The American Prospect articles from November 2004

The American Prospect archives from November 2004

A world apart.(Prospects)
November 1, 2004... George W. Bush and John Kerry could agree on one point in the first presidential debate: Nuclear proliferation--especially the risk of terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons--represents the most serious threat we face. But the difference in how...

Fueled up.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... IN HIS ARTICLE "THE BIG Squeeze" [September 2004], David Sirota tagged the Care Institute as "an industry-backed think tank" and claimed that ongoing contributions from Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, and Unocal help explain why Cato maintains that...

Look left, Noy.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... I AM AN INDEPENDENT documentary filmmaker in Los Angeles and the co-director/producer of Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election, which chronicles how the election was stolen in Florida in 2000 and has been updated to reveal the potential...

Unions' due.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... THE AMERICAN PROSPECT'S special report "Bringing Human Rights Home" [October] deserves praise for linking core concepts of international human rights to U.S. domestic policy. However, it was guilty of a major omission: namely, its inattention...

Loyal to Rumsfeld--or the Constitution?(Devil in the Details)
November 1, 2004... A REMARKABLE CEREMONY took place in the Pentagon last month. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld swore in the civilians who will be reviewing the judgments reached by military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Here is their oath of office:...

Primeval minefield.(Devil in the Details)
November 1, 2004... FOR A FEDERAL STATUTE, the Wilderness Act of 1964 contains some unusually poetic language. As if channeling Henry David Thoreau, the act defines a federal wilderness area as a place "where the earth and its community are untrammeled by man......

Brave new words.(Devil in the Details)
November 1, 2004... HAVE NEVER Have frequently, as in Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion, "I have never suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9-11." FIRST TIME Third or fourth time, as in Cheney's remark to John Edwards, "The first time I ever...

Bush, the populists' pal.(Devil in the Details)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... IN A SIGN OF GROWING desperation, George W. Bush has taken to preaching from the gospel of economic populism in the waning days of his presidential campaign--at least, when he's in working-class communities. But oddly for a guy sitting on a...

Protocols of Wal-Mart.(Devil in the Details)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO thought Wal-Mart merely drags down middle-class living standards in the United States, represses worker rights in the developing world, fails to provide insurance for its employees, wipes out its better-paying competitors,...

Figures of speech: first, Bush said two-thirds of al-Qaeda's leaders had been neutralized. Then, magically, it was three-quarters. Both assertions are pure fantasy.(Dispatches)
November 1, 2004... ONE OF JOHN KERRY'S STRONGER MOments in the first presidential debate came when he explained that, contrary to what George W. Bush would still have had inattentive viewers believe, Saddam Hussein did not attack the United States. To this cold...

The Israel deal: conventional wisdom: Israel wanted the Iraq War. Reality: when America is overextended militarily, U.S. support for Israel is inevitably weakened.(Dispatches)
November 1, 2004... IRAQ, IT'S TRUE, ISN'T PRECISELY Vietnam: Vietnam is hellishly hot and humid, whereas Iraq is infernally hot and dry; Americans aren't dying as quickly in Iraq as they did in Nam; the justifications used to pull the United States into Iraq have...

It's your money they're wasting.(The Taxonomist)
November 1, 2004... In September, my group, Citizens for Tax Justice, released a major study on corporate tax avoidance. We looked at 275 of the largest and most profitable Fortune 500 companies and found that almost a third managed to pay nothing (or less) in...

Of human bondage: a coalition against human trafficking worked well until a prostitution litmus test was imposed. Now, groups are losing funding--and the women aren't necessarily better off.
November 1, 2004... ON AUGUST 6, CHRISTINA ARNOLD FOUND HERSELF IN SVAY Pak, Cambodia, an area full of wooden shacks, bars, and brothels 11 kilometers from the capital city of Phnom Penh. Arnold, the 29 year-old director of Project Hope International, a nonprofit...

Keeping faith with our children: why early-childhood education is the best investment we can make.(Early Childhood)
November 1, 2004... EDUCATION FOR ALL IS A DEfining value of our country, and living up to it takes more than lip service. It takes dedication, hard work, and financial commitment. It means working in partnerships to create the best federal, state, and local...

Past, present, and future: what we can learn from the history of preschool education.(Early Childhood)
November 1, 2004... THE MOVEMENT TO UNIVERsalize preschool education is not new. Americans have been attempting to get public support for educating our youngest children for more than 150 years. Why has it taken so long? What are the obstacles? And what do past...

You're doing fine, Oklahoma! The universal pre-K movement takes off in unlikely places.(Early Childhood)
November 1, 2004... THIRTY YEARS AGO, THE NAtional movement for universal preschool came heartbreakingly close to success. But Richard Nixon's 1971 veto of such a measure--it "would commit the vast moral authority of the National Government to the side of communal...

Leave no parent behind: the most effective child-development programs work with kids and their parents. Why, then, do we leave so many parents behind?(Early Childhood)
November 1, 2004... FORTY YEARS AGO, AS MARIAN Wright Edelman and her fellow pioneers at the Child Development Group of Mississippi were organizing sharecroppers, fending off Jim Crow, and cobbling together a model for the nation's Head Start program, Betty Hart...

Head start under assault: the flaws in the administration's misguided plan.(Early Childhood)
November 1, 2004... WHO WOULD HAVE thought a 40-year-old program that has helped millions of our nation's poorest preschoolers get a head start could come under attack? Despite its many successes, recorded by researchers and lived by families, Head Start's future...

Too young to test: why we need a better means of evaluating our nation's youngest children.(Early childhood: testing)
November 1, 2004... LAST FALL AND AGAIN IN THE SPRING, THE GOVernment administered a standardized literacy and math test to all children in the Head Start program. It's being given again this year. Four-year-olds are asked to count objects, name alphabet letters...

Starting right: building on proven strategies to promote development in very young children.(Early childhood: the youngest)
November 1, 2004... IN THE MID-1990S, NEWSSTANDS ACROSS THE COUNTRY BRIMMED WITH MAGAZINES touting new research on brain development, and the "science" of early-childhood development was championed from the East Room to the hearing room, from the boardroom to the...

Shaping the brains of tomorrow: what developmental science teaches about the importance of investing early in children.(Early childhood: science)
November 1, 2004... WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THE BEST MINDS in the country concluded that investments in early-childhood development are necessary and cost-effective? That the early years present an opportunity, unequaled later in life, to enhance inborn potential and...

Raising the bar: we know better-qualified teachers produce higher-performing children. We need to reward better-trained child-care and preschool teachers.(Early Childhood)
November 1, 2004... LILLIANA DIAZ HAS OPERATED a child-care business in her Lowell, Massachusetts, home for more than four years. Often rising before dawn and putting in 10-hour days, she guides eight toddlers through a busy schedule of reading, playtime, meals,...

The European model: what we can learn from how other nations support families that work.(Early Childhood)
November 1, 2004... TO JUDGE FROM PUBLIC DEbates on everything from marriage promotion to educational standards, the United States is exceptionally concerned with the well-being of children. But as American families struggle to balance work and family demands, our...

Where do we go from here? Building a movement on behalf of young children.(Early Childhood)
November 1, 2004... AN IMPORTANT REASON why quality early education and care is not universally available in America is because the public is not demanding it. Many of the people most affected by current supports for young children are not engaged in the...

Cloak and swagger: the Larry Franklin spy probe punctuates the fierce feud within conservative circles over how to go after Iran. The neocons are arguing their case in the time-honored fashion.
November 1, 2004... TO WASHINGTON'S SMALL AND SOMETIMES FRACTIOUS community of Iran experts, it was becoming obvious: What to do about Iran and its fast-developing nuclear program was set to rival Iraq as the most pressing foreign-policy challenge for the person...

The good guys: tort reformers complain about "frivolous" lawsuits. But at a time when government has stopped protecting citizens, trial lawyers have become the regulators of last resort.
November 1, 2004... ON JULY 5, JOHN EDWARDS SLIPPED INTO A HIGH-RISE AT One Boston Place to greet some of his and John Kerry's top contributors among plaintiffs' attorneys. At the offices of Robinson & Cole, Edwards shook hands with Alex MacDonald, a partner there...

Swifter than truth: during the "Swift"-boat scandal, the press, supposedly being "balanced," helped spread lies. Anyone believe that the press has learned a lesson?(Media)
November 1, 2004... HISTORIANS OF THE MAD PAGEANT IN which Americans chose their president in 2004 will someday note with astonishment that the quote-unquote Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, many of its members inveterate liars more swift than truthful, succeeded in...

What would Jefferson do? An essay on faith, reason, terror, and democracy.(Book Review)
November 1, 2004... FREETHINKERS: A HISTORY OF AMERICAN SECULARISM BY SUSAN JACOBY * METROPOLITAN BOOKS * 432 PAGES * $27.50 ORNAMENT OF THE WORLD: HOW MUSLIMS, CHRISTIANS AND JEWS CREATED A CULTURE OF TOLERANCE IN MEDIEVAL SPAIN BY MARIA ROSA MENOCAL * BACK...

Dream on.(Book Review)
November 1, 2004... AMERICAN DREAM: THREE WOMEN, TEN KIDS, AND A NATION'S DRIVE TO END WELFARE BY JASON DEPARLE * VIKING * PAGES * $25.95 REMARKABLY LITTLE HAS BEEN HEARD about the poor from the Bush administration during the past four years. The...

Starting November 3.(The Last Word)
November 1, 2004... The real work for progressives starts November 3, either fighting a newly unleashed George W. Bush or helping a sure-to-be besieged John Kerry. But to be effective, progressives must understand why the right has been so successful at shaping...