How "The NAFTA Flu" Exploded

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Wednesday April 29, 2009 · 9:11 AM PDT

2009/04/29 · 09:11

(Crossposted from Narco News.)

US and Mexico authorities claim that neither knew about the “swine flu” outbreak until April 24. But after hundreds of residents of a town in Veracruz, Mexico, came down with its symptoms, the story had already hit the Mexican national press by April 5. The daily La Jornada reported:

Clouds of flies emanate from the rusty lagoons where the Carroll Ranches business tosses the fecal wastes of its pig farms, and the open-air contamination is already generating an epidemic of respiratory infections in the town of La Gloria, in the Perote Valley, according to Town Administrator Bertha Crisóstomo López.

The town has 3,000 inhabitants, hundreds of whom reported severe flu symptoms in March...

The Field

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Thursday April 16, 2009 · 3:39 PM PDT

2009/04/16 · 15:39

(Crossposted and updated from The Field.)

DISTRITO FEDERAL, MEXICO; APRIL 16, 2009: Air Force One landed at 1:30 pm. CT at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, bringing with it President Obama’s first steps onto Latin American soil. At 1:40 he boarded the Marine One chopper and headed toward the Mexican presidential palace known as Los Pinos, where he landed at 1:54 p.m.

The presidents of the two nations have just concluded a joint ceremony together with florid cliché-filled speeches, a private meeting, and a joint press conference...

The Field

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Monday March 23, 2009 · 2:33 PM PDT

2009/03/23 · 14:33

(Crossposted from The Field.)

The anti-Geithner partisans on the right as well as the left got a deserved smackdown from the President on 60 Minutes Sunday night. (Transcript here, key excerpt later in this essay.)

The right wing chorus of “I hope he fails” explains its own transparent goal in calling for the ritual presentation of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s head on a stick. In a sentence: The chain reaction of events caused by a sudden vacancy at Treasury would delay any possible economic recovery until after the 2010 elections. I’ll walk us all through their favored scenario in a moment.

But let's also look carefully at what is missing from the similar calls from some corners of the center-left...

The Field

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Wednesday February 25, 2009 · 4:45 PM PST

2009/02/25 · 16:45

(Crossposted from The Field.)

After offering the soundbite heard ‘round the world - "We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before" - the President proceeded to make the case for three big domestic spending priorities: energy, health care, and education...

(Lots more at the jump...)

The Field

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Thursday February 19, 2009 · 3:37 PM PST

2009/02/19 · 15:37

(Cross-posted from Narco News.)

The Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, Class of 2003, Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Photo: D.R. 2003 Jeremy Bigwood

Applications Due March 15 to Be Eligible for Free Attendance at the April 24-26 Workshop at the Rowe Conference Center in Massachusetts

The Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, together with the Rowe Conference Center, announces the availability of two scholarships to attend the weekend workshop, The Organizing of the President, that I'll be hosting April 24-26 in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.

The scholarships will go to community organizers that seek to better utilize journalism and the Internet in their organizing work, or to independent journalists, media makers or bloggers that report on community organizing campaigns...

The Field

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Saturday February 14, 2009 · 10:58 AM PST

2009/02/14 · 10:58

(Crossposted from The Field.)

"Never go outside the expertise of your people."

- Saul Alinsky

Poor John Judis: for the New Republic's senior editor, the sky has just fallen. The Stimulus Bill didn't spend enough, he says. Obama, he claims, "is having trouble." Oh, really?

Smackdown at the jump...

The Field

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Tuesday February 10, 2009 · 12:38 PM PST

2009/02/10 · 12:38

(In loving memory of Guy Chichester of Rye, New Hampshire, 1936-2009.)

Much has been written about how the Senate version of the Stimulus Bill doesn't include some of the most economically stimulating items from the House version: tens of billions of dollars for public education and school construction, Head Start early childhood education, and other vital projects.

Now the bill goes to House-Senate conference. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called the changes made in the Senate version "very damaging." US Rep. David Obey (D-WI) will be her point man on the conference.

One of the changes made by the Senate version, however, was to add an $8.5 billion dollar bailout for the nuclear power industry. These projects are not "shovel ready," they won't be for years, they will not be labor intensive, and would take at least 10 years before supplying any energy, if at all...

(Note: See update and correction of original version at the jump.)

Poll

644 votes Show Results

What Stimulates an Economy?

644 votes Vote Now!

What Stimulates an Economy?

Nukes

54 votes

Schools

590 votes

Bipartisanship Isn't "Weak" & Partisanship Isn't "Tough"

The Field

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Saturday February 07, 2009 · 11:14 AM PST

2009/02/07 · 11:14

(Crossposted from The Field.)

When it comes to Nate Silver's analysis of the numbers of politics, if the gods ever made a more astute human they must have done it in an age when that person had far less data available at his fingertips. I'm usually reduced to saying "me too" when Silver speaks, but today I think he's offered a counsel that is more human than it is divinely providenced...

The Field

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Friday February 06, 2009 · 11:58 AM PST

2009/02/06 · 11:58

(Crossposted from The Field.)

No sooner was President Obama sworn in than the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) decided to provoke him.

Two days after the January 20 inauguration - before the Senate had confirmed the nomination of Attorney General Eric Holder - the DEA raided a medical marijuana dispensary in South Lake Tahoe, California, one of the states that has made such facilities legal. This, with full knowledge that as a presidential candidate Obama had pledged to discontinue such raids...

The Field

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Wednesday February 04, 2009 · 1:46 PM PST

2009/02/04 · 13:46

(Crossposted from The Field.)

Today marks 15 of the 1,461 days in President Obama's term (at least the first one) and it's kinda funny how The Children's Table, which purports to be on the political left, whines in harmony with its counterparts on the right wing that Obama hasn't done enough to please them. Republican leaders huddled late last week with such disgraced ex-office holders as Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich to pound their spoons on the table... Read More

Poll
71 votes Show Results
I will

Host or attend a house meeting this weekend

Involve myself in Organizing for America at a later date

Won't organize with OFA 2.0 but hope it succeeds

Won't organize with OFA 2.0 but hope it fails and complain about it

Other

71 votes Vote Now!
I will

Host or attend a house meeting this weekend

34 votes

Involve myself in Organizing for America at a later date

23 votes

Won't organize with OFA 2.0 but hope it succeeds

8 votes

Won't organize with OFA 2.0 but hope it fails and complain about it

3%

2 votes

Other

6%

4 votes

"No Drama" Wins Again: Daschle Out - Paging Dr. Lambrew?

The Field

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Tuesday February 03, 2009 · 10:26 AM PST

2009/02/03 · 10:26

(Crossposted from The Field.)

I find it tiresome that a country with such an archaic and confusing set of overlapping and often conflicting tax laws then makes a scandal out of anyone that runs awry of them. And in the case of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, I see his own much-reported tax problems as a net plus: as head of the department that includes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), he'll hopefully have a good dose of empathy for the average citizens that are plagued by the vast powers of that agency after making mistakes or confused presumptions on their taxes. And here's hoping that new-found empathy translates into making the tax system simpler and less punitive for the average Jane and Joe.

All that said, the circumstances surrounding former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's nomination to the cabinet and his own problem of unpaid taxes were qualitatively different in that Daschle violated the "no drama" credo of the Obama organization...

The Field

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Friday January 30, 2009 · 11:53 PM PST

2009/01/30 · 23:53

(Crossposted from The Field.)

"I hope he fails... I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed... What is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails? Liberalism is our problem. ... Somebody's gotta say it..."

- Rush Limbaugh, January 2009

"I think (Organizing for America) will fail in its mission to directly engage Obama supporters in supporting Obama's executive actions. And I think this is a very good thing... I support Obama wholeheartedly, and have been thrilled every day of his Presidency. But I support self-government even more, and a successful organization sharing uncritical media with 13 million citizens sounds spooky to me. I'm glad it's going to fail."

- Zephyr Teachout, January 2009

Great timing on that faux pas, Zephyr...

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How "The NAFTA Flu" Exploded

The Dangers for Obama of Trusting Mexico's George W. Bush

The Smart Move: Geithner Isn't Going Anywhere

About Last Night: The Shock Doctrine Reversed

Announcing Two Scholarships in Journalism & Organizing

John Judis and What Army?

(Corrected) Speaker Pelosi: Here's $8.5 Billion for the Stimulus in Conference

Bipartisanship Isn't "Weak" & Partisanship Isn't "Tough"

White House: DEA Raids in Medical Marijuana States Will Stop

New Info about Organizing for America and its Plans

"No Drama" Wins Again: Daschle Out - Paging Dr. Lambrew?

Hoping Against Hope? A Response to Limbaugh & Teachout