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December 29, 2005
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Tuesday's Links
Activism
John Kerry has created an online ad asking people to contact Senator Lincoln Chafee, head of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and urge him to block the nomination of John Bolton to the post of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. In order to effectively run the ad, Kerry needs your donations and support. Go here to see the ad and donate. We need to use every available weapon in our arsenal to stop Bolton from being pushed through and then rubber-stamped. Diplomacy is important, gosh darn it!
News
China Modernizes Weapons. China's military advancements, which might be trouble for U.S. ships in the Pacific, have Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice and Goss concerned. China has been slowly but surely increasing their military to be more compact but far stronger than it has been. You know, if Bush's idea of diplomacy wasn't to stick a gun in another country's face, we'd have more hope that peaceful relations could be maintained. Instead, we fear that this administration will see it as provocation, and act with the blind stupidity that led us to the War in Iraq and the Terri Schiavo bill. We certainly don't have the right to tell China what they can and can't do. We can, however, learn to live with them.
When Is a Bill Not a Bill? When it starts out as a military appropriation for Iraq, and ends up having every Senator's pet projects added to it. Mineral rights for Mississippi, road reconstruction in California, and even the new stadium for Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals are all projects that got tagged onto the bill, because the bill is a "must pass." Democrats and Republicans alike are at fault, and we just wonder why Senators think this is acceptible. We sure don't.
Gov. Dean Announces Half Million Dollar Investment in State Parties. We haven't heard a lot from Dean recently, but you know what? That's fine with us, as long as he's doing important work behind the scenes. This little news post is just to reassure you that Dean does seem to be building the party back up from the ground. Investing in state parties, in every single state, is a great start, and we hope he continues to execute his plan for Democrats to compete in every race in every state.
Editorials
A Culture of Death, Not Life. The right thrive on it. In the thirst to portray themselves as the Culture of Life, the right have done an excellent job of portraying a Culture of Death in the media. So says Frank Rich, and he's dead on, pardon the pun. From Fox News spending three days "prepping" for the Pope's death to the entirety of Terri Schiavo nonsense, conservative media outlets have been using this Culture of Death to proselytize the right's view of the "sanctity of life." It's not just television, though...movies, print media, even publishing have all been affected. We don't know any cure for this problems, except to hope that media outlets cut it out. Of course they won't, so we bet we're stuck with this trend until...well, until the new right-wing catchphrase takes hold.
Fix Health Care First. David S. Broder writes about what no sitting President or Presidential hopeful wants to hear - the health care crisis (which actually is a looming crisis). When compared to the fictional "crisis" of Social Security, there's no question as to which is more vital to the long-term stability of our country. Broder interviews writers David Baker and David Rosnick, from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who have recently written a book about the "phony crisis," as they call it. Baker and Rosnick write, "Politicians and commentators who claim to be concerned about the living standards of future generations of workers seem to be misdirecting their energy by focusing on the comparatively minor problem of Social Security. Clearly the inefficiency of the U.S. health care system poses a far larger and more immediate danger to the [living] standards of our children and grandchildren." Now, why can't we get this administration to acknowledge and do something about health care reform?
End This African Horror Story. Quick, before you click on this article, name three hot spots on the planet. Got them? Chances are you thought of Iraq, North Korea and Darfur. Chances are Uganda hasn't crossed your mind. Chances are you've never heard of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Chances are you didn't even know Uganda is plagued by a war that has lasted for 18 years. Uganda isn't a "sexy" story, and so it doesn't get MSM press. Sure, maybe the occasional story (like the John Prendergast editorial linked above), but nothing to draw major attention to this country. The head of the LRA, Joseph Kony, is an Old Testament zealot who would make James Dobson seem liberal. Yet the MSM doesn't cover Uganda (in fact, the Washington Post online's "Uganda" section has only two articles this year, both indirect, and doesn't have a news article relating to Uganda posted since September 2, 2001). The International Criminal Court is just now starting to examine Kony's actions, but the situation is dicey. Read this editorial, and wonder how a story like this could go untold for so long.
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December 29, 2005
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Tuesday's Links
Activism
John Kerry has created an online ad asking people to contact Senator Lincoln Chafee, head of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and urge him to block the nomination of John Bolton to the post of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. In order to effectively run the ad, Kerry needs your donations and support. Go here to see the ad and donate. We need to use every available weapon in our arsenal to stop Bolton from being pushed through and then rubber-stamped. Diplomacy is important, gosh darn it!
News
China Modernizes Weapons. China's military advancements, which might be trouble for U.S. ships in the Pacific, have Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice and Goss concerned. China has been slowly but surely increasing their military to be more compact but far stronger than it has been. You know, if Bush's idea of diplomacy wasn't to stick a gun in another country's face, we'd have more hope that peaceful relations could be maintained. Instead, we fear that this administration will see it as provocation, and act with the blind stupidity that led us to the War in Iraq and the Terri Schiavo bill. We certainly don't have the right to tell China what they can and can't do. We can, however, learn to live with them.
When Is a Bill Not a Bill? When it starts out as a military appropriation for Iraq, and ends up having every Senator's pet projects added to it. Mineral rights for Mississippi, road reconstruction in California, and even the new stadium for Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals are all projects that got tagged onto the bill, because the bill is a "must pass." Democrats and Republicans alike are at fault, and we just wonder why Senators think this is acceptible. We sure don't.
Gov. Dean Announces Half Million Dollar Investment in State Parties. We haven't heard a lot from Dean recently, but you know what? That's fine with us, as long as he's doing important work behind the scenes. This little news post is just to reassure you that Dean does seem to be building the party back up from the ground. Investing in state parties, in every single state, is a great start, and we hope he continues to execute his plan for Democrats to compete in every race in every state.
Editorials
A Culture of Death, Not Life. The right thrive on it. In the thirst to portray themselves as the Culture of Life, the right have done an excellent job of portraying a Culture of Death in the media. So says Frank Rich, and he's dead on, pardon the pun. From Fox News spending three days "prepping" for the Pope's death to the entirety of Terri Schiavo nonsense, conservative media outlets have been using this Culture of Death to proselytize the right's view of the "sanctity of life." It's not just television, though...movies, print media, even publishing have all been affected. We don't know any cure for this problems, except to hope that media outlets cut it out. Of course they won't, so we bet we're stuck with this trend until...well, until the new right-wing catchphrase takes hold.
Fix Health Care First. David S. Broder writes about what no sitting President or Presidential hopeful wants to hear - the health care crisis (which actually is a looming crisis). When compared to the fictional "crisis" of Social Security, there's no question as to which is more vital to the long-term stability of our country. Broder interviews writers David Baker and David Rosnick, from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who have recently written a book about the "phony crisis," as they call it. Baker and Rosnick write, "Politicians and commentators who claim to be concerned about the living standards of future generations of workers seem to be misdirecting their energy by focusing on the comparatively minor problem of Social Security. Clearly the inefficiency of the U.S. health care system poses a far larger and more immediate danger to the [living] standards of our children and grandchildren." Now, why can't we get this administration to acknowledge and do something about health care reform?
End This African Horror Story. Quick, before you click on this article, name three hot spots on the planet. Got them? Chances are you thought of Iraq, North Korea and Darfur. Chances are Uganda hasn't crossed your mind. Chances are you've never heard of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Chances are you didn't even know Uganda is plagued by a war that has lasted for 18 years. Uganda isn't a "sexy" story, and so it doesn't get MSM press. Sure, maybe the occasional story (like the John Prendergast editorial linked above), but nothing to draw major attention to this country. The head of the LRA, Joseph Kony, is an Old Testament zealot who would make James Dobson seem liberal. Yet the MSM doesn't cover Uganda (in fact, the Washington Post online's "Uganda" section has only two articles this year, both indirect, and doesn't have a news article relating to Uganda posted since September 2, 2001). The International Criminal Court is just now starting to examine Kony's actions, but the situation is dicey. Read this editorial, and wonder how a story like this could go untold for so long.
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December 29, 2005
John Kerry has created an online ad asking people to contact Senator Lincoln Chafee, head of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and urge him to block the nomination of John Bolton to the post of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. In order to effectively run the ad, Kerry needs your donations and support. Go here to see the ad and donate. We need to use every available weapon in our arsenal to stop Bolton from being pushed through and then rubber-stamped. Diplomacy is important, gosh darn it!
News
China Modernizes Weapons. China's military advancements, which might be trouble for U.S. ships in the Pacific, have Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice and Goss concerned. China has been slowly but surely increasing their military to be more compact but far stronger than it has been. You know, if Bush's idea of diplomacy wasn't to stick a gun in another country's face, we'd have more hope that peaceful relations could be maintained. Instead, we fear that this administration will see it as provocation, and act with the blind stupidity that led us to the War in Iraq and the Terri Schiavo bill. We certainly don't have the right to tell China what they can and can't do. We can, however, learn to live with them.
When Is a Bill Not a Bill? When it starts out as a military appropriation for Iraq, and ends up having every Senator's pet projects added to it. Mineral rights for Mississippi, road reconstruction in California, and even the new stadium for Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals are all projects that got tagged onto the bill, because the bill is a "must pass." Democrats and Republicans alike are at fault, and we just wonder why Senators think this is acceptible. We sure don't.
Gov. Dean Announces Half Million Dollar Investment in State Parties. We haven't heard a lot from Dean recently, but you know what? That's fine with us, as long as he's doing important work behind the scenes. This little news post is just to reassure you that Dean does seem to be building the party back up from the ground. Investing in state parties, in every single state, is a great start, and we hope he continues to execute his plan for Democrats to compete in every race in every state.
Editorials
A Culture of Death, Not Life. The right thrive on it. In the thirst to portray themselves as the Culture of Life, the right have done an excellent job of portraying a Culture of Death in the media. So says Frank Rich, and he's dead on, pardon the pun. From Fox News spending three days "prepping" for the Pope's death to the entirety of Terri Schiavo nonsense, conservative media outlets have been using this Culture of Death to proselytize the right's view of the "sanctity of life." It's not just television, though...movies, print media, even publishing have all been affected. We don't know any cure for this problems, except to hope that media outlets cut it out. Of course they won't, so we bet we're stuck with this trend until...well, until the new right-wing catchphrase takes hold.
Fix Health Care First. David S. Broder writes about what no sitting President or Presidential hopeful wants to hear - the health care crisis (which actually is a looming crisis). When compared to the fictional "crisis" of Social Security, there's no question as to which is more vital to the long-term stability of our country. Broder interviews writers David Baker and David Rosnick, from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who have recently written a book about the "phony crisis," as they call it. Baker and Rosnick write, "Politicians and commentators who claim to be concerned about the living standards of future generations of workers seem to be misdirecting their energy by focusing on the comparatively minor problem of Social Security. Clearly the inefficiency of the U.S. health care system poses a far larger and more immediate danger to the [living] standards of our children and grandchildren." Now, why can't we get this administration to acknowledge and do something about health care reform?
End This African Horror Story. Quick, before you click on this article, name three hot spots on the planet. Got them? Chances are you thought of Iraq, North Korea and Darfur. Chances are Uganda hasn't crossed your mind. Chances are you've never heard of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Chances are you didn't even know Uganda is plagued by a war that has lasted for 18 years. Uganda isn't a "sexy" story, and so it doesn't get MSM press. Sure, maybe the occasional story (like the John Prendergast editorial linked above), but nothing to draw major attention to this country. The head of the LRA, Joseph Kony, is an Old Testament zealot who would make James Dobson seem liberal. Yet the MSM doesn't cover Uganda (in fact, the Washington Post online's "Uganda" section has only two articles this year, both indirect, and doesn't have a news article relating to Uganda posted since September 2, 2001). The International Criminal Court is just now starting to examine Kony's actions, but the situation is dicey. Read this editorial, and wonder how a story like this could go untold for so long.
