Action Point with Cynthia Black 01-06-2008 The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:

• HEALTH ALERT: What if Congress passed a law that made the price of your groceries go up by 900 percent?

  There would be an instant uproar, and you can bet the problem would be fixed, immediately. Last year, Congress made a technical error. As a result, the cost of birth control in many clinics is rising to almost 900 percent what it was just months ago. Women who were paying $5 to $10 per month are now paying $40 to $50 for birth control. For the college students and low-income women affected by this cost hike, that’s no small matter. Congress has had more than 11 months to fix the mistake — needlessly jeopardizing women’s health. Congress must restore birth control to affordable levels this year.

• ELECTION INTEGRITY: Student Voters Supressed in Iowa:

  We've all seen the cry of "voter fraud" being used for political purposes in recent years, but this latest example would be amusing if it weren't so pernicious: David Yepsen, a leading political reporter for The Des Moines Register, has suggested that Senator Obama's encouragement of college students to vote in the Iowa caucuses amounts to "fraud."

  And, Legal voters thrown off rolls:

  Five years after passage of a federal law to create electronic registration databases to deter voter fraud, the new technology is posing hurdles that could disenfranchise thousands of legal voters, a USA TODAY examination finds. From Florida to Washington, voters have been challenged because names or numbers on their registration forms did not exactly match other government databases, such as Social Security and motor vehicle agencies. "We know that eligible people have been thrown off the rolls," says Justin Levitt, a lawyer with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

  AND, Exclusive: Scary 'New York Times' story on faulty voting machines this Sunday.

• SPEECHLESS: Sordid Tales Of Clinton-hater:

  After noting that his first marriage also ended with an affair, Scaife told VF he no longer believes in monogamy: "I don't want people throwing rocks at me in the street. But I believe in open marriage."

• Campaign 2008: The Return of the SwiftBoaters:

  Research by The Nation into Federal Election Commission records of the group's top twenty donors reveals that they've been remarkably active in this cycle, contributing and bundling nearly $200,000 to presidential candidates. This does not bode well. During the last presidential campaign, the wealthy backers of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth--now rebranded as Swift Vets and POWs for Truth--didn't do their real dirty work until the general election, where as a tax-exempt 527 group they operated outside the restraints of direct campaign contributions. We may wish we were done with the Swift Boaters, but they aren't done with us.

• ENVIRONMENT: How Green are Obama and Huckabee?

• MUST READ: As Predicted, Populism Is On the Rise - Who's Laughing Now? another excellent piece from David Sirota:

  Back in August, I wrote an article for the Huffington Post entitled "An Economic Populist Is Rising In the GOP Presidential Primary." In that article, I predicted that Republican Mike Huckabee would rise and potentially win the Iowa caucuses based on his relentless focus on economic inequality and class-based populism. I chided the media and Democrats for ignoring him, and when I wrote this article, I was laughed at by many reporters, pundits and readers alike.

• "I Just Want to Tear Out My Hair" UPDATES: Bush Admin Slow to Respond on KBR Sex Assault Questions

• INTERNATIONAL: Bush Issues Signing Statement Undermining Sudan Accountability And Divestment Act:

  Yesterday, President Bush signed the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act, which makes it easier for “states, local governments and private investors to cut investment ties with Sudan as a way to pressure the Khartoum government into ending violence in the country’s Darfur region.” Both the House and the Senate passed the bill unanimously.

• Personal Security Alert: World's Top Surveillance Societies:

  Privacy International, a UK privacy group, and the U.S.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center have put together a world map of surveillance societies, rating various nations for their civil liberties records. Both the U.S. and the UK are colored black for "endemic surveillance," as are Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, China and Malaysia. Among the trends that the two organizations have tracked: The 2007 rankings indicate an overall worsening of privacy protection across the world, reflecting an increase in surveillance and a declining performance on privacy safeguards.