Roundup: Media's Take

March 18, 2005

Leslie Eaton: Bankruptcy, an American Tradition

Leslie Eaton, in the NYT (3-13-05): WHAT could be more American than the idea of a second chance, a fresh start, Act Two? It is embedded in the culture, the notion that you can reinvent yourself in every way, by moving to a new city, buying a new car, getting a face lift - or by filing for bankruptcy.For generations, Americans who found themselves drowning in debt have turned to the federal bankruptcy laws, which, as the Supreme Court wrote in 1915, are meant to give honest d

March 16, 2005

John Zogby: How Bush Can Use the Social Security Debate to Create a Republican Majority (Even If He Loses)

John Zogby, in the WSJ (3-15-05): President Bush is in the middle of a vigorous campaign for Social Security reform. New national polls suggest support for his reform plan to be slipping. While my polls have revealed solid majority support among voters under 50 years of age, intensity levels are far greater among voters who oppose Mr. Bush's plan, especially those over 50. A coalition of seniors, unions,

March 11, 2005

Margaret Talev: The GOP Ponders Using the "Nuclear Option" to Void Filibusters for Court Nominees

Margaret Talev, in the Sacramento Bee (3-9-05): Given U.S. tensions with Iran and North Korea, "nuclear option" might not have been Republicans' most diplomatic choice of a nickname for the procedure they're considering unleashing on Capitol Hill next month. In fact, many are cringing at the moniker, preferring the phrase "constitutional option." Under any name, what they're talking about has nothing to do with foreign policy. It's a m

March 11, 2005

Leon Hadar: On the Pseudo-Events in Lebanon

Leon Hadar, in the Business Times Singapore (3-11-05):IN The Image, Daniel Boorstin's ground-breaking and magisterial study of the rise of the modern media and the public relations profession, the renowned historian coined the term 'pseudo-event'. He was referring to a 'happening' that is designed to be covered by the news. It is not spontaneous, but come about because someone has planned, planted or incited it. It is planted for the immediate purpose of be

March 11, 2005

Ellis Cose: 40 Years After the Moynihan Report--What Have We Learned?

Ellis Cose, in Newsweek (3-14-05): Late in life, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan complained that big ideas were no longer the special province of the Democratic Party. But in the ’60s, the party had big ideas aplenty. And none were bigger than those championed by Moynihan, then an assistant Labor secretary under Lyndon Johnson. After reviewing reams of statistics, Moynihan came to a startling conclusion: the Negro family was collapsing. But with a faith characteristic of the tim

March 10, 2005

Editorial in the Nation: U.S. Triumphalism Is Not Warranted by Events in the Middle East

Editorial in the Nation (3-28-05):In what is being called the" cedar revolution," demonstrators in Beirut brought down the pro-Syrian government at the end of February and forced Damascus to announce the withdrawal of its 14,000 troops from Lebanon. This and other developments of recent weeks--municipal elections in Saudi Arabia and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's announcement of plans for competitive elections--lent support to the view that there is a new democratic openin

March 10, 2005

Godfrey Sperling: Is Bush Still a Divisive Figure Now that the Election's Over?

Godfrey Sperling, in the Christian Science Monitor (3-8-05): Some months ago, early in the presidential campaign, I wrote a column in which I cited the sage observations of the British historian Denis Brogan, who, after a thorough study of the US political scene, concluded this: The American voters engaged in a fierce conflict of accusations during their presidential campaigns and then, "after letting off steam" during these months of contention, they were somehow

March 10, 2005

William Thatcher Dowell: Made-in-America Wahhabism

William Thatcher Dowell, in the LAT (3-8-05):[William Thatcher Dowell edits Global Beat for New York University's Center for War, Peace and the News Media. He was a Middle East correspondent for Time magazine from 1989 through 1993. A longer version of this essay appears at www.tomdispatch.com.]There is

March 10, 2005

Judd Legum and Christy Harvey: Republican Myths About Judicial Filibusters

Judd Legum and Christy Harvey, in the Nation (3-3-05): [The authors are employed by the American Progress Action Fund.] The greatest impact of George W. Bush's second term will likely be from his judicial nominations, including the appointment of one or more Justices to the Supreme Court. The President's selections will have long-lasting effects on all aspects of American life, including our health, our freedoms

March 9, 2005

General Joaquín Cuadra Lacayo: The Lessons of Nicargua that Can Be Applied to Iraq and Afghanistan

General Joaquín Cuadra Lacayo, retired Commander in Chief of the National Army of Nicaragua, in Military Review (December 2004): [General Joaquín Cuadra Lacayo, retired Commander in Chief of the National Army of Nicaragua, has been a major participant in Nicaraguan political history since the 1970s. At 20 years of age, he joined the Sandinista guerrilla movement in its fight ag

March 8, 2005

Franklin Foer: Liberals Discover the Joy of Federalism

Franklin Foer, in the NYT Book Review (3-6-05): Nobody would ever confuse the Massachusetts liberal Barney Frank with the South Carolina conservative Strom Thurmond. But when the tart-tongued Frank appeared on Fox News Sunday last winter, it sounded as if an aide had accidentally slipped him some of Thurmond's talking points from the 1950's, when he was a states'-rights segregationist. ''Should the federal government say no state can make this decision for itself?'' Frank asked. He

March 8, 2005

Brendan Miniter: Why It's Dangerous for the Republicans to Compromise on Social Security

Brendan Miniter, in the WSJ (3-8-05) Over breakfast at the Republicans' Capitol Hill Club the other day, Rep. Clay Shaw Jr. of Florida asked me the question dominating Beltway minds: Where is Social Security reform headed? Although I was interviewing him about his reform ideas, it was a pivotal question. There's a letter now making the rounds signed by 42 Senate Democrats--enough to sustain a filibuster--w

March 8, 2005

Michael Schwartz: Why Going to War with the Army You Have Has Been Disastrous in Iraq

Michael Schwartz, at TomDispatch.org (3-5-05): [Michael Schwartz, Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, has written extensively on popular protest and insurgency, and on American business and government dynamics. His work on Iraq has appeared on the internet at numerous sites including TomDispatch, Asia Times, MotherJones, and ZNet; and in print at Contexts and Z magazine. His books include Radical Politics and Social Structure,

March 7, 2005

WSJ; Herr Byrd Himself Has Used the Nuclear Option to Win the Approval of Judges

Editorial in the WSJ (3-7-05):West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd got into hot water last week for introducing Hitler into the Senate's already acrimonious debate on Democratic filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominations. Speaking of the Republicans' threatened "nuclear option," he said, "We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation

March 7, 2005

Martin E. Marty: Is It Really Fun to Shoot People?

Martin E. Marty, in Sightings, the newsletter of theMartin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School (3-7-05):"It's fun to shoot some people." "You got guys who ... ain't got no manhood left an

March 7, 2005

Sidney Blumenthal: On Social Security, Bush Is Borrowing from Alf Landon's Playbook

Sidney Blumenthal, in Salon (3-3-05):The coming defeat of President Bush on Social Security will be the defining moment in domestic policy and politics for his second term and for the future of the Republican Party. It will be a central, clarifying event because Bush alone chose to make this fight. Campaigning in 2004 on the trauma of Sept. 11, he won by the s

March 6, 2005

Paul C. Light: The Last Time We Fixed Social Security

Paul C. Light, in the NYT (3-5-05): [Paul C. Light, a professor of public service at New York University and a fellow at the Brookings Institution, is the author of "The Four Pillars of High Performance."]IT is almost 22 years to the month since Representative Barber Conable Jr. strode to the floor of the House to defend a carefully constructed plan to save Social Security. Mr. Conable, a mod

March 4, 2005

Richard Cohen: Coolidge's Wise Observation (George W. Are You Listening?)

Richard Cohen, in the Washington Post (3-3-05): Under some unwritten rule, all modern presidents must pay homage to a like-minded predecessor. A picture is hung in the Oval Office. A bust is placed on the presidential desk. Bill Clinton, you will remember, made his pilgrimage up the Hudson to the Hyde Park estate of Franklin D. Roosevelt. George W. Bush, in the estimation of others (if not himself

March 3, 2005

Selig Harrison: Making the Mistake of Making Policy in Korea on the Basis of "Worst-Case Scenarios"

Selig Harrison, in Japan Focus (March 2005):[Selig Harrison contributed this article to Japan Focus. It originated as a talk at the Korea Society in New York on February 16, 2005. Selig S. Harrison is director of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy. Harrison is the author of numerous books including

March 3, 2005

Jonathan Schell: The Not-So-Super Super Power

Jonathan Schell, at www.tomdispatch.com (3-3-05): [Jonathan Schell, author of The Unconquerable World, is the Nation Institute's Harold Willens Peace Fellow. The Jonathan Schell Reader was recently published by Nation Books.]One of the most difficult things to