Columns

"To add insult to injury, NPR calls itself public radio. It’s supposed to be willing to go where commercial networks fear to tread. But overall, when it comes to politics and war, the range of perspectives on National Public Radio isn’t any wider than what we encounter on the avowedly commercial networks."

"Time and again, Obama has displayed a remarkable instinct and ability to rise above "politics as usual." Even when goaded, he has not entered the fray. What he demonstrated in his Philadelphia speech was that it is precisely because of the resentment of Geraldine Ferraro and the pain of Jeremiah Wright that America needs to confront the corrosive and persistent issue of race; and that he, Barack Obama has "the right stuff" to do it."

"If a member of a parliament outside the United States were to have made equally despicable and bigoted comments, Americans would be right to require that action be taken against that individual. King must be held accountable by his colleagues for his remarks, which send a dangerous message to the world. He should be formally censured by the Congress, so as to make it clear that remarks such as these are unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

For all of the bluster, bullshit and bile from its agents, [The Lobby] is but a gang of bullies afraid of a fair fight. If we stop being afraid, The Lobby will become powerless, for the bully has only as much power as his victim is willing to surrender.

"In the current presidential campaign, none of the major candidates can be heard raising the possibility of ejecting the gargantuan insurance industry from the nation’s healthcare system. Instead, there’s plenty of nattering about whether "mandates" are a good idea. Hillary Clinton even has the audacity (not of hope but of duplicity) to equate proposed healthcare "mandates" with the must-pay-in requirements that sustain Social Security and Medicare."

"...in the last two weeks, the Clinton campaign promised a stepped-up negative assault, it was not surprising to see them find still more cards to play. There was, for example: the "fear/security card" (with Clinton claiming that only she - or her Republican opponent! - had the experience to defend the country from a terrorist threat), or the "cynicism card" (with Clinton mocking Obama's political rhetoric), or the "scandal card," or the "victim of unfair media card," or the "plagiarism card." All of these combined took a toll, not only on Barack Obama, but on the Democratic constituency."

"With all the recent media spin about progress in Iraq, many commentators say that the war has faded as a top-level “issue” in the presidential race. Claims of success by the U.S. military have undercut precisely the antiwar arguments that were supposed to be the most effective in political terms -- harping on the American death toll and the inability of the occupying troops to make demonstrable progress at subduing Iraqi resistance and bending the country’s parliament to Washington’s will."

"It is important to note that in this election year not only a president but a third of the Senate and the entire Congress will be elected. None should be given a pass. Candidates should be questioned, in depth, as to the direction in which they will lead America over the next four years, and the discussion should be broader than the narrowly-focused fetishes of the national press."