Archive for March, 2010
March 23, 2010
The Invisible Immigration Rally
(written with Peter Siavelis) Did anyone even notice? Last Sunday’s massive immigration rally was supposed to push political leaders towards comprehensive immigration reform. Unfortunately it was largely overshadowed by the final vote on healthcare reform. Hunt for coverage of the rally in the national press and you will find it, but you will have to […] read more »
March 22, 2010
Health Care for the Ages: Initial Reaction to the Passage of Health Care Reform
Yesterday (March 21 2010) was a good day. The House vote for health care reform was a good vote. It started us on a journey towards universal health care. It threw up a road block against some of the most egregious practices of the insurance industry. It established the principle that when you’re healthy you […] read more »
March 21, 2010
Another Debt to Jon Stewart
The debt that progressives owe to Jon Stewart and The Daily Show is large and growing. It certainly grew again last Thursday when the program delivered a much needed demolition job on Glenn Beck. The critique delivered that day has been made by others – not least by David Sarota and Adele Stan immediately after […] read more »
March 21, 2010
Before the Vote: Commentary on the health care debate before March 21 2010
The importance of health care reform was brought home sharply by data released February 20th, showing that in June 2009 48.9 million Americans were enrolled in Medicaid programs country-wide, an increase of nearly 3.3 million on the number in June 2008 (This data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, reported in The New York Times February […] read more »
March 7, 2010
Winning reform one hard-fought trench at a time
The great Italian revolutionary Antonio Gramsci once explained the success of the Russian Bolsheviks and the failure of their Western European comrades by using a military image from the First World War. When Lenin took the first trench in his fight with Czardom, the old regime had no supporting defensive trenches to fall back on. […] read more »
March 7, 2010
Immigration: Recent Developments in 2010
Latest figures from the Office of Immigration Statistics show the total size of the undocumented population actually falling in 2009: down from its January 2007 peak of 11.8 million by 200,00 through 2008 and by a further 800,000 through 2009: to give a current total of 10.8 million. Those numbers do not, of course, prevent […] read more »
