President Obama's go-slow approach to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" discrimination in the military has left repeal on life support in a lame-duck session of Congress. Well thanks for nothing, Mr. President. But it's not just him. How about our justice strategy? As we mark another Veterans -- or Armistice - Day, with LGBT vets shut up and shut out, it's time we called an Armistice on making nice to our military.

Laura Flanders and Karen Hanretty debate "shutting down the government" with Ed Schultz on Tuesday, November 9. "It's not the attention-getting threats to shut government down that Democrats should be worried about; it's what the GOP extremists will do while they're at work that should have Americans scared to death" says Flanders. They also discuss New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's spending and cutting regime.

"The word terrorism is meaningless," says journalist and author Reese Erlich, who points out that the definition has become so flexible, it can be applied to anything--including U.S. foreign policy. With George W. Bush on his book tour, claiming that waterboarding is legal and necessary and that even knowing what he knows now, he would have invaded Iraq, it's especially important to look back at our definitions of terrorism and the "War on Terror."

"Democrats are more concerned with raising money than raising hell," says Jamie Court, author of The Progressive's Guide to Raising Hell. Meanwhile, he argues, ballot measures in California were victories for populism, for campaigns against big oil and big corporate money (and self-financed billionaire candidates). With Republicans back in control of the house, Court says, Democrats are going to have to learn something from California.

"Democrats are more concerned with raising money than raising hell," says Jamie Court, author of The Progressive's Guide to Raising Hell. Meanwhile, he argues, ballot measures in California were victories for populism, for campaigns against big oil and big corporate money (and self-financed billionaire candidates). With Republicans back in control of the house, Court says, Democrats are going to have to learn something from California.

Let the punishment fit the crime, they say. Well, we now know the punishment for the BART officer who shot Oscar Grant: 2 years and time served. He could actually be out of prison in seven months—for killing a man. His involuntary manslaughter charge normally carries a four-year sentence, and could have included California's “gun enhancement,” which would've raised his sentence to 14 years. Instead, his short sentence has been decried as less than Michael Vick was given for killing dogs.

The big story last week, of course, was the elections: Republicans take back the House! Nearly $5 billion spent on campaigns across the country--most of it from faceless corporate donors! Yet instead, by the weekend we were left with a different story, when Keith Olbermann was suspended from MSNBC for donating money to three Democratic candidates. Not a peep, of course, about the amount that MSNBC's parent company, GE, gave.

One of the few progressive victories on Tuesday was the defeat of corporate-supported Proposition 23 in California, which would have rolled back California's first-in-the-nation climate and environmental regulations, claiming that they were hurting the economy. Dan Kalb, California Policy Director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, notes that the coalition that fought Prop 23 was wide and broad, from faith groups to public interest groups to some corporations and even Republican Governor Schwarzenegger.

The big story last week, of course, was the elections: Republicans take back the House! Nearly $5 billion spent on campaigns across the country--most of it from faceless corporate donors! Yet instead, by the weekend we were left with a different story, when Keith Olbermann was suspended from MSNBC for donating money to three Democratic candidates. Not a peep, of course, about the amount that MSNBC's parent company, GE, gave.

Turning away from the U.S. elections for a moment, we can find plenty of places suffering not from a hurricane of campaign cash, but from actual hurricanes, bringing with them immediate suffering but less coverage.