Taking Note

Giustozzi on the Taliban

On a non-McChrystal Afghanistan note, I wanted to draw attention to a newly-released report by Antonio Giustozzi published by The Century Foundation. The report, "Negotiating with the Taliban: Issues and Prospects," gives an updated description of various aspects of the Taliban’s organization with an eye toward how the nature of the group’s structure and control would impact potential negotiations. The report incorporates Giustozzi's most recent fieldwork in Afghanistan in April 2010.

Among the key arguments is that the Taliban are best described as a decentralized as opposed to a fragmented organization. While the size and hierarchy within underlying networks vary,Giustozzi goes on to argue that “[a]t the very top, all these networks are kept together by links of personal loyalty to the Amir al Momineen , Mullah Omar.” Obviously, such a conclusion has ramifications for conceiving of and framing a process for a political settlement and militates against the viability of piecemeal approaches toward theTaliban assuming continued resilience of a loose but enduring organizational structure.

Immigration, Jobs, and the American Economy, Re-visited

Although the contentious last steps toward passage of President Obama’s health care reform package dominated last week’s headlines, it was not the only important debate taking place. On Sunday, March 21st, thousands of protesters attended an immigration reform rally in Washington, D.C., calling on legislators to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. The rally came days after President Obama publicly pledged to support the Bipartisan Immigration Reform Framework, advanced by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The framework consists of four main proposals: biometric Social Security cards, to eliminate document fraud by illegal immigrants; strengthened border enforcement; a temporary work program; and a legalization path for those undocumented workers already in the United States.

What the Health Care Reform Bill Will Mean for You and Your Family

Appearing on CNN yesterday morning, Senator Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) groused about what he called the “Europeanization” of health care. Translated, that means that we have decided to take a more collective approach to survival. If you cannot afford health insurance, your fellow citizens will help you pay for it.

Hatch is correct: in 2014, a family of four earning $88,200 (or four times the federal poverty level) will get a subsidy to help buy insurance in the new Exchanges. $88,200 may sound like a fortune if you live in Idaho (where median income for a family of four is $58,000), but in Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey, $88,200 is actually less than median income for a family of four. Even in New Hampshire, median income for a family of four is $87,396. (Half of all families of four earn less; half earn more. In other words, a family that size bringing home $88,200 in New Hampshire is smack dab in the middle of the pack.)  See this fascinating table that shows median income for individuals as well as families including of two to six people in all fifty states. It’s startling to see how widely incomes vary in different parts of the country.

A Podcast on the Passing of the Health Care Reform Bill

Century Foundation Fellow Maggie Mahar discusses how powerful the Health Care Reform Bill is and how it is going to reign in Health Care inflation.

Maggie Mahar on Reigning in Health Care Inflation with the Health Care Reform Bill

“I Am Not Bound to Win, But I Am Bound to Be True”

So many said it would never happen. But now, on Sunday, March 21, 2010, it appears that reformers have the votes. Politico.com has announced that the last hold-outs--legislators who oppose abortion-- have reached an agreement with the White House. (Under the agreement, President Barack Obama would sign an executive order ensuring that no federal funding will go to pay for abortion under the health reform plan.)

At last, Congress is about to take the first step toward transforming what we euphemistically call our health care "system."  In the years ahead, the laissez-faire chaos that puts profits ahead of people will be regulated, with an eye to providing affordable, evidence-based, patient-centered care for all.

Since I began writing this blog, I have predicted that Medicare reform would pave the way for health care reform, and this bill makes that possible. Under the legislation, Congress will no longer be in a position to thwart Medicare’s efforts to rein in spending by eliminating waste. Not everyone is happy about this. Over at Politico.com former Republican Senator Bill Frist and former Democratic Senator John Breaux register their protest in a column titled "Keep Medicare in Congress' Hands."

Under reform, politicians and lobbyists will no longer have the power to decide what Medicare pays for and how it pays for it. Frist and Breaux put their finger on a critical change at the very heart of the legislation when they complain that an “Independent Payment Advisory Board,” made up of physicians and health care experts, will be able to propose changes in Medicare payments that “become law unless Congress enacts its own proposal to achieve the same level of cuts.”  Legislators will be loathe to take responsibility for cuts. Moreover “Congressional leaders will have to muster . . . .a super-majority of votes if they want to overturn the board’s decisions.”

Facebook Haiti

The first news I received about the massive 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti did not come from Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper, or even the Huffington Post. I first learned about the earthquake in Haiti when a friend posted her condolences in her Facebook status. I clicked onto her profile and discovered she had posted a link to an article about the earthquake on her page.

Within an hour of the 7.0 earthquake - at least a quarter of my 2,300 facebook friends were posting instructions in their status for texting donations to Hatian born hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation. Yele Haiti's Facebook page has over 94,000 fans, countless photos from inside Haiti, and, of course, the reminder to donate $5 by texting YELE to 501501. Yele Haiti has already raised over $2 million for the relief efforts.

Public Supports Moving Forward on Climate Change

Health care reform is occupying almost everyone’s attention these days, which is understandable given its level of importance and how close we are to big decisions in Congress. But other critical issues remain on Congress’s agenda and will be taken up once the health care situation is resolved. On the top of that list is climate change. Just-released data from the Pew Research Center suggests the public is ready to move forward in this area.

First, the public rejects the idea that the United States should go alone in addressing climate change. By 56-32, they say that the United States “should join other countries in setting standards to address global climate change” rather than “set its own standards to address global climate change.”

Second, the public gives 50-39 support to “setting limits on carbon dioxide emissions and making companies pay for their emissions, even if it may mean higher energy prices” (emphasis added).

These findings indicate that legislators should not rest on their laurels even if they succeed in passing health care reform. The public appetite for change is clearly broader than that.

Immigration Detention Reform Can't Wait

When the Obama administration pledged earlier this month to overhaul our government’s practice of jailing undocumented immigrants, it was an overdue acknowledgment of a festering problem that has quietly grown out of control.

Immigration detention is the fastest growing form of incarceration in the United States today. Some 400,000 immigrants are detained each year in a network of deplorably inadequate facilities across the country. Most of these prisoners have committed no crime save the civil infraction of being in the country illegally. Indeed, many of them are children: 8,000 children were held in immigration detention facilities in 2007. Worst of all, many of these prisoners have come to America seeking political asylum. They have fled war, tyranny, persecution, and torture only to have their trauma compounded as they are locked up in the United States.

Share Your Thoughts on New Media in the Policy Arena

This post was written by Hummy Song and John Baronian.

Change is happening in the world of media and policy—and fast. The promise of interactive new media is now real through Web 2.0 applications that provide a platform on which all individuals may participate and communicate freely. The new administration has already taken steps to incorporate this into their style of governing. According to Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House, the President and his administration will not only send email updates regarding major announcements and decisions, but also “publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days [to] allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.” This is just one example of the movement toward greater transparency and interactivity in new media.

Don't Turn the Page on Wiretapping without Knowing What it Says

Remember the wiretapping scandal? With the election of Barack Obama and a widespread confidence that the new president will not abuse the prerogatives of his office in the Bush fashion, it might seem that Washington can simply turn the page on the past eight years, starting afresh with a renewed commitment to the rule of law. But as I argued in an Op-Ed for yesterday's New York Times, critical questions about the warrantless wiretapping program remain unanswered, and it may be impossible to restore the balance between aggressive intelligence work and robust protection of civil liberties without first comprehending the nature and extent of the abuses of the past eight years. The full piece is below.

And as if in answer to my questions, Newsweek has come through with an extraordinary cover-story package, revealing the identity of the Justice Department lawyer who first alerted the New York Times to the illegal program, and in another story, providing a (partial) explanation of what prompted numerous senior Justice officials to nearly resign over the program in the spring of 2004. Hopefully congress and other press outfits will seize on these new revelations and continue to untangle the various strands of this complicated -- and still significant -- story.

Big Brother Hasn’t Won
By PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE

IF you thought the wiretapping controversy ended last summer, when Congress blessed the Bush administration’s warrantless-wiretapping program by passing a new surveillance law that greatly enhanced the powers of the National Security Agency, think again. The legacy of the illegal operation represents a serious problem for the Obama administration.