I don’t know what this says about me, but is there any possibility that it’s life-affirming? A stamp of approval on my recent posts? Can I market my “Impeach Obama” campaign as “Approved by Homer Simpson?” . .
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Since I wrote the post arguing that if a Republican president had done some of the things Obama is doing, then liberals would be hot off the mark in calling for his impeachment, the ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights have gone to court to sue for their right to represent the only known . . . → Read More: Major update to my post advocating Obama’s impeachment What can you say? Some people overstay their welcomes, others check out too soon no matter how long they’ve been around. It’s painful watching Katie Couric and other lightweights delivering obituaries for Schorr. Offhand I can’t think of anyone really up for the job. I’m sure Keith Olberman will give or has given . . . → Read More: Daniel Schorr dies, Dick Cheney lives, sort of. Actually 22 Democrats and one Democratic Socialist, Bernie Sanders, voted against creating a commission that could force cuts to social welfare programs in order to end deficit spending and reduce the national debt. Interestingly, fewer Republicans than Democrats supported the legislation—16 of the former (plus Joe Lieberman, naturally) and 36 of the latter voted . . . → Read More: 23 Senate Democrats vote to preserve Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security Politicians are a necessary evil, or an evil necessity, or a fashion accessory. Can’t live with them, can’t shoot them, as the old joke goes. The people who make government hum, though, to the extent that it does, and it does to a far greater extent than many people will ever admit, are the . . . → Read More: What I learned in school today, or, the government is my oyster Many months ago when I was writing something about health care I ran across a blog that had a number of entries on the subject, one of which I used in my piece. That web page and 70-some others are still open in my browser, which in retaliation is now consuming most of my computer’s memory and a good chunk of the processor capacity. So I’m going to write some things I meant to write during these past many months and reclaim some space. The blog in question is Hipparchia’s, and she (I think) has added several entries on Canada’s health care system since I last checked in. They’re all instructive but the one I like the best deals with the origin of the Canadian system, which can be described in two words: Tommy Douglas. Douglas was the Saskatchewan premier who, beginning in the 1950′s, fought to bring, single-payer health care coverage to his province. He stepped down in 1961 but the next year, after an epic, decade-long war with private insurers and doctors, his legislation passed and became the model for Canada’s national system. Some advocates for a progressive health care system here tend to be federal-centric, and it’s good to remember that state and regional efforts can drive the federal one. Thanks, Hipparchia. Continue reading Clearing the decks, Part 1: health care for all and a lot more In only 72 hours, the movement to draft billionaire vanity candidate Michael Bloomberg has amassed more than 1,000 signatures, many of them from people other than friends and family of the New York mayor and his backers. At the current rate of nearly one signature every three minutes, the movement will have garnered one . . . → Read More: Hundreds rally to Bloomberg banner Threatening letters to Judge Walton are counterproductive. . . . → Read More: Judge defies threats, sends Libby to jail Two British men suffer for Bush’s sins… . . . → Read More: Expose Bush’s war crimes, go to jail |
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John Edwards, (his own) lenders, Lakoff, bumper stickers, & blind trust(s)
Friday’s Wall Street Journal [sorry, can't link] reported on 34 foreclosures in New Orleans, foreclosures by subprime lending companies which, it turns out, were invested in by the hedge fund (Fortress), which in turn John Edwards has been invested in — and which has hired him as advisor — all fully disclosed, never hidden, but nevertheless subject to suspicion and attack by the likes of Ann Coulter [please tell me I don't need to link that].
In the immediate wake of this news, John Edwards made what is surely among the most timely [campaign-historically-speaking] of Presidential-nominee responses to personally-impacting revelations: he announced he would get rid of those assets. On the face of it, he’s thereby not only cutting his investment ties but, it would seem, “biting the hand that feeds him” [half a million in consulting fees from Fortress] so to speak, and for good cause. Be cynical if you like, but so it seems to me. Putting his considerable $$ where his mouth is. And, it would seem, suggesting that he can take a principled, moral stand against company practices even when he has a financial stake in them. He would seem to be doing in practice what Hillary recently (and rather jawdroppingly, disingenuously) stated in theory was her inability to be bought (in that case, in re lobbyists).
[Edwards' response, as a bit of an aside, leads to a question about all these guys (notably Romney, as I recall) who put their money in blind trusts even upon entering campaign -- which on the surface might seem laudable -- but doesn't such "blindness" serve also to spare them such moral decision-making dilemmas as Edwards faced here upon learning today that his own investment money was going toward lenders who were foreclosing on New Orleanians? Has this whole notion of 'blind trust' gone unexamined for its actual ramifications? And how many blind trustees have no clue anyway of what their funds might be invested in? Isn't one of the key upshots that they can claim innocence of any linkage and attempt to distance themselves from whatever scandal may arise? But in fact, isn't this a case where full disclosure itself would be the ideal? whereby candidates are tested on their mettle as Edwards was yesterday? Who else on this campaign trail, for example, is invested in these same subprime lenders but takes no stand and claims 'innocence' of any awareness of investment in same? Have we as voter-consumers really thought through the ramifications of this 'blind trust' business??]
Continue reading John Edwards, (his own) lenders, Lakoff, bumper stickers, & blind trust(s)