Women's Health Not 'Special Interest'

Just before the Senate Finance Committee wrapped up debate over its Sen. Max Baucus-designed health care bill, its members debated one of Sen. Jon Kyl's amendments, which would have cut language defining which benefits employers are required to cover.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., argued that insurers must be required to cover basic maternity care. (In several states there are no such requirements.)

Media Ignores Women's Health Disparities in Shriver Report

The "battle of the sexes is over" claims the much-heralded Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything on American work and family life. Go ahead, take a victory lap.

Unless, of course, you're among the millions of women who still earn 23 percent less on average in wages, pay 38 percent more for gender-rated health insurance or fear losing their jobs while trying to juggle disproportionate family responsibilities without flexible work schedules and reasonable family-leave policies.

Weekly Audit: A Tale of Two Economies

The U.S. economy is has diverged: Wall Street is living high on the hog, while everyone else is struggling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eclipsed 10,000 for the first time since last October this week, even as unemployment continues to spiral out of control. And while President Barack Obama has taken some very real steps to help ordinary people, his administration’s efforts to save Wall Street have far outstripped their support of workers.

Ever Upward Trend for Bankers' Pay

Some people were outraged last week by a report that a member of the kitchen staff of bailed-out Wall Street firm AIG had received a $7,700 bonus.

Surely that was far less outrageous than the million-dollar bonuses paid to others at AIG who actually carried out the firm's financial business.

After all, the kitchen helper produced something that at least could be eaten. Apart from perhaps overcooking the Chateaubriand or leaving spots on the champagne glasses, what harm could the kitchen helper have done – compared to driving the world economy over a cliff?

A Question of Health and Women’s Equality

My favorite moment so far in the health care debate was when Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona argued against mandating maternity benefits as part of a basic insurance coverage. “I don’t need maternity care,’’ he blurted out. At which point, Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow quipped, “I think your mom probably did.’’

For that matter, so did his wife and daughter. But never mind. We had one brief glimpse into the mind of a politician who doesn’t quite see women’s health concerns as equal to his own.

If the Russians Did This to Us, We’d Kill ‘Em

What if the Russians invaded?

It's not so far-fetched an idea, you know. We spent half a century and trillions of dollars to make sure that it would never happen, so it's really not such a strange notion.

So what if the Russians invaded?

What if they came and stole all of our money?

What if the Russians invaded and enslaved our children as cheap worker bee drones locked in dismal dead-end jobs?

What if the Russians invaded and excavated all of our natural resources, leaving only mountains of toxic debris in their wake?

The Global North-South Carbon Divide

Reviving the Peace Dividend

World leaders can't seem to hold an economic summit without security forces at the level of an occupying army running roughshod over the host city. This is both a symptom of what's wrong with our global economy — predicated on war, domination and scarcity — and a metaphor for how it works.