It seems that everyone is doing some sort of list recapping the best (and worst) of the decade. We did as well, and in the spirit of our mission, I attempted to use the nebulous criterion of whose actions in the 2000s will have the greatest impact on the rest of the twenty-first century.

A good video in response to the so-call stolen e-mail “scandal”.

Despite achieving feats that very few people would have believed politically possible just a few years ago, both the House and Senate health care bills leave much to be desired — namely that the House’s public option is too weak and the Senate’s public option is non-existent.
At this juncture, however, what’s most important is distilling [...]

Obama’s Big Sellout
Okay, so this piece is a little old but it really is a true must-read. The amazing Matt Taibbi pens another tome of an article railing against the establishment with his usual populist rage. Eloquent and insightful, Taibbi discusses the impending failure of the Obama Administration’s attempts to “reform” Wall Street. He systematically [...]

The NY Times breaks down the final vote and the essential elements of the Senate legislation. Song of Sibyl’s take: there is still a lot to be excited about in this bill — especially if it is even moderately strengthened in conference (the process of merging the Senate bill with the House bill).
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/health/policy/25health.html?_r=1&hp

A series on the projected impact of climate change on China.
Although China spent the last couple weeks rallying the non-Western world against the U.S. at the Copenhagen Climate Conference (and perhaps rightfully so), they shouldn’t be celebrating the deadlock and failure that was ultimately the result.
In the coming decades, the global processes resulting from [...]

Recently President Obama has endured a wave of perilous political attacks from the right on his fiscal record and, particularly, the federal deficit. Despite the Right’s desperation, however, the notion that this is “Obama’s deficit” collapses at the very moment one begins to take it seriously.
We don’t like to be heavily influenced by the usual [...]

So we all know politicians lie. Sometimes its about Argentinian women and sometimes its about death panels but, no matter their level of creativity, they still need to be held accountable. That’s why here at the Song we are committed to interrogating the truth.
This time the perpetrator is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). In [...]