Speaking Wednesday at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she will act next week to begin setting up an investigatory committee to examine and document what went wrong with economic policy and practices.

It is all about the dirt.

Well, no.

But if he was, and a practical sort of Socialist at that, he might be saying things like this and saying them to Bill Moyers:

If the door breaks, nobody out here can afford to get it fixed.

Speaker Pelosi gives an interview. Nice get for Maddow.  Read more…

This stimulus act isn’t all it should be, maybe five-eighths of a loaf, but it is better on close examination than first appearance and media reports had suggested.

A small number of legislators, the BlueDogs, have conspired with the repulsive Republicans to try and destroy the American economy and the economic future of American workers for the sake of political gamesmanship. They must be punished.

I am not an economist, but I can do arithmetic.

The lines of battle over the economic salvation of America and our working class are now crystal clear. It is Republicans and BlueDogs together on one side, acting in furtherance of the same Corporatists who ran public policy under Reagan and the Bushs, versus the rest of us.

One of them has come forward to identify himself and his cadre.

Less than all-encompassing, subject to revision, but some think it is a big deal.

Because having her in the Senate would have been truly awful.

A lot is being made of the symbolism attached to Rick Warren, in giving the Invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration. Much less has been said about the symbolic importance of Joseph Lowery giving the Benediction.  Read more…

A long piece, in Rolling Stone. I won't try to, ahem, summarize him here, the work is very dense and any attempt to condense it I fear would leave out something important. Go and read, please.

All in one post; how could I possibly go wrong?  Read more…

Some people think this is the key issue before us. Not being one to argue unnecessarily, and always pleased to join a good cause, I suggest all who agree on its importance consider voting for the following question now leading the pack at Obama’s “Change.gov” website:

"Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor - ideally Patrick Fitzgerald - to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"

It is Bob Fertik’s question, and he has all the details here. Seems a respectably subversive sort of an effort, organizing to take control of the agenda, so please take a moment straightway before this cycle closes.

How Corporatists and Progressives can work together for a better America and a better world.

Most of those I know on the Left are cautiously hopeful about what can be done under the new Democratic majority government.

No one should be mistaken. There has not been, nor will there ever be, a purely plebeian owned and operated society of significance.

The King is Dead! Long live the King!  Read more…

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While a number of the more cowardly VRWC mouthpieces in the MSM have abandoned the usual the Republican lockstep approach to candidate support solidarity while they try to climb on the Obama gravy train, others in the Party see this schism as a chance for purification and an opportunity to seize the apron strings of power.

Proposition 8:

ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME–SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

Changes the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California.

Provides that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

Been a while since Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been exercised here at Corrente, and there is good news and bad news – of a sort.

For those interested in the analytical side of universal health care challenges, a fascinating comprehensive series of articles on the current state and future prospects for health care in China is now available online from The Lancet (simple registration required).