By Michael J.W. StickingsThink Progress:– Karl Rove, yesterday on Meet the Press: “[T]he suggestion that somehow or another the administration had as its policy, ‘We’re going to go in to Iraq and take their resource and pay for the war,’ is not accura…

In Sunday’s The New York Times, 79-year-old Mikhail Gorbachev, the last head of state of the Soviet Union, wrote:

PERESTROIKA, the series of political and economic reforms I undertook in the Soviet Union in 1985, has been the subject of heated debate ever since. Today the controversy has taken on a new urgency — not just because of the 25th anniversary, but also because Russia is again facing the challenge of change. In moments like this, it is appropriate and necessary to look back.

We introduced perestroika because our people and the country’s leaders understood that we could no longer continue as we had. The Soviet system, created on the precepts of socialism amid great efforts and sacrifices, had made our country a major power with a strong industrial base. The Soviet Union was strong in emergencies, but in more normal circumstances, our system condemned us to inferiority. …

I am often asked whether my fellow leaders of perestroika and I knew the full scope of what we had to do. The answer is yes and no — not fully and not immediately. What we had to abandon was quite clear: the rigid ideological, political and economic system; the confrontation with much of the rest of the world; and the unbridled arms race. In rejecting all that, we had the full support of the people; those officials who later turned out to be die-hard Stalinists had to keep silent and even acquiesce. …

After the Soviet Union was dismantled, Russian leaders opted for a more radical version of reform. Their “shock therapy” was much worse than the disease. Many people were plunged into poverty; the income gap grew tremendously. Health, education and culture took heavy blows. Russia began to lose its industrial base, its economy becoming fully dependent on exports of oil and natural gas. …

By the turn of the century, the country was half destroyed and we were facing chaos. Democracy was imperiled. President Boris Yeltsin’s 1996 re-election and the transfer of power to his appointed heir, Vladimir Putin, in 2000 were democratic in form but not in substance. That was when I began to worry about the future of democracy in Russia.

• • • • •

At Daily Kos on this date in 2003:

Of course, Ari is still blabbing about Bush’s “final push for diplomacy blah blah blah”, when Bush’s efforts have not been about averting war, but about cajoling, threatening, and bribing the rest of the world to sign on. The world wants “diplomacy” aimed at peace, not at war, a distinction that Ari, Bush and Co. seem to miss.

So facing stiff opposition (something Bush and Co. had never experienced before, certainly not from the US press or Democratic Party) the US is now threatening to attack Iraq without putting a second resolution up for a vote — despite Bush’s bold declaration last week that he would force every nation to “show its cards”.

But what matters to you – what matters to our country – is not what happens in the next election, but what we do to lift up the next generation.  And the fact is, there are few issues that speak more directly to our long term success as a nation than issues concerning the education we provide to our children.

President Obama announced in his weekly address this morning an “overhaul” of the No Child Left Behind Act that his administration will deliver to Congress Monday, a revision, he said, that will concede that while “the federal government can play a leading role in encouraging the reforms and high standards we need, the impetus for that change will come from states, and from local schools and school districts.”

His address led by sounding an alarm regarding a report released last week indicating other countries are surpassing America in the educational realm, and he pointed to the glory days of the 20th century–replete with new schools, the GI Bill for veterans and excellence in math and science–as a model to remember as we move ahead. Our current inadequacies, he said, are a major cause for concern.

Not only does that risk our leadership as a nation, it consigns millions of Americans to a lesser future.  For we know that the level of education a person attains is increasingly a prerequisite for success and a predictor of the income that person will earn throughout his or her life.  Beyond the economic statistics is a less tangible but no less painful reality: unless we take action – unless we step up – there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential. 
 
I don’t accept that future for them.  And I don’t accept that future for the United States of America.  That’s why we’re engaged in a historic effort to redeem and improve  our public  schools: to raise the expectations for our students and for ourselves, to recognize and reward excellence, to improve performance in troubled schools, and to give our kids and our country the best chance to succeed in a changing world.

His remarks were short on specifics, long on generalities: good schools will be rewarded, districts with failing schools will be asked to “commit to change,” teachers will be better prepared and supported. While it’s encouraging to hear even a generalized commitment to improving education in this country, it sure would be nice if the entire subject of education wasn’t always tied to simply churning out better workers (Obama’s by no means alone in this — almost everyone who addresses education takes this same dispiriting tack). Yes, competing in the global economy, fostering prosperity, having marketable skills are all important. But it would be refreshing to have more than lip service paid to the value of education’s enrichment of a human life and of our shared civilization, instead of focusing solely on income potential and/or the value American citizens bring to businesses as drones and cogs in the economic engine.

The full transcript can be found at the White House website and beneath the fold.

Billionaire GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has invested her vast wealth in firms that sought to profit from the country’s credit crisis, in venture capital and hedge funds open only to the wealthy, and in oil, gas, healthcare and othe…

Here’s the background on this escalating story of greed, lying, and cover-ups.
The bankruptcy examiner for the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy says then-CEO Dick Fuld “was “at least grossly negligent” for letting Lehman file financial reports in which a key gauge of strength was ‘reverse-engineered’ through transactions known as Repo 105s” Further “Lehman auditor Ernst & [...]

The economy is still getting worse more slowly. We lost “only” 36,000 jobs last month. We need to create 11 million new jobs just to…

Additional motivation:

CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself? And the second part of that is, what would happen to the doctors, do they have to participate in the federal program, or could they opt out of it? [...]

LIMBAUGH: My guess in even in Canada and even in the UK, doctors have opted out. And once they’ve opted, they can’t see anybody Medicare, Medicaid, or what will become the exchanges. They have to have a clientele of private patients that will pay them a retainer and it’ll be a very small practice. I don’t know if that’s been outlawed in the Senate bill. I don’t know. I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.

Any chance they can move up implementation of most reforms to next year?

Then again, what will happen when Rush realizes that Costa Rica has universal health care?

A primary contributor to Costa Rica’s success has been its focus on the well being of its people.  For Costa Rica, health and education are priorities for the success of their nation.  The World Bank highlights this priority:

“The Government of Costa Rica sees the health sector as an essential determinant of the country’s economic and social development, giving it a priority that is manifested in sustained high levels of spending and active policy attention at the highest levels.”

The attention to health has brought this middle-wealth country’s health indicators in line with those of OECD countries. In 2001 the average life expectancy at birth in Costa Rica was 76.6 years. In 2000, 97% of births were attended by skilled professionals, 89% of the pregnant women were given prenatal care, and 93% of children under 1 had health insurance. From 1990 to 2000 life expectancy increased by 0.8 years, the fertility rate dropped, and the population grew due to an influx of Nicaraguan immigrants. In 2000 there were 16 physicians and 3.2 nurses per 10,000 population. In 1999 there were 12,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, giving an adult prevalence rate of 0.54%. However, Costa is the only Central American country to provide antiretroviral treatment to all patients through its social security system. The leading causes of death were cardiovascular disease and neoplasms, which is comparable to many OECD countries. Spending on health care has increased steadily over recent years, and in 2000 it composed 9% of the national GDP.

These outcomes are the result of one of the world’s most successful “universal” health care systems.  “Universality” in the Costa Rican system means that 100% of the population is given equal comprehensive public health insurance with equal access to services.

Given Costa Rica’s successful “cradle to grave” universal health care system is not just for Costa Ricans, but even for foreigners in the country, I’d like to suggest Rush try Somalia instead. I’m pretty sure Somalia doesn’t suffer from the evils of socialized medicine.

Just weeks away from Italy’s regional elections the country witnessed one of the most awkward, and potentially dangerous, episodes in the history of its politics.

By Capt. FoggIs David Frum having his “mission accomplished” moment? ” Israel may have to retire its title as the only democracy in the Middle East. With Sunday’s free and fair national election, Iraq joins the honor roll as one of the very few I…

Along with racial equality and women’s rights, future generations will have to explain how, in the past, gays were misunderstood, and eventually, how they fought their way out of marginalization.

Hillary Clinton’s Latin America tour is turning out to be about as successful as George W. Bush’s visit in 2005, when he ended up leaving…

By CreatureCNN takes the lead. The level of stupid in this country astounds me.

Economists: Another financial crisis on the way

Nonpartisan group led by Nobel winner calls for stronger financial reforms
The report warns that the country is now immersed in a “doomsday cycle” wherein banks use borrowed money to take massive risks in an attempt to pay big dividends to shareholders and big bonuses to management – and when [...]

StudentActivism.net has over 100 actions planned for today.

March 4 Day of Action to Defend Education is a grass-roots event in which students, faculty, and others are coming together around the country to speak and act. The Day of Action was originally conceived in California as a response to the current crisis in higher [...]