Leland Yee Leads Pack in Health Industry Donations
by Randy Shaw‚
Feb. 09‚ 2010
A new report finds that San Francisco State Senator Leland Lee received the most money of any senator from health insurers and HMO’s during the last two campaign cycles, outpacing even Republicans. The study by MAPLight.org found Yee receiving $79,991.72 during the 2006 and 2008 campaign cycles, over $5000 more than the nearest Democrat and over $10,000 more than the closest Republican. Much has been written about Congressional “Blue Dog” Democrats who take health insurer money and become opponents of reform, and a similar pattern can be found with Senator Yee. While Yee backed a single payer measure that the Governor announced in advance that he would veto, he opposed or abstained from a huge number of health reform bills, including those signed by Schwarzenegger. He even opposed on the Senate floor a bill that would have created a statewide public insurer, rejecting the state version of the “public option” progressives have promoted nationally.
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What’s a Real Democratic Majority?
by Paul Hogarth‚
Feb. 09‚ 2010
As it became clear during the first two years of Bill Clinton’s presidency, a Democratic majority in Congress does not mean we start passing good laws – and right now, we’re seeing history repeat itself. You always have enough corporate Blue Dog Democrats and conservative Senators who actively collude with Republicans to block any real reform, leaving the promise of change betrayed and the liberal base dispirited. Inevitably, the voters blame Democrats en masse for failing to accomplish anything – and Republicans take control. So what’s the “magic number” of Democrats needed that would finally allow progressives to get things done? I hoped we were getting close, but blogger and numbers whiz Chris Bowers has found the answer. And the only conclusion I find is that Senate Democrats have sabotaged themselves by sanctifying 60-votes to a point of absurdity, and failing to reform the filibuster.
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Double Doom Deflected: McCainiac & Sarah Sycophant
by Robert S. Becker‚
Feb. 09‚ 2010
I never trusted John McCain because he never struck me as stable or principled – plus his grasp of ideas and facts fluctuated like glare off water. My judgment focused not on his positions per se, nor successful charade to seem less Republican than his rightwing voting record proves. For years, he parlayed his mavericky shtick, though on a pinhead of issues, until caving hard to extremist leverage, fully visible this season.
Never has he wavered from shoot-first, jingoistic belligerence, using one bad neo-con war to launch another, and another. This never-say-die brawler would refight (and lose) Vietnam again. Still, it made sense that he took the GOP nomination, for those goofy rivals made McCain look nearly-normal: the craven panderer Romney or heart-felt fundamentalist Huckabee, the ex-minister more deep-fried, born-again than Dubya ever was.
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Appointee Blasted for Daring to Criticize Pope
by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca‚
Feb. 09‚ 2010
The head of Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is under fire from two congressmembers for his criticism of Pope Benedict XVI’s absurd remark that condoms are aiding and abetting the spread of AIDS in Africa. Harry Knox, who also serves as director of religion and faith programs for the Human Rights Campaign, has been called anti-Catholic because he said that the pontiff was “hurting people in the name of Jesus.”
Now, two Catholic Republican Congressmembers, Thaddeus McCotter and John Boehner, are demanding Knox’s head on a silver platter. They want him fired by President Obama for daring to criticize their religious leader. To date, the President has not commented on the controversy.
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The Decline of Organizing in the Obama Era
by Randy Shaw‚
Feb. 08‚ 2010
Since the election of our first ex-community organizer as President, organizing for progressive change has declined. The reasons range from sharply reduced funding for organizers, to complacency after Democrats’ sweeping 2008 victories, to labor unions being forced to focus on protecting current workers from contract givebacks rather than organizing new members. The net result is that grassroots organizing – which prioritizes face-to-face contacts with the unconverted, empowers people rather than simply asking them to fulfill a task, and builds local coalitions for pressure campaigns targeting politicians – is being replaced by less effective e-mail mobilizations and other short-cuts. As the midterm elections approach, progressives face a critical choice: either spend resources now on funding organizers who can win real change in 2010, or invest in the November elections to set the stage for 2011. The choice should be clear.
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Once Again, SF Chronicle Gifts Opponents of Marriage Equality
by Paul Hogarth‚
Feb. 08‚ 2010
In yesterday’s Sunday Chronicle, the gossip columnists Matier & Ross dropped a “bombshell” that Vaughn Walker – the federal judge presiding over the Prop 8 trial – is gay. Not that it was much of a state secret; marriage equality advocates quickly put the issue in its proper context. But we know the Right will jump all over this issue, using it to discredit the trial by accusing the judge of bias. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time the paper has been a political gift to homophobes. In 2008, the Chronicle treated the same-sex wedding of a 1st grade teacher as front-page news. Any responsible paper would have put it on the back page with other wedding announcements, and the political impact of this coverage probably decided the election for Prop 8. Now there will be talk of “activist judges” who overturn the “will of the people,” with talk about gays getting “special rights” when this is really a civil rights battle. It seems like the Chronicle goes out of its way to undercut San Francisco values. In 2004, Phil Bronstein removed City Hall reporter Rachel Gordon from her beat – because she and her partner got married, citing an apparent “conflict-of-interest.” The same conflict, we should add, that Judge Walker will now be accused of.
Teabaggers Push Good Ol’ American Hate
by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca‚
Feb. 08‚ 2010
What does one call 600 anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-universal healthcare bigots gathered in one spot? Tea baggers. Their convention, “Tea Party Nation,” was held in Nashville last week to plan a conservative takeover of Congress by raising $10 million and running candidates who uphold their brand of American hate and intolerance. The term “tea bagger” is a reference to the Anglo-Saxon American colonists who dumped tea in Boston Bay to protest taxation by the British.
The gathering started off in true conservative fashion -- with a speech on immigration by a former congressman that bordered on racist.
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What is a “Fiscal Conservative” Anyway?
by Paul Hogarth‚
Feb. 05‚ 2010
By now, you’ve probably seen Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina’s spectacularly awful YouTube ad – attacking her GOP rival, Tom Campbell, for being a “fiscal conservative in name only.” Why? Because he criticized the Bush tax cuts, supports an increase in the gas tax and won’t sign onto Grover Norquist’s insane pledge to never vote for a single tax increase whatsoever. But what is a fiscal conservative anyway? Putting ideology aside, it means someone who thinks that government should be careful with its money (after all, who calls themselves “fiscally liberal”?). And yes, being a “fiscal conservative” often means we need to raise some taxes to act responsibly. Even liberals who believe government should be there to help the poor and middle class are “fiscal conservatives” – if they ask the rich to pay their fair share, and demand to cut the rampant corporate welfare. Progressives must never yield the “fiscal conservative” label over to right-wing ideologues, because those like Carly Fiorina have warped its meaning.
Dispatch from Park City (Part 4)
by Peter Wong‚
Feb. 05‚ 2010
Last in a series of reports from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Can one successfully mix War On Terror paranoia with young New York City hipsters’ lives into a coherent and entertaining film? Director / writer Zeina Durra achieves such an effect with her debut feature film “The Imperialists Are Still Alive!”
Asya (a magnetic Elodie Bouchez) is a New York City visual artist. Her insanely busy life of making art and evening partying with supermodels gets thrown off balance when her beloved childhood friend Faisal disappears. That possible CIA abduction heralds days of emotional multi-tasking.
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The History of Black Economic Empowerment
by E. "Doc" Smith‚
Feb. 05‚ 2010
February 9, 2010
