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$28.99
By David Rothkopf
$17.16
$19
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AP / Charlie Neibergall
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By Bill Boyarsky — Given time and enough money, the super PACs and other secretive political campaign funds are capable of causing corruptive influence that could reach from the presidency down to the lowest ranked members of the House.
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Flickr / cliff1066™ (CC-BY)
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Senate leaders struck a compromise late Monday on the issue of disaster relief funding that is likely to avert a federal government shutdown, the third such threat this year. (more)
Posted on Sep 27, 2011
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Flickr / nateOne (CC-BY)
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The backlash against Planned Parenthood continues, and anti-abortion advocates have emerged victorious in New Hampshire, where the state’s executive council has dropped funding for the reproductive health organization ... (more)
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npr.org
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Because this is the most pressing matter to capture their collective attention, House Republicans moved swiftly to bring the issue of government funding for National Public Radio (or lack thereof, if they’d have it their way) to a vote Thursday. Updated
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Flickr / Dan Edelstein
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House Republicans have succeeding in amending a spending bill to deny the FCC money to implement new (and heavily gutted) network neutrality regulations. That’s right: banning a government agency from using government money to do government work.
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Republican Rep. Eric Cantor was one of the GOP operatives behind this week’s push to cut public funding to National Public Radio (this Juan Williams drama still has legs) because that would be a “common sense” move to ... (continued)
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Wikimedia Commons / Ryddragyn
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A tug of war is playing out in court between the Obama administration and U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth over the issue of embryonic stem cell research, and Lamberth appears to have prevailed in the latest round.
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Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Congress
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Sen. Charles Schumer is looking to put a check on corporate campaign financing, contesting the notion—promoted by the Supreme Court earlier this year—that big corporations have a constitutional right to spend unlimited amounts of cash on political campaigns.
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Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Congress
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“In the present form, the Senate health care bill is going nowhere in the House of Representatives,” Rep. Mark Stupak told Fox News on Thursday, owing in part to the way in which the bill was passed—“the special deals,” as he put it. After Fox co-anchor Liz Claman reminded him that he “could hold this whole thing up” ... (continued)
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foreclosurewearhouse.com
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Who knew the Treasury Department had such deep pockets? Well, besides all of Wall Street, we can put the beleaguered duo that is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the list. The Treasury has obligingly removed the $400 billion cap previously assigned to the funding designated to save the two mortgage firms.
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solvingpoverty.org
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The Republicans’ favorite punching bag, ACORN, has emerged from an external review process looking far less shady than its opponents would like, but the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now still has some management issues, according to the inquiry’s findings.
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chinadaily.com
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Although the Taliban apparently enjoys good funding these days, thanks in part to drug money, the BBC reported Monday that al-Qaida is struggling by comparison, according to “terrorist financing official” (?) David Cohen.
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flickr.com / Presidential Inaugural Committee
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While Barack Obama banned corporations and big donors from funding his inauguration so as to not trammel the public celebration, the big event’s multimillion-dollar bill is instead being footed by Wall Street executives and other financial employees acting as fundraisers. Abracadabra—no more special interests.
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Flickr / mknobil
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World AIDS Day turns 20 today, and while we still don’t have a vaccine, researchers continue to make lifesaving breakthroughs. A team at the World Health Organization in Geneva recently came up with a “thought experiment” that, according to a mathematical model, could end the AIDS epidemic in Africa in only a decade.
Posted on Dec 1, 2008
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commons.wikimedia.org
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To help all those still reeling from sudden onset econo-tastrophe syndrome, the BBC has put together a handy timeline, which connects the dots between events over the last couple years but doesn’t quite take the long view, thus leaving out a few key moments and players from, say, the 1990s (paging Phil Gramm).
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California Governor's Office
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Tight credit has put California’s state budget into a bit of a pickle, with funding for the government’s day-to-day operations drying up faster than Sarah Palin’s popularity. A sign of trouble is a letter—leaked Friday—from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that warned of a potential emergency request for a $7-billion loan within the coming weeks.
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AP photo / Washingtonpost.com
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As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, now the mother of a pregnant teen, cut state funds that would have helped house and support teenage mothers. This on top of the news that both Palin and John McCain have opposed teen pregnancy prevention programs.
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patdollard.com
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Barack Obama is reaching out to Hillary Clinton’s pocketbook, asking his finance team to help pay off at least $10 million of the debt Clinton accrued during her primary bid. The move comes after an announcement that Camp Obama had raised $287 million by the end of May and declined public funding of his campaign.
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AP photo / Rick Bowmer,file
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Hillary Clinton will be joining her erstwhile rival, Barack Obama, for a week of campaign support as he ramps up his efforts to defeat John McCain in November’s presidential elections. Clinton will kick off her tandem tour with Obama June 27 in a bid to repair lingering rifts within Democratic circles.
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AP photo / Carol Phelps
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By Robert Scheer — A trillion dollars here, a trillion dollars there, and soon you’re talking real money. But when it comes to reporting on what the Bush war legacy has cost American taxpayers, the media have been shockingly indifferent to the highest run-up in military spending since World War II.
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overspun.com
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President Bush’s new budget will not fully fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, the White House plans to ask for “bridge” funds—enough to pay for the wars until the next president takes over. Though no official figure has been given, congressional estimates put the amount at less than half of what we spend on the wars in a year.
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AP photo / Bela Szandelszky
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By Chris Hedges — The refusal to pay my taxes if we go to war with Iran, and the portion of my taxes spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan if we do not cut off funding for these two conflicts, is not a means. It is an end. I do not know if my refusal, and the refusal of others, will be effective in halting these wars. All I know is that it is worth doing.
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The “Real Time” host asks one of the Democratic Party’s shining stars the question that seems to be on everyone’s mind: If you hate the war so much, why are you paying for it?
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Hillary Clinton shored up her left flank during an interview with Tim Russert, promising to vote against continued funding for the war in Iraq. Still, one must be wary of caveats such as “at the level we’ve seen.”
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The White House plans to ask for an additional $50 billion to fund the troop “surge” in Iraq. That may seem like peanuts when you consider the $607 billion in annual Defense Department and Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental funds, but it’s a sign that the administration is politically confident it can extend the surge through next spring. Plus, it’s money that could be used for something silly, like building schools.
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U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stacy L. Pearsall
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With a backdrop of increased sectarian violence, the discovery of a missing U.S. soldier’s corpse and the president’s promise of more troop casualties, Congress has approved $100 billion in funding for the Iraq war. Bush is happy with the bill, but from her comments, it’s clear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t: “This is like a fig leaf. ...”
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The Democratic leadership in Congress is close to a deal with the White House to provide funding for the war without a timetable for withdrawal. The legislation will include benchmarks for U.S. aid, close to $8 billion in domestic spending and a minimum-wage increase, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that she cannot bring herself to vote for a bill that doesn’t set a withdrawal date for U.S. troops.
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aftonbladet.se
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President Bush has already decided to veto a second war funding bill that the House Democrats haven’t even finished drafting. The measure would require the White House to report on progress in Iraq in order to free up funds past July.
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Sen. Russ Feingold, Majority Leader Harry Reid and eight other Senate Democrats have decided to respond to Bush’s veto with an amendment that would halt war funding if troops were not safely withdrawn from Iraq by March 31, 2008. Exceptions would include operations against terrorist organizations, training for Iraqi soldiers and protection of U.S. infrastructure and personnel.
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President Bush is set to meet with members of Congress on Wednesday to try to work out a compromise on the Iraq spending bill. It’s not clear what they could possibly agree on, since Bush has said he won’t sign any legislation that calls for a withdrawal, and the essentially nonbinding timetable in the last measure was basically the least the Democrats could do to signal their opposition to the war.
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By Marie Cocco — Senate Republicans continue to oppose a minimum-wage hike, despite the fact that the buying power of the working poor hasn’t approved in five decades.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — President Bush and Vice President Cheney cannot make the case that their Iraq policies have succeeded, so they are doing one thing they do very well: taking a serious argument over the future of American foreign policy and turning it into a petty partisan squabble.
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inthesetimes.com
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According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 58 percent of Americans trust congressional Democrats to do a better job of setting policy for the Iraq war than the president. An overwhelming majority, however, disapprove of the job both branches of government have done so far.
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George W. Bush is upset with the Democrats for wanting to withdraw from Iraq just when we’ve finally started to make progress. Just starting? The president has been citing “progress” in Iraq for years now, and Jon Stewart has the clips to prove it.
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Forty percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, according to the latest AP poll. That may not seem like much, but it’s up from 25 percent just before the last election and higher than Bush’s mid-30s. A word of warning to candidates who are still fleshing out their Iraq positions: The same poll suggests voters, especially those coveted independents, are really sick of this war.
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With Congress nearing a consensus on a withdrawal timetable, the president repeated the claim Wednesday that Democrats would be held responsible for denying the troops funding. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded by saying Bush should “Calm down with the threats,” and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid simply asked, “Why doesn’t he get real with what’s going on with the world?”
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kucinich.us
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Not everyone was celebrating the passage of the Iraq spending bill on Friday. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, told Truthdig it’s “a disaster for the American people.” The presidential candidate went on to explain his dissatisfaction with his party: “It’s the same kind of thinking that led us into Iraq— that we didn’t have any alternatives.”
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — When it comes to ending the war in Iraq, Democrats have a tougher fight than many had expected. If recent battles on the Hill and in the press are any indication, it’s likelier to be a long hard slog than a quick rout.
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gwu.edu
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Vice President Dick Cheney has once again confused supporting the troops with supporting a surge of troops into Iraq. “Anyone can say they support the troops ... . But the proof will come when it’s time to provide the money and the support,” Cheney said, referring to a bill that would fund the escalation.
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An independent commission established by Congress has found that the Defense Department is not adequately equipping and funding the National Guard. Roughly 90 percent of U.S. National Guard units are designated “not ready.” The commission determined that the Guard is ill-prepared to meet its obligation to defend the homeland and respond rapidly and effectively in a crisis.
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Despite spending billions of dollars, the United States is woefully unprepared for an attack involving either chemical or biological weapons, according to a report recently declassified by the Government Accountability Office. The strain of the Iraq war has contributed to problems with staffing, equipping and training the military units expected to respond in the event of such a crisis.
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The National Priorities Project, a nonprofit organization that aims to turn “data into action,” has an interesting tool on its website that shows just how much the Iraq war is costing your community. The cost so far to Crawford, Texas: $986,998. The cost to Los Angeles County: $11,342,897,442—that’s billions—and counting.
Posted on Jan 16, 2007
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Wikipedia.org
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The Democrats may hold the power of the purse, but that hasn’t stopped presidents in the past from defying Congress. Teddy Roosevelt succeeded in sending his Great White Fleet around the globe to demonstrate American naval power despite objections from the legislative branch.
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AP / Reed Saxon
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By Joshua Scheer — In a Truthdig interview, the author of “Born on the Fourth of July” argues that Americans this week have a patriotic and generation-defining duty to speak out against Bush’s proposal to escalate the war in Iraq with more U.S. troops.
“If you love this country, you’re going to step over that line that you’ve not stepped over before. You’re going to find the courage to do that.”
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Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said in a statement Monday that he will run for president in the 2008 election, prompted in part by his own party’s decision to continue funding for the Iraq war. Kucinich discussed the funding issue at length in an interview with Truthdig.
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A law working its way through the California Legislature would provide for full public funding of credible candidates in statewide races. This is the real-deal way to eliminate the ruinous influence of huge campaign contributions in elections. It’s already working in a few states, and a victory in California could start a nationwide revolution. Check it out. Sign a petition. Join the cause.
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The Department of Homeland Security slashed anti-terrorism money for Washington and New York in favor of cities like Jacksonville and Sacramento. Stunner: “A DHS risk scorecard for the city asserted that the home of the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge has ‘zero’ national monuments or icons.”
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AP / WFP
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The United Nations is taking the drastic step because of severe funding shortfalls. Other than Libya, none of Sudan’s partners in the Arab League have contributed any money. “This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever made,” says a U.N. director.
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