With just a couple weeks left to the Bush regime, largely seen as the worst in American history, the supposedly liberal New York Times ran this story today: “Expansion of Clinics Shapes Bush Legacy.”  The author, Kevin Sack, makes it seem as though Bush’s legacy can be summed up by his doubling of federal funding for health centers that serve medically underserved areas.  Read the full story

Sometimes U.S. intervention and imperialist pressure on poor countries generates a high level of buzz on the U.S. left.  Sometimes it evokes no more than tongue-clucking or an embarrassed silence.  It seems reminiscent of the way that we are taught to divide the have-notes into the deserving poor (for example, children, victims of “natural” disasters, and those who otherwise demonstrate proper gratitude to their benefactors) and those who are not deserving (e.g. unemployed adults, people in jail, and poor people who challenge the system that keeps them poor). Read the full story