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NYT Op-Eds (4)
"The 2008 election is now an Obama-Palin race about “the future,” and the only person who doesn’t seem to know it is Mr. Past, poor old John McCain" (Rich); "Watching Gov. Sarah Palin’s strenuously folksy debate performance, we could wonder when elite became a bad thing in America" (Dowd); "One of this season’s fallacies is that if Barack Obama is paying an electoral price for his skin tone, it must be because of racists. Not so — the evidence is that he is facing what scholars have dubbed 'racism without racists'" (Kristof); "When the next president takes office, Americans should not be surprised when he spells out the ramifications of being a debtor nation" (Friedman)Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, October 5, 2008
Naomi Klein on Colbert Report Last Night
Klein links Katrina w bailout ... "What [republicans] believe in is getting poor people into houses they can’t afford so that their friends can speculate on the money and then they can bail them out" ... sums it up dontcha think? - mabPosted by Mike Blaxill, Friday, October 3, 2008
Obama’s three challenges
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Monday, September 29, 2008NYT Books in Review: “The War Within,” “Zen and Now,” “The King and the Cowboy,” “Capitol Men,” “The Predator State,” “Icon of Evil”
Woodward on Bush's "Secret White House"; retracing Robert Pirsig's famous journey; an "odd political allegiance that helped shape the 20th century" (Teddy Roosevelt and Edward VII); "Reconstruction" and the first Black congressmen; "How conservatives abandoned the free market and why liberals should too"; and Hitler's role in the "rise of radical Islam."Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, September 28, 2008
Has Sarah Palin been picked as the titular head of the coming police state?
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, September 24, 2008NYT Editorial Observer: Barack Obama, John McCain and the Language of Race
"In the South, there's no need to decode 'uppity' or 'disrespectful.'"Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, September 22, 2008
A threat to democracy, by Géraldina Colotti
About the Roma (gypsies)Posted by Michael Butler, Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The unfinished year
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Monday, September 1, 2008NYT Op-Eds (4)
Gail Collins hits it out of the park: "McCain does not believe in pandering to identity politics. He was looking for someone who was well prepared to fight against international Islamic extremism, the transcendent issue of our time. And in the end he decided that in good conscience, he was not going to settle for anyone who had not been commander of a state national guard for at least a year and a half. He put down his foot!...The idea that women are going to race off to vote for any candidate with the same internal plumbing is both offensive and historically wrong...If she’s only on the ticket to try to get disaffected Clinton supporters to cross over, it’s a bad choice. Joe Biden may already be practicing his drop-dead line for the vice-presidential debate: 'I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine, and governor, you’re no Hillary Clinton'”; a guest op-ed suggesting that Palin was a good choice undermines its own argument ("John McCain chose Sarah Palin because he needs to recast the Republican Party in his own image: anticorruption, pro-reform and fiscally and socially conservative"); a guest op-ed looks at New Orleans three years later ("The third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina serves as a reminder to urge the next president to bring fresh attention to recovery in New Orleans." See also accompanying graphic); and Bob Herbert waxes teary-eyed over Obama's triumph ("For black residents in and around Detroit, Barack Obama’s nomination helped to redeem some of the grief of many years of racial humiliation and oppression").Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, August 30, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (4)
The man who literally wrote the book on LBJ talks about the past and the present ("Barack Obama’s speech — and in a way his candidacy — might not have been possible had President Lyndon Johnson’s address to Congress in 1965 not been given"); Roger Cohen asks, "Is Barack Obama more beer than Chardonnay? Is he a Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks guy? Is he one of us despite having what his wife Michelle called 'that funny name?'"; Gail Collins muses on the passing of the "First Lady" torch; and Nicholas Kristof apologizes to Steven Hatfill, but wonders how readers might handle various situations ("The job of the news media is supposed to be to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Instead, I managed to afflict the afflicted").Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 28, 2008
Dems nominate Obama, unify and transform the party
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Thursday, August 28, 2008NYT Op-Eds (3)
David Brooks gets pride of place today for his amazingly thoughtful analysis of - and support for - Obama's independence from forces within his own party ("Barack Obama is already an elusive Rorschach test candidate, and now he’s being pulled by his party in a thousand directions"); Bob Herbert sees "risks in the shadows" for Obama vis-a-vis race ("The race issue in Barack Obama’s campaign can come up in peculiar and jolting ways"); and Susan Faludi looks at Hillary and the fading promise of women's suffrage ("For supporters of Hillary Clinton, paying homage to women’s progress at the Democratic National Convention will be akin to slathering sweet icing on a bitter cake").Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, August 26, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (4)
Paul Krugman adds his voice to those of Herbert, Blow and Rich in pushing Obama to get out of his head and into his heart and spirit ("The Obama campaign only has to tarnish John McCain’s image enough that voters see this as a contest between a Democrat and a Republican"); a guest op-ed suggests that race is not the issue many think it is ("It would be naïve to suggest that race won’t figure in the election. But the danger for Democrats is that dark prophecies of prejudice could be self-fulfilling"); Bill Kristol muses on a clash of two Joes - Biden and Lieberman ("A McCain-Lieberman ticket may have a better prospect of winning than the more conventional alternatives"); and Christopher Buckley offers an amusing look at the Democratic convention schedule ("A mock schedule for the Democratic National Convention features a different kind of Theme of the Day: 'It’s Our Turn to Mess Things Up!'").Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, August 25, 2008
t r u t h o u t | Do Native Americans Have First Amendment Rights?
Posted by Michael Butler, Thursday, August 21, 2008The right’s five hilariously boneheaded anti-Obama smears
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, August 20, 2008Memo from a poison Penn
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Saturday, August 16, 2008Obama faces the smear machine
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Friday, August 15, 2008NYT (3): National News
A Democratic party leader is murdered; the G.O.P. faces tough races in the Northeast; and by 2042, "ethnic and racial minorities will comprise a majority of the nation's population."Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 14, 2008
Obama’s Problem with White, Male Voters
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, August 13, 2008NYT (2): National Politics
"What would a black president mean for black politics?" (Main Story, Magazine); and "During his seven and a half years in office, President Bush has declared 422 major disasters — severe storms, tornadoes, wildfires and floods — or more than one a week. That is 11 percent more than President Bill Clinton’s disaster declarations and 130 percent more than President Ronald Reagan during their full two terms in office...One explanation, though highly contentious, for why the country has been more disaster prone under Mr. Bush is global warming."Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, August 10, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (3)
"So why is the presidential race a statistical dead heat? The pundits have offered a host of reasons, but one in particular deserves more exploration: racism" (Blow; see also accompanying graphic); "Sometimes voters give the stomach-churning campaign tactics of racism or anti-Semitism what they deserve — defeat" (Herbert on Tinker's Tennessee tactics); "Sex scandals will always exist in politics, but you would think that by now politicians would know how to make a decent public confession" (Collins on Edwards)Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, August 9, 2008
The unavoidable issue
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Tuesday, August 5, 2008NYT Op-Eds (2)
"The racial fantasy factor in this presidential campaign is out of control" (Herbert); "There is precious little evidence of uniquely feminine motivations driving women’s suicide attacks" (Guest Op-Ed)Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, August 2, 2008
