor rights to domestic workers in New York City.

The Domestic Workers United gave a workshop about this campaign on the second day of the US Social Forum (USSF). In fact, it was back at the 2007 USSF in Atlanta where the Domestic Workers United, along with other organizations, came together and formed the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “The social forum is a special occasion for us,” says Poo.

I was at their event at the 2007 USSF and was so impressed by their tenacity and vision. So it’s amazing and inspiring to come back to the social forum three years later and hear about their victory in New York State.

“Today is an exciting day for domestic workers around the country,”says Poo. At any moment, New York Governor David Paterson will sign into law the first set of labor protections for domestic workers. This is no small victory.

For too long, domestic workers–nannies, house cleaners, companions for elderly–have been denied basic labor rights. Domestic workers have been explicitly excluded from U.S. labor protections. And it’s not by chance. When Congress debated legislation during the New Deal Era, Southern lawmakers sought to exempt domestic workers (and farm workers) from federal labor laws.

This discrimination, Poo points out, is rooted in racial and gender oppressions. So this new legislation means so much. “It’s about reparations,” she says. “It’s about justice.”

And it’s about recognizing that caring for people is real work that requires skills.

What’s in the new bill? Two different versions have been passed by the two houses of New York state government. The Senate version is more expansive and would grant guarantees such as paid holidays, sick days, overtime pay, and the right to collective bargaining. Right now, domestic workers are not even entitled to minimum wage.

What the average workers takes for granted, that’s what we’ve been denied, says Patricia Francois, who worked as a nanny in New York for twelve years before losing her job a year and a half ago.

New York is just the beginning. There are campaigns underway in fourteen cities. Claudia Reyes from Mujeres Unidas y Activas talked about the fight for labor rights in California. In 2006, AB 2536, which gave household workers the right to overtime, and fined employers who failed to pay their employees, passed both houses in California. But Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

Reyes says that what happens in New York will help domestic workers in California in 2011 and 2012. It’s historic legislation. And it proves that it’s possible.

Poo says that it’s important to not let the political climate curb your vision. If it’s inspirational, people will want to participate.

One thread of discussion that came up over and over again as domestic workers/organizers told their stories during today’s panel was the idea that labor protections seemed impossible for them. But the campaign changed all of that.

“The experience of the campaign to pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York has already provided an opening for the transformation of the relations within the domestic work industry and a vision for how we can transform all of our relations throughout our nation and beyond,” writes Poo in a paper about the campaign. “Like a great love affair, it has helped us grow.” ]]> http://www.lizdinovella.com/?feed=rss2&p=475 http://www.lizdinovella.com/?p=471 http://www.lizdinovella.com/?p=471#comments Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:07:11 +0000 Elizabeth DiNovella http://www.lizdinovella.com/?p=471 The U.S. Social Forum kicked off Tuesday, June 22, in Detroit. The social forum is a gathering of activists from around the country. It’s a chance to catch up, network, and organize under the banner of “another world is possible.” Organizers are expecting as many as 20,000 people to participate.

I tried to register today several times but the lines were incredibly long. At one point registration was closed so folks could participate in the opening march.

Why Detroit? It’s easy to think Detroit as a city of decay, poverty, and violence. But there is so much more to the city.

To give but one example, Detroit has a vibrant community garden scene. Today I went to a workshop about the Greening of Detroit.

Detroit’s population has shrunk to about a quarter of what it was forty or fifty years ago, leaving lots of open green space. But neighborhood groups are transforming these vacant lots into community gardens.

The Detroit Garden Resource Program Collaborative is the hub of this effort. In 2003, four organizations–the Greening of Detroit, Detroit Agriculture Network, EarthWorks Urban Farm/Capuchin Soup Kitchen, and Michigan State University–began working together to provide support for the city’s urban gardeners.

Seven years ago there were 8o community gardens, consisting of neighborhood gardens, backyard patches, and school gardens. By 2009, there were 800 community gardens. This year there are 1200, including some urban farms.

Education, nutrition information, shared tools, workshops (on topics ranging from how to build hoop houses to composting lessons) are some of the things the garden resource program excels at.

A few years ago, gardeners decided to sell the food they produced, starting at local farmers markets. In the first year, they made just under $1000. This year, they expect to rake in between $60,000–$80,000.

And they’ve branched out beyond farmers markets. They’ve created relationships with Detroit restaurants to sell locally produced veggies and fruits.

Ultimately, these community gardens are a way to do community organizing. And that’s what makes it so inspiring–and necessary. And community organizing is at the heart of the US Social Forum.

Some say a ruling in favor of gay marriage would mark a huge cultural shift. But pop culture shows the shift is already happening. As with many other social issues, we’re just waiting for the courts to catch up.

For starters, Elton John sang at Rush Limbaugh’s fourth wedding. The gay marriage ceremony in this summer’s worst blockbuster, Sex and the City 2, was over the top in a way that seemed both dated and defensive. So 2007.

But The New York Times Magazine Q&A with Eminem confirmed the cultural shift for me. (It’ll be  published in this Sunday’s issue but is available online here.)

Eminem was known for his gay bashing and macho swagger, often channeled through his alter ego Slim Shady. But in his soon to be released album, Recovery, the rapper says consciously went in a different direction. “It’s the new tolerant me!,” he told The New York Times. I can’t wait to hear it.

The mellowed out 37-year-old Eminem is now in favor of gay marriage.

NYT: You’ve been accused of writing gay-bashing lyrics in the past. Would you like to see gay marriage approved in Michigan, where you live?

Eminem: I think if two people love each other, then what the hell? I think that everyone should have the chance to be equally miserable, if they want.

Despite the swans and Liza Minnelli cameo performance, SATC2 is not the gay marriage movie of the summer. 8: The Mormon Proposition, which opened in the 15 cities nationwide yesterday, is.

The film looks at the Church of Latter Day Saints moral and financial bankrolling of the Prop 8 effort.

“This is not a gay film,” says director Reed Cowan. “This film is an examination of faith, obedience and incursions into politics by religion.”

In a review of the documentary, Ankita Rao of the Religion News Service wrote, “Televised advertisements endorsed by the church urged the public to preserve traditional families. Church leaders warned that same-sex marriages ruin society and endanger souls and mobilized their congregations accordingly.”

So while we wait for the courts to catch up, we also have to wait for the voters, too. The Haas Jr.Foundation released a report this week by NYU political scientist Patrick J. Egan. Egan examined more than ten years’ worth of pre-election polling data from the 33 states that passed anti-gay marriage initiatives.

Egan found that pre-election polling numbers on gay marriage bans woefully underestimate the bans’ popularity.

In the five states that have legalized gay marriage–Iowa, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont–it was accomplished through the state legislatures, not through direct voter sentiment.

District Judge Vaughn R. Walker hasn’t given a timeline for his verdict but it’s likely to be issued this summer.

The whole trial itself–with its bizarre pairing of Ted Olson and Davis Boies, who faced off in Bush v. Gore, the specious arguments arguing marriage is all about procreation, and the possible of huge change–would make a great 2011 summer blockbuster.

Dustin Lance Black, who won as Oscar for his screenplay for Milk, has been involved in the California case. Black gave a moving Oscar speech that discussed the challenges of growing up gay in the Mormon Church. Variety reports that Black says a screenplay about the Prop 8 case is “not out of the question.”

Here’s hoping this story has a happy ending where, as Eminem says, everyone gets the “chance to be equally miserable.”
]]> http://www.lizdinovella.com/?feed=rss2&p=461 http://www.lizdinovella.com/?p=457 http://www.lizdinovella.com/?p=457#comments Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:25:16 +0000 Elizabeth DiNovella http://www.lizdinovella.com/?p=457 The folks at If It Was My Home created an amazing map that shows what the BP oil spill would look like in your backyard.

I knew the extent of the oil spill was massive, but seeing it mapped over Wisconsin really shocks. From Dubuque, Iowa, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, we’d be covered.

The protests are spilling now over into baseball. New York City Congressman Jose Serrano is calling for Major League Baseball to pull the 2011 All-Star game out of Phoenix.

“Baseball and the Latin community, it’s a close relationship,” Serrano told the Chicago Tribune. “Latinos, they will be the ones, more than anyone else, who will be stopped on the street in violation of the constitutional rights. . . . States (that) make those decisions need to know that there are consequences to those decision.”

Arizona has felt the economic consequences before. The National Football League pulled the 1993 Superbowl from Tempe due to the MLK holiday flap. A baseball spokeman estimated that pulling the All-Star game could cost Arizona $40 million.

Serrano told the Trib that he may reach out to club owners and even ask players to boycott the All-Star game. Considering that 27 percent of the baseball players on Opening Day rosters were born outside the United States, this boycott isn’t just symbolic.

The Arizona Diamondbacks rolled into Chicago to play the Cubs, and the team was met with protesters. (The Diamondback’s owner, Ken Kendrick, is a major financial backer of the Republican Party in Arizona.)

Who knows, maybe boycotting the Arizona Diamondbacks could be something that brings Cubs fans and White Sox fans together. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was blunt in his criticism of the new law.

“That’s no respect of human rights,” he said. “Being illegal in any country, that’s not good, period. But the immigration (service) has to be careful about how they treat people.”

“I want to see one day with Latin Americans—it can be Mexican, Costa Rican—I want to see this country two days without them to see how good we’re doing. Everyone comes to this country to work, and I don’t think they’re going to do bad stuff here. They just come here to make things happen, to make a better life. I guarantee you whoever comes to this country and they don’t have their papers, they’re straight and narrow. They’re scared to be deported.”

Guillen, who was born in Venezuela, didn’t become a U.S. citizen until after he won the World Series.

President Obama is a White Sox fan and I can only hope he’s listening to what Guillen has to say.

Earth Day was the brainchild of Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson.

On April 20 and 21, the UW-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies held a conference entitled “Earth Day at Forty: Valuing Wisconsin’s Environmental Traditions, Past, Present and Future.”

The conference was terrific and included a number of fantastic speakers, including author Margaret Atwood and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Atwood talked about the need for power to be decentralized, and proposed a new principle for the environmental justice movement: Eco-Mercy. Rather than haggling over injustice, let’s focus on compassion.

Kennedy acted as the provocateur, saying “the best thing for the environment is free market capitalism.” He said what we have now is “corporate crony capitalism.” It’s time to end all the subsidies—hidden and obvious ones—of the carbon-based economy. De-carbonization will lead to prosperity, he said.

Tia Nelson, the Senator’s daughter, spoke tenderly about her “Papa” and how he never would’ve imagined that his legacy would be forty years of environmental activism.

Senator Nelson wrote about the degradation of our planet in the pages of The Progressive. In 1967, he wrote a piece for us entitled, “The National Pollution Scandal.”

“The natural environment of America—the woods and waters and wildlife, the clear air and blue sky, the fertile soil and the scenic landscape—is threatened with destruction,” Senator Nelson wrote. He outlined “this new American tragedy,” and noted, “It must be attacked for what it is: a sinister byproduct of the prosperous, urbanized, industrialized world in which we live.”

In November 1969, he wrote a piece for The Progressive called, “Our Polluted Planet.”

“I am convinced that all that is needed now is the trigger to activate the overwhelming insistence of the new generation on environmental quality,” he predicted. “It is the young who can begin to stem the tide of disaster. To marshal such an effort, I am proposing a National Teach-In on the Crisis of the Environment to be held next spring on every university campus across the nation. The crisis is so imminent, in my opinion, that every university should set aside one day in the school year—the same day across the nation—for the Teach-In.”

Tia Nelson spoke about Gaylord’s numerous attempts to get Congress and Presidents to take seriously the destruction of our landscapes. The original Earth Day would not have happened without the Senator’s willingness to fail over and over again. Earth Day, she said, spoke to the power of an individual to make change.

But individual acts are not enough. As Kennedy noted, where there’s environmental destruction, there’s also a destruction of democracy. Elected officials need to be visionaries like Gaylord Nelson, and create policies that will end pollution-based prosperity.

What were they thinking?

This may have been a better fit.