Rania Khalek Dispatches from the Underclass

Author / Rania Khalek

As it turns out, the Chinese government is unhappy with US criticism of their human rights record.  They seem to think the US lacks the prerogative to chastise their behavior because “the United States is beset by violence, racism and torture and has no authority to condemn other governments.”  I know I’m not the only one […]

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Friday night, my eyes were glued to to the news, as I awaited any and all emerging details about the possible government shutdown. As outlets began reporting that republicans and democrats had finally reached a deal, I immediately felt a sense of relief.  Thank goodness, I thought, so much unnecessary suffering averted.  But the relief […]

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Title X Grants, which fund family planning and other preventive health services, are already prohibited from being used to fund abortions by the Hyde Amendment.  Yet, in the face of reality, the GOP and right-wing media continue to trumpet the notion that defunding Planned Parenthood will prevent tax dollars from being spent on abortions. This has […]

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Republicans in congress are using the budget cuts debate as a way to slip their climate denying, anti-woman ideology into the bill, while house democrats attempt to meet Republicans, more than halfway, to avert a government shutdown.  As of this post there are 7 hours, 55 minutes, and 20 seconds until a possible shutdown if […]

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In light of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) “courageous” and “serious” 2012 budget proposal, as many establishment pundits have called it, I can’t help but wonder: where on the class ladder does Paul Ryan fall?  As it turns out, in 2009 Ryan had a net worth of $590,092 to $2,425,000.  That’s a lot of money, way more […]

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How far to the right is Obama willing to go in order to compromise? Not to say that compromise is inherently wrong, but it’s important to consider the motive of the side you are compromising with.  And when it comes to today’s GOP, particularly the tea-party wing, any effort to compromise automatically pushes everyone to […]

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Allison Kilkenny posted an excellent article in the Nation this weekend about how, for many people, budget cuts are literally a matter of life and death.  The proposed budget cuts to Medicaid that recently passed in Texas were the most alarming: The president and CEO of Texas Hospital Association, Dan Stultz, says the budget cuts […]

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On the surface, differences between Democrats and Republicans on budget cuts seem oceans apart, given the heightened rhetoric over a looming government shutdown.  But in reality, Democrats are just as committed to austerity cuts as Republicans.  It’s simply a matter of how much. The fierce budget-cut battles in congress over a possible government shutdown mask […]

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The only way to explain President Obama’s radical claims of executive power to justify unauthorized war in Libya is that he must be Dick Cheney in disguise. Even John Yoo, the architect of the War Powers memo, is drooling over Obama’s tyrranical claim to power, as he had this to say in a recent Wall […]

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Glenn Greenwald has a brilliant post today about why it would be foolish, not to mention illegal (not that it matters), to send weapons to the Libyan rebels, a strategy the Obama administration is seriously considering. While his entire argument is certainly compelling and well worth reading, he makes one particularly significant point that has, […]

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