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Transcripts & Speeches
Interview with Rick Davis - Fox News Sunday
Gov. Kaine & Karl Rove on "Face the Nation" (PDF) - CBS News
Interview with Treasury Secretary Paulson - Meet the Press
Interview with the President of Georgia - Late Edition
John Edwards Statement on His Affair - John Edwards
Best of the Blogs
John Edwards' New Age Friends - Jeralyn, TalkLeft
The Affair and Its Aftermath - Pejman, RedState
Russia, Georgia and McCain's Recklessness - Carpetbagger Report
Obama Flip-Flops on Georgia - Gateway Pundit
K2: What the MSM Isn't Reporting - Freddie Wilkinson, Huffington Post
Why Polls Aren't Worrying Team Obama
- Carol Marin, Chicago Sun-Times
Doubts Starting to Rein Back Obama
- Andrew Sullivan, Sunday Times
The Obama We're Still Waiting For
- Michael Tomasky, Washington Post
What Bush Got Right
- Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek
- Carol Marin, Chicago Sun-Times
Doubts Starting to Rein Back Obama
- Andrew Sullivan, Sunday Times
The Obama We're Still Waiting For
- Michael Tomasky, Washington Post
What Bush Got Right
- Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek
Why You Want a Progressive to Be Running the Economy
Joseph Stiglitz, The Guardian
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Unlike the GOP, progressives have a coherent economic agenda offering not only higher growth, but also social justice.
StopMax: The Fight Against Supermax Prisons Heats UpJessica Pupovac, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: With former prisoners and their families at the helm, the movement to abolish supermax prisons and end solitary confinement is gaining ground.
How Is John McCain's Affair Different from John Edwards'?Cenk Uygur, Huffington Post
Election 2008: With all this griping about Edwards, it's time to ask why McCain's political career isn't suffering for his adulterous affairs.
How to Put Karl Rove Away for Years
David Swanson, davidswanson.org
Rights and Liberties: Bringing Karl Rove to justice for ignoring House requests to talk about the firing of several U.S. attorneys could be just the beginning.
2008's First Disenfranchised Voters: Injured and Homeless VeteransSteven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
Democracy and Elections: Despite new legislation in Congress, the VA is poised to prevent registration drives at its facilities before the November election.
The Era of Catastrophe? Geologists Name New Era After Human Influence on the Planet
By Mike Davis, Tomdispatch.com
Environment: A striking report from the front lines of science suggests we're officially entering a period in which humanity may simply outrun history itself.
Israel, Iran, and the New Neocons
Post by Brave New Films
Video: Which neocons are pushing Israel to attack Iran and why? More »
March of the Obots
James Lewis
My son-in-law is an Obot. I'm sorry, that's the kindest thing I can say. A specimen of his thinking is this: He likes Barack Obama because Hillary is just too white. More
Obama's Neo-Isolationism
Douglas Stone
It's one of the ironies of modern "progressivism" that it looks to the past for so many of its policies. More
Why Barack Obama Will Not Win
Steven M. Warshawsky
For months now, I have been reassuring my right-leaning friends that Barack Obama will not be elected president. More
James Lewis
My son-in-law is an Obot. I'm sorry, that's the kindest thing I can say. A specimen of his thinking is this: He likes Barack Obama because Hillary is just too white. More
Obama's Neo-Isolationism
Douglas Stone
It's one of the ironies of modern "progressivism" that it looks to the past for so many of its policies. More
Why Barack Obama Will Not Win
Steven M. Warshawsky
For months now, I have been reassuring my right-leaning friends that Barack Obama will not be elected president. More
Bush Rejects Bushism
Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier
August 11, 2008 | web only
Over the past year, the Bush administration has moved left on foreign policy -- negotiating with governments it previously shunned and abandoning its long-standing preference for unilateral action.
This shift represents nothing less than the collapse of the conservative national-security establishment that has dominated American foreign policy since the Cold War.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier
August 11, 2008 | web only
Over the past year, the Bush administration has moved left on foreign policy -- negotiating with governments it previously shunned and abandoning its long-standing preference for unilateral action.
This shift represents nothing less than the collapse of the conservative national-security establishment that has dominated American foreign policy since the Cold War.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
The group blog of The American Prospect
The latest from Georgia[/color]
Posted at 9:57 a.m.
A respectable liberal blog
Still digging
Posted at 9:10 a.m.
Dean Baker's economic commentary
[color="#800000"]Whining for Wall Street billionaires
Posted at 8:16 a.m.
Are We Neglecting the Next Activist Generation?
Courtney E. Martin
August 11, 2008 | web only
While it's great that young people are so excited about the Democratic candidate this year, progressives need to focus on encouraging young activists to do non-Obama-centric work.
Courtney E. Martin
August 11, 2008 | web only
While it's great that young people are so excited about the Democratic candidate this year, progressives need to focus on encouraging young activists to do non-Obama-centric work.
Susan Campbell:
Rolling Out the Welcome Mat for the Good Samaritan
Gareth Porter:
How Tenet Betrayed the CIA on WMD in Iraq
Kathy Kelly:
The Big Voice
Harvey Wasserman:
McCain’s Michigan Melt-Down Madness
Chris Hedges:
What’s Sex Got to Do With It?
Rolling Out the Welcome Mat for the Good Samaritan
Gareth Porter:
How Tenet Betrayed the CIA on WMD in Iraq
Kathy Kelly:
The Big Voice
Harvey Wasserman:
McCain’s Michigan Melt-Down Madness
Chris Hedges:
What’s Sex Got to Do With It?
Politics of the Race Card
McCain Gurgles in the Slime
"The Republican National Committee targeted Harold Ford with a similarly disgusting ad in 2006 when Mr. Ford, then a congressman, was running a strong race for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. The ad, which the committee described as a parody, showed a scantily clad woman whispering, 'Harold, call me.'" Herbert even located some dog whistle meat in the ad. Phallic symbols like the leaning tower of Pisa. Davis for his part accused Obama of playing the race card, when he commented that he didn't look like the presidents whose faces appear on the currency. Of course, Hillary Clinton said something similar during the primary, yet nobody accused her of playing the gender card, but Davis and his associates weren't interested in consistency.
Their ad, which suggested a sexual connection between Obama and two blondes, was meant to do for McCain what the Willie Horton did for Bush One and what the Ford ad did for Senator whatshisname. So clumsy and obvious and removed from contemporary culture was this ad that Paris Hilton replied with one that was superior and probably cost less.
That they would slime ball Obama from the bottom at this stage of the campaign might be viewed as a sign of panic, no matter what cable reports about a tight race. His campaign most know something that the MSNBC and CNN infotainers and McCain enablers of the segregated media don't.This kind of Hail Mary pass, using the kind of sports metaphor with which commentators on shows like "Morning Joe" use to convince their viewers of their familiarity with the working class, usually occurs in October a few weeks before the election. What Robert Crumb might call the "When--The –"epithet deleted"- Take- Over America" ad. After the
ad, cable ran panels which included the usual prattle, filler that takes place between ads, except this time, Rachel Maddow, the brightest of the on air commentators, David Gergen and Ron Brownstein deciphered the racist codes of Davis's recent appeals, for example, that Obama was "presumptuous, "while black on- camera puppets of the far right denied that this was the case. They all seemed to be employers of Rev. Sun Moon, one of whom was used to frame the discussion on Jonathan Klein's sinister attempt at gaining ratings, the sleazy infotainment spectacular, "Black In America, "replete with the sort of images of blacks CNN runs each day: criminals, addicts, sexual predators (especially when the victims are white women) and the stragglers of American society, only this time dignified with panels- a carnival of charismatics- who competed with each other for applause lines. Klein, America's Julius Streicher and Davis probably think that their values are superior to Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan's family's.
To respond to the Davis ads, MSNBC ran Joe Mitchell, a black regular and former Cheney speechwriter, all day. He was one of those who predictably discounted the racist features of the ad. I'm wondering where the MSNBC and CNN producers get these far right black people. Does Karl Rove have a secret Maryland laboratory where if one could hurdle a barbed wired fence, one would find a windowless building where inside these black right wingers are being created in tubes, ready for use by the networks as opinion stand ins?
Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised that Congressman Harold Ford defended McCain's camp from charges of racism. He's the head of Clinton's post race Democratic Leadership Council, an outfit that was formed to stop Jesse Jackson.The DLC holds that whatever problems black Americans encounter is a result of their personal behavior. I think that my personal behavior is o.k., yet when I show up at an exercise track in a white neighborhood, I get stalked regularly by the Berkeley police. (Progressive Berkeley is now the whitest tract in Contra Costa Country.) It's a track owned by the university where I'm a faculty member. What do the upper west side progressives say about class being the basic "contradiction" of the United States? To the police, blacks belong to the same class.
I'm sure that Ford was aware that McCain meant to spring one of these skanky ads from the beginning of the campaign, the ad that exposed the other McCain, not the beatific faced martyr lying on a prisoner of war cot, but the man who makes sick jokes about bombing Iran, finds humor in rape, and offers his wife as a contestant in a biker's beauty contest in which nearly nude women do awful things with bananas while gyrating their buttocks, which makes you wonder why some of the Clinton feminists are threatening to vote for the man or assent to his election by staying home.The Zogby poll says that Obama is losing the votes of younger white women. Maybe you got to treat them rough, In order to woo this faction, maybe Obama should invite Mrs.Clinton to join him in an Apache dance.
I'm sure that Ford knows that McCain's first hire was Terry Nelson, a former Bush-Cheney campaign operative, who gets to exhibit his weird fantasies before the public and get paid for it. McCain fired him in July of 2007 for " mismanagement of operations and excessive spending." Nelson was the man who designed the ad connecting Ford to a blonde Playboy girl. The notorious bimbo ad for which Rev. Jesse Jackson got him fired from Wal Mart. Thank god for Jesse Jackson. Maureen Dowd sounds silly when she sums up Rev. Jackson's career as that of exploiting "white guilt, " on the basis of comments by Shelby Steele who gets paid by the far right for his recycling of the same two or three ideas. That blacks are prone to "victimization" and that they exploit white guilt which he repeats endlessly like a windup toy. His ideal is an African American who allows injustices to happen to them without protest less they be accused of "victimization," a word that rich publishers insist be used in scores of Op Eds that blame black men for all social problems so as to deflect attention from the excesses of the taxpayers' subsidized "Free Market" system. In the 19th Century, Steele's ideal African American was known as "The Contented Slave." Like John McWhorter, who told a C-Span audience that whatever complaints that blacks lodge about their treatment in American society stem from their ""insecurity, " Steele even accepts money from billionaire Eugenics quacks.
If his associating Obama with two hot blondes were not enough, McCain's bottom feeders followed this one up with one of a Obama grinning after the fading image of a vulnerable white man and a child, an ad that was supposed to have been based upon the form used by the show "America's
Most Wanted." They were reaching all the way back to the middle ages with that one. According to legend, St.Nick's assistant Zwarte Pete (Black Peter), stuffs white children into sacks and transports them across the border from the Netherlands into Spain.
They also did an ad in which Obama was linked to a movie made in 1956, and starring Charleton Heston.
If I were to cast Obama in a movie, I would have him fighting through a crowd of flesh eating zombies and the lead zombie would be labeled "the media."
How did I feel about the ads? Some years ago, a clique of white students tried to needle me by writing racially offensive stories. I told them that they could write all of the racist material that they desired as long as they made it fresh and original. That ended their efforts. The ringleader finally came to my office and confessed that I reminded him of his father.
Ishmael Reed is the editor of Konch. His new book,"Mixing It Up, Taking On The Media Bullies," was published this month by De Capo.
http://www.counterpunch.org/reed08112008.html
McCain Gurgles in the Slime
By ISHMAEL REED
McCain campaign manager, Rick Davis, in a television performance, which, if he were a woman, would be called strident, or a black man, angry, faced down a cowed Andrea Mitchell after she questioned him about a McCain ad that even offended the Time's gentle Bob Hebert. Herbert wrote: "Now, from the hapless but increasingly venomous McCain campaign, comes the slimy Britney Spears and Paris Hilton ad. The two highly sexualized women (both notorious for displaying themselves to the paparazzi while not wearing underwear) are shown briefly and incongruously at the beginning of a commercial critical of Mr. Obama.
"The Republican National Committee targeted Harold Ford with a similarly disgusting ad in 2006 when Mr. Ford, then a congressman, was running a strong race for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. The ad, which the committee described as a parody, showed a scantily clad woman whispering, 'Harold, call me.'" Herbert even located some dog whistle meat in the ad. Phallic symbols like the leaning tower of Pisa. Davis for his part accused Obama of playing the race card, when he commented that he didn't look like the presidents whose faces appear on the currency. Of course, Hillary Clinton said something similar during the primary, yet nobody accused her of playing the gender card, but Davis and his associates weren't interested in consistency.
Their ad, which suggested a sexual connection between Obama and two blondes, was meant to do for McCain what the Willie Horton did for Bush One and what the Ford ad did for Senator whatshisname. So clumsy and obvious and removed from contemporary culture was this ad that Paris Hilton replied with one that was superior and probably cost less.
That they would slime ball Obama from the bottom at this stage of the campaign might be viewed as a sign of panic, no matter what cable reports about a tight race. His campaign most know something that the MSNBC and CNN infotainers and McCain enablers of the segregated media don't.This kind of Hail Mary pass, using the kind of sports metaphor with which commentators on shows like "Morning Joe" use to convince their viewers of their familiarity with the working class, usually occurs in October a few weeks before the election. What Robert Crumb might call the "When--The –"epithet deleted"- Take- Over America" ad. After the
ad, cable ran panels which included the usual prattle, filler that takes place between ads, except this time, Rachel Maddow, the brightest of the on air commentators, David Gergen and Ron Brownstein deciphered the racist codes of Davis's recent appeals, for example, that Obama was "presumptuous, "while black on- camera puppets of the far right denied that this was the case. They all seemed to be employers of Rev. Sun Moon, one of whom was used to frame the discussion on Jonathan Klein's sinister attempt at gaining ratings, the sleazy infotainment spectacular, "Black In America, "replete with the sort of images of blacks CNN runs each day: criminals, addicts, sexual predators (especially when the victims are white women) and the stragglers of American society, only this time dignified with panels- a carnival of charismatics- who competed with each other for applause lines. Klein, America's Julius Streicher and Davis probably think that their values are superior to Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan's family's.To respond to the Davis ads, MSNBC ran Joe Mitchell, a black regular and former Cheney speechwriter, all day. He was one of those who predictably discounted the racist features of the ad. I'm wondering where the MSNBC and CNN producers get these far right black people. Does Karl Rove have a secret Maryland laboratory where if one could hurdle a barbed wired fence, one would find a windowless building where inside these black right wingers are being created in tubes, ready for use by the networks as opinion stand ins?
Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised that Congressman Harold Ford defended McCain's camp from charges of racism. He's the head of Clinton's post race Democratic Leadership Council, an outfit that was formed to stop Jesse Jackson.The DLC holds that whatever problems black Americans encounter is a result of their personal behavior. I think that my personal behavior is o.k., yet when I show up at an exercise track in a white neighborhood, I get stalked regularly by the Berkeley police. (Progressive Berkeley is now the whitest tract in Contra Costa Country.) It's a track owned by the university where I'm a faculty member. What do the upper west side progressives say about class being the basic "contradiction" of the United States? To the police, blacks belong to the same class.
I'm sure that Ford was aware that McCain meant to spring one of these skanky ads from the beginning of the campaign, the ad that exposed the other McCain, not the beatific faced martyr lying on a prisoner of war cot, but the man who makes sick jokes about bombing Iran, finds humor in rape, and offers his wife as a contestant in a biker's beauty contest in which nearly nude women do awful things with bananas while gyrating their buttocks, which makes you wonder why some of the Clinton feminists are threatening to vote for the man or assent to his election by staying home.The Zogby poll says that Obama is losing the votes of younger white women. Maybe you got to treat them rough, In order to woo this faction, maybe Obama should invite Mrs.Clinton to join him in an Apache dance.
I'm sure that Ford knows that McCain's first hire was Terry Nelson, a former Bush-Cheney campaign operative, who gets to exhibit his weird fantasies before the public and get paid for it. McCain fired him in July of 2007 for " mismanagement of operations and excessive spending." Nelson was the man who designed the ad connecting Ford to a blonde Playboy girl. The notorious bimbo ad for which Rev. Jesse Jackson got him fired from Wal Mart. Thank god for Jesse Jackson. Maureen Dowd sounds silly when she sums up Rev. Jackson's career as that of exploiting "white guilt, " on the basis of comments by Shelby Steele who gets paid by the far right for his recycling of the same two or three ideas. That blacks are prone to "victimization" and that they exploit white guilt which he repeats endlessly like a windup toy. His ideal is an African American who allows injustices to happen to them without protest less they be accused of "victimization," a word that rich publishers insist be used in scores of Op Eds that blame black men for all social problems so as to deflect attention from the excesses of the taxpayers' subsidized "Free Market" system. In the 19th Century, Steele's ideal African American was known as "The Contented Slave." Like John McWhorter, who told a C-Span audience that whatever complaints that blacks lodge about their treatment in American society stem from their ""insecurity, " Steele even accepts money from billionaire Eugenics quacks.
If his associating Obama with two hot blondes were not enough, McCain's bottom feeders followed this one up with one of a Obama grinning after the fading image of a vulnerable white man and a child, an ad that was supposed to have been based upon the form used by the show "America's
Most Wanted." They were reaching all the way back to the middle ages with that one. According to legend, St.Nick's assistant Zwarte Pete (Black Peter), stuffs white children into sacks and transports them across the border from the Netherlands into Spain.
They also did an ad in which Obama was linked to a movie made in 1956, and starring Charleton Heston.
If I were to cast Obama in a movie, I would have him fighting through a crowd of flesh eating zombies and the lead zombie would be labeled "the media."
How did I feel about the ads? Some years ago, a clique of white students tried to needle me by writing racially offensive stories. I told them that they could write all of the racist material that they desired as long as they made it fresh and original. That ended their efforts. The ringleader finally came to my office and confessed that I reminded him of his father.
Ishmael Reed is the editor of Konch. His new book,"Mixing It Up, Taking On The Media Bullies," was published this month by De Capo.
http://www.counterpunch.org/reed08112008.html
Paul Craig Roberts
The Moronic Party: From Off-Shore Drilling to the Georgian War
Gary Leupp
The Neo-Cons' Dream Forgery: the Habbush Letter Revisited
Douglas Kammen
Rice and Circus in East Timor
William Willers
New Paths Toward the Loss of Our Public Lands: Subsidies, Volunteerism and Outsourcing
Greg Moses
The Smell of Propaganda in the Morning: Press Calls for War in the Caucasus
The Moronic Party: From Off-Shore Drilling to the Georgian War
Gary Leupp
The Neo-Cons' Dream Forgery: the Habbush Letter Revisited
Douglas Kammen
Rice and Circus in East Timor
William Willers
New Paths Toward the Loss of Our Public Lands: Subsidies, Volunteerism and Outsourcing
Greg Moses
The Smell of Propaganda in the Morning: Press Calls for War in the Caucasus
Georgia's War is War for the West - Mikheil Saakashvili, Wall Street Journal
Conflict Not All Russia's Fault - Charles King, Christian Science Monitor
Wounded Pride Ignites an Accidental War - Quentin Peel, Financial Times
Don't Turn Georgia into Another Sarajevo - W. Rees-Mogg, Times of London
Making Obama The Incumbent - E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
Forget Edwards, Detroit Mayor Bad News for Obama - Steve Mitchell, RCP
Is McCain Playing the Caucasian Card? - Anna Quindlen, Newsweek
Will Colorado Ballot Measure on Race Hurt Obama? - Peter Brown, WSJ
McCain Will Need Positive Message to Win - Mort Kondracke, Roll Call
Seven Worrisome Signs for Obama - Glenn Thrush, The Politico
What's Wrong With Kansas Republicans? - Reid Wilson, Politics Nation
The MSM's Latest Embarrassment - Jennifer Rubin, Commentary
Edwards Affair Touchy for Press - Howard Kurtz, Washington Post
We May Finally Get Universal Health Care - Paul Krugman, NY Times
A Big Surprise on Gas - Indur Goklany & Jerry Taylor, Los Angeles Times
How Cop Bashers Menace Minorities - Heather Mac Donald, New York Post
Learning the Right Lessons From 1936 - Samuel Chi, RealClearWorld
RCP Blog: AM Report / Politics Nation: Obama Offers First Peek
Editorials
The Rampaging Bear - Chicago Tribune
Kremlin Capers - Wall Street Journal
For Edwards, Only Full Truth Can Pave Path to Redemption - USA Today
The Credit Crunch: One Year On - The Economist
Political News & Analysis
Georgia Conflict Tests Candidates - Wall Street Journal
Vetting Teams Scour Pasts of Potential VPs - USA Today
State Ballot Initiatives Could Draw Attention to Presidential Race - NYT
Hillary Clinton to Headline DNC's Second Night - Associated Press
Conflict Not All Russia's Fault - Charles King, Christian Science Monitor
Wounded Pride Ignites an Accidental War - Quentin Peel, Financial Times
Don't Turn Georgia into Another Sarajevo - W. Rees-Mogg, Times of London
Making Obama The Incumbent - E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
Forget Edwards, Detroit Mayor Bad News for Obama - Steve Mitchell, RCP
Is McCain Playing the Caucasian Card? - Anna Quindlen, Newsweek
Will Colorado Ballot Measure on Race Hurt Obama? - Peter Brown, WSJ
McCain Will Need Positive Message to Win - Mort Kondracke, Roll Call
Seven Worrisome Signs for Obama - Glenn Thrush, The Politico
What's Wrong With Kansas Republicans? - Reid Wilson, Politics Nation
The MSM's Latest Embarrassment - Jennifer Rubin, Commentary
Edwards Affair Touchy for Press - Howard Kurtz, Washington Post
We May Finally Get Universal Health Care - Paul Krugman, NY Times
A Big Surprise on Gas - Indur Goklany & Jerry Taylor, Los Angeles Times
How Cop Bashers Menace Minorities - Heather Mac Donald, New York Post
Learning the Right Lessons From 1936 - Samuel Chi, RealClearWorld
RCP Blog: AM Report / Politics Nation: Obama Offers First Peek
Editorials
The Rampaging Bear - Chicago Tribune
Kremlin Capers - Wall Street Journal
For Edwards, Only Full Truth Can Pave Path to Redemption - USA Today
The Credit Crunch: One Year On - The Economist
Political News & Analysis
Georgia Conflict Tests Candidates - Wall Street Journal
Vetting Teams Scour Pasts of Potential VPs - USA Today
State Ballot Initiatives Could Draw Attention to Presidential Race - NYT
Hillary Clinton to Headline DNC's Second Night - Associated Press
Transcripts & Speeches
McCain Statement on Georgia - John McCain
Interview with Rick Davis - Fox News Sunday
Gov. Kaine & Karl Rove on "Face the Nation" (PDF) - CBS News
Interview with Treasury Secretary Paulson - Meet the Press
Interview with the President of Georgia - Late Edition
Best of the Blogs
McCain and Choice - Scott Lemieux, LG&M
More Fun With the Internet's Dumbest - David Weigel, Hit & Run
Penn Wanted to Scorch the Earth - Josh Orton, MyDD
Who's Buying Edwards' Story? - Mickey Kaus, Slate
McCain vs Maliki? - Andrew Sullivan, Daily Dish
Scapegoating Regulation thomaspalley.com — Economic conservatives will not roll-over and surrender just because of a financial crisis. Instead, if history is a guide, they will blame regulation for the crisis. That was Milton Friedman's modus operandi when he launched the modern era of deregulation and animus to government with his false claim that the Fed caused the Great Depression. 
JARED BERNSTEIN
The Price of Risk huffingtonpost.com — Remember, "conservative" used to mean risk-averse. Now it means "risk be damned, I want my oil, my house, my risky financial instruments, and my government bailout when they fail." You can even see where they under-priced the risk of their war in Iraq, with that nonsense of how we'd be embraced as liberators.
JOSEPH STIGLITZ
Why You Want a Progressive Running the Economy alternet.org — Unlike the GOP, progressives have a coherent economic agenda offering not only higher growth, but also social justice.
BYRON WIEN
America's Decline Will Not Be Easily Reversed ft.com — The next president's biggest challenge will be to prevent America's slide into a position where it is dependent on foreign sources for both capital and energy. We have the human resources to accomplish these goals. The question is whether we have the will.
PAUL KRUGMAN
Know Nothing Politics nytimes.com — I don't mean that GOP politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there's something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party's de facto slogan has become: "Real men don't think things through."
DAVID MOORE
Drilling for Oil washingtonmonthly.com — Most of the polls frame the issue as though it were a problem of "energy independence" or of dealing with the "rising cost of gasoline." But the energy problem is much more complicated. MICHAEL T. KLARE
The New Geopolitics of Energy thenation.com — At a time when world supplies of oil, natural gas, uranium and key industrial minerals like copper and cobalt are beginning to shrink and the demand for them is exploding, the major industrial powers are becoming more desperate in their drive to gain control over what remains of the planet's untapped reserves. These efforts typically entail intense bidding wars for supplies on international markets. But they also take military form, as arms transfers and the deployment of overseas missions and bases. It is to bolster America's advantage — and to counter similar moves by China and other resource competitors — that the Pentagon has placed resource competition at the center of its strategic planning.
DEREK CHOLLET AND JAMES GOLDGEIER
Bush Rejects Bushism prospect.org — Over the past year, the Bush administration has moved left on foreign policy — negotiating with governments it previously shunned and abandoning its long-standing preference for unilateral action.
JARED BERNSTEIN
The Price of Risk huffingtonpost.com — Remember, "conservative" used to mean risk-averse. Now it means "risk be damned, I want my oil, my house, my risky financial instruments, and my government bailout when they fail." You can even see where they under-priced the risk of their war in Iraq, with that nonsense of how we'd be embraced as liberators.
JOSEPH STIGLITZ
Why You Want a Progressive Running the Economy alternet.org — Unlike the GOP, progressives have a coherent economic agenda offering not only higher growth, but also social justice.
BYRON WIEN
America's Decline Will Not Be Easily Reversed ft.com — The next president's biggest challenge will be to prevent America's slide into a position where it is dependent on foreign sources for both capital and energy. We have the human resources to accomplish these goals. The question is whether we have the will.
PAUL KRUGMANKnow Nothing Politics nytimes.com — I don't mean that GOP politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there's something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party's de facto slogan has become: "Real men don't think things through."
DAVID MOORE
Drilling for Oil washingtonmonthly.com — Most of the polls frame the issue as though it were a problem of "energy independence" or of dealing with the "rising cost of gasoline." But the energy problem is much more complicated.
MICHAEL T. KLAREThe New Geopolitics of Energy thenation.com — At a time when world supplies of oil, natural gas, uranium and key industrial minerals like copper and cobalt are beginning to shrink and the demand for them is exploding, the major industrial powers are becoming more desperate in their drive to gain control over what remains of the planet's untapped reserves. These efforts typically entail intense bidding wars for supplies on international markets. But they also take military form, as arms transfers and the deployment of overseas missions and bases. It is to bolster America's advantage — and to counter similar moves by China and other resource competitors — that the Pentagon has placed resource competition at the center of its strategic planning.
DEREK CHOLLET AND JAMES GOLDGEIER
Bush Rejects Bushism prospect.org — Over the past year, the Bush administration has moved left on foreign policy — negotiating with governments it previously shunned and abandoning its long-standing preference for unilateral action.
A Query on Two Secessions: Kosovo and South Ossetia, by David Beito
Gasoline as Money in Zimbabwe, by David Theroux
Olympic Games, by David Theroux
The Decline and Fall of Imprimis, by Peter Klein
August 9, 1945, a Date that Will Live in Infamy, by Robert Higgs on Aug 9, 2008
News Flash: Washington Is Corrupt!, by Robert Higgs
New Deals and American Fascism, by Anthony Gregory
Hurston and Paterson: Two Libertarians Against the Atomic Bomb, by David Beito
Radical Reform Is Needed in California, by Anthony Gregory
A Predecessor of George W. Bush's Contempt for the Constitution, by Robert Higgs
Army Recruiters Lie to and Threaten Teenagers with Jail, by Anthony Gregory
Gasoline as Money in Zimbabwe, by David Theroux
Olympic Games, by David Theroux
The Decline and Fall of Imprimis, by Peter Klein
August 9, 1945, a Date that Will Live in Infamy, by Robert Higgs on Aug 9, 2008
News Flash: Washington Is Corrupt!, by Robert Higgs
New Deals and American Fascism, by Anthony Gregory
Hurston and Paterson: Two Libertarians Against the Atomic Bomb, by David Beito
Radical Reform Is Needed in California, by Anthony Gregory
A Predecessor of George W. Bush's Contempt for the Constitution, by Robert Higgs
Army Recruiters Lie to and Threaten Teenagers with Jail, by Anthony Gregory
Next Administration and Congress Unlikely to Slow Federal Spending
Federal spending is large and getting larger, explains William F. Shughart II, Independent Institute Senior Fellow, in a new op-ed published in the Detroit Free Press. Not only is the federal government bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--in response to a crisis brought on partly by investors' expectations that the feds would bail them out if they got into trouble--but also Congress has agreed to raise the national debt ceiling by $800 billion.
The two leading presidential candidates are also proposing a variety of new programs: Barack Obama calls for significantly more spending to fix the nation's transportation infrastructure, for example, whereas John McCain calls for a taxpayer bailout of General Motors.
Industries are also renewing their efforts to obtain special protective favors. "Responding to concerns about the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, pharmaceutical companies have been lobbying Congress to grant greater regulatory powers to the Food and Drug Administration," writes Shughart. "For their part, U.S. food manufacturers want the federal government to exercise stricter controls over imports. Reacting to the recent salmonella outbreak thought to have been caused by contaminated tomatoes--or was it jalapeño peppers?--Florida has already imposed additional inspection requirements on tomato growers."
"Problems, and Government Interventions, Keep Growing," by William F. Shughart II (Detroit Free Press, 8/6/08)
Taxing Choice: The Political Economy of Fiscal Discrimination, edited by William F. Shughart II
The Real Bioterror Threat
Government scientist Bruce Ivins may or may not have caused the anthrax attacks that claimed five lives in the weeks after September 11, 2001. Ivins may have had motive and opportunity (and he threatened to kill his therapist), but this does not prove his guilt. What seems more certain is that Americans today are at greater risk of similar attacks due to the surge in government funding of biological weapons research since 9/11.
"In all, nationwide, 14,000 scientists can work on such lethal biological agents, many of which are researchers at non-governmental universities," writes Independent Institute Senior Fellow Ivan Eland, director of the Center on Peace & Liberty. "According to experts, security at such facilities is lax; the government merely requires them to have locked doors but no video surveillance. And government background checks of employees would not prevent a person who had homicidal tendencies or a sociopathic personality--allegedly exhibited by Ivins--from working in them."
Government funding may be a necessary condition to create lethal biological weapons: small terrorist groups have had limited ability to carry out biological weapons attacks. (The well-funded Japanese terrorist group Aum Shinrikyo hired Ph.D. scientists, but it couldn't pull off such an attack. Its chemical weapons attack on a Tokyo train took 12 lives. A successful bioterrorist attack could take many, many more.) Eland continues: "Thus, to combat a minimal bioterror threat from ragtag terrorist groups, the government has actually dramatically increased the probability of another bioattack from a trained scientist--whether because of malicious criminal intent, mental illness, or a desire to increase funding for his or her antidote or vaccine programs--who could competently carry out such an attack."
"The U.S. Government Is the Real Bioterror Threat," by Ivan Eland (8/8/08)
The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed (Updated Edition), by Ivan Eland
Center on Peace & Liberty (Ivan Eland, Director)
Raiding California's Earmarked Revenue Fund
Raiding California's Earmarked Revenue Fund
In 2006, California voters passed two propositions designed to earmark certain taxes for transportation spending. However, with a news-making budget impasse in Sacramento, state legislators--with apparent acquiescence from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger--plan to raid that fund of earmarked revenues, as Independent Institute Research Fellow Michael Reksulak explains in a recent op-ed.
"What nobody wants to admit in this clamor of financial chaos. . .are the facts," writes Reksulak. "Namely, everybody involved in this budgetary pileup is at fault due to additions to a seemingly endless list of yearly spending requests."
No matter how popular an idea the "earmarking" of certain tax revenues may be, those funds will inevitably be used by other purposes so long as politicians and voters push for more and more spending. "In that sense, the déjà vu proposal to raid funds that were supposed to be locked away may actually start a necessary, if unwelcome, rethinking of this dead-end approach to budgeting."
"Politicians, Voters Pillage Set-Aside Funds to Plug Budget Gaps," by Michael Reksulak (Los Angeles Business Journal, 8/4/08)
Taxing Choice: The Political Economy of Fiscal Discrimination, edited by William F. Shughart II
Bosnia Revisited
Bosnia and Herzegovina began the 20th century as a civilized, pluralist society, yet nearly a century later it collapsed into brutal tribalism. The recent capture of Rodavan Karadzic--the psychiatrist and poet who became president of Bosnia's breakaway Serbs--reminds us that peace and civility can be fleeting things.
"Although nationalism is an extended form of tribalism, its worst exponents are often a country's more cultivated people," writes Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute, in his latest column for the Washington Post Writers Group. "That Kardzic was an average psychiatrist and a mediocre poet does not detract from the fact that he was also well-read, that he had studied abroad (including a spell in the United States) and that his father had fought against Nazism and communism. He defended his conduct of the war, centered on ethnic cleansing, with elaborate sophistry."
Vargas Llosa, who visited Serbia during the conflict, argues that "all sides in the former Yugoslavia bear responsibility for the war." He also notes that of the two entities created in the aftermath of the conflict, the Republic of Serbia has been more far more successful than the other, the Republic of Croatia. Serbia's "market-friendly policies have turned it into a more prosperous society than the Muslim-Croat coalition, which is one huge welfare program supported and directed by the international community through a high representative who calls the shots at the federal level." Many businesses in Croatia have even voted with their feet by relocating to Serbia.
"Bosnia Revisited," by Alvaro Vargas Llosa (8/6/08) Spanish Translation
Center on Global Prosperity (Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Director)
Federal spending is large and getting larger, explains William F. Shughart II, Independent Institute Senior Fellow, in a new op-ed published in the Detroit Free Press. Not only is the federal government bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--in response to a crisis brought on partly by investors' expectations that the feds would bail them out if they got into trouble--but also Congress has agreed to raise the national debt ceiling by $800 billion.
The two leading presidential candidates are also proposing a variety of new programs: Barack Obama calls for significantly more spending to fix the nation's transportation infrastructure, for example, whereas John McCain calls for a taxpayer bailout of General Motors.
Industries are also renewing their efforts to obtain special protective favors. "Responding to concerns about the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, pharmaceutical companies have been lobbying Congress to grant greater regulatory powers to the Food and Drug Administration," writes Shughart. "For their part, U.S. food manufacturers want the federal government to exercise stricter controls over imports. Reacting to the recent salmonella outbreak thought to have been caused by contaminated tomatoes--or was it jalapeño peppers?--Florida has already imposed additional inspection requirements on tomato growers."
"Problems, and Government Interventions, Keep Growing," by William F. Shughart II (Detroit Free Press, 8/6/08)
Taxing Choice: The Political Economy of Fiscal Discrimination, edited by William F. Shughart II
The Real Bioterror Threat
Government scientist Bruce Ivins may or may not have caused the anthrax attacks that claimed five lives in the weeks after September 11, 2001. Ivins may have had motive and opportunity (and he threatened to kill his therapist), but this does not prove his guilt. What seems more certain is that Americans today are at greater risk of similar attacks due to the surge in government funding of biological weapons research since 9/11.
"In all, nationwide, 14,000 scientists can work on such lethal biological agents, many of which are researchers at non-governmental universities," writes Independent Institute Senior Fellow Ivan Eland, director of the Center on Peace & Liberty. "According to experts, security at such facilities is lax; the government merely requires them to have locked doors but no video surveillance. And government background checks of employees would not prevent a person who had homicidal tendencies or a sociopathic personality--allegedly exhibited by Ivins--from working in them."
Government funding may be a necessary condition to create lethal biological weapons: small terrorist groups have had limited ability to carry out biological weapons attacks. (The well-funded Japanese terrorist group Aum Shinrikyo hired Ph.D. scientists, but it couldn't pull off such an attack. Its chemical weapons attack on a Tokyo train took 12 lives. A successful bioterrorist attack could take many, many more.) Eland continues: "Thus, to combat a minimal bioterror threat from ragtag terrorist groups, the government has actually dramatically increased the probability of another bioattack from a trained scientist--whether because of malicious criminal intent, mental illness, or a desire to increase funding for his or her antidote or vaccine programs--who could competently carry out such an attack."
"The U.S. Government Is the Real Bioterror Threat," by Ivan Eland (8/8/08)
The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed (Updated Edition), by Ivan Eland
Center on Peace & Liberty (Ivan Eland, Director)
Raiding California's Earmarked Revenue Fund
Raiding California's Earmarked Revenue Fund
In 2006, California voters passed two propositions designed to earmark certain taxes for transportation spending. However, with a news-making budget impasse in Sacramento, state legislators--with apparent acquiescence from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger--plan to raid that fund of earmarked revenues, as Independent Institute Research Fellow Michael Reksulak explains in a recent op-ed.
"What nobody wants to admit in this clamor of financial chaos. . .are the facts," writes Reksulak. "Namely, everybody involved in this budgetary pileup is at fault due to additions to a seemingly endless list of yearly spending requests."
No matter how popular an idea the "earmarking" of certain tax revenues may be, those funds will inevitably be used by other purposes so long as politicians and voters push for more and more spending. "In that sense, the déjà vu proposal to raid funds that were supposed to be locked away may actually start a necessary, if unwelcome, rethinking of this dead-end approach to budgeting."
"Politicians, Voters Pillage Set-Aside Funds to Plug Budget Gaps," by Michael Reksulak (Los Angeles Business Journal, 8/4/08)
Taxing Choice: The Political Economy of Fiscal Discrimination, edited by William F. Shughart II
Bosnia Revisited
Bosnia and Herzegovina began the 20th century as a civilized, pluralist society, yet nearly a century later it collapsed into brutal tribalism. The recent capture of Rodavan Karadzic--the psychiatrist and poet who became president of Bosnia's breakaway Serbs--reminds us that peace and civility can be fleeting things.
"Although nationalism is an extended form of tribalism, its worst exponents are often a country's more cultivated people," writes Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute, in his latest column for the Washington Post Writers Group. "That Kardzic was an average psychiatrist and a mediocre poet does not detract from the fact that he was also well-read, that he had studied abroad (including a spell in the United States) and that his father had fought against Nazism and communism. He defended his conduct of the war, centered on ethnic cleansing, with elaborate sophistry."
Vargas Llosa, who visited Serbia during the conflict, argues that "all sides in the former Yugoslavia bear responsibility for the war." He also notes that of the two entities created in the aftermath of the conflict, the Republic of Serbia has been more far more successful than the other, the Republic of Croatia. Serbia's "market-friendly policies have turned it into a more prosperous society than the Muslim-Croat coalition, which is one huge welfare program supported and directed by the international community through a high representative who calls the shots at the federal level." Many businesses in Croatia have even voted with their feet by relocating to Serbia.
"Bosnia Revisited," by Alvaro Vargas Llosa (8/6/08) Spanish Translation
Center on Global Prosperity (Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Director)
Barack Obama, Legal Scholar
Ed Lasky
Barack Obama promises to accomplish quite a lot if he becomes our next President. Has he fulfilled his promise as a legal scholar? That's one of his most important claims to achievement. More
Georgia: The First Shot in a New Cold War
Lance Fairchok
The more things change, the more they stay the same. In a replay of classic Soviet interventions from the cold war, using the flimsiest of contrived pretexts, Russia came to the rescue of a supposedly beleaguered minority in South Ossetia,... More
Another Bipartisan Betrayal
Christopher Chantrill
It makes complete sense that a gang of five Republican United States Senators would form a cabal with five Democratic senators to betray the Republican base on energy. More
Ed Lasky
Barack Obama promises to accomplish quite a lot if he becomes our next President. Has he fulfilled his promise as a legal scholar? That's one of his most important claims to achievement. More
Georgia: The First Shot in a New Cold War
Lance Fairchok
The more things change, the more they stay the same. In a replay of classic Soviet interventions from the cold war, using the flimsiest of contrived pretexts, Russia came to the rescue of a supposedly beleaguered minority in South Ossetia,... More
Another Bipartisan Betrayal
Christopher Chantrill
It makes complete sense that a gang of five Republican United States Senators would form a cabal with five Democratic senators to betray the Republican base on energy. More
Move along -- nothign to see here
August 12, 2008
Last year Nancy Pelosi's bought stock in the IPO of T. Boone Picken's Clean Energy Fuels Corp., CLNE, This business is seeking billions in both federal and California funds. More
The Left sneers at suggestions for a strong response to Russia
August 11, 2008
If the left wants the right to stop drawing analogies to Munich during every crisis, perhaps they should start acting more like Churchill and less like Chamberlain. More
If the Edwards Scandal had broken before Iowa
August 11, 2008
How pretty would Obama be sitting now? More
What the Media Knows, and We Don't...Yet
August 11, 2008
The Edwards affair news drop, on the same Friday night as the Olympic opening ceremonies, seemed designed to prevent mass collateral damage, if not to Edwards, than to the greater Democratic Party. More
August 12, 2008
Last year Nancy Pelosi's bought stock in the IPO of T. Boone Picken's Clean Energy Fuels Corp., CLNE, This business is seeking billions in both federal and California funds. More
The Left sneers at suggestions for a strong response to Russia
August 11, 2008
If the left wants the right to stop drawing analogies to Munich during every crisis, perhaps they should start acting more like Churchill and less like Chamberlain. More
If the Edwards Scandal had broken before Iowa
August 11, 2008
How pretty would Obama be sitting now? More
What the Media Knows, and We Don't...Yet
August 11, 2008
The Edwards affair news drop, on the same Friday night as the Olympic opening ceremonies, seemed designed to prevent mass collateral damage, if not to Edwards, than to the greater Democratic Party. More
7 Worrisome signs for Obama'
August 11, 2008
Politico's Glen Thrush has written an excellent piece on Obama's "Summer Stall" in the polls More New technology and campaigning
August 11, 2008
The Obama campaign is using a clever but devious bit of technology to reveal his vice presidential pick. More
A Plea for Help from the Georgian President
August 11, 2008
This former US resident and pro-western leader who sent 2,000 troops to help out in Iraq (now home thanks to a US military airlift over the weekend) has penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal asking for help in his confrontation with Russia: More
NYT logic on Georgia war with Russia
August 11, 2008
Georgia helping US and Iraqis in Iraq helped cause Russian invasion of Georgia, according to the New York Times. More
August 11, 2008
Politico's Glen Thrush has written an excellent piece on Obama's "Summer Stall" in the polls More New technology and campaigning
August 11, 2008
The Obama campaign is using a clever but devious bit of technology to reveal his vice presidential pick. More
A Plea for Help from the Georgian President
August 11, 2008
This former US resident and pro-western leader who sent 2,000 troops to help out in Iraq (now home thanks to a US military airlift over the weekend) has penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal asking for help in his confrontation with Russia: More
NYT logic on Georgia war with Russia
August 11, 2008
Georgia helping US and Iraqis in Iraq helped cause Russian invasion of Georgia, according to the New York Times. More
NYT logic on Georgia war with Russia
August 11, 2008
Georgia helping US and Iraqis in Iraq helped cause Russian invasion of Georgia, according to the New York Times. More
Understanding the Caucasus
August 11, 2008
Two great sites to help us understand what is going on in the Caucasus More
Russians Continue drive into Georgia
August 11, 2008
Despite pleas for a cease fire from most of the world and Georgia herself, Russian troops have begun what it appears to be a drive to capture the vital rail and highway nexus in the towm of Gori More
August 11, 2008
Georgia helping US and Iraqis in Iraq helped cause Russian invasion of Georgia, according to the New York Times. More
Understanding the Caucasus
August 11, 2008
Two great sites to help us understand what is going on in the Caucasus More
Russians Continue drive into Georgia
August 11, 2008
Despite pleas for a cease fire from most of the world and Georgia herself, Russian troops have begun what it appears to be a drive to capture the vital rail and highway nexus in the towm of Gori More
The group blog of The American Prospect
Why did Russia invade Georgia?[/color]
Posted at 5:24 p.m.
A respectable liberal blog
Good government?
Posted at 4:12 p.m.
Dean Baker's economic commentary
[color="#800000"]Whining for Wall Street billionaires
Posted at 8:16 a.m.
Georgia Tries out the Bush War Doctrine, Loses Badly
By Gary Brecher, eXiled Online
ForeignPolicy: The president of tiny Georgia must have caught a case of his pal Bush's war lust to attack a Russian ally and think he'd win.
Top 10 Idiocies of the General Election ... So Far
Allan Uthman, Buffalo Beast
Election 2008: We've had some really dumb moments in Obama vs. McCain so far -- here are the worst.
Credit Card Debt: This Popping Bubble Is Really Going to HurtDanny Schechter, AlterNet
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: While everyone's watching the housing meltdown, few are paying attention to the next bubble expected to burst: credit cards
Why We Should Stop Demonizing John Edwards
Michael Bader, AlterNet
Sex and Relationships: If the public wants to get to the bottom of Edwards' affair we have to drop the moral platitudes and look at what led him to it.
If I Were a Betting Man, I'd Wager that Cheney Was Behind the Anthrax AttacksMark Karlin, BuzzFlash
You'd have to be a terribly cautious and willfully blind person not to think that the Bush Admin was capable of orchestrating the anthrax attacks.
Influential Pastor Preaches Anti-Semitism to His FlockCasey Sanchez, Intelligence Report
Rights and Liberties: Identifying an evil race he calls the "Kenites" as the killers of Christ, televangelist Arnold Murray denies he is an anti-Semite. Others disagree.
he Wrecking Crew: Thomas Frank on How Conservatives Rule
Post by Brave New Films
Video: Fantastic misgovernment is not an accident. More »
- Dennis Prager : Why I Am Not a Liberal
- Amanda Carpenter : GOP Convention Themes Announced
- John McCaslin : Book the Monkey
- Chuck Norris : An Affair to Remember
- Bill Murchison : The Georgia Crisis: Does Obama 'Get' It?
- Paul Weyrich : The Politics of the Olympics
- George Will : What Is It About August?
- Patrick J. Buchanan : A Catholic Case Against Barack
- David Limbaugh : The 'Making Abortion Rare' Hoax
- Debra J. Saunders : The Not-So-Pretty Boy
- Chuck Colson : Thirty-Five Years in the Light
- Thomas Sowell : The Galbraith Effect
- Amanda Carpenter : Obama Lied About Abortion Record
- William Rusher : America's First Black President?
- Cal Thomas : 'Mamma Mia' Without the Music
- Mike S. Adams : Whistling Dixon
- Rich Lowry : Putin Bares His Soul
- Debra J. Saunders : The Not-So-Pretty Boy
- Phyllis Schlafly : Who Will Protect Us Against Invasion?
- Roger Schlesinger : The Credit Crisis: How Some People Won
- Ashley Herzog : College Classes for Conservatives to Avoid
- David Strom : Idiot Economics
- Terry Coxon : The Horrible Housing Bill
- John Andrews : Left Sees Colorado as National Model
Moscow's Sinister Brilliance - Victor Davis Hanson, National Review Online
A Path to Peace in the Caucasus - Mikhail Gorbachev, Washington Post
Russia's Power Play: Reality Intrudes - George Will, Houston Chronicle
Conflict Offers Glimpse at New World Order - Gerald Seib, Wall St. Journal
Russia is Back as a Grand Adversary - Robert Kaplan, The Atlantic
McCain Not 'Ready to Lead' on Nat'l Security - Arianna Huffington, HuffPo
Following McCain's Lead on Russia, Iraq - Rich Lowry, New York Post
Hillary Clinton: The Front-Runner's Fall - Joshua Green, The Atlantic
Bayh Offers Risks, Rewards for Obama - Carl Hulse, New York Times
A Catholic Case Against Obama - Pat Buchanan, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
John McCain is a Pro-Life Zealot - Sarah Blustain, The New Republic
Obama and the Galbraith Effect - Thomas Sowell, RealClearPolitics
Uneasy Voters: The Changing Exurbs - Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times
How McCain Would Govern - John Fortier, The Politico
What to Make of Oil's Weakness - John Tamny, RealClearMarkets
The Long, Hard Slog Against the Taliban - HDS Greenway, Boston Globe
The War in Iraq Is Over. What Next? - Bing West, Wall Street Journal
RCP Blog: Morning Report / Politics Nation: DNC Narrows the Field
VP Watch: Looking at Evan Bayh | Experience is Everything?
Editorials
Russia's War of Ambition - New York Times
History Comes in from the Cold - The Australian
McCain Out Front - New York Sun
Hillary's Psychological Bloc - Los Angeles Times
Political News & Analysis
War Puts Focus on McCain's Hard Line - New York Times
Enthusiasm Gap Plagues Upcoming RNC - The Politico
A Glimpse of Obama's Age Problem - Washington Post
Voter Registration is the New Battleground - Wall Street Journal
A Path to Peace in the Caucasus - Mikhail Gorbachev, Washington Post
Russia's Power Play: Reality Intrudes - George Will, Houston Chronicle
Conflict Offers Glimpse at New World Order - Gerald Seib, Wall St. Journal
Russia is Back as a Grand Adversary - Robert Kaplan, The Atlantic
McCain Not 'Ready to Lead' on Nat'l Security - Arianna Huffington, HuffPo
Following McCain's Lead on Russia, Iraq - Rich Lowry, New York Post
Hillary Clinton: The Front-Runner's Fall - Joshua Green, The Atlantic
Bayh Offers Risks, Rewards for Obama - Carl Hulse, New York Times
A Catholic Case Against Obama - Pat Buchanan, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
John McCain is a Pro-Life Zealot - Sarah Blustain, The New Republic
Obama and the Galbraith Effect - Thomas Sowell, RealClearPolitics
Uneasy Voters: The Changing Exurbs - Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times
How McCain Would Govern - John Fortier, The Politico
What to Make of Oil's Weakness - John Tamny, RealClearMarkets
The Long, Hard Slog Against the Taliban - HDS Greenway, Boston Globe
The War in Iraq Is Over. What Next? - Bing West, Wall Street Journal
RCP Blog: Morning Report / Politics Nation: DNC Narrows the Field
VP Watch: Looking at Evan Bayh | Experience is Everything?
Editorials
Russia's War of Ambition - New York Times
History Comes in from the Cold - The Australian
McCain Out Front - New York Sun
Hillary's Psychological Bloc - Los Angeles Times
Political News & Analysis
War Puts Focus on McCain's Hard Line - New York Times
Enthusiasm Gap Plagues Upcoming RNC - The Politico
A Glimpse of Obama's Age Problem - Washington Post
Voter Registration is the New Battleground - Wall Street Journal
Making A Wave When You Can ourfuture.org — Over the weekend, I found myself listening to the theme song from the 1970s TV show "Good Times." I've probably heard the song a hundred times since the show first aired in 1974. But this time, I was struck by the parallels to today?s reality for so many Americans.
TULA CONNELL
Chamber of Commerce Staff Gets Drunk, Blames Workers ourfuture.org — They may be party animals when chugging $8,204 worth of booze but, after the hangover is over, the staff at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce goes back to being their ugly anti-worker selves.
TOM SULLIVAN
"Don't Get Me Started On Consultants" ourfuture.org — The trajectory of nascent political campaigns is not unlike that of indie rock bands once they get popular enough to attract the attentions of recording industry slicks. The price the big boys extract for their financial backing is creative control over the music. Caution sets in. Experimentation is out. Fans complain they sold out. Sound familiar?
DANNY SCHECTER
Credit Card Debt: The Next Bubble to Pop alternet.org — While everyone's watching the housing meltdown, few are paying attention to the next bubble expected to burst: credit cards.
MAGGIE MAHAR
The Fictions of a Free Market tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — Whenever anyone, liberal or conservative, talks about the importance of "choice" in a free market — and how Americans like to be able to "choose" from a menu — beware. This is especially true if they are talking about something important, such as health care or education.
CHRYSTIA FREELAND
The New Age of Authoritarianism ft.com — In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, democracy was on the march and we declared the End of History. Nearly two decades later, a neo-imperialist Russia is at war with Georgia, Communist China is proudly hosting the Olympics, and we find that, instead, we have entered the Age of Authoritarianism.
GARY BRECHER
The Bush War Doctrine Bombs, Again exiledonline.com — The president of tiny Georgia must have caught a case of his pal Bush's war lust to attack a Russian ally and think he'd win.
WILLIAM O. BEEMAN
Chickens Come Home to Roost in Georgia news.newamericamedia.org — No one should be surprised that U.S. interference in the Caucasus has led to the Russian invasion of South Ossetia. By mixing into the volatile politics of the Caucasus, and trying to recruit the governments there to become American "plumbers" for a variety of purposes, the United States has only drawn Russian fire.
SALLY KOHN
The Irony of Immigrant Olympians communitychange.org — Americans aren't known for their rational views on immigration. So it's no wonder we attack low-wage workers while celebrating immigrant athletes.
TULA CONNELL
Chamber of Commerce Staff Gets Drunk, Blames Workers ourfuture.org — They may be party animals when chugging $8,204 worth of booze but, after the hangover is over, the staff at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce goes back to being their ugly anti-worker selves.
TOM SULLIVAN
"Don't Get Me Started On Consultants" ourfuture.org — The trajectory of nascent political campaigns is not unlike that of indie rock bands once they get popular enough to attract the attentions of recording industry slicks. The price the big boys extract for their financial backing is creative control over the music. Caution sets in. Experimentation is out. Fans complain they sold out. Sound familiar?
DANNY SCHECTER
Credit Card Debt: The Next Bubble to Pop alternet.org — While everyone's watching the housing meltdown, few are paying attention to the next bubble expected to burst: credit cards.
MAGGIE MAHAR
The Fictions of a Free Market tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — Whenever anyone, liberal or conservative, talks about the importance of "choice" in a free market — and how Americans like to be able to "choose" from a menu — beware. This is especially true if they are talking about something important, such as health care or education.
CHRYSTIA FREELAND
The New Age of Authoritarianism ft.com — In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, democracy was on the march and we declared the End of History. Nearly two decades later, a neo-imperialist Russia is at war with Georgia, Communist China is proudly hosting the Olympics, and we find that, instead, we have entered the Age of Authoritarianism.
GARY BRECHER
The Bush War Doctrine Bombs, Again exiledonline.com — The president of tiny Georgia must have caught a case of his pal Bush's war lust to attack a Russian ally and think he'd win.
WILLIAM O. BEEMAN
Chickens Come Home to Roost in Georgia news.newamericamedia.org — No one should be surprised that U.S. interference in the Caucasus has led to the Russian invasion of South Ossetia. By mixing into the volatile politics of the Caucasus, and trying to recruit the governments there to become American "plumbers" for a variety of purposes, the United States has only drawn Russian fire.
SALLY KOHN
The Irony of Immigrant Olympians communitychange.org — Americans aren't known for their rational views on immigration. So it's no wonder we attack low-wage workers while celebrating immigrant athletes.
Russian Nationalism on the March - Alvaro Vargas Llosa, RealClearPolitics
Russia's Response to Georgia Was Right - Sergei Lavrov, Financial Times
Strutting Russia is Heading for a Fall - Richard Beeston, Times of London
Russo-Georgian War & Balance of Power - George Friedman, RealClearWorld
The Dems' Problem with White, Male Voters - David Kuhn, Boston Globe
Clinton Declined, but McCain Won't - Mark Davis, Dallas Morning News
Election Must Be a Referendum on Republican Rule - Thomas Frank, WSJ
Here Come the Clintons - Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News
Hillary Plans Her Convention - Maureen Dowd, New York Times
The Questions That Hang Over Obama - Irwin Stelzer, Daily Telegraph
How Obama Can Erase the Race Factor - Peter Beinart, Washington Post
For Race Scholars, An Obama Dilemma - Jonathan Tilove, Newhouse News
McCain & Lieberman: Perfect Together - D. Morris & E. McGann, Fox News
The Dramatic Effect of a Firm Nudge - Sunstein and Thaler, Financial Times
Foreign Oil Is Here to Stay - Robert Samuelson, Newsweek
Russia's Strike: Power of the Pipeline - Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post
Vlad, You've Got Mail - Kathleen Parker, RealClearPolitics
State Polls: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina
Russia's Response to Georgia Was Right - Sergei Lavrov, Financial Times
Strutting Russia is Heading for a Fall - Richard Beeston, Times of London
Russo-Georgian War & Balance of Power - George Friedman, RealClearWorld
The Dems' Problem with White, Male Voters - David Kuhn, Boston Globe
Clinton Declined, but McCain Won't - Mark Davis, Dallas Morning News
Election Must Be a Referendum on Republican Rule - Thomas Frank, WSJ
Here Come the Clintons - Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News
Hillary Plans Her Convention - Maureen Dowd, New York Times
The Questions That Hang Over Obama - Irwin Stelzer, Daily Telegraph
How Obama Can Erase the Race Factor - Peter Beinart, Washington Post
For Race Scholars, An Obama Dilemma - Jonathan Tilove, Newhouse News
McCain & Lieberman: Perfect Together - D. Morris & E. McGann, Fox News
The Dramatic Effect of a Firm Nudge - Sunstein and Thaler, Financial Times
Foreign Oil Is Here to Stay - Robert Samuelson, Newsweek
Russia's Strike: Power of the Pipeline - Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post
Vlad, You've Got Mail - Kathleen Parker, RealClearPolitics
State Polls: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina
Editorials
Refresh Georgia's 'Rose Revolution' - Christian Science Monitor
Olympic Trickery - Financial Times
Candidates Offer Few Nuclear Energy Specifics - Dallas Morning News
How Democrats Got Bulldozed on Energy - The New Republic
Political News & Analysis
Russia-Georgia War Sharpens Voters Doubts - McClatchy
Sportsmen Back McCain, But By Little - The Politico
Book on Obama Hopes to Repeat Anti-Kerry Feat - New York Times
Republican Trio Backs Obama - Wall Street Journal
Transcripts & Speeches
Interview with John McCain - Special Report w/Brit Hume
Russian Ambassador Discusses Fight with Georgia - The NewsHour
Howard Wolfson on Democratic Party Divisions - Hannity & Colmes
President Bush's Statement on Georgia - George W. Bush
Obama's Statement on Georgia - Barack Obama
Best of the Blogs
John Edwards: Dud of the Democratic Party - Michael Barone, Barone Blog
Those Lovable Neocons - Kevin Drum, Political Animal
Ridicule Might Backfire on McCain - Rick Moran, Right Wing Nut House
Making McCain's Case for Him - Taylor Marsh
Andrew and the Neocon Right - Reihan Salam, American Scene
The Great Corporate Tax Heist
Robert L. Borosage, Huffington Post
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Want to learn how to make $50 million and not pay taxes? More than a quarter of large U.S. corporations do it every year.
Where's Al Gore When We Need Him?Brent Budowsky, Consortium News
Environment: McCain is an environmental sellout. So why isn't Gore challenging him visibly, aggressively and clearly?
Unfit for Publication: Swiftboater Book 'The Obama Nation' Filled with FalsehoodsMatthew Gertz, Eric H. Hananoki, Media Matters for America
Media and Technology: A review finds that Jerome Corsi's new book contains numerous falsehoods about Sen. Barack Obama.
McCain Is Absent on America's Energy Crisis, Misses Eight Key VotesThomas L. Friedman, The New York Times
Election 2008: In the last year, McCain has been a no show for every vote on a crucial piece of renewable energy legislation.
How the Democrats Can Blow It ... in Six Easy Steps
Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com
Election 2008: A blueprint for losing the most winnable presidential election in American history.
Overhyping Georgia
Matthew Yglesias
August 13, 2008 | web only
The short war between Russia and Georgia provoked overheated rhetoric in the United States from politicians and political commentators alike.
But having frittered away the past seven years on a foreign policy driven by hubris, the United States can ill-afford to misplace its priorities.
Matthew Yglesias
August 13, 2008 | web only
The short war between Russia and Georgia provoked overheated rhetoric in the United States from politicians and political commentators alike.
But having frittered away the past seven years on a foreign policy driven by hubris, the United States can ill-afford to misplace its priorities.
The group blog of The American Prospect
The Dems' new abortion plank[/color]
Posted at 5:01 p.m.
A respectable liberal blog
Unyielding positions
Posted at 4:14 p.m.
Dean Baker's economic commentary
[color="#800000"]The stock bubble
Posted at 6:43 a.m.
Obama's Alinsky Hoodwink is Coming Home to Roost
Kyle-Anne Shiver
Winning a national Presidential election is not at all the same thing as organizing a group of citizens to agitate for more government interventions and taxpayer money. More
Obama's Foreign Donors: The media averts its eyes
Pamela Geller
I have been researching, documenting and studying thousands upon thousands of Obama's campaign donations for the past month. Egregious abuse was immediately evident. More
South Ossetia: The perfect wrong war
Walid Phares
The confrontations taking place today in the Caucasus were triggered strategically in the Balkans few months before. We were warned. More
Kyle-Anne Shiver
Winning a national Presidential election is not at all the same thing as organizing a group of citizens to agitate for more government interventions and taxpayer money. More
Obama's Foreign Donors: The media averts its eyes
Pamela Geller
I have been researching, documenting and studying thousands upon thousands of Obama's campaign donations for the past month. Egregious abuse was immediately evident. More
South Ossetia: The perfect wrong war
Walid Phares
The confrontations taking place today in the Caucasus were triggered strategically in the Balkans few months before. We were warned. More
Sneak Preview of Obama's Next Flip Flop
August 13, 2008
Will Obama's next flip flop be on affirmative action? More
Massive Cheating by China at the Olympics
August 13, 2008
And you expected what? More
Obama on 527's: Do as I say, not as I do
August 13, 2008
Obama will pull a Pontius Pilate and wash his hands of involvement in his campaign of 527's. More
August 13, 2008
Will Obama's next flip flop be on affirmative action? More
Massive Cheating by China at the Olympics
August 13, 2008
And you expected what? More
Obama on 527's: Do as I say, not as I do
August 13, 2008
Obama will pull a Pontius Pilate and wash his hands of involvement in his campaign of 527's. More
Russia complains of media bias
August 13, 2008
Russia is complaining that its invasion of Georgia is being unfairly portrayed in the news media More
New York Times financial squeeze intensifies
August 13, 2008
Important Wall Street voices want the struggling company to cut the dividend received by wealthy members of the Sulzberger clan. But so far, the company's financial pain has not affected the royalty, only the peasants. More
The DNC to feature 'Wright in a Dress'
August 13, 2008
Barack Obama may have thrown his pastor Jeremiah Wright under the bus, but he will embrace Leah Daughtry, Wright's female liberation theology doppelganger, at the Democratic National convention. More
August 13, 2008
Russia is complaining that its invasion of Georgia is being unfairly portrayed in the news media More
New York Times financial squeeze intensifies
August 13, 2008
Important Wall Street voices want the struggling company to cut the dividend received by wealthy members of the Sulzberger clan. But so far, the company's financial pain has not affected the royalty, only the peasants. More
The DNC to feature 'Wright in a Dress'
August 13, 2008
Barack Obama may have thrown his pastor Jeremiah Wright under the bus, but he will embrace Leah Daughtry, Wright's female liberation theology doppelganger, at the Democratic National convention. More
First Secretary of Celebrity (a poem)
August 13, 2008
Hey there's little Georgie boy,/ Barack's new pretty campaign toy. More
New York Times all but blames America for Georgia-Russia war
August 13, 2008
This is pretty incredible - even for the New York Times. More
Al-Qaeda making itself at home in Pakistan
August 13, 2008
According to the senior American terrorism analyst, al-Qaeda has fully rebuilt its safe haven in the tribal areas of Pakistan and has recruited "dozens" of western looking operatives to strike inside the United States. More
August 13, 2008
Hey there's little Georgie boy,/ Barack's new pretty campaign toy. More
New York Times all but blames America for Georgia-Russia war
August 13, 2008
This is pretty incredible - even for the New York Times. More
Al-Qaeda making itself at home in Pakistan
August 13, 2008
According to the senior American terrorism analyst, al-Qaeda has fully rebuilt its safe haven in the tribal areas of Pakistan and has recruited "dozens" of western looking operatives to strike inside the United States. More
The battle within the Democratic Party
August 13, 2008
What we are witnessing this year is the climactic and final battle for control of the Democratic Party. It started in 1940 with the nomination of Henry Wallace as FDR's VP More
Jeremiah Wright's Book Set to Hit Shelves in October (updated)
August 13, 2008
Right at the end of New York magazine's cover story on Obama and race, a bit of news I hadn't yet heard More
Richard Baehr on the Rick Moran Show tonight
August 12, 2008
AT chief political correspondent Richard Baehr joins Rick Moran on his eponymous radio show on BlogTalkRadio tonight. More
August 13, 2008
What we are witnessing this year is the climactic and final battle for control of the Democratic Party. It started in 1940 with the nomination of Henry Wallace as FDR's VP More
Jeremiah Wright's Book Set to Hit Shelves in October (updated)
August 13, 2008
Right at the end of New York magazine's cover story on Obama and race, a bit of news I hadn't yet heard More
Richard Baehr on the Rick Moran Show tonight
August 12, 2008
AT chief political correspondent Richard Baehr joins Rick Moran on his eponymous radio show on BlogTalkRadio tonight. More