Browsing PBH By Articles

A Palestinian Reformer’s Downfall

The Article: The Visionary by Ben Birnbaum in The New Republic.

The Text: If you were to pinpoint one moment when it looked as if things just might work out for Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, it would probably be February 2, 2010. That day, Fayyad addressed the annual Herzliya Conference, a sort of Israeli version of Davos featuring high-powered policymakers and intellectuals. It is not a typical speaking venue for Palestinians; yet Fayyad was warmly received. He sat in the front row next to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who—just before Fayyad ascended the stage—whispered into his ear and grasped his hand in what appeared to be a show of genuine affection. When Fayyad reached the blue and white podium, he garnered an enthusiastic round of applause from the hundreds in attendance.

Standing five feet five in a charcoal suit with glasses, frog-like features, and thinning salt-and-pepper hair, Fayyad didn’t appear all that charismatic—and he didn’t sound charismatic, either. He spoke in jargon-laced English with a deep nasal monotone. But what he had to say was dramatic—even revolutionary.

Six months earlier, with decades of negotiations and armed conflict having failed to produce Palestinian independence, Fayyad had proclaimed a bold new strategy: Instead of waiting for Israel to grant them a state, the Palestinians would build it themselves—brick by brick, institution by institution. Fayyad’s “state-building program,” as it was known, had earned praise from the likes of Israeli President Shimon Peres (who called him the “Palestinian Ben Gurion”) and The New York Times’ Tom Friedman (who coined the term “Fayyadism” to describe “the simple but all-too-rare notion that an Arab leader’s legitimacy should be based not on slogans or rejectionism or personality cults or security services, but on delivering transparent, accountable administration and services”). Even some right-wing Israeli politicians had spoken favorably of Fayyad, especially when comparing him with Yasir Arafat or Hamas.

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At Last: Obama Backs Gay Marriage

The Article: Obama Backs Gay Marriage by Jennifer Epstein in Politico.

The Text: President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he now supports gay marriage, saying “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

“I’ve stood on the side of broader equality for the LGBT community. I hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought civil unions would be sufficient,” Obama said in a White House interview with ABC News’s Robin Roberts. “I was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people, the word ‘marriage’ evokes very powerful traditions, religious beliefs.”

But, the president said, years of discussion had resulted in an “evolution” to the point that many supporters had hoped for — full backing of gay marriage.

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ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don’t Know About

The Article: ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don’t Know About by Savannah Cox on The Speckled Axe.

The Text: The 2012 election season has already brought with it familiar cries of so-called class warfare, quadrennial culture wars, and most recently, several pieces of controversial legislation that many have dubbed key components of the “war on women.” But as Americans and mainstream media spear each other with the same old political barbs, a far more sinister—yet perfectly legal—series of political maneuvering is taking place in boardrooms throughout the country. If successful, the subsequent victims won’t be just women, a particular class or minority but rather democracy itself. But the absolute worst part? In a year supposedly rife with democracy in action, hardly anyone is talking about it.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC): Not Your Average Baldwin

While the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision gave a pulse and personhood to monolithic corporations throughout the United States, the corporate Frankenstein has been in the making for decades; it is only now that the monster is nearing completion and ready for unleashing against an otherwise distracted and disengaged populace. Funded almost entirely by billion dollar corporations since 1973, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) fuses together the worst of corporate and legislative corruption into one seamless copy and paste model policy package.

Their goal is simple yet sweeping: reduce the size of government to that of a shrunken pea, get rid of regulations that impede upon what should be unrestricted growth of multinational corporations and by effect shift political power from the American people to the pinstriped pockets of the world’s most affluent denizens. It should come as no surprise that its members, alumni, and award recipients are all familiar faces within the American conservative canon: current Speaker of the House John Boehner served as one of ALEC’s earliest alumni, along with influential men like Senate Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Donald Rumsfeld, Charles and David Koch, and Milton Friedman among a whole slew of others.

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Dick Cheney Gets A New Paid-For Heart, But Not My Daughter?

The Article: I Just Paid for Dick Cheney’s New Heart, Now Who Will Pay for My Daughter’s? by Nancy Meyer in Daily Kos.

The Text: The Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”) ended the insurance industry’s cynical practice of denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. As soon as that provision of the ACA went into effect, my husband and I welcomed our 15-year-old daughter “May” to our private health insurance policy for the first time. For years May had been covered by an excellent plan provided by the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), also known as Children’s Medicaid, because it is subsidized by state taxpayers.

It was only right and just that we assumed responsibility for our own daughter’s health insurance, now that the law allowed us to do so. After all, why burden other taxpayers with our family’s health insurance needs?

May’s heart defects are congenital, so one might say that her pre-existing conditions were God-given. All the years she was on a taxpayer-subsidized BC/BS insurance plan via CHIPS we had low premiums, excellent coverage and no worries, because her heart defects never manifested. The doctors told us they may never manifest, yet still the insurance companies rejected May from any health care coverage at all.

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The Truth About The US Postal Service

The Article: The Truth About the US Postal Service by Jim Hightower in Common Dreams.

The Text: What does 50 cents buy these days? Not a cuppa joe, a pack of gum or a newspaper. But you can get a steal of deal for a 50-cent piece: a first-class stamp. Plus a nickel in change.

Each day, six days a week, letter carriers traverse 4 million miles toting an average of 563 million pieces of mail, reaching the very doorsteps of our individual homes and workplaces in every single community in America. From the gated enclaves and penthouses of the uber-wealthy to the inner-city ghettos and rural colonias of America’s poorest families, the U.S. Postal Service literally delivers. All for 45 cents. The USPS is an unmatched bargain, a civic treasure, a genuine public good that links all people and communities into one nation.

So, naturally, it must be destroyed.

For the past several months, the laissez-fairyland blogosphere, assorted corporate front groups, a howling pack of congressional right-wingers and a bunch of lazy mass media sources have been pounding out a steadily rising drumbeat to warn that our postal service faces impending doom. It’s “broke,” they exclaim; USPS “nears collapse”; it’s “a full-blown financial crisis!”

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