102 QuickLinks

Thursday, November 19, 2009
Michael Pollan: Help Protect Our Farmers From Assaults By Monsanto - The True Food Network
(1 comments) Here's an activist group that is taking on Monsanto and agribusiness. I'm not advocating that you give them money; I just am pleased to see an activist organization taking on the big guys (Monsanto, Cargill, others) that so effectively lobby congress and exploit the law and the courts. Maybe you are too. (Disclaimer: I have no connection with the organization or its principals. I'm not recommending it as a charity.)

Monday, November 16, 2009
Seven salient facts about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
(3 comments) Hitchens implies that seven salient facts had to be relegated to secondary importance for those around Hasan not to perceive that he was dangerous. Just hindsight? We should frankly acknowledge our prejudices, and then see how our efforts NOT to seem biased distort our capacity to reach rational conclusions. In our desire not to "profile" an ethnic group do we inappropriately downplay critical information?

Thursday, November 12, 2009
Mr. Murdoch Explains Glenn Beck
Cartoonist Jeff Danziger illustrates the relationship between Murdoch and Beck.

Thursday, November 12, 2009
New Evidence Of Pharma's Sweetheart Deal | The New Republic
"Critics have complained that a drug industry got a sweetheart deal when it struck a bargain with the White House and Senate Finance Committee over health care reform. There's new reason to think those critics were right. It comes from an October forecast by IMS Health, a respected global research and consulting firm." -- Jonathan Cohn, TNR.

Monday, November 9, 2009
Tagged.com Settles Suits Over Deceptive Invitations - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
From April to June of this year, the site [Tagged.com] sent 60 million messages to Internet users with personal entreaties to join the social network (e.g., “Brad has posted a private photo on tagged.com”). When recipients clicked, Tagged.com sent the same invitation to everyone in their e-mail address books. Now the rest of the story...

Friday, November 6, 2009
Real Numbers and Other Musings
The Republican victory in New Jersey this week has spawned much speculation about what it portends for the future. But all politics is local. Here is what a local wonk says. Patrick Murray is the founding director of the Monmouth Univeristy Polling Institute.

Friday, November 6, 2009
F.D.A. Fighting False Online Claims About Swine Flu Treatments - NYTimes.com
You can buy healing gels that “create a barrier between you and the potentially deadly virus ....” Or “ionic silver” that kills every known pathogen, germ, bacteria, virus or fungus within six minutes. “Spray Swine Flu . . . Gone . . . with ionic silver on your hands,” one ad claims. Let the buyer beware. Many will seek to exploit public confusion over the benefits and risks of vaccination.

Thursday, November 5, 2009
PayPal for your Pizza?
PayPal has made buying stuff on-line a simple two or three click process, but now the company is moving to make it so that the buyer doesn't even need to log in to his or her PayPal account. PayPal is already easier than using a credit card because it eliminates filling in most of the forms.Some think that this may have far reaching implications for how we transact everyday purchases.

Thursday, November 5, 2009
Shudder Speed
(5 comments) Tell it to the judge. WaPo story surveys the angry debate concerning robotic photo traffic enforcement with cameras that catch speeders and red light violations.

Thursday, November 5, 2009
Barack Obama and the “mini mid-terms”: The change he didn't seek | The Economist
The Economist: This week's results carry warnings for both parties: but the Democrats—and their leader—should worry more.

Thursday, November 5, 2009
Does Technology Reduce Social Isolation? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
It turns out the size of the average American's social circle is smaller today than 20 years ago, as measured by the number of self-reported confidants in a person's life. Yet contrary to popular opinion, use of cellphones and the Internet is not to blame, according to a new study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Dem and GOP Health Plan Comparison
Cartoonist Tom Toles illustrates the differences between the GOP and the Dem health plan. Well, now you can't say they didn't offer anything but gripes.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Root Causes: Population Growth
Population growth, approaching 7 billion, causes the worst economic, social, and spiritual issues. See Podcasts and PowerPoint presentations from “Population Growth and Rising Consumption: What’s Sustainable?” Sponsored by the Population Institute, the Population Media Center and the Wallace Global Fund, the forum featured five experts on population, economics and sustainability. - link by Dr. Ross McCluney

Friday, October 23, 2009
"The pig loves the attention." -- Cartoonist Keefe
Political cartoonists are having a ball with Fox News and Obama. Mike Keefe nailed it with this one.

Friday, October 23, 2009
and it's NOT Vista! -- Computer Wonk Kingsley-Hughes
The general availability of Windows 7 has been received with enthusiasm, except by Apple (hastening to remind us of past MS disappointments). Computer expert Adrian Kingsley-Hughes reports on his favorite features, including that it is NOT Vista.

Saturday, October 17, 2009
Swine Flu Characteristics Becoming More Evident -- Links to Pneumonia, Rapid Effects on Young Noted
"It's very difficult to get this double-barreled message out that: 'Yes, most cases are mild, but in a small percentage of cases these cases are disastrous,' " Vanderbilt University's William Schaffner said. "But the message is: Don't underestimate H1N1." Of the at least 86 Americans younger than 18 who have died from H1N1, 11 deaths were reported in the past week.

Thursday, October 15, 2009
CDC Recommended Vaccines: Give Yourself a Boost
(2 comments) The Wall Street Journal discusses recommended vaccines, and the surprisingly low number of people who receive them.

Thursday, October 15, 2009
H1N1 Flu Self-Evaluator by US Government
This quicklink will take you to a website operated by the Department of Health and Human Services. By answering a short series of questions you can determine if it's likely that you have H1N1 flu. Obviously it is not a substitute for competent medical diagnosis by a health professional.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Atlantic: Does the Vaccine Matter?
(4 comments) Here, in The Atlantic magazine, is the first reasoned, balanced report we have seen that investigates the merits of vaccination for H1N1. This is worth careful reading and may help you decide about vaccination. In short it says that it is not clear just how effective these vaccines are. It does NOT say that they pose any special health risks, as the fear mongers and conspiracists would have you believe with them.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Johns Hopkins Recommends Flu Shots
(15 comments) If you've been uncertain about getting your seasonal and H1N1 Flu vaccination you should check out this web page. Hopkins has been named the best hospital in the nation repeatedly over the past few years. Here you will find why they recommend vaccination, and the thinking and reports that support their opinion. These doctors are highly visible and professionally accountable for their opinions -- they merit you trust.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Mayo Clinic: Flu shot: Your best bet for avoiding influenza
(5 comments) "Getting a flu shot often protects you from coming down with the flu. And while the flu shot doesn't always provide total protection, it's still worth getting." By Mayo Clinic staff

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Pig Pile [Political Extremists Agree About Vaccine]
(2 comments) "Swine flu may have an unexpected side effect: political unity. The far left and far right agree that they're sure as heck not getting vaccinated against swine flu. -- Slate

Monday, October 12, 2009
Nothing to Fear but the Flu Itself [NY Times OpEd]
(3 comments) With so many ill-informed shrill voices spreading bad "science" and fear, it's reassuring to see respected professionals stepping up and speaking out. Paul A. Offit, the chief of the infectious diseases division of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is the author of “Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine and the Search for a Cure.”

Sunday, October 11, 2009
Vaccine Hoaxes and Urban Legends
(48 comments) Dr. Ben Goldacre (Badscience.net) discussed how anti-vaccine hoaxes persist in an NPR interview recently. These pseudo-science sensational articles are dangerous because they discourage people from protecting themselves and their loved ones from lethal illnesses. To understand how these rumors start and why they persist view the article. And don't hesitate to get your flu shots, both seasonal and H1N1.

Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Truth About Vaccines
(4 comments) For those who wish to address the various anti-vaccine rumors point by point, this site offers a good starting point.

Friday, October 9, 2009
Your Opinion in the Washington Post
The Washington Post has announced a contest where the winning opinion article submitted will be published as a column in the paper. As a denizen of the blogosphere this is your big chance to defect to the main stream media! [We can't imagine why you'd want to, of course]

Friday, October 9, 2009
Sebelius: Americans should get swine flu shot
US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelus contradicts rumors on the internet to the effect that the H1N1 Swine Flu virus is dangerous and ineffective may make people fearful to get a vaccine that WHO and virtually all responsible authorities recommend.

Sunday, September 27, 2009
Peasants with Pitch Forks
Tolls' editorial cartoon says it all...

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
America's Army' Targets Youth -- The Nation
Selling war as an adventure? So it seems... "War games are nothing new, of course, but the realistic detail of America's Army--which was produced completely within Army ranks--sets it apart from its competitors. A team at the Naval Postgraduate School's Modeling, Virtual Environment and Simulation Institute spent three years and over $5 million to get every detail right."

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Hundreds protest US Army arcade -- [Read the Comments]
The Philadelphia Courier Times article has drawn comment from anAEC staffer, and one of the protesters, herself a Navy veteran and mother of Navy man. Their differing but deeply held perspectives will help you to appreciate the passions that have been roused by the Army's program. It'll be worth your while to pick through the less thoughtful spout-offs and find these items.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Birther Humor
Daryl Cagle's the Cagle Post editorializes about editorial cartoons. For those of us who find humor in the many and varied odd bedfellows in our political spectrum, this link to Cagle's collection of cartoons about the birthers should provide much needed comic relief.

Saturday, July 4, 2009
Doctatorship: Military thinking in medicine
Our military thinking and our medical thinking have a surprising amount in common. It isn’t just happenstance that doctors proudly assert that they seek to attack illness, combat disease, kill infectious agents and create a war on cancer or on any disease. Physicians seem so stuck in this medical mindset of militaristic thinking that it isn’t surprising—they have a long history of attacking other viable strategies...

Thursday, May 14, 2009
The rebirth of news (The Economist)
(2 comments) Better technology coupled with new payment systems will not solve the acute problems faced by newspapers today, but should eventually provide new models to enable news to flourish in the digital age.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
German researchers score Conficker detection breakthrough
Just days ahead of an April 1st activation date for the Conficker worm squirming through the Windows operating system, security researchers at the Honeynet Project have scored a major breakthrough, finding a way to fingerprint the malware on infected networks. (ZD Net)

Thursday, March 5, 2009
Trickle Down
A quick laugh for progressives, and maybe one or two recovering conservatives. Thanks to Wiley Mille for this cartoon.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Leon Wieseltier (TNR) decries Obama Junk Mail
Has the Obama promise to unite the grass roots through networking technology degenerated into vapid junk email? Weiseltier thinks it has.

Friday, January 30, 2009
Internet Journalism Gains Another Foothold With GlobalPost
With the January launch of GlobalPost (www.globalpost.com), internet journalism has taken another major step forward. GlobalPost is a for-profit venture founded by two seasoned veterans. Phil Balboni, GlobalPost’s president and CEO, has held management posts at New England Cable News, Hearst Corp., and other news outlets. [from Information Today.]

Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Critical Browser: The Digital White House (TNR)
At 12:01 PM Eastern Time on January 20, the President Obama-era version of the official White House site went live. (There are before-and-after pictures here.)

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Scheiber: Crimson Tide (New Republic)
Scheiber traces differences in Obama and Clinton style to their preparation at Harvard and Yale.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Dreams of My Predecessor
WASHINGTON -- For many of us, the end of George W. Bush's presidency could not come quickly enough. But as power changes hands peacefully, the result of a decisive democratic verdict, the most important question is: What can our new president learn from the one heading back to Texas? ~~~Dionne in The New Republic

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
I Do Solemnly Swear That I Will Blog Regularly
The new White House Web site leads with a smiling photo and the headline, "Change Has Come to America." Click the photo and you're taken to the site's leading element—the White House Blog.

Thursday, January 15, 2009
End Times for print media (The Atlantic)
by Michael Hirschorn : "Can America�s paper of record survive the death of newsprint? Can journalism?"

Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Write Your Own Version of the Inaugural Address
Slate.com gives all of us a shot at writing the inaugural with the twist that your offering will be compared with past addresses, and with those being written on the site by other wannabe speech writers. The top one gets published in Slate.

Monday, January 5, 2009
Eve Fairbanks: Children of the Revolution (TNR)
How The Next Generation Of GOP Pols Plans To Ignite A Right-Wing Revolution On The Hill:

Sunday, January 4, 2009
Back to the Front (TNR)
Michael B. Oren: "My job in this war is to reinforce Israel's position in the media. And, with all due deference to Hamas's fighters, journalists often pose a more formidable challenge." Post Date Sunday, January 04, 2009.

Friday, January 2, 2009
Angry White Man (The New Republic)
(2 comments) James Kirchick: "What [pre-1999 newsletters] reveal are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays. In short, they suggest that Ron Paul is not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are backing--but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics."

Thursday, January 1, 2009
Brinkley: No Deal (TNR)
"What Obama Can Learn From FDR's Failures For Getting Us Out Of The Economic Crisis" -- The New Repbulic

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Gaza: the rights and wrongs (Economist)
THE scale and ferocity of the onslaught on Gaza have been shocking, and the television images of civilian suffering wrench the heart. But however deplorable, Israel’s resort to military means to silence the rockets of Hamas should have been no surprise. This war has been a long time in the making.

Monday, December 29, 2008
The Crash: What Went Wrong? (WaPo)
The series is a narrative account of the 21-year history of AIG Financial Products, which became a powerful current in the much larger flow of events that led to the crisis. Today's story deals with events from 1987 to 1998. Part two, appearing Tuesday, covers 1998 to 2005. On Wednesday, part three will report on 2005 through the present troubles.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
RNC Rivals Discuss Racial Song
(2 comments) The most insidious bigotry is the kind that is invisible to people who don't recognize it in themselves. If you make humor at the expense of some other group - be they black, Polish, Jewish, whatever - that's almost certainly veiled bigotry.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
NY Times' Friedman Advocates High Gas Tax
Which one of these things wouldn’t we want? A gasoline tax “is not just win-win; it’s win, win, win, win, win,” says the Johns Hopkins author and foreign policy specialist Michael Mandelbaum. “A gasoline tax would do more for American prosperity and strength than any other measure Obama could propose.”

Sunday, December 28, 2008
The Gas Tax (NY Times Editors)
(1 comments) While oil prices are all but sure to rise again as the world emerges from recession, further tempering consumption with a gas tax would both slow the rise in the price of crude and steer more revenue from energy consumption to the United States budget, rather than that of oil-exporting countries...This also would serve as a signal to American automakers and American drivers that the era of cheap gasoline is not going to last.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
Weiner: The Year of Living Gloomily (WaPo)
[Analysis of the news cycle] suggest[s] that a sort of vicious cycle can take hold. The media reports bad economic news and gloomy forecasts. Consumers respond by hunkering down and closing their wallets. The media dutifully reports that consumers are hunkering down and closing their wallets, prompting consumers to hunker down even more, which the media reports. Consumers respond by . . . .

Saturday, December 27, 2008
Without a Villain ...
Cartoonist Joel Pett on Osama and the Lords of Loud.

Friday, December 26, 2008
Fox News: "Historians Pretty Much Agree" FDR Prolonged the Great Depression"
(3 comments) Sirota: "When I say Fox News' assertion about historians is patently false, they literally laugh at me as if I've said something so clearly untrue, something Americans supposedly assume is so obviously stupid, that it's worthy of ridicule."

Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Friedman: Time to Reboot America (Times)
John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Laissez-Faire Capitalism Should Be as Dead as Soviet Communism
(9 comments) If a politician announced he was running on a platform of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" he would be laughed off the stage. That is also the correct response to anyone who continues to make the case that markets do best when left alone.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Dionne: The Big Tent (TNR)
Liberals need to come to terms with what it takes to build a durable majority. Both Obama and Rick Warren know exactly what they are doing despite the uproar.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Harshaw (Times): Free-Range Clinton?
Jacob Lew and James Steinberg are to be Ms. Clinton's chief lieutenants. The times Opinionator column surveys how major media writers are reacting, and what the choices portend.

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Waiting for the Barbarians
(3 comments) This poem is not new, and not contemporary; but our GOP friends may take inspiration from it.

Friday, December 19, 2008
Bush to Provide Emergency Loans to GM, Chrysler (WaPo)
(2 comments) The troubled U.S. auto industry will receive emergency loans of up to $17.4 billion from the federal government in return for an extensive restructuring of its outstanding debt and labor costs over the coming year, President Bush said today.

Thursday, December 18, 2008
Why Obama Gets an "A" for Choosing Duncan (TNR)
'The Stump' blog in The New Republic presents Arne Duncan as a good choice for reform in education, triggering a lively debate among those who responded with comments.

Thursday, December 18, 2008
Obama's Urban Czar: Green Visionary or Greedy Pol? (TNR)
The Vine, The New Republic's blog on environmental issues speculates on the implications of the expected appointment of Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion to the new Urban Policy department.

Thursday, December 18, 2008
A.C. Thompson: Body of Evidence (The Nation)
"In an 18-month investigation appearing this week on the cover of The Nation and supported by the Nation Institute Investigative Fund, reporter A.C. Thompson paints a terrifying picture of New Orleans in the days following Hurricane Katrina. Black residents, desperate to flee the Lower Ninth Ward gunned down with impunity by white vigilantes in the Algiers Point neighborhood." --Peter Rothberg, The Nation.

Monday, December 15, 2008
Homeland Security: "Man-Made Disaster" (Rosen TNR)
"...although Chertoff has performed impressively in an impossible job, the department is hard to justify with any rational analysis of costs and benefits. On the contrary, it's arguably one of the most expensive marketing ventures in political history--an enterprise that seeks to make us feel safer instead of actually making us safer." --

Monday, December 15, 2008
Craig Newmark: A Craig's List for Service"
"Deep in the Barack Obama platform, there's a reference to "a craigslist for service." It's humbling to see our name in there, but I'd prefer to see that as only a metaphorical reference to the need for greater service to others, with the spirit and culture of trust of craigslist." --Craig Newmark in HufPo

Sunday, December 14, 2008
New Yorker story Challenges Teacher Selection Traditions.
(2 comments) The New Yorker Magazine offers some useful, but potentially controversial, ideas about how teachers should be selected. Sample: "Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford, estimates that the students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year's worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half's worth of material." Entertainingly written-thoughtful.

Sunday, December 14, 2008
Auth: Are there no workhouses.
Cartoonist Auth depicts GOP as Scrooge.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008
No Change for Sale
Obama looks great amid Gov. Rod Blagojevich's scandal.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Obama Birth Certificate Challenge Turned Down By Supreme Court
"The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth." The article notes that a second similar challenge has not been disposed of as yet.

Monday, December 8, 2008
Krugman: Depression Economics (Slate)
On his way to Stockholm, the Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist takes time to explain the "awful" economy that looms ahead of us. by Andrew Leonard

Saturday, December 6, 2008
Ceci Connolly: Obama Asks Nation for Input (WaPo)
(1 comments) 'We Want Your Exact Ideas,' Daschle Says. As he gears up for major health reform legislation next year, Obama is encouraging average Americans to host informal gatherings to brainstorm about how to improve the U.S. system.

Saturday, December 6, 2008
Darby: Obama's union-loving education guru. (TNR)
(1 comments) Linda Darling-Hammond represents the old school, the status quo. Education Reformers see her as an enemy of merit pay, Teach for America, and Charter Schools--all of which represent threats to union orthodoxy. What sort of change would she bring?

Saturday, December 6, 2008
Why the stories about Obama's birth certificate will never die
(1 comments) Why the stories about Obama's birth certificate will never die Barack Obama was, without question, born in the U.S., and he is eligible to be president, but experts on conspiracy theories say that won't ever matter to those who believe otherwise. By Alex Koppelman

Friday, December 5, 2008
Dionne: The Upside of Catastrophe (TNR)
Our economic demands almost perfectly coincide with Obama's political interests.

Friday, December 5, 2008
Weigel: Change They Can Litigate (Slate)
(4 comments) The fringe movement to keep Barack Obama from becoming president may have their day in court, and the seek to influence the Electoral College. [Don't we have enough problems to keep us all busy?]

Thursday, December 4, 2008
Obama Policymakers Turn to Campaign Tools (WAPO)
Barack Obama's incoming administration has begun to draw on the high-tech organizational tools that helped get him elected to lay the groundwork for an attempt to restructure the U.S. health-care system.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008
New Republic: Better Than A Bailout
"Here's How To Rescue Detroit Without Forcing Them Into Bankruptcy." Authors Helper and McDuffie are academic experts on the automotive industry from Case Western Reserve and Wharton School of Business.

Monday, December 1, 2008
TNR's Youngsmith: Hawks for Hillary
Youngsmith quotes conservatives pleased with Obama's picks. "Richard Perle, former chairman of the Defense Policy Board and an architect of the Iraq war. "She seems to me quite tough-minded. ... That's a good thing. ... Indeed, Perle muses, Obama's new cabinet may be an improvement on Bush's. "Bush suffered from a State department and CIA who never liked his policies. State ignored him and the CIA activly undermined him."

Saturday, November 29, 2008
Krugman: Lest We Forget
(1 comments) NY Times' Paul Krugman discusses why we did not see this economic crisis coming, and urges that Obama not delay regulatory fixes.

Friday, November 28, 2008
Technology's Impact on Journalism
(2 comments) Veteran journalist Ellen Hume "analyzes how the media, politics, and government interact and what might be done to improve the process." This exhaustive scholarly discussion is superbly documented and footnoted. I suggest that you skip ahead to the conclusions for her thought-proviking observations. They may seduce you into actually reading all 45 pages. It offers a great perspective on how OpEdNews.com is relevant.

Sunday, November 23, 2008
National Day of Listening
Dave Islay, founder and President of StoryCorps, invites all of us to listen to each other on November 28 this year. The organization is promoting the first-ever National Day of Listening to be celebrated every year on Thanksgiving day. The group has published a simple, free, and downloadable Do-It-Yourself guide and a YouTube video to show people how they can share and save the stories of the people most important to us.

Saturday, November 22, 2008
WaPo's Dionne: What Next for Obama's Network?
Obama's grassroots network made history in getting him elected and he's working hard to keep it. If he can do it, it will reshape how our democracy works.

Friday, November 21, 2008
Coal? Nuclear? Activists caution Obama Administration
A citizen activist group offers 10 PRINCIPLES FOR JUST CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES IN THE UNITED STATES. (note: This is only one of thousands of examples of citizen involvement with the urgent issues of our time. This individual activism and diversity of thought is how God blesses America. The grass roots can and does influence policy. If you don't believe that, why are you here reading this?) Hope spawns possibility.

Thursday, November 20, 2008
Obama's secret plan to muzzle talk radio. Very, very secret.
(3 comments) Marin Cogan of TNR investigates rumors that the new administration is gearing up to squelch Rush and the other talk radio entertainers. Talk radio is a multi-million dollar business, and it needs and feeds on outrage and discontent. Talk hosts routinely shout down opposing views, and stoke the fires of dissent. The inclusiveness, and hopeful positiveness of progressives is a threat. Relax Rush, there'll aways be wingnuts.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
TNR's Cohn: A Kinder, Gentler Bankruptcy for GM?
"Remember, if General Motors were trying to reorganize itself under bankruptcy, it would have to come up with cash in order to buy parts. Thanks to the problems on Wall Street, that could be extremely difficult. That means GM could end up filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 7, rather than Chapter 11, and going through liquidation. The ripple effects could take down the rest of the auto industry or some significant portion..."

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Conservative Introspection (Not an Oxymoron)
(2 comments) Brink Lindsey, left, of the Cato Institute and David Frum of the American Enterprise Institute diagnose what's ailing the Republican Party. (Video)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Jonathin Chait: Defining Barack Down (TNR)
TNR Senior Editor Jonathin Chait discusses the conservative effort to dismiss and minimize the importance of Obama's victory. Mandate? you decide.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The Seven Deadly Deficits (Mother Jones)
: What the Bush years really cost us, and how President Obama can get the economy back on track.

Monday, November 17, 2008
Lessons Learned from the Election of 2008: Looking Back and Looking Forward
Drew Westin analyzes the psychological reasons Obama won: "Obama beat Hillary Clinton the same way he beat John McCain: by out-inspiring them, boxing them into the role of the candidate against hope, and defining himself as the candidate of change in a year in which Americans wanted nothing more desperately than to put our nation on a different track."

Sunday, November 16, 2008
Debt Man Walking (New Republic)
Economists know the fatal flaw in our system--but they can't agree how to fix it. ... In the past, countries in recession could count on countries with growing economies to provide outlets for their exports and investments. The hope this time is that economic growth in Asia and particularly China can backstop a U.S. and European recession. [But there's a hitch...]

Friday, November 14, 2008
November 17th New Yorker
This week's edition of the New Yorker is devoted to the presidential campaign. It's free online, and it contains some of the best political writing you will find anywhere. Literate, analytical, insightful. Insider sketches of Obama, McCain, and the workings of each candidates campaign from the beginning. Don't miss it. It's real life high drama.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Keillor: Wow! America is cool
Enjoy Garrison Keillor's unbridled enthusiasm about the President Elect.

Monday, November 10, 2008
Salon: The GOP's last chance: Become Democrats
Gary Kamiya says,"The painful truth for conservatives is that the dogs aren't eating their dog food -- and every national trend indicates that they will never eat it again. Which means the GOP faces a wrenching choice: remain true to its increasingly irrelevant and rejected ideology and fade into political insignificance, or remake itself as essentially a more moderate version of the Democratic Party."

Friday, November 7, 2008
TNR's Judis: Obama's Inexperience a Real Problem
To compensate for his lack of experience Obama must choose the right help. (Video Essay)

Friday, November 7, 2008
WSJ Opinion: Obama's Real Opposition
Wall Street Journal suggests that old liberals in congress are the opposition that Obama shouls be concerned about.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008
E.J. Dionne, Jr.: Yes, We Did
"Above all, it is time to celebrate the country's wholehearted embrace of democracy reflected in the intense engagement of Americans in this campaign and the outpouring to the polls all over the nation. For years, we have spoken of bringing free elections to the rest of the world even as we cynically mocked our own ways of doing politics. Tuesday, we chose to practice what we have been preaching."

Wednesday, November 5, 2008
NY Times: The Next President
The NY Times captures the import of the moment. (Sometimes we must go a long way the wrong way to come back right -- Old Quaker saying.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The '08 Campaign: Sea Change for Politics as We Know It
Dissatisfaction, an inspiring candidate, and the internet fuse into an historic campaign strategy.

Thursday, October 30, 2008
Garrison Keillor: Some Voters Are Going to Have to Lose Their Homes Before They Connect the Dots
Garrison Keillor of Prarie Home Companion fame rants on the "low dishonesty and craven cynicism" of the GOP. Nobody escapes, especially not the hockey mom.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Best Analysis of Poll Data
Nate Silver earned respect for his use of statistics to improve player selection in sports. On fivethirtyeight.com he uses his techniques to predict the election. Good solid statistical techniques, with a bit of street-wise savvy.

Friday, October 24, 2008
Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films
Shorts on political issues.