Official Washington is buzzing about "metrics." Can the war in Afghanistan be successful? 

Like soap in a rainstorm, "healthcare reform" is wasting away.

As this week began, a leading follower of conventional wisdom, journalist Cokie Roberts, told NPR listeners: "This is evolving legislation. And the administration is now talking about a glide path towards universal coverage, rather than immediate universal coverage."

Notions of universal healthcare are fading in the power centers of politics — while more and more attention focuses on the care and feeding of the insurance industry…

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"I want to cover everybody," President Obama said at his news conference Wednesday night. "Now, the truth is that unless you have a — what's called a single-payer system, in which everybody's automatically covered, then you're probably not going to reach every single individual. . ."

The same conventional wisdom keeping single payer off Washington's table has been spinning for various "reform" plans with such accelerated RPMs that at this point the nation's "healthcare debate" is suffering from a severe case of vertigo…

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Media eulogies for Walter Cronkite — including from progressive commentators — rarely talk about his coverage of the Vietnam War before 1968. This obit omit is essential to the myth of Cronkite as a courageous truth-teller.

But facts are facts, and history is history — including what Cronkite actually did as TV's most influential journalist during the first years of the Vietnam War. Despite all the posthumous praise for Cronkite's February 1968 telecast that dubbed the war "a stalemate," the facts of history show that the broadcast came only after Cronkite's protracted support for the war.

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Obituary quoting Norman Solomon

See War Made Easy

Can the North Bay achieve a modern version of the New Deal to revive the region’s economy and promote a sustainable green future?

The obstacles are huge — and so are the imperatives. A massive recession is boosting unemployment, while severe pollution continues to fuel global warming. The need for a Green New Deal is greater than ever…

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The president has set a limit on the number of US troops in Afghanistan. For now.

That's how escalation works. Ceilings become floors. Gradually.

A few times since last fall, the Obama team has floated rising numbers for how many additional US soldiers will be sent to Afghanistan. Now, deployment of 21,000 more is a done deal, with a new total cap of 68,000 US troops in that country.

But "escalation" isn't mere jargon. And it doesn't just refer to what's happening outside the United States…

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Daniel Ellsberg and Norman Solomon will be speaking about the war in Afghanistan and an upcoming civic delegation to that country.

You're invited to join them:

Wednesday, July 15 — reception 6 p.m., program 7 p.m. — at City Hall, 1400 Fifth Ave., San Rafael, Calif.

No charge.

The New York Times used three square inches of newsprint on Tuesday to dispatch two US Army soldiers under the headline "Names of the Dead." Their names – Peter K. Cross and Steven T. Drees – were listed along with hometowns, ranks and ages. Cross was 20 years old. Drees was 19.

They were, the newspaper reported, the latest of 706 Americans "who have died as a part of the Afghan war and related operations." There wasn't enough room for any numbers, names or ages of Afghans who have died as a part of the Afghan war and related operations.

That's the way routine death stories go. But, of course, no amount of newsprint or airtime can do more than scratch the human surface…

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