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Aaron Swartz at first-ever PCCC team retreat, 2009. Washington, DC.

On Friday, programmer and activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide. Today, as friends and family gather for his funeral, we are releasing the following statement on his passing:

“Today is the funeral of Aaron Swartz, whoAi??contributed so much to the launch of the Progressive Change Campaign CommitteeAi??and our technology during our first 20 months, from January 2009 to August 2010. Aaron joined our PCCC team with the goal of learning about effective online activism and went on to playAi??an instrumental role in the fightAi??for Wall Street reformAi??and against SOPA.Ai??His suicide followed an over-zealous prosecution for a crime with no victims — by a Justice Department that has yet to prosecute the Wall Street bankers who destroyed our economy and harmed millions of lives. Our hearts go out to Aaron’s familyAi??and partner.

Aaron’s funeral will be held at 10am central at Highland Park ChabadAi??Synagogue, 874 Central Avenue, Highland Park, Illinois 60035.

UPDATE:

The Chicago Sun-Times quotes Swartz’s father on his death:

Aaron Swartz was ai???killed by the government,ai??? his father, Robert Swartz said at a memorial service Tuesday morning for the 26-year-old tech genius who killed himself in the face of felony charges heai??i??d stolen millions of files from MIT.

Swartz said his son was ai???hounded by the government, and MIT refused him.ai???

ai???He was killed by the government, and MIT betrayed all of its basic principles,ai??? he said.

The Associated Press quotes Tim Berners-Lee:

Tim Berners-Lee, who developed the World Wide Web, and Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, director of the Safra Center for Ethics where Swartz was once a fellow, both spoke at the funeral.

ai???ai???We felt the indictment was nonsense and that he would be acquitted,ai??i??ai??i?? Berners-Lee told the newspaper after the service.

UPDATE II:

Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig and activist Ben …

Today, New York City’s school bus workers announced that they will go on strike on Wednesday morning.

Here’s everything you need to know about why they are taking this dramatic labor action:

The Department of Education Is Bidding Out Contracts That Undermine Job Security:Ai??The Department of Education, is for the “first time in 33 years is trying to bid out new contracts for 1,100 bus routes for children with special needs.” That means a contract without anAi??Employee Protection Provision that ensures that current senior drivers have job security.Ai??TheAi??Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181Ai??is demanding that there are protections put in place to protect the 7,700 existing school bus workers.
Bidding Out Drivers May Endanger Service And Safety: The union is arguing that the existing school bus workforce is the most senior and the most experienced. By bringing in private transit drivers, the city may cut costs but will be dealing with a work force with less knowledge of the area and less experience.

ai???There is only one party responsible for the possible job action by unionized bus drivers represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union: Mayor Bloomberg and his administration. For weeks now, City Hall has refused to discuss the job-killing provisions they are insisting on as part of new contracts with bus contractors. Itai??i??s almost as if City Hall wants this strike to happen for some perverse reason,ai??? said Teamsters Local 854 President Dan Gatto in a statement he released in solidarity with the strikers.

If you are a New York City resident and want to support the bus drivers, text “Safety1st” to 877877

The over-emphasis on standardized testing has set off a revolt among many teachers, who believe that testing is overtaking an emphasis on aAi??holisticAi??curriculum.

In Seattle, teachers at Garfield High School actually decided to refuse to administer the local “Measures of Academic Progress” (MAP) standardized test. Soon after, teachers at nearby Ballard High School decided to refuse to administer the test as well.

The teachers write in an open letter that the test “remains unwanted and unneeded and unsolicited by SPS [Seattle Public Schools] professional classroom educators,” and that it has no bearing on the students’ graduation or course credits.

I talked to Kris McBride, who is an academic dean and testing coordinator at Garfield. “We’re not opposing any of the high-stakes testing that are kids are required to take. We’re only opposing this test, the MAP,” she told me. “Our staffAi??membersAi??have said, this test, it’s not working, it was brought on within a scandal, our superintendent sat on the board of the committee that makes this test….It was brought in under pretty ridiculous circumstancesAi??andAi??sort of shoved down our throat. A lot of people who sat on our committee said this test doesn’t even match our curriculum….There’s just no way it’s a good measure of what our students are supposed to learn….our Algebra teachers saying my kids are in an Algebra 1 class, they’re asked to take this test, they go in and sit down and are looking at Geomertry problems on the computer. That doesn’t match the curriculum.”

Remarkably, she told me that there are no practice problems even given to students before they are required to give the exam. She also mentioned it would take 124 class periods to administer this exam to the entire school — a dramatic time sink.

I asked McBride …

A chart of global infant mortality rates in 2008

It is a conservative mantra that the United States has the best health care system in the world. But a just-released report casts doubt on this assertion by showing that health outcomes are worse in the United States than in 17 major developed countries (although the health care system is not the only factor).

Here are some highlights from the report, which was issued by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council:

Ai??The U.S. Has Abysmal Life Expectancy: In the 17 developed countries studied, the United States ranked last in life expectancy for men. For women, the U.S. ranks second-last.
Firearm Homicides Drag Down Life Expectancy: The report found that firearm homicides were twenty times higher in the United States than the other countries studied.
Infant Mortality And Health Among Children Is Worse In The United States: The U.S. had the highest infant mortality rate among all countries studied. Meanwhile, it’s young people had the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases.

The researchers also released this video to highlight the findings. Check it out:

We don’t think this is the sort of health care system we should have. Click here to join our Medicare for All campaign.

It’s time to look at sensible gun reforms. Click here to pledge to call Congress and the White House once a month until common sense reforms are enacted.

Bobby Jindal

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal (R) has put forth a radical proposal to completely eliminate corporate and income taxes in his state. Here’s an excerpt of the statement he put out with his proposal:

The bottom line is that for too long, Louisiana’s workers and small businesses have suffered from having a state tax structure that is too complex and that holds back economic prosperity. It’s time to change that so people can keep more of their own money and foster an environment where businesses want to invest and create good-paying jobs.

The local press is reporting that, in order to keep his proposal revenue neutral, Jindal is considering hiking the state sales tax from 4 to 7 percent. That’s a 75 percent increase in a tax primarily paid for by the middle and working class. This would involve a huge shift in taxAi??responsibilitiesAi??from the rich — the state currently has three income tax brackets which require wealthier citizens to pay more — to the rest of Louisiana.

Phil Gingrey

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) is a staunch conservative. He has an “A” rating from the NRA and received the group’s endorsement in his last run for office.

But after the tragic events of Sandy Hook, even Gingrey is rethinking his views. In an interview with the Marietta Daily Journal, Gingrey talked about how he might be open to regulating high-capacity magazines and tougher background checks for those who buy guns:

ai???There are some problems, and maybe these huge magazines even for someone who says, ai???look, I just use an AR-15 for target practice,ai??i?? but do you really need to be standing there shooting at a silhouette a shot a second or even quicker with that kind of weapon? For what purpose?ai??? Gingrey asked. ai???I would be willing to listen to the possibility of the capacity of a magazine.ai??? […]Ai??ai???What it is basically, if you go to a gun show and thereai??i??s somebody out there in the parking lot, and theyai??i??re getting out of their car, and theyai??i??ve got an A-15 on their shoulder or ai??i??. John Q. Public wants to sell a handgun or whatever, then thereai??i??s no background check,ai??? Gingrey said. ai???You know, youai??i??re buying a used weapon from somebody and then basically no background check.ai??? […]Ai??With the sophistication of smartphone technology, there should be an application that allows someone selling a gun to run a background check with relative ease, he said.

Gingrey referenced the man responsible for the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, describing how he was judged by a psychiatrist to be a danger to himself and ordered to undergo outpatient treatment. Ai??ai???But because it wasnai??i??t in-patient, it was not required to put his name in a databank,ai??? Gingrey said. ai???Well, I think in the state of Georgia the …

Roosevelt with Social Security Commissioner Jo Anne B. Barnhart

The Boston Globe reports this morning thatAi??Tufts Health Plan chief executive James Roosevelt Jr. is being considered for the ObamaAi??administration’sAi??nomination to head the Social Security Administration.

Last May, he wrote an op-ed with Robert L. Reynolds, a Republican and CEO of Putnam Investments,Ai??Ai??where he advocates for raising the Social Security retirement age at a brisker pace as well as cutting back the growth of benefits with a different Consumer Price Index (CPI):

On the benefits side, we should change the way we calculate the cost-of-living adjustment for all beneficiaries, by utilizing a revised Consumer Price Index which most economists agree more accurately reflects the rate of inflation for the expenses most seniors incur. Such a change would curb the rate of increase in benefits for future generations of retirees […]

Lastly, we should accelerate the rise in Social Securityai??i??s full-benefit retirement age from age 67 to 68 by 2030 and then index the full benefit age for future generations to gains in longevity. Life expectancy past age 65 has risen nearly 50 percent since 1940, when Social Security first began regular monthly payments. That said, we should improve disability options for those engaged in physically demanding jobs. No one expects coal miners or telephone line crews to work into their late 60s.

“There is actually no agreement that the chained CPI provides a better measure of inflation for seniors. An experimental index constructed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually shows that the elderly experience a higher rate of inflation primarily because they consume more health care,” says economist Dean Baker. “It is also likely that they don’t substitute as much between items as other consumers.Ai??If the concern is accuracy then the answer would be to have …

The NRA has specialized in hiring up former Democratic staffers to block gun control.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) claims to represent gun owners, but it primarily represents the extreme views of gun companies that fund it. Thanks to their dollars, it has been able to stop both Republicans and Democrats in the past from even debating common sense gun control measures, like closing the gun show loophole.

In 2012, the NRA actually went outside of its ownAi??sizableAi??lobbying operation (it employed 15 registered lobbyists in-house) to hire up some outside lobbying groups to lobby on everything from Department of Justice tracking of guns to tax issues.

One way it has managed to be so influential is by hiring up former key staffers to top Senate Democrats. One of these it hired was Patrick Robertson, former Deputy Chief of Staff to Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). Robertson works for the lobbying firm C2 group, where he works for a number of other clients including the fast food industry.

Despite his connection to Rockefeller, the Senator has oftenAi??stood up to the NRA, earning him an “D” rating from the group.

But the NRA also employed Jeff Forbes ofAi??Cauthen, Forbes & Williams, which recently became Forbes-Tate. Forbes is a former Chief of Staff to Senator Max Baucus (D-MT). who also worked for President Clinton and served as anAi??adviserAi??to the Obama campaign. Baucus has been a strong ally of the NRA, and received an “A” rating from the group. He even cut a video for a 2009 NRA national forum:

Following the tragic Sandy Hook shooting, fellow Montana Senator Jon Tester (D) suggested that laws relating to assault weapons should be looked at. But Baucus’s response was much more muted, saying instead that …

Elizabeth Warren called out AIG, and it backed down.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Ai??AIG would reward taxpayers for their $182 billion bailoutAi??by suing the government over the terms of the rescue.

Bold progressive Elizabeth Warren immediately called out AIG and condemned its behavior:

Beginning in 2008, the federal government poured billions of dollars into AIG to save it from bankruptcy. AIG’s reckless bets nearly crashed our entire economy. Taxpayers across this country saved AIG from ruin, and it would be outrageous for this company to turn around and sue the federal government because they think the deal wasn’t generous enough,” said Warren in a statement. “Even today, the government provides an ongoing, stealth bailout, propping up AIG with special tax breaks — tax breaks that Congress should stop. AIG should thank American taxpayers for their help, not bite the hand that fed them for helping them out in a crisis.

Politico reports this afternoon that AIG’s board met and decided not to join the lawsuit being considered, representing an early victory for Warren and, by extension, American taxpayers.

“It’s just like someone maybe who is drowning in the water and who is saved by some hero and then says, ‘Hey, while you were saving me, you choked me a little bit. So I’m going to sue you.’ That’s simply what AIG is doing. Yesterday, Elizabeth Warren came out very publicly,” explainedAi??Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green on C-SPAN this morning.Ai??”She’s not just keeping her head down, she’s keeping it straight, front and center and said, ‘This is absolutely wrong, this isAi??unconscionable.’ And I think it’s a real breath of fresh air, that someone didn’t use weasly words and beat around the bush but to say bad corporate …

Michelle Rhee’s anti-teachers union organization StudentsFirst has just put out a “report card” of education systems state by state. In the ranking, which can be found here, Louisiana and Florida are the two top-rated states.

The placing of these two states at the top of the list is curious. StudentsFirst gave higher ratings to states that emphasized the use of charter schools and teacher evaluations based on high-stakes testing. But her organization ignored actual results. For example, it gave a “D” rating — the second-worst — toAi??Massachusetts, which has some of the highest test scores on theAi??Ai??National Assessment ofAi??EducationalAi??Progress exam.

There is one thing that Florida and Louisiana have in common — they are among the worst states for teacher compensation. Florida in 2011 ranked 47th in the country for teacher salaries. Louisiana’s average teacher salary is 42nd in the country.

To put things in perspective, the starting salary of a teacher in Catahoula Parish in Lousiana who has a bachelor’s degree is $31,322. That’s less money than Rhee charges for one speech she gives. It appears that Rhee’s ratings of education systems disregard poor wages for the actual educators.

Many leading educators are not giving Rhee’s system much credibility. “This is an organization that makes its living by asserting that schools are failing. I would have been surprised if we had got anything else,” saidAi??Californiaai??i??s deputy superintendent of schools, Richard Zeigler, about Rhee’s “F” rating of California’s schools.