lettrist

Barack Obama, John McCain and the Language of Race

2008-09-22T09:50:00.001-04:00

The New York TimesSeptember 22, 2008Editorial ObserverBarack Obama, John McCain and the Language of RaceBy BRENT STAPLESIt was not that long ago that black people in the Deep South could be beaten or killed for seeking the right to vote, talking back to the wrong white man or failing to give way on the sidewalk. People of color who violated these and other proscriptions could be designated “

$1 billion to Georgia or Georiga Tech?

2008-09-07T19:21:00.001-04:00

Georgia on My MindBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMANOn Wednesday, The New York Times on the Web flashed a headline that caught my eye: “U.S. to Unveil $1 Billion Aid Package to Repair Georgia.” Wow, I thought. That’s great: $1 billion to fix Georgia’s roads and schools. But as I read on, I quickly realized that I had the wrong Georgia.We’re going to spend $1 billion to fix the Georgia between Russia and

The Vanishing Republican Voter

2008-09-07T16:10:00.000-04:00

By DAVID FRUMNYT MagazineI LIVE IN WASHINGTON, in a neighborhood that is home to lawyers, political consultants, television personalities and the chief executive of the TIAA-CREF pension fund. Not exactly an abode of the superrich, but the kind of neighborhood where almost nobody does her own yardwork or vacuums his own floor. Children’s birthday parties feature rented moon bounces or hired

The Mirrored Ceiling

2008-09-05T10:06:00.000-04:00

Judith Warner, NYTIt turns out there was something more nauseating than the nomination of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate this past week. It was the tone of the acclaim that followed her acceptance speech.“Drill, baby, drill,” clapped John Dickerson, marveling at Palin’s ability to speak and smile at the same time as an indication of her unexpected depths and unsuspected strengths. “It

Why Christian conservatives have only admiration for Sarah Palin.

2008-09-05T00:43:00.001-04:00

What Scarlet Letter?By Hanna RosinPosted Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008, at 1:15 PM ETWhen I first heard about Sarah Palin's, uh, domestic irregularities, I expected social conservatives to react with a kind of qualified, patronizing support—we are all sinners, there but for the grace of God, something like that. Instead, they are embracing her with unbridled admiration. The Family Research Council

Sorry, Pal, but You're Rich

2008-08-27T18:20:00.000-04:00

The deluded business pundits and Obama critics who think $250,000 is a middle-class salary.By Daniel GrossBarack Obama's tax plan, laid out by advisers Austan Goolsbee and Jason Furman in the Wall Street Journal in mid-August, promises to improve the nation's fiscal standing by scaling back tax cuts for people making more than $250,000. Since then, the business pundit class has been griping that

Melting Pot Meets Great Wall

2008-08-24T13:27:00.001-04:00

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMANThe Olympics may just be a sporting event, but it is hard not to read larger messages into the results, especially when you see how China and America have dominated the medals tally. Both countries can — and will — look at their Olympic successes as reaffirmations of their distinctly different political systems. But what strikes me is how much they could each learn from the

At this point, Racism is the only reason McCain might beat Obama

2008-08-23T12:38:00.000-04:00

By Jacob WeisbergPosted Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008, at 12:02 AM ETWhat with the Bush legacy of reckless war and economic mismanagement, 2008 is a year that favors the generic Democratic candidate over the generic Republican one. Yet Barack Obama, with every natural and structural advantage in the presidential race, is running only neck-and-neck against John McCain, a sub-par Republican nominee with

Hitchens on Georgia

2008-08-18T12:32:00.000-04:00

By Christopher HitchensPosted Monday, Aug. 18, 2008, at 12:00 PM ETWhile it is almost certainly true that Moscow's action in the Ossetian and (for good measure) the Abkhazian enclave of Georgia has been, in a real sense, the revenge for the independence of Kosovo (on Feb. 14 Vladimir Putin said publicly that Western recognition of Kosovar independence would be met by intensified Russian support

Honey, I Plumped the Kids

2008-08-10T03:38:00.001-04:00

By OLIVIA JUDSON LONDON Suppose you have two groups of pregnant female rats. Rats in the first group can either eat as much regular lab-rat chow as they like, or they can eat their fill of human junk food — cookies, doughnuts, marshmallows, potato chips, muffins, chocolate. Rats in the second group only get chow, but again, can eat as much as they like. After the rats have given birth,

Friedman - Flush with Energy

2008-08-10T03:34:00.000-04:00

... A day later, I flew back to Denmark. After appointments here in Copenhagen, I was riding in a car back to my hotel at the 6 p.m. rush hour. And boy, you knew it was rush hour because 50 percent of the traffic in every intersection was bicycles. That is roughly the percentage of Danes who use two-wheelers to go to and from work or school every day here. If I lived in a city that had dedicated

Make Diplomacy, Not War

2008-08-10T03:32:00.000-04:00

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Iraq and Afghanistan are the messes getting attention today, but they are only symptoms of a much broader cancer in American foreign policy. A few glimpses of this larger affliction: ¶The United States has more musicians in its military bands than it has diplomats. ¶This year alone, the United States Army will add about 7,000 soldiers to its total; that’s more

"By age 5, it is possible to predict, with depressing accuracy, who will complete high school and college and who won’t."

2008-07-29T02:02:00.000-04:00

The Biggest Issue By DAVID BROOKS Why did the United States become the leading economic power of the 20th century? The best short answer is that a ferocious belief that people have the power to transform their own lives gave Americans an unparalleled commitment to education, hard work and economic freedom. Between 1870 and 1950, the average American’s level of education rose by 0.8

Why we should stop worrying about China

2008-07-29T00:57:00.000-04:00

By John PomfretSunday, July 27, 2008; B01Nikita Khrushchev said the Soviet Union would bury us, but these days, everybody seems to think that China is the one wielding the shovel. The People's Republic is on the march -- economically, militarily, even ideologically. Economists expect its GDP to surpass America's by 2025; its submarine fleet is reportedly growing five times faster than

An odd cabal of timorous Europeans, myopic media outlets, corrupt Afghans, blinkered Pentagon officers, politically motivated Democrats & Taliban

2008-07-24T03:19:00.001-04:00

Is Afghanistan a Narco-State? By THOMAS SCHWEICH On March 1, 2006, I met Hamid Karzai for the first time. It was a clear, crisp day in Kabul. The Afghan president joined President and Mrs. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ambassador Ronald Neumann to dedicate the new United States Embassy. He thanked the American people for all they had done for Afghanistan. I

Women on Campus - Two important pieces by Richard Whitmire

2008-07-21T23:19:00.006-04:00

The Latest Way to Discriminate Against WomenBy RICHARD WHITMIREThere's something all-American about filing lawsuits. McDonald's coffee burn your lap? Dry cleaner lose your favorite pants? Sue! And somehow we find it perfectly logical that social policy should be guided by lawsuits. Upset by the University of Michigan's handing out admissions preferences to black students? Find a willing

Government as the Big Lender

2008-07-14T00:56:00.002-04:00

By PETER S. GOODMAN The desperate worry over the health of huge financial institutions with country cousin names — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — reflects a reality that has reshaped major spheres of American life: the government has in recent months taken on an increasingly dominant role in assuring that Americans can buy a home or attend college. Much of the private money that once

2,691 Decisions - 30 years covering the Supreme Court

2008-07-13T11:40:00.000-04:00

By LINDA GREENHOUSE WASHINGTON — Sometime during the first of my nearly 30 years reporting on the Supreme Court, a distinct visual image of a Supreme Court term took hold in my mind and never let go. The nine-month term was a mountain. My job was to climb it. The slope was gentle when the term began, every first Monday in October; the court was busy choosing new cases and hearing

newspeak

2008-07-09T16:31:00.003-04:00

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.comOf all the creepy post-9/11 phrases to which we've been subjected ("The Patriot Act" - "Protecting the Homeland" - "enhanced interrogation techniques" - "Department of Homeland Security"), I think the creepiest and most Orwellian is the phrase "good patriotic corporate citizen," used to describe companies which broke our laws because the President told them to. It's

Affirmative Distraction

2008-07-06T19:14:00.001-04:00

By STEPHEN L. CARTERAspen, Colo.THIRTY years ago last week, the Supreme Court handed down its Bakke decision, hoping to end the argument over the constitutionality of affirmative action in college admission. But with hindsight, it’s clear that the justices mainly helped hasten the end of serious discussion about racial justice in America. As they set the stage for a lasting argument over who

Torture

2008-07-06T18:55:00.003-04:00

The Truth CommissionBy NICHOLAS D. KRISTOFWhen a distinguished American military commander accuses the United States of committing war crimes in its handling of detainees, you know that we need a new way forward.“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes,” Antonio Taguba, the retired major general who investigated abuses in Iraq, declares in a

Daycare is Expensive, Google finds

2008-07-05T09:21:00.001-04:00

I thought this was a particularly telling story, because it illustrates some of the delusions we have about the proper cost of things like education.Google opens a world-class daycare facility for its employees' children. It has highly trained educators. It has good-tasting, healthy wood. It has well-kept facilities and well-made toys. It also costs $37,000 per child per year.As a college

Two forms of Patriotism

2008-07-02T18:18:00.002-04:00

from: David GreenbergHow the Republicans Claimed the "Patriotism" Mantle in Presidential PoliticsPosted Wednesday, July 2, 2008, at 1:46 PM ET The 1988 race for the White House was the last campaign of the Cold War. By the time Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis and Vice President George H.W. Bush emerged in midspring as their parties' nominees, Mikhail Gorbachev had begun his historic reforms,

In EU, working mothers are having more babies than stay-at-home moms. How can this be?

2008-06-28T02:05:00.000-04:00

Edward del Rosario A Dying Breed? As the birthrate in European countries drops well below the "replacement rate" — that is, an average of 2.1 children born to every woman — the declining population will first be felt in the playgrounds. function getSharePasskey() { return 'ex=1372305600&en=bcd12e2cc156fea4&ei=5124';}

Is Obama more of a feminist than Hillary could have been?

2008-06-15T00:57:00.002-04:00

Think the Gender War Is Over? Think Again By SUSAN FALUDI San Francisco FOR months, our political punditry foresaw one, and only one, prospective gender contest looming in the general election: between the first serious female presidential candidate and the Republican male “warrior.” But those who were dreading a plebiscite on sexual politics shouldn’t celebrate just yet. Hillary

Women are not flocking to McCain, and neither is anybody else

2008-06-14T21:25:00.002-04:00

TEN years ago John McCain had to apologize for regaling a Republican audience with a crude sexual joke about Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and Janet Reno. Last year he had to explain why he didn’t so much as flinch when a supporter asked him on camera, “How do we beat the bitch?” But these days Mr. McCain just loves the women.

When Mom and Dad Share It All

2008-06-12T04:01:00.001-04:00

By LISA BELKIN On her first day back to work after a four-month maternity leave, Amy Vachon woke at dawn to nurse her daughter, Maia. Then she fixed herself a healthful breakfast, pumped a bottle of breast milk for the baby to drink later in the day, kissed the little girl goodbye and headed for the door. But before she left, there was one more thing. She reached over to her husband,

A Nation in Debt

2008-06-10T00:25:00.002-04:00

_uacct = "UA-826975-1"; urchinTracker(); THE AMERICAN INTEREST goes beyond the headlines to get straight to the heart of the most pressing issues facing America and the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY and get on the cutting edge of Policy, Politics & Culture. Susbscribers to the Online Edition get complete access to The American

On Loyalty

2008-05-31T11:53:00.000-04:00

What George Forgot By GAIL COLLINS “DISLOYAL, SICKENING AND DESPICABLE DISLOYAL, SICKENING AND DESPICABLE,” wrote Bernard Kerik in an e-mail that he was circulating around this week. Kerik, you may remember, was the former New York City police commissioner who George W. Bush once tried to make chief of Homeland Security. This was during Kerik’s happier, preindictment era. Kerik’s

McCain's Foreign Policy Worse than Bush's?

2008-05-29T02:53:00.004-04:00

By Fred KaplanPosted Wednesday, May 28, 2008, at 11:26 AM ET Sen. John McCain and President George W. BushMany foreign-policy mavens have wondered which John McCain would step to the fore once he started running for president in earnest—the McCain who consorts with such pragmatists as Richard Armitage, Colin Powell, and George Shultz; or the McCain who huddles with "neocons" like Robert Kagan,

Where Breathing Is Deadly

2008-05-24T22:41:00.001-04:00

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF BADUI, China China’s biggest health disaster isn’t the terrible Sichuan earthquake this month. It’s the air. The quake killed at least 55,000 people, generating a response that has been heartwarming and inspiring, with even schoolchildren in China donating to the victims. Yet with little notice, somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 Chinese die prematurely every

Microsoft kills books search engine because books aren't fun

2008-05-24T19:14:00.001-04:00

Microsoft has announced that it is shutting down Live Search Books and Live Search Academic, two search engines that aimed to index scholarly works that are often difficult to find online. The company is also ceasing its ambitious effort to digitize library books, a project that it had long promoted as an alternative to Google's own such efforts. The company says it "recognizes" that

In Praise of Liberal Guilt

2008-05-23T12:56:00.003-04:00

Posted Thursday, May 22, 2008, at 5:34 PM ET When did "liberal guilt" get such a bad reputation? You hear it all the time now from people who sneeringly dismiss whites who support Obama's candidacy as "guilty liberals." There are, of course, many reasons why whites might support Obama that have nothing to do with race. But what if redeeming our shameful racial past is one factor for some? Why

libertarian paternalism

2008-05-05T22:56:00.001-04:00

The New Paternalism An economist and a legal scholar argue that policy makers should nudge people into making good decisions By EVAN R. GOLDSTEIN "You see that?" Richard H. Thaler asks as we ride

The All-White Elephant in the Room

2008-05-04T00:45:00.001-04:00

By FRANK RICHBORED by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for “John Hagee Roman Church Hitler,” and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive. Or just click here.What you’ll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela

The Opt-Out Revolution Revisited

2008-05-01T14:30:00.001-04:00

The Opt-Out Revolution Revisited By Joan C. Williams The American Prospect Monday 05 March 2007 Issue Women aren't forsaking careers for domestic life. The ground rules just make it impossible to have both. "I was tired of juggling. I was tired of feeling guilty. I was tired of holding the household reins in one hand. So I quit." On the cover of The New York Times Magazine for

The Feminine Mistake: "how dare you judge me!"

2008-05-01T14:27:00.002-04:00

The Feminine MistakeEveryone knows that authors have to be prepared for negative reviews. What I didn't anticipate was an avalanche of blistering attacks by women who hadn't read my book but couldn't wait to condemn it. Their fury says a great deal about the current debate over women's choices -- all of it alarming.I wrote The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? because the typical

To think Al Gore might have been president these last 8 years

2008-04-30T00:11:00.001-04:00

April 30, 2008Op-Ed ColumnistDumb as We Wanna BeBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMANIt is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4

Ocean Hill-Brownsville, 40 Years Later

2008-04-28T17:59:00.001-04:00

The lessons of the New York City school strikeBy RICHARD D. KAHLENBERGThey were the pink slips that helped change American liberalism.Forty years ago — on May 9, 1968 — the local school board in Brooklyn's black ghetto of Ocean Hill-Brownsville sent telegrams to 19 unionized educators, informing them that their employment in the district was terminated. Eighteen were white. One black teacher was

McCain’s Compassion Tour

2008-04-26T11:51:00.001-04:00

By GAIL COLLINSJohn McCain — this is the guy, you may remember, who’s going to be the Republican presidential nominee — has been visiting the poor lately. Appalachia, New Orleans, Rust Belt factory towns. This is a good thing, and we applaud his efforts to show compassion and interest in people for whom his actual policies are of no use whatsoever.McCain’s special It’s Time for Action Tour was in

Rockridge Institute

2008-04-21T10:08:00.001-04:00

The Rockridge Institute was founded with a mission: to teach Americans about the role of values and framing in political debate, and to help progressives equalize the framing advantages enjoyed by conservatives. With your help, Rockridge has done more than any small think tank could be expected to do. About 1,000 of you have donated to support our efforts. More than 8,000 have registered as

The haunting of the Democrats

2008-04-21T00:19:00.000-04:00

The party is caught in an excruciating Catch-22. Whether it chooses the establishment figure or the liberal reformer, history offers many paths to defeat.By Andrew O'HehirApr. 21, 2008 | History, in Marx's famous dictum, tends to repeat itself: the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. So what do you call it the third time around? A bad sitcom? A bad marriage? A bad dream? All three

Shoddy! Tawdry! A Televised Train Wreck!

2008-04-19T23:58:00.001-04:00

By FRANK RICH“THE crowd is turning on me,” said Charles Gibson, the ABC anchor, when the audience jeered him in the final moments of Wednesday night’s face-off between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.I can’t remember a debate in which the only memorable moment was the audience’s heckling of a moderator. Then again, I can’t remember a debate that became such an instant national gag, earning

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand

2008-04-19T17:22:00.003-04:00

The New York TimesApril 20, 2008By DAVID BARSTOWIn the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.The administration’s communications

why I'm done with Hillary: a compendium

2008-03-26T20:22:00.005-04:00

Hillary Clinton has told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that she would have left her church if her pastor had made divisive comments like those of Barack Obama's minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "He would not have been my pastor," sniffed La Clinton. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."The obvious reply is that you also choose which ministers receive

Beyond America’s Original Sin

2008-03-20T00:47:00.001-04:00

By ROGER COHENThere are things you come to believe and things you carry in your blood. In my case, having spent part of my childhood in apartheid South Africa, I bear my measure of shame.As a child, experience is wordless but no less powerful for that. How vast, how shimmering, was Muizenberg beach, near Cape Town, with all that glistening white skin spread across the golden sand!The scrawny

Obama's faith in the reasoning abilities of the American public

2008-03-19T03:13:00.003-04:00

Glen Glenwald @ Salon.comI haven't written about the Obama speech yet (video here) because I spent much of the day reading the instantaneous reactions of virtually everyone else, and because the issues raised by the speech are complex and my views about it are somewhat ambiguous. Personally, I found the speech riveting, provocative, insightful, thoughtful and courageous -- courageous because it

Geraldine Ferraro and Why there's no Racism in America

2008-03-16T16:30:00.000-04:00

There is peculiar bit of jujitsu that white public figures have employed recently whenever they're called to account for saying something stupid about black people. When the hard questions start flying, said figure deflects them by claiming that any critical interrogation is tantamount to calling them a racist, which they most assuredly are not. Last year, Bill O'Reilly took a jaunt up to

Supreme Court Inc.

2008-03-15T15:23:00.000-04:00

The New York TimesMarch 16, 2008Supreme Court Inc.By JEFFREY ROSENI.The headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, located across from Lafayette Park in Washington, is a limestone structure that looks almost as majestic as the Supreme Court. The similarity is no coincidence: both buildings were designed by the same architect, Cass Gilbert. Lately, however, the affinities between the court and

Why Voters Aren't Motivated by a Laundry List of Positions on Issues

2008-03-05T20:49:00.000-05:00

by Joe Brewer, George LakoffThere is a faulty view of voting behavior – widely held by political strategists on the left – that people already know what they want. All you have to do is conduct a poll to find out where they stand on the issues, then build a platform of positions that accords with the polls, and they will vote for you. Missing from this view is the importance of cognitive policy –

The $2 Trillion Nightmare

2008-03-04T01:00:00.001-05:00

By BOB HERBERTWe’ve been hearing a lot about “Saturday Night Live” and the fun it has been having with the presidential race. But hardly a whisper has been heard about a Congressional hearing in Washington last week on a topic that could have been drawn, in all its tragic monstrosity, from the theater of the absurd.The war in Iraq will ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers not hundreds of billions of

Most Important Issue for 2008 (and 2004...)

2008-03-03T11:46:00.004-05:00

Most Important Issue For 2008 VotersNo wonder so many young, educated people are turning to comedy for their news these days - at least they're not unintentionally ridiculous, like Fox News.

Stanford's Richard Thompson Ford looks at black and white and sees gray

2008-03-02T20:36:00.000-05:00

By PETER SCHMIDTSan FranciscoIt's just before noon, and Sam's Grill rapidly fills with the power-lunch crowd. The clientele of this venerable Financial District eatery are unmistakably old-school, graying white men in business suits who order Manhattans and veal chops from tuxedo-clad waiters. Even here in San Francisco, a guy in line for a table jokes loudly about a gay acquaintance being "light

Obama, Blackness, and Postethnic America

2008-03-02T20:35:00.001-05:00

The Obama candidacy challenges our notions of identity politicsBy DAVID A. HOLLINGERIn their support for Hillary Rodham Clinton over Barack Obama, prominent black leaders have made it clear that black skin color itself is not as big a deal in American politics as it once was. The spectacle of John Lewis, Charles B. Rangel, and Andrew Young, among others, trying to persuade black Americans to vote

McCain Channels His Inner Hillary

2008-03-02T00:55:00.000-05:00

By FRANK RICHBEFORE they were sidetracked into a new war against The New York Times, the Rush Limbaugh posse had it right about John McCain. He is a double agent. Some Democrats do admire and like him. So does Jon Stewart, and so do many liberal editorial boards and card-carrying hacks in the mainstream American press. So, in fact, do many at The Times, including myself. As long as I don’t look

¿Quién Es Less Macho?

2008-02-24T01:39:00.000-05:00

By MAUREEN DOWDIf this is truly the Decline and Fall of the Clinton Empire, it is marked by one freaky stroke of bad luck and one striking historical irony.How likely is it that a woman who finally unfetters herself from one superstar then finds herself eclipsed by another?And when historians trace how her inevitability dissolved, they will surely note this paradox: The first serious female

The Audacity of Hopelessness

2008-02-24T01:34:00.001-05:00

By FRANK RICHWHEN people one day look back at the remarkable implosion of the Hillary Clinton campaign, they may notice that it both began and ended in the long dark shadow of Iraq.It’s not just that her candidacy’s central premise — the priceless value of “experience” — was fatally poisoned from the start by her still ill-explained vote to authorize the fiasco. Senator Clinton then compounded

The "Xerox" Moment

2008-02-22T09:58:00.002-05:00

It'd be a shame to think that, for all the energy and potential of Hillary's campaign, one of the last great mistakes might been the "Xerox" moment in the Texas debate with Obama. From Slate:"The Wisconsin vote, in which Obama won the majority of people who had made up their minds in the previous week, proved just how ineffective the attacks had been. Something about the charges wasn’t sticking.

An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton

2008-02-20T01:10:00.003-05:00

Hillary, we have to talk.I know you have a lot of highly paid consultants, but they don't seem to be doing much for you at present. Me, I've got a Ph.D in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley and a few minutes to kill before I go to bed. I like you. I think you'd be a great president. I'm hoping Obama will win the nomination, but I'd vote for you in a heartbeat if you ended up getting the nod.This seems

What is the point of a paper of record that decides the untarnished record is too much for readers?

2008-02-18T15:41:00.000-05:00

What is the point of a paper of record that decides the untarnished record is too much for readers?By Christopher HitchensPosted Monday, Feb. 18, 2008, at 11:53 AM ETDo you ever wonder what is the greatest enemy of the free press? One might mention a few conspicuous foes, such as the state censor, the monopolistic proprietor, the advertiser who wants either favorable coverage or at least an

“Poverty in early childhood poisons the brain.”

2008-02-18T01:06:00.001-05:00

The New York TimesFebruary 18, 2008Poverty Is PoisonBy PAUL KRUGMAN“Poverty in early childhood poisons the brain.” That was the opening of an article in Saturday’s Financial Times, summarizing research presented last week at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.As the article explained, neuroscientists have found that “many children growing up in very poor families with low

Obama votes uncounted in NYC- Clinton tricks?

2008-02-17T20:59:00.004-05:00

[I heard reports of in my heavily pro-Obama section own part of Brooklyn, of people who reportedly saw people taking the tallies simply put down "0 votes" for Obama regardless of what the actual number was. Sounds too incredible to believe, except that now there's proof that a number of areas were supposedly won by over 100 to 0. No votes for Obama whatsoever? None? Sound fishy? Read on...]

America closes the book on intelligence

2008-02-17T20:50:00.001-05:00

Our country is barely smarter than a fifth grader -- no wonder it's drowning in religious fundamentalism and political ideologues on both sides, argues Susan Jacoby.By Laura MillerFeb. 15, 2008 | For an author of serious nonfiction, success can lead to some surprisingly disheartening encounters with the reading public. Susan Jacoby's 2004 history of American secularism, "Freethinkers," was among

The Grand Old White Party Confronts Obama

2008-02-17T13:47:00.001-05:00

By FRANK RICHTHE curse continues. Regardless of party, it’s hara-kiri for a politician to step into the shadow of even a mediocre speech by Barack Obama.Senator Obama’s televised victory oration celebrating his Chesapeake primary trifecta on Tuesday night was a mechanical rehash. No matter. When the networks cut from the 17,000-plus Obama fans cheering at a Wisconsin arena to John McCain’s

how the republicans did it

2008-02-15T23:29:00.001-05:00

So if Obamamania doesn't come close to making the cut as a "cult," then just what the hell is going on there?What's going on is that we've finally got a Democratic candidate who understands exactly how the Republicans did it. As I pointed out my very first week on this blog, the GOP didn't come to power by talking about plans and policies; they did it by using strongly emotional appeals that

History Lesson: Bill Clinton's tenure was not a failure

2008-02-12T16:50:00.000-05:00

By David GreenbergPosted Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008, at 3:34 PM ETThere are several reasons why Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has shied away from running on the accomplishments of Bill Clinton's presidency: anxiety about a Clinton "dynasty," a concern not to be seen as dwelling on the past; and a clear public hunger for "change," however unspecified the content of that change may be. But

One Nation Under Multiple Gods: The British tabloids are right to bash the archbishop of Canterbury.

2008-02-11T20:35:00.001-05:00

One Nation Under Multiple GodsThe British tabloids are right to bash the archbishop of Canterbury.By Anne ApplebaumPosted Monday, Feb. 11, 2008, at 8:04 PM ETIs this a storm in a teacup, as the archbishop now claims? Was the "feeding frenzy" biased and unfair? Certainly, it is true that, since last Thursday, when Rowan Williams—the archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Church of

To Hell With the Archbishop of Canterbury: Rowan Williams' dangerous claptrap about "plural jurisdiction."

2008-02-11T15:13:00.001-05:00

Rowan Williams' dangerous claptrap about "plural jurisdiction."By Christopher HitchensPosted Monday, Feb. 11, 2008, at 12:27 PM ETIn December 1931, George Orwell got himself arrested in the slums of East London in order to find out about conditions "inside," and then he wrote an essay about the people he met while in detention. One of them was a buyer for a kosher butcher who had embezzled some

When Women Rule

2008-02-09T22:48:00.000-05:00

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOFWhile no woman has been president of the United States — yet — the world does have several thousand years’ worth of experience with female leaders. And I have to acknowledge it: Their historical record puts men’s to shame.A notable share of the great leaders in history have been women: Queen Hatshepsut and Cleopatra of Egypt, Empress Wu Zetian of China, Isabella of Castile,

Where's the Big Idea?

2008-02-09T11:35:00.000-05:00

Bob HerbertThere is plenty for Democrats to admire in the candidacies of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.They are smart, appealing and politically gifted. High fives are in order. Their success to date represents advances in American society that many would have seen as unthinkable just a few years ago.There’s actually a lot for Americans of all political persuasions to admire this

America Betrayed: Will Progressives Take the Fall?

2008-02-06T10:36:00.001-05:00

by Joe Brewer, Scott ParkinsonThe story of Iraq will be told as a story of betrayal. But which version of that story prevails – who is cast as the betrayer – will have profound and lasting consequences for the future of our country.Last modified Tuesday, February 5, 2008 10:52 AMAs we enter this crucial election year, progressives need to be wary that our greatest strength – our long-standing

To Keep in mind for 2008 election

2008-02-06T01:08:00.000-05:00

The only states the relly matter in the 2008 election are listed below (how much):All others are historically set one way or the other, and have little chance of changing regardless of how much time and money the candidates spend there. Florida (27)Ohio (20)Georgia (15) - could quite possibly go (D) with Obama and severely fractured republican base, would be a huge upsetMissouri (11) - severely

LETTRIST ENDORSEMENT

2008-02-04T00:30:00.000-05:00

Dear readers,I rarely use my own voice on this blog because I prefer it to be a vehicle for those far more interesting and informative than myself. But on the eve of "Super Tuesday," the primary that will help decide the next president of the most powerful nation on earth, and possibly the course of major world events over the next decade or more, I can't help from issuing my own verdict on how

Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power

2008-02-03T14:38:00.001-05:00

This week, Slate is publishing a two-part excerpt from War Stories columnist Fred Kaplan's new book, Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power, which argues that the failures in Bush's foreign and military policy stem from two great misconceptions: that the world changed after Sept. 11, when it didn't, and that the United States emerged from the Cold War stronger than

dreaming of Reagan

2008-02-02T13:32:00.000-05:00

How Romney and McCain rewrite history.In the past few weeks, the Democratic Party has suddenly turned on Bill Clinton with the ferocity of 16 years of pent-up resentments. He will not be cut any more slack, and neither will his wife. Meanwhile, the Republican primaries have turned into a Ronald Reagan Adoration Contest. Neither ex-president deserves what he is getting. Clinton is a victim of long

Whatever happened to "Compassionate Conservatism?" Ultimately, it was easier to say than to do.

2008-01-28T10:10:00.000-05:00

The Bush Who Got AwayBy JACOB WEISBERGAS George W. Bush prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address, it’s worth revisiting the first speech he gave to a joint session of Congress. His valedictory words tonight will provide an opportunity to reflect on the kind of president Mr. Bush was. The speech delivered seven years ago points to the very different sort of president he might have

Waving Goodbye to Hegemony

2008-01-26T07:55:00.001-05:00

January 27, 2008NYT MagazineBy PARAG KHANNATurn on the TV today, and you could be forgiven for thinking it’s 1999. Democrats and Republicans are bickering about where and how to intervene, whether to do it alone or with allies and what kind of world America should lead. Democrats believe they can hit a reset button, and Republicans believe muscular moralism is the way to go. It’s as if the first

Crashing the Subprime Party

2008-01-25T15:22:00.000-05:00

SLATEJURISPRUDENCECrashing the Subprime PartyHow the feds stopped the states from averting the lending mess.By Nicholas BagleyPosted Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, at 11:19 PM ETAs the federal government scurries to prevent the subprime mortgage crisis from sending the economy into a deep recession, many of us are asking why it waited so long to intervene. As it turns out, the government wasn't exactly

The Blight that is Still with Us

2008-01-22T10:42:00.001-05:00

The political mantra this year is “change.” But South Carolina, where the Confederate flag still flies on the grounds of the State Capitol, is a disturbing example of how difficult it is for people of good will to dispose of the toxic layers of bigotry that have accumulated over several long centuries.On Saturday, in a cold, steady rain, voters turned out for the Republican primary. Nearly all of

Against Independent Voters

2008-01-21T13:53:00.001-05:00

Stanley FishWe’re in that season now when we hear the same things being said over and over again, and nothing is said more often by political pundits than this election (it doesn’t matter which one) will be decided by independent voters. Accompanying this announcement is the judgment – sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit – that this state of affairs is to be welcomed, even encouraged: it’s

Huckabee's "full-blooded and full-throated bellow of old-fashioned authentic racism" and the media's unusual silence

2008-01-21T13:48:00.000-05:00

Why are the media ignoring Mike Huckabee's remarks about the Confederate flag?By Christopher HitchensIn this country, it seems that you can always get an argument going about "race" as long as it is guaranteed to be phony, but never when it is real. Almost every day brings news of full-dress media-oriented spats about Don Imus, Bob Grant, or the recent nonstory about how some golf show had

Why Obama is wrong to credit Reagan's "revolution"

2008-01-21T13:33:00.000-05:00

Debunking the Reagan MythBy PAUL KRUGMANHistorical narratives matter. That’s why conservatives are still writing books denouncing F.D.R. and the New Deal; they understand that the way Americans perceive bygone eras, even eras from the seemingly distant past, affects politics today.And it’s also why the furor over Barack Obama’s praise for Ronald Reagan is not, as some think, overblown. The fact

'Have Not' Colleges Need New Ways to Compete With Rich Ones

2008-01-18T23:25:00.001-05:00

By JOHN MAGUIRE and LAWRENCE BUTLERLast month's announcement by Harvard University that it will eliminate loans and ask families making between $120,000 and $180,000 a year to pay no more than 10 percent of their incomes brought into bold relief a misguided debate that has erupted around other, less-elite private colleges' use of merit aid to attract students.Many of the students who receive such

Policy Makers Must Recognize Higher Education's 2-Tiered System

2008-01-18T23:21:00.000-05:00

By CHRISTOPHER C. MORPHEWThe news media have extensively documented how many college applicants receive rejection letters from the country's most-elite higher-education institutions. The coverage has focused on the effort and expense that students and their parents put forth, only to be turned away.While many private colleges and universities have always been highly selective, what has changed is

Bush's Legacy

2008-01-15T21:38:00.001-05:00

So much of the burgeoning Bush literature, both nonfiction and fiction, is built on the premise that the Bush-Cheney autarchy is a disastrous failure that can be diagnosed as a hulking case of hubris coupled with a righteous dose of blowback. (Earlier this year saw the publication of a book co-written by Michael Isikoff and David Corn titled Hubris, unveiling “the Inside Story of Spin, Scandal,

Responding to Recession

2008-01-14T15:44:00.000-05:00

By Paul KrugmanPublished: January 14, 2008Suddenly, the economic consensus seems to be that the implosion of the housing market will indeed push the U.S. economy into a recession, and that it’s quite possible that we’re already in one. As a result, over the next few weeks we’ll be hearing a lot about plans for economic stimulus.Since this is an election year, the debate over how to stimulate the

The Moral Instinct

2008-01-12T12:47:00.000-05:00

The Moral InstinctBy STEVEN PINKERSteven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the author of “The Language Instinct” and “The Stuff ofThought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature.”Which of the following people would you say is the most admirable: Mother Teresa, Bill Gates or Norman Borlaug? And which do you think is the least admirable? For most

The Republican Field

2008-01-12T01:51:00.001-05:00

By GAIL COLLINSEver since Barack Obama won big in Iowa, Mitt Romney has been running as a “change” candidate. It is a little strange to see a guy whose party has been in power for years standing in front of a big blue “Washington is Broken” sign, but I think we have already determined that Romney is nothing if not really, really adaptable.“I brought change, and they can only talk about change,”

Paul Krugman - Taxes and Fear

2008-01-07T19:51:00.001-05:00

...for 30 years American politics has been dominated by a political movement practicing Robin-Hood-in-reverse, giving unto those that hath while taking from those who don’t. And one secret of that long domination has been a remarkable flexibility in economic debate. The policies never change — but the arguments for these policies turn on a dime.When the economy is doing reasonably well, the

It takes a family (to break a glass ceiling)

2008-01-05T18:31:00.001-05:00

SOME women, even progressive ones, are surely celebrating Hillary Clinton’s third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. Those of us who think 43 male presidents in a row is quite enough, thank you, still sometimes question whether a woman whose greatest political move was her marriage deserves to be the first woman in the White House.But while there are plenty of reasons not to vote for Mrs. Clinton

Reason’s Jesse Walker on the fall of Mitt Romney

2008-01-04T18:18:00.001-05:00

“I have to confess I’m enjoying Mike Huckabee’s victory, even though I disagree with virtually all of his platform. Mitt Romney represents everything Americans hate about politicians: the empty man hungry for power and willing to say anything to get it, the privileged man who thinks he can buy an election without actually standing for anything. Intellectually I know I should prefer him to

What Republicans would rather not acknowledge about the Huckabee candidacy

2008-01-03T15:42:00.000-05:00

The rap against Mike Huckabee, the Baptist preacher and ex-Arkansas governor now doing for the Republican Party establishment what three-alarm chili does for an afternoon nap, is that he’s too inexperienced to be president, too naïve — a rube straight out of Dogpatch.Few of Huckabee’s critics have actually come out and said what many of them think. The language is coded, as it usually is with

Progressives, To Arms! Forget about Bush—and the middle ground.

2008-01-02T04:17:00.000-05:00

By Paul KrugmanHere's a thought for progressives: Bush isn't the problem. And the next president should not try to be the anti-Bush.No, I haven't lost my mind. I'm not saying that we should look kindly on the Worst President Ever; we'll all breathe a sigh of relief when he leaves office 405 days, 2 hours, and 46 minutes from now. (Yes, a friend gave me one of those Bush countdown clocks.) Nor am

The Airport Security Follies

2007-12-29T23:27:00.000-05:00

December 28, 2007, 6:52 pmThe Airport Security FolliesBy Patrick SmithPatrick Smith, a commercial airline pilot, is the author of Salon.com’s weekly Ask the Pilot air travel column; his book of the same name was published in 2004. He lives near Boston.Six years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, airport security remains a theater of the absurd. The changes put in place following the September

Media Politics

2007-12-28T21:52:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, Mitt Romney put up a television ad knocking John McCain for not supporting tax cuts and offering amnesty to illegal aliens. The ad asks "John McCain, an honorable man. But is he the right Republican for the future?" Now the McCain team is thinking about using Romney's own words (and campaign aides) to respond.Taxes and immigration have nothing to do with the future, particularly, but

MORAL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF RELIGION

2007-12-28T13:58:00.000-05:00

JONATHAN HAIDT is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, where he does research on morality and emotion and how they vary across cultures. He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom.I study morality from every angle I can find. Morality is one of those basic aspects of humanity, like sexuality and eating, that can't fit into one

Why Obama is the New Clinton

2007-12-22T11:32:00.000-05:00

The New York TimesDecember 23, 2007The Clinton ReferendumBy MATT BAIWinter’s first storm punished the White Mountains of New Hampshire on the Friday before Thanksgiving, rendering the terrain all but impassable. And yet in Gorham, a small town 50 miles from the Canadian border, hundreds of people shuddered patiently in the snow, in a line that snaked halfway around Gorham Middle-High School,

The Partisan: A review of Paul Krugman's 'The Conscience of a Liberal'

2007-12-21T13:00:00.000-05:00

from the New York Review of Books:The PartisanBy Michael Tomaskya review of: The Conscience of a Liberalby Paul KrugmanNorton, 296 pp., $25.95Difficult as it is to remember now, there was a time in the United States, as recently as fifteen or so years ago, when we were not engaged in constant political warfare. In those days Senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in a war, would not have been

Arrogance and Warming

2007-12-21T03:12:00.001-05:00

NYTThe Bush administration’s decision to deny California permission to regulate and reduce global warming emissions from cars and trucks is an indefensible act of executive arrogance that can only be explained as the product of ideological blindness and as a political payoff to the automobile industry.The decision, announced Wednesday by Stephen Johnson, the administrator of the Environmental

Where Deregulation took the Mortage Industry

2007-12-21T03:07:00.001-05:00

Blindly Into the BubbleBy PAUL KRUGMANWhen announcing Japan’s surrender in 1945, Emperor Hirohito famously explained his decision as follows: “The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage.”There was a definite Hirohito feel to the explanation Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, gave this week for the Fed’s locking-the-barn-door-after-the-horse-is-gone decision to