Category: US Politics
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Sunday, December 21, 2008
Obama's "Business as Usual" Economic and Security Appointments / Politics / US Politics
The beat goes on. As with his economic and security appointments, Obama again disappointed but didn't surprise. Without exception, his team assures business as usual, a near-seamless transition from George Bush, and not "change to believe in." His latest choices raise more cause for concern and with good reason.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Assessing the Bush Presidency Legacy: The Measure of the Man and His Administration / Politics / US Politics
George W. Bush. US president: January 20, 2001 - January 19, 2009. Born of privilege. Unimpressive by every measure. A history of underachievement. Chosen by big money. Arranged through electoral fraud. Installed by the Supreme Court. Empowered by a dubious "terrorist" act, and ending with a record unmatched by the worst of his predecessors. Assessing the Bush legacy - from its illegitimate birth; through its lawless, belligerent years; to the world potentially on the brink at its end. Exploring it fully as a change of command approaches, and an unenviable task awaits the new incumbent.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Bush–Cheney Legacy: Deconstructing the Spin and Propaganda / Politics / US Politics
The chairman of the Republican National Committee may have begun an irreversible descent into a future as a fear-bound paranoid victim of functional amnesia, possibly caused by a hysterical post-traumatic event such as the overwhelming victory of Democrats in the 2008 election and the nation’s repudiation of Republican policies.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, November 22, 2008
The World After the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election / Politics / US Politics
World war or world peace could be the blunt choice that will face either Barack Obama or John McCain when one of them is elected president of the United States on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.
For a major eruption of violence to be averted, the new president must deal positively with the reappearance of Russia on the world stage, the emergence of China as an economic force, and the aspirations of all the nations on earth for a decent and secure way of life.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Obama Benefits from Bush Centralization of Power / Politics / US Politics
As the financial sector continues its tailspin despite efforts to bail out Wall Street, among the few gainers in recent stock trading have been those companies looking for a new "shot in the arm" with government funding from the next administration.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, November 15, 2008
President Barack Obama Making an Invisible Minority Less Invisible / Politics / US Politics
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama was called mentally unstable; his supporters were called unpatriotic. At Sarah Palin rallies, in newspaper letters-to-the-editor, on conservative radio and TV talk shows, supporters spewed hatreds, resorting to the Bush tactics of fear mongering to support their own candidate.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
President Barack Obama Brings Hope for the Future / Politics / US Politics
With the election behind us, our country turns hopeful eyes to the future. I have a few hopes of my own.I congratulate our first African-American president-elect. Martin Luther King, Jr. certainly would be proud to see this day. We are stronger for embracing diversity, and I am hopeful that we can continue working through the tensions and wrongs of the past and become a more just and colorblind society. I hope this new administration will help bring us together, and not further divide us.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, November 07, 2008
President Obama Security Threats / Politics / US Politics
The U.S. presidential campaign trail presents a host of challenges for the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) protective detail assigned to cover the presidential candidates, something we've discussed previously. Major presidential candidates have been afforded USSS protection since the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy at a campaign event. Due to the nature of modern presidential campaigns, the candidates' schedules are packed with events that often start at breakfast and continue long after dinner. Candidates also hopscotch across the country, often visiting several cities in a day and sometimes visiting multiple venues in the same city.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, November 06, 2008
President Obama Brings Change to America, What to Expect? / Politics / US Politics
Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States by a large majority in the Electoral College. The Democrats have dramatically increased their control of Congress, increasing the number of seats they hold in the House of Representatives and moving close to the point where — with a few Republican defections — they can have filibuster-proof control of the Senate. Given the age of some Supreme Court justices, Obama might well have the opportunity to appoint at least one and possibly two new justices. He will begin as one of the most powerful presidents in a long while.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
The American Dream Reborn with President Obama's Landslide Victory / Politics / US Politics
At 4am GMT on the 5th of November, the American networks declared victory to Senator Obama, shortly followed by the concession speech by John McCain during which time the number of electoral votes passed 333, against the 270 necessary to win, against John Mccain's tally of 155.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Obama Presidency, Is Redistribution of Wealth Really All That Bad? / Politics / US Politics
Redistribution is never an issue when the money is flowing upwards. It's only when working people are poised to get a few scraps that all hell breaks loose. That's when self-styled "mavericks" and their political cadres spring into action and unleash their vitriol at anyone who challenges the failed "trickle-down" dogma of the investor class. When Barak Obama naively pointed out the need to "spread the wealth" the media descended on him like a pack of feral hounds. The gaffe was followed by weeks of derision and vicious attacks. McCain branded him a the "Redistributionist-in-Chief" while his rabid friends on wingnut radio invoked the musty specter of Karl Marx.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, November 03, 2008
United States Was Founded as a Constitutional Republic and Not a Democracy / Politics / US Politics
Alex Epstein writes: Every Election Day, politicians, intellectuals, and activists propagate a seemingly patriotic but utterly un-American idea: the notion that our most important right--and the source of America's greatness--is the right to vote. According to former President Bill Clinton, the right to vote is “the most fundamental right of citizenship”; it is “the heart and soul of our democracy,” says Senator John McCain.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, November 03, 2008
New President Will Disappoint on Supreme Court Judge Appointments / Politics / US Politics
Thomas A. Bowden writes: No matter who wins the presidency--and with it, the power to appoint Supreme Court justices--America's judiciary will remain locked into a crucial error that corrupts their interpretation of America's bedrock constitutional principle: individual rights. That error consists in regarding rights as gifts from society, with judges as diviners of the so-called social will.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Epochal Transformation Accelerates as Global Financial Matrix Disintegrates / Politics / US Politics
Now that the genie is out of the bottle, economic, political and social events will proceed with the inexorable force of destiny. The forthcoming changes, shifts and breaks with the past that are delineated below do concern the unsavory business of WHAT, positively, will not be brought into the future. This is of critical importance. Why? Because those who do not know, and understand, and heed history, are always, always forced to repeat it.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, October 30, 2008
United States Fleeting Freedom: The Indecent Assault on Broadcasters / Politics / US Politics
Don Watkins writes: The fleeting expletive case before the Supreme Court is about more than broadcasters' ability to air dirty words--it's about whether “community standards” should be allowed to override free speech.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, October 26, 2008
What Should the Next President Do to Face the Crisis? / Politics / US Politics
Senior White House correspondent Helen Thomas said of Bush, “He is the worst president in all of American history.” The public shares Thomas's view. By mid-October 2008, ninety percent of those polled said the nation was headed in the wrong direction.
Former President Jimmy Carter said something similar in the area of foreign policy: “I think, as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.”
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Sunday, October 26, 2008
The World After the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election: War or Peace? / Politics / US Politics
With the presidential election only a week away, the financial crisis has been dominating the news, but behind it is an even larger question of war vs. peace. This article will appear in a forthcoming issue of Eurasia Critic magazine.INTRODUCTION
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Saturday, October 25, 2008
America's Buddy-Buddy Presidential Campaign Press Corps / Politics / US Politics
It's a little more than a week before the presidential election, and I'm worried about what happens afterwards. I'm not worried about the candidates, the people, or the country. I'm worried about the media.
First, I'm worried about the TV ad salespeople. For more than a year they haven't had to do much other than sit back and open digital files from the politicians. Now, the salespeople will actually have to go to work to fill airtime.
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Friday, October 10, 2008
Maine Is Not Part of America and America Is Not Part of the World / Politics / US Politics
You won't find too many people who understand that bad economic times have arrived in Mid-Coast Maine for the simple reason that they haven't arrived. In this town of 2,000 the last summer was as "normal" as normal could be. I asked local merchants - who outnumber chains in this semi-affluent mix of locals and "Transplants" - how business was this summer? Business was good, everyone says. Busy, busy! Yet, I spot a few vacant storefronts here and there that no one but the town office and me notice. The GM dealer disappeared last year leaving a giant space that the Health Store plans to fill next spring.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, October 06, 2008
Bailout: Congress Does Something But Not the Right Thing / Politics / US Politics
The Do-Something Congress - It has not been a good week for the Republic. It took quite a bit of trampling of the Constitution, but the bailout bill passed, as I suspected it would.Read full article... Read full article...