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December 29, 2005
Monday, December 20, 2004
Monday's Links
Activism
Do you listen to the radio? Well, it's high time you started listening to Air America, one of the only political alternatives to Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, G. Gordon Liddy, Michael Savage, and the other vile conservative hosts out there. Go here to find the station nearest you, and if there isn't one in your area, try going here to listen to it streaming over the Internet. Air America needs your support to grow and remain a voice of opposition to the conservative radio monolith.
News
Michael Isikoff explains how a memo dated September 25, 2001, from Justice Department lawyer John Woo to then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, showed an unprecedented push towards giving more power to the president. Startlingly, the memo said the president could deploy military force "pre-emptively" against terror groups or entire countries that harbored them, "whether or not they can be linked to the specific terror incidents of Sept. 11." The president's decisions "are for him alone and are unreviewable," the memo said. You know, thirty years from now, we still won't know all of the behind-the-scenes political strong-arming that went into this war, and that's just sad.
F-D-Ayyyyy! The FDA is under fire for its mishandling of several drugs, including Vioxx and Celebrex. Senator Kennedy, of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee has called for "early action on bipartisan FDA reforms," and we can't say that we disagree. White House chief of staff Andrew Card, however, said that the FDA was doing a "spectacular" job. Of course, he said the exact same thing about Rumsfeld at the end of last week.
How Do We Know You're Not Gay? In what we can only hope is a ridiculous oversight, the Social Security Administration is denying all marriage documents from four communities that performed weddings for gay couples earlier this year, including heterosexual marriages. We'd love to tell you that this is an oversite, and that, at the very least, the heterosexual couples will get the benefits from the SSA they deserve (such as new cards for women who have taken their husbands' last names), but the SSA seems to be ducking reporters' calls.
Editorials
From Britain, a Message to Washington. In the constant struggle to keep our government to sinking to the same level as the terrorists, there has been one last line of defense: The judicial system. So far, the US, and now Britain, have issued rulings protecting our civil liberties, despite the wishes of those in power. Stories like this reinforce the importance of fighting to make sure that judicial nominees are not just rubber stamped by our Republican congress.
White America. BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawksley visits the town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A town more than 95% white, and overwhelmingly Christian. Supporters of the president in this town favor Bush's stances, particularity on abortion. One man said of him, "The president has been sovereignly decided by God to lead this country." However, when asked if they would support Bush if he weren't Christian, they responded with a "no." If this isn't a troubling sign of the state of our country, we don't know what is.
Show Me the Money. Why Michael Leavitt, soon-to-be Secretary of Health and Human Services, has a terribly huge job ahead of him, and probably won't have the money to do it.
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December 29, 2005
Monday, December 20, 2004
Monday's Links
Activism
Do you listen to the radio? Well, it's high time you started listening to Air America, one of the only political alternatives to Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, G. Gordon Liddy, Michael Savage, and the other vile conservative hosts out there. Go here to find the station nearest you, and if there isn't one in your area, try going here to listen to it streaming over the Internet. Air America needs your support to grow and remain a voice of opposition to the conservative radio monolith.
News
Michael Isikoff explains how a memo dated September 25, 2001, from Justice Department lawyer John Woo to then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, showed an unprecedented push towards giving more power to the president. Startlingly, the memo said the president could deploy military force "pre-emptively" against terror groups or entire countries that harbored them, "whether or not they can be linked to the specific terror incidents of Sept. 11." The president's decisions "are for him alone and are unreviewable," the memo said. You know, thirty years from now, we still won't know all of the behind-the-scenes political strong-arming that went into this war, and that's just sad.
F-D-Ayyyyy! The FDA is under fire for its mishandling of several drugs, including Vioxx and Celebrex. Senator Kennedy, of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee has called for "early action on bipartisan FDA reforms," and we can't say that we disagree. White House chief of staff Andrew Card, however, said that the FDA was doing a "spectacular" job. Of course, he said the exact same thing about Rumsfeld at the end of last week.
How Do We Know You're Not Gay? In what we can only hope is a ridiculous oversight, the Social Security Administration is denying all marriage documents from four communities that performed weddings for gay couples earlier this year, including heterosexual marriages. We'd love to tell you that this is an oversite, and that, at the very least, the heterosexual couples will get the benefits from the SSA they deserve (such as new cards for women who have taken their husbands' last names), but the SSA seems to be ducking reporters' calls.
Editorials
From Britain, a Message to Washington. In the constant struggle to keep our government to sinking to the same level as the terrorists, there has been one last line of defense: The judicial system. So far, the US, and now Britain, have issued rulings protecting our civil liberties, despite the wishes of those in power. Stories like this reinforce the importance of fighting to make sure that judicial nominees are not just rubber stamped by our Republican congress.
White America. BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawksley visits the town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A town more than 95% white, and overwhelmingly Christian. Supporters of the president in this town favor Bush's stances, particularity on abortion. One man said of him, "The president has been sovereignly decided by God to lead this country." However, when asked if they would support Bush if he weren't Christian, they responded with a "no." If this isn't a troubling sign of the state of our country, we don't know what is.
Show Me the Money. Why Michael Leavitt, soon-to-be Secretary of Health and Human Services, has a terribly huge job ahead of him, and probably won't have the money to do it.
|
December 29, 2005
Do you listen to the radio? Well, it's high time you started listening to Air America, one of the only political alternatives to Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, G. Gordon Liddy, Michael Savage, and the other vile conservative hosts out there. Go here to find the station nearest you, and if there isn't one in your area, try going here to listen to it streaming over the Internet. Air America needs your support to grow and remain a voice of opposition to the conservative radio monolith.
News
Michael Isikoff explains how a memo dated September 25, 2001, from Justice Department lawyer John Woo to then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, showed an unprecedented push towards giving more power to the president. Startlingly, the memo said the president could deploy military force "pre-emptively" against terror groups or entire countries that harbored them, "whether or not they can be linked to the specific terror incidents of Sept. 11." The president's decisions "are for him alone and are unreviewable," the memo said. You know, thirty years from now, we still won't know all of the behind-the-scenes political strong-arming that went into this war, and that's just sad.
F-D-Ayyyyy! The FDA is under fire for its mishandling of several drugs, including Vioxx and Celebrex. Senator Kennedy, of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee has called for "early action on bipartisan FDA reforms," and we can't say that we disagree. White House chief of staff Andrew Card, however, said that the FDA was doing a "spectacular" job. Of course, he said the exact same thing about Rumsfeld at the end of last week.
How Do We Know You're Not Gay? In what we can only hope is a ridiculous oversight, the Social Security Administration is denying all marriage documents from four communities that performed weddings for gay couples earlier this year, including heterosexual marriages. We'd love to tell you that this is an oversite, and that, at the very least, the heterosexual couples will get the benefits from the SSA they deserve (such as new cards for women who have taken their husbands' last names), but the SSA seems to be ducking reporters' calls.
Editorials
From Britain, a Message to Washington. In the constant struggle to keep our government to sinking to the same level as the terrorists, there has been one last line of defense: The judicial system. So far, the US, and now Britain, have issued rulings protecting our civil liberties, despite the wishes of those in power. Stories like this reinforce the importance of fighting to make sure that judicial nominees are not just rubber stamped by our Republican congress.
White America. BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawksley visits the town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A town more than 95% white, and overwhelmingly Christian. Supporters of the president in this town favor Bush's stances, particularity on abortion. One man said of him, "The president has been sovereignly decided by God to lead this country." However, when asked if they would support Bush if he weren't Christian, they responded with a "no." If this isn't a troubling sign of the state of our country, we don't know what is.
Show Me the Money. Why Michael Leavitt, soon-to-be Secretary of Health and Human Services, has a terribly huge job ahead of him, and probably won't have the money to do it.
