May 1, 2007
Guest Columnist
By ATUL GAWANDE
We Americans believe instinctively in the power of positive thinking. Whether one is fighting a cancer, an insurgency or just an unyielding problem at work, the prevailing wisdom is that thinking positive is the key — The Secret, even — to success. But the key, it seems to me, is actually negative thinking: looking for, and sometimes expecting, failure. (more…)
May 1, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
In this presidential campaign, we need somebody who wants to address the question President Bush once raised: “Is our children learning?”
(more…)
April 30, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Last fall Edward Lazear, the Bush administration’s top economist, explained that what’s good for corporations is good for America. “Profits,” he declared, “provide the incentive for physical capital investment, and physical capital growth contributes to productivity growth. Thus profits are important not only for investors but also for the workers who benefit from the growth in productivity.”
In other words, ask not for whom the closing bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Unfortunately, these days none of what Mr. Lazear said seems to be true. In the Bush years high profits haven’t led to high investment, and rising productivity hasn’t led to rising wages. (more…)
April 30, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By BOB HERBERT
The initial feeling is shock, and then comes anger, the anger bursting through even before the inevitable sadness sets in.
Two people whom I respected a great deal were killed — one of them insanely and the other absurdly — in the past three weeks.
(more…)
Braun, 59, was standing at her front door late Friday when an assailant came out of the bushes and tried to take her purse, said her spokesman, Kevin Lampe. When Braun resisted, the man pulled a knife and cut the strap of the purse.
I think you’ll agree that this essay “captures the reality of occupation “warriors” in a far away place. It also speaks of the stress on our troops today and the reality of PTSD”. {{{Thanks JB}}}
When you’re a soldier in an Army of occupation in a hostile land it’s open season on you’re ass every minute of every day and night. And hunting season never closes. It’s a deadly game of hide-and-seek tag and you are always “it.” Even though you may forget it for a minute here and there, somehow, it’s always in the back of your mind. The hair between your shoulder blades that runs up the back of your neck never really lays down. For a soldier in a war zone of bitterly resented occupation it’s the ultimate watch-your-back kind of place.
(more…)
…the U.S. government was turning down many allies’ offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina’s victims.
Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far…
In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.
April 29, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
In May 2003, Iran sent a secret proposal to the U.S. for settling our mutual disputes in a “grand bargain.”
It is an astonishing document, for it tries to address a range of U.S. concerns about nuclear weapons, terrorism and Iraq. I’ve placed it and related documents (including multiple drafts of it) on my blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground.
(more…)
April 29, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By FRANK RICH
SOMEHOW it’s hard to imagine David Halberstam yukking it up with Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz and two discarded “American Idol” contestants at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Before there was a Woodward and Bernstein, there was Halberstam, still not yet 30 in the early 1960s, calling those in power to account for lying about our “progress” in Vietnam. He did so even though J.F.K. told the publisher of The Times, “I wish like hell that you’d get Halberstam out of there.” He did so despite public ridicule from the dean of that era’s Georgetown punditocracy, the now forgotten columnist (and Vietnam War cheerleader) Joseph Alsop.
(more…)
By Lt. Col. Paul Yingling
“You officers amuse yourselves with God knows what buffooneries and never dream in the least of serious service. This is a source of stupidity which would become most dangerous in case of a serious conflict.” - Frederick the Great
Retired Lt. Gen. William Odom said he was not speaking for the Democratic Party, but was given “>the party’s Saturday radio address to call for Bush to sign legislation the U.S. Congress approved this week regarding supplemental funding for the war in Iraq.
April 28, 2007
Guest Columnist
By ROBERT WRIGHT
This week the mystery deepened: Why no space aliens?
On Tuesday, scientists reported finding the most “Earthlike” planet ever, Gliese 581c. Its sun is cooler than ours, but also closer, so Gliese is in that climatic comfort zone conducive to water — hence to life, hence to evolution, hence to intelligent beings with advanced technology. Yet they never phone. (more…)
April 28, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
Poor Slam Dunk.
Not since Madame Butterfly has anyone been so cruelly misunderstood and misused. Slam Dunk says that when he pantingly told the president that fetching information on Saddam’s W.M.D. would be a cinch, he did not mean let’s go to war.
(more…)
A changed news culture has let several important investigative stories slip through the cracks.
By Greg Palast
April 27, 2007
April 27, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By PAUL KRUGMAN
One of the distinctive features of the modern American right has been nostalgia for the late 19th century, with its minimal taxation, absence of regulation and reliance on faith-based charity rather than government social programs. Conservatives from Milton Friedman to Grover Norquist have portrayed the Gilded Age as a golden age, dismissing talk of the era’s injustice and cruelty as a left-wing myth.
(more…)
April 27, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
I’ve been thinking about China as I read Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Albert Einstein. China isn’t even mentioned in the book — “Einstein: His Life and Universe” — but Mr. Isaacson’s stimulating and provocative retelling of Einstein’s career plays into two very hot debates about China.
First, what does Einstein’s life tell us about the relationship between freedom and creativity? Or to put it bluntly: Can China become as innovative as America, can it dominate the 21st century, as many predict, when China censors Google and maintains tight political controls while establishing its market economy? (more…)
How the administration marketed the war to the American people has been well covered, but critical questions remain: How and why did the press buy it, and what does it say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?
Watch “Buying the War,” a 90-minute documentary that explores the role of the press in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, which includes interviews with Dan Rather, formerly of CBS; Tim Russert of Meet the Press; and Walter Isaacson, former president of CNN.
Two days later on April 27, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL airs at its regular timeslot on Fridays at 9 P.M. with interviews and news analysis of underreported stories across an array of beats, including: the environment, media, politics, the economy, arts and culture, and social issues.
April 26, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By DAVID BROOKS
Sometimes you take a shot.
Yesterday evening I was interviewing Barack Obama and we were talking about effective foreign aid programs in Africa. His voice was measured and fatigued, and he was taking those little pauses candidates take when they’re afraid of saying something that might hurt them later on.
Out of the blue I asked, “Have you ever read Reinhold Niebuhr?”
Obama’s tone changed. “I love him. He’s one of my favorite philosophers.”
(more…)
April 26, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By BOB HERBERT
Two days after the massacre at Virginia Tech, a mentally disturbed man with a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun opened fire in a house in Queens, killing his mother, his mother’s disabled companion and the disabled man’s health care aide. The gunman then killed himself. (more…)
April 25, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
Usually, I love the dynamics of a cheeky woman puncturing the ego of a cocky guy.
I liked it in ’40s movies, and I liked it with Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel, and Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis in “Moonlighting.”
So why don’t I like it with Michelle and Barack?
(more…)
April 25, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
O.K. class, it’s time for another news quiz. I’ll give you the question and you tell me who asked it and why it was significant. Ready? Here goes:
“Mr. President, how would you rate yourself as an environmentalist? What specifically has your administration done to improve the condition of our nation’s air and water supply?” You’ll never get it. … The questioner was James Hubb, a member of the audience at the second presidential debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 8, 2004.
(more…)
Lobo
April 23, 2007
“Torture-boy” Alberto Gonzales, the incredibly unqualified U.S. Attorney General, went before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. Once again he committed perjury – he lied to Congress. Even while claiming he “can’t recall” over 75 separate times, he still continued to lie.
(more…)
Linden jury awards man $9 million in beating case
Watch Nightline cover the Billy Ray Johnson trial tonight, Tuesday at 11:35 EDT on ABC.
“I hope you can tune in and see how your support helped strike a blow against hate and bigotry.” -Morris Dees
April 24, 2007
Guest Columnist
By ROBERT WRIGHT
Neoconservatives have been airing an explanation for the failure of the Iraq war that’s so obvious you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it yourself: the war wasn’t neoconservative enough. (more…)
April 24, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
KHAWASPUR, India
India is stirring after many centuries of torpor, and it has a chance of ending this century as the capital of the world, the most important nation on earth. You see up-and-coming cities like Hyderabad or Ahmedabad, and it’s easy to believe that India will eventually surpass China. (more…)
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and tireless author of books on topics as varied as America’s military failings in Vietnam, the deaths of firefighters at the World Trade Center and the high-pressure world of professional basketball, was killed Monday in a car crash south of San Francisco. He was 73, and lived in Manhattan.
An Interview with David Halberstam: Not Allowed to Be Boring
David Halberstam: Coup in Saigon: A Detailed Account (Originally published in The New York Times, November 6, 1963)
WNYC public radio interview 10/10/2004
“If you’re a reporter, the easiest thing in the world is to get a story. The hardest thing is to verify. The old sins were about getting something wrong, that was a cardinal sin. The new sin is to be boring.“
To G.W. Bush,
The Virginia Tech mass murder broke an American record for single-handed mayhem, and you claim that you’re shocked - shocked, I tell you! - that such a thing could happen in a country so awash with handguns that a mentally disturbed resident alien could legally acquire a 9 mm Glock, along with 50 rounds of ammunition, in a few minutes, by credit card, making the origins of the .22-caliber rather moot. But that will not prevent you or any other of your anti-handgun control ilk from porking at the NRA trough in return for carte blanche handgun ownership laws, and until that changes, this record stands to be broken any day, any time.
Yet the very people who aim to rectify this most deep shame of America are the ones Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has “nothing but loathing for.” He sputters on, “To those who want to try to make this into some little crusade, I say take that elsewhere.” Two questions, Gov.: how many deaths will enlarge this crusade enough to get your attention? And where else shall we take it - Canada?
We - meaning not those whose family or friends were brutally murdered or those who were mortally terrified by the threat of violent death, but those who just read about it - will get over it, though, as we have always done. In a few days, the pro-gun guys will begin arguing that the problem is too few handguns: if every student and teacher were armed, mass-murderers wouldn’t get far. Republican presidential candidates will liken the Second Amendment to one of the 10 Commandments - ironically, considering the frontrunners’ marriage histories. Even most Democrats will hem and haw, terrified of the power of the NRA. The moment will pass, the status quo will prevail, and somewhere, the genesis of the next mass murder will begin.
While politicians may decry the violence to their full content, all those who are not part of the solution are complicit in the killings. You, Bush, beholden to the NRA: your hands are red with blood. Spare me the tears.
~Bill Baerg
Emory University associate professor of English has been awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for “Native Guard” which draws on her personal experience and Southern heritage.
Housekeeping
We mourn the broken things, chair legs
wrenched from their seats, chipped plates,
the threadbare clothes. We work the magic
of glue, drive the nails, mend the holes.
We save what we can, melt small pieces
of soap, gather fallen pecans, keep neck bones
for soup. Beating rugs against the house,
we watch dust, lit like stars, spreading
across the yard. Late afternoon, we draw
the blinds to cool the rooms, drive the bugs
out. My mother irons, singing, lost in reverie.
I mark the pages of a mail-order catalog,
listen for passing cars. All day we watch
for the mail, some news from a distant place.
~Natasha Trethewey
[Thx RC]
April 23, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By PAUL KRUGMAN
There are two ways to describe the confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration over funding for the Iraq surge. You can pretend that it’s a normal political dispute. Or you can see it for what it really is: a hostage situation, in which a beleaguered President Bush, barricaded in the White House, is threatening dire consequences for innocent bystanders — the troops — if his demands aren’t met.
If this were a normal political dispute, Democrats in Congress would clearly hold the upper hand: by a huge margin, Americans say they want a timetable for withdrawal, and by a large margin they also say they trust Congress, not Mr. Bush, to do a better job handling the situation in Iraq.
But this isn’t a normal political dispute. Mr. Bush isn’t really trying to win the argument on the merits. He’s just betting that the people outside the barricade care more than he does about the fate of those innocent bystanders.
What’s at stake right now is the latest Iraq “supplemental.” Since the beginning, the administration has refused to put funding for the war in its regular budgets. Instead, it keeps saying, in effect: “Whoops! Whaddya know, we’re running out of money. Give us another $87 billion.”
At one level, this is like the behavior of an irresponsible adolescent who repeatedly runs through his allowance, each time calling his parents to tell them he’s broke and needs extra cash.
What I haven’t seen sufficiently emphasized, however, is the disdain this practice shows for the welfare of the troops, whom the administration puts in harm’s way without first ensuring that they’ll have the necessary resources.
As long as a G.O.P.-controlled Congress could be counted on to rubber-stamp the administration’s requests, you could say that this wasn’t a real problem, that the administration’s refusal to put Iraq funding in the regular budget was just part of its usual reliance on fiscal smoke and mirrors. But this time Mr. Bush decided to surge additional troops into Iraq after an election in which the public overwhelmingly rejected his war — and then dared Congress to deny him the necessary funds. As I said, it’s an act of hostage-taking.
Actually, it’s even worse than that. According to reports, the final version of the funding bill Congress will send won’t even set a hard deadline for withdrawal. It will include only an “advisory,” nonbinding date. Yet Mr. Bush plans to veto the bill all the same — and will then accuse Congress of failing to support the troops.
The whole situation brings to mind what Abraham Lincoln said, in his great Cooper Union speech in 1860, about secessionists who blamed the critics of slavery for the looming civil war: “A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!’ ”
So how should Congress respond to Mr. Bush’s threats?
Everyone talks about the political risks of confrontation, recalling the backlash when Newt Gingrich shut down the federal government in 1995. But there’s a big difference between trying to force a fairly popular president to accept deep cuts in Medicare — which is what the 1995 confrontation was about — and trying to get a deeply unpopular, distrusted president to set some limits on an immensely unpopular war.
Meanwhile, there are big political risks on the other side. If Congress responds to a presidential veto by offering an even weaker bill, voters may well react with disgust, concluding that the whole debate over the war was nothing but political theater.
Anyway, never mind the political calculations. Confronting Mr. Bush on Iraq has become a patriotic duty.
The fact is that Mr. Bush’s refusal to face up to the failure of his Iraq adventure, his apparent determination to spend the rest of his term in denial, has become a clear and present danger to national security. Thanks to the demands of the Iraq war, we’re already a superpower without a strategic reserve, unable to respond to crises that might erupt elsewhere in the world. And more and more military experts warn that repeated deployments in Iraq — now extended to 15 months — are breaking the back of our volunteer military.
If nothing is done to wind down this war during the 21 months — 21 months! — Mr. Bush has left, the damage may be irreparable.
April 23, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By BOB HERBERT
Just days after Don Imus was taken off the air for a slur hurled at members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team, a police sergeant conducting a roll call at a precinct in Brooklyn is reported to have called the three female officers in the room “hos” as he gave them an order to stand up. (more…)
The Oil Enforcement Agency takes a stand at the New York International Automobile Show.
[Thx MH]
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