LaVena Johnson was found dead on a military base in Balad, Iraq, in a tent belonging to military contractor KBR, a spinoff and former subsidiary of Halliburton.
Republicans Now Led by a Black Man
January 30, 2009 By
Michael Steele has been selected to lead the Republican Party. He is the first African-American to chair the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the second African-American to chair either of the two major party’s National Committee after Ron Brown, who chaired the Democratic National Committee. Michael Steele was the first black to serve in a [...]
Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
January 30, 2009 By
“Men…think in herds; …go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses…one by one.” — Charles MackayRepublican Assemblyman Roger Niello‘s recent editorial “Performance Based Budgeting Deserves a Look,” is his bid to appear as a man who has recovered his senses. In it, he reminds us that California’s state budget process is imperfect. The [...]
Opera/Hopera: “The Magic Flute”/”Street Cred 101”
January 30, 2009 By
Opera. Hopera. The Los Angeles Opera Company at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion presents Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” Italian-American tenor and musical genius Placido Domingo is the General Manager. Russian, Swedish, German, Canadian, English, Austrian, Korean and American artists, who are tenors, sopranos, baritones and bass, populate the roster. A full symphony orchestra occupies the pit [...]
Single Payer Moment HR 676
January 30, 2009 By
While a Democratic polling firm has just found, as pollsters always do, dramatic public support for public health coverage, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill appear divided, as they have always been, over whether to take a comprehensive approach to health care. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on C-Span on Sunday that incrementalism would [...]
Can Obama Bring the Audacity of Hope to the Middle East?
January 30, 2009 By
On August 1, 2007, at the start of his campaign for President, Barack Obama made a speech to the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC where he laid out his plans for transforming American foreign policy to the Muslim world. “We are not at war with Islam… [and] we will stand with those who are [...]
Friday Feedback: Contracting More Debt and Artificially Preventing Deflation Cannot But Prolong and Worsen the Problem
January 30, 2009 By
Every Friday the LA Progressive features a comment that was particularly noteworthy. This week we are featuring a comment submitted by Ivan as part of the many response to Robert Reich‘s “The Stimulus: How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled Professionals and White Male Construction Workers.” Ivan writes: “The two interlinked problems [...]
Governor’s Mental Health Proposal Would Cause Irreparable Harm to Clients and Communities
January 30, 2009 By
A broad coalition of mental health advocates Tuesday blasted Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal to permanently reverse parts of the state’s landmark Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), saying the plan would harm the more than 600,000 individuals who rely on public mental health services, exacerbate the cash crunch counties face during this economic downturn, and seriously set [...]
Obama’s First Week in Office: The Nonsense Has Started Already
January 29, 2009 By
President Barack Obama’s first week in office was certainly filled with only the highest of expectation, given the eight years of Republican elephant poo-poo that was left on the White House floor for him. That’s a lot of poo-poo: Over 180,000 more jobs lost in January (60,000 in a single day during his first week [...]
Will Obama’s New “Organizing for America” Succeed?
January 29, 2009 By
After Barack Obama’s presidential campaign built the organizing skills of thousands of young activists, many hoped that his organization would spawn a new entity to keep many of these folks working full time for change. The Obama campaign was the best incubator for activists since the UFW of the 1960s and 70s, and created a [...]
President Obama Signs His First Act
January 29, 2009 By
President Barack Obama signed his first act into law on January 29, 2009. The act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, reverses a 2007 Supreme Court decision which held that employers are protected from lawsuits over race or gender pay discrimination if the claims are based on decisions made by the employer 180 days ago [...]
Why We Need Stronger Unions, and How to Get Them
January 29, 2009 By
Why is this recession so deep, and what can be done to reverse it? Hint: Go back about 50 years, when America’s middle class was expanding and the economy was soaring. Paychecks were big enough to allow us to buy all the goods and services we produced. It was a virtuous circle. Good pay meant [...]
Retro-Hooverites All
January 28, 2009 By
We’re lucky the Democrats have large majorities in Congress because every Republican member of the House of Representatives voted against the $825 billion stimulus bill today. The vote was 244 to 188, with 11 like-minded Democrats joining in the betrayal. Even a face-to-face meeting with the President on Capitol Hill failed to sway any of [...]
Prosecute George W. Bush for Illegal Acts
January 28, 2009 By
The Obama administration is reluctant to turn over too many rocks in the Bush administration’s conduct in the War on Terror. Obama has pledged to reach a post-partisan nirvana, and Republicans could condemn any investigation of Bush administration abuse of the republic as a partisan witch-hunt. Also, the Obama administration has a conflict of interest [...]
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