Puget Sound Liberals Weekly Newsletter

My commentaries listed below have described our financial and health care messes and needed solutions. I suggest you read particularly those that are bold. Dave Thomas

2/26/2010 #215 How Main Street people have suffered due to Wall Street speculators

2/19/2010 #214 Needed reforms for fiscal responsibility and regulating Wall Street

2/19/2010 #214 Needed anti-obesity actions

2/12/2010 #213 Many PAYGO offsets exist to reduce federal deficit

2/12/2010 #213 Shift your dealing with Wall Street speculators to dealing with Main Street job creators

2/12/2010 #213 Cuba can train the primary care doctors we need

2/5/2010 #212 Evaluating President Obama’s State of the Union proposals

2/5/2010 #212 Evaluating President Obama’s 2011 budget proposal

1/29/2010 #211 Obama Administration accomplishments

1/29/2010 #211 What President Obama Should Have Done

1/1/2010 #207 Conservatives continually mischaracterize Liberals

12/18/2009 #205 Create jobs, not bubbles

12/18/2009 #205 Our massive systemic corruption

12/11/2009 #204 Create jobs, not bubbles

12/4/2009 #203 Create well paying jobs

11/20/2009 #201 Ways to reduce health care costs

11/13/2009 #200 Ways to reduce speculation

10/23/2009 #197 Return to an Earn, Conserve and Invest economy

10/9/2009 #195 How predatory health care insurers negatively affect us

10/2/2009 #194 Help Main Street people instead of Wall Street speculators

7/31/2009 #185 What’s wrong with our health care insurance system and what should be done

7/3/2009 #181 We need low cost convenient basic health care clinics

6/26/2009 #180 We need to increase employee earnings

6/19/2009 #179 Eliminate tax breaks to offset expenditures needed for job simulation and health care reform

6/5/2009 #177 Ways to create a sustainable low consumption economy

5/29/2009 #176 We need publicly managed competitive markets

5/15/2009 #174 Tax Wall Street speculators and other rich to offset expenditures needed for job stimulation and health care reform

5/8/2009 #173 We need to change from Borrow, Consume and Speculate to Earn, Conserve and Invest

4/17/2009 #170 We need to change from Borrow, Consume and Speculate to Earn, Conserve and Invest

4/17/2009 #170 We need a non-speculative federal retirement savings system

4/3/2009 #168 We need a non-speculative federal retirement savings system

4/3/2009 #168 Creating a sustainable economy

4/3/2009 #168 Needed economic reforms

Economic Recovery Issues for Dummies

7/11/2008 #130 Describing Conservatives

Commentaries From Our Members

Ray McBain: Reconciliation Bill Should Include a Public Option

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she’ll get the votes needed to pass the health care reform bill. Pelosi will not need to sell the reworked bill to most Americans. But let's hope she does a good job of it, reeling in those who are swayed by the Republican lies and distortions. Let's hope she can make it clear to the populace that the new bill is actually an improvement in health care for most Americans.

And, most of all, let's hope it is! Let's make sure Pelosi knows what we demand: a strong public option!

As it seems we cannot obtain single-payer health care for all those who cannot afford private insurance (with all its problems), let's at least obtain health care with a strong public option.

And let's work to ensure the Democrats DO NOT pass a bill that requires BY LAW everyone to obtain private insurance for health care.

Dave Gamrath: I Hate Conservative Dominated Government

Published by Seattle Times on 3/3/2010

Tea partiers claim to hate government. I do too — at least some parts. I hate it when:

Insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists succeed in buying Congress to block health-care reform.

Fear-mongering NeoCons succeed in starting tragic wars, costing U.S. taxpayers a trillion dollars and counting.

Right-wingers pass an unneeded Patriot Act to take away my civil liberties.

Republicans succeed in cutting taxes for the wealthy, eliminating $2 trillion in needed revenue and putting more burdens on me.

Conservatives keep needed regulation out of our financial markets, and then force taxpayers to bail out banks and companies “too big to fail.”

Our state sales tax keeps going up instead of just installing a much more equitable state income tax.

So, I guess I agree with tea partiers: There’s a lot to be upset about with government today. Dave Gamrath

Tom Cramer: Financial Services Industry Paid Dave Reichert

Conservative Republican Dave Reichert took almost $415,000 from the financial services industry for his last campaign and helped kill legislation that would keep homeowners in their homes. He is the worst big business and Wall Street Republican in Congress. He voted to give tax credits to corporations for shipping jobs overseas. In addition, he voted to increase the number of foreign workers to take American jobs. He is anti-American and anti-jobs, but pro-big business and pro-Wall Street.

Please help me, Tom Cramer, bring and create jobs here for Main Street America. Help me stop Dave Reichert, the job shipper and the foreign worker importer. We need to put Americans back to work, save homes, increase savings, and secure retirement funds. Help me increase taxes on our wealthiest Americans. That money will be spent to create jobs here, for Americans here and will help small businesses prosper. Middle class Americans' money has been stolen to subsidize the richest people in this country. All must pay their fair share in order for the American economy to work for all people.

Tom Cramer, candidate for Washington’s 8^th Congressional District Representative

Liberals and Democrats

Just as DARPA produced our internet, our Obama Administration is funding green technologies.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says workers face increasing obstacles when they try to form unions and “we need to restore their freedom to do so.” In testimony before the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee today, Solis looked back at the department’s actions in 2009 and forward to its 2010 agenda. In reiterating the Obama administration’s support for the Employee Free Choice Act, Solis said: I will work to ensure that workers’ rights will be protected. In order to rebuild the middle class, we need to level the playing field and restore fair

Health Care Reform

The Summit

The summit including President Obama and both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders has just concluded. It clarified various health care reform issues upon which Democrats and Republicans agree and those upon which they disagree. Major differences are that Democratic Party proposals will provide coverage to many more people; they will guarantee that obtaining insurance coverage across state lines will not produce a race to the bottom of poor health care coverage; and they will minimize the creation of separate high risk pools. Republicans would create high risk pools, but funding for covering their members won’t follow, leaving them without insurance. It is unclear whether the American public will understand all of these differences, but they may understand that Democratic proposals will provide health care coverage to many more people. If so, this summit meeting has helped Democrats more than Republicans.

Republicans repeatedly said that many people are unhappy with the health care reform proposals of President Obama and the Democratic congress members, implying that they want less government involvement. I am surprised that the Democrats didn’t respond that many of those who are unhappy with these health care reform proposals want more government involvement.

Reconciliation will not be used to pass health care reform. It will only be used to pass some modifications to a health care reform bill that has already been passed by our Senate and House. However, the House will not pass the Senate health care reform bill unless there is a reconciliation bill. While reconciliation doesn’t pass health care reform, it makes such passage possible. This doesn’t make reconciliation wrong. Republican Senator Jon Kyl admits that reconciliation is a legitimate process, but erroneously says it shouldn’t be used for something as large as health care reform.

Obtaining House votes for passage of the Senate bill and for reconciliation may be possible. For more. Blue Dog Democrats may be willing to vote for the Senate Bill because it meets many of their concerns. 35 senators including Washington senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell have indicated support for reconciliation including a public option. 15 more are needed, with Vice President Joe Biden breaking a 50-50 tie.

Job Creation

Through offering several jobs bills, Democrats have finally confronted Republicans with a choice of voting for or against job creation. In one case, 5 Republican senators and in the other 13 Republican senators voted with Democrats for the bills, instead of being willing to be seen as anti-jobs. We can expect more such job creation bills with similar results.

Republican Senator Jim Bunning has single handedly stopped unemployed people from receiving unemployment benefits. Why do senators hesitate to change the rule that one Senator can do this? At least, the senate could require that 5 or more senators are necessary to put a hold on nominations or other senate actions.

Our Obama Administration plans to require companies that want government contracts to treat employees better.

Regulating Wall Street

Instead of bailing out insolvent large financial corporations, Joseph Stiglitz says our government should have shifted control of them from shareholders to bond holders.

Chris Dodd will present bill to give Treasury Department (instead of Federal Reserve) the primary role in overseeing large financial companies.

Americans need a Consumer Protection Agency that is independent of the Federal Reserve.

Talking about large Wall Street incomes, President Obama says he doesn’t begrudge success or wealth, but what if it is obtained through wrongdoing. While he is failing to side clearly with Main Street against Wall Street, Maria Cantwell has made various proposals to limit Wall Street speculation. Paul Krugman says no regulation is better than regulation that won’t work.

Fiscal Responsibility

President Obama created a bipartisan commission to reduce deficits. Republicans and Democrats will each choose 6 members and President Obama will choose 2 Republicans and 4 Democrats. So the commission will contain 8 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Democrats want to increase taxes on wealthy and reduce wasteful spending. Republicans want to reduce entitlement benefits. For more. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says creating jobs is best way to eliminate deficits, not reducing entitlement benefits. The best way to eliminate deficits is to increase taxes upon Wall Street speculators and other high income Americans to offset money spent to create jobs.

Since the bipartisan commission will require 14 votes to make a recommendation, it may not produce one. And since it won’t report until after this fall’s election when conditions may have changed, its recommendations may be irrelevant.

Removing wasteful military spending is essential to fiscal responsibility.

Strengthening Our Middle Class

The White House Middle Class Task Force, chaired by Vice President Joe Biden has examined the economic origins of the middle-class squeeze, including the growing gap between productivity and middle-class incomes, the dramatic rise in economic inequality, and the challenge of balancing work and family responsibilities as women’s earnings have become increasingly important to middle-class families. It has focused upon finding ways to resolve issues that are most important to the aspirations and everyday lives of middle-class families, including access to higher education, balancing work and care giving obligations, retirement security, and high-quality jobs for middle-class workers. It proposed the following initiatives:

1. Protecting Workers and Creating Middle-Class Jobs.

Access to good quality jobs, with fair compensation and stable benefits, is a key factor in building a strong middle class. The Administration’s most immediate imperative in this regard is to do all we can to jumpstart job creation. Building on some of the successes of the Recovery Act, the President has outlined a program to quickly generate job growth in small businesses, clean energy, and infrastructure. In addition, the Middle Class Task Force is focusing on the following initiatives to ensure that we create good jobs that can sustain a middle-class lifestyle and that workers are treated fairly:

· Passing the Employee Free Choice Act. To level the playing field for workers who want to form unions, the Administration is committed to passing the Employee Free Choice Act. The loss of bargaining power has been a factor in both the stagnation of middle-class earnings and the divergence of wage growth from productivity growth. Restoring the right to pursue collective bargaining in a more balanced environment would help middle-class workers get their fair share of the gains as the American economy recovers.

· Responsibility in Federal Contracting. The Federal Government spends over $500 billion dollars a year on contracts, generating jobs for tens of millions of workers, but there are inadequate controls in place to prevent government contracts from being awarded to employers that violate tax, labor and employment, fraud, or environmental lawsIn addition, the quality of jobs on some of these contracts can be very low, which can have a negative impact of the quality of goods or services purchased by the government. For these reasons, the Task Force is looking at ways to improve the procurement process by making it less likely that irresponsible businesses will get Federal contracts and by allowing procurement officers to consider job quality when awarding contracts while not raising the quality-adjusted costs of contracts.

· Protecting Benefits for Employees by Ensuring Proper Classification. As part of the Budget, the Department of Labor will launch a new initiative to prevent employees from being misclassified as independent contractors. Misclassification hurts workers by depriving them of benefits and protections to which they might be entitled and costs the government billions of dollars in unpaid taxes. The Department of Labor will increase enforcement using additional personnel and resources and will propose legislative changes that will require employers to properly classify their workers, provide for penalties when they do not, and restore protections for employees who have been classified improperly. In addition, the Department of the Treasury is seeking legislation to allow it to better define and clarify worker classification standards—which benefits workers and firms by reducing uncertainty—and to prospectively reclassify misclassified workers.

· Investing in Clean Energy Manufacturing. The Recovery Act provided $2.3 billion for the Section 48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit, but the credit was so popular that many qualified applications could not be accepted. The Administration will push to add $5 billion for the credit to create good, middle-class jobs and build a domestic clean energy sector.

2. Helping Middle-Class Families Balance Work and Caregiving Obligations.

For the majority of middle-class families, it is no longer the case that one parent is the breadwinner while the other is the caregiver.The economic stability of middle-class families depends at least in part on policies that help families balance work and caregiving obligations. The Budget will:

· Provide a Bigger Child Care Tax Credit for Middle-Class Families. Parents are working harder but with less to show for it after paying for child care, which keeps getting more expensive. The Budget nearly doubles the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle-class families making under $85,000 a year, and nearly every family that makes under $115,000 will see its credit increase.

· Increase Child-Care Assistance to Help Working Families Move into the Middle Class. Many working parents cannot lift their families into the middle class without child-care assistance. The Budget provides a $1.6 billion increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Fund, which will fund services for approximately 235,000 children and improve quality.

· Provide Help for Families Caring for Seniors and People with Disabilities. The Budget boosts funding for programs that support caregivers and allow seniors to live in the community for as long as possible.

3. Making College More Affordable and Accessible.

For many middle-class parents, higher education means the chance for their children to realize their full potential. Unfortunately, families across the country are seeing rising costs and falling family incomes threaten the dream of sending their children to college. The Budget will:

· Cap Student Loan Payments. The Budget strengthens the Income-Based Repayment plan for student loans by limiting a borrower’s payments to 10 percent of his or her income above a basic living allowance and by forgiving all remaining debt after 10 years of payments for those in public service work and after 20 years for all others.

· Reform Student Lending. The Budget supports pending legislation that would shift all Federal loans to the Direct Loan program, in which the Federal Government provides the capital for all new student loans, and chooses private and nonprofit companies to service the loans. This shift will eliminate tens of billions of dollars in wasteful subsidies to banks and the resulting savings will be used to expand Pell Grants and invest in community colleges.

· Increase Pell Grants and Put Them on a Firm Financial Footing. The Recovery Act and the 2009 appropriations bill boosted the maximum Pell Grant award by more than $600, for a total award of $5,350, and the maximum award will increase to $5,550 in 2010.The Budget proposes to make that increase permanent and guarantee that Pell Grants grow faster than inflation in the future. The Budget would increase Pell Grants by a total of nearly $1,000 since the Administration took office, expand eligibility, and nearly double the total amount of Pell Grants available.It also proposes to make Pell Grant funding mandatory, rather than dependent on annual appropriations from Congress.

· Extend the American Opportunity Tax Credit. The Recovery Act created the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which is worth up to $2,500 per year and can be claimed against tuition, fees, and textbook expenses for 4 years of college. The Budget proposes to make this temporary credit permanent, crediting families up to $10,000 over 4 years.

· Make Historic Investments in Community Colleges. The Budget supports a new American Graduation Initiative that will offer competitive grants to help community colleges improve their outcomes and help meet the President’s goal of graduating five million additional community college students by 2020.

· Simplify Student Aid: The Administration is working to simplify the student aid application, making life easier for 18 million students and families a year and increasing the programs’ effectiveness at boosting enrollment. We are tailoring the online form to skip unnecessary questions, working with Congress to eliminate dozens of questions that are currently statutorily required, and letting families fill out forms electronically with information transferred from tax returns they have already filed.

4. Enhancing Retirement Security.

After a lifetime of employment, American workers deserve a secure retirement. Yet for middle-class workers today, especially in the wake of the historic losses to retirement savings and housing wealth in the financial crisis, retirement seems anything but secure. The Budget will:

· Establish Automatic Individual Retirement Accounts. The Administration will require most employers who do not currently offer a retirement plan to enroll their employees in a payroll-deduction IRA unless the employee opts out.

· Simplify and Expand the Saver’s Credit. The Administration will help working families save for retirement by simplifying and expanding the Saver’s Credit to provide a 50 percent match on the first $1,000 of retirement savings for families earning up to $65,000 and providing a partial credit to families up to $85,000.We will also make this credit fully refundable.

· Update 401(k) Regulations to Improve Transparency and Reliability. A majority of American workers rely on 401(k)-style plans to finance their retirements. The Administration is proposing new regulations to improve the transparency and adequacy of 401(k) retirement savings.

For more.

Conservatives Mislead Us with Ridiculous Extrapolations

Republican Paul Ryan comments, “Imagine your family's finances if you spent and borrowed like Washington: you'd owe $60 in credit-card loans for every $100 of income. Every month you'd pay back a little but borrow even more. In 10 years, you'd owe $87 for every $100 you made. At some point you'd hand off the debt to your kids. If they worked until 2035, they'd owe more than $180 for every $100 they earned. In 2050, your grandkids would owe more than $320. By 2080 they'd owe seven times their earnings. Of course, lenders would cut them off well before then, and your family would be ruined. But this is the path your government is on right now.”

“Today, our country faces a fiscal meltdown—and Washington's continued cowardice is a big part of the problem. The social-insurance strategies of the 20th century—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—are driving our federal government and economy to collapse. It's long been obvious that we're ill prepared for the retirement of the baby boomers. Now, the recession and Washington's recent spending spree have accelerated the day of reckoning. Consider just one program: Medicare. Today, this program is short $38 trillion of what it promises to provide your parents, you, and your kids. In five years, the hole will grow to $52 trillion. Your family's share: $458,000. Medicaid will add trillions more in state and federal debt.”

These comments indicate a disaster if present trends continue. But present trends never continue to result in such an impossible situation. It makes no more sense than commenting that because I am getting older each year, I will live forever.

It is true that Medicare and Medicare costs are increasing, but less so than private health care insurer costs. The first priority is to eliminate private health care insurer costs. Then we must also reduce Medicare costs, by

· Giving everyone primary care coordinators

· Paying for results instead of procedures

· Reducing regional disparities

· Reducing fraud

This can be done. As for Social Security, it can continue to pay promised benefits if the economy is strong. Republican Congressman Paul Ryan and other Conservatives continually mislead us with their ridiculous extrapolations, and then argue that our entitlement benefits must be reduced. Dave Thomas

Here’s the Beef

Rahm Emanuel was right to want to quickly regulate Wall Street speculators. But he favored co-opting insurers and Pharma instead of attacking them. He favored quick action instead of Max Baucus’s prolonged attempts to obtain Republican support. So the blame for stalling of health care reform belongs more with President Obama than with Rahm Emanuel.

President Obama may be learning that that bipartisan support for health care reform is impossible.

Having mischaracterized and demonized Liberals, such that many Liberals refer to themselves as Progressives, Conservatives led by Glenn Beck are now beginning to mischaracterize and demonize Progressives. Will those who call themselves Progressives find another label? For more.

Americans (Democrats, Independents and Conservatives) disagree with Supreme Court decision that money is speech.

Some Democratic senators pretend to support a public option only until it becomes possible to include one in a reconciliation bill.

Democrats are unenthusiastic about supporting corrupted congressional Democratic actions.

AFL-CIO agenda for creating good jobs.

Contrary to Conservative claims, Federal employment is up only slightly, primarily relating to our war on terrorism: Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, State and Veterans Affairs. Even as the total number of federal employees rises, the ratio of federal employees to Americans has declined steadily, from one employee for every 78 residents in 1953 to one employee for every 110 residents in 1988 to one employee for every 155 residents in 2008

The incremental health care reform that Republicans call for has been tried and failed.

Tea Party Conservatives may enable congressional Democrats to win this fall.

State and Local

Liberals Are Challenging Inconsistently Liberal Democrats

A growing list of Liberal candidates is running to challenge less consistently Liberal federal and state Washington legislators:

· Richard Curtis is running against Senator Patty Murray.

· Tom Cramer and Susan Delbene are running to replace Republican 8^th congressional district Congressman Dave Reichert.

· Cheryl Christ is running to replace Congressman Brian Baird.

· Larry Kalb is running to replace Congressman Rick Larsen.

· Richard May is running against a Republican Whatcom County legislator.

· Luis Moscoso is running for a seat in the first legislative district

· Marcee Stone is running for an open Burien seat.

Sightline Encourages Sustainability Policies

Lawmakers have been hard at work in the Northwest. Oregon legislators have been weighing several key sustainability policies, while Washington’s lawmakers have scrambled to close the state’s budget gap. In both states, Sightline has been working to bring clarity and inform the debates by taking a close look at the proposed policies.

· A Better BETC: Although Oregon’s business energy tax credit (BETC) has come under fire, Sightline has worked on a balanced compromise to let BETC continue to create jobs and keep Oregon at the forefront of US clean energy development.

· Smart Stormwater Solutions: Polluted stormwater runoff is the number one contributor of pollutants in urban watersheds. In Washington, proposals for a modest increase in the hazardous substances tax would provide funding for cleaning up stormwater—offering new hope for Puget Sound.

· The Dirt on Coal: Portland General Electric has already pledged to go coal free by 2020, but the future of Washington’s Centralia coal plant—the single largest greenhouse gas emitter in the state—is up for debate. A first step would be to close a key tax loophole: the state's $4 million tax exemption for coal.

· Safer Sippy Cups: Northwest legislators are leading the way on BPA with proposals to ban the harmful substance from baby bottles. A BPA ban narrowly failed in Oregon, but Washington’s House and Senate passed anti-BPA legislation with overwhelming support.

· Saving Money, Supporting Schools: Washington’s Jobs Act would let the state issue bonds to finance retrofits of school buildings—creating jobs and saving money for schools simultaneously.

Here’s the Beef

North Dakota’s state bank provides credit to create jobs.

Washington needs a state bank.

Privatization of state services prolongs the recession.

Bellingham implements a green housing project.

Oregon Ironworks adds jobs to manufacture green technologies.

Portland seeks both livability and sustainability.

Biking to school saves energy and reduces obesity.

Washington’s transportation plan should take health into account.

Urban gardens can provide healthy food for the needy.

Refurbished Seattle alleys lead to less abusive uses.

We need to insulate homes to reduce energy consumption and create jobs.

Low snowpack may reduce water for irrigation and electricity for sale this summer.

Nation and World

The Surge in Afghanistan Is Working

Even as the Marines' battle for Marja grabs headlines, it's diverting attention from a bigger story. Though the Taliban is entrenched in Helmand province, where Marja is situated, its grip is slipping in the rest of Afghanistan as President Barack Obama's 30,000-troop surge unfolds. These developments undercut the common belief that America is doomed to fail in a land of fiercely tribal, pro-Taliban Pashtuns who hate infidel invaders. In fact, Afghanistan's demography, sociology, military situation, and politics all favor Obama's counterinsurgency strategy. That's why it's working. The strategy, devised by U.S. and NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, aims to win over Afghans by protecting them from the Taliban, restraining firepower to limit civilian casualties, and speeding up development, along with seizing Taliban sanctuaries like Marja. It has six things going for it.

1. Most Afghans aren't Pashtuns —and most Pashtuns oppose the Taliban. Three fifths of Afghans are Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazara, and other ethnicities who suffered under Taliban rule and dread its return. What's more, while most Taliban fighters are Pashtun, 70 percent of Pashtuns dislike the Taliban. Only one Pashtun in four favors the insurgents. Most Pashtuns desire closer ties with the West. Why? Polls say they, like other Afghans, mainly want jobs, electricity, and reconstruction—none of which the Taliban offers.

2. Civilian casualties are down. Despite tragedies like last week's errant airstrike that killed 27 noncombatants, McChrystal's strategy cut civilian deaths from U.S. and NATO action by 30 percent, to 596 last year. The Taliban killed many more civilians in 2009: 1,630, a 60 percent jump from 2008. Afghans noticed. Over the course of 2009, polls show, they started blaming Afghanistan's violence on the Taliban instead of the Americans.

3. Afghans feel more secure when U.S. troops are around. As U.S. forces have surged in Afghanistan, so has their popularity. Support for the U.S. military presence climbed 5 points in 2009 to 68 percent, reversing three years of decline. Polls show that Afghans have confidence in U.S. forces when they think the American presence is strong in their area. Civilian casualties worry them, but Afghans' chief gripe about our forces is their absence, not their presence.

4. Afghan forces are gaining on-the-ground presence and popularity. Afghanistan's Army and police are surging, too, doubling in size since 2008. As they've fanned out, the proportion of Afghans reporting a weak government presence where they live has fallen by half, to just 19 percent. Greater presence has raised the forces' standing with their people. Despite often-justified criticism of both forces for ineptitude and corruption, December's ABC News poll found 70 percent of Afghans are positive about the Army and 62 percent about the police, significantly up from a year before. Though government forces have failings, most Afghans prefer them to the Taliban for security.

5. The Taliban is stuck in thinly populated rural areas. ABC's poll showed that the Taliban gained little ground in 2009, even as it killed more. Only 14 percent of Afghans said it was strong in their areas, the same as the year before. The Taliban had infiltrated most Pashtun areas by 2008, leaving few other easy targets—and those big swaths of the map under Taliban influence have few people. So McChrystal's focus on protecting towns and other populated areas from Taliban attack makes sense.

6. The antigovernment alliance is showing cracks. Osama bin Laden is disliked by over half of Afghans, especially influential male elders in the Pashtun south. Polls also show Taliban supporters detest the Hezb-i-Islami movement of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a Taliban ally, while Hekmatyar supporters return the disfavor. Moreover, one third to one half of Afghans mention poor local security or compulsion as the reason people in their areas support the insurgents, just as many as cite religion. Many Taliban supporters aren't religious fanatics; offer what they want or play on their divisions and they can be peeled away.

For more.

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Here’s the Beef

It is time to redefine the good life.

Consumerism makes us powerless.

Our government is developing an alternative measure of poverty.

Biochar may be used as a clean fuel source and sequester carbon.

Some cities are turning parking spaces into mini-parks.

Rooftop solar panels replace carbon based energy usage and reduce homeowner energy bills.

Wal-Mart is encouraging suppliers to reduce green house gas emissions.

Police resist reporting undocumented immigrants.

Our Liberal Spirit

These Are the Times that Try Men’s Souls

It is no wonder that our souls are tried. Our economy has collapsed, leaving many without acceptable employment. Our government has spent much money to bail out the large financial companies which are responsible for the collapse, and much less money to create jobs. Our federal deficit is the highest it has been.

Our Obama Administration has achieved many successes and has seldom failed. But the slowness of job stimulus results, health care reform, regulating speculators and meeting PAYGO requirements has weighed heavily upon us. A victory delayed seems like a defeat. At least, we are worried that will end up a defeat.

So the answer is to speed up the victories. As I have said many times, the Obama Administration needs to quickly

· Regulate speculators in ways that bring in revenue to offset health reform and job creation costs, thus reducing our federal deficit

· Use reconciliation to pass health reform

· Pass more job creation stimulus measures

As during Thomas Paine’s time, the response to trying times must be action to eliminate the causes of our anxiety. By resolving our messes, we have more freedoms and opportunities and can better appreciate and use them. Dave Thomas

Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals

Fred Magdoff and Michael D. Yates, 2009, The ABCs of the Economic Crisis. What Working People Need to Know.

This book has the advantage of being easy to read and understand and only 132 pages long. It does this by describing only the essential aspects of how we got into our mess and what must be done to get out of it, leaving out lots of historical and technical details. If you read this, you may be motivated to read one of the last two recommended books for a more in depth understanding.