New Posts
Impact Of Economy On Presidential Race Examined
The economic news is creating even more uncertainty in the presidential race. David Brooks of The New York Times says the candidates’ response Friday was mediocre. E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post says the issue has made life difficult for John McCain and helped Barack Obama.
Listen here and dig deeper in to NPR’s coverage of this issue while you are at it.
The beginning of the end of Labour?
Gordon Brown is set to lead Labour into an election bloodbath so crushing it could take his party a decade to recover, according to the largest ever poll of marginal seats which predicts a landslide victory for David Cameron.
Eight cabinet ministers, including the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary, would be swept away in the rout as the Tories marched into Downing Street with a majority of 146, says the poll, conducted for PoliticsHome.com and exclusively revealed to The Observer. Seats that have been Labour since the First World War would fall.
Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp
Remember the mammoths, say the clean-cut organisers at the youth camp’s mass wedding. “They became extinct because they did not have enough sex. That must not happen to Russia”.
Obediently, couples move to a special section of dormitory tents arranged in a heart-shape and called the Love Oasis, where they can start procreating for the motherland.
With its relentlessly upbeat tone, bizarre ideas and tight control, it sounds like a weird indoctrination session for a phoney religious cult.
But this organisation – known as “Nashi”, meaning “Ours” – is youth movement run by Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin that has become a central part of Russian political life.
Political Ideology
Tales Of The LBJ Tapes
When Lyndon B. Johnson took office as president, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he began making daily recordings of his private conversations.Historian Michael Beschloss transcribed and edited the tapes’ contents and provided commentary on them in his book Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964.
The book sheds light on Johnson’s thoughts during the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, the creation of the Warren Commission to investigate it, the progress of the civil rights bill and the Gulf of Tonkin attack. And it illuminates Johnson’s decision-making process during his administration’s escalation of the Vietnam War.
Listen to the interview with Terry Gross
On the Joe Biden Choice
It’s Biden Time (from Slate’s John Dickerson)
Russia and Georgia Clash
Russia conducted airstrikes on Georgian targets on Friday evening, escalating the conflict in a separatist area of Georgia that is shaping into a test of the power and military reach of an emboldened Kremlin. Earlier in the day, Russian troops and armored vehicles had rolled into South Ossetia, supporting the breakaway region in its bitter conflict with Georgia.
The United States and other Western nations, joined by NATO, condemned the violence and demanded a cease-fire. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went a step further, calling on Russia to withdraw its forces. But the Russian soldiers remained, and Georgian officials reported at least one airstrike, on the Black Sea port of Poti, late on Friday night.
Read Slate’s c overage from the Same Day
James Traub Interview on NPR (very good)Â
In Pictures from Foreign Policy Magazine
Coalition Troubles
The Right
Struggling SPD
The Untouchable: Why nothing the press throws at Obama sticks.
How did Barack Obama achieve superslipperiness without becoming greasy? Find out
China defends human rights record
Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said: “I hope that Amnesty International can take off the tinted glasses they have been wearing for years and see China in a fair and objective way, and do something more constructive.”
Slate on 2008
Click here for Slate’s complete coverage of the 2008 Campaign
McCain, Obama Focus On Economy
Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have turned their attention to the economy. McCain is discussing jobs and energy with calls for offshore drilling. Obama has met with top economic advisers, including former Bush administration officials.
Truncated Lecture Notes: Did the Great Society Fail or Succeed?
The Legacy of the Great Society
“It is not the purpose of this paper to evaluate the original legislation with respect to its successes or failures. This type of analysis has been repeated over and over in conferences and congressional hearings over the past 30 years. Such an exercise is fraught with difficulty as the original goals and objectives of each program were not completely clear and, as mentioned above, the details and implementation of each program were not set out in the original legislation. It was Johnson’s belief that these details would be worked out later. It is shown here that the debates about how to improve or change these programs continue to the present. It is the purpose of this paper to determine what, if anything, remains of the “Great Society” legislation in the 1990s. What is its legacy?”
Selected Quotations from the Depression
Third Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt
In Lincoln’s day the task of the people was to preserve that Nation from disruption from within.
In this day the task of the people is to save that Nation and its institutions from disruption from without.
To us there has come a time, in the midst of swift happenings, to pause for a moment and take stock–to recall what our place in history has been, and to rediscover what we are and what we may be. If we do not, we risk the real peril of inaction.