Joe Conason, a stalwart defender of infrastructure, has written a strong column defending the stimulus money dedicated to repairing America’s aging roads, levees, bridges, transit systems, schools, and other essential components of our nation’s physical...
Levees Not War
Infrastructure, Baby, Infrastructure!
Video Shows U.S. Killing of Reuters Employees in Baghdad
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO9Cu91g3JI&playnext_from=TL&videos=WBaohbkRpJs&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh%2Bdiv-1r-4-HM WikiLeaks.org has released a formerly classified U.S. military video that shows the view from an Apache helicopter gunship as U.S....
U.S. Employment Grows by Highest Rate in Three Years
Bloomberg reports recovery from worst recession since 1930s is “broadening and becoming more entrenched” Some good news on the employment front: The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday that while the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent, the national economy added...
Senator Vitter “Friends” Levees Not War,
Files to Repeal Health Care Reform Law
Just when we were trying to get our attention back on flood-protection infrastructure and coastal restoration . . . We try to get along nice with everyone, but still we were surprised to receive a “Dear Friend” e-mail from Louisiana’s Republican senator David Vitter...
John Boehner: “Hell No You Can’t!”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0oWzRnnLTg
Health Reform: Feeling Better Already
“. . . what we face is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.” —Senator Edward M. Kennedy to President Obama “We will go through the gate. If the gate is...
Back on the Blog
Did you miss us? We apologize for a longer-than-usual absence, but there was a family medical emergency involving coronary intensive care that showed us all too dramatically (as though we didn’t already appreciate it) the life-or-death urgency of access to good health...
Health Care Summit Shows Sharp Contrast in Political Philosophies
We’ll soon have more to say about Thursday’s health care reform summit, but first wanted to share some good observations written by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post (a sharp, gifted young blogger-reporter who knows policy like a wonk but explains it in plain...
Health Reform Chronicles: Reconciliation Is “Nuclear Option” When Democrats Do It
Scare Tactics Unlimited: From “Death Panels” to “Nuclear Option” On the eve of the health care reform summit convened today by President Obama, Republican senators, echoed by their chorus of Beck, Limbaugh, Drudge, et al., are smearing as a “nuclear option” the Senate...
Mr. President, Press Senate for Public Option Through Reconciliation
An open letter to President Obama on the eve of the bipartisan health care reform summit: February 24, 2010 Dear President Obama: I am writing to you as an Organizing for America volunteer to thank you for calling Thursday’s health reform summit, getting the ball...
“Dr. No” Hearts Senate Gridlock
“I love gridlock. I think we’re better off when we’re gridlocked because we’re not passing things.” —Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) Commenting on this remark by the good doctor in a town hall meeting over the weekend, Chris Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation, said...
Department of Corrections:
About That John Edwards Endorsement
Mardi Gras has come and gone, and Ash Wednesday too, and now it is Lent: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Speaking of dust and repentance . . . Two years ago we endorsed John Edwards for president. That was before we realized how far...
Mardi Gras, Lombardi Gras
This is a Carnival where you don’t have to say “Happy Mardi Gras” (tho’ we do, anyway)—it simply is a happy Mardi Gras, and everyone’s been in a crazy happy zone for weeks. People are changing their middle names to WhoDat. Maybe it’s ’cause “Breesus Saves,” and the...
New Orleans’s Super Weekend
We prayed for a one-two punch of good news, and the Saints and the voters delivered (helped no doubt by the prayers of the nuns and priests in Saints owner Tom Benson’s posse). It is a delicious feeling of rejuvenation only four short years after the storm left us...
Mitch Landrieu for Mayor of New Orleans
Mitch Is the Man New Orleanians, the best way to make the Saints lucky on Sunday in the Super Bowl is by casting your ballot early and often (encore, repetez!) for Mitchell J. Landrieu as mayor of the great City of New Orleans. This is also the best way to boost the...
Krewe du Vieux’s “All Fired Up,” Baby!
Postively Flamin’ Of all New Orleans’s wonderful (and some rather sedate) Carnival krewes, Krewe du Vieux is the sassiest, fiestiest, and wittiest, and it pains us to miss even one parade. Led by the great Dr. John as King, this year’s parade’s theme was “All Fired...
Tickets to Ride: Obama, Biden on Track with High-Speed Rail Projects
As train-lovin’ infrastructure freaks, we applaud Friday’s announcement by President Obama and Vice President “Amtrak Joe” Biden that the administration will dedicate $8 billion of stimulus funding for high-speed rail projects in 13 major rail corridors in 31 states...
“We don’t quit. I don’t quit.”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1PWQtCDaYY&feature=featured “To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve problems, not run for the hills.” —President Obama, Jan. 27, 2010 That was our...
In Defense of Liberalism and Good Government
“Work as if you are in the early days of a better nation.” —Alasdair Gray We were delighted to see President Obama’s fiery, fightin’ spirit Friday as he swung into Elyria, Ohio, in full campaign mode with his “never stop fighting” speech. You go, O. But, listen,...
Democrats, Be Bold. Do Not Freak Out.
Stand up straight. No cringing, no cowering. The loss of the Massachusetts senate seat is dismaying but unfortunately not surprising. What worries us is that Democrats will learn the wrong lessons from the loss—they have a way of doing that. Some have said “we should...