Kudos To The NY Times
This week’s NY Times Magazine is truly special. The entire edition is dedicated to the plight of women around the world. Nick Kristof, op-ed columnist at the Old Gray Lady has been doing a spectacular job on that front. He has brought us all kinds of heart wrenching and heart warming stories from different parts of the world.
Along with former Times correspondent Sheryl WuDunn, Kristof has co-authored Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The essay linked to here, is adapted from that book.
The Women’s Crusade
IN THE 19TH CENTURY, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape.
Yet if the injustices that women in poor countries suffer are of paramount importance, in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater. “Women hold up half the sky,” in the words of a Chinese saying, yet that’s mostly an aspiration: in a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and it’s not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and riven by fundamentalism and chaos.
Hillary Clinton has been derided for making women’s issues one of the signatures of her tenure at Foggy Bottom. Krauthammer mocked her for being in the Congo while the real foreign policy was happening in Afghanistan, some pundit said she was making the job a 1st lady should be doing and not a SoS.
Why should the US making women equality across the world a moral imperative? Why should the US call attention to women abuse across the world? Why is Hillary bugging people with this “useless women stuff”?
Hillary Clinton’s Latest Campaign
Hillary Rodham Clinton staked her claim as an advocate for global women’s issues in 1995, when, as first lady, she gave an impassioned speech at a United Nations conference in Beijing. As secretary of state, she pushed to create a new position, ambassador at large for global women’s issues, and recruited Melanne Verveer, her former chief of staff, to fill it. And she has drawn attention to women at nearly every stop in her travels, most recently on an 11-day visit to Africa, during which, among other things, she went to eastern Congo to speak out against mass rape.
Speaking of Hillary Clinton
It’s 3 a.m. Do You Know Where Hillary Clinton Is? (h/t TC commenter joseyj)
She’s not answering those crisis calls at the White House. But she’s quietly revolutionizing American foreign policy.
Heath Care Nightmare
It was about time.
Concern, Doubts From the Left on Obama’s Health-Care Plan
Through most of the summer, opposition to President Obama and his health-care initiative has come almost entirely from the right. In the past week, however, the president has been trying to tamp down a noisy uprising on the left.
The immediate cause for the rebellion is growing concern among Obama’s progressive allies that he is prepared to deal away the public insurance option to win passage of a health-care bill. Obama insists that he still prefers the public option as part of any legislative package, but some friends on the left now clearly doubt his resolve.
This story was been pushed by opponents of HC reform and Chris Matthews relentlessly.
Abortion wars intensify over healthcare reform
Anti-abortion groups are posting videos and running ads saying that health-reform legislation in Congress would mandate federal funding of abortions. Pro-abortion rights groups – and President Obama – say that’s false. Two independent truth-squad groups, Factcheck.org and Politifact.org, also call the claim false, but Politifact acknowledges that the issue of federal subsidies for abortion is a more difficult question.
This is a tough issue.
Why Racial Profiling Persists in Medical Research
Experts within the research community say a small but stubborn streak of racial profiling has long persisted in the medical literature, borne out in studies that attribute health disparities between blacks and whites not to socioeconomics or access to health care alone but also to genetic differences between the races — a concept that implies that a biological category of race exists.
This is the man to save the day?
Daschle Has the Ear of the White House and the Health Industry
[T]hese days it often seems as if Mr. Daschle never left the picture. With unrivaled ties on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, he talks constantly with top White House advisers, many of whom previously worked for him.
He still speaks frequently to the president, who met with him as recently as Friday morning in the Oval Office. And he remains a highly paid policy adviser to hospital, drug, pharmaceutical and other health care industry clients of Alston & Bird, the law and lobbying firm.
Competition lacking among private health insurers
One of the most widely accepted arguments against a government medical plan for the middle class is that it would quash competition — just what private insurers seem to be doing themselves in many parts of the U.S.
Several studies show that in lots of places, one or two companies dominate the market. Critics say monopolistic conditions drive up premiums paid by employers and individuals.
Around The Nation
Why won’t this guy joust resign to go spend more time with is true soulmate? Or his family? This is turning into a death by 1000 cuts.
Sanford’s difficulties mounting
As talk of impeachment grows, the S.C. Ethics Commission said Friday it would consider probing new claims Gov. Mark Sanford failed to report private plane flights provided by friends and political groups.
[…]
The Associated Press reported Friday that Sanford has taken 35 trips on private planes since 2003 and failed to report on his ethics or campaign filings who paid for those rides.
An investigation that concludes Sanford violated state law could be used as the foundation for impeachment proceedings by House lawmakers when they come back into session in January.
Can any criticism of an individual or an institution still have some merits in this country? Had this “card” defense become the last refuge of the scoundrels?
Goldman Execs Blame Anti-Semitism
How worried are Goldman Sachs executives about their ability to manage the coming media tsunami when bonus season comes around?
Paranoia might not be too strong a word to describe the mind-set. People inside Goldman tell me that some senior executives say they believe the onslaught of negative stories detailing Goldman’s manifold ties to upper levels of government, charges that it somehow fraudulently profited from the subprime crisis, and now the press about the firm’s record earnings is so out of proportion to reality that the coverage contains an element of anti-Semitism—subtly playing off the racist myth of a conspiracy of Jewish bankers controlling the world for their own benefit
Meg Whitman is truly a brilliant person. She did a spectacular job at eBay. Please don’t lump her with Carli Fiorina who through sheer incompetence and pomposity almost sunk one of the greatest companies in history.
California GOP Pins Hopes on Ex-CEOs
After Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced a Democrat in 2003 to become California’s governor, fellow Republicans were hopeful the former movie hero’s popularity would help arrest a long decline here.
But six years later, Republican voter registration continues to fall, and now many in the party are pegging their hopes on two former corporate chief executives: Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina.
Economy Watch
Even with all the administrative snafus, “C4C” has been a smashing success.
Scrambling for Deals as ‘Clunkers’ Winds Down
The program, which by Friday had received applications for nearly half a million cars, restored the frenetic, crackling energy that many dealerships had been lacking for months.
Has the economic downfall stopped? Has the recovery begun? What should we still be afraid of? Why are we still losing jobs?
You can find the answers in the articles below.
World Bankers Suggest Rebound May Have Begun
Central bankers from around the world expressed growing confidence on Friday that the worst of the financial crisis was over and that a global economic recovery was beginning to take shape.
[…]
Though the Fed chairman repeated his warning that the economic recovery here was likely to be slow and arduous and that unemployment would remain high for another year, he went beyond the central bank’s most recent statement that economic activity was “leveling out.” Speaking to central bankers and economists at the Fed’s annual retreat here in the Grand Tetons, Mr. Bernanke echoed the growing relief among European and Asian central bankers that their own economies had already started to rebound.
New signs raise hopes for recovery
The strongest monthly home sales increase in a decade and an encouraging economic assessment from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke have provided new support for the hope that recovery from the worst recession in decades may be at hand.
Commercial Credit Crunch Means We May Not Be Out of This Yet
You’ve probably heard that the nation’s financial system is out of the intensive care unit but still requires enough support that it’s not ready to be released from the hospital. A big reason: the fear of a relapse caused by the collapse of the commercial real estate market.
Did central bankers wait too long to intervene in the crisis and once they did, were they too timid?
ECB, Fed Defend Responses to Global Financial Crisis
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet defended his institution against criticism that he’s been too cautious in combating the deepest economic slump since the 1930s.
The policies of the world’s major central banks, led by Trichet, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa, were scrutinized by economists at the annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this weekend sponsored by the Kansas City Fed.
Around The World
“War on terror 2.0” is shaping up to just another rendition of “War on terror 1.0”
Marines Fight Taliban With Little Aid From Afghans
In a region the Taliban have lorded over for six years, and where they remain a menacing presence, American officers say their troops alone are not enough to reassure Afghans. Something is missing that has left even the recently appointed district governor feeling dismayed. “I don’t get any support from the government,” said the governor, Massoud Ahmad Rassouli Balouch.
Taliban cut off fingers of Afghan voters
Making good on a threat of election day violence, the Taliban sliced off the index fingers of at least two people in Kandahar province, according to a vote monitoring group.
Gaddafi is a clown, but no one is laughing
The Libyan leader needs the West more than the West needs him. His brutal and corrupt regime is under pressure
Op-ed Columns
The NY Times is out today with a smashing editorial. They take one of the Right-wing tropes about the number of uninsured. These guys are on a roll today.
The Uninsured
No matter how you slice the numbers, there are tens of millions of people without insurance, often for extended periods, and there is good evidence that lack of insurance is harmful to their health.
Scores of well-designed studies have shown that uninsured people are more likely than insured people to die prematurely, to have their cancers diagnosed too late, or to die from heart failure, a heart attack, a stroke or a severe injury. The Institute of Medicine estimated in 2004 that perhaps 18,000 deaths a year among adults could be attributed to lack of insurance.
Who knew TNR could still come up with an editorial like this? I know it would take more for them to make up for sabotaging the UHC ’93.
Long live the death of bipartisanship!
In the last few months, few political spectacles have been more unnerving than the sight of President Obama and his allies lowering their ambitions, bit by bit, in a painfully futile effort to win support from Republicans.The pattern was on perfect display this week. One of the biggest flash points in the reform debate concerns whether to create a public insurance plan–a government-run program, like Medicare, that would compete with private insurers for business. Liberals (including those at this magazine) love the idea, because they think a government plan will be more reliable, not to mention cheaper. Conservatives hate the idea, because they fear a government-run program will run private insurers out of business. As an effort to forge a consensus, some Democrats have suggested ditching the public plan and, instead, creating a set of consumer-run, nonprofit health care cooperatives. The hope was that these co-ops would be more acceptable to the GOP, since they wouldn’t be government-run. But the hope turned out to be baseless. As the idea started to gain momentum, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl held a conference call to denounce the co-ops as government-run insurance by another name. He and his colleagues weren’t budging.
T.R. Reid goes the extra mile to clear up the misinformation and the ignorance polluting our health care debate.
5 Myths About Health Care Around the World
As Americans search for the cure to what ails our health-care system, we’ve overlooked an invaluable source of ideas and solutions: the rest of the world. All the other industrialized democracies have faced problems like ours, yet they’ve found ways to cover everybody — and still spend far less than we do.
I’ve traveled the world from Oslo to Osaka to see how other developed democracies provide health care. Instead of dismissing these models as “socialist,” we could adapt their solutions to fix our problems. To do that, we first have to dispel a few myths about health care abroad
Another economist for a 2nd stimulus.
Don’t Let the Stimulus Lose Its Spark
ENCOURAGING economic news has been reanimating the critics of President Obama’s stimulus program. But heeding their admonition to end the program would be a grave mistake. We need more stimulus now, not less.
Even if the economy is improving, it is still very weak. Another quarter-million jobs were lost last month, and even the most optimistic economists predict that it will be many more months, if not years, before robust employment growth resumes. Now we face an ominous new threat to recovery from sharp cuts in state and local government spending.
Have a Nice Sunday!!!
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In difficult circumstances, such as the current 
The Confluence 