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December 9, 2008
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AP photo / Douglas Healey

The Best and the Brightest Led America Off a Cliff

The multiple failures that beset the country can be laid at the feet of our elite universities. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, along with most other elite schools, do a poor job educating students to think. They focus instead on creating hordes of competent systems managers.

Featured Dig

Capzles.com

Financial Meltdown 101

Getting a grip on the economic catastrophe that rocked the country during the fall of 2008 is no easy feat, what with so many players, back-room deals, bills, upswings and meltdowns to consider. Updated

 
A/V Booth

Just before noon Monday, a U.S. Navy F-18 jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood as it was approaching Miramar Naval Air Station, hitting at least one home. 

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a visit to CNN’s “Late Edition” on Sunday to talk with Wolf Blitzer about the tense situation between Pakistan and India. “We are awaiting action,” Rice told Blitzer, hours before Monday’s news that action on Pakistan’s part apparently had started.

The BBC reports on the riots that have plagued the Greek capital since police shot and killed a teenager on Saturday.

 
Arts and Culture
O'Reilly

Looks like Bill O’Reilly is preparing for the Obama era—he says he’s been working too many hours. Whatever the reason, the Fox News heavy is giving up his syndicated radio show to focus his energies on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Simpson

O.J. Simpson’s fame in the football and film arenas was eclipsed by his nationally polarizing murder trial in 1995. On Friday, he was back in court in Las Vegas facing kidnapping and burglary charges, but the outcome was not in his favor this time. 


There’s a revolution underway in Chinese culture as young women flock from villages to factory employment in the cities, leaving traditional values behind.

 
 
 
Reports
Obama

With unemployment soaring, the need grows daily for guaranteed health care. But that may not happen in the coming year because of the desperate need to revive the economy and put people to work.

Clinton and Obama

For anyone seeking real reform of America’s foreign and defense policies in the years ahead, the introduction of Barack Obama’s national security team last Monday was a mixed bag. Yet what these and other appointments really suggest about Obama’s broader prospects for reform requires vigilant public attention. 

GM building

Considering only two options for an imperiled General Motors —either bailout by the U.S. government or bankruptcy—omits an important alternative, which I see as the best option: a takeover of GM by Toyota Motor Corp.

Remember that long-ago news conference when George W. Bush couldn’t think of any mistakes he had made? Unbelievably, he still can’t.

No, the federal government isn’t going to discover new billions under some rock in a national park. But with the economic downturn, the new president’s imperative will be to spend as fast as he can, to the tune of perhaps $500 billion, to keep the economy from going belly up.

A month after Barack Obama’s triumphant victory, we are still celebrating America’s only authentic national religion, and it isn’t Christianity—it’s presidentialism.

Afghan prisoner

Who exactly are the Afghan insurgents? Every suicide attack and kidnapping is usually attributed to “the Taliban.” In reality, however, the insurgency is far from monolithic.


The U.S. taxpayer is on the hook for more than $300 billion of Citigroup’s junk investments, so where did the ailing bank find $400 million to put its name on the New York Mets’ new stadium?

The evidence suggests that American policy under Barack Obama will be a continuation of the neoconservative foreign policy of the Bush administration, given a human face.

 
Ear to the Ground

White House and congressional leaders have agreed to bail out the auto industry. Detroit will get $15 billion in loans and, to make sure the Big Three keep running after their warranties expire, a so-called car czar will oversee long-term restructuring. And because we’re really serious about getting this right, George W. Bush gets to pick the car czar. D’oh!


Five Blackwater guards were indicted on charges of manslaughter on Monday in a case that will test the legal accountability of private contractors in Iraq. A sixth guard pleaded guilty. The Blackwater employees killed 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians without justification at a Baghdad traffic circle, the Justice Department alleges.

Pakistani officials have responded to the call, coming from India as well as the U.S., to take serious action against militant groups operating in their country. Pakistani forces launched widespread raids late Sunday and arrested Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, believed to be a ringleader behind the recent Mumbai attacks.


President-elect Barack Obama has added his voice to the chorus of encouragement for a group of Chicago workers who are sitting-in at their former factory. Obama said the workers, who have protested their way into the national spotlight, were “absolutely right” and “what’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.”


How did two nuns end up on a list of terrorists? Blame a now-defunct investigation by the Maryland State Police, who sent undercover troopers to spy on political groups and identify supposed terrorists, among them pacifists, environmentalists, a congressional candidate and those two feisty nuns. Update


As congressional leaders, the White House and President-elect Obama came to terms with a $15-billion loan package for the auto industry, Sen. Chris Dodd suggested Sunday that not all executives should stick around to spend that money. GM CEO Rick Wagoner “has to move on,” the senator declared on “Face the Nation.”

 
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A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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