Iran’s seizure of 15 British naval personnel has analysts and pundits spinning in circles. Were they trying to influence the U.N. Security Council? Are they trying to “reassert their political and military relevance” in the Persian Gulf area? Perhaps they’re trying to leverage public opinion — in this case, against Tony Blair — by taking hostages to underscore that those sailors wouldn’t have been at risk if they weren’t engaged in an unpopular war. That...

Ben Smith’s apology at The Politico for having announced that John Edwards would suspend his presidential campaign underscores both the new power — and pitfalls — of this Brave New Era of communications and media. In spite of Ben’s reasonable, understandable explanation about sources, later test results, etc., the underlying reality is that the rapid-fire, get-it-out-first nature of the internet played a role in putting a false story out there. This “race for a scoop”...

From the comments on a NOLA post this weekend: In the mean time, half the state is losing their insurance. Mine got canceled this week…because I’d held it for under three years. I could feel wisps of steam starting to waft from my ears when I read that. That’s a reason to cancel someone’s policy???? Is that legal? Evidently, M (the commenter) had merely received her letter before Da Po’ Boy: Today’s insurance company frustration post was inspired by this letter...

Can somebody explain to me why, exactly, nationalization has seemingly become The Vehicle for a healthcare system? There are a number of interesting state initiatives under consideration (or in the fledgling stages of implementation), and frankly, that’s about as wide an umbrella as I think can be efficiently managed. I agree that the healthcare crisis is an enormous problem. I’m very interested in proposals and solutions — but I cannot get behind any plans that rely on the...

The number of fantasies that have been indulged over the course of this nation’s psychotic race-relations history is quite amazing, and David Ehrenstein’s op-ed in today’s LA Times merely gives voice to yet another: that white people need benign, unreal black role-players because they are both guilty about (and for) — and afraid of — the reality. Unfortunately, he’s based his conclusions about “Obama the Magic Negro” on the most unreal of all institutions:...

Just the other day, Dear Husband (DH) was lamenting the paucity of specifics, in either policy or platform, from the presidential candidates thus far. Via the NY Times, Hillary has come to his rescue — and in the process, she’s sent any number of folks over the edge, leaving me to conclude that everyone’s somehow lost sight of the fact that whatever the situation in Iraq is today, it will be substantially different by the time we have a new president. More on this here.

The other day, in response to a Washington Post article about the Myth of the Middle, I wrote that without the moderates, our hyper-partisan political environment was going to kill the country. We’ve hit gridlock, which is fine, except there are a number of issues that require action, and if nothing is done about them, the country’s in big trouble. Obviously, I’m not the only person who sees this problem, as David Broder writes in today’s WaPo (my emphasis): It was not nostalgia...

When King Solomon was faced with two women claiming the same baby, he offered to cut the baby in half so that each claimant could have part of the child. The real mother, of course, was willing to give up the baby rather than see it die. What if there had been a thousand claimants, and none of them had been willing to preserve the baby over their own interests? Obviously, that motherless baby would have died — just like southeastern Louisiana’s coastal region. My (fairly long) post on...

It seems that farmers in the Pueblo County, Colorado area are having some problems finding workers to pick crops. In spite of offering up to $9.60/hr, things are bad enough that crops either rotted in the fields last fall, some farmers are planning to plant less (or not at all) — or they’re going out of business altogether. So how do you feel about farmers contracting with the state’s Department of Corrections for inmate labor? More at Polimom Says.

Little girls have always tried to model the styles and mannerisms of older girls (read: young women). It’s part of growing up, and as far as I know, it always has been. So what’s different between the little girls of yesteryear and today? And can we really blame dolls? More here.

Finally, some good news to cheer the day (CNN): A Saudi wing of al Qaeda called for attacks on U.S. oil sources across the world, saying targets should not be limited to the Middle East and listing Canada, Venezuela and Mexico as U.S. oil suppliers. The threat appeared in the al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula’s e-magazine, Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Holy War), which was posted on a Web site used by Islamist militants. “It is necessary to hit oil interests in all regions which...

Over the weekend, the US made its case about Iranian involvement in Iraq, but their evidence was received with a great deal of skepticism. Public opinion, both domestically and internationally, is heavily influenced by what was said in the build-up to Iraq, and short of an Iranian official standing up and saying, “Yes, we’re supplying arms and trying to fuel the violence”, it’s hard to imagine anything strong enough to overcome the Bush administration’s lack of credibility. Would...

So. He’s in. Barack Obama’s theme — the underlying core message — is so radically different from what we’re used to hearing from politicians, I can’t help but respond to it. It’s a visceral reaction — a balm to a wound I didn’t even realize I had. Of course, how he intends to implement his visions are another matter. Health care, foreign policy, immigration reform — those aren’t trivial issues, and while I’ve seen...

In an email from the Hillary campaign team was the following problem statement: It’s time to end our country’s dependence on foreign oil. Unstable prices at the pump are a burden for families. Our dependence props up extremist regimes that threaten our national security. And the threat to our environment from burning fossil fuels is very real. Hillary is proposing a plan that puts “some of the oil industry’s windfall profits into a fund that would help develop practical new...

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Fort Lewis this week will become ground zero for the peace movement. Activists have called for a national day of action today, when the court-martial of 28-year-old 1st Lt. Ehren Watada begins. In the past year, Watada has become a lightning rod for the anti-war movement as the only known U.S. military officer to publicly refuse to be sent to Iraq. Peace groups and such celebrity activists as Susan Sarandon and Martin Sheen have taken up the lieutenant’s...

I clearly recall the first time someone took my fingerprints: it was part of the application / screening process to become a Deputy Sheriff. Since then, it’s happened many times, and I think we take it for granted these days that fingerprinting is merely part of an identification process. Are we ready to grant such casual acceptance to DNA sampling? More here.

Resolutions calling for an apology for slavery have been proposed and rejected many times, and the most recent debate is occurring in Virginia. The discussions are heated and hostile (as they always are), with some claiming they, personally, have no responsibility, some suggesting that those who should apologize — and those to whom they would say it — are long-dead, others saying it’s a meaningless, empty symbol, and still others insisting that America has to “fix the damage”. The...

Last month, the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce proposed massive, comprehensive reformation of our public educational system. Response to their report, Tough Choices or Tough Times, was tepid from a number of quarters. From the NEA: “Tough Choices or Tough Times has shed light on some very real issues. However, we urge caution in calling for drastic changes that could potentially disenfranchise poorer communities and eliminate community voices in the reform conversation. [snip] “In...

In Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, Bush talked about a number of issues — all of which are pressing and valid. Unfortunately, he was silent about the Gulf Coast, and New Orleans. Silence is sometimes its own sound, and in this case I’m worred — no, sad – that what it articulated was thunderous indifference from both the federal government, and the people it represents. I wrote more about this here.

After Bush’s “surge” speech last night, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin gave the Democrats’ response, and hearing them back-to-back gave me — for the first time in many weeks– some clarity about Iraq. This new view stemmed from the most basic of suppositions — that escalation is not what the Americans voted for; this is not what we want. That’s true… but I don’t think Americans want the outcome of withdrawal, either, and that was the basis...