If you’re interested in following a revolution for freedom in real time, one in which people risk their lives to stop oppression, follow what’s happening in Iran via Andrew Sullivan’s blog. The response to the hijacked election is among the most moving news events I’ve encountered, largely because much of the coverage comes directly from [...]
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I don’t agree with everything President Obama does or doesn’t do. But too many people miss his essential, rare quality: he is a real leader, a leader unafraid to take on difficult and complex problems by confronting them with blunt yet uplifting language, language that holds up a mirror, a mirror reflecting truth. From his [...]
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Read the words. Listen to the words. Watch them sung. Then ask yourself what have — or did — we become? Ask why nearly every major news organization can’t bring itself to equate waterboarding with “torture” when, in fact, the United States executed World War II enemies for the same practice? Maybe Jonathan Mann’s song, [...]
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A sometimes irrationally exuberant supporter of Barack Obama, I’m puzzled and dismayed at his administration’s failure to address the torture scandal. Repudiating torture isn’t enough. Finding the truth and punishing lawbreakers are only way to right terrible wrongs. The most lucid assessment of the administration’s failure comes via the always-trenchant Scott Horton. He accuses the [...]
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Has Matt Taibbi written the definitive account of what’s really happened to the economy and why
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I usually wield no club in the intensifying mainstream media bashathon. But Todd Gitlin, whose journalism bona fides make his views worth a read, rightly hammers Big-Time Reporters’ coverage of President Obama’s press conference last night. Petulance born of arrogance is especially repugnant when it leads to stories focusing on style at the expense of [...]
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The bathroom at Mississippi Studios in Portland is the home of succinct political commentary that summarizes the sentiments of many people these days. A message typed on a sheet of paper taped to the wall above the toilet advises patrons to flush twice. Below the message someone has scrawled an addendum: It’s a long way [...]
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Rarely do I find commentary as incisive and articulate as that of Scott Horton. His “No Comment” blog for Harper’s Magazine illuminates current affairs not with polemics but cohesive facts and analysis. Reading his work I see the fog of he-said-she-said media coverage lift to reveal what looks like truth.
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This is akin to shooting fish in a barrel, I suppose. But if you treasure words and how they’re put together, you’ll enjoy Mark Nickolas’ simple but clever idea: use Microsoft Word’s readability tool to compare the language Barack Obama used Monday answering questions at his first presidential press conference versus that of George W. [...]
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A story of redemption and grace starts my morning: 48 years after beating a prominent member of the Civil Rights Movement, a former Ku Klux Klan member apologizes in person with a handshake and hug. “I tried to block it out of my mind. It kept coming back,” says Elwin Wilson, who attacked John Lewis, [...]
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“Socialism is apparently what is created when a president you do not like spends money on things of which you do not approve,” writes Mark Schone of Salon. He zings the Rush Limbaugh crowd of Stimulus Bill opponents by pointing to the infrastructure projects the federal government financed during the Great Depression. But as he [...]
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How many people are paying attention to President Obama now that the hoopla over his election and inauguration has died down? Not enough. Listen to this video clip (requires a scroll down) of what he said today about our stricken economy. Better yet, read the transcript of his speech after the clip. He understands what [...]
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This homemade Obama sign in a yard not far from my house seems more appropriate now than during the campaign. Without the new president’s leadership, the economy would indeed end up busted. Like anyone, I don’t like the prospect of Himalaya-like deficits. But nearly every economist whom I’ve seen quoted says the only way to [...]
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