Hold Fast

Per Joe Sudbay, Paul Krugman’s column hitting conservative Democrats for failing to advance a massively popular policy initiative that the public voted for this past election, it’s deeply troubling that a handful of Democratic senators are the ones standing in the way of needed reform. Sudbay writes, “The American people actually expect elected officials to [...]

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It’s hard to think of a more powerful ad than this,  given Dodd and Kennedy’s decades of friendship and the trials Senator Kennedy is himself going through now as he battles cancer. Here’s the transcript: SENATOR KENNEDY: Quality healthcare as a fundamental right for all Americans has been the cause of my life, and Chris [...]

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Ed Wong of the New York Times has a simply brilliant article documenting stories from Tibetan monks who have recently escaped into exile following participating in protests in the spring of 2008 in support of Tibetan independence. “If we monks hadn’t seized the opportunity to express our feelings, which are feelings in all Tibetan monks, then we [...]

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Rough partial transcript: “…when I pick up the morning newspaper and I read the first headline that “Fault Lines Emerge and Industry Groups Blast Plan to Create Consumer Agency,” what planet are you living on? The very people who created the damn mess are the ones now arguing that consumers ought not to be protected!  [...]

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Chris Dodd is effectively running the HELP Committee and quarterbacking the movement of their healthcare reform legislation. While the bill they have out so far does not have a public health insurance option, Dodd and other Democrats have repeatedly assured the public that it will be added by amendments. Thus far there are already in [...]

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Despite reports earlier this week that the Chinese government was backing off its requirement that all new computers sold after July 1 have the censor-spyware platform Green Dam-Youth Escort installed, it now looks like there has been no such let-up in their commitment to this program. The New York Times reports: American computer makers say the Chinese government has [...]

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Wow. The New York Times editorial board calls for Congress to repeal the FISA reauthorization and modifications of 2008: The 2008 expansion of FISA is a deeply flawed law. Congress needs to repeal it and re-examine, carefully this time, what powers the government really needs to eavesdrop on Americans and what limits and safeguards need [...]

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Joe Nocera has a very interesting column in the New York Times critiquing President Obama’s financial sector overhaul, as compared to the changes FDR pushed through during the Great Depression to put in place a regulatory structure for the financial industry. I haven’t sorted through the full Obama plan yet, but I think Nocera’s closing [...]

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Reading Peter Daou’s post at his new project, Consider This News, on the bipartisan repudiation of the left wing of American politics, I caught this line: I challenge anyone to envision a President Barack Obama without the unrelenting defiance of the netroots during the Bush years. While I personally agree 100% with Daou’s sentiment that [...]

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No one could have predicted that if Congress retroactively legalized illegal domestic surveillance and set up a new legal infrastructure for spying on Americans that the NSA wouldn’t find a way to still illegally spy on Americans without warrant. The N.S.A. is believed to have gone beyond legal boundaries designed to protect Americans in about [...]

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