House Democrats Demand to Know Why GOP Govs Rejected Medicaid Expansion
Show Us Why You’re Keeping Your People Poor and Sick
“In order to better understand the basis for your opposition, I request that you provide . . . copies of any state-specific analyses, studies, or reports that you ordered, requested or relied on to inform your decision.” —Rep. Elijah ...
Louisiana Anthology Interviews Levees Not War
Usually when Levees Not War is involved in an interview, we do the interrogating. But now, we’re happy to report, the tables have been turned: Levees Not War is the subject of an in-depth interview with the editors of the Louisiana Anthology, Bruce R. Magee and Stephen Payne, professors at ...
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, Governments are ...
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)
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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 documentary of the ...
Obama Sends Troops to Protect U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
ISIS supporters rally in Mosul, Iraq. BBC photo.
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White House Considers Special Forces to Advise Iraqis; Smells Like “Early Vietnam” Again
“The United States has provided a $14 billion foreign military aid package to Iraq that includes F-16 fighter jets, Apache attack helicopters and ...
Here Comes the Flood
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National Assessment Finds Climate Change “Has Moved Firmly into the Present”
The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States. . . . If greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to escalate at a rapid pace, [scientists] said, ...
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 Medicare and Medicaid in ...
Dianne Feinstein Calls Out CIA for Spying on Congress
California Senator, Long a CIA Defender, Charges Obstruction of Congressional Oversight
Please join us in calling Senator Dianne Feinstein (202-224-3841 or 415-393-0707) to say thanks and, as we said to her staffer, “keep up the courage” for having spoken out yesterday on the floor of the ...
Happy Mardi Gras, Y’all
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We wish everyone, wherever you be, a happy Mardi Gras. Where we are this morning—not at the Zulu or Rex parades, sorry to say, but in New York where it’s 17 degrees—it’s too cold to quite grasp that today is Mardi Gras, but this is indeed the day. The cold rain in New Orleans doesn’t feel ...
John Kerry: Climate Change Is ‘World’s Most Fearsome’ Weapon of Mass Destruction
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“When 97 percent of scientists agree on anything, we need to listen, and we need to respond. . . . And the results of our human activity are clear. If you ranked all the years in recorded history by average temperature, . . . you’d see that all 10 of the hottest years on record have ...
Pete Seeger, 1919–2014: A Life of “Defiant Optimism”
“Realize that little things lead to bigger things. . . . there’s a wonderful parable in the New Testament: The sower scatters seeds. Some seeds fall in the pathway and get stamped on, and they don’t grow. Some fall on the rocks, and they don’t grow. But some seeds fall on fallow ground, and ...
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 the public interest if we ...