Dictators in the Dock
W hen General Augusto Pinochet stepped off a Chilean Air Force jet last March and into the welcoming embrace of the Chilean military, it seemed the ex-dictator’s saga had finally come to an end. Wearing a pastel tie and pressed suit, Pinochet looked surprisingly fit as he walked past an honor guard and a military…
Rights of the Despised
O n the face of it, Luka Misetic seemed an unlikely choice to defend a war crimes suspect. In late 1997, the Notre Dame Law School graduate had been a member of the Illinois bar for just over a year. His only clients had been businesses involved in intellectual property disputes and other such matters.…
Taking the Bull by the Horns
I n a dreamy, amber-filtered television commercial, Coline Jenkins-Sahlin, the great-great-granddaughter of the famous American suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, strolls down an autumnal path, talking about how she found resonance with a woman broker at Merrill Lynch. At the end of the TV spot, Jenkins-Sahlin recalls the words of that other great suffragist, Susan B.…
Party Crashers
As with most political battles, the set-to over Social Security reform has produced competing dramatic narratives. For the Democratic faithful, there’s Al Gore fighting the good fight against the right’s effort to privatize Social Security, the crown jewel of the New Deal. For Republicans there’s George W. Bush, courageously tackling the Social Security crisis while…
Signal Degradation
The assault on educational licenses by conservative religious broadcasters has its roots in the Reagan Revolution, when then-FCC Chairman Mark Fowler pledged “to take deregulation to the limits of existing law.” Fowler’s FCC abolished the guidelines for local, news and public-affairs, and nonentertainment programming and dropped almost all public interest standards in deference to the…
Who Needs Political Parties?
As the major political parties convene this summer, with all the usual noise, pomp, and expense, Americans can be counted on to let out a collective yawn, or maybe a grimace. But not so for political scientists. Academic experts see a lot to like–or at least a lot to study–in the American two-party system. In…
Party Politics
It may seem odd that the only public celebration of George W. Bush’s 54th birthday took place in July at Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington, D.C. But then feting the birthday boy wasn’t what the hosts had in mind. The room was overflowing with, well, not exactly admirers, but certainly folks who had…
A Citizen’s Guide to the Conventions
There are really three conventions each for Democrats and for Republicans. The first is the prime-time convention watched on home TVs. Unfortunately for George W. and for Al Gore, it’s been shrinking for years. This time it’s likely to attract fewer viewers than summer reruns of Washington Week in Review. NBC has decided to trim…
Candidate of the Century
As the Republicans prepared for their national convention, the party’s official Web site welcomed party members to Philadelphia and pointed out helpfully that the city has two airports. In a telling aside, the GOP planners also noted that one of the airports could “accommodate private and corporate planes.” Once they get off their jets, the…
Labor’s Loss
As this year’s presidential and congressional elections turn inexorably into high-priced auctions, much attention has been paid to the fact that Democrats have in some respects achieved parity with Republicans in the money chase. According to the Federal Election Commission, as of March 31, Senate Democrats had raised $35.1 million in hard and soft money;…
Bargaining Chip
I n his continuing effort to cater to swing voters, George W. Bush is venturing ever further onto Democratic turf. For example, his campaign touts the governor’s support for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), intended to help working families who make too much for Medicaid but too little to afford private health insurance. “When…
Unsustainable
B y recent standards, the dismal U.S. trade figures for April 2000 counted as a relief. After all, imports fell slightly, and this helped narrow the trade deficit for the first time since August 1999. So much for the good news. Now for the bad: At $30.4 billion, the April deficit was just fractionally below…
Comment: Speed Bumps
W ill the economic expansion just keep rolling on? Probably not. The economy has certainly demonstrated that it can sustain higher rates of growth than most economists thought possible. This higher speed limit is one part technology, one part greater competition, and one part belated recognition that the earlier pessimism about the economy’s potential was…
The Next Recession
A decade of prosperity has convinced a fair portion of the punditry that the new hi-tech service economy has lifted us into an economic orbit beyond boom and bust, where recessions are history. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that the laws of economic gravity no longer apply. Indeed, sensible people should now be preparing for…
After the Fall
A lan Greenspan is known for his guarded pronouncements, carefully crafted in order to soothe financial markets. But in his semiannual testimony before the House Banking Committee this February, Greenspan did not mince words. He pointedly explained why stock prices should only rise as fast as disposable income. This would imply a growth rate for…
Permatemps
T he temporary work industry has been around for a long time, but it exploded in the 1990s. The number of temp agency jobs has doubled in the past six years, to 3.5 million. Ever more young adults are using temp agencies as bridges into the work force and between jobs. Nearly one in six…
I Spy
A merican culture thrives on contradictions. It exalts individualism yet is rife with the conformity so essential to consumerism. It preaches self-reliance and personal accountability (especially for poor people) while enriching pop psychologists who provide excuses for sins of the middle class. It nurtures feminism and encourages face-lifts. So we shouldn’t be entirely surprised by…
Thought for Food
S everal of my favorite and most tattered books are cookbooks, and when I visit a foreign country, one of my first purchases is usually a volume of recipes, which (if the book is good) provides a sort of sensory shortcut into the heart of the place and people in question. Some travelers rely on…
Reality Lite
So, like, okay. It’s the first day of boarding school, and you’re the new kid. Not only that, but you’re not like these other boys. You’re on scholarship. Your name is Will Krudski, and you feel guilty because you bought the school’s entrance exam on the Internet. You know this was wrong, but you didn’t…
The Rehabilitations of Shostakovich
O n the chill, wet afternoon of August 14, 1975, the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was buried as a bad military band thumped its way through the Soviet national anthem. He had died a hero. According to his obituary in Pravda, Shostakovich was a “loyal son of the Communist Party” who “devoted his entire life…
The Working Life
I once got a postcard from a friend traveling–and reveling–in sunny France. “You really have to admire a people,” she wrote, “who have such disdain for hard work.” Affectionate slur aside, I think of her bon mot whenever evidence surfaces, which it does with frightening regularity, of our culture’s relentless emphasis on relentless work. You…
Picture Windows and The Old Neighborhood
Flying over San Jose at 4,000 feet, Silicon Valley unfolding below, one sees the stretch marks of the digital boom. Acres and acres of new tract housing, neighborhoods in progress, push their way up the verdant hillsides of the rolling Santa Clara Valley, waiting to absorb the thousands of newly minted dot-com millionaires and almost-millionaires…
