The Deregulated Financial System

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 29th, 2010 @ 10:05:05 am , using 634 words
Category: Commentary

The economic circus one can witness with Goldman execs mumbling about whether they did anythng inappropriate in their gambling games is risible. But it pours forth certain facts about the details and derailings that have taken place in the last few years… more »

Red States, Blue States, Broke States

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 29th, 2010 @ 09:29:32 am , using 814 words
Category: Commentary

Gail Collins in today's NY Times goes to work on the weird scenes going down in states that seem to be swinging for their own fences.  States Rights! Weird all around out there. People continue to be unhappy about the Feds; I had to get out of that US wo… more »

Not Just the Party of No

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 28th, 2010 @ 03:37:29 pm , using 564 words
Category: Commentary

Dailykos lays out the argument against the Republican alternative. Definitely hits some major points... Today, Tim Kaine outlined the DNC's national message for 2010. He frames the election as a choice between "The Party of Results" and "The Part… more »

Bank Regulation Reform

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 26th, 2010 @ 07:04:13 pm , using 281 words
Category: Repetitions

With the first procedural vote on financial reform pending this afternoon, this survey has to be looming over Republicans. About two-thirds of Americans support stricter regulations on the way banks and other financial institutions conduct their busi… more »

Obama Gets His Mojo Back

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 23rd, 2010 @ 08:13:33 am , using 535 words
Category: Commentary

Eugene Robinson in today's WaPo puts the financial reform initiative into a reasonable perspective. Krugman in NY Times also puts in a good word, but cautions against making things easy for Wall Street. It could actually be a move that has some bi-partis… more »

What We Learned from Oklahoma City 4-19-95

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 19th, 2010 @ 08:37:50 am , using 546 words
Category: Commentary

Bill Clinton reminds us what happened in Oklahoma City fifteen years back. I remember the day vividly; my friend Rebecca Peterson and I were in Washington D.C. visiting the city's great museums along the Mall. Security was suddenly tight allover town and… more »

In Memoriam (W.D. Snodgrass) by Wayne Frank

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 18th, 2010 @ 10:12:04 am , using 154 words
Category: Poetry

                                                                    In Memoriam                                             (W.D. Snodgrass 1926-2009)   My friend has chosen how to die in Upstate New York under a winter sky with the snow fall… more »

Smearing the Moderate Obama

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 14th, 2010 @ 09:58:35 am , using 626 words
Category: Commentary

Norman Ornstein of American Enterprise Institute wonders where all this immoderate rage at Obama is actually coming from, ideologically. His WaPo article takes to task all this condemnation, and wonders how a centrist or a center/left administration gets… more »

Sedition, Militias, Constitutional Democracy

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 14th, 2010 @ 08:57:29 am , using 714 words
Category: Commentary

The following from Sara Robinson in Daily Kos (troutfishing's diary) about the xian militia's attempts to implicitly undermine the nation. The Hutaree (huh?) Militia in Michigan was caught plotting to kill off a few cops. And you name it is on the march:… more »

SOMETIMES IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS

Posted by: Steve Belasco
Published on April 12th, 2010 @ 04:48:54 pm , using 880 words
Category: Commentary

My favorite guarantee or warranty is the lifetime one. Sometimes they call it a guarantee. Sometimes they call it a warranty. What I have always wanted to know is: Whose life? I’ve had a variety of answers. Some of them were stupid. One salesman told me… more »

IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM IN COURT, BEAT 'EM WHERE YOU CAN

Posted by: Steve Belasco
Published on April 10th, 2010 @ 01:54:32 pm , using 1573 words
Category: Commentary

One product of the War on Poverty was the National Legal Services Corporation, a quasi-governmental agency charged with the distribution of funds to local legal aid programs. It was a monumental step toward leveling the legal playing field and made it po… more »

Moyers and Bacevich on Afghanistan and the American War Machine

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 10th, 2010 @ 04:40:26 am , using 1149 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

A conversation between Moyers and Andrew Bacevich about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. BILL MOYERS: And what do we do? President Obama himself has said that our strategy there is not ultimately a military victory per se, but to win the hearts and m… more »

Superman Velocities

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 4th, 2010 @ 09:24:35 am , using 476 words
Category: Commentary

Frank Rich in today's (Easter Sunday) NY Times looks at the shape-shifting Obama and comes up with all kinds of riddles unresolved and various views that come from the full spectrum of American political attitude. I especially appreciate his idea that th… more »

ML King's Vietnam Speech in Perspective

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 3rd, 2010 @ 09:34:13 am , using 427 words
Category: Commentary

I remember driving in LA that night of April of '67, listening to the powerful speech Dr. King gave about Vietnam and how he saw what it was doing to the US. A reminder of this speech has been on the air this week as Tavis Smiley does a retrospective on… more »

Mitt Romney's Pioneering Health Plan

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on April 1st, 2010 @ 08:52:19 am , using 266 words
Category: Commentary

Gail Collins (author of When Everything Changed) congratulates Mitt Romney on his pioneer work in Massachusetts which helped pave the way for the new health reform.  The new plan has vast similarities to the Romney plan and even Obama spoke of it on nati… more »