The fight over health care reform has proven just how broken our system is -- from the crippling influence of money on our politics to the misuse of the filibuster, which has taken away the power of the duly elected majority and given it to a handful of bought-and-paid-for senators. This disturbing and destructive state of affairs has created a country that is, in the words of Tom Friedman, "only able to produce 'suboptimal' responses to its biggest problems." And that's where we find ourselves on health care as we head towards the legislative end game. The big optimal solutions have all been gutted -- and we are left to pick through the patchwork of suboptimal ones. Here are the things that absolutely have to be included in any health care bill for it to deliver reform in more than name only.
I saw the best of America at a free volunteer health clinic this week. But there is a heartless side to our country as well, demonstrated by U.S. Senators putting money before those who elected them.
From the start, opponents of the public option have wanted to portray it as big government preying upon the market, and private insurers as the embodiment of the market. But it's just the reverse.
The United States is the third largest stockpiler of land mines in the world, behind China and Russia. Like those two countries, we have refused to sign an agreement banning the manufacture, stockpiling and use of land mines.
Orly Taitz, a leading Birther spokesperson, said today that she had in her possession a birth certificate for Mr. Obama that was issued in Tel Aviv.
Here are some songs that will go down easy for just about anybody along with a few latkes and an extra serving of holiday spirit.
When looked at from below, rather than from the "great man" perspective, history shows that whenever change has happened, it has been through protest, dissent, and defiance from ordinary people who are struggling.
From the story of Chanukah, we see how not to fight a guerrilla insurgency. From the Maccabees, we learn how to rally a people and a nation. Here are Chanukah's five geopolitical lessons.
A sitting president returns with a Nobel Peace Prize, health care advancing quickly, climate change, as escalation in U.S. treasure abroad. Yet on the radio, it was all Tiger, all the time.
The truth is that what we've been calling health reform doesn't really "reform" the system at all. It merely shifts responsibility from one part of the economy to the other.
We should candidly look at whether Mike Huckabee is getting a raw deal for granting clemency to the man who murdered four Lakewood, Washington cops this Thanksgiving weekend.
If the proposals of the "audit the Fed" crowd" are implemented, the U.S. economy will be crippled to the point of economic deadlock.
All the good things announced in Tuesday night's compromise are under vicious assault by the health industry lobbies, and the bad things still might get negotiated for the better in conference.
Over the years of promoting Broken Lizard's films, I've participated in many eyebrow raising PR events. But this week we experienced a uniquely memorable angle as we pimped the opening of The Slammin' Salmon.
The "public option" provision to be traded off was perhaps the only place in the bill where the rights and interests of the 'public' are publicly recognized.
Bernanke has been called "the definition of moral hazard" because if he is confirmed, it will send a message to all other federal regulators that they can fall down on the job and still get promoted.
Last year, enough food was produced on our planet to feed humanity nearly twice over. So how is it that 30 children will die of hunger or a related cause by the time you finish reading this column?
There is a misplaced assumption that because African-Americans are more likely to be unemployed or poor, the policies designed to create jobs will benefit them evenly or in proportion to their disadvantage.
Powerful elements in Pakistan will continue to support the Pashtun insurgency in Afghanistan no matter what Islamabad's government says or does. This is the core problem for Obama.
Obama's Nobel speech boasted of ordering the closing of Guantanamo Bay prison, but left unsaid the name of the American prison where our detainees have not only been mistreated, but have been killed.
Hats off to Nestles. Somehow they managed to get sugar, corn syrup and hydrogenated oil reclassified as a woman's health food! I've been waiting for this moment my whole life!
As year one ends for Obama and the world it may be that this is the end of the beginning, and that more innovative and far thinking policies are ahead that would deserve a Nobel prize. Or it may just mean more of the same.
All this talk of the potential risk posed by climate change far outweighing the costs of doing something about it is beginning to sound a lot like a cold call from a life insurance company.
