16 Feb 2007
“The Health Care Racket”, By Paul Krugman (The New York Times)
After the State of the Union speech, Stephen Colbert said this about President Bush’s Healthcare plan, “It’s so simple. Most people who can’t afford health insurance also are too poor to owe taxes. But if you give them a deduction from the taxes they don’t owe, they can use the money they’re not getting back from what they haven’t given to buy the health care they can’t afford.” Until one of the Democratic 2008 hopefuls mentions “single-payer,” we’re not buying their healthcare plans.
Arkin on Fire, and Getting Flamed (Early Warning, Washington Post)
“The Troops Also Need to Support the American People”
“The Arrogant and Intolerant Speak Out”
“A Note to My Readers on Supporting the Troops”
“Demonization and Responsibility”
“The Families Speak”
“The Soldiers Speak”
“The Threat, The Problem, in Their Own Words”
William Arkin, whose Early Warning blog for Washington Post, is always full of analysis of the sort only a seasoned expert can provide, gets himself into a war of words based on some controversial comments on remarks that several troops are frustrated with the lack of support for the war by the American people. The series of posts has drawn an impressive number of comments, and the whole series is worth a read.
15 Feb 2007
“Escalating Truth”, By George Lakoff (TruthOut.org)
The use of the word “surge” was a lie and the diminished use of it, along with the increased use of the correct word – “escalation” – happened because of a “disciplined and focused effort by progressives.” But, “Conservative ideas and frames must be confronted and contested. Progressives cannot succeed if they treat frames as nothing more than word games – if they fail to understand that using a term like surge reinforces the conservative worldview. We are not playing games with words. We are fighting over ideas and the moral world views that underlie those ideas.
14 Feb 2007
Carl Bernstein on Nixon vs. Bush (Editor & Publisher)
Here’s a hint: Bush wins.
13 Feb 2007
The Undertaker’s Tally (Part 1) & The Undertaker’s Tally (Part 2), By Roger Morris (TomDispatch.com)
Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch.com intro’s this better than we ever could: “Every now and then, we need a little history to make sense of our world. But perhaps, in this case, “little” isn’t the most appropriate word. Roger Morris, a member of the National Security Council under Presidents Johnson and Nixon (he resigned in protest over the invasion of Cambodia) and bestselling author of biographies of Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and the Clintons, explores both the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns of Donald Rumsfeld’s emblematic history and legacy, of his long march to power, and what he did with that power once it was in his hands.”
12 Feb 2007
“No King Please, We’re Americans”, By Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. and Aziz Huq (Legal Times)
“Throughout history, the task of keeping this republic has fallen not just to the three branches of government, but also to “We the People of the United States.” We better get a move on.
“Whatever it Takes: The politics of the man behind 24“, by Jane Mayer (New Yorker)
Before the attacks of 9/11, fewer than four acts of torture appeared on prime-time television each year. Now there are more than a hundred.
“Discovering What Democracy Means”, By Bill Moyers (TomPaine.com)
Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity? Because without it we would never have heard Vartan Gregorian on the TV saying “in a big library, suddenly you feel humble. The whole of humanity is in front of you. It gives you a sense of cosmic relation, but at the same time a sense of isolation. You feel both pride and insignificance. Here it is, the human endeavor, human aspiration, human agony, human ecstasy, human bravura, human failures—all before you. And you look around and say, ‘Oh, my God! I am not going to be able to know it all.’”
The Keystone Cops Do Iran
“Pace Demurs on Accusation of Iran”, By Karen DeYoung (The Washington Post)
Bush at Press Conference Today Contradicts Sunday’s Briefing on Iranian Weapons (Editor & Publisher)
Ex-Aide Says Rice Misled US Congress on Iran (Reuters)
