AltWeeklies Wire

The Hustle: Comfortable Rich Men Debate Our Futurenew

This week will be a pretty good indicator of whether President Barack Obama is Keynesian, a Shakespearean, a Vatican II guy, or a Burkean. He will either boldly hammer home a courageous, thorough-going reorganization of health care policy, or Obama will punt on all that and instead gives us a nuanced, lawyered parsing of current practice.
Artvoice  |  Bruce Fisher  |  09-11-2009  |  Commentary

Ignorance Unbound in the Health Care Debatenew

Among the most persistent and far-fetched of modern myths is the one that says government is always wasteful and inefficient, and the private sector never is. We've seen this mantra repeated in this summer's debate over health care, as fearful and unenlightened citizens inadvertently reveal that not only do they not know how the various programs run, they don't know who's running them.
Arkansas Times  |  Editorial  |  09-11-2009  |  Commentary

Van Jones and the Right-Wing Attack Machinenew

The Oakland activist and Obama adviser resigned after critics tied him to an impolitic 9/11 petition. The affair again exposed the weakness of Democrats.
East Bay Express  |  Robert Gammon  |  09-09-2009  |  Commentary

Conservatives Need to Leave Afghanistan & the Neocons Behindnew

Now is the time to make the case that American soldiers shouldn't be the world's policeman, liberal utopianism is not sound foreign policy, and nation-building is not conservative. George Will has and serious conservatives should follow suit.
Charleston City Paper  |  Jack Hunter  |  09-09-2009  |  Commentary

So What Would Jesus Do About Health Care Reform?new

Think Barack Obama's a socialist? He's practically Calvin Coolidge if you compare his ideas on health care to those of Jesus.
Birmingham Weekly  |  Courtney Haden  |  09-08-2009  |  Commentary

Why Did the Conflict Between Russia & Georgia Crash Twitter & Facebook?new

Does the inconvenience of a short Facebook/Twitter crash mean that Americans are victims of war on par with the estimated 2,000 people who died in the actual fighting last year? Of course not. But it does demonstrate that our increasing reliance on electronic communication networks makes the U.S. vulnerable to attacks in ways we never before imagined.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta)  |  Andisheh Nouraee  |  08-25-2009  |  Commentary

Existing Gun Laws Weren't Written With Presidential Death Threats in Mind

Make no mistake: guns don't have anything to do with health care. This is a revival of Klannism. A black man is president, and the good ol' boys don't like it. That's what this is about: putting him in his place. Which, if they or someone they inspire has their way, will be six feet under.
Maui Time  |  Ted Rall  |  08-24-2009  |  Commentary

It Looks Like Big Pharma and the Health Insurers Will Win on Health Care ... Againnew

For the past 35 years, whenever Congress has ventured into health-care reform in response to public demand the big winners have almost always been the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and it will almost certainly be that way again. The massive spending against health reform legislation in every media market the past month, on top of the relentless tide of lobbying and campaign expenditures over the decade, guaranteed it.
Arkansas Times  |  Ernest Dumas  |  08-20-2009  |  Commentary

It's Time for the LGBT Community to Shake Off its Addiction to Democratic Panderingnew

It's up to the LGBT community to seize this momentum and put a freeze on donations to the Democrats and show them that until real progress is made, it's the Democratic Party that is going to need the help.
New York Press  |  Jamaal Young  |  08-20-2009  |  Commentary

The Right Wing's Health Care Reform Town Hall All-Starsnew

With the Town Hall disruption craze inciting the nation and consuming news cycles, it seems there's a fresh crop of potential poster children powering the increasingly aggravated right-wing noise machine.
Boston Phoenix  |  Chris Faraone  |  08-19-2009  |  Commentary

No Lie is Too Big in the War Against Health Care Reformnew

I don't know of any peacetime campaign that has relied as extensively on lies, deceit, obfuscation, and fear as the Republican campaign to defeat healthcare reform in this country.
Charleston City Paper  |  Will Moredock  |  08-19-2009  |  Commentary

Anger as Performance Art: The Town Hall Revoltnew

Why do I get so angry about yahoos hollering at congressmen during town-hall meetings? I've seen a lot of this as a news reporter over the years, and am convinced the juiced-up anger is more performance than sincere expression. But, alas, it seems to be working, something one can't say about the tactics of health-care reformers.
The Athens NEWS  |  Terry Smith  |  08-12-2009  |  Commentary

Driving California Off the Edgenew

We should be so lucky as the State of Alaska that our celebrity governor would simply resign at this point. That’s what I think of Sarah Palin’s resignation the other day –– a lucky break, and it’s what I think Schwarzenegger should do after his “line-item veto” ploy that cut another $500 million after the California legislature packed up for summer recess. The Governator claims to be forcing the state to live within its means, but in effect he is driving the Golden State right off the edge. We’d be lucky if he just resigned at this point.
Random Lengths News  |  James Preston Allen  |  08-03-2009  |  Commentary

What We Missed in the Sotomayor Hearingsnew

The media hyped the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings as the must-see event of the summer, but they proved to be underwhelming at best. The hearings were also disappointing for their failure to spur discussion on three topics that were important for the country to hear, weigh and digest.
Random Lengths News  |  Bobby Grace, Deputy District Attorney with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.  |  08-03-2009  |  Commentary

Warning Trend: The Climate Debate Goes Southnew

Here's the problem with the global-warming debate: A society that demands quick answers isn't good at solving problems decades in the making. And the highly deliberative scientific method -- which discovered the climate-change threat -- makes it hard to convince people to do anything about it.
Pittsburgh City Paper  |  Chris Potter  |  07-27-2009  |  Commentary

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