A Call for Universal Voter Registration by Katrina vanden Heuvel This is the third in a series of posts concerned with just democracy. The first was an overview of the current state of our electoral system; the second a look at the prospects for a national popular vote for president.Between 2 and 4 million Americans were unable to vote in the last election because of problems with their registration. And that's just people who tried to vote; in 2006, there were more than 65 million who were eligible to vote, but weren't even registered. That's a third of potential voters.
New Rules on Stem Cells Threaten Current Research by Rob Stein When President Obama lifted restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research in March, many scientists hailed the move as a long-awaited boost for one of the most promising fields of medical research.Since then, however, many proponents have concluded that the plan could have the opposite effect, putting off-limits for federal support much of the research underway, including work that the Bush administration endorsed. "We're very concerned," said Amy Comstock Rick, chief executive of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, which has been leading the effort to free up more federal funding for stem cell research. "If they don't change this, very little current research would be eligible. It's a huge issue."
Comparing waterboarding to beer funnels by Stephen C. Webster No matter what any guest blogger for Michelle Malkin tells you, waterboarding and beer bongs are not in the same category.Doug Powers, a columnist for World Net Daily, must have had a really rough college experience.In his Monday morning weekly update, Powers jumped on the water-board soapbox and leveled an argument in favor of torturing prisoners. Tugging on the coattails of the recent "Mancow" waterboarding media fiasco, he comes out with this gem:
Israel: Venezuela, Bolivia sending uranium to Iran by Raw Story Israel suspects Venezuela and Bolivia of supplying uranium to Iran, according to a foreign ministry document leaked to media.“We have information according to which Venezuela provides uranium to Iran for its nuclear program,” the document says.“It seems that Bolivia is also a supplier of uranium to the Iranian nuclear program,” the document said, adding that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has played a key role in boosting Iran’s ties with Bolivia.
State of Paralysis by Paul Krugman California, it has long been claimed, is where the future happens first. But is that still true? If it is, God help America.The recession has hit the Golden State hard. The housing bubble was bigger there than almost anywhere else, and the bust has been bigger too. California’s unemployment rate, at 11 percent, is the fifth-highest in the nation. And the state’s revenues have suffered accordingly.
Job Losses Push Safer Mortgages to Foreclosur by PETER S. GOODMAN and JACK HEALY As job losses rise, growing numbers of American homeowners with once solid credit are falling behind on their mortgages, amplifying a wave of foreclosures.In the latest phase of the nation’s real estate disaster, the locus of trouble has shifted from subprime loans — those extended to home buyers with troubled credit — to the far more numerous prime loans issued to those with decent financial histories.
Arrested man claims Giuliani threatened him first by Ron Brynaert According to a New York Post headline, he was a "CRAZED ATTACKER." The New York Daily News ran with "angry attacker" in the headline, but used "angry lunatic" in the first paragraph. But leave it to NYC's third tabloid, Newsday, to more calmly report, "A man arrested on charges of harassing Rudy Giuliani on a Bridgehampton street said Saturday that he was merely expressing a difference of opinion with the former New York City mayor and prosecutor."
War Room is No Place for Bible Study by James Carroll That Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld supplied President Bush with Bible-laced Pentagon intelligence briefings might only seem like more Bush-era loopiness, but wait a minute. The deeper, and still current, question is: What in heaven (or, what the hell) is going on inside the US military?
If Obama Cedes Ground on Torture to Cheney, We'll All Pay a Heavy Price by Gary Younge By acknowledging recent crimes while refusing to pursue the criminals, the president has made his position untenable'Every government assumes deeds and misdeeds of the past," writes Hannah Arendt in Eichmann and the Holocaust. "It means hardly more, generally speaking, than that every generation, by virtue of being born into a historical continuum, is burdened by the sins of the fathers as it is blessed with the deeds of the ancestors."
Fate of Iraqis Gone Missing Haunts Those Left Behind by Timothy Williams BAGHDAD - During the worst of Iraq's sectarian violence three years ago, Anam Diham's 13-year-old son went out to buy vegetables one afternoon. He never returned.Since then, Ms. Diham has exhausted her family's life savings trying to find the boy, who spent his days with his father searching Baghdad's streets for dropped coins.
The Republican Dilemma by Bob Burnett After Barack Obama's victory in the November Presidential election, the Republican Party attempted to re-brand itself, but hasn't come up with either compelling ideas or attractive leaders. So far, the GOP has been unwilling to modify its conservative credo. That's good news for Democrats.
An episode in the culture wars by Jaime O'Neill — from the Paradise PostA few months back, I lost a friend over the issue of gay rights. During nearly two decades of working together, we had differed on a number of issues, none of them threatening to our friendship. He is more conservative than I am, and that seldom bothered me much. He was and is a man who stands by what he believes, and I admire that in people, even when I think they're wrong. He's also a pretty good writer, and I admire that, too. He's been dedicated to education, a teacher devoted to serving students.
The GOP's 'Era of Apologizing' by Robert Parry Republican National Chairman Michael Steele says "the era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over." But that must have been a very brief “era,” since it’s hard to remember any significant mistakes that the GOP has owned up to – except perhaps that George W. Bush wasn’t right-wing enough.
Obama Betrays The Liberals by Sherwood Ross America's liberals stand betrayed. Their new president, the one they sweated to elect -- a brilliant, charismatic leader with a professional background in constitutional law -- has transmogrified himself from the champion who denounced in his campaign the illegalities of the Bush White House into a president bent on their perpetuation.
Cheney Urges Obama to Name Bitter Psycho to Bench by Andy Borowitz Former Vice President Dick Cheney weighed in today on President Obama's impending choice to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the President to name a bitter psycho to the bench.Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Mr. Cheney said that the President's choice to replace Justice Souter "should send a strong message to bitter psychos across the country that they will have a voice" on the nation's highest court.
The 45th President by David Swanson The United States has had 44 presidents and nobody knows who the 45th will be. For the sake of argument let’s imagine for a minute something that is a very definite possibility. Let's imagine that the 45th president will belong to a political party you detest, will espouse the opposite position from yours on matters dear to your heart, and will strike you as completely unlikeable, untrustworthy, irresponsible, and dangerous. Let's imagine that #45 will want to do everything you oppose and will speak in the most odious and arrogant way about doing so. You won't like the substance or the rhetoric. Number 45, of course, will not fit that description for every one of us, but someone between number 45 and number 50 (assuming we make it that far) will almost certainly fit that description for you, and it's as likely to be #45 as any other number.
Fixing America, Erasing Bush by William Rivers Pitt President Obama gave a speech on Thursday praising the excellence of the American experiment, and claimed his own life was made possible by the promise of the documents and the ideals that founded this nation. As usual, his delivery and diction was perfect. Unfortunately, his behavior of late has fallen far short of the ideals he has given such eloquent lip service to.
