The Latest on Air America

Ben Branzel, Elizabeth Jacobs, and my friends Chris Hayes and Ezra Klein are teaching us about social democracy. Join them, won't you?

Elizabeth Jacobs: The New Deal in popular memory was a time of greater solidarity. But was it the case, actually? Public opinion was a messy business back then, so it's hard to say. But. People seemed just as socially schismatic and individualistic in the 1930s as today. "Many of the poor and lazy class do not want work," said some Ohio housewife in 1936. So how did we end up with the New Deal? Because FDL "had an idea of what he wanted to do and worked hard to get it done" and through wily and ruthless coalition politics. Political leadership is what matters. 

Ben Branzell: Barack Obama is cool and all, but the important thing is to build a movement and now I will explicate that through a convoluted booster-rocket outer-space metaphor that I probably shouldn't have bothered with. "We'd be kidding ourselves if the candidate Obama who talked about bringing ... everyone together, when he becomes president of the country" won't have a seat at the table, and that includes the assholes. There's this thing called "Oh No You Don'" organizing that helps activists tap into opposition-politics over impeachment/the war/FISA gutting; won't be sufficient in an era of progressive governance. 

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 617-08
July 18, 2008
DoD Identifies Navy Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Aviation Boatswain Mate Third Class Petty officer Daniel R. Verbeke, 25, of Exton, Penn., died July 14 in Paoli, Penn. of complications from injuries he suffered in a flight deck accident in December 2005 while serving aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, CVN-71.

For further information related to this release the media can contact Navy public affairs office at (703) 697-5342.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 616-08
July 18, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Willington M. Rhoads, 23, of Las Vegas, Nev., died July 16 in Bagram, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion (Airborne), Vicenza, Italy.

The incident is under investigation.

For more information, media may contact the Southern European Task Force public affairs office at 011-49-162-297-6685, or after hours at 011-49-(0) 6221-57-4906.