News at Home

The Price of Passionless Conventions

by Ron Briley

Young people today often complain that politics are boring and do not matter. The age group between eighteen and twenty-four has the lowest participation rate for any voting age bloc. It is easy to blame this sad state of affairs upon the youth for a lack of interest in the democratic process. But on the eve of the national Democratic and Republican conventions, the blame for political apathy should be placed upon the professional politicians where it belongs. There was a

Bush Has Threatened to Use the Veto 40 Times, but Never Has--What's Up?

by Nicolas Heidorn

In a matter of months, George Walker Bush, 43rd President of the United States, could go down in history as the first full-term president in 175 years not to have exercised his constitutional veto power.That’s quite a feat considering his father, Bush Sr., vetoed 44 bills in his one term in office. His successor, Bill Clinton, vetoed 37 bills in his eight years—a little under par for recent presidents: Reagan vetoed 78, Carter 31, Ford 66, and Nixon vetoed 43 bills before b

Are Political Conventions Obsolete?

by Robert "KC" Johnson

A few weeks ago, John Kerry considered delaying acceptance of the presidential nomination until after the Democratic convention. The Massachusetts senator ultimately rejected the idea, but his even considering it raised yet again the question of what role political conventions serve. Conventions once were the high point of drama in the political world. The Democratic convention of 1960 opened with the nominee's identity uncertain; at previous conventions, delegates, voting the

Why Americans Believe Only American Deaths Count in Iraq

by Robert R. Goldberg

Nationalism can be a vicious disease, and an infectious one, too. It can take all sorts of forms, and its most destructive strains can surely sneak up on any country. Just think of the tens of thousands of German Jews--German nationals--who refused to believe what was happening, even after Kristallnacht and the ghettos, until the trains arrived at Dachau. We know well from this past century what sentiments intense nationalist fervor can ignite among a country's people, but we

What Glenda Gilmore Really Said

by Glenda Gilmore

HNN INDEX: Are Historians Biased? The following is the text of my remarks to the Yale Peace Coalition meeting on April 9, 2003. I invite you to compare it to the story written by two Yale freshmen and published in

How the Democrats Lost Kansas

by Thomas Frank

That our politics have been shifting rightward for more than thirty years is a generally acknowledged fact of American life. That this rightward movement has largely been accomplished by working-class voters whose lives have been materially worsened by the conservative policies they have supported is a less comfortable fact, one we have trouble talking about in a straightforward manner. And yet the backlash is there, whenever we care to look, from the"hardhats" of the 1960s to the"Reag

Does Kerry Need to Wear His Religion on His Sleeve to Get Elected?

by Rick Perlstein

A herd of independent minds has come forth in recent months with a theory. On the Op-Ed pages of newspapers, pixelated across the blogosphere and in prestigious political journals, pundits have decreed that John F. Kerry will lose unless he joins mainstream America and gets more religious. It's not so surprising that Republicans, like the New York Times's David Brooks, are raising the holy cry, but lately, liberal Democrats have joined the choir too. They're all wrong.

Wal-Mart and the Bush/Cheney Campaign Are Working from the Same Play Book

by Jonathan Rees

The New York Times recently reported on events at the podium during the annual meeting of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.: "How many of you have heard something negative about a Wal-Mart job?" one executive, Susan Oliver, asked the crowd. When their hands sailed into the air, she responded: "It hurts to hear it, doesn't it?" She urge

The Easy Way to Avoid Power Blackouts this Summer

by Hal Hellman

Summer's heat brings with it, as it did last year, the threat of massive power outages. Everyone who's suffered through them knows the disruptions they cause. But blackouts are also on the minds of operators of power plants and electricity distribution networks as they get ready for peak demand. Lots of things can cause blackouts -- transformer failures, severe weather, human error and, of course, terrorism. But the power reliability story hinges on economic and t

The Unintended Consequences of an Amendment to Ban Gay Marriage

by David E. Kyvig

Current vocal advocates of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage ought to consider the old Chinese adage, "Be careful what you wish for, because you may get it." A gay marriage amendment, if adopted, could produce unintended and fateful consequences for the U.S. Constitution. Some of the possible results are certain to prove distasteful to the proposal's supporters, not to mention damaging to confidence in our constitutional system.

Arabs in American History

by Juan Cole

The capture of Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, a Lebanese-American Marine, underlines the service given to the United States by Arab Americans and Muslim Americans. In the wake of September 11, it is especially important that the U.S. public constantly be reminded that Arab Americans are not aliens but a longstanding and essential thread in the great American tapestry. Lebanese began coming to the US in some numbers in the 1880s. That wave of immigration, which was greatly reduced from 1924, also

Why Blacks Used to Celebrate July 5th

by William Loren Katz

This Independence Day falls on July fifth, and if the significance of that date were better known, it would trigger a strong reaction in the United States, particularly among people of color. During the long night of slavery in the United States, free African Americans in the North discussed how to respond to a holiday that celebrated the independence of a country that held millions of their loved ones in chains. They came up with many creative solutions, some based on changing world events

The Downside of Downsizing

by Bob Batchelor

Have pity on “Ol’ Lonely,” he just got a whole lot lonelier. The star of countless television commercials -- known better as the Maytag repairman -- stands watch over a company that just announced that it is slashing 1,100 jobs, or about 20 percent of its workforce. According to company reports, Maytag hopes to speed decision-making and save costs by restructuring, typical corporate-speak under such circumstances. Maytag isn’t alone in using mass layoffs as an e

Using Hitler to Score Points in Campaign 2004

From Newsweek (June 25, 2004): On Friday, Democrats and Republicans went to war over a new Bush reelection campaign ad that uses images of Adolph Hitler in bashing Democrat John Kerry. The Web video, e-mailed to 6 million Bush supporters Thursday evening, splices together clips of Al Gore, Howard Dean, Rep. Dick Gephardt, film director Michael Moore and Kerry. On two occasions in the 87-second-long “Webme

Why You Should Be Scared to Death of Electronic Voting

by Robert E. Mutch

Imagine what opportunities nineteenth-century politicos like Matt Quay would see in the recent trend toward paying private companies to count the votes in our elections. It might take the old Pennsylvania Republican boss a while to understand innovations like electronic voting and computerized voter lists. But he’d soon see how the new trends could give him high-tech versions of the low-tech practices he knew so well.As the GOP’s national chairman during the 1888 presidenti

What Mario Cuomo Thinks Lincoln Would Do

by Jason Emerson

Abraham Lincoln never would condone President George W. Bush's arrogant and unilateral foreign policy, as well as his misguided, exclusionary and destructive domestic policy, according to the former governor of New York State. Bush must reverse his current course and instead follow in Lincoln's footsteps; only then will America re-discover its inherent greatness, he argues. "Lincoln never would have gone to war in Iraq under these circumstances," said Democrat Mario Cuomo. "He

About the Ties Between Saddam and Osama

by White House Website, NYT, TalkingPointsMemo.com

The White HouseThe following news brief was sent out by the White House on June 18, 2004. 9/11 Commission Report Confirms Administration's Views of al-Qaeda/Iraq TiesA 9/11 Commission staff report supports the Bush Adminis

Did Bush Decide to Talk to Outside Counsel Because He's in Legal Hot Water over the Plame Leak?

by John W. Dean

Recently, the White House acknowledged that President Bush is talking with, and considering hiring, a non-government attorney, James E. Sharp. Sharp is being consulted, and may be retained, regarding the current grand jury investigation of the leak revealing the identity of Valerie Plame as a CIA covert operative. (Plame is the wife of Bush critic and former ambassador Joe Wilson.)This action by Bush is a rather stunning and extraordinary development. The president of the United State

So President Bush Thinks This is WW II and He's FDR?

by Phillip Payne

On Sunday, June 6, President George W. Bush spoke in Normandy to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day and the beginning of the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany during the Second World War. In the buildup to this event President Bush gave speeches evoking the Good War, inviting comparisons between himself and another war president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The War on Terrorism has only increased FDR’s relevancy but also demonstrated the selective use of history that comes w

Did President Bush Forget About Jesus Day?

by Matthew Dennis

"During Christmas, we gather with family and friends to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ."--President Bush, Christmas Message, Dec. 2002. On Saturday May 29, 2004, during Memorial Day weekend, President George W. Bush appeared on the Mall in Washington, D.C. to officially dedicate the new World War II Memorial. This grand occasion eclipsed another, which Bush has held dear: Jesus Day