As long ago as the Ralph Klein regime, cynical conservative politicians from Alberta who wanted to privatize our public health care system have talked up the notion that private corporations do a bang-up job delivering "publicly funded" health care.

Indeed, when the "publicly funded" mantra starts coming out of the mouth of an Alberta politician nowadays it's a certain sign a pro-privatization pitch is next on the agenda. In the Albertan context at least, the phrase has come to be code for "provided for a profit."

Christian groups are trying to create a run around health care reform by setting up alternative, unregulated religious health care bill collectives—and movement conservatives are cheering them on.

Reports from New York confirm that talks between the two hedge fund owners, Fortress Investment Group and Davidson Kempner have reached an impasse. With Intrawest late on a $524 million debt payment, it now appears that the Canadian government may need to step in to save the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Not the kind of news that Olympic organizers need with just over a month before the opening ceremonies.

Now that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner isn't going to impose pay restrictions on bailed out Wall Street executives, it's critical to remember that severe economic inequality was a major factor in the financial meltdown. Our tax code funnels money into the hands of our wealthiest citizens, which means that our financial system protects the interests of the affluent—not the the average citizen. The broad divergence between our core democratic values and the existing U.S. economic structure must become part of the public debate over financial reform.

Severe economic inequality has persisted for decades in the U.S., but the current crisis is bringing things into focus. Unfortunately, while Wall Street excess and the corporate jet-setting of Detroit executives have dominated headlines and garnered plenty of justified outrage, the other side of the inequality coin has been largely neglected. As Katrina vanden Heuvel explains in The Nation, the routine exploitation of day laborers and domestic workers has grown even more pervasive since the recession began.

by Lindsay Beyerstein, TMC Mediawire Blogger

Of all the hurdles facing healthcare reform in 2009, the U.S. Senate is arguably the most formidable. But the prospects for passing a healthcare bill this year have brightened noticeably over the past few days, thanks to a senate seat pickup in Minnesota, solidifying support for the budget reconciliation strategy, and tentative overtures towards bipartisanship from key Republicans.

by Zach Carter, Media Consortium MediaWire Blogger

Progressive media is sounding the alarm on the AIG bonus scandal, demanding that policymakers stop repeating Bush administration mistakes and offering concrete solutions to the dire economic situation those missteps have created.