[cross-posted at Daily Kos] “[The Democrats’ stimulus] legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes . . . $140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’ Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of...
barack obama
“Kill the Bill” vs. “Stop the War”: A Tale of Two Protests
[cross-posted at Daily Kos] Has anyone besides us found it kind of odd that there’s been so much “fire and brimstone” about the health care reform bill compared to Bush’s Iraq War? The first thing we’ll say about the violence and threats following Congress’s passage...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
OMG! Wake-Up Calls and Queasy Stomachs
Two posts that should be read in full—“A Wake-Up Call” by Robert Kuttner on what the Massachusetts special election for senator tells us about the Rahm Emanuel White House’s wrong priorities—and another by a reader at Talking Points Memo who was calling voters in...
“Winter of Our Discontent”
In the already-dark of the shortest day of the year, the first day of winter, rather than denying the obvious it feels appropriate to acknowledge a certain lowness of spirits, a mood that the holidays will warm temporarily but not dispel altogether. “Winter of our...
Obama, Lieberman, Emanuel—
All Skewered as Not “Tough Enough to Govern”
Joe Conason in a hard-hitting Truthout op-ed rips Joe Lieberman for demanding, and President Obama and his chief of staff and “self-styled tough guy from Chicago” Rahm Emanuel for bowing to the gutting of the elements of real reform in the Senate health care...
Senate Dems, Stop: Go to Reconciliation (51 Votes)
“Not Health, Not Care, Not Reform” Ed. Note: The writer of this post volunteered for about a half-dozen Organizing for America phone banks to ask voters to call their senators to press for a public option. The Senate Democrats’ over-compromised health reform...
Wrong Call, Mr. President
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953 Having taken a long walk after a filling Thanksgiving...
Harm’s Way, or, A Surge of His Own?
The ceremony at Fort Hood yesterday was beautiful, and heart-breaking. The pain was all too real, and the president’s speech was sincere, somber, respectful, and probably healing. But . . . could the ceremony have been designed in part as a warm-up, a stirring of our...
Obama Welcomed, and Challenged, in New Orleans
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL7aldiQLS0 Maybe he wished he’d planned to stay longer, though there may have been a point when he began to wish he hadn’t come at all. President Obama’s visit was criticized days in advance even by supporters for being too short. The...
Obama Visits New Orleans (Too Briefly)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od2bOkQ4Kf0 President Obama visits New Orleans for about four hours today. He will visit the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in the Lower Ninth Ward from about noon till 1:00 p.m., and then will hold a town hall meeting at UNO...
The Nobel Peace Prize 2009
Warm congratulations to President Barack Obama for being selected to receive the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” It is a proud and happy occasion for the President and for...
Are “Conservatives” Conservative?
Are They Even American?
“. . . although they believe themselves to be conservatives and usually employ the rhetoric of conservatism, [pseudo-conservatives] show signs of a serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life, traditions, and institutions. . . . Their political reactions...
Scenes from a Health Reform Phone Bank
The setting: The living room of a volunteer’s apartment in Manhattan. The action: A night of phoning voters, mostly Obama supporters, in Florida, Indiana, and Virginia. Many wrong or disconnected numbers, or no one home (so we leave messages). “Hello, my name is —....