Academic

Bill Clinton Is At It Again

Posted on March 23, 2008
Bill Clinton once again revealed his treacherous dark side by his speculation about a possible presidential race between Senator John McCain and Clinton's wife Hillary: "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people "who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country...

Gitmo Isider Attacks Pentagon Brass

Posted on March 05, 2008
The Toronto Star has this revealing story. "[u]ntil four months ago, Col. Moe Davis was the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay and the most colourful champion of the Bush administration's military commission system. He once said sympathy for detainees was nauseating and compared putting them on trial to dragging 'Dracula out into the sunlight...

Lord Ralph Will Again Try to Play the Spoiler

Posted on February 27, 2008
Ralph Nader has announced that he intends to run again for president. ECA has already opined on his role, as spoiler, in the 2000 election. (Click here if interested.) Nader has, of course, contributed to consumer safety and other progressive causes. He claims he's running to inform people that corporations are straggling American democracy...

FOX-NEWS: "Fair & Balanced"

Posted on February 26, 2008
Fox-News is a caricature of even a bad cable news station. It's unfortunate that the only voice the American people have concerning the travesty that is Fox-News is to change the channel. Other media, however, can focus on the distortions, perversions, and lies with which Fox-News inundates the airwave...

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THE OBAMA PHENOMENA

Posted on February 23, 2008
Senator Barack Obama's campaign for president seems to be endowed with a larger than life appeal. Indeed, Senator Obama together with the tens of thousands new voters he is bringing on board constitute--"the Obama Phenomena," if you will--a movement that has a political and historical trajectory of its own...

Who's the Mallard's Choice for President? Obama? Clinton? Think Again?!

Posted on February 23, 2008
For those Americans who believe that gun control is an important issue in the presidential race, which candidate should be the candidate of choice?  Consider this piece in Friday's NY Times: "New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he sent a questionnaire to all the presidential candidates asking what they would do to help get illegal guns off the street...

O'Reilly Says He Has Dirt on a Prominent Democrat

Posted on February 22, 2008
Bill O'Reilly knows a rumor about a prominent Democrat that he is not reporting. Why not? Because he has journalistic scruples? C'mon. What's O'Reilly trying to insinuate? Is this just more O'Reilly innuendo or is there something to this story. We'll just have to stay tuned

The Supreme Court Takes Aim at the Second Amendment

Posted on February 17, 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...

Are Democratic Honchos Showing Good Sense? Will Wonders Never Cease?

Posted on February 16, 2008
There's a significant chance that the Democratic Party can  self-destruct and squander a presidential race that's theirs to lose. If super-delegates choose the candidate with fewer pledged delegates, the Party will be "Democratic" in name only.  To avoid irreparable harm, these political bosses must follow the people's choice...

The Continuing Tragedy of Gun Violence in American Schools

Posted on February 15, 2008
Yesterday's shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University should bring to focus the consequences of allowing millions of guns to blot the American landscape. But yesterday's shootings were not isolated or unique, not even within the past week: "On Feb...

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's SUPER-DELEGATES!

Posted on February 13, 2008
The hallmark of American republican democracy is that sovereignty lies with the people. To ascertain the reflective will of the people certain filters are put in place, for example, federalism, and the separation of powers. Once the electorate's will passes through the requisite filters, its word is final...

Who Should Be the Progressives' Choice: Clinton or Obama?

Posted on February 11, 2008
No authentic progressive remains in the race for the Democratic nomination for president. Senator Clinton is a centrist and Senator Obama is a center-left liberal. Neither are progressives. (Click here for an opposing perspective.) Should progressives sit this race out or wait forNader to enter the race? Savvy progressives should eschew Nader, especially after the 2000 election...

Is American Waterboarding Torture? Duh!

Posted on February 08, 2008
Finally, the truth is revealed; the Bush-Cheney administration has used the technique of water boarding as an "interrogation" technique. Though Cheney contends the technique has saved American lives, neither Congress, nor the courts, nor the people have any way of verifying this claim...

How Democracy is Supposed to Work?

Posted on February 06, 2008
Today's NY Times' editorial insinuates a peculiar conception of elections in a democracy: "Having run on the idea of broad participation across society's divisions, Mr. Obama's campaign often seems to teeter on becoming a cult of personality--a feeling that the candidate and those around him do nothing to dispel...

Will Obama Be as Thankful Tonight as He ws in Iowa?

Posted on February 05, 2008
How many more states will Senator Barack Obama thank tonight? Listen to his inspiring Iowa speech. Charisma, inspiration, and rock-star status does not a better president make.  Substantive values are also critical. Does Obama offer anything in the substantive department? Is he only a harbinger of change without any sense of how American should be changed?  Change in itself is of little value, right? Maybe so...

"The Matthews Monitor"

Posted on February 03, 2008
Kudos to Media Matters for America for taking up fight against Chris Matthews' distortions, biases, and sexism. These vices are matched only by his narcissism and, like other egomaniacal media ramblers-on, he has no ability to censor himself. (ECA has posted on Matthews distortions here...

Ann Coulter to Back Hillary Clinton?

Posted on February 02, 2008
Whether she wants the support, Senator Clinton might have Ann Coulter, the marauding pundit, in her corner in November if the Republicans are foolish enough, in Coulter's view, to nominate Senator John McCain as the presidential candidate in November...

What's Stanley Fish's Beef with Constitutional Theory?

Posted on February 01, 2008
This week in the New York Times, Stanley Fish, the gifted literary theorist and legal scholar, poses this question: "Does Constitutional Theory Matter"? Since many jurists and scholars believe that constitutional theory is indispensable to deciding cases correctly, an answer to Fish's question is critical...

Has American Democracy Finally Put Fox News in its Place?

Posted on February 01, 2008
Why is Fox-News in a blue funk?  Salon..com's answer is instructive. "My guess is that Fox News guru Roger Ailes has been reaching for the Tums more often than usual early in the New Year, and there are lots of reasons for the hovering angst.  ...

Is this the First Step Toward Nuclear Holocaust?

Posted on January 30, 2008
As if the state of the economy is not sufficiently dispiriting, the Guardian reports that senior, international, military figures have prepared a manifesto for NATO for the use of "preemptive" nuclear attacks. Consider this report: "The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the 'imminent' spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists...

Impeach or Arrest Bush-Cheney? Vermont Seems to Have the Answers

Posted on January 28, 2008
Vermont seems to be taking presidential accountability seriously.  Consider: "To many, it seemed quixotic, in a season where so much attention is showered on prospective presidents-to-be, to raise flags about a lame duck.  . . .  But John Nirenberg, who has called for hearings into the conduct of President George W...

Do Democrats Really Want a Plural Presidency?

Posted on January 27, 2008
Over the course of the last week Democrats must ask themselves whether they want a plural Presidency. Mr. Clinton's ruthless, even vicious, attacks on Barack Obama; his ubiquitous presence in the campaign; and his arrogant criticism of the media (the content of which is sometimes on target), provides a window into what life will be like under President Hillary Clinton and First Gentleman Bill...

The Burdens of Judgment in Law, Politics, & Culture

Posted on January 25, 2008
The idea of  "the burdens of judgment" in the subtitle of this weblog can be understood in this way: Reasonable disagreement--disagreement that is not resolvable by attending to an intersubjectively provable mistake by one of the parties--is caused by the burdens of judgment which consist of the following: (1) the complexity of empirical factors relevant to judgment; (2) the difference in weight given to the various empirical factors agreed upon as authentic;  (3) the indeterminacy associated with the central concepts in political debate and consequently, the need for interpretation and theories of interpretation; (4) the important differences in life experiences and the effects these differences have on reasoning and judgments; (5) differences in various kinds of normative factors with concomitant differences in the normative force that generate different judgments; and (6) the difficulty in selecting the appropriate subset of values from society's actual set of "cherished" or fundamental values...

The Truth About Rudy Giuliani

Posted on January 25, 2008
It's difficult to see how American citizens can be duped by Mayor Giuliani, a charlatan and a dictator wannabe in his successful, but duplicitous attempts to garner praise for his "heroic" to 9-11. What precisely did Giuliani do on 9-11 to warrant such fulsome praise? Run into burning buildings to save lives? Directed the attempt to save further devastation? No, Giuliani walked down the streets with his entourage, greeting New Yorkers, and surveying  the damage, all the while making sure his presence was conspicuous...

Bush Continues to Trash the Constitution

Posted on January 25, 2008
"Strict constructionist" President, George W. Bush who claims Supreme Court Justices should interpret the Constitution not rewrite it is up to his familiar, anti-constitutional games.  alternatively stated, "Everyone's bound by the Constitution, except me...

Did Charlie Wilson Contribute Anything at All to the Nation's Secuirty?

Posted on January 23, 2008
Check out Chalmers Johnson's critique of Charlie Wilson's War: "I have some personal knowledge of Congressmen like Charlie Wilson (D-2nd District, Texas, 1973-1996) because, for close to twenty years, my representative in the 50th Congressional District of California was Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham, now serving an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence for soliciting and receiving bribes from defense contractors...

Should the Republican Party Be Punished in November 2008?

Posted on January 21, 2008
The Guardian reported last month that: "The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, was behind a controversial decision to block California's attempt to impose tough emission limits on car manufacturers, according to insiders at the government Environmental Protection Agency...

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted on January 21, 2008
(This post is a modified version of one originally published on 18 January 2007.) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most, if not the most, important and inspiring leaders of the 20th century, perhaps in all American history.  The reason: Dr...

AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL

Posted on January 19, 2008
O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,Who more than self their country loved,And mercy more than life!America! America! May God thy gold refineTill all success be nobleness,And ev'ry gain divine!Oh beautiful for spacious skies,For amber waves of grain,For purple mountain majestiesAbove the fruited plain!America! America! God shed His grace on thee,And crown thy good with brotherhoodFrom sea to shining sea!O beautiful for pilgrim feet,Whose stern impassion'd stressA thoroughfare for freedom beatAcross the wilderness!America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,Confirm thy soul in self-control,Thy liberty in law!O Beautiful for patriot dreamThat sees beyond the yearsThine alabaster cities gleam,Undimmed by human tears!America! America! God shed His grace on thee,And crown thy good with brotherhoodFrom sea to shining sea!

Barack's Blunder

Posted on January 18, 2008
Senator Barack Obama, championing a unifying progressivism, or so one thought, praised Ronald Reagan for in effect blocking the cultural dynamism of the sixties, namely, a greater concern with racial justice and the role of woman in American culture...

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