The first casualty of war is said to be truth, and a close second is civil liberty. As we necessarily become more alert to terrorist threats, we should be just as vigilant of our own liberties as Americans. If the defense against terrorism makes us a police state, terror will have won. America is now […]
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.
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No Blank Check On Economic Policy
On Monday when the stock exchange opened the Dow dropped by 5 percent. The economy was deteriorating even before the September 11 attack. The stock market was already reflecting this underlying deterioration. Three major financial industries will be directly hurt by last week’s tragic events – financial services, airlines, and tourism. There is also an […]
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Comment: Care, Charity, and Profit
Our cover story this issue is an investigation of ResCare, a national corporate chain that runs group homes for the disabled and the mentally retarded. As Eyal Press and Jennifer Washburn document in sometimes gruesome detail, deinstitutionalization has come full circle, from notorious state-run warehouses like Willowbrook, to community institutions run by nonprofits, and now, […]
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Difficult Terrain on Three Fronts
As the two-month anniversary of the World Trade Center attack approaches, the Bush administration faces rougher going on three key fronts – domestic politics, economic and homeland security, and the war itself. Politics. Though the commander-in-chief’s personal approval rating remains around 90 percent, Democrats are poised to pick up two governorships, in moderate New Jersey […]
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University for Rent
Harvard University has a famous tradition known locally as “every tub on its own bottom.” Translated, that means that each faculty or school of the university is responsible for raising most of its own research money, and finders are keepers. The Harvard name, of course, is ample bait to attract all sorts of funders,savory and […]
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After The War: The Big Questions
In a year or two, and for decades afterward, historians will feel entirely free to second-guess what went so wrong both before and after Sept. 11. Why did US intelligence fail? How could we have so foolishly put our oil connection with the Saudis above our national safety? Did we respond adequately to the economic […]
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A Self-Sufficient Energy Policy?
Although gasoline prices are down slightly for the moment, this war against terrorism imperils America’s long-term access to cheap oil. And if the Mideast conflict refocuses us on energy self-sufficiency, that would be a constructive byproduct. For one thing, world oil production will peak during this decade. An important new book, ”Hubbert’s Peak,” by the […]
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Creating a Secure — But Free — US
For 20 years, the party now in power has been crusading for smaller government. But that was then. Since Sept. 11, we’ve gotten a rude awakening that everything from our personal and national security to the rebuilding of a stunned economy depends on an effective government. We also got a look at public workers in […]
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Shame On Journalists for Forgetting Orwell
In his timeless essay ”Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell explored how manipulation of words can change how people think. Orwell noted Stalin’s use of the word ”liquidation” as a delicate synonym for execution of political enemies among several other examples. Generations of freshman English students and aspiring journalists have read their Orwell and […]
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China Fallout
Will the Democratic Party’s divisions over the China/ WTO vote prove fatal? For the sputtering Gore campaign, the timing could hardly be worse. The scenario recalls the 1994 NAFTA split prefiguring the party’s defeat in the 1994 midterm elections. In both cases, President Clinton depended heavily on Republican allies to win an agenda shaped by […]
