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Katrina Dreams and Fears

by Günter Bischof

A year ago the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. A month later Hurricane Rita destroyed the western part of the Louisiana coast  not affected by Katrina. Storm surges made flood walls fail and led to a devastating inundation of vast parts of the city of New Orleans. Katrina unleashed one of the largest natural disasters in American history. A recent visit to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and to Venice in Plaquemines Parish, the end point of American civi

Mired in New Orleans: One Year After Katrina

by Craig E. Colten

News crews are converging on New Orleans to gauge the city’s status in the long recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They are planning town meetings and panel discussions, as local organizations organize music festivals and other forms of commemoration of the calamity’s one-year milestone. One of the observations I am hearing already is why has so little been accomplished in a year? Why is the city so completely mired in the mess left by Katrina? These are valid questions,

Can “Peace” Be a Winning Issue in Presidential Campaigns?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

In recent years, the conventional wisdom has been that “Peace” is a losing issue in U.S. presidential campaigns.  Proponents of this view point to George McGovern’s run for the presidency in 1972, when he called for peace in Vietnam and was trounced at the polls.But a more thoroughgoing analysis of the peace issue in presidential races supports a more nuanced conclusion.  Indeed, it indicates that peace has been a winning issue numerous times.First of

Have Our Presidents Made Good Warriors?

by Stephen Graubard

In my book, Command of Office: How War, Secrecy and Deception Transformed the Presidency from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush, I opened with a chapter entitled “Of a Republic Transformed by Kings, Courtiers, and Warriors.”  Some who read the book resiste

Is Dick Cheney Right that Our Enemies Gain Comfort from Lieberman's Loss?

by Michael H. Ebner

A timely amplification about Americans as they cast their ballots in times of war might prove instructive for Vice President Cheney. My plaint stems from his post-mortem observation that Senator Joseph I. Lieberman's defeat in Connecticut's Democratic primary on August 8th transmitted a signal comforting our enemies because it revealed the lack of American resolve in prosecuting the war against terrorism. His specious claim merits revision. The historical record informs us that elections

Dramatic Off-Year Elections in Recent American Political History

by Rick Shenkman

Editor's Note: This article was published on November 5, 2002.Question. When was the last time a president was as popular during the off-year elections as President Bush is today and in a position to help his party win the Congress? The answer: 1962. John Kennedy was president; 75 percent of Americans approved of his presidency, in part because of his handling of the October Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy did not openly campaign for fellow Democrats; he indicated it would be unsee

The Truth About Capital Punishment: It's Inherently Cruel

by Daniel Gordon

On June 12, the Supreme Court ruled that Clarence E. Hill, a Florida prisoner facing execution, had a constitutional right to challenge the lethal injection procedure the state was planning to use on him. The Court's decision was unanimous. Why this consensus?   Because briefs to the court from physicians presented a ghastly truth: The method used to execute people in Florida and many other states sometimes produces excruciating suffering.   This raises an even bigg

Not Many Senators Have Found Themselves in Joe Lieberman's Predicament

by Robert KC Johnson

On Tuesday, Democratic voters in Connecticut will cast their ballots to consider denying renomination to Joe Lieberman. The three-term incumbent trailed in the final pre-primary poll by 13 points; two-thirds of those who supported his opponent, Ned Lamont, said they did so because of their opposition to Lieberman and his policies, rather than their positive feelings toward Lamont. Those are hardly encouraging figures for Lieberman, who has sa

A Series of Inconvenient Truths

by Ron Briley

In this summer of our discontent, those of us who believe that President George W. Bush’s policies have destabilized the Middle East, fostered growing anti-Americanism abroad, and endangered civil liberties at home may be overlooking even more serious and deadly long range ramifications of the current regime.  The failure to acknowledge the consensus of the scientific community regarding the consequences of global warming led the Bush administration to withdraw from the Kyoto Proto

Adlai Stevenson Had a Peace Proposal ... Shouldn't Democrats Today?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

Fifty years ago, Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic presidential candidate, injected a peace proposal into his hard-fought political campaign.  Speaking before the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 21, 1956, Stevenson suggested halting H-bomb tests and challenging other nations to do the same.  According to the Illinois Democrat, such actions would “reflect our determination never to plunge the world into nuclear holocaust” and “would reaffirm our purpose

The Road to a New American Aristocracy

by Johann N. Neem

Legislators across the nation are considering eliminating estate taxes for the wealthiest Americans, even as we face budget crises and growing debt. Yet estate taxes, and other rules governing the transfer of wealth between generations, are vital to the American experiment. They help ensure equal opportunity and prevent the rise of a small set of families whose money and political power separate them permanently from the rest of us. Estate taxes protect us from the dangers of arist

The Truman Parallel Bush Doesn't Want to Think About

by Ron Briley

            An unpopular President with low approval ratings presides over a frustrating war in which American power appears checked by a less technologically advanced enemy who also poses an ideological threat.  Members of the President’s party are openly critical of how the Chief Executive is handling the war effort.  Despairing of losing control of the Congress, former party allies of the President seek to distance them

Why It's Time to Nationalize the US Defense Industry

by John Stanton

In 1969 John Kenneth Galbraith penned a piece for the New York Times titled The Big Defense Firms Are Really Public Firms and Should be Nationalized arguing, among other things, that it was folly for defense contractors to claim that they were private corporations. Such claims made a mockery of free enterprise.Nearly 40 years hence, Charlie Cray and Lee Drutman have resurrected and energized Galbraith’s argument in their work titled Corporations and the Public Purpos

Honda's All-American Sundown Town

by James W. Loewen

Even before Honda announced Greensburg, Indiana, as the site for its new factory, National Public Radio was on board:  Adam Davidson on "All Things Considered" said Greensburg "could be a movie set for an ideal American small town."  In its announ

The Supreme Court Deals a Blow to Democracy

by Robert KC Johnson

Summarizing last week’s Supreme Court ruling in the Texas redistricting case, Loyola Law School’s Rick Hasen recalled Chevy Chase, from Saturday Night Live’s"Weekend Update":"This just in. Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead." Three decades later, Franco is still dead, and in light of the decision in this case, attempts to get the Supreme Court to limit the scope of partisan gerrymandering are like

The Bracero Program: Was It a Failure?

by Philip Martin

The background you need to know to decide whether Trump's plan to deport 11 million immigrants is feasible or just. 

Old Glory: Patriotic Symbol?

by Rick Shenkman

Nothing seems more natural to an American than to venerate the patriotic symbols that represent America. But we didn't always.

Why Miners Are Cynical About the Prospects for Reform

by Michael Punke

After some twists and turns in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congress this month will likely pass a new law to improve the safety of American mines. The law comes in response to a horrific year for mine safety.

Katrina Journal: New Orleans Now

by Günter Bischof

New Orleans’ election confirmed Ray Nagin as mayor on May 20 just in time for the beginning of the hurricane season on June 1st. The storm trackers predict a busy season of more than a dozen storms – typically culminating in the Gulf of Mexico in August/September. The anxiety in New Orleans is palpable. Will it happen again? Are our levees strong enough to protect the city? Will evacuations of the entire city be staged successfully? Is City Hall prepared? Is FEMA ready? Will the

"Activist Judges" or "Re-activist" Judges?

by Stephanie Coontz

According to President Bush, we must protect the institution of marriage by preventing"activist judges" from tampering with its time-honored traditions. But marriage has been in constant evolution for thousands of years. If judges and governments had not responded to the demands of ordinary people to democratize and humanize its rules and workings, few modern Americans would be interested in entering it. Until 200 years ago, marriage was based on the