Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail?

Should the Obama administration prosecute the Bush administration for violating up to 269 national and international laws (you know little things like torture, wiretapping and "extraordinary rendition")?

Amy Goodman's new article in the San Francisco Chronicle investigates the possibilities and wonders whether Obama's claims of an "open government" will usher in an era of accountability in the executive branch:

"Millions have served time in federal prisons for crimes that fall far short of those attributed to the Bush administration. Some criminals, it seems, are like banks judged too big to fail: too big to jail, too powerful to prosecute... But few would endorse letting muggers, rapists or armed robbers of convenience stores off scot-free. So why the different treatment for those potentially guilty of leading a nation into wars that have killed untold numbers, torture and widespread illegal spying?"

The New President's Agenda

Now that Barack Obama has been sworn in and the transition away from George W. Bush's rule is complete, whitehouse.gov also got a makeover.

You can read the new administration's agenda, check out his briefing room (which includes a blog, news on appoinments and exective orders), and of course learn about the history of the White House--though you, like the rest of the world, might want to skip over the last eight years of that one.

Words of a King

Something I do every MLK Day is read Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." Below is an excerpt. To read the entire letter, please click here.

Also note that today at 12PM, CNN will air the "I Have a Dream" speech in its 17-minute entirety. Not to be missed.

"Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity."

Venture Capitalist Argues for "Slow Money"

Woody Tasch, venture capitalist and author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered talked to Plenty Magazine about his vision for a new economy, one in which capital is steered in support of local food systems. What exactly does that mean and what are the implications?

"It is a movement trying to build social capital in a region and a vision of what that can be, and then bringing in financial capital. So we are trying to do things in a different way by bringing in social capital before we bring in financial capital," Tasch says.

To learn more, read the entire interview here.

And if you missed it, W. hosted his last press conference today. Read the live blog feed over at Wonkette for his last presidential press conference. Ever.

Doctors Without Borders' "Top Ten Humanitarian Crises of 2008"

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) released its "Top Ten Humanitarian Crises of 2008" this week. The crises include:

1. Somalia's Humanitarian Catastrophe Worsens
2. Critical Health Needs in Myanmar Remain Unmet
3. Health Crisis Sweeps Zimbabwe as Violence and Economic Collapse Spread
4. Civilians Trapped as War Rages in Eastern Congo
5. Millions of Malnourished Children Left Untreated Despite Advances in Lifesaving Nutritional Therapies
6. Critical Need of Assistance in Ethiopia's Somali Region
7. Civilians Killed and Forced to Flee as Fighting Intensifies in Northwestern Pakistan
8. No End in Sight to Violence and Suffering in Sudan
9. Iraqi Civilians in Urgent Need of Assistance
10. HIV/TB Co-infections Posses Health Battle on Two Fronts

You can help relieve the suffering by making a donation to MSF here.