Featuring new videos from Vadoinmessico and High Places.

A startling revelation from that World-Renowned scholar,  J. Goldberg, Pt.Ld. This combination of state power and murderous, genocidal intent is nowhere on display in America today, not in the Obama administration (contrary to what some overheated right-wingers claim) and certainly not among out-of-power conservatives and “tea partiers.” Well, that’s a relief. And it’s best not [...]

Today is Cesar Chavez Day, honoring the birthday of the great Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers. President Obama designated today as Chavez day while meeting with the late UFW leader’s relatives.

I don’t think you needed to be Nostradamus to figure this out. Insurance regulations are the soft spot where industry lobbyists know how to navigate much better than anyone looking out for consumers, and insurers are launching their attack on reform in this area. Basing the entire reform on a regulatory regime inevitably exposed it to this kind of danger.

Welcome to part three of this series. I am writing about the process of bankruptcy from the inside for a couple of reasons. First, it is so mind numbing and overwhelming that I have to do something. Since I write, well, that is what I do to get things straight in my own head. The second reason is the more important one, the hope that having some record of this experience out there will help someone, anyone, who has to go through this process in the future. If you are interested in how Liz and I got here and what going and talking to the lawyers is like you can find those installments at the links below:

My Bankruptcy – An American Story 1
My Bankruptcy – An American Story 2

We’ve long known certain CIA assertions about Abu Zubaydah to be false. We’ve long known the CIA later admitted these assertions were wrong–as Abu Zubaydah himself revealed when he described his captors apologizing for claiming he was al Qaeda’s Number Three. Our entire torture regime is based on the same kind of lies and bad intelligence as was the Iraq War.

Not only is the French public united against the war, but Sarkozy’s entire government might well collapse because of this opposition. But we already knew this was the kind of pressure Sarkozy was under, because we read it in the CIA memo conveniently leaked just days before the French president arrived in the US.

It’s impossible to counter Schweitzer’s argument. Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that the Montana Governor was delivering the official Democratic radio address on this subject. The PhRMA deal in the Affordable Care Act has been universally recognized as ugly; just yesterday the AP credibly alleged that the drug lobby basically won out more than any other stakeholder. And even though Montana’s own Max Baucus can be credited with engineering the deal, Schweitzer continues to press for fair treatment for his constituents and a fair price for their medical care.

There’s actually what I think is a big scoop in this weird David Ignatius column on debates over whether we can target Anwar al-Awlaki. The scoop? The Yemeni government approached the US in October asking for help “targeting” al-Awlaki.

The rich won the class war. Now we find out if the Obama Administration will allow them to consolidate their victory and make it permanent.