Today I came home from work with another headache, jaw sore from clenching my teeth, drained emotionally and physically. I spent the whole day with people whose lives are being ripped apart. Hours spent trying to answer questions that had no answers, offer encouragement where none was merited, and ultimately knowing I failed on every level. I work for a not-for-profit that provides support for disabled adults. The majority of people I work with personally are mildly mentally retarded and have several major medical issues. Cuts mean that the 25 adults I work with as a direct support giver will be without any assistance beyond whatever the federal programs offer, such as social security disability.

In the real world, I am an insurance broker and a small business owner. In these dual roles, I am acutely aware of how difficult it is to for small businesses to find affordable health insurance. This is why I've concluded that any healthcare reform in America that exempts small business is no reform at all. As an exercise to highlight the difference in purchasing power between large organizations and small businesses, I ran the following scenario: what would it cost to insure the 40 GOP senators in a small group plan. This exercise is possible because community rating for small groups uses very little data. And the little data required to rate this group is public data - date of birth and marital status - found on Wikipedia. I ran this hypothetical business - let's call it Harry & Louise Healthcare Consulting - through the CareFirst BlueCross

The "co-op plan" for health care reform is barely a week old as a concept, and only days old as a draft proposal by the Senate Finance Committee, but already many have declared that it can't work.

Connecticut state troopers' surveillance of Green Party activists serves as the latest warning of whether we should allow government to conduct political intelligence and engage in "preventive" policing.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) official testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about a new report on firearms trafficking to Mexico that states, in part, that "available evidence indicates a large proportion of the firearms fueling Mexican drug violence originated in the United States."

I have been to a number of professional development sessions lately. The subject of engaging our students is a hot topic and has been discussed in a number of educational forums. What I find is amazing, in all the workshops, conferences, etc. I attend, is how willing many of my colleagues are willing to share.

While perusing a message board today, I came across a post that called the U.S. to task with respect to election fraud and disgust with the Bush administration's policies thereafter. The writer asked why Americans didn't demonstrate the same outrage that is being expressed in Tehran now. Good question, and to me, there is no answer but to say that Americans failed to protect their own democracy.

Sometimes I like to listen to classical music on WGBH, one of our local NPR stations. For what seems like a large percentage of the days in the year, however, they interrupt the programming for 20 minutes per hour with annoying fund drives. How much of WGBH's revenue comes from driving listeners insane/away?

In our memorandum, available here, we describe the Obama Administration's White Paper on Financial Regulatory Reform. The White Paper is just the beginning of what is likely to be a legislative, regulatory and ideological marathon, despite the Administration's best efforts to achieve domestic political support before its publication.

It may be the fastest and most unexpected revolution in political economy since the fall of the Soviet Union, but it is still startling to realize that the United States government currently owns the largest insurer (AIG), mortgage provider (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac), multiple banks (Citigroup and Bank of America), as well as a majority stake in GM and a significant share in Chrysler.

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