57 QuickLinks

Friday, November 20, 2009
Erik Hedegaard: The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt
(3 comments) He was the ultimate keeper of secrets, lurking in the shadows of American history. He toppled banana republics, planned the Bay of Pigs invasion and led the Watergate break-in. Now he would reveal what he'd always kept hidden: who killed JFK.

Sunday, November 15, 2009
Is Obama the New, Democratic Version of President Herbert Hoover?: By fflambeau
(1 comments) A few days ago after the horrible unemployment figures came out for October, Obama announced his administration's plan. He is going to call for a White House summit on unemployment. The summit will be held next month, the administration announced, as Obama himself was off to Japan. Now that's really decisive leadership!

Friday, November 13, 2009
My solemn meeting on Veterans Day with President Obama at My Friend's Resting Place in Arlington: by James Gordon Meek
He didn't introduce himself. He didn't have to. President Obama simply stuck out his hand and asked for my name as he stepped toward me amid a bone-chilling drizzle in the Gardens of Stone.

Thursday, November 12, 2009
NYT: Lou Dobbs to Quit CNN
(1 comments) Lou Dobbs, the longtime CNN anchor whose anti-immigration views have made him a TV lightning rod, said Wednesday that he is leaving the cable news channel effective immediately.

Saturday, November 7, 2009
Allison Henry: My Bits Fell Out!
Have you ever heard of vaginal prolapse? I hadn't either, until it happened to me. Here's my story. "One night, I took a look down there, and it was like my insides were on the outside and they were coming out. I knew I couldn't put this off any longer. I went to my doctor and said, "My vagina is falling out of my body!"

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A Union Man Ponders the Democrats' Collapse in the Virginia Elections
(1 comments) The Democratic Party collapse in the 2009 Virginia statewide elections will come as a surprise only to those loyalists, true believers, and paid consultants and staffers who have chosen to ignore the increasingly dire situation facing working people in Virginia. As a union member who lives here, I'm not surprised one bit. The Democrats luck has run out.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Oops! Blue Cross Mails Customers about 11% Rate Increase, Opposition to Public Option: By Jason Rosenbaum
Many customers of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina are ticked off at the mail received recently from the state's largest insurer. First, they learned their rates will rise by an average of 11 percent next year. Next, they opened a slick flier from the insurer urging them to send an enclosed pre-printed, postage-paid note to Sen. Kay Hagan denouncing what the company says is unfair competition.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Politico: Lieberman Says He'll Filibuster Reid Plan
(2 comments) Lieberman did say he's "strongly inclined" to vote to proceed to the debate, but that he'll ultimately vote to block a floor vote on the bill if it isn't changed first. "I've told Sen. Reid that if the bill stays as it is now I will vote against cloture,” he said.

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Did Paulson's Secret Meeting with Goldman Sachs Break the Law? By Muriel Kane
"For the next hour," Sorkin goes on, "Paulson regaled his old friends with stories about his time in Treasury and his prognostications about the economy. They questioned him about the possibility of another bank blowing up, like Lehman, and he talked about the need for the government to have the power to wind down troubled firms, offering a preview of his upcoming speech."

Saturday, October 17, 2009
ObamaCare to Include Psychological Counseling for Republicans
(2 comments) At a White House press briefing, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced that a deal was being cut with congress to include a special program in the upcoming health care reform, commonly known as ObamaCare. “In recognition of the traumatic stress syndrome that uniquely afflicts many Republicans, we are adding a program to provide psychological counseling for those Republicans who want it.

Thursday, October 15, 2009
OSLO (AFP) Majority of Nobel jury 'objected to Obama prize'
OSLO (AFP) – Three of the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee had objections to the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to US President Barack Obama, the Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang (VG) reported Thursday.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Obama Got Peace Prize 'For What He Has Done,' Nobel Committee Chairman Says: By Mark Memmott
Anyone who says President Barack Obama hasn't accomplished enough to deserve his Nobel Peace Prize is wrong, says the chairman of the committee that awarded him the honor on Friday.

Saturday, October 10, 2009
Mississippi mandates civil rights classes in schools: by Carmen K. Sisson
(3 comments) In a groundbreaking reform – believed to be the first in the nation – Mississippi will require civil rights as part of its US history curriculum. McComb schools made that move in 2006; but starting next fall, the stories of the civil rights era will be taught – and tested – in all public schools.

Thursday, October 8, 2009
Gore Vidal's United States of fury: by Johann Hari
His horror at US foreign policy can be summarised in one little scene. In the 1980s, the Sistine Chapel was being restored, and some VIPs were invited to view it on an elevated platform. He spotted that old serial killer Henry Kissinger inspecting the section depicting Hell, and said: "Look, he's apartment hunting."

Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Coming Soon: $500 for Every Newborn?: by Kimberly Palmer
Imagine a world where every baby received a trust fund at birth. It might sound like a fairy tale, but being born into money--or at least into a $500 savings account--could soon become reality for all children born in the United States. Here's what you should know about the ASPIRE ("America Saving for Personal Investment, Retirement, and Education") Act:

Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Lobbyists Stew After Being Bounced From Boards:by Keith Koffler
(2 comments) A tide of anger and dismay is rippling down K Street as the Obama administration implements a new policy limiting the roles of lobbyists on federal advisory committees. The policy change, described by the White House as the next step in President Barack Obama 's drive to limit influence-peddling in Washington, could affect hundreds of lobbyists who serve on the panels, which were created by Congress in the 1970s.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Gore Vidal: ‘We'll Have a Dictatorship Soon in the US”: by Tim Teeman
(2 comments) Last year he famously switched allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama during the Democratic nomination process for president. Now, he reveals, he regrets his change of heart. How's Obama doing? “Dreadfully".”

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Obama's Ancestors Were Pioneers in 19th Century Health Care Reform:by Kelly Fincham
Film-maker and historian Gabriel Murray, who found Barack Obama's great-grand uncle's tomb in Kikenny, Ireland, uncovered the surprise links while he was researching his new documentary, “Obama's Irish Roots”

Saturday, September 26, 2009
Watching Our Greatness Slip Away, by Dick De Witt
(2 comments) n 1950, our nation was a leader of the world. We were wealthy, powerful and our industry hummed with made-in-America products. Our workers were building homes and enjoying steady salaries for their labor, producing consumer products sold around the world. Now, a brief 59 years later, our government has allowed and promoted our corporations to sell off that entire store, piece by piece, lock, stock and barrel.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Bill Sparkman: Tragic Details About Census Worker Found Hanged
(13 comments) Sparkman worked as substitute teacher and a census taker for the U.S. Census Bureau. He was found dead Sunday, Sept. 13, with word "fed" was scrawled onto his chest....

Friday, September 11, 2009
Selling Death: Wall Street's Newest Bubble: by L. Randall Wray
(1 comments) “Wall Street really is moving forward to market bets on death. The banksters would purchase life insurance policies, pool and tranch them, and sell securities that allow money managers to bet that the underlying “collateral” (human beings) will die an untimely death. You can't make this stuff up.”

Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Respect the Presidency or Get out of America! by Sevastian Winters
...men defend their right to bring weaponry to places where the President of the United States is speaking....Republicans who think NOTHING of sending their kids to publicly funded schools or driving on publicly funded roadways, accuse the President of the United States of trying to usher in the 4th Reich. We have seen preachers preach from the pulpit that they pray for the death of the man who holds...the Presidency.

Saturday, September 5, 2009
What Is it like to Live Near the Neighborhood Where Jaycee Dugard Was Held Prisoner?: by Dreamweaver
I went over to the neighborhood in the middle of the night, wanting to see where she had been held, to do a news piece, but also to try to understand why it went undiscovered for so long. I don't know what I was really expecting to see. The man strung up on a post for people to throw stones at? Garrido chained to the front fence? Some sign that showed me how it could have happened? Why no one saw it?

Saturday, August 29, 2009
Found After 18 Years in Captivity in Antioch, California: by Dreamweaver
In Antioch, California, all was quiet at 1:30 in the morning today on the street where Phillip Garrido held a young girl hostage for 18 years after her kidnapping from her home in South Lake Tahoe in 1991.

Sunday, August 2, 2009
Philadelphia workers file racial discrimination case: byEdmund DeMarche & Chloe Melas for CNN
Among the allegations in the complaint is that for decades, John Gill, the Northwest Transfer Station's superintendent, limited one restroom to whites only, said the attorney, Howard K. Trubman. The restroom -- which he called the "supervisors' bathroom" -- was supposedly for the sole use of upper-level officials with the city's Streets Department, Trubman said.

Thursday, July 16, 2009
Huge Blob of Arctic Goo Floats Past Slope Communities by Don Hunter
(4 comments) A mysterious glob of unknown material up to 12 miles long has appeared off Alaska's northern coast. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer says, "It's certainly biological. It's definitely not an oil product of any kind."

Thursday, June 25, 2009
TMZ: Michael Jackson Is Dead
We've just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50. Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hill home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

Sunday, May 31, 2009
First, Stop the Hemorrhaging by Rev. Jesse Jackson
The bailout of industries must be linked to reinvesting in America, retention and creation of jobs. We cannot bail out industries, and then have them take the manufacturing and jobs abroad, and leave only the brand at home. Worker and trade policy must be a central part of a new, industrial reconstruction program.

Friday, May 15, 2009
Six Insurers Named to Get Taxpayer Aid
The department said the Hartford Financial Services Group, Prudential Financial, Lincoln National, Allstate, Ameriprise and Principal Financial Group have all received approval for capital infusions, subject to terms still to be negotiated. The Hartford, in a statement released late Thursday, said it was told it could receive $3.4 billion under the program.

Saturday, April 25, 2009
Obama Legal Team Wants to Limit Defendants' Rights
AP--The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to overrule long-standing law that stops police from initiating questions unless a defendant's lawyer is present, another stark example of the White House seeking to limit rather than expand rights.

Monday, April 6, 2009
US Watchdog Warren Calls for Bank Executives to be Sacked
Elizabeth Warren, chief watchdog of America's $700bn (£472bn) bank bailout plan, will this week call for the removal of top executives from Citigroup, AIG and other institutions that have received government funds in a damning report that will question the administration's approach to saving the financial system from collapse.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tobacco Tax Just the Beginning. More New Federal Taxes Planned.
(1 comments) Hot on the heals of the recent increase of the federal tax on cigarettes, which went from 35¢ to $1.01 per pack, the White House is planning taxes on several other consumer items. Most non-smoking Americans turned a blind eye to the tax increase on cigarettes. It's easy to have a holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to "sin taxes," but the next round of taxes will hit those same pious people in the wallet.

Sunday, March 29, 2009
Scott Horton: Bush Torture Lawyers Targeted in Criminal Probe
John Yoo, former Department of Defense general counsel William J. Haynes II , former vice presidential chief-of-staff David Addington, former attorney general and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, and former Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith could suffer Pinochet's fate by the same Spanish National security Court.

Saturday, March 28, 2009
President Obama, What About the Other Gulag? by Dan Mage
...true libertarians share a concern with left-liberals, namely the social and cultural rights of the individual; the freedom to choose one's own lifestyle, religion, sexual preference and partners, and what chemicals one may take or refuse to put into one's own body. I find myself somewhat dismayed with your ambivalent stance on these issues, including gay rights, and my personal pet peeve, the "War on Drugs."

Friday, March 27, 2009
Senate Passes Kennedy-Hatch Service Bill
Known as the Serve America Act, the Kennedy-Hatch bill would triple the number of AmeriCorp volunteers to 250,000 and boost the educational stipend they receive to meet President Barack Obama's goal of teaming community service with tuition assistance. It creates new "corps" focused on health care, clean energy, education and disaster response.

Monday, March 9, 2009
Barack Obama 'too tired' to give proper welcome to Gordon Brown
Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president's surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Playboy Has Taken Down Its Santelli Story
Playboy has apparently taken down its story. The Atlantic's Megan McArdle has the full text. The link between Santelli and the so-called astroturfing groups "is potentially libelous, which is, I assume, why the article disappeared this morning," wrote McArdle. This update at Rawstory.com

Sunday, March 1, 2009
Backstabber: Is Rick Santelli High On Koch?
(2 comments) By Mark Ames and Yasha Levine: So today's protests show that the corporate war is on, and this is how they'll fight it: hiding behind "objective" journalists and "grassroots" new media movements. Because in these times, if you want to push for policies that help the super-wealthy, you better do everything you can to make it seem like it's "the people" who are "spontaneously" fighting your fight.

Saturday, February 14, 2009
Panasonic orders staff to buy £1,000 in products
In desperation, Panasonic has hit on the perfect counter-attack against the consumer slump: it has ordered every member of staff to go out and buy £1,000 of Panasonic products.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Judges Sentenced: Kids For Cash
The setting is Pennsylvania coal country, but it's a story right out of Dickens' grim 19th-century landscape: Two of Luzerne County's most senior judges on Monday were accused of sending children to jail in return for kickbacks.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Urban Homesteading Phenomenon: Self-Sufficiency on a City Lot
(3 comments) You don't have to live on a farm to be more self-sufficient. Urban homesteading can turn your city lot into a place where you can grow your own organic food, produce your own energy, and reduce your carbon imprint dramatically.

Monday, November 10, 2008
Sitting In The Balcony
We were never taught to hate. I never thought much about race until 1964. That was the year we moved to Florence, South Carolina.

Monday, October 20, 2008
Bush's 100,000 Acres Between The Borders Of Paraguay & Brazil
(3 comments) Here's a fun question for Tony Snow: Why might the president and his family need a 98,840-acre ranch in Paraguay protected by a semi-secret U.S. military base manned by American troops who have been exempted from war-crimes prosecution by the Paraguyan government?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Warren Buffet Gets 10%, But We Get Nothing?
Warren Buffet is investing 5 billion in Goldman Sachs with a agreed to return of 10%. The American taxpayer is urged to invest 700 billion, but we get nothing for our investment. Paulson must be laughing his ass off at what idiots we are.

Monday, September 22, 2008
Brian O'Keefe: Here comes $500 Oil
If Matt Simmons is right, the recent drop in crude prices is an illusion - and oil could be headed for the stratosphere. He's just hoping we can prevent civilization from imploding.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Andrew Morse: Corporate Treasurers Remain Wary Of Money-Market Funds
This article mysteriously vanished off CNN's Dow Jones Newswire, but an intreped uD (comment identifer)managed to hunt it down. Perhaps this is what nobody handling this trillion dollar bailout wants the rest of us to know. When you go to the article, scroll down a bit to get the alarming truth that corporate cash that fled mutual funds for Treasury Funds will not reinvest in mutuals until stability and yields rise.

Sunday, September 14, 2008
Should Your Employer Have to Provide a Reason to Fire You?
(6 comments) This November Coloradans will have a chance to vote on a simple proposition: Should employers have to provide a legitimate reason before they fire an employee?

Saturday, September 6, 2008
Charley James: "Sambo Beat The Bitch"
(2 comments) "So Sambo beat the bitch!" This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama's win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

Friday, September 5, 2008
Company Town
This form of company town debt slavery originated on the plantations of post Civil War South. The Mine Owners just stole the software.

Thursday, September 4, 2008
Joe Conason: Baby on Board! Palin's Unhelpful Story
(1 comments) Families deserve privacy about family matters, but families that want absolute privacy should probably stay out of politics.

Monday, September 1, 2008
Sammy Hagar Tries to Turn Convention Rock Show Into Gustav Fund-Raiser, Gets Few Takers
As he bellied up to the bar, Mike Karbo, who said he worked for a Minnesota state senator, said that despite the storm, the convention thus far had "a great atmosphere." "The Democratic Party is about making sure everybody has a good time, has drinks, has cocktail parties," said Karbo, who swayed slightly as he spoke. "The Republican Party is about making sure everybody had a place to live. A place to be safe."

Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Glenn Greenwald: AT&T Thanks Democrats With A Lavish Party
Last night in Denver, AT&T threw a lavish, private party for Blue Dog House Democrats, virtually all of whom blindly support whatever legislation the telecom industry demands and who also, specifically, led the way this July in immunizing AT&T and other telecoms from the consequences for their illegal participation in the Bush administration's warrantless spying program.

Thursday, August 21, 2008
Poverty IS NOT An Adventure
Poverty isn't fun, it isn't an adventure, it isn't about being creative by going "retro" (as in sooo last season) at H&M, it isn't a passing thing.

Saturday, August 16, 2008
New Crew Crashes Denver Detention Center/Video
In Denver, police are preparing what a local political organizer calls a 'concentration camp,' laying in wait for mass arrests anticipated during the upcoming Democratic National Convention. On Wednesday, a Denver CBS affiliate sent a news crew to crash it.

Monday, August 4, 2008
Jean C. Duley... tell us again...
by Larisa Alexandrovna: Okay, well the more research I do into the now infamous Ms. Jean C. Duley - the "therapist" who filed a restraining order against the alleged anthrax attacks suspect Bruce E. Ivins - the more her story sounds like a whole load of crap.

Sunday, July 20, 2008
It's a Class War, Stupid: Election season will be packed with distractions, but the real issue is a matter of life and d
Matt Taibbi drags that dirty class warfare out of hiding.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008
AIDS: Was It A CIA Op Afterall?
(2 comments) Midway down the TBR news page, a Mr. Crowly shares with a Mr. Douglas the truth about the introduction, by the CIA, of AIDs in Haiti and the African Congo.