Why would al-Qaeda go back to Pakistan

Clark Hoyt of the New York Times announced to the world that you can slap him around, call him a bitch, and he’ll still go make you a sandwich and blow you while you eat it.

Over the last eight years, David Swanson has been one of the most tenacious and effective activists against the transgressions of the Bush presidency. As Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign, Communications Coordinator for ACORN prior to that, a tireless anti-war activist for Democrats.com and, most notably of all, as the indefatigable spearhead behind the campaign to publicize the incriminating “Downing Street memos,” Swanson has been a living, breathing illustration of what vibrant citizen activism and independent, adversarial investigative journalism should be.

With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid now saying he thinks a trigger is a “pretty doggone good idea,” it is important to know what supporting a trigger says to the American people. To support the trigger idea you first need to already accept most of the arguments for a public option. You must believe that it could bring down costs, provide competition, and/or prevent unethical practices. If one simply doesn’t think a public option would be able to work one should oppose it in any configuration, including as a possible trigger.

Here I want to draw attention to the August winner of Hillman Foundation’s “The Sidney”, an investigative series by Ryan Gabrielson and Michelle Reese in the East Valley Tribune Newspaper, from metropolitan Phoenix, about taxpayer subsidized school tuition credit abuse in Arizona. One of the constant refrains emanating from the conservative right is “school choice” and, of course, their standard claim on tax policy. Both areas are nothing but flimsy fronts for class warfare and further unjust enrichment of the already privileged.

The Club for Growth/Teabagger approved candidate is the right-wing Marco Rubio, who got a boost from George Will today.

The capitalist system separates money from responsibility. That leads to an unrecognized systemic violence that is killing us. It isn’t clear how to fix it, but recognizing the problem, and thinking is a good start.

Prairie humanists take care of one another, but they stay of out of another’s way, too. Progressives often don’t connect with so-called conservative Americans because we fail to talk the language of caring for one another as free individuals.

From the people who brought you “Obama hates white people”…

The Blue Dogs don’t seem to be particularly proud of this letter. The signatures on the hard copy are illegible and we’ve only been able to decipher 39 of them. There are no names printed across the bottom of the signatures as there normally would be, and the text of the letter on the Blue Dog website doesn’t list the signatories.

If you can figure out the proud owner of the 40th signature and help them claim authorship of this piece of gibberish, let us know.