By Bill Richardson, speaking the truth:

We, as Democrats, have to start winning back the confidence of the American people... Not only are we still in Iraq, we still have the failure called No Child Left Behind. We still have 9 million children with no health insurance. We're still allowing the president to thumb his nose at the Bill of Rights. We're slipping into a recession ... and we can't even reject an attorney general who refuses to condemn torture.

By VictorM:

With endorsements like this, Hillary Clinton should win the presidency by more than just a... er... you know, it shouldn't be close:

Legendary filmmaker, artist, and Democratic activist Barbra Streisand today endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. Streisand cited Hillary's ability to bring about change and the historic nature of her campaign as reasons why she is supporting Hillary's candidacy.

"Madame President of the United States...it's an extraordinary thought. We truly are in a momentous time, where a woman's potential has no limitations," said Streisand.

By Matthew Yglesias:

The administration may not have succeeded in building a democratic government in Iraq, but it has succeeded in building a corrupt, brutal, and sectarian government that's willing to "offer the U.S. a long-term troop presence in Iraq and preferential treatment for American investments" as long as the US promises to help secure Maliki's government against foreign and domestic threats. This should serve as a reminder that ... American policy objectives are in many ways incompatible with the goal of stability.

By VictorM:

I'm really pleased with the outcome of the Australian elections. I don't know much about the internal politics of the country, but John Howard was a real asshole. I was hoping he would lose. Well... I got my wish and then some:

SYDNEY, Australia - Australians entered a new political era Sunday after electing a Chinese-speaking former diplomat as their first new prime minister in more than a decade, and handing four-term leader John Howard a humiliating loss...

Saturday's elections brought a sharp and mortifying end to Howard's career, and he looked likely to suffer the further embarrassment of losing his own seat in Parliament — only the second sitting prime minister in 106 years of federal government to suffer that fate.

By Michael Tomasky:

Celebrating its 11th year on the air, Fox is a breathtaking institution. It is a lock, stock and barrel servant of the Republican party, devoted first and foremost to electing Republicans and defeating Democrats; it's even run by a man, Roger Ailes, who helped elect Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush senior to the presidency. And yet, because it minimally adheres to certain superficial conventions, it can masquerade as a "news" outfit and enjoy all the rights that accrue to that... Walk into any bar, hair salon, gym or motel lobby in the country; if the TV is tuned to Fox rather than CNN, you know that the owner or clientele or both are Republican.

By VictorM:

The 2007 Major League Soccer came to an end. At the request of friends, here's my take on the 2007 season, relative to the state of the league:

As a league still striving to live up to the first word in its name, Major League Soccer (MLS) had its most eventful and successful year since the inaugural season of 1996. But its success cannot and must not be measured against the NFL (best team sports league in the country) or the EPL (the best soccer league in the world). American soccer haters and soccer snobs respectively keep pushing comparisons to those two leagues, but those arguments are not based on common sense or brought up in good faith. MLS has humbler goals: attracting solid owners, becoming profitable, continually increasing attendance, developing better American players, expanding footprint and visibility, increasing the caliber of play, and playing in stadiums that enhance atmosphere and profits.

In every respect that matters, the league took steps forward in the 2007 season:

Ownership: Solid progress. Several very wealthy individuals joined or are interested in joining, almost all of them with extensive sports management experience. In Seattle, the new owners include Joe Roth (former chairman of Disney Studios and Twentieth Century Fox), Paul Allen (of Microsoft fame and owner of NFL’s Seahawks), and, for cool factor, comedian Drew Carey is now a minority owner; in San Jose, Lew Wolff (owner of the Oakland A’s); and in Chicago, billionaire Andrew Haupman. People looking to join in: Fred Wilpon (owner of NY Mets) and Arthur Blank (owner of Atlanta Falcons), among others. These names are in addition to an already existing list of high-profile owners such as: the Hunts (owners of Kansas City Chiefs), Kraft (New England Patriots), Kroenke (Denver Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, St. Louis Rams), Anschultz (the world’s largest owner of sports teams and sports events) and Toronto’s Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (Toronto Maple Leafs and of NBA’s Raptors). More than attendance figures and TV ratings, the involvement by people of this caliber may be the best gauge of the positive direction of professional soccer in the USA.

Caliber of Play: Several foreign players made contributions in 2007 that elevated the level of play, but the play is still very scrappy at times, lacking consistent ball possession and a transition game that is too slow. Improving the caliber of play is one area that the league needs to address at a faster pace, particularly with expansion coming. The need for more and better players will be the number one issue for the league to resolve. The good news is that they seem quite aware of this situation. It also seems to have sunk in that improvement isn’t coming in the form of American players because: one, while the number of American players with adequate skill is improving, there aren't enough of them; and two, the very best American players still choose to go to Europe. The league has turned its attention to Central and South America to fill the gap. The league needs to continue this practice, hopefully going after players a notch above the current crop. On the development of American players front, the current college system isn’t providing the league with an adequate pipeline of talent. The league is trying to resolve this problem by having each team run their own youth academies, but it may be many years before this system bears significant fruit.

Attendance: In 2007 the league posted its second best per game average (16,670). For the first time ever, the league broke the 3 million attendees mark for a single season. And the most significant improvement to me is this: the number of games with less than 10,000 people in attendance were the lowest ever at 8% (previous best was 18%). And while there was a bump from superstars Beckham and Blanco, neither played a full season. There’s reason to believe that, barring injuries, these 2 players (and possible other superstars in the coming months) will contribute even more to the attendance numbers next season.

Visibility: 2007 was the best year ever in this respect, and it can be summarized with two words: David Beckham. Enough said. TV ratings on ESPN continued to be very modest, but moved in the right direction (25% increase over last year). The biggest gain was on Spanish-speaking TV, another sign that the league made gains attracting life-long soccer fans. Improving the caliber of play and expanding into large media markets are priorities.

Footprint: The Toronto expansion was a huge success as that first year team sold out all its games for an average of 20,000+ and have already sold-out its season tickets for 2008. San Jose will be added in 2008, Seattle in 2009, and either St. Louis or Philadelphia in 2009 or 2010 (hopefully both by 2010). New league goal: 18 teams by 2010 or 2011, then pause and evaluate the progress before resuming expansion.

Stadiums: Seven of this year’s 13 teams (LA, Chivas, Dallas, Columbus, Chicago, Colorado, and Toronto) play in their own soccer specific stadiums with capacities in the desired 20,000 or so range where they control the schedule and share in the concessions and parking. Salt Lake stadium will be ready in 2008, New York in 2009. Houston is still negotiation for theirs and DC United had a setback but they are still aiming for 2010. Kansas City and San Jose are in negotiations to build heir own stadiums and both will play in temporary smaller facilities in 2008 and 2009. St Louis and Philadelphia will be ready with their own stadiums when they join. By 2010, only New England and Seattle will be playing in NFL stadiums but in both cases the owners own both the NFL and MLS teams. Most importantly, the stadiums being built include many soccer fields around the stadiums, making them a destination for local youth and school soccer tournaments, and placing the MLS teams at the center of that activity. This kind of forward thinking is the best sign that the league does have a solid vision for the future.

In summary, the league continues setting up a solid foundation for growth: attracting solid owners, establishing Youth Academies, exercising control and building soccer friendly stadiums, carefully selecting foreign star players, keeping costs down, and steadily increasing revenues (deals with TV, sports gear makers, team sponsors, and SUM – an arm of MLS that promotes non-MLS soccer games).


Tags: soccer, mls, major league soccer

By VictorM

Josh Marshall points out the following about crime in New York City:

New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides this year...

So far they've analyzed about half the murders in the city. And of those only 35 were committed by strangers. That is in a city of over 8 million people. All the rest are by acquaintances of one sort or another -- intimates, business or gang rivals, parents and children, etc.

Death at the hands of people we know has always been an understated factor in the mental picture of crime. But this does suggest that in New York City at least the sort of anonymous death by violence that bulks largest in our fears of crime has fallen to almost microscopic proportions.

How can this be? Rudy is not the mayor anymore (some would like us to believe he's the only one that can fight crime); guns laws are fairly tight; no impact from the death penalty (New York has not had an execution since 1976. There is currently a court ordered moratorium in effect).

This is more proof that we can solve a lot of problems without the 13th century mentality of some loud mouths.

By VictorM:

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, a day to give thanks to all that comes our way. thereisnospoon took the time to thank some of our fellow Republicans for their contributions. Here's just a small sample of his gratitude:

Thanks to Alberto Gonzales for being an inspiration to amnesiacs everywhere.

To Karl Rove, for proving that you don't need a college degree to single-handedly destroy an entire country and political party.

To the conservative Justices of the Supreme Court, for placing human loyalty above the arbitrary dictates of the law.

To senator Larry Craig for value creation to the American economy by turning public restrooms into tourist attractions...

To Senator David Vitter for his continued support of the world's oldest profession...

And finally, to George W. Bush, for proving that even a cocaine-addled dry-drunk, draft-dodging sociopath can grow up to be President--as long as they have the right connections.

By VictorM:

So Huckabee is surging in Iowa. At least the hard-right Christian base there sees what Huckabee really stands for, unlike some liberal who still think he's not so bad.

Not surprisingly, much of Huckabee's Iowa support comes from the GOP's hard-right Christian base. The Post says that almost 70 percent of Iowans who say they're supporting Huckabee are evangelical Protestants, and three-quarters of the Huckabeeans say they go to church at least once a week.

Come on, we've had enough with these types of people in power.

By VictorM:

A while back some "geniuses" had the idea of starting Conservapedia, with the following purpose:

Conservapedia is a Wiki-based encyclopedia coming from a conservative point of view, and does not pretend to be neutral, but does strive to be accurate and fair, and allow other points of view. It is also designed to be a useful resource for students and therefore a family-friendly one, which means that some topics will not be allowed.

It became fodder for many blogs to post some very comical entries (we did it too). But the site was so stupid that I never thought of going back. Some brave soul had the guts to check the site and report this statistic:

Most viewed pages

1. Main Page? [1,895,231]
2. Homosexuality? [1,477,467]
3. Homosexuality and Hepatitis? [516,056]
4. Homosexuality and Promiscuity? [416,446]
5. Homosexuality and Parasites? [387,304]
6. Homosexuality and Gonorrhea? [327,825]
7. Homosexuality and Domestic Violence? [320,084]
8. Gay Bowel Syndrome? [306,808]
9. Homosexuality and Syphilis? [261,806]
10. Homosexuality and Mental Health? [244,134]

Yes, yes, everyone is puzzled by number 8 but what's up with conservatives and gay issues?

Well, at least I'm glad to see that homosexuality is a conservative family-friendly topic.

By Kevin Drum:

You know, I'm willing to cut George Bush a fair amount of slack over Pakistan. There are just no good answers there. But did he really say this about Gen. Pervez Musharraf?

He's been a loyal ally in fighting terrorists. He's also advanced democracy in Pakistan.

Enough's enough. Bush may feel like he has no choice but to support the guy, but it's a travesty for a self-proclaimed democracy promoter to grovel like this over someone with Musharraf's record. Just stop it.

By John Quiggin:

The NY Times has an interesting piece on statistical studies of the deterrent effect (if any) of the death penalty. For those who want to get straight into fact-free debate, the bottom line is that the evidence is too weak to allow a firm conclusion one way or the other.... On the other hand, US experience has shown beyond doubt that innocent people are regularly sentenced to death, and it’s virtually certain that some have been executed.

By VictorM:

In yet another example of "As America Freedom Turns", it's hard to dismiss the hypocrisy of the security guards at Giants stadium.

It has become tradition during half-time of Jets games for men to stand on the Gate D ramps and start obscenity-laced chants for women to expose their breasts. At a recent game, we had this incident:

The mood of previous Gate D crowds — captured on video clips posted on YouTube — sometimes bordered on hostile... One clip online shows a woman being groped by a man standing next to her.

Throughout halftime, about 10 security guards in yellow jackets stood near the bottom of the circular, multilevel ramp located beyond the stadium’s concourse of concession stands and restrooms. One of the guards was smoking a cigarette... Another guard later said they were not permitted to do anything about the chants at Gate D because of free speech laws. Yet when a reporter tried to interview two security guards after halftime, he was detained in a holding room, threatened with arrest and asked to hand over his tape recorder.

There you have it, free speech in America today: stupidity on one hand, abuse and intimidation on the other.

By VictorM:

On November 24 Australians go to voting booths to cast votes in their parliamentary elections. There are hints that Australia may rejoin the rank of the good guys:

CANBERRA, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Australia's conservative government remains well behind the opposition Labor Party and looks likely to be swept from office in parliamentary elections on Nov. 24, a new poll showed on Tuesday.

I hope the final tally matches the results of the above poll. We can't have enough people around the turn turn back from the policies of George Bush and his puppet supporters.

By VictorM:

A couple of years ago, Maykel Galindo, a forward with the Cuban soccer national team, sought asylum in the USA during a trip to Seattle with his team. At the time, his defection to the USA was seen as more proof of the terrible conditions in Cuba.

Now, after 4 years of US occupation in Iraq, after elections, after the "surge", after McCain's shopping spree, after claims that part of Iraq is safe for tourism, and after repeated assertions that things are getting better in Iraq, we have this:

BAGHDAD -- Three members of Iraq's Olympic soccer team and their assistant coach left the team during a trip to Australia and are seeking asylum in the country, Iraq's soccer federation said Monday...

The soccer federation's secretary-general, Tariq Ahmed, said the four disappeared at dawn Sunday from the home of colleagues in Australia, where they were staying after playing Australia's Olympic team a day earlier...

"It's because of the deteriorated security situation and violence against athletes in Iraq," Ahmed told The Associated Press by telephone in Baghdad.

This is not the first time this has happened either:

Three members of Iraq's senior national soccer team refused to return home to Iraq after the Asian Cup victory. Team captain Younis Mahmoud, as well as players Nashat Akram and Hawar Mulla Mohammed, said they feared for their lives.

If that's not enough, we have this statement about the Iraqi national team:

The team practices and plays games outside Iraq.

Come on, let's get real -- Iraq continues to be a disaster!

How much you want to bet that while Galindo was praised for his courage and bravery (and rightly so), the Iraqi players who defected will be viewed as traitors by the right-wing in this country?

By Andrew O'Hehir, review of Amy Chua's "Day of Empire":

[I]mperial powers have universally thrived by accepting and accommodating cultural diversity... but such imperial expansion eventually reaches a tipping point, triggering internal conflict and xenophobia, which leads to imperial decline...

Unlike the Roman and British empires, the American imperium... has little to offer the rest of the world beyond a cultural and ideological bill of goods that is viewed with increasing suspicion. ... our decrepit colossus lumbers around the world feeling unloved, bearing freedom's cup in one hand and an M16 rifle in the other... The American promise of a blend of democracy and capitalism that could make the whole world America-like is hardly taken seriously by anyone anymore, and it's only Americans, cosseted by a soft 'n' squishy mountain of consumer debt and buffeted by wall-to-wall media coverage of Britney's latest indiscretion, who don't know it.

Do we seriously believe the world hasn't noticed that American democracy has been eaten out from within, like a cotton boll infested with weevils, and that American consumer capitalism, cruel as it can be, bears almost no resemblance to the "free markets" inflicted on the developing world? After surveying the global wave of anti-Americanism that flowed from the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the xenophobic post-9/11 backlash within the U.S., Chua concludes that transforming the country into "an aggressively militaristic hyperpower" would be massively costly both in human and financial terms, "without any of the benefits that accrued to empires of the past."

That's a fine conclusion as far as it goes. Chua's mistake, I believe, is to assume -- naively, after all the reading she's done -- that political leaders in 21st century America still possess the will, the ability or even the power to stop the inexorable process of imperial decay.

By Nameless Soldier:

In October of 2003, the United States committed one of the greatest foreign policy blunders in it's history. With the invasion of Iraq, our nation has managed to lose all of the support that the rest of the world had given us after the attacks on 9/11. It was an immoral, unethical, illegal, and embarrassingly poorly planned attack. I'm not proud to be a part of that, I'm just not.

I'm sure that I'm not the only one here who cringes just a touch every time a person "thanks" us for their "freedom." I'm surely not the only one who wants to scream with every hand that they shake at welcome home events. And then, when they have the gall to ask us how the war is going, I can't be the only one who struggles not to scream that the war is wrong and that innocents are dying. I know I'm not alone on that.

But I am a veteran. I'm a veteran of a foreign war, and right or wrong, that means that people see my opinion on certain things as more valuable then it might otherwise have been. I am a veteran who participated in a war he felt was wrong, and I'm a veteran who knows that the war he fought in must end.

By VictorM:

Well, maybe not quite yet, but take a look at the top ten most popular surnames in the country:

1. Smith
2. Johnson
3. Williams
4. Brown
5. Jones
6. Miller
7. Davis
8. Garcia
9. Rodriguez
10. Wilson

Do you see numbers 8 and 9? The ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are moving in. Oh no!! Erect a wall! Put up a fence! Shoot them at the border. Don't treat them at emergency rooms. Round them all up. Expel them. Better yet, let's call them insurgents and start shooting them. Come on, Rudy, save us!

By VictorM:

I've made a point to avoid presidential debates. They have become as useless to picking a candidate as the security color coding system to our safety. Michael Scherer watched the latest Democratic debate, but he gets paid to do so. His debate summary is more than I needed to know:

There should be a law that limits the length of these debates. Life is too short. The candidates can only memorize so many zingers and jokes. But the whole spectacle keeps going, like a bad dream. The candidates all say they want to protect Roe v. Wade, or at least the right to privacy, with their Supreme Court picks. Obama talks about working with Republicans. Biden mentions Bosnia. Richardson talks about adjusting Israel's 1967 borders to broker a peace deal with the Palestinians. Kucinich says, "A president has to be a healer."... The last question from the audience goes to Clinton. "Do you prefer diamonds or pearls?" Of course, everyone already knows Clinton's answer. "I want both," she says.

At least the Republican show is more entertaining, in a Dumb and Dumber sorta way.

By VictorM:

This is what I call a "can't lose" proposition for God:

Georgia is in the midst of an awful drought, and state officials are running out of ideas to deal with the area’s water shortage. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) responded by organizing a multi-denominational prayer service, in which state officials and clergy would collectively ask The Man Upstairs to turn on the water works.... Perdue implicitly conceded that the state has been negligent in its conservation efforts — his administration saw this coming, but decided not to pursue more stringent conservation measures — but apparently wants God to give Georgia another chance.

So, if it rains, God gets the credit. If it doesn't, even I would consider that maybe there is a God because a conservative government that is that irresponsible, and the people that put them there, don't deserve the help.

By Kevin Drum:

In the LA Times this morning, Peter Nicholas writes a piece about Hillary Clinton's operation being "too scripted." The hook, of course, is the planted question at a campaign stop last week:

"It's a small thing that could be a metaphor for a bigger concern for people — over-management and too much caution," said Robert M. Shrum, a senior advisor to the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry.

Exactly. As everyone acknowledges, campaigns plant questions all the time. It's literally a nonstory. There hasn't even been a suggestion that Hillary does it more than anyone else, let alone that she's doing anything unusual.

But it gives the press an excuse to write about something they've all been itching to write about anyway. The planted question itself may be trivial, but the license it gives everyone to build enormous fairy castle metaphors about "what's wrong with Hillary" isn't. Is it any wonder that she's so cautious around the media?

By VictorM:

In one word: WOW!

I don't know if I looked away or if I chewed my popcorn too loudly, but somehow I missed that the movie takes place in 1980. I didn't learn that until after I saw the movie.

Excellent suspense movie with amazing settings, intriguing camera angles, great pacing, violent, with remarkable characters majestically portrayed not only by the big stars, but by every single character actor involved.

The writing is the star of the show. For example, the dialog between the killer and the gas station attended is so intriguing in its simplicity that you just never want it to end, in part because you have an inkling of how it might end. The smallest of conversations, with the smallest of characters begs for your attention. And the chase scene down the river... man oh man... how creative and frightening.

This movie has a simple story line: a simple man recovers a bag with $2 million from a drug deal gone bad, and an assassin is in pursuit of that money. Simple, no? But this is not primarily a plot movie, it's mainly a character study film. Not only a study of law men, outlaws, and nobodies, but above all, a character study of a nation at a pivotal time in it's social fabric. Hence the importance of realizing the movie takes place in 1980.

By Joe Klein:

Rudy endorsed by telecharlatan Pat Robertson, who said that 9/11 was a judgment on the sinfulness of Rudy's beloved city? Question: Who's more desperate? Robertson, who's losing stroke with the younger generation of fundamentalists...or Rudy, who would actually accept the endorsement from this dreadful man? My guess is it helps neither, may hurt both because of the sheer cynicism of the deal.

By Paul Krugman:

The United States spends far more on health care per person than any other nation. Yet we have lower life expectancy than most other rich countries. Furthermore, every other advanced country provides all its citizens with health insurance; only in America is a large fraction of the population uninsured or underinsured.

By VictorM:

I had to take a double take, scratch my eyes, check the calendar to make sure this was not April 1, and I'm still skeptical. My first reaction after reading this interview with Newt Gingrich was: "what does he have up his sleeve?"

Now, for some answers from the evil man himself:

Do you think that we should preserve the environment primarily for economic reasons or moral ones?

First of all, I don't think that you preserve the environment. The environment is constantly changing, constantly evolving. But I think that you want to nurture the environment and protect the environment from undue damage largely for moral reasons. It's part of our quality of life, and part of our relationship to a larger world. We ourselves are diminished when the environment is diminished.

Who do you think is to blame for these problems?

The human race. We have been very, very successful at using resources to make our lives longer, healthier, wealthier, and with greater choices. One of the side effects has been that we've had a bigger and bigger impact on the environment as we've grown more and more capable, particularly in manufacturing and agriculture...

Do you think that it's been a mistake for conservatives to pooh-pooh environmental concerns as so much woolly tree-hugging?

Yes. Absolutely. It's been a very significant mistake for conservatives to not recognize that Americans are overwhelmingly committed to the environment as a value. We need an environmental policy which is proactive and provides leadership both in America and around the world.

Since you're speaking to a liberal audience, why do you think that liberals should be bipartisan on an issue they've basically owned?

They can own the issue forever and get nothing done. Or they can reach out and decide to have a bipartisan discussion and get something done. It's up to them to decide. Because it's very unlikely that we're going to solve the environment on a purely partisan basis.

It is obvious to me that Newt has decided to cut some losses. He knows that the conservative position is a total loser on this issue, so he's trying to salvage some of their disgusting agenda. His position is designed to pull the global warming issue more to the middle. His ideas and suggestions denote a shift from where conservatives have been on this issue, which is a step in the right direction, but falls far short of what we need to do.

Frankly, we should tell him to go shove his "concern" up is selfish and greedy ass.

By Simon Rosenberg:

Just three days after their 2nd consecutive election where a massive investment in demonizing immigrants did not pay off their Party, the leading GOP Presidential candidates have agreed to participate in a December Univision debate in Miami. There is simply no way to read this action as anything but a national repudiation of their extreme anti-immigrant strategy of recent years, and a desperate attempt to beg the Hispanic community for forgiveness.

By VictorM:

The mess that is Iraq, the mess that is Afghanistan (I thought we had "won" this one already?), and the mess that is Pakistan, the country that Bush went to bed with, continue to pile on to the "axis of Bush fuckups":

Six U.S. troops were killed when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in the high mountains of eastern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday. The attack, the most lethal against American forces this year, made this year the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion...

Mohammad Daoud Nadim, Nuristan deputy police chief, said the ambush happened in the remote province's Waygal district, about 40 miles from the border with Pakistan, which militants are known to use as a sanctuary.

I guess the new Republican party motto should be: Why should Americans die over here if they can die over there in greater numbers?

By VictorM:

The Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer (MLS) -- yes, that's David Beckham's team -- has hired Ruud Gullit as it new coach. The Galaxy are a team in search of improvement and the league is in search of relevance and respect. The hiring of Gullit is a good step in the right direction.

During his peak playing days, Ruud Gullit was the best footballer in the world. His two World Footballer of the Year awards are a testament to his quality as a player. His coaching record is not as positive but still very respectable at the highest level of the sport.

The hiring of Gullit is a bold and encouraging move. If the Galaxy are going to become a better team and if the league is going to take another step forward, they both need to take some risks. Taking a chance on a man with such soccer pedigree is worth it.

By VictorM:

The "for profit" health system we have in this country is at the heart of the many problems we're facing. The Los Angeles Times, in a nice investigative report, nails another health insurer practicing the despicable practices that those of us who care have known all along:

One of the state's largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved.

Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed.

The revelation that the health plan had cancellation goals and bonuses comes amid a storm of controversy over the industry-wide but long-hidden practice of rescinding coverage after expensive medical treatments have been authorized.

By VictorM:

Poor right-wingers, they just can't pick a winning side. Not only are right-wingers losing the occupation war against Iraqis, they are also losing their war against the American people:

Support for the war in Iraq has dropped to 31 percent and the 68 percent who oppose the war is a new record.

Despite the drop in violence in Iraq, only one quarter of Americans believes the U.S. is winning the war. There has been virtually no change in the past month in the number of Americans who believe that things are going badly for the U.S. in the war in Iraq.

The public also opposes U.S. military action against Iran. Sixty-three percent oppose air strikes on Iran, while 73 percent oppose using ground troops as well as air strikes in that country.

Overall, 56 percent, of Americans are dissatisfied with progress in the war on terrorism.

By Kevin Drum, after pointing out that "57% of Ohio's charter schools recently received a grade of D or F on the state's school report card":

[A]n awful lot of voucher proponents are motivated either by some Platonic devotion to the free market as a panacea for everything or by a desire to make sure their kids attend only schools with the right racial or religious makeup. Ditto for things like hating on teachers unions or the endless textbook wars, which are mostly articles of faith untouched by questions of whether they actually make a difference in educational outcomes. It's great fodder for the culture war hucksters, but not so good for actual children.

By BF:

I watched a 50's movie yesterday entitled The Circle of Deception. It was about the British sending a soldier to German-occupied France duirng WWII with the intention that he be captured, tortured and broken to give the Germans misleading information.

What torture did those hideous Nazis use? First beating with a cord, then electric shock and finally waterboarding. So shameful that we now find ourselves in this position! Unbelievable.

By VictorM:

Starting with this guy Bill Keller, religious fanatics are truly hideous people. But in this case, they're right about Romney, not that I think his religion has much to do with it. Oh well... couldn't have happened to a "nicer" fellow *snort*:

[Bill Keller] has called Oprah Winfrey a "new-age witch," the Koran "a book of fables," and the prophet Mohammed a "murdering pedophile,"... and in recent months, Keller has focused his biblical fire on a new target, Mitt Romney. Keller opposes Romney because the Republican presidential contender is a Mormon.

"A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan," Keller declared in his daily e-mail devotional last May. His reasoning went like this: Romney's election would serve as a giant advertisement for a competing religion, Mormonism, which Keller and others believe has falsely portrayed itself as another form of Christianity in an effort to find converts. "He would influence people to seek out the Mormon faith," Keller predicted of a Romney presidency. "They would get sucked into those lies and they would eventually die and go to hell."

By Mahablog:

Motoko Rich writes in that some conservative authors are suing their publisher, Regnery:

Five authors have sued the parent company of Regnery Publishing, a Washington imprint of conservative books, charging that the company deprives its writers of royalties by selling their books at a steep discount to book clubs and other organizations owned by the same parent company....

Jeez, guys, welcome to capitalism. I don’t know what socialist paradise you’ve been living in, but it’s all about the company’s profit in these parts, buckaroos.

By VictorM:

This USA Today/Gallup poll shows movement in the right direction, but these numbers are still too good for the worst president ever:

Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they "strongly disapprove" of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.

By VictorM:

This AP sports writer is one easily confused little person. I have to question how bright he/she is, or maybe just how resistant he/she is to anything that's different. Consider this quote:

In the ever-confusing MLS playoff format, the Houston Dynamo beat FC Dallas 2-1 Friday night and advanced to the Western Conference finals... But it wasn’t enough just to win. The 2-1 victory only tied the aggregate-score playoff series because of Dallas’ previous 1-0 win earlier in the series. It wasn’t until Brian Ching and Brad Davis scored goals in the two 15-minute extra periods that the Dynamo could advance.

"In the ever-confusing MLS playoff format"... what is so confusing about aggregate score? Here's what it means: two teams play each other twice (home and away) and the combined scores of both games determines the winner of the series. What's so confusing about that?

Sure, no other America sport does it this way, but that doesn't make aggregate score confusing. Or maybe you think it's a dumb way of doing it, but that still doesn't make it confusing. So why call it "ever-confusing" when it's plain as day? Again, the combined scores determines the winner. It's quite simple, in fact.

By dengre:

I’ve been following the impact of Washington’s Culture of Corruption for almost a decade. It is why sweatshops, human trafficking, forced prostitution and other crimes have been (and still are) being protected by the US Congress. But that story was just my way into researching and writing about the cancerous impact of corruption on our Nation, Government, values and politics.

A just solution to every issue of concern is blocked by corruption.

You want universal health care, or even a simple expansion of SCHIP—well you have to bust through layers of corruption just to begin the process.

Ending the war is next to impossible without confronting the massive corruption that feeds off the growing disaster.

Any issue, any concern is blocked by corruption. Look at the Farm Bill, or the renewed push for nuclear power, or FEMA, or... well, anything.

The voters get this...

Now if only the Democrats in the 110th Congress and the other Candidates for President would engage the issue—then we might actually save the Republic from the cancer of corruption.

By Russ Feingold, currently the best US Senator in the land:

I will vote against the nomination of Judge Mukasey to be the next Attorney General. This was a difficult decision, as Judge Mukasey has many impressive qualities. He is intelligent and experienced and appears to understand the need to depoliticize the Department of Justice and restore its credibility and reputation.

At this point in our history, however, the country also needs an Attorney General who will tell the President that he cannot ignore the laws passed by Congress. Unfortunately, Judge Mukasey was unwilling to reject the extreme and dangerous theories of executive power that this administration has put forward.

The nation's top law enforcement officer must be able to stand up to a chief executive who thinks he is above the law. The rule of law is too important to our country's history and to its future to compromise on that bedrock principle.