This time with tax payer dollars. Quite appropriately, Moment of Clarity has entitled this video “The Capitalism Monster Sh*ts On Us Again.”

No Weekly Five would be complete without our continued effort to bring you the current life signs of the ever-controversial, yet critically important public option. Here is an insightful post from The Political Animal which  responds to a recent piece in the NYTs. Contrary to conventional wisdom, even though the Times piece suggests that there [...]

A must read OpEd from Thomas Friedman about Red China’s emerging decision to become Green China. Friedman calls it the most important event of the past 18 months, the 21st century’s equivalent of Sputnik. The question is…will the U.S. prevail this time or let China “out green” us? I wrote about a similar issue, using [...]

Will Ferrell, Jon Hamm, and other celebrities offer the best defense of the insurance industry yet! Just bear with the introduction from Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Yes. That’s right. In today’s rush to become the meanest, greenest, and cleanest nation in the world — the 21st century’s equivalent to the epic space race between the Soviets and Americans — the European Union nations are not only in the lead, their lead is growing by leaps and bounds. This gap has widened [...]

(1) Hopes For A Public Option Rising?
I feel like we are in the midst of an election, reporting on new poll numbers every day. This time, however, the public option is the candidate running for office. Robert Creamer, blogging on the Huffington Post, offers some compelling reasons as to why, despite a ’squandered’ summer, the [...]

(2) Frank Rich: Obama ‘Squandered’ the Summer Waiting
NYT’s Columnist Frank Rich critiques Obama’s ‘wait-and-then-pounce’ leadership style and his damaging summer poll numbers that resulted from it.  I tend to agree with Rich’s comments: It probably wouldn’t hurt Obama to be a more proactive leader, and his latest health care speech, although masterful, did come a [...]

(3) Census Bureau: Bush Left Us Worse Off In Every Economic Category
“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.”
- FDR
The Census Bureau, which just released its annual report on Thursday, uses four measures to assess economic performance. Here is how the Bush Administration (and [...]

(4) Symptoms of a Warming World: Worst Drought in Memory Strikes Kenya

Also see the New York Times video: Famine Fears in Northern Kenya.
This is a continuation of the discussion I started with my column Athens on Fire: Why More Than Just Archaeologists Should Be Paying Attention. Droughts have long afflicted the driest regions [...]