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Care2 is embarking on a new and exciting project! We have launched the Care2 Causes, which brings you endless information about the issues you care about. This page will be replaced by the politics cause, so go check it out! www.care2.com/causes/politics.
The new Obama administration is ushering in a theme of change throughout Washington, D.C., and Care2 is responding with some change of our own. Many of you have followed the Election '08 channel as we broke down the important races and issues that defined this fall's election cycle.
But now that the last few special elections and runoffs are over, and (save for a few ongoing recounts) we know who will make up the 111th Congress, it's time to shift the focus from the election in particular to politics in general--with an eye toward the most important issues dominating the discourse and action in D.C. and around the country. This move coincides nicely with the launch of our Care2 Causes.
The Bush Administration's controversial auto bailout plan seems headed for failure in the Senate, despite the fact that it made it through the House last night in a 237 to 170 vote. The $14 billion plan, brokered by the White House, would send emergency loans to General Motors and Chysler with the intent to keep them postpone a decision about bankruptcy until March.
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans broke with the White House and resoundingly denounced the bill, instead supporting a five-page amendment from Senator Bob Corker.
Politico has the details:
In essence, Corker would toughen the underlying administration bill by setting out specific steps which bondholders and labor must take to reduce GM's debt and operating costs by the end of March or see the company go into bankruptcy.
This is a guest post by Steve Daigneault of the Amnesty International USA blog
Anniversaries are a dime a dozen. We've got days for everything. Sled Dog Day. Bubble Gum Day. Ballet Day. Dump Your Significant Jerk Day. I'm not kidding. Today is different.
60 years ago this December 10th - after the horrors of World War II - the world came together to unanimously pass the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Not one nation dissented (though a few abstained). The declaration says that every human being deserves dignity, freedom and respect. It's the first blueprint for global rights, establishing fundamental freedoms for every human being.
I guess years of a hellish war have a way of teaching you what's important.
Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich was arrested this morning and charged with corruption for allegedly offering Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder.
From NY Times...
Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, called his sole authority to name Mr. Obama's successor "golden," and he sought to parlay it into a job as an ambassador or secretary of Health and Human Services, or a high-paying position at a nonprofit or an organization connected to labor unions, prosecutors said. He also suggested...his wife could be placed on corporate boards where she might earn as much as $150,000 a year, and he tried to gain promises of money for his campaign fund.
"If I don't get what I want and I'm not satisfied with it, then I'll just take the Senate seat myself," the governor said in recorded conversation, prosecutors said.
Remember playing Memory as a child? It's the card game where you lay two of say 10 different cards face down, and you can turn two up at a time. You're trying to turn up two of the same cards. The trick is to remember which card was where so when you turn up the match, you can go grab it again. Usually you compete against someone else to see who can get the most matches.
Well, the Associated Press has created a fun online version of this game called the "Cabinet Carousel." It's Memory - but for political junkies. Because instead of just matching two random cards, you're linking the current Cabinet member in that position to the person Obama has nominated to take over. So not only is it a challenge to remember whose head is where, you also have to be up on both current and future cabinet members.
Guards of Blackwater Worldwide, a private security contractor of the U.S. State Department, are being charged with manslaughter. Prosecutors claim that they opened fire on Iraqi civilians and launched a grenade into a school. A sixth guard pleaded guilty last week to shooting an Iraqi. These events took place during a 2007 shooting in Baghdad, which is said to have exacerbated anti-American sentiment. The five guards are claiming self-defense.
From NY Times...
The guards were charged with 14 counts of manslaughter and 20 counts of attempted manslaughter. They are also charged with using a machine gun to commit a crime of violence, a charge that carries a 30-year minimum prison sentence.
This past November, 533,000 jobs were cut, the highest amount since 1974. In addition, the unemployment rate rose from 6.5 percent in October to 6.7 percent last month, a 15-year high.
From AP...
The unemployment rate would have moved even higher if not for the exodus of 422,000 people from the work force. Economists said many of those people probably abandoned their job searches out of sheer frustration. In November 2007, the jobless rate was at 4.7 percent.
I came across an interesting article, entitled "You Barack It, You Buy It" by Stephen A. Crockett, Jr., which provoked a resounding "Yes!" from me. In a nutshell: this Obama merchandise craze has got to stop.
Naturally, in every presidential election people want to show their support for their candidate, and what easier way to do it than through a button or bumper sticker? And with this historic election, there is even more interest in owning a November 5th edition newspaper or Obama 2008 T-shirt. But Barack Obama sneakers? Obama perfume? Obama cereal?
Barack Obama is a popular leader who will soon hold the highest elected office in the United States, but he is not a superhero. He is not a rock star. He is not a cartoon character.
On November 18, Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez were indicted in a Texas state court due to allegations of prisoner abuse in federal facilities.
Now it turns out that the Administrative Judge Manuel Banales dismissed the indictments and even told the prosecutor, Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra, to "exercise caution as his term in office ends."
Some of the specific accusations, as reported by AFP...
Cheney profited from the abuse because he invested 85 million dollars in a mutual fund company which holds shares of for-profit prisons.
The indictment also accused Cheney of committing "at least misdemeanor assaults" of inmates by allowing other inmates to assault them.
Two weeks ago, the CEOs of Ford, Chrysler and GM requested a bailout, and were denied. Many protested the fact that they had taken their private jets to Congress. But this morning President Alan R. Mulally pledged to reduce their salaries to one dollar if they got a bailout. Ford added that they plan to cancel all management employees' 2009 bonuses, not increase salaries for North American employees and sell the five corporate planes. GM's CEO pledged to get rid of the companies' seven planes as well.
E.J. Dionne, of the Washington Post Writers Group writes:
There is a paradox at the heart of the proposed bailout of the auto industry. The rescue would have no chance of passing without the muscle of the Big Three's unionized workforce. Yet you can't turn around without hearing someone trash autoworkers for the terrible crime of trying to earn a decent living.