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Why the Guardian is Wrong on Prop 14
The San Francisco Bay Guardian’s rationale for opposing of Proposition 14 in California is unpersuasive. As explained in previous posts, Proposition 14 would jettison partisan primaries in which candidates from
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In Spite of it All.
This summer we are seeing the age-old conflicts of American political life played out in the context of health care reform. The progressives steamroll forward, while conservatives attempt to erect any roadblock they can. Centrist factions emerge – here the Blue Dogs — seeking political gain
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Sunshine Is The Best Disinfectant
Devra Davis nearly died from taking a popular painkiller. She later discovered that previous lawsuits exposed that the manufacturer knew the drug could be lethal, but used judicially approved secret settlements to conceal the information from the public. Alarming? It should be. The story is not
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The Health Care Conundrum
“I think the American people are hungry for something different and can be mobilized around big changes, not incremental changes, not small changes.” Thus announced Senator Barack Obama in January 2008. Now, a year and half later, president Barack Obama is trying to deliver on his promise
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Getting Education Right, Right Now
Before he voluntarily resigned from the presidency, George Washington described for Thomas Jefferson his vision of a national university. He wanted a faculty consisting of luminaries of the Scottish Enlightenment, and to offer students the chance to sit in on congressional debates, “thereby becoming
Has The Blogosphere Failed Us?
For over forty years, three major news stations — ABC, CBS, and NBC — the Associated Press, and a few large newspapers were the primary means by which most Americans got their news and learned about political issues. During this period, there was little, if any, partisan-style debate by
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OutrAIGe
$85 billion on September 16, 2008. $38 billion on October 8, 2008. $27 billion in November. And $30 billion a few days ago. That’s what insurance-securities giant AIG has been able to coax out of our government over the past 6 months. A whopping $180 billion in total. It kinda makes
The SEC Fiddled While Rome Burned (Part 3 of 3)
Botching the Bernie Madoff Ponzi swindle and thus failing to prevent tens of billions in losses was pretty bad press for the SEC. But the more one looks into the agency’s conduct in the Bush years, the more missteps become apparent. Take Allied Capital, a D.C.-based finance firm that makes loans
Government According to Limbaugh
What is the proper role of government in our society? Ronald Reagan staked out the conservative position in his first inaugural on January 20, 1981 when he famously stated: “Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.” This is the view that takes government
Keeping Promises
David Sanger of the New York Times calls it “breathtaking.” Paul Krugman calls it “very, very good.” Frank
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