The American Prospect articles from July 2005

The American Prospect archives from July 2005

End of the private new deal.(PROSPECTS)
July 1, 2005... A RIPPLE OF ECONOMIC ANXIETY PASSED THROUGH middle America this spring when a bankrupt United Airlines ditched its pension obligations and General Motors announced it would cut 25,000 jobs. That's capitalism, you may say: Individual companies...

Moderation wins.(CORRESPONDENCE)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... IN "THE DEATH AND LIFE of American Liberalism" [June 2005], Robert Kuttner states that in the 2004 election, "dozens of Democratic members of the House and Senate ran 20 and even 25 points ahead of John Kerry." This is not true. According to...

What's liberalism?(CORRESPONDENCE)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I HAVE READ CLOSELY PAUL Starr's article "The Liberal Project Now" [June 2005] and find it deeply disappointing on several levels. First, you fail to see the fundamental reason the American people have begun to turn away from what you call...

Families tied.(CORRESPONDENCE)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I AM WRITING IN RESPONSE to Ann Crittenden's review of the Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas book, Promises I Can Keep ["Their Babies Are Everything," June]. If only 25 percent of American families fit the characteristics of the traditional...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2005... In our June 2005 issue, we neglected to mention the support provided by the Economic Policy Institute and Campaign for America's Future for our special section "Revenue, the Smarter Way."

Justice for just us.(Devil in the Details)
July 1, 2005... THE BUSH ADMINISTRAtion has always done a top-notch job of screening out all no-men (or even maybe-men) from its ranks, so the recent replacement of Deputy Attorney General James Comey seemed almost inevitable. Despite a year spent as John...

The peas-keeper.(Devil in the Details)
July 1, 2005... TERRY McAULIFFE MAY no longer he helming the Democratic National Committee, but on a sweltering Wednesday night in early June, he was still carrying its torch high at the National Building Museum, where he and onetime Republican...

CAFTA contortions.(Devil in the Details)(Central American Free Trade Agreement)
July 1, 2005... IT'S A STRANGE TRADE agreement indeed that's sold to the public on the grounds that it won't lower barriers to the exchange of goods. But that's just the tactic Bush administration officials have adopted in their increasingly desperate attempt...

Dossier: the stem-cell gap.
July 1, 2005... Embryonic stem-cell research may produce a renewable source of tissue transplants and lead to cures for diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's... Embryonic stem cells are derived from 4- to 5-day-old blastocysts, clusters of about 150 cells...

Amnesty's answers.(Devil in the Details)
July 1, 2005... WHITE HOUSE SPOKESman Scott McClellan called the report "ridiculous." For Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff', it was "irresponsible." And Vice President Dick Cheney was "offended" by it. Still, Amnesty International USA...

Transcript.(Brief Article)(Transcript)
July 1, 2005... From the May 17 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly: Bill O'Reilly: No, no. I want you to read it. Go to latimes.com. I want everybody in the country to read this editorial, 'cause it just--I mean, you'll be...

Canada trumps USA: approves Cannabis-based medicine.(Advertisement)
July 1, 2005... On April 19, 2005, the Canadian government gave conditional approval to prescription sale of a medicine made from extracts of marijuana plants ingested as an oral spray. While the US blocked privately-funded research, a British...

Tune in, turn on, fight back: the right has fired its salvos. Now, public television's defenders are mounting their counteroffensive--but it's not off to a quick start.(Dispatches)
July 1, 2005... PUBLIC TELEVISION IS UNDER ATtack from within, undermined by a Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) that is stacked with highly political appointees who think any programming based on "freedom, imagination, and initiative"--the words are...

True west: at the Democratic Party's Western States Caucus in Montana, evidence abounds of a region "red on the outside, blue on the inside.".(DISPATCHES)
July 1, 2005... IT'S 8:30 ON A SPARKLING JUNE evening, and leaders of Montana's resurgent Democratic Party are hosting a river trip for the annual meeting of the party's Western States Caucus. The group of nearly 100 party leaders and elected officials is...

Khartoum characters: exactly 142 days after Bush said the word "Darfur," he added a more important word: "genocide." But does the policy match the sentiment?(DISPATCHES)
July 1, 2005... AS PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH sat down at a joint press conference with South African President Thabo Mbeki on June 1, he preempted a question about the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, one of the topics of the two men's White House...

The reform that isn't; Chutzpah Department: invoking, McCain-Feingold, House and Senate Republicans want to put progressive 527s out of business.(DISPATCHES)
July 1, 2005... ACCUSTOMED THOUGH THEY WERE to Republican abuses of legislative practice, Democrats were nonetheless taken completely by surprise at the April 27 meeting of the Senate Rules Committee. With senators still settling into their seats, the "markup"...

Fork in the road map: Bush's meeting with Mahmoud Abbas was a sign of re-engagement. The president now has three options--and only one will lead to peace.(DISPATCHES)
July 1, 2005... WHEN PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT Mahmoud Abbas visited Washington in early June, one might have expected him to be heralded as the poster boy for "freedom's march" in the Middle East--democratically elected, a reformer, and a recognized man of peace....

We're number 13! Why is broadband seven times faster in Japan than in the United States? It doesn't have to be--and Democrats should pay attention.(DISPATCHES)
July 1, 2005... MOST AMERICANS BLITHELY ASsume that they live in the country that's the world leader in information technologies. Ours is, after all, home to the most recognizable high-tech corporate brands and the land where the Internet's fundamental...

Lesson learned.(COMMENT)
July 1, 2005... SOMEDAY SOON, WHEN IT CAN NO LONGER BE DEnied that the Bush administration's effort to phase out Social Security is dead, the president might call his team into the Oval Office for a postmortem. "What went wrong?" he'll ask. "I want complete...

Disorder in the court: how serious is the right about going after "activist judges"? Very. Fortunately, seriousness is not the same thing as strength.
July 1, 2005... ON MAY 12, LEADING LIGHTS OF THE CONSERVAtive movement threw a gala banquet at the Capital Hilton in Washington to honor House Majority Leader Toni DeLay in his moment of need. After dessert and a closing invocation by Family Research Council...

Dear leader's paper Moon: the Washington Times considers North Korea a "gulag state." But funny thing: The paper's owner considers it a great place to do business.
July 1, 2005... "[The Reverend Sun Myung] Moon's speeches foresee a n apocalyptic confrontation involving the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and North and South Korea, in which the Moon Organization would play a key role. Under these circumstances, the...

The lost founder: Thomas Paine has often been the forgotten (and sometimes the ostracized) Founding Father. It's time to start remembering--and celebrating.
July 1, 2005... ON JULY 17, 1980, RONALD REAGAN STOOD BEFORE the Republican national convention and the American people to accept his party's nomination for president of the United States. Most of what he said that evening was to be expected from a Republican....

Minority report: the frustration of some black and Latino operatives raises the question: how much longer can democrats count on historic loyalties?
July 1, 2005... IN MAY OF 2004, PAUL RIVERA HAD AN IDEA. HIS PROposal, based on his experience working in three previous presidential contests: Put staff in every market where Hispanic and African American voters were important and spend $1 million to test...

Winning by losing well: rather than colluding to make right-wing policies a little less awful, progressives need to pose real alternatives that rally citizens.
July 1, 2005... THE TORRENT OF BAD LEGISLATION COMING OUT of Washington won't end anytime soon: an appalling budget; a throw-grandma-from-the-train Social Security proposal; hair-raising judicial appointments; bankruptcy, environmental, and tort-"reform" bills...

Pray and tell: Jack Cloonan has done his share of terror interrogations. Instead of torture, he recommends prayer rugs and figs. Yes, figs.
July 1, 2005... ON MAY 13, 2004, AS THE WORLD MEDIA WERE IN full serum over Abu Ghraib, an FBI agent who had spent time interviewing terrorism suspects at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, fired off a gloomy e-mail to a colleague. Venting...

The chauffeur's dilemma: President Bush's economic program harms the middle class and the poor alike. Here's how he turns that assault into winning politics.
July 1, 2005... LET'S CONSIDER OUR POLITICAL MOMENT THROUGH a story. Suppose a chauffeur drives a sleek limousine through the streets of New York, a millionaire in the backseat. Through the window, the millionaire spots a homeless woman and her two children...

Now museum, now you don't: the quirky and fascinating Barnes collection is moving to central Philadelphia so that more people will be able to see it. But see what?(ART)
July 1, 2005... A MAY FUND-RAISER AT THE BARNES Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, on Philadelphia's Main Line, drew some 300 people for cocktails and an auction for trips to Europe and dinner for 20 at the foundation in the main gallery, ringed by Henri...

Left church.(BOOKS)(Exodus: Why Americans are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity)(Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... EXODUS: WHY AMERICANS ARE FLEEING LIBERAL CHURCHES FOR CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANITY BY DAVID SHIFLETT Sentinel, 224 pages, $23.95 LOSING MOSES ON THE FREEWAY: THE 10 COMMANDMENTS IN AMERICA BY CHRIS HEDGES Free Press, 224 pages, $24.00 ...

Up with rags.(BOOKS)(A Matter of Opinion)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... A MATTER OF OPINION BY VICTOR S. NAVASKY Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 464 pages, $27.00 WHEN I WAS IN COLLEGE AND a member of my university's Liberal Party, a common question posed to candidates for party office was a dichotomy: "New Republic...

Learning from Iraq.(BOOKS)(Sands of Empire: Missionary Zeal, American Foreign Policy, and the Hazards of Global Ambition)(Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... SANDS OF EMPIRE: MISSIONARY ZEAL, AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY, AND THE HAZARDS OF GLOBAL AMBITION BY ROBERT W. MERRY Simon & Schuster, 320 pages, $26.00 SQUANDERED VICTORY: THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION AND BUNGLED EFFORT TO BRING DEMOCRACY TO IRAQ...

Beyond "no".(THE LAST WORD)
July 1, 2005... "JUST SAY NO" HAS BEEN A WINNING STRATEGY FOR Democrats. Social Security privatization looks dead. Ditto with "progressive indexing" of Social Security benefits. CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement) is on its last legs. Tax...