The leaders of America

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Vanessa Elizebeth on Van Hollen OK on Medicare — but “willing to consider” Social Security “spending reform”
stephen on The Monday after: “Stop the NRA” rally on Capitol Hill
Nell on Zero Dark de Triomphe
Thomas Nephew on Van Hollen, Geithner reassure on earned benefits — but just for now
Nell on Van Hollen, Geithner reassure on earned benefits — but just for now
Thomas Nephew on Assassinating negotiation
Nell on Assassinating negotiation
Nell on Assassinating negotiation
Nell on Assassinating negotiation
Thomas Nephew on Assassinating negotiation
Nell on Assassinating negotiation
Thomas Nephew on Armistice Day

Immigration enforcement: a trojan horse? (Buttar, BORDC)

"Comprehensive immigration reform, along with the fiscal cliff and sequester, has recently dominated Washington. But observers have overlooked how calls for stronger immigration enforcement could undermine the rights of not only immigrants, but also US citizens." […]

How Obama lost his voice, and how he can get it back (Marshall Ganz, Nov'10, LATimes)

Accurate surface observations, but I think Obama was always non-transformational at heart. He didn't lose his voice--he stopped throwing it.. -- "Transformational" leadership engages followers in the risky and often exhilarating work of changing the world, work that often changes the activists themselves. Its sources are shared values that bec […]

American Assassinations For Dummies (Ames, NSFWCorp)

" ignorance of the history of assassination policy runs right through today, with the repetition of another myth: That President Obama’s extrajudicial drone-assassinations of American citizens is "unprecedented" and "radical" and that "not even George Bush targeted American citizens." The truth is a lot worse and a lot more […]

That Seventies Show (Perlstein, The Nation, Nov '10)

Great review of a number of books about the political and social changes in the U.S during the 1970s. […]

What Happened After a Nation Methodically Murdered Its Schizophrenics? (Levine, Truthout)

"Starting with results of the Nazi elimination of diagnosed schizophrenics, Levine re-examines the evidence for the heritability of mental illness and offers some suggestions about Western civilization and our shared humanity. If a nation murdered and sterilized an estimated 73 percent to 100 percent of its diagnosed schizophrenics, yet a generation lat […]

2013 Presidential Address (Berube, MLA Convention)

"The working conditions of college faculty are ultimately the learning conditions for college students. If you got here because you love what you do—or even if you are just mildly happy to have a decent job—you owe it to your colleagues, to your profession, to your students, and even to yourself to try to see to it that each and every one of us can cond […]

Misguided Social Security ‘Reform’ - NYTimes.com

"elderly households tend to have lower incomes and lower expenditures than younger households, and that more of their purchases are for needs that cannot be met by switching to products and services in unrelated categories. That indicates that they do not have the same flexibility as younger households to respond to price changes while still maintaining […]

The Truth about Aaron Swartz’s “Crime” (Stamos, "Unhandled Exception")

Expert witness for the defense demolishes case against the young Internet activist and prodigy who took his life earlier this weekend: "Aaron Swartz was not the super hacker breathlessly described in the Government’s indictment and forensic reports, and his actions did not pose a real danger to JSTOR, MIT or the public. He was an intelligent young man w […]

The Myth Of Hitler’s Gun Ban (The Propaganda Professor)

"Hitler really did enact a new gun law. But it was in 1938, not 1935 – well after the NAZIs already had the country in its iron grip. Furthermore, the new law in many ways LOOSENED gun restrictions. For example, it greatly expanded the numbers who were exempt, it lowered the legal age of possession from 20 to 18, and it completely lifted restriction on […]

How Democrats Became Liberal Republicans (Bartlett, Fiscal Times)

"In a little-noticed comment on Spanish-language television on December 14, Obama himself confirmed this typology of today's political spectrum. Said Obama, "The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican." I think […]