February 12, 2010 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
NBC’s chief Pentagon corresondent Jim Miklaszewski told MSNBC this morning that in his opinion military trials are “more reliable” in terms of the outcomes they produce. The comment was perhaps an unwelcome introduction of Constitutional questions into the debate over whether to try accused 9/11 terrorist conspirators in a civilian criminal court or before a military tribunal.
More on page 6026
January 23, 2010 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
The Republican party is jubilant about the victory of state Senator Scott Brown, in the race to take over the United States Senate seat held for nearly half a century by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA). And they should be jubilant. Kennedy was in many ways the de facto leader of the Democratic party for much of that time, and his untiring defense of liberal principles of social justice and economic fairness were a thorn in the side of Republicans throughout. But the odd thing is that suddenly, the Republicans are arguing that where goes Massachusetts, so goes the nation. Are they kidding?
More on page 5917
November 16, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
In a vile new low, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani has said he expects bringing the accused 9/11 mastermind to justice will directly cause new terror attacks on New York. Mr. Giuliani is now seeking to use the memory of 9/11 and the very real and lasting trauma felt by so many people, to [...]
More on page 5108
November 9, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
The progressive organizing group MoveOn.org has announced huge success in collecting funds to mount primary challenges to any Democratic senator who acts to block an up-or-down vote on healthcare reform. In just one week, their Health Reform Accountability Pledge campaign collected $3,578,117 in pledges.
The organization’s statement about the fundraising success reads:
That’s how much progressives [...]
More on page 5055
November 6, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 2 Comments
The radical fringe of the Republican party today gathered to hear Michelle Bachmann call for open rebellion against the government. Signs were held up in front of the US Capitol showing a Nazi mass grave and calling it “healthcare”. Other signs showed the president as an evil villain and calling for “hunting season” against moderate Republicans. The rally, which Rep. Bachmann called a “press conference”, is now being called the most visible admission the party is being taken over by a message of hate.
More on page 5017
October 23, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
John McCain, the Arizona Republican who ran against Barack Obama in last year’s presidential election, today introduced in the Senate the “Internet Freedom Act”, in a brazen bid to make the internet far less free for the average web surfer. The bill would bar the FCC from enacting regulations that would prevent internet service providers from interfering with users’ preferred content choices, penalizing small content producers and slowing the internet down broadly in order to collect fees for higher-speed services, which the providers would select.
More on page 4945
October 12, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Between 200,000 and 250,000 people are estimated to have gathered in Washington, DC, to demand action to ensure equal rights for homosexual Americans and other groups. The march was organized to demand full equal rights for same-sex couples and hate-crimes protection for homosexual victims. The rally came just after passage of historic hate-crimes legislation and a pledge from the president to end the military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
More on page 4854
October 5, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 2 Comments
Something seems very wrong with Max Baucus. The Democratic senator whose party placed him in the chairmanship of the Senate finance committee, charged by Pres. Obama with crafting legislation that could achieve the president’s stated goals, while bringing centrist Republicans on board, has become one of the chief proponents of the very arguments entrenched corporate-interest Republicans are making to try to kill the Democratic reforms.
More on page 4794
September 9, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Rep. Charles Boustany lied repeatedly in his official Republican response to Pres. Obama. The first major lie was his reiteration of the false claim that Obama is proposing a “government takeover” of healthcare that would “replace” healthcare American families already have. Not only has that never been proposed; Obama had just explained that the public option, if passed, would only apply to the uninsured.
More on page 4378
September 6, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
Today’s Cafe Sentido includes a lengthy write-up on the potential ills of Wall Street plans to bundle re-sold life-insurance policies into a new breed of financial product derivative, but the New York Times is also reporting on a range of new financial exotics that are tempting the deans of Wall Street’s major investment banks to again rig up a system of dubious investment choices, in the hopes of bringing in major fees and new revenues.
More on page 4310
September 4, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
In an interview with the McAlester News-Capital newspaper, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) —the senior senator from his state— strung together one lie after another, in an apparent effort to slander Pres. Obama and derail healthcare reform. There are no softer words for Inhofe’s incessant lies and fabrications. He has apparently pledged his time and energy to the hard labor of being an inveterate and unapologetic professional slanderer.
More on page 4279
August 16, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
“I think Governor Palin knew exactly what she was doing”, says Republican strategist Ed Gillespie about Palin’s lie that the Obama administration plans to institute “death panels” to euthanize the elderly, infirm or “no longer productive”. Gillespie told ABC’s ‘This Week’ that he views it as disappointing whenever anyone “from either party” makes misleading, false or manipulated statements.
More on page 4075
August 13, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
August 2009 —one year after the beginning of the visible collapse of the American financial sector set off a global recession— has brought the news that the largest US banks are taking in record revenues from small-account overdraft fees. Applying fees between $25 and $39 per overdraft, the nation’s largest banks are now taking in more revenue from overdraft fees than from their primary banking operations. The reliance on such fees to drive profits also suggests major US banks may not be sustainable in their current form.
More on page 3972
August 12, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
It is a mystery to many people why certain political fringe elements are so violently enraged by the idea of extending healthcare coverage to all Americans. Some individuals have made racist and degrading remarks about Pres. Obama and his administration; some suggest that there is “evil” behind efforts to expand healthcare coverage to those who don’t have it; some say things like “then there’s the illegals, they shouldn’t even be here!” shouting in anger.
More on page 3985
August 6, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
Companies that hope to impede the extension of care to more people or impede the improvement of care, even as costs come down, have no credibility in negotiating the fine points of reform, because they are rejecting the principle that caring for people’s health is about those people’s health, first and foremost. Doctors, patients and the government all share this particular interest, and groups diametrically opposed to that principle are more a problem than a solution. This is undisputed among those who view patient health as top priority.
More on page 3913
July 29, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Senators Hatch (R-UT) and Cornyn (R-TX) have positioned themselves in the camp of “purified” Republican ideology, with a vaguely explained no-vote against Sonia Sotomayor. Sen. Hatch, who has never, in his 33 years in the Senate, voted against a Supreme Court nominee did not explain what specifically he found so objectionable in Sotomayor’s extensive judicial record, but kept close to code-words that might tip conservatives as to his ideological stance. Cornyn also appeared to critics to be “posturing” as he voted no against a nominee whose credentials he acknowledged.
More on page 3839
July 15, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
A group of former Israeli soldiers is questioning the methods used in the Gaza offensive carried out by the IDF on orders from then outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert. The group interviewed veterans of the Gaza offensive and has reported that serious abuses occurred and need to be further investigated and prosecuted. One soldier reportedly described a “moral Twilight Zone” in which any Palestinian could be viewed as a threat.
More on page 3585
July 4, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Sarah Palin says she wants to save Alaska the injustice of watching its governor galavant around the country visiting fellow governors in a “politics as usual” lame-duck end to a first term. The “lame duck” problem arises, of course, only because she has chosen not to seek re-election. And a woman who professes to be presidential material is now stepping down after just two and a half years as governor of a state with population 686,293.
More on page 3420
June 26, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Michael Jackson was ‘the king of pop’, an informal title he acquired through the relentless echo chamber of American celebrity. He won this title by topping the charts from a young age, by having the “it” quality, by innovative body motions that changed dance, like the “moonwalk”, by way of record music sales, by way of conquering the video medium, by staging a massive global drive to fund food aid to Africa, by being odd enough to garner endless headlines, or because none of us really understand what it takes to rise to the top of the popular culture that elevated him and defamed him, or what it’s like to be there. So he was “king”, the way any royalty lives a life incomprehensible —for its opulence, its complications, its stresses— to the rest of society.
More on page 3252
June 19, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 4 Comments
This is not news, but it’s worth repeating: Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, has in the past suggested that the Republican challenge to Minnesota’s seating Al Franken as its junior senator could last for “years”. Coleman has challenged every single court ruling so far, despite losing every one of them and losing more ground in the vote-count with each examination of new votes. The last court to rule found that there was no evidence of any legitimate votes still uncounted, and ordered that Franken be certified the winner and Coleman pay court costs.
More on page 3117
June 8, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 3 Comments
By refusing to follow the court order mandating that election results be certified and Al Franken seated as the junior senator from Minnesota, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, has allowed the contest brought by a member of his own party to deprive his state of its second vote in the United States Senate since early January. Though a case is pending in the courts, the fact remains, Pawlenty is using his office to block the certification of results that would seat a member of the opposing party.
More on page 2937
May 26, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
In what promises to be one of the most controversial court rulings of the decade, the Supreme Court of the state of California found in favor of the supporters of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage by Constitutional amendment in the state. Kenneth Starr argued the case in favor of Prop. 8. The Court allows the 18,000 couples already married in legal California marriages prior to Prop. 8 to retain their married status.
More on page 2832
May 13, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
A former FBI interrogator today told the first Congressional hearing into “enhanced interrogation techniques” —an alleged regime of systematic torture— that waterboarding was slow, ineffective and unnecessary. He told the hearings, from behind a screen used to protect his identity, that after he had used non-abusive legal interrogation techniques to elicit useful information from Abu Zubaydah, CIA ‘contractors’ took over, waterboarded him, and the suspect “shut down” and refused to talk.
More on page 2702
May 7, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Numerous sources are reporting, across online and televised media, an internal Justice Department ethics probe, initiated under the Bush administration, finds that Department lawyers should be subjected only to Bar Association reprimands for advice justifying the use of torture in terror interrogations. It is also being reported that there was strong opposition from some officials to the use of harsh interrogations.
More on page 2610
May 6, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, was national security adviser to Pres. George W. Bush throughout his first term. She was there when decisions were made about how to change US counterterrorism policy, in the wake of the attacks of 11 September 2001, and during the planning for the global ‘war on terror’. She was asked last week by a university student, with video cameras rolling, whether she authorized torture. That set off a wave of such interrogations, to which Dr. Rice has responded nervously and erratically.
More on page 2611
May 4, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
The outbreak of a new strain of flu, influenza A H1N1, in April 2009, has set the gears of global public health policy in motion, with aggressive quarantine efforts in Hong Kong, a blanket culling of pigs in Egypt (despite zero human or swine cases), and a ‘Phase 5′ warning from the World Health Organization that the outbreak constituted an imminent pandemic threat. But now there are hints the H1N1 outbreak may be largely contained in North America.
More on page 2580
April 29, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 3 Comments
Democratic Senate candidate from Minnesota, Al Franken, declared the winner by a 3-judge panel after a series of recounts and election contests, has hired a chief of staff for his Washington office, should he be certified and seated. It had been reported Franken was hiring staff, even as his opponent, one-term senator Norm Coleman, mounts a new round of appeals in a quest to find more votes.
More on page 2431
April 20, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
The 24th and 25th banks to fail this year in the US, American Sterling Bank of Missouri and Great Basin Bank of Nevada, were closed Friday by the FDIC. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will fund their accounts to solvency and management of their insured deposits will be taken over by other banks.
More on page 2267
April 17, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 3 Comments
The race for the 2nd Minnesota Senate seat continues, fully 5 and a half months after election day. The state has been without a 2nd senator since 3 January 2009, over 3 months. Norm Coleman, the incumbent in the race, has lost all challenges to date, and has seen his narrow deficit widened, as more recount votes went to Al Franken, the Democratic candidate. Now, with some supporters calling for an unending court battle, pressure is mounting on Coleman to concede.
More on page 2235
April 15, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 5 Comments
After yet another recount, a Minnesota court has found that the total vote tally shows Democrat Al Franken winning the race for the US Senate seat, contested since November 2008. Then incumbent Norm Coleman, who said when he held an early lead, in November, that Franken should drop out for the sake of the people of his state, now intends a months-long court battle to ‘appeal’ the court’s finding.
More on page 2122
March 31, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
The White House gets tough with automakers and Wall Street ‘takes a dive’. At least that’s the news the CNBCs of the world are pushing. Every time something happens in the world and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) swells or declines, it was direct cause and effect. Nevermind the millions of people who may have milions of reasons to act one way or another and the countless permutations of those interests.
More on page 2035
March 27, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Pres. Barack Obama held a live online town hall meeting yesterday, which is reported to have attracted 3.5 million viewers and 100,000 participants. It was a landmark event in the developing media of interactive democracy in 21st century politics. It was an opportunity for the president to reach out directly to the public in order [...]
More on page 2023
February 25, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
The official Republican party response from Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal was surprising for a number of reasons, not least because he declared his party’s support for affordable universal healthcare coverage, something with very little history to back it up. He clearly sought to co-opt Obama’a can-do “era of responsibility” message. He even went as far as to suggest that somehow his vision might be more in line with the spirit of great historic achievements like the freeing of slaves than Obama’s, perhaps an ethical low in purely rhetorical flourishes.
More on page 1500
February 12, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
Israel wants to stop Hamas from smuggling weapons through black-market tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border. Yet the tunnels are maintained by the desperate demand for all sorts of goods and services not available to the residents of Gaza, due in large part to Israel’s crushing blockade of the territory. Israel should establish official avenues for the delivery of all fuel, foodstuffs, medicines and other goods and services Gaza needs to function normally, in order to remove the incentive for smugglers to build the black-market tunnels.
More on page 1339
January 8, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
Israel’s government has agreed in principle to the stated goals of the ceasefire agreement proposed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s diplomatic initiative, also backed by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The IDF also implemented yesterday and today a new policy of daily 3-hour ceasefires, to allow humanitarian operations to be implemented unthreatened by bombing or ground fire.
More on page 1067
January 4, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
Israel has launched a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory it formerly occupied and which is now under the control of the Hamas militant group’s political faction. Hamas seized control of Gaza in an armed coup against the ruling Fatah movement, which retains control of the West Bank. Israel’s ground assault, which includes columns of tanks and air support from helicopter gunships, comes after 8 days of airstrikes that targeted a number of top Hamas figures, and left over 430 Palestinians dead.
More on page 1017
December 29, 2008 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
International media are reporting that Israel’s government has declared “a closed military zone” in Israeli territory near the Gaza Strip, massing troops and moving in armored vehicles. The media have been removed from the area and there has been no official comment on the reasoning for the military ground operation.
More on page 991
December 28, 2008 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
Israeli airstrikes on targets in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 228 people, according to reports from the region. The United States has urged Israel to avoid causing civilian deaths, but has not called for an end to the strikes, and Hamas, the militant faction that controls the Gaza Strip, has said Israel has violated the terms of a truce agreement, and that it will act to defend the people of Gaza. The interior minister for the Hamas government of Gaza told the press that he wants foreign governments allied to Israel and throughout the Arab world, to speak out against the airstrikes and pressure Israel to halt them.
More on page 985
December 12, 2008 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
After the $14 billion bridge-loan legislation failed in the US Senate, the White House faced the prospect of a major economic tipping point, should one or two of the three big Detroit automakers go into bankruptcy. In order to prevent an auto-industry collapse from sending the US economy into free-fall, the US Treasury has announced it will use some of the $700 billion allocated for rescuing struggling US banks to make a “bridge loan” that will tide the automakers over at least until early 2009.
More on page 845
December 11, 2008 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
The United States House of Representatives has passed a bill to deliver bridge loans to the “big 3″ US automakers, in order to stave off bankruptcy and the potential loss of millions of jobs related to the industry. Stiff opposition to “sending good money after bad” had stalled the rescue loans, but November’s staggering job losses of 533,000 changed the mood in Washington, raising fears of a trigger event that could push the economy into depression.
More on page 831
December 6, 2008 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
The “Big 3″ automakers, based in Detroit, are, again, on the verge of collapse. There is much speculation about whether they should be or will be bailed out, whether they should enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and restructure, whether they will be allowed to “fail” and vanish from the marketplace altogether. No one seems to be discussing the main problem: they are too big, they are too expensive, they are obsessed with command-and-control processes, and their only sales policy seems to be planned obsolescence.
More on page 815
November 29, 2008 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
E pluribus unum: of the many, one. We often forget the meaning of this legacy. We often conveniently slip into ignorance about the aspirational nature of the American political system. American democracy was designed to be everything that feudal monarchies, whether they included parliamentary processes or not, could not be, or had refused to be. It was designed to be a system in which authority was distributed across as wide a swath of the social landscape as possible, in order that fewer people suffer injustice, and that no one suffer injustice without recourse.
More on page 804
CafeSentido Partner Sites: