The Breakfast Club (Waist Deep in the Big Muddy)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Breakfast Tune: Waist Deep in the Big Muddy (Featuring Tom Morello, Taj Mahal)

Today in History

Breakfast News & Blogs Below

News

Cleveland police to hand over Tamir Rice probe to county sheriff’s office

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press

January 2, 2015

The Cleveland Police Department has formally handed over its investigation into the fatal police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, the city announced Friday.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said the decision was made to “ensure transparency” and establish “an extra layer of separation and impartiality,” the Northeast Ohio Media Group reported.

…

Cleveland police have come under outside scrutiny on other cases recently. Last month, the U.S. Justice Department released findings from a nearly two-year investigation of the agency, an inquiry that did not include Tamir’s shooting. The department concluded that officers use excessive and unnecessary force far too often. …

US-Trained Afghan Army Behind Deadly Attack on Wedding Party

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

January 2, 2015

The U.S.-trained Afghan army was responsible for a New Year’s Eve attack on a wedding party that killed as many as two dozen people including women and children, local officials have said.

…

The incident sparked hundreds of people to travel from Sagin to the home of the governor in the provincial capital to demand justice, AP reports.

…

The deadly fire came at the end of what was the deadliest year for Afghan civilians, and just hours before Afghanistan formally took over security operations for the country, even as the U.S. is continuing its military role there for at least another year.  …

Iran denies nuclear deal with US

by Dominic Smith and agencies, The Guardian

January 3, 2015

Iran has denied striking a deal with the US to reduce Tehran’s potential ability to manufacture nuclear weapons, following earlier reports that an agreement had been reached.

The Associated Press said on Friday that Tehran and Washington had agreed the outline of a deal under which Iran would ship its surplus enriched uranium to Russia.

…

Iran’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said, however, that “no agreement on any nuclear topic” had been reached.

“Such news is spread out of political motives and its goal is to tarnish the climate of the talks and make it more complicated to reach a settlement,” the state IRNA news agency quoted her as saying. …

Australian firefighters battle worst bushfire in decades

Al Jazeera and wire services

January 3, 2015

Dozens of homes were feared lost as an intense bushfire affecting thousands of acres raged out of control in South Australia Saturday, forcing residents to flee their homes and leaving 2,000 firefighters struggling to contain the worst blaze the region has seen in decades.

The fires at Sampson Flat, located northeast of the state capital Adelaide in the country’s south, was spreading rapidly in all directions, sweeping from a 380-acre area on Friday afternoon to nearly 12,000 acres on Saturday. Officials urged people to evacuate 19 towns in the Adelaide Hills, an area with a population of about 40,000 known for its farms and wineries.

…

“We have a fire which is extremely dangerous, and it is burning under extremely adverse conditions,” South Australia’s Country Fire Service chief Greg Nettleton said. “Residents in the Adelaide Hills are being confronted by a fire which hasn’t been seen in the hills since the 1983 bushfires of Ash Wednesday.” …

Transgender Youth’s Tragic Suicide Galvanizes Movement

by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

January 2, 2015

The apparent suicide of 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn, a transgender girl from Ohio who documented her struggle and loneliness online, is galvanizing a movement against transphobia.

Several vigils are planned in the U.S. and Canada for Friday and Saturday; petitions calling for Alcorn’s family to use her chosen name on her headstone and for President Barack Obama to seek a pathway toward banning so-called “transgender conversion therapy” have attracted many thousands of supporters; and the hashtag #LeelahAlcorn is drawing social media attention to the trauma and stigma that transgender young people face on a regular basis.

…

Her parents took her out of public school, revoked her tech privileges, and sent her to “Christian therapists”-an experience Alcorn described in a Reddit thread published earlier this year: “[I]nstead of listening to my feelings [they] would try to change me into a straight male who loved God, and I would cry after every session because I felt like it was hopeless and there was no way I would ever become a girl.”…

Israel freezes Palestinian tax funds over international criminal court move

Associated Press in Jerusalem, The Guardian

January 3, 2015

Israel has halted transfers of the tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinians in retaliation for their move to join the international criminal court in the Hague, according to Israeli media.

The Palestinians announced earlier this week that they are joining the international criminal court in the Hague to pursue war-crimes charges against Israel. The move is meant to pressure Israel into withdrawing from the territories that Palestinians demand for a future state.

…

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat lashed out at the Israeli manoeuvre, calling it an act of piracy and a “collective punishment” against the Palestinian people.

“If Israel thinks that through economic pressure it will succeed in diverting our approach from freedom and independence, then it is wrong,” Erekat told the Associated Press. …

Domestic workers in Lebanon fight for right to join union

by Ned Resnikoff, Al Jazeera

January 2, 2015

Lebanon could become the first Arab state to allow migrant domestic workers into a labor union if the country’s labor ministry approves a proposal submitted by the National Federation of Labor Unions.

…

The domestic workers seeking union recognition want to force a change to the kafala system, a labor law regime employed throughout much of the Arab world.

Under the kafala system, migrant laborers require a sponsor to remain in the country, typically their employer. The arrangement leaves migrant workers almost wholly dependent on their employers because if they try to leave their jobs, they lose their legal status. Millions of migrant workers across the Middle East are employed under the kafala system and similar laws. …

FCC Sets Deadline for Vote on Net Neutrality

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

January 3, 2015

The Federal Communications Commission will vote on new rules and restrictions on net neutrality in February, officials said Friday.

According to a Washington Post report, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is planning to circulate a draft proposal to fellow commissioners “with an eye toward approving the measure weeks later.”

…

Friday’s news clears up weeks of speculation over when the FCC would take its next step on net neutrality. However, as the Post explains, setting a firm meeting date so near in the future means that Wheeler “does not see the need for more public input on the benefits and drawbacks of using Title II… It also implies the FCC will not be able to avoid a showdown with Congress over net neutrality.” …

Family of Al Jazeera journalist seeks deportation as ‘best option

Al Jazeera and wire services

January 2, 2015

The family of jailed Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste has applied to have him deported from Egypt, describing the application as their “best option” after a court ordered a retrial in his case.

Greste – along with two Al Jazeera colleagues, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed – has been imprisoned for 370 days in Egypt, after being found guilty of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed group that Cairo has labeled a terrorist organization.

…

The journalists’ imprisonment has been a thorny issue for Sisi as he seeks to prove his commitment to democratic reforms. Despite widespread criticism of the case, he has cited the independence of the judiciary. He said in November, however, that had he been in power when the three were arrested in December 2013, he would have preferred to deport Greste.

Bill Moyers’ Retirement from Television “Lays Down a Challenge” for Next Generation of Journalists

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

January 2, 2015

Now available online and airing on PBS stations across the country over the weekend, the final episode of the weekly commentary and news show Moyers & Company will mark the official television retirement (though not the career) of veteran journalist Bill Moyers.

…

“Democracy,” he says during the show’s final minutes, “is a public trust – a reciprocal agreement between generations to keep it in good repair and pass it along. Our country’s DNA carries an inherent promise for every citizen of an equal opportunity at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our history resonates with the hallowed idea – hallowed by blood – of government of, by, and for the people. Our great progressive struggles have been waged to make sure ordinary citizens, and not just the rich and privileged, share in the benefits of a free society. In the words of Louis Brandeis, one of the greatest of our Supreme Court justices, ‘We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.'”

And finally, signing-off on this televised chapter of life, Moyers concludes:

   So as the next generation steps forward, I am tempted to think that the only thing my generation can say to them is: we’re sorry. Sorry for the mess you’re inheriting. Sorry we broke the trust. But I know in my heart that’s not what they ask or expect. So instead I recommend to them the example of Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, another of my heroes from the past. He battled the excesses of the first Gilded Age a century ago so boldly and proudly that he went down in history as “Fighting Bob.” He told us, “…democracy is a life; and involves continual struggle.” I keep asking myself, what if that struggle is the palpable reality without which this world would be truly barren?

   So to this new generation I say: over to you, welcome to the fight.

   And to all of you who have been loyal to these broadcasts, and to my colleagues who produced them and our funders who kept on giving despite my foibles and flaws, I say: thank you. This series ends, but not our website — BillMoyers.com. I’ll see you there, and I’ll see you around.

Blogs

• Comcast Wants Customers to Pay More for Using the Internet Too Much, by By Crystal Shepeard, Care2
• Public Thinks Their Top Problem is Their Government, by  Jon Walker, FDL

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac:

What did the fish say when he swam into a concrete wall?