Saturday, June 25, 2005

The Nation | Comment | MIA: News of Prison Toll | Todd Gitlin

The Nation | Comment | MIA: News of Prison Toll | Todd Gitlin

The Nation | Comment | Sins and the Citi | William Greider

The Nation | Comment | Sins and the Citi | William Greider

Cheney says Iraq insurgents are in "last throes"

When rockets fly and battle smoke is thick,
It's good to hear from "Four Deferments Dick."
He's always sure. He knows what warfare is--
Enough to know it's not for him or his.
Insurgents somehow, though they're in the throes,
Kill more GIs--but no one Cheney knows.

The Nation | Subject To Debate | If the Frame Fits... | Katha Pollitt

The Nation | Subject To Debate | If the Frame Fits... | Katha Pollitt

The Nation | Beat The Devil | The History of Smoking Guns | Alexander Cockburn

The Nation | Beat The Devil | The History of Smoking Guns | Alexander Cockburn

A Thirty Years War? - by George Hunsinger

A Thirty Years War? - by George Hunsinger

The Nation | Comment | No Flat World in Europe | Thomas Geoghegan

The Nation | Comment | No Flat World in Europe | Thomas Geoghegan

Three Things About Iraq - New York Times

Three Things About Iraq - New York Times

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Come on, which part don't you understand?

Subject: President Bush Explains His Social Security Plan

WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: I don't really understand. How is the new plan
going to fix the problem?

PRESIDENT BUSH: "Because the -- all which is on the table begins to
address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated,
for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon
wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the
formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those
different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal
accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be
-- or closer delivered to that ! has been promised. Does that make any
sense to you?

It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the
--like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase
of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will
rise based upon inflation, posed to wage increases. There is a reform
that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other
words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if
those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red."

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Revealed: how oil giant influenced Bush

Lies have short legs, used to say my mother. So now from Britain comes this insight on the composition of the energy task force that Cheney so zealously wants to keep undisclosed. We knew that big corporations slept in the Lincoln bedroom, but this report from the British Guardian shows how EXXON advised the White House on energy policy. Condoleeza Rice is a shareholder in Texaco, so we now know why all of them want nothing to do with Kyoto, or want to hear about global warming, world oil production peaking or any scenario that does not depict massive oil production and energy consumption for ever. We suspected as much, but we are moving towards certainty. This Administration is wrong on energy policy as it is on almost everything else. As we say in Spain: "Let God catch me duly confessed!". Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Revealed: how oil giant influenced Bush

Friday, June 17, 2005

Don't Follow the Money - New York Times

Memory being what it is, ergo wishy-washy, who remembers exactly what happened at Watergate? And as they often say on TV, what year did it happen? Was it 1922, 1972 or 1865? After the disgraceful reemergence of Mr. Colson, the indicted and jailed Nixon aide, Frank Rich draws parallels to to-day's crimes and cover-ups: "In the most recent example, all the president's men slimed and intimidated Newsweek by accusing it of being an accessory to 17 deaths for its errant Koran story; led by Scott McClellan, they said it was unthinkable that any American guard could be disrespectful of Islam's holy book. These neo-Colsons easily drowned out Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, both of whom said that the riots that led to the 17 deaths were unrelated to Newsweek. Then came the pièce de résistance of Nixon mimicry: a Pentagon report certifying desecrations of the Koran by American guards was released two weeks after the Newsweek imbroglio, at 7:15 p.m. on a Friday, to assure it would miss the evening newscasts and be buried in the Memorial Day weekend's little-read papers.

At other times the new Colsons top the old one. Though Nixon aspired to punish public broadcasting by cutting its funding, he never imagined that his apparatchiks could seize the top executive positions at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Nor did he come up with the brilliant ideas of putting journalists covertly on the administration payroll and of hiring an outside P.R. firm (Ketchum) to codify an enemies list by ranking news organizations and individual reporters on the basis of how favorably they cover a specific administration policy (No Child Left Behind). President Bush has even succeeded in emasculating the post-Watergate reform that was supposed to help curb Nixonian secrecy, the Presidential Records Act of 1978." Read on
Don't Follow the Money - New York Times

What's the Matter With Ohio? - New York Times

What's the Matter With Ohio? - New York Times

Thursday, June 09, 2005

The Nation | Article | Urban Archipelago | John Nichols

The Nation | Article | Urban Archipelago | John Nichols

The Nation | Article | Cities: The Vital Core | Joel Rogers

the cities as spawning ground of the new progressive thinking: a novel idea: This week The Nation, the most interesting newsweekly being published now, examines what is happening in the cities, as a counterweight to the rural, each person for her/himself culture that now contaminates Government thinking. City living is more energy efficient, condos offer a low-maintenance lifestyle that will stand us in good stead in the coming future of energy scarcity in an oil-depleted world.
The Nation | Article | Cities: The Vital Core | Joel Rogers