Well, Obama held up his end of the bargain and announced the recipients of his Nobel largesse. Your turn, Sarah.

Tags: Charities, Nobel Peace Prize, Obama, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, Tea Party Convention

It’s official. The Texas School Board is close to overtaking George W. Bush as the single most embarrassing thing about the state.
Even as a panel of educators laid out a vision Wednesday for national standards for public schools, the Texas school board was going in a different direction, holding hearings on changes to its social [...]

Tags: conservatives, Texas School Board, Wingnuttia

When we started the public option campaign, when we asked people to donate money, we made a pact with our community to see it through to the end. If we have to whip health care, if we have to run a campaign to enforce the pledge made by members of Congress to vote against a bill without a public option, we will.

But utimately, I think the current bill will collapse under the weight of its own inadequacies no matter what we do. And until I see signs that it has any realistic chance of passing in its present form, we’ll continue to devote our energies in places where we feel we can make a difference.

• Republicans bash Roe v. Wade all the time, so Roberts can STFU.
• Obama > Democrats in Congress > Republicans in Congress.
• Mmmm-mmm, taste that pork.
• Nice way for an “ally” to act, eh?
• Always nice to see Beck get played for a fool.

Tags: Early Morning Swim, Glenn Beck

Howard Zinn’s monumental book, A People’s History of the United States lifted the curtain on the traditional American narrative, revealing class struggles, dissent and the efforts of everyday Americans, people of color, women, day laborers, migrant workers to gain and live with the rights promised in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

In The People Speak, Zinn is joined by a group of talented actors and musicians in bringing these people’s stories to life. Morgan Freeman, Viggo Mortensen, Marisa Tomei, Sean Penn, Rosario Dawson, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, David Starthairn, Danny Glover, Kerry Washington, Benjamin Bratt, Sandra Oh, Jasmine Guy, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Pink, Eddie Vedder, John Legend, DMC, Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson are among the stars lending their voices to The People Speak, a documentary based on A People’s History of the United States and Voices of a People’s History of the United States, the companion volume of 200 primary sources, co-created with Anthony Arnove.

Tags: A People’s History of the United States, Abolition, Afghanistan, Anthony Arnove, Benjamin Bratt, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Moore, Chris Robinson, civil rights, Constitution, Danny Glover, David Strathairn, Day Laborers, Declaration of Independence, DMC, Don Cheadle, Draft Resistance, Eddie Vedder, Howard Zinn, Iraq, Jasmine Guy, John Legend, Kerry Washington, Malcolm X, Marisa Tomei, Matt Damon, Migrant Workers, Morgan Freeman, People of Color, Pink, Rich Robinson, Rosario Dawson, Sandra Oh, Sean Penn, Suffragist Movements, The People Speak, Unions Organizing, Viggo Mortensen, women

This is the deal Lindsey Graham thinks he can use to get the White House to abandon a civilian trial for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed: Republican support for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. According to the more sophisticated explanation/rationalization I’ve heard for accepting the deal, it’s not so much that Graham can really bring along Republicans as much as he can provide political cover for reticent Democrats to vote for what in 2008 was a bipartisan consensus position, endorsed by even George W. Bush and John McCain. This is the world we live in.

Tags: civil trial, George W. Bush, Greg Sargent, GTMO, Guantanamo, John Boehner, John McCain, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, KSM, Lindsey Graham, military commissions, Mitch McConnell, Rahm Emanuel

One has to wonder why VoteVets chose to use Dick Cheney-fabricated “intelllegence” in what is otherwise a good cause.

Tags: Bush, Dick Cheney, EFP, Iraq, Odierno, VoteVets

Ever wonder about why Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor? Or why they became imperial in the first place? It’s all here in The Imperial Cruise, and it all points to America’s own “Rough Rider,” Teddy Roosevelt.

Perhaps you thought “waterboarding” started in Iraq. It was really the Spanish-American War in 1898. Massacres in Vietnam? There was precedent here too. Photos in the book.

Tags: Beijing, Burt Cohen, China, Hawaii, Honolulu, James Bradley, Japan, Korea, Manila, Monroe Doctrine, secret agreements, Seoul, Teddy Roosevelt, The Imperial Cruise, The Philippines, Tokyo, waterboarding, William Howard Taft

The FDL Book Salon chats with Frank Schaeffer, author of Patience With God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism). Schaeffer critiques those who demand certainty — both religious and atheist thinkers — and instead invites people to consider a belief system rooted in wrestling with questions.

Tags: atheism, Crazy for God, FDL Book Salon, Frank Schaeffer, GOP, Orthodox church, Patience With God, Religion, Religious Right

During Wednesday’s health care address, President Obama said that the American people deserve a final up-or-down vote on health care reform. It is hard to believe Obama actually feels that way, however, because that is not what he is really advocating.

Tags: Barack Obama, filibuster, Harry Reid, Health care, health care reform, House of Representatives, HR 3962, Joe Biden, nuclear option, Reconciliation, Senate, up-or-down vote