"Despite the heated politics of Watergate, national health-care legislation was proceeding in Congress thanks to a compromise brokered by a young Democratic senator from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy, a Nixon nemesis. But then, according to a 1974 political almanac published by Congressional Quarterly, the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers lobbied successfully to kill the plan. Unions hoped to get a better deal after the next elections."

Democrats’ health plans echo Nixon’s failed GOP proposal | McClatchy

Oops.

via Matthew Yglesias.

"to enter a space where a person is talking about their own experiences and to tell them they are wrong, that they will not be affected that way, that it is not that big a deal, and that you know so because of your research or your logic - that is the opposite of learning. that is affirmatively shutting down discussions which could lead to learning. and it makes it much less likely that the person with experience - the person without whom you cannot learn the essential details of the issue - will be willing to participate in such a discussion in the future."

think on this.: it is so hard

"A wide variety of government policies here in the western desert region of Xinjiang, a lightly populated area that covers about a sixth of China’s total landmass, has for years led many of the area’s 10 million Uighurs to believe their culture and livelihoods were under assault by the Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group in China, according to local residents, foreign scholars and recent studies of the area. The policies include limits on religious practice, the phasing out of Uighur-language instruction in schools and the reinforcement of better economic opportunities for the Han, from businesspeople to migrant workers. Uighurs are the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang, but Han migration, encouraged in part by government incentives, is quickly changing the demographics here: census figures show that the Han made up 40 percent of the population in 2000, a huge leap over the 6 percent in 1949. Under the Chinese Communist Party, Han Chinese have always held the power in Xinjiang. Wang Lequan, the party secretary of the region, is a Han whose hard-line policies have inspired systems of control in other ethnic minority regions of China, including Tibet. “Fundamentally, the relationship between Uighur and Han is one of colonized to colonizer,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch who has written about policies in Xinjiang. That dynamic may have laid the foundation for the riot on Sunday, when angry Uighurs attacked Han civilians and battled with security forces across the city. Government officials declined Tuesday to give an ethnic breakdown of the dead. The riot, in which more than 1,000 people were wounded, began as a protest over government handling of a brawl between Uighur and Han factory workers in southern China. On Tuesday afternoon, thousands of Han Chinese armed with sticks, shovels, pipes and meat cleavers tried to march to the Uighur quarter to exact revenge for the Han civilians who were killed on Sunday. Paramilitary troops fired tear gas at the mob, but not before the first wave got into a brick-throwing battle with Uighurs perched on rooftops near Erdaoqiao Market, where the rioting had begun on Sunday."

China Official Threatens Death Penalty After Riots - NYTimes.com

I needed a quick lesson on what’s happening in China. I figured you might need one too.

"According to the Argentine newspaper El Clarín, the new “chancellor” [foreign minister] Enrique Ortez took part in a journalistic TV program in Honduras where he was asked about the international reactions to the coup d’etat. Ortez said that he gave no importance whatsoever to the OAS and “the other little groups out there”, he said (Spanish premier) José Luis Rodrígues Zapatero should “go back to his shoes*” and said that he was not going to talk about (Honduras neighbour) El Salvador “because it’s not worth talking about such a small country, where you can’t even play football because the ball lands in another country”. But he went for more by defining President Barack Obama of The United States as “that little black man who doesn’t know anything”."

IKN: Honduras’s de facto chancellor: “Obama is a little black man who knows nothing.”

IKN (who translated the above quote) updated with the following:

“I’ve had a couple of mails from people about what this Ortez scumbag actually said about Obama, so here goes with a bit more. His precise words in Spanish were “Ese negrito que no sabe nada de nada”. I decided to translate this as “that little black man who knows nothing” or “that little black man who doesn’t know anything” to stay away from the controversial side of the statement and be as bland as possible. In fact the use of the word “negrito”, i.e. the diminuitive of “negro”, is very derogatory in nature and overtly racist in context; the kind of racism that would force the resignation of any public figure in the USA (for example). One mailer offered up the translation of “that know-nothing black boy” to get the proper feeling of the message implied by Ortez, and although it’s extremely difficult to hit the translatory nail on the head in this case, I’d tend to agree that the offered translation captures the sentiment better than my deliberately bland version.”

via majikthise

JFK Memorial, Dallas, TX
April 11, 1995

Wikipedia: “This monument stands 30 feet (9 m) high, 50 feet (15.2 m) long and 50 feet (15.2 m) wide. Crafted of pre-fabricated white concrete, it is reinforced with steel beams within its walls. The four walls form a room open to the sky. Its architecture is described as minimalist, as the creation was downgraded from marble to concrete in 1970. The open-air structure resembles an empty tomb, or cenotaph.”

anas a.: “One interesting thing to note, this open air monument is located in a noisy area of downtown, the walls are not just some cubic design. When we step inside the walls, we won’t hear any sound … giving us moments of silence and to reflect what had happened. Pretty profound to me, as it’s much better than erecting a statue there, it may have not expressed what the nation has felt.”

The monument seems to have been cleaned since then. I liked this visitor’s experience of the monument and I think the industrial dirt on the outside adds another layer to think about.

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill. […] According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus it wasn’t worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans."

Roll Call - Reid to Baucus: Stop Chasing GOP Votes on Health Care

Hullabaloo | The Plot Thickens

via atrios

"The former President of the Honduran Supreme Court lays out her argument about why Zelaya’s removal did not constitute a coup. The logic is as follows: First, according to Article 239 of the constitution, no one can propose to reform presidential term limits. Second, according to the same article, anyone who does is immediately relieved of their post. Third, if you ask whether voters want a constitutional commission, you are automatically saying you want to abolish the constitution. Fourth, by order of the Supreme Court, Zelaya was no longer president at the time he was detained, and therefore the illegal act of removing him from the country did not happen to a president. Hence there was no coup. Obviously, number 3 is the stickiest point. As has been noted repeatedly, Zelaya’s proposal never mentioned presidential terms and did not say the constitution would be abolished."

Honduras: the Supreme Court’s case

via azspot

View high resolution

“Some examples of federal programs that use the guidelines in determining eligibility are:
* HHS: Community Services Block Grant, Head Start, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance, Children’s Health Insurance Program
* Department of Agriculture: Food Stamps; Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs
* Department of Energy: Weatherization Assistance
* Department of Labor: Job Corps, Senior Community Service Employment Program, National Farmworker Jobs Program
* Legal Services Corporation: Legal services for the poor”

What are Poverty Thresholds and Poverty Guidelines?

"The individual mandate is going to demand that people have something called “insurance.” The employer mandate is going to push employers to give their workers something called “insurance.” The subsidies will exist to help people buy something called “insurance.” But “insurance” can mean a lot of different things. Congress is going to set a definition for the lowest level of acceptable coverage. If that level is too low, we may end up in a situation where almost everyone is “insured” but those people aren’t really protected."

Ezra Klein - The Five Most Important Pieces of Health-Care Reform That Aren’t the Public Plan

View high resolution

Akimbo: “Articles from India, Mali, Spain, the UK and the US, illustrated with beautiful photographs by Mathilde Bouvard, discuss pleasure and sex work, the failures of raids to help trafficked persons, violence against sex workers and more. The journal has just released its 11th issue in English and French, which you can download as a PDF by visiting the website, or you can request a paper copy by emailing editor [at] r4sw.org.”

Research for Sex Work 11

View high resolution

ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images

The Honduran coup d’etat - The Big Picture

via romeojulietsierra

“This project in downtown Phoenix was supposed to include nearly two dozen luxury homes, priced from $2.8 million to $4.5 million. But by early 2007, the city’s high-end condominium market — which was among the country’s hottest — had become oversaturated. Prices started to fall, and Chateaux on Central’s developer, Central PHX Partners, declared bankruptcy. A local commercial lender, Mortgages Ltd., stepped in that year with an offer to provide nearly $50 million in loans to help Central PHX complete construction. But the deal turned sour, and in March 2008, the developer sued Mortgages Ltd., claiming the lender had not made promised payments. On June 2, 2008, the C.E.O. of Mortgages Ltd., Scott Coles, committed suicide. At the time, one-third of his company’s loans were in default. More than a year later, Chateaux on Central remains unoccupied and unfinished.”

Ruins of the Second Gilded Age - The New York Times Magazine

via Atrios

Felix Salmon » California: The haves and have-nots

"Applicant has not made any substantial payments on the loans,” the judges wrote in a terse decision and an unusual rejection of the committee’s recommendation. “Applicant has not presently established the character and general fitness requisite for an attorney and counselor-at-law.” Mr. Bowman, 47, appears to have crossed some unspoken line with his $400,000 in student debt and penalties, accumulated over many years. New York’s courts have overlooked misconduct like lawyers’ solicitation of minors for sex, efforts to deceive judges and possession of cocaine. Those instances have led merely to temporary suspensions from practice."

Aspiring Lawyer Finds Debt Is Bigger Hurdle Than Bar Exam - NYTimes.com

I’m not sure if I’m ever going to switch over to reading the Chicago Tribune. I know I haven’t lived in New York State for a while now, and have lived in Massachusetts and Arizona since then as well, but I can’t stop reading the Times.