October 2007

Good News for Iraq?
There's an opportunity for reconciliation and actual statecraft right now in Iraq. It remains to be seen if the United States will take advantage of it.
October 30, 2007 | By Spencer Ackerman | web only

Scapegoating Campus Feminists
"Islamo-fascism Awareness Week" was full of vague complaints and puffed-up rhetoric -- but made sure to single out women's studies departments.
October 29, 2007 | By Jesse Singal | web only

GOP Struggles in Ohio
Early signs point to Democratic wins in Ohio's 2008 congressional races, with blue candidates out ahead in polling and in fundraising. Even party stalwarts acknowledge that tough times are ahead for Republicans in the state.
October 29, 2007 | By Holly Yeager | web only

The Real Student Debt Problem
The College Cost Reduction Act was a victory for student aid reform advocates. But we still need to examine how aid is distributed.
October 29, 2007 | By Anya Kamenetz | web only

How Obama Can Win
The Obama campaign needs to start hoping that a desperate Edwards will begin to turn up the heat on Hillary.
October 26, 2007 | By Terence Samuel | web only

The Case Against Mukasey
He might look like a welcome change after Alberto Gonzales, but Mukasey's refusal to disavow the use of torture and excesses of executive power in the war on terror makes him a thoroughly unacceptable choice for attorney general.
October 26, 2007 | By Scott Lemieux | web only

Parsing the Managed Care/HMO Difference
HMOs are superior, and any serious student of American health care policy needs to understand why.
October 25, 2007 | By Shannon Brownlee | web only

The Credit-Rating Mystery Solved
The government is now investigating why credit-rating agencies gave thumbs up for so long to securities backed by sub-prime mortgages. The answer is simple: Those credit-rating agencies are paid by the same institutions that sell the securities.
October 25, 2007 | By Robert B. Reich | web only

Remembering Paul Wellstone
From the archives: Six years ago we lost a politician who fearlessly stood up for the best of progressive ideals. That his positions are now coming into widespread acceptance is a testament of the courage of a man who spoke out for what was true.
October 25, 2007 | By Ezra Klein | web only

TAP Talks to Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman's latest book is The Conscience of a Liberal, echoing Paul Wellstone's book of the same title. TAP sat down with Krugman earlier this week to talk about Wellstone, inequality, and the rise of progressive politics.
October 25, 2007 | By Ezra Klein | web only

Wall Street Democrats vs. Main Street Democrats
The Democrats have become the party of class conflict.
October 25, 2007 | By Harold Meyerson | web only

Haunted by the Hippie
Despite the fact that Hillary Clinton is the most conservative Democrat running for president, the right makes her out to be a radical. Perhaps this is because the right still fears the social change hippies represented.
October 24, 2007 | By Paul Waldman | web only

The FundamentaList (No. 6)
"Values voter" edition! The attendees co-opt the language of the civil rights movement, award Giuliani a few points for trying, and wonder if hot-shot endorsements really matter.
October 24, 2007 | By Sarah Posner | web only

Snoops Get a Direct Line
Last week's revelation that Verizon readily opened phone logs to the feds should come as no surprise. The firm is a standout example of the revolving door between government and telecom industry.
October 24, 2007 | By Brian Beutler | web only

Scenes from the Bewildered Right
Last weekend's Values Voters conference showed the religious right as a party in search of not just a candidate, but its place in the upcoming election. If the reports sound mixed, well, that's because the right appears a little lost.
October 23, 2007 | By Adele M. Stan | web only

The False Decline of the U.S. Navy
Over at The Atlantic, Robert Kaplan is convinced the U.S. Navy is in decline. Too bad his argument ignores the Navy's true strategic strength and capabilities.
October 23, 2007 | By Robert Farley | web only

Yo, Ho, Ho, a Law for the Seas!
Ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea would be an easy win for Democrats, and a first step in re-engaging the United States in international diplomacy. Never heard of it? You're not alone.
October 23, 2007 | By Kate Sheppard | web only

Bush's Last Resort
Despite the White House's leap to claim victory on S-CHIP, in reality Bush is playing defense, forced to rely on vetoes and executive orders to swat down the progressive legislation Congress has sent his way.
October 23, 2007 | By Amanda Terkel | web only

Banking on a Bailout
Treasury officials say they believe in free markets, but spent the past month arm-twisting other banks to mount a government-induced rescue of Citigroup.
October 22, 2007 | By Robert Kuttner | web only

Generation Overwhelmed
Thomas Friedman has mistaken my generation's absolute paralysis in the face of so many choices, so many causes, and so much awareness, for a mere quiet.
October 22, 2007 | By Courtney E. Martin | web only

New Openings for Public Financing
There may not be much hope for the current system of presidential public funded elections, but several states are leading the way on this issue, and even more may be joining them in the coming year.
October 22, 2007 | By Marc Caplan | web only

Letter to the Editor: Schools as Scapegoats
From Frederick M. Hess & Andrew J. Rotherham, with a response from Lawrence Mishel and Richard Rothstein.
October 20, 2007 | By The Editors | web only

The Years of Magical Thinking
In her latest book, Susan Faludi plumbs the depths of the national psyche for reasons why our response to 9-11 was so disastrous -- and so bizarrely familiar.
October 19, 2007 | By Madeleine Elfenbein | web only

When Writing the Personal Was Revolutionary
Doris Lessing redefined women's experiences as central to politics. In doing so, she altered the way we think about relationships in the public and private sphere.
October 19, 2007 | By Phoebe Connelly | web only

Is it Time for Democrats to Start Panicking?
Democrats may find themselves going into to the next election tagged as the party that couldn't stop Bush when given a chance, or as the party that did not try hard enough.
October 19, 2007 | By Terence Samuel | web only

Mukasey and the Doctrine of Detention
He called Guantanamo a "black eye" but wouldn't call for its closure. So what is the attorney general nominee's plan for detaining terrorist suspects?
October 19, 2007 | By Deborah Pearlstein | web only

Senate Caves on Wiretapping
Congressional Democrats plotted for weeks how they could rewrite the surveillance bill Bush shoved past them this summer. But the battle was barely rejoined when the minority Republicans once again took control and scuttled their bill.
October 18, 2007 | By Brian Beutler | web only

History as Hangman
A rash of noose incidents across the country has reopened old wounds of racial intimidation. Law makers are reaching for hate crime law as a balm, but until America faces its past, racial terrorism will continue to plague us.
October 18, 2007 | By Kai Wright | web only

Mall Madness as Janitors Try to Unionize
SEIU is working to organize janitors at shopping centers -- and the cleaning companies they contract with -- around the country.
October 18, 2007 | By Megan Tady | web only

'Anything But Clinton' Redux
The Republican candidates have a dim, skimpy road map to governance and are attempting to compensate with Hillary-bashing.
October 18, 2007 | By Harold Meyerson | web only

Corporations Won't Lead the Way on Solving Global Warming
It's naive to think corporations can or will sacrifice profits to fight climate change. Firms that go green to improve their public relations, or cut their costs are being smart -- not virtuous.
October 18, 2007 | By Robert B. Reich | web only

Peace and Archaeology in the Middle East
Disputes and compromises over preservation in the Holy Land have a lot to teach those trying to broker peace in the region. Perhaps Condoleezza Rice should consider those lessons in shaping U.S. policy.
October 17, 2007 | By Gershom Gorenberg | web only

The FundamentaList (No. 5)
"Values Voters" flirt with Romney, Third Way debunks the myth of the "evangelical monolith," and Ann Coulter's remarks create some strange bedfellows.
October 17, 2007 | By Sarah Posner | web only

Wiretapping, Round 2
Today, House Democrats will move a revised wiretapping bill to a full floor vote. Critics charge the bill is another Democratic cave-in, but a closer look shows it to be a substantive improvement over the president's plan.
October 17, 2007 | By Brian Beutler | web only

Al Gore and the Gaffe Wars
Gore's Nobel Prize win was a well-deserved honor for one of our finest politicians. It's also a stark reminder of how far into trivia the race to the presidency has fallen.
October 17, 2007 | By Paul Waldman | web only

Why You Should Care About the 2007 Economic Nobel
Who are those guys? What exactly is "mechanism design theory" and what does it mean? TAP gets an economist to explain it all.
October 16, 2007 | By John S. Irons | web only

The Disgruntled General
Ricardo Sanchez's mishandling of the Iraq War during his year as ground commander is legend. It should come as no surprise, then, that his recent account of who's to blame for Iraq is so bitter and distorted.
October 16, 2007 | By Spencer Ackerman | web only

Getting Tough on Private Prisons for Teens
Residential programs for troubled teenagers tell parents they'll cure kids' behavior problems. But Congress may be cracking down after allegations of abuse and a GAO report that at least 10 teens have died in these facilities.
October 16, 2007 | By Maia Szalavitz | web only

Stop the Corporate Welfare for Agribusiness
Farm subsidies were supposed to be a temporary relief for small farmers during the Depression, but today they go mostly to big agribusinesses that hardly need them.
October 15, 2007 | By Robert B. Reich | web only

Reclaiming Patriotism
TAP talks with Naomi Wolf, author of the new book The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, about what America today has in common with pre-Nazi Germany, and how the left yielded patriotism to the right.
October 15, 2007 | By Tara McKelvey | web only

Short Arm of the Law
The existing whistleblower laws don't do much for government workers, but they offer almost no protection to the legions of employees working for government contractors. Good government watchdogs are trying to change that.
October 12, 2007 | By Brian Beutler | web only

What Is Larry Craig Doing in the Senate?
Going back to work on Capitol Hill was just one in a long series of poor choices made by the toe-tapping senator from Idaho.
October 12, 2007 | By Terence Samuel | web only

Life After the Death of Environmentalism
Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger have taken the "bad boy" approach to environmental politics yet again -- despite the diminishing validity of their views.
October 11, 2007 | By Kate Sheppard | web only

How the Right's S-CHIP Smear Backfired
You need to make a lot of noise to drown out the poignant testimony of Graeme Frost. But make too much, and you simply draw attention to it. Which what the right has done.
October 11, 2007 | By Ezra Klein | web only

The Silenced Majority
If Democrats are going to win in 2008 they need to assure voters they intend to make a decisive break with the current policy on the Iraq War.
October 11, 2007 | By Harold Meyerson | web only

Giuliani, Gays and Values Voters
By agreeing to attend this year's Values Voter Summit, Rudy Giuliani will have to face up to the discrepancy between his views and those of the religious right. That may be the showdown Dobson and others are looking for.
October 10, 2007 | By Adele M. Stan | web only

The Dems' Big Business Opportunity
The momentum behind health care reform gives Democrats a good chance to prove that Republicans aren't always good for business.
October 10, 2007 | By Paul Waldman | web only

The FundamentaList (No. 4)
Dobson courts Pentecostals, scandal rocks Oral Roberts University, a Christian men's organization tries to regroup, and does shalom mean peace to Christian Zionists?
October 10, 2007 | By Sarah Posner | web only

What's Behind the Iraq-China Weapons Deal
Baghdad's decision to buy arms from China has less to do with the Iraqi government's quest for weapons and more to do with its concerns about the direction of U.S. policy.
October 9, 2007 | By A.J. Rossmiller | web only

Defusing the "Ticking Time Bomb" Excuse
Life does not imitate 24, and the Democratic candidates, led by Hillary Clinton, are finally learning to address the unrealistic scenarios that Republicans often use to justify torture.
October 8, 2007 | By Karen J. Greenberg | web only

The Race Race
The front-running GOP candidates have skipped out on debates aimed at minority voters. The GOP will have to convince black and Latino voters that it cares about their issues if it wants to win the next presidential election -- and if the party wants to survive.
October 8, 2007 | By Kate Sheppard | web only

Where's the Plan to Get Young Black Men Out of Jail?
Recent hearings on reforming drug sentencing laws show that John Edwards may be onto something with his bold declarations that we need to re-evaluate how we as a society are treating young black men.
October 8, 2007 | By Terence Samuel | web only

Jenna Bush Reconsidered
Forget the stories about drinking and partying. With her new book on the problems of poverty, AIDS, and sex abuse in Latin America, Jenna Bush seems to be growing up -- and outgrowing her family's politics.
October 5, 2007 | By Dana Goldstein | web only

Time to Rethink Our Economic Priorities?
Americans and their elected representatives need to start considering the relationship between the economy and quality of life.
October 5, 2007 | By Courtney E. Martin | web only

Blackwater and the Politics of Whistleblowing
The investigation into the now notorious Iraq contractor raises dire questions about where government whistleblowers can turn for protection.
October 5, 2007 | By Brian Beutler | web only

An Inheritance for All
Hillary Clinton's support for baby bonds is one of the boldest ideas we've seen so far in the campaign -- and it could be funded by reinstating the federal estate tax.
October 4, 2007 | By Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott | web only

Clarence Thomas' Race Problem
His new memoir, My Grandfather's Son, retreads the Anita Hill controversy and reveals a (still) angry black man -- and the gap between the rhetoric and reality of race in America.
October 4, 2007 | By Kai Wright | web only

The Truth -- So Long As It's Profitable
Journalism trends prove that profit-seeking and truth-telling don't really mix. Is publicly supported media the answer?
October 4, 2007 | By Ezra Klein | web only

Return of the Goldwater GOP
The Republicans who oppose the SCHIP expansion have a faith in laissez-faire ideology that cannot acknowledge the limits of what capitalism can, or even chooses to, do.
October 4, 2007 | By Harold Meyerson | web only

The Nation Should Follow GM's Lead
The strike shows we need to decouple health care from employment -- businesses and workers would both benefit.
October 3, 2007 | By Robert B. Reich | web only

The Myth of the Rational Iowa Voter
Do the supposedly wise and deliberative citizens of Iowa and New Hampshire take their responsibilities seriously? And if they don't, what does that say about the way we're choosing the next leader of the free world?
October 3, 2007 | By Paul Waldman | web only

The FundamentaList (No. 3)
Will the Christian right name its own third-party candidate? Reaching out to Jews who missed Jesus, and a Christian stance on global warming.
October 3, 2007 | By Sarah Posner | web only

The Alarming Parallels Between 1929 and 2007
Has deregulation left the economy at risk of another 1929-scale crash? Should the Fed keep bailing out speculators? Robert Kuttner testified yesterday before the House Financial Services Committee.
October 2, 2007 | By Robert Kuttner | web only

Putting Education on the '08 Agenda
Given the prominence of issues like Iraq and health care, is there room for the candidates to say smart things about improving public education? Edwards' new policy plan suggests there's hope.
October 2, 2007 | By Sara Mead | web only

Keeping God Out of It
Two new books consider the modern and historical separation between religion and politics in the Western world.
October 2, 2007 | By Aziz Huq | web only

A Note to Hillary on Jerusalem Disunited
An open letter to Hillary Clinton, telling her what life is really like in Jerusalem and informing her that her stand on uniting the city isn't half the plan her husband proposed in 2001.
October 2, 2007 | By Gershom Gorenberg | web only

Candidates Go Code Blue on Health Care
Democrats want to bring everyone into the system; Republicans think people demand too much treatment.
October 1, 2007 | By Ezra Klein | web only

Coworkers of the World, Unite!
The always-on, perpetual freelance culture of Web 2.0 has spawned its own "coworking" spaces, but are these new techno-optimists building sustainable communities?
October 1, 2007 | By Jessica Clark | web only

Mexican Miners' Strike for Life
Copper miners in Mexico face down powerful corporations, company-backed unions, and government corruption to secure basic health, safety, and benefits for workers.
October 1, 2007 | By David Bacon | web only