Progressive Democrat Issue 223

The battle for healthcare reform continues, and the right wing extremists have been resorting to lies, violence and threats...as usual. Funny how deception and violence are the only options when you have no facts on your side and yet still insist you are right. Here is Obama's latest statement on reform:



This week some good news for journalism. The two Current TV Vanguard journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, have been pardoned by North Korea after Bill Clinton paid a visit to North Korea. Ling and Lee had been in China covering a story about refugees from North Korea escaping into China when they were kidnapped by North Korean soldiers at the border. North Korea sentenced them to 12 years hard labor.

Here is footage of their homecoming:



Current TV's Vanguard program is among the best investigative journalism in America today. Laura Ling is one of the ones whose work I am familiar with and she, along with the other Vanguard journalists, has gone all over the world covering stories no one else covers. Among her works:

Narco War Next Door:



Haiti's Hotzone:



Turkey/Iraq Border War:



I recommend Current TV as an antidote to the inane journalism that most American TV gives us. And I am happy Laura Ling is now free.

I also want to mention that one of my fellow Culture Kitchen bloggers, Leo Igwe, a Humanist in Nigeria, was apparently attacked by a mob last week and robbed and beaten. Why? Because he was standing up against child abuse by religious fanatics in Nigeria. Here is my Culture Kitchen article on the incident. And you can read Leo Igwe's pieces on the abuse of so-called "witch-children" in Nigeria here and here.

On a much lighter note, YOU TOO can have your OWN Kenyan birth certificate, just like the one people produced for Obama.

And, of course, congratulations to our newest Supreme Court Judge!

Here is this week's newsletter:

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

MSNBC's Donnie Deutsch Calls for Glenn Beck Advertiser Boycott

Your Water Footprint

Saving the Earth's Fisheries

First Sign of Recovery?

NYC FOCUS: My updated endorsement list

Brooklyn, NY Focus

Queens, NY Focus

Bronx, NY Focus

Rochester, NY Focus

NEW YORK STATE FOCUS

Silicon Valley Area, CA Focus

San Diego, CA Focus

Orange County, CA Focus

CALIFORNIA FOCUS

Sussex County, NJ Focus

Passaic County, NJ Focus

Warren County, NJ Focus

NEW JERSEY FOCUS

Virginia Organizing Project: On Predatory Lending, Legislators Say, "Let Them Eat Cake"

Virginia Focus: Creigh Deeds Launches Tour of Rural SW Virginia

Virginia Congressman Target of Right Wing Forgery Attempt

VIRGINIA FOCUS

Dallas County, TX Focus

Austin/Travis County, TX Focus

Houston/Harris County, TX Focus

TEXAS FOCUS

Georgia Democrats Work

Georgia Action for Health Care

Coweta County, GA Focus

GEORGIA FOCUS

COLORADO FOCUS

WASHINGTON FOCUS

Pennsylvania Focus: Joe Sestak for Senate

PA-15: Democrats Land Another Top Recruit In Swing Territory Hotlist

PENNSYLVANIA FOCUS

Arizona Focus: Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Neo-Nazis

ARIZONA FOCUS

MICHIGAN FOCUS

WISCONSIN FOCUS

Nevada Focus: Stop Blackstone Coal

NEVADA FOCUS

NORTH CAROLINA FOCUS

ILLINOIS FOCUS

Florida Fire Fighters Endorse Alex Sink for Governor

Jacksonville, FL Campaign Training

FLORIDA FOCUS

MINNESOTA FOCUS

IOWA FOCUS