Benjamin Franklin was off the mark. A penny saved is a penny taxed, it seems. If only he had kept his old ride (frankly, I’m surprised he didn’t drive a pick up truck). Why, Tom, why?

Seriously, though, Mr. Daschle’s tax problems should not have disqualified the former Senator from South Dakota for the H&HS Cabinet post. Mr. Daschle was “uniquely qualified” for this position. His loss is not just a loss for the Obama Administration but a loss for the country. President Obama will be hard pressed to find another candidate with the same background. Besides his Congressional experiences, Mr. Daschle authored a well-received book, Critical: What We can Do About the Health-Care Crisis in which the former Senate Minority Leader argues the United States cannot neglect the issue any longer because it weakens US competitiveness. And while he backtracked from a pure single payer system where the government is the sole insurer, Mr. Daschle’s proposals would have likely moved the ball forward in that direction. Moreover, I believe that he had the clout to see its passage through the US Senate.

The above ad is from 1986 when Congressman Daschle unseated incumbent Republican James Abdnor to become a Senator from South Dakota. The ad is further proof that the longer one’s tenure in Washington, the more removed one becomes from the realities outside the Beltway. Because what should have upset people isn’t Mr. Daschle’s unpaid taxes on a free ride but rather from the fact that he advised insurance companies and made hundreds of thousands giving speeches to industry groups. From today’s New York Times editorial:

Mr. Daschle’s financial ties to major players in the health care industry may prove to be even more troublesome as health reform efforts proceed. Like many former power players in Washington, Mr. Daschle cashed in on his political savvy and influence to earn $5 million in recent years, including more than $2 million from Alston & Bird, a law and lobbying firm; more than $2 million from the private equity firm, InterMedia Advisors, which provided the car and driver; and hundreds of thousands of dollars for speeches to interest groups, including those representing health insurance plans, medical equipment distributors and pharmacy boards.

That might explain why Mr. Daschle no longer held his 1971 Pontiac in such high esteem. The values expressed in the ad seem long abandoned. Did the man change Washington or did Washington change the man? How does a man who in 1986 touts his parsimonious attachment to a clunker that he himself drove to work become a man who 22 years later finds himself owing $128,000 back taxes for a car & driver? What does this say about values?

The car was a perk, but Mr. Daschle’s free ride was cashing in on his Washington ties and it was in poor taste. Still, whatever Mr. Daschle’s shortcomings, the fact remains that he was rather uniquely qualified to lead the charge on reforming a broken health care system.

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EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana talks about the situation in Gaza and the Middle East during his visit to Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the West Bank.

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has reached unprecedented proportions. More than 3,000 people have died and about 63,000 are infected by the water-borne disease.

Al Jazeera travelled to remote parts of the country and witnessed the extent of the epidemic. Haru Mutasa reports.

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The Lunar New Year holiday in China is the main chance each year for the country’s 130 million migrant workers to return home to visit their families. Many return to the countryside, hundreds of kilometers away from their jobs. This year’s travels are taking on a more somber tone, though, as the global economic downturn shutters Chinese factories. Stephanie Ho reports from Zhugao, a town in southwestern Sichuan province.

That 130 million number makes the Chinese internal migration the largest in human history. Just as remarkable is the speed under which it has occurred. All of it has come since 1985. As with most migrations, there are both push and pull factors. While China’s urban centres have been remade over the past two decades, the rural sector has stagnated. In 1985, urban and rural incomes were roughly equal. Urban Chinese earned $80 per year while their rural cousins earned $50. By 2004, the urban Chinese passed the $1,000 per capita level while the rural sector had yet to cross the $300 per capita mark. Ah, the joys of neo-liberalism, income inequality no matter the locale. I must ask is there a more pernicious form of economic theory than neo-liberalism?

More from the New York Times:

The government offered a telling indicator Monday of the slowdown in China’s once-galloping economy, announcing that more than one in seven rural migrant workers had been laid off or was unable to find work, twice as many as estimated just five weeks ago.

The new statistics followed a hint on Sunday by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao that the government might have to expand a recently announced $585 billion stimulus plan to deal “pre-emptively” with growing economic problems.

About 20 million of the total estimated 130 million migrant workers, whose cheap labor underpins China’s manufacturing sector, have been forced to return to rural areas because of a lack of work, according to a survey conducted by the Agriculture Ministry that was cited at a briefing.

In late December, employment officials estimated that at least 10 million migrant workers had lost their jobs in the third quarter of 2008 as waves of factories and businesses shut their doors.

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People & Power’s Samah El-Shahat is joined by guests to discuss the possible merits and pitfalls of President Barack Obama’s carbon trading plan as a way to tackle climate change.

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A People & Power report on the plight of the Crimean Tatars, a Turkic speaking people whose historical lands were confiscated by Josef Stalin.

The Crimean Tatars are Turkic people who inhabited the Crimean peninsula, now a part of Ukraine, for over seven centuries. They established their own Khanate in the 1440s and remained an important power in Eastern Europe until 1783, when Crimea was annexed to Russia. During World War II, the entire Tatar population in Crimea fell victims to Stalin’s oppressive policies. In 1944 they were unjustly accused of being Nazi collaborators and deported en masse to Central Asia and other lands of the Soviet Union. Many died of disease and malnutrition. Although a 1967 Soviet decree removed the charges against Crimean Tatars, the Soviet government did nothing to facilitate their resettlement in Crimea and to make reparations for lost lives and confiscated property. Today more than 250,000 Crimean Tatars are back in their homeland, struggling to reestablish their lives and reclaim their national and cultural rights against many social and economic obstacles.

More from Euro Net.

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Brazil is home to nearly a million indigenous people living in the Amazon jungle. With limited roads and airports, it can be a real challenge to reach them when they get sick. Gabriel Elizondo reports on Brazil’s flying doctors.

A stroy from December 2007 in the (more…)

At first glance, many Americans might not associate business with Nicaragua at all. After all, that country’s leader, Daniel Ortega, first came to power a generation ago with a militant anti-American message.

But times change, and Nicaragua is now promoting itself as a business-friendly country, and more and more Americans are traveling — or even moving — there. Worldfocus special correspondent Lynn Sherr and producer Megan Thompson were a few that ventured to the Latin American country.

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Iran demonstrated a new technological capacity by launching its first domestically-produced satellite. Although the particular satellite poses no threat, it could worry Israel and other countries concerned with potential Iranian aggression.

Anthony Cordesman, an expert on the Middle East, terrorism and defense policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, speaks with Martin Savidge about the implications of todays launch and how it might relate to the use of a nuclear weapon.

More from the New York Times:

Iran said Tuesday that it had launched its first domestically produced satellite, a move that has prompted concerns in the United States and other nations about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its ability to deploy long-range ballistic missiles.

The launch on Monday, coinciding with celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, also creates an early challenge for President Obama, who has sought to strike a conciliatory tone toward Iran by conditionally offering dialogue after years of tensions. The United States and other nations believe Tehran wants to develop nuclear weapons, a charge that Iran’s leaders deny.

Iran said it had also used a domestically produced rocket to launch the satellite. That would make it part of the exclusive club of states that can loft objects into orbit, which now numbers at least nine. Weapons experts say the same technology used to put satellites into orbit can also be used for launching weapons.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood called the reports a matter of “great concern” and potentially in violation of United Nations agreements limiting Iran from missile activity.

“Developing a space launch vehicle that could be put a satellite into orbit could possibly lead to the development of a ballistic missile system,” he said.

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Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund today launched a national campaign to “expose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s renewed anti-conservation agenda”. The Action Fund first highlighted Governor Palin’s record in Alaska during the Presidential campaign when they ran ads across battleground states, highlighting Governor Palin’s championing of the aerial killing of wolves and other carnivores.

More at Eye on Palin

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