AltWeeklies Wire
The Palin Problemnew
Sarah Palin, the former Alaska beauty queen who had been the governor for 20 months when John McCain tapped her as his running mate, is the living embodiment of McCain's enduring weakness.
Arkansas Times |
Ernest Dumas |
09-05-2008 |
Commentary
John McCain's Image: Too Much Bullnew
McCain enjoys the fine image of a free-thinking, free-talking maverick who took on President Bush on the war, Hurricane Katrina, the profiteers who infested the administration and the economic malefactoring of the Bush years. Most of it is pure malarkey.
Arkansas Times |
Ernest Dumas |
08-22-2008 |
Commentary
Bill Gwatney's Momentnew
Smart, funny, friendly, privileged, wealthy, acerbic, articulate, partisan, confident, tanned, well-attired, and ego-healthy, Bill Gwatney is suddenly gone, a few days short of his 49th birthday.
Arkansas Times |
John Brummett |
08-22-2008 |
Commentary
In D.C., Sen. Mark Pryor Aims Towards the Center -- Only the Left Seems to Mindnew
For someone so politically impregnable he faces no major party opposition for re-election, it's surprisingly easy to find negative comments on the internet about Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor. They come largely from liberal Democrats, many critical of his votes in his first six-year term on national security, judicial appointments and a smattering of other matters.
Arkansas Times |
Paul Barton |
08-07-2008 |
Politics
Election '08: What Price Truth?new
The worst aspect of this race for president is that it bears out John Milton's maxim that truth comes into the world a bastard, heaping ignominy upon those who dare to speak it. Gen. Wesley Clark can attest to that.
Arkansas Times |
Ernest Dumas |
07-11-2008 |
Commentary
No Citizenship May Mean No College for Some Longtime Arkansas Residentsnew
As a graduate of an Arkansas high school, Cecilia might have been eligible for in-state tuition until recently. The state high school diploma signaled residency; state schools are not required to gather information on citizenship from applicants. Then, after an AP article reported that undocumented students might be enrolled as residents, Gov. Mike Beebe directed the state Department of Higher Education to make sure colleges had stopped the practice.
Arkansas Times |
Leslie Newell Peacock |
07-11-2008 |
Immigration
Nathan Brown Hopes to Bring Back the 8-Tracknew
The 8-track is such an object of obsession for Brown that he's hoping not only to repopularize, but almost literally to resurrect it. This year he has recorded and engineered releases by two Arkansas bands -- the Crisco Kids and San Antokyo -- solely on 8-track, with plans to do the same for The Thing That Always Explodes, Magic Hassle and the Evelyns.
Arkansas Times |
Sam Eifling |
07-03-2008 |
Music
Combat Exposure for Women Soldiers Complicates an Old Problemnew
On the front lines, equality means exposure to more danger for women soldiers. Whether that's progress or not depends on whom you ask.
Arkansas Times |
Jennifer Barnett Reed |
06-27-2008 |
War
Huckabee Takes the Smart TV Routenew
While predictable, his joining Fox News as an expert inside commentator doesn't trivialize him. It is less than full immersion in a media career and partly a continuation of a political career. It's one of those cross-pollinated abominations of modern talking-head punditry. It also means he can't fail.
Arkansas Times |
John Brummett |
06-19-2008 |
Commentary
The Supreme Court is One Justice Away from Tyrannynew
You can look at the court's decision on Guantanamo this way: We are only one Supreme Court justice away from real tyranny. Sen. John McCain says as president he would appoint justices exactly like Bush's two. Based on his past opposition to torture and Guantanamo, he's probably lying about that, although he joined Bush in denouncing the habeas decision. It is nevertheless a risk worth avoiding.
Arkansas Times |
Ernest Dumas |
06-19-2008 |
Commentary
Obama Has Two Chances to Win, One More Far-Fetched Than the Othernew
He might enlarge his impressive work in the Rocky Mountain states and move four or five of them out of the Republican column to join the fixed big-state Democratic electoral base, or else he can subdue the prejudices of white rural voters across the South and upper Midwest and persuade them to vote their pocketbooks. Even to an old denizen of the Jim Crow South the second looks like the better prospect.
Arkansas Times |
Ernest Dumas |
06-12-2008 |
Commentary
Without Clinton, Democrats Face Challenge in Arkansasnew
Though Democrats control the Arkansas statehouse, both the state's U.S. Senate seats, and three of four seats in the U.S. House, the party likely will be hard-pressed to win the state in November's general election.
Arkansas Times |
John Williams |
06-12-2008 |
Politics
The Most Important Quality in a 2008 VP Candidate: Don't Be Cheneynew
"Anybody but Cheney" in 2008 can be taken symbolically as well as literally. Obama and McCain should not pick people who given the chance would take the country in exactly the opposite direction the people want it to go and that the candidate promised it would go.
Arkansas Times |
Ernest Dumas |
05-30-2008 |
Commentary
Huckabee's Obama Assassination Bad Libnew
"That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him, and he dove for the floor," said Huck. He apologized within hours, but primarily for giving unintentional offense. He offered no insight about the mental predisposition that would suggest humor in an assassination attempt.
Arkansas Times |
Max Brantley |
05-22-2008 |
Commentary
Bush's Loser Lap Around the Middle Eastnew
After the debacle of President Bush's Middle East junket, just as a matter of national security the country should consider barring reviled lame-duck leaders from taking loser laps to regions of the world they have degraded.
Arkansas Times |
Ernest Dumas |
05-22-2008 |
Commentary
