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| In the News Recent Blog Posts The Most Outrageous Scandal? Bush's Iraq Policy As posted on The Huffington Post With so much attention focused on the Foley scandal, there's another story that hasn't received enough notice: escalating violence in Iraq has resulted in the reported deaths of 24 U.S. soldiers since Saturday, and the Pentagon just reported that IED attacks in Iraq are at an all-time high. Helping People Make it Home Again, a Year after Katrina As posted on The Huffington Post With the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina coming up tomorrow, as so many Americans remember the horrifying images of the disaster, the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will be dealing with reality they face today - that in a lot of neighborhoods it looks like a hurricane hit a week ago, not a year ago. Universal Health Care Within Reach As posted on TomPaine.com When it comes to health care, people’s frustration with Congress is high, and it’s justified. While Congress has been wasting its time by trying to ban marriage equality and flag burning, health care reform has been completely sidelined. Meanwhile, families are going into bankruptcy to pay their health care bills, businesses are sinking under the weight of enormous health care costs, and millions of Americans are going without care—and in some cases dying—because they are uninsured. Congress may see waiting as an option, but the American people certainly don’t. The Administration's Defense for Illegal Wiretapping is Just Plain Gone As posted on Daily Kos and Booman Tribune With the Administration doing so much to weaken our system of checks and balances, a lot of Americans were heartened to see the third branch of government - the judiciary - stand up to the Administration with the decision in the Hamdan case a few weeks ago. The Supreme Court made it crystal clear that all detainees have basic rights under U.S. and international law, and that the Administration has to scrap its plan to try some detainees held at Guantanamo Bay in military commissions that lacked basic safeguards of fairness. Our Duty to the People of the Gulf Coast As posted on The Huffington Post After Banda Aceh in Indonesia was devastated by a horrific tsunami in 2004, the people there faced the challenge of rebuilding and restarting their lives. That is the same challenge that people on the Gulf Coast are facing today. I visited Banda Aceh earlier this year on a trip to Indonesia, and earlier this week I visited some of the neighborhoods ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. I was struck by what the people in Banda Aceh and New Orleans had in common, both because of what they went through, and because of the incredible resilience they have shown in the wake of those tragedies. But I was just as struck by how those places differed - especially how, in many ways, New Orleans seemed worse off than Banda Aceh did a year after the disaster. Blocking the Back-Door Pay Raise As posted on Daily Kos Something I didn't get a chance to mention on Meet the Press on Sunday is the back door pay raise for members of Congress. It may not be the biggest issue facing us as a nation, but it's something that's always bugged me, and it may come up in the Senate soon. This issue is symbolic to me of how out of touch and insulated some elected officials in Washington are from the problems that regular Americans face. A Shameful Political Ploy As posted on Daily Kos The federal marriage amendment, which would write discrimination into the Constitution, is an obvious attempt to change the subject from topics that the Congress should be addressing to a hot button social issue intended to appeal to certain factions. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Frist plans to hold a vote on this mean-spirited proposal. It has no chance of receiving the two-thirds majority required for constitutional amendments. The only thing bringing it up now will accomplish is to push Congress further away from the issues it should be addressing and engage the Senate of the United States in a shameful political ploy. Censuring the President As posted on Daily Kos Like all Americans, I woke up on the morning of September 11th, 2001 as though it was simply another day. The horrific events that unfolded made it anything but, and our lives were changed forever. In the days after 9/11, I was proud to stand with the President in strong support of the authorization to use force against those who attacked us. During those days our President showed great leadership. Politics were put aside, the country pulled together and for a brief time we were united. In the four-plus years since, everything changed. The President exploited the climate of anxiety, misusing the trust he was given in the wake of the attacks on 9/11 to, among other things, grab intrusive powers in the Patriot Act, and take us into a war in Iraq that has been a diversion from the critical fight against terrorism. Pre-1776 Mentality As posted on Daily Kos I've seen some strange things in my life, but I cannot describe the feeling I had, sitting on the House floor during Tuesday's State of the Union speech, listening to the President assert that his executive power is, basically, absolute, and watching several members of Congress stand up and cheer him on. It was surreal and disrespectful to our system of government and to the oath that as elected officials we have all sworn to uphold. Cheering? Clapping? Applause? All for violating the law? Iraq: Looking Back, Looking Forward As posted on Daily Kos On Veteran's Day, the President gave yet another speech trying to defend his Iraq policy. He uttered over 5800 words, but not once did he provide the American people any timeframe for our military mission in Iraq or any sense that he has a plan for bringing that mission to a successful end. Instead, he used the same platitudes and empty rhetoric that the American people have already made clear they don't buy. Rather than putting his efforts into a major media spin operation, the President should concentrate on getting our Iraq policy straight, and putting our nation's national security on track. |
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