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One Year of Bankster Bailouts and Meltdown Madness
By John Nichols
Happy Meltdown Day
OK, not so "happy."
But this is the anniversary of the collapse of the house of cards that was Lehman Brothers.
(111) CommentsSeptember 14, 2009
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Sanders Calls for National Dialogue on Afghanistan Exit Strategy
By John Nichols
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has joined Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold is declaring that the United States needs to start thinking about how to extract its military from Afghanistan.
While almost 100 members of the House (including many conservative Republicans) have signed on to Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern's call for the development of an Afghanistan exit strategy, Feingold has been a relatively lonely Senate advocate for a rethink of the eight-year-old occupation.
At the annual "Fighting Bob Fest" gathering in Baraboo, Wisconsin, however, Sanders drew loud and sustained applause from the crowd of 8,000 when he said, "We need to take a very, very hard look at our war in Afghanistan. We need to be clear in our goals and we need a real discussion about an exit strategy to bring our troops home."
(43) CommentsSeptember 13, 2009
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Afghanistan Election Fraud and the High Price of Empire
By John Nichols
It is amusing, if remarkable, that there are still some players in Washington who try to maintain the fantasy that Afghan President Hamid Karzai governs with anything akin to legitimacy.
Karzai, an alleged oil industry fixer awarded control of his country by occupying powers, has always served with strings attached.
And the Afghan people have been quite aware of that fact.
(34) CommentsSeptember 9, 2009
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Obama Speaks Loudly But Carries a Small Stick
By John Nichols
President Obama spoke loudly but carried a small stick Wednesday night, when he outlined what's left of his healthcare reform agenda in a rare address to a joint session of the Congress.
Noting that "it has now been nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt first called for healthcare reform," the president told skeptical legislators from both sides of the political aisle. "I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last."
That was one of several takeaway lines of the night.
(196) CommentsSeptember 9, 2009
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Obama Goes Before Congress to "Dispel Myths, Silliness"
By John Nichols
When a president schedules an address to a joint session of the Congress, he essentially says: "OK, folks, this time it's for real."
The speech to the assembled members of the House and Senate, with all its pomp and circumstance, is a much bigger deal than a televised press conference or even one of those, seated-behind-the-desk, eyes-on-the-camera statements that presidents usually deliver after having ordered bombs dropped on some distant land or when they must apologize for an impeachable offense that might yet be talked around.
So Barack Obama has set himself a tall task this Wednesday night.
(45) CommentsSeptember 9, 2009
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Three Words Mr. President: "Medicare for All"
By John Nichols
As President Obama prepares to deliver a Wednesday address to Congress that must reframe the debate about healthcare reform, he is getting plenty of advice and counsel with regard to messaging.
Plenty of folks will tell the president that he cannot change course, that he simply needs to offer a better explanation of what's on offer.
Wrong.
(190) CommentsSeptember 8, 2009
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Van Jones Exit Isn't Right-Wing Win, It's an Obama Surrender
By John Nichols
The decision of Van Jones to resign as President Obama's "green jobs" czar is not a victory for Republicans who griped about the White House environmental aide's willingness to call them out on their extreme partisanship.
Nor was it a victory for right-wingnuts like Glenn Beck -- who waged a bitter campaign against Jones, highlighting his history of activism on behalf of environmental justice, racial reconciliation, global solidarity and an inquiry into events leading up to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
It was an unnecessary and unwise surrender by an Obama administration there is neither ready nor willing to fight "those who spin lies for profit" -- as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Ben Jealous described those who smeared Jones.
(304) CommentsSeptember 6, 2009
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Give States an Option to Lead on Single-Payer
By John Nichols
The goal of real reformers is clear: a "Medicare for all" single-payer national healthcare system.
Getting there could be a little tough this fall.
But America will get there.
(208) CommentsSeptember 4, 2009
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The Kennedy Seat: Vicki's a "No," But Maybe Joe
By John Nichols
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has scheduled the special election to fill the US Senate seat vacated by the death of Senator Edward Kennedy's seat.
The date is January 19, 2010, with primaries on December 8 of this year.
While Patrick has started the ridiculously slow election timetable, he is still angling to appoint a "temporary senator" to occupy the seat until late January.
(62) CommentsAugust 31, 2009
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Senator Vicki Kennedy?
By John Nichols
Ted Kennedy has been well remembered and buried.
Now, the question becomes, who will replace "the lion of the Senate" in the seat representing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Some of Kennedy's closest friends in the Senate have made a choice.
(50) CommentsAugust 30, 2009
John Nichols
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