The last ten minutes of Barack Obama's health care speech, invoking
the legacy of Ted Kennedy and emphasizing concern for others as an
essential part of "the American character," were powerful and
affecting. Eschewing the professorial tone he has too often struck when
discussing health care in recent months, Obama spoke instead about
"large heartedness" and the "terror and helplessness" any parent would
feel to have a sick child go without treatment because of money. He
also said "the danger of too much government is matched by… more
It is now clear that we are facing an implacable enemy whose avowed
objective is world domination by whatever means and at whatever cost.
There are no rules in such a game. Hitherto acceptable norms of human
conduct do not apply. If the United States is to survive, long-standing
American concepts of "fair play" must be reconsidered.
Christopher Hayes: With healthcare reform, the White House has transformed an intimate issue into a technical argument about long-term actuarial projections ...
Faith Smith, writing on the blog of Steve Clemons of the New American Foundation found it "difficult to say which side is democratic." She noted approvingly that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while criticizing the coup offered "no specific support for Zelaya."
In part one of a three-part series, The Nation's Washington editor Chris Hayes debates Reihan Salam of The National Review over healthcare. Is it a universal human right, as Hayes says, or a responsibility, as Salam says? What's the best system for implementing healthcare in the United States? Will it save money or cost money? Watch and decide. Link to video
No matter how discredited and despised Wall Street executives may be across the country, their clout remains unrivaled on Capitol Hill. Judging from how much traction the American Bankers Association gets with lawmakers, you'd think it was an organization devoted to the interests of puppies and adorable children.
... and Jim Zogby, his brother, president of the Arab American Institute -- were a few blocks away at the New America Foundation to discuss the surprising results of an interactive poll about US attitudes toward the conflict in the Middle East. ...
Governors across the country are clamoring for a piece of the stimulus, eager to avoid laying off state employees, hoping to put their unemployed citizens back to work and trying to avoid widespread furloughs as budgets bleed red ink. They know that their citizens want to keep libraries open, teachers in the classroom, cops on the beat and firefighters ready to protect people and property.
After more than a year of hearings before the Joint Economic Committee, in March Virginia Senator Jim Webb introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009. The legislation would create a blue-ribbon panel with the mandate to make recommendations for wholesale reform of criminal justice policy.
