Politics/Economy

Honoring Rev. King, Recommending “Selma”

* “Our whole campaign in Alabama has been centered around the right to vote. In focusing the attention of the nation and the world today on the flagrant denial of the right to vote, we are exposing the very origin, the root cause, of racial segregation in the...

Annus Horribilis : 2014 in Review

* Good Riddance to a Bad Year In a speech in late 1992, Queen Elizabeth II used the phrase “annus horribilis” to describe Great Britain’s no-good, very bad year (tabloid-quality marital troubles of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, a fire at Windsor Castle, etc.)....

Labor Day Is for the Workers (the 99%)

“Labor Creates All Wealth” “Our labor movement has no system to crush. It has nothing to overturn. It purposes to build up, to develop, to rejuvenate humanity. “It stands for the right. It is the greatest protestant against wrong. It is the defender of the weak. “Its...

Wishing America a Happier Birthday

. . . And Many Happy Returns We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights,...

Mississippi’s Runoff and Memories of Freedom Summer

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” —William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun (1950) * On the night of the Mississippi GOP primary runoff between U.S. senator Thad Cochran and state senator Chris McDaniel, PBS aired Freedom Summer, a powerful American Experience...

7 Million Cheers for ‘Obamacare’

Public Health, Too, Is ‘National Security’ Congratulation to President Obama, the White House, and the courageous Democrats in Congress who voted for the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the most ambitious expansion of health care for Americans since the passage of...

An ‘Obamacare’ Success Story

Insurers, Too, Must Be Held Accountable Our friend Stephen in NYC, who has contributed good ideas to this blog before, shares his experience in enrolling with an insurer. Stephen makes the very important point that the news media (including us bloggers) would serve...

Honoring Mandela

* “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and...

GOP Is Not to Be Trusted with Adult Responsibilities

Two-Week Tantrum Epitomizes GOP’s Recovery-Strangling Refusal to Share in Work of Governing And so, after 16 days, after a $24 billion loss to the economy, and just hours before the United States was about to pass through its federal debt limit, with potentially...

Positively Giddy

The Only Thing They Have to Fear Is . . . Government Itself “We’re very excited. It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.” —Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) * “The mood in the Capitol on Saturday, at least among Republicans, was downright giddy. When Republican leaders...

Deliberate Fiscal Crisis 2013

“Governing by Near-Death Experience” and Other Observations * “This is all about stopping a law that increases taxes on rich people and reduces subsidies to private insurers in Medicare in order to help low-income Americans buy health insurance. That’s it. That’s why the Republican Party might shut down the government and default on the debt. […]

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