Health Care in America: Barack Obama Pwns -(X)- March 08, 2010
Sunday, February 28, 2010
What good does a meeting with the Dalai Lama do? What good it does is simple — it sends a clear message to Beijing that they are not the only ones who set the agenda on the Tibet. It sends a clear message that there are limits to their sphere of influence outside their borders. [...]
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Last week, CNN released a poll showing that 86 percent of Americans believe the U.S. government is “broken.” I admit my first reaction was to wonder subversively, “How would they know?” A contemporaneous Pew survey of the public’s “political news IQ” showed that on one of the most heavily reported issues of 2009-10, only 32 [...]
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Also tagged ACLU, Conservatives, Conspiracy Theories, Constitution, Economy, Healthcare, Ignorance, Jerry Falwell, Law, Movements, Oliver North, Reform, Republicans, Rights, Rightwing, Rush Limbaugh, Tea Party
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Monday, February 15, 2010
There are times when governments fight to keep documents secret to protect sensitive intelligence or other vital national security interests. And there are times when they are just trying to cover up incompetence, misbehavior or lawbreaking.
Last week, when a British court released secret intelligence material relating to the torture allegations of a former Guantánamo prisoner, [...]
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Also tagged Binyam Mohamed, CIA, Courts, Crime, Detainees, Dick Cheney, George W Bush, Guantanamo, Hillary Clinton, Intelligence, Law, MI5, Rendition, Torture, War Crimes
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Is there any hope at all that the larger players in the Bush-era criminal activities – Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Perle, Feith and Wolfowitz most prominently – will be brought to justice when those two lesser lights (Yoo and Bybee) are allowed to return to a law school classroom and a seat on the federal [...]
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Also tagged Accountability, Condoleezza Rice, Corporatism, Corruption, Crime, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith, George W Bush, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Karl Rove, Law, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Rule of Law, War Crimes, William Rivers Pitt
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It’s the “catch-22″ that has plagued medical marijuana advocates and patients for decades. Lawmakers and health regulators demand clinical studies on the safety and efficacy of medical cannabis, but the federal agency in charge of such research bars these investigations from ever taking place.
But it took until now for the federal government to finally [...]
From the BLS:
The unemployment rate fell from 10.0 to 9.7 percent in January, and nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged (-20,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment fell in construction and in transportation and warehousing, while temporary help services and retail trade added jobs.
Image via Calculated Risk
This graph shows the job losses [...]
But even if you’re someone who does want the President to have the power to order American citizens killed without a trial by decreeing that they are Terrorists (and it’s worth remembering that if you advocate that power, it’s going to be vested in all Presidents, not just the ones who are as Nice, Good, Kind-Hearted and [...]
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Also tagged Assassinations, Constitution, Dennis Blair, Due Process, First Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, Glenn Greenwald, GWOT, Intelligence, Terrorism, Unitary Executive, War Powers
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Thursday, February 4, 2010
The Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein tells me on MSNBC that the American people shouldn’t expect Washington to be able to do anything about jobs because it’s the result of “imbalances” that have to be “worked out” and it’s going to take time and people just need to be patient and take their medicine. (Mrs. Alan Greenspan [...]
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Millions of voters believe the GOP line about Obama’s runaway spending. It’s up to him to set the record straight…
So anyway, up jumps freshman Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas.
“You are soon to submit a new budget, Mr. President. Will that new budget, like your old budget, triple the national debt and continue to take us [...]
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Last May, when I interviewed Zinn, he reflected on Barack Obama’s first months in office: “I wish President Obama would listen carefully to Martin Luther King. I’m sure he pays verbal homage, as everyone does, to Martin Luther King, but he ought to think before he sends missiles over Pakistan, before he agrees to this [...]
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
US President Barack Obama intends to go ahead with plans to meet the Dalai Lama despite warnings from China not to, a White House spokesman has said.
Mr Obama told China’s leaders last year in Beijing that he would meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader, White House spokesman Bill Burton said.
China has warned that ties with the [...]
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart hammered Fox News — again — Monday night for cutting off debate between President Barack Obama and House Republicans last week.
“We’re going to cut away,” Stewart said, mocking Fox, “because this is against the narrative we present.”
“If the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is [...]
Democracy requires at least three parts: Important decisions are made in the open. The public and its representatives have an opportunity to debate and influence them. And those who make the big decisions are accountable to voters.
But these principles are in retreat. The Troubled Assets Relief Program began with a virtual blank check from Congress. [...]
Saturday, January 30, 2010
It’s not often that the President and the Vice President get together for a town hall, but the occasion yesterday was something special for Vice President Biden. They were in Florida, one of the sites just announced for a massive down payment on high-speed rail, the future of transportation, and a great source of jobs in [...]