Academic

Zanesville

Posted on September 18, 2008
This year, Barack Obama’s historic candidacy for president has inspired a lot of people to think about the impact of race in our society.  The pundits are asking, “Is out country ready for a Black president?”  I believe that enough people are ready for a Black president for Obama to succeed...

Signing Statements & Constitutional Dictatorship

Posted on September 17, 2008
Legend has it that when General George Washington learned of the plan to offer him the chance to become the first American king, he bristled at the idea and replied disdainfully: ?I did not spend seven years waging war against George III only to become George I...

Earmarks and Block Grants

Posted on September 16, 2008
John McCain continues to discuss earmarks as though they are the second greatest threat to America, after radical Islam, of course. He suggests that earmarking ? the practice of a congressman or senator directing how specific funds in an appropriations bill will be spent - are the budget-busting bane of America?s existence...

Palin?s Stewardship of Alaskan Beauty & Republican Cynicism

Posted on September 15, 2008
Take at look at Sarah Palin’s stewardship of the alaskan environment: “Seen from the air, Sarah Palin’s state is an environmental wonderland. From Anchorage to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, there is a vast landscape of snow-capped peaks, fjords, crystal glaciers, coastal lagoons, wide river deltas and tundra...

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John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Country First

Posted on September 13, 2008
Check out Bob Herbert’s piece on Sarah Palin’s experience in today’s NY Times.  Here are some sample paragraphs. “With most candidates for high public office, the question is whether one agrees with them on the major issues of the day...

Can a Black Man be Elected President of the United States?

Posted on September 12, 2008
Check out Andrew Hacker’s piece, “Obama: The Price of Being Black” in the New York Review of Books. Here’s a sample: “In May, Hillary Clinton described many of her core supporters as ‘hard-working Americans, white Americans...

Three Cheers for Due Process, Democracy, and Gosh Darn it, The Constitution!

Posted on September 11, 2008
This summer, I spent a lot of time engaged in one of my guilty pleasures, reading about King Henry VIII and his wives. It?s fun to read about the pageantry, and the drama and intrigue of the British court. In reading about how the monarchy used to function, I can?t help but be [...

Should Karl Rove Go to Prison?

Posted on July 26, 2008
Is it possible for Obama's vision of a "new politics" to take root when men like Karl Rove operate freely and without punishment in the halls of political power?Rovian politics, like Brooklyn Street Fighting, is heartbreakingly ruthless. One could, however, almost always opt out of Brooklyn street fights; just never join a gang...

Bush's Criminality & Restoring Constitutional Government

Posted on July 25, 2008
Now that the catastrophic Bush-Cheney administration is slowly drawing to an end, talk of investigating this administration criminal abuse of power are beginning to echo throughout the nation. "The last several years have brought a parade of dark revelations about the George W...

Update on War Between Israel and Iran

Posted on July 23, 2008
Consider this stunning observation: "ISRAEL will almost surely attack Iran's "nuclear sites in the next four to seven months--and the leaders in Washington and even Tehran should hope that the attack will be successful enough to cause at least a significant delay in the Iranian production schedule, if not complete destruction, of that country's nuclear program...

Who Decides U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq?

Posted on July 21, 2008
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says U.S. troops should leave Iraq 'as soon as possible,' according to a magazine report, and he called presidential candidate Barack Obama's suggestion of 16 months 'the right timeframe for a withdrawal.'  . ...

Will There Be War Between Israel and Iran?

Posted on July 14, 2008
Words of war are heating up between Israel and Iran. "The sabre-rattling over Iran's nuclear progamme has grown louder as a defiant Tehran claimed to have conducted missile tests for a second day running, the US warned that it would defend its interests and its allies in the region, and Israel hinted it was ready to stage a preventive attack to destroy Iranian nuclear installations...

Obama Betrays His Supporters as well as the Better Angels of His Nature

Posted on July 11, 2008
Progressive democrats supporting Barack Obama must be extremely disappointed regarding the senator's support of a quintessential (George W.) Bushian statute. Consider: "The Democratic-led Congress this afternoon voted to put an end to the NSA spying scandal, as the Senate approved a bill--approved last week by the House--to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, terminate all pending lawsuits against them, and vest whole new warrantless eavesdropping powers in the President...

U. S. Court Fails to Protect Basic Individual Rights

Posted on July 09, 2008
Read about the latest injustice to Maher Arar, a Syrian born, Canadian citizen: "A United States appeals court decision upholding the dismissal of a lawsuit from Canadian Maher Arar essentially enables the U.S. government to send foreigners to be tortured, a lawyer with a human rights group representing Arar said Monday...

Has the Enthusiasm Generated by Obama's Campaign Fizzled Out?

Posted on July 07, 2008
Sixties radical democratic leader Tom Hayden has this to say about Senator Obama's move to the center: "Call him slippery or nuanced, Barack Obama's core position on Iraq has always been more ambiguous than audacious. Now it is catching up with him as his latest remarks are questioned by the Republicans, the mainstream media, and the antiwar movement...

JULY 4th 2008

Posted on July 04, 2008
Happy Birthday America! In honoring and celebrating the American attempt to begin the world anew, we might spend time considering how we can renew this attempt in the 21st century. Let's first reacquaint ourselves with the founding document:Happy Birthday America!

Is Senator Obama Listening?

Posted on July 03, 2008
Yesterday's NY Times contained a must-read story for Obama supporters and for Obama himself. "Senator Barack Obama's decision to support legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration's program of wiretapping withoutwarrants has led to an intense backlash among some of his most ardent supporters...

Is the Law for Judges or for the People?

Posted on July 02, 2008
Something is extremely problematic in the American judiciary. Read almost any case, for example, the recent Second Amendment case, DC v. Heller. Both the Court's opinion and the principal dissent are replete with American history, English history, lexicography, and so forth...

Is Obama Becoming Hillary Clinton?

Posted on June 30, 2008
Besides voting for the authorization for invading Iraq and never apologizing for doing so, the main reason many lefties voted against Hillary Clinton is that she seems willing to say and doing anything to win.  Is Obama starting down this duplicitous path...

Taking Aim: The Supreme Court Runs Out of Ammunition in Interpreting the Second Amendment

Posted on June 27, 2008
"A well regulated Militia[,] being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."                                       -                                   ---- U...

Referenda & Democracy

Posted on June 26, 2008
Check out the following commentary on Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.  . . .  "The Irish No provides Europe with an opportunity to rethink its approach to referendums. Ever since Napoleon initiated the modern practice two centuries ago, referendums have been one-shot affairs -- the people going to the polls to say Yes or No without taking preliminary steps to deliberate together on the choices facing the nation...

Should Oil Company CEOs be Prosecuted in a Court of Law?

Posted on June 24, 2008
Contemplate the following: "James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer...

In Defense of "Fast Eddie Obama" and Shame on David Brooks

Posted on June 23, 2008
David Brooks caused a whirl wind Friday with an op-ed piece condemning Senator Obama for opting out of the public campaign finance system after saying earlier he would campaign within its parameters. Here's the heart (perhaps another body part is more apt) of Brooks' complaint:Dr...

George Carlin, Dead at 71

Posted on June 23, 2008
The NY Times reports today that "George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like 'Seven Words You Can Never Use on Television,' died in Santa Monica, Calif...

John Nichols on Democratic Blank Checks for Bush's War

Posted on June 23, 2008
John Nichols' "Democrats Write a Blank Check for Bush's War" is a must-read. Check it out here. The Democrats complicity in this war is unconscionable.

Judicial Supremacy or Executive Supremacy: Which Should Prevail in the Gitmo Cases?

Posted on June 20, 2008
Check out the following op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal: "Last week's Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush has been painted as a stinging rebuke of the administration's antiterrorism policies. From the celebrations on most U.S. editorial pages, one might think that the court had stopped a dictator from trampling civil liberties...

The Idealist Trap: "Dr. Barack & Fast Eddie Obama"

Posted on June 20, 2008
If you're an idealistic. don't run for political office.  Why? Because you will inevitably be required to engage in smarmy, non-idealist behavior. Just listen to His Holiness, Lubavitcher Rebbe, David Brooks: "God, Republicans are saps. They think that they're running against some academic liberal who wouldn't wear flag pins on his lapel, whose wife isn't proud of America and who went to some liberationist church where the pastor damned his own country...

A Conservative Backs Obama

Posted on June 19, 2008
If you wonder whether Senator Obama can appeal to conservative Republicans--even religious conservative Republicans--check this out.

McCain, Big Oil, & the Price at the Pump

Posted on June 18, 2008
What can be done about the rising prices of oil? How about a gas tax holiday for the summertime? Well, that will gross the average American about fifty (?) dollars for the summer. Nice money to have, but what is sacrificed? How about safe, reliable roads and bridges? Senator McCain's pandering to us ordinary folks is cynical and insulting...

War Criminals? Traitors? Or Both? How Should Bush-Cheney Be Remembered?

Posted on June 09, 2008
The truth was available for anyone to see; yet the administration managed to hoodwink the American people.  Consider: "Claims by U.S. President George W. Bush and other top administration officials before the 2003 invasion of Iraq regarding Baghdad's ties to al Qaeda and its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes were generally not supported by the evidence that the U...

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