The other day, the new Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, scrapped the moronic rule requiring everyone to stay seated for 30 minutes coming in or out of Washington’s National Airport. The premise of the rule, enacted after September 11, was that if everyone remained in their seats, it would be illegal for a terrorist […]
Robert Kuttner
Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School. His latest book is Notes for Next Time: Surviving Tyranny, Redeeming America. Follow Bob at his site, robertkuttner.com, and on Twitter.
Posted inColumns
Exit With Honor
The American people want out of Iraq, but critics of the Iraq War seem stymied by the mess that the Bush policy has created. Here is an exit strategy that makes sense as geopolitics and domestic politics: The U.S. commits to leave Iraq on a date certain, say August 1, 2006. We use this yearlong […]
Posted inDispatches
Bubblehead
Most economists expect something bad to happen to the U.S. economy sometime this decade, due to the deficit and debt overhang, the trade imbalance, the dependence on foreign borrowing, the sundry asset bubbles, and more. When the history of the next crash is written, President Bush’s appointment of California Republican Congressman Christopher Cox to chair […]
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Roving Target
We may soon know who outed Valerie Plame, and a lot of signs point to Karl Rove. If this turns out to be the case, it will be explosive to say the least. Whichever high administration officials turn out to be the culprits, it’s appalling that the Bush White House first betrayed a loyal CIA […]
Posted inArticle
Force of July
The bitterly contentious nomination of John Bolton to be UN ambassador comes to a showdown this holiday weekend. With the Senate having twice refused to break a filibuster over Bolton, President Bush may use his power to make a recess appointment during Congress’s Fourth of July break. Bolton would then serve without Senate confirmation until […]
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Big Labor, Big Choices
The AFL-CIO is on the verge of splintering. Five of the most dynamic unions are threatening to leave the labor federation over differences of how much money to spend on new organizing, and how to turn jurisdictional rivalries into effective coalitions. All this is compounded by rivalries of personality, political style, and turf. The timing […]
Posted inDispatches
True West
It’s 8:30 on a sparkling June evening, and leaders of Montana’s resurgent Democratic Party are hosting a river trip for the annual meeting of the party’s Western States Caucus. The group of nearly 100 party leaders and elected officials is motoring through the canyon of the Missouri River that Captain Meriwether Lewis, 200 years ago […]
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A Universe Next Door
Somewhere, in a parallel universe, real leaders in a country very much like our own are dealing with real problems. Imagine what America might be like if our top officials were addressing the genuine challenges that confront us. Domestically, the president might have responded to the September 11 attacks by calling for equality of sacrifice, […]
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The Early Lead
The 2008 election is three years off, and the jockeying is already intense. Most insiders have concluded that the Democratic finalists are likely to come down to Hillary Rodham Clinton and one or two anti-Hillarys. The Atlantic Monthly reported a confidential poll of leading Democratic and Republican insiders indicating that 49 of 63 Democrats and […]
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Owning Up
Is the housing market experiencing a dangerous price bubble, one destined to pop, like the late stock-market collapse? Housing prices have been rising faster than incomes since 2000, and the ratio of housing costs to incomes is now the highest since the Depression. To compensate, homebuyers are borrowing more than ever, before homeownership gets away […]
