Diálogo Plural

This column from the LA Times by Michael Hiltzik (see his Twitter profile ) admonishes readers about thinking and analyzing all of the hogwash concerning health care reform that is being sold as truth in some media outlets. Three interesting things about the article: historical reference, this isn't the first time that ground-breaking public policy aimed at saving the Republic from certain ruin is attempted to be put down by bad-faith politics (another reason why political science without history has no roots, my students should take note); conservative junk-logic, half-truths without evidence captivates the attention of media and the public, who should know better, to quote Hiltzik, "Into the vacuum of information poured supposition masquerading as fact (certainly a familiar phenomenon today)"; and, third, debating 'incompetence' meaning how Democrats are still looking for a way to effectively countering conservative opposition to health care reform instead of...

Reading the Huffington Post this Sunday (Aug 23) morning I stumbled upon this New York Times editorial (see the link below) that makes a moral case for health care reform. This is something that the White House should have done from the beginning months ago.  Instead, the administration chose to apply political pressure in a very imprudent manner by rushing health care reform through Congress and imposing a very short deadline. It also fell prey to "centrist" democratic senators (centrist...right, they are conservatives in democratic disguise, only interested in their own self-preservation), and very un-republican conservative leadership obsessed with opposing everything the Obama administration proposes not on political, or even ideological, grounds but on pathological enmity to this particular administration and hatred of all things government. It makes them very unreasonable and definitely uncivil. This in itself is not surprising, what is really appaling is the delay on t...

This feature from Time Magazine shows photos of the late Senator Edward Kennedy throughout his life. A most extraordinary hommage to a man who ushered civil rights legislation through Congress and worked tirelesy, even in the worst of his condition, to extend health care to all Americans. Passing a Health Care Reform Act would be a fitting tribute indeed. http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1918750,00.html Sent from my iPhone

This extended article from Associated Press (see below) lists all the legislative achievements and political life of this man whose career expanded nearly five decades in the United States Senate and became the head of on Irish-American political clan that deeply influenced American politcs. It also mentions the tragedies endured by this family. Thank you Senator Kennedy. May you rest in peace. Mass. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy dies at age 77 http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_16026/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=aysplNAU Sent from my iPhone

Controversy abounds. Swedish daily Aftonbladet denounces the selling of vital organs from Palestinians by Israeli soldiers, reports Italy's La Reppublica. Swedish and Israeli goverments are furious at the most prestigious newspaper. If there is truth in the allegations it is a most serious violation of Palestinian Human Rights and worse (I'm thinking here about old traditions of handling Muslim bodies). If Aftonbladet is wrong I fear for the consequences in terms of prestige for press outlets, not only in Israel but worldwide. See below and tell me what you think. http://www.repubblica.it/2009/08/sezioni/esteri/israele-svezia/israele-svezia/israele-svezia.html?rss Sent from my iPhone

Of course they are. Should we have let them collapse? Debatable. The leftist in me says ‘let them burn!’ , to which my common-sensical guy says ‘and then what?’ and argues ‘if they collapse, we fall along with them and society at large suffers’ . Now, the social democrat in me says ‘the regulatory state is still relevant’ and chides the market- is -the-panacea way of thinking along with the conservative right for damaging the essential elements – however imperfect – of the social contract. This guy, the social democrat, is also very dissapointed at how some center-left movements in Western Europe, the French Socialist Party (out of ideas), the British new Labour Party (out of steam), and the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party (out of everything else), are losing ground and in clear retreat when this political juncture should be a time for the center-left to reorganize, get in touch with their grassroots and the electorate and offer policy proposals of their own. The political sci...

Something extraordinary is still happening in Iran. Trials of opposition leaders designed to intimidate critics of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hardline regime are not having the intended effect. Voices are raised from every corner of the system telling that the trial and all the charade that feeds it is wrong and that further repression will end up imploding Iran.  In a previous post I talked about how the present woes have at least part of their origin in past events. Some wouldn't like to be reminded but secularism (laïcité) was destroyed the day the United States and te United Kingdom decided to oust Dr. Mossadegh's left-wing government. Also, the oil junkies that we are and the political obsession with the region probably intensified at the time (1950s).  Nevertheless, it still amazes me how, after three decades of religious rigidity people who lived through, and were born after the 1979 Islamic revolution are ready to have the regime loosening up that rigidity - through democrati...