Archive for February, 2009
Keeping Promises
Saturday, February 28th, 2009Below is the text from today’s weekly address that Obama gives to America. It is a very impressive and ambitious statement. This is the Obama we need to help us reclaim America from the “special interests and lobbyists” that we all despise so much. While we don’t completely agree with everything he says, let’s keep [...]
“Climate of Change” – Krugman on the Budget
Saturday, February 28th, 2009By Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Elections have consequences. President Obama’s new budget represents a huge break, not just with the policies of the past eight years, but with policy trends over the past 30 years. If he can get anything like the plan he announced on Thursday through Congress, he will set America on [...]
The “Obama Tracker”
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009I found a useful tool via the dailykos earlier today, NPR’s Obama Tracker. It displays newsworthy announcements and actions taken by Obama’s whitehouse, arranged by day, with links to full articles.
Check it out at http://www.npr.org/news/specials/2009/obamatracker/
Ten Things You Don’t Know About Rhode Island – A Discussion with Tom Sgouros
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Thursday, March 5th, 7 – 9 PM
Rochambeau Public Library
708 Hope Street
Providence, RI 02906
Have you noticed there is very little disagreement about the state budget among state lawmakers? The Governor and the legislature agree that taxes are too high, services too generous, and cities and towns too demanding. But have you also wondered why, if everyone [...]
Thursday, February 26th @ 3:30pm – March and Rally at the State House
Saturday, February 21st, 2009The Governor and the General Assembly must face the facts. Their tax and budget priorities have left the state’s economy in a mess, have burdened the middle class with a crushing property tax burden, and have hurt the elderly and our children. For the past 15 years our politicians have given tax breaks [...]
Looting Social Security
Saturday, February 14th, 2009By William Greider, The Nation.
Governing elites in Washington and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever “grand bargain” they want President Obama to embrace in the name of “fiscal responsibility.” The government, they argue, having spent billions on bailing out the banks, can recover its costs by looting the Social Security system. They are also [...]
The Destructive Center
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009By Paul Krugman, NY Times
What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses?
A proud centrist. For that is what the senators who ended up calling the tune on the stimulus bill just accomplished.
Even if the original Obama plan — around $800 billion in stimulus, with a substantial fraction of that total given over to ineffective tax cuts — had been enacted, it wouldn’t have been enough to fill the looming hole in the U.S. economy, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will amount to $2.9 trillion over the next three years.
Way Back in 2001…
Monday, February 9th, 2009Remember When: Congress Passes $1.4 Trillion Economic Package
By Jon Perr Saturday Feb 07, 2009 5:00am, originally posted at CrooksandLiars
As President Obama finally starts to fight for his economic stimulus bill, roadblock Republicans in the Senate continue to decry the price tag. While John Thune (R-SD) described how many times $1 trillion worth of $100 bills [...]
The Big, Bad Joke of Healthcare Reform
Saturday, February 7th, 2009By Donna Smith, Common Dreams.com
The healthcare reform effort underway in Washington, DC, sounds a lot like a really bad annual benefits meeting to me. Healthcare policy discussions and formal hearings are not filled with the sounds of crafting policies to guarantee what candidate Barack Obama termed a human right. Formal discussions center instead around all [...]
Arming Campus Security in RI Under Consideration
Friday, February 6th, 2009The Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education (RIBGHE) is considering arming the campus security for RIC, URI, and CCRI. The first public hearing, held at RIC on Wednesday, February 4th, received light attention despite excessive fliers taped around campus declaring, “First the RIBGHE raises your tuition, now they want to arm campus security [...]
How to Rescue the Bank Bailout
Monday, February 2nd, 2009By Joseph E. Stiglitz, CNN.com
We gave the banks hundreds of billions to start lending again, and instead they’re just hoarding the cash, waiting until things settle down.
America’s recession is moving into its second year, with the situation only worsening.
The hope that President Obama will be able to get us out of the mess is tempered [...]
Iraq’s Shocking Human Toll
Monday, February 2nd, 2009About 1 Million Killed, 4.5 Million Displaced, 1-2 Million Widows, 5 Million Orphans
By John Tirman, The Nation. Posted February 2, 2009.
We are now able to estimate the number of Iraqis who have died in the war instigated by the Bush administration. Looking at the empirical evidence of Bush’s war legacy will put his claims of [...]
Health Experts Back Funding for STD/HIV Prevention
Sunday, February 1st, 2009By HIVMA Chair Arlene Bardeguez, MD, MPH, posted at IDSA on January 30, 2009.
Funding for screening and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has come under attack from some members of Congress. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the HIV Medicine Association of IDSA (HIVMA) [...]
Doing the Recovery Right
Sunday, February 1st, 2009By Robert Pollin, The Nation
For most of the past generation, the aims of environmental sustainability and social justice were seen as equally worthy, yet painfully and unavoidably in conflict. Tree huggers and spotted owls were pitted against loggers and hard hats. Fighting global warming was held to inevitably worsen global poverty and vice versa. Indeed, [...]