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Jim Freeman's op-ed pieces and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, International Herald-Tribune, CNN, The New York Review, The Jon Stewart Daily Show and a number of magazines. His thirteen published books are available at Amazon.
Websites at www.Jim-Freeman.com and www.dark-side-of-the-moon.com
I am politically left of center, tempered by respect for some of the thought on the right. It's the partisan intransigence I have opposition to and always try to frame my commentary from a thoughtful rather than outraged point of view. God knows there is enough to be outraged about, but that doesn't serve a useful purpose. We need coming together, not further distance.
I'm not young, having lived in portions of eight decades, but it gives me a sense of perspective, having experienced a goodly part of our history. I was there before TV, there when Wall Street gave sound advice, there when we knew our neighbors and banks were local. Many of my readers were alive and working before the internet, Wal-Mart and McDonalds--but damned few personally remember FDR, Truman and Eisenhower.
It's been a wonderful experience, but I have never had reason to fear for the future of my nation and I'm very deeply concerned at the moment. Essentially a novelist, I felt the Clinton impeachment and Bush administration left me little choice but to set aside fiction and speak out publicly. That's not a choice I regret, but I am sad for the circumstances that require it.
Thursday, March 21, 2013 The Senate, "Getting Something on the Floor' and Trusting it's not a Dead Child. (1 comments)
Thus we arrive at Harry Reid's Tuesday announcement that Diane Feinstein's assault-weapons ban did not have the support of enough members to get it through the Senate as part of the gun control bill. A bi-partisan shortfall, the blame for this one can't fall entirely on Republicans. Paraphrasing Reid, "I have to get something on the floor that will pass and this isn't it."
Thursday, March 14, 2013 Eric Holder Exposes A Nation of Law, Going Lawless (32 comments)
Early In March, Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee he and his Department of Justice were, essentially, unable to prosecute crime.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 Path to Citizenship, or Ship to Nowhere? (25 comments)
The Senate, in what they tell us is a bipartisan plan for immigration reform, cloaked its partisan nature behind something they euphemistically call "a path to citizenship."
Monday, January 21, 2013 Liar's Poker at the Federal Reserve--"Can't anybody here play this game?" (1 comments)
That quote's attributable to Casey Stengel, expressing his frustration over his team's spectacular ineptitude. Spectacular ineptitude is exactly the phrase that defines Ben Bernanke's chairmanship of the Federal Reserve throughout the Fed's stumbling, blundering support of special interests relating to the 2007 financial meltdown.
Thursday, December 20, 2012 Fear of the "Fiscal If" (2 comments)
Something must be done, they all rant and by something, they mean their particular something. The better question is should something be done? This not-so-humble commentator thinks no, nothing should be patched together in a last-ditch effort to avoid enforcing the Budget Control Act.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012 The Fat Lady Finally Sang (3 comments)
I view this as a watershed victory, without ironic reference in to Hurricane Sandra. Old white America has finally lost its 236 year grip on the nation and its politics.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012 The Trans Pacific Partnership, Yet another Opportunity to Chop-Shop America (3 comments)
All that's heard in Washington these days is the deficit and the partisan fight over which services to the poorest of Americans must be cut. The true deficit is a trade deficit and its brief (and continuing) history of free-trade agreements is killing us.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 ARRIVAL TIME, 2010; A VIABLE THIRD-PARTY OPTION (18 comments)
No matter how you break it down, or whose numbers you care to adhere to, a growing number of Americans are leaving their Republican or Democrat tags to declare themselves independent. Most figures hover at approximately 40%.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 SAM ZELL'S HEROIC DECONSTRUCTION OF ICONIC NEWSPAPERS (2 comments)
Maybe Zell, the man with small-time ethics wrapped in a big-time ego, sees himself as a Murdoch impersonator, but both the LA Times and Chicago Tribune are dissolving under his ego and inorance. If his idea is to save news by killing off reportage and investigative journalism, he's on the wrong track.
Monday, March 10, 2008 Smash the Presses Before Ben Bernanke Starts Printing (3 comments)
We are no longer a capitalist society and have not been one for some years now. We are an interest-rate dependent consumer society and the sole, wheezing, smoking engine left to support that house of cards is consumer confidence. Essentially, the American dream has become a confidence-game (noun: a swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property).
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Drawn and Quartered--Destroying American Business, Quarter by Quarter
We are not so much a fault-finding nation as we are a fault-requiring one. Somebody has to take the heat. In the matter of where our manufacturing base has gone and why, I have a nominee.
Saturday, November 24, 2007 Why a Democrat President Hasn't a Chance to Save the Nation (4 comments)
I lay my case, that no Democrat (or Republican for that matter) can come into office on January 19th of 2008 and find the support-either within the country or the Congress-to do that which must be done. History has proven with depressing regularity, that what man conspires to avoid, economic reality will enforce.
Monday, November 19, 2007 Is There Anything American About America Anymore? (6 comments)
Sometimes I wonder where they took my country when I wasn't looking. It's been dragged off, sealed in a box and hidden in the basement under a pile of recyclables.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 Dressing Up Space Defense in Dominatrix Clothing
Setting aside and ignoring the blather of Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, we are becoming a sadomasochistic nation when it comes to our foreign affairs.
Monday, November 12, 2007 LANGUAGE ISN'T THE ONLY OBSTACLE IN IRAQ
Everything is blamed on al-Qaeda, who didn't even know where Iraq was until we pointed them in that direction by the smoke in the sky from Shock and Awe.
Monday, November 12, 2007 DON'T WORRY WORLD, IT'S ONLY US
America's Pentagon, that bee-hive of activity that was run by Donald Rumsfeld (before Iraq went so wrong and he was canned) is preparing weapons to fight the next battle from space.
Sunday, November 11, 2007 A DIFFICULT ALLY AND A DANGEROUS ENEMY (6 comments)
I've worn out my keyboard ranting about our president's fixation on nuclear 'possibles' such as North Korea and Iran, while nuclear reality Pakistan has always been the least stable of the bunch.
Friday, November 9, 2007 New York Times Editorial on Kids' Health and Tobacco-Wrong Again (5 comments)
Engaging in demagoguery against Big Tobacco is the easy reach for a newspaper too lazy or morally indifferent to go after the problem head on. Since when has it become shameless to protect a corporate profit when the state decides to confiscate it in the name of children?
Thursday, November 8, 2007 SHAMELESS ALL RIGHT, BUT NOT FOR BIG TOBACCO--THE NYTIMES GETS IT WRONG AGAIN (4 comments)
The desperation of a nation short-changed into the flim-flam of inadequate 'health insurance' takes increasingly bizarre turns at the voting booth. Consider the idiocy of tagging smokers with the bill for children's health care.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007 SCHUMER & CO, SLOPPING AWAY AT THE TROUGH (4 comments)
Sixty grand to buy the United States Senate. Two hundred-fifty grand buys the United States President. Twenty grand here and twenty grand there positions Halliburton, Blackwater, Boeing and their 'privatization of government' enthusiasts to simply take our democracy away and hide it.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 MAD ALAN GREENSPAN WITH MORE ADVICE
Alan, whose advice has been uniformly bad during his last term as Fed Chairman, wants no suppression of bubbles on the one hand and (by inference) a managed way to get rid of 'units'--houses, in less contrived jargon.
Sunday, November 4, 2007 MAD or NUTS Take Your Pick, It Might be IRRITATE
Iran currently has the market cornered on cheerleaders for war, while no one gives a damn as Pakistan falls into chaos. But I suspect Louis Beres feels Israel has a special hold on American nuclear pre-emption, no doubt because of the Holocaust-an entirely European affair.
Saturday, November 3, 2007 BULLFEATHERS AND BIG SUGAR
What better metaphor for government? In a way, it's comforting that American sugar, the world's most expensive, will continue in that capacity due to yet another ten years of subsidy. Keeps that Central and South American sugar in its place. Sticks the corporate finger in Fidel Castro's eye.
Monday, October 29, 2007 WAR AGAINST DRUGS--LOST KIDS TO LOST NATIONS (2 comments)
There is no one to stand up against these far more deadly agents of destruction, these Community Anti-Drug Coalitions, who have successfully moved tens of thousands into our prisons, destroyed nations, killed thousands, wrecked tens of thousands of lives--and made not a nickel's worth of difference to our children.
Monday, October 29, 2007 WASHINGTON POST DEAD-WRONG IN CHILD PORNO EDITORIAL
In an effort to be touchy-feeley and warm and cuddly so far as babies are concerned, the Washington Post has come down absolutely on the wrong side of the debate.
Saturday, October 27, 2007 Put On the Cuffs, I'm Guilty as Charged (2 comments)
Jane Harman, a Democratic member of the House from California, has just gotten together with fellow members to pass HR 1955 RFS. Just four days ago, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 sailed off to the Senate. Harman had fourteen co-sponsors, ten Democrats and four Republicans. Harman's bill has been called, quite properly, a "thought crime bill."
Friday, October 26, 2007 The Master Liquidity Enhancement Con (duit)
In a stunning editorial leap of faith, the New York Times headlines that "3 Major Banks Offer Plan to Calm Debts in Housing." What three major banks have actually suggested, with Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson safely in tow, is that someone else sail in to save their considerably-at-risk bacon.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 RICH AS ROCKEFELLER NOT NEARLY RICH ENOUGH (1 comments)
This makes me as angry as anything I have read in this past over-angering year of politics. The scion of one of the nation's wealthiest families guttered in the payoff trough with the likes of Randy Cunningham and Jack Abramoff. Never enough, is there John?
Monday, October 22, 2007 AH WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE . . .
Aha! That explains it. Crocker and Petraeus changed that strategy that they wouldn't tell the Congress about just last month, to another strategy they won't tell anyone about, but one that updates itself to fight the guys we put in power over the guys who were in power.
Saturday, October 20, 2007 TWO SIDES OF A VERY DIFFERENT FARMING STORY (2 comments)
Once upon a time that farmer-consumer thread was unbroken, but those were the days before lettuce in January. Who among us remembers the precursor to farmers' markets, the farm-stand on the rural highway at a farm gate?
Friday, October 19, 2007 AND ON THE 3RD DAY, CONGRESS RESTED (1 comments)
There's all this inane controversy over Senator Larry Craig, when it's actually Senators Pat Leahy, Arlen Specter and Charlie Schumer who are in bed with George Bush.
Thursday, October 18, 2007 750,000 Americans Take 50% Drop in Social Security (4 comments)
Don't worry about losing your Social Security benefits in 2040 or 2050. Three quarters of a million American citizens are already losing theirs.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Unprepared in Iran, the Follow-Up to Unprepared in Iraq
Yet in the face of this evidence (and with a Congress too cowed on terrorist issues to stop him), Dick Cheney, through his surrogate George Bush, plans to attack Iran before the remaining fifteen months of his administration have gasped their last.
Monday, October 15, 2007 KICKING THE LAST LEG OUT FROM UNDER THE IRAQI CHAIR
The Pentagon, no doubt while Robert Gates was busy elsewhere, trying along with Condi Rice to rekindle a sense of bi-partisan goals between Russia and the United States, was up to mischief in Iraq. Serious stuff--the kind of decision-making that characterized the early blunders by L. Paul Bremer, for which we are still paying a huge price.
Friday, October 12, 2007 GORE WINS NOBEL--SUPREME COURT RULES HE CANNOT ACCEPT (21 comments)
In a stunning reversal, but true to their core beliefs, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today that Al Gore cannot accept the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded him.
Friday, October 12, 2007 CONGRESS DROPS WHITE HOUSE DEMANDS, ALONG WITH ITS PANTS
In the dance this administration orchestrated over the still-warm corpse of American values, 'abhorrent' has come to mean 'offensive to the mind, but allowable.' Most of us were flim-flammed by the wording, victims of adminispeak; in common context, the synonyms are repulsive, detestable, obscene and repugnant.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 ARE THERE NO SUCCESSES IN THIS ADMINISTRATION?
It's shocking to see our mainstream newspapers regularly (at long, long last) referring to this administration with such phrases as "waste, fraud and political meddling that are a hallmark," along with "arrogant massing of executive power" and "one more barn door to be closed on an irresponsible administration."
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 A 2nd Shaming of America by the Supreme Court
Of what use is a secure nation that has lost its conscience? Is there a man or woman who would stand and say "I give you my freedoms to keep me safe," or is that merely the wail of children afraid of something under the bed?
Monday, October 8, 2007 Bush Shoots Down Antique Planes (1 comments)
It is (arguably, but barely) necessary for the president to travel and to speak, even at fallen firefighters memorials, but at what cost? Two or three million bucks? Just to make what is clearly a political statement and inconvenience a bunch of ordinary folks.
Monday, October 8, 2007 So NOW What the Hell are We Doing Here? (1 comments)
It was about Saddam until it wasn't. Then it was about al-Qaeda until it wasn't. When it wasn't about 9-11 and wasn't about nation-building, it became about holding the gangsters away from each other until they could form a government. Maybe even a democratic government, although we'd have settled for any government that could hold our coat for us as we beat a speedy exit.
Sunday, October 7, 2007 Free Speech Becoming Too Expensive (6 comments)
No one has thus far enacted an anti-bribery law because the Congress is a co-conspirator. Congress itself equated free-speech with the ability to pay for free-speech and locked us in the "I can afford more free-speech than you" box, from which there seems no exit.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 RUMSFELD PRIVATIZES MILITARY, THEN QUITS
If this sounds like a military and State Department that's lost its sense of mission, that's because it is. Report if you feel like it guys--otherwise just Rambo around the country between beers.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 Smithsonian--'Nations Attic'--Leaking Badly
The institution of which I speak is not philosophical, but actual bricks and mortar-the Smithsonian, "an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazine." Commonly called the nation's attic-a sort of Hubble telescope of our historic past, it's in trouble.
Sunday, September 30, 2007 Looks Like Joe Biden Hit a Nerve (4 comments)
If I have this right, Senator Biden seems to have hit more of a nerve about whose idea it was then the difficulty of Iraqi acceptance of partition.
Sunday, September 30, 2007 Give 'Em All Guns and Hope For the Best
We're packing arms and weapons into Pakistan to shore up General Musharraf as he trembles on the edge of defeat in his own country. Bush stands at the podium in the United Nations and castigates the military junta in Burma while he arms an equally repressive military junta in Pakistan.
Sunday, September 30, 2007 Classic Case of Feeding a Dog that Won't Hunt (3 comments)
In a politically rather than market-driven 'mandate from Congress' to produce ethanol, who would possibly be a worse choice than farmers and new-to-the-game distillers?
Saturday, September 29, 2007 Mortgagees Yes--Amputees No
Lotta greed around these days and not much patriotism--at least not for the dead, dying and wounded. Straighten your shoulders, Gamal, it's a great country.
Friday, September 28, 2007 George Bush Built a House He Can't Live In
Now, the days dwindle down to a precious few and Bush-Cheney are terrified of a new president taking over this unsolved mess. International as well as American laws have been broken. Foreign governments are at risk. The International Court is not out of the game.
Friday, September 28, 2007 Charles Krauthammer's Refreshing Dip Into Selective History
How much France may have flipped is far from determined and will take more than a statement at the U.N--a statement that more nearly announces Sarkozy's arrival on the world stage than it does change the mix in Europe. France is heavily Muslim, heavily invested in Iran and 'nuclear ambitions' are in the eye of the beholder-Iran claims a need for nuclear energy.
Thursday, September 27, 2007 Harry Reid--Pathetic Senate Majority 'Leader'
What a pathetic admission, that it took Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Columbia speech to do something Harry Reid has been unable to do--toughen the resolve of Senate Democrats.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 A Stunning Instinct for Doing the Wrong Thing
George didn't know Myanmar existed through the first six years of his presidency, but Laura read a book while on vacation at the 'ranch,' a cute and corny Bushism for a place that has no cattle or horses.
Monday, September 24, 2007 This Sad Replica of a Once Proud Military that Rumsfeld Left as His Legacy
The more broken, the more desperate, the more trapped in the Green Zone, the more vulnerable we became--not only to insurgents, but to the unforgiving light of world opinion. Now we have descended from light to darkness, into the abyss of 'baiting' our enemy, a deplorable action we prohibit by law in the hunting of animals.
Sunday, September 23, 2007 Why Not Just Paint 'Em Orange? (7 comments)
Just after 9 a.m. on Aug. 29, a group of U.S. airmen entered a sod-covered bunker on North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base with orders to collect a set of unarmed cruise missiles bound for a weapons graveyard. They quickly pulled out a dozen cylinders, all of which appeared identical from a cursory glance, and hauled them along Bomber Boulevard to a waiting B-52 bomber.
Sunday, September 23, 2007 The Unkindest Cut (2 comments)
The United States Marines used to guard embassies and embassy personnel, but I guess those days are behind us--as well as the days of fighting wars with an actual army that wears your uniform and is subject to the military chain-of-command (or any command).
Sunday, September 23, 2007 What Sets Us Apart is What Sets Us Off
People like Kate Hanni fascinate me. I'm envious of their organizational skills, as well as their willingness to do what most of us merely gripe about. Del Wilber, a Washington Post staff writer kicks off his piece about Kate's activism with this lead-in;
Saturday, September 22, 2007 Automated Targeting, Cruise-Control for What Hitler Had to Do By Hand
I'm mad as hell. I've written in as moderate and civilized a manner as is possible (for me) for seven years now about this evil band of co-conspirators we call an administration. No matter, the gloves are off. I am like Howard Beale, the newscaster in the 1976 film Network. Grab some dialogue;
Thursday, September 20, 2007 Living in Absurdistan--the State of American Health Care
President Bush not only denounced, but threatened to veto a congressional plan to insure kids who have no health insurance, calling it a step "down the path to government-run health care for every American." I wonder if he realizes how stunningly oxymoronic that sounds, as costs among private insurers rose over 6% this year, following a rise of near 8% last year.
Monday, September 17, 2007 A Bigger Threat Than Terrorism (5 comments)
If you're weary of 'threat thresholds,' as I am, it may have slipped your notice that as we edge our way into the 21st century--an old terror simply continues to grow additional heads.
Monday, September 17, 2007 AIPAC and Jim Moran, the Courtesy Man (4 comments)
Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) has again come under fire from local Jewish organizations for remarking in a magazine interview that the "extraordinarily powerful" pro-Israel lobby played a strong role promoting the war in Iraq.
Saturday, September 15, 2007 Alan Greenspin Finally Writes His CYA Memoir
Alan Greenspan was, for a time, one of the more favorably looked-upon Chairmen of the Federal Reserve, an organization only seen as through a glass, darkly. We humans have an imperfect perception of reality and a tendency to make our own when it suits us, particularly at the end of long and contentious lives.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 Investors Buoyed, Markets Soothed by the Big Mac
My newspaper has such precious headlines, particularly in the business section. Today's offering was no surprise, but typical;
Stocks Rise As Exports Help Trim Trade Deficit--McDonald's, GM Aid Rally as Fed Decision Looms
Tuesday, September 11, 2007 The General's Thoughts Aside, What Do Iraqis Think? (1 comments)
On this sixth anniversary of the multiple attacks on America, while General Petraeus is giving testimony before Congress and Ryan Crocker paints the Bush position, it might be a good time to check in on what Iraqis are thinking.
Friday, September 7, 2007 And the Band Played On
An administration aided and abetted by a Congress willing to have its belly scratched rather than act, has put us 'in the period of evaluation after General Petraeus's September report,' still feeling our way toward confrontation with this president.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007 Everything Comes (Eventually) on the Wings of Business-Even Health Care
Single-payer national health care isn't going to get here because it would be the right thing to do. And it hasn't a prayer of showing up as a response to the 45, 46, 47 million (and counting) Americans who don't have it. Nor will it arrive because of the inequity of job-slavery that parents with sick kids endure. For sure the haves will never present it to the have-nots as a fair and equitable sharing of America's bounty.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007 We'll Take the Money and Run
I can't help but wonder what Steve Mufson over at the Washington Post has been smoking. Somehow or another, he seems to think that the overpowering and financially secure Big Coal interests in the nation are on the run. Those intrepid environmentalists finally have their number, according to Steve.
Saturday, September 1, 2007 Talking About (Blush) Breast-Feeding (3 comments)
It's getting easier to talk about what breasts are actually for, but not much. They're for feeding infants and it's important to breast-feed newborns all the way through the first year and maybe more
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 The Terrorist State We Dare Not Name (4 comments)
The nation we dare not name is the largest country on the Arabian Peninsula. Bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south, with the Persian Gulf to its northeast and the Red Sea to its west. One could hardly find a more pivotal entity.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 A Hundred Thousand Dead Because of Carelessness
These hundred thousand Americans that friends and family bury every year were not killed in auto accidents. A home fire, tornado or other unexpected disaster didn't do them in. For one reason or another, some as simple as a minor checkup and others as complicated as surgery, they came home from the hospital in a coffin.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 Getting in the Game, When Representative Government No Longer Works (6 comments)
Every special interest is in the game. Boeing and Microsoft, Wall Street and the pharmaceutical industry, everything from agriculture to zen has its lobby in the halls of the Congress of the United States. On a moment's notice, the gun lobby or casino of your choice can marshal a quorum of lawmakers to get stuff done.
Monday, August 27, 2007 A Market Free of Regulation
The Portal Market--the dawn of a new investment vehicle for billionaires. And not a moment too soon.
Saturday, August 25, 2007 Lurita Doan, Buying for the Government at Highest Possible Prices (1 comments)
There's an outfit called the General Services Administration (GSA) that's been around since Harry Truman signed the legislation in 1949. It was organized to buy pencils and desks and 'general services' for the federal bureaucracy at the best possible price. Someone in the Congress thought that because the fed was a big buyer, it ought to get a good price.
Saturday, August 25, 2007 The Ignorance and Stupidity of a Manhattan Mom (2 comments)
Here we go again, folks. The hate mongers are out there front and center, making sure no American child learns anything about the rest of the world. Moms are rallying to the barricades in this earnest stand against kids educations (even if it's not their kids).
Friday, August 24, 2007 British Petroleum (BP) Shames Itself With Green Ads and Disastrous Policy (2 comments)
I've written before about oil companies, chemical firms and pharmaceutical giants who grease the double-page spreads of magazines with 'green-speak' while they poison and flim-flam the public in the day-to-day reality of their business practices. It's a favorite subject of mine.
Friday, August 24, 2007 A Late Choice, Made Under Considerable Pressure, But Made Correctly
One of the inherent difficulties of a political system that appoints its own in every election is that it loses the talents of some very good people. Occasionally an FBI director is held over. Once in a while a CIA chief keeps his job, but it's unusual.
Thursday, August 23, 2007 Wall Street Afraid of the Wrong Ghost (2 comments)
Jim Copland (director of the Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute) wrote a piece for the Washington Post's Think Tank Town section. Copland deplores the flight of capital from Wall Street to other financial markets.
Sunday, August 19, 2007 Guilty or Innocent, Who the Hell Cares? (2 comments)
Am I Too Late for the Gonzales Death Penalty Fight?
I certainly hope not, but it's been four or five days and news gets old pretty quick. Alberto Gonzales, who never met a death-row inmate he wouldn't put away in a heartbeat, has now given himself the ability to 'fast-track' executions through the Justice Department.
Friday, August 17, 2007 George Bush Doesn't Trust Americans
The Headline is Domestic Use of Spy Satellites To Widen and you'll notice that no discussion of whether or not this is good or appropriate policy, is asked for. The President of the United States doesn't trust his own citizens to judge his domestic spy program.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 A Multi-tasking World to Love and Distrust
Lori Aratani, over at the Washington Post has written an interesting piece titled Teens Can Multitask, But What Are Costs? I suspect the cost is not only to teens. With exploding responsibilities, who doesn't feel like they have way too much on their plate?
Tuesday, August 14, 2007 Losing Our Edge on Our Own Home Turf
John McQuaid makes the case in an editorial, The Can't-Do Nation, that America is losing its knack for getting big things done. It's an interesting premise.
But the bridge disaster also reflects a broader and more troubling problem. The United States seems to have become the superpower that can't tie its own shoelaces. America is a nation of vast ingenuity and technological capabilities. Its bridges shouldn't fall down.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 A Hell of a Way to Dictate Security (6 comments)
Competence may be the only thing a successful presidential candidate need promise us in 2008. Honesty we can get around, it's become almost a national culture to be crooked. Ethical is beyond our wildest hopes. But if this two-term administration has left us gasping on the pavement, pounding our fists in frustration, it is mostly for the sake of plain and simple missing competence.
Friday, August 10, 2007 Adding Mexico to the Ways Our Anti-Drug Policy Fails
Let me see if I have this straight. The only major market that encourages and pretty much single-handedly supports illegal drug production and distribution in the world today is America. Italians and Danes, Swedes and Dutch all smoke a little or shoot a little, but it's that great American thirst that supports Coca-Cola as a drink and cocaine as a high. The poor get by on crack and the rich snort the pure stuff.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007 The Gonzales Rule, an Alberto Concerto in D-Minus
This delicate Bush composition for Congress, featuring soloist Alberto Gonzales might have opened to disastrous revues, had there been any revue. Instead, we are left with a D-minus grade earned by a Congress impatient to get the kids up to the lake for a family vacation before Labor Day.
