Roundup: Media's Take

Robert Weiner and Jordan Osserman: Is the CIA's Excessive Secrecy Near an End?

[ Robert Weiner, an Oberlin College graduate, is a former spokesman for the Clinton White House and US House Government Operations Committee. Jordan Osserman is a policy analyst at Robert Weiner Associates.] On May 28, President Obama mandated a 90-day review of classification policy, with the goal of creating an "unprecedented level of openness" in government. He'll soon let us know how many fewer government secrets we'll have. He has a lot to do. Attorne

Ross K. Baker: History Shows Congress Can Seal President's Fate

[Ross K. Baker is a political science professor at Rutgers University. He also is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.] Most sessions of Congress are quite unremarkable, but this session — already amped up with President Obama's address to a joint session tonight — could be one for the record books. Several significant pieces of legislation await congressional action, and what transpires could become either the crowning achievements or the sad finales of the first year of

Humberto Fontova: The Kennedys: Castro-Enablers?

"The Kennedy family, in particular the assassinated President, John F. Kennedy, were representative of a new generation of Americans confronting the old and dirty politics of men in the mold of Nixon...The Kennedy family's (role) in Barack Obama's electoral victory should not be overlooked. Without that moral, political and financial support, the dirty saga of the Bush and Nixon clans would be continuing." That was a portion of an editorial last week in Stalinist Cub

Ed Kilgore: Labor Day Regression

[Ed Kilgore is Managing Editor is the Democratic Strategist and special correspondent for The New Republic.] When I was a child growing up in the textile company town of LaGrange, Georgia, during the 1960s, we began school each year on Labor Day. That was the town fathers' way of expressing contempt for the labor movement, and their determination to keep LaGrange union-free. The word "union" was rarely uttered other than in whispers, and there were tales of organizers be

Jim Goodman: Why Honor Organized Labor?

[x, a WK Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow, is an organic dairy farmer and farm activist from Wonewoc Wisconsin. Encouraging local food production and consumption in the industrialized north, allowing the global south sovereignty in food production and ensuring fair prices for all farmers are the goals of his work. Small farmers and consumers have little voice in these matters, so there is a need to look for the media outlets that let people communicate without being marginalized by the cor

Alan Caruba: The Afghanistan Quagmire

[Alan Caruba is the founder of The National Anxiety Center (www.anxietycenter.com), a clearinghouse for information about "scare campaigns" whose purpose is to influence public opinion and policy.] In November 2008, I wrote of Afghanistan, “Having lived through the long years of the war in Vietnam, I can tell you that Afghanistan looks and smells like Vietnam. It is the classic wrong war in the wrong place.” I still

Jeanne Cummings: The pros and cons of reconciliation

[Jeanne Cummings is POLITICO’s assistant managing editor in charge of Enterprise. She’s covered politics at every level, from state and local governments to five presidential campaigns. In recent years, her focus has been on tracking money and politics.] As President Barack Obama tries to reframe the health care debate, some reform advocates are pressing the Senate to move legislation under “reconciliation” to prevent any filibuster. But is that process real

Ryu Murakami: Japan Comes of Age

[Ryu Murakami is a Japanese novelist and filmmaker.] LAST week, some news outlets called it a revolution when the Democratic Party of Japan unseated the Liberal Democratic Party, which had been in power here almost continuously for a half-century. The old guard was out, replaced by a breath of fresh air. So why don’t people look happier? The Japanese people are realizing that no government has the power to fix their problems. But this is a good thing — Japan is finally

Carole Simpson: Why I'm not delighted by Sawyer move

[Carole Simpson, who anchored the weekend editions of "ABC World News," is leader in residence and a full-time faculty member in the journalism department of Emerson College. A recipient of three national Emmy awards with 40 years experience as a broadcast journalist, Simpson was the first black woman to anchor a network evening news broadcast.] Diane Sawyer now joins Katie Couric as anchor of a major network evening newscast

David Baumann: Which is the safer party?

[David Baumann is an occasional Eagle contributor.] What are my chances of being killed? This is not one of the frequently asked questions on any of the military recruiting Web sites. However, it is the preeminent question on young people's minds, and the mind's of their families, when they consider joining the military. Military recruitment numbers for the first half of 2009 are 10 percent above 2008, a fact the military attributes to high civilian unemployment. With u

Dominic Lawson: Seventy years on, we are still appeasing dictators

[Dominic Lawson has been writing a column for The Independent since 2006.] In this, the week of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, British newspapers have published entire supplements, setting out once again how the policy of appeasing dictators showed a complete failure to understand the gangster psychology of totalitarian regimes. Yet the unravelling tale of our current government's negotiations with the regime of Col Gaddafi is a more enthr

John Neffinger: The 3 Lost Lessons of Healthcare History: Will Obama Re-Learn Them in Time?

John Neffinger is a political consultant. He has more than a decade of experience preparing politicians, corporate executives and others to communicate confidently in person. He has worked with executives at more than a hundred major companies in the U.S. and overseas, including GE, IBM and HBO, as well as several dozen candidates for and Members of Congress and numerous educational and non-profit institutions.Lesson 1: The Center Does Not Hold Without the Left Not long after Bill Clinton's health care reform proposal went down to defeat in the Senate, Bill ran into Bernie Sanders, Congress's only avowed socialist. Bernie approached him with a grave look on his face."Mr. President, I am so sorry. I failed you on health care." Clinton was puzzled. Sanders had supported his reforms."What do you mean, Bernie?" said Clinton."You were with me every step of the way!""Exactly," replied Sanders."I should have been burning you in effigy on the steps of the Capitol. Then people would have understood how moderate your plan really was."

Robert McHenry: U.S. Congress Resumes; Let Us Pray

[Robert McHenry is a former editor-in-chief of Encyclopaedia Britannica and author of How to Know.] Tomorrow, September 8, the men and women of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, 111th Congress of the United States, having (like the French) rested from their labors for the month of August, will resume their work. Saints preserve us. One hundred and fifty years ago, on September 8, 1859, Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal: I wen

Steve Malanga: what Alexis de Tocqueville and Max Weber would think of America today

Manhattan Institute fellow Steve Malanga writing in the Institute's City Journal: The genius of America in the early nineteenth century, Tocqueville thought, was that it pursued "productive industry" without a descent into lethal materialism. Behind America's balancing act, the pioneering French social thinker noted, lay a common set of civic virtues that celebrated not merely hard work but also thrift, integrity, self-reliance, and modesty—virtues that grew out o

Doyle McManus: Afghanistan Isn't Obama's Vietnam -- Yet

[Doyle McManus is a columnist for the LA Times.] Has Afghanistan turned into Barack Obama's Vietnam? It could, but it hasn't yet. At this point, there are still crucial differences between the two wars, including: * Support at home. The American public's support for the war has certainly declined, but eight years after 9/11, enthusiasm for its original goal of destroying Al Qaeda remains strong. * A smaller, more targeted fighting force. More

Nicholas Kulish: While Europe Sleeps, Bosnia Seethes

[Nicholas Kulish is a journalist who reports for The New York Times as Berlin bureau chief as of August 2007. Previously, he was a member of the editorial board of the Times from September 2005 to the summer of 2007.] NEARLY 14 years after peace for Bosnia was hammered out in Ohio, the hills rising up around Sarajevo can still lead a visitor to uncomfortable thoughts about sightlines for snipers. As I stood there in person on a visit back in May wi

Robert Parry: Colin Powell and Lessons of My Lai

[Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek.] In an Aug. 28 editorial, The New York Times applauded a belated “note of personal regret” from former Lt. William Calley for his role in the massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in 1968. But neither the Times nor any other leading U.S. news outlet has ever suggested that remorse might also be due from Colin Powell, who as a young Army major helped cover up the crime.

Truthout Editorial: Holocaust Still a Political Football

Matthew Rothschild and I both thought of Edward Said when we read about two Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council insisting that Gaza's schools should not teach the history of the Nazi Holocaust. Cleric Yunis al-Astal said this would be "marketing a lie" and a "war crime." Jamila al-Shanti commented, "Talk about the Holocaust and the execution of the Jews contradicts and is against our culture, our principles, our traditions, values, heritage, and religio

Paul Krugman: How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?

I. MISTAKING BEAUTY FOR TRUTH It’s hard to believe now, but not long ago economists were congratulating themselves over the success of their field. Those successes — or so they believed — were both theoretical and practical, leading to a golden era for the profession. On the theoretical side, they thought that they had resolved their internal disputes. Thus, in a 2008 paper titled “The State of Macro” (that is, macroeconomics, the study of big-picture issues like recessions), Olivie

NYT Editorial: Obama should listen to Biden on danger of increasing military involvement in Afghanistan

The president should listen to Joe Biden. Mr. Biden has been a voice of reason, warning the administration of the dangers of increasing our military involvement in Afghanistan. President Obama has not been inclined to heed his advice, which is worse than a shame. It’s tragic. Watching the American escalation of the war in Afghanistan is like watching helplessly as someone you love climbs into a car while intoxicated and drives off toward a busy highway. No good can come