Articles/Links for MCDAC Newsletter for Week of November 17-24

LA Times columnist about one reason why the GOP lost control of Congress: lack of oversight. Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-na-outlook19nov19,1,4219901.column?coll=la-news-columns

Oregon Secretary of State on why that state's system of voting by mail is the best for America. Imagine an election without lines, chads, touch-screens, gliches, or recounts. Ohio can have that too. Voting by mail would be a big step forward. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701592.html

Democrats to stress economic issues in the new Congress, including raising the minimum wage, college affordability, and health care. They understand that it was middle-class anxiety that got them elected and they want to address such anxiety. Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/18/AR2006111801001.html

Former Bush allies are turning against Bush on Iraq including the man some say is the "architect" of the Iraq War, Richard Pearle, whom, we are told, resents being called the War's "architect". Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/18/AR2006111801076.html

Democratic State Chairs applaud Dean's "50-State Strategy". Article link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061118/ap_on_el_ge/democrats_dean

The so-called War on Terror could soon be the most expensive war since WWII, surpassing Vietnam. Article link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-11-16-iraq-costs_x.htm

Tony Blair doesn't dispute David Frost description of Iraq as having been "pretty much a diaster" during interview. Article link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2459292,00.html

Why political reporters in Washington, D.C. are like high school and junior high bullies Article link: http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2006/11/kewl-kidz-and-queen-bees.html

Incoming Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus of Montana tells Bush that Social Security privatization is "off the table". Article link: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Baucus_Finance_Agenda.html

From a online article by an editor at CBSNews.com: "Really, it's just a simple thesis: The men who ran the Republican Party in the House of Representatives for the past 12 years were a group of weirdos. Together, they comprised one of the oddest legislative power cliques in our history. And for 12 years, the media didn't call a duck a duck, because that's not something we're supposed to do." Read whole article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/15/opinion/meyer/main2182755.shtml

According to the Bush Administration, Americans are no longer hungry, now they suffer from "low food security." The number of Americans suffering from "low food security", or what non-ideologue conservatives call hunger, at least part of last year was 12% or 35 million people. Read whole article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501621.html?nav=rss_email/components

From the "We kid you not" department:

The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women." Read whole article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601929.html

Time Magazine, hardly a bastion of liberalism, takes on five myths about the 2006 election. Read whole article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1560212,00.html

Senators Harry Reid and Barak Obama go after GOP dirty tricks such as harassing robo-calls and misleading flyers designed to influence elections. Read more:

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002009.php

Speaking of "dirty tricks", a follower of Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter was arrested by the FBI after supposedly sending threatening letters to media figures and liberal politicians. Read more here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15721895/

Is Bush's Brain, aka Karl Rove, about to leave the White House following last week's election? Article link: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/17/rove-departure

Rove's influence on wane, but sources inside the White House say he will stay on. Article link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/washington/19rove.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1163912400&en=3d7666a9cf7533df&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin