Remember Fridays during the Bush Administration? These are so much better....UPDATED

For quite a while, as the Bush Administration scrambled to do damage control, Friday afternoons became notorious for being the time when news would break about potentially scandalous, illegal, or unethical activities by Bush and/or the rest of the GOP. I am very pleased and relieved to find that Fridays have become so much more interesting and satisfying, even after only one month into the (first?) Obama Administration. Aren't you?

Of course, the three main areas of interest for us are closely intertwined, and the news of the week emphasizes the interconnections among them. On the health care front, the proposed budget itself is encouraging, though more on that below. Given the upcoming presentation to us this Sunday by someone who is well-versed on the topic of health care reform, I hope to take advantage of the incentive to dig a bit deeper than I have so far into the terminology and other intricacies of the subject. [Does anyone know, by the way, of a great one-stop resource for basic information regarding terms, pending legislation, etc.?]

A few stalwart contributors to Daily Kos regularly supply great, if disturbing, news (I'm thinking in particular of nyceve, who is constantly raising awareness of the horrific toll that lack of decent health care/health care coverage is having on our fellow Americans). DrSteveB, another house expert, writes today about "public option," or the provision of a mechanism by which some previously ineligible people may be able to obtain coverage under Medicare. His announcement that the omission of "public option" is cause for alarm and action is worth reading; the links he supplies for deep background are also helpful. I freely observe that DrSteveB's position, since he is a fervent proponent of universal single-payer health care, may be a more radical one than some of us have adopted. On the other hand, that is the option that those of us who met at the 12/28 summit at the Friends' Meeting House wanted to go on record with our support.

One of the sources that the above post supplies is connected to an organization worth knowing: the Institute for America's Future. It's basically a progressive think-tank, one of the few left-wing organizations of its type. These days, their ideas may be in the ascendance--but we should be mindful, also, of the huge infrastructure that the Right already has in place. Today, in any case, among the IAF's entries is a farewell post by Rick Perlstein. While this post itself is not terribly noteworthy, Perlstein is a very insightful and tenacious historian of the Religious/Political Right, and his recent book, Nixonland, is well worth reading. FYI, a generally positive review is here; a generally negative one is here.

I must admit that I regret not having newstracker duty on the day that Gail Collins has a column, because I think her work is generally terrific. But most days, I'm happy to read what Paul Krugman has to say, even if I don't agree with him completely. Today, Krugman is unusually complimentry toward an Obama Administration act regarding economic policy: he gives high marks to the proposed budget.

There's one more item relative to health care today that I think is worth noting: the administration has initiated the process of overturning the so-called "conscience" rule that permitted anti-abortion health care providers to refuse to inform patients of contraception or abortion services or treatment. In case you're not aware of it, this was one of many tactics that the Bush Administration has used to interfere with reproductive freedom of choice; for poor women and/or traumatized women, a refusal of information and/or services related to emergency contraception has resulted in documented, unwanted pregnancies. This was a domestic version, to a point, of the notorious "gag rule" in effect internationally, that denied funds to aid groups if they had any connection whatsoever to abortion. (As I understand it, they could not even offer information or referrals. The arrogance is appalling.) And, fortunately, the new administration has also eliminated that ban. Procedurally, today's move will take longer to be complete, and the whole process may well bear watching.

I don't think anyone else has posted this link yet to the proposed budget itself. How terrific it is, for transparency to be advanced to the point of including previously hidden items like the cost of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. From transparency may come accountability, or so we hope....

UPDATE: I did want to include at least one item related to environmental issues. There are so many possibilities, but this time I'll link to a short report on the middle-class task force meeting from Friday. The idea is taking shape of connecting a manufacturing resurgence with "green jobs" and transformed energy, it seems. Not a bad thought.