Roundup: Media's Take

Jack Pitney: KSM: Obama's words carry great weight in Manhattan

[John J. Pitney, Jr. is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. He writes and teaches about elections, political parties, Congress, and the presidency, and has taught a course about President Nixon.] When RN mistakenly declared Charles Manson guilty during his trial, problems ensued. From a contemporaneous report in Time: In Los Angeles, the effect of Nixon’s remarks on the Manson trial was instant and dramatic. While the Los Ang

Steven Hill: America's House of Lords debates health care

[Steven Hill is Director of the Political Reform Program for the New America Foundation and author of "Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age" (www.EuropesPromise.org) to be published in January 2010]. The health care debate has been like a tennis match, bouncing from the Senate to the House and back again. Now it's back in the Senate, as the United States tries to end its status as the

C.M. Sennot: How to finance the war in Afghanistan?

[Charles M. Sennott, the Executive Editor and Vice President of GlobalPost, is an award-winning journalist and author with a distinguished career in international reporting for both print and broadcast news organizations.] BOSTON — The last time America had to borrow money to finance a war was during the Revolution and a cash-strapped Continental Congress took loans from France to fund a surge against the British. That worked out pretty well. But it’s hard

Jonathan Schell: Obama's Vietnam Syndrome

[Jonathan Schell is a Fellow at The Nation Institute and teaches a course on the nuclear dilemma at Yale University. He is the author of The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger.] NEW HAVEN – There can be no military resolution to the war in Afghanistan, only a political one. Writing that sentence almost makes me faint with boredom. As US President Barack Obama ponders what to do about the war, who wants to repeat a point that’s been made thousands of times? Is there anyo

WSJ Editorial: Obama union rules , a federal agency rips up 75 years of labor policy

The National Mediation Board, which oversees labor relations in the air and rail industry, this month moved to overturn 75 years of labor policy. The board plans to stack the deck for organized labor in union elections. Under a proposed rule, unions would no longer have to get the approval of a majority of airline workers to achieve certification. Not even close. Instead, a union could win just by getting a majority of the employees who vote. Thus, if only 1,000 of 10,000 flight att

Michael Johnson: 1,000,000,000,000

[Michael Johnson is an American journalist.] Until quite recently, only the odd astronomer threw around numbers in the trillions, leaving the rest of us behind with our thousands, millions and billions. We didn’t mind. We couldn’t grasp the meaning of a trillion anyway — the dictionary defines it as the number 1 followed by 12 zeroes, or 1,000,000,000,000. But today, we can hardly pick up a newspaper without being asked to get our mind around a trillion somethings. But

WSJ Editorial: Why We're Not 'Post-Racial'

When Alabama Congressman Artur Davis voted against the health-care bill that passed the House earlier this month, he probably expected some grief from fellow Democrats. But he couldn't have anticipated being accused of selling out his race. Mr. Davis was the only black Member to oppose the legislation, and his vote earned him a rebuke from Jesse Jackson at a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation reception Wednesday night. "We even have blacks voting against the health-care bill

Steve Benen: Foxx's Notion of 'Revisionist History'

[Steve Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the magazine in August 2008 as "blogger in chief" of the Monthly's blog, "Political Animal." His background includes publishing The Carpetbagger Report, and writing for a variety of publications, including Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect, the Huffington Post, Salon, and The Guardian. He has also appeared on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," Air Ameri

Andy Worthington: Obama’s Failure to Close Guantánamo by January Deadline Is Disastrous

[Andy Worthington is a journalist and the author of "The Guantanamo Files" (Pluto Press), the first book to tell the stories of all the prisoners in Guantanamo. He maintains a blog here.] President Obama’s admission in China that he will miss his self-imposed deadline for the closure of Guantánamo is disastrous for the majority of the 215 men still held in the detention facility, and for those who hoped, ten months ago, that the president would move swiftly to close this b

William Pfaff: Enough G-2 Talk Already

[William Pfaff is a globally respected political commentator and author on international relations, contemporary history and U.S. policy. He is published in five countries and his column is syndicated by Tribune Media Services.] I have never understood the widely touted idea or assumption of China-U.S. equality or partnership or joint rule of the world or superpower partnership that has dominated the press coverage of Barack Obama’s trip to Asia. In what ways do any of these descrip

Brett H. McGurk: A surge to sovereignty in Afghanistan

[Brett H. McGurk, who served on the National Security Council staffs of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, is a fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics.] THE AIM in any successful counterinsurgency is to support and strengthen a sovereign and friendly government. The inherent paradox is that use of US military power, or even US diplomatic leverage, to achieve that aim undercuts the perceived legitimacy and sovereignty of the government it seeks to support. Enemies e

Yoram Ettinger: In contrast to Clinton's statement, demography does not threaten Israel

[Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger is a practitioner, researcher, writer and consultant on US policy in the Middle East, US-Israel relations, US politics Middle East politics and overseas investments in Israel's high tech industries.] On November 15, 2009, former President Clinton stated in Jerusalem: "Two things remain unchanged since 1993 – geography and demographics. Palestinians have more children than Israelis can have or import." Clinton's intentions are

Charles Krauthammer: Travesty in New York

[Charles Krauthammer writes about politics and policy for The Washington Post's op-ed page.] For late-19th-century anarchists, terrorism was the "propaganda of the deed." And the most successful propaganda-by-deed in history was 9/11 -- not just the most destructive, but the most spectacular and telegenic. And now its self-proclaimed architect, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, has been given by the Obama administration a civilian trial in New York. Just as the memory fa

Michael Grunwald: Will the Katrina Ruling Prevent Another Disaster?

There can be something thrilling about accountability, so it was nice to see a federal judge declare the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers directly responsible for the destruction of most of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The blistering ruling validates the rage felt by so many survivors — and may put them in line for some much needed cash. It also provides an always welcome opportunity for those of us who have banged our spoons on our high chairs about the culpability of the Corps again and a

Christina Davidson: Recession Pressure on Labor Rights

[Christina Davidson is a writer, photographer and book editor based in Washington, DC.] The US 12 Bar and Grill in Wayne, Michigan has an unusually-timed happy hour. Drink specials start at 9 pm, scheduled to attract local auto workers getting off second shift. For $3, the bartender pours me a full rocks glass of Grand Marnier. I appear to be the only female patron in the bar, which perhaps explains why the guys tolerate my incessant questions about how the recession has affected th

Joe Queenan: Stop Picking on Fat People

[Mr. Queenan, a satirist, is the author, most recently, of the memoir "Closing Time" (Viking, 2009).] The debate regarding the American "obesity plague" has taken on an increasingly rancorous tone. On one side are those who honestly believe that we cannot repair our imperiled health-care system without addressing the enormous strains placed on that system by the seriously overweight. On the other side are those of a Rubenesque stature who are enraged that they ar

Victor Erofeyev: Russia's Imperial Crutches

[Victor Erofeyev is a Russian writer and television host. Translated from the Russian by the International Herald Tribune.] Once again, Russia has found itself at a crossroads. The reason may not seem all that significant in itself: After the recent restoration of the gaudy Kurskaya station on the Moscow Metro, there appeared for the first time in half a century, in full view of all the passengers, the word “Stalin,” which was implanted in the underground ensemble in a line from the

Ben West and Fred Burton: A Terrorist Trial in New York City: NY Knows What It's Doing

[Fred Burton is Stratfor's Vice President for Counterterrorism and Corporate Security, and is "one of the world's foremost experts on security, terrorists and terrorist organizations". Ben West is one of the co-authored of Stratfor's article about Security which they attribute it on their Free Features. ] U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Nov. 13 that the U.S. Justice Department had decided to try five suspected terrorists currently being held at Guantanamo Bay i

Christina Lamb: Karzai’s Paranoid World

[Christina Lamb is Washington bureau chief of the London Sunday Times and has been covering Afghanistan and Pakistan for 22 years. She has been named Britain's foreign correspondent of the year five times. Her books include Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage through Afghanistan (Harper Collins).] When Hamid Karzai is re-inaugurated as president today after one of the world’s dodgiest elections, everyone from Washington to Whitehall will be watching for some sign that he will

Nicholas D. Kristof: Old accusations are being recycled in an attempt to discredit health reform

[Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The Times since 2001, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who writes op-ed columns that appear twice a week.] Critics storm that health care reform is “a cruel hoax and a delusion.” Ads in 100 newspapers thunder that reform would mean “the beginning of socialized medicine.” The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page predicts that the legislation will lead to “deteriorating service.” Business groups warn that Washington bureaucrats wil