Hold Fast

Via Digby. Transcript below the fold.

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David Dayen continues to do incredible reporting on HAMP and how it isn’t working for most people who try to use it. What’s particularly important with this piece is that it is built around an individual account of the experience of a homeowner trying to use HAMP to avoid foreclosure. Talking about the success or [...]

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In today’s column, Paul Krugman asks: So here’s the question I find myself asking: What will it take to break the hold of this cruel cult on the minds of the policy elite? When, if ever, will we get back to the job of rebuilding the economy? I wish it was likely that sanity came [...]

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Ellen Bork, the Foreign Policy Initiative‘s Director of Democracy and Human Rights has a really great piece on how the Obama administration is failing to pursue a clear Tibet policy, to the detriment of Tibet and possibly in violation of statute. Of note from the piece, which should be read in its entirety: The administration’s [...]

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Raven Brooks is asking why there isn’t more hoopla and celebration on progressive blogs about the announcement that all US combat troops are out of Iraq. I’ve been writing in opposition to the Iraq War for coming on six years (I started blogging in late 2004). When I went to work for Chris Dodd on [...]

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Sam Seder takes it to the streets to find out what people think about the possibility of cutting Social Security while giving tax cuts to millionaires. The responses are pretty awesome and a reminder that the voting public is far smarter than the media and elected officials tend to give them credit for.

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Writing at Naked Capitalism, Marshall Auerback puts forth a devastating critiques of how Democrats are creating the conditions which put Social Security at risk. A key part of this analysis is that the Deficit Commission was put together and appointed by President Obama (after the Democratic Congress refused to do so). There are a lot [...]

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In an otherwise awful column, Maureen Dowd makes a relevant point: There are deep schisms within the Democratic Party that were masked for a time, first by Bush and then by Obama’s election. Now that the Democrats have the presidency and the power and can enact legislation, it’s apparent that the word progressive is kind [...]

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This is interesting: With over 600,000 people, including hundreds of Chinese, following him on networking site Twitter, the Dalai Lama has said the non-resolution of the Tibet issue is making the voices of those seeking independence of Tibet from China grow stronger. Answering questions from his Chinese followers on Twitter, which he joined last month, [...]

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My friend Josh Schrei happened to be traveling in Ladakh, a historically Tibetan region in northern India, when the area was hit by uncharacteristic rain storms that prompted massive flooding and mudslides. It is likely that over 1,000 people were killed in the landslides, which fundamentally changed the region. The quotes that follow from Josh [...]

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