http://www.neilrogers.com/ Progressive News and Op-Ed Articles featured on The Neil Rogers Show en-us http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062011.html Lila Ghobady Why didn't I vote in the latest elections for the president of the country of my birth, Iran? Because no matter who is the president of Iran, they would stone me! As a young Iranian woman, I require big changes in order to convince myself that a change in president would mean an improvement of my basic rights as human being inside Iran. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062010.html Raw Story Tired of waving the national security flag, Obama administration lawyers are apparently trying another tactic to get the courts to back Bush administration arguments which never worked to prevent the release of critical documents. Forget Qaeda or North Korea, late night hosts who tell jokes are why the government should retain its secrets. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062009.html Patrick Danner Former gridiron great Bernie Kosar, dogged by financial and legal problems, filed for bankruptcy Friday. Kosar, 45, the former Miami Hurricane and NFL quarterback, filed for Chapter 11, which is generally used by companies to reorganize. The bankruptcy petition didn't provide much detail. Boxes were checked off on the petition indicating Kosar has assets estimated between $1 million and $10 million and liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062008.html Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - 'Twilight' star Robert Pattinson was hit by a taxi in New York as he tried to run away from a crowd of hysterical teenage fans, but he was not seriously injured, U.S. media reported. Pattinson, 23, who stars in the hit teenage vampire movies, was clipped on the hip in front a bookstore in Manhattan where he was shooting scenes on Thursday for his new film, 'Remember Me,' a drama about two young lovers dealing with family tragedies. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062007.html Doug Thompson When then-President Bill Clinton had a chance to come clean about allowing White House intern Monica Lewinsky to nosh on the First Member, he looked America in the eye and lied, saying 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman...Ms. Lewinsky.' Years later, after he left office and appeared on 60 Minutes to promote his book, Clinton offered this admission on why he dallied with young Monica in the Oval Office. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062006.html Paul Krugman Would the Obama administration's plan for financial reform do what has to be done? Yes and no. Yes, the plan would plug some big holes in regulation. But as described, it wouldn't end the skewed incentives that made the current crisis inevitable. Let's start with the good news. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062005.html Ann Wright This week, a former President and now citizen activist, came to Gaza as other citizen activists have, to witness and speak about the destruction of Gaza. On June 16, 2009, former President Jimmy Carter spoke in unflinchingly blunt terms of devastating damage caused by the 22 day Israeli military assault on Gaza and the failure of the international community to help the citizens of Gaza after the military destruction of homes, government offices and industries. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062004.html Jeremy Scahill The cowardly Democrats who checked their spines at the door to Congress when they voted Tuesday try to defend their flip-flop on war funding. Frankly, it is embarrassing. Over the past few days, we reported on how the White House and Democratic Congressional Leadership waged a dirty campaign to scare up votes to support another $106 billion in funds for their wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, several of the so-called anti-war Democrats who left their principles at the House coat check on their way in to vote Tuesday are trying to explain away their hypocritical votes. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062003.html John Aravosisd We supported you. Time to live up to your promises Team Obama keeps telling lesbian and gay Americans like me to be patient. If we just wait a little longer, administration officials whisper to us lovingly (and out of earshot of the media), after the White House finishes with healthcare reform and getting the troops out of Iraq, your time will come. In the meantime, cheer up -- we put a gay band in the inaugural parade! http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062002.html Avi Lewis Now that Washington has ruled out an immediate bailout for California, we know who will pay the ultimate price for the crisis born on Wall Street: the state's most vulnerable citizens. And with many states facing similar crises, this could be a preview of where the country as a whole is headed. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009062001.html Ranjit Devraj NEW DELHI - A campaign in the United States led by two girl victims from Bhopal, highlighting lingering toxicity left behind by the 1984 gas disaster in their city, has paid off with a group of 27 members of the U.S. Congress asking Dow Chemicals to clean up the site. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061912.html The Associated Press NEW YORK -- Cleveland Browns receiver Donte' Stallworth was indefinitely suspended by the NFL on Thursday for driving drunk and killing a pedestrian in Miami. 'The conduct reflected in your guilty plea resulted in the tragic loss of life and was inexcusable,' Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a letter to Stallworth. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061911.html TMZ Carrie Prejean says she means business. She's giving the Miss California USA team one last chance to clear her name -- or she's gonna sue. In a letter Prejean's lawyer fired off to the lawyer representing pageant honcho Keith Lewis, the attorney says Lewis defamed her by making her seem uncooperative and difficult to deal with. He did not address Donald Trump's comment to us ... that Carrie treated people 'like s**t.' http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061910.html TMZ 14 major NHL hockey players are suing a developer named Kenneth Jowdy for allegedly screwing them out of millions of dollars -- and then blowing the cash on escorts, strippers and private jet rides for some of the biggest names in Major League Baseball history. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061909.html Nedra Pickler WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge said Thursday that he wants to look at notes from the FBI's interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney during the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's decision to review the documents followed arguments by Obama administration lawyers that sounded much like the reasons the Bush administration provided for keeping Cheney's interview from the public. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061908.html Genaro C. Armas ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Former President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he hopes that his successor's plans to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will not compromise domestic security. Bush, though, maintained during an appearance in northwestern Pennsylvania that he would not criticize President Barack Obama, though he did discuss his policies. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061907.html Stephen C. Webster An awful, awful story just got worse. Investigators who searched an apartment registered to James von Brunn, suspected of murdering a security guard at the Washington, D.C. holocaust museum, claim to have found child pornography on his computer. The Washington Post reports: http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061906.html Gail Collins 'I have thousands of people calling me, telling me not to run,' said Representative Carolyn Maloney, rather proudly. Maloney, a New York City Democrat, is thinking about making a try for the Senate seat now held by Kirsten Gillibrand. Generally, people who are contemplating a race for higher office try to convey the impression that they’re bowing to popular demand so intense that the drumbeat has become all but deafening. Let’s give Maloney props for originality for making it clear that people are beating a path to her door, begging her to cease and desist. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061905.html Norman Solomon In mid-June, a warning shot from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue landed with a thud on Capitol Hill, near some recent arrivals in the House. The political salvo was carefully aimed and expertly fired. But in the long run it could boomerang. As a close vote neared on a supplemental funding bill for more war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that “the White House has threatened to pull support from Democratic freshmen who vote no.” In effect, it was so important to President Obama to get the war funds that he was willing to paint a political target on the backs of some of the gutsiest new progressives in Congress. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061904.html Bill Berkowitz After months of silence, the US State Department finally condemns the murders of 24 young men who were gay, or perceived to be gay. In 2005, during the height of internecine violence and resistance to the U.S. occupation, the country's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali a-Sistani, issued a religious decree that said that gay men and lesbians should be 'punished, in fact, killed.' He added, 'The people should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.' According to the New York Times, 'The language has since been removed from his Web site.' http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061903.html Allison Kilkenny John Kerry writes in today's New York Times: We are all inspired by Iran's peaceful demonstrations, the likes of which have not been seen there in three decades... There's just one problem. If we actually want to empower the Iranian people, we have to understand how our words can be manipulated and used against us to strengthen the clerical establishment, distract Iranians from a failing economy and rally a fiercely independent populace against outside interference. Iran's hard-liners are already working hard to pin the election dispute, and the protests, as the result of American meddling. On Wednesday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry chastised American officials for 'interventionist' statements. Government complaints of slanted coverage by the foreign press are rising in pitch. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061902.html Matt Taibbi So here's the picture of Cynthia Hampton, the aide Senator Ensign got caught banging. There are lots of jokes one could make about this picture, and I'm not going to make any of them. I will say that I am going to really enjoy the inevitable media fragging Ensign is going to take because of his holier-than-thou attitude during the Lewinsky scandal, when he called on Clinton to resign for having an affair. What's especially delicious about this is that Ensign back then and during the Larry Craig scandal played the 'Because of these bad apples, even God-fearing, recreational-sex-disdaining politicians like me are now going to be called sexual deviants' card. He's sold that angle hard on a number of occasions ('There's too many people that paint with a broad brush that we're all corrupt, all amoral,' he once said). He said a lot of stuff, and it's all going to be dragged back out now and shoved in his defeated, suddenly elderly face. http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2009061901.html Joe Bageant In looking back on growing up, I always remember 1957 and 1958 as 'the two good years.' They were the only years my working class redneck family ever caught a real break in their working lives, and that break came because of organized labor. After working as a farm hand, driving a hicktown taxi part time, and a dozen catch as catch can jobs, my father found himself owning a used semi-truck and hauling produce for a Teamster unionized trucking company called Blue Goose.