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A New Deal for New York

by Mike Wallace

In the year since September 11th, I've often been asked whether-as a historian-I believe the Twin Towers attack marks the end of an era, and that New York will be utterly transformed in its aftermath. My response is twofold. No, because a city four hundred years old and eight million strong is a social-historical organism with a fantastic amount of momentum; it cannot so easily be deflected from its path, even by such a horrific event. We ourselves

HNN Poll: Did It Change Us?

by HNN Staff

Charles Krauthammer, writing in the Weekly Standard, argues that 9-11 did not change us. (Excerpt below.) Do you agree? Please take a moment to answer our poll question. Then--and this is more important--join in the discussion below. We want your views as well as your vote. Just click here to post a comment.

Civil Liberties: What's Wrong with the TIPS Program? A WW I Horror Story Ripped from the History Books

by Joan Jensen

In March 1917, with the United States on the brink of war with Germany, the administration of President Woodrow Wilson decided it needed help to secure the country internally from German saboteurs and spies. During a period of neutrality, from August 1914, when the European war began, to April 1917, when the United States formally entered what later became known as World War I, the Wilson administration had struggled with the question of internal security. It was especially concerned w

Even Presidents Who Consult Congress Can Get into Trouble

by Richard Filipink

Over the past several weeks, the Bush administration has indicated its intention to intervene in Iraq to oust the regime of Saddam Hussein. These indications have been met with calls from leaders in both parties to seek prior approval for action, or at least to consult with Congress before acting. Unfortunately, there are no consistent lessons or precedents to indicate whether such consultation would enhance the likelihood of success, nor is there agreement on whether suc

Is Bush Out to Get a Labor Union?

by Michael Honey

Nothing is more fundamental to America's conception of itself than the freedom of speech and assembly. Unions, declared illegal in the early years of the republic, have fought for those rights for three centuries. But unionists have still not entirely won the most basic right: to organize at the workplace and to protest bad conditions by refusing to work. Ever since President Reagan terminated 11,000 striking air traffic controllers, existing unions have been under attack and wor

Civil Liberties: Is History Going to Approve of Military Trials for Civilians?

by Tom Turner

"The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism, but the theory of necessity on whi

Debate: Should We Go to War with Iraq?

by Richard Pipes, Michael Ledeen, Vladimir Bukovsky, Fred Barnes and Jamie Glazov

Following is a debate recently held by David Horowitz's frontpagemag.com. The moderator is FrontPage Magazine’s associate editor, Jamie Glazov. Question #1: Gentlemen, should we go to war against Iraq? Pipes: I strongly believe that we should go to war against Iraq, the sooner the better. Saddam is unquestionably building weapons of mass destruction — at what pace, we do not know but we must as

The Rogue Elephant

by Francis A. Boyle

Machiavelli ReduxWhen George Bush, Jr. came to power in January of 2001, he proceeded to implement foreign affairs and defense policies that were every bit as radical, extreme and excessive as the Reagan/Bush administrations had starting in January of 1981. To be sure, Bush Jr. had no popular mandate to do anything. Indeed, a majority of the American electorate had voted for his corporate-cloned opponent.Upon his installation, Bush Jr.'s" compassionate conservatism"

Where's the Debate?

by Stanley Kutler

For more than 30 years, we have debated the meaning, lessons and significance of the Vietnam War. The chords of memory still resonate: the arrogance of power; the world's policeman; the dangers of nation-building.Can those lessons help in understanding our current situation? Or will they be relegated to an ash can of history by a Bush administration bent on erasing such issues from public consciousness or awareness?Tom DeLay, the president's leader in the Hous

The Scary Relevance of William Randolph Hearst's "Gabriel Over the White House"

by Deborah Carmichael

After the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush quickly declared"war on terrorism," as news writers and historians searched for comparisons to these events in the national past. On this website Thomas Spencer looked to the Alien and Sedition Acts during the"Quasi War" with France in the 1790s to locate an historical connection. Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria looked further, drawing parallels with Abraham Lincoln's execut

Column: Donald "Gracie Allen" Rumsfeld

by P.M. Carpenter

Damn the torpedoes, Scuds, biological and chemical weapons, runaway budgets, monstrous deficits, spiraling energy costs, precarious markets, exasperated allies, and heaven knows how many truncated lives. Full speed ahead. W and Dick want one man's head on a stick, so they're content to wish away any unpleasantness around the edges. The allure of completing Papa B's Iraq-invasion vision is just too tas

Our Federal Government: Still for Sale

by Andrew M. Schocket

There's bad news and worse news about American politics. The bad news is that Congress and the president are selling out the federal government to corporate bigwigs. The worse news is that the sale may last a long time. Once upon a time, corporate executives bought politicians by stuffing their pockets with cash, land or corporate stock. Such bribery was widespread in the late nineteenth century. More recently, few members of Congress have been caught taking bribes. Before Rep. James Traf

Presidency: Shouldn't Somebody Tell George W. to Stop Acting Like Nixon?

by John W. Dean

President Richard Nixon didn't like Congress asking him a lot of questions about how he was performing as the head of the Executive Branch. In fact, Congressional oversight annoyed the hell out of him. Accordingly, he was dead set against his aides testifying on Capitol Hill. Today, the world knows why. It's called abuse of power. For that reason alone, it is remarkable that the Bush White House regularly employs Nixonian tactics - even, most recently, on an issue as important as

How Should We Clean Up the Mess on Wall Street?

by Norman Markowitz

In the heyday of the Robber Barons in the 1870s Cornelius Vanderbilt bluntly asked a critic," do I care about the law? Aint I got the power?" A decade later, his son, William K. Vanderbilt shouted back those who comdemned his activities as against the public interest,"The public be damned." Although they now consult both public relations advisors and attorneys before issuing statements, the CEOs at our transnational firms like of Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossings in our"deregulated"ec

Presidency: W ... You're No TR

by Andrew Heinze

A highlight of the 1988 presidential campaign that brought George Bush Senior to the White House was the moment in the televised debates when Lloyd Bentsen turned to Dan Quayle and said, “You are no Jack Kennedy.”A couple of weeks ago, at George Bush Jr.’s press conference about the latest vogue in corporate chicanery, a reporter asked him if he likened his situation to that of Theodore Roosevelt when Teddy famously decried the “malefactors of great wealth” who sacrificed the public

Homeland Security and Security at Home

by Steven Wagner

When President George W. Bush proposed that Congress create a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security during his television address on the evening of June 6, 2002, he called it"The most extensive reorganization of the federal government since the 1940s." The news media picked up on this aspect of the proposal and made it a central element of their coverage. The President was referring to the National Security Act of 1947, and its subsequent amendments, which subordinated the command stru

Column: Ever-Morphing Bipartisanship

by P.M. Carpenter

This"bipartisanship" thing, which swept into Washington with a resounding minority mandate in 2000 has been, at best, touch and go. At first glance it seems to work at random: it flies high one day and Foggy Bottoms out the next, as though an invisible political hand is in control. Closet astrologers at NASA have ruled out planetary alignments as a working explanation, and the White House puffs bipartisanship so often it

Presidency: Bush Walks and Talks Softly--Where's the Big Stick?

by Bob Batchelor

In the early years of the twentieth century, businesses in the United States were transformed into"big business" as a tidal wave of thousands of companies were merged into large trusts that sought to squelch competition. For instance, the nation's first billion dollar corporation, United States Steel, brought together by financier J.P. Morgan, was a conglomeration of 213 manufacturing companies, including 41 mines, and owned more than 1,000 miles of railroad track and 112 ore ships. As a

Column: Now Tell Me Again? Isn't Mel Brooks the President?

by P.M. Carpenter

Ever since Ronald Reagan confused real events with Hollywood scripts, I've wondered how that would feel. I wondered, that is, until last Thursday morning. While reading a New York Times interview with Harvey Pitt, W's beleaguered chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, I got the feeling I had heard this stuff before. Almost verbatim. It was eerie. Eventually it occurred that I had h

Presidency: Ex-Presidents Who Don't Know When to Shut Up

by Frank J. Gaffney Jr.

It seems at the moment that there is a surfeit of ex-Presidents of the United States making spectacles of themselves. Last week, Bill Clinton let it be known that he had met with NBC executives to explore the idea of having his own TV talk show. The skin crawls at the opportunities this would afford him for not only further debasing himself, but the office in which he once served, as well.