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GOOD NEWS
"The House passed an amendment Wednesday that aims to prevent
soldiers deployed to war from permanently losing custody of their
children because of the absence."
STATE WATCH
MASSACHUSETTS:
Activists are close to killing a proposed constitutional amendment to
ban gay marriage.
CALIFORNIA:
With minorities comprising 57 percent of the population, California is
the most diverse state in the country.
DISTRICT
OF COLUMBIA: D.C.'s African-American population continues to
decline.
WOMEN'S
RIGHTS: States issuing birth certificates for stillborn babies are
stirring up controversy over abortion rights.
BLOG WATCH
THINK PROGRESS:
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow on why it took four years to
appoint a war czar: "I don't know."
CREW BLOG: In
a possible criminal violation, the Department of Education may be using
private e-mail accounts for official business.
CROOKS
AND LIARS: MSNBC's Chris Matthews calls out Rep. Jack Kingston
(R-GA) on his dishonest Iraq talking points.
WAR AND PIECE:
Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey's testimony raises serious
questions about the FBI's involvement in warrantless domestic spying.
DAILY GRILL
REP. LINDA SANCHEZ: Are there anymore U.S. attorneys
that we should know about that were forced out?
ATTY GEN. GONZALES: Congresswoman, it's always been my understanding
that this focus has been on the eight United States attorneys that were
asked to resign last December 7th and June 14th.
-- Testimony before House Judiciary Committee, 5/10/07
VERSUS
"Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales testified last
week that the effort was limited to eight U.S. attorneys fired since
last June, and other administration officials have said that only a few
others were suggested for removal. In fact, D. Kyle Sampson, then
Gonzales's chief of staff, considered more than two dozen U.S.
attorneys for termination, according to lists compiled by him and his
colleagues, the sources said."
-- Washington Post, 5/17/07
ARCHIVES
Progress Report
STUDENTS
Apply for Iraq Action Camp to meet other activists, learn how to organize, and tell Congress that it's time to bring our troops home. |
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by Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney, Amanda Terkel,
Satyam Khanna, and Matt Corley
ECONOMY
No Time Off
As summer approaches, many Americans are thinking about vacation plans.
But unfortunately, nearly
one in four Americans receive no paid vacation or holiday time.
Even worse, nearly "half of all full-time private sector workers in the
U.S. get
no paid sick days," with low-income
workers, parents,
and people
with chronic illnesses hit the hardest. Businesses also suffer in
productivity and other
workers face health risks when sick employees are forced to go to
work. The American public overwhelmingly agrees that all workers
deserve days off from work; 95
percent of workers believe it is "unacceptable" for employers to
deny sick days. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
have introduced the Healthy Families Act (HFA), which would guarantee
that workers receive at least seven paid sick days each year. Tell
Congress to support this legislation here.
DAMAGING PUBLIC HEALTH: For
many Americans, getting sick may mean getting fired. "At
least 145 countries have paid sick days," notes Public Welfare
Foundation president Debra Leff. "The United States is the only
industrialized country lacking such a policy." The situation is the
worst for the nation's lowest wage earners, 80 percent of whom receive
no sick days. Food service workers, who are in constant contact with
the public, are also among the least likely to receive paid sick days.
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote recently, "Eighty-six
percent get no sick days at all. They show up in the restaurants
coughing and sneezing and feverish, and they start preparing and
serving meals. You won't see many of them wearing masks." Similarly, 55
percent of retail workers and 29 percent of health care and social
assistance workers receive no paid sick days. Additionally, workers
"who do not have paid sick days for doctors' visits do not have the
opportunity to get important preventive care, such as flu shots and
vaccinations." A study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research
finds that 40 percent of workers "report having contracted the
flu from a colleague." "The lack of paid sick days isn't just a
family issue -- it's
also a public health issue," Kennedy said. "When sick people go to
work or sick children go to school, they infect their coworkers or
fellow students and the public as well."
NEGLECTING CHILDREN'S HEALTH: Children also suffer when employers do not provide paid sick leave.
Just one
in three workers receive paid sick days to care for a child,
meaning parents are forced to choose between losing a day's pay or
sending a sick child to school. Just as viruses rapidly spread in
workplaces, the same happens in schools. Even though child-care centers require
sick children to remain home, "when parents cannot get off work to
stay home with them, many sick children do end up in care." An even
bigger threat to children's health occurs when parents are unable to
take time off to ensure that their children
receive needed preventive care, such as immunizations and
well-child visits. Failure to ensure that all children receive timely
preventive care has long-term implications for not only their health,
but our national health care spending.
DECREASING BUSINESS PRODUCTIVITY: Most people don't want to interact with a co-worker who is sick. In a
recent survey, 59
percent of businesses said that they have a problem with
presenteeism -- workers showing up to work when they are sick --
compared to 39 percent two years ago. A study by Cornell University
"found that presenteeism despite medical problems costs $180 billion
annually in lost productivity, and may be more costly than absenteeism
due to illness." Yet despite these facts, many businesses still do not
recognize that employees need paid sick days. Herbert recently
contacted Cracker Barrel Old Country Store about its lack of paid sick
leave. The company simply responded, "If employees need to miss a shift
due to illness, there are generally many opportunities
to make up that lost shift later in the week, or the next week."
Ness notes that this type of policy can lead to "economic disaster" for
many workers.
ALL WORK, NO PLAY: "The United
States is the only
advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers
paid vacation," according to a new study by the Center for Economic and
Policy Research. Approximately 28
million Americans receive no paid vacation or holiday leave.
Lower-wage workers "are less likely to have any paid vacation (69
percent) than higher-wage workers are (88 percent). The same is
true for part-timers, who are far less likely to have paid vacations
(36 percent) than are full-timers (90 percent)." Even the national
average -- nine paid days of vacation and six paid days of holiday --
is "less than the minimum legal standard" set in almost all the world's
rich economies.
THE REMEDY: Kennedy and
DeLauro's HFA mandating that employers
with 15 or more employees provide at least seven paid sick days
would benefit
66 million Americans: "46 million would gain access to paid sick
days; 19 million would gain paid sick days for leave for doctors'
visits and family care; and 1 million Americans would gain additional
paid sick days." "Paid sick leave is a basic right of people in the
workplace and the price paid for denying employees paid sick leave is
felt by all of us," said DeLauro. Currently, California is the only
state mandating comprehensive paid family leave. The law "provides
most Californians with six weeks of partial pay when they take
leave from work" to care for a family member. Rutgers University's
Eileen Appelbaum and the UCLA's Ruth Milkman note that while the Family
Medical Leave Act guarantees "12 weeks of unpaid family leave to
eligible employees at large companies, many working families cannot
afford to take the time off work without pay," making clear why the
HFA is necessary.
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Under the Radar
NATIONAL SECURITY -- SENATORS QUESTION
WHETHER ALBERTO GONZALES LIED UNDER OATH ABOUT NSA WIRETAPPING PROGRAM: Yesterday, a group of senators, led by Russ Feingold (D-WI),
sent Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a letter highlighting an apparent lie Gonzales told while testifying under oath
last year about the National Security Agency's warrantless spying
program. Testifying to Congress in 2006, Gonzales said that there was
no "serious
disagreement about the program" within the administration, a claim
that flies in the face of the extraordinary
testimony delivered by former Justice official James Comey on
Tuesday. Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that not only did he
threaten to resign if the administration continued the program without
Justice Department-approved changes, but that he believed both FBI
Director Robert Mueller II and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft were
prepared to resign with him, along with all of their top aides. "In
light of Mr. Comey's testimony yesterday," the senators asked in the
letter, "do
you stand by your 2006 Senate and House testimony, or do you wish
to revise it?" The Justice Department responded to the inquiry
yesterday, saying that it
will not retract Gonzales's sworn statement. Center for American
Progress Senior Fellow Peter Swire wrote yesterday that the
contradiction between Comey and Gonzales's testimonies raises
two possibilities: either "Gonzales quite likely made serious
mis-statements under oath" or "we would have senior Justice officials
confirming that other 'programs' exist for domestic spying."
IRAN -- CENTCOM COMMANDER FALLON SAYS ATTACK ON IRAN 'WILL NOT HAPPEN
ON MY WATCH': Earlier this year, the Bush administration
deployed a second Navy group carrier into the Persian Gulf. Vice
President Dick Cheney referred to the move as an attempt to send a "strong
signal" about the administration's commitment to confronting Iran.
In February, Newsweek reported that the Bush administration was
planning to ratchet up the pressure even further by deploying a
third carrier into the Gulf. IPS reported that the
administration's attempt to send the third carrier group was vetoed by the
new head of the U.S. Central Command. "Admiral William Fallon, then President
George W. Bush's nominee to head the Central Command (CENTCOM),
expressed strong opposition in February to an administration plan to
increase the number of carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from
two to three and vowed privately there would
be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM." One
source said Fallon sent a memo that "insisted there was no military
requirement for" an additional carrier. Fallon privately conveyed,
around the time of his confirmation hearing, that an attack on Iran "will not happen
on my watch." IPS notes, "Fallon's refusal to support a further
naval buildup in the Gulf reflected his firm opposition to an attack on
Iran and an apparent readiness to put his career on
the line to prevent it."
ETHICS -- BANK COUNSEL HIRED BY
WOLFOWITZ IS BEST FRIENDS WITH RIZA, TRIED TO BLOCK INVESTIGATION: In
2005, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz appointed former-Spanish
government official Ana Palacio as Bank General Counsel, one of the top
positions in the organization. Wolfowitz claimed that he had appointed
Palacio for her "legal skill and diplomacy" and for her "exceptional
leadership and management capabilities, which he assured "she will
bring to this position." In reality, she was appointed largely because
of her strong
support for the Iraq war, and "diplomacy" does not appear to be one
of her traits. Highly unpopular within the Bank, an anonymous bank
employee spoke
up yesterday at the website worldbankpresident.org. "She is known
to be overbearing and yell on a regular basis. ... She is known to
intimidate people by mentioning her proximity to the President. ...
Throughout the Bank, staff find her absent, incoherent, rude and simply
not fitted for the job," the employee wrote. Considered a "personal
friend" of Shaha Riza's by bank employees, Palacio has gone to
great lengths to deflect the ongoing investigations. As the bank's top
legal counsel, she was supposed to help
investigate the pay raise controversy, but she instead tried to
stonewall the investigation from even occurring. According to an
internal Bank bulletin, a bank employee wrote that during a private
board meeting, "Palacio barged into the board room and demanded to
participate in the closed door session. A needless debate that lasted
close to an hour followed. ... [t]he board was then forced to adjourn
the meeting." Furthermore, as the controversy began to
gain attention last month, Palacio attempted to deflect
attention towards an unrelated investigation, announcing at
the same time that she was looking into a leak of "confidential
internal communications" to Fox News. The abysmal management
skills and partisan loyalty that Palacio exhibits reflects how
Wolfowitz has loaded the World Bank with unpopular right-wing political
appointees who have had little real effectiveness at the Bank.
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Think Fast
The civil lawsuit brought by outed CIA agent Valerie Plame "is expected to face a withering attack this morning at a court hearing
in Washington," where attorneys for Vice President Cheney, Scooter
Libby and others will urge Judge John Bates -- a Bush appointee and
former Ken Starr aide -- that "the case be thrown out."
"Newly declassified data show that as additional American troops
began streaming into Iraq in March and April, the number of
attacks on civilians and security forces there stayed
relatively steady or at most declined slightly, in the clearest
indication yet that the troop increase could
take months to have a widespread impact on security."
Al Gore will release his new book The Assault on Reason next week. Gore tells Time that he began questioning why "our democracy
hasn't responded" to both the climate crisis and the Iraq war. "So I
started thinking, What's going on here? ... Our
democracy was pushed around by false impressions and wasn't able to
hold its focus," he says. "That's the common denominator. Once I'd
thought through all of that, I couldn't not write this book."
Filmmaker Michael Moore is "launching his own probe
into the U.S. government's investigation of him for making an
unauthorized trip to Cuba to film scenes for his latest movie 'SiCKO,'"
beginning with a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all
documents regarding the investigation.
"The Justice Department on Wednesday told an angry Senate Judiciary
Committee chairman it does not have documents described in a subpoena
that demands all materials relating to Karl Rove's possible
involvement in the U.S. attorney firings. Instead, it said, Rove's
lawyer must have them."
Robert Novak claims that Rove's former aide Susan Ralston "has nothing to say that
would cause problems for Rove." But Novak concedes Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) investigation
of Rove is causing concern in conservative circles. "One prominent
conservative House member who did not want his name used told me, 'We
just want it to be over.'"
"Federal funding for abstinence education will
likely fall considerably this year" as House commerce committee
chairman John Dingell (D-MI) said Wednesday he will "let a $50
million grant program expire on June 30." "Abstinence-only seems to
be a colossal failure," Dingell said.
"The Commerce Department's inspector general, who is supposed to
look into complaints of wrongdoing by government officials, committed 'egregious violations' of the federal law that protects
whistle-blowers by retaliating
against two subordinates, a government investigation has concluded."
Former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman has refused a request by
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (R-NY) that she testify about the "government's
failure to respond adequately to the environmental crisis in
Lower Manhattan" after 9/11.
And finally: CNN's Ed Henry fumbles his big scoop. On Wednesday, when he called attorney Bob Bennett, World Bank
President Paul Wolfowitz accidentally picked up. Henry recalls, "Just
then I heard a gruff voice pick up another extension on the phone line
and say abruptly, 'This is Paul Wolfowitz.' I
stuttered and stammered -- wait, was this really him?! And when I
heard the familiar voice say, 'Hello?' I knew it was indeed Wolfowitz."
But Wolfowitz's attorney
quickly picked up the line, and the golden opportunity was gone.
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