Ivan Eland: I noted that if the United States continues to provide other nations’ security, they have no incentive to provide their own. After all, if someone offered to pay your mortgage, why would you pay it?
Draft Hillary…for 2016
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Brent Budowsky: If Hillary runs in 2016 and “does a Robert Kennedy” and “does a Bruce Springsteen” and wins: The Obama-Hillary years could look like the FDR-Truman years.
Report on Iran’s Nuclear Fatwa Distorts Its History
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Gareth Porter: The Obama administration’s new interest in the 2004 religious verdict, or “fatwa”, by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banning the possession of nuclear weapons has prompted the New York Times to review the significance of the fatwa for the first time in several years.
Ted Nugent: Rock’s Village Idiot
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Tom Degan: Nugent’s antics have nothing to do with “freedom of speech”. Inciting any of the dim-witted masses to assassinate the president of the United States is beyond foolhardy and reactionary.
Latino Confidential: A Memo to Romney
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Victoria Defrancesco Soto: Moving forward here’s your three-pronged Latino action plan – hold the line with the Cuban vote, throw in the towel with the Latino Democratic vote, and fire up the Republican and Republican leaning Mexican voters in the West as if you’re life depended on it because well, politically it does.
Beyond Outrage
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Robert Reich: I have never been as concerned as I am now about the future of our democracy, the corrupting effects of big money in our politics, the stridency and demagoguery of the regressive right, and the accumulation of wealth and power at the very top.
Romney Still Fails to Make the Sale
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Gil Troy: In a country that loves to see candidates grow and evolve, with a media primed to write the redemptive campaigning comeback story, Romney never seems to get better as a candidate, never has that turnaround moment.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Talks Budget Cuts and Response Time
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How is the Fire Department affected by budget cuts? Chief Brian Cummings of the Los Angeles Fire Department talks to the community about budget cuts and response time.
We Are Trayvon Martin: LGBTQ and African Americans United by Murder
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Rev. Irene Monroe:With Florida’s Stand Your Ground permitting Zimmerman to walk without charges, the Shepard-Byrd statute not only reminds us of how bias-motivated crimes links gays and blacks together but that it’s also the best hope for Trayvon Martin and his family seeking justice.
Whose Recovery?
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Robert Reich: The reverse-Robin Hood budget plan just announced by Paul Ryan and House Republicans (and endorsed by Mitt Romney) would make the lopsidedness far worse – dramatically cutting taxes on the rich and slashing public services everyone else depends on.
Cesar Chavez Day Recalls 50 Years of Struggle
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Randy Shaw: The 50-year period since Cesar Chavez set out to organize California farmworkers has seen a remarkable growth in Latino political power, electoral clout, and in unionized Latino workers, while the plight of farmworkers has gone backward since the UFW’s high point at the end of the 1970’s.
It’s Still the Economy, Stupid
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Berry Craig: If the GOP justices gang up to turn thumbs down on the Affordable Care Act, it might even boost the president by firing up the Democratic faithful and convincing more than a few independents that the Supreme Court really is a lapdog for Congressional Republicans and not a watchdog for the Constitution.
Santorum and Satan: Three Speeches
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Steve Hochstadt: I believe in Kennedy’s America. Not in Rick Santorum’s, where those who do not agree with him have been captured by the Devil.
Most Read Led by Jasmyne Cannick’s “White Feminists Don’t Care about Black Women”
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This week’s top 10 most read was led by Jasmyne Cannick’s White Feminists Don’t Care about Black Women, which points out how major liberal feminist organizations were slow in chastizing local radio hosts when they called Whitney Houston a “crack ho.”
What Republicans Argue When They Have Nothing Left to Say
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Robert Reich: It doesn’t even matter that the new Republican tax cut plan would probably raise taxes on many lower-income Americans, All that matters is the headlines.
Fuel Prices: How Much Blame Does Obama Merit?
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John Peeler: The Republican attack on Obama over gas prices at the pump is quite a strange line of attack from people who are incessantly demanding a return to untrammeled free markets. Do they really want Obama to impose price controls?
Fracking: Health, Environmental Impact Greater Than Claimed
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Walter Brasch: What is the connection between fracking, the environment and health? Research “strongly implicates exposure to gas drilling operations in serious health effects on humans, companion animals, livestock, horses, and wildlife.”
What Is Happening with Republicans?
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Bill Fletcher: The “circle of clowns” of Republican candidates seems increasingly intent on proving that they are the voices of ignorance, fear and irrationalism. I cannot get over it.
Are Republicans Smoking Too Much Pot?
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Rob Tossberg: I am no fan of Clinton – a child of poverty who forsook the poor and gave us deregulation – but our country seemed to prosper with his policy of, as Republicans call it, ‘Tax and spend’ government.
Nobody Really Cares About What You Write Except Other Nuts Like You
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Berry Craig: This old reporter turned history teacher finds anonymous bloggers of any political persuasion eminently ignorable. In my book, no name equals no credibility.
Romney Ignites Democratic Base
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Randy Shaw: Barack Obama’s campaign has lots of money, but there is no way it could match Romney’s success at getting this base to align with the President.
Does Barack Obama Have True Political Wisdom?
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Walter Moss: The primary question is not whether President Obama has always acted wisely (or unwisely) during his first three years in office, but the extent to which he possesses the values necessary for political wisdom and has displayed it.
Obama Re-election: We’re Not Working Out Issues Anymore
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Bob Letcher: Please notice that “We’re not working out issues any more” is *not* listed among the top seven issues in Barack Obama’s re-election plans.
Hanging with Netanyahu at AIPAC
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Carl Bloice: The AIPAC weekend turned out to be a disappointment for Cheney and the other homegrown U.S. political opportunists and reckless supporters of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightwing Likud party.
Reid Rocks, Pelosi Rolls
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Brent Budowsky: It is far too early to predict the 2012 elections. But I suggest that Reid is rocking, Pelosi is rolling and Democrats are rising
Demographic Time Bombs Explode: GOP’s Hispanic Problem
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Denis Campbell: The three front running GOP candidates trail President Obama among Hispanic voters by 54-56 points! President Obama trumps front-runner Mitt Romney by 70%-14%! Statistically that is death.
Barack Obama in 2012
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Tom Degan: Okay, folks, I’m gonna level with you. This one was such a no-brainer it’s almost embarrassing to even be reminded of it. There was no smoke-filled-room filled with editors in passionate debate.
And Now, the Catfood Party
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Carl Bloice: If the country were really impoverished, there would be some legitimacy to the idea that we really couldn’t afford to properly meet the needs the elderly, people with disabilities and the poor.
Oil vs. ‘Morning in America’
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Brent Budowsky: Let’s challenge the speculative fever and vulture frenzy that threatens the Morning in America that is coming. The president should initiate a drawdown of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if necessary twice, to burn the fear of God into the soul of speculators.
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Limbaugh Growing Impotent?
Peter Dreier: Limbaugh’s gross comments about a female college student who voiced support for Obama’s birth-control insurance compromise have forced some old Republican allies to distance themselves, raising questions about Limbaugh losing his potency.