Column Archives
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: How to Save Books February 15, 2012 Why E-Books Need Print to Thrive
Borders and Barnes & Noble killed independent bookstores. Amazon killed Borders. Now Barnes & Noble, which sells more than 20 percent of pulp-and-ink books in the U.S., is under siege.
If B&N collapses: the death ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Zuckerberg's Pay: $6,000 a Minute February 8, 2012 High Salaries Impossible to Justify
Income inequality isn't an abstraction. It's real. It takes money out of your pocket. It reduces your ability to pay your bills, to take a vacation, to send your kid to college.
Income is a zero-sum game. If you ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Want More Wars? Raise Taxes on the Rich January 31, 2012 Tax Fairness Won't Reduce Inequality
Reacting to and attempting to co-opt the Occupy Wall Street movement, President Obama used his 2012 State of the Union address to discuss what he now calls "the defining issue of our time"—the growing gap between...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Occupy Sexual Freedom January 24, 2012 Sympathy for Newt and Open Marriage
You know the narrative. Right-wing family-values Republican gets caught doing secular-liberal totally-not-family-values stuff, usually involving sex:
Cruising for manlove in an airport men's room.
Knocking u...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Corpse-Urinating Kids Are Alright January 19, 2012 More Jobs for Our Valiant Marine Heroes
"Eighteen, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often and that's what occurred here."
This was the nuanced reaction of Rick Perry, governor of the supposedly important state of Texas, who has signe...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Republican Socialists, Democratic Capitalists January 11, 2012 GOP Pols Exploit Anti-Wall Street Rage
Newt Gingrich made a name for himself as the right-wing ideologue who led the 1994 "Republican Revolution."
What a difference the wholesale collapse of international capitalism makes.
Forget 9/11—everythin...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Our Suicidal Ruling Class January 5, 2012 Why Won't the Rich and Powerful Try to Save Themselves?
I spent last week at Occupy Miami and Occupy Fort Lauderdale. One question came up several times: What if the system responds—or pretends to respond—to our demands? What if the political class...
- AL JAZEERA ENGLISH COLUMN: The Inevitability of Mitt Romney December 29, 2011 "Conventional wisdom" has kept other GOP candidates at bay and ensured Romney remains the likely Republican nominee.
"Why don't they like me?" Time magazine asked on the cover of its December 1, 2011 issue, next to a face shot of a bushy-browed America...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: How To Talk To An Obama Voter (If You Must) December 27, 2011 In 2012 Politics Is In The Streets—Not the Voting Booth
The Occupy movement is lying low. The Tea Party has been completely absorbed into the Republican Party—just another interest group. The only politics anyone talks about is the presidential hor...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Who Polices Political Cartooning? December 22, 2011 An Art Form in Crisis Ignores the Rot Within
"Ted Rall, mop-headed antiestablishment political cartoonist, has abundant talent, a 1,400-drawing portfolio, seven years' experience, the acclaim of peers and the approval of newspaper editors who, every so...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Obama's "Mission Accomplished" December 15, 2011 Wars and Prisons Move, Wars and Torture Never Ends
Most Americans—68 percent—oppose the war against Iraq, according to a November 2011 CNN poll. So it's smart politics for President Obama to take credit for withdrawing U.S. troops.
As it often ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Democrats Occupy Occupy December 7, 2011 MoveOn Co-opts OWS Rhetoric, Dilutes Its Message
If Democrats were doing their jobs, there wouldn't be an Occupy movement.
The last 40 years has left liberals and progressives without a party and working people without an advocate. The party of FD...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: 7-7-7 December 1, 2011 Jobless? Face It: Obama's Not That Into You
Forget Herman Cain's 9-9-9. The battle cry for every American ought to be 7-7-7.
7-7-7: for the $7.7 trillion the Bush and Obama Administrations secretly funneled to the banksters.
Remember the $700 bil...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Revolution Versus Reform November 22, 2011 The Rift Within Occupy
Editors and readers expect pundits to weigh in on the brutal eviction of Occupy Wall Street from New York's Zuccotti Park. People will ask: Does this mean the beginning of the end for the Occupy movement?
No.
Now that we've...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Our F--- You System of Government November 16, 2011 Anti-Occupy Crackdowns Highlight Lack of Services
Governments are supposed to fulfill the basic needs of their citizens. Ours doesn't pretend to try.
Sick? Too bad.
Can't find a job? Tough.
Broke? Can't afford rent? We don't give a crap.
...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: You Want a Job, Right? November 10, 2011 Herman Cain and the Criminalization of Poverty
Pizza baron Herman Cain leads in the polls. Yet nobody believes he can win the Republican nomination. The fact that the #1 candidate doesn't stand a chance is an improbable truism emblematic of our broken...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Occupier's Choice: Violence or Failure November 3, 2011 Don't Know What They Want, But They Know How To Get It
Here's how U.S. state-controlled media covered events at Occupy Oakland:
"A day of demonstrations in Oakland that began as a significant step toward expanding the political and economic influence ...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: U.S. Double Standard: Gaddafi Bad, Karimov Good October 31, 2011 The US shows its hypocrisy by accusing "tyrants" of human rights abuses while not owning up to supporting dictators.
"After four decades of brutal dictatorship and eight months of deadly conflict, the Libyan people can now celebrate their freedom and ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Cut-and-Paste Revolution, Part II October 25, 2011 Time for the Occupy Movement to Come In From the Cold
The Occupy movement is an attempt to replicate Tahrir Square in the United States. But you can't just cut-and-paste a model that (sort of) worked in Egypt to the United States.
Especially when ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Cut-and-Paste Revolution, Part I October 24, 2011 Winter Looms. Occupy Movement Wiggles Fingers. What Next?
"Let's recreate Tahrir Square." The email blast that began it all in June, a call for opponents of America's wars and bank bailouts and rising income inequality and a host of other iniquities to...
- BONUS COLUMN: Think Flexibly, Revolt Locally October 19, 2011 Due to a communications snafu, Al Jazeera English never published this column, which I wrote for them last week after participating in the occupation of Washington DC.
I just spent a week at one of the occupation protests in Washington. It was one of t...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Quit Whining About Student Loans October 18, 2011 Time for #OWS to Broaden Its Appeal
It has been 30 days since Occupy Wall Street began. The movement hasn't shaken the world à la John Reed—not yet—but at one thousand occupations and counting, it can't be ignored.
OWS has become so impressive,...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Stop Demanding Demands October 13, 2011 Connecting the Revolutionary Dots in Occupied Washington
"Our demand is that you stop demanding that we come up with demands!"
I thought about that line a lot this past week. (It's from a recent cartoon by Matt Bors.) I was at Freedom Plaza in Was...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Ah, To Be Young And In Hate October 3, 2011 America's New Radicals Attack a System That Ignores Them
"Enraged young people," The New York Times worries aloud, are kicking off the dust of phony democracy, in which "the job of a citizen was limited to occasional trips to the polling places to vote...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: The De-politicization of Political Media September 29, 2011 US political ideologies are converging on the right, but the power of ideas doesn't matter in this popularity contest.
"President Obama's support is eroding among elements of his base," began a front-page story in the September 16th New York Times. Exp...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Occupy Main Street September 26, 2011 For America's New Radicals, a Coming-Out Party—and Brutal Cops
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." —Gandhi
Gandhi lost, but never mind.
#OccupyWallStreet, in its second week as of this writing, ...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: United We Bland September 23, 2011 Calls for a return to post-9/11 "unity" in the US, flirt with the elementary constructs of fascism, author says.
In the days and weeks after 9/11 the slogan was everywhere: T-shirts, bumper stickers, billboards that previously read "Your Ad Here" due ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Why Settle for Second Worst? September 20, 2011 Democratic Party Needs a Democratic Primary Process
What a comedown!
In 2008 Barack Obama ran on hope and change. His reelection bid relies on fear (of Republicans) and stay-the-course (lest said Republicans slash even more Medicare than Obama is ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Truth About Truthers September 12, 2011 Why Does the US Government Create Paranoia?
"Truthers expect something from you," an interviewer told me last week.
Indeed they do. I rarely get through a public appearance or talk-radio interview without being asked about 9/11 by a "Truther"—a ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Fight the Powerlessness September 6, 2011 The Left's Case for Boycotting Obama in November 2012
Three years in, it's obvious to all but the most willfully obtuse liberals and progressives that their 2008 votes for Obama have not paid off.
The president blames obstructionist Republicans for...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: Libya: The triumphalism of the US media September 2, 2011 Obama and the US media are taking credit for Gaddafi's downfall, but it was the Libyan fighters who won the war.
The fall of Moammar Gaddafi was a Libyan story first and foremost. Libyans fought, killed and died to end the Colonel's 42-year reign.
...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: We Learned Nothing From 9/11 August 30, 2011 Ten Years Later, Americans Still Stupid and Vulnerable
They say everything changed on 9/11. No one can dispute that. But we didn't learn anything.
Like other events that forced Americans to reassess their national priorities (the Great Depression,...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: The US' War of Words Against Syria August 26, 2011 The US war of words against Syria is marred by hypocrisy and a lack of realism.
You'd need a team of linguists to tease out the internal contradictions, brazen hypocrisies and verbal contortions in President Barack Obama's call for Syrian President Bas...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: American Dogs Count More Than Afghan People August 24, 2011 Helicopter Shootdown Story Unmasks Bigoted Media
New York Times war correspondent Dexter Filkins couldn't help liking the young American soldiers with whom he was embedded in U.S.-occupied Iraq. Recognizing that, Filkins tried to maintain some professi...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: What's the Matter with Obama? August 18, 2011 It's the Not Caring About the Economy, Stupid
As a pundit it's my job to explain why politicians do the things they do. Every now and then, however, a pol behaves so irrationally that I have to throw up my arms and ask:
What the hell is this guy t...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: Tied to a Drowning Man August 13, 2011 The interconnectedness of the world economy means that US economic woes will have severe effects on others.
During the Tajik Civil War of the late 1990s soldiers loyal to the central government found an ingeniously simple way to conserve bullets while...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Down and Out at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue August 9, 2011 What I Would Do If I Were Obama
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Throughout the presidency of Barack Obama, Americans have been preoccupied with jobs. Unemployed people need work. The underemployed need more work. The employed want salaries that go up instead of down...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: How the US Media Marginalizes Dissent August 4, 2011 The US media derides views outside of the mainstream as 'un-serious', and our democracy suffers as a result.
"Over the past few weeks, Washington has seemed dysfunctional," conservative columnist David Brooks opined recently in The New York Times. "Pu...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Boycott the 2012 Election August 2, 2011 Hey Liberals! Time to Stop Getting Rolled
We might as well have defaulted.
Regardless of where you stand politically, the deal to raise the federal debt limit came too late for the U.S. to achieve its main objective, avoiding the downgrading of de...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: Censorship of Civilian Casualties in the US July 30, 2011 US mainstream media and the public's willful ignorance is to blame for lack of knowledge about true cost of wars.
Why is it so easy for American political leaders to convince ordinary citizens to support war? How is that, after that initial enthusiasm ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: American Select July 27, 2011 Wall Street-Backed Third Party Flogs Fake Democracy
For "1984" Orwell conjured up a one-party state so powerful and pervasive that it was forced to create a phony "resistance" movement led by a fiction-within-a-fiction, Emmanuel Goldstein.
This pas...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The GOP Bets on Bad Judgement July 19, 2011 Voters Focus on Spending at Just the Wrong Time
Ross Douthat, the conservative columnist who elevates bland to middle-brow art for The New York Times, thinks Republicans have overreached in their showdown with Obama over the debt ceiling. "[The Republi...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: The US Love Affair with Drones July 18, 2011 A War Strategy Built Around Drone Attacks Is Not Only Unethical, But Will Hurt US Interests in the Long Run.
One of the pleasures of traveling through the developing world is that things develop. They change. There's always something new.
Afghanist...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: The Emperor Has No Economy July 16, 2011 Corporate Profits Up, Consumer Income Down, Orwellian Talking Points Soar
The Associated Press' Paul Wiseman had one of the snappier headlines last week: "The Economic Recovery Turns Two—Feel Better?"
"After previous recessions, people in all inco...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: Libya and War Powers July 16, 2011 One Year Early, Obama's Reelection Far From Certain
"Much rumbling has emanated from the U.S. Congress on Libya—centered around technicalities around the War Powers Act ," writes Pepe Escobar in Asia Times. "As the semantic contortions involved...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Toxic Assets July 14, 2011 Many Foreclosed Houses Are Infested by Mold
The next time someone tells you that capitalism is efficient, remember the mold houses.
I used to be a banker. Some of my customers had trouble making their loan payments. We usually had recourse to some ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Guilty After Proven Innocent July 6, 2011 Make DSK Whole—Then Jail Him
"Innocent until proven guilty." We say it. We teach it to our children. But we don't believe it.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, charged with ambushing a hotel cleaning person at a hotel in midtown Manhattan and forcing her to...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Brave New Book June 28, 2011 Political Scientist Argues the U.S. is a Police State
The United States is a police state.
Not in danger of becoming one.
Is.
And it's too late to restore democracy.
That's the stark message of Andrew Kolin's brave, lucid and important ...
- AL JAZEERA COLUMN: Too Soon To Tell June 27, 2011 I am pleased to announce that I am now writing a weekly long-form column for Al Jazeera English. Here is my second piece for Al Jazeera:
One Year Early, Obama's Reelection Far From Certain
The American punditocracy (and, perhaps more importantly, L...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Sexual Freedom: The Next Frontier June 23, 2011 No One Should Be Judged Because of How They Have Sex
If slavery was America's original sin, Puritanism was its original curse.
In recent years the United States has made significant strides towards greater equality and freedom. Racism, sexism and o...
- AL JAZEERA ENGLISH COLUMN: Obama's Third War June 17, 2011 Yesterday I published my first column for Al Jazeera English. I get more space than my syndicated column (2000 words compared to the usual 800) and it's an exciting opportunity to run alongside a lot of other writers whose work I respect.
Here it is:
...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Revolution Will Not Be Deactualized June 14, 2011 Oct. 6th: Will Tahrir Square Come to Washington?
I used to work for Democratic candidates. I was a campus activist. I marched in protests.
But, in the 1980s, I quit politics. I was fed up. The Left was impotent and inept. They didn't want to change...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Being, Nothingness and Anthony Weiner June 8, 2011 Should Anthony Weiner Resign?
Should Anthony Weiner resign?
Aside from the obvious pleasure that we derive from wallowing in salacious revelations about the rich and powerful, this week's Weiner sexting controversy provides a window into American m...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Teddy Roosevelt Saw This Coming June 2, 2011 The Decline and Fall of an American Icon
Why did our political system become so corrupt and unresponsive? How did we end up with such a rigid, Old European-style class system—in which you can't get ahead unless you were born that way? America: What W...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Evil of Two Lessers May 23, 2011 Two-Party System Is Not Democracy
We get the government we deserve.
Don't get mad at the politicians! It's your/our fault. You/we elected them.
Most Americans accept these aphorisms. Yet they are lies—lies that distract us from the fact that...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Rise of the Obamabots May 16, 2011 Stifling Liberal Dissent Under Obama
After they called the presidency for Obama, emails poured in. "You must be relieved now that the Democrats are taking over," an old college buddy told me. "There will be less pressure on you."
That would have b...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: What If Might Made Right? May 10, 2011 Reimagining the Assassination of Bin Laden
President Obama murdered Osama bin Laden. I am surprised that the left has been so supportive—not of the end result, but of the way it was carried out.
Imagine if the killing had gone down the same exac...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Osama bin Laden's Ultimate Victory May 3, 2011 Culturally Clueless and Politically Tonedeaf, U.S. Gave Bin Laden the Martyrdom He Craved
The assassination of Osama bin Laden was masterfully orchestrated to appeal to American media consumers. But it will play poorly overseas.
President Obama's S...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Thrifty Families and Other Lies April 26, 2011 Like Their Government, Americans Live on Debt
his State of the Union address President Obama repeated this ancient canard: "We have to confront the fact that our government spends more than it takes in," he said. "That is not sustainable. Every day, fa...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Stamped Out April 19, 2011 The Statue of Liberty Stamp Error and the End of America
It may seem like a minor thing. Objectively it is a minor thing. But the Great Statue of Liberty Stamp Screw-up of 2011 presents a picture-perfect portrait of a society in the midst of collapse.
...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Zero Salary for Congress April 12, 2011 Why Not Link Pols' Pay Level to Ours?
Most Americans don't like Moammar Kadafi or Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. But that might change if they knew their paychecks. The leaders of Libya and Iran get $9,516 and $3,000 a year annually, respectively.
Obama coll...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Fool Us Twice? April 5, 2011 Can Obama Get Reelected?
Usually I don't care about political horseraces. Yet I am fascinated by Obama's reelection bid. Never mind what's good for the country. I'm dying to hear him make his case for another four years.
I don't pretend to be able ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Devils We Don't Know March 31, 2011 Who Are the Libyan Opposition?
Hi. You don't know me. See that big guy over at the bar? I'm going to pick a fight with him. Wanna back me up?
That's what we, the American people, are being asked to do in Libya. We're not picking sides. Picking side...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Libya: Another War We Shouldn't Believe In March 22, 2011 Why Won't Obama Explain His Third War?
U.S. forces fired 110 cruise missiles at Libya on the first day of the war. Each one cost $755,000 to build; $2.8 million to transport, maintain and shoot. Austerity and budget cuts abound; there's no money for NP...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: A Tsunami 100 Times Worse Than Japan March 16, 2011 Apocalypse Looms in Landlocked Central Asia
The earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan last week has killed at least 10,000 people. It is terrible. It may be a sneak preview of something 100 times worse.
The next Big Flood will probably be the...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Unions? What Unions? March 8, 2011 Labor Leaders to Blame for Workers' Weakness
I will never understand why the people who are jealous of unionized workers who earn $50,000 a year give a pass to the incompetent bank executives who get $5,000,000. Resentment is a terrible thing to waste....
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Phony Budget Crisis March 2, 2011 Forget Austerity. Tax the Rich.
Everywhere you look, from the federal government to the states to your hometown, budget crises abound. Services are being slashed. Politicians and pundits from both parties tell us that the good times are over, that we'v...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Hope and Change? Not for Americans February 22, 2011 Turmoil from Mideast to Midwest
If irony were money we'd be rich.
"You've got to get out ahead of change," President Obama lectured a week ago. "You can't be behind the curve." He was, of course, referring to the Middle East. During the last few wee...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Pirate This Book February 17, 2011 Borders Goes Bankrupt. Will Books Survive?
Borders Books and Music, which once employed 30,000 workers at more than 600 stores, is bankrupt. Those numbers have been halved. And even after these massive cuts, analysts say, Borders is probably doomed.
...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: America Against the People February 9, 2011 Why Is Obama Coddling Egyptian Dictator?
Here is Egypt, America's neo-con dream come true. Democracy! In the Middle East! And it isn't costing us a single soldier. You'd think American policy makers would be pleased as punch. So why are they messing it...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The New Face of Revolution February 3, 2011 After Tunisia and Egypt, the World
From the British newspaper the Independent: "Like in many other countries in the region, protesters in Egypt complain about surging prices, unemployment and the authorities' reliance on heavy-handed security to keep d...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: How Obama Helps Murder Our Inner Child January 28, 2011 Blame Politicians' Lies, Not Apathy
I can't stop thinking about what Obama said about Christina-Taylor Green, the nine-year-old girl shot to death in Tucson.
Christina-Taylor, said the president, saw politics "through the eyes of a child, undimmed b...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: It's Mourning in America: Tacky and Weird January 18, 2011 Somber is Out. Kitsch Reigns.
Americans don't mourn right.
We are tacky.
We are gauche.
We turn tragedy into kitsch.
Last week's news was dominated by the aftermath of the Tucson massacre: the memorial service, the funerals, even the re...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Political Violence? Stop Violent Politics January 10, 2011 Media Spokesmen Move to Stifle Violent Speech
The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 11 other people is tragic. But it is not shocking. It isn't even surprising.
What is surprising—weird, even—is the response of the corporate-owne...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Some Weasels Are More Equal Than Others January 6, 2011 Liberal BS on Income Inequality
Everyone talks about income inequality, but no one does anything about it.
Lately they've been talking more than ever.
"The United States is the rich country with the most skewed income distribution, " Eduardo Port...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Next: Digital Totalitarianism December 27, 2010 The Conspiracy to Abolish Cash
For many years figures on the political fringe, especially on the right, have claimed that the government and its corporate owners want to transform us into a cashless society. Their warnings about the conspiracy against ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The War of Christmas December 20, 2010 Time to Take Religion Out of the Calendar
We are a secular nation. We enjoy the constitutional right to exercise any religion—or none whatsoever. So why is Christmas a federal holiday?
The U.S. has no national religion. Yet Christians get special...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Death of the Moderates December 16, 2010 Extreme Problems Require Extreme Solutions
Given his druthers, Obama will pursue the most left-leaning course that he can get away with." So says Jennifer Rubin, a right-wing pundit at the neoconservative-leaning Washington Post. "Obama," Rubin claims,...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: WikiLeaks: The Devils We Know December 8, 2010 Cables Reveal Background of Pro-Dictator U.S. Policy
After the Soviet collapse in 1991 U.S. policy toward Central Asia was transparently cynical: support the dictators, screw the people.
As the U.S. stood by and watched, corrupt autocrats looted th...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Conning the Taliban November 30, 2010 Confessions of a Phony American Peace Negotiator
For much of the year now drawing to a close, U.S. and NATO bigwigs conducted secret peace talks with Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, the #2 Taliban official. They paid him tens, possibly hundreds, of tho...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Rape My Brain But Don't Touch My Junk November 22, 2010 Why TSA Molesters Are Striking a Nerve
"Don't touch my junk!" Will this be the battle cry of the next American Revolution?
If you think about it, it's amazing. Why this? But thinking doesn't have anything to do with it.
There's a good reason. ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Obama Was Bad From The Start November 16, 2010 President's Right-Wing Policies Revealed Years Ago
We used to love Obama. Now we don't. What a difference two years makes!
But not really. We may have changed. But Obama hasn't. It was obvious from the beginning that Mr. Hopey Changey was devoid of...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Yes, I Can November 11, 2010 Straight Talk on Balancing the Budget
The federal budget deficit is like the weather. Everybody talks about it; except for Bill Clinton, no one ever does anything about it.
President Obama's bipartisan Fiscal Debt Commission has released a draft re...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Obama Postmortem November 3, 2010
An Autopsy of a Political Suicide
It's the day after the Republican sweep we all knew was coming. If Obama had any dignity, if he was honest with himself and with us, he would resign. It's abundantly clear that he isn't up to the job.
But you do...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Bank Job October 28, 2010 Make Rogue Corporations Pay for Foreclosure Crisis
"We know how to prevent foreclosures," Federal Reserve Bank senior economist Paul Willen told The New York Times. "We just need to be prepared to spend the money." Willen "sees two possible solutions: ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: To Pig to Jail? October 21, 2010 Ban Foreclosures Now
What would happen to you if you got caught forging a mortgage application? You'd go to jail. And rightly so.
In one case in Florida, an employee of GMAC Mortgage admitted under oath that he personally forged 10,000 foreclosure ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: How to Save American Capitalism, in 808 Words October 12, 2010 Advice Obama Has To Ignore
American capitalism is broken. So is the Democratic-Republican duopoly that supports it. Neither can be fixed. The system is collapsing. A power vacuum is beginning to open.
As murderous as our dying system is, it still f...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Case for Liberal Apathy October 5, 2010 An Overview of the Enthusiasm Gap
Liberal Democrats are twice as likely as conservative Republicans to stay home this November. Establishmentarian liberals are urging left-of-center voters to ignore the President's failure to deliver—and his refusal ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The New Pessimism September 30, 2010 Will Americans Act To Prevent Economic and Environmental Collapse?
I am touring to promote my new book. "The Anti-American Manifesto" lays out America's biggest problems and what we can do to fix them.
Before I started out, I knew that Americans we...
- EXCLUSIVE: Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline Still a Dream September 21, 2010
Presidents and Bankers, But No Action on the Ground
KARA-TEPE, AFGHANISTAN—There is no pipeline. There probably won't be one. Yet the pipeline-that-will-never-exist is one of the main reasons that hundreds of thousands of Afghans and two thousand ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Afghan War Lies September 14, 2010 Support for Occupation Relies on Lies and Spin
There's an exception. It is a limited set of circumstances. If the armies of another nation invade your country, there is no need to resort to lies to sell war. The battle is already joined. The threat is ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Revolution B Gon September 9, 2010 America Faces Permanent Unemployment
SOMEWHERE IN AFGHANISTAN--It has been two years since the U.S. economy, once the envy of the world, drew its last breath. Millions of homeowners have gotten evicted. Unemployment has soared to Great Depression-era l...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Death of Hope September 1, 2010 If the U.S. Can't Help Afghanistan, Who Can?
DO AB, AFGHANISTAN--Afghanistan has more infrastructure than it did in 2001. But Afghans also have less soul.
In many ways, Afghanistan was a more dangerous country nine years ago. There were more mines, ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Where Did the Money Go? August 29, 2010 Nine Years Later, Afghanistan Looks Much the Same: A Mess
HERAT, AFGHANISTAN--OK. The roads are impressive. Specifically, the fact that they exist. When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, more than two decades of civil conflict had left the country ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: If I Die in Afghanistan August 26, 2010 Please Spare Me the Hypocritical Obituaries
SOMEWHERE IN NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN—I am researching a book, a follow-up to "To Afghanistan and Back," which in 2002 became the first book published about the U.S. invasion. Accompanied by fellow cartoonists ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Islamo-Gangsterism August 24, 2010
In a Deteriorating Afghanistan, a New Breed of Terror
KABUL--"In squads of roaring dirt bikes and armed to the teeth," Joshua Partlow reports in The Washington Post, "Taliban fighters are spreading like a brush fire into remote and defenseless villag...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Different War, Same Situation August 20, 2010 Nine Years Later, Afghan City is Buzzing But Still Menacing
TALOQAN, AFGHANISTAN--Nine years ago, when I was using this provincial Afghan capital as a base to cover the battle of Kunduz, Taloqan was a dangerous place with medieval charm. Donkey carts a...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Banksters Strike Again August 19, 2010 Chase Bank and Obama's "Make Home Affordable" Scam
SOMEWHERE IN AFGHANISTAN—It isn't surprising, what with the world falling apart and all, that the world scarcely noticed that I lost my job as an editor in April 2009. Why should it? I was one of mil...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Libertarian War on Free Speech August 12, 2010 It's the Economics,
SOMEWHERE IN AFGHANISTAN—Two months ago long-time White House correspondent Helen Thomas got fired by her employer, the Hearst newspaper conglomerate, in response to her off-the-cuff slam at Israel. I criticized the fir...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Appallingly Heroic August 5, 2010 Thanks to WikiLeaker, Afghan War Will End Soon
MUMBAI--"An appalling irresponsible act." That's how General James Nattis, fresh at the helm of U.S. Central Command, characterizes the release of more than 76,000 classified Pentagon reports released by t...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Idiocracy Factor July 29, 2010 THE IDIOCRACY FACTOR
How U.S. Ignorance Helped Doom the Afghan War
Americans' lack of knowledge about Afghanistan is virtually limitless. Which matters, because the U.S. is at war there. And which explains why the American military is losing its lon...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Protofascism Comes to America July 21, 2010 The Rise of the Tea Party
Is the Tea Party racist? Democrats who play liberals on TV say it isn't. Vice President Joe Biden says the Tea Party "is not a racist organization" per se, but allows that "at least elements that were involved in some of the T...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Help? Not Soon July 15, 2010 On Economy, Pessimism Abounds
Twenty years ago, in 1990, the American economy was in the third year of a deep recession. It was impossible to find a job. The 1980s housing bubble had popped; high-end housing prices in New York City dropped by 80 perce...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: So Much Stupidity July 7, 2010 On Afghanistan, Democrats and Republicans Equally Dumb
As I pack for my return trip to Afghanistan next month, many people are asking me: Why are we losing? What should we do there?
The short answer is simple: Afghan resistance forces live there. W...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Great Disruptor July 1, 2010 Why the U.S. Can't Talk to the Taliban
Like all Afghans, Hamid Karzai knows history. Which is why he's talking to the neo-Taliban. The postmodern heirs to the Islamist government Bush deposed in 2001, the generation of madrassah graduates who replaced ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Learned Helplessness June 24, 2010 In Dire Straits, Americans Whimper Instead
In 1967 animal researchers conducted an interesting experiment. Two sets of dogs were strapped into harnesses and subjected to a series of shocks. The dogs were placed in the same room.
The first set of dog...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Ethnic Cleansing in Kyrgyzstan June 15, 2010 More American Chickens Come Home to Roost
Believe it or not, I don't scour the headlines looking for tragedies and atrocities to blame on the United States.
But that's how it often works out.
When the big earthquake ravaged Haiti earlier this y...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: First They Came for the Cranky White House Columnist June 9, 2010 Helen Thomas Learns That Free Speech is a Myth
This is why a lot of people think Jews control the media.
Not me. I've worked in the media most of my life. So I know that the media is controlled by morons.
Still, what happened to Helen Thomas wi...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Sticks and Stones on the High Seas June 3, 2010 Activists Finally Fight Back—And Win
They call themselves activists. But leftist activists rarely do anything. They march. They chant. They whine.
Then they go home, satisfied that they've said their piece without taking a personal risk.
Op...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Obama's Katrina May 27, 2010
The President Can't Lead. So He Should Quit.
British Petroleum isn't dithering. Yes, it's been five weeks since the most devastating oil spill in U.S. history. But it's probably impossible to fix.
The company's execs just look calm. Deep inside, ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Crime and Punishment, Corporate Style May 20, 2010 The Case for Nationalization
The Supreme Court says that corporations have the same rights as individuals. When they misbehave, shouldn't they face consequences as serious as those imposed upon an individual?
It goes without saying that a person wh...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Holiday in the Sun May 13, 2010 Travel Planning for Afghanistan
How are things going in Afghanistan? The best way to find out is to go see for yourself. I'm doing that this August.
You can tell a lot even before you go. I'm in the planning stages: reserving flights, applying for ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Publishers, Heal Thyselves May 6, 2010
Seven Suggestions for Newspapers
I'm on the road. On May 3rd I gave a talk at Wright State University. I showed my political cartoons, excerpts from graphic novels past and future, and something new I've been working on the last couple of years: two-...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Coulda, Shoulda, Wouldn'tve April 27, 2010 What Disasters Are We Creating Now?
No one could have known.
That's what they always say after a disaster. Well, it's what the establishment—a good '60s word, let's bring it back!—says. "No one could have known" is the perfect excuse. Don't bla...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Free the Troops April 15, 2010
The Case for Professionalizing the U.S. Military
The number of new U.S. Army recruits who are high-school dropouts soared during the Bush years, peaking at 29.3 percent in 2007. The economic collapse made life easier for military recruiters. "Only" 1...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: This Time It's Impersonal April 7, 2010 Anatomy of a Corporate Layoff
One year ago, I was fired.
Not laid off—fired. In a layoff, you go home until the factory calls you back to work. I got fired.
Everyone knew there would be a bloodbath. Management tried to keep it secret. But we ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Out-Republicaning the Republicans April 1, 2010
Obama Revives Clinton's Disastrous Triangulation Strategy
"It was Bill Clinton who recognized that the categories of conservative and liberal played to Republican advantage and were inadequate to address our problems," President Obama wrote in his bo...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Damn! I Wish I Was a Republican March 22, 2010 What Lefties Could Learn from The Party of No
"Damn! I wish I was a man," sang folksinger Cindy Lee Berryhill in the 1980s. Me, I wish I was a Republican.
Conservatives dress frumpy, are all white and bland and suburbany, and don't know much about ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Hey, Right-Wingers! Save Us From ObamaCare! March 18, 2010 Bill a Bailout for Insurers, Disastrous for Americans
The details of Obama's healthcare plan are finally starting to come out. They are ugly. (Some of the lowlights are revealed below.) This nightmare should be aborted.
I am writing this as someone...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Triumph of the Swill March 11, 2010 "The Hurt Locker" Supports the Troops—and the Lies
The Motion Picture Academy's choice of "The Hurt Locker" as best film of 2009 is a sad commentary on the movie business as well as America's unwillingness to face the ugly truth about itself nearly a...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Don't Be Evil—Edit It March 2, 2010 A Different Take on the Italian Google Verdict
Should I be allowed to smear you?
That's the question journalists ought to be asking in the wake of an Italian court decision that found Google criminally responsible for content uploaded to one of it...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Say It's So, Tiger February 22, 2010 In Defense of Tiger Woods and Good Fun Sex
Why does Tiger Woods owe us an apology?
Let's assume that all the accusations of serial philandering are true. That no waitress was safe from his charms. What right do we, the public, have to be upset?
W...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Hey Tea Partiers--You're Leftists! February 17, 2010 Time for Progressives to Reclaim Populism
Huey Long would know what to do.
Angry people were the Kingfish's stock in trade. People dispossessed and victimized, pissed off at a government that only cares about them on Tax Day. The populist Louisiana ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Obama - Dumber Than Sarah Palin February 10, 2010 Why Can't the Prez Even Look Out for No. 1?
Thanks to CribNoteGate, we can finally say it out loud: Sarah Palin is stupid. But where does that leave Barack Obama?
Even stupider.
Let's set aside the fiction that public officials care about the cou...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Contrarian Manifesto February 4, 2010 Boom or Bust? We're Always Wrong
My father taught me to go left.
Not politically. He was a right-wing Republican. At the movies.
"Most people choose the right entrance," he told me. "There are usually more seats on the left side of the theater." ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Down the Haiti Memory Hole January 25, 2010 Haiti News Coverage Turns Sublimely Ridiculous
Ah, "1984." As the cartoonist Matt Bors says, it's "the dystopian novel that keeps on giving."
Orwell's main character worked for a government ministry that controlled the future by changing the past. I...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: David Dinkins Redux January 19, 2010 Obama Will Drag Down Democrats in November
I'm a bit late, but this is the time of year when pundits issue their predictions for the coming year. Normally I stay out of the political prognostication racket. It's as thankless as writing for Arianna Huff...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Haitian Earthquake: Made in U.S.A. January 14, 2010 Why the Blood Is On Our Hands
As grim accounts of the earthquake in Haiti came in, the accounts in U.S.-controlled state media all carried the same descriptive sentence: "Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere..."
Gee, I wonder how t...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Craziest Tax January 7, 2010 Lost Your Job? The IRS Thinks You're Loaded
My friend was a survivor. Until she wasn't. She'd made it through 14 rounds of layoffs at her accounting firm. Then came number 15: "I was a telecommuter. When my boss told me to come into the office for a me...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Fear Decade December 29, 2009 Columnists everywhere are attempting to name the decade just ended. Here's my nomination: The Fear Decade.
Since 9/11, We've Embraced Our Inner Coward
Home of the free and the brave. Live free or die. Shoot first; ask questions later. Kill 'em all, ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Obama's "Good Enough" Revolution December 22, 2009 Why the Imperfect is the Enemy of the Good
MP3s exemplify "disruptive technology," a new product initially ignored by major investors due to its low quality yet catches fire due to its convenience. The history of recorded sound has been at the vanguard...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Foreclose on the Banks December 17, 2009 How to Give America Its Best Christmas Ever
Citibank is suspending foreclosures and evictions for 30 days, until after the holidays.
Mighty white of them.
Who knew bankers could be so amusing? In an interview, Citi mortgage czar Sanjiv Das ackn...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Give a Hoot, But We're Still Doomed December 7, 2009 The Empty Gesture of Copenhagen
Our parents and grandparents fell down on the job.
"The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw c...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: War, More War or Morer War December 1, 2009 Debate Freezes Out the Majority View: Get Out Now
The headline ran in The New York Times a month ago, on November 7th: "All Afghan War Options by Obama Aides Said to Call for More Troops." According to White House insiders, Obama considered three choic...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Rise of the Young Codgers November 24, 2009 a.k.a., Return of the Generation Gap
I'm a cartoonist, columnist, writer and editor. So most of my friends are cartoonists, columnists, writers and editors. And a few publishers. One topic towers all over all others in my circle of friends: the future ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: America on Trial November 19, 2009 Right-Wingers Have Reasons to Worry About Trying KSM
One of my favorite books is by a conservative. Every American should read Stephen L. Carter's 1996 primer on ethics, "Integrity." Carter writes that integrity requires doing the right thing, "even at...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: 13 > 2,000,000 November 12, 2009 Fort Hood Shootings a Shocker…Why Not U.S. War Crimes?
American lives are worth a lot. So when Americans get killed, it's a big story. There are lots of editorials. Congressmen call for investigations. We want to find out what happened, why it happen...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Dithering While America Sneezes November 5, 2009 Failure on H1N1 Highlights a Bigger Crisis
America's scandalous lame (non-)response to the swine flu pandemic isn't a big deal. Not compared to, say, the melting of the polar ice cap. It isn't torture. Or war. It pales next to giving hundreds of billio...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Obama's Real Death Panels October 27, 2009 President Maintains "Right" to Kill American Citizens
Shortly after 9/11, George W. Bush secretly signed two executive orders. Both violated basic constitutional protections as well as U.S. obligations under international treaties, yet both carried the...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Drop the Drones October 21, 2009 Remote Attacks Inflame Afghan Anti-Americanism
The killing of Afghan civilians, usually caused by inadvertent American and NATO airstrikes, has become the most sensitive issue between the Afghans and their Western guests." So reports The New York Times...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Too Illegit to Quit October 15, 2009 We Can't Make Afghans Accept Karzai Now
Eight years. We've been in Afghanistan longer than any other war in American history. The party of the president who invaded Afghanistan has been repudiated at the polls. Yet we still haven't altered the flawed s...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Barack Hussein Hoover October 6, 2009 It's 1933 Again. But FDR Lost.
NEW YORK—When the economic collapse began a year ago, many Americans took comfort in the historical parallels with the Great Depression. As it had in 1929, the current crisis began under the clueless reign of a Republic...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Build Stuff. Then Leave. September 30, 2009 In Afghanistan, Pull Out Soldiers and Send in Engineers
Eight years into the longest war in American history, we've learned what doesn't work in Afghanistan. What will?
More troops won't help. But neither will the prescription now being floated in ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Swine September 23, 2009 Why Are Insurers Blocking H1N1 Treatment Prescriptions?
I got swine flu. Five days later, I was at death's door—because my evil insurance company wouldn't honor my doctor's prescription. Memo to future revolutionaries: if you require a firing squad f...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Impotent Dictator September 14, 2009 How Many More Must Die for Karzai?
"For five years Mr. Karzai was my president," Ashraf Ghani, an opposition candidate, bemoaned after widespread reports that incumbent Hamid Karzai had used fraud on a massive scale to steal the election. "Now how many...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: To Trigger a Single-Payer Option September 10, 2009 A poll says that 67 percent of Americans don't understand Obama's healthcare plan. I'm one of them.
It's not because I don't pay attention. I'm a news junkie. Could it be that I'm an idiot? If my insurer offered psychiatric coverage I could afford to f...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: We Have Met the Nazis, And They Are Us September 3, 2009 Nazis. Americans are Nazis. We are Nazis.
Godwin's Law be damned--it's impossible to read the newly-released CIA report on the torture of Muslim prisoners without thinking of the Third Reich.
Sadism exists in every culture. A century ago, for exampl...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Guns of August August 27, 2009 No wonder President Obama won't stand up for us. He won't even defend his personal safety!
Two weeks ago, a right-wing man protested outside the president's healthcare meeting in New Hampshire wearing a gun strapped to his leg. Lest we miss his point, ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Violence Works, Incrementalism Doesn't August 20, 2009 "What worries me: time and time again," writes Brendan Skwire in the Philadelphia Weekly about the circuses which are currently passing for Democrats' town hall meetings on healthcare, " the needs of the stupid and disingenuous are not only treat...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: What If They Gave a War and Nobody Knew Why? August 12, 2009 Obama Still Trying to Define Victory in Afghanistan
What if they gave a war and nobody knew why?
When the U.S. began bombing Afghanistan in October 2001, America's war aims were clear: capture or kill Osama bin Laden, overthrow the Taliban governmen...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Lay Off Layoffs August 6, 2009 "At Will" Employment Laws Unproductive, Barbaric
You've seen how TV covers the immediate aftermath of a disaster. A tornado or earthquake or whatever has just ripped through a community. Rubble and bodies lie scattered. Asked to comment, stunned surviv...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Everyone Hates the Cops July 30, 2009 After Professor Gates, Why Pretend?The current national conversation about race and the police reminded me about an incident that occurred when I was in Uzbekistan. As I walked into an apartment complex for an appointment I noticed the decomposing body of...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Heckuva Job, Barry July 21, 2009 Obama, Losing Jobs, Soon to Be Shovel-ReadyPro-Obama political cartoonists have drawn variations of the same cartoon: the president, in the role of badgered parent on a family trip, is driving a car labeled "The Economy." The American public, depicted as ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Obama Covers Up a Dozen My Lais July 15, 2009 Were 3,000 Afghans Murdered As U.S. Troops Stood By?"I've asked my national security team to...collect the facts," President Obama told CNN. Then, he said, "we'll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all the facts together....
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Fog of Obama July 8, 2009 Why Can't Obama See His Wars Are Unwinnable?Robert McNamara, one of the "best and the brightest" technocrats behind the escalation of the Vietnam War, eventually came to regret his actions. But his public contrition, which included a book and a series of ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Sorry, Mr. Bush June 30, 2009 The Poor Get Poorer, Presidents Get WorseI miss Bush. Stop the presses and shut off the RSS feeds: the bashiest of the Bush-bashers is starting to appreciate the Exile of Crawford. I haven't forgiven George W. Bush for stealing two elections, starting two...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Half Healthcare, 100% Dead June 22, 2009 Time for Obama to Get SeriousHalf measures are boring. That political reality derailed Bill Clinton's 1993 healthcare reform plan. And it will likely unravel that of Barack Obama. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office finds that Obama's plan, spons...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Resistance is Purile June 16, 2009 The Going Gets Tough. The Tough Start Blogging.This is the second of two parts.NEW YORK, NORTH AMERICAN PROTECTORATE, GREATER GERMAN REICH—At first glance, everything looks fine. Sixty-five years after the Nazi victory at D-Day brought this North Americ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Taking Time Takes Patience June 8, 2009 Desperate and Afraid, People Trust LeaderThis is the first of two parts.WASHINGTON, NORTH AMERICAN PROTECTORATE, GREATER GERMAN REICH--From Honolulu to Portland, Maine, North American citizens of the Greater German Reich gathered on June 6th to celebrate ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: How To Talk to a Pro-Lifer (and you must) June 3, 2009 How Pro-Choicers Should Learn to Talk to Pro-LifersAll too often in American politics opposing sides talk past one another, firing off arguments loaded with language that stands no chance of persuading those who hold other views. The debate over what to d...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Mr. Obama: Resign Now May 27, 2009 With Democrats Like Him, Who Needs Dictators?We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama's inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This g...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Bail Out Your Own Damn Self May 20, 2009 Time for a Tax and Mortgage StrikeThe calamari salad was world-class. Still, my friend the CPA's face screwed up. "You know what still has me pissed off? The bailouts. All wasted on CEO bonuses. But nobody cares!" I told him I thought people cared, but th...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Excuses You Might Believe In May 12, 2009 Democrats Are More Powerful Than Ever. How Will They Justify Doing Nothing?The defection of Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter and the imminent certification of Al Franken as the winner of Minnesota's election recount has handed Democrats what they always said ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Why We Fight May 4, 2009 U.S. Troops Die For RapistsAmerican soldiers serving in Vietnam wondered what they were fighting for. U.S. troops in Afghanistan don't have that problem. They know exactly what they're fighting for: rapists. After President Obama's coming "Afghan surge" t...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: One Nation, Two Systems of Justice April 30, 2009 Why Bush Must Go to PrisonDo you believe in "intelligent design"? It's the argument that the universe is so logical that it must have been planned out by a master creator. Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, single-handedly disproves the existe...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Circle of Shame April 23, 2009 It Takes a Nation of Torturers to Hold Us BackI suppose I should take a bow. For eight long years (years that passed like centuries for the misérables rotting in cages at Guantánamo and Bagram and Abu Ghraib and Diego Garcia and Bulgaria and the U.S. Na...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Every Dogi Has Its Day April 14, 2009 Americans Lose Their Savings and their MindsWhen the revolution comes, the tribunal will turn to two sources to determine who should be arrested: a list of the 500 highest-paid CEOs and the Styles section of The New York Times.Real unemployment is over 20...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Barack Obama, Torture Enabler April 8, 2009 Spain Enforces America's LawsAmerica is a nation of laws--laws enforced by Spain. John Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes and Douglas Feith wrote, authorized and promulgated the Justice Department "torture memos" that the Bu...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Afghan Death Trip April 2, 2009 Broke and on a Losing Streak, Obama Doubles Down
Contrary to myth, the Nazis weren't crazy. But during the winter of 1944-45, with the Allied and Soviet armies closing in on Berlin, German leaders made an insane decision. Instead of doing whatever they...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: What Obama and Hitler Have in Common March 31, 2009 Broke and on a Losing Streak, Obama Doubles DownContrary to myth, the Nazis weren't crazy. But during the winter of 1944-45, with the Allied and Soviet armies closing in on Berlin, German leaders made an insane decision. Instead of doing whatever they cou...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Why We Hate Them March 24, 2009 Mistreated Customers Fuel Populist Rage"Populist anger in America is the anger of dispossession," writes Newsweek's Rick Perlstein. "The delinking of effort and reward has become all too manifest. That always makes Americans angry. We do not like to rewar...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Change You Can Parse March 17, 2009 Obama Abandons Bush's Talk, Keeps His WalkYou can't blame Dick Cheney for being annoyed at Barack Obama. Obama is closing Guantánamo. He's ordering the CIA to interrogate prisoners according to the rules written in the Army Field Manual, which doesn't al...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Reasons To Be Cheerful, 1-9 March 10, 2009 Optimism in the Age of SuckitudeIt's the end of the world as we know it and, while I can't say I exactly feel fine, it's all too easy to dwell on the downward spiral of our job prospects and 401(k)s. Even in the midst of economic collapse (possibly presag...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Suicide via Conformity March 3, 2009 How Top Newspapers Are Killing Editorial CartooningAn editorial cartoon is like nothing else in a newspaper. Editorial cartoonists don't need any special degrees. Unlike reporters and editorial writers, they don't even have to pretend to be "fair." Modera...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: CEO-Bashing For Fun and Profit February 26, 2009 Obama, Media Grandstand on Executive Pay
On July 14, 1789 an angry mob invaded Paris' Bastille prison, igniting a chain of events that became the French Revolution. The insurgents may have been provoked by a prisoner, the notorious Marquis de Sade. "Th...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Talking Smack February 19, 2009 Obama Doubles Down on Bush's Afghan Disaster-"If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer," Yogi Berra once said. President Obama should do the same. The president's recent interview with Canada's CBC television network demonstrates that ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: It Couldn't Happen Here February 10, 2009 Could It?PARIS--Most Americans don't care what happens in France. But the oldest country in "Old Europe" remains the Western world's intellectual capital and one of its primary originators of political trends. (Google "May+1968+Sorbonne.") The French are ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Vive la Crise February 5, 2009 In France, the Left ReturnsPARIS--Two improbable new political parties have been born in France. One claims to already have the support of 15 percent of the population --not merely of the French republic but of the entire European Union. In a multi-party ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Hopelessness You Can Believe In January 26, 2009 Why Obama is Scarier Than George W. BushDave Eggers preceded his memoir "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" with a section titled "Rules and Suggestions for Enjoyment of this Book." It's a brilliant attempt to disarm the reader and preempt critici...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: That's It? January 20, 2009 If Bushies Escape Justice, What's Left of the U.S.?That's it? Bush moves back to Texas to dote on his presidential library—while drawing a $197,000 pension? Cheney goes back to Wyoming to fish and work on his memoirs? After committing crimes so numerous...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Oprah's Book Snub January 13, 2009 How Winfrey Elevates Lowbrow Tastes and Hurts Reading
Oprah's Book Club, The New York Times wrote when the talk show queen revived it in 2005, is "a boon to authors and publishers."OBC has certainly been good for authors who lie and the greedy publishe...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Eat the Rich January 6, 2009 Soak the Rich, CorporationsA moratorium on housing foreclosures and evictions is a good idea. So is making the tax code more progressive. Obama's plan to build new public works is smart. But those are half-measures. Even if they don't come out of Congress...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: New Year's Revolutions January 1, 2009 There's Plenty of Money Around. Let's Take It.
What's the difference between you and a corpse? You both contain the same organs, the same fluids--all the same stuff. Inside you, stuff moves around. That's the difference between life and death.
What...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: New Year's Revolutions? December 30, 2008 There's Plenty of Money Around. Let's Take It.What's the difference between you and a corpse? You both contain the same organs, the same fluids--all the same stuff. Inside you, stuff moves around. That's the difference between life and death. What's the d...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Obama’s Weasel Words December 23, 2008 On Iraq, Antiwar Candidate Delivers More CarnageObama won the Democratic nomination and the presidency by speaking out against the Iraq War. Now that he's packing for Washington, however, the old Chicago lawyer is using Harvard Law weasel words to make su...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: LBO No Mo December 17, 2008 Stop Speculators From Ruining Strong CompaniesThe Crash of '08 offers the incoming Obama Administration a rare chance to rein in the excesses of our economic system. I can think of few better places to start than banning leveraged buyouts. Leveraged buyo...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Smells Like Bob Dylan December 10, 2008 Why Obama is Just Another BoomerBarack Obama, people are saying, is the first Generation X president. Are they right? And if so--does it many any difference?"The battle for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. presidential election," reported Agence Fran...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Rest and the Rightest December 2, 2008 Obama's Center-Right Cabinet Foreshadows Center-Right PresidencyA bunch of Clinton- and Carter-era hacks. George W. Bush's leftover defense secretary. Of the dozens of Obama's top appointments announced to date, there's only one liberal: David Bonior, who...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: What's with the Somali Pirates? November 25, 2008 Strange Inaction in the Indian OceanI'm the loudmouth pundit. I'm supposed to have the answers, or at least pretend to. This week, however, I'm baffled. Confused, even. So I'm turning the tables to ask you, dear reader: Why aren't we bombing the crap out ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Republicans, Not Conservatives, Are In Trouble November 17, 2008 A Philosophy Without a Party* Conservatives betrayed by GOP* Traditional conservatism still popular* Rigid laissez faire dogma rejected by votersConservatives think the election results prove that conservatism is in trouble. Actually, conservatism is fine...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Will Obama Wuss Out on Gitmo? November 12, 2008 Prez-Elect May Ratify Bush's Torture TrialsThe accused terrorist appeared before the military tribunal, charged with conspiracy in a plot against national security. Because state secrets were involved and because harsh interrogation techniques were used t...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: No We Didn't November 5, 2008 Obama Win More Hysterical Than HistoricalThere is less here than meets the eye.Yes, the election results are notable. But they don't mean as much as people think. First, the important stuff: The first black president has been elected. And not just elected...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Don't Think About Reelection October 29, 2008 Why Obama Should Consider Himself a One-Term PresidentBarring some unforeseen cataclysmic event, Barack Obama will be elected president Tuesday. Please allow me to be the first to congratulate you, President-Elect Obama, on an historic victory following a...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: President Obama—Shut Down This Camp! October 23, 2008 Next President Should Shut Gitmo on January 20* Camp has become its own raison d'être* Hundreds locked in legal limbo* Jerking around detainees and their families* Gesture would resonate around the globeFrançois Mitterand brought civilization to France....
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Stop the Bleeding October 14, 2008 A Plan to Bail Out Scared HomeownersEvictions must stopFeds should bail out troubled homeownersGovernment would take equity stake in home mortgagesCost less than Iraq WarUnemployed and desperately worried about losing his home in a California gated commun...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: If This Is The End of the U.S…. October 7, 2008 …Will Anyone Come To Our Funeral?Before I left for Afghanistan, the producer for my talk radio show asked me to return with a souvenir. "Bring me back an MRE ," he requested. It was the fall of 2001, a few months into the U.S. invas...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Mad Money September 30, 2008 A Broke America Can't Afford Wars, Tax CutsCredit has dried up. The stock market is disintegrating. Unless someone pours money into capital markets, everyone agrees, we could wind up like people in Baghdad, fondly remembering the day five years ago when t...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Bush, Congress Party Like It's 1929 September 23, 2008 Save People, Not BankersSeat belt laws embolden drivers to drive faster, causing a net loss of life. It's the law of unintended consequences, also known as the Peltzman effect: the safer you feel, the more risk you take. Sam Peltzman, the economist after ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Good, the Bad and the Editor September 16, 2008 Why Political Cartoons Matter More Than EverI could not help but notice the editorial cartoon," complains a Canadian newspaper reader, "which in my opinion was not funny or satirical at all--in the past, the purpose of an editorial cartoon." An editor at ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Bristol Did The Wrong Thing September 8, 2008 Abortion Should Be Mandatory for Pregnant TeensYou don't need a rich imagination to picture the scene. In the Alaska governor's mansion, a pair of parents and their visibly pregnant teenage daughter sit on a dead bear sprawled across a couch they had to h...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Sarah Palin, Queen of the Nobodies September 2, 2008 Experience is Overrated. What About IQ?Until four years ago, no one had heard of our current Democratic nominee. "Who is Barack Obama?" asked CBS News after he was picked to deliver the keynote address at the Dems' 2004 confab. "Not exactly a household na...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Muddle is the Message August 27, 2008 Obama on the RopesDemocrats are fired up about Obama. Belying Will Rogers' adage that as a Democrat he didn't belong to any organized political party, this year finds the DNC uncharacteristically well funded and startlingly organized. Running against an i...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: 13 Days in August August 21, 2008 The Polish Missile Crisis: Bush's Last War?The Cold War is over," Condi Rice said last week. This may be true. She and her lame duck boss seem to be starting up a hot one instead. Imagine Russian or Chinese military bases in Tijuana or Ciudad Juárez, acr...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Hope For Audacity August 13, 2008 Why Obama Is in TroubleUnless something happens, John McCain will win. Of course, "unless something happens" is the biggest qualifier in the world, more than adequate to CYA me should Obama prevail. It's politics. There are almost three months. Odds are s...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: It's the Torture, Stupid August 6, 2008 Restoring Human Rights Must Be Next Prez's Top PriorityBoth major presidential candidates have promised to roll back the Bush Administration's torture archipelago. Both say they'll close Guantánamo, abolish legalized torture, and respect the Geneva Conve...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: News Does Not Want To Be Free July 30, 2008 Three Cures for Ailing Newspapers"I feel I'm being catapulted into another world, a world I don't really understand," Denis Finley told the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Finley, editor of the Virginian-Pilot, isn't the only n...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Recession, Year 8 July 21, 2008 Bickering Over Terminology Delays Real ActionThere's a debate in the media about the recession. On the right are those who say that the economy has never been better. Not so fast, says the official left: we've (just) started a recession.Phil Gramm, McCain...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: War Zero July 16, 2008 Nothing Honorable About the Vietnam WarEvery presidential candidacy relies on a myth. Reagan was a great communicator; Clinton felt your pain. Both storylines were ridiculous. But rarely are the constructs used to market a party nominee as transparent or ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Belief You Can Change July 8, 2008 The Triumph of Faith-Based PoliticsI believe in John McCain. Which is why I don't believe him. When John McCain said he wanted to stay in Iraq 100 years, he didn't mean it. He just said it to get elected. His claims that the war is going great? Voting tim...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Constitution à la Carte June 30, 2008 One Amendment from Column A, Another from Column BA week ago, Justice Anthony Kennedy was a liberal hero. Joining the court's four liberal jurists, he declared that while 9/11 may have changed everything, it didn't change the constitution. Despite stateme...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Cure for High Gas and Food Prices June 26, 2008 Vital Businesses Need Nationalization
The gas station attendant came outside. Wow, I thought, full serve! Ignoring me, she flung a magnetic price decal on top of the price per gallon. Regular unleaded had gone up 20 cents in the time it took me to driv...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Cure for High Gas and Food Prices June 25, 2008 Vital Businesses Need NationalizationThe gas station attendant came outside. Wow, I thought, full serve! Ignoring me, she flung a magnetic price decal on top of the price per gallon. Regular unleaded had gone up 20 cents in the time it took me to drive fr...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Oops Nation June 16, 2008 The System Works? Not ReallyTens of thousands of innocent detainees have passed through Guantánamo, Bagram, Abu Ghraib, Diego Garcia and other U.S. torture facilities. Thousands remain "disappeared," possibly murdered. Some may be on one of the Navy vess...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: It Takes a Symbol to Hold Back a Nation of Millions June 11, 2008 The Empty Politics of SingularityAs an African-American, Ward Connerly uses his skin color to draw attention to his otherwise unremarkable politics: he's a right-wing Republican who hates affirmative action. Now this ideological freak is using Barack Obam...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The E-Word June 4, 2008 The U.S. Has Rivals and Competitors, Not Enemies"A Gallup poll," Libby Quaid wrote for the Associated Press on June 2nd, "found that two-thirds of said they believe it would be a good idea for the president to meet with the leaders of enemy co...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Kids in America(n Torture Camps) May 27, 2008 Why Does the Media Cover Up War Crimes?In last week's column I cited New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau as a prime example of what ails us: reporters who don't report, a.k.a. journalists who love the government too much.When Lichtblau found out that t...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Propagandists First, Journalists Second May 20, 2008 How the New York Times Won 2004 for BushShould the news media be patriotic? When a journalist uncovers a government secret, which comes first--national security or the public's right to know? In the United States, reporters consider themselves Americans f...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Silver Lining of Economic Collapse May 13, 2008 Student Loans Crunch Starves Greedy CollegesFirst came school vouchers, subsidizing private schools with public money. Now, as the economy contracts, the government faces mounting pressure to pour increasing amounts of our tax dollars into private college...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Obama: The Other White Meat May 7, 2008 Wright Fuss Weakens Dems, Squanders Chance to Get SeriousI argue with my friends. Some of them thought invading Iraq was a good idea. Almost all believed that Afghanistan was "the good war," the one from which Iraq distracted us. (They're starting to come...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Arrest Bush April 28, 2008 Bush Confesses to Waterboarding. Call D.C. Cops!"Why are we talking about this in the White House?" John Ashcroft nervously asked his fellow members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee. (The Principals were Vice President Dick Cheney, ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: One Nation, Under a Heartless God April 22, 2008 Why Is America So Mean?"The 82nd," the man ahead of me in the security line at the Kansas City airport said. He was 64 and white, very Hank Hill and not the kind of guy you'd typically see chatting up a skinny 20-year-old Latino dude. But they were both v...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Party Like It's 1929 April 15, 2008 High Unemployment and High Inflation Make This Recession Different"Why is this recession different from almost all other recessions?" asked Herbert Barchoff. The economist, a former president of the Council of Economic Advisers, answered his own question:...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Bigotry, Apology, Repeat as Necessary April 8, 2008 THIS WEEK'S SYNDICATED COLUMN: BIGOTRY, APOLOGY, REPEAT AS NECESSARYThe Rise of John McCainIn the 1993 film noir "Romeo is Bleeding," the late Roy Scheider plays a mob boss. "You know right from wrong," he tells a hopelessly corrupt cop portrayed by Gary ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Don't Move On. Start Over. April 1, 2008 Next Prez Must Make Bush an Unperson"No one owes obedience to a usurper government or to anyone who assumes public office in violation of the Constitution and the law. The civil population has the right to rise up in defense of the constitutional order. T...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Is Chicago Burning? March 25, 2008 Hillary Clinton, Superdelegates, and Playing with FireWill there be race riots if Barack Obama is denied the Democratic nomination? Despite the continuing fallout over his association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the Illinois senator has won the mos...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Obama/Dukakis 2008 March 17, 2008 Dem Wimp Throws His Truth-Telling Preacher Under the BusIf Americans were represented by an animal, it wouldn't be an eagle. It would be a tiny shrew, nervous and paranoid and living in constant terror of being attacked by predators. Our national prey men...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Eco-Terrorism: There's No Such Thing March 11, 2008 Property Rights Extremists Equate McMansions to 9/11 Victims
The United States should not build housing. Whole neighborhoods in places like Chicago and Dayton and Oakland and Newark and Memphis are dominated by abandoned houses and apartment buildings....
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Afghanistan—A War We Can't Believe In March 4, 2008 Why Obama's Favorite War is Less Winnable Than IraqFive years after the Republicans got us into war against Iraq, Democrats want to double down on a war that's even more unjustifiable and unwinnable--the one against Afghanistan.By any measure, U.S. troops...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Hope You Can't Vote For February 26, 2008 Ralph Nader Appeals to Disenfranchised Liberals
"What," editorializes U.S. News & World Report, "does Ralph Nader bring to the political dialogue this year? Answer: nothing except for his own inflated ego." Dimestore psychoanalysis was the standard rea...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Talk No, Vote Yes February 19, 2008 THIS WEEK'S SYNDICATED COLUMN: TALK NO, VOTE YESHow do Sleazy Senators Get Away With It?A weird new tactic is highlighting the troubling extent to which the news media fails to hold our elected officials accountable. First, a politician calls a press conf...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: There Should Be Blood February 12, 2008 Liberal Democrats Left Out in the Cold"The truly undecided voter is rare, say those who study the psychology of voting," Joe Garofoli wrote in The San Francisco Chronicle. "Since neuroscientists say 90 percent of thought is unconscious, an undecided voter...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Integrity Lite February 5, 2008 Puffing Up John McCain, POW
"A proven leader, and a man of integrity," the New York Post called John McCain in its editorial endorsement. "A naval aviator shot down over North Vietnam and held as a POW, McCain knew that freedom was his for the taking. ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Independents Go Home January 29, 2008 Open Primaries Are Killing Democracy
Check out this political mystery: Liberals, a.k.a. the Democratic base, are angry. They're so angry that they tried to unseat senior senator and former vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman in 2006, who had beco...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Who's Afraid of John Edwards? January 22, 2008 Media Freezes Out a Threat to Corporate Owners
In 2004 Democrats were determined to pick the presidential nominee who had the best chance of defeating George W. Bush in the general election. That man was the feisty former governor of Vermont, Howard De...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Politics of Dopes January 15, 2008 Barack Obama, Empty Suit
Barack Obama's supporters compare him to John Kennedy, another great orator whose youth and short political resume opened him to complaints that he didn't have enough experience to be president. But there's no comparison. JFK s...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Idiots (Heart) Huckabee January 8, 2008 The Media's Dangerous Tolerance of Anti-Intellectualism
Mike Huckabee isn't qualified for public office. He may not be smart enough to hold a job. Yet he could become our next president.
Huckabee's upset victory in the Iowa caucuses is cited as ev...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: An Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove January 1, 2008 How American Democracy Relies on Fascism
What would you do if you learned that Bush Administration officials wanted to round up thousands of Americans and throw them into concentration camps?
For all we know, there is no slippery slope. It's entire...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Unfunny Pages December 23, 2007 Artsy Comics Are Alienating ReadersLove them or hate them, people react to cartoons. Comic strips like "The Far Side," "Peanuts" and "Doonesbury" inspire devotional cults. Political cartoons, such as the recent Danish Mohammed illustrations and my own pos...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Democrats—The Other White Meat December 20, 2007 Let's Fight a Doomed War in Afghanistan, Not Iraq!NEW YORK--There is too a difference between the two major parties. Republicans want us to spend, die and lose in Iraq. Democrats want us to spend, die and lose in Afghanistan. There's a difference between ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Future Imperfect, Part III December 9, 2007 Last week, I pointed out that print still accounts for more than 90 percent of newspaper revenues. This week, the third of a three-part series on the future of newspapers.Buy Stock in Newspapers, Weep For AmericaIn his book "The Vanishing Newspaper" Phili...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Future Imperfect, Part II December 3, 2007 This is the second of a three-part series about the media.Blind Newsman Gums Internet DogLast week, I discussed the blind faith that is leading media executives to invest heavily in online ventures at the expense of print. This week: will the Internet eve...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Future Imperfect, Part I November 26, 2007 When Media Content is Free, It's Worth Every CentThis is the first of a three-part series.August J. Pollak was thrilled when the Huffington Post asked him to blog for them. Joining the widely-read liberal website was a great break, thought the astute poli...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Sign the Pledge! November 16, 2007 Trim Bush from American HistoryA couple of weeks ago I wrote a column that resonated with a lot of people.Since 2001, I noted, "We've lost our right to see an attorney, to confront our accusers, even to get a fair trial. Government agents have kidnapped t...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Against Us Or Against Us November 9, 2007 Pakistan's Con Man Still At It"You're either with us, or against us." Bush had his then-Secretary of State, Colin Powell, deliver that stark message to Pervez Musharraf after 9/11. "Be prepared to be bombed," Musharraf says Powell's number two at State, R...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Time-to-make-the-doughnuts Candidate November 5, 2007 Hillary Clinton, Joyless Uniter"The fact that a lot of people dislike you is troubling," says the director of the Quinnipiac University poll, talking about Hillary Clinton (D-Carpetbagger, Slept Her Way Into National Prominence, NY). She scores 47 percent...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Who Will Be Our Next Torturer-in-Chief? October 31, 2007 George W. Bush has shoved American politics into the dark realm of the lunatic right, zipping past Joe McCarthy into territory previously covered by historical accounts of Germany in the 1940s. We've lost our right to see an attorney, to confront our accu...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Hey, Soldiers: Quit Whining! October 24, 2007 Troops Suck Up to Bush, Ask for SupportOver a year ago, in March 2006, the military newspaper Stars and Stripes published the results of a Zogby poll of troops serving in Iraq. 72 percent said U.S. forces should withdraw within a year. Twenty-five percent...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Onward, Christian Panderers October 18, 2007 Pols Push U.S. Toward TheocracyA poll finds that 55 percent of Americans think the U.S. was created as a Christian theocracy. "The strong support for official recognition of the majority faith appears to be grounded in a belief that the United States was ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Scapegoating Blackwater October 9, 2007 U.S. Soldiers Commit War Crimes at One-Ninth the PricePrivate security companies in Iraq have come under political attack after mercenaries for Blackwater USA fired upon unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square, killing 17 and wounding 24. Angry...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: "We Don't Speak to Evil" October 2, 2007 A nation's leaders choose peace, setting aside years of distrust. Forgiving decades of political subversion and economic sabotage, they send emissaries to request full diplomatic relations from their once and present nemesis. They persist, even though the...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Jena 6, Or Downscaling MLK's Dream September 26, 2007 White policemen patrol black neighborhoods, less as guardians of public safety than troops subduing occupied territory. They hassle young black men, subjecting them to "random" searches. Sometimes--too often--they shoot them. All-white juries acquit them,...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Antiwar Movement's Dirty Secret September 18, 2007 Antiwar Left Shuns Iraqis"What non-violent antiwar activists are unable to realize," writes Peter Gelderloos, "is that the most important resistance, probably the only significant resistance, to the occupation of Iraq is the resistance being waged by the ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: The War Party September 12, 2007 Democrats Lie to Prolong Iraq; Reporters Go Along
Americans don't know how their government works. Democrats, in control of Congress, are taking advantage of our ignorance to continue the Iraq War. Which brings up two questions: Why won't the "antiwar"...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Kill the Poor September 5, 2007 Phony Poverty Study Fools Lazy Journalists
They're baaack! Once again the Heritage Foundation is mangling statistics to whitewash the ugly facts of life in Republican-run America. Last time, in 2005, they attacked the image of U.S. soldiers as cannon f...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Give War a Chance October 18, 1998 Time for Democrats to Get Mean
“All of us feel it. There is a sickness in the American political system, a withering of the public faith in government that is so essential to our democracy. This has always been a country of rough political rhetoric...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: America Goes Down April 8, 1997 Oral Sex as the Intimacy Alternative
I knew that Shannon liked me. After all, she had given me a whole box of cashews! More importantly, she sent me a Valentine’s Day card through our high school mail, for everyone to see. But I was 16. How coul...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: No News Is Bad News January 21, 1997 The American Newspaper Goes Bye-Bye
If you’re reading this in a daily newspaper, chances are that you haven’t been out much lately. You likely haven’t gotten pierced, tattooed, shoved around a mosh pit or submerged by student loans. To be prec...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: You Kill Me, They Kill You January 14, 1997 Our Love Affair with Official Mass Murder
On the evening of Wednesday, January 8, while most Americans were trying to choose between “Wings” and “Beverly Hills, 90210,” Kirt Wainwright lay strapped to a metal gurney, both of his arms stretched...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Unhip To Be Square January 9, 1997 America Deserves a Cool First Family
We live in a square world
We all got square eyes
We live in square high-rises
We read from square books
—Thee Headcoats, 1990
The other day a C-SPAN interviewer asked Hillary Clinton how the First Famil...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Just Because You're Oblivious Doesn't Mean They're Not Out to Get You November 1, 1996 Conspiracy Logic and TWA Flight 800
Pierre Salinger says that he has an August 22nd Secret Service report that proves that TWA Flight 800 was shot down accidentally by the U.S. Navy.
According to the former Kennedy Administration press secretary, ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: United We Fall November 1, 1996 The Melting Pot Boils Over
Driving west across New Jersey recently, I was relieved to see the mile markers drop to single digits, and finally to zero. I was struck by a sign posted at the state border that read: “Welcome to Pennsylvania: America ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: So Much for Democracy October 8, 1996 Is a Clinton Victory Worth the Cost?
My involvement with the Democratic Party started at age 9, when my mom took me along to pass out McGovern-Shriver leaflets door-to-door in our solidly Republican neighborhood. “The Democrats,” my mother expla...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: A Divine Strategy October 1, 1996 Ancient Deities Adapt to a Brave New World
Until recently, God it had it all—omnipotence, ubiquity and benevolence. As the leading beneficiary of the current global trend towards monotheism, the guy who made everything and ran it all didn’t have ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: 'Civil' Democrats Defend Kemp, Dole on Morals September 3, 1996 'NEW YORK, August 32—In an active demonstration of his convention speech call for a new era of "civility," yesterday President Bill Clinton (D-AK) took the unusual step of coming to the defense of his Republican opponents on moral issues.
“I have ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Standard Deviation April 23, 1996 America as Cost-Benefit Analysis
As if our country didn’t already have enough to worry about—advancing technology, downsizing, Pamela Anderson—here come the economics of rape.
An exciting new Justice Department study, “Victim Costs and Con...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Our Great Mixing Bowl March 19, 1996
American History for High School Students
(September 2053 Edition)
As difficult as it may be to believe today, white Americans—now virtually extinct—were once the dominant ethnic majority in our country. Until as recently as the late 20th cent...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Cashing In On Irony March 18, 1996 Dole’s Secret Youth Strategy Revealed
As a stunned America reels from the shock of pre-selected Republican nominee Bob Dole’s emergence as the Republican nominee, patriotic citizens should read the following secret memo—faxed to me by a Dole mo...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Adolf Redux February 12, 1996 Pat Buchanan’s Basic Instinct
Pat Buchanan is the first Republican I’ve ever considered voting for. Since the day in October of 1972 when my mom took me along with her to pass out McGovern fliers, I’ve been a committed Democrat—or at least a ...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Choosing My Religion December 21, 1995 My friend Debra was born into a Roman Catholic family. She got baptized and confirmed and everything; sometimes she even confessed. But twenty years of reciting the same old liturgies gets pretty tiresome. By the time she turned 35, she only went to m...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Dirty Laundry December 7, 1995 Child Abuse Isn’t Just the Poor’s Problem
Three million times a year, we beat our kids so badly that someone calls the cops about it. There’s really no way to know how often Americans pound the stuffing out of their children, since these ritual...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: Now for the Disco President September 6, 1995 About this time every four years, articles bemoaning the early start of the upcoming presidential campaign begin peppering the editorial pages. Never mind that this writing actually serves to launch the orgy of militant moderation that passes for electio...
- SYNDICATED COLUMN: And For Our Next Trick August 31, 1995 The Affirmative Action Debate Exposed
There is a most conspicuous absence in the affirmative action debate. That glaring omission is what both the proponents and foes of what passes itself off as affirmative action agree not to discuss: how affirmat...
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