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Presidency: Why Tom Ridge's Office Was Slated for Failure

by Earl W. Wolfe

Congress is now considering President George W. Bush’s proposal to establish a Department of Homeland Security that would consolidate the homeland security functions of nearly 100 federal departments and agencies. It would have approximately 170,000 employees, making it the third largest federal agency with a budget of approximately $37 billion. 1Bush, in his nationwide address on June 6, 2002, characterized this as “the most extensive reorganization of the federal government sin

Presidency: How TR Fought Corporate Crime

by Eric Rauchway

George W. Bush vowed last week to restore confidence in American capitalism by putting more federal police on the Wall Street beat and jailing"dishonest individuals." American journalists, encouraged by White House attitudes, have already likened Mr Bush's plan to Theodore Roosevelt's centre-right crusade against business corruption, which also began by targeting a few infamous wrongdoers. But Roosevelt quickly discovered that playing cops-and-robbers with white- collar crooks did little

9-11: Day of Infamy

by HNN Staff

PRIMARY SOURCESDAY OF INFAMY William B. McKinley 9-11-01 Remember the Maine!DAY OF INFAMY Theodore Roosevelt 9-18-01 Anarchism Needs t

9-11: When the Unthinkable Happens

by Derek Alger

The sinking of the Titanic and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima were perhaps the two defining moments of the previous century that altered man's view of the world. And now, the terrorist attack on Washington and New York City becomes a cataclysmic event that will change how the world is viewed in the new century, at least from the American perspective. As viewers watched the image of the plane slip into the picture on the television screen and disappear into o

Presidency: Bush and the 25th Amendment

by J. Howell Smith

Would you authorize a person to start a nuclear attack whom you would not authorize to drive a car or sign a contract? When a group of neurologists, historians, lawyers, political scientists, psychiatrists, and journalists met at the Carter Center, Wake Forest University, and finally at the White House Center in 1996 to examine the realities of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, they understood that it was a complicated part of the Constitution. Wilsonian historian Arthur Link and nationally recogni

September 11 and the "Failure" of U.S. Counterintelligence: An Historical Perspective

by Athan G. Theoharis

The devastating terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, and recent revelations of May-June 2002 about pre-September 11 FBI (and CIA) intelligence reports, have raised questions about the failure of U.S. intelligence agencies to have anticipated and thus prevented this planned attack. Seeking to reassure the American public, Attorney General John Ashcroft in June 2002 affirmed that the FBI would henceforth shift its focus from law enforcement to intelligence--becoming more proactive and agg

Column: Is the "War on Terrorism" just another "Quasi War"?

by Thomas Spencer

It is safe to say that the Bush administration had an embarrassing week last week. Ashcroft was at his fear-mongering, headline-stealing best, trying to further what even some of our obedient Washington press corps has begun to call his"ministry of fear." The White House was embarrassed by Ashcroft's satellite link-up from Moscow last week in which he overstated the evidence in the dirty bomb case in one of the most bizarre grand-standing performances of recent memory. We have reac

Civil Liberties: Habeas Corpus Justified for Jonathan Pollard

by Edwin Black

To read Black's full article on Pollard, posted 6-20-02, clickhere.For 17 years, the question of why Jonathan Pollard is still serving a life sentence for spying for Israel has baffled his supporters. After a months-long investigation, the record shows that Pollard received life because the legal system trampled his constitutional rights to due process after his provocative post-arrest conduct unnerv

Letter to Karl Rove

by John Dean

Mr. Karl Rove Senior Advisor to the President Office of Political Affairs, Office of Public Liaison, and Office of Strategic Initiatives The White House Washington, DC 20016Dear Karl:Based on news accounts, I understand that you are a presidential history buff. According to The New York Times, not only have you been giving your boss history books to read (Edmund Morris's Theodore Rex), but you also called in a group of presidential h

Clarence Thomas's Constitution

by David E. Kyvig

Justice Clarence Thomas is now fully out of the closet as an admirer of the Articles of Confederation. His decision in the case of Federal Maritime Commission v. South Carolina State Ports Authority demonstrates a preference for a pre-1787 concept of federalism that favors state autonomy at the expense of functional national government. His opinion also demonstrates a disregard for the history of the Eleventh Amendment around which his ruling revolved. In a c

Column: Should Bush Take the Blame for the FBI's Failures?

by P.M. Carpenter

After the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion--a disaster which President Kennedy had guaranteed by foolishly giving the go-ahead based on boneheaded advice from the CIA and Joint Chiefs of Staff--our commander in chief took the blame. He told reporters"the quite obvious," as he put it:"I am the responsible officer of the government," and as such only he was ac

So It's Ok to Disagree with the President Again?

by George Beres

Journalism's most honored responsibility-- keeping a democractic government honest-- has begun to revive after a nine-month period when it lapsed. That time frame covers the 9-11 terrorist attack on the United States until current developments that find the mass media once again questioning government authority instead of bowing to it. Historical perspective about how government can immobilize journalists is found in a statement made by a centenarian philosopher, Scott Nearing (1883-1983)

Presidency: What Did He Know and When Did He Know It?

by Leonard Steinhorn

"What did he know, and when did he know it?" That central question in Watergate should be reverberating throughout America today amid the continuing revelations that President Bush and his administration knew more about Osama bin Laden's terrorist plans than the President ever has acknowledged.It's taken months for this news to come out, but we now know that the CIA warned the President specifically about the potential for an al Qaeda hijacking. We a

Presidency: What Would Be Shocking is If President Bush Did Not Exploit 9-11

by Rick Shenkman

If historians ran America's newsrooms, would they have put the contretemps about the Bush 9-11 photo on page one? Probably not is my guess. It's news that a president has decided to exploit a foreign policy crisis for his own political benefit, but it's not shocking news to a historian. We've seen it happen too many times to be shocked. And Page One is for the shocking stuff. Like a priest being shot by a young man the priest allegedly molested. The Bush"Photo Op-Portunism," as the

Homosexuality and Catholic Priests

by Vern L. Bullough

The widespread exposure of pedophilia within the Catholic clergy has led to a focus on homosexuality within the clergy as a source of the problem. It has to be emphasized, however, that pedophilia and homosexuality are not the same thing. In fact only a handful of priests technically are pedophiles (sexually involved with children under 10 or 11, although more might be inclined to ephebophilia, or an attraction to pubescent and post pubescent youth. One reason for this higher percentage is

Column: Close, but No Havana

by P.M. Carpenter

Congress has finally erected a floodgate to stem the torrent of legal bribery in politics euphemistically known as soft money. This engineering feat was hard won, long overdue, and relatively solid in accomplishment; thus it would be too jaded to dismiss the legislation as less than a historic watershed. On the other hand, it would be too optimistic to praise th

Column: Not in My Backyard

by William Thompson

For the last 70 years, Nevada has been neither a Democrat state nor a Republican state. It has consistently been the gambling state. The voters--only a handful of whom have been born in the state, have tolerated--and voted for--both very liberal and very conservative candidates for state and federal office. Taking their cues from a gambling industry which invests heavily in political campaigns,

The Hidden Costs of Campaign Finance Reform

by Andrew Schocket

The campaign finance reform bill passed by Congress will affect not only the influence of money on American politics. By weakening parties but effectively leaving interest groups alone, it will also promote the discussion of issues over party politics but make political compromise even more difficult than it is today.In 1787, when James Madison, the Constitution's greatest architect, was campaigning to get the Constitution ratified as the law of the land, he argued that competition among many in

Column: Dr. Strangelove Meets the Bush Administration

by P.M. Carpenter

"He went and did a silly thing." Thus spoke President Merkin Muffley in 1964 to the Soviet Premier in a delicate attempt to explain that Air Force General Jack D. Ripper had just ordered bombers to vaporize Moscow. Meanwhile, General Buck Turgidson assured the president that even though the reliability of"Plan R"--that is, the sure means to recall wayward bombers--was

Column: Two Things Nevada Can Be Proud Of

by William Thompson

This commentary concerns the new 25 cent coins celebrating events of each of the states of our union. I take what some might mistakenly consider a"parochial" perspective, as I discuss the portrayals I desire to see on the Nevada coin when it is minted. Each day we should celebrate, celebrate as if we just pushed Sisyphus's rock over the mountain, even if we only pushed it up a few fee