Wake Up

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog An excellent resource, and one worth pushing up the Google pagerankings so more people find out about it.

Amount pledged yesterday by Bush for tsunami relief: $15 million Amount to be spent on Bush’s inauguration (not counting security costs): $30-40 million [via Atrios]

Ginger looks at three trends that she thinks are signs of the thinning of the middle class. I have to say that I agree with her on all three, especially the point about the way sales of luxury items are increasing. I think this is something that will continue over the next four years, and […]

Columnist Maureen Dowd gives us a new twist on It’s A Wonderful Life: EXTERIOR BRIDGE OVER POTOMAC RIVER – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT – Rummy is standing by the railing, staring morosely into the water. The snow is falling hard. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he wheels around and wrestles an old man with wings […]

Writer Nick Mamatas shares this: In Pennsylvania, with less than a month before the first biology class begins discussing intelligent design theory at Dover Area High School, teachers are nervous. That’s right, teaching Intelligent Design (ID) theory, which posits that biochemical structures and processes, like bloodclotting, are sooooo complex that they must have been designed […]

While looking around the web for good articles about the Social Security privatization scam, I came across this excellent piece by economist Nouriel Roubini: As widely reported by the press, a partial privatization of Social Security via the creation of private accounts is one of the top policy priorities of the Bush II administration. But […]

Apparently the DNC wants the money, energy effort provided by progressive bloggers, but then wants to shut them out when it comes time to work on picking new leadership. There’s something wrong when the chairs and executive directors go on and on with their praise toward the internet that’s brought millions into the coffers of […]

There’s a lot to say about the farce that is Social Security privatization, so I guess it’s about time I start posting about some of these pieces rather than just collecting the links as they come to my attention. Paul Krugman takes a break from his hiatus to offer this: Privatizing Social Security – replacing […]

Maureen Down talks about the scary similarities between the ways religion was used by Hitler and is used by the current U.S. administration and its allies: Yes, many of Hitler’s faith-based comments could have come from George Bush himself, and are undoubtedly the kinds of sentiments many Americans not only agree with — but take […]

Ukrainians when told that their election was stolen [Salon daypass required]. Americans when told that their election was stolen.