Act Now!

Demand Question Time

By Peter Rothberg

My boss Katrina vanden Heuvel recently detailed the merits of a new campaign that could enhance civic engagement, make politicians more accountable and promote the notion that our elected reps should be able to talk lucidly about the issues of the day.

The idea of "Demand Question Time" came in the wake of the unprecedented live, televised question-and-answer session on January 29 between President Obama and the House Republican leadership. Since then, people of all political persuasions have been endorsing the value of what's being called "Question Time" -- from the editor of The Nation to the leader of the Cincinnati Tea Party!

Use the form below to add your name to the call for the President and Congress to implement a regular schedule of public Question Time sessions.

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February 8, 2010

Last Flight to Abu Dhabi

By Peter Rothberg

Billy Bragg, a living legend of the British punk and folk music scenes, just released a new song as catchy and relevant as anything he's produced in many years. Debuted two nights ago at a Haiti benefit concert in London, Last Flight to Abu Dhabi takes to task "the bankers who caused the crash."

The opening verse:
"Johnny was a banker, he made a lot of cash
Betting on derivatives, he helped to cause the crash
Now that everybody wants to limit his income
Jonty's packed his bags and he's going on the run"

And, as I said, the tune is real catchy.

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February 5, 2010

Protests in Iran

By Peter Rothberg

This post was written by Chantal Flores, a Nation intern and freelance writer living in New York City.

A week after the contested June 2009 presidential election, the image of blood covering the face of 27-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan dead in a street in Tehran became the symbol of the Iranian people's struggle for freedom. What seemed at first an isolated demonstration against a rigged election, eventually turned into the largest uprising against the Islamic Republic since its inception in 1979.

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February 4, 2010

Free Speech for People

By Peter Rothberg

My colleague and friend John Nichols' new post appropriately lauds Rep. Donna Edwards' proposed legislation to redress the damage done by the Supreme Court in its decision in the case of Citizens United v. FEC to abandon long-standing precedent with the purpose of permitting corporations to dominate the political discourse.

As The Nation editorialized recently: "The clearest and boldest counter to the Court's ruling is a constitutional amendment stating unequivocally that corporations are not people and do not have the right to buy elections."

The first article of Edwards' proposed bill says it all: "The sovereign right of the people to govern being essential to a free democracy, Congress and the States may regulate the expenditure of funds for political speech by any corporation, limited liability company, or other corporate entity."

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February 2, 2010

Goodbye Howard Zinn

By Peter Rothberg

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and the author of the seminal A People's History of the United States, died today at the age of 87 of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California. He was in a swimming pool doing laps and was spotted immediately by lifeguards but died instantly.

Zinn's brand of history put common citizens at the center of the story and inspired generations of young activists and academics to remember that change is possible. As he wrote in his autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (1994), "From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than ‘objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble."

Watch these videos to get a sense of what we've lost.

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January 27, 2010

Air America's Fall

By Peter Rothberg

In the wake of Air America's sad demise, the rightwing blogs are predictably crowing. See the aptly-named HotAir, which argues that the network's failure demonstrated the lack of interest in liberal talk radio or the Newsbusters blog which contends that the network was redundant because of the blatant leftwing bias of National Public Radio.

I have a different take, informed in part by actually working with Air America in various ways. I think the network was a mess in important respects, that it unnecessarily burned through money, and that management blunders were among the chief reasons for its bankruptcy. (The Nation's Nicholas von Hoffman published a tough report on the then-fledging network in 2005, which I think hit many correct points.) Essentially, I agree with Bill Press writing at the Huffington Post: "In the future, business majors will study Air America as the textbook case of a great idea, but lousy execution."

So I do think there's an immense market for smart, funny (ideally at the same time) progressive radio. The huge audience for Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!, the standard-bearer of left radio, is just the most obvious demonstration of the medium's popularity.

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January 22, 2010

The Dream Reborn

By Peter Rothberg

Markese Bryant (aka Doo Dat), born and raised in East Oakland, knows firsthand the effects of pollution and poverty in local communities of color. Now he's a leader in the movement to build an inclusive green economy through campus organizing and community education. His new video, produced and released by Green for All, explains how this growing movement is creating potential opportunities for communities of color nationwide.

In conjunction with the video, Green For All is launching a month-long contest to showcase the video or song that best shows inspiring examples of how the green economy can transform people's lives. The competition will be decided by user submitted votes. The deadline for submissions is February 8, 2010. The grand prize winner will receive $1,000.

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January 19, 2010

Helping Haiti

By Peter Rothberg

The most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the country struck Haiti yesterday, causing catastrophic destruction in the hemisphere's poorest nation. The quake struck near the capital of Port-au-Prince, the most densely populated part of Haiti, and thousands are feared dead. Most telephone communications throughout the country have also been destroyed complicating relief work.

The most urgent needs appear to be bandages, antibiotics, other basic medical supplies, and water tablets to prevent cholera outbreaks. The need for food and shelter is also growing especially given that these needs are severe in impoverished Haiti in the best of times.

There are numerous ways to help groups already on the ground. One of the best, Partners In Health, has been operating in the country since 1987, originally to deliver health care to the residents of Haiti's mountainous Central Plateau region. PiH now also operates clinics in Port au Prince and other major Haitian cities. With hospitals and a highly trained medical staff in place, the group is already mobilizing resources and preparing plans to bring medical assistance and supplies to areas that have been hardest hit.

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January 13, 2010

Terror in Uganda

By Peter Rothberg

I generally try to devote this space to reporting on ways to combat outrages being perpetuated in the US and/or by the US overseas. As an American, I feel a personal responsibility to oppose the misdeeds of my own country first and foremost. There's also enough going on in my own backyard, and with my own tax dollars, that I typically have sufficient material without calling out foreign despots.

However, what's going down in Uganda currently compells me to comment. Uganda is a country where homosexuality is already illegal, where violent attacks are common and where rape is used to 'cure' people of their sexual orientation. Now, a shocking new law has been proposed that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death.

As my colleague Richard Kim reported last December, "'The "Anti-Homosexuality Bill' was introduced by Ugandan legislator David Bahati, a member of The Family, the fundamentalist Christian group whose devotees include Congressmen Bart Stupak and Joe Pitts, Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. According to an NPR interview with Jeff Sharlet, whose 2008 book documents The Family's influence in US politics, Bahati organizes Uganda's National Prayer Breakfast and runs something called the African Youth Leadership Forum, an alumni group associated with Youth Corps, part of The Family's Cornerstone leadership academy."

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January 12, 2010

Diapers 101

By Peter Rothberg

Did you know that diapers are not covered by public assistance programs like WIC or food stamps? And did you know that diaper companies do not make significant donations to shelters or outreach programs, as infant formula manufacturers do? That makes diapers one of the scarcest resources for poor families.

I didn't know any of this until I read the admirable helpamotherout.org site.

If you're not a parent, you might be surprised that a jumbo pack of Pampers costs from $10 to $15--that's 20 to 30 cents each, depending on the size of the diaper. And if you can't shop at discount big boxes like Target or Costco and instead have to rely on bodegas and chain drugstores, the prices are even higher. Given that even healthy newborns go through roughly 60 or more diapers a week, these critical conveniences become a major household expense.

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January 8, 2010