Hillary Clinton's Nuclear Option
Ned Barnett
Most pundits are telling Senator Hillary Clinton that it's all over. But she is no quitter. Barack Obama cannot expect to coast into the convention. More
Obama and the Jewish Vote
Richard Baehr
The Jewish vote in the coming presidential election is up for grabs to an extent unseen for almost three decades, assuming Barack Obama wins his party's nomination. More
Our Ferocious Home-Front Warrior: Melanie Morgan
Kyle-Anne Shiver
No war can be won without a lot of behind-the-scenes home-front help. Of course, there's home-front help, and then there's home-front battle. More
Full Version: Political OpEds, News and Commentary
Common Ground Common Sense > National & International News > Op-Ed Articles from the Mainstream Media > Op-Ed Articles from the Mainstream Media Archive
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Liberal intellectuals start to get a clue about Reagan
May 09, 2008
Two decades after the end of his presidency, some of the smarter intellectuals are starting to realize the greatness of Ronald Reagan. More
Why Hillary Won't Quit
May 09, 2008
As the Clinton campaign ramps up for the battle in West Virginia it is amusing to see the chagrined liberal media questioning why. More
A revised prayer for Israel
May 09, 2008
As the over 5000 year-old nation of Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary in its contemporary manifestation Israeli commentator Uri Orbach composed a not so tongue in cheek prayer More
May 09, 2008
Two decades after the end of his presidency, some of the smarter intellectuals are starting to realize the greatness of Ronald Reagan. More
Why Hillary Won't Quit
May 09, 2008
As the Clinton campaign ramps up for the battle in West Virginia it is amusing to see the chagrined liberal media questioning why. More
A revised prayer for Israel
May 09, 2008
As the over 5000 year-old nation of Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary in its contemporary manifestation Israeli commentator Uri Orbach composed a not so tongue in cheek prayer More
Hillary and the 'Death Star Option'
May 08, 2008
Roger Simon of Politico sums up Hillary Clinton's strategy from here on out: More
Obama's Support Similar to Kerry's in '04
May 08, 2008
In what is mostly good news for Republicans, a new Gallup poll shows support for Barack Obama very similar to what John Kerry experienced in 2004: More
'What's Wrong with Republicanns?'
May 08, 2008
Victor Davis Hanson asks the question why Republicans are depressed going into the 2008 campaign. More
Democratic Train Wreck Approaching; Due to Occur May 20
May 08, 2008
Why May 20th? That's the day that Politico's David Kuhn is saying Barack Obama will declare himself the nominee of the Democratic party for president. More
May 08, 2008
Roger Simon of Politico sums up Hillary Clinton's strategy from here on out: More
Obama's Support Similar to Kerry's in '04
May 08, 2008
In what is mostly good news for Republicans, a new Gallup poll shows support for Barack Obama very similar to what John Kerry experienced in 2004: More
'What's Wrong with Republicanns?'
May 08, 2008
Victor Davis Hanson asks the question why Republicans are depressed going into the 2008 campaign. More
Democratic Train Wreck Approaching; Due to Occur May 20
May 08, 2008
Why May 20th? That's the day that Politico's David Kuhn is saying Barack Obama will declare himself the nominee of the Democratic party for president. More
Will Obama Squander the Dems' Lead? - Paul Krugman, New York Times
Desperate Clinton is Danger to Dems - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
It's Not Over Quite Yet - Jay Cost, RealClearPolitics
Ten 'What Ifs' About Clinton's Campaign - John Heilemann, NY Magazine
A Farewell to Hillary - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
Obama's Toughest Fight is Against McCain - Edward Luce, Financial Times
Let Them Eat Arugula - Jonathan Chait, The New Republic
Sticking Points for Obama - Michael Gerson, Washington Post
Obama Should Pick Jim Webb - Gerald Pomper, UVA Center for Politics
The Conservative Revival - David Brooks, New York Times
House GOP Shifts Into Panic Mode - Reid Wilson, RealClearPolitics
Economics and the Entrepreneur - Carl Schramm, Claremont Review
Why Oil Wealth Fuels Conflict - Michael Ross, Foreign Affairs
How Bush Can Prevent A War With Iran - Mort Kondracke, Roll Call
Obama Needs a History Lesson - Jack Kelly, RealClearPolitics
The Widening 'Generation Gap' - Andrew Kohut, New York Times
Voters: Racism Is Not the Problem - Stuart Taylor, National Journal
RCP Blog: AM Roundup | Arianna to 11 | Late Night | Super Movement
Politics Nation: Little Help From His Friends | Under the Bus
Desperate Clinton is Danger to Dems - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
It's Not Over Quite Yet - Jay Cost, RealClearPolitics
Ten 'What Ifs' About Clinton's Campaign - John Heilemann, NY Magazine
A Farewell to Hillary - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
Obama's Toughest Fight is Against McCain - Edward Luce, Financial Times
Let Them Eat Arugula - Jonathan Chait, The New Republic
Sticking Points for Obama - Michael Gerson, Washington Post
Obama Should Pick Jim Webb - Gerald Pomper, UVA Center for Politics
The Conservative Revival - David Brooks, New York Times
House GOP Shifts Into Panic Mode - Reid Wilson, RealClearPolitics
Economics and the Entrepreneur - Carl Schramm, Claremont Review
Why Oil Wealth Fuels Conflict - Michael Ross, Foreign Affairs
How Bush Can Prevent A War With Iran - Mort Kondracke, Roll Call
Obama Needs a History Lesson - Jack Kelly, RealClearPolitics
The Widening 'Generation Gap' - Andrew Kohut, New York Times
Voters: Racism Is Not the Problem - Stuart Taylor, National Journal
RCP Blog: AM Roundup | Arianna to 11 | Late Night | Super Movement
Politics Nation: Little Help From His Friends | Under the Bus
Editorials
Regime's Paranoia Worsens Tragedy in Burma - USA Today
Who Rules Russia: Putin or Medvedev? - Daily Telegraph
Clinton Needs to Stop the Negative Campaigning - New York Times
Dems Finally Divorce the Clintons - Wall Street Journal
Political News & Analysis
Obama Takes Victory Lap Around D.C. - New York Times
Obama Catches Clinton in Hill Endorsements - The Hill
Clinton Asks Superdelegates to Commit in Private - The Politico
McCain Sets Stage for Fall Run - Wall Street Journal
Best of the Blogs
Heavyweights Head to the Hill - Carpetbagger Report
Hillary Clinton's Inexcusable Bigotry - Daniel Drezner
Joe Scarborough for VEEP? - Race 4 2008
Rendell as Obama's VP Does Not Make Sense - Newshoggers
Mission Accomplished, Obama Style - Taylor Marsh
How the Inevitable Hillary Clinton Collapsed
- Karen Tumulty, Time
A Farewell to Hillary
- Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
Desperate Clinton is Danger to Dems
- Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
It's Not Over Quite Yet
- Jay Cost, RealClearPolitics
- Karen Tumulty, Time
A Farewell to Hillary
- Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
Desperate Clinton is Danger to Dems
- Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
It's Not Over Quite Yet
- Jay Cost, RealClearPolitics
Inheriting Bush's Mess
So far, the 2008 election has focused on growing challenges at home, including the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis, escalating gas prices, and health care for millions of uninsured. But another leading policy challenge for the next administration is cleaning up the mess from the Bush administration's national security policies and making a clean break from the past seven years. Speaking at the Center for American Progress yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) offered a vision for moving forward: "Military power alone will not achieve the great objectives that are going to be required to meet these new 21st century challenges; it's going to require a 21st century framework of thinking, of policymaking, of structure." Hagel suggested that [size="2"][/size]"reintroducing America to the world will be as important as any one thing this next President has to do, because if we lose the next generation of the world, the problems will then be so immense that we will never be able to get out from under them." Hagel's view is rare among conservatives, most of whom continue to march in lockstep with President Bush's disastrous national security policies. Acknowledging that Iraq continues to be mired in violence, Hagel stressed once again that "there is no military solution in Iraq, [and] the military guys understand that more than anyone, because we put all the burden on them. All the burden on them."
NO END IN SIGHT IN IRAQ: American troops continued to bear that burden this week as they pushed further into Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. The intense house-to-house combat, with Americans essentially fighting on behalf of one Shi'a political party against another, is more proof of the failure of the Bush administration's policy of military occupation. Humanitarian groups have reported that "entire sections of Sadr City have been largely abandoned by civilians fleeing" the fighting. Additionally, more residents were warned to leave their houses, signaling another new push deeper into the neighborhood. U.S. forces have also begun to see an uptick in violence in Iraq's Anbar province, which threatens the fragile gains of the tribal "awakening" strategy which has been a centerpiece of the surge. Despite attempts by conservative war supporters to present every piece of Iraqi government legislation as a major breakthrough, there is no indication yet that Iraqis are prepared to make the compromises necessary to establish a sustainable political order.
STRAIN ON THE MILITARY: Illustrating the massive burden that the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put on U.S. military readiness, Gen. Richard A. Cody stated in congressional testimony last month that "operational requirements and lack of training time between deployments have affected the Army's preparedness for the full spectrum of military missions." Cody testified that "the current demand for our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds the sustainable supply and limits our ability to provide ready forces for other contingencies." On Thursday, USA Today reported that, according to Pentagon records, "more than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway." According to statistics based on health assessment forms filled out by medical personnel at military installations, "the number of troops who[m] doctors found non-deployable but who were still sent to Iraq or Afghanistan fluctuated from 10,854 in 2003, down to 5,397 in 2005, and back up to 9,140 in 2007." The war continues to put a strain on U.S. taxpayers. This week, Congress is considering a bill worth $195 billion to fund military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring. This legislation could also include a new "G.I. bill modernization bill," written by Hagel and Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), which would dramatically increase benefits given to veterans to pay for college. President Bush has thus far declined to support the G.I. bill legislation, and the Pentagon claims it would "harm" retention rates.
THE CONTINUING AL QAEDA THREAT: America's heavy investment in Iraq comes at the cost of ignoring threats emerging from Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where al Qaeda is believed to have found shelter as it continues to plan violence against Americans. Citing the State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism, 2007, released last week, the New York Times reported that "terrorist attacks against noncombatants more than doubled in Pakistan from 2006 to 2007, reflecting the growing violence in the country’s turbulent tribal areas and new bombings against Pakistani government officials and security services." Amb. Dell Dailey, the State Department's top counterterrorism official, also stated in a press conference on the report that "core elements of al Qaeda are adaptable and resilient, and al Qaeda and associated networks remain our greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners." A new report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee noted that the United States has yet to develop a communications plan to counter extremist messages on the Internet. "Because the Internet's easy access makes it possible for al-Qaida and other terrorist sympathizers to spread their beliefs and recruit new followers, the government needs a coordinated and thorough response that it currently lacks." This, unfortunately, is another burden that the Bush administration will pass along to the next.
The GOP's '08 Election Anxiety
Terence Samuel
May 9, 2008 | web only
The race Democrats should be watching Tuesday is a special election in Mississippi. The reddest of congressional districts is poised to elect a Democrat, sending yet another signal that Republicans are in serious trouble come November.
Terence Samuel
May 9, 2008 | web only
The race Democrats should be watching Tuesday is a special election in Mississippi. The reddest of congressional districts is poised to elect a Democrat, sending yet another signal that Republicans are in serious trouble come November.
"Then No One Would Be a Democrat Anymore"
Rick Perlstein
April 30, 2008 | web only
In 1970, Richard Nixon, inspired by a spontaneous construction workers' riot, settled on the political strategy that would win him the 1972 election by a landslide and dominate American politics to this day.
Rick Perlstein
April 30, 2008 | web only
In 1970, Richard Nixon, inspired by a spontaneous construction workers' riot, settled on the political strategy that would win him the 1972 election by a landslide and dominate American politics to this day.
McCain's Delusional Tax Plan
Robert Gordon and James Kvaal
May 2, 2008 | web only
The McCain Agenda: John McCain has adopted a tax plan that covers up massive giveaways to the rich with absurd assertions and faulty calculations.
Robert Gordon and James Kvaal
May 2, 2008 | web only
The McCain Agenda: John McCain has adopted a tax plan that covers up massive giveaways to the rich with absurd assertions and faulty calculations.
Wellness Über Alles
anonymous
A new battlefront in the war to erase politically incorrect civil liberties is taking place across corporate America under the innocuous-sounding banner of "Wellness." More
Hillary's All or Nothing
Miguel A. Guanipa
It must be devastating for Hillary Rhodam Clinton to see her chances of becoming the Democratic nominee fade into oblivion. More
anonymous
A new battlefront in the war to erase politically incorrect civil liberties is taking place across corporate America under the innocuous-sounding banner of "Wellness." More
Hillary's All or Nothing
Miguel A. Guanipa
It must be devastating for Hillary Rhodam Clinton to see her chances of becoming the Democratic nominee fade into oblivion. More
Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice Reaches Record Levels
May 09, 2008
NOAA's National Climate Data Center is reporting that March 2008 Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent was much above the 1979-2000 mean. More
Character Rather Than Sexism
May 09, 2008
Answering Kyle-Anne Shriver on her Hillary Clinton article yesterday. More
Obama's misreads history
May 09, 2008
Barack Obama could lead America into disaster as president if he misunderstands history this badly. More
Has Big Media Global Warming Bias Begun to Endanger the Public?
May 09, 2008
When Maine officials tried to warn residents of the dangers of this winter's near-record snowpack, Big Media slanted the story, hampering efforts to warn folks of the danger. More
Matthews: Whites Seeking 'Permission' to Vote Against Obama
May 09, 2008
During yesterday's installment of his Hillary Must Go Show, Chris Matthews smugly suggested that white people are just itching for any excuse not to vote for Barack Obama. More
May 09, 2008
NOAA's National Climate Data Center is reporting that March 2008 Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent was much above the 1979-2000 mean. More
Character Rather Than Sexism
May 09, 2008
Answering Kyle-Anne Shriver on her Hillary Clinton article yesterday. More
Obama's misreads history
May 09, 2008
Barack Obama could lead America into disaster as president if he misunderstands history this badly. More
Has Big Media Global Warming Bias Begun to Endanger the Public?
May 09, 2008
When Maine officials tried to warn residents of the dangers of this winter's near-record snowpack, Big Media slanted the story, hampering efforts to warn folks of the danger. More
Matthews: Whites Seeking 'Permission' to Vote Against Obama
May 09, 2008
During yesterday's installment of his Hillary Must Go Show, Chris Matthews smugly suggested that white people are just itching for any excuse not to vote for Barack Obama. More
Obama sacks advisor foreign policy advisor Robert Malley (updated)
May 09, 2008
Yet another advisor has been dumped overboard by the Obama campaign when embarrassing information has come to public notice. More
May 09, 2008
Yet another advisor has been dumped overboard by the Obama campaign when embarrassing information has come to public notice. More
Michelle Obama Nixes Hillary For Veep - Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times
Clinton Sows Seeds of Destruction - Bob Herbert, New York Times
Quitters Never Win: Hillary Should Fight - Ellen Malcolm, Washington Post
Clinton Should Stay In, But Only If She Drops Attacks - Pierre Atlas, RCP
Republicans Have Reason to be Gloomy - Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard
Interview with Senator Mitch McConnell - James Freeman, Wall St. Journal
Clinton's Diminishing of Black Voters - Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe
Obama's Race Problem - Alan Abramowitz, Washington Post
Obama is Getting Away With Ignoring WV - Andrew Romano, Newsweek
Rethinking the Iraq Critics - Michael Barone, US News & World Report
Iraq: Will We Ever Get Out? - Thomas Powers, NY Review of Books
Chavez is West's 1st State Sponsor of Terrorism - Colby Cosh, National Post
Putin's Imperial Russia - Garry Kasparov, Los Angeles Times
'68 Was the Beginning Of It All - Noam Chomsky, New Statesman
The Taint of '68 - Rich Lowry, New York Post
Paris, 40 Years After the Protests - Serge Schmemann, New York Times
Don't Give Up on Sarkozy Just Yet - Jurgen Reinhoudt, RealClearPolitics
Politics Nation: This Week on PN Radio / Videos: McCain on O'Reilly
Clinton Sows Seeds of Destruction - Bob Herbert, New York Times
Quitters Never Win: Hillary Should Fight - Ellen Malcolm, Washington Post
Clinton Should Stay In, But Only If She Drops Attacks - Pierre Atlas, RCP
Republicans Have Reason to be Gloomy - Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard
Interview with Senator Mitch McConnell - James Freeman, Wall St. Journal
Clinton's Diminishing of Black Voters - Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe
Obama's Race Problem - Alan Abramowitz, Washington Post
Obama is Getting Away With Ignoring WV - Andrew Romano, Newsweek
Rethinking the Iraq Critics - Michael Barone, US News & World Report
Iraq: Will We Ever Get Out? - Thomas Powers, NY Review of Books
Chavez is West's 1st State Sponsor of Terrorism - Colby Cosh, National Post
Putin's Imperial Russia - Garry Kasparov, Los Angeles Times
'68 Was the Beginning Of It All - Noam Chomsky, New Statesman
The Taint of '68 - Rich Lowry, New York Post
Paris, 40 Years After the Protests - Serge Schmemann, New York Times
Don't Give Up on Sarkozy Just Yet - Jurgen Reinhoudt, RealClearPolitics
Politics Nation: This Week on PN Radio / Videos: McCain on O'Reilly
Editorials
Flames Lick at Lebanon - Boston Globe
What Should US Do About Chavez? - Investor's Business Daily
Mr. Hu's Peaceable Visit to Tokyo - New York Times
Black Church Diversity - Chicago Tribune
Political News & Analysis
Obama Grabs Superdelegate Lead - The Politico
Clinton, Obama Bring Differing Fights to Oregon - The Oregonian
Black Community Increasingly Defensive of Obama - Washington Post
On McCain, Obama and a Hamas Link - New York Times
Best of the Blogs
The Left's Stupid Anti-McCain Messaging - Patrick Ruffini
On GI Bill, McCain Really is 'Full of It' - Crooks and Liars
Has Obama "Lost His Bearings"? - Sister Toldjah
Cuban Bloggers: The Next Revolution - Pajamas Media
Did McCain Lie in 2001, or is He Lying Now? - All Spin Zone
Obama's Darn Likablity
James Edmund Pennington
Lurking just beneath all that defiant bravado about Obama's unacceptably left wing voting record is the unexpressed Republican fear that the charming Illinois Senator just might be that easy-to-live-with guy America wouldn't mind coming home to. More
Bugged by the miracle of Obama
James Lewis
Is anyone else bothered by the superhuman rise of Barack Obama? More
Read a Book, Get Charged with Racial Harassment
Selwyn Duke
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis student Keith John Sampson was charged with "racial harassment" simply because he was "caught" reading an anti-Ku Klux Klan book. I'm not kidding. More
James Edmund Pennington
Lurking just beneath all that defiant bravado about Obama's unacceptably left wing voting record is the unexpressed Republican fear that the charming Illinois Senator just might be that easy-to-live-with guy America wouldn't mind coming home to. More
Bugged by the miracle of Obama
James Lewis
Is anyone else bothered by the superhuman rise of Barack Obama? More
Read a Book, Get Charged with Racial Harassment
Selwyn Duke
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis student Keith John Sampson was charged with "racial harassment" simply because he was "caught" reading an anti-Ku Klux Klan book. I'm not kidding. More
Hezb'allah: Mission Accomplished
May 12, 2008
Hezb'allah makes an emphatic point about who is in control in Lebanon. More
Quake Death Toll in China Tops 5,000
May 12, 2008
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked central China killing at least 5,000 and injuring another 10,000: More
'Presidents Should Not be Liars
May 12, 2008
Will someone, anyone, please do Jimmy Carter a favor and tell him to just shut up? More
May 12, 2008
Hezb'allah makes an emphatic point about who is in control in Lebanon. More
Quake Death Toll in China Tops 5,000
May 12, 2008
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked central China killing at least 5,000 and injuring another 10,000: More
'Presidents Should Not be Liars
May 12, 2008
Will someone, anyone, please do Jimmy Carter a favor and tell him to just shut up? More
Obama campaign lies
May 11, 2008
The Obama campisgn is lying, and the New York Times is helping advance the lie. Despite having earlier published documentation proving the lie. More
With Hillary, follow the money, Dick
May 11, 2008
In his May 8th column, Dick Morris, who knows the Clintons well, has put forth reasons as to why Hillary won't quit the race. But he missed the most important one. More
Obama abandons American workers
May 11, 2008
Barack Obama talks the talk when addressing union audiences, hitting the notes they want to hear about NAFTA and the job losses he and they attribute to lowering trade barriers. But when it comes to supporting domestic industries, he tells American workers to take a walk More
NYT calls Obama a bridge builder (updated)
May 11, 2008
The New York Times carries water again for Barack Obama, portraying him a s bridge-builder who brings together different groups More
Obama's rabbi friend
May 11, 2008
For the third time I have gotten the same email from Rabbi Wolf supporting his neighbor Barack Obama. More
May 11, 2008
The Obama campisgn is lying, and the New York Times is helping advance the lie. Despite having earlier published documentation proving the lie. More
With Hillary, follow the money, Dick
May 11, 2008
In his May 8th column, Dick Morris, who knows the Clintons well, has put forth reasons as to why Hillary won't quit the race. But he missed the most important one. More
Obama abandons American workers
May 11, 2008
Barack Obama talks the talk when addressing union audiences, hitting the notes they want to hear about NAFTA and the job losses he and they attribute to lowering trade barriers. But when it comes to supporting domestic industries, he tells American workers to take a walk More
NYT calls Obama a bridge builder (updated)
May 11, 2008
The New York Times carries water again for Barack Obama, portraying him a s bridge-builder who brings together different groups More
Obama's rabbi friend
May 11, 2008
For the third time I have gotten the same email from Rabbi Wolf supporting his neighbor Barack Obama. More
Nixon's Savage Attack on the Greatest Anti-War Movement in U.S. HistoryRick Perlstein, AlterNet
ForeignPolicy: As millions of Americans came together to fight the war in Vietnam, Nixon's politics became more ruthless.
It Isn't Morning in America Anymore -- It's Dusk on Planet Earth
By Bill McKibben, Tomdispatch.com
Environment: If we want to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed, we've got to cut CO2 emissions.
Obama and the Values Question Mark - Douglas Schoen, Wall St. Journal
Questions for John McCain - George Will, Newsweek
Impeachment Explains the Clinton Campaign - Michael Crowley, TNR
Could Obama Be Another Dukakis? - Susan Estrich, FOX News
The Problem with the 'Elitist' Tag - Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News
Jeremiah Wright's 'Trumpet' - Stanley Kurtz, Weekly Standard
McCain's 7 Steps to Beating Obama - Michael Scherer, Time
McCain, Huckabee & Evangelicals - Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times
Drive in Basra by Iraqi Army Makes Gains - Farrell & Karim, NY Times
Keep America Open to Trade - C. Gutierrez & A. Schwarzenegger, WSJ
People Want a Fair Economic Shake - Gregory Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times
Can Money Buy Happiness? - Arthur Brooks, The American
Polar Bears Threatening to Deliver $200 Oil - Kevin Hassett, Bloomberg
South Africa's Unseemly Alliance - James Kirchick, Los Angeles Times
The Jewish State at 60 - William Kristol, New York Times
A Somber Anniversary in Israel - Avi Shlaim, The Nation
The Boris Johnson Effect - David Warren, Ottawa Citizen
RCP Blog: Clinton Gets SNL Treatment | WV & KY Polls | AM Roundup
Questions for John McCain - George Will, Newsweek
Impeachment Explains the Clinton Campaign - Michael Crowley, TNR
Could Obama Be Another Dukakis? - Susan Estrich, FOX News
The Problem with the 'Elitist' Tag - Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News
Jeremiah Wright's 'Trumpet' - Stanley Kurtz, Weekly Standard
McCain's 7 Steps to Beating Obama - Michael Scherer, Time
McCain, Huckabee & Evangelicals - Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times
Drive in Basra by Iraqi Army Makes Gains - Farrell & Karim, NY Times
Keep America Open to Trade - C. Gutierrez & A. Schwarzenegger, WSJ
People Want a Fair Economic Shake - Gregory Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times
Can Money Buy Happiness? - Arthur Brooks, The American
Polar Bears Threatening to Deliver $200 Oil - Kevin Hassett, Bloomberg
South Africa's Unseemly Alliance - James Kirchick, Los Angeles Times
The Jewish State at 60 - William Kristol, New York Times
A Somber Anniversary in Israel - Avi Shlaim, The Nation
The Boris Johnson Effect - David Warren, Ottawa Citizen
RCP Blog: Clinton Gets SNL Treatment | WV & KY Polls | AM Roundup
Editorials
Tear Down Burma's Bamboo Curtain - The Australian
Strange Bedfellows in Iraq - Boston Globe
Obama's Problems with Jewish Voters - Washington Times
The Next Vice President - Chicago Tribune
Political News & Analysis
West Virginia Voters Looking for Coal Candidate - Chicago Tribune
Group Pushing Clinton for VP Tied to Her Campaign - McClatchy
Environmental Stances a Balancing Act for McCain - Washington Post
McCain Woos Democrats on the Environment - Wall Street Journal
Best of the Blogs
Hillary Who? - Pajamas Media
McCain and La Raza - Michelle Malkin
The Know Nothings Determined to Win - Firedoglake
McCain's 'Base' Considers its Role in the Campaign - Carpetbagger Report
When Harry Met Nancy - Big Lizards
- Obama's Revealing 'Distractions' - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
- Small Politics of Campaign Drags Obama Down - Joe Klein, Time
- A False Sense of Suspense: Supers Lean Obama - Elizabeth Drew, Politico
- Popular Vote Claim Gives Clinton Edge - Michael Barone, US News & WR
- It's Time for Dems to Recruit Al Gore - Steven Stark, Boston Phoenix
Tensions rise in Democratic contest as Obama nears nomination- by Patrick Martin - 2008-05-11
Veterans Administration Tried to Conceal Extent of Attempted Veteran Suicides, Email Shows - by Jason Leopold - 2008-05-11
War With Iran Might Be Closer Than You Think- by Philip Giraldi - 2008-05-11
Veterans Administration Tried to Conceal Extent of Attempted Veteran Suicides, Email Shows - by Jason Leopold - 2008-05-11
War With Iran Might Be Closer Than You Think- by Philip Giraldi - 2008-05-11
Disturbing Stirrings - Ratcheting Up For War on Iran - by Stephen Lendman - 2008-05-12VIDEO: 9/11 Contradictions- by David Ray Griffin - 2008-05-12
Are the Clashes in Beirut a Signal of the inception of a new War for the "New Middle East" ?
The Obama Rules - Rich Lowry, New York Post
Primary Battle Has Helped, Hurt Clinton - E. J. Dionne, Washington Post
Carrying Fight to Convention Can Hurt Party in Nov - June Kronholz, WSJ
A Proposal For Democratic Unity - George McGovern, New York Times
Is Obama Using Bush's Playbook? - Reed Galen, RealClearPolitics
Another Epic West Virginia Battle - Sandy Grady, USA Today
Will Whites Vote for Obama? - John Judis, The New Republic
Clinton Campaign Brought Sexism Out of Hiding - Marie Cocco, RCP
The Pot Holes on the High Road - Wesley Pruden, Washington Times
For McCain, Distance from Bush is Key - Roger Simon, The Politico
Why We Need Nukes and Gitmo - Jonah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times
Guantánamo Makes Us All Less Safe - George Monbiot, The Guardian
Burma - the Case for Intervention - David Aaronovitch, Times of London
The Challenge From China - Mark Helprin, Wall Street Journal
Too "Complex"? - Thomas Sowell, RealClearPolitics
Is This The End of the Smashmouth Media? - Howell Raines, Portfolio
The Facebook Election - Carl Cannon, Reader's Digest
RCP Blog: Morning Roundup / Politics Nation: Strategy Memo
Primary Battle Has Helped, Hurt Clinton - E. J. Dionne, Washington Post
Carrying Fight to Convention Can Hurt Party in Nov - June Kronholz, WSJ
A Proposal For Democratic Unity - George McGovern, New York Times
Is Obama Using Bush's Playbook? - Reed Galen, RealClearPolitics
Another Epic West Virginia Battle - Sandy Grady, USA Today
Will Whites Vote for Obama? - John Judis, The New Republic
Clinton Campaign Brought Sexism Out of Hiding - Marie Cocco, RCP
The Pot Holes on the High Road - Wesley Pruden, Washington Times
For McCain, Distance from Bush is Key - Roger Simon, The Politico
Why We Need Nukes and Gitmo - Jonah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times
Guantánamo Makes Us All Less Safe - George Monbiot, The Guardian
Burma - the Case for Intervention - David Aaronovitch, Times of London
The Challenge From China - Mark Helprin, Wall Street Journal
Too "Complex"? - Thomas Sowell, RealClearPolitics
Is This The End of the Smashmouth Media? - Howell Raines, Portfolio
The Facebook Election - Carl Cannon, Reader's Digest
RCP Blog: Morning Roundup / Politics Nation: Strategy Memo
Editorials
McCain's Climate 'Market' - Wall Street Journal
Climate Change in Washington - Washington Post
Conyers' Circus - New York Post
Tear Down Burma's Bamboo Curtain - The Australian
Political News & Analysis
Clinton Poised for Victory in West Virginia - Wall Street Journal
Obama Schedules General Election Stops - Washington Post
McCain Makes Three in Fight on Global Warming - The Oregonian
Superdelegates Put Obama Within Mathematical Reach - Associated Press
Best of the Blogs
John McCain and 100% Auctions - Kevin Drum
The Honorable Mr. Boehner - Jeffrey Goldberg
Does the High Oil Price Reflect a Bubble? - Marginal Revolution
The Media Playing by Obama's Rules - Betsy's Page
Absurdity of a Primary in its Death Throes - Comments From Left Field
The Obama Change We Really Can Believe In
Peggy Shapiro
Barack Obama's call to action is "Change we can believe in." With his latest about face on direct talks with Iran's Ahmadinejad, Obama has finally clarified what he is going to change: his opinion More
Obama's Attitude on Lebanon, and the Palestinians
Ed Lasky
The dire events on Lebanon have given us an opportunity to discover Senator Barack Obama's worldview and how it might influence his policies towards the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. More
Scary Signals: Obama's Ideology Hints At Dangerous Policy
Barry Rubin
One of many scary things about Senator Barrack Obama is how mistaken his ideology makes him, even when he thinks he's getting it right More
Peggy Shapiro
Barack Obama's call to action is "Change we can believe in." With his latest about face on direct talks with Iran's Ahmadinejad, Obama has finally clarified what he is going to change: his opinion More
Obama's Attitude on Lebanon, and the Palestinians
Ed Lasky
The dire events on Lebanon have given us an opportunity to discover Senator Barack Obama's worldview and how it might influence his policies towards the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. More
Scary Signals: Obama's Ideology Hints At Dangerous Policy
Barry Rubin
One of many scary things about Senator Barrack Obama is how mistaken his ideology makes him, even when he thinks he's getting it right More
Hillary Set to Cruise in West Virginia
May 13, 2008
With all polls showing her comfortably ahead, the only questions remaining in the West Virginia primary contest is how big will Hillary Clinton's victory be and will it change anything at all in the Democratic race for the presidency? More
The Fate of Jerusalem under a President Obama
May 13, 2008
Senator Obama's newest Middle East Advisor Daniel Kurtzer has recently telegraphed that an Obama Administration will place the fate of Jerusalem as part of the peace process that a future Obama Administration will push. More
May 13, 2008
With all polls showing her comfortably ahead, the only questions remaining in the West Virginia primary contest is how big will Hillary Clinton's victory be and will it change anything at all in the Democratic race for the presidency? More
The Fate of Jerusalem under a President Obama
May 13, 2008
Senator Obama's newest Middle East Advisor Daniel Kurtzer has recently telegraphed that an Obama Administration will place the fate of Jerusalem as part of the peace process that a future Obama Administration will push. More
Charges Dropped Against '20th 9/11 Hijacker'
May 13, 2008
A Saudi national identified by US intelligence as the "20th hijacker" involved in the 9/11 plot has had those charges against him dropped "without prejudice:" More
Media's Basra Narrative Falls Apart. What's the Effect on the Election?
May 13, 2008
the New York Times and the rest of the drive-by press had determined in late March and early April that Basra was yet another Iraqi and U.S. failure. But it was the predictions which were failures. More
A History Lesson for Obama
May 13, 2008
The candidate who says he understands the world better than Senator McCain or Senator Clinton needs a history lesson. More
May 13, 2008
A Saudi national identified by US intelligence as the "20th hijacker" involved in the 9/11 plot has had those charges against him dropped "without prejudice:" More
Media's Basra Narrative Falls Apart. What's the Effect on the Election?
May 13, 2008
the New York Times and the rest of the drive-by press had determined in late March and early April that Basra was yet another Iraqi and U.S. failure. But it was the predictions which were failures. More
A History Lesson for Obama
May 13, 2008
The candidate who says he understands the world better than Senator McCain or Senator Clinton needs a history lesson. More
Obama's New Best Friends: Jews
May 13, 2008
Barack Obama wants to talk away some serious doubts the pro-Israel community has about the candidate's support of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. More
Who may use the middle name?
May 13, 2008
Here we have the man himself using the middle name that no evil conservative may speak: More
Obama: Israel a 'constant sore' that 'infects...foreign policy'
May 12, 2008
Obama's mask slips even further: More
May 13, 2008
Barack Obama wants to talk away some serious doubts the pro-Israel community has about the candidate's support of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. More
Who may use the middle name?
May 13, 2008
Here we have the man himself using the middle name that no evil conservative may speak: More
Obama: Israel a 'constant sore' that 'infects...foreign policy'
May 12, 2008
Obama's mask slips even further: More
Pentagon Drops Charges Against "20th Hijacker"
by Attaturk, Firedoglake - 6:54 AM
Biofuel is Still a Stupid Idea
by Manila Ryce, The Largest Minority - 5:52 AM
More Spying, Fewer Results
by Mustang Bobby, Shakesville - 4:46 AM
Republican Revolt
by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend - 3:40 AM
Religious Right Celebrates End of Interracial Marriage Ban
by Evan Derkacz, Huffington Post - 5:38 PM
Lieberman: Hamas Endorsement Shows Difference With McCain
by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report - 4:00 PM
Think You Can Tell Bush from McCain?
Post by Brave New Films
Video: Take the Bush-McCain Challenge! More »
VETERANS
The Pentagon's Unfounded Fears About The GI Bill
In February, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), along with a bipartisan Senate coalition that included Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and John Warner (R-VA), re-introduced the "21st Century GI Bill," which aims to dramatically expand educational benefits for returning veterans. The original GI Bill, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed in 1944, "provided full tuition, housing, and living costs for some 8 million veterans," but it has been scaled back over time to such an extent that "today the most a veteran can receive is approximately $9,600 a year for four years -- no matter what college costs." Webb's bill, which has 57 co-sponsors, would pay a significant portion of college costs for all service members, including national guard members, who served in active duty after Sept. 11, 2001. Even though support for increased educational benefits for veterans should be "at the top of the list of no-brainers in Washington," the Pentagon, the White House, and some members of Congress are resisting Webb's efforts "out of fear that too many will use it." In a press briefing earlier this month, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell warned of the "harm" Webb's bill would do to troop retention and objected to the generous benefits given after "only" two years of service. Accepting the Pentagon's argument, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Burr (R-NC) have introduced their own GI bill expansion that pegs benefits to the length of time served in active duty, reserving the most generous benefits to older soldiers who signed up before 9/11. But major veterans organizations such as VoteVets.org, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and the American Legion back Webb's bill.
RETENTION VERSUS RECRUITMENT: "The last thing we want to do is provide a benefit -- or the last thing we want to do is create a situation in which we are losing our men and women who we have worked so hard to train," said Morrell when arguing against Webb's bill. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has aired similar concerns, saying that his "first objective is to strengthen the All-Volunteer Force" and that "serious retention issues could arise" under a too-generous GI Bill. But these concerns are overblown since they do not account for increased recruitment. While increased education benefits are expected to affect reenlistment rates, a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report found that the loss in retention from Webb's bill will be entirely made up for by increased military recruits. By CBO's accounting, the expected 16 percent drop in the reenlistment rate would be offset by "a 16 percent increase in recruits." As Sen. John Warner (R-VA) has noted, "[P]utting a big piece of cheese out there will induce more qualified people to join just to get this. It should be a tremendous incentive for recruitment."
TWO YEARS VERSUS SIX: While claiming that the Pentagon has no issue with "more generous education benefits to troops," Morrell said that the Pentagon is "certainly concerned" that the benefits in Webb's bill "would be eligible to them after only two years of service." Instead, the Pentagon wants to peg increased benefits to "a longer period of service," adding that "six years would show a commitment to service." Under Morrell's terms, a soldier who participated in the invasion of Baghdad in April 2003 and had remained in service ever since, would be forced to wait until April 2009 before becoming eligible for full benefits. But as VoteVets Chairman and Iraq war veteran Jon Soltz points out, "time of service isn't a measure of commitment to service." "What about the troops who served under six years, did a few tours in Iraq, and came back without a limb, and could no longer serve? Have they shown less of a commitment to America?" asks Soltz. Additionally, Soltz notes that soldiers sign up for eight year contracts, with most for four years active. "So even if they do begin school when they're done with their active duty commitment, the military can call them up at any time they need them, for the life of the troop's contract."
COSTS VERSUS BENEFITS: In testimony to Congress last summer, some Defense Department officials offered up the cost of Webb's bill as one reason to resist it, saying that "the current program for active duty is basically sound and serves its purpose in support of the all-volunteer force. The department finds no need for the kind of sweeping (and expensive) changes offered." But the expansion of educational benefits in Webb's bill is "is projected to cost about $2.5 billion per year," roughly the cost of U.S. operations in Iraq for one week. In announcing the American Legion's support for Webb's bill last week, National Commander Marty Conatser addressed criticisms that the GI Bill is too expensive, pointing out that the "bulk of that cost is paid for by the men and women who wear the uniform. Benefits are just a small, small cost of war." Additionally, as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert pointed out recently, "[M]oney that goes to bolstering the education of returning veterans is an investment, in both the lives of the veterans themselves and the future of the nation." In fact, educational benefits for veterans are a proven investment. A 1988 congressional study found "that every dollar spent on educational benefits under the original GI Bill added seven dollars to the national economy in terms of productivity, consumer spending and tax revenue."
The Pentagon's Unfounded Fears About The GI Bill
In February, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), along with a bipartisan Senate coalition that included Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and John Warner (R-VA), re-introduced the "21st Century GI Bill," which aims to dramatically expand educational benefits for returning veterans. The original GI Bill, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed in 1944, "provided full tuition, housing, and living costs for some 8 million veterans," but it has been scaled back over time to such an extent that "today the most a veteran can receive is approximately $9,600 a year for four years -- no matter what college costs." Webb's bill, which has 57 co-sponsors, would pay a significant portion of college costs for all service members, including national guard members, who served in active duty after Sept. 11, 2001. Even though support for increased educational benefits for veterans should be "at the top of the list of no-brainers in Washington," the Pentagon, the White House, and some members of Congress are resisting Webb's efforts "out of fear that too many will use it." In a press briefing earlier this month, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell warned of the "harm" Webb's bill would do to troop retention and objected to the generous benefits given after "only" two years of service. Accepting the Pentagon's argument, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Burr (R-NC) have introduced their own GI bill expansion that pegs benefits to the length of time served in active duty, reserving the most generous benefits to older soldiers who signed up before 9/11. But major veterans organizations such as VoteVets.org, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and the American Legion back Webb's bill.
RETENTION VERSUS RECRUITMENT: "The last thing we want to do is provide a benefit -- or the last thing we want to do is create a situation in which we are losing our men and women who we have worked so hard to train," said Morrell when arguing against Webb's bill. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has aired similar concerns, saying that his "first objective is to strengthen the All-Volunteer Force" and that "serious retention issues could arise" under a too-generous GI Bill. But these concerns are overblown since they do not account for increased recruitment. While increased education benefits are expected to affect reenlistment rates, a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report found that the loss in retention from Webb's bill will be entirely made up for by increased military recruits. By CBO's accounting, the expected 16 percent drop in the reenlistment rate would be offset by "a 16 percent increase in recruits." As Sen. John Warner (R-VA) has noted, "[P]utting a big piece of cheese out there will induce more qualified people to join just to get this. It should be a tremendous incentive for recruitment."
TWO YEARS VERSUS SIX: While claiming that the Pentagon has no issue with "more generous education benefits to troops," Morrell said that the Pentagon is "certainly concerned" that the benefits in Webb's bill "would be eligible to them after only two years of service." Instead, the Pentagon wants to peg increased benefits to "a longer period of service," adding that "six years would show a commitment to service." Under Morrell's terms, a soldier who participated in the invasion of Baghdad in April 2003 and had remained in service ever since, would be forced to wait until April 2009 before becoming eligible for full benefits. But as VoteVets Chairman and Iraq war veteran Jon Soltz points out, "time of service isn't a measure of commitment to service." "What about the troops who served under six years, did a few tours in Iraq, and came back without a limb, and could no longer serve? Have they shown less of a commitment to America?" asks Soltz. Additionally, Soltz notes that soldiers sign up for eight year contracts, with most for four years active. "So even if they do begin school when they're done with their active duty commitment, the military can call them up at any time they need them, for the life of the troop's contract."
COSTS VERSUS BENEFITS: In testimony to Congress last summer, some Defense Department officials offered up the cost of Webb's bill as one reason to resist it, saying that "the current program for active duty is basically sound and serves its purpose in support of the all-volunteer force. The department finds no need for the kind of sweeping (and expensive) changes offered." But the expansion of educational benefits in Webb's bill is "is projected to cost about $2.5 billion per year," roughly the cost of U.S. operations in Iraq for one week. In announcing the American Legion's support for Webb's bill last week, National Commander Marty Conatser addressed criticisms that the GI Bill is too expensive, pointing out that the "bulk of that cost is paid for by the men and women who wear the uniform. Benefits are just a small, small cost of war." Additionally, as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert pointed out recently, "[M]oney that goes to bolstering the education of returning veterans is an investment, in both the lives of the veterans themselves and the future of the nation." In fact, educational benefits for veterans are a proven investment. A 1988 congressional study found "that every dollar spent on educational benefits under the original GI Bill added seven dollars to the national economy in terms of productivity, consumer spending and tax revenue."
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/hillary-clinton%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%9cfinal-solution%e2%80%9d-to-the-persian-problem/
Hillary Clinton’s “Final Solution” to the Persian Problem
by Robert Weitzel / May 13th, 2008
Hillary’s “final …
(Full article …)
Hillary Clinton’s “Final Solution” to the Persian Problem
by Robert Weitzel / May 13th, 2008
To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it . . . An evil unchecked is the prelude to genocide. – Dr. Mordechai, The Ezekiel OptionThere are over 70 million human beings living in Iran, 17.5 million of whom are under the age of fifteen. Hillary Clinton vowed to attack Iran and “totally obliterate” the majority of the Persian race in a furnace of primordial fire should the Iranian government attack Israel with nuclear weapons, which they do not now possess or are likely to for some time — if ever.
Hillary’s “final …
(Full article …)
Sabotage, Division or Sedition
http://www.counterpunch.org/vincent05132008.html
The Problem with Rev. Wright ... There are Too Few Like Him
The attack on Obama, using Wright's outspokenness, did not originate with his statements to Bill Moyer or the National Press Club. For decades US Americans have been conditioned to believe that one third -- and in some parts of the US one half -- of the population constitute a "special interest" because of their skin colour. This has perverted the country's political culture -- just like the 19th century Supreme Court decision granting corporations more civil rights than ex-slaves. Rev. Wright probably would not have drawn much attention in the first place had the Right not thought his old sermons would be good ammunition against Senator Obama. He was thrust into the limelight by the campaign -- not the other way around. Reverend Wright was correct to see and say that the attack on him and indirectly the challenge to Obama was not even an ad hominem but an attack on the Black Church and on African-American culture itself. In short it was an attack on the validity of the prophetic voice of the central African-American religious experience in a country which itself has no political culture divorced from the Church. In a secular society like some in Europe this would be relatively unimportant. However in a country whose entire socio-political culture is church driven, to attack the validity of the Black Church (by no means a monolith) is even viler than to attack the polling stations. No white candidate would have been forced to distance himself from the obnoxious pronouncements of New York's John Cardinal O'Connor in order to establish his right to candidacy. Even when the US elected its first Catholic president, there was no serious talk of Kennedy renouncing Cardinal Cushing.
With all respect to Obama's Philadelphia speech in March -- truly an excellent piece of oratory -- the senator from Illinois is responsible for at least two serious weaknesses which had nothing to do with Wright -- his soft-jingoism in aligning himself with Israel and disregarding the truly catastrophic consequences of US policy both for Palestine and for Muslims everywhere -- and his failure to address the fact that the majority of people who are going to war for the US are the poor, a substantial number of whom are Black Americans. The same was true of the military in Reverend Wright's days, forty years ago, when US soldiers were being recruited to kill "dinks" instead of "rag-heads". These poor are being made even poorer by the wars the US has been fighting for decades against what used to be the Third World (and is now merely the lower half of an increasingly polarised economic system).
You just have to look at the current on-line recruiting material of the US Army today to see that the US armed forces still fill most of the enlisted ranks with people who are simply glad the military gave them a job or an education -- an indication of just how difficult it still is to get either in civilian life if one is not deemed white and/ or rich. It ought to be a disgrace when a man or woman has to become a trained killer in order to enjoy a monthly salary and a college education. A presidential candidate who cannot or will not make the connection between the suffering in Iraq (or elsewhere) and the portion of the population, who only have the military as an employment option, is irresponsible. If he cannot say that because his campaign strategy prohibits it, then he should have the courage to leave those who do not run for president to say what needs to be said.
Now even black nationalism has been resurrected as a straw man to blame Wright's vocal and independent criticism of yes -- the rich, white male rulers of the US -- for being "racially closed-ended and culturally closed-ended". Wright's polemic must be like a nightmare for those who currently run the US government since nearly all the top jobs of the Bush regime have been held by people who were starting their careers when King and Malcolm were assassinated. Their attempts to discredit Obama using Wright rely on pervasive media-maintained amnesia. In Philadelphia, Obama tried to cast another spell which would return his "broom" to an inert state by associating Wright's preaching with the experience of some prior angry generation: as if a disproportionate share of prison "chain gangs" today were not comprised of African-Americans, like in those bad old days. Was Obama saying that Black Americans today do not have a right to be angry? By accusing Wright of sowing division, he was calling for a return not to the spirit of Martin Luther King but to the Booker T. Washington tradition.
It is not black liberation theology or Black Nationalism that causes division in the US, but rich, white minority and corporate rule. Even Martin Luther King found that just before he was murdered there was a point at which Christian faith required speaking the truth and not only talking about justice but naming the sources of injustice. People cannot fight "injustice", they have to fight those whose actions cause or maintain it (not mythical terrorists or Sadam Hussein but, the upper 10 percent of the US that controls most of the country's wealth). King was shredded for his Riverside Church sermon, esp. by his middle-class supporters. Soon after that he was dead. Reverend Wright preached the sermon that should have reminded Americans of Oscar Romero, the Catholic archbishop of Salvador murdered in 1980 by people supported by the US government, of US religious throughout Latin America also murdered with the tacit consent of the US government in the name of their "peculiar institutions." Reverend Wright's sermons should have reminded even Senator Obama that god did not anoint the US as the divine wielders of lethal nuclear force.
However to talk today requires a different and perhaps deeper courage when confronted with so many mirages of equality. It is tempting to be confused by these oases of opportunity and forget the desert of inequality through which most people are still struggling.
For nearly thirty years now the US has had open season on Black Americans in the media -- whether talk radio (most of it Right wing) or the decisions of courts and legislatures throughout the country, not to mention the executive. There was no righteous indignation and still is none when whites malign the other half of the Mayflower and Jamestown heritage. If the blood count for „negroes" had the same validity as the pedigree of the Mayflower and DAR descendants, then most African Americans would be colonial bluebloods in the US. But instead whites were imported with greater intensity after the US civil war to neutralise the impact of slavery's abolition. (Apartheid South Africa was less successful with this strategy.) These immigrants from Europe were given "letters patent" while African-Americans were still being lynched.
In a year which may make the difference between potential peace or another decade of war, a candidate who does not have the knowledge of US history to campaign for justice in your country or the courage to withstand strong opinions, will have no chance -- even if elected -- in suppressing the demonic forces by which the military-industrial-financial complex dominates the US.
There is nothing flattering to say about the history of the US. On the other hand, that unpleasant odour when the US sits at the table of the united nations can only be ignored with the strongest perfume or the greatest mendacity. It strains the imagination to believe that a presidential candidate can spend a year campaigning for hope and at the same time not have the courage to speak with a passion for justice. Justice cannot come from ignorance. It behoves a polite and respectful host to ask his disagreeable guest to wash before dining with the rest of us. Or to put it another way, true humility before god means washing one's feet before prayer. That means that a presidential candidate for justice has to educate or if he cannot, then he should allow and encourage others who do.
There is no "Southern Strategy" for Obama to win over the whites who are not already on his side. He has to hope for a fair election (and after two fraudulent presidential elections that will take a lot of hope.) Obama has to deliver not only an end to the trillion dollar war but a way of putting that trillion back into the living conditions of over half of the US population from which it has been robbed and which is getting poorer every day.
This is a dangerous road to follow. King and Malcolm were run off that road. But the lesson is not that somehow public speech has to be toned to flatter rich whites and their corporations. People will have to start shouting very loud to be heard over the din of lies that appear in all the mass media everyday. Not only are Black Americans still getting poorer, there is going to be a steady stream of Black Americans coming back in uniform psychologically damaged if not destroyed who will find that just like King said they will have killed for a "freedom" abroad that eludes them at home -- to this very day.
If Obama is the great hope, then the African-American clergy and for that matter any other true patriots should be urging Obama to speak for justice and not only for hope. If people like Wright do not use their exposure to push the agenda of justice and Obama cannot, then who will? The demand for justice is divisive and culturally closed: it divides those who seek justice from the unjust. It rejects a culture that promotes individual or corporate profit at any cost.
Until white Americans have a practical, lived notion of justice, based on recognition of their country's history of systemic injustice maintained to this day by those who rule the US, how will they ever get beyond the empty phrases of that pledge each school child is supposed to take? This means naming names. It is not so long in the history of the US that cars could be found with bumper stickers saying, "Kill an Indian, save a walleye". Sins are not committed in the abstract and crimes are not theoretical. Jesus may have asked God to forgive his crucifiers because "they know not what they do". However, "not knowing what they do" is no excuse for the rest.
The problem with Reverend Jeremiah Wright is that there are too few like him who are speaking for justice and truth first -- instead of branding the truth sedition. Only when there has been truth and justice can there be reconciliation. Too many people want to take the short cut. They want African-Americans to reconcile themselves to a government, which does not represent them, actively disenfranchises them, destroys their homes (and whole cities if need be), imprisons their children and ships the rest off to war, and never ask why or who is responsible. This is the reconciliation „on the cheap" -- cheap for white and corporate America that is. Reverend Wright offers Obama an opportunity, it is a shame he has declared himself unwilling to take it. That is not Wright's problem. That is America's problem. It is America that is the embarrassment not Wright -- who merely points out what the country still has not deigned to admit, let alone correct.
Brother Bede Vincent, a former teacher, educated in the US, Brazil and Europe, is working in a project the working title of which is "An Ecclesiastical History of the United States". He is affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Cultural Studies (www.maisonneuvepress.com) in College Park, MD and can be reached at bede@maisonneuvepress.com.
http://www.counterpunch.org/vincent05132008.html
The Problem with Rev. Wright ... There are Too Few Like Him
By BROTHER BEDE VINCENT
Now is the winter of our discontent?After his sermon at the National Press Club in April, there was renewed uproar in my parish about Rev. Wright, based on the belief, asserted no doubt in many other circles, that Jeremiah Wright was now egotistically, upstaging his former parishioner. Reverend Wright was accused of selfishly chasing the media so as to effectively sabotage Senator Obama's candidacy. There was Obama working like the sorcerer's apprentice to get the Democratic nomination -- remember Mickey Mouse in the Disney version -- and his Christian broom had taken on a life of its own. Much to the chagrin of Obama and his supporters that attempt to counter the Muslim associations of his name by actively embracing his Christian church has now turned into a media challenge to put down that very Christian pastor who according to Obama actually drew him into the Church.
made glorious summer by this son of York;?
And all the clouds that low'r'd upon our house?
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
-- Richard III
The attack on Obama, using Wright's outspokenness, did not originate with his statements to Bill Moyer or the National Press Club. For decades US Americans have been conditioned to believe that one third -- and in some parts of the US one half -- of the population constitute a "special interest" because of their skin colour. This has perverted the country's political culture -- just like the 19th century Supreme Court decision granting corporations more civil rights than ex-slaves. Rev. Wright probably would not have drawn much attention in the first place had the Right not thought his old sermons would be good ammunition against Senator Obama. He was thrust into the limelight by the campaign -- not the other way around. Reverend Wright was correct to see and say that the attack on him and indirectly the challenge to Obama was not even an ad hominem but an attack on the Black Church and on African-American culture itself. In short it was an attack on the validity of the prophetic voice of the central African-American religious experience in a country which itself has no political culture divorced from the Church. In a secular society like some in Europe this would be relatively unimportant. However in a country whose entire socio-political culture is church driven, to attack the validity of the Black Church (by no means a monolith) is even viler than to attack the polling stations. No white candidate would have been forced to distance himself from the obnoxious pronouncements of New York's John Cardinal O'Connor in order to establish his right to candidacy. Even when the US elected its first Catholic president, there was no serious talk of Kennedy renouncing Cardinal Cushing.
With all respect to Obama's Philadelphia speech in March -- truly an excellent piece of oratory -- the senator from Illinois is responsible for at least two serious weaknesses which had nothing to do with Wright -- his soft-jingoism in aligning himself with Israel and disregarding the truly catastrophic consequences of US policy both for Palestine and for Muslims everywhere -- and his failure to address the fact that the majority of people who are going to war for the US are the poor, a substantial number of whom are Black Americans. The same was true of the military in Reverend Wright's days, forty years ago, when US soldiers were being recruited to kill "dinks" instead of "rag-heads". These poor are being made even poorer by the wars the US has been fighting for decades against what used to be the Third World (and is now merely the lower half of an increasingly polarised economic system).
You just have to look at the current on-line recruiting material of the US Army today to see that the US armed forces still fill most of the enlisted ranks with people who are simply glad the military gave them a job or an education -- an indication of just how difficult it still is to get either in civilian life if one is not deemed white and/ or rich. It ought to be a disgrace when a man or woman has to become a trained killer in order to enjoy a monthly salary and a college education. A presidential candidate who cannot or will not make the connection between the suffering in Iraq (or elsewhere) and the portion of the population, who only have the military as an employment option, is irresponsible. If he cannot say that because his campaign strategy prohibits it, then he should have the courage to leave those who do not run for president to say what needs to be said.
Now even black nationalism has been resurrected as a straw man to blame Wright's vocal and independent criticism of yes -- the rich, white male rulers of the US -- for being "racially closed-ended and culturally closed-ended". Wright's polemic must be like a nightmare for those who currently run the US government since nearly all the top jobs of the Bush regime have been held by people who were starting their careers when King and Malcolm were assassinated. Their attempts to discredit Obama using Wright rely on pervasive media-maintained amnesia. In Philadelphia, Obama tried to cast another spell which would return his "broom" to an inert state by associating Wright's preaching with the experience of some prior angry generation: as if a disproportionate share of prison "chain gangs" today were not comprised of African-Americans, like in those bad old days. Was Obama saying that Black Americans today do not have a right to be angry? By accusing Wright of sowing division, he was calling for a return not to the spirit of Martin Luther King but to the Booker T. Washington tradition.
It is not black liberation theology or Black Nationalism that causes division in the US, but rich, white minority and corporate rule. Even Martin Luther King found that just before he was murdered there was a point at which Christian faith required speaking the truth and not only talking about justice but naming the sources of injustice. People cannot fight "injustice", they have to fight those whose actions cause or maintain it (not mythical terrorists or Sadam Hussein but, the upper 10 percent of the US that controls most of the country's wealth). King was shredded for his Riverside Church sermon, esp. by his middle-class supporters. Soon after that he was dead. Reverend Wright preached the sermon that should have reminded Americans of Oscar Romero, the Catholic archbishop of Salvador murdered in 1980 by people supported by the US government, of US religious throughout Latin America also murdered with the tacit consent of the US government in the name of their "peculiar institutions." Reverend Wright's sermons should have reminded even Senator Obama that god did not anoint the US as the divine wielders of lethal nuclear force.
However to talk today requires a different and perhaps deeper courage when confronted with so many mirages of equality. It is tempting to be confused by these oases of opportunity and forget the desert of inequality through which most people are still struggling.
For nearly thirty years now the US has had open season on Black Americans in the media -- whether talk radio (most of it Right wing) or the decisions of courts and legislatures throughout the country, not to mention the executive. There was no righteous indignation and still is none when whites malign the other half of the Mayflower and Jamestown heritage. If the blood count for „negroes" had the same validity as the pedigree of the Mayflower and DAR descendants, then most African Americans would be colonial bluebloods in the US. But instead whites were imported with greater intensity after the US civil war to neutralise the impact of slavery's abolition. (Apartheid South Africa was less successful with this strategy.) These immigrants from Europe were given "letters patent" while African-Americans were still being lynched.
In a year which may make the difference between potential peace or another decade of war, a candidate who does not have the knowledge of US history to campaign for justice in your country or the courage to withstand strong opinions, will have no chance -- even if elected -- in suppressing the demonic forces by which the military-industrial-financial complex dominates the US.
There is nothing flattering to say about the history of the US. On the other hand, that unpleasant odour when the US sits at the table of the united nations can only be ignored with the strongest perfume or the greatest mendacity. It strains the imagination to believe that a presidential candidate can spend a year campaigning for hope and at the same time not have the courage to speak with a passion for justice. Justice cannot come from ignorance. It behoves a polite and respectful host to ask his disagreeable guest to wash before dining with the rest of us. Or to put it another way, true humility before god means washing one's feet before prayer. That means that a presidential candidate for justice has to educate or if he cannot, then he should allow and encourage others who do.
There is no "Southern Strategy" for Obama to win over the whites who are not already on his side. He has to hope for a fair election (and after two fraudulent presidential elections that will take a lot of hope.) Obama has to deliver not only an end to the trillion dollar war but a way of putting that trillion back into the living conditions of over half of the US population from which it has been robbed and which is getting poorer every day.
This is a dangerous road to follow. King and Malcolm were run off that road. But the lesson is not that somehow public speech has to be toned to flatter rich whites and their corporations. People will have to start shouting very loud to be heard over the din of lies that appear in all the mass media everyday. Not only are Black Americans still getting poorer, there is going to be a steady stream of Black Americans coming back in uniform psychologically damaged if not destroyed who will find that just like King said they will have killed for a "freedom" abroad that eludes them at home -- to this very day.
If Obama is the great hope, then the African-American clergy and for that matter any other true patriots should be urging Obama to speak for justice and not only for hope. If people like Wright do not use their exposure to push the agenda of justice and Obama cannot, then who will? The demand for justice is divisive and culturally closed: it divides those who seek justice from the unjust. It rejects a culture that promotes individual or corporate profit at any cost.
Until white Americans have a practical, lived notion of justice, based on recognition of their country's history of systemic injustice maintained to this day by those who rule the US, how will they ever get beyond the empty phrases of that pledge each school child is supposed to take? This means naming names. It is not so long in the history of the US that cars could be found with bumper stickers saying, "Kill an Indian, save a walleye". Sins are not committed in the abstract and crimes are not theoretical. Jesus may have asked God to forgive his crucifiers because "they know not what they do". However, "not knowing what they do" is no excuse for the rest.
The problem with Reverend Jeremiah Wright is that there are too few like him who are speaking for justice and truth first -- instead of branding the truth sedition. Only when there has been truth and justice can there be reconciliation. Too many people want to take the short cut. They want African-Americans to reconcile themselves to a government, which does not represent them, actively disenfranchises them, destroys their homes (and whole cities if need be), imprisons their children and ships the rest off to war, and never ask why or who is responsible. This is the reconciliation „on the cheap" -- cheap for white and corporate America that is. Reverend Wright offers Obama an opportunity, it is a shame he has declared himself unwilling to take it. That is not Wright's problem. That is America's problem. It is America that is the embarrassment not Wright -- who merely points out what the country still has not deigned to admit, let alone correct.
Brother Bede Vincent, a former teacher, educated in the US, Brazil and Europe, is working in a project the working title of which is "An Ecclesiastical History of the United States". He is affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Cultural Studies (www.maisonneuvepress.com) in College Park, MD and can be reached at bede@maisonneuvepress.com.
Unnecessary Wars
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts05132008.html
How Empires Fall
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts05132008.html
How Empires Fall
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
In a new book that will infuriate the fake conservatives who inhabit the Republican Party, Patrick J. Buchanan documents how British self-righteousness, delusion, and hubris destroyed both the British Empire and Western ascendancy in two unnecessary wars launched by a small cabal of morons that ruled Britain
Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War shows that the two world wars that destroyed European civilization began when England declared war on Germany, thus dragging in the Empire, Commonwealth, and United States. This was a strategic blunder unparalleled in history. Mighty Britain emerged from World War II as an American dependency.
Buchanan cites such British notables as F.J.P. Veale, B.H. Liddell Hart, and C.P. Snow to document that it was Winston Churchill who committed, in Veale's words, "the first deliberate breach of the fundamental rule of civilized warfare that hostilities must only be waged against the enemy combatant forces." It was Churchill, not Hitler, who first targeted civilian populations in World War II and caused the structure of civilized warfare to collapse in ruins.
The Americans quickly adopted Churchill's criminal policy of attacking civilians, culminating in the outrageous use of nuclear weapons against two Japanese cities, the slaughter of Vietnamese civilians, and the ongoing slaughter of Afghan and Iraqi civilians.
A popular American myth is that "the greatest generation" saved the world from Nazi tyranny. As Buchanan points out, the fact of the matter is that the Normandy invasion in June 1944 played little, if any, role in Germany's defeat. By the end of 1942 Hitler had lost World War II at Stalingrad, long before any American troops appeared on the scene. What the Normandy invasion achieved 18 months later was to keep the Red Army from over-running all of Europe.
A popular American myth is that "the greatest generation" saved the world from Nazi tyranny. As Buchanan points out, the fact of the matter is that the Normandy invasion in June 1944 played little, if any, role in Germany's defeat. By the end of 1942 Hitler had lost World War II at Stalingrad, long before any American troops appeared on the scene. What the Normandy invasion achieved 18 months later was to keep the Red Army from over-running all of Europe.
Although Buchanan's book is about how the British destroyed themselves, Buchanan is clearly thinking about America. In the closing pages Buchanan shows how the Bush Regime has broken from the sound policy of President Reagan and is replicating the British folly of self-destruction. "There is hardly a blunder of the British Empire we have not replicated," laments Buchanan.
The distinct American hubris that we are "the indispensable nation" and the braggadocio that we are an "omnipower" has us overcommitted in alliances that we cannot fulfill. Despite 25 percent of the Iraqi population killed, injured or displaced, the "world's only superpower" cannot even control Baghdad. To deal with the pointless war we started in Afghanistan, we have had to sucker our NATO allies into a conflict that is no concern of theirs. Militarily overextended and with a faltering economy and collapsing currency, the cabal of morons that rules America still hopes to attack Iran, Syria, and to drive Hezbollah from Lebanon. American idiots in think tanks are busy at work drawing up plans about how the US is going to check China and prevent her emergence as a power beyond US control. The Republican presidential candidate has boasted that he will challenge Russia and bring Putin to heel.
Amazing.
Amazing.
The world's greatest debtor is going to take on the two powerful countries with the largest trade surpluses. According to the World Factbook, an annual publication of the CIA, Russia's 2007 current account surplus is $465 billion and China's is $363 billion. In contrast, the US current account deficit is $987 billion--an amount larger that the total deficits of all other countries in the world combined. The out-of-pocket and already incurred future cost of Bush's wars of aggression is between $3 and $5 trillion, every dollar of which must be borrowed. That comes on top of the unfunded liabilities of the US government totaling $53 trillion. By any account the US is the world's worst credit risk. The "mighty" US relies on foreigners to finance its consumption, its wars, and the daily operations of its government.
When Buchanan looks at the collection of idiots that comprise America's ruling class, he despairs.
In truth, American power is already broken, and the country is already lost.
The country is lost, because the brownshirt Bush Regime has destroyed the US Constitution with the complicity of the opposition party and the federal courts. There is no organized power that can restore the Constitution or even much concern that it has been overthrown.
The country is broken, because American capitalists have moved offshore so many US manufacturing, engineering, and research jobs that US imports now exceed US industrial production. American dependency on imported manufactured goods, advanced technology goods, and energy is astounding.
Moreover, the dependency is escalating dramatically. In March 2002, prior to Bush's decision to impose Israel's will on the Middle East, oil was $25 a barrel. Today oil is $125 a barrel, a five-fold increase that has seen our oil import bill rise from $145 billion in 2006 to $456 billion presently, a $300 billion addition to a trade deficit that was already running $700-$800 billion annually.
There is no possibility of the US closing its trade deficit. The US is able to survive such enormous deficits only because the US dollar is the world reserve currency. This role for the dollar is nearing an end as the world looks for more stable stores of value. Although oil is still nominally priced in dollars, in reality it is being priced in euros as oil producers raise the dollar price with a view to keeping their oil revenues at a constant purchasing power in euros.
When the dollar loses its reserve currency role, foreign financing for US trade and budget deficits will evaporate. US living standards will collapse, and the indispensable omnipower will be just another washed up country.
For a world weary of "American exceptionalism," this can't happen too soon.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
The Bipartisanship Scam huffingtonpost.com — The road to victory in 2008 doesn't run through a mythical middle that has been dragged far to the right over the past 7-plus years; it runs through the center that opposes the war, favors economic fairness, knows that climate change is real and a crisis, wants to take care of our veterans, and believes in the right to universal health care. In other words, the actual mainstream — the place the majority of Americans inhabit.
DAVID FIDERER
Republicans Are On A Different Planet huffingtonpost.com — News outlets talk about Bush's approval levels approaching "Nixonian" levels, but they shy away from acknowledging the obvious — that the GOP has become marginalized from the American mainstream.
AARON GLANTZ
The Truth About Veteran Suicides fpif.org — Eighteen American war veterans kill themselves every day. One thousand former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas. PAUL RIECKHOFF
Money for War, But No Money for the Troops? iava.org — Anyone who can find the money to fund the war has no excuse for voting against the tiny fraction of money needed for veterans' education benefits. The fiscal conservative argument seems even more ludicrous once you realize that even five years of spending on the GI Bill would only cost as much as nine weeks of war in Iraq.
PAUL KRUGMAN
The Oil Nonbubble nytimes.com — All through oil's five-year price surge there have been many voices declaring that it's all a bubble, unsupported by the fundamentals of supply and demand. So here are two questions: Are speculators mainly, or even largely, responsible for high oil prices? And if they aren't, why have so many commentators insisted, year after year, that there's an oil bubble?
GIDEON RACHMAN
The Oily Truth About America's Foreign Policy ft.com — With the oil price heading upwards and President George W. Bush heading for Saudi Arabia, as part of a Middle Eastern tour, it is time to accept the truth. The pursuit of oil is fundamental to US foreign policy.
The Bipartisanship Scam huffingtonpost.com — The road to victory in 2008 doesn't run through a mythical middle that has been dragged far to the right over the past 7-plus years; it runs through the center that opposes the war, favors economic fairness, knows that climate change is real and a crisis, wants to take care of our veterans, and believes in the right to universal health care. In other words, the actual mainstream — the place the majority of Americans inhabit.
DAVID FIDERER
Republicans Are On A Different Planet huffingtonpost.com — News outlets talk about Bush's approval levels approaching "Nixonian" levels, but they shy away from acknowledging the obvious — that the GOP has become marginalized from the American mainstream.
AARON GLANTZ
The Truth About Veteran Suicides fpif.org — Eighteen American war veterans kill themselves every day. One thousand former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas.
PAUL RIECKHOFFMoney for War, But No Money for the Troops? iava.org — Anyone who can find the money to fund the war has no excuse for voting against the tiny fraction of money needed for veterans' education benefits. The fiscal conservative argument seems even more ludicrous once you realize that even five years of spending on the GI Bill would only cost as much as nine weeks of war in Iraq.
PAUL KRUGMAN
The Oil Nonbubble nytimes.com — All through oil's five-year price surge there have been many voices declaring that it's all a bubble, unsupported by the fundamentals of supply and demand. So here are two questions: Are speculators mainly, or even largely, responsible for high oil prices? And if they aren't, why have so many commentators insisted, year after year, that there's an oil bubble?
GIDEON RACHMAN
The Oily Truth About America's Foreign Policy ft.com — With the oil price heading upwards and President George W. Bush heading for Saudi Arabia, as part of a Middle Eastern tour, it is time to accept the truth. The pursuit of oil is fundamental to US foreign policy.
Bush Administration Ignored Corruption hosted.ap.org — The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees. Arthur Brennan, who briefly served in Baghdad as head of the department's Office of Accountability and Transparency last year, and James Mattil, who worked as the chief of staff, told Senate Democrats on that their office was understaffed and its warnings and recommendations ignored. Brennan also alleges the State Department prevented a congressional aide visiting Baghdad from talking with staffers by insisting they were too busy. In reality, Brennan said, office members were watching movies at the embassy and on their computers. The staffers' workload had been cut dramatically because of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "evisceration" of Iraq's top anti-corruption office.
Senate Collapse on Housing Bill Likely washingtonpost.com — Hopes have dimmed that Congress would act quickly to rescue homeowners at risk of foreclosure after key Republican and Democratic negotiators in the Senate said they could not reach agreement on a plan. Talks broke down between aides to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and the senior Republican on his committee, Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), aides said. The two camps had been trying for more than a month to develop a bipartisan proposal to ease the nation's housing crisis.
Housing Bailout Little Help money.cnn.com — Congress' proposal to help troubled homeowners may only cost $1.7 billion to taxpayers since it might only keep 325,000 of nearly 3 million borrowers from foreclosure.
Little Help From Lenders boston.com — Loan companies are proving ill-equipped to handle record foreclosures, particularly requests involving sales that would require lenders to accept losses on the loans, so-called short sales. The mortgage companies turn down offers — even though it may be more costly to seize the house in foreclosure — or they take so long to respond that the buyers move on, or don't respond at all. Homeowners, real estate brokers, and others who have tried to crack the system describe it as akin to a black hole.
Economic Slump Hits Hispanics Hard nytimes.com — The economic downturn unfolding across the United States is imposing a particularly punishing toll on Hispanics, a group that was among the primary beneficiaries of the expansion in recent years. What had been a story of broad and steady advances has given way to growing joblessness, diminishing paychecks and lost homes.
Pentagon Attacks GI Bill hosted.ap.org — The Defense Department is lobbying against legislation proposed by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would guarantee a full-ride scholarship for service members to any in-state public university. According to defense officials, the plan would hurt its ability to retain service members because the new GI education bill would require only three years before the full benefit kicks in. The Defense Department wants the commitment to be extended to at least six years.
Bernanke: Markets Still Out of Whack marketwatch.com — Despite some signs of improvement, financial markets remain severely stressed, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech for conference on financial markets. The U.S. central bank's innovative efforts to provide cash to financial markets have helped, Bernanke said, citing a lessening of pressure on brokerage firms, but "at this stage conditions in financial markets are still far from normal."
Senate Collapse on Housing Bill Likely washingtonpost.com — Hopes have dimmed that Congress would act quickly to rescue homeowners at risk of foreclosure after key Republican and Democratic negotiators in the Senate said they could not reach agreement on a plan. Talks broke down between aides to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and the senior Republican on his committee, Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), aides said. The two camps had been trying for more than a month to develop a bipartisan proposal to ease the nation's housing crisis.
Housing Bailout Little Help money.cnn.com — Congress' proposal to help troubled homeowners may only cost $1.7 billion to taxpayers since it might only keep 325,000 of nearly 3 million borrowers from foreclosure.
Little Help From Lenders boston.com — Loan companies are proving ill-equipped to handle record foreclosures, particularly requests involving sales that would require lenders to accept losses on the loans, so-called short sales. The mortgage companies turn down offers — even though it may be more costly to seize the house in foreclosure — or they take so long to respond that the buyers move on, or don't respond at all. Homeowners, real estate brokers, and others who have tried to crack the system describe it as akin to a black hole.
Economic Slump Hits Hispanics Hard nytimes.com — The economic downturn unfolding across the United States is imposing a particularly punishing toll on Hispanics, a group that was among the primary beneficiaries of the expansion in recent years. What had been a story of broad and steady advances has given way to growing joblessness, diminishing paychecks and lost homes.
Pentagon Attacks GI Bill hosted.ap.org — The Defense Department is lobbying against legislation proposed by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would guarantee a full-ride scholarship for service members to any in-state public university. According to defense officials, the plan would hurt its ability to retain service members because the new GI education bill would require only three years before the full benefit kicks in. The Defense Department wants the commitment to be extended to at least six years.
Bernanke: Markets Still Out of Whack marketwatch.com — Despite some signs of improvement, financial markets remain severely stressed, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech for conference on financial markets. The U.S. central bank's innovative efforts to provide cash to financial markets have helped, Bernanke said, citing a lessening of pressure on brokerage firms, but "at this stage conditions in financial markets are still far from normal."
Best of the Blogs
Huckabee vs. McCain? - Ross Douthat
The Fourth Estate for Obama - The Corner
The Bald Cajun Sings - Liberal Values
When Obama Negotiates with Terrorists - Redstate
Obama/Clinton Ticket = The Will of the People - MyDD
Hillary's portable 'person of color'
May 14, 2008
Sweetness & Light notices what appears to be same p.o.c. appearing behind Hillary Clinton at the podium addressing campaign rallies in three states More
China Quake Toll Could hit 40,000
May 14, 2008
The government is reporting that 40,000 people are dead, missing, or still buried under rubble as a result of the earthquake that struck central China last week: More
McCain's 'Adaptive dishonesty'
May 14, 2008
Nothing about John McCain made me angrier than his recent statements about climate change. But he's a politician and I'm not. More
Foreclosures up 65% in April
May 14, 2008
Housing foreclosures are up 65% compared to last year indicating that the housing slowdown and credit crunch show no signs of abating: More
Obama's profile in exaggeration
May 14, 2008
Barack Obama is developing a credibility problem. Even with some members of the MSM. More
Hillary Buries Obama in WV
May 14, 2008
Not only was it not even close, Hillary Clinton's landslide over Obama by a 67-26 margin was a shocking rejection of the probable nominee More
Happy 60th Birthday Israel
May 14, 2008
It is one of the most remarkable stories of the 20th century - a tale whose ending has yet to be written but continues to fascinate and enthrall More
Loss in MS-01 Special House Race has GOP Reeling
May 14, 2008
Democrat Travis Childers won a solid victory over Republican Greg Davis in Mississippi's 1st Congressional district More
More on biofuels
May 14, 2008
I have to respond to the article from Mr Meyer regarding his support of biofuels. Mr Meyer neglects to mention a few things about biofuels. More
See you in court, Mahmoud
May 14, 2008
Aussie Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced he may take Iran's President Ahmadinejad to court in the Hague. More
Holocaust heroine dies at 98
May 14, 2008
She may be less known than Oskar Schindler, but Rena Sendler, who died two days ago at the age on 98, was at least his equal in saving would-be victims from the Holocaust. More
Al Jazeera reports Palestinians phonebanking for Obama
May 14, 2008
It appears that some Palestinians in Gaza share American Thinker's skepticism over Barack Obama's devotion to the cause of Israel. More
May 14, 2008
Sweetness & Light notices what appears to be same p.o.c. appearing behind Hillary Clinton at the podium addressing campaign rallies in three states More
China Quake Toll Could hit 40,000
May 14, 2008
The government is reporting that 40,000 people are dead, missing, or still buried under rubble as a result of the earthquake that struck central China last week: More
McCain's 'Adaptive dishonesty'
May 14, 2008
Nothing about John McCain made me angrier than his recent statements about climate change. But he's a politician and I'm not. More
Foreclosures up 65% in April
May 14, 2008
Housing foreclosures are up 65% compared to last year indicating that the housing slowdown and credit crunch show no signs of abating: More
Obama's profile in exaggeration
May 14, 2008
Barack Obama is developing a credibility problem. Even with some members of the MSM. More
Hillary Buries Obama in WV
May 14, 2008
Not only was it not even close, Hillary Clinton's landslide over Obama by a 67-26 margin was a shocking rejection of the probable nominee More
Happy 60th Birthday Israel
May 14, 2008
It is one of the most remarkable stories of the 20th century - a tale whose ending has yet to be written but continues to fascinate and enthrall More
Loss in MS-01 Special House Race has GOP Reeling
May 14, 2008
Democrat Travis Childers won a solid victory over Republican Greg Davis in Mississippi's 1st Congressional district More
More on biofuels
May 14, 2008
I have to respond to the article from Mr Meyer regarding his support of biofuels. Mr Meyer neglects to mention a few things about biofuels. More
See you in court, Mahmoud
May 14, 2008
Aussie Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced he may take Iran's President Ahmadinejad to court in the Hague. More
Holocaust heroine dies at 98
May 14, 2008
She may be less known than Oskar Schindler, but Rena Sendler, who died two days ago at the age on 98, was at least his equal in saving would-be victims from the Holocaust. More
Al Jazeera reports Palestinians phonebanking for Obama
May 14, 2008
It appears that some Palestinians in Gaza share American Thinker's skepticism over Barack Obama's devotion to the cause of Israel. More
When West Virginia Mattered
Harold Meyerson
May 13, 2008 | web only
Barack Obama is the most alien candidate, demographically and culturally, that stoutly provincial West Virginia has ever had to c