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Column: Mr. Ashcroft’s America, America's Mr. Ashcroft

by P. M. Carpenter

11As the Man from Mississippi, Mr. Trent Lott, said on the heels of the narrowest confirmation in 76 years, it"would be a futile waste of time" to question our collective confidence in the new attorney general-as opposed, one assumes, to a productive waste of time. Trent was so right. It's downright silly to question or fault the attorney general for advocating mil

Civil Liberties: How the Courts Will Respond

by Michael Klarman

America is at"war" with international terrorism. Civil liberties and war have tended to coexist uneasily in American history. Many of the Bush administration's recent anti-terrorism proposals suggest that the historical pattern of civil liberties contracting during wartime is in the process of repeating itself. Among other things, the President has claimed the power to try foreign citizens accused of terrorism before military tribunals that lack the due

What’s Doing in Dittoland

by P. M. Carpenter

A holiday drive last week doubled as a journey back to the days of weird monastic debates. On AM radio Rush and his ditto-callers were engaged in an issue requiring all their mental prowess. The angel capacity of a pinhead had been replaced with this equally ethereal question: Does Bill Clinton have an evil political" center" (as in"moral center") or is he merely th

Civil Liberties: Is Ashcroft Panicking?

by Ian Mylchreest

The atrocities of September 11 are often said to have begun"a war like no other," but in fact, it is not the first time the United States has faced this kind of terrorism. Long ago, in 1919 and 1920, the nation was terrorized by random bombings, and gripped by the fear that an anarchist conspiracy was set to destroy the American government.The panic after World War I is a case study in how not to face down a terrorist threat. The security follies back then launched a revolution in ci

United We Stand?

by Rachel Buff

Recently we witnessed the disturbing spectacle of the heroes of Sept. 11 fighting each other in the streets of New York City. Unionized firefighters scuffled with police officers. Turning the firefighters away from the ongoing hunt for their lost brethren at the World Trade Center disaster site, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani urged the firefighters' union to cooperate with his downsizing of the search for those lost in the tragedy.What are we to ma

Economics: The Greenspan Equation ... There are Also Losers

by Bonnie Galloway and William N. Thompson

As the world of investments includes many risks, Wall Street is sometimes called our"Big Casino." However, while the concept of risk is endemic in the investment community, Wall Street activity is quite different from the action found on the craps tables of Las Vegas.The Las Vegas gamblers are purposely seeking out risks, as their games by their very nature must have winners and losers. The quest for risks generates flows of adrenalin producing an excitement that is accepted (or craved)

What’s Bush Trying to Hide?

by Ruth Rosen

"A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives." -- James Madison, father of the Constitution. President Bush's sudden move to restrict public access to presidential papers has ignited a firestorm of protest from archivists, historians and journalist

Column: Gore in Four?

by P.M. Carpenter

While reading reports on the recently released news-consortium finding that both Bush and Gore won Florida and both Bush and Gore lost Florida, I, along with most Americans, was prepared to chuck remembrance of the whole wretched affair until Chesire Puddy-Tat Fleischer opened his mouth and revealed the battered feathers:"Anybody who invests time and money in this i

Column: Has George Lost His Mind?

by P.M. Carpenter

MEMOFROM: Ann Coulter, formerly known as the author called"Telebimbo"; DeLay & Associates, Inc.; and The John Birch Society, still"working to expose a semi-secret international cabal whose members sit in the highest places of influence and power worldwide"TO: The Republican National Committee Fellow WASPs, We just can't keep

Economics: Dumb Ways to Stimulate the Economy

by Andrew M. Schocket

President Bush is advancing his"economic stimulus" package at the nation's peril, and his own. The president has been pushing a stimulus bill ostensibly designed to boost an economy struck hard by the events of Sept. 11. The bill offers nearly $100 billion in tax breaks and rebates for a handful of wealthy corporations and individuals. Unfortunately, the plan provides little for those hit hardest by the economic effects of the attacks: the hundreds of thousands of working peop

Give Al a Chance

by Leonard Steinhorn

Though we were riveted by it just one year ago, the election trauma from last year seems so distant and almost petty in the aftermath of September 11. But before we close the emotional books on the 2000 presidential campaign, it’s essential to correct one bit of conventional wisdom that has woven its way into our body politic: the notion that Al Gore blew the election, ran a terrible campaign, and doesn’t deserve another chance. It’s time to take another look. Americans

Presidency: Bush’s Executive Order

by Steven Aftergood

BUSH ORDER IMPEDES RELEASE OF PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS A new executive order could make it substantially more difficult for the public to gain access to historically valuable presidential records by requiring the consent of both the incumbent President and the former President whose Administration generated the records. Earlier this year, the White House had blocked release of records from the Reagan Administration that were supposed to hav

Presidency: Is Bush Protecting His Dad?

by George Beres

The Reagan papers were to have been the first released under the 1978 Presidential Records Act. It came after Watergate and former President Richard Nixon's attempts to keep his papers and tape recordings to himself. Passage made presidental records the property of government, not those who held the office. When the current presidential order was announced, prominent historians immediately complained that it violates the spirit of the 1978 Act. The director of the National Committee for

Presidency: The Reagan Papers Runaround

by Hugh Davis Graham

President Bush on November 1, 2001 signed an executive order that gives all incumbent and former presidents since 1980 full veto authority in perpetuity over public access to documents in their presidential papers. This was what President Nixon tried to achieve in his 1974 agreement with the head of the General Services Administration (which then included the National Archives), a deal that Congress overturned later that year. To preve

Presidency: Release the Reagan Documents

by Bruce Craig

The Bush White House has served to delay the release of some 68,000 pages of presidential papers dating back to the Reagan Administration which ought to be released under provisions of the Presidential Records Act of 1978. On several occasions, the White House has stated that the delays were required,"to review the many constitutional and legal questions raised by potential release of sensitive and confidential Presidential records and to decide

Presidency: Commander in Chief as Actor in Chief

by John Dean

To view national politics as theater, played on both a domestic and world stage, is to appreciate a reality of contemporary public affairs. This fact has long been clear to me as I have observed political figures operate up close and personal, both on stage and off.For this reason I found the thoughts of one of America's preeminent playwrights, Arthur Miller, a man who knows a good thespian when he sees one, of particular interest. In an essay pu

Column: Will Gambling Heal Our Pain?

by William Thompson

Column: WARNING ... Gambling May Be Dangerous to Your Health

by William Thompson

Column: A New Bush?

by P.M. Carpenter

House Republicans are either experimenting with evidentiary methamphetamine smuggled in by Ashcroft over at Justice, or they're wandering about in a psychotic daze made possible by flushing their Thorazine each morning. It's plain that each is in need of his or her own Nurse Ratchet, standing guard and enforcing medicinal duties for the nation's good. But with Ratch

Civil Rights: Let 'Em Wiretap!

by David Greenberg

At the moment, the House and Senate have hatched different versions of anti-terrorism bill. Both bills would let government agents procure just one warrant to wiretap a person regardless of the phone he uses. (Currently, warrants apply only to individual phones.) Both would let the government monitor the e-mail addresses to which users send messages, without first getting a warrant. Both would ease the standard officials have to meet in order to monitor suspected terrorists overseas. Whe