Category Archives: Current Events

Mike Lofgren, a former Republican operative, tells why he doesn't want anything to do with that party anymore.

It seems like everyone's writing articles reflecting on the damage that this country has inflicted upon itself since 9/11. Here's Andrew Sullivan.

Frank Rich on the anniversary of 9/11. His main point is that it was two tragedies — the one in which all those innocent people were killed and the one that followed in which powerful forces within America used the first tragedy to do so much selfish damage.

Ari Berman on how Republicans expect to win in the next election: By making it impossible for many Democrats to vote.

In 1976, writer-actor Harry Shearer skulked about the Jerry Lewis Telethon — yes, the year Dean did his famous walk-on — and wrote a long article about it for Film Comment magazine. Wanna read it? You can read or download it as a PDF file here.

Fred Kaplan on how the military has changed since 9/11.

Kevin Drum has a plan to create jobs and improve this nation's infrastructure. Will it work? Very likely. Will it be implemented? Very unlikely. Hey, but at least someone has a plan that doesn't involve making the rich richer and hoping they create a few new jobs that right now, they don't seem to have any reason to create.

Matt Taibbi discusses a possible Republican strategy for 2012: Try to convince everyone the world is about to end. The trouble with that (of course) is that if the world is about to end, it doesn't really matter who gets elected, does it?

Here's a touching story from our friend Shelly Goldstein. And I knew Shelly's mother and she was just as Shelly describes her.

It used to be that Republicans complained that Democrats were always trying to scare voters with the worry that the G.O.P. wanted to destroy Social Security. That may have been a valid complaint at some point but with some of the debt-reduction proposals that House Republicans have embraced, and with the leading contender for the Republican nomination calling Social Security an unconstitutional "ponzi scheme," that complaint becomes less and less valid. Here is why Social Security is not in any way a "ponzi scheme."

Rick Perry says the economic crisis is God's way of warning us to get back to Biblical principles. I'm thinking it's God's way of warning us not to put any more swaggering, death-penalty-loving, corporate-stooging Texas governors in the White House.

I expect to vote for Barack Obama for re-election. He has not been everything I wanted in a president but I think that's the norm. When Republican friends tell me they were happy with just about everything George W. Bush did, I think they're fibbing to me and maybe to themselves. Matter of fact, I know they're putting up a front because I recall them telling me how Bush was going to seal off our borders, drag Bin Laden to justice and preside over the best economy this country had ever seen. You can't be a G.W.B. supporter and be thrilled with the guy if he didn't get those Missions Accomplished.

I'd be happy to vote for someone other than Obama if I saw a better choice on my ballot and thought that person had a chance of winning. So far, I don't see that happening.

I expect a lot of Americans feel as I do. The polls tell us his popularity is in decline. To me, that doesn't mean he's losing folks who now think he's a foreign-born Socialist who, like Rush tells us, is actively trying to destroy America. Obama never had those voters to lose. The decline is in people who hoped he'd do more to oppose the Republican agenda, do more to clean up Wall Street, do more to stop military excesses, etc.

I wish we had somewhere else to go, if only because competition for the left-of-center vote might make Obama move in that direction sooner than later. But as usual, we settle for what we can get. All Americans do when they get into the voting booth. I can't believe even my right-wing friends who'll vote Republican are going to think that Rick Perry or Mitt Romney or any of their leading prospects are the best-possible presidents out there.

And even if I have to settle for the same Obama…well, if he's the guy who got the Affordable Health Care Act passed and who repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and presided over the killing of Bin Laden and did all these other things, I can live with that.

Jeffrey Toobin on the dismissal of charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. My interest in this matter is not great but I still don't get exactly what Strauss-Kahn's side of the story is. Perhaps we'll find out if the civil trial goes forward…but I doubt by then I or anyone will care.

I agree with David Frum. It's really inane to judge a president by how many vacation days he takes. If he doesn't do his job while on vacation, that's the same problem as if he doesn't do his job at the White House. The "where" doesn't matter.

What should we do in Libya? I don't know…but Fred Kaplan seems to.