News for August 27

A Snapshot of Poverty and the Uninsured in the U.S.

The Census Bureau released new numbers Tuesday about the number of people in the U.S. who are living in poverty and who are uninsured. While the poverty rate did not change much, the number of the uninsured dropped a bit. However, this report did not take into account the economic downturn of the past year and may, according to The New York Times, present a more optimistic picture that the current view. Think Progress’ Matthew Yglesias has a few comments on the issue up on his site:

The Great Society: It Was Great |  “Every time new poverty numbers come out, I inevitably find the historical chart and am once again reminded of what a persistent and pernicious myth it is that somehow Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was a failure.”

No Poverty Plan from McCain |  “Most Americans probably do think it’s a problem that so many of our citizens have so few resources, and probably expect that if they were president it’s the kind of thing they’d try to do something to change. But not John McCain!”

What are your thoughts on the report? What should we expect from our politicians on the issues of poverty and the uninsured? What should we expect from ourselves?

Newspapers Cancel AP Service  |  Daily Kos

The reason is that with multiple 24-hour news networks, countless news sites online, and even news content on cell phones, consumers can access news from almost anywhere for free. Commoditized news like what the AP offers doesn’t add much value to a newspaper while costing newspapers hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars a year.

Another view: Dan Rather on the Problems with the Media Today  |  Common Cause

From the Halls of Montezuma to … everywhere  |  Foreign Policy Passport

Via Andrew Sullivan, here’s a clever interactive map from Mother Jones that color-codes countries by the number of U.S. troops stationed there.

We Drive as We Live  |  Salon

No wonder traffic will never improve. We are doomed by our behavior, as a drive in New York with “Traffic” author Tom Vanderbilt reveals. … What’s gumming up the highways are hideously self-absorbed drivers who weave in and out of lanes — creating a chain reaction of people stepping on the brakes — desperate to get to some utterly inane appointment for which they think they can’t be late.

The Elephant in the Living Room  |  Racialicious

Race is indeed a social construct, but physical and cultural differences, and the biased ways that people react to them–that’s real. If we refuse to acknowledge and embrace both our similarities and differences, then how will we ever neutralize negative and biased reactions to those differences?