Kai's Blog Postings
Freedom Usually Isn't Free--But What About Iraq?
I’m one of those Rep. Charlie Rangel has complained about from the outset: I haven’t had to sacrifice much for George Bush’s war. I’m an East Coast, college-educated, yuppie, liberal gay. My friends don’t join the armed forces. The last family member to do so fought in Korea. Sure, I’ve marched, I’ve declaimed, I’ve voted my conscience. But in the end....
Telling Southern Govs to Take the Money
Web advocacy group ColorOfChange.org has its members hounding South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and his band of Southern-guv rebels over their refusal to use stimulus cash....
Young Blacks and Broken Hearts
The New England Journal of Medicine has an arresting study that finds blacks under the age of 50 are 20 times more likely to develop heart disease than whites. Here’s the abstract, for geeks, and an AP digest for everybody else....
Why Sanford vs. Obama is a Defining Political Feud
Michael Steele’s mania gets the airtime, but South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is shaking out as the real Republican nemesis for Barack Obama’s effort to redefine government as hero rather than villain. Both Obama and the Democratic National Committee know this, which is why they’re picking a fight on his home turf....
HIV in D.C. Worse Than in West Africa
That’s right, it’s official: Chocolate City has a developing world AIDS epidemic. Three percent of the population is HIV positive, city officials are announcing today. And that’s just counting the people who have actually been tested—federal health officials believe anywhere from a quarter to a third of people living with HIV in the U.S. don’t know it....
Maxine Waters in Hot Seat Over Shady Bailout
The NEW YORK TIMES and the WALL STREET JOURNAL are reporting a seemingly improper role California Rep. Maxine Waters—one of my congressional heroes—played in getting bailout cash for Boston-based OneUnited Bank. OneUnited is one of the nation’s largest minority-owned banks....
Why Are We Always Bashing Teachers?
Your best public policy lessons on any issue come from observing at the ground level. And since I’ve got no kids and haven’t seen the inside of a school since the early 1990s, I often steer clear of education debates. It’s complicated, emotional stuff, which I learned when a deeply progressive colleague and parent told me she thought rightwing education wonk Sol Stern made some important points....
Obama Pulls Our Head Out of Scientific Sand
It’s easy to forget—with the global economy ground to a halt and all—just how much the Bush crowd jammed up the gears of science, too. But President Obama reminded us of the fact yesterday when he lifted the Bush-era ban on funding for stem cell research. Obama used soaring language to mark the moment in a White House ceremony...
Oprah Hits Back on Domestic Violence
Kudos to Oprah Winfrey. Too many other celebrities have cowered away from stating the obvious: Chris Brown is a batterer and none of this shit is funny. (Kate Harding at SALON has a nice piece on black celebs’ soft-shoe routine in particular.) So now Oprah’s planning a whole show on domestic violence, hopefully stoking a conversation that it’s long past time we all have....
Killing DC Voting Rights With Dirty Tricks
Washington, DC is closer than it’s been in memory to finally gaining voting representation in Congress. The Senate version of a bill that would turn Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton into a voting member of the House passed an important legislative hurdle on Tuesday, when 62 members voted to close debate on the matter, clearing the way for a vote. (This is important because it means there aren’t enough nays to sustain a filibuster and, thus, a simple majority of 51 votes is all that’s needed to pass the bill.) The House version will sail through the chamber, likely next week. But don’t count your votes yet, Chocolate City....
