Author: HL

The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking
No one in power is asking fundamental questions about the purpose of education and whether much-hyped reforms might do more harm than good.

No one in power is asking fundamental questions about the purpose of education and whether much-hyped reforms might do more harm than good.

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What’s the Matter With Democrats?
Democrats are now preposterously selling giveaways to insurance and pharmaceutical executives as a middle-class agenda. By David Sirota

Democrats are now preposterously selling giveaways to insurance and pharmaceutical executives as a middle-class agenda.

Related Entries

• March 16, 2010 NYC’s Jihad Against Debbie Almontaser
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Jodi Jacobson: Bart Stupak: I Don’t Listen To Nuns
This article was originally published at RH Reality Check. In interviews Wednesday, Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak revealed a great deal about himself, the United States…

Disgrasian: An Open Letter to the Texas Board of Education from a Survivor of Its Public School System
Dear Texas State Board of Education, I’ve been following the “liberal-hysteria” that’s ensued since you approved those social studies curriculum changes last week, and as…

Student Loan Overhaul Tied To Health Care Bill Is Trimmed
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats on Thursday trimmed their original student loan plans, reduced spending for community colleges, and eliminated early childhood money from a broad…

Maryland Trying To Secede From The South
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland’s official song may include a line about “Northern scum” left over from the Civil War era, but the state isn’t feeling…

Jeffrey Kaye: A Bipartisan Immigration Plan, Carrots and Sticks
Just days ahead of a planned Sunday rally that immigrants’ rights advocates hope will bring tens of thousands of people to Washington D.C., Senators Charles…

Fox skews health care reform discussion away from deficit reduction

Fox News immediately responded to cost estimates of health care reform legislation by devoting far more attention to the estimate that the legislation would increase spending by $940 billion over 10 years than it did to the estimate that, including cost savings and revenue increases, the bill would actually reduce the deficit by $130 billion over the same period. On-screen graphics throughout Fox News’ initial coverage referred to the cost estimate, while no graphics mentioned deficit reduction.

Fox focuses on cost estimate

Fox shows nearly 10 minutes of on-screen graphic spelling out $940 billion cost estimate, none on deficit reduction. During the 9 a.m. ET hour — when reports of the Congressional Budget Office’s preliminary cost analysis of health care reform legislation first leaked — Fox News repeatedly aired an on-screen graphic stating, “CBO: Health Care Will Cost $940 Billion Over 10 Yrs,” showing the graphic for a total of 9 minutes, 44 seconds. At no time during the 9 a.m. hour did Fox News show a graphic referring to the $130 billion deficit-reduction estimate.

Cost estimate mentioned three times as often as deficit-reduction estimate. During the 9 a.m. hour, the $940 billion cost estimate was mentioned 12 times — by co-hosts Bill Hemmer (three times) and Martha MacCallum (twice), Fox News contributors Karl Rove (twice) and Juan Williams, guests Joe Trippi and Kevin Madden, and by Rep. John Boehner (twice) during Fox coverage of the GOP press conference in response to the CBO estimate. By contrast, CBO’s estimate that the bill would reduce the deficit was mentioned only four times — by Hemmer, Williams, and Rove, and by Rep. James Clyburn during Fox coverage of the Democratic press conference in response to the CBO estimate.

NRSC Subpoenaed In Ensign Probe
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury that’s investigating the John Ensign sex-and-lobbying scandal, reports Politico.

Ensign’s Office Won’t Say If It’s Been Subpoenaed
Sen. John Ensign’s office is declining to say whether it has been subpoenaed by federal investigators probing the aftermath of the senator’s sex-and-lobbying scandal.

America’s Missing National War Museum
[If you are going to visit the White House in the next few days, would you please print out a copy of this column and put it into the White House suggestion box, while your are there? Thanks!] An Australian pointed out to this columnist, that the first thing an American will do after visiting […]

After Health Care, Immigration
Addressing immigration is the best way to ensure health care reform is truly effective — and score big political points with Latino voters.

Addressing immigration is the best way to ensure health care reform is truly effective — and score big political points with Latino voters.

Iraq War Anniversary: Seven Years of Waste, Fraud and Abuse

Today is the 7th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of the Iraq war. There’s a temptation as we begin to end our combat presence in Iraq to search for the happy ending. Newsweek, for example, recently ran a cover photo of President Bush with the infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner in the background, declaring that now, […]

What White People Fear
Understanding the fears behind the racial politics of both conservative and liberal whites can help change a society in which wealth and well-being are still tied to race.

Understanding the fears behind the racial politics of both conservative and liberal whites can help change a society in which wealth and well-being are still tied to race.

AIPAC Asks Congress To Back Netanyahu, Not Obama ++ Juan Cole Eviscerates Jeffrey Goldberg
The diplomatic crisis over Israeli settlements is going into its second week and there is no sign that either side is backing down. It started when the Israeli government announced that it would expand settlements in East Jerusalem while Vice…



East Jerusalem – Middle East – United States – Israeli government – American Israel Public Affairs Committee

The AIPAC Statement We Need But Have Not Gotten (Yet)
I have written the mock press release below partly as farce and partly as hope for the kind of statement that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) might eventually issue in response to the provocative and disconcerting posture of…


Middle East – United States – American Israel Public Affairs Committee – Israeli government – United States and Israel

Limbaugh?s ?Cheap And Disingenuous? Call For People To Jam Congressional Phonelines
For the past few days, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh has been urging his listeners to call Congress and oppose health care. Yesterday, he gleefully aired clips of journalists touting his project, urging his followers to keep up the pressure: LIMBAUGH: So here are the numbers, the toll-free number for the Capitol Switchboard: 877-762-8762. […]

For the past few days, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh has been urging his listeners to call Congress and oppose health care. Yesterday, he gleefully aired clips of journalists touting his project, urging his followers to keep up the pressure:

LIMBAUGH: So here are the numbers, the toll-free number for the Capitol Switchboard: 877-762-8762. The toll call number, the direct toll number is 202-224-3121. Now, we have these numbers at RushLimbaugh.com if you don’t have a way to write them down, if you’re driving around or something. If you have a smart phone, you can log on at a red light and get the numbers. Here they are again: 877-762-8762, I guess this is the third time now that I’m — or maybe I could just say this is a continuation of yesterday, still only the second time in history that I have advocated this. And there’s no better time than now. It is really crucial. I think all these phone calls that you made yesterday, there’s no question at all they had an impact. I mean everybody noted it at the Capitol Hill switchboard.

Limbaugh seems eager to be in the spotlight after his “spawn,” Glenn Beck, has been getting all the attention lately. To do so, Limbaugh is adopting a Beck-style tactic that he previously derided. In an interview with Politico last year, Limbaugh said that telling people to “call Washington” was “cheap and disingenuous“:

“I don’t rally people and haven’t since the first year of my radio show,” he wrote to POLITICO. “At that time, all local talk hosts were attempting to prove their worth by getting people to cut up gasoline credit cards, call Washington, etc. I thought it was cheap and disingenuous. The few times I did, early on, suggest people call Washington, the reaction to it from the media was that the response was not genuine (I shut down the House switchboard) because people only did what they did because ‘Limbaugh told them to.’“

On his show yesterday, Limbaugh admitted that he has “shied away” from urging people to call Congress in the past because his efforts could “delegitimize the whole thing.” He said that this time was different, however, because the media weren’t saying that “Limbaugh urged them to do it.” “They’re reporting it as a genuine outrage at the bill, and it is!” he said. “There’s no question.” Well, not really. In fact, even in the stories that Limbaugh highlights, the press reports that the calls are coming in because of Limbaugh — not because of a spontaneous outrage over health care. As The Hill wrote yesterday, the “unusual call volume” to Capitol Hill “began Tuesday afternoon after Limbaugh made a plea on his website for fans to call lawmakers.”

Citing health-care vote, Obama delays trip to Indonesia
The T-shirts showing President Obama’s likeness had been printed. The state dinner was being prepared. And millions of Indonesians were ready — finally — to see a U.S. president they claim as their own arrive to a hero’s greeting.

Senators draft plan to rework U.S. immigration policy
Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) announced the building blocks Thursday for a new push in Congress to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, outlining a plan to require U.S. citizens and legal immigrants to obtain a new high-tech Social Security card tied to their fingerprints or other biometric identifiers and to create a system to bring in temporary workers as the U.S. economy demands.

Dismantling of Saudi-CIA Web site illustrates need for clearer cyberwar policies
By early 2008, top U.S. military officials had become convinced that extremists planning attacks on American forces in Iraq were making use of a Web site set up by the Saudi government and the CIA to uncover terrorist plots in the kingdom.

Democrats Spar With Associated Press Over Fact-Check

India’s Rising ‘Jugaad’ Economy
Ryan Streeter, Legatum Institute
Entrepreneurship in Asia may be the least understood of today's most exciting economic phenomena.  Even in developed western economies, researchers and analysts are only now beginning to understand the economic contribution of the enterprising class of innovators, business owners, and risk-takers we call "entrepreneurs."  Entrepreneurship in Asia is even less well understood, despite its popularity.India is increasingly important as a laboratory of bottom-up, gritty, individualistic entrepreneurship, different than, say, the Chinese model.  Harvard University's…

An Ideological Crusade Called Reform
Sen. Tom Coburn, Yahoo! News
By U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D.Congress's latest final push in its ideological crusade called health reform is shaping up to be an act of historic arrogance and deception.  For months, the American people have been telling Congress to scrap the current bills. A recent CNN poll found that 7 in 10 Americans want Congress to start over on health care, or quit working on the issue altogether. Yet, the majority in Congress continues to march on in the face of overwhelming public opposition.   The American people have good reason to be concerned. The bill that may become law in a few days…

Health Care Wars Are Just Beginning
Fred Barnes, Wall Street Journal
WSJ.com is available in the following editions and languages: Thank you for registering.We sent an email to: Please click on the link inside the email to complete your registrationPlease register to gain free access to WSJ tools.An account already exists for the email address entered.Forgot your username or password?This service is temporary unavailable due to system maintenance. Please try again later.The username entered is already associated withanother account. Please enter a different usernameThe email address you have entered is already in use.Please re-enter the…

Poll: 70% of Current Vets OK Serving with Gays
Poll: As the Pentagon prepares to survey soldiers about President Obama’s decision to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a new poll of military personnel who served in the Afghanistan or Iraq wars has finds that sexual orientation is “not a burning issue that overwhelms veterans’ lives.” Seventy three percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans say “they are personally comfortable in the presence of gays and lesbians.”

Privacy Is Dead Edition
The many legal ways your boss is probably spying on you, Stephen Baldwin’s latest crusade and the famous photo even professional journalists don’t recognize—all this and more after the jump. On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies. The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top. The Iran Threat in the Age of Real-Axis-of-Evil Expansion It is intriguing to see how whoever the United States and Israel find interfering with their imperial or dispossession plans is quickly demonized and becomes a threat and target for that Real-Axis-of-Evil (RAE), and hence their NATO allies and, with less intensity, much of the rest of the “international community” (IC, meaning ruling elites, not ordinary citizens). … The Lehman Report: Is It Time for a Special Prosecutor? After a slow start, commentators and media outlets are finally cottoning onto the implications of a devastating new report on the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The Glenn Beck story Recognize this photo? I took a quick survey in the newsroom the other day, something between a Rorschach test and a pop quiz, asking younger colleagues to identify an iconic photograph of World War II. While some instantly recognized the image, others couldn’t quite place it. Power Grab: Comcast Has a New Name, but Merger With NBC Universal Still a Bad Idea Comcast is a massive cable TV and Internet provider, which wants to merge with NBC Universal, one of the world’s largest news and entertainment content providers. City on a Hill: Can the US Provide a Model for Israel? Reading American news online, the current Israeli “crisis” seems to have started last week when, during Vice President Biden’s visit here, the Netanyahu government announced it would build 1600 settler housing units in East Jerusalem.  … Israel Crackdown Puts Liberal Jews on the Spot The Israeli government, its brutal war crimes in Gaza exposed in detail in the U.N. report by Justice Richard Goldstone, has implemented a series of draconian measures to silence and discredit dissidents, leading intellectuals and human rights organizations inside and outside Israel that are accused—often falsely—of assisting Goldstone’s U.N. investigators. Support for Gay Marriage Is Greater Among College Freshmen Than Americans at Large College students who describe themselves as politically “far right” arrive on campuses across the country supporting legal same-sex marriage significantly more than do conservative Republicans nationwide, according to new data released by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. The Countless Ways You Are Losing Privacy at Work Workplace privacy is dead and buried. Employers can and do read e-mail, eavesdrop on telephone calls, monitor Internet access and watch workers with hidden cameras. Actor Stephen Baldwin Takes Christian Indoctrination to the Xtreme Original investigative report: How a media-savvy, tough-talking duo are putting their knowledge of youth culture in the service of the paranoid Christian Right.

The many legal ways your boss is probably spying on you, Stephen Baldwin’s latest crusade and the famous photo even professional journalists don’t recognize—all this and more after the jump.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.

---

The Iran Threat in the Age of Real-Axis-of-Evil Expansion
It is intriguing to see how whoever the United States and Israel find interfering with their imperial or dispossession plans is quickly demonized and becomes a threat and target for that Real-Axis-of-Evil (RAE), and hence their NATO allies and, with less intensity, much of the rest of the “international community” (IC, meaning ruling elites, not ordinary citizens). …

The Lehman Report: Is It Time for a Special Prosecutor?
After a slow start, commentators and media outlets are finally cottoning onto the implications of a devastating new report on the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The Glenn Beck story

Recognize this photo?
I took a quick survey in the newsroom the other day, something between a Rorschach test and a pop quiz, asking younger colleagues to identify an iconic photograph of World War II. While some instantly recognized the image, others couldn’t quite place it.

Power Grab: Comcast Has a New Name, but Merger With NBC Universal Still a Bad Idea
Comcast is a massive cable TV and Internet provider, which wants to merge with NBC Universal, one of the world’s largest news and entertainment content providers.

City on a Hill: Can the US Provide a Model for Israel?
Reading American news online, the current Israeli “crisis” seems to have started last week when, during Vice President Biden’s visit here, the Netanyahu government announced it would build 1600 settler housing units in East Jerusalem.? …

Israel Crackdown Puts Liberal Jews on the Spot
The Israeli government, its brutal war crimes in Gaza exposed in detail in the U.N. report by Justice Richard Goldstone, has implemented a series of draconian measures to silence and discredit dissidents, leading intellectuals and human rights organizations inside and outside Israel that are accused—often falsely—of assisting Goldstone’s U.N. investigators.

Support for Gay Marriage Is Greater Among College Freshmen Than Americans at Large
College students who describe themselves as politically “far right” arrive on campuses across the country supporting legal same-sex marriage significantly more than do conservative Republicans nationwide, according to new data released by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles.

The Countless Ways You Are Losing Privacy at Work
Workplace privacy is dead and buried. Employers can and do read e-mail, eavesdrop on telephone calls, monitor Internet access and watch workers with hidden cameras.

Actor Stephen Baldwin Takes Christian Indoctrination to the Xtreme
Original investigative report: How a media-savvy, tough-talking duo are putting their knowledge of youth culture in the service of the paranoid Christian Right.

Related Entries

• March 17, 2010 Right Wing Gone Wild
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Minsuk Kim: Korean Americans March for America
Undocumented Korean American students are making their voices heard. On March 21, over 100,000 people from every corner of America will come together for immigration reform in the March For America.

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Too Big to Succeed: Dodd’s Proposal Creates a Cumbersome Bureaucracy
Once upon a time, it seemed as if our leaders understood that “too big to fail” meant “too big to exist.” But in Sen. Dodd’s financial reform bill, the big banks won’t be dismantled — they’ll be watched … by a committee.

Joe Biden At 2010 Radio & TV Correspondents’ Dinner: VP Biden Jokes About Israel Visit, Naked Rahm, Tips From Tiger Woods (VIDEO)
Vice President Joe Biden delivered some very funny one-liners Wednesday night at the 2010 Radio and Television Correspondents’ Dinner. While Biden certainly ventured into tongue-in-cheek…

Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Chief, Called To White House Over Last Minute Health Care Flare Up
With a health care reform proposal being patched together for final consideration in the House of Representatives, gripes over a key element of the legislation…

Hours after Fox corrected the record, Beck perpetuates falsehood about doctor “survey”

On his Fox News show, Glenn Beck falsely claimed that The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) said that 46 percent of primary care physicians would consider leaving their profession if the Democrats’ health care reform bill passes. In fact, as Fox News’ Megyn Kelly had noted three hours earlier, the NEJM did not conduct the “survey” — which was “not a scientific poll.”

Beck falsely attributed survey to NEJM

Beck falsely claimed NEJM “says … nearly one-third of doctors will quit” if bill passes. On the March 17 edition of his Fox News show, Beck falsely claimed that “The New England Journal of Medicine says that if this bill is passed nearly one-third of doctors will quit practice medicine — quit practicing medicine.”

As Fox’s Kelly noted, “survey” was not conducted by NEJM and was “not a scientific poll”

Kelly: Survey, which was “not a scientific poll,” “was conducted by the Medicus Firm … a national physician search firm.” On the March 17 edition of Fox News’ America Live, host Kelly noted that the survey “was conducted by the Medicus Firm, which is a national physician search firm.” She added: “The New England Journal of Medicine, which was originally responsible for posting, not publishing, but — not conducting the survey, but for posting it on its website — later removed it. It’s not a scientific poll; it’s a survey.”

Spokeswoman confirmed survey has nothing to do with NEJM’s “original research” and “was not published” by Journal. Media Matters for America contacted NEJM and received confirmation from spokeswoman Jennifer Zeis that the study had “nothing to do with the New England Journal of Medicine’s original research.” Zeis also made clear that the study “was not published by the New England Journal of Medicine.” In fact, the Medicus Firm conducted the survey in December 2009. Medicus, a Dallas- and Atlanta-based firm that recruits and places physicians in jobs was responsible for conducting the survey. It issued a press release about the results on December 17, 2009. The report then appeared in Recruiting Physicians Today, an employment newsletter produced by the Massachusetts Medical Society, “the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine.”

Other Fox personalities have perpetuated the falsehood

Several Fox News personalities have made the false claim about the survey. Before correcting the record, Kelly herself had previously falsely attributed the survey to the NEJM. Others who have made the claim include:

• Host Bill O’Reilly, who claimed on March 16 that the survey was “published by The New England Journal of Medicine, a prestigious magazine.”

• Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, who said on March 17 that the NEJM “published a report and did a survey” that found doctors “feel reform will force them out.”

• Host Sean Hannity, who, on the March 16 edition of his show, asked Milton Wolf, a radiologist who says he is President Obama’s second cousin, “Will this plan that they’re now pushing, and I think in a very corrupt way, do you believe this will harm and — if you believe so, how greatly will it harm our health care system?” Wolf replied: “We just learned from The New England Journal of Medicine that a significant percentage of doctors would consider leaving — seriously consider leaving the profession if this went through.”

• Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel, who, on the March 16 edition of Fox News’ Your World, stated: “First of all, the [American Medical Association] is a bureaucratic organization that doesn’t represent practicing doctors. A new study in The New England Journal of Medicine says that one-third of physicians would consider quitting or retiring early if this goes through.”

Clarence Thomas’s Wife’s New Group Uses Stock Photos Of Minorities
Liberty Central, the new Tea-Party-inspired advocacy group launched by Virginia Thomas — the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — uses stock photos to convey the impression of minority support for its conservative goals.

Report: Rubio Failed To Disclose $34,000 In PAC Expenses
Marco Rubio has led a pretty charmed life lately, as he’s vaulted past Gov. Charlie Crist to take a commanding lead in the race for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate. But that could be ending.

Presented By:

2010 Astroturf Teabaggers Just 2000 Brooks Brothers Rioters Redux
Rachel Maddow video: Reviewing the History of Fake Conservative Protests “Bush’s Conspiracy to Riot” – Robert Parry, Consortium News, Aug. 5, 2002, updated Aug. 5, 2009. “Brooks Brothers Riot” – Wikipedia

Many Undecided in Race for Connecticut Governor
A new Quinnipiac poll in Connecticut finds “undecided” is the big leader in the Democratic and Republican primary race for governor.

Among Democrats, 44% of voters are undecided, while Ned Lamont (D) gets 28% and Dan Malloy (D) gets 18%.

On the Republican side, 50% are undecided, while Tom Foley (R) has 30% and no other candidate tops 4%.

Illinois Moves Back Primary Date
After Illinois set a modern record for low turnout in February’s primary, Gov. Pat Quinn (D) signed legislation to move the date back to March, the Chicago Tribune reports.

“Holding the election so soon after the holidays and creating a compressed campaign season also is partly blamed for Democrats picking the unheralded but free spending Chicago pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen as the party’s lieutenant governor nominee. Cohen’s candidacy imploded following troubling revelations about his personal life, and Quinn now finds himself searching for a running mate six weeks after the primary was supposed to have settled the issue.”

Safest Districts Held by Democrats
An interesting Smart Politics analysis finds that Democrats currently hold 43 of the 50 least competitive House seats in the nation.

In fact, John Lewis (GA-5), Kendrick Meek (FL-17), and Richard Neal (MA-2) have not faced a Republican challenger since new district lines were drawn in 2002. Neal has not faced a GOP opponent since 1996.

What David Brooks’ Editors and Producers Keep Missing
Jonathan Chait’s New Republic post today, “David Brooks At His David Brooksiest,” takes to a new level my own not-so-quiet campaign to wake up Brooks’ enablers and fans: “Today, David Brooks has written the platonic ideal of a David Brooks…


David Brooks – Politics – New York Times – Conservatism – Analysis and Opinion

What Do Israel and Iran Have to Do With Each Other?
…well, a lot, obviously. But when it comes to immediate-term US foreign policy objectives — particularly the current flap over Israeli settlements — the two are quite separate tracks. I feel compelled to stress this point because of a VERY…


Israel – Middle East – United States – Iran – Foreign policy of the United States

Stupak dismisses nuns? letter: I don?t listen to them, I listen to ?leading bishops? and Focus on the Family.
Today, “60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns” sent a letter to federal lawmakers urging them to pass the Senate health care legislation. They decried the “false” information floating around about abortion provisions and said that the bill’s “historic new investments” for pregnant women are the “REAL pro-life stance.” The nuns’ letter was […]

Today, “60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns” sent a letter to federal lawmakers urging them to pass the Senate health care legislation. They decried the “false” information floating around about abortion provisions and said that the bill’s “historic new investments” for pregnant women are the “REAL pro-life stance.” The nuns’ letter was a significant and unusual break with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which continues to denounce the legislation. This afternoon, Stupak dismissed the nuns, saying that he listens to only male religious figures and far-right religious organizations:

Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Mich, responded sharply to White House officials touting a letter representing 59,000nuns that was sent to lawmakers urging them to pass the health care bill.

The conservative Democrat dismissed the action by the White House saying, “When I’m drafting right to life language, I don’t call up the nuns.” He says he instead confers with other groups including “leading bishops, Focus on the Family, and The National Right to Life Committee.”

It’s Stupak and the bishops, however, who are increasingly isolated. The nuns join other prominent pro-life figures and organizations — including the Catholic Health Association — in urging passage of the bill.

?Climate Crime Scene? declared at Smithsonian?s David H. Koch Hall Of Human Origins.
Today, the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History unveiled a new exhibit named after right-wing billionaire polluter, David H. Koch. Greenpeace dispatched its Climate Crime Unit at the opening of the $20.7 million David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins in search of Koch, the billionaire scion of Koch Industries and founder of a vast network […]

Today, the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History unveiled a new exhibit named after right-wing billionaire polluter, David H. Koch. Greenpeace dispatched its Climate Crime Unit at the opening of the $20.7 million David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins in search of Koch, the billionaire scion of Koch Industries and founder of a vast network of conservative organizations that deny the threat of global warming. Greenpeace research director Kert Davies noted that the true Koch family legacy is “one of environmental crimes”:

While David Koch’s oil wealth may get his name on a museum exhibit, the Koch family legacy is one of environmental crimes, lobbying to block clean energy, and funding global warming denial front groups.

David Koch’s political organization, Americans For Prosperity, is re-launching its “Hot Air Tour” aimed at opposing climate and clean energy policy, and is mobilizing opposition to health care reform with Tea Party rallies and false cancer ads. More at the Wonk Room.

At Finnish Embassy, the heat is on
On a recent Friday evening in the basement of the Finnish Embassy, a half-dozen men, all sweating profusely and wrapped in white towels, turned to resident sauna authority Kari Mokko to settle a dispute.

Obama’s plans to travel overseas as health vote nears draw criticism
There are always so many last-minute details to attend to before a trip abroad: Tickets. Packing luggage. Passing major health-care legislation.

Clinton’s agenda for Russia trip reflects improving but fragile relationship
MOSCOW — A year after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton presented a mock “reset” button to Russia’s foreign minister, the two nuclear giants have significantly improved their tattered relationship, making progress on U.S. priorities such as Iran and Afghanistan and closing in on a major arms-control agreement, officials from both countries say.

Kucinich’s health-care vote could be Obama’s lucky charm
According to legend, if you catch a leprechaun in the forest, the little creature must grant you three wishes. Our Kenyan Hawaiian commander in chief evidently has the luck of the Irish, because, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, President Obama bagged himself a leprechaun — in Cleveland, of all places — and on Wednesday his first wish was granted.