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Newest Blog Entries:
Lessons taught by FDR
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Sunday, October 5, 2008NYT (2): International News
While those in the U.S. may laugh at any comparison of the current economic crisis to that of Weimar Germany, Germans are not laughing at all; and a female Egyptian paralympic champion returns home - to business as usual.Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, October 4, 2008
Make-Believe Maverick : Rolling Stone
from Scott Miller, as he writes a bit long but really worth reading.Posted by Michael Butler, Friday, October 3, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (3)
"By passing the bailout bill, America will avoid enduring a “lost decade” similar to the one that Japan faced after failing to respond decisively to its banking crisis" (Kristof); "The lesson of the last eight years is this: When power is a a passport to gamble, people can end up seriously broke or seriously dead. Does America want to roll the dice again?" (Cohen); and The Op-Ed editors asked people with knowledge of the vice-presidential candidates’ records to suggest questions for this evening’s debate in St. Louis.Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, October 2, 2008
The Nation: Why Has McCain Blocked Info on MIAs? - MUST READ
go to storyFrom Pulitzer winner (for Cambodia reporting - Killing Fields) Sydney Schanberg .. an eye opening report on the Viet Nam MIA scandal .. just when you think you've heard the worst about our past crimes - mab
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Thursday, October 2, 2008
Slow rise for a new era
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, October 1, 2008The nation’s social bargain with the rich
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Tuesday, September 30, 2008Topical depression
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Tuesday, September 30, 2008NYT Op-Eds (7)
"John McCain may be the first presidential candidate in our history to risk wrecking the country even before being voted into the Oval Office" (Rich); "John McCain has become steadily more of a neocon than President Bush in his first term, prone to solving problems with stealth bombers rather than diplomacy" (Kristof); "The presidential debate should have been a cinch for Barack Obama. But he willfully refuses to accept that debates are not a lecture hall; they’re a joust" (Dowd); "America doesn’t just need a bailout. We need a buildup. We need to get back to making stuff based on real engineering, not just financial engineering" (Friedman); "The only living presidential son to serve in combat while his father was in office has advice for the presidential candidates: don’t let your children in the military be deployed to the front lines" (Eisenhower); "With the recent collapse of large investment banks, the author of 'The Bonfire of Vanities' answers the question, 'Where does this leave the Masters of the Universe now?'" (Wolfe); "The death of Wall Street began when the firms moved away from their original reason for being: providing capital to American business" (Guest Op-Ed)Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, September 28, 2008
NYT 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
Everybody Calm Down. A government hand in the economy is as old as the republic.
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Sunday, September 28, 2008The blood of Dresden by Kurt Vonnegut : Information Clearing House - ICH
A great piece describing Vonnegut's time in Dresden as a POW. Really makes one sick as to the total waste of war in its inhumanity and degradation. MBPosted by Michael Butler, Friday, September 26, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (4)
"Sarah Palin loves the word “exceptional.” She may be onto something in her batty way: the election is very much about American exceptionalism" (Cohen); "President Bush’s explanation about how the rescue bill would unclog the lines of credit made the whole thing sound less important than a Liquid-Plumr commercial" (Collins); "The 2002 meeting in which President Bush’s administration tried to advert the implosion of Enron and other companies carries some telling lessons" (Guest Op-Ed); "Sex trafficking is widely acknowledged to be the 21st-century version of slavery, but governments accept it partly because it seems to defy solution" (Kristof)Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, September 25, 2008
McCain’s Ploy
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Thursday, September 25, 200810 way to bail out Wall Street (and Main Street) without soaking taxpayers in debt
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Thursday, September 25, 2008Lessons from the meltdown
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, September 24, 2008Wall Street’s man in Washington
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, September 24, 2008NYT Books in Review: “America and the World,” “The Limits of Power”
Brzezinski and Snowcroft offer "Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy," and Andrew Bacevich discusses "The End of American Exceptionalism."Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Financial meltdown, 2008: What would J. P. Morgan do?
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Tuesday, September 23, 2008t r u t h o u t | McCain and the POW Cover-Up
Posted by Michael Butler, Monday, September 22, 2008NYT Op-Eds (5)
"The twin-pronged Rovian strategy of truculence and propaganda that sold Bush and his war could yet work for John McCain" (Rich); "The political campaign to transform Barack Obama into a Muslim is succeeding. The real loser as that happens is our entire political process" (Kristof); "Aaron Sorkin conjures meeting between Barack Obama and former President Jed Bartlet of the 'West Wing.'" (Dowd); "George W. Bush never challenged Americans to do anything hard, let alone great. The next president is not going to have that luxury" (Friedman); "'The Dark Knight' echoes a civil discourse strained to helplessness by panic, overreaction and cultivated grievance" (Guest Op-Ed)Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, September 21, 2008
NYT: 7 Years Later, 9/11 Hijackers’ Remains Are in Limbo
"Seven years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the remains of 13 of the 19 men responsible have been identified and are in the custody of the F.B.I. and the New York City medical examiner’s office." Two questions come to mind. First, how is it that there are remains of the "terrorists" who allegedly flew a plane into the Pentagon, when even the plane's titanium engines disintegrated? Second, 13 of 19 leaves six "hijackers" unaccounted for. Is it possible then that the alternative theorists are correct that the remaining six are alive and well in their respective countries?Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, September 21, 2008
NYT Books in Review: “Left in Dark Times,” “The Angel of Grozny,” “Bumping Into Geniuses,” “Hitler’s Empire,” “Soldiers of Reason”
Bernard-Henri Levy "confronts French leftists"; an update on children orphaned by the Chechnyan war; an insider's look at the music biz; how inability to govern helped sink Hitler; and the political influence of the RAND Corporation.Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, September 21, 2008
