Hold Fast

Three stories across the wire today regarding the Chinese government’s continued human rights abuses and disregard for the rule of law. First, the Tibetan political prisoner advocacy group that tracks many cases inside Tibet, GuChuSum, reports that three Tibetans were executed for their participation in the spring 2008 national uprising: Yesterday,around 11 am (Chinese Standard [...]

[Read more →]

Today’s New York Times includes a story by Elizabeth Bumiller, titled “As the Commander in Chief Deliberates, Frustration Builds Within the Ranks.” It is a so-called Military Memo and as the title suggests, it is filled with quotes from Bumiller’s sources who aren’t too happy with the Obama administration’s deliberations over strategy in Afghanistan. The [...]

[Read more →]

I understand that there’s always a strong desire for folks at the White House to never hear public criticism from allied groups or Democratic politicians, but this assault on AFSCME’s  president Gerry McEntee by an anonymous White House official is really absurd. There are going to be many fights, health care is just one of [...]

[Read more →]

Crooks & Liars has the video, as well as a write-up of the appearance by the fighting Democratic from the Florida 8th. My favorite line comes when Grayson says he thinks of himself as a Huey Long-type Democrat: You’ve got to put some jam on the bottom shelf where the little man can reach it. [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday I wrote about some lessons from Robert Caro’s biography of LBJ’s years in the Senate, Master of the Senate, especially as they regard to the health care reform fight and Harry Reid’s failures of leadership. I wrote: One thing that Caro’s coverage of LBJ’s Senate tenure makes clear, segregation was preserved and civil rights [...]

[Read more →]

I rarely do this on Hold Fast, but this is too incredible not to promote some work from my professional life at SEIU. The videos above is from a woman named Peggy Robertson. In the first she describes her experience of being told by her health insurance company that she was only eligible for coverage, [...]

[Read more →]

I recently finished reading Robert Caro’s Master of the Senate, the volume of his biography of Lyndon Johnson that covered his years in the Senate. One thing that Caro’s coverage of LBJ’s Senate tenure makes clear, segregation was preserved and civil rights were delayed for upwards of half a century because of the dominance of [...]

[Read more →]

Jane Hamsher has a must-read post on the culpability of Harry Reid in the possibility that there is a silent filibuster of the public health insurance option. Jane writes: There are 51 Senators who will vote for a public option, something 77% of the country wants. It would win a majority in a floor vote. [...]

[Read more →]

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters has a long piece on the development of Fox News from quasi-news outlet with strong partisan bend to full-time political opposition outlet, with no distinction between the opposition put forth by Fox News pundits and Fox News “reporters.” I’ll be honest – a lot of the content Media Matters produces [...]

[Read more →]

Barack Obama has only been in office for about nine months, but in that brief time the leading voices of the Republican Party have provided the rest of us with a telling system for evaluating what is good and what is bad in the world. Earlier this month we learned that when America loses, it [...]

[Read more →]