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By Alan Abramowitz
By Richard Ellis
$19.11
$40
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U.S. Marine Corps / Cpl. Artur Shvartsberg
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By William Pfaff — It is possible that the creation of an all-professional U.S. Army has been Congress’ most dangerous decision.
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By Amy Goodman — “Extraordinary rendition” is White House-speak for kidnapping. Just ask Maher Arar. He’s a Canadian citizen who was “rendered” by the U.S. to Syria, where he was tortured for almost a year.
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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By Stanley Kutler — It is somewhat late in the day to lament the politicization of the judiciary, a condition that has always existed, but extravagant campaign contributions have now perilously altered the landscape.
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AP / Musadeq Sadeq
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By Chris Hedges — The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban.
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AP / David Guttenfelder
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By Scott Ritter — President Obama may have won the Nobel Peace Prize, but if he allows himself to be bullied into supporting Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s foray into Afghanistan, he will reveal himself as the worst kind of warmonger.
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By Eugene Robinson — The opium poppy was introduced to Afghanistan more than 2,300 years ago by the armies of Alexander the Great. His forces were eventually driven out, like those of every would-be conqueror since. The poppy has proved more tenacious.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By David Sirota — The former financial executives inside the Obama administration have labeled their bill the “Financial Stability Improvement Act,” but it’s more like the 9/11 of bailouts.
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By Garrison Keillor —
The former Marine officer Matthew Hoh, who resigned his Foreign Service post in Afghanistan because he feels the war is pointless and not worth dying for, deserves all the attention he’s gotten and more.
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Flickr / Caveman 92223
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California was the first to legalize medicinal marijuana and, if three ballot measures and a bill floating around the state legislature have anything to say about it, the Golden State could be the first to legalize and tax adult marijuana use across the board. (continued)
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AP / Dennis Cook
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By Joe Conason — By acting on their convictions rather than their fears, the Democrats could ultimately find that the public option can be turned to their advantage for years to come.
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White House / Pete Souza
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That Timothy Geithner must love the big banks he spends all day talking to. Back when he was in charge of things, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York forced AIG to pay off Wall Street tycoons for all those toxic bets, even though the mega-insurer was busy trying to negotiate a better deal.
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NLN / Thomas Good
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While the House is chugging along with what’s shaping up to be a strong public option, the Senate has come up with a compromise that might make room for government insurance. Essentially, states that don’t dig government-run health care wouldn’t have to have it.
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By Eugene Robinson — Slashing bonuses at bailed-out companies is like arresting jaywalkers while ignoring the bank robbery that’s happening in broad daylight down the block.
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U.S. Army / Spc. Tia P. Sokimson
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By William Pfaff — European allies have tired of America’s cries of “wolf! wolf!” in Iraq (yesterday), Afghanistan (today), and (I fear) Pakistan or Somalia or Kashmir tomorrow.
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AP / Rich Pedroncelli
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By Mike Rose — The Obama administration has committed serious money to education reform, but many of the Department of Education’s big ideas are flawed.
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By Joe Conason — Anyone infuriated by the grossly inflated compensation of the masters of finance should check out the incredible earnings of the top executives in the health insurance business.
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White House / Lawrence Jackson
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The House speaker is thrilled to hear from the Congressional Budget Office that all three versions of the public option under consideration in the lower chamber would be cheaper than expected and would actually reduce the deficit over 10 years.
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DEA
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The lousy economy has driven some Californians into the marijuana industry, which is doing a lot better than, say, construction. According to this Miller-McCune profile, California will grow an estimated $15 billion worth of weed in 2009, a good portion of it in the backyards and basements of amateurs and newcomers.
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Flickr / ItzaFineDay
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By Amy Goodman — Climate-change activists, from pranksters to presidents, are stepping up the pressure by staging elaborate stunts.
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By William Pfaff — Given the Western world’s obsession with al-Qaida, it’s remarkable that public discourse makes little mention of the fact that the terror group is going out of business.
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Flickr / toddalert
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For the first time in 34 years, Social Security beneficiaries will not get a benefit boost from a cost-of-living adjustment. Falling energy prices, in particular, should keep seniors flush with their monthly average $1,094 checks. So what if their health care costs have gone up by a third?
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Flickr / Samory Santos
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By Marie Cocco — The challenge of our time is to re-create America as a middle-class nation. [This is Marie Cocco’s last column.]
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AP / Charles Dharapak
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Maine’s Olympia Snowe explained her vote for health care reform by saying “when history calls, history calls.” It called, she answered, and now the Senate Finance Committee’s Baucus bill, which would force Americans to buy health insurance without offering a public option, is off to get married to the more progressive Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee bill.
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AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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By Marie Cocco — The votes of lawmakers are so routinely purchased by corporations that it takes a scandal of unusual proportions to generate news coverage.
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By David Sirota — Zombies have made a pop culture comeback. It might have something to do with all the undead banks and the bankers whose careers live on after the economic apocalypse they caused.
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speaker.gov
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Nancy Pelosi wasted no time slapping down a National Republican Congressional Committee press release that said “taxpayers can only hope [Gen. Stanley] McChrystal is able to put her in her place.” That’s “her,” as in the House speaker, whose place is running one of the coequal branches of government.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By Joe Conason — If the president and Congress don’t come to the aid of workers, the political consequences will be severe, and deservedly so.
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Flickr / G20Voice
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By Amy Goodman — A social worker from New York City was arrested last week while in Pittsburgh to participate in the G-20 protests, then subjected to an FBI raid this week at his home—all for using Twitter.
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AP / Jae C. Hong
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By Bill Boyarsky — One way to give people a good deal on their health care is the so-called public option. A better way is the kind of strong regulation that isn’t even being discussed.
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By Marie Cocco — If it wins an upcoming battle in the Supreme Court, the gun lobby is prepared to challenge every gun control law enacted at any level of government.
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pagetutor.com
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By Matt Bivens, TomDispatch —
In the 20th century, smallpox killed more people than all of that bloody century’s wars combined. It cost $300 million to eradicate the disease. What might have been achieved with the $4 trillion we gave Wall Street?
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By David Sirota — The Washington Establishment clearly believes elected officials should defer to the military, no matter what that pesky Constitution says.
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By Joe Conason — Listening closely to the politicians with the most clout in the debate over health care, it is startling to discover how little they actually seem to know about the subject.
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By William Pfaff — What could and should have been celebrated this week in Beijing is the resumption of effective power in the People’s Republic by the modernizer Deng Xiaoping.
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DoD / MC1 Chad J. McNeeley
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By Stanley Kutler — During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly called for expanding the war in Afghanistan. Be careful what you wish for.
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By Ellen Goodman — My favorite moment so far in the health care debate was when Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl argued against mandating maternity benefits as part of a basic insurance coverage. “I don’t need maternity care,” he blurted out. At which point, Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow quipped, “I think your mom probably did.”
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By Marie Cocco — The Senate Finance Committee’s health care debate has given Michael Moore hours of footage for his next cinematic assault on the system.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The strangest aspect of the debate over a public option for health coverage is that the centrists who oppose it should actually love it.
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By William Pfaff — While the Republican leadership in the United States would have people believe that the country is being remorselessly driven to the far left under Barack Obama, European voters are moving toward the right.
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AP / The Weekly Standard
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By Norman Birnbaum — It is puzzling that obituary notices of Irving Kristol obviously intended to be positive designate him the “Godfather” of neoconservatism. Likening this group of thinkers and writers to a gang of Mafiosi may or may not be accurate; it is certainly not flattering.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — If the uninsured can’t count on the do-gooders to help them, where else can they turn?
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By Marie Cocco — Sen. Max Baucus’ health care plan would shift massive amounts of tax money away from traditionally blue states.
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CIA / JFK Presidential Library
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How about that Eric Holder? The Justice Department plans to make it harder for the government to hide behind “national security” in legal cases—a process that has been abused since a highly flawed Supreme Court decision first allowed wide latitude in such matters.
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By Amy Goodman — Manuel Zelaya, the democratically elected president of Honduras, is back in his country after being deposed in a military coup June 28.
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — All of the health bills on offer, even the supposedly “liberal” House bill, are already centrist compromises built on a private health insurance market. Above, Olympia Snowe, who may turn out to be the single Senate Republican voting for reform.
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Bill O’Reilly says of the very public option that makes his Foxy friends’ heads explode: “I want that. ... [I]f the government can cobble together a cheaper insurance policy that gives the same benefits, I see that as a plus for the folks.” Quick, look out your window to see the flying pigs.
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By Marie Cocco — We are warned it is dangerously protectionist to enforce existing trade laws against China’s cheap tire surge, but Obama is obligated to do so—and for good reason.
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U.S. Army / Sgt. Teddy Wade
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By William Pfaff — The more one hears the discussion among Democrats about the war in Afghanistan, the more one feels that it is a serious handicap that Barack Obama has no personal experience of international relations or of foreign policy or military service.
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Flickr / ISM Palestine
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A U.N. fact-finding mission has concluded “there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.” (Full release after the jump.)
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AP Photo / Toby Talbot
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By Marie Cocco — Overlooked in the health care debate is the recently reconfirmed fact that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are working better than ever.
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