28 Articles

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Democrats to Obama: Get Out of Afghanistan
(2 comments) In place of a continuing U.S. military presence, the California Democrats are urging Obama "to oversee a redirection of our funding and resources to include an increase in humanitarian and developmental aid."

Friday, September 11, 2009
Afghanistan Election Fraud and the High Price of Empire
US officials are finding it increasingly difficult to construct a rationale for allowing the man they put in charge of Afghanistan to remain in charge of Afghanistan. The United States, a country founded with the purpose of breaking the chains of empire, has gotten into the dirty business of constructing and maintaining them.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever
(23 comments) The worst mistake that progressives could make in August would be to put their time and energy into getting members of Congress to agree to back a barely-acceptable compromise that could end up being unacceptable by the time the lobbyists and their political handmaidens finish with it. Better to get representatives and senators to commit to back single-payer bills.

Thursday, July 16, 2009
Klobuchar's Contribution: Talking Law With Sotomayor
"I was influenced so greatly by a television show in igniting the passion that I had as being a prosecutor, and it was 'Perry Mason'," Judge Sotomayor acknowledged in response to a question from Klobuchar, adding a human note to the routine give-and-take of the past several days.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Will Revelations About Dick Cheney's Secret Programs Spell His Downfall?
(3 comments) So serious are the charges against Cheney that Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who for too long worked too closely with the Bush-Cheney administration on so many issues, appears finally to be accepting that an inquiry is going to be required.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
GOP Senator Says Attacks on Sotomayor "Mainly About Politics"
(4 comments) ...the signal from Graham at Monday's session suggested there is a good chance key elements within the "party of no" will say yes to Sotomayor. That should allow her nomination to be sent from the Judiciary Committee to the full Senate with a strong recommendation that it be approved.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009
McNamara Was "Wrong, Terribly Wrong" About Vietnam
Almost a decade later, in the documentary Fog of War McNamara would admit to a many more failures. Most importantly, he expanded on his earlier acknowledgment that, "We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose."

Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Double-Digit Unemployment Poses Political Danger for Obama
(2 comments) But there comes a time when a president "owns" his recession. If the country is socked with a double-digit unemployment rate, and if the actions of the administration that is in charge are seen as feeding the increase in joblessness, that's the political point of no return.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The 'New GM': Layoffs, Factory Closings, Offshoring
(1 comments) Nothing about the old way of doing business made sense, and it made a wreck of GM. After decades of closing factories, laying off workers and shifting production overseas, the company now finds itself with $172.8 billion in debt. This massive de-industrialization plan -- with its rapid offshoring of work once done in the United States -- will be paid for by the federal government.

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Judge Sotomayor's Diabetes: Not a Weakness But a Strength
Sotomayor's most important service as a role model may be as a Type 1 diabetic -- someone who has, since the age of eight, had to deal with what has variously been referred to as "childhood", "juvenile" or "insulin-dependent" diabetes.This is another piece of the diversity puzzle, an essential piece that ought not be underestimated.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Obama Pick Sonia Sotomayor Reflects America
(3 comments) Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as his first appointment to the high court, was made at the White House this morning, with the president hailing her as "an inspiring woman who I think will make a great justice."

Monday, May 18, 2009
Auto Bailout Blues: Spin, Lies and Layoffs
(3 comments) Instead of spending billions to steer America toward fewer jobs, fewer factories and fewer dealerships, the Obama administration should stop spinning and start investing in the workers, the small businesses and the communities that have always been the heart and soul of America's auto industry.

Friday, May 15, 2009
The Case for Kenosha
(1 comments) Historians say it was in Kenosha, not Detroit, that cars began "to look like cars." "Very few Obama appointees have ties to the country's core productive sectors: manufacturing, agriculture, energy. Veterans of investment banking, academia or the public sector, they seem to see the economy more in terms of making media, images and trades--as opposed to actually making things."

Tuesday, May 12, 2009
David Simon, Arianna Huffington and the Future of Journalism
(2 comments) Nation Editor's Note: John Nichols testified before the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy at its April 21 hearing on "A New Age for Newspapers: Diversity of Voices, Competition and the Internet."

Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Year of Same-Sex Marriage!
(7 comments) Iowa, Vermont, D.C., New Hampshire, Maine. Likely up next will be New York and New Jersey. Equal treatment for all our citizens is warming up in the East.

Sunday, May 10, 2009
A Democrat Calls for Executive Accountability
Essential to the American struggle from the start was an understanding of the necessity of constraining the executive branch so that no president -- be he (or she) good or bad -- could serve as what Jefferson referred to as an "elected despot".

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A Liberal Democrat Returns to the Fold
(3 comments) Major unions, pro-choice, pro-gay rights and environmental groups, as well as supporters of scientific research have backed him over the years. It was not just that Specter voted right now and again, he maintained amiable relations with these groups, as well as with civil liberties organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Monday, April 27, 2009
GOP Know-Nothings Fought Pandemic Preparedness
(1 comments) Maine Senator Collins, the supposedly moderate Republican who demanded cuts in health care spending in exchange for her support of a watered-down version of the stimulus, fumed about the pandemic funding: "Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not."

Friday, April 24, 2009
Feingold on Torture Judge: "Grounds for Impeachment"
(2 comments) "The idea that one of the architects of this perversion of the law is now sitting on the federal bench is very troubling," Feingold argues. "The memos offer some of the most explicit evidence yet that Mr. Bybee and others authorized torture and they suggest that grounds for impeachment can be made," says the senator.

Thursday, April 2, 2009
House Members to Obama: Rethink Afghanistan Surge
Congressional Democrats and Republicans are signing on to a letter urging President Obama to reconsider his plan to surge tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops into Afghanistan.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Auto Gets Tough Love, While Wall Street Feels the Love
Will this president ever tell brokers and bankers that they are going to feel more pain than just the paper cuts from opening their bailout checks and bonuses?

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Thomas Geoghegan Campaign. An Idea. A New Political Paradigm
(2 comments) Has support of Dr. Quentin Young, the Chicago physician who has led the charge for national health care; former Chicago Councilman Leon Depres, the "liberal conscience of Chicago" who took a young Tom Geoghegan on as a law partner decades ago; brilliant Chicago political strategist and activist Don Rose, who with Geoghegan recognized the promise of Harold Washington's transformative Chicago mayoral campaigns.

Thursday, February 19, 2009
What Took So Long? Finally, Some Help For Homeowners
The president proposes to take administrative actions to spend $75 billion of the Financial Stabilization Fund on facilitating modifications in existing loans and he wants to require lenders that are accepting tax dollars to adopt foreclosure prevention protocols to prevent unnecessary foreclosures.

Monday, February 9, 2009
Save the Solis Nomination
(1 comments) Barack Obama made the right pick when he chose Hilda Solis to serve as his Secretary of Labor. The president should not be dissuaded by the silly spin that would equate the circumstances of a Tom Daschle with those of Hilda Solis. Obama and his allies in the Senate need to inject a measure of perspective....

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Don't Mourn for Daschle
(5 comments) No one -- or, at least, no one who is invested either in securing real health care reform or seeing an Obama presidency succeed -- should mourn Daschle's departure.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
A Commander-in-Chief Elected to End a War
(31 comments)

Monday, January 19, 2009
Most Valuable Progressives: Code Pink's Transition
(4 comments) Those of us who watched Code Pink evolve into the Most Valuable Progressive organization of the Bush years would expect no less of this amazing group in the Obama years.

Sunday, January 18, 2009
Lowery's Preaching, Not Warren's, Will Illuminate Inaugural Day
(1 comments) On Inauguration Day, it is a sound bet that the pastor who challenged George Wallace's bigotry and George Bush's war-making will challenge the backward thinking of Rick Warren and all those who would presume that the storehouses of God's justice run low when it comes to the rights of gays and lesbians.