Current Mood: angry

The suppressed fact: deaths by U.S. torture - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

( Answer, such as we know it, here... )

Obama's trail of broken promises

The prophet of hope now doesn't even bother with explanations when he reneges on his campaign pledges.

[...] We once respected democracy by at least demanding explanations -- however weak -- for unfulfilled promises. Then we became a country whose scorched-earth campaigns against flip-flopping desensitized us to reversals. Now, we don't flinch when our president appears tickled that a few poor souls still expect politicians to fulfill promises and justify broken ones. [...]

In regards to the murder of Dr. George Tiller, apocalypsos responds much better than I could ever hope to do. So go read what she said, and know that I completely agree with her.

Allow me to add that if ever we reach the point where the "War on Terror" has any real meaning, then people like Scott P. Roeder will be treated as terrorists.

ETA: Abortion Doctor Murder Suspect: The Far-Right Connections | Mother Jones

Notre Dame's stand against Catholic fundamentalism | Salon

President Obama goes to the University of Notre Dame this Sunday to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree, the ninth U.S. president to be so honored. The event has stirred up a hornet's nest of conservative Catholics, with more than 40 bishops objecting, and hundreds of thousands of Catholics signing petitions in protest. In the words of South Bend's Bishop John M. D'Arcy, the complaint boils down to President Obama's "long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred." Notre Dame, the bishop charged, has chosen "prestige over truth." [...]

Current Mood: impressed

Drug-fueled madness! | Salon
Our nation's narcotics policy, that is. But there's good news as Hillary Clinton and Sen. Jim Webb take baby steps toward sanity.

[...] Though President Barack Obama childishly laughed at a question about legalization during his recent town hall meeting, his government implicitly admits that marijuana is safer than light beer. Indeed, as federal agencies acknowledge alcohol's key role in deadly illnesses and domestic violence, their latest anti-pot fear mongering is an ad campaign insisting -- I kid you not -- that marijuana is dangerous because it makes people zone out on their couches and diminishes video-gaming skills.

(This is your government on drugs: Cirrhosis and angry tank-topped lushes beating their wives are more acceptable risks than stoners sitting in their basements ineptly playing "Halo." ... Any questions?) [...]

A major difference between conservatives and progressives

The Right marched in uncritical, creepy devotion to Bush for the first six years of his presidency. The Left has been leading the way in criticizing Obama when warranted.

Current Mood: contemplative

The virtues of public anger and the need for more

We are not suffering from an excess of citizen outrage, but rather, from a lack of it

( Read more... )

To close, let me quote Greenwald again:

A political establishment that can function without any fear of the citizenry will inevitably trample on its interests. That is what has been happening more than anything else. And it is why we need far more public outrage, and fear of that outrage more deeply implanted in the minds of our political and financial elites.

Current Mood: quixotic

I'm not sure if you've heard, but there's a movement of citizens inspired by the presidential campaign who are deciding the top 10 ideas for how they think the Obama administration should change America. It's called "Ideas for Change in America," and it's being run by Change.org.

One idea is titled: Free Single Payer Health Care. I thought you might be interested in getting involved and recommend you check it out. You can read more and vote for the idea by clicking the following link:

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/free_single_payer_health_care

The top 10 ideas are going to be presented to the Obama administration at an event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC next week and will be supported by a national lobbying campaign run by Change.org in partnership with leading nonprofits after the Presidential Inauguration. So each idea has a real chance at becoming policy.

Thanks for the help!

Current Mood: blah

W. and the damage done

President Bush inherited a peaceful, prosperous America. As he exits, Salon consults experts in seven fields to try to assess the devastation.

Current Mood: apathetic

LiveJournal: The Russian Bear Slashes a Social Network

The bubble in social networking has burst, decisively. LiveJournal, the San Francisco-based arm of Sup, a Russian Internet startup, has cut about 20 of 28 employees — and offered them no severance, we're told.

liz_marcs

Current Mood: aggravated

From MoveOn.Org:

You've probably heard about how Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff scammed investors out of at least $50 billion.

But you may not have heard that his victims included the foundations that support some really important progressive organizations. Groups that fight for human rights, fair elections and racial justice are getting hit hard—just in time for the holidays. [...]

( Read more... )

Current Mood: hopeful

At House Party on Health Care, the Diagnosis Is: It’s Broken

When a dozen consumers gathered over the weekend to discuss health care at the behest of President-elect Barack Obama, they quickly agreed on one point: they despise health insurance companies.

( More excerpts )

lasarina

Current Mood: stunned

My very first post to Daily Kos (which is a repost and slight reworking of a piece I debuted here) was picked up by "Diary Rescue". Here's what they had to say:

The Rangers have sifted and sorted through 296 diaries to bring you these 12 great examples of the excellent writing and breadth of subjects that The Orange has become known for. [...]

wyldraven, from all too personal experience, explains why it's access to healthcare not health insurance that matters, in Health Care Reform: My Number One Issue. [...]

Current Mood: impressed

Olbermann: Gay marriage is a question of love

Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the passage, last week, of Proposition Eight in California, which rescinded the right of same-sex couples to marry, and tilted the balance on this issue, from coast to coast. [...]

What is this, to you? Nobody is asking you to embrace their expression of love. But don't you, as human beings, have to embrace... that love? The world is barren enough.

It is stacked against love, and against hope, and against those very few and precious emotions that enable us to go forward. Your marriage only stands a 50-50 chance of lasting, no matter how much you feel and how hard you work.

And here are people overjoyed at the prospect of just that chance, and that work, just for the hope of having that feeling. With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division, and people pitted against people for no good reason, this is what your religion tells you to do? With your experience of life and this world and all its sadnesses, this is what your conscience tells you to do? [...]

Current Mood: amused

The Matrix Runs on Windows

via sunfell

Current Mood: thankful

To all veterans who may see this, know that I honor your service every day, not just on this the designated day to do so. Thank you.

Current Mood: distressed

I feel obliged to help undo it as well.

Facts Belie the Scapegoating of Black People for Prop. 8

[...] Black people are to blame for the passage of Proposition 8 here in California. It is an idea grounded in utter myth, a complete lack of knowledge about anything related to Black people's presence in California, and just plain old scapegoating.

Hoepfully[sic], this diary will help put all that to rest, and we can get back to work trying to beat back the hateful results of Tuesday's vote. [...]

[...] Before we give Religious Right leaders more reasons to rejoice by deepening the divisions they have worked so hard to create between African Americans and the broader progressive community, let’s be clear about who is responsible for gay couples in California losing the right to get married, and let’s think strategically about a way forward that broadens and strengthens support for equality. [...]

Current Mood: determined

Glenn Greenwald: Salon.Com: Orin Kerr and the responsibility of elites for the last eight years

[...] Over the last eight years (at least), we have not only crossed the line of what ought to be within the realm of reasonable, respectful debate, but we have crossed it repeatedly, severely, and with great harm to our political system and huge numbers of people. And one of the prime reasons that happened is because those with the most vocal platforms and with the greatest claims to expertise failed in their responsibility to oppose it passionately and to describe its extremism, and, instead, eagerly served as apologists for it. Those who seek now to depict their tepidness in the face of all of that as some elevated form of enlightened reason are merely illustrating one of the key mechanisms that enabled all of it to happen.

Current Mood: contemplative

I admit it. I'm one of those people who always hated Daylight Savings Time. I always feel better, and get more rest, on Standard Time. I put up with it because it saves energy, or so I have always been told. Guess what? That's apparently not true.

Freakonomics: More Ammunition for People Who Hate Daylight Savings Time

Even if you hate daylight saving time, you tell yourself: Hey, I shouldn’t be so selfish, it’s good for the economy, or for the environment, or for farmers, or something. Right?

Well, um, perhaps not. Consider a new working paper, “Does Daylight Saving Time Save Energy? Evidence From a Natural Experiment in Indiana,” by Matthew J. Kotchen and Laura E. Grant: [...]

On the bright side, if President-elect Obama is looking for some quick hits on energy conservation, here’s one that’s all teed up and ready to go: Kill D.S.T.!

Current Mood: contemplative

How to Begin Repairing the Damage to Freedom in America After Bush

Barack Obama will become chief executive of a nation that has been greatly weakened - in particular, our freedoms, our values, and our international reputation have been greatly undermined by the policies of the past eight years.

Presidents have enormous power not only to set the legislative agenda, but also to establish policy by executive order, federal regulation, or simply by refocusing the efforts and emphases of the executive agencies. The new president must use all of these tools to restore our freedoms and move the country forward.

Doing so will require determined action in the face of inevitable opposition. It will require conveying to the American people why grants of unchecked power do not actually make us safer, and why Americans must stand firm in protecting the values that at our best we have always represented and defended at home and around the world.

It will not be easy to undo eight years of sustained damage to our fundamental rights. But it can be done.

This paper lists many of the actions that the new president should take in order to decisively signal a restoration of American values and a rejection of the shameful policies of the past eight years.

The first year of any new administration is crucial and sets the stage for what will follow. The new President needs to hit the ground running and to make full use of that first crucial year.

We have grouped needed actions into those that the new president should take on day one, in the 100 days and then the first year. Those actions include executive orders as well as mandates or directives from the president to his cabinet secretaries and agency heads.