The American Prospect articles from April 2004

The American Prospect archives from April 2004

Good work.(Prospects)(providing more jobs)(Column)
April 1, 2004... More than two decades ago, the Nobel Prize--winning economist Wassily Leontief imagined a world where productivity was so high that machines would produce all physical goods. There would be just one manufacturing job: the human worker who...

Mind readers.(media coverage of the administration of George W. Bush)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... WOW! DID THEY READ MY mind? Reading "Wake-Up Time" by Eric Alterman and Michael Tomasky [March 2004] was a dream come true. Ever since the last years of the Clinton presidency, I have felt betrayed by my onetime colleagues. As a former...

Altar-cation.(gay marriage)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... PAUL STARR'S DISCUSSION of gay marriage and political tactics ["Judicial Overreach," March] recognizes the perils of pushing Americans to use the "M-word." There is another farsighted solution that he does not mention. The Massachusetts...

Air power.(liberal radio programs)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... THANK YOU FOR PAUL Starr's article on liberal talk radio ["Reclaiming the Air," March]. I'd like to add that there are currently some very successful progressive voices on the air, including Enid Goldstein on KNRC, Randi Rhodes on WJNO, and...

Hey, thank you.(Correspondence)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... THIS IS A BIG THANK YOU for producing such an in formative magazine. The contents are varied and the writing is good. I always find something worth reading to learn more about my world, and the special reports are a bonus. I especially...

Correction.(Correspondence)(Correction Notice)
April 1, 2004... Correction: In last month's editorial, "Follow the Money," I was far too dismissive of state-level efforts to limit big money in politics. In addition to Maine, grass-roots reformers have succeeded in enacting clean-elections models--in which...

Cheese Louise.(Devil in the Details)(legislation to ban suits against the food industry)
April 1, 2004... ACCORDING TO THE LATEST trend in Republican thinking, if Ric Keller, the 39-year-old two-term representative from Orlando, Florida, is a little pudgy (and he is), he's got no one to blame but himself. And if your kids are fatties, too, well...

Our (or their) man in Baghdad.(Devil in the Details)(Ahmad Chalabi)
April 1, 2004... EVER WONDER WHERE the neocons got all their crazy notions? That Iraq was awash in weapons of mass destruction? That Americans would be welcomed as liberators in tableaux reminiscent of 1944 France? That the nation could be converted, presto...

Vast right-wing conspiracy.(Devil in the Details)(Rush Limbaugh accuses Teresa Heinz Kerry of leading families of September 11 victims in a radical conspiracy)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Here's how it starts: Several September 11 survivors complain about President Bush's use of Ground Zero imagery in his first round of television ads. Naturally, they must be America haters; naturally, they must be slimed. So Rush Limbaugh goes...

Brave new words.(Devil in the Details)(quotations from the administration of George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... DOESN'T UNIQUELY COMPORT CIA Director George Tenet's dainty way of pointing out that administration statements on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were a dishonest portrayal of the intelligence community's assessments. UNPRECEDENTED...

Strange embedfellows.(Devil in the Details)(Jim VandeHei negative reports on presidential candidate John Kerry)
April 1, 2004... WASHINGTON POST STAFF writer Jim VandeHei is pounding the campaign trail alongside John Kerry, casting a critical, journalistic eye on the candidate. But how come his articles often read like Republican National Committee spin? One...

Gone fishin'.(Devil in the Details)(President George W. Bush's reaction to pre-September 11 reports of terrorists planning attacks)
April 1, 2004... SHORTLY AFTER THE NAVY destroyer USS Cole was bombed off the shore of Yemen on October 12, 2000, killing 17 American sailors, George W. Bush said he'd take a strong stand against terrorism if elected president. "I want our nation to...

Injudicious: the Senate Judiciary Committee has long been partisan, but with recess appointments and the GOP stealing computer files, it's now also rigged.(Dispatches)
April 1, 2004... WITH CIVIL RIGHTS, REPRODUCTIVE rights, environmental protections, workers' rights, and yes, even the presidency (see Bush v. Gore) at stake, it's no surprise that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a hot spot for politics--not the...

Road nap: Bush has been a friend to Israel--rhetorically. But look at the record: a disengaged America and an Israel far less safe than it was four years ago.(Dispatches)(President George W. Bush)
April 1, 2004... HERE'S THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM, stated at a sadly conventional Israeli news event: "With respect to Israel, [George W.] Bush has been one of the best presidents we have ever had." The speaker was James Tisch, chairman of the Conference of...

Immigration conflagration: Bush's guest-worker plan was a clumsy attempt to pander to Hispanics. It didn't please them, and now border-state conservatives are up in arms.(Dispatches)
April 1, 2004... PEOPLE EITHER LOVE TOM TANCREDO, the Republican representative from Colorado's 6th District (home of Columbine High School), or they hate him. But they all agree on one thing: He is a man of character. Indeed, he has defined his political...

Social Security's zealous raider.(The Taxonomist)(Alan Greenspan)
April 1, 2004... Twenty-five years ago, I wrote a playful spoof pretending that the top Republican member of the House Ways and Means Committee had proposed capping the income tax at $50,000 in earnings, with everything above that tax-free. Although GOP...

Misoverestimated: yes, the hard-liners have outflanked and humiliated Colin Powell. But don't feel sorry for him. He has no one to blame but himself.(Cover Story)
April 1, 2004... IN JULY 2003, PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH MADE A five-nation tour of Africa. The purpose of the visit was to cast American foreign policy in a gentler light after the diplomatic donnybrook over Iraq--by, among other things, showcasing the Bush...

Fear factor: our hype-driven culture thrives on confusing reality with fantasy and on making us afraid that we're making the wrong choice. Sounds a lot like the Bush re-election campaign.
April 1, 2004... FOR A MAJORITY OF AMERICANS--THOSE WHO DID NOT vote for George W. Bush the first time--democracy has failed to deliver on its promise that the candidate with the most votes wins. And those who voted for the president--a minority--did not get...

The wrong target: the newly created intelligence commission is supposed to find out how we blew it so badly on Iraq. It wants to focus on the spooks, but the real culprits here are the pols.
April 1, 2004... ON FEBRUARY 5, 2003, AS U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN Powell tried to convince the United Nations Security Council of the need for war against Iraq, in a quiet Baghdad neighborhood half a world away, Mahdi Obeidi watched Al-Jazeera intently as...

Kerry's women: Mary Beth Cahill is just the best known of four women calling the shots for Team Kerry (a presidential-level first). They guided his primary comeback; now comes the hard part.
April 1, 2004... WHEN THE OLD BOY'S CLUB KICKED INTO GEAR IN EAST LOS Angeles in 1998, Mary Beth Cahill, then executive director of Emily's List, took action. Nine-term Representative Esteban Edward Torres announced he was retiring from his seat in a safe...

Handle with care: Iraq we've invaded. North Korea we won't. That leaves Iran, where most people are eager for change--but not the kind that current U.S. policy would deliver. Here's a smarter way.
April 1, 2004... "YOU DID A GREAT THING!" With that unexpected greeting from an Iranian diplomat in New York last December, my trip to Iran began to take shape. A few months earlier I had published a book that tells how, in 1953, the CIA deposed Iran's...

Reaching to the choir: think all evangelicals are right-wingers? Don't believe everything you read. Just as many are politically moderate. Can Democrats win their votes? God only knows, it's worth a try.
April 1, 2004... IN EARLY FEBRUARY, 60 MINUTES' MORLEY SAFER PORTRAYED white evangelical Christians as the carnies of American Protestantism. Nine million viewers tuned in and saw shots of vast "megachurch" congregations swaying hypnotically and raising their...

Truth squad: the embattled 9-11 commission has two jobs: get the facts right and figure out exactly who failed when. The Bush administration doesn't seem so keen on that second part.
April 1, 2004... THE RUMORS BEGAN ALMOST AT ONCE. It was 10:06 a.m. on September 11, 2001, when United Airlines' Flight 93--the last of the four hijacked jets--plowed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. Within hours the coffeehouses of the Arab world were...

Liberalism's lost script: Democrats used to thrive on Hollywood endings. Today, liberalism is more like a dark, complicated novel. It's time to go back to making movies.(Culture)
April 1, 2004... LATELY, TRYING TO DETERMINE EXACTLY how we became embroiled in Iraq has become a kind of intellectual parlor game. Was it oil? Settling old scores? Diverting attention from terrorism? Fulfilling the neoconservative agenda? There is...

Foreign discomfort.("The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic" and "America Unbound: the Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy")(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... THE SORROWS OF EMPIRE: MILITARISM, SECRECY, AND THE END OF THE REPUBLIC BY CHALMERS JOHNSON * METROPOLITAN BOOKS * 400 PAGES * $25.00 AMERICA UNBOUND: THE BUSH REVOLUTION IN FOREIGN POLICY BY IVO H. DAALDER AND JAMES M. LINDSAY * THE...

Return to empire.("An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror" and "America's Inadvertent Empire")(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... AN END TO EVIL: HOW TO WIN THE WAR ON TERROR BY DAVID FRUM AND RICHARD PERLE * RANDOM HOUSE * 284 PAGES * $25.95 AMERICA'S INADVERTENT EMPIRE BY WILLIAM ODOM AND ROBERT DUJARRIC * YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS * 285 PAGES * $30.00 TO READERS...

Soft news, hard cash.("Backstory: Inside the Business of News" and "All the News That's Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information into News")(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... BACKSTORY: INSIDE THE BUSINESS OF NEWS BY KEN AULETTA * PENGUIN * 296 PAGES * $24.95 ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO SELL: HOW THE MARKET TRANSFORMS INFORMATION INTO NEWS BY JAMES T. HAMILTON * PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS * 342 PAGES * $35.00...

The muscle state.("Closing the Leadeership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World")(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... CLOSING THE LEADERSHIP GAP: WHY WOMEN CAN AND MUST HELP RUN THE WORLD BY MARIE C. WILSON * VIKING PRESS * 256 PAGES * $24.95 AMERICANS ARE CURRENTLY LIVING under the most stereotypically male leadership we have seen in decades, if not...

One-sided world.("In Defense of Globalization")(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... IN DEFENSE OF GLOBALIZATION BY JAGDISH BHAGWATI * OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS * 296 PAGES * $28.00 WHEN N. GREGORY MANKIW, CHAIRMAN of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, declared in February that the outsourcing of jobs to foreign...

Incurious George.("The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill")(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... THE PRICE OF LOYALTY: GEORGE W. BUSH, THE WHITE HOUSE, AND THE EDUCATION OF PAUL O'NEILL BYRON SUSKIND * SIMON & SCHUSTER * 348 PAGES * $26.00 GEORGE W. BUSH HAS HAD A COLD winter, and it's not chiefly the Democrats' doing. The weapons of...

W.'s second term.(The Last Word)(predictions if George W. Bush wins a second term)
April 1, 2004... Musings about a second Bush term typically assume another four years of the same right-wing policies we've had to date. But it'd likely be far worse. So far, the Bush administration has had to govern with the expectation of facing American...